A Whole Load of Trolls

 Do you like trolls? I clearly do, because one way or another I've painted quite a few of them. First up, I finished a GW troll that I'd had lying around half-finished on my desk for ages. Here he is, holding up an unfortunate goblin, probably just before whacking him into the horizon with his club.

Now, onto some other trolls. I can't remember how I ended up with a load of Privateer Press Trollbloods models for their game Hordes. At the moment, it seems that both of the Privateer Press games - Hordes and Warmachine - are effectively abandoned, or at least frozen. It's a strange turn of circumstances after they were challenging Warhammer ten years ago.

Anyhow, the trollbloods are weird models. I can't work out whether they're meant to look comical or not - certainly, they have the "comedy Scotsman" stereotype nailed down (they're meant to have tartan robes and they even had a unit of caber-tossers), and their proportions are very cartoony. Like post-2nd edition Warhammer orks, they default to the same facial expression: a sort of constipated fury. 

I've painted a field gun for these guys. The gun is a weird, dinky thing (figuring out how to assemble it was not easy), and the crew are slightly slimmer and neater than the regular soldiers. It's quite a cool model, almost a diorama in itself. Cannons do give you the option to have a few guys doing interesting things with powder and ramrods.

While I was at it, I semi-repainted two other trollblood models that I had knocking around to bring them more in line with the other models. That just meant redoing their skin and uniforms and rebasing them, but leaving a lot of their clothing as I'd originally done it. I think they are called Bull and Gunbjorn. 

And here are the basic soldiers (well, "scattergunners"), along with their angry-looking leader, Madrak Ironhide.

So there we are for now. These guys don't seem to have a functional game for them to play in, and I don't know what you'd need to have in order to have an actual force. I guess you could use them for Frostgrave or perhaps Stargrave, or another skirmish game like that. 

I've noticed that I enjoy painting models in different ways. Some, like the orks and Necromunda Escher gang, are just fun to do. Others, like the Bretonnians and these guys, are more of a chore to paint but are very satisfying to see finished. Maybe it's just that models like the orks are all individuals, and give me the opportunity to do whatever wacky thing I like. Hmm. 

The Obligatory Orktober Post

I was going to write a lengthy screed this week about how I think grimdark has become boring, and how as often as not it's become an excuse for slapdash painting and photography even more "atmospheric" (ie blurry) than my own, but then I noticed that it's Orktober this month, and thought that I ought to pitch in with some little retro chaps. 

So, here is my first (tiny) unit of oldhammer gretchin. Even in the glory days of 2nd edition 40k, gretchin were disposable rubbish. I happened to find a few of these guys knocking around (I suspect one of them may even be a Warhammer goblin armed with a pistol for some reason) and painted them up. They vary hugely in scale and even shape. The tall chap at the back is one of the oddly-proportioned gretchin from Space Crusade. Not the best miniature but then, he's not going to be on the board for very long.

The runtherd - that's the ork who leads the unit - is yet another super old ork miniature, with just the right level of character and detail. I think he's super, and I'm pleased with his face. Adding blue to the beard has helped quite a lot.

Also, here are two old plastic ork boys. The main interesting thing about these guys (except for the chap on the left's mental helmet) is that the guy on the right was missing his lower jaw, so I sculpted him a new one. It's not bad, although he's even uglier than usual. 

And finally, because I'll paint anything, here is a random Mantic ork-type guy. I think he might have been a gunner on a long-lost vehicle, but I've no real idea. I did what I could, and an ork's an ork, after all!

Three Knights

 When I started out making models, I found tidying the miniatures tedious and unnecessary, which is why my early models are covered in mold lines and jagged bits of plastic where I twisted them off the sprue like the exciteable child I was. These days, I actually quite like tidying and repairing old models: it's easier than painting them, and it feels productive. Unfortunately, I end up with loads of stripped, repaired miniatures to go into the boxes of "things to be painted".

I have built up a pretty massive queue of models that I need to do. Some of this is down to repainting old miniatures, and some of it is the result of buying "new" ones. Looking for bargains on ebay is a hobby in itself. This means that I've got a lot of stuff half-painted on my desk, some of which isn't actually all that appealing. I'm still not sure, for instance, why I've got so many plastic skaven stormvermin, or when I was into them.

So I'm having a bit of a go at reducing the pile of stuff, while continuing with the ongoing project. Anyhow, here are two more Bretonnian knights.

These guys are from 5th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, from about 1996. They came out with the first army book, and are nice plastic models. They're clearly more stylised than the 1991 versions, which could largely pass for historical knights, but they lack the pointless extra over-detailing of the most recent plastics. I've used colour schemes strongly based on those in the army book.

Now we've got a slightly stranger model, who's been knocking around half-finished for ages. He's a conversion of a Privateer Press Retribution of Scyrah (that's elves, basically) model. I removed the standard he was carrying and replaced it with a trimmed-down plastic sword. I then painted him red. He's quite a menacing-looking chap - perhaps he's a vampire in weird armour, or one of Inquisitor Alice's retinue.

And that's it for now. Next time, either more orks or some trolls. Or both. 

House Escher: The Whole Damn Bunch

 So, I've finally got to the end of my Necromunda Escher project - at least, I've finished painting all the models that I've got. They're all old 1996 Jes Goodwin sculpts, although some of them were purchased broken and have been repaired.

Here are the last two, the leader of the whole gang (the dreaded Emma Sculator) and the last juve (Cat Astrophe). I originally planned to put marks on the leader's coat like the demon markings in K-Pop Demon Hunters (not my choice of viewing, I should add, but pretty good for what it is). However, this looked a bit rubbish and I just went with a scuffed leather effect instead.

So here is the entire gang, all 24 of them.

And here is their warbot.

As ever, apologies for the mediocre photos. I'm pleased with these guys. At any rate, they're some of the most detailed models I've ever done, perhaps even more so than the Eldar harlequins. In some ways, they're actually easier to paint than the Bretonnian knights, because there's less large spaces to shade. 

Right then. Back on with the orks!