More Great Goblins/Gnolls.

June 3, 2015, 9:29 am

≫ Next: Allies (and a couple of enemies) of the Great Goblins/Gnolls.

≪ Previous: The individual Great Goblin/Gnoll project.

Just a little update this week. I have been painting a few more of the Great Goblins/Gnolls on the 30mm bases.

I am really enjoying painting them. It has really re-kindled my love of fantasy miniautres, and especially the 'Fantasy Tribes' ranges of miniatures from the early to mid 1980's. I have been enjoying re-visiting not only the Great Goblins/Gnolls, but other parts of the early ranges such as the Dwarves, Trolls, and Giants, many of which were just starting to be phased out when I started collecting/gaming in 1986. I have recently bought a few more Dwarves, but more of that in a later update.

Basing the Great Goblins/Gnolls on 30mm bases has, I feel, given the miniatures more room to be appreciated for their own individual charm and character, as well as allowed me to add more decoration to the bases than I would have normally. Here are the lastest half-dozen Great Goblins/Gnolls. The photographs came out a little less than 100%, I think due to the sun finally coming out in Sussex and providing a lot of glare, and so they look a little more bleached in tone than they really are.
Enjoy :)

Half a dozen Great Goblins/Gnolls.

FTG3 Gnoll/Goblin standing with hand weapon.

I had orginally attempted to paint a grinning Goblin face on the shield as per many old 1980's 'Eavy Metal articles (White Dwarf #101 in this case). However my attempt failed and so I painted on some Dwarven Runes taken from the back of the Lord of the Rings, which spell out 'GOBLIN'.

I am going to attempt to paint face sheilds again, but need to practice first.

Rear view showing flowers and log/fallen branch.

C12 Great Goblin/Gnoll with club and dagger.

Rear view.

I wanted to show the sculpting on the legs. Looking at them it looks like he is wearing knee breeches and stockings, with shoes, more in line with 18th Century fashion.

Another C12 Great Goblin/Gnoll, this time with a big spear.

The spear itself has what look likes rings around the shaft , and so I painted them as such and then alternated the colours.

C12 Great Goblin/Gnoll Archer.

I am very pleased to have collected 10 Great Goblin/Gnoll archers as they are not always very easy find. This gives me a little unit of 10 to skirmish and generally cause a nuisance.

The idea of nuisance got me thinking about the archers role themselves. They would not be in amssed ranks as per Agincourt, but more skrmishing and 'nipping' at the flanks of the enemy. So with that in mind I have painted his bow in the colours of a snake, in this case a Cornsnake' from the USA. I will be painting all the bows, in different patterns and colours of snakes.

Yet another C12 Great Goblin/Gnoll with club and shield.

He is slighty portly for a Goblin, but looks like he would be the anchor in a Goblin shieldwall (as much as any Goblin could be with a Leadership of 5!).

Finally a FTG 1 Great Goblin/Gnoll with Polearm, in this case a Pole-Axe.

More ickle tiny flowers for bases!

These are awesome and are primarly made for Model Railways, but fit nicely with 28mm miniatures (I have used a couple on the Goblins above).

The company is based in Ford along the coast, so might pop along to their shop to buy more and check out more of the range.

~~Hairy Great Goblins/Gnolls~~

No wait, they are actually, Fantasy Tribe Dwarf (FTD) range. ;)

I have just recently purchased some of these to add to my existing ones.

I also really love these miniatures, as they, like the Great Goblins/Gnolls, are full of character. I will be detailing my plans for these in the next blog update.

Next blog update will be some more painted Great Goblins/Gnolls, plus a bit more of the framework in which I am going to discuss my plans for the Great Goblins/Gnolls and the Fantasy Tribe Dwarves.

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Allies (and a couple of enemies) of the Great Goblins/Gnolls.

June 12, 2015, 1:41 pm

≫ Next: C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

≪ Previous: More Great Goblins/Gnolls.

Continuing in the same vein of me painting Great Goblins/Gnolls individually and on 30mm bases, I have added some old solid based Goblins allies, and a Troll to the mix. I have also painting up a couple of Dwarves too.

Well I say painted, a few (but not all) of the Goblins, and the Troll, were already painted by me some years ago. I have however re-visited the paintwork on those few and rebased all of them on the 30mm bases with all of the snazzy basing details added.

Now I am really enjoying painting up these miniatures and it has got me looking at all the other models I own from the Fantasy Tribes ranges, as well as the other pre-slotta Citadel miniatures from the 1980's. To me the models from this era are really evocative of 1st and 2nd Editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and I have a soft spot for 2nd Edition as it was the edition I started with a like the most. For me one of the most interesting parts of this era (apart from the Slann) is the 'Goblin/Dwarf War'.

A lot of the background for the 1st/2nd Edition era Goblin/Dwarf War focuses on, unsurprisingly, Goblins and Dwarves fighting each other, and the role of the various Regiments of Renown involved. So with that in mind I have decided to develop my idea of just painting up my Great Goblins/Gnolls on the 30mm bases, to include a broader range of Fantasy Tribes miniatures and early 1980's models which I feel would be relevant to the Goblin/Dwarf War era. These will include Dwarves, Great Goblins/Gnolls, ordinary Goblins (termed Night Goblins in the 1st Edition), Red Goblins, Lesser Goblins, Hobgoblins,Trolls, Ogres, Giants, and maybe some Halflings. I will not be at this time consider adding any Orcs as I want to keep it to the various types of Goblins and their Troll/Ogre allies, but if I do they will be from the Fantasy Tribes range too.

In additon, I will also add the three Regiments of Renown which have direct participation in the Goblin/Dwarf Wars mentioned as part of their background: Bugmans Dwarves; Groms Goblin Guard; and Golgfag's Ogres. The idea is to just use miniatures from the 1st/2nd Edition era to give this project that early Warhammer feel. As I have both versions of the Regiments of Renown from the 1980's I don't have a problem with basing them on the 30mm bases. I also intend to paint up the SS4 Goblin Raiding Party set, and the C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

I will still be happily taking my time and treating each miniature individually, but will have a fun framework in which to paint the miniatures. I am also fortunate to have miniatures of the main personalites of the War, such as Grom, Bugman, Thorgrimm Brandedimm, Golgfag, Rug Longtooth, and several other named models from the era. I will do a 'personalites' update a little later.

Enjoy :)

A hill of Goblins!!!

All of the miniatures are solid based Citadel from the early to mid 1980's.

Two C13 Night Goblins, one with sword, the other with a spear.

I have followed the description in the 1st Edition Warhammer 'Forces of Fantasy' supplement regarding Night Goblins when painting their skin. For skin tone it suggests that the Goblins are a palid green, so have opted for a slightly more 'realistic' looking pale olive colour.

C13 Night Goblins with bows.

Unlike the Great Goblins/Gnoll bows, which I will paint up in snake skin pattern colours, the Night Goblin bows will be patterned, but not to any style. I think the painting the bows, and some weapon hafts, like this make them look more interesting and less just like a stick. I think that John Blanche painted some of his Orcs bows like this too back in the 1980's.

Two of the same C13 Night Goblin with bow.

The one on the right was bent over a little, so instead of straightening him out, I left him to look like he was leening around tall grasses, and then added the grasses accordingly.

C13 Night Goblin with bow (left), and club (right).

C13 Night Goblins, with pitch fork, and axe.

An early C36 Hobgoblin.

The very early Citadel Hobgoblins were not Far Eastern/Mongol in their design.

I like to think that these are more appropriate for the Goblin/Dwarf War, being more Western looking, before the Hobgoblins were pushed out of the West and into in the Badlands of the East.

I have painted him in the leathery orange flesh tone of the early 1980's style of Hobgoblins.

C20 Troll, Hobol Firebreath.

I have based the Troll on a 50mm base, in the same way I have based the Goblins on slightly larger bases.

Enemies of the Goblins!

FTD Fantasy Tribes Dwarves.

Dwarf smoking a pipe.

A lot of the FTD Dwarf miniatures seem to smoke pipes! :)

Another FTD Dwarf, this time a Dwarf from the 'shieldwall'.

RR1 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers, WIP.

...and now something from the late 1980's, a Marauder Miniatures Halfling.
I thought I would paint him up as a one-off and base him up as a farmer in his field of leeks.

Rear view, with leeks!

Next update will be more Great Goblins/Gnolls, which I haven't as of yet painted!!

I might, if I get time, also do a small piece on the Goblin/Dwarf War.

↧

C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

June 17, 2015, 3:43 pm

≫ Next: 75,000+ views, basing materials from 'Forged in Blood' and 'Gaugemaster', and lots of Great Goblins/Gnolls.

≪ Previous: Allies (and a couple of enemies) of the Great Goblins/Gnolls.

Continuing my painting of Citadel Fantasy Tribes/early C-series miniatures in line with my idea of the Goblin/Dwarf Wars, I have moved slightly forward in time to 1984 and the start of the C-series. This week I have painted up the complete set of the C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

These lovely little Goblins were made around 1984 as Citadel was moving away from the Fantasy Tribes ranges and to the C-series of solid based miniatures. They were designed by Alan and Michael Perry, and share a very similar look in design style to the other solid bases C-series Goblins (C13 Night Goblins especially) which they produced around the same time. This is before Kev Adams started to domiate Citadels Gobliniod scultping with the later 1980's Slotta Goblinoid ranges. As such, I think they have a slightly different feel to them, and are contiguous with the Fantasy Tribes ranges.

The range was released in 1984 and first shown in the Second Citadel Compendium, and were available for a number of years until the late 1980's when the Slotta based Goblins began to dominate. They are sometimes listed as 'Chaos Goblins' or 'Goblin Mutants', and are part of the wider C27 Chaos Creatures range. There are ten models in the range. They were made before the Chaos books were produced ('Slaves to Darkness' and 'The Lost and the Damned'), and so unlike later Chaos models they are not aligned to any particular Chaos Power. However, as I will show later in the update, I have painted some accordingly.

Personally I like this range as they are quirky, and have a sense homour in the sculpting. They combine the pre Chaos books appraoch to generic Chaos, as well as the early feel of the Perry Twins design of Goblins. I think the will fit in with any Chaos army, but also fit nicely with my early 1980's Goblin/Dwarf Wars project as a stand alone warband.

Enjoy :)

C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

All ten of the Chaos critters on top of the hill.

'Horns' and 'Mace-tail'.

As noted above, they were made before the explaination of the background of the Chaos Powers. So I have decided to paint a Goblin in the colours/style of one of the major Chaos powers, and Maal. I chose myself which of the Goblins I thought would fit best with each of the Chaos Powers.

Here I have chosen 'Horns' as Khorne, and 'Mace-Tail' as Slaanesh. I thought with his horns, axe, and toothy grin, 'Horns' looked more Khornate, and I helped that by painting him red skinned.

'Mace-tail' had a Slaaneshi look to me, and so I painted him with pink leather scale armour, pastel yellow clothing, blue and pink colouring, and with a Slaanesh rune tattoo on his leg.

The left sides, showing 'Horns' rune of Khorne on his shield, and 'Mace-Tails' pink leather armour.

'Plague' and 'Three-eyes'.

For me 'Plague' could not be anything else but a follower of Nurgle, so I painted this poor pox-ridden Goblin in a sickly yellow colour.

'Three-eyes' reminded me of the many eyed Tzeentchian followers in artwork. So I painted him in Tzeentchian blue and purple, with magical looking yellow eyes (all three of them!).

Side views.

Look at the icky yellow skin, poor thing :(

'Beast' and 'Hopper'.
I was stuck a little for a Maal follower, but 'Beast' allowed for a Goblin with a little mystery, and to be able to paint the shield with the black and white style of Maal.
'Hopper' is the first of the non-Chaos power Goblins. I painted this one-legged and tailed Goblin up with purple flesh, which I then highlighted with mid brown (Citadel's VX-88, the new named for Snakebite leather), to give a weird magical feel.

Rear/side view.
'Beast' is hairy, and has green fur!
'Hopper's' shield I painted up with an early 1980's/1960's looking freaky spiral. I painted it, and then thought it does'nt look very symetrical, but then decided that was quite in line with Goblins, and Chaos Goblins at that. I painted an eye in the middle for no particular reason.

