Lion Rampant... More Sassanid Cataphracts

Greetings...


Yet another unit of Sassanid Cataphracts...
This time themed around the colours green and pink.

The cloth and ribbons are... Citadel... Warboss Green.
The leather goods are... Citadel... Skrag Brown/Doombull Brown/Mephiston Red.
The tassels and plumes are... Citadel... Pink Horror.
The Kontos are... Wargames Foundry... Forest Green 26B.




The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling


Bases from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/?product_cat=premier-bases-metric



 The miniatures are...
 Aventine... https://aventineminiatures.co.uk/


The shield transfers are...
Little Big Men Studios... https://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/


This will probably be the last lot of Sassanids or Romans until I can get more bases (though you never know... they are rather fun to paint )


You may also have noticed that these chaps have been based... and Textured...
After much pondering I have come up with a new basing style that is..... pretty much the same as my normal one.... except.... with added rocks.


I am rather pleased with how everything looks... I don't know why it took me so long to make a decision...


You may also have noticed that this will be my tenth post this month... a bit of a record for me...
For some reason I seem to have more time on my hands...


So....  Next... something shiny and texturing bases.


All the best   Aly

Les Higgins Miniatures... French Cuirassiers.

Greetings.


Earlier this year when I met up with my new chum Tony (AKA MS Foy)
http://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-touch-of-class.html
I offered to paint up some Les Higgins French Cuirassiers for him...
I had bought these quite a while ago but they didn't really fit in with the rest of my Shiny Napoleonics so it made perfect sense for them to join his splendid collection...

They are lovely little miniatures with some nice delicate details...


It was an interesting diversion to paint something up in someone else's style... Thought I did use Citadel Contrast Colours on the horses...
I painted them bit by bit as I had the right colours on my brush while working on my own toys.


I have left them un-based and have not attached the standard pole as these are things that Tony will do, to make sure the figures fit in with the rest of his collection...


It must be said that even in these strange and difficult times the GPO still works wonders... the parcel was posted mid morning on Tuesday... and arrived in Scotland on Wednesday afternoon.


I look forwards to reading about all their glorious victories...


All the best   Aly

Shiny Napoleonics... French Grenadiers a Cheval of the Imperial Guard.

Greetings...
Yet more shiny things...


The French Grenadiers a Cheval of the Imperial Guard...


This is a unit that I bought some time ago on eBay...
It was quite neatly painted in flat colours so I thought I would just go for giving it a bit tarting up...
In the end it took a little longer than I thought it would...

Matching the colours was easy enough... but then I decided that I would redo all the Orange/Aurore piping and braid... this also meant that the red outer edging would need to be done as well..
I also re-painted the plumes and most of the bugler... including his horse.


I gave them a wash of Aly's Brown Liquid then highlighted them up...
The belts and gauntlet cuffs were painted pure white.

Here is a better picture of the rather lovely GMB Standard...


I am very pleased with how these have turned out... It was well worth the extra time.


The Standard is GMB Designs...
https://gmbdesigns.com/product-category/28mm-range/28mm-range-napoleonic-wars/


And the bases are Warbases... https://warbases.co.uk/


Ok... Back to the 3rd Century...


All the best   Aly

A Song of Blades and Bronze... Test Figures Part Two.

Greetings...


Here are my next two test figures for this project...


Two Sea Peoples/Persons...

I have gone for almost primary colours for the clothing... pretty much like all the illustrations I have looked at...
The tattoos ( though I have found no evidence of them having them or not ) are straight lines and dashes to contrast with the curved nature of the Northerner's body art.
The shields as they come are a nice contrast... but I have added to this by painting them a deep red (Citadel Mephiston Red) with a lighter red curved pattern.


I am very pleased how these have come out and I am looking forward to painting more...

I don't think that there will be much confusion between them on the table...


The miniatures are Wargames Foundry...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/the-sea-peoples-bronze-age-mediterrenean-raiders


The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/



All the best   Aly.

A Song of Blades and Bronze... Test Figures.

Greetings...


Okay ... First up... There is no such rule set as A Song of Blades and Bronze...


