Category: Modelling and Painting Articles

Barrels of Fun

Andy has us over a barrel…

I picked up a few packs of 28mm scenery from Frontline Wargaming last year; they’ve been sitting around gathering dust, so during one of the recent washed out weekends I sat down for a painting session.
There were a few pin holes that needed filling and filing before the brushes came out.

Paints used were Vallejo (V) or Army Painter (AP) acrylics.

I undercoated the scenery matt black, and then painted them a variety of shades of brown (V). Once thoroughly dry they were given a wash of soft or dark tone (AP), depending on the shade of brown paint, then varnished with matt varnish (V).

25WW6 – Water Troughs x3

The water surface on the horse troughs were Painted Dark Sea Grey and given a couple of coats of gloss varnish (AP). The pump was painted Gunmetal (V) and given a dark tone (AP) wash.

25MR2 – Table benches and chairs

25MR3 – Brewery / Vintner (4 vats,2 tubs, bottling table)

The metal bands on the vats / barrels was painted Gunmetal (V); the bottles in the crate were painted Luftwaffe Camouflage Green (V), and then given a coat of gloss varnish mixed with AP green shade. The water in the tubs on the table was painted the same way as the horse trough water. The contents of the large tubs were painted Dark Sand (V) and washed with AP soft tone wash.

Finally a pair of ladders, I’m not sure of the manufacturer, but they were bought at Rochester Games and Models. 28mm figure for scale.

Wars of the Roses Archers

Finally got the last of my Wars of the Roses units completed. This time it was the archers. As with the other units I did buy a number of different brands but ended up just going with Essex miniatures and Peter Pig for the unit commanders. Like the other units I wanted to avoid the uniform two rows of miniatures on a base and so for the fist units of archers (the Retinue archers), I created a clear front line with a archers milling around on the second row.

Essex Retinue Archers

I wanted a mix of archer types and did a couple of militia archer units again using Essex miniatures.

Essex Miniatures Militia Archers

When painting the militia archers I realised that all but one of the miniatures was in a shooting stance, I could not therefore have a second line, but I wanted the militia archers to look undisciplined, so put them in irregular lines on the base to look more like a mob.

With the archers done so was I, but my would be opponent for the planned Wars of the Roses game mentioned having some artillery. Entering in to the arms race I also put a unit of guns together.

Essex Miniatures Wars of the Roses Artillery

I do have plans to do some other Wars of the Roses units like spearmen, some Welsh and other mercenaries. But this will do for the first battle.

A Small Start

Andy finds his painting mojo again…

First items finished this year are some reinforcements for my 6mm English Civil War forces.

We’ve played quite a few games of Sword and Spear recently, these are Ancient & Medieval rules, but on the publisher’s forum there were some discussions about adapting them for the Pike & Shot era, so I thought it might be interesting to try these out. To do this I needed to paint up some Commanded Shot, Firelocks and Camps.

My ECW forces are based for Polemos on 6cm wide by 3cm deep bases, either 24 foot (in varying proportions of pike and shot) or 9 or 10 horse to a base. I’ll be using these for the Sword and Spear try out, so needed to keep the same size bases.

The figures are from Heroics and Ros, painted with mostly Vallejo acrylics. Once painted they were stuck to the bases, labelled with unit description and flocked.

Commanded shot were detachments of musketeers taken from regiments of foot and attached to cavalry brigades to augment their firepower. Not always a successful idea, as the horse were slowed down by the foot, and if the horse routed or went off in pursuit the commanded shot were left on their own.

For the Commanded shot I decided to have 12 figures per base, painted as if they were from 2 or 3 different regiments (above).

Firelocks were foot equipped with early flintlock muskets rather than matchlocks and usually assigned to guard the train of artillery; lighted matches and gunpowder not being a good mix.
For the Firelocks I decided on 16 figures per base.

For the camps I bought some tents from Bacchus, and raided the spares box for various figures to add to the bases, some are from H&R and some from Irregular Miniatures. I built the camps on 6cm square bases.

I also had some carts and wagons, so did some baggage bases.

Finally some group shots, the Parliamentarian camp and troops.

And their Royalist opponents

Gael Force Norse

John Lambert gets his axe out.

I’d enjoyed using Norse Gaels in Saga Version 1 and was interested to know how they might fare under version 2 of the rules. I thought this faction was one that had changed the most under version 2 so decided on a new build based on the Footsore Irish and Viking ranges, taking advantage of the 3 for 2 offer they had running at the time. All figures painted using Artist’s acrylics.

Warlord – Hakon Maddadarson (The Hall Burner) – front pictured above

“Die bravely my slaves and I will take good care of your Dottirs!”

I mounted the Warlord on a piece of slate for a more imposing look. He has a rare and highly prized white Icelandic Gyr Falcon on his shield.

Daneaxe Heathguard

In version 1, there was an additional Saga ability bonus for taking Dane axes. This has gone in version 2 so only 1 point for this build.

