AHPC XVI:From Mike W - More Zombicide Invader, Skaven plus other stuff (175 Points)

 Following on from my first post, I can now present some more Zombicide Invader figures, this time I'll start with some Survivors, in this case a group of five humans and a friendly alien.

In white we have two soldiers in power armour, on the left a nobleman in his own power armour suit, whlist to the right we have a green  insectoid aliean and a young civilian human woman.

Close-up of the nobleman in red body armour, a balistic pistol in his right hand and a chainsword in his left hand.

Close-up detail of the chainsword and attached 'cutter' at his left elbow. He wears a fur lined red cape.

First photo of one of the mining stations, soldiers, who provide local security for the facility. in th egame each survivor character has their own stat card and background lore, this is a guy called 'Inshish Vak'.

Slightly different view, you can see his balistic carbine, breathing apperatus and bionic eye

This is Lt. Jee-Hye, a South Korean officer in the Galactic Armed Forces.

This guy is armed with a balistic pistol and a 'stun stick', basically an electrified club, used in hand combat

This alien is 'Ix-Nix-Zik', armed with a sword and a balistic pistol, this insectoid is a friendly at the mining station.

Allyson, is a civilian worker at the mining station, arned with a balistic pistol and carrying her small pet furry  in her backpack!

Next we travel to ancient Egypt for a short interlude!

Here we have the first of a few undead cat swarms, that I will be using with my Undead Egyptians Army.

You can see that there are four distinct creatures on the base, I'm only claiming points for the combined casting!

Other side view of the Cat Swarm....

Next we have a group of Warhammer Skaven, this is an army that I have been toying with for some time now and I finally took the plunge to paint-up some of these horrible little ratmen.

Two units of 10 x 28mm Skaven, on left areth enewer models and to right are the slightly larger classic models.

Close-up on the newer figures, all carrying spears and shields, unit includes a musician, standard bearer and a leader.

View of the classic Skaven unit, armed with hand weapons and a shield. Note the skull hanging form the banner, see points claims below!

These little guys were fun to paint, the group has a mix of old school models and the relatively new models released by GW in the last couple years. All were undercoated in a cream colour and then Army Painter Flesh tone was used to add definition to all feet, hands, tails and hads before highlighting with regular flesh coloured paint.

First of a couple more views of the Classic figures, as I expand this army I'll mix and match newer and older figures within units.

Second shot of Classic figures, albeit with a standard painted to tie in to the newer ethos!

All fur was painted with GW Gore Grunta Fur contrast paint. Steel was painted using GW Lead Belcha and leatherwork was added using GW Snakebite Leather contrast paint. All was then given a light watered down black ink wash to add with definition before varnishing.

Lastly a shot o fthe newer unit, I have about 20 more of these little guys ready to go, but I might be tempted to do some Orcs first!

I deliberated long and hard on how best to base these guys, my usual fine sand and electrostatic grass combo for figures in the Warhammer world seems so tame for ethese putrid guys, so instad I opted for a dark brown muddy appearance with a smattering of grass and debris. What I was really going for was for them to look like they'd just crawled out of the naerst sewer, not sure I have achieved this!  Worst case I may change it! 

Now back to some more Zombicide Invader Xenos, with eight new guys to add to the growing horde. This goup includes 5 more Drones / Workers, 2 new Tanks and a huge Abomination that will hopefully only make occational appearances...

The eight new figures.

I'll not repeat the painting process in thi spost as I went into this last week, the Drone and Tanks were painted in exactly the same manner as before. It's worth noting the size of teh Abomination, this figure stands 40mm tall toe to head, but it is about 60mm across! Hence I have taken the liberty of claiming for a 40mm figure in this case.

Two new Tank figures, both in same pose. For future figures I'm going to have to immerse them in boiling water to reposition some of the limbs & tenticles to add more variety!

Five new Drones. Four of these are in the same pose,
so again additional figures will get the boiling water treatment!

Painting the Abominationwas a joy to do, basically the same approach as the other figures except that its on a bigger scale! Lots of lovely detail to pick put. This figure seems to have some kind of loincloth cvered in paterned disks, I interpreted this as a brown cloth with broze coloured disks.

