Ral Partha 25mm E641/EW641 Goblin wolf riders of the night with axe

I bought these in my very early Roleplaying days on one of my first visits to GW Hammersmith, back when it was the only shop in the chain (1978). The wolves were painted back then, and I recently dug out the riders and finished them off.

Citadel 28mm Beast of Slaanesh

We can't be having half painted models lying around chez Greblord, oh no. So here's another one completed.

Xyston 15mm Late Spartan Greek army WIP06 - Spartan cavalry

The final batch of cavalry for the army, and my mounted commanders/generals.

As before, here are some close ups, but they're not really painted for such close scrutiny...

You may have noticed that the commanders are on sabots. These were made for me by the helpful chaps at Warbases.

28mm Spartan Greek army WIP03 - Cavalry finished, other news

With so many projects on the go, things get done in bits here and there. I've been experimenting with NMM on a commission miniature for a friend, and I thought I'd give it a go on some older miniatures to see if it helped. Well, I think it has, I have finished some mercenary medium cavalry - you can see it on the commander's breastplate

These are ancient minifigs miniatures, I think the middle one is supposed to be Alexander, but he'll do as a leader figure for now.

I've also been playing with some different basing gels

The crackle paste gives a nice dry and cracked ground effect, I think I'll have to mix it up a bit for the best effect though. Here's a tester on the front of some hoplites;

More on those soon

Also on the table, some WIP Vendel hoplites

...and the Jason and the Argonauts figures are making slow progress

A couple of old citadel Runequest hoplites have joined them too.

More soon.

Xyston 15mm later Spartan Greek army WIP03 - Basing

For basing, I have pre-cut MDF sized for Impetus from Warbases.co.uk. I use GOLDEN texture gels for easy, ready-mixed goodness. For this project, I'll be using their 'clear granules' which has worked well on my 15mm Laserburn miniatures.

This shot shows the just-applied gel. Very white at the moment.

These are custom made sabots that I'll be using for my command group. The size is standard for a cavalry unit, but has six slots for oval sabots. As I'm only filling three of the slots at the moment, I've made three blank sabots too.

Also from Warbases, a nice 15mm bridge. I've applied some gel to cover the joins from the construction process.

Here you can see how the gel dries - mainly clear, but some of the denser areas remain white. No worries though, it will all get covered up with the paint and suchlike.

Finally for this instalment, I've given them an all-over wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink (also called 'Smoke' in other incarnations. This is a lovely pigment-rich chocolate brown. I've also added some slate chips for rocky outcrops, salvaged from a planter in town >:)

In the next update, I'll show the drybrush layers and their cumulative effects. Those riders might get on their horses too...

Xyston 15mm later Spartan Greek army WIP02

Some more on this project.

Today I drilled all the hands on the cavalry, and made a start on their weapons. I also started on the basing.

Cretan Mercenary Archers, two units

Horses from one of the cavalry units

The spears are Xyston's 50mm leaf-tipped ones. Looking at the length of the Dory, they would seem to be way too long, as they're supposed to be 7-9'. For 15mm (though more like 18mm with scale creep), that makes them pikes. I'm going to cut them all in half, which on reflection I should have done before I painted a load of them.

Painting spears.

For painting, I found some expanded polystyrene, and stuck the points in for painting, which made the job a lot easier.

Citadel 28mm ME23 Rohirrim (Mounted)

Again from the excellent pre-slotta Lord of the Rings range comes this fine Knight of the Rohirrim, on a pale steed.

Citadel 28mm ME63 Lord of the Nazgûl (Mounted)

Black is so dreary, and the undead are bored with it. Here, the Lord of the Nazgûl shows allegiance to his dark master with a crimson eye-laden tabard for the horse. This miniature, along with others from the range, lived in the figure cabinets of GW Sheffield and GW Hammersmith for a time.