Newly and oldly painted

I was lucky to get a run to Houston on the past Monday evening, so I spent 2 & 1/2 days with my sister and brother-in-law, avoiding what would have been for us the minor inconvenience of Isaac.  Among other places, we went to Nan's Comics, and I picked up eM-4's prepainted Recce Group, 5 figures that were formally painted as security.  They are not badly painted for the price.  I had received Hasslefree's 4 female soldiers for my birthday, and decided to try to come close to the eM-4 paint jobs.  The only thing I did to the eM-4 figures was texture the bases a little, hit them with dullcoat, and repaint the guns (which were silver) with black and charcoal.

I then painted the girls and Grant in similar camo and equipment.  The Hasslefree figures are in the center on the first two pics.

I also painted Hasslefree's Grant in a matching color scheme.

They came out pretty close, though I couldn't bring myself to be as heavy handed as eM-4.
I really don't like to do camo, not so much because it's difficult as because it hides well done figures.
Here are some Dadi & Piombo French modern figures, beautifully sculpted, hidden by camo.  That's a Solido VAB in the background.  I also have a VBL, and 2 AML-90's.  There are 3 4-man fire teams.

And some Black Watch, by I don't remember who.

I've been painting up figures for Two Hour Wargames "Muskets & Mohawks"  First, and poorly focused are the Front Rank British on campaign figures.  I have a full platoon painted, and another to paint, making the only full company I will have.

And two officers.

Why on campaign?  Because I'm too lazy to paint the regular uniforms.  The paints are all craft store, with metallics from p3.

The basic unit in M&M is 10 men.  A formed line is base to base, one rank deep.  So I made some new magnetic moving trays.  I made them to hold 5 figures, and some smaller ones to hold 4 figures, because Old Glory bags come with 30 figures.

The rules say that a mob can be 2 ranks deep or more, like so.  I already have a large quantity of these bases, so my mobs won't get any deeper. By the by, by removing every other figure, these bases will also do for Unformed.

Just for looks, I made some mob bases out of 3" circles.

That's it.  I haven't been able to do any games with recovering from Bayou Wars and Heat of Battle.  I did play 2 small games with Chris, but that was a while ago, and he will be busy repairing his office in LaPlace for a while.

Spear Chuckers

Here are lesser luminaries in the Dark Ages.  The unarmored spear chuckers.  This is all 16 of them, but 12 are Varangian(?), and 4 are definitely Saxon lesser fyrd.
First the Varangians:

And next the Saxon lesser fyrd:

I decided that these guys were unable to pay for painted shields, but a few scribbled some designs on theirs. The helmets, spear points, and shield bosses were painted in P3 Pig Iron with no over coating of silver.  I figured that their stuff would be of lesser quality.  The spear hafts were painted lighter than the shieldwall guys, to represent them being throwaways, so not finished.

Here are two fyrd from the sides:

And two of the tossers from the side.  First pose:

And the second pose.

Here's one with a shieldwall guy.  I was hoping to show the difference in their metals, but it didn't photograph in that way.

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for Pelicon II, where I will be putting on a 5150 Star Army game, and playing in as many as I can get into!

Mounted Dark Ages figures

I got all 13 mounted figures painted over the 4th of July.  A day off without pay when you're an independent contractor.
The first pictures are of the 12 figures with kite shields.  I primed the knights black, drybrushed the chainmail with P3 Pig Iron, and then painted the rest of the figure.  It got the chainmail I wanted, but I'm still no fan of black priming.  I don't paint the GW way.

The horses were primed grey, sprayed dark brown or tan.  The dark brown were drybrushed with a dark brown craft paint.  All the horse furniture was painted with P3 Bootstrap Leather.  The tan horses had a wash of FW Sienna airbrush ink, and didn't come out as well as I hoped.  After their horse furniture was also painted, all horses received a wash of my brown wash and were dull-coated.

The shields were spray painted, dull coated, and added after the figures were mounted and all bright metal was painted.

Here are two facing off to show both sides of the figure.

