Grenadier Masterpiece Edition Undead War Chariot

I've been collecting Grenadier Fantasy Lords undead for a little while now. I already had a few from my early collecting days,  but I've also bought some random job lots.  These were all funded by other sales, so I don't feel bad about getting new stuff. 

Grenadier also produced some great 'specials'. It would be great to get one or more as a centerpiece for the army,  but they rarely crop up, and they tend to command high prices. 

Then looking through my acquisitions I realised that I had both crew for the chariot,  along with two skeletal horses.  These were garnered from four different lots from as many sellers.  I was wondering what to do with them,  I painted the archer, but the driver is rather specific, I even had plans to convert the failed repair job warrior to ride one of the horses. 

But then I found the actual chariot for sale,  missing the crew and horses.  Like a zombie,  this was a no-brainer.

The Unassembled War Chariot 

So now I own the Masterpiece Edition Undead War Chariot,  well,  apart from the yoke,  but I can fashion something for that. 

And as a bonus,  one of the horses came it a lot that included the standard bearer included in the set.

Don't expect to see it built and painted soon, I'll be painting other stuff for the PWYG challenge, and it'll be nice to have a rest from painting bones. 

It'll make a fun project for the spring. 

Repairing and Painting Skeletons for Terror of the Lichemaster

To collect enough undead for Terror of the Lichemaster I've bought a couple of job lots of skeletons, many are missing weapons or suffering other damage. I've also got a few battered remnants in my own collection; hopefully they are repairable.  

So here are eight now repaired skeletons of various pedigrees, some of which you will have seen in my earlier posts. 

The Bone Pile

Mending Broken Bones 

From the left, the first two are plastic skeletons from Citadel's Skeleton Horde/Skeleton Army. I gave away my remaining Horde, or so I thought, earlier this year, but recently I found a few bits lingering in an old box.

The first one simply needed a new weapon arm; with his scythe, he can join my unit of two handed weapons, and the plastic skeleton with scythe is iconic.

The next chap was missing both arms and his left foot. Fortunately, I have a small collection of bases with one or two skeleton feet still attached, so I easily found a donor foot.

When mending the broken bones, I don't rely on plastic cement; I use a very fine drill bit and brass wire. It's thin enough that I can actually drill into some of the plastic bones for pinning. I gave this chap the coffin lid shield, up there with the scythe for iconic Oldhammer undead. It's far too small for an adult coffin, but sadly I'm sure there were smaller lids available.

The next skeleton is a Harlequin model who was missing both feet. I pinned two of the plastic feet from another base. Looking closely now, I realise that I should have reduced the length of the leg bones, but it's not too obvious.

The next three are identical minis. Grenadier skeletal dog handlers sculpted by Andrew Chernak. These were from an eBay job lot. Initially, I thought that they had broken weapon hands. However, on close inspection I realised they were designed to have seperate hands with weapons (spears) plugged in, the bracelet providing a fixing point. No drilling was required, I simply trimmed down the forearms on spare Skeleton Horde bits to fit the hole. The two spears were taken from my sprue pile and fitted in holes drilled through the hand, the sword is the weapon the bony hand was already holding.

The standard bearer is the most ambitious repair. The model is supposed to have a standard; he is one of the Grenadier Undead Legions of Khomar-Lolth Set (I've now got six out of the set of ten from various sources) but was missing right hand and standard. The arm is held straight upwards, meaning that none of my spare hands looked right - they would have held the standard horizontally rather than vertically (I realised later, after finding a picture of the mini completed, that the hand wrapped round the shaft, but that still doesn't help with the components I had). Fortunately, I had a spare right arm with spear. The whole of the mini's arm was removed at the shoulder and a wide pin inserted for the socket on the arm. The plastic spear was removed, and the hand drilled to take brass wire which then had brass tubing slotted over it. The top of the standard pole came from a more recent plastic spear, drilled to take the brass wire, with a plastic skull to finish it off.

