Next in the Madhouse Viking Saga...

Well this is the third unit of my Vikings.  Everything complete except for the bannerman, which at the moment the spearman is just a place holder.  Like the other units there is a varitey of conversions and more than just Gripping Beast pieces involved. 

 Like the previous units spears in the second rank, a variety of handweapons in the front and back.  One berserker located next to the character.

A lot of  missing shields, but again I will be painting and transfering a bunch of those and attaching them later.

With extra frontage on the movement trays there will be more eye candy.  Basing will probably be a spring / summer blend with rock out croppings. Most of my armies the last couple of years have had a real dead grass / fall look, so this will get something different.

I have another unit chock full of converting and then a bunch of left overs.  I'll also be building a unit of Saxon Thegns for allies.   I still have all of the banner men to build yet, have not decided on how I will do those just yet.

The Vikings....The Madhouse Saga begins

Well after seeing the deflating news about Warhammer Ancients today, my enthusiasm for finishing my Vikings was definitely hurt, not killed, but hurt.

Those that know me, know my general disdain for metal castings, and my love for plastics.  I do like these GB Plastic Vikings, great looking minis.  The metals I have are character models that I picked up that included a number of henchmen also in metal.  The quality of the GB metals is as good as Reaper and Foundry and Red Box Games and Avatars of War, and a little better than the Perry stuff that I have worked with.  That said they are still a pain the arse to clean-up, lots of dremel work, filing, and sanding to get rid of rough spots and pits and miscasts and ugly flash lines.  And don't get me started on the crap for weapons.   Thankfully GB Plastics are loaded with extra weapons, so I got rid of the metal crap and moved to plastic, an easy and cool transition.

 So anyways, the above is the mock up of the first unit.  I'll do some more pics of some of the conversion work.  I've done a lot of head swaps and added some extras here and there.

No banner yet, but the one uninspired metal guy in the middle will be perfect for holding that banner.  My character will be the third guy from the left, next to the Berserker and the Musician. The front rank is all mounted on single 20 mm bases.

The entire second rank will be armed with throwing spears in all of the units and are on 20x 40, 20 x 60, or 20 x 80 mm bases.  Back ranks are 20 mm square or 20x40 bases.  On the movement trays, I have switched up my method.  I've decided to go with the narrow sides, as I can see these units being massed closely together, much different than my crusaders.  The front will eventually get some eye-candy.  What's a good viking unit without some carnage and pillaging.

Alot more to come on my Danes / Vikings.

The Conquest Crusaders grow

Its spring and the Crusade grows.  The following are more of my Conquest games miniatures, mostly converted.

Pic above of the shield.  Below another of the conveted Knights.  The one thing I'm noticing a bit painting the Conquest Minis is that they are easy to paint.  There is one small flaw that keeps showing up in the minatures and thats the mail sleeves are lacking a bit in depth on the molds.

Below you can see more of the horse conversion.  I also added the surcoat on this rider.

Below is the other red one, set more as a sergeant and not a knight.

I like this pose, quite cool looking for the right flank of the formation.  I'm sort of avoiding adding a bunch of crosses.

This is an interesting one.  Conquest Games makes these as Normans, and in their time period they were not known to couch their lances, used them essentially as spears.  This one I used a spear arm from my Gripping Beast's plastics and it sort of looks like a couched lance.

That's it for now, hopefully the next time you see these it will be as a full unit.

Conquest Games Knights in color WIP

Wow, actually have something in color for a change that does not have wheels.  These are a couple of the Conquest Games Knights that I converted up.

I basically have basing to do and final clean-up.  Spent part of Sunday painting heraldry on all of the knights and the additional Perry infantry.

I do like how the yellows turned out.  The caparisons on the horses will utilize cloth barding when an option in the WAB lists.

 This is my first oportunity to paint the Conquest Games Normans.  They are very good miniatures, very easy to paint, of course mine have a lot of conversion to them also.  The horses are some of the best plastics I have worked with.

The larger pictures definitely show where I need to touch things up.

