Hecatron, My Precious & Grey

 Third Time Lucky

This is the third time I have selected a model for  Ugrash-Ka (the first two were a Classic Dunderling and then a Hill Troll champion), as leader of the Vile Rune orcs. However, this is the model given the original scenario. So, seems very appropriate. I came across him while looking for something else on eBay. The model is a 1970's Ral Partha Hecatron. A bit small by today's standard but still a great sculpt by Tom Meier? While my original plan was for a minimal number of extra figures sometimes you have to go with the flow.

Hecatron alongside a modern (90s) Grenadier Knight

Joe Dever's Original

 ME-82  'The Hobbit' Personalities - Gollum (2 of 4)

Hot on the heels of Gandalf, I finished the tidy up of Gollum. The only Gollum figure done for the original 80's range. As has been remarked before there are plenty of different models of Aragon, Gandalf etc.  but some obvious gaps such as Galadriel. Fortunately they managed to add Gollum before they stopped producing the LotR range. 

Its Stomping Time

As the bases for the Oakbound figures are much larger than I  would normally use, I have decided that they need a mini-diorama and Bruce the Troll is obviously trying to stomp something. So a few sprites (from Eureka) and some toadstools seems like an natural fit with the Fae army. 

Quick test build for Bruce

I See Grey People

My plan to clear the decks of nearly finished stuff has worked, but I am now left with undercoated figures. Now onto 2022.

Rob

Classic Gandalf

 ME-82  'The Hobbit' Personalities - Gandalf (1 of 4)

Another one of those miniatures that has been lurking on my paint bench for a couple of months. 

Rob 

Oathmark Light Dwarves & Goblins - First Impressions Plus the Mighty Atom

Oathmark Dwarf Engineers & Rangers 

 

I ordered three sprues of these dwarves off of eBay in order to make my unit of dwarves for the Thistlewood  scenario. But I also thought they could be used as the Engineers from Orcs Drift. And finally would make a interesting allied contingent for the halflings if put them together as rangers and miners.  I also decided to do a quick review of the dwarves plus the Oathmark goblins I got for Christmas. 

The first five put together. 

Each sprue has enough parts to create five dwarves equipped with either bows, mining equipment or two handed weapons. Plus a few extras such as a spear. Also fifteen heads also keeps the variety up (So each one of my dwarves in my unit can have a different head).  As I found out when I put the first five together, not every part goes with all of the bodies. So a bit of dry fitting is needed before splashing the glue about. But overall they went together ok. I really like all of the little extras on the sprue (top of the picture) which include things like pipes, tankards and horns. Which will be really useful for all kinds of scene setting and making them into individuals.

Dwarf rangers kitted out for the wilds.

I am equipping five of the dwarves with bows and add backpacks etc. from the bits box to turn them into rangers similar to my halfling ones.  Just need to add the green stuff straps etc. 

The halfling rangers are soon to be joined. 

They would also be a decent  alternative for the company of Thorin Oakenshield. Overall I am pleased with these guys and makes a nice change from all of the heavily armoured dwarf kits already available. In summary a great sprue of miniatures with plenty of character, choice of weapons and a nice little set of extra parts. But can be a bit fiddley to put the right arms on the right bodies. 

NOTE: I have also ordered the dwarven Warchief from Fornlorn Hope (ex-Grenadier) as the unit commander and will use a couple of EM4 dwarves has his personal bodyguard. You may ask why I am mentioning this minor detail. Its a great miniature but I don't even have it yet!

But whilst looking for the picture of this figure, I found someone selling one on eBay for £15. So I guess it always pays to look around before you buy! FYI - Its £2.30 on the Fornlorn Hope website. This figure has been around since the Nineties so maybe the eBay one is vintage...

