Paul's Border Princes - Month Two (222 pts)

"Howdy folks and welcome to the latest extreme tourism hot spot of The Border Princes! You'll experience political turmoil, highway robbery, a system of fiendishly complex hyper-local tariffs, and top notch Halfling Gastronomy... some of it weaponised. Now, if you'll just step over to your left those very short gentleman with sharp objects will relieve you of any excess valuables so that you can continue with your tour..."

That's right it's Halflings this month! :D

Only thing to do in the shortest month of the year which also includes Pancake Day!

Roger 'Wildchild' McKenzie had what one might politely describe as a 'portfolio career', footpad, bounty hunter, cattle rustler, thief taker, river pirate, bandit chieftain... having his share of both good and bad luck on both sides of the law and losing an eye in the process. Luckily he already had an eyepatch in his highwaymans' disguise kit. When called upon by the local prince (i.e. given the choice between service or gaol) Roger acts as the leader of the Halfling forces and often brings his bandits with him.

This chap is a Kev Adams sculpt from the Short Wars / Ye Alchemist range and lots of fun to paint. His eye patch, foppish hat, and pistol scream highway man to me and I imagine him as a well heeled WFRP character with many career advances under his belt.

Otto 'Big Plate' Osterbuck was every Halfling Halberdier's vote as champion of their unit due to his well earned reputation for "always knowing when the kettle last boiled" and not letting things like 'orders' and 'marching discipline' get in the way of more important things like meal schedules and menus.

This sculpt by Dario Biancheri was a worthy winner of one the contests on the Oldhammer Sculpting Group and I believe will eventually be available from Dario's own company Grimforge. The sculpt was entitled 'Halfling Adventurer' and  is packed full of characterful detail from the copper kettle and plucked chicken on his pack, to the row of sausages along his chest, right down to the tiny spoon strapped to the scabbard of his short sword! Love him.

Bufo the 'Better than Adequate' is a Halfling Wizard with a secret... he's a vegan! Some in the community mutter that it's a sin against cheese and nature, others whisper that it's the secret of his mystical powers! Is that a ball of magical green fire in his hands, or is it a lettuce for a quick mid battle salad? I'm still not sure and I painted him.

The Halfling Wizard is another Kev Adams sculpt from Short Wars/Ye Alchemist, the characters come with a variety of heads and arms/weapons so you can create quite a few character archetypes including a cleric / warrior priest who would be fun for D&D or WHQ, but doesn't fit this army so he's still in the lead pile for a future project.

This is Adam Kevins. He plays the drums in the Halfling Halbediers marching band and free jazz ensemble. This does occasionally result in some interesting marching patterns such as the Highwayman's Hot Step, and the Border Princes Boogaloo, but he certainly gets his unit where they need to be in good time, even if it is irregular ;)  

He's another Kev Adams sculpt from the Short Wars range, and the detail is appropriately crisp and the facial expression is nice and cheeky, I'm really not doing the faces justice with these paint jobs or photos I'm afraid!

Finally we have the Alan Perry designed Halfling Hot Pot Catapult. I love this model, and the unit it represents. It's one of those pieces that really evokes what Warhammer Fantasy Battle is all about for me. Bit of my childhood Warhammer dream fulfilled in painting this one up :)

I obviously made an attempt at a basic scenic base for this one but I'm a little annoyed with myself that I didn't do a better job of camouflaging the shape of the bases - that being a major part of the exercise! I thought the flock would cover it better. Ah well...

I left the Head Chef detachable. He's too useful a miniature for RPGs not to keep him separate.



Here is the tally for month two then:

Roger 'Wildchild' McKenzie, Halfing Hero (L. Armour, Hand Weapon, Pistol) - 69 pts

Otto 'Big Plate' Osterbuck, Halfling Champion (L. Armour, Halberd) - 34 pts

Bufo 'the Better than Adequate', Halfling Wizard - 56 pts

Adam Kevins, Halfling Halbedier Musician - 13 pts

Halfling HotPot Catapult and 3 crew - 50 pts

Month Two Total:  222 pts

February has been a busy month and I was also running the Moot-uary painting challenge (aka Short things for a short month) over on the Middlehammer facebook group and one of the group suggested a mini-challenge to see what people could come up with using the Halfling Sprue from Wargames Atlantic. I had already decided that, although not included in my OWAC army list (or points total for this month as they were for another painting challenge), I was going to need some 'Fling Archers so I took the opportunity to kit bash a bunch using the Frostgrave Soldiers sprue and some more Kev Adams sculpted heads from the Short Wars range, as the WA sprue only gives you two bows per 5 flings and there wasn't enough variation in the heads that would suit this force. They were a very quick job so the kit bash is a bit rough around the edges, but I'm pretty happy with them overall.

I give you the Long Shafts (Red and cream - a bit more 'Official Militia') and the Rowdy Roosters (Red and Yellow - a bit more Halfling Highwaymen). The unit names were taken from their banner poles and reflect the two different units characters. It also gave me a chance to see how the dark yellow looks when given a bit more prominence in the overall colour scheme and gives the Halflings more of a theme colour. A useful little side project :)

Right, onward to Month Three! :D