This blog is about my hobby: collecting and painting miniatures (mainly fantasy) and playing epic Warhammer battles (mainly 3rd edition). The blog's name is a contraction of Old Metal (lead miniatures referring to Oldhammer) and the famous song 'Metal Militia' from Metallica (yes, I'm a great fan of Metal music).
A new bunch of tattooed, frenzied and foaming Berserkers for my Norse army (now 40 are done). As usual with my Norses, they are from different periods and manufacturers (old Citadel, Red Box, V&V Miniatures, Bronze Age Miniatures & Foundry).
"Thralls are the slave classof the Norse. They are recruited into armed bands in times of trouble. Such times are common and the Thralls are often armed to fight off neighbouring Norse kingdoms or rampaging Goblins. Despite their lowly status, Thralls are really as bloodthirsty as the rest of the Norse society, and thoroughly enjoy the chance to suspend the monotony of drudgery for the excitement of battle."
Here are 40 Thralls added to my growing Norse army. In the Norse society, Thralls' clothing was made of woolen and undyed knee-lenght tunic, that's the reason why I have avoided to paint their clothing with vivid colours. They all bear shields with the Jarl's colours.
With these last Wood Elf archers, my WE army is finally completely painted! 💪😇
These 30 archers are from different periods. Some are Jes Goodwin's 3rd edition, some are old Lord of the Ring elven archers, some are from 4th edition (the ugly ones with disproportionate weapons and equipment) and even 5th edition.
I'll take some pictures of the whole army when I'll have time.
A second dragon joins my Wood Elf army (I have already painted the Dragon Master some time ago, in green). I decided that this one would be blue. 😁
It's a rather small dragon or it looks small because it doesn't spread its wings. I think it's a Tom Meier's dragon, but not sure. The rider is a Marauder Miniature (it seems).
Here they are, the Wood Riders, ready to riddle the enemy of their kin with arrows.
Now I have 20 of them painted.
Actually at the same time I was painting the Elven Lords, I was also painting the wizards (and the Wood Riders and the Dragon, these will be shown in the next posts).
I have started with all horses (26 in total). And once they were completed, I've painted the riders.
These three wizards are really nice miniatures, from the elven master Jes Goodwin of course. It was a pleasure to paint them.
Long time no post... But for a good reason. I recently dived into the fantastic world of Baldur's Gate 3. Long time ago, I played Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and these games were already excellent at that time. And the last one is just amazing, so many possibilities, a real RPG. Certainly the best game I have ever played. But it is time consuming, it took me between 180 and 200 hours to finish the game.
Then I went back to my painting table and started painting a new batch of Wood Elves, with the intent to complete my WE army by the end of the year. The first ones are Elven Lords.
"The lords of Elven communities and their noble retainers ride magnificent warhorses into battle. Wood Elves favour roan and dappled horses, plaiting their mains and ornamenting their bridles with hair plumes and jewels."
Here's something new, not related to Warhammer at all: miniatures for the Shadowrun role playing game (version 6). I'm mastering this game for a several months now and I needed some miniatures to represent the PCs in the party. However, there are not a lot of minis on the market for this game. Some were produced by Ral Partha a long time ago, but I don't like them and the range is limited. More recently, some manufacturers such as Papsikels have produced some Cyberpunk/Shadowrun miniatures but the range is limited too and is missing miniatures for some classes of characters and races (see below why).
"The Order of the Knights Panther is a secular order of Knights dedicated to the wholesome eradication of mutants and Chaos worshipers alike, as well as upholding the racial integrity of the Empire as a whole. Being amongst the most powerful of the Knightly Orders within the Empire, these banda of Knights are well known throughout the many different cities and imperial provinces, and are considered to be the most famous and celebrated Order within the Empire, with a history dating back to the lasting years of the Great Crusade some 2,000 years ago. From what was told, once the armies of Jaffar and the Sultans of Araby were defeated by the crusading Knights, and their cities plundered of all their belongings, the Knights of the Great Crusade brought home much plunder from the Sultans' Palaces, including gold and silver, precious gems, silks, furs, and many exotic animals the like of which had never been seen before in the Old World."
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At last! All my Blood Bowl teams (18!) are now painted. The last one is the Naggaroth Nightwings. Nothing particular to say about this Dark Elves team. It was never as successful as the Darkside Cowboys. But this year, the team includes a Minotaur. Let's see if it will make a difference.
