Song of Ice and Fire WIPs

Here is a glimpse of some stuff for my aSoIaF project that is currently on my painting table.

First, we have another command stand for one of my fictional houses, whom I will fully introduce once the figure is based and the banner complete.

Obviously it still has a little work to be done on it, and I am hoping I will have the time to do so by the end of the week. School started up last week so my time has had more demands placed on it now than in summer.

Details on figure compositions will be given once it is finished as well.

Here, too, are a couple assembled and primed figures:

This one I intend to paint as Ser Barristan the Bold

And this is a Braavosi bravo, looking for a street brawl.

Painting will come soon enough!
Thanks for looking!

Lord Edmynd Crownbeck of Crownbeck (and better Aegon the Conqueror pics)

I have completed another command style stand for my A Song of Ice and Fire gaming experiences. Here we have the crafty and conninving Lord Edmynd of House Crownbeck. Their words (not featured on their banner) are "A Trickle Becomes a Torrent."

The figures are all Perry plastic WotR figures, with a few modifications. The head of Lord Edmynd is from a Warlord Games ECW plastic figure of which I had a sample sprue. The horse is a Perry metal. The missive and seal the herald is handing him is scratchbuilt from paper and greenstuff.


Also, here are a couple better shots of my Aegon the Conqueror figure that I was able to snap today.

I hope you enjoy!

Aegon the Conqueror

Here is the painted version of the figure I posted in the last post. I am not sure the photo is good enough; it was taken quickly and in not so good lighting. I will get a better one soon if I get the chance, but I wanted to share.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy!

Aegon the Conqueror, WIP

I just wanted to post up some quick pictures of a figure that is still unpainted but largely finished assembling.

This is meant to be Aegon I the Conqueror, who forged the Seven Kingdoms (okay, six) into one on the back of his dragon, Balerion the Black Dread.

The figure is from Fireforge's plastic Teutonic infantry set. I had to sculpt the scaled mail and turn the sword into the famous Valyrian steel blade Blackfyre, The head is from a Foundry Roman. I contemplated adding his crown, but decided against it. I will keep you posted on progress.

I may also decide to base him at the foot of a large black dragon that I already have. Decisions, decisions.

Enjoy!

Ser Julien Grimlowe, Lord of Goldmoor

Here is the first completed command stand for my planned A Song of Ice and Fire gaming experiences (mentioned in my previous post) using my now fairly decent sized (c. 650 figures) War of the Roses collection. The characters are representing fictional minor houses who reside in the border region between the Westerlands and the Riverlands.

This is Julien Grimlowe, the young, arrogant and adventurous 'Black Lion' of Goldmoor. House Grimlowe's blazon is a barry-bendy of 8, or and gules, a lion rampant sable. Their words are 'By Tooth and Claw.'

The figures are all Perry plastics, except for the horse, which is a Perry metal (I wanted a more static pose that the plastics, unfortunately do not provide without serious modification), and Ser Julien's head, which is cut from a Foundry slinger from their now defunct line of Franks.

His faithful squire makes sure that the brash Ser Julien does not careen into battle without his helm, as the lord regards him with disdain. I like how this one turned out. I am working on incorporating more motion into my multi-figure bases and attempting to tell a story through their posing. It sort of began with this figure (posted in a previous post), my Edward IV command stand.

Here too are a couple shots of a portion of my War of the Roses figures in action, fighting at the battle of Tewksbury. The wife and I were play-testing a scenario I am working on for Historicon 2015.

The van and main close on each other. Richard is in danger of outflanking if only Somerset could navigate the 'foul laynes and dykes' on his right. Here Hastings and Devon stare at each other from across the field.

Edward's retinue has crushed Wenlock's mainward in the center of the field. Only a single group of levied array troops remains facing the enemy.

I hope you enjoy!

A Song of Ice and Fire character figures

In between paintings of large batches of War of the Roses figures (I have recently finished about 80 more), I like to spend some time refreshing by doing something a little different. I have been a huge fan of George R. R. Martin's ASong of Ice and Fire series since I first came across them about 8 years ago. It has gone on to become quite the pop-culture item in its TV incarnation as Game of Thrones on HBO. In my most recent refresher time I have converted and modeled some character figures from the series. Whether I use them for any gaming, the future will tell. I am planning to do a fictional campaign in a the aSoIaF realm using my WotR collection with newly made command stands and vignettes (more on those in coming posts), creating fictional houses to play out a regional conflict between local lords.

I thought I would use this space to post up a few pictures of characters I have converted and painted up.

"A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is."

