Bretonian
In the early days of Warhammer Fantasy Battle it was quite a complicated set of rules, but it had army lists that seemed to be more or less based on historical or at least Tolkein style fantasy. At the time I collected a Wars of the Roses medieval army and used to use that (I’ll upload it at some point..). Anyway, as time moved on and different editions of WHFB came out the human medieval style army got progressively left behind to the point that it was simply fodder for hungry daemons etc..
GW first fixed this by producing an Empire army that was based around Renaisance European armies (principally the German states), but this did not suit me as a fan of the 15th Century (this was before I took up 15th Century re-enactment). So I continued to loose every single battle…and then they brought out the Bretonia book.
So I succumbed and bought a couple of the hero types and made a couple of banners. Never used them much though as the Bretonian book was based around the 14th Century so it still didnt really suit me.
The large banner looks ok from a distance but I couldnt get her face to look right, so in fairness she is a bit of a munter…no wonder the army always lost when no one could bare to look at the army banner. Still perhaps fits in with the pseudo period of the army since she clearly had the pox when she was younger.
Daemon + Wyvern
These are a little odd in my collection as I have never collected a ‘Chaos’ fantasy army, although I think I did once consider getting an army of beastmen.
Anyway, I think the story behind these dates back to the time before there was any background information for the undead army in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. From what I remember I was getting bored of spending the evening recycling skeletons in and out of the box – they die so easily but can be re-summoned. Anyway, at that time I think the real issue was that the guys i was gaming with all had heroes on dragons or such nonsence and I just got nowhere. So I picked up a daemon and a few chaos warriors from the HeroQuest boxed set to bolster my skellys. The chaos knight that is not on a base was intended to be mounted on the Wyvern…but I never got around to it.
Wizards + Familiars
Wizards with proper pointy hats.
The ‘fighter’ familiar has seen service as a Halfling hero in the past too. Was possibly the easiest figure I have ever had the pleasure of painting in a matter of seconds…if you look closely you can see it is supposed to be a halfling and it has bare feet. I suppose one day I could return to this miniature and finish it off but in the mean time it does make a fairly effective familliar.
Halflings
Halfling archers led by a champion, can’t remember the manufacturer but almost certainly not Games Workshop.
Edit – apparently they are ‘alternative armies’ miniatures, which does ring a bell now I am reminded (thanks Rob š )
Ogres
Ogres (Games Workshop) led by a Frost Giant (Ral Partha?)
Would look a lot better I thinkĀ if I flocked the bases, one day…
25/28mm Jungle
Went into a local pet supplies store and spotted some plastic plants for aquarium and for aĀ terrarium. Well they looked about the right size to make some decent looking jungle type terrain.
Part of my requirement to make 6sq.ft. of terrain for WH40k and hopefully these will also block line of sight at least reasonably well, since that game is now about model eye view for LOS determination. The plan is to make up some bases from 3mm MDF and then flock/texture them and permanently afix some of these plastic plants to them. Maybe make them so that the plants can be removed, but so that they always go back in the same place. The jungle plant was only Ā£3 for a bag.
Photographed with a part finished Eldar Harlequin for scale.
I’ll update this post as I progress on making the terrain…
First bit of progress….discovered Santa needs to fetch me a hot glue gun š¦ really difficult to stick these things together onto a base.
Update 18 December.
Tried making a jungle base by drilling holes into some 3mm MDF to sit the base of the plastic plants into and then gluing them with resin based wood glue. This did not hold them very well but strong enough to cover the base in poly-filler once the glue was dry. Not sure if this would be as strong as using hot-glue though so will probably wait until I have a hot glue gun before I do any more. The base was cut from a sheet of 3mm MDF using a hole cutter on my pillar drill, the central pilot hole left by the auger was used as the basing hole for the central ‘plant’. Here is a picture of the base so far:
Five plants placed at the centre and 12, 3, 6, 9 o’clock. My plan is to make a large ‘jungle base’ and have these smaller bases as removable items on it.
Update 25th January.
