The Red Bard Alternative

Some time ago I've been looking for Gruntas and Snortas to add cavalry units to my Orcs and Goblins army. I managed to get some from the well known auctions site, but not enough. And I didn't want to go over a certain price. 

Then, I found - I don't remember how - some Orcs riding boars on the site of a new Spanish miniatures manufacturer: Red Bard Games. While visiting their site, I was surprised to see that they've also produced an Orc riding a War Wyvern, an Orc shaman riding a boar and a complete O/G baggage train. I found also a pair of nice Ogres and two Dwarf carts. Then, recently, they've also added a Gob shaman riding a Cockatrice and three Gob Fanatics. Last but not least, they have also procuced a Daemon Asscannon! 

All of these minis are a more than good alternative for old school miniatures. Their size, their look, their attitude are just perfect and fit well with the rest of my army. They are 3D printed in resin, easy to assemble and with no mould lines.

Here are some I have just painted.

Orc Boss riding a War Wyvern

Plenty of Gobbos

A Greenskins army's asset is the number. The more the horde is numerous, the higher are its chances of victory. That's the reason why the units of my O&G army are big (e.g. 40 Gobbos with spears, units of 30 Orcs, etc.). My last addition to the army is a big unit of 50 Gobbos (some armed with a hand weapon and a shield and others with 2-handed weapons). In the future, I may purchase more Gobbos to make two distinct units, each with their own weapons options.

As usual, the minis come from different manufacturers: Citadel and Marauder of course, but also Black Tree Design, Knightmare Miniatures, and some are from Heartbreaker. However, what they have in common is that more than 95% of them have been sculpted by Kev Adams, the Goblinmaster.

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Biguns

"Foremost among Orc warrior society are the 'Big Uns'. These big, tough, fierce Orcs always grab the best wargear when looting the battlefield." - Warhammer Armies 3rd ed.

Here they come - 30 Biguns - ready to hack and slay for the glory of themselves... and of the horde, of course... 

To build this unit, I pulled from my leadpile the biggest Orcs or those that are particularly well equiped. This is a melting pot of minis coming from all over the place and from several eras. Some are veeeery old Citadel Black Orcs, including from the Eeza Ugezod's Mothercrushers set (the boss of the Biguns unit is actually Eeza himself), some where big Orcs - not necessarily tagged as Biguns - sculpted by the Goblinmaster himself, some are Marauder Biguns and finally the most recent (and huge) ones are from Knightmare Miniatures (sculpted by no one else than Kev Adams).

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Of Curved Beak, Talons and Claws

Those who started playing Warhammer Battle in 4th edition usually associate Griffons with Emperor Karl Frantz, or with an elven lord (whose name I forgot) in 5th or 6th edition. But, initially, Griffons are chaotic creatures...

Extract from Warhammer Battle rulebook (3rd edition):

The Colours of Chaos

Two weeks ago, I have painted a standard bearer for my Chaos Warriiors unit. It was meant to be undivided Chaos. But when I started to paint him, I couldn't miss the right breast on his armour, identifying him as a follower of Slaanesh. So I painted him and the banner in pale blue and purple.

Then it gave me an idea: converting other Chaos Warriors into standard bearers, one per Chaos God. And here they are. At the same time, I also painted five additional Chaos Champions. One of them was also converted into a standard bearer (undivided Chaos) and will probably be my Chaos army banner.

Khorne

Chaos Champions, Sorcerors (and little friends) and Warriors

Here we go again with Chaos minis. No new unit, but characters and reinforcements for existing units.

As I already painted a Khorne Champion some time ago, I decided to paint one champion per Chaos God. Of course, all of them sculpted by the genious Jes Goodwin. 

Then, I'm also adding two more sorcerors, also sculpted by sir Jes, and accompanied by their pets, Chaos Familiars.

Then, we have 5 Chaos Warriors, including a custom-built standard bearer and a musician, that will join my Chaos Warriors unit to round the total to 20 unit members. And finally, two Thugs Archers. These ones come from DieHard Miniatures (run by two ex-Games Workshop staff: Tim Prow and Chaz Elliot) that have a nice range of old school Chaos minis, including Thugs riding horses! (Citadel never produced these).

