15mm Holiday Madness

I am off work this week as it is half-term at school. In between feeding the kids (a full time job in itself) and running them to the park etc. I have been catching up with my comics and trades reading, DVD watching, and figures sorting and painting. Today, I pulled together several boxes of figures I have around the house in order to bring some semblance of order to my collection.

Whilst working my way through my 15mm stuff I found I actually have enough for four armies for HotT for my Doggerland campaign. I was going to paint these all up and then run some tabletop battles but just never got around to it. That said, I did come across a few bases of Two Dragons' Anglo-Saxons that I had made up for some game I obviously never got around to playing. I have decided to put these up on the blog so they can be compared to some bases I started painting today.

First up is the General's base - the flesh colour looks very washed out compared to the Dwarf Flesh I currently use for most of my figures these days.

Here are three bases of Spears - I'd gone for a red theme for some reason.

Finally, here is a picture of all the miniatures I have so far painted. A small army (12 APs: General, 2 Blades and 3 Spears) ready to take on either Viking or Norman invaders.

The basing was just some green paint and sand mixture, but it obviously served its purpose back when I painted them. I am not sure if I will get around to adding to these but I am definitely going to work towards a different paint job for a 24APs HotT army of Doggerland for some future tabletop gaming. I will need to work out the amount of Blades, Spears etc. but I will theme each army differently just to see how they get on against each other.

Hopefully I should be able to get a bit more painting done through the rest of the week, and I will update the blog as and when i get something else completed.

Hordes of the Things - GW Goblin Archers

I have finally, I think, finished a 24AP Orc and Goblin army for use with Hordes of the Things. It has only taken about two years to get to this point after starting the project! I would like to add some kind of Magician base and a Hero-type base to the total, but it is usable as an army as of now.

Base 1 - Goblin Archers...



 

Base 2 - Goblin Archers...

 

 

Base 3 - Goblin Archers...

 

 

 

Unfortunately they are huge compared to the old school metal minis I have been using for the rest of the army, but I am not going to let that worry me - the army is going to be a conglomeration of orcs and goblins from a great variety of tribes and races. Anyway, the army now consists of the following units/bases...

 

3 bases Harboth's Black Mountain Boys (Blades x3)  = 6AP

3 bases GW Goblin Archers (Shooters x3)                  = 6AP

2 bases GW Goblins (Spear x2)                                   = 4AP

2 bases Goblin Tusker Riders (Riders x2)                    = 4AP

1 base Trolls (Behemoth x1)                                        = 4AP

1 base Lesser Goblins (Horde x1)                                = 1AP

Total                                                                             = 25AP

 

I also have a box of GW Night Goblins to glue and paint up. These will provide as many Warbands as I can get from the box alongside some old Citadel Night Goblins I can add into the mix. I also have a Heroes of the Dark Ages Orc Shaman that will double up as my magician. I need to just buy some bats to go on that base to make it look good, some more small gobbos to use as Hordes, and maybe I need some sort of Orc Warboss on some kind of giant hog or the like to be the Hero and/or General stand. These should go well against my Barbarian army. Let's hope I can get a few games in with these soon.

 

Here is something else I started working on over the weekend. Not sure how my finger got in the way on this shot, what with my camera being a digital SLR and all, but there you go...

 

 

I thought I would get started on some more of my Lord of the Rings stuff. I already have a big bunch of Riders and Warriors of Rohan painted up, so they need someone to fight. I decided to put together a box of Easterlings with metal command to give 22 warriors, a banner bearer and a captain. Rohan will need a couple of captains to round out the force before use, and this bunch of Easterlings will require some mounted support. I have Kamul and eleven Kataphracts (5 metal, 6 plastic) to add to this force. I have tons of orcs and Warg Riders too, to make up numbers if necessary.



A couple of new HotT Elf bases

Alex finished off two more bases of Elves for his HotT army. This army is very slow in the making (rather like my own really), but he now has 4 completedf bases and another on the way. I will see about putting in an order for some more minis for his army soon - he has some greatideas for fleshing it out, and I am looking forward to pitting them against my Barbarians, Dwarfs, or Orcs and Goblins armies.

Anyway, here is the second unit of spearmen...

And here is the first stand of archers...

