Well...I've finally had a stretch of painting time and will have a number of things to share with you over the coming week or so. Last night I had the majority of the evening to myself as my lovely wife was dealing with the nibblers and various appointments. So I gathered my newly painted minis together and started to set up my "photo studio." My intention was to take my usual "documentary" images on blue gradient...but as often happens when I disappear into my hobby...I got distracted and ended up setting up a whole little scene and spent my evening happily taking pictures.
The documentation pictures will just have to wait a bit...
My urge to actually make a more interesting scene probably stems from my lack of participation in the Lead Adventure League over on the LAF. Long time readers will recall that this painting event used to be a major part of my hobby calendar every year. I have now missed the last two iterations of the contest and the urge to take some creative pictures of my figures is getting to be irresistible.
So here are some fun images of my newly completed 3rd ed Bretonnian organ gun and crew...well supported by some of my existing Bret army (5th ed models)...as they attempt to fight off a attack by a roaming warband of orcs and Goblins.
I'll start with some longer range shots to give you a feel for the whole set-up an then focus in on some of the more detailed photos that you can achieve with a rough set up like this.
Overview shot of set up...(click through for larger images)
As you have seen by the flurry of other blog posts and FB posts the Oldhammer in the New World event is done and dusted. It was an epic weekend full of laughs, hard fought battles, bleary eyed warriors...and yes...last minute paint jobs.
But I digress...lets start from the beginning.
If you will recall from my last post...I spent Thursday night enjoying life with my wife and children at the local fair. It was perfect night with lots of fun, and unhealthy food, for all.
Upon returning home around 10pm I set about filling my miniatures case and packing my books and all the sundry things needed for a weekend of dice rolling and miniature talk. It took way longer than expected and I didn't lay my weary head down to rest until well after midnight.
...this made the 6:30am alarm very unwelcome...but this turned out to be one of the better nights sleep that I would have for the whole weekend.
I was out the door and on the road by 8:30am heading south to Pennsylvania. The first leg of my trip took me down familiar roads toward Albany NY, passing along the southern reaches of Lake Champlain, Lake George and the upper portions of the Hudson River. Around Albany I picked up a college radio station that was playing a long uninterrupted set of Grateful Dead tunes and as I listened gleefully to "Sugar Magnolia" and "Box of Rain" I finally started to relax into what was bound to be an epic weekend.
As my journey carried me down along the Lower Hudson River the Grateful Dead started to break up and I switched my listening to my favorite Pandora Station: Cream! With the thumping bass of Jack Bruce and the driving drums of Ginger Baker Blasting through my exceptionally hot car I cruised down past the Big Apple and into New Jersey. At this point I turned my car westward and entered Pennsylvania itself.
A constant stream of encouraging texts and messages from the crew that was already in Allentown propelled me forward and as I drew closer my excitement level continued to build. As I exited the highway and began to pick my way through the bustling metropolis of Allentown...one of my all time favorite (and seemingly appropriate) classic rock and roll tunes helped me push through the heavy traffic and finally arrive at the event venue.
After a quick stop to relieve the incredible pressure in my bladder I strolled casually into the Magnolia Ball room (flash back to Grateful Dead tune) and found the lucky few that had arrived early already rolling dice and having fun. The Advance team had done a superb job of setting up the space and getting things kicked off as soon as possible.
In fact I found most folks engaged in the first play through of Brian's amazing Bretonnian Frog Hunt Game. There was much laughter and many terrible jokes to flow out of this incredible game.
Watch out for that MASSIVE crab!!!
After meeting and greeting everyone who was in attendance Dustin and I quickly pulled together an RT 40k game...something we had been discussing for months...obviously neither of us could wait. We took over half of Rusty's amazing table that he had provided and Dustin dressed it up with some scatter terrain that he had brought. This game found my imperials facing off against Dustin's Orks in a struggle to recover the Transport Homing beacon that had been recently eaten (along with its owner) by a rampaging T-rex and unceremoniously "deposited" (some hours later) somewhere on an inhospitable planet. And to make things even more interesting the T-rex was still in the neighborhood and protecting his "turf."
