Mongol War Machines

This post is my recently completed heavy fire power for my fantastical Mongol collection.

The crew are a combination of bits. Heads from FireForge Mongol plastics with Bodies from Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors. Just something I thought I would try to see how it would look. As crew they look fine in my opinion. In 'Kings of War' crew are purely decorative and have no game/rule function. The long pole they have are intended as the winding device but perhaps I could place an arrow head on them for the next reload.

The large iron bolt throwing machines are actually from the Goblin range by Mantic. They have a perfect space for a Mongol shield rather than a Goblin shield or symbol on the front. They are both mounted on 50mm square bases. These are a great model and are metal and it's been a long while since I constructed something metal and of this size. A little cleaning up and a little filing and they go together reasonably well. 

Cheers from Brendon

Arabs and a Norman

Some experimentation has been taking place on my Hobby table. These Arabs below have bodies from three different plastic sets. Gripping Beast Arabs, Griping Beast Dark Ages infantry (middle) and a FireForge box (scale armour). It was just an idea for more variety and just to see what it would look like. Not that they need variety as they dont have uniform colours.
Seems to work good to my eye. The scale armour and Arab combo looks suitable for Frostgrave or a Fantasy setting which is good as that is sort of how I intend to use them.
I have recently had another look at the 'Kings of War' rules and made some Army lists. Both my Arab and Mongol collection have been re imagined to 'count as' Elves. I will expand on that in a later post.
The shields are all hand painted designs.

Below is a plastic Conquest Games Norman on a pale gray horse with colours inspired by all that Read and Black I have been painting on the Beer and Bacon army. A few weeks ago when I quickly searched for a shield (with arm) I could not locate any of the larger ones that came in the box. The larger ones don't have a shield boss and they are only slightly bigger. I only have two more to complete in my unpainted collection and I should have them painted by next weeks painting challenge deadline.

Cheers from Brendon

Red and Black variety of troops

A mixed bag of Perry Plastics to bolster the ranks of my Red and Black army. 

12 foot sloggers and 1 Knight on a horse. The Knight is an officer type no doubt with his gold detail on the horse armour. The two infantry with wind instruments have parts from other kits. The halberd men have had some customisation as well.

 

Not much to say really but I am happy to have worked my way through a lot of double ups for this force recently. I actually assembled most of them before project Goblin Army last year so it's been a long while in the making. It's great to see the initial vision painted now. I won't be posting much new painted from this force in the future as I only have a very few infantry left unpainted.

Cheers from Brendon

Three Cyclop giants. Monster March.

These three lads are from Puppets War, made of resin and, they have a ton of character. Well done to the sculptor for these excellent designs.

I have had them in my collection for some time. Mainly because two needed some filling at arm joins and I put that sort of work off. Not something I am a big fan of. It's just a part of the hobby that does not appeal but the effort is worth it...when I get around to it.

I attempted three different shades of skin tones with two ending up very similar. They are based on 50mm squares for use in my Kings of War Goblin army. These big idiots are around 75mm tall with the possible Rock Thrower war machine substitute being around 90mm tall including his nicely decorated Dwarven stone. I gloss varnished the Eyes and the mouths and really like the result of that.

I am never sure when it comes to adding blood to add more or less. Not really a fan of too much blood on miniatures but with a grisly stump it was required and the reason for the missing head was snack time no doubt. I just picked the nearest head as the likely consumer.
The eyeballs could have been painted to look down more but, I was happy with how they looked. They look at you the viewer rather than infantry below them. These are not as tall as the plastic GW Giant but I was very happy to discover three distinctly different looking Giants that fit tidily on 50mm square bases. Perfect for my desire of three Giants in my Goblin army for Kings of War. They are my last Submission for The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge but also fit the Monstrous March challenge.

I rushed to get these photos done as I was short on time recently due to my City coming under attack from Cyclone Marcus. A big clean required afterward and I have a few images of that on my instagram profile.... the_brendonius. Lots of destroyed trees mainly. That's life in the Cyclone prone Tropics.