He has another stand of archers on the go and he put together some Mantic Elves to go with them. They are on a completely different scale to these minis, which are actually quite large for an old skool set of minis, but could be classed as an allied contingent.

Next up from me should be a Goblin mini that just needs the basing completing.

Games Workshop Goblins for Hordes of the Things

These are the other figures I managed to complete this morning...

They are two units of Goblin Spears. As mentioned in a previous post, I make my bases slightly deeper (but proper frontage - 60mm) than standard as I want them to convey the appearance of lots of warriors as befits the title Hordes of the Things. For standard units of Blades and Spear I put five figures on each base.

The figures themselves are from Games Workshop, from their plastic Warhammer range. I am not too keen on their comical faces, but I think I have toned them down enough by not doing them in the standard green that GW paint them. They are actually quite large compared to the Harboth's Black Mountain Boys I painted a while back, but still fit in with the rest of the emerging 24 point army. I think I will have to go down the Tolkien road and say that the terms 'Goblin' and 'Orc' are interchangeable for the same 'race' of beings.

I still have three bases of goblin archers to glue up to add to the army, as well as a box of Night Goblins, which I will probably use as hordes. I am hoping to get these ready by the summer so I can fight them against the Barbarian army completed last year. I still have loads of old Citadel Night Goblins too, but I am not sure whether to use them on HotT bases or as individually mounted foes for fantasy RPG.

Next up (but it will be quite a while) should be loads of Norman milites, and Alex has a stack of Elves from a variety of manufacturers on the go for his own HotT army and LotR SBG.

HotT - Barbarian Archers

Here is another stand for my Hordes of the Things Barbarian army; a stand of archers...

They are part of the Dark Age range from  Heroes of the Dark Ages  . I have a few of their figures (the general's stand is also from their miniatures range) and think they are quite nice, especially so considering they are so cheap too!

My barbarian army now has almost been completed, so now I need to work on the Dwarfs or the Goblins & Orcs to go up against them, or Alex needs to get a move on with his Elves. I have some GW plastic Night Goblins and Goblins to add to that particular army, but need to find some more Dwarfs from somewhere; I do not like the 'stunty' (or space hoppers with feet) approach to Dwarfs that GW seems to favour.

Romano-British Archers - part deux

I managed to finish these chaps off over the weekend and this evening...

They are the last of the Gripping Beast Arthurian archers I picked up at Salute last year. My post-Roman force is now quite respectable but just needs a few more adding to it to round it off.

I have a pile of heavy armoured chaps to paint and will most likely grab a few extras like a personality leader or two, a sorceror an dmaybe some slingers if GB do them (I will need to check their catalogue).

These Romano-Brit figures have actually seen the most action out of all the ones I have painted up since starting this blog. They have been played in two Brytenwalda face offs with Alex, and four SoBH match ups against Dunc. I sure hope they will see the light of day more often this year, along with more of my armies.

Next up should be a few barbarian archers for my HotT Barbarian army. I also have those Chronicle Hobgoblins to undercoat (bases have been stuck on) and a big stack of Norman cavalry. Hmm, maybe a match up between the hobgoblins and Dunc's Anglo-Saxons might go down well.

Update and Chat

No photos on the blog this week I'm afraid. I did do a fair bit of painting and finishing off work though, but nothing was actually completed fully. So, hopefully there will be pictures either next weekend or the week after.

I was hoping to get the Splintered Lands stuff completed this weekend but I remembered I needed to get some Arthurian archers sorted ready for an encounter with Dunc's Saxon Dogs of War next weekend. We will be playing 400 point armies from the Songs of Merlin and Arthur Legendary Welsh rules. So, seeing as the Saxon interlopers have been espied with a shaman aboard their red sailed long boats, the Cantiaci have requested help from the local forest mage. Maybe he will turn up, maybe he won't, but the Romano-British warriors are certainly spoiling for a fight after the bloody nose they suffered last time out.

I managed to finish the above mentioned archers to the point of basing and varnishing, which I can hopefully complete during the week. I also finished off some Heroes of the Dark Ages archers too, which will make up part of a HotT Barbarian archers stand. Hopefully these will also be ready for display next week.

I spent the greater part of my online time last week reading up on D&D stuff again; I am becoming a lot more interested in the game now and will be looking to roll up some PCs and NPCs over the coming next few weeks to get a feel for the combat systems etc. again. I also did a bit more work on that Hommlet map I started on a couple of weeks back.

