Ral Partha Elf Chariot and companions

I first saw this elf chariot sculpted by Tom Meier back in the 80's. I couldn't afford it back then so it rekindled my youthful wishes to field an elf army when I picked this model up. I have slowly amassed all the figures necessary for a 25mm HoTT army which is painted for the most part. I'll post more pictures when it is done, but here are some quick shots for now:

There is so much detail sculpted onto these marvelously showy horses, that I must admit that I stared at them for months before I could summon up the courage to paint them. They actually turned out to be fairly easy to paint. I used one of my daughters horse books to come up with the color scheme for them, which I thought ended up complementing the blues of the chariot quite nicely.

The Hero and his trumpeter. Once again these were very detailed sculpts, but they were deceptively easy to paint, despite the fact that I kept finding new details of the models as I painted. Mr. Meier really has a fine eye for detail.

The horses: I just love all the accouterments.

A group of four archers that will serve as a command element if I ever decide I want a shooter as a general. The strings of the bows are made from horse hair that I stole from my violin bow.

A close up of some elf cavalry that will serve as knights. I've got one more element of these which I think I will paint in a predominantly green color scheme. I'm working on some horse archers as well which will make up three elements of riders. With any luck I'll have these ready for Nashcon which is held every year at the end of may.

HoTT Wax Tournament - Narnians Triumphant!

Robin Hood Update - Figures Rebased and Ready

The Robin Hood HotT army was this year's HotT Wax tournament prize painted and provided by David McBride at Splintered Light Miniatures. I wanted to rebase them just so they would be consistent with my own style, especially since I wanted to add a couple of Hero elements which you can see above. These are Essex miniatures and represent Richard the Lion Heart and Ivanhoe. They can be played as heroes or knights. I also wanted to rearrange the character figures of Robin Hood and Maid Marian etc. In the process of rebasing I decided to darken the skin tones a bit just to fit my personal taste.

The Characters - Friar Tuck on the left will play as a cleric, Robin Hood with Maid Marian and some of his merry men will play as a hero element, and Little John, Alan-a-Dale, and will Scarlett will either play as a hero element or as a lurker.

The merry men - seven elements of shooters.

The peasantry - eight elements of warband.

These are great figures in wonderful dynamic poses. It took a bit of doing, but I rearranged the figures so that none of the staves were sticking off the ends of the stands.

A typical shooter stand. Once again Splintered light has provided some great dynamic figures.

A closer shot of Robin Hood with Maid Marian. I wanted to use some gold in her outfit to distinguish her as being of noble birth and a bit out of place with the woodsmen. She even has some gold braided through her hair, at least that is what it is supposed to look like.

THE VICTORS

The Narnians emerged victorious from the field of battle in Columbus Ohio. HoTT Wax was a blast, with twenty participants all sporting some magnificent armies. With a lot of help from the die, I took first place and came back to Nashville with a nicely painted Robin Hood army courtesy of Splintered Light Miniatures and David McBride. The die gods were giving me good Karma for making the long drive with Terry Webb and Paul Potter. Many thanks to David Zecchini for all his efforts to put Hott Wax together for us!

hopefully the final iteration of the Narnian army! I had enough elements to pick and choose from this fairly massive army that I was able to pick a winning combination. My tournament army consisted of 1 hero, 1 beast, 1 flyer, 2 behemoths, 2 knights, 1 rider, 2 warband, 2 spears, and 3 shooters for a 36 AP army.


A view of the Narnian host from lower down. I opted not to use the magician, or paint Aslan as a god element due to the vagaries of fate from which these elements can suffer.

I fielded both of these behemoths and they played a crucial role in almost all my victories. I finished them just hours before we had to leave, and I was extremely glad to have pushed to get them done. These are wonderful Splintered Light castings.

To the victor goes the spoils, which in this case was a wonderful Robin Hood army painted by none other than the proprietor of Splintered light. Thanks David!

Maid Marian and Robin Hood with some of his gang. I may remount this as a Hero stand, but I'll have to think about that for a while.

Will Scarlet, Little john and the Minstrel Alan a Dell.

Of course no army with Robin Hood would be complete without Friar Tuck! Great fun at HoTT Wax. Thanks again for all who played and put this wonderful tournament together.

Narnian's ready for HoTT Wax

My friends and I have decided to make a road trip up to Columbus Ohio to join the fun at HoTT Wax. The powers that be have decided we will be using 36 Army points instead of the usual 24, which has inspired me to actually finish painting the rest of the wonderful Splintered Light figures I got at last year's Nashcon in May. I have added several elements of satyrs and a flyer. I'm also currently painting a couple of elements of minotaurs which I will play as behemoths if I can get them finished before Friday. Here are the results of my efforts:

Here we have the satyr warband. The figures are a tad large and might have fit on a 20mm deep base, but as I had to use a deeper 20mm base for the elements of 4 spear, I decided to go with a deeper 30mm base to make it more apparent that these were warband and not 3 blade.

The warband general. I'll probably play him as a regular element and have my hero stand or centaurs be the general's element.

Here we have 2 elements of satyr shooters and a spear. These will mix well with their faun brethren to give me three elements of spear and three elements of shooters, which I hope will be enough. The spears are a great all around element, but they are slow in comparison to the rest of the army, so they may get left in the box if I have enough Army points to do so.


