Wednesday 24 July 2013

Wargames Foundry Order, Bretonnians, Snakemen, High Elves, and of course and few Goblins!

After saving up I did a little bit of shopping last week , and received my Wargames Foundry Order yesterday.
  I sent off for a few Knights and some footsoldiers to complete my Bretonnian Army and add another cannon to my Empire Army. I have written a provisional army list for them, but will tinker with it an publish it later. I wanted the army to look similar to Dave Andrews famous army in Warhammer Armies, and  Wargames Foundrys War of the Roses range is made up from Citadels old C26 Men at Arms range. They also still produce Citadels the later Men at Arms range (under tha Barons War range), the Norse, Samurai, and the Normans.

I have'nt had a chance to do much painting, but did a couple of test models for Snakemen.

Last week, whilst waiting for the Bretonnians, I was sorting out the High Elves. Again I have written a 3,000 point provisional list, and  realised I have enough cavalry and infantry to do a two seperate armies. So might do a pure cavalry army, or a predominantly Cavalry one loosely based on Forenronds last stand army, and then another army painted to represent a different Kingdom. I've got an Elf casualty somewhere to represent the unfortunate Forenrond!

And to finish, I have photographed  a few more Goblins archers.



 Wargames Foundry Order. 
I ordered it on the 19th July, and it arrived on the 23rd, which considering the intervening weekend, is a pretty good turn-around. A friendly 'thank you and enjoy' handwritten on the invoice too.
 The Bretonnian army taking shape, with Foundry miniautres in place.
 The unsorted Empire army in it's box!
 Two free miniatures from my Wargames Foundry order.
 A Landschneckt captain, and a Viking archer. Both useful, I needed another archer for my Norse army.
 The Wargames Foundry miniatures are ever so slighly smaller than the original Citadel C26 Men at Arms. I assume they re-did the moulds. It does'nt show, but thought I would put on a comparison photo.
 Comparing the Billmen. 
The miniatures look really good, especally the mounted Knights, and I am happy with the order. 
If you plan on using them with later miniatures (1990's onwards), or Marauder ones, then they look smaller, although some Marauder miniatures were always a little bulky.
 One of the lances that came with knights. Not sure what they are made of, but they are copper coloured with a steel looking tip, and are very strong and detailed on the head.
 Size comparison. The lance is 10cm long.
 Snakeman test model. 
I have gone for a Rattlesnake colours cheme as I did'nt want to paint them green, and I thought a lot of the more colourful snake markings would not translate very well to painting them on the arms.
I also like it as a background idea. They are to be stand-in Fimir for my Dark Elves. As Dark Elves live in Naggarond, which is basically in the North East of the New World then perhaps on their travels in the New World they might meet Rattlesnake like Snakemen living in the south of the New World.
 The other work in progress Snakeman test model, showing the head markings.
The High Elf Cavalry army.
Apart from the Dragonlord, some of the army is in need of repainting and tidying up. 
 I also have 19 of the Regiment of Renown RR10 Elwing's Elven Guard Cavalry to add if needed (I have a spare 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings Elrond on a Horse to make it up to 20). 

10 Shore riders, mounted Elven Archers.
30 horses for the Silver Helms.
The Marauder MB17 High Elf Dragonlord.
Need to do some more detail work, give him a shield, and then varnish/base him.
Mounted General and two Wizards.
44 High Elf riders.
I have the plastic spears to arm them where needed. 
2 Elven Attack Chariots.
I seem to be missing one of the Wizard miniatures with Hawk, so I will replace him with the figure currently on a base.
Box of Elves. Mostly High Elves, approx 60 archers and 80 infantry, plus a few Wood Elves.
Goblins!!!
20 of the cute little critters with bows.
(well I think they are cute!) 
Only 20 Goblins I'm afraid in this post as I have'nt had time to photograph more.

Standard Bearer from the Command range, and another of the C12 Bag Blower musicians.
Two later 1980's Goblins either side a Lord of the Rings Snagga Goblin.
Three Iron Claw Goblins.
Two more Iron Claw Goblins, these two wearing pointy conical helmets.
C12 Goblin named Twang, and C12 Goblin named Sniper.
Three more Iron Claw Goblins, this time wearing hoods.
C12 Goblin archer, named Archer!
The other Goblin is a dismounted C21 Wolf rider called Dugblog Bowrider.
and lastly two more Iron Claw Goblins, and a late 1980's Archer. 

