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Next up…. Scalians

Well I made it home at 08.00 this morning. Managed about three hours sleep last night. The seats in the bar aren’t exactly the most comfortable, but at least I could lie down… certainly beats the floor.

So this afternoon I managed a smidge of painting.

I redid the green on the bows and still missed a bit as seen by the photo. This has brow been rectified! I also gave their bellies a lighter green and then painted the flights on the arrows white then used a red on them. The red will be the common colour for all units.

The swords at the back were given a coat of grey contrast paint. Obviously they came out of a different spawning pool to the bows, these have got shields to attach to the arm. When I am ready to attach 5he shields I will scrape away the paint where the shield will go, this will ensure a metal to metal bond. The shields and or loin cloths will be where the red goes on these.

Tomorrow I will get some more done on these.

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8 hours to go…

Well that is the holiday over, apart from an 8 hour journey home.

Orkney has been great, but I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned I was there, it rained and the tents flooded. We had to spend £55 to get in the hostel for an evening.

Anyway some photos…

Precursor to the Churchill barrier, one if the actual barrier to the left of the photo.

Tomb of the Eagles

Ness of Brodgar, top photo shows the 4 metre wide wall, middle one shows an unusual and very large rectangular Neolithic building. The bottom shows the extent of the excavations to date, but basically based on geophysics, every bit of the grass that can be seen has a structure under it. Not bad for buildings 5000 years old.

They were importing goods from as far away as Cumbria (and beyond, I just can’t remember where else 🙄)

These are the stones of Stenness – these predate Stonehenge. A tenant farmer tried to blow these up with dynamite but was stopped by the local population! The two concrete blocks mark where another couple of stones stood. In 1906 one if the stones below that had fallen was replaced by 8 men and a wooden scaffold. For scale these are about 15 feet (5 metres high)

The ring of Brodgar, a famous Orkney land mark. These stones differ from the ones above in that they are not dug in as deep. They come from 19 different parts of Orkney and current thinking is that they are so shallow (around 30cm) as they were meant to be taken down and replaced by other stones. The ditch was cut into bed rock with Neolithic tools of antler picks!

I will be back in operation tomorrow evening.

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Orkney Day 2

Well the weather here has been awesome up to this evening, it has clouded over as the day drew on. Yesterday we had some Neolithic and Viking/Norse shenanigans. Today we had more pre history with a visit to the Tomb of the Eagles followed by some more Viking/Norse remains, not to forget a run along the Churchill barriers.

No pictures as my phone camera is totally shot and their is no internet at the campsite to upload pics either.

Hobby wise I have been doing so more reading on the Sudan campaign to save Gordon. Eventually I will run the campaign to do so from Suakin on the Red Sea.

We will be using my 10mm Pendraken forces and terrain to fight. The idea is that players will be officers of her majesty playing against an Umpire or two. I like the Science versus pluck rules so will use them.

The general commanding will have to organise supplies and request troops etc prior to the campaign. They will aim to reach Berber where the campaign will end.

Anyone who wants a non combat role can be a reporter for the Times.

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Off Island…

Weather for the journey South is rather pleasant

Bressay just disappearing into the Haa (sea mist)

Here we are passing the end of the Shetland mainland…

I took photos of Puffins from over there.

Four hours to go before we get off!

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Interesting Find

Sometimes the fact that my parents hung onto things for decades does have its advantages. Both have passed away now but these were kept by my father and now belong to me…

These are just some of the treasures I now have.

I have a number of other such booklets from WW2 not to mention a WW1 bayonet that was given to my father in round about 1926 to play with! It does go nicely with my WW1 Lee Enfield 😁. I was going to do First World War cavalry as a great uncle had been in the Northumberland Hussars, but my move to Shetland put pay to that. The rifle was purchased and deactivated before it became difficult to get such things.

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Scalians… Further Work

I managed some of the infantry and general today

These still need a bit of work – first being to find all the bits I missed with the green paint. No matter how many times I look, I still spot things on the photo that were not painted. I think it might be that as the pain is wet it glistens, causing me to think the white bits are wet paint. I have just had another really close look and I am spotting more and more.

After a repaint of the green (it would seem), I need to paint the arrows in the quivers and then do some claws. A bit of highlighting wouldn’t go amiss on the bows. Then I can start on the swordsmen.

