The Untold Tales of Robin Hood

For a little while, in the background, I’ve been working on a set of rules for Robin Hood themed games. Specifically to play with the Not So Little Miniature.

It’s a simple system, aimed at being fast and simple, to tell fun stories rather than provide a simulation.  It’s also unashamedly biased towards the ‘Good Guys’.  Essentially it involves opposed dice rolls - with better characters rolling more dice and picking the highest results.  To add some extra flavour, there will be special cards that can be played to influence the game.  More on them another time,  but they have titles like ‘trick shot’, ‘Feat of strength’ - and ‘don’t just stand there, get them!’).

Our first outing saw Robin Hood walking through the forest when he finds his way across a river blocked by a giant of a man…

“Now stand back,” quoth Robin, “and let the better man cross first.”

“Nay,” answered the stranger, “then stand back thine own self, for the better man, I wot, am I.”

Robin managed to get the first blow in, and the two yeomen traded stout blows, pushing each other back and forth but, in the end…

Then Robin grew mad with anger, and smote with all his might at the other; but the stranger warded the blow, and once again thwacked Robin, and this time so fairly that he fell heels over head into the water, as the queen pin falls in a game of bowls.

So our game ended in the traditional way, with Robin taking a plunge in the river.  We swapped characters after the first game, ending up with the same result; which was good as it meant we both had a chance to win.

All the captions above are quotes from Howard Pyle’s retelling of the Robin Hood tales, which very much set up our modern image of the noble outlaw.

Models are Medieval Mayhem and Footsore Miniatures.

A New Old Wood Elf

Continuing with my recent theme of updating the paint jobs on old models, I present a Wood Elf from Citadel’s brief holding of the Lord of the Rings Licence in the 1980s.

Produced some time between ‘85 and ‘86 as part of the ME31 ‘Silvan Elves of Mirkwood’ blister, this delightful chap represented my character when playing Muddle Earth Role Playing (MERP).  The paint job hadn’t been touched since then, making it awfully close to 40 years old.

As far as possible I tried to replicate the same paint scheme that it originally had, with varying degrees of success.  Overall I’m really pleased to see him back in prime condition 🙂

Post Dettol enforced paint strip.

A silly post about lavatories

Outhouse, dunny, WC,  privy, bog, thunder box.  Wherever you’re from, you’ll have your own word for the humble outdoor lavatory and, for some reason even I don’t understand, I’ve ended up with quite a few of them as cardstock scenery.

Left to right, we have:

An original Dave Andrew’s designed one from Citadel’s Blood on the Streets days, which has somehow survived many years and moves;

Fat Dragon Games, although I can’t immediately recall which set;

Three different ones from Dave Graffam (seriously, he designed three distinct versions!).

The confused chap who can’t quite decide where to … ‘go’, is the Village Idiot from Hasslefree Miniatures.

Also, thanks to this post, I now know there is a Wikipedia page dedicated to ‘Toilet Gods’ .

Vlad Krakhead (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the mini)

And so we move on to the next ‘Heroic Fighter’ from Citadel, the weirdly named ‘Vlad Krakhead’.  I’d love to know what the Citadel studio were on when naming models in the late ‘80s.

I’d always rated this as one of the poorest sculpts from the set.  The pose is flat and unconvincing (why would you hold a massive mace in that position?), and the proportions are just a bit off somehow (just how long is that right arm?). Not Jes Goodwin’s finest work.  So my plan was just get it done and move on.

Instead, something unexpected happened. 

I really enjoyed painting him.  I’m not quite sure what the recipe was.  Perhaps my low expectations took the pressure off, maybe it’s the relative simplicity (when compared to modern minis) that meant I could concentrate on the painting - whatever it was, this chap was an absolute joy to paint, and the end result is a great match for the vision I had in my head.

Which just goes to show you never know how things will turn out, and the importance of just starting to get the paint on.

Sir Brut

 Sir Brut - another from the Heroic Fighters of the Known World set.  Probably the second best, after the Moon Duke.  This one already has a shield, as I added one some time in the early 2000s.  The eagle is one of the old Arcane Armorial transfers from Citadel.  Ideally I’d replace it with a more modern, curved heater shield, but it’s in too good condition to muck about with.

As much for my notes as anything, the surcoat was VJ Game Colour Gory Red, GW Mephistopheles Red and Sigvald Burgundy contrast paint, then VJ Game Colour Hot Red highlight.

Gladius

Another Heroic Fighter mostly complete (shields will be a job for the end). Four down.

Ulrik Ulrikson

Another Heroic Fighter joins the fray - the vaguely Norse themed Ulrik Ulrikson.

He still needs a shield, but I don’t seem to have any of the old plastic GW shields of the right size.  A few are winging their way to me from eBay.