Knights of the Mittelmark Pt. 5...More Knights and Some Artillery

Guns of the Army of the Prince von Refn stand ready to vomit death into the ranks of his enemies...Typically a knight of von Refn's realm is expected to bring 10 foot soldiers with him to the Raven Standard when called, but these evidently wealthier knights have chosen to bring a gun and crew each in lieu of infantry.  Undoubtedly this improves their standing in the eyes of their Prince.

A veteran crew position their weapon with utmost care...

Another crew brace for the firing of their dangerous charge...

As is typical in von Refn's army, the crews wear the colors of their patrons.

Another shot of the battery...

A less finely accoutered but nevertheless expert crew site in their gun on the enemy...

All figures in this post are from Foundry's old Medieval collection, which I think were sculpted by the Perry brothers way back in the day.  I'm very fond of the line.

A scruffy old war horse

There's a lot of character in these minis...

Love this guy.

So an important step forward for my Warhammer humans.  It occurs to me that my medieval collection might soon be big enough for some Lion Rampant type skirmish games in addition to the Warhammery sword and sorcery stuff.

The fellow on the left wasn't much of a success but I'm not unhappy with the one on the right.  The horse on the left is a bit of a weak sculpt.

Huzzah!  Off to fight the Orcs or whomever else might be available.  I've got a clutch of spell caster types I'm working on.  They'll be the next addition to the army.

Fecadermis Ringwurmm's Clan Rat Regiment!

Scurrying triumphantly through the ruins of a human town come Clan Chieftain Fecadermis Ringwurmm's Clan Rats, eagerly seeking more filth and victims!  Yay!

Well to the fore (since there are no enemies in sight just now) is Fecadermis himself, armed with a cruel and grimy scimitar and what appears to be a cluster of poison wind globes.

Rat drummer.  This is my first Skaven Clan Rat regiment, but not the last, as these regular troops constitute the backbone of any Skaven horde...three more of these regiments will follow in the fullness of time...one more hand weapon and shield regiment and two spear and shield regiments...the largest will have thirty six models.

The standard bearer hoists aloft the ragged, crusty banner of his clan, all the while encouraging the more reticent amoung the hoist with an occasional flick of his whip...

The bulk of the troopers from this unit are derived from the ancient Warhammer Fantasy Regiments boxed set, first released in 1990 or 1991. Above is half of a two page advertisement which appeared in an issue of Dragon magazine that came out around that time.  Mightily impressed was I, yet a lanky teenager by the sight of those smart ranks of unlovely creatures...

Close up of one of the plastic Skaven painted by some youthful hand long ago...The detail on these, as you can see, is not great and I normally abhor plastic, but some of the figures from the Fantasy Regiments boxed set inspire such a sharp pang of nostalgia that I can give them a pass...

On the left are two of the plastic models, and on the right two metal ones which I used to fill out some gaps in the ranks.  

Closer look at the plastics...they aren't that bad but...

...the metals are clearly the better pieces...to my eye anyway.

Grr...Fecadermis's warriors advance.....

"Forward!  Victory is ours!"

Skummburg: A Wretched Hive of You Know What

First big installment on Skummburg after Jezebel's Joint...three new buildings plus a windmill, some street lamps and some bits of furniture and fluff...

It was all quite a bit of work but I'm more or less happy with how things are turning out with it  Have some plans for expanding it considerably here in the not too distant future with some more shanties from Miniature Building Authority.

Space Scum salute their new home with some celebratory fire....

My first taste of Warhammer 40k was the big fat Rogue Trader book, so I've always been more of a fan of those earlier, pulpy visions of the 40k universe than of the 'Grim dark' look which came to dominate in subsequent editions.  Skummburg is very much influenced by the illustrations of Logan's World and Helsreach from that tome.  I can really do without the endless acres of Gothic Cathredrals covered with skulls.

K'Lurg Ratcha cruises happily through the streets of his new domain.  Two of his flunkies scout ahead.

Once again I had fun making posters of out little catalogs and advertisements...this fellow seems to appreciate them.

Dead Men Space Marines patrol the streets around the infamous Jezebel's Joint, expecting trouble at any moment.  I've always, always loved that illustration on the right, there.  I liked the idea that Space Marines might often find themselves engaged in mundane policing activities as well as epic last stands against the alien hordes.  Skummburg needs a good bit of policing...

The buildings are a mix of Miniature Building Authority shanties and Armorcast stucco buildings.  Can't get the Armorcast buildings anymore, so the rest of Skummburg is likely to be made up of the shanties which is just fine, I guess.

Interior with furnishings fit for scum.  Or college students...

I wanted a filthy look to the place that would make you feel like you could contract a horrible disease just from walking through the building.  Think I achieved that.

 Interior of the top level of the building pictured above and just below.

 Pieter Porque brandishes his meat axe at someone just for the sake of doing it.  The little shipping containers are Armorcast.  Can't remember when I bought them, they've just been rattling round in boxes for a long time.  They look good painted up. though.

Mad Meg and her crew head over to Jezzie's for a drink...

The street lamps have working LED bulbs in them.  Sweet!  

 Windmill by Daemonscape.  Damn nice model...

 Interior of the second building with more trashy posters and flea-ridden furnishings...

 Scum, indeed...

Skummburg begins!  Hopefully I'll have some more stuff done soon, but this makes a good start...

Skaven of the Flea Fell: Sorcerers and Poison Wind Globadiers!!

A trio of Skaven spell casters and their escort of globadiers consolidate their hold on a fallen human settlement.....

Recently played a rousing game of Oldhammer with some old friends.  My pal The Ratboy was so enthusiastic about playing with the painted Skaven that I did have (mostly Skaven slaves and Clan Moulder stuff) that I got motivated to paint up some more.  So here are some key players in the army of the Flea Fell...

A Warplock engineer designates a target for his globadiers...most likely he will be one of the army's junior spell slingers but his warplock pistol is likely to mean trouble for his enemies even if he runs out of spells...

The Army's chief wizard...I've always hated this 4th edition era model.   It suffers from 'Giant Weapon Syndrome'  that deadly curse that fell upon Citadel miniatures in the mid nineties.  But the fact is that the original Skaven miniatures line had so few Wizard models that I was forced to search further afield than 2nd/3rd edition to find what I needed.

He'll do, I suppose. 

I'm much more fond of this fellow, even though the sculpt is just a modified globadier, he's still got a delightfully sinister look about him.

The globadiers mass for the attack.  Hopefully they won't bump blindly into one another in their gas masks and drop a globe.

There were only two globadier poses in the original Skaven line, but that doesn't bother me too much as they are such characterful little fellows and you can only have a maximum of six in your army anyway.

The WW I style gas masks may seem out of place in a fantasy setting, but I've never found it to be distracting with these guys...

 It just makes me think of The Evil Genius in Time Bandits...Anything that makes me think of Time Bandits is good.

"Hee Hee!  Smash-smash!  Watch 'em choke & die!"

Evil little devils capering in triumph...need some Clan Rats now...