Workbench: Spearmen, Space Barrels, and Some Gardening Too!

More progress on the painting challenge but things have been going... a bit... slower...

I've started work on the spearmen that I had drybrushed and I've gotten half of them painted already.

I decided to split knight army up a little bit to add some flavor to the whole thing.  The soldiers in blue are the affiliated with the Crown and will form the core of my army.

In addition to these core troops, one of the two leaders for the army will be Baudric the Red (aka Lord Hawthorne from the Daqan forces of Runewars).

His set comes with a mounted figure and one on foot which will give me some options in the army as well.  Baudric is definitely the more imposing of the two figures so if I field the full army, then he will move into the champion slot.  Beside Baudric is one of the mounted knights that will accompany him, plus I will be painting up a unit of spearmen in his colors as well.

The next items are terrain pieces.  Nothing too fancy but I'm excited to have them to add into the mix.  What are they?

Spaaaaaace barrels!!!  (this is a call out to Table Top Warlords YouTube channel... check them out if you haven't already!)  I'll admit that I have no idea what Kevin made his out of but I made mine from assorted plastic bottle lids hot glued together, then painted.  Quick and easy!

Last but not least, I added some detailing to my plant terrain.  Originally I was going for quick and easy so I didn't bother with any ground cover.  Well, I decided that it was time to change that up so I hit Michael's and grabbed some lichen.

This is just a sample of but you at least get the idea.  It's just a minor touch but I really like how it added some realism and depth to the pieces.  I've been holding off on setting up my full terrain board since I'm going to be bouncing rooms again soon but once I'm in a more permanent location, I'll have to see what I can do.  Still more to do this month but this is a good start for this month!  Until next time...

Random Updates: Painted Ghar, Tabletop Warlords, and Proxy Isorians

I'm not gonna lie, I had originally been planning on trying to get in a game of Antares featuring the Algoryn troops of Yadrolla against the mighty Ghar Empire!  It didn't quite work out that way but instead I was able to actually get some paint onto my Ghar.  Huzzah!

This isn't the finished product but it gives you an idea what I'm going for.  Originally I was planning on painting my Ghar red because... well, because I like to paint things red.  It's kind of a trend.  After reading more about the Ghar, I don't see them as being so concerned with things like paint.  I mean the studio paint scheme for the Ghar is really crisp but I like the idea of having them dirty metal instead.  Their suits are churned out on an assembly line and sent out to war.  I plan on carrying this through with the outcasts as well, making them dirty from the harsh life they have been forced to live.  No idea how it will work out since I don't have a lot of experience with weathering minis but this seems like a great place to start.

I have also been watching the Tabletop Warlords on Youtube, a great channel that features Gates of Antares battle reports plus they are looking to expand into terrain making videos as well.  Sergey and Kevin do a great job breaking things down, making it easy to follow what is happening in the game, and they have a good chemistry that make them really fun to watch.  I recommend checking them out if you currently play Antares or are looking to find out more information about how the game works.

All of which leads nicely into my next tidbit, proxied Isorians.  When I first got into Antares the Isorians just didn't appeal to me aesthetically.  As I learned more about the game, they (along with pretty much all the other factions) really started to grow on me.  Unfortunately the Isorians are one of two factions that don't currently have a plastic set for their core infantry and I can't really justify plunking down more money while I'm still working on assembling and painting my first three armies.  Thankfully I stumbled across at least a temporary solution to this problem; the Therians.

This blog first focused on the game AT-43 by Rackham Games.  Unfortunately Rackham went the way of the dodo years ago but I still have all of my old Therian minis.  The Therians are basically a mechanical race but stylistically they have an organic look to them... just like the Isorians.  So, bada bing, bada boom...

...and instant Isorians!  While I do have a good number of Therians floating around, I don't have enough to be able to field a large Isorian proxy force.  I'd invested pretty heavily into the Golgoth walkers compared to the regular infantry units but I can pull together enough ground pounders for about 500 points, which is good enough for me to be able to try pushing them around to see how they play.  Who knows, it might even lead to yet another army for my collection.  Until next time...