The Goddess Isis On The Cheap

This mini started life as a resin ornament that I encountered in a wee gifty shoppe. She is about 1:32 scale, maybe slightly bigger, and is based on the Goddess Isis.

Isis was an important Egyptian goddess, sister-wife of Osirus, mother of Horus. She was particularly associated with white magic, protection and healing. Her name means throne and she is often depicted wearing a stylised throne on her head.

The later ancient world called her Mother of Heaven and associated her with Astarte, Demeter, Aphrodite, Venus and Al-Uzza. She is still with us in the christian name Isodora (Gift of Isis) and as the Virgin Mary in Catholic iconography (the divine mother with baby).

Isis and her temple in London has a walk on role in my novel Wolf In Shadow where she saves my heroines from the wrath of the men-only army-god, Mithras who had his Temple on the Walbrook

Another of my Of Gods & Mortals  God models 'on the cheap'.

P.S. Fed up struggling to get my Jessops for Nikon flash gun to talk to my Nikon camera so I took a deep breath and bought a Nikon SB700. Wish I'd done it years ago. Brilliant flash light. Above is a straight on shot in TTL close up mode.

Nemean Lion On the Cheap

I needed a Nemean Lion for my Greek mythological army so I picked up a toy lion at the Skirmish Toy Soldier show for 50p. I sprayed it with Halford's car cellulose undercoat and painted it tawny brown. This was followed by Citadel brown wash, a coast of Army Painter brown tone gloss varnish to seal it all in and thin layer of Winsor & Newton matt varnish to take off the shine.

Killing the monstrous man-eating Nemean Lion was the first labour of Hercules.

This is a big model: the 25mm cavalry base gives the scale. In metal it would have cost £15. Okay, this is not so good a sculpt as a metal model but it ain't bad for fifty copper coins of the realm.

Lion Rampant Host

I have finished the retinue of John de'Rainham: he's the handsome chap on the far back left of the pic.

It's a standard 24 point host with:
1. Mounted Men at Arms (back left with lance)
2. Mounted Sergeants (middle left)
3. Foot Men at Arms (front left)
4. Foot Sergeants (right rear with spears)
5. Crossbowmen (foot right)

The cavalry is made from a box of Veus Dult Mounted Sergeants for £20.

And the infantry from a box of Foot Sergeants which cost £35.

You get 48 minis in the infantry box so I still have 18 leftover.

I bought  Battle Flag shield transfers specially made for this range. These are expensive so I only got one sheet and created the other shield designs by painting and leftover transfers from various models.

Delineation of the hard plastic models is good and they respond well to a thin coat of Army Painter tinted varnish - as shown on the armour in this photo.

Æthelflæd, Lady of Mercia

Model by Belt Fed, painted by me.

Æthelflæd, Myrcna hlæfdige, was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. She married a Mercian ealdorman and became the ruler of Mercia, Wales and York after winning a series of battles against the Vikings and Welsh.

One of Britain's great women rulers and warlords.

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Visitors to Crystal Palace probably remember the early reconstructions of dinosaurs now on display in the grounds.

Well now you can buy models for your VSF games from Antediluvian Miniatures for the princely sum of £25.

Oddly enough many dinosaur models are way out of date. It is impossible to get a 28mm mini of a modern reconstruction, such as the one below.

Godinstone Open day

Popped down to Godinstone for their charity open day. Unfortunately it was just a little to early for the full flowering of the daffs. The chalklands are rather exposed so spring is later here than on the coast.

Wild orchids were up. They do well on the nutrient poor chalk meadows of Kent.

Lion Rampant - First Game

The Continuing Saga of Shawn of Rochester and John de Rainham.

Swearing vengeance after his hammering at the peace conference, Shawn assembled his loyal vassals with the usual threats and bribes to launch a full blown chevauchée through John's lands.

Fortunately John received prior notice from his PAVE chain (Peasant and Villein Exhortatory system) and was ready with his full blown host.

Yep, we were ready to play Scenario 1 from Lion Rampant with Shaun as the attacker.

This is what the game looked like after five or six turns.

Shawn had considerable problems getting his host to advance while mine flatly refuse to move at all. I think it took about five turns for John de Rainham's assorted threats and bribes got the archers to advance while his cavalry stayed in a full blown sulk.

By about turn seven things hotted up. I persuaded my archers to fire on Shaun's spearmen who took to their heels - nah, nah, cowardly custards.

Meanwhile Shaun's mounted men at arms started a charge on my other archers in the woods. I marvelled at the horse's bravery as light infantry are at their best in woods.

Shaun's spearmen rallied but his mounted men at arms took a terrible pounding, the survivors fleeing clean off the battlefield. Encouraged, John's mounted men at arms and right flank knights deigned to advance.

Meanwhile an exasperated Shaun of Rochester lost his head and led his personal retinue in a charge on John de Rainham, who was still trying to persuade his own retinue to stop sulking and advance.

Alas, John's retinue promptly counter-charged (automatic response not needing a die roll) and poor Shaun got the worst of it. His retinue promptly fled the field, carrying Shaun with them, and John declared victory.

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I don't know what to make of this. The game was completely controlled by the activation die rolls. I won the game by not managing to do anything. Admittedly there was some terrible die-rolling going on.