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

Arab infantry at the double

By at the double I mean more 'double ups' with two to each 25mm base. Gripping Beast plastic Arabs. All with hand painted shields. I am very pleased with the shields. These are for two different unit types. Spear armed unit and a Sword armed unit. One base has a sword and spear (unit leader waving the sword). His arms are actually from the Arab Heavy Cavalry set with shoulder armour. The body came with the shield arm so that had to be cut away to create this option. The curved sword arm is also from that set. The red Arab with the low sword is an arm from the Dark Ages infantry box also from Gripping Beast.
I challenged myself to try going much brighter in colours for the four figures on your right with swords. For the first time in a very long time I actually reached for pure white paint. A tricky colour to work with. In my mind I see a sword armed unit as perhaps a bit more regal than the rest so having some brighter colours may help them stand out a little against the spear armed infantry but only a little as this army is very colourful which is really it's uniform so to speak.


 

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

Red and the Black Infantry and Cavalry

These Perry Miniatures plastics are finely detailed so it was a hard re-introduction to painting after many months of no activity with a brush. I built these before the last painting challenge but it seems the Goblin army project took over. Overall despite it feeling like a long time to get them completed I am satisfied with them. Among the double ups below are some options that do not come straight off the sprue. Getting different weapons glued onto cut down Pikes I found to be frustrating but worth it in the end. Some hands have been cut off and replaced and some cases I had to rebuild or gap fill wrists. Probably why I put them to one side for so long.

These Pikemen will help bulk up the figure count on my universal Kings of War unit bases. Doubling them up 25mm round bases requires painting one of them before adding them to the base. It's a bit more work compared to single basing with the base material all completed before painting (apart from the flock of course). For Kings of War I aim to have options for regular Pike and  Heavy Pike. The one musician was painted and based a long time back but I hacked him off the base to rebase him in the double up way. I seem to have a few more that this will happen to in the future.

Four light lancers with 2 on 50x50mm bases to help with base filling a unit tray. Some standard brown horses for these. Nothing fancy.

More double ups for Billmen/Halberds and Black Powder shooters.

I have a few more in the production pipeline.

The photos don't really capture them but you get the general idea. For some reason the Helmets have a reddish reflection on them. It's not some sort of cool burnish wash on them at all.

Cheers from Brendon and may your Bacon be salty and your Beer dark.

Varangur War Machines

2 x Varangur War Machines. These 50x50mm bases are the Varangur version of a big Dwarf Gun or a a Trebuchet etc. That is...if they could shoot lightning bolts instead! Three evil demon worshiping wizards or shamen combine wizardry powers to blast the opposition with a brutal spell all the while not having to push a heavy war engine around. They do have to drag around the big staffs though.

The bodies of these miniatures are Gripping Beast plastic Arab infantry with some arms from other boxes including some from FireForge Mongols, heads and staff toppers from Games Workshop. 

These are painted to match the overall tone of metal and black for the rest of the army. The Photos I have taken on my iphone don't quite capture the shading on them. Looking at them now I think I could see my way to doing some more minor painting on them. A little more khaki dust and perhaps making the metal skulls a brass colour. 

Cheers from Brendon

Goblin Cavalry and a Wizard

Hello. Another installment of my Goblin Army in progress.

This is a Goblin Fleabag Riders, 'Regiment' for Kings of War. Based on a Plastic Mantic unit tray. I added rocks, sand, paint and flock of course. I also added a Perry plastic shield and a small Renedra Barrel to add interest and more detail to find. Originally I planned for the Boss looking dude to be at the front atop the same two rocks but I changed my mind and went for four across the front instead.
The leader was a regular Skull Pass Games Workshop Night Goblin but I shortened the spear and gave him the big sickle moon weapon just for fun.

Here is the first Hero. A Goblin Wizard with a golden cauldron filled with Mushrooms and a Grim Reaper looking puppet that bursts to life with nasty Lightning Bolts. In game terms he is only 45 points. A bargain perhaps. I am going to complete another one using the same figure but with some minor conversion and color variation. The Evil Twins. 

About time I added these up for a Kings of War army list.

Fleabag Riders Horde 255

Fleabag Riders Regiment 145

Spitters Horde 140

Sharpsticks Legion 230

Wix 45

Total:  815 points 

Cool! Puts me well on the way to Goblin Domination!

