Build me an army worthy of Mordor!

Dear Internet, I haven't written in a long time. It's not you, it's me. Truth to be told there haven't been much to write about, but I though the new year would be a nice time to make an effort and restart the blog. We'll see how long it lasts this time, but at least I have something to write about right now. (I also painted something, skip to the end if you just want to see the pretty pictures.)

Just before the new year I met up with my fellow Scandinavian Lardies (or Lardie Penguins) Jocke, Koen and Thomas for our annual shits and giggles game. In a moment of hubris we decided to play Dux Gondorianum -- which is more or less just Dux Britanniarum with Lord of the Rings figures.

The forces of go.. evil I mean.

Dux Brit is a large dark age skirmish game from Too Fat Lardies which is quite brilliant if you fancy playing saxons vs romano-britons. Which is nice, I guess, but we don't have any of those kinds of miniatures or any connection to that bit of history. What we do have is a lot of Games Workshop's  Uruk Hai, Gondorians and Rohirrim. The biggest hordes of painted stuff belongs to Koen and Thomas as I sold most of my Uruks and Riders of Rohan to Thomas a while back. Still, I had a handful of painted Mordor Orcs and a bunch of Wargames Foundry viking archers that didn't look too out of place in a Rohan Army. For some reason I even had two Grishnak!

One of my Grishnaks leads the charge!

Back To Basics: Wargames Foundry Home Guard

(Warning: a small rant ahead. Pictures of models after the break, if you want to skip ahead.)

So I've sort of hit painter's block... I do paint... but I seem to take ages, not finish stuff other than the occasional odd miniature here and there. I buy stuff, build them, start paint a couple and then... I loose interest. It's just not the Wargamer's Attention Deficit Disorder, otherwise known as the Magpie or "OOh shiny" syndrome. Oh I got that too, but this is something else.

I was thinking back to when I started in the hobby. You bought a thing. Built it. Painted it. Played with it within a week or so. Sometimes you had a big project (like that Tamiya 1:35 Möbelwagen). If you didn't have the correct paint you used another, or mixed a couple of paints to a rough estimate of the box cover art. Things were simpler back then, I thought.

No this isn't a "Things were better before" post.

But no... things weren't simpler, my methods were. Now we have 200 or somewhere abouts paints in the GW range, many of them technical paints, some are dry, some are layer paints, some are washes and some are glazes, some are base paints. Back then you had paints, and inks. You could thin the paints to make washes, use the inks for pin washes or glazes, and you could wipe all of your paint from the brush for drybrushing. You drybrushed or highlighted, washed or pin washed, and that was it.

Don't get me wrong, all the new techniques, all the new kinds of paints are fantastic. You can do some amazing things. But they also lead to overcomplication. Do I need to paint every model like it could belong in the 'Eavy Metal section of White Dwarf? No, but I try to. It's partially because the models have become better and more detailed so they lure you into a complicated paint job. Back then the models often had unadorned armour, maybe the odd spike or symbol somewhere. If you wanted to you could freehand something or put a decal on it. Nowadays the armours are sculpted with lots of details and 3d insignia that beckons to be painted, highlighted, washed, weathered and then some git are doing them in non-metallic metallics. (Don't get me started about that... the Emperor's new paint scheme I call it.) But I'm setting my ambitions too high. It's not that I can't paint that fine, I can. But I don't need to, and it takes too long time.

My stash of Home Guard. Also includes some Crusader and Warlord figures in the top rows.

So I dug up a bunch of Wargames Foundry British Home Guard that I have had in my stash for a while, and decided to go back to the basics with them.

Oota-goota Santa?

My hobby life naturally took a hit last year when I had most of my stuff in storage. Still, I did manage to paint a couple of things. The last thing I completed in 2016 was a figure for our local Secret Santa. I have held off showing it since I wanted to be sure the recipient had received it, however the obligatory "Thank you Santa"-post didn't materialise so I was a bit worried. A couple of eBay buys had gone missing just before Christmas and for a moment I suspected a dishonest postal worker had decided to nick my packages.

In the end I flat out asked if it had arrived, and yes it had. (My eBay buys were refunded by the seller too, so all is well that ends well, as the bard wrote.) But what was it, I hear you ask? Well, the title is a clue, as the figure was Greedo for Imperial Assault.

Oota-Goota Solo?

Muddy Waters -- Modelmates Weathering Wash review

Hi gang!

