Army Photos and a small ‘How I base’

Until Steven releases more, I believe the lizard man Army is done for the moment!

This is probably the first ‘real’ army I have completed.  I have done small warbands, but this is the first army. That photo contains 18 40×20 bases of lizard man warriors (270 figures), 11 bases of Lizard Spears (165 figures), only six bases of lizard man archers (60 figures, I need more of these really), 4 bases of Triceratops (one of which has an uncompleted howdah out there), about 12 bases of lizard ogres (amounts vary, but about 26 figures),8 bases of ceratopsid warriors (80 figures), 10 bases of lizard man cav (40 figures), 6 anklyo ballista, some personalities, and two command stands.  Total is roughly 700 figures, probably a tad under that.  I need more Lizzies, Steven!  The elven army is probably twice this size and not close to complete 😛

Jar Jar Looked upon his Legions, and it was good.

I’m just please as punch with this army.  The picture on the left above here is pretty much why I like 6mm.  Now that looks like an Army!  If anyone is in the Portland Area and wishes to challenge me, just let me know.  It all fits in a teeny little scrap booking box to boot!

I’m going to finish today with a couple of photos of what I used to base my figures.  For my fantasy figures I like to fill the bases  completely (I have a DBA project coming up that I think will be more scenic base orientated in the future, so stay tuned for that).  After some early experimentation this is the method I settled on.

This shows all my materials.  I use 1.5mm litko bases, primarily 40x20mm.  I use a lot of that dick blicks burnt umber paint,  in this case I usually go about half PVA, and half paint, and then add some water.  Depending on temperature I may add some slo dri as well.  I quick note on PVA, one would think it would be cheaper to buy it in large quantities, but where I live anyway, Its actually cheaper to go to the dollar tree and buy tons of their small glue containers, go figure.

I like the mixture quite thick as you can see here.  If it is fairly thick i find I get good adhesion right away so I can move the base a bit without dudes falling over (a huge PITA with individual 6mm figures)

Once I have the base filled, I put it on my flocking plate, bury it in flock and leave it for the night, dust it off the next morning and we are good to go.  Nothing fancy, but gets the job done, and I can do it quickly.  I will typically do 10 or so bases at a shot (about 150 figures….)

Expect some more Pendragon mini pics soon, and the first painted units of a new army!

Something different

Well, it has again been quite a while.  I have continued to acquire and microworld minis, but lately have been rounding out the forces i have by completing additional units, and working on other projects.  So today’s post is a mixed bag.

First up is actually a 28mm one, but pressed into use as a spell effect (probably….).  I used a full pack of Reaper Vermin:Beetle swarm minis (bones version)on a 60mm base.  The whole vermin swarm line has stuff i think that can be useful for 6mm fantasy.  In this case I am going to use them as the result of a ‘summon giant beetle swarm’ spell effect, as you can see the beetles are roughly person sized.  The sculpts are great, and the casting is great with no lines, highly recommended.

First notice the poor quality of the photos…..these all were taken by me.  I painted my second Lizardman armored brachiosaur.  He is basically painted the exact invest of the other one on the skin, otherwise the same.  Oddly, this wasn’t deliberate.  Fantastic miniature, really the one that got me to start buying microworld games.  Its a freaking dinosaur!  You can also see a 1st edition Corvus Belli Vanguard Morat partially painted in the background, as well as previously painted units ranked up.

Final 6mm pics tonight are the last stands to be completed of Microworld’s Lizard Ogres (scale thanks to citadel paint pot).  Again great models, these ones were painted up particularly well I thought.  As you can see, a lot of the 6mm is stuff I have already painted/posted in the past (currently its the last of the lizardman warriors I have). Consequently the passion is a bit lower, and speed reduces.  On the plus side I have gotten other stuff done!

These are from Spartan games, and come in several different packs, with multiple similar buildings.  Spartan models are fantastic, and the buildings are no exception.  The are of possible interest to naval gamers (the minis are 1/1200 scale, a common naval scale) in general, as I could see these being credible 19th/20th century wharf buildings.  In this case these results are just with simple dry brushing and some paints dabs for the windows.

Nest up several pictures (and two different paints jobs!) of some Dystopian Wars Federated states of America Georgetown cruisers.  These are nice models, they now come with resin guns rather than metal drop ons.  These were specifically from the Operation:icestorm box set (of which I ended up with two, don’t ask why).  The first two are painted with my regular FSA livery, the second painted up for my (now) wife’s forces.  The colors were picked by my wife (and initial painting done by her, i finished them), and while I’m not a big fan of the gold turrets, I think I actually like the color scheme better.  The main color she picked is Reaper Jade green.  The color is a pain to paint with (really bad coverage over black), but I never realize how much the final color looks like the Statue of Liberty.  Now obviously referencing the statue of liberty is a bit anachronistic (and the french have her as their giant robot)…but I like the look so there.

