A Wraith King to summon them all

One post about historical figures, then one post in Fantasy. Ok, I know, I should be painting Winged Hussars, or Vikings, or even Sassanids, meaning I should finish what I have started first. But I've started so many different projects than any new figure can complete an existing army.

Today, after a Norsemen warband, I needed a bit of fantasy. I also needed to clear my desk, and decided to paint the biggest figure on it - a wraith ! A wraith king to command my undead army, and summon dozens of skeletons, zombies, and other horrible creatures - a good option to replace my old vampire general.

So, what does he look like ? A big, howling spectre.

This mini doesn't come from any 1/72 fantasy sets, but from a pack of Undead troops designed for Battlelore 2nd edition. There are several types of figures in this pack: skeletons, knights on big horses, spectres and a zombie dragon - you can expect to see more in the next months. 

The skeletons are larger than the Caesar ones - they seem to be 'real' 25mm figures. The spectre (or wraith) is a big figure, but I find his size ok compared to the horde of skeletons and zombies (Caesar and Dark Alliance) around him.

That's all for today - hope you find him frightening :D

Viking shieldwall

 I have been working on my Viking army these days, and painted enough warriors to assemble 8 Bd elements for DBA.

Here you are the result:

 

 You'll spot figures from several manufacturers: Strelets, Zvezda and Emhar.

 I still need 4 elements for a complete DBA army. But my first purpose is to gather a mythological army for HOTT, so the 4 last elements should be:

- 1 frost giant

- 1 giant Wolf (such as Fenrir)

- 1 element of Dwarves

- 1 element of mounted Valkyries

The first two elements are done already, and I'm working on the last two. See you next time to have a look at the whole army :)

Orc Mystic Warrior 1

 Hi! As the older readers of this blog already know, I sometimes paint Rackham figures (see here), that are much taller (32mm) than the usual 1/72 figures on display in these pages.

I left this range aside for years, but I started to paint some at the beginning of 2021, in order to finish at least what was already begun.

The following pictures depict an Orc from the Bran-O-Kor faction, that is Orcs that live in a hot, desertic area.

This guy is a mystic warrior, which is a sort of mage warrior. He's got blue tattoos on his arms to represent his magic powers, linked to the earth. A snake is coiled around his right arm.

His skin is of a lighter green than that of the other members of his tribe - a birthmark that indicates his predisposition for magic.

SInce I've already painted several other Rackham figures this year, you will probably see some more in the next weeks.

Hope you like him - even if he is not of the only true scale :)

Sassanid levy infantry

Hi everyone! Today's post is dedicated to my first unit of Sassanid infantry, the Sassanid levy infantry by Hät.

According to Roman authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus (an ancient historian from the 4th century BC), the majority of the Sassanid infantry was composed of Paygan, a conscript force recruited among the peasants of the Sassanian Empire. These mean were poorly equipped, and with a very low morale, thus not very effective against the Roman legionaries on the battlefield.

Hät released this set in 2013, a very long time after the first drawings became visible on their site (the cataphracts and the elephants are still awaited). The figures are nice and the number of poses large enough to build interesting units.

These figures don't look like peasant levies, in my opinion, because they are much too well armed - too many iron swords in particular. But they are nice enough, and rather easy to paint, so I am happy with the result.

What do you think of them ?

Kislev army, episode 2: arquebusiers

 The Orcs of Bran-o-kor will wait until another day, I keep on painting the Kislev army (see here for the presentation of the project). Today, we have a look at Kislevite arquebusiers.

As for the lancers in the previous post, these arquebusiers come from a Redbox set, Ukrainian Cossack (Infantry) Set 3. The figures are beautiful: very well sculpted, very well cast and full of details... and not that easy to paint.

Since I wish to paint an entire army, I have to be quicker than usual, so this is an attempt at speed painting. I try to simplify the process, but keep a certain level of quality. For instance, the painting of the flesh was reduced to three steps (base color / wash / enlightenment) instead of four or five in my previous method: only one step of enlightenment instead of two or three.

The color scheme of this unit is slightly different from that of the lancers, but remains in the spirit of the army: red, brown, grey, and even black shirts.

On the following pictures, you can see the many details sculpted on these figures.

