Summer Plague

Apologies to all of you who have come looking for my vacation post.

I have unusually succumbed to a summer plague.

Yes, the dreaded Hayfever (allergic rhinitis). My doctor says she has never seen anyone so bad with it in ages when she saw myself the other day.

I look a bit like this. (understatement)

However, all is not bad news, I have managed to watch a few games of footie and have seen that my second favourite football team has progressed to the knock-out stages and I have a new found admiration for the cricketeers from another island nation and Andy Murray marches on.

Book reading has taken a back stage, my eyes water too much and that has also screwed any attempts at painting or modelling but I have managed a few tasks requiring low visual acuity, namely varnishing and basing a few figures.

Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible as they used to say in TV land.

Vacation Over

Am just back from a month in the sun.

I did a lot of this!

And a bit of this!

I have been very switched off, all part of a greater plan, but am now facing up to reality and hope to become a wargamer again. A fuller report will follow in due course.

Bear with me guys.

Troops on Parade

While I was grumbling through my boxes of figures looking for something I knew I had but just not where I realised I had come across some figures I had forgotten I had and other figures I knew I had but had forgotten where they were.

I thought I would photograph them as an aide memoire. Mind you once they are back in their boxes I will no doubt forget them again.

First up were some Dead Men of Dunharrow or Army of the Dead as they are more commonly known.

A fairly simple paintjob, undercoat grey, drybrush white, touch of green ink.

 



A touch of flesh here and there.

 



Next up a chaotic trio.

Red and Gold gives them a 'classic' chaos look.

I can feel 'evil vibes' oozing from this guy!

Peek-a-boo Chaos style.

Elfy the Wiz on a clippity cloppity. Not exactly a graceful steed.

Twins

Sneaky in Shadows, this guy!

Hide in the Woods.

A couple of pack horses. They need a coat of matt varnish. Custom made bases!

A Zombie Horde. Multi-part figures by Wargames Factory.

Not a great deal of definition but OK en masse.

No Michael Jacksons.

Could be a John Revolta though :)

Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep them doggies movin'. Longhorns by Dixon Miniatures.

Dire Wolves by GW.

Check out the teeth.

A squad from Warzone.

Better definition on these figures.

I like their 'tin hats'.

A chum gave me a bundle of armless torsos. I added to them from my bits box and painted them up.

They're a grim looking bunch.

 

I wouldn't argue with these guys.

 



 

 A 'classic' Chaos Warrior.

 



I have a few of them.

A 'classic' figure indeed.

An eBay acquisition, tarted up a bit.

 

Bretonnians I believe.



 

Distinctive shields.

 

I have a few Empire archers too!

Very colourful.

Obviously to dazzle the enemy.

My Gobboes are numerous too. Note that they are 'brownskins'.

Ranks and ranks of them.

Mean little persons.

 



A few of them have big pointy sticks.

 

 

I think that yellow shield is crying out for something.

 

 

Now they are all back in their boxes. Phew!

 

 



Oblivion - The Lava Flows On

I made some more lava hexes.

Here they are alongside some standard Hexon II tiles.

I think I'll make some intermediate tiles to blend in the 'join', so to speak.

The 'join' is a bit abrupt.

The archers seem unwilling to advance, depending on their arrows to dominate the lava field.

These are GW Empire plastic archers painted in a variety of house colours and form part of my humanoid fantasy army. The painting style is semi-old school, block painting finished with a coat of nut brown ink and matt varnish. The bases are magnetised.

Oblivion Landscape

One of the things my late chum did before he died was to donate his Hexon 2 collection to me. This was a marvellous gesture on his part as Hexon 2 is not cheap although it is very good at what it does.

Unfortunately he had bought blank hexes and had applied his own terrain finish. This was OK but they didn't match any of the flocked sets I already had. No problem, I thought, as I had planned on making up some hexes with special features to use with our Sci-Fi and Fantasy games.

I stripped one of the single hexes bare and then applied a lava field effect taking my inspiration from a PC game called Oblivion.

The darker segments are just corrugated cardboard cut into shapes, glued down and topped with a plaster and then sand finish. Finally a paintjob produced the effect I was looking for.

Here is a 28mm Sci-Fi trooper for scale.

I think I may make more of these.

Ready, The Tufts

Since I am painting British infantry for the Peninsular War I thought I would do a couple of mounted officers to tag along with them. This was helped by my friend having started one already.

Here they are:

One of these is entirely my own painting. Can you tell which?

This is one of his!

And this is one of mine!

Here they are together again, with Tufts!

 A nice pair!

Now for another battalion.