Harpies

Moved this one over here. Just to make our TMP chumps life more fun.


Five Wargames Foundry harpies to add to the OGAM forces.

Some single shots

As I was finishing this last one I realised that I was subconsciously painting a tribute, or more properly un homage, to flame haired Gallic screen siren (!), star of  Engrenages (Spiral) and future Mrs Tom's Toys Soldiers* Audrey Fleurot.

These were odd models to paint. They have a Heavy Metal Album Cover vibe about them, a whiff of Kerrang circa 1983, as if the sculptor's knowledge of female anatomy came from the extensive study of Pat Benatar fan art.
I'm not sure what 12 year old me getting in to the hobby of toy soldiers would have thought about 40 something me painting nipples on 28mm breasts and applying washes to miniature pubic hair. 40 something year old me certainly feels distinctly weird about it.

I realise there's a sub set of gamers who think there's nothing wrong with collecting "erotic" female miniatures, but it's not my version of the hobby.

Over on TMP there used to be (and possibly still is) a board called something like "Needs More Boobies" or an equally puerile title. I once ventured in, in the interests of research you understand, to discover that the vast majority of content came from the man name-checked in the header of this page - Tango01. So apparently when he's not stealing content from other gamers he spends his time glopping off to 54mm anime French Maid sculptures.

On the other hand they're the nicest Greek style harpy models out there and arguably pretty representative of the mythical creatures so I'm happy to have them in the force, though I'm not sure I'll be rushing off to buy any more.

*Madame Audrey Toy-Soldiers has a ring to it I think.

Spartans for OGAM

I have no real idea why I own eight naked Spartans.
I vaguely remember that back in the dim and distant past when I first discovered WAB I thought I might do a Spartan army. So I suspect I picked these up as part of that. They were certainly stuck to GW 20mm square bases when I retrieved them from the loft. They're from Wargames Foundry
Four of them were around 80% painted the rest were just undercoated, so it was a little challenging to find the exact paints and mimic the techniques from around fifteen years ago, but I think I got it about right.

Nekkid Spartan butts

 

Annoyingly only five of the shields have the sculpted on Lambda aymbol so I'll need to order some transfers for the other three.

 

These are for my OGAM faction. Time to challenge the small boy to another game I reckon.

Patrick "Fightin' Irish" Flaherty

Republishing after deleting so that thief on TMP couldn't re-post the content. Apologies to everyone who has already seen it.

Flaherty is General Ballroom's loyal batman and bodyguard. "The worst shot but strongest man in the entire British army" Ballroom regularly claims. Ballroom rescued him from being grabbed by the fuzzy-wuzzies and ever since the hulking but loyal Irishman has repaid the debt as his dependably brutal enforcer.

He's actually Pug from a Foundry Old West pack, but makes a suitably loopy addition to the Ballroom expedition

Tango01 is a thief

FUCK OFF TANGO01 YOU THIEVING THUNDERCUNT

Painting Tribesmen for Darkest Africa

Someone over on TMP asked me how I painted my Tribesmen.
So here follows a step by step guide to painting Foundry tribesmen for Darkest Africa.
Well, careful what you wish for...

First undercoat with brown. In this case Plastikote Matt Chocolate Brown

Next overbrush all the flesh with GW Dark Flesh

After that paint everything else. Hair Chaos Black, loincloth Iyanden Darksun, spots Scorched Brown, spear tip Chainmail, torc Shining Gold belts and quivers Snakebite Leather and shaft (ooer!) Bestial Brown.
Then let it dry for a bit.

Bring forth the dip! This is my weapon of choice, chosen because it is cheap and water based, so I can thin it with water (and wash the brush out too).

I thin to this sort of consistency then paint it on with a brush.

Then you must leave to dry for 24 hours.
(At some point I sneakily painted the base Tausept Ochre)

Next we need a blast of gloss varnish - otherwise the water based matt varnish reacts with the water based dip and unpleasantness ensues. I also drybrushed the base with Desert Sand and Bleached bone around this time.

Then when that's had a good old dry, paint on some matt varnish - Vallejo in this case.

Unfortunately you'll see that somewhere along the line something went wrong with my varnish, and the models now look a little "murky". Grrr.
However I'd got this far with the step by step and wasn't about to start again.

Finally add static grass  to taste (I also painted the fletches on the arrows at this point as I'd forgotten!)

Aside from the slight damage wrought by the varnish I'm satisfied with these. Another ten or so are on the edge of the painting table as I type. I'll soon have enough to go Dino hunting...

Tribesmen for Darkest Africa (2)

Some more for my Adventures in Jimland excursion.
Painted the same way as the previous lot, but looking nicer as the varnish didn't play up this time.

 Askaris

 Spearmen

 Archers

The tribe gathers

I think another batch like this and it'll be time for some explorers.
Although the Foundry ones are very jolly I think I'll probably pop over and see nice Mr Nick at Northstar and pick up some of their explorers and porters.

Tribesmen for Darkest Africa

I've finally finished these fellas off.
I had a nightmare getting them varnished - inclement weather, water based varnish interacting with dip etc.
I'm still not happy with them, but this was supposed to be another quick and dirty diversion, so despite the fact that there's about five different layers of varnish on and they look a bit fuzzy, I'm calling done on these.

These were gifted to me by top chum James. I think he was hoping to lure me into playing Death in the Dark Continent, or other "proper" types of colonial gaming. But I've been reading rather a lot of H Rider Haggard and other Lost World type stuff recently and I've got a copy of Adventures in Jimland on the hard drive somewhere, so I fear I'm going to veer off into a jungle land of mysterious tribes,diamond mines, manly adventures and, most likely, dinosaurs. Stay tuned as I embark for the mysterious shores of Tombogo!

Mummy!

Back when Son and Heir was doing his Egyptian project I dug this model out and we toyed with the idea of including it on his model. In the end we discarded the idea, but he sat around part painted for a while and I finally finished him off.

It was a Foundry "Limited Edition" give-away as far as I can remember, though I think it was later put on sale.
I've got the Bride of Frankenstein somewhere too, which I ought to dig out one day.