The Knights Errant join the Armee of the Marquis

 Hi all,

Work has continued apace on the new unit of Knights Errant that I'm looking to add to my Bretonnian army for use in both Oldhammer games as well as Oathmark. 

These guys were a lot of fun to paint and also quite a challenge.  There is a LOT of fabric to shade properly on the horses themselves, and the sculpting on the faces of some of the troopers is a little soft and proved difficult for me to complete to my satisfaction.  In reality the sculpts are probably fine but I'm long out of practice on painting the fairly gracial faces of humans in comparison to the exaggerated features found on goblin, orc and dwarf figures.

...either way...they are done now and its time to move on.

Here is the whole unit and below are individual shots of the unit members.

 

Unit Building: Foot Knights for the Armee of the Marquis

 Hello all!

I had a substantial break in my painting flow with the advent of the holidays this year...which involved me traveling back to the midwest for a week without painting supplies!

Our return to Vermont has coincided with some of the coldest days of the year so far and therefore I have the wood stove burning and the ceiling fans on...this leads to very poor painting conditions due to the dry air from the wood heat and breeze from the fans I can hardly keep my wet palette living up to its name for long! 

So...long story short...I'm still plugging away on the unit of Knights Errant.  I think they are looking very good and I'm get close to done. But I've been using these very dry days to focus on my getting my next units of figures ready for the painting desk once the knights trot off into the distance seeking adventure.

I've decided to add some more infantry to the Armee with the addition of two units of Foot Knights.  One unit with heavy armor, and shields, armed with hand weapons.  And one unit in heavy Armor, armed with great weapons.  I've been collecting the Foot Knights that Citadel released in the short lived 3rd edition Bretonnian release for a number of years and have acquired quite a few.  I've decided to add to this and fill out the units with some of the excellent Claymore Castings figures.  These modern castings fit very well with the 3rd edition Perry Bros. sculpted foot knights and add a bit of "movement" to the unit as some of them are dynamically posed in comparison to Citadel knights.

Here are the Great Weapon Knights, I will use them as Linebreakers in Oathmark and as Foot Knights in Oldhammer Games.

I Turn My Attention Back to the Army of the Marquis

  Hi all!

All those months of painting goblins and orcs....wolves and boar ...has compelled me to work on something completely different for awhile. And to work on something with a completely different color palate.

And so, I find myself returning to the Armee of the Maquis d'Saud-or...the small bretonnian army that I painted up 5-6 years ago.  This army is composed entirely of 5th edition Bretonnian figures sculpted by the Perry twins in the mid-1990's.  While these are decidedly "Middlehammer" figures you cannot deny that they are superb sculpts and paint up a treat.  Currently the army is infantry heavy with a unit of halberdmen, a unit of spearmen, two archer units (one of which can be used as scouts...the squires w/bows) a small unit of 7 mounted squires, and a unit of 10 knights. 

 

This small force has been seeing a lot of action in my recent Oathmark games and I really enjoy the way they look on the table...

 

So I've decided to add some to the force by painting another unit of shock cavalry...and for this I will stick to the 5thed figures and add a unit of 10 Knights Errant to the Marquis' forces.

 

I always loved the simpler paint jobs that were given to these figures by the studio painters and I've had these figures in my collection for a number of years now ...so, I am happy to finally have the motivation needed to get them on the table!  

Here's a early WiP pic of the knights as I was starting to figure out color schemes and block in the first colors and flesh tones. 

As you can see I will be mounting them on the cloth barded horses that are typical of 5th edition...at first I wasn't hugely fond of this sculpt, but it has grown on me....particularly with the variation that can be achieved when you employ some of the many optional metal horse heads that were included in this range. You will see that I used several of these head variant in my existing knight unit...but as the Knights Errant are meant to represent less experienced unit of knights I have opted to use the basic plastic heads for all the horses except for that of the hero which will have the metal head variant befitting his rank. 

