Norman Archers

Baguettes at ze ready!

I finished the pack of Crusader Normans I bought at Warfare last month. They didn't take too long, about two days all in all. The bows are a bit hefty and I probably should have replaced them with the Gripping Beast ones, which are more in scale, but I couldn't be bothered!

I'm looking to do William's Army for Hastings and although we don't have any details of the exact number and composition of his army I am going to follow the Osprey by Christopher Gravett where he estimates 1,500 archers. I'm going to do these armies at a ratio of 1/50 so that will give a total of 30 figures altogether. Crusader also do archers in armour (there are a few illustrated on the Bayeaux tapestry) so I will buy one pack of those and two more of unarmoured archers.

Some more Normans

I ordered some more Normans from Crusader last week and picked up some more at Colours yesterday.

Despite being in Poland most of the week I managed to finish another five figures today. I got some LBM shield transfers but won't use them on every figure as I think they are too ornate for every soldier.

Next I'm going to paint some archers befre doing a couple of cavalry. However, I'm in Bristol and Bath most of this week and then off to North America for three weeks so they will not be finished until Christmas.

First Norman

I bought a batch of Crusader Miniatures Normans on eBay recently and they arrived this week. While I was finishing my Early Saxons today I filed, based and painted this one as a test. It was really quick to do (yes, I know, it looks it) but I should be able to churn out some of these quite quickly.

So on the workbench for Dark Ages we now have 5 Norman infantry, six new Foundry late Saxons and four more Early Saxon Gedriht. That should keep me busy for a bit when not doing Napoleonics!

First Gedriht

Well, needless to say it took me a lot longer to get these painted than I thought but I had no idea that I was going to get hijacked by French Napoleonics!

But here are my first five Gedriht which were as easy to paint as all Musketeer Miniatures figures. These are my leader's hearth guard (I haven't painted him yet) and are a hefty 18 points each (15 for the figure and 3 for the mail armour) so we have 108 points straight off!

These have got me back into Dark Ages figures again so I will get the next few undercoated and do what I did with these add odd colours as I paint other figures.

Battle of Stamford Bridge

My Gripping Beast Vikings

My little boy had to write an essay about the Battle of Stamford Bridge this weekend and mentioned that it would make a great wargame. Quite right too! I am sure that some of the magazines have had scenarios before and maybe it was covered in one of the WAB supplements (Shieldwall?). Can't check as I am in Dubai at the moment. At least there is no temptation here to start up another army just becuse I am visiting somewhere!

So maybe I will have to put my Early Saxons on hold and paint some late Saxons! For wargaming purposes I split the Saxons into three periods: Early Saxons from the Romano-British period (Musketeer make the best ones by a mile), early Anglo-Saxons to take on the Vikings (Kind Alfred period) and late Anglo-Saxons (1066 period). Unfortunately they all look different and finding figures I like for the later period isn't easy. Gripping Beast do some but the range isn't very large. Crusader have a nice range but they are from one of his shorter figure ranges. I have some Black Tree Design ones but they are very variable. I quite like the new Foundry figures but they don't have any kite shaped shields (although GB do them). Maybe I will get some of the Foundry Saxons and give some kite shields (I have a few anyway) as the look stylistically similar to my Foundry and Artizan Vikings.

The Vikings are easier as I have Foundry and Artizan which go well together but also Gripping Beast which are more historically accurate (especially as regards the shields and in-scale weapons) but the range isn't that big.

Gedriht Unit now based

Despite the enormous distraction (distractions?) of Ola Jordan in a backless, low-cut, skin-tight, shiny leopard-print catsuit on Strictly Come Dancing on Staurday night I managed to base up the big unit of Gedriht.

Ola! Distracting!

Next stop is to do the filler on the bases and undercoat them. I'd forgotten what really nice figures they are (like Ola!). Suddenly enthused by Dark Ages again, in fact I have put all my Ancients away as I was getting stressed by the number of based but unpainted units.

Some more Early Saxons

I picked up some more Musketeer Miniatures Early Saxons at Colours last weekend. I bought a bag of 20 Gedriht even though I already have some based so I will try to get the rest filed and based this weekend. I usually clean-up and base figures whilst watching TV with the family on Saturday evening and Strictly Come Dancing starts again this week; one of my guilty pleasures.

It will be even more pleasurable this year as Rachel Stevens is in it: well worth launching a longboat full of warriors in order to capture her!

Rachel: worth pillaging from a village!

First Early Saxon Unit

This is my first completed Early Saxon unit for Age of Arthur: a unit of Duguth, which I finished today. The figures are Musketeer Miniatures with Little Big Men standard and shield transfers. The house in the background is by Grand Manner. I have another one down from the loft ready to start. These were great to paint and I have already bought some figures for my next unit, which will be Gedriht, in chainmail, then I will do another unit of Duguth and then a unit of Geoguth. The unit is only 175 points for WAB and for these sorts of warriors probably needs to be bigger to keep rank bonus. Once I have got a few more units done I can add another file or two.