It’s Wednesday again, so that means a quick look at what everyone has been up to.
First up Andy has finished his Saxon, Viking and Welsh Princess. I suspect these are going to make an appearance in quite a few games.
28mm Saxon, Viking and Welsh Princess
Steve has been taking advantage of the season’s availability of various plastic creepy crawlies to paint up some monster miniatures.
Various plastic spiders and scorpions accompany a few other creatures (from Ral Patha)
Tony has finished painting up a new force for Hammers Slammers. This time the New Ukrainians, apparently they’ve already seen action (successfully), vanquishing the Thunderbolt Division.
Tony’s new force of 15mm miniatures for Hammers Slammers
Lastly for this week John L has finished painting his scratch built bunker for Zona Alfa.
Finished Bunker for Zona Alfa
The club members are definitely getting quite a bit done at the moment, next week it looks like we will have more Panzer action from Mark J and sea creatures from Marcus.
A constant of all miniature wargamers has always been to come up with your own set of rules. Every gamer has either written a set of rules (unpublished of course!) or heavily modified a published set of rules (just to to improve it), although to be fair to the club a number of home grown rules are used on a regular basis.
Jeremey takes us through such a typical Wargamer project and what happened to it.
Back in 2009 I fancied getting into mass battle fantasy games. I’d played a bit of 2nd edition Warhammer in my youth but was in a period of preferring smaller scales. I picked up a copy of Warmaster but it didn’t really grab me, the movement section with 20 plus pages (slight exaggeration) explaining how to perform a wheeling movement, just looked very similar to many of the historical rule sets that put me of historical wargaming for years.
Like all Wargamers in this situation I naturally started writing a set of 10mm fantasy rules of my own, I went with units based on round bases with no need to worry about detailed facing and movement rules.
When writing rules I’ve always had a weakness in needing actual miniatures to test the game with. I hate testing just on paper or with stand in’s, so I created two whole armies first!
Pendraken 10mm Skeletons painting up nicely
I decided to go with 10mm fantasy miniatures from Pendraken miniatures. Pendraken’s miniatures are cast individually which meant I could put them on a round base. Most other 10mm fantasy miniatures were cast on strips for 40mm wide bases. I used standard 40mm round bases and put 10 foot or 6 cavalry miniatures on each base. I was really pleased with the results but the first crack in the plan appeared as all the miniatures needed to be painted before putting them on the base and flocking the base was a pain to get between the miniatures.
Regardless I continued to torture myself and carried on creating two armies (Undead vs Barbarians).
The Barbarian army faces down the Undead hordes
Unlike a number of other rule sets I’ve written I did get to playtest this set which I called ‘Battle Fury’ (often referred to as Battle Furry!), it was a very simple ruleset with no unit facing so you just moved where you needed to. There were typical bonuses for combat based on charging and having multiple units ganging up on the enemy. Activation was done by players taking it in turns to move a unit. I also went with 10 sided dice as I’ve always found the range of a normal 6 sided dice does not offer enough variation.
Battle in full swing
Games of this type often suffer from needing lots of markers for activation, wounds etc. But I had the genius idea (in my opinion of course) of making flags for both sides that showed the number of hits the unit had remaining (see the skulls on the flags!). The rules had the units roll a number of dice based on the number of hits remaining so you could see at a glance how strong the enemy or your own units are.
Fight between the Barbarian Mammoths, Skeleton Cavalry and a Skeleton Giant
The game worked fairly well on the playtest, the forces came out quite balanced and I got the kind of game I wanted with big beasts fighting it out and plenty of back and forth action allowing for tactical moves.
Barbarians and Skeletons in full Close Combat
This project taught me a lot about writing rules, having a clear idea of the kind of game I wanted from the start really helped. But it also taught me a lot about creating games and mistakes that can often be made.
