Digressions - Dacia

First Dacian warband now completed apart from perhaps touching up bases.

Only two of these were painted by me - the rest were abstracted from the rather  large Celtic force I bought off Harry. Technically listed as Sarmations Dacian would be far more accurate anyway.

These are the two I painted. As far as I know the Dacian officer DA1 was never released by Garrison. The standard bearer is a conversion of DA1 using the hand and standard of the Sarmation cavalry standard bearer which was itself a conversion of the Sarmation cataphract...

Another figure not originally released was this one which will form the Blade elements of the army. The rest of the army will need some archers and light horse - haven't decided yet what to use for them. I do have some early PB Dacian archers lying around somewhere, plus plenty of Celtic cavalry to use.

Technically, the completed Warband has too many elements for a DBA Dacian army, but I felt I had to use what I've got.

Hadn't noticed how long since last post...

Start off with: I'm opening the S&S figures for general release from tomorrow. Baseline will be £1 for infantry, £2 for cavalry. Basic list without prices is on the Pages section. Figures from that list not available are SS86 (lousy mould) and SS14 (no mould). However, both Nimidian and Aquiland foot officers are available. As previously stated for ordering:

email your  'order' to garrisonminiatures@gmail.com I'll send you a quote, if you're happy then I'll send a PayPal invoice and cast them. Info I will need are codes, descriptions, numbers plus home address - I no longer have access to the old Garrison database so all addresses are now 'lost'.

Next, I have been busy with painting. 5 tigers nearly finished - one to be used later if I do an Amazon army - plus I did get distracted a bit with Sarmations - though via their Dacian allies. Should have photos in a day or so.

Evil Wizards and Fiery Sacrifice...

I wasn't originally going to have the sacrifice, but SS116 Maiden Burning wouldn't have it any other way...

For once I've just posted these unvarnished and unbased - they look better in 'real life' than in photographs anyway and I think that the varnish and base may make it worse.

I'm guessing these figures will find employment in my Stygian army. Once I've got a Stygian army.

SS116. An excellent figure but I might repaint the little demon before I varnish it - the highlighting looks OK on the model, but the photo shows me where I could have done it better.

SS54, Wizard of the Dark Ring. I've given him a pasty vampire/zombie colour to show that he is possessed by demons himself. Likewise the red eyes.

SS56 Priest of Matri. Or not, in this incarnation. 

The followers are just that - Followers of Set, SS57.

The Ahura Mazda

The Ahura Mazda was the supreme god of the Iranian peoples. As such, quite a few of my Persian flags and chariots use it.

So there I was wandering through a car boot sale at the weekend when I saw this:

OK, it was a bit expensive, but I thought, well, 50p, might find a use for it...

 So this is the figurine next to various Turanians and Persians. Should be quite useful, perhaps on a building or even as a stand-alone shrine. No idea, but I will find a use for it. Someday.

Mammoths and Spears

The Vanha component.

The extra 4 spears are finished, as are 2 mammoths.

The spears haven't been mounted on bases yet - my filler has run out so I need more.

 I did find enough filler for the mammoths though. Haven't spent as much time on these as I would normally. That's because the mammoth is a pain - the tusks don't fit very well in their slots so I've had to try and fit them as flush fittings. As a result the joint isn't very strong and if I knock them the tusks fall off. Normally, at the very least there would be some kind of decorative picture on the side of the howdah and probably a yellow line separating the two shades of green.

So, at the moment the 'Near East' Tarun/Turan/etc army  looks like this:

All that is now needed to complete this phase of the army is a unit of Vanha archers. After that? Trouble, armies are like Topsy, there are at least 2 cavalry and 4 infantry units I want beyond this, plus assorted monsters and beasties - must do a unit of tigers...

Breaking my own rules...

Never a good idea. One rule I have is 'always do a few extra - just in case.'

So, first unit of 12 Vanha infantry completed, my idea being 4 bases, 3 figures to a base. I've decided I don't like that, want 4 bases 4 figures to a base.... so I'm going to have to paint some more of the things.

Photos of the current batch show them unvarnished and unbased. The quilted armour was originally going to be the base colour and quilting highlighted in a lighter colour, but I haven't bothered doing anything else with it - looks fine real-size as it is.

