The Peasants Are Revolting and the Vikings aren't much better!

I have been busily painting a few of my (seemingly) never ending 'medieval' stash. This was prompted by my experiments with the new 'speed paints' that I wrote about a few weeks back. As I said then, I was pretty confident that these new paints were very well suited to the more realistic style of sculpting of Peter Cole, than the smooth lines of my hollowcast veterans. As such I wanted to try out some more and here are the results. 

These are wonderful figures, that, as is often the case with Peters work, fill a niche no one else has ever attempted. Yes they would not have been a big seller to me at the age of seven, but at nearly seventy, they appealed immensely and I bought a few packs.  

I have ended up with a nice 'unit' of 12 villagers with various 'close combat weapons', which will no doubt add flavour and quick casualties to a medieval skirmish I am planning. You never know however, they may manage to ambush a weakened unit of archers or suchlike, only time will tell!

One of the figures is armed with a slingshot and after buying multiple bags I found I had three of this smashing chap and wondered how I could use him. It was then I remembered the three Saxon archers I had (from Peters 1066 collection) and thought I would make up a mixed skirmishing unit of six figures. My favourite rules system for this era is probably Lion Rampant and a unit of light skirmishers is composed of six figures. 

Whilst painting these lads and lasses, I also decided to experiment on three more Saxon/Norman figures. I have another two dozen Saxon shield wall poses to paint in due course, which will double as Norse raiders in my games.

Speaking of Norse raiders, I acquired four unpainted castings of Vikings by DSG from an old friend some time ago. I don't really use many Britains detail figures in my armies but I was particularly struck by the shield maiden and was happy to add these characters to my 'Norse' collection. I think they have painted up quite well and they don't seem to be figures you see every day. 

Sadly, I sold all of my Timpo Vikings during a period of my life, when I needed money more than toy soldiers! I hope to never be in that situation again and whilst I don't generally regret selling my Timpo collection, I do miss those Vikings! I might start picking one or two up again if I can find them at a reasonable price.

Whilst in a 'medieval' mood, I also painted the Crescent Robin Hood set up in my usual painting style. I had painted the Sheriff some time ago and Robin and the gang kept looking at me reproachfully whenever I opened their box! Lovely classic figures, all of which have the Kellogg's logo on the base, denoting their origins in packets of corn flakes. Not sure why I have these, (other than they are brilliant figures!) but they now make up the third painted Robin Hood character set in my collection. The others are from Peter Coles Replicants and the best of all time, Herald. My Herald set is still missing Little John who will be on my shopping list for the Plastic Warrior show in July. My Sheriff is mounted on the wrong horse but I am happy with that as the correct horse is fairly rare and consequently expensive. 

On a slight side note, Peters villagers sets also include a modified version of his Alan a Dale figure. The original has our minstrel leaning against a tree stump strumming his instrument. The new version has had his tree stump removed (which sounds jolly painful!) and is now more useable in different scenarios. I painted one of the two copies I ended up with and will dispose of the spare at Plastic Warrior.

Last but not least, I bought a second copy of Peters carter figure which originally accompanied his fantastic medieval tumbrel cart. Sadly the cart proved too difficult to keep in production and there are I believe, less than a dozen or so complete ones in the wild. I am very pleased to own one, but wish I had snapped up two or three! Nonetheless, the carter figure is still being produced and is ideal for leading stubborn mules or other carts and wagons. I might even pick up a third copy if Peter has any for sale at Plastic Warrior. A super figure, which tells a story in its movement and pose. Highly recommended!

A lick of paint ........... Famous Monsters!

Well perhaps famous is stretching it a little, but I remember buying a copy of a black and white 'famous monsters of filmland' magazine in 1965, featuring all of the usual suspects....Dracula, Frankenstein, the Werewolf etc. I have always had a fondness for said 'monsters' and found them again when I ventured into the world of fantasy wargaming in the very early 1980's. My love of Tolkien's work and science fiction and fantasy novels generally, led me to the first edition of Warhammer fantasy battles and a lifelong enjoyment of  non-historical wargaming.

Werewolf 

This is a topic which divides opinion in the general wargaming world but I have happily indulged in all genres and historical periods with no issues whatsoever. I do however feel that my wargaming is now almost two separate hobbies. My 54mm gaming is the primary focus of this blog and has been the dominant force in my gaming for the last 5 years. I don't see that changing as I am still getting excited at the thought of 'projects' which I haven't found time for yet. 

