Big, Angry Lizards

 A handful of ‘90’s vintage Saurus Warriors, to provide some proper muscle to back up their skink cousins. Just a quick ‘table ready’ paint job.

I think a skirmish scenario in the jungles of Lustria beckons.

Now, where did I hide those Amazons…

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.

Old Bones and Heroic Fighters

 It’s been a while since I last posted, partly as I’ve not really had time or space to paint or game - although I have spent quite a bit of time reading the new Old World rules and Army books (more on which another time).  I am trying to get a bit more done though, so here’s a quick ‘work in progress’ update.

First up: skeletons.  I’ve dug out my old skellies from the attic.  Most of these are a good 40 years old, going back to my early Warhammer days and plans, with a few eBay acquisitions over the years. Some have very poor paint jobs, many have never seen any paint all.  I did a batch a while back, but decided to have another go.  Paint jobs are quick and tabletop standard - they won’t hold up to close scrutiny, but I’m happy enough with them.

Inspiration came from the YouTuber Jordan Sorcery, who recently published his own Christmas themed Scenario pack, ‘Dead King Wenceslas’.  Maybe I’ll finally have them ready for a game next Christmas…

I’ll also admit that my mind has turned to a ‘Barrow Kings’ themed take on Tomb Kings for Warhammer.

Above is the full box, almost all originally from Grenadier Models.  There’s a funny story to this as well; just before lockdown I lost my glasses, had to get a new pair.  Those broke when my daughter sat on them, and I’ve had no glasses for about two years now. Dug this box out of the attic just after Christmas, opened it… and there were my dratted lost glasses!  At least I can see properly again.

Also about to take their place in the projects queue are the models from the Heroic Fighter of the Known World box set produced by Citadel many moons ago, which I have finally reunited from the various boxes they were stored in.  More on them another time but, for now, here are the very varied paint jobs they currently have from the old days (no giggling at the back, I was very young at the time).

Sir Brut, Manfred, and Harald the Hammer.  Manfred got an update in about the 2010s, and is still probably some of my favourite blending and highlighting work, so he will likely remain largely as is.  Sir Brut’s not bad either.  Harald was painted by my brother, so will mostly get a tidy up as well.

Ulrik Ukrikson and Gladius.  Ulrik’s already been consigned to the Dettol pot…

Vlad Krakhead, The Moon Duke (probably my favourite model of the bunch) and, last but not least, Lord Aquila - who has also taken a dive into the Dettol to remove that lovely Humbrol gold enamel paint.

Orctober wrap up

Orctober is over - what did I do with it?  Well, I didn’t take it too seriously, but did use it as motivation to get the bulk of my Orc and Goblin army tabletop ready.

Alongside the Wolf riders, bolt throwers and warlord, that mostly meant a lot of basing. Many of the models are still in old paint jobs, either my own from many moons ago, or as they were purchased secondhand, but they look coherent enough now.

Still about 20 goblins to do, plus I still have some more EM4 orca, and I need to sort some black orcs of some kind, but there is a table ‘legal’ army there now for both WFB and Fantasy Warriors.

Two bolt throwers, including a Notlob original

20 orc boys 

One of my giants (orc for scale)

The Wolf riders - will count as boars for WFB purposes

14 orc archers

Warlord and two shamans

20 more orc boys

A somewhat grisly standard

The three trolls

Another giant

Warlord!

 My Orctober efforts continue with this rather marvellous Nick Lund sculpted Orc Warlord (formerly from Grenadier Models, now available from Forlorn Hope in the UK).

My attempt at the classic Citadel ‘angry orange face’ shield.

Sometimes sculpts get criticised for being too static, I’ve done it myself.  But this one shows that this needn’t be an issue.  Perhaps a better way of putting it might be that some lack ‘intent’.  This guy may not be moving, but only because he has decided to plant himself right there and not move.

The Wolves are Running

And with that quote from The Box of Delights, the Orc Wolf Riders are complete.

As I mentioned in my previous post, these Nick Lund sculpted wolves aren’t the most realistic looking models.  These aren’t the wolves that David Attenborough gets you to empathise with, these are caricatures from Europe’s collective nightmares, with a fondness for construction minded pigs, Grannies and girls in red cloaks for their dinner.  That said, a realistic style paint job worked far better on them than I thought it would.

The white and black wolves were the request of the Little Miniature, I think the black is the more successful of the two.

The orc sculpts are of variable quality - the musician in particular is pretty weak, but I think the spear armed orcs look great.

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Wolf Riders

 First of the Nick Lund sculpted Orc Wolf riders complete from head to toe.  They’ve turned out OK considering the age of the sculpts.

A couple of bolt thrower crew got bases too.

Orctober, Wolves and Kittens

A bit of a Work in Progress post.  I don't usually bother with Orctober, but this time it got me thinking.  I seem to have sort of by accident collected the core of a very 'Oldhammer' Orc and Goblin army, but it needs some work.  In particular I have some wolf riders really need some attention, and it seemed a good excuse to give myself some motivation to tackle them.

The trouble is that, although I love Nick Lund's dwarves, orcs and goblins, I don't think he bothered with any reference material when sculpting wolves!  They are very much a caricature of a wolf.  With my obesession with realism (see my previous post on the griffin), I've really not known how to tackle them, so a bit of googling was in order.  The most useful I found was by Artis Opus, but I really didn't know how this technique would work out on these very stylised models.

 

OK, pretty well so far.  Onwards and Upwards!

Once I can get the new Evil Overlord (sometimes know as 'Waffle') off the painting desk that is...

Psychostyrene Dwarves

 I want to take you back in time, to 1985; the year of Live Aid, the Brixton riots, the first CDs and, most importantly of all, Citadel Miniature’s first ever multi-part 28mm miniatures.

Along with their mortal enemies, the Drastic Plastic Orcs, the Psychostyrene Dwarves were the shape of things to come!

And now, after many years sitting unloved in the ‘lead’ pile, they’ve been brought blinking into the sun.

Coming in at 75p a blister pack (!), they came with one body, a choice of three heads, two weapons, and a separate knife and sword in scabbard.

I painted two of them a long, long time ago (with the blue and green tunics) and, for old times sake, they’ve just had a bit of tidying up and a wash for shade.  Some repairs and replacement parts were also necessary for some of them.

The originals came with some lovely shield transfers, but only two remain, sadly (the far right is obviously my shaky freehand).

By modern standards they’re a bit rough.  Detail on the heads in particular is quite soft.  But they scrub up ok.

Off for a night on the town 1985 style!

Conquistadors

While looking for something else I found these Foundry Conquistadors.  Really nice models - the paint job’s not quite up to what I would do now (these were from probably over 15 years ago), but still pretty good. I think I was going to use the swordsmen as duellists in my Dogs of War army.