Painting Challenge Submission #2 - Mydas the Mean, Mercenary Paymaster

Mydas the Mean, Sheikh Yadosh and a bodyguard unit, ready to ensure the gold is collected and the payroll is made!

My second submission for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge featured another addition to my old-school GW Dogs of War project.

Mydas the Mean - great at financing, and also pretty good at fighting! He keeps the key to his pay chest close, where he can be sure it is safe...

Another view of Midas, with his wicked mace, ready to resolve pay disputes...

Ask anyone in business, large or small - payroll is a real administrative pain in the @ss! Everyone wants to get paid, and if you can't make payroll, you'll have "employee engagement" problems. If those employees are heavily armed Tilean mercenaries, "employee engagement" problems will get pretty violent, pretty fast...enter Mydas the Mean, mercenary paymaster. Mydas is accompanied by Sheikh Yadosh, his trusty money lender, and a group of bodyguards. 

Sheikh Yadosh showcasing the goods!

Mydas, Sheik Yadosh and the mercenary pay chest are part of the classic GW Dogs of War figure range. In the Dogs of War mercenary army, the pay chest takes the place of the army standard bearer in other armies - after all, what would be more important for the mercenaries than making sure they get paid? Mydas is on hand to make sure all of the Regiments of Renown get their fair share when payday arrives - one of the more feared paymasters in all of Tilea! He's great at gathering the money, a lot more careful on the cash outflows.

Bodyguards ready to defend the pay chest - these are metal castings from Perry Miniatures' Italian Wars range.

The money lender, Sheikh Yadosh, is a creditor of Mydas', following him around during his various military adventures across the Old World and lending money to mercenaries who need a temporary cash boost while purchasing supplies...or gambling...probably more of the latter than the former!

Ready for action - heavy armour, bright colours, and some serious weapons.

Of course, payday can get pretty rowdy, and a chest full of treasure needs protection, so the paymaster can be accompanied by a unit of bodyguards. In the game, the bodyguard can serve as a small unit of troops, taking their place in the battle line to guard the pay chest while it projects its morale-boosting effects out to the mercenary troops. 

Multi-part plastic figures from Perry Miniatures' - perfect command group for the bodyguards! They have expensive armour - after all, Mydas has the money to kit them out. 

Mydas, Yadosh, the pay chest and the humble donkey were one of the original box sets GW released as part of their "Dogs of War" miniature range. They did not, however, release any bodyguard figures specific to this miniature range. And maybe they never intended to? Why would they? In the rules, they are specific that the guards would wear heavy armour and carry halberds, as opposed to pikes, and this kind of makes sense when you consider that the main worry of the bodyguards is probably the other mercenaries :) 

The classic figures from the "Mydas the Mean" box set.

At any rate, there were a whole ton of halrberdier figures to be sourced from the Empire figure range of the day, so I suspect this is why they never released specific bodyguards. Today, however, those companion metal halberdier sculpts are long-gone (sniff!). Yes, the new "Old World" game is out and about, complete with Empire figures, but these current Empire figures are a poor match to the old Tilean sculpts. 

What to do? Well, I spotted an ideal solution in a Dogs of War Facebook group - another hobbyist just used some figures from the Perry Miniatures' Italian Wars range, and it looked perfect! After all, the Perrys sculpted the Dogs of War figures, and "Tilea" is just the Old World's answer to Italy, so the figures made for perfect bodyguards for the pay chest!

One more group photo...

The guards are a mix of metal halberdiers and a plastic command group. The banner is from an actual Italian Wars range...I thought it fit fine in the Tilean setting, and I really pleased with how the gang looks! These modern Perry sculpts are a little taller than the old GW sculpts, but then I can imagine Mydas would only hire the biggest fellows he could find to guard his pay chest!

That is all for this submission - stay tuned for more "catch up" posts soon!

Painting Challenge Submission #1 - Borgio the Besieger

Borgio the Besieger, ready to lead a mercenary army on a Warhammer Fantasy Battle table!

Well, Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is underway! In fact, it has been on already for over a month. As ever, a group of Conscripts are sawing away with their brushes and seeking to tackle their assorted new projects and piles of unpainted metal, resin and plastic! It's about time I started sharing some of my submissions - or, indeed, posting anything as I have just been generally delinquent in that regard as of late. So here we go....

I opened this edition of the AHPC with a character figure that will join a project I commenced in AHPC XV - an old-school Dogs of War army from the distant days of the fourth edition of GW's Warhammer Fantasy Battle. This is Borgio the Besieger, and he is here to wreck your sh*t. 