Cheers From Brendon

Goblin Legion

For Kings of War this is a 'Legion' of Goblins. The second unit for my Goblin army project.
 'Legion' size is a foot print representation of 60, 20mm square based infantry.
I manged to get 32 Infantry painted but also 2 x giant spider rider cavalry to help fill the enormous base. A future goal is to complete another Legion as it's Goblins and that means quantity.
The spider cavalry is a preview of what will be completed next.
There is room for more Goblins on this base and I may place some more but I will wait till I am closer to having more of the army completed to see just how far I can stretch my collection.

You may have noticed the Spiders have hairy bodies. This was achieved by gluing flock onto them. I was not a fan of the Skull pattern sculpted onto some of the spiders so this covers that up.
Originally I had painted them black with red stripes but I wanted to get away from the Black usually associated with GW Night Goblins. The Spiders originally came with 'Forest Goblins' but I want my Army to be mostly the same hood wearing Goblins. Gloss varnish on the Spiders fangs and eyes adds a little visual interest on them.

Not the best photos but they generally portray the real thing. Probably too much contrast with the rocks ending up too bright.

Cheers from Brendon

Two Mounted Knights

These two 28mm Plastic Perry Miniatures Mounted Knights are Hero types for my Kings of War Historical or Fantasy army.
Lord Golden Helmet with all his additional colour will no doubt attract a lot of attention on the Battlefield. Perhaps his confidence makes him want to stand out in the crowd and his colour is way of saying "comes at me fool!"
I prepped a lot more of these Knight before the challenge and perhaps I should get back to them but for now project Goblin Army seems to be in front even though the Goblins had no prep work done prior to the challenge.

Cheers from Brendon

Goblin archer horde

These old Games Workshop Goblins are my first foray into building them again but for Kings of War instead of Warhammer. I have a few in my original collection but have sometimes added some from Facebook or ebay purchases when I get the Goblin acquisition bug. 

After returning from a holiday all my plans and prepared miniatures for the Painting Challenge had practically been forgotten so I strangely just started a new project which included a bit of prep work like cutting off old bases and the slotta tabs from these Goblins. Of course any new (2nd hand) purchase require flash and mold line removal as well. 

I really wanted to try Goblins with a different skin tone than the Disney witchy poo bright green that is usually associated with them. I reached for Vallejo Green-Grey and stuck with it. I also wanted to avoid the usual black clothing for these formerly 'Night Goblins'. Now they are just Goblins. 

I painted these in a batch wargame style and did not pay any or much attention to detailing or highlights. base paint and wash with Army Painter Soft Tone seeming to work better than Dark Tone. The un-hooded leader probably had more skin treatment that the rank and file and I did an attempt at rust on a few items.

The end result meant that the contrast between skin and clothing is often on the low side. Not a negative really just interesting to see the end result. I am pleased with the final outcome and it's made me eager to get more units done. 

Not the best photos but they convey how they look for the most part.

Cheers from the Monsoon soaked Top End of Australia. Brendon

Big winged Demon number 1

This plastic Games Workshop Demon is one of two that will be 'Count as' units for my Kings of War Varangur Army. His skin is basically three colours with a little dark tone wash. Black Primed, German Grey, Luftwaffe Uniform (a very blueish grey colour) and London Grey (a light grey)...all Vallejo paints.

He sits on a 50mm square base with Rocks from my garden. Super gluing his feet to the stones was probably the most difficult aspect of this miniature but generally speaking painting this dude was probably quicker than some 28mm detailed infantry with more colours. Behind you can see the Varangur army starting to grow with the previously completed 'Sons of Korgan' units.
I submitted this big Winged Demon to Analogue Hobbies Paint Challenge bonus theme round 'Flight'.

Cheers from Brendon

Sons of Korgan for Kings of War

This is the second unit of Sons of Korgan for my Varangur Army for Kings of War. Just like the first unit these are old GW plastic Chaos Warriors. Some are from my very old Chaos Warhammer army and some are new purchases from Facebook. The unit tray is Mantic plastic with sand and some rocks from my yard. I should have enough to create another unit in the future but I may need to get some more Mantic unit trays into my hobby stocks. I managed to get these submitted to the Analogue Hobbies Paint challenge number 8 just prior to flying out to Bali for an amazing Holiday. Been back for a few days now but having typical back to work and routine adjustment problems. I am yet to pick up a brush! This is not a travel blog but I had a great time in Bali and went to some places I had not yet explored. If you want to see some of what I saw there I have an Instagram account (the_brendonius).

Cheers from Brendon