I also managed to have a quick look through what miniatures I still have to paint up from my lead/plastic piles. I have a goodly amount of EBob's Tribes of the East range (a unit of 10 of his foot and 9 cavalry) which I am going to use as the LotR Easterling tribe called Balchoth. I also have a stack of Games Workshop's Easterlings on foot and mounted to be used as adversaries for my growing Rohan army along with Saruman, Grima, Uruk-Hai, warg riders and orcs. I will probably pick up just a few more to round out those forces, but I don't actually need that many. I will probably not bother doing a Mordor army, but use all of my orcs as orcs of the White Hand. My only nod to the southern realms will be a reasonably sized Harad force who could be used as mercenaries to bolster any of the above evil armies.

I have also sorted out my old Chronicle Hobgoblins. I will clean these up, mount them on my standard bases and start painting them as soon as I am able. I really like these Old Skool miniatures; they don't have as much fine detail as modern figures but they more than make up for it in character.

Hordes of the Things - Magic User base

This HotT base has taken a long time to put together. I finished the Amazon priestess a year or so back but wanted to put something else on the base as she looked a bit alone when it was just her on her horse. One of the wargaming magazines had a cover mount of some Mantic Ghouls a few months back and I thought they'd fit the bill nicely (I was going to initially do skeletons, so the undead theme worked wonders), as the priestess had a skull-tipped wand. Anyway, here she is summoning the undead from their graves to put against her foes.

Here is another shot from a different angle that shows one of the ghouls actually clambering from the ground. I quite liked the affect and it makes a change from all of the figures on a base being on their feet.



I also put some paint on a really old Citadel Balrog/demon-type figure. Hopefully I can get that finished by next weekend.

I also got further into the map mood I am in and decided to try to make something of the map I got with a pdf version of the AD&D module T1 - The Village of Hommlet. I have the original 1979 module, but it is safely put away somewhere, so I used the pdf version of it for a bit of reminiscing of games of yore. So far I have managed to ship the map out of the pdf and add some colour to the trees and river. I will work on this over the coming weeks and show you the results of my electronic brushwork when it gets to a presentable stage. I will probably do the same for the village of Nulb map too, but tidy it up and make it look more compatible with the Hommlet map. I would dearly love to play some AD&D again, but may convert the module to 3E (the only other D&D set of rules I have). I may try an ePBM style of play, but will have to figure out the way to go on that though.

Maggot Breed of Ymir

"They stood about three feet high and were man shaped, with thin, wiry bodies and limbs, and broad, flat feet and hands. Their heads were large, having pointed ears, rounded saucer eyes, and gaping mouths which showed teeth. Some had pug-noses, others thin snouts reaching to their chins. Their hides were generally a fish white colour, though some were black, and all were practically hairless. Some held coils of black rope, while out of one of the caves advanced a group carrying a net woven in the shape of a spider's web."

This is a direct quote from Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, one of my favourite books from yesteryear. I really liked the description he gave of the Svarts and thought that the Citadel lesser goblin miniatures from the 1980s fitted the description nicely, albeit not exactly. I had quite a few of these hanging around, so decided to base up a few for Hordes of the Things as a horde, and kept a goodly amount back for individual basing for use in Songs of Blades and Heroes or RPG gaming.

These will be a welcome addition to my orc and goblin army which is growing very slowly but surely alongside my dwarf one. Both are about half-way there. I have a couple of box sets of GW goblins and night goblins to make up a few more bases for the orcs/goblins and a stack of old Citadel metal minis for my dwarf army. I will get onto these as soon as I get a few more other bits and bobs off my paint station.

Broo

Well, here they are at long last, my first set of Runequest minis. They are a warband of Broo for use with HotT. I was also able to base up and put more paint onto some more Runequest stuff ready for skirmish gaming. Anyway, these chaps (billies?) were from a boxed set of 9 Runequest Broo I bought way back in the eighties out of my Saturday morning job money. I used to get £5 per morning and I usually popped straight over the road after work to the hobby shop and bought either the latest vinyl LP of whoever was my fave band at the time or a bunch of gaming minis. These cost me a week's wages back then!

