Plastic Fantastic Middle Earth Evil Army

Look what I found in the loft

That fits!

I've been rummaging in the loft again, this time in search of 28mm plastic figures that I could use as the basis of a cheap, quick skirmish project using the stuff I've already got. I had completely forgotten about these Lord of the Rings goblins, which I grabbed from the magazines when they first came out a few years ago, only costing £1.99 or so for each copy and the attached sprue, together with the contents of the Mines of Moria starter set. I have enough here for a twenty four point Middle Earth army for Dragon Rampant, consisting of some offensive light foot with spears and swords, some scouts and some warg riders. 

The latter can be made by sticking the goblins onto some plastic wargs, which I also have as a unit of six heavy or light riders. To finish off the army, there are a couple of cave trolls, which I can use as individual greater warbeasts or possibly as a unit of bellicose foot. I have some Copplestone giant spiders somewhere to throw into the mix as a unit of lesser warbeasts and even a small flying dragon, which isn't very Hobbit themed but would be an interesting addition. The best thing, apart from the fact I won't have to spend any money on a project, is that they will be relatively easy to paint if I don't fart about too much and use a simple technique. 

This is definitely worth further thought!

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves...meltdown!

I sat down this afternoon to paint the Mantic elves for Dragon Rampant. It was all going well until I started on the fiddly bits at which point I completely lost the plot. I don't know why but I am finding it very difficult to paint well these days and get increasingly frustrated with my clumsy brushwork. As a result, I decided to bin the lot and start again, which is a bit radical but made me feel a lot better!

I'm now going to re-think the project and use the GW Lord of the Rings plastic goblins and trolls that I have in a cardboard box somewhere instead. At least they can be painted up in a rough and ready fashion rather than having to pick out lots of detail, which is more and more of a problem due to my eyesight these days. In the meantime, I'll find something else to practice on so that I can kick my rusty painting habits.

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [4]

I haven't had any time to spend on these this week, even though they only need some basic dry brushing and blocking in done at this stage. To put this right, I'm going to get up early tomorrow, head down the garage and get this sorted, with the overall aim to complete the army by the end of the month. I have also decided to add a second four point unit of twelve spearmen, so have sent off for a box of twenty spear armed figures, from which I may also be able to squeeze something else? These Mantic box sets are good value too, if you shop around, with each figure in this case working out at less than 50p. Not bad!

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [3]

Ice Elf guinea pig

...now that would be an interesting unit?

It's back to work tomorrow (bugger!) so today has been spent marking Year 10 exercise books, ready for the start of term. I haven't had time for any painting today apart from a test figure, which has been drybrushed in Foundry Spearpoint and then had the face and hair blocked in with Foundry Arctic Grey Shade. Big result!

These will get over-painted with pale flesh and white respectively, followed by a wash or further highlights. I'm thinking of using a three stage light blue approach on the spears, to create an icy effect, then all that I'll add will be a few details leaving the rest of the figure in shiny metal armour. I'll see what this looks like before I decide if I'm going to do anything more involved....it's supposed to be a quick project after all? 

Project Plans for 2016

I'm being very cautious with my plans for the coming year, so I'm keeping down to a skirmish level and focussing on small projects that I can complete in the space of weeks rather than months. These will include both Dragon Rampant, which is already underway, and Lion Rampant War of the Roses which I've decided to do in 28mm rather than 15mm, at least at the moment. I'll may also have a crack at Black Ops, Ronin, Frostgrave and En Garde, all of which require a small number of figures and are published by Osprey. The Achtung Commando! project and Saga will be in there somewhere too.

One thing I will use to tie this all together is an ice and snow theme, using my lovely new(ish) tundra gaming cloth from Cigar Box Battlemats. This means that I can maximise the use of the relatively expensive cloth and combine any other terrain that I build or buy to cover several projects. I like the idea of War of the Roses in the snow for a start, all very redolent of Towton, and there are obvious connections with Frostgrave, the Heroes of Telemark and the Ice Elves on the workbench. I may even do something sci-fi or pulp set in the snow, either in 15mm or 28mm, who knows...

...and there will definitely be some more mdf !

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [2]

I finished assembling the ice elf army this afternoon, with the addition of a mage (an old GW Lord of the Rings Saruman figure), a mounted elven hero and a medium sized flying dragon (an old GW model). I also finished the last of the spearmen and scouts, although I'd like to add at least one more unit of infantry in the longer run, if I can find some cheap ones. I was going to add a reduced sized unit of three elite riders but I couldn't be bothered!

