Long Spears, Lances and Flagpoles

In the smaller scales I play I often want to replace the long spear, lance or flagpole. At that scale the metal can be too thin and can easily bend and eventually break when bent once to often.

Flag Staffs replaced

I recently bought some Dark age Arabs from Pendraken and wanted to have a standard bearer in the heavy cavalry. I also wanted my own flag rather than the supplied one for the foot. 

Not because there was anything wrong with it, I just wanted a bigger banner and will use both in my units as shown. I'd imagined small regimental flags and large National/Army Flags rippling in the wind above them.

Heavy Cavalry with spears replaced with Flag Staffs

Flagstaff created by replacing the spear

So I carefully cut away the provided flag, try to brace the pole so it won't bend or indeed break. Cut away and file down. As you can see I don't always win but have a back up plan. 

Pendraken sell the perfect wire. Just remember to use a larger bit in this case I used a 0.8mm drill bit. I find the 0.1mm difference is essential as you'll never push the rod through

The rod can be cut to length and has a degree of flexibility, enough to bend it if you're not careful..

I then user a Superglue 'gel' on the end of the rod, push it through to rest the base of the spear/pole on the ground or foot of rider. If done swiftly it will pass through and leave glue in the fist.
On occasion the fist breaks looking like pincers instead of a hole through the fist, in that case I just rest the rod, glue and paint as if being held.

Pro tip, get quality bits and replace as soon as you feel it's becoming a struggle.

I also did this with my Polish Hussars the lance in Pendraken's P1 model and they sell the 2 winged Hussar with no lance just a fist, you can tuck the lance behind the fist or try like I did to drill through the fist and more times than not it work, as you can see the hand was damaged in this example, but it won't mater when painted. Option a was a shorter length, but I think with Winged Hussars size does matter. 

In the image below the Winged Hussars lance is 30mm long and rests on the boot. I defy any white metal lance to remain as straight and true as these.

Jungle ruins and buildings for the Lizardmen army.

Having produced the Lizard army I felt I needed some jungle terrain for them, so I bought some buildings from Rok Minis who kindly reduced the 28mm scale to 10mm for me. This company also produces 10mm armies I have the painted and based Lizard Men Army and some Ratmen waiting for the painting brush.

The buildings I purchased are shown here, the bottom left corner looks so much like Amon Hen it got diverted to the LoTR project.

I sprayed them all with army builder Fur Brown and then resprayed with Desert Yellow I felt the yellow needed to be sprayed on to brown to get the shade I wanted.

Agrax Earthshade was liberally applied to get the shading in the crevices and then dry brushed with VJ Desert Yellow, as I still wasn't happy I used GW contrast Skeleton Horde, then another heavy drybrush of VJ Desert yellow. 

Then a nice solid dry brush of Bleached bone (yup I have some old paint), Iraqi Sand is the same.

Picked out some areas and glyphs to paint red or green and job done. Easy if we ignore my usual agonising over colours etc.

The yellow bits here were painted with elven grey and then Bad Moon Yellow Contrast.

Some of the scenery was trees, I didn't spray them desert yellow. instead I covered the trees with Cygor Brown contrast, slightly reduced with technical  medium and a degree of patting with tissue to remove excess and a wet brush to move the colour around until I was happy. Various brown dry brushing to get the desired effect, steel legion drab & a little XV-88.

The ruins with the trees I gave an initial base paint of Desert Yellow to the stone then treated them as i did the buildings.

All the ruins, with trees or the bits of wall were all given an extra brush of Iraqi Sand in order to fade the colour.

All trees need a canopy right?

Before final light green scatter

The Canopy was rubberised horsehair, teased out to the shape I wanted, saying that is a lot easier than doing it.
It was my first attempt, I'd bought the stuff years ago but was never at a point where I had to use it.

Having fixed it to the top of the tree I wrapped the rest of the tree in masking tape.
[With hindsight really make sure they are secure, you won't see the fixings once the flock is on.]

I then sprayed the canopy brown.
Sprayed it with an adhesive, don't forget to spray the underneath.
Covered it in dark green foliage, cover top and underneath, [might use a large clump next time]

When dry another adhesive spray and a less complete scattering of a lighter green, to achieve two tones.
When that was dry I sealed it all with cheap hairspray.

After light green scatter

Now I thought I was done and removed the masking tape and based them up, but they didn't look right.

