Men In Boxes

Riders of Rohan WIP

2012-02-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

I managed to find time last weekend to start work on the Riders of Rohan from Games Workshop. My wife gave me a few boxes of these together with more orcs. I hope to use these with Ad&D's Battlesystem 2nd Edition.

First off -- these figures are beautiful! The level of detail, the posing and the practicality of the parts are simply beautiful. The figures were designed and sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry who did an awesome job with GW's LOTR line. If you haven't yet, do yourself a favor and check out their fantastic line of historical miniatures. Their crusades line has been tempting me for the longest time. Head on out to Perry Miniatures here.

Check out these poses. My only criticism with this line is that there are only 2 poses for the horses. The horse poses are indeed very dynamic and all but why only two? Plus, both attach to the stand using only 1 peg. I'm foreseeing a lot of bent and broken horse legs in the future:(

I've started converting some of the horses mainly by switching the halves around. This same irritating dearth of poses marred the Warg Riders from the same line. Beautiful kit but sorely lacking in mount variability. I also tried a new brand of putty -- Tamiya White putty -- which I found easier to work with than their polyester putty. Having said that though, I think I'll include both on my workbench since I suspect they'll be handy for different purposes.

Here are the contents of 2 boxes, with each box having 6 riders. One more box to go then I'll start work on the infantry!

The Shape of Things To Come

2012-02-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

For AD&D Battlesystem 2nd Edition. Forth, Eorlingas!

Not-Clone Troopers WIP

2012-02-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Some troopers in a paint scheme inspired by Star Wars Clone Troopers, specifically the Utapau Clone Trooper. The troopers base painted in basic stormtrooper white.

The first off the line, here's Sarge...

And these are the bunch of apes he's leading...

Better & more pictures soon...

Testing screen layout

2012-02-02T19:51:00.000-08:00

I'm testing out a new layout with a screen width of 1366px. According to surveys, this is the 2nd most popular screen resolution in the U.S. They say optimize for 1024px x 768px but I wanted to try something wider. What do you think?

A Fast Project: Armored Troopers Paint Schemes

2012-02-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some paint schemes I'm considering. I was searching for armored futuristic types and was delightfully surprised with the variety of Star Wars clone trooper armor schemes out there. And to think Darth Vader's mooks wore just plain white...

Here's a quick mockup I made form one of the pictures. Basic white? With red trim or blue? I'm still undecided what to use. We'll see...

A Fast Project: Some Troopers

2012-02-02T02:26:00.000-08:00

I found another set of old figures while rummaging in my bodega and I thought I'd try a fast paint project. I primed the lot grey and lightly sprayed a white layer. I didn't bother to trim and sand the models before but the lighter color shows all the surface defects so I guess I'll be spending some time cleaning those up.

Next problem is what color to paint them in...

John Carter arrives on March 9, 2012

2012-01-31T17:01:00.000-08:00

John Carter is a 2012 American epic science fiction film featuring John Carter, Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs' other hero and main protagonist of his Barsoom series. Former Confederate captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is transported to Mars ("Barsoom"). There he becomes part of a conflict between the various nations of the planet, whose leaders include Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). Carter takes it upon himself to save Barsoom and its people.
WALL-E's Andrew Stanton brings E.R. Burroughs' John Carter to life in Disney's summer film. Based solely on the first volume of ERB's 11 book Barsoom series, the film marks Stanton's first foray in live-action cinema. The film will be released in the United States on March 9, 2012.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed but Disney's previous adaptation of Tarzan and 2011's Conan remake has soured my expectations. For my review of the mistake that was Conan (2011), check out this entry. The concept art though looks fantastic and I'm still pumped up to see Stanton's vision of Barsoom. Check out the art here and the trailer here.

And if you'd want to read the book first, head on out to Project Gutenberg Australia's online book.

Poster for the film taken here.

Currently Reading: Under The Eagle

2012-01-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

It is 42 AD, and Quintus Licinius Cato has just arrived inGermany as a new recruit to the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army.If adjusting to the rigours of military life isn’t difficult enough for thebookish young man, he also has to contend with the disgust of his colleagueswhen, because of his imperial connections, he is appointed a rank above them.

As second-in-command to Macro, the fearless, battle-scarredcenturion who leads them, Cato will have more to prove than most in theadventures that lie ahead. Then the men discover that the army’s next campaignwill take them to a land of unparalleled barbarity - Britain.

After the long march west, Cato and Macro undertake aspecial mission that will thrust them headlong into a conspiracy that threatensto topple the Emperor himself...

Book blurb came from here

Simon Scarrow’s Under The Eagle is the first novel in hisEagle series chronicling the adventures of two soldiers in the Roman army.Quintus Licinius Cato is a newly-freed slave and a new recruit while grizzled veteranLucius Cornelius Macro is a newly-minted centurion in Legio secunda Augusta.

I started this book with the impression that the novelcentered on military fiction, especially since this would be the first fictionbook I’d be reading about the Roman Legions. As with other military fictionbooks I’ve read, I expected more of the grit and grunge prose as well as POVinsights on the nature of war, combat, etc. An intro to how a Roman Legion wasorganized even set the tone for my expectations.

I was wrong.

Scarrow’s Under The Eagle is more of an adventure/mysterynovel with the bigger events framing smaller but more important storylines. Theprotagonists Cato and Macro are well-defined characters that contrasted eachother well. Cato’s naivete is balanced by Macro’s street smarts while his jadedviewpoints are evened out by Cato’s optimism. The two are thrust into a seriesof mysterious events with shadowy antagonists plotting behind the scenes. Iimmensely enjoyed a lot of these! From the machinations of Vespasian, his wifeFlavia and the villainous Vitellius, the two unwitting heroes learn to rely oneach other's strengths and consequently prevail. I enjoyed the novel and this is partlybecause of the fast pacing. Combat is on a more personal -- a bloodier -- scale. Although the Legion is present as an entity, the action zooms in to the individual men wielding the gladius & the pilum, bringing you up close and personal to the stink of sweat, blood and fear.

Reading this has made me think of how I’ve gamed ImperialRoman Legions. For the most part, these have been mass battles with set piecefights being de rigueur. The gamer thought in terms of unit capability,movement and attrition. The novel though opened my eyes to the alternative ofgaming Imperial Romans in skirmishes. A few ideas from the novel that wouldmake great skirmish scenarios include a small unit ( maybe a contubernium ortwo) being chased by barbarians though a bog or forest, a cohort barricadedinside a village trying to hold out against barbarians until relief comes, achase inside a burning village and even a mercenary ambush of a Roman patrol inpossession of an important object.

To sum up, Under The Eagle is not hardcore military fiction.It’s more of an adventure novel set amidst a turbulent time in history. Eventhen, the novel was very enjoyable and I am more than eager to read the nextnovel in the series. Miniature wargamers can benefit in seeing the possibilityof skirmish wargaming small groups of Romans and their enemies. FUBAR anyone?

Check out the books here.

Currently Reading: Soldier of the Legion

2012-01-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

Everything has been oh so quiet on the hobby front since 2012 rolled in. My workbench is gathering dust with unmade models and unpainted figures. A hectic January workload as well as some health issues have prevented me from indulging in wargaming and modelmaking. I plan to correct this problem soon but until then I've indulged in voraciously going thru my read pile. I'd like to share a few books which could be good sources of wargaming/rpg material and first up is a military science fiction novel.

Marshall S. Thomas' Soldier of the Legion is the first book of a six part series that follows young Legion trooper Thinker's adventures in the ConFree Legion. He and his squad mates are kept young, strong and seemingly immortal through advanced biotechnology. As a fighting force, they must fight to survive horrific battles against a corrupt, slave-raiding empire as well as relentless alien enemies. Fast and furious military science fiction without the overwhelming angst of the 40k universe! The first book has been recognized with awards, namely the 2003 IBPA Ben Franklin Award Finalist for Popular Fiction & 2002 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist for Science Fiction.

The book firmly balances itself between the politicized agenda of books like Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Haldeman's Forever War and the adventure and violence of military sci fi books like William Dietz' Legion of the Damned and David Gunn's Death's Head. The action, centering mostly on small unit tactics, is well written and enjoyably exciting. The prose though, isn't about to elevate this novel to the level of Starship Troopers. Some of the terms are quite quirky, such as "OUTVAC" and Thomas has a tendency to drop in futuristic jargon here and there without explanation, kinda like the way the reinvented Battlestar Galactica people used FRAK for everything. Over time though, the unfamiliar terms helped make the world building feel more real, more authentic. Even then, I found the way Thomas constructed sentences and paragraphs to be awkward and sometimes clumsy. Battles tend to be written violently with some graphic descriptions but with none of the heavy-handed angst I've come to expect from military sci fi like the ones set in the 40K universe. Overall a good enough read and a good source of new SF resources.

The book has some interesting armored infantry genre slants, namely the E Mark , the legion firearm that delivers "one-round hits on all targets" meaning that its a smart gun that NEVER misses (no need to roll to hit, just name the target and roll for damage!); Psyprobes - a form of alien mid control limited by range (take over an opponent's figure whenever your figure is xx inches away from them!); genetic snakes and spheres that penetrate armor and consume organic material ( no saving throws!); etc. Rules-wise, I bet I could find some similar concepts in FUBAR (our latest ruleset of choice) over at Gawd'elp Us games. Maybe one of these concepts would show up on our game table soon.

Check out the Soldier of the Legion homepage here.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer 1

2011-12-28T20:35:00.000-08:00

Oooooooh, Dwarves!

R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey

2011-12-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

Anne McCaffrey, creator of the Dragonriders of Pern and The Ship Who Sang, passed away this November at the age of 85. I was first introduced to her work through a paperback copy of Dragonsong. I was lured to the book by the fantastic cover illustration and the fiction inside captured my imagination. Since then, I've hunted down other books written by her and have enjoyed them immensely.

R.I.P. Ms. McCaffrey and thank you for the dragons.

Art by David Fairbrother Roe.

This is not Hoth

2011-11-23T03:29:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have a large diorama with trees and buildings and terrain features lovingly modeled and set up right in front of you? Why, you break out the beer and send a lambda-class shuttle with a gaggle of the Empire's very capable stormtroopers to hold the area until Darth Vader arrives!

With the penguin townsfolk still being prepped for attachment to the christmas village ( see previous entry) I mucked about with some Micro Machines Imperial Stormtroopers. Too bad i couldn't find the rebel troopers amidst the chaos that is my storeroom and I had to hurry before the wife noticed the guys in white armor taking shots at her mom's penguins.

Will the rebels be able to take back the town? Let's see...

The Penguin Christmas Village

2011-11-23T03:21:00.000-08:00

We decided to make a christmas village this year to go with the home decorations for this holiday season and the family turned to me to lead in making it. So, we took out our small collection of Christmas village buildings and proceeded to make a diorama that depicted the main avenue of the village, a frozen pond and a large tree display. Unfortunately, we only had a small number of figures until we realized that this would be the perfect time to use my mother-in-law's collection of penguin figurines. Thus was born our Penguin Christmas Village! Here are some WIP pictures.

The pond will feature a snow globe centerpiece, park benches and cotton candy.

The frozen pond was made from glitter glue gel and left to dry overnight.

The houses are being wired for lights and small vignettes are being made to be scattered around.

Here's the main avenue. I'm trying to figure out a way to l;ight the streetlamps. How would the carollers get about if they dont have street lights?

