Paul/Golgfag1's March - Actual C series amazons plus a few extras (3150 points)

Rank & File month #3 

More troops this month, but this time I'm actually painting 'C30' series Amazonians from back in the day, originally designed by the Perry twins, produced as a foil to the Slann of Lustria. The first time they were promoted by Citdel/ Games Workshop was in the scenario Rigg's Shrine in the second Citadel Compendium, written by Richard Helliwell.

 

So, first up a few spear and bow armed bodyguard, will be playing the part of elite +2, from third edition, giving me sixteen figures at nineteen points each - three hundred and four points.

I'm also going to add a few specialists from other manutacturers as I don't really have that many C series figures and my force needs a little something to provide a little bit of punch - Chariots, via Ral partha, the originls are pulled by human slaves, great for the story, but not much good on the tabletop. 

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So, I switched them for sabre-toothed tigers from Grenadier, which means they move slightly quicker and have a lot more bite when entering into combat. Two chariots with basic crew one hundred and ninety eight points each - three hundred and ninety six points.

My spare time is pretty much taken up with painting for this challenge at the moment, as the early evenings are still fairly dark, and the weather isn't conducive to spending any significant time in the garden. So, I'm going to push on with a second batch of infantry, a mixed bag of C series tribes women, berserkers and Koka-kalim weilding bows, daggers, swords, bolts-pistols and power swords.

This little lot weigh in at a mighty nine hundred and ninety three points, the majority of which is the three powerswords and bolt pistol.

Next up - Pygmie skimishers, weilding either bows or short spears/javelins adding another thirty two points, I've not included for the standard witch doctor or champion.

Whilst trawling E-bay, I dropped upon this dragon (a tiny little thing, not sure what it's from?), which I thought would add a little something to this months mix, I'll be honest attaching the wings was a complete pain, but the simply paint job was done in an evening, so this adds another two hundred and fifty points to this months total.

Before anybody asks how did I manage to dab paint on this little lot in a couple of weeks - Annual leave, as I loose all of any I don't take, on the first April. Recently found this on E-bay, advertised as a living statue, thought it'd would make a nice addition to my growing collection, following on with the Rigg's Shrine - I'm of the opinion that this would make a better avatar for the scenario, than the original model. I've used magnets to make the parts inter-changable from a statue on the plinth to avatar for a thousand points!

 As the end of the month draws ever closer, dabed a bit more paint behind the ears of a few more Pilgrims of various manufacture and ages which shows how attitudes to figure design and nakedness as changed! All I have to do now is base & varnish. I've pointed up this last batch as there's a selection of heroes and magic users mixed in, at a hundred and seventy five points.

This months all based, varnished and ready to join their sisters!

I'm taking next month off, not because I want a break from painting, but I want to paint and post something else, on the Oldhammer Forum. Hope you enjoyed the journey and see you again in May.

Paul D's / Golgfag1 February - more amazonian pilgrims (470 points)

Rank and file #2

 - 30x spear block, with no champions, musician or standard (270 points) with a detachment of 10x sling armed skirmishers of Greek / Hellenistic Pilgrims (60 - 70 points), figures were produced by Foundry (Will always be Citadel to my mind), which appear to be currently unavailable.

Following a promising start on the initial batch, I attempted to attach them to their plastic bases to assist holding them steady, whilst I paint the detail, with some old epoxy resin I had in my box of stuff, I should have realised as I mixed the two components together that something wasn't right, as I watched fumes and feel the heat rise! but I carried on, trying to hold the figures in place whilst the glue set, but it didn't, after about a hour with a semi-set gloop around the figures feet, I went off to bed in hope that the bloody stuff would set by the time I rose from my bed. Needless to say it didn't. So I removed the bases, cleaned off the mess and set the half completed figures to one side, whilst I ordered replacement bases via E-bay. 

