Men of the Cloth

I managed to finish off a few more fantasy miniatures today. The rain stopped me going out again, so out came the brushes and paints instead. These four clerics are all old Citadel I think from a variety of ranges from the 80s...

I decided to go for a brown and red colour scheme for them all to represent mud and blood. I don't know why I decided on that scheme, it just popped into my mind at the time I started to paint them. I am not too keen that the figures have been scuplted with overtly Christian iconography because I would have preferred to have been able to use my own religious symbols. First up is a male cleric in full armour...

The second figure comes from a slightly later range. Again he seems to be in pretty much full armour, so in my mind would represent a successful (meaning high level) adventurer.

I thought I would show off the shield design on the above cleric as it creates a dichotomy - Christian cross on his breastplate but devils on the shield of the same figure. The heavy dry-brushing I did on this shield looks much better in real life than in the photo below - there is a lot more shade in the recesses. I also wanted to show just how much work some of the earlier old skool sculptors could put into their miniature making if desired.

Third up is a female cleric. She only has maille beneath her surcoat, so I see her as a lower level ecclesiastic adventurer. Again she is covered in crosses (on the surcoat and on the shield)...

This figure was used as one of my earliest player characters when I played AD&D back in the late 70s and early 80s. She was called Ennericca and reached the heady heights of 13th level. The colour scheme she used to be painted in was purple and white, but I didn't feel taht really fit in with my revamped fantasy world, so I got out the paint stripper and repainted her to match. I have also renamed her slightly, she is now known as Anna Reikhardt - a high-priestess of Sol Invictus, as part of a world redesign and rebirth.

I think this is just about it for figure painting for this year - a rather disappointing tally to be quite honest. I will write a summary of my gaming achievements of 2012 and a summary of aspirations for 2013 tomorrow in my first blog entry of the new year.

Lullingstone Roman Villa

It was a bright, sunny day today here in the wilds of Kent, so I gathered up the tribe to repel those Imperialistic Roman invaders. As the fortresses around here are a bit beyond the ferocity of even my tribe, it was decided over the plum duff to take in force one of the local villas. We pored over the map for indications of weakness and planned our attack with precision...

We would head for Lullingstone Roman Villa located in Eynsford, Kent.

We haven't had a day out with the kids in ages, and as the sun was shining today (we have had solid rain for the last week and a half) we decided to head on out for a bit of fun and education. I have been to this villa on several occasions and many years ago, on its grand re-opening, I was invited along with the rest of my archaeological research group to a cheese and wine party.

It is a grand villa with a very fine central mosaic (part of which is shown above). The new(ish) display hall has plenty for the kids to see and do, and kept my lot entertained for an hour and a half - not bad considering my youngest is only 3. The gift shop has been revamped and includes lots of goodies, so we were able to grab a handful of cakes on the way out for chomping in the car on the way home. I also picked up a bottle of plum wine and spelt beer to have with my cheese, biscuits and pickles tonight whilst slumped in front of the TV - heaven!

Citadel Space Santa

"When Santa got stuck up the chimney ... "

Here is another view of the old Citadel Space Santa that I posted up on Christmas Day. I have rebased him in the same style as my other slotta-based sci-fi miniatures (not that I have that many).

I still have a couple of other sci-fi minis to paint, but they will have to wait until later in the year next year. I doubt I will ever get to play with these minis as they either do not fit into any existing canon or I just have too few to do anything with them for Warhammer 40K and such like. That may change if I start playing sci-fi tabletop battles again but that is not very likely - unless there is a sci-fi HotT variation out there that I can use?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Well, I finally got around to seeing this film yesterday afternoon with a couple of the kids, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised despite some fairly negative comments I have seen on the net.

Picture courtesy of Google Images

I felt it stuck to the book reasonably well, with a few diversions that fit into the canon (welcomed) and a few that did not (mostly they worked well). I especially liked the ways in which PJ got around the fact that in The Hobbit some of the animals are able to talk, but in the film he has made it that they do not - thus the (re-)introduction of a couple of deus ex machina to resolve the issues.

Many critics have said that the intro and meeting at Bilbo's hobbit hole dragged, but I found I enjoyed the slow build up without it dragging at all. There is a fair bit of light heartedness and the singing was actually good for the film - I am also happy to know the tune that was set to the songs in the books, so I can sing along with them (in my head) the next time I read them. They did not detract from the film IMHO - the Hobbit was a kids' book afterall and should be light hearted and full of song and cheer; plenty of time for it to get darker and match the tone of LotR later.

There have been a few new characters introduced, but none too obscure to detract from the film, and a few removed. I feel that Azog is going to be a recurring baddie (as opposed to, IIRC, his son Bolg in the book) - hopefully more use will be made of him than was Lurtz in the LotR films. Azog reminded me very much of the lead "zombie" in I Am Legend. Perhaps PJ changed the amount of characters to make things flow a bit better so as not to confuse the audience who have not read the books with too many adversarises that would otherwise just blend into one another anyway.

A few scenes from the book have been amended slightly for the film but the outcomes were still the same. There are a few new scenes too, but without going into too much detail only one didn't work for me - a chase involving Radagast the Brown - but the rest of his role as the bearer of ill tidings fit in nicely. There are glimpses of what is still to come in the next two films too.

My favourite aspects of the film, other than a reasonably good rendering of the book, are the mounted elves (awesome), the hunter orcs and dire wargs (brutal), and the fact that the animals do not speak (although I suspect Smaug will be a speaker - but maybe/hopefully by some form of telepathy?)

As we walked out of the cinema both of the kids said they couldn't wait for the Blu-Ray version, and have since said they want to go to see it again. I am more than happy to oblige them.

My wife, who is not at all into fantasy or sci-fi stuff, has said she will take a trip to see it on the feedback she has had from us all. Previously, she has fallen asleep during LotR and a variety of other sci-fi films I have taken her to see, but I think she may just stay awake for this one. She may have started to see the light when it comes to sci-fant films after being subjected to the first of the Alien and Predator films during the Christmas break, and saying that she actually enjoyed them!

From a gaming perspective, there are a few battle scenes that can easily be recreated on the tabletop, and seeing the miniatures released by GW, the whole film will be easy to recreate - although where I am going to get several hundred goblins on the cheap I do not know :-)

Overall, I would give this film about 8.5 out of 10. I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was, and it was actually better than I anticipated. Now to get on and paint those figures I bought just before Christmas so I can plan an Escape from Goblin Town.

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas...