Two more Midgard Empire units

I'm getting these finished at last. Once again, these are based on Wargames Atlantic conquistadors.

Below are two units of Warhammer Fantasy Empire spearmen (I'm not sure why the Empire never had pikes);

These are predominantly in the Averland state colours of yellow and black, but both units have a splash of a third colour, red in the top picture and green and red in the lower one. The flag in the upper picture comes from a Warhammer Wiki page and the backdrop is from a Jon Hodgson backdrop book. The first group are clearly better armoured, perhaps they are the guards of some rich lord?

Anyway, I now just have two groups of ranged troops (handgunners and crossbows) to complete and then it will be time to start sticking some Horse together.

Finished some foot units for my Midgard project

 I've been working on this Warhammer Empire project, using Wargames Atlantic conquisadors for ages but I keep losing enthusiasm for it. Anyway, I've finally finished 32 figures as four units of foot troops. Scroll down to see them all.

Above are eight double-handed swordsmen, known as Greatswords in Warhammer Fantasy. Next is a unit of Halberdiers.

Below are two groups of Sword and Buckler men, playing the role of Empire Swordsmen.

Although my original plan was an army representing Averland in yellow and black, I decided to add some extra colour to some of the troops, basically because I was bored with just yellow and black. Black, yellow and red still works for Averland, but the red and blue colour scheme gives me the opportunity to add troops from elsewhere in the Warhammer Empire, in this case from Altdorf. The predominantly red and yellow uniforms could represent Talabecland, or maybe are just a variant of Averland's yellow and black but with a more dominant red component representing the colours of a local lord. It doesn't really matter too much. I've got some blue, yellow and white figures on the go as well. Maybe from Nordland or perhaps Tilean mercenaries?

Overall, it gives me a nice colourful army.

I've also got to work on my cavalry next. These will also be Wargames Atlantic and will be a mixture of armoured types with lances or pistols and lighter horse with lances and swords.

Some more fantasy adventurers

 These have all been made from the North Star Frostgrave Soldiers II box;

Above are three figures who could be a Fighter, A Wizard and a Ranger, although I did gave a D&D Sorcerer in mind when I assembled the figure with the spear and lantern.

Below are a Rogue/Thief, a Cleric or maybe another Fighter  and a Fighter or Barbarian.

Of course, these could be used for all manner of different rulesets, so they are quite versatile as to their roles. They could even fit into a Frostgrave warband quite happily.

The backdrop is a, by now standard John Hodgson one.

I am reasonably happy with these, but I think that the Cleric is possibly the one I like least. I'm not sure if I'll keep them. I might put them up for sale at the club's annual Tabletop Sale in May.

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.

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.

Wizards project - the final two wizards plus two group shots

Well, this is the end of the project, finishing of with a Bright Wizard and an Amber one. The members of the Bright Order deal in raw power, harnessing fire energy to bring down destruction upon their enemies. I've deliberately given my Bright wizard burning orange eyes, signifying the pent-up power he is barely keeping under control.

 

The final wizard is a Shaman of the Amber Order, a college whose members deal with the raw power of the Wild and understanding the ways of the many savage beasts and wild creatures that inhabit the natural world. Amber wizards live apart from other humans, drawing their powers from their innate understanding of every aspect of the wild world.

This is the only figure that I've added something to not included on the wizard sprues. I've taken an animal skin cloak from a Victrix Roman legionary sprue to emphasise this shaman's attachment to wild beasts. His owl is his constant companion.

So, finally, the nest two photos show the eight representatives of the Imperial Colleges of Magic assembled together. Overall, I am really pleased with how this project turned out in the end.

 

Wizards project - wizards five and six

Wizard's five and six represent two very different approaches to the Art of Magic in the Warhammer Fantasy world. First, an Amethyst Wizard, a practitioner of magic that deals with Death, the spirits of the Dead and the ability to deal Death upon the enemies of the Empire. 

Such magical powers are deadly and dangerous, bordering on such Dart Arts as necromancy and the raising of the dead for evil purposes.

The sixth wizard is the opposite of all that Darkness, being a White Wizard of the College of Light.

White or Light Wizards are healers, discoverers of truth and bearers of the holy light that banishes darkness and the denizens of the dark. Their skills can be used to exorcise the possessed and to combat the forces of Chaos.

Of the two figures, I think I did a better job with the Amethyst wizard, because at this magnification I can see all manner of things wrong with the face of the Light wizard, which is a shame because I really like his robes, staff and Orb of Light. Still, he looks OK to the naked eye, which is what really matters.

Wizards project - wizards three and four

Well, yesterday we had the first two Frostgrave Wizards painted as members of the Warhammer Empire Colleges of Magic and here are the next two.

