Fantasy response to the Covid blues and some Spahi!

 We've not even made it to the end of a week of a snap lockdown when another two weeks have been announced. Great. 

On the plus side it does give me an opportunity to catch up on some of the things I've actually enjoyed since the last posting back in June(!) The first of these is a bit of an unusual commission for a mate with a horde of Game of Throne figures. Not sure of the make - I think think they might have come with a set of rules or game based on GoT. No matter - they are very nice sculpts and good quality HD plastic 30mm 'heroic' scale figures. The first lot I did were House Bolton Blackguard with a Dread Tower officer, champion and an appropriately gruesome 'Flayed Man' House Bolton banner. 

Happy with the result I then got stuck into the other R'Lhor militia types with their mysterious red 'Lord of Light' fire god priests from Mereen. This was a bit more of a challenge, particularly the priests with the figures reflecting their manifestation of fire etc. And all in red too! For the militia types I though more Robin Hood and his merry men hiding in the woods would look appropriate. 

 I have to say this came as a surprise to my mate Peter who had the R'Lhor(?) flaming sword, woodsmen types and priests (the male I'm told was just a Mereen noble figure - but he looks more the part as a priest!) and left it to me to come up with something.  The R'Lhor flaming heart symbol on the bannerman pretty much decided the choice. I'm also told the bloke with the eye-patch is NOT their frequently resurrected knight leader just some random - well not anymore with his remaining 'good eye' fixed on the curvaceous Red Priestess! Great balls of fire! (as someone once said). Enough of this frivolity!

While we're on a fantasy jag I finally decided to sell my Lord of the Rings armies collected (and painted) nearly twenty (!) years ago! 

Originally collected for my youngest (now in his twenties!) who showed no interest at all in them, they have at least gone to a good home and better yet, have seen plenty of action on a weekend with a mate's teen son and his friends. Hundreds of LotR figures with trolls and Rohim etc etc. Great stuff! 

'Bam Bam' the Troll

There are of course plenty of terrifying Uruk Hai and Warg riders as well as the usual orcs. All the figures are those sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry for the LotR franchise after Peter Jackson's films. 

Dismounted Witch King - so where's me bleedin' Nazgul then!?!

 Naturally my 'real' work has continued apace and I'm getting ever closer to complete sets of protagonist units for the WWII 1941 Syria and Lebanon campaign. The latest included my completion of some US Askari figures - mounted North African Spahi. While the horses aren't the greatest sculpts the figures themselves are quite OK. More importantly they fill a niche - having every type of colonial type figure imaginable AND very reasonably priced. I have to also give a shout out to their service as the figures arrived in Australia from Colorado USA in about three weeks - a record for the usually expensive and glacially slow US Postal Service! So - well done and thanks Askari!

Coming both mounted and dismounted, led by French officers (all FFL figures) I've done them in their 'campaign' dress rather than the traditional rather bright colours. They could also be Circassians as the French had some 5,000(!) of these 'native' colonial cavalry both mounted and in trucks. Ironically the Circassians were one of the very few (and not even all of them) defecting to the Allied side. They work well I think and a perfect opposition to my British Yeomanry. The next unit I want is the Vichy version of the FFL - so all in kepi/Adrian helmet and no Brit kit! - and a Rubicon Renault R35 light tank. But having just ordered an ANZAC Model T Ford scout from Empress I may have to wait until my finances recover and/or another painting commission rolls in!

Milestone passed - and a big thanks from Doc's 'Art of War'

It slipped by unnoticed a few days ago but Doc's 'Art of War' blog just passed a blogging milestone of sorts.  Since October 2009, some 99 posts later, this blog passed the 40,000 hits mark! Yaaaay!

So as Old Mate Karl says, a big 'thank you' to all of you who have visited this blog and particularly those who have taken the time to make such generous comments on it. 

This blog has been an eclectic mix of militaria from many periods ranging from the Renaissance to WWII and even fantasy including Warhammer and LOTR, both artwork and figures, models and wargaming - with the odd bit of military history thrown in from time to time. It reflects my own reasonably diverse interests and is, of course, entirely self-indulgent!

Needless to say the discovery of blogging has been somewhat of a revelation and has proven to be a tremendous avenue of release for creativity - all constantly inspired by the brilliant efforts of my fellow blogging enthusiasts!

I am constantly amazed at the quality and artistic creativity of my fellow enthusiasts and have learned so much from so many of you - so thanks again to all for supporting my own very modest efforts.

At the end of the day its great therapy.  I've found that later in life, when one does mad things like finishing a university degree near the end of one's career while at the same time juggling work and a large and busy family, to retain sanity  some indulgence is called for.

Blogging Doc's 'Art of War' fits the bill nicely!

Hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have, I look forward to the next 100 posts/40,000 hits!

Cheers,
           Doc

Some more LOTR - its troll hammer-time!

