Tag Archives: Forced March

Forced March Update 2 (and Honeyacre Militia)

We’re in the thick of it now, folks! Forced March continues with some lovely submissions from seemingly everyone but me, but rest assured I am working on my first infantry unit and should have it posted soon. For now, a quick recap of the participants and their submissions thus far. As always, please let me know if I’ve missed anyone!

  • Simon, from Fantorical, is working on a unit of Uruk-Hai crossbowmen (crossboworcs?)
  • Dave, from Wargames Terrain Workshop has been busy indeed, with a squad of Star Wars Imperial Scout Troopers, some old-school metal Space Marine Scouts, a squadron of Space Marine Speeders, and some Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers, to boot! Dave always brings his A game to every challenge and this one is no exception!
  • Roger, from Rantings From Under the Wargames Table, has completed a unit of Forge Fathers (Mantic Squats). I love those miniatures!
  • Azazel, from Azazel’s Bitz Box
  • Tom, from Good Ground, painted a squad of Iron Warriors Space Marines

And on Instagram:

  • James, @spoontasticminis is working on some Emperor’s Children Space Marines
  • Sabrina, @Uthwulfsminis is working on a squad of Space Marines, too, and best of all, they’re MK VI Beakies!!!! (As they SHOULD BE!!)
  • A newcomer this year, whose name I do not know, @horridperson
  • And finally, @groddsnods

Be sure to check out these very creative folks and their impressive efforts!

I’ve been late with my submissions because I’ve been bogged down in a project since December that was originally supposed to be completed by the end of the year. I knew if I paused mid-way to work on Forced March, I would likely never return to it, so I made myself finish before doing anything else. I present The Honeyacre Militia!

These are Halflings from Wargames Atlantic. They do NOT count for Forced March, because I started them in December. Particularly attentive visitors to this site may recognize five of these fellows from a couple of years ago, when I painted up a sprue that came free with my copy of Miniature Wargames magazine. I always liked the way they looked, they paint up nicely, and so I bought a box of them last year, figuring I’d throw them together and use them in my never-to-be-completed-or-played Empire army. Instead, I made a militia based on a settlement of Halflings in my current AD&D campaign.

It is a failure of my character that I often do things against my best interests, knowing myself as I do. For example, I have posted that I have no patience for plastic, and yet I bought and assembled 40 plastic halflings on a whim that soon became a millstone around my neck. (Yes, I still have 20 more of these motherfuckers to paint. Not happening soon.) My lack of patience has not changed, but I still really like the look of these models when assembled and painted, so hopefully this will be worth it in the end.

You can arm your halflings with spears/halberds, slings or bows, and there are individual bits available for character models. The spears are long and look great, but they’re also quite fragile with a tendency to break, which is a bummer. Between the militia and the other, unpainted unit of halflings I used up all my spears, only to have 2 of them break about halfway down the shaft, so I guess now I have two (unpainted) halflings armed with quarterstaffs.

These halflings armed with slings are pretty cool. They made me realize I have very few miniatures armed with slings.

I used the bows the least, although I like the look of the archers very much. The hero with the horn was painted a few years ago, part of the original five (the other four were spearmen).

I guess the spears are long enough to double as standards if you wanted to add a banner, but it would have been nice to have a dedicated banner pole in the box. There is a little bit that looks like a chicken that may be intended to replace the spear tip for this purpose, but I didn’t use it.

I gave my hero an old GW shield, because the shields that come on the sprue are laughably tiny.

Honeyacre is known for its mead, hence the shield device. Painting a bee freehand on a shield the size of a dime is a skill I no longer possess, if ever I had it.

A closeup of the heroes.

Like I said, these don’t count towards my challenge this month, but now that I’m free of these halflings at last, I’m available to start on my first infantry unit for Forced March: some miniatures that harken back to the earliest days of Dead Dick’s Tavern!

Forced March: First Update

Nothing from me yet, although work continues apace on that long-delayed project from December. I have primed, based and readied two small units for eventual painting this month. Meanwhile, have a look at some of the other participants, because stuff is already rolling in! Drop by their sites and lend some support and encouragement!

These are all the participants thus far, along with any Forced March submissions I am aware of. If I missed anything (or anyone), let me know!

Meanwhile, over on Instagram:

  • James, @spoontasticminis
  • possibly Sabrina, @Uthwulfsminis
  • A newcomer this year, whose name I do not know, but who has thus far not lived up to their namesake, @horridperson
  • And a latecomer to the challenge (it’s never too late), @groddsnods, who I just bet will be joining us for Forgotten Heroes in June, too!

Whatever these folks do, whether for Forced March or not, is worth a look. You won’t find a more supportive and inspiring group of hobbyists out there. Check them out.

Forced March begins in two days!

This week began with a blizzard here in Massachusetts that dumped a ridiculous amount of snow on us in roughly 24 hours. Although we knew it was coming, the actual snowfall far exceeded projections. We are a state that doesn’t tremble at the thought of snow. It’s hardly our first (or even our hundredth) rodeo.

Still, this was a cast-iron bitch of a storm, and although it ended on Monday evening, it will take weeks to clean up. My town got close to 40″ of snow, but the drifts in my yard were well above five feet. It took me a full day to snow blow and shovel my driveway and property, and at 53 years of age, let me tell you it sure sucked. There’s no parking anywhere in the city where I work (it got more snow than I did), so I stayed home most of the week. So did everyone else.

You would think that would give me plenty of time to focus on my hobbies, but not really. I was so exhausted and sore that I just wanted to sit there and not move. After gripping a snowblower all day, it’s not like I could hold a paintbrush steady, either.

But that’s over, and March approaches. Time to get the units ready for painting. “Forced March” is upon us!

Here is a list of all those who have confirmed they are participating in my new challenge, which, as a reminder, is to paint a unit of infantry or cavalry in the month of March. Any scale, any genre…but I define a unit as “more than one model belonging to a group designed to deploy and function together in combat.” While technically units can be a single model (such as a vehicle, artillery piece or a monster), I’m hoping for at least three models.

But of course, there aren’t any miniature painting police here, so do what you want.

Anyway, the participants thus far are:

And from Intstagram:

If I missed anyone, or if anyone else wants to take part, you need only let me know in the comments below, or drop me an an email at angrypiper@angrypiper.com, or PM me on Instagram @angrypiper. I will add your name and website/IG account (if applicable) to the blogroll forthwith! If you don’t have either of those and still want to take part, no problem! I’ll host your images here on this very site.

Let’s get priming (if you haven’t done so already)!