A Return of Sorts

It's been a pretty horrible couple of years, hasn't it? 

We've lost loved ones, been beset by fires and floods, and found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic whose overriding theme has become 'let it rip'. It leaves one feeling a bit let down.

But dammit, I mustn't get stuck in the Slough of Despond! 

Or is that the Swamp of Sadness...?

After what has been far too long a hiatus, I decided I had to do something, anything really, to try and unwind from all the depressing garbage the last two years have heaped upon us. Gardening and cooking are all very well, but sometimes you need to get back to your hobby roots.

Of course, as a longtime fan of Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, I wanted some models which would fit well within a RuneQuest campaign.

So I ordered some figures from Fenris Games, makers of some of the most engagingly weird and wonderful sculpts on the market, and got to work for the first time in ages. Fenris Games have a good many minis suitable for Glorantha, but I settled upon some adventurer types and some chaotic abominations.

First off the bench was this guy;

He's billed as "Lance, Kara'Safra - pumpkin head bear", but all Gloranthaphiles know a Jack O'Bear when they see one! This beastie hits its enemies with a paralyzing gaze before ripping them limb from limb.

Next up was Squidhead Fred, a tentacled monstrosity which haunts the desolate swamps and fens, looking for its next snack (spoilers, it's player characters!). He was a tough one to paint, what with all the arms and differing textures, but he didn't turn out too badly.

Well, it's a start! Getting back into the swing of painting again might be just what I need. Let's see if I can maintain a modicum of momentum.

Stay tuned!

Ev

Druids!

 Back in an Ancient/Fantasy vein now - the three venerable gentlemen above are from Warlord Games.

The chap in the centre is Susages (or 'Snags', as Cory likes to call him), a holy man and adviser to King Decebalus of Dacia. He came as part of a box of resin figures of Dacian and Sarmatian heroes for the SPQR skirmish game. He looks all windswept and interesting with that robe billowing in the breeze.

 

The other two are Druids from Warlord's Hail Caesar Celtic range. Suitably grumpy old men to see off those pesky Romans!

"Get off my lawn sacred grove!"

"And that will be the fate of all sinners, sinners just like you, sir!"

Have to say, that group shot looks like the yearly argument over who's got the knobbliest staff...

So what will these fellows be used for? I'm thinking NPCs in my RPG of choice, RuneQuest, which abounds with assorted shamans and holy recluses who can impart wisdom and teach spells. They'll make a nice accompaniment to my Bronze Age folk from the last Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

On to some more warriors next, I'm thinking - stay tuned!

Ev

Ev's Challenge - Day 55 - The Journey Upcountry (and a Detour or Two)

Greetings Paint Fans, and welcome to my second round up of entries for The Tenth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

I struck out from Sander's Sand Dunes, making my way inland to Millsy's Mill Pond, a deceptively calm stretch of water where old and forgotten figures were to be displayed, with provenance!

Well, they don't come much older than this chappie, a Daka Fal Adventurer from Citadel's line of RuneQuest figures, released in 1982. He's a member of the Sable Tribe of Prax (hence the horned helmet), and the priest of a cult of ancestor worshippers.

He netted me an excellent score, thanks to his extreme age, and so I felt emboldened to undertake a detour of sorts. I produced a Curtgeld entry, the price of admission to Challenge X.

This year, Curt asked us to produce a figure for someone else, not necessarily another Challenger. So, because my blolleague Millsy is sitting out this Challenge after having fought monster fires for the last couple of months, I decided he deserved a gesture of appreciation.

It's the old Warhammer Giant, a plastic model 110mm tall, and an imposing addition to Millsy's Orcs and Goblins, or Dogs of War armies. I really enjoyed painting this one; he's so characterful!

My most recent entry is this substantial lady, a Fertility Goddess from Reaper Miniatures.

Based on the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf (only much, much bigger), she comes with a decorative base dotted with pots and baskets of offerings.

All I need to do is come up with some worshippers for the Green Goddess, and the vignette will be complete!

As she is an indisputably female figure, I was able to secure travel in Lady Sarah's Balloon, all the way to the other side of the island. This honour is vouchsafed only to those who have submitted a female figure as the price of passage.

I'm now at Awdry's Atoll, preparing a vignette based on an old CD. Hey, it's what Mr Awdry specified, and who am I to disagree?

What's up next?

Stay tuned...

Ev

Ev's Challenge - The Saga Continues

Day 49 of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and we're past the halfway point.

I'm just past the halfway mark on my own 500 point target as well, so all going according to plan, I might just squeak through...

So what have I done since the last update? Let's take a look!

The brutish Manticore, a staple of the medieval bestiary - a Reaper Bones figure which will give any band of adventurers pause.

