Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (ogre bodyguard for Mordheim)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! A bit of pen on those, but not much: just the runes on the red-eye orc's shield and the edges of the flames on the mutant's shield, if I recall correctly. I've started using a wet palette (ludicrously easy to make), which allows me to keep thin black paint wet. It's often easier to paint details than to use the pen, so long as the paint doesn't dry on the brush. The wet palette helps with that a huge amount, as the brush isn't being dipped into progressively drier paint.

Here are a few more variations on that theme (apologies for a truly horrible photo!):

[dijit]

They are just fantastic. And the shields are particularly good.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

Here's my second-ever AoS miniature (after this chap): one of those spider-goblins from the Silver Tower box. I got eight of them for less than £4 all in on eBay. I know they're much reviled as the worst miniatures in that game, but I don't mind them. The weak point, really, is that they're all in the same supervillain costume. If some had just been in rags, or had bare heads, or faces with spider mandibles, or whatever, I think they'd have gone down better. Anyway, here's how the first one turned out.

[beefcake]

You've done a nice job on him. As you said the supervillain costume it has made me want to get one for my supers project.

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers! Carve a plasticard flying surfboard and you'll be all set!

It's been a while since I've added to the chaos hordes, but I got one more chaos warrior done tonight. This demented monopod enables me to complete another base, for six finished elements.

[Severian]

Cracking work on those two! The demented monopod is peculiarly horrible....

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! I'm hoping to get some of his horrid friends finished soon; eight hordes is about right for a 24-point Moorcockian HOTT chaos army, I think: 8 points of hordes, 8 of behemoths, either a wizard or a hero and 2 beast elements.

By the way, two sessions of Whitehack in, I can thoroughly recommend the rules for family D&D sessions. The lack of rigid character classes and the "make something up" approach to skills really play to childish imaginations (of both kids and adults ...).

[beefcake]

Is that a Giant foot? (From the GW Giant sprue not just talking about the size of it)

[Hobgoblin]

Yes, indeed: I picked a few up from my local games shop's bits box.

[DeafNala]

There are redeeming features about missing posts on your thread; i.e., I get to look at several pages of TRULY WONDERFUL creations all at once. You are an inspiration & your style is delightful. In addition to the BEAUTIFUL Old Treasures, I see you have some SPLENDID conversions as well. As always, VERY WELL DONE!

[Hobgoblin]

Many thanks, DeafNala!

To round off the evening, here's an old treasure whose own mother would struggle to find him beautiful: Citadel's Fiend Factory ogre. This is a really rough old model - he looked extremely crude by the standards of the others in his range (who doubled as RuneQuest trolls) in the First Citadel Compendium.

I started painting him around 1990 or early 1991, but got no further than the skin and a crude dab at the eyes. But I gave him a quick scrub up today. Here's how he looked in his 26-year-old infancy this morning, and here's how he stands tonight. It's a very crude paint job for a very crude figure, but I can see him getting a fair bit of tabletop time all the same.

[Severian]

Great work there - you've captured the Christopher-Lee-as-Dracula look which is probably the only way this guy is ever going to work. Well done indeed.

It is fun, isn't it, spotting how Citadel used to recycle models into whatever ranges they had decided to divide their then catalogue into. The RQ stuff turns up with all manner of unexpected company.

Thanks for the feedback on Whitehack. Sounds very promising - I must try to get something organised.

[BlackSwanPainting]

Took me awhile to get through your thread, but it was worth my time.  Really like your doing here. The freehand work on those shields is fantastic.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both!

It is fun, isn't it, spotting how Citadel used to recycle models into whatever ranges they had decided to divide their then catalogue into. The RQ stuff turns up with all manner of unexpected company.

I'm always amused by the travels of various elements through the ranges. The distinctive broad-headed winged spear that one of the original slann cold-one riders carries crops up in the hands of a chaos warrior, a great goblin and a fighter, at the very least.

Spot the variant is the other great game. Aly Morrison is the absolute master of subtle variants: some of his hobgoblins and half-orcs are fairly simple conversions of other models in the range, yet look entirely different.

Here's a Kev Adams orc approaching completion (his sword needs a bit of work, now that I see it in the photo). I almost always find Kev Adams' models much harder to paint than their Perry equivalents. I think it's because there's an extra layer of facial detail - more wrinkles and warts and so forth.

[Hobgoblin]

I've decided to do some more 15mm. But the Mayhem project is on hold for now. It sparked a revival of my interest in HOTT, which to my mind is very much a 28mm game (3-foot-square battlefield and a great way to make use of the sweepings of the lead pile). And now with Sword and Spear Fantasy looming, I've begun to reflect that I could do Mayhem in 28mm easily enough, given that most of my HOTT forces are either warbands or shooters, who double up to give square elements, or on 60mm squares to begin with (behemoths, magicians, artillery, etc.). Nevertheless, I may return to 15mm massed battle, as the 15mm elements would work for S&SF as well as Mayhem. In the meantime, though, I've decided to base up more individual 15mm figures for RPG use. More on that later. But here's a WIP orc (probably a hobgoblin in Whitehack).

I'll add a final round of highlights, but I want to keep all these miniatures fairly simple - black-lining and simple colour schemes for tabletop impact. I'm not sure whether to give the eyes pupils or make them red or yellow. I might just leave them as they are.