That's right, we've all been sent denizens of the undead through the post!!. A while ago the legend known as Mr Maudlin Jack Tar offered me some 6mm undead minis that he had spare. Well today the post person of this fine parish delivered said walking dead. It always amazes me the camaraderie and generosity of the wargaming community but when I opened the package I have to say I was truly staggered!. Have a look at all this:
It's enough for an army with plenty left over!. When Jack asked if I wanted them I was expecting a few leftovers from a project not a whole force worth!. So a massive thank you to you sir, what an amazing gift, I just hope I can do them justice on the table!.
On another note the 6mm Slann are coming together nicely, here's a picture of the force so far
I love it when the Slann come together!!
Spawn bands
Palace guard
A hero and a mage to lead the (webbed) foot troops.
Telling some half orcs to hop it!.
That's all the basic foot troops done, it's on to the special stuff next. I'm using a mix of the first 3 editions Slann troop types, I have got an irregular miniatures Aztec army pack to build the army so I am shoe horning them all in as best I can!. I have to say the army has been great fun to put together so far and I am itching to get the rest done....more soon......
As we are all staying safe inside for now I was trying to think up ways to do my bit to get everyone to keep their collective chins up, but first:
Oooohh, I do love a bit of rocket from the crypt!!.
So, the loose idea to is to create a warband from the spare minis we have in our collections we will never get around to painting, but with a twist. What if we all picked out a mini and then mailed it to someone picked at random for them to paint, they will then mail the finished piece to another person chosen at random who will come up with a name and a few lines of background for the figure. Once all this is done everyone involved gets to vote on who painted the best mini or came up with the best background (or something) and this person gets to keep the finished warband.
We would have to discuss scale and loose period/ setting for the finished warband but it could be a bit fun of to pass the time and create some discussion away from the current situation we all find ourselves in. Just an idea anyway, let me know in the comments if you would be up for it.
Another day of lockdown another update, oh and some more:
So yeah, my 6mm half orcs for my
Project are done so I thought now would be a good time to get on with another 'lost' Warhammer army to oppose them across the blasted ruinous wastes of intellectual purgatory. But which one?. Well as the post title may give away to those oldhammererers reading it's only going to be this lot:
That's right, it's everybody's favourite intergalactic Aztec style murder frogs the Slann!. Now I know what some of you are going to say 'but Sprinks' you utter bellend, Slann are still about in this day and age, leading the seph...SEP...lizard men in that age of sigmar ' and yes, there are some floating obese frogs about the place.
This is all that is left of a once proud race....
But that's not what I'm on about, between 1st and 3rd edition the slann were more like this:
Aawwww sooooo cute!...
They had full froggy armies full of walking, talking (well hopping and croaking) killy Kermitalikes!. When 5th edition came along (no mention of them in 4th) they were redesigned into the lardy toads we still have today leading a bunch of lizard types, which I always found a bit of a shame really.
So here am I, a lowly dickhead ready to bring them back in glorious 6mm!. This afternoon I knocked up a test unit to see how they would look.
They are actually irregular miniatures Aztec warriors but at this scale I think painting them green lets you just about get away with calling them Slann!!.
As with the half orcs I wanted to go with a limited pallet of colours but have dialed back the wrong colour idea so they actually give the impression of what they are ment to be.
When Bakshi met Slann(y)
I have an army pack of Aztec warriors to work through that have everything I will need to produce a pretty decent old school Slann army in 6mm (and at less than £18 it's pretty great value too). Looks like my next few days of lockdown are going to be pretty green (ribbit).....
The one upside of all this lockdown oddness is the hobby time. But before I go into all that....
Just a quick post today to show what I have been tinkering with. Both are bits for my
Project. First up the last bits for my half orcs:
Some 6mm wolves from irregular miniatures. They should add some flexibility to the force and can also be parachuted into other forces if need be. I painted them with brown/red shades to make them fit with the flora I'm using for the 'blasted wates' board.
The half orc hunt is on!!.
I have also ordered some individual strips from irregular to see what they are like. Above are the lizard man warriors. I'm thinking about using them for another roll, namely:
Everyone's favourite foggy bastards the Fimir.