The other thing I did was darken down the fur on the big beastie. The chain and shield rims are now not blending in. I really need to tidy up the gold at the 11 o’clock on the shield though… I keep forgetting!

Am bit of highlighting on the general’s shield rim would help too. This is really where Contrast paint doesn’t work. Flat areas basically are a waste of time going for the ‘shove some paint on and voila – done’ approach.

Tomorrow I will try and get this lot finished and then at least make a start on the sword armed ones.

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Scalians – Work on the Big Beastie

So I managed to get some work done on the big beastie or Juggernex as it is called on the website 😁.

I am happy with the mottling on the skin, but less so with the rest. The contrast paint didn’t work so well on the shield. I will have to highlight them both. Not to mention the gold. The gold looks better in real life, the photo has almost blended it into the skin tone.

I will need to get it flocked up, but need to decide on what and how to do it with.

Once I get these ones painted then I think I will get the cavalry… half with bows and half with spears.

Luckily the UK distributor lives on Shetland.

I have a couple of evenings left before the hols, so hopefully I will get some more painted before I head off.

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Scalians – Making a Start

I cracked on this evening and got the minis glued down onto the MDF bases. This took a bit longer than expected as these minis are large scale 15mm. So my normal 3 or 4 to a base looked wrong.

I got out the bases that I had and had a play about.

In the end I found some 25 x 40mm bases and went for two to a base. There are sixteen to a pack so two’s worked well.

In the end I ended up with eight x bows and eight x swords as well as a general and a large beastie thing.

As you can see from the photo above the large beastie had a bit of a makeover. This was because he was a bit lacklustre – to be frank he was actually boring and crappy. Which is really weird as the rest of them are lovely miniatures.

Where I put the saddle/pad were a set of straps from the legs that just fizzled out. It was almost as if a saddle was an optional extra. I checked on the website and I can’t find anything to go on it. He is a mix of lizard and mammal and there is very little texture to the skin, I really should blend in that tail section when the superglue has cured fully (who would like to bet I forget before spraying).

My attempt to titivate him is a bit off scale, but it was what I had lying around the shed at the time.

I have my source material ready for colour ideas!

The Lizardman Army was my favourite alongside the wood elves and definitely my favourite in Warmaster. Sadly they went the journey, but the Warmaster army did make me £250 which was used to buy a second hand SLR camera.

I will get these sprayed tomorrow morning and start on the painting tomorrow evening.

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More Work on the Elves

Okay yesterday, I foolishly said it was warm, but not South temperature… foolish me!

Taken in the garden at 11.00 this morning.

it was still 26 degrees at 18.00 this evening… anyway onto the elves…

They are pretty much done apart from the bases, so I did indeed manage to get them finished by the end of the weekend.

I am honestly not sure how I am going to base them…I might stick some of my home made flock into the coffee grinder and get it a lot finer. I will have to have a think.

So, apart from the shields, hair and the metallics, these were painted in contrast paint. I do quite like it for this scale, I am still a little ambivalent about it in 28mm. Tomorrow I think I will make a start on some 15mm Lizardmen. I have just remembered that I have a ‘Tin Soldier’ 15mm Aztec DBA army sitting there too. They would make a nice opposing force to the Scalians.

Shortly after taking the photo above – this happened…

These lucky ones hit the table, the unlucky ones hit the floor. I think they all survived.

Tomorrow I am helping my in laws dismantle a lean to and put another one up in it’s place. Wish me luck, if the temperature is anything like today I am not going to be a happy bunny. I have become acclimatised to a Shetland Summer.

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More Work on the Elves

Today has been a warm one, nothing like the silly temperatures down South, but still warm enough for us. So this afternoon, as promised, we went of for a game of hide and seek in one of our few woods up here. I am pleased to report that my Ninja skills have not left me.

Anyway…Elves. I blasted on with these again tonight and managed to get them to the nearly finished stage. Basically weapons, metalwork, hair and hands to do and that’s them finished.

Looking closely at the actual bases, I have noticed that some have bi coloured trousers that need rectifying.

Hopefully I will get these finished tomorrow, then potentially move onto some 15mm Lizardmen (Battle Valour- Scalians) that I won at the HOTT tournament earlier this year.