I also realized that they are true 25's, which will make it difficult to add to the figures.  I got out a Newline Design Norman knight I have to compare, and he towered over them, even without the Litko base.  Here's a pic with a Ral Partha post 1889 British lancer, true 25, and on the other side, an Old Glory 3rd Crusade knight.  Pretty small, though a hair larger than the Ral Partha.

Boy, are these guys boring from the back!

And here's the only mounted figure that fits with the spearmen I posted earlier.  Obviously a chieftan, by all the falderal on his horse furniture.

That's it so far.  And now Two Hour Wargames announced that the next publication will be Colonial Adventures!  I should be painting up more pathans, or replacing my 80 missing anszrs!

Dark Ages figures

I've started painting a bunch of Dark Age figures I was given a few years back.  The manufacturer is no longer in business, so I was told, and is unknown.  Any ideas?  They appear to be mostly Varangian Guard.  The numbers under the bases are VA-1, 2, etc.

It's quite a large group of figures .There are:
10 mounted lancers in full chainmail with kite shields, but without a boss on them.
2 banner carriers, ditto.
1 mounted with spear, full chainmail, round shield.

The foot:
Round shields:
22 spears in chain.
26 axeman with axes raised over their heads, in chain
12 unarmored spears.
6 swordmen in chain.
Kite shields:
5 armored axemen with the leather hollow square common to Normans on their chest, chain.
4 unarmored spears.
Archers:
16 in chain.
10 in leather or quilted armor.
10 unarmored.
And 3 command figures, all in chain.
All banners are the three-tailed type.

Here are pictures of the 16 armored spearmen I have completed.  I'm waiting on slow old Litko for the rest of the bases.

I painted them in my standard "line them up and paint the first file trousers in one color, and the rest of the files in a color each, then paint the ranks with a different color tunic per rank, etc."  I did vary it a bit by using different shades of the color on each figure.  The shields were painted with spray paint, washed, and then had the metal added.  I'm using P3 Pig Iron for most of the metal with the helmets and spear points painted with P3 Silver.  They are then washed with P3 Armor wash.  Very happy with all three!

Here two square off at practice.  Really just to show the figures from right and left.

And here they are from the rear, really the only way we should our own figures.  Isn't it weird how much time we spend on the front of our figures, when we only see that view when they're retreating?  I am a bit lazy, and refuse to believe that every guy had his shield painted by the equivalent of Titian!  Yeah, that's the ticket!

I already had bases for my mounted, so they are on the priming treys as this is beginning typed.

These figures were started because of a friendly challenge from Ed.

Can't...stop...painting!

Doing things I shouldn't be, with Bayou Wars only 3 days away!

Here are a few more painted figures.
First up is Jake Cutter and Mighty Joe Young.  Jake is a Reaper mini, and MJY came in a box of lead, so I don't know who the maker is.  Jake was painted a while back (yeah, I'm a Tales of the Gold Monkey fan), and is included to give the size of MJY!

And here we have a GW orc with a Gobbo shield upside down, Auggie, and a Shadowforge hoplite.

Auggie is the Bayou Wars Mascot.  I finally assembled and painted him because Ed of Two Hour Wargames will be putting on Red Sun Black Moon games at Bayou Wars.  The ShadowForge hoplite is, alas, fully clothed, and therefore BORING!  However, she's there to give an idea of the size of Auggie.

That's all for now.  Hopefully, I'll remember to take enough pictures to do a good report on Bayou Wars.  I'm really looking forward to seeing a lot of friends, and getting some gaming in!

Bifurcated!

Cromak steps into the ring again, but his fame precedes him!  This time his opponent is from neighboring Mirish, a leather-armored spearman.

Bellon is a Savvy 5, Strength 4, Speed 3, warrior with a two-handed spear, and leather armor.  His extra Signature is Rage which give him +1d6 on Maneuver and Attack, but only so long as he still has 1/2 or more of his bonus dice.  His points are 6, equal to Cromak.

Almost immediately, Bellon scores a scratch on Cromak's belly with his spear (-1 Strength point).