Champions

Tzeentch Champion:

Of Horse and Man...

Chaos Centaurs, at last... Yes, at last. Why ? Well, about two years ago I had the opportunity to buy a dozen Centaur torsos at a very good price on eBay. At that time, I told to myself that it would not be so complicated to find the missing bodies. So I checked frequently on eBay. But in two years, I could only find 4 bodies. Desperating to lay hand on the others, I tried to create a mold out of green stuff, but the experience was a complete disaster.

Finally, I realized that the body of the Wood Elf horses sitting in my cabinet had the same size as the body of the Chaos Centaurs, and that they were probably sculpted by the same person (Jes Goodwin ?). So I changed my plans and searched for Wood Elf horse bodies on eBay. Luckily, they were numerous and quite cheap. Of course, they are often sold with their rider. But this was not an issue, because I took the opportunity to buy a mounted hero and a mounted wizard that were missing in my collection. Also, I had a spare horse coming from the Dragon Master set.

I have now cut the head of the poor horses and fixed the Centaurs torso on them. And now they are finally painted. They are led by a non-Citadel mighty hero from Confrontation. As the Centaurs are quite good at shooting (BS 4), I decided to equip more than half of the unit with bows (spare bows from plastic Goblins) and did the same with shields.

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Chaos Reinforcements

These days, I'm painting minis for completing shelves of my display cabinet. I'm painting 4 or 5 armies at the same time. Some are already populating a full shelf in the cabinet and some are nearly. So I focus on these last ones. This was the case for the last Wood Elf Warrior Kinbands I painted last month. Now the Wood Elf shelf is complete (but I still have enough unpainted to populate the third of a second shelf).

I'm currently doing the same with the Chaos army, in the form of reinforcements for existing units. Five Minotaurs and five Beastmen are now ready to join their comrades on the Chaos shelf 😛. Next, I will paint a brand new unit: Chaos Centaurs. I think this will be enough to complete the Chaos shelf. After that I may be starting the second shelf of my Orc & Goblin army (either Biguns or a big unit of Gobbos). Arrrh so many minis in my leadpile... 😢

The Minotaurs are from several manufacturers: Citadel, Marauder, Black Tree Design and Heresy Miniatures. The Beastmen are all coming from Knightmare Miniatures (their Chaos range is pure Oldhammer and they go along well with Citadel miniatures, both in style and size).

Minotaurs

More Wood Elf Melee Troops

A third band of Warrior Kinbands joins my Wood Elf army. Now I have 60 painted. These are classic Jes Goodwin sculpts, like the others. I've also painted a wizard to accompany them in their frequent patrols to secure their domain.

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Of Wolf and Man

Ulfwerenar means 'wolf-warriors' and is the word used by the Norse to describe those able to transform their shape into a grotesque half-man half-wolf. Such individuals are quite common in the north, where whole families of these Weres live in forest settlements.

And here they are. Half of the unit in man form and half in were form. They will alternate in the first rank of the unit: when they transform I'll put the Weres in the first rank, otherwise the men will be in. As mentionedd in the Norse Army supplement published in White Dwarf by Nigel Stillman and Rick Pristley, it is not necessary to have duplicate models for all minis in the unit: 

'Note that in practice it is enough to tell the opposing player a unit is composed of Ulfwerenar - it is not strictly necessary to have duplicate models.'

Other minis painted at the same time are five warriors that will complete existing units.

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Marathon Painting

59 Vikings and Archers painted in one month... 😥 This is such a nightmare. But I had no choice: in a few days, I will master a game of WFRP in which there will be a battle between my players (and their loyalist warriors) and rebels from their clan. And I wanted all minis used for this battle to be painted. There will be approximatively 130 or 140 miniatures on the battlefield.

This is a home-made campaign for WFRP 1st edition. The players come from a small village of Norsca. They have grown together and were forced to leave the village at some point (in fact, they were banned). Then, after several adventures, they saved the life of one of the High King (of Norsca) relatives and entered in the service of the monarch. After several successful missions across Norsca, in Albion and in Kislev, they were authorized to travel to Middenheim for winter (one of the players' mother and sister live in that city).

