Wizards Project - here are the first two wizards

I've spent a fair amount of time on this project and have now completed wizards for each of the eight Colleges of Magic, which I have now photographed. Here are the first two. 

Firstly a Grey Wizard;

OK, he isn't that dissimilar to a well-known wanderer of Middle Earth, but I suspect that Gandalf might have been part of the inspiration for GW's original Warhammer Fantasy Grey Order, a College whose members practice deception, illusion, suggestion and other secretive and subtle magics.

The second wizard is a representative of the Jade Order, a wizard involved with the natural world;

I've chosen him because he and his Grey colleague are the only wizards I've made with swords in their hands. The others will all be doing more magical things. Also, according to Warhammer lore, wizards of both these Colleges tend to to avoid cities and wander around from place to place.

As an aside, looking at the Grey Wizard I can see that I need to touch up the metal head of his staff. With the second figure, up close I can also see things that stand out as obvious painting errors. Sadly, that is the risk you take when using a high definition lens with a macro facility and a DSLR with a 24 megapixel sensor - all the tiny mistakes are magnified. At least they aren't really that visible to the naked eye on a gaming table.
 

My latest four foot figures from Bloody Miniatures

Here are my final four completed 28mm 17th century figures from Bloody Miniatures.

These are pikemen who have abandoned their pikes to fight face-to-face with their opponents, apart from the one on the right who is using a broken-off pike head. You'll note that I have stuck with my red and blue colour palette for them. They can definitely play a part in skirmish games but perhaps also in a large pike and shot unit to break up the monotony of having all standard pikemen? Anyway, they are nice figures and I'm pleased with them.

Once again, I'm using a Jon Hodgson backdrop.

I've currently got some mounted troops ready to photograph, so I'll post them as soon as I can be bothered to set up the lightbox.

28mm Wizards project

This is going to be a bit of fun, I hope. I am planning a Renaissance 28mm fantasy army based upon the Warhammer Fantasy Imperial Electoral Province of Averland for Midgard and other sets of rules (e.g. Sword and Spear Fantasy) based on the Wargames Atlantic Conquistadors, Landsknechts Ogres and Renaissance Cavalry sets and I thought that a couple of wizards would be a good idea. My original plan was to get a single sprue of the Frostgrave Wizards I set but then, I realised that the whole box would give me eight bodies which could come in handy in the future. 

I then got to thinking that the Warhammer Fantasy Empire used to have Eight Colleges of Magic and I now had eight wizard figures. Therefore I knew that I'd have to make up eight wizards who could be painted up to represent each of the eight colleges. I assembled all eight figures and have now undercoated them.

So, across the back line in the photo above, I have a Jade Wizard, a Bright Wizard, a Gold Wizard and an Amber Wizard and in front there are a Grey Wizard, an Amethyst Wizard, a Wizard of Light and a Celestial Wizard Obviously, I've chosen an undercoat of primer that will work well as a base for the various colours I'll be using for each Wizard.

As I said at the beginning, I see this pretty much as a fun project. I'll do a separate post for each Wizard as I finish him.

More Scots from Bloody Miniatures

There are eight figures again, so scrolling down will be required. First some dismounted troopers and a figure I see as an Intelligencer (smoking his pipe);

I particularly like the figure in the long red Dutch-style coat. He's clearly a leader or maybe a Scottish cavalryman who's been away fighting for the Protestant cause in the Rhineland?. Anyway, He's a great sculpt.

Below are my other attempts at doing a plaid, two more dismounted troopers and a nice officer figure, together with someone who's brought something to drink with him. Looking at the photo, I think that I've made his neckerchief look a bit too clean and gleaming white. I don't think I'll repaint it, though. I'm quite happy with the plaids. They aren't perfect by any standard but they'll pass the one or two metres away test on the table.

I've only got four more finished foot figures to post, and I'll keep them for another time. I'm currently working on some mounted figures, a few are finished but most are still in the early stages of painting. 

After that, I've got more Horse to prime and paint, some mounted command figures and then some more Foot figures and a couple of small guns.

After that, I shall move on to something different.

 

The next eight of my latest Bloody Miniatures figures

 You'll have to scroll down to see all of them. First up, four Lowland Scottish musketeers;

I've stuck to the blue and red colour scheme for these, because I really like it and you'll see that I've attempted a plaid on the left-hard figure. I'm not sure that it is that successful, but it'll have to do.

Next are four more Lowland Scots, this time with a variety of nasty-looking polearms, the central two being, I think variants of the Lochaber axe.

Once again, red and blue dominates. This latter group is called The Border Staves on the Bloody Miniatures website. There are more Scots to follow later.

The backdrop is by Handiwork Games.
 

The next four figures from Bloody Miniatures

Here is the second group of four figures from Bloody Miniatures out of a total of 28 that I've recently completed.

These represent four experienced dismounted troopers, described as being Continental Mercenaries on the Bloody Miniatures website. I particularly like the somewhat dandyish figure on the left. He is clearly not a fop but a skilled and ruthless swordsman. The figure next to him is a dismounted cuirassier in half-armour, with short tassets rather than long cuisses, with his warhammer at the ready, maybe as a member of a storming party. The remaining two are the more commonly found harquebusiers, in a buff coat and a back- and breastplate, with the one on the right wearing a burgonet helmet.

I've given three of these the same dark blue and red uniforms I've been using elsewhere, because I like the combination, but also because when I get round to fielding a complete 17th century force, they will give it a core of uniformly-dressed troops. The lighter blue sashes are also part of this idea.
 

I've been painting more Bloody Miniatures figures

As anyone who follows this blog knows, I am a huge fan of the excellent 17th century figures from Bloody Miniatures. I've been working on 28 more figures, and I'm going to do separate posts of them in groups of four figures;

I really like this little group, which is called The Witchfinder General. As you can see, it contains the aforementioned Witchfinder, his Clerk, his unfortunate victim and a dismounted trooper to stop the poor girl from running away.

These have loads of character and were a joy to paint. Although they aren't necessary for any battlefield, I'm sure that there might be plenty of scenarios where a Witchfinder might have a role. 

The background is, yet again from one of Jon Hodgson's excellent books.

I'll post the next four in a day or two.