Jumping the Queue + Hobby plans for 2018

Wow. Real life has really been kicking my arse recently. Work is crazy busy and I'm going to have to have another operation in the not too distant future so will be out of action again. Not the start to 2018 I had in mind...

Hobby time has shrunk to nearly nothing since the end of November (although thankfully I have still been able to run a couple of games of D&D) and all of my projects from the end of last year remain unfinished on my painting table.

Worse than that, I found myself without much painting mojo over the festive period and well into the new year, only barely managing to make the deadline for the Tale of Middlehammer Gamers December speed painting challenge, and running late with my Dwarfcember project, Ungrim Ironfist the Slayer King!

And here is below leading a nice big unit of Slayers. Come and have a go if you think you are hard enough and have no regard for your kneecaps!

With Russ taking a well earned break I found myself in charge of the monthly painting challenge again but shamelessly stole the "Jump The Queue" idea (paint a model you have only just bought/been given for Christmas rather than all those things you should be painting!) from his list as it seemed like a good antidote to more traditional 'start as you mean to go on' new years resolution type themes...

And yet I was still struggling! I should be painting any number of things: Tom Meier Zombie Dragon (unfinished Deadcember project), Necromunda minis to complete my Rogue Quest project (these were started Spring/Summer 2017 and ignored since), an Orc Trader (a UK Games Expo limited edition piece - which has had tiny amounts of paint applied on numerous occassions in completely impractical order, based solely on when I had left over colour mixed up that I thought might work on his numerous packages and parcels, resulting in a mess that hasn't been touched in months), Malifaux Neverborn reinforcements (a gift from a friend and at least 10 months since undercoating with only minimal work on basing), various assorted Alternative Armies and other sci-fi figs for my Star Bastards project (a November project not even started) - all projects worthy of attention, and if I couldn't find my mojo with these what was I going to surplant them with!?

In the end real life kicked me while I was down and I decided that what I needed was some soothing/mindless batch painting so settled on the regiment of Skinks which I had been planning as my Slannuary project anyway. However I had a nagging feeling that this didn't really count as jumping the queue so much as reordering it, and it was telling that they still remained untouched on my painting table as the month progressed.

But then one of my D&D group gave me a promo figure from the Walking Dead board game, which he picked up at UKGE 2017 and at last I had a proper contender to jump the queue! My mojo returned almost immediately and I braved the arctic temperatures the very next morning to rescue a can of black spray paint and nestle it under my armpit until it came up to a useable temp.

She immediately suggested herself as a Zombie Escher ganger, the perfect complement to the three non-Zombie Eschers I painted back in the Summer as part of my Rogue Quest project. Here she is trying to eat her former gang-sisters' brains.

As is so often the case, the painting challenge led to me applying more paint to lead and I also finished up a Zombie Bounty Hunter and a Sci-Fi Necromancer to finally complete the story and hence the project, but I really needed that extra little kick in the mojo provided by being allowed to jump the queue in January.

Since then I have definitely picked up the pace a bit and have painted the whole unit of Skinks that I had long planned as my Slannuary 2018 project, plus a couple of vintage hunks of lead in the shape of a C22 Amphisbaena and B'rkath from the Runequest Demons set (who I always thought was an Oldhammer 'pathetic aesthetic' style Werewolf until a knowledgeable member of the community helped me out with an ID) for the Middlehammer group's February challenge, which is being run this month by the incorrigible Bryan T and has seen some lovely entries including a couple of exquisite Night Horrors from Bill Rowbotham from EffCee painting. 

The Skinks are loosely inspired by blue and red poison arrow frogs, and the Amphisbaena is based on the colours of an albino Burmese python. I know it looks like I have just slapped some yellow paint over half an undercoated mini, but I assure you there were at least two more steps to this paint job!

B'rkath is grey because the one I already have painted is in brown and I wanted to be able to differentiate between my wimpy werewolves.

What the hell did I get up to last year, and how far off plan am I going to go in 2018!?

