6mm War of the Roses (2) - "Neutral" Forces

Introduction and the "Neutral" Forces:


The Wars of the Roses (WotR), is probably my favourite historical period, their is just something about that era that really fascinates me, maybe its my childhood love of knights and castles, or maybe its the tragic nature of it all, whatever, but its a project I've being really keen to do for many years.

For a long time I have planned and plotted how to go about it, I did start in 28mm but despite (or probably because of) the fantastic Perry Miniatures I was using, the project never took off, there was no way I could or would paint all the miniatures I wanted too in 28mm.

Next to get a look in was 15mm, and then 10mm but I quickly gave up on both these and got on with a completely different project. Sometime later I decided to take the plunge with 6mm, the main advantages were, cost, storage space, terrain considerations, and most importantly they are reasonably quick to paint and their would be no need to paint ridiculously detailed livery, they also look great en masse. Fortunately Baccus miniatures were attending two local shows and so I bought a good few packs to get me started.  That's when things started to snowball!

I had planned on using Warmaster Medieval for the rule-set and basing conventions, but hit a minor snag due to lack of suitable bases, and whilst messing around placing miniatures on the few bases I had, I realised I didn't like how they looked, for the amount of men I got on each base I may as well have gone with 10mm, and the 3 stands representing one unit just didn't feel right to me.

Around this time I was introduced to Impetus by some friends at the club I attend, and liked what I saw particular when using 6mm miniatures on the recommended 15mm bases (80mm frontage by 20-60mm depth). So Impetus it was and bases were promptly ordered. A casual mention at the club that I had made a start on a WotR Impetus army resulted in the tremendously generous gift of around 20 fully painted units of 6mm Baccus miniatures based as I needed, plus about a thousand other miniatures some loose some based for Warmaster and other rule-sets. My small project had suddenly  become a major task.

Even with all the mini's I had I was still lacking a few troop types so I ordered the last of them, and got round to organising, basing, re-basing, etc. The final total 93 bases/units most with around 30 infantry on them, plus the two encampments I wanted to make!

I split the units into three armies, two fairly even forces representing the Lancastrian and Yorkist forces and a third being made up of troops both sides could utilise at varying points in the course of the Wars, some of these were Irish troops and others I had decided to paint up in the colours of nobles who fought for both sides, this third army would never be fielded as a whole but would act as pool to vary both my main armies.

I've not quite finished this neutral contingent yet but its nearly there and hopefully posting it here will prompt me to get a move on.

 Irish Bonnachts with Kerns at the front and Border staves to the rear

 Warwick's retinue

 Stanley's retinue

 The Shire troops, Bills and Archers, with some un-liveried men at arms at the front

 To do!

 

 

 

The whole contingent

 

 

Next time I'll post up my Lancastrian army which is the most completed of the two remaining forces.



On the Painting Desk (2)

With the conclusion of my BKC(II) project, I have been able to focus on finishing my War of the Roses armies, or well I would if I hadn't been totally distracted with my 6mm Epic: Armageddon project, which has since been put to one side, as I have now been distracted by a 3mm ACW project.

I am planning on just pottering away at the 3mm ACW over the Xmas break and focussing on the WotR in the New Year.

 I tend to have two main projects on the go which I swop between as and when I fancy a change. The WotR has moved up to project A whilst the Epic stuff is my project B for the New year. I then also have a sideline project which can be anything  but is usually a smallish project, I had planned on finishing my 28mm Perry Miniatures Samurai for Ronin and picking up some suitable Japanese style scenery, but the 3mm ACW project has leaped in front(for the moment at least).

 The ACW is a period I have always wanted to game but just didn't want to get into painting hundreds if not thousands of troops, so doing the project in 3mm cuts all that out, as the infantry regiment I painted took no time at all and looks quite effective I reckon I can get a decent size force on the table in a matter of a couple of weeks rather than the couple of years doing it in 6mm/10mm would have took.

Anyway here is some of the stuff floating around my desk at the moment:

Baccus Germanic/Celtic civilians which I am using on my Medieval Farmhouse project, these took no time and were a joy to paint.

 

Troublemaker Games - Novan Royal Marines, which I will be using as Imperial Guard Stormtroopers.

GW Epic marines and Dreadnought

An almost completed Medieval Farmhouse set up. (Buildings from Leven Miniatures, barrels from Perfect 6)

Oddzial Ozmy's 3mm American Civil War, painted as Confederates (this was my first go at 3mm and I found them very easy, it helps that the casts are so well done)

 

 

I will finally get around to taking some picture of my completed WotR stuff for my next post, unless of course the ACW project starts to take over!