According to the recent background, it seems that the Naggaroth Nightwings have merged with the Naggaroth Nightmares recently. However, the Naggaroth Nightmares were not existing at all in the legacy background, so I decided to reject this new team name.
Usually, the Naggaroth Nightwings are painted in red/green. But I already have painted a team in these colours (the Avelorn Avengers). So I opted for a dark red and black/grey uniform and I'm very happy with the result.
"This unlikely pot-pourri of Skaven and Goblins is a juggernaut of innovation in the field of dastardly tactics. If one of their ambitious plans backfires on the Gobbos (who usually get everything wrong, anyway), the Skaven just sit back and watch the stupid creatures hurt themselves - it appeals to their warped sense of humour."
Well, no more can be expected from the Underworld Creepers. In their division, they will be opposed to two of the most successful teams (Reikland Reavers and The Gouged Eye). They actually might win one or two games along the route, against teams of the same level. But not more.
"Arch-rivals of the Dwarf Giants, the Warhammerers are most interesting to us because of their perpetual insistence in breaking the rules in the most obvious and flamboyant way. Their use of explosives and high-calibre breech-loading cannon as part of their passing play is just one case in point. These guys are plain dangerous! What's worse, they don't know when to stop, which is when accidents always seem to happen."
Although, the Warhammerers have won twice the NCF championship (in 2473 and 2486), they did not manage to win the Blood Bowl.
Another painted team for my Blood Bowl league! The Bright Crusaders. This team is built half from old school Citadel human players and half from new miniatures from Iron Golems.
Originally, the Bright Crusaders are supposed to wear yellow/blue/white uniforms, as shown below:
I suspect that long ago, when Games Workshop's authors had created this game, some of them were loving these colours so much that they designed at least four teams wearing blue and yellow (Reikland Reavers, Dwarf Giants, Darkside Cowboys and, of course, the Bright Crusaders). As I did not want the Bright Crusaders to be confused with the Reikland Reavers, the other human team, I have decided to modify their colour scheme. I wanted the Bright Crusaders to be.... more bright!
This is my second Blood Bowl elven team. As most of my elf minis were used for the Elfheim Eagles team, I found cheaper minis on Comixinos (mainly linemen) than the (almost) unfindable or way too expensive old Citadel models. The team is completed by a mighty Treeman (from Willy Miniatures).
We'll see how they do this season in a division usually dominated by the Darkside Cowboys and in which they'll compete against other Treemen and Halflings (the Greenfield Grasshuggers).
Until season 2487 of Blood Bowl, the Norsca Rampagers were going by the name 'Vynheim Valkyries' and they have won 2 times the Blood Bowl.
To create this team I found norse players minis on Comixinos. They are coming from Meiko Miniatures. Apparently they are now cast in resin, but those I have are in pewter. I must say that they have very ugly mould lines that I couldn't completely make disappear without damaging the minis... I hope for those who will buy the resin minis that this would not be the case anymore.
Also, they are very tall (32 mm) compared to old Citadel players minis such as the human team or even elven team. But that is not an issue, Vikings were far taller than other middle-age civilisations.
Led by the blitzer Varag Ghoul-Chewer, here are The Gouged Eye, the arch-rivals of the Reikland Reavers in the AFC Central division.
The miniatures are essentially from the second edition, except Varag himself, Rip Sorepain the blocker (black orc but considered as a normal orc), Cannonball Bennie the thrower, and Krug Painspear the blitzer.
One of the most iconic and feared Blood Bowl teams, led by the legendary Ogre Morg'th N'hthrog.
As I only owned a few of these chaotic minis, I had a hard time finding enough to build the team (and as you may know, the price for these rare minis is very high). Although some of them are not - historically - part of the team (e.g. Withergrasp Doubledrool is playing for the Middenheim Marauders and Slarga Fourstrike is playing for the Bluchen Berserkers), I had no other choice but including them in my only chaotic Blood Bowl team.
I have tried to stick to the original colour theme and I'm very happy with the result. At first, I wanted to paint the purple flames on the shoulder pads, but then I was afraid to mess up the paintjob. I could probably obtain a nice result on the big shoulder pads (of the Troll, Ogre and Minotaur), but the other ones are too small.
