Enforced Free Time

So last week I was let go. Again.

I therefore have a hopefully short time span of enforced free time. I'm wondering what I should do with myself. I hear orcs are popular this time of year, but I dont know if I've missed the boat...

My First Game of Oldhammer for 20 years...

So the preview has shown you dear reader, that an aspiration of this blog has finally been met. GoblinLee and myself and our respective forces, faced off against each other across my new game boards.

I wanted my battle force to be a typical Elven army with all the archetypal troop types. The purpose of the battle was to relearn the warhammer 3rd edition rules, and have some fun reliving our childhoods - Not to win at all costs by using only the most effective armylist...

So therefore in preparation for divulging the full blow by blow account of the battle, I provide the army list of the Starlight Starbright Warhost! (Starlight Starbright being one of my D&D characters).

5000 Pts - Wood Elves Roster - StarLight StarBright Elven Warhost

1 Wood Elf Sylvan Chieftain, 261 pts (General; Level 20 Hero; Shield; Light Armour; Barding; Hand Weapon; Lance; Magic Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; Magical Attacks; Agile),

1 Spell Shield (Magic Armour Ability), 1 Arcane Arrow (Magic Missile Ability; One Shot Missile),

1 Degeneration Strike (Magic Weapon Ability), 1 Warhorse (Riding Animals)

1 Wood Elf Greenfey, 320 pts (Level 20 Wizard; Barding; Hand Weapon)

1 Protective Runes or Symbols (Magic Armour Ability), 1 Scroll, 1 Horse (Fear Fire; Riding Animals)

10 Elven Lords, 390 pts (Wood Elves; Shield; Light Armour; Barding; Hand Weapon; Lance; +1 Shock Elites; Agile)

10 Warhorse (Riding Animals)

15 Archers, 165 pts (Wood Elves; Hand Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; Skirmishers; Agile)

15 Archers, 165 pts (Wood Elves; Hand Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; Skirmishers; Agile)

15 Archers, 165 pts (Wood Elves; Hand Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; Agile)

1 Treemen, 280 pts (Causes Fear; Flammable; Hate Goblinoids)

1 Treemen, 280 pts (Causes Fear; Flammable; Hate Goblinoids)

1 Wain Lords, 148 pts (Scythed Wheels; Heavy Chariot; Large Targets)

4 Warhorse (Riding Animals)

4 Wood Elf Crew (Wood Elves; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Chariot Crew; Agile)

1 Wain Lords, 148 pts (Scythed Wheels; Heavy Chariot; Large Targets)

4 Warhorse (Riding Animals)

4 Wood Elf Crew (Wood Elves; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Chariot Crew; Agile)

1 Wood Elf Wood Lord (Wood Elves; Level 15 Hero; Shield; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; Agile), 1 Hail of Doom (Magic Missile Ability; One Shot Missile)

1 Wood Elf Sylphseer, 203 pts (Level 15 Wizard; Hand Weapon)

1 Wood Elf Guardian, 89 pts (Wood Elves; Level 10 Hero; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack; Agile)

19 Lord's Bowmen, 524 pts (Wood Elves; Musician mus; Standard Bearer std; Shield; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; +1 Missile Elite; Agile)

1 Battlecall (Magic Instrument Ability)

1 War Banner (Magic Standard Ability)

10 Wardancers, 220 pts (Wood Elves; Hand Weapon; 2 Handed Weapon; Scouts; Wardancers; Agile)

10 Wardancers, 200 pts (Wood Elves; Hand Weapon; Scouts; Wardancers; Agile)

1 Wood Elf Glade Watcher (Wood Elves; Level 5 Hero; Shield; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Agile)

25 Warrior Kinbands, 363 pts (Wood Elves; Standard Bearer std; Shield; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Spear; Agile)

1 Wood Elf Glade Watcher (Wood Elves; Level 5 Hero; Shield; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Agile)

27 Warrior Kinbands, 384 pts (Wood Elves; Standard Bearer std; Shield; Light Armour; Hand Weapon; Agile)

1 War Banner (Magic Standard Ability)

10 Wood Riders, 260 pts (Wood Elves; Shield; Hand Weapon; Spear; Lornalim Long Bow; Skirmishers; Agile)

10 Horse (Fear Fire; Riding Animals)

10 Glade Runners, 160 pts (Wood Elves; Hand Weapon; Lornalim Long Bow; Scouts; Agile)

1 Zoat Wizard Ally Commander [AZ], 275 pts (Ally Commander; Zoats; Level 15 Wizard; Hand Weapon; Scaly Skin; Allies)

Composition Report:

Troops: 72% (>=33% - Unlimited)

Characters: 23% (0 - <=50%)

Allies: 6% (0 - <=33%)

Hosts: 0% (0 - <=25%)

 So any comments on the army list? How would you have chosen differently?