The Model Railroad hobby is a bit strange to be honest (and I've been a part of it so I'm not bashing somebody elses hobby BTW), but we can still learn a lot from them. The thing is that model railroaders spend a lot of time and money on building very realistic backdrops for their trains, yet most want their trains pristine and unweathered. So Model Railroad rolling stock (that's locos, wagons, etc.) are sold prepainted and in perfect shape. This goes for figures too, they are prepainted but not shaded. Again, I'm not bashing someones hobby, Model Railroaders are often collectors too (unlike Wargamers which are hoarders) and display their trains in special cabinets.

Case in point. Lovely scenery, squeeky clean locomotive and lorry.

But not all Model Railroaders are collectors, and there are lots of tips and tricks for weathering locomotives. Usually they are of the DIY kind, but there are also some special products available, like the weathering sprays from Model Mates. Since I live in Sweden I haven't been able to order one of those, but I recently discovered that they are also available in regular paint pots. Instead of trawling Model Railroad shops you can steer your web browser to Great Escape Games that stocks them.

Different cans, but the same product apparently.

Delivery was swift and secure with the jars of weathering liquids in separate ziplock bags inside the package in case of leaks (there were none). The Weathering Liquids functions like a wash, but are water soluble after they have dried. The idea is you take your spanking brand new boxcar, diesel engine or whatever you want to weather, and slather the liquid on it. When it has dried you remove as much or as little you want with a cotton bud, damp cloth or brush. If you remove too much you can always apply some more. I think it will look very nice as grime and dirt on tanks for instance. However, I plan to use it to Nurgle-ise a lot of figures for Warhammer 40k, hence my choice of Moss Green...

My brave volunteer. Hey, the 80's called and wanted their paint job back!

As I didn't have any vehicles ready for weathering, I took a figure to test it on instead. I had this 80's classic Nurgle Chaos Warrior I bought on eBay. While not a bad paint job per se, it was a bit too clean for Nurgle really.

Ugh, that shield has to go...

Ready for action... love that murky greenish colour of the weathering liquid.

Weathering liquid applied and still a bit wet, hence the glossiness. It dries matt.

Most of it wiped off with a damp brush. Notice how it leaves some grime and stain on the original surface.

I tried the Rusty Red on the sword as well, but I didn't like the effect. Probably the sword is too flat and silvery to retain much of the effect. I suspect it will work much better on a tank with all those rivets and panel lines.

At £4.50 it costs about the same as the new big cans of GW washes, although it only contains 18ml. However the effect is not the same as regular washes and I find that they are well worth the price and will definitely order some of the other colours.

Oooh, shiny!

It's almost Christmas, and I haven't written anything for more than a month. I had a slight burnout during november because of too many things going on at once, and then there was Star Wars. In order to avoid spoilers I didn't keep as much tabs on the online community as usual, instead I was following John Boyega on Instagram and other sites. I tell you right now, John Boyega seems like a very funny guy to be friends with.

But that's not what I wanted to show you today. Instead I have found some other new shinies.

"Mein Gott, was ist das? Essen mein flammenwerfer!"

Yes, it's a Ghar battlesuit from Beyond the Gates of Antares, Rick Priestley's new sci-fi game. "But what of Frostgrave" I hear you cry. Fear not, I'm plodding along with that one as well as all the WW2 and Star Wars stuff I have. It's just that a couple of my work mates go Gates of Antares crazy recently and I bought the Ghar stuff from the starter box off one of them.

Trollololol :-)

Well, while thinking about Kings of War, reading the rulebook and fiddling with an online army generator, I remembered the goblins from the old Battle for Skull Pass box I bought in oh, 2006 or something... If I remembered correctly there would be a fair amount of gobboes in there. A quick google confirmed that yes indeed, there were over 60 goblins, ten spider riders and a troll in the box.

Lots of goodies back then. Sure, everything was monopose, but it was still a decent set of figures.

While the dwarf units are a bit uneven in size, the goblin units are the exact size of Kings of War Regiments. Even the picture on the back of the box puts all the heroes out by themselves like Kings of War instead of inside the units. It didn't take long to enter the units into the army builder and here's what I got:

• Sharpsticks (Goblin spears)
  Regiment(20) - 95 pts
  Regiment(20) - 95 pts
• Spitters (Goblin bows)
  Regiment(20) - 85 pts
• Fleabag Riders (spider riders)
  Troop(5) - 95 pts
  Troop(5) - 95 pts
• King (Goblin Big Boss) - 90 pts
• Wiz (Goblin Shaman) - 45 pts
• Troll Bruiser - 125 pts

A total of 725 points if I split the riders into two troops, which coincidentally is almost the recommended starting points in the KoW rulebook. Just add 25 points of magic items and I'm there.

