Man, I need to be better about posting!  Real life can really get in the way of the hobby.  Anyways, I'm planning to posting a little more to help keep my motivation going and make me stick to my tasks and not get sidetracked by the next shinny thing. I was finally able to take some pictures of what I've been up too this last year, and it's a whole new project... Normans in Italy. 

I've always loved the early Medieval/late Dark Age period.  Mounted knights in chainmail, kite shields, big charges across a field.  One day I was reading about the Norman invasion of England and saw an article about the other Norman invasion, the invasion of Southern Italy.  After reading a few more books about it, I quickly realized that this has everything I like about the period!  I quickly started to research figure manufacturers and what rules to game with.  This is where the algorithm on YouTube came in.  One night I was was watching terrain making videos and saw a video from the "7th Son" channel.  He was just starting to game the 1st Crusade with Black Powder, the very rules I was thinking of using.  Going back and watching all his videos, and I do mean all, I was pumped to get started.  Now I just needed to gather the troops. 

I was planning on having Normans, of course, their sometimes allies/foes the Lombards, their mostly foes, the Byzantines, and their sometimes allies/foes the Muslims of Sicily.  This is why I love this time period.  All four groups either fought for or against each other so I can make smaller armies and combine one or two to make larger battles if needed.  As I was still unsure on the unit sizes and basing, I didn't want to start with the Normans so I decided to start with the Lombards, Norman lite. 

As I wanted them to look a little different from the Victrix Normans I decided to go with Conquest Games.  These were easy to put together and paint.  I also wanted to add some Swabian troops and some other HRE troops that hypothetically could have assisted the Lombard cause.  I also wanted to try something new to me, Contrast/Speed paints. 

Anyways, enough talk, more pics!  

First up are some Conquest Games Normans based as infantry armed with spears

Next are some Conquest Games Medieval archers

Finally, Conquest Games Norman Knights as heavy cavalry

Well, that's all for now.  I have some more pictures coming soon.  Please let me know what you think!