Songs of Splintered Lands - The Druid's Children III

Here are the final figures for the Splintered Lands army I ordered up. Now I need to get them into battle and see how they fare. First up are the Badger Command warriors...

And, the final warband of shrews...

I also knocked up one of my really old Ral Partha miniatures - a vampire. It is very much based on the Hammer Count Dracula. I really don't know what happened with this one - it only took me an hour to paint; and it really shows. There was very little detail on the figure to begin with and I think I have made a right hash of the face. At a distance though, it actually looks fine, and the cloak looks really good.

I also managed to get a couple of the Chronicle Hobgoblins under way, and my daughters put a few more colours onto their figures. Hopefully these will be ready by next week.

Songs of Splintered Lands - The Druid's Children II

A few more miniatures for my Splintered Lands collection were finished up today. I just had to varnish them and add some static grass, so it wasn't too much effort.

First up are a Mouse Warband, very much based on the Redwall colour scheme...

Next up is a collection of miniatures that are not part of any other warband. I do not know what the first one is, but the middle one is a hedgehog and the right hand miniature is a mole...

I still have two more sets of figures to complete; a couple of badgers for a bit of heavy-hitting and a small warband of shrews. I hope to complete these at the weekend.

I am also toying with whether to start on the Chronicle Hobgoblins or my massive Norman mounted contingent next. I'll see how the paint brush falls this weekend and take it from there. It may even be something completely new to the workbench.

Wargames Soldiers & Strategy 59

Well, I succumbed to yet another magazine today. Whilst browsing in Smith's waiting for my train to arrive on Platform 7 at Victoria Station, I decided this would be a definite one for me. Lots and lots of Viking goodness.

Used without permission - Karwansaray Publishers

Contents of interest to me, is as follows...
pp18-21 - Ancients scenario (Pyrrhus vs Sparta)
pp28-53 - Lots of Viking based articles
pp58-60 - Playtest of War and Conquest rules
pp62-63 - Article on the Army Painter Dip that I use for most of my models

Quite a bit this month in actual fact, and a lot to get my teeth into. I have the Gripping Beast plastic Viking box set, so I think I will have to make use of them very soon. I may have to invest in the Saga rules soon just to see how they play. I have tons of Normans and Vikings, so these may be the two factions I will start with.

Songs of Splintered Lands - The Druid's Children

At long last I have finished up some of the Splintered Light minis that Dunc ordered up for me several months ago. These were about 90% done within only a week or two of getting them, but for some reason I ground to a halt on them, always finding something else to do rather than finish them. This happened with some of my Roman units too. Anyway, at least I was able to get the brushes out recently and finish a large part of them. I have split them into warbands and colour coded them accordingly...

Otter Warband...

Hare Warband...

Squirrel Warband...

These figures always remind me of the children's cartoon Redwall (based on Brian Jacques' books of the same name). Perhaps that was Splintered Light's intentions? Anyway, they certainly got me pulled into the world of the Splintered Lands; specifically the Druid's Children faction. The miniatures bring to mind the adventures of Martin the Warrior, Basil Stag Hare and Cluny the Scourge. Its great having kids to introduce one to these things, and even better when they take an interest in dad's toys.

Last weekend I ordered up a few minis from EBob's Rebellion range. For once, these were not for me or Alex, but my two daughters. They have been busy today putting some paint onto one of them each. Once they are completed I will photograph them and stick them up here on the blog. These are their first minis, and apart from the cutting and gluing, they will be doing all of the rest.

Grey Knights Terminators

Alex finished off some Grey Knights today. He hasn't really had the painting bug this year so far, but he managed to pick up the paint brushes and get these Space Marines completed. He has lost his painting mojo recently, he said, because he is bored of the ones he is doing and they seem to be never ending. I had to tell him to persevere and so he did. This malaise hits me every now and again too (especially when I have been on a unit for a long time - those Splintered Lands minis just recently), so I know where he is coming from.

Grey Knight Sergeant...

Grey Knight Banner Bearer...

Grey Knight Medic...

Grey Knight Terminator 1...

Grey Knight Terminator 2...

I am hoping he will get some more minis finished soon, and he assured me he will; he has some LotR minis he wants to complete and some Teutonic Knights.

I, meanwhile, am working to finish those Splintered Lands minis. I should have a fair few finished by this evening.

Games Workshop

I took a trip to my local Games Workshop the weekend just past and noticed quite a few changes there. They no longer sell metal miniatures for any of their ranges in store - they are going through the phases of replacing them with resin FineCast models. I'm not a great fan of resin, so I decided to start buying up my backlist of metal miniatures forthwith from their online store (which I ordered at their bricks and mortar shop this time round). I don't have that many to buy to finish my LotR armies, but will probably need to get my skates on before they are all sold out and/or converted to resin mouldings.

What I was coming on to saying was; although metals are being dropped from their ranges and they have had yet another of their stupendous price hikes, the store was absolutely heaving with customers. OK, many were playing at the tables, but many (myself included) were also buying stuff. So, my take on this seems to be that GW are doing just as well as they always have (their Year End Report recently showed a good profit) no matter what they do with their ranges. Sure, they cheese off some customers with their policies (me included here), but we all seem to go back for more. There's no doubting the quality of their plastic minis (jury is still out for me on the resins), but the price bothers me somewhat. I haven't bought much stuff from them until very recently because of the high prices, but they seem to have hooked into my inner 'collection geek' syndrome, with the "discontinue a range/product and see them come flooding in" technique.

I daresay I will be buying more from GW just to round out my LotR armies, but after that I will probably be sucked in for 'The Hobbit' stuff when it comes out. They have their barbed tentacles sunk into my flesh for a few years more yet to come.