Posted on by maenoferren22

Zombies and the hunt for Dwarven Bronze

Or… who pinched my paint.

I would have got a lot further with these tonight if I hadn’t spent nearly an hour looking for a 17ml pot of paint.

The ones my mate has had painted look like they have a bronze cuirass and helmet, not to mention the rest of the metalwork.

Bronze is about the only metallic paint I don’t have, I used to have a pot of dwarven bronze, but it would seem not anymore!

Still a fair bit to go on these, not to mention tidying up, highlighting and basing. Once these are done I need to do the Ferach troops to go in the present.

I also received a few more figures,

Ferach civilians. These weren’t photographed on the website so I bought them blind. I hadn’t realised two of them were carrying pre black powder weapons. I am a little bit unsure about the first on the right as he looks more human than elvish.

I may retire him into my medieval forces and replace him with a dark elf guerrilla or two. The third one in might go the same way. I like both of the actual models but they don’t particularly shout elf to me.

I also purchased a ghoul officer and some of Zoltan’s 666th foot. This officer has quite a bit of flash on him, but it is nothing to worry about.

I ordered five and ended up receiving six. These are to bring my zombie dogs up to a unit of ten.

The other purchase I made was a wet palette. I have made my own before, but as I had made some money I decided to splash out. Evidently I didn’t read or even look at the dimensions!

A 28mm figure is sat on it. I decided to keep it as one of my daughters loves painting, but next time I shall take note of the dimensions.

Tomorrow I go on a shopping expedition to find some Bronze paint. Luckily the local toy shop sells GW stuff so will have a try in there.

Posted on by maenoferren22

5027 Grapeshotte Shilling Expansion Pack

My new toys came today 😁😁😁

I decided a while ago that when I sold a bit more of my unused and unloved ‘stuff’ I would purchase the Grapeshotte Shilling pack.

This is my review of what I think.

Firstly it was well packed, it had extra packing in to keep stuff from moving around in the box. The Bier and Bones pack had the figures in a small box. This had them in bags but sellotaped down to stop damage occurring.

So what do you get in the set….

The two sided Shilling sheet and the 96 page book.

This book is an expansion and you will need one of the other 3rd edition books to play a game.

I had an artillery piece and crew so wanted this book to allow me to use it. However this book is a whole lot more than 96 pages of artillery rules. The actual rules for artillery take up about 12 pages…and the rest.

Extra rules to enhance your Flintloque games. Foul Weather, night fighting, engineers and demolitions. There are some new troop types, obviously gunners and engineers/sappers, not to mention Guard and mounted infantry as well as cavalry on foot.

Chapter 3 looks at more generic weapons for most nations.

The rest of the book looks at both unique weapons for the various races as well as some different troop types or in some case updated ones.

The final chapter covers vehicles, exploring Officers and Faith. Not to mention singers and attaching characters to a section.

Finally you get the various artillery templates to pull out.

The artwork is similar to the other books.

A cartoon style which I really like 👍. Some are ‘cartoony’ and others are more gritty.

Now onto the figures.

The set comes with two artillery pieces (a mortar and a grasshopper gun) as well as 8 crew.

The mortar is made out of resin and the crew white metal.

This is a nice little set, it also comes with a pile of mortar shells and a cartridge holder.

The second lot is the grasshopper gun, or should I say guns…

Apologies for the blurry photograph.

As can be seen this has two guns and crew. The carried gun is separate to the dogs carrying it. I actually have the same sized barrel from an earlier artillery purchase so technically I can have two operational guns.

The white metal figures have very little flash on them and look the part.

The crews can be painted up as Ostarian or as the forces allied to the Ferach.

Now as with the Bier and Bones review I totted up individual costs of everything in the set.

The Shilling pack cost £32.50. To buy everything separately would have cost £44.50. With my blinding mathematical skills I make that a £12 saving.

Even better was I managed to get the order in on the last day of the March to war offer, therefore saving myself postage and gaining another pile of carrots for free.

The scary thing is I have three of them which means three orders in April…luckily I sold a lot off stuff and one order was for my mates birthday present….

Anyway is it worth it…. once again financially…most definitely.

