It´s been a looong time

 Oh my! Nine months since the last update. That´s terrible and I feel a bit ashamed. But I really haven´t had motivation to paint anything and because of that no reason to blog. There was also a lot happening during 2021 (I wrote a book and got on retirement just to begin with) and hobby activities were put on semi permanent pause.

Now with more time on hand because of my retirement I´m once again trying to activate myself. For that purpose I chose some of  my uglies models -  a group of Battle Masters Chaos thug archers. So if they turned out terrible I wouldn´t be too sad about it.

Here are the first six of them. Very simple paint job on very simple minis. Pastel purple armor pieces, black leather, browns for bow and finally pink hair. Old school Slaaneshian style.

Will paint another four of these and add a leader and a standard bearer to get a unit of twelve. That Marauder chaos thug standard bearer seems to be pretty rare and expensive so I might just do a little conversion myself.

Anyway, it´s good to be back. I hope this new energy doesn´t fade off.

Basing, rebasing and re-rebasing

 So I painted a Marauder MM42 Minotaur and based him on a 40x40 base as he comes with that round stud instead of a regular slotta tab. Then, looking for more minos on ebay, I saw old Citadel ones (C25s) with a slotta tab and started to wonder if my choise of a base was false a one. I checked the 3rd edition rule book and behold, 25x25 square base. So I gently removed the 40x40 and put the model on a smaller base. A couple of days after that I was looking for something in the WFB: Armies book and there the base size for minos was indeed 40x40. Discussed the matter on Facebook and ended re-rebasing the model back on the original base. Should do ones homework before acting...

So this is how he originally was and again is. After being on 25x25 for a few days.

Skin is very heavily thinned Shyish Purple, hairy parts Volupus Pink, horns Iyanden Yellow and leather parts Black Templar. Metals are regular paints and highlights were mostly painted with a mix of contrast paint and regular white.

I think I actually liked the way he looked on this 25x25. But it could get pretty hard to get a unit of minos to rank up. 

Goblinoids of different size and shape

This will be the last blog text for 2018. My december has not been very productive but with these green skins I´ll be able to close the blogging year the same way I started it - with some goblinoids.

Snotling base. The one on the front row right is actually a Blood Bowl snotling but as I had only four ´normal´snotlings and no other use for him he got a new life here.

A Marauder MM30/2c goblin with a mace and a Citadel C12 goblin Zogrod. These chaps will bulge my goblin horde that numbers 60+ at the moment.

The Vile Rune Tribe Chieftain Fangor Gripe from the Blood Bath at Orc´s Drift scenario. I don´t know if there is another orclops anywhere in any Citadel range of miniatures.

 A group photo shows how small the Marauder gobbo is. He stands just a bit taller than the biggest snots. On the other hand Zogrod is almost as tall a Fangor who would look dwarfish next to modern orcs.

Happy new year! See you in 2019!

A small but important addition

Have to admit, I´ve been pretty lazy both painting and blogging. I do have  multiple projects on my panting table but this little fellow is the only one I´ve finished since last blog entry. In that last entry I mentioned getting a musician for my unit of gobbos and here he is.

He is a Marauder miniatures MM30/6 goblin musician. The sculpt is By Aly Morrison if I´m not completely mistaken. This line of models is from 1989 but in my opinion the face and clothing are pretty close to stuff that came out during red era and afterwards.  The totally oversized weapon is also something that we got used to seeing starting from 4th edition WFB.

This was propably not a very popular model back in the days as I couldn´t find a single painted example of him online.

The instrument is a drum of some sort. It clearly has a piece of animal skin stretched over a wooden frame. Studs or spikes that hold the skin in place can be seen in the picture. One can only wonder how well that instrument would last if pounded with that huge mace of his as he appears to be doing.

This little gobbo is an important addition to my army because in 3rd edition WFB a musician ads a +1 to leadership rolls when testing to make a second or subsequent manoeuvre. With the goblin´s Basic LD of 5 you need all the help you can get.

Let´s hope february will be a bit more productive month for both painting and Vanhaa Vasarointia.

Christmas Troll

First of all - Merry Christmas to all my readers! I hope you have had time to relax, spend time with your loved ones and do some painting.

I did a trio of troll earlier and they made their first appearence in games last summer. In the two battles they have been in so far they have fared terribly. The only reason for that has to be that I don´t have enough trolls. I got Slomm painted for Oldhammer Oulu meet where he was part of the Troll Slaying event. And now this guy takes my troll toll to five. Five is sure better than three?!?!

There is actually nothing Christmas or even wintery about this troll. He just happened to be completed this Morning. The cats woke me before anyone else and after feeding them I had some time alone to finish this guy.

