Christmas Wars: Santa - Now With Snow!

I have now poked the Snow-Tex around on Santa's base, and I think the finish is OK,

It is not quite the effect I was looking for (I wanted sparkling 'postcard' snow), but I may be able to achieve an enhanced result by drybrushing some clear varnish over the Snow-Tex.

I do have a feeling, that I could create a similar compound myself - the Snow-Tex feels and looks very much like 'gloop', which is a mix of paint, sand, and PVA glue (the Snow-Tex even could be only white paint and sand), and if I keep using this stuff for winter bases, I think I should experiment with beach sand and white emulsion paint.

I have all but finished Santa's assistant, and I hope to be able to post pics of her tomorrow morning (before I start bringing in The Tree), and of the small Christmas Village Scene we have on our sideboard.

Let it Snow...

A nice bloke at the LAF, going by the nick 'Hu Rhu', was so kind to send me this tub of scenic snow, so I can decorate Santa's base (and other, season-themed models) in an appropriate manner.

Gestures like this make me all warm and fluffy inside, and I raise a horn of mead in salute to this fine Gentleman!

I am going to make a test one of the next days, and then get some show on the base, just in time for Christmas, and maybe also on the base of Santa's Assistant - if I get her done in time, that is.

Chrismas Wars: Spending Another Day Off

The holidays are almost upon us, and I am on sick leave, so I have to take well care of myself, while the wife is at work, and my daughters are in school.

And, how better to spend the solitary daytime just before Christmas than to get some paint slapped on another seasonal themed mini?

I have been spending some time with Santa's Lovely Assistant, and I hope to finish her off a couple of days before Christmas, so she can join Santa in the small Christmas scene on our sideboard.

I took the pics before I started painting today, I have since then more or less finished the white, although I am not quite content with the result (I may go back and touch it up, after I finish the rest of the mini).

I have also spent some time preparing for this evenings God of Battles appointment with Kevin, and I am going to field my Lords of Undeath, after all - I am keen to see how it fares at 36 points, and as our appointment on December 3rd had to be canceled, they have not been used since before Horisont VIII.

Christmas Wars: Santa Claus, Peaceful Edition

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been working on some seasonal miniatures - and earlier today, I finished Santa.

I am going to add some scenic snow to the base, as soon as I get my hands on some. I intentionally made the base somewhat darker (hopefully looking a bit more 'wet') than my standard bases, by adding a wash of Agrax Earthshade. Most of the soil will be covered in scenic snow, though, which is also the reason why I did not add any flock.

I could have posted this earlier today, but Microsoft had updated my Windows, and the PC used most of the day for booting up 😠😠😠😠😠

Well, I spent most of the afternoon moving firewood, as the husband of a former colleague, from which I buy my firewood, had offered to bring a log splitter and help me split the rather large quantity of wood I had gathered in front of the shed, from various trees felled by the wind and/or myself in the back yard over the last couple of years - but now I have time to make a couple of updates.









Most of the colours are pretty straightforward, but I would like to note the following:

Belt and Boots:

• Foundry Bay Brown triad

Sack:

• Foundry Rawhide palette

 Teddy:

• Foundry Butter Fudge palette

Tomorrow, I need to finish rebasing some Lizardmen for God of Battles, and a few Pulp minis - and then it is time to put some paint on Santa's lovely assistant!

Osprey Wargames: Broken Legions

I got this recently, very delayed, as the first parcel from Osprey seems to have disappeared.

Never the less, here it is, and I look forward to read it.

OGAM: Eldar Avatar for the Elves.

I recently bought this 90's Eldar Avatar of the Bloody handed God, K(h)aela Mensha Khaine, and I am going to use it for leading Elves in OGAM (High or Wood or a mixture of both), and probaly also for Dragon Rampant

It was primed in black, but as I prefer cleaning up moldlines (and the primer was scratched and chipped), I put it in white spirit in my ultrasonic cleaner for some days, remembering to start the ultrasound now and then.

I brushed it off today, and this is the result: A miniature almost as new, and it did not set me back more than about £6.

OGAM: Harpies

Part of a batch I purchased last week, these are destined to become a part of a Roman/Greek OGAM warband.

I threw them in my ultra-sonic cleaner (which seems to have survived the small 'explosion' which I thought was a blown fuse), and the paint  virtually flew off the minis.

As you can see, I am one wing short, and I am probably going to get some 'Instant Mold' to press-mold a replacement for the missing part.

OGAM: Greek/Roman Warband Project.

Well, it had to happen. A new set of rules = a new project.

Needless to say, I am going to make an OGAM Norse warband very soon, but they need somebody to fight, and as I have a bunch of WGF Caesarean Romans, I am going to make a Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Zeus) warband, based on the Greek Pantheon in OGAM.

I am going to include a unit of Satyrs, and as I bought some second-hand Citadel plastic Chaos Beastmen along with some plastic Bretonnians last year, I thought I would use some of those for this purpose.

Some of the Beastmen are covered in really bad paintjobs, and I thought this would be a good time to bring my ultra-sonic cleaner into service once more.

To the right, four Beastmen is getting their second treatment after getting a good scrub with a soft acrylic 'leather brush'.

This fellow to the right was ready after treatment with a brass 'leather brush'.

I need only four for this my first warband, the rest of the Mortals being formed of a unit of legionaires (Greek Hoplites) and one of Veteran Legionaires (Spartan Hoplites)- which I have to assemble and paint, too, as I do not have many ready for painting.

My two Legends will be a Centurion (Generic Greek Hero), and a Harpy - which I have to purchase, prep, and paint, and I think another Foundry order is building up.

I had hoped that I would not need further purchases this side of the summer holidays, but I really want some armies ready for OGAM as soon as possible.

It seems a fast and easy to pick up game (it is basically Song of Blades and Heroes, just with units for the rank-and-file troops instead of individual models), and, although I am not fan of pass-activation-roll-or-forfeit-your-turn games, the Ganesha engine is so straight forward, that a game does not require a lot of planning and rules-reading - just build your warband/army (yes, I think it scales very easily), and get stuck in - you can always avenge a defeat the next time (the Dice willing).

I also plan to make a 'Slann' warband from some of the painted Lizardmen army I purchased recently - I shall use the Slann as the deity, and some of the larger models (the Salamanders and the Terradons) as Legends (and I shall see if I can find some Kroxigors to fill this rôle, too).

I may have the Lizardman warband ready very soon, but the Romans will not be painted, until I have my Blood Eagle project ready for Åcon.

Shortly after I wrote the above, my ultrasonic cleaner blew a fuse, and now has to be de-commissioned. IF I can find the invoice for it, I may be able to get a re-fund, as I purchased it less than 2 years ago, but that is a very big 'if'.

Osprey: Of Gods and Mortals

This arrived in the mail today, was sent (according to Osprey) about 20 days ago.

Well, now it is here, and I shall be reading it over the next couple of evenings.

I intend to use it as a bridge between Blood Eagle and SAGA/Dragon Rampant, as I have been told that the units in OGAM are quite small, and thus I can easily expand a BE warband into a couple of OGAM units, which can then again be combined for a DR unit. Clever, innit? ;o)