Khorne Warrior No 6

Slambo. I have to admit the paint scheme is becoming a bit boring by now but I want them all in red and gold...

Orcs XVIII

Cave Troll and Warg rider.

And a Warg rider conversion with orc parts from Wargames Factory.

Orcs XVII

Spot the Red Box "orc" ;-)

Lion Rampant Retinue II

More Claymore Castings knights...

Mierce Undead Unboxing

I always wanted to check out one of those Mierce resin monsters with their unspeakable names. I know that there are a lot of people out there that bear a grudge against the owner of Mierce from his Maelstrom days. I really cannot comment on these issues since I just dont know enough about them. However, since their first appearance I quite liked the style of those Banebeasts, later Darklands figures. And when Mierce came out with an undead range ("Jutes") I found a reason to buy one - a dreaguth warrior - using him as a barrow wight for LOTR.

Check out the photos below. Its a delicate yet dynamic sculpt that captures the essence of such an undead apparition very well: hooded skull, bony claws, rusty sword and flying garments. All in all nicely done but a bit fragile, would be better in metal I would think. Though its a big miniature, its proportions match the 25mm scale of the LOTR figure range quite well.

Heroquest Replacement Wizard

Statuesque mini - so nice.

 and the whole crew...

Mounted Renaissance Knights Kickstarter

Just to show you what the postman delivered yesterday - Knights from Steelfist Miniatures from their recent Renaissance Knights Kickstarter campaign. Beautiful figures simply, they come with loads of different heads and plumes options. The lances and hands are casted separately as well - that allows you to use the Perry plastic weapons hands from their late medieval sprues (check out the photos below - I put a Perry sword and a mace to good use).

The Steelfist knights are about the same size as Foundry and Perry knights, the Steelfist horses are slightly larger than the Perry and Foundry horses.

 Left to right: Foundry Knight on Perry horse, Steefist Knight  plus horse, Foundry knight plus horse

Left to right: Steelfist, Perry, Foundry.

The Pilgrimage

The little scene is inspired by events told by the chronicler of the siege of Neuss. According to Cristianus Wierstrait the following has happened:

On the 17th of April 1475 Duke Charles ordered another major attack on the defences of Neuss. During the heavy fighting Flemish troops managed to breach the outer walls between Obergate and Zollgate. In the end the Neussers could repel the Burgundians once again but the casualties had been extraordinary high. In the following days Landgraf Hermann and the City Council conferred whether it was reasonable to carry on with the resistance or whether they should enter into negotiations to surrender. Still there had been no sign of any Imperial relief force and the siege had been dragging on for nearly a year now.

In this dire situation the City Council decided it would be best to ask for the help of heaven and to arrange for a pilgrimage to the chapel close to the Obergate. Led by the mayor the procession reached the chapel when a messenger suddenly pressed forward. In his hands he held a stone cannon ball which he had retrieved from the river after it had been shot from the Cologne side. The cannon ball contained a paper with the message that the Imperial relief force had finally reached Cologne. All thoughts of surrender were off the table now and the resistance was reinforced once again.

The critical moment was captured in verse form by Wierstrait and later transferred into a poem pictured below.