90's Warhammer Cacti

   This is one of those posts where I have tried to keep to what I do best and that's not trying to be too clever. There is quite a lot of noise online at the moment of 30 odd year old hobbyists feeling nostalgic for a time when gaming was simpler, with at least a couple of guys in my local area painting 40k armies made of older models in an older paint style* - at least one is using a box of paints he bought online dating from 2rnd edition.

*Goblin Green bases and bright colours

   While I am nowhere near that nostalgic, the jungle scenery project I have found myself restarting has given me thoughts, one of which was to do a single base of the iconic foam ball cacti - but in a way they should fit into the rest of the collection.

   I appreciate that cacti famously don't grow in rainforests but in the deathworlds of the 41st millennium, who can prove me wrong? I kept to the now famous method of building them except they are covered in two layer of Modge Podge for added strength and final colours I went for aren't perfect matches - warboss green and flesh tearers red contrast. I also added a jungle base rather than a desert base so I could just do one test batch that I could add straight into a collection, rather than starting something big*.

*I am now very tempted to do a whole set in the future for my desert scenery

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The French Royal Scots - Royal-Ecossais

   With the anniversary of the battle of Culloden being the 16th, I'd planned to get my Jacobite Scottish army finished but with work being busy it turned out to be harder than planned, then along came a day of annual leave . .  

   The last real chunk of the project are 2 and a bit units of Royal Ecossais, Scottish troops in French service who came over to fight with their countrymen when the call went out. 

   As with the Irish Piquets from a couple of posts ago, these were also from my mate Neil's backlog and are from Front Rank Miniatures and the flags are from Flags of War.

I also painted up a Front Rank Scottish commander for the whole project at the same time. I have a Bonnie Prince Charlie to paint too, but I ordered the wrong horse, so he has to wait until my next order.

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Rainforests - Not As Easy As I thought It Would Be

   It's been a bit longer* than planned between my rainforest scenery posts but I have been making progress in a number of fronts. Firstly, I decided to take remove all the plants from the bases I had already done to make the repainting process easier and so I could do the whole lot in one batch with a big brush - this step was soul destroying.
    For the second attempt I took the advice given and changed my recipe, with the biggest changes being a much darker pot of brown paint with a layer of mixed dried herbs over the top, plus (I think) a better mix of trees.

*What an understatement

   This is only my first few test bases finished to test the theory, I think I have another 11 bases flocked up and ready for trees and more free time. I also need to work out what the big trees were again as I'm really pleased with how they came out.

I'd better get working on some more bases now.

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Éomer, son of Éomund

   I've been meaning to play some Lord of the Rings with my brother since back in December (I think) as he's been slowly painting up an army and wants to get it onto the table.

   I, on the other hand, have been painting up a Rohan force that I would like to get on the table, so while the game would be Good vs Good, it would still be a chance to try stuff out. He wanted to up his hero selection from Faramir to his big brother Boromir, so I needed a hero of similar calibre, step up their future brother in law Éomer, Third Marshal of the Riddermark.

  It's only two figures so there isn't the most to say about it. Its the newer plastic kit from GW and I followed the Warhammer TV painting guide, although a few substitutions were made to tie some colours into the rest of my force - no point using a different dark green base to the rest of my army, and I left off a few highlights that I didn't see the point of in a gaming piece. 

  This was another one of those paint schemes that you get to the point before the wash and think what the hell have I done with this model, then after you have washed it, you feel like a creative genius.

This has got me tempted to do another batch of riders now. . .

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