More Perry Caballeros Hidalgos...

Some more Perry conversions...

Here is one of my character models. Note the shield design, shamelessly nicked from an Osprey book about Normans! Also, note the sculpted lower tunic beneath the mail hauberk and the rather cool tunic border..BTW I've found a great way to do gold tunic borders: Basecoat with GW Bestial Brown and then use Foundry Ochre 'Shade' to outline the pattern, highlighting with the 'light' Ochre. Works a treat!

Now some unit shots of Caballeros Hidalgos. There will eventually be 12 of them plus the general and ASB in this unit... I really like the way the madder red and ochre pulls the whole unit together... Click on the unit pics for close-ups ...it doesn't always work on here, but these ones seem ok.
More to come shortly...

Merry Christmas

To all of my blog-reading buddies, whether avid readers or casual pop-in types, may I wish you all the best for Christmas and for 2008! Wherever you are, have a good one!

After the Christmas break, expect to see a shedload more El Cid. I have almost all the figures I need now (just waiting for the fabulous Perry boys to replace the ones that their Christmas Gremlin c*cked up in my last order..despite said c*ck up, the Perry chaps were brilliant, and have sorted it out big stylee, BTW...) so I can paint with a furious frenzy! Along with those you'll see the next unit of Saxons being painted for Tony, so it'll be a busy old time...

See ya....

El Cid Spanish Caballeros Hidalgos

Here are the first few models in my El Cid army. I've actually painted a few more than this, but the photos came out a bit shite, so until I can re-shoot those, these will have to suffice for you:

All Perry miniatures (the whole army will be) many of which have been subtly converted to give them flowing Andalusian robes under their mail and tassells on the shields. The round shields are from the 'bitz box'. (One can never underestimate the value of a 'bitz box' and I often pick up spare shield packs, etc for conversion purposes....)

More to come shortly...I hope to have the entire unit complete by New Year...

The Great Plastic Figure Debate...

Just my 10p worth since the announcement that the Perry twins are gonna do 28mm plastic historicals....

Bloody great idea! It's always good to promote low cost, high quality and the Perry models will fit that perfectly! I guess it depends on what they actually produce range-wise, but in general, it can only be a good thing in that it may facilitate a few more folk into buying armies that they previously couldn't afford....

I actually don't think that many will suffer for it...there will always be metal ranges that folk want but that the Perry boys won't do in plastic. However, what it may do is hurt the metal manufacturers who produce lower cost but not such good quality metals for the ACW and any other ranges the Perries make... It may also make a few manufacturers think about the price they charge for their metal figs (Foundry, are you listening?) although I appreciate that the cost of metal does keep rising...and I don't mind paying decent money for quality stuff, to be honest.

Anyway, time will tell. I'm just dreading the day that the Perry Crusaders and Sudan models come out in plastic...cos the unpainted figure mountain may rise dramatically chez moi... :-) :-)

British Kingdoms Teulu on foot

Here are my British Kingdoms Teulu on foot. They are a mixture of West Wind and Gripping Beast figures. Many of the West Wind figs have been subtly converted.

This is the last unit to be painted for my British kingdoms army. I still have about 20 Welsh foot to paint to make the army look less 'Roman'. I also have the West Wind mounted models to paint and these models will replace the more 'Roman' looking ones when I field the army in future. The more 'Roman' looking models will be drafted into the Romano-British units that I have begun to paint. Eventually, I'll be able to field 2 x 1500pt armies, one of British kingdoms and one of Romano-British, which will be cool. Not to mention the Saxon and Frankish allied units...

Below are pics of the whole Teulu plus close-ups of the Gripping Beast Wolftail Warriors, Arthurian heroes, etc that I've used in the unit. Other pics (West Wind figs) can be seen on the SAD WAB forum...

Next up, will be some heavily converted Perry Crusaders which are going to form my El Cid Christian Spanish army...I bought the models for half an army when the range first came out, painted a few then did nowt else. So, I've been tarting up the ones I painted back then and have been converting like crazy... Pics to come of the first few as soon as I can...