First of all, lets see how I did against the Hobby Ambitions I set at the beginning of last year, and update them for 2018.


1. Add at least 2000 points spread across both my High Elf and Orc and Goblin armies by the end of the year. Sadly I only managed a total of 1245 pts across both armies, which breaks down as follows (pts calculated as per WFB4/5 with equipment as I played them):

High Elves: Prince Tyrion (425), 4 Archers (52), Silver Helm Standard Bearer (86) = 563 pts

Orcs and Goblins: Orc Warboss (110), Goblin Warboss (50), 4 Fanatics (120), 1 Ogre (40), Goblin Standards x 2 (12), Musician x1 (6), Spearmen x 33 (99), 4 Orc Archers (30), Orc Standard Bearer (15), Manticore (200) = 682 pts
 
I still have a fair way to go with both lead piles, (especially as I have just purchased more Middlehammer goodness for both armies this very week) and definitely want to add more options to my tournament forces so this resolution stays at #1 for 2018.


2. Finish the main Rogue Quest Project and any associated side projects currently planned.
Well, I just barely missed this as I finished the last of the main characters last year and my Sci Fi undead minis from January completed the project, although the last blog posts remain unfinished so I still can't call this one done.

I'm going to replace it for 2018 with a resolution to finish my Bad Moon kill team (which is more like a small clan already, and will form a major part of my 40k Greenskin Horde) for Shadow War Armageddon, which includes the awesome Crom "Fat Belly" from Knightmare Miniatures which I cannot wait to paint up for use as a Super Gretchin - But! I'm only going to do that once I finish off the Rogue Quest blog posts :)
INSERT PIC OF CROM
 
3. Complete an all metal (or primarily metal) conversion. 

"This should involve actually cutting into lead! Drilling and pinning, and filling with green stuff. All things which any hobbyist worth their salt should be proficient in, and which I've never had a huge amount of success with, prior to a half a decent fix on a broken Trolls leg earlier this year. I'm reasonably confident, though not very skilled with converting plastic, but working with metal will be pushing my modelling skills."


4. Collect, convert, and paint my first Frostgrave War band.

Hmmmm.... This was already a carry over from 2016. What was it I said last year?

"This ambition stays as it is, with one amendment - NO MORE COLLECTING - the war band has to be assembled from the minis I already own. Apart from the replacement set of FG Soldiers. Obvs."

FAIL! I have no Frostgrave Warband with beautiful winter themed bases, but I do have more lead in the 'Potentially good for Frostgrave' sub category of the lead pile...

I'm replacing this one with something more productive - Running the 2018 Middlehammer Legacy Project, which looks like it is going to involve a bunch of us co-creating a fantasy warband themed around Middenheim, City of the White Wolf. So obvious similarities, the chance to possibly use some of the 'Potentially good for Frostgrave' lead I have acquired over the last year or so, but I'll only have to paint one figure myself.

5. Sell or trade more minis, games, and rule books.Well, I certainly acquired more minis through trade (including a successful UK to Norway Jes Goodwin Ogre exchange), but mostly I just bought more minis. That counts right?

NO! No it bloody doesn't! I'm surrounded by piles and piles of bloody rule books in particular, including hardback copies of later editions of 40k that I really dislike and have no intention of reading. If there are no more blog posts this year the chances are I was crushed to death by the wobbling towers of grimdark math-hammer. They are bloody heavy!

This one stays, and I'm going to count it completed next year on the sole proviso that I have one way or another shifted enough duplicate and unwanted rule books that I no longer fear for my safety when sat in my office.

So what did I get done?

