Call to Arms: The Fyreslayers

For June, July and August, the fine folks at my favourite hobby store, Black Knight Games, are hosting a new Call to Arms painting challenge for the Games Workshop miniature game, Age of Sigmar.

I've always loved dwarves, but strangely I've never collected a dwarf army for Warhammer.

The Fyreslayer army caught my eye. and so I immediately ran out and purchased an army of one hundred Fyreslayer dwarves (and two giant flamey lizards!) to paint.

Tray 'o dwarves

I dug around the intertubes and did some research and tried to come up with a colour scheme that felt different. Standard Fyreslayers look very Spartan-like, and while I like those colours, they were too much like my recent Khorne Bloodbound army.

A sample of my Bloudbound army

I wanted a paint scheme that captured the forge-born aspect of the Fyreslayers, and especially their use of glowing-hot magical runes.

Then it hit me...

Fire Giants!

If I painted my little fire dwarves like fire giants, they'd not only have a distinctive look, but they'd be ironic, in a fantasy sort of way.

So here's my first, test model...

He has dark, almost black skin, with blazing hot runes hammered into it, combined with a beard and plume of flame! I think the lava base also adds to his distinctive look, and really sells the 'heat'.

I'm pretty stoked!

*cough*

Only 99 more to go...

Pirates Part II: Ships fit to See!

Following my success painting up my swaggering and swashing band of miniature pirates, I now present my first two 28mm ship models - the Lochinvar, and the Alert!

The Lochinvar

The Alert

These models are modified kits from Flagship Games and Scale Creep Miniatures. Like my pirate figures, they have languished unloved in a box for twenty years.

The Lochinvar is a sloop, rigged with a square sail. It is armed with four light cannon. The name Lochinvar has deep personal meaning to me; It's the name of my family's first sailboat, which was named after our beloved West Highland White terrier Lochy.

The Alert is a gun ship, with fore and aft rigged sail. It's armed with light cannon and swivel guns. The name comes from a ship in one of my favourite stories - The Call of Cthulhu.

As you can see in this picture below from the Scale Creep website, the rigging included in these model kits is very basic. It's simply a mast, a spar, and two screw eye hooks to mount them.

I added much more detail by using a technique I found while surfing the internet. By using screw eyes, elastic thread and lobster clips (like you find on a necklace), I was able to create removable rigging. 

This setup allows me to simulate battle damage during games and, perhaps even more importantly, lets me store the ships without risk of snapping off a mast! I can even swap out different sails, to show rigging changes during a game.

The Lochinvar at half-sail

For the sails themselves I replaced the standard paper ones with thin sheets of foam. This gives the sail more strength, and more definition. Each sail is attached with jump rings, available from craft stores.

Lobster clips, screw eyes and jump rings

I'm very pleased with how these two small boats turned out. I am hoping to play a few little battles soon... Pictures to follow! 

Avast!

Pirates!

...and we're back!

It's been quiet here for quite some time, but have no fear, faithful friends. The Sinclair Memorial Home for Incurable Tyrants (and Kings) has been ever busy! A new Tyranid army, a new Khorne Bloodbound army, and a pile of The Walking Dead miniatures are just some of the projects I've worked on recently.

To herald my return to this blog, though, I present to you a freshly painted pile of pirates! These are Foundry miniatures that have been hiding in my closet for two decades.

Like many, I've long had an interest in pirates, and those who know me know if I'm interested in something I almost always try to find a way to turn it into a miniature painting project.

I actually own three different miniature rules for pirate-themed battles; Pirates! By Flagship Games, Legends of the High Seas by Black Library, and Blood & Plunder by Firelock Games. I also own a copy of the 7th Sea role-playing game, so I have lots of different ways to game with these ruffians.

I have yet to play any of these systems, but I'm looking forward to trying them out. Pirates! has more of a fantasy feel to it, and Legends and B&P are more historically focused.

I rebased these Foundry figures onto standard 25mm round bases, and used a plasticard sheet to simulate a wooden deck. I think it turned out okay, but I'm a little worried my chosen colour-scheme makes it look like they're standing on fudge-striped cookies.

These ladies above are from Eureka miniatures. I bought these to add female character options if I get around to playing my copy of 7th Sea. 

Painting a rag-tag group of figures like pirates is a challenge. It easy to slap a bunch of colours on some figures, but it's really hard to make them look like a cohesive force. You want to highlight their individuality, but you also need them to look like a unified force.

My solution to this challenge was to use a limited colour palate, especially red, blue, yellow and green. Using the same shades of these colours on all these figures creates a subtle visual link that binds them as a force.

I hope you like these swashbucklers, and are thirsty for more from the S.M.H.I.T. I have lots more to show you... Next up I have four different 28mm-scale resin pirate ships to build and paint!

Yarr!

paints used

Viking blue
Spaceship exterior
Abomination gore
Commando green
Daemonic yellow
Necromancer cloak
Gun metal
Greedy gold
Dirt spatter
Skeleton bone
Leather brown
Desert yellow