Phroggs!!!

This week I have finished painting my Ral Partha's Phroggs.

The range was created via a kickstarter last year and consists of six miniatures, and can be viewed here:
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/phroggs-scifi-frogs-c-193/

The range consists of six giant metal Sci Fi amphibian aliens, with a slight Aztec/Mayan Meso-American design feel to them, very similar to Citadel's TSF18 Space Slann. Design wise they are great, and capture that Aztec/space alien vibe nicely, with feathers, Aztec padded armour, and weird esoteric alien looking headgear. Apart from the flame-thrower Phrogg, they are all armed with a a retro 1960's looking laser gun, which is'nt too bad and I kind of like. The leader has a form of Aztec looking axe/club in addition.

The faces and look remind me of Alternative Armies 'Todoroni' range. The sculpting is less sharp than other companies, but not poor quality. One thing that requires mention is that they are big. They are about 40mm (ogre sized in the Ral Partha description), and a lot taller than the old Space Slann. I have done a scale comparison photograph in the blog, and be aware that the Phroggs are also mounted on 30mm bases.

Overall I quite like them. They were fun to paint, and at £3.95 per miniature, not too expensive considering their size (and much cheaper than the 1980's Space Slann!!!). The sculpting is nice enough, and there is enough detail to make them look good, but not too much as to get bogged down.
My only question would be why make them so big when most people gaming, or who remember the Space Slann, would be used to 25/30mm miniatures? They are different from the usual 28mm humanoid looking miniatures though, but I don't think the size will make them as popular as they could have been. As a range I think they may be eclipsed by Tim Prow's upcoming Eru-Kin, a range I am looking forward to be avaliable in larger numbers.

Enjoy :)

All six of the froggy (Phroggy?) critters.
I opted for a classic mix of froggy/Slann flesh colours, and the Aztec/Slann look.
I thuoght they might look good in a grey alien or flesh coloured skin tone, the sort of Von Daniken Space Alien feel. I also went for lot of gold on the equipment and the guns to reinforce that concept.

Scale comparison photograph, with the smaller of the TSF18 Space left, the larger on the right (both bases on 25mm bases, as opposed to the Phroggs 30mm base).

The PH010 Phrogg Sergeant.
He (or she? Can you 'sex' a giant alien frog? I can't!) is armed with the laser gun and club.

Rear view.

PH003 Phrogg Trooper #3 firing.

Rear view.

PH009 Phrogg Flamer Support Trooper.
A Phrogg with a flamer thrower!

Rear view showing the chemical tanks.

PH001 Phrogg Trooper #1 loading.

Rear view.

PH002 Phrogg Trooper #2 Advancing.

Rear view.

Phrogg Trooper #4 Advancing.
I painted him similar to the 'Slanni' in the 4th Edition Warhammer 40k Rulebook.

Rear view.

The Phroggs investigating a lost colony on a far distant planet, deep in the jungle.

The next update will be 'proper' 1980's fantasy Slann, as I have a painting project I wish to achieve. :)

Buying stuff, gifts, and sorting Slann.

 As I mentioned in my last blog update I have decided to take a little break from the Rogue Trader World Eater Renegades. I have been focused on them since October 2015, and decided to have a break.

I am revisiting the Slann, and all Slann-equse nonsense. I wanted to paint something colourful, and I have been wanted to reorganise the army a little. In addition, I have been reading a history of the Conquest of the Inca, which has got back in the pre-Columbian frame of mind.

So I have done a little shopping. First of all I have bought some of Ral Partha Europe's Phroggs range. They are space frogs, basically Space Slann, and created after a kickstarter campaign last year. The range consists of six miniatures. Unlike Citadel's Space Slann they are a lot larger, more Ogre sized. They remind me of the Von Daniken idea of 'Giant Space Aliens' coming to help humanity in ancient times.

