The Grand Old Duke Of Norfolk's Backlog?

   I'm still carrying on with a backlog army in the form of the Yorkist Duke Of Norfolk for the War of the Roses. As I am painting them I am really getting the urge to put them on the table, but as I explained in the last post about this army, this is very much a painting project to just clear some backlog at the moment.

   This post should be the last of the 'basic' army - the last unit of leveried archers, another couple of units of foot knights (one not shown but it has the flags) and a unit of billmen. Looking back at my Lancastrian armies, I used a lot of the fully armoured models as billmen to balance those numbers out, so there is a risk the two units of knights are actually billmen.

   I have since found a pack of metal billmen that I don't remember buying and aren't on my backlog spreadsheet, but they are built and sprayed and will be painted at some point soon.

  I also need at least half a box of the Perry Mounted Knights, but as they are my least favourite models to paint - even if they are fun on the table top - I'll hold off buying them until it looks like I might actually use this army. I must keep the backlog in mind rather than add to it.

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Where Did Our Horses Go?

   After my car crash a few weeks back, I've been stuck in the shoffice* far more with a lot less to do, this has meant I've been able to spend time trying to get on top of my backlog. I decided that the best thing to do was focus on just getting units off the list, without any order of priority or worry about whether I needed them for an upcoming game or not.

*shed/office

   I did end up focussing a bit on my Yorkist War of the Roses army as they were to hand, but I'm also going through whatever units are built and sprayed on the shelves near me. This post is about the ACW Confederate dismounted cavalry - after I finished their mounted versions back in 2023.

   I bought these figures in at least 2023, but I suspect a bit earlier, as we were trying slightly amended rules for cavalry in the American Civil War, with them dismounting to really shoot. I ended up rush painting the mounted versions for a game in 2023 and these were ready to be painted but didn't get close to the top of the queue.

   The horse holders for the unit were also built and sprayed about the same time, but were actually painted a month or so ago when I had a game of ACW lined up and I used it as an opportunity to just try and paint something for the project, but I didn't feel they deserved a post.

   I'm not going to rush to paint more for this project, mostly as I don't have any space in the boxes it would live in, but I do have another cannon with associated limber built and sprayed, I just can't find the cannon crew for some reason.

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Ork Boyz

   Another post slightly out of time as I was trying aiming to get some more painted and get a game in all about the time I started posting this project, but there it is anyway.

   While I was painting my Beast Snagga Orks, I very much had half a plan on doing a small regular Ork army as well. As per normal, starting with the combat patrol for a 'legal' army and working from there, but as it wasn't a priority and as I knew they were being covered by the combat patrol magazine, I kept the project on the back burner.

   Then July and August had the models in the magazine and I bought fairly conservatively, buying slightly more than I needed for the patrol itself but not clearing shelves as I would hope the magazines I left would be bought by kids new into the hobby*. The first unit I built and painted, as is my rule, was a unit of regular troops - the boyz. These were built completely as per the magazine with no funny business and then I got on with painting - all 10 in a single batch in a single sitting, which wasn't the plan going into it.

*Although I know one guy in my area was definitely clearing shelves to sell on ebay as he sometimes beats me to the shop

   I kept to a similar theory as my Beast Snaggas, keep the clothes fairly plain - in this case brown trousers and black tops (as the other Orks didn't have tops to worry about), but as I didn't have the blocks of skins to plan into my colours, I allowed myself far more freedom with brighter colours on the flat armour plates.

   For a first squad, I'm quite pleased with them. They can happily fight in the same army as my other Orks without looking identical. They are covered in dags, checks and flames, all the good stuff Orks love to paint, and because it's Orks, I don't need to do them perfectly, so I can just enjoy trying ideas.

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Atakam the Defiler

   Atakam the Defiler, his origins are obscure, dating back over 10,000 years but it seems he was a sergeant in the World Eaters' legion during the events of the Siege of Terra, quickly rising through the ranks with Khorne's favour in the years afterwards. Ultimately achieving Daemonhood on Chetis 4 during the Imperial invasion.

   The model is a Daemon Prince using the new version of the model. This is a rebuild of an old Daemon Prince I did over a decade ago that I was never really that happy with. The power claw arm is from an old resin Ghazghkull and took a bit of hacking to make fit, but it looks so good in person.

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Late Re-enforcements?

   Nearly a year ago now, I started building and painting a project that I bought in 2020 - my War of the Roses Yorkists. I built two sprues, sprayed and painted one, then lost focus*. With very little gaming going on and my real relaxation focus being on running, I've really slowed down in my painting, but as I'm also not really buying, that doesn't feel like quite the same issue. I've decided to just have a push on getting units and armies out of my backlog without any real care of what they are - if I can paint 7 units from 7 different armies, that's still 7 units off my backlog**.

*I'm really bad at this

**although, I'm going to try and do groups of units if I can

   So, in December last year, I had a mini stress about why the Yorkist side of my WotR project hadn't been finished as mentioned in this post. The second and third batches have been built and sprayed, sitting on a shelf next to my painting desk, being moved out of the way every time I've done anything - so these are a prime candidate to just get painted***.

***if it means the rest of the project gets a bump, that's a happy result

   Like the last batch, these are the Duke of Norfolk's (John Mowbray) infantry with their red liveries. I think I only have a single batch of regular infantry left in this project, plus various foot knights - so many foot knights?!? - but I will aim to get another sprue of from the Perry brothers to do some unliveried archers too in the future. 

Foot Knights

The mixed peasants

This project is starting to feel doable - hopefully the next post won't be late 2026 . . .

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