So, to catch up...

Yeeash. It's been almost two full seasons since I last posted. I find that spring and summer demand being outdoors to soak up the sun. That being said, I did manage to putter along with a few things during the warm weather. The most significant of these was a return to the Wars of the Roses. I love this period and have eked out a small collection of singly-based 28mm figures for skirmish gaming, but I've always wanted forces large enough to play the larger battles. That's all well and good, but I am also quite aware of my time and patience for taking on a project that would require hundreds of figures. After several Napoleonic armies, Italian Wars, WWII, WWI,  etc, etc, I just don't think I have it in me anymore. 

As a bit of a rewind, about 10 years ago I picked up a few of Peter Dennis' books featuring his cutout paper soldiers. I was immediately charmed, especially his WotR book. I duly made colour copies on thick cardstock and began to scissor them out. And I scissored. And scissored. It didn't take long for me to discover that the time I was saving in painting was being quickly absorbed by having to carefully cut out the intricate serried ranks of archers and men-at-arms. I managed to get a few units done, but the blush quickly came off the rose and I abandoned the project.

Now, fast forward to this past year where I discovered that Peter Dennis had partnered with WoFun Miniatures to print his WotR flats on plexiglass. The units come vibrantly printed on neat little plexi sheets and are an absolute breeze to punch out. I ordered a bunch of the 18mm frames and came up with some basing designs on Inkscape that would fit with my 'To the Strongest' and 'Strength & Honour' collections. My good friend Byron over at Northern Lights Terrain was good enough to cut them for me. Here are some of my efforts with the first batch.

incorporated unit identifiers etched on the bases

Archers waiting to do archery things

The Heavy Hitters, but also great arrowstorm targets

Light cavalry to sow confusion on the flanks

Archers with stakes arrayed in front.

Assorted commanders

'A horse! A horse!'  Here's Richard III chasing for a remount. 

Men-at-arms

A few units of billmen

For fun I put in red flowers for the Lancastrians, red for the Yorkists and a combination for those cads who flipped sides (Boo! Hiss!).

Finally, a shot of where the collection is at now. 

Not bad, but I still have quite a few units to base. Hopefully by the end of it I should have enough to do some of the larger battles of the period.  

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Moving on, we recently returned from a great vacation meeting up with hobby friends in Toronto, Holland and Belgium. 

While we were in our stopover in Toronto, my good friend Greg treated me to a wonderful game of Warmaster featuring his beautiful Empire and Orc collections. 

I think the battle came down to the last stand between us, which always is a sign of a great time.

We arrived in Holland and met up with Nick from 'Moiterei's Bunte Welt'. To escape the congestion of Amsterdam we stayed in nearby Hilversum which we highly recommend. The three of us spent a few great days hanging out and taking in the Rijksmuseum. Nick brought out his copy of 'Undaunted: Battle of Britain' which was excellent. I think we played around 8 games of that in total! Terrific time.

Nick paying homage to that curious Corsican artillery officer...

Nick, Sarah and I enjoying 'The Best Apple Pie in Amsterdam' at the Rijksmuseum restaurant.

Next we were off to Belgium where we met up with Martijn and his lovely family.

Martijn and I had a great game of SAGA featuring his excellent collection of Vikings and Bretons(?).  Even thought I tried to snatch a win by going after his warlord, the dice were not with me and he saw me off to my longships. A great game with wonderful company.

We also had the delightful pleasure to meet up with Sander and Arthur in Antwerp's city center. We had a wonderful visit with lots of stories and laughs. 

Otherwise, the majority of the trip involved eating and drinking lots of decadent things, while walking and cycling in the vain hope of burning it all off. A great way to spend a few weeks!

Next Up: I dunno, who's up for a group paint thing this winter? :)

Ick the Mage, his homunculus Funnel and Nick aka 'The Red Right Hand'

A trio of fantasy characters for this week. 

First up is 'Ick the Mage' with his long-suffering but faithful homunculus, 'Funnel the Scroll Caddy'. 

Creeping in the shadows is the assassin Nick, better known as 'The Red Right Hand'.

Nick is a public relations troubleshooter (troubleslicer?) for those situations where discrete action is required to bring other parties into 'enlightened alignment'.

All three of these miscreants are prints from Knucklebones Miniatures. 

Have a great week everyone!

- Curt

Ben the Cleric and Molly from the Town Militia

Just a couple new additions for the fantasy collection.

Today we have Ben the Cleric along with Molly from the Town Militia. 

Both of these models are from Knucklebones Miniatures. I've been painting a lot of Knucklebone stuff over the past year and continue to really enjoy them - they have such great character, with lots of sculpted detail to play around with.

Case in point is Molly here with her polka dot skirts hiked-up to reveal her Landsknecht puff-and-slash uniform and assorted ironmongery. Formidable.

Molly came off the printer with a seam across her face. Instead of trying to remove it (a task I was not relishing), I decided to work with it instead. Using a tiny amount of milliput, I gave her a pair of tinted spectacles, incorporating the printing artefact. I figure this way she can comfortably blast away with her musket in the glorious bright sunshine.

