Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 85: More Chronopia Previews

 Hi!

The folks over at the new Chronopia project have previewed a couple of new sculpts, this time Lotus Guard for the Elves of the Crystal Lotus!

Lotus Guard are the special units assigned to commanders and dignitaries within the Crystal Lotus and are armed with twin longswords. 

I'm rather liking the dynamic sculpts but feel there's something not quite right about the flow of the fabric of their loincloth's but it may just be the angle of the render and will have to see what the actual miniatures are like. Either which way, I'm excited to see what other previews we can expect to see in the coming months, especially the Dwarves.

In other news, I'm busily sculpting and painting stuff for my upcoming game and am not sure if I'm going to get it done this evening or tomorrow but will get the battle report posted up on Sunday afternoon but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 18

 Hi!

Here's the next of my Elven Voltigeurs for my Flintloque project!

As usual, the varnish has given him a bit of a shine in the photo's but it's not noticeable in the flesh so to speak. I'm rather enjoying painting one of them every so often while interspersing them with other bits and bobs.

I also rediscovered my old Grendel box pile that I've had for ages and given it a fresh lick of paint:

It's such a handy piece of terrain that is useful in so may different settings and was really easy to paint with lots of drybrushing! 

I'm also working on a fair few other odds and ends and will update the blog when I get chance. It's been really satisfying to just pick up all manner of random odds and ends and just paint them as it seems to be relieving the stress the thought of actually painting a single project at once would give me and I'm surprising myself with my progress too!

Hopefully I'll get my latest batch of stuff finished today and will be able to post some more stuff tomorrow.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 9

 Hi!

Here's the next of the lockdown painting progress!

He's another Elven Voltigeur from the original Flintloque boxed set. I was having a bit of a wobble about him as I painted him but perseverance saw him finished and looking good. I went for a pale tan for his trousers instead of pale blue and like the finish more than the first Elf. 

As it's a skirmish game, I will be giving them a largely similar paint style but will add the odd colour change to give a bit of variety and stop me from getting bored.

Here's a side by side with Sharke himself:

I'm continually surprised by just how nicely the Flintloque range paints up and it's looking promising for me to get all 15 painted over the course of the lockdown.

I'm now tempted to pick up some Dwarves so I can paint some Krautian troops to mix in with my collection as I remember having the old Landwehr back in the day but I'm being careful with the pennies at the moment and have plenty other gubbins that I can paint in the meantime.

In other news, my Dark Star wielding Dwarves for my Boar Company are nearing completion, just needing some details and armour finishing and will show them tomorrow once I have them done and will get them primed up and ready for painting.

With all the progress I've been making, I need to take a peek at my Rusty Robots to see if I can get some more of my tribes painted and more stuff sculpted too!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 19

Hi!

I've finally finished all the miniatures that come in the Deadloque boxed set!

 Gerard's Survivors

I really enjoyed this project and have managed to paint two 28mm figures a day over the last couple of days to get them all done while the mojo was there and I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

These survivors on the retreat from Moskova during the bone chilling winter in the Witchlands has really been a pleasure to paint with their ragged but still splendid uniforms and chunky character.

 Scavenging for supplies

With the boxed set completed, I need to get some more terrain painted up to represent the hostile frozen landscape of the Witchlands for Gerard and his ragtag band to flee from the encroaching undead menace of the Star Wraiths horde!

Undead Attack!

I've even had a rummage through my bits boxes to see if I have any more decent proxies kicking about to represent suitable denizens of that terrible realm and will post some pics as I get things completed.

Hopefully I'll manage to continue with the success of painting as this is the first completely painted boxed set I think I've ever managed to paint in the last 25 plus years of gaming so I may have to toast my success and hope for more of the same!

We shall have to see what I manage to paint next but it's been rather a lot of fun working on such a great little project which has cheered me up greatly during the lockdown. 

All the best for now and I'll post more gubbins tomorrow!

Lockdown Day 10

Hi!

As promised, here's the large project I've been painting over the last day or two!

Elven Dragonbane Rider

A while back, I was gifted a handful of old Leviathan resin gubbins and I've finally managed to paint up the first one of them in the form of an Elven Dragonbane rider.

He was missing his weapon hand which was originally cast in metal while the rider and beast are a one piece casting in rock hard resin and is still available from Scotia Grendel. I replaced the weapon with a piece of plastic rod and old plastic Dark Elf speartip which looked suitably stabby for a post apocalyptic Elven type to menace folks with.

I primed the whole thing grey and spent quite a lot of time adding multiple coats of paints, glazes and washes to get the finish I was looking for. I went for a traditional dark red and black for the Dragonbane itself whilst the rider ended up with gold and black, a colour scheme I seem to be rather obsessed with recently.

I was originally going to go for a different colour combination but this just looked right and worked with the miniature. I must admit that I was initially a bit unsure about the whole figure but as soon as I started painting it, I began to love it.

