Reiksguard Unit Complete!!

 For my January submission to the Call of the Crown painting challenge I have produced a unit of 15 Reiksguard knights to act as the elite heavily armored warriors of Salzburg. 

This unit consists of all metal Reiksguard models from the 1991 release with the Armored Halberd hero added as the leader of the unit because I think he fits stylistically. The "original" hero of this unit has been demoted to unit Champion and he sports the golden armor to recognize his considerable skill.

Here is the complete unit...

...and here is a look at the individual ranks...

Front Rank

Second Rank

Third Rank

For shields I chose to use one from the old Marauder Fighter shield sprue...which has also supplied shields for my Bretonian halberdmen (the stag shield), and there are still plenty more options that I'll employ where needed in this army.  For example I'll probably use a different one from this sprue for my spear unit.

For the unit banner I have combined the two common elements of the other Salzburg Regimental banners.  The human units tend to incorporate the "Imperial eagle" motif, and the dwarf units tend to display the "Mountain and sunburst" emblems.  As this unit will represent the Warrior elite of Salzburg it incorporates both elements into one banner.  In hindsight I should have put the white eagle on a red background instead of blue...as it would contrast with the other half of the flag better...but oh well.

I do have the figures to increase this unit to 20 troops...but they would be non-traditional Reiksguard figures from the Marauder fighters range, and one classic Citadel foot knight...what do you all think about incorporating these guys into these classic models? I can't stand the idea of inserting any more copies of the existing figures...so these would bring a certain amount of "diversity" to the ranks.

Next up I'll be moving onto another unit of halberds and some missile support for these infantry units.

Cheers,

Blue

Armored Halberdmen

 I've recently transitioned to working on my puff and slash Empire army.  These units will join my puff and slash dwarf army to represent the Human Corps from the City/state of Salzburg. I'm Participating in the Call of the Crown 2 painting challenge as motivation to get a good amount of these figures painted in the next few months.  

First off the desk are the Armored Halberdmen (Human Linebreakers in Oathmark). This unit is composed of all metal miniatures dating from the early 1990's released during the slow transition from 3rd edition WFB to 4th edition.  While I really appreciate the older more ragamuffin nature of the earlier Empire range (and will be using them for militia units in the future) its these figures that I fell in love with when they were released that I think of when discussing empire troops.  Its taken me quite a awhile and considerable amount of coin to collect the figures for this project but its long term goal that is fun to check off. 

From the excellent Empire range of Halberdmen released at the time I have chosen to form this unit from only those models that are wearing heavier armor...all the others will be part of another lightly armored unit. this has meant the use of several duplicate models...so I've attempted to add as much diversity to this unit as possible by modifying a few of the figures and incorporating "non-traditional" troopers like the bloke with the hook halberd from the War Wagon model.  I've also chosen to use one of the fantastic Marauder Reiksguard figures as this units leader because he is outfitted with a Halberd and doesn't really fit with my other Reiksguard figures.

Here is the completed 20-man strong unit Photographed in front of the wonderful backdrop from Trish! 😍

and here are some pics of the back ranks.

...and here is a separate shot of the Command section and two troopers which constituted my December submission for the painting challenge.

Lots of really amazing sculpts in this range and they were a lot of fun to paint.

Next up I'll be working on a Reiksguard infantry unit.

Cheers,

Blue

Dwarf Army Progress Shots...Almost There!!

Hi all,

As most of you probably know I have spent the past six months painting frantically for the second Old World Army Challenge.  It was, once again, a grueling effort but I did manage to finish and add a significant new contingent to my Puff and Slash Dwarf Army...which is my oldest army and one of the largest.

As I was finishing the challenge and and preparing to take some shots of the entire 1000 point force that I had managed to paint...I thought it would also be a good idea to combine them with all my other Empire Dwarf figures to show the current status of the entire army.

This proved to be a lot of fun and, though the set up and prep work took some time I think it was worth the effort.  Now this army is NOT complete...several of the units will be further expanded....several have a few partially painted figures....almost all units are still lacking banners...and there is one entire unit not represented at all in these pics.  Despite these deficiencies I find this kind of photography to be very inspiring and feel that it really gives me a feel for where the army as going as well as indicating what needs to be finished up.

For this photo shoot I used two of my modular terrain tiles and a number of the houses and walls that I scratch built in the last two years...as well as a portion of the Might Fortress.  I'm still having trouble with the backdrop situation, but for the time being I used a sheet of green foam board as my backdrop...less than ideal but sufficient for now.

Anyway...lets take a look...

Here is the Dwarf line of battle for the Grand Army of Salsburg.

