KenR - 28mm Swiss Pike - Glarus (175 pts)

 

After a week off last week for a birthday trip away with Mrs YG, it's time to get back to the grindstone, or in my case the Pike Block.

So this is the "column" of the block from Glarus, a city and Canton in Switzerland. The figures are 28mm and are a mix of Perrys and Steelfist. There are quite a few more Steelfist in this "unit" mostly on the front base.

There were no uniforms in the Italian Wars but to get a feel for a unit I have used the colours from the flags, which are mostly red, so to give me a bit more variation I used a deep red and a scarlet red as two separate colours, along with black, yellow and a touch of white.

In total there are 32 x 28mm figures at 5pts each for 160 points plus 3 flags at a point each making 163 in total.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the block so far (half finished), I will be doing a "Thun" column next. But before that I've some obligatory Spanish Heavies to do along with some Prussian Landwehr.

Great Schnabziger Ken, those are amazing!  Love the mass, the posing and basing and the colours.  I agree with your idea of using a key colour to identify units, and the red from the flag seems an excellent choice.  I have to say that's sinister looking preacher on the lead base's flag.  I am rounding your score up to 175, cos I get to do these things.

From AndrewG: More Wars of the Roses Bill & Bow and Characters (125 points)

 

I'm back working on my Battle of Northampton 1460 project this week, and I wanted to start including some of the other notables that were identified as being present at that engagement. Unlike the main force commanders, for gaming purposes these characters don’t really need their own command stands per se, so I opted instead to either make some mini dioramas for them or insert them amongst the rank and file.

In the Orders of Battle presented in Mike Ingram’s book on Northampton 1460, the last name in the list of personalities fighting for the Yorkists is Sir William Chamberlain of East Harling. Born about 1410, he had served with distinction in Normandy under Richard, Duke of York, before returning to England and various offices and appointments. Ordered to raise men in Suffolk in 1460 to resist Neville’s forces, he ultimately sided with them instead. Chamberlain survived the fighting at Northampton and subsequently fought in the battles at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton as well. He died sometime shortly after, but not before he was made a Knight of the Garter for his service.

Step 1 - research. Sir William Chamberlain's personal livery is No.58

Painting liveries freehand is, frankly, a real pain in the butt. And time consuming. And if you’re not careful, you’ll make dumb mistakes like I did and spend yet more time fixing them. Still, I keep subjecting myself to the process because I believe the end result is worth it, at least until I find a better way. Thus, here is Chamberlain inserted in the ranks of a new unit of bill & bow (22 figures total). Being about 50 years old at the time of the battle and having considerable experience and reputation, I imagined him being smart enough to get in amongst the general troops to both keep their morale up as well as guide them accordingly.

I was this far along when I realized that not only had I accidentally painted some static grass into his face, I had the panels on his back the wrong way. All part of the fun.

The finished unit - worth the effort.

The battle of Northampton is also notable for a number of religious observers and influencers that showed up to stir the pot. This little diorama features a mounted Francesco Coppini, the Bishop of Turni (Turin) and Papal Legate, who played an influential role in that he sided with the Yorkists at Northampton and offered them a plenary remission of all sins, while at the same time damning the Lancastrians with the most extraordinary of ex-communications – a mass anathema (formal curse) on them all. The Yorkists did end up winning the battle...

The original concept had them just standing on a road, but I ended up going with more uneven terrain.

Smiting enemies in progress.

"No, no! That one over there!"

I built up a small hill using green stuff for the mounted rider, that way the other figure wouldn't block him visually. It worked out well.

All the bill & bow figures come from the Perry WOTR plastic and metal figure lines, while Coppini and his associate are from the Perry European Armies metal line. The Fauconberg banner is courtesy Pete’s Flags - I like his product line as he has many of the WOTR commanders' banners well designed. All the basing and materials are as per my previous posts.

I’m still working on Fauconberg’s command stand as well as some more bill & bow, but I also need to start thinking about which Lancastrian force he’ll be facing off against soon. More to come!

 

23x 28mm figures = 115pts

1x 28mm mounted figure = 10pts

I am really enjoying this Battle of Northampton project Andrew.  To my mid, having historical context is great driver.  Great work on Chamberlain, though I did get a chuckle out of the grass on his face bit.  Been there, done that!  I have those Perry Cardinals and they are great figures.  Well done sir.

John B: Tuesday Terrors: 200 years of public railways: 1/72 Airfix Rocket conversion (30 points)

Squirreless again :( .........

During AHPC15 I decided to make a steam engine as 2025 would be the 200th anniversary of public railways. Last year I visited the Railway Museum at Stockton which is located on the famous route of the first railway open to the public back in 1825.

Also I had a nice link in an interesting book on the Hungarian Forces of 1848 revolutions.

The source of my model was the very ancient Airfix 1/72 Stephensons Rocket. Fortunate these are still made by Dapol in Wales UK, as no other model exists for the period to my knowledge. So off I went converting - it took me two rockets to get the look I wanted.

The early steam railways were a hotbed of invention and some amazing experimental engines ran.

