Saturday, 30 May 2026

Friday Night Games - More Marian Wars

Friday 29th May saw the first week of Mike W & John's latest Marian Wars campaign using the Pikement's Lament Rules. Figures were from Mike W & John's own collections.

Mat & Dave commanded the four companies of the forces supporting the claim of the protestant claiment to the throne in favour of Prince John. On Mary's side were Rupert, Steve and Mike N.

The battlefield

The backgroumd of the game is that Robert Kerr and his forces had rustled some cattle belonging to his memisis James Kerr, Robert Kerr's forces are returining home after the raid only to find that James has garrisoned a company of his forces in a village by the only brige over the river on the tabletop!

Steve's company garrison's the village

The majority of Robert Kerr's forces were (very) slowly moving across the tabletop, with Mat's company sent to conduct a flanking move to draw Steve's defending units from the village.

The massed forces of Robert Kerr and his compatriots,
with their recently looted cattle.

Archers and Shot garrisoning the village.

Unexpectedly for Mat, Mike N's troops arrived on the tabletop forceing Mat to have to engage these prio to reaching the village. In a series of combats Mat's Cavalry and Gallowglas units were decimated and Mat was himself taken prisoner. However, this was not before Mike N's cavalry unit taking a battering and wavering. To rub salt into Mat's wounds his javelinmen were shot out by defenders from the village and Mike N's own units of shot.

Forces of Robert Kerr move forwards.

Mat's forces containing Gallowgas and Javelin men
attempt an out flanking movement on the village.

Meanwhile Dave is slowly moving the main force across the tabletop and has units of horse scouting ahead. Ahead of him he can see Ruperts command entering the table top as well! All to play for in week two, when Mark & Nige are expected to lend additional leadership to Robert Kerr's forces.

More movement from Robert Kerr's forces as they move
to cross the river at the bridge or fords

Dave's forces approaching the village

Mat's forces atacking Mike N's forces.

Close-up of the stolen cattle within Robert Kerr's forces

Dave's command under Eroll McFlynn probing the village

Gun and crew defending the village

Final view of Robert Kerr and his forces moving across the tabletop, albeit slowly.

Friday, 22 May 2026

what's on Steve's workbench?

Steve recently shared some photos of General Officers / Command figures fir his upcoming Victorian period - Imaginations campaign.




Thursday, 21 May 2026

What's on Mark's Workbench?

Updated today  a quick run down of what our very own Mark C. has on his workbench!

WW2 German Half Tracks


Various vehicles and infantry for a VBCW set-up


More WW2 stuff, incl German recovery tank and some softskins


Various Self Propelled guns


And a couple of Jagd Panther if I'm not mistaken

Saturday, 16 May 2026

Friday Night Games - Dr Who


Friday 9/5/26 and 16/5/26 saw two linked Dr Who scenarios put on by MAt at Rupert's establishement, set in a period when the Dalek Emperor was hunting down renegade Daleks that had been cast out of teh Empire after a failed revolt.

The game table

Rebel Daleks scourng the crash site of an Imperial Flying Saucer

Rebel daleks had been scattered across the Galaxy in prison cubes, several of which had landed thousands of years ago on Earth. The scenarios we played represented Imperial Dalek forces coming to reclaim the DAlek prisoners to incorporate into teh Imperium again. Why do this? Well the DArleks had developed technology to reprogram the rebel DAlek minds and make them loyal again....

The Imperial stronghold set-up in an old castle.

Nothing can really be that easy cn it! The scenarios played Imperial & Rebel Dalek factions against each other and the inhabitants of Earth....

Imperial Daleks about to be acosted by the Droctor himself

Imperial Daleks were commanded by Steve & John, Rebel daleks by Mark & Mike W whilst the forces of Earth were played by Mike N & Rupert. Mat umpired.

Saturday, 18 April 2026

Friday Night Games: Marian Wars

Unit of John's Tudor Archers

Friday 10th April saw John & Mike W stage the first of their 28mm Marian Wars games at Rupert's establishment.

On the side of Mary Queen of Scits we had forces commanded bu Mike N, Steve and Rupert. Whilst the forces of her treacherous brother were commanded by Mark, Dave, Rupert and Nigel.

Another of John's arvher units

The game centred around an attack by the Catholic forces on the town of Jedborough, which was defended by the Local militia, plus others.

One of the companies od Jedbrough militia

Rules used were 'Pikeman's Lament' and tge figures are from the collections of Mike W & John.

