AHPC XIII: From Mike W - 40k Orks, 28mm Renaissance Scots, Modern Infantry plus Cossacks & More

 Let me take you on a journey...

Studios visited previously, plus this week's drop-ins

... a journey around part of the Studio Lot!

At the start of this challenge, I visited the Sci-Fi Lot and grabbed a quick bonus for my first pair of 40k Orks, today I'm moving on from there by using Lady Sarah's Limo service and as such I am submitting the figure below as the fare. This is a 28mm, Warlord Games, Female survivor, clearly a young girl sporting some kind of laser sight enhanced revolver!

This sweet little girl packs quite a punch

I dressed this figure in a cute, pink party dress with red shoes and hair ribbon, white socks and gave her blond, almost yellow hair, to emphasise her youth, the pink dress was given more depth by applying a red ink wash over the base pink, this helped pick out the details as well. The base has been made to represent concrete paving with debris across the surface.

A laser sighted handgun

This young girl will take me to the Historical Drama lot, where I present a number of Scots Renaissance figures for my Marian Wars project. AKA as the 'Marian Civil War', running form 1568 - 1573, this is the struggle lead by Mary Queen of Scots to impose her authority on her rebellious Presbyterian Nobles and to assert her independence from Elizabeth I's England to the south. (See details of the film - Mary Queen of Scots <here>).

The finished lot of Scots 

What we have here is a group of sixteen 'test' figures that I have created based upon the Wargames Atlantic Conquistador figure set, with some Warlord Games ECW body parts thrown in. There are 5 x swordsmen, 1 x Two Handed swordsmen, 4 x Handgunners, 1 x Crossbowmen, 3 x Pike men, 1 x Standard Bearer and 1 x Halberdiers.

One of the two, Two-handed swordsmen,
I'm really pleased how these turned out

The figures have all be undercoated in white and then dressed loosely basis illustrations in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book covering Scots Renaissances Armies (See <here>). Much of the protective clothing was quilted wool jackets, often with sewn in metal plates of chains to parry sword or pike blows. This I have represented with a light cream colour.

Crossbowman and a Standard Bearer.
The Standard is speculative, based upon Mary's status as a former French
Queen and her Scottish royal claim

Five Swordsmen, each with different levels of protection,
from wool jacks to plate armour, according to wealth and rank.
Extreme left is a guy sporting the Lennox family crest on his shield.

Other muted colours have generally been used with splash of brighter colours for those figures that seem to display men that were either wealthier or have more extravagant personalities. Armour was Oily Steel with a dark tone wash.

Four Handgunners,
second left is a guy whose torso is from a Warlord Games ECW figure,
with Wargames Atlantic handgunner arms added

Another view of the Handgunners

My plans are to build up a couple of pike blocks for this army, The Wargames Atlantic sets come with a multitude of spare parts and I'm thinking I can quickly build more figures by mashing these up with spare Warlord Games ECW figures to give a representation of the poorer, Scots 'Humbly' troops in the pike schiltrons, maybe some of these next week.

Three Pikemen plus one Halberdiers,
guy on the right has Warlord Games Pike and arms to give a figure with levelled pike.

Moving on from Historical Drama, we utilise a second trip on Lady Sarah's Limo to travel to the world Cinema lot. This time the fare is a rather fierce lady who is again form the Warlord Survivors set, this time the figure is running forwards in a frenzy, carrying a pair of Uzis. Effective no doubt but in the Zombicide world they are bound to make such a noise that every zombie within two miles will be attracted towards the source of such a racket.

This woman is in a red vest with jeans and sturdy knee length boots, she carries a water bottle and a belt pouch and in the best movie fashion no clear means to reload her weapons that will continue to fire until her scene is completed.

I'm pleased with the appearance of this figure's jeans,
a watered down ultramarine blue, over a white undercoat.

Boots are Shakebite Leather contrast colour.
Uzis have a watered down black coat with a gunmetal drybrush finish

These Cossack figures are 28mm 3D prints, sourced from eBAY. heir poses grabbed my attention and I though that they would make an interesting unit in a number of scenarios. As a film reference I used the 1960s (hardly a classic) Taras Bulba (See <here>), starring Tony Curtis ad Yul Brinner - for some reason it sticks in my mind despite being a truly woeful film!

These figures were supplied in clear resin and like other sets I have received through the post, they suffered some damage in transit. A spot of superglue here an there fixed most issues, I then undercoated white and dressed the figures accordingly.

Next I have a set of 8 Modern Eastern European soldiers, maybe Polish or Estonians - who knows. They have a mix of classic Soviet weapons (RPG7s) plus a smattering of modern western weapons as well. The aim is that these will be a 'no specific' intervention force or use in Apocalypse / Zombie survivor scenarios. 

