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.
Hi all, having just had some minor surgery (nothing major, just a procedure i had put off for too long) i found myself under the 'for the sake of all things holy, don't do ANYTHING!!!!!' type of recovery period. Now if you are anything like me sitting still for days on end is a struggle and a half, so after half a day (it may have been half an hour to be fair) i was bored...so i set myself a challenge.......
.....but before that:
never too early for some early rage i find!.
So as i was waffling, i decided i would do something that required the stillest of sitting....painting!, and better yet, i had received a couple of armies worth of minis from the splendid kallistra i had ordered to boost the forces of
and i had three whole days worth of stillishness to look forward too so i elected to set myself the task of painting a whole army in that time. Guess what?, from prepping to basing i just about managed it!. This post is the proof!:
THE MIGHTY HORDE OF AAGARAXX THE REALLY VERY NAUGHTY, MASTER OF PRICKISHNESS AND DEEDS OF AN EVIL AND FRANKLY COCKISH NATURE
Wrong 'uns, the whole lot of 'em
The Forces commanders. Front right is Aagraxx himself, rightful prince of Generica and aspiring usurper of King Pharrus with his personal banner bearer Kevin the skeleton (known as 'bony Kev'). To his left is his apprentice and moody spotty teenage nephew Cwispin, who styles himself as 'the Dark Fury', much to his masters amusement. Behind them is Aagaraxx's best general and long suffering right hand man Susan.
A selection of the Evil ones foot troops, mostly Darklands contractors looking for steady employment in the wrongdoing sector. At the front are a unit of Aagraxx's highly trained personal bodyguard known only as 'the black shields'. Being a stylish type Aagraxx has introduced a retro 'dark age chic' themed uniform for his troops, Norman is very 'in' this season.
The forces fast attack section, made up of some horsemen and a couple of packs of the dangerous and rightly feared Githounds.
Missile support is provided by some armoured and some rabble archers as well as Aggarax's own skirmishers, the shifty black clad 'shadow Bastards'
Being an all round nasty evil type Aagraxx would never be seen without some undead types shuffling along with him, to this end he has summoned some Skeletons and some brown stride inducing specters!.
The force is speed painted to my not so high standards as per the rest of my 12mm stuff but for a quick job i reckon they will do. As far as using them i have a crazy and highly involved plan that may require some volunteers, more of which in a future post.
Aagraxx personally leads an attack on a northern stronghold.
As the title says (before it broke down into total self indulgent drivel) i have been waving the paint brush at stuff again! (honestly, i dont paint anything for years and then i go and do tonnes in 4 months!)......but first:
I always thought they were underrated.
As i was in the process of prattling:
I done gone painting!.
These are all troops to be added to my 12mm project, more to the fact they are more units for my opposition force to the one i built for my £30 challenge.
A unit of crossbowmen ('scuse the white splodges on the bases, the pva i use to seal the bases had yet to dry but i was loosing the light so just cracked on with the photos. Quite like effect mind). As ever they are 12mm troops from the wonderful kallistra.
Placed side by side for very little good reason.
Skirmishers do some rock based skirmishing
The forces foot command stand.
as viewed leading from the front.
And a RUDDY GREAT ARMOURED GIANT!. shown guarding his best rock and having a bit of a point. Hes a mix of Perry and Gripping Beast bits.
A picture to give a sense of scale, from the left the giant is 28mm next to some 1/72 'ogres' next to some 12mm spears.
The army so far. Just some light and heavy horse and another unit of crossbows and it will be done.
Someone trusted me with a paintbrush again!....but first:
Audio Marmite agogo!! (my love for this band is only equaled by Mrs Sprinks hatred for them!!, i think its important to have balance in a marriage!)
So as i mentioned above more paint has been thrown at little metal and plastic blokes resulting first in these:
Black Rats beware!.
The above is the start of an opposition force to my £30 challenge army, they are yet to be named but the foot troops are made from the other half of the kallistra 12mm Scottish Pikemen packs used to make the Black Rats 'shafters'. As i'm sure you will attest they have been speed painted to be table ready only (not even a wash!) and are supposed to represent a more 'rabble like' force, maybe part trained village militia or some such. Leading them is a commander yet to be named and his banner waving mate!.
Another shot of the rabble.
And another of the command stand.
'Come Sir Something, this way yonder to glory.....or just some more bloody felt.!'
