Wars of the Roses Skirmish Project

In a previous post I mentioned a bit of fund raising, flogging stuff on Ebay. Some of the money went on a couple of boxes of Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses Miniatures. I've not mentioned this previously as it was going to be a surprise for one Friday at the club but Jason has started a WotR project so I've let the cat out of the bag.

Where Jason is thinking of big battles I'm only looking at a small skirmish set up. I'm going to use the free Savage Showdown rules to run a fictional narrative campaign between two feuding families in the area in which I live, the Deaville and Delves families. Each family will start with the contents of one box of figures; mercenaries and mounted men-at-arms will feature later.

I assembled the first box weeks ago, before the inevitable distraction from other projects, but only got around to painting some of them this weekend while away in my caravan. I've just finished the men-at-arms and the billmen for the Deaville family and started on the archers. Here's what I've managed so far.

Sir Thomas Deaville and his son Sir Mark Deaville (Wild cards)

 

Sir Ernest Hobson and Sir Gary Pointon (Wild cards)

 

 

Sergeants Jackson and Reeves (Wild cards)

 

Billmen

 

Butt cam

The mould line on Sir Thomas' head is almost invisible... except when side lit by direct sunlight! Archers on the way.

A Basing We Will Go...

Until recently I was using GW Graveyard Earth for all my basing but then they stopped making it. Bugger. (This is the second time they've stitched me up; I'm not commiting to their new range).

I managed to scout out half a dozen pots* for matching in with old projects but I needed something similar for new projects. After all, my whole table is based on this scheme.

At WMMS a few weeks ago I scouted through all the different paint ranges that were available. Research had told me I should be looking at Game Colour 72062 Earth but on closer inspection Model Colour 70873 US Field Drab was a much better match. There was an amusing situation where I was 'stopped for shoplifting' as I put my GW sample back in my bag. Soon explained away...

The Stone Golems were the first thing based with my new discovery and yesterday I based a few of my older Bolt Action 1/72 WWII tanks. I know basing vehicles is a matter of taste; I like the look either away. Based vehicles are just that little more robust in storage and less likely to sidescrape paint off each other.

Jagdpanther

 Sherman platoon inc. Firefly

Stug IIIG's

These aren't the only things I've based today. More tomorrow...

*and 20 pots of Ogryn Flesh Wash :)

Stone Golems II

So I finished the Golems today. Neither of the photos does them justice, I need to learn how to use my camera. One shot is in focus but too bright with the colours washed out and the other is closer to the real colours but out of focus. Oh well.

I decided against faces and went for Dwarven glyphs instead. On closer inspection of the Armies of Arcana lists I noticed that Golems are roughly man sized on 25mm bases, so these cuties will have to be Greater Stone Golems. Powerful servants for my Dwarfs.

I've also started painting and basing the WWII stuff, but nothing worth showing yet...

Stone Golems

Jason, from the club, gave me a bag of high density polystyrene off cuts that I needed for a scenery project (soon...) but I have diverted a little bit for other uses...

I said in an earlier post how I am abandoning Warhammer Fantasy for Armies of Arcana. I'm looking at using Dwarfs in my first few games and I'm keen to break out of the GW mould in designing my lists. What would look good/fluffy marching alongside Dwarfs? Stone Golems! (Earth Elementals?).

Half an hour hacking at a small pink block got me this far.

I've long run out of 50mm GW bases so I've glued some cavalry bases from a competitor together for my pink babies. Brass wire, PVA and another half hour later got me this.

I know. I'm not sure either. Still, there's a long way to go yet and they'll look very different after filler/sand, painting and basing. I may use liquid green stuff to build up faces, I haven't decided yet, but either way I can't do anything till tomorrow when they're dry.

Bolt Action Progress

The Britannia Miniatures order that I mentioned a few weeks ago has finally been assembled ready for painting. Resin and metal is a pain in the arse compared to plastic but they went together well enough. The Germans are getting a Maultier to tow the Pak 40, a recce. Sdkfz 222 AC and a recce. Sdkfz 250. Once I've bought a box of PSC Sdkfz 251D's the 250 will carry a platoon HQ. The British lost out and only got a Daimler Dingo AC. Still, it's cute...

And this is why I've only just assembled the resin stuff, I wanted to paint them at the same time as these beauties. A platoon of Pz IVH's from PSC. The models go together really well; they're quality figures. The instructions were crap however, as is the norm for PSC unfortunately.

Club Night 15th March - Nowt doing

Due to us being a disorganised bunch of muppets there was no action in our room ('The Stoke Rogues') at the club this week so I had a chance to nosey around the other rooms and see what was going on. There's normally six active rooms at the club but one is temporarily out of action due to building work and our room is full of their junk so we're down to one table for a couple of weeks.

All of the rooms are a little 'cliquey' and there's not much moving around between them other than for a quick natter. Here's a few snaps to show what was happening at the club this week.

In the 'War Room' they were starting a Fredericksburg ACW game in 15mm. They ran the game at WMMS last week and wanted to finish this time. It took most of the evening to set up but they got a couple of turns in.

(Pork sausages anyone?)

In the 'Colin Salt' room they were preparing for Salute. They will be running a fantasy / dungeon crawl participation game using the Wargods of Aegyptus rules.

The 'Grognards' were playing a 15mm Napoleonic game using Age of Eagles. I have no idea if this was a historical peninsula action or a work of fiction, I should have asked. The 'Grognards' were the fellas who ran the Spartivento game at WMMS last week.

Finally, in 'the room with no name that I'm aware of' some Bulge action. 15mm FoW. Not my cup of tea but it looks really good.

Imagine how much variety can be found at Stoke Wargames Group when all six rooms are in action!

My WMMS Bargain

I finally got around to taking a shot of the 15mm Celtic village I bought last Sunday. It's very nicely painted but has a little damage to the wattle fencing at the rear. The previous owner has glued a few logs there to give it a sort of 'under construction' look. Still, at £15 I'm not complaining. Now I just need to finish my Punic Wars era Gallic army.