They will be used as a mercenary warband for one of my armies I am building; most likely the orcs/goblins army or the barbarians.

Goblin Tusker Riders

These minis are some old Citadel Goblin Tusker Riders. I have painted one up for RPG and the rest for a couple of HotT bases. Whilst trying to complete my Brytenwalda armies, I thought I'd do a bit more work on one of my part completed HotT armies. My barbarian army is completed, but my dwarfs and orcs/goblins still need some work. As I have the minis to complete the orcs/goblins, I thought I'd hit some of those first.

First up is the one I am going to use for fantasy RPG - a goblin riding an old silver mane. The colour scheme for my orcs/goblins is not the usual 'greenskin' one. I wanted to move away from the Games Workshop standard and create my own, albeit probably not really original, scheme. So far, the colour scheme gets lighter as the beasties get smaller...

Trolls, ogres etc - brown

Orcs - Tanned Flesh

Goblins - Elf Flesh

Night Goblins - Rotting Flesh

Svarts - not decided but some kind of white/blue or white/green shade

The second picture is of two stands of either riders or cavalry for HotT. I have decided that these minis will represent (like the one above) Night Goblins. They were a doddle to paint, being only three colours plus wash. The tuskers took a lot more work in comparison.

Here's a picture of all five riders together.

Finally, here's a photo of the battle scene from last week, taken from a slightly different angle. I find it very Tolkienesque in that goblin beast riders take on some horselords with a bit of magical backup. The Battle of Druid's Hill is a battle that still needs to be fought - I wonder what the outcaome will be?



Coming next:

I have a strange chaos riding horse/beast that I have almost completed

Hopefully I can finish the last of the Brytenwalda foot unit for Alex

I may make a start on those Runequest Broo - some for fantasy RPG, some to make up a mercenary base for HotT

Brytenwalda update

No pictures today, but an update on how Alex and I are getting on with our Brytenwalda forces. As you are aware, my starter 600 point army has been painted up and displayed on here already. Alex has almost finished his command unit and I have done some work on his footmen. Here's a break down of his 600 point army...

1 Pendragon (mounted chieftain) @ (60+10) = 70
1 Teulu (warrior command) @ 50 = 50
1 Scholar (priest) @50 = 50
1 Rherel (veteran) @46 = 46
11 Aulue (conscript spearmen) @34 = 374

Total for army = 590 Solidus

His army is 8 points less than mine, but we'll see how this affects their combatitiveness on the tabletop. We should have a stack of minis almost ready by the end of next weekend, so hopefully I can get some photos up of the ones we complete.

Once done, we will play a few scenarios tha come with the rules, just to try them out.

Also, in the meantime, I have started on some old goblin tusker riders. I have enough to create 2 HotT bases (2 on each) and a single fantasy RPG goblin on large washer. These will be added to my orc/goblin army for HotT. I have lots of old Citadel night goblins I can add to the army as well as a couple of boxes of GW's plastic Night Goblins and Goblins. Several hordes in the making me thinks. I need to find a suitable leader/hero, shaman, behemoth and some heavy hitters to round out the army. These should be ready to report on next week provided I pull my finger out.

HotT 24 point Barbarian army

I managed to finish off the final stand of my Hordes of the Things Barbarian army this weekend. This is the General stand, comprising 3 miniatures from Heroes of the Dark Ages. I really do like their range of minis, which can be used in all manner of games.

The banner is a copy of the one used for Bjarni Glittertind, one of the warchiefs from Doggerland. I am not that artistically talented, so had to rely on one of the players for the artwork. I photocopied it, stuck it onto a blank, doubled-over triangle of paper and then coated the whole lot with PVA glue and bent to shape. An easy method to create a banner, which I then painted the in grey. I think it has turned out really well, but a lesson learned would be to use the original picture without cutting and sticking first to eliminate the 'square' around the image.

Here is a picture of the full 24 point Barbarian army.

This is the same army from a bird's eye view, with my latest trees thrown into the mix.

The army consists of the following units...

1 x Behemoth (Ral Partha Giant) 4pts

2 x Riders (Warlord Games Numidian cavalry) 4pts

3 x Blades (Prince August Barbarians with axes - with a few others thrown in for variety) 6pts

3 x Spears (Prince August Barbarians with spears - plus a few extras for variety) 6pts

1 x Blades (Citadel Amazons as mercenaries) 2pts

1 x General (Blades) - (Heroes of the Dark Ages) 2pts

This gives a total of 11 stands = 24 points.