Note to self, watch out for seams on the rump of the horse.   At some point I will probably do another box of these to further expand this army.

These two I also painted over white Primer.  About 90% of the stuff I paint is over black primer, but I knew I wanted ligher colored horses and to use yellow on these two, so I switched it up.  Hopefully next time you see these they will be completely done.

Crusading....The Knights in WIP...WAB

What's on my desk, some more knights getting treated with some color.  I'm still working through deadlines at work and still not feeling well, trying to get over my cold.  So my progress has been greatly hampered.   Most all of the mounted knights are Conquest with a couple of Perry's. 

One in the middle right with the couched lance is actually using a Gripping Beast Viking spear.

A few additional spearmen in the background for my spear unit.  Someone was nagging me about getting things done, so I'm attempting to do that.  Haven't seen his progress yet, so there you have it my gauntlet has been tossed, will the Old Coot Butcher respond?  lol....all in good fun....jab..jab... poke...poke...  For me painting horses is like painting 3 human miniatures, I still do not feel comfortable painting horses for historical use. 

If you are going to Adepticon this spring and playing the big WAB Crusades game, I will be on the Christian side.

I'm WAB'n It.... Yes Warhammer Ancients News

Most of you that read my blog regularly now that I thoroughly enjoy Warhammer Ancient Battles 2.0.  Now the WAB: Armies of Antiquity book has also been released a supplement that is made of a few new rules and absolute ton of armies lists.  I've yet to get my copy, mainly because of work and spending my hobby budget on a new racing engine for the kart, but I will get it eventually.

Well this month, there is a WAB sort of bring and battle tournament like set up of gaming being played in Waupaca, WI, at the appropriately named Waaghpaca, primarily a Warhammer fantasy event that is attempting to expand into a full-fledge Convention.  More information can be found here:
http://www.wwhfb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2959  Fellow Grumpy Old Coot Mike Butcher is running the event.   Tables and terrain being provided by the Waaghpaca Tournament Organizer, The Bear, over at this blog:  http://www.youmagnificentbastards.com/

And this month I was made aware that a new Historical Wargames Podcast was around, put on by Adepticon Veteran and SoCal Maniac, Pat Lowinger.  Can be found at http://www.historicalwargames.org/
Pat's second podcast was a reveiw of the first third of the new WAB: AoA book.

Archers!!...Fire at poor Will .... More Romans

I did not expect to return to doing any Romans, but the local WAB tournament changed mind, as I thought I needed a few more archers for the army. 

I decided to do these in two stands of four each.  Also something different for me, I'm typically used to doing my miniatures as singles on single bases.  Lately though I have been rethinking that for most of my army stuff, working in bigger bases.

I do hate how most sculpters do arrows.  You can never get the white metal arrow shafts straight.  I saw recently the Musketeer sculptor just doing the fletching and allowing for a steel or brass pin to be inserted into the fletching for the shaft.  I think that is really cool idea.

Next post back to marauding.  Until next time.

My WAB Knight Unit...Painted

These are my WAB knights. Some of them are my converted Perry Miniatures knights mixed with the Perry’s Holy Order/Hospitaller Knights.

The ones without hoods and sleeve-less surcoats are my conversions. I think this unit of knights turned out pretty good. I was attempting to get them out of the First Crusade in the 1090s, into more of the late Second and Third Crusades.

I also played around a bit with color schemes, make some of them Knights of Jeruselem, some Ibelin color schemes, Franks, English, and Spaniard themes. Note some of the kite shields are actually GW High Elves shields from their foot infantry, that made conversion of the shields much easier.

 The basing is HO scale railroad ballast, some tiny stones, with Joefix grass tufts, static grass, and GW Staw.

I'm extremely happy with the way the horses turned out.  I really wish that the Perry's someday convert some of their horses to give them caparisons, because its a lot of work to do.

The above is very good picture of a couple of the horses.   

Another angle.  As you can see in the front knight I also updated one of the helms.  The musician horse is kind of a miscast, but it does have a very dynamic look to it.

