Tuesday, June 29, 2010

28mm HoTT Dwarves

I finished my first lot of 28mm dwarves for a HoTT army. My goal was to do this army using bits and pieces I could find for cheap. As it happens, I ended up with a group of dwarves and other dwarf-compatible figures through an eBay lot. I finished 8-bases today:

The front row are four bases of blades. I have another four bases of spear currently on the workbench. These were sold to me as being part of the old Battle Master game but clearly are not. The command figures (below, left) I know are GW (got them in a trade) and the other mono-pose axe-men (below, right) look like old GW. The plastic is hard but will not activate with regular aircraft glue. Weird and a pain in the butt to get the shields on. Eventually I used Future to stick them down and reinforce them.

In the lots were also three wolf-riders from Battle Master (sans riders) this these were converted to beasts. I was thinking about a Scandinavian theme for these dwarves and "good" wolves feature in some of these stories so there they are.

These horsemen are supposed to be Empire knights (again from Battle Master) but are a bit small these days for 28s. But they look like dwarves so my dwarves will have lots of damned heavy cavalry. I have another three or four bases of these to do. These fellows had two broken lances so I added on some axes and the banner is tin foil.

There are two of these heroes that are identical with the heavier barded horses. These are lovely three-piece kits--again from Battle Master.

Finally we have a generic HoTT stronghold (the tower from Battle Master).

The remainder of the army includes a cannon, some crossbow shooters, spear men and cavalry.

Up next: Well, I unexpectedly sold my skeleton HoTT army yesterday and am finishing up one piece to go with it. I have enough to build a second one in the basement so that project will come to the front burner. I might build hordes in lieu of blades this time. I also have 24 15mm AWI guys finished and drying. They need a dip then basing. There are more of these to go. And I have a job lot of elves on the way. And there is a goblin army from Battle Master awaiting attention too.

Monday, June 28, 2010

28mm DBA: Death or Glory

I braved rain and lightening to drop by Dave's last night to have my Marian Romans crushed 3-0 by his Gallic hordes. This was the first time my 28mm Romans had been out and it was not a good night!

The low aggression of the Gallic army allowed them to pick the battlefield and populate it with terrain.

I tried to stay compact to keep my hitting force together and hopefully engage him piecemeal.

But the terrain was a nightmare for the blades; I just don't know how to fight like this. What a shellacking!

Up next: Some 28mm dwarves and some 15mm AWI are primered and ready to get painted this afternoon.

Bob

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

28mm Skeletal HoTT army

As promised, I finished painting the core of a 28mm skeletal HoTT army.

I've snuck the five bases of blades I previously did into this shot to show the complete 24AP army.

I needed to finish up some horses.

These look pretty good but are a bit brittle, especially after I cut them off their bases!

I also did a bunch of shooters.

This fellow seems to have picked up his bow after he cut the lawn. Everytime I see him I think he's shouting "we will rock you!".

I also did some putty work and customizing to make this hero general. I have a hero magician on the works.

These are all plastics from GW (excepting the flyer) that I have gotten either as trades or through buying remainders. The flyer is a piece from Reaper called a murder of crows.

Overall, a good start. there are some chariots (knights) as well as a bunch more shooters and then some hordes to do. I quite like Tim Brown's notion that the main skeleton troop should be hordes. I'd also like to do a lurker.

Up next: Some 28mm dwarves are underway (and going quickly) and some 15mm AWI troops should be arriving soon.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

28mm Marian Roman DBA army finished!

Yes, the blog has been quiet for awhile as gardening, building a garage and some work angst has intervened in my life. But I have been painting a bit and finally finished a 28mm all option Marian (and Polybian) Roman DBA army using only 28mm plastics.

To complete this project I needed to knock off another three bases of legion (4Bd).

The detail that can be pulled out of these plastics is really good.

I also needed to do a base of 4Ax.

Here is the fully army, ready to rumbled with all options.

And a tighter shot. I just need to make a camp and a measuring stick and I'm ready to go!

Up next: I have a skeletal HoTT army I need to flock the bases on to finish. There are several more bases that need painting but I can field at least 24AP with the finished pieces so I'm going to move onto a small dwarf army I got on ebay. And there are some 15mm AWI figures coming in for painting for a friend in the US. Now off to help my wife explain to my daughter how Einstein and Frankenstein are unrelated.

Monday, June 7, 2010

28mm Skeleton Hordes

Well, actually blades or maybe spears, we'll have to see what makes sense when my copy of HoTT arrives. But I did manage to get 20 figures off the painting bench on the weekend. As I await reinforcements, I am cooking up a few more.

The command stand was pre-assembled by the last owner so all I did was paint and base.

I went with green after experimenting with a couple of different themes, including a washed-out mismash. I think I will do a mismash for the hordes stands but assumed these elite skeletons would be a bit more orderly with uniform colours (a household guard, perhaps).

Overall, these figures have nice details front and back. I believe they are plastic GW Tomb Kings. I have a couple of extra sprues that I'm fiddling with now to make a couple of magician types. Maybe with flowing robes and whatnot.

There are some nice shields in this set.

I did some wet-on-wet blending to get some interesting colour patterns.

I think they scale nicely against these Wargames Factory Romans.

Up next: I have assembled and primed the last 28mm Romans I need to complete the Marian/Polybian army so those will get painted soon. I am also working some magicians/heros for the Tomb King army. When a box arrives from Tim, I will put together some shooters, knights and riders--depending on what is in the box. By then some more 15mm commission work should have arrived.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

June 1 EWG Games Night

It was the club last night and we had about 11 guys out, including newcomer John (I think?).

Chen and Justin played a game of Chain Reaction while four guys played Warmachine.

Dave and Scott played a grudge match of Impetus, with Scott pitting his Macedonians against Dave's Romans. Scott's elephant looked cool but didn't do a very good job for him!

This was the situation when I left but I understand Scott eked out a draw (good work!).

Andy and I played a bit of Full Thrust Star Trek. Game one was a straight up fight with many small ships versus a few big ones. I got into a turning fight with the damned klingons and got blown to pieces (KHAAAAAAN!). Stupid tactics on my part. Then we played a scenario where I played the Klingons, bravely flying through the asteroid belts and still got shot to pieces. Andy almost walked home!

Up next: I have a bunch of 28mm skeletons based and ready to shoot. Perhaps I'll try to build the remaining legionnaires for my Marian 28mm DBA army this weekend.