As anticipated I was able to complete the base work and figure of “Fulumbar” quite comfortably this week. I do like Reaper figures as many of you will know and this little 28mm chap, a dwarf captain no less, was fun to do and had a nice bit of detail to pick out.
The base needed more paint work along with a few bits of plant to help bring it to life and the water effects such as they are were extremely straight forward. I used the method I employed on my Wizard Tower project but on a much smaller scale.
Little else for me to add this week other than images of the finished model.
Here we have the second of my two 28mm neglected mounted Baron’s War knights from Footsore. This one has been painted in the heraldry of Sire Nicholas de Poyns. I found his details on a Pinterest image I found on the Parliamentary Roll but I have yet to search out more details on the knight himself.
I’ve never considered myself a quick painter, in fact I would say I am pretty slow. I could never paint for YouTube, I’d be there all day, but I am enjoying painting mounted knights. They are taking an age but I’m pleased with the first two I have done. The real challenge I find with these is the horses and making sure things like the stripes are of even thickness and that they line up. The end result doesn’t tell the full story of just how much touching up I go through to get an acceptable result (I can still see some bits I’ve missed!). One day I might get things right at the first time of asking but that will take a lot more practice yet.
More mounted knights are on their way from Footsore, about a dozen or so I think, but it will be a few weeks before I have another one to offer you. In the meanwhile images of Sir Nick below.
This weeks miniature is one of the four which comprises the Footsore “Foot Knights with Two Handed Weapons No: 1” pack and he has been painted in the heraldic colours of “John de Berners”. More on the project below.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
This week I spent some time reading and digesting the Wargames Illustrated article I made reference to in last weeks post. Not surprisingly it turns out there are various rules which need to be applied where heraldry is concerned. These rules are useful both in terms of making up your own scheme and deciphering real examples. Now let me say at the outset I am no expert on this subject but I am aware that many of you perhaps are. Apologies therefore if I am trying to teach anyone how to suck eggs and if I have any of this wrong then I am more than happy to be corrected.
The first rule I took note of was on colours. It seems the colour palette is restricted to five main colours namely Blue, Red, Green, Purple and Black. I assume there is scope within each colour to vary the shade but what is significant is you have to put a colour with Gold (can be yellow) or Silver (can be white). Accordingly any of the five colours can be used alongside either Yellow or White but you cannot have Red and Green together or for that matter Yellow and White. The good news here is that by good fortune the few knights I have done so far conform to this rule. Is the rule flexible? In truth I have no idea but I’m happy to stick with it.
It seems you can also add “Furs” to the design of a shield too and the first image below gives some examples along with the colours referred to earlier.
One of the next things I discovered was “Field Ordinaries”. It would appear that shield designs generally use these layouts. I have seen exceptions so I’m guessing the rule can be ignored to some extent, most likely determined by who you are (think King John and the three lions) but this is something for me to try to learn more about. However, for my purposes Field Ordinaries coupled with colour choice will provide a huge number of heraldic options.
In the unlikely event that I should ever run out of heraldic shield options given the possible combinations from the above “rules” I can always fall back on the “English System” below. With medieval families being large in number then shield designs can be used again but with the modification of adding a symbol relevant to the first through to ninth son. Although I was unaware of it at the time, the red line on the figure I painted above of John de Berners defines him as the “First Son”.
All in all I have an almost limitless number of painting options. I suspect further research may even throw up more but for now I have plenty to be getting on with.
For those of you who are into your Space Marines and the such like a thought struck me while I was writing this. Heraldry has been around for a thousand years so what’s to say it wont be around for thousands more? If you are stuck with ideas of symbols to use and how to define your hierarchy it occurs to me you could do worse that revert to some of the above. In anticipation of abuse please be advised I am now ducking out of this one!
As a footnote please note the images used above were taken from Google and not from the magazine article as I am no expert on copyright law.
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Lies, Lies and Statistics
I don’t tend to put much store by my blog statistics, mainly because mine aren’t that great! I never created this blog with the aim of conquering the world and I continue to not be disappointed. What has surprised me though, and periodically continues to do so, is just where my blog has been viewed. As things currently stand it has now been accessed in 83 countries with Algeria, Ecuador, Brunei and Guatemala having been just recently added to the list.
Now I am very aware that some of these countries have only ever given me the one hit and I feel certain that hit was purely by accident (the inevitable search of a testosterone filled teenager googling “models”) but I do get a kick out of knowing a post of mine has popped up somewhere new in the world even if it did come as a disappoint to someone feeling horny.
