Battlefield

So despite having various mini-projects to do and even some bigger ones that have been painted but not featured on here yet, it appears my brain wants to do something entirely different. This coupled with another furious bout of decorating and much of my hobby stuff buried under huge piles of other stuff, while we try to get the house sorted as much as possible with the current building work, means that embarking on an entirely new project seems like just the thing to do... 

Dawn of Lead 2019: Here Be Monsters!

Found this post lurking amongst the various drafts that have been slowly amalgamating on my blog for a while now and thought it was high time I shared it with you!

Retrospective: A Ship of Fools - The Crew of Gilliam's Folly

The allegory of the Ship of Fools might be rather pertinent at the moment here in the UK and elsewhere, however I am using the phrase literally to introduce this lot - the crew(s) of Gilliam's Folly!

Retrospective: Gilliam's Folly

Long term readers of this blog will perhaps remember a little project I began thinking about all the way back in August of 2014. Those initial musings (and these later ones), in response to a game based on the Warhammer Ahoy rules and planned for BOYL 2015, would eventually turn in to fevered action in June 2015. In those few months there were a plethora of (well three!) posts charting the frenzied shipbuilding and shop mannequin abuse that ensued. And then nothing. Like a ship in the night, this Time Bandits inspired monstrosity just disappeared... 

Welcome Watchers of Illusion to the Castle of Confusion!

Some of you may have seen the series of "School of Daddy" posts I've been posting on Facebook, charting the home school learning journey me and the kids are embarked upon during lockdown. Well there's a bit of an old school gaming cross over with yesterday's lesson that I thought you might appreciate!

I've also been posting up each lesson to this blog for a more permanent record.

For those of you not hailing from the UK, Knightmare was an awesome kids show that ran from 1987 to 1994. Essential viewing for all armchair adventurers once they'd rushed home from school!Check it out on a well known video hosting site near you!

Aren't You A Little Pointy Headed For A Stormtrooper?

Wow! You thought my Tyranids were a blast from the past all the way back from 2017... That's nothing - get ready to party like it's 2016 'cos that's when this lot were painted!

Army Review: Tyranids - with cunning colubrine and malice viperine and sleights serpentine

Well time for another army review and, as it's been absolutely sweltering up here in Cumbria (well over 12 degrees!), I was inspired to turn our living room table in to an inhospitable Death World and give a warm Catachan welcome to the Tyranids!

Chariots of the Gobs

Today I have some models I've been wanting to get to grips with almost since I began this hobby as a spotty little thirteen year old!  

Gobbo Chariots!

Army Review: Good Mourn'in Cathay!

As I tend to agree to big games or come up with all kinds of daft and over-ambitious projects, I've often ended up in a mad dash to get things painted up in time for the big day. This has often led to loads of stuff not ending up on the blog so I've been thinking of a way to remedy this. So I'm starting a series of posts where I look back and gather up all the minis I've painted for a particular army. They might not have featured on the blog at all for one reason or another or they have been done over a series of posts but never been gathered together for the big army shot.

As Hobgoblins have been on the menu recently, I'll start with them!

Keep Those Wagons Rollin'

Welcome back dear readers and crikey - lockdown has actually turned out to be a really busy time! In between redecorating the entire house (we were in the middle of a loft conversion and rewiring all the electrics when quarantine was announced), home schooling, dog entertaining and baking fresh bread everyday I don't know where the time has gone. What started out as a throwaway facebook post on my take on home schooling has also turned out to be a bit of a time sink after various friends and relatives insisted I carried it on and turned my daily home schooling posts in to something more permanent - like another blog!

I'm pleased to say that my Ogre wagons for the Dolgan Raiders scenario are now definitely finished and what a fiddle they were too - should definitely have thought of sticking all the extra bits on (as helpfully suggested by Mr Street...) before painting them!

Dolgan Raiders: No Brain Wagon Train

The Dolgan Raiders project trundles on - much like the Hobgoblin Caravan, pulled by their lobotomised slave Ogres, who are the subject of today's post!

Trolltooth Wars: The Flying Fortress

"Look! In sky. Big ship."

Orcleaver's ugly face screwed into a squint as he followed the scout's pointing finger. 

"Galleykeep," the battle-sergeant, now army commander, said quietly.

"Za'mar comes."

Trolltooth Wars: Building Castles in the Sky

There have been many challenges in translating the Legions of Zharradan Marr from the page to the tabletop but this was in some ways the greatest - the Galleykeep.

Thanks a lot Russ Nicholson!

Trolltooth Wars: Regular Joes

So on to the last of the regiments of Zharradan Marr's legions to be featured as part of this project - a unit made up of the most exotic and strange creatures to be found in all of Titan and... well everywhere really. It's the Humans...

The Trolltooth Wars: A Cold-blooded Lot

Zharradan Marr can have many criticisms laid at his door but not being an equal opportunities employer is not one of them! Along with the many other races making up his living legions are the Lizardmen - one of my favourite creatures from the Fighting Fantasy world.