Tanktober is here!

Well, it just happens to be October 1st, and it just happens that I have painted a tank. So Tanktober it is!

The tank in question partway painted, a Rubicon Panzer IV.

I was really surprised on how easy it was to get this one painted. I think the good details helped a lot. If you are interested you can read my full review of this kit here where I compare it with Warlord Games' Panzer IV kit. Basically, in the picture above all I have done is sprayed it Desert Yellow (with an Army Painter rattle can), washed it all over with my Future/Devlan Mud mix, painted the tracks and other metal parts gunmetal and the rubber tires dark grey. While nowhere near finished in my eyes it does look the part and could be used on the gaming table without anyone lifting an eyebrow.

Crimson Empire

Well, as I promised earlier, I have now painted my winning Imperial Assault team. It proved to be quite frustrating.

The winning team, in their winning colours.

I used some different techniques mostly because my GW Mephiston Red had dried in the pot. Damn Games Workshop, I almost think they do it on purpose with their crappy paint cans. I have other paints more than a decade old but GW paints seem to last a year at most.

Three germans walk into a bar.

Actually it has nothing with that meme floating around...

Yeah, this one. Though judging by the background I think he's fighting japs somewhere in the pacific.

...it's just that I happened to paint three Germans.

Can you guess another meme that fits with this image?

More after the break.

How to paint vehicles the Viking way

This one's for Anne, who asked how I had painted my little Kübelwagen.

The vehicle in question

Well, unfortunately I didn't take many WIP shots while I was painting it, but I will try and explain using photos of other vehicles I have painted the same way. So, where to begin? First of all, painting vehicles is nothing like painting figures. Although in theory you could employ the same techniques you can't use them the same way.

Painting an Italeri Cromwell part two

At the end of the last post the basic paint job on the Cromwell was done; shading and highlighting of the main hull and turret completed. Details like the tracks and tools lacked paint however, and the application of markings and weathering was also left. Since I foolishly had left the top hatch open I also needed to paint a commander.

A Tamiya 1/48 scale crewman volunteers for duty.

Painting an Italeri Cromwell part one

Returning from GothCon (more about that in a later post) I was a bit tired of all the desert stuff. For relaxing I decided to build and paint the 28mm Italeri Cromwell I bought a while back.

Coffee, plastic glue and a sharp knife equals happiness. (Note funky Mutant: Year Zero dice on the left)

Assembly was straight forward. It's a good kit, although the instructions tell you to cut the driver's hatch in half if you want to assemble it open, when in fact the hatch already is in two parts on the sprue. Even though it's fast build there are some nice details like the headlamp guards on the hull, the possibility to leave hatches open and the optional Cullin hedgerow cutter.

Now it's very green. 

As I've said in previous posts I like building more than painting, so I was going to try some fast painting techniques to save time. To begin with I undercoated the model entirely with rattle spray cans. First it received a shot of black on the underside and sides from a low angle. Then I sprayed Flames of War Soviet Armour from a higher angle, and last -- still using a rattle can -- I used Army Painter Army Green directly from above to form highlights. 

Night Terrors from Shadows of Brimstone

I have been slaving away here and there on the Brimstone figures. They key I think is not to see them as wonderful miniatures or models, but as boardgame pieces. Nicely sculpted, 3D boardgame pieces, but boardgame pieces nevertheless. This way you can gloss over the somewhat vague details and large mold lines on some of the models.

All the miniatures from the two boxes in various stages of painting.

I still try to do my best and yes, the biggest gaps need to be filled. But I have no intention of re-sculpting details that have been marred by mold lines. On the Night Terrors I filled in the worst spots with milliput, namely around the groin and neck, doing my best to match the fur texture.

The Night Terror before painting, the worst gaps have been filled with milliput.

I also tried my hand at converting one of the three Night Terrors to get some variation, you will see the finished model at the end of this post.

May the Fourth be with you!

Could it be? No it isn't? YES IT IS, A FOURTH UPDATE!!!
(Yes I know "May the Fourth be with You is what you say on may the fourth a.k.a. Star Wars day.)

Håkan, one of my mates,  delivered a Z-95 headhunter he had ordered for me about a month ago when every local game store was out of Z-95:s. Naturally our order got delayed and the local stores have restocked in the meantime.