Now they are called back in Norsca by their High King who wants them to take control of their former clan. The Jarl of this clan has died without leaving heirs and the High King fears that the deceased Jarl's right-arm, the chief of the hirdmen, a vile and cruel man, will take the lead of the clan. 

One of the players is supposed to defy the bad guy and to become Jarl after defeating him in a fight to death. But even though the player will be victorious, some of the hirdmen will not swear allegiance to him and will leave the town to hire warriors in order to fight the new Jarl and the loyalists.

I will certainly write a battle report of this battle between the rebels and the loyalists. But now, let's have a look at those 59 warriors painted in one month.

Warrior Bondsmen with Spears

More Warrior Bondsmen

I've painted a second batch of Warrior Bondsmen. As usual in my Norse army, the minis come from several manufacturers. This time, I've added four minis from V&V Miniatures. They are a bit taller than the others and very realistic, you'll recognize them easily among the others. About these minis: if you plan to buy some, be aware that you'll need to be patient (I received mine two or three months after ordering them). Also, they are cast in resin and are multi-(very small)parts (a real pain in the a... to assemble them).

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Bondsmen Archers... and a Volva

The next unit painted for my Norse army is Bondsmen Archers. When Vikings were setting sail for expeditions, they usually had one bow per oarsmen' row.

As usual, these minis come from different manufacturers: old Citadel models, Bronze Age Miniatures, Red Box Games and Foundry.

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Elite of the Warhird

Among the Norse warriors, the strongest and bravest are chosen by the Jarl or the King to be his men of confidence and bodyguards. They are professional warriors, paid and fed by their lord. At war, they either form a single unit of elite troops or they join units of non-professional warriors to lead and galvanize them.

These men are the Huscarls (+4 Shock Elite, in WFB 3rd Edition).

This unit is made of minis coming from a lot of different manufacturers. Essentially Bronze Age Miniatures and Red Box Games, but also Citadel, Hasslefree, Gripping Beast and Warlord Games. I may change the components of this unit in the future as I'm waiting for new minis from V&V Miniatures (but it takes ages to come) and some of them might be more suitable as Huscarls than some of the ones I've just painted. I will need to take difficult decisions as the Huscarls are limited to 20 in 3rd edition. 

The banner (which will be my army standard) comes from Little Big Men Studios and is tagged as a Dwarf banner. But it looks Norse too, and my Dwarf army already has an army standard. As the Huscarls are professionals, they usually wear the (shield) colors of their lord. So, I've given them all the same shield repeating the colours of the banner.

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Fury of the North!... and a Jotun

Howling, foaming with rage, shield-biting badasses of the Norse ost: the Berserkers!

These guys come from various manufacturers: Citadel, Foundry, Hasslefree, Bronze Age Miniatures and Red Box Games. The boss is huge, but Norse could be very tall. Let's say is above 2 m. 😁

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Vikings!

Sailing from the frozen shores of Norsca, the Vikings raid the coasts of the Old World and Albion, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake.

This is a new army I'm starting to paint now: the Norse. Actually I had painted some minis for this army years ago (some of the first minis I have painted when I was young): Norse Dwarfs (35 are painted). But the paintjob was so basic and ugly that I might repaint them. We'll see.

The army will be based on the rules for 3rd edition written by Rick Priestley and Nigel Stillman and published in White Dwarf (see below).

 

A Gloomy Place

I had all scenery to match the random battlefield generation table for competition games, except a graveyard. This is now complete.

The statue and the mausoleum are recent plastic buildings from Citadel. The tombstones come from Fenris Games (if you are interested in buying them, you better have to be patient, I received mine more than one month after ordering them).

Greenskins on Wheels

I've painted three chariots to complete my O&G army. The Goblin chariots are from Knightmare Miniatures and the Snotling Pump Wagon is - of course - the old and exceptional Citadel version.

Gruntas

Once again I have painted some alternative Oldhammer minis coming from Knightmare Miniatures: Orc Gruntas riding powerful war boars.

These figures do not come with a standard bearer, so I made a little conversion by cutting the arm holding a standard on a 4th edition Savage Orc boar boy. I have also swapped two of the minis weapons for diversity purpose.

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