Giants and Spiders...

So on to the real big guys of the army this week - those little Snotties need all the help they can get!

Dawn of Lead 2019: Here Be Monsters!

Found this post lurking amongst the various drafts that have been slowly amalgamating on my blog for a while now and thought it was high time I shared it with you!

To the Victor go the Spoils...

... and my good pal Phreedh has certainly spoiled me with this unexpected and very kind prize for winning our little Paint a WFB Giant competition!

Goblins flee before the advancing Giant...

Well folks, I hate to blow my own trumpet but I reckon I've won!

So Phreedh, old buddy, old pal - I think we're even now. I was worried that my struggle with bendy plastic, heavy eyelids (fell asleep at the painting desk at least once this week but managed to keep my face out of the paint pallete somehow!) and my inadequacies in sculpting hands and feet would get the better of me, but somehow, Interwebz glory is mine!

Right enough of the triumphant crowing - not really cricket, I know! 

As you can see I've gone for the colour scheme straight out of the 3rd ed. rule book and actually I think the orange works a lot better in the flesh that I thought it would. 

Here's the closest I could get with the minis and scenery in my collection to that image we all know and love.

and finally, a Goblin's eye view.

Perhaps once I have a few more of the minis featured in the original picture - Prince Ulther's Dwarfs and the Wood Elf chariot for example - I might have a go at replaying the battle.

Now to hunt down the other two FF ogres...

A Challenge of Giant Proportions...

So on the back of my post about the FF Ferocious Ogre/Day-glo orange Giant from the 3rd ed rulebook, my old LAF buddy Phreedh has lain down the gauntlet. A paint off to the finishing line on our FF Ogre variants!

Last time we indulged in a similar contest he won, although I forget what we were painting, the memory being so painful! Well this time I intend to even the score.

My painting desk is clear...

I'm stocked up on orange paint...

And I've just about finished cleaning the big fella up - 

 
I've even had a go at pushing some putty round - there was a huge nasty mold line that needed some attention and this chap is made of that slightly bendy plastic that doesn't take well to files. I managed to cut most of it away without any huge slip-ups, although there were some areas that needed smoothing out.

And some new toes making! The original feet were a little soft on detail and as these great loafers are going to be the last thing many a miniature will see on the tabletop, I felt they could do with some attention. I'm certainly not very skilled in sculpting and I'm pretty sure Miliput wasn't the best material to use, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results of my efforts!

I've also extended his mullet to hide the join between head and shoulders - luckily he doesn't have particularly fine hair so my rudimentary hair dressing skills were able to emulate his unruly bonnet.

I need to a bit more work on his hand to block up the unused weapon slot and give some more definition to his fingers. Next time he'll have some paint on him hopefully...

A Little (Big!) Bit of History...

I am sure most of us with more than a passing interest in Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition will be familiar with this image from the rule book -

Its a great diorama for many reasons - the spectacle of Ugezod's (strangely the Death Commando version of Ugezod) Mothercrushers in ignominious flight. The Kwae Karr Orcs of Orc's Drift fame similarly fleeing from Wood Elf Wild Cat handlers, swarms of skeletons being mown down by the Elf Attack Chariot, a Dragon Ogre, Minotaurs, Goblins...

... and the big guy with the Essex tan!


Well guess what was in the last package to come through my letterbox.

I've mentioned the exploits of the Eternal Privates before and his brilliant idea of recreating the battles pictured in the 3rd ed. rulebook and he was certainly part of the inspiration behind tracking down this character. I  don't want to steal any of his thunder so there won't be a replay of this eclectic battle, although I do intend painting him up in a similar style to his 80's day-glow glory.

I was always intrigued as to what this mini was, as I'd never come across it in any of the catalogues. It was only in the past couple of years that I found out he was actually part of a small range of 54mm plastic minis produced for the Fighting Fantasy range - You can see the rest of them on the back of the battered blister he came in.

Clean-up should be interesting as there is the mother of all mold lines running up and down his sides and the plastic is that slightly bendy stuff that doesn't file down. Once I've got the 4A Goblins done (nearly there!) I'll get stuck in - can't wait!