First, a Celestial Wizard, a practitioner of the Magical Arts pertaining to the stars, the skies, the atmosphere and the weather.

I had to photograph this guy twice, the first time I noticed too many things wrong with him, but I'm reasonably happy with him now. He certainly passes the one metre rule. A couple of things I do like are his Orb, which I wanted to really stand out, so I drybrushed it in various blue shades and finally silver and his head, which, for once looks reasonable. I don't really "do" faces very well, but he manages to look both serene and determined. Once the whole figure was matt varnished, I went over the orb in gloss varnish to make it stand out. I'm also quite pleased with his simple two shade of blue robes. 

The second wizard represents the Gold Order, a college of alchemy, forging and transforming metals and scientific experimentation.

Once varnished, I went over his staff and cap badge with gloss varnish. Overall, I am reasonably happy with him, apart from the blue trim on his robes. At this magnification it looks messy, and I can also see tiny blemishes that don't show up to the naked eye.

So, that is four of the Eight Colleges. I'll post the rest tomorrow and Saturday and add in a couple of pictures of all eight together.

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.
 

The perils of adventuring in the Badlands

Here's another little diorama I shot using my Renedra ruins;

I think that all the minis here were from North Star, including the plastic Ghouls and Zombies who are part of the Frostgrave "Undead Encounters" set of originally Mantic figures. The Grey Wizard is a Copplestone figure, the Elf warrior an Oathmark one and the rest are all Frostgrave minis. The evil Necromancer is a resin cast that was the subject of a North Star painting competition a couple of years ago (I took part, but didn't win).

Clearly, the Necromancer is a powerful spellcaster, seeing as he is able to unleash his foul underlings in daylight. Let's hope that the mysterious Grey Wizard has a few useful spells up his voluminous sleeve.

The camera and other details are the same as in my previous diorama post, in case you are interested.

I shot a few more similar scenes that I'll post every now and again.
 

Here's a small diorama I've put together

I've been playing around with my lightbox, DSLR and tripod.

In this photo, a group of Pirates from Bad Squiddo and North Star run slap bang wallop into a mysterious masked figure and his Stone Troll. Intent on finding plunder in the old ruins on the hill above the bay, they didn't think that anything nasty might be lurking up there. Things may not turn out well for these intrepid, if impetuous adventurers.

The Stone Troll is actually a North Star Frostgrave Coal Man and the mysterious masked figure is Malcor from the Maze of Malcor Frostgrave collection, also from North Star.

The background for this shot is a scene from one of my Jon Hodgson books and a small scenic piece I recently made using Renedra plastic ruins on an A4 MDF base.;

I primarily made this to use in photos but it should also be useful as actual gaming scenery. The twisting plants growing around the ruins are model railway wire foliage branches. The grass, gravel and earth are from a variety of sources.

For those of you who are interested in such things, I took this picture with my Pentax K-70 DSLR and Pentax  DA 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WR standard zoom lens. The picture was shot using aperture priority with an aperture of f25 and an ISO 400 film speed. I've recently bought a JJC TM electronic remote shutter release (cheaper than the Pentax model) which makes slow shutter speed photography a lot easier. I'm thinking about using my Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro lens in future lightbox experiments.

Quite a lot of 3D printed ruins

A couple of years ago, I bought a load of 3D printed scenic items at the club's Tabletop Sale from a guy who trades as "Dungeon Scenes" and who can be found on Facebook, here. For a variety of reasons I'd not got round to painting any of the stuff until now. Here are various bits of ruined buildings, you'll have to scroll down to see everything.

First, some nice ruined arches and columns (the Bad Squiddo Amazon is for scale purposes only).

Next, a corner piece with arches and another piece which shows an overgrown red tiled floor and low walls.

Finally, seven pieces from a much larger ruined building. This could represent a manor, church, an abbey or maybe some kind of Elven stronghold?

Obviously, all the above could feature in fantasy games, pulp, horror or historical settings and I am planning to use them as parts of the scenery to sit in front of Jon Hodgson's backdrops.

I found these remarkably easy to paint. I washed and dried them off before priming them in Halford's grey plastic primer, which pretty much provided the base coat and then the rest of the work was dry-brushing and adding grassy flock mix and other odds and ends of vegetation. I'm very happy with the climbing plants entwined around the windows in the final photo. They are wire-stemmed model railway small scale trees and really add some nice atmosphere.

I have some sci fi bits and pieces to paint up next, and I have also finished off a small fountain piece which I need to get varnished.

It's been over a month since my last post.

