More Dragons

The toy dragons I mentioned recently aren't the only dragons I've got. I've also got a bunch that came from one of those shops that sell lots of Gothic/ethnic/alternative arts and crafts type of  things - you know, skulls and carved lizards. Nothing much to say about them really - just a bunch of dragons that will probably finish up on sand bases rather than green bases.

The Gods of Egypt

There was this seaside souvenir shop I went in a few years ago. At the back of the shop were some shelves with very unusual seaside souvenirs. Naturally, I bought them all.  Just haven't gotten round to basing them, possibly over the weekend.

I haven't seen any of these particular items since, but at 99p to £1.50 each they seemed like a good buy.

This group will make a good god plus 2 flyers.

 A pack of beasts?

 Not sure what to use these for. They're not winged, so flyer seems wrong, but then so does using them as beasts. The figures would be great 15mm behemoths, not big enough for my 20/25mm models.

 Another group of flyers.

GPC8 Sagartian with lasso

Some of my recent purchases from Minifigs. Actually I bought 12 sans horses - plenty of older Minfigs horses lying around - but frankly this batch was not really of useable quality. Pity, most of my other recent buys from Minifigs have been fine.

Anyway, assuming the Sagartians wouldn't have fielded a full contingent 6 should do until I get round to sorting the rest. On the Persian expedition to Greece they were brigaded with the Persian cavalry so will provide useful LC cover for the Persian heavies.

 It's the lasso proving a problem with this figure - even one of these isn't perfect. The one in the blue tunic third from the right shows the flawed casting - the others were worse!

Back to the toy shop

Having put all my eagles and dragons on green bases I really needed something on sand bases for my Eastern Fantasy nations. Back to the toy shop for inspiration and decided on...

 Somehow, a dirty great big vulture seemed a better Roc than using an eagle - it looks more 'Eastern'. It's a bit wide for the base, but really looks evil!

 Likewise, I know Garrison does a neat 2 headed snake but this oversize cobra seemed right to fight on the side of the likes of Stygia. I can just see a Stygian wizard either making a standard cobra grow or produce a magical version. On this one, I decided not to smoothe the filler around the cobra's body as I like the suggestion of it's coils pushing the sand around.

 The scorpion was cheap and fits in well with deserts, so I got a couple of them as well!

An old Indian DBA army

My armies have been developed over the years for lots of different reasons. This one was made from figures that were lying around to provide an army for my son when he started wargaming. It was a long time ago.

So, nothing fancy, a mix of early Warrior, early PB Minifigs, Britain's elephants and chariots converted from Airfix.  Very basic paint jobs.

 The elephants are Britain's with Minifigs PB crews. Costumes are rather garish to suggest rich silks and metallic threads.

 The chariots are Roman horses on a built up Ancient British base. Wheels would be from something like Civil War artillery with alternate spokes removed. Crew are Warrior, the charioteers being spearmen with shields removed.

 The cavalry are early PB.

Infantry are again Warrior.

The army itself did quite well as I recall. I have vague memories of one battle where I was using Ancient Brits against it and my warbands kept bouncing of the elephants. I think Steven won that one.

Alternative Armies 15mm Faerie People

I don't usually buy ready painted armies, sometimes though - back in the days when Iwas trying out 15mm I thought I'd get a HoTT as well as all the others. Rather than paint one I decided to get a ready painted Alternative Armies Faerie People army.

 I think it proved to be a good buy - excellent figures, well painted.

 The army is as described on the box. By the time it arrived I was 'off' 15mm, the experiment had ended, so they've never actually fought any battles.

 The Elf Queen is one of my favourite figures from the set.

 But the eagles seem to be the most effective paint job.

Not really sure about Pixie Lurkers though!

Alternative Armies are still around though, sadly, I couldn't find the Faerie People on their site.

Turan - Lamming reinforcements

There's nothing to say that all my S&S Hyboria figures should be Garrison. So this bunch of venerable Lamming Arabs have been invited to join the party. They even conform to the colour code, though I will have to rebase them.

They also fit in very well with the Garrison Tauran cavalry:

Turan and similar

The Garrison S&S Range is basically Hyborian, so it seems reasonable to build up a small group of Hyborian armies with them. My intention is to have about four basic armies. One will be Aquilonian, one Nimidian, one Stygian and one generic Near East Turanian/etc.

I've already got a few items that can be used as part of this generic army - and I'll use non-Hyborian troop types as well to expand them into other HoTT types as well.

So, what can I use?

Obviously SS68, the mounted Sultan/Vanha mounted swordsman is the figure to use as generals and officers. It's already appeared on this blog but might as well show him again instead of just a link:

I also want to use non-Hyborian figures, two obvious ones being SS17, the Eastern Giant, and the Admins geni, AD223. Just found I don't have a photo of the giant, but the geni looks like this:

I'll also find space for giant birds - well Rocs appear in Arab mythology so why not? Trouble is, I've already put mine on green bases whilst this army will be on sand bases. Also, not sure whether to use eagles - possibly better as Rocs - or the hawks as hawks seem to be a feature of Arab culture. Not big enough to carry an elephant, at least the models are bigger than elephants.

For elephants, I've got one Vanha elephant, but it's not really up to scratch and will need a bit of work doing to it:

The Vanha infantry themselves are liable to form the main component of any infantry force but I haven't done any yet.

The cavalry, on the other hand, are starting to look respectable.

Firstly, don't have a unit of these, but SS46 on a fully armoured horse may be a good unit to build - the horse is Byzantine.

I do, however, have a unit on the 'standard' horse.

These 'standard' heavy cavalry should set the  scene for the army. Shiny, bright block colours and units are element based - 4 elements per unit - rather than figures based. So this unit is looked on as 4 elements rather than 12 cavalrymen. I would probably normally use them as 'knights' under HoTT.

Likewise, the 'light' cavalry - Riders under HoTT though just as heavily armoured as the 'knights.' 2 to a base, 4 base unit rather than 8 figure unit. Again, nice and shiny - technically, the figure isn't as good but it looks good! The horse's face is definitely a bit crude. The horse is also a bit long for the base.

So that's where I am at the moment. cavalry probably enough for now, I need to get some infantry and an elephant or two sorted next.

Admins Victorians

Together with the WS Range one that I quite like - they are quirky.