Monday, 8 June 2015

WWI French, thoughts on Lion Rampant, & a new project

OK, first up, some First World War French infantry - 28mm from Scarab Miniatures.
These are part of a large WWI French commission that I will be tackling over time.




These figures were fun to paint, nice chunky sculpts with plenty of raised detail. I'm quite happy with how the "Horizon Blue" of the French uniforms turned out.

On an altogether different topic, I managed to acquire a copy of the Lion Rampant rules set by Dan Mersey, published by Osprey. I also picked up a copy of Wargames Illustrated which has an Article by Mr Mersey on adapting these rules for the "Dark Ages", with some example army lists etc.
Over the weekend my son and I played our first game of Lion Rampant using his collection of Lord of the Rings figures, supplemented with a few figures from my own collection. We had great fun, with plenty of laughs and unexpected twists and turns - I was particularly surprised when the leader of my mangled warband managed to defeat his leader in single combat. I can recommend this rule set for fast play, fun packed games, that don't require huge numbers of figures and can be played in lots of different scales. I'm pretty woeful at remembering and learning rules mechanics, but I managed to get my head around these quite well - assisted by a couple of useful play-throughs  I found on YouTube:
HERE & HERE

So, my new project? Well, I have started painting up some 28mm Anglo-Saxons from Gripping Beast, with an eye to play Lion Rampant and other skirmish style or small battle games with them. I was fortunate to obtain a bunch of brand new GB metal figures through a trade with a fellow Tasmanian wargamer - even got some of those tasty Little Big Men Studios shield decals.
I will be basing the figures singly - I prefer that to element based stuff for this period - which will mean that I could also use them for the Saga rules system.
I have had a long standing interest in the "Dark Ages", and already have a few books related to the period. The Anglo-Saxons will give me an opportunity to play not only against Vikings, but against other Anglo-Saxons, Welsh, Picts/Scots & probably Irish raiders. I have long been impressed by the character of Alfred the Great, and aim to have a force that is nominally from that period.
Another cool thing about collecting the Anglo-Saxons is that they mix in quite well for Middle Earth style warfare too.


9 comments:

  1. Oh terrific stuff! Lots of character in these, nice work!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Stephen, glad you like the look of them, I've certainly got plenty more to paint :-)

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  2. Splendid minis, details, poses and paint brush are beautiful!

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  3. They are very very fine figures. I have heard mixed things said about Scarab, but you make them look top drawer. From what I've seen elsewhere, such as Sidney Roundwood's blog, you got the Horizon Blue just right.
    Bravo, sir.
    Cheers,
    Michael

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    Replies
    1. G'day Michael, thanks for your very generous comments :-)
      The sculpts are on the chunky side, but in a good way I think- certainly made them a pleasure to paint.
      I actually looked at Sidney Roundwood's blog for inspiration before starting on these. I was able to adapt his painting guide for WWI French to work with the paints I have here.
      I've since found out that some of the lumps on the backpacks are meant to represent spare pairs of boots, and need to be a different colour to distinguish them - a kind chap on one of the forums directed me to some rather excellent photos of real WWI French kit.
      All the best,
      John.

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  4. Great looking figures, nice rendering of the 'Horizon Blue' just wondering which paints you used.

    Glad you enjoyed our video, Lion Rampant is a fun game to play and easy to pick up.

    Regards,
    Matt

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    1. Hi Matt. My "Horizon Bleu" uses the following paints:
      Base Colour is 50/50 Vallejo Field Blue & Reaper HD Winter Blue
      Apply Secret Weapon Blue Black Wash
      Back over with base colour
      Final highlight is base colour mix lightened with Derivan Minis Light Grey Blue

      I hope that helps. My starting point was Sidney Roundwood's Painting Guide which can be downloaded
      from his blog.

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    2. Thanks for the info, I'll put that in my painting reference notepad.

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