Knights Templar in Basic Impetus 2

Now then,

I dont like to blow my own trumpet too much, im not the greatest of painters by any stretch but its always really nice when someone publishes a picture of your miniatures.

So Lorenzo Sartori, author of Impetvs, Baroque and now Basic Impetvs among others has just released the new rulebook.

A pic of some of my Crusaders are on page 37. Im very chuffed.

Basic Impetus

Cheers,
Steve

Crusades in 15mm for Hail Caesar.

Hi all,

Now that my WOTR in 6mm project has come to a natural pause (a project is never finished!) Im thinking about what im going to do next.

Im considering expanding my 15mm Crusades project. the army I have is all based up and organised for Impetus, however by combining bases, I can very easily make it work for Hail Caesar.

So im thinking that 3 bases for a standard unit will look suitably impressive.



So a standard sized Crusader foot sergeants unit will look like this.



In the army list books, the crusader sergeants can have a sub unit of crossbows, so the full unit will look like this.



The Crusader Knights will look most impressive I think. 18 figures for a unit.



Small units will be 2 bases strong, for example like the Turcopoles above.

So, no rebasing needed, but lots of painting to be done. Thats not the chore it may sound like, as I love painting the Crusades stuff. The Legio Heroica miniatures are awesome so it a win all round I think.

Anyway... heres a link to the Legio Heroica website.  Legio Heroica

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Light Troops for the Crusaders!

Now then,

I have just finished off my Turcopoles and light infantry archers for my crusader army. That pretty much finishes the project off, both armies are now well over 500 points (for Impetus) so not much more needed....

2 units of Turcopole light cavalry.

2 units of skirmishing archers.

Im now looking forward to getting them on a gaming table sometime!

Heres a link to the full army - Crusaders

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Crusades update

Now then,

I got these two bases done a little while ago for my Crusades army for Impetus. I have rebased the 2 command stands that I made up for Hail Caesar as ive decided that Impetus is the game that ill be playing.

Here is King Richard, based as Crusader Knights, with general.

This is another Crusader Knight base, with an attached General, this time with Henry of Champagne in command.

Both bases together.

All I have left to do now are 2 bases of Turcopoles and 2 bases of foot skirmishers with bows, and the Crusader army will be done.

All my Crusaders can be seen here - CRUSADERS

In other news I have nearly completed my Rapid fire Waffen SS army, and I have finished my Soviet army which is massive, and includes 9 infantry Bns with attached support in the form of AT guns etc, and a tank brigade with a heavy tank Bn attached as well as artillery and tank destroyers etc.... Pics soon.

Cheers for looking,
Steve

The Order of St John

Now then,

I have actually done some painting, for the first time in months!

I have painted up an additional unit of Hospitaller Knights for my Crusades Impetus army, and while I was at it I re-did the flag on the original one to match,  the old one wasn't exactly very good....

Anyway here are the Order of St John ready to bring justice to gods enemies!

Hopefully ill have some more Crusader Knights finished shortly, as the army is expanding (again)!

Cheers,
Steve

Richard the Lionheart, revisited..

Now then,

I have spent the last few days re-doing King Richards standard. It looked passable before, but you know when you look at something and it bugs you?

Heres what it looked like before.... 3 odd looking yellow monkeys......

Anyway, I have re-done it, and im much happier with it, although it took ages to draw, then paint...





Here we go!

Much better I hope you agree. All the Crusaders can be seen here - Crusaders!

On the painting table are loads of 6mm Napoleonic Austrian landwehr. Im making getting this army finished my priority, as I really want to order some French!

I have not been idle on the painting front, I have painted literally a HORDE of zombies, and of course the desperate survivors, check in again soon for some ZOMBICIDE!

Cheers,
Steve

Crusades Update!

Now then,

I have finally completed my Muslim army for the 3rd Crusade, its taken far longer than I thought due to dramas with dip, and finding a workable alternative. I ended up using Ronseal oak woodstain/varnish.

Arab Lancers

Here is the result of putting the Ronseal on neat. It turned out really dark, I'm not happy with how this unit turned out, despite my best efforts to tidy them up....

Turkomen horse archers.

Here is experiment 2. I watered down the Ronseal, but its still too dark, again not happy with the results. At this stage I lost interest, as I was getting frustrated so I left it for a while and painted a load of epic stuff instead!

Mamluks, including general.

Saladin, and Tawashi Bodyguard.

