Scratch Build "The Eye" complete!

 Well complete as it going to get anyway. Here its is crewed with Aragorn and some Army of the Dead for my "Aragorn at Pelennor" list for the Thursday nights Adepticon event "The March to Mount Doom" which is a 500 point Single Elimination Tourney. This is the Army and the Boat is the display. I have a small sign that goes in front, that is yet to be made.

 
 I had alot of fun with this scratch build and I've some other ideas stewing around, not sure whats next this is my second totally completed ship after "The Griffon", I also have an Old Glory Brig that only needs a couple days work to be complete as well.

Painting was a pretty straight forward affair, in the future paint the masts before stitching the sails on would have saved me some time. The water stained patina on the bow ram and shields and the other weathering effects took the longest.

 As far as Adepticon goes..all my models are done..Painting all those cavalry models took me forever. .I still have my team display to paint/flock and a couple plaques/ signs for the Army lists.to make..nothing I cant get done this weekend.

I used a bunch of my Rohan Team Army for the LPL7 which starts this weekend, in conjunction with the rules I wont post my Rohan shots until probably Wednesday, the day before I head over to Adepticon. but you can get the preview over at the LAF this on Sunday. I'm not going to have much time for coverage this year..I am playing in three Lord of the Rings events, my only free time to socialize is Friday night, (so if you know me look me up then) Saturday I have split right after the event for ill timed but mandatory engagement with the wife..I may break my own rules and show up on Sunday to bum around. 

A Study in Plastics

 Well its about time we talk about plastic miniatures here at "Plastic Legions" while its somewhat of an oxymoron as most of my miniatures are metal, and I generally dont care for plastic miniatures. However the blogs origins are really in the Games Workshop hobby, so back in 2006-2007 when I was putting together 10 Space Marines in different poses and that was the greatest thing since sliced bread. "Plastic Legions" seemed like a great idealistic hobby goal. However, gigantic Fantasy and Ancients armies later, with 40K never being anything more than a "hobby speedbump" for me. Plastic just never seemed to be the ideal medium in any category, except price. (exception Games Workshop).

Plastics have come along way in the last 6 years. With GW having the monopoly on what was the standard in plastics. I really enjoyed my time with the Plastics in WFB's Empire Models of 6th and 7th edition's. I wasnt until the historical plastics wave started to hit ( Wargames Factory, Warlord Games) did I realize how inferior these models where to what GW was producing. There use was in a slightly different context, mass "stand based" ancients armies versus GW's aesthetic that each model is it own unique piece in your larger army, While that showed clearly in GW's products, other manufactures on the Historical side chose to offer the perception of different posing options and weapons however many pieces were just not versatile enough to be worth the bother of multi parts for any reason other than making them fit on a sprue.

Well plastics have gotten a whole lot better.  While the Perry Brothers excellent War of Roses "Infantry" and "Mercenaries" kits have been around for a couple years now. I finally just into them as I sought to develop a Human army that could double as both a Historical and a Fantasy Army, The Perry's fit the bill nicely for me. Given the 100 years War and subsequent The War of the Roses are two of my favorite Historical periods, It feels like home for me. Not mention the Swiss and German armies of this period are the direct inspiration of Warhammer's Empire.

 The biggest peeve I have with plastic models is the illusion of  sprues and sprues of fiddly bits in order to provide some sort of individuality to individual models. It's one thing with Space Marines but totally another when you need 100 rank and file troopers that historically pretty much kitted out the same. While I like to make all my models as  different as much as I can there comes a point somewhere when you realize its taking you 30 mins to clean, build, accessorize, and base a single plastic figure and you have 100's to do, and then paint that the "FUN"  just crashes off the road. Give me a a nice selection of metal sculpts I can clean and base are 4 or 5 times the speed anytime. I am thankful to say the Perry figs are pretty easy to assemble.. the Pikemen of the kit are the easiest the Crossbow or Handgun options are much more fiddly but nothing compared to WFB's current Vampire Count Skeleton box, the thing that killed my VC army and any passion I had left for plastics until now.

 I currently am working on all three available boxes Perry has to offer from this period supplement by its great a identically scaled metal figures from the range...when this army will see the light of day, I can say but I am working on it I will need a few more boxes of both the Infantry and Mercenaries, if I want to be able to field a full army for either "Hail Caesar" or "Kings of War".