Marauder MM40/1 Troll. I wonder who

manufacturessuch troll sized swords?

The trio - two gaming appearances, zero wounds caused, twice routed.

Leaping Slomm Two-Face. Actually fared pretty

well in Troll Slaying event.

At the moment I have some Iron Claw goblins and old Imperial Guard models on my painting table. Let´s see if I can get something out of them for new year.

Troll trio and lottery draw

I´ve reached my goal. I have 1043 points of rank file orcs & goblins done which means I can now field 2000 points of green skins. Some of the boyz will need some highlighting in the future but they are in a playable state now and I´m fine with that. As I´m leaving for my son´s finnish baseball summer camp tomorrow I won´t be able to paint anything before the games I´ve agreed to have with a couple of my friends.

Here are the three trolls that eventually took me over that 1000 point treshold. I went with green skins and brown leathery clothes for everyone as I dared not to experiment as my deadline was pressing on.

The one on the left is a Marauder MM40/1. His weapon hand has been slightly repositioned be his previous owner. I liked the more dynamic pose and left it as it was. In the middle is a classic C20 trolls Shakined Bone Bender. Big ears, lots of nice details. Really like that one.

The troll furthest to the right is an unreleased Marauder troll again with a repositioned arm. As with the MM40/1 I felt that the change was for better a left it be. He has a lot of warts, perhaps a bit too many for my taste. And I´m not sure what to think about the snot coming from his nose.

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A couple of weeks ago I promised a lottery draw between my readers when I hit 20 000 views. I finally got that lottery done and the lucky winner is: Tim Edwards. Tim - please sound. You will receive a suprise Oldhammer package in near future.

Baggage train - Finally completed

My high elf baggage train has been in WIP status for some time but today I finally had chance to finish it. The main reason for not getting it ready earlier was me not being satisfied with the wagon I had planned to use. It was just too big compared to smallish 80´s elves. So I went back to ebay and got one that in my opinion looks better.

So here is everyone - ten elves, two carts and a horse plus some supplies. The base is some grass mat mounted on cardboard. There´s a sheet of "rubber steel" just undet the grass mat and every mini has a small magnet on the bottom to make them stand better. The base is 6"x8" to match the size of a 2000 point army´s baggage train.

Two elf ladies and a minstrel. They are from the Turnkey Miniatures´ elf villagers set.

An artist and his model. The artist is from Marauder´s MM62 series and his model is a Citadel ELF5 wounded wardancer.

The merchant couple. The male in the foreground is pre slotta C08 high elf wizard and his wife a pre slotta C08 high elf thief. They are walking their horse away from the supply cart.

Another cart and some supplies. The elves are again from the Turnkey Miniatures´ elf villagers set.

As far as I know this is the only completed high elf baggage train around the internet at the moment. Please let me know if there is another somewhere.

Deathshade Kyosti´s Quarrelers

A few weeks ago I wrote about a joint effort to get a dark elf army painted by next Christmas. I´m happy to tell that my first contribution to the case is a crossbow dark elf unit Deathshade Kyosti´s Quarrelers. The unit is made up of a level 5 dark elf champion Kyosti, a banner bearer, a musician and seven troopers. Everyone has the standard equipment for a crossbow dark elf i.e. a normal crossbow and light armor. That means that the unit as such is worth 196 points.

I haven´t painted that many dark elves before these. I think that the last ones were some Blood Bowl players back in the 90´s. Perhaps I´ll go through my boxes and see if I can find one of those.

Kyosti´s quarrelers - the command group is 80´s Citadel but 

the troopersare 90´s Marauder. The troopers were missing the clips for their

repeating crossbows and were converted to non-repeating ones.

Deathshade Kyosti himself and his command group. 

Very characteristic models all three. Could still add a flag to the pole

but IMO it works without too.

This is from the WFB: Armies book. Make sure you check out this

great posting by Goblin Lee about the dark elf army list.

I´ve started painting the next crossbow unit as we need at least 20 crossbow dark elves. The colour scheme will be a bit less bright for that one. And no Marauder darkies there - only 80´s Citadel.

Elven guard

I´ve managed to finish my next unit of high elves which is a 20 elf strong guard formation. Being +1 shock elite with access to halberds, shields, heavy armor and both magical standard and instrument they are the best infantry the high elf list has to offer.

 I painted my spear armed guards in the same blue and white theme as the rest of my army (excluding those warriors and archers dating back to mid 90´s). Most are Jes Goodwin´s marvelous elf sculpts but the captain is from the Marauder line to give the unit some variation. As I have a couple of extra spearmen I´m planning on converting a musician for this unit too. But I´m still concidering different options on how to do it.