First we have Eddard 'Ned' Stark and his massive Valyrian steel great sword 'Ice.' The body is a Perry plastic from the WotR infantry boxes. The blade for the sword came from some old ridiculous fantasy miniature. The crosspiece is a bit of a sprue , and the pommel comes from a Wargames Factory gladius. The head is a plasticWargames Factory ancient German tribesman, complete with the trademark Wargames Factory 'mushy face,' as I like to call it. I think this is the least pleasing figure of the bunch, due to the bad face sculpt, and the coloring of the sword. I was going for a bluish tint but not sure I like the way it turned out. The Valyrian steel effect I later came up with looks better (see Jon Snow below).

"I think it passing odd that I am loved by one for a kindness I never did, and reviled by so many for my finest act."

Here is Jaime 'The Kingslayer' Lannister, (spoiler alert!) after his run in with the Brave Companions and his heel-to-semi-face turn). The body is once again a Perry plastic, the cloak is from the Fireforge Teutonic sergeants plastic box, the head is chopped from a Foundry Roman head that came stuck on a stake meant as a Germanic/Gallic decoration. The armor is polished looking I think, washed at one point with yellow to give it a golden-white appearance.

"I have won every battle, yet somehow I'm losing the war."

Above is Robb Stark, 'The Young Wolf.' The components are fairly similar to the Jaime figure, body by Perry plastics, cloak by Fireforge, and a Foundry head hacked off.

"There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it."

Jon Snow is almost entirely from the Fireforge Teutonic infantry set. There is a little sculpting done at teh back of the right arm to get it in the position I wanted. The wolf's head pommel piece was sculpted by me from Kneadatite 'green stuff'. The figure is decent, and I like how it turned out, though I wish the nose on the Fireforge hooded head was not so broad. It is a little overpowering for the face, and does not quite look as I would want.

Here we have a Targaryen of some sort. The armor is inspired by Rhaegar's at the Battle of the Trident, but I could not quite get the whole Targaryen sigil on the chest, so one dragon head will have to suffice, rather than three. This one is entirely from the Perry platic WotR boxes. The dragon on the chest was altered and fitted by me from a 6th ed. Warhammer dark elf shield decoration.

I hope you enjoy, and say tuned for the some pictures of my command vignettes I intend to use for the campaign.

S.V.B.E.

Lancastrian Commanders

Here we feature the commanders of my recently painted Lancastrian forces for the Battle of Tewkesbury. We have already had one re-fight, using a version of Piquet's Hostile Realms which I have modified slightly for period flavor and tactics, and I am tentatively calling 'Hostile Roses.' There will be a short write-up on the action in the days to come when I find the time.

Here are the ward commanders beginning with the vanward and proceeding down the line.

First we have Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset (and his infamous axe). One of the myths surrounding the Lancastrian collapse on the field is that Somerset, in his rage at John Wenlock over his lack of support for Somerset's (botched) flanking maneuver, caved in the old soldier's skull with his axe--an act which helped precipitate the rout. He was facing Richard, Duke of Gloucester across the field (as Edward IV had his vanward on the left, presumably to match his more skilled younger brother against the slightly more experienced Beaufort, rather than leaving the job to Hastings, who had performed poorly at Barnet in the weeks prior).

'Souvent me souvient!' (Somerset = Perry metal; others = Old Glory 25's) 

In the mainward we have the tough ol' John, Lord Wenlock. Wenlock had once been on the Yorkist side, but that was because he was a devoted follower of the Earl of Warwick. When Warwick betrayed to Margaret of Anjou, he took his seasoned commander with him. For the scenario, I have put Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales with Wenlock in a sort of 'understudy' role and as an objective for the Yorkist forces. Wenlock was pitted against the ever-doughty (and later doughy) Edward IV.

Not even his turtle-like appearance could save him from  Somerset's fury. (Wenlock = Perry metal; others = Old Glory 25's)

The eighteen-year-old needs a little advice from the Hospitaller John Langstrother. (Edward and Langstrother  = Perry metal; others = Old Glory 25's)

Bringing up the rear is John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon. Devon was squared off across the field from Lord Hastings. He was not particularly influential in the battle from reports, since it was largely decided on the other side.

All dressed up, nowhere to go. (Devon = Perry metal; others = Old Glory 25's) 

I hope you enjoy the photos! Good gaming to all.

S. V. B. E.
The Fox

Edward IV Mounted and Perry Plastics

I have recently purchased some boxes of Perry Plastics from their Wars of the Roses range. Now, I admit, I have loathed my previous experiences with plastic figures. But I have come to realize that this was likely due to the fact that my original plans with all of the plastics I have previously purchased was to build an entire force with them. After modelling one unit, fatigue sets in as I become sick of dealing with fiddly-bits and wondering why on earth someone would cast a plastic miniature in 12-15 different pieces. Exasperated with the agonizingly slow progress, I give up.

