Progress- LOTR and SAGA Terrain plus Crusaders

I decided a while back that I needed some new LOTR terrain and I stumbled on Hirst Arts by googling stuff. At first I thought that making the monsterous ruined watchtower thing was the way to go but settled instead on this instead after getting sick of plaster pouring.

 

The theme is Woodlands stone ruins somewhere in Mirkwood. I had trouble adding the trees to the piece above so when I do that, it'll be finished.

I have Elves and DolGuldur themed armies so this should hopefully look great with them... especially the Elves.

 

Below are some in-progress shots of my next pieces which will look similar in style to the one above

Perhaps an Elven outdoor bbq

This is the ruined stables, the piece with the columns will be a watering pool... still contemplating on whether I should add a second story over that bit.

Two story ruins

The floor is just 3mm MDF board which I took to with one of those cool new multi-tools (like a Renovator) and washed it brown... simple yet effective.

One of my 3 molds, I think I got 70 and 75 and the basic building blocks molds, after doing about 13 runs of each I still have heaps of leftover blocks... which can only mean one thing... I HAVE to make more terrain!

My Crusader Army is started but progress has become a bit slow. This unit of Templar Knights is painted though. Its been such a fun army to build, I love the kitbashing side of it. The flags are not paper... I make mine from the blister boxes clear plastic, cut to shape, heat with a lighter and bend them up how you want, superglue, paint, done! they are really durable as they have some flex and you can get some really good kinks that are hard to get with paper ones.

Based on 8cm Frontage Impetus bases

These were fun to make, I didn't even know what Turcopoles were till I saw them in the list and googled it. I have hardout kitbashed them and I think they came out really well, need to finish painting them though. I did a unit of Syrian archers too but I didn't get a pic sorry, perhaps when I finish them!

more stuff, my Onager Jas (Kruger) gave me with the crossbow units

And I have finished at least one thing!!!! my SAGA feasting hall. The thatched roof comes off, its fairly big, I just need say 3 thatched huts to go around it.

 

I have a few 40KOrks in the post, couldn't resist- $20NZD! I've never been into 40K at all BUT when I was young I really liked looking at White Dwarf GorkaMorka pics, I thought it was the coolest thing ever! so 20 years on, I thought I'd give it a crack or a bash or Waaaaghtever.

 

So that's me... sooo much to do, so little time ;)

28mm Moderns Afghanistan

Skirmish Sangin was the new game we tried out this week... I already had a heap of eastern European insurgents but to stick with the "theme" I repainted a few just for the game.

I've gone with an Afghanistan Army uniform style rather than the usual "Taliban" gears as I don't have the figures. Pooch does and they look great, perhaps he will post them sometime soon ;)

I was going to post the game and terrain but I cant get my phone to transfer the files to the laptop.

Two shots of the new gang, the camo was super fun to paint.

I have about thirty of these guys for Force on Force

 

Adam has posted the game now so check his blog if you like this sort of thing

Kruger has SAS and probably some pics on his blog, its the same old story... I trade him some figures and he beautifully bases and paints them to my shame!

I enjoyed the game Pooch, its percentages but not rocket science and I liked the system overall.

Impetus Game Romans vs Palmyra

Last night Jas came over for a game, I've been gunning for ancients for a while and although my army isn't quite finished, it mostly is and is "fieldable", Jas brought over his rocking new Roman Army which look really cool, so here are some shots of the Palmyrene Army and our game of Impetus, it was a heap of fun, hope you enjoy the pics

Army with 2 commands, I stuffed up my list and had to take out two units after Jas put me right with the commands and commander rules! Ultimately my command issues helped break me in the end and a better thought out Army list is on the cards. New Crusaders force based in the background... my next project.

Warlord Games Camelry 

My T units

Syrian Archers converted from Lord of the rings haradrim which saved me having to buy the Warlord Eastern Auxiliary Archer packs but maybe I'll upgrade to "proper figures" at some point anyway

CL units

Light cavalry with Composite Bows and javelins, Cretan Bow skirmishers at the front, these units are made up from Wargames Factory Plastic Persian Cav and their Numidians box

Crusaders, next project shots

 

To the battlefield,

Antioch or somewhere close, we didn't play an actual historical battle

Not the best situation for my largely cavalry army with a shallow stream running across the table

Roman column advances to the battlefield eager for glory and gold 

Above and below is my deployment of the Palmyrene force, Archers protecting the camp far right, Light cav in the middle, Cataphracts on the right

The self proclaimed King of Palmyra and his Cataphracts

Above and below, Jas' Roman deployment

To War! we both move forward into battle

Jas' Roman Contariorum charge and my Cretan skirmishers end up with medals of honour and "unit of the day" after scoring a massive 4 hits from 6 shots. Oh dear!

