Elves! But not the Santa's Little Helpers variety

There are twelve in total, all metal Oathmark 28mm ones. Scroll down to see them all.

Above are two heavily-armoured High Elf warriors, a herald and a fearsome fighter with a two-handed sword.

Below, we have a hero with a mighty two-handed mace and an Elven King with a two-handed sword, probably one of those legendary blades forged by Elven smiths at the Dawn of Time.

Next up, another mighty Even warrior and an Elf Cleric.

Next a wise and puissant Elven Mage and his trusty companion, an Elf Ranger

Below are two female Elven warriors, a herald and heroic swordswoman.

And finally, two more Elf Rangers, ever alert to evil beings who might threaten the Elven homelands.

The scenery is all 3D printed stuff and the backdrops are, as usual, from one of my Jon Hodgson backdrop books.

Victrix plastic Roman auxiliary archers

 These 12 figures have been unpainted and half finished for far too long, so now they are done.

I bought the 24 figure plastic Victrix auxiliary archers set ages ago and until recently they were just sitting in a box, half finished. I decided that I'd get at least the first twelve, the so-called "western" style ones done before the end of 2025, and here they are. To be honest, they aren't my best work, but they are good enough for the tabletop. It is a shame really, because they are really nice models and I should have spent more care on them. The photos are a bit dark too but they are OK. Maybe I'll finish off the "eastern" ones better?

Anyway, they are replacing some metal auxiliary archers in my auxiliary for and I'm planning to use these in an army for Midgard Heroic Battles.

The backdrop is from Jon Hodgson's excellent range of Handiwork Games books. 

Carpathian Fun and Games

Or maybe not. I've had some of these Bad Squiddo figures for ages. Scroll down to see them all.

 

These are a mixture of figures from the Bad Squiddo Fantasy range, but I decided that the six of them would make a rather nice fantasy Carpathian Vampire Hunting group. As we all know, young women make the very best vampire slayers, don't they? As you can see in the first two pictures, two of our valiant slayers are brandishing their personal Mr Pointy weapons and I'm sure the slayer with a crossbow is reaching for a long range Mr Pointy of her own.

I decided to give the group a colour palette that would tie them together and nothing much goes better than red and green.

Below is another Bad Squiddo figure that I've taken to calling Dave Dead while I've been painting him. I hope he's Grateful. OK, he is literally Death Incarnate, but whatever you do, don't ask him where his Sting is.

I'm rather pleased with all of these. Next, I'll finish off some vamps and victims.

A Bad Squiddo Sci Fi figure .......

 .... but I think she has a very Grimdark Imperial Guard officer vibe.

Definitely looks like she could be leading the charge against Chaos Heretics, marauding Orks from Outer Space or some other enemy of the fascistic Empire of Man. What do you think?

I can see that I made a mess of one of her eyes now, so some remedial brush work will be required. So it goes. She's a nice figure, though.

The last of my Bad Squiddo D&D figures

Only two, this time;

These two are pretty heavily-armoured, so I've decided that they might as well be Paladins. Of course, they could be fighters, but very well-equipped ones, so hardly likely to be Level 1.

I decided to keep the colours simple, but I do like the green/red contrast theme for lots of things. I'm not sure how one might play the bird of prey in D&D, but I'm sure it could be done. 

Once again, I used a Jon Hodgson backdrop.

I'm working on some more Fantasy figures at the moment, making progress but not very quickly. They'll get done before long, though.

If it's November, it must be Reveille

Yes, it's that time of year again!

 The flyer says it all, but here are the main points;

• A variety of traders
• Participation games
• Demonstration games
• Free parking
• Refreshments

So, if you are in or near Bristol, come on down and bag some new toys!

Guards! Guards!

 Here are four more D&D figures from Bad Squiddo. Scroll down to see them all.

You could use these as fighters or NPCs. I think they work well as a pair of guards who might pop up somewhere in an adventure, which is why I used the same colour palette for both figures. Are they friends or foes? Perhaps you'll need to roll against your Persuasion to find out.

