A Few Figures For SOBAH .

I've had these figures knocking about on my painting tray for ages , they are plastic Reaper Bones figures for my Songs Of Blades And Heroes fantasy skirmish rules , so for a change from uniformed figures I decided to get them finished . Here's a Orc with an impressive sword ! .

Another Orc with an axe and a bad attitude .

A giant wolf - snarl !! .

The classic hero Conan , seeing they are plastic and rather cheap there quite nice figures.

The First Of The Etruscans .

I've been working on the Etruscan warbands and have got these figures finished . I sprayed them black then blocked in the colours , washed then with a brown ink , picked out the highlights and a coat of gloss varnish to seal in the paint to prevent flaking . I then applied a matt varnish and based them . I'm busy with the next batch and a mule train for them to fight over and will post them when they are done . (click on photos to enlarge)

An Aside .

I do like plastic figures and am fascinated by the many sets that are out there , gone are the days of converting the 'Airfix' Guardsmen into the required army . A quick glance at the Plastic Soldier Review site* and you find everything you want is covered  . So when I saw this box of Etruscans I was intrigued - I've always been interested in them as they always seem to play second fiddle to the Romans . I thought 'how to use them ?' - I've been playing a bit of  'Songs Of Blades And Heroes' (SOBAH) using fantasy figures recently and think the rules are so easy that they can cover historical periods as well .

The figures are rather nice with very little flash (the bane of all plastics) and are produced by "Linear-A" a German company I believe , There are 30+ figures in the box and I cleaned up some of them and mounted them on pennies ready for spraying . I'm going to use SOBAH with about eight to a dozen figures a side for small skirmishes , cattle raids  etc and am rather looking forward to painting them - it's a while since I did any ancient figures so I put some up once I get them going . (click on photos to enlarge)

*http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/News.aspx

Painting Up Odds and Sods.

It's that time of year when I try to clear up the backlog of things to paint, worthy things that have been based up and undercoated but past over and pushed back in the 'to paint' queue when a more interesting thing comes along . I've had these objective markers for 'Songs Of Blades And Heroes' (SOBAH) ready for painting for about three months and so I thought it was time to get them done.

They are resin pieces mounted on round MDF bases , think I bought them from 'The Dice Bag Lady' .

Guarded by a fierce Gorgon (?) , a plastic Reaper 'Bones' figure,  again undercoated about last Easter.

And finally some 10mm American buildings for my AWI project , which have been waiting for over a year ( I hate painting scenery).

I had the pleasure of 'S's company this morning and apart from gossiping and drinking tea we played a rousing game of SOBAH's , for the possession of the treasure in the Wizard's tower.

Didn't get to take any more photos as I had my hands full as 'S' proceeded to slaughter my Gael warband with his Orcs and claim victory.

And Now For Something Completely Different (2)

Still painting 28mm Fantasy figures and really enjoying the difference , here we have some Gael Warriors lead by a Shield Maiden (as with ALL female models she is very well endowed - in fact if she's not careful she'll have somebodies eye with them !)

A heroic character Herne Lord of the Hunt .

Galea a female Champion - yet another young lady who doesn't seem to feel the cold .

I have just received a copy of the new SOBAH rules , so I hope to get to use some of my newly painted figures on the tabletop.

And Now For Something Completely Different !

I've been painting historical 15mm for the last few weeks and having completed my assignment I thought I needed a complete change in painting challenge . Sorting through my 'boxes of shame' (my unpainted figures) I came across these figures - I had to sit down and think when and why I'd bought them ? .Years ago I used to help 'S' with his wargaming scenic stall at shows (S&A Scenics) and did about 10 a year , this exposed me to the temptation of buying a lot more figures than I do now . There was a fantasy wargame called 'Celtos' set in a mythical earth - the rules were a bit bland (?) and disappeared without really taking off , the figures however were rather nice in a sort of 'Conan' cartoony way and I picked up quite a few when they where being sold off cheap with the demise of the rules and they have lain in a box under my table till now !.

One of the races were Dwarves from the Far North who raided everybody else and were coloured blue (?!) (cos of the cold ?) , I started painting them a more natural colour - but wasn't happy with it - it is meant to be fantasy after all - so went with the original 'Celtos' colour scheme . Here is Kay-Finn the White Axe and his bodyguard .

I also did a sample human figure - one of the Gael, a sort of Gallic/Scots/ Irish race , here is Culann a Gael Champion , a very dramatic figure indeed !

He is ambushed by Dwarves ! . I'm not sure which rules to use yet , but am considering 'Songs Of Blades And Heroes' .

Since I started doing these figures I have found out that the rules and figures are available once again from http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/ , I'm enjoying painting these figures and will post more photos soon .

A Trial Game .

With the absence of my wife and dog on a scent training day (for the dog not my wife), after I had finished the list of jobs she had left me, I thought I would try out my new gaming cloth . This was made from a 2'x2' piece of 'teddy bear' fur sprayed green and has been designed for the Song Of Blades And Heroes rules with my 15mm figures .

Gorthe of the Northemen and his Druide advance past the Sacred Pool of Life to attack Conan and his warband.

Conan's Warband hurl abuse at the Northemen.

Battle is joined ! (the trees are from an Aquarium shop) .

The Northemen are defeated and the survivor's flee the wrath of Conan ! . The game only took about half an hour and the rules worked well and are easy to learn . This has encourage me to paint up some more of the very nice 15mm Copplestone figures . I'm going to take this game to play on our weekend away at the Reading Wargame show in November.

A Mini Project.

My wargaming colleague 'A' said - " are we going down to the Reading show this November ?" , we did this show last year and combined it with wargaming in our hotel room and lots of bad for you food ! (http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/warfare-reading-2014.html ). One of the challenges was playing on a 2' X 4' table ( the maximum size we could use in the room ) so we were limited to which games could be taken to play . We thought this year we would take different games down to use and 'A' has a 'secret project X ' he is working on - so I wondered what I should take new this year ?. I'm a big fan of 'Lion Rampant' medieval skirmish rules - but this takes up to much room - however there are going to be a fantasy variant of them next year and I was thinking of painting up some figures for it  . I'd come across the 15 mm Copplestone Casting Fantasy range and really liked the figures and was going to use them for it , so I thought if I bought a few of them I could use them with the excellent 'Songs of Blades and Heroes' rules which came be used on a 2' X 2' board . The figures have arrive very quickly and are for 15mm very detailed ! .

The problem is 'A's prejudice to fantasy - it hasn't to be to 'far out' ! - I think he used the term 'histrofantasy' ie fantasy based on historic facts/periods , so I preposed a sort of Dark Age - Conan the Barbarian setting so I can sneak in the odd Troll - Witch etc ( and  giant bear see above) . The figures are rather nice and I'm looking forward to painting them - will only need a couple of dozen or so at present and they will make a change from all those 28mm Napoleonic figures.