Friday 12 February 2021

From Barks: The Lair of the Fell Beast (50 points)

And behold! it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was, whose kind, lingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon, outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely brood, apt to evil.

JRR Tolkien, The Return of the King (1955)

And behold! I have painted a fell beast.



The Lord of the Nazgûl

Armoured Fell Beast

I did some dark magic with magnets which allows a choice of rider. I also made a base with four 25mm washers buried within, for added heft and to drop the centre of gravity.


Alternative Nazgûl



I snapped the clear flight stand during priming- some rather colourful Australian colloquialisms were voiced- and had to trim it shorter and angled down more. Taking advantage of your advice a few weeks ago I repainted it flat black.

I started from a pale grey undercoat and added thin coats of dark greyish browns to taste. I'm not entirely happy with the wings- I'd prefer them to be a bit more tan.

Now to work out how to store and transport this...

Théoden and Snowmane for scale

I'm claiming this as 25 points for a large 28mm mount with two riders.

+20 points for The Lair of the Beast

GW Side Challenge: +25

Onwards, to defile the Snowlord's Altar!

From ByronM - Hatchery, Ravens, and a Ship (60 points)

I have a real mixed bag for my submission today that includes some ravens from Mierce Miniatures, a 3d printed Frog lady from the Mandalorian, and a 3d printed freighter for Cruel Seas.

First up are the ravens from Mierce miniatures.  These figures are really well detailed, even though it's hard to tell due to the colour of them.  Mierce does some amazing sculpts, so if you haven't looked at them yet, check them out, I will warn you though, they are expensive, not as bad as GW pricing, but pretty damn close.  They are so nice though I could not help but pick up a viking force, and these are the first unit from that force.


I painted these figures entirely with oil paints so that I could get a nice blue/black effect, and blend back and forth without worrying about drying time.  In person they have that iridescent blue tint that real ravens do, but it only kinda shows in the images.  I also highlighted the wing tips way more than they should be in real life, but it was the only way to not have them just look like blue/black blobs.

Next up is a figure for my return to the chamber of challenges, for the hatchery.  This is a 3d printed version of the Frog Lady from the Mandalorian show, complete with her container of eggs.  

I tried to paint eggs into the blue area, but they just kept looking like polka dots, so I eventually gave up and just left the container blue.... Maybe baby Yoda finished them off as a snack...  I plan to use this figure as an objective in Star Wars games, maybe both sides are trying to get the caviar!

She is pretty basic, but that is because I was trying out some new paints.  She was painted entirely with the new Scale75 contrast paints.  Which while interesting, I think is only really usable as base coats to setup for more detailed work with regular paints on top.  But they are another tool to have, and they came in a fancy wood treasure chest.

Lastly is a freighter that I 3d printed for Cruel Seas.  The game comes with a card stock token for use in games but it looks really lame next to all the other ships as miniatures, so thingiverse to the rescue and bingo, one freighter.  Well, actually 2 as Curt asked for one as well because its too big to print on the older resin printers, but I have one of the larger format new ones, so there is one here for you when we next get to game.  The print came out ok, not perfect as the model had some issues, but a little greenstuff and it was good as new.

I painted it up pretty simply, and looked up a name of an ill fated freighter from WW2 to name it as, and then glued in some brass rod as the mast and antenna and called it done.

This varied array of figs should work out to roughly 60 points.

I say roughly as I am not really sure on points. Sure the birds are technically 32mm figures, but are smaller so I counted the 5 as 4x28mm = 20 points.  The frog lady is 35mm so 7 + 20 for the hatchery bonus = 27 points. The Freighter is at least 3 times bigger than the other Cruel Seas ships, but is pretty basic so I put it in as worth 2 of them so 12 points.

From DrQ: Princess Malya for Sarah the Sorceress (25 points)

Looking at the map, I realize I need another bit of teleportation to get from the Hall of Heroes to the Laboratory. To that end, I've painted up another female model from my backlog: Princess Malya, a Relic Kight/Super Dungeon Explore crossover from Ninja Division.


