Swiss Pikemen Unit Joins War of the Roses Project.

     This past week I completed a 10 man unit of Swiss Pikemen for my growing War of the Roses Project.  These are plastic multi-part figures that I assembled and painted from the Perry "Mercenaries, European Infantry 1450-1500" boxed set.

  As I mentioned before, I am going to be running a 6 player game using the Feudal Patrol rules at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this March; so I am frantically trying to get all he figures I need assembled and painted.   More pressingly though, this coming Friday I am going to be running a first playtest at our club meeting, so I'm trying to get as much finished as I can.

   I am currently working on a unit of French Crossbowmen from the same boxed set to also join the ranks of my armies.  I hope to have them done in time for my game on Friday!

Burgundian Handgunners Unit Join War of the Roses Project

     This past week I completed a 10 man unit of Burgundian Handgunners for my growing War of the Roses Project.  These are plastic multi-part figures that I assembled and painted from the Perry "Mercenaries, European Infantry 1450-1500" boxed set.

      I am going to be running a 6 player game using the Feudal Patrol rules at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this March; so I am frantically trying to get all he figures I need assembled and painted.

      I'm a fan of multipart plastics for the amount of variety and conversion one can accomplish with the many pieces, though I have to say it is rather time consuming to have to build each figure you need.
     I am currently working on a unit of Swiss Pikemen from the same boxed set to also join the ranks of my armies.  I hope to have them done later this week.

A Couple of Frostgrave Plastic Cultists

   At this past year's Fall-In convention I bought a box of the North Star Frostgrave Plastic Cultists, which I split with a friend; so I ended up with 10 of the figures. And, since our group is going to be starting our new Frostgrave Campaign next weekend and basing it off of the "Thaw of the Lich Lord" supplment book, I thought I should paint up a couple of the Cultists since they are one of the possible random encounters listed.
   The Cultist kit was typical of the other Frostgrave kits, with lots of interesting parts and accessories to choose from.  My only complaint is there seems to be an inordinate amount of skeletal parts to make undead warriors. I would have preferred more plain cultist options.

     I assembled two simple figures, and then glued them to 1" fender washers.  I then sprayed them with flat white spray primer.  When the primer was dry, I glued the figures to a tongue depressor for ease of holding during painting, and then I painted them and detailed the bases.

     I like how these figures turned out.   I think with the next ones I do I will try to move away from the all black outfits and try some different colors.

Frostgrave North Star Plastic Soldier Female Conversion

      I needed a female human archer to complete my new Frostgrave warband, so thought I'd see if I could make one using the pieces from the North Star plastic Frostgrave soldiers set.  While I've heard it said that since the clothing on these figures is so bulky that any of them could be used as women, since the figure's shape wouldn't show through all the clothing layers anyway, I like it when figures that are supposed to be female actually look like a woman.   I didn't want to just sculpt breasts on one of the existing figures either, as that seldom turns out good.  So I thought about where I could find a female torso to use, and turned to either the Wargames Factory Amazon set, or Female Zombie set.  I didn't think the armor on the Amazons looked right for Frostgrave, so I selected one of the female zombie bodies from a spare sprue I had.

   I cut the the female zombie in half at the waist, and then cut one of the Frostgrave soldier bodies in half as well. I then glued the top of the zombie to the bottom of the Frostgrave soldier.  There is a significant size difference in the two waists, so my plan was to hide this shortfall with some of the many accessories that come with the Frostgrave Soldier set.  I added a head from the female zombie set, and then arms from the Frostgrave  Soldier set.  I needed to trim the upper arms a little as the shoulder areas on the female zombie torso are a bit smaller than the shoulder areas on the Frostgrave Soldier arms.   In the end, the bulky arms help hide the narrowness of the waist. I glued a backpack to her back, and a quiver on her front hip to aid in hiding the smaller waist.
   After the figure was assembled, I glued it to a 1" fender washer, and then spray primed it with flat white.  I then painted it.

     I'm really happy with how the end result turned out.  I think it makes for a pretty good looking female character, and will fit nicely in with my other Frostgrave figures.

Venusian Amazon Archers Complete

This week I completed the archer unit for my Venusian Amazon force. The infantry unit, cavalry unit, and archer unit are the total units I plan for this force at this point. I would like at some point to perhaps add a High Priestess and a Queen. All, in all I'm pleased with the outcome of this project so far, and I may do a regular human Amazon force at some point since the Wargames Factory Amazons were such an ease to work with.
I will have these figures in their box at Cold Wars and Origins during my GASLIGHT Venus game, (though they won't be on the table this time) if you want to stop by and see them in person. I am considering them for a game at Historicon.

First Attempt at a Venusian Amazon Cavalrywoman

I made my first attempt at a Venusian Amazon Cavalrywoman today. I used components from the Wargames Factory Amazon Warrior, and Roman Cavalry sets, as well as a Games Workshop Cold One from a Lizardman Cavalry set.

First I cut the bodies of one of the Roman cavalrymen, and one of the Amazon warriors each in half, right above their respective belts. I then glued these together. The waist of the Amazon is a bit more slender than the Roman's. In the front, I think it will be less noticeable when painted, and in the back I built up the Amazon's backside a bit with Miliput to help fill the gap.

I then used a head and arms from the Amazon Warrior set and armed her with a sword and spear from the Roman set, and a shield from the Amazon set.

I tested the figure on an assembled Cold One lizard mount and found that the width of the lizard caused the rider to tilt backward a little more than I liked. So, after a bit of experimentation I found that if I cut down one of the saddles included in the Roman Cavalry set, and glued it on the lizard's back, it helped hold the rider in a more upright position.

I'm really looking forward to a chance to paint this one up, as well as make the other nine members of her unit.. Hopefully it will be warm enough this week to get out and do some spray priming.

First Unit of Venusian Amazons

I completed my first unit of Venusian Amazons this week. I decided to add an Amazon faction to my Venusian GASLIGHT games after the release of Wargames Factory's plastic Amazons set offered a cheap way to build such units. As the old saying goes, "Women are from Venus," so I thought a race of Amazons on that planet would be ideal. They will represent an ancient civilization that is on the decline ever since the wild Venusian parrotmen developed guns. Hopefully they will befriend the newly arrived French, and a strong alliance will develop.

The figures assembled quickly and easily. I gave them some swords from a couple freebie sprues of Wargames Factory ancients I had got at a convention. I primed them black, and decided to paint the skin tone light blue to give them a more alien look.

I also have a unit of archers which I will be painting next.

The flag is a photo of an Andorian cos-player that I used an 'oil painting' filter on in a graphics program to try and give it the look of a tapestry type flag. I then applied gold lettering and a gold border around the edge. It is meant to look like the banner of a queen or priestess.

The shield decals are from a couple leftover sheets of Games Workshop Space Marine decals I had.