Loads actually! I painted at least another hundred models this year (although still not keeping a completely accurate count - doh!) including a fair few not seen on this blog because I'm keeping them secret from the prying eyes of my D&D group; got more involved than ever with helping run the Middlehammer facebook group and got to know a great bunch of chaps in the process; ran the first annual (hopefully!) Middlehammer Legacy Project - which has to be one of my highlights of the last few years; completed my modular Snotling diorama for Da Great Snot Off!; taken part in all the Middlehammer monthly painting challenges and met another bunch of good eggs through the High Elves Anonymous support group :)

Another mini painted in 2017 - Teddy from Malifaux, in the style of vicious bastard Care Bear

But most of all I've played loads of games! Monthly D&D sessions (played with 95% painted Old/Middlehammer era minis) have been joined by a couple of games of Shadow War, a few more of Star Wars: Imperial Assault and X-Wing, and a raucous run at the opening act of the Oldenhaller Contract in WFRP. Brilliantly I've also played more Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the last year than I have in all the years combined since 1994/95! Highlights have included meeting fellow Middlehammerers to test rules for the tournament planned for this summer; carrying on the Crisis in Caledor campaign from last year with AVP Shaun; and introducing a friend to the game and helping her collect her first army (Dark Elves). The only downside is how far behind on all the blog posts I am.

2018 certainly holds lots to look forward to hobby wise - I just hope I can keep up with the posts otherwise my regular readership of Russian Bot-Nets will be disappointed. And we can't have that, can we!

Tale of Middlehammer Gamers: November Character Painting Challenge

Poster courtesy of Middlehammer's own Russ Painting

Hi all! Cutting it very close to the wire with this post - despite having finished painting half way through the month. A nasty attack of Real Life has once again set in and it has taken me this long to get the blinking blog post finished!

Anyway, November's theme for the Tale of Middlehammer Gamers challenge was painting single miniatures to the best of our ability, either characters, command, or monsters. As an added bonus for those of us who have been participating in the Middlehamer group's regular monthly challenges, Diego Serrate from Knightmare Games offered the chance to claim a free mini from a selection his various ranges! Wow! Who could pass that up!? 

I already knew I would be painting up Azhag the Slaughterer and the saddle/banner combo to go with the Wyvern I had previously painted as he was needed ASAP to face Ben's High Elves in the Bloodbath at Nappa Valley (part two), so it was going to be another month of Greenskins.

My Gobbos were in need of a General so I jumped at the chance to get my hands on the Goblin Commander, sculpted by the Goblin Master himself, Kev Adams, for the Greenskin Wars range.

And as this was a Middlehammer painting challenge and these greenskins were going to not just fit in with, but lead my Orc and Goblin hordes that were largely painted in the mid 90's by teen aged me, there was going to be a lot of RED!

See, told you there would be a lot of red!

You can see a work in progress shot above and as I have said to a couple of people, I regret not taking the highlighting any further than straight Blood Red before applying the Chestnut Wash. I was wary of making them stand out too much from the rest of my horde, but should have been bolder.

I know the red period gets a bit of a bashing, and is not to everyone's taste, but I wasn't just painting them red for some faux sense of nostalgic contrariness - I actually had a specific look in mind when I started painting the armour that wasn't from the pages of White Dwarf circa 1994. I wanted the armour to have the dull red glaze of the Goblin Knight from Labyrinth and one of my friends was actually kind enough to reference exactly what I had in mind when I showed him so I'm happy enough overall :)

Goblin Knight by Toby Froud

The Wyvern was a pre-existing paint job, having been one of my first purchases when getting involved with the Oldhammer scene a few years back with the initial specific purpose of having a starring role in my D&D campaign, but now I needed to attach the banner pole, saddle, and harness. Problem was the harness wouldn't fit on over the horns of the head, and that sucker was stuck on by the previous owner with something serious! So, sadly I had to cut a section out of the side of the harness and then reattach once it was in place. The join is a bit ugly, but I think I got away with it.

Azhag could definitely have been taken a lot further, but I was aiming for a strong colour scheme that tied in with the red and yellow accent colours of the rest of the army, rounded off with the leather and chain that is common in the ranks also to tie the characters back to the troops that they lead. I'm not happy with the yellow detailing on the sword, although regret not making the detailing on the axe yellow too. I also regret not making his chain mail rusty, although the shiny armour does fit the red period aesthetic. I'm pretty happy with the crown and the green gems however. I just wish I could take a decent bloody photo!