The final mini in the line is the one failure. The left leg is broken at the ankle. I tried using thin card to make a greave. This, I hoped, would provide sufficient extra surface to run some superglue into the crack and hold the foot in place. Unfortunately this just didn't work. Never mind, I'll remove the card and take both feet off and pin them. In fact I've something planned already for this mini.

Painting the Skeletons 

Painting was pretty straightforward, there's not a lot to say. If you want details, check out my earlier post on Ranlac's skeletons. I kept with the red and black or yellow and black livery on some of the shields; at some point I'm going to have to paint some living troops with this, simply to show where the undead and orcs are getting them from.

The Citadel plastics

The Grenadier 'Dog Handlers'

Harlequin and Grenadier standard

Basing was, again, Geek Gaming Scenics Arid Grasslands with appropriate dead tufts.

So that's another seven skeletons to add to Kemmler's horde. Of course, they are also the beginning of a nice old school undead army.

I'm collecting skeletons with hand weapons, with swords and with two handed weapons, (including scythes). These all perform slightly differently in Warlords of Erehwon*, but I can just mix them up and call them 'normal' skeletons.

Not only did I enjoy painting these, but I had a lot of fun repairing the damaged or incomplete models. 

What's Next?

I'm unofficially calling this month "Deadcember"; It's just an excuse to paint more undead. I've managed to get some more of the rather nice Grenadier Fantasy Lords minis, and they'll make nice additions to my growing army. 

Bodvoc has suggested a campaign, so I'm getting ready for it, I'll need more than just the skeletons and zombies from Terror of the Lichemaster though, so I guess I'll end up with quite a collection.

As I finish this group I've got several more undead minis in the Dettol and another unit, plus heroes, part painted. 

Expect more undead soon.

*When I look at the army list, skeleton warriors can swap hand weapons for spears, but relatively few can have two handed weapons (or 'huge' weapons as the rules call them), so I guess it's mixed units for the bulk of the skeletons.

Paint What You Got 25/26

Paintbrushes at Dawn

Dave Stone has announced the next Paint What You Got challenge over on Wargames Terrain Workshop.

I really enjoyed taking part in the last one, not only did it focus my hobby enough to get minis and terrain ready for the first Rangers of Shadow Deep mission, it also encouraged me to take part in more challenges this year.

The challenge runs from Boxing Day (26th December) to 26th February, and it's delightfully fuzzy. Simply paint stuff. 

I assume that it's not really the done thing to add new stuff (so any Christmas presents should just squeeze in), but maybe that's just me.

But What? 

Me taking part is certain; what I paint is less so. Here are some of the possibilities.

Rangers of Shadow Deep Mission Two. Since I did mission one last time, it would be fitting to do mission two this time. I don't need as many minis this time, mostly just gnolls, so I might have time to move on to something else.

More Undead. Bodvoc is planning a Warlords of Erehwon campaign, for which I will need to boost my Undead beyond the minis required for Terror of the Lichemaster. I've already got quite a bit to paint (so it ticks the 'got' box).

Orc's Drift. I realised the other day that I actually have just about everything I need for Bloodbath at Orc's Drift. I've painted the minis for Ashak Rise, so maybe pick another of the scenarios?

6mm Fantastic Battles. I've painted a good amount of dwarves and a more eclectic gang of orcs. I've got the minis, so perhaps I should get two decent armies finished?

Fellowship of the Ring Journey Book. The three journey books provided a good framework for a 'Slo-Gro' MESBG collection, with painting advice and terrain building too. I've long wanted to tackle this, so I could finally make a start. It's also an excuse to sort through my collection and thin it out somewhat. For instance, I've got more than nine Ringwraiths, clearly I can get rid of some.

Dungeons and Dragons Minis. I really enjoyed rationalising my undead collection for the Crypt of the Vampire Knight adventure. It would be a useful exercise to do the same with more of my RPG minis collection.

Choices

Phew, that's a lot of options. Knowing me, I'll probably end up doing something completely different. Regardless, I'll have a lot of fun, and hopefully I'll make a bit of a dint in the lead massif.