Oathmark Goblin Raiders

I got a box goblins from Oathmark for Christmas to use with Thistlewood. Now I was originally planning on using my LotR goblins but sometimes my projects spin off in sideways directions. As I would quite to paint them up some goblins as Black Sun goblins(as mentioned in the scenario). With banners and shields, etc, to match the scenario description. Now I haven't decided on a  design for the Black Suns but would quite like to make some shields especially for them if I can come up with a suitable design. 

Where as the dwarf sprue felt like a character set, the goblin sprue feels very much like an army set. With five similar goblin bodies and heads and all five can be equipped with hand weapons, spears or bows. So a very flexible choice of builds like the dwarves. But no extra items to customise your goblins. Although it does come with a banner pole and what I assume is  a small set of boss weapons  and a special character head. So you can add a unit commander. 

First five put together at random

Unlike the dwarves,  I just put all of the goblin parts together at random and didn't have any real difficulty. So I think building all thirty shouldn't be too difficult. 

So overall a simple little set which should build up a unit double quick. 

The Mighty Atom*

"Nice to See You, To see you nice"

Bruce NOT Rift Cragg

While inspecting my new Trolls from Oakbound, I couldn't help noticing that one (Listed as Rift Cragg)  of them reminds me of a famous British TV personality Bruce Forsyth from all of my childhood and most of my adulthood. Who was famous for hosting game shows and his catchphrases. One of those all round entertainers from the good old days.  And even the troll seems to impersonating his famous pose. 

So from now on this troll will be known as Bruce. 

"Give Us a Twirl"

*Bruce Forsyth was known as the Mighty Atom back in the 1930's !! when he made his TV debut. 

And Finally Enough of this Madness & Back to the Oldhammer

As we turn to 2022, time to start think about what projects I want to finish and one of them I want to finish is painting my classic Citadel LotR collection. Which sort of got me back into wargaming. Anyway I painted Gollum back 2018 but was never really happy with the finish. So he is first up for a make over and then onto the other characters from this little set. 

Rob 

Celtos Sidhe

 Quick Post Before Christmas

Just finished these Sidhe (elves) from Brigade Miniatures (Fomally Celtos). I think they have come out well. I am much happier with the skin tone which is a Citadel mid-grey (can't remember which one) with a Nuln oil wash. Earlier Fae elves were done with the same technique but the effect wasn't as smooth. The only difference was these elves were done with a new bottle of Nuln oil. So I am thinking that the older bottle either had started to separate or just wasn't as good?

This completes the Winter Guard for the dread Fae Queen Morgana. I am trying to finish off the few remaining core units of my Fae army.

Rob 

Halfling Hounds

 The Swedish Vallhund

Ranger & faithful companion

One of my design aims behind my halfling army is to use figures and units that would generally fit in with the Halfling's of Tolkien's Shire. So no halfling war machines or halfling heroes riding dragons, which I have seen in other ranges. 

The Rangers catch some rustlers in the act!

However, I think a unit of halflings with hunting or guard dogs seems entirely in keeping with a Shire themed army. I did look at suitable figures from a number of different ranges with guard dogs from Citadel's Farmer Maggot being an obvious choice. I do already have the Farmer Maggot and his hounds, but want make a couple of units, so needed more than three hounds. They are currently selling for £8.20 for Farmer Maggot  and his three hounds on the Citadel website. Which would make each hound about £2.75 (with a spare Farmer Maggot or two).  Warbases also do a nice set of dogs but they are a bit on the small side. 

The whole pack

Whilst nosing around Salute, I came across these hounds by Bad Squiddo Vallhunder (8) (badsquiddogames.com) at eight for £8.  

Vallhunder are Swedish cattle dogs. The Swedish Vallhund was originally bred as a drover and herder of cows over 1,000 years ago. In real life they are bit on the small side (See above). But just right size for halflings.  And at £1 each, a much more reasonable price. Giving me a couple of useful animal handler units. 

So as expected, it was fairly quick to paint up all eight hounds. I am in progress converting up a couple of extra rangers to act as permanent animal handlers. 

Grand Designs

Finished building the crooked house, now ready for painting.  

