Over the weekend I finished a little gem of a model, the 1/72 Zvezda Trebuchet. It is a large sized model, so perfect for 28mm. I converted/co-opted bits including some Zvezda Royal Infantry for crew, and an Empire engineer serving as an advisor in the Bretonnian artillery regiment:


Here is a closer shot of the crew:


And with a couple of kniggots for scale:


I also completed a unit of standard knights of the realm, these are older edition so nice and simple to paint and put together. I got these in a swap from Bob with transfers from Scott (thanks guys!):



Up next: Lord on Hippogriff...should take forever or so...

Questing Kniggots

This lot of 8 Bretonnian Questing Knights took almost 2 weeks to finish, probably most detailed minis I have ever completed. They have pretty well scuppered my chances of getting 2,000 minis painted in 2010. I hope they don't suck...



Apparently, it is important to bring furniture on quests...


The standard has lots of detail bits, including scrolls and badges




Next up: maybe some old-school knights of the realm that I picked up in a swap next. They will be a piece of cake after these monsters.

28mm WOTR DBA army

It's been a very busy week or two at work, plus I have been painting Bretonnian knights in my free time, so not a lot of output recently. I am close to finishing a unit of Questing Knights (holy crap, they carry a lot of gear!) but I also took an interlude to convert some units painted for WAB last year to DBA basing for a game with Bob at the club next week. The models are a combination of Perry plastics (superb!), Foundry knights and Black Tree foot knights, all very nice.


The army includes a general (Kn or Bd):


A choice of Kn, Cv or another Bd, not an easy choice, Cv is useful for mobility and against Bw, better survivability than Kn, but less punch:


3 Bd, these should probably be polearm infantry but I like the foot knights a lot:


And the core of the army are the 6 Bw elements, the ubiquitous longbows:


Finally, there is an Art/Sp option, I have never used artillery so that might be interesting to try, tricky to use effectively, alternately the Sp makes an excellent camp garrision.


I enjoyed putting this together, if I can get some more games of DBA in this scale I might convert over some of my Swiss WAB army too.

Back to Bretonnians....

Grail Knights

I completed a few mounted Bretonnian kniggots over the weekend. First there is a generic Brettonian lord


And there are 6 Grail Knights, the hardest bunch of the Bretonnian muster. Two strength 6 attacks on the charge, immune to psychology:


These are really beautiful models. I like the raised shield design since I could never paint medieval heraldry freehand. I can barely pick these out. Here is the leader, I've done him in Saskatchewan Roughrider green:


Up next: men-at-arms (i.e. peasant fodder)

Bretonnians begin

I have made a start on my Bretonnians for WHFB. Like my Empire army, it will have a decidedly retro look. So far I have completed 40 peasant archers and Morgiana, the fay enchantress. Not exactly enough to make anyone quake yet, but the Grail Knights are next.


The archers are from an earlier edition, there are only two poses but I like that. I also like the way they look and feel...chunky:

The Fay Enchantress is a kick-ass magic user character mounted on a formidable steed. She points out around 500 so will not get on the field until the army reaches 2k or so. She has an amphibian familiar that Silvaron must be careful not to step on!

13th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month...

We played a Great War scenario at Chaos Gaming today. I ran my Villers-Bretonneaux scenario of the first tank battle in history that occurred in the First World War. To make a 2h story short, the Germans won this time after using a left feint to hold down more than half of the Brits while the right wing, supported by accurate and timely mortar support, successfully stormed the British line.

In the early stages, the British tanks laid up behind their lines creep out of the forest to engage the attacking Germans, there are 2 MkIV females and one male:


The Germans advance from their starting line with support from one A7V:


The Germans pick their way through the wire, using shellholes as cover from the British rifles and Lewis gun nests:


They successfully assault the Lewis gun posts, charging in after using grenades to keep their heads down:


Mark managed to twice break is MkIV, leaving it immobilized behind his lines and unable to reach the left flank where the Germans swarmed into the trench. Looks despondent, doesn't he?

Black Powder Zulu War

For the last 2 weeks or so I have been repainting and painting 1/72 British and Zulus to run a Black Powder scenario at the club. The Vimeiro scenario played well using BP, so I decided to run out my colonials after also watching Zulu again (for the 20-odd time). I have the Colonial Campaigns Zulu War scenario book which is really excellent

and helps to focus the modeling. I am going to run the Isandlwana scenario. While that battle is ostensibly one-sided and not much fun to game, the scenario is well thought-out and should provide a challenge for up to 5 players.

It requires of course, some stalwart British infantry, here painted as 24th foot with regimental and Queen's colours (Esci 1/72)


Some Natal native contingents, these were tribes that allied against the Zulu (Esci 1/72 Zulus painted with red head feathers, native contingents wore a red headband).


I picked up a new box of British mounted infantry (Hat 1/72) which will not factor into this scenario, but are very nice.


And I painted-converted half of them into Natal mounted police, which do appear in the scenario:

The artillery is a Napoleonic 9lber with US civil war crew. I head-swapped the crew for tropical helmets to make them look British, and I doubt any of my mates can tell the difference between a 9lber and the correct 7lber...


There are also some wagons to represent the baggage train, which is a Zulu objective. The Conestogas are from Imex and are excellent, the field forge is Hat (French Napoloenic).


I just need to finish off another 24 Zulus and this one is ready to go. I also need some 1/72 tents. Any suggestions?

Up next: Zulus.