Lion Rampant Continues.

Indeed my tarting up of my old Bretomian Games workshop troops continues. In Th "Lion Rampant" rules you are encouraged to have a leader which represents you. So here is mine (For the red and blue force).

A tad overdone you might say, but after all why not! There is a Latin quote on the Lance pendant. As you can't see clearly what it says don't try. Just know my old Latin teacher would be proud! PK I was never taught Latin!

Most of th figure is Games Workshop but it does have converted Wargames Foundry wings. Yes the wings were never intended to go on the figure. But I had them spare liked them and thought why not! I am sure there are 101 reasons why not historically but I will leave that to the boring purists, As I am clearly not one of those.

The downside is I know it will draw a lot of battlefield attention . I will call it jealousy to their faces across the table. I also realise I shall need to make the leader of the Black and White (Sable and Argent) force just as fancy and to be honest it is quite a lot of work. I may chicken out and do all black. BLACK everything including armour! We will both just have to wait and see.

I am a long way from finishing both Lion Rampant forces so there will be more to come. Count that as a threat if you like. Currently on the painting table I do have a unit of foot nan at arms. These are to be painted to fit in either faction. There are also some aeronef and SOON some 15mm sci fi. But that is looking ahead. For now just a single mounted figure. Historically accurate, not a chance. It was done only to look good and not to be historical.


That's it for today.  As you now know lots more painting to come starting with a rather large fat lady.  I will only tease and say no more at this stage.

Thanks for looking and enjoy this Friday. All the best Clint

Side-tracked WIP

Yes I have been side-tracked! I make no excuses, NONE what so ever. I was feeling a bit "Blar!" due to the weather and decided to treat myself. So I purchased 2 of the shown rule books. (I already hade "Dragons Rampant").

Tim at the club has recently been talking about 15mm Aztecs. So I looked into that first. Aztecs and Conquistadors are made by a few companies. However only "Eureka" as far as I could see make any other figures suitable. ( So no Mayans, Mixotec Zapotec, Amazonians etc in 15mm UNLESS In wanted to ship them from the other side of the planet!) As they was an expensive option I decided to pass!

So I bought the rules!

My next dilemma was to get Knights in armour in 20mm.  I checked and other than soft plastics I was also out of luck! I wanted 20mm as that was the scale of my desert villages! I tried Newline design and while they have biblical which were tempting I wanted Knights in armour! I asked around the wargames club and very nearly purchased some soft plastics but would not have felt content so:

Again no such luck!

Finally I remembered from my youth a GW Bretonian army! Now I grant you for a GW  army it is not huge! But for "Lion Rampant" I should be able to put a few units together! (At least 5 maybe more)

So I have started to rip apart my suitable Bretonian terrain (very little... ok only this watch-tower) and have started to convert it to a more crusades type setting.

Yes it will need a repaint of course! But more than just a repaint It will need the whole of the lower section remade! Not as many Lakes and marshes in the desert as Bretonia! And NO need for  an arm coming out of a lake!


 In the coming weeks I hope to get the lower section finished with a gateway a stables and walkways all around! Krack Cervalier it will never be, nor does it have pretentions of being. Just a simple tower in the desert suitable for a few games!

I shall have to buils some 28mm desert dwellings as well. (But not too many) as well as some other bits and bobs.

So now you know what I am working on in spare time . Peter  wants me to paint some Vampires for him, and Matt wants some aeronef so when I am not doing those at least you have an idea what is happening.

If I get my act together next post will be some more 6mm sci fi!

Until then, take care paint and try not to get heat stroke!

All the best Clintr

Warg Rider.

Yes another LotR figure rolls (or should that be gallops) of my painting table. To be honest I do not have VERY many more to do.

The figure is a Games Workshop Warg rider. . It is a 28mm figure, and was an eBay purchase. Following "Fantorical" blogs posts about Songs of blade and heroes Lord of the rings posts. So feel free to blame or praise him for the inspiration   (Link to BLOG). I do have a couple more to do so you have not seen the last of the Lord of the Rings figures just yet.

The shadows are present on the pics due to the dullness of the weather so kindly forgive that unless you are powerful enough to change the local weather here, in which case I would ask you to do that instead.

Consider this a short interlude as I carry on with more Burpas. Which I hope to show next time.

So until next time, take care have fun and paint like crazy.