Mharaid and I have been talking for a while about starting up another small skirmish project...
Initially I had considered modifying A Song Of Drums And Shakos to have some games based on characters from the book (and TV series )Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
We thought it would be interesting to add a bit of magic to the equation...


This vague plan took a little bit of a jump and a change of period when I was delving in the lead mountain and uncovered some Wargames Foundry's Bronze Age Northern Europeans, I immediately thought that this would be a nice period to play and paint... and it would fit into our ideas for adding a touch of the fantastical to things...
Who would they fight though ?
As it happened the next thing out of the mountain was some Wargames Foundry Sea Peoples...
Who is to say that the Sea Peoples or Achaeans didn't go north and encounter and raid the peoples they met... To be honest I haven't really done the research so maybe they did...
This now gives us two quite distinctive forces to fight our games... and the possibility of adding Minotaurs , Centaurs  , Medusa or a Cyclops...
We have done this before with our Xmas games when we introduced Krampus so there is nothing really new here...
I have a copy of Song of Blades and Heroes so we will probably use suitable rules from both sets...


Mharaid picked the Northern Europeans for her force so I have the Sea Peoples.


So here are the first two test figures...

Looking at what people think the Bronze Age Northern Europeans look like... It would appear that they were a bit dull... Brown with additional brown and some coloured edging... probably brown.


As we are going for a touch of the fantastical I decided to go for some subdued Plaid patterns and spiral tattoos...
The shield and standard designs are based vaguely on a Celtic Goose/Duck design that I found on the internet... For our purposes it will be a Goose... Mharaid talked of them worshipping a Giant Goose.


I decided to gloss these as it brings out the colours of the plaid a bit better... and I like shiny things...


I look forward to eventually getting some games in with these and the Lion Rampant collection... After all... Variety is the spice of inevitable slaughter...


The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/european-bronze-age-scandanavia-north-west-europe-1600-bc


The bases are...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


I have a couple of Sea Peoples in the current queue... but for now it is back to Sassanids and Napoleonics...


All the best   Aly

Lion Rampant... More Sassanid Archers.

Greetings...


Yet another addition to this collection...


Some more Sassanids archers....
This time based up as skirmishers...

This colour scheme was a bit of an experiment... and I am a very pleased with how they turned out, though this is the last of my pre-cut infantry bases...


I have enough correct sized bases to do one more cavalry unit... then I suppose I best start texturing them.


I think I shall go for a similar colour choice for the cavalry unit... Yet another Cataphract unit.

The white clothing is... Citadel... Pallid Wytch Flesh.
The Cloaks and Hat Bands are... Citadel... Wazdakka Red.
The Tunics are... Citadel... Warboss Green.
The leather goods are... Citadel... Skrag Brown and Doombull Brown.


Everything was given a coat of Aly's Brown Liquid then highlighted back to the original shade...
The Leather goods had a glaze of ... Tamiya Clear Orange...


The paints are..
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tamiya-Acrylic-Mini-Clear-Orange/dp/B000BX2306


The Miniatures are...
A&A...  https://www.aandaminiatures.co.uk/

Bases from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/?product_cat=premier-bases-metric


Next up... something shiny...


All the best   Aly

Shiny Napoleonics... 42nd French Line Infantry

Greetings...
I hope you are all safe and well...


So... here is another addition to the Shiny Napoleonics collection...


The 42nd French Line Infantry... Why the 42nd?
I had a standard that was suitable for the 42nd (among others) and when I looked the uniform up in my Osprey Napoleons Line Infantry they sounded like they would be rather pretty.

I am fairly pleased with these... but I do have a couple of niggles...


The miniatures are a mix of Minifigs S/Intermediate Range(I think) and the current Minifigs... The older figures had some rather bent and battered bases so I flattened the bases out and also decided to beef them up a bit... looking at them now I don't think that they needed thickening...


I only used a single rank of Flank Companies...because I didn't think I had enough... (Guess who just found a big bag of suitable toys) which means that my Elites look out of place when in column...


I may be over thinking this... I shall leave them as they are and if I am still niggled in a couple of months I shall do something about it...

Of course this would be an alternative way of forming a column...