Final pic today is of some Empire of the Blazing sun Kitsune escorts.  I have no idea how good these are in game (i got them super cheap), but i love the look of them, and the paint job came out great.  This is my normal EoTBS paint scheme they sport.  So there you go.  I already have a few more models painted up for the next post.  I am also currently working on the final models I have left for my lizardman army, so stay tuned, its army picture time soon!

Meesa Have Pointy Sticks!

Several Lizardmen (well 2…..) projects have been completed, finally.  My painting has really been slack this summer.  I hate heat, and it has been a long sticky summer in Oregon, so my painting has been glacial (you are getting weather puns because that’s about the only thing funny about weather and the future of weather currently).  First up are a couple shots of my finished lizardmen spear reinforcements.

I have 11 spearmen stands total now.  Some of the very first 6mm models I painted are just viewable in the background on the right photo.

The figures on the right in both photos are the oldest painted ones.  I actually thing the older ones look better close up (I definitely took more time on them), but I think the newer ones look better from distances more than even an inch really.  The models themselves are, as usual, fantastic.  Both packs of spearmen I got have been the cleanest casts of all (which says a lot, as I would say even normally you are talking one in maybe 200 figures having an imperfection), and they look awesome lined up with each other.  I sound like a broken record, but Microworld minis are on average better than most companies best, and that includes 28mm

Next up are some custom command stands I built up.

The smaller stand is just some spearmen and a couple of guys form the command pack.  I painted up the big dino kind of albino-y, and I thought he looks quite good.

Emperor Jar Jar exhorts his troops

I am stoked with the big 40×40 command stand though.  I deliberately wanted it to look like Jar Jar Binks (which you had darn well better know who that is if you are looking at this), and it the whole thing came out great. I used some spear men, a couple figures from the Lizardman Command pack, and one of the riders from the big dino models (they share the same drop on between several of the models).  I made the litter out of a little piece of wood and some wire, and then made some teeny (although if scales are about the size of a small car i think..) little skull piles on the litter.  For the guys holding the thing up I bent the arms over and cut off the spears of two spearmen on one side, and then used the drummer figures on the other side, gluing the contraption on top.  I also stuck some little green stuff shields over the top.  You cant hardly see anything amiss close up even.

I still have a ton of stuff to paint.  I have bought a variety of pendraken figures I hope to be able to show soon.  Some scale well, some not so much.  Steve is also cooking up a TON of new stuff.  Check out the tactical command forums for more details, but already there have been a whole bunch of demon releases (i am totally getting a demon cohort!), a fantastic looking renaissance style army is on the way, and just the other day some new wood elf releases, among a host of other things.  There is even a new set of rules based on Microworld figures (which I am totally going to check out).  The Microworld..world just keeps bigger and better!  If you read this Steve, thanks a million man!

Mighty Armies and Minis

The first rule set I purchased and looked at when I started this project was Mayhem.  I earlier posted a partial army list, and subsequently finished both a lizardman and and Woodland realm list.  After a bit more hunting around though, I think I am going to go with Mighty Armies.  I’ve now played several games, and I quite like it.  Its not perfect, but with the supplements it has lost of different options.  Here are a few pics (some staged…) from my recent solo battles.

The last picture is the penultimate battle of the last solo game I played.  With the Brachiosaraus combine with the lizard-ogres are beastly.  I am currently finishing up the lists for both lizards and woodland, and will do the people of the Sun after that.  I plan to post what I am using for stats when I am done, and eventually I hope to stat out all of Steve’s minis.  I have added a few different abilities, and modified some point values a bit as well.  Overall I am really pleased with mighty armies (I bought all the expansion stuff as well), and forsee it being my most commonly played game.  Its one weakness is the small size of the units (although lots of points and grouping solves a bit of that).  Blind Horizons changes to 80×40 ranks for War torn i looking like it might satiate my desire for really BIG battles though.  I’m hoping….

I Have been painting though!  Not so much 6mm though.  I did manage to finish my Lizardman Lizard riders, and I think they look great!

Pictures once again by my Girlfriend 😀  After painting these though, I have decided I HATE orange.  I used my usually watery gesso, and base coated with a light tan color (and old reaper paint) and still I had troubles.  I tried no less than 5 different lines or brands of paint and still didn’t get quite that look i wanted.  That said, they still look great i think.  Most of my time though has been devoted to space hulk as I slowly churn out tryanids…

For now that is it.  I will shortly start posting some mighty armies info, but probably a few less pics for a bit.  I am starting on some elf spear men, and I have a lot (I think probably 3 packs of them), so it will take a bit.  Im thinking about doing some heraldry on some shields to…..