The use of round bases for this scale hasn’t really been done and so the idea that wargamers would be willing to rebase their armies is unrealistic. However the round bases packed with figures looked good and better reflected warfare in an undisciplined world where armies just charged at each other and fought to the death. The flags that could be changed to reflect the hits of a unit felt like a good idea, but having to create enough to show the correct number of hits as units suffered damage became quite a challenge.
And so this project came to a halt and the miniatures are back in the pile of unfinished ideas (which is quite large if I’m honest), although after writing this I might revisit the flag idea for my WOTR army instead of the mini dice added to the base.
I had a spare bit of balsa planking I’d used for a previous project where a piece had been cut out of it that left the remainder with a prow-like curve at one end.
I just happened to see it and then a thought popped into my head: ‘that looks like the prow of an ironclad.’
And that’s how this project came to be.
The first decision I had to make was size. It was going to be a gaming model not a scale model. Assuming that 15mm is 1/110 scale that would mean a scale model would need to be about 2 feet long.
That wouldn’t be practical since this would be used in big battle games and ground scale comes in to play.
But it had to ‘look right’ next to a 15mm figure, as if a crew could actually get in it. So it couldn’t be too small either.
The bit of balsa I had was 25cm long. I got out a 15mm figure, put it next to it and…it looked about right.
The starting point and tools.
So that’s the scale I went with – the gamer’s favourite ‘looks right’ scale.
This proved to be a simple model to make, though some processes were repetitive.
I used Wills Scenics embossed plasticard for the wooden decking. With that done I then sanded the sides to make sure it was all nice and smooth.
Hull planking added
Next came the superstructure. This was built in thick card and then clad in plasticard.
Superstructure added.
The plasticard was incised using a compass to represent the iron cladding. This got really dull! It was only after I had stuck it all together that I suddenly realised I had forgot to add any rivet details. I thought about doing it retroactively, but then I thought about the amount of rivets I would need to do and thought, ‘sod that – this is a gaming model.’
Broadside gunports and more tools.
The funnels were made from styrene tubing with a bit of styrene wrapped around the top for where the stabilising wires were attached. Guide holes were drilled and they were glued in place.
Funnels added
The wheelhouse went through two versions. Some pictures show it with sloped sides, some with slab sides. The first version I did was sloped. But when it was glued in place it gave the whole model a modern ‘sports boat’ look with all those slopes. It just didn’t look right. So I took that off and made a new, square, one. The rest of the hull furniture was made from bits of styrene and chain from an old necklace.
Second attempt at the wheelhouse and deck furniture added
Then on to the paintjob.
I got this wrong as well.
I’ll confess I don’t know too much about ACW river ironclads. I remember from ages ago seeing an ironclad game where the hulls had been painted silver (presumably to represent the iron). If I’m honest, that always seemed wrong to me, but I just respected other’s knowledge.
So I painted my model with metallic sides.
It just looked wrong and too shiny. I thought the matt varnish would dull it down, which it did. But it still looked wrong.
Time for a quick bit of research. Sure enough, my instincts were correct – they weren’t left bare metal! Black, dark grey, and light grey seem to have been the preferred colours. Even sky blue!
I prepared myself that I might have to do a re-paint.
Before that, though, I thought I’d do an experiment – an all over black wash. That seems to have worked and saved me a re-paint. It now has a darker finish, the black wash has taken off the metallic look but left it with just enough to suggest wear and tear.
I decided to do some figures that had come out of my painting pile but hadn’t been started yet.
These comprise a Viking warlord obtained from Colonel Bill (original manufacturer unknown), a Saxon Noble from Gripping Beast Plastics Saxon Thegn set and a couple of ladies from Belt Fed Miniatures, Gwendoline the Welsh Princess and Freyir the Norse Witch with her wolf companions. I also had another half dozen other wolves so decided to do these together.
In the picture above the two wolves on the right are those that came with Freyir. The three smaller wolves in the front rank are old Ral Partha figures; I don’t know who made the three larger wolves in the second rank.
