Frostgrave: Two Thugs and a Dog

Here is the start of my Adventurers for Frostgrave. The lowest in the pecking order- two thugs with their faithful dog. Apologies for the poor picture on the second thug but the light wasn't great. The thugs are from the plastic Frostgrave Soldiers kit and the dog is an old Mordhiem hound from Games Workshop. 

Frostgrave: Beasties

I am very aware that I haven't been posting much in September. I have been painting a lot but I never got round to photographing it until now, due to real world intrusions. To make up for it you can expect a blizzard of Frostgrave figures I have been producing recently, along with a load of snow-topped scenery. 

First up some old school 'Wandering Monsters' found near the very bottom of my Lead mountain, where they have been languishing for many many years, before the icy glow of Frostgrave revealed them once more. 

An "Armoured Skeleton". 

  Slight tougher and meaner than a regular skelly. This is a very old Games Workshop Model (I think)

A Frostgrave Werewolf

  Werewolves in Frostgrave are not men who turn into beasts but are instead a magically created being with the qualities of both man and beast. This miniature is by Copplestone Castings. 

Trip to Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson

During the Summer Holidays I dragged my family around the Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson, near Portsmouth. Having previously been to the Royal Armouries in Leads and at the Tower of London, this museum was the final one left to visit. Fort Nelson holds the Big Guns of the Royal Armoury, including Saddam Hussain's super gun, and a brace of German '88's'. One of the highlights of the trip for me was discovering a Smith Gun tucked away in a corner. The Smith Gun was one of teh more exotic weaposn developed in World War Two as an Light Anti-Tank Gun. The gun was mounted on two drum like wheels and flipped onto its side to be deployed. In theory it could lob an AT shell about 500 yards. It was developed in 1941, after most of the British Army's AT guns had been left in France after the evacuation at Dunkirk. It never really lived up to the hype and was rejected by the British Army, however it was issued to the Home Guard in small numbers. 

I would love to get one of these in 28mm scale for my Home Guard 1941 army. There was a company called Stronghold Miniatures who used to make this and a number of other HG weaponry but they are no longer in business and no one makes them any more. I think it is a great shame, although I understand it is something of a niche market. If I was better at scratch building I would be tempted to give it a go but I am afraid it is a bid out of my depth. If anybody has a spare one kicking around though I would love to get my hands on one. 

Other exotic cannon that caught my eye had an all together more artistic fantasy flavour. These are all genuine cannons, although they may have been made more for looking at that for warfare. This one is a mortar in the shape of a sitting tiger made for the tiger obsessed Tipu Sultan in India.

I can't remember where this cannon was from. I think it was somewhere in Germany. It looks like it was made by Games Workshop!

 This beautiful Dragon Cannon was made in China. I can't imagine it was vary easy to load in a hurry, but I guess its a case of style over substance. 

Pulp City Turf War!

This week  Downtown Pulp City was in chaos as supremes clashed in the streets, demolished buildings, set of explosives, chucked cars about and generally caused havoc. Primate Terrorists (Freedom Fighters?) A.R.C. clashed with Dead Eye and his team of motley 'heroes' in what appeared to have been a turf war. The insurance claims for the resulting carnage is expected to exceed $15 million. 

Le Murtiple, Silver Ager, Virus, Apebot, The Primate of Power, Doctor Red and Guerilla

Harrier, Jade Hawk, Gentleman, Dead Eye, Amok, Repost and Pixel. 

Gentleman takes up a sniping position far above the streets. He thinks he is safe from the Apes. 

Silver-Ager makes his way up one flank with a couple of his latest inventions. 

ARC decide the easiest way to get the slippery Jade Hawk off a rooftop is to bring the whole building down. Luckily they have just the ape to do that! Apebot makes short work of the office building...

...then makes short work of the unfortunate Jade Hawk

Guerilla and Doctor Red try to keep Amok at bay by driving him back with a hail of minigun shells and grenades, but it just seems to make him more mad!