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Give Me Five
The end of the UK Lockdown continues to gather pace. If things continue to go as well as they have then the country will return to near normal by the middle of June. Inevitably there will be signs of the aftermath but we’re talking mask wearing rather than bombed buildings. Despite the horrors the pandemic has brought to a great many, and still is to vast swathes of the world, there are somethings I will miss. ln no particular order my five are:
The Quiet roads
The additional time spent modelling and painting
The time at home with my kids due to work and school closures
Re-connecting with people I haven’t spoken to in years
Having all my football teams fixtures televised live
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Pinball Wizard” by The Who. A classic track instantly recognisable from the intro by those of us of a certain age.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Mississippi Burning” staring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. A classic and very powerful film in which the performances of Hackman and Dafoe are simply outstanding. A film I have watched many times and that never fails to be move me. Based on a true story.
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Remember …
Alcohol is never the answer but it is a good way of forgetting the question.
Unless I have any others tucked away unbeknown to me then “Fulumbar” is my last dwarf. It will be some considerable time I think before I do another. I therefore thought I would go about trying to give him a nice little setting. I had in mind a rural setting with a little bit of water and a stone wall. Nothing to fancy but just enough to set the scene on a 40mm square base.
The first step was to get a little bit of height into the base which I did using a few stone chippings and a small lump of DAS air drying clay. Once the clay had harden a little I started to cut into it to create the space for where the water would eventually go.
The next step was to build a little section of wall taking care not to take a small chunk out of my thumb! I used some plaster board to make stone bricks and then simply stuck them together with some PVA and set aside to dry. I then set about filling a few gaps, adding a little texture and planting a small twig.
Once dry it was time to get some initial colour onto things.
Base colouring mostly done it was time to turn my attention to toning things down some what and trying to get a more realistic finish. Muted colours were dry brushed on along with a little green here and there.
Time now to work on the figure itself.
The little chap is close to being finished and there is some more work to be done on the base. Neither should take very long so feeling pretty certain it will be done by next week. All being well I should also have time to spend getting another figure or two done for my Medieval Army.
It pays every now and then to remind yourself what you have previously bought and forgotten about. Going back a good few months I was reminded that I had a spell of painting some Footsore Baron’s War Knights for the specific purpose of clearing my backlog and putting the finished figures up on Ebay for sale. My overall objective was partly achieved in that I completed all the foot figures I had but wasn’t in the mood to paint the couple of mounted knights that I also had. Instead I put them back in the cupboard and duly forgot all about them … again. All this was before I decided to paint a medieval army.
As chance would have it and while searching for something else I stumbled across the two mounted knights once again. As they were already primed it seemed like a good idea to take on the challenge of painting one to see how it came out before taking the plunge and buying more mounted knights.
The only real decision I had to make was what colour scheme to go with. I rather liked the idea of doing black and yellow again as it had worked out well on my recent foot knight but needed to identify another character who sported such livery. Enter stage left “Sire Will’m de Bovile”. I have no idea who he is but at some point I will google the chap to learn more.
As far as the painting goes there is really only two things to mention. Firstly, I dispensed with the idea of masking tape. Whilst I’m sure it is ideal with an airbrush I cannot get on with it when using a brush, even when stippling. The folds in the Caparison (is that the right term?) would have made the use of masking tape pretty difficult too. Secondly, this kind of freehand painting whilst enjoyable and rewarding is, for me at least, very, very time consuming. That’s not a complaint by the way just an awakening on my part to just how long each mounted knight is going to take me.
My only other comment relates to the banner. Part of me thinks it is to big (not that I am about to change it) but from what I can see from the bit or research I have undertaken they do appear to come in all shapes and sizes to the point where they dwarf a knight completely. As to the making of it I elected to once again to use Japanese writing paper. It has a nice cloth like texture to it.
So, without further ado images of my armies first 28mm mounted knight.
This weeks miniature is the next installment of my Medieval Army. As with all these figures they are from the Footsore Miniatures Baron’s War Range, in this specific case the first of four figures which comprise the “Foot Knights with Two Handed Weapons, Pack 2”. The freehand heraldry is that of “William Bisshopsdonne”. As and when I get all four of a particular pack completed I will post a little group shot. At the moment though I am choosing to work in a somewhat random way so right now I have no idea when the first group shot will be. I suspect a but like buses one or two will come along at once!
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
Over the last week I was able to pick up some useful information in relation to knights and their shield designs. A link I found – Glover’s Roll – was particularly useful in providing designs as well as names. Some look very much easier to paint than others so time will tell just how adventurous I get. I also found a wealth of images on Pinterest too all of which has led me to another decision.