All the best Clint

LotR Orc Dol Guldur banner

Yes I know I really do the banner should be red and black according to the books. Trust me I Know. But I am sure you will all forgive me, black and red just looked wrong on the model.  And I do not believe Orcs would really care too much at all so the banner has turned out Pink and Brown! Purists will no doubt be going up the wall. But who cares, not I!

After all if you are trying to accurately portray Fantasy there is something wrong somewhere.

So Just another orc probably for Dol Guldur. Which as we all know is the lair of the Necromancer (Sauron) in the second age. Yep the nasty bit in the Nan anduin Valley close to Mirkwood which even in the later part of the third age was shunned!

Like all Tolkien Orcs he is "black skinned" as all Orcs should be. This Green skin rubbish is GW through and through! Likewise all clothing and armour is dirty, rusty and shabby. This is not to say that Orcs cannot be fine craftsmen only that they don't care about aesthetics very much! And there is much to be said for that outlook if you believe that Form follows function.

Other than this orc I have been busy in real life. All Crimbo pressies are now bought and wrapped. Even those that I have had to get for myself. Not that I am getting much for myself and let's be honest I dare not let my sister pick anything for me. Heaven only knows what she would get! As she always buys everything on Christmas eve! yeah and you try finding a decent pressie then with no for planning. She is getting better though and being fair I suspect those days are now long past.

So this week I treated myself to the Mad max Computer game. It arrived yesterday and I am still loading it as I type this. In addition I bought a toy car from Wilko's for the princely sum of £1. While I have started my last BoB figures (when I say last I mean Last for now, already planning more).

So everything is pretty much back on course! Unless of course you know differently!

Have a good weekend, all the best Clint

 

Theoden LotR 28mm GW

Yes as promised I have finally painted King Théoden. He has waited patiently on the painting table, No doubt detained by Grima Wormtongue, who clearly has stopped me from painting him.  But now painted he is and ready to lead on the table top.

Unlike the film, I have mounted him on a dappled grey horse and not a pure white (yeah I know white horses are called grey!) horse as portrayed in the films. This is no issue for me as surely a King may have more than one horse.

It is funny now painted I see all the mistakes clearly, but NO I will not point them out to you on this blog. But I can see them Oh so very clearly. Still moving on!

the figure is by Games workshop in the Lord of the rings range. I am not sure if they are still in production but I will be getting them on eBay for about 1/3rd the shop price. So as  Far as I am concerned an absolute winner. Some things are still not cheap though so take that advice with a pinch of salt.

As many of you will know I am looking to play "Songs of Blades and Heroes!"  In a Lord of the Rings setting. And he will clearly bolster my Rohirim forces. (which are pitifully small).

Painting wise. Mostly painted in acrylics as you would expect but with gold highlights in POSTER paint. This is because I struggle to find a good gold acrylic paint. As a result only the VERY top layer is poster and then it is varnished with a spray varnish within 30 mins. If the poster is not applied at the very last stage it simply comes off. Also if any colours are painted after wards in adjacent areas it bleeds into them as it mixes with the water. As a consequence I rarely use it. So this single pot has lasted about 20 years. So if you so use any Poster paint on models use it with care.

That's it for today. Take care all and have as much fun as you can without upsetting any one else!

Dwarf Lord Balin

Yes as promised a Lord of the rings figure. This is the Dwarf Lord "Ballin". It is a Games workshop figure and part of the Lord of the rings range. I believe you are to get 2 figures in the pack but as this was via eBay I only bought 1 figure and a happy chap I am as well.

I an not a huge dwarf fan (pun not intended but I am more than happy to go with it!) However I have really enjoyed painting this character. I have not seen the film(s) of the Hobbit so if the colours are wrong kindly forgive me. But at least there is no Orange hair as GW tend to want on their dwarf slayers for some reason. (No I don't understand it either!).

In fact I have enjoyed painting this figure so much I have bid on some more on eBay. Let me know if you want me to paint them regularly, (maybe once a fort night), of not. And I will try to make it happen, or not happen if you only want it intermittently.

 Sorry the Flash has bleached out some of the colour, but such are the joys of photoing small models and having a flash!

But the 3 picks SHOULD give you an idea at the very least.

Mint Copy,
Bargain Price
smiling like a Cheshire Cat!

CHANGE OF SUBJECT
Yeah I have been feeling a bit down with my birthday approaching and no one ever knows what to get me. However, I scanned eBay (always amusing) and found a bargain. A terrific bargain I hope and definitely one I am excited about. I cannot/ will not/ shall not give very many more details other than to show the box and let you know it is now hidden away for my Birthday. Therefore in a few weeks there will be another post on here about this gift. Yes I had to buy it and have been given the money already.... but at least this way I get what I want.

