Freehanding shields, part 2

I got some good tips on TMP for shield work.  One of the tips was to rough out the motif and use the background color to paint over and clean up the image.  Some motifs were fairly simple and I was able to get them right in a single pass.

Now that I'm in my late 40s, I can't paint without reading glasses and an enormous amount of light. I work under a pair of 500 watt halogen work lights.  As a result, I'm painting in an environment not unlike the Gobi desert. The work light kicks off heat and a few times, shields were ruined because the over painting technique resulted in 3-D built up of paint. When this happened, I scraped the shield down and started over.

36 knights and shields later, here's a sampling of some of the better motifs.  Each is based on East European heraldry and most are Hungarian.

Goose in a Chalice is one of my favorites!

I can't help but think about the Impetus ruleset and their style of basing armies. By using fewer figures and larger, diorama style bases, I think I could field a better looking army in less time. A lot of detail will be buried when these figures are snugged shoulder to shoulder on a single small base.

Here in Minnesota, the sun has disappeared entirely beneath the gray skies of November. Maybe the relentless gray days are taking a toll on my attitude.  Tomorrow is another game at the Source.  A good game will renew my energy and interest in seeing this project to the finish line.

The rivers that divide us

The mighty Mississippi

The Twin Cities gets its nickname from the cities Minneapolis and St. Paul. They're divided by the Mississippi River, with Minneapolis on the west bank and St. Paul on the east. After moving here, I discovered that residents often sort themselves based on which side of the river they live on. I remember telling a coworker about an interesting place I'd visited over the weekend.  He sniffed disdainfully and said, "oh, that's on the east side. I never cross the river." It was a common refrain.

I attended a local  gaming event last week and I counted three groups running ancient to medieval miniatures. We had 9 people playing Field of Glory (FoG) in 15mm. A second club had 9 people playing FoG-Renaissance in 10mm. A third group was playing Impetus in 28mm over two tables.  There isn't a lot of crossover between our groups even though we all share a passion for history and miniature gaming. People seem to sort themselves based on ruleset, scale and club. Since I play one set of rule (FoG) in one scale (15mm) with one club on one side of the river (east), I'm guilty of it as well.

I've been thinking about crossing the river, so to speak. I've thought about gaming with the club that does Renaissance in 10mm. Since 10mm is outside the scale that I'm painting and playing, I hesitate to give this a go.  Lately I've been eyeing the Impetus rules.  The way they use fewer figures per base and make each base a diorama is very appealing to me.  I asked one of the Impetus guys if he'd host a demo game over the holidays so I can see what these rules are like. He told me the Impetus group fields 28mm exclusively and at this, I hesitated again.  I have 5 ancient and medieval armies in 15mm.  28mm is more expensive than 15mm and much more time-consuming to paint. After rules, scale is another river that divides us. 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 28mm, fantasy, historical, science fiction, Hail Caesar, Impetus, FoG and DBM...it's frankly amazing we can get two or more people to agree to game anything!

I decided to go ahead and get a game of Impetus in. At a minimum, I get to see a new set of rules in action and I might have the opportunity to mix it up with the Impetus guys from time to time. Its also possible that I might like the rules enough to cross over to 28mm for a change of pace.  So many rivers to cross, so little time.  See you on the bridge!

Serbian Hussars

Serbian Hussars served as light cavalry in Matthias Corvinus' Black Army of Hungary.  They were armed with lances and large wooden shields.  Corvinus is generally credited with reorganizing the Hussars from small irregular units into large trained formations. The number of Hussars available to Corvinus rose in 1459 when Serbia was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire and many Serbians fled to Hungary.  The Hussars took part in the Hungarian wars against the Ottoman Empire and were employed successfully against their counterparts in the Turkish, Bohemian and Polish armies.  These boys will serve as light shock troops in my Hungarian army.  Light horse generally skirmishes and evades but not the Serbian Hussar. Their role is to pursue, engage and break opposing light horse.

I had a couple of breakthroughs here. First, I've been experimenting with basing.  No radical departures here  but I did use more static grass and Stilfor tufts, including flowers. I also took the time to pick out the larger rocks and coat them with dark and light gray.  I'm very pleased with the results! 

Secondly, its no secret that I've struggled with miniature photography.  I took many pictures today and was disappointed with all of them so I went back to the internet and combed through the tutorials.  I learned how to manually adjust white balance by pointing my camera at a white sheet of paper and just like that, the quality of my photographs greatly improved!  These are all by natural lighting.

 

All figures are by Essex and I do love their horses as there is a great deal of variety and energy in them. The only downside is the limited poses for the Hussars but I don't think it detracts too much.