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

Iron Priest! Not To Be Confused With Judas Priest

Well, I finally did it, I finally finished one (1) Space Wolf. The Iron Priest, to be specific. With that one done, and the first of the ISS Vanguard commission done, I can safely say that I am making progress on both fronts. Even if the progress is slow, progress is progress. I've got three more of the commission ships on my painting table now, and the rest of the Wolves are making various growly faces at me (at least the ones who don't have helmets on) so I'll try and make some more headway on those the rest of this week.

There was a lot of detail on this figure, but I solved a lot of the problem by applying my usual tabletop standard to it of "cabling's black, black doesn't really need highlights"

Even now it's finished I'm not totally sure it was the right idea to paint the arm of the servo-arm in grey, but it does make it look different to the other Techmarines and Adeptus Mechanicus servo-arms I've done, and perhaps helps cement the idea that the Space Wolves' Iron Priests are rather closer to Fenris than Mars

The Sun Company's emblem should, in fact, have a howling wolf's head over the sun, but that is a real pain to paint, so once the whole force is done I'll get some transfers and do the whole lot all at once

The only reason there's no wolves on Fenris is because the Space Wolves keep killing them to make fur loincloths

 

Unfortunately the photo doesn't really do the orange justice! It's much more vibrant in reality

The stark white of the name stands out really nicely against the orange and black of the hull

As it's a playing piece it got a nice coat of matt varnish

And gloss varnish on the drive ports (which, again, the photo doesn't really pick up)

I'm nearing the self-imposed deadline between P and I where I have to have painted 300 models from my backlog before P's birthday on the 17th, which, according to my Pile of Opportunity spreadsheet, is a mere 23 models away! Which means I have 44 days left to paint 23 figures. The rest of the Space Wolves come to 20 (19 Marines and a Dreadnought), so I'm tantalisingly close. Woo!

Painting Points: 
Today: 2
This Week: 2
2025: 343

A Weekend Off And A New Start

I had a surprisingly busy weekend, given that I spent essentially all of Saturday asleep due to a side-effect from some medication. On Sunday P and I travelled to London for a protest in favour of trans rights that went from Marble Arch to Downing Street - important to have done, and the more pressure that can be brought to bear on the government to reverse its bigoted course the better. Anyway all of that meant that I didn't do any painting at all, which has been quite helpful actually.

Today, refreshed, I picked up some Ground Zero Games models I've had for a very long time - since I was a very young teenager in one case - and painted them up as part of a deal with my friend C. He paid me to paint him some random figures for him, so I've collected some stuff that I think will work well in Five Parsecs From Home, which C plays.

The two little spider-drones are from GZG's 15mm range; the bigger robot/battlesuit is, I think, no longer in production. I bought it in the late 1990s!

The idea is that the two little spider-drones are controlled by the main suit

A very simple scheme of drybrushing and black washing with details, and it looks great!

The canopy looks really nice with a coat of gloss varnish over the gem-style finish

The firepower is quite intense - three tribarrel machine guns, some kind of rotary cannon, and a 14-shot rocket pod

 As I checked them off on my Pile of Opportunity spreadsheet, I noticed there should actually be another spider-drone! I'll have to go rummaging for that. Anyway, it's been a nice little thing to do to fire me back up and ready me to get stuck back into the commission work and my Space Wolves.

Painting Points:
Today: 3
This Week: 3
2025: 329

The Guards Die, But Do Not Surrender

Or so the Old Guard are supposed to have said at the end of Waterloo, anyway. Much the same could be said of the Jade Falcon's Falcon Guards unit, which has been destroyed and reconstituted at least twice in the history of the BattleTech universe. Mine are very much in the process of being built up, with much of a Trinary complete now that I've finished the Clan Command Star that I had in the pile of opportunity:

A fairly balanced star, with an assault, a heavy, two mediums, and a light - all OmniMechs - and between them capable of some really quite devastating violence

Rear views - the eagle-eyed among you may be able to spot the jump jets on some of them

The Dire Wolf, or Daishi - 100 tons of Clan-tech war machine

Just visible on the upper armour panelling is the Jade Falcon insignia

Heat exchangers and armour plate: the rear is relatively lightly armoured but honestly if you've got in behind a Dire Wolf then the pilot deserves all they've got coming

Gamma Galaxy's badge on the upper armour - a Jade Falcon against a moon

The Summoner - a heavy OmniMech well liked by the Jade Falcons and feared by their enemies

A side view of the pilot's cockpit and the PPC

Rear view showing the scorch marks on the LRM launcher and the heat-scarred jump jet exhausts on the lower legs

A Clan LBX-AC10 provides significant punch

The Stormcrow is a punchy and tough medium 'mech with, in the Prime configuration, an all-energy loadout

An aggressive look for an aggressive machine, the Gamma Galaxy unit badge can be seen clearly above and behind the cockpit

No jump jets, but it is a quick strike 'mech nonetheless

The Falcon Guards' scheme of camouflage with green accents means their Battlemechs are surprisingly practical in appearance in comparison to some of the Clan colour schemes

The Shadow Cat is a nimble 45 tonner with a gauss rifle that allows it to punch well above its weight class

A closer view of its main gun, a Clan-spec gauss rifle!

Jump jet exhaust vents can be seen at the base of the torso and the lower legs

Medium pulse lasers - visible on the upper right torso and on the outer left arm - provide close-in firepower

The lightest 'mech in the Star, the Mist Lynx nonetheless has a significant missile array of an LRM-10 and a Streak SRM-4, backed up by an Active Probe for scouting and two machine-guns (automatic cannon, really) for defence against infantry

Capable of a top speed of almost 120 kph, the Mist Lynx is a fast and reliable scout

Mounted on the upper side torsos are six jump jets, giving it the ability to leap up to 175m in a single bound, allowing it to get into - or out of - tight spots

The green accent panels are quite visible from this angle, making it look much more parade-ground than it does from the front

In addition to that little bunch, I also finished the six Adeptus Titanicus objective markers, which will make excellent Classic BattleTech map-scale objectives or obstacles:

Amazing what a simple scheme and a bit of washing and drybrushing can achieve

Which means I've almost totally painted all my 6mm scale stuff in my Pile of Opportunity, with just two little plastic Rhinos from the - admittedly 8mm - Legions Imperialis range that I picked up when they were the Miniature of the Month a while ago left to do. The unfortunate side effect of this is that I am absolutely chomping at the bit to get more Battletech stuff to paint, and have none to satisfy the need. So I don't really know what to do next!

I could crack on with my High Elves, or pivot into 40K and work on something like my Space Wolves, or Dark Eldar, or Argent Shroud, or... maybe something else? I'll have to have a rummage and see what takes my fancy.

Painting Points:
Today: 11
This Week: 11
2025: 301