making the most of the sunshine

Amazingly the sun has been shining today in the grim north. So I have made the most of it by taking a few pics in the garden. Mainly of some Pueri I painted a while back but have not got around to photographing yet. These are from Grippingbeast and it is the first time I have painted their updated horses and I must say I was impressed by the sculpts. It must be the hardest thing for sculptors to produce and my hat is off to soapy who has done an excellent job with these. 12 Pueri armed with javelins

Hiberno Norse defend their territory from marauding Normans

More Hiberno Norse are called up from their village behind the giant leaves

The sun is about to go down as the Normans sally forth from their fort.

the set up.

As you can see the sun started to drop in my back garden and I had to put my table a little to close to the bush which kind of ruined the effect.

getting to have another good look at my Norman fort which was made by Paul Darnell of Touching History fame, has reminded me that I need to paint an army up to garrison it. Sadly these Pueri are not destined for my collection. Luckily it is my birthday in a couple of weeks, maybe i should treat myself?

You can see more of Pauls work on his new website Battles in miniature

Fallschirmjager platoon

Here are a few shots of my Fallschirmjager platoon I recently finished. I am intending to use these with the rules of engagement rules by great escape games.

Once I finished taking these shots I realised I had my camera on the wrong setting so the close ups arnt very sharp. I have a dozen more troops to paint up to give me more options, when these are finished I will take better shots and if I have time maybe write a tutorial on the colours I have used for the camo.

Title change

I have added a subtitle to the blog to open my mumblings and photos open to my other wargaming interests. I already have a blog that covers napoleonics, Samurai and adventures in the old west.
This one will mainly concern itself with the Dark ages as I have more Vikings, Normans, Saxons, Romano-British either on the desk or in the planning stage. But for the time being my interests have moved forward and backward a thousand years. With WW2 and the age of Alexander the Great burning holes in my wargaming purse.
So for those of you just interested in the Dark ages, dont worry I have not given up. For those with a more varied interest sit back and enjoy the next few months of pics.

What happened?

Sorry for lack of updates to all those following my blogs.

I have a few excuses the main one not having a PC for a few months whilst my laptop went off for repairs, but now is just spares....

So I have had to buy another new laptop and have advised the wife not to leave the new laptop open on the floor under a glass of water clinging precariously to the edge of the bedside cabinet.

Well atleast it makes a change from having a hot iron dropped on the one before or my little angel Isabella dropping it off her lap cracking the charge port.

Yes I/we get through our laptops.

COLD STEEL 2011

sadly I never made it, due to poorly little one my youngest Grace. Talking to Darren of GB it sounds like I missed a fun day.

I have painted enough Vikings finished for 1500 points but my Arthurian army has fallen behind.

In fact whilst I think about it, one of my little cherubs has been taken ill the last 3 times I have planned a wargaming adventure. I did manage to pop and play a WW2 games on a massive 30'x 10' table which was a fantastic sight.

Sadly once the rounds started flying I neglected to take any pictures of the action.

When I got back from the game I was enthused to paint myself another platoon, especially as the British infantry platoon I took with me was going to stay permantly down south.

So I started cracking on with my Fallschirmjagers. photos to follow soon.

It all started so well...

Firstly sorry for lack of updates, I have been a little busy with commissions that needed finishing before Christmas, these included a large rebase project of Caesarian Romans and ancient Germans and to Finish painting a large batch of Normans and lots of Sassanid Persians. Now my desk is almost clear again I have begun to clutter it back up with my dark age collection. I have prepped up 24 heavily armoured Romano British spearmen including a new general and ASB. These i hope to have finished for a game on the 12th of December, so watch out for pics soon. I have also started work on a few more Vikings, including a Godi, another hersir and ASB along with GB plastic hirdmen. My lovely wife has bought me the Macedonian army deal from Wargames Foundry for Crimbo and while she wasnt looking i managed to sneak out the three Thracian cavalry figures which you can see painted above. These are fantastic figs and a joy to paint. According to my limited resources, the geometric patterns the Thracians are so famous for are a little more subdued and the stripes are thicker by the time of Alexander. This makes painting them a little quicker to paint but I am sure I will still go to town on the majority of them just so there is no doubt that they are Thracians. This will be a large project for next year, as i am planning on creating two armies for the period. Alexandrian Macedonian and Skythian with Greek and Thracian allies. It will be nice and colourful especially after the muted colours of dark age Britain. Now i must remain focused not long to go.....

not bad considering its Friday afternoon...

I have just finished off what I had planned for this week and I still have the weekend free, not bad for me! 3 Gripping beast Hiberno-Norse, 2 Crusader miniatures Berserkers and a monk The 5 Vikings I will add to the rest of my Hibenro Norse figures and the chap I painted last week will lead them. The monk can be added to my Romano British civitates army. So here it is, my first complete unit for my new Norse force. A Hersir, 2 Berzerkers and 17 Hiberno Norse with a mix of double handed axes and throwing spears. Some of the shields are hand painted the nicer ones and the standard are transfers by little big men studios. The majority of this unit was painted a few years ago, now at last it is complete an ditching for action. I will take a few more pics when I have time, as the close ups I did all came out a bit blurry apart from the berserker above. With the weekend now free, i will finish prepping up the plastic GB Hirdmen and some Romano British, then decide what to do next. I dont think I will get any painting done as it is my 6th wedding anniversary to my beautiful wife Marie Saturday, so I will be spending lots of quality time with the mrs. What a lucky lady....?

10 weeks to go 'til cold steel. Viking week

This week I am cracking on with my Vikings. I hope by the end of the week to have a unit of 18 Hirdmen and 2 berserkers to join the chap pictured below. I am cheating a little bit because I have a few finished already, just dont tell anybody.... This first unit will be Hiberno Norse in flavour. I am not sure which army list to use from Shieldwall just yet, most like it will be either Norwegian or Hiberno-Norse. Both have great light infantry (or open order infantry under WAB2). The Norwegians led by Hardradda have always been my fave and have the added bonus of being able to hire serjeants which can make useful heavy infantry to hold the centre, as well as close order bondi. My freshly painted GB Hersir kindly given to me by the infamous Lord S of GB. The rear showing off his Little big men studios shield transfer This is my Veteran Norwegian war leader, who embarrassingly fell under a Norman horse whilst swinging his huge chopper around in the last battle.