Back in the Saddle Again

Well… not quite in the saddle, per se… but I am able to sit and paint and I’m back to cranking things out after the kiddies are off to sleep!

Here’s what I’ve finished up in the last couple evenings…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

A couple of fierce Viking lads. I think I got both of these in a trade – the one on the right is an old Citadel figure… or maybe old Wargames Foundry… the other one I’m not quite sure about… ah well, nice figures…

This is a i-Kore/Celtos figure I picked up when the Dragons’s Den was blowing them out for $1 per blixter!? He will be my celtic hero Bran Mac Muffin!

These are some more Celtos figures - elves. About half I picked up from the den, the rest I recently found on ebay. As I’ve mentioned a number of times recently, I was originally planning on using these for 28mm Warmaster… and have been rethinking that… but I think I’ll still do things in units of three like this to keen options open and, really four units of three stands is 12 stands… 12 stands @ 2AP is 24 AP… a Hordes of the Things army (or big battle HotT command…)

I had a couple left over so I did them up a singles for skirmishing.

Tonight I have to get to work on a few more Descent figures for Mr. J. Burt. and I’ve also got some Anglo-Saxons Thegns I’m working on…

I’m kind of all over the place…. wanting to do a stand of this and a stand of that, but I should really put the nose to the grindstone and figure out an order to which I should do things and do one army at a time. I’m pretty close to being able to field Anglo-Danish and Viking armies, so I should really concentrate on those. After that…? The next closest to being done is the Elves… Part of me, however, feels like I should get cracking on some “bad guys” and work on the orcs and goblin hordes… another part is pretty keen to work on the Dwarves…

Wolf Riders

I got some Orc wolf riders in the mail yesterday. They’re Old Glory - Ghost Miniatures that I picked up from warweb.com. Nice figures those Ghost minis – and pretty reasonably priced. I really like some of the Dwarves. Anyway I’m trying to decide how to base the wolf riders…

Should they be three to a base like DBA cavalry or Two to a base like DBA Light Horse…? It doesn’t matter rules-wise as they are all considered “Riders” in Hordes of the Things.

The three options I’m considering are (from left to right, below) two one a 60x50mm base (like Light Horse), three to a 60x60mm base, or three to a 60x50 base.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Looking at the picture now, I’m kind of leaning towards the three to a 60x60mm base…

It will match the base size for my foot Hordes – and looks a little more like a mounted horde…. On the other hand If I went with the Light Mounted basing (2 per base) I could have 1.5x as many units/stands…. Hmmmmm….

Anyone else got any strong opinions out there…?

Dryads

My new copy of Hordes of the Things arrived in the post yesterday. While I can’t find anything significantly different rules-wise (I haven’t read it all just yet…) I must say that it is MUCH more clearly organized and well worth the expenditure!

That got me motivated to bang out some figures last night… I got a sprue of four Games Workshop Dryads in a trade. These aren’t your normal “hot chick in the woods” type dryads – these tree spirits look like nasty pieces of work. I thought they’d make perfect “Lurkers” for my Elf HOTT army. As these only really required one of two colours and most of it’s dry brushing I thought I could manage it standing up.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to walk into a woody terrain feature and have these pop up in my face!!

I went to see the surgeon yesterday (hour and a half wait – I did more sitting, if you could call the slouched back on one side position I was in “sitting”, in that office waitingthan I had in the entire two weeks previous!) and he decided to take out all of my stitches. He said everythings looking pretty good, but after taking them out he said there’s a chance the wound might just open up now that the stitches are out… in which case I would hve to rush to the emergency room and have it packed or sewed back up again… (gee, thanks doc. You couldn’t have left just a couple in?!). Anyway, he said to take it easy for a couple more days and in a week or two he suggested I’d be back to 100% (though he might have insinuated that I lay off the winter cycling for a bit…. (How the hell am I going to get to the Dragon’s Den Boxing Day sale!?). Ah well, I’m hoping I’ll be sitting again by the weekend and painting up a storm.

HOTT Campaign Map

I may not have been painting much... but I have been thinking an awful lot about the Hordes of the Things campaign. Planning and organizing armies, buying miniatures off ebay, designing a fantasy setting of my own... and making a map of it!

Here it is (you can click on it to see a bigger version):



Orcland - is obviously the Orcs - not so much a nation as a loose grouping of tribes that occasionally recognize one of their own as overlord and go to war under them...

Dwarvia - The equally obvious land of the Dwarves.

Amundaland - From the ruins of a once great ancient civilization has sprung an army of the undead! BWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha.... ha... heh...

Nordland - Humans (think "Vikings")

Angland - Humans (if you guessed "Saxons", you were right...)

Narn - Humans (You get three guesses, if one of them isn't "Normans" I'd like to slap you with a dead fish).

