Cardboard Shields!

Hey everyone, here is how to get your shields going:

Step 1:Go to this blog and hunt around for shield and banner images you like

http://michasfiguren.blogspot.com/

 Cut the images out

paste them onto some form of cardboard material. I used the back of notebooks and rubber cement for glue.
Once the shield has been cut from the cardboard, carefully bend the shield around a thick pen to give the shield a realistic curvature. 

Cut the shields out and carefully paint the back and edges of the shields brown. A good technique when painting the edges is to have the side of your brash drag along the shield edge with the point of the brush always towards the backside of the shield.

Some shielded miniatures.

Pavises for Crossbowmen. 

The only plastic shield in the post..... But none the less a finished warlord type for my Barbarians

Been trying to get my hands on these musketeer miniatures for quite some time. They are hard to come by in the states. This was a cheap ebay auction because the bannermen's sword was broken. Easy fix even for the likes of me. I also screwed a hole into his left hand for a banner pole, which didnt exist previously. I really hope to get more musketeer miniatures now that they are opening footsore miniatures with a distributor in the USA.

Special thanks to micahsblog for the shields and banner!

finished trees and some crusaders

Heres a look at the finished trees

another look

The defending barbarians are westwind saxons and merlin, with one warlord dacian model

 A look at some tartan patterns on the dacian and merlin

a peak at some WIP crusaders

I redid the mounted knights helmet, and these crossbowmen have been done for some time. 

Trees, Bones, and Torches

These trees are art craft pipecleaners twisted togethor leaving roots and branches at the top. They were then covered in tape. And most importantly covered in hotglue in sporadic up and down motions creating bark effects. Check out DMsCraft youtube video if you want a great tutorial on doing tree bark. Its really easy, just go up and down in sporadic motions with the gun.  

continuing work on the bones figures, apparently I only painted the evil characters..............Coincidence? I think not, MWAHAHAHA. 

 trees pre hot glue.

These torches are q-tips cut in half, covered in white glue and pulled to a flame shape. They were then painted red followed by a less than dry dry-brush with upward motions occasionally top give the flames appropriate color and movement. This q-tip idea was nicked from, none other than, DM Scotty from the DMsCraft youtube channel.

Heres some finished torches with 2 finished bones figures and 2 old WHFB VC figures wraith and banshee

The finished tree is to the left of the great hall. Sorry for the bad shot. The tree was drybrushed a grey-tan-brown mix followed by a random drybrush of green to show moss.  Lichen was hot glued to the top branches.  Eventually the tree will be mounted on a cd base.  

 The other bones figure progress. I made some headway on a Hero, I guess Im not all bad.

A Saga game, with Skeletons and Vampires.

In This Saga game we tried out two new armies, the pagan rus (Undead) and the rus princes (barbarians).  We played the convoy escort scenario. I (undead) had the convoy.  The escort must get at least 1 baggage train of 3 across the table, and the attacker must destroy all 3 for victory.  

The Rus princes hearthguard is a super unit that costs three points for 2 points worth of figures.  However, they generate 2 saga dice instead of 1, and they get free activations.  I put my warlord and unit of warriors facing down his warlord and hearthguard.  Thyrough the magic of the pagan rus i inflicted fatigue on his hearthgaurd, and then got to kill 1 model per fatigue in all units with fatigue with a seperate ability.  

my 8 man unit of hearthguard charged up the road to meet his warriors head on.  Apparently he thought my hearthguard were warriors, a fatal mistake, the warriors died.  

With his hearthguard unit at half strength I geared up my saga board for some close combat and charged my warlord and warriors into the remaining hearthguard. My opponents terrible defence rolls left none of his hearthguard unit standing.  

With only 6 warriors slain throughout my entire army, and his super hearthguard and warrior unit killed and another warrior unit at half strength from fatigue kills, we decided the battle was over because it was impossible for him to destroy all three baggage trains. 

Boat, Banners, Bones, and more!

I wanted to build a generic looking ship that I could use in any situation I could find my gaming in. Check out the youtube channel DMsCraft, it enlightened me in the ways of cardboard and hot glue. I shutter to think of the days, not so long ago, when the knowledge of hot glue and terrain making was in a dark age.

I drew an outline of a boat roughly. two outlines because I decided to make two boats. That fell through and I only made one. 

I measured a halfway point as well as dots to mark cutting lines to create wood planks. Just cutting into the cardboard with an exacto knife without breaking through the other side.

