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Been about four years since I posted and I had a request to publish some of my recent work so here I am.  Here is a quick recap of the last four years...

Warhammer Fantasy

We transitioned from 6th Ed to Age of Sigmar awhile back and generally are please with the new rule set.  With 4 pages of rules plus 4 pages of war scrolls, I have enough info to field and play a good sized high elf army.  The biggest plus with the switch is that archers are now a viable unit to field.  Also, the rules lend themselves to a more beer and pretzels style of play which suits our small gaming group (minus the pretzels though).  Painting the high elves has been slow going to say the least.  Moving on...

In her majesty's name

At Fall-In last year, I picked up an IHMN army and committed to painting them up.   This is a great skirmish style game that is set in a steampunk Victorian England.  I picked up the Servants of Ra who are led by none other than the reborn Imhotep himself.  The army is fun to play and was reasonably easy to paint up.  Pics below...

Imhotep (impressive fashionista with a distractingly witty personality) , Professor Abir (trendy fanatic/hipster with a large social media following) and the dreaded Mummy (he teleports)

Ambullah and his Nubians (tough and well dressed) with Sairah (quiet type with a penchant for poisoned blades)

Random terrain pieces

I find a good terrain project is something I can turn around on a day with not much going on.   Here is a recent project completed with help from my daughter.   These will get dual use between AoS and IHMN.

Form on the admirals wake 

We have been playing this game fairly religiously at conventions over the past few years.   I hope to get some games of this in our local rotation by painting up 1/3000 French and British fleets for this Age of Sail game.   Latest prototype below (flags need to be colored and hulls need to be highlighted, but I think I am happy with the values and colors of the sails).  More to come on these...

foam hill

This weekend I made a foam hill as an experiment.  

Front

Back

Some archers for scale.

I used blue extruded polystyrene from Lowes.  I carved out the shape and gave it texture with a wood hand saw.   I glued on some sand and ballast to give it more texture.   Then, I covered it in a PVA glue water mixture.   This supposedly helps protect the foam from aerosol primer.   It worked since the foam was intact after priming.   Then I painted it up with some cheap AC Moore acrylic paints.  Last step is to glue on some flock.

1750 pt list

180 - Mage Level 2 (Metal - ROBI, DOMS, LOG) Seer, Channeler, Silver Wand

115 - Commander Extra Hand Weapon, Dragon Armor, Cloak Of Beards, Pure of Heart

120 - Commander Reaver Bow, General, Dragon Armor, Great Weapon

144 - 12 Archers

132 - 11 Archers

391 - 31 Spearmen Full Command, War Banner

210 - 10 Swordmasters Full Command, Banner of Sorcery

132 - 5 Reavers Champion, Bows

170 -  2 Tiranoc Chariots

100 - Repeater Bolt Thrower

 50  - Great Eagle

1744 - Total

round 3 650 pt list

Lvl 2 Mage            130 (Lore of Heavens)

  Silver Wand           10 

  Jewel of the Dusk  15 

12 Archers            144

  Light Armor           12

28 Spearmen        308

  Full Command      30

Total                      649

reaver madness

Here is my prototype reaver. The newer island of blood models are much more detailed and realistic than the 4th / 5th edition ones I have been painting so far.

700

Finished painting up 700 points tonight. Reaver Knights are on deck.

updated archers

I settled on a base style that looks decent. Here are the details...

Mud - Americana dark chocolate
Rocks - Americana grey sky
Trim - Americana plantation pine
Grass - woodland scenics green blend

Still need to flock the archer bases but the movement tray gives you a good idea of what they will look like when completed.

new basing style

I decided I need to change the base style of my army. The bright khaki color without highlights just isn't working. Originally I was planning a beach themed base style but it never panned out.

After a little research, I found a simple approach using a dark base color with a lighter color dry brushed on the high spots of the texture. I tested this out with my next unit of archers. The plan is to add some grass flock to finish them off. I am using Americana Dark Chocolate as the base color and dry brushing Americana Khaki Tan on the high spots of the sand.

500

drybrushing trial

Tried my first serious drybrushing attempt this evening. This is an old metal swordmaster model I am going to use as a spearman champion.

escalation plan

Here is the plan for the escalation campaign...

