Fun with Goblins

I thought I would have a little fun today as I'm struck down with a bad cold. What better way to cheer yourself up then get mucky with Goblins...

 An early Gnoll figure

These are very old sculpts again from the early 80's and like the early Dwarves, have loads of character. I am going to base them ready to play Hordes of the Things, so with a 60mm wide front. To get more on this 'Horde' base I'm going to make it deeper than usual, at 60mm rather than 40mm. A true horde of unwashed critters to swarm over anyone who stands in their way.

 Basic base colours before a wash of brown ink was added.

 They are painted quickly using just base colours. Mostly WWII German uniform colours for skins tones, then washed with Delvan mud ink wash from GW. Nice and quick and effective.

The red/brown skin tone is musket brown from Foundry.

 To get the true feeling of the base being a horde, I added a few extra tiny Lesser Goblins at the back. It's numbers that count with Goblins.
The figures are old Citadel Greater Goblins/ Gnoll sculptures. I like them a lot and will try to give each Goblin horde it's own identity. This group has one side of its face covered in  white warpaint.

German uniform grey and greens made really good skins colours for these chaps.

Dwarf Adventure party WIP

 Right well then, here they are, a party of greedy Dwarves. As with all adventure parties...when word got out of riches to be made, the number of the party seemed to double. I had planned on around four with one fully loaded pony, but this later grew to seven (funny enough) and an extra donkey for good measure.

Even though the armoured Halfling was painted and varnished and ready to go, he had to be left behind due to space restrictions. In other words...they left without him!

 I had great fun planning and putting together this base. I tried to tick off all the boxes that would make a good adventure party, so we have a cook, a thief and an old adventurer who has seen better days. He looks like he moans a lot but every party needs one of those. A bit of hired muscle and some brainy types.

 Out in the day light at last. A very rare female Dwarf armed with a meat cleaver and various food stuffs.

 Here is a side view showing the lightly armed thief with his swag bag and dagger, the fact he is next to the pack pony and the loot, has not been lost on the rest of the party. Keep an eye on that one.

 I liked the fact that the pack pony had a crossbow in it's bundles, very dwarven I thought.

 As you may have noticed all of the figures are ancient citadel sculpts, these two in particular are very old. I recognise the fella with the poleaxe from the Dwarf King's Court box set. Although this one has been resculpted with a pack on his back. He is the old worrier and fits in nicely with the character of the base.

 A throng of Dwarves, the party is lost in the rabble.
 To paint them I used Foundry Flesh A and B only to shade their skin. I practiced leaving black undercoat when I painted them and was pleased with the effect. The eyes took a little time compared to what I'm used too. After I had laid down the base colours I gave them a wash of GW brown Ink and then highlighted with the base colour again. Nice and quick and simple. Leaving the black undercoat was something I have been planning to do for ages and finally got a chance to try it with these Dwarves. I think it's very effective from a distance and put a lot of fun back into the painting process for me. I also had great fun painting the faces and leaving crease lines around the eyes to age to the characters.

 I thought I had better give the party some beef, so at the last minute recruited the guy with the axe to take point on the base. Anyone attempting to cut their way to the swag will have to come under his swift axe strokes first.

Then there's the brains of the outfit, The two experienced and wise looking gents discussing which way to take next. Some of these old eighties figures are just overflowing with character and it's great to dust them off and use them after all these years.

 They're off through mountains cold to dungeons old, with more than a little back up it would seem. The adventure party has been mounted on a 60mmx60mm base to give me a bit more room to play with. In HotT it's just the frontage you have to worry about which is 60mm. I'm not quite sure what game I'll end up playing with these mini's but as long as the frontage is the same I don't really think it will matter too much.

Next up I need to base the last two bases painted, the boring bit I always think and so leave it until I have a few to do...yawn.

HotT Dwarf bases

 An old adventurer takes his place in the shield wall to protect his lands. I based this old guy on Balin and gave him a white beard and a red hood. Come to think of it, the guy next to him with the big axe would make a great Dwalin!