Silver-Ager looses his patience with the Gentleman and throws a car at the building gentleman is sniping from, trying to destroy it, but even though it is badly damaged it is sill standing. 

Now incandescent with rage Amok takes out Guerilla and Doctor Red in a single rage filled explosion. 

Apebot finally batters Amok down before turning his attention to Pixel. 

The mission objective was for either side to get a supreme into the enemies deployment zone while preventing the enemy getting into their zone. The end resulted in a draw. Le Murtiple managed to take down Gentleman, but he escaped thanks to his Stun Grenade ability, which meant that in the final turn Pulp Citizen had a single supreme in his own zone (with 1HP) with Le Murtiple,  and Pixel and Repost in my zone, with Apebot, Virus and The Primate of Power. 

And I would have got away with it if it wasn't for that pesky stun grenade!

Zombicide Testers

My mate Carl is a massive fan of Zombicide, and has bought at least one of everything they have ever made for the game. Carl would like it all to be painted but lacks the ability, time or will to get such a massive job done. I offered to have a go at painting some for him, just to see what it was like and he gave me three figures- an Abonimation, a Fatty and a Runner. I painted the Abomination in an evening, and finished the other two off the next day. I would have to say that they were an absolute pleasure to paint, great fun and very characterful models. For soft plastics the casting is remarkably good to, with minimal need to deflash and remove mould lines. I am rather pleased with the way they came out. I went for extra gore as that is the way Carl likes his zeds. I have yet to see Carl, so I don't know what he thinks, but I hope he likes them. 

Upstairs Downstairs: Great Shop Discovered

While on holiday in the Isle of Wight I discovered a wonderful shop called Upstairs Downstairs. It is located close to the pier in Sandown. 
  While it is principally a model train shop (and some dolls house stuff for the ladies) it stocks a huge range of scenery supplies, such as flocks, trees, flowers, hedges, walls, water features, etc. The staff are very helpful and know their stock inside out. The lady who helped me made some brilliant suggestions and even found cheaper solutions to what I needed that better suited my wallet. They also stock a wide range of train set buildings, many of which can be used for wargaming too if your budget stretches that far. They even sell the illusive N gauge buildings, which is good for 10mm-15mm scale wargaming figures. 
  They also have a great website and orders over £30 have free postage in UK (orders under £30 have a flat £3 P+P charge). Click on this logo  or here for the link.

Knights for Sale!

These foot knights are the product of several evening work over teh last few months. They are something of an experiment because I have painted them with the intent of banging them on ebay and making a quick profit (to further feed my lead and plastic habit). Having seen the silly prices that even mediocre figures can go for on ebay I thought 'why not have ago'.

 I picked these because they are very simple to paint, although they were a bit of a pain to put together. The paint scheme was kept deliberately simple, to speed things up. 

Hopefully I should see some reward for my labours. 

French and Indian Wars: Horse and Cart

Just a bit of scenery or an objective for French and Indian Wars. I showed it off in the same picture as the Village Girls a few weeks ago but it was in the background and I though it should deserve a larger photo. The horse and  cart are from Warbases and the cargo is from Ainsty Castings. It will be useful for many setting as well as the FIW, from ECW right through to VBCW and WW2.

Freebooter's Fate: Pirate Krud

Krud is a pirate for my Freebooter's Fate Grew. He is big, stupid and very dangerous. he was also a joy to paint and is marvellously sculpted and cast. He is cast in metal but I found that the parts fitted together so neatly I din't have to trim or file the edges at all. Krud is looking forward to pummelling Pulp Citizen's Brotherhood crew. 

Home Front 1941: Fallschirmjager Medic

Here is the figure I converted to be my medic for my Fallschirmjager platoon. I used an Artizan Designs FJ and cut off the rifle he was carrying over his shoulder and added a sling bag and bib with Green Stuff. It wasn't very complicated as the figure leant itself to conversion quite nicely, but I am rather pleased with the result.