Kings of War - Kingdoms of Men Ambush Force

After showing the second Spear Phalanx I thought you might like to see the whole 500 point force. 

The army consists of two Spear Phalanx regiments, one Bowmen regiment, one Mounted scouts troop and a Hero equipped with the Inspiring Talisman.

If you want to see details of the project so far, part one, where I experimented with Speedpaints and decided on a colour scheme, is here.  Following on from this, the completed first Spear Phalanx is here, the Mounted Scouts are here, the Hero is here, the Bowmen here and the final Spear Phalanx is here.

They've been fun to paint, and learning to use Speedpaints was an interesting experience.  

If you've read the other posts you'll know that this lot is destined for sale to raise money for a Ukraine based charity, but I'll definitely replace them and expand the army (I've already got another character mini painted, and a wizard on the way).

Kings of War - Kingdoms of Men Speedpainting Oathmark Humans 6

The first unit I painted for my small Kingdoms of Men Ambush force was a Spear Phalanx. I need one more to complete the army, I've just got around to finishing it.

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The painting was pretty much the same as the other units in the force, but I now have a full set of Speedpaints, so had less mixing to do.  The leather jerkins, for example, were Sand Golem rather than a mix of Pallid Bone, and I gave them all Runic Grey collars.  If I do more I might use this as a unit designator.

One new colour choice was a mix of equal parts Pallid Bone and Zealot Yellow for the blond hair, I think it works rather well (see the chap in the back rank).

The matt varnish didn't go according to plan; the can I was using (Humbrol) was close to empty, and it gave a poor covering.  I had to give the unit another coat of the much better Colour Forge Matt Varnish.

I didn't even try to use Speedpaints on the flag, I think the end result is far better.  I also used the cavalry standard topper simply to have some difference between the units.

I think I'm getting the hang of Speedpainting units now.  I did find that after not being used for a while, the paints were a little less effective, but a good shake does the trick.  

So that's the 500 point Ambush force complete.  I will use it for a battle or two, but the intention is to sell it and send the money to a humanitarian charity based in Ukraine.  I'll certainly post on here when this is happening, in case any of my readers are tempted to bid.

And what next?  Well I've already painted another character alongside the Spear Phalanx, she'll get her own post once I finish her base, and I have plans for another unit which I want for the slow grow campaign Bodvoc and I are running.  Of course, when I sell the army, I'll be 500 points short, but I'm happy including old Warhammer Empire units, especially when I remembered that the Province of Nordland have blue and yellow colours.  So I may end up with a hybrid force.

My Finished Dwarves (so far!)

Here's a group shot of my collection of painted Dwarves. They make a nice bunch and I've a good few more to add.

Manufacturer-wise there are old and newer Citadel, Asgard, Heartbreaker (Ral Partha) and Black Tree Design.  I think they all feel suitably Old School, with the possible exception of that chunky Ironbreaker dwarf.  I'm tempted to go back and replace those more modern plastic shields with older ones.  I have some of the sculpted Marauder ones, but I'd really like to practice painting my own.

I'm not sure which my favourite is, I'd have to choose between the wizard, the miner no doubt shouting 'Hi ho' or the Sureshot Norse dwarf I finished recently.  My least favourite is the Ironbreaker.  Leave a comment with your favourite (and least favourite).

If you want to see the individual dwarves in more detail, hit the dwarves tag (I might add links at some point, or not).

Two More Dwarves

Well, the basecoated dwarves I showed here are now finished. The chap with the warhammer is a Heartbreaker Miniatures Dwarf Champion with Warhammer, designed by Kev Adams.  Given the designer, its not surprising that he fits right in with Oldhammer dwarves, though he is a bit taller than my old Citadel dwarves.  Ral Partha Europe now sell the old Heartbreaker line. The crossbow chap is an older Citadel model, a Perry twins Norse Dwarf listed as X Bow/Shureshot on Lost Minis.  Both of these will make great additions to any dwarf skirmish band and gives me more options for FfoL.  In Frostgrave I see Sureshot as a Marksman, the Champion could be a Templar.