The Last of Averland

Hi all,

I've been in finishing mode for the last few days...trying to clear my table for a larger challenge on the near horizon.

One of the things that has been lingering on my painting desk for wwwaaayyy too long is the very last few figures of a commission that I've been "working" on for a very patient member of the LAF.  These are the last three figures for a largish warband of puff and slash figures that I have painted in the traditional colors of Averland...Black and Yellow.  The rest of the Warband can be seen HERE.

New Terrain in Use! Orcs attack!

Howdy Ya'll!!

Before I had the excellent game of Donnyhammer with my local gaming group the other day I also took the opportunity to have a bit of a photo session with my newly completed houses and a couple of my Terrain boards.

For this effort I employed two of my completed Terrain boards and set them up with all the lights I have on hand and "decorated" them with all the buildings and rock walls that have been the subject of several of my last posts.

This is what the set up looked like before I populated it with figures...

2016 Year in Review...

Well...

I'm a bit late with this post but here goes....this is my attempt to summarize my hobby efforts for the past year and to look forward to what I hope to accomplish for 2017.

As with my previous review I'll address things in 3 broad categories:

• Gaming
• Painting
• 2017 goals

Gaming,
2016 was a great year for gaming in Blue's world...I played more games this year than I have in a very long time.  This included a bi-weekly gaming session with my local gaming partner during which we explored Space Hulk, Frostgrave, Dragon Rampant, and Rogue trader games.  I also played a fantastic game of RT with some of my other local gaming friends early in the year.

Pike Dwarfs...Unit building

Well...after enjoying painting that MM15 Dwarf with the Pike for the Paint it Forward event...I've felt the strong urge to build and complete my Dwarf pike blocks.

The Marauder Pike Dwarfs were, and are, some of my all time favorite figures from the Golden Era.  They are the figures that hooked me as a child and continue to do so today.  Though they have been long discarded by modern Warhammer Bullshit fluff they will always hold a holy place in my Oldhammer dwarf army.

After completing the MM15 I pulled out my current pike unit...a 15 strong force that is mostly sporting paint jobs dating to the Regan administration.  To these I added another 13 unpainted pike dwarfs and this is the resulting unit.

Paint it Forward...Dwarf Pikeman

Hi all,

Recently there has been a initiative on the forums and Facebook groups that some are calling "Paint it Forward".  The idea is that you offer up a nice model for someone else to paint...you ship it to whomever accepts your offer...and they are obligated to paint that figure and offer another figure to a different painter...who would then paint that figure and offer another up for grabs...you get the idea.

When Bill from the wilds of western New York offered up one of my absolute favorite Marauder Dwarfs as his Paint it Forward figure...I couldn't resist and jumped at the chance to paint this fantastic figure.

Oldhammer in the New World: Blue's View...Day 1

Well, its Wednesday night and I finally feel ready to review the weekends events in detail....the drive home sucked and I'm only now feeling human again.

As previously mentioned I arrived in Baltimore around 7:30 ion Friday and met up with Tom (AirborneGrove) and Don (Thefan) at DropZone Games to help set-up.  Soon Rusty and Richard (OrcLord) showed up with the main tables and we had our hands full bringing in the supplies for the RoC Warbands and Siege Games.  But we could only get so far before DropZone closed for the night.

As I understand it the crew staying at the Days Inn (You know who you are!) might have had a bit to drink and stayed up half the night talking.  I on the other hand was back in my hotel room by 10 and finished up a few things on my army then sacked out...the 9 hour drive had caught up to me.

Saturday morning I loaded up and was at DropZone by 9am.  Caught up with the same crew from the previous night and also finally got to meet Blake and Kyle in person as well.  We all got busy setting up tables...Don set up his 3D Space Hulk table...We all Chipped in helping Richard with the enormous mass of troops for his spectacular siege game...and the rest of the terrain was added to the Warbands table.

As the morning wore on more and more folks arrived and soon the place had more than 20 Oldhammerers shooting the shit...trading lead...ogling the siege game and other tables and generally having a good old time. During this time Chris (Darrin Stephens) Showed up and set up his RT Demo game and soon the dice were flying.

Richard, Don, Andy, Gary and anyone who could be persuaded to roll some dice stopped by the Siege game that pitted a truly epic Greenskin horde attempting the clear the heavily defended Empire earthworks in front of the city wall they hopped to take.   The number and quality of miniatures on this table was truly mind blowing.  Lets look at some pictures!

The Rest of Averland...Part VI...the end....finally

In my last post I alluded to another commission that I was finally able to finish up...lets take a look... 