All of the figures were started the same way, Halfords Grey primer undercoat, the humans then had skin base coated Brown Sand, as was Freyir’s hair. The skin was then painted with Medium Flesh Tone
First up is Freyir and her wolves. Her hair was Dry-brushed with Dark Sand, loin cloth and boots matt painted black, and then the loincloth dry-brushed London Grey. The tunic and panels on the belt were painted Chocolate Brown and her staff Beige Brown. The boot tops and wrist bands were painted Khaki Grey and the staff skull and claws Pale Sand. Earrings and hair band (not visible in picture) were Silver.
The wolves were dry-brushed with Dark Grey and then Black Grey. Mouths were painted black, tongues Red and teeth Desk Tan.
The armour on the other three figures was painted black and dry-brushed Gun Metal Grey
Gwendoline has Black hair and Dark Sand tunic. Boots are Chocolate Brown and she has a Silver necklace, wrist bangles, belt and pommel.
The Saxon has a Black Red tunic, Flat Brown trousers and Buff leggings. Belts, beard and hair are Chocolate Brown, and clock is German Camouflage Green.
The Viking has a Dark Grey tunic, Chocolate Brown belts and scabbard, Khaki Grey trousers and Flat Brown hair and beard. The figure didn’t have a weapon when I bought it, so I added an axe from the spares box, and a sword hilt from the GBP Plastic Saxons box to the empty scabbard.
All figures had appropriate coloured Army Painter washes.
Shields backs were painted black then dry-brushed Beige Brown, the faces were painted White. Gwendoline’s shield had a simple cross pattern in Flat Yellow and Red, while the other two had shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios. Shield rims were painted Japanese Uniform.
It’s Wednesday again and we have a round up of club members latest work and projects.
First up Marcus has been painting up some treasure piles. I forgot to ask him what these were for but they are for 28mm scale gaming, Marcus still needs to put the finishing touches to these, but they are looking good.
Some very tempting piles of treasure
Next up Andy has been making progress on his Wolves and Freyir to accompany them.
Freyir and Wolves
Change of scale now with some 6mm WW2 vehicles from Mark J. But I’ll let Mark describe this project in his own words “Bit of a late one, back on the Panzers, this is my mechanised infantry battalion, minus engineers and Sdkfz251/9s which are arriving in the post. Most have been shaded and are ready for tracks and wheels to be painted before highlights are applied, also have a motorised battalion (same as picture but using trucks) and 6th Panzer Regiment (90 tanks in all) to get through. Part of my 3rd Panzer Division army as they were pre Citadel, June 1943.”
Mechanised Infantry Battalion
And lastly Steve has manage to put together his scratch built medieval Cog.
28mm Scratch built Medieval Cog
I think for next week I better start making progress on my own projects!
Tony F tells the tale of a game that not even Phil could lose … or could he? Photos by Tony and Andy.
As the club is still unable to meet formally, a few of us met for some outdoor gaming in Phil’s back garden to throw a few dice for the first time since lockdown began. The chosen game was Games Workshop’s Middle Earth rules, The scenario, suggested by our host (and provider of tea and ice-creams), took place between the assault on Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Black Gate.
The Battle of Pelennor Fields is over; the armies of Mordor have been vanquished, defeated by the combined intervention of the Grey Company and the Rohirrim, and finally by the death of the Witch King. In the aftermath, the remnants of the Dark Lord’s forces were pursued from the scene by the combined armies of Men; Gondor, Rohan and the various fiefdoms of Dol Amroth, Lossarnach, Llamedon and others.
View from the western edge.
In our scenario, 500 points of Mordor forces (orcs, Uruks and a troll) are retreating through a small hamlet (in the book, the Pelennor is a fertile area of fields and farms, not the barren plain seen in the films). An equal size force from Dol Amroth are in hot pursuit and have begun to encircle the fleeing orcs. The orcs set up 1/3rd of the way from the Western edge, while the Dol Amroth forces deployed into three separate groups; a group of Knights led by Prince Imrahil on the northern edge, a group of Warriors and Men at Arms on foot on the southern edge and a small group of archers provided harassing fire from the west. The evil forces, being greater in number than the Dol Amroth troops, were split into three forces led by Andy (mostly a covering force of archers), Stephen (Uruk Hai and the troll) and Phil (Mordor orcs). Jeremey handled the Dol Amroth warriors, while Tony took the small group of archers and the knights (“you’ve played this before, you should know what to do with them…”). The Mordor forces were required to get 1/3rd of their troops off the table.
