Captain of the Royal Centaurs

Mid Year Finishing Stuff

As suspect many of us do, we have some miniatures which fly across the paint bench and others that linger for months. I first started this figure back in February (Centaur Conversion) and it has resolutely remained there until this week. When I finally added a few quick colours to finish him off. 

He fulfils the brief I had for him,  which was to act as the captain of the Royal Centaurs in the Thistlewood scenario. But I also wanted the option to use him in both my Chaos and Fae armies. 

Now I just have to decide what I am going to do for the other four centaurs needed in this scenario (and make useful little unit).  I have another couple of spare LotR horses from which this horse body came. But I don't have any more spare beastmen and I don't want them all the same as this one. So either do a few more conversions or look for some actual centaurs. 

He also marks the start of me deciding to finish off a number of miniatures which have also lingered on the paint bench for long enough. 

Rob 

Evil Minions, Glowing Undead & Auroch Hunts

 Skeleton Champion

After really enjoying painting up the Dead Men of Dunharrow, I did have a look around the lead/plastic/resin pile for something else to paint in the same style. And came up with the Prodos Games Fae – Skeleton champion, I am not really how he fits into the Fae set but is a really nice figure which I have been puzzling about how to him paint for some time. Anyway after the Dead Men, I thought he would be be a suitable candidate. 

I also tried a bit of source lighting from the green skin (which is the first time I have tried this technique) but I don't  think it really shows up in the pictures. But was much more successful that my attempts at Zenithal highlighting (Zenithal Highlighting). Still enjoying using this technique so will have to find some more figures to paint. 

I think he could end up being an undead or chaos champion for either army. 

Evil Minions of Lord Vassago

I thought it was time to have look at these guys on mass. I still have about the half of the Oathmark Goblins to complete and forgot to add the Wyvern. But Lord Vassago's evil horde is nearly ready for Thistlewood. 

The First Hunt

Also managed to complete the first hunt with the Crow tribe as they hunt an old Bull Auroch. In a game of Paleo Hunt - Eat or be Eaten. Quick battle report to follow.

Rob 

More Thistlewood Goblins

 Finally a bit of Hobby Time

Not  much hobby time recently as I am fitting our new kitchen at the moment. But I did manage to spend a bit of time yesterday putting together some more goblins. Even with five reclaimed figures from the bits box, I was still five short for the forty needed for Thistlewood. So ordered a Wargames Atlantic sprue to get the final five and give me plenty of extras to mix up the remaining Oathmark figures.

Just to make swapping a little more time consuming, the Oathmark figures come with a ball and socket head joint and flat arm joints. Whereas Wargames Atlantic do the opposite. However, first batch of Oathmark bodies with WA heads and arms done.

Also got a couple of printed tree stumps from a friend for the display table.

I did manage to pick up Skarloc for a reasonable price, so they are sort of Skarloc's wood elves. 

Finished off the prep on most of my Wood Elves.

Rob 

A Spot of Green Stuff

 Orcs or Goblins for Thistlewood

Still not decided if  these will be the Vile Rune orcs or the Black Sun goblins for Thistlewood.  I reasoned that I will  need a Warchief (and a bodyguard) regardless. So used a few of the spare dwarf arms to give them some hefty weapons followed by some Green Stuff fur collars to help bulk them up. I will also add some larger shields from the bits box as well to help them look more impressive. 

The Green Stuff seems to be drying out as
few bits of the yellow stuff wouldn't mix in. 

For reasons I can't remember.
A few headless goblins left in the bits box.

A few Moria goblins have been reclaimed from the bits box with new Oathmark goblin heads.  I will also change the weapons and shields to help them blend in with the others. This will help bulk the numbers up to the required forty. 

The shields have come out a bit dark,
so will have to be redone on the first five. 

Rob 

Finally Finished the Dwarves

Thistlewood -  King Amias' Dwarven Contingent

Joris Dwalinson & the Guild of Sappers and Scouts 

Finally got round finishing the next set of five dwarves to complete the dwarven contingent for Thistlewood. Just the banner to add. I still have another five to complete which I can do in the background. Nearly three quarters of the good forces are now ready. 

Benni & the Pots

Benni the halfling is now underway and this is all of the pots etc. that come with the Viking house. I decided to fill up some of the pots with food and drink. 