You're Welcome

Why not join us in the challenge? All you have to do is paint something during the two months and post pictures. Here's the link again, so you've no excuse. Leave Dave a comment on his post so he knows you want to take part.

Citadel Giant Restoration: Part 3

The giant is stripped and cleaned up, but there's still a bit of work to do. 

The giant cleaned and disassembled

He started to come apart pretty much when I received him, starting with his remaining complete leg. The bath in Dettol hasn't helped the glue, which seems to have turned into a rubbery brown substance (see the previous Giant post for pic). It all peeled off easily though.

The pieces have pegs and sockets to help join everything together,  but the glue looks to have filled up some of the sockets, so I suspect they were never a close fit.

The broken ankle has, at some point,  been repaired with what looks like superglue.  This repair hasn't stood the test of time,  and the superglue residue needs removing to give a nice clean break.

This was fairly easy to do, the glue seemed quite brittle, and easily crumbled away.

Dave Stone (and others) suggested pinning the joint, I agree.  In fact I'm using two brass rods to secure the foot.  There are various ways of ensuring that holes for pins match up, but for something this important I'm pinning straight up through the sole of the foot and into the ankle. 

To hold the foot in place I used superglue.  I'm not relying on this for the actual strength of the joint, it's merely to keep everything in place for the pinning. To ensure everything stayed in place I wrapped the glued leg tightly round with masking tape. I didn't want anything coming adrift when I was drilling the holes for the pins.

Underside of the foot showing where the pins were inserted

I got some 1.5 mm brass rod from a local model shop (2K Hobbies), I've got plenty of drill bits. I used a cordless drill fitted with a 2 mm bit. This gives plenty of space for the epoxy around the pin.

The holes were drilled to a depth of about 40 mm and the pins cut just a little short. Then it's simply a case of slathering each pin with two part epoxy glue and inserting them, making sure that the holes are filled.

The pins were fitted separately, and were drilled in at angles. This ensures that the foot won't just lift off if the glue fails.

The leg repaired, but still with a gap at the ankle

That's not quite all. The bottom of the foot needed a gentle sand to remove excess glue, and the new join at the ankle needed a bit of greenstuff/milliput mix to smooth everything down.

All fixed!

Finally, it was all packed and posted off.

This has been great fun to do. I'm glad I got the giant back on his feet (literally), and it's been fun to be involved with this classic mini, if mini is the right term to use, even if only in a transitionary role.

I hope the new owner gets the giant painted up soon, and enjoys having him.

If I can persuade him, I'll share some pictures.

Recon 25 - The End of an Era (again, perhaps)

Well last year I reported on what was supposed to be the last Recon Wargaming Show at Pudsey Civic Hall.  It's still there this year, either the proposed council sale is taking longer, or Wargamers are just hard to shift.

Pudsey Civic Hall, the venue

The Games 

I didn't get a good look at all the demo and participation games,  but here's a selection of the ones that caught my eye. 

If anyone cares to leave more details in the comments,  please do. I was making notes, but I've lost them. 

A relatively new set of rules, but quite old school looking

It felt like I was back at BOYL again, it very much looked like an old school game of Warhammer. But it was a much newer game system. 

Awesome set up, though I can't remember what game was being played.*

Snoopy vs the Red Baron. This looked fun, but I didn't get a chance to try

Mantic's Armada and Kings of War

A grand view of the main hall

I think this one was called Xeno plants or something

Recon still run a Hordes of the Things tournament,  here's a game in progress

The Haul
I do like to look at the stalls and pick up stuff for the next year's hobbying. I didn't have much of a list this time,  though I was on the lookout for anything that might fit in my Oldhammer collections. 
I did see some lovely painted Oldhammer,  but it was appropriately priced for the painting,  and I'd be wanting to repaint it.

In the end, my slender haul was a base of MESBG scenery pieces,  they'll get individually based,  possibly as part of a Weathertop build.

Three Pro Arte Kolinski Sable brushes from A Brushes. I got one of these last time, and I'm impressed.  It may not be the equal of Artis Opus, but it's quite good enough for me,  and a huge step up from what I'm used to. 