Tarun (Turanian) HoTT army completed

At least, the basic 12 Rider elements are.

Obviously, the intention is to add various infantry and 'exotic' elements to this - a couple of Vanha mammoths and some Vanha infantry are already waiting to be painted. Likewise, I will possibly field the basic elements as 4 Rider and 8 Knight elements.

 The latest unit of the army consists of the General/Sultan of the army plus a rather large bodyguard.

 Unlike my previous attempts, this time I took the trouble of taking pictures of some of the individual pieces. The original Sultan first painted about 25 years ago takes pride of place and is accompanied by his pet tiger.

 It was at this point that I realised that I hadn't painted the sashes on the figures! Previously I had done a test figure mounted on a Byzantine fully armoured horse. When I did the actual unit I put them on Sassanid horses.

 First attempt at painting a tiger. Slightly happy with it but made sure that I took a photo of it's 'best' side!

Other pictures of the Sultan and other units of the army can be found here:
The Sultan and The Army The army link also shows other elements that may be added to the basic army.

Ready to go

Apart from a few figures I still want for myself the spincaster is ready to  start spinning for others again...

So, basically, if you are one of those who qualify and know what you want I'm ready to produce them if I can. As I've said previously I don't have any catalogues  - one of the things I emphasized last year was 'please get that sorted before everything goes offline' - and I'm working on £1 for standard infantry, £2 for standard cavalry. Send in your wish list, I'll quote, if that's OK I'll make them and send a Paypal request when they're ready. Probably in a month or so I'll open the S&S Range generally.

Goblins...Elves...Khitai...

Whatever.

The Garrison High Goblin riding a lizard is like the Wraithe - begging to be put on a horse. OK, LotR/GM would have Goblins painted green and riding wolves - mine are flesh coloured and I don't see why they shouldn't be on horses.

But then, the figure will also do quite well as a High Elf cavalryman. If I wanted to go commercial I would probably do a bit of carving on the helmet and give it a new shield but for me it's OK as it stands. The Oriental look, of course, means it would stand in well as a Hyborian Khitai. The problem with that is the number needed. Only one figure on the mould because it's not really feasible to make a new mould just for this and a Khitai HoTT army would need quite a few of them. Still, it's a thought. Then again, do I really need anothe all-Rider HoTT army?

Probably, and it's a nice figure.

 This original version was cast and painted soon after I bought Garrison, so it's about 8 years old. I had intended an Orc/Goblin army then, it's taken a while to get back to it.

 I quite like the bat motif on the shield, not sure how appropriate it would be for Elves or Khitai, but then - it's fantasy anyway.

 Finally, can't stop messing about... so stuck some wings on three of the lizards... still being painted, hopefully the final product will look better than the current version.

Of Wraithes and Men...

Garrison did a Wraithe riding a winged reptile - very LotR - but of course in LotR the Nazgul originally rode horses. Happily, the Garrison Wraithe fits reasonably well on a Tarun horse so.... naturally, I had to do it. Having said that, of course, they would do just as well as cowled and robed 'normal' humans or something... apart from not really having faces, that is.

 Not really happy with the paint job on the mount. I may or may not do a couple more of these, not sure.

 These ones look better 'in the flesh' than painted - especially the fact I keep getting the horse's plumes in the way. Unlike the last figure, I'm quite happy with these. It would have been better to take photos of these as individuals before I based them, but that would have meant another photo session.

Spincaster back in operation

Just cast the first figures of 2015. I've got a few figures to cast for myself plus some already promised. Then I'll open up for people that qualify for general figures this year. Please remember I don't have online or printed catalogues any more - the infrastructure of Garrison has gone. Basically, the system will be let me know what you want, I'll quote you (basic infantry will be £1, cavalry £2, bear in mind I no longer get metal or other resources in bulk). Information I will need will include code, short figure description, number required, your name, address and contact email. Hopefully, things will be ready to  go by Wednesday or Thursday. After a couple of weeks to let initial qualifying orders settle down I'll see about reintroducing the S&S Range for a while - I've put that list on the Pages section of the blog though a couple of figures will not be available and a few others that I introduced in the past will!