Having made that choise it answered a couple of doubts I'd had when doing the TAnk figures previuously, in that they also seem to have loin cloths with a smattering of disks on them. THus these new to Tanks have been similarly painted - I will need to go back to the already painted figures from last week where I left these areas grey...

The monsterous Abomination! I interpreted the three large domes on his body
as huge puss filled boils - sorry if you are eating whist reading this!

The back view, lots of tenticles and claws

Final view, overall I'm pleasewd with this guy

Size comparison of the three Xenos types painted so far.
The Drone / Worker is a regular 28mm figure.

I'm waiting for some more Xenos to be delivered, I enjoyed painting these so much - I have to get more. Also looking t invest in a second hand copy of the game to get all the playing aids....

The Xenos Horde so far

Friday Night Games - 10mm Hussite Mini Campaign

Words & Photos by Mike W & Mat

On Friday 9th January through to 23rd January, we met at Rupert's venue to play  Mat's 10mm Hussite Mini Campaign. This involved strategic moves on eth map below, until a suitable tabletop scenario develops, at which time it is played out as a regular wargame.

Campaign Map

Mike N & Mike W took on the role of the Hussites, whilst John, Steve, Rupert and Dave controlled the Hugarians / Bavarians who opposed them. Mat supplied the figures, rules and umpiring duties on the day.

Husite column arriving on the tabletop, enemy positions on the distant hills.

Enemy positions revealed.

Hussites move to outflank

Hussite Cavalry deploy

Hussite War Wagons

Week #2 of the second battle saw Mat step in to run the Hussites as the two Mike's were unable to attend.

All looked to be going well for the bewagoned vagabonds initially. The lager was strong (but had they drunk too much of it?) and Johns made charge up the road towards the heavy guns faltered and fell back.

The clever pike surge through the forest on the other side of the lager progressed agonisingly slowly as the pikemen wrestled their long pikes through the low branches (Steve threw a 4cm move then another 5cm move…), whilst imperial horsemen gathered all around.

The end game, week#3. Imperials overrun the Hussite war wagons.

But then the pikemen surged out of the forest and hit home. After a spirited melee they overwhelmed the war wagon in front of them and this precipitated a rout from neighbouring wagons.

Rupert’s foot surged down the hillside and crashed down on one whole side of the lager pinning down reserves.

John rallied for one last charge and this broke through over the captured gun…making it clear that the Hussites were in real trouble as the mounted knights licked their lips and surged forwards to finish off the disarrayed rebels.

Rupert had amassed the greater number of victory points so stands in high esteem in the eyes of Emperor Sigismund…weird to see Rupert win…strangely unnerving!

What to say to sum up: the Hussites generally played their campaign well. I guess the lesson may be don’t lager up adjacent to a copse that blocks line of fire, and maybe scatter the guns more evenly around the perimeter of the lager rather than concentrating them in particular areas…otherwise better roll higher dice!

Imperials did well too. They held their knights back and avoided gung ho charges…which proves that even inbred chinless aristocrats can learn given enough futile bloodshed!

AHPC XVI: From GrahameH 15mm Byzantines Essex Miniatures 210 pts

 My first entry this year, now I have recovered from the Flu etc. I am currently behind on my basing so only a short entry. 

I was in the process of finishing my Byzantine armies when the challenge began, hence the entry. All figures are 15mm from Essex Miniatures. 

First three units of Byzantine Infantry. All figures are based for Impetus. Each unit is made up of 16 figures. (48 figures = 96pts)

Three units of Arab Archers again based for Impetus. Each base consisting of 8 figures. (24 Figures 48pts)

Two Arab Light Cavalry Units (10 mounted figures 40pts)

Lastly a Camel unit (5 mounted figures 20pts)

That's it. Hopefully more to follow once I catch up with my basing. 

AHPC XVI: From Mike W - 28mm Orcs & Night Goblins plus more Skaven (245 Points)

 This week I have started on my pile of Orcs & Goblins... There is of course the old adage, that you can never have enouigh Orcs! To which I subscribe whoe heartedly, however, be that so, they still need to be painted.

