Wargame Butterfly? Me? Hmmm....

While the blog has been quiet for a few weeks, I have been anything but quiet when it comes to the hobby. However, I have to confess, I've been massively distracted and wandered off down a few different paths. That said, in my defence, it's not been a matter of new projects, it's been more a matter of taking several projects to the next stage.  

Having said that, one of those probably qualifies as a new project. Why? Because I bought the figures to start something new, even though they don't qualify as a recent acquisition. In time honoured fashion, they were bought on a whim and by the time they arrived my ardour had begun to cool. No longer, I'm pleased to say.

So, what happened? Well, my regular opponent Dave was eager we should give Infamy, Infamy a try. Fine with me, but I have to confess that my knowledge of the broad scope of time that falls under the banner 'ancient period' is not a slice of history I know much about. Naturally, it follows that I don't have any figures for the period in my collection. However, the idea of asymmetric warfare on the borders of the Roman Empire had some appeal. It also coincided with a sale at Victrix. 

That was convenient, because one bag of their Germanic Warriors includes 60 figures, probably just enough for a force for Infamy, Infamy. Order was duly placed; figures arrived; I made up about six of them; became distracted by another project; put them aside, and, there they remained for almost a year.

Jump forward to recently and Dave and I played a game, finally. Dave had Romans, but no Germans, so we proxied some of his Saxons. We both enjoyed the game and needless to say it was the impetus I needed to get moving with those Victrix Germans. In the end it has been a remarkably quick project that is almost complete. It's the 'almost' that's held me up blogging about it, but I thought I'd not wait any longer.

I gave some thought to how I wanted the figures based. The most versatile option would be to base them individually and use sabot bases to move them around in groups during a game. My only issue is that I find sabots have a habit of making the units look too regimented (and yes, I know, you can get sabot bases with the slots in irregular patterns, but there's something about the fact the whole sabot base is square or rectangular that still creates the illusion of a uniform shape. Call me fussy). 

I decided to go down the same path I did for my Mahdists for the Sudan. I would base the figures in 3s, 2s and individually. That way I can remove casualties; keep an irregular shape to the groups, but also have the convenience of multi-based figures to aid movement. It has worked well for the Mahdists.

It wasn't until I'd painted most of the figures that I realised I had run out of suitable MDF bases for the multi-figure basing. Order has been placed and I'm now waiting on delivery to base those figures. In the meantime at least the individually based figures are finished.

The Victrix set gave me enough figures for five groups of ten and a number of leaders, which pretty much gives one of the forces recommended in the army lists in the Infamy, Infamy rule book. Of course, the key phrase here is 'pretty much'. I think we all know what that means.

I needed a few small additions. Groups of skirmishing/missile figures are useful and these can include slingers, archers and javelins. I thought I could solve the slingers quite simply and without purchasing more figures. 

I had a box of Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors and the set includes lots of hands with slings. The easiest solution seemed to be to use the bodies and sling hands from Gripping Beast. To help them blend in and match the other warriors in the force, the heads would come from those left over from the Victrix set. It seemed like a good idea, but it didn't work quite as well as I hoped.

Two things bugged me. Firstly, the Victrix heads appear too big for the Gripping Beast bodies and, secondly, the Gripping Beast poses lacked the dynamism that is so apparent in the Victrix figures. Looking at the Victrix set I could see how several of their bodies would lend themselves well to representing slingers. The solution was to buy a spare sprue online and just make use of the Gripping Beast sling hands. As it happened I thought a few of those GB heads would work okay on the Victrix bodies, which they do. It was the simplest of conversions. By turning the heads on the bodies so the figures were facing side on, it was easy to create an entirely new configuration that gave me the dynamism I was after.

Once painted I was much happier. These looked the part.

I also thinks this speaks to the versatility of plastic figures. I understand completely why some people dislike them, but as someone who has made plastic models all his life, I don't have any issues. In fact, quite the opposite. 

The two figures below are based on the same Victrix torso/body. Aside from the option of using a different head, the only real difference is how the heads are angled. As I've done with nearly all the slinger conversions, the heads are adjusted to face sideways rather than forwards. The end result, a very different looking figure, without the need for complex surgery.

In terms of basing, aside from the 3,2,1 scheme for the main body of warriors, the leaders are on slightly larger bases that will line up with the larger bases I'll use for three figures. To these I've added rocks, these are to help identify which figure corresponds to which leader card while playing the game.

So, that's where I'm at with the Germans. Hopefully I have the remaining figures based soon and ready for a game.

At the same time I've been diverted to painting up a few more figures for my Hundred Years War collection. These are all based on Perry Miniatures plastic sets. I put these together a few years ago to play simple skirmish games like Lion Rampant. To be honest, they don't see much action these days. Lion Rampant works well enough as an introductory game or a quick game on a club night, but it feels too much like a squad based action than something from the medieval period. 

More recently, I've joined in several big games set during the Trojan Wars using Midgard which I've enjoyed. By good fortune I stumbled across army lists for the HYW that the rule's author James Morris had put together. 

I don't have enough painted figures for a game, but I do have quite a few unassembled plastic frames of various Perry sets in my stash. They've been sitting there for far too long and this was a good reason to pull them out and get painting while my mojo was raging. I probably needed to paint up about 30-40 figures to give me what I need in extra figures for various types like archers and men-at-arms.

First to be completed were three bases to represent English leaders/heroes and another dozen men-at-arms. To distinguish the commanders I've based these in twos on a round base and made use of a set of flags I have for the period from Battle Flag.

Having used some of the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors in my attempt to create slingers for my Germanic warriors I've also been inspired to try and do a speed paint job on a couple of dozen of those to give me a rather generic force that could be used to represent anything from peasant levy to tribal warriors to armed serfs. So, in short, a very busy workbench at the moment, but too many works in progress and not enough completed projects to warrant a blog post. More to come!