Now for something comepletly diffrent part (who knows)

Unit is done, a formation of Vikings, mailed upfront unarmoured in the back. Victrix miniatures with LBS transfers.

The second unit in the back is made of footsore metal.

 

Baron's War Infantry

First proper group done for this project.

A group made up of Spearmen packs 1 and 2.
I really enjoy painting these Sharp Practice groups, I split them in a two days work. Painting 4 and 4 is nice and relaxing, and it lets me concentrate a little more.

 Some have mail, some have gambeson, and a couple have nothing. So for the Medieval supplement, I'll rate them as having gambesons as an average. 

 Quality-wise, I think Levy is most appropriate, given the dominance of the knightly class in this period.

 I really like the spears that come with the packs. 

They are singularly based on a movement tray. 

Let's do the Marshal!

The marshal of course being a very popular dance back in the day, it was the 1210s answer to the Macarena.

Ok, not it's this Marshal. William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke

 I'm sure you've seen this figure quite a lot of late, it's from the new Baron's war range.
I joined the Kickstarter.


I not sure if my project will actually centre on the Baron's war, it would be easiest on account of all the known lords that will be easier to find heraldry for. Or if I want to do a continental affair.

I've decided to base and plan this project for the unofficial Medieval supplement for Sharp Practice 2. The rules are really for later medieval period. So I think I'll have to do some house rules on the unofficial supplement.

 There was no plate armour in the late 12th and early 13th century. But I'll simply treat knightly full body mail as plate and soldiers with just a habuk or coif etc as "mail" under those rules. I think that will work just fine, as not all mail was created equal.

The question is if I have to do anything with the cavalry, given how dominating it was during this period vs later periods. But I have to actually test the supplement before I can do that. Anyway, I'm very happy with The Marshal, Paul Hicks was nice enough to sculpt him with his arm in the way of his chest and some folds in the surcoat, which means my bad freehand dragon is nicely hidden.

His sword scabbard got some nice flowers, which apparently was a thing they did. 

My best figure ever?

I think so.

I don't normally do extreme close-ups, as I generally don't feel my painting holds up to the scrutiny.

But I went all out with this guy and spent the better part of a day on just him and a buddy.

While not perfect, I think I can say he is the single best miniature I've painted, in any period.

I'm very happy with the skin tone, I've been using Foundry Expert flesh, but never been happy with the result. But I happen to come over a "how to" and it said simply putting a bit of grey in the flesh tones gives a more natural look, and I agree.

So expert flesh A and B gets a mid-grey colour and the other 4 gets a lighter grey. In this case, I skipped Expert Flesh D, as there simply isn't that much face to paint.

For the coat I used Reaper paints ultramarine blue, as the triad has quite extreme differences, I had to mix them in various amounts so those 3 base colours ended up being 6 different hues.

The big letdown is the Shield, I do think I'll give him a new shield with a shield transfer, as I simply can't freehand paint. 

The shield is inspired by John the blind's coat of arms, but I didn't even try and do the lion. And in the end, the number of blue/white stripes didn't end up correct either.

The Miniature is Claymore French man at arms, I love these figures.

 This guy has an asymmetrical armour, his weapon arm, has more plate on it, he has plate from shoulder to elbow.

Besides the shield, my major complaint is the leather, didn't turn out as well as I wanted.

VIKINGS!

I finished a unit of Vikings, the figures are footsore, and the flag and shield decals are LBMS.

Good figures, but not the style I do my best work. Lots of flat surfaces, very little for me to shade/highlight. Not a critique of the figures, it's just different styles.  

 I put the 5 fighters in gambesons up front as the better equipped would take place in the front.

I'm guessing, in reality, every single Viking going into a fight would have a gambeson. 

But I'm guessing it would remove the Viking feel and they'd just look like all other medieval spear infantry only with round shields. 

 I have a second unit to paint, that unit will be a mix of unarmored and mail.

Old style Frenchies

Last time I worked on these were almost to the day one year ago today. 

I've wanted to continue on these for some time, and I came over some new style bases, and wanted to use those, I had finished 16 last January that were based, so I ripped them from the base and finished the unit. 

They are quite a lot of work, with all the different colours and small detail.

These are Claymore Pavisers, with regular shields also from Claymore, with spears from Curteys and various hand weapons from Front Rank, changing them from pavisers to "infantry" 

I added two claymore MAA as "command" 

I love the end results, they are very animated and colourful.

Because of a meter of snow in 24 hours, we were without power and internet for some time, I planned on putting them up on Tirsday but that wasn't possible. 

 

 Here they are 24 infantry, 

A good mix of weapons, some pole-arms, spears, maces, flail, two diffrent swords, war-hammer.  

The flag and pendant didn't turn out as I wanted

Regular programing has resumed.

So I'm finally back in the painting groove.

I have  two things to show today, a finished knight unit,  that turned out so so
And WIP of some french infantry.

The knights are front rank, they are kinda fun  to paint as they have quite a varied look, some have brigandines, others have mail reinforced with plate, some have gambeson and some have plate with jupon on.  What pulls down the quality here is my horrible lack of freehand skull. The shields and barding doesn't look very nice.

