An Unexpected Bonus

 Only 39?

Not had a lot of hobby time in the last few weeks but did manage to get a bit of paint on  a few figures and even finished another wild elf.  

Like many people in the UK today, the family and I popped home to see our mums on Mothering Sunday.  After a very nice lunch, an afternoon stroll was called for to work off some of that excellent food. Whilst walking around the town, my daughter wanted to pop into a charity shop that happened to be open. 

Once inside I noticed a box of zombies from Kings of War. I had a quick look inside and all of the figures were still on the sprues and everything seemed in order. So forty (Actually it was thirty nine but still very much a bargain) zombies for a tenner is a bargain.   Even with one missing this means each zombie only costs 26p each. I plan to mix these up with spare weapons etc. from the revenants set which will give a nice mix of armed and unarmed  cannon fodder. 

Presumably an unwanted Christmas present, as the set is dated Nov 2022. 

Anyway this will be a welcome addition to slowly growing undead horde. Once I paint a few more elves. 

A great looking Celtos Wild elf.

The Kings of War Zombie sprue

Time for some zombies...

I also want to try and finish a few of those figures which I bought at Salute 2021 before I go to Salute 2023. 

Boris with green zenithal.

Rob 

Doing Some Painting (a Bit)

 Project Slann

I after a bit of thinking I realised I don't have to sculpt a whole figure. So, I am thinking about using bodies and arms from figures like savage orcs. Then I only have to sculpt the heads and the legs. Just need to get some savage orc figures...

And a Figure off the Opportunity Pile

Again with limited time and motivation I picked another figure off the opportunity pile. A half finished Rogue Trader ork leftover from last Orktober.  These were an attempt at Zenithal highlighting with a spray can, so they lack some of the smoothness you get from an airbrush.  But great fun to paint  and bags of character. Definitely a low effort painting session. 

Rob 

Sunday Night Painting Session 2

 One Hour Speed painting Challenge

Sunday night is usually the one night of the week, that I can take my time painting.  So it is a bit iconic that I set myself a speed painting challenge! Didn't have any particular plans when I sat down to do some painting this evening. But I did want to finish something, so I quickly gave up trying to paint any wild elves as they are all at the beginning the painting process and they have too many colours and details to paint quickly. So, I picked  a figure off my opportunity pile (pile of shame) and decided to see how far I could get in one hour. This did mean using the little heater in my painting study to speed up the drying process. 

So, I mostly finished her in one hour. I did some very quick wet blending on the skin and used a variant of the technique I have been using to paint the hair on the wild elves. Which is to paint Nuln oil direct onto the grey undercoat and then dry brush with white. In this case I used a dark green ink as the shadow instead of Nuln oil and I quite pleased with the result.  The base will get finished later.

Not sure which manufacturer made her but I seem to think she was part of the Void range?!! I picked up a show many years ago because I though she would make a great heroine for my Cyberpunk gang. 

Just noticed the back of leg
which I have to touch up!

Rob 

The Journey Ends

 Young Bilbo Finished

I didn't like the lighting on the finished figure.
So, I used this in-progress picture instead.

Painting the young Bilbo figure has completed the company of Thorin Oakenshield. And it has taken nearly 20 months (See original post  The Company of Thorin Oakenshield). Much longer than I originally it would take. 

My painting experience from completing the Company of Thorin Oakenshield  neatly sums up my feelings towards the Hobbit movies. Which are very mixed! I have found both the movies and painting the figures  to be extremely frustrating and very joy able in equal measure. 

Leaving aside the merits (or otherwise) of the movies, painting these figures has a trying experience. And while it has pushed my painting skills. I haven't always been satisfied by the final results. Mainly because they seem to have very shallow or limited detail. Which means my usual techniques of washes, drybrushing and highlighting just didn't work. So, I had to work much harder to get an acceptable level of detail. 

Me: Before I started painting

Young & Old Bilbo

In comparison, painting the old (metal) Bilbo was a very enjoyable experience compared to painting the new plastic Bilbo. 

Me: When they arrived

Gandalf: Would like to paint the Company of Thorin Oakenshield again?

Me: Good Morning

Rob 

Sunday Night Painting Session

 More Elves

I was thinking that these elves would look the part for a Norse Saga warband. The elf army continues to grow slowly. But it is growing 

Ruffians watch out!

Finished off Frodo the other day and I have just got round to photographing him. Two more figures from the Oldhammer Shire hobbits set.

My go-to brushes for general work.

These are the Daley-Rowney  brushes - two for a £1 from the Poundshop that I use for most of the heavy lifting when it comes to general painting. Both of which I think have survived longer than normal after being cleaned regularly with the brush cleaner.  I have got into the habit of cleaning the brushes after each painting session. And while most of the time the soap doesn't look particularly dirty after the brush is cleaned. It does seem to be helping the brushes last. So, I will consider this to a good practice to continue. 