 Two companies of Dwarfs based on 60x40 bases. These are bigger than recommended in the rules and have double the allotted figures, but I like my armies to be big and look like armies. An army of 30 figures was never going to sit well with me. However, It will take me longer to field an army now though.

 I could always speed up the painting process by missing out the eyes etc but these old rare figures deserve a little time spent on them I think.

These are great old sculptures from the earlier 80's and although they have loads of character, I replaced their basic shields with new fancy ones of the Internet.

Back on the Fantasy Trail

 Well it's been a while again since I've picked up the brush and found time to do any serious painting, so I've had to come up with a painting plan.

 My new plan is to have fun and enjoy painting again by not giving myself too much to do. I scaled back from huge regiments of 40+ figures to just six at a time. This allows me to enjoy it and stop it becoming too much like hard work. I have cleared the table of Union troops and cleared the mind.
At the minute I'm working on six more Dwarves for my HotT army, they are old figures so deserve a little more time and effort in my eyes.

I found myself coming back to HotT as I loved the idea of the bases and the chance for lots of little dioramas. My fall back plan if I really can't get on with the rules is to use the figures for other games, using a D6 to mark the causalities behind the base. They will still have a frontage on 20mm so nothing really has changed, they will just be in blocks and look nicer. I quite like the idea of each six man base being a company of Dwarves for the story telling sake.

I have to say painting up fantasy figures does give you a great chance to be creative and use your imagination which I love. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in to all my old Goblin and Orc figures and turning them into horde bases of 8+ figures. The rules warn that creating hordes can get addictive and I can already see why.

Blew Coat

I'm glad my helmet doesn't cover my massive white sideburns...

I've just found out today that If I want to publish any more photos on Blogger, I will have to pay about £3 a month. Oh well I suppose I have been Blogging for years now and while cartoons are nice it wouldn't really be a war gaming Blog without photos. Not really sure what to do at the mo.

Blew On Blew

This was my first taste of battle, the re-enactment of Newstead Abbey 2012.

 My world shrank to a couple of feet radius as I just listened out for orders and followed those around me. It was great fun and very exciting. The highlights for me were the murmurs that went through the ranks as we took up position opposite the enemy, some of which were old rivals. On the day we fought against another Blew coated Regiment, I'm not sure but I think they must have been the Blew trayned band of London.

When the pike blocks broke apart there was some confusion about who was on whose side as we ran back to our positions. I couldn't help but think of the reality of the moment and what it must have been like back then with both sides uniformed in the same colours. A problem that had echoed in civil wars before and since this one.

The picture says it all really, hard work but great fun.

Prince Rupert, England's Wolfe With Eagle Claws

Puritan propaganda at its finest. A bloody handed Cavalier is portrayed as a wolf with Eagles claws. Firing up the Parliamentarian war machine against the unholy murdering royalist monsters.

"The cruell impieties of blood-thirsty royalists and blasphemous anti-parliamentarians under the command of that inhumane Prince Rupert, Digby and the rest, wherein the barbarous crueltie of our civill uncivill warres is briefy discovered"

Fake Wood cut

The regiment passes hands to the new commander.

I thought it would be nice to illustrate this moment and to make it look 16th century by faking a wood cut look. I found it really fun to do and quite refreshing. I will do more!

Parliamentarian troops

Here is a shot of Parliamentarian troops marching off the field at Newstead Abbey this year. It was a very wet day that Sunday but It was my first taste of battle and I loved it. I was fighting against these guys and will add some more pictures soon.

Picture: Zoe Herbert-Jackson

Confederate Horseman

Painting 28mm Union Troops

 Here is another bad photo of my work bench, as you can see the Romans have pulled out to make room for Billy yank. After reading the 'Regimantal' Fire and Fury rules the other month, I was filled with ideas and painting passion once more.
It wasn't long before I was pulling out old draws full of ACW and selecting figures for the brush. Some of them have waited over twenty years for it. Just as well because they would cost me a fortune now with Foundry's prices. Always horde I say!

