Landsknecht Half Giant

Hi !! New mercenary creature for my growing Landsknecht Dwarves army. Here is an Half Giant, this nice chap is the result of an uncommun union of a female Giant and a "brave" Ogre... So, this guy is a big Ogre or a small Giant it depend, it's a matter of perspective :) David Stafford the owner Mr Saturday Mumbling Blog wrote another excelent background of Randolf, check the Wolfbane art Facebook group.

This model was sculpted by Alessio Cisbani from Wolfbane-art studio. This project is born on the Oldhammer facebook group and after 4 weeks of work, 50 pieces was cast in resin, multi-parts kit. 26€ shipping cost included, it's a pretty fair price!

I added some lndsknecht stuff to integrat this model in my Dwarves army, this is the last unit and I planned to take some army pictures next week.

 

Oldhammer day France 2018!!

Hello every one !! Last weekend I organized and participated to the annual meeting of French Old School miniatures lovers. Lot of great moments and good gaming.

In fact, I haven't take pictures during the event ... So, thank goodness JB do the job and he just finish to write a first part of week end report, check here.

But I want to share a last thing with you. During the Oldhammer day 2017, a man named Gof came to us and gave us a small box of miniatures. Approximatively 30 Chaos models : Slaanesh Champions, Bestmen, Greater demon, etc.. For FREE!! He gave without expecting anything in return. An exemple to be followed by many Evilbayers !!

JB, Gof and me

To honored his gift, JB give a new life to these old Chaos miniatures. They are now in his collection of Rogue Trader models.  From my side, I decided to thank Gof with a painted Olivia, the last commemorative BOYL model.

Oldhammer Day 2018 - Best donation award - Gof

Nippon army project (Last part) : Army pictures

Here we are, the last part of the project! After 9 months of painting and historical searching to understand the feodal japan culture... I enjoy the moment of the army pictures :) to increase the army effect, I added some miniatures to the originals regiments, particulary for arquebusiers and spearmen.

Warhammer Nippon tactics
Leading a Nippon army, you have at your fingertips a unusual blend of devastating close combat troops, lethal missiles men and terrifying artillery. Despite this, it's a very difficult army to command properly. Because of the hight cost of all the differents troop types. They will probably be outnumbered , and so the troops must be used to their full petential to win.

The artillery should be used to support the close combat troops, rather than merely trying to wear down an approaching enemy. If they are carefully placed , artillery seriously hamper the movement of enemy regiments. Arquebusiers, if positionned behind cover, will be costly to overcome, but cannot be counted on to withstand a sustained attack from any number of enemy shock troops. The samurai are excelent archers, as well as good close combat fighters. It's worth trying to weaken the best enemy troops with bowfire before finishing them off with a charge. However, it would be absolutely disastrous to let them get bogged down and whittled away in an archery duel with large numbers of enemy bowmen.

The number of options available with Nippon army is almost limitless. Try to use a combination of protected arquebusiers and artillery to set up cross fires, and use threatened charges from the samurai to herd enemy units into these killing zones. The Kamikaze troops and ninja are probably best stationed in the weaker regiments, the enemy will then get a very nasty surprise when attacked!

So, what next? For the moment, I prepare the French Oldhammer Day. The event take place in my home town of Metz in the east side of France and it will be a part of a large event organized by my club Blitz57 (May, 12th and 13th 2018). Many oldschool games are planned during the weekend : WH40.000 2nd, Rogue Trader, Necromunda, Mordheim and of course WHFB!! Other good thing of the week end, it's the anual meeting moment of famous Oldschool French gamers... pictures soon :)

Nippon army project (part seven) : Headquarter

New step for the Nippon project. The general Headquarter (Hon-jin).This vignette represent the general (Daimyo) and his staff. The seated character have generic style of a Daymio from the Sengoku period. Banners (Noborri/Uma-jirushi) indicate the general is Mori Hidemoto.

The staff is composed by tacticians, attendants, messenger, banners carriers, bow and spear holder. Four Makku screens surround them, usually the screens are marked with the clan colors but I decided to painted them with generic colors. By this way, I keep the possibility to switch the banners with other clan banner… polyvalent Hon-jin J The HQ can’t be complete without the war drum (Taiko) and the trumpet shell (Hora-gai). With the banners, these elements are the best way to command on large Battlefield.

