This blog has moved

 I've moved this blog to a different platform and it is now at https://grumdalf.co.uk/. I hope to see you there :)

In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie

In August my son and I had a jaunt up to Warhammer World to play some Middle Earth Strategy Game, gawp at the exhibition and gasp at GW's prices for Middle Earth minis. I've got a few unpainted dwarf miniatures lying around but I've never got around to finishing them off as a planned Khazad Dûm army. I had to do something fast, so I grabbed a Mordor Battlehost from my local game shop (Dice Saloon in Brighton) and got busy. Approximately 4 days later I had finished and they were ready to give Minas Tirith a good kicking. I went full slap-chop (orc-chop?) with black undercoat, frantic dry-brushing and contrast paint over the top. I chose Mordor precisely because they would be relatively fast to paint. And here they are below.

Goblins and hoplites? Of course it's canon

 

 Well here we go. The mustering of the Oathmark / Oldhammer goblin army is almost complete. I'm 5 archers and 5 spearman short of a full starting compliment. Of course, I could do with mote cavalry, and a light catapult (or two). I could also do with some orc soldiers to provide some meat in this sandwich. In the meantime, my goblin general (king?) has taken advantage of a phalanx sized hole in the time / space continuum to recruit 20 Athenian hoplites. Oathmark will allow for mixed raced armies, but I am wondering if the hoplites will struggle thematically. At the moment they are staying put and looking forward to a fight,

Above is my Senior Management Team. A mixture of old Essex scaly orcs and Northstar's goblin king and champions. One or two of the champions may head over to the other units to act as officers. I've had the scaly orcs for years and have only just painted them. One of them needed fitting with a plastic axe from the box of bits.

I'm mostly going down the slap-chop route for this army. A black or dark grey undercoat followed by lighter grey dry-brushing and contrast paints over the top. I'm still finding my way with it but it's definitely helping me finish stuff at a decent rate. Even if I spent a lot more time on these minis, I doubt if the level of painted finesse would increase much. I'm mostly happy with that.

Above are the Athenian armoured hoplites. I painted them in the lockdown of 2020 in the vague hope of playing some Hail Caesar or 9th Age with them. They're all from Wargames foundry and I really loved painting them and making the spears out of steel pins. I have to say, when dealing with any kind of spearmen (or women0 (or goblin), I much prefer them to be it 'at arms' pose, as it makes it so much easier to get them all into rank and file,

Having Athena's chosen men in your army is all fine and dandy, but this is a goblin outfit, and so above we have 20 goblin soldiers with hand weapons. They're a mixture of old, old Lone Wolf giaks bought over the years from eBay and some recent purchases from Hasselfree. There's also a 'Norman' goblin at the front (another eBay buy), and a couple of Hinchliffe goblins from Broadsword Miniatures. So an eclectic bunch, and I think that suits the goblin way. The Hasslefree boys are all at the back, but I'll post better images of them once they are painted. I really like them, as you get a good variety of poses from the selection of bodies and arms. They are noticeably smaller than the other minis, and I think they are the 'perfect' goblin look and size, They feel like they're out of Jimmy Cauty's poster for Lord of the Rings.

Onwards! Below you will find 2 units of goblin spear slingers. One is made up of 10 of the Hasselfree multi-part goblins, the other is a mixture of Broadsword Miniature's Hinchliffe goblins and some bought from Dragon Claw during lockdown. I do like the Dragon Claw gobbos, but I do find them very big in head and beam. I suppose I could call them orcs, but they're not really big enough for that. I may add some Warmonger goblins to the mix and see how it all looks. As much as I love the Hasslefree minis (and I do love them), I did find them tricky to fit all of them into the movement tray, because of the spears and poses. I found myself wishing them to be 'at arms' (or whatever goblins call it) poses, like my sensible Athenians.

So my core troops are very nearly all collected, and I'm looking forward to getting down to painting. I've based everyone on 20mm square mdf bases to slot into 5 x 4 or 5 x 2 movement trays from Sarissa Precision. I know Oathmark requires core infantry to be on 25mm x 25mm bases, but I had a load of 20mm to use up and I hope opponents won't care enough about the. Also, the movement trays I'm using have a frame, which should help with any mismatching.

Meanwhile, below are 5 goblin wolf riders from the aforementioned Broadsword Miniatures. These are new casts from Hinchliffe moulds, and they are a very fine set of wolves and riders.

And next we have 5 archers from Dragon Claw. I really think they are great minis but also a little too large for my taste. I may complete the unit with some goblins from Warmonger to mix it up a bit.

And finally, below is Dull Greta, my goblin spell slinger. She doesn't carry a staff because the horn protruding from the top of her head does all the magical heavy lifting. I don't know why she's known as "Dull" Greta, as she's looking splendidly saturated in the picture.

That's all for now. There's always an element of shouting into the void when starting a blog, but hopefully you, dear reader, will like this enough to subscribe or comment.

Cheers!

A wizard is never late

 

Keeping a blog to record my secret life as a middling miniature hobbyist is a bit of a self indulgence, but I seem to be in good company.

I did start this blog sometime ago to go with my Instagram profile, but I've deleted the old posts to concentrate on what I really like doing best, which is painting METAL miniatures to a middling tabletop standard. This isn't some desperate attempt at false modesty, I know my limits. I'm in my mid-fifties and so my growing nostalgia for old Citadel minis is matched only by the decline of my eyesight. I do my best with what I have. I also spend a lot of time on eBay searching for 'pre slotta'.

So what's next? I'm currently in the middle of building a nd painting a small-ish Goblin army for Oathmark. Once they're in the bag I'll build and paint a dwarf army. Grumdalf, pictured will be the dwarf's battle mage. He does look pleased by the prospect.

What else? I've just ordered The Silver Bayonet rules and will get side-tracked by that no doubt. I'm on a Joseph A McCollough trajectory at the moment. For those who are interested, my Grumdalf mini is "Grimdalf" from Hasselfree.