Ser Greenwood And His Men

Ser Boros Greenwood is the younger brother of Ser Jona Greenwood, lord of House Greenwood, and retainer of House Chulain. Ser Boros has come, with some of his levy, to fight alongside House Chulain in the army of Renly I Baratheon, rightful King of the Andals &c &c.

Ser Boros (second from left) and his immediate retinue

Ser Boros's retinue consists of a longbowman and two billmen, giving a little ranged capacity and some close quarters punch to back him up. He himself wears a suit of plate armour, although, because his House is poorer than most, he lacks sabatons and has a cheaper open-face helm. He favours a warhammer - it is blunt and unsophisticated, like him. 

The yellow is an interesting challenge to paint, and I'm not totally sure the yellow and black brigandine is entirely accurate - it would probably be a plain leather colour - but sod it, I want them to be recognisably part of Ser Boros' little band on the tabletop, and that's as good a method as any.

Loose!

Today I had every intention to paint Parliamentarian cavalrymen. 

Then I sat down and painted Song of Ice and Fire longbowmen and a herald, because uhhhh they were mostly done and it was easy and it's very hot in the office where I paint and... um... anyway here, some longbowmen (and a herald):

These are all Perry Miniatures WR1 plastics

The sigil on the herald's trumpet is that of House Baratheon of Storm's End; it's Renly's badge

I gave them the sorts of names that people have when you don't have surnames or family names

Painting those damn prancing stags on the flag really tested my freehand capacity

Together with the lord - Ser Padraig Chulain - and the standard bearer, Sally Strongarm, this little block of six figures is the first chunk of the Baratheon-aligned Ruckus warband:

 

House Chulain, a minor noble house, is famed for its longbowmen, seen in the family words, "Aim True"

 

So I guess I'm on a sudden medieval fantasy kick. I really need to pick up a couple of contrast paints and some more Agrax Earthshade I think, in order to do the New Model Army cavalry justice. So I'll try and grab those this week - I really really want to try and get those horse done this month.

 

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 9

2025: 378 

What A Ruckus

I am nothing if not a massive hobby butterfly. It took about 2.3 seconds of a group chat with my friends C, D, and H, to become convinced to repurpose figures linked to my old attempt at making a conversion for Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game to play games set in the A Song Of Ice And Fire world (based much more on the books and the Wars of the Roses than the TV series) for the relatively new skirmish game from Mike Peters, Never Mind The Billhooks: Here's The Ruckus (for which there's a lot of free downloads on the Wargames Illustrated website).

A quick rummage in my Pile of Opportunity turned up enough Perry Miniatures' plastics (and a couple of metals) to create a Baratheon-aligned warband and a Lannister-aligned one. The Baratheon-aligned force is meant to represent troops whose lord has backed Renly Baratheon for the Iron Throne, so there's less yellow than one might think. 

A slightly larger than necessary Ruckus warband - the standard bearer and herald/musician is probably entirely un-necessary, but looks very cool

That photo's a bit misleading - the standard bearer was painted today! The others were all either finished already or had their metalwork done today. And speaking of the standard bearer, Sally Strongarm:

Perry Miniatures plastic (wo)man-at-arms with a paper flag

House Chulain's words, 'Verum Petere' - 'Aim True'. It still needs the edges touching up, but it looks really good!

The effect of full harness is quite striking - that's a lot of shiny metal! 

Another view of the banner and the stripy stick

 
The banner started out as me drawing a traditional paper flag, then I remember I was sitting next to my partner, P, who is an illustrator and artist and uses Clip Studio Paint and other strange and arcane tools to do good drawing stuff... which resulted in this:

 

The original version can be seen in the bottom left - everything else is me showing P what I wanted!

And this is the end result! It's so good!

This should - I hope - be a nice quick project, which I can do alongside the ECW cavalry and the spaceship commissions. The end result should be two small Ruckus warbands, one aligned to Renly Baratheon and one aligned to his nephew, Joffrey Baratheon. Ahh medieval civil wars...

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 5
2025: 374

300!