The centerpiece is a huge christmas tree. A choir and an orchestra will be performing here soon:)

And here are the townsfolk! A small portion of my mother-in-law's penguin collection.

Inevitably, some of my warhammer elves check out the ruckus the penguins are making...

Ah, the joys of being a miniature wargamer:)

54mm Giant Mummy

2011-10-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a mummy from the Mega Blocks toy line that is a suitable Undead Giant for 54mm. Aside from the mummy, there's a winged vampire, demon, ghoul, Frankenstein's monster and a werewolf.

Here's a side-by-side shot for size comparison.

After disposing of his enemy, the giant mummy looks around for his next opponent...

... And engages in a deadly wrestling match with the giant scorpion!

That stinger looks nasty!

54mm Monster Spider

2011-10-06T04:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a D&D mini that could also serves as a monster for my planned 54mm skirmish. I'm not sure what the prepainted mini is called but I got it bulk with a boxul of assorted D&D minis. I'm not a fan of the prepainted and collectible miniature scene but I like most of the figures. The mini would also be a perfect Shelob for 28mm or 20mm figures!

54mm Fantasy Monster Scorpion

2011-10-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

I'm refraining from basing my 54mm Egyptians for HotT and plan to use them first for skirmish games using the demo Ares rules I downloaded from Freewargamesrules and FUBAR Medieval from Gaw'd Help Us Games. I picked up a giant scorpion from the halloween accessories stand at the toy store that will serve as a monster the figures can do combat with.

There's an even bigger scorpion toy available but I'm afraid my table space wont be able to accommodate it for gaming. The one shown above is pictured with a 54mm to 60mm figure. The weeks leading to Halloween would be the perfect time to look for creepy crawly nasties like this.

Egyptian Undead for Hott

2011-10-06T04:11:00.000-07:00

Arcane Legion only has two poses for the undead infantry but I went ahead and based them as spears for an Egyptian Undead Hott army. The figures are a bit taller than the average 1/72 figure ( they'll be used with Caesar Miniatures Egyptians) but are surprisingly thicker in limbs. The detail is weak, especially on the faces. The plastic acts a bit weird because even careful cutting and trimming with a sharp craft knife doesn't seem to agree with the plastic and you end up with burrs and extra threads. Even the "feel" of the material seems wrong, especially if you're used to cleaning mold lines and such from hard and soft plastic figures.

Centaur Hero for Hott

2011-10-06T04:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a fast conversion I made from an Arcane Legion centaur and a Zvezda Greek warrior. The Arcane Legion figure is made from a hard plastic that has some rubbery characteristics and is quite dense. A scabbard would have to be added and maybe a cape. The 2 part glue from Selleys works well and I mated the parts well enough but I accidentally glued the cap to the nozzle. These things dry fast! He'll be a hero for a Greek mythology themed Hordes of the Things army in 1/72.

Here's the converted figure with two stands of Centaur riders.

The 54mm Project: Egyptians

2011-09-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some Egyptians from Supreme's 54mm playset bags. I do not have a complete set so there may be other poses I haven't come across yet. These come prepainted but will still get a repaint from me. The pack also comes with horses but they dont seem to match the set.

These figs will be the core of my fantasy Egyptians for Hordes of the Things.

The 54mm project

2011-08-29T06:00:00.001-07:00

It was that time of the year when one gets to the point that he really, really has to get stuff arranged. The Southeast asian summer had already come and gone but my hobby room is still uber messy with little space left to engage in model making. Last week, I hunkered down and began the long and tedious task of arranging everything. Lo and behold, an old, large box yielded packs of 54mm plastic toy soldiers. I sp[ent the next few hours sorting them out and decided to try and make some HOTT armies out of them. Here are a few of the figures I found. Hopefully, they'll be repainted and rebased as HOTT armies before the year is out. And hopefully, the hobby room gets cleaned up too.

These pictures were also earlier posted at my toy collection blog. You can find notes about them there.

By Crom! A Review of the 2011 Conan the Barbarian film

2011-08-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

Marcus Nispel’s Conan The Barbarian opened in Philippine cinemas last week and I caught it on its second day. The film stars Jason Momoa as the titular barbarian with Stephen Lang as the warlord Khalar Zym. As a youth, Conan becomes the sole survivor of a vicious attack by Khalar Zym’s forces on his Cimmerian village. Zym seeks to reassemble an ancient mask of evil power to resurrect his dead witch-wife and gain otherworldly powers with the help of his witch-daughter, Marique played by Rose Mcgowan. Conan joins forces with Tamara played by Rachel Nicols whom Zym seeks as the only possible bodily host for his dead wife’s soul.

Jason Momoa makes for a great looking Conan, even better suited to the role than old Arnold Schwarzenegger. He does look like someone Frank Frazetta would paint. There’s just itsy-bitsy, teenie-tiny little problem.

By Crom! This is NOT Conan the Barbarian.

The story itself disregards any source material written by Robert E. Howard, or even the pastiches that have been made and instead “re-imagined” the titular hero. Don't get me wrong though. Anyone familiar with the Conan literature shouldn't expect anything more than brute action and uncouth sex but the story they came up with is so far removed from Conan to be immensely generic. What they came up with is a revenge story peopled by a cardboard cutout comrade in arms, damsel in distress and an ill-thought comic relief ally as well as beyond boring villains. The whole film was reduced to a series of “buts” for me. Rose Mcgowan looked cool BUT she was woefully underutilized. Khalar Zym seemed scary and driven BUT he ended up looking silly with spittle dribbling down his lips almost every time he gets a close-up. Rachel Nichols looks the perfect damsel in distress BUT she seemed tired and embarrassed to be in the film. The one caveat though is that she has a topless love scene. Sheesh, should’ve just waited for someone to post that clip. The battle scenes are uninspired even though Ron Perlman got to shriek at the sky while covered in blood and raising aloft the infant Conan. Ron Perlman as Conan’s father should have been a sympathetic character BUT Nispel fails miserably in eliciting any pathos even from such a capable actor. The writers must have checked out the Dark Horse Born on the Battlefield comicbook and liked the title BUT that’s about it. Change the name of the hero to Brak, Dorn, Cumal or whatever because this drivel could have been made into any sword and sorcery film. BUT not Conan.

What the writers and the director lost was the simple flavor of who Conan is. Their film is far from the barbarian defined by fiction as well as non-fiction writings made by the author as well as scholars of his work. They even used the line that sums up Conan’s worldview but screwed it up pretty bad nevertheless. Here, Conan is driven by revenge, a motivation that had very little to do with what made up the literary Conan. Second, his lethality becomes too vicious making him a seemingly murderous adolescent with father-issues. Yes, Conan slew a lot of people, but even he would refrain from torture and unorthodox and cruel means of killing. He even spouts off character statements like “ No man should live in chains, ” and “ I’ll follow you to the gates of hell” which would have been perfect for other cinematic heroes. But not Conan as he was written by Robert E. Howard. The literary Conan was
uninterested in forging any destiny. He was a man who sought the simple pleasures of life -- money, women, food -- and who frequently had to contend with an innate sense of right and wrong. His victories were morally unintentional but thrust him into situations that eventually brought him kingship of a kingdom. When I first heard of this film project, I immediately acknowledged the fact that adaptations and translations to film can and will happen, mainly because of the demands of the medium as well as the audience and message. But Nispel's Conan is more than a poor adaptation to film of a literary creation. It totally disrespected the source material.

The filmmakers act as if they looked at what was made before and arrogantly said “Fuck it, we can do this better.”

Well dear Messrs. Marcus Nispel, Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood, fuck you all because you haven’t.

Crom, I got fucked too with the movie ticket I had to buy. What this film succeeds in is in serving as a fitting reminder to other filmmakers of the dangers of hubristic directing and script writing. An online review says that that the novelization of the film stands up better but I'll leave that for another day. Now, I'll just calmly wait for that perfect Conan movie again.

Another Look: Battlesystem 2nd Edition Pics and Lists

2011-07-19T04:49:00.000-07:00

In 1988, TSR released the second edition of Battlesystem designed by Douglas Niles. Although it was written to be used with 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the game itself doesn't really use the mechanisms of Ad&D. The unit-based combat system uses different sided dice and I think that speeds the game up as well as adds nuances to the fantastical aspects of playing with exotic soldiery. Recently, a new board for the discussion of things Battlesystem was launched at The Miniatures Page. It seems that the rules still have a sufficient enough following. Personally, I really liked this game and we've mounted a lot of silly and sometimes serious campaigns using old Citadel, TSR, Grenadier and Ral Partha figures.

Here are my Dwarf and Elf armies made for Battlesystem use. These were fairly new, circa 90's I think. I couldn't find pictures of the older minis. Those were still taken using 35mm film and I wasn't conscientious enough to take care of the negatives.

And here are some lists we made for Middle Earth. Just click the images to get bigger copies of the jpegs.

The Hobbit's Thorin and Company!

2011-07-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

I am flabbergasted, stupefied, thunderstruck, dumbstruck, awestruck, amazed, astonished, astounded, stunned, and soooo excited! TheOneRing.net features the worldwide exclusive reveal of Thorin Oakenshield holding Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver as well as Thorin and company! Head on up to TheOneRing.net and get the lowdown on these doughty dwarves of Middle-Earth! They also have some feedback for each and every member of the quest as they appear on Bilbo’s doorstep.

Baruk Khazad! Khazad Ai-menu!

Balin and Dwalin revealed!

2011-07-15T03:07:00.000-07:00

Ken Stott as Balin and Graham McTavish as Dwalin. Here follows the accompanying description of these Dwarves:

    Dwarf Lords in their own right, Balin and Dwalin are close relatives of Thorin. Beyond this, these brothers are two of his most loyal and trusted friends.

    An old warrior, Balin has lived through hard times and fought many battles, yet he harbors doubts about the wisdom of the Quest to retake the Lonely Mountain.

    Dwalin has no such forebodings – his belief in Thorin’s leadership is unshakeable. A powerful and bruising fighter, with a natural tendency to distrust anyone who is not a Dwarf, particularly anyone who might be an Elf, Dwalin is not someone to cross lightly.

Picture and copy came from here: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/07/15/46126-first-look-at-balin-and-dwalin/

Members of Thorin & Company revealed!

2011-07-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-menu! "Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!"
Presenting The Hobbit film's Nori, Ori, Dori,Gloin & Oin!

DBA Polybian Romans

2011-05-06T02:42:00.000-07:00

Here's another 1/72 project nearing completion. Aside from my warmaster Polybians, I've decided to build another army for DBA use. The figures are from HäT Industrie and were painted in around 3 evenings. A few more stands are needed to fill in the army though.

Here's what my maniple looks like. The hastati and the principes are mixed in the first stand while the last stand represents a mix of the principes again and of the triari. DBA's basing and stand number prevents me from modelling a three-line maniple although this formation seems good enough.

For the next two hundred years (until the Marian reforms of 107 BC) the Roman army was organized into three lines: the hastati, the principes, and the triarii. These were divided by experience and fighting ability, with the youngest soldiers in the hastati making the first engagement. Where resistance was strong this rank would dissolve back through the Roman line and allow the more experienced soldiers in the principes to fight. In turn, the principes could yield to the hardened triarii if necessary. The latter situation led to the Roman saying "ad triarios redisse", "to fall back on the triarii", meaning that things had come to a desperate pass. Wikipedia on Maniple

Here's the maniple with a stand of velites attached.

Here's a detail of the shield design. I think I copied it from an illustration in Osprey.

