Heroics & Ros MD57 Snekke

Heroics & Ros Longships

Tucked away within their Dark Ages ranges

http://www.heroicsandros.co.uk/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=catshow&ref=Dark_Ages&sid=5tdcb5db834x17o0sau7k2490b69x946

are a few ship models which apparently were originally produced by Kremlin Models back in the day.

The website didn't have any pictures but I managed to get them to send me some pictures along with the model sizes.

There are 4 models and they are as follows.

MD55 Drakkar 120mm

MD56 Skeid 90mm

MD57 Snekke 60mm and MD58 Karfi 70mm

I game in 15mm so the base size I use is 80mm x 40mm which limited my choice to MD57 and MD58. Since I am using them for my Norman fleet I went with the MD57 model.

I discarded the roundshield castings that would otherwise be glued alongside the hull. They also come with optional furled sails.

I made them quite generic so I could use them with other lists as and when.

Dismounted Norman General Commission in 15 mm

Dismounted Norman General Commission in 15 mm

Tim at the club has been using 15 mm Normans this year and realised that he was short one dismounted generals element and asked me if I had anything suitable in my collection surplus to my needs or if there was anything in Project Lead Mountain that would do.

On Saturday night I came home and had a look through the unpainted metal and found two bags of unpainted swordsmen, possibly Lancashire or Donnington castings, along with some spare Norman period figures. The spare figures were from Essex Miniatures and consisted of an axe man and what from memory was a broken standard bearer. After cutting away the axe and broken standard I drilled out their hands and fitted them with metal spears. Then I had to pare away the metal under the staffs it had left smooth metal so a quick stabbing session with a scalpel blade tip reinstated the look of chain mail underneath the new metal spears. The basing style was done to match some figures I had already supplied to Tim last year.

I only started the figures on Monday night and I added some flags I found on the WWW that were suitable for Norman period armies.

Rebased Norman Era Armoured Crossbowmen

Falcon Figures Feudal Armoured Crossbows

So almost one year after my previous post on rebasing some Norman Milites I had a spare hour to rebase some more of my Norman infantry. These date from 25 years ago and were on some very old all over static grass bases, which whilst still OK looking were very old fashioned and dont match the rebased Milites. Falcon figures are no longer sold in the UK after the range was sold to an American company. I gather they are very hard to get hold of in the USA nowadays. Given how old they are and the painting style I used back them I am very pleased how they turned out. I removed all the old static grass and applied a quick armour wash over the chain mail and helmets to bring out the fine detail. Put on new magnetised MDF bases, completed with brown edgings, small rocks and various tufts.

Anglo-Norman Generals 15 mm Commission

Final Part of a Recent Commission - Anglo-Norman Generals

Bob's commission finally ends with six Legio Heroica commander figures Code CRU03. These are for his Anglo-Norman army and although the range specifically states that they are designed for the 1150 AD to 1190 AD Crusader era there's nothing wrong with using these figures from 1085 AD onward as long as you do not paint them with heraldry and stick to the Zoomorphic style of shield decoration and the earlier pre-nation state style of flags and banners.

The figures come with separate horses and shields and the spears supplied with them were very thick so I exchanged them for some thinner ones from my conversion store supply.

There's two command groups and I matched then horse pose style and ensured there was a good mix of clothing colours. I started them four days ago and they are unbased as Bob will be basing them up to match his other figures. 

1st Group

2nd Group

When Project Lead Mountain Gives Up Another Small Task

Dismounted Milites

I found a bag of 16 dismounted Milites. I think they are no longer made by Essex Miniatures having been redesigned but would have been part of their Norman range. I recently sold on eight elements of Irregular dismounted swordsmen to a clubmate so I painted these up to partially replace these elements. I still have another larger batch of Irregular Miniatures castings to paint up one day but I don't actually need them. They are finish with Vallejo Earth Brown Texture Past, Gravel, Static Grass and Flower Tufts on magnetised MDF bases and sealed with a spray Matt Varnish.

These figures are suitable for almost any Western European Feudal era army from about 925 AD until 1175 AD.

Essex Miniature Dismounted Milite Swordsmen

Rebased Norman Era Milites first used with DBM v1.2 24 years ago

Refreshing Very Tired Looking Bases From 1994

When I first started playing 15mm Ancients back in 1994 the second army I created was Normans under DBM v1.2

They were looking very tired, my painting style has improved a lot in 24 years but the basing was all over static grass which had started to go bald making the troops look really bad. I ended up basing or rebasing 54 elements of Irr Kn F in all. The last two pictures are of slightly darker figures which I got off EBay for next to nothing unbased a couple of years ago.

So bear in mind that these figures were painted on 1994 before you pass judgement.

I obtained some Perry's 28mm Flag Sheets recently so I printed them out on A$ but using two sheets per page to resize them down for use with 15mm figures. I have reflagged my two French generals elements holding the Orriflamme.