 As with the first unit of knights I've opted for basic Heraldry with quartered surcoats for the knights and caparisons for the horses.  While somewhat basic on an individual basis I think this makes for a very striking unit on the table that doesn't appear as "cluttered" as some knightly units can that have a ton of complicated heraldry.

For colors I've returned to the same palette as the previous knights and selected the more muted tones again.  I'm really fond of all these colors and feel that they are a nice change from the pure primary colors traditionally associated with heraldry. Here they are a little further along in the process

In the foggy recesses of my mind I'm slowly coalescing my thoughts around these color schemes....basically each color being representative of particular noble family in the Lands of the Marquis.  When these families intermingle through marriage some interesting color combinations are created for their sons to wear in combat.  For example...you may notice that the leader of my first Knight unit has quartered salmon/grey livery (and portcullis Shield).

 

...while the leader of the Errants unit will have salmon/white livery (it looks orange now but will highlight up to that salmon color.)

 

...the presence of salmon on both leaders surcoats suggests that they are brothers, or at least closely related.  I will further reinforce this connection by also giving the Errants hero a shield with the Portcullis on it.  The rest of the unit will have plain shields.

Anyway...as I said its something I'm still pondering on.

Highlights have been progressing on the Caparisons and surcoats....here is the current state of the project.  Most colors have been highlighted...just the hardest one left to do...the White Livery....I see a hundred layers in my future!

 I hope to be back with some updated paintjobs on these guys as the years comes to a close.

Cheers,

Blue

4th Edition Marauder Goblin Wolf Boys...the end is in sight ya'll!!

 Hi all,

Yes! its true! The end is in sight! I'm nearly complete with the long running Goblin Wolf Boy project that has been the theme of of Quarintime Painting.

Today I bring you the last of the big groups of Wolf boys...after this there will be 6-10 more random Citadel riders I will paint up in the future to round out some units...but this is the last big batch.

This time I'm presenting my take on the 4th edition wolf boys.  These fantastic Colin Dixon sculpts were done for the Marauder range...when it was being re-incorporated back in to mainstream Citadel.  These figures were one of the first to come with the new range of plastic mounts that citadel released with the new edition.  These guys came with extremely large plastic wolves...I've never liked them and opted to find alternative mounts for my troopers.

I tried all the metal wolf options I could think of and none of them really fit properly as these goblins are a fair amount larger than their 3rd edition brothers...and the 3rd edition wolves seem quite small under these guys.  Finally I settled on the old Wolf sculpts from the classic Goblin Battle Chariots.  These wolves are quite a bit larger than the other wolves used for mounts and they fit very well with the 4th edition goblins. I took me quite awhile to track down 16 of these wolves...but with that goal accomplished I settled down to prepping the unit and started painting.

Here is the assembled unit...

 

and here they are Painted!!!

Citadel Goblin Stickas ...a new Unit is born

 Hi all,

Today I have a few more excellent Kev Adams Goblin sculpts to share with you, and for once they have nothing to do with wolf riders!

...well..

...thats not exactly true.  😁  

 These are actually all goblin infantry figures that I had determined could be "converted" to fit on wolves and join my mounted force...so I painted them along with all the citadel wolf boys I showed in the last post.  But as the wolf rider project evolved, I found that I already had enough mounted archers and so, these guys would have to revert to their original function as infantry. In this case as a unit of Stickas.  So I pulled had to drill holes in their feet to pin them to the bases because I had already removed their tabs to make them into cavalry...but it was worth the effort...some great figures in this group.  Included the bearded Goblins!

First off some unit Pics...

Citadel Wolf Riders ...Face Mace and the boyz...

 Hi y'all,

Here is just a quick post to share with you the current state of the Citadel Wolf riders that I delved into immediately after the wrapping up the Marauder Wolf Boys.

I really love all of these figures and the amazing skills of Kev Adams are clearly on display in this unit..everyone of them is a pleasure to paint and is full of character.  Overall these Wolf boys have a leaner, hungry feel to them and they ooze mischief and casual violence.  

...and of course you have FACE MACE!!!

