Chaos Warrior Reference

 Just dumping a load of pictures gleaned from WD and Line Wolf publications for reference. All Chaos Warriors from Gary Chalk's collection. It's interesting to see the same figures popping up in different battles, sometimes changing sides in a truly chaotic manner.

Mr. Spiky shield appears as N'aarsh the undead champion in Thistlewood.

CASTLE OF YORE

 

A few weeks ago my older brother rang me to tell me he was moving house, having a clearout and to ask if I wanted this wonderful wooden castle our Dad made for him before I was born. I used to play with it all the time in my youth (he's 10 years older than me), setting up my Deetail and Timpo knights in it, so I was absolutely delighted to be able to play with it again. I guess it must have been made in the early 1960s, and as you can see has stood the test of time remarkably well. It's mainly made of plywood and hardboard, most of the pieces being screwed together with brass flat head screws.

Much as I was tempted to, I didn't want to start a new collection of 1/32 toy knights, so I thought I'd try my Toyhammer figures out for size, and they work perfectly...better than 1/32 ones really.  

King Lodwick rides out to do battle.

Archers man the battlements while Merkin gives his familiar instructions.

An archer in a lofty tower....which was made from a rolling pin apparently.

This little archway was always my favourite part of the castle when I was playing with it in the early 1970s.

The main towers are a bit deep for 28mm figures to see over the battlements, but I will make some slot in wooden blocks for them to stand on.

The rear wall forms a formidable obstacle to 2 scouts from the forces of evil.

Knights of the Purple Pim ride out on a quest over the working drawbridge.

The portcullis is lowered (this was added by my Dad in the 70's). The climax of my battles always ended with the chief baddie being trapped underneath it.

The drawbridge raised.

The castle comes apart. Note the storage vault under the green slope that leads up to the drawbridge.

and the pieces pack away into the base.

I'm so excited to be able to play with this again and envisage many battles and sieges taking place in the near future.

TOYHAMMER - THE BADDIES

 I've recently been painting some Toyhammer figures as a palette cleanser. They are great for picking up and splashing paint on when I have a few minutes here and there ( usually about 3.30am). So far I'd only painted good guys, so it was about time to do some opposition.

Some skellies, summoned by a bone faced necromancer.

Thuggish evil knights.

Some infernal demons.

More heavy infantry.

and more.

Some light archers. The late 80s saw some truly dreadful figures, but they were fun to paint.

I had so much fun block painting over a white undercoat I am seriously thinking about doing more figures in this style. With these cheap plastic figures above it doesn't seem so sacrilegious, but on valuable old lead I have been thinking twice about it.

WHAT'S AFOOT?

 Sorry about the hiatus in posts.... So much going on at the moment. Youngest lad starting secondary school, purchase and testing of a campervan, my other hobby of metal detecting kicking in because it's harvest time, and sundry other excuses. Here follow some hasty shots of what's going on in Broadsword Towers.

First off, I have taken delivery of 10kg of preliminary Hinchliffe fantasy castings courtesy of Oakbound Studios... thanks Geoff, that must have taken some time to spin. I now need to check through them to make sure the moulds are behaving.

I've also started painting one of each Hinchliffe Fantasy figure for display and advertising purposes. I'm doing my best and trying to create a mid 80s Oldhammer look. Probably a bit darker than I'd do them for my own collection.

 Over the past few weeks I've also been trying to get some terrain finished for my Robin of Sherwood figures. Something I've been meaning to do for ages. I bought some excellent trees from The Last Valley, and managed to get a grubby early mediaeval village finished. I'll do a proper set up shot soon, but just to prove I've done it...

As a palette cleanser, I also cracked open the Toyhammer box, and prepared some baddies for painting. Here they are underway.... I so enjoy block painting over a white undercoat.

There is more Toyhammer goodness coming in the form of a lovely Wooden castle my Dad made back in the early 60s. Just right for these fellows to attack.

Next post will hopefully be very soon.

THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN CELERIAC

 A quick unit for my Toyhammer army, a unit of fighting monks.

TOYHAMMER... THE KING, THE PELICAN AND THE FORESTERS

I managed to get King Lodwick and his trusty steed finished . The king is a figure from the Lionheart game and the dragon is a Russian Tehnolog model from eBay.

Here is Merkin's familiar, a pelican called Valise. He's a re-painted Britain's toy.

and a unit of foresters. Mainly Citadel 90's plastics, od which I only had 11. The twelfth figure is a Blue Moon Robin Hood chap. 

MORE SHINY TOYS

I managed to get a few more units done for the Toyhammer army.

The Knights of the Purple Pim. I started these about 10 years ago, Citadel Bretonnian knights converted to become Swan Knights of Dol Amroth, and they languished unfinished in a box until a couple of weeks ago. I hope they have a successful career in King Lodwick's Toyhammer army.

Some spearmen. These are playing pieces from an old board game called Lionheart. I bought 3 copies at next to nothing (check European ebay sites for good deals). Very basic detail which suits the feel of the army.

More Lionheart pieces. Some serfs to act as a speedbump.

I hope to introduce King Lodwick himself soon.

TOYHAMMER AND MERRY CHRISTMAS

Another sort of " ... hammer" to get me sidetracked, but this has been a fairly swift (for me) , force to get this far. Inspiration comes from the wonderful Sword in the Sprue blog, so much, that I have even copied a lot of the paint schemes shown there. I wanted to do a small army with minimal expense, effort and planning, simple painting and GLOSSY.

 First we have  The Plum Pudding Gnomes, finished in time for Christmas.

Next up some archers, painted in the same colour schemes as Britains Deetail Longbowmen.

The Royal Griffin Martin

2 units of Sky Dwarves (just realised I forgot the second coat of Ironbreaker on the weapons).

Brother Clavicle and Merkin the Magician

That's the army so far, although I have almost finished a unit of mounted knights. All these figures were dirt cheap and the 2 characters were metal chaps I've had for a long time. As I mentioned before I hated the chunky Citadel plastics when they came out, but now I love them. Easy to paint with no deep undercuts, they lend themselves well to block painting. All these were primed white first and were fairly quick to do, although each colour had to have about 3 coats to be completely solid which was rather annoying. I have a few more units planned.

It's been a busy year with toy soldiers taking if not a back seat, at least a passenger seat. Family duties and a new hobby have been filling up a lot of spare time. Hopefully next year I will find more time and energy to post more on this blog.

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL.

F