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

Nicole the naughty Norman Knight

 By Steve Cast

After many hours of hard work my labours have paid off, Nicole the naughty Norman Knight is finished, or as they say in all the best 1950’s horror films, “IT LIVES!”

Now, bearing in mind that this is the first 54mm figure I’ve painted in about 40 years, plus the fact that I was using a brand new painting technique that I saw on YOUTUBE it’s not the greatest figure I’ve ever done, but it’s good enough.  The best way to look at it is to put your phone at the end of the room, walk out of the room and stand behind a wall, then she looks really good, any closer and you see warts and all!  Though to be fair she does have a couple of really big warts that had they been real you definitely would have wanted to see them!

So how do I get my hands on her Royal Assets I hear you ask with great eagerness?  Well it works like this.  The player with the highest casualty points within the team that wins the competition gets “Nicole” as first Prize, the person who scores the highest number of points in the other team gets “Chelsea the cheeky Cheshire archer” as the runner up prize, so it’s important that you let me know what your personal scores are after each game otherwise you’ll miss out on the chance to walk away with this fantastic prize, Oooooooooh!!!

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

A belated Happy New Year to everyone!

This post sees another batch of 14 x 40K Orks & Grechin completed plus a batch of 28mm Landsknecht Hand Gunners. I had hoped to have a batch of 28mm Renaissance Horse completed as well but unfortunately time to do that has eluded me 3D printed. All the more for my next post!

Another batch of 40K Greenskins off the production line!

The Ork & Grechin batch consists of 10 x Orks and 4 x Grechin. If I start with the Grechin, 3 of these little guys are plastics from eBay, the Standard Bearer is metal and a former Gorka Morka figure - if I remember correctly.

Four Grechin, with the mighty 'Red Star Banner of the Rebellion', 
2 x Skullz on these little chaps

The plastic guys were painted much the same way as previously described, I have added a wicked looking bayonet to one of their weapons - a knife captured from the Imperial Guard spares box!

Rear view of the Grechin rebels

The Standard Bearer carries what appears to be an AK47 derivative - who knew that they would still be going strong in the 40K time line. The tattered flag is made of paper and suitably 'distressed' with the big 'Red Star' of the Gobbo Rebellion clearly visible. Otherwise painting technique is the same as his plastic brethren. Between them these four Grechin also carry two skulls and hence I have added an appropriate number of bonus Skullz Points.

Four standard Boyz, with hand blaster and 'Choppa'.
Look carefully and the Guy second from left has a skull on his Choppa.

Left to Right: One of the Boyz with a big gun for more Dakka! a Mechanik
and a converted Fantasy Black Orc

Four of the Orks are represent the fairly standard Ork Boyz, that make up the core of the army, armed with axe or sword Choppas plus hand blaster. A fifth Ork is a conversion of an old plastic Black Orc figure originally released back in the 1990s (I think) which I have converted to a 40K Ork with the addition of a hand blaster and a captured Space Marine 'Chainsaw Bayonet'. As this guy is a little different to the rest I have given him snazzy striped trousers. Another of the Ork Boyz is armed with a heavier blaster, he will act as support to the above group, between them these guys we have 2 more Skulls about their persons.

Close up of the converted Black Orc. I simply added a hand blaster in his right hand.
Note a tiny skull on his left hip - they all count!

Business end of the Big Blasta, note skull on his head

Close-up of the Mechanik

Next is another Gorka Morka metal figure, this time representing a Mechanik, hence the monkey wrench in his left hand and welding gear on his back, he will be able to help fix equipment that is damaged on the table top.

The Standard Bearer, he carries a total of five skulls about his person.

The final figures in this batch are a couple of Big Boyz, an Ork Nob Standard Bearer and an Ork Nob with a Rocket Pack.

Another view of the Standard Bearer

The Standard Bearer is an older metal figure sourced from eBAY, with a plastic skull added to replace the original missing Or symbols, as this hints at a wilder more savage background, I have used browns to paint the clothing of this character, then added the usual red plate armour over that. Arguably he should be on a bigger base but that is what he arrived on my doorstep with - so that is what he keeps!

Stormboy form the front

The Ork StormBoy with the Rocket Pack is a much more modern plastic figure, he arrived with no base, so I have glued him to a UK 2 pence coin, to give weight and added stability.

Stormboy from the left side

And finally from the right hand side

Ork Nob with power axe and hand blasta.

From another angle

Lastly there is my first batch of Landsknecht Handgunners, these are Warlord Games plastic figures which are really quick to put together and undercoat in off white / ivory. I based them on the equivalent of a 2 Pence piece so that they can be considered 'Open Order' troops. For close order troops (Pikemen) I shall use the equivalent of a 1p piece, I've got a batch of these on the go now as well.

A group of 10 plastic Warlord Games Landsknecht Handgunners

With the rear rank moved forwards

So Landsknechts are not so scary to paint as they are to spell! After the undercoat had dried, I dry brushed these guys with white paint and again left to dry. Most have leather tunics which have been painted a suitable brown colour, watering down the paint so that they colour flows really easily into the details.

Close-up of fur of my favourite figures from the batch

It was then fairly straight forward to paint in a base colour for shirts and trousers / leggings in either grey or a muted green shade, then add stripes of colour to the arms and legs, using the folds in the clothing as a guide.

A final closer view of the hand-gunners

Straps and other leather work was added in a suitable contrasting shade of brown before their guns were painted with a suitable wood colour and good old dependable 'Oily Steel'. Flesh and hair was added to taste, trying to keep a higher than usual proportion of blond hair - well they are meant to be Germans after all...

Hats and feathers were coloured somewhat at random before sepia wash was used to shade the flesh and brown areas and then a watered down dark tine wash was used to shade all other areas on the figures. A less watered down version being used on the handguns.

Bases again finished with fine sand and electrostatic grass.