Although Games Workshop produce a huge variety of miniatures for their two main games systems (Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy Battle), it's always good to have even more choice / variety. This is easy with WFB, as it doesn't have much in it that can't be found elsewhere in the fantasy wargaming world - or indeed in historical conflicts. The following pictures are of some miniatures I've been painting for a client for use in fantasy gaming, which strongly resemble the 'high medieval' look of the Brettonian faction;
The miniatures are by Gamezone - they are in metal, and come with separate hands / weapons, and lovely sculpted shields. The red / blue colour scheme was specified by the client - which I've hopefully interpreted as he imagined it!
The nature of the poses on these figures is such that the shields can be placed held in front with the above picture), or just as convincingly slung across the back. For this reason, for the purposes of these pictures, the shields are temporarily held in place with small blobs of blu tack.
I was supplied with two basic poses - the 'guard' (at right) and the 'charge' (the other three). Within each basic pose, there were different armour styles and slightly different arm angles. Added to this, the 'guard' stance came with a separate right hand, and a separate weapon (he could have been armed with a sword instead of a halberd - supplied in the kit). With this flexibility, it would be easy to arm him with almost anything - pikes or flags spring immediately to mind, or any kind of pole weapon.
The three at 'charge' have their pairs of hands moulded onto the halberd, but with separate hands supplied (along with swords) they too could be sword / shield equipped. As with the 'guard' posture, they'd look just as good with pikes / spears etc., or even handguns.
The three basic styles of body are (left to right) with long surcoat, scale armoured, and with short surcoat. With the same colour scheme applied to each style in different ways, it was easy to make them obviously part of the same unit, without them looking like clones. I used the same techniques for these as I use for most historical miniatures - and the deep sculpting makes the metal effect look better than ever. The shields were easy to paint too - again, mostly thanks to the deep sculpting, which helps to guide the brush.
They're all based on Games Workshop 25mm round bases - as per the client's requirements - though I think they'd look pretty amazing all ranked up on square bases too. I wasn't familiar with this manufacturer before receiving this commission, but having seen the models now, I can see that they are a pretty good fit for WFB. Many other ranges look a bit puny compared to the mightily-proportioned Games Workshop figures, but these are as compatible as any I've seen.
Yay! Back to the Dark Ages for the first time in, well, ages. I've loved this period of European history since childhood - my boyish allegiance usually torn between the Vikings and Saxons of my own genetic origins, with the odd grudging nod to the Carolingians. Airfix didn't do 1/72 Vikings and Saxons, so it wasn't until I was older and able to afford metal miniatures that I could really game in this era. Over the years, I've done very little commission work for this period - so it was with great pleasure that I was approached to tackle not one but two Saga-era armies for a client. The first of which is Pagan Rus (vikings who settled in the river basins of Ukraine and Southern Russia - giving Russia its name);
These are all metal miniatures, manufactured by Gripping Beast. I tackled the ordinary troops first (saving the heroes for later, and for a later post), who were mostly spear-armed, with typical centre-boss round shields. The client had kindly provided Little Big Man Studios shield and banner transfers, which I'd never used before. What an absolutely top-notch product! I recommend these to everyone - if they make what you need, buy from them. If they don't make what you want, then write to them / pray / ask Santa until they get round to producing your requirements. They are beautifully-detailed, easy to apply, and so far seem to be pretty robust with only a light sealing coat over them. Brilliant.
The miniatures are lovely too. I don't normally enjoy metal miniatures as much as plastics, but these were a joy to paint. Nice smooth cloth areas, fine detailed mail, and good anatomical proportion / pose compared to many. The only thing I didn't like was the open hand / separate weapon combination. To me (and it's just me, maybe...) this approach leaves the hand looking thumbless. I'm not keen on metal spears either, but for non-painting reasons. I've found that, in use, the spears get bent - which looks daft. Of course, with enough brute force a plastic spear would break... which is even more noticeable. But I have found the 'spring' in a plastic spear helps it to survive. The hard wire spears I employed on a Landsknecht force some months ago (see earlier post) were best of all - thin, resilient, and springy enough not to bend easily. Mind you, I was stabbed about 20 times during painting and photography.
