Never Mind the Billhooks - Bowmen (Nick)

Moving on swiftly to the last of my War of the Roses finishes for now with my second unit of bowmen (bows) for Never Mind the Billhooks 'Deluxe' (or Archers for Lion Rampant/LR2), and again plastics from the Perry Miniatures and their Wars of the Roses Infantry set:

Pretty much all the details have been covered in my previous War of the Roses posts, so here is a group shot of them showing the second set of 'bows and bills' in a combined block together:

Well my time away has added 33 finishes in just 3 days, plus another to finish the banner when I got back, bringing the yearly total to 35 instead of the paltry 2 it was this time last week - all good and not nearly so embarrassing, and I'm pushing on like a madman in the last few hours of 2022 to see if I can up the tally still further before the New Year!

These latest figures also mean I can finally field a fully painted 24 point retinue with my War of the Roses project for Lion Rampant with the skirmishing archers as extras - still not quite enough for Never Mind the Billhooks, but I'm working on it... 'family' photo to follow when time and daylight are on my side.

Never Mind the Billhooks - Billmen (Nick)

More War of the Roses from me to head into the finish of 2022 with a flourish, much like 2021.

This time my second unit of twelve billmen (bills) for Never Mind the Billhooks 'Deluxe' (or Expert Yeomen/Veteran Light Infantry for Lion Rampant/LR2), again plastic figures from Perry Miniatures.

Nothing much more to say that hasn't covered in my previous posts, except that these are all built from the War of the Roses Infantry box set and not the conversions of last time - definitely much more robust if rather awkward to rank up:

These twelve bring the yearly total up to 23 finishes, so we're getting there but 52+ seems a long way off still...

Never Mind the Billhooks - Men-at-Arms (Nick)

Next up in the count down to the New Year are another three War of the Roses Men-at-Arms for Never Mind the Billhooks 'Deluxe', or Billux Dillux as it's known.

Again Perry Miniatures plastics, and a mix of several of their War of the Roses sets, further details are covered in the previous Men-at-Arms post with the exception that the banner is one of Pete's Flags excellent examples for Lord Thomas Stanley:

That just puts me into double figures for 2022 finishes and although still only half the required unit of twelve I need for Never Mind the Billhooks, when added to the previous three surcoated men-at-arms is enough for a unit in Lion Rampant.

Never Mind the Billhooks - Skirmishers (Nick)

Now for that end of year push I mentioned... a few days away from home and a specific project on hand means I could finally get those 'should have been finished in February' figures off the work in progress pile, instead of watching endless hours of Christmas TV.

There is a distinct feeling of déjà vu as I go into the last few days of 2022, with more figures for Never Mind the Billhooks from the Perry Miniatures plastic War of the Roses infantry set - although the new book is now available after a 12 month delay so they will now be heading for Never Mind the Billhooks 'Deluxe'!

This time we have a band of skirmishers armed with bows (or bidowers/skirmishers for Lion Rampant/Lion Rampant second edition, which was recently released too!).

There isn't really anything different from the previous War of the Roses figures, although not specifically liveried for Lord Thomas Stanley this time as I see them more as local woodsmen emerging from the undergrowth to harry the enemy before fading back into the shadows - to this end I deliberately selected the least armoured figures I could and chose more muted colours, I also made the bases more fussy to indicate that rough ground/woodland they would occupy much like the bidowers I previously finished for Lion Rampant:

I always wanted this unit for Lion Rampant when that was their original destination, but as if by magic this Special Event card for Never Mind the Billhooks gives them a new purpose ...even if it means they don't see action very often (Burgundian crossbows & handguns being a more solid choice for the main army).

So just six more figures finished, but strap yourselves in as the end of year finishes will follow in quick succession now - but can I hit that magic 52+ target again... a tall order indeed!

Day 730 - a 2nd year of paint-on-brush (Nick)

So yesterday marked 2 years of Carl & I trying to put 'paint on brush' every day, or in my case 'something' every day for the last year.

Real life has had quite an impact on both of us for differing reasons, however I have managed every day again apart from one or two when I genuinely forgot to the point that I'm not even sure if I actually did something or not!
Again Carl has been on and off the horse numerous times and neither of us have too much to show for it in 2022, however the efforts at end of last year mean that the last 12 months of doing 'something' every day have seen 50 finishes from me but should have been many more.

I intend to continue the mantra into a 3rd year without any immediate changes, just the hope I can push some of those projects over the finishing line for another bumper year end - I guess doing 'something', no matter how little, is still better than doing nothing at all though?

Age of Sigmar - Ogor Glutton (Nick)

Another 3 months on and to be honest this guy was done not long after the Savage Orruk of my last post, but I was holding back on the blog update as I intended to add rust effects.
A few experiments on spare weapons didn't achieve the result I was looking for so have decided to call him done for now as I like how he looks anyway, and I 'might' come back to add that rust en masse at a later date.

On a positive note, this 'is' the first of the Ogor Mawtribes destined for our Warhammer Age of Sigmar doubles tournament army as mentioned in the last post, sadly though we were unable to attend and neither army is at the stage it should be by now.