Although the figures I am painting are all from the Footsore Barons War range I’m not hung up about every heraldic knight I paint having to be a participant of that precise period and/or campaign(s). Whilst my OCD will, for example, insist that my bases conform to a level of uniformity I’m relaxed about the accuracy of participants. What does matter though is that the heraldry is accurate and that the figures are painted well enough to give a colourful display and wow factor when they are displayed. At the end of the day I see models as a representation and, a bit like Hollywood directors, there is room for poetic license.
Another thing I picked up on last week was an article published in Wargames Illustrated entitled “A Wargamer’s Guide to Heraldry”. I’m not a subscriber to this magazine but getting hold of the March 2021 issue seemed like a good idea. I haven’t had a proper chance to read it yet but at first glance it appears to contain some very useful information for a novice of the period such as me. More on that next week.
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Salute 2021
April is normally the month when the South London Warlords hold Salute. Understandably it was never going to be held so early in the year with the various Covid restrictions in place. The good news was the organisers were aware of that and so they pushed the date back to later in the year. The bad news for me is they chose the same weekend in November as the IPMS Small Scale World show in Telford!
I’m sure I am not the only one who enjoys attending both events but alas this year I have to choose. At least it wasn’t a difficult decision. Telford is the bigger event and held over two days but more to the point my hotel booking from last year was rolled over to this one so Telford it will be, assuming the event does go ahead!
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Give Me Five
With lockdown restrictions in the UK starting to relax I thought this week I would list my top five things I am looking forward to (fingers crossed) in due course. In no particular order:
Attending a model show (Telford if nothing else)
Going to the cinema, hopefully to see the latest Bond movie at last!
Getting away for the weekend
Meeting up with family
Going out for a meal and eating it inside!
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“We Will Rock You” by Queen. It’s been a while since I listened to a bit of Queen so it was high time that I did. So many tracks to chose from but I just love Brian May’s guitar solo at the end of this one.
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This week TIM has been watching …
Line of Duty, Series Six. The last episode was shown a little over a week ago but now that all the episodes are now on BBC iPlayer it was time to sit down and binge watch the whole of series six again. As UK TV dramas go this one captured the nation more than just about anything and had everybody trying to work out the likely outcome. I wont spoil anything but if for some reason this series and the previous five have passed you buy then lucky you as you now get to watch the lot.
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Remember …
Five out of six people agree that Russian Roulette is completely safe.
After last weeks rather dull post I am rather hoping this one will prove a little more interesting. If not then I apologise for misleading you last week.
I suspect some of you are familiar with the Frazetta Death Dealer painting. Here is an image of it.
A pretty cool painting by any standards in my opinion. Thanks to a news letter email I received from North Star Miniatures I picked up on their promotion of this Lucid Eye figure. At £18.00 it was far from cheap but I fell in love with it and decided I wanted to have it, and besides She Who Must Be Obeyed fell for the line that it only cost a fiver!
I’d like to think the base and my figure painting did an amazing sculpt justice but painting black and pretty much only black is always a challenge. Still it is done now and you can make up your own minds.
Initially I had planned for this to be a two part post under the banner of “Diorama Lite” but for that to have happened I really needed to have taken some work in progress photos! As it happens I did manage to take a couple but nowhere near enough to justify a second installment so I soldiered on and decided to complete the figure and post it finished instead.
The first of the two progress pictures I took shows the “tree” attached to the base and partly painted. Not exactly an inspired basing decision as I figured a Wood Elf needed to be positioned in the woods.
The next work in progress image is of the elf himself, a 28mm Reaper figure. I decided the back of his cloak warranted some work on it rather than just leaving it plain.
Thereafter the figure was just a paint job and the base itself was added to slightly. Some scatter was applied along with some tufts and I used some tea leaves on the tree to simulate ivy. Hopefully the overall image conveys a wood elf in the woods!
I’ve just realised this is my 100th Miniatures & Musings post. Some how it has just crept up on me, if I had been more with it I would have tried to present a better figure to mark the occasion. As it is this week, and I think I will be saying this for some considerable time to come, we have the next figure in my army.
This Baron’s War figure is one of the four figures which appears in the “Foot Knights Pack 2”. As much as possible I want to paint the shields with authentic heraldry, something which I have done here. The chap in question is one Henry de Percy.
More on the project below.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
The feedback I received when I announced my army project gave me much food for thought and over the last week or so I have made some decisions. Of course these will inevitably change!
First up my intention is to just let this army evolve naturally. As some have said, let it grow organically. I shall work my way through the 90 or more figures that I have flitting from pack to pack as takes my fancy and if more figures are released purchase those as I please.
Secondly, I want my knights and figures to be authentic for the period. For the knights this particularly applies to the shields where the heraldry needs to align to a true knight. I don’t know how easy that will be but I will do more research and see where we go from there.