Once assembled however some of the short comings of the paint job fade a bit and it certainly makes for an impressive centrepiece of my 4th/5th Edition Orc and Goblin army. Painting him knowing he was going to be used in battle soon was a great motivator and seeing him line up next to his troops in a fully painted army made my inner 14 year old very proud :)

The Goblin Commander was great fun to paint and felt completely natural alongside Azhag, almost like a mini me in some ways. I used the same technique on the red armour (and the same mistake of not taking the highlighting further) and the same treatment of Tin Bitz, Shining Gold, Golden Griffin (Dry) and then Army Painter Green tone on the gold skull helm and banding on the horns.

I took the green skin only a little lighter than I did for Azhag, and a lot less than for any of my other Goblins. That was deliberate to indicate his age and gnarlyness, which is already so evident in the classic Kev Adams goblin face, complete with warts. I did want him to stick out a bit more from Azhag though, so I gave him a dirty white fur cloak rather than the brown I originally had planned, and I think that gives better contrast.

Well, there you go - not my finest work but if it hadn't been for the painting challenge and the motivation of actual Warhammer games this month, I don't think I would have got round to painting anything!
 
A big thank you once again to Diego from Knightmare Games for his very generous support of the group, to Russ for organising the give away and the monthly painting challenge, and to everyone else in the Middlehammer group who is taking part for providing a constant stream of motivation and inspiration!

I did have plans to paint a Dwarf Slayer King as part of this month's challenge too, but maybe that will have to be a project for Dwarfcember, alongside my Deadcember Zombie Dragon? Stay tuned to find out if I manage it!

Tale of Middlehammer Gamers: Orctober 2017!

Credit to Russ T Painting for the lovely monthly challenge posters!

Howdy folks!

So, the theme of the Tale of Middlehammer Gamers (ToMG) painting challenge for Orctober has been basing. I thought this was a great idea from Russ in terms of helping people keep up productivity and actually get armies fully table top ready. Improving my basing has been something I have been working on (having previously only painted my bases, and often not even bothering to fill in the gaps in slotta bases!), so following on from the success of my project for Da Great Snot Off! I was full of enthusiasm for this one!

I pledged to paint from scratch/re-touch and then base up:

4 Orks/Gretchin for Shadow War Armageddon
3 Ogre Mercenaries (2 existing paint jobs needing rebasing)
4 Assorted Oldhammer Orcs
6 Assorted Old/Middlehammer Goblins
3 Goblin Fanatics
1 Blood Bowl Goblin star player (proxy Goblin Fantatic)
Azhag the Slaughterer's Wyvern (existing paint job needing basing)

I then added two more Blood Bowl Goblin-Proxy Fanatics with existing paint jobs that needed rebasing right at the end... sheesh, that was a lot of basing!

Sorry/Not sorry

Below you can see (almost) my total output for the fantasy side of the Orctober challenge. I also did some Red Period style 40k Orks for Shadow War: Armageddon, which you can see here.

I must apologise for the quality of the photos in this post - for some reason pictures that seemed to display fine on my phone have come out really blurry when uploaded. I'm edging closer and closer to biting the bullet and buying myself a decent digital camera, proving once again that this hobby gets expensive in so many different ways!

First up are three Mercenary Ogres. Two are Blood Bowl Ogres that I had painted quite some time ago and have just been rebased as part of this challenge. The one with the massive sword is a Tim Prow sculpt available for a bargain price from RPE at the time of writing. He's a little shorter than the others, but I like that as it makes Ogres seem more diverse as a race. The look is pure Oldhammer if you ask me. I wanted these guys table ready as I'm planning on including them in my O&G Middlehammer Fantasy tournament force* which is due for a practice outing in November.