While its no secret that the Perry Brothers are pretty much my favorite Miniature sculptors. Dare I say that Victrix (know for its Napoleonic era figures, recently releasing a large line of Ancient Greek Figures) has out done them? While a sculpts beauty in is the eye of the beholder, its clear this Victrix
models were created to be plastic models, they are probably computer generated sculpts and not hand sculpts like the Perry's but the exaggerated lines and details make these models the best thing I have seen in plastic since GW's best stuff. I am very impressed by this kit and it was final deciding factor in going ahead with the Army versus proxying Gauls with my Saxons in our next "Hail Caesar" campaign. (Which is coming up in September).  I been struggling with going Spartan for my Antiquity army for some time, but the costs of a entire Spartan/ Greek army from someone like Gorgon Studios, was a daunting investment. These Victrix Models allow me to get my Spartan fix
with some supplemental models from Gorgon at a fraction of the cost and they look great too.

The Victrix Spartans are a bit more "Fiddly" then I had hoped and assembling close to 100 of them is a challenge well see how it goes. But the club and some other local people we know have started a hobby challenge for the second half the summer and my goal is to get these guys built for Sept's campaign. The only con of this kit is that the round molded bases of these figs are a bit thick. thick enough that gluing to a square base and piling sand up around could look weird, so I working on creative basing solutions for these..thats for another post.

 Both the Perry and Victrix plastic kits get a big thumbs up from me. I have boxes and boxes of plastic Historicals kits from Warlord Games and Wargames Factory that have never seen the light of day because, I just don't like the figures enough to go thru the work of actually building them. Both these kits I do, and that just about as good a review I can give.

 I'll sign off for now with more shots of my ready to be painted first sprue of Victrix Spartans. All the Victrix pic are models assembled from one sprue, there are 6 sprues in a box., there a couple extra heads and additions to mix these guys up a bit  providing enough variety given the amount of bits it includes. The only draw back is there isnt a supreme "leonidas" type solo model in the box, that would have pushed it over the top but there are plenty of  other options out there.(again Gorgon.)

 In an unrelated note, I having a difficulty creating Historical type banners from scratch, ( not painting them but creating the banners themselves) I have tried  Green Stuff,  Foil and Paper and am not happy with any of the results..if anyone has good tips of tutorial for historical scratch banners..I'd really appreciate it.

Skirmish Battle Board- Done!

Well almost.. a few minor details and props to do. Chris and I played a game on it tonight and had a damn good time. If your curious about the particulars:
How long did this take?- at least 80 hours over the last 6 weeks....with casting maybe more...
How much did it Cost?- I bought some Hirst Molds specifically for this and they get pretty pricey (around $100 for the 3 of them), but they're mandatory for future pieces now that my casting is solid so I consider them a hobby investment over a project expense.. Take those out of the equation and its $10 worth of dental plaster, $20 of Lumber and Masonite, $10 worth of Cork, some cheap craft paint to augment your hobby paints, some other cheap miscellaneous materials...I plan using some water effects so another $10 for a bottle of that..all in maybe $60, if you include the handles ($5 each) but I had those extra from our Kitchen redo.


Still talking about doing an upper level that stacks on to this and you go down thru into
this level.


If all goes to according to plan, You can see this at Adepticon, next year where it will show up for The next Legends of the High Seas event, although in the meantime we plan on using it for other games as well. If you have Questions about how I did any of this, fire away.

Skirmish Battle Board 2..WIP

I jumped the gun a bit on posting photos for this the other day, so here is an update. all the dungeon pieces are complete and painted. I just need to do the stairs which can't be put in until I get the design for the upper section complete.



Here you go (Tim) the prison. The torturer is a reaper figure, I gave a quick base coat and wash and blood stains..have a whole torture chamber of equipment from some old set I have from the 80's that will decorate.


Prison cells




Long view, there are two cavern sections still coming..I am trying to do them from pink foam but I may bite the bullet and do cavern molds from hirst. One cavern section is on the left between the two rooms behind the fireplace. The other behind the Prison area. The stair area attaches to empty hallway on the right.


Kitchen Area.


You can see some finished props here, there are bunch more coming, but I did cut the list down as too many props make it difficult to move figures around, being playable is key. Working on some custom rules for this as well. I'll probably use the Blip system for LoS (ala Space Hulk) and there is blind random placement of forces for the defender. Again using High Seas, LotR rules..I might even do a mash up. As this is playable now..I'll try some games on it this coming tuesday.



