Goblins flee before the advancing Giant...

Well folks, I hate to blow my own trumpet but I reckon I've won!

So Phreedh, old buddy, old pal - I think we're even now. I was worried that my struggle with bendy plastic, heavy eyelids (fell asleep at the painting desk at least once this week but managed to keep my face out of the paint pallete somehow!) and my inadequacies in sculpting hands and feet would get the better of me, but somehow, Interwebz glory is mine!

Right enough of the triumphant crowing - not really cricket, I know! 

As you can see I've gone for the colour scheme straight out of the 3rd ed. rule book and actually I think the orange works a lot better in the flesh that I thought it would. 

Here's the closest I could get with the minis and scenery in my collection to that image we all know and love.

and finally, a Goblin's eye view.

Perhaps once I have a few more of the minis featured in the original picture - Prince Ulther's Dwarfs and the Wood Elf chariot for example - I might have a go at replaying the battle.

Now to hunt down the other two FF ogres...

A Challenge of Giant Proportions...

So on the back of my post about the FF Ferocious Ogre/Day-glo orange Giant from the 3rd ed rulebook, my old LAF buddy Phreedh has lain down the gauntlet. A paint off to the finishing line on our FF Ogre variants!

Last time we indulged in a similar contest he won, although I forget what we were painting, the memory being so painful! Well this time I intend to even the score.

My painting desk is clear...

I'm stocked up on orange paint...

And I've just about finished cleaning the big fella up - 

 
I've even had a go at pushing some putty round - there was a huge nasty mold line that needed some attention and this chap is made of that slightly bendy plastic that doesn't take well to files. I managed to cut most of it away without any huge slip-ups, although there were some areas that needed smoothing out.

And some new toes making! The original feet were a little soft on detail and as these great loafers are going to be the last thing many a miniature will see on the tabletop, I felt they could do with some attention. I'm certainly not very skilled in sculpting and I'm pretty sure Miliput wasn't the best material to use, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results of my efforts!

I've also extended his mullet to hide the join between head and shoulders - luckily he doesn't have particularly fine hair so my rudimentary hair dressing skills were able to emulate his unruly bonnet.

I need to a bit more work on his hand to block up the unused weapon slot and give some more definition to his fingers. Next time he'll have some paint on him hopefully...

Bog Gobs Ahoy!

Ah, another job done! Had some of these boys on the painting table for far too long. Sculpted by Kev Adams for the excellent Four A Miniatures, these chaps are great fun to paint up. If you're reading Andy - we just need those mounted Goblins now!

A Little (Big!) Bit of History...

I am sure most of us with more than a passing interest in Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition will be familiar with this image from the rule book -

Its a great diorama for many reasons - the spectacle of Ugezod's (strangely the Death Commando version of Ugezod) Mothercrushers in ignominious flight. The Kwae Karr Orcs of Orc's Drift fame similarly fleeing from Wood Elf Wild Cat handlers, swarms of skeletons being mown down by the Elf Attack Chariot, a Dragon Ogre, Minotaurs, Goblins...

... and the big guy with the Essex tan!


Well guess what was in the last package to come through my letterbox.

I've mentioned the exploits of the Eternal Privates before and his brilliant idea of recreating the battles pictured in the 3rd ed. rulebook and he was certainly part of the inspiration behind tracking down this character. I  don't want to steal any of his thunder so there won't be a replay of this eclectic battle, although I do intend painting him up in a similar style to his 80's day-glow glory.

I was always intrigued as to what this mini was, as I'd never come across it in any of the catalogues. It was only in the past couple of years that I found out he was actually part of a small range of 54mm plastic minis produced for the Fighting Fantasy range - You can see the rest of them on the back of the battered blister he came in.

Clean-up should be interesting as there is the mother of all mold lines running up and down his sides and the plastic is that slightly bendy stuff that doesn't file down. Once I've got the 4A Goblins done (nearly there!) I'll get stuck in - can't wait!

More Taking of Stock: Wood Elves

Good morning once again and I have the results of another stock take for your perusal - nothing like mucking about with the lead pile when there's painting to be done ;)

I'm nearly there with the 10 4A Goblins on the painting desk - been trying to match them in with the original paint job did two years ago for the first LPL I entered. Might give that up as a bad job to be honest. I've continued various themes but it'll be nice to have a variety of skin tones.