I Cut the outline of the base out and then traced it on cardbaord to cut out an identicle cardboard shape.  An edge around the shape was cut. This will become the boat walls/raised area of the boat.  

Sorry for the poor quality image but here is the base and wall outline glued together.  

The outside walls were created by cutting index card and covering the ugly innards of the cardbaord.

 I also lined the inner wall with a thin strip of index card as well.  

The sale is linen, and is unpainted.  The mast was just hot glued and then white glued to add extra strength. 

 I painted my current terrain projects all dark brown: The boat, stable, and firepit.  

 A tan dry brush was applied.

Here's the boat with some raiders.

The finished firepit and stable. The firepits base is cardboard covered in white glue and sand. The edge of the cardboard is covered in hotglue to conceal the innards of the cardboard.  There is minor warpage, so I am curious to see what happens with a larger cardboard base and white glue.  

These are printed banners I found online. The empire figure is getting the Swiss canton banner of Bern, and the German knight got  a banner from http://michasfiguren.blogspot.com/2015/03/ein-paar-neue-banner.html

The insides of the banner are painted in the colors of the banner edges so when the banner is folded over imprecisely no white shows.  

here's the German Knight

And here is the empire bannermen and german knight alongside the early stages of painting for the bones figures.

I painted this piece a while ago, but i finally cut out the base and glued the rocks down.  I have not been happy with my results cutting foamboard... This time I used an exacto knife that heats up like a glue gun or hot wire cutter, I'm more satisfied this time around but I still think there is something that Im missing.  

The Only Way to Paint

Before painting plastic miniatures I spray the sprues. I can't stress how much I love this technique. It allows for a huge degree in brush control that would otherwise be unavailable on a mini that was built.

The WIP of the Sword Brothers of Livonia

the pieces of the horses were painted separately as well!

Soon to be used parts......

These are from my first reaper bones purchase. I previously only had one reaper miniature (I didn't paint it. Boo, Hiss!)

The miniatures are great sculpts. They are definitely heroic 28mm, theyre quite large.  The large barbarian man, with the empire white wolf head added, had a strikingly tiny head compared to his body. A quick knife to the jugular and the improvement was obvious!

I'm very happy with the purchase. The figures are dynamic, and ooze fantasy heroism and villainy. That being said, the figures are affordable for character types, but not nearly as cheap as a plastic regiment of troops.

They are made from a glue material. The bodies are surprisingly dense, the thinner parts are rubbery. However, to my surprise, only the elf (second from the left (front)) had noticeable warping.  word on the street is to hold the mini in boiling water, re position the warped area and then place the mini in water with a lot of ice cubes.  Apparently primer isnt needed on the minis but washed wont hold without a proper paint layer, so ill have to give these lads a spray and see what happens. 

Saga Returns

This is actually a recent game! Norse Gaels vs The Capetian Franks. I will never touch the frank battleboard again..........it seemed to be a very nuanced faction....regardless, I was not thrilled with any of the abilities offered.

(Frank models are fireforge tuetonic knights teutonic infantry and bretonnian men at arms and archers, the Norse gaels are my hodgepodge Barbarians consisting of: GB plastics, GB jomsvikings, WF germans, and WF viking bondi.

 Here's the Set up, we played clash of warlords since it has been so long since our last game

as our armies closed in distance, it was apparent the battle would occur entirely on the road.

Small scale skirmishing between the Norse-gael javelinmen and teutonic/frank archers. 

My bretonnian warriors miraculously survived his two waves of Norsegaels wielding axes. our units were severely reduced. I cahrged my teutonic mounted hearthgaurd to finish off a warrior squad to reduce his saga dice pool..........

His hearthgaurd slaughtered my entire unit of knights........... So, I craftily charged my warlord to engage his hearthgaurd, and moved as many warriors as possible within VS of my warlord, to die in my warlords stead.  Eventually our warlords clashed while the lesser warriors died for them.

We called it a night to play some gamecube, without finishing the game.  If not for my hatred of the Franks battleboard (shouldve read it before the battle) this wouldve been a very enjoyable game.  

Some Current Projects

Bishop of Tartu of Livonia

The following are fireforge models. the bishops hat is made from index card and was added on to the FG head with glue. Dont know where I came up with it, but Im happy with the result.

His personal Bodygaurd/Champion, a Bad-ass German Noble

The transfers are old Bretonnian transfers

2 more characters...Both are awesome. I think the guy on the far right is gonna remain sheildless

Chaos Champion Conversion

And Much more to Come!