More Aureola Rococo Knights.

I've been painting historical miniatures for a while now, so it is maybe time for a short break. A few months ago, I could finaly buy the few figures I was missing to build another two units. Many thanks to Dave from Caliverbooks, who owns Miniature Figurines (or Minifigs for short) for bringing them back into production!
I believe my Knight s of the Silver Rose army is now finished, having at least one of each of the produced miniatures.

The new recruits are a unit of spearmen.

As usual the flag is a free download, originaly from Perry Miniatures' Korean range. I painted a linear B symbol on it, to show the ancient character of these troops, as I did with all other units before.

The other unit is armed with the fearfull (and magical) double action blowpipe.

This is the only unit in the army that doesn't have a flag, I think they don't need one since they use a shooting weapon and normaly don't come into hand to hand combat. Or at least they hope so.

That's it, my fantasy army is ready for battle!
Maybe some pictures of the complete army?

I hope you like the look of the army. It was a great pleasure to paint them. I finaly have the army I dreamed of as a 15 year old! It's only that I'm now ...51.

As always, any comments welcome!

Aureola Rococo Knights army.

I now have finaly painted (almost) all the old Aureola Rococo Knights of the Silver Rose I own. And as promised here are some pictures! Sorry for the long wait.

First are the foot spearmen. there were pictures of these before on my blog, but here are some new ones, back in the "old" style.

Next are a unit with a weapon that I would call spear-axe. One end has a spear head and the other an axe head.

Followed by the "Guards". A 18 men unit. Other foor units are 12 men strong.

New units now, starting with a mounted unit of axemen. Although they also have a bow and arrows with them.

And another unit of mounted knights, now armed with a spear.

All flags are based on free downloads of  medieval Korean flags, but with a linear B symbol hand painted on them.

That's the army for now. Except for a general (soon to follow).

I would like to add one more unit, but need to find a few more miniatures for that. 

Maybe I should ask Dave at Caliverbooks. The miniatures I'm after are not currently in production, but you never know...

Historical gaming and High Fantasy miniatures.

It's been a while since my last post here. There are a few reasons for this. Non of it has something to do with our beloved hobby of miniatures wargaming.
First there was a new course I had to follow for work, plus tests.
Then only a few weeks ago, I became grandfather, which is something special, I can assure you!
In between things, my wife and me also went on a vacation. So there was not so much time for the hobby.
I have been working on my Napoleonic Nassuaers, but the "painting mojo" left me when we came back from vacation.. Seeing the same figures for too long on my painting desk was the killer for me (were are the helpfull gnomes when you need them?)

Then I found some very positive advice on a set of rules called One Hour Wargames, written by Neil Thomas. I bought them on Amazon, and read them through in one evening.
It is a book with a few very basic rulessets and 30 scenario's, which can be used with each of the different rules. An army consists of a maximum of 6 units and minimum of 3, depending on the scenario played. You cannot choose which type of units you have. Just throw a dice, and check on a list what you get.
I made a few small changes, and played the first scenario solo. It was fun, and indeed, it is possible to finish a game in around an hour.

I played the game using my very old 15mm minifigs Seleucids and a Galatian army of mixed makes. These armies are both  based for the DBx family rules (but mostly used for Armati, once they were painted).
I needed a few more, and knew I had some unpainted staked somewhere at the attic. And there I bumped into a long forgotten treasure. My very first fantasy army, made of the now mythical Minifigs Aureola Rococo figures. The Knights of the Silver Rose to be more precise.
These are at least 35 years old, and unfortunately, many were damaged and the painting was terrible, being painted by a young teenager (me...) with the only paints available then, humbrol enamels. It also seemd I used each and every different colour I had. So in a paint remover filled jar they went!

There were even some miniatures still packed, just as they were when I bought them. 

After the miniatures are fished out of the jar (I left them two days in), the once-painted miniatures are cleaned with an old toothbrush. 

While looking for a descent painting scheme, I discovered to my astonishment that they had the wrong horses! Mine were seated on the cool looking Elf horses (code ARH1), but they needed the much heavier and barded knight horses, code ARH4. Luckely for me, the correct horses are again for sale now, thanks to Dave of Caliverbooks fame (he bought the complete Minifigs range). 

So, while waiting for the horses to arrive, I 'm painting the foot knights. I used a simple painting scheme. I don't want to spend to much time on them, but they will be nice when ready.

Pictures will come when the complete "army" is ready. That is around 50 foot and 20 mounted figures. Looks like another Dragon RAmpant army is in the making!

 A few specials may follow after these, as I also have both the small and large dragon from this range and a few others.. So yes, I 'm painting again! but it is not Napoleonics for the moment...