Inquisitor Eisenhorn - WIP

 

WIP pic of the iconic GW 54mm Eisenhorn model for the old Inquisitor game that I'm just now getting round to painting after around 20 years or so.

Have always meant to get round to the figure but never had the inspiration to get round to it until I recently noticed the Sacred Temple bases range from Unreal Wargames Studio and thought the base above would be a great set piece for the model.

Now that I have the base and such to give me the oomph, I set about assembling the model and getting it primed and zenithal highlighted in prep for the painting.

Model up for review

Having undercoated and such, I really liked the look of the model as is, quite stricking and moody. I think I'll give the figure a light sepia wash before I start the painting just as an experiment to see if it looks suitably moody and record the result.

Once I get into the paint job proper, I'm not aiming to do anything fancy but will be based around the box art though think I'll go with a darker palette for the figure and complimentary ligher range for the base but we'll see.

Model Box Art

This one is put to the side for a few weeks as I go away for bit of a break to sunnier climes for a bit but will post additional WIP pics on Instragram when I have some progress along with the finished article once complete here.

Ragnarok Miniatures - New Figures to the collection

'The Stahlsons' Armoured Trolls

The Ragnarok Miniatures above and following are some of the first miniatures I've added to my collection this year. The Figures were received last month from the recent Ragnarok 9 Trollheim Kickstarter which was floated at the end of last year and were received ahead of the anticipated delivery, which was nice. All the figures are sculpted by Colin Patten and his style is immediately noticable and the figures fit with many manufacture ranges over and above the many that were sculpted by Colin of course but also other ranges.

I have a number of the Ragnarok minitures already and this package is adding to the range I have which are intended for use in a number of roles but particularly bulking out my Oathmark Army, use in my Solo Fantasy Campaign, various Fantasy Skirmish rules and in some LotR gaming to name a few.

A good deal and a fair passle of figures received, I like the Armoured Trolls particularly and will be useful in a number of roles under a variety of guises which the generic look will fit nicely.

'Uruk Warband'

Along with the Trolls, I went for the Uruk Warband which includes 32 figures in various guises.

'Uruk Command and Armoured Uruks'

Self explanitory Armoured Uruk core with 12 rank and file and a 4 figure command group. I picked up an additional Command group to flesh out previously picked up Ragnarok Armoured Goblin types. Armed with reasonably sized shields and mainly polearms and a few scimtar like swords. I'll probably ditch the scimitars in favour of something a bit heavier.

'Uruk Archers'

Again, self explanitory with the Uruk Archers being of the armoured variety. One issue I didn't like with these is that they came with the standard seperate hand with bow which also came with the Forest Goblins below. While this looked fine with the goblins, it looked a bit small for the beefy Uruks, so I substituted the bows with some spare bows from the bits box. Pretty sure they were from spare Empire Archers, which look the part size wise.

'Uruk Trackers'

The Uruk Trackers are a very usable generic goblinoid beefy type and could be used in a variety of roles again. Armed with spears and lighter shields than their armoured counterparts, the shields are fine and similar if not the same as the Goblin Shields in previous releases. Don't like the spears as pretty blunt looking and like the polearms with the armoured Uruks are very soft metal, so these will be replaced for harder wearing alternatives, probably rod and plastic spear heads.

'Forest Snaga Archers'

Bringing up the rear of this gang are the Forest Goblin Archers. I have a pack of the Forest Goblin Spearmen from previous Kickstarter which I liked a lot and make ideal skirmishy types and the archer addition was a no brainer for me. As you can see, the seperate hand/bow which are pinned and glued to the figures look nicely sized for the shorter stature Goblins but is way to small for the strapping Uruk warriors to bother with.

The previous releases from Ragnarok are available from Gripping Beast and I assume the latest Kickstarter will be available there in due time. I'm probably going to be picking up a couple of additional Goblin types from GB in the near future.

Kill Team - Tau Hunter Cadre Photo-Shoot

Bit of a photo op this time around as I have been playing about with the old camera to see if I could improve on my miniature photography skills a bit.

Mixed results and going to play about a lot more, mainly learning on how my camera works, but having fun in the learning.

My chosen topic this time around was with my Tau Hunter Cadre for Kill Team as these were readeily to hand as I've been mainly playing 2nd Ed Kill Team at the club recently, so they presented a ready subject to snap at.

Quite pleased with the photo results but more to play about with both in subject and technique and decide what I'm most happy with.

Think the photo results had a better turn out that the Hunter Cadre have had on the table top, but that's another story.

