RANGERS OF THE NORTH

 Back to the Minas Tirith'84 project with some more goodies, The Rangers of the North or Dunedain. Again I've used Hinchliffe, Foresters from the fantasy range to be back in production soon. These are old castings with a high lead content which made their bows very bendy and difficult to straighten out.. part of the charm of old figures I guess.

I followed the colour scheme from memory but I think it's right. The only inaccuracy I can see is the silver brooch should be on the other shoulder. They certainly have splendid comb overs, similar to their sculptor Peter Gilder.

Other news . I've finished painting the riders of Rohan, which just need varnishing and the bases painting so hopefully I can show you those soon.

The existing Hinchliffe moulds have been spun and the castings examined, so in a week or so I'll be listing the first figures for sale.

I've been tinkering with some Grimdark British Mythology figures... actually assembling 28mm kits. Something I swore I'd never do, but I've quite enjoyed it. This project will be called Perfidious Albion, and may go in a very different way to my normal shiny figures. More soon..

LEPRECHAUNS FINISHED

 A test game of The Woods yesterday, spurred me on to rise with the lark this morning and finish my Leprechaun clan... The Bommy Knockers. Emerging from the bogs and raths of Talamhlar to work their mischief.

Left to right, Oakbound, Pendragon, Reaper, Citadel.

Citadel conversion by Geoff Solomon-Sims, Citadel, Citadel with 54mm tricorn.

Plastic DnD dire owl.

The entire clan.

I was dabbling with painting effects here using a base coat of khaki and highlights of bone and white, then applying contrast paints over the top with a bit of extra shading from Citadel Shades. I think I achieved the effect I wanted, trying to make them look something like Brian Froud's illustrations in Faeries, but a bit more sinister. 

The whole process was a bit time consuming, but I really do like Contrast paints... Such a pleasure to apply. I'll be using them in the future on more fantasy figures.

BRIEF INTERLUDE AND WALK IN THE WOODS

In a few weeks I'm attending the first The Woods Games Day, organised by Geoff Solomon-Sims of Oakbound Studio, in the Woods of Nailsworth Gloucestershire.

I needed to cobble together a warband and whereas I normally go for brute strength and minimal tactics in any game, I happened to have a number of suitable figures lying around to make a Leprechaun clan, tricksy fate weaving, owl loving mischief makers.

I'm underway painting these attempting them in a Grubdark style ( like Grimdark but without the grossness). For an old school fan, I actually quite like a lot of the new gloomy Grimdark style of painting and aesthetic, but sometimes the figures are a bit too icky for my tastes. 

I started with some owls, which didn't come out as gloomy as I'd hoped, but I was quite pleased with them nevertheless. 

I was also happy with the bases. Perhaps not that visible here, but nice and textured and minimal colour. The owls are from Otherworld Miniatures btw. I either got them in a sale or swapped some figures with Richard Scott the owner, because I definitely wouldn't have paid £11 each for them which is the full price. Very nice figures though. Some leprechauns themselves coming next.

RE POSTING DELETED VARIAGS OF KHAND

 

A week or so ago Blogger informed me this post from March breached their regulations and deleted it. They then reinstated it, but it seems to have vanished again, so I'm reposting it as much for my own records.

I've been meaning to get on with this project for quite a while, and it's slowly lumbering along the runway trying to take flight.  The recreation of another battle from the early years of White Dwarf, this time Minas Tirith in White Dwarf 53 , again by Joe Dever, using only figures available at the time of publication ( May 1984).

Joe gives figure recommendations in the article, as usual plugging Citadel and Essex Miniatures, presumably the former was his employer at the time, and being an Essex man, I assume he had connections with Essex Miniatures. While Essex are readily available, most Citadel figures of the time (particularly the historicals) are hard to find at a decent price. 

I've started with a pretty basic unit from the evil army. The Variags of Khand. The figure recommendation is suggests Citadel, but I've opted for the readily available and affordable Hinchliffe Varangian guard. Painted in an early 80s style and varnished and based to fit in with figures from Joe's collection which I now own.

RANGERS OF ITHILIEN

 Another pleasingly small unit for the defenders of Minas Tirith. 300 Rangers of Ithilien. More Hinchliffe Robin Hood figures. 

For the colours, I had in my head this picture by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt

I generally detest their take on Middle Earth (although I love the cover they did for Black Sabbath's Mob Rules), but the feel of their paintings is naturally very late 70s early 80s , which is the look I want for this project. Any how, I managed to get in the gloves, green fletched arrows and painted the strangely shaped beard on the figures as the mask the rangers wear, which incidentally should cover the lower part of their face, not the eyes as shown in the painting.

THE BEASTIE

 I'm now part owner of this very heavy spin caster.

Here it is safely installed in its new home at Oakbound Towers. It's pleasingly old fashioned dating from the 50s apparently.

Unfortunately we didn't get time to fire it up, but with luck I should be able to post about first casts soon.

Many thanks to Geoff for organising it all and driving, and to son one Robin for providing muscle lifting the thing. 

AXEMEN OF LOSSARNACH

 Another tiny unit for the defenders.

Hinchliffe once more. From their ancient range I think, but I can't remember what code. Anyway he fits the bill. An exciting day today, as we go up to collect the casting machine and hopefully get a few test spins in. I'll keep you posted.