Thirdly I have consider how big I want this army to be. From a gaming perspective you have given me some great numbers and should I ever sell this lot then such information will be valuable but I am not a gamer … yet! I say not yet only because one day I will be to old to paint so may be that’s when I’ll look at taking up that side of the hobby. My aim for a 100 figures is ambitious I know which is why my new target of 200 or more is even more crazy. I want the end result to blow my mind and any one else’s if that’s possible. For all the bravado I’ll probably call it a day after 25 or so but for now it is a very serious intention. This after all is a long term project. Well not that long, I’m getting to old for it to take that long and besides I have other stuff to do as well!
Fourthly I have settled on how the bases will be which is just as well as I have done two figures now. There might be some slight variation but generally what you see above is pretty much what you will see most of the time. My OCD will not allow me to deviate otherwise before I know it I will have two armies on the go!
I still need to think about the idea of a story line, an idea which I like but is somewhat alien to me. I also need to think how I am going to present these figures on mass in a display. A mat isn’t good enough and with the figures being individually based it wont be a diorama. The idea of tiles is something I think I shall start looking at and they will be easier to store.
All in all plenty to do and plenty more to think about as this evolves and takes over. The good news is I haven’t got bored yet!
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Give Me Five
This week I thought I would consider my top 5 sports films. I thought this would be easy but I have left some truly excellent films out. In no particular order:
Rocky (Boxing)
The Natural (Baseball)
The Damned United (Football/Soccer)
Chariots of Fire (Athletics)
Rudy (American College Football)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones. Call me naive by all means but when I sing along to a song (I can already hear SWMBO saying “please don’t!”) and even when I get the lyrics right, I barely take much notice of them. It’s all about the music, the beat, the tempo – the lyrics are just there almost in the background. I never analyse them and of course when I was a lad we didn’t have YouTube so we sung the wrong words for years!. This was very much the case for me with this track, one of my favorite tracks as well I might add. I don’t listen to the radio a great deal, only when I am in the car and due to lockdown it has been a while since I’ve been any distance of note so, given the lyrics of this song, I wonder if it is even played anymore. The track was never banned that’s for sure.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair”. I read the book a good while back and loved it. Very well written and very different too. Twist and turns along the way made it hard to put down. Then I discovered the book had been made into a mini series so it became a must watch bit of TV. On balance it was a good series and kept true to the book as best I could recall but as you do when you read a book you form a mental image of the main characters and the actors cast, as good as they were, just didn’t align to my image. Still enjoyable though.
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Remember …
If you sneeze and fart at the same time your body takes a screen shot.
I very nearly didn’t post this article but then I realised I had nothing else to put up so then decided what the hell. Part of the problem is flitting between various projects, not least of all my Knights Army one.
So, how do I make a dull post even slightly interesting? Well my only shot of doing that is by telling you that the figure which will go on this base when painted is very, very cool indeed and it wouldn’t surprise me if one or two of you were keen to buy one of your own in due course.
OK, exciting bit over, onto the dull bit. No matter how good the figure is it needs a base. The problem with this base is it needs to be very basic and very dark and dead looking and as a consequence the end result will be dead and dull looking!
First up we have a couple of images of small pieces of plaster board being stuck to a 40mm x 40mm base. The pieces were then trimmed back and carved a bit hear and there to make things look a little more rock like.
In the back ground of this next image you can see that I have added some slate chippings from my garden and mounted the MDF base onto a 40mm x 40mm oak cube. In front you can see various pieces of twig. In actual fact they are bits of root from an unknown plant but they have a great texture and so I thought I would try using them to make a very basic bit of dead tree. The only problem I had was none of the various bits and pieces were any good in their own right.
To get round this I decided to combine different twig pieces by drilling and pinning a couple together. If I can find the right plant roots in future I think I might prefer this approach to making trees rather than using wire. Thinking about it further a combination of the two approaches might be the ideal. I’ll file that idea away for the future.
A little while later and things began to take shape.
Another piece to add and it will be done and then I can add some Milliput to fill the gaps and mount it in the base ready for priming an d painting.
For some dead looking flora I thought I’d try painting some tufts black. The image below shows I have started.
Unfortunately due to incompetence, the excitement of painting the figure which will go on this base and the distraction (a welcome one, I’m not complaining) of wanting to paint my Baron’s War figures I made little more by way of progress and failed to take any more photographs! I am beginning to realise I will need more discipline when it comes future posts of this kind. Either that or I will have to put all my efforts into one project at a time. We will see what gives in the course of the next few weeks .
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The Imperfect Modeller 