Saturday 29 November 2008

Rogue Trooper I

I used to read 2000AD.

There, I admitted it.

But now I'm old enough to not worry what everyone else thinks! I'm a wargamer right? My standing in the eye of the public wont drop any lower because I admit to reading comics from 20 years ago!

I always thought that the Rogue Trooper storyline (at least the initial Nu Earth based stories) lent themselves well to miniature wargames play. So after thinking about it for some time i decided to take the plunge and began buying up Rogue Trooper miniatures.




My idea is to build up some Nort and Souther forces and add to the Southers a small unit of Genetic Infantrymen (GI's).

So far I have a number of figures from the OOP Citadel line from ebay. Most of the range of Dark GI's (Blue Smurfs of Death) from Bronzeage Miniatures. Thanks to the recent price reductions I took the plunge on getting the Wargames Foundry figures too.

So I have 3, 5 man units of GI's, but need to expand quite some way on the number of Norts (currently I have 4) and Souther troops (currently 2). After some useful discussions on The Miniatures Page, I decided to go with Pig Iron Productions.

The Pig Iron Kolony troops have great head options which look very much like nort gas masks. Only down side is that all the Pig iron figures come with greatcoats on, but I shall overlook that.

Pig Iron Kolony (Norts) Pig Iron Infantry (Southers)

The Pig Iron Infantry troops make ideal Southers, especially with the full face mask (leftmost of the alternative heads shown in the above picture), they're a little heavily armoured, but they look great.

Now all I have to do is buy them and start to paint some stuff. I dont seem to be very good at the "paint some stuff" bit at the moment...

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs III

Following on from me digging out around 450 Greandier FW Dwarfs, I also remembered that some time ago i bought three Ral Partha Bear Chariots of the Ice Lands. My intention was to use them to give my Dwarfs some chariotry to go with the bear cavalry!


I bought mine on eBay, but you can still get them from Iron Wind Metals. As these are sleds pulled by polar bears I have decided to paint all the bear cavalry as polar bears, and model the entire army on snow bases!

There are plenty of good reference photo's such as:


Now I just need to decide what figures to use as charioteers. Selection is best seen from the Mirliton site. I'm guessing that either spear armed (or converted to hold spear) or a bowman would be best from a chariot. Suggestions welcome.

Saturday 22 November 2008

Grenadier Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs II

Just stumbled on a problem with my Greandier Fantasy Warriors Dwarf from this post. FW basing for Dwarfs is 1" (25mm) square and WH is 20mm square. How do I base these for both systems? I'm sure i'm not the only one with this dilemma.

I'm inclined to base them on 20mm and to hell with the rules, but judging from the FW rules being able to bring 25% more figures to bear on a 4 figure frontage would be a tremendous (and unfair) advantage.

I'm considering basing everything on 20mm bases (probably from Litko Aerosystems or East riding Miniatures) and putting magnetic bases under them. Then buying two complete sets of movement trays. One set to match the 20mm frontage of WH and the other set with 5mm spacer bars between the figures for FW.

Has anyone else done this? Got some tips? Got other Ideas?

Comments very welcome!

Thursday 20 November 2008

Grenadier Fantasy Warrior Dwarfs I

I've always had a soft spot for the old Fantasy Warriors Dwarfs sculpted by Nick Lund, and in the late 80's I collected oh about a couple of dozen. The great Stuff of Legends site shows the original range hereand here. Then in the last couple of years someone invented Ebay and didn't put a warning label on it... The consequences are that I now have almost 450 of them.



I dug them out today and organised them into units. Yes, I know there are too many of them to play a sensible game, but i do love the massed units look.

These figures are back in manufacture by Mirliton of Italy and Em-4 Miniatures here in the UK.

This is the order of battle I came up with, based entirely on what i have, rather than any kind of sensible structure. It works out at 6,580 points without including tandards, msicians, leaders, hero's etc...!

I think i may have over done it...

Infantry
12 Royal Guard (2 handed, x-heavy (inc lead, mus & std) (2)
2x 20 Dwarf Infantry, hand weapon and shield (inc lead, mus & std)
2x, 20 Dwarf Infantry, spears and shield (inc lead, mus & std)
8x 15 Dwarf Infantry, 2 Handed, (inc lead, mus & std)
3x 20 Dwarf Heavy Infantry, 2 Handed (inc lead, mus & std)

Missile Troops
12 Hand Gunners (5)
20 Rangers/Archers (inc leader, musician (horn) & Standard Bearer)
60 Crossbow Dwarfs (no command) (2)

Artillery
3 Giant Dwarf Cannon (12 crew)
20 Giant Crossbow (40 crew)

Cavalry
12 Bear riders with Axe (inc leader, hero, musician & standard) (7)
12 Bear riders with Spear (inc leader, hero, musician & standard) (7)
4 Giant Bat Riders (4)

Command
3 generals
2 wizards
1 Seer (1)

The numbers in brackets is the order i've just put in with Mirliton to fill out the remaining slots!

If you're interested in Fantasy Warriors game then I suggest you join the FW Yahoo Group.

So just 450 figures to clean, base, undercoat and paint...

... but then i haven't sorted through the Grenadier orcs and goblins i collected to fight against them....