Plastic Norman Infantry

Unit of Norman Infantry

Plastic Norman Infantry

These are some of the plastic Conquest miniatures. I picked 16 unarmoured figures to represent a lightly armoured unit. Not sure but I’ll probably ungrade the leader figure to an armoured Knight later on as I think that would fit my theme of a retinue raised by a poor Knight better.
Once again they are mounted on pennies and a Warbases base (with rare earth magnets holding them in place.

Republican Roman Velites

Velites

I've always wanted to collect a Punic Wars army but never had the courage to start one because of the cost (and the large number of figures involved). I love the idea of a Carthaginian horde with their mixed forces (including elephants!) facing up to the ranks of Romans.
Now along comes Agema miniatures with their plastic Velites (released at Salute 2013, although I missed them!). Sixteen plastic figures for around 9 pounds (I paid eight at Phalanx). I quickly assembled and painted them in a similar style to the box art but with them all in the same coloured tunic. Not sure about the shields yet, I might up grade them to Little big man ones later.

Sprues (8 per box)

Slingers

Dark Age Slingers

These are made from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors boxed set. You can make about half the figures with slings but I've just assembled six to see how they look.

Dark Age Warriors

Dark Age Warriors

Some of the Gripping Beasts Dark Age Warriors. These are ment to represent any poorly armed, quickly raised group of warriors in the Dark Ages and do a great job (IMHO). I bought a box of these at Salute 2013 and quickly painted some of them up. This is a unit of 20 spearmen with a a few extras for the next unit!
Fabulous figures, very easy to make up and paint. As always (well from now on) these are bases on UK 1p's then placed in a Warbases base. I added some 3mm Rare Earth magnets to the base to keep the figures in place.
I liked these so much I picked up two extra boxes at Phalanx so I can add more of these generic infantry to my Dark Age armies.

4 Dux Bellorum units worth of Warriors

And here are those warriors painted up and ready to go.

Command and Colors: Kids

When my neighbours 4 year old (Wilf) popped round, he spotted my Command and Colors: Napoleonic’s boxed set and wanted to know what was in it. When I showed him he, obviously, wanted to play so I grabbed a handful of units and my C&C ancients board (no reason, I’d just received the mounted version so it was out) and improvised these rules.

He seems to enjoy it so I thought I’d type them up in case anyone else wants a go. Now keep in mind these have been extensively play tested precisely once AND are just for fun so keep the critical comments to a minimum, please!

Warmachine

Taking the plunge
Finally, after listening to podcasts such as 'The d6 Generation' I've taken the plunge and bought a Warmachine starter set. I did actually buy and start a Cryx starter set many months ago but put it on hold when I heard that Privateer Press were bringing out a new rule set.
Well, that new set is here and seems to be well received so when I attended Warrior Bazaar I took the opportunity to get a demo game with the guys from Forge Games. I had a quick game (I killed my opponents Caster on turn one but suspect he was going easy on me) but could soon see why people like it so much.

Opponents
I intend to try to get my 14 year old on to have a go at Warmachine and as I don't know anyone else who plays, need to get a second army. After a chat with the guys at Forge Games I decided on a Cygnar army. Forge Games were also very helpful in supplying me with new cards for my old Cryx starter set.

So here is my Cynar army.

My undercoating method
After assembly, I used my standard undercoat system. First, I sprayed them black then when dry I sprayed a litle coat of white (just a distant coat so the black shows thru in the recesses). This gives a shaded effect and, I believe, gives the best of both worlds in the 'black' or 'white' undercoat debate. The black covering stops any metal showing thru in the recesses, while the white allows for brighter colours to show on the raised areas.

15mm British Napoleonic

Yet another scale for my Napoleonics! I already have a lot of 15mm French that I bought cheap at a show many years ago. So I am tempted to touch them up. As a test I've painted up these British.

Obviously, still needs the flags added but otherwise finished.