The cavalry stands, made up of auxiliaries (mostly cavalry) drawn from Rome's Italian allies (socii) is on the workbench. More to come soon!

A Happy Easter to all!

2011-04-23T16:33:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter to all! Isang mapayapang pasko ng paglaya sa lahat!

Repurposed Alien Monsters for FUBAR

2011-04-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a gaggle of tentacled alien monsters for use in our FUBAR games. The Zerg-like figures are from Wizkid's Heroclix line and they've been primed and rebased. The bases are cheap plastic poker chips around an inch plus in diameter. I haven't decided on a color scheme for these critters but might go with blue and yellow. Too many of my sci figs are already black and red.

Space Romans for FUBAR

2011-04-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of my Nova Romano troopers -- yup, Space Romans! These are old Void figures I managed to scrounge up. They'll be used in an upcoming game of FUBAR at my house opposite the other squads we've come up for the game.

A Squad of Legionnaires

The shield patterns were printed on stickers and stuck on the shields

Here are the Praetorians. They were painted earlier and received a semi gloss coat of varnish.

Moving thru the buildings

More soon!

Game Envy and some painted LOTR

2011-03-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to indulge in the hobby since I got sick this January. A pile of unpainted models and unfinished project litter my two table workbench. Even the gaming table is gathering dust in the garage with boxes of scale & wargame models received this Christmas as well as from orders made the previous year slowly pile up. I managed to finish some more stands for my HotT army but that's it. Painting total's on an all-time low. The missus noticed it and took me on a trip to the gaming store after my ckeckup at the hospital. I saw this game of warhammer 40K being played and took some pictures of the models. Some of the models are WIP customs.

One of the WIP customs looks kinda like an alien pornstar but the modeler assured the other guys that he'll be refining the model soon. The second WIP was inspired by Kerrigan from the PC game Starcraft. I wasn't able to take more pictures but the Tau army looked spiffy and I liked the modelling work on their ship. I've never played 40K but it seems like a skirmish game. Too bad the rules asrent my cup of tea. I browsed the pegs for some GW LOTR but they only had blisters. I've been collecting these models for some time now and I'm looking for the plastic box sets. The owner, Freddy, told me I could have these ordered. Maybe I'll take him up on that offer soon. Here're some of the LOTR sets I've finished painting.

A nearby Painting Service at last!

2011-02-18T06:52:00.001-08:00

Looks like the piles of unfinished/unmade toy soldiers in my bodega may have hope of seeing a game table soon. I'm one of those who've managed to buy more than I can paint, and the the sets still keep piling up. Having a painting service nearby ( actually, its in a nearby island) can hopefully help me get these toys ready for gaming and display.

Amplify’d from www.mmps.asia

MMPS will provide wargamers with good quality painted figures and scratchbuilding
services at very competitive rates.

We want to provide our customers with the kind of service that we want to receive
ourselves when we are customers somewhere. Good quality work, an affordable, fast
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We want nothing less than your total satisfaction when you buy from us and we will
work hard to get it.

I am Fons, also known as 'Fonzie' of Fonzie's

Scratchbuilding Service to some of
you. I am a wargamer, painter, scratch-builder and collector of over 30 years.

After a career of 30 years as a senior NCO in the Belgian Army I retired to the Philippines.
My plan was to just hang out and do as little as possible here but, my wife had
other plans for me. :-) Just kidding of course honey!

My favorite has always been the Napoleonic Wars and that’s why we start with Napoleonic's.
As time goes on we will cover almost every other, popular period in history but
let’s take it one step at the time and do a great job on the Napoleonic's first..
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Read more at www.mmps.asia

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Summer's Griffins Take Flight

2011-02-10T06:54:00.000-08:00

Here are two Flyer stands for my HotT Army of Summer. A griffin is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle was the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature.

In that country be many griffins, more plenty than in any other country. Some men say that they have the body upward as an eagle and beneath as a lion; and truly they say sooth, that they be of that shape. But one griffin hath the body more great and is more strong than eight lions, of such lions as be on this half, and more great and stronger than an hundred eagles such as we have amongst us. For one griffin there will bear, flying to his nest, a great horse, if he may find him at the point, or two oxen yoked together as they go at the plough. For he hath his talons so long and so large and great upon his feet, as though they were horns of great oxen or of bugles or of kine, so that men make cups of them to drink of. And of their ribs and of the pens of their wings, men make bows, full strong, to shoot with arrows and quarrels. -- Sir John Mandeville in his 14th century book of travels

The models are repainted Mageknight figures. I decided to make two different color schemes to depict a mated pair because these magical creatures are also known for not only for mating for life, but also, if either partner dies, then the other would continue throughout the rest of its life alone, never to search for a new mate. I based the wing patterns on Peregrine Falcon pictures.

Next, the forest comes alive!

The Centaurs of Summer

2011-01-29T00:24:00.000-08:00

"In the high woods there was none comelier of all the centaur-girls, and she alone by love and love’s sweet words and winning ways held Cyllarus, yes, and the care she took to look her best (so far as that may be with limbs like that). She combed her glossy hair, and twined her curls in turn with rosemary or violets or roses, and sometimes she wore a pure white lily. Twice a day she bathed her face in the clear brook that fell from Pagasae’s high forest, twice she plunged her body in its flow, nor would she wear on her left side and shoulder any skin but what became her from best-chosen beasts."

From Mount Pelion in Thessaly and the Foloi oak forest come the Kentaurides -- magical half woman/half horse beings prepared to serve the Queens of the Summer Court. Here are two centaur shamans for the growing HOTT army of Summer. The figures are posed rearing on their hind legs with one arm ready to throw something -- an enchanted stone maybe -- while the other arm is outstretched and covered by some magical material.

The arm actually reminds me of the Witchblade comicbook. Because of that, I'm thinking of playing them as Knights or Paladins rather than riders. One is painted black and as a brunette while the other is a white horse with a blonde. Both figures are repurposed Mageknight figures.

Next up are Flyers!

Making An Army for Summer

2011-01-11T00:38:00.000-08:00

A happy new year to all!

My life has been oh so toxic these past few weeks with work. A whole new channel brand design is cooking in the pot and I've found very few time in between to game and tinker with my toys. The few hours I did spend painting were devoted to starting a new HOTT army, one I've dubbed as the Army of Summer. The first few elements are made from Mageknight figures I bought from a fellow Filipino gamer in Cebu. I didn't bother to reprime these but went ahead and painted over the previous paint job.

So here are the first few recruits:

The elves above will be Shooters. The downside with prepainted minis is that you get very little or no pose variations. I made do with fudging around with the bow directions.

These elves however look more savage and with two poses only, I opted for a more "irregular" look. I guess I'll use these as Warbands.

The idea for an Army of Summer came from Jim Butcher's Summer Knight, one of the earlier volumes in his Harry Dresden series. More on this army soon.:)

Merry Christmas! And FUBAR to you too!

2010-12-26T17:06:00.000-08:00

A very merry Christmas to everyone! May your family's Christmas be peaceful and joyous.

And although my Christmas schedule has been oh so toxic of late, I've managed to cram in a few short games of FUBAR. We werent able to take pics of the whole battles but here are a few pix we'd like to share:)

First up are the Terran Marines:

And here are the Nova Romans:

More to come!

FUBAR Unit Cards: Harrakian Leader and Rogues Hunting Pack

2010-11-22T02:21:00.000-08:00

The figures are from Heroscape and we use them as Not-Predators. The Harrakians are basically not heavily armored, favoring camouflage rather than armor. This is shown by the Active Chameleon tech that basically allows them to always be treated as having moderate cover. The roll needed to hit the Harrakian is modified by +2, which is quite difficult. I guess that's a pretty fair trade for having minimal armor. Plus, they have a devastating 4 volleys of 5 FP per figure that can target units as per the guided munitions rules from FUBAR's sci fi supplement. Let me know if you use the stats and how they work out for your game. A 4 man squad of these guys decimated 4 squads of troopers in a recent game!

FUBAR Unit Cards: Biomech Warriors and Cyclops Heavy Drones

2010-11-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

Here are two more unit cards I designed for use with FUBAR, a neat set of skirmish rules for modern and sci-fi firefights. Check out the rules here and try out the stats I've drawn up using the supplements.

Enjoy! Aliens coming soon!

FUBAR Unit Cards: Human Armored Troopers

2010-11-18T05:33:00.000-08:00

Here are two unit cards I designed for use with FUBAR, a neat set of skirmish rules for modern and sci-fi firefights. You can check out the rules here and try out the stats I've drawn up using the supplements. Our first few games were fast and furious and FUN! Let me know what you think.

The Biomechs are next! Enjoy!

Battle Report: Contact!

2010-11-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

I finally got a chance to try out FUBAR and its Generic Sci Fi supplement. The one page skirmish rules play fast enough with very little in terms of record keeping, which virtually amounted to nothing -- not if you count the drafting of the unit stats as record-keeping. Firefights were fast and deadly, so was close combat but I'm not so hot about how some modifiers were used. Some called for raising a unit's stats by 1 or 2 while others add modifiers to the dice roll. Admittedly, familiarity with the rules will soon render my rant and confusion moot but nevertheless, that was one of the things that kinda slowed down things at one point. Overall all though, it was quite fun. I see using this ruleset more often. So here's a short battle report, enjoy!

As usual, the pix are clickable.

A squad of armored troopers are sent to Station Zebra, a small military research station hidden in the tundra of Marius Secundus. The five man squad is dropped by a shuttle that returns to the orbiting troopship. The squad discovers the facility abandoned and Sgt. Grey proceeds to download all the recoverable data from the station's main computer. Outside, Trooper Morita spots a large number of mobile forms approaching the station and identifies them as Biomechs. Grey contacts the troopship and requests for pickup. A storm though will delay the shuttle for some time, leaving the troopers no choice but to engage the approaching hostiles. Grey, Gupta and Sato join Morita and Ramirez outside the main structure. The troopers have to hold their positions until the shuttle arrives.

Grey bounces to the top of the building, finding a suitable spot perfect for sniping. Morita and Ramirez bounce towards a small huddle of buildings that serve as the facility's barracks and supply areas. In mid-bounce, the two acquire their targets and launch their rockets. Fireballs erupt amidst the ranks of the Biomechs as the two land on top of some buiildings, each firing his plasma rifle into the enemy. A Biomech cyclops falls as smaller and more agile Biomech warriors rush past. Gupta and Sato bounce to the right, launching an array of rockets at a squad of warriors angling to that side. Plasma fire erupts from the Biomechs, pinning Morita atop a building.

A Cyclops surges forward and fires a barrage of plasma discs at the rooftops but is blown back, its torso vaporized by Grey's plasma rifle. Gupta runs towards a low wall but is forced to seek cover as a barrage of plasma fire washes across his hiding place. Ramirez stops another squad of warriors from advancing at the left with a hail of plasma fire as Morita bounces from the rooftop, launching another set of rockets at a pair of Cyclops.

He lands in the middle of a squad and promptly vaporizes a warrior at point blank range as another rushes to engage him in hand to hand combat. Grey, catching Morita's movement, drops the attacking warrior but two other warriors turn to face Morita. Bolts of searing hot plasma liquify his armor and Morita goes down. Gupta drops one of the warriors and starts to bounce, only to be stopped by a plasma bolt from a Cyclops. He lands back on the ground, just as lances of heat strike his chest and he slams forward onto the low wall. Sato returns fire but is pinned down by another cyclops. Grey covers him, his plasma shots disrupting the Cyclops from targeting Sato.

