Fantasy Arab Hordes

3 x 7Hd... to cover all of the DBA armies I need another element but this lot will do for now.

No officers or standard bearers - just a rabble mix of swordsmen, spearmen, javelins and a couple of archers.

Getting close to the end of this phase - there are a couple of Turkish Hd elements, some light infantry javelins and 6 elements of Turkish 3Cv currently on the painting desk.  That little lot should enable me to field fantasy versions of most of the Arab/Turkish/Persian armies.

7YW Prussian army Review and DBA army

 

When I originally did this army I didn't give it a Review because... well, it's a lot smaller than my usual armies!

Prussian army as described below. It includes all the elements - Musketeers, Fusiliers, Grenadiers, Cuirassiers and Dragoons. Naturally, for Hussars I had to use the ones dressed in black :)

Interestingly I did do a conversion of  Von Seydlitz, it's just that I put him on a separate base instead of part of an element.

For the DBX army I did an AI question asking for armies and enemies to fit the DBX system. The result for the Prussians and suggested enemy:

'The Primary Matchup: Prussia vs. Austria-Hungary

1. Kingdom of Prussia

·         1x General (Heavy Cavalry): Cuirassiers (Frederick or Seydlitz).

·         1x Heavy Cavalry: Dragoons.

·         1x Light Cavalry: Hussars (Perfect for rapid flank maneuvers).

·         6x Musketeers/Fusiliers (Shot/Musket): The main battle line.

·         2x Grenadiers (Elite Shot): Place these on the flanks of your line to absorb heavy pressure or spearhead an attack.

·         1x Light or Medium Gun (Artillery): Representing Prussia's highly mobile horse artillery or battalion guns.

 2. Austrian Empire

·         1x General (Heavy Cavalry): Cuirassiers (Daun or Loudon).

·         1x Light Cavalry: Hussars.

·         7x Musketeers (Shot/Musket): A deep, resilient white-coated wall.

·         2x Grenadiers (Elite Shot): Your shock infantry to counter the Prussian elite.

·         1x Heavy Gun (Artillery): The famous, devastating Austrian Liechtenstein artillery to smash Prussian lines from afar.

S

Quick 7YW French update

 

I've put the 7YW French Range on Pages.  A quick note on horses - they seem to be interchangeable to a degree, for example one master figure marked 7FC2 is exactly the same as a master figure marked 7FC2/3/4...

I think this is a French 7YW Master mould so I've based my figure ids on the figures on the mould!

Camels and archers

 

Two completed units today - a unit of fantasy camels and a unit of robed Arab 2Ps

The camel riders are a small lancer unit. Total fantasy but thought they'd be fun to do.

The main issue is that they wear trousers rather than robes. If I ever do a Tuareg army I'll need to modify these. 

And also a quick unit of 2Ps archers. I gave them an officer but haven't bothered with a standard.

The next units I'm doing are some 7Hd and 6 elements of Turkish 3Cv. After that I've cast a couple of 12 figure 7YW Prussian units.

Fantasy Muslim/Middle East update

 

Realised I had a nice symetrical display so desided to take a photo as an interim review. 

There's still lots to do on this army - need lots of light infantry/Ps, don't have any Hd, 'Turkish' forces need some 3Cv similar to the front rank light cavalry and there are no 'dedicated'  Arab lancers in robes - though the two outside Cv units shown would do, they just... well, aren't wearing robes... 

Total force to date 162 infantry and 99 cavalry. Must admit I'm thinking about having a bit of a change for a while... been thinking about a couple of units of Prussian 7YW infantry as a break...

Also finished some Turkish type archers... small size picture because it's a bit blurry.

Fantasy elite heavy cavalry

 

In various army lists most of the cavalry are listed as heavy cavalry so I decided to do a unit of irregular elite/noble cavalry unit. Also, when I did the original unit of elite cavalry I hadn't sorted standards - so I included a command unit for them as well.

It's the shields. In conjunction with paint pens I think they're fantastic - I'm now regretting not using these shields for all of the Arabs/Turks.

Command stand for the elite regulars with horse armour - can be used as a general as well.

The big standard isn't listed in any specific range. The original flagstaff was very flimsy so I cut it away and just glued the standard directly to the kontos of the figure. The triangular standard is from the Sung Chinese range. The rider looks a bit lop sided - didn't notice that until I saw the photos, the figure itself looks as though it's simply angled back.

Killing two birds with one stone

 

The original idea was to use these as either a big unit of 48 4Sp figures or split it into two units of 24. Then I started thinking that the various Arab and Turkish based armies covered a lot of different troop types but, in DBA where they would most likely be used, I didn't need 12 bases... so didn't really need to use them all as Sp...

