Frost Giant

First of all, let me announce you that you are reading the 100th article of this blog!!

Everything began 2 years ago, in december 2016. After having watched so many cool blogs dedicated to minis, I was not sure that I had something more to add... but I tried anyway, and I receive enough feedback from you, dear readers, to believe that it was, and still is worth updating it regularly, and that it really helps me to paint more and more.
And I particularly enjoy to write to,and read from people from all around the world. 

So: thank you very much !!

Well, ok, let's go to the subject: the Frost Giant !

The Frost Giants are characters mentionned in the Scandinavian mythology, in which they are called Hrimthursar. They are endlessly fighting the Gods. Their ancestor is Ymir, the first of the giants. They are the oldest inhabitants of the world, of which they know every secrets and magic.

This giant is probably the last mini that I will paint this year. Here you a few other pictures, alone and with a Orion viking for size comparison.

This mini was originally designed as a character for Zombicide: Black Plague boardgame. When I first saw it, I immediately imagined the color scheme to turn it into a blue giant, and I must that the result does not disappoint me.

What do you think of that big guy ? Your comments will be once more very appreciated. Oh, he is meant to have a fellow giant, but I will paint that one next year. Happy new year everyone :)

Early Germanic army complete !

At last, I could paint the last warriors that I needed to field a complete DBA Early Germans army.
And since I've created a small scenery for Christmas (see the previous post), I used it to take pictures of my army in ambush in the woods in winter.

To be honest, my interpretation of the DBA list is rather loose. In the picture above, we have:

• 8x4Wb, the main warband
• 2x2Ps, the skirmishing archers
• 1x2LH, the light cavalry
• 1x3Cv, the medium cavalry

But I have enough more warriors to add 2 more 4Wb elements, and stick to the list.

The last painted figures are displayed below: 2 riders from Strelets Batavian auxiliaries, and 8 warriors from various manufacturers (Hät, Strelets, Caesar and ESCI).

Close-ups:

You can see that the Strelets seem more suitably dressed for winter than the others, but maybe some extra strong or fanatic warriors could fight half naked ?

The Cv element is composed of Hät Gothic riders painted a long time ago - they're ok in an Early Germanic army, in my opinion.

A few more pictures:

One of my objectives for 2018 is fulfilled, hourra ! Just need to base them (it will be a 2019 objective I guess :)).

I suppose you won't be seeing more Germans before long ! Hope you like them anyway.

...And Then, There Were Three...

Merry Christmas everyone! If think it is still time to show a nice winter scene, with pretty little nasty large creatures in action.

Do you remember the troll I painted last year ? He was meant to be part of a troll unit for my orcish warband. And since I painted them just before Christmas, they were in time for the party!

I used the same color scheme as on the first one, only the loinclothes are a bit different.
Some close-ups:

And a few portraits (so that their Ma can be proud of their big big guys :)):

What do you think of them ? Nice ? Ugly ?

Oh yes, the fourth one of the set will have to wait a little, it would have ruined the title of the post.

Musician of the month... and Band of the year !

Good evening everyone! I have been completely inactive on internet these past weeks - sorry for all your excellent creations I missed, I will have a look everywhere and comment where I'm late now that I am on vacation for... two days :).

There is at least one mini I should display this month: the musician of December! Let's have a look:

This man is a Scottish piper from the 15th century. He comes from one of the several Redbox sets dedicated to the War of the Roses: set 72043 Scottish Troops.

More important, this mini comes from The UK, since it was kindly sent to me last month by Sprinks, from  Wronghammer.

This mini is very nice, but the blowstick (i.e. the piece of wood in which the piper blows to fill the bag) was missing, so I had to add one to the model.

The result could have been better, but it is already more accurate.

So this guy is the 8th musician of the month this year. Only the 8th ? Unfortunately yes, I didn't achieve to complete the job, because I stopped painting between may and august.

This is what I did this year:

• January: Ancient Egyptian Drummer
• February: Medieval Swiss Drummer
• March: Napoleonic Fife Player
• April: Skeleton Horn Blower 
• May: - 
• June: -
• July: - 
• August: - 
• September: Napoleonic Neapolitan Drummer
• October: Gallic Carnyx Player
• November: Tambourine Player
• December: Medieval Scottish Piper

8 on 12, 66% success.

Now it's time to have a look at the band :)

 Hope you like them, as motley as they are !

Musician of the month: a tambourine player

One interesting part of the "musician of the month" challenge is, from times to times, to paint an unexpected figure.

I think that, this time, the aim is achieved :)

Here you are my tambourine player, with friends.

Beyond the subject itself, one part in this exercise was to paint different skins, particularly for the man and the woman in his arms.

Figures from Linear-B set 75 Roman Port 2.

Mini World Lyon

Hi!
I'm currently enjoying a few vacation days at home with family visiting us in Lyon. Yesterday, we all went out to visit a miniatures museum which is called Mini World Lyon, located in Vaulx-en-Velin in the suburbs of Lyon.
The permanent exhibition contains several worlds full of thousands of miniatures in the following themes: the City, the Mountain, the Countryside and the City of Lyon itself.
There was also a temporary exhibition, Star Wars Lego.

Since the cameras are welcome in this park, my sister, my daughter and I took all the necessary to take pictures, and we spent at least two hours shooting as much as possible - the only restriction was that there were at lot of people, particularly children, because of the autumn holidays. A wonderful exhibition nevertheless: hundreds of little scenes, vehicles and characters disseminated in the various landscapes, and a light cycle representing day and night in 20 mn... I can't wait to go there again :)

If you want to know more about this place, here is the link to their official website, it's really worth a look... and a visit, at least !

Orcs - size comparison

Hi, a small update today. I was asked in a french forum (Addict Figurines) to tell how the Dark Alliance Orcs compared to 1/72 humans. The easiest way is of course to take pictures showing the minis side by side, and this is how I answered.

1. Small Dark Alliance Orc / DDS Landsknecht

2. Caesar human (painted as a vampire :)) / Average Dark Alliance Orc  / DDS Landsknecht

3. Caesar human / sample of Dark Alliance Orcs

The result is that these Orcs are equal are smaller to humans in size, which is perfect in my eyes. What do you think ?

Hope it helps :)

Orcish tribe

Orctober is for Orcs, so I decided a few days ago to add some troops to my 1/72 Orcs army.

I painted the Orc set #1 manufactured by Dark Alliance/Redbox last year, as you can see in the related post here, and even if I think that they are not the best minis ever, I was interested in having more poses in this warband, so I bought sets #2 and #3 lately and began to paint some of them.

I keep on increasing my painting rate, so I worked on a batch of 8 guys at the same time, coming from both sets.

The result, tabletop standard:

And some close-ups:

Love this one - maybe my next avatar :)

The hornblower is an extra musician of the month !!

In this last picture, you will recognize the drummer I painted last year.

I used the same color scheme as for set #1, so that they easily mix with one another.

Last picture, starring my favorite orc so far, an allegory of the pain of war, or the headache, as you wish :D:

Too much dwarfbeer at the Orctoberfest

The Orcs are definitely fun to paint.