As my results on the table top with the current team set-up have been mixed at best, I'm going to change one of the fire teams for the Stealth Suits and see how that fares, and I will do a 'photo-shoot' of the team once the suits are painted up, hopefully over Christmas.

More on this anon.

Bad Day at Ganish Aer - The Glitter Twins

OK, it's been a while. I know, it's been lax of me but I have an excuse. Well... actually I don't. Just the usual stuff but I have been getting a few things done hobby wise ticking away and scratching at the lead mountain behind the scences (and adding the the pile too, especially terrain, but that's a different story). Just not a lot to add to the blog completeness-wise anyway, but still kicking and playing about with stuff when I have the mind.

One bit that's been getting picked at is the next warband for the skirmish game I had planned eon's ago from the land that was the Covid Wastes of Isolation. This is the promised 'Glitter Twins'.

The Glitter Twins and support

The Glitter Twins is the disparaging nick-name for the two sisters, Elpeth and Melinda Thimmyn-karr. Adventurers of some distinction around northern Tir-Mor and eastern Fayrenneth.

Elspeth & Melinda Thimmyn-karr
'The Glitter Twins'

The sisters are rumoured to be ex-devotee's of the Elistainian patron goddess Kyenna, Elistain being their home land around the southerrn province of Thyr-Aranrith. This may be true as both sisters are powerful elemental spell casters with the nick-name coming from their showy style of casting and theatrics while abroad.

The figures are the original Sigilist and Apprentice models from the Frostgrave range, with some experimental bases constructed using a terrain roller from GSW for an intial trial.

Medlunga and Douchrie

Medlunga and Douchrie are the Sister's warbands heavies and are both skilled and resourceful fighter types. Medlunga, hailing from the wilds of central Fayrenneth beyond Elistain, Mernoth and Dalriada, is a man of few words, apparently not speaking a word of Elistainian, or any of the local languages, he has been with the sisters since they ventured away from Elistain at the beginning of their journeys.

Douchrie is almost the opposite type of man, being a self-styled gentleman of from northern Tollandor and a third son of a unlucky noble who had picked the wrong side in the current War of Rulership raging across the area. Douchrie is besotted with the younger sister Elspeth, a fact she plays on to good effect, and Douchrie will defend and protect Elspeth to his last breath.

Both the figures are once again from the Northstar Frostgrave range, picked up from the first couple of Nick-starters, and these two have a more traditional basing style.

Gnarlich Meb and Kanta Meb
Gnoll Mercenaries

The two Gnoll Mercenaries Gnarlich & Kanta Meb hail from the same tribe of dog-soldiers resident around the border of eastern Elistain and northern Cellebria. Typical of all Gnolls, they are rapacious and ruthless, however they do appear to have some degree of loyalty to the sisters beyond their pay and booty and it is rumoured that the sisters had performed some task in the past for the Gnoll's tribal Matriarch and the two fighters are 'payment' for this service.

Yet again, both figures are from a Northstar Nick starter purchase and are part of the Frostgrave range. Again standard dirt and grass basing for these two.

The Toughs
Arch, Toug and Flannah

These guys are standard hired muscle and hail from different countries in and around northern Tir-Mor area. Arch, an ex-soldier of some years comes from western Moonandor. Toug is a Lornian from Eridann and has a history of working for crime families in and around Thule and probably had to be somewhere else in a hurry. Flannah comes the Sonnorian League lands on the southern coast of the Moonandorian eastern seaboard with a history of indentured service with one of the Merchant families there.

Two the these bods are well OOP Citadel fighters from the first slottabase fighter range and have been kicking about at the bottom of a box since some time in the 80's. Now finally painted up. the middle figure is a mix up from the old Empire Militia box set with arms and hammer from the old knights set and a Chaos Warrior shield to complete, being assembled some years ago and partially painted but now complete and ready for battle.

The three figs all having standard dirt and grass basing to suit.

With this band complete, the project nears completion with the third band around half way complete, being the 'Merchant Adventurrers' the last of the trio of intagonists so will endeavour to complete some and actuall y play through the planned encounter 'Bad Day at Ganish-Aer'.

Watch this space.

Oathmark Army Update - Peter the Giant

Here's an update on a little bit of progress on troops for my Oathmark Army currently under construction. Namely 'Peter the Giant'.

The model is, for those who don't recognise it, one of the 'Giants of Albion' set from the OOP Citadel Dogs of War range. I have a couple of the box sets from years ago and the other model from this set will be the next giant for the army, but won't join the ranks until the army list is due for expansion.

The model has a number of firsts to it for me. First model completed this year, first model I have completely painted using a wet palette, first to be varnished using spray varnish, first use of pigments on a model and first model I've named after a family member.

