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).
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. 😁
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).
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).
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.
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.
Black Orcs! They will be the shock unit of my O&G army. The 3rd edition Armies says that the max unit size for these guys is only 10... Why? This is completely absurd. I mean, you can have up to 40 Black Orcs in your army. What's the point to have 4 units of 10? If my opponents agree when time comes to align my Greenskins in a battle, I will have them in a single unit of 20. And they will wear a heavy armour, yes sir! (actually, it's exactly what the minis wear, look below)
The minis come from different periods and manufacturers. We have there old Citadel Black Orcs, some are more recent Citadel ones and the others are Iron Orcs from Knightmare Miniatures.
I have also painted another huge Orc from Knightmare Miniatures (he goes by the name 'Tusker Commander'). This one will either be an individual Black Orc Hero or perhaps a mighty Savage Orc Hero (due to the fact he wears little armour and he looks really wild).
My progresses in painting my O&G army are going well. This time I've painted some reinforcements for existing units, adding 6 Orc Boyz to the 24 already painted and 20 Gobbos with spears to the existing unit of 20.
My aim is to have big units (Orc Boyz units will be 30 strong, the max allowed by the 3rd ed. Armies, and Gobbos units will be at least 40 strong). O&G weakness is their poor leadership and cool skills. I want to avoid them fleeing due to missile fire losses. So the more numerous they are, the highest their chances to reach the enemy lines will be.
Ah and I also painted 2 additional Goblin Fanatics (now I have 9).
The Orc Boyz are from the old Citadel regiment plastic range and the Gobbos are a mix of 1) 4th edition monopause plastic minis and 2) proxies from Black Tree Design
Going barefoot and half-naked because they don't have the chance to loot proper clothes and shoes, that's the destiny of the Greenskin war machines crew... But at least they are protected by their leader and they don't end up eaten by their stronger peers.
I've painted three bolt throwers, one skullcrusher and one leadbelcher along with their crew. Now with a total of six, I think the Greenskins are well equipped in war machines. Maybe I'll try to find a "cheap" man mangler on eBay if I have the opportunity.
I had to "convert" one of the bolt throwers as I received it with one missing wheel and no levers. I used spare chariot wheels to replace them.
The skullcrusher comes from Knightmare Miniatures.
While waiting for some Greenskins to fall in my mailbox, I've decided to paint some big guys for my Chaos army: Minotaurs! These creatures are the true essence of Chaos and a Chaos army is not complete without them (I think).
I own two of them for too long. I should have painted them a long time ago. These are the Minotaur Lords Ox-Roar "Chaos Champion of Ultimate Slaughter" 😨 and Doom Bellow "The Warped".
The others have been purchased recently.
It's time to endow my O&G army with war machines so they can pulp their enemies from far away. I'm starting with a Skull Crusher (stone thrower). I have other war machines, but not necessarily the crew to man them. I need also to sort out the minis I have received recently. But I should be able to align at least two bolt throwers, an additional stone thrower and a lead belcher.
Normally, a skull crusher is maned by four crewman. Here I've painted five, so one will be affected to the other stone thrower when I will paint it. The minis are a mix of Citadel orc crewmen from the eighties and maybe nineties. The stone thrower itself is from an unknown manufacturer. I don't remember where I bought it from, I have it for more than 20 years.
I also painted three additional Goblin Fanatics that will join the four I have already painted. As I plan to have three of them in each of my Goblin units, I will certainly add others in the futures so I they can all arise from their respective unit at the same time 😈.
After 5 months of Blood Bowl painting I'm back to the Orcs and Goblins. I will certainly paint several units of them and war machines / battle chariots too.
The first ones are Goblin Wulfboyz. These nasty little guys are equipped with short bows and their mission will be to harass the enemy war machine crews behind the lines or any other vile things they can do.
The figures are a mix of last edition plastic minis (as I already said, I don't like their oversized limbs, head, etc., but anyway... 😬). The others are from Crooked Claw miniatures and I think they were sculpted by the Goblinmaster himself. I mixed the wolves between the two types of minis to try to obtain a kind of harmony... 😏
They may be slow and clumsy at passing, but the Dwarf Giants compensate these disadvantages by their toughness and strength. And the stats prove it: they won the Blood Bowl twice (2462 and 2484) out of four participations.
There are a few Slann teams playing Blood Bowl. The best of them being the Lustria Croakers. This team is reasonably good, especially at interceptions due to their leaping skill, although their throwing and kicking skills are quite weak.
There is little to marvel at in the Slann game. And their arrogance makes them pick the hardest games, nearly always including the Cowboys, the Reavers, the Gouged-Eye and the Chaos All-Stars in their itinary. Coupled with the fact that they already have the Giants and the Raiders in their division, this makes their chances of success always slight, although they have reached the Blood Bowl final once in 2479 at the beginning of the rise to power of the Reikland Reavers.
About the minis: I tried to find Slann Blood Bowl players but it looks like they were never produced by Citadel... So I looked for alternative minis and found some by Fanath Art Miniatures. Actually, these are called frogmen and that's exactly what they are. Their gear is also of Aztec/Inca style. So they will perfectly fit for the role.
No Undead team has ever been successful in playing Blood Bowl, except the Champions of Death. As their coach and owner - Tomolandry the Old - can testify, building an Undead team into a power to be reckoned with on the Blood Bowl pitch is a long and hard road. But his hard work has been rewarded with two Blood Bowl titles (in 2466 and 2486).