We had a great time with this game...it was quick and dirty with may feats of bravery and plenty of silliness as well....lets just say that the T-rex ate at least 30% of my forces...
As the afternoon turned into the evening we took a quick break for dinner and then returned to get Bulldog Lopez's RT Demo Game kicked off. I merely observed this one as I was still frantically trying to get some painting done on my Bret Knights but suffice to say to was a well run and impressive looking 4-way game that continued until well after midnight.
At this point you may be thinking: "well...that sounds like a full day! I'm sure that was enough for day 1!"
Well...you'd be WRONG!
After much convincing and cajoling I was pressed into a late night round of the frog hunt game...and I'm glad of it. Once again the constant frog leg jokes and attacks by random, and vicious, wandering monsters made this game a real joy to play.
My warband performed admirably...though I ended up losing by a single frog.
Bleary eyed and sore from laughing we all shuffled off to bed a little after 3am and collapsed onto our beds to dream of the excitement to come on Day 2!!!
I'm gonna milk this event for all the Bloggy goodness it has to offer...so that means you have to suffer through another "Prep" post while I download and process photos from the actual event.
...you'll be ok I promise...:)
So here goes...
I spent last Wednesday night touching up details on all the horses and riders. I also selected shields and started to get the base colors on those. This last task led to a long stroll through my shields box trying to select just the right shields for these guys...this took away from painting time but was alot of fun.
I have a lot of shields.
Anyway...here is the status at the end of Wednesday Night.
Group shot
And here are the individual shots so you can see the shield selections a little better.
And lastly here are the shields that I'm working on for the Knights that are already finished.
Looking good right?
Blue might actually pull this off right?
Yeah...ummm...no...
So...this is where my plan went a little off the rails...I had been underestimating the amount of time it would take me to pack for the event...and in the end Thursday night turned into a night out with my wife at kids to the fair (Yay! Fried dough!) and packing.
...no painting was accomplished...sigh.
In other words this is the way the knights were goning to be when I pulled into the event on Friday.
...My only hope is to work on them whenever I could on Friday and Saturday in order to have them on the table by Sunday.
Not ideal to say the least...but I'm finally enjoying painting this unit....even on figures as large as these mounted ones its the details that really bring them to life....it feel good to finally be at that point.
Work on the horses and riders is progressing and I managed to get all the barding on the mounts completed last night. This is a major milestone due to the sheer amount of cloth on each of these horses. There are still lots of details to finish up but in some ways it's down hill from here.
So this is a quick up date to show you the progress on the mounts. Here you go.
I wasn't excited by these plastic 5th edition horses when I started on this unit...but due to size I felt they were the only option for these Knights. But I must admit that the variety of heads (both plastic and metal) really add a nice variety of poses and the sculpting on the cloth is quite good...so they are growing on me.
Tonight I delved into finishing up the details on the horses and getting started on the shields. I'll put together an update on that in the morning.
Well....what a crazy summer it has been to this point. As you could probably tell from my lack of Blog output I have been extremely busy with RL concerns the past few months. Work and family are very demanding on my time during the warmer months...
...but one thing has been keeping my spirits up...and that is thinking about the Oldhammer in the New World Event that is now just a few days away!
So here is a brief run down of what I'm trying to get accomplished Hobby-wise in the last few days before I head out the door. As I knew that my time would be very limited this season I have also kept my goals fairly limited...and hopefully achievable...:)
First off I'm very excited to finally get my Bretonnian army onto the table for a game. Long time followers of this blog have seen this force build slowly over the last two years and it has been mostly completed except for the hard hitting part of any Bret army,....the Knights. So my principal for this years event has been to complete a unit of 10 mounted knights...plus a hero
Progress on these has been sporadic for more than a year but I have really been focusing on them for the last couple of weeks. Painting horses is one of my least favorite parts of this hobby but I have been pushing through. I have five knights pretty much done at this point and six more nearing completion. Here are some pics...First some close up of the riders very much WIP
I'm finally back with an update...I'm shocked to see that it has been three weeks since my last post...but such is life right now! Sorry about that...