He's named after my father-in-law, who it has to be said it closely resembles, even down to the one good eye. Peter is no longer with us as he sadly passed away last year, but a wee bit of a memorium for him, (which I'm sure he would appreciate).

The model is all in all a bit of an experiment in many ways and I found I had to learn things all over again but I will perservere, as most of the experience was positive and reasonably happy with the end result, but with lots to learn.

I really liked using the pigments on the base as I was sure I would be and will be looking to experiement with them more in the future and see if I can get a bit more proficient in their use.

I did have an issue with the spray varnish, a matt one from MigAMMO. I sure the issue was not with the product, but my use of it, as the final coat ended up pretty shiny, which I don't like. So I ended up applying a brush coat of my trusty Windsor & Newton Matt Varnish to finish up. The fact that most of the model has had four varnish coats has had a slight blurring effect on some of the detail but nothing too worrying.

Next unit up on the Oathmark painting front will likely be the first Human Infantry Spear unit, with the Human Bowmen unit currently under construction, but next on the painting queue are some fantasy skirmish figures to be finished off hopefully soon.

 

A couple of Adventurers

A couple of random figures in the form of two of the Artizan Design Adventurers, which I think they no longer do.

The figures have been sitting in the painting queue three quarters complete for a while and I decided to finish them off and get them out of the queue.

Simple deserty bases for tboth figures, which in hindsight could do with a bit of interest and might add a couple of dry tufts or a small stone or two just to lift them a bit.

Nice and slightly unusual subjects for adventurers, Artizan didn't do very many and don't think they sold well but have the Artizan look which I like right across their catalogue.

The Middle-eastern moor type is nice but I particularly like the fighter. Not sure why, but makes me think of a Greek/Byzantine type somewhere in Egypt or India doing the Alexander TG thing in far away places.

I've another couple of the adventurers to be done from the pack which are an elf wizard type and a female thief which are both unfussy and generic of their type and will be added to the paint queue in due course.

Future Wars Update 008 - WIP

Another small update on things that have I have been working on, on and off over the lockdown, and this time a few bits that are for my on going 'Future Wars' project which continues to grow as the whim takes me.

First up is the Heavy Hulk Battlesuit from Nuclear Shrimp games that I picked up as part of their Black Earth Kickstarter last year. Received a couple of vehicles and several troop models all of which are very nice and characterful and I'm resisting the urge to get more before I get whats already on the bench, particularly the vehicles.

The resin model was a wee bit fiddly to assemble and the only way seemed to drill and pin the legs together and then to the body, but once together it's very stable and the parts went together pretty well with minimal alteration. I've decided on the paint job it'll receive and is due to join the ranks of the European Federation troops in due course. What I haven't definitely decided yet is whether to base the piece or leave free standing as it were. I'm tending towards the base idea but the model would be more utilitarian if I leave free standing. The scenic base idea will probably win out.

Next up are a quad of Anvil Industries Robot types (C-48 Autonomous Mechs) from their Afterlife range which is easily their best range to date. Sadly the Afterlife range looks to be unavailable now which is a pity as there are lots of bits I would like to get more of there too, 

Really nice models to assemble and they have been put of some constructed bases to try out a roller that I recently got with selective terrain rubble added. All that done so far painting wise is the base paint scheme which was to paint a graded metal/silver finish with an all over blue wash to give an all over sheen to the figures which worked pretty well and turned out haw I was looking for. Pretty simple now to pick out the details and finish off the bases.

Lastly for this trio of Future Wars WIP are a duo of fighters/skimmers for the Kra'uul, which take the form of GW Forge World Tau Piranha, which have been assembled in a non-40K cannon way as I preferred the look. These are still partially glued until I complete the crew cockpits when they'll be finally assembled. 

Again, a fairly simple paint scheme planned for these guys with the Kra'uul generally going for an off white with red/gray/ochre detail. Might try a touch of air brushing for these models as I've never tried airbrush for models even though I've had the airbrush for a good few years and only ever used it for art work. Should be fine for vehicles or so I believe. I'll probably go for my own home made decals for them too.

I've a few other bits are on the table in various states of assembly including a fair amount of Anvil Industries gun tractors and Grenadiers which I like lots and I succumbed to another Kickstarter, this time Mordian Tanks and their current buggy goodness. Lots to keep me going on this project.

WIP July - Oathmark Troops

As promised in my last post, I have here some of my WIP that I've been working on during the lockdown. This time around it's the first of the troops I intend to use for games of Oathmark when we are allowed to get to the clubs again.