Yet another classic 28mm sculpt from the Perry brothers. The Dogs of War were one of the best ranges GW ever released.

Borgio is a military legend in Tilea, a veteran of a great many military campaigns, nearly all of them successful. He rose to lead the Principality of Miragliano, and ruled "rather tyrannically". He was popular with his mercenary soldiers, but disliked by his many rivals among the noble classes, although was notoriously difficult to kill. Multiple assassination attempts ended in tears - for the assassin - until one day he was finally stabbed while in the bath. Such a fitting end to a Tilean legend.

Close up of Borgio's giant mace - fashioned from a cannonball that "nearly" killed him during a siege at Remas!

His battlefield kit speaks to this reputation. That huge mace? Apparently fashioned from a cannon ball which nearly killed him. I suppose he resorts to smashing people with it AFTER he has run enemies down with that lance? His "Monstrous Mask" helm causes fear among his enemies, and his glorious armour brushes aside even the worst blows - even those, it would appear, which arrive courtesy of cannons!

Massive mace AND a lance. Because of course!

I made a decent start on my Dogs of War force in the last Challenge, and this year I am hoping to really fill it out. I've been working through the fall to get the models based and primed, and over the next couple of months I am planning to bring more Regiments of Renown into the battle line!

You can run...but you can't hide...

For scoring purposes, we have a single 28mm mounted figure, good for 10 points, and a chance to get on the board! My target for this edition of the Challenge was 1200 points' worth of painting...so obviously a long way to go, but a start is a start, right! Stay tuned for more...

Some 15mm 30k Characters - Part 2

Some 15mm characters ready for action with the VII Legion Astartes.

A couple of days ago I posted some of the 15mm Sons of Horus character figures I had painted up for my crazy little 15mm 30k project. Here we have some Loyalist counterparts to go with them - a Praetor, a Champion Consul and a Librarian - all wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" power armour. These are 3D prints courtesy of Byron, and all are in the colours and symbols of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists. 

"I am right, because I have a big sword! And also a blaster if you still insist on disagreeing..."

Swish cloak too...

The Praetor is a faithful tribute to the "sword Praetor" who came with the 2.0 edition of GW's Age of Darkness box set. An excellent, whacky-looking commander, this 15mm rendition is a brilliant version of the original figure, and gets all the key points just right. The blaster. The sword. And, of course, the over-the-top cloak that one wears as part of the appropriate formal attire when smashing the enemies of The Emperor. 

You will soon feel the SPOOKY POWERS...

But there is a handy axe to settle things

In fact, all three of these figures are wonderful little tributes to their 28mm inspirations. The Librarian has the same "I'm about to blast you with some cool mind-stuff" pose as his larger cousin - and of course is also carrying a big axe that will sort things out should mind tricks fail. 

I love this pose...at once "ready for duty" and "I can't wait to hit someone with this sword!"

Not a ton of detail to show, but pretty great considering it's a 15mm figure!

The Champion Consul still manages to exude an air of tightly-controlled fanaticism, waiting to be unleashed at the appropriate time and against the appropriate heretic(s). His bolt gun is present, but tucked away, as this fellow clearly relished sorting things out with his blade.

The loyalist characters face off against the Sons of Horus characters in my previous post...

All of these were fun little projects to paint up over the summer, some extra flavor for the whole "just because it's fun" 15mm 30k project.  

Some 15mm 30k Characters - Pt 1

30k Characters for my 15mm Sons of Horus collection. 

As I get older, I find myself exclaiming words to the effect of "wow, it's already [INSERT MONTH]!" more and more often. This post is no exception...wow, it's already November! And I'm still posting up stuff I painted in the late summer! Oh well, better late than never, I hope. With that all out of the way I present a few more 15mm 30k characters. These little guys are all amazing 3D prints from Byron.

One great thing about the 15mm 30k stuff is that it travels pretty easily, so I tossed a bunch of the figures into a box during the summer and brought them with me to the cabin back in August for some relaxing summer painting by the lake. Here we have a small group of characters for the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. In this batch we find a Praetor, a Librarian and a veteran sergeant. All are wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" armour. 

The "Axehole", ready to conquer in the name of the Warmaster.

Obligatory skullz and oversized cloak present ant correct!

These prints are all tremendous fun. Whoever did the digital sculpts was clearly a fan of the setting, and these are excellent reproductions of their 28mm brethren. I particularly love the "Axehole" Praetor...he certainly looks the part of a Sons of Horus commander!

Power armour AND a tabard? Why not? He has SPOOKY POWERS after all...

"Soon I will throw this fireball at you...but I just want to look at it first..."