He is a straight out of the box Ogor Glutton model, or Ogre Kingdoms Bull for you old skool square base fans, updated for Age of Sigmar with a 40mm round base and the gutplate armour replaced with a round Chaos Marauder shield (as I had always intended for variation from the norm) which now added a nice tie-in with Carl's Slaves to Darkness chaos army - they have obviously been hanging around together (the Ogors probably attached as mercenaries), the chaos effects either rewards, payment or loot when they have turned on their paymasters!

Again this one was started with the brown zenithal prime I've previously used on my Orruks and Orks, although I had to redo a couple of times and mask off other areas with Airbrush Masking Putty as it seems a good, strong bone highlight is required for a smooth flesh tone - this also required a few attempts, pure Darkoath Flesh contrast paint pooled really badly however using Guilliman Flesh contrast paint to 'colourise' the primer and then Army Painter Flesh Wash to add depth achieved the result I was after.

The rest is Games Workshop's 'Contrast Paints' and my usual choices for gold and silver, metalwork aged with Basilicanum Grey contrast paint and Army Painter Strong Tone wash - the new Ratling Grime contrast paint would probably work really well here too.

So rather embarrassingly this is only the second finish of the year so far, however after some good hobby time at the weekend I'm looking at an end of year push like 2021 to get those numbers up!!

Age of Sigmar - Savage Orruk (Nick)

Wow, nearly into August and my first post and finished mini of the year - how embarrassing!

The year started so well, carrying on where 2021 left off and I should have had another 30+ War of the Roses figures finished in Jan/Feb for the Never Mind the Billhooks event in March, unfortunately I was unable to attend the event and so they never passed the finishing post.

Various projects have moved along in the meantime, but mainly building and prep work - the do 'something' every day mantra continues and I haven't missed a single day, but with little to show for it.

However here is the first to make it into the public domain and quite a surprise entry, not least for me, a Savage Orruk for Warhammer Age of Sigmar:

Carl and I have entered a doubles event at Warhammer World in August and while Carl continues with his old Slaves to Darkness Chaos project, I settled on Ogor Mawtribes which have been sat unbuilt in their box since they first came out some 18 years ago!! ...and just happened to be a 1000 points army in new money.

 - but hang on you say, this isn't an Ogor... well no, having stalled on the Ogors I got an itch to do some Bonesplitterz Savage Orruks and this is me actually scratching that itch.  Only a week in so far, let's see if they replace the Ogors this time around or are just a convenient diversion to avoid finishing what I should?

Again all the heavy lifting is done with Games Workshop's 'Contrast Paints' over the same brown zenithal prime as my 40k Ork Boy only this time I decided a lighter, brighter green was in order which is where the new Mantis Warriors Green contrast paint comes in followed by Army Painter's Green Wash to add depth and darken the overall shade slightly ...and to go with that a good excuse to use the psychedelic shade of Talassar Blue for the warpaint (I had considered orange or pink warpaint, but blue just seems right -  and sits much happier next to the green if there's a slight overlap, which would muddy the other colours).

So not the year of painting I had planned so far, and certainly not what I expected to be my first finished mini but hopefully the start of plenty more to come as there aren't many weeks now for both myself and Carl to finish our armies... wish us luck!

Blood Bowl Goblin Fan (Carl)

 

Another model off the Work in Progress pile/queue. In this instance a Blood Bowl Goblin fan from waaaaay back in the olden days.

I spent far too long considering repainting him to blend his skin tones but eventually decided to just call it done and move on.

His scarf has the motivational message to “Go for it!” Which was old Blood Bowl speak for inviting the dice gods to laugh at you. Nowadays the process of ‘going for’ an extra square is called a Dash, maybe this is a cunning ploy by the writers to avoid the gaze of the dice gods. But Nuffle sees all.

His base has a bit of sprue to represent beer cans and a random bit of card painted as stadium detritus thrown by the hooligans at the back.

I’ve got two more fans to join him as reroll counters to finish, hopefully getting this guy finished will spur me on to complete his comrades.

2022 painting start - mushroom men x4 (Carl)

What an impressive final run at the end of 2021 from Nick. While Nick blasted out a whopping load of completions in December I ended the year without getting any significant time under the painting light.

I managed to complete 34 in 2021 in total which wasn’t huge but it was more than the total of new minis I acquired in the year so still helping chip away at the mountain of unfinished stuff.

I aim to beat that 34 completions this year. After a quick whizz around my works in progress I have over 200 models either primed or part painted. If all I do is work away on works in progress I’ll be fine. But that’s unlikely! There will definitely be new projects starting from scratch. 

Anyway, before any new distractions slide in I’ve finished my first minis of 2022.

These are four mushroom men from Hasslefree Miniatures. I’ve had them for what feels like forever and have finally completed them.

The contact points for attaching the arms were a bit of a challenge but aside from that they’re lovely little characters. I’ll be using them in Open Combat.