From Mike W: 28mm Necrons, Elf Mage & more Arthurians. (Heresy)(150 Points)

For this week's post I'll start with a group of 3D printed 'Space Skeletons' that are obviously stand-ins for GW Necrons. For some added spice I'm claiming bonus points for Dante's Heresy - as one of the Necrons has had a Space Marine's 'Crainial Cognitive Unit' (Head!) grafted onto the otherwise robotic body - an Imperial Heresy if there ever was!

The completed unit of 18 x Necrons

Close-up on one seide of the unit

And the other side!

In reality the sculpted head had broken off and I decided to use the Heritic Space Marine head to replace it!

All figures were undercoated in grey, and then painted with GW Lead Belcher, the grey being a good base for the gunmetal metalic. I then used Bronze to add detail to each figure, on upper arm and knee pads, plus the banding on teh shoulder pads. 

Mithril Silver was used to add a highlight strip on the outside of each shoulder pad.

Deatil of the figures here - there are two types of weapon supplied with the group

 

I painted the weapons with GW Ratling Grime, a 'noce' grubby, oily brownish black, once dried I painted the Plasma coils white - using Windsor & Newton White Ink - my new favourite medium for such work. I find this white ink incredible smooth, high in pigment and easy to apply.

More of the guys with the triple barrelled plasma weapon

A final shot of the heavier weaponed robo-guys.

Once the ink was dry, I used GW Frostheart Contrast paint to give the plasma coils the almost fluresent blue look. A similar process was used to do the Nercon helmets, giving a green glow where the eyes & mouth might be expected to be seen.

Necron guys with Plasma rifles, note the bayonet-like device on each and the green glow on their helmets

Another group of Rilfle Bots

The final two figures, one of each weapon type, with the Heretic on the right!

Obviously the heretic Marine Necron is the simplest of all conversions - ironically I found the proper Necron head in the packaging when I came to throw this out - but decided the Heretic Marine was a good story!

Bases were painted using craft shop flesh acrylic paint mixed with wood glue, to give the bases an alien feel, before sprinkling with fine sand and adding some tufts.

Next up are some more Arthurians, these foot are Victrix Armoured Infantry who will be making up a unit of Close Order Heavy Infantry, once I source another frame of figures from eBay.

Another six Arthurians off the production line, these are all Victrix figures using black & white shield patterns - I must try and source / produce some additional colour combination!

The same process to paint these little guys was used as in my other recent submissions - so I won't repeat here. These figures are really nicely animated - more so than the Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic figures - in my opinion! Shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

The unit commander has been given a gold scale armour to help him stand out

Same figures with the rear rank brought to the front to show them off!

Lastly we have a classic Elf Mage, mounted on his Elven Steed, I purchased this figure off eBay after completing the two classic elves in my first post of this challenge. I was keen to get the Mage to have long white robes but with blue ‘add ons’ to get the colour scheme to tie into the figures I’d just completed.

The Mage in all his glory!

The figure came undercoated white but needed a couple of repairs and a general tidy up, once repairs were done I gave the whole figure a coat of GW Adminstratum Grey, before a dry brush of white.

The Elven Stead was deliberately painted as a 'Grey'
but with a golden tail and mane to differenciate him from a regular horse used by humans.

I wanted to make sure that the Mage's mount was clearly not a regular horse, a somewhat unrealistic colour scheme was therefore used, with the Steed's mane & tail reflecting the hair colour of the Elves that will form my new Elven Army as I build it.

The scale armour was given a padded leather base - to make it look more 'realistic'.

Gems were picked out in red, which were gradually highlighted to orgage to give them a realistic effect, runes on teh Mage's sword were also treated in a similar manner.

Another view of the Mage

With such an old model there are some limitations, the bridle appears as a solid block and the base of the Stead's armoured barding is somewhat crudely shown. All you can do is embrace this - so I painted the underbarding as padded leather and the results of the work on the bridle can be seen below.

Final View, showing electrostaic grass on fine sand base,
that I use as standard for most of my models.

That's it for this week. I have a group of Arthurian Horse nearing completion and I'm looking to set-up to do a regiment of High Elf Spearmen for next week!