The Librarian has the necessary sinister cloak, because obviously. The little ball of blue flame in his hand is a nice touch too. 

"Not that way. THIS WAY. Move it, morons!"

Trusty helmet clipped to his belt. Why would he need it? He's a veteran!

And the veteran...well, he looks like a grouch! You'd be mad too if you had to have studs drilled into your forehead because reasons. Anyway, he is doing one of the most important thing that figures representing junior officers on a wargaming table must do - he is pointing at something!

I'm not really painting these up with a specific plan in mind, beyond trying to keep an approximate balance between loyalist and rebel forces in my painted collection. These little 15mm guys were a lot of fun to paint up during the summer. Up next I'll show some of the Loyalist characters who came off the painting line. 

Another Command Flunky for 30k - Loyalist Overseer Consul

Loyalist Overseer Consul - ready to provide all manner of "encouragement"...

Some more painting to share - here is a "Loyalist Overseer Consul", the latest in a lengthening line of assorted command-level flunkies to be found among the Space Marine Legions of GW's "Age of Darkness", a.k.a the Horus Heresy. This is a 28mm multi-part resin-plastic figure from GW, and he is painted in the colours of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists.

View of the shoulder bling.

Not so fancy from the back...

The "Overseer Consul" is intended to be a senior figure commanding/inspiring the throngs of Auxilia and Militia called to arms in order to aid the defence of The Emperor's domains in the face of The Warmaster's betrayal. A great many of these soldiers volunteered to serve, but we expect that a much greater number of these were simply pressed into service. We can imagine the "direct touch" the Imperium would apply when it comes to matters of military conscription.

Fancy helmet and associated decorations? Why of course!

At any rate, these lesser soldiers might need a bit of help when attempting to face down an assault by traitor Space Marines. That "help" might come in many forms...inspiration? Encouragement? A pretty clear and concise explanation of what will happen if they fall back? Some combination of all three perhaps? This fellow appears well-equipped to apply any of these means of "persuasion" - the ornate armour, the comb on the helmet, the tabard and back banner, the Crozius-style baton, the plasma pistol, and, of course a couple of skulls to top the whole thing off...

Feel the oversight!

Whether this fellow serves as an "Overseer" or just as some other brand of officer or consul, I like the look. I am a sucker for the Mark VI "beakie" style armour, after all, so I really wanted to get one of these chaps into my collection. While I have not yet had the opportunity to try out version 3.0 of the Age of Darkness rules, it does seem like the newer force-selection rules call for a larger number of officer/character type figures, so this guy will help where that is concerned. 

Some New Plastic MkII Marines From The VII Legion Astartes

"Careful with those rifles now!" Imperial Fist veterans sporting "disintegrator" weapons. 

Earlier this summer GW dropped a new edition of its Horus Heresy rules - the "Saturnine" edition. When GW rolls out a new edition for any of its mainline games, new figures are, of course, a big part of the marketing appeal to players. Horus Heresy 3.0 was no exception in this regard, with many fans of the setting zooming in on the new Saturnine Terminator armour (and the associated hilarious retcon). For my part, I was much more intrigued by the new multipart "regular" Space Marines sporting Mk II power armour. You get 40 of these guys in the new boxed set, so I thought I would start off with a 10-man squad as part of this summer's painting. This is a veteran tactical squad in the colours of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists. 

Helmet with comb? Check. Big sword? Check. Scrolls and grenades? Well OF COURSE. 

The Horus Heresy setting is, of course, far in the (terrible) future. But at the same time, it's also "old", in that it occurs some 10,000 years prior to the 40k setting. One of the "oldest" bits of that "old" setting is the Mk II power armour, worn by the Legiones Astartes as they set off on The Emperor's so-called "Great Crusade" to sort out the Galaxy. All of us who enjoy the setting have our favorites when it comes to the different Space Marine armour variants, but those who opted for Mk II models tended to be going for a particular "old school" look for their force, and for years and years they have had to use Forge World resin (or that of, er, "competing suppliers") to do it. 

Vexillary on the left, regular veteran on the right. 

No longer. The Mk II is now available in multipart plastic glory, and I have to say, they sculptors really nailed it. There are few features I might quibble over...for example, the "belt buckle" style joint on the front now has a stupid skull in the place of the previous Imperial Eagle...but overall, these figures are excellent. The proportions are lovely (much better than the original resin ones, which sported oddly thin waists). The assembly is relatively straightforward, and becomes very familiar once you spot the assembly patterns used in the previous plastic Mk VI and Mk III sets. I also love the look of the bolt gun variant that comes with these guys...it is nice and chonky, with a cool sickle-style magazine and nice scope. 

