Excalibur - Arise Sir Boorman.

How about that for influence. 

A mere month since I started a small project to recreate Excalibur for Songs of Blades and Heroes than the director John Boorman is knighted for services for film.

Thanks to everyone who helped me track down the Mordred and Morgana castings. Buried deep in the Minifigs catalogue it was almost a quest in itself. They are however lovely castings and have captured the movie brilliantly.

L-R (Wilderness) Lancelot, King Arthur. Mordred and Morgana.

Mordred with spear in hand and Morgana ready to cast her evil spells.

Good King Arthur and his trusty Champion Lancelot back from self imposed exile.

Morgana and the child Mordred - Merlin's see's the future.

Mordred masses his forces looking to over throw King Arthur.

The Knights of the Round Table stand firm against the forces of darkness.

The scene is set for the final battle at Camlann, will Mordred win and seize Excalibur and the Crown.

Looking forward to getting these on the table for some quick evening games and a quest or two.

Baccus Civilians - 1st post of the year.

First post of the year and the settlers make it off the paint table after all, every wagon train needs some passengers. Similar in design to the Indians I have based them on circular bases with a sabot to record casualties.

The bases contain a mix of women and children all of which will need defending from the Sioux and Cheyenne as they cross the Prairie.

Not a bad start to the year... Next up a race between the final batch of mounted Sioux and King Arthur... Now that is a mash up.

Baccus - Pony Wars Indian villagers and Christmas deliveries.

Well after a few weeks of  'eavy metal' back to the 6mm bare metal and civilians groups for the Indians. 

These will serve as a useful addition to the collection and give the Indians something to defend and the cavalry a target to kill or capture.

I opted for round bases to make them easy to identify on the table and a sabot to denote wounds on the base.

Baccus reinforcements landed on the door mat prior to Christmas, they were intercepted by the family and wrapped up.... good old Santa. It beats socks....

Some nice pieces from Leven Miniatures giving me a home for cavalry with a fort and tented camp, together with a Church and Cabin.

Baccus delivered a bunch of Infantry, cannon, officers and a whole bunch of extra Sioux. With a few days off until New Year, a good opportunity to move some of these through the painting queue and prep for 2022.

Merry Christmas All.

Well here we are again.....

It was being to look like we are going to be sealed in our homes again but it looks like we should be Ok subject to the now regular daily testing.

Merry Christmas all.

I have dropped plenty of hints this year, I say hints more over the stuff I ordered myself so stay tuned for 2022 more Pony Wars (the Christmas Challenge to get everything complete), Korean Terrain and some 'V' Vehicles for starters.

looking further ahead I quite fancied a look at the 'Silver Bayonet', just trying to decide on which faction, it could be Spain, Haiti or Egypt for Napoleonic's or something really wild merging my Russo-Japanese War stuff with the Ming Dynasty....?

Part of me wants to get more use of the desert terrain so maybe some WW2 Italians vs LRDG?

I have a draw full of Ancients to finish so it would be good to get a few more chariot wars on the table.

I hope none is on the naughty list and as is customary in recent times. 'stay safe'.

Excalibur 28mm - Mordred's Knights.

Having painted the good guys, time for the evil knights to take to the field. Another batch from Forlorn Hope games, I opted for a more burnished bronze armour to give them a very different look compared to their shinny opponents.

Lovely castings and they take the paint really well, they have a real oldhammer feel to them, but fortunately not too many skulls popular amongst Citadel back in the 80's.  

Loving the hammer chap slightly less armour but could be fun within the Songs of Blades and Heroes rules.

Unfortunately they were a little low on numbers but I spotted these on the Crooked Dice site, whilst ordering my own Christmas present, proper old school Chaos knights, slightly larger than the Forlorn Hope mini's but a good fit.

What a great place our hobby is, thanks to everyone who shouted out Mini-figs and their Excalibur range, I now have a young and old Mordred and a couple of Helen Mirren's on the paint table as Morgana Le Fey, they will be fun to paint but blimey 1981 makes you feel old :-)

Dispatches from the front XX - Danes & Games.

Another Second Schleswig War outing - rather adapt for the last game of the year at the Wyvern's Club.

Henrik continues to expand his collection with hedges, rivers and fences... bbbrrrr......

The Danes take to field again looking to stem the advance of the Prussians and a fight for the farm house. 

 

Shifting the Jagers from the centre field was a real challenge, it took odds of 3:1 to eventually drive them back, but not without significant losses.

A fresh unit of Prussian cavalry take to the field - A lovely looking unit. Eagles of Empires gives a fun game. The points mechanism is a real challenge, with the switch between table top tactics and the drive for victory points. Not sure about the Hand to Hand Combat which feels a little bit clunky, but overall a a slick system and fast paced.

Meanwhile It's amazing what drives the trends on the blog. What keeps SPQR in the popularity list I tend not to see too many players playing it? Nice to see Laserburn creeping up ranks along with a little bit of Flash Gordon.

Thanks to everyone who called out Minifigs... I am now the proud owner of Modred and a few extra's to add to the Arthurian experience.

Excalibur 28mm - Songs of Arthur and Merlin.

Now for something completely different.

Back in February I was tempted to put together a bunch of knights to play out John Boorman's Excalibur an 80's classic. The package arrived and there they sat in the draw whilst other projects came along, while having almost finished the Pony Wars projects thought I would revisit these.

I wanted a shiny vs dark feel, with plenty of plate and some great big swords. 

Forlorn Hope do some lovely castings which are perfect for what I had in mind.

First up the good guys.....

Several layers of silver gave me that glistening feel that I was after. With Royal Blue and White to give them a righteous feel.

I am not sure I will go as far as naming the knights of the Round Table, but some most definitely have a Lancelot and Gawain feel to them....

Not sure which one should be King Arthur.

 

I thought I would give Songs of Blades - Songs of Arthur and Merlin a run out, very low level with around 10 figures a side, this version has some nice touches including a nice mechanism for chivalry, penalising knights if they gang up on opponents or use missile weapons.  

What legend of Arthur could be complete without Merlin, I picked up this fine fellow from Studio Miniatures.

After months of 6mm these guys were a pleasure to paint and were so BIG.... so easy to put paint to metal.

Next up the bad guys.

Anyone know where I can get a Modred in 28mm?