Despite the craziness I've managed to get four new figures done....three of which I'll be using to add some characters to my slowly growing Bretonnian army. (the fourth is the missing Squire with bow that completes that unit)
As you may have guessed...since this force is made up of fifth edition models ...the three figures I'm talking about are Bertrand and his coompanions. However...I don't really care to play any pre-made "characters" in my forces (other than Bugman from time to time) In my army these three men are Gordon, Jacques, and Tobi.
Obviously as they were released these figures were intended to represent Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck....or their Frenchified counterparts, as the case may be.
...For my army...I have decided to keep the "Frenchified" part that but get rid of the "Robin Hood" part...
...at this point..as I blather on... you may be asking yourself why these three figures have such differing color schemes??? ...and the reason for that is that I do not intend to run these three as a group...a la Robin Hood...but as character models that can drop in and out of certain units....so if you see them with their respective units...it all makes more sense.
Lets look at each in turn
Jacques is the commander of the infantry in the Marquis border force so he is often found leading, or at least close to, the armies unit of elite spearmen...le CerfsRouges (the Red Stags).
The figure originally intended to represent Little John...I use as Gordon....the leader of the armies mounted Scouts. Though he runs on foot (they say they can't find a horse big enough for his massive size) his long legs and inhuman stamina are more than a match for the mounts of the other troops. Some accuse Gordon of questionable paternity...implying that he has some Ogre blood in is veins...but when confronted by such accusations Gordon typically fells the accuser with a single blow from his enormous quarter staff and mutters "u-shud-up..I'm de bestest and de fastest." (I will treat him as a mounted figure during game play).
And finally we have Tobi. Despite his ponderous bulk...and the 15 gallons of fortified wife strapped to his back...Tobi is able to move through even the densest wood without making a sound. And for that reason he is often found slinking along with the armies unmounted scouts.
The fortified wine that he freely dispenses to his troops can act as rations in the field and can keep them warm on cold scouts. With only that barrel this unit can carry out scouting missions lasting several days.... ...and return completely pissed...:)
So there they are...the Character that my Bret force was sorely lacking. I hope to updating on the Knights that I will be adding to this army soon. I'm in the process of modifying the Front Rank horses that I found to mount them on and will get them primed and ready for paint...once we have a day arm enough to prime! Cheers for now! Blue
Yes...I am alive...I've just fought through a week long flu which has had me completely debilitated (boo hoo...poor me). I'm finally getting back on my feet and actually did some painting last night for the first time in many days.
Anyway, after I posted pictures of the Dragon Bait Miniatures Executioner set that I painted up recently I received a couple of requests for information about how I did the wood graining on the chopping block.
Luckily I took a series of pictures of this figure while I was painting it in hopes writing up a longer "how-to" post. That post never materialized...but now I can use some of those pics for this quick demo.
My technique for wood graining is all about contrasting colors and texture...and applying these colors with short quick motions....and this is true for large surfaces like this block as well as narrow spaces like along a bow stave or weapon haft.
Here we go. I started with coating the entire block with Vallejo Model Color 872 Chocolate Brown. Nothing fancy here...just lay it on thick enough to cover the Dark Gray primer.
Still nothing finished to show off yet...so I wanted to give you an idea of what will be coming in the near future. I'm pretty excited about the figures I have in my painting queue right now. For once it's a rather eclectic mix of different races and types of figures which I hope will help with keeping my motivation up.
The first thing I have to finish up is another copy of the fantastic Johann sculpt that is available from Clam's Ewal Dvergar Range. This one is going to a long-suffering client and I'm anxious to get it back to its rightful owner.
I have also been asked to paint a few figures for the Dragon Bait miniatures Indiegogo campaign. This is the second campaign by Dragon Bait miniatures and once again will be offering a lot of interesting and humorously old school style sculpts.
