THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT

Lord Vassago doesn't have any cavalry in his army, but he does have a large pack of wolves at his disposal. Back in 1983 there wasn't a lot of choice of wolf figures that I was aware of, the suggested Ral Partha figures were a bit small, but these Minifigs lupines from the Mythical Earth range fit the bill . I really like their long snouts.

It took me a while to source 30 (some very kind donations from fellow bloggers helped), but now I have amassed another 30 with the original goblin riders, so I must get those finished at some stage.

THISTLEBROOK BRIDGES

Two useful bridges for the Thistlewood scenario, and to add to my slowly growing terrain store. Both by Hovels and released in 1985.

Trees are by Merit and widely available back in the late 1970's and early 80's.

In this last picture, you can see the village stocks...an old Citadel piece FS20, without the victim.

DEM BONES, DEM BONES...

As well as painting the Thistlewood terrain, I've re-based Lord Vassago's army in a more old school style. The painted sand and flock just looked too fussy for these old figures. I returned to the good old Tetrion (wall filler) texture, which was then painted my standard bright green, dry-brushed white and then washed with the brilliant Army Painter Green tone. This gave the finish I wanted, a sort of washed out look we used to get when we used tube acrylics straight onto Polyfilla (when we could be bothered to base them at all).

All skeleton are Minifigs from the Valley of the Four Winds range from th late 1970's 

THISTLEWOOD CHURCH

Another very old kit is this old Airfix church , again still available from DAPOL . I've seen it appear in a number of early Warhammer games, such as this splendid display by the Players Guild in 1986.

There's the church, in the middle of the picture.

Back in the day there was no Sigmar, and feudal medieval fantasy states seemed follow a sort of woolly Christian religion. In the Thistlewood scenario King Amias' kingdom has a band of fighting monks called The Knights of the White Lord, who fail to show up for the battle incidentally. The church priest, Priest Varlie is made of sterner stuff, and I will be painting an early Citadel Cleric to represent him. Meanwhile here is his church. I left off the most of the crosses as they were likely to snap off anyway, but added a little shield over the doorway. 

HOVELS IN THISTLEWOOD

I've been cranking up enthusiasm to try and get my Thistlewood project finished by the end of the year after completing loads of large scale historical figures. Often with various projects I have undertaken before I have left the terrain until last and then lost interest, so taking up the Oldhammer reins again this month I decided to get all the terrain finished and ready and then proceed with more figure painting.

Initially I was to set the re-creation of the first published Warhammer scenario back in 1983 when it appeared in White Dwarf 45 as a 30th anniversary event but that idea flew out of the window. Letting 2 years slip buy to do the re-enactment has it's advantages as it's now 1985 and these rather nice cottages from Hovels are available to use, first released in that year.

There are 6 suitable houses from the "English" range, all still available from HOVELS .Despite what the catalogue online says ALL the cottages are available, but as a couple are far too small to use with more modern 28mm figures they have taken them off the web page but if you ask, Dennis Coleman will cast them up for you.

It's true all the cottages are quite small even for 25mm figures, but true scale houses would completely clutter the table up and these have a real charm about them, cast in chunky resin they are a lot sturdier than the card Warhammer buildings which came along later.

The Inn looks a bit like The George at Norton St. Philip, where I have spent many bibulous hours in my youth. The oriel window particularly.

rear view. I added the flagstone courtyard bit.

Butcher, baker and candlestick maker

The 3 smaller cottages, deleted from the catalogue but still available.

A larger cottage, called the Manor house

rear view of the Manor, which will be the blacksmith's in Thistlewood

As I need 7 cottages for the scenario, I pressed the good old Airfix thatched cottage into service, a veteran on wargames tables since the mid-1960's I should think, and still available from DAPOL .

I must admit I found painting them all a bit of a bind, but finally got there. There are more terrain pieces to deal with, and I'll be tackling the 2 bridges next.