a Load of Old Toby

King Richard I Lard Magazine 2023 - PartTwo Keeping it Simple My next dose of inspiration was reading about Richard I, marching his army through the desert at Arsuf in 1191. For this crusading army I obviously wanted to create the feel of marching through the Desert. But I was acutely aware that as with most deserts they can be plain sand. I could have just literally used sand and gone for the natural tone of light changes to make do, and there would be nothing wrong with that simple approach. But I wanted to give Richard and his army some real subtle elegance to his frame. In this instance I opted for trying to create small undulations in the land with the odd rock and tuft of grass to break up the flatness, while concentrating on letting inks do the majority of the painting for me. Coeur de lion For this style of base, I used household polly-filler to create small uneven surface over roughly 50% of the base. Then I superglued some small stones in place to break up the remaining fl...

Lard Magazine 2023 - Part One It’s all in the Base Chaos Regiment Tray & Bases The base upon which a miniature sit, for me is like the frame in which a canvas painting sits. It can be plain and simple, or even non-existent, and it won’t detract from the perceived quality of the picture however, a quality apt frame can add to the majesty of the work of art it supports. To that end, I aim to ensure my ‘frame’ is right for complimenting the art I want to create. Through learning from 30 years of experience I now start literally, from the ground up, by creating bases for my miniatures before I even paint one miniature.       My first major army I did this for was a Warhammer fantasy Chaos army. I needed a centre piece for this army to sit around and something I could apply the full extent of out painting abilities to. In this instance I wanted the look and feel a battlefield for the unit in question to stand upon, this was to give the added feel of devastation achieved by...

Tales From Albian Chaos Warshrine  & Festus Proxie - The Fool & the Loon. Hi there, I hope the last blog post was well received. As I am sure you are all aware last time we covered my new Marauder Horsemen, which were designed to be a slightly heavier looking type of cavalry unit. This week we will cover something a little different….. …A Chaos Warshrine conversion. As I waffled on a little last week, I’ll try not to this time. I will not attempt to refer to how I came to this idea. But it is in keeping with my armies Barbarian theme and I wanted a Chaos Shrine that was a little more monstrous and imposing on the battlefield. So I decided that I would mount my shrine on a Mammoth. Once I had all the bits I set about construction of the Mammoth completing the whole assembly apart from the rider’s seat on the Mammoth’s back. I found this was helpful as it allowed me nearly full access to the inside of the Mammoth’s shell while having a nice solid ...

Tales From Albian Marauders & Marauder Horseman - The Unsound Hello and welcome to my first instalment of Tales from Albian, I know it’s not right but I made it up. Where to start? It’s been a long time since I posted anything….that does not to mean to say I have not been doing something. Oh how I wish that I didn’t have so much to paint. My plastic crack partner in crime and I have spent the last few months, ploughing through our latest project, which is the ongoing saga of our Chaos Army of massive proportions…. But wait before I get into that, maybe a short recap for those of you who haven’t read or seen any of my pervious posts. Last year or longer, time disappears in the great eye faster than you think; I posted some pictures of some complete regiments of the Beastmen, Warriors and a stack load of Marauders. As I ploughed through this rank and file, I developed the idea of making my Warriors of Chaos side of this army more Barbarians themed, to add ...