Rumble in the jungle (woodland) Preview...

5,000 pts of wood elves facing off against 5000 pts of Slann. Warhammer 3rd edition. We've not played for 20 years...

Preparations for war! (Hedge building...)

I finsihed off my 2 units of wood elves. So the army has grown by another 60 troops. Plans are underway to host a wargame and actually play some warhammer after 20 years! I'm like an excited child in a sweet shop. So I have a table ( which I'm still not happy with!) but now I need some more terrain. Therefore I'm experimenting with building hedges...

But the clay I'm using as the base will take 4 days to dry and I'm not confident it will stick to the spatula underneath.

Next up some houses for a small farmstead, and a few trees. Probably not enough for a wood elf army!

I thought I'd also better invest in some movement trays, so they are on the go as well!

Wargames Table. Nothing in this hobby is easy...

I've flocked my table. I'm not 100% sure about it. It still seems a bit bare and patchy in places. Im wondering if there is a way to spray white glue in small areas and add more flock. I tried it with a paintbrush but the flock seemed to just clump in those areas...

I've got a few houses and trees but probably not enough for the table which is 6.5ft by 5ft. Anyway  job done for the moment...

Studded leather! Sounds good but it's a bloody nightmare...

Too many of these wood elf sculpts have studded leather. All those tiny rivets I've painted have sent me blind. I still need to tidy them up a bit but that won't be trivial. What's the worst thing you hate to paint?

Tomorrow I'm hoping to flock my table with static grass...

Slow progress on these next 2 units of wood elves. I'm thinking I need a change of subject...

Yet another Top Ten...

Yes I read other blogs, and probably yours too. And you've all been very unoriginal and decided to write a post on your favourite Top Ten citadel miniatures...

Not to be outdown or left behind, I thought I would quickly create a list of mine. I didn't realise what a horrible bunch of callous bastards you must all be! There's just no way I could limit myself to just ten! Theres 15 pictures of citadel finery to follow...

Also you must all have too much time on your hands because I spent way too long trawling the interweb...

Glory be! A couple of elven war chariots thundering towards your enemy! Scythed wheels, unicorn -esque horses, archer, champion and falconer wizard! Nothing too outrageous or outlandish, but each is full of character. It doesn't matter they're all squished together, this piece is the pinnacle of citadel design and production in my simple honest opinion. And if your elves don't have any then shame on you!

Seriously you don't want to mess with me. I'm an ogre mercenary captain and hard as nails. With enough artistic talent to scuplt and paint my stomach guard a vibrant blood red. Eye catching ain't he?

What worse than a ogre mercenary... An ogre corrupted by the tainting powers of chaos. He don't use that claw for anything but disembowelling. And those pus filled boils of bubonic plague? They're a gift for you after his finished playing with your innards...

This is the bastard that brought chaos to your world... He's a mean looking ancient spell casting frog on a magically floating Aztec platform. I want! But Miss piggy is the true power behind the throne...

Just want him to join my chaos forces. His skulls have character... So does his axe...

Lowly goblin wolfrider, guaranteed to leave the field of battle in a hurry? Yep but look - he's just so full of character! The later ones just don't compare! And I'm going to sulk now cos I can't get him anymore. I'm sad...

Ok now I'm cheating. There are 22 minis on this page alone, all of whom could be in my Top Ten. The good news is there are more pages just like it at Solegends. I'm thinking I want a chaos warband of just these guys and their familiars, or a game based purely on battling chaos sorceror wizards...

Crisp clean sweeping lines of an eldar Titan. One fell through the door recently, along with a load of other eldar epic stuff, all of them melted my heart, but this was my favourite.

Space Marine Captain 1991 only available from Games Day. Dawn if skulls. I've never been to Games day and someone sold me theirs for the princely sum of £10 back in the day. I still have him mint in blister! Suckers!

I bought 3 boxes of these when they came out. Lost them in the mists of time. Wish I still had them. I suck...

Mk I Space Marines. I bought several of these back in the day. If I was going to produce sci fi miniatures, they would be copies of these guys...

Or these guys! So cool. My childhood was spent drooling over pictures of these and not studying. I'm still an IT Consultant and now I have the knowledge I have these guys somewhere in my garage. I really should drool over them a bit more in real life...

Want want want! I don't have much in the way of Nurgle, (too much love for slaanesh!) but I'd welcome this guy with open arms. How tough do you have to be before you can just sit and be carried into battle....

Gorgeous figure. Pale rider and all hell followed... Need

And to me this is the ultimate bad guy. He ain't small either. Need! (Sorry for poor image res. I suggest you go and google Saator. Don't blame me if there's a knocking on your door though...)

