Some Musings and a Start on the Battlelore Upgrade

MUSINGS

I sat down last night and went through all the miniatures that I needed to get for my Battlelore Upgrade… its alot…

…210 of those miniatures are humans… So I thought that in the spirit of not getting burnt out, I would pace myself. The first miniatures to tackle would be the goblins. I already had a pack of the Splintered Light Weasel Slingers and a couple of others, so I went and ordered a bunch more to complete my Goblin Hoard. David was very accomadating in letting me substitute some riders for the Komodo Dragons and Terror Birds.

In fact, it was suggested to substitute the Light Infantry Bat rider models for use with the Terror Birds – great suggestion.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR GOBLINS

So if you are wanting to attempt this as well, you will need the following (all from Splintered Light Miniatures:

1x Goblin Archer pack (Hobgoblin Archers)

1x Goblin Medium Cavalry on Wolves pack (Hyena Riders)

1x Goblin Wolf Clan Warriors (to use as Red Banner Hobgoblins)

1x Goblin Warriors 1 (Green Banner Infantry)

1x Goblin Warriors 2 (Blue Banner Infantry)

1x Goblin Spears (Goblin Spears)

1x Komodo Dragons (with 6 medium goblin mounts) (Lizard Riders)

1x Terror Birds (with 6 light bat rider goblin mounts) (Ostrich Riders)

1 x Weasel Clan Slingers

Then you need to sort out the Drummers and Band Leader figures. For these I was thinking of using the Goblin Drummers from the Command pack as the regular drummers and then using the Dancing Shaman model as the band leader. I was going to sculpt a large drum that the Shaman can dance on as the Drum leader. When I’ve done this, I’ll be sure to include pics 🙂

MAKING A START

I already had a packet of Weasel Clan Slingers, so got started by basing them.

• I simply cleaned up the model (which took no time as they are great casts) and then super glued it to a 20mm round washer.
• PVA glued some fine ballast down
• Undercoated black
• My next step is to paint them!

Here is a photo of what they look like before undercoating.

A GOOD “BASE-IS” IS IMPORTANT

I quickly whipped up some more bases this morning to get ready for my incoming Goblinoid hordes. I have shown some steps below.

• First, rule up the base from corner to corner and down the middle. Place the 20mm washers in a pleasing arrangement, leaving enough space between them to be cut. Mark the centre of the washers with a pen. This will be the same size as the drill bit (for the hole saws I’m using) You will also need to mark where you want to place your flag.

• Next, drill the holes using your hole saw. I clamp the base down to my bench and then drill the holes. I don’t go right through in one go. I drill about halfway down and then flip the base and finish from the other side. I’ve found that this helps to cut down on splintering or cracking the wood.

• Give the inside of the holes a quick sand to smooth off any rough edges and then glue to a solid base. Use hand clamps at each end to secure them solidly.

• After about half and hour you can take the clamps off and tidy up any excess glue with a stanly knife or matchstick (for in the holes). Use a small drill bit and drill a hole for the flag right through both pieces of wood. Then you can decorate the base however you like. I chose to glue ballast down, undercoat black and then paint and flock, but you can do this however you like.

TESTING THE SIZE OF THE BASE AGAINST THE SIZE OF THE HEXES

I printed off a test hex the size of a Hexon II hex shape and placed the bases over it to gauge how effective it would look. I’m quite happy with it to be honest.

Since being happy with the sizing, I have enquired with Kallistra the cost to order 1 box of Light Brown Hexon II boards and a number of individual hexes. To make up a basic Battlelore board, you need the following:

• 1 box of Hexon II boards (21 boards of which you need 18)
• 5 Individual Hexes

Then of course you need hexes for woods, hills etc… but they can be made easily other ways.

WHAT MINIS FOR THE HUMANS?

The human miniatures are going to be actually more difficult to replace than I first thought. I need 15mm minis for the following:

• Mounted Knights with Sword
• Mounted Swordsmen
• Foot Knights with sword
• Swordsmen on Foot
• Light Infantry on Foot w/swords
• Archers
• Mounted Knights with lance
• Arbalestiers (maybe crossbowmen will be alright for these)
• Spearmen
• Halberdiers
• Hornblowers

If I can’t find some of these (like the hornblowers for example) I can simply cut the existing Battlelore mini off its base and rebase it like so:

This is of course a last resort as I do want to replace them with metal minis, but it will do until I find suitable replacements.

So there you have it, tune in for more progress over the next couple of days. 🙂

– Ben.