After tearing my hair out trying to work out a good base size last year for my ACW, I was surprised to see that Regimental F+F uses bases with three to a base, the same as my current ACW armies. This was a great surprise and one I had not enjoyed before. The problem was when I got back into painting figures in 1998, I had no internet, nor did I really know any other War gamers. I didn't even buy the magazines. I just painted away in ignorant bliss (I miss those days). I made up my own basing and painting methods to reach my own standards and was happy.
Things are a lot different now with my use of the Internet with all of it's amazing blogs and ideas etc. My old 1998 dusty collection isn't up to my current standards, I mean there not even shaded! Another big thing for me is when I collected them way back when, I would stick all the same poses on to a base. Now I have had years of looking and learning from others, I want to break up these Clone armies and Regiments and add a little variety. Men advancing in line shouldn't look all the same and I have seen some lovely work on other peoples web sites.

 
So the idea is that these 50 odd multiple poses will be integrated with my existing one pose Regiments to give them more character. It also gives me an opportunity to improve the standard of the painting and basing of the old units.

I didn't mess around with these guys, I just jumped straight in and went for it. I had bought the Foundry ACW paint set months before and now just used the colours to bash out the numbers. I think I have ended up with over 50 figures after continually adding to the pile. To speed things up I just painted one colour for the trousers, either Union trouser A, B or C for variety. Then I gave them a wash of (GW) brown Ink...done, move on to the next one. I did spend a little more time on the blue, only because I wanted to try out the Foundry colours.The highlight was maybe a little light for me but they look good.

They were all undercoated black first and I trained myself to leave some of the black when painting over with the colours. This is a basic technique but one I have never used before. For example, I painted around the belts and equipment leaving them the undercoat colour. This did speed things up and stopped me getting too caught up in lenghy detail.

I also took the chance to try out the Foundry flesh tone A, then highlight with Flesh B. I normally just use Flesh B, then wash with delvan wash (GW). I like the results of using the Flesh shade A and found it just as quick as using ink.

XIV Legion finally arrived

 Here are some pictures of my poor old forgotten Legion, who have been lost on route to their barracks.

 They set out back in Nov last year but have only just arrived back at their summer camp. Where they have been and quite how they have been forgotten for so long, only the Gods know. Anyway they're back and finished that's the main thing.

 I let my self have real fun with this lot and with great effort I took off my perfectionist head and just enjoyed painting basic colours then dipping with AP. They turned out great and I only highlighted a few because they didn't really need much. I think the joy came at seeing how quick they were produced and the results on the armour was good. The shields took a bit more time as they are hand painted and are based on the re-enactment group of the XIV legion.

These figures now complete the Army of Britannia and make three cohorts of 18 Legionaries. Lately I changed my Cohorts from 24 to 18 figures because they looked better and were more manageable on the board. Also I liked the idea of having more units to play with and the formations they can now take.

Painting Again

I'm back! After working like a mad man for several months I have finally got enough time to myself to sit and paint again.

 I have finally flocked my poor old Romans who have sat on the table for months and have just finished a load of Union troops. In my time away I started to read the Fire and Fury Regimental rules and was quite taken with them. Well, it got me painting figures again so they must have had an impact. Anyway more on that later, it's just good to be back painting where I belong. JOY!

Although I have been working like a loon I did find some time to do some more re-enacting and had a great day at Naseby. I died... but it was worth it.

Picture: Zoe herbert-Jackson

Prince Rupert's Blew Coats

Here two Royalist Blew coats discuss their chances in the on going war.

Prince Rupert's Pikemen

Ted's day started off on the wrong foot.

WAB is No More.

Tired and exhausted, the old champion of the ancients finally loses his way and falls to the blades of younger men. The crowd groans with disbelief but everybody knows the old champ has been off his game for years. His demise comes as no real surprise to the old veterans of the games.

 WAB is dead...Let the games begin.

Blew Coats on Campaign

The Last Stand of the Blew coats

Prince Rupert's Blew Regiment of Foot make their doomed last stand on the field of Nasby 1645.