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Last Updated: January 22, 2012

This week my focus has been on the models: basing, painting, prep work before primer and so on. I also rummaged through my Undead collection to determine how many more skeletons & zombies I needed for my multiple Vampire Counts armies. I placed the order and have it on my agenda to bust out all off them - 50 zombies and 80 skeletons some time this spring (that should help my yearly quota). Anyway, this week's Table column has changed, but I'm leaving up the Hung collector's army that I posted last week.

After a long absence from the Army Collector's Tournament, the addition of LOTR Khand archers to my finished collection resulted in my Hung army reaching completion for the 500-point tournament games. As I point out on the Army Collector's page, a typical Hung army would be mostly Fast Cavalry with dozens of units of mounted archers encircling your army. However, because of the unpredictable nature of tournaments (where the defense of a castle or bridge could come up), it is safer to field about 50% infantry to deal with the unpredictable nature of these games. In a campaign, however, a fully mounted army will get around the map a lot faster than one toting infantry.

So, what's with the addition of the Khand archers anyway? Well, I've loved this army since it was released as one of the Fallen Kingdoms for the War of the Ring game by Games Workshop. An entire Hung army could be outfitted with these models, but since they are all GW metal, such a force would cost a lot more than the $600 I pegged my force to cost (using mostly Wargames Foundry models). The Khand archers, shown above, come in a box of 10. However, that's 2 archers and 8 axemen. That would make 10 boxes at $40 each for me to successfully field a pair of 10-man units (and there'd be more axemen on foot than horsemen). Enter Dragon Painting Services. I found the auction on EBay for a unit of 16 painted archers (no axemen included) being offered by Dragon Painting Services. I imagine it was a commission work that didn't pan out, but it also got my attention as the models are well done and all of them came mounted on GF9 magnetic bases. All I had to do is repaint the base edges so that they would match the rest of the Hung army. This means I only need to buy 2 boxes from GW and it will give me enough axemen to build a single unit of 16.

Projects Underway:

Beastmen 500-point collector's army
Araby Unofficial Army Book (the last installment of the Unofficial Army Book series).

On the Table:

The project on refurbing the Ashigaru Archers for my Nippon army continues. The three new Perry Miniatures archers are in the front right. I found the large arrow quivers in my bits box- they came with the original Dixon miniatures when I got them over 20 years ago. The Dixon's have been touched up and they're about to get dipped into a batch of Army Builder medium to bring them up to my current gaming standard.

The push was on for my Chinese (Cathay) and Samurai (Nippon) armies last year. That means that they're finally reaching the paint table this winter. Above are 25 Nippon peasants needed to fill out my Nippon army. These models are from Perry Miniatures and there are some old Ral Partha models mixed in as well. Tim Murray did the base coating for me. They need weapons to be painted and attached before they join the archers in a plunge into the Army Builder Wash.

While Tim Murray was working on the peasants, he also found 10 more Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss' on EBay that I had him pick up and paint for me. The addition of these guys to my army allows me to field 2 units of 15 blunderbuss. This is Tim's original paint scheme for the army I bought from him almost a decade ago.

As I'm beginning to "top out" my armies, I decided I don't want my Beastmen army sharing Chaos Hounds with my Chaos Warriors (both tournament armies need 10 since they are throw-away units). Therefore, I needed a few more to add to the Beastmen. The 3-headed dog is an old Ral Partha model (I already have 3 enlisted in the Chaos Warrior army) and the Hound in the middle is a Reaper Miniature. The conversation piece is the Displacer Beast by Black Tree Design. Although it's not a Hound, I already have plenty of Spawn models and I wanted to put this model into one of my armies (I currently own it for Dungeons & Dragons purposes). So, it is getting paint to join the Chaos Hounds in the Beastmen army.

Fantasy figures painted (so far) for 2012: 22

Final Fantasy figure count for 2011: 271

Update list:

01.15.12 Posted the Hung army on the Army collector's page.

01.02.12 Posted the Vampire Counts Bloodlines supplement to the Allies & Dogs of War page.

10.23 Turn One of the Orc, Goblin & Chaos Warrior mega-battle is posted.

10.16 The Norse army book put back up on the website.

10.05 The Norse army book taken down for rework.

10.02 Deployment for the Orc & Goblin vs. Chaos mega-battle added to the Battle reports page.

09.25 The Norse army book posted to the Unofficial Army books page.

08.14 The Kislev Army book posted to the Unofficial Army books page. Boris & Tzarina the Ice Queen are already on the Special Characters page.

07.10 Posted the Mourngol Army book to the Unofficial Army Book section. Added Ghazak Khan and Oglah Khan to the Special Characters section.

06.26 Posted revised Hung army book to Unofficial Army Book page.

06.19 The Hung (Steppe Nomads of the East) Army book posted to the Unofficial Army Book page.

05.15 Dogs of War book added to the Unofficial Army Book page.

05.08 Nippon army added to Collector's page.

05.01 New pics added to Skaven Showcase. Fire Arrow launcher added to the Cathay Unofficial Army Book.

04.21 Daemons of Chaos Escalation League army posted.

04.17 Scenarios page and 500-point Battle Reports page added. First Battle report between Dark Elves & Skaven also added.

04.10 Dogs of War Special Characters added to Special Characters page.

04.03 Fantasy Roman Army book added to Unofficial Army Book page.

03.13 Summoned Monsters added to Dogs of War page.

03.06 Chaos Dwarfs added to the Army Collector page.

02.25 Chaos Warriors added to the Army Collector page.

02.21 Lore of Chaos Dwarfs spell list added to Unofficial Army Book page. Orc & Goblin Collectors Army adjusted for 7th Edition.

02.06 Nippon Army book added to Unofficial Army Book page.

01.30 Orcs & Goblins added to Army Collector page.

01.09 Warhammer 7.5 rules added to web site (click on Warhammer logo below).

01.03.11 Chaos Dwarfs added to the Unofficial Army Book page.

Warhammer Fantasy 7.5

Warhammer Fantasy Solitaire:

Draft 11.08

Bluffs Scenery Building Project [PDF]

Click on the pic for the Underempire.net!