SQUIRREL    Necrons                                +1 Point

POINTS

18 x 28mm Necrons  @5 Pts ea                90 Points

Heresy Bonus                                             20 Points

6 x 28mm Arthurian Foot @5 Pts ea          30 Points

1 x 28mm mounted Elf Mage                     10 Points

TOTAL                                                      150 Points

A fine selection of figures, Mike! I like your necrons. Thanks for sharing your recipe, I think it works very well. The Arthurians are great too, I actually think the black and white shield patterns suit them. The mage is the piece de résistance of this post for me, however. The blue and white colour scheme is great, and the horse looks excellent. A very bright and lively figure! Well done, another 150 points on the board for you.

Martijn

From Mike W - 15mm, 28mm Historical, Fantasy and more! Squirrel (520 Points)

 I'm back from my travels and back to this year's challenge! I have a fairly wide range of items to show and tell this week, some of this is left over from my shorter than usual week at home, last week and the rest is this week's output.

I'll start with a quick nod to Lady Sarah's Trolley with another female Tau Gue'Vesa fighter who will help me to travel to the DIY section.

Female Tau Ge'Vesa, carrying a Combo Weapon and dashing to next objective.

The figure is based upon a Wargames Atlantic Sci-Fi figure with a head from their biker gang kit and GW Weapons and shoulder armour.

Another view, the figure is depicted wearing sun glasses but I'm not sure that my painting
skills have not resulted in her looking like she's having a bad make-up day....

And the rear view, showing backpack and the dark grey under-armour

Under the DIY banner I present a group of Medjai, or Pharoah's Guard, think as per the film 'The Mummy' or other archaeological adventure films. As with posts on this subject in older challenges, I must again apologise for the Hollywood style misrepresentation of culture and dresses etc. That said these guys are to be used in a number of scenarios ranging from the 19th - 20th Century, thus the mix and match of weapons etc.

The completed group of 14 Medjai Warriors.

Another view of the Medjai group.

These fourteen figures are based upon Warlord Atlantic's Afghan warriors with various heads, weapon and equipment from Gripping Beast Arabs or other suitable figure kits. The paint job is black robes with blue accessories and pretty much as described in my older posts. This group is to be used to re-enforce the figures I completed previously.

Close-up of 5 or the Medjai, including a Standard Bearer carrying
the 'Eye of Horus' banner, plus an archer.

In actual fact the original set I did a couple years ago were based upon the Perry Miniatures Afghan boxed set - now comparing the two sets of figures, I must say that I prefer the Perry versions

Five more Medjai, including swordsmen, archer and clubman.

Last four Medjai, a musician, spearman, swordsman and a guy with a Jezail.

Next up are 90 new 10mm Flodden Scots figures. That is 30 x Archers on three bases as per my previously posted Hand Gunners, plus 60 x Pikemen on six bases that will form one of the Scots Pike Blocks. Front ranks (bases) are fully armoured with the rear ranks either unarmoured or only partially armoured. I envisage the block to be deployed in a 2 x 3 rectangle, much as shown in the photos below.

30 x Scots Archers, 10 to each base!

Painting of these tiny figures is as per previous posts. I've added a lot of flags - just because I can and these make the bases look better in my opinion. I've done a bunch of generic St Andrew's crossess then some varied other banners to make up the numbers...

Archers in column, from their right flank.

Archers in the same column, from their left flank.

The pike blocks are based in the same manner as the Archers and hand gunners, however in line with my view that 'its the bling' that catches the eye, I have given the pike blocks a lot of flags. At this scale the flags are what is noticed, not much else!

Completed 60 figre Pike Block

A view form the left, I have added a lot of flags, two Crosses of St Andrew on each rear flanking base and a family banner, Roayl Scots banner and Cross of St Andrew on the centre rear base. Not sure how historically accurate this  but it will help to identify units on the tabletop!

A view form the right, this block is under the command of the Stewarts,
you might just make out their family banner in the centre rear of the block

I have tried to have standing figures at the back and those with pikes ready to the front

Another view

And finally a close up of the centre bases of the block, the Stewart banner is obscured by the Royal Scots banner.

Next, off on a flight of fantasy I have completed a small group of 10 x Skeletons, these you will quickly see are in the ancient Roman style. I recently saw a video on YouTube where a guy was doing an Ancient Greek themed Warhammer Old World army, based upon the Tomb Kings army lists. 

Ten armoured Roman Skeleton Infantry, all armed with Gladus and Scutum 

These guys are all on the old style 20mm square bases, ultimately if I go down the route of getting the Old World Rules, I'll have to get some base converters to meet their new frontage rules

I thought that was cool and then thought why not do something based on Romans, as ever my thoughts appear to not have been that original and I found some suitable 3D modles on eBay and invested in thes eto see what they looked like.

