Project finished, but another to continue.

The final unit for my Wars of the Roses armies has now been completed. Twelve Scurrers, Prickers, Hobilars or whatever these light cavalry went by the name of. So now I shall return to my English Civil War of Wars of the Three Kingdoms project. I have a number of units to complete for the war in Scotland as well as a couple more English foot regiments.

The Scurrers, can be employed as scouts, foragers etc. A poor man's cavalry who will work for the highest bidder.

The Montrose Irish will be reinforced by this cannonade, which can be packed onto a mule, as can be seen in the background. It will be served by a crew of three.

The Montrose Irish will also receive a second foot unit, and I have this command group, unique from the common plastic sprues.

These eight Irish Pike will make up the rest of the 12 man command/pike stand.

Two sleeves of eight shot will be taken from a common sprue. This gives me a regiment of 28 figures, a number that I have settled on and which looks good to my eyes.

This little lot will keep me busy for a while, and then I can create a second foot unit for the Covenanter army.

Wagons and town folk completed,

Finally completed the second wagon and the two blister packs of civilians. Very pleased with how these turned out, the moulds are superb as you would expect from Perry Miniatures.

Some shots of the covered wagon. I did manage to add the traces and tack, using fuse wire for the ropes.

The covered top has been left removable. 

I based both wagons at the same time.

Street entertainers blister pack.

Market Day blister pack, plus the man with the sack was with the covered wagon kit.

On the painting board now is the final unit of my Wars of the Roses project. A unit of twelve Scurrers, Prickers, Hobilars, whatever you wish to call them. A poor man's light cavalry.

2017 Project beginnings.

Well I said this year that I was not going to buy any new shiny armies, and I lasted until almost the end of June! However, all is not as it seems. I had the opportunity, via a private sale, to obtain a mint box set, namely Warlord Games 'Liberty or Death', American War of Independence, for about two thirds of the price it retails at.

As this war along with the French/Indian Wars, was going to be my next project in the new year, I took the plunge now, never look a gift horse in the mouth. I am not even going to unpack the neatly bundled up sprues, but thought I would share some photographs before it is consigned to a deep, dark cupboard until the end of the year.

Very nice cover art to give a flavour of what is inside.

The box is 17 inches long or 43cm.

Also a huge depth of just over six inches or 16cm.

The rear of the box shows the contents. When I first looked at this photograph on line, it reminded me of my childhood, aged about 10 years old, I would read the American comics and often at the back would be pictured a diorama featuring these very armies, for sale. Of course living in Britain, there was no chance of ever owning such a thing, no internet or Pay Pal then. Finally, 52 years later, I am the proud owner of a similar box set.

Inside the box are leaflets on how to build, paint the figures for the various regiments etc, as well as coloured flags that can be cut out and attached.

The final glimpse into the box is of a ton of sprues, still all neatly fastened up, with the 4Ground kits at the bottom. The bubble wrap contains the three resin gabions. I have my other projects to finish first, after all, I have waited 52 years, what's another six months?

Progress on the second wagon.

The horse drawn covered wagon is now on the painting board. It did look a little complicated to begin with, but with photos on the Perry site and with the help of someone who read my blog, and provided photos of his own builds, it became much easier. I have used a different combination of inks and washes on this wagon to simulate a different type of wood, though the toolbox at the front is of a different type of wood again.

Still work to be done on the wagon, and the front axle is not yet glued to the rest of the wagon. This is to allow me to fit the traces, which is going to be very fiddly, to the front axle section.

A dry fit of the front axle to the rest of the wagon, there are unloading hatches in the centre at each side, I have chosen to glue them both in the closed position.

Even at this early stage, the quality of the sculpt is evident.

The resin top has not yet been touched, as regards paint or weathering, and I shall probably opt to leave it as a removable piece, once again for more options.

There is a distinct order for the horses too! You will notice the two at the front have harnesses around their chests and back, whilst the rear two have a heavy type harness around the base of the neck. These are for the traces to fitted in a certain configuration. Also the horse top right, is the only one with what appears to be a blanket over his back for the team driver/rider figure.

