More Battle (lore)

More Battlelore, we are approaching the amount needed for some of the scenarios in the game...

For the Pennant side:

2 Red Human Knights (Heavy Infantry)

2 Red Human Knights (Heavy Cavalry)

For the Standard side:

1 Green Human Archers

1 Blue Human Cavalry

2 Red Human Knights (Heavy Infantry)

2 Red Human Knights (Heavy Cavalry)

1 Red Human Halberdiers (can be fielded on both sides, hence the extra flag)



Back to painting, many many miniatures still to do...

S.

 Status 141/365

Cops

Another batch of miniatures for no specific game, a set of cops from Wargames Foundry.

6 Cops.

I have some scenarios in mind to use them with the agents I painted previously. And depending the case they might help or hinder them...

Also, they have a kind of Police Academy feeling to them, at least half of them (ie. Callahan, Hightower & Hooks)

S.

 Status 130/365

More green

Finally finished the Orks I've mentioned before, so 20 more miniatures painted for the challenge.

Mek Boss Buzzgob and his Grot Oilers (Nitnuckle & Lunk).

Buzzgob is introduced in Imperial Armour 8: Raid on Kastorel-Novem

2 Deffkoptas converted to have Big Bomms and Buzzsaws.

Big Bomms are from Forgeworld's Ork Bomb pack (which seems to be no longer available). One of the Buzzsaws is from Ork Nob-box and the other is an Inquisitor-scale (54mm) chainsword.

One Killa Kan.

Basically just a test for the rest of the vehicles in the army.

Ork Shoota Boyz Mob, 14 strong. Includes 2 Rokkit Launchas.

I have previously painted 16 of those (with one Rokkit Launcha & 1 Nob),

so this gives me a full 30 strong mob.

And back to painting, still have a long way to go if I intend to finish the 2013 Challenge...


S.

Status 124/365

Adding some lore to the battle

More Battlelore units finished for both camps. This time most of the units are from the fantasy department instead of the basic human units.

2 Human Blue Swordsmen units

1 Goblin Green Archer unit

2 Goblin Green Skirmisher units

2 Goblin Green Cavalry units

1 Goblin Red Swordsmen unit

1 Human Blue Swordsman unit

1 Dwarf Green Crossbowmen unit

1 Dwarf Red Swordmen unit

1 Blue Earth Elemental monster

And as previously stated: For the 2013 challenge I count these as 1 per unit and 1 per monster. So 11 units and 1 monster means adding 12 to the count. Still a long way to go but at least I got past the 100 barrier...

S.

Status: 104/365

Be prepared, FBS is coming

Just a short post, I finished the first four agents of FBS (Finnish Bureau of Safety), a fictional organization based after FBI & Men in Black.

Agents Jaakko Niittivesi, Hrothgar Nummi, Pertti Pyssy & Ville Seppä

S.

 Status: 92/365 

One more project...

And yet one more project added to this insanity. Though not anything new, but yet another project digged from the storage. According to my notes this was started around 2008-2009 and shelved not long after...

Unusually this isn't even a miniature game but a board game: Battlelore from Days of Wonder (later acquired by Fantasy Flight Games).

I added magnets to the miniature's bases so I could use movement trays which eases moving the units around the board. Additionally the flags were coated in varnish to make them more durable.



The first picture kind of gives a hint about what I painted:

5 Units of Blue Infantry for the Standard Camp.

As with the Flames of War these are smaller than the usual Citadel miniatures I've been painting, so I for the 2013 Challenge I count these as one painted miniature per base.

S.

 Status: 88/365

Summertime

I was tempted to title this "Kaislikossa suhisee", which is the Finnish translation of an old English childern's book "The Wind in the Willows".

It's been a bit too quiet on this blog, I started my vacation and have been travelling and doing other stuff. So there has not been that much time left for painting and blogging, even though I haven't been going to work...


But today I finished the last miniatures which I dipped some time ago, and here are the results:

This wa mainly a paint scheme test for these, and a quick one as usual. Red spray (from Army Painter) and just small bits of yellow for scales, brown for haft, metal for the speartips, bone for teeth & claws and blue for decorative feathers. And of course these were dipped in the Army Painter Strong Tone dip.