Rob

Dwarven New Year

New Dwarves & Some Old Ones

Beginnings of the Guild of Sappers & Scouts

Slowly working my way through the dwarven contingent  for Thistlewood. Who will be  mixed unit of rangers and sappers. 

As readers of this blog will probably know one my favourite sculptors is Mark Copplestone and this dwarf Warchief is one  of his best.  One of his nineties Grenadier figures.  Fortunately still available through Fornlorn Hope. 

He is such a great character that I think he will have to be an additional  named character for Thistlewood. But because the dwarf contingent leader will now be a named character then the elf contingent will also have to have a named character which means the goblins etc. will also need another named character(s). So another project starts to spin out of control. Maybe I will think about this a bit more...

Jorus Dwalinson - Forge  Captain
of the Guild of Sappers & Scouts

Citadel's Talisman Dwarf

Gary Chalk's Illustration for the Talisman game

I thought I will add a picture of this miniature because I don't think I have included him on my blog before and he is one of my favourite Citadel dwarves and the theme of this post has been a bit dwarf centred. The figure can be a bit fragile because of winged helmet so he will probably have to sit out active service. I know this because I also have a broken one (Who could do with a bit of a revamp!). 

This is one of the figures designed for the Talisman board game characters based on the drawing by Gary Chalk. 

 ME-82  'The Hobbit' Personalities - Thorin Oakenshield (3 of 4)

And finally one more dwarf, now working to finish Thorin. The detail on this figure is really nice and the inks pick the detail very well. 

Rob 

Crooked House, Rangers & Strong Tone

 Crooked House 

Finished off the crooked house, it has turned out a bit more dirty than I was planning which is probably due making the wash too dark on the plaster work. Also it doesn't show up very well on the photo but the house  leans to the left quite a bit hence the name.  

I originally painted the windows and the drew on the framework with a fine permanent marker pen but it just wasn't neat enough. So I printed some windows out on a laser printer and gave them a quick wash with some Nuln oil. Fortunately by printing the paper  on a laser printer the printing wasn't affected by the Nuln oil.

I deliberately limited the amount of features on the sides of the crooked house as I intend to make a couple more town houses that can be placed alongside this one. Enough to make all the remaining houses for the Thistlewood scenario. 

Dwarf Rangers

Ready for anything.

Finished off the first two dwarf rangers who will act as an allied contingent for the Halflings and as the dwarves for Thistlewood. In the Thistlewood scenario, Joe Dever doesn't list missile units directly, instead it simply states that 20% of the army of the good have missile weapons. So I am splitting out five of the fifteen dwarves who will be armed with bows. 

A Stronger Tone?

I bought some Army Painter strong tone last year, tried it and didn't really get on with it. But I thought I would try it again for painting up the goblins as an alternative to using multiple citadel shades. I have 30 of them to paint up so want a reasonable speed painting method. I am not totally sold on the end effect but it was certainly better than I was expecting. I will now paint another one up using my usual Citadel shade technique which is using different shades on different parts. To compare against this goblin. 

Step 1 - base colours

Not really sold on my choice of colours either!

Step 2 - Strong tone wash

Rob 

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

Hecatron, My Precious & Grey

 Third Time Lucky

This is the third time I have selected a model for  Ugrash-Ka (the first two were a Classic Dunderling and then a Hill Troll champion), as leader of the Vile Rune orcs. However, this is the model given the original scenario. So, seems very appropriate. I came across him while looking for something else on eBay. The model is a 1970's Ral Partha Hecatron. A bit small by today's standard but still a great sculpt by Tom Meier? While my original plan was for a minimal number of extra figures sometimes you have to go with the flow.

Hecatron alongside a modern (90s) Grenadier Knight

Joe Dever's Original

 ME-82  'The Hobbit' Personalities - Gollum (2 of 4)

Hot on the heels of Gandalf, I finished the tidy up of Gollum. The only Gollum figure done for the original 80's range. As has been remarked before there are plenty of different models of Aragon, Gandalf etc.  but some obvious gaps such as Galadriel. Fortunately they managed to add Gollum before they stopped producing the LotR range. 

Its Stomping Time

As the bases for the Oakbound figures are much larger than I  would normally use, I have decided that they need a mini-diorama and Bruce the Troll is obviously trying to stomp something. So a few sprites (from Eureka) and some toadstools seems like an natural fit with the Fae army. 

