Search for La Maisontaal- a bridge too far?

 

I expect I was not the first kid to have opened the 'big orange book' and been completely bowled over by this picture. Since the very early days of my interest in fantasy wargames this has been 'THE' table to aspire to. It appears in a few pictures in the 3rd edition rulebook, but not as many as my memory insists, and nowhere else to my knowledge. There's a strong possibility it wasn't even a Studio table as nobody seems to remember it (and I would have thought you would if you had played on it!). Of course, teenaged me was unable to identify a lot of elements on the table and didn't have the skills to get anywhere near. The best we managed was to cover my mate's bedroom carpet in earth and dried moss after deciding to just go into the woods, grab handfuls and stick it to a chipboard base with PVA glue.

Some 6 (?) years back Oldhammer Community member Justin Coutange began making his own recreation of this epic piece. Sadly Justin lost the battle with cancer before he was able to get the project completed but it was such a great experience watching his progress since it was also something I had long wanted to try. This year marks my 40th year on earth and I plan to host a big weekend battle to mark the occasion. The main hosts will be my Empire and Undead armies, the Undead, of course, based around Heinrich Kemler's victory at La Maisontaal- which just happens to be sat in the corner of this table. What better excuse to have a crack at it? I'll need something to do once I've finished painting my Night Gobbos...

There are many pieces on here recognisable to my now-experienced GW collector eye, Townscapes buildings (or better crafted versions of) and La Maisontaal from the Journal, but there are a few non-GW elements I needed some help identifying. Enter Mike from Broadswords and Beasts, an expert in dissecting old photos and finding the miniatures and scenery lurking in the graininess... These shots are actually pretty decent compared to a lot of the magazine images he has successfully recreated! He was able to identify the trees as Britains Floral Garden Oaks and thought the bridge might be Bellona, a company that did vacuum-formed terrain in the 70s and 80s. He had a couple of their bridges but after comparing the shots they weren't quite right. Now I am totally OK with scratch-building this bridge, it's not that complicated, but if an existing piece is obtainable well that just makes it more authentic, right?

Doing some Google digging I was able to locate a Bellona catalogue showing three bridges. U-RV1 top left and U-RV3 top right I believe are the two bridges Mike had, one with buttresses and the other too stubby. The one in between, U-RV2, however, looks perfect. I was completely unable to find any photos online of this bridge, but Mike but the word out through some of his vintage toy and wargames networks and found a chap who had one. Here it is (below, shown with a couple of U-RV9 'Bridge in Ruins'es)

This very example should be with us shortly, and even if it isn't exactly right it look close enough to my eye, especially as it can be easily adjusted and painted. It will probably need a bit of reinforcement anyway as 40-year-old HIPS isn't particularly robust. It's interesting outlining the stonework as, starting from the distinctive L-shaped block, much of it seems to correspond, albeit a bit distorted. There are some blocks, however, that look shifted, stretched, or just completely different. It's always possible that is down to the painting (since vac form necessitates low relief and joins can be added or removed without standing out) or addition of filler where the bridge has been sunk into the bank, but I think there's another more possible explanation... we might be looking at the other side of the bridge! Time will tell when it arrives.  

Search for La Maisontaal- a bridge too far?

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit...

 

As it turned out, I was more prepared for Salute than I thought I was. No last-minute issues (not too many anyhow) so I had a couple of days to sit and chill and paint before the madness. Having painted a bunch of Oakbound stuff for the show and just received the new Old School Miniatures goblins I was back in the mood to paint some more night gobbos. However these may end up being my May contribution to the Tale of 4th Gamers depending on how the next few weeks go.

The very lovely Mafu Streety gave me the shaman I was missing. Largely a bit of bending of the first one as far as I can tell, but some additional details I hadn't noticed in the catalogue pictures. His apprentice was all geared up to be a full-blown shaman but has now been demoted. At least until his boss' head explodes.

Largely Harlequin gobbo bows with a splash of Citadel and a leader from the recent OSM Kickstarter. I just had to nod to the classic red era paint jobs with these so they are the 'Red Ear' archers.

The better of the Harlequin/Black Tree Design Nightlings. Shame they don't sell these in bulk packs like the do with the less good ones.

When I was painting the other Nightlings I mentioned I wasn't sure which bits were Kev Adams and which were Kev White. With these I am more certain that the firing gobbos are Goblinmaster sculpts. The one on the right certainly. I'd be less sure about the loading one as his face is the kind of skinnier, less cheeky look I associate with Kev White, however he also looks like a good match to the middle one, so now I'm not sure if the left two are Kev White or if all of these are Kev Adams and all the others I thought were Kev White are the Goblinmaster as well. Not that it matters, they all sit together quite nicely anyhow.

I really like the moody gobbo on the left here, but my goodness is that a rough model! The chainmail is so tight it's barely paintable (more of a knitted cardigan perhaps?) and there are big chunks of metal supporting the arrow head and behind the loading are which don't resemble any texture on the rest of the model. I reckon this is a cast from a ripped mould which didn't get spotted or wasn't deemed bad enough to discontinue. He's staring intently at the end of his snapped bow, trying to work out how to shoot that arrow now.