The base the whole thing sits in is done as well, (the Carpentry portion anyway) Finish up the props tonight..the basic foam sections sun/mon..play tuesday..then figure out the upper section
as the next project...More soon!.

Skirmish Battle Board

I mentioned early in the year that this summer was going to be the summer of Skirmish games for me and it's looking like its panning out that way.

Since around early May I have been tinkering on and off with a new Terrain Project. With some serious inspiration from my pal Tim at Cursed Treasures, I returned to casting Hirst Arts blocks, in order to build the Ruined Tower Piece similar to his. It wasn't a huge surprise that things went sideways on me, in that special "A.D.D" hobbyist way and this turned into a completely different project.

While getting my casting legs back with the Ruined Tower, (I have two molds, one owned, one borrowed) I just gotten to having enough blocks complete for the initial project when I started looking at all the flagstone floor tiles I was casting in that mould with any extra liquid I have from each batch..I then started pouring Fieldstone blocks as well.

If you've done any work with Hirst Blocks, you know as I do, its harder than it looks to get good results( like anything I guess) not only the casting but the building are both acquired skills if you want things to look good. since I was badly out of practice and my previous Hirst Builds were not too stellar.(not too happy with my Osgiliath Tables, City Tiles) I quickly realized that Fieldstone was a much more forgiving block than some of the others I was working with. And my Modular Fieldstone Dungeon was born. I quickly envisioned a 2' x 2' Battle Board portable as a companion piece to my pal Rich's Pirate Castle, this would be the "Pirate Castle Dungeon" so to speak, but perfect acceptable for any type of Skirmish game.



Fieldstone (or Flagstone) floor tiles are 1 inch squares..so I got out some graph paper and laid out floor plan and how many floor tiles I need. Quite a few it turned out...there are 10 in the mold and I need easily over 200..so I went to work casting in my free time and spending my monthly hobby budget on a couple more molds. As this project has developed..I decided to add the above ground wilderness section as well. There will be a 2'X 2' roof that a playable surface allowing you travel down thru into the Dungeon level. On paper this seems easy enough using removable layers of Pink foam and removable supports.

The basic 11 sections of the Board are complete and feature modular doorways, some with and some without doors. I wanted to keep it as flexible as possible for future use..there are a ton of props (including secret doors) cast as well from the various great Hirst accessory molds. I'm already well into Painting several of the pieces and this thing should be playable this weekend, where I am going to do the carpentry for the base and box its going to live in and the next step will be the Earthen sections and Cavern section (pink foam) before finally moving on to the upper level.



I plan on using this for Legends of the High Seas/ LotR SBG and single campaign scenario, or just general Fantasy skirmish gaming. I love the concept of the 2' x 2' Battle Board..and I am having so much fun with this..I am going dig in and get as much done as possible before the release of WFB 8th comes in a month steals back my attention.



I'll follow up with some insight on how did some of the stuff here, once the bottom section is 100% done and I get some detail photographs, more photos coming for sure.

Dogs and Lizards

I've been up to bunch of stuff lately but lets start with a Warhammer Update. Here we have Braganza's Besieger's a Dogs of War Crossbow unit that's filling the the required 250 point float for the upcoming Midwest Rampage Tourney which is just 2 Saturdays away.


I won this unit at Core Competency 2008, they were initially painted by someone else. I've added 3 more so the full unit is 13 men. I did the banner first, then started touching up the shields by the time I started on the new models, I basically had redone the whole unit..cleaned up the freehand and picked out the missing details. This is cool unit, a Regiment of Renown. They are standard Crossbows but with a 3+ Saves and Braganza himself is tough customers..at BS 5 and 2 wounds


Just the command group and front rank is pictured here, the rest of guys are drying up and need another shot of dullcote..I'll finish them on Saturday. More on Midwest Rampage coming soon. We have some practice games set up this coming tuesday and I'll try to squeak out a battle report and see how these guys do.



So with lots of 8th Edition rules up the air, I haven't been able to make a ton of progress on my Lizardmen. Here however is my test Saurus Warrior. I have 45 of these guys to do..So I am really just trying to figure out if I do them all this way, or change each unit up with a different color scheme. We are still in the planning stage here. I'm somewhat out of my element having worked on Human figures for so long..its going to take me a bit to hit my stride with the Lizards.