Ramirez launches his last set of rockets as he prepares to bounce towards Sato. A trio of warriors spot his movement and shower him with plasma blasts. His burning power suit, the front twisted in a melted heap, crashes back down into the rooftop. Alone, Sato bounces back towards the main structure and finds cover as the biomechs break through the smaller buildings. The shuttle arrives and Grey covers Sato as he bounces to the waiting vehicle. Another Cyclops falls to Grey's covering fire and the sergeant rushes to join Sato. With a thunderclap, the shuttle blasts away into space, leaving behind the remaining biomechs swarming around the lost research station.

Of course, the scene was played out a couple of times with the troopers escaping only one time out of four. Three of the games were played solo and only the last one was against Sandie. The other games saw the whole squad wiped out. Which was to be expected since they were vastly outnumbered. The attackers consisted of a 4 man squad of Biomech warriors and three squads consisting of two Cyclops and three warriors each. If the troopers hadn't been able to board the shuttle within a turn after it arrived for pickup, another squad of Biomechs would have been added.

We went through this to test the stats I had drawn up for the armored troopers. I wanted the troopers to be able to have an advantage because of their power armor's jump capabilities and to try and recreate how Heinlein's Cap troopers fought "on the bounce." Our troopers can walk, run and bounce and if the player should wish it, the figure can fire his weapon/launch rockets midway during the bounce and get an extra FP die -- with the benefits added from the "Guided Munitions" rule. Each trooper has ammo supplies sufficient for 3 such attacks. Once the rockets are used up, the trooper can still fire his plasma rifle at 4FP during the bounce but without the benefits of the Guided Munitions rule. Once on the ground, the trooper can fire his weapon again but using the weapon's alloted FP ( 3FP in the case of plasma rifles). The squad was also organized into 3 fireteams with two teams having two troopers and the lone sniper as one fireteam for activation purposes. We wanted to recreate the "leapfrogging" movement for covering fire but the buildings were set too close for the troopers to acquire LOS.

A few more test games and I'll be posting our unit stats for others to try out.

HotT Army of Horrors

2010-11-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

Mage Knight as a game never really appealed to me but I managed to hoard a sizeable amount of figures, sometime through a few direct purchases -- the blind box format never really made sense to me -- and, more recently, through trade and sale on the secondary market. I've been repainting and rebasing these Mage Knight figures for use in Hordes of the Things and here's a new list I've come up with. You can click the pictures for bigger versions.

The bulk of the army is made of warbands, featuring repainted MK Spine Suckers and Shadows.

I enjoyed repainting these and I opted for a more "bird-like" look for the Spine suckers and a "wet" and slime-ish look for the Shadows. Two stands of each type will be fielded.

Two stands of ethereal-looking minis -- MK Solonavi drones and channelers -- get wrangled up as 2 blade elements. These are mounted floating on the bases but aren't considered flyers.

A hero element is represented by a World of Warcraft (WoW) mini as a demonic warrior hero. The mini's original weapon was replaced with a more visually appealing one taken from a toy set.

Another WoW demon gets drafted as a Behemoth general. The original mini had some stuff shaved off and new weapons -- again, more visually apt ones were selected-- were installed.

I'll be adding some flyer elements as soon as I can decided which MK figures to use. The bases shown here have been treated with ground work but I've yet to add grass and other bits. I'm holding off till I get the flyers ready to preserve the uniformity of the bases' look.

In summary, the army will have the following composition:

1/72 HotT Dwarves

2010-10-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some elements of my HotT Dwarf army I managed to paint inbetween drawing projects and painting my not-space marines. They're made from Caesar Miniatures' 1/72 Dwarves.

Most of the elements will be blades, with 4 figures mounted to a stand.

The Caesar Dwarves are kind of a mixed bag. Some were obviously inspired by the Dwarves in the LOTR films and some by Games Workshop's Trollslayers. I personally prefer the LOTR look but they seem to be lightly armored with most not having helms of any kind.

I also made hero elements with three figures for each.

If I'm playing the army as Tolkien-inspired, I plan on using huge bears as a behemoth element. The figures are from the Dungeons and Dragons line, repainted and based 2 to a stand.

And here's a Goliath as a behemoth or hero element for a more generic fantasy -- or a D&D campaign setting -- milieu. The repainted figure's from the Dungeons and Dragons line too.

I'm planning to add two more behemoth options soon as well as a flyer element. More to come together with the army list:)

Nexus Marines: Starting a Not-Space Marine army

2010-10-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

"They came on in the same old way and we defeated them in the same old way."

Duke of Wellington

Lined 'em all up
Took a can of Tamiya Gunship Grey, waited for a sunny day and went spray-happy
Lathered on black acrylic on the guns, belts and pouches. Let the suckers dry.
Broke out deep black drawing ink and carefully applied a wash on each figure
Used a light blue acrylic on the eyes with a 0 brush.
Washed the eye areas with Winsor and Newton ultramarine blue.
Had a tall glass of iced coffee and fed the cat. And inbetween the steps above, I managed to work on a HotT Dwarf army too...

Detailing next...

Nexus XXX Century Warriors

2010-09-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

"At the end of the third millenium, battles are still mostly fought and won by infantry. On the surface of desert planets, on icy wastes, in deadly jungles or venemous plains, the elite forces of the Xanthac federation..."

I got 5 boxes of these largish sci fi armored troopers from Hannants UK and JMN Hobby here in Manila. Each box has 5 figures.They're molded in silver grey plastic and the hexagonal slotta bases are black. These figs are 28mm, the same size as the Games Workshop Space Marines. The bases are Hexagonal. 5 guys in total. Each figure, with the exception of the leader, is made of the same 3 pieces - the main figure/torso, a Gun and a Backpack.

There's also a sprue with 3 heavy weapons ( probably something like a flamer, a plasma cannon and a heavy bolter/blaster) on it. They're a simple "Squish Together" mold - Guns "Squish" into a large square on their chests and backpacks go into a circle.

The fifth figure seems like an NCO, probably the squad leader. He has a sword and pistol combi and his armor is a bit more ornate than the regular troopers. Plus, he's wearing Oakleys:) Not bad as a cheap alternative to the Games Workshop Space Marines.

Here's a set of pictures of some other gamer's figures painted up as space marines. And here's another set of painted samples. Here's another set of painted samples and another here. Scroll down to see them. I'll post my painted figures soon.

54mm Skeletons

2010-09-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Just want to share some models.

I got these bagged in sets of 50 figures. Maybe cuz Halloween's near.

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins 4

2010-09-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

Finally, my HotT Orcs have a behemoth element. The element has 2 figures drafted from the Dungeons and Dragon miniatures line. The 30mmish prepainted Orc Savage from the Deathknell release looked suitable enough to be a 1/72 troll. These are more samples of my repurposed and rebased figures with the original prepainted minis repainted a trollish green and based for HotT as a behemoth element.

In Norse mythology, trolls are said to dwell in isolated mountains, rocks, and caves, are larger than humans and notably ugly. Numerous tales about trolls are recorded, in which they are frequently described as being extremely old, very strong, but slow and dim-witted. They are sometimes described as man-eaters and as turning to stone upon contact with sunlight. In Tolkien's writings they are portrayed as evil, stupid, with crude habits, although still intelligent enough to communicate with a known language.

Morgoth, created the first Trolls before the First Age. Strong and vicious, but stupid creatures, their major weakness was that they turned to stone in sunlight. Treebeard of the Ents states that Trolls were "made in mockery of" them, as Orcs were of Elves, though not necessarily from Ents. Trolls were likely a corrupted form of some other race of Middle-earth, as both Morgoth and Sauron could only corrupt creatures which already existed, not create any anew. There is reference that sunlight will return them to the stone from which they were made in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In the Second Age and Third Age, Trolls were among Sauron's most dangerous warriors.

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins 3

2010-08-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

And here are the Goblin hordes, made from 1/72 figures from Caesar Miniatures' fantasy line. Quiet a few of the models were sculkpted in the act of throwing some primitive kind of grenade. I wasn't too keen on that so I made some spears from wire and putty, cut off the hands with the grenades and made them into spearmen. All the stands though are classed as "hordes" for HotT.

These guys are relatively shorter than the orcs seen in the previous post. All of them, save for a few wearing steel caps, are almost naked with just some furskins as loincloths. And they dont have body hair. I ended up smearing outty on some just to avoid the all-bald look. Funnily enough though, the sculptor added prominent nipples. As in, eraser-tip, standing, erect, nipples. Serves them right for walking barechested in the cold:) Go figure.

Flocking next:)

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins 2

2010-08-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

I've been painting at least an hour everyday before bed and here are the Orcs, ready for basing and flocking.
First up are the wolf riders. These are 1/72 Dasrk Aliance orcs converted to ride atop repurposed Mageknight wolves. The wolves have only received a primer and black wash. They still need some good color schemes.

Next up are the warbands. All are Dark Alliance orcs, again in 1/72. They've been painted with acrylics and inks.

Comments are welcome. More to come soon!

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins

2010-08-04T00:09:00.000-07:00

This is my very first Hordes of the Things army -- 20mm plastic Orcs and Goblins! The army composition is:

Behemoth @4 x1 4AP
Riders @2 x2 4AP
Shooters @2 x2 4AP
Warband @2 x4 8AP
Hordes @1 x4 4AP

Total= 24AP

The Goblin Hordes are converted Caesar Miniatures Goblins

The Orc warbands are a mix from sets 1 and 2 of Orion's 1/72 Dark Alliance Orcs

The orcish bowmen are again from Orion's Dark Alliance Orcs set 2

The wolves are converted from Mageknight and the riders are from Orion's Dark Alliance Orcs

I still need a figure for my Behemoth "Troll" element but I'm sorely lacking a suitable figure. Here are my options:

The first is a Mageknight figure named "Ironclad", a 28mm orc. The middle figure is a largish zombie, again from Mageknight Metals and the last is a "troll" from Caesar Miniatures. The first two figures look smallish on the 60mm x 80mm base for behemoths -- not too "behemoth"y -- and the third just looks too goblinoid for my taste. I think I'll need to source out a more compatible figure for my troll behemoth.

These fellas will be painted this weekend and I'm hoping to have the troll figure already by then. They've all been primed -- save for the troll-- and temporarily based using white glue/bluetac.

More to come soon.

Darned Orcs!

2010-07-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

Yup, the HOTT/DBA bug has finally hit me hard. Now I'm reading up on AAR's of conventions and competitions using these rules mainly to understand the mechanics of the rules as well as to ogle at all the miniature eye candy out there.

I've sorted out some of my plastic orcs from the pile I'm using for 1/72 Warmaster and reallocating them to either a HOTT or DBA army. The DBA list comes from David Kuijt's War of the Rings Lists over at Fanaticus:
DBA Misty Mountain Goblins
represents the various goblin and orc forces in the Misty Mountains or in the North of Tolkien's Middle Earth

1x3Bd or 3/4Wb(Gen)
2x5Wb
3x5Wb or 2Wa
1x5Wb or 4Tr or 3Bw or 2Ps
5x2Ps

And my HotT list is inspired by Luke Ueda-Sarson's Middle Earth lists:
HotT Orcs & Goblins

1 x Blade general - with bodyguard of large goblins with axes
3 x Riders - goblins on wolves
3 x Beasts - giant wolves
10 x Hordes - Goblin warriors

I'm using these lists as reference and inspiration but would most likely come up with something different. Here are some pictures of the 1/72 plastics I plan on using:

Dark Alliance Orcs: Nice poses and look but all the figures have flash that needs to be removed.

