MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 12

Some bony skeleton warriors, staple fare in any dungeon. I painted and photographed these a while back, but wasn't really happy with the way the bones (or photo) came out, a mixture of drybrushing and washes, but as I haven't managed to get any D & D figures done this week I thought I would post them anyway.

Ral Partha and Grenadier figures.

In the meantime I have finished 50 goblins for Thistlewood, bar the bases so must get them photographed soon.

Check out this battle layout over at Private Weird's blog , absolutely stunning and true Oldhammer, a lovely melange of old figures and  some great scenery.... more please Private.

SOURCING OLDHAMMER MINIATURES

As work progresses slowly with Lord Vassago's army for an Oldhammer Thistlewood refight, I have been bending my thoughts for figures to use for the army of King Amias. My spec is to use figures that were available in 1983 or before, and get them as cheap as possible, being inspired by Mark at The Ramshackle Fort who is working on a definite budget, profoundly satisfying to build up armies this way.

I have already got the Loyal Half Elves finished, and have sourced the centaurs from Garrison Miniatures.
 I was hoping to use Ral Partha centaurs, but the figure I like seems to be pretty rare and usually sell on ebay for upwards of £5, more than I am willing to pay, old skinflint that I am. The Garrison ones however are £1.80 each, and should paint up pretty well.

Back in the early 80's , I had visions of serried ranks of Ral Partha historicals to act as the human troops, and spent hours looking at the small pictures of them in the Citadel Yellow and Blue Catalogues. These very nice figures are still available from Iron Wind in the medieval range and retail about £1.60 each, which is rather a lot when you add postage from the States, plus a likely tax walloped onto them at this end, they are very nice however, and I am trying to convince myself to buy some to satisfy the lust for them I had in 1983 when I was 14.

Another much cheaper alternative would be to use Garrison medival figures like these

which at 75p each seem very attractive, and definitely old school. The army has 20 pikemen (I interpret this as halberds or bills, rather than long spears), 20 swordsmen and 20 macemen, with the option to arm a percentage with missile weapons. I will probably give the swordsmen bows. The 10 Royal Guard will be this figure from Garrison, part of their old Armies of Hyboria range, these are Conan's Aquilonian Black Dragons 85p each.

Baron Galen's cavalry are 30 in number, and I already have 20 Minifigs Valley of the Four Winds Gondemarian cavalry figures (picture from Lost Minis), which look suitably different from standard western medievals to be provincial troops

, and will make up the other 10 as more traditional knights again from Garrison £1.80 each(I like cheap)

So far so good, jsut need to buy and paint them now.

DADHAMMER MOMENT

A few days ago, Robin, my oldest lad (10) roped me into a fantasy battle he had set up in his bedroom, using his own fun rules and figures, all painted himself. A couple of turns in, his brothers turned up eager to participate in moving figures and dice rolling and for 40 minutes or so we had a really enjoyable time with all the youngsters attention held, not bad for Arthur 6, who is not so bonkers about soldiers as Robin , and George who at 3 mainly likes bashing things, but handled the figures reverently.

The lego tower holds a goblin hanglider by the way.  Arthur and myself were the diseased minions of the chaos god Nurgle, and Robin and George were brutish orc marauders. Although Robin seems to know all the ins and outs of the latest Games Workshop creations, his armies hold a healthy mix of different manufacturers, and he is particularly keen on Grenadier Barbarians to use as marauders. A true Dadhammer moment, and as Arthur expressed an interest in getting some Dwarves, I might invest in some of the rather nice EM-4 packs. At 50 figures for £9 you can't go wrong.

MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 11

A flying post today, running late.Here's a nasty critter commonly found lurking in a midden heap, the Otyugh, one of the archetypal D and D monsters.

This one is from Grenadier, and matches the artwork in the Monster Manual closely.  There might be a brief interlude from D and D monsters as I try and press on with Oldhammer stuff, but we'll see.

MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 10

Here we have a nice ETTIN (from the old English eoten meaning bogle or goblin) , produced by Grenadier in the very early 80's as part of their new  official D and D range. To my eyes so much nicer than the new grotesque offering from Games Workshop (also considerably cheaper and smaller). The heads bear a passing resemblance to Ozzy Osborne... make of that what you will

LORD VASSAGO'S BLACK URUKS

I finished painting these chaps last night, and then discovered I had run out of 25mm round bases from Warbases so decided to post them up anyway. A dreadful habit of mine showing incomplete figures, but better than showing nothing I suppose. These are all Chronicle Hobgoblins from the early 1980's except one Asgard orc, I put in to make up the numbers. Here they are on my nice new battlemat.

The Asgard orc on the left and with the round shield below 

Despite being an Oldschool project I couldn't bring myself to paint an orcish banner like a bleeding heart or similar, so plumped for my usual weird face approach (this is John Barleycorn from the Dark Britannica album I am listening too).

I speed painted these fellows, spending time on the skin tones but block painting most of the rest, then drybrushing the block painted bits with bone, before washing those areas with Agrax Earthshade. The fur got a wash of brown ink before the Agrax.

Now on to the 50 Black Sun Goblins in the Liche Lord's army.

MONSTER MANUAL MONDAY 9

Went to Overlord at Abingdon yesterday, a nice little show. The bring and buy was not too exciting but I did discover Ainsty castings were selling a load of old Ral Partha and Grenadier blisters (at modern prices sadly). I picked up some Lizardmen and a couple of packs of Ral Partha Orcs, and also (mega find) a Ral Partha Bear Chariot of the Icelands. I own 2 already but it is a lovely figure and just small enough to use with 20mm figures as well. Robin (oldest son) grabbed some Grenadier barbarians from EM4 and an Orc Warlord, so it was quite a good trip.

I haven't had time to post any Oldhammer goodness, but am 75% through my unit of Chronicle hobgoblins so should be able to get those up next week.

Here is a nice offering from Heritage who made lovely chunky figures back in the late 70's. A Wight. Not how I would imagine the ones that dwell in barrows, but clearly based on the Monster Manual artwork.

A nice touch with the Heritage Dungeon Dweller range was the base sculpted to look like flagstones.

Last week I received a very nice parcel from Gareth the Grot over at  Drums in the Deep . He very kindly sent me a GW battlemat after I mentioned I was thinking of getting one. He is replacing it with some purpose built boards and had no further use for it. Thanks Gareth, much appreciated, hopefully I will be spurred to get some retro terrain to go on it.