This will be another £30 force to take on the Black Rats when complete!. I have also been working on my small 1/72 forces for 'warhammerish' Blood, Guts and Severed Heads i am to use with the kids over the hols, this force is almost done, just some leaders and a centerpiece (guesses to which 'iconic' imperial thingy it will be in the comments!) to do and the force is ready!:
'Empireish' 'orse!.
Imperial knights ready to punch some chaotic types!.
Pistoliers!!.
I was very apprehensive about painting these as they are some of my favorite 1/72 minis ever produced, Revells' Swedish cav from the 30 years war. I think a few of the minis i have are the crappy Mars reproductions (i got mine in an ebay job lot) as some of the details are far less 'crisp' on a couple of the riders and the plastic is notably thinner, but even so i could not do an 'Imperial' army without some of these.
The force as it stands.
You can see i am going for small skermishy type forces to make sure i dont get fed up painting hundreds of the same thing!.
Well thats whats been going on 'round these parts recently, i hope to have more soon....
Yep the title of the post is actually representative of what i am about to cover, my force for the:
.....thing is painted!. This is a bit of a milestone for me as not only is it my first completely painted force since i relapsed back into daubing earlier on in the year but it is the first fully painted army ever!!!!. I feel almost proud of myself!. Here are the last two units for the army:
The Forces heavy cavalry made up of C.C. Bathions' illegitimate sons known affectionately as 'the Rat Bastards'.
Their reputation for cruelty in battle is well known and often its the Bastards presence that sways the choice to hire the Black Rats over other merc companies.
The Black Rat himself leads out his Bastard sons with the dirty rats lending support!.
The forces 2nd in command and the leader of the rabble Sgt Christophe 'the cleaver' Grunel, the hardest, coldest officer to ever drive the fear of god into a gaggle of fresh recruits!. To say the Sarge rules the ranks by fear is the understatement of the millennia!.
'OW MANY NECKS DO I 'AVE TO BREAK TO GET YOU SCUM TA 'OLD THIS BLOODY LINE?!!'
So yeah, with them done the force is complete:
The Black Rats mercenary company arrayed!.
The force comprises of : 2x command bases, 3x units of spearmen, 1x unit of Bowmen, 2x units of Skirmishers, 1x unit of Knights, 1x unit of Light horse and 1x unit of Ogers.
Not too bad for 2 months worth of work and rather gratifying to see in a group photo regardless of the imperfections contained within!.
Also to reflect on the challenge as a whole it has been great to explore the idea of building an army on a tight budget and to prove that the Games Workshop (and others) pricing structure is not representative of the entire industry. Its also been great to see a few others take up the gauntlet and have a go using other scales and mediums to build some great looking forces, pretty much all cheeper than the force above!. Check out Peters paper forces in action here, Mr Maudlin Jack Tars old school 10mm Bretonians here and Springinsfelds' fine rabble of plastic orcs over here. Great work Sirs!, if anyone else is having a crack at the challenge please feel free to let me know in the comments and i will link to it, it will be great see what you have been up to.
On the subject of the price limit the total cost of the force is as follows:
1.5 packs of kallistra 12mm Scottish pike @ £9.00,
1 Pack of Kallistra 12mm 100 years war bowmen @ £6.00,
0.5 Pack of Kallistra 12mm 100 years war mounted men at arms @ £3.00,
0.5 Pack of Kallistra 12mm 100 years war Hobilars @ £3.00
1x Kallistra 12mm 100 years war foot command @ 60p
1x Kallistra 12mm 100 years war mounted command @ free samples!.
Total cost = £22.40!.
I also learned to mix my own Low cost paint set during the course of the task which was fun and highly recommended!.
As well as finishing that lot I have also been working on some 20mm stuff this week, namely these chaps:
What do you get if you mix Pike.....
....and shot?.....
Pike and Shot of course!!.
The above are all A Call to Arms ECW minis which i have to say are a pleasure to paint. They are the start of a summer hols gaming project with the Sprinklings loosely based on old(ish)hammer forces in the best scale known to man or beast using my Blood, Guts and severed heads simple rules. The above are the foot sloggers for the 'empireish' force. More on this to follow soon!.
All that remains for today is to welcome this blogs latest vict...err, follower, Mr Stephen Beales, a hearty welcome to you sir!. I f you have a blog of your own please pop a link in the comments so us rabble over here can have a peek (we will remove our shoes and wash our hands have no fear!).