I'm also  lost in the whole heraldry thing. So I painted random stuff, some are based on   historic French  heraldry with change in color combo, while others are  just made up.

The lances are particularly painful to paint.

Next up are some infantry,  These have so far turned out much much better, partly because the figures are better, they are newer(almost totally new) The mail is one of the biggest changes,  They are proper 3d so painting mail on these are much much easier than on the FR figures.

The sculpts are very detailed, easy to paint, clean and just wonderful. 

 The figures are Claymore Pavisers, I asked for and got regular shields, letting me make infantry. 

The weapons are Spears from Curtey/1st  corps,  while the various other weapons are from Front Rank.

 I do feel they are to spaced out, I do prefer a closer spacing, But I wanted the figures to show, if they are to close  you  only see  my bad shield painting, While my good figure painting is hidden.

 As soon as  you  get a little angle on them, the spacing is less visible.

These are so fun to paint, The mix of, mail, plate, gambeson, and leather. Makes the painting varied.

Again, the shields are not very good, and again random. 

The plan is that these are going to be in duel use.  When  all 24 are done,  they can be their own unit of infantry, But they  can also be used as back ranks of a bigger unit,  with some foot men at arms, being in the front rank. This will be a Large unit in  Hail Ceasar of 48 figures, And I'll use the combined  unit from the main rules.  They will start  the game as men at arms  with all the bonuses this in tales, and once the unit  gets shaken,  it will fights as infantry with all that in tales.

Looking back and looking forwards

So this is the obligatory what I did and what I plan on doing.

In my personal life,  I got my first car(cargo van)  still don't have a license to drive. I  got married and I lost my grandmother. She died just a few weeks after the wedding,  Looks like she held on until I  got married.  It was not a sad death, She was 96 years old and she died in her home of 60 years. She had a massive heart attack a couple of years back,  at her age she could not get any surgery. But she lived another two years,  eating what she wanted and drinking her delay cream.  She died in her home happy with her gossip magazines and tv. I near had any other nanny than her, she lived 5 minutes from where I grew up. So not a sad death, a natural death after a long good life. But it's strange not having her around and missing her.


The Wedding was perfect,  we were told by a fellow student of Anita that June 4th was going
to have wonderful weather,  as her husband's birthday is on June 4th and he always had nice weather on his birthday. And she was right. It was probably one of just 4 good summer days this summer.

Wedding on the terrace of the inlaws summer home.

Anitas best friend is her maid of honour  and my dad is my best man.

The day  was perfect with good food and good people, After the wedding dad in law drove us with  his  boat to a resort  where we stayed in  the honeymoon suite 

So we also had a new litter, Freke and Naisha went on  a date. And we got a litter, We kept one we named Huldra.

Huldra!

Hobby  wise, I    have been quite productive. I managed   to paint some 230 figurs for my GNW/WSS project, I still have quite a  few unpainted  laying around, but loost steam. I have also painted some 105 SYW figures, again  a  few laying  around waiting to be painted. Add some Russian and Prussian Napoleionics and a few 30YW I'm not far from painting  450  figures this year.

After an intensive first 8  months the steam started to go empty. The last few months I've painted sevral things not having finished  them, I have painted  12 French Legere, that was supposed to become a 30 figure unit,  I painted 6  troopers and 9 horses for some Chasseur a Chaval,  also not finished.

So I don't have much to show, But I have this.

Had some random  British light infantry I painted up and ordered a movement base from warbases.

I did however, have a late year project. The theme of this year's Christmas gifts was homemade.
Antia made some wonderful embroidery with the names of our nephew on and we put them in some frames. It took a long time to make, She also embroidered some Christmas oven mitts for her and mine parents.

So  I decided to make Anita's gift too.

And  Here it  is:

I made a little diorama of Anita and all of our ten dogs. The miniatures are Copplestone, with some wood glue and white flock, some random ebay  trees, A picture found online and glued  to a background. I tried to paint the dogs as the look, with their markings.  Some of our dogs are quite similar, painting it so that Denali, Beriniga and Fjellbris  look different is quite hard, Beringia at least got white spot on her neck. Some of the models got a slightly curly tail,  So I  gave those tails to our dogs I know got a little curl on them. Orca while black has that curly tail and his shoulder is very  white, so it's easy differentiate him from the other black dogs, luckily our dogs are color coded. So I simply gave  their harness  their color. From bak to front. Orca and Stjerne, Gaia and Såga, Huldra and Naisha,  Freke and  Denali and finaly  up  front Fjellbris and  Berninga.


So that's what I've done 2016, now looking forward.


I  do plan on continuing my WSS/GNW project, as well  as my  SYW.
While I'm  tempted  to do more Napoleoincs  I think   I'll only have the attention span to do  a few figures at a  time. I also want to   try yet again to do ACW,  but we'll  see.

I'm also concidering doing more Ancients and Italian wars.