As with the half orcs they are painted in the 'wrong' colours (they are from a version of ancient Briton so grey seemed appropriate!).
Here's a rear shot to show the detail. Below is a shot of how they should probably appear on the table:
Well that's all so far, I better be getting on with the next force......
I finally managed to get the half orcs table ready!. But first:
An album about town planning.....perfect!!.
Those of you that read my last post will know I am working on a new project, namely building some old school Warhammer inspired armies to do battle in the purgatory for cast aside i.p. known as the:
Who said 'cease and desist order?'.
The plan is to build some of the less loved early Warhammer forces that fell away from the official canon early on. I will be using 1st to 3rd edition material for reference for the project but will be putting my own spin on the forces. To populate the
(Might as well get some milage out of this it took all of...oohhh 10 minutes to make!.)
I am using 6mm miniatures from irregular miniatures, I have spoken about the charm of these minis enough so I won't bore you all with my thoughts again.
The force as it stands.
As I mentioned in the title the colour scheme is inspired by the orcs in the 1978 Ralph Bakshi lord of the rings film and is a unified 4 colour scheme which hopefully gives the impression of the film's bad guys.
This lot.
One of the important things I wanted to do was to base the minis to look like a Warhammer army hence the square ranked units on each base.
A close up of the army's infantry core.
The missile lobbers, skirmishers on round bases.
The cavalry units, these would also work as chaos thug horse.
('They have a cave troll....or two), both the trolls are old g.w. savage orcs, which seems appropriate given the 'warhammeryness' of the project.
The idea for the project is to use 'wrong' colours for the forces which is why they don't look 'g.w orcy'. I may implement the four colour scheme on each army to tie them together because I have to say I rather like it, I will have to have a play to see what I can do. Next up.....well, I have 3 armies in the house to paint up over the course of the lockdown, which if nothing else will help keep me occupied and the family Sprinks' sane.
Also I have noticed during the lockdown some people are meeting on Skype for a beer and a chat to keep the boredom at bay. Anyone fancy a group 'bloggers meet' while we are all cooped up?, could be a laugh, pop your hand up in the comments if you fancy it and we can arrange something...
So, i have been painting tiny half orcs......but why?. Before i explain....
BLUES EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!!!!
Right, yes, half orcs.....i have mentioned before that the irregular miniatures 6mm fantasy line reminded me of the feel of the old Citadel pre slotta stuff, which for those of us that are into that sort of thing is pretty great. So i have ordered the 'man orc' army deal (and another one too but that's for another post) and painted them up in a Ralf Bakshi orcish style.
This 'orrible bunch.
But why, to what end have i bothered?. Well, the likeness to the old citadel minis got my tiny brain working, i spent far too much time here looking at all the old sculpts and getting all teary eyed and nostalgic. I then just had to get out my old 1st-3rd edition Warhammer books out for a peruse.
Proper Warhammer!!.
Now before i continue i have in the past been a tad...err....shall we say critical of Warhammer and i stand by my comments. I do not have and i imagine never will have the desire to spend the time and stress required to work the game. As an experience at the table it is slow, clunky and bloated and there are far simpler ways to do the same thing......however for a fantasy setting the first few editions are in my opinion unsurpassed, the colour, humour and character of the setting makes it feel truly alive and a place that is full of mystery and lurking danger. In short it is FAB and gives loads of room for building scenarios and fluff using it as a backdrop. The first few editions were the best for this as the world itself was coming together, you were actually encouraged to use it as you wish to flavour your own games. It was FUN and is still loved by gamers of a certain age for just that very fact.
Well hey there 4th edition, what did you do with all the fun?.