Until next time take car, have fun and paint like crazy!

All the best Clint

I have improved!

I searched out my old Judge Dredd figures this morning. And considering They were painted back in 1984-86, some 30 years ago I still think they look pretty good. I do not have as many as I thought though, but I still have enough. I have 5 Street Judges (Both mounted and on foot) and about 10 other figures some of which I had forgotten I owned.

They all have some minor scratches and one does have a broken Lawgiver (gun) but considering their age I do not think too bad at all.
So maybe a bit of a repaint before I settle on a game at the club.

As you can see bases do need work but as a basis to start a force what could be better.

I have never used a Dark Judge or a Klegg in a game so It might be good to give them an outing.

Colour wise I have gone for the comic book colours as seen in the comics and NOT mentioned in the text.

Anyway thanks for looking. and I should give a shout out to Bryan at Link

So That is it for today and with luck I will get the Klintanistan game going over the weekend so look out for an update soon.

BUF (Part 5)

There will be a part 6 as I still have 2 figures to paint! But after that I have no idea if there will be any more. Maybe, maybe not!

Again all painted for Matt and all "footsore/musketeer miniatures) except the one on the right who is a Copplestone castings. Again all head swaps carried out by Matt and the monkey just slaps the paint on! (Sometims with a big brush (GW tank brush at times!)and sometimes with a small brush.... a very small bush)


I have said it all before about the figures, they are nice castings and I believe fit the period 
very well. I have seen different colour schemes for the figures of course some of which have been very good, but these I suspect suit me best. Matt did originally suggest grey trousers, but he has now come around to the Khaki look as it gives them a more military look than all black and grey so I thank him for his indulgence.

Only a few more figures to go on this batch, I did want them finished yesterday but time just  got away from me.  So expect the last few in a couple of days and a group shot of them all together.

That's it all the best for now. Take care have fun and get some painting done if you can.

Cheers Clint

Post script: I only mention Paint monkey when painting for someone else!

Well this is very different!

 Before you say anything, This is not what I look like in the morning! Honest it is not. No it really is not!

But it is a Games Workshop Rhino! Well that is how it started.  And you can still see it underneath 1/2 a packet of miliput! This is not for me, but for my nephew, who has now given up on ORKS and is doing Chaos Marines instead. I know youngsters what can you do. So I started with a very old beaten up plastic Rhino that I got at a boot fair and set about making a possessed version. The down side is that it is pretty delicate and I expect it to break on it's first outing to a GW shop! Look we all just know it will, so no point worrying or crying or complaining it is just what kids are like. And I had all the fun of making it!

I actually started with the rolling stones tongue then built up the teeth, then cheeks and eyes and boy did I have some fun (erhm frustration)! The two arms are from old Tyranids and the Tail is from a stegadon as are the two fangs at the front. Every other change is miliput!

A simple paint job and a dirty up and we are done! My personal favourite part is the green putrid wart on the tongue. But I am nasty like that!

I would be tempted to make something else for him like this BUT I would rather encourage him to make his own and not rely on GW! To me that is one of the hobby joys and especially when you are doing something like Chaos to make it your own!

 Hopefully he will like it enough to look after it! If not "If I can Make it once I can surely repair it!" That assumes he will let me and not just get bored with it like he has the killer cans I gave him.

That's it for today, something a little different for me but it would be boring if I always did the same things! Back to more VBCW figures next!

All the best Cheers Clint

Rusty Regiment, part 4

Not such a huge amount to show this day, I am continuing to repaint my necrons and I should have some VBCW stuff finished in a couple more days as well. But today 3 bases of Necron Scarabs. These count as fast attack weapons for the Necrons and the three bases come in at 60 points so given that each base has 3 wounds and 4 attacks are actually good value for points. |Add to that that they do not have guns so most players don't bother too much about shooting them until they get close means that they do tend to get overlooked as most players would rather deal with things that are causing them harm at that instant.


So not terribly exciting for the moment but additions to the rusty regiment none the less.

Thanks for looking today and with luck some more on Sunday, But by more I do not mean more of these, just more painted figures.

