Almost Finished !

I have almost finished my AElvish Halbreds !!! I spent Sunday afternoon painting and watching cooking shows on PBS. Fortunately most of them weren't too interesting so I got quite a bit done. The hair is finished, eyebrows added where needed, halbred shafts touched up again, and then (while watching the classic Zulu) all of the rivets and halbred blades re-painted with a shinier silver. I went ahead and painted their bases, using an avocado green ~ which I've decided looks much better than the hooker green I had been using for the last few years.

If I can get blogger to load this image correctly you should be able to click on it for a larger view. I hope you'll agree that they are looking pretty good for figures that are about an inch tall!

I still need to work on their faces and the knotwork design on their scabbards. I haven't decided how I'm going to do the knotwork ~ whether to use blue or maybe silver, or mayber even different colors . . .

I think I'm ready for a little break before working on the faces too. I have to decide just what paint I'm going to use! I think I used a Humbrol flesh way back when I first started these figures. These days I really prefer the generic craft store acrylics, but I haven't found the perfect flesh tone yet. Well have to see . . .

After sitting back and just enjoying looking at these figures I pulled out my boxes of Ral Partha figures. After some more looking and enjoying I think I have my next perfect painting project!

I have a good number of, mainly Ral Partha, centaurs. All along I've intended them to be Allies of the AElves. I think three of them that will be my next painting project! A fun change of pace and beautiful figures.

Watching Zulu did get me thinking about The Secret Project again . . . I've gone back and forth in my mind for some time about different ideas. Reading some of the great 18th Century gaming blogs about different Imagi-Nations recently reminded me of the neighboring, and belligerant, Empires that Ted M. and I mapped out back in high school.

At one point I was had thought about maybe making the traditional barbarian kind of orcs actually technicologically further ahead. A bit difficult though on the figure front. Now Zulu has me thinking along more traditional, though a bit different lines.

HoTT has a neat points system that allows for easy army customization. So my orcs could be fielded as blades, warbands, auxillaries, or just about anything I want or need. Seeing the Zulus disappear and re-appear in the terrain reminded me of playing The Sword & The Flame with Alan H. years ago. The hidden movement rule for the Zulus really added to the game tension. Definitely something to remember when it comes time to field my orcs!

This view is one of my favorites and really shows how they will look on the battlefield.

The unit is on the a cheese tray, with the lid behind them, that I use to store them on one of the living room shelf when I'm not working on them. It keeps them close by and available and keeps the dust off of them. I picked this up years ago for just a couple of dollars. It's perfect for my needs.