Other Heathguard

I added 2 points of standard Heathguard. In version 1 Dane axe armed Warriors were the best option. In version 2 a powerful ability, Norse can only be used by Heathguard and Warlord so these appear to be a better option.

Gaed Gaedhil

These are fearsome mercenary warriors for which I used the Footsore Scots/Picts

Levy – Slaves

I used the Footsore Irish warrior range for these. Of limited use in Version 1 of Saga, they are a key part of my army in version 2. I painted 2 points of these.

The History of the Norse Gael Earls of Orkney is detailed in Orkneyinga Saga, an epic tale of bravery, treachery and Sainthood as rivals vie for the Earldom, raids in Russia, raids on Sicily, The First Crusade and an encounter with a Byzantine Dromon! How would the 28mm metal version fare on their debut?
The answer was rather well (see Jeremey’s battle report), despite misreading a SAGA ability and missing out on the chance to trap Andy’s Warlord, I really enjoyed the faction and the battleboard mechanics. Well worth a celebratory snifter or two of Highland Park ”Viking Honour”.

Wars of the Roses Cavlary

I finally got my Wars of the Roses Cavalry painted. Unlike the infantry I decided to stick to one manufacturer. When I started the project I got some old cavalry figures from a fellow club member and picked up some samples. What I found was a big difference in the scale of the cavalry. With mass infantry you can get away with differences in sizes, not everyone is the same size and so it doesn’t matter as much. But it was so obvious mixing different manufacturers for 6 mounted miniatures on a base.

15mm Wars of the Roses Cavalry from Peter Pig

I like the slightly chunky style of the Peter Pig miniatures and so was happy to go with them for my cavalry. I do like a bit of cavalry and so wanted to maximise my armies compliment. In Sword and Spear the army can only have two units of knights and so I also did a couple of units of Northern Boarder Horse. I’m really looking forward to getting these into battle.

Now all I have left to do is finish the archers and my Wars of the Roses army is complete. Unless I want more than two command units … hmmm

Wars of the Roses Camp

I was supposed to be working on my Cavalry and Archers for my Wars of the Roses army, but while attending SELWG last October I remembered I needed a camp for my army. You have to remember I don’t normally dabble in the types of wargame requiring a camp for the army. But the intention is to use the Sword and Spear rules and so I needed a camp.

A Suitable Camp for my Wars of the Roses Army

At the show some resin pieces from Baueda caught my eye. Normally I would probably have scratchbuilt the camp but I really like the scenery pieces and they were not that expensive. I went for a cooking set and a tent that would fit the period. To that I added a spare infantryman and a horse.

The base is MDF and I spread bathroom sealant mixed with brown paint on it to create the muddy road and to cover up the figure bases. After painting the figures I flocked the base and added a few tufts of grass and the odd rock. Painting the camp made a nice change as it was like a mini diorama and a good distraction from line after line of the rank and file.

Wars of the Roses Infantry

I’ve finally made progress on my 15mm Wars of the Roses army. This is the first time since getting into Miniature Wargaming some 30 plus years ago that I have put together an historical army.
As I mentioned in my previous post showing the Men at Arms I did not want this army to look like a set number of figures stuck on a base. I wanted an irregular rabble look to the units.

15mm Wars of the Roses Billmen from Multiple Manufacturers

For my armies main infantry I looked at suitable 15mm miniatures from Lancashire Games, Irregular Miniatures, Museum Miniatures, Tin Soldier, Magister Militarium, Donnington, Miniature Figurines, Essex and Peter Pig.
For the life of me I cannot remember all of the companies I finally settled on, I know for a fact I bought Peter Pig, Lancashire Games and Essex. But there are other manufacturers figures in the units.
I’m really pleased with how they came out and think I got the rabble aspect quite well.
Another bonus was cleaning up the figures and thinking I’d only done enough for 4 bases of 16 figures per base. But when it came to undercoating them I found I had enough for 6 bases, result!

Now onto the Cavalry and Archers.

​Advertising Billboards

Stephen goes Mad Men

I was in the mood to make a few terrain pieces and since the more clutter the better for skirmish games, I thought I’d make some sci fi terrain. To help create an urban, post-apocalyptic, vibe I thought I’d make some advertising hoardings.

The first thing I did was a bit of Googling to find suitable images. I did struggle a bit to find futuristic looking adverts. Just typing in ‘sci fi adverts’ brought up a host of cinema billboards for films, but that wasn’t really what I was looking for. Nevertheless, after a bit of perseverance I find what I was looking for and printed them out.

Then to make the actual hoardings. I used a backing of thick plasticard. I cut this to the dimensions of the picture plus the edging I was going to add. This edging was also made from plasticard, and it was stuck around the…er…edge. I had some plain EM4 dice and I thought these would make an ideal control box on the rear. So that’s what that is. I also had quite a lot of box-section polystyrene extrusion from a previous project and I thought that would do for legs.

Since it would be quite a light model it was obvious it would need a hefty base to keep it anchored down, so it was all stuck on a 40mm diameter metal washer from Wilkos. I also sanded the edges to tidy it all up.

