Incoming V

Ok, well with the Christmas rush and whatnot, I've neglected this a bit, however, in my defence, I did have a Forgeworld Toad Dragon to finish off, and just picked up a commission for a Grey Knights army.

Got my package in from Rebel Minis on Christmas Eve, a few packs of Demonworld minis from the missus on Christmas Day, and my Khurasan order arrived a few days later.

Haul as follows -

Rebel Minis

Wolfen Army
22 x Titan Marines Infantry
6 x Titan Marines Command
6 x Titan Marine Heavy Weapons
2 x Titan Marine Mortar Teams
MATV Apache
21 x The Scourge (Aliens)

Demonworld

10 Beastmen with Hand Weapons
10 Beastmen with Spears
3 Beastmen Command

8 Armoured Beastmen
4 Beastmen Commanders
10 Brothers of the Icelord

Probably enough for a full Mighty Armies force, but they will certainly need reinforced for larger games.  Really impressed with the sculpts, especially considering some are over 15 years old, and am keen to add more to the collection in future.



Khurasan Miniatures

 INITIATE CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL
6 x Timonid Black Tigers
26 x Chewk tribesmen
Chewk weapons teams (two chewkgun (MG) teams with guns, two chewkbomber (mortar) teams with guns, two chewkzooka (bazooka)
4 x Octopus God Cultist High Priest and Inner Sanctum Bodyguard
4 x Octopus God Cultists with Rifles



And so with that, I bid you all farewell to 2011, and, very soon, welcome to 2012.  I've been doing a bit of discussing gaming with a mate, and we have come up with some rough plans for a year of gaming, but I'll talk about them next time.


See you all next year!

Incoming IV (and other stuff)

Of course, my knowledge of Roman numerals is nowhere near as great as my capacity for buying stuff, so I may have to work out a new heading method...


Anyway, orders arrived this morning from Copplestone and Fighting 15's, haul as follows -

Copplestone -

3 x Barbarian Command packs - because I wanted 2 army standards for the base stand, plus a spare one for a chariot conversion.  Plus, 9 units worth of command will be good for the army.

2 x Shapechangers & Cave Bears - I wasn't overly concerned about the Bears, but the Barbarians with two-handed weapons are sweet, and will make do as the start of a small unit.  I've emailed Mark about them being released separately, and he said he'll see what he can do.

1 x Snow Trolls - because I needed another one to go with...

1 x Yetis - Yeah, they are 28mm scale, but should make a very imposing Champion/Hero model for my Snow Trolls.

Fighting 15's - Eureka 18mm Fantasy

A selection of Uruk-hai, to do a Lord of the Rings themed Mighty Armies force.  One pack each of Armoured Man-orc Command, Crossbows, Pikes and Blades, as well as Orc Command and Orcs on Fell Beasts with Blade.  Which are 'Warg Riders' and not to be confused with the other type of fell beast.  Like this -

Copplestone 10mm Fantasy

Which is from Copplestone's 10mm Fantasy line, and was painted a couple of years ago.

I like the Eureka stuff and will definitely be ordering more (at some point, he says, remembering rash New Year Resolutions) and will aim for full 40AP forces of the Fighting Uruk-hai (Armoured Man-Orcs), Uruk-hai Scouts (Man-Orc light infantry), Orcs (Errrr... orcs) and Warg Riders (Orcs on fell beasts).  I'll have to re-check the Wielders of Magic pack I picked up from Magister Militum to see if I have a suitable Saruman, or start browsing to see if I can locate one.  Having painted a huge 28mm Uruk-hai army in the past, I'm pretty sure I can use the same colours and methods on these guys.  Painting white hands on the shields might be a challenge though.


In other news (of the non-financial variety) I've assembled 2 Panther A's for my Flames of War force, and they are really bugging me.  Drilling out tiny gun barrels is not the stuff fun is made of...  I've also built the Famo and an 8rad, as well as the two Stug G's, which are being used as test pieces for camo.  This has brought home why I shy away from historical stuff, as prescribed uniforms really aren't my thing.  Don't even get me started on insignia.

I shall endevour to get some WIP pictures up in the morning after work, as well as updating the Backlog (of Doom!), and, barring the orders from Rebel Minis and Khurasan, that should be it for the year.  If/when I make that big Splintered Light sale order, it won't arrive until January anyway.