'Twins!' and 'Long Neck'.

Both of these Goblins appear on the cover ofthe 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Rulebook, and so I painted then the same as the artwork.

I positioned the long grasses on 'Long Neck's' base to suggest he is poking his long neck through the undergrowth.

Rear/side views.

'Winged' and 'Spiky Shaman'.

With 'Winged' I thought I would paint him in the style of a cross between a Goblin and a Gargoyle, as he seemed to remind me of one. I painted him a granite grey, adding a little bit of metallic medium to suggest smooth granite stone, and chaos magic.

'Spiky Shaman' was the last of the Goblins I painted and I was stuck for how to paitn him. I painted the skin the olive green and the robe white, and then looking at his snake shaped stick I thuoght of an idea. I will paint him up as a Chaos Goblin version of Yoda! Quite apt as he is a Shaman.

Rear views of the two of them, showing 'Winged's' wings, and 'Spiky Shaman's' spikes.

Next blog update will probably be more Goblins, Great Goblins Gnolls, and maybe another Troll.

↧

75,000+ views, basing materials from 'Forged in Blood' and 'Gaugemaster', and lots of Great Goblins/Gnolls.

June 25, 2015, 1:33 pm

≫ Next: Citadel Lesser Goblins, Great Goblins, Bugbear, Trollhound, and a Red Orc Tusker.

≪ Previous: C27 Chaos Goblin Mutants.

Before starting this weeks update I checked my 'number of views' and as of this evening I have reached 75,773 since I started blogging in April 2013!
A big thank you to everyone who has taken a viewed my blog and taken an interest.

I have received a lot of interes, positive comments and feedback regarding the updates concerning the Great Goblins/Gnolls. This is great (like the Goblins really! LOL) as they are a wonderful range and it has been my intention to focus my efforts on this range for the for some time. I will also be painting more FTD Dwarves and random early 1980's Citadel solid based odds an ends which fit with the 'Goblins Wars' era project of which they are all a part. I'm planning to do an update on the Goblin Wars as well. For now, here's a hill of Goblins before I start the part of the blog on concentrating on the basing/scenery materials from 'Gaugemaster' and 'Forged in Blood'.
Enjoy :)

A whole hill full of Great Goblins/Gnolls.

I had a clear couple of days and so managed to get 12 Great Goblins/Gnolls painted.

Citadel Lesser Goblins, Great Goblins, Bugbear, Trollhound, and a Red Orc Tusker.

July 6, 2015, 1:08 am

≫ Next: RR1 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers (Version 1) Regiment of Renown.

≪ Previous: 75,000+ views, basing materials from 'Forged in Blood' and 'Gaugemaster', and lots of Great Goblins/Gnolls.

Continuing with my painting of early 1980's solid based miniatures, this week I have been painting Lesser Goblins, as well as Great Goblins/Gnolls, and a few unusual odds and ends from the smae time period.

I have had some Lesser Goblins sitting in a box for years and years but had never got around to painting them. However with my current project focusing on older solid based Goblins, I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally paint them.

The Citadel Lesser Goblins were part of the C14 Lesser Goblins range in the early 1980's, but I am unsure of their exact release date. I have read it could be from 1979 to 1983. There were two types, the Night Goblins, who wore hoods and had wickerwork looking shields (and I understand were originally part of the Fantasy Tribes range as Gnomes), and the 'ordinary' Lesser Goblins, largley armed with clubs and wearing fur loin cloths. Whilst I have several, but all, of both types, I chose to paint the 'Ordinary' Lesser Goblins first.

These Goblins are tiny!
I was'nt sure whether to put them on the 30mm lipped bases as they were so tiny, but in the end decided to as I have a lot of the bases, and to save spending out on suprisingly expensive 25mm lipped bases. Painting wise I have gone for a simlilar, if slightly lighter, flesh tone to the Greater Goblins/Gnolls. This is because in the 1st Edition Warhammer background (in the Forces of Fantasy supplement) they are often associated with Great Goblins/Gnolls, being part of their armies and included in an army list. They also look like tiny Great Gobilins, having beards and the same looking facial features.
They were fun to paint, and very quick to paint, but a pain to photograph!

Apart from the Lesser Goblins, I went further back in time the the late 1970's, to 1979, to paint a Red Orc Tusker. This is something I have wanted to paint up for some time. I have another to paint, and one from e-bay now in the post.
In addition I also painted a Ral Partha Troll Hound, and Grenadier Bugbear, from the same era (about 1978 to 1980). I painted them for no other reason than for the fun of it, and that they fit in with my current painting project.
Oh, and there are some Goblins too, because I am Goblinlee, and that's what I do! :)
Enjoy. :)

Small groups of Lesser Goblins (not sure of the collective noun for Goblins, but I assume it's a mischief of Goblins, as it seems to be quite apt).

Most of the Goblins are from the Citadel C14 Lesser Goblin range, but as noted before, although a couple of them aren't.

They all have a great feel for Russ Nicholson's artwork.

Considering the size and age of them, I think that these Goblins are excellently sculpted, full of detail and character, with remarkably expressive faces.

Lesser Goblin Command.

These two fellows originally came attached to each other on a joined solid base. I however seperated them and based them individually.

They are very characterful, the one on the left seemingly to be a older, wiser adviser (or wizard) with a long beard. The one on the right is more of a leader type, with a look of consideration on his face.

Lesser Goblins, with club, and mace.

Two different models of the same Lesser Goblin miniature from both sides.

Another mace and clud duo.

The one on the left seemed to have a look of consideration mixed with suprise on his face for some reason.

On the left is a broken mace miniature, and on the right a club wielding Lesser Goblin, poking his tongue out!

Two more club armed Lesser Goblins.

A mace armed Lesser Goblin.

As with all of the Lesser Goblins I have been using a mix of the basing materials I had, and those from 'Forged in Blood'.

Ral Partha RP2 Small Humanoids, also listed as Kobolds, although I understand that they have been listed as Goblin Imp's as well.

Red Orc Tusker.

The Red Orcs were a slightly unusual looking looking range, with their domed heads and long-ish looking bodies. I quite like them, and love the 'Tusker' model.

The original Tusker model, with a Red Orc in armour rider, was part of the first Citadel releases back in 1979 as part of the 'Molten Magic' range. I am unsure when the less armoured version above was sculpted, probably about the same time. He is listed in the Citadel Fiend Factory range as 'FF27-1 Red Orc with Spear mounted on Giant Tusker, in 1982.

I have both versions of the rider (the Tusker is the same), and will paint him up soon as well.

Note, the spear is not the orginal spear, but a replacement version from my bits box.

Left hand view.

I am very happy with how he turned out.

The Tusker is based on a 50mm round base as I thought it would give it more on a War Beast feel to the model, rather than just cavalry.

The Tusker reminds me of something ridden by Stormtroopers in 'Star Wars' on Tattooine.

Close up of the rider.

Grenadier miniatures Bugbear: D&D range 102 Bugbears pack (there were orginally two diffeent miniatures in the pack, but alas I only have this one).

I have had this miniature for years and never painted him or thought much of him. It was only when I painted him that I really started to like him.

Rear view.

Ral Partha RP5 Monsters: Troll Hound.

I love this miniature, full of character, looking like a cross between a worried Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a Troll.

I especially like the sculpting of the musculature and ribs, and of course those big mournful eyes.

Great Goblins/Gnolls.

Great Goblin/Gnoll with bow.

As note previously I am painting the Great Goblin/Gnoll archers bows in snake patterns. This pattern is a from a type of American Ground Snake, although it does look a little like a Tiger striping.

FTG5 Great Goblin/GnollStandard Bearer/Musican.

In the 1st Edition you could have a combined Standard Bearer/Muscian in an army.

I painted his cheeks pinker to simulate the blowing of the horn.

FTG3 Great Goblin/Gnoll standing with hand weapon.

FTG2 Great Goblin/Gnoll attacking with hand weapon.

Two more Great Goblins/Gnolls, standing with hand Weapons.

Close up of the shields.

The symbols on the left sheild are from the 1st Edition supplement 'Book of Battalions' section on Great Goblins.

I am not very good at painting shields or standards yet, but I am working on this range of miniatures and the old source material to create shields and banners that fit in well with them.

Next update will probably be more Goblins, although I have been working on a 'History' of the Goblin Wars as described in the 1st/2nd Edition Warhammer era. So I might update on that, with an inclusion of the description of the different forces involved.

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RR1 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers (Version 1) Regiment of Renown.

July 15, 2015, 1:28 pm

≫ Next: Orcs of the Black Mountains: Harboth's and Notlob's Regiments of Renown.

≪ Previous: Citadel Lesser Goblins, Great Goblins, Bugbear, Trollhound, and a Red Orc Tusker.

As a change from painting Goblins, but in keeping with my 'Goblin Wars' project, I decided to paint some Dwarves. And not just any Dwarves, but the first version of the Regiment of Renown, Bugman's Dwarf Rangers.

During the 'Goblin Wars' Joseph Bugman ran a famous brewery, supplying beer to both Goblins and Dwarves. This was fine until Goblins killed his son Bono Bugman. In true 'not to be messed with' Dwarf style, Joseph gathered together a collection of his workers and went off after Goblins in search of venegance. So Bugman's Dwarf Rangers were formed.

This went fine for a while until they returned home to Bugman's Brewery exhausted from campaigning. It was at this point that they were attacked Goblins, who overran the Brewery, killing everyone, as Goblins are occsionally want to do! Joseph Bugman's body was never found (at least until late 2nd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but that's another story, and set of miniatures!).

Here is a link to the background of the first version of Bugman's, and the miniatures:

http://www.solegends.com/citrr/rr01bugman.htm

Concerning the miniatures, I have been looking forward to painting them for sometime. They are all one-piece solid based/pre-slotta models produced in 1984, although the first version Champion is a slotta based model, and like many of the other Regiments Champions was added later. I never bought them at the time, but picked up the models in dribs and drabs over the 1990's and 2000's, but had never got around to painting them.
In the end I managed to collect a unit of 20, including the three orginal command miniatures, but alas not the very rare champion, Jorj Ruddle. If I ever get him, I'll probably expand the Regiment with a few more Troopers as well.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with them when I came to paint them. Bugman and the Command models were fine, but the Troopers were terrible to paint. I found the sculpts a little flat and dull, and although the quality of the sculpts were fine, they did'nt seem fun or inspiring to paint. The paint kept chipping or rubbing off whilst handling. Additonally the eyes were very tricky to paint on the Troopers, being very deep set, and I had to repair several of the crossbow arms which seemed to be miscast. It might just be that I was unlucky with a couple of the castings, but I much prefer the Fantasy Tribes Dwarves I have for the 'Goblin Wars' project, or the later 1980's Dwarves.

However, depsite my misgivings, I am pleased with how they look on the gaming table. I based them the same as the other of my 'Goblin Wars' miniatures, and painted them according to the uniform description given in the first version of the background. There was no infomation on the shield colour, so I painted them blue, the same as the second version, and to give the models a dash of colour from all the drab buff and browns.

Gaming wise they are a formidable foe. They look like they are wearing heavy armour (heavy Buff coats and Chanmail), with a shield. They are armed with hand weapon (axe), additional hand weapon (short sword), double handed weapon (axe), and of course the crossbow. This makes them well equiped, armoured, and with a full command unit.

Enjoy :)

20 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers.

Battle line.

Joseph Bugman and Muscian.

I quite like the Joesph Bugman miniature. Like a lot of the leader miniatures of the first versions of the Regiments of Renown, he is striking a standing pose, almost posing for a photograph.

The horn player is a great dynamic posed miniatures.

Rear view showing the shields.

Standard bearer.
There was no design for the standard, so I painted the beer mug from the shield. I also painted in Dwarvish Runes (from the Lord of the Rings appendix) the Bugman's warcry "Mhinz Abeir", which I assume the open mouthed Standard Bearer is yelling, expecting the reponse "Z'yor Rond" from the rest of the regiment!

Rear veiw of the standard.

Bugman's regiment Trooper, front and rear.

To be fair, the Troopers do look mean and weather-beaten veterans.