Hat Sea Peoples: Meant to be historically based but the facial expressions, the poses and of course the horned helmets make thse suitable as armred orcs. Plus, they look ugly as humans but perfect as orcs -- Uruks maybe.

Some stands of goblins made from Caesar Miniatures' fantasy line.

Sick

2010-07-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

The bad weather finally got me. I've been fighting a bad cold for over a week and I seem to be losing. My head hurts and cant seem to focus because of blocked sinuses. And a really runny, leaking and obnoxiously red nose. Time to hit the bed...

Jumping into DBA

2010-07-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

After much mulling about, I've decided to give De Bellis Antiquitatis or DBA a try. I've been reading up on Hordes of the Things and while planning my orc army, I discovered that I could make a DBA Polybian Roman army from leftovers I had after making a 2000 pt Warmaster Ancients Republican Roman army.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm a big fan of the warmaster rules and will still be making armies and gaming with them using those rules. But planning and making a warmaster army for 1/72 figures can be a bit tiring, especially since I game mostly in the field of 1500 to 2500 points -- and usually work on matched pairs of armies. My warmaster armies are made up of 40mm x 20mm bases, with 3 bases making a unit and 6 foot figures for each unit. Mounted units have 3 figures per unit. For a Republican Roman army, each 3 stand unit would cost 55 points and a minimum of ten units are needed for each 1000 point army. Doing the math, I would need 120 foot figures just to make 1100 points worth of units! And that's not counting the amount of figures needed for cavalry, allied units and artillery. So, the twelve elements that make up a DBA army would seem easy in comparison.

This is the list I plan to work on first:

46b. Polybian Roman (275 BC to 105 BC)

Composition: 2x3Cv, 6x4Bd, 2x4Sp, 2x2P

The figure count is surprisingly small. For the whole army, I'll be needing 6 mounted cavalry figures, 24 hastati and principes, 8 triari and 4 velites -- making a total of 42 figures!

And here are the plastic toy soldiers I plan to use, all from HäT Industrie:

8017 Republican Romans - Princeps and Triari (48 infantry, 20 Princeps with pilum, 16 with Triari with spears and 12 infantry with swords)
8018 Republican Romans - Hastati and Velites (48 figures: 16 Velites, 24 Hastati with pila and 8 Hastati with swords)
8051 Roman Command (24 foot, 8 mounted, 68 accessories)
8021 Roman Cavalry (12 mounted cavalrymen)

I can even make variant elements to represent the other soldiers recruited by the Romans such as Celtic cavalry, Spanish foot and mounted as well as other Italian soldiery. All of these I've managed to procure from HäT Industrie before while building my Warmaster armies.

So, first things first -- time to cut the bases and select the figures. I downloaded the handy The Unofficial Guide to DBA from the Washington Area De Bellis Antiquitatis Gamers (WADBAG) website and will be using it as a guide. I currently only have a copy of Hordes of the Things and WADBAG's guide was pretty helpful in whetting my interest. You can check out their site here.

Here's the element table from their guide:

New Plastic Just In!

2010-06-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

I just received some new sets of 1/72 plastic orcs! These are labeled "Dark Alliance" and Orion. The sculpts are quite nice and more to my taste than the Caesar Miniature Orcs. I'll be posting pix here soon. I've set aside the Warmaster army I'm working on to try making one for HotT. Here are some lists I found on the net for making a generic but still "Tolkien" in spirit Orc/goblin army:

From Luke Ueda Sarson:
1 x Warband or Blades, 1 x Warband, 2 x Riders, 2 x Lurkers or 1 x Beasts, 1 x Behemoth or 2 x Beasts, 10 x Hordes

From Dave Kuijt's Middle Earth DBA lists:
1x3Bd or 3/4Wb(Gen), 2x5Wb, 3x5Wb or 2Wa, 1x5Wb or 4Tr or 3Bw or 2Ps, 5x2Ps

And 3 more from Dave Kuijt's post at Fanaticus:
Uruk Raiding Party
1x Hero (Lurtz), 3x Wargs (Beasts, or Riders if you must), 1x Shooter, 1x Troll (or 2x Spear), 2x Blades
Uruk Invasion of Rohan:
1x Hero (Lurtz) or Magician (Saruman), 2x Wargs (Beasts), 4x Spear, 1x Shooter, 3x Blades
Uruk Invasion 2:
1x Gen (Bd or Sp), 1x Shooter, 1x Arty, 1x Sneaker (Exploding Uruk Hai Munitions -- the ultimate wall-breacher!), 6x Spear, 1x Bd

What to do? What to do? What to do?

Time to draw up some lists then. More to come.

Raising my own Horde

2010-05-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

Recently found boxes of old Warhammer fantasy figures and figured they could be made into a HOTT army. Making the army and painting the figures will be a welcome break after a very hectic month of work. Mosty would need a bit of repainting but nothing straight from scratch. Going will be slow though since I haven't started filming at work yet. The past month has been a whirlwind of concept designs, storyboards, animatics and campaign pitches. I'm making it a point though to devote at least an hour a night to making a matched pair of armies together with a tank I'm building at the same time. My Middle Earth Orcs are on hold since they're already in the painting stage and my very much reduced free time wont leave much for painting them en masse. I do hope to finish them soon together with the other stuff that's been put on stasis.

More Wow

2010-04-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still knee deep in work, both inside and outside the office. I've also taken up a side career selling oil and acrylic paintings made by various Filipino artists. All these have left me virtually no time for miniature wargaming. My gaming table is currently loaded with a miscellany of stuff I have to sort and place in storage, mainly household stuff my wife and I want to keep. Summer in Manila is quite hot with some days being 36 degrees in the shade. Earlier this month, I moved my hobby workbench to the garage, the more to maximize the summer breeze but I havent finished sorting the paint bottles, equipment, hobby stuff and other ephemera. Maybe mid May will see me picking up the dice again.

In the meantime, here're a couple of more World of warcraft minis I picked up for less than a dollar each. I'm not sure what creatures they are but the 3rd from the left looks like a water elemental.

From Wow to Ad&D

2010-03-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Slitherblade Tidehunter is another figure from the World of Warcraft miniatures game. The figure consists of a naga-like creasture preparing to strike with a trident. The sculpting is crisp and the details good enough but the spear/trident thingie is all bent and wobbly. Maybe I'll clip it off and attach a kris or some similarly exotic Asian-looking sword.

Detail is quite good, this being a hefty miniature but the scales on the mini's skin surface seem a bit too juvenile in design. It's just basically a cross hatch job. It would have looked better if the sculptor payed more attention to the shape and arrangement of the scales rather than the quick cross hatch.

The paint job seems decent enough with the majority of the body block-painted with no highlighting and blending -- just as expected from a CMG figure. But unlike the previous CMGs from games like Mageknight, this figure seems to have been carefully painted -- no splotches nor stray brushwork of any kind. Just good ole' block painting which actually suffices and is quite accepable on the tabletop. But he'll be repainted just the same to match my lizard men armies for AD&D Battlesystem. The plus is that I got this figure for less than a dollar.

All in all, another good buy.

The Tauren

2010-03-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

I picked up another assortment of loose World of Warcraft miniatures for use in our AD&D Battlesystem game. These could be the nucleus of either a Tauren or beastman army. Since I got these secondhand at the 4th TAGCOM ( a Philippine toy and hobby convention), each figure came at around $1 each. I only went thru the monster figures and passed over the elves, dwarves and humans since they towered over most of my 28mm figures.

Click the pictures below for bigger views.

The figures are well sculpted in terms of detail and the painting is way above the style I've seen commonly used in prepainted minis -- yes, I'm referring to the barely tolerable paintjobs on Mageknight, Starwars ( have you seen the Han Solo in Stormtrooper armor? UGLY!) Heroclix and D&D minis.

And what is it with huge weapons and shields? The guy's already a freakin' minotaur with huge muscles and horns! And he needs a boss-heavy shield?!!!

Not in my fantasy world he won't. I'm just not too fond of the oversized shield and the huge pauldrons on the warrior. It's a pity cuz the sculptor could have concentrated instead in scultping the bull-like neck as well as tried achieving instead the look of a massive auroch charging, sinews and veins stretching and popping out. Oh well.

The color choice on the Tauren warrior is a bit odd for me, especially the blue armor. I've always imagined the Taurens to be more "fiery" and earthy and would have not added any cool colors to their paint scheme. The blue here badly matches the browns and reds of the bull itself. The cleric turned out a bit better being nicely posed -- as if it was generating somekind of magical pillar of elemental force -- but again, the paint job missed out on the detailing especially on the nice, raised lines of the armor. Anyway, I'll probably repaint these as well as remove the offending shield and sword. All in all, a good enough buy for starting another fantasy army.

Heavy Metal Mayhem: Sci Fi tanks in action

2010-02-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

I couldnt resist. I've been working on my dirt cheap sci fi tanks and I snapped a couple of pix over the weekend. Then a slow day at the office pushing pixels led to my fooling around with the files and VOILA! The tanks aren't finished yet -- detailing and decals and weathering to go -- but I opened one file to play around with in photoshop while I waited for my storyboard materials. Another one followed the first. Then another one. So here're the results of a lazy morning at the office. The pictures are clickable and opens my photobucket gallery. Let me know what you think:)

Camo Slapped On!

2010-02-16T04:27:00.000-08:00

I finally chose a camo pattern for the sci fi tanks, or at least for one version. These babies will be joining the Terran Commonwealth. The camo is made of three colors: desert yellow, tan and red brown. After cleanup, the tanks were sprayed desert yellow all around. A set of putty masks were placed and the lighter tan was sprayed on. FInally, Red brown was brushed on the edges where the two colors met, but only on one side. When the paint was dry, a wash of earth brown was applied to spread on the sunken parts of the models. For some reason, the inks beaded a bit, even after a modest dose of acrylic smoothers. I just wiped off the beads and plan to reapply some desert yellow and tan with the brush when the washes dry.

Sorry for the blurry pic but this eye-level picture shows the color order from the fron to the back. More to come soon:)

More Sci FI Tanks On The Cheap

2010-02-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

I found some more variations of the dirt cheap tanks I bought before. The smaller tanks cost less than 50 cents each with the bigger one going for less than a dollar. This time, I bought a bunch, including more of the previous types I wrote about. One of the newer tanks is quite large and features a single but thick barrel while the smaller model had dual barrels plus rockets on the sides. The hulls of these tanks are visibly different than the previous ones seen here and could be fielded with different armies. I've begun scrounging parts from my other models for spare tracks, jerry cans, bags, crates, etc to festoon the tanks as well as spare parts from the equipment of the models I plan to use the tanks with. I'm sure that each model would need some putty because the plastic's a bit brittle.

The bigger tank has very nice raised detail and looks heavy. I'm planning to use it for my futuristic Roman legions while the smaller one will be assigned to my sci-fi Brits. Both armies were made from figure models from Urban Mammoth.

The smaller tank has two rockets mounted on the side of the turret(see above picture), something I'm not too hot about. I clipped these off on one of the models and will replace them with something else or at least putty them up. The second picture shows the previous medium tank already primed black. There are some irritable moulding lines running aound the turrt and below the skirt edges but a sharp knife and sandpaper should do the trick. I'm aiming for fast and easy conversions and painting schemes and these tanks are perfect for experimenting some new techniques I read some new articles regarding fast camo painting and would like to try the tips they offered. Tnce they're dirt cheap and probably won't make me feel bad if I mess up the conversions.

