Tyrant Zaadesh

Commission complete! (cue final fantasy level up music)

Tyrant Zaadesh from Skorne was the last mini I had to paint in this commission.  He was quite fun to do and wasn't too hard.  My only reservations with him is his pose and the sigil on his back.   The pose he's in made it quite hard to do the left had side of his chest.  As for the sigil I just don't like it, I think it would look cooler if it was a samurai style back banner.

Another Skorne commission

I've been working on another commission for my friend, again more Skorne.  This time in the form of Cataphract Cetrati and Tyrant Zaadesh (who is still work in  progress).

The Cetrati.  These were actually quite enjoyable to paint.  They have a few different textures that kept my interest level up, although their armour trim was a bit tedious.  I actually faced these on the tabletop a couple of weeks ago (back when they were still grey).  The look intimidating and on paper pack quite a punch.  A nasty foe indeed.  But the were no match for my suicidal bile thrall unit death burst attacks... I'm a Cryx player I fight dirty.

I've also painted a couple of Gladiators I had lying around.

Here we have a retiarius and a thraex.  Both are from Wargames Foundry.  And both are really nice sculpts.  I may have a use for these in the future so watch this space.

In other news I've finished my Rorke's Drift store house and have started on the hospital.  Pics to follow in a later blog.  I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of codex Space Wolves, which I will review.  I fully intend to use my Space Wolves at my gaming club next week.

Zulus! Thousands of them.

Well I've now completed just over a third of the Zulus I need.  Took me a while.

my second unit of unmarried Zulus.

my second unit of married Zulus

and my third unit of married Zulus.

the whole bunch with an over saturation of light


Given that I've been painying a whole load of Zulus lately its quite understandable that I've been getting bored of them.  So to take a wee break from them I've started painting Rorke's Drift itsself.  Here's a work in progress

The roof needs a few more coats to cover the last of the white, unfortunately I've ran out of the colour I was using.  I also paint all the wood, another third of the bricks and maybe darken the bricks too.  I figure that the buildings might work quite nicely on a Malifaux board.

I've also painted some bolter fodder for my Chaos Marines.

I've ordered myself the Stormclaw box set and will be trading the Orks for more Spacewolves with a friend.  So over the next few weeks I'll be painting Spacewolves.  I might even try and get the army finished.  However until that happens I'll just paint more random minis I find on my desk.

Bannockburn Live

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and my good self went to Bannockburn Live, a festival celebrating the battle of Bannockburn, or as we Scots know it "Where we beat the bastards!".  And I know what you're going to ask, why is a festival review on a wargaming blog?  Well that's because there was a medieval re-enactment.  And re-enactments are wargames with real people.  Its also something I've always wanted to do.

Bannockburn Live was a festival celebrating Scottish culture, food, crafts and music along with a big battle repeated 3 times a day.  Now how can I sum it up in one phrase.... a load of fucking overpriced shite.  The craft section was 10 tiny stalls many of which were selling stuff that was too big to lug about a crowded festival, like furniture made from oak kegs. There were only 4 food venders (although I have since heard there was a hidden 5th one) catering for 10,000 people, yes I said 10,000.  And there was a farmers market... a small farmers market... that sold sweets... and sea food.  I have no idea why anyone would want to lug a lobster around a hot summer festival. 

Now my main gripe with the event... The fucking ques.  Out of the five hours we were there we must have spent at least three and a half of them in a que.  There was a que to get parked.  There was a que to get in, and from that que we could see the que on the motorway.  There was a que for the battle, luckily we got into the first one and missed the que for the others which stretched the complete length of the event (that isn't an exaggeration).  There were ques for the food which moved once every 45 minutes.  We were in that one for well over 2 hours before we decided we'd had enough and left.  We paid £52 (for the pair of us and parking) to stand in a fucking que simulator.  I'm glad I had my tickets delivered to my house because the people who collected theirs at the gate had to que to get parked the walk past the entrance que (which was about a mile long, again not an exaggeration), collect their tickets  walk to the back of the entrance que and make it even longer.  Whereas people who bought theirs on the day could walk straight in, WTF?

Now onto the good points.  The story time stage was good, some great acting and was generally quite a good laugh.  However it was located too close to the music stage and was hard to hear at times.  The music stage was good too with a variety of Scottish artists.  The battle was good too, not the best I've seen but definitely the largest.  The medieval camp was great, although due to the tight scheduling of the battles was practically empty for vast portions of the day.  However with 10,000 people there and only 3,000 people being able to view the battle at once and only 3 battles a day means that 1,000 people were left out.  Pretty bizarre considering that the battle was the main draw of the event.

The Sunday was supposedly better organized and relatively que-less.  I don't quite believe that and can't comment.  Now given my experiences of the event will I go next year?  Absolutely not.  The event was far too overpriced and poorly organized.  The organizers had a chance to create something great and failed.  All in all a very poor celebration of the 700th anniversary of Scotland's most famous battle.

I'll leave you with the pictures I took during the day.

some birds of prey

some smiths

Edward II trash talking for the telly.

Statue of Robert the Bruce and a monument.

Ye medieval photobomb

Preparing for battle

A lesson in how my camera doesn't track horses very well.