I've had this model in my bin for a long time, largely because don't particularly like the sculpt. The plastic is quite cheap and bendy (the axe refuses to stay straight despite many hot water dips). Their are awkward mold likes across key pieces of detail. It's a bit too cheese-cakey—I gave her a proper top, but not much I could do about the hot pants. And, of course, why does she have FOUR EARS?!?!

I tried painting for the Quarantine Challenge last year, but eventually stripped the paint and started over. I try to make my Super Dungeon Explore models match the card art, and getting light skin and pink armour to play well together has been very hard.



This time around I made my own magenta contrast paint using Citadel's contrast medium mixed with magenta acrylic ink. I also use some white contrast and the hexwraith flame for the crystal glow on the base. All in all, the paint scheme works good enough for a model that I've never been too in love with.

As far as points, there's five for the model and another 20 for the challenge.

Now off to the laboratory where I've got some terrain that take the are both literally and metaphorically.

From PeteF: Skinwalkers Wolf and Bear for The Lair (30 points)

 

In Dracula's America, a skirmish/scuffle with around 10 figures per side, the Skinwalkers faction has two members who can transform themselves into beasts. This wolf and bear complete my first Dracula's America faction - one of my wargaming band has all the terrain we need so, as soon as lock down ends we'll be able test this game. If we enjoy it I like the look of The Dark Confederacy as my next faction.

I got the fur colour recipes from the excellent Painting War: Dark Ages book/magazine. Left to my own devices I would never have come up with khaki(mixed with black) for wolfskin. I like the way it turned out - but still have a lot to learn about painting fur. The horned head on the base was left over from some old GW skellies - gives it a plains feel. Next time I do a plains base I'll try and make some tumbleweed.

The beasties are a little larger than 28mm horses so I'll count them as 5 points each plus 20 for the room.

From GregB - 28mm Byzantine Light Cavalry (100 points)

Light Byzantine cavalry - 28mm figures from Gripping Beast's line of Thematic Byzantines.

Thanks to the timely arrival of some parcels in the mail,  my 28mm Byzantine project has been able to resume! Freshly resupplied with LBMS transfers and banners, as well as some steel spears, I have completed the next unit in my Byzantine collection. No surprise - more cavalry! These are lighter, skirmishing cavalry - although they can form up to fight in a pinch. The figures are 28mm metal castings from the fine folks at Gripping Beast, and the banner and shield decals are (obviously) from LBMS.

I enjoy the character of these castings - particularly the commander!

As with all of the Byzantine units there is a mix of arms/capabilities within the group. Six of the models are meant to be armed with a mix of throwing spears and or javelins, and four of them are mounted archers. They are meant to skirmish and harass larger enemy formations on the battlefield, and keep enemy skirmishers from doing the same to key elements of the Byzantine battle line.

Steel spears!! I love those things!! They make a difference for figures like these.

These castings from Gripping Beast have oodles of character, and were quite a lot of fun to paint. The LBMS transfers were, as ever, a real b*tch, but still 1000% better than trying to paint shield patterns on my own. The headaches those things cause are so worth it in the end!

Mounted archers in the mix, helping to pepper the enemy with missile fire.


I figured a musician would be important for a light cavalry unit like this, to directing them and their maneuvers.

These models are all based individually, so in addition to representing a unit of light cavalry in a game of Warhammer Ancient Battles, this group could be split up into various elements for a game of "Lion Rampant". The mounted archers in particular are flexible - they could be dispatched to join the heavier unit of cavalry to bulk it out, depending on the scenario. 

Off we go!

There are 10 mounted 28mm figures in this submission, so that should net 100 points, and a nice jolt of progress for my Byzantine project! Thanks for reading everyone, and stay sane out there!  

