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!