Infantry unit is based on the Fireforge Forgotten World Infantry that I picked up in the kickstarter tale end of last year, or the first two of the three boxes I picked up anyway. Took a bit of construction and a reasonable amount of mould line removal plus the heads that I used from the box sets don't fit very well (sitting very high on the torso) and required cutting down to sit correctly to my eye anyway.

I used a selection of GW heads from Empire and Bretonnian sets and altered a few of the Fireforge heads adding greenstuff caps to match the look I was going for. I ended up using about half a dozen or so of the historical heads from a Fireforge Scandinavian box set to add some more variety but these had to be drilled and pinned with gaps at the neck filled as the location method between the kits is completely different (historical the socket is on the head, fantasy the socket is on the torso).

I'll add the other box set to the unit some time in the future for use of the unit in other rule sets but they're not required for Oathmark. In fact only 20 of the figs are needed for Oathmark and I'll probably sabot the figs so they fit the base frontages for use in the rules.

The Cavalry follow the same basic premise of the Infantry being from the Fireforge Forgotten World Kickstarter bundle I picked up but this time using only GW heads principally Bretonnian for a slightly diffent look. Again, there's another box to be constructed to make up a larger unit but not required for initial small Oathmark games planned. The Infantry and Cavalry units are destined, in their full sized capacity, to also be used in my ongoing Alba Campaign as Northern states militia types.

Finally in this WIP trio is the first of the giants planned. Probably easily recognisable as one of the GW Giants of Albion from the defunct Dogs of War range which I have multitudes of in the 'to do' list.

Picked up a couple of the Giants boxes when they were current but never really had a use for them until now so they've finally managed to see the light of day.

Bit of a pig to assemble with much drilling and pinning and still to finish off filling in the gaps with greenstuff to finish off the assembly and will move onto painting up this bad boy once I've finished a couple of other figures that are nearing completion.

I'll post again and report on progress for this project including other troops in construction for this army.

Next up, a wee bit of WIP on my Future Wars project progress from during lockdown.

Bad Day at Ganish Aer - The Celesterale

Back at the beginning of April (doesn't time fly when you're having fun) I posted up a small project that was planned to keep me busy during lockdown, 'Isolation Excercise' in painting up the terrain and figures for playing a Thud & Blunder based skirmish game.

As fate would have it, lockdown didn't seem to have as much free time available as I thought it may and with working from home and my better half thinking up lots of 'odd jobs' that suddenly required doing, the last three months have positively flown by. This being a good thing really.

Don't get me wrong, I have managed to get through much hobby goodness over the period, probably more than I would have normally, just not as much as I thought (or hoped) I may. Lots's of WIP to post about, some of which I'll do over the next couple of days, over several projects and not least 'Bad Day at Ganish Aer' which this update is around with the first of the three warbands finally getting completed.

A brief background for the Celesterale are that they are a Radical splinter group of the Magus Preceptory, which are the Magister faction of the ruling elite from the declining Celebrian Empire. The representative's of the Celesterale is the warband led by Graven, who is an 'agent at large' attempting to further the machinations of the Preceptory by any means he deems necessary.

Graven - Magister

A lot of you may recognise the figure here being the long OOP pre-slotta base Citadel Chaos Wizard which I've had rolling around for 35 years or more unpainted and un-loved, so he got picked as part of the project to do some. I found the figure quite hard to paint and couldn't settle on a paint scheme that I was happy with but ended up going for a dark blue and red scheme which didn't end up as dark as intended. Should of gone for a standard bad guy black and red with gold bits scheme but hey, turned out alright I suppose.

Ademar Vinx and his 'pet' Wraith

Ademar is the bad wizard type 'Vonatar' from the old Lone Wolf mid 80's Ciadel range and is a figure I'd already painted for a Mordheim campaign we had a couple of years ago, but received a touch up and a re-painted base. Ademars Wraith is a fairly newly acquired figure from one of the Northstar Frostgrave Nickstarter's a couple of years ago. This is a pretty easy figure to paint having a single colour or so to paint and highlight. One of the first to be put to bed.

Sooni Khawn and Vengtar U'Bharunn
Corrindessian Mercenaries

The two Corrindessian Mercenaries, Sooni Khawn and Vengtar U'Bharunn, hailing from much sunnier and distant climes, the figures are again from Northstar's Frostgrave range Cultist knights which I picked up as soon as they were released as they really fitted my idea of what Corrindessian's would look like as soon as I saw them. They took a considerable amount of time to paint, mainly due to the amount of detail on them but quite happy with how they tuned out.

