The fuse is lit and I'm about to go boom!
Mercy mercy, mercy me
Boom, shake, shake, shake the room...
.... tick, tick, tick... BOOM!" (Let's hope that's not a HIT and a MISFIRE)
This Month I've added some heavy firepower to my Border Princes force with a Dwarf Cannon, an Empire Cannon/Mortar, and a Bright Wizard.
First up is the Puff and Slash Dwarf Cannon - this wasn't the one that was stripped and ready at the beginning of the challenge, but the Puff and Slash-ness of the sculpts demanded it be them, so into the dip they went, and I'm glad I bothered as they do fit the force much, much better than the other (more Dwarfy) Cannon and crew who will be saved for my 100% All Dorf. All the time. force.
This is a Bell Bombard from Citadel/Foundry - to be used as Cannon/Mortar depending on what the army list calls for. When planning the project I thought I had something in the lead pile suitable to use as a proxy mortar... turns out this was MUCH smaller than I remembered, and I didn't fancy paying the crazy prices for an actual Empire Mortar, so I bought something that looked somewhat suitable and combined with the rag tag crew men I'd assembled, including two slightly converted/repaired plastic Battle Masters crew, and a classic Empire Artilleryman sculpt.
I was quite chuffed with the tiny writing and diagram I manged to achieve on his note pad :)
Next up is a Foundry/Ex-Citadel 'Time Warped Wizard' who has been painted up in the army colours which suits him as a Bright Wizard. It's a characterful set of sculpts, if a bit pricey, but I enjoyed painting him... except for that damned staff which suffers from a bit of a mangled cast, and my lack of time to try any decent paint effect. In the end I opted to paint a golden orb embedded in the top as this both kept to the colour scheme but also speaks to me of a magical item at rest (as it is in the sculpt) - Gold is a good substance to have made magical staff top out of, even if it is not currently blazing with magical OSL goodness ;)
Month Four Total:
Human Cannon and 3 crew - 100 pts
Dwarf Cannon and 3 crew -110 pts
Human Wizard - 56 pts
TOTAL FOR THE MONTH: 266 pts
Except it wasn't quite all for the month! Having taken it right to the last few hours with the two Cannon, crew, and Wizard, I suddenly found myself with time to knock out one more mini as an extra. He is another characterful, Oldhammer style sculpt from the Foundry Time Warped Wizards collection, who I thought looked the part to join this force either as Quartermaster for the Baggage Train, a VIP NPC for RPG purposes, or, more practically, an extra Cannon Crew member - I like the idea of expensive pieces of ordinance being owned by enthusiastic militarily minded Nobs who then turn up with a goblet of wine to watch it being fired ;)
This is also practical as it frees up the Battle Masters Plastic Artillery Commander to act as a Unit Leader/Champion for the Crossbowmen. to make them up to a unit of ten if needed.
I still have some chunky units to complete before I will consider the challenge completed, but I at least managed to get everything left on my list based and undercoated over the Easter Holiday (about the only thing I did get painted mind you!) so fingers crossed I make it over the line.
Bon courage all.'