The overall layout, looking from the south-west of the table.
Initial orc deployment in the town.
There’s a troll in the high street!
Swan Knights of Dol Amroth deploy in the sunshine.
The battle naturally split into three combats; the covering force of orc archers spent much of the game exchanging remarkably ineffective bow fire with their Dol Amroth counterparts who slowly advanced on their barricade.
Jeremey’s main force of Dol Amroth warriors closed on Andy’s Mordor orcs in a small fenced-off area, and between them they spent most of the game performing what became known as the ‘Pelennor Two-Step’, inching forwards and backwards for most of the game.
“You put your left leg in…”
…your left leg out”
In the centre, Stephen’s crack Uruk Hai seemed to be the ones selected to lead the retreat. They were engaged by a smaller group of warriors including some foot knights, which slowed their progress somewhat.
Andy offered to give some fire support – in the GW Middle Earth rules, only evil figures are permitted to fire into combats (the good side won’t risk hitting their own figures). Andy checked with his fellow orc that this was OK, but it seems that Stephen didn’t read the small print and realise that there was a chance that he could be hit! One dead Uruk later, it was decided that the experiment was was not to be repeated.
Andy lines up the shot…
Just look at his face…
In the meantime, the formation dance teams carried on their pas des deux on the southern flank, with much two-ing and fro-ing and “After you, Claude”. It involved lots of jockeying for position with supporting spears and pikes in the second rank, much bluff and bluster and very little blood.
The archers slowly kept up their advance, pushing forward in bounds with three moving and three firing (until one got shot, then the numbers went all to pot).
The Knights meanwhile had sped down the northern flank, hoping to cut off the Uruks as they headed for the table edge – and it worked. Although the orcs tried to disperse, the Knights hit them hard – and with foot figures charged by cavalry being automatically knocked over, even those who survived an attack were delayed by a further turn as they got to their feet again.
Although the troll took a toll of several knights, the Prince himself took a hand and, with the aid of the horn blower (who led a charmed life), made sure that not enough orcs reached safety. By this time the dance had broken up, and the Dol Amroth archers reached their Mordor counterparts and their heavier armour proved decisive.
Phil’s evil minions don’t have a great record in our Middle Earth games. But this one involved retreating, so he should be good at that. But after five hours of hard fought combat, he still found himself on the wrong end of the stick…
Having just finished my Lord of the Rings Dwarves and Fellowship of the Ring collection (around 100 figures) I needed to do something completely different.
I had some scenery pieces in my “to be painted” pile, so out they came.
First up a ruined chapel from Debris of War, (above) which may also serve as the chambers and passages of Moria. These are mounted on some 1″ wide balsa strips for added stability.
Secondly a set of dry-stone walls. The walls are from War World Gaming; at the time I purchased these they didn’t have any corner posts, so I got some from Debris of War. These were mounted on 150mm x 18mm lollipop sticks. I originally stuck them down with a hot glue gun, but that didn’t work. The walls soon came loose, so I had to remove the walls and glue them for a second time with a Bostick style glue. I used some 4ground base render to build up the base around the gate and in a few other patches.
Yorkshire drystone walls
Finally, a set of cake pillars bought at a bring and buy ages ago. I mounted these on some 50mm square Renedra cavalry bases that were surplus to requirements (yes, one is taller than the others).
Pillars of Society
All were painted in the same way: they were given a couple of coats of Halfords grey primer. Where required any missed spots were painted Vallejo London Grey, which is a very close match to the grey primer.