Caved (bear) in...

Ok, so I caved in and ordered some of the Barbarian Command packs, some of the Shapechangers and Cave Bears, more Snow Trolls, and a pack of the 28mm Yeti's to use as Snow Troll Heroes.

I've also added a new page, which has a listing of my entire 15mm backlog, as a motivator for myself to get working on stuff.  It's a big list, so I expect progress will be slow between the various things I have to do.

Dunc, over at Dunc's Persistent Tangent has been looking over his past year in gaming, and looking to the future, and has asked for readers to share their plans for 2012.

So, here goes -

• Stop Smoking.  Not strictly speaking gaming related, but, tennuosly, it means I will have more funds for toy soldiers...
• Stop Spending so much on Toy Soldiers.  Kinda at an impasse with the above.  I plan on taking advantage of the Splintered Light sale before the end of the year, and, once a few more things I'm after are released, I'm going to treat myself to a huge Demonworld order, and I want to keep up to date with the Copplestone 15mm releases, but that is pretty much it, until I clear a large chunk of the backlog.  Honest.  (This doesn't apply to hobby supplies such as brushes, paints, glue, basing materials however.)
• Pay off the Credit Card/Overdraft.  Ah, now we are getting somewhere, should be a bit easier if I can stick to the first two.
• Clear out some of the stuff I'm never going to use, or haven't looked at for years.  Which would also help with the above.
• Paint lots.  And lots.  Barring my commission work, I'm really going to make 15mm the focus of 2012.  It might be overly optimistic to say I want to do an army a month, so I think 6 40AP Mighty Armies forces as a minimum over the course of the year is an attainable goal. 
• Sort out a decent lighting set-up and learn how to use the digital camera better.
• Get my 15mm Fantasy rules to a stage where they can be put into pdf form.  

So, that's my plans for 2012.  Some easier than others, but, all attainable with the right amount of willpower and support.

I'll echo Dunc's question, and ask "What are your hobby plans for 2012?"

New 15mm Northlanders and Similar

From Copplestone -

Just released a 4 new 15mm packs:

http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/range.php?range=FM

FM7 Barbarian Command. 

3 chieftains in mail shirts, 3 hornblowers and 4 standard-bearers - one army totem (the Giant Elk skull) and 3 clan totems (the Aurochs Clan, the Bear Clan and the Wolf Clan), all marked with runes of power.

Image copyright of Copplestone Castings.  Used with permission.

FM8 Shapechangers and Bears

3 mighty, heavily-bearded men with the huge bears into which they can transform themselves.

Image copyright of Copplestone Castings.  Used with permission.

 FM9 Cave Bears

The 3 bears from FM8 without the shapechangers.

Image copyright of Copplestone Castings.  Used with permission.

FM10 Wolf Pack

16 wolves in 4 different poses. Please note that these wolves are the same as TM8 10mm Giant Wolves with the addition of an extra pose.

Image copyright of Copplestone Castings.  Used with permission.

Next 15mm packs: Barbarian Archers and a Mammoth.

And to go with them -

Image copyright of Ral Partha Europe.

22 different packs for the Warlords of Thain, including the much anticipated (on my behalf) Wolf Spirits.



Good stuff indeed, will be putting in an order very soon.

Incoming Part III

Well, orders arrived this morning from 15mm.co.uk, Tin Soldier UK and Renedra.

Haul is as follows -

15mm.co.uk - lots of Grey Aliens and Octopods, as well as some 20mm round bases.

Tin Soldier UK - variety of fantasy monsters (dragon, giant, giant spider and crocodile) random fantasy packs of Orcs and Humans, a bunch more Aztecs and a couple of terrain pieces.

Renedra - lots of 50x50mm bases and lots of 25mm round bases.

What I'm thinking is to use the Renedra bases for all my Fantasy and Historical stuff, and the 20mm round bases for Sci-Fi, because, then I can always add extra bases from GW which I have loads of anyway.

I reckon I have enough Aztecs now to do a full 40 point Mighty Armies force, probably mostly Light Infantry with Swords/Spears and Archers and Slingers.  The Eagle Knights seem to be carrying bows, so they might be Heavy Infantry with a Shooting I attack. 