But first up is a new project(new year new project)

This will be early 100 years war. This is something I've wanted to do  for some time. Mostly because of  the figures from Claymore. The style is just so  cool, a mix of leather, gambison, mail and plate. I do find the full plate kinda boring...

Now there are sevral complications. First Claymore so  far only have only have a  few packs.
They have french foot knights, crowbowmen and pavisers. Naturaly not enough  to do a proper force. So  I much go hunting. I have orderd some Front  Rank mounted MAA,  they seem  to  be about the same period. I also orderd some  Kingmaker knights. Now the kingmakers are probably a little to late for the first 20  years of the war. so my  early 100 year war project will be slightly generic stretching  from 1337  to about  1390. So some units will be post 1360(like kingmaker)  While FR and Claymore will be more very  early part. But I'm mostly staying away  from  the later Perry ranges ect.

Another problem is the style. Claymore is very animated  and very detailed. Not that many  other figures mix well.  Black tree desgins make figures that look quite good and they are for the right period of the war, but they look stiffer, less  natural  in poses. And from  the picutres they look slighter in style.

My first unit  will  be a big unit  of knights and infantry. I'll  have 2 ranks of knights in front so 24 knights and to ranks of infantry. So a big unit of 48 figures. So I'll repurpose the pavisers, by giving  them none paviser shields and giving them a few other weapons then spears, they'll become infantry.

So  that is the plan.

I hope to  have something more intresting to show soon.

Belated Marry Christmas and a  Happy New Year.

Poor Men at Arms Done!

 So this is the first unit I have finished since late October, that means first unit I have finished for 3 and a half months. I need to shape up, and actualy start finishing units!

A 12 man unit of low priced men at arms. they could be hard vetran fighters so not bad quality, just less showy. It was easy painting, the whole unit looks good, but the indevidual figures are cheaply done, inks and few colors ect.

The next unit up are spearmen, again fireforge, having a hard time making shieldwalls, they poses are so dynamic, Works great for single figure basing, but making units is kinda hard.
¨
I also did a small conversion work on one of the horses. I wanted to make a Freisian horse. So one of the horses, got a long main and hoof beards.

 I found this is the only combo of bases that work, any other, and people get lances in the back of the head, or ass of the horse.

The closest horse is the Friesan.

Poor men at arms

 So I got a package from fireforge a time ago, 2 boxes of fireforge men at arms and 1 of foot serjants. Started work on one of the man at arms boxes. I decided to paint them as not low quality, but low on money, They might be hardcore vetrans, but they are poor men.

I'm kinda torn about these, on one side they do look cool, and looks like the cliche of medeival warriors. but then again, they look like cliche medeival soldiers, The whole dirty and brown. I know better I know the medieval period was very colorfull. So What I did to try and counter it, is quite a few of them do have color, blue, green ect. But it's light "weak" colors. Because the stronger the pigment the more expencive, so they do have color, but it's not strong.

But muddy they indeed are, armor is blackend barrle C, with agrax earthshade ink, and then a highlight of same blackned barrle. The surecoat is simple to, a color, same agrax ink, then a highlight of same color. I must say I love the agrax earthshade, so far the only ink I have ever liked, I still only use it in spesific figures, as I'm still mildly anti ink.

 First 6 of 12, the next 12 will have mele weapons I think,

 They are going to be generic merc cav, to be used with any force, one day they are Mercs for norway, another for england, or france, or scotland.

 I like the guy closest to the camera, a very light green, green/grey/white.

 I'm painting the next 2 today, I think I need one with red, but all my reds are quite strong tones.

I hope I finish this unit, I havn't finished one since the 24 medieval spearmen.

Knight Command

 So did these a few days ago, quite a few days, but blogger decided to be an asshole. So I didn't bother doing this update, but now I'm bored So might as well do it.

This is the command, well 2/3s of it, still need the thrumpeter. Took quite a long while doing theise. The "lord/officer" is black and yellow. Even his helment is painted(which aperantly they could do) The standard berrar is even more so, with sliver and red.

 I like this picure, but aperantly it's not realistic. The "scara" fought in tight packed formations boot to boot, quite alot like later cav bee it 30YW or WSS or Napoleonics.  So they were really were thanks, a mass og iron and meat. So theise while they look look like this, would infact be more "blocks" like we usualy play with in miniatures.

My medievals so far














Also up next is either 2 more knights(9 and 10 of 12) or if I get my fireforge box(it's taken now 17 days for the order to go from Italy to me, mabye the mafia got it) (or coked out fashion people from milan) If I do get it, I will try and make a conversion. Aperantly Scandinavian people loved the kettle hat so much even knights used it more then the great helm. So I will cut of the heads of my foot knights(most of them) And glue on some plastic fireforge kettle helments on most of them(a few get to keep their heads and helms)

More knights

 Finished 3 more knights: I do 3 knights after I have done 6 infantry so I'll start on some crossbow men today. then when those are done I'll do 2 knights. I'm quite happy with these knights.

 I really like this one, I got the checkerboard pattern pretty well done, and it look good in the light blue.

 There I like the dark green kinght, but not so much the lightgreen.

 Half done with this unit.

My medievals so far.