AHPC XIV: From Mike W - 10mm Flodden English, 28mm Odds & Ends, Betonnians and more....

 Well I can't believe that we are drawing into the last full week of this year's Challenge, there is so much stuff on my worbench that I won't get done in time, so as a result, I'll press on with some of my favourite projects and try and finish off those that I have the best chance of getting completed in time! As such I guess we now go into Free Fire mode with posts so hopefully I'll get 1 or 2 more posts done by the cut-off date/time.

English Horse in line of column

First off we have a small batch of 14 x 10mm English Cavalry for my Flodden project. These figures appear to be 'Border Lancers', common on both sides of the English / Scots conflicts for many centuries. As these came with my Pendraken English Army starter pack, I have painted these up as an English unit. However, I intend to get some more of these tiny guys and create a few additional command bases so that these can be deployed similar units on both sides in the future campign / game.

I opted to place four figures to a base, these were light cavalry, reserving five figures to a base for any heavy cavalry I might get in the future. You will notice that I found only 14 figures in the starter pack (one seems to be missing) I have a partially completed base to go with the three bases for the unit pictured.

And in line of battle!

I have also broken with Warmaster tradition and mounted my horse figures in line, rather than column on these bases - my thinking being this is a little more historically accurate.

Two additional figures, awaiting some re-enforcements to join them as described above

Anyway the painting techniques were as previously described, I used various GW Contract paint for the horse flesh and Army Painter Holy White to do the two grey horses. Basing with fine sand and various tufts and electrostaic grass to complete.

Next up is a vignette depicting St. George slaying the Dragon, these are a 28mm figure pack presented free to attendees of a past Salute Wargames Show in  London, these figures were kindly given to me by my friend Dave, as part of the bundle that inclded last week's Dark Ages figures.

St. George fights the Dragon

View of the stricken horse being wrapped-up by the dragon

Another view

The figures were undercoated in grey an then dry-brushed white and then tackled one at a time. First off, I did the stricken horse, most of the imagary that I could find of St. George has him riding a white horse, so I opted for this classic depiction, I built up the whiteness of the horse with washes of thinned down white paint.

I chose to have the saddle blanket in blue as a contrast to the horse flesh and St. George himself, the horse's leather work was done, not unnaturally with Army Painter Hardened Leather, .

Better view of the shield carrying his distinctive red cross

Next the dragon, a classic green colour for it's top half, using GW Algae Green, I then dry brushed this with white before using AP Orc Skin to give a bright green colour to it's spinal scales and the larger scales on it's side and feet / claws. I used a watered down creamier colored green on the dragon's wings before washing with AP Green ink - this representing the msotly skin type flesh on these wings.

I painted the underbelly of the dragon yellow and washed this with GW Skeleton Horde to tone it down a little.

Final shot from above

St.George was again done in classic garb, I wanted his clothing to be predominantly white, so it is! But the figure is mostly chainmail clad, so I used GW Leadbeltcher on this and then AP Hoplite Gold on the armour scales to give St. George a noble feel. His cloak had to be red!

He carries a kite shield with a classic red, cross of St.George on it. Chainmail was washed in dark tone ink and the plate armour was washed in AP Flesh Tone, to give depth and shading.

I attached the figures to an MDF base and added some slate chips from the garden to give additional texture to the base. Then my usual fine sand, tufts and electrostaic grass mix to finished it off. I'm pleased with the result, it was a fn mini project to do.

In terms of points its not a high scorer, I'm placiming 10 points if everyone agrees - 1 x 28mm figure plus 2 x prone animals at 2.5 Points each! I'll let my minion adjudicate if this is fair!

Next we have 8 x Bretonnian figures for Warhammer Fantasy, these were found alongside the Bretonnian Archers I painted earlier this challenge. These guys are depicted as a militia unit - maybe a city guard - armed with various pole arms. There is a Corporal with the group armed with an axe plus a drummer and an officer, with an outragious moustache! Lastly I have pained up one of the figures as a Bretonnian priest, carrying a holy banner.

The completed Bretonnian group

The flag is actually based upon an image of a christmas card that I found online, suitably adapted it takes on th eguise of a holy banner pretty well.

