ALYS TOY SOLDIERS

Sunday, 9 March 2025

From my side of the table….Midgard… Wars of the Roses.

Greetings…

On Friday Israel, Alessandro and myself went over to our friend Matt’s house for a game of Midgard using our Wars of the Roses toys…

Matt was the only person who had actually played Midgard before… Alessandro had read the rules and Israel and I were going in blind…

Matt and Alessandro were on one side and Israel and I were the good guys.

The game was a lot of fun… Both Matt and Alessandro threw their cavalry at our flanks.. But were both eventually repulsed…

Israel and Alessandro’s infantry tore into each other while Matt and I had a it more of a tidier approach.

After some toe to toe fighting Alessandro’s force broke and Matt guys were looking somewhat bruised so we called it a victory for the good guys…

Here are some pictures… I didn’t take too many because I was having so much fun playing the game.

The good guys for up…

Matt and Alessandro made some nice movement trays so that we could use our Lion Rampant based figures for the game.

The bad guys arrive to my front…

Israel and Alessandro face of against each other…

I really liked the measuring sticks Matt had…

Oh! That’s not a horrifying dice result … it’s just the way they sat when plced on the table 🤣.

This is me looking every bit…The good guy 😁.

Matt’s cavalry hover menacingly on the flank…

My units look very neat but it turns out that I should have left a bit more space between them… Push backs can leave you in a dangerous place if you haven’t got room to manoeuvre.

A Drone eye view of the battlefield…

Israel starts to make moves towards Alessandro’s force…

I start to take some ( Day glow skull ) casualties… We ended up changing to red dice to show casualties as they were easier to read.

Matt’s cavalry come charging in… And get stomped by my humble but brave Billmen.

I do like all the counters that Matt has…

More of my humble Billmen get stuck into Alessandro’s Men at Arms…

Now… That is a real dice throw…

That Day Glow flag means I’m winning this…

Shooting arrows… And making holes in the bad guys line…

There seems to be an empty space where Alessandro’s men used to be…

Hurrah!…. We won…

What an excellent game…

I don’t think we used all the rules and we may not had played the rules 100% correctly… But we had a lot of fun…

I like the rules.. They are a nice combination of Lion Rampant, DBA and a bit of Hail Caesar… plus the very clever addition of characters and heroes that can influence play… I found this aspect very enjoyable… We probably didn’t exploit this as much as we could have.

I will certainly be picking up a copy of this game for myself.

Hobby wise…

I have surprised myself by gluing lots of plastic Rus and Khazars together..

Am I finding it fun?

Hmmmmm!

Well I’m not hating it 😁 and I will keep at it while the mojo is strong.

All the best. Aly

Sunday, 2 March 2025

Lion Rampant… Flutter, Flutter, Flutter…

Greetings…

When my friend Matt came into work and told me about the lovely new Victrix Islamic Cavalry he had just bought…

I did not… Immediately go on to their website…

Nope I definitely did not go here…

https://www.victrixlimited.com/

Nor did I dig out a couple of books that I thought Matt (And maybe me) might find interesting…

Nope…. Not me

Judeo -Turkish Steppe Nomads versus Kievan - Rus Warriors…

Nope… Not me…

No I didn’t make a list…

Not even a little one…

No I did not pick up a few miniatures from North Star Military Figures…

https://www.northstarfigures.com/

Nope…

I got Matt to do it for me… Well he was going over anyway…

When I said a ‘few’…

Nope… Not a few… Oops!

Sigh!… Or maybe… Hurrah! 🤣.

These are very busy / packed frames…

Well laid out with loads of options…

And a reasonably clear numbered instruction sheet…

As a rule I don’t enjoy building plastic kits/figures but I have decided to ‘ have a go ‘ and put together a collection using only the plastic box/bag sets.

Let’s see if I can get over this block/ phobia…

Nope!…I didn’t go home and start sticking some together immediately…

Nope!…

Of course I did…🤣.

I think the best way to describe the assembly process might be ‘Pose variations’ as opposed to ‘Multiple choice anything goes’

They have positive fittings where possible and were very easy to put together…

I really don’t know when I will get around to painting them… I’m still shifting stuff around the house and filling the cellar with my embarrassment of toys and stuff..

I was thinking about what I would like when I eventually get around to adding an extension to the back of my property…

And with the current popularity of the the film The Brutalist and a renewed interest in the work of Erno Goldfinger…

How about…

I can’t see any of the neighbours having a problem 🙀

I’m feeling better and Spring is on its way…

Here’s to getting some painting done…

All the best. Aly

Monday, 17 February 2025

A little Bunker/Cellar update…

Greetings…

I’ve spent the last few days getting my paint, necessary hobby stuff and a few books into position in the cellar…

There is going to be a lot more stuff going down there but most of it will be temporary while I get the wargames room redecorated and a new table made.

Here are a few pictures…

A view of my desk and shiny new terrain making table/tables…

My desk… This is probably the tidiest it will ever be…

I do seem to have a lot of paint brushes don’t I …. They are not something I like throwing away…

Looking out the room from the Desk…

This is the messy bit that will be getting messier… The blue Coop bags contain books… There will be many more coming down as I move ‘ The Library’ temporarily out of the way…

That ‘Bay Window Shelf’ is going to get quite full… It will eventually be used for storing terrain boards.

At least I can now get down there and paint toys… Hurrah!

All the best. Aly

Saturday, 8 February 2025

Pyrrhus of Epirus… The first Epirote Phalanx

Greetings…

It’s been a while…

I have been moderately busy…

Mostly on organising the cellar…

It’s starting to come together…

I have also found time to follow my butterfly and start something new… something I have hinted at….

The army of Pyrrhus of Epirus…

My inspiration…

I put together a rough plan for a couple of small Epirote and Hellenistic Forces…

After some experimentation I have decided on a four stand size for my phalanxes…

Then I bought some toys from Aventine Miniatures

The first thing I did was a test figure…

I looked to use colours from the two Osprey books plus added inspiration from the rather lovely shield transfers…

The Tunic is… AK Interactive… Carmine AK11091.

The White bits are… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.

The Plume ,Sash and Coloured Armour is… Citadel… Kakophoni Purple.

The Cloak is… Citadel… Xereus Purple.

The Cloak edge is… Citadel… Pink Horror.

Leather bits are… Citadel… Skrag Brown.

Everything was given a coat of Alys Brown Liquid then re-highlighted with the original colour…

Lighter colours were given an extra highlight…

The paints are Citadel and AK Interactive…

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

https://ak-interactive.com/product-category/paints/paints-acrylics/3rd-acrylics/

The base is as always…

https://warbases.co.uk/

The shield transfers are Little Big Men Studios…

https://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/

I am/was very pleased with the test figure…

So here is the whole unit…

I’m really pleased how these have turned out especially the soft/subdued colours inspired by Peter Dennis’s wonderful artwork.

They only just fit into my Photo Booth…

This is going to be a slow project to begin with… but once I have everything settled in the cellar… things should speed up a bit…

I am also feeling a lot healthier than I was so hopefully it won’t take so long till the next post…

All the best. Aly

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

A New Year… Again.

Greetings…

So another year has come and gone…

It’s been an odd one… I certainly didn’t get as much done as I wanted… The world , Life , Health and Builders have conspired to getting in the way of me painting and playing with toys…

Anyway here are some pictures…