From Mike W, 6 x 28mm Late 17th Century Ottoman Deli Light Cavalry (60 POints)

This batch of figures started out as a job lot I purchased from eBay that came without horses, I was a little disappointed with the detail and moulding on the figures when they arrived and I think that they are old Hinchcliffe figures but I am no means certain.

These guys have been on my workbench for a while now
but I decided it was time to get them completed!
The Mexicans in the picture, leap frogged ahead of them in the queue...
 

Nevertheless I decided to see what I could do with them, by adding horses from my favourite source for my Ottoman Armies - Hat 28mm plastic Arab sets!

The horses' saddles and bellies needed some carving to allow the riders to sit on their backs and I used quite a lot of putty to cover the inevitable gaps by extending fur cloaks etc.

Finished unit showing the feathers & wings added to eth basic figures to give variety

In Turkish 'Deli' means daring or audacious and these light cavalry dressed the part, making extensive use of leopard skin furs, feathers and even wings from birds of prey to exaggerate their form and provide their distinctive look.

Contemporary drawings of Deli Light Cavalry
more info <HERE>

On the field of battle they were used to disrupt enemy formations prior to them being engaged by heavier cavalry types.


Close-up #1

So having added the riders to the horses, I undercoated them al in white before painting up the horses and then the riders. Each rider has a mail shirt, a leopard skin cloak and a leopard skin hat decorated with bird wings.

The riders carry a lance and shield (again decorated with a bird's wing and I added a number of feather decorations to three of the models that were typical of the time - a feather collar and decorative wings on the horses.

Close-up #2

These guys are for my Siege of Vienna armies and would have fought against the Polish Winged Hussars, my understanding is that no-one is quite sure who invented eth 'wings' idea but it was used by both sides in the conflict.

I used Dark Tone Army Painter dip on these guys and then applied a mat varnish when dry. Bases were covered with fine sand, electrostatic grass and a selection of tufts.

A final view of the figures, overall I think they're OK but not great!

I think I'll be a little more fussy on the figures I get in future, these seemed a bargain but the quality wasn't great....

POINTS

6 x 28mmMounted Figures @ 10 Pts ea  = 60 Points

From JamieM - 28mm German grenadiers (35 points)

I’ll admit to being a teensy bit terrified about this submission..... you see, I’m almost exclusively a grim dark, fantasy, superhero, post apocalyptic, spy fi type chap who doesn’t really do historicals. And this is a historical post. To a blog where there are loads of people who know tonnes about historical wars and things. And I don’t....... But herewith find my submission anyway - some metal WW2 German grenadiers from warlord games that were fun to paint, especially the brilliantly expressive faces.

Whilst researching these, I turned first to the internet. I was confident that the internet would tell me the right colours to use, so imagine my surprise (and horror) to learn that the internet couldn’t agree on the correct colour scheme!

Deciding to carry on regardless, I sort of took a flier at something that I thought was about right for generic grenadiers from what I could gather from all of the sources. These chaps were so common (and kit seemed to change around fairly often) that I figured I’d get some things wrong (what colour were radios in WW2? What colour were the canteen lids? What’s the colour of the big ammo box that one of the chaps seems to be reaching into?) but that they’d look alright in total from three feet away.

The camo is mostly copied from an artisan miniatures painting guide and the officers coat is supposed to be based on a rubberised motorcycle outfit that appears to have been pretty popular for soldiers to grab when they could (not just for motorcycle riders), but I think I’ve gone a little bit too green with it as it should be an off white colour. I think.

I’ve relied entirely on warlord to provide gear that is consistent (probably the western front?) and also used an actual paper book from my shelf to help me once I realised that the internet couldn’t supply an easy solution.

Anyway, these fellas should net me 35 points for 7 28mm figures and be useful for chain of command and bolt action.





Thank god it's Friday!

 


What a week! I'm sure I'm not the only one being glad it's Friday finally, right? I for one will crack out my paints, listen to some good music and hope to get the one or other figure done over the course of this weekend. Who's with me?