The next two are both much more heavily-armoured and look like the sort of guards who might cause a few problems for your explorers in a dungeon or maybe some other setting, like a forgotten temple in the wild hills perhaps;

I particularly like the figure on the left with the glaive. Her ornate armour is full of nice details. Both of them have a terrific vibe of coming from mysterious or unknown cultures.

Of course, they will fit into all sorts of Fantasy settings, not just D&D.

The Arcane Monoliths are from Fenris Games, an excellent source for lovely resin scenic items and the barely-visible backdrop is from Jon Hodgson at Handiwork Games.

I've got a couple more figures to post, but that's all for today.

A few more Dungeons and Dragons characters

These are all from Bad Squiddo, four figures in total (scroll down to see them all);

Above, from left to right are a Barbarian, a Warlock and a Fighter and below is another Fighter.

The eagle-eyed  might notice that the first Fighter has an artificial leg as well as missing an eye. She's obviously been in a lot of tough fights.

I like all of these figures but my favourite is the female Warlock, holding a skull marked VII, which must mean something. Who knows, perhaps she has a selection of different skulls for each day of the month?

Once again, I've used two of my Jon Hodgson backdrops, available from Bad Squiddo and Handiwork Games.

I've got more figures to post. Stay tuned!

 

Some Dungeons and Dragons characters

 These are all 28mm figures from Bad Squiddo.

These three are pretty self-explanatory; a Ranger, a Rogue and a Cleric. Ideal characters for a group of intrepid dungeoneers and explorers of the trackless wastes and forests.

The backdrop is a Jon Hodgson one, as usual.

I'm rather pleased with how they have come out. As one always finds with Bad Squiddo figures, the sculpts have lots of drama and detail about them and the casting is incredibly crisp and clean, making them a joy to paint.

I've got several more Fantasy figures to post, but I'll be doing them over a number of posts.

Six female Pulp figures

These are all 28mm figures from Bad Squiddo;

Those of you who read this blog regularly will recognise that I've used the same setting as in my previous post. Well, what can I say? I already had the lightbox set up so why not take advantage of it? I did use a different Jon Hodgson backdrop, though.

These six will work for all kinds of Pulp games, including Eldritch Horror and also for VBCW. As usual, they are lovely clean casts and a joy to paint.

I've got a lot more stuff in varying degrees of completion, so it is now just a case of actually finishing them off and not giving in to starting other figures instead!

I've been quite busy painting

 And I've found time to finish things off and photograph them. Here are some fantasy things. First, a 28mm Bad Squiddo female Goblin Fighter;

I wanted her to have blazing red eyes, but at this level of close-up detail, they are absolutely incandescent with bloodlust. Still, she looks pretty good at normal size and she'll be a nice addition to my growing collection of fantasy figures.

Next up are some plastic 28mm figures, a mixture of Oathmark and Gripping Beast, representing all purpose NPCs, mule train hirelings and village toughs. First, two well-equipped hirelings for our long-running D&D campaign at the club;

These have leather armour in the form of long riding jerkins, helmets, square wooden shields and swords. I've given them names. The one in blue is Sigurd and the one in red is his cousin, Arnaulf.

They come with a motley crew of mule-train and camp guards, clearly recruited from some dull village where the height of excitement is chasing away gangs of thieving pixies.

These are all getting a run-out on Sunday, so I expect at least half of them will get killed off or chased away by a couple of bored Orcs while our heroic band of adventurers are wandering around some badly-lit tunnels.

By the pricking of my thumbs......

.... something wicked this way comes.

 It's a Shoggoth!

It is a big resin piece, around 7cm long, 4cm high and 5 cm wide from Fenris Games. It is a one piece cast with three optional metal tentacles, which I used because, when it comes down to it, who doesn't want a dreadful sanity-threatening, slithery, protoplasmic Horror with tentacles? The young Assassin, a Bad Squiddo Lucrezia Borgia mini is here to provide a sense of scale.