Vox operator with the usual skull-enhanced communications system. 

You will note, however, that none of said bolt guns are to be found here. These fellows are instead equipped with various "disintegrator" weapons. Now, the Horus Heresy is already crowded with a blizzard of weapon selections, but the designers opted to retcon yet another set of weapons into that packed lineup. These "disintegrator" weapons are meant to be near-lost relics from the Dark Ages, very powerful but also dangerous to use, and thus only pulled out of their secure lockers in times of serious emergency - such as a betrayal by The Warmaster and half of the Space Marine Legions...

A view of the heavily segmented Mk II armour. 

The new rules reflect the power of these weapons (because of course), but they are also subject to a variant of the tiresome "gets hot" rule which makes them even more dangerous to those firing these weapons. It is, IMO, yet another case of the rules getting out of whack with the lore. These rare, dangerous weapons are such that they are only trusted to veterans...yet firing these weapons more than a few times is one sure way to ensure you never become a "veteran" in the first place! Makes sense in a 30k-kind of way, I guess :) 

Disintegrator "Blaster" on the left, "Heavy Disintegrator" on the right. All very, very safe to use, no doubt...

Since these weapons were dangerous and stupid to use, I thought they fit in perfectly with Rogal Dorn's lot! There are four types of "disintegrator" weapon in the group - the Sergeant has the "pistol", and most of the lads have the "rifles". There is also a "blaster" variant - I think that is the one with the twin barrels, while one chap is hulking along with a "heavy disintegrator". As one does. 

Don't roll a "1" lads...

"If anyone survives, I shall smack them with my sword!"

I was very slow to paint these fellows because...well, it was a slow summer for actually get stuff painted, and I wasn't in a huge hurry, as I sort of already have quite a few Space Marines, and while these Mk I kits are lovely, in general, the Mk II is not my favorite flavor of power armour. These were lovely to paint up - the only really challenging part was getting the decals to sit properly on the shoulder pauldrons. This a minor thing, but it vexes me constantly that GW always makes the Legion symbol decals a touch too large, such that you need a fair bit of decal softener to get these things to sit down on the curved surface of the shoulder. 

Summer Painting Update Pt 3 - French Men-At-Arms for Hundred Years War

Here's a scary lot to see on the battlefield!

Diving further into my (relatively) new Hundred Years War project, we get into some of the flashier participants in the setting - some men-at-arms and foot knights. These are 28mm figures from the beautiful Perry Miniatures range - there are some multi-part plastic figures in here, but also the amazing Agincourt French Foot Command set, which was a gift from fellow Conscript Dallas. 

Plastic Foot Knights

A selection of plastic French men-at-arms from Perry Miniatures. 

I have only assembled a few of the multi-part plastic men-at-arms so far - you get one small sprue of them in the French plastic infantry box. As mentioned before, nobody is ever going to pay me to assemble multi-part 28mm plastics, but they go together nicely, even with my fumbling, and you have a really neat assortment of arms/helmets/weapons. I am surprised there are not that many shields, and that the shields which are available seem...small. But this also points to how my assumptions going in are derived from years and years of marinating in various fantasy-type settings, which feature all manner of heavily armoured warriors and yet are...well, fantastical, right? 

Love that axe! Looks like some serious business there...

Anyway, the armour is still amazing, and the figures are beautiful. As far as attempted heraldry goes, my assumption is that some of these footmen were nobles, men of rank, who might have their own heraldry, while others would be in their retinues...either lesser ranked, or perhaps not even nobles at all, but trusted retainers? At any rate, I experimented on a few of the figures, copying (or trying to) some of the heraldry patterns I have seen elsewhere, and in other cases just sort of making some up, and in still other cases keeping very colours in place on the assumption they are non-noble footmen/retainers...

Of course, heraldry continues to be a real challenge, and in the case of the Agincourt foot command, a real challenge, as these are all meant to represent specific people from history who had specific heraldry they would have worn to war...BUT...the Perrys have me covered, as the metal command figures have their heraldry patterns sculpted on to the casting, making painting them much, much more achievable...

Agincourt Foot Command

French Foot Command for Agincourt - amazing metal castings from Perry Miniatures.

Now we move to the metal command group. These are AWESOME sculpts, challenging to paint, but a lot of fun too. I'm not planning to make any kind of serious attempt to replicate the battle of Agincourt itself, but I love these figures, and they will do absolutely splendidly to serve in all manner of French forces in the period. I mean, if the game is post-Agincourt, perhaps we can assume an heir has taken up the role, right...?