I am also working on a Citadel Amazon priestess to use as a magician type for a bit of variety for this particular army, but I am stumped as to what to put on the base with her as she looks a bit lonely on there at the moment. I am also currently starting on some Games Workshop goblins and Night goblins to add to the Orc and Goblin army I am also putting together. I will also probably pick up a few of the HotDA orcs to add into the mix. My dwarf army has enough from my old Citadel and Grenadier (I think) collections to make up a full army. If not, the Ral Partha giant can always be used.

I also found some Terror Birds type animals that I started on this weekend too, as I thought they'd be fun. I think they were part of a Runequest Dragonewt Boxed Set Games Workshop put out many moons ago - I have those minis around somewhere too. The Riders of Rohan also managed to take on an extra couple of licks of paint - I am hoping for these to be finished by the end of the year.

Palm Trees

I have only made up a few pieces of scenery (LotR statues) this year so far, so here is something I made up for desert and coastal scenarios - a base of palm trees. They are from my son's dinosaur set, but I think re-painted they do quite nicely for an oasis situation...

I have another couple of these bases to make up, so I can then run some desert ambush scenarios - Haradrim versus Gondor comes to mind, for when I have those particular minis painted up, or fantasy RPG or even HotT. Its never wrong to be prepared!

Here comes the cavalry II

Here's a few more cavalry for the collection. These are Warlord Games' Numidian cavalry. I have painted these as Numidians but for use as barbarians in my HotT barbarian army.

Here's a shot of both the stands of riders that I have created.

These riders have now almost completed my HotT Barbarian army. The army so far consists of the following...

Warriors (Blades @2AP) x3 = 6AP

Warriors (Spears @2AP) x3 = 6AP

Amazons (Blades @2AP) x1 = 2AP

Numidians (Riders @2AP) x2 = 4AP

Giant (Behemoth @4AP) x1 = 4AP

Total = 22AP

I still have a couple of stands left to go that need painting an basing...

Druidess (Magician @4AP) x1 = 4AP

General (Blades @2AP) x1 = 2AP

This will give me a complete army total of 28AP, so I can possibly mix and match when the army goes into action. I will add to it over time; I was thinking of some stands of beasts and perhaps some warbands or hordes to add some colour. I'll see. Once these are finished I will get to work again on my Dwarf and Orc/Goblin armies. Alex is slowly pulling together his Elf army, so hopefully we should have 4 complete armies in the near future. I am also thinking of creating a Roman army from the remnants of the plastic Warlord Games Early Imperial Romans that I have lying around. This gives me something to do over the winter months at least!

Paints 'n' Stuff

I finally got through the stuff from Warlord Games yesterday morning. As a result I was able to finish off quite a few minis but didn't quite get round to getting the camera out to photograph any. Hopefully, next week, I should have a few minis up on the blog.

I also received the other two small 15mm HotT style armies for Doggerland that I ordered whilst at Colours. So, I now actually have the makings of about 5 armies that need cleaning up, undercoating, painting and basing up. I have bought the armies based on what I thought would look good rather than being historically 'accurate' - this is a fantasy prehistoric land after all! The basic make-up of each army will be: a general's stand (to represent the warlords and their hearthguard), spearmen (to represent warbands), swordsmen (to represent mercenaries) and cavalry (to represent, er, cavalry). Even though they don't exist in the pbm, I will also include magician stands, warband stands, horde stands and a few others depending on how I feel.

I think my painting priorities will be changing over the next few months. I have pretty much given up on the Riders of Rohan - I have nearly finished 24 horses but none of the riders or any warriors or heroes. I will continue to paint these as and when I get gaps in my schedule. I will be finishing the couple of dozen historical and fantasy minis that are currently on my paint station over the next few weeks whilst starting on the Doggerland/HotT 15mm stuff.

Doggerland is Underway

I have finally got my next foray into play-by-email under way. Doggerland is a fictitious prehistoric northern european strategy battle game. It is based on the antediluvian region that is now beneath the North Sea named by many underwater archaeologists as Doggerland.

