Faffing About

 I've been puttering away at plenty of things, and not completing hardly any of them. I did finish the jungle terrain with the Olmec head:

I'm pretty well pleased with how it turned out. 

In other news...

My friend Chris sent me an early birthday present. I'd enthused on BlueSky about the old I-Kore "Celtos" line of Celtic fantasy miniatures, having discovered it's still in production through Brigade Models. I'd been eyeing these models since the early 2000s, but never had a good justification for buying them (and especially back then, when I was in my late teens and didn't have meaningful money coming in). Chris pulled a whopping collection of Celtos Sidhe figures (basically elves) out of his own pile of shame, including archers, swordsmen, mages and dragon riders. 

I may or may not rebase them, but either way I'm overwhelmed by the generosity! 

Besides that...

I found out a local friend of mine has a Wargods of Olympus army from Crocodile Games, which inspired me to dig out the Wargods of AEgyptus army I painted most of back in 2020; the two games are cross-compatible so it's entirely possible I might actually get a game of Wargods in without having to drive to Historicon or Adepticon for it. 

Having been dissatisfied with the contrast paints I used on the Basti Archers (leading them, and the army, to be left unfinished back then), I stripped the paint off them to start fresh, and I cleaned up one of the chariots I'd bought and built some sub-assemblies for painting. 

Once painted, the horses will have their tabs trimmed off and the entire assembly glued just to the 50x100 chariot base. I've misplaced one of the chariot runners in the past six years, which is annoying but not insurmountable. 

I'll do these with contrast paints to match the rest of the army, though the Basti will be getting a blue and white color scheme instead of the turquoise and red look I tried in 2020, and probably some more variety in their fur colors. Also, all of the bases in the army are getting redone to replace the awful "baking soda and superglue painted as sand" thing I tried to do back then. 

So let's update that tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 116

Miniatures Painted: 87

Terrain Acquired: 1

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Wargods Army, Part 3

Still plugging away at my Wargods of Aegyptus army, and pleased to report I'm nearly 1000 points of troops and characters painted and ready to play.  I take a lot of pride in not playing with unpainted figures wherever possible; I'll never shame another wargamer for bringing unpainted troops to the table, but I can be the "city on the hill" with my figures and hopefully inspire others. 

This Beastmaster (and the elephant that will be accompanying him) won't be seeing the table in 1000 point games, I don't think, but I could potentially field them in 1200 point games.  His skin and hair, the leather he's wearing and the green fabric are, as usual with this army, all GW Contrast Paints. 

These City-Dwellers just need the wood and metal bits detailed, then touch-ups and their shields and bases done.  Once they're all set, I just have one City-Dweller hero and my Harbinger himself and that'll bring me to about 1000 points. 

I do have more awaiting assembly and painting, however; an elephant to accompany my Beastmaster, a unit of archers and a champion to accompany them, and two chariots that will be reserved for bigger games, but I'm nonetheless excited for them.

Wargods Army Part 2

I've made some progress on my "Wargods of AEgyptus" army; a second block of ten Khemru have been painted (with red gems instead of blue, to differentiate them from the first unit), as well as the first of two champions armed with two-handed weapons.

Currently on the painting table, I have another four Khemru warriors (to bump these two units up to 12 apiece), a second champion, a Master of Words (aka a spellcaster) and a Beastmaster, a special troop type that Khemru can field.  He'll eventually be paired with an elephant to smash opponents' heavy troops with.  Also on the painting table is a unit of ten human spearmen; I might strip and repaint them; their skintone is currently two coats of GW Contrast "Darkoath Flesh," and the second coat went on a little blotchy.

Coming this week or next in the mail are an elephant, a unit of Basti archers and two chariots.  That'll put me at about 1500 points for this army and I'm not sure if I want to continue building up to 1750 or 2000.  I'm pretty happy with where things sit and I expect most games I'll be playing, at least locally, will be in the vicinity of 1000-1250 points. 

Beginning a Wargods of Aegyptus Army

Right before lockdown began, some guys in the local wargaming community began talking about possibly getting some armies together for Wargods of Aegyptus, a fantasy game set in a Mythic, prehistoric Egypt produced by Crocodile Games. 

Now, years and years ago (pre-2010) I'd tried to drum up interest in my college gaming club without any luck, and sold off my books and such like.  My better half was kind enough to get me a new copy of the rulebook and the beginning of an army for my birthday this year, and now I'm getting some paint on them. 

These first ten are a unit of the Khemru, the Children of Khanum (soon to be bumped up to a unit of 12).  These goat-headed warriors have a fairly tragic backstory in game; a naturally peaceful race of healers and farmers, they've been forced to go to war to restore peace and the Law of the Gods to Aegyptus.  They carry maces to avoid drawing blood and shout appeals for peace before every battle. 

I've found it's been getting more and more challenging for me to sit down and assembly-line paint units, and to that end I bought a couple of pots of Games Workshop contrast paints to help speed the process along.  Their skintone is GW "Space Wolves Grey," all of the leather on their collars and armbands is done with "Snakebite Leather," and their kilts, standard-top and shields were done with "Warp Lightning Green." It really made things easier - the entire unit of 10 was done in about six hours spread over 3 days.  I don't remember the last time I painted 10 figures like this in less than a week. 

I have two more figures to add to this unit, and another unit of 12 Khemru to do, followed by ten human warriors, allied to the Khemru cause.  That plus a few characters will give me my first thousand points.