I'm also looking into trying out different camo patterns. Ever since I started model making, most of my german armor got similar paint schemes --- dark yellow, red brown and dark green. Of course, the patterns may have differed from theatre to theatre but lots of tanks with these colors on my display shelves makes for boring eye candy. Maybe this will open up new painting avenues for me.

Solomon Kane is Sharp!

2010-01-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

I just saw Solomon Kane and he is definitely no pansy Van Helsing. Written and directed by Michael Basset and made on a modest budget, the film is a strong example of sword and sorcery adventure done right. The 80's Conan films with Arnold S. wasn't the Conan I've read in Robert Howard's stories. Neither was Kevin Sorbo's Kull. Now, that was a sad affair. There's been a dirth of good sword and sorcery adventure films, most seemingly made by artists not familiar with the genre. The reinvented Van Helsing ( played by Hugh Jackman in the film of the same title) is a pale imitation of Solomon Kane -- in fact, that version of Van Helsing was a rip-off of Howard's anti-hero. But Solomon Kane... now, this is pure sword and sorcery as Howard and friends defined it.

The film opens with Solomon Kane viciously assaulting a castle in North Africa. Here, we meet the titular hero and see him at his worst -- without remorse, bloodthirsty, greedy and extremely lethal. He finds himself led into a trap by the Devil's reaper and discovers that his soul had been forfeit and sentenced to eternal damnation. He escapes and we see him a year later back in England. The knowledge that he had damned his soul made him renounce his bloody ways and seek redemption through peace. A sorcerer, a mysterious masked warrior and a blighted land force him to grab a sword again, this time knowingly risking his soul to save the life of another.

James Purefoy delivers a strong performance as the grim anti-heroic 17th century puritan and demon hunter ably assisted by Pete Postlewaith, Alice Krige, Rachel Hurd Wood and Max Von Sydow. And for a small budget film, the soundtrack is outstanding. The misc en scene and photography were also brilliantly done and aptly portrayed a grim, cold, desolate England. Here, the sun seems to be hiding, with the atmosphere constantly greyed out by rain and snow, much like the desolation Kane finds in himself. Some of the CGI effects were a bit blah but the use of practical effects were immensely effective. The action is bloody, fast and brutal -- but not too kitschy nor over-the-top. No Hong Kong moves here. Plus, there's one scene after a pivotal murder when Kane picks up a black cape from the ground and swings it around to cover his shoulders -- waaaaay cool visual! Plus the symbolism of redonning a blackened past is subtly and effectively conveyed. Even the Batman couldn't pull off a cape throw that cool.

This is definitely an origin story -- something Howard's short stories never gave us. Solomon Kane's journey from a man of violence and greed to a vengeful tool of righteousness hits just the right spot in terms of heroic storytelling and although much of the story is not Howard canon, it shapes the characterization of the anti-hero very well. Basset's direction lends a strong sense of believability in the motivations that drove Kane to renounce violence then to painfully embrace it again.

All in all, a great, kick-ass adventure film. Admittedly, the narrative has flaws and plot holes but in terms of blood pumping adventure adrenalin, it delivers. If you're a fan of sword and sorcery ( and if you're not, then why are you reading my blog?) then you owe yourself to see this film. Solomon Kane's blade is indeed sharp and in my humble opinion, it is adventure done right.

Sci Fi Armor on the Cheap

2010-01-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

I picked up two of each of these fanciful plastic tanks at dirt cheap prices. The bigger tanks cost around a dollar each while the smaller ones went at around 25 cents. The hulls and part of the turrets seem to be based on real world tanks but the main guns and accessories shout "Sci Fi". They've been primed black and will soon join the ranks of my 28mm sci fi armies. Check out these figs here and here.

First, the bigger tank has a three barrel assembly as it's main armaments. Two smaller tubes flank a huge "powergun." A 28 mm Void figure is shown to show the scale of each model.

The smaller tank seems to suit a light tank role but it has two main guns as well as two more guns at turret sides.

The details are crisp, even exaggerated and may take shading and weathering really well. I'll be choosing a camo scheme for these soon, maybe inspired by what the troopers were painted in. All in all, a very good buy:)

Aaaargh!

2010-01-11T18:54:00.001-08:00

Planned to upload new pics of my newly painted minis. worked in the garage and stood up to look for my card reader inside the house. My dear old Tumbling -- a long-haired Askal mongrel or native Filipino dog -- peeped at my work table and snuck off with my memory card. Lesson: memory card + dog = bad idea!

Terragenesis for inspiration and instruction

2010-01-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a site that I've enjoyed for some time now. It's perfect for inspiration and instruction on making wargaming terrain. I've yet to join the forums though but the discussions seem active and friendly. Click here to go to the site.

Now to get me some foamboards...

2010: The Shape of Things to Come

2010-01-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

2009 has left the building. Happy new year to everyone. And as 2010 is ushered in, here are a few of my gaming resolutions:

1. buy less, model & game more
2. finally settle on a ruleset of choice for ancients, medieval, fantasy and sci fi. Only one for each genre.
3. organize everything-- my garage is due for some massive cleaning up and I've got boxes and boxes of model kits, plastic figure sets, unfinished terrain projects, books and painting accessories all haphazardly strewn about and are all in dire need of organizing and completing. I really have to research and find a storage system that will work for my hobbies and keep my life sane.
4. Sell or auction of models I dont use nor want anymore.
5. Select some prize models for display.

More of my plans soon.

December rush

2009-12-15T01:21:00.000-08:00

December ushered in a whirlwind of work and I haven't been able to game nor paint for a week. Arcane Legions made an appearance at my local gaming shop and I'm considering picking up some army packs first. Personally, I'm not planning on trying out the rules. Warmaster and Battlesystem seems to suit our needs quite well already and most of our minis are being based using these rules. On the other hand, I may buy these figures to bulk up my 1/72 plastics, especially with the magical/mythical troops. I've gone thru the Arcane Legions website and would like to get my hands on these models, especially the centaurs, guardian lions and bear cataphracts. Most of the cavalry and infantry though look uninspired and with only 1 pose per figure type, it gives more of a boardgame feel rather than a miniature wargame.

Metals ready for painting

2009-12-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

I've set aside the plastics for a while and have resumed work on the metal mageknight figures for my woodland themed army, save for the golems. These guys will be recruited to another themed fantasy army, this time for a steam-powered Atlantis. The figures have been cleaned and assembled and are now ready for priming and painting.

The Firbolg and the Tree Men

The Iron Golems

Roma Victrix: The Polybian Legion for Warmaster

2009-11-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

(click the pictures above for bigger versions)

The Manipular system was adopted at around 315 BC, during the Second Samnite War. The rugged terrain of Samnium where the war was fought highlighted the lack of manoeuvrability inherent in the phalanx formation which the Romans had inherited from the Etruscans. After suffering a series of defeats culminating in the surrender of an entire legion without resistance at Caudine Forks the Romans abandoned the phalanx altogether, adopting the more flexible Manipular system.

For the next two hundred years until the Marian reforms of 107 BC, the Roman army was organized into three lines: the hastati, the principes, and the triarii. These were divided by experience and fighting ability, with the youngest soldiers in the hastati making the first engagement. Where resistance was strong this rank would dissolve back through the Roman line and allow the more experienced soldiers in the principes to fight. In turn, the principes could yield to the hardened triarii if necessary. The latter situation led to the Roman saying "ad triarios redisse", "to fall back on the triarii", meaning that things had come to a desperate pass. The maniples in each line generally formed with a one-maniple space between each maniple and its neighbors, and the maniples in each of the forward lines covering the gaps in the line behind, so that retreating troops of the forward lines could withdraw without disrupting those behind them. Sources disagree on the numbers involved and in all likelihood they varied considerably but a generally accepted number is 20 maniples of hastati and 20 of principes of approximately 120 men each and 20 half strength maniples of triarii, for a total of 6,000 men.

Attached to a legion were also a number of very light skirmishers called velites armed with javelins drawn from the poorer sections of Roman society, a handful of Equestrian cavalry, auxiliaries (mostly cavalry) drawn from Rome's Italian allies (socii) and a large number of non-combatants.

Info paraphrased from Wikipedia

Roma Victrix: The Principes & Triarii

2009-11-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

( you can click the pictures above for bigger versions)

Principes (Singular: Princeps) were spearmen, and later swordsmen, in the armies of the early Roman Republic. They were men in the prime of their lives who were fairly wealthy, and could afford decent equipment. They were the heavier infantry of the legion who carried large shields and wore good quality armour. Their usual position was the second battle line. They fought in quincunx formation, supported by light troops. Principes carried swords, or gladii, instead of spears. Each princeps also carried 2 pila, heavy javelins that bent on impact to prevent them being removed from the victim or thrown back

Triarii (Singular: Triarius) were one of the early Roman military Manipular legions of the early Roman Republic (509 BC – 107 BC). They were the oldest and among the wealthiest men in the army, and could afford good quality equipment. They wore heavy metal armour and carried large shields, their usual position being the third battle line. During the Camillan era, they fought in a shallow phalanx formation, supported by light troops. In most battles triarii were not used because the lighter troops usually defeated the enemy before the triarii were committed to the battle. In battle, triarii formed 10 maniples of 60 men each and made up the third line in the legion behind the front line of hastati and the second line of principes.

Once the battle commenced, velites would gather at the front and fling javelins to cover the advance of the hastati. If the hastati failed to break the enemy, they would fall back on the principes, who now carried swords rather than spears. If the principes could not break them they would retire behind the triarii, who would then engage the enemy —hence the expression rem ad Triarios redisse, "it has come to the triarii"—signalling an act of desperation.

Info paraphrased from Wikipedia

Roma Victrix: The Hastati

2009-11-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

( You can click the pictures above for bigger versions)

Hastati (singular: Hastatus) were a class of infantry in the armies of the early Roman Republic who originally fought as spearmen, and later as swordsmen. They were originally some of the poorest men in the legion, and could afford only modest equipment — light armor and a large shield, in their service as the lighter infantry of the legion. Later, the hastati contained the younger men rather than just the poorer, though most men of their age were relatively poor. Their usual position was the first battle line. They fought in a quincunx formation, supported by light troops.

Pitched battles would begin with the velites gathered at the front. The light troops would fling javelins to cover the advance of the hastati. The hastati were leather-armoured and wore a brass cuirass and brass helmet adorned with three feathers, carried an iron-clad wooden shield, 120 cm (4 ft) tall and a convex rectangle in shape and wielded swords, or gladii, instead of spears. Each hastatus also carried 2 pila, heavy javelins that bent on impact to prevent them being removed from the victim or thrown back. If the hastati failed to break the enemy, they would fall back on the principes, who had also been re-armed with swords. If the principes could not break them, they would retire behind the triarii, who would then engage the enemy.

This order of battle was almost always followed, the battle of the Great Plains and the battle of Zama being among the few notable exceptions. At the Great Plains, Scipio, the Roman general, formed his men up in the usual manner. But once the hastati had begun to engage the enemy, he used his principes and triarii as a flanking force, routing the opposing Carthaginian troops. At Zama, Scipio arranged his men into columns, side by side, with large lanes in between. The opposing Carthaginian elephants were drawn into these lanes where many were killed by velites without inflicting many casualties on the Romans. Once the surviving elephants had been routed, he formed his men into a long line with his triarii and principes in the center and hastati on the flanks, ready to engage the Carthaginian infantry.