The rear shows the double handed axe and cloak.

I painted the Double handed axe shaft green to add a little more colour and suggest their Ranger role.

Side views, showing the crossbow and short sword.

Line of Troopers with a mix of beard colours.

Bono Bugman!

Well, not quite.

However this Citadel C-Series Dwarf miniature is converted from the 'Trooper' miniature, and you could even see wear they had scrapped of the beer mug icon from the shield! So I thought it would be fun to paint him up in the same colours scheme as the rest of the Bugman's regiment, although I have'nt included him with the other 20 Bugman's.

Next update will probably be more Goblins of the 'Goblin Wars' as I have a wish to paint more Goblins. I am also painting up a couple of Trolls, so they should be ready too! :)

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Orcs of the Black Mountains: Harboth's and Notlob's Regiments of Renown.

July 25, 2015, 1:33 pm

≫ Next: 60,000 views and the Space Slann project.

≪ Previous: RR1 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers (Version 1) Regiment of Renown.

Carrying on with my Goblin Wars theme, I have verted slightly into another two of the non-Goblin Regiments of Renown who are said to have taken part: Harboth's Black Mountain Boys, and Notlob's Orc Artillery.

Both Regiments are part of the first release of Citadel's Regiments of Renown series, 1984 amd 1985 respectively, and are both regiments of Orcs.

This is the first incarnation of Harboth's Regiment of Renown, being later re-sculpted as slotta based Orcs armed with bows, and then being released in 1987. All of the miniatures are pre-slotta, with the exception of the Champion which was a later addition to the set, something which happened to several of the first sets of Regiments of Renown.

Catalogue page of Harboth's Black Mountain Boys.

...and a link to the background:

http://www.solegends.com/citrr/rr05harboth.htm

Notlob's Artillery on the other hand are all slotta based. The regiment was a lot smaller than the other Regiments of Renown, consisting of just four Orcs, and two Bolt Throwers.

The bolt throwers are what seems to be the original sculpt used as the basis for the later Orc and Dwarf bolt throwers. The main differance of the later bolt throwers is that the base has an added spare bolt, and the top 'bow' part has a different spear head, bow arm and body details, and an added lever.

One of the Orcs (the one second from right below) ended up as a general release Orc crew member for the later Orc bolt thrower.

Catalogue page for Notlob's Regiment of Renown.

The name Notlob is taken from a Monty Python sketch about 'The Gangs of Bolton'.

...and another link to the background (Notlob's, not Monty Pythons!):

http://www.solegends.com/citrr/rr14notlobs.htm

Both sets of regiments are great and full of character. Harboths's have very varied and interesting command group, and nicely sculpted Trooper miniatures armed with the delightfully named 'Dwarf Tickler', a form of cleaver. They were fun to paint, and quite straight forward. I painted the Orcs skin tone slightly darker than the later 3rd Edition shades as I wanted a more 'realistic' and grubby looking feel to them. I kept the eyes red, but added a pupil.

Background wise (taken from the background stories from both Regiments) , both Harboth and Notlob's Regiments spent most of the Goblin Wars based in the Black Mountains, living in a squalid town around Black Fire Pass on the border of the Dwarf Realms. They spent their time bored, drinking in the saloon, running a toll booth, occsionally killing (and no doubt eating) unwary passing travellers, and generally raiding and making a nuisance of themselves. The whole thing has a slightly 'Wild West' feel to it to me.

When, towards then end of the Goblin Wars, the Dwarves decided to 'clean up' the area they attacked the Black Mountains and attempted to size the Pass. By this time Harboth's Orcs had been joined by Notlob's Orcs, and both sides fought a series of battles, forcing both Harboth and Notlob to eventually
~~flee~~ tactically relocate.

Personally, I think this sounds like the basis for a great little skirmish campaign.

I painted both regiments because I wanted to paint up another Regiment of Renown after painting Bugman's Dwarf Rangers last week, and I did'nt want to paint up Grom's Goblin Guard yet. From the background I see both regiments as very closely linked, and so it made sense to me to paint them together, especially as Notlob's are a small regiment.

AI also wanted to paint up some Orcs for the Goblin Wars. I don't want to paint up a lot of Orcs for the Goblin Wars, I want to keep the Goblin vibe to it all, but I thought that as these Regiments of Renown are directly mentioned and involved in the Goblin Wars, they would be good to do.

Enjoy :)

The Orcs of the Black Mountains!

As both Regiments of Renown are based in the Black Mountsins, I decided to base the Orcs differently from the other Goblin Wars miniatures I have painted recently. I wanted to convey a dark and rocky feel to the bases suggesting the terrain of the Black Mountains.

Haboth's Black Mountain Boys.

Harboth, leader of the Black Mountain Boys.

I really like this miniature. He has that sense of confidence and casual arrogance gained from being in charge of a whole bunch of Orcs and a town atop of a mountain.

He is quite a big Orc for the time, and his solid base was too large to place inside the dip of the lipped base or trim down.So I built up the base a little to suggest he is stand on top of mound, making sure everything is done his way.

Yaskin Forit, the Champion of Harboth's regiment.

Yaskin is slotta based miniature, who also required a plastic shield for his back.

He is armed with an unusual looking double handed weapon, which I painted up to look like the teeth of some big monster.

The name Yaskin Forit is of course a play on the phrase "You asking for it?", as occsiaonally prelude to physical violence.

Rear views of Harboth and Yaskin.

I like the bottles hanging off of Harboth's bandolier (reminding me of the 'apostles' of a matchlock armed soldier of the 16/17th Century).

Yaskin's shield has 'Yaskin' painted on it in dwarf runes.

Standard Bearer and Musican.
I like the howling Standard bearer, with a standard made up no doubt of the skulls of poor unfortunate travellers who strayed too close to the Black Mountain, or perhaps did'nt have enough change for the toll at Black Fire Pass?
The Musican is wearing the fur of some creature, not sure what, might be a type of bear or lioness.

Rear view.
The Musican has drums made of what look like Ogre Skulls!

Troopers, front and rear.
They are armed with the infamous 'Dwarf Tickler' and wooden shield.
The background suggests that the Black Mountain Boys wear a collection of cast-offs and clothes. However I wanted to give them a more unified regimental feel, especially as they are to have a mix of shields. So I painted them to suggest they are all wearing black leather jackets, reminiscent of a bikers, 1950's hoodlums, or heavy metallers.
I was going to paint them with heavy metal band names and album covers on the back, but after a couple of attempts I decided it was too fiddly.

There were a couple of C-series Orcs based on the body of the Trooper miniature. So I added a few of them to add a little variety.
The Orc on the left, with the halberd is pre-slotta, the Orc on the right an early slotta based one.

Rear view, showing the extra different added details.

Some of the mix of shields.
The background states that the the Orcs have a mix of shield designs, so I have painted up a mix of designs.
Here, left to right, checkerboard; Moon (based on a design from the 3rd Editon Orc artwork in Warhammer Armies); and quartered.

Another crescent Moon device; Goblin/pumpkin face; and a gaping maw face which was based on 'Fizzgig' from 'The Dark Crystal'.

Stylised face; a shield with 'Zog off' written in Dwarf rune; and an eye.

Green Man; 'Orc' written in Dark Elvish (from a list written in the 1st Edition Forces of Fantasy supplement; and a stylised sun.

Finally, another check pattern, this time black and red.

The Orc with a spear is a repaired version of another pole-armed Orc from earlier.

Notlob's Orc Artillery.
Four Orcs and two Bolt Throwers.

Notlob (left) and an Orc crew member.

Rear view.

Two more crew.
The one on the left became a wider released Orc crew member.
I like the Orc on the right, testing the sharpness of the bolt.

Rear view.

The Bolt Throwers.

As mentioned earlier they are similar to the later 1980's Bolt Throwers used by the Orcs and Dwarves.

The background stated that Notlob's Orc scrawled graffiti on the Bolt Throwers and Bolts, but I decided to keep them plain as I thought it might look too much.

Next update will be the couple of Trolls I am currently finishing off painting, and some Goblins, as I want to get back to painting some more Goblins. :)

↧

60,000 views and the Space Slann project.

January 7, 2015, 2:45 am

≫ Next: There's a Troll in the Garden!

≪ Previous: Orcs of the Black Mountains: Harboth's and Notlob's Regiments of Renown.

I've had a great start to 2015, as of today my blog has now reached 60,066 views. So again, a big thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my blog and miniatures.

Secondly, after engaging in conversations on the Oldhammer Facebook group, and chatting with Andy Hoare about his current Space Slann project, which is located here:

http://talesfromthemaelstrom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/even-more-space-slann.html

...it has inspired me to tackle my own Space Slann.

It is a project I have been meaning to do ever since I managed to buy the final Space Slann I required for the complete set last year.

My Space Slann force consists of 27 Slann, formed into five squats of five, and with two independent Warleaders. I have always loved the Space Slann, both as a concept, and as a miniatures range, and have been wanting to paint them. Like my fantasy Slann army I have chosen to paint them in bright colours and to vary the skin tones, but have tried to keep the majority green skinned, although not to such a great degree as the fantasy army.

Since starting the project on the 2nd January I have managed to paint up 21 Space Slann! I still need to varnish and base them, and will base them the same as my fantasy Slann.
Once I have painted them all I will do a proper update with them all in squads, and going into the Space Slann range and background in more detail.
Enjoy :)

21 Space Slann in the jungle.

On the left, Quinletz, the Warbands Commander.

I have painted him up as an albino Slann as the background suggests that brightly coloured or albino Slann can be extrovert, talented, or noteworthy in some way.

On the right is his second in command, Huvez.

Two Sschoi.

I have painted the one on the left similar to the Slann on page 12 of the Rogue Trader rulebook.

Two CMMR. Xix 's .

Another CMMR. Xix, and Llamas.

I am not sure if Llamas's gun is a Las-gun or a Graviton Gun, or maybe even a Needler?

Two Holx's .

Another Holx, converted up to carry a Conversion Beamer. I had orginally converted this model up (yes, I chopped up a Space Slann!) to act as an army general for my fantasy Slann army, but I decided to go for Gurggl Greenwake instead. So I thought a Conversion Beamer might look good for him, and add some firepower to the Warband.

On the right is Xvarn, who will act as a squad leader.

Two Scoitz's.
I painted the one on the right the same as one of my fantasy army's Scout units.

Another Scoitz, and a Olassa.

Two more Olassa's.

Final Olassa.

I have painted him up similar to the Strawberry Posion Dart Frog, which I also used as a basis for another pair of fantasy army's Slann units.

The painting table, only eight left to paint. :)

Next blog update will be the finished Space Slann. I have a lot more time free now that Xmas is over, so I can get busy painting :)

↧

There's a Troll in the Garden!

July 31, 2015, 11:47 am

≫ Next: 80,000 views!!! ... and some more Great Goblins/Gnolls.

≪ Previous: 60,000 views and the Space Slann project.

Well not exactly in my garden, but more of that later.

This week it's a bit of a smaller update as I have'nt had the time to spend on painting. For those of you from the 'Oldhammer' Community who read my blog, I won't be able to make this years BOYL due to work commitments. :(
...still it will give me another year to finally finish the Slann army and invade the North!

Anyway, after spending the last two weeks painting Regiments of Renown, I have returned to the painting more general miniatures of my idea of the participants of the Goblin Wars. I have painted one C series Troll, re-painted a Ral Partha Troll and Giant on an Elephant, a pack of wolves, a random Orc, and the old solid based Thrud.

Enjoy :)

The latest batch of minautre, ready to wreak havoc in the Goblin Wars.

Citadel C20 Troll, 'Rattlebones Bowlegs'.

I wanted to base him up to suggest that he had broken into someones garden and is about to cause chaos.

Rear view.

Top view of the base.

I added some smaller flock to suggest a lawn, some stones for 'crazy paving', a small flower pot, and a couple of model Hosta's in the bare earth strip by the fence.

Ral Partha RP5 Monster range Troll.

I had painted him before, some time ago. However I decided to re-base him (on a 50mm round lipped base) for the Goblin Wars, and re-painted part of the skin, adding slightly pink flesh on parts of his grey skin to give him a little more life.