Last touch is the baggage. A pair of light packhorses with rations or light weapons and the ox with the heavy chariot loaded with tents or stakes for camp installations.

Last words about books to complete your samurai culture. “The History Japanese Armor” Vol1 - From Yayoi to Muromachi period. And the Vol2 – From The Warring Stats to Edo period. These books are useful for beginner who want to start a samurai army. Lot of information about troops, army organization, banners, armors, weapons etc…fully translated in English.

Next post, the family pictures. See you next week!

Nippon army project (part six) : Monks

Hello, another batch of warrior-monks to complete the ranks. Sculpted by Trevis Dixon and Mark Copplestone.  I added a palanquin (kago) to my collection, that model will be the centerpiece of my probable next WHFB scenario.

The next steps in the project concerning the reinforcement of the Ashigarus units,  around 20 miniatures to paint. And to finish the Headquarter camp of the General.

 

Nippon army project (Part Five) : Legend of Nippon

Many weird & mysterious characters evolved in the legends of ancient Japan, a country rich in folk tales & myth. Some of these characters were dashing heroes or intelligent animals. Others were evil, semi-supernatural beings like the malicious Oni, or the malignant Goblins! Whether derived from powerful religion like Shinto or Buddhism, or from simple folktales, each of these creatures bares a unique contribution to the Legends of Nippon.

Bakemono Goblins

Though mainly physical creatures, the Bakemono Goblin sometimes possessed spiritual and supernatural power. Smaller Bakemono were often uncouth and unintelligent preferring to fight in large groups (this was before football!). Large, or Dai-Bakemono were usually far more intelligent and equivalent to the Samurai, even having some magical powers.

Dai Oni

Oni are ferocious spirits who use their awesome strength and magical abilities to dominate and terrorize the regions they inhabit. The common oni stands 7 to 8 feet tall, resembling a thickly-muscled humanoid whose arms and legs are covered with coarse hair.

Their skin is normally red, but other colors have been noted, including green, black, orange, purple and Blue.

Yūrei

They are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji,  (yū), meaning "faint" and  (rei), meaning "soul". Alternative names include (Bōrei), meaning ruined or departed spirit or (Shiryō) meaning dead spirit.Like their Chinese and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife. While all Japanese ghosts are called yūrei, within that category there are several specific types of phantom, classified mainly by the manner they died or their reason for returning to Earth.

Tengu

They are considered a type of Shinto god (kami) . Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon (Tiangou), the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics.

Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice of Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the garb of its followers, the yamabushi.

Ryu

Dragons have many animal-like forms such as turtles and fish, but are most commonly depicted as snake-like with four legs. Dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it.

Last words

So, many models in this Legend of Nippon part come from the Dixon Miniatures range and to be honest it's pretty rare to find some pictures of them on the web. I bought them without relly knowing how they look but finally the result is good. For peoples who don't know, they are sculpter by Mark Copplestone.

You probably recognize the old C14 Oriental Dragon (Citadel and Ral Partha) very fine sculpt from Tom Meier. And to finish a C18 Undead Samurai  Sculpted by Aly Morrison.



Blast from the past!

If for any reasons you are out of the social media sphere (Face Book first), the probabilities of missing news or pictures about the hobby is important. Other bad thing, pictures on FB are inaccessible by google search. I  try to fix things for you 

Yesterday during my quotidian FB surf, a blast from the past stroked me and many followers of the Great Horned Rat. The popular Andy Chambers shared some new pictures of his glorious Skaven army highlighted in the old White Dwarf 137 (May 1991). After 26 years and 10 month, we can appreciate his work again but from a different angle.

Some words of the owner :

So then. The Skaven army. Collected and painted back in 1990-91, this is undoubtedly the most (in)famous army I’ve ever painted. It appeared in WD137 in 1991 and a surprising number of people still ask me about it almost thirty years later. I basically spent the 90-91 winter months painting a Skaven army and learning not to do blocks of forty at a time. I wrote an article about it and the choices I’d made for the army. The studio cheated a bit by getting the ‘Eavy metal tea...m to put nicer banners on some of the models before photographing them and the beast was published, and to my enduring pleasure has encouraged many others to collect Skaven armies, hail to you my rat-brothers.

Exposed here for the first time under the cold light of digital photography, years of wear and tear including three intercontinental moves and three decades of developing theory and practice in painting and modelling. Please don’t judge it too harshly.