Info paraphrased from Wikipedia

Roma Victrix: The Velites

2009-11-18T17:15:00.000-08:00

( You can click the pictures above for bigger versions)

Velites were light infantry and skirmishers who were armed with a number of light javelins, or hastae velitares, to fling at the enemy, and also carried short thrusting swords, or gladii for use in melee. They rarely wore armour, as they were the youngest and poorest soldiers in the legion and could not afford much equipment. They initially used hastae velitares, light javelins with tips designed to bend on impact to prevent it being thrown back, similar to the heavier pila of other legionaries. They fought in a very loose, staggered formation like most irregular troops. They did carry small wooden shields for protection though, and wore a headdress made from wolf skin to allow officers to differentiate between them and other heavier legionaries.

Velites did not form their own units; a number of them were attached to each maniple of hastati, principes and triarii. They were typically used as a screening force, driving off enemy skirmishers and disrupting enemy formations with javelin fire before retiring behind the lines to allow the heavier armed hastati to attack. They were normally the ones who engaged war elephants and chariots if they were present on the field; their high mobility and ranged weaponry made them much more effective against these enemies than heavy infantry. An early Roman legion contained approximately 1,000 velites.

Info paraphrased from Wikipedia

Roma Victrix: The Polybian Legion of Early Republican Rome

2009-11-18T17:07:00.000-08:00

The Polybian legions of the early Roman republic was a manipular army whose structure was based partially upon social class and partially upon age and military experience. The army is based on units called maniples (Latin manipulus singular, manipuli plural, from manus, "the hand"). Maniples were units of 120 men each drawn from a single infantry class. The maniples were small enough to permit tactical movement of individual infantry units on the battlefield within the framework of the greater army. The maniples were typically deployed into three discrete lines (Latin: triplex acies) based on the three heavy infantry types of hastati, principes and triarii.

My Polybian legion is currently composed of various HäT Industrie 1/72 plastic scale models. The company is a designer & manufacturer of 1/72 and 1/32 scale soft plastic and 28mm hard plastic military miniatures designed with the plastic toy figure collector, wargamer or hobbyist in mind. I've worked around the problem of painting soft plastic such as these but would detail these later on. For now, here is a list of the kits I have either in painted and finished mode or in primed and in "when-I-get-time-to-paint-them" mode:

8017 Princeps and Triari (painted & finished 1 box; 5 boxes to go)
8018 Hastati and Velites (painted & finished 1 box; 3 boxes to go)
8021 Roman Cavalry (assembled & primed; 2 boxes to go)
8035 Roman Catapults (mint in box)
8051 Roman Command (mint in box)
8040 Italian Ally Infantry (2 boxes assembled & primed; 3 boxes to go)
8054 Italian Ally Cavalry (1 box assembled & primed; 2 boxes to go)
8024 Numidian Cavalry (1 box painted & finished; 1 box to go)
8055 Spanish Cavalry (1 box assembled & primed; 1 box to go)

Plastic Soldier Review has short useful reviews of all of HäT Industrie's current product lineup. You can check out the reviews of the kits here. Over here, you can check out the beginnings of this plastic army with the first figures primed and based.

Next: The Velites
Info paraphrased from Wikipedia

Wild Sindarin Riders

2009-11-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

A couple of Elven Riders made from old Mageknight rubber/vinyl figures. I encountered a binfull of these figures along with their metal counterparts at one of my local hobby shops. The rubber/vinyl/plastic ( I really don't know which) figures averaged less than a dollar each while the metal figures went for around $1 each. Seems like kids have been unloading these models since the games lost company support and tournaments. Even the hobby shops seem to be unloading a lot of products from the defunct Wizkids at bargain prices. I wonder when GW would do the same? Wishful thinking...

(Click the pictures for bigger versions)

The originals held swords but I substituted bows for some. In addition, the elves rode unicorns -- yeah, unicorns, I know that sounds really lame -- and since everyone knows that no self-respecting male member of the wild Sindar would ever ride unicorns and be mocked for not having had pie yet, I chopped off the horns. It was the right thing to do. Too bad though that the figures seem to be marred by poor surface finishing. I don't know how I could have fixed all of that but I didn't want to invest too much time working on these fellows. Another disadvantage is that there seems to be only one pose for the mount. Bummer.

They'll soon be joining my Ad&D Battlesystem Sindarin army as half of the mounted part of the army. I've since gotten better riders from GW's wood elves line. Anyway, here are my Wild Sindarin Riders, enjoy!

Mammoth

2009-11-11T01:39:00.000-08:00

Here's another toy I plan to repurpose and rebase -- two mammoths I found at the animal toys section of my local department store. I picked up two of these megafauna and up close, they look pretty good with a very decent paint job. It seems I'll be saving some time painting and could pour the hobby time instead on developing a suitable howdah. The pictures show the toy with a 28mm GW LOTR Elvish spearman as well as two 1/72 Ancient Spanish from Hat Industrie. These guys could stand for Mumaks in my 1/72 Middle Earth project!

On Green Limbs Your Doom Marches

2009-11-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

The WoW Bog elemental joins my sentient woodland army! The army is currently composed of a mix of metal and plastic figures from Mageknight, Games Workshop and Gormiti. I picked up three of the bog elementals during a toycon for PHP 50.00 ( around a dollar) each and just textured the bases. The current paint job seemed o.k. and I decided to leave well enough alone. The WoW minis are scaled at 40mm I believe and would normally not scale well with most of my models which range from 25mm to largish 30mm. This being a monster though makes any scale suitable.

You can click the pictures for bigger versions. The next job is to get the leaders speed painted and based as well as to draw up an army list for use with 2nd Ed Ad&d Battlesystem.

Feel free to leave helpful comments, thanks!

Bog Elemental

2009-10-27T02:24:00.000-07:00

WoW's bog elemental gets recruited in my People of the Woods army. A recent trip to a local toy convention yielded 3 of these going for around a dollar each. They'll be joining my wood spirits and elementals in my themed army soon.

Here be Dragons: Big Red

2009-10-21T04:16:00.000-07:00

Here's another dragon I plan to use for 28mm gaming. It's made with a different rubber from the previous two dragons I featured and its card does not show any branding save for a stylized title " Dragon Fantasy" and just the place of manufacture -- "China." The rubber is softer and more jelly-like though not too bad that it wont stand on its legs. Its the biggest among the three and the longest. Detail is good and the painting seems better with some shading work evident. I labeled this dragon red because most of its neck, torso and legs have that dominant hue but the back has a long shiny black stripe that blends to the red which then blends to orange then yellow on the sides. The underside of the wings are in beige and some of the horn/claw details are in an off-white. Over-all, the model is a very nice addition to my wargaming collection of behemoths.

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

Here be Dragons: Dragon Hatchlings

2009-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Found these cute buggers in a blister of toys. They'll be perfect as objective markers. These toys came with a pack of dragon figures most of which seem to scale well with 1/72 figures. Two or three "medieval-looking" dragons also seem to scale well with 28mm figures. "Medieval-looking" because they remind me of the way dragons were drawn by medieval artists. Pictures of these soon.

Meanwhile, here are the hatchlings! (pictures are clickable for bigger versions)

Here be Dragons: Large Green Dragon

2009-10-06T02:30:00.000-07:00

Dragons in Earthsea are neither good nor evil by human standards, but always extremely dangerous.

--Wikipedia entry for Earthsea

(Click the pictures for a bigger version)
This dragon is from Safari Ltd. Its size is 5.5" L x 4" H (14 x 10 cm) and is still available in toy stores that carry the Safari brand as well as at their web store here.

The large green dragon is 6.5" L x 5.5" H (16.5 x 14 cm) in size. shown below is the dragon together with a 28mm LOTR Man of Gondor from Games Workshop. The sculpting here is very nice and sinuous with very prominent textures. The dragon has a frill on the top of its head instead of horns and the webbed look gives it a sinister, reptilian aspect.

As compared to the smaller red dragon previously featured, the green one is better painted save for the eyes which "as-is" looks like a pair of beady lights. These could do with some repainting.

The dragon's jaws are agape and parts of its reddish tongue extend from the maw and irregularly arranged teeth. The neck is curved back in the middle but extends forward nearer to the head. Again, the neck textures are well-made. The torso has the dragons two forelimbs seemingly clawing at empty space and the pose is quiet pleasant, reminiscent of an animal accustomed to traavelling on four limbs suddenyl rearing up. It kinda reminded me of the iguanadons in the movie Dinosaurs.

The feet and legs are well-muscled and posed, with the talons depicted as "digging in" the ground. The wings are painted in different tones from the skin, making them look thinner and more luminous, much like hairless bat wings. Over-all, a very nice dragon that can go a long way in both my wargaming and RPG endeavors.

Here be Dragons: Medium Sized Red Dragon

2009-09-25T02:03:00.001-07:00

Overall, the sculpting is very nice, with the textures all crisply done. It reminds me of the artwork of Rankin-Bass' Flight of Dragons, especially the character design for Gorbash -- from the horns swept back with frills to the avian-like beak. The dragon's mouth is closed and its neck slightly curved. The eyes can also do with some repositioning of the iris because it seems to be looking straight ahead at something at the same level as its head. Some of the detail is very nice. I really liked the irregularity of the teeth. The hide is well marked with scales and this really comes out as visibly reptilian, armored and impervious. The claws are well sculpted but the paint job is rudimentary and can really benefit from washes. The dragon is on all fours but with its right forepaw raised.

As compared to the other dragons I purchased though, the prepainted color scheme leaves much to be desired with the eyes coming out so "bug eyed" and glaringly white. I think the painter made the eyes too long also and I'm hoping that this can be easily fixed by repainting. Overall, I think this demands a repaint. For around US$7, this is a nice bargain.

Here's the red dragon with a 28mm GW Man of Gondor from their LOTR line.

Repurposed: Here be Dragons

2009-09-23T02:02:00.000-07:00

I've been collecting dragon toys and figurines for some time now and using them for wargaming seemed so obvious. As a kid, I got Peter Dickinson's speculative natural history book "flight of Dragons" that theorized how dragons may have actually lived and participated in our world. Then I was the Rankin Bass cartoon based on the book as well as Gordon Dickson's "The Dragon and the George." Needless to say, I was a big fan of Gorbash and Smrgol.

From card and paper models to block toys and resin statuettes, I've managed to amass a veritable "flight." Here are the first three I plan to use. Two are from Safari Ltd. and another from an unnamed China manufacturer. All are of a semi-rigid plastic and came prepainted. So, here be dragons!

I'm in a Painting Rut

2009-09-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in one of those painting ruts. Truth be told, the weather here isn't helping, with days and evenings all dreary from rains and monsoon storms. Case in point are two boxes worth of the GW LOTR Men of Gondor plastics. I've finished priming and painting them save for the shields, which look like a pain to paint. The archers are finished with just the base texture awaiting a wash and some grass flocking.

The swordsmen and spearmen though have me in a rut. The figures have the tree embossed on the shields but for the life of me,I can't seem to bring out the detail. I'm currently using a technique I found easy and fast to do wth 1/72 plastics but the results with these models left me --in a word-- appalled. The shield faces were first block painted flat black with acrylics. I then applied a white on the tree heraldry. Maybe the problem started here since I wasn't careful in applying the white. I was hoping the next stage would correct the imperfections.

