For the Swarm; Bones swarms and random WIPS

Well, a few days off work and I've actually been slightly productive! I'll get straight into pics, since I don't really have much to waffle about... Oh, except this blog passed 1k views a few days ago. Thanks to everyone who reads my intermittent rambling :)

Some more Bones. Fear the swarm!

I realised I rarely post WIPs on here... usually because I finish things in one sitting I guess. Anything that takes longer usually languishes for months/years due to my lack of anything resembling an attention span... but anyway, the following pics are just WIP, needing basing/touching up, so you'll see them again soon hopefully.

Firstly, I painted some more WOTR infantry. It's been far too long, but hopefully I'll get back to this game soon. I've been rewatching a lot of Game of Thrones lately... coincidence, or inspiration?
These guys are Burgundian handgunners, mercenaries for the Yorkists.

And finally, one of the several Khador heavy jacks I need to paint. The humble, faithful destroyer. I used to own a pair of the metal ones, but the new (well, old now I guess) plastics are a big improvement. I still miss Warmachine Mk1 though...
I don't think the photos do it justice really, I'm very happy with the red though. I use the 'official' method, as given in the Khador faction book. Obviously I'm not up to studio quality, but it's a method of painting red that I love. Given what a pain of a colour it can be, I'm happy to have something reliable that works.
I know that, given all the large plates, it would probably make sense to airbrush these jacks, but personally I find that if I airbrush them, the metals just become a massive pain. I'd rather paint the metals first, then do the plates by hand.

And finally, my Mantic Enforcer army set finally arrived, courtesy of the always excellent Dan of Tabletop Empires. These guys will be serving as Cerberus troops in my Mass Effect skirmish game (some may also become Blue Suns), so expect more on that front soon.

Thanks for reading,
~ Alex/Magos

Let The Games Begin; first box of WOTR finished

Well, little later than I wanted, but my first box of War of the Roses infantry is now fully painted. Three weeks for 40 models isn't too bad I think.
Now that they're done I should have enough for some very small scale playtesting of the rules I want to use. Hopefully later today/tomorrow I'll have some results to share of how that goes.

Here are the finished final three bases, one Yorkist levy bowmen, one retinue Lancastrian bowmen, and one Lancastrian command base with the Earl of Oxford. The Lancastrians were a bit rushed in the end, so I'll probably go back and touch them up a bit later.

Lancastrian force:

Yorkist forces:

As always, C&C welcome :)

- Alex/Magos

Three in a row, hat trick!; yet more War of the Roses goodness

More progress. Just look at this consistency! Still cranking out the WOTR, hoping to have the whole box done by the end of the week (three more boxes on their may, thanks to the incredibly awesome Daniel from Tabletop Empires I really can't recommend them enough if you're after gaming gear in Aus). My opponent wasn't available on the weekend, so playtesting will have to wait until the next weekend, which is good, since I didn't get everything painted anyway.
So anyway, two more bases done, this time some lowly levy billmen for Hasting's host, and some formidable men at arms. The levy billmen are distinguished from their retinue brothers by a lack of uniform, they wear ordinary clothing with Hasting's colours sewn onto the breast. The men at arms are nominally Lancastrian, however I'm deliberately avoiding giving the men at arms any specific heraldry, and with their heavy armour covering most of them, they should be versatile enough to fit into either side.
Also, in an effort to improve my awful photography, I finally replaced my faithful piece of random A4 paper with a proper printed backdrop. I can't claim any credit, check out this link if you're interested: http://www.mainlymedieval.com/ozpainters/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3880
Let me know if you think it's an improvement!

Group shot!

As always, C&C is welcome.

Thanks,
-Alex/Magos

Always Pay Your Bills; more Yorkists join Hasting's Host

What's this? A post that wasn't a week in the making? I know, I'm as shocked as you. I finished off the second base of WOTR infantry, the billmen. I'm hoping to finish a few more bases this week, in time for some small playtest games on the weekend.
Of course, to do that, I'll need some dirty Lancastrians for my brave Yorkists to fight... Is that the Earl of Oxford I see on the horizon?

-Alex/Magos

It was like a real world Game of Thrones; some Yorkists wander by

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, busy end to last week, plus I was trying to get a bit more done to post at once.

Just to keep you all on your toes, here's a whole new project I've just added to my to do list :P War of the Roses historical gaming, mainly using the lovely Perry plastic models. I picked up a box cheaply last week and am very happy with them. Now I just need another 150...
I'm planning to use my own ruleset with these. I wrote it about two years ago, and actually playtested it a few times, and it was a bunch of fun, even just with cardboard squares for units. Looking forward to refining it and giving it another go. Once I'm happy with them I'll post up the rules, which are simple but quite tactical I think. I'll also be creating army lists for dark ages, ancient and maybe Thirty Years War/ECW... whenever I get around to getting armies for those.

Here's my first base of longbowmen, and a nearly done WIP of some billmen. I'm going to fix the blue on the billmen, I used a different method than the first base and it's not as good.
The colours are those of Lord Hastings, a Yorkist and Edward IV's right hand man. He was a pretty interesting guy.

More soon :)

- Alex/Magos