6mm Dark Ages(I) - Longships

I recently paid a flying visit to Joy of Six, kids and the Boss in tow so I didn't stay as long as I had wanted, but still managed to spend a reasonable amount of cash and look over some stuff I'd had my eye on, the tables needed a good couple of hours to thoroughly take in, so unfortunately I didn't get to see them properly. I did get to meet Mick at Leven Miniatures which; after several years of e-mail communication it was good to put a face to a name and I picked up some more of his stuff and Perfect 6's scenics. Whilst collecting a H&R order for a mate I got to see their longships and crew in the flesh so to speak, this ultimately led to another purchase.

These miniatures are fantastic, very well sculpted and cast, easy enough to put together and a joy to paint up, the crew are much larger than your typical H&R mini and come without a base for ease in placing on the deck, I have completed three ships so far with just the crew to finish for my Skeid, I intend on picking up a further Snekki and the Drakkar in the future and some minis to represent the crews ashore.

 Karfi & crew

 

  Snekki & crew

 

 Skeid and the few crew I have done so far.

 

 A few size comparison pics

Some of the crew.

 

 

It's rare that I buy miniatures without a set purpose in mind, but these were an exception due to the quality of the models, and so as to justify them I'm now looking into Viking raid style campaign with some home brew rules.  In the meantime I have a bunch of castle walls to finish, and the rest of my fantasy army to do.

Update: I have now discovered that this particular range of Vikings and Ships were originally made by Kremlin Miniatures UK and sculpted by Martin Baker, before being purchased by H&R, hence the difference in size and sculpting style to the usual H&R fare.

Odds & Ends (8) - More Silly Scenics

Why is it that I can paint daft and often quite pointless scenic pieces all day long and not get bored yet I struggle to finish an actual army? Anyway following on from my earlier post here are the latest bits and pieces I have painted to enliven my battlefields, hopefully with these out of the way I can get back to more important projects:

Everything below is 6mm (1/300th)

 

 A couple of graveyards from Perfect 6 Scenics, I've removed the Christian iconography from one so it can be used generically

 

 Irregular Miniatures - Haycocks

 

 Barrels and Sacks from Perfect 6

 

 Irregular's general purpose boat

Irregular's Fantasy Galleon

 

 Perfect 6's covered wells and sacks

Market scene from Irregular with added bits from both Perfect 6 and H&R's deck furniture pack

 Baccus Miniatures civilians

And as I already have cows, pigs and sheep; a couple of H&R horses

 A dirty looking pond/pool a made on a practice run with some Dimensional Magic which I pilfered from the Boss when she wasn't looking! Hard to tell from the pic but it does have a decent looking water effect.

A ruin that will work for both fantasy and Epic made from bits from the faithful bits box.

 

 

For a change a bunch of these do have some actual game use other than prettying things up. I intend to use the livestock, civilians and bases of sacks/barrels/crates as objectives in a Viking raiding game. Mainly to get some use out of the lovely H&R longships I recently picked up and my mates beautifully crafted coastal terrain boards.

6mm Fantasy Project (2)

I have wanted a Wood Elf army since I got into fantasy gaming many, many, long years ago, I started collecting a GW 28mm Wood Elf force on two occasions but never got really far with either and both have long since been sold off. I then picked up the GW 10mm Battle of 5 Armies Wood Elves but was disappointed in how they looked so these got side-lined too.

I have been drooling over Microworld Games stuff for a while and finally took the plunge and ordered a Woodland army - consisting of Wood Elves, Treemen, and Centaurs, I'm not sure which army I'll be picking up as opponents as yet but most likely the Dark Alliance range.

After the requisite cleaning up and much pondering over what colour scheme to use (yes, yes I know its gotta be green - but which shade and what other colours etc), I have now finally made a start, though I still haven't decided on a heraldic design for the shields and so have left them blank for now:

 The Army so far (16 more bases to go)

 Lesser Treekin

Forest Giant

 Elven Hawk Riders

 

 Centaur Nobles (Heavy Cavalry)

 

 Elf Champion

 Elven Sorcerer

  The General and entourage

To add a bit of variety to our games and just for a bot of fun, we have decided to add some random fantasy creatures into the mix, so I picked up a couple of Rapier miniatures packs at Joy of Six, so far I have only painted the Hydra:

And I had some odd and ends from Irregular Miniatures:

 Dark Rider and Dark Rider on Winged Beast

 

 A random Lion, which I think I will add to a Champion's base as a companion.
 

Finally I have now added a Wizard to the Leven Miniatures, Wizards Tower scenic base I recently made/painted:

On to the rank and file next, and I'll try to post a bit more regularly as I've let things slip of late although I have done quite a bit of painting (including a variety of 6mm ships - more next time) and gaming recently.