Another view, with the rear rank brought forwards

In general I'm really pleased, the shields - having moulded designs - are tickly to paint, but the overall effect is fun. I'm definitely going to invest in a Command Goup and another 20-30 rank & file to complete the unit.

Last photo showing the fiddly shield details

If I go down the route of  raising a whole ancient Roman themed skeleton army I might go to Wargames Atlantic skeletons (who are ironically Greek themed) and then add in Warlord Games Roman shields and weapons etc. Benefit here is that I can then use shield transfers and save my eyesight!

Next back to the Tau factory and a group of 16 x Tau warriors and/or drones. These are all painted using the same recipe as I have described elsewhere. Sadly, I'm pretty much at the end of my Tau journey, I have a couple of odds and ends to do, figure wise, and at some point I need to look at getting some vehicles.

The completed batch of 16 Tau Warriors and Drones.

A slightly different view

Again I have created a number of unarmoured Tau Jueveniles, just to stretch out the figures in my army and indulge in some kit bashing! I decided to make one of these a Medic, as I found a nice little piece which appeared to be a bunch of medical instruments - waste not want not....

5 x scratch built unarmoured Tau, In the right an unarmed Tau Medic, others with a variety of weapons

I had a few arms left over which were in the act of throwing a grenade - thus you will see these in this week's group. Also a couple of arms that had drone control devices!

Close up of 4 x Tau, all with a range of weapons

Three more close-ups of the Tau figures,
painted with the same scheme as others in this army,
On the right is a human Gue'Vesa

A Tau warrior with a device to control the armed drone to the right.

So just as a hint as to what I may look to do next is a paint job on a very old lead Necron figure that I had kicking around, it is now nicely completed and based on a terrain that is similar to the Tau figures!

A hint of things to come?
An old lead Necron painted up to face off my new Tau army!

Slightly different view

And the rear view!

Another divergent route I have explored is toying with the Italian Wars of Independence using Warlord Games Epic ACW & Napoleonic figures. This has been inspired by KenR's submissions in previous challenges and realising that I probably shouldn't do these in 28mm - not least for space considerations!.  Here is a test regiment of Garibaldi Volunteers, 100 figures on 5 bases.

5 x Bases each of 20 figures, unit in line of battle. Generic Italian flags on command base.

I undercoated these little guys in a 'Linen' colour and then drybrushed the trousers white, before applying an Army Painter Grey wash. Jackets and Kepis were done with AP Speed Paint and then when dry any figures that I had mistakenly overpainted their trousers with red, had grey/blue trousers added to cover the mistakes!

Straps were a nightmare - done with GW Contrast Paint but really hurt my eyes doint this. Blanket rolls and accoutrements were added before doing muskets in their natural colours. Green cuffs were added as best as possible, as were a variety of slouch hat colours

Unit with the bases at front and two behind

Three ranks deep, with command base to the front

And in column of march going => way

and going <- way!

So that's all that time allowed for this week. I have very nearly finished my mounted Lizardmen, but they are not quite ready yet! And I hope to dig out some old Necron plastic figures, if I can only remember where I last saw them. I also have another Epic 15mm unit to test paint - this time an Irish-American  Fenian Regiment from the invasion of Canada.

Rooms visited & Bonuses claimed to date!

POINTS

Lady Sarah's Trolley Bonus                                              20 Points

Female Tau Gue'Vesa                                                      5 Points

90 x 10mm Flodden Scots @ 1 Point ea                                    90 Points

14 x Medjai Infantry @ 5 Points ea                                      70 Points

10 x 28mm Roman Skeletons @ 5 Points ea                                 50 Points

16 x Tau Warriors @ 5 Points ea                                         80 Points

Necron Warrior                                                           5 Points

100 x 15mm Warlord Epic Garibaldi Infantry @ 2 Points ea               200 Points

TOTALS                                                                 520 Points

+3 Squirrel (Undead Romans, 15mm Italian Garibaldi Infantry, 28mm Medjai)

 

Sylvain: Every week, you impress me with your productivity and your squirrelness. You seem to be so at each with different genres from historical to science-fiction. All these are very well painted and it makes me which I could one day peek at your gaming table with all the goodies in battle order. I have a soft spot for samller scales and I really like your tiny Garibaldi infantry. Expertly done!