6mm fantasy Martian Alliance army 1st go

This is a trial post. More will follow tomorrow. I have now completed my first elements of the three factions in a new 6mm fantasy army - I call it the Martian Alliance. These are the elements I have painted so far.

And here's a slightly better photograph. The whole collection is made of three factions; the surface dwellers, or technocrats, who use domes to grow stuff and protect themselves from the Martian radiation. They wear exo suits and never go to the surface without them. They use energy weapons (blue and white glowing types) and make the most use of technology. Most of these are onslaught miniatures from various factions, as it suited me, although the behemoth is a microworld dwarf golem and they use (non) daleks from irregular miniatures as hordes. (I think I have to say they are non-daleks, even though they look remarkably like them).

The second faction is the Olympians, who live in and around Olympus mons. They use some energy weapons and after massive exposure to radiation have changed the most. These are all Microworld demon miniatures.

The final faction came out of watching the pilot episode of big bang theory - so I call them crater dwellers - they remind me of the morlocks. They live in the craters of Mars, so have avoided some radiation, but have become wierd. They are all Microworld, from the wildlands alliance faction.

In general the photos will not stand up to close inspection, which is ok, as they are intended for mass effect in large HOTT games.

However, the above crater dweller hero (the only one with a stolen energy weapon) scrubs up nicely.

A variant hero looks even better. 

This is a warband base; the microworld silverback beserkers look fantastic in their wild poses.

The elephant men are among the strangest figures I ever saw, but they are just right for this Martian alliance.

The Crater hordes, with a silverback to urge them on.

The simian cohort makes a perfect crater blades unit.

Planet of the apes is definitely an inspiration for this faction. All I need is a damn dirty Charlton Heston figure.......

Rhinomen - that Martian radiation gets everywhere.

not enough light in this photo

Much better here.

So there goes one faction. The other two will follow shortly.

Whole collection Spring 2015

Whole collection Spring 2015

I am getting set up for a small day of HOTT gaming on Friday and decided to put for display the whole collection of my 6mm fantasy figures and the terrain boards.

Above the entire collection on parade - traditional good against evil, sort of.

To the left the Vikings, with woodland realm in front, centaurs close, then foot. Dwarves in reserve and desert people in the background. To the right lizardsmen, with hobgoblins in reserve, then minotaurs, undead, dread elves and far off the orc/goblins with Hephaistos/volcanic arm in reserve.

My favourite picture. I love that dragon - the best fantasy dragon ever. Set against a background of fiery lava flying heroes; with the wolfriders, boar riders and dread elf raptor riders and riders in front.

The whole collection from the other side.

Desert people - mole riders closest. The desert comes alive.

The woodland realm mounted force - centaurs, with vikings in reserve.

The rarely seen lizardmen - I have a huge army unpainted - whenever I almost paint them, microworld games bring out yet another amazing army which gazumps them. I overdid the green glaze on these.

lizardmen, minotaurs and hobgoblins in reserve.

closer up minotaurs and hobgoblin cavalry. Interesting view of the hobgoblin airboats here.

A great view of the massed spider riding hobgoblins and their supporting dragon and warband trolls.

I love massed cavalry - even spider riders - a hangover from my youthful Napoleonic days.

I did do a lot of those hobgoblins.

The undead hordes and their charismatic bone giant. I painted these about three years ago and have got better since. But they hold up well. Watch out for the beastmen/minotaur wizards to the right!

The massed dwarf bear and sheep riders, with dwarf tank battalion. They await the advance of the enemy hordes. Dwarf flers (irregular flying stuff is the best in 6mm imho).

The dread elves - I never took them to HOTT club - so Friday's big battles will be their first combat outing. Can't wait to get those lovely raptor riders charging en masse.

The orcogoblins - actually a mix of mostly microwrold and a few baccus. The second army I tried (first was woodland). Massed wolfand boar riders behind advancing trolls, archers and wizards and heroes.

The army of Hephaistos awaits the victory of the dread elves to see if it is needed. Massed aerial heroes and wizards were a huge basing commitment, but it has paid off since.

Dread elves - why did I never use them before this week?

The whole lot again.

I am no expert, as the above photographs show - but that collection has taken up absurd amounts of my spare time in the last four years. There's something charismatic about the bone giant amidst his deathly hordes.

Watch this space after Friday for the big battle reports. It'll be three battles with three commands per side, as I reckon trying for one giant battle on one table would take too long waiting for each side to finish - better to have three pairs fighting at their own speed. We shall see.

The hobgoblins are here

At long last, I am ready to present my new hobgoblin army and its associated terrain, which I am calling the crystal river. This all took twice as long as I thought it would, which had me puzzled until I finally boxed them up. They are twice the size of my previous armies.

above is the bridge over the crystal river, with the stronghold (the crystal palace?) behind. The board and army are designed for use with HOTT, but with my own take on this. This board is 4 feet by two feet, larger than proper, but ready for multi-command large battles.

a better view of the crystal river, with waterfall, bridge and stronghold.

Aerial heroes; all six of them. Lots of perspex. where I play HOTT, aerial heroes have been popular for stronghold storming, kamikaze style.

closer aerial heroes. All ground forces and aerial heroes are microworld games. The flyers are irregular miniatures and the airboats are from uncharted seas.

The entire army in view

close-up of the great trolls pulling archer wagons - these will be behemoths.

behind the behemoths come the masses of trolls - mixed stone lobbers and club-wielders. I liked these trolls, so made 17 bases of them. They will be warband for HOTT.

Yep, I love these trolls.

The hobgoblins have artillery

and they have hordes, each led by a troll

Well, it is called "Hordes Of The Things"

nice close-up view of the lurkers/sneakers. These are the land version.

More lurking land sneakers

Heroes on land - these turned out really well, in my biased opinion.

Water lurkers - the river runs right across the board and is crossed by the bridge wide enough for three bases side by side. This means lots of scope for water lurkers - I made eight of them.

The hobgoblin air force - six airboats, twelve flyers and a backing troupe of six dragons. The dragons are microworld - they do these so well. The airboats are uncharted seas and the flyers are the hugely brilliant fiendish orc fokkers from irregular miniatures.

close up of a banking hobgoblin flyer.(spider-riding knights in the background).

watch out for the airboats!

Ok, let's have some beats - eleven bases of wild boar - microworld intend them for their minotaur army, but I think they go well as hobgoblin helpers, sweeping ahead of the main force.

yeah - they look good

so good, here's some more shots

hobgoblin mages

shooters

aha! the spider riders - for use as riders in HOTT; I really really love these. I made twenty four bases.

as you may see.

and four bases of gargantuan spiders - knights for HOTT.

dragons to the rescue!

a nice shot of the army at an angle

the whole army from the side.

over the bridge come the warbands.

So that's that then. Sorry about the photos - I'm in a hurry here tonight. Better and more to follow.

Next up will be a martian themed army in March - with a Mars terrain board of course.

I hope you like.