What's better than a Citadel Giant?

2 Citadel Giants! Wheeeeee!

Here they are along with a slightly intimidated Marauder skeleton for scale.

I'll stop now. I promise.

He's Here......

So I finally got my sweaty little mitts on my shiny new citadel Giant today, so I'm currently bouncing around like a kid on their birthday.

He's in great condition and all the bits are there, just requires stripping and a bit of TLC and he will be good to go.

Here's a quick pic. Unfortunately I'm working away until Friday, so i just have a crappy camera and a badly lit hotel room, but you get the idea :)

I'll hopefully get some more pictures when I get home, including some scale pics to show just how huge he is.

I only went and did it....

I bought myself the Citadel Giant on ebay.

Yes, that one.

I'm picking him up on Monday. Pics incoming then.

Update time

Painting progress 

Bugger all since I last posted, although I did stick some magnets to the bottom of some 20mm bases, so I guess that almost counts as progress.

WFB 3rd Edition Opponent Finder

This seems to have been pretty well received, and has gained me some new followers to disappoint with my lack of painting. However, I'd love you guys to promote it in your much more popular blogs to get even more people signed up. The more people we get listed on there, the more likely you (and I) are to find an opponent nearby. If you want any more information listing in your entry, or if you have any suggestions for improvements, just let me know. Oh, and there is now a permanent link to it at the top of the blog.

Trade Lists

I also did a big update of my 'haves' and 'wants' lists. The list of stuff that I have is pretty long, but if you want more details or pics of any of it, just let me know.

Ok, that's all folks. I'm off to find excuses not to paint.......

The Oldhammer Player Location Finder Thingamyjig

I arrived back from holiday at 2am this morning, and, having consumed copious amounts of Redbull to see me through the last part of a 1700 mile drive home from Sweden, found myself unable to sleep. After a quick catch up on all of your blogs (looks like you all went wishlist crazy while I was away!) and some prep work on my undead, I got to thinking about how I would find an opponent for some 3rd edition games when the army was finished.

I thought about this for a good long while before it struck me that I'd just been reading the blogs of lots of 3rd edition WFB fans, some or all of which would seemingly make great opponents if only they were close enough. Fortunately our good friends/evil enemies (dpending on your point of view) at Google had the perfect tool for finding out - Google Maps.

Google Maps v1.0

I created a map, and if you let me know the city/town/village that you live in, I'll add you to the map too (I'll be as vague as you want me to be with your location, I understand you might not want to reveal the location of your leadpile to a bunch of lead-crazed lunatics that you don't know), and put a permanent link to it on this blog somewhere.

For now, you can see me at the centre of the wargaming universe in Nottingham.



View Oldhammer Players in a larger map

I'm Back!

Not much hobby activity recently. I've had a manic time with work, and with the arrival of summer (or rather those 4 sunny days we call summer around these parts) my hobby motivation dwindled to pretty much zero. It didn't help that the figure sitting on my desk waiting to be painted didn't inspire me on little bit, so I put him aside and mused over the subject of what motivates me in the hobby, while drinking a beer. (A nice bottle of Fursty Ferret since you asked).

Then it hit me.

Gaming.

I've always been more of a gamer than a painter at heart, but the number of games I play is minimal due to not having a painted army. So what better motivation than getting an army painted with the sole intention of playing a game? Just a small one mind, this is me we're talking about!

So out came my 3rd edition Warhammer armies book, and after much deliberation I settled on undead. 1000 points of undead to be precise.

Another Fursty Ferret and some head scratching later and I came up with this:


Gerhart Amsel - Lvl 15 Necromancer - Hand weapon - 155 points


20 Skeletons inc. standard - Hand weapons - 210 points


19 Skeletons inc. musician and standard - Hand weapons, spears, light armour - 266 points
Led by a Lvl 5 Undead Hero - Hand weapon, magic sword(hellhoned blade), light armour - 67 points


10 Grim Reapers - Double handed weapons - 120 points


10  Skeleton Archers - Hand weapons, bows - 120 points


1 Undead Stone Thrower - 60 points


Total - 998 points

Now, having not played a game of 3rd edition warhammer for almost 20 years, I don't know if that's a usable, or even legal army list, so if you spot any glaring errors please let me know.

My plan is to start painting when I return from my holiday at the end of June, and have it finished in 2 months. Then all I need to do is find an opponent.......

When is a druid not a druid?

When he's a warrior priest!

I wanted to paint Branowen the druid from the adventurer starter set, but due to the fact I was unlikely to ever need a druid figure for my wargaming, I decided to paint him as a warrior priest instead. I'm not 100% happy with a couple of areas on him, but right now it's about getting models finished, and I can always go back and touch things up later. I also really struggled to get a decent picture of him (especially his purple robes), but here you go.

I used the new citadel paints on him, and overall I was really impressed. The base paints cover incredibly well, but don't suffer from being incredibly thick and drying way too quickly like the old foundation paints did. They also come in a much larger range of colours, so lots more choice which can only be a good thing.

The layer paints surprised me the most. I was expecting them to be the same formulation as the old citadel colour paints, but they are slightly thinner, and quite a bit less opaque. I found them really good for highlights, but when trying to paint a solid block of colour I needed an extra coat or two.

Shades worked pretty much as expected, and I couldn't see too much difference between them and the old washes. They didn't pool on the flat surfaces as much as washes, and found their way into the recesses more consistently, but they did seem to darken the raised areas more too.

