SHINING KNIGHTS

I've been suffering from painters block recently, coupled with the fact I've become hooked on Ripper Street which I'm watching on Amazon Prime (which we somehow unwittingly subscribed to). However, I took the day off today as the forecast was so terrible and managed to get some pictures taken of figures I painted at the end of last year. Here are some generic medievals, for my fantasy games initially...more info and pictures here.

I seem to be over the stoppage in artistic flow now and the muse is upon me again, so I'm going to paint a few figures for Frostgrave which my oldest son is dead keen to play.

A MERRY CROM-MAS FROM THE FROST GIANT JARL

I didn't have time to paint a Christmas figure this year, so had to plunder one from the collection. This great old Ral Partha figure is a giant in my Warmaster Chaos Marauder army where he towers pleasingly over the 10mm warriors.  I've got a few more of this chap waiting to be painted for my Pre-Hammer armies.

Wishing you a Splendid Winter Solstice

and a Merry Christmas

SEASONS GREETINGS ONE AND ALL

I'll be signing off for a day or two I expect, so can I take this opportunity to wish my blogging friends old and new a Very Merry Christmas/Good Yule/Bright Solstice blessings (insert appropriate to your beliefs) .

Here is a very old figure I painted up today (it's great having a few days off I can tell you) issued by Citadel as a freebie back in the mid 80's. On the base it says "Merry Xmas from Citadel" but I can't make the date out.

cheers.

MINIFIGS ELVES

Back in August I muttered something about painting some elves, and I have just finished them.....

as with the dwarfs, I have not decided how to paint the bases yet, although Scott has kindly planted an idea in my head. I like these old figures, as they have a quite sneaky and not very Tolkienesque look about them, more like elves in traditional folklore, just as likely to double cross you. I will eventually use these as Loyal Halfelves for my Oldhammer Thistlewood game (due to take place in 2045 when all figures are painted).

BROADSWORD AND THE BEAST

Back in the mists of time (1983 or 1984) I went along to Games Day in London, held at the Royal Horticultural Society Hall to spend my pocket money on D and D figures. One of the highlights for me was a talk given by the fantasy artist Iain McCaig, who at the time was forging his career and had recently painted my favourite ever album cover Broadsword and the Beast by Jethro Tull. Mr. McCaig related how he had fallen asleep at the easel, and woken up to find he had painted all the Runes around the edge of the cover, and he didn't know what they said. Great story, but I suspect he knew they were the words of the first verse of the song Broadsword on the album.

Anyhow, this made a profound impression on a callow youth like myself, and I resolved to make a model based on the ship shown on the cover. 30 odd years on, I have finally done so!!

Here is the front and reverse of the sleeve, showing Ian Anderson the lead singer of Jethro Tull (and a superb songwriter and musician) as a strange Beastie. On the reverse he is riding on the figurehead of the ship. I reckon Iain McCaig was only in his early 20's when he painted this, so he must have been delighted to land the commission that produced this iconic piece of rock art.

I think I will crew the ship with some Dwarves from the old Grenadier range. The sails depict The Pewter Moon (badge of the Dwarves of the Pewter Moon, one of the factions in my fantasy world, where I live a good deal of the time), the Sunchild, another reference to a prog rock song( from King Crimson this time)

and the Beastie suppressing The Crimson King, who is the baddie/evil empire etc in my world.

The ship is a viking Drakkar by......can't remember, but Eastern European company I think, with a heavily converted Papo dragon head pinched from Robin and Arthur's soldier box (thanks chaps).

I painted runes on the figurehead..... anyone care to have a crack at translating them?

I am starting a new blog  http://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.co.uk/

 purely dedicated to my fantasy figures. I will post the fantasy stuff here as well, but keep the new blog solely for fantasy stuff without my random meanderings.

BACK TO MY ROOTS

Well, here we are after 4 months absence, and I can only offer my apologies for my lack of blogging and more importantly commenting on the jolly good blogs I follow. We have had a busy summer (and good holiday back in August), and I have been pressing on with a few projects, including building some terrain boards for Robin who is now well and truly into our wonderful hobby of playing with little toy soldiers. I have taken him to 3 wargames shows over the past few months (Colours, Warfare and Reveille in Bristol) where we picked up loads of cheap secondhand figures for his collection. This has reminded me of how I started off gaming with metal figures, after the Airfix days, mainly playing Dungeons and Dragons and poring over White Dwarf back in the late 70's early 80's. I dug out my old White Dwarfs (happily I kept them all from 1-150) and thought about having a bash at building the forces for the Warhammer scenario Thistlewood in WD 45 , those happy times when Games Workshop let players use their imagination and any figures they could get their hands on. I tried to do this in 1983 but one can't get many figures on the earnings of a paperound which was the only income I had then.

Here are a unit of loyal Dwarfs (Dwarves) which I based about 10 years ago but never painted, figures mainly Dixon with a few Irregular thrown in. I have put them in a sort of uniform as they are meant to be part of a mainly human army, and the standard depicts the Sun in Splendour of Trompenburg, my ever present fantasy state. If I get around to painting the rest of the army they will be wearing the Maroon and Green colours of Tromenburg as well.

I can't quite decide how to finish the bases, so may leave them until I have more figures done.