Work in Progress

Wars of the Rivets Dragon Rampant army WIP

Posted by steve_pickstock on 19 Sep 2022, 11:40

As I have said in the Towers of Ilium thread my modelling activities have taken a bit of a knock this last couple of months.
During the heatwave it was just to hot to work in the attic - aside from hobbits throwing rings at me, paint was drying too quickly and it was almost like trying to work in a furnace.
Then at the end of August, there were all the preparations for the August Bank Holiday battle - including going to find our tent, only to discover that it was missing. The muster passed off okay with one unexpected success - more of which later.
Since the end of August I have been getting back into it slowly. One task has been to work out a way to make ratlines, for 1/700th scale ships - those meshes that hold the masts in place. I think I have a way that will do it, but it needs work.
So all in all getting back into it.

This idea began a couple of years ago when someone gave me a warjack, one of the steam powered behemoths from the game War Machine.

I was looking to create a late medieval army - Wars of the Roses period - that would be built around one of these machines. Under the Dragon Rampant rules it would count as a reduced model unit. DR units are either 6 or 12 figures, and while they have different armour and attack/defence values, they all have 12 strength points and lash out 12 dice worth of damage or 6, depending on how damaged they are.

It would not be a kill-all unit, impenetrable in defence, it will just be a normal unit, albeit, hopefully, a quite spectacular one - because it has the same benefits and vulnerabilities as other units.

Ah! Yes, you might say, but would a war-machine like that (presumably built by some mad technical genius, possibly a Leonardo type), not be the pinnacle of its technology? An epitome of the skills of the craftsmen who made it?

Well, yes, but it would still be pushing the medieval envelope wouldn't it? Prone to break down and needing skilled a operator that sort of thing. So while it would a powerful unit, replacing a regiment of men, the enemy would still stand a chance against it. Sort of the follies of invention etc.

Anyway, these warjacks - designed as they were for this exact sort of thing seemed like a good idea. They have lots of flat plates ideal for decoration. The warjacks in the game tend to follow faction colour schemes, so I was going to do something like that (but more like Games Workshop titans) and theme the army around the livery.

The original jack that I was given was one of these
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A Protectorate faction Crusader.

I scraped off the heavy iconography on the pauldrons, and tried a striped colour scheme. But the surface wasn't good and the whole idea got put away.

Then, in August I was looking at things on the internet and found an STL file for one of these
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A Kingdom of Cygnar Ironclad.

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The print didn't work out so well, but at the August Bank Holiday event a friend of mine said "I might have one of those spare"

Result!

It duly arrived in the post, and while it had been painted blue overall, it was definitely a good prospect.

So I gave it a second undercoat of Vallejo Air Black. Dry-brushed it all over with GW Runefang - mixed partly with the black to give it tonal variations. I didn't seen any need for an overall wash of Nuln oil as some people do, but hit the lower legs with Devlan Mud. The broad plates of the carapace received two colours - Vallejo Red Brown first, the Vallejo Red, then the same again with some craft paint Linen as a high light. the 'white' plates were base coated with Linen, which was lightened with Vallejo White, until it was just pure white.

Rivets and some of the mechy gubbins bits were darkened with Nuln Oil, and then given a dot of Vallejo bronze.
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There is more to do - the base, the warhammer, and some dry-brushing - oh and of course there is an army to do around it - but we're getting there.

Sorry that this has been so wordy, thanks for looking in, stay safe.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 22 Sep 2022, 21:13

I like your "knights"! :-D :thumbup:
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Posted by carlosfaro on 22 Sep 2022, 21:17

Steve, wonderful figs but I miss some 1/72 Guy around for comparison...
Are These "Things" supposed to be supported by more "plain" foot or Horse soldiers? How do they like look? (I Guess late medieval as you wrote about War of the Roses)
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 23 Sep 2022, 17:55

carlosfaro wrote:Steve, wonderful figs but I miss some 1/72 Guy around for comparison...
Are These "Things" supposed to be supported by more "plain" foot or Horse soldiers? How do they like look? (I Guess late medieval as you wrote about War of the Roses)

Working on getting some figures done.
The army - or the cavalry anyway, will be from the Red Box WotR sets. They will provide some of the infantry and I may add some Miniart and a few Zvezda figures.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 25 Sep 2022, 15:21

Thank you to everyone who has looked in on this topic so far.

