Ral Partha Dwarf Thief

 I haven't painted any fantasy figures in ages, so I got this lad from my FLGS. He's a "Dwarf Thief" from Ral Partha Europe, and is quite suitable for this season. He seems to be in the Kevin Adams style, but seems a bit small. Either way, I really enjoyed painting this model!

The Battle of Five Armies : A Hordes of the Things game

 26th June was my 20th birthday, and to celebrate my friends Tuan, Roachey and Wen Geng came over for a big Hordes of the Things game. We played a scenario based on the Battle of Five Armies from "The Hobbit". Tuan and I took command of the Goblin and Wargs while Roachey and Wen Geng led the Elves, Dwarves and Men. It was our first face to face wargame since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The scenario allowed for the arrival of reinforcements for both sides after set numbers of Army Points were lost. These consisted of Thorin, Beorn, the eagles and some sneaky Goblins. 

Here are a few pictures from the battle. The Elves, Dwarves and Men are defending the high ground while the Goblins are approaching the town of Dale at the centre if the board. 

The game saw the Goblin-Warg alliance being victorious, with a score of 18 - 16. Unfortunately we didn't have time to play the game to its conclusion, but it was really enjoyable. I've never played a game this big before, and I hope to do so again! 

The starting deployment 

All 3 evil commands advance on the beleaguered Dale garrison

The trolls break down the gates and capture the town

My Warg command charges into the Dwarves' and Men's lines 

But are quickly repulsed! 

Unfortunately I don't have any more photos.

It was a fantastic game! 

Blood Bowl Pitch Case Part 2

Following on from the construction of the case, I started building the pitch and dugouts. This was an interesting change from the first section of the build, because it allowed me to be more creative.

The first thing I did was to undercoat the entire outside of the case. I think I gave it three coats before moving on to black Rustoleum All Purpose Gloss. Then I gave it a few coats of satin yacht varnish for protection. The finish isn't perfect because of the texture on the plywood, but I'm still very happy with it. 

The next step was to make the pitch and lay out the markings. I started off with a sheet of static grass mat, the kind used by railway modellers. Using a ruler and paintbrush I measured out the squares and painted them in. This took a lot of time and patience! The result was far from perfect, with many of the squares being a few mm too small or big, but it's almost impossible to be completely accurate. Mistakes were easy enough to fix, I just used some PVA and static grass to cover them up. 

I made quite a few corrections to the pitch after this photo was taken! I then used a knife to cut along the Line of Scrimmage, and glued the two halves into the case. 

With the pitch completed, I could start on the dugouts, score counter and turn trackers.  I decided that the half of the case to the right of each player would contain dugouts, while the left would be taken up by turn and reroll tracks. 

I cut squares from a thin sheet of plywood (I think I got it from the back of an abandoned bedside locker!) and glued them in to make the turn and reroll tracks. I decided to only include one turn track per player to save space. After each half of the game they can simply be reset. 

   Numbers were painted into each track. 

I left some empty space on either side of the board so that I could make a scatter template and score tracker. I wanted the scatter template to look more interesting than just a few numbers, so I decided to sculpt it from Milliput. I rolled out a thin layer of Milliput onto greaseproof paper and sculpted the numbers 1 to 8, them I made a Blood Bowl ball. 

I decided that there would be four rooms in each dugout; Reserves, Knocked Out, Dead and Injured, and a Dungeon for players who have been sent off. Using some 3mm MDF and a sharp knife, I carved out some walls and doors to go between each room. 

     The bars in this one were made from           paperclip wire. 

I wasn't sure at first how to make the floors of the dugouts. I decided eventually to use coffee stirrers to imitate stone blocks! I cut them into different lengths and used PVA to glue them in. 

I started to furnish each room. I made a ladder from matchsticks for one reserves box, and a flight of stairs for the other. The steps were made by gluing bits of sprue together, then sculpting stone details with Milliput. 

I made "Home" and "Away" signs using old metal sprues. These were easy to make, I just cut them to be rectangular and painted them. 

I painted a beer barrel from an old Ogre kit for one reserves box. I filled it with some clear resin. 

 I made a stretcher for the Knocked Out box using two lengths of paperclip wire and Milliput. Again I sculpted this on a sheet of baking paper (used wet pallet paper actually!) to stop it sticking. 

I made some coffins for the Dead and Injured rooms using small pieces of thin plywood covered in Milliput. 

Some benches were made for the dugouts using matchsticks. Once all the furniture was finished, I painted the floors and walls of the dugouts and glued everything in. 

Here is the completed pitch! 

In each left hand corner, I made extra sections, to be used as dice trays.

I'm really happy with how the case turned out! 

Conall Beag

 

I just finished painting this miniature from Monkstone Miniatures. They're making a very interesting range of fantasy figures with a unique look. This one is "Rollo the Masterful", but Conall Beag (Conall the Little) is the name that came to me for him. 

I had a lot of fun experimenting with this colour scheme. Purple and turquoise are two of my favourite colours, but I haven't painted many figures with them. I imagine the scheme to be Conall's knightly heraldry. 

The Silver Pinnacle Slayers

I painted this Dwarf Blood Bowl team back around the start of Lockdown, having wanted to start the game for years. I chose Dwarfs as my first team because they are very resilient players who are also well able to dish out damage!

I decided to go with NMM for the metal parts of the figures. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos. 

A group shot of the whole squad!

My favourite players on the team are the Troll Slayers. These guys are very strong, and are able to hold their own against most other teams. Their main downside is their "Frenzy" special rule, which makes them recklessly pursue their opponents. 

I painted runic tattoos on both of them, although they might not al be visible in the photos. 

Two Blitzers:

The three different poses of Blockers (also referred to as Longbeards). 

Finally, two Runners. These are the "fast" players on the (notoriously slow) Dwarf team. They're great for running into the End Zone for a touchdown. 

I plan on painting up some Star Players and Secret Weapons for this team. Every Dwarf team needs a Deathroller sooner or later! 

The Averland Adventurers

 These little folk are my new Halfling Blood Bowl team. They're great sculpts with a lot of charm. I did a few conversions on some of the players to make them more unique, and to allow me to use Star Players. Their kit is inspired by FC Barca's Catalan shirt. 

Here's a group photo of the whole squad! 

These two are Hefties, particularly tough Halflings. I like their design, both of them look like they're seasoned fighters (even if they're not exactly great!). I sculpted a scarf for the one on the right and gave him an extra shoulder spike so that he can be used as Puggy Baconbreath. 

These two Hopefuls are posed sprinting up the field. As with all the figures on the team, I really enjoyed painting their faces.

I made stilts for this player. He can be used as a normal Hopeful or as the Star Player Nuddley Verruca. 

This fella looks confident, as if he could be the team captain. 

Two Catchers:

I did a head swap on this Hopeful to make him suitable for Captain Colander. I sculpted a cape for him from Milliput too. Painting chequered clothing is always a challenge, but fun. 

This is another converted Hopeful. I combined two heads from the kit and sculpted some curly hair. He can be used as a standard Hopeful or Big Jobo. 

A fairly normal Hopeful :

Player number 6 is one of my favourites. 

No Halfling team is complete without some Treemen, and I'd like to add some soon. I'm not sure which miniatures I'll use for them, but I might try the Treemen from the Warlords of Erehwon range. The box includes 3 different sculpts, so it's perfect for a Halfling team.