The figures are again form Warlord Games and they go together pretty well, with these I experimented with some Contrast Colour paints from Citadel. After building the figures, I undercoated them white before using 'Military Green' to paint their overalls. I used Snakebite Leather to do their boots and the Officer's pistol holster and then painted in their flesh and webbing / knee pads using regular paints.

I then shaded the flesh with - not surprisingly - Flesh Wash, before using 'Skeleton Horde' to wash the webbing. Weapons were all painted with a watered down black before dry brushing with Gun metal. THe RPG7 and portable missile tube had additional detail added and all figures were given red sunglasses.

Overall the effect is quite reasonable.

The whole squad, in an urban terrain setting

Another view

I'm no expert on modern military weapons but they have a mix of firepower options!

More weapon options and my favourite - RP7 - on the left, officer is second from right.

Next this week we have a set of 10 Medieval Archers. When I bought these from eBAY, they were advertised as Dark Ages Archers, it was not until I started painting them that my suspicions were aroused and to me it was clear that their dress was maybe more akin to the Medieval Period. Never mind!

Ten Archers

I'll determine how best to use them later on!

Another view, with figures mixed up

Again these figures were undercoated in white and then dressed with appropriate colours, flesh was washed with Sepia Ink and the rest was washed in a watered down dark tone ink. Basing was my usual method.

Rear rank from first photo, moved forwards for a better view
hat on figure second from right a bit odd to my eyes.

Finally no post would be complete without a batch of 40K Orks & Grechin, today is no exception! Here we have 16 figures and an experiment for folks to comment on!

This week's 40k Ork Batch

Only two Grechin this week but I have a huge batch of these little guys on the go for next week - if timings work out! One figure is a former Fantasy Goblin but converted to 40k world by adding some grenades ad replacing his wooden club with a looted Imperia Guard Chainsaw.

The two Grechin, on the right the figure came with a severed Ork hand grasping a Choppa,
to the right this little guy carried a looted Imperial Guard Chainsword

Old and New, left a current Ork StormBoy and right an older version
of the same - shows the GW scale creep quite clearly.
The newer guy will be the unit's Boss figure!

Figures were all painted as previously described in an ongoing batch process, I took a little extra time on the Painboy model as this was fun to do. Hopefully I managed to do all the syringes justice, each with a different chemical content. I painted these white and then washed with blue ink to give a glass effect then added coloured band to represent the various contents

Ork Painboy, this was a fun figure to paint with so much detail.

An Ork Boss figure with this week's skull attached to his helmet

So my 'big' experiment was to add exhaust / smoke coming form the engines on chainswords and from Rocket packs on the Stormboyz. I think its quite effective but wondering what others think? If I go down this route then I'll have to go back and retro fit the same to figures that I have already completed!

Three more Boy, left with heavy weapon, centre with 3rd party head
and right with smoke added to the exhaust of the power sword

Another Stormboy, with exhaust / smoke coming from his jetpack.
Just noticed I forgot to do this guy's eyes!

Another view of the same

Last two! Left a Burna and the guy is in his 'Red Star' hat and right a Boy with a Blasta

After what I called a points bomb last week, I seem to have racked up more points this week!

AHPC XIII: From Mike W - 28mm Apocalypse Survivors, Renaissance Foot & Horse plus 40k Orks

Left over from last week, as I ran out of time to complete and a batch of 3D 28mm Renaissance Cavalry, these are nominally Spanish but I have repurposed them to be able to be used as any nationality by swapping out the standard. A common trick I use to reduce the number of figures required to stave various battle scenarios.

Finally completed the Renaissance Spanish Cavalry

These figures were supplied with the riders and horses as one piece with their right arms separate to be glue din place using super glue. Assembly was simple - although two horses arrived with broken legs, one could be fixed the second is missing its lower leg but I have tried to disguise this by appropriate scenics on the base.

These are D printed with a huge amount of detail, best of all reasonably priced

All figures were given a lances lowered stance, except for the officer that had a sword hand from the spares box added and the standard bearer who simply has the lance pointing upwards.

Another view

Figures came without bases but were glued to appropriate cavalry bases and then undercoated white before various horse flesh colours were applied, followed by the horses' leatherwork and furniture. The riders were 'dressed' with various colours and Oily Steel was used for armour, then washed in watered down Dark Tone ink. Other appropriate ink washes were applied to horses and riders before the figures were bases with Sand, electrostatic grass and various tufts.

Close-up of the Standard Bearer, flag is a generic cavalry standard from the period,
taken from the internet and recreated in Windows Paint.

Next is a group of ten 28mm Apocalypse Survivors, these are from a frame of plastic 28mm Warlord Games figures (ex Wargames Factory), built with the aim to provide some additional opposition to the Zombie Horde that I created during last year's challenge.

A motley group of Warlord Games survivors

I'm a little disappointed with the build of some of these figures, maybe its my fault but I found issues with the interchangeability of the arms and heads on these guys and this left a couple of the models looking a little 'odd'. 

