The Last Hirdman (And Group shots)

Here he is, the last of my Viking Hirdmen. Another well armoured fellow with a smashing moustache, so large it droops over his chainmail gorget-hood thingie.

Pretty cool sculpt, though I'm not a fan at all of the nipple tip to his helmet and feel I should have just filed it away to give him a regular conical helmet instead. O well, too late now.

Really like the banded armour pieces on him.

Another yellow-black traditional shield design. Keeping them simple.

And now, the requested group shots! I'll be playing these Hirdmen elite warriors as 6-man Men-at-Arms units in Lion Rampant (My Saxon Thengs will be used likewise.). They hit like a truck and can soak up damage really well in the rules, rather fitting I think looking at them all. (Completing these 12 and the 12 Thegns beforehand definitely earns me a Joker for the 6MMRPC. Not that I'll be buying anything new anytime soon, but it'll cancel out the guilt of one of the Bolt Action WW2 purchases I recently made!)

Fresh off the boat and ready to get raping and pillaging. Vikings are a nasty bunch for sure.

Close-up of the left. 

Close-up of the right.

Another quick group pic of the Saxon Thegns (Previewed previously) who'll be defending their homes against this Viking incursion. 

Battle is about to commence! I really need to invest in some sort of calendar with landscapes or something to use as backdrops for my photos of finished minis.

Next up on the paint table will be the remainder of my much maligned 15mm ACW Confederate Cavalry. There are only 2 bases worth left to get done and then basing for the entire unit (A very simple job) and they'll be done.

Saxon Thegns

These eight were completed over the weekend. They join the already done Saxon Lord, his two sons and son in law and will make up the two 6-man Thegn units for my Anglo-Saxons.

Elite warriors ready to tackle the Northmen menace!

Kind of happy to see this type forward progress on my Dark Ages project and (including the 3 vikings I'd also done earlier this month) 15x 28mm figs painted in 30 days isn't bad at all for this slow hobbyist.

These three are members of the Lord's personal guard.

Decided to give them Burgundy & White shields to better differentiate the two Thegn units on the tabletop.

1st Unit including the Lord's sons.

The other 5 were painted up to match the Son-in-Law's shield colour and make up the 2nd unit.

Shield colours to match the Son-in-Law. The simple freehand designs were variations I came up with from actual designs featured in internet searches.

I've also been working on some of my Confederate Cavalry and managed to get four stands painted, just need to be based - which I'll get done when all eight stands are complete.

Fiddly as hell to paint and fething terrible sculpts. No wonder they were so cheap. Still, don't look so bad with a lick of paint on them.

As the first month of the 6MMRPC comes to a close, I realised it would be an extra motivator to keep better track every month of my painting progress. So unlike last year, this time around I've decided to post up my Draxian (TM) progress charts in my end of month posts. Hopefully seeing all those boxes change to GREEN will keep me spurned on to victory!

The Thegns featured above! 1/4 of the way done on this project!

Shite-load of stuff yet to be done on this project. Good thing there's no rush to see it completed.

Only 3 minis finished on this one, but I started a further two last night and might well get another done by the end of this 4th July weekend. 

So in the 1st month of the Challenge, that's 16x 28mm (Including my fantasy Zulu warrior) figures painted, my 15mm Confederate Cavalry 3/4 done and some exhaust glows added to my Armada Star Destroyers. Not bad methinks.

Keeping it in the Family (Part - 2 Done and Done and an Armada AAR!

The second week of the 6MMRPC has had me working on the Saxon brothers (And brother-in-law) and also a pair of Viking Hirdmen that will be raiding the Saxon’s lands.

Still not decided what I'll do for a banner, but I'll worry about it another time.

Kept the shield design simple quartered effort. I think the green works well with the yellows on the model.

These are from the Jomsvikings/Rus ranges. I felt that elite warriors deserved some flashy togs and so the beardy fellow got some striped trews and  chainmail-face a classy red dress/tunic. 

Only complaint on these are the beardy sculpt's axe was far too fat and the armoured chap has a nice belt pouch, but no belt?

As far as hobby for the 3^rd week of the challenge, things will be rather minimal as my mother is coming to visit from England for a bit and then on to my sister’s in Texas. But I have another 8 Saxon Thegns that I reckon I can kick out before she arrives!

Was lucky enough to get in a game of Star Wars: Armada with my good friend Gregg as well. This was only our second game of Armada and so we were still a little rusty on rules, but the game went along nicely regardless with an emphatic Imperial victory (Huzzah!) and the Rebel scum slinking back to the wretched holes they typically skulk within. (A Death Star Laser blast should take care of that vermin problem at a later date no doubt.)

Two Victory Star Destroyers with some upgrades for me along with 6 squadrons of  TIE's, one of which was Howlrunner, a special character

Grand Moff Tarkin was my force commander. He costs a lot of points to include, but damn his abilities make for some fun times.

Gregg's Rebel fleet consisted of the new Assault Frigate and two Correlian Corvettes stacked full of upgrades and some mixed squadrons of X-wings, A-wings and Y-wings. We both forgot many special rules that our add-ons offered up every turn. Yes, we are very new to this game.

Flying through the Cheerywood Nebula, these Rebel ships had no idea the Empire was lying in wait.

Both fleets move to engage. The Rebel fighter squadrons leading the way, A-wings engaging TIE's.

A squadron of X-wings, two of Y-wings and the pair of Correlian Corvettes move in to support.

Tarkin's ship unleashes a broadside into the closest Corvette, punishing the smaller Rebel ship for venturing too close. The Critical Hit taken would later prove to be it's doom.

The Assault Frigate likewise unloads against Tarkin's ship in revenge and wipes out shields on the Starboard side.

Meanwhile the fighter melee hots up and everyone starts to take hits.

Tarkin's vessel finishes off the limping Corvette. 

The Frigate's captain miscalculates his move, not speeding far enough away to get out of the 2nd Victory's front arc....

.... leading to next turn where the 2nd Victory showed it who's boss.

The remaning Corvette and rebel fighter squadrons exited Stage right soon after. Things to take from this game:

1. Rebels NEED to outnumber Imperials if they want any sort of chance at winning. Even the Assault Frigate is too weak to stand up to a Victory Star Destroyer by itself. (Two Frigates though would be nasty)

2. Upgrades are fun, but missing out on extra ships (See #1) means you're not rolling many dice each activation which in turn means you're not hurting the enemy nearly bad enough

3. New fighters (Rebel) looked nice, but I didn't feel they added much more to the Rebel fleet. X-wings are still the best fighter in our games.

4. I really need more than just Victory Star Destroyers to play with.... They're cool and all, but variety is really the spice of life. 

Speaking of "variety" - any day soon my Gladiator capital ship (Smaller and faster than a Victory.) and Imperial Fighter Squadrons packs should arrive. So next AAR should feature some new toys.