Unlucky Mr Longshanks

Iron Hills Dwarves hold out against the odds.

The large black Warg gives orders which are immediately turned into howls to instruct the swirling packs. This Reaper Bones figure makes a great commander for the wolf armies. Although he takes second place to the white Warg I painted a year or so ago, She is top dog! 

A thin line of Dwarves take the brunt of the wolf charge, any Loopus that manages to push through the shield wall is dispatched by the mattocks of the rear rank.

Fighting together as a single body is the only way to defeat this sea of treacherous, cunning devils. Any sheep that stray too far from the flock are quickly brought down and torn to pieces.

Basing Wargs and Wolves

Zulu formations at Isandlwana

I've created this rough diagram showing shield colours and patterns of the Zulu regiments at Isandlwana. I have gathered these from the internet. These will provide me with a rough guide to the units and where they were on the field. This might be of use to someone collecting a Zulu army and wondering about shield colours and patterns.

Basically the young unmarried, fast regiments were on the horns with the darker shields. The veteran married units formed the chest and loins, they tended to have lighter shields with more white on them to show their status.

inGobamakhosi Regiment

 Back on the old Zulus again! These Perry figures are addictive to make and a real joy to paint.

Basing them on strips of cereal packets makes it really easy to paint these guys on mass. The thin card can be bent very easily so you can get the paint in around the figure. When finished they will be moved to 25mm single and 40mm bases ( two to a base to help with movement).

A good tip with these plastic figures is to drill a hole in the shield with a pin drill to add a some Victorian drama.

Also on these dark shields, run a light hide brown colour along the edge of the shield, it really sets the shield off and looks great.

Iron Hills Dwarves form Shield Wall

Finally got around to finishing another base of shield wall. Most of the Dwarves in the front rank are cut down Oathmark plastics with a few older brands sprinkled in the mix. Asgard mostly but there is an old Grenadier figure in there too.

I will add a few arrows into the shields of the new guys to add to the look of the Shield wall.

Iron Hills Dwarves in Shield Wall

To give the impression of a packed shield wall I have added another figure to the base bringing the total up to seven. This is just for the look of the thing and doesn't reflect on the quality of the Dwarf fighters.

Heavy VTOLS

I'm not quite sure what I will actually make these guys, at the moment I see them as Heavy VTOLS carrying two squads of infantry. The smaller craft are either going to be smaller one man squad VTOLS or some kind of fighter/ attack craft.

The Soriog craft are patterned like the dreaded Apocs from their home world, a touch they hope will strike fear into their enemies.

The Soriogs have a landing force at last, The outer colonies had better watch out.

Mechs and VTOLS 15mm

The two tone urban camo seems to have worked okey. I wanted these guys to have a urban vibe amd be quite muted.

Christmas comes early with each unwrapping, It's always an exciting period when you peel back the latex to see the new patterns beneath.

Trying out different masking fluids. VTOLS 15mm.

These two large Alien VTOLS have sat in my cupboard for months if not years, time to finish them off. I tried out the Humbrol masking fluid as I had worried that the Windsor and Newton was getting a little watery on my last use of it. Both fluids worked well and the there was no real difference in the end result.

Heavy Gears will be used as light mechs for the Federal Army. I have found that just doing two colours works best for 15mm with the results being more striking. I could have gone for more of a contrast in colours but decided to keep them quite similar greys in a kind of urban camouflage.

I have had these figures in a bag for almost twenty years and as a result I had lost one of the arms on the 'kodiak'. However, a quite route through my bits box turned up a good replacement that seems to work nicely.

The Middle Earth Bug.

The lead Rot Cure!

 Well over Christmas I pulled out my trusty old toothbrush and set to work trying to fix my lead rot problem.
 I first brushed all of the affected figures down, I did this over a sink so I could see just what was coming off them, turned out quite a lot. Poor old Mengal Manhide gets a good scrubbing to remove the 'rusting' lead.

 The moment of truth, After mixing a small pot of mineral oil and pure turpentine (50/50 mix) I dipped the figure into it. I only made a small pot as a kind of tester. It turns out it's all I needed to do the whole lot.

 The dipped figure went a nice deep tone and already looked a lot better. Once wiped over it looked even more healthy.

 The dipped figures were then placed into a cardboard hospital to dry.

 Old night elf before.

 Old night elf after.

 It was interesting to note the difference between the before and after of the process, the mini's did look better after a dip.

 I even gave the very worst affected a dip and I have to say he is probably savable now. After a good paint job he will be able to limp back onto a battlefield.

 Everyone relaxing in the hospital after the op. Some will be scared for life and others are less noticeable.

Here is a close up of the medical team.

 So far so good, the figures look much better for their dip and as far as I can see the rot has been stopped. I will keep an eye on the figures in the future just in case, but I am quite confident the problem has been sorted. If anything happens I will update you.

 She elf takes the plunge.

 Another look at the worst affected figure and his result after dipping.