A tub with six painted Frostgrave gnolls.  I've got plenty of unpainted plastic gnolls,  but two of these are the metal heroes,  including an Apothecary,  which I'll use as a Shaman in the next Rangers of Shadow Deep mission. 

Finally,  not pictured,  I placed an order for the new forth edition Kings of War rules from The Pit Wargaming. 

Meagre, but useful booty

Quiet at the Bring and Buy - the calm before the storm

The, rather empty looking, Bring and Buy. It filled up quite a bit later, and I got both the terrain and the gnolls here. 

Lead Me Not Into Temptation 

There were quite a few bits that I almost bought. 

There were several new Epic Encounters sets (large boxes containing themed minis, maps and an encounter). These look superb,  the minis are excellent. 

Blotz were selling some packs of plastic minis from Fortress Figures.  These are monopose and look to be the same sort of plastic that Mantic used for Star Saga etc.  They are located in the US, and their website s currently inactive, so I wonder if this was old stock being sold off?

The goblins looked fun, rather Kev Adams in style,  but the other races seem a bit large to fit in with my old school stuff.

The Mantic Advent calendars look great fun. Perhaps next year? And they'd make good presents.

North Star's Oathmark Human Heavy Infantry were available,  and they'd fit in with my Kingdoms of Men.  I'll get back to this army once I know how the new rules work (and if I switch; there seems to be a bit of push back against the new edition).

So that was Recon 25. Great fun, as always. 

I also met up withT'Other One and also Bodvoc and a couple of his SAD gamers. 

I wonder where Recon 26 will be?

*EDIT; Bodvoc informs me that this is for Baron's War.

**EDIT 2; Bodvoc (who is clearly more up to date than me) also says that The Pit have announced the same venue for 2026!

Terror of the Lichemaster: The Bogles of Bogle's Farm

Although October's long finished, I'm continuing  with the Terror of the Lichemaster project. I hope to paint sufficient minis for the first two scenarios at least. 

With the addition of my version of Gimbrin Finehelm, I've got sufficient dwarves, so next up are the residents of Bogels Farm. 

The Bogel Family - Hardened Frontier Folk

The Bogels and friends

Let me introduce you to Ma (Lorabeth) and Pa (Hunk) Bogel. John-Boy, their eldest, young Willy and Corabell, their daughter. Also present at the farm are Samgaff the halfling farm hand and Fritzy the dog.

Now there are official miniatures for all these, or at least there were specific minis included in the mail order deal.  I suspect that in some cases they were clearing out excess stock as the mini often doesn't fit the description of the character.

I'm not trying to match these exactly, I'll just look for something that feels appropriate.  And if it comes in useful for Orc's Drift, all the better. 

Combing through my Oldhammer minis I found sufficient for all the Bogels. 

Hunk and Lorabeth

Ma and Pa Bogel

Hunk and Lorabeth

Ma Bogel is a mini from the Gothic Horror range. Lost Minis Wiki names her ''Old Woman", but she's labelled 'Peasant' on the tab. She's another Trish Carden mini, so fits in nicely with the rest of the Bogels.  Her hair style isn't Medieval, but she'll do. I like her bunch of keys, I can see her as the housekeeper of a country house in a Gothic Horror game. 

Pa Bogel is a C46 (NPC 09) Militia man. With his hefty club I can see him as a pioneer farmer, ready to defend his family from anything. I actually prefer this mini to the recommended one, xxx who also runs the store in Linden Way.

But I had a problem. My mini was missing his feet! Somewhere I've probably got a slotta base with a pair of feet attached, but it seemed easier to make new ones. I drilled into each leg, starting with a very thin bit for a pilot hole. He was then glued into place and the feet sculpted on out of a greenstuff/miliput mix.

Pa Bogel footloose

John-Boy and Willy

The Bogel Lads

John-Boy and Willy

John Boy is the C46 (85-17) Traveller. I'd have preferred the recommended Herdsman mini, but not enough to pay the eBay asking price. The Traveller is also used as the Stable Lad at Linden Way, so he's a mini painted for Orc's Drift as well (in fact I plan to use a couple of the others too, more on that when I get back to the Orc's Drift project).