Left side.
...and yes, he is a naked Troll.

Close up of the face.
I think it's an excellent piece of sculpting and deserved a closer look.
As far as I am aware, he was sculpted by Tom Meier.

Thrud the Barbarian, of the White Dwarf comic strip fame.

This is the first miniature of Thrud to be made by Citadel, and released in the SS6 White Dwarf Personalites box set.

He was fun, and very easy to paint, and will lend some support to the Dwarven cause, providing they keep him in beer!

Rear view.

Ral Partha Giant riding on an Elephant.

He is another of my miniatures which I had painted before, but decided to re-base and give a painting 'make over' to.

He's a great miniature and an unusual model, and adds a potent line-breaker to any army.

Left hand side.

There were several variants of the Giant produced (only one elephant I understand), with the Elephant and maybe this particular Giant sculpted again by Tom Meier, later riders by the Perry Twins.

For more on them here's a usful link:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Giant_elephant_riders

Close up of the Giant.

Wolf pack.

One of the three Wolves from the pack. Three of the Wolves are the 'Vicious Giant Wolf' from the BC2 Monster Starter set.

The fourth wolf is the FF69 Giant Wolf.

A random Citadel C 15 Armoured Orc.
Lots of teeth!

FTD 9 Dwarf standard bearer, not painted yet, but I am just happy to have bagged one (and not broken) on e-bay.

Dragon tipped standard.

Next update will be more Goblin Wars stuff, but not sure what as I have'nt painted them yet! Probably some Goblins. :)

↧

80,000 views!!! ... and some more Great Goblins/Gnolls.

August 8, 2015, 10:55 am

≫ Next: Review of 2014.

≪ Previous: There's a Troll in the Garden!

Wow!! I have reached 81,185 views to my blog since I started in April 2013.

Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my blog and the various odd and ends I have been painting. I still have lots of Goblins, Dwarves, and a myriad of other things to paint, and lots of stuff I still have'nt photographed and posted on the blog.

Due to work commitments, it's a short update this week with only a dozen Goblins and just a few photographs. Still, twelve Goblins are enough to annoy any the Dwarves, so it's probably fine. I have been painting some more Goblins, Great Goblin/Gnolls from the Fantasy Tribes/C-series ranges, as part of my 'Goblin Wars' Project. I am really enjoying painting them, and am already halfway through another four, with more lined up on the painting table.
Enjoy :)

12 Great Goblin/Gnolls from the Fantasy Tribes and C-Series ranges.

With this latest batch, I have opted for a much more colourful palette of colours. I like the Great Goblins in brighter, almost fairy tale style, bright colours, and they contrast to the darker and grubbier 'ordinary' Goblins.

Left, a FTG2 Gnoll attacking with Hand Weapon, with an eye patch and spotted neckchief.

On the right is a FTG5 Standard Bearer/Musician. As the standard is sculpted very creased, it is difficult paint a symbol on it without it looking a little odd. So I opted for a plain dual coloured standard.

On the left is a FTG3 Gnoll Standing with Hand Weapon. The sword blade is a little fragile on this sculpt, and is often for sale broken. I love his sallet helmet, mail armour, and large shield (for a Goblin), giving him the look and bearing of a Goblin leader.

On the right is a bearded FTG2 Goblin attacking with hand weapon.
The fun thing about this range is that many of the Great Goblin/Gnolls are bearded, have hair, and/or have whiskers. This is one of the reasons I have given them a more human-type flesh colour, as I feel they are different, if not more sophisticated, breed of Goblin compared to other more 'common' breeds, and that this flesh tone also works better with the hair

Two more FTG2 Gnolls attacking with Hand Weapon, including one with a rather natty pink spotted blue shirt!
I am not 100% happy with the blank blue shield, and might go back and add a bit of decoration to it.

FTG1 Gnoll with Pole Arm.

Left some sort of bill or spear (or a stolen boat-hook?), and on the right a Goblin with a Fauchard.

FTG3 Gnoll Standing with Hand Weapon, in a gaudy outfit.

On the right, a 'Norman' looking Goblin from the C12 Goblin range. I have a mix of about 20 of this model, and the FTG14 Gnorman the Gnoll model as a unit of Goblin Heavy Infantry/Guards.

Another FTG3 Gnoll Standing with Hand Weapon, with a shield design based on one on p113 of Warhammer Armies.

On the right is the Fiend Factory FF64-1 Female Goblin. Now she's a great miniature but a basic scuplt. I gave her dyed red hair to make her less like 'Cousin It'.

Next update wil be more Goblins! I do have a dinky Rogue Trader project to I want to do, but that will be little later on.

↧

Review of 2014.

December 30, 2014, 1:51 pm

≫ Next: 60,000 views and the Space Slann project.

≪ Previous: 80,000 views!!! ... and some more Great Goblins/Gnolls.

It is coming to the end of 2014 and the first full year of my blog.

Since starting my blog in April 2013 I have had 58,970 views so far! So first of all a big thank you to everyone who have taken an interest in my collection and my random painting . Which brings me onto the second point.

This year has been more a year of collecting things rather than really getting down to painting. A full time job and overtime, the tempations of chillin' in the Brighton and Hove sunshine, and just generally a lack of time have meant that my output has not been as much as last year. I have also lacked a little focus, and so ended up wasting time rather than getting down to projects.

Last year was a case of finishing off several of the 3rd Edition Warhammer fantasy armies or straight forward projects. This year started with a return to Rogue Trader with the 'completion' of my Squat army, the army of the Brighthelmstone Stronghold. I put completion in commas as I have just returned to the army as I am unhappy with the end result, but more of that at a later date. Needless to say I did still paint up 145 Infantry, 16 Bikes, 5 Heavy Trikes, and a variety of other odd and ends.

The old style Squat army, as per February 2014.

A Squat Brotherhood

Squat Troopers.

Bikes!

Thanks to e-bay I am working on collecting my third bike squad.

In March and April I painted up a couple of houses for scenery...

... and then returned to painting some Slann. I felt I had neglected them for a while so sat down to complete some of the regiments I had wanted to paint, but which had not been needed for the 3,000 point army list. In addition I did some conversion work on a few models, assembled the Slann Cold One riders, and added and painted a new set of banners for the Slann.

Converted Cold One Riders

In 2014 I also bought a jungle!

Beware the Slann of March (or the march of the Slann?).

20 Bull Slann, 40 Venom Tribes, 10 Slann Scouts, and two Culchan, Giant flightless birds.

Bull Slann made up from the C32 solid based 'Palace Guard' miniature.

Jungle Tribes. Slann levy, which later in the year proved so useless!

More levy Jungle Braves.

Slann Scouts.

More Slann Scouts!

These ones just seem to disappear in the jungle scenery.

Culchans.

I will use these as Sabre Toothed Tiger stand-in's.

Yet more Scouts!

One of the 20 Jaguar Warriors I painted.

I also repainted the suits of my Eagle Warriors to give them more colour, and converted up the two Regimental Leaders. Once I did that I added new shields and banners, which I decided to paint later.

I also managed to finally photograph and post my Tomb Kings Army.

The Tomb Kings.

Chariots.

In later May and early June I decided to set myself a challange: To paint an army in a week!

And I did :) I chose to paint up my current edition World Eater army, which does contain a few older models from the 1990's including a couple of the very later Rogue Trader models. I really enjoyed setting myself the task and achieving it in time and blogging about my progress. I found it a good idea, it got me focused and painting.

The Completed World Eater army.

Chosen of Khorne.

World Eater Marines.

Dreadnought/Hellbrute.

Predator tanks.

I also painted up some ruined classical scenery and a new board and backdrop, primarily for the World Eaters, but also for as an alternative to the green planet with blue skies.

Mid June saw some shopping for my Praetorian army in the form of Cavalry, aka Rough Riders, from Curious Constructs. This is a project for someime in the future, but I wanted to buy them and construct a few test models so as to have them ready for the time I return to my Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum.

Lancer.

Heavy Dragoon on lizard mount.

As June ended I returned to my Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition armies project, by which I intend to have a 3,000 point army for each of the army list entries in the Warhammer armies book. Now I had already completed 8 of the armies, the Dark Elves, Wood Elves, Bretonnians, Chaos, Orcs, Dwarf, Slann, and Undead. This only left Empire, High Elves, and Skaven. I might do the Norse army too from the White Dwarf list, but I have'nt decided yet.

So I started with the Skaven, whilst using e-bay to buy the odd Empire Knight miniatures I needed.

The progress of the Skaven army at the 27th July 2014 until.....

...I got distracted, not once, but twice.

First of all I ended up buying a three-legged Chinese Dragon (which does sound like the start of a joke!). From this I had the crazy idea of building a Chaos Nipponese Samurai army using mostly the old Citadel ranges of models, with a few well chosen contempary miniatures, and the odd Chaos Warrior. As the Nippon army list in 3rd Edition is limited to a Mercenary contingent, and I did'nt want to convert the 2nd Edition army in Ravening Hordes to 3rd Edition, I chose to use the Chaos army list in Warhammer Armies. That way I could use the Samurai as Thugs/Chaos Warriors, have monsters in the form of Oni, and field a the whole army as a rading force from the East.

Approx 3,000 point Chaos Nipponese army.

The infamous Three-legged Dragon. I removed the other back leg and intend to use it as a form of Cloud Wyvern, the Samurai mounted on top being the Army General.

Citadel OH 3 Rampaging Ronin!

C23 Ogre, being used as an Oni, and using the minotaur army entry.

Right to left: Converted Citadel Samurai, Citadel Chaos Warrior, Hasslefree Miniatures Martial Artist.

I mentioned two distractions.

The second was a an offer by an old friend of mine Justin to play a 5,000 point a side Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition game, the first we had played for 20 years. I could'nt refuse such a great offer, and so dropped all the projects and focused on finsihing off more Slann so I could field 5,000 points worth of Slann.

August to early September was Slann, Slann Slann....

Slann War Altar.

Slann Warrior Priests.

Jaguar Warriors.

And I completed the two Regiments of Spawn Bands.

and the Eagle Warriors.

Although in the midst of all these Slann I did manage to repair and collect some more Gnolls/Great Goblins.

September was largely concerned with finishing off painting Slann, gaming all weekend, and then writing up the results!

Here are a selection of photographs from the 5,000 point battle, the report of which can be found here:

http://goblinlee.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-battle-at-tower-or-trouble-at-mill.html

and here:

http://goblinlee.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-battle-at-tower-or-trouble-at-mill_24.html

5,000 point Slann Army battle line.

Advancing in the first turn!

The battle progressing on the first day.

Incedently, centre of the photograph are the two Giant Scorpions I painted up for the battle as well.

Jaguar Warriors fighting Skarlocs Wood Elves.

Slann holding the line on the second day.

Orange Venom Tribe Slann to the rescue!

Gurggl Greenwake challenging the Wood Elves to a re-match.

Look out for that in 2015 as Justin and I are planning another battle, even bigger and better!

The 5,000 point game over two days was awesome and I really enjoyed seeing the Slann on the table and using the army.

Once The battle preperation, the battle itself, and the post battle report were all done iswitech back to painting the Skaven, determined to complete the project. This I did by the end of October, although I still needed to base and varnish the army.

Gutter Runners

Skaven Heroes and Command Groups.

Later in October pursued a small project I had been wanting to do for some time. I decide to buy a few test models from the Hasslefree Miniatures 'Kindred' range. They are a range of World War One Halfings (although I went for an early World War Two paint scheme), to which I added a converted Matilda Tank. It was fun, and designed to be the basis of a larger project, but I scrapped the idea as the models, whilst excellently detailed, were a bit too small for my liking.

Eight of the Kindred.

Kindred and Tank.

Also with October being Orktober there was a flurry of painting of Orcs and Orks for the month. As a bit of bit, late in the month I painted a test model for an Autumnal Orc army to act as a foe to my Autumnal Wood Elven army.

Autumnal Orc and Wood Elf.

With October/Orktober ebbed away, I decided to delay the basing of the Skaven, and into very early November paint up the Ork Assault Grenadiers, and force of 21 Rogue Trader Space Orks from a scenario published in White Dwarf #94. I had always wanted to paint them up and add them to my Luggrub's Drop Legion force.

