Painting update - 40mm moderns, 28mm Arthurians and CTs

I've been flitting between all sorts of projects the last couple of weeks - but have managed to get a fairly wide variety of things finished :-)

Assorted 40mm figures from HLBS, Irregular and Battle forge. Seperate weapons from TAG were used on quite a few figures.  Overall,  very pleased how these guys came out, and how well the figures mix together! 

I've almost finished the CTs - I think there are only 5 more after this lot. Only the pistol chap and the Bren gunner are stock, the others are converted Foundry figures and a weapons swap. The shotguns are the Miniature Mojo ones, and they fit in well with the Brittania sculpting style...

Lots of dark age fantasy stuff! Druids, farmers, a werewolf (inspired by the Frost Mark books as well as one who's name escapes me about a werewolf Avatar of Fenrir during the Viking era), possibly a 13th warband member or very lost arab, Black Shield Irish mercenaries (Cornwell has been a big inspiration! ), Romano-British Levy (white washed shields for some attempt at uniformity) and assorted germanic types.  Figures from Black Tree Designs, Foundry, Gripping Beast (including their plastic dark age warriors with West Wind heads), Eureka and West Wind (werewolf)

Review - Black Pyramid Games Beorn Kin (28mm)

Today's review is of the Black Pyramid Games 'beorn kin' figures. Although they have been out for a few years,  they aren't terribly well known. Currently the range has 3 packs - warriors, a chieftain and a chieftain mounted on a bear. There are more in the pipeline,  including cavalry,  a command pack and a witch. The review will cover the warrior and chieftain packs.

The figures are inspired by the Wendol cannibal cavemen from the film 13th Warrior, and are pretty good matches - down to the bear claw studded clubs and the chief having the horns of power. 

Each pack contained the bits shown, and the correct number of scenic resin bases. The chieftains arms are repeats of those from the warriors pack, but give pretty good verasatility.

The sculpting on the figures is good - not stupendous, but definitely more than adequate for the job and probably comparable to the likes of warlord.

(Speaking of which, the figures in the scale comparisons above are a Warlord standard bearer and a musketeer miniatures spearman. The figures beorn kin warriors are a little larger than the others, with the chieftain larger still.)  

The castings were also pretty good - a few mould lines, but they were all easily removable.  The fit of the seperate arms seems good,  and all seem compatible with all the bodies. 

Time for a few more comparison pictures...

From the left: Eureka, bk, Musketeer, bk, Artizan.

From the left: Artizan, bk, Warlord, bk and Gripping Beast. 

Overall I'm very pleased with the figures, and the 4 warriors for £6 is a good enough price.  The chieftain for £4 is a little steep, but as a one off isn't out the way. I'll definitely be getting some more warriors, and probably the other bits when they come out.  These guys would make for a great,  unique, Saga army!

WiP update - various projects

It's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I better put something up before I fell out of the habit again.  :-)

Progress has mainly been focused on 40mm stuff, but the last week or so has seen me dabbling in all sorts of projects.  Between going to a reenactment (as a punter for once) getting me fired up for a dark age stuff, and restarting Sleeping Dogs getting me fired up for afokf I have been hopping between things like crazy.  I am still having issues doing text captions for pictures, so apologies in advance for the block of unlabelled pictures.  I was about to call them figures, which shows I have thesis writing firmly lodged at the back of my mind! 

There is a 40mm Shirvan government soldier who has been converted to hold a TAG RPG-7, some Shirvan army special forces (originally early 90s green berets, updated with snazzy m4 carbines to show the governments western leaning), a couple of mercenaries (originally British royal marine Arctic warfare chaps, with TAG weapons), 28mm Malayan emergency CTs converted from Foundry ww2 Japanese (which will round out my CT platoon), assorted 15mm types (mick yarrow stone age and bronze age warriors, a few stray zulus) to act as 'hidden folk' for my dark ages games (definitely channeling the Brownies from Willow - I see these folks as pretty wild, with bronze and stone weapons and lots of rabbit and squirrel furs. The owl on the shaman's base, the severed head and the fallen tribesman are all an attempt to make them feel like they belong in a 28mm world, whilst  keeping the savage look), a couple of slightly converted early saxons, 3 Latino gangers which will end up joining my afokf triad and an overview of my painting desk (lots of romano British levy, a few saxons, the 40mm vdv from last time and various militia men in mixed camo schemes...)

Painting update - 40mm moderns

Just thought I'd share my painting progress on the 40mm stuff. The only things which aren't my work are the green chaps posed with the Ural truck.  They came painted off eBay, and have been rebased after I decided not to repaint them...