Eilf - The Elves.... now those of you familiar with DBA/HOTT campaign maps might notice that they have a limited number of routes to the rest of the world and the only way to get anywhere would be through Angland... well... those are the routes for "normal" sea-faring folk... The elves have an ultra-secret "special nautical movement rule"... Shhhhh, don't tell anyone... (Don't worry everyone else will have some sort of "special rule")

I haven't gotten so far as to come up with the names of the kings and rulers or much of a background... but that's coming...

Not Dead Yet!!

Well the hole they cut in me is slowly but surely healing up. This whole not sitting thing has put a serious dent into my usual high productivity. That’s not to say I haven’t been doing ANY hobby stuff. I’ve done a lot of prep work on figures – mounting them to painting bases and priming, etc…. I also did a bit of rebasing…. Stuff that I could do in a short period of time while standing.

I even did a small amount of painting the other day. Some Normans. They’re armoured, so it was mostly dry-brushing metal then painting shoes, hands, face sleeves and shields… all pretty simple stuff…

(Click on the pictures to see a bigger version)


These are a couple of older minis… like ~10 years old… They were originally part of my old 15mm HoTT armies. When I traded the armies away I held on to these. They were “28mm” figures – I just used them with the 15’s because… well… they looked even more awesome and scary standing next to a 15mm figure!? Anyway, they were on 40x40mm card bases that looked like golf green. The pait jobs aren’t quite up to today’s standards, but they’re “good enough” so I ripped them off and stuck them on new washer bases.


Now any that have been following along know that I am planning a HoTT campaign. So to make these usable with HoTT I made some dedicated magnetic movement trays… The base is 1/8” MDF which I stuck a bit of self-adhesive magnetic sheet stuff onto, then dressed up to match the round washer bases on the figure. Pretty nifty, eh? From above (where you would normally be looking at them from when playing) the border of the washer s a bit more apparent… but still, I think they worked out pretty darn okay!


Here are said Normans. The colours on the flag turned out a little dark in the pic… They’re a deep red and a dark green – but not THAT dark! They’re from Gripping Beast.

Wow. Painting while standing up is TOUGH…!! I think I’ll lay off for a bit until I can sit down again.

Come to think of it, typing while standing up kind of sucks too – even with the keyboad up on a box….

Anyway, not dead. Just recovering. Hopefully be back to regular hobby activities and posting by the new year…

Some More Thoughts on the H.O.T.T. Campaign

WHEN?

After some more serious stock-taking and organization I’ve come to the realization that I still have an awful lot I’d need to paint before we even got going. It will probably be spring before I’m ready… So I’m thinking I’d like to host a H.O.T.T. Camapgin Weekend some time in the spring/early summer to kick things off, then after that start a new, longer strategic campaign via email sometime shortly thereafter.

So when would be a good time for folks in the spring/early summer to have a H.O.T.T. Camapgin Weekend? Who would be willing to travel to Saskatoon to do so? POST COMMENTS HERE!

Armies

Three of the armies will be human kingdoms. They will be based on historical Anglo-Danish, Viking, and Norman DBA armies. As this IS “Fantasy”, however, I though I should probably add the option of having some heroic, fantastical elements in the army. I think all three could certainly have a Hero General… but what about magic. I think the Normans might be limited to having a Cleric element (bishop). How about the Saxoms and Vikings? Should they have Magician elements (shamans)? I’m not entirely sure they’re necessary, and I can’t think of anything else I could add. Suggestions? Should one of the Norman Knight stands be upgraded to Paladins?

What I’ve Been Up To

For any that have been paying attention the surgery went fine, but I can’t really sit down, so this will be brief. Here are a few things I finished up in the last couple days before going under the knife.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


A unit of Bondi – By “unit” I mean for Warmaster Ancients. It will probably see more service in the immediate furutre as three stands of “Blade” in a Viking DBA/Hordes of the Things army… I think the’re all from Old Glory…. Oh except the horn-blower, I think he’s from Essex


This is an ancient Orc catapult. I think it was made by Grenadier and I’ve had it for… oh… 18 years or so…!? It was for my original Warhammer Orc army. It’s been sitting in a half painted state ever since… I painted the catapult in the last year of so, the Orcs Crew I painted this week and put it on a base – Now my Warmaster/Hordes of the Things Orc army has an Artillery option…. Actually come to think of it, this is the ONLY stand I have finished for my Orc Warmaster/Hordes of the Things army. Oh dear, I have some work to do.


Some assorted singles I finished up, from left to right; Crusader Miniatures Saxon Commander, Gripping Beast Viking, Some GW hero-type, an I-kore/Celtos Gael hottie….


Not recent paints, but I did re-base these to be a command stand for Warmaster Ancients.

I think I best go lie down now. I’ve been doing much thinking and planning for the Hordes of the Things campaign but I’ll have to post those thoughts some other time…