LW1 Giak Attack (Very Slowly)

Taking My Time

Finished Giak No.4 from the 1980's Giak Attack Boxed set. I have had this set since from at least the Nineties but have never got round to finishing it. I have managed an odd figure every now and again. So they all have widely different painting styles. But at this stage I plan to keep them all different. The banner guy has sat half painted for at least a year, so it was finally his turn this afternoon. I even painted both sides of the banner which is always a bit of  a strain for me. 

Thirty Years of Progress...

Gourgaz Attacks

As a small reward, I plan to finally paint Lone Wolf himself once I have completed the last two Giaks.

White Dwarf 59 November 1984 - The One with the Troll & Female Magic User 

Cover by Peter Andrew Jones

She doesn't seem to be carrying much equipment for a dungeon bash but this seemed standard for the period.  You may be wondering why I have posted this apart from its obvious charms. But there is a point, it is the first pictures I could find of completed Lone Wolf figures including Lone Wolf, Prince Penethor and the Giaks. The figures were included in the regular Tabletop Heroes section of White Dwarf written by Joe Dever & Gary Chalk. Back when White Dwarf only had two pages devoted to miniatures - one page of colour pictures and one page of painting tips and topics. Seems crazy now! 

Another excellent Gary Chalk illustration
which seems to be the starting point for the miniatures. 

Rob 

Like All Good Goblins

 Pushing Their Way to The Front

The Three Stooges

Despite having lots of other figures and projects on the go. I some how ended up doing these three goblins first. They all seem to represent an evolution of the design of goblins at Citadel, even though they were released a few years a part. 

'Curly'

The first one (Pre-1984) seems to be in keeping the very early style of goblins sculpted with a lanky look and big nose. With a minimal amount of clutter and a very simple style.

'Moe'

Not surprisingly the second one  (circa 1984) looks more like the classic Citadel goblins, he has bulked up and lost the big nose. However he still quite simply styled. Unfortunately it is not listed who sculpted either of the first two goblins but I would be surprised if it was either Kev Adams or the Perry twins as he still looks very different to the one produced in 1985. 

'Larry'

Finally the third goblin was produced in 1985 by Kev Adams or the Perry twins. But my money is on Kev Adams. He looks very different from either of the two earlier miniatures. He has classic Citadel goblin look. Which was pretty much invented by Kev Adams anyway. Interestingly the design look seems very much completed by this stage even though it is only a year later than the second one. He would fit in nicely with any goblins produced  in the next twenty years.

Curly joins the rest of the Fae Sprites

Moe & Larry rock up with Grog & his spiders.

Anyway all good fun to paint and fit in nicely with the rest of the Fae. 

Rob 

Grenadier's Halfling Knight

 Repainting a Favourite

Back in the nineties when I was running display games for Grenadier. I had a halfling army made up of Mark Copplestone's excellent halflings. Prior to the reimagining of halflings following the Lord of the Rings films. These were easily the best halflings on the market and haven't really been beaten.  Now I have repainted a number of the halflings from their original nineties paint jobs in an effort to 'improve' them. Plus rebased them twice to suit the rules of the day.  My only gripe was the lack of militia types which Mark fixed when he did some more for Copplestone castings. 

In their nineties glory with bog standard flock bases.

An 'improved' set from the 2000's

Anyway, I decided it was time to have a go at repainting the halfling knight. Who was one the best from a great lot of figures. It is a pity that it is not a two piece casting so that it would be easier to swap the rider for other figures. 

Mark 1 Paint Job

As the base shows, sculpted in 1992 and named Fluffy...

Painted using citadel paints and inks. I did use a contrast paint for the horses body. But wasn't entirely happy with result and I ended up adding extra highlights and washes. But overall I am pleased with the final result. 

