From KeithS - Trolls (63 points)

"Miserable, no good, robbing Trolls!" -- Thorin Oakenshield (at least the Rankin Bass version of the Hobbit; I really do live my life via movie quotes).


This is a quick diversion I worked yesterday on my final snow day.  They are 8 Trolls minis from Otherworld and one that is stylistically very similar but I have no idea where I got it (except for the base its hard to notice the difference at a casual glance).  I'd wanted some Trolls for wargaming that scaled well with 25 or 28mm but cheap ones were hard to come by, so I bit the bullet and went top of the line.  And they are masterful figures.  Lots of detail, plenty of personality, somewhat customizable (2 different heads to choose from and adjustable arms).  I was quite pleased with them, though I think they came out darker than I'd have liked.  I was using a green ink wash I'd not used before (PSA: kids, test your washes before going hog wild with them).  No matter, they're pretty in their own special, Trollish way.


Here's one happy camper.  They all have lots of warts or sores -- I did those in a very light olive so they stood out a bit.  I did the nails in ivory and let the green ink stain them murky colored.

This chap brought along a friend, or what was left of him (the head he's holding was an extra Viking head from that project).  Perhaps he uses it to play ball, or it might just be a snack.  I'm not sure.

From behind and one from the side.  They have a lot of personality, and personality go a long way.

Certainly wouldn't want to run into this guy in a dark alley, or across a battlefield.

The group shot (outside of the walls, of course). 

I'm pleased with the way they turned out, even if too dark for D&D standard Trolls (with their "mossy colored skin.")  They measure about 38mm from toe to hair, though they are bent over, so I figure they fall into the 40mm category.  Getting tem done really frees up some space -- they'd been sitting atop a small cabinet on my work desk for months. 

Next up, more miscellaneous old lead and perhaps a company of foes for the Trolls, aside from the Vikings, of course.

A very productive period for you Keith - these certainly look a fearsome bunch. Always good to clear up projects that have been hanging around. Well done, and yes i gone with them being 40mm - Big Nasty Trolls alright.

From JohnSe - Fireforge Medieval Foot (240 points)

Medievals have turned out to be the trickiest period I've tried. With World War II there are reams of uniform information to reference for painting. Dark Ages are pretty much "muted earth tones to taste" and information for Ancients is so spotty you can get away with painting them however you'd like, but Medievals... there's just enough heraldry to be confusing and intimidating enough to put me off getting started.

Luckily the Analogue Painting Challenge was just the kick in the rear I needed to throw caution to the wind and paint up these Fireforge Foot with a "good enough for now" paint scheme.

Researching potential paint schemes, I became interested in Edward I. The bad guy from Braveheart was involved in battles from his youth until his death, fighting across the British Isles in the Baron's War and against the Scots, even taking part in the Crusades. His livery was a striking yellow and red, also used by his son Edward II at Bannockburn, and variations on that color scheme appear amongst much of the nobility that fought with or against him. Standardized uniforms were not used during the medieval period, but it's not beyond reason that soldiers would use some sort of identifying color (either a piece of clothing, strip of cloth, or shield color) to identify themselves as belonging to the retinue of a lord.

I painted these Fireforge figures up in various earth tones, with a number of red or mustard yellow tunics, surcoats, and leggings. I gave the shields a variety or yellow and red color schemes. I thought there might be some shields provided by a lord, but most would be provided by the men themselves. Without a factory stamping these shields out I tried to vary the color tones and patterns to represent the variety of sources these shields would come from.

Hopefully the colors will tie the figures together but avoid looking like a uniformed Napoleonic regiment. I'm planning on using these as Edward's household troops, but with such a common color combination I can also use these as the retinue for any knights or nobility with red or yellow heraldry.

I sabot based these for mass battles (such as Hail Caesar), but based them individually so I can try them out with Lion Rampant.

That's 48 foot, at 5 points each, gives me an extra 240 points by my count.

Despite your difficulty in getting started with these John you clearly made a great success of them in the end. Red/yellow is one of my favourite colour combinations for any period but works especially well for medieval as it combines well with earthy browns and muted greens. I can't fault your reasoning regards the shields, quite the opposite in fact. 

48 figures in one batch is a cracking effort and your resulting 240 points gets you well within sight of your initial target of 400. Nice work!

From Barks - WW1 German Artillery (12 points)

Just a quickie this week as my time was taken up with CanCon 2016 and the Antipodean Bloggers Meet-Up!

This is a 10.5cm FH 98/09 from Plastic Soldier Company for their Great War range. I've based it on a Battlefront base and used some Vallejo Dark Earth paste for basing, which I much prefer to my previous WW1 entry basing efforts.

P.S. My Halflings from last week were really fun to play with, coming 28th of 36 in the Blood Bowl tournament with a 1:3:4 W:D:L record!

She might be small but she's a beaut Barks. There's loads of detail in the gun and the crew are just marvellous. I like the paste over the Battlefront base - you'd hardly know that's what it was. Great texture too, looks just like horrible Flanders mud! 12 points for your total... Cheers, Millsy.

PS. Great to meet you and congrats on the result with the 'flings. They take a lot to master from what I've seen so that's an outstanding first effort.

From BrendonW - Violent people through time (187 points)

Greetings. Hope your painting is going well. This weeks BrendonW instalment contains......

12 x 28mm mounted troops, 13 x 28mm Infantry (2 x hand painted shields) all plastic.

First lets begin in the Dark Ages. Various Conquest Games Plastics armed with bows ready to make the Violence especially in Englaland.

Next and still in the Dark Ages. Gripping Beast and 2 Violent Berserkers made from Warlord games Celts bodies but with Gripping Beast Heads. The archer has parts from a Conquest Games kit.

Next is Gripping Beast Arabs ready for violent acts. Really happy to have made so much progress on this force so far. Painting patterns on the horse blankets behind the saddle is great for testing creativity and patience.

Finally forward in time to some civil war violence. Perry Miniatures Light Horse.
1 Bowmen and 2 lancers. Again really happy to make such good progress on the two boxes of these I purchased. Really nice miniatures with so many options.

That's it. Photography not so good this time round. Will hopefully be better next time but you get the general impression of my work. Cheers

Brendon kicks of Antipodean Thursday with another cracking selection of historical miniatures from the Gripping Beast, Conquest, Warlord and Perry stables. I must admit when I first read the title my brain translated it to "History of Violence" and I was a bit disappointed not to see Viggo Mortensen feature somewhere!

I think your horses are getting better with every post Brendon and I especially like the dun in this batch. I think you should give a skewbald a go in your next batch to really test yourself! Another grand batch of 28s mate and well worth the 187 points including a couple for the shields.