A Reaper Bones 'Avatar of Resilience', a humanoid rhino, now repurposed as a Broo with the addition of goat horns and weeping sores. Broos are the chaotic bringers of disease in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, the setting of the wonderful RPG RuneQuest.

The Durinhold Tectonics, a Blood Bowl Sevens team yet to make it to the top-flight leagues. But they're a plucky lot and will undoubtedly get some reinforcements soon! These were old Blood Bowl figs from the 1990's, so the basing scheme was an homage to the Oldhammer Era. A moment of silence, please, as we remember Citadel Goblin Green, the most popular basing colour of the good old days... (sniff)

Next up is a Deep Cuts Medium Fire Elemental from WizKids, a transparent plastic cast which was finished in yellow and red inks to preserve its translucent quality. I drybrushed the tips of the flames with black to suggest a smoky fire, and picked out a few areas in opaque yellows to keep it interesting. Quite pleased with the final effect, but don't ask about the water elemental I've been working on - that's proving to be a tricky one!

Three Bugbears, more Reaper Bones sculpts, and a lot of fun to paint. Lots of textures to keep the painter busy, and a unified colour palette really tied the group together, man.

Lastly, an entry for the 'Mercenary' bonus theme round. A Citadel Miniatures Ogre Maneater from the 2000's, he's been languishing on the north face of my Lead Mountain (which is situated in the Garage of Shame) for a good many years now.

He's actually made of metal - fancy that! Old metal Ogres appear to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance this round, with my blolleague, the estimable Mr Mills, submitting a corker of an entry. Call me old-fashioned, but you can't beat the satisfying heft of a large chunk of metal on the tabletop!

That's all for now, more updates to come!

Stay tuned...

Ev

Paint Table Saturday

Things are progressing well on the Savage Orc army project as I push towards "completion".
The quotes are because I never truly "complete" anything and often sneak a new unit in months or even years after things are supposedly done and dusted.

All that aside, the last week have seen more complete a unit of two Goblin Bolt Throwers and make serious progress on the following Savage Goblin Spida Herdas...

These have further progressed since the photo was taken and the spiders themselves are now close to complete. I'd likely have been finished them altogether but for a lack of suitable glue to affixing the smaller spiders to bases.

Lurking to one side are the beginnings of another project in the form of the first unit for my Gloranthan Lunar force - the Silver Shields (sans shields at this point ironically) and the second half or my Mordheim Orcs and Gobbos warband I taked about recently.

Lastly here's a quick pick of what happens when you have a new kitten in the house. Olivia Jigger is very much a "participant" in the hobby scene and likes to "help" me out. This often leads to the cry of "Shields Up Number One!" and the following becomes necessary...

Here's my baby girl helping her mum out. She's a gorgeous little monster. Light boxes are warm and show her in her best light or so she believes!

Til next time!

Cheers,
Millsy

More from Glorantha - Orlanthi Thane

Millsy and I have both been busy with our respective Gloranthan projects of late, and as I have the day off today, I thought I'd post some pics of the Orlanthi Thane I'd converted.

I finished him to this point late last night. He'll need some extra bling, since he's meant to be high status, and this will probably take the form of some runic symbolism on his shield (stay steady, hands...) and some decorative trim on the clothing.

The wolfskin cloak is a probable trophy from the hunt, or maybe from battles with the Telmori, the wolf folk of Dragon Pass.

I tried to avoid using any sort of shield iconography which might make a viewer automatically assume that Orlanthi are just transplanted Celts or 'Land Vikings' (though if anyone made 28mm plastic Halstatt Celts, I'd certainly try and lay hands on a boxed set or two!).

Obviously, the massed units will probably be bog-standard plastic Celts with a few decorative tweaks to keep them from looking too Gallic or British (note to self; avoid plaid wherever possible, it's not like I haven't seen enough to last me a lifetime, after all). The economics of collecting an army mean that we have to be ready to compromise from time to time!

Let's just hope that Orlanthi are more durable than Celts in the face of massed heavy infantry, which my illustrious adversary Mr Mills is assembling even as we speak... Though, to be fair, the ability to summon thunderbolts and wind elementals should more than make up for any shortfalls in discipline!

This chappie will probably end up based as part of a massed unit of Warriors (according to our preferred Ancients rule set, Simon Miller's To the Strongest!) so I'd better get cracking on his retinue.

Stay tuned!

Evan

Workbench Holiday Monday

So having spent a good week living the 80s dream I have (kind of) wandered Back to the Future. I've completely knocked off the large 40K commission I was working on and I'm back onto a couple of my own projects... Ah, sweet self-indulgence!

First up I'm adding a new unit to my Savage Orc & Goblins army. This may or may not be a good thing as a complete reorganisation of the display case revealed these jokers have now overtaken an entire shelf on their own and are slowly invading the Space Marines below. That can't end well. I forsee a reprise of Ork's Drift at some point in the future.

