Three Rhinos - Done

Finally! Done. This took a little longer than I wanted but I still got them done pretty quick. I opted not to add any insignia or unit markings. I may go back at some point and add this in, but for now these will work fine.

I think they turned out nice. I am not sure they would have looked any better if I had taken more time to paint them. One of the reasons for the this exercise was to force myself to paint these models. This might have taken months if I had not challenged myself.

Three Rhinos - Cont. some more

This is all I can do today. I have finished all the metal work. I have blocked in all the colors. All I have left is to do the highlights and selected details. Then some weathering and all done. I should have these finished tomorrow.

Three Rhinos - Cont.

OK, I have been working on these all day...more or less and I now have the base orange on. Next up is to clean-up the black and then do the metal work. Once that is done then it will be time to do the details.

Three Rhinos

It may be hard to believe but these are the first three Rhinos of the 'current' style that I have ever owned. I have been playing and collecting Space Marines for years but I have always used the 'original' Rhino. Why? Well, I am cheap. Most of my collection is from trades and second-hand purchases. Several years ago most gamers were dumping their old Rhinos in favor of the new style. I got some really great deals.

I have always loved the look of the current Rhino but I could never justify the money considering I have dozens of the old ones. On Saturday I was able to workout a trade with a friend for three of the current Rhino so I had to take it. Yesterday I built all three and today I plan to paint them. These will be for my Knights of Eden Space Marines so they will be orange. This is a tough color and vehicle painting is not my strong suit. This will be a challenge that I don't think I can meet.

Old School Stuff - WAB Early Crusaders

This is my first army for Warhammer Ancient Battles. It represents an army from the first crusade. I was just learning how to do the 'dip' method and I made a ton of mistakes while painting this army.

All the figures are from Gripping Beast and are from a bunch of different lines. One key to a crusader army is variation. These guys came from all over and they should not have a uniform appearance.

The first couple of pictures are of the general and the mounted knights, the core of the army. The fires are mounted Normans and Crusaders. There are also some El Cid Spanish mixed in.

Next are the dismounted knights. These are a must have for a crusader army as at any given time up to half the knights were without horses. These figures are a mix of dismounted Normans and Crusaders. There are also some Anglo-Danes as well.

Next are the crusader spear men. Again we have a mix of figures, most are Normans but there are also Crusaders and Anglo-Danes in the mix.

The next unit I call Greeks. They are meant to represent Greek volunteers and the figures are Dark Age Irish and Byzantines. They are the same stats as the unit above.

This is a unit of European Archers. The figures include Normans and Spanish.

Finally, we have the religious pilgrims. This represents the unskilled troops that joined the army strictly for the religious aspect of the crusade. In game terms they are not very good but they are extremely annoying to your opponent. The figures are mostly Dark Age Irish with some Norman priests and monks mixed in.

This was a fun army to play but, sadly, it no longer exists. The figures that make up this army are still in my collection but they now make up my Norman and Saxon armies. I have been waiting for many years for a new Crusader book to come out for WAB so I can make a new crusader army.

Old School Stuff - Misc 40K Stuff

Here are a couple of figures from my IG/Daemonhunters collection.

Old School Stuff - Chosen of Khorne

Here are the Chosen for my old World Eaters army. It tried a transparent painting technique with these that looks better in person. I got a cloudy dull coat that kind of messed these guys up. It wasn't bad enough to scrap them...

Old School Stuff - Warhammer English Civil War

A few years ago a bunch of the guys in my local game group got into English Civil War. They played a few different rules but I was interested in Warhammer English Civil War. I played a couple of games and really enjoyed the rules. I fell in love with the figures by Renegade and Bicorne miniatures. I decided to jump in and several others were already building armies. I bought a bunch of figures from my favorite companies and got to work. Then it happened. I had an epiphany - I had no interest at all in the English Civil War. This was a critical realization because when I paint I spend a great deal of time thinking about what I am working on. This inspires me to research and learn more about the subject. The problem was that I didn't want to know anything about ECW...and this made it hard for me to get into painting the army. The pictures below are of the only unit I managed to paint for this army and it took me 2 years to get this done. By the time I finished this unit the other guys had already dumped all their ECW stuff. Sadly, I sold this stuff off a couple of years ago...and now I really wish I had stuck with it. The figures are just AMAZING!

