Condotta rearguard

There's a mandatory unit of spearmen on the Condotta list, and I've managed (with Shaun McTague's help, and some minis from Richard Hampson-Smith) to field a unit that to replace the pikemen that were originally going to proxy for it.

Unfortunately Perry don't do an Italian spearman, so I have had to cut down pikes and use pavises in place of shields, but they do the job. The colours are Venetian. Again the flag is from Pete's Flags, on eBay.

These will be raw spearmen and, at Chalgrove, I do not expect very much of them! I might leave them to guard the camp. I need to get started on flocking...

Italian Condotta

Here are my Italian Condotta for Chalgrove. Last night I grouted the bases, and now just need to flock and tuft them. I am tempted to replace the pikemen with some spearmen that Shaun McT is painting, and add some tents for a camp, but other than that they are mostly done, which is just as well since I'm a little behind with my Salute preparations! The bases are currently raw umber which seems like an appropriate base colour. :-)

These are on FK&P5 and FK&P6 bases; I really like these because they are a good fit for both 15cm (2 bases)  and 20cm (3 bases) grids.

Celtic Shields IV

Shields finished (bar the backs- but no more photos, I promise!). The final stage was to paint and ink around the bosses. I'm really pleased with them- LMBS designs are stunning and, mixed in with freehand shields for variety, should look rather splendid.

Putting my commercial hat on... I've imported a limited number of rivers and tracks from Deep-Cut. They are printed on mouse-mat material, 28mm scale and ideal for quickly rolling out on top of one of the cloths I sell. You can find them here.

Celtathon 1

I've mentioned that I'm putting together a large army of Britons for my Mancetter 61 CE game at Salute. Here are the first of (hopefully) two groups of reinforcements, fresh from the brush of Shaun McTague.

I have around 300 painted and based warband minis already, and these c.150, with 50 from my loft-box of "reserves", give me around 500 minis. My plan was to add another 100 Black Tree minis, to increase the variety of poses, but I've been waiting for these for 7 weeks and am very nervous about whether they will arrive in time for Shaun to paint them- or, indeed, at all. :-/  If anyone has any unpainted (or painted) Black Tree Celts that they are prepared to part with, please drop me a line!

Once all the minis are finished and married up with the shields that I've been working on since Christmas, I plan to re-base the entire army at 16 units on my new-style wobbly-edged bases. I don't have very much spare time, so it'll be a challenge! I also need to base around a dozen units of slingers and some light horse.

Celtic Shields III

It may not look especially different to the last image, but I've painted in the edges on all the shields- it took me three paint sessions- well worthwhile I think. Lots of careful colour matching. 

Next I need to paint some of the shield ribs (I'll leave most white) and after that the 130-odd shield bosses. Then there's inking, varnishing and the shield backs- perhaps another four sessions, in all. I suppose including cutting and preparation there will be around 15 evenings work to produce 150 shields - it'd take a lot longer if I was doing one pack at a time.

Celtic Shields II

Here are the shields from the last post with the LBMS transfers applied- I love LBMS transfers! I've found I can apply around 20 an hour, whilst watching TV.

A couple of learning points that people might find useful:

• All sculpted metal shields are asymmetrical, to some extent, so take plenty of time checking that the transfer is the right way round. There is always a right way and a wrong way!
• A clay-shaper is a really useful tool for gently pushing the transfer into contact with the shield around the boss.

Next I need to paint the edges and backs of the shields, the ribs and the bosses- perhaps a week's work. These should be sufficient for the expansion to my Celtic army for Salute, which will be a theme on this blog for the next three months. 

New Year- new project.

I prepped these over Christmas for my Salute project (filing, priming, spray white, gloss varnish). Celtic transfers can be quite time-consuming to apply, what with the fiddly boss and ribs to be cut out, and the edges and rim matched. I am hoping that by doing a big lot together, there will be economies of scale. My favourite shields are the above, from A&A, and I'll be using the excellent LBMS transfers. I'll come back later with more details of what I'm up to.

For Millsy, here's my army list for the To the Strongest! Worlds at Chalgrove. I've not played with knights since play-testing, some 5 years ago, and am really looking forward to using them. I am guaranteed to have plenty of spare time between games, one way or the other!

I'm trying to get as many of the Chalgrove lists in as possible, as soon as people have them ready, because it spreads the load for Tim (who is kindly checking them) and helps us to know the number of attendees. So if you are coming, and have a list ready, please fire it over to Tim!

Happy New Year!

Last night, twixt haggis, mulled wine and spectacular London fireworks, I finished and added flags to the final element of my Chalgrove army. These Perry later knights have the banners and colours of the house of Sforza of Milan, from the excellent Pete's flags, which I cannot comment too highly. 

Below you can see the completed (but not fully based) army. In an ideal world I'd love to have more Milanese units, replace the pikemen with spearmen, and the crossbowmen with pavise-less crossbows, but I'm really pleased to have these ready for basing, as I urgently need to embark upon my Salute project. I think this is the first time I've managed to produce an army specifically for Chalgrove. I have lots of other minis ready for basing and plan to return to the Medieval/Renaissance periods after Salute.

If you are coming to Chalgrove on Feb 23rd, please get your army list over to Tim ASAP so that he can check it- he's very good- he spotted two minor errors in my submission. For your interest, I'll publish my own army list, tomorrow or Thursday.

Can I take this opportunity to wish everyone a Very Happy 2019! At first glance, prospects for the year ahead appear challenging, but I am confident that we can rise above them. I have ambitious plans for various gaming and publishing projects...