Lead Painters League 9: Armoured Foot Knights

Here are some Perry plastic foot knights I have painted. I have entered these for Lead Painters League (a painting competition on Lead Adventure Forum). I bought them specifically to paint and then put on eBay, as a sort of experiment, having seen the silly prices even averagely painted historic miniatures can command on eBay. I am hoping to make a tidy profit. They were not particularity challenging to paint, given that they are mostly metal, but they are rather nice figures.  By the way- I won my first round. 

Home Front 1941: A Rolls Royce Armoured Car

"Now listen here Walker! You can't park that monstrosity there. "

"'Ere, that is Private Walker to you. This 'monstrosity' is Walmington-on-Sea's new Rolls Royce armoured car; And it's staying right where it is."

"But it is blocking the way to the church fete!"

"Now Maurice, I would love to help you, but I can't move the Roller, even if I wanted to. Not for you, and not even for the vicar."

"Why an earth not?"

"It's run out of petrol." 

This Rolls Royce armoured car and the men accompanying it are the latest additions to my Home Front army. The Rolls Royce was a work horse of the army from WW1 to Early WW2, and was found all over the Empire. Shortages of armoured vehicals (well any vehicals really) After the Dunkirk evacuation meant that many of these aged beasts were given to the Home Guard. Captain Mainwaring never got a Roller in the TV series, but that wasn't about to stop me issuing my Home Guard unit one. 
This armoured car is by Copplestone Castings. The figures are by Wargames Foundry. 

Home Front 1941- A Home Guard Section

I painted these for Lead Painters League- they are from Wargames Foundry- and they are the extras from "Dad's Army". The picture's not great- the light was quite poor...I hope you like them. 

Gladiators

This weeks Lead Painters League round was a themed round, and the theme was Ancients...now I might enjoy a bit of historical, but Ancients is one area of historic wargaming that just leaves me cold. Having no desire to start another project I began casting around for something to paint in the theme, and I stumbled upon these by Crusader Miniatures...job done.

This is a happy coincidence, as Studio Tomahawks, the guys who brought us Muskets and Tomahawks and SAGA, have just began promoting their forthcoming new game called Jugular, in which each player takes on the role of a gladiator school owner, sending his slaves to compete in the games. Think Football manager meets Spartacus. 

Lead Painters League: Abudul Alhazred and his Minions

In my Conanesque world Abdul Alhazred, the so called "Mad Arab" is a dark sorcerer, who has dedicated his life to studying the dark and forbidden knowledge. He travels the lands in search of vile mysteries and powerful artefacts, accompanied by his faithful body guards, his panther and his own Djinn.

Its been a while since I painted anything for my Conan range, as the Conan campaign is long completed, but this weeks Lead Painters League round had a theme of 'Realms of Fantasy' and so I thought I would have a rummage through the lead mountain and I found these. They are Hell Dorado figures (except the Djinn which his a Reaper Dust Devil).

The Lead Painters League is an annual competition on Lead Adventure forum. Members have to paint five figures a week for ten weeks,and then photograph them and post them to be judged. some of the weeks- like this one- have a theme. 

SAGA: Norman Warriors

Here are some more Normans for my SAGA warband. I painted them for Lead Painters League. These ones are from Black Tree Designs and are very characterful sculpts. In my Saga army they will be counted as Warriors. Norman warriors can be armed with either hand weapons or crossbows. 

Winter Survivors

This was my latest Lead Painters League entry. They are  some survivors from a post-apocalypses zombie filled winter. Initially they will be used for fighting zeds, but eventually I can see they might be useful in my Force on Force games set in Finland. I might need some armed civilians for something? 

Other, more off the wall ideas I have had include a 'The Thing' type scenario, or as a explorers in a Cthulhu-modern game. Perhaps they could even be armed civvies for AE Bounty? Lots of possibilities. 

They are, from left to right, Mojo, Mojo, Hasslfree, Fenris Games and Mojo. 
Mojo Miniatures is a new small company with a nice range of winter survivors  Fenris mostly do resin bases and so on, but they have a small number of investigators for a Cthulhu-modern setting, and Hasslfree are...well Hasslfree is just the place to go for zombie-apocalypse survivors. 

VBCW: Servants and Sailors

I haven't painted much for VBCW this year, but I took the opportunity to paint a few figures for the Lead Painters League competition .