 

 



 

Odds & Ends (6) - More Little Buildings

 

 

 

Just a short post this time just to show a recent batch of buildings I have painted, all from the fantastic Leven Miniatures and this time actually painted for their use on their site (that's the price you have to pay for constantly nagging the owner for Medieval farms, Manor houses and most importantly a Castle).

 

Anyway on to the products, all from the Middle East range, all nicely cast and a joy to paint, and in fact very easy to paint being simply base-coated a sandy brown, and dry brushed lighter and lighter, until I was happy with the overall effect, the texturing on the model made this all very easy, a very light wash finished them off and added a more aged look. I also added a couple of awnings to some of the buildings, the posts to attach them to are already in place and it was easy enough to do with a small piece of card.

 

 I don't play any desert warfare games but will look at getting some of these in the future for my 6mm sci-fi stuff as I think they would make a decent Mos Eisley like settlement.

 

 

Detailing the interior of this market stall was easier than I thought it would be, I simply blobbed a few colours around on and below a basic table-like thing, I think it gives the impression of a table of goods quite well.

 

As I said a short one this time, I'll be focusing on my painting desk next post, with its varied ongoing projects.

My BKC(II) Project - Part 3 - BEF and British Airborne

So on to the final part of this trilogy of posts concerning my BKC project. These final two forces were really supplementary to the main part of the project. The BEF force came about as we mentioned playing the early war at the club and I knew I could do a BEF force by simply using the same infantry I had already painted and swopping out the 6lb guns, armoured and air units. So that's exactly what I did(all miniatures are from Heroics & Ros, except the collapsed parachutes which are Adler):

A selection of early war tanks and some 2lb guns

These were done in no time at all, with a fairly basic(but effective) paintjob, add in the two infantry battalions I already have and its a reasonable sized force.

The British Airborne were another matter,  I have this force in 20mm and wanted it to look the same so I used the same method for the camo smocks and helmets covers (khaki base coat, with tiny dabs of Luftwaffe camo green and German camo pale brown, finished with a mid tone wash). whilst time consuming I think it was worth while, as I didn't want them looking just like the regular infantry with red berets which is all to easy at this scale.

The CO and HQ's

Support Company with 6lb Guns

The Recon Element

Off Table Support

 

Forward Observers

Full Battalion with support elements

 

Brigade HQ

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how the para's turned out, but was glad to get them finished, this diversion amounted to 42 units and 2845pts.

 

All in all I ended up with 320 units for BKC and ideally I'd like to add a US Paratroop Battalion at some point but for now I really don't want to see another 6mm WW2 figure for a while.

 

 

As that was the conclusion of my main project, I have moved on to my War of the Roses 6mm project for Impetus using Baccus miniatures which again started as a smallish project of about 30 units, but has now reached 93 units, as most of them have 30'ish figures per base I'm looking at nearly 3000 troops in total!! I'll post some pictures soon as I'm now down to last 25 or so units.

My BKC(II) Project - Part 2 - Ze Germans

Following on from my last post, my 6mm German army spiralled even more out of control than my British Army, ending up at 10,365 points and 130 units which I blame entirely on the larger variety of German Armour available.

The first formation up is one of two identical infantry battalions, both of which have mechanised support company's whilst the rest are foot sloggers:

And the 2nd infantry battalion:

Next up is my Armoured formation, which was the formation that seemed to grow and grow, though I think I did well in only adding 3 Tigers to the mix. I have done two HQ's for this formation as I tend to split them up with the SPG's in one group and tanks in the other.

This next formation is my big hitter, being a fully mechanised infantry battalion with mechanised support, I used the Panzer Grenadier infantry rather than the standard infantry for this one and even did the smocks and helmet covers in appropriate camouflage:

I wanted to see what the German Para's looked like so ordered a pack, this is the outcome, a reduced strength battalion with some support elements:

A Recon company on foot (well they do have Motorcycles too if they get tired)with some armoured support and Forward Observers:

The CO's formation contains a bunch of odds n sods which didn't fit into other formations:

 

and the off table support:

As for painting, starting with the infantry, as ever these days I undercoated them brown, and applied mid flesh tone to hands and face, personal weapons were next which were either brown or black, whilst the black was out I did the boots too. German field grey was then used for the rest and to neaten up the earlier coats and I finished with a wash of mid tone. The camo'd vehicles were painted with bleached bone with splodges/stripes of German Luftwaffe camo green and German pale camo brown.

The final part of this project will be the subject of another post which will show my British Airborne and BEF battle-groups