The backdrop is from a Jon Hodgson book and the flooring is from a Warbases dungeon tiles set.

I'm rather pleased with how this Thing came out. I finished the eyes and larger pustules with a lick of gloss varnish after spray varnishing the finished beastie in a matt finish.

Hopefully this Abomination might get some gameplay in the future.

Linus Van Pelt never expected this.......

 ......The Great Pumpkin Arises !!!!!!!!

Well, not actually. This is the Pumpkin King. Hallowe'en will never be the same again. Trick or Treat? It doesn't really matter to this being. He's coming to get you. Just leave the tub of sweets outside the front door, turn all the lights off and hide under your bed until dawn.

I had a lot of fun painting this one. He's a lovely resin piece from Bad Squiddo.  I've had him for quite a while but now I'm going through the unpainted mountain I'm picking out things I just want to paint rather than things aimed at specific rules. He's a big guy too, around 7cm tall, so over twice the height of an average 28mm figure. The backdrop is, once again from one of Jon Hodgson's background books, available from Bad SQuiddo and Handiwork Games.

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

Here's another resin piece from (I think) Bad Squiddo;

He is some kind of Fire Elemental or Daemonic entity. Anyway, he's a hot guy. He is also a nice simple sculpt and cast, with lots of crisp detail which made painting him a doddle. 

As I say, I think he is from Bad Squiddo, although he isn't on the website. If he is a discontinued model that would explain it. Also, I think Annie sent him to me as a freebie in an order of other stuff. Nice mini, though, standing at around 5cm tall.

If he isn't Bad Squiddo, perhaps someone could tell me where he's actually from?
 

She's big, red and angry.....

 ...... yes, she is a female ogre (28mm Amazon warrior for scale only)

I didn't want to do her as a green Princess Fiona sort of ogre. I wanted her to look more "human", so I gave her a human flesh tone, which I darkened with Citadel Reikland Flesh wash, because I liked the idea of her becoming red when filled with rage and in stone-throwing, warrior-crushing mode. 

She is a Bad Squiddo resin figure and a lovely piece of sculpting. She was a joy to paint because the casting is so crisp and detailed. I'm really very happy with how she has turned out.

The background is a Jon Hodgson fantasy one from Handiwork Games and the hapless, about to be squished warrior is from Bad Squiddo.

I'm sure she'll have lots of opportunities to see tabletop action.

Various entrenchments

 These are all 15mm resin pieces from Ironclad Miniatures.

Above we have some prepared positions with solid foundations lined with ammunition boxes and some smaller roughly dug-out sangars.

Below are sandbagged positions in larger and smaller sizes.

I decided that I would keep the paint jobs to a minimum here, for two reasons. Firstly, so that they could be used for desert and rocky dry settings and secondly because I want them to look freshly dug. Therefore, I didn't use any tufts or flock, reasoning that if they had been assembled hurriedly, grass and weeds wouldn't have had any time to take root. 

These are the kind of basic entrenchments that could be used for tripod-mounted machine guns, rifle sections mortars or guns and would fit into many periods from the American Civil War to WW2. Small entrenchments are required for tripod-mounted MMGs in Chain of Command 2, so the smaller sandbagged positions are going to be very useful.

A big gribbly thing

This thing is from Fenris Games, it is called an Otyugh and is a Dungeons and Dragons monster.

It (he/she/they/it?) is a resin model that comes in seven pieces and, which assembled is around 7cm tall and 10cm from the end of one arm to the other. Assembly is relatively simple and the pieces fit well with only a small amount of trimming and smoothing required

I've wanted to get this one painted up since I first got it, but holidays and life in general got in the way, also a loss of my Painter's Mojo. Still, I thought that this was a great way to get back into the groove.