The final 2 units, including the army's generals, turned out slightly better (despite the dodgy photos). I watered the Ronseal down again, and found that by gently stirring the pot instead of shaking it, a much smoother result was achieved. Im still not overly impressed with any of the units ive done recently, but they are done now.

I have watered the Ronseal down still further, and will try it out on an old figure before slapping it all over my next army!

So that's the full army done for Impetus, it comes in about 500 points which is plenty big enough for a good game I think.

The dodgy painting on my latest units is hidden quite well when the full army is set up so not all is lost.

Have I ever mentioned I hate painting horses..?

Saladin and his mates can be seen in more detail HERE on the Ayyubid army page.

Thanks for looking,
Steve

Legio Crusius (Warmongers)

Now then,

I have been busy painting up Muslim Cavalry for my Ayyubid army to take on the crusaders, but needed a break so painted up a warhound Titan, to support my epic scale marines.

The colour scheme chosen is that of the Legio Crusius, or more commonly known as the warmongers. I felt like painting something different, so no blue or red, but lots of white again....


Anyway here it is.

I have another one which will be getting painted soon. Overall I had forgotten how bloody difficult it is to paint black, without it looking grey....

My freehand skills were not up to the task for the Legion badge, so I just about managed the white fist instead, after painting over my failed attempts no less than 3 times.

All my Epic stuff can be seen HERE

Changing the subject slightly, here is the current state of the painting table-

Lots of Muslim Cavalry in various stages of being painted.

And also on the painting table, WW2 German tanks...lots of them.

Anyway, completed Muslim Cavalry next!

Cheers,
Steve

A return to the Holyland

Now then,

So I ran a little poll, to see what people would like to see get painted next, and the clear winners are the 15mm Crusade armies. Fair enough.


I have placed an order with Legio Heroica for some more bits, namely more Crusader Knights and some Turcoples to keep the nasty Muslim skirmishers at bay!

So over the next few weeks ill crack on with them. Its just starting to cool down slightly here so I will be able to spend more time painting hopefully.

I cant promise that I wont get distracted though..... WW2 probably....or epic....


Steve

New Plans

Now then,

Its been a while since I updated the old blog, so I thought I would update it with what ive been up to recently. Well, first of all, alot of painting. Namely 6mm sci/fi stuff, Space marines and Tau shenanigans mostly. I have a few to finish off so will save the pictures until later. For now the epic stuff is being put on hold, namely because I have other stuff to get done.....

Ill start with whats getting dropped first.

The Fantasy project.

I had hopes that this would get my 2 lads interested, but alas that's not going to happen. Personally im not inspired enough anymore to spend my spare time painting these, so they will be up for sale on the blog shortly, as soon as I can get them photographed etc. If not then eBay may be the way forward.

So whats new?

Well, first off, I should be back home in the UK by this time next year if not before, so my plans are revolving around minimizing projects and getting existing stuff painted.

So maybe the Ancient Greek cavalry will finally get done, or the Theban hoplites may see the light of day (ive had them for nearly 5 years!)

The 6mm Austrian army is nearly finished, I could probably get them done in a few weeks if I concentrated on them......

I also have a few bits and bobs for my 15mm Crusaders and Muslims that need doing, again a pretty quick job....sigh...

My main "thing" at the moment is WW2.

I have recently been re-inspired by initially rediscovering Flames of War, then, after getting hold of the V3 rulebook cheap via eBay, decided that its still crap.

Instead I have discovered Battlegroup Kursk. LINK

Im a massive fan of the Eastern front, and this ruleset seems to offer all the stuff that is lacking from FOW, BKC, and Bolt Action. The book was ordered last week, so I hope to have it in my possession in the next few days.

In the mean time, heres a few links to useful stuff:

Overview of the game

BGK forum on the Guild ( the hardest forum in the world to join!)

Video overview of the book

dux-homunculorum blog review

There are loads more reviews and stuff out there, google it!

Anyway, more epicness in the next update, then its firmly back to historicals!

Cheers for reading,
Steve

2013 in review

Belated seasons greetings,

I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year, and of course managed to get hold of all the goodies you asked for from Santa.

Having just returned from the depths of winter in Scotland, I now have time to have a look at what i've managed to do hobby-wise over the last year, and of course list my plan of action for the coming 12 months.

2013 has seen me start this blog, with 18000 odd hits its doing ok, and many thanks to the 51 people out there who follow the blog.

