A German Company for Crossfire

And after the Brits, here are the Wehrmacht forces I assembled for Crossfire.

My German forces are specular to the British: three Rifle Platoons of three squads each and a Platoon Commander; two HMGs; a Forward Observer; a Company Commander

A British Company for Crossfire

After bingewatching Band of Brothers I finished painting my British and German forces for Crossfire.

Here they are, the Brits!

This is my British Company: three Rifle Platoons, each composed by three riflemen squads and a Platoon Commander; two HMGs; a FO (Forward Observer, the man entitled to indicate where my off-table mortars will shot) and a Company Commander

Look out for Xerxes's scouts!

Quick update: I finally completed 4 elements for my DBA 3.0 1/72 army of Early Achaemenid Persians I/60c, the army from the Persian Wars.

It was an odyssey. I don't know why, but I needed an unnecessary long time to finish these miniatures, and they're just 1/3 of the whole army! The God King wouldn't be pleased...

However I'm really glad of the final result. When I'll put my hands on the other elements I'll complete the army and show them all, but I wanted to mark this initial step since it was so hard to achieve.

These are 3 elements of 8Bw, the Immortals in the middle with the standard and other two sparabara infantry elements. The light infantry on the left is 3Ax, representing Armenians fighters

The sparabara were the biggest elements I’ve ever painted for DBA, since I only confronted 8Bw against Michele’s Byzantines. I chose the colour pattern to better distinguish the units, although in reality they would have been more mixed

The base is a really simple work: Citadel Agrellan Earth with this nice cracked finish, brown wash, Bonewhite drybrush and some flock. I think it’s right for the Greek landscape in which they fought

And looking at a pic of the plain of Marathon, I think I can go with it!

Badlands start treating us good - my Orcs & Goblins army

The Badlands sang by The Boss (clearly an Orc&roll star, given his strength derivated from his Greenskin heritage) are home of multiple Orcs & Goblins tribes, and mine is no exception. During this fifteen years of hobby, my first army grew costantly and is still growing; we played numerous battles, we lost a very lot of them but always with an Orcish grin on our green face, and the will to take our victory in another, glorious slaughter.

With the release of Warhammer: The Old World (from now on WTOW), I take the chance to make and inventory of my Greenskin miniatures. I think they're the army of which I have more miniatures; however, as you'll see, I didn't paint pretty much anything of it yet. Maybe the future will se my Orcs all painted on the table: it would be an awesome view! Something still need to be build, also: this is one of my goals for the 15th Year Hobby Celebration.

Well, time to go.

Waaagh! Alfray

Da best Waaagh! since Gorbad. Est. 2009

#sporktober part II - Vox populi

I'm now ready to get on prepping and painting my models for our #sporktober challenge. However, I've got some models to choose between, and I want my fellows to decide which I will paint. Since Michele is my opponent and Grimbeorn is the jury, it may be biased to ask them to choose my miniature. But this is a friendly challenge, and I'm sure they'll choose the miniature they sincerely like the most to see finished by the end of the month.

After my brief report on the models from the past editions of Warhammer, these are my miniatures I currently possess which could compete in the challenge. Let the people decide!

Speed painting in 10mm... more or less

After our last battle with my Celtiberians, my friend Alexander and I planned a Hordes of the Things game with the same armies (at least for me). Some time ago I purchased some elements from Pendraken to deploy in fantasy games played with historical armies: the figures derive as much as possible from the mythological background of Celtic and Iberian populations, merged with what I thought could result cool on the battlefield.

I seized the opportunity to try some speed painting with my 10mm figures. After all, this is one of the reasons why I like this particular scale, but my last deeds - almost two years to paint an army - weren't really coherent with this thought. So, I gave it a try.

The models I bought from Pendraken: there is an assortment of giants, trolls, centaurs and other creatures I found right for the setting of my Celtiberians and Celtic armies

Some prepping to polish the metal figures

The seven elements I chose for this particular venture: Behemot (giants and trolls), Magician (the druids with the menhir in the background), Beasts (deers on the right) and Lurkers (the treemen)

Firstly, black undercoat on every miniature

Then I proceed with my usual recipe: heavy Wraithbone drybrush and Contrast Skeleton Horde on the models. Then, one element at time, I go nuts with Contrasts and drybrush. Always very simple, speed is the key

After an evening, here's the result! Five elements are completed, apart from the bases, one Behemot element is still to complete and I left out the Magician element

Well, here my speed painting attempt encountered a problem, because I couldn't go on with the hobby for a couple days. Never mind, the experiment was still a success, even if not 100% complete. When I finished the two remaining elements, here's the result

As per the Celtiberians, first thing on the base is a layer of Agrellan Earth

Time to battle! I wanted to finish the bases but I had not quite the time. So, we packed up with our nice metal box (every element is magnetized) and went to crush the enemy

First HotT game for my enhanced Celtiberians! We were up against Alexander's Lizardmen (superb models from Eureka), but it was a nasty battle... battle report here!