Still vegan. 

Rob 

An Elf's Best Friend (4pts)

 Sometimes I like to Paint Easy Stuff

I think the title says it all.  First of the wolf hounds from Alternative Armies for the elven animal handler. 

The AA Wolf hound alongside the
Bad Squiddo Swedish Vallhund

Rob

Wild Elves March Onwards (43pts)

 The Wood Elf Army Grows

After a unexpected couple of free hours this afternoon. I managed to finish off the next four wood elves bringing the total to ten plus a tree man (Greater forest spirit). 

The standard bearer surrounded by her Spearguard

The Winter Thorns Archers

Alternative Armies, Citadel*, Grenadier (EM4), Celtos (Brigade) & Marauder?

*One of the classic Skarloc wood elf archers. A few more to follow.  

The Alternative Armies figure really standards out as a bit different. Sculpted in a very different (alternative?) style but still a nice figure. From their dungeon adventurers range. 

I think the elf on the right is an old Marauder figure and probably one of my favourite sculpts from this current lot. With some nice little details such as carvings on the front of the bow and glove for bow string hand. 

I am an amateur archer and so a padded glove is definitely needed for holding the bow string. And with the longbows carried by these elves the bow string would be cutting deep into the fingers whilst drawing the bow to full draw. 

Skirmish against Vordak 

Rob 

Wood Elf Standard Bearer (20pts)

 First of the Warmonger Elves

This why I can't do the Old World Army Challenge (OWAC) as I only managed to paint five elves last month will probably be the same this month. But I really enjoyed painting the Standard bearer for the unit of Elf spears.  These Warmonger elves have a wild aesthetic which suits the wild elf theme for my wood elf army.  

Also finally finished off some of the skulls to add to the bases. 

Rob 

Beachhead 2024

 Looking from Afar

I couldn't make Beachhead this year but a friend of mine managed to send a couple of pictures. 

For the Emperor

Geoff's fun looking Woods game

The new Oakbound Hobgoblins

Rob 

Battles for Wargamers - 1983

 Fast Forward to the Future of Wargaming

The Old Ral Partha figures still stand up today. 

This magazine was one of those turning point moments. As I turned towards 'real' wargaming. The magazine was full of great articles but it was the Fantasy Wargaming article by John Treadaway that really caught my eye (along with the free Saxon army). 

A lot of the figures featured in the article are still available from Ral Partha (from the their Legacy range) and from Essex miniatures. So I decided to get the featured Ral Partha figures. I think detail is extraordinary and it is only really the 25mm scale that marks them out as different.

One of those random thoughts is that I have always thought that most of the human sized figures on the 20mm bases always looked cramped when ranked up for Warhammer. But when the 1st edition of Warhammer was released the 25mm miniatures were the norm. And these 25mm figures look perfectly ok on the 20mm bases. So, I suppose they didn't revise the base sizes when Citadel moved from 25mm to 28mm as the standard sized human figure. 

At the time getting a free cut out Saxon army  from Standard games was a real game changer. I think of this as my first proper wargaming army  and I went on to get the Norman army as well.  Unfortunately the Normans (& the original Saxons from the first magazine) were lost to time and I haven't been able to find any copies of the Normans on the internet. Once I can get my printer working again I will print  and cut out a few of the Saxons from the second magazine. I believe they were designed by Gary Chalk. 

I managed to get a second copy of this magazine at B&B a few years ago with the Saxon army still intact. 

On the paint bench

Rob 

Oakbound Wood Spirit (280pts)

 Wood Elf Heavy Hitter

Technically this doesn't count towards my monthly painting target for the core army. As he part of the stretch goal for this army.  But he was painted as part of my start up with an airbrush.

It was surprisingly easy to do the different zenithal highlights and lowlights.  And because the figure is quite large I didn't have to worry about getting the fine detail right. Once the airbrushing was complete it was a mixture of green/brown/grey dry brushing and a bit of dark green contrast paint. 

The base was a mixture of the usual scenic scatter, dry brushed white to simulate frost and some of the white snow paint from Citadel. 

So this figure is a 6-Soul Sluagh (Description from the Oakbound website - A particular form of dark fateweaving can bind trapped souls into rocks and plant matter, animating them into elemental beings of great strength. These are the Sluagh.) from the Oakbound miniatures range. Whilst not a treeman it is a earth spirit which again fits in very well with the wild elf look of the army. Plus it is a sizable miniature which nicely towers over enemy units.  

He is designed to fit into the colour themes and style of my winter wood (wild) elves. So, I added some snow to the top of the model. As, this seemed to quite appropriate.

These fungi are a bit different from my usual two part red/purple mushrooms which have been used on multiple other figures. So, these one have an third part around the middle and I have went for muted blue/grey scheme.  I will add some skulls to the bases once I get round to painting them 

Rob