 

Marauder Goblin Wolf Boys...The Horde Rampages on...

 Hi all,

The time has finally time come for some group shots of the Marauder Wolf boys!  

I had the terrain boards set up for a game of Oathmark that I was playing with my local gaming crew...

...yes! that's right actual in-person gaming was going on!! of course we were in an open garage and keeping our distance.  Everyone had their own dice and tape measure.

anyway... after the game ended and everyone went home I packed up the wolf boys and brought them down to get some shots on the table.

Here they are!! soon to be Rampaging through a village near you!!

 

Marauder Goblin Wolf Boys...The odd balls.

 

 So...here we are again...

You may have thought: "He must be done now! after torturing us with all those blister packs..."

...but you would be wrong! 😂

Today I'm back with the Odd Balls of the Marauder Wolf Boyz Horde that I've assembling.

These are figures that don't appear in the packs...or have been "converted" in some way.  Several of them are figures sold as Infantry Goblins...but I have mounted them on wolves.  One of them used to be on a different type on mount all together! ...and one of them isn't even a Marauder miniature.

Anyway...Lets take a look. 

The first three are figures that were not intended to be on Wolfs that I "converted" to fit on a Wolfie..

Marauder Goblin Wolf Boys Hero Pack! MM32/1

The last of the blister packs from the 3rd edition Marauder Wolf Boys range that I need to share with you is the two figure Command pack MM32/1.  This pack contains the fantastic Major Hero on a cloth barded wolf with a back banner, as well as the mounted archer Hero who is one of my absolute favorite sculpts from this range.

Both these figures are fantastic...and it is obviously from the Hero's back banner with its Dagger and Heart symbol that I have taken to replicate for the shields on all the riders from this range.  I feel like this pulls the whole force together in a cohesive manner despite the variety of sculpts contained in the range.

Here they are with the Catalog Drawings

Marauder Wolf Boys MM34/1 and MM34/2!!! Double Feature!!

 I had planned to post up one new blister of painted wolf boys a week as I worked through this range...but the time between posts and started to stretch out again so I thought I better kick it into high gear and do a double issue!!

...plus I'm getting impatient and want to share these pictures ASAP..:😉

Lets get right to it.  Here are the two packs with their catalog drawings.

MM34/1

Marauder Wolf Boys MM32/2

 Hi all,

Another week another Blister pack of Marauder Goblin Wolf Boys!

Today we will be looking at one of my favorite packs from this range MM32/2.  Most of these blister packs have at least one figure that I like less than the others...but in this case I really like all three of these sneaky lil gitz.This is a solid pack all around. 

Here they are as a group...

Marauder Wolf Boys Intro and MM32/3

 Hi all,

I'm finally back with some finished Wolf Boys!  I'll start this parade of Wolfie goodness by having a look at the classic (and my favorite) Wolf Boys the Marauder MM32/34 Ranges.  The catalog pics for the old Marauder promotional material was based on Black and White line drawings of the figures ...which do a adequate job of capturing the figures features but don't really express the character of the figures fully.  While these are not the work of the "Goblin-master" Kev Adams, but rather from the talented hands of Trish Carden (Morrison), they are distinct from their Citadel brethren...but I find them a very appealing alternative.

Citadel Wolf Riders ...it begins. ...again! WIP shots PART II

Alrighty then...

Here we are again with another WIP post on the Citadel Wolf rider horde that I'm currently laboring away on.  Over the weekend I was able to get the last couple of highlights done on the Goblin Flesh portions of this group...

...and as some have expressed an appreciation of seeing WiP shots (and the fact that I find it motivating to post more often) here are a couple of pictures the horde broken down into unit types.

Here are the Melee Boyz...

Citadel Wolf Riders ...it begins. ...again! WIP shots

Hi all,

Stopping by with a quick post to update you on the progress of the next large batch of wolf riders I've been working on.

I've made progress, but working on a grouping this large means that the pace is glacial.  I often only work on one highlight color a day...when you are applying it to 29 models it takes awhile!