If you are wanting to get into Flintloque then no – go for one of the other Shilling packs instead as they are awesome value too.

If you are wanting to add artillery into your games then most definitely.

There is a bonus for me in that I have purchased various sapper packs as well as religious figures more because I liked the figures than actually had any rules in mind for them. This book has now given me the rules.

Strangely enough, I ordered the undead engineers at the same time as the Shilling pack without realising the book they were coming with had rules for their use.

The one caveat I would give is that the artillery is great, but can be a bit powerful in a skirmish game. However with plenty of terrain it can be a very expensive target. The designer’s notes in the book explain this really well.

To end I will share one of my favourite pictures in the book… as I said at the start I love this style of illustration.

Once I sell a bit more stuff I may just have to get the death in the snow pack. I actually have the rule book as an electronic copy. To be honest I much prefer the hard copy version of things, it will have the added advantage of boosting my undead forces.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Zombies, Zombies Everywhere!

I have gone off Piste with these.

My whole army is red and green, so we have red and green… and blue. The chap behind the Officer is my newly promoted sergeant. Hence the red and white piping on the cuffs.

He became the sergeant after his predecessor had an argument with a 9lb round shot it would seem.

Still a long way to go, but getting there.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Bedtime Zombies again!

Highlights on greatcoats and breeches. Not that you can tell from the photo.

The officer has been given a silvered cuirass whilst the rest are not as swanky.

Still a long way to go before they are done. I am wondering whether to head away from the red cuffs as shown on the website to something else instead. A bit of research is required methinks.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Morning Zombies

Very little achieved last night as I was sorting out my shed.

I managed to get a wash on the cloaks, a second coat of red on the breeches. I also added some dark green on the command section tunics. I did consider white as befits an elite cuirassier unit but decided on the Russian Green. The other conundrum is the musician. Quite often these had reversed colours to the rest of the unit. I was worried that it would look like a figure from a different regiment.

I have ordered the necessary green paint to do the cloaks for these and the two resin ones. Hopefully it will come soon as I want to crack on and get them finished.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Bedtime Zombies….Again

At least these are Zombie cuirassiers!

Here we have Preserovitch’s Elite cavalry unit who have dismounted to hunt for Ferach stragglers in the Witchlands. I have basically just blocked in the cloak and breeches. I started quite late so I haven’t got as far as I would have liked. In reality the officer would have had a silver-grey greatcoat but I felt if I went down that route the unit cohesion would be lost. I might give him a silver breastplate to allow him to stand out a bit.

I am either going to put a wash on the cloaks or paint them in some grey-green paint. They aren’t as bright as they look here, but I am just not too sure if I like them or not.

The ones in the background are being painted up for my mate’s birthday. I need to find out the colours used on the prepainted ones so I have some hope of matching them in.

I really do like these figures and tried to buy just these from the starter set; instead I have had to wait a bit before I managed to get some.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Undead line and more purchases

Adding lights into my shed took a bit more time than expected.

I still managed to slap some paint on these tonight. I am not sure you can actually tell in this picture.

My purchases are thus:

The new Savant zombie colour party with sergeant, drummer and standard bearer. The rest of these in the range are resin, these however are white metal.

Below the zombies are a selection of Ferach troops from the Witchland’s campaign. These poor souls are wrapped in blankets and heavy coats to keep out of the cold. I will be painting these up for my mates birthday present.

The one thing I was not expecting was the amount of flash on the flag bearer. This, I can honestly say is a first. It will take a couple of minutes to sort out so there are no issues there. The other two zombies have a bit of a mould line so I think it was a bit of a wobble with this individual figure.

Next up are my toys.

Another four Savant zombies to take my initial squad to ten. I really do like them in their cloaks. If the colour party had been modelled wearing them I might have been tempted to get some (I am still not sure about kettle drums in a skirmish game).

A bit of a clean up is required but it won’t take long.

Next up are another couple of civilians.

An Othari aristocrat and a hobgoblin miser. These are full of character, the Aristo is wafting his, no doubt perfumed, handkerchief whilst the miser is writing something down in his notebook.

I really do like the civilian figures from the various ranges. It is my aim to collect them all.

