Oakbound Wood Spirit (280pts)

 Wood Elf Heavy Hitter

Technically this doesn't count towards my monthly painting target for the core army. As he part of the stretch goal for this army.  But he was painted as part of my start up with an airbrush.

It was surprisingly easy to do the different zenithal highlights and lowlights.  And because the figure is quite large I didn't have to worry about getting the fine detail right. Once the airbrushing was complete it was a mixture of green/brown/grey dry brushing and a bit of dark green contrast paint. 

The base was a mixture of the usual scenic scatter, dry brushed white to simulate frost and some of the white snow paint from Citadel. 

So this figure is a 6-Soul Sluagh (Description from the Oakbound website - A particular form of dark fateweaving can bind trapped souls into rocks and plant matter, animating them into elemental beings of great strength. These are the Sluagh.) from the Oakbound miniatures range. Whilst not a treeman it is a earth spirit which again fits in very well with the wild elf look of the army. Plus it is a sizable miniature which nicely towers over enemy units.  

He is designed to fit into the colour themes and style of my winter wood (wild) elves. So, I added some snow to the top of the model. As, this seemed to quite appropriate.

These fungi are a bit different from my usual two part red/purple mushrooms which have been used on multiple other figures. So, these one have an third part around the middle and I have went for muted blue/grey scheme.  I will add some skulls to the bases once I get round to painting them 

Rob 

Enough for a Small Warband (52pts)

Equalled the Previous Best

So with five wood elves painted I have equalled the size of my previous attempt at a wood elf army (see last post). Overall I am happier with this first batch of four compared to the first one. As I am getting a feel for how to paint these figures and learning to keep to the lines and so not having to do too much tiding up on the skin. I am particularly pleased with the hair as I have managed to keep the black low lights with the white highlights which gives them a very albino quality.  These ex-Grenadier and ex-Celtos figures form the core of the army. As reward for for finishing five I think is time for a standard bearer. 

A mixture of ex-Grenadier and & ex-Celtos figures

Very pleased about how the hair turned out. 

I also think I will add some Beastman skulls from the Citadel skulls set. As think this fits the wild look of these figures. 

Working with the Airbrush

After doing a zenithal highlight with the light brown, I then decided to do two zenithal lowlights from below with two shades of green. A light green from one side aide and a darker green from the other side. They don't particularly show up in this light but the result looks good by eye. And will provide a good (and quick) starting point for painting the rest of the miniature. 

The excellent Oakbound Miniatures 6-Soul Sluagh will be
 pressed into service as the wood elves treeman

Rob

Beginner's Luck

 Fun & Games with Airbrushes

On very relaxed Sunday afternoon, I managed to break out the paints and settle in for nice long painting session. I also, set up airbrush for a second go. And to use a very well known footballing phrase it was very much a game of two halves. 

The first session was used to zenithal highlight Sauron the Necromancer and in the main it went very well. So, I had a second batch of figures already black undercoated. Ready for a repeat performance. However, I couldn't get paint mix right and the paint ran all over the figures. Now I did use the cheap white paint included in the set but with some decent thinner (Vallejo) but I think I over thinned it. Now I do think I will need to buy some good airbrush white and have seen a couple of recommendations on Youtube videos. 

I then changed colours and had much more success with the light brown which went on smoothly.  Now this was with a quality paint with was a bit thicker and I didn't use as much thinner. So, this probably helped. And since this went well I finished off with a green zenithal on some other stuff which also looked ok. 

The green around the base of the Griffon was
a mistake but looks rather good. 

The attempt to beat my previous personal best of five wood elves continues with another batch of four. Overall I am much happier with the skin tones. With was helped by using the two very pale skin tones in the right order. I have now labelled them to avoid that mistake again. 

The speckled bases were because I had attempted to
zenithal highlight them with a spray can and it did not go well. 

How many Bilbos?

With only Bilbo left in the company of Thorin Oakenshield to paint, I thought it would be a good time to break open the other Bilbo figure. This time from Lord of the Rings. It picked this one up last year for a fiver which I thought was bargain. I have now heard that they have finally retired this figure after twenty  years. So, it looks like I got this one in time. 