This lot will be sprayed with the Humbrol aluminium, then washed in Army Painter Strong Tone and drybrushed with Foundry Spearpoint, ready for the detailing stage. I'm not sure how I'll paint the dragon but it will probably be in some shade of ice blue to match the rest of the army. The breakdown of the ice elf army for Dragon Rampant looks like this:

1 x Heavy Foot with Swords (Offensive) @ 6 points

1 x Heavy Foot with Spears @ 4 points

1 x Scouts @ 2 points
1 x Heavy Foot Hero (reduced size unit) @ 4 points
plus

1 x Small Warbeast (Flyer) @ 6 + Ice attack @ + 2 = 8 points
or

1 x Elite Rider Hero (reduced size unit) @ 6 + Magic Armour @ + 2 = 8 points

or

1 x Heavy Foot Wizard (reduced size unit ) @  4 + 4 = 8 points

I haven't worked out all the magical or fantastical additions yet so will have to fiddle around with the points balance before I decide the most interesting composition, so this isn't frozen solid yet (see what I did there!). Anyway, I need to re-read the rules properly, so in the meantime I'll crack on with the painting in the last couple of days of holiday left before the inevitable return to work.

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [1]

I dug the Mantic elves out of the loft yesterday and started to work out how I could turn them into an army for Dragon Rampant. This theoretical exercise then ended up actually being put into action, as I fiddled around with the various plastic bits and started to glue them together to see how they would look. This is the end result of an evening spent with plastic glue and a craft knife, although I now remember why I hate assembling plastic figures. I've tried to just use what's in the box and still have some leftovers that I can fiddle around with to make into something useful.

I'll finish this lot off today, to give me a unit of offensive heavy foot (6 points), a unit of heavy foot (4 points) and a unit of scouts (2 points) minus any extra tweaks. I also have a couple of champions or leaders that I haven't worked out what to do with yet and a reduced unit of four heavy or elite riders, which are on horses but may well end up riding something with more teeth. I'm also going to try to find a magic user from the lead pile and a big nasty plastic dragon from the kids toy box, if I can remember where I put it.

I've also had a play around with Humbrol aluminium spray paint and Army Painter strong tone dip, followed by a wet brush in Foundry Spearpoint, to see how easy it will be to paint the army up in one quick blast. The test figure is looking OK so far and I have a plan for the next two or three stage of painting to keep things simple. This will be a no frills painting job, although I hope to add a little bit of detail here and there and do some nice snow and ice basing. There are some fantastic shield decals available for these figure from the Mantic web shop thingy too which are very tempting!

Good fun!

Dragon Rampant Barbarica

This is the other plan for Dragon Rampant, which I've mentioned before but done nothing about, as usual. I have a birthday coming up so a Northlander army is on the wishlist, as I really like the figures especially the bear and elk riding war leaders. I have a couple of packs of the cavemen like Picts already, to use as the core of a second army. It also fits very nicely with my winter terrain, so what's not to like? 

Dragon Rampant Ramblings

There's a definite 80's look and feel to Dragon Rampant including some excellent art work that reminds me a lot of old editions of White Dwarf and the covers of the Sword and Sorcery paperbacks that I read when I was a kid. I don't know who the artist is but the illustrations are very much in a Chris Achilleos style...brilliant!

This got me thinking about a not-elf army for Dragon Rampant that I could assemble using the Mantic Elves that I bought cheap a couple of years ago, in a futile attempt to get my eldest into wargaming. I think they would make a splendid Melnibonean army, complete with an albino sword wielding sourcerous anti-hero.

I have enough figures for a unit of heavy cavalry, a couple of units of heavy spears and a unit of archers, which is plenty to start with and would fill out the twenty four points required for a warband. I can also include a couple of reduced size units including characters like Elric, Yrkoon or Dyvim Tvar, the latter as a heroic champion.

I might even stretch to a dragon....although it will probably be a bendy plastic toy one in keeping with the budget! Either that or they'll just be generic high elves, perhaps even ice elves so that I can use them with my new snow terrain cloth and scenery. I quite like the idea of an ice themed army and it would be an interesting painting project, with lots of light blue washes and highlights.

In an ideal world I'd splash out on some of the Nick Lund dwarves, orcs and chaos warriors from Forlorn Games, which would be very nostalgic and lots of fun to paint up, but the plastic option is far less expensive and easier to put together in the ever decreasing spare time that I don't have for the hobby.

