Goblins (& Pixies) to Your Mounts

Let the Jousting Begin 

So, the goblins (Nath) won 3-1 and won extra spikes as a trophy. The pixies (me) were robbed!

Team coaches can be seen in the background.

The two jousting teams are a real mix of manufacturers with Oakbound pixie team coming out tops. I struggled to find enough minis to make two convincing teams. So, in the end I used Oakbound (very pleased with the look of the pixie team), Ral Partha Europe, Bad Squiddo, Warbases, classic Citadel and Wargames Atlantic. I would like to improve the goblin team but that can come later once we have played a few games.

And I have an idea for a Halloween themed team. 

The Pixies ready for the off

So, one game in on Wartnose Goblin Jousting, it was a lot of fun. The rules were easy to pick up but had enough quirks from other rules to make them different from other games. And the randomised movement templates actually fitted the game very well.

Once we had read the rules correctly, combat sped up nicely (we didn’t read the rules on double and triples right on the first read through). The only question point we had about the rules was if the Dirty Tricks rules were dirty enough. We wanted an occasional more dramatic effect such as unseating a rider. But that could be just us!

Rob 

Monsters in the Night

Witch's Familiar

A familiar for the 3rd witch from Bad Squiddo. Who will also join the ranks of the Fae army. 

According the Bad Squiddo website, The mjölkhare is made by a witch out of hair, bones, butter, mud, earwax, blood, yarn, cloth and all other sorts of gross! She sends it out to steal or spoil the milk (a valuable resource!).

'Mjölkhare fetch some milk'

The Project that Would Not Die

Ok, so I want a few more zombies and they mostly came out of the bits box and left over zombie parts. I was thinking as they are the risen dead, they may still have source of the demise still stuck in them. So, they have arrows and spears still sticking out. As they are all quite well armoured, they may form a bodyguard for a zombie king. As I plan to add another larger figure as another focal point. This will bring the total number of zombies up to 60 so they could be split into two useful units of thirty. So, I will also need a second banner bearer. 

I particularly like the guy with a spear sticking out of his back. 

Getting on with Stuff from Salute.

As I had three minotaurs all the same, I have decided to do a bit of simple conversion on two of them to break up the silhouettes. At £2 each they were a bit of a bargain. 

Trying out a zenithal highlight on  a white coloured model.  Using a light grey as the lowlight. 

Rob

The 3rd Witch?

 My Offering for All Hallows Eve

So, to go alongside the third witch from the Bad Squiddo set, I made a little camp site for her. After a root about the bits box, I came up with a number of items for the witch's campsite. The caudrons were made from green stuff by pushing a ball of green stuff onto the end of a pen and shaped into the cauldron shape. Once hard, the feet were added. The pen was given a light coat of Vaseline, to aid the removal the green stuff.  The first one had a wonky lip, so ended up as the damaged cauldron in the background. I also am quite pleased how the green lighting effect came out. 

Hubble, bubble, boil & trouble. 

She's always watching you....

Standard lighting

Low level green light

A Third Witch but Not the Third Witch

Now there are three witches in the set from Bad Squiddo but the Granny & Nanny need a junior witch to give helpful instructions to (boss about), so I still need to find a junior witch to complete Granny's Lancre coven.  Anyway, the third witch looks much better a lone witch for the moment. 

Ok, sometime later

Yes, they are that battered because I have had them, a long time. Now, I have worked my way through the complete Witches saga (See Mr P's Witches). 

Three witches NOT the three witches!
Clear, GOOD.

And Finally...

Rob 

Zenithal & Bloomers

Carrying On with Stuff

Having put the first washes on Nanny last night. I was able to start work on the detailing. I have just started the third of the Witches Novels - Witches Abroad. Both witches clearly are wearing red and white bloomers in Josh Kirby's cover painting. And whilst I can't see Granny approving of such frivolity, I think the red and white bloomers will suit Nanny to a tee. Although I have had to paint them vertically so they can be seen. 

Nanny always did like to show off.

Josh Kirby's excellent cover for Witches abroad. 

In the absence of a white spray can, I decided to try drybrushing with white done only from top to bottom. It looks ok. 

Now with added whiteness

White has improved this one as well 

Rob 

Beachhead 2022 - Star Wars, Titans and Winter Raids

A Grand Day Out Beside the Seaside

It was the first time I have been to the Beachhead show and I enjoyed it. It certainly isn't anything big like Salute. In fact it fitted inside one medium size sports hall but had a great selection of traders and a nice selection of display and participation games. The tournament hall was full all day but there was still a fair amount of people buzzing around the show hall without feeling crowded. 

It is relatively close to me (Bournemouth) and I will go back again.  As well as playing the Woods there were a number of other participation games. I managed to miss a fun looking game based on Aliens and I didn't even get a picture! There many other great looking games but I didn't manage to photography everything. 

This Star Wars games caught my eye, always got a bit of a soft spot for snow speeders (or is that forest speeders in this setting) versus AT-ATs. 

One of the other impressive displays was a whole horde of WH40K sized titans battling it out. Looked like part of the Horus Heresy. I counted over forty titans all of which were well painted. I don't like to think how much this lot cost. 

At the other end of the spectrum was this winter Dark Ages raid. Which I rather liked. The scenery was just great. 

Also an interesting looking American Civil War battle, this is not an era that I generally have much interest in (aside from a collection of Britain's figures from my childhood when it was the greys versus the blues) but this looked great. 

The weather was pretty filthy all day but we didn't need to go outside so it was fine for us. 

Some of the spoils of the day, I got a number of nice show bargains which always is welcome. Had some very interesting and useful discussions about paints with Mark from M&C Model Painting who was at the show  with a very large paint shop. Ended up picking a number of different brands to try at good prices. So will keep you all posted. 

Some of the swag

I settled on a the Wizened Witches set for Mr Pratchett's witches - Granny & Nanny from Bad Squiddo. Two of the witches in the set bear a striking resemblance to the vision of them in my head for these characters. Still need to get Magrat though.  

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