*Interesting question here, which I have put to my fellow Middlehammer tournament buds already, but what is the minimum unit size for Ogres in 4th edition WFB? I'm sure I have seen units of three in photo shoots in old WDs for example, but when checking the O&G army book it doesn't have the same exemption as Trolls specifically do about having units of less than 5. But then, neither does the listing for Giants, also under the Units heading, yet we all know they don't have to come in units of five! Let me know your take on this in the comments! :)

In terms of basing these got the previously standard treatment of a base of thin Humbrol Acrylic Matt Green 88, followed by a thin wet brush of Citadel Snot Green, and then a final dry brush of Citadel Sunburst Yellow. It makes for a really vivid green, and is how the majority of my fantasy models have been flocked - but it is wasting my precious Citadel Snot Green, so these are probably the last that will get that version of the treatment.

Other basing components I try and keep consistent include the field stone, which is Citadel Shadow Grew, washed with black ink, then dry brushed with Shadow Grey again, and finally Elf Grey. Together with the bright red toadstools and sunburst yellow dry brush (which I always think looks like it might be tiny flowers mixed in the grass), this field stone treatment forms part of what I think of as the 'fantasy meadow' treatment. I know that sounds naff, but I like the idea of a wooded dell, or mountain top meadow being defiled by battling forces of Orcs and Elves etc... Bwahahahahaha!

The broken weapons and discarded shields and helmet are all from the ever useful Frostgrave Soldiers sprue and were added to emphasise the fearsome nature of the Ogres having caused their opponents to throw down their weapons and run!

As the month wore on and REAL LIFE began to take it's toll this challenge definitely became one of quantity over quality. For a while this was bugging me, and I can see loads of things that I could/should have done better when looking back over these photos. But as JB/Asslessman said in his excellent recent blog post on his entry for a 4 pot painting challenge: "Done is better than perfect." In that spirit I am really happy with my output this month as it has moved me closer to having a second tournament ready force for November.

Next up were some Goblins and Night Goblins. I have large blocks of 4th Ed monopose Gobbo Spears and Archers, but am still in need of more command figures to turn them into fully functioning units. Apologies as I forgot to take a picture of the reverse view, but you aren't missing much.

Basing wise I have swapped to using Coat D'Arms Goblin Green over the darker Humbrol green. This is less lurid than my preferred thinned down Snot Green formula, but is much more sustainable across a large force. Dry brushed with Coat D'Arms Putrid Green, these are now getting the same treatment as my 40k/SWA Space Orks, which is in turn my attempt to match my existing 2nd Ed Ork forces which were painted by a friend's uncle in the early 90s... So Anna B, in anticipation of your objection to the lack of Sunburst Yellow dry brush - it is still "auffentic Ork fashionz from da 90s, right!"

Next we have assorted Orcs; one of Harboth's archers (I think?) which was my second ever metal Oldhammer Orc archer and both have been really lovely models to paint; a member of the Man Mangler crew who, as I sadly don't have a Man Mangler (yet!) will have to do duty on a Skull Crusher instead, an Orc casualty who I have also come to think of as a member of the Skull Crusher crew (lying on his back trying to fix the winch mechanism like a mechanic?); and a Standard Bearer that had been damaged and needed some work. I got the chance to test my new pin vice and fixed in a good length of paper clip.

Basing wise they got the Coat D'Arms Goblin Green/Putrid Green treatment. A piece of loose field stone made sense for the Man Mangler crew, and the Archer and Standard Bearer both got toadstools made out of lentils - all to try and tie the new colour scheme back to that common landscape with the rest of my finished minis.

More apologies now as these photos are both blurred and contain duplicates of the chainsaw wielding loon, but you can see the same strong red and yellow accent colours that dominate my goblin forces are repeated, as are the basing elements of field stone and toadstools - I particularly like those elements for the fanatics, both to emphasise their fungus fuelled mania, and give them something to trip over.

Here you can see the two even more basic paint jobs on two other Blood Bowl Goblins I like to use as proxy fanatics, which I have rebased to fit in with the updated O&G forces.