Left to right: A guy with two pistols, a juvenile with an Uzi
and an office worker with a crowbar.

That said, I'm reasonably pleased with the paint jobs on these guys, you'll note that they are all male survivors. All figures were sprayed white from a rattle can to undercoat, and the 'dressed' according to my whim. I have a frame of female survivors to work on next and these will hopefully provide me with a number of figures to 'power' Sarah's Limo around the Cinema Lots in coming posts!

Two more survivors, left a 'Matrix' like guy with a long leather coat and pistol
and right a gangster or government agent with an M16 

The weapons available on the frame were pretty limited, so the group is a motley bunch of nine adults and a juvenile. Six of the guys have firearms whilst the remainder have a selection of 'ad hoc' weapons. Of this smaller group I particularly like the guy with the chainsaw and the Office Worker with a crowbar and rather randomly a bow and arrows! 

Guy with Chainsaw and a 'Dad' with a baseball bat

The Cricketer, carrying a Bat & Molitov Cocktail, is one of the figures that I'm not overly happy with the pose it has, similarly with the 'Dad' figure carrying a Baseball Bat, the arm joints at the shoulders is not a great fit.

Final group, left a guy in combat trousers and tee-shirt with an automatic rifle, centre the cricketer with a Molotov cocktail and right a cop with an M16

Of the armed group, we have a guy in a long black leather coat, carrying a pistol, a mafia or maybe Government Operative in a grey suit carrying an M16 Rifle, both pretty nice figures in my opinion. I did a policeman, again with an M6 and a holstered pistol plus a juvenile and another guy both with some type automatic weapon. Finally there is a guy with two automatic pistols and wearing jeans and an orange vest. Unfortunately on this figure the right arm/shoulder joint isn't that great. 

The bases on these figures are simply painted grey to represent concrete, black lines added to show the cracks between the slabs and then a wash of sepia ink is run along each black line to indicate dirt. When dry I varnish and sprinkle a mix of grey and black flock to represent detritus on the uncleaned streets and finally a few small tufts of grass between the paving slabs to further drive home the uncared for look of a post apocalypse city!

Then we get on to the Orks! Part of the reason I ran out of time on the Spanish Horse was due to having two batches of Orks on the go, they're just such fun to paint. So this is actually two batches that have merged together to be completed this week, 18 figures in all.

The Warboss 'Goldtooth', named for obvious reasons.

There are 10 x Boyz almost all with Choppa and hand Blasta, plus 5 Boyz with Heavier Blasta plus 2 new Grechin and a mighty Warboss.

Two Grechin to add to the army

I won't go through the painting methodology of these guys as I've described elsewhere, I'll leave you with the photos and commentary to see what I have done with these figures. By some fluke I have a number (4) of Ork Heads in this batch that have all got scars on them, so I have painted this regular (pinkish) flesh colour and then run over this with a line of red ink, to make it slightly more vivid than their lips.

Five Ork Boyz with Heavy Blastas

The gretchin with the sword is clearly cut out to be some kind of leader, he is an old metal figure and I gave him distinctive red hair for the fun of it.

Five Boyz with Choppa and Hand Blasta

And another Five Boyz with Choppa and Hand Blasta

All of the new batch together

And maybe a slightly better view

Finally the two Boyz with skulls on their Choppas for this week's Side Duel

Last but not least we have a group of 13 (unlucky for some) Landsknechts, six pikemen, 4 two handed swordsmen, two more handgunners and a crossbowman. Seemingly a random lot but really I wanted to add 2 handgunner's to last week's batch - allowing me to field these are 2 x 6 figure wings to a pike block. Additionally I wanted to add another rank of pikemen to a pike block of 20 figures I completed last May, see <here>. Then I just wanted to see what the Two Handed swordsmen would look like, deployed in a forlorn hope in front of the pike block, chopping away enemy pike heads as they advance. The crossbowman was just for good measure and again to see what it looked like.

Thirteen completed this week Landsknechts

Painting technique was exactly as described last week, adapted for crossbowman and swordsmen. The two handed swordsmen, musketeers & handgunners come in only two poses, albeit you can swap arms and heads about to your whim. Again I'm pleased with the results.

Two Handgunners plus a Crossbowman

with a rear view!

Four Two-Handed Swordsmen

and their rear view...

Six Pikemen, five of these are Warlord Games figures,
one is a Wargames Atlantic Conquistador, pressed into German Service!!

Wargames Atlantic figure is front right

Why am I showing the rear of all these guys?

Here is a photo of the new 25 man pike block, with flanking handgunners and wo handed swordsmen out front.

My first completed pike block and supporting arms,
I'm now thinking that I need to increase the hand gunner wings to eight figures each

Another view, bulk of the pike men were panted earlier in the year
but supplemented by this week's and last weeks Landsknecht figures

Final view