I've generally be distracted by the new and shiny, as I cant seem to keep focused on any 1 project, perhaps its because I don't actually get any gaming, and don't have that need to get a particular unit or model done. That's my excuse anyway.

So, this year I have completed my Crusader army for Impetus, and with the addition of some command stands, now have the option of playing Hail Caesar too.

Click here for a look at the Crusader army -

CRUSADERS









To oppose the Crusaders I also finished off the Muslim forces of Saladin. I have yet to add any command stands for HC, but I plan to sort that out this year.

Click here for a look at the Muslims -

Muslim Forces





Next I started the long process of re-basing all my Greek and Persian armies, originally based for DBA. Whilst re-basing them, I also took the opportunity to add to the collection, so now I have two sizable armies for Impetus.

First off I have the Greek army, based around a core of Spartans. With the addition of a sizable allied contingent, this is probably my favorite army.

click here to see more of the Greek Hoplite army



To take them on, I have also started a Persian army, although I have been distracted along the way and have a few units to complete.I have a feeling that this army will be pretty big when finally finished, another job for 2014!

Have a look here -
Persian Army




If that wasn't enough, the 6mm Napoleonic project has chugged along, although very slowly. Having decided on a set of rules to use (Black Powder), there is some rebasing to do, and alot of painting before my Austrian army is ready for battle. The planned French army has failed to materialize, but will at the very least be started in 2014.

Have a look here for the masses of tiny Austrians - Austrian Army 1809


OK, onto the distractions! 

First off was my foray into 28mm Sci/Fi with the Pig Iron system troopers. I collected a platoons worth of them for use with Tomorrows war, although they have never been out of their box since being painted.


To have a look at the European Drop troopers, look here - Drop Troops









Next up is the Germans for Bolt action. Another distraction, having read some good reviews I decided to get myself the rulebook, and then decided to get a German platoon, but in 15mm. These still aren't finished either as i got bored painting German camouflage..... However, they are very close to being finished, so another job for 2014!!

To see ze Germans click here - BOLT ACTION Germans







Finally, since about September, ive been tinkering with Epic, and have painted and converted quite alot of 6mm marines and vehicles. I don't know what it is about epic, its the first real wargame I played many moons ago in the early nineties, but its still cool.  I just really enjoy painting the little buggers!!!

Here's a link to my epic page and here's a link to my "blog" over on the Tactical command site

-EPIC page
Yorkies 6mm painting log



2014?

So, whats the plan for the next 12 months? Well I cant rule out any random distractions, but my plan is to finish what i've got first and foremost. In no particular order, here's what I plan on getting done:

• Commanders for the Muslim army
• Commanders for the Persian army
• Lots of Persians!
• A Theban contingent for the Greek Hoplite army
• SS Troops for my Bolt Action German force
• Vehicles for Ze Germans
• Soviet forces to oppose said Germans for Bolt Action.
• An Anglo Danish warband for SAGA, to oppose the Vikings I finished a while back. SAGA 
• Finish off the Novamarines and start on their adversaries, The TAU for EPIC.
• Continue with the Napoleonic project, Finish the Austrian forces and make a start on the French.

So, lots to do this year, and barring any major meltdowns, I shouldn't start anything else............................who am I trying to kid!

Have a good new year!

Steve

Ayyubid page added!

Good morning,

Ive added another page, this time its the Ayyubid Egyptian army, the enemies of Richard the Lionheart.

The army can be seen here - http://stevenkelly1.blogspot.com/p/ayyubid-egyptian.html

Cheers,
Steve

New pages added!

Now then,

I have been tinkering with the blog, and have decided that the best way to display all my older and completed projects is to make a page for each of them. there are now page tabs at the top of the main page, which will provide a direct link.

Saga Page.

http://stevenkelly1.blogspot.com/p/saga.html













Napoleonic Austrian page.

http://stevenkelly1.blogspot.com/p/napoleonic.html







Crusader page

http://stevenkelly1.blogspot.com/p/the-3rd-crusade.html











As i get time i will add the Ayyubid forces and the Wars of the Roses pages too.  I'm debating whether to have separate pages for all my WW2 armies or just 1 page for them all, because i have quite a lot done for the excellent blitzkrieg commander rules....

Anyway, ill hopefully have another update on the Achaemenid Persians later today, all being well.

Cheers
Steve.