I found this book in a charity bookshop and its a mine of information.It was tempting to embark on other model conversions but for a painting challenge even this one has proven time consuming despite part building the model during AHPC15.

Well its a case of steaming on having bagged TOY and REBEL theme entries and now put this engine to bed next up is a RESCUE figure.

Points calculation is 1/72 = 20mm so 15 points for the vehicle and 2 x 4 points for the two gentlemen.

That gets me 23 points - not quite a squirrel point again. ho hum.

What a wonderfully looking engine John, I really like that!  The blue-green is really striking and I like the animation of the two crew.  I wouldn't bet on them retaining their hats once they get up to any speed.  What does BETS stand for?  I also like the old time reference materials that you sources, plus of course the in person museum visit.  Given the conversion work involved I will round this post up to 30.

From SylvainR: 28mm Cold Ones for D&D (67 points)

I'm back from my skiing trip to Lake Louise, no broken bones and lots of good food. Here is another horde of monsters for D&D. I call them the Cold Ones.  

I did not intend at first to include the Dragon-Turtle, but when I saw the similarities of that model with the  smaller tortoises, I knew I had to paint them together.

First, a bunch of frogs and a snake with arms. I could use these models as proxies for the ongoing Burrows and Badgers campaign. 

Classic lizardmen. I like how they use turtle shells as shields. 

The boss of the gang, along with his second-in-command. The boss is quite big and, with minion PeterD's permission, I would like to count "it" as a 40mm figure. 

Two tortoise warriors. Just like their bigger relative, they are starting to grow vegetation on their back. I can already see a future scenario where these guys, cornered by the heroes, simply shout "Momma!" in their reptilian language and then watch the good guys being trampled.

The dragon turtle, with a  28mm hero for comparison. I would argue that it's at least as big as a horse and worth 10 points. I will let PeterD be the final judge of that. 

 I imagine the Dragon Turtle burying itself for weeks on ends, waiting for that perfect snack to come by, usually a party of succulent heroes... and then emerging with hunger and fury! 

A face only Mother Nature can love...

"Before being crushed to death, Crotto the Hobbit deeply regretted taking a pee at the only tree he could see along the path..."

 

Points claimed: 

10x 28mm infantry at 5 points each = 50 points

1x 40mm infantry at 7 points = 7 points

1x 28mm mounted at 10 points = 10 points

Total = 67 points

Thanks for reading!

 A fine collection of reptiles Sylvain, I especially like the mossy back turtles.  I am glad that you survived your skiing trip intact.  I think that your suggested points work as well as anything I can come up with, so 67 points it is.

From MartinC Fat pTony Not a Typo (200pts)

 My twin themes of Napoleonic Bavarians and Blood Bowl continues

We use Valour and Fortitude to fight Napoleonic and ACW battles. The rules prefer you to have limbers on the table, but they are big so we have moved to 2 horse limbers

3 Bavarian ones, the limbers are warbases and the horses Pendraken

And 3 Russian ones

Not feeling very verbose today so on to the blood bowl stuff. Boxed set comes with 2 teams, these are the Tomb Kings. Like all undead teams they are ok at tackling and rubbish at everything else

This is a crappy picture

My Mexican undead team is short of good players, they lost badly today, with most getting injured at least once. So they needed a mummy, but they are Mexicans and none Egyptian mummies are hard to find. I picked up this one on Etsy

He is quite chubby, and will be name Fat pTony

Finally a wraith star player, she can't have the ball and is there to spook out the opposition

She is named Gretchen Walter

Scores on the doors

16x28mm blood bowl players = 80pts

6x 2 horse limbers ( 5 per horse and 10 for the limber) = 120pts

Total = 200pts

Nice work here Martin.  I love to see limbers on table, even if I seldom represent them myself.  Find looking team you have, and I agree with the simplified teams.  yet another Blood Bowl team, what's your team count up to now?  I can't see enough of the Tomb King players, but I like Fat pTony.  I don't know what effect Gretchen will have on your opponents, but she scares me plenty!  I agree with your nose counting, so 200 it is.

Tuesday Night Open Mike February 10th

 

It's a little slower this week, perhaps the February blahs or perhaps let down after the "Toy Story" theme.   And it's mostly a county jam so far with the following acts confirmed.

• MartinC limbers up his wagon
• Sylvain opens a cold one and sings us some Bro Country songs about his truck and his dog.
• JohnB has some old time railway songs for us.
• AndrewG hauls out his lute for some Renaissance music. 
• KenR promises us some yodelling.

And of course, a semi live music selection from me.  This one wasn't on my radar until my Campfire Guitar instructor handed out songs sheets on the firs tonight of the new semester.  As she suggests, I set up a playlist with them to reacquaint myself with them.  There's a mix of old songs, some I like, some not so much etc.  Tracy Chapman is a singer songwriter who fits the Open Mike night theme very well.  Talkin' Bout a Revolution is a protest song, but a fairly quiet one.  hat ells it is the arrangement, and most of all her deep and rich voice.