15 mm Arab Black Guard (Essex)

This is another mini-project using figures from my "Phalanx hobby haul".  It only involves 16 figures but this post is longer than usual.   There are some simple conversions to discuss, and some research into the Guard and early Umayyad flags to summarise.

15 mm Arab Heavy Spear (Forged in Battle)

This post marks two important milestones.

The first is: these units are the final infantry units of my Arab Conquest ADLG (Art de la Guerre) army.  I now have all the infantry I need including many variants and most options.  I have bought some Daylami but they will have to wait until I've done the cavalry.

15 mm Arab Medium Spear (Forged in Battle & Essex)

Here's the latest addition to my Arab Conquest army for Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  It is the penultimate group of infantry in my army.

15 mm Arab Commanders (Forged in Battle & Essex)

My Arab Conquest army continues to grow; even if slowly.  This time It's a complete set of commanders for Art de la Guerre (ADLG) on the currently trendy 40 mm round bases.

As always, click on the images for larger versions.

15 mm War of the Roses Commanders - Complete

This is a post showcasing the third, and final, infantry command base for my Tudor army at Bosworth.  The base represents Sir Rhys ap Thomas of Dinefawr, his standard-bearer and livery captains using Donnington New Era figures.

I already have a set of three mounted, and two foot commanders based for Art de la Guerre (ADLG) but I felt the need(?) for one more commander on foot.  Any excuse to re-use the flags I created.

15 mm Russian Medieval Command (Essex, Mirliton & Roundway)

This post marks the completion of my late medieval (or Muscovite) Russian army.  The three commanders below are put together from some left over figures and a pack of musicians.

15 mm Russian Medieval Medium Cavalry (Essex)

The four units are intended as armoured lesser Boyars (Nobles) which are medium cavalry bow in Art de la Guerre (ADLG) hence the unarmoured horses.  Sadly many of the Essex miniatures don't have bow cases so I'll just have to use my imagination for those that don't:

In contrast to the heavy cavalry there's more variety in the shields and armour so the units are more interesting.

15 mm Russian Medieval Heavy Cavalry (Essex)

The four units are intended as armoured Boyars which are heavy cavalry bow in Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  Sadly many of the Essex miniatures don't have bow cases so I'll just have to use my imagination:

Russian Medieval Flags

My Russian medieval army is nearly complete.  I've only the basing to do on the final eight elements.  In fairness I've a few odds and sods to do, mainly command elements but these are for a bit of fun painting over Christmas.

No medieval army is complete without an abundance of flags so here are the flags I have used for my heavy & medium cavalry.  These are in addition to the two sets of flags I've placed online already.

15 mm Medieval Russian Archers (Essex)

I continue to make steady progress with my Medieval Russian army for Art de la Guerre (ADLG).   This batch provides all the medium and light archers I will ever need for ether the Feudal or Muscovite variant of the army.

The next figures for this army will be some peasant levy followed by some medium cavalry.  When they are done I'll have completed my first list.

15 mm Medieval Russian Spear (Essex)

Somehow I've ended up assembling a medieval Russian army for Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  I've already done a few generals, some hand-gunners and some light & heavy cavalry.  However, these were all really intended for use with my Polish & Litnuanian armies.  Now I've decided to do a full army as a spin off.

So far I've used figures from Roundway but for the spear (& archers in progress) I've switched to using mainly Essex with a few Roundway figures, where possible, for extra variety.  For those interested I've listed the figure codes below.

Fun With Flags - A How To Guide

I have been flagging recently.  That is putting flags on to 15 mm flag poles.  So I thought I'd put together a post on my current method.

It is quite a lengthy post.  That's because there's a lot to bear in mind.  Plus I wanted to explain more than few tips & tweaks so that it would be useful to complete beginners.

Sadly, there are no pictures of some steps because I don't have the number of  hands required.

15 mm War of the Roses Commanders - Redux

This is another post showcasing another set of command bases for my Tudor army at Bosworth.  I already have a second set of mounted commanders based for Art de la Guerre (ADLG) but I felt the need(?) for some commanders on foot.  Any excuse to re-use the flags I created.

I chose Essex Miniatures for the commanders to be based on 40 by 15 mm bases because I wanted some bases with flags upright but I also wanted to experiment with the "new trend" in ADLG command bases with a 40 mm round base.

Henry Tudor consulting with John De Vere and his retinue commander.

15 mm ACW Union Infantry Command (Warrior)

To compliment the ACW Confederate infantry I finished in August last year, I have completed three bases of Union infantry commands.  All figures are from Warrior Miniatures.

The main reasons for doing this was firstly to use my newly printed union flags and secondly to work on a colour palette for the Union uniform; particularly the dark blue of the coats.

15 mm Wars of the Roses Archer Command

This is the first part of my mini-rebasing project.  In addition to rebasing I have repainted the faces and most of the legs and shoes as they were damaged during removal from the original bases.  Wherever possible I kept as much of the original paintwork as I could; it's over twenty years old after all.

In addition I stripped and repainted the two figures third and fourth from the left as I wanted to switch their livery colours.  I also added new livery flags and in doing so I replaced the standard bearers with new Feudal Castings figures from my lead pile.

15 mm ACW Confederate Command (Peter Pig)

This post completes my collection of Confederate generals.  I now have three large command vignettes and five singly based generals.  I don't think I'll be painting any more.  It was nice to finish this part of my ACW project.

In addition to lots of photos I've added some comments on how I fared painting these figures.  Later on, there's a comparison of the newly completed Peter Pig generals and those I finished two weeks ago from Warrior.  Plus there's a few free flags at the end of the post.

15 mm ACW Confederate Command (Warrior)

It's been over a year since I posted my first attempts at American Civil War generals using the excellent figures from Warrior Miniatures. Since then I've been slowly adding to my commandres and today I finished basing my Commander in Chief vignette:

For the central figure in the vignette I used the most imposing figure from AC36 (Union/Confederate Generals) and flanked him with the officer and standard bearer from AC35 (Confederate Cavalry Command).

Medieval Russian Flag

At the end of July I posted this command element but with a different flag. At the time I was attempting to represent a generic religious icon. On reflection it didn't quite work. So I switched it for this one:



I have also reset my camera and have thankfully ended up with decent shots of the element without a lot of post processing.

Lockdown Diversion

At the moment I have three painting projects on the go: American Civil War (ACW) Confederate infantry, War of the Roses retinue men at arms and a largish unit of medieval Russian light horse.   My current lack of focus means that none are complete.

Of course, my painting commissions for Ian at Fighting15s has slowed down my personal output a touch but I enjoy the variety that Ian's figures provide.  They are a nice break from working through a couple of dozen figures that are essentially all the same.

As a seasoned wargamer I responded to this "pressure" and lack of focus by starting a completely new mini-project that may lead to another full blown project:

Rhys ap Thomas's Retinue Men at Arms

I have been working steadily on refreshing my War of the Roses retinues and here are some photos of the latest batch to be finished.