The painting is still a WIP, and I hope to have them finished for next week. I quite like them as a little range, the sculpting reminds me of Alternative Armies Toadaroni in that it is slightly 'comic' and less sharp than some other ranges, and the Phroggs themselves are slightly bull frog-ish. They have kept the slightly Aztec/Maya look to the sculpting concept, and detailing wise they are nicely done.
The range can be found here:
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/phroggs-scifi-frogs-c-193/

Secondly I bought some giant frogs from a new company called Toad King Castings. I bought a selection of Giant Frogs of varying types for the Slann army to see how they look. I was not dissapointed. They are very nice quality, made from a durable resin, and beautifully detailed. I like these very much, and plan a second order in the next couple of days. They are'nt too expensive, and I plan the have a unit of Slann riding the 'Giant toad (large), and a unit of 'Tengu Toads' as a summoned 'Monstrous Host'. They do some nice looking skull packs too.
The website can be found here:
http://www.toadkingcastings.co.uk/

Thirdly I bought some shields for the Slann. They are Aztec design shields (not shield type which the Aztecs would have used though), which I purchased from Wampstore, http://www.wampstore.com/store/miniatures
and are made by Ristulsmarket http://ristulsmarket.com/ . They are nicely detailed resin shields, and will come in handy for Cold One riders and the Altar Guards for my second Slann War Altar.

Leaving aside my purchasing, I have very kindly been sent some castings by my friend Justin, of the Masterworkguild blog:  http://themasterworkguild.blogspot.co.uk/
Justin had sent me a few of his first castings of Goblins some time ago, which shamefully I have'nt got around to painting yet. In addition he has sent me a casting of an undead version of the (in)famous Citadel C23 Ogre 'Ogre Captain Hrothyogg'.

Lastly, I have wasting a little time sorting out my 1980's Fantasy Slann collection. I have decided to seperate the solid based Slann, and the Slann from the 'Magnificent Sven' scenario, in order to creat a seperate Slann army of the old solid based Slann to repsresnt the forces of the Sven Scenario, and Slann of the pre-slotta era. The army will be compatable with the 3rd Edition Warhammer Armies lists, and have addition to Gurggl's basic forces.

It's a bit of distracting fun really, but does mean that I can split my Slann down into three seperate armies: Gurggl Greenwakes solid based Slann; another army of all the maximum options fulfilled (excluding Monstrous hosts) with all of the correct Totem Warrior miniatures; and a third army of Slann made up from those left, maybe led by Kremlo (although I might have him lead a Norse army!).

Enjoy :)

 Ral Partha Phroggs WIP. 

 Scale comparison with a Citadel Space Slann. The Phrogg is based on a lipped 30mm round base.

 Toad King Castings toads. 

Left rear are the Giant Toad (Large); right is the Tengu Toad. 

Front left are the Giant Toads (Medium), centre is 'Terence the Toad, right is the Boss Toad.

 Scale photograph of Boss Toad with Slann.

 Terence the Toad.

A Toad smoking a pipe! :)

'Aztec tribal Shields'.
At the top are the smaller versions, at the bottom are the larger versions.The are nicely detailed, you get six of one the versions in each pack.

Scale shot with a Slann for scale.

C23 Citadel Ogre, with his undead counterpart.

Close up, show the lovely attention to details.

Rear view.

One of Justin's Goblins. He is armed with a little sword, and hasa tab on his arm ready for an addition of old Citadel shield

The tab syas 'Lee', which is great. -a Goblinlee! :)

Gurggl Greenwakes solid based Slann army. Well most of it, the rest are in the following photographs. In total it stands at Gurggl himdelf, 20 Venom Tribes, 15 Scouts, 60 Spawn Bands, 20 Bull Slann, 15 Bull Slann Cold one Riders, Slann Animal Handlers and 2 Warhounds, and 6 Human Slaves.
I will convert up one or two Wizards from solid based Slann. I also have 5 Troglodytes and about 20 Lizardmen, all old solid based, to add.

Freshly dettol paint stripped Slann Spawn Bands.

15 Bull Slann Cold One Riders.

Finally a random and totally unnecessary photograph of all the Slann Wizards I had been sorting out on my painting table.

Next blog update will be on the painting Phroggs!

100,000 Views!!!

Wow!!!!!!!!