Cheers from Brendon

Goblin Cavalry Horde for Kings of War

Hello. The Goblin Army expands with unit 3 completed.
This unit was a long time in the making as I started this more than a decade ago for Warhammer but abandoned it shortly after starting.
The Barrels on the unit base are from Renedra and the Dwarf (and Hammer) is from Mantic and the unit tray is plastic also from Mantic but the stones are from my yard (painted over of course).
The Dwarf is painted to match my Dwarf Army. One day they will face the Goblin threat in a game.....one day.
This unit felt like it took longer than previous units. Perhaps that was because of the uncomfortable feeling of painting some of the older Spider Riders that I had glued to the Spiders. Any cavalry is easier by not having the rider attached to the mount when painting.

One of the interesting aspects of the Goblin Army is that in my on-line readings players consider all units expendable and no unit is the stand out threat. As scary as this unit looks (especially to those who don't like spiders at all) it's in all likelihood not very tough.

Hopefully another unit gets added soon.
Cheers from Brendon.

Six Red and Black Light Cavalry

New recruits for the nation that values Beer and Bacon above all that glitters. Light Cavalry from Perry Miniatures to defend the kingdoms high carb virtues.

These detailed figures take me longer than most at the same scale to complete but I was lucky enough to find some more time available to me the past week. Time seems to be in short supply for this hobby for me at the moment. But that's the way it rolls sometimes. 

Hope it's all been good in your part of the world. Here we saw a cyclone form nearby but only got to Category 1 and passed us by. Cyclone Blanche which had people humming the 'Golden Girls' theme. Those old enough to remember anyway.

Anyway cheers from here and I hope my dodgy photos look OK on whatever device you are viewing them on.

Mounted Mongols and Knights

Mounted mayhem in this post with 4 Perry Miniatures Knights and 5 FireForge Mongols. All plastic and all 28mm. These earned me 90 points in the Painting Challenge.

The Mongols feature 4 armoured torsos from Gripping Beast Arab Cavalry. The Mongol on the square base will have a rider swap for a Bow shooting dude. It's an idea for skirmish units to make them have less figures per unit. I will eventually show what that looks like at some stage.

The Knights have two leader types with extra gold to make them stand out in a unit. I plan to do a few more of these types as my Knights have increased considerably. 

Cheers and enjoy your painting from Brendon.

Norman Knights and a Mongol

Pleased to have completed these 4 Conquest Games Plastic Norman Knights and another FireForge Mongol. All shields are hand painted designs. The shield with the metal boss is actually from the infantry set and is a fraction smaller than the cavalry shields. The Normans are a great value for money set as you get 15 in the box. I aim to get more of them completed before the end of Painting Challenge. Likewise for the Mongols I have a few more in the painting production line.

Cheers from Brendon

More Knights

Seven more Knights to defend the Kingdom renown for it's quality Beer and Bacon exports.
Perry Miniatures Plastic 28mm. Bases are standard 25 x 50mm.
One of these was a left over from the Horde unit. In the future I plan to do more but not so many with lances. A few colourful heroic characters are required I think. A mounted standard would be a sensible addition as well.

One day I will actually play a game again and with these I can use them for Lion Rampant, Kings of War, Kings of War Historical. No doubt even more games/rules could have these Knights see some action.

Cheers from Brendon

Painting Challenge

I created this post at the end of the Analogue Hobbies 2015/16 painting challenge and never got around to posting it. It's been announced for the 2016/17 season so if you need details go here...

http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/the-seventh-annual-analogue-hobbies.html

It's a lot of fun and great for motivation. I don't think I will achieve the results of last time round as I actually had a few weeks leave at home. No such plans this time.

I found the painting challenge extremely motivating and it was a very productive time for me.

Here is me and most of the painted horde. It had to be gathered from throughout the hobby room.

I managed to make a huge amount of impact into my Arab army (and grow my beard longer).




 Managed to get a lot more Mongol maniacs painted.

 2 boxes of Perry Light Horsemen. 6 Archers, 6 Crossbowmen and 12 lancers.

Prior to starting I had built and primed a lot but still it wasn't enough with some assembly done during the challenge.

Cheers from Brendon