I have a real penchant for using Blood Bowl minis in WFB as you can see with the two ogres above, and even in RT/40K as with this beast! But, only one of these proxy fanatics looks like a Night Goblin, which led me back to a point I have always wanted to argue - why do only Night Goblins get fanatics!? Yeah, I know it is to do with the special fungus brew etc. but if you think about it, Goblin Doom Divers are just as suicidal (if not more so) and they don't have to be Night Goblins? How much would you object if an opponent wanted to field proxy fanatics in a non-night goblin unit if it seemed in character with the army? your thoughts would be welcome in the comments :)

Finally we have Azhag's Wyvern - who was one of my first purchases from the OTC and painted up straight away ages ago for a special appearance in my D&D campaign, but who remained unbased since then, and still remains unmounted (soon Azhag, soon!).

I wanted to keep the base in keeping with the rest of the force, but needed to break up the block of green to give more contrast against the scales of the Wyvern.

A larger area of broken field stone has helped with that a bit, and has helped disguise the fact the right foot sat quite proud from the base, but given free reign I would have used something other than green as the main colour for this one. Never mind - it's not perfect, but its done, and so is my Orctober 2017 painting challenge!

Big thanks as ever to Russ for running the ToMG challenges, and to everyone who is taking part each month via the Middlehammer facebook group - it's amazing to see so many people taking part!

A Tale of Middlehammer Gamers: High Elves Anonymous

Me: "Umm. Hi. Hello. My name's Paul, and I'm addicted to High Elves.

Group: "Hi Paul!"

Me: "So.... I've been keeping hold of the High Elf army I started when I was 14 and got the WFB4 Box Set, you know the one with all the chunky monopose archers and spearmen that most people hate?"

Group: "Uh huh, yeah, we do, carry on Paul. You are doing great."

Me: "Umm. Thanks everyone. Well, you see, it gets worse. I'm fixated on this concept of painting a whole host of Caledor themed High Elves, in the same shiny metallic green and primary colours as I did when I was 14! Gah! There. I said it..."

Group: *polie and supportive applause* "Well done Paul. That can't have been easy."

Me: "No. No it wasn't. So, can you guys help me kick the habbit? Can you help me get off the High Elf monopose plastic crack!?"

Group: "Hell no! We are going to enable you and facilitate even more painting of High Elves in garish primary colours!!!"

Me: "Wait... What!?"

*Chanting growing in the back ground* "One of us! One of us! One of us!"

And that, dear reader, is almost exactly how it happened.

My indoctrination into the online cult masquerading as a self help group known as High Elves Anonymous (fallen brethren welcome), came swiftly after it became clear that there were a number of us fellow Elf Nuts (sorry/not sorry) taking part in the Tale of Middlehammer Gamers monthly challenges via the Middlehammer facebook group. September's challenge was to pledge a number of minis towards whatever force you are currently (or, rather should be!) working on, and I pledged 4 Archers (to 'complete' a unit of 26), a Silver Helm Standard Bearer (to 'complete' a unit of 10), and Prince Tyrion on his war pony Malhandir- following on from August's Procrastinators Challenge this seemed an apt choice seeing as I have owned Tyrion for just over 20 years, but have always been too scared to paint him!

Here we can see my September pledges at the start of the month

I must confess that I had some help with this project from Son #1, although he did think they should be more worried about the Snotling invasion on the other side of the table!

As I mentioned, I'm commited to completing the 4th Edition (blurring into 5th edition) High Elf Army I dreamed of and indeed started all the way back when I was 14. The thing is that means working with a pretty bold colour scheme, and incorporating paint jobs like this...

Why do you look so alarmed Mr Spearman? Is it your lack of ink wash making you feel naked and unfinished? No....?

Oh, it's because of the garish colour scheme on this archer! I don't know what the hell is going on here. The colours on the wings on the quiver are like the Jamaican fla.... Oh wait, yes I do.

I have two pretty large units of archers already painted, dating back to 1994, and a few rushes of productivity between then and now. They will eventually be two units of 26 inc command, but that means they need sprucing up and a more unified colour scheme as there is a lot of variation in quivers and fletchings. These four will serve as a template for the updates colour scheme.