I've painted it in a fairly similar colour scheme to the one on the Fenris website, mainly because I think that the green is the best way to go. The actual painting was pretty straightforward, the bulk of the heavy lifting was done by using Halfords' Dark Green matt camouflage spray paint and lots of drybrushing with lighter shades of green, although I sprayed an off-white matt primer into the mouth before using the colours you see now. I washed the thing with two different Citadel shades, Reikland flesh in the mouth and Mortarion Grime elsewhere. I kept the base simple, AK Terrains Dark Earth drybrushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

The photograph uses a Jon Hodgdon backdrop from the Fantasy Ruins and Tunnels book.

I think that apart from D&D (I seriously hope this thing doesn't end up in our club's current D&D campaign), this is the kind of Gribbly Horror that could be useful in anything from Victorian Pulp Horror and Cthulhu to skirmishes in far-away planets in the distant future.

It's been a very long time ....... but I've got something finished!

I've not posted anything since mid-June, because I've been away on holiday and also because I had no urge to paint things. Still, I did pick up a brush again and I've finished off a nice command base for my 28mm Warhammer Fantasy-themed army for Midgard. Here it is;

Hopefully, people will remember that I posted the idea for this ages ago (it seems) and here are the results. He is very much based on the Elector Count of Averland, Marius Leitdorf and he will be my army commander and chief hero for my Averland-styled Midgard army, so it seemed a good idea to base him up with the army's battle standard. The standard bearer is a Wargames Atlantic renaissance armoured cavalryman mounted on a plastic Perry barded horse from the WotR mounted men-at-arms box.

I'm reasonably happy with the outcome, they definitely pass the  "one metre away" test, i.e. they'll look fine on the table.

I posed the figures in front of a Jon Hodgson Handiwork Games background.

Now, having got my painting mojo working, I really need to get on with some troops for Count Marius to lead.
 

New 15mm German troops

Following on from my previous post where I showed additional troops to make my Soviet units CoC2 compliant, here are the German equivalents, again all by Peter Pig, plus a new Zug (platoon).

First, a three-man Engineer team and a sniper team;

Next a Volksgrenadier squad (see below also) supporting a three-man Flamethrower team;

Here are eight ammunition carriers because LMG teams now need more guys supporting the MG42 and I've also painted an extra Senior Leader. The figure was spare, so I painted him up;

And finally, my new unit, a Volksgrenadier Zug, equipped with the StG 44 assault rifle;

Volksgrenadier units weren't all supplied with the StG 44 because the bulk of the troops still had the Kar 98k rifle, because millions of them were produced during the war, with less than 500,000 StG 44s entering service. However, this is an assault Zug, with two assault squads and a heavy squad with two MG42 teams. That is a lot of firepower. The extra Volksgrenadier squad above will be a potential support choice for the Germans.

I'm pleased with the final photo, because I was able to use one of Jon Hodgson's SciFi backdrops as a battle-scarred cityscape.

Having reorganised all of my German units by mixing in the ammunition carriers and changing the structure of my Panzergrenadier Zug , I've managed to create two extra rifleman (Grenadier) squads and an extra Panzergrenadier squad as support options.

Looking at my Soviets and Germans, when I add in my Volkssturm and an earlier "green" Volksgrenadier squad I painted a few years ago, I reckon that I could put on a huge game with the Soviets and Germans fighting over the ruins of Berlin. Of course, I'd have to create a big pile of ruined buildings to add to the ones I've already got. Maybe a plan for the future?

 

New 15mm WW2 Soviet troops

These are all additions to make my 15mm Soviet units compliant with Chain of Command V2;

Everything is from Peter Pig. 

Above are two additions to fill a gap I had previously; two 50mm mortar teams.

Next, I have an additional squad for a standard Rifle platoon. These will either work as a support option or for games set in 1941-43.

Below are figures that I needed to add to some SMG-armed figures to make a second squad for a SMG platoon, all armed with the PPSh-41 SMG.

