Strontium Dog!

Either a year ago, or maybe two, my Dad bought Warlord Games' Strontium Dog starter set and gave it to me to build and paint.

I am ashamed to say it has taken me this long to put any paint beyond undercoat onto any of the models (which are superb; they look just like the late, great, Carlos Ezquerra's drawings).

There was no way I was going to start with anyone other than the Strontium Dog, Johnny Alpha himself:

"Number four cartridge!"

Really simple paintjob, given a good solid coat of gloss varnish to really play up the cartoon aspect of it all. Wulf Sternhammer and The Gronk are next up. Oh, and I should probably paint some more Silver Helms as well, but cavalry are booorrriiiiinnnng.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2019: 25

MechWarrior Musings

I have reached the final mission in my non-streamed playthrough of MechWarrior4 Mercenaries, and my final mercenary company looks like this:

Number One Lance:

Fafnir 1-1 Grim Reaper (2x ER PPC, 2x Clan LBX-AC20s, ECM, LAMS); piloted by Padraig 'Spectre' Chulain

Atlas 1-2 Falcon's Revenge (2x ER LLAS, Clan Ultra AC20, 2x Clan LRM-10 racks, Clan SRM-4 rack, ECM, IFF jammer, LAMS); piloted by Aisa 'Falcon' Thastus

Atlas 1-3 Divine Wrath (2x ER LLAS, Clan Ultra AC20, 2x Clan LRM-10 racks, Clan SRM-6 rack, ECM, IFF jammer, LAMS); piloted by Miriasi 'Angel' Kessler

Longbow 1-4 Long Distance Lover (4x Clan LRM-20s, twin ER MLAS, BAP, LAMS); piloted by Sarah 'Mags' Maglioni

Number Two Lance:

Atlas 2-1 Towering Inferno (10x ER MLAS, 1x Clan LBX-AC10, ECM, IFF jammer, LAMS); piloted by Amber 'Blaze' Worthy

Atlas 2-2 Brick Shithouse (2x Clan Ultra AC5s, 2x ER LLAS, ATM6 rack, 2x ER MLAS, ECM, IFF jammer, LAMS); piloted by Cynthia 'Goat' Robinson

Atlas 2-3 Wild Horse (Clan Gauss Rifle, Clan LRM10 rack, 3x ER LLAS, ECM, IFF jammer, LAMS); piloted by Sheila 'Mustang' Devons

Longbow 2-4 Banshee Wail (4x Clan LRM-20s, twin ER MLAS, BAP, LAMS), piloted by Emily 'Spirit' McCormick

Total weight - 770 tons

Chulain's Commando also has the support of the Stalwart Support mercenary company, and own Griffin military base on New Canton in the Chaos Marches. Not a bad way to come out of being on the losing side in the FedCom Civil War! Shame about the Word of Blake Jihad though.

...now to get the minis to represent them... and some enemy to fight them... aaargh!

EDIT:

I could also get my company commanders' 'sporting mechs' that he used to compete on Solaris VII.

Daishi DEATH! (2x Clan LBX-AC20s, 2x ER LLAS, Clan Streak SRM6 rack, LAMS) - already have this actually)
Black Knight Phantom (12x ER MLAS, ECM)
Hellhound Ghost (Clan LBX-AC10, 2x ER MLAS, Clan Streak SRM6 rack, ECM, LAMS, Adv. Gyro)
Cougar Spook (2x ER LLAS, 2x ER MLAS, Adv. Gyro)

Actually, this sort of thing makes me want to get a 3D printer.

Rangers of Shadow Deep... in the Cursed City?

So I've been on a bit of a Mordheim kick of late, and parallel to that have also been working on some Rangers of Shadow Deep stuff.

Today I slightly repainted my old Ral Partha wolves, and did some Giant Rats (in two batches, because I painted the undercoated ones then hand-undercoated another three). These will work for both Mordheim and Rangers of Shadow Deep, so without further ado, some pictures:

Giant Rats! These are all Games Workshop, some metal, some plastic.

 Ral Partha wolves, given a touch-up to improve (slightly) the enthusiastically bloody paintjob my 12 year old self gave them back in 1999.

On Tuesday I will venture into the Shadow Deep with some friends, and a while ago (before I restarted this blog) I painted myself a Ranger and some Companions:

 My Ranger, Petal Chulain. Figure from Otherworld Miniatures.

 Woman-at-Arms, Joanne the Tall (or Joanne the Giant, if you think she can't hear you and no-one will tell her you said it). Figure from Dark Sword Miniatures.

 The merry band, including Iorek the bloodhound (figure from Ground Zero Games).

So there you have it. A bit of Mordheim madness and some Rangers of Shadow Deep. There will be photos from the RoSD games on Tuesday, of course.

Painting Points:
Today: 15 (!)
This Week: 21 (!!)
2019: 24

Mordheim!

A long time ago, in the depths of history (by which I mean between 1999 and 2004) I picked up a Reaper Miniatures vampire lady with sword and shield, and a witch.