The City Guard group, four spearmen and a corporal with a axe

I painted these using the same apprach as described for my oringinal batch of archers, I decided that the warror priest should have blue robes with white under-robes, maybe to signify his purity!? All figres painted and based in my usual manner.

Close-up of the City Gard Officer and his outragious moustache

One point of note on these Bretonnians is that I long ago lost their shield arms - ths I have pressed alternatives in frm eth bits box, these are Dark Ages shield armss, I'm not sure who manufactured these but t wold be Gripping Beast, Vitrix or Conquest Games...

Drummer, with inscription on the gold shield on the drum

Warrior Monk, with Holy Banner

Another break here and I present my last Female Gue'Vesa Tau warrior, I was holding her back for one last Lady Sarah's Trolley dash, but I can't really figure out how to use it in this last week so here goes!

Female Tau Gue'Vesa

This figure is again based upon a Wargames Atlantic Eisenkern Stormtrooper figure, with GW Tau weapon and Arm Pad added to gve it th eright look and feel. This person also has a Eisenkern female head, which sports a natty cap.

Another view

The figure is painted and based in the way that I have previously described for my Tau Army.

Next I have six 28mm Norman Crossbowmen from Victrix, these guys are lovely little sculpts and were a joy to paint. Again these will be fielded at my forthcoming Hastings game,, where they will help bolster my Norman Misslemen!

Completed group of NormanCrossbowmen

Figures were undecoated grey then drybrushed white, hands and faces getting extra attention wit heth white paint. GW Darkoath Flesh was used on hands and faces, then highlighted with AP Barbarian Flesh. All Chainmail and metal was done in GW Leadbeltcher and then various clours used to finish 'dressing' these guys. Leatherwork was completed with AP Hardened Leather before highlights were added.

Head on close-up of three guys

and their side view

The remaining three figres in close-up

With side view, the guy pulling his crossbow on the left would in my opinion get a little repetitive if I'd purchased a whole pack of these guys.

Next pair of fgures is another Salute figure give away (again thanks to Dave) depicting Arthur fighting Mordred, these guys are both on foot and are depicted in Anglo-Roman grab. Good old King Arthur (the once and future King of England!) has been depicted much like I did St. George, Mordred was done in complimentary / contrasting colours.

Mordred & Arthur going at it!

I'm assuming this is Mordred,  he's wearing a full face mask that is part of his helmet

And good King Arthur

Anoher figure that I have just been able to complete is a 28mm War of teh Roses Man-at-Arms, this is an old Front Rank figure that I've had for absolutely ages. I gave him a simple Green and White quartered livery. His legs are protected by plate armour and I would guess that he has a plate breastplate under his livery shirt as well.

WoR Man-at-Arms

with a rear view

AHPC XIV: From Mike W - Lizardmen, 15mm Fenians, Rogue Trader Marines, 10mm Flodden, plus more...

 I'll open this week's post with my long overdue Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen Cavalry, how much better can it get than big lizards riding even bigger lizards!

Finally! The completed Mounted Lizardmen

These guys have been hard work, as there is so much detail on them and it takes time to do them justice, that and given that as ever, I sourced them from eBay and this meant that they arrived pre-assembled and thus much harder to get in to all the nooks and crannies to cover all the detail that is found on them.

Another view of the Lizardmen

This is a unit of 8 x Lizardmen, riding Cold Ones, I did a similar unit for an AHPC XIII Challenge last year and these were the older sculpts and as such were simpler to paint - according to my memory at least! After applying a cream coloured undercoat, I decided to make the riders green with a brownish yellow underbelly, the Cold Ones would be blue with a similar but lighter yellowish brown underbelly.

Lizardmen in column with a good view of the banner

I used GW Algae Green for the riders scaly upper surfaces and a mix of watered down GW Nazdreg Yellow and Bad Moon Yellow for the underbellies etc. On the Cold Ones I used the same mix as on the riders.though I tried to keep these lighter. I used Army Painter Magic Blue for their scales, all horns, teeth and claws were treated as if they were bones and as such got a wash of GW Skeleton Horde and then a drybrush of 'Linen' then White to draw out the highlights.

