The Barons’ War

This week I managed to make good progress on my basics Barons’ War force. I finished my first mounted knight, two more foot knights with swords, a pair of archers, and a pair of spear men.

Initially I wasn’t happy with the horse’s covering. For these miniatures I airbrush them black and then apply a heavy dry brush of warm medium grey. I then use speed paints (or similar) for most things.

My dry brush over the horse wasn’t great and I had a lot of completely black spots. As a result I put roughly seven layers of speed paint on before switching to a traditional acrylic. In the end, I think it came out well.

I think he is perfectly good for a table ready miniature! I really should start putting on transfers for the shields. If anyone has any shop recommendations for the US I’m happy to hear them.

My next pair of knights are less on the historically accurate side. My wife isn’t a miniature gamer but she will engage with me and my hobby. As a result, most projects end up with a proxy of her in some fashion.

Here we have a lady knight, in bubble gum pink, and a unicorn shield. What can I say, my wife really likes bubble gum pink!

I tried something new with the eyes this time. Usually I will paint them flesh, then put white in. From there I draw a black circle and call it a day. This time I painted the eyes black brown and came back to add the white. In my mind the effect is better. I’ll likely switch to that method.

Last I have rank and file troops. I’ve tried to keep with a blue and yellow scheme without being too uniform. When I eventually paint my baron I’ll match him to it.

That is my update! On the goal tracker I now need:

One more foot knight with sword.

Three more archers.

Four more spear men.

Two more mounted knights with sword.

One mounted Baron with sword.

I also need to figure out how I’m going to do sergeants. I don’t have any appropriate miniatures for them yet. I’m hoping Wargames Atlantic releases them soon!

I started my force almost by mistake several months ago. I’ve been enjoying Rangers of Shadow Deep and wanted an excuse to purchase some new miniatures. That led me to the Foot Knights from Wargames Atlantic. Once they arrived I wanted to know more about The Barons’ War. It checked many of my boxes: Skirmish, historical, D10s, artistic freedom! I’m not going to perfectly historically accurate, but at least generally so.

The kit has been a lot of fun to work with and I’m continuing to build out my force. Initially I looked up a starter army which Warhost was all to happy to provide.

My goal is:

• 4 foot knights with shields and swords
• 4 mounted knights with shields and swords
• 6 sergeants with falcons
• 8 spear men
• 8 archers

From there I’ll likely build a duplicate force so a friend can drop in and play without needing to do the hobby part.

If anyone is in Central North Carolina, please do reach out! I’m looking to meet up with some other wargamers who are into historical games.

Here is what I have so far.

They aren’t quite to what the goal is now. At first I was just making what was fun. Still, progress is being made!

I have one foot knight with a sword, two spear men, and three archers.