So in a nutshell i have been pondering ways to use the old warhammer setting (pre bloody army book hell) combined with the irregular 6mm line to do some retro flavoured gaming. couple this with the rising need to find a way to game in a smaller space (the Amazing Mrs Sprinks requires the normal table for a painting station for her stuff at the mo). So with these things in the front of my overworked brain i came up with an idea:
THE PLANE OF INTELLECTUAL PURGATORY (AKA THE MENTAL REALMS)
Dear reader you are about to go on a journey into the unreal, the unbelievable, the 'a bit dodgy'. Ask yourself a question: 'what is an idea?'. or more to the point where do the ideas thought about and forgotten go?. The popular ideas, those 'made flesh' by the acceptance of the masses are made 'solid', an existing entity within our physical world to live with us, alive as a part of our collective psyche. Those birthed in the mind of an individual then dismissed unshared and unloved float away into the either, never made whole by the acceptance of the masses. But what of the ideas in between?, those once made flesh then dismissed and discarded as they are overlooked, passed over for fresh ideas and concepts?. Well dear reader they are the forgotten, the once alive now conceptually departed. The only place for these sad unfortunates is one of the millions of realms of Intellectual Purgatory, places of the discarded to dwell forever, never thought about or considered. There they stay, hoping to be born unto the world once more by being remembered and re-imagined, maybe re-branded or re-packaged to once again take their place in our world.
The above passage of bollocks can be explained in three ways:
1) My idea is to explore the forgotten bits in early Warhammer lore, yer Norse, Slann, Albion, Ind, Nippon, Cathay, Araby, Zoats, Gnomes, Half orcs, Fimir, Sea elves and the rest, those removed from the 'canon' and cast aside early, now residing in an endless struggle to become relevant again and therefore be reborn from one of the many realms of Intellectual Purgatory in which they now reside.
2) I might just fancy taking the piss out of Age of Sigmar.
3) I've been drinking.
All apply but frankly i am rather taken with the idea, i have even started working on a 3'x 2.5' game board working with a 'blasted 80's wasteland' theme. All red earth and sand with wrong coloured plant life and oddly imagined scenery. This should fit on my coffee table with room for gaming bobbins around the sides. It also works with my planned ruleset for the project, namely:
Which is quick, simple and fun and can be downloaded for a very reasonable price here. It is element based and normally played on a 2'x2' table. So i plan to be working through some small scale armies in the coming months and hopefully play a few games along the way. Also to add to the project i have been painting more stuff for my half orcs, here's a work in progress (poor) picture of some trolls (or g.w. 28mm savage orcs to give them their original title)
(trolls jealously guard the shortbread!!)
Oh and i done a logo, shhhuuuuusssshhhhhdont tell G.W!!'
So, after the test pieces last time out i have got the 6mm irregular miniatures Man Orcs foot units done!......But first:
Good ol' Frank.
So here at chez Sprinks we are shut away from the outside stuff while the world goes tonto, i was expecting the end of civilization as we know it to come with more zombies but there you go (just joking of course, the situation is a touch dicey so do stay safe everyone). However every cloud an' all that, us miniaturists do have the bonus of extra unexpected painting time thrust upon us so in the spirit of not looking a proverbial gift horse where you would normally not be advised to i have cracked on with my Bakshi inspired orcs (well half orcs but you get the point.).
The grunts assemble.
three units of spear armed nasties.
Archers and swordsmen.
Axe orcs and more archers.
Skirmishers, presumably to do all the skirmishing.
Some units from the rear, probably legging it from a judicious kicking from some lawful types.
I know the miniatures are hardly exact matches to the Orcs in question but i think they do work well in the part, i just hope they capture the spirit and feel of the subject.
Just some horse riding types and trolls to add, maybe some wolves to give more flexibility, then on to their opponents.......
Hi all, just a quickie to ask your opinion on my latest project. I'm currently planning the painting of my latest purchase, a 6mm half orcs army from irregular miniatures and I was painting the first unit as a test piece as your generic fantasy green skin types when a thought occurred. The sculpts are not exactly like, but not too far removed from the orcs from Bakshi's 1978 film version of The Lord Of The Rings. So I painted (or attempted to paint) another unit in an approximation of those beasties.
These beasties!
I'm in two minds as to which way to go. So I thought I would take a rough straw pole to see what you guys think. Here's some work in progress pictures of both units so far:
Both units so far, generic fantasy style on the left, Bakshi style on the right.
A side by side comparison of each units front rank.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Ta in advance.
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