It's a Wyvern sir!

I collected my old school Wyvern for the growing Orc and Goblin horde today. Covered in a nasty paint job that is going to have to be stripped. Missing the horns but I think I can greenstuff these and also unfortunately missing the top of the rider's weapon (which I never noticed in the eBay pic) but still a very cost effective buy I think. Very pleased to have him in the fold where some TLC will bring him up to the standards he deserves as the leader of my army.

Oh, if anyone happens to have any spare Wyvern horns that they just happen to have lying around, please can I buy them off of you?

What I am working on at the moment

So while I am in a good painting space and enjoying the process I am cracking on with more models.Up next are the 5 Marauder command group models that I will add to the plastic Orc unit. These are more models I have had since I first started collecting miniatures so they have seen many varied roles in their lifetime. Most notably as Blood Bowl players though. :)

Now they are getting a new lease of life and will be finding their way back onto the battlefield where they belong. So they were stripped of the old paint job that the 15 year old me gave them and under coated white - seems I have returned to the white undercoat now when painting these old miniatures and not the black undercoat I have been using for years on my modern army. I prefer it too. I am painting them up in a limited pallet that matches what was used on the plastic Orcs, but I am adding red focal points to tie them in with the shield designs and bring the unit together as a whole.

So the basic paint scheme looked like this (please excuse the very basic cell phone camera shots)

Then I went and added the same Green Wash to the skin tones as used on the plastic Orcs and mixed up another batch of Smoky Ink and Black Wash which I painted all the metal and red areas with. A further watered down mix of this wash was applied to the wood areas. Resulting in the now shaded miniatures, ready to be highlighted in coming evenings.

Not bad for a couple of evenings work :) Long may this painting spree last!

Plastic Orcs quick and easy painting tutorial part 2

Not much more to add to this now. Just to clean up the models with some careful dry brushing to highlight the skin using Livery Green once more. Paint in the red of the eyes, a bit of Bone White to pick out the teeth and mix a dirty pink to paint the lips of the Orcs. The Leather parts were highlighted up with Cobra Leather and just the edges of the weapons got a dry brush of silver, the remaining metal areas were left untouched. Thats all the painting done.

I then based the models with some fine sand and a few small stones, stuck a few patches of static grass on after the sand had dried and voilà. A painted Orc.

Don't forget the shields! I sprayed these black then painted the rims silver, the wood Beastly Brown and the moons Bloody Red. Gave the whole thing a wash of the same mix of Smoky Ink and Black Wash as used on the armour then aplied some simple highlights again, picking out the teeth with white and a bright yellow for the eye.

And thats all there is to it.

Really this is all an excuse for me to play around with the camera and try to get a few better shots of the completed unit - completed that is excluding the command group! Taking some shouts outside in natural light this time, tends to give the whole picture a bit of a blue tint it seems but a bit of colour correction has fixed that.

The horde is growing slowly

A very quick update to track my slowly growing Orc horde. I received a few new miniatures in the post yesterday and there are more on the boat making their way south. Missing from the photo are the Grenadier Orc archers on Wolves and Orc Bolt Thrower (still in their blister packs)

And finally a quick cellphone shot of a completed plastic Orc. I am still not certain on the colour of the shield design. I was going to go yellow (but that seems too Gobliny) then I was going to go white, but I went with the Orc red in the end. Seems to work pretty well. The model looks a lot nicer in natural light and viewed by eye, the skin tones really don't come out in the photo.

Citadel Journal Spring 1987

So delving back into the Citadel Journals that I own, I have selected some content from the Spring 87 edition to share. This edition featured the introduction of the Bugmans Dwarf Rangers and the Nightmare Legion in the second release of the Regiments of Renown, the Skeleton Horde was revealed, rules for Machineries of Destruction (ManMangler and Tielindrion Elven Attack Chariot), rules for Citadel Dragons, the Snotling Pump Wagon makes its début  the Kaleb Daark comic continues plus there are loads of miniatures - several full colour pages of miniatures plus the catalogue of new releases. 

But what I wanted to show from this edition are, as they put it on the contents page: Colin Dixon's Dioramas presented in stunning full colour because they deserve it. 

These dioramas really inspired my in my youth. I wanted to collect all the models and duplicate these dioramas. I never did of course and most probably never will but they are still wonderful to look at despite really being very simple dioramas by today's standards. For the record here are the models used in the dioramas:

Plastic Orcs quick and easy painting tutorial (part 1)

I am currently painting up the old plastic Orc regiment. They are one of the earliest forays into plastic miniatures by GW and as such are very static, monopose miniatures. So they are not a range of models I have ever liked all that much. But they do still have a soft spot in my heart being some of the models I originally bought (or more accurately begged my parents to buy for me via the old mail order system after I studied the catalogues and worked out how to get the most bang for my very limited buck). 

