The Barons’ War

This week was very successful on painting on a whole. I didn’t make a ton of progress on this project but some of my others went very well.

The final mounted knight was completed. This one is once again built for my wife and her love of the color pink.

The knight features next to the small hill (or rock) that I completed to spruce up the battlefield.

I also completed the first two peasants. They’re guarding the hill.

In this coming week it will be a small goal of only two more peasant spear men. I’m waiting on the new Serjeants from Wargames Atlantic to finish out the next unit.

My building, cleaning, and priming process went really fast last weekend which allowed me to hit my goals fairly easily week. I also added some additional stretch goals to the project.

There is a bit of a slow down as I’ve also picked up both The Silver Bayonet and Blood and Plunder at the same time.

The biggest piece completed was the mounted knight with a banner. This is probably my favorite mounted figure yet. I kit bashed the Victrix knight and a Wargames Atlantic 3D printed banner arm.

The spear man unit is also complete after finishing up these two. That marks off two units now for an entry 500 point list. They’re not from the right period but for now they’ll work fine.

The peasants box from Wargames Atlantic just arrived so I’ll be building up 8 levys with spears that can either be levys or spear men.

The bonus figures I did were crossbowmen. I had not originally planned to do a unit but I had some and I figured ‘Why not?’ even if they are from the wrong period.

These two were a challenge to clean up. I’m not sure what was up with the cast because they came from the same box as a spearmen. Despite being a pain, I think they look all right!

That wraps up this week. Next week I’ll be doing the last mounted knight and two peasants with spears.

Happy New Year all! I’ve been productive this week and caught up on some of the miniatures I didn’t complete over Christmas. I’m quite pleased with how most of the came out. I have also hit a milestone of finishing the archer unit and the foot knights.

I’ve been employing the ‘slap chop’ method of painting for this project and I’m still thrilled with the results.

I am not good with a rattle can so I prime black with an inexpensive airbrush to start all of my projects now.

Pioneering new ground in miniature painting, I know! From there I just do a super heavy dry brush of warm neutral gray. The only tip I have on that is to get a dry brush palette. That truly was a game changer for me.

Here is the result off this week.

I’m proud of the mounted knight. The shield was a pain and I’m second guessing the purple on the horse but, all told, I’m pleased.

More fodder for the field of battle!

I’m very happy with how the foot knight came out. He can double as a foot baron if I need. That shield really was a pain. Glad I did it though.

I’ll end with a few shots of completed units. Good luck everyone out there with your projects!

Holidays are rarely ever a vacation. I’m off work, sure, but there are still a lot of family events to enjoy. That resulted in my project not getting as far as I’d have liked. I did have forward progress though.

This week I built a mounted knight, a foot knight with sword, three archers, and two spear men. That will finish off the archer and foot knight with sword units.

The mounted knight is going to be my Baron and I wanted to take his preparation further. The Victrix mounted knights have a large seam down the middle off them and that just didn’t seem appropriate for a leader.

In the past I’ve tried to fill this gap with green stuff and made a mess of it. This time I tried something different.

First, I laid down a heavy line of ultra thin liquid plastic cement and squeezed the two halves of the horse together tightly. After that had dried, I repeated the process twice more.

Second, I took my #240 sandpaper to the seam and really had at it. I’d let the plastic dust rest in it without brushing it off.

Third, I repeated my first step again and noticed the seam was disappearing.

Finally, I took the seam through more sanding #240, #400, #600, and finally #800. I think the results are there!

This week I managed to make good progress on my basics Barons’ War force. I finished my first mounted knight, two more foot knights with swords, a pair of archers, and a pair of spear men.

Initially I wasn’t happy with the horse’s covering. For these miniatures I airbrush them black and then apply a heavy dry brush of warm medium grey. I then use speed paints (or similar) for most things.

My dry brush over the horse wasn’t great and I had a lot of completely black spots. As a result I put roughly seven layers of speed paint on before switching to a traditional acrylic. In the end, I think it came out well.

I think he is perfectly good for a table ready miniature! I really should start putting on transfers for the shields. If anyone has any shop recommendations for the US I’m happy to hear them.

My next pair of knights are less on the historically accurate side. My wife isn’t a miniature gamer but she will engage with me and my hobby. As a result, most projects end up with a proxy of her in some fashion.

Here we have a lady knight, in bubble gum pink, and a unicorn shield. What can I say, my wife really likes bubble gum pink!

I tried something new with the eyes this time. Usually I will paint them flesh, then put white in. From there I draw a black circle and call it a day. This time I painted the eyes black brown and came back to add the white. In my mind the effect is better. I’ll likely switch to that method.

Last I have rank and file troops. I’ve tried to keep with a blue and yellow scheme without being too uniform. When I eventually paint my baron I’ll match him to it.

That is my update! On the goal tracker I now need:

One more foot knight with sword.

Three more archers.

Four more spear men.

Two more mounted knights with sword.

One mounted Baron with sword.

I also need to figure out how I’m going to do sergeants. I don’t have any appropriate miniatures for them yet. I’m hoping Wargames Atlantic releases them soon!

I started my force almost by mistake several months ago. I’ve been enjoying Rangers of Shadow Deep and wanted an excuse to purchase some new miniatures. That led me to the Foot Knights from Wargames Atlantic. Once they arrived I wanted to know more about The Barons’ War. It checked many of my boxes: Skirmish, historical, D10s, artistic freedom! I’m not going to perfectly historically accurate, but at least generally so.

The kit has been a lot of fun to work with and I’m continuing to build out my force. Initially I looked up a starter army which Warhost was all to happy to provide.

My goal is:

• 4 foot knights with shields and swords
• 4 mounted knights with shields and swords
• 6 sergeants with falcons
• 8 spear men
• 8 archers

From there I’ll likely build a duplicate force so a friend can drop in and play without needing to do the hobby part.

If anyone is in Central North Carolina, please do reach out! I’m looking to meet up with some other wargamers who are into historical games.

Here is what I have so far.

They aren’t quite to what the goal is now. At first I was just making what was fun. Still, progress is being made!

I have one foot knight with a sword, two spear men, and three archers.