I would normally have the used an AP Dark tone wash, but I had a large surface area to cover and not much of that left, so I made up a black wash by diluting some Matt Black with water, about a 1:9 ratio and used that to wash the chapel, walls and pillars. Finally, I gave them all a drybrush with Light Grey.
The gate in the drystone wall was painted Beige Brown and then washed with Army Painter Soft tone.
The bases were painted a dark brown (USA Olive Drab) and patches of flock added, followed by a matt varnish spray.
Each Wednesday club members have taken to sharing progress on the various hobby projects they are working on. This has been a good way for club members to inspire each other, swap tips and build interest for when we are back gaming together.
Rather than keep that all to ourselves we thought we’d show you what we are working on every Wednesday.
First up we have Steve’s new tower, made from a Pringles crisp tube. This was made to provide scenery for various fantasy games, predominately Dragon Rampant.
The White Tower of Wykeham Heath. Located in a remote valley in the Welsh marches, no one know who lives there, but he’s referred to as The Ferret…
Steve has also painted up some mages to go with the tower, he’s calling these ‘The College of Mages’ and is hoping to add few more figures from Ral Partha.
The Collage of Mages
Next up club Member John L has been increasing his figure count and scenery for the game Zona Alfa.
Here we have three Insurgents and a concrete bunker being suitably distressed and weathered.
Three eager Insurgents searching for targetsWork in progress on a concrete bunker
Lastly for this week we have Andy making progress on a set of Wolves and miscellaneous figures. Being a club that plays a vast number of different games Andy is hoping to use these miniatures with a score of games including SAGA, Dux Bellorum, Lion or Dragon Rampant.
Wolves and miscellaneous miniatures next in the painting queue
The Witch and mailed woman are from Belt Fed gaming, as are two of the smaller wolves. The other three smaller wolves (same pose) are Ral Partha.
I think everyone who plays Lord of the Rings games probably has the fellowship, and I am no exception.
I’ve had these for quite a while, and having finally finished my LotR Dwarves, including Gimli, I thought it was time to paint the rest of them up.
The figures represent the Fellowship after leaving Rivendell; Gandalf has Glamdring, Aragorn has Andúril and Frodo has Sting and the Mithril coat, the latter presumably under his outer clothes.
All paints are Vallejo acrylics unless stated otherwise, and most colours were washed with the appropriate Army Painter tone.
All of the Fellowship were started in the same way. Gaps in the slotabases were filled with 4Ground base render; then a layer of sand & grit glued to the bases with PVA glue. Once dry they were undercoated with Halfords Grey Primer. The bases were painted a dark brown (USA Olive Drab) and dry-brushed London Grey. Faces and hands, and feet for the hobbits, were base coated Brown Sand, then top coated with Medium Flesh and washed with AP flesh tone.
Aragorn
Aragorn’s tunic is Light Brown, his Coat is Flat Green, trousers are Black and boots German Camouflage Black Brown. Belts are Chocolate Brown. The blanket roll over his shoulder is Dark Grey, and on his back are his bow, German Camouflage Medium Brown, quiver, Saddle Brown and another blanket roll, Khaki Grey. His hair is Flat Brown.
Boromir’s overcoat is Black, with Black Grey highlights on raised edges, his robe is Red. The small amount of mail visible is black with a Gunmetal Grey drybrush. His boots and vambraces are German Camouflage Medium Brown, belts German Camouflage Black Brown and hair Light Brown. The Horn of Gondor is Buff with the end Tan Yellow, with silver scroll work. His shield (slung on his back) is Black Red with Gunmetal boss and rim.
Gandalf the Grey has Light Grey tunic and London Grey robes, highlighted Light Grey. Belts are Dark Grey. His hat is Grey Blue. (Definitely a grey theme here). His staff is Beige Brown with an AP Crystal Blue tip. Glamdring is Silver. Hair and beard are Dark Sand.
Legolas
Legolas has a Golden Olive tunic, Light Grey trousers and Pale Greyblue sleeves. Quiver harness and vambraces are German Camouflage Medium Brown, quiver is Flat brown, the latter two lined Saddle Brown. Belts are also Saddle Brown. Boots are German Camouflage Black Brown and bow is Beige Brown. Hair is Dark Sand.