He reminds me of the Goblin knights from Labyrinth and I love the style of the Elven rider. He really looks otherworldly and hauty. There's also tons of really nice little details hidden around the figure from the scaly dragon hide to the ornate armour (there's even a tiny leering face hiding behind the shield that is virtually impossible to paint but worth persevering with.

The only other conversion work I did to the thing was to lengthen its tail a little to give it a slightly sleeker look. All in all, I must say that while it's been a really time consuming project to complete, he really is worth the effort that I put into it.

Here's a quick pic of the Elven Dragonbane rider next to an Orc Necrodon rider:

Elf versus Orc

While the pose is a wee bit odd, I do like the quirky and chunky details of the whole thing and it will make a really great addition to my Leviathan collection!

I'll post up some teeny tiny additions to my Land Ironclads gubbins tomorrow but in the meantime, All the best!

Assorted Reinforcements

Hi!

Well I have had a rather nice day off following a rather manic couple of weeks at work and spent most of it driving around the highlands which was fun but did manage to complete a couple of bits and bobs that I've had lying around for a bit:

First off, there's a new addition to my slowly expanding Dwarf army:

 Converted Mantic Dwarf

I actually enjoyed painting this chap and I think it's possibly because I have got the knack of painting the plastics without spending an age on them and I discovered that with a bit of a fresh beard, the Mantic Dwarves actually don't look at all bad.

The figures below illustrate my point:

 A Bearded Trio

The figures on the left and in the centre have new beards sculpted on while the one on the right is the original. Maybe it's because it looks a bit more realistic or more exuberantly hirsute, but I do like them more than the rather sad chappy on the right who seems to be suffering from a touch of beard envy.

 The Unit Thus Far

Now it's not all been Dwarves that I've been working on. I also finally completed a figure that I have been struggling with for some time now in the form of an old D&D Chainmail Half Orc:

 Half Orc Hero

I must admit that I didn't really enjoy painting him as he's just a bit too bland for my liking. Yes he is well detailed but there's nothing to make him stand out or look interesting to be honest. I had the same experience painting up another of Kev White's figures a while ago. They are really well sculpted but just seem to lack life for some reason but maybe it's just me.

Saying that though, he's been languishing primed but unfinished for a couple of years now and I originally picked him up in about 2007 so it's good to actually get him finished as he makes a handy leader for my Half Orc warband that is slowly beginning to come together:

 Half Orcs

Last up, here's a quick shot of a skirmish between my Dwarven troops and an Elven patrol from House Helios:

Elf Versus Dwarf

I have also had a bit of a rummage through my painted figure collection and have discovered that I actually have about half a dozen half formed warbands so want to spend the remainder of the summer occasionally chipping away at my leadpile to add the odd figure to them till I have decent sized forces for some skirmish action!

All the best! 

Two Warbands and Finds From the Lead Mountain!

Hi!

As promised heres a couple of pics of the Elven and Goblin warbands I picked up at Colours:

Harlequin Elves

Harlequin Gobbos

Each warband currently consists of nine figures which is plenty for the Elves but woefully inadequate for the Goblins. Fortunately I remembered that I had a big pile of old Citadel and Heartbreaker Orcs and Goblins at my folks:

Big Pile O Lead

This will give me plenty of scope for getting some small warbands put together over the coming months! Alas the Harlequin miniatures have quite a bit of flash on them as well as some nasty mould lines which will need clearing but the figures themselves are really rather nice and I hope to have a bash at painting them soon.

The Goblins will be getting some support from a troll or similar beast while the Elves will form the core of my Grey Elf force and will eventually get a spellcaster and some characters once I find the time!

The priority will be to get some sculpting done though!

All the best!

6mm Goblin Horde!

Hi!

Alas I've had no time to get on with any sculpting or painting due to it being the run up to my final hand ins for university! I did manage to take some pictures of my 6mm goblin horde for Leviathan!

The Horde Thus Far

Close Up of the Infantry

I now have 750 points of Goblins for Leviathan but they are somewhat feeble in combat and will need some warbeasts and cavalry to beef them up a bit. I am using the chariot seen in the background as a Lesser Goblin Wartower at present but its the only unit capable of doing damage to hard class armour.

I think the goblins will be getting some new units to allow them to be a viable force in the game. This will probably come in the form of chariots, one or two warbeasts and some trolls. I will be having a go at sculpting the lot once I am done with uni work!

Each base currently represents 5 figures and will allow me to try out the game on a fairly large scale. I made up a force of Elves at 750 points and found that it consists of only four stands so it will make for an interesting game as the two forces rely on very different tactics. The Elves will need to weaken the Goblins with long range fire before their numerical superiority overwhelms them.

I just want to say that the Irregular Miniatures are really fantastic as the Lesser Goblins I am using are really nice sculpts with lots of character, no mean feat for figures standing under 5mm tall! Don't be put off by the pictures on their site or your initial response to seeing them in the flesh so to speak. Once they have some paint on them they really come to life!

All the best!