Citadel Temple Dogs.

This is a bit of  a last minute blog update, just finally updating before September passes by!

The truth of the matter is that I have'nt been painting in the last month, but most of my time has been work related. What miniatures related activies I have undertaken have mostly been collecting. I have been buying all sorts of odds and ends to complete units and add items to armies.

One of the great things about collecting older miniatures now, is, of course, e-bay. Now e-bay can allow access to many miniatures which I was unable, or never got around to buying, at the time. I find that it is a lot easier to source older miniatures now than it was sometimes at the time, and certainly more so than in the 1990's when their production stopped, but there was little way for people to sell them. Of course, e-bay can come at a price, but sometimes bargins can be found, or sometimes a rare miniature or sought after one turns up at a price which does'nt seem too bad. Two such things happened a few weeks ago.

I managed to purchase two miniatures in the last few weeks which I have wanted for a while, and complete a set as well. I bought the Samurai mounted on a Temple Dog, in mint condition as well, for £30. In addition, I bought the Hobgoblin Temple Dog rider for £12.50. I already had a spare Temple Dog for the Hobgoblin (as one does!) and a spare plastic lance for him. I had owned the Dark Elf Rider and Temple Dog since the 1980's, and she will be (as she was at the time) the General for my slotta based Dark Elf army.

I am aware that for some people that this might be too much to consider paying for these miniatures, but I always think that sometimes, especially for miniautres which do not appear with great frequency, it's sometimes worth the money. All three miniatures will end up leading respective armies. The Samurai leading my Empire list based Nippon army (although rules wise I would have to consider it a Warhorse); the Hobgoblin will lead a Hobgoblin Mercenary Contingent for a Hobgobla Khanate army (an Orc/Goblin list army, but using Hobgoblin miniatures instead of Orc ones, and other Hobgoblins in the Mercenary force); and the aformentioned slotta based Dark Elves.

So this update is really just me being pleased at collecting three miniatures, which not only will have a practical gaming use, and be fun to paint, but which are just nice to own and appreciate for themselves.

Enjoy :)

An original advert for the Temple Dog riders. I am not quite sure when they were sculpted, but the were part of a sale promotion in spring 1989. The plastic lances were from 1987, and the rules for Temple Dogs were released in Warhammer Armies in 1988, so somewhere between 1987-9. They were sculpted by Aly Morrison.

The three Generals (as yet unpainted).
There are two banner variants, the fan banner, and the flag/sashimono. I seem to have three sets of fans.
Temple Dogs were only avaliable in three lists in Warhammer Armies: The main Dark Elf list; the Hobgoblin Mercenary list; and the Samurai Mercenary list (which could only be used by Dark Elf armies!).

Temple Dog face.
It looks similar to Chinese Foo Dogs and the Pekinese type of dog. The dog itself is a  three part kit consisting of the left and right sides of the body, and the seperate head.

Side view.
When both parts of the body are placed together, there is a small round hole in the back above the front of the pelvis. This is where the banner pole is inserted.

Samurai General.

Samurai General.
I love the Samurai armour details.

Rear View.

Dark Elf General. Unlike the Samurai, but like the Hobgoblin, she has a small boss on her left hand to take a Citadel plastic (or metal if you had one spare) shield.

Rear view.
From this angle you can better see her great mass of 1980's Heavy metal/punk Mohawk hair. You can also see her lack of clothing. She is wearing a bikini thong, leather studded bodice/basque, a leather or metal chest piece on the collar bone (better seen in the above photograph), a neck choker, and either chainmail stockings or fishnets stockings. An electic mix for battlefield operations, even for a Witch Elf!

Hobgoblin General.
Like the Dark Elf, he has a metal boss to take a shield in his left hand. He has been sculpted in a Mongol/Far Eastern style, similar to Aly Morrisons earlier C36 Hobgoblin range. Again I like the sculpt and it's full of detail. I positioned the lance at a slightly differing angle to the other riders to give a more casual look as I thought it fitted the pose of the miniature better.

