Wardogs

These have been hanging around on my paint station for a while, and as they would only take a very short time to paint, I decided to get them done before working on some other stuff that has also been outstanding for a while. This is a picture of some Warlord Games wolfhounds from their Celtic range. I have yet to paint their handler...


And here are some heavier dogs; mastiffs. Also from Warlord Games' Celtic range...

I usually use standard sized washers and coins for basing my minis but these mastiffs had to be stuck to larger coins due to the size of their integral bases. As a result, I now have three standard sized skirmish bases for RPG and skirmish gaming; most 28mm human sized figures are mounted on 1p coins, cavalry and large monsters on 38mm washers, but now I have the new size of 2p coins for over-sized 28mm human sized minis. I have a stack of old Citadel eastern style Hobgoblins that should make their way to the paint station next year - these are also too big to go on pennies, so they will need to go onto 2p coins too.

Alex's first HotT stand - Elf Spearmen

Alex finished these off through the week. They are the first stand of elves for his HotT army - I think they are some old Grenadier models. He will be using this army against my orc & goblin and dwarf armies. I will probably also create a barbarian and a standard fantasy human army - these will be my aims for next year.

Alex also started work on his next unit of Bretonnians - Men-at-arms.

Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum...

I have already painted one of these for the blog. The older, 'red' one will be used for fantasy RPG and this 'blue' one, bought off E-Bay recently, will be used as a Behemoth for hotT. I am going to really mix and match the units in HotT so I can get full use of the minis, but the core of each army will be made up of the particular race/species it is meant to represent. So, there'll probably only be one or two 'special' units per army, as mercenary contingents. I may add some more foliage to the stand below as the giant is looking a little lonely on there at the moment.

Here's a real oldie - a 1977 Ral Partha giant. This was quite an easy paint job, just splash on a few colours, shade and varnish. i don't know why it took me so long in the end.

Here he is again, in close-up...

I managed to clean up and glue quite a few minis today, so they will be hitting the blog just as soon as they get a lick of paint. I had a day to use up before Christmas from my annual leave or I'd lose it. So, gaming all the way!

More of Alex's minis

Alex has been a bit more productive than I over the last couple of weeks. He has finished a few minis for LotR, Warhammer and HotT. The fully completed ones are shown below, starting with Glorfindel - the back bone of his Elven army. He has Eladan and Elrohir to finish, a captain and banner bearer, some heavy infantry and some light infantry, including some with bows. I have yet to work out the points values, but as soon as they are all painted and ready for display as a unit I will.

Next up is his rendition of the Green Knight - a Warhammer special character. This picture shows off the shield side...

A view from face on...

And finally a view from the side. Unfortunately the camera doesn't seem to have picked up the intricate green work Alex did on the barding in all its glory.

Alex also finished some Grenadier High Elves for a HotT stand. He has five spearmen nearly completed (they just need basing up) and the command group is almost there. He also completed a Galdhrim Knight for LotR but that won't be photo'd until the whole unit is completed.

Chit-chat

Unfortunately, I was unable to get those giants finished this weekend - they should be done within the next day or two though.

The Tavern Knights of Legend site is now fully updated and all the turns for all 3 games are up...
Knights of Legend website

The drawing in of the evenings has left me with a few problems painting wise. I don't know if it is age or the constant use of a computer at work but my eyesight is suffering. In anything other than full daylight I cannot get any depth of vision, including when wearing my glasses. This is making it very difficult to paint in the evenings after work. I may have to invest in one of those very bright daylight lamps and see if that makes any difference.

On my workbench at the moment though are those two giants (finished except for varnishing and basing), another batch of Harboth's Black Mountain Boys and some 2000AD Judges. I will try to start on a few more units soon so that I can get through more of my lead (and plastic) mountain. I have been very good recently, in that I haven't bought any minis for several months. I will probably put in a big order in the New Year to fill in gaps in my collection but then no more until I have at least got enough finished to start playing some games with them. I have a couple of ideas for some small scale skirmish scenarios, which I will probably plan and play out over Christmas (hopefully). If these games get played, I will photo them and put the write ups onto the blog.