As for the Northlander Barbarians, I managed to get a few bases built up over the weekend, and currently have 7 bases of Barbarians, 3 bases of Werewolves, 3 bases of Yetis and the Giant to texture and paste.

Barbarian Army so far...

Here is a 'standard' unit in my thinking, minus the command base, which is yet to be released.

A Mountain Giant from Splintered Light, he is absolutely huge, would probably do as a Giant for most 28mm models.  He will be a great centrepiece model for the army, looking forwards to tackling him.

The Giant Werewolf.  I'm going to go back and re-do the face and ears grey, as he looks far too much like a giant rat at the moment.

Close up of the Giant Wolves and Werewolves.

The Yetis - Some Monstrous Infantry to support the horde.

  

Apparently, it's not babysitting

if they are your own children...


Still, babysitting duties aside, between shipping the Punk Princess out to Granny's for the night, putting the Baby Princess to bed, and letting the Fairy Princess watch her 'animal programs', I've managed to clean up and assemble 3 bases of CC Yeti's and 2 bases of Northlanders.

I've started re-arranging things, so that, where possible, I'm sitting with units of 6 bases, or 3 for the bigger ones.  Firstly, because I have a feeling this is roughly what I want to work into my own rules as being the 'standard' unit formation, and secondly, more importantly, because once you add the command models into the middle of the front rank, it looks cool, like a proper unit, and that is kinda the whole point of things.

Saying that, I'm now sitting with 2 units of Northlanders that are 5 bases strong.  The 6th base in each unit will be the command base (leader, banner, musician - pretty standard fare) once the models are released, with another set of 5 bases to clean up and assemble, 3 bases of Werewolves, with another 3 bases to clean up and assemble, 3 bases of Yetis, 6 bases of Giant Wolves, well, 7, but that extra base will be a test piece, a Giant Werewolf, and a hero type base.  Then there is the SLM Mountain Giant, who will be squeezed in as a Frost Giant, and the Greater Wyvern, who will make a fine, if rather imposing, Ice Drake.  Oh, and the beardless Northlanders, who will be drafted as Young Barbarians.

I still have a whole bunch of hero type models to do, but I'm waiting on some Demonworld releases to sort out my Shaman bases, and maybe tart up the General's base a bit.

I somehow managed to put another order into Tin Soldier UK...  Not quite sure how that happened, but it should provide a nice selection of random fantasy type stuff to muck about with.

Heading out for the nightshift now, but, Princess permitting (I can't wait until they are old enough to want a long lie on a Saturday morning), I'm hoping to get the next 5 bases of Northlanders cleaned up and assembled.  Purely because I promised the Fairy Princess she could do all the breaking up of the cork placemat for the rocks on the bases.

The problem with the internet

is having too much access to lots of different miniatures...

Somehow, and I have absolutely no idea how it happened (honest) I managed to put in orders to both 15mm.co.uk and Khurasan for a variety of things.

I blame reading other peoples blogs.

For a painting update - I've made a start on the bases for my Barbarian General, the 3 bases of SLM Werewolves, the 7 bases of CC Giant Wolves and the Heresy Werewolf.

Undecided at the moment what colour to do the wolves, either a mix of greys, or maybe a more creamy colour.  I feel that some research may be in order.

Or some more ordering...

Don't have anything from Rebel Minis yet.  Or Blue Moon...



EDIT - Errrrr... I might have some from Rebel Minis now...

EDIT EDIT - I might have had some Blue Moon stuff too, but I wasn't forking out $52 shipping for $21 worth of minis...

There will be blood...

...but only a wee bit.

Finished up my two test Barbarians (CC) this morning after work, got them varnished and did some small scale blood effects.

First one, done over a black undercoat.

Second over a grey undercoat.

And the pair of them together for a better comparison.

There really isn't much in it, other than the colour of the rocks on the base, which I didn't bother painting after having done the snow.  They are so small that it isn't particularly noticeable anyway.  For the curious, the reasoning behind the yellow shields is to create a reference to the lycanthropic culture, and represents the full moon.  The blue loincloth, well, for some reason, I seem to use blue on a lot of my stuff, so, partly that, and partly to tie in with the snow bases and create a sense of coldness.  It should work well when combined with the Frost Wyrm and Frost Giant I plan on adding to the force.