Catch you later Clint

Rusty Regiment part 3

Yes there will be more to come, and yes I know this figure is not very rusty. In Fact not rusty at all. The reason for the lack of rust on this one is very simple. This is a Necron Lord. As we all know nobility does not get covered in brown smelly stuff, be that rust or something more organic. So this was not a very lengthy paint job, just a simple change of colour from silver to gold (well gold-ish). As we all know gold does not rust so I have not added any rust effect paint anywhere on the model. There was a slight repair, just drilled and pinned in one place denoted by the different coloured section on the staff of light. (Just above his hand as I know you will want to look for it and why should I make it hard for you. )

I have tried at least in my head to use a colour palate close to how I would imagine ancient Egyptians might use, but deliberately staying away from actually looking at the colours they did actually use.  That is the kind of crazy mixed up way I think as I did not want to make exact copies of ancient Egypt. I used ancient Egypt as the codex has lots of ancient Egyptian names often ending in KH. Which while they may not be authentic names does give them a hint towards ancient Egypt. I have not named my "Dynasty" so far but I am sure I will before the first game.

Tomorrow I will be one of the very few of the Rainham wargames club (3 of us I think) putting on a game at the Broadside show. All the terrain and figures and rules and knowledge this year is down to Tim so I can take no credit for any of it. But if you want to come and say hallo you will be more than welcome, BUT I must warn you that this time I am not bringing any home made fudge. NONE at all.

While at the show I do have a VERY small shopping list:

• 1 pack of Redoubt figures for the French Indian wars
• 2 Pots of paint, (I always NEED paint)
• Maybe a platoon or a squad of 20mm WW2 Japanese for "Chain of Command"

Like I said a very small list, so I wonder what I might actually buy!

Thanks for looking today, maybe a swag post tomorrow night or on Monday IF I buy anything exciting. If not I hope to do a show report early next week.

Thanks for looking today, all the best to you and yours from Clint.

The Rusty Regiment (Part 2)

I know some of you will be turning away in disgust! I must admit if it was on some other blog I might well do the same such is my dislike of GW. However my love of my nephew is stronger. So to that end here are the latest batch of Necrons. Right that's the mushy stuff over with.

Necrons as I am sure most of you will know are the GW scifi Undead of the 40k universe and actually very nice models. Personally I MUCH prefer the older Necrons and not the new fancy stuff in the hardback codex. Of late it seems to have become more vehicle orientated, but not in a good way. So I will be sticking pretty much to the older models except Pariahs as they are not in the new codex!

So Today just 10 rank and file Necron Warriors. This is the third time that I have painted these figures and I suspect the last, (Crosses fingers).  As you can see I am using liberal amounts of the rust paint to give the decayed left on an abandoned world for a million years look which I really like. Did the Romans think that the future would be all polished marble and clean streets? Well if they did they were wrong, at least where I live. So we have a dirty grimy shabby decaying future. And in my 40k Universe rusty necrons. In your 40k universe they might all be shiny and bright and there is nothing wrong with that either, Just each to their own.

The Crystals on a few of the bases (the purple bits), are made from model sprue just whittled into shape and paint slapped on. They take a while probably because I don't like doing them. But I do like the result so they will appear on every 4th base or so.

My posting schedule is a bit mucked up at present. But I will do another blog post before Sunday and the Broadside wargames show. Just a pre-show shopping list and believe me it is not expected to be a very big list at all.

So until then, take care have fun and enjoy the weather no matter is wet or dry as there is nothing us mere mortals can do to change it, only the way we think about it.

Cheers Clint

Rusty Necrons started

Well who would have guessed that? Me doing some Games workshop figures. I know I really do. Quite unexpected. So over the last few days I have started (very slowly) to repaint my warhammer 40K Necrons. This all came about as I played a game with my nephew ( I used Tyranids)and being fair I did quite enjoy it. I lost of course but that only (in this instance) spurred me onto getting these painted. So I started with a test run and repainted every part of it in GW "Tin Bits" coloured paint. It took 2 coats but eventually I had an even coat and a base to work from. So then I took GW "Boltgun Metal" paint (a dull silver/steel metallic) and very roughly highlighted the figure. And I do mean roughly. Then I applied liberal amounts of the "Rust" paint from model mates,  As you can see I have ended with a very corroded finish to the Necrons. Clearly this is wanted it worked on my space rats and I think it works here as an antidote to the nice and shiny Necrons that most youngsters paint following the guidelines in the GW Codex and stores. I hasten to add that I have nothing against shiny Necrons, it is just that you see them all done that way in stores these days and I wanted something different. Therefore I went for a corroded version.

As you can see all parts of the necron "army" will eventually succumb to the rust treatment, but these are only test figures and done as a trial. But in this photo the scarab base has also been treated in the same way. I did at first try to run the "Rust" into the groves but as it is quite viscous it did not work too well and did get most places despite my intentions. So I have decided to turn that into a plus and not a negative. This may seem wrong but I am happy with the result.

