Sharkey's Ruffians Start to Return

 When the Chief commands

After a bit of a tidy up

Finished repainting my original group of ruffians. I can now turn to the new (sitting in a box for several years) figures.  When first painted, these were some of the last figures to be painted before I discovered the new ranges of Citadel paints. All of the washes were done with watered down standard paint. Most of which was at least ten years old.  They provide a cheap core of troops to enforce Sharkey's wishes. 

Before and just a bit scruffy

Little Balls of Milliput

I originally started making these Milliput balls for eyeballs on the Oldhammer shields. They are much easier to make than using Green stuff (less sticky) and as a contrasting colour stand out nicely when using them with the Green stuff on the shields. However, once I started making them I realised that they are handy for a variety of different jobs. Some of which I have displayed below. 

Which has led to the latest use. As Sid's club was a cut down from a different weapon but it just didn't look right without an end piece. But just another use for little balls of Milliput. 

Keep on rolling

Sid nearly ready for the fight

Various sized eyeballs

More eyeballs

Little Shrooms

Door handles

Rob

200th Post needs a Superstar

Riolta Snow - Archer Extraordinaire

I recently managed to get Riolta Snow who has been on my Oldhammer Must-Buy list for a while. Along with a certain Chaos warrior Ultimate Oldhammer Figure, She is certainly in my A-list Warhammer figures. She shows up in not just the Magnificent Sven scenario but in the Lichemaster campaign as well.

Riolta in 3D glory

Riolta's as seen from 'The Magnificent Sven' introductory scenario in Warhammer 2nd Edition. I will just point out that this introductory scenario requires over 70 Slann, 150 villagers, hangers on plus the lead characters. The scenario very helpfully points out that most players haven't got enough figures to represent all the villagers!

Riolta in all her 2D glory

This the 2D figure provided with the 2nd edition rules. This gives an obvious colour scheme for me to try and follow. Riolta 2D as well as the rest of the main characters can be found on the Stuff of Legends website (Magnificent Sven Figures). The copy on the site is quite low resolution but this a scan (& tidy up)is of the one that I cut out a while ago from the original rules... 

Back Story

Riolta makes her living as a professional tournament archer. She holds the titles of many of the Elf Kingdom's leading contests. Like many other successful 'pros' she is alarmingly rich.

At the time of this game she is taking a holiday in Lustra. As a female and sea elf she is allowed to travel freely in Amazonia, She visited Gemaine and even make a pilgrimage to Rigg's shrine. Lately she hired the 'Voltsvagn' (Sven's ship) for a hunting trip up river. She bagged several crocodiles, a giant turtle and a brace of Slann. Sven, Juggo and especially Karra were all highly impressed. 

Riolta looks much like any other Sea Elf. She is tall, slender and enviably attractive. She is unarmoured and carries an Elf Bow with dozens of arrows, as well as a sword. She is an Elf Major hero.

Taken from the 2nd Edition rules. 

Great Artwork from Warhammer 2nd Edition

This article started with rooting around in the loft for my battered copy of Warhammer 2nd edition rules in order to look up the background on Riolta Snow. I had forgotten how good the quality of the art was on the covers  of individual  books. The first two in particular.  Now I am pretty sure both of these covers are done by John Blanche. But John & Tony Ackland are credited for the three covers.

Book 1

Book 2

Rob 

Ready to deal with a few Hobbits

 Quick Update on the Ruffian Leaders

So I went back and added the cuffs to the manacles. I am wondering if I should have cut  manacle cuffs to show the join. But in the end decided I will paint it on later. Also tidied up the handles of the whips with a bit of cotton thread. Now they ready to do the Chief's work. 

First of the ruffians tidied up.

Sid has all the gear.

Rob 

All of them Ruffians to a Man (or Hobbit)

 Sharkey's Rogues

At one stage I thought black was a good undercoat. Not really sure why now!? 

Most of the ruffians, now prepared for painting & repainting. Will need a few more to round out this force. But plenty to be getting on with for now. 

The whips were made from thin wire  and the manacles from some modelling chain I had left over from an old  railway set. As soon as I had finished, I realised the manacles actually needed the cuffs on the ends where the hands or feet are held. So this have to be done before painting can start. 

I tried the idea for making whips from the Iron-mitten blog, where Secundus used thin brush bristles for the whip. I am not completely sold on the idea but I think way that I have done the first one. Rather than the idea of using the brush bristles itself. Will probably need another go. 

Facing off against a few sturdy hobbits. 

Not really worked.
Need to rethink this one.

Rogues Gallery

The characters I have completed so far. 

After I finished him, I realised he was
supposed have some manacles as well. Doh!

Rob 

Ruffian Huts Rebuilt & Ruffians Mustered

 Where Have all the Ruffians Gone?

Obviously its too hot to paint indoors at the moment (in the south of the UK), so a quick relocation to the garden seemed like a great solution. And  a very pleasant afternoon was spent yesterday finishing off the rework of the ruffian's huts. Not surprisingly this also led me to dig out the out my finished and half finished band of Sharkey's rogues. From the previous Scouring of the Shire campaign. Anyway back to the buildings. 

'Wake Up!, Sharkey has work for you'

Added a bit to detail to all of the buildings including lock bars for the cells and door handles on the others. My reasoning is that the ruffians would have stolen as much as possible from the hobbit holes. So the blockhouse and guard house have nice brass door handles which haven't been looked after. 

Guardhouse

Poor State of repair, weeds on the roof

Blockhouse & Cells

After the walls were covered in filler and sanded. 

Basic white finish!