Mark 2 Paint Job

Against orc raiders

Rob 

Painting an Ent

Mountain Root of the Darkling Wood

Painted (mostly) using the painting guide by Borgnine's guide for Coniferous trees as outlined in the previous post. After spending many hours sculpting the miniature. It didn't take long to paint him as much of the detail was easy to pick out with dry brushing. I did change my basing method by using Stirland mud followed by a light tan drybrush and then using just birch seeds to create a woodland floor. 

Overall this was fun project to do and I feel that I have advanced my sculpting skills and knowledge a bit through this project. In particular using a mix of green stuff and Milliput as a sculpting medium  definitely made it easier and completing the project in stages was absolutely the right approach. This project also highlights the need to made a good wire armature in order to give the miniature the necessary strength for the table top. 

Time to take on some chaos trolls

Also got round to printing off some new backgrounds which are a bit wider and with a neat join which can be easily photo shopped out. 

Rob 

Not Really Sure Why?

 Eighties Goblins

My latest order from a popular auction site arrived yesterday, a group of Goblins described as 'C12 Great Goblins, Games Workshop 1983'.

Spot the odd one out?

When I bought them I didn't think the description was quite right against the pictures but it was a last minute buy and I was happy with the figures. It was the one on the left that didn't quite fit. The sculpt didn't quite look right for an early eighties design. But I didn't bother to look them up on Stuff of Legends  until they arrived.

Thanks Stuff of Legends

As I suspected, the one on the left is actually slotta base figure. The slotta base is still clearly visible but they did go to the trouble of adding a lead base. Which seems a lot of effort to go to on a perfectly good miniature. He is listed as either Perry twins or Kev Adams so a pretty good pedigree. It is still mid eighties so I am not sure what the point of adding a base because they sold for a modest price. I suppose it could be that the owner didn’t like slotta bases. 

Why?

Anyway got them for a price I'm happy with and they are great figures. So it doesn't bother me, I'm just curious as to why! Anyway on to painting. 

Rob 

Not Much Painting Going On...

 But I Have Been Attempting to Sculpt! An Ent

I have been focusing on doing a bit of sculpting over the last few weeks. I wanted a large Ent to form part of the large monster contingent for the Fae. There are plenty of nice Ent models out there but it is a bit of challenge to sculpt your own and I may add a few purchased ones later.

Obviously sculpting a Ent doesn't have some of the challenges associated with sculpting a human etc.  Plus the larger size also helps for the novice.  I have completed a couple of other sculpts including a smaller Ent and the Fungal Shrooms (see earlier blog posts under the Green Stuff tag). But this is the most technically difficult one, I have attempted to sculpt  so far. 

I have been using a mixture of two parts yellow/grey Milliput to one part green stuff. Which seems to combine the advantages of green stuff without the tackiness. As well of making the green stuff go a bit further.  This idea as well as a great tutorial on sculpting trees came from Borgnine's Miniature Painting blog (Borgnine's Miniature Painting: Coniferous Tree Trunk Tutorial (borgninespainting.blogspot.com) Which I used to create the bark texture  and as a basis for painting my Ent. 

The other major source of inspiration for this miniature was the Ent done by Time Prow of Diehard miniatures Treeman, Beechspur - Bestiary - Diehard Miniatures. I really like the look of this miniature. He has a great sense of presence. I know mine doesn't look that similar but I did say inspired by and not copied from!

The Ent was sculpted over seven sessions to allow time for each section to dry before moving on to the next section. It is very easy to ruin the bit you have done by trying to do too much in one go. I also spent a lot of time making the wire armatures particularly for the arms and hands.  As I wanted each finger to be supported by wire frame. I used paperclips for the wire armatures as they are cheap, readily available and flexible.

In the case of the shoulders by leaving the wire ends exposed,  this gave me something to fix the arms on to a later stage. I would like to say I planned it that way but it was a lucky decision that worked out. 

The side branches were made from left
over branches from GW Dryads. 

A 28mm Ral Partha Hobgoblin for scale. 

