The cutting of the corners

   Hobby time has been rarer than purple hydra droppings of late, I have however managed to grab a quick half hour to conduct a little experiment.

 First I think a small sprinkle from the shower hose of context may be in order. As all three of my regular readers will know I do like to bodge together my own settings in which to game. One such setting that I keep returning to is that of Olde Albilande. Now I may not have been able to physically hobby lately but the tiny squishy pile of biological matter I call my brain has not been idle oh no, it's returned to this festering isle with some quaint remodeling and ideas for campaigns yet to be played. Now this is a good thing (to me at least) but would require a bucket load of painting to be done. The thing that has always hobbled my plans to make this kind of thing a reality is the volume of miniatures needed. In my normal choice of miniature scale that is...

  But there exists a scale where painting up an army or two in a matter of days is very achievable, a scale in which I have dipped enough toes to have a decent working knowledge of just how wet with possibilities it is. I speak of course of 2mm, where all men are modelled equally (tiny) and impressionism is everything!. My arrival at this decision went like this:

 Brain (B):dooldalbilande,dooldalbilande,dooldalbilande,dooldal...etc

Me: Eh, sorry I wasn't listening.

B: you never do, that's why your life is such an utter pile o...

Me: Shut up or I'll start drinking again, see how you do with even less cells.

B: Bloody charming!. That's why I never talk to you anymore.

Me: did you want something?.

B:Yeah actually, I was saying dooldalbilande,dooldalbilande,dooldalbilande,dooldal...

Me: This again?, Look I can't be bothered to paint 4 whole forces just to play a campaign.

B: 6 forces.

Me: what?

B: 6 forces, I made some changes.

Me: well definitely not then, think on you useless  squidgy tosser!.

B: You never do what I want.

Me: that's because all your ideas are mental, listen to me: I DO NOT WANT TO PAINT FIFTY BASQUILLION MINIS!.

B: You don't  have to I have a good idea.

Me: For once.

B: Piss off, no you can do each army in 1:1 scale in no time.

Me: Have you been drinking?.

B: No just listen for once. What about 2mm?. You can paint loads of them.

Me: You may have a point there... I'll alert the media.

B: oh do fuck off, it's a good idea though isn't it?.

Me: maybe...

And on it went. I did however have some reservations. I can do lots of pretty cheap forces in no time but if I'm doing this I'm doing it in 1:1 scale and I'm taking time to do it to the best of my abilities (which isn't saying much!). 

  I went looking for inspiration and stumbled upon this post on the rather good Roundwood's world about modeling and painting some thirty years war forces. Now this approach to creating bases in 2mm really caught my interest. So the above experiment happened:

Some bases in the Roundwood style. They are ment to be from Old Albilandes early pike and shot period (about 1570 in our time, sort of after the Italian wars but before the Thirty years war)

Two infantry units, a mix of pike and handguns. The first has pike blocks between ranks of shot with two small 'folorn hope' units out front (in Albilande these units are normally made up of the least popular handgunners). The second is more of a loose formation with shot out front and on the wings. 

A unit of 100 Knights (the nobles still insist on charging about on horseback like it's the thirteenth century or something)

  A unit of  reiters in three ranks ready to unload a barrel of caracole on someone.

 I snapped these while the glue was still wet but hope to get them painted up soon. I'm pretty happy with them so far, I think a table full of these could look rather great so long as I manage to paint them effectively. The idea is to do the required forces in this scale to game some big battles then maybe do smaller forces in 10mm (or maybe even 15mm) for in between battle skirmishers.  Well that's the plan anyway...

...'till next time...

Command bases

  Having given Fantastic Battles a go and having come to the conclusion they are pretty darn good I decided to paint up some command bases for my multi-based forces that up until now had none. Commanders are really important in the game, the loss of them can pretty much doom your army to nuckleheaded movement and sad, sad (and kind of funny) defeat. I intend the commanders to be used for my 10mm fantasy forces.

 

First up are the commanders for the Iron Badgers mercenary company  

 

General Welchingtonne, leader and founder of the (in) famous Iron Badgers. The 3rd son of the Earl of Welchingtonne, he is a born soldier and leader with very little patience for anyone he considers below his station.

 Brother Glover, the company record keeper, padre and magic user. He never intended to join a military unit of any type, he just woke up one day in a tent belonging to the Iron Badgers after a legendary 5 week bender and has no idea how to get home. He's not even a priest, he was just wearing the cassock when he awoke. His real names Gavin...he thinks.

Captain Spalcher is the Generals right hand man and the company 'beating a man half to death for no particular reason' champion. By a country bloody mile. He is a naturally cold, hard man who has found his true vacation and plans to stick to it.

  Sargent Gifford Tappitsworth is best known for his calm, encouraging leadership style and easy manner on the battlefield. Often he can be heard geeing up the troops with phrases like 'oh come on lads, we're only outnumbered 6 to 1, we've had worse', or ' Don't just stand there, the gigantic and very angry fire breathing dragon won't kill itself, get stuck in!'. The rank and file think they like him...