This one was a really joy to work on because it included so many really fantastic classic figures.  I am of course speaking of the group of Averlander's that I have been working on for thebinman for far too long.

I've discussed this group in some detail elsewhere so lets just get into the pictures.

First off is the group that has been completed the longest...a wonderful combination of races that makes for a very evocative little group.

LPL Round 7: thebinman's Surprise

Howdy all,

Just a quick update...the summer is really starting to ramp up and the painting schedule is taking a hit.  for the seventh round of the LPL I had to compromise....basically there was no way I was going to be able to get a new team painted in time...but I wanted to have an interesting and compelling entry even if the figures weren't "new" ...so I opted to fall back on the the Averlanders that I have been painting up for thebinman...a fellow lead head from the LAF.  So I did a little touch up and finished a couple of shields that had been lack and then set them all up on my Photo board for their moment in the sun.

Here they are:

The Rest of Averland...Part V

Howdy all!

So ...just to show that I haven't been completely ignoring my other obligations I wanted to take the chance to post up a picture of the Averlanders I've been working on for months now.  At this point I'm just left with the niggling details, a couple of shields and, of course, the bases to complete.  Since our last installment I have highlighted and washed all the "white" metal.  Highlighted the leather and brown bits.  Added wood grain to the wood....and most obviously given these guys some hair/beard colors.

Lets take a look...

The Rest of Averland...Part IV

Though illness and the Thanksgiving holiday have made my painting time somewhat scarce over the last week I have made some modest progress on the Averlanders.  I've highlighted up the the yellow to completion and started in on the white cloth....which will get just one more highlight before it is complete.  With the major areas of cloth being nearly complete the figures are starting to look pretty good...there is still plenty to do but its nice to see them coming along. 

Here are some pictures.

And just for fun...and to assure that the current figures will match with those that I painted early last spring...here is a picture with a mix of the finished figures and some of the WIP pieces...

It looks like they are going to fit right in!

Next I will be finishing up the white highlights then move on to choosing beard and hair colors and starting in on the leather and other brown pieces.

Cheers,

Blue

Modern crossbows for classic figures

While I have tremendous respect and admiration of many of the sculpts from the classic period of WFB I've have never been a fan of the plastic crossbows that some of them were armed with.  These plastic pieces were used by troops of many different armies including dwarfs, empire, orcs, bretonnian, and chaos dwarfs....and they looked terrible in all their hands...

Something Special up for Trade MM66 Reiksguard Knight

All right....it's time to get serious about moving one of my precious MM66 knights along.....these guys are very rare and fairly valuable particularly since it comes with a horse as well....it has taken me several years to collect 3 of the 5 sculpts but now it's time to focus on closing out some of my other needs..... so I'm looking for trade offers for this guy

Here is a link to my wants album...anyone want to make a deal?

http://photobucket.com/albums/k285/csabick/Miniatures Wants List

Cheers,

Blue

LPL Round 9: Averland's Best

Late last winter I was approached by a fellow member of the Lead Adventure Forum about a small painting commission.  thebinman had a group of old empire figures that he wanted me to paint up for him as a Mordhiem warband from Averland.  Since he offered to compensate me in old lead I had no choice but to accept....:)

...I had hoped to complete two teams of thebinman's figures for LPL teams but as things worked out with RL I was only able to get one completed before the contest ended.....this team was my Round 9 entry.  I picked my 5 favorite figures from this commission and went to town!  Among the group of figures that thebinman sent along were many classics and the choice was difficult but these five seemed to fit well together with their strong Puff and Slash style...plus the variety of heights/races made for an interesting team.

Anyway...here is my entry photo

This is a hastily taken iPhone picture...the camera does pretty well!

Loverly figures all!

As I have been laid up with my ankle, one of the tasks I've managed to complete is the basing on these guys...I also took proper pictures with my better camera...so lets look at each figure in detail with those photos.

On the left here we have a classic Marauder Halfling.  Just a wonderful face on this guy...I stupidly sold my complete unit of Marauder halflings when I got back into the hobby a few years ago and after painting this guy they have gone back on the acquire list!

 Next to him is "Piers," (...'cause he has a crossbow see?! haha...very clever) a venerable model from the early Citadel Empire range.  I like the figure overall...the look on his face is a bit odd...but still fun to paint.

In the middle we have one of the absolutely wonderful Marauder Puff and Slash Ogres...and one I hadn't painted before! I tackled most of this small range for a previous LPL entry but this guy was new to me and that made him particularly fun to paint.  I was a little perplexed about the severed head between his legs (see the picture of the back of the figure)...to me it was unclear what type of head it was....shrunken head trophy?  Head of another Ogre? Troll? so I went with a flesh color that could be interpreted a number of ways...:)

Next up is another bad ass figure... Smiorgan Baldhead from the Eternal Champion Personalities range...I figure I covet very much!  ...love the wicked scar on his face!