I do want to be able to play these guys across alot of periods from the Iberian Pennisula all the way to the Holy Land.  So there you have it for now.  That is it for my WAB knights for awhile.  I will come back to them later this year.  Next up I return to painting the Chaos Warriors and few Roman Auxilliaries with them.

----
Well spent another night also at the race track tonight.  It started out with an air temperature of 101 F, not exactly the kind of night that you want to put on a jacket, gloves, and a helmet on.  The heat did effect me early.  I'm also battling some sinus issues that have caused a build up of fluid in one of ears, not really helping my equilibrium.  Did not drive well and did not drive clean, kept getting caught up in little things on the track and either getting spun out or just flat spinning out.  But that said, I definitely made huge gains in speed.  So much so that my Old Man had nothing for me.  The feature was kind of comical, as I and my old man got into each other.  Tomorrow we will tear apart his engine and see why he was down on power.  With how things went tonight I look forward to next week, hopefully it will be a bit cooler.  My go-kart's handling keeps getting better.

A lone knight....You Cannot buy this from Perry Miniatures

Oh but I wish you could. Below are some pics of one of my converted Perry Miniatures knights. A single model is a bit easier to view sometimes than a whole group of them. I converted some their normal Normans to look the way I wanted them to look.

Their normal Normans just have mail armor, I wanted a sleeveless surcoat.

The horses are normally just naked, I wanted to change that also.

The shields normally have bosses and are a bit smaller, from the 1090's period. I wanted something to change that, and these GW High Elf shields were close to the style and shape that I wanted.

The basing is the same as the Hospitallers.

Painted Norman / Crusader Spearmen Unit

A very small spear unit. Definitely not done with these dudes. No movement tray yet. I did go with a variety of looks. Some English, some French, some crusaders, some from the kingdom of Jerusalem.

The goal of this army is to play over a variety of periods and different settings.


The banners did turnout better than the Hospitallers. I also did do a bit of converting adding some surcoats to the mailed Perry Normans.

Some of the figures are from the Perry's HYW line. Note that quite a few of the shields are from GW High Elves, I was trying to get rid of the bosses and this was a quicker way of doing just that.

Not sure when I will get back to expanding this unit. I was disappointed recently to hear that Conquest Games' plastic Normans on foot were going to be delayed considerably. So I will probably wait, and do some more knights in the mean time.

Crossbows...Fire at will

Small update on my WAB Knight army, 7 of my 16 crossbow men. No real conversion work here. Went with the Perry 's HYW line of crossbow men, as I really like the poses on these compared to their Norman line.

A bit of variety in colors, I'm not going to paint an army that is entirely black and white. Besides I plan to use this army across a lot of periods.

My Painted WAB Hospitallers...Let the Crusade Begin

These are my Hospitallers. I’ve never been crazy about painting black and white, but I knew I wanted to do a Holy Order and this one of my favorite choices. Some of them are my converted Perry Miniatures knights mixed with the Perry’s Holy Order/Hospitaller Knights.

The ones without hoods and sleeve-less surcoats are my conversions, like the knight with the couched lance and standard bearer. The two horses with the caparisons are my conversions with GS and BS.

I think this unit of knights turned out pretty good, the black and white works, even though it’s a pain to do. I used somewhere around 6-7 shades of black/gray for the blacks and then toned it all back down with a GW Black Wash.

With the conversions, I was attempting to get Norman early Perry Crusader models out of the First Crusade in the 1090s, into more of the late Second and Third Crusades.

Note some of the kite shields are actually GW High Elves shields from their foot infantry, that made conversion of the shields much easier. And some of the shields were actually converted with green stuff putty.

The movement tray I think turned out well. The basing is HO scale railroad ballast, with some gravel, Joefix grass tufts, and GW Staw. I'm happy with the basing, its a bit different from what I normally do.

The banner did not turn out great, but I will fix that at a later date. Its a painted paper banner with some foil in between the layers to keep the bend.

The horses, scared me at first to do them. I'm not someone that has a lot of knowledge about horses, so I used a number of reference photos and attempted to get 3-4 different paint schemes that would work well. Out of everything I think the horses turned out the best, with the exception of the white one in the back.