Rear view.

In addition to the Temple Dogs, I have turned my attention back to the Regiments of Renown. I bought the command group and several troopers of the RR6 Mudat's Half Orc Mercenaries, from somebody on the Oldhammer Facebook trading page, ensuring I now have a nice and neat regiment of 20 of probably not nice or neat (or hygienic) Half Orcs. I also rebased the Half Orcs I already owned onto 20mm square bases for gaming.

It is not just the Half Orcs who have aquired new shiney new bases. I have been rebasing and basing up all of my Regiments of Renown with an eye to use them in armies. Here is the pre-slotta version of RR5 Harboth an the Black Mountain Boys. I found an extra unpainted trooper to replace the variant with the halberd at the back.

Next blog update, which I promise with be sooner and better than this one, will be on the results of my sortings out of armies.

The Watcher in the Water.

I have finally managed to update the blog!! I've been meaning to post an update, but work and other things seem to just have got in the way. Also, I forgot my new apporach to the blog. The idea was to update with smaller updates detailing what I have been painting/collecting, but I kept thinking thinking "I'll get this or that sorted, then have a 'proper' update". But enough of that, I'll start that from September. What I have been doing is collecting a 1990's/4th edtion/Big Hat Chaos Dwarf army, and I am also preparing to paint up the three armies of the Vengence of the Lichemaster scenario.

With that in mind, here is a little update of a distraction I painted. Some time ago (mid 1990's) I bought this and painted it quite basically. On whim, and because I thought it deserved better, I repainted it. It was produced by Fantasy Forge in the early 1990's. Scotia Grendel Miniatures eventually took over the range and now sells it under the name 'Swamp Creature':
http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2810

As the name suggests, it is loosely based on the idea of the Watcher in the Water, the creature that attacks the Fellowship of the Ring outside Moria, in the 'Two Towers'. I am sure it can be painted up in a more oceanic look in order to terrorise shipping, but I have opted for the murky dwelling creature of the Misty Mountains. Size wise, it is 6 inches long, by 4 inches wide at it's widest. As an aside, I always wondered how it got there in the first place, but I suppose it was put there when a lot smaller by Sauron or Saruman.

Enjoy :)

"Watch out Mr Frodo!"

I base coated the creature in a dark green, and then prgressively highlighted it with lighter greens and khaki, giving the whole thing an Agrax Earthshade wash.

I wanted to give it the look of something slimy, living in a murky, dark, pool. I went for a mix of dark green and dark brown mixes for the pool wate, and also gave the whole model a coat of Citadel 'ardcoat to make it look wet, shiny and slimy.

Icky looking weeds on the tentecle.

The head.

Tentecles.

More tentecles!
I painted the sucker parts of the tentecles with Kislev Flesh colour to add a little more colour and paleness.

"Poor old Bill".

A distance photo of the Chaos Dwarf army on a board on the bed. Better photographs soon..!

Next update will either be the Vengence of the Lichemaster armies or Chaos Dwarfs.

The Necrosphinx of the Crimson King, a Wight King, and the Tomb Guard of Princess Meritites.

I have finished painting the last of the elements of my Age of Sigmar Death army, based on the Army of the Crimson King. I painted the Necrosphinx conversion, a conversion of a Tomb Kings Tomb King miniature, and a converted unit of Black Knights.

The Necrosphinx is a conversion made from Tomb Kings Necrosphinx parts, and an Abyssal beast. I added the torso from the old Necrosphinx onto an Abyssal beasts body. The fit was suprisingly easy to do. I liberally added skulls to the base to give a great feel of otherworldly-ness, and painting them the sam colour as the skulls inside the Necrosphinx to give the impression that the Necrosphinx was infusing the skulls with it's magic as it passes over them.

The Wight King is a very simple conversion. An old metal Tomb Kings range Tomb King, on a new 32mm base. I have swapped his arms for a plastic arm with an axe from the Necropolis Knights kit, and a right arm converted from the basic skeleton warriors set. The idea is to have a Wight King in gaming terms armed with a Black Axe. In background terms he is minor son of the Crimson Kings, perhaps from a secondry or lesser wife, as was common in Ancient Eygpt.