Willy is the actual recommended mini, C46 (85-21) Male Villager. I've had him in my collection for years.

Corabell

Corabell and cat

Showing her little secret

For Corabell I'm using this Witch (can't find her on Lost Minis, its particularly buggy at the moment*), mostly because my other female Oldhammer minis are even less appropriate. She does have a sort of coquettish look, which I suppose works, if you ignore the wand hidden behind her back.  I painted her in dark blue as the mini is, after all, a witch and I wanted her dressed in dark clothing, if not actually wearing midnight. 

Samgaff and Fritzy

Halfling and Hound - sounds like a pub

Who's fiercest?

Samgaff is C11 (3C 01) - Hog. These halfings are nice minis with lots of character, and it's good to get some paint on him finally. Unfortunately he had a flattened nose, either the result of being bashed around in a bag of minis for decades or a punch in the face. A small blob of the putty mix makes an acceptable bit of rhinoplasty, though I have rather overshadowed his mouth.

In the scenario, Samgaff has a cowbell tied around his neck, presumably the mini does too.  Hog doesn't but at least he's got a bell on his shield.

Fritzy is one of the Citadel Advanced Dungeons And Dragons Blink Dogs.  I've already painted one when I was experimenting with Hobhounds, but I've got several, and I thought it would be fun to paint another.  It's not the model included in the TotL mail order deal, but certainly one of his litter mates**. 

Painting Choices

Painting was pretty straightforward for all the minis.  I took a bit more time to shade and highlight rather than relying just on 'Marine Juice'.  

I didn't slavishly copy the card counters (only one is the exact mini after all) but I certainly had them in mind and tried to reference them where possible.  

I avoided a bright red, as that's not an easy colour to do with natural dyes, at least with any degree of permanence. It tends to fade, which I hope I've shown here. 

Well that's seven more minis painted. I've a fondness for the Trish Carden Villagers series and I regret selling off so many of them in the past.  I know I sold Corabeth and probably Ma as well. 

Still, what I have is nice, and will certainly do for the scenario, and some of them will appear at Linden Way as well. 

What's Next?

Well I'm not planning on diving into painting up the forces for the Defence of Frugelhofen (20 archers,  20 spears, 5 heroes,  Krell,  Kemmler,  20 skeletons and 10 zombies).  I do have the minis for most of this though, so I'll get on to them before long. Who knows, they might be my 'Paint What You Got' entry for next year.

I'd like to get the two games played soon though, and to that end I've started making the buildings for Bogel's Farm. There's a few more bits of terrain needed for both games, most of which will come in useful for future stuff as well. 

Putting the Defenders of Frugelhofen on one side for now, I'm already part way through another (smaller) batch of undead. While most of them will have a place attacking the village, some of them are for a project that Bodvoc has suggested. More on this later.

And I've also been looking through my small collection of Skaven...

*Checking Oldenhammer in Toronto again I realised she's the C 18 (43) Sorceress, also used as the character Etelka Herzen in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay scenario "Death on the Reik".

**Just yesterday I found the actual recommended mini for Fritzy. Of course he's now having a nap in Dettol and will eventually replace the painted mini above. 

No rush though, I've plenty else to paint.

It will be nice to have two of the official minis, and I might be able to bump this up to three by the time I've got the defenders of Frugelhofen done.

Scatter Terrain for Skirmish Games

At the start of the year I used the Paint What You Got Challenge as an opportunity to prepare for the first Rangers of Shadow Deep mission. This was mostly building, kitbashing and painting minis, but I did want to add to my terrain collection as well.  I managed to finish five Nest Trees, but there were several other bits that weren't quite finished. 

They were all built and painted by the end of March, but I couldn't decide how I wanted to base them. Long time readers of the blog will recognise this as a common fault in my hobbying, especially with regard to terrain.

Other things got in the way, of course, but I've just got around to finishing these three pieces.