Oops, 11 days since I last posted. In my defence it has been so stiflingly hot that I have spent most of the time in a dark room with a fan pointed at my face, trying not to succumb to heat exhaustion. I have, however, with a concerted effort of will, maanged to actually complete my goal of painting 300 models from my  before the 17th of July! Neither I nor my partner P thought I'd manage it. Without further ado, here are the four models that got me to the finish line:

Three medieval ladies from an unknown manufacturer. I think Ral Partha but also I'm not sure. Anyway I did them in fairly block colours for ease of tabletop identification

I like the poses and the sculpts, and I think the flow of the dresses really adds a lot of movement to them

There are some surprisingly subtle details on the woman in the middle's belt and hair

The little wicker basket was a lot of fun to paint

So those three got me up to 299 models painted since the beginning of the year from my pile of opportunity, and then I spent a couple of days not doing anything - including updating this blog! - because it was just too damn hot. The deadline, however, was looming, and after P picked which of the minis I had on my table I should use to hit it, I spent a few days painting her up. I finished her off tonight:

 

This is an official Dungeons and Dragons miniature, painted in the style of a traditional Romani dancer with the skin tone of a Sri Lankan person

I really love the gold and purple combinations

Despite the relative crudeness of the sculpt, she painted up really nicely and easily

I love her pose and the flow and sense of motion she has

 

And so, with her complete, I have worked my way through 300 models from my Pile of Opportunity! I started the year with 1,596 models unpainted, and now, in 195 days, I have painted 300 models, which averages out at about 1 and a half minis a day. I don't know if I can keep that pace up for the rest of the year, but I am going to try. I certainly want to try and paint more minis than I get hold of going fowards.

Oh, and for proof, here's a screenshot of my Pile of Opportunity spreadsheet totals page:

 

 So there we have it! Next, I'm going back to my commissions...

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 4
2025: 373

Where Have I Been? SPACE!

I have been absent for a week, which is - I think - the longest gap in posting this year. Mostly this has been because of the heat, which has left me barely capable of thinking, let alone painting, but it is also because over the weekend I went to Death Unto Darkness Event 11: HERETEK where I spent a weekend as Sister Superior Humility of the Order of His Sanguine Tears. Many foes of the Emperor were slain, and much fun was had by all. Here are some photos:

 

Here I was having an argument about whether or not criminals were stupid; my position was that as crime is an offence against the God-Emperor, only stupid people would commit crime and thus criminals by definition are stupid

Here I was being exorcised after getting only a little bit possessed

This is a really good portrait of me - many kudos to the photographer!

Right at the start of the event, before I started to melt in the 27 degree heat and 60% humidity and discarded the wimple

 In terms of painting, I have some medieval civilians and an old Wargames Foundry Scrooge model on the way which I hope to get done tomorrow. On Saturday myself and my friends C, D, and H are going to have a day of wargaming - 4th Edition 40K! So expect many photos from that. 

A Man Out Of Space

Sort of, anyway. This is a Thirty Years' War puritan preacher from Warlord Games, repurposed as a preacher of Morr or similar. Some sort of Warhammer Fantasy sort anyway, perfect for games of Mordheim or Guards of Traitors Toll. 

My kingdom for a lightbox. The figure's head is at an odd angle, as he's looking at his book and declaiming from its text, but the quality of photos I can get with my current set up is variable at best...

I like the little golden button on the back of his jacket, and the red hat band. Both signify that despite his attire he isn't quite a puritan from our world... a man out of space, perhaps, if not time

Just the one mini today, and none yesterday, mainly because of the heat and the fact I'm getting ready for Death Unto Darkness event 11: Heretek, which is this weekend. My Sister of Battle, Sister Superior Humility, has had her armour cleaned and the paint touched up, her soft kit has been washed, and she is ready to go and purify the unbelievers with sword and bolt pistol in the name of the Divine Emperor. Much to the dismay of all the other non-Sisters players, I expect. It should be a huge lark and I am extremely looking forwards to it!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 5
2025: 369

What Happened To Those Space Wolves Again?

Well, today I managed to semi-sort the internet AND I moved downstairs to where it was marginally cooler, so I was able to crack on with some painting of my own things to get myself back to a headspace where I can work on commissions. So that involved finishing off the Necron Immortals and the Pariahs, and looking at the Space Wolves and going "mmm, not in the mood at the moment". What I was in the mood for, apparently, was a repaint/fix-up of some medieval peasant types I bought way back in the very late 1990s, and which I think I can now repurpose for stuff like Mordheim: Empire In Flames, Guards of Traitors Toll, or even just basic RPG games.