I have agreed to paint the dwarf inquisitor... who definitely has that van Helsing feel to him.
Then there is the halfling scout...who has a great country bumpkin thing going on.
I will be also working on the small vignette of a executioner and his halfling compatriot who is luring the next victim to their death with a tasty doughnut. I am particularly excited about these figures from the campaign...I just love the sculpts...which I believe are by Tim Prow.
This set comes complete with a block and a basket with a couple of heads already in it. Just genius!
Next I have my entry for the Oldhammer forum's community war band. This is a very old-school citadel sculpt that makes me laugh because this archers quite pudgy! I forgot to check his name before I glued him in...I think this is Edwin...?
Another odd duck figure I have ready to go is one of the really early citadel slotta Elfs...Gildor? Who I will be painting up for thebinman's Averland warband. You've got to love his Elvis style hair do.
Next up is the one remaining 5th edition Bretonian Squire with bow that I need to complete my unit. The group has been languishing at 17 for the last year...it took me awhile to acquire another copy of this specific sculpt...so it will be nice to actually finish this unit off.
Finally I also have these fantastic mid 90 Perry sculpts of Bertrand and his compatriots. Obviously styled after Errol Flynn's Robin Hood movies and just loaded with bags of character even for relatively "newhammer" figures. These will obviously be becoming character models for my Bretonian army. I've had them for a while now and I'm very excited to finally get them painted.
So you can expect to see all of these figures again in future posts hopefully in various stages of progress.
Of course I still have the Knights to finish that I showed earlier as well as half a squad of Orks that need their final coats of paint too!!. My work schedule should finally be opening up a little bit as we approach Christmas and I hope to be quite productive during my downtime.
Despite the lack of obvious evidence in the form of Blog posts...I have been plugging away at a number of hobby projects but have failed to finish anything of late that is worth writing a post about....
...So I'll do a quick post about my continued efforts to find decent horses for my 3rd ed Brets....and show that I actually have been painting.
I've never been a big fan of Citadel's plastic horses...They vary drastically in proportion depending on release date and the number of variants possible is usually quite low. For this reason I've been searching high and low for some decent metal horses that I could mount my knights on. After a detailed discussion of this topic on the Oldhammer Forum...and encouragement by fellow Oldhammerers who have trod a similar path I've placed a sizable order for 20 metal, barded horses in a number of poses from Front Rank Miniatures...
...and they showed up while I was away for Turkey day! here is what I received.
As I progress through my "career" of figure collecting I've noticed that some times the finds that make me the happiest are the little ones. This has certainly been the case with the recent acquisition from the old Bretonian range. As you know, starting with my painting of fifth edition models I have really fallen in love with the old Bretonian range. Lately the third edition figures have been one of my collecting goals. Thanks to a couple of large overseas purchases I have been able to knock out most of this range fairly quickly. However there are some portions of this range that are extremely hard to find and if you do see them they sell for crazy money. This is particularly true of some of the more rare war machines that Citadel made for the third edition Bretonian's.
This Saturday though I received a little package from a fellow Bretonian collector here in the states that really made my day. Amongst some other gems it contained a Bretonian swivel gun! Based on its size this is not an impressive figure but it's rarity has made its acquisition a special moment in my collecting. I've never even seen one of these on eBay...so being able to trade for it and not even having to pay for international shipping is just fantastic. Anyway here it is in all it "glory!"
Massive thanks to Warhammster for making this possible!
As Mentioned in my previous Post about building new units for my classic Brettonian army I mentioned that I had several units without command sections. This is due to the fact that the, somewhat obscure, range of Brettonian figures that was released during the 3rd edition didn't contain any command sections. This has forced me to look outside the Citadel catalog for some suitable models.
I've been looking at some of the sculpts sold by Black Tree Designs and when they had their summer sale I took the plunge and ordered a couple of blisters that I thought would work nicely. I purchased figures from their fantasy range Men of Averaign (all of which make great Bret alternatives) as well as some from their Hundred Years War Range. Lets take a look at how they worked out.