Leet Lizards

While I have not been able to devote as much time as normal to my 6mm painting, I have completed (and started on another) unit of Lizardmen.  These guys took a while, but I am very happy with how they look.  These are Microworld’s Ceratopsid Guard.  I completed two packs of them here.

These guys are just as detailed as any of Microworld’s other figures.  Each figure has plating on his chest and head ‘shroud’  (I’m sure there is a technical term I don’t know here), with a large glaive/halberd/spear/axe thingy.  One of the figures is getting ready to swing, while the other has his weapon at his side.  I went with yellow as the primary color, which was a lot of work, but I think looks pretty good.

These photos show the colors a little closer up.  As most probably know, yellow can be a tough color to paint.  I wanted to have a bright yellow, that was deep at the same time.  I started with white gessoing as I posted about previously.  I gave them a fairly thin coat of a bright yellow Reaper HD paint (pale saffron I believe).  These HD paints are great, very dense pigments, similar but thinner to GW Base colors.  Just a touch of water to thin it down (reaper is pretty thin to start), and even just one coat on barely-there gesso and I had a solid base coat.

After I base coated, I put a very thick coating of GW Agrax earthshade.  This gave me a nice, nutty brown base with deep dark brown shadows, just what I wanted.  I already go way overboard for 6mm, so no blending, but to get the bright yellow I wanted, I did put three (yes three) levels of highlights on them, using a mix of reaper, GW, and P3 yellows (one from each manufacturer I believe lol).

The purple on the other hand, I was not so happy with.  It looks ok, but I am having a real hard time getting a really bright highlighted purple.  The best Ive been able to do is using the reaper dark elf skin tone highlight, it it looks nice for what it is, but makes the purple look washed out.  I think I might try using pink to highlight next time…  We shall see.

One last picture to show that I have in fact been working on something else.  A Tyrannid sending his loyal horde of mini minions forth (or they are running in terror, depending on your perspective). 😀

Ballistas and Bears

I have finally finished my werebear units from Microworld.

I really like these guys.   I love that they are all roaring, and the size of them is just right.  I decided to paint them a little Fozzie the bear style, which i think looks great at this scale.  I actually finished most of them quite a while back, but realized there were a few I missed, so held off basing them until all were finished.

At the moment I only have the group that came with the original woodland army pack I purchased, but there will be more as soon as the lead pile is lowered a bit.  Ive looked at my army so far, and I am sorely lacking infantry still, even with these guys and all the Gnolls I have.    Steve has indicated new wood elf models are coming soon, so that may change things.

Next up are some of Microworld’s Anklyo Ballista.  I mentioned how much I liked anklyosaurs, so its not surprise I love these models too! 😀

I was not so happy with my painting unfortunately.  Initially my idea what to put some more color in the army.  Green lizardmen, green dinosaur guys, green green green.  So I went with some different colors; red, yellow, and purple in this case.  The yellow and purple look ok individually, while the red guys are way too bright.  As a group they just look a bit weird.

I had different idea initially on how to set these guys up, but as I assume I’ll be getting more down the road for the moment I just glued the ballistas (Ballisti?) on and based them individually on 40x20mm bases.  Down the road I envision magnetizing them, as I see no reason you couldn’t swap out any of the other lizardmen drop ons (i.e. the howdahs and king/sorcerer on a chair guy).  I could see some cool diorama style bases being made as well.  Incidently, other than the general, and two guys on top of the brachiosaur, all the dino models so far have the lizardman parts molded seperately, I can envision many different both fantasy and sci fi conversion possibilities.

Still have the ceratospids being worked on, I’m probably about 1/2 done on those, while space hulk is still just starting…  Hopefully it wont be too very long before I post again.

 

I will finish with posting a little ebony and ivory action.   Please imagine the photograph (again all done by my fantastic girlfriend) appropriately.  /cue music

Too many projects…

I have been slightly side tracked lately, but still have been able to complete several items lately.  Forces are expanding on all sides, and all three of my armies are starting to get fairly big.

First up are some Rapier EGY001 sword and shield from their chariot era line.

These are great models.  There is fantastic detail and a nice dynamic pose.  You can easily move the arm positioning if you were so inclined, but even with just the slight bending from shipping they give a nice sea of guys feel.  I painted these ones with no tops as they were clearly not wearing shirts this time 😛 (reference my previous baccus painting).

There were a few issues with some of the casting,  you can see a partially missing shield on the front rank in the last photo.  Most damage consisted of portions of the shield missing.  For the most part I just buried them in the formations and there is no way anyone will notice.  I think these could be fairly easily modified as well if you wanted to make a few special figures.