The walls were originally finished in a mid brown but the colour was just too damn close to the tarpaulin roofs and so had to be lightened up. 

Original wall colouring

Sharkey's Rogues

To be fair these were also painted very quickly to get ready for the Shire campaign, but definitely not my finest work.  I am generally not keen on doing paint stripping on miniatures (read any post where I have to do some paint stripping), but the one official GW ruffian did go into the paint stripper. The rest will be rebased and given a general tidy up. 

The Ruffians weren't any better than the huts!

Sharkey however, is the one figure from this lot which I do like and will not be changed, except to paint base back to black. Which is the correct colour for bases and not brown or bright  green as was the GW fashion back in the 90's and early 2000's. 

That looks much better!

Now I do really like the official Citadel Lord of the Rings miniatures, but at £8 per character figure (Not including postage).  I don't like them that much. Even the basic figures on eBay aren't cheap. Although I am tempted to get a couple of them.  

There are a number of half finished figures that never made to the campaign in time. So, I attempted to create my own versions of the characters (from the 2nd edition source book) with all the right equipment using Frostgrave sprues and stuff from the bits box. Here is the first one - Sid Briarthorn, ruffian leader. 

Sid, the ruffian leader

Rob 

More Scenery & LotR Stuff

 Boromir Arrives on his Mighty Steed

Ambushed on the way to Rivendell

In the end I opted for a simple black scheme on the horse to try and make it a bit more imposing ( Where Have all the horses gone?). But overall he goes well with the version on foot.

 

Scouring of the Shire - Ruffian Huts under Refurbishment

I made these  huts a few years ago for a Scouring of the Shire campaign. They were done in a hurry and I was trying to find ways of not doing much painting.  Whilst I quite like the design, the stone effect wallpaper didn't really work, and the woodwork was a bit rough (ok very rough). So in light my previous attempts on the cityscape photography board. I thought would attempt to remove the wallpaper and attempt to the texture the walls. And give them a general tidy up. They will then also be suitable for the city scape board. 

Unlike the other foam card used to make the cityscape board, the card on these buildings wasn't easy to peel off. I ended using a long Stanley knife blade (the kind with the snap off sections) to slide between the card and foam layers. This did make the foam a bit rough, but this actually helps the design. I even managed to get the paper and card off of the hut with a covered porch with doing any major damage. 

Sections of brick were added and then the remainder of the walls were given a light coat of poly filler. Which when dry, will be given a gentle sanding to dial down the roughness of the walls. Then it tidy up and painting. 

Speedy mark one ruffian huts

Already looking better

Rob 

Cityscape Board Finished

Doing the Job Twice

After building the board, I thought the hard work was done.... With a few washes followed by a quick bit dry brushing  and all would be done. And so, it started that way. 

I am not sure if the PVA glue was too thick, the texturing (with the tin foil) was too rough, or the foam bounced back a bit. But after the first wash and dry brush most of the roads and some of the raised areas didn't seem very well defined. I tried a couple of different washes (& drybrushing with different shades of grey) to try and bring out the definition but it wasn't enough. 

So, I finally went back and remarked out all  the roads and a good portion of the raised areas with a pencil. This was just as laborious as the first time. Ironically the definition, looked better in the pictures but didn't look very good by eye. 

After the remarking with pencil, the wash was able to sit better in the recesses and drybrushing was picking up the detail. Then it was onto the scatter and bit of discolouration with a couple of inks. 

After setting the board up for a few trial photos, I now realise I am quite short on scatter terrain for this type of board. So, a few items such as outhouses and rubbish that will have to be added to the build and paint queue.  And some city walls would look good as a backdrop. 

Proud Regulars at the pub

After remarking

Fourth or fifth wash and after remarking

Finished

Watch Out!

The other side of the board!

Rob 

New Scenery Board

 The backdrop 

After reading an interesting feature on Jays Wargaming Madness for Minas Tirith scenery which included a link to an excellent You Tube channel Zorpazorp (A guy who builds massive scenery. Its mainly LotR and Wh40K but there is some inspiring stuff). I decided it was time to build the alternative scenery backdrop for my stuff which I have been thinking about for some time.  

I wanted a cityscape as an alternative to my usual countryside backdrop. One of the key lessons from the first backdrop (Countryside Scenery Board) was that it has too much scenery. Which means its difficult to put anything more than a small warband. So the new one will be much flatter. 

On to the Build

I have been having difficulty finding pink polystyrene recently for board building. So I decided to try removing one of the card layers from some spare foam card. It was surprisingly easy.  After that it was a very pleasant afternoon in the garden marking out the board with an old ball point pen. 

The stone work on the raised areas took ages but I pleased with the final result. The roadways were much quicker with the regular design. I hadn't planned to add a raised area  to the centre of the crossroads. But I realised it would make a good focal point which could be given a choice items such as signposts, gibbet or a well etc. Once built a textured the board with a rolled up ball of tinfoil. 

Finally it was stuck to base board with hot melt glue. I was bit concerned but the foam card boards were a bit warped. But they seemed to stick aright. Then a libel coat of PVA glue was applied. 

The first test stone work.

Later

Much later.

Much, much later... it was starting to take shape. 

The fourth section is deliberately free of stone work as I plan to paint it as an area of waste ground. To give  bit more variety to the board. 

Thankfully the roads were much quicker. 

Stuck to the base board and ready for the PVA glue. 

In the Sunshine

While out and about at the weekend, I spotted this dark Green Fritillary Butterfly, which looks a bit worse for wear. But this is quite an unusual butterfly, so I thought it was worth a photo. 

A rather knackered looking Dark Green Fritillary. 

Rob