Now given the packaging is from the first film, I reckon this one is fifteen to twenty years old. So, I as opened the blister, I was reminded how long it was since I last bought a new Citadel blister. Which was also probably fifteen to twenty years ago. 

I also have the Bilbo figure for the 80's ME-34 Hobbits of the Shire set. Which I am painting at the moment so I might as well paint him as well. 

Rob

Army of One (10pts)

One Down

Painted up the first wood elf, for my new wood elf army.  It is easy to overwork the very pale skin and I need to to be more careful not to get dark colours over the finished skin. But finally started painting this army.  In the nineties, my first attempt at a wood elf army ended after five figures (three boars, an animal handler and one glade rider) so hopefully I can do better this time. 

There can be only one, ok hopefully not. 

The Ruins of Osgiliath

With all the excitement on Youtube, to build a mammoth Gondor/Osgiliath board by ZorbaZorb. I decided to dig out the ruins my son and I made about ten years ago. And give them a bit of a face lift. We were following the scenarios in the old Battle games in Middle Earth magazines. They look quite basic by today's standards. But I reckon I can bring them up to date for a lot less effort than making new ones.  If nothing else they could do with some more naturistic rubble. 

Mark one ruins. 

And maybe I could make a few Osgiliath veterans with the few unpainted figures I have knocking about. 

Start of the tidy up

Rob 

One Small Step for ...

 One Giant Leap for the Forces of Evil

After rushing to build Sauron, I decided to pause work on him until my new airbrush arrived.  As I wanted to  do a Zenithal highlight and I find the spray cans are not fine enough. Now I have seesawed on a decision to buy an airbrush because even a basic kit is about ~£100. And that buys a lot of classic figures!

Anyway with a bit of money from Christmas, I decided the time was right to buy an airbrush. Ended up with a starter set for £97. I had watched a couple of Youtube videos where they had bought a similar one. So once satisfied, the money was spent.

 And Sauron was the first time I have used it. I am still working out how to use it but I am quite impressed with the overall effect. I hope that I can move on stepwise from this first go. 

First go with an airbrush

One of the main reasons I have been struggling with Zenithal highlights, I am still expecting to end up putting on one coat of opaque paint. So there is not much point doing a zenithal highlight if the paint isn't thinned down enough to let the highlights show through. Now  this is very much still a work in-progress but it is interesting to see how the effect turned out. I think He needs a final very light highlight, but mostly finished. 

A few hours later

Never too  many skulls

You shall not pass

Rob 

First Figure of the Year Painted

Merry (ME-34 Hobbits of the Shire)

Just a quick post, as I have painted the first figure of the year. A great figure form the classic Citadel Lord of the Rings range. 

This year I am going to focus on wet blending and edge highting. So, both of these techniques have been practised on Merry. Overall I am pleased with the finished figure. 

Merry & Pippin

Watch out for hobbits!

Rob 

Blades of Khorne

 Never Too Old to Learn Safety with Tools

Quick post to end the year. Just bought some craft knives from Hobbycraft in the UK for £5. Which seemed a good price except...

They have been called to serve Khorne. 

First time I used them I managed to stab myself with the super sharp blade. Still it proves they are sharp enough for the job. 

Seems innocent enough

Blood for the Blood God

Sauron the Necromancer was one of the Christmas goodies and had to be started immediately. 

Sauron approves of the Sacrifice

Happy new year 

Rob 

2022 - A Year in Miniatures

 All the Figures in One Place

So, I think this is all of the miniatures from 2022 in one place. Not as many as last year but I am happy there are more quality pieces such as Thorin's dwarves and the high elves. 

Top 3 of the Year

The top three are all ones that pushed my painting skills on a bit such as the zenithal highlighting on the terminator on the work on the faces of the high elf captain or Granny Weatherwax. Overall my favourite is the high elf captain, I think the gold armour really pops. Who was my Golden Gobbo entry this year.  But the terminator was definitely the most fun to paint. 