Cromak and Bellon are pretty evenly matched, and have a hard time finding an opening on one another.  Both turns 3 and 4 result in no openings for either gladiator.  

Turn 5 goes to 6 rounds of retake attack, until Cromak finds an opening and scores a bleeder on Bellon's right arm.  Bellon is only Strength 4, so he only has 1 wound left on his right arm, and no Bonus Dice.

Bellon goes first on turn 6, and loses use of his right arm.  He then catches his breath, and regains a Bonus Die.

The next turn, Cromak advances, but can find no opening, and Bellon catches his breath.  He is fighting a losing battle, because he loses his Bonus Die as fast as he can earn them.

And then, Bellon moves in, seriously hampered by using his spear in his left hand, and being a bleeder.  He fails, and Cromak becomes the attacker, and gives Bellon a serious wound to the belly, another bleeder, knocking him down.

And in Cromak's half of the turn, he realizes that Bellon is about to bleed out, and so moves in and does a tremendous blow, again to the belly, with 8 successes!  So he cuts Bellon in half!

Cromak is getting quite a reputation for going for the soft belly on his opponents!  (Ah, the dice gods!)  He won his bet, but the odds were even, so he gains nothing.  He gets 100 talos for winning the match, and only 1 fame point, since he didn't dispatch Bellon in the center.  He uses one of his fame points to up his speed, to no avail.  At least he didn't get a "1".  He has a total of 7 fame points, but only 6 useable.

His toady is happy, and not noticing so quickly when his daughter slips off to "check on the cow!"

It really is amazing how this campaign is going.  Who would have thought that every kill will be caused by a belly wound, and that Cromak would get off so lightly each time?  I'm sure he will soon get his come-upetance soon.  And maybe his next opponent won't be so easy.  That "6" for "special" opponent must fall sooner or later.  

Blood on the Sand

Now that Cromak had defeated his first opponent, his patron got him another match quickly. This time a local spearman with leather armor and large shield was his opponent.

He was rolled up on the tables in Red Sand Black Moon for Hykar.  He had Savvy 4, Strength 4, and Speed 3.  He added Swordsman to the standard Warrior Signatures.  With his weapon, shield, and armor, he came up to a rating of 9, 3 above Cromak.

Cromak immediately scored a minor wound to Fangor's left leg.

Throughout the match, Fangor, though better armored kept getting pushed back.
Cromak struck a blow for Fangor's chest, but the shield turned it aside.

Cromak would often maneuver to Fangor's unshielded side, but was unable to take advantage of the situation.  When he next scored a hit, he had no advantage, and Fangor's shield protected his belly.

Fangor would often pause to regain his breath.

Then Cromak made a mistake, and Fangor's spear clanged against his helmet, knocking him down, and wounding him slightly.

Cromak realized that this wasn't as easy a fight as his previous one, and when Fangor next charged him, he stepped aside and dealt Fangor a mighty blow to his right arm, almost removing it, and making Fangor a bleeder.

Fangor's right arm bled out, and he was forced to drop his shield, and switch his spear to his left hand.  (Hey, I don't have a left-handed spearman figure.)

Hoping for a quick kill, Fangor charged in, but in his weakened condition, he was unable to parry the blow of the mighty axe that disembowled him, and ended his life.

Once again, Cromak slew his enemy with a blow to the belly, though with much less damage to himself this time.  He gained 3 fame points for the difference between his rating and his opponent's, and another for striking the killing blow in the center of the arena.  He now has 6 fame points.

He gained another 100 talos for his victory, and 113 for his bet on himself.  I had misfigured his talos in the previous post, so his total now is 464, I think.

This game ran to nine turns, with a couple of Redo the Attack.  The NPG kept tying Cromak when he had the advantage of the shieldless side, so he was unable to ever make that pay off.  Fangor caught his breat a couple of times.  It appears that better armor and shield is not much of an advantage if you AP is not up to your apponent's even if you out-rate him.

Cromak gains a toady, a farmer, with a nubile daughter.  Can the barbarian stay out of troubvle?