Page War!

Texan Sherman IV’s come under static fire from Federal heavy artillery. A Sherman 10 prepares its mega cannon in response. Texan infantrymen run for cover but take heavy loses due to the open terrain.

 Federal troops move up but are slowed by scramble wire and purple gas canisters.

 Armoured Hood walkers lurch into action, they too find it hard going through the incoming kettle gun fire. A MK4 Razorback is hit in the leg and taken out. The 23rd armoured Jackson division is stopped in its tracks and starts to withdraw.

 As the Texans retreat more Federal troops advance to secure the victory. A heavy Tomtom cannon breaks the last of the Texan resistance.

More Dwarves join the throng

A couple more bases of shield wall hastily form up and take their stand against the growing storm. Again these figures are a mix of old lead and new Oathmark plastics. A small gap has been made in the wall and a small party prepare to launch a foray against the enemy.

The picture above was treated with the vivid option in the I phone to give it a bit more pep.

Dain Ironfoot arrives to lead his army

 Dain is finally here to command his troops! It was quite a challenge to find a good Dain figure, I had a good one lined up but lost him in the long years of waiting. I’m sure I will find him again probably in one of the many jars of Dettol paint strippers I have going on.

The Reaper figure came with a massive axe in his hand which was quite GW in its proportions, so I replaced it with one from Hassle free miniatures. Although the new axe was still quite large it looks a lot better and is of a finer design. Dain’s red axe is part of his legend so it was worth getting it right.

This figure is wearing plate armour on his legs which isn’t really my view of Tolkien’s works but I’m prepared to let it slip as the Reaper figure has such a grim character. It also adds to his name... Ironfoot.
The large ornate shields are from Scribor and I found them by typing in ‘Dwarf shields’ to EBay.

Most of the figures used are from the Oathmark Dwarf heavy infantry box, these are great and can mix well with the other box. Being heavyweights they make for great guards or Huscarls. I have used them here as a kind of elite bodyguard for Dain made from tough veterans. The flag holder is an old Grenadier dwarf sculpted but Nick Lung. I have also used some green stuff to add fur cloaks and repair feet that got damaged in the cut down. These heavy dwarves do not cut down as well as the other box of Oathmark dwarves and a bit of green stuff is needed to make everything right.

Another day...another Warg.

Recently I discovered Reaper make another Warg like figure. Well not being one to miss out on anything I decided I had to have it. It’s listed as a Winter wolf but is in fact larger than their Dire wolf   figures. He makes for another great leader in the wolf/warg army. His two guards are actually from Alternative Armies and come from thier goblin wolf riders. He has just killed as he is covered in gore.
That is everything now for these vile Loopus, I can now start basing. I needed one more base to make everything even and with this done, I can now get flocking.

The New Fleet Earns Its Strips

The Invading Soriog finally meet some resistance. These models painted up for 15mm drop ships do make great capital ships too.

Finished Ships

Full Thrust Fleet

Many years ago I down loaded the Full Thrust rules after watching Robin Fitton of Gruntz 15mm fame paint some ships on YouTube.
 Well, three years has pasted and I've dug them out again to have a read. I like these rules quite a bit as I have a huge interest in giant space fleet battles that goes back to my childhood. These models are from Zandris IV miniatures. I first looked at these years ago but last week I made the jump to light speed and bought a few.

The larger one is a resin model and is some sort of attack carrier, the other two are a Assualt crusier and a Beam cruiser.
 Z4 do a bigger resin piece which is a Dreadnought and this is on my wish list. Being a Dreadnought though, it is super tough in the Full Thrust rules and will take a lot of damage before it goes down. I think most FT fleets are made up of around 8-12 models so you have to be quite choosy when selecting models to buy, I still like the idea having a fleet of smaller frigates and destroyers based around a couple of larger cruisers and battleships. So maybe a massive Dreadnought would be too much...Still the painter in me will probably overrule that and buy it anyway.

Colour wise, these ships are painted with Foundry's Confederate grey with a darker grey for the armour. I weathered the ships by painting on tiny panels and chipped them with a sponge. Very enjoyable to paint and very quick too. Painting a fleet of these small ships will only take a few nights work, great stuff!

Tabletop study

Here is a snap shot of my desk today.  Many projects started but very few finished. I mean to do more on them all but it's finding the time. The fantasy stuff is still my main stay and my Dwarf army is still growing. I sometimes miss the 90's where I had just the American Civil war to paint.

AWI hide in the wings.

The Anglo-Zulu war is holding out in the Donga.

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.