WAB Tourney - La Crosse, WI Aug 13, 2010

Semi-short notice, but we in La Crosse are moving forward none the less.

Warhammer Ancients Battles (WAB) Tourney
When: Saturday, August 13, 2011
Where: River City Hobbies, 313 Main Street, La Crosse Wisconsin
Entry Fee: $20 (Lunch included) - Payments will be taken the day of the tournament. We have a maximum of 26 spots.

General Rules
· WAB 2nd Edition, including the online FAQ.
· Armies allowed:

Dark Ages: Fall of the West, Shieldwall, El Cid, Beyond the Golden Gate, Age of Arthur

Classical: Alexander the Great, Hannibal and the Punic Wars, Spartacus, Romans & Barbarians from the 2nd Edition Rules set, Greeks and Persians.

Open: Armies of Chivalry, Art of War, Vlad the Impaler, Chariot Wars, Samurai/ Crusaders (WAB 1.5)

· Scale: 25/28 mm, painted to a minimum 3 colors.
· Table Sizes: 6’x4’
· Terrain will be preset on the tables.
· Army Size: Armies maximum of 1500 points, including all generals/characters.
· Generals: Your army must include an army General. If you do not purchase a general, one model must be designated the army general for victory point purposes.
· Limitations: No black powder or guns, no cannons, no rock throwers, limit of one elephant.
· We will attempt to match up armies in period in the first round. 2nd and 3rd rounds will be a free for all. Figures should try to reflect WYSIWYG.
· Games: There will be 3 rounds.
· Game Length: 6 to 7 turns or 25% break point, whichever comes first.

Schedule: (is subject to adjustment as we playtest the scenarios, the starting time will not change)
Doors Open: 9:30 am
Meeting: 10:00 am to 10:15 am
Round One: 10:15 am to 12:15 pm
Lunch: 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm
Round Two: 1:15 pm to 3:15 pm
Break: 3:15 pm to 3:45 pm
Round Three: 3:45 pm to 5:45 pm
Break aka Don’t Bother Chad: 5:45 pm to 6 pm
Awards 6 pm

Awards:
Best Overall
Best General: Highest overall battle score.
Best Appearance.
Best Sportsmanship.

For those of you interested in SIGNING UP please send an email to bioniccheesehead@yahoo.com with your name and what army you plan to be playing.

Old Stuff Wednesday-April...and Adepticon WAB

I believe I debuted this unit of dragon ogres at Adepticon back in 2004. The current GW dragon ogre is a very old metal model. Not great looking model and it very much shows its age.


I decided to update that model with a serious amount of conversion work, taking a plastic ogre model and merging that with a Lizard Cold One plastic model. This lizard model has since been updated by GW.



I think they turned out pretty well. Paint wise I was very happy with the results. Conversion wise the models could have been a bit better. Back then I really did not know how to do scales.



The tails had to be extended to give some balance to the models, and each individual scale was a flattened piece of putty. A very tedious way to make scales.



The axe the center model uses is from the old metal minotaurs. The other axe was from the metal chaos trolls.



Onto Adepticon Warhammer Ancients results. As stated previously, my buddy Mike Butcher won the Singles best general, Aaron Lewis won best appearance singles with a beautiful army, Bennett Blaylock Doan won best appearance team with Dylan Gaulker, and I managed to take home Best Sportsmanship and then teamed up with Mike in the team event, where we managed to get Best Sportmanship. I was looking around and found that the Chicago Terrain Factory took some pictures of the event, much better pictures than mine. So I'll link you to their blog if you are curious:

Adepticon WAB Singles pics: http://chicagoterrainfactory.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/adepticon-wab-singles-tournament-armies/
My Roman Army is in the fourth row down and Mike's Saxons are the first pic in the sixth row.

Adepticon WAB Team: http://chicagoterrainfactory.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/adepticon-wab-team-tournament-armies/

Row 6 of the photos, shows pics of my and Mike's team effort of his Saxons teamed with my knights. More of my knights to follow soon.