Last of all was my free pile of carrots 🥕. As I got these models under an offer I received free postage and another set of carrots.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Undead Line

I got a bit more painting done tonight.

These half dozen zombies are all in greatcoats. Instead of giving them a contrasting cuff I decided to leave them as either brown or grey. Bizarrely enough there are three identical pairs. Even though I picked them up at random I have managed to paint one of each pair in brown and the other in grey.

Their flesh tone is skeleton bone at the minute, but once dry I will add various washes. Some greenish and others a more khaki colour. Even though I have been painting lots of zombies and other undead I still haven’t got the hang of painting their flesh.

The greatcoats have yellow epaulettes, mainly to add a bit of a brighter colour, but also because I saw them in the Osprey book on Russian Napoleonic infantry and I quite liked them. I will try and add a number on each, however it may lead to a repaint 😁.

My MDF bases have arrived so I can base up to 100 infantry on the 2p sized base. I managed to find one to base all six of the lot I am painting now.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Visthowla Legion

My big werewolf is finished.

I only have one of the set. There are 6 different ones with interchangeable heads and arms. I rather liked him so he was an impulse purchase. My original plan was to have him as a big werewolf for the forces of the Star wraith. However when I looked into it (and to be honest the Vistula legion was Polish – doh) I should have realised this unit was on the side of the Ferach.

Never mind he is a really funky figure, a bit of a grizzled veteran of many a campaign. He will certainly add a bit of a punch to the Ferach forces. He painted up nicely. I did toy with the idea of painting him in the blue and yellow of the Vistula legion but decided to stick (sort of) to the colour scheme on the Alternative Armies Website.

This basically being blue tunic with purple collar and cuffs. A red Czapka with gold braid and white breeches.

When I say he is a big werewolf, I mean he is indeed a big werewolf.

He towers above the Ferach stretcher bearer.

The other thing I managed to finish tonight was an objective marker for Flintloque or similar games.

This poor unfortunate sheltered behind the solid protection of the chest only to have his legs taken off by a cannon ball. Time and the depredations of carrion eaters have left him in a sorry state.

As it is for Flintloque the body may in fact be a trapped zombie protecting the chest. The only way to find out is to open the chest and see what it contains. Pay chest or perhaps an officer’s stock of best brandy. More than likely it will be nothing more than the records of the quartermaster.

Next up will be half a dozen Zombie line.

It looks like they have already found an officer!

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Doktorov and the Medics

I am not sure whether Medics is the right term…

I finished my reanimator and its team today.

Doktorov and the medics up first.

Doktorov is the Necromancer to the Star wraith (The head honcho of the Witchlands). He is, for want of a better term, a bit of a tinkerer. He believes that with his incredible knowledge and skills then he can improve on the stock Zombies that he re-animates. For instance he has developed a zombie that can see in the dark, a flying zombie with a rocket pack or indeed and exploding zombie. Most of the Vampires would rather not have him anywhere near them or their troops. An explosive Zombie that can explode in amongst your close packed column is doing the enemy’s job for them.

His two assistants are the dwarves Klaus and Yosephe. The dwarves were sent from Krautia to aid the Witchlands against the Ferach invasion in the hope of an alliance, an alliance that never came. Fear and boredom have turned them to drink and they somehow never manage to complete the task to the satisfaction of Doktorov.

The reanimator brings the dead back to ‘life’ as a zombie

I would imagine the two vertical prongs re-animate through the use of electricity provided by lightning.

The set comes with 5 corpses as seen below.

Some that look like they have been recently killed and others that need repairing or a bit of grave robbing has occurred. The pairs of corpses look a bit worse for wear.

I also managed to finish off the Latrinislav officer.

He is a nice figure and somehow he reminds me of a naval officer. I think it must be the hat and the beard.

Last up for this batch is the stretcher and casualty.

I think I may have gone over the top with the blood… I think he is a bit beyond the casualty stage with a ruddy great hole in his stomach that seems to be gushing blood.

To be honest I might give him a repaint (well I need to paint/tidy up his left foot if nothing else).

I have started on my Giant werewolf of the Visthowla legion. Hopefully I will get him finished tonight.