Dragon Rampant

This dropped onto my Kindle this morning having been pre-ordered a couple of weeks ago. I really like the look of Lion Rampant although I have yet to do anything with it, so the fantasy version seemed like a sure fire bet. I have a Mantic elf army that I could paint up for this along with stacks of the old LOTR plastic figures, so it's a cheap and cheerful option (although the old Grenadier range that is now being manufactured by Forlorn Hope is tugging at my wallet). Oh dear. I'll have to find out what the guys at the club are planning to do before I start anything silly!

Dragon Rampant Revealed

I'm really looking forward to this and love the final cover art that's been revealed over on Dan Mersey's blog. I'm sure I can rebase my 15mm HOTT skeleton army to create a fantasy retinue or perhaps I could do something more impressive in 28mm plastic?

I have a Mantic elf army that I bought at a bargain price for my now disinterested teenager a few years ago, along with a large stash of GW Lord of the Rings figures, so plenty of scope for a quick project next year after the rules are published. I also have my eye on those EM4 dwarves..?

Anyway, back down to earth it reminds me that I really should get on with the two War of the Roses retinues for Lion Rampant that I started to organise earlier in the year. I decided to go for 15mm as I already had the figures and it would be quicker to get off the ground, but I haven't even started yet!

Dragon Rampant Barbarica

I've been thinking about the fortchcoming Dragon Rampant fantasy skirmish rules which, while a long way off as yet, will now doubt feature as a future workbench project. With that in mind, I remembered that I have two pack of 15mm 'Picts' from the Copplestone Barbarica range, which I was going to use as cavemen in the Lost World:

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/adventures-in-jimland-cavemen.html

The figures are expensive but are just like smaller versions of the 28mm Copplestone figures, with superb sculpting and bags of character, especially the Barbarians and the Northlanders. They also come in nifty twelve figure foot and six figure mounted sets, which makes them ideal for Lion Rampant sized units, assuming the fantasy version of the rules will adopt the same basic unit sizes.

I'm now pondering the inevitable and may yet take the plunge, with a six pack of Barbarians or Northlanders as a retinue for Dragon Rampant, including a giant or two and some heroes, shamen and other character figures. The new(ish) dwarves are also really good, although they need some missile troops to be a viable army.

In the meantime, the 'Picts' will do as a couple of units of trolls in the same Nordic style as the rest of the range. They can either form the nucleus of a retinue or be deployed as back up unit for the human forces, which means I can potentially save about £15 and get some use out of the figures, which would otherwise be gathering dust in a box.

I'm quite excited about this idea but there are plenty of other things to do in the meantime including a couple of historical retinues for Lion Rampant at some point before the end of the year, so there's no rush but no excuse for not giving it some serious consideration. If only that nice Mr Copplestone would do one of his infrequent special offer discounts???

Dragon Rampant

The latest on Dragon Rampant is that it's now available as a pre-order via Amazon, which means that it'll be out in digital and print format pretty soon:

http://merseybooks.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/dragon%20rampant

I haven't even sorted out my armies for Lion Rampant yet, let alone organised any fantasy forces, but I'm still looking forward to the rules and some 'free for all' fantasy painting. I enjoy making things up, so any 'imagination', sci-fi or fantasy projects are right up my street. If I do this, it will be 15mm, as I have some old HOTT figures that I can paint up and a small painted skeleton army that I can re-base if I want to cut some corners. Osprey really are putting out some interesting stuff!

Dragon Rampant Ramblings

Something else that grabbed my attention over on the Lion Rampant forum was a discussion about the fantasy variant of Lion Rampant, which I have yet to play in its original format but which I'm keen to try out, once I've got my act together with my 15mm WOTR retinue. This is on the 'to do' list later in the summer.

The fantasy option is featured as a couple of army lists in the rulebook, one for the forces of evil and one for the forces of good, in a nod to classic '80's style gaming. However, the next issue of WSS is going to feature a full article by Dan Mersey giving more ideas to convert the rules over to a fantasy setting.

I have a pretty good HOTT skeleton army that could be re-based for this and plenty of spare 15mm dwarves, elves and undead in the lead pile, so it looks like a good way to make use of them, especially as I really like the original rules. I'm looking forward to the Dragon Rampant article to see what the potential fantasy units look like?