Topic: The Road to Volganof (update 7Sep2023 - Swordsmen & priest)

[Naitsabes]

2Jun2016
Well, it’s been a while. Yet still, this update is rather wimpy as you’ll see below. I have finished painting the big unit of greatswords except for the standard where my ambition collides with my skill level. It’ll get resolved one way or the other and most likely that unit will be my next installment for this project log. But, for now, here is another mortar for the walls of Volganof, part of the Nordland contingent. I have four more cannons ahead of me and then I am done with the artillery.




I painted this for a painting competition on the EEFL forum. And, just as an aside, that forum is a friendly place and if you are still interested in the world (and the ruleset) that was, go check it out, http://eefl.freeforums.net/

I put some more (actually, probably too much) thought into how to represent Vassily von Raukov (remember? the big man’s brother, administrator, arrogant snob and according to some a coward). Originally I wanted a portly figure and it seemed there was a Bretonnian men-at-arm that would fit the bill. I sourced the model from a friendly local Bret player but, now I am unsure. It seems hard to put puffy sleeves on and the whole chest area is way too ‘medieval peasant’. And, then I stumbled upon a treasure in the local store’s bits box. Puffy, expensive looking clothing extraordinaire and also as classic as it gets when it comes to models. Not portly, but he doesn’t look like an accomplished fighter either, so still fits the bill in a way. Here is what I am rambling about:


So, two options for Vassily, which way to go? I suppose I could do try both and then denote the less successful one to an unnamed champion in a non-descript swordsmen unit? The Warhammer word is a harsh place after all and not every model gets their dream job.

That’s all for today. The official Volganof counter:
692/966

[The Real Rick Salamone]

This is going to sound like a weird comment but I suggest a larger patch of that static grass at the front of the mortar base. The grayish basing and the gunmetal blend together visually and I think the green grass would break it up as seen from the front.


EEFL!
EEFL.freeforums.net

[Rogers Kul]

I beg for the bretonian model!

Fantastic mortar. A great job on a regular model 

[Naitsabes]

This is going to sound like a weird comment but I suggest a larger patch of that static grass at the front of the mortar base. The grayish basing and the gunmetal blend together visually and I think the green grass would break it up as seen from the front.

not weird, valid! and easy to implement. thanks

I beg for the bretonian model!

Fantastic mortar. A great job on a regular model 

thanks. alright, I was tending towards the metal guy but now I will have to do both. I may swear (maybe even cry) as I hack and saw to implement the puffy sleeves. And, it will all be on you! 

[Warlord]

I like the metal guy.

Though give bretonnian a headswap - use one of the plastic greatsword heads and paint him colourful enough and he should be fine.

I'm not sure about the colour of the monkeys face - looks a bit pale?

[Naitsabes]

I'm not sure about the colour of the monkeys face - looks a bit pale?

I based this on a real monkey...well not quite. I did a google image search. But, I agree, it's not quite defined enough. Below is the other extreme when it comes to monkey face colors. Maybe the third time will be the charm and I find a happy medium.

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18Jun2016

Update time! I’ve talked the talk for long enough, here they finally are. The Stalwart Bulls. Heroes of the Lynsk. At that disastrous attempt to stop Lord Mortkins invasion in Kislev they alone stood their ground at the river crossing and bought enough time to turn a chaotic rout into a somewhat orderly retreat.



At Volganof they form Oleg von Raukov’s personal guard and will defend their lord to the last man….which will hopefully take a while, they do have a 5++ ward save after all.

Here are some close-ups. Sculpting the fur caps was a bit hit and miss (this is my usual style). I am quite happy with some of them. I also think the metal and plastic version go together okay with a consistent paint job. I did run out of greatswords towards the end and had to fit in a few state troops but they blend into the masses. As per usual I tried to stick with the Ostland stereotype of manly beards.


Well, every regiment needs a mascot. Seems like I have a little bit of a monkey theme going lately but, I assure you, it is just a coincidence.

 I made two command groups. This allows me to split the unit into something more useful in a regular game. I’ve played a few 2500pt games with 2x30 greatswords. It’s kind of fun to have a nigh unbreakable center but, not too effective.




