15,000 Views! and Snakemen.

As of this evening I have received 15,303 views since April this year!

Thank you for everyone who has taken an interest in the blog :)

I have had a bit of another busy week, hence the small and late blog update today. However, I have managed to finish painting the Snakemen. As those of you who have read my blog before may recall, the Snakemen are to be used as a proxy for a Fimir ally contingent in my 3rd Edition Dark Elf Army.
 I have yet to rewrite the army list to include them, so will update the blog with that soon. I have already painted several of the Dark Elves, so the army is nearing completion.

The contingent consists of 16 Snakemen, divided up into two regiments of 8 'Fimm Warriors', and 7 'Fianna Fimm' with a 'Fimm Warlord' as the regimental leader. I painted them up in a green flesh colour (well, scales!), as, after trying a couple of other colours, I thought green was a better base for the rest of the colours of the equipment. I went for golden bronze armour to offset the green and becuase it looks unusual, and blue and red for the two different regiments.

They were a joy to paint, and are lovely miniatures. 

I have included several photographs of the Snakemen, as well as a few photographs of a couple of random things.

Enjoy :)

The ally contingent.

 Eight Warriors of the 'Fimm'.

 The first of the C27 Snakemen, S'lararet Slintered Fang.

 Rear view

 The side view of the armour, showing the skull faced shoulder armour.

 Higgat Dwarf Slicer. 

I love the breastplate in the shape of a fanged face.

 Rear view showing the shield.

 I had two broken Snakemen.

 The first of them was missing the sword, and so I converted him into the unit leader by giving him a mace.

 The second was also missing his sword, and so gave him one from the Skeleton Horde box set.

 The second regiment, the 'Fianna Fimm' with the 'Fimm Warlord'.

 Saranth Elf Mangler.

 Left hand side.

 Rear view.

 S'Sirron Fanthrane.

 Rear view.

 Another Higgat Dwarf Slicer, this time in red.

 The contingent leader, S'lon Life Smasher. 

I only have one of him, so thought he fitted the role of contingent leader very well.

 Rear view.

 Shield side view.

 Drunks!!

After posting the Orc Villagers last time, thought I would photograph the different one piece castings of  drunken 'pairs'.

 The Orc 5 Villager Drunks, and the FTG 10 Drunken Great Goblin/Gnolls.

 Drunken Snotlings. 

I also have the ones laying down drunk, but could not get a clear photo of them whilst they are unpainted.

 The Iron Claw Booze Brothers. 

Two drunken Dwarves sculpted by Bob Olley.

I like the Owl, a nice, almost Arthur Rackman, touch, and also suggesting that they are drinking long into the night!

 Rear view. 

 Moggy.

I think this is the cat from the Citadel FS Fantasy Specials range, FS33 Witches items. 

The cat is tiny! In the photograph, it is resting on a 20mm base. 

Hopefully I will be able to do an update during this coming week, maybe on the new Dark Elf army list.

ORC 5 - Orc Villagers. And a new old Goblin.

I have not had time to paint up all the Snakemen, painted five, nearly six!

So, given the interest I received after photographing the Nick Lund Wolf Riders, I thought I would do  another update focusing on just one range/release of miniatures. So I have chosen the ORC 5 Orc Villagers (later known as the 0508 range).

Released in 1988, and sculpted by Trish Morrison, they have a slightly different look to the Kevin Adams Orcs of the time. They also have a slighly different style to the Marauder range that she and Aly Morrison were to release later in the same year.
Many of the tabs state 1985, and 1987, and so they might have been done earlier and then released in 1988. I am aware that Citadel might have used the tabs from earlier years on minatures sculpted a year of two later, or just that they delayed the release due to time and money, and that they had a lot of cool miniatures to make moulds for!

This is the release sheet for the range from the 1988 Blue Catalogue:

I have most of the range, I only require # 03, 05, 19, and 29, so will keep a look out for them, although I'm not too fusssed. I have painted a few of them over the years, and paint-stripped a few of the others I did a long time ago. I have no plans to paint them up at the moment, but they will join the 'to do' list. Might paint them up and keep them as a seperate collection when I do. They, plus a few carts/waggons, will make a great baggage train.

Orc with a bag of swag of some description over his shoulder, and an archer.

Double casting of two drunken Orcs, happily singing and drinking.

Staying on the drunken theme, two more drunken Orcs, although the one on the right seems to have a stomach ache :(

Orc with sword and bag of loot, although it might be an unstopped wineskin?

After the drink, here's the food. 

The Orc on the left has stuffed some poor goblin or Hobbit into the bag for later.

The Orc on the right has a couple of fowl and is eating a bacon joint. It you look carefully you can make out the word 'Danish' on the bacon!  Another of the homourous little 1980's touches.

Rear view of the Orc on the left above showing the poor unfortunate Goblin(?) in the bag.

Brawling Orcs! 

These two Orcs are meant to be put together as a set of two Orcs fighting each other. 

When I get around to painting them I will base them up together on one base.

The Orc from above throwing his punch!

Another brawling Orc putting up his guard.

Armed Orc Villagers

Female Orc with an axe.

A variant sculpt from the Orc (or is it Orcess?) above, with a repositioned head and holding a very reluctant Hobbit under her arm!

The black on her is black ink which I lightly added to try to bring out the detail a little more.

The said Hobbit in question, about to become someone else's second breakfast!

Two more female Orcs, holding thier offspring, showing all the parental care that Orcs are renowned for. 

Rear view of the Orc above on the right. The screaming baby face and nappies are nice sculpting touches.

 An Orc father and Orc baby, and female Orc with rolling pin.

Orc with broom, looking confused. He is a variant on the male Orc with baby above. 

The other Orc looks like another brawler, and might be desgined to pair up with the Orc brawler in picture #10. 

 Dopey looking Orc with a club, gesticulating with his other arm.

Orc running fast, either to something or away from something, or maybe both.

Orc casualty. I painted him up as dead/wounded, but he could easily just be dead drunk or asleep.

An Orc reading from a book.

They have sculpting him with a goatee beard and made him look like an older, wiser Orc, that has gained enough wisdom to start reading.

...and the book he is reading, an ABC book!

I tried to get a clear photograph of it, it says 'A is for Axe', with a helpful picture of an axe. 

My new old Goblin I managed to buy. 

Gutbag from the Death on the Reik scenario. 

http://www.solegends.com/citscenarios/reik1-03.htm

Rear view of Gutbag.

He's a great little Goblin miniature.

Snakeman! 

One of the few I have managed to finish painting. I am quite happy with how they are turning out.

 

Next blog update may be sometime in the week, or else next Sunday, and I will hopefull have more if not all of the Snakemen finished. Might even get time to varnish and base them! 

Other than that, if people are still happy to see random ranges of miniatures I have then I'll find another range to photograph. Still have the Great Goblins/Gnolls to do. Please let me know if you have any preferences or just happy to see random things?  :)