Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (undead warband for Mordheim)

[DivisMal]

This is really amazing! I love the little lizard men, especially their skin came out well.

[Mason]

Nice little fella who has come out really well.
A great idea to male him the handler.
 

And rather apt that he is standing in front of 'Homicide' too....
 

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, gents!

Here's my first excursion into 10mm (barring the Copplestone war trolls that I painted up for 15mm):

[jambo1]

The orcs are great!! Lovely job on them.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

Here's my first 10mm wolfrider.

On basing, I'm swithering between Mayhem-style 40mm squares and Warmaster 40 x 20. Hmm ...

[jambo1]

Another lovely painted mini, I personally would go with the 40x20 base, but that's just me

[Hobgoblin]

Yes, I'm starting to lean that way - if only because it'll be easier - and thus more motivating - to get units finished.

There are a couple of other considerations too. Two Warmaster-based units make one Mayhem unit, so blueback and a square base underneath solve any problems. But it would be easy enough just to play without attaching the bases to each other; moving two bases at once is hardly a chore (little different from Warmaster itself, in fact).

Also, for Sword and Spear, I'd probably use bigger units of four bases. That would give the option of turning bases back to front to represent damage to a unit, with a command base at the front maintaining the unit's direction.

[Hobgoblin]

And here's the first of the Four A little lizards - ostensibly 28mm, I think, but here used as a 15mm beastie for RPG encounters and, with his handler and four nest-mates, as a Lesser Warbeast unit in Dragon Rampant.

I also wonder if he might make a 10mm flightless dragon ...

[Little Odo]

Great painting on those orcs, I especially like the 'eye' shields.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! I see those fellows as uruks of Mordor, as they're appropriately bigger than the BOFA plastic orcs (smaller Northerners, obviously!).

Here are a couple more wolfriders. I've gone for a white hand on the flag, as the armies of Mordor didn't have wolfriders (Tolkien somewhere suggests that wolfriding might have been a Sarumanic innovation).

I'll put these three on a Warmaster 20 x 40 base. I may not ever play Warmaster, but smaller elements are more encouraging progress-wise (and easier to base), and there's no difficulty in using two bases as a single Mayhem unit.

[jambo1]

Lovely work on the wolf riders, really top job.

[fred]

Ooh! those copplestone wolf riders have come out very nicely.

Regarding the lizardman with the spear - I use those in my 10mm Lizardman army as ogre sized lizards.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both! The Copplestone miniatures more or less paint themselves.

I'm very taken with 10mm for its speed of painting. It fulfils the hollow promise of 15s, which aren't that much quicker than 28s, I find, especially once larger numbers of figure per element are taken into account. That won't stop me painting lots more 15s for RPGs and Dragon Rampant, as the scale gives a nice balance of individuality and space. But 10s seem the way forward for massed battles other than HotT (for which 28s are best, I think).

Fred: yes, one of the things about lizardmen is that one would imagine them growing steadily with age, like crocodiles (although that's something of an urban myth: but for fantasy, print the legend!). I've got a lot of "true 15mm" Magister Militum lizardmen, which are only slightly bigger than large 10mm. So I suspect I'll press quite a few into service for 10mm games.

[DivisMal]

I'm very taken with 10mm for its speed of painting. It fulfils the hollow promise of 15s, which aren't that much quicker than 28s, I find, especially once larger numbers of figure per element are taken into account. That won't stop me painting lots more 15s for RPGs and Dragon Rampant, as the scale gives a nice balance of individuality and space. But 10s seem the way forward for massed battles other than HotT (for which 28s are best, I think).

I agree and disagree.

15mm paint a little faster than 28mm IMO, but you are right that especially in larger groups, speed isn't an advantage any more, when 28mm allow you the use of better speed painting techniques and are easier to handle.
Plus: 15s don't really have a price advatage anymore when compared with the plastic sets of historical and some SF/Fantasy manufacturers.

IMO 15s excel at two points, which at least for me are decisive:
1. They still do allow you to recognise individuals and are therefore very well for character drived
tabletop and role playing games.
2. Terrain is much cheaper and looks better with 15s than with 28mm. And this allows you to build a decent tabletop without renting a gym.


That said, I do love 10mms for exactly what you stated. They do give a real "mass" feeling, especially when based on blocks.
They are not necessarily less expensive, but allow you to finish huge masses of troops in decent times and believe it or not, they are detailled enough, that you can even play warhammer with them!

[Hobgoblin]

I agree and disagree.

Actually, I don't think we disagree much, if at all!

IMO 15s excel at two points, which at least for me are decisive:
1. They still do allow you to recognise individuals and are therefore very well for character drived
tabletop and role playing games.
2. Terrain is much cheaper and looks better with 15s than with 28mm. And this allows you to build a decent tabletop without renting a gym.

Yes, absolutely. I agree with both points. I think 15s are much better than 28s for RPGs, as you simply have much more space. So you can have vast caverns, castle courtyards and marketplaces on a normal dinner table.

And yes, it's much easier to create decent terrain. I'm currently painting 15s for a sprawling RPG campaign, and it's much easier to knock up huge caverns and sizeable open spaces on a tabletop.