8th Army HMG Carrier Platoon

Finally! The carriers for my HMG platoon are done. I am really making good progress on my FOW project. Not too much I can say about these...

Old School Stuff - Johnny Reb III Confederates

My Johnny Reb Confederate forces are a little more complete than my Union forces. The Conferates have about a full brigade. This includes a commander and some artillery. I had the same issue with the Confederate banners as I had with the Union - laziness. I had to do up these banners for the pictures. The figures are a mix of brands but I think most of them are Old Glory. The paint jobs are about 10 years old by now.

I still have lots of unpainted lead for Johnny Reb and with my new found interest in 15mm painting I might be inspires to get some more of these done.

Old School Stuff - Johnny Reb III Union

All of this 15mm painting for Flames of War got me thinking about the only other 15mm collections I have. I dug out my ACW collection to have a look. I have never photographed this collection so now seemed like a good time to do it. This required that I do the banners as I had never bothered to do these.

I originally painted these guys for Johnny Reb III. My local group was fairly active players of the game and i wanted to be able to contribute. I never had enough figures to play the game and we gradually moved on to other stuff. This is all the Union forces I have painted. There are several different manufacturers in this army and I don't who actually made these. I got the figures as literal grab bags of left-overs from my friend's collections.

8th Army Mortar Platoon

I finally finished the mortar platoon for my 8th Army infantry company. These are painted the same as the rest of the army. First picture is the platoon command.


Next is the Foward Observers. The mortar platoon gets three separate FO units which gives them great coverage of the table.

Here are the mortars. Six tubes is a lot and gives the unit the ability to re-roll misses. They also get large smoke screens which should be very useful.

Here is the entire unit minus the transports. I have Universal Carriers for transport but I am thinking that might be overkill. I am thinking that I might invest in some trucks and user the carriers for carrier platrols.

I am still working on the HMG Carriers and now that I have aquired some fresh 'dip' these will be finished soon. I am not sure if I want to paint the carrier platrol next or the Royal Artillery...

Old School Stuff - SWAT and Criminals

Tonight's old school stuff is some SWAT and criminal figures from Tactical Miniatures. Sadly, Tactical when out of business but the figures are available from Armor Cast. The Tactical guys were friends of mine and so these were freebies. I also did some painting for their convention figures. These are the only Tactical miniature that I have painted for myself and some day I will get to the rest of them.

I love the criminals in the hockey masks. They 'remind' me of the bad guys from Heat, a most excellent movie.

These guy have never been used in a game but I do have plans to use them in some zombie hunts.

Company Command Carrier

This is the first vehicle for my British 8th Army. This is the Universal Carrier for the company command unit. Old Glory does not make vehicle crews for the 8th army so I had to chop up some of the regular figures for my crews. Most of these figures are heavily modified and then stuck into the vehicles with green stuff. The unit markers are hand painted.

My HMG carriers are almost done as well as my mortar platoon. More updates very soon.

Old School Stuff - WAB Arabs and Saracens

It is time for the next installment of Old School Stuff! Today we have my second Warhammer Acients army - Arabs and Saracens. This army was collected and painted many years ago, perhaps 1999-2000. The figures are a mix of different brands.

The first unit is the Army General with a unit fo Ghulams. These figures are all Qualitycast, which I don't think you can get any more.

Next is another unit of Ghulams, this time the figures are from Old Glory. This unit was painted by a friend, Kevin Shope, who is now MIA (Kevin, if you are out there give me a shout). Ghulams are a must for this army. The are tough fighhters, excellent shots and have all sorts of stupid horse tricks.

The archers are also Old Glory figures. I think there was two units in this army but I can't remember. Lots of bow is a must for an Arab army.

A unit of Auxilliary Infantry is a very useful unit. As light infantry they are very quick and javalins allow them to reach out to the enemy. They are cheap too. These figures are Old Glory.

The unit below is a small unit of Arab Spearmen. This unit includes the Army Standard Bearer. The figures are mostly Old Glory with a small number of Qualitycast.

The next is a unit of Religous Volunteers. These figures are a mix of Gripping Beast and old Qulaitycast miniatures.

Not pictured, for some reason, are two units of Turkish Light Cavalry. This is a 2000 point army and was a real blast to play. Unfortunately, I sold the army to a friend a few years ago.