Dog Snots and a whole load of Bogeys...

Crikey, where does the time go? Thought I was on top of this blogging malarkey and several motnhs go by just like that... (edit from present day me and not mid-June me when this draft was originally written - more like a lot more than several months ago!)

Well I've been busy with my new job - 

Countryside Operative is my new job title - I was a little sad to lose the title of Ranger when I moved on from my old job back in late February, but I'm a lot happier now and it's essentially the same role - just as a private contractor now, rather than working for the National Park. I think Countryside operative sounds a bit more dangerous anyhow, despite me looking more like a lifeboat crewman when I'm all togged up! XD

These pics are from a lovely job I did up Swindale, down near Haweswater - a couple of weeks putting up dry stone wall gaps on my own, although the weather wasn't always this good! Hardly saw a soul up there - bliss!

Just as with my old role as Field Ranger, it's not the most compatible job with the hobby - the combination of physically hard labour (for example, there's about a ton of stone in each meter of dry stone wall, which needs pulling out and sorting before going back in to the wall), braving whatever the elements throw at you and all that fresh air means I spend a fair part of most evenings napping on the sofa when I get home from work instead of painting!

Anyway on to what you've probably come here to read about - Snots on Dogs! I'm writing this several weeks after Bring Out Your Lead (the annual UK Oldhammer get together at Foundry, courtesy of the ever welcoming Ansells) and the game this lot were painted for has been played. Spoilers - it went really well and was highly enjoyable for me and the numerous players who joined in. However, I'll get in to that in a later post after I've gone through and showcased the Snotling and Halfling armies I painted up for the game - Last Ham at Grazer's Leat - my Warhammer Fantasy take on the 40K scenario, Last Stand at Glazer's Creek, which featured in WD222 back in June 1998.

So apart from my waffling about my lackadaisical  approach to blogging these days, this post does exactly what it says on the tin - Snotlings mounted on dogs. I wanted a bit of variety for the Snotling host for this game and I needed some options to vaguely follow options like Bikes or Buggies given in the chart for rolling up the Space Ork army in the original scenario. 

So what better than Snotlings on diminutive wolves (or more likely some mongrel cross between wolves and dogs!) to give them some more mobile troops.

Luckily I had a few spare Snots and a bunch of the Ral Partha wolves that came with their Lesser Goblin Wolf Riders - they were ideal as they're a bit smaller than the various wolves that came with Goblin Wolfriders over the years. I also had a bunch of wolves from Warbases, I think, which were also far too small to work as Warhammer wolves but were spot on for the diminutive Snotlings.

These chaps were a fun little diversion from painting hoards of Sotlings on foot. I wanted them to look a bit more foxy than wolf, in terms of colouration, so chucked a bit of orange in to the mix of the usual wolf paint recipe I use.

I managed to scrounge together enough wolves and Snotlings for 11 Snots on Dogs, which was plenty for the scenario save for any outlandish dice rolling on the random army chart. However, I'd rather like to expand the unit for regular games of Warhammer as a handful of mounted Snotlings are going to look a bit lost! I have also somehow ended up with about four packs of Foundry foxes which will want to be used for something, so I guess I'll be trawling ebay for affordable Snotlings for a while to come!

Glad I got back to the blog eventually! It wasn't all just falling asleep after work that was keeping me from the keyboard - I've had Covid, been on holiday to Normandy (which was lovely!) and ended up in a mad rush of painting and scenery building for most of July after my mate who I was supposed to be playing this scenario with at BOYL (and was bringing along the Halflings...!) realised he wasn't going to be in the country at the same time as we were supposed to be pushing toy soldiers around a table. Any thoughts of keeping the blog updated with my progress went out the window in the rush to be ready for BOYL! Anyway, I have loads of stuff to share from this game so expect more regular posts from here on in... afternoon naps permitting ;)