Quick test build for Bruce

I See Grey People

My plan to clear the decks of nearly finished stuff has worked, but I am now left with undercoated figures. Now onto 2022.

Rob

Oathmark Light Dwarves & Goblins - First Impressions Plus the Mighty Atom

Oathmark Dwarf Engineers & Rangers 

 

I ordered three sprues of these dwarves off of eBay in order to make my unit of dwarves for the Thistlewood  scenario. But I also thought they could be used as the Engineers from Orcs Drift. And finally would make a interesting allied contingent for the halflings if put them together as rangers and miners.  I also decided to do a quick review of the dwarves plus the Oathmark goblins I got for Christmas. 

The first five put together. 

Each sprue has enough parts to create five dwarves equipped with either bows, mining equipment or two handed weapons. Plus a few extras such as a spear. Also fifteen heads also keeps the variety up (So each one of my dwarves in my unit can have a different head).  As I found out when I put the first five together, not every part goes with all of the bodies. So a bit of dry fitting is needed before splashing the glue about. But overall they went together ok. I really like all of the little extras on the sprue (top of the picture) which include things like pipes, tankards and horns. Which will be really useful for all kinds of scene setting and making them into individuals.

Dwarf rangers kitted out for the wilds.

I am equipping five of the dwarves with bows and add backpacks etc. from the bits box to turn them into rangers similar to my halfling ones.  Just need to add the green stuff straps etc. 

The halfling rangers are soon to be joined. 

They would also be a decent  alternative for the company of Thorin Oakenshield. Overall I am pleased with these guys and makes a nice change from all of the heavily armoured dwarf kits already available. In summary a great sprue of miniatures with plenty of character, choice of weapons and a nice little set of extra parts. But can be a bit fiddley to put the right arms on the right bodies. 

NOTE: I have also ordered the dwarven Warchief from Fornlorn Hope (ex-Grenadier) as the unit commander and will use a couple of EM4 dwarves has his personal bodyguard. You may ask why I am mentioning this minor detail. Its a great miniature but I don't even have it yet!

But whilst looking for the picture of this figure, I found someone selling one on eBay for £15. So I guess it always pays to look around before you buy! FYI - Its £2.30 on the Fornlorn Hope website. This figure has been around since the Nineties so maybe the eBay one is vintage...

Oathmark Goblin Raiders

I got a box goblins from Oathmark for Christmas to use with Thistlewood. Now I was originally planning on using my LotR goblins but sometimes my projects spin off in sideways directions. As I would quite to paint them up some goblins as Black Sun goblins(as mentioned in the scenario). With banners and shields, etc, to match the scenario description. Now I haven't decided on a  design for the Black Suns but would quite like to make some shields especially for them if I can come up with a suitable design. 

Where as the dwarf sprue felt like a character set, the goblin sprue feels very much like an army set. With five similar goblin bodies and heads and all five can be equipped with hand weapons, spears or bows. So a very flexible choice of builds like the dwarves. But no extra items to customise your goblins. Although it does come with a banner pole and what I assume is  a small set of boss weapons  and a special character head. So you can add a unit commander. 

First five put together at random

Unlike the dwarves,  I just put all of the goblin parts together at random and didn't have any real difficulty. So I think building all thirty shouldn't be too difficult. 

So overall a simple little set which should build up a unit double quick. 

The Mighty Atom*

"Nice to See You, To see you nice"

Bruce NOT Rift Cragg

While inspecting my new Trolls from Oakbound, I couldn't help noticing that one (Listed as Rift Cragg)  of them reminds me of a famous British TV personality Bruce Forsyth from all of my childhood and most of my adulthood. Who was famous for hosting game shows and his catchphrases. One of those all round entertainers from the good old days.  And even the troll seems to impersonating his famous pose. 

So from now on this troll will be known as Bruce. 

"Give Us a Twirl"

*Bruce Forsyth was known as the Mighty Atom back in the 1930's !! when he made his TV debut. 

And Finally Enough of this Madness & Back to the Oldhammer

As we turn to 2022, time to start think about what projects I want to finish and one of them I want to finish is painting my classic Citadel LotR collection. Which sort of got me back into wargaming. Anyway I painted Gollum back 2018 but was never really happy with the finish. So he is first up for a make over and then onto the other characters from this little set. 

Rob