First up is a landing party form eh Royal Navy. The Navy, by and large, have chosen to side with the Left Wing forces in the Very British Civil War, and in Liverpool and the Wirral a good number of the armed men who defend the Liverpool Free State are volunteers drawn from the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy. I plan to add to the Navy in my LFS force, to build them up to a full company. These five are a mixture of 1st Corp and Pulp Figures.   

Next up is the men from the Duke of Farnham's Household Militia, part of the Dukes private army drawn up to defend his holdings from the forces of the communists and fascists. The Duke is the head of the Chester City Local Defense Force, and is a Royalist. 
The Household Militia (known as the 'Homeboys') are formed into two companies. The first company, The House Company, is comprised of the male servants and staff of the Dukes house. The second company, The Dukes Own Groundmen, is made up of the Groundsmen, Game Keepers and tenet farmers off the estate. The Duke will only commit the House Company when he is desperate or assured of victory as it damn difficult to replace a good valet in a time of war.
Links to the Dukes Own Groundsmen are here and here

These figures are by Gripping Beast, Iron Clad and Musketeer Miniatures. 

Lord of the Rings: Rangers

This was my third Lead Painters League entry. I won that round, which I am very glad about as I really went to town high lighting and shading these guys. I am delighted with the outcome. 

These Rangers are from Strider's little band of Dunedian  Rangers who watch over the lands of Bree and the Shire, protecting it from nameless horrors, orcs, wargs and so on. As Strider puts it to Butterbur at the Prancing Pony "...foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if it were not guarded ceaselessly."

Burma: Chindit Patrol

The second round of Lead Painters League saw me finish off five more Chindits for my 1943 Burma campaign.  Again I have tried to up the ante a bit on the painting, and am quite pleased with the blending and highlighting on the cloth. By all accounts the Chindit's Jungle Green (JG) fatigues faded very quickly when they got into the humid jungle, and so I wanted to simulate that effect. 

These models are from all of manufactures of Chindits in 28mm (as far as I am aware). They are, from left to right, BAM, Foundry, TAG, BAM and BAM. Foundry are my favourite  but they only make them with SMGs, and according to the Bolt Action army lists in the Armies of Great Britain book Chindits only have 2 SMGs per section, so I need loads more with rifles. 

By the way- this round of Lead Painters League was a draw. so that is won one, drawn one so far. Looking good!

SAGA: Norman Warlord and Knights

Having got a few games of SAGA under my belt  my fancies turned to expanding out the game a little and trying something new. With that in mind I decided that a new war-band was in order,and so I have started a Norman war-band. Bearing in mind that it took me two years to paint the Vikings and the Anglo-Danes, this is likely to be one of my slow boil projects. 

These figures are plastic ones made by Conquest Games  (confusingly, not Conquest Miniatures, which is a different company). I painted them for the first round of the Lead Painters League competition  run by the Lead Adventure Forum. This is the third year I have entered the LPL and I'm trying really hard to up my game and produce high quality figures. I think I have been guilty of taking a few short cuts to get figures finished recently  and that shows in the photos on the blog. That stops now, and it's back to basics, with good highlighting and blending. 

Due to the rules of the competition I will only post my pictures on the blog at the end of the weeks voting, so as not to unduly influence the votes. I have to paint at least 60 minis in 10 weeks, so it's something of a marathon rather than a sprint. The standard of the competition is always rather high, so wish me luck. 

Warlord for my SAGA force

While it has been a long time in the creation, I have finally finished my Warlord and his Huscarls for my SAGA Anglo-Danish force, meaning I now have a small force of hairy men.
I bought the Gripping Beasts at the Wolverhampton Show last year without any real plans to use them for anything in particular. When the nice (if slightly odd) folks at Gripping Beasts brought out their new SAGA rule I knew I had to have a warband-two actually, as I am starting my Viking one next.
SAGA's rather elegent points based system lets me field either 4 Huscarls, 8 Warriors or 12 Levey for each point. I have a four point warband (4-8 points per side is recommend) consisting of my warlord, Four Huscarls with Dane Axes, Four Huscales with swords, and Two bands of eight Warrioirs with spears.

Here is my Anglo-Danish warlord and the Huscarls with dane axes. The horn blower is my West Wind, but the other figures are by Gripping Beasts. To my my warlord stand out a bit I have mounted him onto a 40mm square base with a horn blower/spear carrier as a companion. The horn blower will not add anything to the game, but looks cool. I am going to do the same for my viking warlord too.
These were my Lead Painters League entry for the last round- I didn't win, but I didn't do badly.

Defending the Shire

Yet another LPL entry- Many of you who are on Lead Adventure Forum will have already seen this entry, but for those of you who missed it, here is the 'Defending of the Shire'.

