Progress report : Isenstein archers

Imperial Archers from 'good old' Warhammer Fantasy make up the first unit of Isenstein.

The archer is a Citadel/Warhammer model from the mid 90s. In the annual catalog from 1995/96 it is the archer No. 4. Back then, every piece from the Warhammer range had an order number and it was possible to order exactly the minis you wanted. It was also possible to order every single piece, loose arms, parts from warmachines or monsters. To me that was the golden age of Games Workshop.

I always hated the slotta bases with the diagonal openings so I mounted the archers straight on the square base. Means pinching off the holder bar at the bottom and filing the underside of the feet. The gap in the base was closed with an matchstick glued in place.

The holder bar shows something interesting. The figure is named 'FORSTJAEGER'. That is a pseudo german word because 'Forst' means wood and 'Jaeger' is the word for hunter but this combination of both words is not eligible in german. So the real meaning could be a 'forest ranger' but I can't remember that the empire had any unit like this. Forest rangers seemed to be more a wood-elven thing.

Something is missing in the linup above. A Lord who has only a unit of archers and nothing else would be in trouble soon. At the moment I don't know what minis I can add to make the picture complete.

The only ones I have that seem to fit are henchmen from Advanced Heroquest that I once bought loose on a wargamer flea market. In fact there is one here in the area twice a year and usually you can buy a lot of Warhammer and Games Workshop stuff there. Too bad. If the event comes back my fantasy armies will nearly be ready I think.

Don't know if I should use them in this context. I do not want to put the light blue color on them, a color scheme like this here would suit them better.

By the way, they share the same fate that a lot of plastic miniatures face : The material is a little bit brittle nowadays. The bodies are still ok but the weapons are not so durable anymore.

Fantasy homecasting : Men-at-Arms from Prince August mould No. 674

I said I would do homecasting for my fantasy project so I did it. My first fantasy mould is the Men-at-Arms mould no. 674 from Prince August. (Needless to say the name of the company, nobody else has ever produced fantasy moulds for the mass market.)

The first warriors of Zornburg and Lord Igor Zorn I. himself.

The mould before use.

 

First test. Not bad, but he mould needs some additional air vents.

 

With air vents: the weapons and contours are correct.

I casted a lot because I always cast too much. And as always there will be some minis where I did not see the miscasting in the first place so the amount made will be reduced by some pieces.

The outcome was not great 'art' but OK. A lot of other miniatures from the time when these moulds were designed - take some early Ral Parthas for example - would not fit into 28mm settings. Some wouldn't even pass for dwarfs. The miniatures from this mould are only a very little bit smaller compared to 28mm figures. Mount them on a base (like I did above) and the difference is nearly gone.

One of the next posts will be an overview of the mould series.

Problems with Blogger (UPDATE 2)

Yesterday I activated the 'Followers' gadget and the title is shown as can be seen on the right. And of course there are no followers at the moment because the blog is too new. I waited a little bit to see if I can get into a routine of blogging. And I think I am and so it was time to switch that on.

But now there is no button shown to become a follower. Strange. And in my profile I activated the display of the list of websites I follow. But this list also does not show up.

I ticked all the right options and I also switched it on and off to trigger the process but to no avail. I searched for help online. Nothing. Only the usual stuff: klick here, klick there, follow public. If I would not have done that.

Any idea anybody?

[UPDATE]

OK, the 'Follow' button was a problem for the script blocker. That is a 'social media' function and all of them were suppressed by default. I fixed that.

But the list of sites I follow does not show up, whatever I do.

[UPDATE 2]

Did you ever encounter that so called 'experts' don't have a clue? Look at this 'answer' to exact this problem from a 'Diamond Product Expert' on the support forums. With cryptic words he says to the user : click the checkbox in the 'Edit User Profile' dialog. Then he says something using different accounts that's more or less unrelated.

I looked at the profile of the original poster. His question is from 2019 and the list of his followed sites is still not displayed. And the forum question is closed because the 'expert' had enough of it. 

But he and another 'Platinum Product Expert' who wrote ' Never knew that feature existed."(I think he means the checkbox...) got more 'points' in the support system FOR NOT FIXING ANYTHING.

Is that 'Brave New World' or 'Planet of the Apes'?

The army of Greenwood is ready

A quiet weekend later and the spearmen of Greenwood are also done. This part of the army of Midgard is ready now. Greenwood is not to be expanded beyond this 24+2 figures.

The spearmen with helmets and the hero in front are from Crusader Miniatures. The guys without helmets (and some without hair) are from another manufacturer whom I can't remember at the moment. The other minis have been mentioned in posts before.

I think I must switch back to matt varnish. Most of the time the shiny varnish looks nice when the minis are on the table. Maybe because our eyes like shiny surfaces. But when photographed all the the highlights take away a lot.

Some Normans for Greenwood county

Small update this week. Some Axemen and Crossbows for the duchy of Greenwood. Initially acquired for SAGA, now looking for work in Retrosia. Two of the crossbows were missing so I build them from wood and a small piece of wire for the bolt. Not 'art' but it's ok I think. (At least for me.)

The axemen are from Crusader Miniatures (Dismounted Norman Knights with Axes) but the origin of the crossbowmen is a mystery to me. The Greenwood division of the Midgard army is now nearly ready. The rest is a unit of spearmen that is almost finished, they only need the gras on the bases and a flag.

In the background one can see that skeletons are one of the next units I am going to work on. And, on my other blog, 54mm napoleonic artillery.

Brandor the Avenger is back

Let's go on with the strange things we can't let go.  I start the new year with another 'blast from the past'.

This is - as far as I remember - the very first fantasy miniature that I ever bought in my life. (In the shop that I mentioned in the last post.) And I am happy that I still have it after all the years so that I can give this hero a second chance to 'be someone'.

I never knew who was the producer and if the mini belonged to a kind of 'army' or something like that. But thanks to the Lost minis wiki I finally identified him.

It's the 'Super Hero on horse' (Nr. B20) from a british company named 'Borbur Enterprises' that had a fantasy line under the name 'Black Baron'. The company existed from 1975 to 2006 but according to the wiki their fantasy line was stopped in 1987. Funny, sold alone as B20 the hero's horse is named correctly a unicorn.

(By the way: there is an interesting piece about Black Baron on the 'Dear Tony Blair' Blog.)

The wiki also says that Stone Mountain Miniatures in the U.S. still produces Black Baron figures, but the fantasy line seems not be in production any more. And if we look at the minis in the wiki, we can see that most of the old figures have a special charm but not much market value anymore. Ok, I would buy the Winged Demon (B14), the War Chariot (B43) does not look bad and a band of that hobgoblins would also easily find a place to live in Retrosia. But thats me and maybe a handfull of other people around the world. No reason to dig out the moulds again.

The super hero after cleaning the old paint off. The Airfix paints I used back then were applied to thick and the white 'horse' was to yellow now to be acceptable anymore.

As you can see above the original miniature ist shown with a lance but I could swear that my copy came with the double ax shown in the photo (that I made a while ago). It's sad, but Brandor - so his new name - finally got a smaller axe because by mistake I used the original one with another mini and I cannot change it back because I cut the handle. So the weapon on my figure is not the original, but his shield, regardless of how often it fell off the mini, is still there after all the years and keeps the old paint.

(Note to myself : stuff like that goes together into a zip bag so that pieces won't get lost or used elsewhere...)

Riding of the painting table for new adventures...

...oh, wait, this way.

Now I have a leader for 'Brandors Avengers', a group like Robin Hood and his merry men, living in the free countrys on the border of the empire. Their home will be an old border fortress near to a river:  Orkford Castle.