The Black Knights are similar in apporach to my other unit. They are a converted mix of Tomb Kings parts applied to the current Black Knights box set. The Tomb Kings parts I used were from the 2011 release Tomb Guard (an excellent box set, and sadly missed). I wanted to make then different from the previous unit of Black Knights, and use these parts to link them into the Tomb Guard from the Crimson King article in White Dwarf #377 (May 2011).

To give the Tomb Guard a bit of a focus and a raison d'etre, I made the unit leader a royal one, and that the Tomb Guard were their personal Tomb Guard. I felt there was a lack of female aspects to the Tomb Kings (and GW as a whole to some extent) and so decided to do a conversion I wanted to do for a while, and convert up a Tomb Princess. I used a spare 1990's era female Dark Eldar torso, which worked out well as a female breastplate in a similar style to the usual Black Knights torsos. I also sculpted some long hair in a female style from green stuff to add to the female look. I named her Meritites, which is ancient Eygptian name meaning "beloved of her father", was apparently used by many ancient royal women, and seemed to fit the Daughter of a Crimson King whom I always assumed to be a very dominant personality.

Enjoy :)

 Necrosphinx.

 Close up.

Front.

Right side.

 Left side.

 Wight King with Black Axe.
I have named him Neferkare, which was a male name linked with Horus. As he has a hawk-headed axe, I thought that would be fitting.

 Rear view.

 Black Knights/Tomb Guard of Meritites.

 Princess Meritites.

 Rear view.

 Standard Bearer, with a standard from the Warsphinx kit.

A selection of Tomb Guard/Black Knights, converted using a mix of Tomb Guard and Skeleton Warrior parts.

Next update might be Space Slann, or maybe Chaos Dwarfs.

Mortis Engine and Black Knights.

My blog updating has been a little remiss of late, but in fairness I have still been painting and collecting. I have nearly finished the AOS Death/Tomb Kings style army, finishing the Mortis Engine and the painting (repainting in this case) of one of two of my Black Knight units.

Outside this, I have been adding to my Space Slann army, increasing the size, and will be rebasing and painting them after I have finished the Death army. Also, I have been spending money on a collecting project I have wanted to do for a while, the 1990's 'Big Hat' era Chaos Dwarfs. I never liked them at the time, but have grown to like them over the intervening years. I have built a small army, again, more of which later.

Due to the crazy hot and sunny weather in the UK, I was not able to take proper photographs, one of the other reasons my blog update has been delayed. I do need to construct a photo box, but in the meantime I took the photographs in the garden.

Enjoy :)

Mortis Engine.
Like the other elements of the army I have substituted some of the parts for old Tomb Kings parts to keep with the Crimson King theme.  

Right hand side.

Tomb Kings shields.

I swapped the heads for Tomb King arms and heads.

Close up.

I swapped the supplied Necromancer for the plastic Necromancer kit that can be bought seperately. I converted the top fo the staff with a Tomb Guards blade, and head swapped with a Tomb Kings head.
As for the Mortis Engine, I swapped the Skeelton heads for Tomb Kings heads on the lower two, and Beastman horned heads to the upper pair from the Skull set.

I also swapped out the icon for a Tomb Kings standard from the Warsphinx/Necrosphinx, with the pole cut off. I wanted to give it that extra Tomb Kings feel.

Tomb Kings Black Knights.
I had orginally painted these up in a similar style to my Tomb Kings army. However I re-painted them in line with the rest of the Crimson Kings army.

Charging!

Unit leader.

Standard Bearer.

Musican.

Charging, left and right sides.

Galloping, left and right.

Shields.
I copied some of the designs from Tomb Kings articles, and wanted to have at least one piece of red on each shield. It is the Crimson Kings army after all!

Frontal photograph showing the head, weapon arm, and shield swaps.

Next update will be the last batch of painting of the Crimson Kings army.