I have five players involved in this game, so it should make for a great campaign. Whilst this is running, I will be attempting to build the armies in 15mm and then running the battles on the tabletop using Hordes of the Things rules - one warband in the game, representing one warband on the tabletop.

I am due to go to Colours next weekend, so I will be paying a visit to the 15mm manufacturers' stands to see if I can buy 5 different armies to represent the player territories in the game. I have some Dark Age minis already that I can use to represent the non-player territories. To begin with I'll only need about 30-odd minis per army. I just hope that the ranges I buy from aren't discontinued as the game progresses and I need to add to them!

Painting wise, I achieved a big fat zero this week, but I am still waiting on that spray varnish through the post.

Tabletop gaming wise, I may have a new gaming buddy whom I met at my last outing to KAFS. He is interested in playing WAB and in collecting Romans and Celts, of which I also have a small collection growing. It is always nice to meet new players and play against new opponents who play in different ways to one's existing opponents.

Last of the barbarians

As mentioned previously, Alex and I have been very busy today finishing off loads of stuff ready for our summer LotR offensive. The first unit I completed was the final HotT stand of Prince August barbarians. Like with Alex's barbarians, the 'leader' of the stand had lost his axe in the mists of time, so I replaced it with a wire spear. The shields are from all sorts of manufacturers on these barbarians, so many are actually fantasy shields used on these historical minis. That said, I will be using them as fantasy barbarians, so there is no problem there. I now have 6 stands of these barbarians, a stand of Amazons and a giant (behemoth); adding up to 18APs for a HotT army. These barbarians are now my largest HotT army.

Keeping with the barbarian theme, I have some classic bare chested warriors for use in fantasy RPG. The manufacturers are a bit hazy now, but to the best of my abiity to recal, from left to right, they are: Citadel, Ral Partha, Ral Partha (with the axe this time!), Citadel and Citadel. All are from the late 70s to early 80s ranges.

Looking at the RPG stuff I have completed now, I have a fair few towns/village folk, several fighters, rogues and wizards, a few dwarfs, giants and trolls, and now these barbarians. I am getting a decent collection together now, so time I started to use them! I just need to find some decent rangers and clerics.

Alex's second HotT Elf stand

Keeping with his Elven theme, Alex finished his second stand for Hordes of the Things. This stand is a bunch of Grenadier Elven command figures. When compared to other ranges these are very tall, but Hey, this is fantasy after all!

I think Alex is now working on some Bretonnian archers to further boost his army for Warhammer. I am sure these will be finished fairly soon as he seems able to paint very well at a blinding speed that puts me to shame.

Trolls and Amazons

Today, I managed to complete a couple more stands for Hordes of the Things. These Amazons are some early Citadel minis. I also have a mounted version and some priestess types to be completed. However, this stand will become part of the barbarian army I am putting together. I think I have enough for a 24AP army if I include all of those Prince August minis, these below, the rest of the Amazons, the giant stand and a few stands of cavalry that I still have yet to paint. I think I will just need to get some sort of hero/general stand to complete the army.

Here are the heavies for the orc/goblin army. A couple of early Ral partha Trolls. I have based them up as a behemoth stand. A worthy adversary for the barbarians' giants stand.

Here are both stands in action against each other.

I have still got a bunch of wizards that should be completed by next week. These will be for RPG gaming. The final Prince August stand of barbarians should also be finished fairly soon too.

It looks like I will probably get the barbarian army finished before either the orc/goblin or dwarf armies. So, when I order up some extra dwarfs and goblins, then I should be almost there with both of those armies too. I can't wait to get a game played with them and the write up onto this blog.

I haven't kept a quota of minis bought so far this year. Last year I bought quite a few GW LotR minis, along with many Warlord Romans and Celts. I also picked up some Crusader, Gripping Beast and Perry Normans. This year I have kept my buying to a minimum so far...

Box set of Knights of Dol Amroth

Duinhir

Blackroot Vale archers Command

and that's it!

Next month when I get paid, though, I will be picking up the rest of the dwarfs and orcs/goblins to complete my armies - most probably from Vendel. I also need some Ranger types for RPG - Vendel do some good ones of these too. My final character class that is ill-represented is clerics. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for a decent range of 25mm adventurers that I could use? Reaper Minis are great but a tad too large to fit in with the rest of my collection.