The theme for the round was The World of Tolkein. I went for Games Workshop figures just because I had some hanging around for years waiting to be painted. The Moria Goblins are my son Charlies- he's lucky because he gets five more goblins finished. Gandalf and the Hobbits will from the nucleus of my LotR army- basically lost of Hobbits, some rangers, Aragorn and Gandalf. This is very much an on going project-I haven't painted any for years until LPL. Odds are it will be next years LPL before I paint any more too.

The People's Resistance Army of Zugando

Colonel Peter Umpanawana (shown here with his bodyguards) is a high ranking member of the People's Resistance Army, a neo-communist militia in fighting against the government of the Democratic Republic of Zugando, in West Africa. The PRA have been accused by the UN and human rights groups of committing acts of atrocity against the ethnic Matandi population and against supporters of the President, Edmund Mudanawanga. Colonel Umpanawana is wanted for various war crimes and acts of atrocity against civilians. He is currently being hunted by Special Forces, including SAS and Delta Force, as part of the I-COZ peace keeping mission.



All of the above 'fluff' is part of the background for my Force on Force campaign set in an entirely fictional West African country of Zugano. Perhaps Colonel Umpanawana will become something of a reoccurring villain, if he manages to avoid the special forces hunting him down.
These figures were painted for the Lead Painters League and the first of the FOF fire teams I have finished. As an 'elite' part of the PRA (and I use that term very loosely) they are wearing more 'uniform' than the rank and file soldiers. This batch of figures is made my The Assault Group, who have quite a large range of modern miniatures. They are well sculpted, with some nice details on the 'character' models. The Colonel has a pet monkey on his shoulder, which is quite a cool detail to set him apart from his peers.

Chester LDF- The Duke's Own Groundsmen

This is my latest Company for my Very British Civil War (VBCW) army: The Chester Defence Force. It is the brave men of the Dukes Own Groundsmen Militia. Drawn exclusively from the groundsmen, foresters, grooms and tenant farmers of the Duke of Farnham's estates, they are directly under the command of his nephew, Captain Hon. Robert G Grover. They are all skilled outdoorsmen, and are handy with a 12 bore shotgun. They will from the nucleus of what the Duke hopes will become a battalion of 'The Dukes Own Household Troops'- essentially a feudal force answerable only to him.

These figures were painted for my LPL entry. They are all Gripping Beasts, but will be joined by figures from Iron Clad and Warlord to make a unit of 10. I have plans to expand them further.

More Old School Adventurers

Here's a few more old Citadel Adventurers I painted for the Lead Painters League.

Rookbrow the Ranger

I went for autumnal colours for Rookbrow, rather than the more obvious Lincoln Green. A nice model, with the look of Sean Bean to him (I think).

Pebble the Pack Donkey

Pack Donkey's are an often neglected member of the adventuring party. I think they just fell out of fashion amongst adventurers, probably because they can't climb walls, move steathfully, hide, pick locks or many of the other rather useful skills needed by your average adventurer. On the plus side, they can carry your gear, they look cute, and if push comes to shove, you can always eat them.

Here's a group shot of the party I used for the LPL, including Drambuin the Dwarf. My close up picture of Drambuin didn't come out that well, so you will just have to squint at the screen a bit.

Hope you enjoy the Old School...just a bit of fun.

Old School D&D!

I often buy figures on a whim, without much thought to how or why I might need them. I am, I am sure, not alone in this failing, and the damn internet just makes it even easier. Last year I bought some old Citadel Miniatures from Miniature Heroes website, who retails 'pre-owned' figures (I must be getting old, because in my day they were called second-hand). These figures were the Dungeon Adventures Starter Set. This box set had special significance for me as it was the first 'box set' I ever owned, having got it for Christmas of my mum and dad, I would guess around 1985. Amazingly arrived in their original box in perfect condition.

Sir Pellinor, the Paladin

I was determined to do these figures justice, and when I saw that the Lead Painters League competition had a bonus round where the theme was 'Old Lead' I knew it was time to dig them out and lovingly paint them (taking much more effort than I did back in 1985). I am rather pleased with the result.

Noramund the Gnome

The Soul Patrol: Hammer

John Hammer is a freelance spy from Harlem, New York, and head of the infamous 'Soul Patrol'. Brought up on the tough city streets, he is known as the sort of man who would risk his neck for another man.
Damn right!




