Posted on by maenoferren22

A Century of Flags

So, because I am a twit, I have decided to once again expand the Great Italian Wars Forces. This time with the kind of new Florentine forces from the Altuos range.

Not really a super large force, but enough to have a small army. Don’t ask me about points, I haven’t got a clue and honestly I just got what would look good on the table.

Basically pikes, shit, swordsmen etc. oh and a medium artillery piece. Well  Florence was rich.

Anyway I decided I needed more Flags. So off to the fabulous Pete’s Flags on eBay. I came across two sheets one a Florentine Mercenary set and the other from the Florentine League at the battle of Anghiari.

They Arrived today and I am very happy… I had a bit of a niggle at the back of my mind about the Florentine League at the battle of Anghiari… Well yeah of course I did. The battle took place in 1440. Giovanni of the Black Band was born nearly 60 years after the battle. So I will have two forces on the table that are basically 75 years apart.

So the options are:

Say sod it, a flag is a flag.

Put one set in a box and only use the standard mercenary flags.

I will let you have a guess which way I might go. Purists may want to look away now.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 4 Comments

Sadly I have inadvertently Broken the Law.

In my younger days I used to go hither and thither with my trusty chum and our five man canvas tent.

Our favourite place to go was the Lakes. We would get the bus to Keswick from Newcastle and spend a few days over there before hauling the bloody thing back again.

One Easter, disaster struck and we were at an awesome camp site at Ashness Bridge. The temperature plummeted and we were stuck. Blizzards whirled around us and we decided to sit it out.

One morning after surviving a night on Kendal Mint Cake and Hypothermia we were awoken by a knock on the door.

A policeman stood there shivering. He told us to get out as we were loitering Within Tent.

Get it, Loitering within tent…. Okay I’ll get my coat.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 4 Comments

The Battle for UpaVaila…

Well it sort of sounds a bit like an Italian town.

So I popped over to Mike’s today, took my toys to oggle at and discuss various rules sets.

As we had armies painted we decided to have a little try at a battle using Lion Rampant.

My chaps at the top, with his at the bottom. This wasn’t my initial setup. I had just shoved them on the table.  My Condottiere were trying to escort the baggage train across the bridge but were stopped by some dastardly enemy.

My activation dice were, frankly crap! His heavy cavalry thundered across the field and through a lucky roll mine managed to counter charge. We hacked and slashed for a good while and then I luckily managed to shrug him off, he retired, battered. His light cavalry (in the background) sensing victory followed with a charge of their own. I once again managed a lucky countercharge and completely destroyed them, but lost half of my heavies over the two combats.

My skirmishers managed to make it into the woods and completely tied up the mounted crossbows. They however never fired once and eventually died to a man. My troops on the right of the cavalry managed to get into the woods to hold them up even more.

There was some further ArgyBargy on the right flank, with his pole arm wielding crazies charging first the stradiots, who took one look at them, chucked a pile of javelins into their faces and legged it. The pole armed chaps were in turn run down by my other heavy cavalry. In the end my horsemen became a bit of a spent round, but they had secured the flank.

My poor Stradiots got charged by a pike block and somehow won the combat and pushed the pike block back. My pike block was charged by the remains of his heavy cavalry and managed to lose. I charged into him and gave him a good kicking. His cavalry were basically broken, but kept hanging on there.

We had to end it there as I had to shoot off.

Lion Rampant seemed to work. When I got home I realised I had bought the second edition which has rules for piles and handguns in it.

Time for a bit of a read through the rules as they also have rules for holy men, banners etc. basically these give you a plus one to the units courage… Luckily my leader brought his religious entourage with him.

I will let you know how I get on.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 2 Comments

Big Whoops

Well after the dog ate my sprue the other day. Well yesterday she ate something a bit more irreplaceable 😔

I loved my Deer skull, she evidently thought it was her latest chew toy.  It must have fallen or been knocked off the shelf.

All the beads have gone, they will probably appear in a poo bag in the fullness of time.

Luckily the actual Skull survived.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 3 Comments

Back on the Bottle

Well it came as a little bit of a shock to realise that basically I had only until Thursday to finish the stone hot water bottle.

I wonder why they call them stone, they were made of clay, but I digress…

We have progressed from this…

Through this..

Into this

It will need a couple of coats of varnish on it, but for my first attempt at a foam stone hot water bottle it will have to do.

I will need to improve my sanding and glueing. The bottle was an awful less forgiving than this…

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 4 Comments

I Went 3.5

Yes, after really having to force a couple of the magnets in I decided on going for 3.5mm. I was really worried that I would end up snapping something off with the pressure I was having to use. I was probably compressing the tiny amount of air to about 50 psi 😂.

Not pretty but they are in. To be honest there is more superglue on my fingers than is on the bases.

And why am I doing this? So I can put them on an old saw to spray them. Lol. Honestly I sometimes wonder about myself.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 1 Comment

I Found It!

Well I went looking for my drill set and shockingly found it. It even had a 3mm drill in it.

So I did a little test and it seemed to work.

So I used the drill to go up into the miniatures puddle base to allow for any discrepancies.  Used the back of the drill to check for depth to ensure there wouldn’t be  a bit of magnet sticking out.

There is a 3.5mm in the set so I can enlarge the holes if needs be.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 1 Comment

Uh Oh

Well this evening I felt the urge to do something creative, but not too full on. Sooo I thought I would glue magnets into the holes on the bases. First off I had to find the magnets, then the open superglue and down I sat to stick magnets to myself, the table and the floor… (Well that is what normally happens)

I mean what could go wrong… 3mm hole, 3mm magnet….well this really!

That is as far as it went, it took me a good few minutes to get it that far. Problem is, it now won’t come out.

So options as to why are this:

  • The hole is not 3mm
  • The magnet is not 3mm
  • The plastic cement used to affix the model to the base has closed up (possible, but I did glue around the edge of the base)
  • The magnets are meant to be added from the other side before a miniature is added.
  • I am just crap at adding magnets
  • Push fit requires a hydraulic press to achieve a snug fit

Answers on a postcard to me please as I have at least 30 of the buggers to shove in the bases.

So options I have are getting a bit of 3mm rod and heat it and expand the hole. Get a drill bit that purports to be 3mm and hope for the best.

I could try and scrape out a bigger hole.

I could say Bollocks and ignore the magnets.

So I got this far and gave up…

Evidently the undead hadn’t realised that they had released a terror greater than them…

Not quite sure what it is going to do when it latches on!

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 8 Comments

FLEGO is Completed

Thank goodness that is over. I got it finished with only a moderate amount of foul language.

It’s a Funky little tank with lieutenant Gruber in the turret. The wheels turn and the track moves, as does the turret and gun.

Quality control was the biggest problem with this build. But I did persevere and am happy enough with the final result.

This one seems to be for the desert war. The crew haven’t got their tropical kit yet.