Wars of the Roses Scottish Troops (RedBox)

10 bods in the set...and to be honest, a LOT of flash! On 2 of the  4 sprues in the set I got some of the bods were surrounded with Flash. Over at PSR they seem to have got one of the good sprues (Here)
Still, when the Flash is  removed there´s some quite nice bods buried in it. A lot of them are quite generic looking and fit well alongside  other WotR´s bods.

The whole mob with conversions together. The Tartan. I made it up as I went along and any similarity to a real pattern is purely coincidental.

Missile bods.

Infantry. The one on the right..A Gallowglass?

The other figs, with conversions

The rather large halberd replaced with a pike

I wouldn´t want to be on the recieving end of that chopper...that´s if the guy could have actually lifted it.

The pikes that come attached to the bods are pretty thick and useless, so they got replaced. Why manufacturers still insist on creating poses with the pikes attached is beyond me. Easier would surely be just have the bod with ring Hands that a pike could be fitted to?

Now the last bod, the musician.
Bagpipes seem to have been used way back in human history and I´ve found a couple of references to them being used in warfare but nothing really definate. They turn up in Medieval manuscripts as far back as the 12th century (a collection of manuscripts with Bagpipes in them HERE)

Here  is the Sound of a reconstructed set  of a medieval  German Bagpipes called  "Hummelchen" (Little bee)  It has some similarity  to the "modern" sound of a set of Bagpipes.

The main Problem with the piper is that he hasn´t got the mouthpiece to blow the bag up!! Mind you, as can be seen in the pic above (the two pipers) the mouthpieces could be quite small so maybe it´s hidden against his chest.

Spartacus Uprising - Defeat ( Linear-b)

 

 

Spartacus   finally lost the Third Servile war and was killed at the battle of the Siler river and  the Retribution taken upon his remaining  followers was swift and terrible!!!

The whole set together.

Crixus getting a kick.
"The little vascal has spivit!"
"Has what, sir?" 
 "Spivit.!"
"Yes, he did, sir"
"No, no, spivit! Sort of...bombavdo, a touch of devving-do"
The Lictor is a good addition, the Fasces showing the power to excecute...

Forming an orderly line waiting for punishment (Roman officer from the  Construction set.)
"Crucifixtion?"
"yes"
"Good...out of the door, line on the left, one cross each"

The Roman soldier can have the whip removed and replaced with a rope as part of a construction Team or onboard a ship.

"You don't have to do this! You don't have to take orders!"
" I like orders!"

 

This Scene from the 1960 film, Spartacus. This scene   captures the  powerfull and  menacing look of a Roman Legion. 

HaT El Cid Moorish Command

The set contains 3 sprues. each sprue  with 3  foot and 3 mounted bods (Two horses and one mule). Not really a lot of vareity pose wise but they are nice looking bods and a good Addition to the El Cid Range. A slight oversight in the set..the mounted horn blower doesn´t have any stirrups.

The Drum mounted on a donkey is a really nice Piece.

Even though there´s so few poses, there is still scope for conversions, especially using bods from the other sets in the series.

The horn Player in the middle has new legs from the bod from the Almoravid set.  The Horn Player on the far left (bottom half from the Standard bearer)  will become a new member of Ben Yusuf´s Black Guards.

The final conversion..the  Standard bearer on foot now becomes a mounted Standard bearer. .

My one real complaint about the set is the Standard bearer. The Hand that holds the Standard is open which then means the pole of the  Standard needs glueing to the Hand, not a very permanent solution so I welded them on. A ring Hand would have been a far better solution.

And some very good News for fans of  1/72nd Medievals..Linear-b is planning to release sets of Tudor period bods!!!!!  The masters look excellent and can, along with a new set of Zombie Pirates, be seen HERE

"Just in Time"

"After many years away at war, a  knight returns home to find his beloved has been condemned as a witch and will be burned at the stake in the market place. He quickly rides to her rescue and in front of the cowardly townsfolk,  breaks the chains holding her to the stake and carries her away to safety"

The scult was created for Valdemar by Alex. I had to come up with a reason as to why she has a chain on her right ankle,  hence the small background story.

"they jeer and threaten but dare not stop this seasoned warrior"

and a couple of close ups......

They were part of a duel (Theme ; coming home) over at the Bennos Forum..Results HERE.
It was a 3 way duel, the other contestants were:
Peter from Peters cave blog
Suso from Gataskog blog

Moor Conversions

More conversions...(spot the dreadfull pun )

Arm swops. The bod on the left got his new shield arm from the El Cid Spanish infantry set and the bod on the right from the Andalusian light cavalry

Top halves, the Andalusian light cavalry, bottom halves, archers.....

...and waste not, the top halves of the foot archers go to adding more variety to the light cavalry

Lizard cavalry

I´ve absolutely no idea what make this is as I found it in a Pick n´Mix section at the Herne Toy show.
The lizard is made from dark green hard plastic and the rider yellow soft plastic.

The little Imp like rider has a very nice Aztec style hat ...........

The lizard is about the same size as a 1/72nd Horse so it fits really well alongside my Army of the Underworld bods

Shame that I only bought two of them :-(

Austrian cuirassiers Regt. Nr 8 (pt 2)

Another 50 finished for the Croeburn diorama..... making a grand total of 100!!

Medieval Houses

The town of Styrow-on-the Foam (or Bodston) grows. A set of 1/72nd scale resin medieval houses created by Thorsten Burgdorf and available HERE ......... They are "multi-purpose" houses, that is you can create a lot of different variations from the same kit, swopping the roofs, gable ends etc.

Very kindly...Thorsten sent them built and painted :-D All they need is basing.

Timber framed versions with straw roofs

Wooden block houses with shingle roofs.

Austrian cuirassiers Regt. Nr 8

The first 50 of a batch of 250, that are having a bit of a touching up paintjob for the Croeburn 1813 dio. Peter, from Peter´s Cave blog has another 150.
One day, they will find a home in a museum, which will hopefully open in spring 2014, which is being created to hold the three dios of Auenhain, Croeburn and Moeckern. More info HERE
The bods are created by Jörg Schmaeling and are available at Art Miniaturen.

Will I and Peter get them all finished by May this year? Watch this space :-D