The Ork Assault Grenadiers.

One of the Squads, just looking for trouble!

As November moved on I toyed with the idea of painting my two Rogue Trader era Genestealer Armies, but after a week gave up as I just was'nt in the mood. I did however want to revist my Squat army, and so started buying odds and ends of Squats again from e-bay with an eye to expanding the army, tinkering withthe paint scheme, and re-basing them. In this I have been lucky in that I have scored some great successes on e-bay without losing a kidney in the process, and I ended up with a lot of overtime at work, which whilst trashed my painting time, did allow a little crazy shopping :)

Genestealers!!!!

...and Genestealer Hybrids.

Sorry, but maybe next year will be the year of the Cult uprising and supporting Invasion?

Some of the Squat shopping.

...and all three types of the orginal heavy weapons.

Finally I got the Skaven army varnished and based by the end of November too!

The whole 3,000 point Skaven army.

210 Miniatures, and also in addition the Weapons Teams, Rat Ogres, and Character models.

Jezzailachis teams.

Warpfire-Thrower Teams.

Rat Ogres.

Stormvermin.

Clanrats.

More Clanrats.

Skaven Slaves.

As December started I had taken advantage of 'Black Friday' and bought in a sale some Kromlech Soviet style Ork heads made to work with the current Citadel range of Space Orks. I made up some test models, and am pleased with the results. When I start painting the army it will be a Soviet themed looking army.

Soviet Orks!

Mid-December I carried on mybuying Squats from e-bay. and also picked up a Citadel Paranoia miniature. I wanted the extra model so I could paint up the Alpha Complex Human force from the White Dwarf #112 Paranoia/40k crossover scenario 'Vulture Warriors from Dimension X meet plenty of Cheerful Orks with Plasma Cannon'. Once done, I painted them up, another fun little project to keep me ticking over and in the habit of painting.

Loyal servants of the Computer.

Troubleshooter Team, Red Clearance.

IntSec Blue Troopers.

Troubleshooter Bot Support Team, Red Clearance.

Squat Exo-Armoured Trikes!

Converted Warlord with Multi-Melta.

As the year draws to a close I have started my Squat army 'Brighthelmstone Stronghold' redux. I have been repainting the Squats by adding green to the paint scheme and re-basing them as I was first going to when I painted the army at the start of the year.

Squat army version 2.

I have mostly followed the Squat painting guide in the Book of the Astronimican (1988), and rebased them using Citadel's 'Agrellan Earth'.

Close up.

Current WIP.

I will be doing a proper update on the Squats in the new year.

...and that was 2014. I am happy with what I have managed to paint this year, my e-bay and store finds, and the 5,000 point game. I am also very happy with the 55k+ views for the blog.

I do feel that I have lacked focus this year, and despite work and other distractions, I could have done more painting if I had been more focused. Also I feel that I have neglected my blog a little towards the end of this year, but that was mainly due to work and illness. I plan to have a better focus for 2015, and will be doing an update in the new year of my 'to do' list.

My next blog update will be more Squats, with an in-depth look at the redux of the army.

↧

60,000 views and the Space Slann project.

January 7, 2015, 2:45 am

≫ Next: Space Slann painted

≪ Previous: Review of 2014.

21 Space Slann in the jungle.

On the left, Quinletz, the Warbands Commander.

I have painted him up as an albino Slann as the background suggests that brightly coloured or albino Slann can be extrovert, talented, or noteworthy in some way.

On the right is his second in command, Huvez.

Two Sschoi.

I have painted the one on the left similar to the Slann on page 12 of the Rogue Trader rulebook.

Two CMMR. Xix 's .

Another CMMR. Xix, and Llamas.

I am not sure if Llamas's gun is a Las-gun or a Graviton Gun, or maybe even a Needler?

Two Holx's .

On the right is Xvarn, who will act as a squad leader.

Two Scoitz's.
I painted the one on the right the same as one of my fantasy army's Scout units.

Another Scoitz, and a Olassa.

Two more Olassa's.

Final Olassa.

I have painted him up similar to the Strawberry Posion Dart Frog, which I also used as a basis for another pair of fantasy army's Slann units.

The painting table, only eight left to paint. :)

Next blog update will be the finished Space Slann. I have a lot more time free now that Xmas is over, so I can get busy painting :)

↧

Space Slann painted

January 16, 2015, 1:05 pm

≫ Next: A bakers dozen of Great Goblins, more Goblins, and four lonesome Half Orcs.

≪ Previous: 60,000 views and the Space Slann project.

It's been a good start to 2015 as I have finished painting my Space Slann force in about a fortnight. Some of the Space Slann were painted before I embarked on this project, but I wanted to re-do or refine the painting I had already done on those, as well as painting the others from scratch. They all needed rebasing too.

After collecting the Space Slann at the time, and on and off over the years, I had at last got my Space Slann collection finished in 2013 with an e-bay purchase of 'Quinletz', meaning I had at least one of each of the orginal twelve models released (but alas not the unreleased Slann, yet). So, I had enough other Slann by the end of 2014 to create a small but usable Rogue Trader force.

I like the Slann. As evident from my fantasy battle army collection I have always liked the Von Daniken-sque' idea of an ancient mystical spacefaring race. When Rogue Trader was released I was eager to use a Space Slann army (which I did for a while, much to the annoyance of the local GW at the time!). I liked the fact that the 40k models background, and design concept linked them to the mystic Pre-Colombian looking feel which typified the fantasy range. I like the idea that the fantasy Slann and Space Slann could be used together, the small Space Slann force perhaps supporting the larger primatively equipped Slann army.

When painting the Space Slann I wanted to keep that look in mind, painting them in bright colours, and using some of the skin colours which I had used in my fantasy army, but like them, keeping green as the domiant colour. In addition I also wanted to give the Space Slann an added element of kitsch, and a 1960's/1970's sci-fi feel, and so I painted some of the furs, equipment, and weapons even brighter, unnatural colours, or off/white. Think Original series Star Trek meets Roxy Music, meets Steve Harley, with Aztec additions!. I also decided to base them the same as my fantasy battle army's Slann Scouts, with long grass/reeds and flowers on the bases, to give that added skirmish feel to them.

In the Rogue Trader rulebook you can randomly rolls up the size of the squads, number of heavy/special weapons, and equipment. In this I cheated a little bit and for ease sake and organised the Slann into five squads (or Warbands as they are referred to) of five Slann, and have two independent characters. I do still have a converted fantasy Slann Wizard on a Palaquin I will paint at a later date, but I wanted to just focus on the TSF 18 Range of Space Slann for the moment.

Concerning weapons, I had some damaged models (I had in times past converted three of them up to act as character models in my fantasy army, but decided to re-convert them up to 40k) which I had now earmarked for converting up with heavy weapons or other weapons, and so I just rolled for them on the relevant charts. I have'nt rolled for the rest of the equipment, or worked out an actual army list, but given the high previlance psykers and access to exotic equipment, the force would cost more points than one might at first think. I will sort out an army list in the near future.

Enjoy :)

The complete Space Slann force, 27 Slann.

5 Warbands of 5 Slann, and two independent Warleader characters.

I am very happy with the colourful look and the overall feel of the army.

On the left the overall Warbands leader, 'Quinletz'.

I have painted him up as an albino as the Rogue Trader rulebook suggest that albino or brightly coloured Slann might be gifted in some way.

On the right is 'Huvez', acting as the second in command.

Rear view.

The first Warband

The Warband leader of the first Warband, 'Capt.Haxl'.

I am unsure what his pistol is, but I like his headress.

On the left a converted 'Holx' miniatures, armed with a Space Marine/Imperial Guard Conversion Beamer. I have used several really Rogue Trader Imperial items. In the background it suggests that Slann trade with all races for items, and use similar items to the Imperium.

I painted his wrist bangles with Vallejo fluorescent green as a change from the gold, and to give a slightly more sci fi feel.

On the right is 'Scotiz'.

Rear view of the converted Holx. I added a couple of RTB101 Space Marine bits to bulk out the rear of the model and fit better with the Conversion Beamer.

On the left 'Sgt.Yotiz', and on the right CMMR. Xix.

The second Warband.

The leader of the second Warband, 'Ixtacha'.

On the left, a 'Holx' miniature.

I have painted him with a more uniform look, and used a dark green mixed with Vallejo's "Metal Medium".

On the right is another CMMR. Xix.

Left is Sschoi, armed with something which I think might be either a Las-gun, Gravition Gun, or Needler.

On the right is a 'Olassa' Slann, painted up to look a little like a Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, which is the same paint scheme as two units of Venom Tribes in my fantasy Slann army.

The third Warband.

'Xvarn', the mottled skinned leader of the Warband.

Another 'Scotiz' miniature (right), and 'Olassa' (left).

Another 'Sgt.Yoitz' armed with an Imperial Las-Cannon.

Like the Holx miniature's green armour earlier I have painte it using dark green and Vallejo Metal Medium to give a slighty more sci fi and less Imperial feel to it.

On the right is another 'Holx' miniature.

Right view of the converted 'Sgt.Yoitz', like the Conversion Beamer Slann, with some RTB101 equipment.

The fourth Warband.

Warband leader 'Llamas', armed with the mystery rifle.

Another pair of 'Olassa' and 'Scotiz' miniautres.

I have photographed them from this angle to show the rear of these models. You can see front shots of them from the Warband group photogrpah above.

Left, a converted 'Ixtacha' miniature with a converted Chaos Space Marine/Renegade Grenade Launcher.

On the right is another 'Sgt.Yoitz'. I have painted him up similar to the Slann on page 12 of the Rogue Trader Rulebook.

Warband five.

The leader of Warband five, a 'Xvarn' miniature with a Space Marine Bolter.

Another CMMR.Xix (left) and 'Sschoi', which I again also painted in a similar fashion to the Slann on page 12 of the Rogue Trader Rulebook.

Yet another pair of 'Olassa' and 'Scotiz' miniatures.

The 'Scotiz' Slann is the same skin colour as one of my fantasy Slann Scout units.

The two Slann I painted in homage to the Slann on page 12 of the Rogue Trader Rulebook.

Space Slann emerge from the jungle and ambush Necrons,

another encounter in the ancient struggle between the 'Old Ones' and the slaves of the C'tan.

The 1987 Rogue Trader release sheet for TSF 18 Space Slann release.

Now that I have finished my first project of 2015 I plan, despite the tempation to paint the rest of the fantasy Slann army just yet, to revisit my Squat Army project.

↧

A bakers dozen of Great Goblins, more Goblins, and four lonesome Half Orcs.

August 16, 2015, 1:22 pm

≫ Next: The First Rogue Trader Releases: The Complete Set.

≪ Previous: Space Slann painted

Again due to work this blog update is a little later than planned! I had planned on updating yesterday, but fell alseep after work!

After my milestone of 80,000+ views last week, I have reached another one this week with 100 followers! Thank you all 100 of you for following my blog.

Despite my delay in updating, I have had a productive painting week, painting no less than 22 miniatures. There are 13 Great Goblins/Gnolls (aka a 'Bakers Dozen' for those of you unfamilar with the term), 5 ordinary Goblins (as if there could anything ordinary about Goblins!), and 4 half Orcs.

The half Orcs are 4 Troopers from 'Mudats Mercenary Half Orc Manics'. I only have 4 Troopers of this Regiment Renown, but I want to eventually assemble a whole regiment. This regiment was one of the Regiments of Renown which, according to the various backgrounds, took part in the 'Goblin Wars'. They did'nt do very well!

The rest of the Great Goblins/Gnolls and Goblins are all wonderfull examples of the FTG and early C-series ranges, and I really enjoyed painted them.

Enjoy :)

Goblins, Great Goblins, and Half Orcs.

13 Great Goblins/Gnolls.

These Gnolls/Great Goblins can be found both in the Citadel FTG and C12 ranges.

5 Goblins atop of the hill.

4 Half Orcs of 'Mudats Mercenary Half Orc Manics'.

On the left is a FTG2 Gnoll/Goblin attacking with a hand weapon. On his shield is written 'Goblin' in the Dark Elvish runic alphabet from the 'Forces of Fantasy' supplement.
On the right is a FTG1 Gnoll/Goblin with pole arm. I think the striped/banded haft adds a bit of fantasy Goblin colour to the whole thing.