Close-up of two Lizardmen Riders

All straps were painted with GW Snakebite Leather and saddlery and shields were painted with AP Vampire Red before being washed with AP Soft Tone for shading and depth. There are lavish amounts of gold on these figures and this was done with Valeijo Brass and washed with AP Light Tone ink.

Two more Lizardmen riders

Then it was on to endless details of feathers, skulls, banners and then retouching other areas as I managed to splash / mark already completed areas as I did the details! For the record these figures contain 8 skulls!

Right Lizardmen Rider Champion and a companion

Standard Bearer and Musician, if you look closely you'll see the musician does not have a drum to bang!
 An unfortunate side effect for getting  figures from eBay,
I'll have to source a suitable drum to correct this on when I can....

I took another sprue for Warlord Games Epic 15mm ACW Confederates and decided to paint them up as Fenians for a potential 1866 Fenian Raid of Canada scenario. Now I'm no expert on those period but it has always plucked at my imagination - I'm a big ACW fan - and ways to use my ACW collection in different ways is always of an interest to me.

Completed Fenian Regiment, in epic 15mm

Unit in column of march heading to the right!

I think in reality these Fenian units were largely in Union Army surplus gear - so mostly blue - but also I'd expect a lot of civilian homespun materials as well. Looking for inspiration on Google turns up a few images but one of the most interesting one I found is below.

Image found here: https://heritagearmssa.com/2017/09/29/the-fenian-raids-1866-70/

I particularly liked this as it seems to show an interpretation of a Fenian unit in Green, so I decided to base my test unit on this image.

Marching to the left, the classic Harp insired, green flag is clearly visible. The other flag is green with yellow stars, both sourced from Google

Close-up of a couple of the bases,I could have used a union sprue to get most figures in kepis, but I liked the irregular feel of the confederate sprue with a lot of blanket rolls in the mix

Figures were undercoated in light grey and then GW Russ Grey (which is quite blue) was used to paint the trousers whist I used a mix of GW Algae Green & Orc Skin to do their jackets. Boots & straps were black and weapons, skin and hair was done in natural colours. All got a watered down Dark Tone wash before varnishing. Flags sourced from Google!

Another close-up 

A better view of the star covered flag

Final couple of bases

Next I have a small group of 3D printed Rogue Trader Space Marines, now sadly I'm old enough to remember when the original guys came out (maybe around 1985 at a guess) and I have a couple of these in my collection somewhere. One has gone astray over the years but I know have the other somewhere, I saw it a couple months back, I just don't know where at this exact time!

I'm pleased with how these guys came out

I had painted the originals in white armour, but having just done so many Tau in white, I wanted to have a break, so instead I have done them in a deep red with bright green eyes, lenses & laser sights. Belts were done in black and weapons in silver (as per my originals) with a few added details of red and blue wires.

Weapons are a far cry from the ubiquitous Marine Bolter on modern figures

Another view, showing the eys and helmet sensors

As with my originals I have given them a big 'M' as their unit badge - back in the day I called these my McMarines for hopefully obvious reasons!

This is pretty much the pose of one of the old metal figures I know I have somewhere

Final shot of the Marines

Next is another Flodden Scots unit, this time spearmen, so I assume these to be men supplied by a 'less well schooled' noble, rather than the fashionable pike block that I recently completed. I think in reality the move to pikes from spears was a contributory factor in the Scots loosing the battle, so I may be perverse in any scenario that I put together and give these guys better morale than the pike blocks as the spear had been a weapon of choice in Scotland for centuries - as opposed to the new fangled pike!

Scots Spear block for Flodden.

With a selection of flags to divert the eye!

The pointy end of the unit, again 2 ranks of three bases.

Anyway for painting purposes these guys were tackled in exactly the same manner as the pike block, as was their basing and organisation into a 3 x 2 base unit, again with lots of flags to distract the eye!

The unit marching to the left

and to the right!

Finally to get up to date with the bonuses and shelves that I have visited here is my Library Map, I forget to post this last week!

Points