I do have a little bit of Microworld done as well, some of their owlbears.

 

The pictures don’t do them justice (these were my photos), but these models are just superb.  They have awesomely detailed beaks, and you can really see the transition of feathers to fur on their pelts.  If there is a downside it’s that even though there are two poses, they are very similar.  Kind of a  bummer, but still, they look absolutely great.  I just had the few from the original woodland pack I had bought, but I will definitely getting a few more.

 

Last up is a shaman from the Microworld Lizard Man Command pack, mostly because it is a great photo my girlfriend took, although the command packs models are again sensational.

So that’s it.  I’m currently working on a large group of certatospid warriors from microworld, who will be looking like a slightly darker version of the guy above there.  My current side track though, may be for a bit.  I have recently been able to purchase a copy of the fourth edition of Space Hulk!  I have wanted a copy of this game since I was a little kid, and this and the third edition are just absolutely awesome (though ridiculously priced 😦  ).  I really really want to play it, but I wont let myself until I have painted all the models….so this may take a bit.  I will still be working on 6mm the whole time, just space hulk  will be primary.

Some Warriors

Well, I haven’t finished them all (there are still another 120ish I think left), but I have gotten over half way….  I’ve got enough for the moment, so I am going to focus on some other stuff at the moment to paint (I have some dystopian wars, plus some miscellaneous 28mm stuff to paint).  I present, the Lizardman Warrior horde!

I’d like to get double the amount I have currently at least, but the painting is pretty much exactly how I want it.

When I started painting these guys I was going with a black wash after priming (which I will be posting about shortly).  I wasn’t crazy about this, I wanted my guys to be really bright.  So I started skipping the wash, going over with a coat of reaper pale green (09012)on them.  Then I wash with vallejo Green ink watered down a bit (but not a whole lot).  I tried a few other washes, but I for this situation I really like the ink.  Most of the washes were a little to blue for me, or didn’t glaze as well as the ink did.  I did use a bit of Nuln oil on parts (hand/weapon join and feet primarily).  I then put two highlight levels, using reaper Moth green (09248) and then alien goo(09294).  Right now I’m sticking with purple for the shields, but that may change.

I was really happy about how these came out.  I have enough of a Horde now for some actual battles.  Soon as I talk the GF into some fighting, I will try to post up an AAR.

We interupt our regularly scheduled silence…

I have been quite busy lately painting up a (literal) horde of lizard men warriors,  Several hundreds in total.  I have wanted to wait and finish them all before posting.  While working on hordes of little guys I like to work on larger miniatures as well, primarily 28mm.  In this case, It was the totally tubular Armored Brachiosaur for my lizardmen.

This guy is freaking cool as heck.  I painted him a bright sea blue with a green/yellow belly.  I’m very happy with how he came out.  My only issue is my painting on the head of the dino.  Its probably impossible to see in the picture, but when you see him in person, I swear to the flying spaghetti monster he is smiling at you.  A gleeful little smile…..right as he smashes your unit.

Not the greatest photo, but it shows the size difference on this guy.  He is pretty large.  As you can see in the photo, I magnetized the howdahs.  I am also going to magnetize the seated sorcererererrers from the triceratops unit to use on here.  I figure he (or she!) should ride in style to the battle field.  I’ve got some other ideas of things to stick on this guy (and ordered him a girlfriend too), so we shall see.

I really like the underlying dino model though (Steve has used it in his sci fi line as well), it would be awesome to see some others versions, even just buy itself for your own personal conversions would be cool, or different howdahs, or side car mods, or…. you get the picture 😛  All dinos Microworld are awesome actually 😀

 

And finally, a picture of what I have mostly been looking at when painting lately.

Lizardman Command

Microworld’s Lizardmen Command has been about 1/2 finished now.  The Lizardman General is definitely my favorite microworld mini.

Sorry about the inconsistent lighting, I’m still learning to take miniature pictures.  This guy was based on a nickel.  The rest I have stuck on small squares of craft wood that I had on hand.

These little individual buggers are hard to photograph.  For the most part I am basing them singly.  Some rule sets have leaders/standards as options,  Mayhem in particular.  I figure I can set the individually based leaders next to units to show what options that unit has.  I’ll probably likely have to use tokens or something for baccus/rapier units.

I’ve also used different colors to roughly show a caste type system at work.  The grunt guys will all be the (in my mind) normal bright green lizards, while leaders will be orange.  ‘Skilled’ characters will be yellow.  I will have a few variations also, different colored stripes, spots, things like that.  I’m varying eye color as well between black, red, orange, and yellow.