From MilesR: Frostgrave Monsters, Taliban, LRDG, Bigger Monsters & Blood Bowl (435 Points)

A very eclectic set of subjects for this weeks posts - buckle up, this one gets a little confusing  First up, some more baddies for Frostgrave and my convention game (from left to right):

2 Frostgrave Wraith Knights (28mm metals from Northstar) - cleanly cast and very easy to paint

6 Mummies from the Reaper Mini's Bones line, also in 28mm.  These are the first human sized figures I've painted from the Bones line and I have to say they're just not the goods and no fun to paint at all.  Maybe it's because the flexibility of the casting material shows up more with thinner sculpts.  You can see some others in the background (upper right) that I doubt I'm going to paint.  If it's not fun why do it?

As you will further down in this post, the larger Bones sculpts are much better IMHO and you can't beat the price for the entire line - oh well live and learn.

 Next we have 26 Taliban figures plus a motorcycle,  These are 28mm figs from the Empress Miniatures lines and they are fantastic.  Empress is challenging the Perry's for number one in my fanboy book.

 Close up on 12 figures

 and then the other 12

 Close up up their "mechanized support"

 and another group shot, this time with the motorcycle on the left.  I'm sure you all agree having the cycle on the left side does make the group look completely different!

Next up a LRDG force in 28mm from the Perry's - 3 Jeeps and two gun trucks.

These were a blast to paint and like everything else in this post will be featured in one of the games I will be running at Historicon this year.

 I think the vehicles are cast by Blitzkreig Miniatures and they really were very easy to assemble and paint up

 Ok to be honest, I had planned these for the first bonus round, since I thought it was about "Vehicles".  Sadly Curt informed me that it's really about "armor" so I'm painting something else up tonight... Dohhhhh!!!!

I suppose next Curt will tell me there isn't either a North or a South round round.

 More Dungeon baddies in the form of 2 Frostgrave demons and three rather large models from Reaper Bones - an armored Troll and two Giant Scorpions

 The Frostgrave figs were given a very basic paint job but will be serviceable on the table top.

 I really like the Scorpions and may get a few more just because one really can't have too many of them.  Simple paint job but effective.

I spent a good bit of time on the Troll.  As I indicated earlier the soft plastic that the Bones are cast in doesn't really work all that well for smaller/ thinner models but holds up pretty well on larger ones.  I did replace the ax handle with a wooden dowel - I just couldn't get it to stay straight.

 These are a lot of fun to paint up.  I spent a little bit more time on the basing and used some Liquitex texture (black sand) for the ground cover and added a little more details.

 The Troll is pretty big - He'd be 60cm tall if he had better posture

An "action" shot with some 28mm scale US Rangers to give a better impression of the size o these figures.  It kind of look likes the plot from one of those awful SciFi Channel movies - thats just the feel I'm looking for in the upcoming con games.

I then took a painting break to play Blood Bowl with my son, but couldn't resist....

 Painting up the Orc's Blog Bowl team.  Rather than use the decals that come with the kit, I decided to hand paint the position names and uniform "numbers".  The decals just weren't "Orky" enough for me and, apparently, my painting penmanship is just that bad to look sufficiently "orky".

Close up of the Black Orcs - I went with hash marks from numbers rather than arabic numerals - these are Orcs, not Oxford deans.

The throwers

  Blitzers - I might tone down the yellow or add orange to make it look like flames....

 and finally, the linemen.  These are really fun miniatures to paint.

Some action shots about 3/4's the way through painting.  The constant transfer from the painting bench to the playing field did not make the painting process efficient but we've had a whole bunch of fun with the figures.

There seems to be a team that needs some pigment therapy....

This lot should net me a small total of 60 points, but I've had a great bunch of fun with them.

So that's all I got this week, which should push me over 1,000 points.  While I fell short in the "first to 1,000 points challenge" (well done AlexS!) at least I can take solace in knowing that I've met one of the Dux's criteria for success in life....

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Holy Smokes! What an eclectic mob of miniature goodness! Absolutely fantastic stuff Miles.

Your Frostgrave baddies look very good. Too bad about your experience with the Bones line, I've not tried them myself but I've heard very similar opinions from many other people. It's too bad as they offer some nice figures and are very affordable. This all being said I really like these mummies with their rotting linen wrappings and nasty khopesh swords. 

I have these very same Taliban figures from Empress awaiting in the Lead Shed and I agree they are beautiful castings. Your's look terrific and you've done a great job on their basing as well (and that motorcycle team looks like it's right from some action movie).

The LRDG vehicles are probably my favourite from this post. Wow. I just love the rough and ready attitude of these vehicle teams and you've done a very good job with all of the crew, their weapons and heaps of stowage. Such iconic models.

More Frostgrave baddies? Check. Nicely done and I particularly like that huge ogre with his humungous axe. Shrek he is not.

And finally more Bloodbowl goodness. I've never played the game, but I heard it's a lot of fun, and I know (from reading his blog) that it was a Christmas break favourite for Miles and his son. These orks look the business, especially in their wonderfully vibrant blood red armour.

Again, wow, that is an impressive amount of hobby fun to have produced over a weeks time. Miles, you are a Machine!