CoC2 changes Soviet platoon HQ sections. So, I now have a rifle platoon commander (peaked cap), a platoon sergeant (helmet) and a sniper team (in the middle). Platoon commanders are now equipped with SMGs.

Below is the HQ section for my SMG platoon with the same organisation as above for the rifle one.

Next up, a heavy squad for my SMG platoon. Both the rifle and SMG platoons now have a "heavy" squad with two DP-27 LMG teams. This is a big change. I was able to make the necessary changes for my rifle platoon from figures I already had.

Here are two more sniper teams and a couple of spare SMG-armed men. I did these because the Peter Pig sniper set gives you four teams and the SMG guys are just spares.

Below are "resting" SMG men, who I have painted up to use as extra DP-27 LMG team members, because in CoC2 the Soviet LMG teams now have either three or four members.

So, all in all, that is 56 more recruits for my Soviet forces. 

This has allowed me to reorganise what I have available for the Soviet Union. As core troops, I now have a Rifle platoon, a SMG (or tank rider) platoon, a Motor Rifle platoon and as supports (including things I had already), I can field two 50cm mortar teams, two sniper teams, a rifle squad, a SMG squad, a Scout squad (Junior leader and 6 men, all with SMGs), two Maxim MMG teams, a 45cm anti-tank gun with crew and a junior leader and a Commissar. 

I have armoured cars, various tanks and a SU-76 as vehicle support too and I have a number of painted figures that are surplus to my units.

I've also still got a few things left to paint, mostly extra riflemen, so who knows what else I'll be able to turn the leftovers into in the future? 
 

Chain of Command 2 - a few first thoughts

My pre-order bundle arrived yesterday afternoon.

The cover keeps the spirit of the original alive, while also looking all new and shiny. I chose the Veteran Resupply Bundle, which includes the book, a PDF of the book, two Force morale trackers, nicely printed on card and a set of MDF tokens;

I've already taken the opportunity to laminate the force Morale trackers, to ensure they have a long and useful life and the MDF tokens and markers are a nice update to the original set (of which I have two) and include a few new things. All in all, an excellent set of the important stuff. I've already got patrol markers, CoC dice and jump off points, but if you are a new player, you can get two other bundles that have the extra things you'll need to play.

I've spent a bit of time skimming through the book and, so far, the changes I've seen all appear to be improvements rather than things I don't like. I've played CoC2 a couple of times already and knew how some of the new things work but there is also stuff that I'd not seen, so I expect that there will be a period of adjustment ahead. 

One thing I really do like from an early dip into the book are the changes to Soviet platoons which give them a bit more punch and potentially make them a more flexible attacking force. I'm thinking that I'll be following in the footsteps of Comrade Stalin and reorganising my Soviet infantry quite soon. I may well end up with more Soviet troops than I'll ever be able to get onto the table. Looking at the cost of Supports, I still doubt that I'll ever see my T-34/85, SU-85 or IS-2 on the table.

I'm also looking at the German list and I'm now planning a Volksgrenadier force, which should be an interesting Zug to play with. Assault rifles are less powerful than in CoC1, but still pack a big punch and SMGs are also downgraded but have a longer range. Volksgrenadiers field a lot of firepower, especially at close range, but look like they might be pretty brittle once they start taking casualties and shock.

I really like the changes to the Panzergrenadier Zug too. Now, each squad is all about the two MG42 teams. There are no additional riflemen. Everyone in the team now supports the MG42.

I've not looked as closely at the British lists, but a third crewman for the 2" mortar makes sense. The Airborne platoon no longer has an embedded PIAT team, that is now a support option and the platoon structure has changed.

The new ways you can use CoC dice points is also great. I've had a chance to use it in practice and I like it a lot.

Finally, Elite status is no longer applicable, except in one specific case. I've never liked the idea of Elites. There are better ways of giving certain troop types a bit of extra welly, red dice, for example as introduced in the Blitzkrieg handbook.

So, it is looking good for the future of Chain of Command and now I'm going to have to visit the Peter Pig website and spend some money.