The shield transfers made light work of replicating both fancy painted designs (right hand pairing) and the less decorated. The clean lines and smooth surface of the miniatures made painting the cloth areas easy - even where a contrasting line or edge was added to the tunic. If you've looked back through many of my other posts, you'll notice almost everyone has dark-to-mid-brown hair. This is for batch-painting reasons, and also because I reserve that particular colour only for hair - so it doesn't turn up on a cloak, backpack, or pair of boots. When more hair is visible, such as with English Civil War troops, or these hairy pagans, I introduce more variety. Blonde and lighter brown both make an appearance, as does grey - and ginger (red) hair of course, as that's where the Rus get their name (slavic word for ginger!).
Not everyone was lightly-armoured. The chap on the left has done without a helmet, but has a lovely mail shirt and bronzed scale armour vest. Combined with his baggy trousers, he looks pretty exotic. The chap at the right has also gone for a stand-out look, using a large rectangular shield and keeping his big fur cloak on. The rectangular shield doesn't use a transfer, I did the simple geometric design by hand, copying an image in a reference book but switching the colour to blue.
Three more with rectangular shields, showing the variety in headgear (including the chap on the left, who originally had a red cap, until he was christened 'Santa Claus' by a casual observer. It's brown now...). Again, the very simple geometric shield designs are just hand-painted. By now, I needed some relief from painting spears - the chap on the right already had sword in hand, but the other two have hand-grafts from Fireforge medieval sergeants, axe and sword respectively.
These two veterans warranted standout colour schemes. Purple cloth was expensive and difficult to make, so would only show up on those who could afford it. Since the guy on the left was bald, and had a fur cloak and fancy shield, he seemed to be displaying a bit of wealth anyway... so he got the one and only purple tunic. He's keen to keep it clean too - standing off and throwing an axe instead of getting stuck in. The other chap is clearly a person of some note - mail shirt splinted leg armour, fur-trimmed coat - so he seemed a natural companion for the axe-thrower when taking the pictures.
I completed a WoTR commission a short time ago which included some nifty casualty miniatures. I'd seen examples of casualties from several manufacturers, but couldn't quite work out what I would ever do with them. A vague notion of substituting the odd casualty figure among a large unit (to break up uniformity) occurred, in the same way as I might use a standard bearer, officer, musician, or hero. But the client planned to use these as fancy casualty markers, with the aid of some nifty MDF counters;
As you can see from the above, three layers of thin MDF - the topmost with a 'window' - sandwich a printed dial with numerals on it. The projecting lug allows you to wheel the centre disc around such that different numbers are visible through the window. Not sure if the intention is to count up or down, but with painted miniatures using the counter for a base, it's a more eye-catching solution than a post-it note or a scrap of paper.
Each casualty was finished in a particular livery, for association with a particular unit (this would help in recognising which unit had which total casualties). Most of the models were in livery coats, so this was easy to achieve. I painted them the same way I do regular miniatures, except that the chap on the right looked dead - so he got a paler skin tone.
I also started to base them in the same way I normally do... and the re-read the client's carefully-worded instructions (he didn't want me to put any scenic treatments on the bases... just stick the miniatures down! My bad). To cover my shame and embarrassment at not being able to read simple instructions, I'll use the above pair to show the usual method I use for basing.
Step one is to blend the miniature into the base with clay (I use a hard version of plasticine, usually used for sculpting or mould making purposes). Things aren't so bad nowadays, with the level of basing quality frequently seen at shows and in magazines, but for a long time it was acceptable in wargaming circles to just stick figures to rectangles of card with no further work involved, except maybe to paint the card / base green. Things improved over time, but I still see examples today of poorly-disguised figure bases (leaving a 'step' visible in the scenic treatment of the base), or of miniatures which appear to be floating on top of the surface they're crossing - particularly noticeable with heavy weapons crews etc.. To counter this, the clay is used to disguise the miniatures own base edges, reduce the 'billiard table' flatness of larger bases, and to give the impression (as in the case of these chaps) that the miniatures have some weight, and are impressing themselves on the scenery. With prone miniatures, such as these, I dampen the clay and press the miniature in, then remove him. a couple of spots of cyanoacrylate / superglue is then applied to the hollow, and back in he goes - now held fast. The same goes for any base details, such as small stones (shattered slate works well) or logs / ammo
boxes / discarded equipment / severed heads / whatever.