Another company of Militia


Mike W's Scots Horse


Outskirts of Jedborough


Dave's Forlorn Hope defending an enclosure


Militia defending Jedborough


Another view

The Scenario Map

Sunday, 22 March 2026

AHPC XVI: Its all over and here are the standings....

 So another year of teh Analogue Hobbies Painting Competion has been completed. Once again Mike W & Grahame participated with varying degrees of success.  I'm sure Grahame would agree with me that it gets harder to find the time to devote to painting to such a tight deadline for 3 months solid!

Hopefully others fom the club will join is in future years!

Mike W came 11th and Grahame 21st 
out of a field of 89 scoring participants!


Friday, 20 March 2026

AHPC XVI: From Mike W - My last post of the Challenge or Odds & ends on my Workbench (45 Points)

 Well this is my last post for this challenge, as ever it had been fun and as the name implies - challenging!

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone involved in running the challenge, great work! And let's all join the two wee guys below and raise a glass to all our beloved minions...

As the title of this post suggests  I have literally looked to clear all those stray items on my workbench that have stalled and hit a backwater in the last few months.

First off are two Warlord Games ECW Highlanders who along with their compatriots are being readied for a potential future game. These two seemed to have been waylaid at the pub and were missed when I completed their friends last summer.

Two Highlanders celebrating the end of this year's challenge!

Although the figures give a sense of wearing tartan, actually bottled out trying to pait full tartan on these guys. instaed after doing a base colour of green or blue, I used marker pens to draw lines in a chequered pattern over the base colour. I tried to make the lines follow the flow of eth cloth but didn't worry too much about making them too acurate.

A couple of spots in contrasting colors before applying a varnish - the imporatnat thing here being it was an oil based varnish as the markers were water soluable and using water based varnish literally wipes teh lines out! Once the varnish was dry (overnight) I was then able to apply Army Painter washes & Inks to add shading to the cloth and it turned a dodgey child like tartan into something that is in my opinion tabletop passable!

The reverse view

Below is a test figure I did based upon a sprue of figures on the front of a magazine some time ago, I forget now if it was a Perrys or a Wargames Atlantic product....

Later War MP34 infantryman

Finally painted and based!

Another view

At my Wargames Club we are gearing up for a campaign set in the Marion Wars (Mary Queen of Scots) period of Scottish history. The crossbowman below us another figure that got separated and lost from his parent unit on my workbench...

.... yes, my workbench can get quite chaoticat times and usually only gets sorted and cleaned when my wife puts her foot down!

Completed Crossboman


He could be on either side of teh conflict

These Zombicide Invader Survivors have finally been completed, I started these when I was doing my Xenos earlier in the challenge.

Five more Zombicide Survivors

For some reason, I always struggle with doing the survivor figures in these post Apocalyptic games - the monsters always seem more fun to paint. That said I'm almost decided to use North Star figures to provide the Survivors for scenarios I put on as I will develop stats cards for them to be Mining Corporation Marines, providing security for the Corporations mining sites - I like the figures better and I find them more fun to paint!

In case you wondered, Commander Amadi in the Yellow Power Suit
and Madame Singleton to his right


Left to Right: Cloud, Emma & Val

Wednesday, 18 March 2026

AHPC XVI: From Mike W: More 28mm Skaven Plague Monks (55 Points)

 As mentioned on Monday here is my follow-up post showing the balance of the GW Plague Monk Unit that I was working on, trying to get it finished by the Challenge Deadline...


The completed batch of 10 x GW Plague Monks

There are 10 x figures in this batch, half of them being 'regular' Plague Monks whilst the other 5 are a little more exotic - being leaders, musicians & Champions etc!

A view from the left of the line...

Again the recipe I used to paint these has been laid out elsewhere in my posts, I wanted to take more time getting the banners just right for these little guys - trying to balance the look an feel in other units in my collection and reflect the rough and ready 'scrawl' that thes rat men might use to daub their banners....

And a slightly different head on view


The 5 x 'Regular' Plague Monks, showing their right hand side

So I still have a few odds and ends left on my workbench, so we'll see what I'm able to get completed for  final post on Friday night (UK tim) hopefully still within challenge deadlines!

And their left hand side, each is armed with two hand weapons


A close-up on the Plague Monk's unit banner


A close-up on another of their banners


And finally their musician and a couple of guys carrying scrolls and bells!


SKULLS
+9 Skulls

POINTS

10 x 28mm Skaven Plague Monks  @ 5 Pts ea.            50 Points