Outlaws and Villages

 This project has been simmering away for years now, but I found time yesterday to get out the buildings I have finished and take stock of what I still need to do.

I  was finishing off the bases of my Robin Hood figures and decided to try and blend the trees I have from The Last Valley to match the figure basing. Plenty of Vallejo brown mud texture was added, and then dry brushed lighter brown to look like Mendip soil where Robin of Sherwood was primarily filmed.

The sheriff arrives to terrorise Wickham.

The outlaws and Herne the hunter lurking in the woods.

I need to add more items to the village scene, including a stream, road, vegetable patch etc.

Basing

 I'm making some progress with the landsknechts, although not as fast as I would like...

and of course I've been sidetracked into finishing off some other figures. Recently Crooked Dice Miniatures released some more Robin of Sherwood figures, and this galvanised me getting out the figures I had painted so far and finishing the bases off.

I've been prevaricating for years on how to do them, but recently Geoff at Oakbound kindly gave me a mix of the flocks he uses, and they work really well.

Basing underway... complete with appropriate soundtrack.

Some of the villagers of Wickham. A mix of 4 flocks, and I've added the odd subdued tuft.

More to follow soon

RIP Ian Heath

 I was sad to hear about the death of Ian Heath today. I can't claim to have ever met him , of even know what he looked like, but his WRG books were and still are absolutely seminal wargaming works. As a youth ( with spare time) I would spend hours poring over the illustrations and descriptions of armour and battles.

And here is the late Mr. Heath, picture posted by The Perry's.

First of the Landsknechts

 Landsknechts..... the idea of painting them has always filled me with dread, but I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment having found my mojo after months in the wilderness.

I've got a pike block of 54 to complete, along with 10 skirmishers, and I've decided to paint each figure pretty much individually...with non uniformed troops I find it quicker, and less confusing.

The figures are by The Assault Group and are early Landsknechts from the 1490s-early 1500s.

Here are the first 3 .

At the moment, I'm quite enjoying the challenge of getting one a day finished...we'll see how I feel after a few more.

One thing I'm finding is I can only paint for about an hour at a time now without getting a tummy ache, presumably due to my appalling posture when painting.

Defenders of Padua

 I managed to get a couple of hours this  morning to carry on with these old Grenadier figures to use as Paduan defenders of the 1509 siege.Almost finished 4 guns and 8 crew.

The Men Who Would be Kings

 I went to play a quick game with my regular opponent Speckled Jim last night, and he cracked open his 15mm collection for a colonial game using the Osprey rules.

I was playing the Beja or Hadenedowa, defending their village against an Anglo Egyptian force, and I didn't do terribly well, not actually getting anywhere near the enemy before being gunned down, so relatively historically accurate.

I learned a few lessons so if we play again I'll try and wait until I can charge him en masse so he can't concentrate his fire.

It was a fun game though.

Initial deployment. Some of my tribesmen in the village, the rest on the table edge nearest the camera.

The Anglo Egyptian force move forward and I try to outflank them with my camelry on the far right.... the Egyptian cavalry although inferior roll some damn lucky dice with their carbine shooting and pin me before I can contact.

Meanwhile I despatched a unit of tribesmen through the oasis , but they again get pinned.

Jim's firing line form a crescent facing the village so any Beja who stirs is targeted.

My casualties.... A sorry sight.

A fun quick game. Years since I played a colonial game, and I'm sorry my generalship didn't do the Beja justice.

As Corporal Jones would say

"They didn't like it up 'em."

ITALIAN INSPIRATION

 One of George's schoolfriends has an Italian dad and they visit Italy several times a year. Last time they went I asked him to pick up these 2 books.

One on the battle of Anghiari by Massimo Predonzani who has written the recent Helion publications on the Italian Wars, and one about the Siege of Padua in 1509 called The Lion, the Eagle and the Cat (Venetian Lion, Imperial Eagle and the main defensive bastion of Padua was called The Bastion of the Cat).

Both in Italian which I can just about manage, using my O level Latin and Google translate. Full of fascinating details.