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 :)
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!).
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.
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.
I love the Samurai armour details.
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!
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.
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.