Incoming VI (although, it's probably a bit more than that...)

So much for trying not to spend too much...


I was going to hold off on getting the Copplestone Picts, but the 10% discount code swung it for me, and I ordered them at the last minute.  Well, about 7am yesterday, and they turned up this morning.  How's that for service?

Also, package in from Stateside, from Rebel Minis with my order, which was -

Image courtesy of Rebel Minis.  Used without permission, no challenge intended.

2 x Packs Romana Wolven. Didn't realise how big these guys actually are.  They will possibly be part of the Barbarian force, or perhaps the beginnings of a full Werewolf army.

Image courtesy of Rebel Minis.  Used without permission, no challenge intended.

2 x 15mm Elementals.  Really like these sculpts, there is something quite cartoony in the heads.  Looks like I'll be doing a Sorcerer's Legion army too...  Of course, I'll need more than just these guys.

Image courtesy of Rebel Minis.  Used without permission, no challenge intended.

2 x 15mm Gargoyles.  Again, some models for the Sorcerer's Legion.  I reckon these will be pretty quick to paint up (once I get around to it) possibly with all sorts of overgrown vegetation effects to really give them that dilapidated statue look.

Image courtesy of Rebel Minis.  Used without permission, no challenge intended.

 1 x The Scourge Heavy Weapons Team.  Some heavy reinforcements for the previous Scourge models I picked up.  They were out of stock last time I ordered, so I figured I'd grab them whilst they were available again.

Image courtesy of Rebel Minis.  Used without permission, no challenge intended.

1 x Titan Marines MK1 HAMR Suit.  And this big guy is to reinforce the Titan Marines.  Scalewise, probably something I'm a bit more familiar with, being about the same size as a light 'jack for WARMACHINE.













So yeah, more lead for the lead pile, thus guaranteeing my continued existence.  (As everyone knows, when you paint your last unpainted mini, you die...)

I have a few days off coming up, and between her shifts and commission work, I'll try and get some more 15mm work done.  I'm pretty close to finishing off my Shaman base, and it'd be nice to knock out both the Archer bases too.  Or I'll do a bit more to the Beastmen, or start the Sorcerer's Legion...   Speaking of which, I'll probably rustle up a suitable Demonworld figure to use as the Sorcerer, as well as the cultists that I'd have gotten if I'd bought the box set.

OK, so I promised an update...

Well, the kids are all in bed now, and I've got about an hour before she gets in from work and I head out, so, here goes.

Done a bit on my Shaman stand for the Barbarians, I seem to have spent a fair bit of time on this one, possibly longer than I'd normally spend on a 28mm model.

I still have a bit of work to do on the hair/beard, possibly another highlight on the skin, and the teeth, claws and eyes on the Spirit Wolves, as well as looking at how they rise out of the base.

I don't know how good it is for my sanity, but jumping from basecoat and washing 28mm models, to doing 3-4 layers of highlights on 15mm stuff is a bit strange.  Still, I'm very happy with how he is looking so far, and I like the idea of the Spirit Wolves being conjured up out of pillars of snow.






I've basecoated all the skin on the Archers and Warriors, as well as the metalwork and shields.  I've also blocked in the fur on the Yetis/Snow Trolls.  With hindsight, Dunc was right about the difficulties of painting after having based the models, but the inherently messy drybrushing would have wrecked any paintwork anyway, as the following image shows.

Real men don't use shoe polish...

In other news, I've persuaded a gaming buddy to take the plunge into 15mm gaming, he's ordered his first army and hopefully we can turn our regular Wednesday night game night/hobby chat into something more productive, either lots of small scale painting, or some rules development.  Time will tell.  I'll badger him to start a blog too.

That's about it for now, time to grab a brew, head out to work and relish the thought that when I get home in the morning, she is back out to work and I have another 9 or so hours before I can head to bed...

Cheers.

All your base are belong to Polyfilla.

Well, that is the case for the Barbarians anyway.  Spent the last couple of mornings after work doing all the filler work on all the bases I'd already assembled, and I have sorted out a little force that I'll get to painting as soon as possible.

Going with General, Shaman, 5 Infantry bases, 2 Scout Archer bases and some Snow Trolls.

Plan for tonight is to get the majority of the painting done on the bases before work.

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.

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.

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.