Step two is to cover the base (everything except the miniature) in PVA glue, worked into nooks and crannies with a cocktail stick. Fine play sand is then dribbled onto the glue and the whole is left for an hour to dry before knocking off the excess sand. Sometimes, as with WW2 Western desert and Crusader-era miniatures you can see in other posts on here, I just leave it at that. Otherwise...
Step three is to apply base details - sometimes this is just the odd patch of green flock, sometimes a clump or two of rougher foliage. I don't go wild with base treatments, as I like to see the miniatures clearly - and I've seen some examples (particularly among competition-entry Warhammer units) where there is so much clump foliage / bristle reeds / dead trees / fallen masonry that it's difficult to see the troops. Or indeed how they could ever advance through such a piece of rough terrain.
Not all the casualties were quite dead. The squire helping his man-at-arms from the field of battle is a nice little vignette in itself. I have no sympathy for the chap on the right though, who appears to have been shot before even drawing a weapon. If I'd been finishing-off the bases, I'd certainly have added a dropped weapon, or perhaps a miniature version of whatever had distracted him to the point where he didn't notice impending death-on-a-stick hurtling towards him.
Dazed and dead. I'm not a great one for slathering gore all over my miniatures, but having witnessed some pretty horrific injuries in my time, I can see why people do. Chap on the left clearly has a (currently) non-fatal head wound, so perhaps a subtle 'Hollywood drip' of blood might have been appropriate. Maybe he is just concussed from some blunt force trauma to the helmet. Chap on the left, however, is clearly dead or dying (pale skin tone applied - literally a dead giveaway), though seems to have no visible cause. Unless the stress of battle has given him a stroke, then perhaps the scenic treatment could include a nice pool of blood.
Another two who are soon to be in the hands of their maker, though maybe the chap on the right is feebly raising his hand to ask for water... and might yet survive. I suppose it depends on the rule set you use - as some allow recovery of casualties during campaign games.
As for the archers in the previous post, I have a limited number of ready-painted Perry Miniatures foot knights for sale on eBay too. As with the archers, I'll accept offers on here too (if you can't be bothered to hit eBay).
Lot #1, six forbidding-looking men at arms all in unadorned metal. These use mostly the components from the Foot Knights kit, but with a sprinkling of bits from the Wars of the Roses command frame too.
Side view of lot #1.
Lot #2, same parts composition as lot #1, though I think the deep sallet (left front) actually came from the European Mercenaries kit command frame.
I'll be listing more sale items over the next few days (more archers, men at arms in tabards / no tabards, militia polearm troops), so keep an eye out!
I have just listed the following groups of six miniatures on eBay (parts of a cancelled order), so if you like the look, get over there and snap them up quick!
Up first, six militia archers in a variety of gaudy medieval colours - actually five archers and a captain. They're unbased (as you can see) but I'm willing to include basing in the price if you're successful in winning the auction. If you'd rather just email me an offer on here, my details are at upper right of this page, or leave your email in the comments and I'll get back to you.
A side view of lot #1.
Lot #2, just six archers this time (no officer).
Side view of lot #2 (note head conversion of hatless chap - head is from a Warlord Games WW2 kit).
Lot #3, six archers again (another with Warlord head swap).
Lot #3 side view.
Lot #4, six archers, one of whom (back row left) has forgotten his hat.
Lot #4 side view.
Lot #5 five archers plus captain.
Lot #5 side view.
There isn't much which shouts out '15th century European Warfare' quite like a Burgundian Handgunner. Well, an English archer perhaps. Or a French Gen D'armes. Or a Spanish Sword-and-buckler man. A Swiss halberdier. Ok... the list goes on - but the Burgundian handgunners are definitely in there! Peter Dennis even put them centre front of his box art for the Perry European Mercenaries plastic kit...
... and it was this kit which formed the basis of a unit of handgunners which a client planned to use as mercenaries in his Wars of the Roses games. If you check some earlier posts, you'll see I've already tackled medieval Burgundy a couple of times, and the same scheme was applied here - royal blue and white jackets, with a crimson saltire.
Hose colour varies, from dull but serviceable brown, through black-and-white parti, crimson, to blue-and-white parti (very patriotic). This helps to add variety without spoiling the unit feel (as I've mentioned in other posts), but if you find you've accidentally done two very similar chaps (2nd and 3rd from left), just rotating the miniature a few degrees on its base makes them look much less twinned. Perry plastics are a lot less 'animated' than some other plastic kits, making them much easier to rank-up, and easier to place on small bases (less chance of half a yard of weaponry poking out, or them trying to balance on one leg for all eternity).
