A few things for the New Year

In between Christmas and New Year, I have had a little bit of time to do some painting. So I finally finished off the last of the rescue Lord of the Rings miniatures - this time Aragorn from the warg attack. 

Another arm from the Gripping Beast Vikings. Not a bad effort on this one - I didn’t quite get the gauntlet right on the replacement arm. Interestingly the sword does seem to be the right size for the miniature. 

The other miniatures completed are 2 versions of Æthelflæd, the lady of Mercia (bad squiddo) and a non winged Valkyrie by Shield Wolf.

Again quite pleased with these ladies. So these will be available for SAGA and KoW and Rampant games.

Happy New Year  

Morts 

Glorfindel - a hero of middle earth - the Christmas Elf!

In the push to complete stuff already to go - a GW Glorfindel foot and mounted version has been completed before Christmas - which means i might have forced this one a bit, as I’m not sure I have got the paint job quite right. I was keen to paint this chap, as I liked the figure and he will be used as an elf hero in more than one game system (Dragon Rampant, KoW, MENSG). 

But I’m not sure that I have got it right - I was hoping to get the painting done before Christmas and rushed some bits. I will have to sleep on it for a few days. 

If I don’t post for a few days - Happy Christmas!

Morts

Pre Christmas games and some Greeks

So last night Steedo, DK and Chris (from next door) came around for a couple of pre Christmas games - the rest of the collective were invited, but declined … some stuff about being busy. Initially I was thinking about a full on miniatures game such as Xenos Rampant, Kill Team or Blackstone - but then thought I would invite “The Boy Next Door” (TBND) over (already a bit of a gamer - has the reissue of Heroquest), so went for a couple of lighter games, starting with Raiders of the North Sea. This is a really nice place and pick up mechanic game, which Steedo won by screwing over DK and myself a couple of times - Git! We then moved on to Ticket to Ride Europe - another simple pick one action game. This time DK spent the first part of the game just collecting tickets (claiming it was his colour blind-ness), and ending up with about half the deck at one point. Then he placed and shot into the lead - however he didn’t complete any of his routes, so at the end was pulled back. I had a mare of a game - just couldn’t get the colours needed to complete my big route, so this time TBND won, as he had collected some more routes. A good evening with plenty of beer, cheese and beige snacks. 

I have also been working on the stuff on the painting queue - aka what is prepared and undercoated. This time it is some Greek Archers by 1st Corps (with some little shields to make them Cretan Archers). 

Pretty happy with these - would like 6 of the little chaps - not sure what happened to the spares. These will no doubt be used in Dragon Rampant, Kings of War and Of Gods and Mortals … at some point. 

What will be next onto the painting schedule?

Morts

Some 15mm Saxons and Russians

 The continued push to finish what is in the painting queue - I completed a unit of Russian infantry, mainly because I had 3 painted pikemen from a reorganisation years ago, so it was only 9 figures to do. 

I’m not sure if they are participating accurate, I did have a quick look in the Osprey Peter the Great’s Army. So the flag and cuffs might be off a bit - but it’s not end of the world.

I also finished a Saxon unit - again 5 of the marching troops were part of the first Saxon unit I painted years and years ago. I have to finish the final at the top and the turn the flag up the right way.

So a bit of work still to do - d’oh. 

Morts

A little ballista and humans for fantasy games

In my current drive to finish stuff that I have … and I have been looking around eBay for things … slightly tempted by some 40k terminators or sternguard, but not enough to sound with cash. Anyway I did a couple of conversions on some Fireforge medievals I have had lying around as crew for a ballista for the human Kings of War army. 

Obviously this needs basing and a little something to balance the piece on the left of the ballista - not sure what but the space needs something there. 

While i was painting these I took the opportunity to paint a couple more of the Order of the Dragon support troops - well thugs or something similar in terms of Frostgrave/Sellwords etc.

These are ok - the conquest miniatures Norman head on the swordsman is a little bit soft in terms of details. But these are just support for the knights. I would like to get a couple more figures for this little warband - which now stands at 10 - 4 knights (including the leader), 2 crossbow men and 2 spearmen. I was thinking a ranger type and another appropriate henchman type - but I’m not sure and I only have Celt or Barbarian sprues about at the moment. I glad I painted these as I need to up my game in painting small units, individuals as I have a number of these in the to do … ready to paint queue.

Morts

Saxon Artillery and other things

After possibly 12 months plus of sitting on sticks ready for painting (and multiple years of sitting in bags and boxes), I have finally found the time to paint the Savon Artillery for the Great Northern War army. 

3 medium/heavy guns and a very light gun - apparently the Saxon guns had black carriages with yellow metal work - the crews have got red hat lace, although I found source which said it is white - but I had already painted them by then. Painting this lot has encouraged me to try and finish off the rest of the army - so along with the already prepped Guard du Corps and Cuirassiers, there are now 2 line infantry units and the “light” infantry for Maurice prepped too. While fiddling about a few painted pike men were found, so another Russian foot regiment is in the works. I have also got out the Bavarian units to ready for completion. Might try a game of Maurice in the near future - want to get (at least) one in before Christmas (but realistically one with be a good effort as things get busy).

On to the other things, while browsing eBay I came across a Mythic Battle Pantheon Aphrodite model for a bargain price, but I wasn’t sure of the size. 

As you can see - a nice model but she does tower above the Croc Games Athena demigod miniature. Part of me is not sure if I missed out on getting Hermes and the Persephone models, as I waited for her arrival - anyway she can still be used in Of Gods and Mortals.  

Morts

Napoleon - the movie - what I thought

The good lady and myself went to see the Ridley Scott movie Napoleon. I had only seen one review on YouTube (Kermode and Mayo) and seen some headlines about the historical accuracy or otherwise of the film. 

So what did I think? Well I quite enjoyed it, not brilliant, but I wasn’t bored by it. It was interesting to see a portrayal of the man and his relationship with Josephine - perhaps it would have been better if her name was in the title. The acting was good although I’m not sure I really understood the toxic, love/hate relationship the film was focusing on or it wasn’t fully developed. The script didn’t show Napoleon’s drive/ambition and need for Josephine in his life - perhaps the time jumps were too much … for example the scene ending the Retreat from Moscow (1812/3), jumped straight to the abdication in 1814 (not even a sniff of the battle of the Nations). 

The pictures on the screen were great and the battle scenes were grim - really showing some blood and guts. But there were lots of liberties taken. There were lots of flags and camps both at Austerlitz and Waterloo, big flags so you could see who was where. For me the most jarring were those about Waterloo - no reverse slope, La Haye Saint or Hougoumont - the French cavalry charging around the British squares were good, unfortunately the rest was a bit like the awful The Hobbit - Battle of Five Armies for not following the source material or in this case the know historical facts (which is probably worse). 

Probably best to watch the 1970s Waterloo film - I always liked it - got the Airfix battleset for Christmas one year on the back of that.

I suppose I would rate as 3 out of 5 - I would have to say as a positive my better half and Thing 1 both liked it, so for introducing some Napoleonic history (which isn’t Jane Austen based - they used some of the same music from the Kiera Knightly movie as well) is probably a good thing. If I get hold of Apple TV I will probably watch the 4 1/2 hour version, which will hopefully fill the gaps - perhaps it was planned as a miniseries or two films and they decided to put it out as a single movie - which would explain some of the jumps and details in the relationship, which weren’t quite there in the cut at the cinema. 

Morts