Horseplay

Hurrah and hurray! I have done some more painting, and shall now reveal the results to you, in this mind-blowing update. 


Here we go.


Drumroll please...






























It's a horse.

His name is Alan. His voice sounds scratchy, because he's a little horse.

Now, some of you are probably thinking "Matt, you appear to have lost all sense of proportion, and, dare I say, decency. There's not really any justification in writing an entire blog post around the painting of a single horse, even one as admittedly majestic as that one". I suppose I should therefore try to justify myself a little.


The Conquest plastic Norman Knights box, for reasons known to its manufacturer but not to me, comes with 15 knights but only a dozen horses. So, if you can locate more horses you can make more knights, which is what I did and rambled about in a previous post.


But then! You come across the second problem, which is that Saga units need either 4 or 8 models. So 15 ain't that useful, because it's one shy of two units of warriors, or four (count 'em!) units of hearthguard. 


So, knowing I'm not the only WFC member to have this box, I've found a source of another spare rider in Kelly, and I was supplied with an extra horse by the very generous Aneurin (who is also gratifyingly gracious in defeat at Blood Bowl. Good job really, since everyone beat him).  


Kelly is a man of many impressive qualities, but sadly, remembering stuff isn't among them, and so far I haven't received the spare rider, and was facing the unappetising prospect of being a warrior short once I actually fight someone in the club Saga campaign.


Since I had the horse already, I'm enjoying painting Normans and I wanted to have units ready to use, I've decided to go for an unmounted horse in the unit until I get and paint the knight to ride him. So Alan will have his glory, even if it comes with the dubious honour of being the first model removed as a casualty in every game.


Ok, that's probably the most I've ever written about a single model, and it turns out to be an unmounted horse. Since you, the reader, are probably feeling a bit cheated at this point, you can have a gratuitous picture of the Norman warband so far...

Can you spot Alan hiding at the back?

Charge!

I've done a little work towards my target, so I have six more Normans ready.

I'm posting this through the blogger iPhone app, so I have no idea how it'll turn out. Hope it makes sense...

Project X!

In the last post I mentioned that there was an extra VBCW unit that I painted last month but didn't include in my February summary for fear of tipping off those dastardly BUF bully boys.

Since it's now been used in anger, the cat is out of the bag and I can reveal for your delectation the Heightened Altitude Marksman's Mount for Extended Range (H.A.M.M.E.R. for short)!

 

VBCW as a "period" is all about very localised forces and the weapons and equipment they can cobble together or build themselves. The Swallownest Socialist Brigade (my new faction and the allies of the Handsworth Volunteers) had a sniper in their ranks but were frustrated by the need to have him infiltrate an area and wait there for a suitable target - what would happen if they had to attack quickly?

Luckily, they had an old Model A ford, some timber, some scrap metal and a can do attitude, and so were able to knock together the H.A.M.M.E.R!

Having added armour (including a spare roof from a Kerr & King FOW objective I bought 3 years ago - never throw anything away) I was able to conceal the fact that the model that forms the basis of this "entirely safe" mobile watchtower is really a little too small to be the right scale.

I've got a couple more vehicles to put together as well, so as usual, watch this space...