The good, the bad, and the clever

I'm still on track to complete a stand of troops every day this month, but the last couple of days have been pretty busy, so the "stands" have been a couple of individual figures. Here's yesterday's stand, a rather distinguished-looking old fellow who might be either a Magician or a Cleric for my Antediluvians--one of the Nexus Ancient Greeks:

And here's today's: Villem Ganger, der Geierritter--mercenary knight, accompanied by his shieldbearer. These guys are Strelets, from their Army of Joan d' Arc set. I ran across this guy wearing a sallet and what looked sort of like a cloak made of feathers, and thought that there must be something interesting I could do with that. His companion is from the same set--he was originally carrying a polearm and had a different head, but I swapped the former for a banner and the latter for another sallet. (I'm not sure why, but sallets just look more menacing and sinister to me.)

I also finished up a couple more stands of Antediluvian pikes earlier in the week--only two more to go! (These ones are belemnoids--blue-gray--and agnostid trilobites--pale yellow.)

As for the next couple of days, that's where the "clever" comes in. My brother was poking through my boxes of HaT Gallic Chariots and noted that one figure could pass for an angel or something, if someone gave her wings. "I can do that," I said, thinking of the random pair of angel wings that came with the Orion Polish Winged Hussars...

I also gave them swords, of course. One more stand of Flyers...

A real mixed bag

I've made it my resolution this month to paint at least one stand of figures per day, so by the time November rolls around we should have quite a host amassed. (And maybe be ready to start this campaign...) What with the previously-mentioned disruptions to my supply lines, my painting selection has been a bit random. My brother and I have been digging through the piled boxes of figures, mixing and matching to build armies to our taste, so inspiration has occasionally crystallized in somewhat odd ways.

Here's my total recent output. Today's stand of Antediluvian spears is part way through the basing process--hence the Altoids tin full of sand.

Here's a closer look at them. The emblem on their shields is a brachiopod.

These are the Opabinia cavalry for my Antediluvians, which I did up yesterday.

This Dinotopian warband has been sitting around unpainted for months--maybe even years. It feels a little odd to have finally finished them off.

I mentioned that I was thinking of upgrading my old Mongols; here's a test stand. They might be the start of a new army, or they might end up as mercenaries...

One unit of Shooters; formerly English archers of the Hundred Years' War. They'll probably end up serving in one (or more) of the generic medieval armies of the western states.

Also in the "miscellaneous medieval" category is this stand of Blades, who are quite a mix. There are some Crusaders, some Livonian knights, a couple of Airfix types, and one Italeri Hundred Years' War guy. But I'm not the only one who has been painting...

These two pieces are my brother William's work--Knights and a Magician, respectively. (The poor hirsute fellow in the second picture has a rather sad expression... as well he might, given his position...)

And here is Dad, who is actually painting some Elves!

Anyway, next few days will be dedicated to more Antediluvian infantry--I found a sandwich bag of Macedonians who I had set aside at some point (read: lost) so I should be able to scrape together enough for almost an entire Hordes of the Things army...

A helpful map

This is the world my brother William and I have been working on as a background for our 20mm Hordes of the Things project. I've been reading the original Conan stories of Robert E. Howard lately, so this world bears a less-than-coincidental resemblance to his Hyborian Age. (Dad claims we should call this one "Myboria.")

It's also a handy guide to most of our existing 20mm plastic projects--past, present, and planned--as most of them have fantasy counterparts. There is a general divide between the "classical" and the "medieval," marked by the Mystic Mountains.

In the East, Dad's Punic War figures double as Meshkalon (Carthage), Taresso (various Carthaginian allies), Dumbrovii (Gauls), and the Volscian Republic. (Rome, of course.) Herculios and Damavand are reserved for his theoretical Greco-Persian Wars troops. The Antediluvian Cities are home to my newest army, while their opponents the Dinotopians live on the mysterious southern continent. The southern desert is full of isolated oases where lost cities inhabited by the last decadent remnants of vast prehistoric empires and sinister priest worshipping dark gods. (Like I said, I've been reading a lot of Robert E. Howard lately.) These can incorporate my Bronze Age troops; Dad's Egyptians have a home of their own in Amunabeb.