So what the hell, lets paint them up in a simple and quick paint job and get them ready for gaming. Turns out they are in all likely hood the easiest miniatures I have ever painted. The simplicity of the poses and lack of any fiddly details on the models make them a breeze to paint. So while going through the basics of getting them done my mind kept referring back to the images of these miniatures in the WFB 3rd Edition rulebook and the simple painting tutorial they were featured in. Thus I decided to show my very own painting tutorial. (nice and presumptuous to assume anyone cares how I paint but its my blog and I will do what I want!) ;)

The basics in 3 easy steps.

I use Vallejo paints (so no authentic 80's era GW paints I'm afraid). All photos are taken with my iPhone so please excuse the quality.

Step 1: Starting with a white undercoat instead of my usual black undercoat as I want the base coat colours to be bright.



Step 2: I then painted the skin with Livery Green (72033), the metal areas with Silver (72052) and the belt, pouch and edging of the chain mail with Cobra Leather (72040)

 

Step 3: I gave the skin a wash of un-watered down Green Shade (73205), adding a second wash on the face, hands and feet if needed to get the definition required. Then I mixed together about 5 parts Smokey Ink (72068) to 2 parts Black Shade (73201) which I watered down approximately 50:50. This I then painted over all the metal and brown bits to create a slightly dirty/rusted feel to the metal. I applied 2 or 3 washes to get the definition I wanted. I also selectively used this mix to wash the face, hands and feet of the model for added definition in those parts.

And thats all there is to it. The model is now perfectly good for gaming with. Base according to your preference and get out on the battlefield. Of course I can't leave it there so I am going to add another step at least where I add a few highlights and details (eyes and teeth mostly) oh and the shields of course! 

Ok, maybe I was a little hasty putting up a tutorial now... this needs a part 2 now! :D

(quick edit to the title)

Vengeance of the Lichemaster

Here is the scenario presented in the Citadel Journal Spring 86, the follow on from the Terror of the Lichemaster campaign - the Vengeance of the Lichemaster.

This issue of the Citadel Journal also marks the introduction of the Skaven to the Warhammer world. There is a set of rules in the journal for using the Chaos Ratmen in Warhammer as well as their history and a guide to painting Skaven by John Blanche. (For some reason these pages are all missing from my copy - no doubt due to me cutting out the pages for the scenario as a kid and ruining the binding!) I do have scans of these pages however that I managed to track down on the internet so if there is interest I can post these up too.

But enough about that, lets get into the scenario itself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovering old gems

I have been rummaging around in my shelves looking for all the old books and magazines I have that are related to Oldhammer. Some that I know for sure I own are nowhere to be seen - much to my growing sadness my Fantasy Miniatures book that has such wonderful artwork by John Blanche and Ian Miller is one of those that's missing (actually I can't remember the exact name of the book but it had loads of images of Citadel miniatures from the 80s although I am not certain it was an official Citadel publication). I must find it. Also missing is the Fighting Fantasy Titan book. 

However I did dig up my ancient copies of the original Citadel Journals. The second ever Citadel Journal from 1985

The Citadel Journal from Spring of 1986

and the Citadel Journal of Spring 1987

I haven't been able to find any pdfs of these online (although I suspect they are out there) so I thought I would have a look at some of the pages inside that seemed relevant to us :)

First up the Citadel Journal of Autumn 1985. This magazine is in excellent condition despite being read numerous times in my youth. It being older than the others and less relevant to my gaming days back then probably saved it a lot of ware though. Naturally the focus of this journal is on 2nd edition Warhammer and features a scenario called the Dolgan Raider that came with cardboard cut outs. The scenario pits a tribe of Hobgoblins and Goblins against a raiding party of Steppe Humans and Centaurs who are intent on robbing the Hobgoblin caravan. I intend to play this scenario out one day (once I have the necessary miniatures) using 3rd Edition rules.

I realise now of course that all these scans are already available on the Stuff of Legends website! But my scans are of a higher quality so there! hahaha.

I have also managed to find the book I was talking about earlier. It was Heroes for Wargames by Stewart Parkinson. A really useful book for anyone interested in Oldhammer. There are loads of wonderful photos of mid 80s miniatures and dioramas. Only not the book with all the illustrations by Ian Miller...  I was clearly thinking of something else there! Such is nostalgia :D

Bugmans part 3

I have spent about another 4 hours on the unit and have now got it to a standard I am happy with. A few more washes then details and some simple highlighting brings them to a decent gaming standard. All in all about 11 hours spent on them which is pretty damn good I think. :)

I will add some Dwarven runes to the back of Joseph Bugman's shield here

Not sure what is going on with the front of his jacket. I can't decide if there is some sort of clasp on the front there above the belt buckle or if it is a fold in the material...

Next up to finish the unit off will be to base them. Then they get to go to war! :D Here they are ready to be based and looking ready to crack some Goblin heads. 

Edit: Added a final pic of the whole unit based.