Savage Gobbo Spida Herdas. Yes, really...

In a traditional Orc & Goblins army these would be Squig Herds but that's not really appropriate. Sooo.... I'm mixing it up a bit with some spare Forest Goblins of differing varieties, some extra first edition mounts from the Spider Riders and a bunch of smaller spiders from the current Arakanrok kit. The result? Savage Gobbo Spida Herdas!

The other job on the worktable is a new project Evan and I have started - battles in Runequest Glorantha using Simon Miller's To the Strongest! rules. This is my first unit, using some spare miniatures from the lead pile. I don't know who made them or what they are to be honest but they make great Silver Shields (or they will when painted anyway). 

Back to the 80s for just a minute, I had another cracking bit of Oldhammer eBay Fu last night thanks to a good dose of insomnia. Apparently if you can't sleep you can buy a complete RRD5 Ruglud's Armoured Orcs set at 2:00am for a sensible price from a very generous German... Nice!

That's it for today. Happy gaming!

Cheers,
Millsy

Back to Glorantha Again, or Alarums and Conversions

Now, how often does something like this happen? Two posts in a row from Ev, and less than a week apart?

Relax, I haven't gone and done anything rash, like painting another figure or anything, but I have decided to try my hand at a spot of conversion with this plastic Orlanthi Chieftain.

Aggression on hessian!

He's very much an experiment, and an incomplete one at that; a bit more tidying up and some judicious work with the old Green Stuff and he should paint up OK. The shield is just blu-tacked into position so I can get an idea of how it looks on the figure.

I see this fellow as a fairly wealthy noble of an Orlanthi clan. Orlanth is the Storm God worshipped by the barbarians of Dragon Pass, in the southern provinces of the Lunar Empire. The Orlanthi are every bit as tempestuous as their god, and uprisings against Lunar occupation are not uncommon, at least when the clans aren't feuding with one another. 

The torso, arms and legs are from a Victrix Carthaginian veteran, the sword, shield with javelins, scabbard and head are from the Warlord Games Celtic Warriors boxed set, and the wolfskin cloak is from the Agema Miniatures Roman Velites sprue. 

Despite his decidedly varied heritage, I think we're off to a good start.

Stay tuned!

Ev

Back to Glorantha

Back to where, exactly...?

Well, around 30-odd years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I began GMing a role-playing game called RuneQuest, a skills-based fantasy system, without levels or classes. I enjoyed the mechanics of the game, especially the fact that all player characters could use magic to augment combat or heal wounds. But what really got me hooked was Glorantha, the world in which the adventures took place.

Glorantha wasn't your usual medieval fantasy world; it was defiantly Bronze Age in its inspiration, with iron a rare and magical material. This world spoke to my need for something out of the ordinary, something other than the castles, dungeons and wizards of mainstream fantasy RPGs.  Glorantha wasn't even a planet in the conventional sense, but a cube of earth floating in a cosmic ocean, topped by the dome of the sky.

Glorantha spawned many extremely high-quality supplements which have become legendary in role-playing circles for the breadth of their detail and the standard of artwork, especially those released during the 'RuneQuest Renaissance' of the early 1990's.

The rich mythology of Glorantha has been described elsewhere by better writers than I, and the world has been given a new lease of life (after a long hiatus) with the release of the encyclopedic Guide to Glorantha, a massive tome detailing almost every aspect of the world. It's heavy reading. I mean over 5 kg heavy.

And of course, I simply had to get the Atlas as well - no buyer's remorse here!

My nostalgic return to the RPG universe of my youth has led me down some odd pathways, not the least of which is a desire to come up with some figures to populate any hypothetical games down the track, but why stop with role-playing?

Seasoned followers of this blog will know of Simon Miller and his excellent new Ancients rules system, To The Strongest! Well, after having seen Simon's ruleset in action with a tabletop version of a battle in Glorantha, my blolleague Mr Mills (another old Glorantha hand) and I began wondering how we might be able to assemble a couple of armies of our own.

Well, everybody has to start somewhere, and suitably inspired by the efforts of far superior painters, I decided to paint up the handsome chap below; he's still a work in progress, but seems to be coming along quite nicely.

He's a Warlord Games plastic Greek Hoplite, painted up as a Centurion of a Lunar Regiment, and a member of the Seven Mothers cult. He bears the Runes of Death and Life inside the large Moon Rune on his shield (slightly wonky freehand work, but I'll see if I can't get that tidied up a bit). His iron kopis is an indication of the esteem in which he is held by his superiors.

Needs a bit more work, of course, especially on the base, and he's based more for skirmish games or role-playing than being ranked up as part of a bigger unit on the field of battle, but I would like to try out a few more figs for Glorantha. This is my first 'ancient' subject in quite a while, and it's good to get in some practice again.

Stay tuned!

Ev