Not too bad, though I am not fully convinced of my choice of colours. I wanted something different from the ones used in the Armybook but I wonder if I went a bit too far. The base was painted using textured paint (Stirland Mud from Citadel Paints drybrushed with Bleached Bone, and edges painted in some dark brown). I added both Citadel grass and "Swamp Tufts" from Army Painter, which did help a bit.

Oh well, back to painting some more Orks. Have almost 20 ready to be dipped...

S.

Status: 83/365

When no one else can help...

The first 4 miniatures today are a tribute to a tv-show from the 80's: The A-Team

So let me present you: The A-Mob!

Left: Kannibal (ie. John 'Hannibal' Smith)

Right: B.A. meaning Bad Aim (ie. B.A. Baracus, where B.A. meant Bad Attitude)

Left: Faceplate (ie. Templeton 'Faceman' Peck)

Right: Zogging Mad (ie. Howling Mad Murdock)

Ork Kommando unit would've been more appropriate, but I do not like the miniatures that exist for that unit. So I just kitbashed something with the basic Ork Boyz-box.

Not to stop there, I also finished 10 Grots with their Runtherd:

That will be all for the Orks for a while, need to get another batch finished before dipping more of them...

S.

Status: 72/365

More Orks

Without further ado here are some pics of stuff I dipped and then finished.

2 Ork Nobz, they will be added to the unit from the Assault on Black Reach box. They are identical miniatures to those from the box, but the bosspoles were added and decorated with bitz from my collection.

1 Ork Pilot (will be used as a  Warboss). A Forge World event only model I bought from Games Day.

 1 Runt Bot. A Forge World event only model I bought from Games Day. Will be used as a Warboss or Killa Kan depending on the game.

Still 22 miniatures from the dipping waiting to be finished, back to work...

S.

Status 57/365

Winter is coming...

No, not _that_ winter...

Just something for my fledgling Finnish Defence Force for Flames of War that I've been painting ever so slowly. Even though winter has passed, as this is more Continuation War than Winter War (ie. Finland vs Soviet Union during WWII).

2 x Artillery Battery of 76 K/02 guns

I tried to achieve something similar to the three-color camouflage that was used (Painting reference).

With these painted I now have a full-sized artillery battery: 1 Staff team, 1 Command team, 2 Spotter teams & 4 guns. And this brings the total size of my "army" to about 1250 points.

Originally I thought I would only count normal 28mm-sized miniatures for the 2013 Challenge. But as I think I will paint other units too for Flames of War I guess I will count these too. So I decided to count these as 2 miniatures (1 each) as there's about as much to paint as for a normal miniature.

S.

 Status: 53/365 

Working outside

So yesterday I mainly worked outdoors, at my balcony.

I started by basecoating some miniatures:

And here's some "instructions":

- A good ventilation is essential when spraypainting stuff, hence I do this on the balcony.

- The spray box has sides tall enough to catch overspray (and sometimes used to prop miniatures if the shape is difficult to paint otherwise)

- The spray box is elevated from the ground, so if some stray paint goes over, it dissipates before colouring the surface.

Then, I started dipping the miniatures I painted earlier this week:

1. Protect the working surface, the dip leaves deep stains otherwise which are almost impossible to remove.

2. Have enough dip, I usually pour it in a larger can so there's more space to spin the miniature.

3. Have something to hold your "dip-sticks" before and after dipping. I use boxes with holes in them :-P

4. Then just take your "dip-stick" and dunk it in the can.

I have made the "dip-sticks" with GW flying bases and bamboo skewers. Then I glue the miniatures on, the bond needs to be quite strong for this to work.

Dunk the stick in the can and then give it a spin to remove excess dip.

Admire your work, and then do it again for the rest of the sticks.

Oops. Sometimes accidents happen and the glue does not hold enough, or you hit the edges of the can while spinning and it breaks off. Then a pair of tweezers is useful so you can fish the miniature out and then shake it a couple of times to remove excess dip.

After a couple of hours outside, I took the miniatures inside (as I did not want to leave them out for the night). There's still some fumes so a well ventilated place is still essential.

Then just wait for the dip to dry completely, remove the miniatures from the sticks and base them. Will see about that today after work...

S.

A new foe approaches...

So, I finally got a new miniature done. Not much, but at least got something finished.

A Necron Overlord

And yes, it is my only finished Necron model so far...

The model is from Games Workshop, it is the one from the Necron Catacomb Command Barge / Annihilation Barge box (as I made an Annihiliation Barge, the overlord miniature was left over).

S.