The West is a little more speculative. William wants to get some medieval Spanish and Moors for Valencios and Alqabar, and we've started painting up some fairly generic medieval fellows for the fairly generic medieval states of Jouncelle, Brandarth, and their neighbors. Until then, Dad's old Airfix guys will have to fill in. The Lichwood is home to my brother's undead army and a few of their barbaric allies. We have quite a few medieval Russians sitting around unpainted for Varislova and Novgobirsk. Kurmiz and Tarkhaan are my Mongols, who I am thinking about upgrading. (The originals were done seven or eight years ago, and are no longer up to my current painting standard. The Dreadmoors are full of orcs, goblins, and miscellaneous unsavory types. Elariëa is the home of the engimatic Elves, who Dad may paint someday.

We managed to get to the store today, so I have some more wire--that means more Antediluvians in the next few days. (I also found a set of machine guns for some more Mbotese technicals, so it was quite a successful trip...)

Outrunning my supply lines

It has been a productive few days on the painting front.

The Antediluvian cities have three new units at their disposal, to add to the one existing stand of Spears: a second stand of Spears (blue) , a stand of Blades (green), and a stand of Riders (yellow):

I basically scoured the house for any sort of ancient troops with large circular shields, and these were what I came up with. All of it is salvage from my dad's Punic War project--these guys started life as HaT African Infantry, for the Carthaginian side. The cavalry are actually conversions from one of the figures on the Carthaginian command sprue--originally they were holding a sort of trident-shaped banner, but I replaced those with wire lances. Unfortunately, this is where my logistical problems come in: I have a couple more units worth of the Macedonian phalangites, and another pair of cavalry, but they all require wire spears--and I'm out of wire. So I'll have to find something else to paint until we get to a hobby shop or craft store or something.

I did also paint up this fellow, another Caesar Adventurer--accompanied by his faithful hound, rescued from the Revell Conquistador set. For Hordes purposes he'll be classed as a Sneaker. I don't have much experience with using Sneakers, so that could be interesting.

There are getting to be rather a lot of these Hordes troops; it might be a good idea to start thinking about the overall organization of this project. I think I'd like to have several armies (four seems like a good number) maybe including some historical overlap, plus a bunch of smaller contingents and individuals who can be can be added for flavor. (Or put together as another faction?)

So far, the dedicated fantasy troops (so not counting my Hittites and such) are as follows:

"Dinotopians"
1x Hero (mounted on tyrannosaur)
2x Behemoths (spinosaurs)
1x Riders (mounted on velociraptors)
1x Warband
2x Flyers (pterosaurs)
3x Beasts (little green carnivorous types)
--I also have a second Warband that I should paint at some point.

"Antediluvians"
2x Spears
1x Blades
1x Riders
--There are several unpainted units for these guys: at least two more Spears and another unit of Riders. I'm thinking I'll pick up another box of the Macedonians at my next opportunity. (Maybe Fall In!?) Aside from the paint job, the Antediluvians are pretty mundane so far. I'd like a couple of model trilobites or something to fit with the "extinct invertebrate" decorating scheme, but the ones I've seen are a little too bulky or expensive.

"Miscellaneous"
2x Behemoths (scorpion men; currently used by my Bronze Age fantasy army)
1x Flyer (winged demon)
1x Magician (good)
1x Magician (bad)
1x Hero (pair of guys with cloaks and longswords)
1x Sneaker (ranger and dog)
--I think the scorpion-men, demon, and evil Magician may end up being the core of some sort of "Chaos" army; I've got a couple of boxes of Caesar Orcs who could be the grunt troops. And maybe the Heros and such could back up a generic medieval sort of army, with lots of Knights and whatnot.

Anyway, for now I'm waiting on some more wire. Maybe in the meantime I can get a few more of the miscellaneous guys painted up, or get back to work on one of my other projects. (Mbotu? Chariots? The Not Quite Seven Years' War? We'll see...)

Good wizard, bad wizard

This was today's little painting project. Both of these guys are Caesar fantasy figures. The good Magician is from the Adventurers box; the evil Magician is a spare from my brother's Undead which he swapped me for some heroic-looking fellow.

I played around a lot with washing and drybrushing this guy, trying to make it look like his staff was glowing. Not sure that I succeeded, but I'm still satisfied with the end result.

And here's his evil counterpart, on a freshly sanded base.

And here they face off.

Trilobite Spears ready to go. Next up, Ammonite Blades!

