Old Dog Learns New (Terrain) Tricks - A Minor Detour

Remember when I said I'd be getting more of those excellent textured rollers from Green Stuff World?

They got here last week! Yay! Together with the round cutters I ordered earlier, I have sorted my pre-industrial urban figure basing needs.

Naturally, I couldn't resist a road test at the earliest opportunity, so I rolled out some DAS and gave them a shot. I can definitely say they do what it says on the tin.

That's a Warbases 40mm MDF base at the left, and the results of the test are to the right. Clockwise from the top left, Cobblestone, Small Cobblestone, the Brick roller (as used on my ruined tower piece from the last post), and Flagstone. No buyer's remorse here!

Of course, that now means that I have to get back to work on my Frostgrave warband, which had kind of stalled at the 'wizards plus two other guys' stage when last we looked...

So six more figures and I'll have a functioning warband. Only taken nearly four years...

What's up next then? Stay tuned!

Ev

Ev's Challenge - The Final Chapter

So the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has come to an end for another year. And what a ride it's been! I've minioned for the first time (big shout-out to the Wednesday Warriors!), and I've produced a varied assembly of fantasy figures.

So what have I learned?

• Preparation, above all. While I could get away with doing things on the fly in previous years, work commitments plus the weekly minioning meant that I really should have gone in with a proper plan. I'm severely ADHD and a worrier by nature, so lack of preparation really is the enemy.

• Try and vary the subject matter. I have so many historical, 40K and horror figs still in the lead mountain, yet this time round it was almost all fantasy, and I think this got me in a bit of a rut. 

• Realistic targets. After last year, when I actually cracked 500 points, I thought I could do the same again. Not so, topped out at 479, worse luck! Time and resources are limited, and I have to take this into account next time.

Anyway, enough of the self-reproach, here's the last of my submissions for Challenge IX!

 An Oldhammer-ish Witch Hunter, a figure from the old Warhammer Quest boardgame. I have a lot of affection for these old sculpts.

A command section for a unit of Sun Dome Templars, the elite pikemen of RuneQuest's cult of Yelmalio. Aventine Miniatures Tarentine Phalanx, repurposed for Glorantha.

A terrain entry, a ruined Gloranthan temple to the River God Zola Fel. Despite its desolate and desert appearance, it was entered in the 'Water Feature' bonus round on the basis of its frescoes.

The remainder of the Sun Dome unit. I do like how they turned out!

A Reaper Bones Griffin - Reaper has given price-conscious gamers a cheap and easy way to get big flashy monsters onto the tabletop, and I am very happy with this big guy.

Here's the last of my Dwarven Blood Bowl team, the Durinhold Tectonics. Finally, they can compete in the big leagues! 1990s sculpts from Citadel's Gary Morley, loads of character.

Reaper Bones Brain-In-A-Jar™, aka Mr Akeley. This one, and the Mi-Go, were the only non-fantasy entries in my Challenge. Really have to mix things up a bit more next time...

Following up from the unfortunate Mr Akeley, my Curtgeld submission, Gazzzz, the Fungi From Gorgoroth. A cosplaying cosmic horror mashup from the pages of Lovecraft and Tolkien. In keeping with the Challenge's theme, 'Fellowship', he's a Tolkien villain as well as a constant trial to his long-suffering co-worker Bazzzz. Reaper Bones again, with some GW Black Orc and Gripping Beast add-ons!

And that's it from me for this year's Challenge. Will I still be painting and modelling outside Challenge times? I only produced one figure between Challenges VIII and IX; I think I should try and increase my output a bit and see if I can maintain some momentum. It's just wasteful having so many unpainted figs lying around!

So stay tuned...

Ev

Fantasy Skirmish Warband

I know right? Rumours of my demise and all that but hey, I've actually gone and posted something!

Despite the near deafening silence hereabouts things have been happening. Admittedly mostly spending money and going places but some work has been going on as is evidenced by the following.

These chaps are my new fantasy skirmish warband, good for Frostgrave, Mordheim or whatever. Mostly GW plastic orcs, upgraded with some Mordheim, Savage Orc, Space Ork and Empire bits.

The night goblin shaman is a metal fig, undergoing his apprenticeship in all things tribal magic from his larger (and substantially thicker) mentor.

Now if only Ev will finish his warband we could get some games in :-)

Hopefully things will pick up around here now. I've got some very nearly finished Epic Imperial Guard Sentinels on the painting desk so they should appear on the weekend.

Cheers,
Millsy

Paint Table Saturday

Things are progressing well on the Savage Orc army project as I push towards "completion".
The quotes are because I never truly "complete" anything and often sneak a new unit in months or even years after things are supposedly done and dusted.

All that aside, the last week have seen more complete a unit of two Goblin Bolt Throwers and make serious progress on the following Savage Goblin Spida Herdas...

