The Metal Quest continues...

Some more special Heroquest minis for you today. An orc for orctober, necromancer for halloween and an 'orrible troll. One of the upsides about being vocal on platforms about your collecting of Heroquest prototypes is that occasionally people contact you saying they have things... Both the necromancer and orc came to me this way whilst the troll was a gift from Mike @ Broadswords and Beasts. I had to modify him slightly to fit on a 25mm base! 

The necromancer makes 3 out of 5 of the wizards miniatures, still the high mage and man at arms to find. I first came across this miniature in the undead armies book where he (a metal one I asusme) lurks in the background of an army image:

Since he was clearly in the studio army at this time I went through all my White Dwarfs to see if I could find a better picture of him, but no success (only the same photo duplicated). The previous two necromancers I have painted I used the cover of Wizards of Morcar as a reference but for this guy I decided to go as close to the WD image as I could, giving him a more corpse-like complexion and orangey robes. This was helped by my recent acquisition of 'British Redcoat Red C' from the Foundry paint range after about a year searching for a yellow-shade red rather than the somewhat pinkish 'Bright Red'. As you can see from the comparison picture he's somewhat larger than the eventual plastic piece (as are the orc shaman and storm mage), as opposed to the prototypes of the base set minis which are smaller than the plastics and which were my guide for sculpting my own homages.

The orc is an extra-special find as I only know of one other person who has one (though likely there are more out there). There isn't even the Mike McVey one in the foundry cabinet. The rarity can be understood since the minis from the base set never had a general release and with all the great orcs in the Citadel ranges he was never going to be especially eye-catching to the extent that a casting room worker would spin themselves one up. Unlike the gargoyle, chaos sorcerer and chaos warrior which would be understandably more popular. I still hope to lay my hands on a chaos warrior one day, having been used as a young bloods trophy at one point there must be a few around. Anyhow, the orc was a lot of fun (and quite quick) to paint. As with the gargoyle I tried to get as close as possible to the box photos but without laying eyes on the actual mini I had to do a bit of guessing as to what the colours were like in reality.

The troll, of course, is not a Heroquest mini. Shakined Bonebender is, however, one of my favourite troll models. Ultimately I'd like to add the Marauder troll that appears in the Marvel special to my collection, but that for another day. I need a HQ troll for an adventure in December and Shakined doesn't really fit with my river, stone or regular trolls so this is the best use for him I can think of. I know he was based on a John Blanche image, I have in mind that he is actually a John Blanche sculpt? But I could be mis-remembering that.

The Metal Quest continues...

Barbaric reinforcements

September is the usual kick-off time for new year-long army projects after the lull of summer and passing of BOYL. However I have so many odd bits and pieces to add to existing armies I had already decided that 2022-23 should be the year of 'finishing' (such as is ever possible) those forces. I am approaching a significant birthday and am feeling a bit of pressure to get things I want to do done before my eyesight fails completely, then I can just enjoy playing with them knowing the figures are painted as well as I possibly could. Imagine my delight therefore when Dave of Snickit's Tail  announced that this year's challenge was going to be odds and sods, perfect! The rules are no two concurrent months can be from the same army (can definitely manage that) and each will have a theme. This month's is 'Rank and File' so I have used it as an excuse to get some barbarians added to my barbarian horde. 

Ral Partha Europe Savage Skirmishers from their Barbarian Clans.

Chronopia Maidens of the Blade and a shaman from Alternative Armies that was a free giveaway last year... or was it the year before?

More RPE Barbarians

The month's entry complete. 15 barbarians to join the throng of the Horny King.
 

Barbaric reinforcements

Dungeon Gobbos

 

Recently I have been continuing to add some miniatures to my Heroquest sets because you can never have enough general dungeon minions. 

First some bowgobbos as I am running a game in December that will require the little green grots to have some ranged capabilities. The Fantasy Regiments plastics fit in pretty well with the HQ plastics. I did have to rescue these a bit as they came with shields polystyrene cemented onto their right arms and daubed liberally over the bodies. A bit of cutting and some putty work and I don't think you can tell.

These forest gobbos are some of the few miniatures I kept from my yoof but I wasn't all that happy with the painting on them so I defied my rule that 'life's to short to repaint' and stripped them for another go. I imagine them herding packs of giant spiders through the tunnels...

