'The Barons War' and the 'Paint what you got challenge 2025/26'.

Long time gaming friend ‘Mister C’ has persuaded me to enter into the ‘Paint What you Got Challenge 2025-2026 run by Dave Stone of ‘Wargames Terrain Workshop’ fame where you have to paint up some of the many figures, terrain etc… that you already have over a 2 month period. With the main aim being to reduce your lead and plastic mountain it seems a good way to reduce my rather large unpainted mountain of figures.. The challenge starts today Dec 26th and finishes on Feb 28th.  

My local group of gamers have decided upon the ‘Barons War’ rules as a project for 2026. First job was to see what I already had in my collection that could be of use and came up with the following…  

Not sure if these medieval houses are quite right for the period but will use them anyway. 

The chapel is a Norman one so should be fine.  

A few peasant types with their livestock which should prove to be very useful. 

This batch of figures are from Wargames Foundry, a blister pack called 'Eadric the Wild'. Eadric was a Saxon rebel fighting against Norman oppression but these figures seem quite suitable for the Barons War too. The two figures on the right are a Friar Tuck figure that came free with a Wargames Illustrated magazine many years ago and the other priest is a Sub Romano figure from Westwind but to me he seems to fit in? 

Next job was to search through my library to see what suitable reading matter I had. I have just finished reading the Marc Morris book and it is a great read. Marc Morris is one of my favourite historians to read but the McLynn book also looks good. I also have the book on William Marshall but can't seem to find it at the moment.

 Friend Ian and I have marched ahead by already painting up some of the official Barons War figures over the last couple of months and mine are pictured below. 

Peasant levy with spears, hand weapons and bow, all in groups of 6 figures. 

I will tend to work in batches of six figures as this will make the figures useable in a wide range of rulesets. 

Six mounted Serjeants. I really enjoyed painting these figures and the banner was easy to do being a simple design. 

Six dismounted knights plus a couple of 3d printed tables I had in my collection. 

All shields and heraldry are hand painted. I am not too far away from having enough figures for a game but I need some Foot searjants so... 

Heavily prompted by me, my daughters bought me the Barons War Foot Serjeants boxed set of plastic figures for Christmas. You can see by this photo that I have already started to glue some of these wonderful figures together and my main aim for the challenge is to assemble and paint all 24 of these figures within the allotted time and hopefully add an extra terrain piece or two as well. 

The Barons Wars boxed sets of plastic figures are very well sculpted, animated and detailed. They also come with plenty of head and weapon variants so that you do end up with a plentiful supply of spares. This is very useful as most figures within the different boxed sets can interchange and use heads and arms from other sets. 

This is my figure to represent a dismounted John de Lacy owned Clitheroe castle at this time. We are keeping our first retinues local and as Clitheroe castle is only about half an hours drive away he seemed a good choice. He also has nice colourful heraldry which is quite easy to paint. There will be a mounted version of him soon.  

There is also a wonderful looking range of metal figures for the Barons war from Footsore Miniatures. However, when I bought the one in this photo (left side figure) to be the leader of my Retinue (a blister pack of a mounted and foot version of the same figure which is a great idea) he seemed quite small by comparison to the plastic figures?

Note my use of a brown spray undercoat. When painting the shields and surcoats I would first paint them white so that colours like yellow and red come out nice and bright.

So, I now need to assemble all 24 of my Barons wars Foot Serjeants and paint them by Feb 28th. By the time all these are painted I will be ready to play the Barons War rules so the challenge is on.