These have further progressed since the photo was taken and the spiders themselves are now close to complete. I'd likely have been finished them altogether but for a lack of suitable glue to affixing the smaller spiders to bases.

Lurking to one side are the beginnings of another project in the form of the first unit for my Gloranthan Lunar force - the Silver Shields (sans shields at this point ironically) and the second half or my Mordheim Orcs and Gobbos warband I taked about recently.

Lastly here's a quick pick of what happens when you have a new kitten in the house. Olivia Jigger is very much a "participant" in the hobby scene and likes to "help" me out. This often leads to the cry of "Shields Up Number One!" and the following becomes necessary...

Here's my baby girl helping her mum out. She's a gorgeous little monster. Light boxes are warm and show her in her best light or so she believes!

Til next time!

Cheers,
Millsy

Patience Table Saturday

I'm a speed painter as anyone who follows Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will know.
I may even be a reasonably competent one based on people's feedback on my work. I like the fact I can paint quickly at a decent level. It gets me loads of stuff on the table in short order and I don't wince when I look at things I painted six months ago. Mostly...

The downside of that is that I race through projects with little time spent on really trying to paint to the best of my ability or push my limits. That is until the last few years where I've occasionally forced myself to sloooooowww doooowwwwwnnn and see what I'm really capable of. Recently I've been spending more time on character style painting, focusing on detail, blending and trying to put personality into miniatures one at a time.

It's hard! As an artist I'm not much chop, lacking a genuine creative side and despite understanding colour theory seemingly being unable to put it into practice deliberately. I also get frustrated at the amount of time "wasted" switching between and pondering on colours, thinking what to work on next and endlessly washing my brush out.

Anyway, sometimes it works and sometime it doesn't. This week I think it has worked which I'm rather chuffed about. I've started a new project which will only ever require something like 20 miniatures total - a Mordheim Orc Warband. I'll probably finish it in June if the postman is kind to me. The miniatures I'm using are all plain old unit-level plastics from current or recent Games Workshop fantasy ranges (with a few extra bits thrown in for variety). The point being it's meant to be an exercise in technique and not modelling, army building or anything else that typically distracts me.

This morning I completed the first seven miniatures - a Chieftan, two Big 'Uns and four Henchmen.
I spent a LOT of time on their faces, on blending skin tones and I purposely avoided the obligatory "greenskin" bright green skin (which I admittedly love). I also limited my palette to a fairly drab set of greys, greens and browns with the odd highlight colour to try and evoke the setting. The metallics are shaded heavily to look polished through use as opposed to care. These are hardened fighters who get things done, usually by killing and then eating them.

Frustratingly, the camera is really giving me the living you-know-whats today making all the detail and depth I can see with my naked (snigger) eye more or less disappear. Despite my best efforts I simply cannot get a shot I'm happy with. Grrrr! Anyway, for what its worth, here are a few sample shots...

PS. Welcome to The Miniatures Man, Dartfrog and David who have joined us over the last couple of weeks...

Cheers,
Millsy

Dark Age Skirmish - Norse Raid

We kicked off our Dark Age Skirmish project last night. We're using Mordheim rules with custom warbands and scenarios (written by me with some assistance from the lads). The buildings are scratch built, the longship is a plastic kit (and a somewhat a-historical one at that) and the miniatures are a mixture of manufacturers including Gripping Beast, Foundry and Black Tree Design.

The first scenario is a Norse Raid on an Anglo-Saxon settlement. A "warband" of villagers attempts to hold up two warbands of Norse Raiders until the local Anglo-Saxon noble can arrive with his Fyrd warband. You can download the scenario here if you're interested.

 

 

 

The Norse came ashore on turn one and two. The alarm raised by the local shepherd boy was a while coming, meaning the Fyrd would not arrive until turn five. Was he asleep at his post? The shepherd boy was also slow to run and was eventually shot in the back, then caught and killed halfway back to the village. He'll never make that mistake again!

 

The Norse advanced relentlessly on the village in two groups whilst the villagers hastily brought in their sheep and formed a defence of sorts. How long could they hold out against such a well armed and ruthless foe?

Strung out in a line across the open fields before the village the defenders faced off against the Norse. Poorly armed and trained they were slowly isolated and killed in twos and threes. The Norse suffered hardly any losses.

As the battle progressed the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd arrived and began to make a difference. The villagers were killed to a man but the Norse were now suffering casualties at a much faster rate. Norse attempts to abduct women and steal cattle were thwarted by the need to continually reinforce the melee against the Fyrd. Eventually both Jarls were killed, one Norse warband fled and the other withdrew in disarray having failed in their raid.

On reflection we may have to make the villagers slightly cheaper or slightly stronger. They were almost no threat to the Norse and unbalanced the game to an extent.

Cheers,
Millsy