As with Deetoo, I used whatever colours were on my wet palate, though I made sure they both had some blue.  I was determined to find a suitable recipe for red hair, my last attempt on the dwarf here wasn't great.  As with the blonde hair, I followed a recipe from Juan Hidalgo, again substituting Vallejo paints for Citadel.  My version is as follows;

Base coat Vallejo Model Color  Orange Brown (Game Color Parasite Brown is an alternative, but my local stockist didn't have any in).  Highlight with VGC Dwarf Flesh, then wash with thinned VGC Flesh Wash.  Highlight again with VGC Dwarf Flesh then VMC Sunny Fleshtone, then selectively apply a thinned mix of VGC Red Ink and Yellow Ink (about 4 parts yellow to 1 part red).  I'm pretty pleased with the results, though I'll practice a bit more before I'm truly happy.

As always these were great fun to do.  I find not painting to a specific brief quite liberating at times, though it still helps to have some goal in mind, as my lack of focus proved in 2020.  For these I'm kind of thinking towards a Dwarven warband for Frostgrave.  I'm also simply enjoying the old minis.  The Champion has slightly less character than Sureshot, but he's still a great sculpt.  My only complaint is his eyes, which are decidedly not level.  I've tried to compensate for this when painting, and lining in eyebrows has helped as well.

That's it for dwarves for a little while, though I have some more to do.  Next in my 'Random Oldhammer' stuff is some more of the original Fantasy Adventurers to accompany Praetorius.

Did you spot the dangerous mistake?  I originally based the Champion on a square base.  This was me thinking about making up whole units of Oldhammer style minis.  Who knows where that madness might have led?

Painting 'Deetoo the Dwarf'

For my last mini of 2022 I was enjoying these old minis so much that I dug out another mini from my random box of Dwarf lead.  This is, according to Lost Minis, an unnamed Norse Dwarf, with just the D2 code.  Although I did pick him at random, if I ever get around to fielding a dwarf warband for Frostgrave, he makes a nice archer.  He'll work nicely in FfoL as well.

D2 was a purchase from an Oldhammer Facebook group back when I was collecting dwarves for skirmish games.  Dwarves with bows aren't that common, and I've always liked the Norse Dwarf range, so I had to snap him up.  He didn't need stripping, just basing up on a GW 25mm circular base.

I've been using my wet pallette, so actual colours are somewhat vague.  I kept some blue to match the rest of the dwarves I've done recently and I used the same blonde hair recipe I used on. I wasn't sure about the stripy trousers, I wanted something a little more interesting than just plain green.  I often struggle to make stripes look right, but I'm pleased with the result here, shading them and making them fairly wide seems to do the trick.

This was another fun mini to paint, I've already grabbed a couple more dwarves to paint. Here they are basecoated. You may notice that I made a very dangerous mistake on one of them.

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The Traditional Bloggers 'Janus' Post

Janus, Roman god of boundaries, looking forwards and back, and if this image from the Roman fort of Totorum is anything to go by, mini painting.

Well, it's obligatory year's end blog retrospective and look ahead target setting time.

2022 has been a very busy year for me. I don't much go into personal stuff on this blog, I don't think that's why you readers come here. Suffice it to say, Real Life has intruded massively both in positive and negative ways. Hobby time has become a refuge and a respite for me, as has music.  I've been less planned in my hobby projects as a result.

Lets briefly look through the year's hobby and gaming highlights.

Gaming

I managed to get a good number of games in in 2022. January saw my first game of Fantastic Battles, and our  10mm Lord of the Rings Fantastic Battles project has been fun.  Bodvoc and myself (and occasional other players from his SAD group) have played several games, refining our lists to reflect what we imagine Middle Earth armies to be.  I now have at least 500 points of Mordor and Gondor and I still have more to paint, including the beginnings of a new army, so I hope to get back to that in 2023.

Frostgrave made a surprise return with both Grim and Andy keen to play.  We haven't quite started a campaign, but we've got wizards and warbands with a bit of experience now, and it would be nice to get back to this next year.

I got some games of Kings of War in as well, both to introduce my new son-in-law to the game and as part of Bodvoc's and my slow grow/Ambush campaign.

Bodvoc and myself also tried the new fantasy version of Fistful of Lead.  Great fun, and something to go back to again.

