Wednesday 15 March 2023

From FrederickC - Medieval German Army for De Bellis Antiquitatis [Director's Chair] (162points)

 There is now less than a week left in the challenge, and I have been knocked out of 'The Top Ten'. Will I be able to claw my way back against the fierce competition of the 'Power Painters'? Too many factors out there to make a prediction.

Ten days ago I received an email from the Snow Lord that read as follows - "Okay, do you have anything that you've been avoiding for whatever reason, or perhaps something that you've been meaning to get to, but it's always managed to slip back to the rear of your hobby desk? Let's do something along those lines so I can tease out an Oscar level performance from you."

I give you the animated movie, 'Ritter Trenk' which I hope will fit the bill.  

'Ritter Trenk' from 2015

My submission is a De Bellis Antiquitatis army for the High Medieval Period, specifically IV/13(a) Medieval German 1106 - 1235CE consisting of 1 x 3Knights (General), 4 x 3Knights that can dismount to 4Blades, 4 x 4Spear, 1 x 4Crossbow, and 2 x 2Psiloi(Skirmishers). This is another army that has been sitting in the 'Pending' tray for at least quarter century. I had bought it as an alternative to my Teutonic Order army that I had been using in a local biannual DBA tournament, but never got beyond the priming stage. It gathered dust for many years in a tray on top of my filing cabinet before being put in a storage box where it was 'out of sight, out of mind', keeping my unpainted Spartan army company until now.

The figures are all Gladiator Miniatures from prior to the line being taken over by Black Hat Miniatures. Since 2018 they have been available from Fighting15s. While some of the figures look a bit chunky, I liked the attention to detail that the sculptor put into the armour. The only down side was that the mounted figures don't come with spears, so I had to make them from florist wire. I probably thought I needed to have bright colours on the figures, so I had primed them in white rather than black so many years ago. They were painted using Vallejo acrylics, including all the shield designs. The foot figures looked a little too clean, so they got a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia at the end. Here is the final result.

 

IV/13(a) Medieval German 1106 - 1235CE

5 stands of Knights with the General in the center

A side view to show off the shield designs

4 stands of dismounted Knights that count as Blades

4 stands of Spears

1 stand of Crossbows and 2 stands of Psiloi

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

40 x 15mm foot figures @ 2 points = 80 points 

15 x 15mm mounted figures @ 4 points = 60 points 

1 x Director's Chair @ 20 points = 20 points

I may try to squeeze out one more small submission before the deadline. Otherwise, I will see you all on the 'flip size' for the post-challenge wrap up. Cheers.


A wonderful set of medieval figures and a great entry for the Director's Chair. Hand painting shields on 15mm seems like a lot of work, so I have added a couple of bonus points to your total.

- StuartL

30 comments:

  1. Nice army, and (pleasantly) surprised there's still people out there playing the DBA / DBM systems... bring good memories of my first inroad into historical gaming in the late 80/early 90s

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    1. Thanks, Benito. The tournaments haven't been held for a while. I was one of the main organizers for many years, but interest waned after I passed the baton to others. We ran a 1-day-5-game tournament using a Swiss system were players were paired against other players that had an equal number of wins, but also keeping track of total units destroyed to decide the final winner in the case of a tie. DavidV has organized some 'Big DBA' games since the demise of the tournament with several armies on each side playing on a larger game board.

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  2. Splendid looking medieval army, great looking shields!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you, Iain. I think having to paint the shields is what kept me from finishing this army all those years ago.

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  3. Nice DBA army, Frederick! :)

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  4. That’s a great looking army, and it is good to see some classic DBA! Well done, Frederick!

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    1. Thanks, Martijn. Fellow Conscript DavidV is planning a Battle of Hastings 'Big DBA' battle in the near future involving multiple armies per side.

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  5. Those are some lovely 15's, Frederick! I think you made the call for white undercoat as the colors are certainly bright! They have a striking appearance enmass, even better when viewed close up!

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    1. Thank you, David. I am generally loath to prime figures in white because it really shows when you miss a spot. I had to go through all these minis to do touch ups where some white was still peaking through. :^)

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  6. Outstanding! Great "werk" here Frederick!

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    1. Thank you, Dallas, or should I say "Danke"?

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  7. Nice looking army and congrats on finishing the Studio Challenge.
    Cheers JezT

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    1. Thank you, Jez. Not as many stops as the Quadrant Challenge from AHPC XII, but nice to 'slide into home plate' as the deadline approaches.

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  8. Ooh really lovely work, great shields.

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    1. Thank you, Peter. I was stumped for inspiration on the designs for a while, but then found some great images on the internet that got things rolling.

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  9. Well done Frederick. Knocking off a project that has been in the "pending tray" for a quarter century is definitely an achievement!

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    1. Thanks, Greg. Unfortunately I have a lot of those 'Pending' projects that have been hanging around for decades from when I was buying miniatures much faster than I was painting them.

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  10. Great work Frederick. I have to confess that I'm no great fan of the DBx systems, but I do like that they provide an easily accessible 'entry drug' to historical wargaming. The mounted knights are especially terrific.

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    1. Thanks, Curt. No worries about not liking DBx, but as you say, it's a simple set of rules that can get people into historical gaming. It was ideal for my after school wargames club because we only had 90 minutes in which to play, and you could easily get a DBA game done in that amount of time.

      I don't think any rules set achieves universal favour. I am not a big fan of Warhammer 40K. I know people who still enjoy playing Napoleonics with Scotty Bowen's Empire rules, but I also have met people who, when asked what Napoleonic rules they use, replied, "ABE - Anything But Empire". ;^)

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  11. I love the 'rainbow' of knights. Lovely brushwork

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    1. Thank you, Peter. It does make for a very colourful army.

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  12. I like Gladiator stuff, they're cool - great entry Fred

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    1. Thanks, Kerry. I like them too, and have a Gladiator Teutonic Order army as well as this one.

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  13. Great painting Fredrick, love the mounted knights especially and I’ll have to check out the Gladiator range for future projects. The terrain pieces in your backgrounds are really nice too, who are they by?

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    1. Thanks, Simon. The buildings, etc. are 1.120 paper models by Schreiber Bogen. They produce a wide range of projects (vehicles, planes, historic builiding, etc) in a variety of scales, and have a website to look at their catalogue and order online.

      https://www.schreiber-bogen.com/

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  14. Lovely shields, Frederick!

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