Kings of War in 1/72 (scratch-built, ahem, Archfiend of the Abyss ...)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, gents.

Slight progress today on the first salamander unit - the first two 'salamanders' are rebased and touched up:

[Jack Hooligan]

dude, you make this scale look gorgeous! I enjoy 1/72 quite a bit, but my figures don't come out this beautiful.
great work and it's always an inspiration to see your pictures!

[Hobgoblin]

dude, you make this scale look gorgeous! I enjoy 1/72 quite a bit, but my figures don't come out this beautiful.

Thanks - but yes, they do!

Here (in poor light) is a troop of Caesar knights with a Templar-ish theme. They're still to be properly based; I've found that individual basing beforehand makes them easier to paint and base, and it also helps to avoid warping the MDF unit base, as less pumice gel is applied at one time. I have another two units of these guys to get done, which is less of a chore than it sounds; I find Caesar figures the easiest to paint in 1/72 scale.

[Sunjester]

That's a very nice job you have done with those.

[blacksmith]

Excellent painted knights, and Salamanders too!

[Golgotha]

The battle for the magical sea orb. 

Love the knights. Like the variation on the themed shields too.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all!

The knights are based now, and one more 'salamander' has joined the ranks.

[Jack Hooligan]

@Hobgoblin - Remind me again what you use to base your models with when on rounds. What's the texture you're using? Sand?

The one thing about 1/72 that bums me the most, is the basing seems to take longer because I tend to try to blend the puddle base on the minis with the round base they're on so they look to be standing on level, even ground instead of on little pitcher's mounds. It's tedious work though and would love a short cut...

[Hobgoblin]

I use Golden coarse pumice gel for all my basing. It's great - and makes it easy to rebase figures because you can just slice under the dried gel and keep it intact for the new base.

[Jack Hooligan]

I use Golden coarse pumice gel for all my basing. It's great - and makes it easy to rebase figures because you can just slice under the dried gel and keep it intact for the new base.

Thanks again!

Do you glue the minis' puddle bases to the round or square bases, then apply pumice gel? or do you solely use gel and cover the puddle base so it holds the mini to the base?
I'm trying to figure out how you're cutting the dried gel _and_ getting the mini off.

[Hobgoblin]

I use superglue - then just slide a knife under the dried gel and puddle base when I want to rebase. The rounds I use are coins, so the miniature and gel come off cleanly - the pumice gel is very flexible when it dries. It would be a bit trickier cutting them off MDF bases, because the glue would tear the fibre, but it wouldn't be a huge deal.

It's definitely easier to paint the figures individually (including the pumice gel on the bases) and then attach them to the big base.

[Hobgoblin]

@Hobgoblin - Remind me again what you use to base your models with when on rounds. What's the texture you're using? Sand?

The one thing about 1/72 that bums me the most, is the basing seems to take longer because I tend to try to blend the puddle base on the minis with the round base they're on so they look to be standing on level, even ground instead of on little pitcher's mounds. It's tedious work though and would love a short cut...

I just remembered that Spooktalker (of this forum) uses bases with a higher rim - so that figures with integral bases have their feet flat on the ground when the gap is filled in. I can't recall the bases he uses, but there might well be a manufacturer that does those in 20mm rounds.

[Hobgoblin]

Here are a couple of troops (or a regiment) of beastmen. These fellows - a mix of Citadel, Grenadier, Ral Partha and Asgard - will work as either Longhorns (in the Herd) or Hunters of the Wild (in the Forces of Nature). I had many of them based up as 28mm HOTT chaos hordes (first photo), but as we now play HOTT in 1/72, they were effectively redundant. So I've dismantled those. Some of the figures need a bit of touching up (particularly the metals, which could do with highlights), but they'll do as they are for now.

Both Longhorns and Hunters of the Wild seem to be very hard-hitting units, and they're in that KoW 'heavy infantry' class, which means that the miniatures have to be significantly bigger than human-sized. For the Longhorns, GW Gors seem to be the model, and these guys are to 1/72 figures what Gors are to normal 28mm humans.

The eagle-eyed may spot a 'salamander' lurking in the rear ranks; I have a fishman underway to complete the unit. I also have 20-odd broo to paint up, and I suspect these units will happily absorb all kinds of miscellaneous creatures lurking in the lead pile. Some very old Citadel minotaurs and goat-headed ogres will be joining them after some repairs. And of course, I can mix all in the 'salamanders' to bolster the numbers when required.

These guys work either as chaos creatures or as an almost Studio Ghibli-style assemblage of weird nature spirits, I think. And there's perhaps a whiff of the White Witch's army about them too.

When I was dismantling the HOTT hordes, I rebased only the metal figures; I don't want to use individually based plastics for KoW as I find that the units 'crumble' annoyingly when being moved. By contrast, great chunks of lead like these chaps just glide across the mat in perfect formation. So I'm going to rebase the plastic kitbashes from the hordes as multibased troops, combining them with some individually based kitbashed beastmen I did more recently. This metal lot and the forthcoming broo will give me more than enough individually based beastmen for skirmishes and RPGs. I reckon I've got enough for three or four more troops of painted miniatures, so I hope to have the core of a Herd/Forces of Nature army finished by the weekend; the rebasing doesn't take long.

[blacksmith]

Amazing army. It reminds me a lot of John Blanche's Chaos forces. Beautiful.

[Golgotha]

Well they're certainly a nightmarish collection - fantastic love it.