28mm medieval crossbowmen for Lion Rampant

While I'm still busy desperately hacking away at my 6mm Greek lead pile, I thought I would fill in by putting up a few pics of my Fireforge 28mm plastic crossbowmen for Lion Rampant.  The actual unit was finished a few months ago but I never took the time to put the pics up on the blog.

Detail is very good on these multipose figures and the poses are quite dynamic. I always prefer metal figures to plastic ones but Fireforge make such good quality figures that I'm more than happy to make an exception. I reasoned this rank and file unit would not have been too colourful so I went for a drab brown leather look overall with the distinguishing unit colour showing underneath.

Greek Command Stand

Having a couple of hours to spare last evening I came up with this command stand for my Greek army-in-the-making. Nothing much, but it serves to illustrate the animation and detail Baccus have managed to squeeze into their 6mm figures. Truly five star sculpts, even at this scale!

"And I tell you Sparta is that way !"

Baccus 6mm Greek Army (wip)

I haven't posted for the last few weeks because I have been concentrating on a new project - 6mm ancients. Partly driven by an old desire, and partly inspired by my pal DaveG as well as some of JonathanF's recent blog posts on his excellent 'Palouse Wargaming Journal', I decided to take the plunge and get myself some classical Greeks from Baccus. Baccus have a vast range of splendid ancients and I got enough for two armies with the aim of recreating Peloponnesian strife between Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and what-not.  So as soon as the various hoplites, peltasts, psiloi, and chums were delivered I set about building my armies.  However I must say that it is taking much longer than I expected. With 6mm Napoleonics, the painting process is quite fast due to the uniformity of the colours used.  With ancients, however, the many varied colours and lack of uniformity translates into a lot more time consuming process which honestly took me by surprise.  Not to mention the decals to be applied to each and every hoplite shield ! Anyway, no use complaining.  The only solution is to get stuck in and carry on. Some pictures below with a few sample units.  Many more still to come......

The units finished to date

Phalanx detail

Bolt throwers deployed in front of peltast unit

Archers supported by heavy cavalry

Javelin psiloi providing skirmish cover to phalanx

Another phalanx closeup

Phalanx from right flank. Note leading two ranks with spears in attack position.

Haven't decided on a ruleset yet but second edition Impetus is a hot candidate

Foundry Chasseur a' Cheval Garde Officer

As I had occasion to mention in previous posts, I like to go for 'display' grade 28mm Napoleonics as fillers between projects. Last week, in between my Lion Rampant medievals and 6mm Ancients (my latest project), I went for Foundry's classic Chasseur a' Cheval Garde officer in 28mm. (Or is it 25mm? Being an older figure I'm not really sure).

Anyway, this figure is one of a yet incomplete unit of guard chasseurs and this is the final result. I still have three figures to paint to complete the unit and as soon as they are ready I will present the final unit.  In the meantime, I am posting a set of pictures of this beautifully sculpted officer figure inspired by Theodore Gericault's famous painting (right). Credit to Foundry for a really classic figure!

28mm Medieval Mounted Sergeants

Medievals have always held a special interest for me but somehow always played second fiddle to Napoleonics.  In my youth I used to play WRG with a regular opponent but through the years we lost touch with each other and my Hinchliffe figures ended up forgotten in their box deep down in the dungeons.  

Last year, however, I resolved to revive the period and got a hold of Lion Rampant (LR) medieval skirmish rules.  Not willing to repaint and rebase my old miniatures (they were admittedly primitive anyway), I ordered 28mm miniatures from Front Rank (metals) and Fireforge (plastics), both manufacturers having excellently detailed figures. However, being a sucker for detail, I was unable to give them the 'production line' treatment and ended up painting each figure individually meaning that it took ages to build up a decent amount of figures.  Now that I have enough to field a number of units, I think that in the end it was worth taking the extra time and effort.   

 As an opener, I am presenting a LR unit of six mounted sergeants from Fireforge.  They come in multipose form of which I am not too keen as I honestly consider the construction phase a bit of a pain in the neck. However, I have to admit that the end result is a pleasant collection of varied figures which is not always possible to obtain with non-multipose figures. I am attaching some pictures of this fictional unit for LR.