Apparently sunlight is different at the top of a tree and the leaves are lighter, the photosynthesis differs.
So after the hairspray while it was still wet I sprinkled a conventional sawdust scatter at the very top.
- it also hit the grass, but it all adds to it.

More hairspray a little scatter where appropriate and Yes more hairspray. The hairspray is a cheap less solid finish than varnish and dries a little quicker before you apply the next coat.

I've got into the habit of basing my scenery on 100mm hexes, I buy these from Kalistra I buy the brown unflocked ones. I put plastic filler on top paint them 88-XV and dry brush with Iraqi Sand before fixing the buildings & then flocking with an applicator.

My finished results.

From the front

From the rear

Side view 1

Side view 2

A couple of closeups

Lizard Army confront a Tomb Kings Horde, HC!Fantasy - 1st Play Test

 Lizard Army confront a Tomb Kings Horde

First play test of the two armies with a new rules system.

Essential I've created HC! army lists for Warmaster armies and magic. My victim played the Tomb Kings whilst I played the Lizardmen.

Simple game no scenery just line up and charge to test the points allocations, unit creation and magic rather than an indvidual's skills

Result was a resounding win for the Tomb Kings who lost nothing whilst the Lizards lost half the army. Christoph (aka the victim) was delighted with the result and felt the game played like Warmaster without some of the detail that sometimes bogged it down.

I forgot the photos through the game but over three turns not a lot happened as my command rolls ensured half my Lizard army never moved.

Turn 1
I advanced the right wing and fired some shots at the Tomb Kings. The Tomb Kings waited for my arrival with some positional changes as the commander had realised he'd set up incorrectly and fired at the Lizards. Casting Doom and Despair on the Kroxigor who could now only stand and stare

Turn 2
The Skinks in the right wing of the Lizards charged the Skeleton Infantry and were pushed back becoming disordered and were pushed back to their death in turn three. The Terradons flews behind the Skull chucker and fired shots at it whilst the Stegadon advance slowly forwards.
The left wing of the Lizards failed their command again, whilst the Tomb kings facing them advanced a little & cast spells and fired. The middle division joined in attacking the right wing of the Lizards.

Turn 3
The Lizardmen on the left were in combat or failed commands and the division on the left flank also failed. This was just very poor rolling 10+ and blunders, whist break tests were rolling under 7s with excess casualties taking them lower. 
The Tomb kings facing the unmoving left wing of the lizard fired and finally the Lizards moved, backwards as they failed their break tests.
On the Lizard's right wing the Skeleton Infantry polished of the skinks and swept into the Salamander unit destroying it. The centre and cavalry from the right wing of the Tomb Kings charged into the Stegadon which was destroyed in combat. 

The game ended at the end of turn three as half the Lizard army left the table.

Note:
The Tomb King archers had depleted the stamina of the Lizard units so they were almost shaken when the were attacked.
Magic throughout had been as haphazard as it ever was in Warmaster.

I believe I got the stats for both armies about right but I'll need to ensure the General is played as a CIC rather than being in charge of a division, so a little rule tweaking will be required and both the below lists would have an extra Hero HQ.

The Lizard men army was about 1K Warmaster points.

The Tomb Kings also about 1K points

Why did the Lizard lose when the Tomb Kings didn't even lose a unit?

It was one of those unbalanced dice rolling games that happen every now and then and a lack of HQs on the Lizard's side only made it worse.

The Lizard army failed 80% of its command rolls and 80 of it's break tests, whenever a 6 was required, a 1 was rolled and when a 1 was required a 6 was rolled. I could not believe the luck, rolls to hit were failed morale saves failed. The Lizard player (me) usually enjoys great luck with the dice, not today.

Meanwhile the Tomb Kings did what they do shrug off everything, but in addition made far more morale saves and shrugged off brake tests. 

Lizard Men - Lost Children of the Fallen Gods

My first WHF armies way back in 1996 were from the 5th edition box set; Bretonnians and Lizard Men, my son and I had a blast with those models. 

Since those heady days I've played many games and including Warmaster. I have a few Warmaster armies now and wanted to try playing them again.
I'd started playing mainly historical and rediscovered the 10mm Warmaster scale and was playing Hail Caesar! in that scale, I thought why don't I use my Warmaster Models with these rules and since then I've been working on some adaptations for Hail Caesar! that will allow me to play HC with Fantasy units.
I never bought a Warmaster Lizard army but decided I'd like them to be one of my trials HC-Fantasy armies. So bought a set of 3d printed minis, as who can afford the old metal? Then started painting them with the new contrast paints and here are the results.