I have taken a couple of weeks break from blogging and painting, and in the meantime my blog has reached 100,000 views mark (100,735 as of today). All I can say is a big thank you to everyone for taking an interest in my blog posts.

According to my blog post log I have posted 174 updates, which I find amazing as I did'nt think it was that many. When I started my blog in April 2013 I had no idea if people would take any notice of it or would be interested.

The aim of the blog has been to post photographs of the miniatures which I have collected over the years, to provide a focus for painting projects, and to stop me from getting distracted. I think this has worked well as I have managed to get several projects stated and/or completed. I have also chatted to many people via my blog on all sorts of miniature releated topics, and gained/given ideas and inspiration.
Most of all, it's been fun. :)

In additon I have been able to showcase several miniatures and ranges, as well as the details which people were unaware of. I also really enjoyed doing the shortlived series looking at the army lists in the Warhammer Armies book. This something one I hope to re-do, but the problem is that each of the updates were taking three of four afternoon's/evenings to complete. This meant sometimes I rushed them (leading to mistakes/forgetfulness), and importantly, I did'nt have time to paint!

So this blog update is a bit of a retrospective of the things I have posted over the last few years. It's more of a selected highlights, rather than a plodding chronolocial review. In the future I plan to carry on with the Traitor Legion project, although whether I complete this in one go remains to be seen. I have a desire to paint more fantasy Slann, and I also have all sorts of things I would like to paint.

Also I still have lots of things to photograph still, and would like to get back to updates concerning particular ranges. The idea is to do smaller, more regular updates that are quicker to post, as sometimes the larger updates take time, recently stopping me from always updating every week.

(re-) Enjoy. :)

As the blog says...
...Goblins!

Close up of just a few of the little fellows.

The flying Gargoyles of Barda

Citadel Orcs
A mix of the various 1980's ranges.

3,000 points worth of 1980's Dwarves.

Prince Ulther's Dwarves.

661 Goblins. :)

Just a few of the Praetorian Imperial Guard army.

A company and half of Praetorian Leman Russ tanks.

Some of the Beastmen from the 3,000 point Chaos army.

Citadel C23 Ogres.

3,000 points of Bretonnians.
I plan to re-visit this army very soon.

C27 Snakemen.
Part of my Dark Elf army.

The first sculptings of RR4 Mengil Manhide's Dark Elf Regiment of Renown.
These too are part of a 3,000 point army.

Skeletons, again just one of several regiments from a 3,000point army. 

RRD5 Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers, painted up in autumnal colours.

The brave defenders of Vastervik, or dastardly dry skin colonists, depending on which side you play!

More current edition World Eater army.

Slann spawn band.

Slann Venom tribes.

  5,000 points of Slann.
This is just a fraction of my Slann army, barely half of it in fact.

Slann army on the table, fighting 'The Battle at the Tower', back in September 2014.

Slann in action!

Rogue Trader Ork, part of Luggub's Drop Legion.

Hasslefree's (tiny) Kindred.

Genestealers.

Skaven.

Paranoia Troubleshooters.

Squats.

TSF 18 Space Slann.

Bob Olley's Iron Claw Black Orcs.

Warploque Miniatures.

Gnolls/Great Goblins!!
I painted these up as individuals on 30mm bases.
I love Goblins :)

Lots of Goblins clambering over a hill! (and a Troll).

Chaos Goblins.

Lesser Goblins.

First Edition RR1 Bugman's Dwarf Rangers.

RR5 Harboth and the Black Mountain Boys, and RR14 Notlob's Orcish Bolt Throwing Engines.

C20 Troll 'Rattlebones Bowlegs'.

The first Rogue Trader releases.

West Wind's 'Secrets of the Third Reich' British.

C27 Pygmies, allies of the Slann, one of the more controversial series of blog posts.

'Slaves to Darkness' era World Eater Renegades.
Part of a much, much larger project.

More Renegades.

Techmarine and Robot.

Seven Land Raiders.
A glimspe of a future post. :)

Next update will be a slight break from the World Eaters. I have been painting them on and off since October 2015, and fancy a change. I have a couple of slightly different posts lined up. :)