Pikeman's Lament - Pikemen!

Completed sufficient figures to complete my two PL Pike Units so should now have enough figures to try out a game!

Painted in two different liveries, Purple and Green/Red, all the figures are Warlord 28mm plastics

I replace the plastic pikes with pre-sharpened steel items purchased from North Star many years ago.

To do this in the case of those figures at push of pike, I remove the plastic item once the glue has thoroughly dried after assembly.

Then taking a steel pike (which I remove 15mm from to ensure they can stand up in my storage drawer!) and holding it in some pliers, I heat the blunt end up over a tea light flame.

Only for a few seconds - then I push this carefully through the figure's gloved hands until they are fully "holding" it.

once it has cooled, this is usually secure enough, but a small drop of superglue is sometimes a good idea.

There are one or two ornate pike heads (surrounded by feathers) in the kit items. I cut these off the plastic pikes and use the same heating method to attach them to the sharp end of a few pikes for variety.

Those marching, carrying their pikes are easily dealt with, it is just a simple case of superglueing the steel item in place of a plastic one.

The only downside with the steel pikes is that they are very sharp! I keep impaling my hands on them by accident!!

Pikeman's Lament - Gallopers

One unit of six Gallopers finished today. A base of three, another of two and one single figure. All are Warlord Games 28mm Plastic figures.

The horses are quite cleverly designed. There are four different sculpts per sprue, each split into two halves which are interchangeable, so if my maths is right that's 16 options!

The figures are again four per sprue, sculpted wearing a plain coat/jacket which could be painted up either as a leather buff coat or a coloured tunic.

Their heads are hat less, but incorporate the articulated neck armour of the typical lobster pot helmet. You are given the option to add the helmet with face guard or a soft hat which incorporates additional hair to hid the neck armour. Neat!

The final choice is which weapon to carry - Sword or pistol. If you arm the figure with a sword, there is one of the torsos that need the hilt of the moulded sword to be removed. However the others have the hilts "hidden" amongst the sash material so you don't know if they are there or not.

In addition there are arms with trumpet and standard pole for your command group. There is a nice selection of pre-printed paper flags included with the figures that simply require cutting out, folding in half and gluing with PVA. I then attach them to the standard pole with superglue.

Finished articles look the part and are simple to assemble giving ample flexibility to customise them to suit your purpose.

Pikeman's Lament - Musketeers

A few more musketeer bases are now complete towards my Pikeman's Lament Collection.

These three bases (one pair and two threes) are needed to complete two units that I started months ago.

Not intended to win any awards, they are painted to a tabletop standard with primarily Contrast Paints.

All figures are 28mm Warlord ECW from their starter army boxed set.

Also in the pipeline are some Pikemen bases to complete other already started units and a unit of Gallopers.

More to follow.....

Pikeman's Lament - Commanded Shot & Artillery Piece

Time to get back into my on/off 28mm ECW project for Pikeman's Lament Rules from Osprey.

So far I have finished a unit of 6 trotters (Cavalry) and 4 units of 6 Dragoons together with a motley selection of Pike & Shot figures.

Time to get on and finish those Pike & Shot off as complete units, add some more cavalry, some commanded shot and an artillery piece to the mix.

For the commanded shot I chose to use the "Firelock" armed figures in the starter set.

Sadly there is only one figure per sprue, so all have exactly the same pose😕. The only variation is available by a choice of two weapons (both at high port) and two hats.

To maximise the variation (bearing in mind some of these figures would go on multiple bases) I made sure the colours used were diverse!

The Artillery Piece is a Perry Miniatures set. Bought at Colours last year it has been hiding in my drawer ever since!

As with all Perry sculpts, this is a characterful piece that I think captures the feel of the ECW beautifully.

It's also another excuse to use a variety of colours to make the figures come alive!

All were painted using Citadel Contrast Paints followed by a coat of Army Painter Satin Varnish and then a coat of Testors Dullcote.

I finally tracked some of this highly regarded matt varnish down at Firestorm Games. It comes in a ridiculously small aerosol can at an equally ridiculous price of £7!! And to be honest I can't say that I was particularly impressed.

The first time I used it it dried with a slight sheen - just like the Army Painter varnish does from time to time. This is a different formulation apparently, to suit EU laws so maybe it was never going to be as good as I'd heard it was on the internet?

Tabletop Workshop - 28mm Medieval Chapel

Some months ago I purchased a 28mm building from eBay that was made by Tabletop Workshop. I have since discovered that the company are no longer trading, but their moulds (certainly those for their 28mm Modular Castle) have been taken over by Warlord Games.

This is a shame as I think the products are first class and deserve to be successful.

Having bought and built the "Merchant's House" kit I then purchased the "Medieval Chapel" which sat on the shelf of shame for a while, but has now become my first post-lockdown project.

