A few people have complained that the horse heads are a bit flat but this is a minor quibble, I may end up using the horses for many different forces! One plus of the horses is that they are all interchangeable so you get even more variety in poses, maybe another head or too for even more variety wouldn't have gone astray but other than that they are great.
Downsides? A few more arms for variety may have been handy! I plan to convert them to Welsh, Saxons and am even thinking of trying to make a few Muslim types!
Not sure what I'll do with the dead horse models? I may use them to put where the knight stands are killed.
I was going to put four figures per base but it was looking a bit crowded and so after consultation with my "does it look good" expert- my 9 year old son, we decided 3 figure looked better, so three it is. Which means I can make a lot more stands! So I think in future I'll stick to the DBA suggestions- 3 knights or cavalry, 2 figures for light horse- will save a bit of time in painting and cash in buying.
Perry Muslims
Kent is currently working on his Crusaders army so not much point carrying on with my Normans, I think I'll try to work on my Syrian army next. I've a few Old Glory Muslim Cavalry but they aren't my favourite figures so I think I'll upgrade my Muslim Ghulums for my Syrian army to Perry Miniatures which are my favourite range in this period. I am tempted to try and convert a few Conquest Normans into Syrians but we will wait and see.
Gripping Beast Dark Ages Buildings
Gripping Beast has a fantastic range of Dark Ages buildings which can get bought very reasonably from War and Peace games in Australia- reasonable for me as the shipping is not too bad to New Zealand. I ordered most of the range of Thursday and they should arrive in the next few days.
Work in Progress- Conquest Normans
The first stand nears completion.
Basing
They may look a bit sparse compared to some of seen online but 4 figures per base just looked too crowded, so three it is.
Looking good!!!
ReplyDeleteHey Craig,
ReplyDeleteYour putting me to shame with your rapid progress with your Dark Ages armies!
Normans look very cool, I've seen the sprues and wanst fussed but the seem to paint up very well.
Good Work :)
They are well worth it Jason, can't recommend them highly enough. If I was to do WoTR (which I won't- a bit too focused on heroes and magic for me I'll do WoTR Impetus instead) I'd use them for Rohan and/or Gondor- I hate the full plate style of Jacksons Gondor forces- they are not Middle Earthesque to me.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your own forces are starting to recover from the earthquake- those shots of the pile of lead on the floor were disheartening!
Must work fast to try to reduce the backlog- which alas just increased by a lot more Perry Arabs to fight vs Kent's Crusaders!
I think we will do a first Crusades battle for TAGCON- I like the idea of the siege of Antioch- a big city wall as the backdrop and two large (800 pt-1000pt) Impetus armies on an 8x 6 table! Something for us to work towards.
It could work as two seperate battles too- crusaders beseiging the city and then as the Crusaders beng beseiged by the forces of Kerbogha
Craig
Well he seems to have a fully fucntioning Roman Impetus force and I am almost a week late posting the batrep of His Isengard rolling over me...So I think the lesson here is: Invest in plastic armies. I can personally attest that they bounce nicely when dropped en masse, even if not in an earthquake.
ReplyDeleteTHe Conquest plastics look amazing, do they get enough round shields for the whole lot? I would almost consider them as arthuruan cav (yes the helmets are all wrong) for a not too expensive Imoetus army using infantry via that store you link to there.
I like the Minas Tirith soldiery in film style well enough but absolutely agree that Vikings/Saxons and things like these Normans are perfect for most of the men of middle-earth.
Cheers
Great job on them models!!
ReplyDeleteEpic
Thanks Dave & Jamie
ReplyDelete@ Jamie, yes you get enough round shields too- great for Anglo-Saxon types (or Bretons).
To convert to Aurthurians simply use some of the New GB Saxon heads- or buy Westwind production heads! Sure the armour isn't quite right but should be close enough.
Only down side for my Muslim conversion is that 2 of the 3 arms have shields attached so are less easy to convert by simply swapping shields
Craig
I'm am about to convert some to Muslims as well