11 comments:

  1. Wow! - that is an impressive amount of lead... Love those old minis :)

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    1. Thank you, but now all I have to do is paint them! :)

      Yes, some of the old miniatures, Bretonnians, Elves, Snakemen and Goblins have a lot of character, and it makes them fun to paint.

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  2. Great work on the Snakemen, your lead collection is just plain scary :)

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    1. Good, glad you liked the Snakemen.
      I was'nt sure if they looked ok, but a little practice will tidy them up. I liked the idea of the background theme linking them to the Dark Elves and the paint scheme making them look like big rattlesnakes.

      Still got lots of stuff to photograph and paint!

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  3. Lee, you've done the job in an incredible manner. I have to admit I also thought about doing natural styles to my snakemen but the size of the scales frightened me for it was going to be too difficult to make it fit. You managed to avoid that problem and it gives a real natural look to them. Really good.

    I'm waiting with impatience to see what you do with those Brettonian (my french heart has a soft point for them...). Do you plan on making an unified colour scheme (or at least a repeated colour?) for the knights or on making each of them unique?

    Oh and you've just given me the will to get my hands on a samourai army...

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    1. Cool, thank you, glad you like the Snakemen . I will try to get some more painted up for the next update. I thought the Rattlesnake scheme would look complex, but be easy to paint. A one colour scheme would look dull, and something too complicated might look too busy and messy.

      I am looking forward to doing the Bretonnians.
      I was originally going to do them in English Livery colours, but decided to do a French style army of the late 15th Century instead. The infantry will have the white cross on a red field. The peasants in browns.

      The bulk of the knights don't have shields but where possible I will do individual colours on the cloth of the horse barding, and the Knights clothes. The few with shields will have French coats of arms. The King and the banners will probably gold Fleur de lis on blue.

      I will probably be adding a Dragon to them, maybe the gold painted Dragon that was in the Dark Elves army. I also have the Hasslefree Tiriel miniature in praying pose in one of the foot units as a sort of Joan d'Arc.

      I'll do photographs and publish the army list either tomorrow or the next blog update on sunday.

      I still plan on doing a 15th Century English army, using the Wargames Foundry War of the Roses miniatures, but using the Empire list so I can get lots of longbows and Billmen, but no mounted Knights.

      Good luck with the Samurai, look forward to seeing them done. Reaper miniatures do a lovely Foo Dog model if you want a Temple Dog, but not sure of the size and whether you could have a Samurai riding it.

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    2. This one of your projects I'm most looking forward to.

      It's a real pleasure to get in these coats of arm. I live in a rehion once divided in 4 territories and which has kept all 4 coats of arms : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blason_d%C3%A9partement_fr_Ain.svg

      I used the upper left part for my brettonians since They are from Quenelles.

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    3. Yeah, I forgot to add Bretonnian background is full of easter eggs thanks to the great cultural level of game developers. All the names and places are linked to something and it can prove difficult even for french peole to get that link. I mentionned it in a post but will try to explain this a bit better :

      http://leadplague.blogspot.fr/2013/01/at-dawn-of-army-battle-bretonnia-part1.html

      Though there are a few mockeries here and there about snails or frogs, it actually shows the developers know this country (not to mention its history) very well and that they had a taste for details which makes them irresistible to me.

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    4. I can't promise painting them up soon to, but I am looking forward to them.

      The Coat of Arms you sent me is very nice. I did a quick google search for Ain and it's looks an interesting place and history.
      My mother had someone working for her from Annecy a year or so ago.

      I will do a little more research for the Coats of Arms before painting, but it will only be on a few as most of my knights don't have shields.
      The infantry will be in red with a white cross, which I understand was used a lot by Medieval French armies.

      This is my home towns Coat of Arms:
      http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Hove

      However in 1997 we joined with the neighbouring town of Brighton to form the new City of Brighton and Hove.



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    5. Very nice Bretonnians on your link.

      I understand now why you were worried about the Rogue Trader Orks running riot in Normandy. LOL

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    6. I bet it's nice place, it's MY place! :D (and Annecy is very close to where I live)
      I really like Hove's heraldry and a lot of british coats of arms by the way.

      And yes , I've come to love Normandy and I'm not letting any Ork approach.

      Take your time on them my friend!

      Cheers

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