28mm figures, part 3

Quite some time ago, I received another small order from Ebor, and finally here are some pics...

On the left, WSSO01 Officer of Foot, and on the right, Drummer stood with loose head  WSSSD03.  The head on the drummer has already been glued down.  The pose of the drummer seems a bit awkward from this view but that might be the result of gluing the head down at an angle!

On the left, WSSO03 Officer/Ensign of Foot, and on the right, Officer/Ensign of Foot WSSO02.  The halfpikes are separate pieces.

These figures are very nice; the details on the cuffs and wigs are impressive.  I also enjoy the facial expressions.  Now, to just get some paint on them...

Tékumel artwork Kickstarter...

Jeff Dee is revisiting his original artwork for the first of the Tékumel rulebooks, TSR's Empire of the Petal Throne, and has a Kickstarter campaign to support it ( right here ).

This is just a simple plug for the work - if you are interested have a look-see!  Eight days are left on the Kickstarter, and the original goal has been doubled.


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Sérudla, part 1

In my last order from The Tékumel Club, Howard sent out some samples of a great new miniature that will be coming out for the Club sometime soon - Sérudla!

Not very small though, but I forgot to take a pic with a human-sized miniature for scale - next time!  It is a bit hard to see the detail of the white plastic material, but a nice paint-job will alleviate that...

And the left side.  These have been produced by 3-d production techniques.  The material is very light-weight and reasonably strong, except for the thinner pieces such as the spines on the back which require some delicate handling.

Sérudla are an uncommon beast on Tékumel, and are trained and equipped for battle only by the Ghatóni, an ally of the Yán Kór alliance fighting against the Petal Throne.  As such, they represent the first on my opposing forces to the troops of the Petal Throne that I have collected already.  I might wait to finish these beasties off until later, when Ghatóni miniatures are available as well.


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A few Tékumel miniatures...

Only brand-new to me, some of these have been out for a while:

Princess Vrísa Vishétru (L), and Lady Mríssa (R)

Princess Vrísa Vishétru of Saá Allaqi is one of the notable characters of the great force opposed to the blue-armored legions of the Petal Throne.  Lady Mríssa is the leader of The Aridáni Legion of Lady Mríssa, a unit of medium infantry for the Petal Throne.  Lady Mríssa's shield is on it's side and when properly held would be rotated clockwise.

Prince Eselne (L) and Hláka messenger (R)

 This is the 'Imperial Messenger' vignette from The Tékumel Club offerings.  Prince Eselne is one of the many offspring of the Emperor on the Petal Throne.  Hláka are a small, winged sentient being, with three eyes and fur.

Hláka leader

Another Hláka, this one is the leader of a warband.  Hláka are often used as scouts as their skittish nature does not lend well to close combat, but they can and will use missile weapons - typically javelins - on their opponents from the air.


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A little more...

Let's hope I stick to it a little longer this time!

Once again work and other distractions have overwhelmed me, but I have just received two boxes of Tékumel goodies and will endeavor to post pics ASAP... once I find the camera, and clear off the desk, and find some time, and..............  :)


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Tap, tap, tap...

Is this mic still on?   :)


Far too much time has passed between post, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

However, my budget problems just might be over, and I am getting that need for some armored action.  I can not say when the next post will be, but watch this space!

A very brief update

Just received another small package of miniatures from Ebor, enough to fill out a small 16-piece battalion.

Pics will be up on the week-end!

Back...

... after a long absence!  

I have not picked up a paintbrush, however, in about five months, so I have little in the way of tangible progress.  I have done a bit of thinking about my biggest problem - mass-battle rules! - and have come to some conclusions but all of that will wait until I get my order of shiny new Ahoggyá along with a few other miniatures.

In the meantime, I am trying to work on two other issues for my Tékumel gaming.  One - terrain.  I have some old projects that will be dusted off and a few new ones to start.  Hopefully I will have some pics to post soonish.

Number two - naval.  My Xyston ships have been sat in a box for quite some time, but thanks to some inspiration - from Hetairoi's post here, and a post by Artorius here, I feel the need to get cracking on my Tsolyanú squadrons again.


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A long time...

... since I have posted!

Sadly I do not have much to show for the time.  Work and other obstacles were in the way, but I have made a purchase of a very good looking (but sadly not perfect) nicker miniature and a nice miniature for a gudgeon.  Once I have the camera ready and workbench sorted, I will post pics.