Now that this unit is in the book, there is really only one more big hurdle to completing the army: 40 more Reiksguard knights. After that it’s just a few more units of state troops and some odds and ends. So, I am not quite on the home stretch but, getting there. I am no Catalan, so I will need to recover a bit from all the batch painting, maybe with some nice crazy chaos models. Stay tuned.

That’s all for today. The official Volganof counter:
752/966

[Doc J]

I have never seen a more macho unit of greatswords 

[Naitsabes]

[VonOttenheim]

I´m in awe.

Love your work.

[LarsRock]

Those guys look really cool!
I really like that you have used metals, plastics and kit bashed greatswords, it gives the units a great dynamic feel!
Also, great banners!

[Zak]

very nice

[errantgamer]

Amazing effort! You are truly nearly there!

I expect a gargantuan battle report when the battle is eventually fought..

[Hoodling]

Great work. That was a lot of fuzzy hats to sculpt!

[Naitsabes]

Thanks guys for checking these out.

I´m in awe.
Love your work.

Thanks, high praise. I'll try to keep it up!

Those guys look really cool!
I really like that you have used metals, plastics and kit bashed greatswords, it gives the units a great dynamic feel!
Also, great banners!

I do like to avoid clone troopers as much as possible. The banners were a major pain in the rear. I couldn't do freehand to save my life so I am stuck with printing and overpainting. It was hard to get them out in the right size and then carefully re-trace the lines and white doesn't give the right margin of error for a person as shaky as me. Certainly aiming for more colorful banners on the next units.

very nice

cheers! (judging from your avatar you figured out how to keep these negative waves away)

Amazing effort! You are truly nearly there!

I expect a gargantuan battle report when the battle is eventually fought..

yeah so, we don't have a good track record with that. but, we'll certainly try. it will be a rather special event.

Great work. That was a lot of fuzzy hats to sculpt!

Thanks, Sir. Indeed, I am past 100 for these hats now. Good training for one day doing Kislevites.

---------------------------
right, so I did do quite a bit of hobby but lacking behind on the photography (while admittedly not obvious from the quality of pictures I post, it does take some time to set things up for these). But, I recently bought some of the armored warhorses from our very own White Knight and wanted to post quick size comparison pictures that may be useful to some.


so here is the one horse I put together next to 25 years of GW offerings. It does fit in quite nicely. Putting together a metal miniature was a good reminder how easy plastic and resin are in that respect. But, all parts fit really well and there are only really minimal mold lines. And, the casting quality is excellent. I was a bit concerned about attaching the tail but drilling that hole through the armor into the two part horse body right at the seam was a non-issue.

The legs might be a little slender in comparison but, I don't think it's a problem. There are a number of leg poses and they are easy to bend for even more variety. I am not the expert on horse movement so not sure if all possible horse half combinations make sense.

Here you can see how well it fits height wise. Also of note: I used the most aggressively forward kicking horse yet, it still ranks up with the horse in front. REALLY happy with that. I wish they had sculpted on a blanket or similar. With some legs it won't matter as they come with more gear but there is quite a bit of horse peaking through with the standard plastic knight legs. I may try to 'sculpt' a bit of a blanket with some frills when the time comes.

Anyway, I highly recommend these to mix up the ancient GW pony monotony. They fit the bill for me.

[White Knight]

Thanks for that review and the pictures. 

[Zak]

perfect comparison, WK I love these Knights and everything else you produce I just wish there was a better way to get them over seas hahaha

[White Knight]

Well perhaps you can start a thread for a collective order to save on shipping if someone is willing to post them on to the other participants.

[Naitsabes]

perfect comparison, WK I love these Knights and everything else you produce I just wish there was a better way to get them over seas hahaha

well, it just took a bit of faith. Sometimes when you send money overseas to a random guy on the internet you actually get what you ordered.  The actual process is quite easy, just send an email to get the paypal account, then send the money. No forms to fill out, no registering on some sketchy website and entering a credit card number - twice. Refreshing really. Shipping is a factor (~$9), don't know how much you could save by collective ordering and redistributing stateside. These horses are heavy. The real way to save there is to order many horses just for yourself 

[Lateksimajava]

Very impressive unit of Greatswords! 