Firstly a quick description of the models seems in order. The buildings (Castle aside) are all simple designs.

They are intended to be clipped together, and then (if required) disassembled and stored flat in the provided boxes.

They are all moulded in a neutral grey plastic and have been removed from any moulding sprues before packaging.

The parts are all quite chunky but don't suffer much from any warping and they have both internal and external detail moulded on so you can remove the roof and place figures inside easily.

Incidentally, the floor moulding is shared between several of the models.

They are by their design a little "boxy" in looks, which some people may not like. I personally like this and think they will prove to be tough terrain items, well able to put up with rough handling and transportation.

There is obviously a stock of surplus models still available for sale on-line and currently they go for around £15 which makes them very competitively priced when compared to mdf items.

The fact that the detail is all 3D moulded on makes them easy to paint up too.

I finished the chapel by firstly spraying all parts with Poundshop Grey Matt Primer. This was then painted over with Vallejo Black Wash. Finally when this was dry, the whole surface was dry-brushed white.

A little warping was evident on the roof parts which was easily overcome

That was the stonework completed. The internal benches/Alter and doors were painted brown with a brown wash and Iraqi sand highlight. Candles were painted Iraqi Sand and the roof tiles a brick red. The windows were firstly painted matt white followed by a dark blue Contrast Paint. And that was it....

Assembly is simple following the instructions on the box and I opted to use polystyrene cement to fix the parts together. The roof parts were glued, but left separate from the walls to allow it to be lifted off when required.

Finished this is a lovely little model. It will be a fine addition to my terrain collection. Usable from medieval times to the present day.

Perry Miniature for scale

Check them out if you can, they won't disappoint.

Pikeman's Lament - Warlord 28mm ECW Dragoons

I picked up this box at a Firestorm Games table sale for just £15.

The set consists of 12 white metal foot figures in three poses + Officer, Standard Bearer & Drummer as well as white metal mounted versions of each figure with plastic horses to suit - 24 figures in total.

In addition there is a two sided information sheet that incorporates a number of printed banners.

The figures are very characterful, requiring only minimal cleaning up.

The mounted figures are particularly nice as they incorporate the figure's personal possessions strapped to their saddles - lanterns, cooking pots, wine bottles, chickens(!) and rabbits(!).

I chose to give these a simple coat of Wilko's Matt White Spray Primer, and once dry, the bulk of the painting was done using contrast paints.

When completed I based them according to the guidelines in the rule book; -

• 30mm Dia. Round Base = 1 single mounted figure
• 40mm Dia. Round Base = 1 single mounted figure + 1 single foot figure
• 50mm Dia. Round Base = 1 single mounted figure + 2 foot figures

Each group of six figures count for 6 points if you class them as veterans. 

Therefore  four six man veteran groups come in at 24 points - one complete Pikeman's Lament army. A nice easy way to create a flexible force you can get on the table in double quick time.

Pikeman's Lament - 28mm Warlord ECW Figures Painted with Citadel Contrast Paints

Once upon a time I had a dream that I would wargame the ECW using 28mm figures. Having bought just about every set of ECW rules I could find, I finally settled on Pike & Shotte from Warlord Games as my preferred game.

Along the way I had tried Polemos ECW in 6mm and quite enjoyed it and also had acquired a large collection of 15mm ECW figures too.

As the 15mm figures painted up quicker, they took over from my intended 28mm armies and the few boxed sets from Warlord that I had bought languished on the shelf of shame.

Enter two things, totally unconnected, that have changed all this.

Dan Mersey's Pikeman's Lament skirmish rules and Citadel's Contrast Paints.

Firstly the number of figures I'd collected would provide me with two (maybe even three) 24 point companies with plenty of options for variety. I had a mixture of Pike & Shot, Firelocks, Cavalry and Dragoons. All I lacked would be an artillery piece if I fancied it.

Secondly, I was quite taken with the new paints from GW and thought that I'd like to try them on a historical subject. What better than these ECW figures?

I know I've said it before, but these paints really are very good. The figures come on really quickly (great for any time-strapped wargamer) and look really quite good. You could argue that the colours I've chosen to start with are a little bright, but viewed from two feet above, on the table, I really like what I see.

I need some variation in colour schemes and must get myself a darker blue and green when I next visit Firestorm Games. But to begin with things are going great. And this little lot were finished in three sittings.

I'm basing the figures in 1's, 2's & 3's as per the recommendations in the rule set, using mdf bases. I replaced all the plastic pikes with steel items....which you have to be careful with as they're really sharp! I had a few pikemen torsos left over so using spare officer sprue arms together with some left over from some Perry Medievals I created some additional leader figures and a drummer.

Let's hope I can (for once) keep the momentum up until I actually finish a project!