Friday, 9 April 2021

More Stradiotti

 

I've just added a second unit of splendid Perry Stradiotti, beautifully painted for me by Shaun Watson, to my Venetian army, bringing my total to twenty. These formidable light cavalry bring a certain style to my army, in their top hats, and no baggage train is safe!

For To the Strongest! games at shows, they'll operate as two units of ten, on a 20cm grid. But at home or when I take them tournaments they will fight in smaller units of 3 or 4 on a 15cm grid. I've based them on my FK&P6 bases which I can fit together to make smaller or larger units.

My chum Ian Notter very kindly flocked these for me to match the original unit- so well, in fact, that I can't now tell which unit is which! I added the tufts and flowers- less is definitely more, when adding the latter.

I've not had time to post much, recently, but with Ian's help I am close to finishing a bunch more units so more posts will follow shortly.

Thursday, 1 April 2021

Swiss army progress

Here's the latest progress on the Switzers. Above, the vast majority of miniatures are painted, and most are highlighted and inked. There must be 650-700 of the blighters, the majority painted by Shaun McTague but some by David Imrie and Lionel Bechara. I even painted a few from scratch, and highlighted most of them. Later I'll need to add a unit of cavalry, some halberdiers and, of course, their Burgundian opponents.


Above and below are the four trays (roughly 500 minis) of mostly-painted minis. These are grouped by canton, but there's also a tray-and-a-bit of minis in non-cantonal colours.



Above and below are the 8 (of a projected 18) mostly-finished units. My chum Ian very kindly flocked them for me, he's a demon with a puffer-bottle!  I've not yet added tufts, that's the final stage.

So, I hear you ask "when will they be finished?" I've reluctantly decided to delay that step until the autumn, because I have an even bigger project to finish this spring/summer of which more, anon. So I'll be putting them all in storage boxes, to clear space, and trying to find a place to store them! In the autumn I'll finish them off and make a start on the numerous Burgundian army.

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

New version of the To the Strongest! Ancient Army List eBook released


I’ve just published an updated versions of the Ancient army lists for To the Strongest! The 280-page PDF includes 152 army lists including 12 new lists. Several of the existing lists have been revised, and a good deal of background information and quite a few additional images have been added.


Each list consist of a spreadsheet describing the army (example above). Most of the lists also include details of how the army fought and a historical background, and sometimes a picture of miniatures, (below). 


The new lists for March are are Kassite and Successor Babylonian Dynasties, Saite Egyptian, Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian, Urartu, Phrygian, Medes, United Monarchy Hebrew, Mannaian, Regnal Hebrew, Neo-Hittite, Aramaean City States and Lycian. 

You can find the army lists here; there's an equivalent medieval eBook.  Should you order the lists you'll receive updates every three months until the end of 2022, with new lists and additional material added each time. The eBook costs £9.99.


Friday, 26 March 2021

Marlowe to Maidenhythe FK&P scenario eBook

Today I've loaded up this exciting new scenario eBook, written by Robert Avery, into the BigRedBatShop.

The 66 page Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario eBook is a digital file designed for the TtS! For King and Parliament English Civil War rules, but useful with other ECW rule systems, too.


It contains twelve free-standing fictional scenarios set around in the counties of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire during and shortly after the English Civil War. They tell the story of a series of clashes between Sir John Boulters (for the King) and Sir Christopher Grey (for Parliament). 

Each scenario contains a background briefing, separate briefings for each of the players, a deployment plan and orders of battle. 


The scenarios can be played individually or in sequence, as a campaign. Most of the characters and many of the units recur throughout the campaign.

You can buy it in BigRedBatshop:

Marlowe to Maidenhythe

Or, if you are in the EU, you can buy it from here:

Marlowe to Maidenhythe

Enjoy!

Sunday, 28 February 2021

Sharp Objects

Here's a project that I finished a while back but never had time to photograph. This is my fleet of scythed chariots; the Mark I's (venerable Vendels) at the rear and the Mark II's (lethal-looking Gripping Beast Polemarchs) to the fore. I'm very pleased with them.


I assembled them - no mean task! I made the whips from plastic rod. Shaun McTague painted them all, he did a splendid job with the red and the gold. I based on my wobbly-edged bases.


All the models are intended for the Ipsus game that I plan to run at various shows in Q3 and Q4. I fully suspect that they will last for less than 90 seconds! I'd have done better building wrecked chariot models, at least they'd be there all game. ;-)

In other news, I've just published an updated version of the Medieval army lists. If you bought the lists before you should have received a download link.


There are now 108 lists in the Medieval Army List eBook, and around two third of them now include historical background material. I've also started to include photos of my favourite wargames figures painted by my favourite wargames artists. If you'd like to buy a copy you can find it here.

Tuesday, 23 February 2021

Flagtastic


Mats Elzinga has very kindly made me up some beautiful LiƩgeois guild flags for my Low Countries Militia, who are clearly becoming more than a side-project. Above is the flag for the Meuniers (appropriately, the Millers) Guild- most of the minis are ex David Imrie.

Below the city flag with minis that are painted by me or Shaun McTague. Mats is going to do flags for the other guilds, too, so I will need to get a lot more minis painted! I don't mind this, though, as I have lots of spare plastic minis that suit this army rather better than they do Italian or Swiss hosts.


In other news, there's a palpable sense, here in the UK, that the tyranny of Covid is finally coming to an end. I'm busy dusting off half-finished projects from last year and planning events for Q3 that might, actually, happen! I am sifting through my lead-reserves and planning a real table-groaner.  :-)

Thursday, 18 February 2021

Low Countries pike

Last night I finished repainting these repurposed surplus Swiss pikemen who have signed up, instead, for the LiĆ©geois militia. 

There's a cracking image of a soldier with a padded jacket with added metal arm protection (just like the Perry plastics, above) on the left in this painting of the Flemish School by Hans Memling (late c. 15th). He even has the red trousers that the militia wore.

At the moment I'm undecided as to whether I should base them, now, or paint up a bunch more to introduce more variety of poses. I might buy some Perry metals. We'll see what happens, next week!