Thistlewood - Ugrash Ka vs King's Guard

 Making Progress on Thistlewood

Finished off the last three of the King's Guard to complete, the unit of ten necessary for Thistlewood. Also repainted the old (1970s) Ral Partha Hecatron I bought recently, who will be used as Ugrash Ka. leader of the Vile Rune orcs. Given the age of the sculpt by Tom Meier's, it still stands out as a quality sculpt.  

Ugrash-Ka is the toughest character at Thistlewood with a Toughness characteristic of D and 4 wounds. However, he doesn't have very high weapon skill or strength so may struggle to deal the damage against some King Amias' more elite units and characters. 

Grenadier & Fornlorn Knights

I didn't want to paint the new Knights in the traditional silver scheme as they are supposed to the king's guard. An elite unit who are all individuals, hence different colours schemes for each one. 

Rob

Thistlewood - The Kings Champion

The Imperial Guard Take Shape

The King's  champion is the commander of the Imperial Guard. I had six Grenadier knights (from the nineties)  already painted  and recently ended up with an extra one. I still need another three and I think I will get them from Fornlorn Hope to match in. I have decided to keep the original base colours as they are contemporary with the miniatures. 

I wanted him to stand out and so he could be used as a hero in other future games. So I painted him using a bronze colour scheme rather than the classic steel colour scheme. This was done using a Citadel Warplock Bronze base coat followed by a light brown wash. Then dry brushed the highlight mix of 50/50 of Warplock bronze / Hashut Copper. With these fully armoured miniatures it is fairly quick to get a finished figures painted to a reasonable standard. 

The Warhammer Stats  for Imperial Guard reflects the different approach  the Warhammer 1st edition takes with not creating unstoppable killing machines that occur in later editions. These elite knights only have a toughness B and strength 2. In the 1st edition toughness was marked with a letter not a number but it is broadly similar 2nd edition numbers by replacing the letter  with a number in increasing order A=1, B=2 etc. So with most miniatures with higher weapon skill and lower strength/toughness it will be interesting see how this plays out on the table. 

Imperial Knight Stats

Rob

A White Dwarf Milestone

Here Come the Miniatures

Cover by Alan Craddock

Whilst looking for the White Dwarf with the Lone Wolf figures issue. I came across this copy of White Dwarf  (52) from April 1984. It is the first issue with a regular miniature feature - Tabletop Heroes. It seems Joe Dever and Gary Chalk were both regular contributors to this feature. This set the format for several years with one page of photos and one page of hints and tips. Each  month tended to have a theme with photos and feature trying together.  In the first issue - fantasy knights. 

A high quality and typical artwork for the cover of this era. Most of the artwork I haven't seen elsewhere. Which suggests it was commissioned for White Dwarf. Anyway on to the article.

There wasn't much else miniatures related in White Dwarf except for an advert for new Citadel miniatures. Both boxed sets by Aly Morrison. The miniatures can be seen on Stuff of Legends. 

Rob

Defending Orcs Drift

 Bertolac - Wounded Hero of the Grand League

Bertolac at Orcs Drift

My Bertolac figure started life as a City Guard from Grenadier’s Fantasy Warriors Fighting Men (Still available from Fornlorn Hope).  When I decided that I wanted to use him as the human hero, a bit of conversion was needed. I decided on him because has a similar looking figure to the one in Gary Chalk’s picture. I did find an original on eBay for £25 but that is about 4-5 times more than I am willing to pay. Now if I could find him for a fiver…

The Mark Copplestone City Guard

With the original 90's paint job

I managed to find a sword arm in my bits box and did a simple  the arm swap.  However, he has a 20-year-old paint job, but I really like the shield design, particularly the chequer board.  So, I decided to repaint him without  stripping the original paint job. If I can find a suitable feather I will add it to the helm later.

Another excellent Gary Chalk Illustration

'Bertolac has removed his armour, but a shield is at hand giving him a saving throw of a 6. He is armed with a sword. He has a light head injury, giving a -1 on all profile characteristics.'

Bertolac lead the Walking Wounded

Holding the Line.

Rob 

Duel No. 5 - Lawful Good Enforcer

 At Least a Level 10 Paladin!

After what seems like a long time, I actually have finished something. I seem to have lots of stuff in progress which are all moving forward a little bit without actually finishing anything. However, I finally focussed on one figure and got him done. It probably helped that we have had a change in the weather form hot and sunny to wet here on the South coast of the England!

I definitely went for a bright heroic colours as befits the noble paladin. As this is the high level character he is well kitted out in an array of top end items and like other figures in this range is well prepared for adventuring! This meant it it took a while to work through all of the base colours as there are lots of different parts before  starting the highlighting/ washes. But an enjoyable figure to paint and adds to my small but growing band of AD&D adventurers. 

Rob

Captain of the Guard

 Finished with a 20 year Gap

This figure from Grenadier's Fantasy Warriors Fighting men range has been my General (Or Warchief in Fantasy Warrior terms) for over twenty years. But I never thought he looked finished. I forgot to take a picture before the finishing touches so you just have to trust me on this one.  

He had a plain green tabard which just needed something to bring it out. So a couple of washes and touching up wear and tear from twenty years of use. I can finally call him finished. The painting on the face is probably one best one that I think I have done.   Like many of Grenadiers figures of this period (mid-90s) this one was sculpted by Mark Copplestone and it is up to his usual high standard. 

Rob 

Duel No.1 - I Challenge You to Single Combat

Knights from Different Backgrounds

As a way of painting up random bits of my collection (lead/plastic pile). I thought it would be interesting to paint up figures in a pair in form of a duel.  For the first attempt I picked 'Gustavus Strongwill' from the Citadel's Fighters range and the Southron  - Haradrim from the classic Lord of the Rings Range. Both classic Citadel 80's figures.

Gustavus Strongwill was sculpted by either Bob Naismith or Jes Goodwin as part of the Fighters range published in White Dwarf 84 (thanks Stuff of legends). The interesting part is that he is clearly based on the Swan Knight of Dol Amroth figure from the Lord of the Rings Range from the same time (See Below). 

Gustavus alongside the ME-75 Swan Knight

As the Swan Knights are painted in 'cool' colours such as Blue/White so decided to go the other way with Gustavus and go for 'hot' colours of Red/Black with golden armour. Good fun to paint and with a simple colour scheme giving a striking finish. 

Gustavus now finished, the Southron is now underway. 

Rob

Classic Lord of the Rings Figures

 Some of my favourite Classic Lord of the Rings figures from the 1980s Citadel range. 

(Photographed with better lighting in the summer)

ME45 Dunlendings Hill Men

ME43 Half Orcs of Saruman

ME73 Barrow Wights

(Plus a Marauder Wight) 

ME75 Knight of Dol Amroth

ME35 Beorn: As Man & Bear