And last...but certainly not least....one of the absolute best dwarf miniatures....Ever!  The Marauder MM15 Zweihandler Figure.  My copy of this figure is still untouched....its one of those ones that I'm kind of intimidated by...so having another to work on in a completely different color scheme was really a pleasure.  His beard gave me fits...and still might get one more highlight...but overall my appreciation for this figure was only increased by having painted it....Now I'm itching to get to mine!

The Yellow and Black color scheme proved to be a fun challenge as well....both of these are colors that I tend to avoid doing large areas of if possible.  Black in particular has always been one I've avoided...I had to do a lot of internet research on different techniques before I found one I was willing to try...and over all I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Anyway....gotta get back to the couch and put my leg on a bag of ice!

Cheers for now...

Blue

New Recruits for the Oldhammer Gods!

Last Thursday saw me hosting another 3rd ed game at my house which pitted several of my work friends and associated against one another.  After being quite loud during our last game we had been relocated to the garage for this one.  This battle consisted of a combined force of humans and dwarfs commanded by Alex and Cher (with help from Black lab Shelby) squaring off against a Chaos and Greenskin force under the control of Tom, Samantha, and Paul.  The mission was to search a small farmstead located in the middle of the table for an undefined "target of priority."  Once again I didn't take enough pictures or notes to try and produce a real AAR but I thought I would share some pictures just for fun...

Chaos Hound Shelby hopes that little lead men are edible!

Alex and Cher Position their troops...

Watch Out! Paul has a Funny look in his eye! Sam doesn't seem too impressed with her first game...but she loved it by the end.

Cher Advances the Dwarfs on the Goodies left flank...hey girl your chaos attribute is showing! That's some pink hair!

Alex moves some of the human troops into the farmstead...

...out of the cabin run two dwarf treasure hunters carrying a dragon egg!  After them!

The Dragon Company prepares to receive a charge from Goblin Wold Riders (check out my new movement trays!)

The battle was a real defensive struggle...no one had hot dice hands when it came to combat and everyone did when it came to Ld tests...so not much of significance happened for most of the night...until we were all bleary eyed and ready to throw in the towel.  Tom talked us into one more turn...I think this was turn 9 or 10...and then practically the whole left flank of the Good Guys gave way when the three remaining Chaos Marauders broke a unit of Dwarf thunderers...this led too...

...sad Cher.  We all bagged it and went home. It had been a long night!

We could have certainly played a few more turns...we had units that hadn't even gotten into combat yet...and the egg was still escaping off the table...but we were all crispy and ready to call.  It was a fun night and I have recruit a few more minions for my 3rd ed games!

Cheers,

Blue

A Brief Update

So the holiday season got the better of me this year and I got little done in the way of hobby over the last month.  That said I thought I would keep my loyal readers (yes I'm talking about you...;) ) up to date on what I have been doing.

Since my last post I've been working on a couple of painting commissions...some of which I hope to share with you soon...some of which will have to wait awhile.  Other than that I got exactly NO painting done...sigh.  I did build a few more units...yes there are more!  This consisted of basing up much of my Chaos force....insert teaser pic

Marauder Thug Regiment with a couple of Citadel Thugs added to mix things up a bit.

More of that force to come in the future.

I also built a couple of mounted units...including this group of Oldworlder Knights (aka 4th ed. Brets)...

Mix of Knights of the Realm, Questing Knights, and Knights Errant.

....sooo....the to-be-painted pile grows to mind numbing porpotions...

...best not to think about it!

I did manage to squeeze in another 3e game with my crew from work.  This battle saw a mostly Empire army (including a few dwarfs and some halflings) facing off against a Chaos War Band that included Marauders, Dwarfs, Beastmen, and a Troll.  This game featured even less painted troops than the last battle and we were forced to rely on very basic scenery...some would call it primitive.  Anyway...it wasn't the most photogenic game but it was a lot of fun and we found out that my co-worker Paul has Magic Dice Hands!  particularly when rolling for missle troops...his empire archers and handgunners mowed down huge numbers of enemy troops in this battle despite a BS of 3.

Here is one embarrassing picture just o prove that it happened...

Sigh...so many unpainted figures and crappy terrain pieces...My Kingdom for more TIME!

So thats been the last month at Blue's house....I hope the next one allows me to make progress on a few of my lead piles and I'll be sure to share pictures with you if it does!

Cheers for now!

Blue