  I also painted some commanders for the press ganged troops of the towns on the border of the wastes which have now been taken over by the Badgers.

Mayor Duckett, leader of the town of Wayward-Nowhere, the largest settlement bordering the wastes  He is a stickler for detail in all folk he deals with, even if he does often have half his breakfast down his breastplate.

Sargent Digby 'red fury' Dibbleswort, scourge of the wastes, or so he tells everyone. Basically he has a bit of a temper and thinks it's some kind of virtue.

  Corporal 'tally ho' Wilkinson, currently in command of the border town of Spillin-Over (population 76). Has a can do attitude and can't get on with those that don't. He tends to lead from the front, normally because most of the lads know they can push him out ahead to attract arrows.

  Sheriff 'Sparrow Hawk' Callhoon, Meanest lawman in the wastes. Known for being hard but fair. I.e. he always works hard to prove his targets guilt once he's decapitated them. In fact it was his creative police work that got him transferred to Wayward-Nowhere in the first place.

  I thought it would be an idea to do some for the Badgers current opposition and scourge of the wastes The Bastard Sons of the most black'ed Crow

  Ol' Papa Crow is the devious patriarch of the Crows, ruling over his extended brood with an iron fist.

 Big Bear Crow, current bearer of the Crows whistling totem known as the 'dinner bell'. He is the largest of the gang, it has been rumoured he ate a whole Ogre in one sitting , making him a legendary figure among his peers.

'Dirty' Ma Crow, witch of the wastes. Ma is not really a member of the Crows, although she is believed to be the mother of more than a few of them. She lives away from the Crows, traveling where ever her gut takes her to sell her various cure all's and potions to travellers and outlaws she encounters. She also serves as Papa Crows eyes and ears in the wastes,  settlers that get a visit from Ma can expect the Crows to not be far behind.

  The black Weasel, outlaw, outcast and all round git. the man known only as The Black Weasel has been exiled to the wastes for years. He was Chased to Wayward-Nowhere after he pushed his luck too far in proper society and was chased from there by Sheriff Callhoon shortly after. He was found half dead and definitely mad by the Crows and was spared the pot as he convinced Papa he has inside knowledge of the border towns that could prove useful... 

...'till next time...

6mm Undead army

  I have to start this post by saying i have been a proper lazy git of late. posts have slowed to a trickle and i have hit a wall as far as painting and gaming motivation goes. I needed to find a simple self contained project to jump start my mojo that i could complete in a couple of days....which i did!. But before all that:

Noisy Scottish types!!.

 As i was saying i was looking for a project that would be quick and easy to get painted and as luck would have it the Scholar and gent that is Mr Maudlin Jack Tar had sent me some lovely 6mm undead miniatures, these seemed like just the ticket to get the juices (and paint) flowing and to give me my third force for my

Project.  I decided to take some inspiration from my 6mm Bakshi inspired half orcs and use a very limited pallet of 'wrong' colours, in this case bone, grey, light blue and crimson, my thinking was to tie the two forces together so they can be used as a huge force together but be individual enough to face off if i fancy it. 

   The force is split in two, in the left of the picture is some skeleton based grave fresh undead and to the right is a force of ghostly etherial nasties.

Skeleton spearmen. The spine of the force (sorry!). Im not sure of the manufacturer but they are really nice figures.

Some armoured skellies, again really nice detailed figures that were a pleasure to paint.

The force commanders. A Vampire on the left and Necromancer type on the right.

Ghostly infantry. All the ghost types in the force (with one big exception) are from irregular miniatures. I was planning to paint them in the same way as the skellies but the sculpts were quite hard to make out. Normally with the Irregular 6mm minis a dry brush or ink wash is enough to reveal the detail of the sculpts, however with these they were still a mystery after both!. I decided that the best course of action would be to work with the issue and and use the softer details to make ghosts.

Ghostly horsemen. These should be fun to use (i reckon they should ignore terrain!). Again the soft detail lends itself to the theme.

The giant ghost (on his day off from every 80's thrash album cover) is a G.W. miniature that i think fits right in with the small guys.

 Having the force split in two means i can have the whole force on the table or use them against each other in smaller games. Also to fit in with the old school warhammer theme of the setting i can also use the ghosts as an Etherial hoast for some of the lawful forces i intend to build in the future. The option is also open to combine them with the orcs to form a huge evil army for BIG games.

Death on death action!!.

  So thats the army pretty much done. I could do with making a command stand or two for the ghosts and maybe a skeleton giant would be good for the force too but thats something to work towards. I'm just glad to have broken my painting duck (i may have ordered a laod of 10mm minis for a new project so clearing the decks before they turn up will help justify my purchase!)........

......'till next time......

Bakshi half orcs finished!.

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...

.....'till next time....

There is actually.....you know....sort of a....well.....a plan i 'spose....

 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, shhhuuuuusssshhhhh dont tell G.W!!'

.....'till next time.....