The best figure citadel never did...

Well that's about it from me. There were some lovely undead and skaven that I wanted to add, but time is running out...

Thanks for watching... Here's to the next daft time wasting posting craze.

Is this enough static grass?

So my 2 doors are slowly getting there...

I'm now at the stage where I can flock them with static grass. They have been sanded of varnish, and then sand, plaster and PVA glue has been spread on them. Then sanded down again as it was too rough, and then painted brown.

You can see from the high elf knight in the middle of the one board, that the table will be quite large! 

My plan is to cover the table with PVA and then liberally sprinkle static grass all over it. I'm concerned as I'm not sure how much flock I will need! Those with experience, can you tell me if what I have is enough? 

Also I was hoping for fairly distinct colour patches of static grass to give the surface some interest, so that means I'll have to do each flock separately and shake off the excess. I'm worried that shaking flock off a heavy door won't be easy!

Citadel wood elf getting reinforcements...

Because I don't have quite enough wood elves I'm in the middle of painting up 2 more units...

Do you 'display' your miniatures?

I've been saving up my pennies and have treated myself to a display cabinet. Im hoping that having my painted armies visible will spur me onto greater painting spree efforts because I've been quite lax recently!

I've got to go through all my boxes to find my painted stuff (which is an enjoyable hobby in itself!). I'm wondering whether to allow only completely finished figures inside. Sometimes I get figures to a playable point without doing eyes for example. Or should I just go ahead and fill it with my Wood Elf army? I wonder how much space I'll have left for anything else!

Help me with my wargames table?

My two doors have been sanded down to remove the old varnish and I've put black tape all the way round to try and stop damage.

Next comes the messy part. I'm going to use pva glue with sand and maybe plaster mixed in to give the surface some texture, but I don't know what kind of quantities I should use? Any advice?

Work in progress

Managed to base coat some archers.

And base coated this large Drider.

1980s citadel cleric

Whilst I was waiting for the undercoat of 30 more wood elf archers to dry, I quickly daubed some paint on this fellow - a 80's Citadel cleric, who will be entering my D&D 'City of the Drow' adventure tonight...

I'm not very good at painting 'light'. I'm going to attempt to add some light reflections at some point...

What's left...

I've been trying to sort out exactly what I have left to paint for my wood elves...

A quick muster of my command groups shows I'm missing a standard bearer...  Ebay time!

And a quick question for the citadel officionados - I bought a few of these boxes when Games Workshop where doing some sort of sale. You got 30 infantry or 10 cavalry for £10. It's why I've got so many Skarloc character figures. But what year would that have been? I think it was before plastics really came on the scene, so I'm wondering why GW had the sale?

Some painting updates...

Even though I might no longer be able to go to the Oldhammer event in August, I'm still painting what I can... Hopefully GoblinLee and I can still get together for an old school reunion...

Firstly my newly painted wardancers. I still haven't got round to adding their blue war paint...

All my wardancers together...

Some More Fey allies for my Wood elves. I'd imagine the Treemen, Dryads, Zoats and these Satyrs all forming a significant ally contingent.

GW wood Elf Mage. I think that elves should have a certain spell casting ability within their army... I seemed to remember in 3rd edition low level spells not being that effective and high level magic completely dominating the battlefield. Hopefully we can find some happy midpoint.

3 stage Elven Wizards... I like the idea of 3 stage figures. These guys have loads of details. More than modern GW figures. Maybe not as well executed but still characterful. They are a little smaller than my GW wood elves but I like them a lot. I think I need to buy me some more! Anyway they'll be used as more Wood Elf spell casting capability...

And finally for my D&D an adventurers footman. He carries so much stuff it took ages to paint him up. Figure by Reaper I think...

I wonder what I could use these for...

Step 1. Drop the better half off to run a half marathon or something like that. Ensure that the enemy does not catch wind of plans for a wargames table...

Step 2. Find 2 internal doors that have been sat in the garage for ages, waiting for something to happen to them.

Step 3. Start filling holes where locks and hinges have been removed.

Step 4. Wait for 2 hours whilst filler is setting. One could conceivably do some painting during this time...

Some base colours on my wardancers.

Do the same to some Satyrs. In my small mind I think they kind of go with wood elves...

Step 5. Realise you need a haircut and your running out of flock so decide to head into town and mooch around for a bit. Wargames table will take an awfully long time at this rate!

Wood Elf Wardancers

In response to GoblinLee post on getting ready for Oldhammer day by painting all his Slann, I've decided to focus on getting the rest of my Wood Elves painted up. Firstly one of the iconic units of the Wood Elf Army has arrived on my painting table...

Hopefully these won't take too long...

Painted Halflings, Dryads and Adventurers