I'm definitely a fan of the new range, and the massive increase in the number of colours can only be a good thing. I've read a lot about the new 'Citadel painting system' being a terrible thing which will stifle creativity and force people to paint in a certain way, but it strikes me as being a great system for beginners to learn with, and as they get more experienced they will find new ways to use the paints just like painters always have. As for anyone who is already an experienced painter, I'm pretty sure the Games Workshop painting police won't be knocking on your door if you don't use the paints how they want you to.

My next project is a group of 5 ghouls. I need to find faster ways of painting larger numbers of troops, and so I'll be using them as an experiment with 'dip'. I've seen some really great models done using dip, but also some really terrible ones, and I'll be hoping I can come up with something that fits into the former category.

The End of an Era

I finally got another mini finished, the original White Dwarf this time, which is a significant event in itself.

Grombrindal Mk1

Even more significant though, is the fact that this is the final miniature I will paint with the current range of Citadel paints. Chaos black, skull white and a whole host of other colours have been with me since I started painting miniatures nigh on 25 years ago, and I'll be sad to see them go. But having had a bit of a play with the new paint range it seems an improvement in almost every way, so I'm excited to start using XV-88, The Fang, Leadbelcher and all of the other weirdly named colours.

Expect to see the results and hear my thoughts on the new paints soon.

Bring on the trumpets!

It's a painted miniature!!

Orc Shaman

It may have taken twice as long as planned for half the output, but I finished something for the first time in about 6 months. Go me!

It took so long because of a couple of work trips and a weekend away, but towards the end of the painting I found myself really enjoying the process. Hopefully that bodes well for future projects.

In other news looks like some new paints are on the way from GW. 145 of them to be precise. I'm a huge fan of citadel paints, so I cant wait to get my hands on some of the new ones and give them a try.

The Trading Post is Open

I have shamelessly stolen the idea for a trade section of my blog from Gaj over at Warhammer for Adults. You can find a link to it at the top of the page, or click here.

If you have any of the models on there that you are willing to part with feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line at skarsnikandoldlead_at_sky_dot_com

If you would like to attach terms to the trade involving me painting certain amounts of models before you will send me new toys, feel free. I need all the help I can get!

The scale of the problem....

My girlfriend and I had a few days away in Edinburgh over the weekend, so I got zero painting done, but when I got back there was a big pile of minis waiting for me. I thought I'd take a picture to illustrate what I'm up against with my addiction.

What I bought this week:

Lots!

What I painted this week:

Nothing!

That's right, bought 39, painted 0. I bought more than usual this week as I was filling in some gaps in my LotR and WFB Empire collections, but 20 figures a week from ebay and the like isn't out of the ordinary.

I guess I'll just have to start painting faster!!

Ooooh, Toys!

Finally some pics of toys! I'm afraid that those of you who were here just for the messy desk pictures will have to get your kicks elsewhere from now on.

I decided I would do a couple of minis a week to begin with (easing myself in gently and all that). One will be started from scratch, and the other will be finishing off one of the many half painted minis that are sitting on my shelf. Once I'm back into the swing of things I'll start to be a bit more focused with my painting, and may even start working towards a painted army.

So here are week one's candidates:

The White Dwarf

Orc Shaman

The orc shaman has been kicking around my painting table as a throwback to when I experimented with brown undercoat. I hated painting over it and so never got it finished. But now is that time.

As for The White Dwarf, I picked up the White Dwarf Personalities box a while ago, but was missing Livingstone the 'ed Hitter. Well this week I finally got one on ebay, so I'm starting to paint the boxed set in celebration! Expect to seem more of his friends over the coming weeks.

Ready For Action

One clean and tidy painting area. I got some very quizzical looks from my girlfriend as she's never seen me tidy the 'geek room' before.

Clean, tidy and ready for action.

 So step one is done. Now I have to stop procrastinating and decide what to paint.

Stay tuned for some vintage Citadel loveliness!

Ordo Ab Chao

Order from chaos. (Although if you speak Latin and know otherwise, please tell me!)

One of the reasons I find painting so hard may well be the state of my painting area. To say it looks like a bomb went off is probably being too kind. Judge for yourself:

The real realm of chaos.

As you can imagine, trying to work amongst that lot is a complete nightmare. So my first task on my road to painting nirvana is to clean up my painting area. This will consist of:

• Sort out my paints. I have a real mish-mash of paints from all sorts of manufacturers, most of which have never been used. I'll start with a single range (GW) and only add paints to that if I need them in the future.
• Clear away all of the half finished projects. Start with a clean slate.
• Get rid of all the junk. Only keep what is essential to my painting.

I'll post again in a couple of days once its done so you can see the difference. Then it will be time for some painting!

It must be love....

I love them....I love every single last one of them.

Toy soldiers that is.

I can't get enough of lead (and resin and plastic) soldiers. Old ones and new ones. Beautiful ones and ugly ones. Fantasy ones, sci-fi ones and historical ones. I just cant stop collecting them.

The problem is I never paint them. Buying them is easy, cataloguing  them is theraputic, but then I stick them in boxes in the loft. I want to paint them. I plan to paint them. The problem comes when I have to sit down and break out the paint brushes. Suddenly everything else seems so much more appealing. TV, computer games, reading, washing up, it's all more important than getting started on my latest painting project.

So inspired by some of my favourite wargaming blogs (I'll post more about those later), I've decided that my own blog is what will motivate me to actually get some models finished.

It may be a lifelong journey, or this may be the one and only post, but I hope you will join me for the ride.