Skarloc's Wood Elves from a Different Dimension

Still Looking

Skarloc's wood elves is one the best regiments of renown and whilst I couldn't quite stretch the budget to a complete set. But I did manage to get Skarloc himself and painted an ex-Grenadier command group to join him including my choice for Wardancer captain. 

Obviously the proper Skarloc's wood elves were sculpted by Jes Goodwin and the ex-Grenadier ones by Mark Copplestone.  Both sets are excellent but where I think Jes Goodwin's elves just win over Mark's ones. Because Jes has sculpted his figures with a wider variety of kit and looks. The ex-Grenadier minis just look like they all went to the same hairdresser and clothing stylist.

 As usual on to the beer.

Rob

Paint An Orc for Orctober

 A 300% Improvement

Beware the mighty Orctober Horde

As it is Orctober, I have managed to paint some orcs, three to be precise which as the mathematically three times as many as one. Which is how many I painted last year (hence the subtitle above). Last year I managed to finish Ugezod and this year it was the turn of his banner bearer and musician (ex-Grenadier Nick Lund Orcs via Fornlorn Hope).  As expected these sculpts fit in very well as the Ugezod's Death Commandos and are a fraction of the price of alternative Citadel ones.  I also managed an odd orc trooper from 1984 Regiment of Renown - Harboth's Black Mountain Boys.

Rob  

Thistlewood - Lord Vassago's Heavy Hitters

 Trolls, Wyvern and Uruks

Ugrash-Ka, Trolls & Wyvern

When I found the trolls, I also found the giant hill troll who was with them. He seemed a much better choice for Ugrash-Ka. The one pictured in the White Dwarf article is large ogre / troll ? from Ral Partha (See below). So out goes the Dunderling and in comes the hill troll, Both were painted already so didn't requirement any extra work. 😀

The original Ugrash-Ka

Ready for War!

With the completion of a standard bearer and musician (Nick Lund's Grenadier Orcs from Fornlorn Hope)  for Ugezod's Death Commandos, this finishes the unit of ten needed for the fighting Uruks in Lord Vassago's army.

This will bring me up to 82% for the evil forces. The forces of good are lagging behind on 62%. So I will need to work out what I want to get to finish them off. I am thinking I might convert some beastmen into centaurs (only three needed) so that they could also be used for my Fae and Chaos armies if I don't make them heroic/chaotic/faerie*. 

* delete as appropriate. 

Rob

The Giant Killers of Hambrook - Part 2

 The Unexpected Victory

The Giant Killer of Hambrook

Dimluk Grimtooth watched as the halflings drew closer around the hill, he was ready for the final blow. He had been fortunate to find a hill giant willing to join his raids on the ripe halfling lands. There had been plenty of easy pickings, but this was the first time his warriors had faced a real battle. By skirting far to the east of the Darkling woods he had avoided the dread queen Morgana. His cousins who served the dread queen had warned him she was not to be treated like rotten meat.

-----

The queen studied the halfling messenger. He looked wearied from the road and agitated by the delay.

The queen turned to the chamberlain ‘Fetch Maeve I have need of her spear and her wings.’

-----

‘We cannot stand against this giant much longer’   stated the Mayor.

‘But at least I can look him in the eye on this hill ‘ said the bloodied sergeant at arms Tolman Grout and he swung his sword to show he was still ready to fight.

‘How many arrows do we have?’ asked Brock.

‘Enough for one more volley’ said Tolman.

‘Good, we will give the giant a volley when he gets close and hope that will be enough.’  

There was a snort from banner bearer Sam. ‘We will not go down without a fight’  he said with as much gruffness as he could muster.  

The giant had stopped to examine a dead pony and poke it with his bloody tree branch. Dimluk ordered a couple of his lackeys to get the giant moving and finish the halflings. He wanted this battle finished so he could get to the plunder and the slaves before anyone realised, he was here.

-----

The faerie captain Maeve skimmed across the treetops and looked back at the elven war runners following her towards the goblins. She could clearly see the giant  and the few remaining halflings on the hill. They would be too late to save the halflings, but they could at least avenge them.

-----

With a bit of prodding from his helpers, the giant turned to face the last remaining halflings and the goblins made way as he approached the hill. The goblins started chanting ‘Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!’.

‘Get ready lads, fire when I give the command’ ordered Brock.

The giant trudged up  the hill with the goblins still chanting. ‘Fire’ yelled Brock and the volley of arrows hit the giant. The giant tried to swat the annoying arrows and took a forced step back. As he stepped back, he tripped and fell. Tolman sensing his moment leaped forward and landed on the giant’s chest. Not wasting a moment, he drove his sword through the giant throat.