Made a few bases using the above technique but using hot-glue from a glue gun to fasten the plastic plants in place, worked reasonably well. Covered the bases in polyfiller anyway for extra strength and then painted them with some cheap emulsion I picked up from B&Q for Ā£1. They are still waiting to be flocked (the sand is in an empty chopped tomatoes tin in the fire drying out at the moment – yeah its a bit extreme I know but thats just how I do things..!). Here are some pictures of the bases donce using this method, but read on afterwards, there is more…
After doing 13 bases like that I had a better idea…
I used a 10mm clout nail and pushed the plants onto that, then araldited the clout nail to a disc that is remarkably similar in size and weight to a 2p coin. I put a blob of hot glue over the top of the clout nail that was exposed after pushing two plant sprues (dont know what else to call them..?) onto it to hold them in place and then glued a third sprue to the side of them using more hot-glue. Finally painted the exposed bit of nail anf the base of the plants a suitable green, polyfiller on the base, painted with same emulsion. These are also waiting to be flocked with sand and will probably also add a bit of lichen to make them look more overgrown. Anyway here are some pictures:
More to follow when I have them flocked.
Final update – probably…
I have flocked all the bases using builders sand (sharp sand) and then added some Jarvis dark meadow green scatter.Ā Anyway, here are some photos of the completed articles so far. These are now at a state where they can be used, so chances are this is them done…
I also plan to add some lichen to the bases to make them more overgrown and to block line of sight through the bases. The lichen has been ordered but I might not ever get around to adding it since the bases are done and the lichen can be added as scatter rather than fixed to the bases.
Yay for me! My first Work In Progress post to make it to the point where the ‘work in progress’ tag can be removed!!
I am currently planning on using these on top of green felt to mark out the edges of the jungle, but I might make some flocked bases out of 3mm MDF…undecided at the moment.
Overall I think they look fairly decent as they are and it was not such a big chore to make them. If you plan to have a go I’d say that a hot glue gun is essential.
WH40k Terrain – Rocks
I am seriously thinking about getting back into Warhammer 40k, so I got the latest edition rule book and read it cover to cover a few times. Looks like it might be a fun game and I can use my existing models so everything I need is already to hand…only it isn’t. The main difference between this version and the last version I played (some 15+ years ago) isĀ in the interpretation of terrain. The latest version is very much based around ‘models line of sight’. So, it turns out I need to make something like 6sqft of terrrain (to cover one third of a 6ftx4ft table).Ā
Anyway, I came accross these nice looking rock ornaments in an aquarium (photographed with a half painted Eldar Harlequin model for scale).
Gonna base them and possibly tart them upĀ a little but I think they should work pretty well. They are large enough to block line of sight to even the largest models and if I put them on suitably rocky looking bases they should work reasonably well as difficult ground that provides a cover save.
I’ll update this post with work in progress pictures…honest!
Should add that these are actually hollow resin that is painted/textured to look/feel like stone but they are a lot lighter.
First set of WIP pictures. Here they are on bases with some ‘bits’ attached so that when they get textured the bases don’t look flat. I may cut the polystyrene bits down quite a bit as they look a little too big at the moment…but I don’t know yet, will see what they look like when textured.
Update 18 December:
I put someĀ solvent glue on the polystyrene bits to melt them down and remove some of the square edges then covered the bases in poly-filer. Painted the bases with some chocolate brown emulsion I got for Ā£1 from B&Q and highlighted with ‘desert yellow’, painted the rocks black and highlighted with light grey and white. The large rocks have a green band painted around their bases so I copied this around various elements of each base to tie the whole thing together. Next step is to flock the bases with some sand and static grass. Here are a few pictures of them so far:
Yay – nothing like the prospect of having to tidy the house and put up the christmas tree to make me finish off a modeling task!
Here are pictures of completed items with sand/N-gauge granite flock and some static grass. I have pictured them with some 20mm Persians since they have the same style of bases.
I might come back to these at some point in the future to add some kind of water feature or something to the base. They look a bit dry and desert like at the moment – which is fine, but in my mind I want something a little more swampy. I have this idea to make up some swamp bases at some time in the future but I haven’t really decided how to do them yet. Perhaps when I do I will return to these and tie them together with some common scenic item.
Heh, no job is ever really completed is it…
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