Native American Orc Ally Contingent, Cacti, and WIP Dark Elves.

I've been a busy Goblin again.

To accompany the Snakeman army, I have painted an Orc Ally Contingent, and keeping with the South Western American theme, I have painted them up in a Native American style. Looking at the Snakeman army I realised that there were no missile troops, and rather than just add bows to some of the Snakemen, or add humans, I thought an allied tribe of Native American-equse Orcs, armed with bows, might be fun.

Painting wise I opted for the classic GW Orc green flesh as I wanted the normal late 1980's Orc approach. Also, as I was going to paint warpaint I thought the green would constrast nicely. On that subject I went for a lot of warpaint and painted the bows coloured with markings, and the shields in a Native American style. I based on the warpaint and bows on a mixture of Apache and Plains Tribes look from an Osprey history book on the subject, as well a a few random Google photographs.

I am happy with how they look. The Contingent consists of two regiments of ten archers, one with, and the other without shields. It also includes a Contingent Leader. I used a mix of C series and later 1980's slotta Orcs, and a few Marauder ones, and tried to go for a less 'European Medieval' look to them. To that end I have used quite a few of Citadels Savages Orcs. The good thing in gaming terms about using the unarmoured miniatures is that they can move fast, not having any movement penalties from armour. I do have more non archer Orcs in this style, so could expand the Ally Contingent at a later date if I wanted to.

Apart from the Orcs I have completed painting the Cacti from Wargames Terrain Workshop, which were great fun to paint. In addition, I have also started the project I wanted to do after the Snakemen, namely the Dark Elf army. A while ago I realised that I never really liked the mid to later 1980's Dark Elves, especially the Marauder ones. So I collected a purely pre-slotta Dark Elf army. With this I have been making good progress, painting a regiment of 10 Cold One riders, 10 Scouts, and halfway through painting forty Warriors (comprised from the Mengil Manhides Regiment of Renown set), and halfway through the Army General riding a Dragon. I have yet to varnish and base any of these, and when I do I will update properly on them, but for now they are still WIP.

This is the first part of my post-Snakeman plan to re-visit my Warhammer armies project. That project was to have one each of the armies in the Warhammer Armies book (1988), each army being a workable 3,000 point list. Now I have all of the miniatures required for this, and several of the armies are already completed. I have however 'tinkered' with some, removing some of the miniatures (mainly pre-slotta, or not 1980's stuff) from several of the armies, meaning a little work is now required. Other armies, notably the High Elves and Empire, I never started. So I have spent the last few evenings re-writing army lists and working out what may need to be painted, but more on that later in May and June.

Enjoy :)

 Native American Orc Ally Contingent.

 Orc Contingent Commander.
He is a dismounted C21 Orc Boar Rider, named 'Nogzod'.
I chose him as I required an Orc wearing Heavy Armour (as per the army list entry), and his headress reminded me of the Apache Gan Dancers.

 Rear view.

 I decorated the hammer sharft to add more colour, and made the armour look rusty to suggest it was old and looted.

 Orcs with shields. 

I have gone for a variety of warpaint, bow and shield decorations, to give each one their own warrior identity. All of the Orc miniatures have bows and a quiver of arrows on their back.

 A pair of Citadel ORC2 Savage Orcs, Gat and Grorb.

 More Savage Orcs, Citadel ORC2 Savage Orcs Snortz and Garn.

Citadel ORC2 Savage Orcs Arakt and Slobl.

 Citadel ORC2 Savage Orcs Gobl and Arakt again!

 Citadel ORC2 Savage Orcs Bruug and Gat (again!).

 The second Regiment of Orcs, this time without shields.

 On the left is a Citadel ORC2 Savage Orc, Pork. On the right however is an ORC5 Villager. I painted his chainmail loincloth to look like rough fibre rather than metal.

 Two Marauder Miniatures MM20 Orcs, from pack MM20/5, from 1988.

 Citadel C15 Braglog and Citadel ORC2 Savage Orc Grobble.

