The Garden Show

 So for Lockdown part1 this year I spent a lot of my time messing around with the growing Turnip28 movement that sprang up on my twitter feed. I've been hooked on it since then and have even had the good fortune to talk to Max Fitzgerald via email about getting involved. Since then community has gathered some real momentum and even has rules now (Watch for future posts)

With all that said, it is high time I put up a complete show of everything I've done for the project up to now. Especially as Lockdown II Electric Boogaloo has given me a chance to try out the rules with two fully painted armies. And here they are...

The Gleebland Wandering Garrison

Tasked with the difficult task of protecting a holy shrine, but forced to witness the chapels slow decent into the murky swamps around it, The Garrison took it upon themselves to seek out better foundations for their hallowed charge.... taking what they could salvage of the chapel and it's occupant with them.

These lads ended up as a bit of light infantry brigade, low on baggage and plenty of bodies to dig the Chapel out of the mud. I've plans to add a few light cavalry and some scouting Chaff in the near future.

Reekfield Free Company

A bunch of mutants and thugs with delusions of military heritage. The Company sells it services as defenders of the people to villages and townships for the promise of a  good meal, a warm fire and nothing more. The reality of the situation see's The Company bleed there employers dry of food, beer and patience before being run out of town or (more likely) leaving to richer pickings, leaving the townsfolk to starve in their wake.

Despite their lack of morals, The Free Company are still capable fighters. After all, if some other band of rogues shows up and tries to take what the Reekfielders have already laid claim to, they're willing to get their hands dirty. This lent them nicely to being a more elite force than the Wandering Garrison, boasting larger numbers of well fed brutes.

Next post, an actual game with my 2 finished armies!

Lockdown Adventures

 

With a newly forced batch of free time at my disposal and the FLGS closed up for a few weeks, I decided it was time to dust off my copy of Rangers of the Shadow Deep. I got the deluxe edition when it was released last year. I liked the idea of co-op wargaming and I was already a big fan of Joseph A. McCullough's other work in Frostgrave so this meant I didn't need to relearn too much to get going. A few minutes drafting up some Rangers for me and my house mates and some extra time painting some monsters and we were good to go.

We went with the first mission from the rulebook, beginning with our investigation of the abandoned village. We each took a Ranger (3 in all) and then dragged some suitable underlings in the form of a wardog, archer, recruit and a man-at-arms.

Our opening moves were to split up and cover as much ground as possible. Grab the clues and then regroup. Sam headed north towards the river, spying the first zombie and pinning it to the wall.

Cas and Bob the Man-at-Arms moved towards the inn. Finding the bar maid less than helpful.

Dean took Spot the Dog to checkout the ruined manor, getting more than he bargained for as the previous owner stepped out to deal with the interlopers.

Charley the archer was able to examine the mutilated corpse by the river, but Sam was attacked by another Zombie whilst she was distracted. Badly mauled, but alive, Sam fights for his life.

Bob was left to fend for himself against more patrons of the Inn. Meanwhile, Cas found a survivor hiding in the courtyard and tried to run them to safety. It was not to be, rounding the side of the Inn a rotten beam finally gave way above our hero, bringing the balcony crashing down. Cas was unhurt, but the loan survivor was not so lucky.

Dean and Charlie come to Sam rescue and pull him back towards the center of the village. Bob and Garth the recruit check the last few clues amongst the outskirts of the village, finding treasure to help in the fight.

Spot the Dog continues to tear apart the undead manor occupants.

The band of heroes regroup and clear the last of the zombie villagers. With the village searched, their next path is clear to them.

This was a fun little run around to play, though we lost sight of what we were doing after a few beers. That said, it was quick to pick up the rules set and we're all eager to finish the mission. I just need to get some stuff built for the occasion.

Early Halloween Stuff

 I did ZOMBIES!

Not much else to say really. Though a special mention of this happy lass from Bears Head Miniatures Go check the rest of the stuff.

More Mud and Roots

These are the next batch of #Turnip28 fiends. They'll be a second force to combat my already finished red coats, the Gleebland Wandering Garrison. At this rate, I'm aiming to have 2 playable forces painted in time for the eventual rules release. So here are the first few members of the Reekfield Grenadiers.

 

The pavises were a bit of a happy accident. I spent some time painting turnipy designs and heraldry in black ink, but when I added a wash of agrax shade, the ink started to bleed. Though I initially thought this was a disaster, the final effect looks really grimy and fits with the theme. The extra detail through out this force is the turnipy flur-de-lis (though some have likened the design more to the Welsh three feathers) 

 

I still have a few more to go, but here some WIP of the next batch. Looking forward to expanding these with some mutant levvy.

Boing and Blasts

 Not a lot on this week. I finished off these delightful little buggers.

And I got these undercoated for some more Turnip28 goodness. Looking forward to painting these through my lunch breaks.

Just a short post for this week.

Greatest of Kings

 This week was a nice return to detail painting for me. I'm still working on some Goblins on my breaks in work, but as a side project in the evenings I've been painting up Theoden and Helm Hammerhand for my Lord of the Rings army of Rohan.

I gotta say, for the longest time I never paid much mind to the Theoden sculpt. It's pretty old and the new plastic version has a lot of well extra little details. That was until I started painting it. This old sculpt has SO much more to it than I thought and the fact it was hand sculpted just makes it more impressive. What's more the detail is generally much crisper on metal models so that was a big winner for me too. 

Painting the two kings side by side was a great comparison between painting old and new style production methods and how the details come out in the end. Whilst the more modern sculpt of Helm is a suitably dynamic piece and goes together much neater than the mounted Theoden, it just feels a bit too... smooth in places? It just misses something for me. The old metals have sharper features and just hold more character, Theoden has these tiny human imperfections that make it more alive and a joy to paint. (We are talking minuscule stuff, the sort of symmetry and clean edges that CG sculpting gets perfect) And that for me is a personal preference. I've always favored traditional mediums over digital. Digital sculpting is no different, it is a tool that artists use, but it is one more step removed from the creator and the final creation, losing a little more of the human touch as a result.

 Wow, haven't had that kind of musing since my uni days. Anyway, Theoden and Helm done, looking to grab some Royal Guard next. Thoughts, C&C always welcome. Also, here's a little play around I did on photoshop. Nothing too intense, but I haven't done proper photo manipulation before and I've been trying to re-learn some stuff.

Gloomspite Gallery

 With the completion of my home made Loonshrine I got some pictures together of the army as a whole. Whilst this isn't the largest Goblin army I've put together it is the largest I've played with in quite some time. Since WFB got ended I never had the desire to get my Goblin army back on the table for any other large scale game systems since. I gave Kings of War a go and the Gobbos have been brought out in small groups for skirmish games, but nothing compared to the good ol' days.

Well times change and I must change with them. So here's a few group shots of my renewed Goblin army for Age of Sigmar. Some rebased models from my old army with plenty of newly painted stuff added in.

The long term plan is to re base as much of my original army as I can (or at least as much as I have left) and continue to build and add some of the new kits as well as dig through the massive box of unfinished gobbos that has existed since I started the hobby.