Rear view of the above Goblin.
I took a rear photograph to show that unusually for this range he has a hood, and in addiiton that it is a chainmail hood, historically known as a Coif.

A FTG3 Gnoll/Goblin standing with hand weapon, and next to him with a rather snazzy hood buckle, a FTG3 Gnoll/Goblin.
Both of the shields are the wicker looking shields which have metal strut supports. I sometimes paint these as wood effect, or as here on the right, painted wood effect.

FTG3 and FTG 2 Gnoll/Goblins.
The one on the left has a really characterful face and big nose.

I have photographed better pictures of the shields further down this update.

Another pair of FTG2 (left) and FTG3 Gnoll/Goblins.
I painted the Gnoll/Goblin on the right with a grey beard, drab brown clothing, and red shield, as he reminded me of Jeremy Corbyn. Quite apt really as both have been around since the early 1980's! ;)

Yet another FTG3 Gnoll/Goblin attacking with hand weapon (he has a morning star which is obscured by his head), and a FTG 6 Gnoll/Goblin Halbardier.

FTG2 (left) and 3 (right) Gnoll Goblins.

Finally a FTG1 Gnoll/Goblin with Pole arm, in this case a scythe, no doubt stolen from a farmer, which is why I decorated the base with Sunflowers.

Gnoll/Great Goblin shield designs.

A pair of C13 Range Night Goblins.
The shield design on the left hand Goblin was based on one from the Orcs, page 91 of 'Warhammer Armies'.
Like all the non/Gnoll/Great Goblins or Lessers Goblins, I am painting their skin a pallid green, as per the suggestion in the 'Forces of Fantasy' supplement. I think it suits them, looks more 'releastic' than the brighter green, and helps to differentiate them more.

Two more C13 Night Goblins.
I think the little pinkish nose adds even more character.

Final C13 Night Goblin, with a spear.
Again I have paitned bands of colour on the spear shaft as I think it adds extra colour and a more fantasy feel.

2 Half Orc Troopers from 'Mudats Mercenary Half Orc Manics' Regiment of Renown.
I only have 4 Troopers and no Command so far, but hope to add more.
Here are front and rear views.

Close up of the shield and face.

Next weeks update may be more Goblins, or something else. This is'nt very helpful I know, but I have'nt painted anything since these Goblins yet, and I still have a little Rogue Trader project on the back burner I want to paint.

↧

The First Rogue Trader Releases: The Complete Set.

August 25, 2015, 9:37 am

≫ Next: Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army.

≪ Previous: A bakers dozen of Great Goblins, more Goblins, and four lonesome Half Orcs.

Before the release Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader in the latter part of 1987, there was a small release of Sci Fi miniatures, some of which were destined to be a part of the game. One set of these were what is now know as 'The First 40,000 (Rogue Trader) releases'. These were a set of 14 miniatures shown below:

Recently I managed to aquire the last two miniatures I needed to complete the set; the Dark Elf Trooper (thank you Steve Casey), and the Imperial Bodyguard.
I had originally bought some of the set in the summer of 1987, just before Rogue Trader was released, I bought the Orc, Goblin, and two of the Human Troopers all in one blisterpack. Over the years I picked up many of the others, most of them being relatively common to find and being present in other ranges. Only the Piscean Warrior and Pirate were not widely released, but I managed to buy both by chance in the late 1990's.

So as I had finally completed the set I thought I should now paint them as a set. I decided to paint and base each of them in an individual manner to suggest the breath and diversity of the 40k universe and the differing environments. Also, it allowed me to play around with different types of bases and colour schemes without having to paint an entire squad/army.

I really quite like the set of miniatures. They capture the pre/early Rogue Trader era which I like, and are a diverse collection of individual models whose quality of sculpting and design still, in my opinion, stand up today. It was great fun to paint them up in different paint schemes, and with different bases. I'm also pleased with how they look photographed in different terrian.

Enjoy :)

The complete set of the First Rogue Trader releases.

Telepath.

Personally I think this miniature bears a striking resemblance to the Talsiman Timescape 'Scientist', and also Lando Calrissian's servants, the Lobots, from 'The Empire Strikes Back'.

He also does'nt look much like a Telepath, but more of a Techpriest, which is what he was later listed as in the Citadel 'Blue Catalogue', but not before being also listed as a Telepath!

I have painted him in a workman like dull grey coat, and given him a base reminiscent of a metal walkway in a research facility. I painted his eyes silver on a whim to suggest some sort of implant.

Rear view showing some sort of device, and the implant on the back of his head.

Ground Combat Trooper.

This model bears more than a passing look of a 'Souther Trooper' from the 2000AD comic strip 'Rogue Trooper'. This is'nt suprising as not only were Games Workshop working on their Rogue Trooper game at the same time, but I am sure many of the GW staff were fans of it.

So, I have painted the miniature up to look like a 'Souther', even giving him a desolate Nu-Earth looking base.

Incedently, the shoulder pad had what looked like a '7' on it, but as it was quite lacking in depth, I painted the 'Souther' symbol over it.

He was later released in the RT7 Mercenaries under the name 'Abbadon'.

Rear view.

The Piscean Warrior.
(also know later as a Saharduin).

This is one on my favourite miniatures, and was only avaliable for a short time in 1987, and so is consequently quite rare now.

He is basically a humanoid shark with a sub-machine gun and what looks like a powersword. He is wearing some sort of environment suit, probably stopping him from drying out.

He was never part of the Rogue Trader Bestiary, and no rules were released, but they were sometimes mentioned in backgrounds.

The right side showing the gun and backpack clearer.

Space Dwarf.

A small (even by later Squat standards) Space Dwarf in power armour.

He reminded me of the some of the Sci Fi book covers from the 1960's/70's and so I painted him up in a slightly retro looking colour, and strange alien world base.

The Space Dwarf found his way into two further ranges. First he ended up in the RT7 Mercenaries range as 'Irn-Bonce The Squat'. He later ended up in the main Squat range as 'Grenade Launcher'.

Rear view, showing the backpack.

Imperial Garrison Trooper.

A human member of the Imperial Army armed with what appears to be a Las-gun. I have painted him up a as a standard looking Army Trooper, looking slightly like a World War 2 American GI. I have him a red colour combat helmet to give a more sci fi touch.

This miniature too ended up as part of the RT7 Mercenaries range, named 'Kyla Condotti'.

Rear view showing the powerpack for the las-gun.

Space Goblin.

This lovely little critter has a shotgun and hunting knife, and is wearing a Stahlhelm.

He is listed as a Space Goblin, as being released before Rogue Trader, he would'nt have been listed as a Gretchin. He ended up in the Gretchin range later on, and spawned an alternative sculpt in that range too.

Given his Stahlhelm I thought he would look good painted in Wehrmacht colours.

I painted the base to look like a ruined World War 2 townscape, using some tiny little bricks from e-bay and giving the brown base a drybrush of 'Light Brick' coloured paint.

Rear view with a power pack.

Imperial Light Trooper.

This miniature is a conversion of the Imperial Garrison Trooper, and basically the same miniature but with a gas mask sculpted on.

I have painted him up in snow camo as I thought he was slightly 'Star Wars' looking, and I wanted to try out using snow basing.

Again he ended up in the RT7 Mercinaires range, named 'No-Face Fargo'.

Side view.

Imperial Bodyguard.

He is an Adeptus Custodes, but rather than paint him in the contemporary colours of gold armour, I opted for a more Rogue Trader era approach. In the Rogue Trader Rulebook, on page 172, there is a great piece of artwork entitled 'The Emperor's Palace'. In it are Adeptus Custodes in dark green metallic armour and red plumes. In addition there is another piece of artwork on page 135 show the Adeptus Custodes from the front with almost Harlequin like trousers. So I based the paint scheme on these two pieces of artwork.

Rear view.

I based him on marble flagstone looking tiles, made from plasticard.

Imperial Psycher.

The above name was the orginal spelling, later changed to Psyker. This miniature later found his way into the RT601 Adventurers ranges as 'Astropath Yerl'. This makes sense as he looks more like an Astropath.

Incedently, he can also be found in the same artwork on page 135 as the Adeptus Custodes.

I painted him up in the green robes of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, as outlined in the Rogue Trader Rulebook (page 141).

Rear view.

I thought I would paint the sash red as it complements the green. I painted the staff black to suggest a Force Rod.

Pirate.

This minitaure is a conversion from a Citadel C01 Fighters series miniature named Cedric. He has had his sword replaced with a gun, which is used in the Judge Dredd ranges.

Although he looks a little like Ned Kelly with the helmet, he also looked more 1960/70's campy type of Sci-fi. So I painted him up in a silver suit and with a gold gun.

In line with this I based him up in a typical Star Trek: Orginal Series looking base.

Rear view.

Dark Elf Space Trooper.

This is the miniature which eldued for a long time, and I was'nt disappointed.

Long before the Dark Eldar this miniature was produced. His mesh/chainmail like armour is similar to the later Eldar miniatures, as are the helm and armour plates. However he or she (it's not easy to be sure, looking at the chest plates it might be female) has a slightly different, more slender feel to it.

I painted the miniature purple and gold as I always envisioned it in my minds eye these colours, I wanted to have a non releastic colour scheme, and one not close to the Eldar.

Right view showing more of the armour, and the strange gun. It looks like a form of flamer.

Rear view, showing the large backpack/energy pack.

Imperial Heavy Trooper.

This human is, as his name suggests, wearing some heavy chest and shoulder armour, as well as elbow, knee, foot armour, a heavy helmet, and gauntlets.

In addition he is armed with an Auto-gun.

He too ended up in the RT7 Mercenaries range, as 'Fast-Star John', before finally ending up in the Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard range.

Rear view showing his backpack, pistol, and other equipment.

I painted him up in temperate woodland colours, and did the base to match.

Space Orc with Blaster.

First thing to notice is he is an Orc, not Ork. Orc with a 'k' did'nt appear until Rogue Trader was released. Some people don't like the spelling, but I think is fun and gave the Ork's a differnet and more Sci fi feel.

He is armed with a Blaster, another name given to Bolt guns as well as maybe borrowed from Star Wars.

I painted him up as more of a pirate and scavanger type, with oddments of clothes and armour, and based him as though he is scavenging in a junkyard or onboard a deralict space hulk.

This miniature ended up being very widely released in the more general Rogue Trader Space Ork range, and was also the basis for a couple of variant sculpts in Space Ork releases in 1988/9.

Rear view showing the armour and the raggedy clothes.

The rusty rubbish on the base is made from old bits of chopped up plastic sprue, a few cut out plasti card tiles, a bit of lead sprue, and a cut up lollipop stick!

Imperial Heavy Infantry.

This Infantryman is a variant sculpt on the Imperial Heavy Trooper. He is the same miniature except that the head and helmet are different, and he has a different backpack (see below).

He is painted up from a piece of artwork on page 188 of the Roge Trader Rulebook. He represents 'Amry- Trooper of Gian's Legion'. I did vary the paint scheme a little, painting the kneepads and boot armour blue instead of black, to be in keeping with the rest of the armour.

I gave him an urban ruined base to lighten up the look of the model from the blue and black, and also because I had'nt done an urban base for this range of miniatures.

Like many others, he also ended up in the RT7 Mercenaries range, as 'Space-Doubt Sam'. He also made it to the Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard range.

Rear view, showing the different backpack.
The backpack is the same as the sculpted on backpack on the C100 Space Marines range from 1986.

This weeks update has been delayed by work, and as next week is Bank Holiday I am sure next weeks update may be as well. I am not sure what I will be painting this week. I have taken a short break on the 'Goblin Wars' to paint the above miniatures, and am currently sorting out some 'Secrets of the Third Riech British from West Wind, which I purchased recently. So I have a mind to paint a few of those before returning to the Goblins. :)

↧

Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army.

September 3, 2015, 1:43 pm

≫ Next: More Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army, and a Firefly.

≪ Previous: The First Rogue Trader Releases: The Complete Set.

