Kings of War painting plus... other stuff

With the turn of the new year, I'm pastoring only one church. Due to circumstances beyond my control and that are not worth writing about here, I remain the pastor of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Aylmer, ON while no longer serving as priest-in-charge of Trinity Anglican Church. I have a bit more time to do other things... like blogging. However getting back into the swing of that takes time... and I'm VERY good at wasting time.

A number of my crew at the Hamilton Road Gaming Group and my family have taken a serious look at a game called "Kings of War", a fantasy large unit table-top game. My son, Rob, scoured his house and came up with a dwarf army. Daughter Katie put together an Elven army and has already developed a "grudge match" with our friend Tyler and his Salamanders. My wife is putting together an army for the Basileans based on Arthurian mythology. Since I had a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Empire army gathering dust in the garage, it was a simple matter of changing their identity to an army for the Kings of Men with pikes, firearms, cannon, and heavy "gendarme" cavalry. I have an idea for another army... but I'm keeping that to myself for now.

So painting is underway. My wife (and my daughter both) purchased a two-pack of ballistae from WizKids at a local shop. Cast resin models, they're affordable, available, and pre-primed. My wife permitted me to paint her two... and I'm rather pleased.

Beth's bolt throwers crewed by some scrounged Ral Partha classics.

The models lend themselves to an easy paint. The "lump" above the bold is a skull which I covered
with Elmer's glue to turn it into a fixture or something like it.
I never did understand the Warhammer fixation on skulls.

The crews are vaguely Viking or Saxon, but they work out well.

A little minor surgery on the kneeling figure removed the bow and permitted him to better turn the windlass.

I'm not sure how my daughter would want her two bolt thrower painted. They'll work well for the Elves, since any Elvish army MUST have bolt throwers.

On other fronts, as it were...

A plastic dinosaur from the dollar store takes in the view from the front window.
Oddly enough, my daughter's cat, Pangur Ban has adopted this toy or acquired it by right of eminent domain
and she wrestles with it. 

The kitten had never seen snow either. Of course, she won't step in it.

The kitty has also absconded with a green army man.
We haven't figured out where she found that thing yet.

A while back, we played Kings of War at the Games Group and I set up Bear with a barbarian/Chaos style Kings of Men
army including this beast that has a ballista in the howdah. I liked the model so I filled the tower with loose figures.

Martin and I continued our mutual fascination with the Pike-and-shot era. I fielded an Irish army from O'Neill's rebellion.
Martin promptly stomped it, but he learned to respect the galloglaich in the woods.
These are examples of the late Jamie Fish's 15mm figures. 

Really old Minifig castings of WWI German light machine guns. I think they'll end up in my Finnish WWII army.

Andy and I have been playing a good bit of Battlefront WWII (Flames of War's older brother).
Here are two German ATG's that lie in wait for the advancing Soviet armour.
Since they were had to spot, I held my fire until the T-34's were "in my eyes."

Soviet Russian ATG emplaced and waiting for the advance of the Germans. These guns didn't wait quite as long.
This gun and the one in the photo above are part of Andy's collection.

A Soviet Maxim gun from Plastic Soldier Company in 15mm.
Nice figures at a decent price although they are a bit "fiddly" to assemble.

All for now. More can be expected later.