Alien dinosaur bug things from outer space!!!

Or Tyranids, as they’re more commonly known.

Last week my friend Matt sent me scuttling down a rabbit hole, by innocently asking if I had any Imperial Guard models from second edition 40k.  Of course the answer would be ‘no’… mine are mostly earlier than that!

In fact, I’ve not really played 40k since Rogue Trader, despite collecting a few models here and there; I’d never even had or read the second edition.  However, the text conversation that followed led to much googling, acquisition of pdf rule books of iffy provenance, and reading. I can’t say how it compares to modern 40k, but to me it felt very familiar - Rogue Trader with the edges knocked off, and many of the suggested rules I recall reading in White Dwarf.

So I’m going to dig out some of my old guard models for a spruce up and maybe a game or two. However that means mustering the courage for a raid on the attic.  Not a task to take on lightly! In the meantime I had the bug to paint some 40k.  Hang about, isn’t there a box with all the models from Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade nearby? Yes there is, including a handful of Tyranid Termagants I’d gathered on a whim some years ago. These were the sort of models I wanted to get on the table, but didn’t inspire the motivation to spend ages bulk painting a unit - but perhaps there was an easier way?

Turns out there was.  I decided to try and come up with a recipe that would allow quick painting of a load of models to a decent tabletop standard. I wanted a look that harked back to the first Rogue Trader ‘nids’, which were a kind of bone colour, rather than the ultra colourful ones from the 90s or the modern purple and white - and maximised use of ‘quick’ techniques like spray undercoats, washes, drybrushing and some contrast paints.

Everything started with a spray of Khemri Dust, which was then washed with Reikland Flesh Shade.  

When that was dry it was time for a drybrush with VJ Iraqi Sand.  Weapons got successive washes of Athenian Camoshade to give them a different tone, and details picked out with red contrast paint (and a bit of Sigvald Burgundy where I wanted things to be a bit more vile). 

The carapace got a layer of Black Templar contrast.  I was originally going to try ‘Deathly Visage’ to give a purple tinge, but it had as much pigment a white coat in a bleach factory.  The black turned out better than I hoped - the tan and sand colours underneath came through and left a nice organic look.

All in all, this lot were done over two evenings, about an hour or two each time.  Leaving me feeling use achieved both my speed and appearance aims 😀.

Now I just need to find bases for a few more Warriors, and muster the Space Hulk genestealers! Oh, and stop the cat drinking from my brush water…

It’s 

Knight Time!

 In August I hit the big half century, hooray….

On the upside, my sister bought me a box of the Wargames Atlantic foot knights as a birthday pressie (thanks Nikki!) and I’ve finally found time to assemble and paint a few.

I have to say it’s a very nice, versatile kit.  There are loads of Weapon and head options, and the assemble really easily.

My first few will play the role of Guy of Gisburne and henchmen, going up against Robin Hood.  The colours are a nod to the soldiers from the Robin of Sherwood TV series.  The kettle helmet is from the Frostgrave Soldiers kit as a bit of an experiment in compatibility.

I’ve also assembled and painted one to order for the big miniature.  This one will join her Viking and jousting knight on her bookshelf. The surcoat and helmet colours, and the wyvern charge on the shield were her requests - the Wyvern chosen as the symbol of Wessex, where I grew up.

While I had the glue out I also had a bit of another kitbash, combining a Frostgrave soldier body with the arm and weapons from the Wargames Atlantic Einherjar sprue to make an irregular/ scavenger type. Paint job is quite basic, but I think it proves the can work.

Robin Hood and Little John Walking Through the Forest…

…Laughing back and forth at what the other has to say

Reminiscing this and that and having such a good time

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day!

A second outing for the Untold Tales of Robin Hood.  Our two fine heroes are walking in Sherwood when they spy two of the Sheriff’s Foresters and a soldier heading towards them.

It was all over pretty quickly thanks to Robin’s keen eye.  Poor Little John didn’t get the chance to hit anyone with a big stick!

Bragging rights to anyone who can identify the version of Robin Hood that provided the title of this blog and the first few lines.

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.