At the same time, I do still indulge in fantasy and sci-fi games in 25mm scale and find it a refreshing change, both from a gaming and a painting  point of view. I find swapping scales occasionally a good 'palate cleanser'  and I have been doing just that amongst the medieval painting shown above.

Goblin and Wolves

I have been sorting out my 'pre slotta' lead fantasy figures and couldn't resist painting a few before putting them away. I thought I would show what I have painted as most have been further experiments with the speed paints, combined with some more traditional techniques. 

Angelic Hero

I am conscious that a few of my regular readers are not particularly interested in this side of my gaming. This has led to me giving serious consideration to starting a second blog, devoted to my exploits with my 25mm fantasy and sci-fi . I have not made a firm decision yet but would be interested to hear your views. In the meantime here are a few more pictures of my efforts. 

Ent

Fire Daemon

Were Creature 

Trio

Frost Giant

Hydra

Well that's it for this update. I hope to share some progress with my 'Viet Taff' soon. Its very early days but my 'Free Welsh Volunteers' are beginning to take shape in my mind, even if they don't exist as painted models yet. 

Tara a bit!

 Plastic Warrior Show announced, Clerical matters and Royal Horse Artillery action!

A little later in the year than traditionally held, but the best toy soldier event in the known universe is back again at its usual venue. I have already cleared my diary and will be there to buy more figures that I didn't know I needed and to have a catch up with many friends, old and new. If you can make it, come along for a couple of hours and go home lighter of wallet and heart with a few bags of toy soldiers! Any readers of this blog who I don't know, please introduce yourself if you see me (I think I may wear a little name badge to assist in that regard). Remember, cash is king at these sort of shows, so bring a full wallet! Hopefully see you there!

That would be an ecumenical matter! A tale of Chaplains and a churchyard

Here we see two newly appointed members of my floor games world clergy. These are both recasts of the Britains 'thin vicar' or country chaplain and the Johilco version. Originals are not very common or cheap and I was happy to buy recasts to add these lovely figures to my growing civilian population.

As regular readers will know, I have two churches in my collection but I have long wanted to make a suitable 'toyish' churchyard to go alongside them. I had a rough idea of what I wanted but it was the acquisition of some suitably sized gravestones from Temu that has finally enabled me to scratch this ecclesiastical itch!

To be useful and appropriate for my tabletop adventures, the size of the terrain piece was always a key question. In the end, as is often the way, the pieces fell into place as I was sorting out my lead garden and farm related horde. I kept being drawn to the pre war Britains flint walls acquired in a big e-bay lot 18 months ago. Now these were in very poor condition when I acquired them. They are actually hollow cast with the base of each piece open. This means that they can be squashed very easily and some of these had been! In addition the thin metal had suffered over the intervening years and there were a number of small holes and 'tears'. These are in my experience, uncommon pieces and I have not seen any since at a price that I would countenance. As a result, I was determined to salvage these at some point, but was waiting for the right project. As I played around with them I began to think about them as walls for a churchyard.

I tried them out and decided they might be just the thing. There were just enough for the size of churchyard I wanted and they are a lovely height over which defending soldiers might fire! 

I won't bore you with the rest of the construction work but I repaired and repainted the damaged walls, found a suitable base, flocked it and started the placement of the individual pieces. I managed to incorporate and reuse a number of damaged hollowcast plants and flowers as well as creating some gates from a piece of 'iron railings'.

I am really quite pleased with the end result and have ticked off another construction project. What next you ask? Well a municipal park is calling my name.........as well as a landscaped garden suitable for my Tudor mansion model........time and inspiration will tell. Oh and some front gardens for my little row of 1920's houses!

Royal Horse Artillery

For as long as I can recall, the allure of a Britains Gun carriage with six horses and a gun, has been difficult to resist. The rational wargamer in me held my aspirations back, by reminding me that such an elegant model was impractical for table top wargames. I still believe that to be the case, but at a toy fair some 12 months ago, I finally caved in to my inner child. 

On a table, complete with four outriders, was this nice condition, undamaged, early post war example. It was unboxed and the mounted officer was missing. I enquired about the price and whilst still a hefty amount, (under £71 and over £69), I decided that I had to take it home with me to become a centre piece in my display cabinets. I knew it was impractical ,but sometimes what the heart desires, the heart must have and so it came home to Apperley Towers. A postscript to the acquisition was an e-bay purchase of the missing officer for £10 just over a week later, This felt like a preordained event, thus confirming to me that I had been right to buy the piece ,as it was meant to be!