Both of them are pretty much done as basecoat, Devlan Mud wash, highlight with basecoat.  The blonde one had some yellow mixed into the brown for the highlight on his hair, but that was it.

I'm really happy with how the bases turned out, I get a bit of a shiver just looking at them, although, that might just be sleep deprivation.

Now, I want to forge ahead with the rest of the army, but, a small part of me thinks I should wait until I get a hold of the command packs, and then tackle them one unit at a time, probably 6 bases worth.  I could always spend the time building up more of what I have, seeing as it takes a while to let the bases dry and so on.

Deflowered.

Well, being that my blog has now been deflowered by Dunc, I guess that means I can't be quite so lax in updating it, or putting up pictures as promised...

The shaved Barbarians turned up from Copplestone yesterday, so that is something else to get started on too.

So, here they are, after much promising, my Barbarian army, which has yet to get a cool name.

First up, 8 bases of Copplestone Casting's Northlanders, a mix of axe and sword models.  I think for Mighty Armies, I had planned to use them as Heavy Infantry with the Horde and Fearless skills.  For my own ruleset, they will be both a mainstay and horde unit, and make up the general line infantry for the Barbarian list.

Next up are some Copplestone Giant Wolves from the 10mm Fantasy line, but they scale in well, as you'll see further down.  Again, for Mighty Armies they will be standard Light Cavalry, and for my own rules, probably a support unit.  The reason there isn't eight bases, is because I used a couple of them to flank my General stand.

Some Splintered Light Minis Werewolves, count as Heavy Cavalry with the Horde and Relentless rules for Mighty Armies, and probably another mainstay unit for my own rules.  I might have to get someone else to write the Werewolf rules, or, personal preference will make them unstoppable.  Interesting fact - every order I've made from Splintered Light has had a pack of Werewolves in it.

The General stand - Copplestone 15mm Barbarian Character, plus a couple of individually based ones to use as testers.  Here you can see that the Wolves scale in pretty well, although, knowing that there are 15mm ones in the works, he might be relegated to a basic hero in my own ruleset.

Finally, the Behemoth.  A gargantuan Giant Werewolf, which is actually a 28mm scale werewolf model from Heresy.  He is a Monster for Mighty Armies, I think I had him down with Horde, Relentless and Fearless, but I'm not 100% on that.  For my own rules, I will have to fudge him in somewhere, or he can just count as a Frost Giant or something similar.

All the bases are from Renedra, and have broken cork (from an Ikea placemat) to represent rocks, this is covered with filler, which I think was actually meant to be for fixing a crack in the wall, but my need was greater, as it makes great snow.

And I need to see the stuff she ordered from RPE, so that I can work out how well it scales with what I already have.

Been a good day.

Well, perhaps good isn't the right word...  Productive perhaps.


Package arrived from Copplestone Castings early this morning (ordered yesterday) and it should have meant I had all the 15mm Northlander packs to date.  Sadly, there was a mis-pick, and the beardless Northlanders were AWOl, with a pack of Barbarian Heroes in their stead.

So I emailed CC, and took the opportunity to ask about future releases whilst I was at it.

Picked up a bunch of storage trays when I was out, and spent the remainder of the afternoon sorting out all the 15mm stuff I've amassed so far, which is a fair bit, it seems to accumulate a lot quicker than 28mm does.  I also sorted out some of the files on the laptop, and organised the rules and stuff I've downloaded.  I picked up the Song of bundle and the Splintered Lands rules yesterday from Wargames Vault.

Also, got a reply from Mark saying the missing pack was going in the post today, and, regarding the next few packs, here I quote -

The Barbarian Command (3 leaders, 3 hornblowers and 4 standard bearers) and Shapechangers with Bears should be available by the end of next week, or at worst the following Monday.   There will also be a pack of wolves (a modified version of my 10mm Giant Wolves).

Which is good news indeed as it turns my ragtag horde of Barbarians into a fighting force to be reckoned with.  It also means I am going to have to come up with some command model rules too...  The extra Heroes pack might just find itself turned into a Splintered Lands warband as I'd already based the two tester models on round bases anyway.


In other news, I managed to persuade the missus to make a small Demonworld order from RPE, just so that I can gauge the scale of the minis and see how compatible they are with the Splintered Light and Copplestone stuff, basically got all of the smaller packs of Beastmen, which, should they prove too small, still be enough for a full Mighty Armies force.