I've managed to keep my online D&D game progressing, though scheduling proves an issue on many weeks.  

The Monday night gaming session has been mostly board games, including finishing off The Eiras Contract for Star Saga, and with a memorable birthday game of Deadzone for T'Other One's birthday.  We've quite a few different board games in our stable now, one deserving a shout out is Ravensburger's Alien.  We finally managed it the other week.  We've also tried Talisman, Cosmic Encounter and The Mind.

Hobby

I returned to the Five Box system at the end of 2021 and I've pretty much stuck with it all year. It certainly helps me organise my hobby time and stops me having too many unfinished projects. That said, I do have a couple of boxes that need finishing.

I began the year painting armies and 3D printed terrain for our 10mm Middle Earth project.  the 3D printed stuff was new to me, and I'm impressed with the results.  I'll certainly look for more pieces when I get back to that project.

I veered into Oldhammer territory in March with some original Space Marines, and later in the year I painted up some Space Orcs as opposition. I even began a ruined building for them to fight over, but that's still to be finished.  Actually, this was going to be another International Terrainscape Challenge, but for various reasons none of us managed to finish.

I also planned and began a 500 point Kingdoms of Men army for Kings of War.  I experimented with Army Painter's new Speedpaints, and I think they give pretty good results.  My reason for the army was to sell it once complete.  All money raised is going to a charity to provide aid in Ukraine, hence the colour scheme.  I've got just one more regiment to paint.

I also found that Speedpaints work well on Reaper Bones minis, so I got a few of those done to slightly reduce Mount Bonesium (still a long way to go though).

I've also had a couple of stretches of painting 'Oldhammer' minis, principally dwarves.  I left 2021 having just painted up some old Citadel dwarves, and my last completed mini of 2022 is also an old Citadel dwarf.

Retrospective

2022 made me look hard at my hobby, and I realised that my huge backlog of 'stuff' is actually harming my enjoyment.  I've also been in the position of clearing out my parent's house, seventy years of collecting, and I realised that if I'm not careful, I'll be passing on a similar nightmare to my family once I join the ranks of the Living Impaired.

I'm continuing my clear-out, hence looking at old board games, and repairing boxes etc.  But I've also painted random old minis which has proved very enjoyable.  In some ways this has been like my previous Palette Cleansers, but even more fun.

My blog has chugged on and given me a way of sharing my hobby.  I reached 30 000 views this year, and also topped 1000 comments.  The later is especially pleasing as it is a way of interacting with fellow hobbyists. I always try and respond to comments, so if you leave one, please check back.

I've also tried presenting things a bit differently; I list the current contents of the five boxes (when I remember - I can do this on the PC, but I can't work out how to do this on the mobile version) and I've presented battle reports in different ways.  Pleas comment if you like the changes, or if you don't, or even if you have some suggestions.

To 2023 And Beyond!

Looking forwards I'm setting myself vague goals rather than hard and fast deadlines.  Here's a brief list of stuff I'd like to get done.

# Finish things off - I want to clear all the boxes, especially the Bultha's Farm build, and I may even add a couple more bits to make a sort of terrain set.  I'm thinking some alien vegetation, and perhaps some more smaller ruins.

# Complete the Ukrainian inspired Kingdoms of Men army and get it sold.  I may replace it in time, though I think it will be quicker to sort out some of my old Empire army.  This is my force for the Slow Grow campaign with Bodvoc.

# Sort out a 28mm Terrain set.  I've moaned repeatedly about my poor terrain set up, well I'm going to get enough terrain sorted out and boxed up for Kings of War games.  The old Citadel buildings from the journal (seen in the battle report here) will be the core of this, and I have enough trees, I just need to do something about basing them.  I'll also base those hedges properly and I think I need to add some blocking terrain - perhaps some large rock outcrops?

# Continue painting random minis, but also sort out ones to sell to reduce the lead mountain.

# Dungeon23, or rather Island23 for Teramarr.  This is an internet creative writing thingy where Games Moderators design a room of a dungeon each day to produce a mega dungeon by the end of the year.  I'm going to do an island a day, so lets see how that goes.

I'm sure many more projects will rear their heads over the course of the year.  Let's see what 2023 brings, and I wish you the joy of it!