The three rocky bases

A different angle

Rocks

Many skirmish games benefit from cover, and rocks and boulders are one possibility (they are a big part of many Rangers of Shadow Deep scenarios).  These were simple to make, just carved scraps of XPS textured with a ball of foil.  I'm experimenting with different forms and colours, as I plan on making more of these.  Each piece has a slightly different function in game;

Boulder  This is the simplest; a big rock that provides cover and acts as an obstacle.  The colour scheme is similar to the Tors, classic wargamers grey rock. This, and the tor, was designed to allow minis to be placed on the rocks.

Rock Tor  This blocks line of sight or provides cover.  It can be climbed over, and minis can be placed on it.  The form and colour was loosely based on the gritstone formations found locally, though those tend to be darker, thanks to a couple of hundred years of industrial pollution.

Rock Spires  These block line of sight and can't be crossed, at least by creatures limited to surface movement.  I painted them a lighter sandy colour not so obvious on the photos, possibly influenced by vague memories of Bryce Canyon.

Back to Bases

For years I simply stuck terrain on to MDF, prior to that I used hardboard, which is even more prone to warping than MDF, and in the early years, just cardboard.

Fairly recently I discovered foam board (NOT the XPS sandwiched by thin card stuff). Waterproof, so it's much less likely to warp, and very easy to cut. This is now my basing material of choice, at least until I discover something better.

To texture, I used to use sand and paint, latterly with static grass and tufts to finish off. But this gives a fairly uninteresting result. 

I've seen some great terrain and basing, for instance, this Middle Earth themed set from Microforge Minis; if I can achieve something like that, I'll be more than happy.

A lot of hobbyists use dried, baked soil, but round here this tends to be quite dark, almost black. To match my mini bases I want something more traditionally brown. I'd like to grab some of the lovely rich brown soils from the Vale of York, but so far I've not got round to it. 

Failing that, I've been collecting dried tea leaves (loose tea*, as it has a nice granulated texture) and dried coffee grounds. 

There are potential issues with using these; they can go mouldy, but I've dried and baked them thoroughly first, and I plan on sealing them well, so no additional moisture or air should contact them. 

Fingers crossed, this should work.

The Answer's in the Soil

For my first try (the individual rock) I mixed up some brown grouting powder with dried tea and coffee in roughly 2:1:1 proportions. I found that the pale grout was by far the dominant colour, so mixed in a bit more of the coffee. 

The base was given a coat of Mod Podge and the mix sprinkled over, making sure that everywhere was covered.

For the other two pieces I applied patches of tea and coffee to parts of the base; this bit of variety in colour and texture gives a much more interesting and realistic look.  I then filled round with the grout and scattered some over the tea and coffee to blend them more into the ground.

Seal of Approval 

Once the Mod Podge was well on the way to drying, I gave the base a spray of isopropanol. This helps break surface tension and allows the sealant to soak in to the ground texture.

The sealant is simply watered down Mod Podge, a 1:1 mix, though a bit more water won't harm. When I'm doing this stage with minis bases I just dollop it on with a brush, but on a larger bases like these, a dropper or syringe is much better, and doesn't disturb the carefully piled clumps of foliage in the second seal stage (see below).

Unlike just PVA glue, the Mod Podge contains a resin. It's this that I hope will protect the tea and coffee from moisture, as well as making sure that the texture stays on the base.

Green Fingers 

With the soil firmly in place, I added some Fine Turf. I clumped this around the base of the rocks to look like low bushes. I also added some static grass in several different colours and lengths, and finally a few tufts (including some 'flowers').

The vegetation was then sealed in just like the ground texture.

Rangers explore the rocky borders of Alladore

Finally 

So that's three small pieces of terrain.

It might not look like much, but it's important because I've now got a method I'm happy with. I've several more pieces of terrain just waiting for basing, and plenty more that I want to build, such as the Bogel's Farm. 

Now I can get these done and maybe, perhaps, end up with a box of terrain that I'm happy with.

*In this case Rington's Breakfast Tea, though of course other teas are available. It's very tasty though.

** Unless, of course, it all goes mouldy in a few months, in which case it's back to square one.