Here is a slightly blurry image of the warjack – I have to think of a better, more fitting nick-name than that – with some Red Box Scurrers (set 72046) to give an idea of the scale.
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Another one of the warmachine – just because I am quite pleased with it.
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I think that - in this mythos - these machines are operated by one very brave (or stark staring bonkers) individual. Anything bigger than this is pushing the limits of the technology, though it still providers quite a powerful weapon. I also think that they were designed to be used against buildings and fortifications, but then some bright spark said "Let's try it out in the field!" or something like that.

The Scurrers.

I have wanted to paint these for a while. They are lovely figures – imaginative and nicely posed. They are also still WIP, up to now I have just given them a very basic paint job.
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For the riders – I started with a Vallejo Air Black undercoat, not bothering if I missed a bit. Over that, a selection of dark browns, dry-brushed on, to show up the detail. Next, I painted the areas where I wanted the army heraldry theme colours with a craft paint Linen. Then a bright red over that on the left-hand side as you look at the figure. Belts and boots in a dark leather colour, and an ochre colour for the gloves. Unit commanders/proprietors bought job lots of kit for their men – belts and gloves etc., so it is acceptable to batch paint these items.

Vallejo Sunny Skin tone for their faces (these guys don’t show a lot of skin, I wanted to make the most of it) with a GW Flesh Wash over that.

The horses got two rough dry brushes of two Vallejo red-browns – the name of the darker one escapes me, but the lighter one is Cavalry Brown (I think). Faces and ankles, and some detail on the saddlery brought them up to where I wanted them.

Still to do – a lot of tidying up, highlights and things like that, but they are very much what I was aiming at. I am saving the bases until the end and will do the whole army at the same time.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 02 Oct 2022, 11:45

Nice painted figures! :thumbup:
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 02 Oct 2022, 18:52

Good evening all, a few more pictures from the Wars of the Rivets army.
After much thought - usually late at night when I should be asleep, I decided that rather than call them warjacks, the people in this particular story refer to these one man fighting machines as mechanicals.

Another image of the mechanical with 1/72 scale figures for scale.
The figures are from l-to-r Orion Hussite preacher - a Mechanist (wizardling) whose job is to keep the mechanical in fighting trim. He has only three spells - basically repair, spice up the weapons, and improve the defences. The other two - from one of the Italeri Tournament sets - are bog standard wizards. These two are slightly taller figures than standard 1/72, but they're just right for what I need.
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The Mechanaical and the Mechanist
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I decided that the army needed some light troops. These very Italian state looking chaps will either act as two groups of scouts (6 in each groups) or one group of light Infantry. The idea is to use them as a screen - or speed bump) to dent any attacks on the Mechanical and weaken the attackers. kind of like chariot runners.
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The shields of the light troops - showing the signature theme for this army. As usual with these pictures there is still more to do, tidying up lines, the shiny bits, and perhaps some more darker washing.
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The three Magic users - 2 wizards and a wizardling. Wizards tend to be a bit like heavy artillery, useful for softening units up before you hit them. I will probably use one wizard and the wizardling. As above, he is there to keep the Mechanical in the fight.
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This is the other mech - a Crusader I believe, it's going to take some work to get it presentable. I don't know if I am going to do it myself or give it away to someone to do something with it.
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Thanks for looking in, take care, Pickers.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 02 Oct 2022, 19:42

And again a nice addition to this story! Looking very good Steve! :thumbup:
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Posted by CliosPaintingBench on 03 Oct 2022, 01:30

Well, this is a fascinating and unique army, great to see more fantasy on this board!
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CliosPaintingBench  Australia
 
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 07 Oct 2022, 15:09

Slow progress this week, but making headway with the infantry components of the army.

The two units that are furthest along are a unit of Heavy Missiles - in this case a mix of crossbowmen and handgunners from MiniArt and Red Box and some Heavy Infantry from Red Box.

The MiniArt crossbowmen came as part of one of their siege sets, (Knights with Rams), so I used all of the soldiers in the unit a pavise for the signature red/white heraldry.

Both units are well along the way to being completed with small jobs to finish them. These smaller details - painting faces and hands, straps and the like - will provide the light details that stop these figures from being just dark blobs, that and I need to detail the armour on the heavy infantry. They also need the bases painting.
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Just a quick shot of the pavises. Most of the time these will not be visible to my opponent because they'll be on the backs of the figures or facing towards the side as he looks at them.
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So, beside these, there is still a unit of archers and one of knights to do. Both are coming along nicely. Once everything is done it will be time for the bases, and the movement trays.