In fact, I could do a 6 base unit on deeper bases that would work as  either 4Wb or 4Ax...

And still leave me 6 bases of 4Sp...

Hence two birds with one stone.

More from Steven - 15mm Hyenas and Hetzers

 Two lots here:

Quick update, I painted some hyenas (image attached) to join the prehistoric project. They are by Checkpoint Miniatures, bought to pad out a very specific order with them that was otherwise too small to justify the postage.Didn't take as long to paint as previous prehistoric animals - I think I have developed a routine.

I did the green and brown camo in the attached today. Airbrushed colour modulation with blutac masking. Lots more to do but interesting to see this stage before I add detailing, weathering, decals etc

 

More Turks, on the painting table and looking at future moulds...

 

This lot could be either 3Ax or 3Wb... though ones like Dynastic Kurdish armies specify 5Wb or 7Hd! But then, Seljuk Turks use 3Ax and so can Anatolian Turkoman... though they also use 7HD!

So still a lot more units needed - and I haven't even thought about the various irregular Bw or Ps types. And of course Central Asian Turkish needs 3 x 4Sp.

So what am I painting up at the moment? Nearly finished what could be 2 24 strong or 1 48 strong (extra command element painted) unit of  possibly 4Wb (Arab Conquest) or 4Sp (Umayyad Arab or Abbasid Arab)... never ending... and also couple of cavalry command elements nearly finished, plus the rest of a fancy heavy cavalry unit. 

At some time must take a break from them. Could go for 7YW - it would help offset my current mould splurge... so far I've had 10  moulds made for these over the years, 'need' a couple more at least to sort the French and Austrian cavalry but really can't justify the cost - though I am going through and sorting them out - A new mould costs about £100, and for ranges that are not really a major interest of mine? - though to be fair some of the moulds have paid for themselves. Might get back into trying to paint up some more for myself. Meanwhile French and Austrian cavalry moulds can wait.

The Third Eye

 

My second cult faction seems to be setting up a tradition - they all have eyes in them... honest, I'm just going with normal horror traditions and the third eye on the forehand is pretty well established. Not sure where (if anywhere) I go with expanding these cult figures - should probably do some for the Cult of Dagon? Figures have been painted as shaven headed - seemed right.

I have to admit I like the idea of that face. It strongly reminds me both of the film Bleeders/Hemoglobin cover and The Scream. The theme from Hemoglobin is one of my favourites.

One thing I'm finding is how useful a set of metallic paint pens I bought are, especially for shields, armour and standards. The set I got is one I'm happy to recommend!

'Regular' Turkish archers

 

These units are coming along thick and fast... This lot definitely come under the fantasy umbrella as uniformed 'Turkoman' troops, either city or personal retinue in a standard uniform. Or perhaps would fit into some later armies that are a bit more realistic.

Although I've described them as regular, I doubt that a unit like this would be trained so I've based them as 3Bw rather than 4Bw. A unit or two of infantry equivalents of the regular cavalry would finish this part of the fantasy Muslim armies. Add a load of the irregular Turkoman types - cavalry and infantry - should give a decent looking army. 

Turkoman light cavalry

 

Another unit of Turkish style light cavalry gives me two units, the other one just being bow armed. That's more than enough for Turkish DBA armies, need more irregular Cv though.

I admit I like these. The mix of J/Bw/Sh, Sword/Sh and Bw armed figures gives a good irregular mix. Probably a bit heavy on the J/Bw/Sh component though. I suppose it would work to simply mix figures from the two units up...

I'm already working on the regular Turkish infantry component - archer unit nearly finished, lots of both regular and irregular spears and bows to complete. I also must start work on Arab cavalry... must see how well the Achaemenid Persian Sp/Sh figure works and what might need to be done to it!

New 7YW Moulds - Hanover and Britain

 So leaving the 20/25mm fantasy moulds for a while and getting back to updating and consolidating more 7YW moulds...

This mould incorporates all the Hanoverian infantry that are available - 7H4 isn't. The cavalry will be sorted at a future date - they use French horses and use Prussians as officer and standard bearer... if I do a basically Hanoverian cavalry mould I may convert the Prussian tricornes to something a bit more Hanoverian!

Not all of the British infantry but covers gaps - previously 7B2, 3 and 7 weren't available. They are now. The mould also includes all the artillerymen figures.

This mould brings all the British cavalry riders together as well as the four generals. If I do a Hanoverian cavalry mould I'll include 7YG2 on that as well; likewise a France cavalry mould will include both 7YG3 and 4.

Back to the Fantasy Arabs

 

One thing I felt I had to do was a unit of swordsmen... probably should be 2 handed swords but don't have any of them.