After painting the Rogue Trader first releases, I have been in a more Sci-Fi mood. So the other week I submitted a small mail order to West Wind Productions for some of their Secrets of the Third Reich Range.
Their website can be found here:
http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/

I have wanted to buy some of these for a while. The premise of the game is that World War Two carried on beyond 1945 due to the development of advanced sciences and the use of Occult forces, and fits into the wider genre of 'Weird War Two' that has been gaining in popularity in the last few years. I could be wrong, but I think that West Wind were one of the first companies to pursue this genre.

A lot of the background is based on much of the well documented history written on what the Third Reich were up to with regards to technology, as well some of the more esoteric ideas surronding their Occult interests. I have'nt the space or time to go into everything, but it is fairly well known that the NAZI's were developing some very hi-tech technology, and that the SS had a interest in Volk-ish based Occultism and a pre-occupation with the Spear of Destiny. The Allies had interests in these areas too. In the UK there was Frank Whittle's Jet engine, enigma de-coding/computing, and in the area Occult with Churchill working with Mediums and Occultists.

Now I don't (yet) intend playing West Winds' game, but I wanted to collect and paint a semi Sci Fi/post apocalypse force along the lines of World War 2. I was'nt keen on collecting the NAZI's, but was drawn to the British and Commonwealth forces. West Wind also produce USA and Russian forces.

The design approach is to base the miniatures in a World War Two aesthetic, but to add more hi-tech elements. For the British this means the infantry dress in late war uniforms, but also with a degree of body armour. The weapons include an assault weapon version of the Bren Gun, an anti-Mech gun, and a magazine loaded mortar. The British infantry are armed with a carbine version of the Lee Enfield. Like some of the other forces, The British, have access to basic Mech Suits, and Occultists, but I have'nt purchased any of these as I just wanted to have the Infantry, and I was'nt too struck on the design of the Mechs.

Sculpting wise, the miniatures are basically World War Two British/Commonwealth miniatures, but with a form of body armour. They are supplied on 30mm lipped bases. Also, the miniatures come with seperate heads, which for the Secrets of the Third Reich range are gas mask wearing heads and wearing the Brodie (Trench) Helmet.

Price wise they are'nt too expensive, £1.75 per infantry man, and £6.50 to £8.00 per heavy weapon crew. Normal World War Two miniatures will be cheaper, but I liked the slightly different style from the Weird War Two look. If you are on a budget, then West Wind do sell packs of the seperate heads seperately for all the nations, and so could be used to convert up other normal World War Two ranges. Warlord games do plastic British and other nations, although I have no first hand knowlage of the miniatures themselves.

Most of the casting is good quality, although there were one of two miniatures with a few lumps of heavy flash. In addition the helmets on the seperate heads are'nt always crisp casts all the way around, and have a heavy cast line on the top which requires cleaning. In addtion I found the heads a pain to glue on. The heads need to be clipped from the sprues carefully to not destroy the pug needed to fix to the body, and some of the bodies require a little drilling. However, if you are used to basic modelling, there's nothing to worry about.

All in all, I am very pleased with them. They look great, and are fun and easy to paint. I still have about 50 of them to paint.
Enjoy :)

A little batch of British Infantry.

I went for the standard World War Two British paint scheme and decided on 1940's, pre concrete cities, urban style bases, with tiny bricks, barbed wire and mud.

There are four types of basic infantry with Lee-Enfield carbines.

He are two of them...

...and the second two.

All of the infantry have what at first look a little static poses, but with the posing of the heads, they look a lot more dynamic, advancing, and more battlefield aware.

Infantryman with an Assault Bren.

The Assault Bren seems to be a Weird War Two invention, a sort of 'sawn off' Bren Gun.

Vickers Heavy Machine Gun.

Side view.

British Mortar.

This is an unusual looking Mortar and is magazine fed. It does'nt look like the Mortar used by the British forces in World War Two, but does look a little like the Italian Brixia Mortar.

Rear view, showing the rear of the infantry body armour.

I had a 'spare' miniature from the Heavy Vickers Machine gun (yes, I know that in reality they had three crew but after years of 40k I thought two crew were enough. And anyway there's still a war on so manpower must be short!).

So, with the addition of a GW Catachan radio pack and using the radioman head from he command pack, I converted up a comm's trooper.

Close up of the barbed wire.

I bought two metres of this wire, snipped it to size, curled it around a paint brush handle, and glued them to the base. Then once dry I painted it brown and light drybrushed silver.

Bricks!

I bought some really tiny bricks, made from actual brick, from a dolls house supplier from e-bay. £9.99 for 250.

Ok, not a Secret of the Third Reich (well, probably not!), but a bit of fun.

I have several spare Rogue Trader 40k Orks, and have painted up this one in German colours, and based him up the same as the British. I have a vague plan to paint up the spare Orks (and, ahem, the few ones I have bought from e-bay recently) to act as a foe to the British. Also, like the solid bases Gnolls/Goblins, I wanted to paint up a few of these miniatures to on a more releastic paint scheme and on an individual basis.

Next update will be more of The Secrets of the Third Reich British, including a Warlord Games Sherman Firefly I bought yesterday and glued together this afternoon.

I will be getting back to painting Goblins in about a month or so.

↧

More Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army, and a Firefly.

September 14, 2015, 10:28 am

≫ Next: Secrets of the Third Reich British: Finished.

≪ Previous: Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army.

A slightly delayed blog update again this week due to work commitments. I've had some time to do painting but not enough time to blog. Still, at least I have got the painting done. :)

Carrying on from last week, I have been painting more Secrets of the Third Reich British, and also a Sherman Firefly tank. I have managed to paint 23 infantry and a tank. The infantry were much the same style as the last batch, but they included two Officers, a Medic, another weapons team, two Snipers, as well as four Sten Gunners and ten Riflemen. All of the miniatures were painted in the same World War Two style paint scheme.

The Sherman Firefly was bought from Warlord Games rather than West Wind. They do produce a Firefly, but I bought the Warlord Games tank as an impulse purchase from a (relatively) local model shop. I bought a Sherman Firefly as in World War Two it was a British conversion of an American made tank which was fitted with a bigger British gun. The Firefly was one of the few allied tanks which could take on German Tiger and Panther tanks, and so I thought it would be still around in a Weird War Two genre.

Enjoy :)

Infantry and Tank.

Commanding Officer with Pistol.
He is from the command pack, and has a seperate head from a special command head spure.
For those who are more familar with World War Two, I painted the Officers with regulation brown boots!

On the left, an Officer with Sten Gun.
Right is a Medic.

Anti-Mech gun team.
This model is designed to be a portable anti-mech gun team. The model seems to be based on the real lfe Boyes Anti-Tank gun, used in early in World War Two.

Snipers.
I like theses two miniatures, the have a lot of character and the camo cloak look good. The heads are from both the command head sprue and the sniper head sprue.

Two soldiers with 'Packed 30 Calibre Machine gun'.
This seems to be a 'sawn-off' verson of the American made 30 Calibre machine gun. I like the pose of both of the miniatures, looking mean, and meaning business.

Two Sten Gunners.

Two more Sten Gunners.

Ten Riflemen.
These are all armed with the Lee-Enfield Carbine. They are the standard four sculpts from the basic Trooper pack, with one exception,the Soldier waving his arm in the background. He is from the Command pack.

Close up of a couple of the bases.
Mostly I have used the model 'barbed wire' and bricks, and a few pieces of model plastic fence (as above on the right) or painted match sticks.

Sherman Firefly.
This resin model (with metal barrel and headlights) is from Warlord Games, and was fun to paint. It is a good quality sculpt, but I was a little disappointed with the prep work needed (as detailed below).
I painted the Sherman Firefly in standard World War Two colours, and will probably add some number detailing a little later.
The odd swirley pattern on the tip of the gun barrel was used in World War Two to disguise the end of the barrel and break up it's outline in an attempt (apparently successful) to convince the Germans that it was an ordinary Sherman Tank. This was because normal Sherman stood little chance of destroying the German Tiger or Panther Tanks, but the Firefly could, making it a priority target.

Front view, with a British soldier for scale.
The tank came with a metal turret commander as well, but I decided not to use him as it meant messing about with a head swap to give him a gasmask head.

The main disappointment with what was a nice kit was the post casting sprue pieces on the front of the tank. They were very thick, and close to some important front details. It was only because I have a thin bladed saw that I managed to remove them successfully.
Although I like the model, it does put me off buying any other resin tanks from Warlord Games.

...and finally another Weird War Two Space Ork, painted up in World War Two colours. I did give him a little more of a technological feel with the display panels on his left arm.

He is the Citadel Rogue Trader LE1 Space Orc miniature from 1987.

Next weeks update will be the last of the Weird War Two British. I have thirteen nearly finished, including a Bazooka team, Piat's, and Assualt Bren guns. I also have another twelve Riflemen to assemble and paint.

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Secrets of the Third Reich British: Finished.

September 26, 2015, 1:45 pm

≫ Next: 85,000+ views and Pygmies with Blowpipes.

≪ Previous: More Secrets of the Third Reich: British Army, and a Firefly.

A slightly shorter, and yet again a work delayed blog update!

I have finished the last batch of miniatures for my Secrets of the Third Reich British Army force, finishing the entire project. Over the last week and a half I have painted 12 Riflemen, 4 PIAT armed soldiers, 7 Assualt Bren Gunners, a Bazooka team, and (converted) Heavy Mortar Team.

I have enjoyed collecting and painting them, and they have made a pleasant change. Although I don't play West Winds 'Secrets of the Third Reich' game, I like the Weird War Two setting, and the miniatures have a great post-apocalyptic feel blended with a World War Two aesthetic. I must admit though, like all uniformed armies, they did get a little 'samey' towards the end, but I'm happy with the overall look of the miniatures and pleased to have completed something I have wanted to do for a number of years.

Enjoy :)

The last batch of painting.

Bazooka Team.

Four soldiers armed with PIAT's.

The PIAT, (The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank) was a British re-useable man portable anti tank weapon designed and manufactured during World War Two.

Looking at them I think that if I was to have painted up in silver or gold they would look very Sci-Fi, like something out of a 1950's B-Movie!

Three Assault Bren Gunners.

As I mentioned in an earlier update, I think this is a purely Weird War Two weapon. As far as I know the British never made a Assualt Bren Gun, althuogh I understand there were wartime prototypes. I think it is meant to be a form of Assualt Rifle, the British equivalent of the German StG 44.

Four Assault Bren Gunners.

Converted Heavy Mortar.

I had two 'spare' kneeling soldiers (that is I only used two crew for the heavy weapons teams), and so I added an old Citadel plastic Imperial Guard Mortar to make a heavy mortar.

Twelve riflemen

The whole British Force.

I split the force down into four 10 man squads, each with one Sten gunner, one PIAT, two Assualt Bren gunners, and six riflemen (including an NCO). I also made 'Assualt Squad' of five comprising two 30 Calibre machine gunners, two riflemen, and an NCO.

In addition, there are the various heavy weapon teams, sniper teams, officers/command personal, and of course the Sherman Firefly.

10 man Squad, split into two 5 man Squads.

I have one with four riflemen and the PIAT, the other with the Assualt Brens, Sten, and a pair of riflemen.

The 30 'Cal' squad.

At a later date I might add a suitable looking Weird War Two Mech, and maybe another tank, but for the time being I'm keen to move onto other projects.

On that subject I have been wanting to return to painting more of the Slann army. I have already been tinkering with shield replacments for one of the Jungle Brave regiments. However I have also been painting up some more Pygmies, with a slightly different approach.

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85,000+ views and Pygmies with Blowpipes.

October 6, 2015, 4:55 am

≫ Next: 1980's Warhammer Posters.

≪ Previous: Secrets of the Third Reich British: Finished.

As of today I have reached 85,987 views of my blog!! That is something I find really incredible considering I only started the blog in April 2013, updating about once a week on my latest random project. Again I would like to say thank you to everyone who has viewed my blog and takes an interest in my collection.

In the last week or so I have wanted to, and I felt I have, tackled a little problem.
Ignoring the terrible pun, I have wanted to find a good paint scheme for my C27 Pygmies. As many people familar with the range may know, the Pygmies are 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle allies to the Slann. They are designed to be jungle dwelling savages in the fantasy South/Meso-American background that is Lustria.