Hammer is a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang figure made by Copplestone Castings.
Clearly influenced by Shaft, it has a decidedly 1970's feel to it, in contrast rest of the KKBB range, which has a more 1960's style. That said, he is clearly a bad mother (Shut your mouth!) who just had to be painted. I was going to paint his up for the Lead Painters League, but decided against it, so here he is. You can expect more members of The Soul Patrol to pop up here form time to time.

On the subject of Lead Painters League, I have managed to qualify for the competition. I have my first four weeks entries in the can, and so I can relax a little bit and paint some more stuff just for the blog. I am rather pleased with the standards of my painting for this years competition. The level is always high, and I think that the competitive element helps me improve my painting skills.

Hello...I am still here!

It has been too long since my last post. There have been a number of reasons for that- I have been finishing off my African scenery: I have been rather unwell with a nasty stomach bug; I have been painting for the Lead Painters League. The Lead painters League (LPL) is a painting competition ran by Lead Adventure Forum. I have entered the last two years and really enjoyed it. The basic idea is that you have to submit a new entry each week for ten weeks. Each entry must comprise of a 'team' of at least five figures. Exactly what constitutes a team is quite open, as long as there is an obvious theme running through them. Additionally there are three bonus rounds where there is a extra points if you can produce a team that matches the theme for that round. This year the bonus rounds are Old Lead (any figures older than 1991), Tolkien and Maritime.


The LPL is a great way of making a bit of progress on the many half finished projects I have kicking around, as well as upping my game when it comes to painting miniatures. This year I am looking to do some more Saxons, some Old School Citadel, some stuff form my African adventures, some VBCW and defiantly some KKBB.



This year there is a restriction on the number of entries, and as part of the rules changes we have to submit three 'teams' by the end of February, hence me being rather busy getting my entries ready. Because of the rules of the competition, I can't show my figures on the Blog until after the competition has started, so February might not see to many post with new figures, but you will still be treated to a few bits and bobs, along with some scenery.

I had a nice parcel in the post yesterday form The Assault Group with my African militia men. I have been shopping about on the Internet trying to find some nice modern African 28mm to go with my shanty town scenery. Basically it seemed to boil down to two UK manufacturers, Britannia and The Assault Group (TAG). I ordered a few testers from both companies, and was impressed by the customer service from both.

A Britannia Somalian and a TAG African Militiaman

Here is a picture of a couple of miniatures from these companies. Scale wise, as you can see, they are very compatible, and the weapons are a good scale match too. While being defiantly 'Heroic' proportioned 28mm miniatures, they work well together. The Britannia miniatures are dynamic, while TAG tend to be more statically posed. Cost wise, there is not a lot in it, with both manufactures minis averaging about £1.45 each, if you buy 30+ minis at a time.

I have decided to opt for the TAG for the bulk of my force because I prefer the sculpt. The lines and styling reminds me of Mark Coppletone's work, although I don't know it he did the sculpts. They certainly would not look out of place mixed in with Copplestone miniatures. That said, Britannia do a fantastic range of resin and metal vehicles that will be prefect for my needs, including the ubiquitous 'Technical'- a Toyota pick-up with a .50cal HMG on the back. I am sure to be getting some of those to build up my force soon enough.

The Lead Painters League 2011

The Lead Painters League is over for 2011, and all that remains is for the judges to collate the points. In the past ten weeks I have painted a staggering 59 miniatures and 5 tanks, which has gone a long way to reducing my lead mountain and finishing of some half finished projects that, in all honesty probably wouldn't have been finished if it weren't for the competition.
Score wise I think I haven't done as well as last year. I was unfortunate enough to be drawn against some of the big hitters early on, but I made a better show of it in the later rounds- I won 4 and lost 6 rounds. I will post the final results as soon as they are available.
This years competition saw some remarkable entries from many people. I was particular impressed by two painters known as Hammers and Frank on the LAF. They consistently amazed me with the quality of their work.



Round 10's entry was themed 'From the Movies'. I opted for The Great Escape. Most of the figures for this round were from Ebob, but a couple of the Germans were from Artizan Designs. I was in a bit of a panic when my figures hadn't arrived a week before I was due to start painting them. I contacted Bob, of Ebob, and he said they were out of stock, and he was having difficulty getting more due to Salute 11. Eventually they arrived, and I managed to get all 10 painted in just five days, which I thought was quite an achievement.
I envision the Germans getting used for Pulp-era games, or perhaps a weird world war 2 theme. The British airman and Steve McQueen will get pressed into service somewhere in my VBCW armies, as air crew, mechanics and drivers.