Oh yeah, and Splintered Light is running a 20% off sale until the end of the year.  Roll on payday, I feel the need to amass a few more Cave Imps, Satyrs and Dark Elves.  And no doubt a bunch of other stuff too...

Incoming Part II.

Well, the one highlight of spending almost the entire day yesterday awake, was that my Splintered Light order arrived!

There was much rejoicing, opening of little jiffy bags, and drooling over gorgeous little miniatures.  And a couple of huge ones too...


So, my goodie pile looked a bit like this -

A mountain giant, greater wyvern, (both are massive models, they dwarf the fire dragon I already have) a bunch of undead stuff like zombies, ghouls, wraiths, ghosts, vampires, bolt throwers, werewolves, the Orc & Goblin and Wolf Clan armies, the Druids Children Faithful and Rebel warbands, some Splintered Lands Satyrs and Minotaurs, as well as a bunch of stuff David had kindly thrown in, in return for some DDM models I'd sent him.  The haul for them was - samples of the Dark and Wood Elf lines, which will definitely be a future purchase, a host of Splintered Lands foxes, some Goblin werewolves, a bunch of models from the Archer collection, a giant wolf, and a few other various things.

Overall, I'm ever so slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff, and I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to make a start.  I really love the Satyrs, so they are a distinct possibility as a starting point, although, I don't know whether to base them up as units, or do them individually for skirmish purposes and pick up a copy of the Splintered Lands rulebook.  I feel a rewatch of the Chronicles of Narnia coming on...

I will definitely pick more of them up, probably in the New Year, so I guess it doesn't really matter too much at the moment, and I am also planning on getting those additions to my Cave Imp force (which I really need to finish the Lizards for...) and yeah, so much stuff...  Dark Elves, Wood Elves (love the new Centaur greens) some more Undead stuff - cavalry, chariots, more infantry...


Maybe it might be easier to just pull out a bag at random and start there...

On a roll.

Well, this morning I managed to texture the bases for 4 stands of Northlander Barbarians, 1 stand of Werewolves (SLM), 6 stands of Giant Wolves and 2 Heroes.

I emailed the guys at Ral Partha asking for a timeline for the remaining beastmen figures for Demonworld, and when they were planning on adding the Thain spirit wolf things, and got a speedy reply saying they would bump them up the schedule and, fingers crossed, they should all be available by mid-December.   Roll on Christmas!

So, it looks like I may just have to give in to temptation and pick up those remaining Copplestone packs, although, I was trying to hold out for the new ones that were promised in the newsletter.  Command models, beyond general and wizard aren't required for Mighty Armies, but I plan on adding in some rules for them to my own ruleset, which continues to remain nameless.

Nothing to see here.

Well, still no pictures...  I'm going to try and get up the town on Wednesday to see about getting a custom backdrop printed out for my light-box, so, in the meantime I've been building up more stuff.  So far, I've added another 4 bases of Northlanders and 6 bases of Giant Wolves to my Copplestone Barbarian army, as well as two individually round based Hero models to use as test pieces for a paint scheme, and the General stand, Magician stand, and a base of Gnogres to my Splintered Light Gnomes.

In other news, the payday gaming splurge hasn't happened yet...  Although it is getting hard to resist.  Ral Partha have just added more codes to the Demonworld line, the most interesting (to me at least) being the Beastmen with Great Weapons.  Resolve slowly crumbling.  If only the Thain wolf spirit head type things and Isthak Giant Beastmen were out, they'd be ordered already.  Still waiting on the Splintered Light order showing up, so it's kinda pointless ordering anything else from them until I know what I've got, and, by way of the Mighty Armies forum, I was drawn into looking at Rebel Minis, and quite like the Scourge models from their 15mm Sci-Fi line.  And the Martian Walker...

And RPE have just released a bunch of new Elves as well.  Good stuff, keep busy boys, and get those Wolves out soon.


Willpower.  Fading.  Fast.

More goodies.

Well the order from Tin Soldier got sorted out quickly, and the stuff from Magister Militum turned up too.  I've been a bit lax with this as I had a bunch of stuff on the 'to-do' list for other things...