Odds and ends

You may notice the new title banner; I was playing around with some functions on GIMP and ended up with something that looked a bit like a barren alien landscape, so I figured I'd put it to some use. But it got me to thinking, briefly: despite the name of this blog, there's really not much science fiction content at the moment, despite me being an avid SF reader. So why is that? I have a theory. So far, most content on here is related to miniatures projects, but a lot of science fiction miniatures are tied to well-known and visually distinctive settings: Warhammer 40K or Battletech, for instance. On the whole, I don't tend to play a lot of these--I really like to make up my own settings. (You may note that even my "historical" projects tend to the "imaginary countries" side of things.)

So whereas there are generic "fantasy" figures that I can (and do) co-opt for my projects, I haven't really come across any SF equivalents. An orc is an orc, but a Mad Cat II is not a Leman Russ. And on that note, more Hordes of the Things figures!

Here are those 6mm Airboats, all based up. Haven't played any games with them yet, though.

And on the 20mm side, we have this Hero stand. These guys are "adventurers" from Caesar's 20mm fantasy range. I have a few more on my to-do list: a Magician (who looks suspiciously similar to Gandalf) and an archer who I think I may deploy as a Sneaker.

I was down in Washington DC on Monday, and stopped by the Natural History Museum to have a look at the trilobites. As you can see, I took a bit of inspiration from them for these guys' shield design. These are HaT figures, from a random box of Macedonians I picked up many years ago just on speculation. These four make up half a stand; I hope to get the other four done tomorrow, or maybe this weekend. I'm thinking these guys may be the start to an opponent army for the Dinotopians. (Maybe other units will have different prehistoric sea creatures on their shields? I'm thinking ammonites for the next unit...)

Just a random aside: after poking around the Natural History Museum for a few hours, I walked across the Mall to some of the other Smithsonian buildings--namely, the Freer Gallery and the collections of African and Asian art, which are also excellent inspirational material for painting. The amount of finicky detail that pre-industrial artists put into their work never ceases to amaze me. I think the urge to decorate must be one of those primal things that every culture shares...

Finally, we have this guy. I think he will be classed as a Flyer; he's not big enough to be an Airboat, not draconic enough to be a Dragon, not imposing enough to be a God, and not heroic enough to be an Aerial Hero. I don't know much about his provenance--he was made in Hong Kong, and he and about half a dozen of his variously armed brethren have been among mine and my brother's possessions for as long as I can remember. He's a bit short when facing off against 54mm figures, but more impressive at 20mm.

Airboats!

Many people who know me are aware that I have a long-standing interest in blimps, airships, and zeppelins. So when it comes to Hordes of the Things, I naturally gravitate towards the Airboat unit. As a matter of fact, the very first units I built for HotT were a pair of airboats to supplement my dad's 6mm Elven army. They were kind of blobby things, made of Sculpey and painted green, with big square paper sails on top. For some reason, his elves never seemed to use them much, but they saw service with me from time to time.

Unfortunately, they did not age well, so replacements have been on my vague list of things to do for quite some time now. And, inspired by my recent Hordes games, I finally sat down yesterday and put together some new ones.

These new airboats are built around some wooden egg shapes, which I believe I found at Michael's.

 Here you can see a few more details (such as they are) of the construction. The gondolas are whittled out of some wood scraps left over from the great trench-building project, as are the tail fins. The "ropes" are some sort of thin florist's wire, also from Michael's. When assembling these, it's best to attach the gondola first, then the ropes. (I tried it the other way with the first one, and it was definitely more difficult.)

Shown with some 6mm troops for size comparison. I still have one in the early stages of construction, as you can see. It might be a while before that one gets done up. (Why? Because HotT armies are 24 points, and airboats are 3 points, and most units are 2 points, so three airboats is an awkward number.)

Here's the first two airboats, both painted now. Fun fact: if you play Magic: the Gathering, and are familiar with the card Rishadan Airship, the paint scheme on the left airboat might look familiar. This is not a coincidence.

Also, building these reminded me of a Poul Anderson short story called The Sky People, about post-apocalyptic aero-vikings from Colorado. A HotT army list for them would probably look something like this:

4 Airboats @ 3 AP each (Primitive hydrogen blimps.)

6 Warbands @ 2 AP each (Paratroopers armed with swords, axes, bows, and ceramic-tipped spears.) 

The general could be either one, I guess.

In the meantime, I just need to get some bases put on these guys and maybe I can turn around my current losing streak...