 Citadel C15 Holg and another of the ORC5 Orc Villager archer.

 On the left is an Orc Champion range miniature from 1998, named Eddrig Dwarf Cutter. Although he has no bow, I added him purely for the Native American look of him.

On the right is another Citadel ORC2 Savage Orc Grobble.

 Cacti from Wargames Terrain Workshop.
I added a few of their Rattlesnake miniatures to the bases as well. 

These miniatures are great, and really fun to paint.

 The big cluster of Cacti, with a curled Rattlesnake on the base.

 Two more Cacti.

 Spikey and plump looking Cacti, with slithering Rattlesnake.

 Arakt is blissfully unaware of the coiled Rattlesnake next to the flowering Cacti, as he poses for the camera.

 WIP C21 Dark Elf Cold One Riders.

 The same Regiment from the right. I have converted a unit standard, and written Dark Elf runes from the Forces of Fantasy Supplement. It says 'Hell Drake', the names of the +3 Shock Elite Cold One Rider entry in Warhammer Armies.

 Five 'Shadows': Dark Elf scouts.

   Five more 'Shadows'.

 Army General.
A converted C21 Dark Elf Cold One rider, mounted on an old Minifigs Aureola Rococo range Dragon. This miniature has just been re-released after 30+ years of being out of production, although this is an original one.

WIP.
On my painting desk are forty RR4 Mengil Manhides Regiment of Renown Dark Elves, to be used in the Warriors entry in Warhammer Armies. 

The horses are from RR10 Regiment of Renown, Elwing's Elf Cavalry, and they aree to form the basis of my next project after the Dark Elves: High Elf Army.
My plan is to have the bulk of the army as Silver Helm Cavalry, using Elwing's Regiment as the basis, and thus having a totally mounted pre-slotta High Elf army. I have more to add to this army.

My next update should be a complete photographing of the Snakeman army in all it's Chaotic glory! :)

Iron Claw Miniatures Harpies : 'The Blue Footed Harpy Tribe'. (NSFW).

As the painting of the Chaos Snakeman army draws to a close, I have been busy finishing the last peripheral items of the army, in this case Harpies.

I wanted Harpies in the army so I could have some flying creatures to attack Giant Eagle and such, or just fly around annoying things. I did orginally have just the one, which I painted purple, but I never liked the paint scheme, so I paint stripped her. I also wanted more than one Harpy. One lucky e-bay auction added six more to the army.


The miniatures are from Bob Olley's Iron Claw range from about 1988, sold by GW. They are a very small range of miniatures, with only three models, and two types of seperate wings. There was a fourth miniature, but this was unreleased. They could be considered NSFW because the miniatures are sculpted to be naked. The three miniatures are composed of two female and one male Harpies. The three miniatures are meant to be based on political leaders of the time. The male is American President Ronald Regan, the unarmed female Harpy is his wife, Nancy Regan; and the other female Harpy holding a bone is the 1980's UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.


Other than the Harpies, I have been very busy painting and sorting all sorts of things out. I have largely completed the Native American Orc Ally Contingent, and painted a Hydra. I have also started painting my pre-slotta Dark Elf army, and sorting through my pre-slotta Orc army.

Enjoy :)

 Iron Claw Harpies. 

I have painted them in a standard eagle-equse looking brown, but painted the feet blue to add colour. So, these Harpies are the 'Blue-footed Harpy Tribe'.

 One of each.
As there are only two types of wings, I have bend the open wings on some of the Harpies to give more variation and suggest 'flapping'. 

 The 'Ronald Regan' Harpy.

 The 'Nancy Regan' Harpy.

 The 'Margaret Thatcher' Harpy.

 Both types of wings. The wings are seperate and can be mixed and matched.

 Ral Partha Hydra from 1982. 

I have added her to the Snakeman army as a bound monster, as it seemed appropriate. I named her 'Hetty', as she just seemed like a Hetty to me! :)

 The last of the Snakemen I finished painting a week or two ago. 