Anyways on with the Wood Elves. I might have mentioned before that this was the first project I took on when I got back into collecting Citadel miniatures. Having had a blast painting up Daleks, Cybermen and various Doctors, I managed to unearth my trusty old Ruglud's Armoured Orcs and decided they needed some opponents. Then of course Orc's Drift came along and the Elves (apart from scenario specific ones) were swiftly dumped! There are a few painted minis in this collection as well as the Orc's Drift stuff and these were the lucky few who got a lick of paint before my attention was drawn elsewhere.

Right then I'll kick off with some characters - haven't got my Army general yet but I suppose this chap is the nearest thing to him - Elf champion mounted on a Giant Eagle. I had visions of recreating the amazing conversion using Glam and the LOTR giant eagle from Mike McVey's inspirational Wood Elf army from WD. However, when I got my hands on said eagle I thought him a little small to have an Elf perched on his back - McVey's version looks great though!

Instead I bought myself a newer and steroid addicted eagle and here's the result - can't wait to get some paint on him...

You have to have some wizards and this chap was always a favourite since I spied him in the 3rd ed. rulebook (talking of which have you seen this genius idea) - although I'm sure I've seen him in purple in a WD advert somewhere, which is where I think the previous owner took his inspiration from. Next to him is the diminutive, but nicely sized in my opininon, LOTR Giant Eagle.

A few familiar faces next - some of you will already know Treebeard and the Zoat. I'd love to get hold of the Zoat wizard waving his orb about. 

And I couldn't split up Erdolas' and Brommedir's brave bowmen, although I might be adding a few archers to Brommedir's bows to expand them to 20 as I accidentally painted 2 more than I needed for the scenario somehow! These chaps will be fielded as Guards in all their finery. Erdolas' bunch will probably just be archers, being garrison troopers and all. 

I have enough Skarloc archers left over from Erdols' lot to form that Regiment of Renown - also I wanted to copy the shield design from the box artwork so didn't want to reuse the Kachas Pass Elves. I seem to have ended up with a lot of the well 'ard looking helmeted archer, who I think fit in well with Skarloc's fearsome reputation.

More archers, looking like the cast of some dreadful Lloyd Webber musical thanks to the paint jobs they came in from ebay! These chaps will be painted up differently to Brommedir's Bows - not sure how yet - and fielded as archers. I've currently got the Oreon champion as their leader but would like to get hold of the later version of that Regiment of Renown at some point and find an alternative commander for this lot.

My favourite unit, again thanks to Mike McVey's beautiful army, is the Warrior Kinband armed with spears - another lot I'd love to get some paint on. 

And for some variety I also got hold of these later spearmen - quite like them despite the mahoosive spears they are lugging around! Complete apart from a few repair jobs on the back rank.

No Wood Elf army would be complete without Wardancers - if I  spot any bargains I may expand this lot to two units of ten. Some destined for the dettol bath of course...

You've got to have some animal handlers too and some of you may have seen some of these guys in action at Ortar Pass.

Hounds - bit suspicious of a few of these. I got a few of them in a nice cheap lot ages ago and they seem a bit shiny and light compared to some of the others. I could do with one more hound to round out the numbers and another handler. At the moment I'm using an old preslotta chap I got in a mixed lot - think he was described as a thief originally?

Wild cats - probably got enough of these guys - definitely the most dangerous of all the pack options, apart from the bear of course.

... talking of which - here he is along with the boar handler. Can't see the boars being that effective in these numbers but they do seem to be strangely expensive on ebay.

Best have some cavalry too I suppose. I've been buying these chaps up as and when I can get a bargain and have finally amassed enough for a unit - not quite on this scale mind!. The Elf with the horn detail on his helmet will be the champion and I'd love to expand the unit to 10 with a few lancers...

And finally a couple of units I do need to finish off - I'm hoping to round these horse archers off with another 2 models and the sword detachment to 10.

Oh and nearly forgot this lovely Marauder Treeman - he doesn't really fit in with old Treebeard but I love the mini. Just hope I can reproduce the silver birch effect that looks so good on the versions I've seen painted.

