MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 8

This weeks offering is the Carnivorous Ape, a fairly new figure from Reaper, I picked this up originally to use in a Conan game (he always seemed to be battling with large simians in the books), but he has been painted up for D and D.  Still managing to keep up painting one a week, but I am trying to get a unit of Chronicle Hobgoblins done as Black Uruks for Thistlewood.

RECRUITING NOW...

Following Thantsants example here in which he posts pictures of the goodies he is seeking, I have slavishly done the same as it seems such a good idea

First up I need 9 more of this chap, Ral Partha Armoured centaur for King Amias loyal centaur guard. There is a variant holding the spear slightly forward,  either will make me happy.

Next, a rather flaky little ghoul, again from Ral Partha. In 1983, when Thistlewood was published there were not many ghouls on the market, and Lord Vassago requires a bodyguard of 15. So far I have 11.

I am always after this figure, possibly my all time favourite miniature, again from Ral Partha. Hecatron or Armoured Giant. I have 11 already, but can never get too many (strange really). This piccy is pinched off Coolminiornot. I really must get my painted ones photographed.

Here is a monster that I am finding really hard to track down. The Well Drakken from Ral Partha (there is a decidedly American theme running through my wants)

I like the Froudian look of this chap, also reminds me of Scandinavian trolls creeping through vast pine or birch forests.

I have hundreds more I can't live without, but I will be keeping my eyes skinned for these in particular.

TOWN PLANNING

One of the few advantages of working weekends is that you get a day off in the week when the kids are at school,so instead of the usual dashing about trying to do chores I normally fill my Thursday with, I thought "sod it" and decided to plan out what terrain I had or needed to refight the Thistlewood scenarion in WD45.

Here is the map from the article

and the nice little black and white picture that illustrated the page with the map on, I spent hours back in 1983 staring at this picture with a magnifying glass trying to work out what figures were what. There are more troops than in the army lists that's for sure.

and my terrain so far. This is just a mock up, and the buildings may be re-painted, as will the roads etc. I need to make a wizards tower (or buy one), some hills and a walled tomb area among other things but it's a start. The original battle was fought on a 4' x 8' table but my mancave is only big enough for a 4' x 6' so it looks a bit compressed

Should I get a GW battlemat, or one of the old fashioned flock railway mats?

OLDHAMMER ANTHEM

The latest ripple in the Oldhammer ocean is a challenge by Erny to choose an anthem to announce the entrance of your Oldhammer army as it sends all fleeing before it. As usual I found it impossible to pin it down to one track.

11 years ago I rediscovered my love of heavy metal (or in other words had my midlife crisis) as well as playing with fantasy armies and collected a GW marauder army, which had this track playing every time it took the field




If I were gaming with an Empire, er, I mean Men of the West Army (such as King Amias' force from Thistlewood) then it would have to be this by the greatest metal singer of all time, the late great R J Dio with Black Sabbath




Undead, then this (without the spandex)



Hairy Norse, then this (fantastic band live, check out the synchronised headbanging).


Note the Horned God symbol made popular among metallers by Dio in the 70's (his gypsy granny taught him how to do it apparently), still in use here among 21st century metallers. Makes me wish I still had hair (any hair, let alone long hair)


But overall it would have to be this, back to Dio singing with Sabbath, my all time favourite metal song. Slow start, so skip to 1.29 for the gravelly intro to the main tune if you are in a hurry.....

MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 7

More undead after yesterdays skellies. This time a pair of Ral Partha mummies, stumbling forward ready to paralyse anybody foolish enough to get in the way. Nice and easy, linen paint from Coatd'arms with a wash of the late lamented Devlan Mud (why oh why did GW drop that wash)? Cynical anti corporate answers welcome to that last question.

LORD VASSAGO'S SKELETONS

My wife and three boys went to stay with a friend in Wales for a day or so, so I took Friday off after dropping them up there on Thursday and motored through a batch of ancient Minifigs skeletons for my Oldhammer Thistlewood game. The army list in White Dwarf 45 states Vassago, the evil liche lord of the Northern wastelands has a mixed army of undead , goblinoids and wyverns (hurrah), and as I am doing this project in an Oldhammer style I was pleased to use some of my box of Minifigs Valley of the Four Winds Skeletons, some of which I have had unpainted for 34 years. The figures suggestions at the end of the article mention Citadel's Fantasy tribe range, but I do like all the same pose in my units.

I still love these figures, based on Bruegel's painting The Triumph of Death

 (also used on Black Sabbath's Greatests Hits, which was released before Ronnie James Dio started singing with Sabbath, and therefore contains none of their greatest hits). They have that macabre look of relentless animated corpses, that are not quite skeletons yet. The figures themselves have very shallow detail, so don't pick up washes or shading well, but have that real old school charm. Some of these figures I picked up secondhand and although I did my best to strip them, they are so fragile I was worried scrubbing with a nailbrush after oven cleaner treatment might finish them off altogether, so the original thick gloss paint remains underneath.

These aren't old school bases by the way, just the card I use to hold them when painting. Should I put them on 20x20 or 25x25 bases I wonder.

MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 6

A distracting week, as I have been drooling over various Oldhammer blogs thinking "wouldn't it be nice to do some old style Warhammer units", but then looking on ebay at old figures, plenty of people seem to have the same idea and prices are getting high. I have been making some progress assembling my dwarf cavalry and done a little painting.

Here is some staple sword fodder for the dungeon, Goblins by Grenadier. I picked this group up on ebay US and I rather like their sneaky look (for some reason they remind me of the Imps of  Autumn from the old Rupert Bear annuals, no wonder I always found the stories a bit creepy). I went for reds and ochres for the skin as per the Monster Manual description. I have never liked green goblins anyhow, red, yellow, blue yes, but green.....nope. My idea of goblins generally is a bit more ugly and lumpen than these, more like the old Fiend Factory ones. I have a batch of those to paint for my Oldhammer Thistlewood project too.

Despite having a new camera, my pics don't seem to be any better, which leads me to the conclusion I am cack handed at photographing figures. Any tips from better photographers would be much appreciated.

MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 5

Hope this isn't getting too monotonous, I am working on some plastic dwarfs as well and have managed to pick up some old GW elves as well which I hope to turn into something much more sinister, but in the meantime here is the first entry in the Monster Manual, the Aerial Servant. Yes, they are invisible but this is such a fun figure from Citadel (Fantasy Specials range I think, or perhaps the short lived  Weird Fantasy range) I had to repaint it, trying to make the china on the tray look like Cath Kidston stuff (which is everywhere now, so why not in dungeons).

The weak spot of the figure was at the base and this one was about to break. I added a hefty blob of superglue and then some accelerator which hardened it nicely and made the weak spot much stronger. I can imagine this chap floating along beside his wizard master, ready to serve tiffin.