In order to add some foreign colour to his Wars of the Roses forces, a client asked me to do a largish (24 man) unit of mercenary pikemen. I'd seen some good illustrations of similar mercenary troops in Osprey publications - including one of a Flemish soldier in a classy black and white colour scheme. I decided to use this scheme, applied to Perry Miniatures 28mm plastic 'European Mercenaries';
I'd used a similar scheme before on a small unit of handgunners, and one of crossbowmen; but it saw its most extensive application on my Warhammer Fantasy Battle Empire troops. Instead of painting these to match the livery and heraldry found in the Games Workshop books (excellent as they are), I had themed each unit around a different European football team. In the case of my Empire handgunners and halberdiers, this was Juventus.
The trick with a simple scheme like black and white is to vary the way the colours are applied. Looking at the front rank (above), and moving from left to right; chap #1 has his jacket open to reveal his metal breastplate, so painting his jacket black, and his hose white, gives him a top/bottom split between the two main livery colours; #2 has a lot of metal on him, and a black brigandine, so his small amount of white hose visible makes him mostly black; #3 is similar to #2, but massive puffed white sleeves and an exposed face make him seem much lighter; #4 is a simple top/bottom split, with his black jacket and white hose; in contrast, #5 has gone for mostly white, with just his upper left quarter (one half of his jacket) in black; #6 is actually very similar to #3, in terms of black / white split, but his greater expanse of exposed hose shifts the balance such that he appears mostly white.
You get the idea... so I won't go on. Except to point out the chap second from right, who has eschewed the popular white hose, in favour of a black pair. It's still a top / bottom split, but looks quite different .
Parti, or bi-coloured, hose gives the man at second from left a 'quartered' look; whereas the same treatment on the two rightmost miniatures doesn't. Because the jackets are less visible (or not at all visible, as with the chap on the right), the quartered look is lost, and we get something else - mostly black, but with a distinctive 'leading leg' in white.
It's probably pretty obvious to most of you that you can go this way with only two colours, and still create variety, even if you do it subconsciously because it feels right and looks right. What's missing (deliberately) from this scheme is a 'spot colour' to draw the eye. On my Warhammer guys, this was red. It turned up as cockades, hats, tying points, dagger sheaths etc.. I omitted it from this unit as I thought it might look a bit contrived. I can definitely imagine 24 tough Belgians going into the drapers and ordering black and white cloth so they can identify each other on the battlefield - but the idea that the same 24 bruisers would co-ordinate their accessories in the same shade of red was a bit too much...
These troops were last retinue to be completed for a large WoTR commission, and represent the Percy element as present at Bosworth. As a Newcastle native, the Percys are my 'home team' - we have a Percy Arms pub, a Percy Street, a Percy Main metro station (much of what isn't named after Percys appears to be named after the Nevilles... ahem);
I was keen to do the whole lot in the orange / tawny scheme (with blue badges) that I've used before, but the client wanted to follow the much more striking black/red with white crescent badge as featured in a well-known piece of art used by Osprey Publishing. Handily, this also matched the Citadel Six decal sheet - so my tawny folly was gladly abandoned.
If you've followed the other posts for this huge army, you'll be familiar with the format - each retinue (painted in livery colours) was split into two units of 19 archers + standard + captain each; and one unit of 20 billmen plus standard.
I went with mostly whiet and grey for hose and sleeves, as I usually do with strong colour schemes like red/black, but about half the archers got brighter coloured hose - duck egg blue, royal blue, mint green. A couple also got the Percy colours reversed, a gimmick I'd used previously to help preserve the 'uniform' colours on miniatures which were mostly metal-armoured.
The badges on the majority of the miniatures are Citadel Six transfers - but as I've mentioned on other posts, I struggle to get the tiny decals to sit correctly on studded brigandine or deeply-padded armour. So, on these miniatures I freehanded the Percy Crescent in white - sometimes going for the large centre-chest badge, and sometimes the small left breast badge, for variety.
Looking back at these pictures, I notice that one officer and one standard bearer are absent... no doubt enjoying a last minute ale at the Percy Arms before heading into battle.