When I started this project I decided to place it around 1812-1813 as this would let me use an interesting mix of transitional uniforms and standards (get away with taking liberties)...
So this regiment has been lucky enough to receive a nice new 1812 model standard but alas like many others continues to wear its older uniforms... That's my story and I am sticking to it.


I had another go at using Citadel Contrast Colours on these...


The White bits are...  Citadel... Corax White with a wash of Contrast Apothecary White.
This was then highlighted back up to an off white.
The Coats are... Citadel... Kantor Blue with a wash of Contrast Leviadon Blue. This gives quite a dark blue... next time I may dilute the wash a bit.
The Drummer has a... Citadel... Lothern Blue coat with... Foundry Ochre 4B facings.


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling
The Flag is GMB Designs...
https://gmbdesigns.com/product-category/28mm-range/28mm-range-napoleonic-wars/


And the bases are Warbases... https://warbases.co.uk/




Back to Sassanids...


All the Best...   Aly

Lion Rampant... Sassanid Archers

Greetings ...


So... here is another addition to the Lion Rampant collection...


A unit of Sassanid Foot Archers...

I've kept to a very simple colour scheme ...


The white clothing is... Citadel... Pallid Wytch Flesh.
The Cloaks and Hat Bands are... Citadel... Wazdakka Red.
The leather goods are... Citadel... Skrag Brown and Doombull Brown. 


Everything was given a coat of Aly's Brown Liquid then highlighted back to the original shade...
The Leather goods had a glaze of ... Tamiya Clear Orange...



The paints are..
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tamiya-Acrylic-Mini-Clear-Orange/dp/B000BX2306


The Miniatures are...
A&A...  https://www.aandaminiatures.co.uk/

Bases from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/?product_cat=premier-bases-metric


I have based them so that they can be used as two units of skirmishers or one bigger foot archers unit..
They were nice and quick to do...I have another half dozen that I think I will paint up as a dedicated skirmish unit...


I hope you are all keeping well...


All the best   Aly

A Song of Drums and Shako's... 2nd Paris Municipal Guard.

Greetings...


These guys have been sitting on my painting desk for quite a few weeks now...
So I decided to get some paint on them...


The 2nd Paris Municipal Guard...

I am very pleased with these... they make for a very different French unit.
They are the new Perry Miniatures Plastic French Infantry... I altered the bearskins on the Voltigeurs to remove the front plate and bearskin patch.


https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_62&products_id=4073&osCsid=7k38vcbtkcaue53bd8k3587ge3


https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_62&products_id=4074&osCsid=7k38vcbtkcaue53bd8k3587ge3


I decided to use a bit more Contrast Colours than I would normally... I am interested in what I can do with them...


The Tunics are... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet... Then a coat of Contrast Blood Angels Red followed by a highlight Evil Sunz Scarlet.
The Facings are... Citadel... Warboss Green... Followed by Quickshade Green Tone wash and highlight with the original shade.
The White bits are... Citadel... Corax White.. Followed by a wash of Contrast Apothecary White... this was then highlighted back up to an off white for the clothes and cords... the belts were taken up to a pure White.
The Pack and Gun were painted... Citadel... Mournfang Brown... and washed with a couple of coats of Aly's Brown Liquid.


The paints are..
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling
https://shop.thearmypainter.com/products.php?ProductGroupId=1



 The bases are Warbases...
 https://warbases.co.uk/


So... Next up.... More Sassanids.


All the best   Aly

A Song of Drums and Shako's... Cluck,Squwonk and Woof

Greetings...
Today I finished off some objective markers for the Play By Email game that Mharaid and I have started... they are not all friendly...


We are only on the first move at the moment but I will post something when we are a bit further through the game...

Chickens ,Geese and an angry Dog... I thought that I had more wildlife than this... if I find more I will add it as we go along...


The Geese and chickens are from Warbases.. as are the bases.
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/figurines/animals/page/2/
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/circular-bases/


They do a great little range of animals.. I will have to pick up some more...


The Dog is from a Salute miniature made by Michael Perry... I new it would come in useful.


All the best   Aly