10 x Orcs, destined to be new recruits for various regiments in my collection

This group of about 50 figures, will hopefully get painted over the next couple weeks, they are part of an eBay bulk buy I acquired three or four months back. They have all been treated to an undecoating process - black spray paint followed by a 'zenathal' white spray paint coating form top downwards. As I am based in teh UK - I use Halfords' undercoat spay paints, which are available in large cans at a very reasonable cost.

A slightly different view

Five Big 'Uns with two hand weapons

This week's batches are a group of 10 x Orcs plus a batch of 21 x Night Goblins. I have described in previous year's my method for pinting Orcs and this has not changed, I'm comfortable with it and it will maintain consistancy with the rest of my collection

Two orcs, heading for a regiment armed with shield & hand weapon.
All my Orc regiments nad white & red shield designs, although
some have red & white designs!

As these figures were pre-owned and already built, they do not actually form a single Orc unit, this suits me fine as they will be conscripted into existing units in my collection to bulk them out.

The green skin was applid over the undercoat, I used Army Painter Orc Skin Speed paint, I used various other black and brown shades t block in their clothes, before using Lead Beltcher for all metal work - be it armour or weapons.

Close up on three of the Orcs, not skull on left hand figure's sword hilt.

Everthing getrs a watered down Dark Tone wash before I spend time picking out details - concentrating on mouth & lips as well as brass / gold work on weapons and jewellry. THen other hight light area is on any bone work! - skulls teath etc.

Then it is time to apply a highlight to the green skin, using GW Warboss Green before adding in nails & claws using GW Elysian Green. 

Bases are my standard Brown paint/glue gloop with fine sand and electrostatic grass added to taste!

Moving on from the Orcs I now bring you a group of 20 x Night Goblins, again whilst most of these are armed with bows, there are a few other odds and ends, these will all be drafted into existing regiments in my collection.

The completed 20 Night Goblins

My approach to painting these Night Goiblins is very similat ro the Orcs, with the same undercoating process being used for the whole of ths group of Orcs & Goblins. I painted all these little guys' robes with black speed paint before picking out all the skintones in GW Warboss Green.

Another view

I prefer my goblins to be  lighter shade of green to my Orcs and I have put together a new recipe for these guys, highlighting the skin with GW Elysian Green and doing claws and nails with a mix of GW Elysian Green. and Zandri Dust - in essence making the goblins a shade lighter all over than the Orcs.

I like th eresults which is good but now I'm feeling the need to go back and highlight all my other goblin figures in a similar way, this will be a big task....

And another...

Bows and spears were painted brown, armour, swords, spears and bow tips etc were done in GW Leadbeltcher Metal and then boots and laces and armbands were done in a leather colour or where it was material in a cream colour thaht was then washed with a light brown for shading purposes.

Close-up on five of the little guys

I blinged-up the figures by adding a lot of brass / gold earrings, lip rings and weapon furniture, additionally as with all greenskins the other feature point is the mouths so teath and lips were carefully added to give contrast to the green of their skin.

And another five!

Bases were my Warhammer standard fine sand and electro staic grass.

At some point I may add a standard to the guy with the spear but I'm happy with the look now

The final five

Next we have 17 x Skaven, painted to the same recipe as described in my previous posting. Not much to add to these in way of commentary but I'm still very undecided about the bases - I may just switch to may standard Warhammer bases as above but in the meantine I'm still experimenting and open to ideas!

17 x Skaven in three ranks

Whilst I'm using a mix of new and old models - I like the esthetic of teh newer figures - I particularly think that the some of teh older models look dated and so have tried to add rome robes to a number of tehse figures.

Another angle

I simply tore off small pieces of tissue paper, soake dthem in PVA glue and then draped them over the figures in an attempt to make raggety old cloth. I'm pretty happy wit hthe results and think this helps tie the older fgures in better.

Closeup of some of the Skaven

Some more...

A view of the home made robes on some of the older figures
when compared to a newer figure (left)

The last of this week's figures.