Merry
Merry has Black trousers, a Golden Yellow waistcoat with Bronze buttons and a Deep Green coat. His cloak is London Grey and his hair is Tan Yellow.
Frodo
Frodo has Black trousers, Light Brown waistcoat and Flat Brown coat and hair. His cloak is Luftwaffe Camouflage Green, and belts Chocolate Brown. His pack is Saddle Brown. Sting is painted Silver, with an AP Blue wash, my attempt to represent Sting’s blue glow in the presence of Orcs.
Sam
Samwise has London Grey trousers, with a Deck Tan shirt and a Flat Green coat. His cloak is Black Grey and belts and scabbard Saddle Brown. His hair is German Camouflage Orange Ochre, and on his back he has a pack painted Beige.
Pippin
Pippin also has Back trousers, Beige Brown waistcoat with an AP Crystal Blue jacket and Light Brown Scarf. His haversack is German Camouflage Beige and cloak Flat Red (and I’ve just noticed a little blue on the cloak so that will need touching up). He has Dark Sand Hair.
When I bought the figures off e-bay one of the lots contained a model of Gollum on his rock. So here he is:
Gollum (and his rock)
I started off painting the rock London Grey, with an AP Dark Tone Wash and Light Grey dry-brush. There were a few patches of what looks like moss on the rock, so these were painted with dots of Golden Yellow and Olive Green. Next came his skin; as I wanted him to look paler than the other Hobbits, I used a mixture of Pale Sand and Medium Flesh. Hair was black, eyes white and his loincloth German Camouflage Beige. As he is modelled with a snarling mouth, I painted his tongue Flat Red and teeth Deck Tan. His skin then got a wash of AP Skin tone.
All the figures bases were then flocked, for Gollum I added some flock to some of the flatter sections of the rock, and then tidied up the base edges with more Olive Drab.
Finally, the figures were all varnished with a matt spray.
So that’s the LOTR collection, Fellowship, Dwarves and Goblins completed.
The last of the Dwarf collection are now complete including some odds and ends that won’t make up full Dragon Rampant units.
Originally there were 9 more Archers, but I picked up 3 more from e-bay to round out the Dragon Rampant unit to 12. There were also 6 Warriors with double handed axes, and 17 Rangers; 4 with longbow, 5 with throwing axes and 8 with double handed axes.
The figures were based up in the same way as previous batches. The archers were painted in various shades of red, with boots, leather armour and belts various shades of brown. The axemen were the same, except the tunics were various shades of blue. Armour was painted Gunmetal Grey and washed with AP Dark tone wash.
And the final 3 “E-bay” archers.
Ranger’s tunics were various shades of grey, green and brown; armour in brown and cloaks were painted in greens or greys.
Both Warriors and Rangers skin had a base coat of Brown Sand followed by Medium Flesh Tone and a coat of Flesh Wash. Hair had Soft or Dark tone washes. Bases were then flocked, and the figures varnished with a matt spray varnish.
So, that’s the Dwarves finished. 148 figures, making a 90 point Dragon Rampant army, or around 1800 points in LOTR Strategy Battle Game.
Boromir’s overcoat is Black, with Black Grey highlights on raised edges, his robe is Red. The small amount of mail visible is black with a Gunmetal Grey drybrush. His boots and vambraces are German Camouflage Medium Brown, belts German Camouflage Black Brown and hair Light Brown. The Horn of Gondor is Buff with the end Tan Yellow, with silver scroll work. His shield (slung on his back) is Black Red with Gunmetal boss and rim.
Gandalf the Grey has Light Grey tunic and London Grey robes, highlighted Light Grey. Belts are Dark Grey. His hat is Grey Blue. (Definitely a grey theme here). His staff is Beige Brown with an AP Crystal Blue tip. Glamdring is Silver. Hair and beard are Dark Sand.
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