Sigmar's Blood (10) - Dire Wolves

They're finished.
They're horrid.

We used them in a game the other night. My chum (who gave me them to paint) asked me at the end of the game if I wanted to take them home.

"You touched them last" was my reply.

New Toys

Last week I realised that Scrivs' Age of Arthur event is approaching fast.
I always like to use events like this as a spur to painting up something new for my army.
My Saxon force is pretty complete as far as blocks of troops go, with enough for a large WAB army, or a small Hail Caesar force. However it is lacking in the missile department. The slingers I use are from the Gripping Beast range and though they're nice models they're not as nice as the rest of the force which is (mainly) Musketeer Miniatures models. However I didn't want to just replace one lot of figures with another, where's the fun in that - the army isn't growing - so, having been on the receiving end of some deadly Scrivs archery in the last few games of AoA I've played I thought a unit of Archers might be just what I needed.
So I ordered a unit of twelve on Thursday morning and they arrived first thing on Friday. Great service from the Gripping Beast boys (who distribute the Musketeer range).

Lovely models they are too, although I've been warned to make sure the bow hands are glued on firmly!
I've got a week in Swindon at the end of the month, so the plan is to prep, assemble and spray them before I go and then basecoat them in my hotel room. I'm living the rock and roll dream, just like Led Zeppelin.

Sigmar's Blood (9) - Reiksguard Knights

Here are the finished unit of Reiksguard Knights for the Sigmar's Blood campaign.
When getting ready to paint them I looked in the Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire book and discovered the Knights of Sigmar's Blood. As well as giving a different way of painting the models it rather tickled me to have Knights of Sigmar's Blood for the Sigmar's Blood campaign.
In the end they're not exactly right but I was too lazy to do the full paint scheme. They're also waiting on shields which again won't have quite the right symbol, but will suit me. I'll use them either as Reiksguard (as in the campaign) or just as Empire knights.

The leader bloke isn't glued onto his horse. I remembered after assembling eight horses about the special horse head for leaders that comes on the sprue. At some point I'll add another couple of models to the unit and swap the horse then.

Both flag man and horn bloke really need some sort of skull and laurel leaves design, but, well, eventually.

Pretty simple painting using Plastikote silver spray to give them a base, then simple washes and a bit of drybrushing.

I think they look rather fetching en masse

At the Sharp End

The Too Fat Lardies have released a supplement for their very much flavour of the month Chain of Command rules. Now I didn't enjoy my experience of Dux Britanniarum, and despite Scrivs having played and enjoyed the CoC rules, what I've read elsewhere leads me to believe that some of the same things I found irritating about Dux Brit will again be present here. Besides which 28mm WW2 was only ever supposed to be a minor diversion and I've already got the Bolt Action rules which seem to give me a perfectly adequate game. So despite the high praise from some quarters I've remained resistant.
However the one element of Dux Brit that I did enjoy, and kept me trying to enjoy the game far longer than I should, was the campaign system. So, given that At the Sharp End promises something similar for WW2 games, and that it costs just £6 for the instant gratification of a PDF download I've parted with my cash and got myself a copy.
So far it looks promising. There's clearly some elements that are designed just to work with CoC, but the structure of the campaign seems simple and the background generating parts are all quite jolly. So I think with a little tinkering I should be able to get a workable Americans in Italy campaign sorted out and maybe get a few more games of Bolt Action in.
But all this has to wait until after Sigmar's Blood is out of the way.

Nottingham Young Gamers

Chum James invited me to come along and help at one of his "Nottingham Young Gamers" events on Sunday and I was only to happy to oblige.
I was supposed to help at the inaugural one last year, but something or other prevented me.
These events are essentially the follow on to James' very successful school wargaming club (which featured in one of the wargame magazines (WSS?) last year). James set up and ran the club at his primary school and had a whole bunch of children of both genders playing with toy soldiers. When he changed jobs recently the club was left a bit up in the air, so rather than see it die James has decided to keep it going by staging occasional afternoons at a social club near the school where, for a small fee, the children can come along and play games and paint some figures. On this occasion the models were generously supplied by the top chaps at Warlord Games.
I agreed to run a small game of Bolt Action (which meant frantic re-reading of the rules on Sunday morning). James and Scrivs provided all the models and scenery, all I had to do was point the kids in the right direction and tell them how many dice to roll.

My simple scenario saw a building in the middle of the board, in which fleeing Germans had inadvertently left behind the blueprints to Hitler's toilet. As the plucky Tommies closed in on the plans for the Fuhrer's khazi, beastly Bosch were headed back to reclaim them for the Fatherland. Whoever ended up with troops closest to the building at the end of the game would be the winner.

And so we played through two games over the course of a couple of very pleasant hours. The children were unfailingly polite (even to my terrible jokes) and seemed to enjoy it - though I couldn't persuade any of them to declare "For you Tommy the war is over" before rolling dice.
Bolt Action worked very nicely and the models from Scrivs and Martin all looked very good.

I took a few pictures.

 Beastly huns hug the wall

Both sides close in on the house

 Tommies caught in the low sun

 Teacher James gives his half-time lecture

 Plucky Brits storm forward

 The Germans get to the perimeter

More Germans get to the house

James is intending to run another one later in the year, so hopefully I'll get to do it all over again.

Sigmar's Blood (8)

A test horse for the Reiksguard Knights.
Silver spray FTW. Then a bit of a wash with some Old Skool Citadel Armour Wash and then pick out some details and we're done.

Just noticed I've missed the band round his tail.

Sigmar's Blood (7)

Some more finished Dire Wolves.

I've had to stop work on these for a bit as they're such horrid models they make me do a bit of sick in my mouth.