The last five Immortals for the squad. These Necrons are tough and mean and carry Gauss Blasters rather than the Warrior's Gauss Flayers. 24" range, S5, AP4, Assault 2  - brutal weapons that'll turn anyone wearing anything lighter than Power Armour to mince

They're pretty brutal looking from the rear honestly - wide and intimidating

Pariahs - eventually there'll be another five. These are technically meant to be Lychguard in modern parlance but pah, fie upon that, I say

They're bulkier than the Warriors but slimmer than the Immortals and I deliberately painted them to have a little more in common with the Necron Lord I have

And from robot skeletons from the depths of time and space to random medieval types. I thought these were Redoubt Enterprises, but I can't see them in their catalogue. Then I thought maybe they were Gripping Beast, but also no. I'm at a loss! I remember buying them as a very young teenager at, I think, Warfare in Reading. Although it may have been Salute! or possibly even Attack! in Devizes... All I can now remember is painting them in these colours (not as neatly) sitting at my then best friend's kitchen table in about 1999. Anyone who happens to know who made these, please let me know. 

L-R: A wealthy sort, a stallholder, a leper, and a drunk in the stocks

I particularly like the colours young me chose, all those years ago - all I did here was clean them up and paint them a bit more carefully

Tomorrow I'll crack on with the commissions, and maybe some more peasants and civilians. I'm rapidly coming up on the 300 miniatures painted from the Pile of Opportunity before July the 17th, which I honestly wasn't sure I'd do, so I'm very pleased with that. Just four more to do!

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 4 (+ those 10 Necrons above that I finished last week that I didn't get a chance to post about)
2025: 368
 

Technical Problems, Please Stand By

So I've been AWOL for a few days. Partly this is because my internet provider has decided to have a local outage, and partly it's because the UK is extremely hot and where I normally paint is uncomfortably hot. As a result I haven't made as much progress as I've hoped on stuff recently and even if I had, posting about it has been impossible. I'm piggy-backing off someone else's internet to make this post, and hopefully things will be fixed soon. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to melt quietly into a puddle of sweat.

Rally The Horse

I spent a bit of time today working on the English Civil War commission, blocking out the horses and starting on the saddlecloths. I need to finish those, then do the leather, trousers, sashes, and details on the standard bearer and musician before whacking them all with Agrax Earthshade and then picking out the metal. I'm hoping to do this by the end of the weekend and then make headway on the other two units.

In other news, I also dug out the last remaining Necrons - five more Immortals and five Pariahs - undercoated them and started painting their metal basecoat. I need to do a bit of work on the barrels of the heavy gauss blasters carried by the Immortals, but I reckon I can get the Immortals and Pariahs finished up tomorrow.

 Also, not this coming weekend but the one after, I'm going to Death Unto Darkness, the 40K LARP, as my Sister of Battle Superior. A friend of mine, M, gave me a 3D-printed bolt pistol a while ago and I've given it some paint to match my chainsword, and a name, because you have to name your wargear.

I'm looking forwards to pointing this at people and yelling "SANCTIC BOLT" at them like the huge nerd I am.

 

An Accidental Hiatus

So over the last few days a variety of things happened that stopped me updating, including but not limited to a need to re-install Windows 11. Anyway today I managed to put paint to model again for the first time since last week, and I used it to both add the names to the bases of the Space Wolf characters, and to finish the Venerable Dreadnought - Játgeirr the Teller of Tales!

Dirtied down and covered in bling, the Venerable Dreadnought is ready for violence!

Side view showing personal heraldry and the multi-melta

Notably no Adeptus Mechanicus symbols on the power plant!

A wolf skin and the old storm shield used by Játgeirr before being interred. The scrollwork on the power fist says FENRIS

The named ones - L-R: Játgeirr, Grímur One-Arm, Lady Valda, Old Armann 

The Wolf Guard (and a Long Fang) Pack Leaders: Fastulfr, Hjordis, Eyyindur and Ragnheithur

In the background of 40K, Dreadnoughts are frequently used by Space Marine Chapters as repositories of Chapter knowledge and ancient lore, with the Marines interred inside the armoured sarcophagi sometimes being many centuries or even thousands of years old, and recalling things long forgotten. So with Játgeirr's name I wanted to lean into that a bit, hence the "Teller of Tales" sobriquet. I imagine him standing in the feast hall in the Fang loudly declaiming sagas of centuries past, the heroic tales of mythic figures who to him are as real as the warriors around him. I just hope this helps him roll well on the tabletop!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2025: 354