Not quite sure about the spear tip yet....I'm not planning on using any metallics in this whole army, Ideally all workable materials are going to be stone or bone, trying to work in some NMM's ...were I can.




Here is my first Stegadon, again not sure if this is going to be the Engine, my other Ancient or the Standard Model..really depends on how the other colors come together. Plan is paint all the Stegadons first then once I figure out the loadout..do the howdas and characters, The next one is going to Grey, Dark scales working up to a light belly and face..not sure on the 3rd on yet.


Once we get some concrete info on 8th Ed and I get this next tourney out of the way, I will be digging into these guys seriously!.

Talabecland Swordsmen!

Since this month is Adepticon, I am going to be posting a bunch of new pics of the all the stuff
I am lugging out to the 3 day event this year. I have been woefully behind in taking pics of lots of new stuff I have been working and hope to get that corrected this month. Starting off here
we have my new unit of Talabecland Swordsman, My Hochland Swordsmen made the rounds for the last couple years and have now been relegated to my back up unit replaced by these guys as my command block. These guys started as a 9 man detachment and are now a full unit. Joining them I also have my new General hitting the field this year (from GW's great new 3rd wave of Empire Releases last summer) and the requisite Warrior Priest, and older model for me I know..I should probably do up another one of these eventually. I started Empire right when
the 7th ed Army book was released (Jan 07) and now have over 3ooo points fully painted.







Bunch of Empire Kit bashing going on here, the command rank is Left to Right
Warrior Priest, New Unit Champion, Standard Bearer and Musician are all converted
from a host of Empire kits, lots of heads coming from that Greatsword kit, Then the General.




When I saw this model, I said I am definitely running this guy WYSIWYG, as either a Captain or this case the Army General.



The Standard bit swivels and is set in the post with a pin. so I can angle is better for
photos. I may leave that way for easy transport.



I have already posted one shot my new Razorfish Militia, but I have some new shots of them a host of new units coming of the next couple weeks..thanks for checking them out!.

The Blessing of Sigmar

The Blessing of Sigmar, while I have had this model for sometime, I never quite figured out what to do with it. Here it is as my 40mm objective marker for my Sigmarite themed Empire army I've been playing of late. It just the stock 2 models on a standard 40mm square with a piece of plastic card over it and a left over section from the Pegasus Hobbies gothic ruins kit in the back . Shield is from the General kit. I'm quite happy with the way this came out, I may touch it up a bit if I get the nerve to enter it in the Adepticon Rogue Daemon or something but otherwise its good to go.

Steam Tank- WIP II

Just a quick update on my Steam Tank..hard to believe it took me over a month to get this far from when I started on it. I've been busy, plus the Vacation, plus this thing is loaded with lots of little details. I've got tons of detailing still to do to bring out the copper and burned golds.The iconography is pretty much done, and of course I still need to figure out how to base it- I'm sure I'll be messing around with it for awhile. I am taking it to game at Bunker Vet Night tomorrow.

Plastic Stank- WIP

Here we have the new Empire Plastic Steam Tank. I've played without one for years not wanting to get and fiddle with the expensive metal model and I never thought I'd really like it, but as time as gone on and the WFB meta game expands. I find myself needing one from time to time. Now its plastic..although annoying only about $7 cheaper than old metal model but thankfully its a great kit. Although pictures of the painted sprues these are all over the new White Dwarf...I thought I through up some shots of the unpainted sprues and go into some WIP shots.






Good selection of extra parts, and alternative cannons, you can model a more traditional one
with all the Sigmar Heraldry or one that comes from a more obscure province. I really like the fact the driver is an full model not just a bust plus you can model it so you can see inside the tank and since there is some nice interior detail you might as well paint it.



Rear Assembly complete, alot of little gaps and things to sand and fill...this is assembled with just a rough cleaning...obviously I have some work to do.



Rear of the tank, again..awesome detail..I love painting stuff like this..time consuming sure
but the results are great.



Boiler front and interior assembly.If you are going to have an open top this section needs to be painted first before you assemble the rest of the tank... lots of great details here. The gun also snaps in, so you dont have to glue it and the gun elevation is moveable.

I will add more photos here until the project is complete...It is going to take me awhile as I am working on few other things as well right now. I expect it to be built by Sunday night..and then primed so I can take it out to play on the 17th..I don't think I will get to painting it until mid-july but we will see. check this post periodically for updates if you're interested.