Phew things have been busy about these 'ere parts, mostly due to my annual reviews and competency assessments at work (last one monday thank the holy badgers of congrimmitt!), turns out they regularly check us meter monkeys are doing our jobs right!...good to know!. I have managed some painting in the too few periods of down time, but first:
Therapy? live at Castle Donington '94. A fresh faced 15 year old me was down the front with a massive poo eating grin on my face for the whole set!.
Now on to the latest 'chimp with a brush' style painting:
The 'Filthy Rats' foraging and ambush collective, the light horse of the Black Rats merc co.
They are more 12mm minis from kallistra and were pretty fun to paint once i got my head round how best to tackle them!.
They are also my first go at horses for blinking years (about the same time as i was at the above gig in fact!). In the end i used the minis small size to my advantage and simply undercoated the whole mini dark brown and followed with a dark brown wash. I then picked out the manes and tails with black. I toyed with the idea of painting the tack but in the end chickened out!.
The Black Rats so far . Just a unit of Knights and maybe a foot command stand and i will be calling them done!. I will give a full breakdown of the cost of them for the £30 army thing next time out.
Speaking of which 2 good folk have already finished some rather spiffing forces for the above mentioned challenge, check out The Maudilin ones brilliant Bretonians here and The noble Peters not one but two fantastic forces of Dark age goodness here and over here. Great work fellas!. If anyone else is joining in the challenge let us know how you are getting on in the comments below!.
......and heres a sneek peek at some more bits i have been painting with a view to a 1/72 fantasy project......more to follow.......i hope!......
So the last few weeks have flown past but i have not been (completely) idle. You see, since i have got back into painting i have been 'borrowing' the Amazing Mrs Sprinks craft paints to get the job done. No point in buying miniature paints if i'm not convinced i will keep up with the splodging. Now this has not been a problem so far and has pushed my 'thrifty gaming' buttons but i have been noticing a sort of dry and grainy finish on the minis i have thus far produced. So i thought i would look into getting some mini paints to fix the issue.
The mystical paint brands of Mrs Sprinks.
So i had a delve on line.......and had a ruddy heart attack!!, GAMES WORKSHOP WANT £4 FOR A BLOODY THIMBLE SIZED POT OF THE PISSING STUFF, THE CHEAPEST, ARMY PAINTER, WANT £20 AND CHANGE FOR A STARTER SET!!. WHATS IN THIS STUFF ANYWAY? FAIRY TEARS AND UNICORN FARTS??!!!!....ehum, yes well, you get my point. So i dug further as to why i should use mini paints at all when i had a fairly complete set of paints just lying around the house where i could swipe it any time. I mean, the Amazing Mrs Sprinks is managing to turn out work like this with the cheap stuff:
So it must be good enough for a total pleb like me. Apparently mini paints have a finer pigment or something but many folks on line use the craft stuff for minis with very little problem. This was what i wanted to hear but did not solve the issue of the finish.......then some further digging on the subject turned up these vids:
LOOKS LIKE I'M MAKING A PAINT SET OF MY VERY OWN!!!!!!!!!.
So a few ebay orders later and i had the following:
It took a few attempts to get the mix of paint to medium right but not too much work (and there is a real nack to decanting thick paint into the thin neck of a dropper bottle). In an evening i had a paint set ready to go at a fraction of the price of the manufacturers stuff!!. I know what your thinking: 'Yeah but Sprinks, is it any good?'. Well glad you asked because oddly i have been using the stuff and i have to say it is great. As soon as you have a good viscosity nailed the paint becomes easy to work with and it covers really well. The 'chalky' finish has gone, replaced with a slight gloss sheen which is kind of old school and has a charm i rather like. And dropper bottles are the bloody nuts, so much control over how much paint you use, especially when mixing. Want the proof, here are the latest batch of minis for the £30 challenge thing:
Black Rat Co bows.
The wrong 'uns practicing for their next line up.
I also did a few units of Skirmishers:
Sneeky feckers.
As with the rest of the army these are 12mm troops from the rather fine kallistra miniatures.
So thats the missile lobbers for the army done as well as all the foot, just some mounted troopers to chuck paint on and i should be done. Here's a group shot of the army so far:
The Black Rat Co assemble to conduct some form of prickishness or other (boo!! hiss!!).
So far the cost of the army is: 1.5 packs of Kallistra Scottish pike @ £9.00
1 Pack of Kallistra 100 years war Bowmen @ £6.00
4 Dark alliance army of the dead 1/72 (as 'ogres') @ 80p
1 Kallistra command stand @ nowt, they were free samples!.