I work from plastic kits for about 90% of what I do, and usually do the cleaning up and assembly myself. Now and again, a client will send already assembled plastic miniatures for me to paint; and sometimes these miniatures have already been part- or fully-painted, and the task at hand is to repaint them (usually to match other troops which I'm building / painting from the start).
One such example came to me a few months ago from a client who wanted some Wars of the Roses work done - a combination of metal and plastic miniatures, mostly assembled, and some were already painted. The already-painted miniatures needed to match the style of those I was painting from scratch - but rather than strip the miniatures and start again, I decided to see if selective repainting could make them match;
As you can see, there's nothing wrong with the models as I received them (above), but a comparison with other postings on this blog will show that they don't 'match'. The metalwork is brighter, the leatherwork looks different, and the base treatment is quite different. Basing was not an issue, as the client only wanted them 'stuck down' to rectangular bases in fours (no scenic treatment).
The first task was to touch-in areas of metalwork which had been missed, or which had inappropriate colours applied (note - inappropriate to my painting style, not necessarily wrong!). The chap on the left has his gauntlets and sabatons painted in metal, and the edges of his blue leatherwork defined. Chap #2 got his sabatons finished in metal, and belt area tidied up. At the same time, I touched-in his chin with the flesh colour I was using for the rest of the unit, so he didn't look too pale or too tanned.
Next, I highlighted the armour edges and washed the metal areas in thinned inks to get the same effect I use on almost all metal armour (see other posts). With these miniatures being mostly plate-armoured, this is the job almost done.
For the finishing touches, I repainted chap #2's belts and armour straps, then washed over all the non-metal areas on both miniatures with very thin sienna / umber to get the definition. It barely shows on armoured chaps like these, but if you miss this stage on the odd figure, they look strange when you put them next to other troops who did get the wash! With these particular minis, the job was now complete as they didn't require basing.
The alternative, of course, would have been to strip and start again, but this was quicker, and if you compare to previous posts, you can see that these chaps now fit right in.
As fitting adversaries for the 8th army, the same client asked me to complete an Afrika Korps platoon (or 'Zug') for him;
As with the 8th army, these were based on laser-cut MDF 25mm round bases. These have several benefits over lighter basing materials (styrene / foamcard), as the very light weight of a 28mm plastic miniature is not enough to tip such a wide / heavy base over, so they're more stable. And if you like to go wild with basing texture (as opposed to my 'very flat bit of sand just North of Qattara' style), you have a bigger canvas to work with. The Zug consist of three ten-man squads, plus command, plus mortar team and AT rifle gunner.
I had spare prone bodies, so went with MG34 teams lying down. This first squad shows a mix of steel helmets and field caps, plus one traditionalist in a cork topee. Despite what some books have said about the troops all hating their puttees and tropical helmets, a lot of the photographs from really late in the campaign (Libya) still show them worn, even in action.
The bases for the MG34 teams were custom-cut from foamcard. I tried circular bases, but the prone soldier and weapon measure 50mm or so in length, making the base look huge and empty. Conversely, a rectangular base (actually a 25mmx50mm cavalry base) looked odd next to all the round ones... so I ended up cutting what is effectively a 40mm circle with a 15mm or so insert in it. Works nicely, doesn't 'lose' the figures in a sea of sand.
As well as varying the headgear, I also introduce more variety in uniform colours than I typically would for 8th army. Light olive, field grey, and dark yellow (sand) all feature. In this unit, the cork-hats are operating the MG34. The rest of the squad is the same throughout - NCO with MP38, and seven riflemen.
Now, having carefully cut lozenge-shaped bases for the MG34 teams, I completed some other work before returning to the DAK job and basing / finishing the support teams... as a result, they ended up on 40mm round bases and look a bit overcrowded. Well, maybe not the mortar team, but the AT gun team re spilling out all over the place. I don't know how much action these men will see, but I'd be worried about the gun barrel particularly.
The command group, with the radioman really filling his 25mm base to capacity. The officer features one of several techniques for doing goggles, which I waver between. Sometimes I like plain grey or beige or whatever, suggesting the reflections of the soldier's surroundings. Other times I go for a light grey smokey look. The light blue used here was an idea I pinched from my daughter's 'How to Draw Japanese Cartoon Characters' book (title may not be correct...). In it, the suggested colour for glass was light blue, so I thought I'd try it on miniatures. I think it looks good on this guy, and I've also used it on some zombie miniatures elsewhere.