...hey...this unit thing is kinda of addictive! That now that I've started I can't seem to stop!
After the success with the wood elves I dove into my Brettonian Box and went to work on the infantry.
The first unit I worked on here were the archers. Right now I have a unit of 18 archers...but no command section. I love the brets from the third edition but they were not really a complete range as they lacked any command section sculpts...?!? Anyway...here they are.
Once again life has been draining me of the will to write blog posts. After spending most of my day in front of a computer screen I just have not had the inclination to do more of that when I get home.
Wah wah poor me...pity party over..:)
On to more interesting things.
While my figure painting and blog writing had been slow, somehow I've still found the time to keep adding new figures to my collection...yes yes I know you are surprised to hear that.... ;)
My latest addiction has been casualty figures. Why? I can't really say where the interest has come from but I'm just going with it.
Today I received two wounded brettonian figures from the 3rd ed era that I have been trying to track down for quite a while now...and thanks the that most gentlemanly of collectors...Bridgend Steve I now can cross them off my wants list!
The more dynamic of the two is this foot knight who has just taken an arrow to the chest...
Just a great sculpt that really tells a story... Here is the back view
...and here is a special treat that I wasn't expecting... Check out his tab...it made me chuckle. A perfect example of British understatement!
And here is a picture of the othe figure Steve sent me...as you can see this poor bloke has already succumbed to his wounds.
I look forward to trying to work these guys into my Bret army or vignettes for future LPL entries.
I'm very happy to add these to the collection. What's your take on casualty figures? Cool? Or waste of time?
Oh...and by the way...if you have any spare casualty figures...of any race...please let me know!
Last night I managed to convince a couple of my buddies to have a game of Oldhammer...and we opted to do something a little different....we played a total skirmish game. I home brewed a set of rules using 3ed as the base with some input from Rogue Trader and Realms of Chaos as well as other ideas that randomly popped into my head. The idea was to have a fairly fast flexible game with smallish units (8 max). I think we succeeded...and most importantly we had a lot of fun doing it.
The forces engaged consisted of Dwarfs and Humans (my 5th ed Brets) on the side of light...commanded by Brian....and Chaos Dwarfs and Orcs and Goblins on the side of Chaos...commanded by Tom.
Here are a few pictures of the nights activities...sorry for the
quality...they are all done with my iPhone and under the crappy
florescent lights in my garage.
Here is an overview of the table with Tom starting to move his forces of Chaos (chaos dwarfs and O&Gs) onto the table...
No smart ass comments about the exercise bike in the background...
As you can see we had a fairly dense set of ruins in the center of the table representing a burned out village...this is composed of card building from Dave Graffam.
I just wanted to post a couple of WIP pictures of the unit of Brettonian knights that I've had sitting on my desk for many weeks. I've been having trouble deciding what colors I should use on them and how involved I wanted the heraldry to be. In the end I opted to go for fairly basic designs using all the colors that were employed in my other units. This will give the whole force a bit of coherency but still allow the knights to stand out a bit from the peasant rabble.
As you will recall with the other units of this army I used a Dark Green and a Dark Blue as the unifying colors...and then each unit had a tertiary color to make them unique. So added to the blue and the green are: gray, salmon orange, brick red, golden yellow and to brighten things up I will also employ some white.
So this weekend I managed to get the base colors on all the knights (except the general)...just breaking the inertia and getting moving on these feels really good and I think they will look very nice in a big unit.
This weekend I was feeling pretty low about the number of painted figures I've been able to add to the "completed pile" over the last few months....so I decided to finally get a few decent group shots of Bretonnian warband. These are rather hasty photos...no fancy background and you can see my hobby surface as their battlefield....but I think they still make an impressive looking force.
...plus getting them all set up and pretty looking made me feel a bit better about my output for the year.
Anyway....here they are
I need a bigger backdrop!!!
This ones more of an "enemies POV"
Close up 1
Close up 2
Thats all for now...I hope to have new material to post soon!
