More Figures From The Painting Table

As I said in my last post, I have been making a stab at lowering the concentration on my painting table, so more recently painted, or finished, figures.

This was a pre-painted snow leopard with about 6 spots per side.  Also grey.  Not acceptable, so I repainted him.

We have been playing a bit of Zombiecide: Black Plague, and Theresa has claimed Ann as her own.  However, the miniature provided is a bit on the anorexic side, and Theresa is definitely not.  So I did a simple Reaper Bones conversion.

I got this Viking figure in a group that I bought on the Miniatures Page. I don't know the manufacturer, but its quite a nice figure that sat unfinished for 6 months.

I picked up the Frostgrave rules and realized I didn't have any imps! So I bought some from Reaper. What's that? Finish what's on the table?

This elf archer is probably an old Sandra Garrity Grenadier figure.  She was sitting half-finished on the paint table, and now she's off.

Two Black Tree Design evil elf religious figures.  Come on, how much would it have taken to finish them when started? 

Another Reaper mini, a bit on the small side for today's minis.  Another Sandra Garitty, I'm sure. Perhaps she'll fit in a barbarian horde.

This is a very old resin figure, possibly Scotia.  They came in a bag of multiples with slight differences in the figure, i.e.: helmet, armor, face. Another barbarian.

Wizkids pre-primed boars. I really like them! Dark ages, post-apocalypse.

Children.  I haven't checked the makers, but I'm sure the one on the right is Rebel Minis. Whoops, have to paint the eyes on the little girl in the center!

A resin Amazon, possibly from Brother Vinnie. As I do more resin figures, I am becoming less fond of them for table figures.  They are too delicate, and swords, etc, tend to be a bit wiggly.

This is another Wizkids pre-primed figure.  Transparent Tamiya paint on the clear flame. The figures are ok, but, as you can see, the faces are definitely rudimentary.

The other one that came in the pack with the one above.

I've had this figure for a very long time, as identified by being atop a penny, atop a washer.  It's a nice figure, yet another Scandinavian blond to traipse about Sherwood!  Grenadier?

"There are those who call me...Tim!" I've reworked the eyes, but I'm still not satisfied. It's a recent figure, but I can't remember who made it.

This is not newly constructed, but newly returned.  The first edition on THW's "NUTS!" had a learning game using a building of this layout, so I built this from black foamcore, and ran games at conventions.

Red Ops 5: Asylum Part 3... and nekkid wemin

I've finished 2 more gangs, the Chainsaw gang and the Franken gang, and here they are!

First up is the Chainsaw gang, and it's obvious why they are so named.

The figures on both ends are the same figure, but they have interchangeable heads. I looked at a lot of chainsaws on Google, and found that the blade that carries the chain is pretty plain.  That makes sense, as they are always up against the edge of the cut.  The figure on the left has a welder's helmet, blue jeans, and a dark wifebeater. The lower arms are cast as a separate piece with the chainsaw.  This gives great grip, but a bit strange around the elbows. The second figure is more nattily (?) dressed with a t-shirt and pants with a pocket chain.  One arm and one hand are molded with the chainsaw and must be glued to the figure.  Pretty good fit.

The monster in the center has his two arms separate with the chainsaw molded with his right hand and arm.  The arms fit into the armholes quite well.  I anticipated a lot of trouble getting them to fit but was pleasantly surprised. He pretty obviously is not adept with his chainsaw.  All his exposed flesh is covered with nasty scars. A very impressive figure!  The last figure is wearing a motocross helmet.  Note that his shirttail has come untucked.

Now we have the Franken gang.  Obviously, some weird stuff goes on in the labs on the island of Artigo.

On the left, we have Hamlet, addressing Yorrick, who seems to be replying!  His arms are of two different sizes, and he is stitched up on his abdomen, and has metal pieces covering his backbone.

Next we have the first pieced together boy.  I had a lot of fun painting different skin tones at each joining. A real Frankenstein monster!

Next we have the fellow doing Tai Chi.  He also has different sized arms, is stitched up the front and has metal covering his backbone, or perhaps it is his backbone.. It reminds me of a joke by a long-gone comedian, Chris Rush, which I won't explain. And the final construct.  I went with metal staples fastening the parts together, and pale blue plastic for kneecaps and other parts.

All of these gangs are covered in the upcoming add-on to the rules.

And some GW topless barbarians from 1985 & 1987!  They were named on their slotta tabs.

They will be added to my barbarians!

Finally, two more Amazons, who were misplaced.  So easy to paint, other than their shield design.

About all you can do with painting these figures is give them different shield designs, hair, and skin tones.  I know others might go wild with tattoos, but I'm not that guy. And yes, per James Bond, the collar and cuffs match!

NSFW - Nude Amazons + touch-ups.

I got these Amazons on eBay a while back.  They were badly painted and chipped.  I removed all the paint with Super Clean, a purple degreaser available from auto parts stores.  It won't harm plastic or resin.  BIG caveat! Be sure to wear plastic gloves, because it will remove all the natural oils from your hands, and really dry them out. A very little work with a toothbrush after soaking for a little while removes the paint easily.  It may take a second soak in the same liquid to get completely through the primer.