Ever since it has had pride of place in my feau British army cabinet, but it did create a desire in me to find a similar 'version' that I could squeeze onto a tabletop. Finding a damaged example at a price and in a condition where it could be rebuilt was harder than I expected. I was even looking at the reissued version sold to collectors by Britains back in the late 1990's. Even these however approached or exceeded the price I had paid for my original. That is until I saw a set advertised as 'mint condition, but missing one horse'. The seller was still trying to sell it for I think £60! I politely pointed out to him that no serious collector would buy an incomplete set at such a price ,as obtaining a spare correct horse would be next to impossible. We eventually agreed on a price substantially lower (£35?) and I was soon in possession of my 2nd gun team, albeit with a horse missing. Well that wasn't very clever of you Graham I hear you shout, but you see 'I had a cunning plan all along' as Baldrick might say.

It was always my intention to only have four horses pulling the gun and limber to substantially decrease the footprint of the model for the tabletop. After all, I had grown up with Britains and Timpo limbers with four horse teams and still feel that this is the norm.

I decided to base the model to make it even more practical and really like the nice solid feel to it. The gun it came with is a nice (non firing) model, but I can attach a proper firing version if the need arises.

All I needed now was a crew for the gun to fire it once unlimbered. Again a chance e-bay mixed lot, provided me with three dismounted Hussars standing to attention. I put these to one side as potential gun crew recruits and turned my attention to an officer perhaps for the fourth gun crew member. A buy at the last Plastic Warrior show provided me with a number of kneeling officers with binoculars (one of my very favourite Britains poses) and I have replaced his head with a stray Hussar head. Voila! as the French might say, I had a gun crew who just needed a fairly quick paint job. 

So there we have it, a 'grail' purchase, inspiring a second project which has enhanced my artillery offering. I just need a few more now for my feau, Prussians, French and Socialist volunteers!

Tara a bit!

 New Paints For The New Year! 

A gift from Santa (actually 2nd son and heir to the Apperley estate!). I had mentioned that

I fancied trying these new paints. These are Army Painter's version of the Games Workshop 'Contrast' paints which have been on the market for several years. These paints are designed to flow over a pale undercoat, followed by a 'dip', to give quick shaded effects and thereby speeding up the painting process. I thought it was about time I tried this new fangled invention and dropped some heavy hints about my interest prior to the festive event. Hints successfully taken up and a base set of 12 paints were now mine.

In the intervening hours I have experimented with these new paints with mixed results. 

Some 'works in progress' and experiments plus a couple of Erics figures in the background

First of all these are  really intended for the wargames market, primarily 25mm, not my beloved 54mm's. So why does that matter? Well smaller figures, particularly modern sculpts , tend to have exaggerated features and very active poses. This system works better on models where you are relying on the shading effect to do most of the work, and in particular bring out the details in the sculpt. This is ideal for the type of models being produced by Games Workshop etc. 

They are not intended for repainting old hollowcasts which require the paint to do the work of creating detail. I tries painting an old 'gentleman of the road' with them (see picture above), but they just didn't work and looked too thin and pale for my taste. I salvaged the figure by overpainting with my normal paints.

The 'Gentleman of the road' painted with basic speed paints 

They are very easy flowing like a heavy wash and on simple figures like the hollowcasts its not always easy to restrict the colour to the area of the figure you require. They also look very pale and ethereal because of the nature of their design. So have I found them of any use at all?

Two of the three Replicants ECW figures 'prepared' for speed paints

Well yes, they are great for creating a certain finish. The English Civil War collection that I acquired were painted in Eric Kemps excellent style, which unfortunately, I have found difficult to replicate. Most of the figures I want to add to this collection are however from my favourite manufacturer Replicants. Peter Coles sculpting style emulates that of his favourite sculptor Roy Selwyn-Smith and are full of movement and action. I decided to try out the speed paints on a small group of  ECW figures with the aim of achieving a finish closer to Erics than my normal painting style. I undercoated them brown, then dry brushed cream, then applied speed paints all over. The effect was close to what I wanted but not quite there. I used a few standard paints to highlight the figures a little and found a result that I liked. They don't look out of place next to Erics figures and I enjoyed painting them with these new paints. The dark brown undercoat stopped the speed paints looking so thin and wishy washy. 

Erics figure to the left and my speed painted version to the right

I used them to basecoat a 25mm scale science fiction vehicle but again found the result underwhelming and ended up repainting it with a lot of normal paints and dry brushing techniques. It came out fine in the end (at least in my humble opinion).