Last thing on my shopping list is, as I mentioned earlier, a general on horseback -  General with lance would fit the bill :)

Stock take: Old World Alliance

Good morning all and the stock take continues - this time its one of my newer collections, the Old World Alliance. Having had a blast assembling the Linden Way Militia for Orc's Drift and for a long time regarded these ranges with envious eyes, I finally succumbed and have amassed a small force of assorted Empire, Bretonnian and Tilean troops. I thought about including my Norse contingent here but figured they'd probably want a bit of the limelight to themselves.

Still got a long way to go with this army before I achieve this!

First off we have a unit of Chevaliers Rampants, including the army general. Not sure whether these chaps are citadel or not but I love 'em, even more so as they were a bit of an ebay bargain, coming in at about £1.30 a mini! The General type fellow with helm in hand has a passing resemblance to Dave Andrews' Grand Marshall, pictured above. Any ideas from you lot?

While we're on knights, here's some from the Empire this time. Not as much of a bargain as the Chevaliers Rampants, these are another bunch of minis I haven't yet identified. They have wolf pelt capes and look very similar in design to the Knights Panther coming up shortly. They were billed as being 80's citadel on ebay but I'm not sure - happy with them either way though. They'll be fielded as Hohensknechtes and I'll probably push the wolf theme by procuring a 90's White Wolf knight as their champion to round the unit out at 5 minis. I'll also be looking out for some of the 90's plastic barded warhorses for them. It was nice to get the old plastic horses with this lot and I know horses vary a lot in size in real life, but they do tower over the all metal Chevaliers Rampants. Strangely bucking the usual case of GW scale creep, the later barded warhorses are a much better match size-wise.

My thanks to Blue in VT for these Knights Panthers - I do have a soft spot for a lot of the 90's Empire stuff, even if it did beat the pants off my Orcs on a regular basis back in the day!

 This lot will also be needing barded warhorses and a leader - I would love to try and recreate the famous John Blanche painting for their champion.

Foot knights now - and I think I'll be fielding this lot as Hohensknechtes again, minus the horses of course. Reiksgard don't really seem to fit into the idea of a small, mixed and possibly Mercenary force. This unit is complete apart from a little conversion work to make a standard bearer.

Men at Arms next, and a 20 strong unit of mixed Helblitzen, Ribalds and Brigands. These will form the core of the professional soldiery for this force. Again just need to either find a standard bearer or convert one. I'd love a musician too but may have to look in the 90's Empire range as there seems to be a strange dearth of standard bearer and musicians sculpted for the Dogs of War/Fighters ranges.

A bit lower down the pecking order is the militia - bit of a way to go with these guys as I'd like a large unit of 30 and possibly a second unit as cannon fodder!

I am well provisioned with missile units with 15 Bretonnian Arblastier

11 Tilean Crossbowmen - would like to expand this unit a bit to possibly 20 of these all metal/single piece sculpts and get some pavises for them.

20 Forstjaeger (Forresters) formed up into a unit in the pic, and 10 Bergjaeger (Scouts) in skirmish formation in the foreground. Nice mix of old Citadel historicals/Foundry bowmen and later sculpts. Got quite a few of the Rangers and wouldn't mind a full set at some point...

And not forgetting L'ordonnance! One four man Bombard and an allied Dwarf Organ gun (until I get hold of a few more cannon!)

Best take along some wizards - Gandalf doing a little bit of moonlighting and a lovely old preslotta who will be a lower level adept, still learning the ropes by the look of his pose!

Finally one of my favourite features of 3rd ed, armies - the baggage train! I knew those wagons, pack mules and villagers from Orc's Drift would come in handy one day. I've also added in some bard types, old beggars, strumpets, drunkards and other sundry hangers-on with a mix of citadel and other manufacturers - again any ID's would be great on the non citadel stuff.

I'm itching to do something with this lot so I'll have to be quite disciplined if I'm going to get anywhere with my Lustrian project. Might give myself a little treat now and again though ;)

Next up - Wood Elves...

Time for Anniversary Celebrations and a Stock Take...

Greetings all and welcome to my 200th post!

I had hoped to post this a little earlier in the week to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the phenomena that is Fighting Fantasy! I've said before on various forums (fora?) that Heroquest was my entry drug - I take that back as I was adventuring and killing Orcs and other monsters in the pages of these game books way before that huge box of Dungeony goodness appeared under the Christmas tree. Having said that, I am rather enjoying playing a Heroquest Game book, The Tyrant's Tomb, at the moment. Might have to revisit The Fellowship of Four next...