That's all for today. Hope you like them :)

A new project: to paint a Kislevite army in 1/72

 Dear fellow readers, it's been a while since last post, but I have not been inactive during this period. Some news and plans for the coming year (yes, most of you write this sort of things in December or January, but I've decided, after all, to have a plan in February :D):

- After years of pause, I've been interested in Rackham figures once again, and I wish to complete my Orc warband first, then my Goblin warband. I already have 12 Orcs, painted and BASED, they will probably be on display in the next post

- In the previous post, I explained that I had started to paint a large wargame terrain (60 cm x 125 cm), I will try to add 2 more panels this year, so that I will have a 180 cm x 125 cm table, perfect for KOW or l'Art de la Guerre

- I will try to paint some Japanese houses, and some elements for a samurai army too

- I will try to remember that it's already Orctober before Orctober !

- I will organize the realization of a 2021 Advent Calendar as a shared project with the volunteers at Benno's

- I will paint some 1/72 Kislev allies for my Fantasy Empire army

And today, I am ready to reveal that this last project has begun!

For those not familiar with the Warhammer world, let's say that it's a Medieval Fantasy universe, in which Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Lizardmen, chaos warriors, undead... are at constant fight with one another (of course). The most technically advanced human faction is the Empire, which looks like Renaissance Europe - I've painted this army last year. And the Kislevites, allied to the Empire, are inspired by 16th and 17th Eastern Europe kingdoms - an excuse to paint Winged Hussars, isn't that cool ?

 

The first painted figures represent some Kislevite foot lancers:

These figures come from a Redbox set, Ukrainian Cossack (Infantry) Set 1.

 They are very nice figures, rather easy to paint.

After the lancers, I will have to paint arquebusiers, close-combat troops, light and heavy cavalry, using Cossacks and Polish Winged Hussars.

See you soon for the next steps of the project :)

Japanese bridge

Hello, Happy New Year (it's never too late) !

The beginning of the year is the perfect moment to:

- have a look at the previous year, and write a summary of what was achieved, and what wasn't

- make plans for the year to come

You know what ? I have no desire to develop any of these items - I would have the feeling to be at work and to be compelled to write the annual review and the planned workload. And since this blog is about a hobby, I decided to have NO plan and to paint whatever I like... as usual :D

So, the year will begin with something different: a new civilization, and improved scenery.

Today, we have a look at a small Japanese bridge.

I have been deeply interested in Japan for years, and I have been lucky enough to visit some parts of Honshu (the main island), particularly the Tokyo and Kyoto areas. And since I am also interested in History, I appreciated to visit castles, temples and traditional houses, and also the wonderful gardens in which you can sometimes see some typical curved bridges such as this one:

The wooden Japanese bridges are often painted vermilion red, like the tori, because that colour indicates a passage between the world of the Humans and the world of the Gods.

Hence the color of my bridge, a mix of red and orange.

On this bridge, we can see 4 warrior monks standing their ground against invisible enemies (Redbox figures).

I realised, after writing this post, that my inspiration obviously came from Japanese woodblock prints. I'm a big fan of ukiyo-e, particularly the Edo period, and among all, my favourite artist is Kuniyoshi.

 Here you are a couple of prints that he designed:

Kuniyoshi 1839 Biography of Yoshitsune - Gojo bridge

Kuniyoshi 1839-41Yoshitsune fighting Benkei on Gojo bridge

The triptych and the diptych have the same subject: they represent Yoshitsune, a young boy and future famous samurai et fight with Benkei, a Sohei (warrior monk) who will become his most faithful ally.
 

Let's consider now the technical side of today's pictures. It's good to have a small bridge, but you also need a river if you want to take decent pictures!  Therefore, I had to dig in a plate of polystyrene, add some sand, paint, then add some flocking, and paint again... 3 days work for just  few pictures! Now you know why I haven't posted anything since Christmas :)

I hope you like the result :)

See you soon.

Edit 10/01/2020:

To answer a question asked by Eric, The bridge comes from a kit by Sarissa Precision Ltd. They have a very interesting range of 20mm buildings, but it would be very nice if they decided to adapt their whole 28mm range to 20mm :)

And I also added some woodblock prints reproductions above.