I did some more work on Clint Eastwood I lightened up his shirt and did some more work on his face. I won't bother posting it, it just seems pointless now (unless requested). I've put the model away so I don't feel tempted to continue modifications.

Time for an army update.

Here's my "Marshall," or General unit. Leaders have been scaled waaay back in WotR: MA. Command miniatures in companies literally do nothing, just like in Black Powder. They're there "just because." Epic Heroes, on the other hand, have been modeled after Marshalls in the video game "Knights of Honor" and are not meant to take an active participation in battle in my variant--in fact, their death signals the defeat of one side. A general and his standard bearer count as a company in and of itself, sort of like a monster in LotR: WotR. The company is made powerful enough that it can hold its own in combat, but its something to generally be avoided. Marshalls still have Heroic Actions.



As you can see, I finally got to try out some pigments. They are very realistic-looking...just kidding, that's some dirt from the backyard I actually think, out of all the different things I've tried so far to mimic desert sand, just gluing on some dirt from the backyard has worked the best:



Tell me what you think.













My brother finished his Longbowmen, four companies--which is kind of a small amount for a Medieval English army, but that's all that came from all the boxed sets he purchased:



If I could go back in time, I would have done this project in 15mm metal. Here's a great inspiration pic I found recently by helmet101 from The Miniatures Page. Absolutely digging those flags--none of my guys have long spears though! I even had to convert my army standard bearer.

My brother asked my to paint his English general, so here he is. These two models were probably the best sculpted out of the two armies, from Zvezda's "Englush Knights of the Hundred Years War" boxed set.











The heraldry for the general himself appears to be based on Edward, the Black Prince. The heraldry for the standard bearer was that on his shield, but I painted over it--which is one of the major drawbacks of 20mm plastic. You can get extreme detail, but that detail is very easily obscured in a layer of paint.

Here's another unit of Saracens done, from HaT"s "Almoravid Infantry" boxed set.



And a WIP with my new basing technique. For the models themselves, I just directly glue on dirt from the backyard after painting the base desert yellow. For the base, I spray undercoat black, then paint a mix of brown and orange brown, then drybrush desert yellow, and finish with a drybrush of bleached bone. I'm thinking I might go back and apply these techniques to all the bases...does anyone have an opinion on it?

The old bases don't look bad, but these new ones are very realistic.

Hey Sticky Fingersss, thanks, I started making all of the bases to look like this one. Did some more work, but I figured I'd share this week's distractions and post another army update when I have more substantial progress to share:



Here is a converted 28mm Joan of Arc from Perry Miniatures. Overall, I'm not pleased with the miniature, but I wanted to post it for the conversion--even though its poorly done. Joan's face is not very well sculpted and I really don't like my paint job. The blister also came with La Hire and Jean de Denois, who I might paint.

Man, just seeing this pic makes me want to try it again...darker shading, maybe a darker mane and tail for the horse, different strap and stirrup colors, not so much washing on the armor, a greenstuff'd hand (though I don't have any sculpting supplies), a "paperclip" banner rather than what I gave her, maybe even glue her sword hand back...

I also worked on Boromir, Captain of the White Tower with banner this week--which I am much more pleased with. He's probably one of my best painted models! Check my gallery for a (rather cruddy) shot of him.

These look like absolutely superb miniatures. I'm sorry I haven't seen this thread earlier! I love the aspect the medieval world and you've captured it here in your painting and armies. I have to say the English army are my favourite here, not because I'm British (well Scottish, so they did kick our ass) but because of their style. These are all Italeri figures? and what rules set do you use for these miniatures? do you find enough people to have games with? Okay, okay that's the last of the questions, lol. I'm just curious as I'm tempted to collect a few myself. Top notch work here Jarmos, keep it up and I look forward to your next update.

P.S. Love the Boromir aloft with banner in your gallery, it's a brilliant miniature.

Drum

Thanks for the inquiries Drumstick! I tend to be long-winded and my camera is poor, and half of this thread isn't even related to my medieval project, so I haven't generated much interest. This project started as a conversion for War of the Ring, taking out the fantasy elements as well as some of the overpowered-hero aspects in order to make it usable for medieval battles. But things have taken a somewhat different turn, as we are now rebasing the models on 40mmx40mm bases. This is because the cavalry could not be moved on their trays stably. When we saw how much it would cost to place them all on 40mm circular bases and give them War of the Ring cavalry movement trays, it was decided that some sort of new basing had to be used, as well as possibly new rules. Right now, War of the Ring is still the favored rules set, but I been looking into Impetus, Hail Caesar, Terry Gore's Medieval Warfare, Dux Bellorum, and Neil Thomas's Ancient and Medieval Wargaming, among others. Medieval wargaming doesn't seem to be very big, so it a lot of times gets grouped in with Ancients, and if it doesn't the information about the rules is very scarce. If anyone can help, I'm looking for rules with around the same complexity as War of the Ring, with army lists for the High and Late Middle Ages.

I too like the look of the English army, my brother's army, more than my own Saracens, but I think I would prefer to game The Crusades over something like The War of the Roses. My only gaming partner right now is my brother, that's his English army. This is a project we decided to do together. The miniatures in all these pictures are actually a mix of Italeri, Zvezda, Caesar, HaT, and Revell miniatures. My army only consists of Italeri and HaT. And now, an update with some more painting and the new basing:















Here's this post's side project...