Trolltooth Wars: 'Ave a Cadaver

One of the great things about assembling the Legions of Zharradan Marr is the sheer diversity of troops. From regular Human and Lizardmen soldiers to pike armed Rhinomen shock troops, along with all the weird monsters, Griffins and flying ships! As it's Easter weekend I thought why not have a look at the Undead part of the army.

Trolltooth Wars: Is Darramouss or just a Dirty Rat?

I think the latter personally! Darramouss is certainly not one of the more pleasant characters you can meet in Creature of Havoc and is a capable and cruel overseer of Zharradan Marr's gold mines.

Excellent!

"So! We meet again... Doctor!"

In a brief interlude to my Trolltooth series, I bring you the most emotional of the, normally coldly logical, Cybermen!

Trolltooth Wars: What Tooki So Long?

Slight change of plan as I realised there were a few more shots I wanted to take of Darramous and the Soulless Ones so instead today we have the Tooki - which have taken me quite a while to get on the blog, as with all this Trolltooth stuff!

Trolltooth Wars: Fresh Blood

So on to the last creatures in the monstrous menagerie that Darramous commands at the battle of Trolltooth Pass - the Blood Orcs.

As soon as you enter the room, two Blood Orcs - warty creatures with powerful jaws and piercing front teeth - get up from a table and grab their swords. Creature of Havoc, Steve Jackson, illustrated by Alan Langford.

Trolltooth Wars: Feeling Peckish?

Next up in Darramous' revolting roll call is the Devourer!

The thing that strikes you is the smell of rotting flesh. Whatever lives in here certainly has a large appetite for meat. You poke your head further in to the cave and you can see a large furry ball heaving up and down in one corner. You step forwards to catch the creature unawares. But your foot kicks a loose stone and sends it scuttling across the cave towards it. The creature shudders, awakens and gets up. By now you have decided to attack and you are virtually on top of the creature as its face turns towards you. 

Trolltooth Wars: Beastmania!

Today's foray in to Darramous' dungeon is the Manic Beast!

Scattered around one corner is an untidy pile of bones. In another corner is a half eaten human carcass. Standing over the carcass - and evidently annoyed that it's meal has been disturbed - is a bulky creature with a hairy face, razor-sharp teeth and wild eyes..." Creature of Havoc, Steve Jackson, illustrated by Alan Langford

Trolltooth Wars: The Claaaaaaaaaw!

The Clawbeast, whose peace you have disturbed, slashes at you with its deadly talons! 

Another memorable adversary from Creature of Havoc and quite a formidable one for its goofy looks with Skill 9 and Stamina 14! These hirsute horrors were a fun addition to Zharradan Marr's Legions and in the end proved a lot less painful to convert and paint than they were for the poor Hill goblins they faced in battle!

The Trolltooth Wars: Hero is a Half Troll

I'm taking a break from the Northern Steppes to drop back in on Allansia once more to revisit some aspects of my Trolltooth Wars project that didn't get covered first time round. And where better to start than Zharradan Marr's right hand half man, half troll - Thugruff - master tactician, able general and fearsome warrior.

Dolgan Raiders: Steppe this Way

Caravan.

The word evokes mystery, romance and travel - half remembered tales of Marco Polo and all the riches of the exotic East, accompanied by the almost hypnotic and sultry melodies of Duke Ellington's masterpiece of the same name...

That is unless you've spent a rainy weekend in Skegness in one or you're preparing to play the Hobgoblin side in the Dolgan Raiders scenario...

Two Elf and 'Appiness

What's this - Seven months of silence and then two posts in a day?! It would seem a global pandemic is all that was needed to kick my arse back in to blogging and I'm very happy to be back nursing my cold cup of tea again. But how am I going to sustain a regular posting schedule and not quickly burn out after a short burst of enthusiasm as usual? Well, as it happens, I have tons of stuff that I've painted over the last couple of years that hasn't made it on to the blog for one reason or the other. Usually I've been in a massive rush for BOYL or some of the other gaming events I attend over the year and then never got round to doing a write up, or even photograph them for a post. On top of that there's all sorts of stuff that's sat unpainted in boxes for too long and, without the pressures and crazy painting targets I set myself for events like BOYL, I am pretty time rich at the moment. The house may be in bits as lockdown here in the UK found us in the middle of having the house rewired and the loft converted, but I'm sure I'll be able to rummage through the boxes and find most of what I want to share with you. Happily it  also looks like my temporary photo set up isn't producing terrible pics so onwards and upwards we go!

Anyway, getting back to the point of this post - here we have two Elves!

Dolgan Raiders: A Lesser of Evils

So, like a lot of you, I imagine, I find myself with plenty of time on my hands! So much that there's certainly no excuse not to fire the old blog up again. As well as a certain little virus, this post also owes an awful lot to a couple of fellow Oldhammerers for very different reasons...