I realised with my last post that I may have mentioned 'humungous troll' quite a few times and claimed he was worth at least three normal figures.  Actually, considering you have to build him, bog him (and no, its not troll toilet training!) before painting - he's taken more time than three normal figures.  In fact I spent as much time on him as at least a dozen LOTR 28mm figures.

While I am not into fantasy figures that much I must admit they can be great to paint.  I had to mix my own troll blue flesh colour and used a number of washes, then blended it into the off-white flesh.  The eyes too are a nice glowing cat's yellow - I paused the first movie quite a few times to get a good look at the troll's eyes so I could get it right!

To prove the point, here is Mr. Troll.  A few pics of him being mercilessly teased by some nasty Minis Tirith tin-plated bullies, poor old troll.

Hey baldy!

GRRRR - stop teasing you guys!

 

'Dude, that chain is lame - soooo Seventies y'know?'

GRRR - that's it - HAMMER TIME!!!

 

A 'bullies-eye' view or  "methinks we have soiled our chainmail!"

Sorry, no Rohan either - perhaps another time.

 Cheers,
           Doc

The end of 2009: odds & sods & painting stats

Visiting Vinnie's site (Lonely Gamers ) I looked up that for a former partner in Elite Australia, Scott Robertson (wab-ramblings (click on photos for better view) and noticed that he was/is into Lord of the Rings figures.  Like Scott I also grew up with Tolkien and was besotted with Peter Jackson's amazing movies and the Perry brothers LOTR figures - they actually came out to NZ and visited Jackson while the movie was being made.  The Perry's also designed an amazing range of WWI figures for the Gallipoli campaign for Jackson, who is also a big military history enthusiast - you can see them on the Perry's site - pity in a way they weren't for commercial release - BUT I digress!

I remembered when tallying my painting stats for 2009 all the LOTR figures I collected and painted for my youngest who was a mad LOTR enthusiast (alas its now just AFL football but that's 11 year olds for you - I've still got the LOTR armies!)  My stats for 2009 are looking a whole lot better with these taken into calculation!  Here are a few shots of the them - Saruman and his Uruk-hai and Gandalf and the goodies including the Hobbits, Aragorn, Legolas and Boromir  but no Gimli the dwarf king - he was impossible to collect!

Saruman and his bad lads - and a bit of an elf

and the good guys - they're great figures to paint - Gandalf was a real challenge 

I also painted up a humungous cave troll which I really enjoyed doing as well as hordes of orcs, Warg riders and the beautifully sculpted Riders of Rohan.  So without further ado, ahem...   the painting stats for 2009:

25mm TYW 

Two regiments of Pike & Shot (Foundry) 

1 artillery battery (German mercs with Polish cmdr) - 2 guns

1 regt dismounted dragoons

1 regt Spanish lancers

2 x command vignettes (3 mtd figures)

Total: 102 foot, 15 mounted, 2 guns

25mm Napoleonic

1 Bde of 5 bttns of Line (Perrys)

1 Regt Guard of 3 bttns (Perrys)

1 mtd General of Division (Perrys)

1 bttn of Italians (Victrix)

1 Regt Russian Line (Elite)

1 Baden Regt of 3 bttns (Foundry) + 1 mtd cmdr

1 Regt Cossacks + 2 mtd cmdrs (Platov & Bagration) (Front Rank)

1 Regt Bavarian Chev-leger (Foundry)

1 Regt Baden Chev-leger (Front Rank)

1 French Horse arty battery - 4 guns & 1 limber (Elite & Old Glory)

1 bavarian Foot battery- 3 guns  (Foundry)

Total: 200 foot, 37 mounted, 7 guns & 1 limber


25mm Franco-Prussian War

1 Regt Kuirassier (Foundry)
1 Regt Uhlans (Foundry & Castaway)
1 Regt French Line (Castaway) + 1 mtd cmdr (Foundry)

Total: 24 foot, 21 mounted

25mm LOTR

13 mtd Rohan

60 foot Rohan, Boromir's lads

6 Gandalf & co (incl hobbits)

6 Warg riders

1 humungous troll (counts as three!)

20 Orcs

36 Uruk Hai

4 Saruman, Uruk-hai & orc cmdrs

Total: 126 foot, 19 mounted & 1 humungous troll

So, the grand total for 2009:

452 foot, 92 mounted, 9 guns, 1 limber & 1 humungous troll!

Best of all - no commission work - all for me (oh, and my youngest son of course!)

So, I'm thinking not too shabby with a full-time job and finishing a uni degree AND 'home duties' (as directed!).  We'll see what we can do for 2010 - should be even more productive after I've finished uni.


Oh, and I know I was supposed to post the finished Italians, but there's been a hold-up in production - the home duties I mentioned previously (here the theory that some holidays are actually unpaid labour comes into play).

Cheers,

            Doc