This is the 54mm Iroquois Warrior from Model-K. It came assembled and toned for an absolutely unbeatable price. Now, as a disclaimer, I'm not sure what Model-K's deal is. They are based in Ukraine and have a massive selection of varying quality. They may be receiving expired molds from other companies, they may be re-producing miniatures in their area of the world, or they may somehow be pirating copies of miniatures from other companies. I'm not sure, it may be a combination of all of those. This miniature was awesome to paint, I'm very proud of how it turned out. 28mm is no longer the favored scale for wargaming or display

Halberds and Camels now done.













After playing a test game with the War of the Ring variant, it was clear that I had not balanced the Saracen and Crusader army lists. The number one problem was that the Saracens suffered from a higher points cost due to them have more--but not better--equipment. My brother's longbowmen and knights absolutely crushed my Saracens. So I've been running through reviews and previews of Hail Caesar, Warhammer Ancient Battles, Warmaster Ancients, Impetus, War and Conquest, Clash of Empires, Medieval Warfare, and Ancient and Medieval Wargaming, and for now have settled on WAB. Problem is, its completely OOP

I would like to see a future battle report! These armies need battle!

sweet! more beautiful miniatures. I especially like the red Indian, what scale is he?

54mm from Model-K, very fun to paint, very pleased with the result on such a great model.

They've battled once, using modified War of the Ring rules. I considered taking pictures...but I didn't, obviously From here on out, we will most likely be using Warhammer Ancient Battles. Unfortunately, I doubt these armies will be having another battle before I leave for school in next week. I'm just going to try to paint as much as I can.

We have definitely settled on Warhammer Ancient Battles. Below are some very poor, worse than usual, shots of my finished "Turkish Light Cavalry" with the General and Army Standard, and some "Arab Archers," now separated into their own unit.













A new Games Workshop just opened up fifteen minutes from my house. I can't resist! I'm leaving for school on Friday, but I'll probably cash in on The Hobbit. I'm still planning on going down Wednesday to see if I can't play the Balin's Tomb scenario, though I've forgotten all the rules. After a long hiatus away from GW, I'm now re-investing in two of their games--despite the expense, Games Workshop must pride itself in being by far the most accessible company involved in miniature wargaming.

And, this post's distraction:



eBob's Scottish Knight, repainted. This fellow appeared in Mass Slaughter 2 back on page 1! I think I've done the sculpt a bit more justice this time.

very nice mini & good paint job. I've been tempted on several occasions to get this one myself.

Love the arabic free hand. What does it say?

On the shields it says a lot of different stuff, most of which I can't exactly remember unfortunately. If you type a common Muslim expression in Google Images, you will see it written many different ways. One that I did use a lot and can recognize easily is "Allah," which, obviously, is Arabic for "The God." Its the one that sort of looks like it has a "W" with an "I" next to it. I actually didn't do the flags, and again unfortunately have them bookmarked on a different computer. The black flag says "Jihad" ("struggle"), but I don't know about the other one...

Who would have thought it would have been so hard to answer a question so easy?

I like these 'dirt' bases a lot more than the ballast ones. More in scale with the miniatures...

... which are A LOT by the way. You've been busy! ehe

Keep it up.

_________________
Tell me... Do you bleed?
You will!
Chewy, we're home!

There is a lot going on here. It takes ages to read through all the posts and a lot to see in the images. Well done on turning out so much stuff!

_________________
Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

I went to school without my paints or miniatures, so didn't do anything at all for several months. I expected that when I got back I would hop on down to GW to get into the Hobbit, but I have surprisingly little interest. Anyway, I took some poor, quick shots of what I've been working on the past couple weeks on break.

54mm 14th Century Knight Hospitaller from Model-K



He's actually a heck of a lot paler skin-wise in real life, but I couldn't get a shot that wasn't shaded by his helm. Anyway, while his color scheme compliments the Iroquois, I'm not pleased with this model. He is a 14th Century Knight Hospitaller, so his robes are supposed to be red, but I wanted to paint him as an unaffiliated crusader. More than that, though, I would like to do freehand heraldry. Does anyone have any tips for filing off the crosses? Or for painting armor?

1/72 Saracens


Managed to finally play a game of Warhammer Ancient Battles with these guys.

10mm Battle of Five Armies


Warmaster (and derivatives) might be my favorite large scale wargame.

Warhammer Fantasy Orcs



I know many of you strongly dislike Warhammer, but I like the game and background. Visually, I prefer late 90s to late 2000s, but whatever. Anyway, I touched up some of my Orcs and played several small games.

Painted up a Games Day Orc Warboss I won in an eBay bid...











...and am now without my paints again.

Terrible, terrible pictures. But I'm very proud of this model, the standard is right up there with the 54mm Iroquois.

Been a while. The Saracen army is finished for Hail Caesar. Here is a 54mm miniature from Model-K:

I thought I was having some sort of flashbacks until I checked the dates! That's a great looking native American (a chief?)

_________________
Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!