Sunday 17 November 2013

Bits and Pieces: November 2013

Introduction

It's been a scrappy sort of a month so far, with several significant changes in our lives.  Since losing my job just over a week ago, we've just acquired 2 black cats from the local SSPCA rescue centre.  So far they've rubbed against my legs whenever I've been preparing food (ours, not theirs), but they haven't shown any interest in my workbench.  Let's hope it stays that way and then we can be friends, kitties!

From a model-making perspective, it's also been quite a mixture over the last 2 weeks.  A number of pieces have been finished, some new ones started and I've even ordered some bits for a few of my long-wished-for projects.  I also spent this morning designing some wound cards for The Rules With No Name - more on these when the finished deck arrives from artscow.com .

Finished Recently

This is a selection of the models that I've completed in the past 2 weeks or so:

Cole is the trail boss of my new "cowboys" faction for The Rules with No Name.  At the moment he's the only member of that group, so I'll really need to have some more hands before I can use them as a separate group.  No doubt they'll be raising Cain in the saloons of some small cow-town or negotiating forcefully with the local landowners over passage rights sometime soon!  Model is from Artizan Designs.

 A while ago, I bought a set of Gripping Beast's plastic "Dark Age Warriors" so that I could add some more basic troops to my SAGA Viking warband.  However, that only used 8 out of the 40 figures in the box.  I've decided that this is a perfect opportunity to build an Anglo-Dane warband as well, so here are the first 2 levy slingers: "Aelfgar" and ""Puttoc".  Of course, I'll need to buy some armoured guys and a warlord as well...

A couple more zombies fell off the end of the painting queue.  "Wild Child" is a Studio Miniatures model (from their "Tiny Terrors" pack), while the larger zed is from Blue Moon Manufacturing.

I showed the first element for my Hordes of the Things Barbarian army here: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2013/11/2-elements-for-hordes-of-things.html .  Well, I've now completed 2 more elements - these are both shooters.  So, only 9 more elements to go!

This giant snake is from Reaper and has been waiting for attention for quite some time.  I've based it up to match my Tomb Guardians, so archaeologists with a fear of snakes had better watch out!

For a very long time (several years, at least) I've been intending to put on a Robin Hood game at my local games club.  Initially I'd thought of playing this with the free Swordplay rules from Two Hour Wargames, but more recently I'm leaning towards Song of Blades and Heroes instead.  No final decision has been taken, but either way I thought it was time to paint up some goons for the bad guys' force.  Here we have some men-at-arms: Dickon, Wat, Alard and Hodge.  Models are from Black Tree Designs.

Annoyingly, I only had 3 of the same shield transfers in my spares box!  I haven't decided whether to hand-paint the same design on the 4th shield, use a different transfer or just leave it blank.

Newly Arrived

Finally, here's a picture of some fencing that just arrived from Fenris Games.  Their catalogue is hard to read when using Firefox (25.0), but it does work and my order arrived promptly and in good condition.  From the description, there should have been 5 pieces of railing - but I received 6.  I don't know if this was a mistake in fulfilling the order or in writing the catalogue, but either way it's in my favour and it's really too small a discrepancy to worry about!

These lengths of railing are laser cut from plywood, so they're actually quite strong.  Obviously the taller projections at the top of the fence could be vulnerable, so I'll have to be careful with them.  3 of the lengths have a small gate in them, whilst the other 3 pieces are plain railing.  Personally, I think this is quite the bargain for £10 (plus shipping)!  Now I have no real excuse not to build that graveyard which has been at the back of my mind for a long time; I've had the Renedra gravestones since they first came out...

18 comments:

  1. A very bits n pieces week. Always nice to see more cowboys. I do like the railings, i may have to source some of those

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    1. I've got some more trail hands and marshals to paint up as well - but as you can see, I've got a lot of other stuff to do as well.

      Fenris have a lot of different styles of railing; it's something I've really not seen anywhere else.

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  2. Progress in loads of different projects mate! Awesome bonus with the railings!

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    1. Yes, some progress in a lot of projects - but none are anywhere near complete yet!

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  3. Fantastic looking figures, love the men at arms and the Dark Age warrior, great paintjob!

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    1. Thanks, Phil. I doubt that the men-at-arms will last very long against Robin Hood and his Merry Men, though!

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  4. That is a wonderful array of miniatures, so many to chose from but my favourite has to be that snake.

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    1. Yes, the snake turned out much better than I dared to hope. He/she should be a real problem for any careless adventurers.

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  5. beautiful snake you have there. I am waiting for seeing it in action. It can also work for a fantasy story (two snake facing each other on a black moon).
    congrats for the Cats.You will be able to play mastermind with them on your knees during games.

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    1. Thanks, I am pleased with the snake as well.

      Ah, there are several reasons why the cat thing won't work:

      - Ours are short-haired, black cats (not long-haired, white ones).
      - I don't speak English with a middle-European accent.
      - I'm not bald!

      (but I *am* a mastermind and I *do* have a swivel chair :-) ).

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  6. That's a lot of work done!

    I love the giant snake, is that from Bones range?

    As for the shiled transfers, perhaps just add some random yellow part, to tie him in? Mark him as a recruit, unworthy of a proper shield! Or a clumsy one, who's original shield has been "alienated" (can you use this word in this context? :D) from him by one of the Merry men? :D

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    1. The snake is indeed from Reaper, but it's a metal model. I don't know if they've redone this in the "Bones" plastic.

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  7. Good stuff so far. That Snake looks great, especially. Great find\buy with those railings. I've been casually looking for non skull draped ones for my graveyard as well, so thanks.

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    1. Thanks, arabianknight. The railings (and the other styles that Fenris make) are very useful, I think.

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  8. What a great mix of the things you're working on. The westerner, I immediately thought looked a bit like Rooster Cogburn or maybe J.B, Books (from "The Shootist, one of the best western ever). The plastic DA warriors look ever bit as good as their metal counter-parts .
    Your HotT, Barbarians wouldn't look amiss in a Lost World scenario, along with the gorgeous snake.
    Give the missing shield transfer man at arms a fairly rough hand-painted design, then damage his shield. showing rough wood though the damage, may be a possibly.
    What a great pair of zombies too, (I'm not a fan of their eyes though) and that check shirt is excellent.
    As for the Fenris fences, I'm very jealous I recieved some last Xmas and have still to use mine, you're meant to get a five and a half metres, so some of your pieces may be a bit on the short side to make up the 5m length.

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    1. Ah, so I'm not the only person who doesn't get round to things for many months (or even years) :-) !

      Hmm, I didn't immediately think of John Wayne when painting "Cody". Still, maybe it fits - though he's a bit younger than in either of the films you mention. How about "Red River" instead?

      A damaged shield sounds like a good idea - I might just try that.

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  9. Nice looking figures and a good mix of periods.

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    1. Thanks, Sean. There's nothing particularly homogeneous about my recent output!

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