The Demons from MM are pretty sweet, and don't suffer from the monopose problem I'm beginning to suspect is the norm for 10/15mm stuff.  The large Fire Elemental should work as a good giant type model should I choose to use the Balrog as my General.

I've been building a light box to try and get better/more consistent quality pictures, so, once I've sorted out the  backdrop, I really am hoping to get some more images up.

• The Werewolf/Barbarian list is fully assembled and bases textured, want some shots of that pre-primer.  
• I've started cleaning up my Splintered Light Gnomes and sanding the bases, so they will probably be next in line.  Still waiting on my order showing up (it has been shipped, but International postage times are a PITA), so Orcs & Goblins, Undead or Wolf Clan Humans might overtake them.  I suspect the Undead will get priority, as I reckon I can get them done pretty quickly based on the same colour scheme as my 28mm stuff.
• Still managing to hold out on that big Demonworld order from Ral Partha Europe.  Partly because I don't want to waste the 10% discount on a tiny order, partly because I'm waiting for them to release the Ogre-sized Beastmen (4204) and the Wolf Heads (4521) from the Thain line.
• I might just bite the bullet and order the 3 newest packs of Copplestone 15mm Fantasy - beardless Northlanders, Trolls and Heroes.  The Shaman type figure will look good flanked by a pair of spirit wolf heads and should be a quick and easy addition to the army.  Actually, I could probably do with more sword and axe weilding guys too...

So, that is pretty much where I am in relation to figures.  I've started going through some of the notes I made about rules, and I've started typing some of the mess up, basically because it is easier to amend, and read.

Once again, pictures soon.  I hope.

Incoming.

Well, the order from Tin Soldier UK arrived today, small issue with a couple of missing figures, but well impressed with the speed of delivery.

The Balrog is pretty cool, and should fit in with the Demons I have on order, giving me either a good General or Monster type figure.  The Orc Triceratops is sweet, the howdah is a bit rough, but easily fixed and the Aztecs are nice too.  Not too keen on the fact that they seem to be monopose, but I guess I can work with it.

I'll see if I can get some decent pictures of them when I grab a shot of the Barbarians.

And just to make things harder...

Ral Partha Europe has just sneaked up some Dwarf sculpts for Demonworld.

I swear that they are doing this intentionally, and just hope my resolve (and credit card) can hold out until late November when the Thain are supposed to be released.

Even more lycanthropic goodness makes me a happy Werewolf.

Spoilt for choice...

Right, well, the whole obsessive compulsion to amass huge quantities of pretty much everything is taking over.  I spend far too long looking at websites drooling over some cracking 15mm figures, and probably just as long researching more suppliers.

Ral Partha Europe has recently started reproducing the Demonworld line, which are gorgeous, and, on signing up to the site I noticed there was 10% off your first order.  I was so tempted to drop a bunch of money on a load of stuff, especially the Beastmen, but, I'm holding off to make a really big order.  I may have to speak nicely to a mate to sign up too and do a little sample order...

In my quest for 15mm goodness I found this site which has proven invaluable, if not costly to my endeavours.  So today, I cracked and put in a couple of orders to both Magister Militum and Tin Soldier UK to sample a few different things, and see some of the stuff in the flesh.  One of the things I've found is that there seems to be a large amount of suppliers that don't have any images of the minis on their site, and I'm a bit hesitant of ordering blindly.

So, the Magister Militum order consisted mainly of Blood Dawn fantasy stuff, some of the armoured Orcs and a few demony type models, plus a couple of packs of Vikings, and the Tin Soldier order was for some Aztecs, an Orc Triceratops (go figure) and a Balrog, which will hopefully fit in with the demons.

I'm still waiting for a package I shipped out to reach David at Splintered Light Miniatures before he ships out my order (Orcs, Wolf Clan, lots of Undead) so, I reckon I have a good amount of stuff to be getting on with at the moment.  She has taken the terrible trio to a birthday party, so the good camera is awol, but I'll try and get a picture of the Barbarians up soonish, before I prime them.

Cave Imps

OK, so, I said there would be pictures to follow. I just didn't specifically say they would be of the Barbarians...

Between work, kids, painting and so on, I managed to knock out the Cave Imp army set I'd picked up from Splintered Light Miniatures over the course of 3 or 4 days, just doing a half hour or so at a time.  They are based up for Mighty Armies, but, I've put together about 6 pages or so of rough rules for my own 15mm scale game so far, and the basing will be 100% compatible.