Usually I don't like fur hats but these really look good.

[Naitsabes]

Very impressive unit of Greatswords! 

Usually I don't like fur hats but these really look good.

Thanks! Glad the fur hats passed your muster. Using my power of selective photography I avoided showing you the more dodgy hats. Some aren't quite following the laws of physics.

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8Aug2016

An update for real this time. First of all I’ve finished the first house of Volganof. It came together pretty well. I think it’s always a juggling act to make things good-looking yet sturdy enough. We’ll see how this one holds up to the rigors of gaming, I couldn’t resist adding some bits that are sticking out quite a bit.



Also, in that last one you can see a bit of my current chaos project sticking out. I’ve started calling it the ‘milka beast’ due to an in hindsight unfortunate color choice. Anyway, that’s for a future update.

Today’s other topic is a good old galloper gun. I stumbled upon this beauty when I was rummaging through an old box hunting for state troop recruits and decided to update the paint job. I do have some fond memories of getting the galloper gun (must have been sometime late in the last century I guess) and taking flank shots of the nasties of the day. Then it collected dust for a long time. But, now it seemed like the perfect addition to the all-cav relief force. I eventually will have to look for suitable rules, I seem to remember it could march 16” and then shoot which seems a bit outrageous.



Now to end on a solemn note: my Volganof gaming buddy, master of all things chaos, will move to the other end of the country in a few weeks. I know what you are thinking, how dare he put career and family and happiness above a game of toy soldiers. That’s what I told him too but, he did not change his mind. So, we are in a bit of a pickle in terms of actually playing this game.  Getting together for a game of this magnitude might be worth the trip, we’ll just have to roll with the punches and see what the future holds. I am in way to deep and certainly will continue working on this army as my main hobby project, I figure there is another year or two of mileage in it. But, there might be more frequent chaotic interludes and, there probably won’t be a second house for Volganof anytime soon. I simply wouldn’t know where to store it.

That’s all for today, upward and onward, headwind or not. The official Volganof counter:
756/969

[Zygmund]

Beautiful classic model painted very nicely!

The house is ace.

-Z

[Rogers Kul]

That’s all for today, upward and onward, headwind or not. The official Volganof counter:
756/969

Came on Naitsabes! You got it!
Nice work with this house. Hirts Arts, cardboard... and those little elements that convert this building in a warhammer building (wood sign, window, chimney...).
How many houses do you plan to build?

[Doc J]

The building looks great, I like the colors you chose they are very realistic and earthy. I think the galloper gun would be a great addition to an all cavalry force and again you made a good color choice for the crew muted tones and not flashy. 

[Naitsabes]

Beautiful classic model painted very nicely!

The house is ace.

-Z

The building looks great, I like the colors you chose they are very realistic and earthy. I think the galloper gun would be a great addition to an all cavalry force and again you made a good color choice for the crew muted tones and not flashy. 

Thanks guys. The hardest choice was the roof. Still not totally sure if reddish would have been a better choice. But, there is one way to find out...once I built the next one.

Came on Naitsabes! You got it!
Nice work with this house. Hirts Arts, cardboard... and those little elements that convert this building in a warhammer building (wood sign, window, chimney...).http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/Smileys/phpBB/huh.gif
How many houses do you plan to build?

Cheers mate. My project is only slightly ambitious. Nothing like the madness you are pursuing. Eventually, I want to build maybe on the order of 10 houses and walls and high towers but, not in the foreseeable future. I think I may need to buy a real house first to store it all

[Rogers Kul]

Cheers mate. My project is only slightly ambitious. Nothing like the madness you are pursuing. Eventually, I want to build maybe on the order of 10 houses and walls and high towers but, not in the foreseeable future. I think I may need to buy a real house first to store it all

Exactly, this is the next level in our scale of wargaming: thinking on the next home in terms of playing, modelling and storing warhammer!  (I did it, recently...)