The figures were painted with a variety of skin tones, and then washed with various flesh and brown washes, a single wash to each figure.  The metal parts were painted with IWM Bronze Metallic. The horse hair crests were painted and then washed with a very thin black wash. The shield designs were painted after referring to Thomas Hopes "Costumes of the Greeks and Romans", a Dover press book.

Once they were painted, and their bases flocked, I sprayed them with Armory Matte.  Once they were dry, I coated the metal and shields with Liquitex High Gloss Medium.  And gave their hair a coating of Pledge with Future. I find their faces a bit anime for my tastes.  There also were very deep mold lines that were impossible to remove in some cases.  Good enough for the table.

Here are 4 more of the painted "fantasy" rabble figure I bought painted a while back. I just touch them up and spray them with a dull coat, and cover the things that should be gloss with Liquitex. I see I need to do eyes.

And last, this figure has been languishing, painted, in among unpainted lead since Katrina (2005), So I finally took pity on him, touched him up and recoated his base with clumped static grass.

I figure him for an escaped lunatic who overpowered his guard and took his uniform and gun.

T-t-t-that's all folks!

Rally Round the King armies from Mighty Armies boxes

I have two Mighty Armies that have sat in the box since the rules came out in 2004.  At that time we would play 6 or 8 man DBA tournaments on Wednesday night.  I had my barbarian army and a couple of others had other armies.  If you've ever played a friendly DBA tourney, you know that 2 guys will finish way before the other and have to twiddle their thumbs white waiting for their next opponent.   So the Mighty Armies was played in between the DBA games.  Of course, Katrina ended all that, wiping out the game store where we played, and a couple of our guys lost their homes and armies.

So, I now have a couple of friends who are willing to play Rally Round the King.  I have converted my Barbarian army to that ruleset and done my Orc army to the same.  Let's start with the Orcs.

Here's the whole army in one shot.
                                 
There are 5 Orc bases at 24 points for a total of 120.

 Plus a Foot Skirmish (Archers) at 8 points, a Black Orcs base (where my general is) for 36 points and a Dire Wolf Rider base for 36 points.

This is a 200 point, 8 base, army straight out of the army list.  After making your 200 point army, you are left with another Dire Wolf Rider base @ 36 points, 2 goblin bases @ 20 points (40 points) and a 3-figure Orc base which would be 18 points (derived by dividing the 4-figure orc base by 4 and then multiplying by 3, duh!).  So you have an additional 94 points in the box.  Oh, and you get a spellcaster.

Now for my take on the Barbarian army.  YMMV.
Being a dyed-in-the-wool DBA gamer with a penchant for warband armies, the Mighty Armies set up didn't light my fire.  So here we go.  All bases are AC 2. All but the Archer bases are Frenzy UD, and the Berserkers add Fanatic.
For the general, I used a 4-figure base, figuring he would have more hangers-on, and gave him a Rep 5 for 24 points.  Since Mighty Armies has a separate pack of Berserkers, I included a 3-man base at Rep 6 for 30 points.

Then we add 7, yes 7, 3-man bases of Warriors @ 18 points for a total of 126. ( I did 2 pics of them to show the mass.  Neither is sparkling.)

And two 2-man Rep 4 bases of Archers (Foot Skirmish), 8 points each for 16 points.

This gives you a total of 11(!) bases at 196 points.  When the Mammoth is available again from Rebel Minis I'll add it at 6 points (Rep 4), either dropping a base of Archers for a total of 194 points, or if I'm playing a charitable opponent, add him for a total of 204 points.  Of course, elephants are just as iffy in Rally Round the King as in DBA, but much easier to hurt, with only AC2.  What's left?  Only an Archer base, since I used 2 of them with swords held high to fill out a Warrior base (the last base in the top photo of the Warriors.)   I could have filled it out with figures from the Berserker pack, but I wanted the Berserker base to be unique in my army.  By the by, this is one of the few armies for which you can buy extra Warriors and Berserkers.  Oh, and the spellcaster!

I hope this gives players a little hint about how to make your own armies.  I'm sure one could go into the historical army and find a use for the chariots, but they are so huge that they would have to be mounted on 40mm x 50mm bases.  You don't want 4 of something that enormous falling back!  Here's a picture of them.  I may at some point get bases for them and go to the historical lists for an army, but they would only be either Rep 5 light chariots (Mounted Missile) at 7 points or Rep 5 (Mounted Melee - Dual Shock) at 12 points.  At any rate, here's a photo of them.

Though I've showed them before, here is my other army so far, Amazons straight from the Valkae list.

2 noble bases, ET, one containing the general.

3 Warriors - Frenzy

1 base of Sword Maidens Frenzy Elite and one of Marines Dual.

and 2 Archers

To swap out I have 1 base of Noble Cavalry, Shock and 2 of Cavalry (Mounted Skirmish)

Now if I can only get time and energy to get some solo games in.  The Amazons are from Black Falcon.  All other figures are from Rebel Minis, who is the supplier for all things Mighty Armies.