The sculpts are however loosely based on Africans (there is an argument that they could be based on the Olmec, although whether the Olmecs were African or Native American is a debate in itself) and have a Zulu look to them and thier shields and weapons. They are also, to be honest, slightly caricaturistic and could be, especially if you consider them to be African, slightly racist. The exaggerated big lips and bone through the nose don't help.

Now I am not going to get into another big debate on the the range, although an interesting debate with links happened earlier on my blog here...
http://goblinlee.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/bonus-time-pygmies-and-few-slann.html

...as my main reason for me collecting Pygmies is as an ally to my Slann army, and as these were miniatures used at the time (1984 to 1992, basically 2nd and 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle), that is the reason for collecting them. Now to tone down the possible 'racist' or caracture look of them, to link them more with to the Slann and the pseudo Pre-Columbian American/Amazonian Indian look, and to make them look colourful, I decided to painted them with colourful warpaint.

Painting wise I was wanted to give the impression that each of the untis of the Pygmies were from different tibes. So to achieve this I gave each unit different warpaint schemes. When it comes to all things Lustrian I am always inspired by the 'Magnificent Sven' scenario from Warhammer 2nd Edition. This is true for the Pygmies as well. Even though they do not take part in the scenario, there is a mention of them in the background of 'Karl Ustracutter', mentioning that one of his previous expeditions was "...ambushed by a confederation of six cannibal tribes". I took the idea of a confederation of Pygmy tribes as the basis for my Pygmy Ally Contingent, and also as a good excuse to paint them with different warpaint schemes to vary the colours.
Enjoy :)

31 Pygmies.
I have painted two units of 10 Scouts, one unit of Pygmy Braves, and one Shaman.
The units are consist of three different miniatures; 'Puff', 'Ahg', and the 'Standard Bearer', as well as one 'Shaman' miniature.

10 Scouts with a standard bearer.
I added standard bearers to my Scout units as they are, unlike other skirmishers, able to engage in melee. giving them a Standard Bearer gives them that little bit of help if they get charged, or if they decide to engage in melee themselves (you never know!).

'Puff', 'Ahg', and the 'Standard Bearer'.
I chose a a mix of black and red warpaint for this unit. To highlight the indiviualistic nature of Scouts, I have painted each Pygmies warpaint with different designs. I used pictures of Amazonian Indians as a basis for inspiration.

More Scouts.
This unit is one I had painted last year, and so all I did was add warpaint, and swap in a Standard Bearer.

Last four.
I like Blowpipes as weapons in 43rd Edition. The D6 strength attack can be a nasty suprise to an enemy, and I find that Scout units can harass enemy flanks quite nicely.

The second Pygmy Scout unit.
Apart from the Standard Bearer, I decided to just use the 'Puff' miniature for this unit.

Standard Bearer and two 'Puffs'!

Three Scouts, this time with body warpaint as well.

Two more Scouts.
I painted the feathers of the blow darts green rather than red, so as not to clash with the warpaint.

Last two.

10 Pygmy Braves.
Unlike the Scouts, I did'nt give them a Standard bearer.
I am not sure if they are allowed to skirmish, Warhammer Armies is a little unclear on whether allies can Skirmishers or not. Even if they could, a Standard Bearer would be a waste of points and only useful if they were to engage in melee with other skirmishers.

The unit is composed of nine of the 'Agh' miniature, and one 'Puff' who acts as the unit champion.
I went for a skull, almost Mexican looking, style of warpaint.
Also, as painting the bone through the nose would not show up very well against the white warpaint, I painted it gold. Many Indian tribes around Colombia used a lot of gold nose pieces and jewellery (before the Spainish took most of it!).
With a couple of the warpaint schemes I plan to paint the bone either gold, jade green, or turquoise. I think this will add to the colour of the models, and also again tone down the caracture look.

Pygmy Shaman, a Level 15 Wizard.
The miniature is sculpted with what looks like grass skirts and hat. I painted these more colourful and ritual to suggest they were dyed, and gave him a skeletal warpaint.

Slann.
Apart from the Pygmies, I wanted to re-visit this unit of Jungle Braves Slann. I was not happy with the large shields they had, so I swapped them for smaller ones. I also added a little more brown shading to the yellow flesh colour.

I also tinkered with the standard, adding little more colour to it.

New (old) shields.

Karl Ustracutter has a few Pygmy problems somewhere deep in the Jungle!

I had intended to paint more Pygmies, perhaps even completing the Ally Contingents.

However as it's 'Orctober' ( http://ernysplace.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/orctober-is-here.html ), I have been sorting out my old Mithril Miniatures Mordor Orc Army (yes, an army of Mithril Miniatures) with an eye to re/painting them, so I shall see where my muse takes me.

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1980's Warhammer Posters.

October 20, 2015, 6:11 am

≫ Next: Mithril Miniatures Orcs

≪ Previous: 85,000+ views and Pygmies with Blowpipes.

I have'nt actually done any painting in the last week or so due to being very busy at work, ill with some kind of cold/flu, as well as also being a little 'in between' projects to focus on. So I thought I would post about something miniatures releated, but a little more unusual.

Whilst sorting out odds and ends and looking for something, I came across a couple of my old Warhammer posters I bought in the 1980's. One of them is the iconic Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader artwork used on the rulebook cover. This poster was released at the time of the Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader release as some sort of promotion.

The second poster is an early Warhammer Fantasy Battle poster. It is from 1984, and is very much a 1st Edition era poster, depicting a lot of old solid based miniatures, from Citadel, Ral Partha, and Minifigs. The miniatures belong to Gary Chalk and Joe Dever, and are depicted taking part in a battle scene, attacking a castle.

I bought both posters in late 1987, just as 40k was being released, and purchased them from a now long gone shops in Worthing called 'The Crazy Dwarf'. If you look in a few of the old White Dwarf magazines you can still find their adverts. It was a small shop, not far from the train station, and had a good range of roleplaying stuff and miniatures. It was here I bought my first Space Slann. I really love both of these posters, and had them on my wall (kept up with blu tack! :/ ) in the 1980's, and feel that both of them really capture the feel of their respective times. I will be getting both posters framed at some point soon.

UPDATE:
In conversation online I have discovered that the Warhammer poster was partly featured in a photograph in White Dwarf #62. It was entitled 'Attack on the Kai Monastery', and linked with the Lone Wolf background.
Zhu Bajiee updated about this on his Blog here:
http://realmofzhu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/rfm-lone-wolf-eclipse-of-kai-44.html

Enjoy :)

The Crimson Fists last stand on Rynns World.

One of the best pieces 40k artwork, and probably the most iconic Rogue Trader era artwork. Space Marines fighting Orks.

The poster measures 23 inches/59cm by 33 inches/83cm.

Close up of the Marines.

The menacing silhouettes of Space Ork Dreadnoughts emerging from the smoke.

Credits on the poster.

The Warhammer Fantasy poster.

The dimensions of the poster are 16 and a half inches/42cm by 23 and a half inches/59cm.
The style of the Warhammer logo, and the date, suggest to me that it more 1st Edition Warhammer, as do the old miniatures photographed!

The battle is mainly one of Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Lizardmen, and a few Chaos followers, attacking a castle defended by Humans and Elves.

Top left is a regiment of Tom Meier's Lizardman Warriors, whilst to their right are some of Nick Lund's early Chronicle Miniatures Orc Wolf Riders.

Bottom left is the Fiend Factory FF16-1 Giant Troll attacking with Spiked Club from Citadels first miniatures releases back in 1979.

Ral Partha Orcs leading a charge.

These were from the 'Chaos Wars' range, which is currently being brought back into production by Ral Partha themselves.

A forces of mainly Minifigs Pig-Faced Orcs, with a few Minifigs 'Valley of the Four Winds' range Orcs amonst them.
The Pig-Faced Orcs are also back in produced via Minfigs/Matchlock miniatures.
http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=3&CategoryID=35&SubCategoryID=202

A regiment of Citadel Fantasty Tribes Orcs (FTO range). Looking at them closely most of them seem to be the Orcs which ended up in the later C15 Armoured Orcs Range.

A mass of Nick Lunds Citadel era Chronicle Hobgoblins from the N12 Hobgoblins range. There looks to be a few of his earlier Chronicle range there too.

Another Chronicle Hobgoblin, this time the 'Shaman', fires a magical Fireball at the castles defences.

All around him is a large pack of Wolves, which are from Chronicles earlier CM Creatures and Monsters range.

There's a lot going on in this part of the battlefield!
Centre stage is one of Citadels/Tony Aklands Arcane Monstrosities, the TA4 Monstrous Orc War Machine.
In front of the War Machine are a group of FTO/C Series Orc archers and warriors, and the odd Pig-Faced Orc. Behind them are some of Citadels FTG-1 Gnolls/Great Goblins with Pole Arms.
Just above them to their left is a regiment of Hinchcliffe Goblins armed with spears.
Just beyond them, lurking in the tree line, is the orginal version of Grom and his Goblin Guards (RR3 Grom's Goblin Guard Regiment of Renown).
In front of Grom, partly obsucured by the Warmachine, is a regiment of FTN Night Goblins/C13 Night Goblins, led by a Chronicle Miniatures CM21G Giant Orc.

A little ahead of the miniatures in the previous photograph is this regiment. It consists of a mixture FTO range Orcs/C Series Orcs, including some of the FTO-04 Orcs with seperate Spears, some Ral Partha Orcs, and a Fantasy Tribe FTT4 Troll in Chainmail with Scimitar.

In the top left hand corner of the poster are some Great Goblin/Gnolls lurking (as Goblins are want to do sometimes!). The regiment is composed of the FTG14 Gnorman the Gnoll (aka Gilbert the Goblin) miniature.
Behind them are some C13 Night Goblins, also used as Red Goblins. To thier right and front are the Hinchcliffe Goblins and C Series Orcs from a couple of photographs ago.

Down the bottom and centre of the poster, near the 'Warhammer' logo, is a small group of Chaos Warriors. They look like they are a mix of the first version of the SS1 Speciality Set-Warriors of Chaos, and CO1 Chaos Fighters.

Along from them, in the corner is a C35 Chaos Warrior.

Around him are Tom Meier Lizardmen, C Series Orcs, and more Chaos Warriors.

Below all of this are the credits for this poster reading,

"Figures and Terrain Gary Chalk & Joe Dever, Photography Andy Whale & Joe Dever.

C Gary Chalk, Joe Dever 1984.

Back up the top of the poster are more Citadel series Goblins, and Runequest Trollkin in the foreground.They are supported by some Chronicle N13 Kobolds.

Further down the battle line are more Chronicle miniatures, earlier variants of his Wolf Rider range.

The next few photographs are of the banners of the attacking army.
Here is a wonderful banner of a Jaguar, carried aloft by a Champion of Chaos.

A half moon banner, carried by a Ral Partha Orc.

The Chronicle Hobgoblins have a rune banner emblazoned with a heart pieced with a dagger on.

Another Ral Partha Orc, this time with a magical looking banner with what looks like a magical vortex or galaxy on it.
All of the banners are lovely and full of details, and really capture that early 1980's feel.
Behind the above Orc are a pair of Fantasy Tribes range Giant Boars.

The defenders of the Castle!
Up in the tower and battlements are a selction of Citadel C01 Fighters, RR2 Knights of Origo, and Ral Partha Elves.

Close up of the defenders banner, another lovely painted banner.

Futher along on the lower battlements and being attacked by the Hobgoblins Fireball, are more Ral Partha Elves, pre slotta C Series Fighers, and some Chaos Warriors! Perhaps they are from a rival God/dess?

Below and towards the end of the lower battlements is a gate, the FS Fantasy Specials Range, FS3-2 Demon Doorway (aka Portal of Chaos).
These were later re-released in the 1990's and again in the 2000's by Games Workshop as part of the Arcane Architecture range. As far as I know they are now out of production.

As I am in-between projects, and have not settled on something, I am not sure what the next update will be on. I have been sorting through both my Mithril collection, Fantasy Slann, and the 40k Squats, and so need to focus on something. :)

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