The goblins fell silent and Dimluk stepped forward and roared ‘Who’s spoiling my fun?’  

In reply Brock picked up a bow and shot straight at Dimluk. It hit him in the eye, and he fell back reeling.  Before the goblins could react came the unmistakeable war shouts of the elves to rear of their line. The goblin line wavered and rippled before it suddenly broke and every goblin was running for his life.

-----

Mayor Brock sat smoking his pipe as Maeve landed nearby.

‘The goblins are on the run, but I could not find Dimluk. You must put more rangers to scout the Downs to guard against further raids.’ Said Maeve.

Mayor Brock nodded, ‘I think the other Shires may listen now’.  

Budding Halfling contingent

Painting Practice

Finished the Giant Killers for now as I have run out of halfling archers. The other halfling archers will keep their existing paint jobs. But will be rebased to match in.  Now on the militia and some scouts.  Both of which will need a bit converting and modding. 

Rob 

The Giant Killers of Hambrook

Home Brew Regiment of Renown

First group of four of the Giant Killers

The Story so Far (Part 1)

After the brassy note from sharpshooter’s horn came the cries of ‘Too Me’ as the shattered halfling warriors rallied around the blue and white banner of Hambrook on top of a small hill. The hobbits retreated, as the goblin warriors snapped at their heals. Mayor Brock ordered another volley of arrows to drive the goblins back and give the few stragglers enough time to reach the relative safety of the hilltop.

The militias from all the other villages had been scattered and it was left for the halflings of Hambrook to make the last stand. A few brave hobbit scouts harried the goblins at the edges but it was not enough stop the goblin’s  advance on the last remaining enemy still left on the battlefield. The black skull banners of the goblins advanced warily. None of the goblins wanted to miss the post battle feast due to an unlucky arrow.

------

The halfling messenger bowed so low that his nose almost touched the ground as he greeted the Fae queen in her summer court.

‘The goblins have been raiding all of homesteads along the northern borders of the three shires  and have now gathered to strike at the Winter stores.’ He announced in a hurried tone.

 ‘This cannot be allowed or will not just the halflings that will go hungry,’  the queen’s chamberlain interrupted. Morgana fixed the chamberlain with a stare, and he fell silent.

‘Who leads this goblin rabble?’  the Queen demanded. 

 
Painting & Repainting Notes 

After repainting the halfling knight. I had a look at other some of the other old halflings. I still have a enough for a  sizable allied contingent. So after searching in the loft. I pulled out several boxes of halflings. Mostly Mark Copplestone's Grenadiers figures from the nineties. Most of them have decidedly dodgy paint schemes and I want to pull the contingent into a more cohesive looking group. 

Quality seems to have varied quite a bit!

So the plan is to repaint them as local militia  units. First up will be a group of archers. They all needed paint stripping and rebasing. They will go back to the classic 20 mm bases so they can be ranked up properly and offer a bit support to my Fae army.  After thinking about a colour scheme I settled on a blue and white scheme. Which gives a unified look and speeds up painting. 

Test paint scheme

I also want add a bit of background to the main units and characters. So I have decided to have a go and write a few background pieces. So the archers have become the Giant Killers of Hambrook. I still need to work how I am going use the giant skull (from the Citadel Skulls set) but the most obvious seems as a top for the banner. 

Rob 

Custom Movement Tray

 Ugezod takes to the Field

Ugezod's Mighty Death Commandos

Because I chose to mount Ugezod on a larger base (30mm) he didn't fit with the rest of the Death Commandoes who were on 25mm bases. So I wasn't able to fit them all on one movement tray. So I made a movement tray just for them. After hunting around for 25mm and 32mm drill bits I cut out the required number of holes in a thin piece of plywood. I wanted the battle line to be a bit irregular so made sure that the holes did not line exactly. Ugezod was at the centre naturally as befits an orc of his importance. 

One down...

Making sure the drill didn't wander was the tricky bit. 

One the joining pieces did get damaged by a bit of over enthusiastic drilling but this was easily fixed by a bit of Milliput. Also because I used a 25mm drill bit, I had to sand out the holes a bit bigger so the bases did not stick. The 32mm hole was already big enough.  The tray was glued to a thick piece of card to provide a base. The top was then covered with builders sand and undercoated black.  My method of painting bases has changed since I did the Death Commandos but I wanted the tray to match with them. So once dry it was dry brushed with layers of brown with a little white added gradually. A bit of battle scenery was added in the form a broken shield and a arrow. The movement tray was then finally toped with some static grass.  This static grass looks a bit electric green  now but it does match  orcs. 