Round 1 (250 point limit - Win vs Brettonia)
(24) Archer Champion - General
(220) 20 Spearmen
Total: 244 pts

Round 2 (500 point limit - Loss vs Brettonia - Massacre)
(90) Commander - General, longbow, extra hand weapon, dragon armor
(283) 23 Spearmen - Full command
(120) 10 Archers
Total: 493 pts

Round 3 (550 point limit)
(130) Mage - General, Level 2
(294) 24 Spearmen - Full command
(120) 10 Archers
Total: 544 pts

Round 4 (600 point limit)
(130) Mage - General, Level 2
(349) 29 Spearmen - Full command
(120) 10 Archers
Total: 599 pts

Round 5 (700 point limit)
(130) Mage - General, Level 2
(25) Random magic items / honors
(305) 25 Spearmen - Full command
(120) 10 Archers
(120) 10 Archers
Total: 700 pts

Round 6 (1000 point limit)
(90) Commander - General, longbow, extra hand weapon, dragon armor
(130) Mage - Level 2
(97) Random magic items / honors
(283) 23 Spearmen - Full command
(120) 10 Archers
(120) 10 Archers
(160) 10 Swordmasters - Full command
Total: 1000 pts

unit of archers

Here is a recently completed unit of archers.

spearmen unit and archer prototype

prototype spearman

Here are some pictures of my prototype spearman.
Paint info:

Helmet:
Citadel Ironbreaker
Dazzling Metallics Champagne Gold
Citadel Mephiston Red

Scale Mail:
Citadel Ironbreaker

Leather gloves, boots, and pouch
Americana Dark Chocolate

Spear:
Citadel Ironbreaker
Dazzling Metallics Champagne Gold
Americana Raw Sienna

Belt:
Dazzling Metallics Champagne Gold
Citadel Mephiston Red

Face:
Citadel Cadian Fleshtone

Hair:
Citadel Cadian Fleshtone
Citadel Nuln Oil

Robe:
Americana Neutral Grey

primed and ready

After much preparation, I have two units ready for painiting. First unit is 20 spearman + shields. Second unit is 20 archers.

stripping paint

After some test runs of my army, I decided 20 spearmen will be the core of my army. They are cheaper pointswise than seaguard and more effective in combat than archers. The unit of spearmen I acquired were used. They were glued into the bases at a 45 degree angle instead of the direction the base is facing. So to remedy, I chiseled them out. Half of them were painted already as well. I read that SimpleGreen works to safely strip painted miniatures so I decided to give a try. After a 24 hour soak and some light scrubbing with a toothbrush, 95% of the paint is gone. I dropped them back in for another soak to get the remaining paint off.

catching up

A brief recap...
-Picked up a GW starter paint set that included an extra 5 seaguard. Got them clipped and glued w/o incident.
-Also, was able to get those 20 archers and spearmen from a buddy. They are both facing at a 45 degree angle to their bases for some reason. To remedy, I had to chisel them out of their bases, cut out the perpendicular slot, reglued to the new slot, and then green stuffed the empty slot. I then brushed glue on the bases and dipped in sand.

assembled and glued

Here is the main force of the island of blood set assembled and glued. The prince on griffon and mage are not ready yet.

army makeup

As part of my intro to warhammer, I was invited to an escalation campaign. The campaign is a series of 6 skirmishes / battles. The final battle has a 1000 pt army limit.

Next thing on the agenda is to figure out how to fill out the remainder of my high elves army. The island of blood comes with the following high elf troops...

10 Lothern Sea Guard
10 Sword Masters
5 Ellyrian Reavers
1 Mage
1 Prince on Griffon

A couple points of interest with the island of blood box set.
1) There is only one core unit (Sea Guard).
2) The prince on a griffon won't be usable in a 1000 pt match.

My friend offered to sell me some old high elf spearman and archers that he had in storage for a great price. These units really will help fill out my missing core. I will attempt to use the prince on griphon as a commander on an eagle which avoids the lord / pts issue.

20 Archers 240 pts
20 Spearman 220 pts
10 Lothern Sea Guard 150 pts
10 Sword Masters 130 pts
5 Ellyrian Reavers 90 pts
1 Mage 95 pts
1 Commander on Eagle 120 pts

Total 1045 pts

I am also considering some additions
100 pts for magic items (max for campaign)
2x bolt thrower for 200 pts
This leaves me with 345 pts to cut.

10 Archers 120 pts
10 Lothern Sea Guard 150 pts
10 Sword Masters 130 pts
5 Ellyrian Reavers 90 pts
2 Bolt Throwers 200 pts
1 Mage 95 pts
1 Commander on Eagle 120 pts
Magic/command Items 95 pts

Total 1000 pts

it has begun...

After recently being introduced to warhammer fantasy by a friend, I decided to take the plunge and build an army. Picking an army to build was first on the agenda. I wanted an army that wouldn't require a ton of painting and had a good number of tactical options. The high elves fit the bill on both counts. All the models are 10+ pts and there is a good mix of shooting, magic, and cavalry. To seed my army, I picked up an Island of Blood starter kit off of amazon.