"Well, why is that?" you might ask, and the simple answer is The Dreaded Painter's Block. It isn't that I've done no painting at all, it is just that I keep losing interest and leaving things half done.

However, I have found a way to actually complete a few things, by painting things that are simple and have very few stages from undercoating to completion and here are some of them;

Firstly, above are eight Skeleton Warriors.  I actually really like painting Skellies. They are a quick win, which is why I dug these out from a box of odds and ends and got working on them. I hoped that they would kickstart me into doing a few more things, and they have. Below are a few more quick wins, a giant snake and two small dinosaurs;

I'm working on the basis that one day I'll need a giant snake and a couple of small dinos.

I bought all the above from Bad Squiddo. Annie occasionally goes through her stock and sells off odds and ends that she no longer wants to keep in the catalogue as sale items. It is worth checking regularly to see what she has in her Bargain Bin. Remember though that once these things are gone, they probably won't be restocked.

I've got a few other things nearing completion, so they will be another post.

15mm Empire artillery

Artillery in Sword and Spear Fantasy can be pretty devastating, but it needs to be protected. So, for my Warhammer Empire army, I've put together two units of Imperial great cannon, and here they are;

Clearly, in reality, each base should really only have one cannon and maybe some gabions but artillery is quite an expensive option in S&SF and I rather like the look of a crowded base in 15mm. I think that they will look OK on the table.

Next, I'm going to be finishing off the rest of my mounted Knightly Orders (men-at-arms on barded horses) and after than, I'll begin work on the infantry.

Spanish Unit For The Silver Bayonet

I haven't posted anything for over three weeks, but I have been busy, mostly working on Napoleonic Spanish types. First up, is my Spanish unit for The Silver Bayonet, a set of rules for Gothic Horror during the Napoleonic Wars. There are eight figures in total.

These four above are the more "regular" troops, an Artilleryman, an Officer, an Infantryman and a Sapper. Below are four "irregular" types, a Guerrilla, a Veteran Hunter, a Champion of the Faith and a Swordsman. All these eight labels have specific meanings within the rules.

The figures are from the official range of figures produced by North Star and I have to say that they are excellent sculpts with lots of character and nice details. I decided when painting them that I wasn't going to get too bothered over making them specific to any particular Spanish units of the period. After all, it is basically a fantasy game, although some of these could be used in historical Peninsular War games, probably as characters or specialists for Sharp Practice, although they are quite chunky and on the large size compared with Perry figures, for example.

Anyway, I now finally have a force to use for games of The Silver Bayonet. I'll have to find time to paint up the French and British sets at some point.

North Star Frostgrave Necromancer and Apprentice

Back in February, Nick Eyre at North Star announced a painting competition. The objective was to paint the new Frostgrave Necromancer figure. Of course, I had to give it a go. I bought the figure, who comes with a nice (well, nice if you exclude all the necromancy stuff) apprentice. They arrived, I prepped and undercoated them and then I caught Covid and didn't feel much like painting for a few weeks. Finally, I got back to painting and today I finally finished them and even got them varnished, because it stopped raining and the sun came out. Here are my finished efforts; Necromancer front and back, ditto for the apprentice and then both of them together.

He is a pretty dynamic figure and, being a resin cast is beautifully crisp. I decided to do a fairly simple base to portray a blasted heath with clumps of dead grass. The tufts are by Gamer's Grass. Overall, I think he looks OK.

Here is his evil sidekick. He clearly graduated from pulling the wings off of flies a few years ago.

Annoyingly, I noticed a stray piece of ballast on the strap of his bag after uploading the photo. It is gone now, but doesn't really matter because it is the main man who matters for the competition, which I am not expecting to win anyway. It is the taking part that matters.

I think they have come out reasonably well. Certainly good enough for gaming purposes, which is the reason I paint things in the first place.

Here they are together;

My plans for 2023

Well, I've been pondering what I want/need to get on with over the next 12 months, and looking at the metal, plastic and resin mountain to see what I really ought to do something about, even if it is only because the various things have been hanging around for ages.

There are things that fell off the bottom of my 2022 list that I will definitely work on, as well as others that might get done. There are also a few things that won't happen and one or two that might end up as something else.

So, here are the things I will definitely be aiming at getting done. The higher up the list, the more likely they will get an early start;

15mm WW2 British Airborne support options for Chain of Command (these will be my January priority).

15mm WW2 German support options for Chain of Command

Stargrave plastic box sets for Xenos Rampant armies

Various other plastic sets that will work for Xenos Rampant with head and weapons swaps.

