Having decided to change the mini’s from the plastics to some of the beautifull Perry metals I recieved in the post a last week I’ve decided to re-do the step by step using the new stuff. I’ll be painting the miniatures over the next week so the full article will be posted ;round about then.

A York! A York!

Darrell.

One of the most important things to do when painting a mini is to get a good ground. This can be achieved in many ways, some folks use straightforward thinned paint some are more extravagent; maybe they will use a black gesso or maybe matt varnish mixed with thinned black paint- there are many ways and I certainly don’t make any claims to hold the holy grail have the solution but this is how I go about it:

Give the model a light spray of your favourite Matt Black Primer. My favourite, probably more out of consistancy of availability was GW Choas Black, but now that they have switched to their airbrush I have been experimenting a bit with other manufacturers. The trick is to give it a ‘dusting’ of spray and not to over apply the spray. 

Next I apply a good dolop of Valejo Matt Black to the palette. This paint dries very matt and can be used on it’s own with a 50/50 mix of water with great results. That said,  I prefer to add a flow improver as this allows the paint to run into and nooks and crannies that it wouln’t ordinarily run into. Flow Improver can add a slightly glossy sheen to paint when dry so it’s often a good idea to add a bit of matt medieum to the mix, this will help knock back the sheen and leave you with a nice matt surface. As a rule of thumb- the more matt the mini is at this stage the better- it’s much easier to pick out detail on a model undercoated in this way than it is if the model is reflecting too much light.

Hope that this little article is of some help to you chaps?  :0)

Darrell.

After owning two boxes of the Perry Miniatures plastic Wars of the Roses miniatures and having been gawping at the sprues for a few weeks now I thought it about time I to try putting some of the models together at long last. I have to say that they went together a treat and there were very few flaws in the joints and those that there did exist were quickly fixed with a bit of greenstuff.

There is virtually no flash on these models. Kudos for the Perry twins and Renedra for getting this (almost) perfect. I have been told that it is not such an easy thing to get excellent first time results when tooling plastics. A hell of a lot of work goes has to go into into designing and planning the miniatures so as they are actually suitable for moulding into plastic parts. Rather them than me :0)

The main reason why none of the models have been put together thus far can be put down to to the fact that there is a wealth of modelling potential and as the miniatures are easy to convert some difficult choices as to what to do army wise. Maybe I put together an army like French Ordonnance…..  Burgundian Ordonnance armies…..even a 15thC Castillian force. I just couldn’t decide!

In the end though it was all decided for me. With the recnet the release of The Perfect Captain’s campain rules A Crown of Paper and the tabletop wargames rules A Coat of Steel. Although I haven’t actually had the chance to play these rules I do have some experience with Very Civil Actions, another product of The Perfect Captain set up and have had a good few fun packed games using those rules.

Oh, did I mention the rules are free? Well almost free as we are urged to make a donation to a charity of our choice (I chose Combat Stress).

So, withour further ado, here’s what I put together earlier today:

Now all I have to do is make my mind up what battle I’m going to model an army from! Thinking of Towton, but then there is no evidence of artillery being used and the new Perry field guns look superb! Maybe Tewkesbury then?

Well have to see…..

Darrell.

We headed down to York for Vappa yesterday, a show I really like as it’s just about the perfect size IMHO, not so big that you incur cognitive overload running around trying to take everything in and not so small that you take it all in within half an hour. To top it all off you have all the good traders to in which to choose your poison from.

Met up with many friends, although I did miss Peter from The WAB Forum, who as instructed asked the Gripping Beast chaps where I was but it seems that we kept missing one another. Sorry mate, we’ll meet at some point I’m sure……..

T’was good to see Bill from Musketeer Miniatures back on the circuit too.  Chatted a bit with the brothers from Curty’s Miniatures  about there  nice 13thC Medieval range that’s on the go and well worth a good look. The range is designed initially at least  as Eastern Europeans to fight it out with their Mongol range but their plans have expanded and the range will now be covering Western armies right up until the start of the Hussite Wars. Great stuff. Gripping Beast unvailed their new three up resins for their forthcoming plastic Viking/Norse set- the models were superb and Darren, inspired to pick up a brush again, has done a brilliant job of adding life to them with a lick of paint. If you haven’t subscribed to their newsletter yet then I suggest you do, if you have then keep your eyes open for the next one ;0)

A couple of games really caught my eye, one being a large scenario driven First Crusades game put on by James Roach who put together a Piquet based version of the rules that was published in Miniature Wargames some time in November last year (I think). A visually stunning game, fantastic terrain and two beautifully painted armies- you just couldn’t walk past it without saying “wow!”. Another game that really caught my eye was a  28mm Renaissance battle that must have had literally hundreds of Landsknechts on the table. Here’s a few snaps:

As for purchases? Well a bit of a mix….. Trevor at Corantini supplied me with some magnetic sheeting. I was happy to get Vol 1 and 3 of the Armies and Uniforms of the Seven Years War from Caliver Books  as I’m going to be playing in one of Saxon Dogs (hmmm….. mystery huh?) weekenders in April and it would be very rude of me to turn up sans brigade. Army Painter Strongtone was bought to bring forth a swift painterly rendering of the 7YW mini’s. Also managed to grab a very colourfull illustrated book on the history of the Byzantine army- more for the plates than the rather light text. I picked up my Landsknecht unit deals and a couple of packs of Aqubus’ too- can’t make up my mind whether to base these for WAB or Impetus??? If WAB, then I can at least play every so often at Nottingham or Evesham Medieval events…. If Impetus? I only know of one player who uses the rules for this period…… hmmmm.

Oh, I forgot to buy the command packs for the Brits from Brian at Mutineer Miniatures. The figures are sculpted by mike Owen and a quite something…..Indian Mutiny anyone?

Darrell.

All been a bit hush hush really…….

Gripping Beast plastic Vikings are on their way.

Here’s the sample pic that came with their newsletter:

Thrice Geogeous!!!!!

OK, we’ve had the Perry Wars of the Roses plastics, the new Wars of the Roses metal commands by the twins……

To add to all the excitement I have just got word from Dave at Grand Manner that he intends to expand the Late Medieval/HYW/Wars of the Roses range, the highlight of which so far has to be the ‘Keep’. Keep being an understatement as this thing is a monster:

Link:

This is great news for me and I’m guessing many others as there is a distinct lack of suitable buildings available on the wargames market that are custom made for the Late Medieval period. Also, it is a bit of a coup for Medieval gamers as Dave will be sculpting the models as he’s the best in the business IMHO.

Nope, he’s not paying me :0)

Dave sent me these pics of what he has on his workbench at present:

From what Dave has told me there’s some really interesting stuff in the pipeline so keep an eye peeled:

Link:

Darrell.