Better...

The first model I actually finished (and for some reason this means it got missed off the solo shots in the light box - apologies) was the Silver Helm standard bearer. I have plans for a pennant banner at some stage, but I need some practice first, so that is for another time.

Even the Silver Helms in Caledor love their vintage citadel Glistening Green scale mail

I have a shield related issue to address at some point. Too many elves and not enough shields. Once I know what my plan is across the whole force then I will come back and sort out the shields, but for now they remain blank.

Here he is with his nine Horse Bros. There are more in a shoe box somewhere for another unit at some point....

Did I mention I was a bit scared of putting paint on Prince Tyrion and Malhandir, king of all Shetland ponies? The stellar job I had done on his brother Teclis (not to be shown here) had not filled me with confidence I can tell you! I needed a boost to get me started, so made sure I had a good lunch.

Well sort of good. Missing two of the five essential food groups - nuts and crisps, but what you can't see here is that I had a Cheese and Salt and Vinegar crisp sandwich first. So this was desert. I'm not an animal.

Right! That was better. Braced by sugar and later some dutch courage I summoned up the courage to go with what I wanted for this model and to paint him up in a Dragon Prince-esque style, slapping on some dark green and fading up to acid greens and yellows, and a matching red to orange-yellow fade on the head pieces of Tyrion and Malhandir.

I have to say I was pretty chuffed with that!

I knew I didn't want the cloth barding to take focus away from Tyrion, but I also knew I didn't want to leave it blank. Referring back to the original studio version I decided to locate a rune in the same front left portion, as it seemed to balance the model well (it wouldn't look right on the side with the sword imho).

High Elf Runes

Keeping with the Caledor theme I decided to go with the rune Sarathai (the World Dragon), which also appears on Tyrion's Rune Sword, Sunfang, so it seemed appropriate for hat reason too.

I added a blue trim to the bottom of the cloth, but other than that have left it as a block of white. It is a High Elf war pony after all!

I regularly put the two parts of the model together to check how the colour balance was going, especially before opting for a dark blue cloak which I knew was going to give Tyrion a much darker aspect than is traditional.

The blue cape was balanced out by a blue sword, with the flesh was given a purple wash to continue the darker look

My intention was to have the blue sword picked out with ice blue-white runes and I shared the version below with the High Elves Anonymous group claiming it 'done' - but even as I shared the photos I realised the blue tone wash had taken a lot of the contrast out of the runes and it looked a bit flat.

Credit and many thanks then to Anna B who advised using the same red-orange fade as for the head pieces, which you can see in the finished pictures below. She was not wrong! Indeed huge thanks to all in the High Elves Anonymous (fallen brethren welcome) support group both for their encouragement and valuable Elven lore!

Tyrion and Malhandir are sporting this season's must have his and horse matching head gear...

What the hell is that thing? It's got a Dragon's head and an eagles wings. It's not a Griffin, it's not a Phoenix. What the hell is it!?

I've just realised I paint my fantasy horses without horse shoes... Huh. Might have to address that.

Group shot of the September pledges

I've often mentioned my love of monthly painting themes and challenges when blogging, especially when they can be tied in with ongoing projects that need a bit of a boost. Well, Tale of Middlehammer Gamers (ToMG) really ticks all the boxes. Not only has it spawned a new set of connections with my fellow Elf Freaks, but across the Middlehammer group more generally there has since been talk of meet ups and mini tournaments and I have thrown my hat in the ring not only with my High Elves, but potentially with my Orcs and Goblins too!

The ToMG theme for October Orctober is to work on your bases to get things battle ready. I have already confessed my sins to the group that I will be putting the Elf(s) on the Shelf for the month to focus on my Greenskins, but this challenge has really given me the gumption to get my High Elf host into battle ready shape. My 14 year old self would be proud!

Thanks for reading. Do stop back for the next instalment in this Tale of Middlehammer Gamers!