Status: 51/365

Still nothing new...

Was away for the weekend playing boardgames with some friends, so still nothing new to show.

I have about 20 Ork miniatures ready to be dipped, but I want a bit more so the setup & clean process will take less time per miniature. There are 11 Lizardmen waiting on the line, when I get those done I can do the dipping part. Though there are two other miniatures on the painting table, and they are almost done. One of them will go to the dip, but the other might be ready for tomorrow...


So instead I'll show yet another old project:

High Elves from the Island of Blood starter pack. These were (again) painted for the release, and the additional units were needed at Games Day 2010 as we had a scenario to be shown there (I worked security, so did not play with these. But I brought the miniatures as none of us had enough by themselves).

10 Old Elf Archers & 3 Extra Sword Masters

Some High Elf Mages

5 Ellyrian Reavers

My favourite unit from the army: Sea Guard of Lothern, I think there were 17 of them (as one box had 10 with command and I used two boxes but the command models were not used twice).

I liked how the Prince Althran on Hippogriff turned out. It was an experiment in speed painting with heavy washes and drybrushing. The Prince on foot was converted with the same model from another starter box and spare parts from High Elf Prince & Noble box.

10 Sword Masters of Hoeth

S.

More old stuff

I've been painting Orks & Gretchins for Warhammer 40000 but as my batches are usually quite large it will take some time before getting anything finished.

So instead I'll show yet another old project:

Skavens from the Warhammer Fantasy starter set called Island of Blood

As usual they were painted a couple of weeks before the release so they could be used on the release date to demo the game at a store (Puolenkuunpelit Lahti if I remember correctly).

Also as usual the paint scheme was something simple & quick and relies on heavy washes. It actually was a requirement to NOT paint them too well as that would discourage newcomers. But it is still quite nice on the battlefield when applied across a whole army.

There's a huge pile of clanrats on the "To Do" list but I don't know when I will get them painted...

S.

The first drops of a green tide

Back in 2008 Assault on Black Reach set was released, I had to paint it in a couple of weeks before the release so it would be ready for demoing on that date.

 Citadel Foundation Paints were also recently released, so the plan was to use them too. The paint scheme used exlusively Foundation Paints, except for Boltgun Metal as there was no metallic paints in that set. After painting the figures were dipped in Army Painter Quickshade Dark Tone. As usual, everything was kept very simple, only the skin had a drybrush: dark green base and lighter green drybrush.

20 Orc Boys

3 Deffkoptas (the rotors were magnetized, so they do spin and can be removed for transport)

5 Nobz

1 Warboss

Since then I have acquired a big bunch of boxes for the Orks, but mostly haven't got past priming. I am good at starting projects, not so good for finishing them. I'll have to dig around, I think I painted some more Orks to fill the Ork Boyz mob to full 30 and maybe another mob...

S.

Back in time

So, the Hammerers I showed earlier started as showcase I wanted to make for some friends. The point was to show how even a very simple colour scheme is very effective when supplemented with black wash.

First colour was Plate Metal Spray from ArmyPainter. Others were Citadel Paints of various eras.

As I've said before: "Even simply painted miniatures are way better than unpainted ones".

Just a few dashes of paint help immensely (for example see my earlier post about Night Goblins). Basing is just the icing on the cake after that, it helps to bring the unit together.

S.

And there's more...

More miniatures painted for the 2013 challenge.

34 Night Goblins with spears & shields. Includes full command. The empty spot is reserved for a Night Goblin Shaman.

View from above shows multibased models within the unit. I deem it necessary with larger unit as it speeds deployment quite a bit. Also helps to break the monotony of a ranked unit: For example some of the goblins are not really interested in the battle but are chatting instead. Additionally a Night Goblin Fanatic can be seen just before being released to wreak havoc amongst a nearby enemy.

All models from Games Workshop. The fanatic model was a promotional figure I got some years ago, can't remember any specifics though.

S.

Status: 50/365

It's alive!

Finally got something done for my New Years resolution, which was painting at least one miniature per day, for the whole year.

So here's the first completed project, some old metal miniatures I found in the back of the cupboard:

1 Unit of 15 Dwarf Hammeres with shields (if I remember correctly those came from some old plastic Dwarf Warrior box). Contains full command unit (Champion, Standard Bearer & Musician)

1 Dwarf Runesmith

All models from Games Workshop.

S.

Status: 16/365