So what are my conclusions? Well I like them, but for me they are situational. If I'm painting Replicants 54mm figures, I will use them (which is handy as I have over 200 awaiting paint). For my hollowcast projects I don't see much utility. I will try them out on my various 25mm collections as and when the mood takes me and suspect they will be ideal, at least for figures that don't need fine tightly painted details.

I don't think they will save me much time however, which is one of their main selling points. Helping me to achieve certain finishes is a definite plus however. They are yet another string to the painting bow and I would recommend giving them a try, if you think they might work for you.

A lick of paint ...... fresh off the painting desk for 2026

I have been a little too busy to paint a whole new army over Christmas, but I have managed to knock out a few pieces, as well as trying out the new paints.

I am afraid I rather disappeared down a rabbit hole and got all of my undealt with farm and garden lead out on the table for a jolly good new year sort out. After putting a few surplus bits to one side for a friend, I found myself painting scenic items galore. 

Now I don't know how many hay stacks a wargamer should have but I keep picking up these lovely old lead ones for next to nothing and find it hard to resist. As you can see I have repainted the latest trio, to join my haystack army. I think I may need an intervention if I buy any more, but I could always pass them on as gifts to fellow enthusiasts I suppose. 

The fallen log made by Britains prior to the 2nd world war ,is another piece I find hard to resist. I have 5 now and as you can see, three of them were awaiting a new coat of paint in my hoard. I have kept two 'free standing' as William Britain intended. Useful to just scatter around my wargames table and ideal for cover for a lying down sniper of which I have many!

The fifth one I decided to add to another piece to make a scenic feature. The standing tree is one of three of these that I had picked up in varying states of disrepair. They are meant to have a gate attached or a children swing on the left hand side. I have neither gate nor swing and two of them had been broken away from the extended piece of land that you can still see on the third one (which I have kept as is until the missing piece or pieces turn up one day). So I decided to just repaint the two heavily damaged ones and use them as scenic 'dead trees'.

By combining one on a round base with one of the fallen logs (and a small bush), I now have a small natural strongpoint for a machine gun or a couple of riflemen. Alternatively it is nice as a place for a command group to discuss plans as you will see below. 

My 'speed paint' ECW command group next to a dismounted trooper by Eric

I will finish this post with a series of photos of other figures which I have painted since Christmas day. They are an eclectic bunch but I hope you will enjoy seeing some more toy soldier madness!

The finished 'mini project' to replicate a set of early Britains railway staff, as closely as I could from the original set I had acquired. I love them and couldn't be more pleased. What to do with the original set now however? Should I just keep them? Sell them? Convert them to other useful figures? Undecided. Let me have your thoughts. 

The RAF ground crew (as purchased) servicing a tin plate plane whilst the pilot looks on. In the second picture we see the same figures servicing a second plane (this time a beautifully hand carved wooden model, maker unknown). The figures were touched up (a few minor chips etc) and have been based and varnished. 

Another picture of the new ECW command group in front of my castle. Beautiful figures from Peter Coles Replicants.

I hinted previously that my Peaky Blinders gang might be gaining a more powerful recruit and here he is in the shape of a senior guy with a rifle. He was originally one of the Britains figures pushing or pulling a garden roller, but had lost his arms. I saw the opportunity to arm him with a carried rifle as an armed civilian. He will now serve as a militia man, a gang member or a poacher. The latter role probably suits him best as his posture looks like he is walking forward stealthily. A conversion I was really pleased with. Its always pleasing when you have  slightly unusual pose and then a little inspiration results in something different.

Two more scarecrows for my scarecrow army (I have five now). I have a slightly mad idea floating around in my brain, to use these like the weeping angels in Dr Who! The Wurzel Gummidge figure came with four different heads which is useful. I have three so far. The Crescent scarecrow has been mostly speed painted. I was pleased to pick up the latter figure as you don't seem to see the Crescent farm figures very often.

This figure by Crescent(?), is a milkmaid but as soon as I saw her, I saw a woman adjusting her stockings! What that says about me I dread to think but I thought I would try to give her a suitable paintjob. In any event I already have plenty of milk maids, so at least now she is a more interesting citizen recruit!

Hussy!......two disapproving Edwardian ladies repainted. One a hollowcast original and the other a modern recast. A lovely figure and glad to have two.

The Generals 'niece'! A plastic figure whose provenance I can't recall even though Brian Carrick did tell me! Sorry Brian!

So there you have it, a somewhat rag tag collection of new recruits and citizens. In addition to these figures, I have also just finished another terrain piece which will hopefully enhance my tabletop world, but more of that next time!

Tara a bit !