Of course, being that they are quite obviously Troll dolls (child of the 80's right...)I just had to paint them up with all sorts of wacky hair.  I spent a bit of time swithering between random colours on each base, before settling on the more unified colour based on rank/equipment.

First up, the Shaman stand. 

Then, both the Shaman and General

Followed by some Clubbers

The Spearmen (Spearimps?)

and finally, the Slingers.

I still have the lizard bases to finish off, mainly because I'm not decided yet on what marking I should do for them, so far they are the same colour as the Imps on the underside, with a light green back.  I'm thinking perhaps some kind of grey stripes or mottling.

In addition to finishing of the lizards, I reckon I'll add a bit more to the force.  I still have to pick up the Yeti's and Yeti Catapult, and I think I'll add some bases of Pike Imps using the long spear models, and add in some more lizards as a cavalry type unit, although, obviously without riders.

In other news, the Barbarians are pretty much ready to be primed, just a little more work on the giant Werewolf's shoulder, and the bases have all been textured to represent the frozen tundra of their homeland.

Barbarians

Well, the Copplestone Castings 15mm Barbarians, or Northlanders, are absolutely gorgeous miniatures. Really. They look just like shrunk down versions of Mark's 28mm work for Foundry.

I picked up a pack of Swordmen, Axemen and the Heroes and have formed them into the basis of my first 15mm Fantasy army.

I've mixed the sword and axemen together, and added in some of the 10mm Fantasy Giant Wolves (also from Copplestone) as they fit in really well. The Giant Wolves will be used as cavalry type units, as there are currently no Northlander Cavalry available, and I also plan to mix some in with my characters. I finished off the army with some Werewolves from Splintered Light Minis, and a 28mm Werewolf from Heresy miniatures, to count as a huge wolf type giant.

The models are all cleaned up and attatched to bases, with the exception of the werewolf, who needs some putty work on his shoulder, and a certain something for his base to help anchor him/provide balance.

Pics soon.

Where to start?

Well, only time will tell if my current fascination with 15mm minis will last, so I guess I'd best start by laying out what I currently have planned, by way of how I came to be here.

I've been involved in gaming now for just over 20 years, after being captivated as a young 'un by the television advert for Heroquest. That was the catalyst for what has turned into, what is best described by the other half as, an obsession.

Over the years I've played a variety of games, covering a variety of periods, in a variety of scales. Mostly it was 28mm stuff, but I was always partial to some Warmaster (10mm) and had a huge amount of Space Marine (6mm), or Epic Warhammer 40,000 as the youth of today will know it.

More recently, two things stand out as prompting my interest in smaller scale models, namely Mantic Games Kings of War rules, and picking up a copy of Battle Lore. The Kings of War rules, despite being intended for 28mm minis, deal with complete unit removal rather than individual casualties, like Warhammer, which made me consider dioramic unit bases, rather than individually based models, especially if I was only going to be using them under that system. The Mantic tagline advocates Big Battles, Big Armies, and I was quite taken by the irony that, the smaller the models, the bigger the army, in scale, rather than stature.

The second thing, Battle Lore, was probably due to the fact that it was a full stand alone game in a box, and I really enjoy how it plays. Of course, the modeller in me wanted to do a bit more, add some creative flair, so I started looking around at how to customise the set. I'll pin the blame on Boromir and Kermit, as reading his blog turned me over to Splintered Light Minis, and many hours were spent going over the online store. Of course, since then, I've done a lot of research into different 15mm manufacturers, and created a disgustingly large wishlist of minis I want to add to the collection.

Really, between the two, I came to the conclusion that, smaller models means I can get more of them onto the table (and therefore in the house) and I've even contemplated trying to write up my own d10 based multibased fantasy ruleset.

Currently, my plans consist of painting up the contents of the Battle Lore box, plus the expansions I already have, and picking up the remaining expansions. I also have a large Flames of War force (Hitlerjugend Panzer Kompanie) sitting in the boxes and blisters, so that will need some love, as well as a couple of Splintered Light Minis boxes (Gnomes and Cave Trolls) for Mighty Armies, and a bunch of Copplestone Castings Barbarians.

Those will be the subject of my next post.