Rob 

Six of the Best - The Final Post

 Session 9 - Finishing Off - Very Newhammer and Bit of Oldhammer

Ok so I am calling this challenge done. An interesting little challenge and shows how much I rely on a number of standard technical paints (such as Citadel Shades) and colours (such as different metallics). I probably would have gone for Warplock Bronze base with Hashut Copper highlights and weathering with Nihilakh Oxide if I was painting this model with a free paint selection. Perhaps a more traditional looking Necron. 

I think I was right to paint the miniature on the sprue but perhaps should have done more of the detailing such as stripes before putting the miniature together. But I quite like working out the design as I go along and sometimes this works and sometimes not. But I still think he will come in handy for Stargrave etc. 

So overall he took a bit over 4 hours to paint. I am genuinely surprised how long this one miniature took to paint. I don't normally think about the time I am spending on each figure and I suspect that I would get quicker if I was painting more than one of them. I certainly had to spend a bit of time working how to put him together without a picture of the finished model. In contrast, I  was getting through the halflings very quickly by the end. 

For the base I finished it of with the red mixed with increasing amounts of the grey. I added a few small gold nuggets and it was then finished off with some yellow/orange grated sponge witch is the most alien looking of my available flock stock. 

The Necron or is it a ABC warrior vs. some Desert Waste landers

Picked this up from the Cinema when we went to see the excellent new Dune movie. Always on the look out wargames stuff!

Definitely a fan of the new Dune movie and hoping they get to make the second half. 

A very small space marine against my Necron. My whole painted Wh40K collection!

NB- The Space marine wasn't painted by me but bought off eBay on a whim and in the end I so liked the paint job. I didn't send him to the paint stripper!

Rob 

Six of the Best - Sessions 6 to 8

 Session 6 - Detailing

The figure was given highlights to all the main colours and little bit of touch ups. To try and make the red really bright on the weapon, I undercoated the spots with the deck tan followed by a wash with the Reikland Flesh shade. 

Once the base is done this is sort of at my army painting standard. But I plan to go a bit further and see what else I can add.

Session 7 - Basing

Just a short session to add some skulls and coarse sand to the base.

Session 8  - Detailing

I would have liked to add more stripes but some those sections on the left are just too difficult to reach now the model is assembled. Still this is what can happen if you are working it out as you go along. For the base, I mixed the bright red, a light bit of the grey and some black and ended up with a weird plum colour. This was then washed with Reikland Flesh shade. I am waiting for this to dry before any dry brushing. 

Rob 

Finishing & Starting Stuff

 Finished the Last Giak

So I have finished all of my current collection Lone Wolf figures, there are still a few more to get but their  'normal' prices means I will watch and wait. There are plenty of other interesting projects out there which my money will probably be spent on first.

So next up is the group shot of all the miniatures in my collection. 

The whole gang. 

This group has  taken over twenty years on and off,  so cover multiple types of my styles over the years. So despite the differences I quite like the fact they don't all look the same. One of other  perennial questions is around basing and certainly those recently painted figures were based to fit into current armies and groups. 

So on to the next projects.

Started Something New

Just completed the first of the Pixie Riders from Miniatures (oakbound.co.uk), a great little figure who fits in nicely to Fae army. I have another two to complete and hopefully will be start of light cavalry unit.

The Pixie leads the sprites into battle
(Playing around with the light)

Stuff in Progress

I haven't forgotten my Thistlewood project but fancied a bit of a change of pace. So looking through my buildings collections. I have done a bit of tidying up of my 30 year old buildings and started to build a few more to complete the ones necessary for the scenario. I can't do any further work on this house until I get some more coffee stirrer sticks!

Its the first time I have used egg box cardboard for the tiles and I am really impressed by the result. It didn't start out to be a crooked house but once I noticed it, I decided to work with it. A lot of old houses are not perfectly square and few odd angles are perfectly normal.

Progress on Buildings so far.

Rob