Marauder Wolf Boyz...Part Duex Plus One! 4th ed Models Riders Complete

Hi all,

I'm finally back with the completed riders from the 4th edition Goblin Wolf Rider release.  I've been plugging away at these while trying to work and home school at the same time so they took a little longer than I expected but I'm really happy with the result.

This group is full of great characters and the musician is certainly a favorite.

Marauder Wolf Boyz...Part Duex! 4th ed models WIP

Welcome fellow social distancers!!

As my family settles into the new reality of working at home while attempting to home school two young children I've been finding that my painting time, though somewhat more restricted, has become all the more precious.  When I put on my headphones and some good music and have the chance to sit down and paint...that is my chance to escape from the stress of what has become the new "Norm."

So...I've been moving ahead with my second set of Wolf Riders...this time the 4th edition Marauder Wolf riders. While these models are technically outside of my normal definition of "Oldhammer" I've always appreciated the sculpts and decided to build a unit of them for my army.  While I like the rider sculpts I really detest the plastic wolves that these guys were originally supplied with.  In an effort to rid myself of those plastic abominations and "Oldhammer-up" these Middlehammer models I've decided to mount my unit on older Citadel metal wolves...specifically the ones from the Goblin War Chariots.  These are larger than the standard wolves supplied with the 3rd edition citadel Goblin Wolf Riders (which I will be painting after these) but fit well with these slightly larger riders...have a look.

This range contains 16 total unique models and I am currently working on one of each of these 16 figures.  Here is the catalog picture showing all the figures.

And here is where I am with the figures at the moment.  These are still WIP but are coming along quickly now.  I will present them in the same groupings as in the catalog.

Command section

Hand Weapons

Archers

...and Spears.

 Next time I hope to showing the finished riders!!!

Cheers,

Blue

Imperial Army of Salsburg, Dwarf Corps, Pikes

Hi all,

Up next in our look at the Dwarf portion of the Grand Army of Slasburg is a unit that is something special...at least to me.

Seeing this advertisement in White Dwarf in 1991 was a pivotal moment in my hobby career...

Puff and Slash Dwarf Army....The Grind Continues...Part Duex!

Back with a brief update on the progress being made on the large group of marauder puff and slash dwarfs that I have been working through.  The group has expanded to 33 figures with the addition of a three figures from the classic Marauder Pike Dwarf unit...namely the Leader, Standard Bearer and a trooper.

After being out of town for a week doing some field work I immediately got back to work upon my return.

The first things I accomplished was base coating and highlighting the many Gold bitz on these figures. 

Puff and Slash Dwarf Army...the Grind continues!

Hi all,

After the OWAC and the tremendous progress that was made toward completing my Puff and Slash Dwarf Army I have been continuing to plug away at the last troops for this force.  I am determined to finish up this army ASAP...

...to that end I've been fairly diligent about working through a large group of figures all at once to try and push this across the finish line.  So...I assembled a group of 30 minis that will fill out my existing units to their final size as well and complete an entirely new unit of heavy infantry.  This process has involved Batch Painting one of the largest group of figures I have ever tried to complete in a single go....and significant progress is being made.

However...no I've had to leave town for week to do some field work and I was not able to finish these batch before I left.

So...I thought I would get some WIP pics up on this blog to let you know what I've been working on and to help motivate me to push it thru once I'm finally back at the painting desk!  My excitement level is fading as I get down to the details so I need all the encouragement I can get!

Ok...As usual I started with Dark Grey Auto Primer for all figures...then I applied the base colors to the major areas.

The Game is Afoot! LPL 8 Announcement...the planning begins!

This last week saw the announcement of the latest iteration of the Lead Painters League over on the Lead Adventure Forum.  The rules this year have been streamlined a bit and the focus seems to be coming back to painting over elaborate scenic set ups...which suits me just fine as I have so little decent scenery against which to photo my figures.  Also the total number of figures to be painted has been slightly reduced....again this suits me well as I'm always so rushed to get teams done.