The standard at the rear is the Army Standard.

 Pre Slotta Dark Elf army.

I undercoated the army last night, and have already started painting the Dragon and the Cold One Riders. I plan to completely paint this army over the next few weeks, and will update on my progress after the final Snakeman Army updates.

 WIP
Sneek Peek of my Native American Orc Ally Contingent.

Big box of pre slotta Orcs.
I want to organise these into one or two Lord of the Rings Armies, mixing in Citadels 1980's Lord of Rings miniatures as well. I am not sure whether to do this in the form of a large skirmish army, similar to the GW's War of the Rings game, basing them on 25mm or 30mm bases. The other option is a 3rd Edition Orc army, on 25mm square bases and more formally organised.

All of the C27 Snakemen.
The C27 Snakemen are all now painted, and on a shelf, awaiting a proper army photographing. I thought I would just add this photograph on the blog for the fun of it.

The next update will be on the Native American Orc Ally Contingent. After that, I will organise a complete set of photographs for a full Snakeman Army update, later next week or so. Then on to the Dark Elves. :)

Things from Salute 2017.

I went to Salute 2017 in London on saturday.

Always fun to go to and have a look around, with lots of demonstration games, and lots of smaller miniature companies. I met up with several Oldhammer bloggers, chatted to Tim Prow about his miniatures range, and chatted to many company owners. I did'nt bother to take photographs as a lot of other people probably have, and of better quality. I wanted to focus on looking around and spying out interesting things, rather than photography.

When I go to Salute I usually don't go there to buy armies or anything that I could really buy online. My aim to to pick up any odds and ends that would'nt warrant a mail order, buy items from smaller companies which I had not heard of or (sadly) might not be around for long, or buy items of scenery which would cost a lot in postage. Also, it's good for gathering information on new compaines and collecting the website addresses for any future mail ordering.

Below are the few odds and ends I purchased, with links to the relavent web sites.

Enjoy :)

 Snail house!

I bought this as a charming scenery piece for fantasy gaming, especially with Fantasy Tribes era Goblins and Dwarves in mind. 

It cost £15 and is made by
http://www.hystericalgames.co.uk/

 Front door and left side.

 It's a big snail shell house! :)

 Fishmen.

I have always wanted these, and so succumbed to pure whim, costing £10 for the pair.
These were originally made by Citadel Miniatures for the very earlier Rogue Trader releases in 1987, being converted from earlier Fishmen. They were re-released a few years ago by Wargames Foundry, and now reside at Warmonger Miniatures.
https://warmongerminiatures.myshopify.com/

 An armoured Giant Barn Owl from Oathsworn Miniatures. 

I really like Oathsworn miniautres and already have several. I bought this for one of my 3rd Edition Elf Armies as a standing for a Giant Eagle. I might order a few more. He cost £7.
http://www.oathswornminiatures.co.uk/

 Cacti from Wargames Terrain Workshop.
As people may be aware, I have been painting a Snakeman army, with a vague Southwestern desert of   North America feel. So I thought a little desert scenery would be fun to have, especially as I will be photographing the whole army on a gaming board, probably next week.
These fine flora cost a mere £3.
http://wargamesterrainworkshop.co.uk/

 More giant Cacti. These cost £2.50.

 Rattle Snakes. 

I am not sure whether to put these on Snakemen bases, or use them as a bound swarm, but for £2 I could'nt resist. 

 Bugs!
These are awsome. Small resin made bugs, great for bases and swarms. I will be using some of these for Slann bases, and maybe some of the Fantasy Tribes Goblins. 

They cost £4.50, and are made by Ristuls Market.
https://www.ristulsmarket.com/

 Flowers.
Lots and lots of Flowers.
These are made by Debris of War Scenics and a beautifully detailed and self adhesive. They are very reasonably priced  at £5 and £6, considering the large number you get.
The 'mm' sizing is to  do with how tall the flowers are, rather than the width of the flowers.
http://www.debrisofwar.com/

 Close up of the 2mm tufts.