Skeleton Bodyguards

The cannon fodder of the warband, the ubiquitous skeletons, are again figures which I had previously painted but again received a facelift and brightened up bases. They are early-ish citadel armoured skeletons which I picked up a pack of somewhere in a bring and buy and are some of my favourite skeleton figures. I would like to track down some more of these as they are full of character.

So, a small update this time and the next warband now moving into the WIP pile are Elspeth and Melinda, commonly known in adventuring circles of Northern Tir-mor as 'the Glitter Twins' and their band of colourful 'Toughs'.

Forgotten World FireForge Kickstarter

A couple of weeks ago, I received my pledge from Fire Forge for their recent Forgotten World Kickstarter.

As you can see this was fairly chunky in it's contents, 9 boxes of plastic Human and Undead Infantry and Cavalry, some additional sprue's of choice, additional embossed shields plus resin foot and mounted character figures plus I opted in my bonus for some Deus Vult range Scandinavian, Russian and Byzantine box sets.

The original plan was to use the historical figures as a source for alternative heads and for some general conversion works for miscellaneous projects but as the Forgotten Worlds figures are pretty much heroic 32mm scale and the historical figures aren't, that idea has been knocked on the head so will be using these separately.

I've assembled a couple of the Human Infantry, with these (and the cavalry) being pretty generic fantasy humans in a sort of medium infantry apparel (looking much like the Stark GoT troops which I assume is deliberate given the 'Northern Infantry' nomenclature) and generally look the part. The figure parts do come with a lot of mold lines and all require a fair bit of cleaning up and some bits don't quite fit together without a bit of trimming but not too bothered about that. 

Their are Infantry with sword and spear options plus a command conversion sprue all of which have a few options plus additions for packs and pouches etc. plus there are Bowmen packs and the Cavalry pack which I've still to play with yet. The above examples built show the general look of the assembled figures (with the figure on the right having a replacement head from the now defunct Empire Archers set).

The Undead again are pretty generic in origin which is a good idea for this type of product really. Again, I've only assembled a couple of the infantry to see how they go together and these are generally fine but again a bit of mold line problem to be dealt with. With only 12 in the box for these, they do seem a bit pricey if paying full price for them but again are quite nice and do whats required of them.

The bonus characters in the kickstarter are quite nice and Human and Undead forces catered for with generic 'good' General, Hero and Wizard types along with their Undead counterparts. These all assemble fairly well but the bits needed quite a bit of cleaning up where the bits came off the resin sprue and the fit is a bit loose generally and all will need a bit of green stuff to tidy up the joints. Again not a major problem and perfectly usable fantasy types. The foot undead hero is very lined from the (I assume) 3D printing process, but I'll paint up and see if this looks OK. To be confirmed here.

The only, as I see it, failure of the Kickstarter supply to date is the mounted Undead Lich. The parts really don't go together at all well with major gaps on the horse parts which will require substantial green stuff to sort and the rider does not sit on the mount at all well, even after major carving, like the rider is not meant for this horse. I'll persevere and sort the figure out as best I can but I'm sort of minded to not really try here. We'll see how I feel on this one and report back on progress if any.

The KS also included a set of fanatasy rules which on a quick flick through look OK but still to give these a thorough read to see if I'll use them or not.

All in all, a good result on a Kickstarter with lots of usable figures which I'm going to use to fill some holes on my Fantasy Campaign Northern Wars theatre so that's nice, and the Kickstarter was fulfilled within a reasonable time.

On other KS news, I also received my pledge about the same time for the re-written Chivalry & Sorcery RPG rule set (pdf copy) which I'm still wading my way throught 500 or so pages of this to get the feel of the update but looks very pretty so far.

I've also received word from Yannis of Nuclear Shrimp that my pledge for their 'Black Earth: Heavy Metal' KS is now on it's way to me and will hopefully be with me before Christmas which is nice though that one has been a long wait but the figures and vehicles are very nice so I'm looking forward to these to add to my Future Wars project.

Re-Imaginings

A couple of old type figures which have seen sterling service but needed brought up to scratch for current use with a re-paint and re-basing.

The figure on the left is an 80's Ral Partha Stone Giant and on the right original Citadel Fighters range F1 with a replaced shield. The giant I've had since the early 80's I think and the fighter the early 90's.

Both figures have received a pretty standard treatment and nothing fancy so their back on the table in a jiffy.

Antidiluvian New Medievals on Horizon

Recently announced forth coming releases from Antediluvian Miniatures are some additions to their historical offerings in their 'Wars of the Bruces' range. Announced are as below, Scots Spearmen;

Great looking sculpts from Matthew Bickley and with more to come, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next in these most useful mini's.