I have acquired models for a decent-sized Night Gobbo army but had some common goblins in the mix that I thought would serve better in the dungeon. I wanted to go really bright and colourful with them as Night Goblins tend to be more drab and my Angus McBride not-greenskin force is also really muted. Goblins in dungeons should be fun!

These gobbo hoodies are from the Goblin Hood range formerly from Macrocosm but now with CP Models. They are the unruly yoofs that run around the dungeon spray painting crude slogans and refusing to do proper goblinny work like dying horribly so the boss can run away.

I also added a few more orcs to the mix. Some more elite Fantasy Regiments orcs (well, elite compared to their unarmoured HQ versions anyway) and a Heartbreaker (now with Ral Partha Europe) boss by Kev Adams that I have long admired but didn't fit with the Angus McBride style force. He works well as a Ulag or Grak son of Ulag.

I have a couple more HQ updates coming as I have finally got around to working on a very special furniture set and am waiting for a package in the post with two quite exciting models in it.... watch this space!

Dungeon Gobbos

Empire in Flames

 Well it has felt like it the last couple of days...

One of my favourite things is batch painting the same uniform over and over again.... um, no. I am a skirmish/single figure painting man so why on earth do I always challenge myself to big armies? No more I tell you... well, after the Night Goblins anyway. As well as doing my Chaos bits over the last couple of months I have been adding to my Empire Army. 160 figures in 60 days isn't bad going, especially as my actual time available for painting has been severely limited. 

The new additions are 20 spearmen, 25 crossbows, 20 halberdiers, 22 longbowmen, 22 swordsmen, 21 longswords, 20 hand cannon and 6 banner bearers with attached colour parties. The army is unique among my armies in that over three-quarters of the miniatures in it are my own sculpts. I started Oakbound with the original intention of sculpting alternatives to figures I couldn't afford or find and casting them up to create armies. What actually happened was I sculpted and cast them but then sold them to buy the original figures I wanted... not a bad business model but I did want to realise an army with the original plan.

30 heavily armoured Halberdiers (Fae Martial figures from Oakbound, now available in bulk packs if you're interested...)

30 Heroquest men at arms and a Microarts Nobby Nobbs. 

30 Lunn Spearmen and 15 Lunn Swordsmen made up of leftover leaders from spearman sets.

15 Advanced Heroquest Henchmen and some Perry sculpts. These crossbowmen are original Citadel ones with slotta tabs, at BOYL last weekend I picked up a pack of 7 more of the Foundry release to make the unit up to 10 so still need to get those painted now the weather has cooled off a bit.

Colour parties (command squads from the Lunn Spearmen), ECW leaders on unicorns (because why not?) and a YeAlchemist war altar. All the heraldry is taken from family names connected with mine and places I have lived. The ECW models scattered throughout this army also have some significance as 'pro-painted' collectables I bought from various ECW re-enactments and museums I visited as a kid now stripped and getting more attention than they ever did.

Some requisite Empire firepower, another ECW set I 'rescued' from being display pieces. I purchased two more cannon from Foundry that will be added to the battery once painted up.

And on to most of the recent additions. These are all units made up of four body sculpts with 7 interchangeable weapons in the manner of the plug-in HQ plastics and their Citadel counterparts. If you'd like some they are going to be available from Friday through the Myrcipean Mercenaries Kickstarter. The aim is to create figures that can very easily supply the large units needed by an Empire force without the hefty price tag of vintage GW models or resorting to non-plumed historical alternatives. First up, 20 Hand Cannon.

20 Great Swords.

20 Crossbows.

20 Halberds.

20 Bows.

20 Swordsmen.

20 Spearmen. The plan is to give me decent choice of every type of weapon available to Empire footsoldiers in 4th edition, even if there are some types that are significantly less 'effective'. After all effectiveness has never really been behind my choice of troops and isn't the Oldhammer way. :D

Swordsmen showing off their fancy shields.

So just a final reminder that if you'd like to build your own mighty Empire force on the cheap you can! All metal and traditionally sculpted of course.

MYRICPEAN MERCENARIES

Empire in Flames