Off the Workbench: Viking Shield Maidens and Medieval Artillery

Well its the first 'Off the Workbench' submission for quite some time! Currently tied up with the ongoing ECW Campaign, so it has taken quite some time getting these little guys (and girls) completed.

The first batch of figures are 11 x 28mm Shield Maidens that I acquired form eBay, I continue to experiment with Contrast / Speed Paints and feel that I'm gradually understanding how to use these to their best. As with everything they have their good and bad points...

Ultimately I'll be using a mix of traditional and Speed paints moving forwards.

The completed group

The Speed Paints are particularly good for figures with long hair - such as these women, it gives a lovely shaded feel with a single coat.

The sky blue colours on the right most figures are traditional paints with a blue ink
wash for shading. The red undershirt for the figure with an axe is speed paint

I decided to replace the metal shields and spears where possible with plastic ones, sourced from the spares box - likely mostly Gripping Beast items. I also added a helmet to the waist belt of the figure second right, see below

All of these figures completed using speed paints. The skin tones on the figure second right is not great, I used regular Army Painter flesh and then washed with Sepia ink, the results seem much better on the other figures.

Final group of three figures below, includes the unit leader in chainmail and a red (Speed Paint) cloak

All speed painted again!

And now for something slightly different! Medieval Artillery - I forget who the figure manufacturer is but the moulds are nice and crisp.

Both figures were painted using Speed paints - whilst the gun was a mixture of traditional and Speed Paints.

Business end of the gun!

Again figures undercoated white and pretty much painted straight from the Speed Paint pots. Metalics is traditional Vallejo 'Oily Sleel' and then a coat of Army Painter 'Graveyard Grey' speed paint for shading.

A side view to see the detail on the gun carriage.

Overall pleased with e results - its a learning process. Hopefully next post will be three Elizabethan Border Lancers and some Wargames Atlantic Conquistadors - converted for the Anglo-Scots Marian Wars.

Siege of Vienna - Part Four: Ottoman Artillery

Everyone know that during a siege, we are bound to see a lot of artillery, this will also be the case in this Siege of Vienna game.

Ottoman Field Gun manned by a Balkan crew

The Ottoman Artillery will initially be focused on executing the ongoing bombardment of the city but then scrambling to redirect their fire on the pending Imperial attack. I have taken the view that the heavy siege weapons would not be able to re-deploy against the Imperial forces appearing at their rear - these will be off-table.

Instead it is Field guns and Light guns that will be able to be redeployed to cover the rear,  as the game progresses. As such there are five Field Gun batteries and a Light battery available to the Ottoman forces in the game

The Light Gun Battery

Available from turn one of eth game, this piece is hand portable and can fire immediately at the oncoming Imperial hordes.

Ottoman two man, Light Gun crew.
The gun model will likely be swapped out for the game for a more realistic looking piece of equipment

The Field Gun Batteries

These will become available, basis a die roll at the start of each turn, on a score of '1' on turn one, the guns can redeploy that turn and are available to fire the following turn. On turn two the battery will redeploy on a '1' or '2', and so on until turn six when all guns will be able to redeploy if not yet done so.

Two more Field Gun batteries, manned by Turkish crews

And the other two Field Gun batteries, again manned by Turkish crews.

The Gun Master

The Ottomans will also have the services of a Master Gunner, who will be able to share his knowledge and experience of the art of gunnery with the crews. This will help the speed up initial redeployments and later accuracy of their firing

The Ottoman Master Gunner

AHPC XII: from Mike W - 28mm Late 17th Centaury Ottoman Artillery

 This group of figures and models are to represent three batteries and crews for Ottoman Artillery positions in a forthcoming Siege of Vienna game, they join a fourth such battery model I completed some time ago. These figures are from various sources mostly plastic Gripping Beast Arab Infantry converted to an Artillery Role.

The three Ottoman Batteries ready now to face the walls of Vienna!

One of the Batteries on the workbench this week
and back by popular demand (?!) a caterpillar by my grand-daughter

There are also a couple of Wargames Atlantic Afghans conversions plus the officers are 3D prints (I think - that or resin castings) that I acquired from eBay. The Ottoman heads were also from the same manufacturer as the officers and these have helped unify the look and feel of these figures in their new role.

One of the Battery positions I have created. The gun models are not fixed to the bases, allowing me to mix and match guns amongst many such bases in my collection

Another view of the same battery, with close-up of the Gabions.
I added fine sand to the top of each and dry-brushed the sides of each gabion brown to give a shaded effect.

As a note the rammers were made by cutting off the spear point and then cutting the top and bottom off one of the tubular quivers in the Gripping Beast Arab set, to represent the sponge.

Another Battery, showing the converted crewmen and resin officers.
Note the gunner to left taking a bead on a potential enemy getting too close to the position.

All figures were undercoated white before appropriate colours were blocked in, a watered down dark tone wash was later used to give shading before matt varnishing the figures.

The final Battery and Crew, the resin officers looked a little wooden in their poses when they arrived,
but separated and in place on the bases they have turned out pretty good.

Anther picture of the battery, all of the crewmen are Gripping Beast Arab Infantry
with resin Ottoman heads added to three of the four figures to give the right look and feel.

The two wooden 'ships' cannon were a recent purchase from Whizkids,com, these were very reasonably priced and painted up well. (The third 'green' cannon in the photos was a gun I painted for last year's challenge!)

The Whizkids.com guns

On the bases I added wooden planks to hold the weight of the guns, gabions (from Rendera) before using my usual techniques of adding fine sand and electrostatic grass with tufts for a completed model.