I now realise than I really need a standard bearer and musician to finish these guys off but I may add the ex-Grenadier ones done by Nick Lund rather than the other Ugezod ones.

Rob

Chaos Cultists & Bloody Skeletons Feet!

Bloody Skeleton's Feet

I bought a sprue of skeletons In order finish off one my skeleton units. The  sprue looks good with plenty options  and nice set of Greek themed weapons. However this is where the good news stops.  Each skeleton is made up with a completely unnecessary (and fiddley) number of components including separate feet, During the test build I managed in no particular order to lose one (so now I am one short), glue them on backwards, crawl around on my hands and knees (several times!) and say plenty of swear words when the bloody things did not fit into into position. I did finally manage to glue the feet on and then had to fiddle around adding the spine to the pelvis. 

Bloody Skeleton's feet

I have no idea why they decided to make it so overly complicated for no real benefit. But I will finish the test build and the now remaining four and a bit will now go into the bits box until I'm in a better mood. 

Alternative Disciple of the Red Redemption 

As mentioned on a previous post, I would like to add a unit of the Disciples of the Red Redemption to my Chaos horde put have been put off by the price. So after a bit of searching on the internet, I settled on the using the bodies of the Frostgrave Cultists with skeleton heads from the Citadel Skulls set. The Frostgrave sprue is excellent with plenty of different options and weapon choices. I like the hooded monk look of the Disciples so with bit of Green Stuff I decided to have a go at sculpting a hood. So one test build later....

First Test Build

Side shot plus even more skeleton bits

I chose a relatively large skull to give the impression of a mask over human face but I think it looks a bit oversized, so will go a more normal sized skull for the next one. But Overall it gives the look I am trying to achieve. I am sure more accomplished sculptors could get a finer finish but I think ranked up in a unit they will do the job. I have also sculpted  couple of shields which I will cast using a Blue Stuff mould so they will all be identical. I haven't decided which to use but one is plain and the other has a pattern (see below).

 

Patterned Shield design

The one problem (for me) with the the Frostgrave sprue is that because there is a wide variety of different weapons I can't build a unit with the same weapon. So I will have to build one if I want them to be all the same. 

More next time

Rob 

 

Ugezod’s Death Commandos

The Death Commandos in all their glory.

This is one of the few boxed sets that I actually bought back in the day. The originals have long disappeared into the mists of time.  Bought from Southsea Models in their original shop for those old enough to remember. Before it moved. 

Box Artwork

Character Description
(Both from Stuff of Legends)

One of the Regiments of Renown by Citadel and sculpted by Nick Lund. In fact, my favourite group of sculpts by Nick. I picked up Ugezod at the beginning of last year with a view to using him as King F’Yar (from Blood bath of Orcs Drift fame) and after painting him decided I would like to go back and have a go at the rest of the gang. This is only Citadel set of the era that I can think of where there were two different sets at the same time (Ugezod’s Death Commandos and Ugezod’s Mother Crushers). With Death Commandos being a character box featuring the Mighty Ugezod himself and the Mother Crushers as a standard Regiment of Renown.

The Mighty Ugezod a.k.a. King F’Yar

Ugezod was painted first and before I learnt the secret of the sculpting shields. However I don’t plan to go back and repaint this (yet!).

Not the original 90s paint jobs!

When I had the boxed set first time round, I only managed to paint three of them (Kudra, Gnar & Mormo). After picking the entire set up as a job lot. There was a definite difference in quality particularly between Ugezod and the first one picked up separately. Also, the originals (from the 90s) and single purchase Ugezod all had pointy shield bosses, and these have flat shield mounts. It could be these are recasts or that Citadel changed them at some point. However, since I already had Ugezod painted, I have decided not to over think this one and just enjoy the painting the figures.

I decided to keep Mormo for last but the other two would be done next. This has been a slow burn project with the aim of painting up one or two figures a month.  And I have actually managed to stick to that plan.

 

Kudra Stunty Smasher is probably the best posed of all of the figures. I really like the pose and the look.

The other three figures all got sculpted shields. However, I had to sculpt them twice as the originals got pinched by the Beastmen to finish their unit first.

 

Since starting to paint again, I had a go at painting stars on Mormo’s robes with mixed results.  This resulted in buying in some new brushes. 

Ok onwards to the next project.