This is one of the smallish Ral Partha griffins from the 1980's and as such, he mixes well with the Splintered Light miniatures which tend to be a bit on the big side. I'm not a frequent HoTT player, so learning how to use this guy to my best advantage will be a challenge. I figure I've got five hours in a car with an expert HoTT player, so I hope to pick his brain for some strategic hints. Looking forward to seeing everyone at HoTT Wax.

Pet Pictures

I saw the Alte Fritz's beautiful pups on his site this week, and since he opened the can of worms, I couldn't resist posting some pictures of my own furry beasts.

Here we have Snuggers, the most affectionate cat the world has ever known. We put up with a cat from hell for eighteen years, so I think divine Karma graced us after that experience with her. She is known for her instapurr and bisquit making ability.

This is Tucker, our first born. She's fifteen, or perhaps sixteen years old, so is starting to lose some of her pep, but not so much that she won't get out and enjoy the rare snowfalls we get.

I remember when our children were first born, how Tucker became their surrogate mother. She was very affectionate and protective of them, despite their hair pulling. She was the designated foot washer, and everytime she saw my newborn son's toes, she inspected them and then washed them throughly! She's slowing down, but still loves her daily walks and a scratch behind the ears.

New Year's Morning Visitors

My daughter spotted these monsters in the back yard, and after I convinced myself they weren't a product of too much champagne last night, I managed to grab a few pictures. My guard dog Tucker, whose idea of guarding the house is to present her belly to any stranger that appears if she can manage to get out of her bed, summoned the energy to chase these hens out of the yard. Fortunately they landed next door and were gracious enough to let me photograph them.

How do you tell a hen from a tom anyway?

Mmmmmm, if only I'd grabbed my bow instead of the camera..... Not that I'd know what to do with it if I had. Besides, it's New Years Day. May they live long and prosper.

WWII German Fallscirmjager

I thought it might be a nice diversion over Christmas break to work on something other than DBx type figures, so I brought out some Fallschirmjager from WWII that I have been slowly collecting. My good friend Baxter Key from Wargames Inc manufactures these FAA figures, so every now and again I pick up a pack, especially when I'm feeling guilty for making him work on a Saturday so the rest of us can game. I also finally painted an Italieri King Tiger that has been primed in my ready box for quite some time. I've been thinking of trying the WWII skirmish game "Nuts", and now I'm ready to do so.

1/72 model kits can be a little hit and miss, but this one was quite a nice kit, and included the two drivers and tank commander which was a nice bonus. I gave the airbrush a rest on this one, as I have never really gotten very good at using it, and just brushed on the paint. I tried to keep the paint nice and thin, but heavy enough to provide good coverage (I used Polly S paints as they have great pigmentation even when thin), and the end result was pretty good.

I also painted up a Dragon kit of a jagdpanzer IV. This is a great kit, but I never did get the gun at a nice elevated level and the paint job was a bit to dark and heavy, but all in all, an acceptable job. I like to think of it as a well distressed model.

FAA Fallschirmjager engineers. I bought this pack thinking it was a rifle squad, but oops. I'm still glad I have them though and they are some really great figures in different and nicely animated poses.

The grunts: Three packs of assorted riflemen. Once again some very nice figures in great poses.

Heavy and medium MGs. The MMG in the prone position I based on two separate halves of an oval to facilitate taking casualties.

Pak 38 anti tank gun. It took a while to get this little booger together but the end result was good. I've always had difficulty gluing the pieces of FAA figures and guns together. I'll have to ask Baxter if he uses a special release agent or something. It could also be that I'm just lacking in patience. This was a fun diversion, but now on to the serious business of the Prussian 1806 Gendarmes of the Guard for DBN!

New DBN elements in 15 and 25mm

I have been working on a few DBN elements over the past couple of months and thought I would share the results. First up: The Old Guard - Chasseurs a Pied

I got these figures from a friend at a great price and trade, but unfortunately that means I really don't know what manufacturer these figures are from. I thought they were Foundry, but I've been told they're Dixon. In either case they were great figures. The figures were actually Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, but I filed off the square cuffs and painted on the chevron cuffs, and used epoxy putty to cover up the bearskin plates. Most are in Campaign dress, but the NCO on the end decided to dress for the occasion, at least in his choice of headgear.

The flag is a free download from warflags, which I used as a template, over which I painted the flag just to add a greater vibrancy that I get from paint as opposed to inkjet prints. Note the pouch covers, which is a dead giveaway for the 1815 period.

These are some old Hinchcliffe figures that I got on ebay and represent a battery of horse artillery. This element was a real challenge. The figures were badly painted and I had to strip them completely and start again. The gun itself was a howitzer and the carriage was so poorly assembled I had to chissel out all the old glue, strip the paint and start over. The howitzer just looked goofy so, with apologies to a certain figure manufacturer, I made a plaster mold of a gun barrel and cast my own. (I don't feel too guilty about this as said manufacturer has waaay too much of my money) I had never tried to make a mold and cast my own lead, and though the results were acceptable, I don't think anyone has to worry about me becomming one of the dread figure pirates. It was fun to try at any rate.

The Perry's make the best figures out there as far as I can tell. They are a joy to paint and I have always been pleased with the result. Here is an element painted as the 1st line battalion of the Brunswick army in 1815. The flags are by GMB Designs.

Lastly I have some 15mm 1806 Prussian Dragoons by AB miniatures. These were fun to paint and almost complete my Prussian army.

It's a funny thing, but I think these figures almost look better form the back, which is a good thing, since as their general, I rarely get to see the front of the figures!