Thus, I found myself splashing paint over what was to be the second batch of figures and their shields, inspired by a touch of light reading from Osprey and Mr McBrides artwork. The initial freehand efforts with the lions heads were a tad small, but rather the paint over and start again, I added a laurel reef around the edge, which I'm quite pleased with (happy accident). The other shields are my attempt to mould other typical designs on to the face of the supplied Spartan shields.

So my intended second batch, is now my first, currently look like this, with more to follow. I usually decorate bases within a unit/army at the same time, so you'll just have to wait until I've completed this months efforts to see them finished.

Following the delivery of new bases and a weekend of not doing anything else but daubing paint, gluing and dipping, my initial efforts have been brought to a successful conclusion.

Also, splashed a touch of paint over the skirmishers

As I rattled those off fairly quick, I decided to add another unit of rank and file - this time, mask wearing tribeswomen armed with spears and shields. A nice stroke of co-incidence, theirs shields have moulded lions heads to match my earlier attempts at freehand.

 

All for a grand total of a hundred and forty points to add to my earlier efforts giving a grand total of four hundred and seventy points for this month.     

Next months allocation - As I've now broken the back (758 points) of hitting the thousand point mark, I'm going to try dabbing a touch of paint over a few Citadel 'C30' Amazonian Bodyguards, which will be my Elite choice, designed by the Perry twins http://www.solegends.com/citc/c030amazons/index.htm . Doubt, I'll be hitting the same number of actual figures, as I'll be mixing my palette to give them a touch of variety, but time will tell. 

 Hope you're enjoying the journey as much as I'am?

PaulD/Golgfag's initial duabings of paint on my Amazonians (288 pts)

First, day of the challenge found me sat at home looking out the window at thick fog, with nothing particularly to do, apart from sit at my painting station and start duabing paint on a few figures. The question, where to start with the girls - the hard-hitting but colourful nobles, the elite bodyguard, warmachines (slave drawn chariots), the tribewomen or the masses of humble pilgrims? As this a project over the next six months, where I'll be unable to set anything to one side to draw either breath or inspiration I've decided to get the boring rank & file stuff out of the way first -  human pilgrims.

Rank and file month #1

Third Edition Warhammer states for Amazons, you should use Human stats, with no particular add-ons to give them a fravour for their enviroment. So here's my first ten figures:-

I'm not using Citadel 'C' series Amazons for pilgrims (as my pockets aren't that deep) but, Celtos female Gael warriors http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Celtos/The%20Gaels.html, as they scale up pretty well with the originals, I like the figures and my take is - they're representing one of the out-laying settlements which have their own culture away from the temple, where they deal with the mundane as they see fit and only refer back to the temple to receive news, require help or their fix! I also don't have an issue with new alternative figures for Oldhammer.

Now, being humans, with the representative point values - this little lot with the musician is only going to come in at ninety nine points at most, with shield, light armour (this ones the stretch as they're not really wearing a great deal) and carrying a spear (5+1+2+1= 9) which, if, I continue on the same course will leave me well short of the thousand point target for the end of the challenge, thus as I tend the paint in batches I'll likely paint more than the required ten figures this month.

Here's the finished first batch, quite happy with how they compare with my original duabing of paint from a couple of years ago.

Here's a couple of close-ups so you can see just how heavy handed I am, on the table top from about three feet they look fine.

To make-up the points I've done another couple of batches from start to finish, here's the second batch.

More close-ups

All together with the first batch.

 

Third batch

With the other batches with a first coat of varnish, gives me a total of twentynine figures painted and roughly just under three hundred points (288) with banners and musicians.

All based up and ready to go. 

The intended victims of my endeavors for next months challenge will be more pilgrims, this time utilizing Foundrys Amazons, these are much more Hellenistic/Greek looking, which will provide a solid spear block, they came with Spartan shield designs, which has to go, I'll try to  mould designs or leave smooth to paint similar features.

Here's my attempts at altering the shields useing a combination of green stuff and liquid green stuff  - the liquid didn't work so well, you can see the original design beneath. Overall happy with the results, but I really should have taken more time and worked on smaller batches rather than one big push, which would have given time to mould more shield designs and stopped the material going lumpy towards the end!