I was undecided about the head at this stage
 and was thinking about adding branches
but it just didn't look right. 

Plus some other WIP

I also found time to make a killer snail, using a water snail shell I found whilst cleaning the pond. Which will join the Fae sprite horde. 

Beware the killer snail

Rob

One Year On

First New Fantasy Army (For a While...) 

It has been about a year since I seriously started to paint again and about 7 months since I started this blog. Since then  I have painted 278 miniatures. Mostly figures for three fantasy armies: Undead, Chaos & Fae. All of which were new armies for me. First up was the  Undead army.  The Chaos & Fae armies have already been covered in other blog posts so I won't cover these here. 

The middle one is the figure which started the undead off as an army.
As an attempt to paint in the style of the modern LotR army of the dead. 

Undead Army

The Undead Horde in all its decaying glory

As I got back into painting last year. It started with the classic (Oldhammer) Lord of the Rings Barrow Wight and sort of grew from there. It is difficult put a points value on this type of army as a level 5 Vampire (WFB 3^rd Ed.) costs 330 points. But I can easily build 1000 to 2000 points. It is bit unbalanced as an army but fun to paint and I will probably add a few units to balance it out. Notably cavalry  and a few more skeletons. 

This army sort of got overtaken by the chaos army. They started as an allied contingent and then overtook the undead. 

Painted So Far

• 20 Grave Guard  - Citadel / Fornlorn Hope / Lord of the Rings
• 22 Skeletons / Scarecrows / Zombies - Citadel / Mantic
• 1 Zombie Dragon - Ral Partha / Tom Meier
• 4 Wights – Citadel / Marauder
• 2 Banshees – Citadel / Reaper
• 1 Liche - Marauder
• 1 Necromancer - Marauder
• 1 Vampire- Marauder

Ø  Rob 

Warrior Part 4

 Warrior  9 - The One with Skeleton in the Crypt

By now we had really begun to hit our stride with a mixture articles from Grenadier and the display/Warrior team. We also started to get a few contributions from other interested people. I believe the cover for this issue was from an bit of old Grenadier box art. But haven't been able to identify the kit. It was the only one not originally created for Warrior with the exception of the previous one which used the Kill Zone artwork. 

First up the second part of Doug's Little Wars campaign.

A battle report between Fighting men and using experimental dark elf rules. The picture is isn't great but seems to be a photocopy rather than printed. 

The first of the Kill Zone scenarios.

And finally a few adverts for new figures from Mark Copplestone & Nick Lund.

Rob 

A Speedy Dwarf & Nineties WH40K Photos

 A Quick Break

Dwarf Quarreller

I wasn't really focussed on painting anything specific for any of the projects I am currently working on. So yesterday I picked a dwarf who has been sitting on the shelf for a little while. Its a really great sculpt. I think it was done Kevin Adams whilst he was doing work for Harlequin. But not really sure. Anyway it was great fun to paint with a simple base colour, wash, highlight and detail approach. So was finished in two short sessions. A nice break from bigger projects. 

I was going for a no-nonsense dwarf miner with a mixture of browns and good quality metals. 

A Bit Dungeon Raiding

A Small Blast from the Past

Some photos of WH40K (1st Edition) games from the Nineties. Must be some time after WD100 Because WD100 had a big article on Dreadnoughts and the Eldar Dreadnoughts were released at this time.  

I was pretty keen on the Eldar and Dreadnoughts
as witnessed by six I had on my side.
Note  - The upturned rhino which was rammed by an ork buggy.
Which destroyed them both. 

You will notice one of the infamous deodorant skimmers in the bottom right of the first picture. This was one of those games where we  put everything we had on the table (or bedroom floor in this case) and then proceeded to bash the other side into submission. For some reason pretty much all of the games seemed to take place on medieval worlds!

The Yellow Space Marines were mine
(from my own chapter - King Makers).
Whilst the other were a friend's.

Rob