This involved applying a black ink/acrylic paint mixture wash with an acrylic flow enhancer. In theory, flooding the design would cover up the white spaces on the lower parts of the embossed design and leave the raised parts a bright white.

Sadly, all I ended up were 8 murky looking shields. Hmmmph. Back to the drawing board...or the painting station as the case may be...

Army Storage Box

2009-09-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

I found this plastic box while shopping at the local Ace Hardware. It's advertised as a cash box/accessory box and has 5 long compartments inside. I tried to fit in two boxes worth of GW LOTR figures and they fit 3 of the 5 compartments well. If lined with foam, the box culd well be the answer to storing my 1/72 and 28mm armies.

I wasn't able to get the actual measurements but the height is suitable for 1/72 spearmen and even 28mm spears ( I tried out the GW 3rd edition elven Spearman and the GW LOTR Men of Gondor-- seen above), albeit lying down.

More on this box soon.

The Adversaries: The Biomechanical Invaders

2009-09-02T02:13:00.000-07:00

Made from various Mageknight figures ripped off from their clicky bases (a feature I never liked) as well as some Heroscape figures:) Repainted and rebased to provide an adversary to the Human Federation troops. The army is still incomplete and will soon have more biomechs added courtesy of some Japanese Gashapon I recently purchased.

Army Building: Generic Fantasy Dwarves

2009-08-26T05:55:00.001-07:00

My work in progress dwarves. I included a unit of crossbows since these are for my more Generic Fantasy Dwarves than Tolkien's.

1/72 Saracen Riders

2009-08-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

Italeri's 1/72 Saracens. I enjoyed painting these, especially the horses. This is the next set of matched pairs armies I'll be building -- The armies of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, more popularly known as Saladin, and the crusading knights of Richard III. they'll be based for Warmaster Ancients. The horses are all painted to depict different greys.

Grey is a coat color of horses characterized by progressive silvering of the colored hairs of the coat. Most gray horses have black skin and dark eyes. Gray horses may be born any base color, depending on other color genes present. White hairs begin to appear at or shortly after birth and become progressively lighter as the horse ages. The color is most commonly seen in breeds descended from Arabian ancestors.

Many of us unfamiliar with horses call gray horses "white." However, a gray horse whose hair coat is completely "white" will still have black skin except under markings that were white at birth and dark eyes. This is how most people can tell a gray horse from a white horse. White horses usually have pink skin and frequently have blue eyes.

Aside from securing reference pictures rom around the net, one of the best tutorials I've read regarding painting model horses was written by Shepherd Paine. I got this book in Singapore and it was well worth the price. It's chockful of what the title promises -- tons of great advice and how-to's when building and painting scale figures.

Federation Troops: More Sci Fi Troopers

2009-08-22T19:09:00.001-07:00

A set of smallish 25mm Troopers from an unknown maker. I had asked help in identifying these from TMP and there were a lot of helpful responses. In fact, I remember one post that had a link to the actual toy brand these figures came out with. But for the life of me, I couldn't find the thread again so I'm in the dark -- again. I picked them up at a toy shop specializing in 2nd hand anime figures.

They're the regular troopers for my sci fi army together with the more elite Void figures featured previously. Regarding that post too, someone asked which skirmish rules we use for sci fi. I'll be posting stats of the Ad&D Battlesystem 2nd Ed houserules we made for scifi settings soon.

Any info you may have regarding the brand of these figures would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Repainted & Rebased: Sci Fi Troopers

2009-08-14T09:03:00.001-07:00

I-Kore Prosthene Marines from their Void line. I've made some conversions and shot them with card model buildings. Seen in one of the pictures is a retextured Gnat VTOL, a card model from Reverisco's John McEwan.

Update: The Army of Carthage 2

2009-08-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

The boxes due for my undivided attention. I've cracked open two boxes of each of the Spanish, Numidian and Italian allies and just one box of the Celtic cavalry. A box of the Italian Allies have already been painted as can be seen here as well as a box of the Numidian Horse here and here. The rest have been cleaned, based and primed -- check them out here.

The elephants had to be redone because my dog managed to reach the table where I was spray painting the figures. I just stepped in the house to refill my glass of iced tea and came out to a scene of utter carnage! Ben Tumbling, a gold askal took advanatage of the fact that I wasn't looking and chewed on 4 whole sprues of figures. Now, I have to look for suitable conversion for the elephant handlers. I'm planning to make half with howdahs and the rest with just riders. (War Elephants Box art taken from PSR)

Update: The Army of Carthage

2009-08-03T18:35:00.001-07:00

The painted and varnished infantry and cavalry units of my Carthaginian army for Warmaster. Basing will be done soon. Click on the pictures above for bigger versions.

Arcane Legions: A Harbinger of a Brighter 1/72 Fantasy Tomorrow?

2009-07-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

* click the pictures for a bigger copy

Apparently, the peeps from Wells Expedition believe so. The company is the new baby of the same people who created classic games like HeroClix, MechWarrior: Dark Age and Pirates of the Spanish Main. Their new game is entitled Arcane Legions and is billed as a ( hold your groans please...) "collectible mass action miniatures game."

"The greatest armies of antiquity battle for control of a magically altered world. The year is 37 BCE. The Roman Empire, Egyptian Imperium, and Han Dynasty converge in epic battles across the Middle East. Their legions are full of men and monsters, warriors and sorceresses, undead and gods—this is epic war like none seen before."

Personally, I wasn't fond of the clickies like Mageknight and Heroclix. I usually bought these just for the figures -- which of course I repaint and rebase. But Arcane Legions may have something going for them.

Arcane Legions is an epic-scale strategic combat simulation in which players can easily put hundreds of miniatures on the table at a time. It is designed for two to six players ages 14 and up. The game begins in the year 37BC, in an alternate history where mystical energies have been unleashed by a mysterious force, leaving the Roman Empire (under Octavian and his sorcerous mother Atia), the Egyptian Imperium (under the remarkably youthful sorceress Cleopatra VII and her Roman consort Mark Antony) and the Han Dynasty (under Emperor Wu and his Japanese sorceress Himiko) to compete for domination of the Known World.

Their press releases reveal a few reasons why this game could revitalize 1/72 plastic production and repopularize 1/72 fantasy gaming.

Fast & easy: "uses an intuitive and flexible formation-base system to command hordes of troops. Arrange and rearrange figures within a unit to change the unit's capabilities. Movement and combat is fast and deadly, using an abstracted movement system and a simple dice-off combat mechanic"
Hassle-free: "eliminates the need for cumbersome tape measurements and record-keeping"
Cost-effective collectibility: "With three distinct factions that can be purchased separately, players can collect exactly the figures they want... making figures available by faction and offering a two-player Starter Game with more than 110 figures, plus rules, dice, bases and unit cards. Common figures have been removed from randomized Booster Packs and placed into fixed Cavalry and Infantry Army Packs, and sets have been made intentionally small to make collecting even easier...Keeping a player's investment low and their enjoyment level high makes Arcane Legions the ideal miniatures game."
Innovative Community Support:" an extensive in-store play program and a website that not only connects players but also allows players to do the unthinkable: design their own tournament-legal game elements — a first in the collectible game genre."

So will it fly? Here's hoping it does. At the very least, it'll bring to the market a new line of 1/72 plastic fantasy models. I for one, am already waiting for September to roll in.

Gormiti morph into Ents!

2009-07-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

* Click pictures for a bigger version

Remember this Gormiti?

Well, it's a proper ent now after some modeling putty and some creative sprue stretching. Three copies of the figure above were lathered with model putty, stuck with flame-melted sprue parts and subjected to black and brown spray paint to produce these bad boys.

The original Gormiti had very minimal textures on its skin, so I applied a generous helping of Tamiya model putty on the surface. I also tried to break up some of the toy's original shape. An asymmetrical look seemed more appropriate. Then armed with a raggedy old chisel brush and a toothpick, I went over the putty and roughened the surface, trying to make it look like rough bark.

Some leftover sprue was heated and burned atop a lit candle. With the plastic bubbling, I stretched, twisted, joined and slopped around the molten material until I came up with branch-like structures. These were trimmed and superglued on the toy's body. Some more putty covered irregular joins and empty spaces between the branches. I was tempted to add eyebrows and a nose to the face but decided to retain the skull-like visage. Maybe these ents were more like Old Man Willow, a bit crazy and malevolent. I need not stress the importance of safety when doing something like this. I've been burnt before so I have a pair of rubber gloves handy for occasions like this as well as a set of metal tweezers and blades.

I havent decided how to paint these guys so I primed them black and then lightly sprayed a bronish coat to check how the texturing looked like. These ents will be joining my People of the Woods army soon.

Men In Boxes

Riders of Rohan WIP

The Shape of Things To Come

Not-Clone Troopers WIP

Testing screen layout

A Fast Project: Armored Troopers Paint Schemes

A Fast Project: Some Troopers

John Carter arrives on March 9, 2012

Currently Reading: Under The Eagle

Currently Reading: Soldier of the Legion

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer 1

R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey

This is not Hoth

The Penguin Christmas Village

54mm Giant Mummy

54mm Monster Spider

54mm Fantasy Monster Scorpion

Egyptian Undead for Hott

Centaur Hero for Hott

The 54mm Project: Egyptians

The 54mm project

By Crom! A Review of the 2011 Conan the Barbarian film

Another Look: Battlesystem 2nd Edition Pics and Lists

The Hobbit's Thorin and Company!

Balin and Dwalin revealed!

Members of Thorin & Company revealed!

Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-menu! "Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!" Presenting The Hobbit film's Nori, Ori, Dori,Gloin & Oin!

DBA Polybian Romans

A Happy Easter to all!

Happy Easter to all! Isang mapayapang pasko ng paglaya sa lahat!

Repurposed Alien Monsters for FUBAR

Space Romans for FUBAR

Game Envy and some painted LOTR

A nearby Painting Service at last!

Summer's Griffins Take Flight

The Centaurs of Summer

Making An Army for Summer

Merry Christmas! And FUBAR to you too!

FUBAR Unit Cards: Harrakian Leader and Rogues Hunting Pack

FUBAR Unit Cards: Biomech Warriors and Cyclops Heavy Drones

FUBAR Unit Cards: Human Armored Troopers

Battle Report: Contact!

HotT Army of Horrors

1/72 HotT Dwarves

Nexus Marines: Starting a Not-Space Marine army

Nexus XXX Century Warriors

54mm Skeletons

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins 4

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins 3

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins 2

WIP: HotT Orcs & Goblins

Darned Orcs!

Sick

Jumping into DBA

New Plastic Just In!

Raising my own Horde

More Wow

From Wow to Ad&D

The Tauren

Heavy Metal Mayhem: Sci Fi tanks in action

Camo Slapped On!

More Sci FI Tanks On The Cheap

Solomon Kane is Sharp!

Sci Fi Armor on the Cheap

Aaaargh!

Terragenesis for inspiration and instruction

2010: The Shape of Things to Come

December rush

Metals ready for painting

Roma Victrix: The Polybian Legion for Warmaster

Roma Victrix: The Principes & Triarii

Roma Victrix: The Hastati

Roma Victrix: The Velites

Roma Victrix: The Polybian Legion of Early Republican Rome

Wild Sindarin Riders

Mammoth

On Green Limbs Your Doom Marches

Bog Elemental

Here be Dragons: Big Red

Here be Dragons: Dragon Hatchlings

Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-menu! "Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!"
Presenting The Hobbit film's Nori, Ori, Dori,Gloin & Oin!