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).
Long time no Blood Bowl post. At last, here is one brand new painted team (the tenth): the GREEEEENFIELD GRASSHUUUUUGGERS !!! Terrific, no ? 😉
25 new Beastmen with halberds/spears join the Chaos horde. These are a mix of 5th edition (I guess) beastmen and old school minis by Bob Olley and Jes Goodwin.
They are led by a Slaangor sculpted by Jes Goodwin. The standard depicts the logo of W:O:A (Wacken Open Air - one of the largest heavy metal festivals in the world).
Back to the Norse army with these 15 old-school Bondsmen Archers (now 40 painted in total). The two guys that are taller than the old Citadel minis are from V&V Miniatures.
"The Fireloques of Ferlangen are a troop of deadly accurate handgunners that have fought throughout the Province of Ostland. Wearing the black and white of their home province, the Fireloques of Ferlangen bear no formal insignia, but superstitiously decorate their hats and uniforms with the bones of fallen comrades and other good luck charms.
Even amongst the stubborn Ostlanders, the Fireloques of Ferlangen have gained a reputation for tenacity, holding their gun line and unleashing volley after volley of fire into approaching enemies. Their refusal to surrender the flank against marauders of the north during the three-day Battle of Littered Bones earned them the nickname of Skull Clubbers, as without gunpowder for the entire last day, they resorted to using their beloved handguns as blunt weapons to stem the tide of the attackers."
Here comes the second unit of my Empire army: 16 handgunners (or 'Hakbutschutzen'), painted in the Ostland painting scheme.
Now that my O&G army has reached a respectable size, I thought it was time to give it a big impressive army banner. But first I needed to figure out who would be mighty enough to bear it. Some time ago, I painted a Black Orc Hero, it was meant to be an independent character. It is referred to as "Tusker Commander" and is produced by Knightmare Miniatures.
But then, I realized that Tusker has just the right body posture to hold this role. Also, he is so huge and massive that he is just perfect for that. And here he is bearing the grand banner of my O&G army.
Nothing special today, just a bunch of Goblin Stickas to reach 40 minis of that type in my O&G army.
Not the last in the sense "the last representatives of their race" but the last remaining Fimirs I had to paint. At last... 😥. As I said after painting the first batch, I HATE painting these minis (except the three old Citadel ones that are included in this group). But I need them for a WFRP scenario coming soon.
Anyway, now all are done: 1 Meargh, 1 Warlord, 2 Dirachs, 5 Fiana Fimms, 13 Fimm Warriors (incl. a Noble and the contingent standard bearer), 8 Shearls. Today's batch contains 1 Dirach and the Fimm Warriors.
About the basing, I tried (and I think it's achieved) to reproduce the swamps soil. Here are the steps to obtain the same result (let dry between each step):
A new Orc warriors regiment joins the O&G horde. The basis of this unit is the famous regiment of renown 'Ruglud's Armoured Orcs'. To this, I have added some Orcs with spears from the same period and others from the Marauder range. Three of them, including the standard bearer, are from Heartbreaker.
The Marauder musician will be swapped with the one (the real Ruglud's regiment musician) I painted for the first Orc Boyz unit.
"The Altdorf Company of Honour, also known as the Sons of the Reik, are a Reikland regiment of highly-trained and highly-equipped troops dedicated to the service of the Emperor and the city of Altdorf.
This highly distinguished regiment recruits exclusively from other Altdorf regiments, picking only the best and bravest men out of the many units that garrison the city in order to keep up with their fearsome reputation as an elite fighting force.
Other soldiers instantly recognise the regiment thanks to their distinctive appearance of yellow plumes and black steel armour, with their battlefield history soaked in tales of glory and victory. Traditionally led by the youngest son of one of the city's noble houses, the current Captain of this regiment is Otto Helstein, a valiant warrior eager to make his mark upon this world. Every Altdorf native knows the distinctive trumpet blast that announces when the regiment leaves the city gates for a distant campaign, and all of them offer praises to Sigmar to ensure the safe return of Altdorf's most favoured sons."
Some time ago I bought these Harpies (referred to as Beast Gargoyles / Dread Harpies by the manufacturer) from Avatars of War. Unfortunately, it looks like they are not produced anymore. That's bad because they are a good alternative to GW harpies. They come as plastic multi-parts, allowing several pose options making each harpie unique as you can see on the screenshots below.
I have used these harpies in a scenario of WFRP and they will be aligned with my Chaos army.
I own them since at least 20 years... I've painted them so quickly that I realize it should have been done earlier than that. Anyway, better late than never. I have used them a lot in WFRP games and the next time my players will face them, they will not underestimate them 😈
Please welcome the Elementals from Ral Partha.
Fimirs have always been in my list of miniatures to own some day. I bought a handful from eBay when the price was "decent" (which is rarely the case). Then I found alternative miniatures called "Fomorians" by Krakon Games. I decided to buy them because a) I needed more than a handful to represent a Fimir raiding party in one of the scenarios of my WFRP home-made Norse campaign, and b) because the Fimir can be allies (in WFB 3rd ed.) of Dark Elves, Orcs & Goblins, and Norse! (yes, the Norse army rules established by Rick Priestley and Nigel Stilmann and published once in an old White Dwarf are including the Fimir as allies).
Honestly, the Krakon Games miniatures are quite expensive for resin miniatures and these are not fine sculpts. They are rough and it looks like the mould was either not clean or too much used. I would not recommend this figures unless you don't find the Citadel ones or a good alternative.
I didn't like painting them, except the warlord.
I have 13 more Fimirs to paint, but they will wait until I find the motivation. In the meantime, I will paint some other evil creatures and elementals. And I will surely start painting a new army I own for a veeery long time: the Empire (4th edition miniatures).
Last year I bought this wooden bridge from eBay along with some miniatures for my Orcs and Goblins army. It's a 28mm resin bridge whose manufacturer is unknown. It came primed and I have placed it on a self-made putty scenery.
I will use it along with my river system from Battlefield in a Box.
Often hired as mercenaries by several races to fight for them, Giants and Ogres can make the difference on the battlefield.
I painted a Giant (a Satyr Studio's Cloud Giant) that will be aligned with my Orcs and Goblins army and a Jotun (Giant of Norsca) for my Norse army. This one is from the Blood Rage boardgame (I have already painted one some time ago).
The Ogres can be hired by many different armies. Three of them are classical Jes Goodwin sculpts and the standard bearer is a Marauder mini. The two other (the paymaster and his bodyguard) are from Red Bard Games.
A new batch of special forces (i.e. Berskerkers and Ulfwerenar) for my Norse army. And Happy New Year to those who visit this blog! 😁 May the best of 2021 be the worst of 2022.
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.
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.
"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).
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):
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.
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).
Tzeentch Champion:
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