28mm Spanish for Sharp Practice 

28mm Bloody Miniatures 17th century troopers

28mm 17th century Bicorne Miniatures Pikemen and Musketeers (these will augment my existing Bloody Miniatures figures to make up useful forces for various sets of rules)

15mm extra units for my SYW Honours Of War army, infantry and artillery mostly

28mm Wild West figures for Dead Man's Hand and anything else.

15mm Renaissance army for Sword and Spear Fantasy (with a Warhammer Fantasy Empire theme)

15mm Northwest Frontier Imperial and Afghan forces and buildings (this is a new project)

Continuing building up my scenic collection in 15mm and 28mm, including lots of 28mm Sci Fi scenics

1/285 scale 8th Army and DAK for O Group

Crossfire 15mm US infantry company

15mm WW2 1943-45 British/Commonwealth infantry for the Far East.

28mm Pulp figures for all sorts of things (I have too many of these in my leadpile)

Additions to my 28mm Perry plastic Renaissance collection

Silver Bayonet

28mm Soviet Women, also for Chain of Command (from the Bad Squiddo Kickstarter)

28mm Late Roman skirmishing and armoured cavalry, and cataphracts too.

15mm Romano-British "Arthurian" army for Sword and Spear Fantasy

The thing about all of the above is that I already have the necessary figures for most of this, apart from the extra units for my SYW army and more Perry 15th century plastic infantry, so the only thing stopping me from making a start on this list is my own laziness and habit of playing with the dogs, reading books and listening to music instead of prepping and painting minis.

Of course, there are lots of other odds and ends hanging around that might get worked on simply because I feel like a change. I've got lots of Fantasy stuff that I really ought to do something about this year, including a box of Wargames Atlantic giant spiders, which would definitely work for Xenos Rampant.

Wizards and Apprentices

 Over the last week, I've managed to finish off two wizards and a pair of sorcerer's apprentices. First the apprentices;

The one on the left appears to have been inspired by a certain literary schoolboy wizard who has become a star of the silver screen and the older one on the right looks as though he might take a darker path if given the chance. On the other hand, he could just be harbouring Hamlet tendencies.

Like the wizards below, the apprentices are by Mark Copplestone and they are really nice minis. The wizards, however, are even better, really superb sculpts.

The taller, more threatening-looking wizard definitely has a strong resemblance to a very famous Grey Wizard, variously known as Olórin, Tharkûn, Incánus, Mithrandir, Stormcrow, Láthspell and, to most of us, Gandalf. In the Fellowship of the Ring, when confronting the Balrog in the deep places of Moria, Gandalf described himself as "a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor". He is probably even more famous than the schoolboy wizard above, well he certainly ought to be. 

His companion is a charming figure, a wise old chap with a book of spells, clearly about to wreak havoc upon some unruly and dangerous opponents, or maybe just lecturing a class of apprentices at Wizard School. Perhaps he is one of the Istari of Middle Earth, most likely one of the two Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, who Tolkien also called Morinehtar and Rómestámo elsewhere in his Unfinished Tales. Who knows? These two wizards are only mentioned in passing in the Lord of the Rings books, suggesting that they travelled far into the unknown East of Middle Earth.

Of course, all four figures have a lot of possibilities; Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep, Saga Age of Magic, Dragon Rampant, 7TV Fantasy etc

Maze of Malcor - Four Wizard Shades and a Banshee

Ages ago, when it was first announced I bought the Frostgrave Maze of Malcor book and the associated range of figures from North Star. Sadly, our then-current Frostgrave campaign at the club came to an end and we all decided on a break from Frostgrave. I never painted up any of the figures, well not until now.

In the book, the Wizard Shades are portrayed as incorporeal but with a normal appearance. I decided that I wanted them to look more "ghostly".

As you can see, I've used a greenish palette for these figures, making them, hopefully, look a bit more like generic ghostly apparitions, or maybe even statues. Who knows? They could come in useful for all sorts of games with horror-based, gothic or supernatural settings.

I took a slightly different approach with the Banshee, giving her a reddish tinge to her flesh and hair. I wanted to make her look a bit different to the other apparitions. I'm not sure that I'm totally happy with the outcome, but she will have to do.

I'd be interested to see what others think about these.

It Ain't Easy Being Green

 In the case of these three, it leads to grumpiness, random acts of malice and turning princes into frogs;

These are 28mm Bad Squiddo witches, clearly following the example of Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of The West with her green skin and gothic wardrobe choices.

I bought these because they are fun minis, rather than for any particular rules or armies, but I am sure that I'll find a use for them at some point.

They were pretty quick to paint, mainly because I undercoated them in black Halford's spray and then just worked on the details and dry-brushing. The tufts are Gamer's Grass ones, again from Bad Squiddo.