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