Decision time

One of the key points that always bugs me about any project is the ultimate goal; i.e. what do I see myself doing with these miniatures when the project is mature.  There are two directions that I can foresee (and they are not mutually exclusive).  One would be the grand skirmish - small quantities of troops with a wide variety of troop types collected.  The second would be larger battles, where a player would be pushing around groups of miniatures representing battalions.  Miniatures-wise, there is nothing preventing either course, except maybe the need for specialized individuals like wits or scourges (and of course proper nickers!).  There is another aspect, mostly peculiar to the battalion-sized units, that is necessary, and that is flags (spandarions).  One could get away with few or no flags for skirmishes, but with battalions, part of the spectacle (for me at least) is seeing lines of colorful troops with equally colorful spandarions fluttering away in the distance.  The addition of multiple spandarions changes the shopping list that one needs when looking at miniatures somewhat, and I try to carefully plan my purchases.

So, what is the ultimate goal of this project?  Despite the added time and expense, I am aiming for the battalion route.  However, since I have mounted my miniatures singly - by a combination of choice, luck, and hard experience (my Tékumel miniatures suffer a bit from some poor choices but that experience has paid off here) - I can play skirmishes as I progress towards the battalions goal.

Now that the goal is set, another key decision looms...  What forces are involved?  When I first imagined this project, the vision was about a struggle between some of the Soutlands realms (Brandenbrass, Boschenburg, etc.) and their eastern neighbors (Burgundia, Gott, etc.)  I am not so certain of that now, at least in the large-battle mode, although I can see small skirmishes happening between them.  Another direction would be North, with the Haacobin Empire, with Soutland support, vying off against the Turkemen.  There is some mention of this in Foundling.  The third direction is West, between the Haacobin Empire et al versus the Sedorner Kings, briefly mentioned in Factotum.  Each of these directions has its own merits - miniatures can be proxied for each new realm - and pitfalls - a dearth of hard information on each of the Turkemen and Sedorner Kings.

So, that is where I stand now.  My newest miniatures are mounted and primed, just waiting for me to decide on their colors...

28mm figures, part 2

My Ebor Miniatures order arrived a few days ago, and here they are:

From the left:   WSSMS01 Sergeant of Musketeers; WSSM01 Musketeer stood firing; WSSM02 Musketeer kneeling firing; WSSM03 Musketeer kneeling
                       

From the left:   WSSM04 Musketeer presenting arms; WSSM05 Musketeer marching; WSSM06 Musketeer marching;  WSSM07 Musketeer advancing high porte;  WSSM08 Musketeer marching

From the left:   WSSM09 Musketeer marching;  WSSM10 Musketeer marching;  WSSHM01 Headless musketeer marching;  WSSHM02 Headless musketeer marching

WSSMHS01  Head Sprue

I like the Ebor selection very much.  In particular, the faces stand out in their expressions.  And with the addition of the headless marching versions, there is a wide assortment of poses, however slight, to add life to your units.

Here's a pic with a Wargames Factory musketeer.  There are very similar in height and heft, with the WGF muskeeter slightly taller.  The two biggest differences are in the weapon and the face.  The WGF musket does not have much detail as compared to the one on the Ebor musketeers, and the WGF musket is very slender, delicate even.  The faces are quite different also, with the WGF figures having an odd shape to their eye sockets.  The Ebor faces look much more natural.  WGF does have a wide variety of heads on their sprues, but the recent release of the 'headless' Ebor musketeers along with their head sprue gives a lot more variety in marching poses.

One last note - the sergeant is a two-piece set; the halberd is not cast in the hand.  Also, the headless musketeers do not come with the head sprue; you need to purchase it separately.

Tékumel naval, part 6

One of the projects collecting dust (but not forgotten!) on my hobby desk is this little guy:

No, I have not made any actual 'progress' on the Qél, mostly because something was bothering me about it.  Something just did not look right.  Actually, it is several things...  First, the 'castle' as seen in the mid-deck seems very small - it could hold two maybe three marines at most.  Second, the steering oars near the stern of the vessel do not seem to be as prominent in the drawings of Tékumeli vessels in Qadárdàlikoi.  Third, the masts seem a bit close together.  But, that is just a symptom of another issue - the Xyston miniature is not quite the right length:

The piece of balsa is the average length of a Qél according to Qadárdàlikoi.  


So, what to do?


Despite the issues, I like the Xyston ships, but future builds might be slightly modified.  I'm thinking of omitting the steering oars and the foremast from the Qéls built after this one.  The Qél above will be kept in this configuration, and will be an archaic design kept around because it was some Tsolyanú admiral's first command.




