1:285th Modern T-80 Company

Hey Internet,

After painting those Dwarfs I lost a great deal of my enthusiasm for Of Gods and Mortals. I'm not sure quite why - perhaps I let the project balloon so much that it was too daunting to start chipping away at again, or perhaps I just got bored of chain-mail. Either way, since none of my gaming-friends are anywhere near having a force ready to play a game against, I've allowed myself to be sidetracked my a new project for a while. Just until I get a 'second wind' for my Norse Warhost.

In fact, this isn't a new project at all, but rather one that I started about five years ago andnever got around to finishing - a big 1:285th/6mm Scale 'Giant Japanese-Inspired Monsters vs City' participation game.

One side controls the Humans, with each player taking on the roll of either a Commander of the Self-Defence forces or the pilot of a Mobile Suit/Eva/Mecha. Players on the other side take the roll of 'the monster of the week' - be they giant radioactive dinosaurs, space-monsters or the doomsday machines created by evil scientists.

Anyway, here is my first contribution to the project - an Armoured Company of the Russian Federation. The models are 6mm scale T-80 tanks, although I cannot remember from which manufacturer they are from. I think its either 'Heroics and Ros' or 'Scotia', but don't quote me on that. Whoever made these tanks, they are quite nice. The reactive armour in particular is well defined and takes to painting well. I've painted them using a simple combination of dry-brushing, edge highlighting and inks. Nothing fancy, but I think they look all-right.

I've got a bunch of other Russian/Soviet stuff lined up and ready to go on the painting table, so hopefully I should be able to also use these tanks for games of Cold War Commander.



Like 'um?

MM.

Two Dvergar

Hey Internet,

I painted a pair of Dvergar (dwarfs). Both of them are really nice OOP models from Games Workshop 'Lord of the Rings' line. I've had these models for just about forever. After a short spell in some break fluid they found their way onto my painting table.

They painted up really quickly and easily. The only reason that its taken me so long to get them done is that I have recently been distracted by a new side-project.......oh dear......

I've also started doing some movement sheets to make these models usable in 'Of Gods and Mortals'. These are just laser cut bases (from Warbases) that I have painted brown, flocked and sprayed with an old can of Games Workshop varnish.

The name drop is not an endorsement by the way - I really dont like Games Workshop's varnish. It is by far the worst varnish I have used in terms of 'frosting', but it does the job when all you need is an aerosol stealer. If you look really closely you can see that it did even frost on the flock - which is quite a cool effect actually, considering that I'm trying to represent Norsemen.

Dwarf the First...

Dwarf the Second...

The Pair Together...

A Valid Game Unit...

Two More Huscarls

Hey internet,

I've finished two more models for my Norse project - a pair of Huscarls.

My friend whos a wizz with a camera took my camra's lens off and put it back the wrong way round to turn it into a make-do macro lens. The detail it could capture is amazing, but this is the most detailed pic I'm willing to show...at any greater magnification you can start to see the texture of the paint and the flakes in the metallics. 

The first is a Black Tree Design Norman. I've swapped the spear out for a steel one so that it will last longer than five minutes, and I've swapped the original shield for another. Otherwise the model is as it comes.

The second figure is a barbarian looking chap that blowing a horn. I cannot recall where I got this figure, but I've had it for at least a decade or so. Its not the best model in the world, but it looks all-right up next to the Black Tree guys.

I think I'll paint some Dwarfs next....

Do tell me what you think.

MM.

A Trio of Trolls

Good-evening Internet,

Part 9 of my Norse Saga: Trolls!

I never intended to do any Trolls as part of this project, but I got into reading about Ragnarok the Poetic Edda and, being be, decided that I needed to do a second Norse Force to go up against Freyr and the other 'good gods' of Norse mythology.

I sort of always knew this would happen. I wanted to do a very themed force to be led by Freyr, consisting entirely of Dwarves and Elves - the creatures who's lands he was lord of.

However, much of the really cool stuff (Fire Giants, Dire Wolves, Trolls, Frost Giants, Witches, Great Serpents and the Living Dead) is on the 'bad guys' side. So, yeah, I'm going to do a second force for Of Gods and Mortals.

Of course, seeing them as two distinct 'sides' is a very artificial, self imposed divide. There are no set army lists or anything in Of Gods and Mortals, so I can mix and match different models in games as I like.

Anyway, I digress. These three 'Trolls' are Reaper Miniatures Dark Orcs that was given by a friend (thanks Crystophyer!) who got them as part of the Reaper 'Bones' Kickstarter. They are made out of some kind of nasty wibbly-wobbly plastic - however, my friend was kind enough to give me a whole heap of 'Bones' models that I will be using in this project, so I will do one big 'What I Think Of Bones' post, rather than moan a little bit in each post.

I had to do a little converting on these models to bring them up to scratch, but nothing major. With these three all I had to do was swap out their bent-beyond-all-hope rubber blades with new ones from my bits box. I think the blades are from some old Games Workshop Chaos warriors of some kind. I just cut the old blades off and pinned the new ones on. Easy peasy.

Painting was a little more troublesome. The 'Bones' wibbly-wobbly plastic is allergic to spray-on undercoats. After trying a few black paints (which all 'beaded-off' on the surface) I found an old pot of 'Cote 'De Arms' Black that worked. With a solid base-coat down the rest of the painting was pretty straightforward.

Norse Trolls come in all types, sizes, shapes and colours so I just had a bash at a few variant skin-tones. The only other thing of note is that I cheated when painting the armour, simply dry-brushing it with a dark silver and then covering it with 'Model Mates' Rust solution. I love this stuff, but before I painted these guys I had only used it to rust-up post-apocalyptic vehicles and scenery. These models are pretty big, with nice flat areas of armour, so I thought I'd give it a shot - and I think it works.

Final Scale Shot. Thats a 1p coin. Big Trolls.

Its fair to say that I'm not 100% happy with how these guys have turned out - the details on the models are just a little too soft for my liking, but they'll do. I'm going to source a fourth Reaper Orc at some point to complete the Unit. It'll be interesting to see how the metal version compares to the bones one, but thats a post for another day. 

What do you think?

Oh, and next, I think I'll finish the last of my suspiciously Norman-looking huscarls....

MM.