I quite like the stolid pose of Ben the Cleric. 'If the blessing doesn't work then the warhammer will surely sort things out.' 

I kept it fairly simple with him, with white tabard and leather scale mail over red robes. I just realized that the purity seals need some suitable lunatic script on them... Hmm. Time to pull out the fine nib pen I guess.

Thanks for popping in for a look! I hope to have a few more Fantasy figures coming off the bench soon.

Have a good one!

- Curt

Chaos Warriors with Possessed Shields

I'm sure there are many mini painters who have had those weird hobby sessions where you pick out a couple of figures at random and the mojo just settles in, and before you know it they are gazing back at you, done in no time at all. I had that experience with these two fellas this weekend and thought I'd post them together as they seem to fall into a similar theme.

Here are two Chaos Warriors from Knucklebones Miniatures. 

I always really enjoy the wonderful textures and character that the sculptor puts into his figures. Of course the standouts for these two are the shields. I look at them and imagine that the warriors themselves are mindless constructs, and rather it is the shields which provide the sentient force of will. Yeeash! Creepy AF. 

They were a fun pair to work on and they will be fine additions to the Nasty Lads collection for Warhammer Fantasy and Forbidden Psalm.

Thanks for dropping by and have a great week!

- Curt

'Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts' - Trojan Horse and Mycenaeans

This past autumn I read a review of Emily Wilson's recent translation of 'The Illiad' and decided to pick it up. While it was a bit of a slog in spots, I still really enjoyed it. Wilson chose to translate Homer's prose using unrhymed iambic pentameter, rather than the traditional dactylic hexameter which is an academics way of saying that she translated Homer's epic not only for ease of reading, but for listening to as well. And it's true, I found her translation very easy to digest, and was struck by her descriptions of the battles and motivations of the characters. I think any reader will find that much of what the story describes still resonates today, which is pretty impressive for a tale that is almost 3,000 years old!

This prompted me to bring out my copy of Rosemary Sutcliff's 'Black Ships Before Troy' (wonderfully illustrated by Alan Lee), and re-watch both the 2004 film and the 2018 mini series. Of course all this Hellenic enthusiasm spilled over into my hobby as well, with me collecting miniatures and mulling over possible  gaming scenarios.

Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated by the story of the Trojan Horse and Odysseus' ruse which saw the fall of Troy and the end of the 10-year siege. With this in mind, I started to sketch out a semi-cooperative game where the Horse has been brought into the city and the players, who control the Greeks hiding inside, emerge from the Horse to try to secure victory and gain fame under the gods' eyes. I envision that there will be various missions for them to complete and compete for. Things like 'Light the Signal Fire'; 'Open the Main Gate'; 'Secure Helen', 'Raid the Treasury'; etc. I see lots of characterful 'Screw Cards' with Gods intervening amongst the general mayhem. :)

Several of the sources say that 40 Greeks were hiding in the Horse, so I decided that each of the four players would control a hero along with nine companions.  The leading heroes would be Odysseus, Diomedes, Menelaus and Neoptolemus. In the rules I imagine that their companions will serve to assist in side task as well as serve as their bodyguards in critical fights. 

Now, first to find a suitable Horse. I did a good bit of investigating trying to source a suitable model for the Horse but it wasn't easy. In a bout of pique I even entertained making one out of foam core, but I knew that way lay strife and madness. Finally I came across a 3d design based on the 2004 movie set model. Perfect!

I quite like the Horse's rustic design as it actually looks like something that may have been built on a beach from repurposed ships planking, rope and smelted bronze.

The original 3d design was made for 54mm figures which was way too HUGE, especially as I wanted something that could store away in a single banker's box. After a bit of head scratching and calculating, I settled on 20mm as an overarching scale and resized the Horse accordingly for the final print.

The printed model was fairly easy to assemble and paint. I kept the Horse's side panels unglued just in case things go pear-shaped for the Greeks right from the get-go. :)

I quite like that the horse is at a scale that works with the figures. It actually looks like fourty crazy Greeks could be crammed within it. To finish the piece, I made a 'drop hatch' from plasticard and a rope from wire.

The Greek heroes are 3d designs from Wargames Atlantic. I quite like the models, but I have to say that the multipart assembly strained my patience after a while. What you see here is only half of the full Greek contingent of forty. I have most of the other models assembled, but I just couldn't get them across the finish line in time.  Nonetheless, this provides a taste of what the whole group will look like. 

Odysseus' 'Red Group'

Diomedes 'Green Group'

Sometimes I like a scale variation for my 'Big Men' in skirmish games, so I scaled the named Heroes in 28mm so they are noticeably larger than their 20mm companions. I also based them on octagon bases to help them stand out a little more.

I also did a test stand of Trojan opponents, all geared-up in their formidable Dendra plate armour. 

I imagine there will be a whole contingent of these 'Trojan Terminators' at the Palace, protecting Helen and the rest of the Royal family.  They should be a tough nut to crack for the assaulting Greeks.

There is still a lot to do, but this group hopefully breaks the duck and helps me keep up the momentum to complete the project.

- Curt