CiC HQs The Ancient one or Slann alongside a Saurus leader mounted on a T-Rex

Three HQs a Saurus and two Skinks

Two skink Mage HQs

Saurus Warriors with a Temple Guard unit on the front right

Skinks as light infantry and medium archers and skirmishers

Kroxigor units

Terradons

Salamander units with Skinks

Saurus Cold one Riders

Stegadon with Skink crew

See also

Arabic Army for fantasy, HC or even P&S
Orc army based up  rebasing for HC Fantasy
Polish Army for P&S and a little fantasy  Kislev

K and M Trees for LotR

If you're playing a game you need scenery and IMO trees, usually quite a few.

I'm known for always overdoing it, so I've done 20.


One of the complaints people make in the game is that the basing for scenry is so thick the models teter and fall over if the are half way on a terrain piece. So I used Hexs from Kallistra they are 2mm wide made from plastic, I've had no issues glueing terrain on. The weight of the trees will make a triple Hex bend ifyou hold it at one end,  but so would a 12"/30cm ruler if you put a lead weight at one end.

Basing material sorted I then chose the trees, these I bought in 2008/9 for the demo game Hands up! that i took to shows. They've been in and out of boxes and still look good, sure they shed but keep then in the samebox and glue what drops off abck on, I've done this once in 14 years. The trees are from K&M

Trees however you can get them from Kallistra too. 

Note the length of metal below the provided trunk, cut it off at the length you want, vary it and alter the height of the tree, then using super glu screw the metal trunk into the base.

Both companies provide bases into which you can insert the trees, I prefer the metal pewter one (added weight).

Now use plastic filler caulk, whatever to sculpt the trunk don't be tidy be messy, start with the provided trunk widening it, cover the twisted wire and finish off over th ebase as shown.
I use a pointed palette knife, wet it to stop it sticking.

When dry I painted with varying shades of brown, from Burnt Umber to a lighter shade. Later when basing I finished off with a light dry brush of Iraqi Sand.

Once painted I glued the tree to the hex, if doing a triple hex remember to position them to allow foot soldiers through or tight to stop them.

To texture it I then spread filler on the hex, when dry I painted a mix of PVA & paint with a litle water, then drenched with sand. 

When that was dry another coat of my mix, to fix the sand.
When that dries I paint with XV-88 then dry brush with Iraqi sand.

Trees have leaves under them and I used some dry Birch tree masts I'd picked last autumn, unless you are in charge of the kitchen, a more dangerous option might be dried herbs from that kitchen. I fixed these in place with a spray of cheap hairlaquer, but will try a PVA/water spray next time

 I prefer not to cover the whole base with flock I flocked about 50% using static grass and then added flower clumps.

The other advantage of hexs is that you can push them together to get larger woods.

Hands Up! - The Build part 2 'Getting serious'

I've made scenery with polystyrene, but as you may have discovered they have issues with getting a decent cut and shaping; lots of static small balls and it might melt if you've not protected it and use the wrong paint or glue.

Whilst the games boards made by the club in the past had been made from one or more layers of polystyrene based on chipboard; and have been very successful I didn't think a 100mm (4") height would work as well so I was seeking an alternative and as described in Cautious Beginnings I played with a piece of  the material used to insulate a flat roof in my home. It is Recticel Instafit Polyurethane Insulation board (Kingspan/Celotex).

Luckily the island is very flat plateau and windswept so the only real elevation was the cliffs and the valleys where streams cut through the island's plateau as the period picture shows.

I discovered that at 100 mm the material:.

1)Has two layers of glass fibre sheet reinforcement through it so gloves should be used, the good news is that this also creates two stratum lines in cliffs, issues in other areas can be 'filled', it also makes a fantastic break line for you to create a new  horizontal level area.

2) Is very resistant to vertical pressure but gives easily if you push sideways into it. This allows you to shape the material with your gloved fingers and use your gloved hand to 'sand/polish' the finish.

3) It also gives off an odour that probably shouldn't be breathed in, as well as a fine dust, non static and easily hoovered up, [Warning clogs hoover quickly and probably also lungs so use a mask].

