My first miniature!

Well maybe not my first miniatures. That honour I think, goes to some old Der Kriegspieler "Orcs of the Misty Mountains" figures that I no longer possess.

But here are some of the oldest miniatures in my collection.

The fellow on the left is an old Citadel FRPG character figure. He's my first medieval miniature. I bought him when my wife was getting me a 25mm late Medieval army for Christmas.


He's painted in enamels. I used the (very) dirty thinner as a wash! No one had heard of inks back then.

But he's got loads of character. I use him as a captain for halberdiers or other rough, ignoble heavy infantry types.

Next is a bunch of dismounted Men-at-arms with assorted polearms. They're mostly old Citadel and Naismith figures but I think I see a RAFM and a Minifigs in there, back rank on the left. Notice the old balsa wood bases which I've since replaced. Again painted in enamels.

This company of Naismith Italian Wars pike gets a lot of action. They've also been rebased onto 40x40mm squares. Pikemen on individual bases with 15mm frontages just don't make any sense!

These units were part of my first lead army. Back when we were starting out, the wife wanted me to have a proper lead army to replace my Airfix plastic Napoleonics. But which period? I was smitten by a Wars of the Roses army using Citadel figures on the cover of Wargames Illustrated, so I settled on the late medieval/Wars of the Roses period. We heard that a history professor at the university was selling some extra figures so I went over to his office to select a nice little starter army of 80 odd figures. After I got them home the wife made me wait until Christmas before I could open them. So I packed my paints when we went up to the in-laws for Christmas and started painting them Christmas day!

They've seen a lot of service in the last 25 years though. My painting has gotten a lot better and some are a bit worse for wear, but I still use them all when my collection takes the table as either a Burgundian or English WotR army.

When I get their new bases flocked I'll try and get another picture for you. Perhaps during a playtest game for the new version of Blood & Chivalry I'm pecking away at.