From MartinN: Burgundians... or was it Romans? (35 points)

I welcome you to my very first scheduled post this year, and yes, I'm a little bit embarrassed myself. But what should I do? I was busy with important things. Like... procrastinating?

Anyway, enough of that inane blubbering, on to the meat of the subject: Burgundians (no, not THOSE Burgundians, but those of the Nibelungen Saga) in 28mm for Midgard! Or was it Romans? A little bit of both I'd say. Knowing I'm unlikely to finish a complete force anyway I decided on adding a few Burgundian foederati to my very fledgling Middle/ Late Imperial Romans.

Midgard makes use of individually based leaders. To easily indicate the level of said heroes I decided on the number of figures per leaders base. Thus today we have Brynhild, a level 2 leader, and her hearthguard. Brynhild is from Footsore Miniatures, while her hearthguard is a converted Late Roman miniature from Victrix. Not liking the overly foldy (that's no word, isn't it?) cloak I sculpted one myself using Green Stuff and let him hold his helmet in his hand. Rather chuffed with the results I have to admit.

Next we have a base of Funditores, staff slingers, that could be Romans but could equally well be Burgundian. Instead of using the recommended 12x6 for the basing I decided on 10x5, primarily because I like the look of the narrower frontage, but equally because it saves me painting figures. For the unlikely case I'm ever fielding these in anger against someone with the bigger bases I can always add a small 2x4 base. 

Figures are Victrix again and despite the overly busy folds in the clothing, were a joy to paint. I really love the character in the faces Victrix do.

So, that's it for today. With six 28mm figures at 5 points each we have a grand total of 30 points, not taking into account any bonus points our gracious minion might deem appropriate for the conversion.

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Hello Nick! So great to have more of your wonderful brushwork to take in. But it is more than the tremendous painting (although, as usual, it is amazing) - I just love how this post checks so many of the "mental boxes" of the wargaming-hobby-brain. In no particular order we have:

- ode to procrastination (you have come to the right place, my friend)

- ode to a game system that you like, but you are unlikely to paint a complete force for, yet here you are painting more for it...

- ode to a figure maker even as we have our little nits, complete with fun term (i.e. "foldy" - I hereby proclaim that not only to be a proper word, but an appropriate one at that!)

- refusal of a stated basing system in order to revert to a personally preferred basing look (I totally sympathize!)

I love all of it! Plus you sculpted on some bits. That gets extra points in my books - so 40 points for you! I wish you well in your battles against procrastination, and we look forward to more of your stunning brushwork!

GregB

From SylvainR: 28mm Fauna for D&D (35 points)

 

If you ask my family, they will tell you I'm a cheapskate because, among other despicable habits, I love to "re-purpose" stuff, including miniatures. In the above photos, most of the animals you see are from my kids' toy box, except the bison, which is a souvenir from Alberta, and the dire wolf, which is from Reaper. With my kids' permission, I washed them, primed them and painted them for D&D.

Below, we have 3 pachyderms: an African elephant, an Asian elephant and an Indian rhino. Since these guys use dust to fight parasites, I give them a generous dry brush of beige paint. Now I can imagine the conversation when a party of adventurers will meet one of these:

DM: "An angry elephant is charging tusks first at you."

Player: "But this is an endangered species, we can't shoot..."

DM: "We are playing in a fantasy universe..."

Player: "... we can't shoot, it's protected..."

DM: "You're all trampled to death..."

For the bison and the dire wolf, I tried to recreate a grassland environment on their base. Not much else to say except the bison is a hefty piece of pewter and is quite heavy.

For the two marine animals, the challenge was the base. I wanted to represent shallow waters. I found plastic plants that look enough like seaweed, so added some to the shark's base but not to the octopus' since there was not enough room left with the spread out tentacles. I also tried to represent the wavy effect of light diffracted by the surface of the sea. I should have used the same technique on the animals but I chickened out as I did not want to take the risk of ruining my paint job, especially on the octopus whose skin was painted with inks.

 

Points claimed:

7 x 28mm foot figurines at 5 points each = 35 points

Total = 35 points

Thanks for reading!

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Great stuff Sylvain! I know many us share this habit of ensuring game-usable bits are preserved, painted and given over to the higher purpose known as tabletop wargaming. This is the Hobby Lord's work, and you have great examples here. While my prairie roots draw my eye to the bison, I have to say the coolest result here is with the shark - you achieved a great effect here, it pops and works - really great.

Also have to say I enjoyed your speculative elephant encounter with the elephant - a fitting end to that character and her/his party... 

35 points to kick off Wednesday!

GregB