Thanks for looking in.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by MABO on 08 Oct 2022, 09:12

Very interesting combination! I am looking forward to the last units.
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 11 Oct 2022, 14:36

A little more done on this army, mainly the foot soldiers. Still very much WIP, but getting there.

The foot soldiers.
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In front the Light Foot, behind them to the left are the Heavy Missile, in the middle of the back row are the Heavy Foot and on the right are the Light Missiles (still a lot to do on these guys).

The Heavy Missiles.
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Calling these pretty much done.

The Heavy Foot.
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Some details to do, shafts on weapons, straps armour details, but close to done.

The Light Foot.
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I want to say these are nearly done but I feel I can do more to give them that light/irregular swagger. Any ideas? Thoughts?

The Light Missiles.
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As mentioned, still a lot to do to finish these - highlights, straps/belts, weapons etc.

Thanks for looking in, Pickers.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Peter on 13 Oct 2022, 18:02

You're going hard now Steve! That are a lot of figures in very short time! And they look good! :thumbup:
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Posted by CliosPaintingBench on 17 Oct 2022, 02:22

Loving the steampunk atmosphere and the mix of medieval and machine, the number of troops is coming along nicely!
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 18 Oct 2022, 21:05

So, tonight I used the wars of the Rivets army in a game of Dragon Rampant.

The back row of the army - l-to-r - Light Infantry, and Light Cavalry.
Middle Row - l-to-r - Heavy Infantry, The Mechanist Wizardlings, the Mechnismus Archilleus, and the Elite cavalry with the Army general.
Front row - l-to-r - Light Missiles, and Heavy Missiles.
The movement trays were borrowed for this game as I wanted a more ordered appearance for this army, and there is a second mechanismus - Basileus, that I didn't photograph at this point.
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Archilleus is moving forwards to tackle the enemy cavalry, while the Heavy Foot on its left have taken some casualties from enemy archers.
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Basileus the other Mechanismus is ambling to see if he can help, but Archilleus is about to go and give the enemy general a righteous smacking.
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The enemy general destroyed - even though Archilleus took some damage in the process, the Mechanists have the opportunity to show their work by repairing some of the damage - which they pretty much fail at, only recovering one strength point out of three attempts.
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Finally the whole army advances - the mechanists follow at a safe distance to avoid being shot at, but victory is at hand as enemy units fold and flee.
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Posted by Minuteman on 19 Oct 2022, 15:05

Impressive and great fun by the looks of things!

It's good to see those Redbox late medieval figures paint up so well.
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 19 Oct 2022, 17:19

They're a mixed bunch, but I think they look okay.

I've wanted to paint the scurrers since I bought them. They have a lot of character, the poses are nice but though the horses are adequate, they are not up to the standard of the riders. The same goes for the men-at-arms, good simple poses but the horses are a bit pants. The foot figures are excellent, some flash but overall, competent sculpts and fun to paint too. And it's not like I spent a lot of time on them, I opted for painting for effect, rather than spending hours on each figure.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by steve_pickstock on 22 Nov 2022, 21:31

Hello all. Last week, the movement trays that I wanted for this army arrived.

In the last pictures I posted the figures were on tray that I had borrowed from my goblins, after a frantic session of painting and flocking the what I like to think of as 'regular' bases were ready for tonight's outing. Looking at them in close up, They need more and a brighter green on them. But with Christmas things to sort out and the army working well as it does - I am not going to mess with it, apart from the other Mechanismus, this lot are done.

The Heavy Missiles unit - mixed arquebuses and crossbows and them big pavises.
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The Heavy Foot unit.
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Thanks for looking in, cheers Pickers.

Light Missiles.
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Light Foot - very much a mercenary unit, there are additional 6-slot bases that allow me to use these guys as two units of scouts.
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steve_pickstock  England
 
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Posted by Minuteman on 23 Nov 2022, 16:51

Certainly some good-looking units there. Fine work!
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Posted by RSDean on 02 Dec 2022, 15:29

Nice work! It’s expensive to hang around here; I had to go scrounge an Italeri Tournament set after looking at your pictures…
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