Front row guards with shields raised.

Five wide - four deep.

These will most likely see some action in july vs. some skaven and perhasp vs. my old enemies the dwarves too. Stay tuned for some battle reports.

WIP -listaa lyhyemmäksi

Jättiläinen valmistui lopulta ja pääsee siis palkkasoturina vahvistaan kasvavaa High elf -armeijaani. Olen lopputulokseen ihan kohtuullisen tyytyväinen - jätti istuu armeijan ´tyyliin´ oikein mukavasti. Ihosta en ole aivan täysin varma, sitä olisi ehkä voinut korostaa vielä lisää. Mistä olen oikeasti iloinen, on että jättini ei ole sellainen geneerinen punapää, joita Marauder giantit tapaavat olla.

Valmiina taisteluun!

Sain jättiläisen valmistumisen myötä järjestettyä armeijan jonkin moiseen kimppakuvaan. Jousiampujat ja warriorit ovat pakattuina kuljetuslaatikkoon, mutta tässäpä tätä muuta porukkaan.

Bolt thrower, Merchant company, giant ja wardancerit.

WIP - Giant

Joulun alla hankittu jättiläinen pääsi työn alle kun kaipasin vaihtelua Merchant companyn jousi- ja keihässotureiden maalaamiseen. Olin aluksi ajatellut, että puhdistan koko figun kunnolla, mutta sitten päädyinkin kokeilemaan, josko päälle maalaaminen onnistuisi ja ainakin tällä hetkellä vaikuttaa ihan hyvältä. Perusvärit alkavat olla paikoillaan ja varjostuksetkin pääpiirtein tehty.

Joulujätti - seuraavaksi korostusten pariin.

Värimaailma tulee noudattelemaan samaa sini-valkoista teemaa kuin armeijan haltioillakin. Rikkailla kauppiailla on vara varustaa palkkasoturitkin samaan tapaan kuin omat joukot. Noihin tunikan olkakoristeisiin ajattelin lisätä valkoista - teeman mukaan. Ja jos uskallan, niin tuon vasemmassa kädessä olevan kilven vaihdan sileään jonka maalaan sitten samalla yksinkertaisella kuviolla kuin Merchant companyn keihässoturien kilvet. Täytyy vielä miettiä onnistuuko muutos jotenkin helposti, vai jätänkö nykyisen kilven paikalleen ja maalaan kotkakuvion uudestaan. 

Uusi base on jo odottamassa - pääsee eroon tuosta pahviläystäkkeestä. Alunperinhän Marauder giant seisoi 40x40 basella, mutta se tuntui kovin pieneltä, joten tein 60x60 kokoisen puusta. Kunhan figu on muuten valmis, niin sitten pitää ryhtyä miettimään miten sen saa tukevasti kiinnitettyä uuteen alustaan. Tuossa pahvissa se tuntuu olevan todella tiukasti kiinni - millä lie liimattu?!

Joulujätti

En sitten malttanut olla koko Joulua kirjoittamatta, koska sain aaton aattona tehtyä erittäin mieleisen hankinnan. Juttelin maanantaina vanhan tutun kanssa ja mainitsin, että jättiläinen olisi hakusessa. Paljastui, että kaverilla oli kaksi kappaletta Marauderin jättiläisiä ja hän oli valmis toisen niistä myymään minulle, vieläpä melko edullisesti. Kaupat tehtiin saman tien ja jätti siirtyi sitten aaton aattona haltuuni. Kiitos Tumpille! Figussa riittää tekemistä lähitulevaisuuteen, koska se on aika heikkotasoisesti maalattu ja beissi on tehty pahvista.

Marauderin giant nykykunnossaan - vaatii 

uuden beissin ja maalauksen.

 

Miksi sitten jättiläinen High Elf -pelaajalle? No, minulla on hyvin vähän ratsuväkeä, enkä varmaan ole sitä ihan hetkeen hankkimassakaan. Armeijan teemaksi on muodostumassa, että se on High Elf  kauppapaikan puolustusjoukko, jossa on ns. vakinaista väkeä (archerit ja warriorit) ja kauppiaiden omia joukkoja (merchant companyt ym.). Ja koska rikkailla kauppiailla on varaan (ja 3. ed sen mahdollistaa), niin jättiläinen on mukana palkkasoturina tuomassa iskuvoimaa. Lisäksi jättiläinen tuo vähän arvaamattomuutta ja huumoria muuten niin totisten High Elfien joukkoon.