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28mm figures, part 1

Thanks for the quick shipment from The Warstore, I have a box of Wargames Factory WSS plastic miniatures.  Here is a couple of quick pics:

These do not look too bad so far; I have to admit that I originally planned to use the box just for bits for conversions, but I will put a few together and see how they look.  I did notice right away that the weapons, especially the muskets on the marching miniatures, do look rather thin and might not be capable of much handling.  On the other hand, the amount of pieces on each sprue (12 sprues per box) is amazing.

Purchases

Well, I have finally stuck myself into the fray and ordered some miniatures - 1 box of infantry produced by Wargames Factory, and about a dozen single infantry figures from Ebor Miniatures.  The WGF box should be here soon...

The prize has arrived!

As mentioned over at Big Lee's blog, I won a nifty DVD in a prize drawing.  And it has arrived!


Kudos to the Imperial War Museum for making the product 'All Regions' - yes it does work on my Region 1 machine; and many many thanks to Big Lee for the give-away!  I am going to give it some thought and see if I can come up with something around here that I can give-away in a similar fashion...




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I'm a winner!

Color me shocked and amazed, but I have won a prize draw for a nifty-looking DVD.  Big Lee over at his blog posted a contest for a prize give-away last week.  The steps were simple - be a follower of his blog (if you do not already follow along there you should) and post a comment.  So I did, fueled by my recently renewed fascination with AFV's due to my involvement with World of Tanks.  Lo and behold, I was chosen as the winner!






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Rolling on...

After quite a bit of distraction from this project, I am ready to give it another go.  Perhaps I just needed to set it aside to let my thoughts come together for the right approach, or most likely it is the promise of some hobby funding for my fast-approaching birthday!

I am trying to put together an order for some 28mm miniatures and trying to decide between Ebor Miniatures and Front Rank Figures.  Both companies produce beautiful miniatures.  Ebor is the newcomer, with a limited selection at the moment, with many new figures to be produced soon.  Front Rank is the well-established standard to measure all others.  There is still some time before the funds are available, so I will research it some more and get some input from my chief artistic officer (my lovely wife)!

The naval aspect is also being reviewed.  I am wondering if I should stay at 1/1200 scale or move to another, perhaps 1/900 or 1/1800, although the largest rams would be 'very' large even in 1/1200 scale.  Fleet actions or skirmishes between squadrons will be the deciding factor and I am still working on that - either one works for my gaming table!

Still here

Progress has been lacking here, but I hope to rectify that shortly.  I've been busy with work and distracted by online computer games, but two things should help that:

1  -  Setting up a schedule.  I seem to need an actual schedule for my hobbies; a bit weird I know but if I do not then it is all too easy to slip back into web surfing and game playing

2  -  A hobby budget.  It will not be huge, but having an amount set aside every month for hobby expenditures will make a difference.  Typically I just wing it and hope to get stuff 'when I can.'  One stipulation set on the budget by the household CFO (my lovely wife) is that the amount does not carry over into the next month - spend it or lose it.  That does not seem to be the most economical way to approach it, but the amount should be enough to purchase a fair amount of miniatures, and my slow painting pace is not conducive to mass quantities.


Hopefully this all works!


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Shén, part 2

I have the four Shén miniatures mounted up, and am now about to prime them.  But, I am considering a slightly different way, at least for the Diplomat.

On the left, you see the Diplomat and the feather cloak.  My idea is to prime the cloak with white, as the feathers will be easier to paint with washes over white than black (my usual primer color), then prime the rest of the figure with black, as the scales will be easier to paint over black primer.


Has anybody tried this before?




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Shén, part 1

Here are some pics of the recently released Shén for Tékumel:

Front and rear pics of the Shén Diplomat (left) and Merchant (right).  The Diplomat has an intricately detailed cloak of feathers, and both miniatures have great scale details.

Two Shén berzerkers.  Again, great detail on the scales and a large shield.  The sword is interesting in that it is rather slender.

A better shot of the shield and axe.




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Reload

The clearing of the table has been accomplished.  Here is what I was up against:

Quite the mess with several projects all mingling together.

The clean slate.

The table reloaded.

Regular readers will recognize some of the miniatures in the last pic, and there are some new additions that just came by - more on those in another post.

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Reset

My apologies to my readers as I have not posted for some time.  There is a shortage of 'sit at the painting table' inspiration here at the moment.  My dear wife suggested that I clear the table off completely, and begin anew with whatever piques my interest out of all of the minis that are just sitting around in boxes, just to get the juices flowing again.  I will post some pics later...




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