Another Arab unit completed and a new battle mat.

Finished off another unit of spear men yesterday, decided to make these into an elite unit, bodyguards or something similar. I have the multi-era imagi-nations project in the back of my mind now when I paint things up. I also bought a new battle mat today, not sure who makes it but I believe it is from GW. I bought it at a good discount from a new model shop that has recently opened not too far from my home. Today I also ordered a metal mounted Saladin figure, to lead this Arab army.

Elite unit of spear men, in red and black colour scheme, I couldn't but help think about the Immortals as I painted these guys up.

Just a single unit of twelve for Lion Rampant.

I also built enough archers, javelins and spear men, to complete a second unit of each. These will be added to the extras I already have.

Eight archers.

Five javelins with a commander.

Seven spear men, again with a commander.

The desert battle mat is 6 x 4 feet and looks really good, with a dried up river (is that a Wadi?) running its length.

The ruins of a temple and a mosaic floor in one part of the design.

The reverse side is rubber so the mat is quite heavy, however, hills etc. can be placed beneath or on top.

Close up of the dried up river bed.

Some really clever subtle touches to the mat, I can see this getting a lot of usage.

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.

Reinforcements and a new army.

Sticking to my New Years resolution of not buying any new shiny things that are not in any of the periods I game in. I received a parcel today, to enhance what I already have.

Long term readers of the blog will know, I have one box each of the Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings, Anglo-Danes and Dark Age Warriors. They haven't seen the light of day in over a year, but I do intend to return to them once my Wars of the Roses and War of the Three Kingdom projects are finally completed. I would like to use them, not only for Saga, but also Lion Rampant and possibly for larger scale battles using L' Art de la Guerre, Sword and Spear etc. So I acquired some new recruits.

A Gripping Beast Anglo-Dane 4 point starter warband containing 25 metal miniatures.

Viking 4 point starter warband, again with 25 metal figures.

I also wanted to add a third faction. Initially I was going to opt for the Normans as there are a number of plastic box sets by various manufacturers as well as a plethora of metal figures to suit. But I decided I wanted something totally different and so opted to build up an Arab army.

Two boxes of plastic Arab Heavy Cavalry.

Two more of Light cavalry & horse archers.

Three boxes of foot, in the shape of spearmen and archers.

Finally, a couple of sheets of shield transfers and a pair of banners for the new army.

So my Dark Ages and Middle Ages forces get some new recruits and a completely new force. I doubt that any work will be done on these figures until deep into the Winter months, but at least I know I have them available for when I am ready. I also primed the metal figures in the pleasant weather we are currently experiencing, so another job that is difficult to do outside in the colder months is now sorted.

I have not been posting as regularly as I would like on this blog, but my other blog, The Saga of Yolare is being updated quite regularly and I am also doing a lot of YouTube videos on my channel. These feature unboxings and battle reports among other things.