Perry ox drawn wagon, nearly complete.

I managed to get the ox cart close to completion during the Paint & Chat session last night. It still needs the base doing, but I shall do that when the second wagon is completed. The set is the Perry Miniatures metal range code number WR24, for those who are interested.

Here is the drover and cart minus its load. I didn't glue the load on as it gives me more options.

Here with the load slipped into place, the kit does come with the wife holding a baby and the young boy, both in sitting positions and look pretty good sat on top of the wagon load.

Next up is kit number WR27, which is a horse drawn covered wagon. It looks reasonably straightforward, but once again does not come with any instructions for the build. I shall have to check the Perry site for a completed wagon, especially for the traces for the horse tack. I haven't got a clue where they go.

Finally, for my Wars of the Roses project, are two blister packs of period figures. These are the Market Day figures. 

Street Entertainers, this group should make an interesting vignette.

Once that little lot are painted up, the WotR project is finally complete. I shall then move back to finish off the War of the Three Kingdoms (ECW) figures I have.

Oxen hauled wagon and load.

Something a little different, I am working on a cart and load, pulled by four oxen. This is a Perry Miniatures metal set, it had very little flash and although there are no instructions, it looks pretty straightforward to build.

All the components laid out on the board, the only thing I have done, apart from priming of course, is to super glue the oxen heads on as they come separate, this is for a reason as the two yokes at the top of the photo should be slipped on first. However, this would have caused problems in the painting stage as well as having the two models joined together and hanging from the yoke. I shall simply snip the yoke at the bottom of the curve and place it on the completed oxen.

The set comes with a drover, woman holding a baby and a young boy. The two latter models are in a sitting position and will eventually be placed on top of the wagon load. The load is a resin cast.

The wagon parts, the ladder like pieces are the side of the wagon and the odd curved shaped pieces at the top of the photo, with forked ends are to slip over the wheel axles/hubs and join with the top of the wagon sides.

Painting the oxen, nearest the camera is flesh, then yellow and furthest away two in brown sand. 

I used some left over paint to highlight a few of the sacks on the load.

A dry assembly of the wagon, nothing is glued in place yet, but shows how all the parts go together.

Without the load and with the two seated figures shown.

The oxen have now had a coat of transparent burnt umber ink, the original colours now give a subtle difference in hide colour.

I also gave the load and wagon a coat of the ink too, this will make it easier to paint up once assembled.

The work will hopefully be completed tonight on the paint and chat, I can then move onto the second wagon, which is a little more complex looking, a covered wagon. Although these models as described as Wars of the Roses, they could be used for many periods.

Project moving on and some new additions.

I have finally finished painting four units of light cavalry for my Wars of the Roses project. They seem to have been on my painting board for weeks. Which in fact they have, a combination of lovely weather, loss of painting mojo and general laziness. However, thanks to the Tabletop Commanders paint and chat sessions, the old enthusiasm has returned and I have at last finished them.

First up are a pair of light cavalry units for the lesser lords or mercenaries. They are painted in in a mixture of liveries.

Finally Ralph Lytton has a unit in his claret & blue colours.

As does Godfrey Howard in his colours of green & white.

With those completed, I moved onto the two pieces of artillery and crews. I managed to finish them off in a couple of sittings. They still need to be washed and based, but look fine.

Finally, readers of the blog will know, I ordered some boxes of Gripping Beast plastic Arab troops. They are for further down the painting queue, but I took out just a single sprue of five figures to paint up as test figures. One with a sword and two each of spear men and archers. I won't be basing these yet, as they will form part of units for Lion Rampant, Saga, L 'Art etc. on will end up on Renendra bases. I am pleased with how they turned out, again they still await their wash. I normally paint the arms and heads on the sprue, but on this occasion, I actually built the models first and then painted them, it worked well so I shall use that method again.

Next up will be two carts, one horse drawn and the other pulled by oxen. There are lots of metal pieces and so I will need to check the gallery on the Perry website to see how they fit together.