I must admit that I have been heavy handed with the rust paint as they have supposedly been hanging around for millions of years as it mentions in the background. I don't know about you but IF I had waited a million years or so I would expect at least a layer of dust to be coating all the surfaces! It has been voiced that in the far future they would have found a way to make metal non-corrosive. Well the truth to admit they might, or they might have other non decaying materials that will last a million years. But to my mind a million years is a totally unfathomable time. It is not like waiting a 4 sleeps until Christmas like you did as a kid it is much longer than that. As such no one on this planet earth will know for certain how things will decay over that time period. So maybe they will develop anti rust and anti dust materials that will last a million years and maybe they will not. Even if they do there may be other reasons that they would not use that material. It could be something as simple as expense, after all stainless steel has been known about since at least 1821 but we still build cars that rust! Or it might be that the planet surface they have been on is particularly corrosive. Or Maybe there was no vital ingredients when they were produced. Or perhaps the non corrosive material was just not tough enough for battle. Who Knows and more to the point who is going to be nit-picky enough to argue about it.

That's it for today I shall have something Historical next time (Promise).

Take care have fun, all the best from Clint

Paint it Rust (The work of the paint Elves))

While at Salute this year one of my planned purchases was a bottle of rust paint, from Model Mates Click this link as I saw it on Kyles ( Click the Link  ) blog the previous year and was taken with it. Now I have toyed with painting rust a few times and have very gradually worked out how to do it. But this way is just so much easier that I am an instant convert!

First paint it an under colour, I like games workshops tin bits for this and then dry brush some bolt gun metal over some of the high lights. You may not have to even do these first 2 steps but I did. Then when dry apply a coat of the model mates rust and get yourself a drink. When you come back from the drink you will find the model has gone rusty. I am sure there are a group of Magic elves doing all the work as it really is like something from a fairy tale. I have not sat and watched it, nor do I intend to as I would much rather believe in Magic Elves!

You will have to forgive my photography but I think you will agree it does look like rust. While you can buy it in 3 different tones I only bought the middle  tone as I did not want to over work the poor little paint elves. It is even better than that though, being pure magic you can even clean your brush in water afterwards! yes you can. While you can also use water as a thinner having tried it the results were just not as good. I can only imagine the Paint Elves don't like the taste as much. So I will not be thinning it again, well not with water anyway.

As I have now run out of my Chaos Rat Marines ( Hardly the most novel of ideas) I will have to find something else to paint in rust!  So unless anyone wants to donate any skaven or Space marines to me ready for conversion I don't think I will do any more just yet unless I find them dirt cheap at a show or on eBay.

Thanks for looking today I am now of to eBay to see what price I can pick up Necrons for!

I must say I love the Paint Elves who did the work and the paint as well, it really is magical. So My advie is don't buy it and watch the results but buy it paint it on and go out of the room and make a drink. It really is worth the it!

Thanks for tuning it. All Praise the Magical Painting Elves! And with luck see you all again soon.
All the best from Clint!

Aliens

I keep getting side-tracked. But at last here are the 28mm Genestealers I painted to represent Aliens in a game I plan to run in the summer.

Buying actual Alien figures is of course possible but for me genestealers were the most economically viable option. In addition to the genestealers I also have a "Broodlord" which will act as the big end of film nasty. While it was a queen in the film in the game it can just be a larger and harder to kill beastie. maybe it's a king! Who knows and more importantly who cares. just make the players shoot it for a long time and we'll all be happy.

While I am no longer a fan of games workshop I will concede that they do make some good things both games and figures from time to time. because I want these aliens scampering round Hadleys Hope on LV426 I simply put plasticard on the bases and cut to fit. This gave me a basic floor grid. Painted in 3 metallic greys with the top one being a bright silver to represent scuff marks I think it works quite well. At least good enough for a game or two. I also ran a mixture of flesh wash and orange ink into all the groves. Hadleys Hope may not be rusty but the hell with that I wanted it to look a bit grotty. Who knows in the future rust may be cured and never trouble us again.


I finished all the figures on the alien side with a gloss lacquer as I wanted them to have that chitin/ slimy feel to them. They are aliens after all.

Well that's about it for now. I am not sure this game idea will last all that long as there are not so very many scenarios but then again BUG HUNTS seldom get old!

All the best and see you all soon. Clint