The plan was to use chipboard as a base, and then I would glue kingspan boards on top. (You know what happens to plans!)

Went to the local store and bought the chipboard and had it cut to size, (a must) and now have 5 times 2' x 5' boards. and ordered the Kingspan, 8' x 4' so needed three in order to get 5 lots of 2' x 5' happily these were delivered for a small charge.

Cutting the Kingspan to size was easy using a 'ripsaw' but I suggest you sandwich the Kingspan between two lined up pieces of chipboard, clamped together you will avoid cutting at an angle like I did with my first one. 

I had intended to use some hot wire tools I'd bought to cut Polystyrene to shape it, however they proved ineffective the material won't melt the same way. Thankfully it cuts well with a knife and sculpts quite well too, a little messy but thank god none of those balls, but still statically charged. I used a bread knife as I needed the length of blade, felt this was safer and found the Kingspan had two lines of woven glass fibre inside that a serrated knife could cut through. 

A lot of the work had been done for me by Chris Hall as I used his 'Map' as my template.

With boards and Kingspan cut to size I placed the Kingspan and then laid the 'Map' over the top allowing me to measure the Kingspan, look closely you can see the island already in place.

Having cut the Kingspan to length I peeled the aluminium foil off what would be the base as I felt the PVA glue would adhere the two elements better without it.

Peeling off the top layer of aluminium foil I started carving and modelling the material. Do use a mask!

The red lines show where the fibre glass mesh is and I used it to my advantage, the lower line became the highest point of the beach and street level in the town. I used a model knife to cut a 'V' for the valley and then formed the shape by simply rubbing my gloved fingers like sandpaper over it pushing away the waste. The cliffs were cut with a bread knife the mesh adding an unexpected bonus to the look.

However I couldn't sculpt the beach to my satisfaction and ended up using corrugated card, a layer by the seawall to raise that end and then a full beach piece peeling the back off the last inch to give me a sharper slope.

As you can see the sea is patterned wall paper. I put PVA on my beach and poured sand on. I also reinforced the sea wall with mastic just in case.

Once shaped to my satisfaction I applied PVA glue and sand to all cliff edged and beaches, reapplying when dry, you may need three thin coats, beware of applying too much sand/PVA as the mix will slide down the slope. When ready I started painting with ordinary emulsion paint.

Terrain skeleton complete, time for dressing.

Whilst this was for a 20mm game, the scenery was so flat any scale game could be played on it, although we began to limit ourselves with the placements we inserted, but it had to be done. Nonetheless one set of judges deemed it was a 10mm setup for a 20mm game, they ignored our research and the facts, apparently field lines should be man height hedges not low scrub even if the map and photographs showed otherwise.

Did I care, yes, however the best accolade for all our work came from a Frenchman who saw the game at Crisis in Antwerp, who pointed at the layout and named both island and town, a Result! Merci monsieur, très apprécié !

Moving onwards I used cheap towelling from ASDA (rough ground) and thin corduroy (farmland) from a local sowing shop. Builders caulk was applied to all roads and an old child truck (to scale) run along it whilst still wet to give me the ruts in the muddy roads.

One of my dislikes with pieced terrain boards is the joins I tried to mitigate this having flaps of terrain cloth overlapping the boards. Field cloth would extend beyond the board to the road edge on the next board. if you can't see what I mean in the above I've highlighted it below.

Me OTT? Yup! In the end I followed this idea with the town and fortress, despite hours of getting it just right I removed Kingspan replacing it with a piece of MDF, with wall paper cobbles that the town's building could sit on.

As you see that cover a lot of the joint.

To make packing for transport between shows easy and we went to a few in the UK and Crisis in Belgium. Nothing was glued in place.

To avoid damaging the board by pushing in and removing trees I inserted and glued rawlplugs into the board that allowed me to insert and remove the K&M trees easily.

The two pieces of MDF on the right of the above picture were my templates for building the fort seen in the picture below. I used Railway Scenic card to cover the walls and hide the Kingspan core.

The finished town with port and overlooking fort. It was the guns on this fort that had to be taken by the allies.

Finished Project

Transportation and storage mode.

At Bovington Tank Museum the Allies commence their seaborne assault.

Other articles on Hands Up!

Hands Up! MadGame

The Build Part 1 - Cautious Beginnings