I didn't really know what to do with them at first, so they sort of languished a bit.

Then I decided to make them a vampire and necromancer and paint them up for Mordheim! So I did.

Then I built some zombies for them, and undercoated the zombies. By now it was ... definitely about 2005.

Nothing happened for another 12 years or so.

I had ideas! Oh, I had ideas. Then in about 2017, give or take a year or so, I got hold of two of the three models I wanted to use for Dregs (characters in the warband) - the Middenheimer Youngblood girl and boy that GW made in 1999 for the initial release of Mordheim.

Then nothing happened.

Until a couple of months ago, when some friends started talking about wanting to do a fantasy skirmish game, and all the Mordheim MMXIX stuff floating around on the internet combined to drive me on to finish the warband!

And last night, I finished the final piece, two Hasslefree Miniatures figures that combine to make one character! So here they are:

Carmina von Wesel (132, ish, give or take 5-10 years or so), Vampire, Katerina's unlife partner.

Katerina Darque (50? 60? She ain't saying), Necromancer, Witch, Carmina's unlife partner.

 Hans (16, but he swears blind he's 19) - Dreg.

Anna (18, has no time for Hans' shit) - Dreg.

Sofia (12) and Karl (6). Don't underestimate them. Counts-as Dreg.

The Hench-dead. Zombies in two groups of five.

 

 The whole warband! Base from Gale Force 9 (but I think it's OOP now?).

The plan in any campaign is to slowly replace the zombies with Ghouls and Dire Wolves. I have the Dire Wolves - old Ral Partha wolves that I bought around 20 years ago (!!) - and the Ghouls will be the disturbingly excellent Paul Mueller ones from Heresy Miniatures.

I don't know when I'll get to play with them but I'm happy to have them finished some 15 years or so after I first started them.

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 6
2019 Total: 9

Silver Helms (1)

So I have been doing a little bit more on my High Elves, namely touching up and finishing off the first two Silver Helms - the standard bearer and unit champion:

These two mostly just needed their purple areas repainting from the old Liche Purple to the new Xereus Purple that I bought recently, and their shields doing. I actually started these years ago; sometime around 2013 or 14 I think.

The main annoyance I have with Warhammer Cavalry is trying to rank the buggers up; they insist on making big flowy tails that get in the way of the nose of the horse behind. I have however managed to get this unit to rank up; I just need to try and remember how they fit together.

Next up; Silver Helm musician and the first basic Silver Helm.

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 4
2019 Total: 7

General of the Army

So in a spate of getting things done, I finished the Army General for my High Elf army:

The shield's rune is a modified sethai, reading 'Tor Sethain'; the name of the trading city that the army hails from. The golden armour is because, like many High Elf nobility (especially one who can trace their lineage back to the Dragon Princes of Caledor), this particular elf is an arrogant, opulent, sort.

Next up is the finishing touches on the Silver Helm standard bearer and unit champion, then seven more Silver Helms and that will be the unit for the month. It'll be archers the month after that probably.

Painting Points:
Today: 2 (1 for the horse, 1 for the rider)
This Week: 3
2019 Total: 3

WHAT MADNESS IS THIS

Hello all!

So, um checks calendar a mere two and a bit years since my last post, I have returned!

Mainly because I have joined a forum (the Middlehammer Forum) and have joined in their Tale Of X Gamers with my High Elf army that has sat, unpainted and unloved, in a drawer in a cupboard for...

...some time.

And tonight I made some progress! Well, actually, I made a start. This is the Battle Standard Bearer, a Hero-level character in this 2,000 point army built for 6th Edition. The whole army consists of:

Lord on Barded Elven Steed in Dragon Armour

Hero with Battle Standard
Level 2 Mage on foot
Level 2 Mage on foot

20 High Elf Spear-elves (full command)
14 High Elf Archers (full command)
14 High Elf Archers (full command)
9 Silver Helm Heavy Cavalry (full command)

Tiranoc Chariot
Tiranoc Chariot

Repeater Bolt Thrower
Repeater Bolt Thrower

There is also a High Elf Lord on Griffon from the Blood Island starter set that GW did a few years ago left over from a brief idea to expand the army beyond 2,000 points with some Lothern Seaguard, Swordmasters of Hoeth and a couple of units of Ellyrian Reavers. But the wisdom of Nigel Stillman bathed me in the light of Middlehammer and I decided against it (though I liked the model of the Lord on Griffon so much I kept it, and will paint it last as a present to myself).

What does the army look like? Well:

L-R: Tester spear-elf, Lord, 9 Silver Helms, BSB (since painted, see above)

The rest of the army - a lot of old monopose plastics because they are what I think of when I think of High Elves, and because they are surprisingly good models!

Well, that's it for me for now. I'll update this as and when and who knows, I might even get back into the swing of the ol' bloggeroo.

Painting Points:

This Week: 1
2019 Total: 1 (huge lie, I've painted loads, but I may as well start afresh!)