Boucicault, Marshall of France on the left, and Guillaume Martel (awesome name), bearer of the Oriflamme

The heraldry involved with this project is a huge conundrum for me, but fortunately with these figures, the patterns are sculpted right on to the figures, which makes painting the patterns a lot more possible. 

John, Duc de Bourbon (left) and Lord Rambures, Grand Master of Crossbowmen, which sounds like a cool job to have in France.

You will see two banner bearers here among the group...the flags are another thing I find daunting about this period. I mean, the flags are so cool, and I would like to squeeze in a reasonable number, but it also seems like most of the flags were not cloth banners as I mind imagine them, but were rather fixed in a way as to be stiff and rigid...I don't quite know how I will tackle that...

Charles x 2! Charles, Count of Eu (on the left) and Charles, Duc de Orleans, with a big f*cking hammer...

Having said that, these two seemed to be more traditional in the sense of curling in the wind...we have the flag of the Constable of France - at least, I THINK that it is...and the other is the fabled "Oriflamme", raised, as I understand it, when the French intend to signal that no mercy will be shown, and no prisoners taken. In both of these cases, I attempted to freehand the flags and it was kind of a mess...but whatever...

Here we have d'Albret, Constable of France (in the middle), his standard bearer (on the right, holding his boss's helmet) and on the left, a figure assembled from spare plastic bits...I made into a herald/trumpeter.

As for the rest of the Agincourt command, I did my best to copy other online sources to paint the heraldry. I also sourced some much brighter "white metal" metallic paints to capture that real sheen seen on the armour of this period. 

In aggregate, this provides the 12 warriors needed to form a single unit for a game of "Never Mind The Billhooks", but there are many more men-at-arms to come and I hope to form several units to spread these fellows out a touch. Big thanks again to Dallas for these awesome figures! That's all for now, hope to be back with more before long!

Summer Painting Update Pt 1 - 15mm 30k Bits

Reinforcements for my 15mm Sons of Horus. 3d printed 15mm sized resin figures.

Well...hey, I'm still here! I'm still puttering about the hobby painting desk! I just find that once one "takes a break" from posting to the Blog then...it is very easy to keep "taking that break". A body at rest staying at rest...you know how that goes...but I have been painting since the end of Curt's Analogues Hobbies Painting Challenge, and it's past time to share some of the work. Up first, another couple of bits for my 15mm 30k project. 

These are 15mm-sized 3d prints provided by Byron M. There are two different units to share here, both from the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. We have some sinister Justaerin Terminators and then a devastator squad equipped with autocannons. Watch out, loyalists!

Justaerin Terminators

"We're heavily armed, heavily armoured, and...really grouchy!" It's the Justaerin, the elite of the XVI Legion Astartes!

The Justaerin are one of the "elite" formations found among Horus' own Legion. They are noted for their dark armour, preference for spikey-type adornments and a generally dour attitude that seems to find joy only in hitting other people. Now, I recognized it can be confusing, given that this describes like 80% of the Space Marines at the time of the Horus Heresy, but I credit the GW armour designers as the Justaerin armour manages to look quite grouchy, and so they still manage to stand apart in what might fairly be considered as a crowded field. 

Power axes for everyone!

These chaps carry combi-bolters and big, scary power axes. For a firepower boost, one fellow is equipped with a multi-meta, but note that he ALSO has a giant axe to smash people. Because 30k, right? For the power axes I went with a bit of an extreme color contrast, to help the blades stand out. It looks a bit silly up close, but from "gaming distance" it comes across nicely.

Another pair of "regular"" Justaerin fellows.

View showing some of the engineering bits on the back of the armour. You can see the fellow on the left lost his axe handle...had an unfortunate encounter with the floor...

The chunky 3d-sculpts have lots of fun little details, capturing the assorted engineering bits on that back of the suit, the recessed helmets and the flashy top-knots. One fellow lost the handle on his axe when the miniature fell to the ground and it snapped away, but I just covered the damage with paint, and figured he would go forward as an extra-grouchy fellow. 

Heavy Support - Autocannons

Mad minute, anyone?

I painted a few autocannon gunners for the loyalist side of my collection, and so naturally the Sons of Horus needed some as well! These guys are wearing the Mark VI "beakie" power armour, and there is now a whole lot else to say...I love how they look! 

Lots of ammo to keep those weapons going!

Lovely details on these 15mm figures...the 3d prints give a great result that paints up rather quickly!

Five autocannons will come in handy when the time comes to mow down some of the new loyalist figures I painted back in April during the Painting Challenge. 

That's all for this post - but stay tuned for more, on this project and several others! I hope to get at least one more painting up shared later this week. Thanks for reading, and have a great summer.