I sent the cataphracts into the praetorians and they counter charge me but we only both disorder, yawn!

So in go the rest of the cataphracts, but they stall on contact and even having lots of dice doesn't guarantee that you will get a hit! I had such high hopes! Alas no...

One unit of CL with javelins destroying the roman flank, they also did really well

Until my command broke after I rushed into combat my other CL to get rid of those pesky roman slingers and they stood and massacred the cav. sigh!  Game over

Thanks Jas, great game, nice to be able to crank out my terrain again and try a new list, I had a heap of fun.

 

Impetus Cataphracts

I've been waiting for these to arrive for a while now after Wayland stuffed an order I made, then after finally getting them for The Warstore I noticed the kontos lances were missing... sigh! Warlord Games were great getting them out in the mail and the complaint only took about 20 days from email to actual mail arriving. So far, I have basecoated and done some highlights, so still a work in progress, with more highlights and basing to come. I was thinking of converting with greenstuff some horsehair for the helmets so they look more like Parthian or Palmyran, thoughts welcome.

Ancients can be a bit ambiguous so I'm not overly fussed if they aren't an exact representation but that's the theme I'm looking for.

They are based for Impetus but we seem to use 8cm fronts as Craig and Jamie prefer that over the 12cm and I think that that works well overall for the game.

King of Palmyra

So far, so good, making good progress in our Polar Blast! (its snowing and bad weather at the moment here in little old New Zealand)

That's all, constructive feedback on painting colours, weapons etc welcome

PLASTIC SPRUES/Figures COMPARISON (Ancient and Medieval)

DEUS VULT bases for the infantry (only one sprue in the box)

DEUS VULT infantry sprue... I especially like the mix of weapons and the variety in shield designs, 2 extra heads per sprue and the box has 5 of these sprues, no decals like some other manufacturers,

You can make 24 crossbowmen and 24 Tinmen with the box or all 48 as Foot Sergeants with shields

This is an impressive box of plastics and about as 28mm as you can get,

well done Fireforge Games

This is the infantry body detail

And the heads

DEUS VULT Templar knights (barded horses x4)

same as above but unbarded x 8 (I think that's what its called anyway)

The knights and their weapons and heads sprue

Knights bases (enough for 16 Cavalry models)

Wargames Factory Vikings

Wargames Factory Saxons (bodies are the same but the weapons & heads sprues change)

Warlord Games Phalangites box (I got 2, 80 pikemen!)

Phalangites detail

Wargames Factory Numidians, I already have 3 boxes of these because you can make almost anything ancient out of them, especially skirmishers and its loads of weapons bits for converting)

One thing I will say though is that the swords easily break and the weapons get glued into the hands which does look a little funny up close as the figure doesn't appear to be gripping the weapon properly

Comparison shot of Wargames factory Persian horse (left) with a Deus Vult Templar horse (right)

I was impressed that the scale matches exactly with a similar design, you could almost mix and match for variety with minimal converting

Another shot for scale

Comparison of figures shot left to right;

Foundry Roman signifier, Warlord Games Roman Veteran, Wargames Factory Numidian with bow, Immortal Hoplite (small heads), Foundry? Hannibal perhaps?, Wargames Factory Saxon Fyrd, Deus Vult Foot Sergeant

Templar Knights sprue, I really like these plastics, some of the best I've seen so far,

AGAIN, well done Fireforge Games

So, there we have it, and as you can see, I won't be "needing" figures soon.
My intention is to build up my Ancients collection to make several lists over a huge period.
Macedonians/Seleucids/Phyrric
Parthians/Palmyra
Crusaders
I already have a SAGA army of Saxons so I can add to that or do another with Vikings or whatever

Hopefully that's helpful to someone somewhere :)