This time, however, I purchased some plastic sets with a new mindset: to use them to build small groups of unique figures, for, say, things like command stands and individual characters. This approach is already paying off. It also helps that the Perry plastics are the first ones that hold sufficient detail for them to not look blobular (Wargames Factory, anyone?) to me. The Perrys have crafted plastic miniatures that look little different than metals when placed side-by-side, and that is a significant achievement.

I have put together a command stand with Edward IV a-horse. This was entirely surplus to force requirements, as I already have a command stand with Edward a-foot in my Yorkist army. The process was a great pleasure--an entirely new experience for me when dealing with plastics--and I think the results turned out well. All of the figures are built from some combination of the three Wars of the Roses sets released by Perry miniatures.

In other news on the Wars of the Roses front, my Lancastrian force has come to 'completion,' reaching the original point that I hoped to get it to when I began the WOTR project a little less than a year ago. This makes me quite happy, and, of course, there will be pictures in days to come. The collection of Wars of the Roses figures now stands at around 400 figures painted. I will continue to work on it (and still am: some levy units are on the painting desk as I write), but am glad to have reached a checkpoint, and able to tick something off of my 'Miniature to-do list.'

Si vales, bene est,
The Fox

An update and some randomness from the painting desk

To begin by stating the obvious, it has been a while since my last post. Let's just say that a(n ancient) Latin ogre (check your Monster Manual) by the name of Gaius Julius Dissertatio clubbed me over the head and dragged me bag to his lair, and (to mix my ancient cultures) I was only able to escape by clinging to the belly of a ram when he let his herd out to pasture.

I have managed to get some painting accomplished in the interim: my Wars of the Roses project continues, though not as much progress has been made as I would like. Richard of Gloucester's retinue is complete, and I have started in on Will Hastings, and I have also completed a levy bill-bow unit, and some Irish mercenaries for the Lancastrians. The project is about 40% 'complete' (i.e. building for the Battle of Tewkesbury)--as if any wargaming project ever achieves its telos.

I also wanted to post up some pictures of random stuff that I has come from my painting desk at one time or another. A miniatures blog entry is like a PowerPoint presentation: if there aren't any pictures, you're doing it wrong.

Here we have some Scythian nobles from Old Glory 25s: they can easy represent any sort of unruly steppe nomad types on the skirmish table. I was incredibly surprised with how much I liked the sculpts (particularly the middle guy), since I bought them on a whim. No one really knows what the Scythians looked like, as the sources conflict, and archaeological excavations of tomb mounds has turned up mummified corpses which look Ukrainian, and DNA analysis has shown others to be related to the steppe people of western Mongolia. They were likely a mixed grouping of confederate tribes who intermingled.

Apologies for the unfinished bases: that's on the agenda.

Obligatory close-up

The Wife bought some Splintered Light forest creatures (note the cuteness factor) which she has tasked me with painting. This will happen in fits and starts when I feel like painting something tiny. I have never painted in 15mm before: these are my first ones.

My little namesakes! Some sweet little foxes. (Hide the chickens!)

And here are some oldies, painted a goodly while ago, that I don't mind posting up. First we have some Old Glory Norman heavy horse painted up a Swan Knights of Dol Amroth on a whim. I added their head-wraps with some green stuff.

Front view.

Shield view.

And lets finish it off with the following, as whose collection could be complete without a Fellowship (obtained on the old e-bay for $5, I might add: no way am I paying Game$ Work$hop prices!)?

I love Boromir. It's like Richard Sharpe at a Ren-faire.

That's all for now. I hope my next post won't be so long in the making. May the gods of dice and paint favor you!

Si vales, bene est,

-The Fox

Some old HYW work

So here are some pictures I took of my now defunct Hundred Years war project.  The figures are Black Tree Designs (purchase from them at your own risk) and were one of the first major miniature purchases I ever made after getting into historicals (only about 4 years ago--I'm still fairly new to the hobby).  Their figures are well sculpted overall, but tend to run rather large, so they do not mix too well with other ranges, which is also a major pain if I ever do decide to revive this project, since I never want to order from them again after still having never received horses from this particular order (and I'm not holding my breath, since it's been 3 1/2 years). 

I really like this period, particularly because in all my painting of ancients I find myself painting with the same colors over and over and over again and painting in muted tones, whereas these guys allow me to paint something a little brighter and practice some free-hand techniques.  This is also why I am excited to start on the War of the Roses figures I have coming to me in the mail from the fine folks at Old Glory.

Here are some photos:

Some dismounted knights.  They are all individually based, rather than being on stands, as I wasn't aiming at any particular rules set, being pretty new to things when I painted them.

Basingbourne at the ready.

A close up on FitzWarin (I think). The ermine is free-hand.

What would the HYW be without some bows?

Spears behind a wall.

Until next time,
Si vales, bene est.