Riders of Rohan II

Here's the third unit of Riders. Again, different coloured horses but all painted the same way as the last lot (except I didn't highlight their helmet ornamentation this time round for a bit of a difference).

And here is the fourth and final unit, so far, of Riders of Rohan. This brings the total of finished Riders to 24. Enough for a decently sized strike force when I get a few leaders and heroes thrown in, although I may get some Warriors of Rohan painted up first.

Here's a quick shot of the two new units together ...

And a shot from the proverbial bird's eye ...

I have managed to get each Rider a different shield each time and have used both poses of the horses (I don't like the third and fourth poses offered when the horse halves are swapped, so I will stick to just the two poses). I will be aiming to get another two more sets (12 Riders) so that I can have each Rider with each of the 6 different shields on the two poses of horse, with each unit having a different coloured horse. After this, I may pick up a couple more boxes to use for conversions to add a bit more variety - I will then be able to field a huge SBG force to go against the Isengard one of the chap down at GW, or a decently sized cavalry based WotR force. I think a trip to EBay or one of the second hand dealers on the web/at conventions will be on the cards soon.

LotR Heroes

Alex managed to finish off a couple of Lord of the Rings miniatures today. Here's Aragorn in all his glory ...
And, here is Eomer, Marshall of the Riddermark, about to lead the Rohirrim into battle against their foes ...

He has done a smashing job again on these. His dry brushing is coming along a treat now and his fine detail brush work is getting neater.

Alex still has the following to get painted in the near future ...

a unit of 16 Bretonnian archers

a unit of 16 Bretonnian men-at-arms

a unit of 8 Bretonnian knights

a unit of 3 Pegasus knights

several hero-type minis for his Bretonnian army

I reckon he'll have one heck of an army when he has finished. He has asked me to pick up an army to fight against him with. I am tempted by either the Lizardmen or Skaven, and what with the battalion and Blood Pass deals on the go, I may be tempted (but only after I have finished loads more of my backlog!).

Fighters III

My output was somewhat less than Alex's over the last week or so, but I am almost there with several other minis which should be published tomorrow. Anyway, my output for the last week or so is as follows; four fighter types for fantasy RPG. First up is an Amazon, an old Citadel mini form the early 80s. I had acquired a fair few of these and their sisters who have gone on to make up a stand for HotT and a mounted version, as well as a priestess who is half finished.

Next up is a Citadel Fighter from their Fighters range from yesteryear. He strikes me as being very Conquistador-ish and doesn't really fit in anywhere, but the figure will pose as a foreign mercenary type in my fantasy RPG world.

Eeek! How can I take some great photos and then have one turn out like this? Lighting, distance etc all the same but the result is somewhat lacking. A crusader type from Citadel's Fantasy Adventurer range.

Finally, a paladin from Citadel's Fantasy Adventurer range. These were some of the first minis I bought back in the day. I actually really like this old style of sculpting; it may be the dewy eyes of nostalgia making me think this, but they have a certain charm that many modern minis seem to lack.

And, here is a shot of the four of them altogether.

Coming up in the next day or so should be the last of the Riders of Rohan, and for Alex there are some more LotR minis.

Bretonnian Men-at-Arms

Alex has been busy over the Christmas break, he has managed to finish quite a few figures. Here is the next completed unit - Bretonnian Men-at-Arms. He has finished painting a unit of 16 troops including command.

I think he has done a sterling job on these, but he has been nit-picking his results. I think it is good that he is criticising his own painting (which I think is great considering his age), as this will hopefully lead him onto trying harder to improve his skills.

Riders of Rohan

Well, here we are at long last, a couple of units of Riders of Rohan that I started almost six months ago. I got these really cheap when buying back issues of Battle Games of Middle Earth a few years back. A couple I had previously painted up and taken down to my local Games Workshop for a Bring and Battle along with a few footmen and a couple of heroes (Eomer and Gamling if I recall correctly) were repainted, but as they only had about four colours on anyway, there wasn't much needed doing on them anyway. The rest have been languishing in my LotR box for what seems for ever. I am hoping to get all my Rohan figures painted up so I can start gaming with them early next year at my local store. There is a member of staff down there with a huge Isengard army who has offered up a challenge, so I really have to rise to it. I may even use them for the occasional War of the Ring battle, but as I have only played it once and don't own the rules I may use the opportunity to learn them.

Here's the first box set equivalent. I am painting each unit of six individuals in exactly the same way, but the horses are being painted a different colour to differentiate the units. As stated in an earlier post, the basic warrior units (read plastics) are getting a very basic paint job; block colours, brown wash, varnish. The flash on the camera has made them look a lot more shiny than they actually are in real life.

Here's the second unit on slightly different coloured horses; these are more chestnuts. Unfortunately the flash has made the figures more shiny than they are in real life. You may have also noticed that I have also done no markings on the fetlocks or muzzles on these horses. As I go up the ranks I will paint with more care and attention to detail, and with more shading and highlighting.

Here's a picture of the first twelve Riders.

And a couple of bird's eye views...

There would have been more to come today but I ran out of PVA glue to finish the bases on a few more miniatures. On the painting desk to come are:

Fantasy fighters, thieves, 'Arthurian' cavalry, more Rohan and Alex has more Bretonnains.

Bretonnian Knights

Alex was very busy over the weekend. He managed to finish off his first box set of Bretonnian Knights and a conversion for his first Bretonnian Lord. First up is a knight he has christened The Black Knight. I like the way he has used bronze instead of steel as the colour of the weaponry and armour to contrast the colour of the heraldry.

Next up is the leader of his Bretonnian army so far. He has a unit of archers already painted up, so this lord now commands 8 knights, 16 archers and The Green Knight. This Bretonnian Lord takes a standard Bretonnian Knight armed with a sword but utilises the closed metal helmet from the King Leoncouer boxset.

Here is the standard command unit for the knights; a gallant, standard bearer and horn blower.

Here are the bulk of the unit, the four knights.

Here are a couple of pictures of the whole unit of knights with their lord accompanying them into battle.

Finally, something a little more down to earth; a mounted Yeoman. After all the chivalry and warhorses, here is how the other half live.

Birds of a feather

I had a great weekend painting. I finished off quite a few figures to the basing and varnishing stage. The following two I actually completed: they are identical miniatures but I bent the neck of one slightly and painted them up to be a mated pair of Terror Birds. As mentioned previously, they are from a Games Workshop/Citadel box set from the eighties for their Runequest range. These initially had Dragonewt riders, which I still have, but I prefer them as riderless 'monsters'.

I also managed to finish up to the basing and varnishing stage half of the Riders of Rohan, 3 more fantasy Fighter types and I got started on another half-dozen or so fantasy minis. Alex did well on some of his Bretonnian Knights too. Hopefully there should be lots more to put up on the site in the next few weeks.

I had a browse around the net through the week too and came across some nice skirmish style rules that are being given away free. They are for a Dark Age type setting, but they could easily be used for other periods. The rules are called Brytenwalda and can be found here.