Jes Goodwin Ogre no.5 - standard bearer

Sogrodd's Mercanaries - aka the Rusty Flails.

Sogrodd aka "The Thug", leads his band of Mercanaries, for hire, to any willing Army General, for a good fee (an even greater amount of gold is demanded if that General happens to be a greenskin though). 

When these renowned fighters appear on the battlefield, they simultaneously causes fear amongst the enemy rank and file and at the same time a glimmer of hope for the opposing General. If he has enough gold, he knows there is always a chance that Sogrodd will change allegiance and attack his original employers (as famously happened at the Battle of Skull Pass). This band are quite simply led to battle by the fight as much as the temptation of a big hoard of treasure and gold.

Below is Ang'thra'olyg the ageing standard bearer of the band and in past times, it's original leader. No longer the fearsome warrior he once was, he now seems to bring a great deal of luck to the warband, hence why he is entrusted with the banner. Ang'thra'olyg believes in his own luck too; eschewing armour for manoueverability, he still remains largely uninjured, even though he likes to entice the opposition to attack him with vile gestures and base language:

Adorned with his lucky charms of a flower of broccoli, a goblin skull, cockatrice feathers and a duck's foot.

I had a lot of fun painting this Ogre, as usual it is a very crisp and characterful sculpt from Mr. Goodwin, which makes it easy to create the character of the model and how he fits into the warband. I especially like the characterful details of what he carries into battle, including some broccoli, feathers and on his back a duck's foot!

 Obviously this is a very simple conversion with his weapon clipped away, a hole drilled through his hand and a thick paper clip inserted to create the banner pole. This was then covered in greenstuff and roughly sculpted to look like wood. From my bitzbox a spare LotR troll hand was then combined with an (Giant of Albion?) axe for the top of the banner.

The banner itself was created by freehand onto a piece of paper (except the dry transfer letters) and then the entire banner was distressed with some blood and mud spatters before being ripped at the edges. To stiffen the paper it was coated in dilute PVA and then matt varnish applied.

And here are the five of them ready for action (sans the unfinished movement tray):

Sogrodd is about to be usurped though as leader, a new contingency commander, a level 20 ogre, no less is about to take control of the band..... Work on him is underway, pink trousers and all..

A game of family Heroquest

Here's the backstory I used to engage my daughters into their first game of Heroquest, where they are the heroes using models of themselves!:

 The girls were asked by their teacher, Mrs Woods, to stay behind after school to help tidy up the classroom. It was a mess. They started on the bookcase, where eldest daughter began arranging the books in alphabetical order. As she was dusting some of them off, she uncovered a red, leather bound tome that seemed somewhat older than the rest. It also seemed warmer to the touch. As she started leafing through a small wand dropped out of the pages, it was then that she realised that it must be a spell book! She shouted out to her sister who was pretending to tidy up, and straight away she wanted the spell book which led to much bickering.

 [You can tell that this is based a lot on reality!]

The youngest girl went into a strop in the corner and leant against the classroom wall and as she did so the floor started moving and a hidden trapdoor opened, she must have touched a hidden, secret switch!

The girls did not hesitate in exploring the new staircase down, there was some light down there so it wasn't too scary. As they descended the stairs the trapdoor slammed shut above them, they were trapped and had to find their way out. Yikes!

Here are a few house rules that we had in place:

• Each character could walk  6 spaces or run 10. If running then no searching of rooms could happen.
• The spellcaster could cast any spell she wanted, one per turn, on an even roll of a dice. She had to use her imagination in saying the spell and she could not repeat the same spell twice. [for example one goblin was squished, whilst a zombie was magically hung up by it's ankles from the ceiling]
• The girls could suffer no more than scrapes and scratches (a tally was kept).
• The stroppy girl could pull a strop once per turn, on an odd roll of the dice, which meant all monsters moved back two spaces.

And here are some pictures of the game as it played out. 

After some exploring youngest daughter decides to leave her older sister to fend for herself against a goblin and two wandering monsters!

With spellcaster in a spot of bother, youngest daughter changes her mind with a huff "If I must, but you have to cast a nice spell on me!" Thumbs up to that!

Teamwork! The two of them soon dispatch the zombies and goblins who leave behind a  jewel in the shape of jelly bean. Spellcaster casts a spell so that there are two, one for her sister too. Nice.

At this point they had a small bicker about who would have which jelly bean, they both wanted the red one. As GM I stepped in and held them behind my back for them to choose blindly. Oldest daughter chose the red one and was quite smug towards her sister about it, but she was a lot less smug when she ate it and discovered it was cinnamon flavour. Ha!

At last some equipment! Ah but there is a spaghetti monster and some dead guys to deal with. Quick have a strop and wander off...!

The final room and the way out is visible. In a great bit of rpging, the spellcasting daughter turns her sister into a giant who stomps on the orcs and the hound. The giant daughter then talks to the minotaur and tells him that the troll is much tastier than them! With the minotaur and troll busy the girls escape up the stairs into the arms of Mrs Woods.

Who doesn't believe a word they say about their adventures!

My two little heroines. showing some attitude after their adventures. Phew, it must be bedtime now, but it was a lot of fun! Next time I'm going to try and get the wife to join in.........

Ps. My youngest daughter really isn't that stroppy, just stubborn and somewhat independent!

Family Heroquest!

So following on from my earlier post about getting hold of Heroquest with the intention of playing with my daughters: 

http://thelostandtheverydamned.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/heroquest-another-project-but-cool-one.html

 I have painted up the two Hasslefree miniatures that will represent them on the gaming board:

I've tried to stick with the colours that my girls suggested in their sketches, which were based on clothes they actually own. Yes my oldest does have pink trainers. Yes my youngest daughter does strop in that pose (sans the knife!). 

These two miniatures were a pleasure to paint and I can now see why they are called Hasslefree, because there really is no hassle in painting their miniatures - the details are clear and crisp. I originally thought they were named so because they are a company that are easy to deal with and this is also the case (there were also some free maoam sweets in the package when it arrived swiftly after payment!). 

So if you haven't already, I'd strongly suggest you head over to their website and have a look at their excellent range of miniatures: 

http://www.hfminis.co.uk

Meanwhile I'll be playing my first proper family game of Heroquest tomorrow and I'll share the pictures here. 

Jes Goodwin Ogre no.4

The classic "Thug Ogre" with his unique pose of hobnailed boot lifted from the heal and his mace swung back ready to swing. I've seen this pose interpreted in many ways; with a fence being flattened, an adversary being squashed being two of many. I haven't added anything to the dialogue of the model's pose, but have added some bags of loot on the base, with gold coins cascading into the grass - I see this fellow as guarding a recent hoard of gold coins:

I went for a green pallette to offset a slightly red skin and the orange of the rust areas, and in this case decided against any patterns, just focusing on the colour choices.

You can see the bags and coins a bit clearer here:

And the four of them together, which means I can also cross another entry from my LatD retinue table challenge off the list: D4 ogres done!

But fear not these Ogres are not finished, I have two more ogres to add, the first will be the mercanary contingent commander:

Followed by this shaman who has been converted into the contingent's standard bearer:

Many thanks for looking!