January Painting

 *blows off the dust* I guess it's been a minute since I updated around here, huh? Well, I do have some painted miniatures to show off.

First up are "Totleger's Carvers," my first regiment for the "Defenders of Vogelburgh," my 3rd edition Empire/Halflings army for this year's Old World Army Challenge. A unit of halberdiers (or Helblitzen, as they're called in the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book), the human figures are War of the Roses infantrymen from Front Rank (since as of 1987, GW hadn't settled on a landsknecht aesthetic for the Empire yet), supported by a mercenary ogre from Knightmare Miniatures and a particularly feisty rooster from Dunkeldorf. Chickens of various types are going to be a theme throughout this army. 

The banner is painted on graph paper and entirely freehand. 

Here's a better look at the ogre; the barrel on his base is a resin bit from Dunkeldorf, and represents the regiment's lager ration.

With these figures finished around January 21st, rather than jumping right into the next unit for the Old World Army Challenge, I decided to paint up eight more orc archers from the 1987 Harboth's Orc Archers boxed set. I painted a dozen of them, including Harboth himself, back in 2021 as part of my first entry into the Old World Army Challenge, but wanted to finish the rest of the command group and enough rank-and-file to bring the unit up to a proper 20 figures. And that meant I also had to paint shields and a banner for the regiment.

The box describes Harboth and his boyz painting their shields with the faces of particularly noteworthy enemies; I went instead for a variety of grinning, disgruntled and suffering faces, with pallid green skin and glowing orange eyes. Are they orcs? Zombies? Who knows!

I went for a similar face, framed with wild white hair, for the banner; in retrospect it's got a little bit of an Eddie vibe from the band Iron Maiden, which I think works well.

 

Again, the banner is freehand on painted graph paper.

Finally, here's a shot of Harboth's shield; I had originally done a plain shield for him back in 2021, but pried it off and replaced it with an original Citadel plastic shield from the 80s. As I painted the face, it started to look like one eye was squinting a bit so I added a little Carroburg Crimson wash for a bleeding, empty socket. It differentiates him just a little bit from the boyz under his command.

All in all, January was a very productive month for me; February is shaping up to be less so, but we'll see what the next 12 days bring.

Also, I have bought the rulebooks for Warhammer: The Old World, as well as movement trays with spacers to adjust for the changed base sizes for the new game. I am hoping to be able to bring out my all metal orcs and goblins army and begin actually playing with them!