Super Saxon and the Mad Baron

Hello again, Chris here with an update on my Dux Brit progress, and a couple of other odds and ends.

I'm afraid my progress on my Dux forces is a bit lacking.  I have only managed to finish 4 additional figures, all Saxon warriors.

I don't think they turned out to badly, though the one on the right is a bit odd.  After going ahead with a red and blue paint scheme for him, with yellow edging on the tunic, I realized he reminded of Superman's costume.  It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Saxon!

Though I didn't make any more progress in painting, I have got the whole lot of Saxons and Britons cleaned up and based, so I'll be pressing on again soon.

In a diversion from this project, I pulled out some of my "Back of Beyond" figures from Copplestone Casting.  I've been reading a bit about this era recently, including the Bloody White Baron by James Palmer.  I was thus inspired to paint up the Mad Baron figure from Copplestone (well, at least the mounted version).

As with all the Copplestone figures I've worked on, he was fun to paint, with loads of character.  Might have to add a few Mongol horsemen to ride alongside him.

I always wanted to mention a new rules book I recently purchased,  Pulp Alley.

I have not had a chance to play it yet, but I like what I have read so far.  Looks to give an entertaining game of pulp adventure, with a small teams of 5 to 10 figures to a side.  I first heard about it over on the Lead Adventure Forum , where you can read some excellent after action reports on the game.

Well, that's all for now.  Thank you again for your kind attention, and until next time, carry on gaming!

A bit more Dux Britiannarum

Hello again, Chris here to talk a little bit more about my Dux Britiannarum project. 

For those how aren't already playing Dux, I'll give a little background on the opposing forces I am attempting to paint.  The warbands consist of 38 figures for the Saxons, and 44 figures for the Britons.  These each include 1 warlord, 2 nobles, and 1 champion.  The remaining figures are broken down into groups of 6, with exception of missle troops which are composed of 4 men.  For me, at least, this is quite a bit of painting to be done, but I persevere!

I have a couple of pictures to share with you.  The first is a group shot of my Briton standard bearer, my Saxon champion, and a Merlin-type fellow.

These are all Gripping Beast figures, with LBMS transfers for the banner and shields.  The Merlin-type will serve no immediate use in the pursuit of Dux Brit completion, but he could be useful for a game of Song of Arthur and Merlin.  The LBMS transfers are great, helping to improve my mediocre paint job.

The next picture is of 4 unarmored Briton spearmen.  Not the most exciting figures, but a necessary component of any Arthurian warband.

Again, Gripping Beast figures, with LBMS transfers. 

I hope to have more to share with you soon, though I'm a bit stuck on the Saxons I'm currently working on.  I should have them done before my next post.  In addition to miniatures, I have been collecting some terrain for use with Dux Britiannarum, including a set of buildings.  I'll try to have pictures of these to share as well.

Thanks for your kind attention, and until next time, carry on gaming!

Hello

Hello, my name is Chris.

Mik has kindly agreed to add me to the list of distinguished contributing authors here at Mik's Minis.  You see, I had my own blog once.  It withered and died like a neglected houseplant. 
Yet, I'm still attracted to the idea of "blogging" about my gaming habits and terrible lead addiction.  I like the idea of having an outlet for interacting with the geek community at large.  This is particularly acute now that I find my opportunities to associate with like-minded gamer types being curtailed by "real life". 

I believe that is enough whinging on for one blog post, let's talk about gaming stuff.

Though I have the attention span of a hyper-active chipmunk, I have lately been able to stay focused on a single project - Arthurian wargaming.

Well, perhaps not that Arthur, specifically - though now that I think of it a Monty Python themed wargame could be awesome.

No, more of the Bernard Cornwell and Rosemary Sutcliff type Arthur.  And I believe I have found the perfect ruleset for playing out these dark age adventures.

Dux Britanniarum from Too Fat Lardies has been out for awhile now, and I'm sure many of you are already familiar with it.  I won't try to review it all here, at least not until I've gotten a few games under my belt.  However, based on a couple of read-throughs, these are the rules for me.  Simple and enjoyable game play, coupled with an excellent campaign system.

But even more important than selecting a set of rules to employ, which figures to use?

I settled on the line of 28mm Arthurian miniatures from Gripping Beast.  The figures look great, and are fun to paint.  I may supplement them with some of the figures from Musketeer Miniatures, which also look the business.

My painting is a bit slow, but I have managed to get some paint on a few figures.  For today, I'd like to share the opposing warlords of my Dux Britanniarum forces,  Eadwulf the Saxon and Constans ap Conomor the Briton.

Yikes, digital photography is unforgiving.  Constans is from the Arthurian command pack, while Eadwulf is sold as Penda the Last Pagan Saxon King. 

Well, that about wraps it up for this post.  Thanks for your attention, and until next time, carry on gaming!