HotT Stronghold for 25mm Elves

Statues guarding the entrance to the elven forest stronghold. The statues are old Ral Partha castings also done by Tom Meier I believe. The pedestals are made from wood blocks and plastic card.

The path leading into the forest. The miniatures are by Thunderbolt Mountain.

Love under the trees.

All in all a fun diorama to build. Now it's time to start in on the Orc stronghold featuring the Ral Partha orc war machine complete with dragon skull. Should make for quite a contrast.

HotT Narnian additional elements

New Narnian Elements

I have had most of these around for a while, but I just finished the Dryads and crows, which inspired me to finally photograph the rest of these fantastical critters.

Above is a Ral Partha Hill Troll which, though a 25mm figures, double perfectly as a giant for my Narnians.

This is another Ral Partha 25mm casting, a bit large perhaps, but for a hero element being a bit on the large size seems appropriate. I stole this miniature from my daughter, but she didn't seem to mind.

I added a couple of new beast elements and this one includes a Splintered Light mouse which is meant to represent Reepicheep, though I must admit I liked the swashbuckling interpretation in the movies a bit better.

This is another great miniature by Splintered Light. A real pain to put together, but worth the effort!

The murder of crows takes flight. I will play this as an aerial element.

These are one of my all time favorite sculpts and once again come from Splintered Light Miniatures. I will play these dryads as either beasts or behemoths, or even possibly lurkers. The folliage is an addition made with spray painted fiber floss material with turf and scale leaves glued to the fibers.

The big man himself, Aslan. I don't like playing with God elements so I usually use him as a hero or hero general.

Thunderbolt Mountain Elves

Here are some pictures of my latest project underway. These are Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures which will be used in a stronghold for my 25mm Elf army.

Pict HotT Elements

For the HotT iteration of the Picts, I decided morphing psiloi into shooters would be appropriate, and to tie them in to the theme of the historical army, I have based them in a similar style with streams and rocky ground.

Additional elements of Warband just to give the army a touch of that fanatic zeal of the Picts.

This is an old camp that I revamped for the Picts. I had intended to make a Brooch camp, but maybe at a later date.

The hero element. He was the only one in the army well travelled enough to get a full sized non shaggy horse.

Hunting dogs will play as a beast element.

A Grendel type monster for a Behemoth. Thanks to Terry Webb for this figure. Hope he doesn't tromp on all the flowers, or eat them!

This is my favorite element. A splintered light Dryad is the focus of the efforts of three druids as they call upon her power to cast a spell. The Dryad is a marvelous casting which I flocked with fiber floss to give a base for some coarse ground cover and leaves. The leaves are a Noch model railroading product.

Of course being a hero, he demands extra face time, so here is one more picture.

DBA Picts 400-600 AD

Well here they are at last - the Picts! I "pict" these up last year at Nashcon and it has taken me almost precisely one year to get them on the painting table and finished thanks to a host of distraction both in my real life and on the painting table.

The whole army arrayed. It can be played as both the a or b option and will soon include elements to make it morph into a HotT army as well.

These elements were the most fun to make. I figured the lush but rugged landscape of scotland would have lots of streams and exposed rocks. I even threw in some flowers for color.

The spear general and the only figures in mail other than the Chariot and Cavalry Generals.

Some of the spear and slingers. The slingers may be Testudo figures, but all of the rest are from Splintered Light Miniatures, with the possible exception of the trumpeter.

The head man himself complete with shaggy ponies. It has to be said that the mounted units look a bit odd, but I think may actually be quite accurate, as they did ride ponies, not the full sized horses we are used to seeing depicted.

Dixon ACW 25mm Pennsylvania Bucktails

I recently put up several lots of Dixon and Perry miniatures fro sale. I really couldn't decide which line I liked best. The Perry line has great realism and nice proportions, but I'm not a big fan of the plastics. Dixon on the other hand, have really big heads, but they are so full of character and really "read" well on the table. The Perry figures sold, so I let others make the decision for me and I am really quite grateful, as I think for me the Dixons were the way to go. I just like the look and feel of the heavier metal figures.

I have mounted these on pennies and played my first game of Brother vs Brother yesterday. It was a fun beer and pretzels type game that should work well on a large table with mixed forces. My first game was a learning game on a small board, which really did away with any benefit for having artillery.

In brother vs Brother each unit has ten figures and represents a typical squad of twenty actual soldiers. Here I have two squads and one lieutenant as well as a couple of casualty figures for dramatic effect.

Above is a unit of Berdan's sharp shooters. In brother vs Brother there is no provision for snipers or long shots, so we just played these as having breech-loaders, which means they get to fire every turn instead of every other turn for the normal rifled muskets.

The whole unit of ten. Since they were often used in company sized packets supporting larger units, I really need to get busy and paint some more infantry for these guys to support.

Indomitable Spirit

I have a fairly big testing coming up in Taekwondo, and it is traditional to give a gift to the master instructor on such an occasion. I have constructed a diorama depicting a Korean cavalryman opposing the invaders of Japan. A favorite saying of my instructor is Indomitable Spirit, so I have constructed this diorama to reflect that. She tries to impart in us that same spirit of never giving up, something I may have to call on next weekend as it is an all day testing!

The Miniatures are 25mm from the Perry Chosen Korean and Age of Wars Samurai ranges.

You just have to love the flail! I don't care if I did outnumber my opponent 6-1, If I saw that flail coming at me I'm not sure I would show Indomitable Spirit. I might be more likely to show my back side. As Monty Python would say: "Run away!"

Wish me luck - David