Honourable mention goes to Bofur. I was very pleased how the quilting of the tunic tuned out. It took several goes,  and was one the first of Thorin's dwarves that I liked the finished result.

What Three Hobby Words of the Year: Shire, Thorin & Elf.

The Grenadier barbarians turned
their service to Saruman

All the old Grenadier barbarians used in Sharkey's rogues gone some form of modification. The guy with the whip had some deformation on the face which I turned into a burn mark. Which fits the evil henchmen look. 

Sharkey's rogues ready for mischief

Shire: By a tenuous route* I ended up painting a complete force of ruffians, extra hobbits, and a few accessories. Followed by starting the Scouring of Shire Campaign. I have been more than a bit frustrated by the scenarios in the sourcebook as most of them seem very unbalanced. Which detracts from the fun of playing them. This was also a problem in the 1^st edition of the sourcebook and while they have fixed some of the issues from 1^st edition in the 2^nd edition them seem to have forgotten to playtest the new scenarios. 

But I did enjoy painting up the figures. 

Thorin:    I had expected to finish off the company of Thorin Oakenshield this year and with a last-minute dash. I have finished all of the dwarves with only Gandalf and Bilbo to complete. This has certainly been a test of my (limited) painting skills and I have certainly learnt from painting them.

Elf:          The other hobby tangent this year has been collecting the wood elves and painting the high elves. What started as an odd figure, or two side projects has become one of the main themes of the year.

*I wanted some buildings for my new city scape photo board, and I redid some old ruffian huts which led onto the ruffians etc. 

Other Stuff 

I also have to mention that I spent a bit of time on fun side projects such as 101 ways to use Hexwraith Flame technical paint and troll tidy ups. 

Have a happy new year 

Rob 

Slann Army Ideas

New Army for 2023?

The four Warrior Clans

My first finished Warhammer army was a Slann army. What I loved was the wide variety of units and the Aztec inspired warriors. And since getting back into Oldhammer, I have thought how I could build a Slann army again. But at £10-£20 per figure there is no way I would be able to build an army even if the miniatures were available. Now for the non-Slann units there are plenty of alternatives available (at reasonable prices)  and technically you don't need that many Slann, there is only a 11 model (1 x 10 warriors plus hero) minimum requirement in the army list.  

Coatl - Not technically part of a Slann army.
But definitely fits the theme. 

But my Slann army, funnily enough had plenty of Slann forming the core of the army with the warrior clans  sitting at the centre. So, I need a way of filling up the majority of the force. With the release of sets like the plastic Aztec set  from Wargames Atlantic and Snakemen set from Ghost Archipelago plus the Tenoch range from  Little Soldier company has started me thinking about how I could build a Slann army (or at least a warband) again. So If I can get enough Slann for the core units then the auxiliary units would be relatively easy to fill.  

The Army banner

War altar and +4 Shock Elite Warrior Priests

While in not WFB 3rd Ed. a Slann mage riding a big dinosaur would make a great centrepiece. 

Like many wargamers, my original army  got sold, in part to fund armies that I was building at the time. These are some of the eBay pictures from when I sold them. So, if nothing else this article can be a chance to look at these classic Oldhammer miniatures.  As this was a nineties army, mostly plain green bases  and plenty of gloss varnish were the order of the day!

Slann Warband

Alternates for Army

• Bull Slann Cold One Riders - Cold ones are not a problem with some very nice models from ranges such as the Ex-Grenadier ones by Mark Copplestone.
• Venom Tribes & Scouts - I am thinking I might use some Chameleon skinks from Citadel and I have found nice alternates on Etsy. And sort of fits my thinking in that Slann models fill the primary frontline roles and the non-Slann models are the auxiliaries. 
• Animal Handers  - Wargames Atlantic do some very nice giant spiders and giant scorpion models are available.  Cold one war hounds could be replaced with dinosaurs?
• Lobotomised Humans - Plenty of plastic human models that could be converted.
• Lizardmen - Plenty of Citadel and non-Citadel models available.
• Troglodytes - Plenty of Citadel and non-Citadel models available.

Bull Slann riders 

Animal Hander

Rob