 Free stuff!
The Salute female Red Revolutionary miniautre, and Red Star die.
I also was given a free platic miniature from War Cradle. The yhad a big display game and the miniautre looks to be a high quality plastic casting.
Thier website is here:
http://www.warcradle.com/

 Free all-colour Forgeworld Catalogue, handy for my 30k Hours Heresy army.

Next update will be in a couple of days time on the Iron Claw Harpies.
I have been painting a lot recently, and have nearly finished the Snakeman army, with all of the Snakemen themselves now done!

The Snakemen of the Moon Goddess.

I have had a very successful week painting. I have managed to paint one regiment of ten Snakemen, some Harpies, and a couple of random Snakemen. However, this blog update will focus just on just the unit of Snakemen, as I want to save the other stuff, namely the Harpies, for a more in-depth update of their own.

The Snakeman regiment I painted is a unit of ten Snakemen, designed to be used as proxy Chaos Warriors in a Chaos Ally Contingent, as per the Warhammer Armies lists. Unlike the Snakemen of the main Snakeman army, I have decided to paint them all as a coherent unit, with the same flesh colour, armour, and largely the same equipment. I have done this so the represent a tribe of allied Snakemen, cousins of the main army from a different settlement.

I painted their armour silver rather than gold, and used a palette of blue shields, and green-grey flesh, to give a colder look, as opposed to the more colourful varied look of the main army, to make them look different from the main army.
When I was painting them I decided I needed a bit of a backstory to give them an identity. In spirituality and many religons, gold is often representative of the Sun, and silver the Moon, and so I decided to give these Snakemen the identity of a tribe who followed a (Chaos) Moon deity. As the Moon is also often represented by a Goddess, they became the Snakemen of the Moon Goddess. I also painted their standard with an image of the Moon through the trees I saw in a picture to finish off the idea. 

Enjoy :)

 The Snakemen of the Moon Goddess. 

I went for a paint scheme of grey-green flesh, orange eyes, blue shields, and silver armour.  By painting them in a uniform set of colours, they were a lot quicker to paint than ten more individual Snakemen from the main army.

To give a little individuality I painted some of the axe shafts and bags differing colours. I did keep most of the clothing and fur the same colours to keep the uniformity, and painted them in natural browns to suggest a more Native American looking feel. 

I also used a mix of miniatures, using all of the five different sculpts of Snakemen. In gaming terms they will be equiped with heavy armour, shield, hand weapon, and double handed weapon.

 The regimental leader, S'lonLife Smasher.

 He had a miscast shield which is a common fault with this miniature, and so I added an old Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf shield of the top of it. Being concave and hollow at the back it fitted over the top nicely.

 A converted broken Saranth Elf Mangler, converted to be a standard bearer. Sometimes the casting of the halberd top of this miniature can be weak, and sometimes breaks, leading to me using three of this miniature in the army as converted standard bearers.

I positioned the standard at an angle because when I first converted it I releaised you could'nt actually see the standard front due to the angle!

The standard is based on a picture of the Moon in a piece of artwork I saw in a shop. I also added some runic lettering on the standard to give a little more detail. I chose the name 'Luna' as the name of the Moon Goddess. Looking straight-on at the standard 'Luna' is written on the left in Dark Elf runes from the Warhammer Forces of Fantasy book. On the right, it is written in Dark Tongue from The Lost and the Damned book.  

 S'lararet Splintered Fang.

I painted his shield with a similar look to the standard.

 The first of four S'Sirron Fangthrane.

 I painted the axe shafts different to add a little individuality.

 The second pair of S'Sirron Fangthrane's.

 A pair of Higgat Dwarf Slicer's.

Finally, last but not least, another S'lonLife Smasher, without a miscast shield. 

Next update I will be focusing on the Harpies I have also painted. I bought six more Bob Olley Iron Claw Harpies from e-bay, and painted stripped them and the one I already had, and painted them.

Painting wise I am getting very close to finishing the army. :)