Of course a night gobbo unit has fanatics. More of the 4th edition ones with the Blood Bowl star player thrown in for good measure. Still undecided whether to add the Talisman one as well. Like the 4th ed plastic gobbo archers I feel it's such a part of that era I would want it represented but I also like the idea of an entirely metal army...

...join or club! It's got nails in.

It was only about two months ago I realised there were two night goblin netters with the nets above their heads. Fortunately a gent on the Facebook trading group was able to help me fill the hole. They're really quite different characters, amazing what a simple head swap does. As for the third guy, he has to be the most unstable model in my collection! All that weight in his net leaning right out beyond the edge of the base...

...he's much better positioned on a strip! I now realise, of course, that there are two variants of this guy as well and I have two of the same one. Ah well.  I was lucky enough to lay my paws on one of the unreleased/limited/games day net team pairs. The other eludes me and at current prices is likely to continue to do so, but these are my preferred set anyhow.

A couple more of the Harlequin/BTD nightlings with appropriate equipment. Almost like they were designed to be used as night gobbos isn't it?

Out of three with the club against his hood you'd think there'd be one of each variants wouldn't you? But no. Another one to hunt down! Ah well. They're not easy figures to put a bit of easy variation into either, unlike the left two here that give quite a different feel depending on the foot they're balancing on. The best I could do to make the three look a bit different was to twist the club so his nail is sticking out in different directions. As always, a joy to paint though. Good to be back feeling the gobbo vibe after a bit of time away.

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit...

Dwarfing again

I had a dual need recently to cleanse my palate (and palette!) of goblins and to paint up some new gnomes for Oakbound so I got the last two units of my dwarf army done. Until the Infamous JT's infamous Kickstarter goes through of course!

The first is my new Oakbound gnomes with a couple of Harlequin extras. These were the guys I was playing around with sculpting as 3-ups, scanning and printing but you'll be pleased to hear they're proper metal casts. The idea was to get a little injection mould setup in place, but that might have to wait until summer. There are three different models, though really just weapon swaps (sword, axe and mace). They're based on the style of those lovely Marauder Longbeards and will be part of a special set coming out around the end of the year. Of course if you're going to be at Salute this weekend I just may be able to sort you out some advanced castings...

The second unit I worked on whilst I had the paints out are these lovely fellas I got from Theoc Games' Landsknechte Mercenary Dwarf Kickstarter last year. Their numbers padded out to an even 15 with a couple of Harlequin drunks whose attire looked like it fitted in nicely.

I went for the pikes as I was missing a solid 'regular' infantry core to the army and these guys have that Marauder vibe at a fraction of the price. I tried and failed to count how many variants (head and beard) there are, I think 4? Maybe 5? Anyhow, they make a nice block that will stand firm in the face of their enemies.

The pikes are quite thin and the top of one had snapped in the post, but this was easily swapped for a halberd head to give a good sergeant model. I haven't got any banners in the rest of the army and was going to keep them banner-less but I thought I would try this one. I'm thinking it's actually made of brass since they're an artillery company. Still undecided, but now it's painted it will probably stay. If you like 'em you can get these guys through Macrocosm now.

 

Dwarfing again

Don't you open that Trap Door...

When Fimm McCool's (Fimm McCool's Games Orkshop as it was then) first started way back in the mists of time 'mist' was very appropriate. I had recently got back into Warhammer after about 15 years away and was planning what army I would collect. My boyhood love of Heroquest was, as ever, forefront in my mind and I fondly remembered the somewhat unique big green monsters... fimir! Why weren't they an army in Warhammer? That was what I wanted to do... Back at that time a Nick Bibby fimir noble could be had for about £15-20 which, whilst still hefty for my part time salary budget at the time, was manageable. As a result I ended up with a full complement after some months of ebay watching. I never bothered with the regular Bibby Fimm Warriors though as they didn't inspire me. In any case weren't they too big for Fimm? Reemember that mix up over scales that is such a big part of the Fimir-flop mythos?

Fast forward to BOYL last year and a gent (sorry, I forget who it was) showed me his collection of Bibby Fimir. I was surprised to find the fimm sitting alongside the Jes Goodwin model on 25mm bases, I hadn't realised how much smaller they were! Only the tails were making it difficult to rank up, but something could be done about that, benefit of a soft metal model! Now I had to have some. When another gentleman on the Oldhammer Trading Faceache group posted a set I knew they had to be mine. Another part of the reason for not picking them up is that they must have been really unpopular at the time. They hardly ever came up for sale and when they did, even in the early 2000s you were looking at £25-30 each for them. Luckily we managed to make a trade and one of each sculpt was finally added to my army.

I had been really intimidated by the acres of bare skin on these guys, but Nick Bibby being the genius he is the musculature is all really well defined and they were a lot of fun to paint. I'd had recent practice, of course, with my new myeri miniatures so had refreshed my mind as to the colours and process. These guys got more intricate Maori-style tattoos because special models deserve special paint jobs! One thing that struck me when I had them in my hand was how much the poses with their massive, three-fingered hands and wobbly snouts reminded me of something else from my childhood...

Ah yes! the Trap Door things! I had to paint one of them purple-ish as a nod to my favourite animated kids' series. Now where did I put that Trap Door board game I designed almost 20 years ago?...

Don't you open that Trap Door...