Pieces of eight - more pirates

Well I've finished the rest of my e-bay pirates. So I now have 22 painted pirates roughly split between Old Glory (thinks Jim) and Foundry which cost me a £10. I've got a Legends of the High Seas game planned for the end of the month so they wont have to wait long for their baptism of fire.

Cheers Jon

Warrior frogs - first unit

Well I've started on my WFB 3rd edition Slann army and have finished my first unit. These ten blowpipe armed venom tribe Slann are +1 missile elites (IE better shots) and all their attacks count as poisonous. Venom tribes are primitive jungle dwellers who sport highly colourful skin hence why these guys are bright read rather than the more usual Slann green. seeing as all but one of the miniatures in the unit are pre-slotta citadel miniatures (circa 1984) I think they've scrubbed up quite well.

The top three pictures are a couple of test pieces which I started to try out some paint schemes. The top model (standing on some severed heads) will most likely be my army general. while the second model is a minor mage/priest.

Plenty more models to come for this army. I'm currently working on a Slann spawn band using a variety of Slann purchased off e-bay. I've got some historical 28mm naked Aztecs from TAG to build a unit of slave troops. I'm working on another unit of blow pipers this time to be scouts. I'm also planning some Lizardman and pygmy auxiliaries too. Lots to do and I've still got those elves to finish as well.

Cheers Jon

Giant undead stompy thingy - WIP part 2

A few more photos of my undead monster WIP the monster has now been painted and based and just need the crew done now. The top picture has a couple of my Mantic undead in the howdah to show some scale (due to their bases though I could only fit two in) but I hope to add a few more crew than two to the final model.

Cheers Jon

cheap tanks

Saw these in my local Works shop. At £2.99 i thought it was worth a punt for my AK-47 UN forces that I'm building. It's sold as a 3D puzzle, is 1/90 scale (slightly over sized for 15mm), is made of plastic and doesn't look half bad when put together. Even the paint job is pretty good. It took about 5 mins to put together and didn't require any glue. This one will probably get re-painted white to match the other UN stuff I have. I think I might pick up another one or two as I quite like them and they're dirt cheap. They also do a Tiger 1 for any WW2 players out there.

Cheers Jon

Gaint stompy undead monster thingy - WIP

So I wanted a big centrepiece for undead army. Back in my youth Grenadier miniatures used to make several undead war beasts which are sadly OOP from what I can tell but would make a great centre piece to any army. A few pop up on eBay but get rather pricey therefore I decided to make my own version.

I picked up this dinosaur skeleton of eBay for a couple of quid. I then added a howdah made from match sticks, lolly pop sticks and florist wire. I added some banners and some cloth barding from kitchen towel and pva glue. Finally added some shields from my bits box.

The bottom picture shows the model with it's base coat and magic wash. Next step is highlighting. I'm looking to eBay to furnish 3-4 skeleton crewmen as well.

Cheers Jon

Arrrrrrrrrrragh Jim lad - pirates

Picked up some 28mm Pirates from Flea-bay to play Legends of the high seas against Jim.

For a tenner I got 22 pirates. The 10 shown here had been given a basic paint job so I gave them a magic wash and some highlights and the results can be seen above.

The other 12 where a mix on undercoated and untouched they're on the painting table now and should be finished in the next couple of days. Some of the pirates where foundry the others I can't identify. Some of them are in some odd poses or are a bit weak sculpting wise, but for the price they'll do the job.

I'm now resisting the urge to splash out any more pirates until I've played a couple of games of LotHS to see if I like it. It seems like the sort of game I could rope my son into at home. I also found this company who make some nice pirate stuff

http://www.gamesofwar.net/acatalog/Pirate_Supplies_Store.html

I really like the sea dog a small pirate vessel and at £15 a good price.

Cheers Jon

Up coming projects

Spent my couple of days away mentally reviewing my collection and projects I'd like to do.

Two of my 40k armies sold on Flea-bay while I was away, the others aren't shifting though. I'll probably re-list them and if they don't sell I'll just keep them for now.

In the mean time the high elves are around half done. I still have 10 archers, a bolt thrower, a prince and a unit of cavalry to finish (the cavalry have been started however). I also need to buy a unit of 16 Kith swordsmen to finish the army but I'm still looking for some figure I like at the moment.

For the undead I'm scratch building a war beast based on a plastic dinosaur skeleton I picked up of e-bay. When Mantic release their zombies I'll invest in some plus some extra skeletons for summon skeleton spells. I still need to find some good reapers (skeletons with scythes) too.

I'm also going to put together a pirate crew for Legends of the High Seas to give my some time opponent Jim a few games down the club. I picked up 22 foundry pirates off E-bay for a tenner. There in various states of painting/undercoating and already mounted on washers. Hopefully they will give me everything I need and will make a nice (and quick) little side project

Lastly are the Aztec frogs of doom. I always wanted a Slann army in my youth but never did get one. These days in WFB Slann armies are mostly Lizardmen. Back in 3rd edition though Slann armies were made of Slann warriors not just one fat frog on a throne. The main problem is early GW Slann are oop so your reduced to E-bay to pick them up and that can get pricey. Luckily the Slann army list has a few none Slann options. Basically if I box clever and get creative I think I can create a nice Slann army for 3rd edition. However as I'm relying on E-bay to pick up some of the miniatures for this, I think this project will be more of a long term slow but sure type of deal. The guy at the top is a test figure, one of a handful of Slann I've already picked up from e-bay.

Cheers Jon