Painting was next. It was given an undercoat of Humbrol ‘Dark Earth’ spray.It was then dry-brushed a pale cream, and then a rough dry-brush of white (so it stayed looking dirty and grubby – this is post-apocalyptic, after all). I then gave it a bit of splotching with a terracotta colour for rust and dirt effects. I also thought I’d add a bit of graffiti on the back of some of them.

All that was left was to cut the advert out and glue it in place, and then flock the base.
There it is – an advertising hoarding all complete.

Gaslands Scenery

Andy makes some scenery for the Wastelands.

At Broadside back in June I bought some scenery pieces for Gaslands, as we have another of the Maidstone Wargames Society’s GASCAR’19 events coming up I thought I’d better get them ready. All paints are Vallejo matt acrylics unless stated otherwise.

First up is a set of four MDF gates from Blotz.

Each gate comprises eight pieces, the two halves of the gate, two connecting pieces, two bases and two number boards. These were assembled (apart from the number boards) using superglue.

Once assembled they were primed with Halfords grey primer, then sprayed with Rust-oleum metallic chrome. The bases were then painted with Black Grey, at this point I realised that spraying the bases with the Chrome paint wasn’t a good idea, as it was not a good surface to try painting with acrylics. After three or four coats the bases looked OK.

The number boards were given three thin coats of matt white; the numbers were painted Red one side and Green on the other, and the borders painted Black. Once all was dry, I added the number boards and gave them a coat of matt varnish.

Next up were some resin accessories from Debris of War; some Jersey Barriers, a Storage Tank and some Crates.

After cleaning up a little flash and filling a few holes I gave these a good wash in soapy water and once dry sprayed them with Halfords grey primer.

The Jersey Barriers were painted all over with Deck Tan, followed by a liberal wash of Army Painter Soft Tone wash.

The Storage Tank was sprayed Chrome, and, having learnt from the gates, I then undercoated the tank base and supports White. The base was painted Black Grey, the supports Deck Tan and the recesses of the ladder Black.

The crates were painted London Grey with Light Grey sections. I decided to paint the top panels in different colours, two each in Red, Intense Blue and Flat Green. The grey areas were then given a coat of Army Painter Dark Tone, and the coloured panels coat of the appropriate coloured tone.

I also did some scratch-built pieces. A while ago I found some sheets of corrugated cardboard in the recycling bin and thought “corrugated iron wall”. I also had some large lollipop sticks from a craft shop, 150mm x 18mm, bases I thought.

I cut the sheets into strips, scored the plain side of each strip along the centreline to make it easier to fold. I then coated one side of the carboard with PVA glue and folded the two sides together. When the glue had set, I trimmed the strips down to 20mm high, and cut them to length to fit the lollipop stick bases.

This left some short lengths which I ended up using to make some gate sections. I had enough sections to make eight wall and four gate sections. I then got the hot glue gun out, and assembled each base as follows: I laid a strip of glue down the centre of the lollipop stick and pushed a fence section into the glue and held it until it set.

The sections were undercoated Halfords grey and then the walls were painted Gunmetal Grey and the bases Black Grey. The walls were given a liberal coat of Army Painter Dark Tone wash. The excess hot glue was coated with PVA glue and some grass flock applied. Once all was dry they were sprayed with Matt Varnish.

Dearly Beloved

For our sins, Stephen builds a chapel.

At MHWC’s Broadside show in June I was glad (and surprised!) to see that Scotia/Grendel would be there.

What I bought off them was a resin ruined chapel, which would make a great piece of terrain for medieval games.

I cleaned up the pieces, cut some ply for the base, and glued the pieces together on the day after buying it. It then sat on the shelf for a few weeks. But last Sunday I finally got around to slapping some paint on it.

Before painting I thought I’d make a bit more of it. The first thing to do was create a tiled floor. I made the tiles out of thick plasticard. I chamfered the edges roughly and then scratched and gouged the surface to make them look worn and damaged. I then needed some more rubble. I made this from a mixture of sand and dried plaster broken up into bits. Though you can buy some rubble scatter mixes.

Once this was all dry I gave it a spray of dark khaki. This was then washed with my favourite all-purpose brown wash: GW’s Agrax Earhshade. I decided I wanted it to look like it was made from sandstone, so it was drybrushed with a khaki-heavy mix of khaki and grey.

An important thing to realise about medieval churches is that they were very colourful places. It was only with the advent of the Reformation and Protestantism that church wall paintings were considered idolatrous and were chiseled off or painted over. So I scoured the internet for pictures of surviving painted medieval church walls and then printed them off.

These were then glued to the walls. To make them look like they belong there and look a bit damaged and eroded by time and weather I splotched (that’s the best way I can describe it) the edges of the pictures to make it look like they belong on the walls and blend in.

Some staining and damp was added with a very dry brush using dark green and brown.

The model was then based with some mixed ballast and static grass.

The result is a ruined chapel worth fighting over!