But anyway, I mentioned that I was going to repaint the Z-95 to match the card art for Lt. Blount and we joked that I should try and repaint it tonight and then update the blog to get four updates in so many days...

Well... I did it.

The original paintjob with blue markings. (Picture by Fantasy Flight Games.)

Lieutenant Blount's card. Notice the red markings.

My repainted Lieutenant Blount.

First I repainted the fuselage with Vallejo Khaki mixed with Vallejo Deck Tan. This produced a more grey-brown paint than the original grey, more akin to the colours of the X-wings. 

Next I used a Nuln Oil wash to bring out the details, after which I drybrushed with pure Deck Tan to lighten the paint job a bit. The markings were picked out by free-hand with GW Mephiston Red. It was hard to see what the markings were on the wings so I just went with red stripes. I touched up the lines and added a few small nicks and scratches on the red with deck tan again.

Last I added some more Nuln Oil to the engines and the cock-pit canopy where the drybrush had spilled over. I used Liquitex gloss medium to bring the shine back to the canopy. 

May the Force be with You

Repainting X-wing ships

Inspired by the fun tournament I played in and the fact that a lot of the players had either repainted or in some way touched up their ships, I decided to try my hand at painting some ships. Now, these are 1:270 scale, and I have painted tanks and infantry in 1:285 scale so how hard could it be?

The answer is pretty not hard at all, as long as you have a fine brush and a somewhat steady hand. For starters I decided to repaint one of my two HWK-290s.

Come on JJ, how do you like my lens flare?

Avatars of War's Corruptors of Apocalypse

What's in a name? that which we call Nurgle
By any other name would smell as sickly sweet;

(Apologies to the bard for paraphrasing the famous quote from Romeo and Juliet)

A plague on both your houses!

Anyone who's into Warhammer would recognise these figures for they really are, Chaos Warriors, or Chosen of Nurgle to be more precis. Even though Avatars of War claim to have their own game I doubt anyone is using these figures for anything else than Warhammer. A quick look on their page also reveals that they have character figures for War (Khorne), Pestilence (Nurgle) and Torment (Slaanesh). They also have some Marauder characters and a lot of Dwarf, Elf, Daemon, Undead, Orc and Human characters.

Perry Miniatures D.A.K. progress

About a month ago I showed you some WIP shots of my Afrika Korps figures from Perry Miniatures. Today I'm proud to show the first finished figures.

The first of my mighty Afrika Korps, a half squad and their platoon commander.

I haven't been working on them for a while really, because the 20mm US paras for the upcoming convention are taking precedence. Yet I keep returning to the DAK figures to get some variation. More pictures after the break.

Elhiem US Paratroopers Painting Guide

I have finally recieved all I need to start painting the forces for Easter's demo game at GothCon in Gothenburg.

Some lurrverly figures from Elhiem, or Matt as his real name is.

When I ordered the figures last summer I simply ordered a pack of everything, thinking it would give me roughly a platoon sized force. However, the 82nd and 101st airborne had very different equipment in Normandy which meant I couldn't use some packs and didn't have enough of other packs. I also realised when I was about to start painting that I was out of round bases. After a frenzy of completing orders I was finally able to start painting last week.

You've got red on you.

I've been busy with all things life (work, kids, non-miniature related fun stuff and just plain boring stuff), but I have plodded along with the Caproni I started earlier. All the major sub-assemblies (wings, interior bits etc.) are done, but I have to paint the interior before assembling them. Curse the designer who put so many windows on the cursed airplane.

So when the Guild of Wargamers announced a Speed build with the theme Red I jumped at the chance of doing something different. I decided to paint up one of the Killa-kans I bought off a friend in a bright red sceheme.

"You've got red on you"

Crusader Miniatrures British painting guide

I'm really intending to play Chain of Command in 20 mm since I do have lots and lots of 20 mm troops already. However, the battle reports coming from the Lard Island blog and Sidney Roundwood's blog using 28mm figures and 1/48 scale vehicles look very tasty indeed. So that reminded me that I actually had a bunch of 28mm stuff I ordered several years ago in a bout of "Oooh Shiney"-syndrome.

The British part of the loot; a section of infantry and some serious hardware.

After rummaging around a surprisingly short time I found a small but suspiciously heavy box. Inside were a receipt from Crusader Miniatures dated december 2006, a couple of unopened blisters, two large ziploc-bags with unpainted figures and a few miniatures I had started painting carefully rolled in bubblewrap.