The usual red fez with a white turban wrapped around it and striped robes. My orginal unit just had white robes with stripes; at the moment I'm favouring a few different coloured robes. Probably do a mix in future.

For this lot I've gone for a plain black flag. I'll probably do more units with plain flags in future.

This little project is getting very broadly based. Covering Middle Eastern DBX elemental armies and round based modern cult figures there's a 1,000 year spread. Also, with some units/figures in robes and others wearing tunic/trousers there's a range of basic nationalities. Frankly, not sure what to call them in 'Range' terms - they aren't all Arabs, or all Turks, or all Muslims... seems a bit bitty to just name each individual unit without a unifying 'theme' - I'll admit to be at a total loss as to what I should call them! Middle Eastern doesn't really seem to fit though is probably more accurate.

An unseasonal Christmas battle between good and evil....

 

While Steven was visiting we used his 15mm Christmas armies to have a little altercation. I'm the good guys at the bottom, he's out and out evil at the top... picture shows the armies positions after a few moves and the 'tough' part of my army is about to hit. As attack, I just thought 'charge' using my faster and better elements take out his... well, better elements. From this point on all the action took part on that flank while everyone else just stood and watched.

So Buddy and Jovie took on Jack Frost, Santa went after the Psycho Shooters disguised as prezzies while Rudolph sneaked round the side...

Rudolph didn't last long. Mind you, Buddie and Jove didn't either... At this point I was convinced Evil was about to win...

Santa (Ably supported by the Snowman) found himself facing Jack Fost as a couple of snow trolls starting sneaking behind them.

But the gods favoured Santa and Jack Frost just melted away. Taking into account losing the general and some dead evil shooters the forces of good won the day!

An interesting battle that finished up depending on luck more than anything - Jack Frost failed to turn anyone into a frog early on, many of the characters proved to be very fragile and combats tended to be short and brutal. Personal I seemed to just roll 1s and 6s - the 1s mainly being in the middle of the battle. Steven also threw a few 1s and 6s. It was quite spectacular. In retrospect I should probably have gone after Steven's weaker flank but the plan (mad charge into combat as soon as possible) worked so...

Meanwhile, both armies have been left with me so will be a available while when Steven visits over the New Year.

Christmas armies of Good and Evil

 

Steven has been spending a few days with us and he brought a couple of 15mm Hordes of the Things Christmas armies he's just finished. This lot is the Good Christmas army (Khurasan Miniatures). - text by Steven.

And this is the Evil army (Alternative Armies). Both armies are just what the respective manufacturers provided in their ranges, and bear little resemblance to the Christmas armies in the HOTT list. I tried to theme the basing for each army so they were distinctive but still definitely snowy. So the good army got a blue undercoat underneath the snow flock, and a quite uniform covering, to give a crisp, clean look. The evil army got a darker, more muddy, patchy look.

Good Stronghold. I added a skirting board made from card, a wall socket, plug and wire for the Christmas tree (hidden from view in this photo) and sculpted a cat on a rug. The cat is painted to look like my own cat, Henry.

Evil Stronghold. Alternative Armies house covered in snow, with icicles made from bits of melted plastic sprue. The tree is scratch built from a wire frame covered in modelling putty. This was the last thing I painted, literally finished the day before I came to my parents. It was packed before the glue under the snow flock had fully dried!

Santa is the good (Hero) general. The holly bushes are clump foliage with tiny balls of green stuff painted red. They were rolled as tiny as I could manage, but technically are still way too large.

With faithful Rudolph as a Flyer. Unbelievably I never realised, until Dad pointed it out, that the antlers are bent down. Now it is all I can see on this model.

The snowman (Hero)... The little girl miniature, being a 15mm scale child, is tiny.

Buddy and Jovie (Paladin) from the movie Elf, because why not. Green stuff toy box and a piece of bent wire to make the candy cane.

Toy Soldiers (Shooters). The challenge here was to make each one as identical as the others.

Nutcrackers (Blades). It doesn't show in photos, but these, and the toy soldiers above, have a gloss varnish. It seemed appropriate.

Evil Magician General. Jack Frost, an interesting painting challenge to make him look icy. I painted the base to look like magical iciness is spreading around him and cracking the earth.

Snow trolls (Behemoth). Pretty distinctive with their Christmas hats

Winter wolves (Beasts) by Demonworld, added to give another option (and because I had spares from the prehistoric project).

Evil Snowmen (Hordes). It was interesting to paint such a variety of colours on them to give a chaotic, haphazard look.

Evil Gingerbread Men (Warband). The first group I painted in this project.

Psycho presents (Shooters). It was fun painting the variety of colours on these.

Evil Christmas Trees (Lurkers). These were actually very finicky to paint and difficult to make look good