Just a first view of the battlefield!

Back home, I completed the bases and call it done. It was an useful experiment, I learned that 10mm are just right for speed painting like this! Next time I need to paint some Celts...

This shamans are deployed as Magician, and the deers as Beasts (even if they're not carnivores as depicted in the HotT core book)

Behemots

Lurkers. Some more grass and tufts for them, obviously!

They match just right with their human kin. Pretty happy with the result!

10mm Celtiberian on the march!

First DBA post for 2021!

I finally achieved my long time goal (and first goal for 2022, cheers) to finish painting my 10mm II/39b Celtiberians for DBA 3.0. They were on my shelf since April 2020, I think: a real shame, especially because I wanted them so hard at the time.

Here they come.

The Celtiberian list has no free choices, so every caped element is 3Bd and it's the core of the army. The other elements are 4 x Ps, Light Horse and the Cv Gen element

I am pretty happy with the outcome. They are a nice sight in the distance, on the battlefield, and I love the crowdy look this miniature scale gives to the single elements.

I also tried them on the field against my dear friend Alexander's Polybian Romans, on this stunning DBA table.

The Roman 4Bd are really menacing in this double line

Celtiberian scutarii (3Bd) chase Roman auxiliary troops (4Ax) near the enemy camp

The two main lines approach, but Roman infantry is heavily obstructed by the difficult hill and the hamlet

Light troops fight on the side. The Celtiberian General is hurrying up to support his forces!

We won in the end. It was a nice game indeed, really tactical and focused on crucial decisions especially affected by the hilly terrain in which my Celtiberians dwell. Take that you filthy Roman invader!

We plan a Hordes of the Things game soon with some fantasy elements added to our armies... a cool idea we had some time ago. I'm currently prepping the figures (always from Pendraken): more updates soon!

Hobby ho! New year's projects spotted 🔭

Happy 2022 from the Lair's crew! Davide, Michele and me look forward to the new year, ending a 2021 with lots of hobby, above all lots of gaming, which remains our main focus as wargamers.

So, fast check of our last deeds from past December.

Focus on Kill Team for Grimbeorn: here are his Death Korps of Krieg from the Octarius box. On square bases? Yeah, you know that he's an old WFB wolf...

Building was the main interest for Grimbeorn during 2021, beside gaming. The Kill Team's models and scenics are just the latest task on his workbench!

2021 was a fruitful year for Frontlineminiaturist! Recently we discovered the SAGA system (more on that later), and he purchased his Viking warband immediately. Here are his berserkers!

Nice and charming Viking standard bearer.

Just to let me and Grimbeorn begrudge him, Frontlineminiaturist painted and completed his two Mordheim warbands. The Averlander are his proud (and our purge on the battlefield. Damned may be their bows!)

Last but not least, his Frank army for DBA 15mm is almost ready and magnetized. Lots of hobby during this last month!

What about Amarok (aka me)? My last deed was this Imperial Fist I painted to join a little local painting contest. I'm very proud of him, even if I could always do better. I wanted to try a dirty look on this mini, and I'll start building and painting a Space Marine Kill Team soon!

I finally manage to prep this set of walls and fences I love from my WFB first times. Ready for speed painting!

So, I am a teacher, and on our last day in school I taught my students how to play a little DBA game fielding Caesar's legions and the Gauls, our last topic from our Classics program. It was really fun for both boys and girls!

We closed 2021 with some gratification, but what about the future?

On Christmas 2020 me and Grimbeorn listed some good resolutions for 2021. Honestly, I wasn't really good in fulfilling them, so I'll lower the shot for 2022, hoping to complete the tasks I have in mind.

Here they are, Amarok's top 5 hobby good intentions for 2022:

Edit: I'm updating this post with new links when and as I fulfill my goals.

1. Paint at least one DBA 10mm army;
2. Finish painting my 500 pts Skaven Warband for WFB (I started them in 2020, contesting with Grimbeorn and his Dwarves);
3. Build and organize my Orcs & Goblin collection (I purchased some new minis I still need to clean up and stock;
4. Play more Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay;
5. Manage our blog, which turns 1 on January 13th for the English version and 2 in March for the Italian version and general concept.

See you in the next few days for updates!

Again, happy new hobby year from us 🎲

Grimbeorn, Frontlineminiaturist, Amarok