Retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, Fireforge Games

There figures represent the imaginary retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, they are the battlefield buddies of the retinue of Dafydd ap Gruffydd which can be seen (here). I've given this group better armour (great helms etc.) to signify their higher status over that of Dafydd's retinue.

Retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd
group portrait

Retinue of Llewellyn ap Gruffydd
Rear View

Llewellyn ap Gruffydd was the grandson of Llewellyn ab Iorwerth (Llewellyn the Great) and is generally considered to be the last native Prince of Wales. Again I will post a more detailed account of Dafydd himself once I paint a mounted figure to represent him.

The livery colours are based on the traditional banner of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, an area of north-west Wales. Fortunately the colours also match the ones used for the House of Dinefwr (red and yellow) which will be useful if and when I play a campaign based on the rebellion of Rhys ap Maredudd along the Tywi valley.

All of these figures have been made up with cloaks to distinguish , I used as many with wolf pelts as I could find from the various plastic boxsets.

As always seems to be the case I only noticed the semi-gloss effect of the varnish on the cloak after I'd taken the photo. Hopefully a quick squirt of the matt varnish should eradicate the problem.

This figure is wielding a morning star/flail. The original model has a double headed version but I'd have thought a single one would have been dangerous enough to the owner, never mind two swinging about. A simple flick of the knife removed one of the chains.

Llewellyn ap Gruffydd was the grandson of Llewellyn ab Iorwerth (Llewellyn the Great) and is generally considered to be the last native Prince of Wales. Again I will post a more detailed account of Dafydd himself once I paint a mounted figure to represent him.

Plague Stage 3D “Hellhounds" - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

These mutts are almost as ugly as their owners the Plague faction.

To quote from the Mantic site:
"The Plague affects more than just the human population; infected Hellhounds lope ahead of the main force, tearing their prey apart with unnaturally powerful jaws, while swarms of smaller creatures creep through even the staunchest defences."

"Get down Shep!"

I have a few more Plague Stage 3A figures but as I videoed the painting process which will eventually (hopefully) be posted on YouTube the next Plague faction will be Stage 1 & 2 figures but first I have to paint them!

Plague Stage 3A with HMG - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

To quote from the Mantic website:
Bloodthirsty monsters created by an alien virus, the Plague exist for one thing only – to spread their contagion as far as possible. The virus affects its hosts in a variety of ways...the third stage infected show considerably less extreme physical changes, but they retain the ability to use technology, laying down covering fire with looted weapons while their larger brethren advance.

This figure is part of the Plague faction. He's a Stage 3A with Heavy Machine Gun which is ideal for laying down suppressing fire. This enables you to pin down opponents whilst his equally ugly chums charge down the enemy and knock the stuffing out of them.

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

This is the chum of the 'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit that can be seen (here). As with the previous figure this model was relatively simple to paint. 

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit

The base detail is made up of plastic card and sprue. I wanted to give the impression that the orc had ripped off the sign with his chain sword after putting a few lasers holes through it.

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit
Rear View

I think I got a bit carried away applying the rust powders though, once I started I kept on painting on more and more.

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit

'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

And now for something completely different this week...I have somehow managed to accrue a backlog of posts that I have painted other the previous months but have not posted online. These include a number of Deadzone pieces. Regular readers may remember that I initially started making Deadzone figures around a year ago. As part of my commitment to purchase as few figures as possible for the foreseeable future (I'm trying to be lead/plastic neutral) I'm attempting to paint up as many of my previous purchases as I can.

'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit

This figure is not part of the original Deadzone box set (they were all 'police' and 'plague mutants' types) but these come from a supplemental set called the Marauders. All the figures had all been glued together and even primed but had been sitting there more or less forgotten until I was clearing up some space to work in.

This big ugly brute is officially equipped with a Marauder “Rainmaker” Class Ripper Suit. The figure is from the Deadzone boxset and represents Mantic's take on sci-fi orcs.

'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit
Rear View

I've mentioned previously that the material used to make these figures (Resnic) caused me a few problems, (i.e. it's an absolute bugger to clean up) but the design of the figure is still quite attractive (in an industrial orc way). I was tempted to chop and change the model but decided against this because of the material. From reading blogs and forums I know a few people had magnetised their models so they could change the weapons with the similar 'Mauler' version but the stats card provided with the figures are specific to particular models.

Anyways the paint job on this model was quite simple. The entire figure was painted using Citadel's Bolt Gun metal (now replaced by their Leadbelcher). Once dry a black wash was applied to the grooves and recesses, then highlights using Chainmail (now Ironbreaker) and Mithril Silver (now called Runefang) were used to bring out the details. The spent casings around the feet of the figure are simply short pieces of plastic rod, cut to a uniform length, glued to the base and painted to look metallic.

It's always worth studying a model to see what little details the sculptor added. With this model there are all sorts of details such as grenades, wiring, missiles etc. which all add to the overall 'armed to the teeth' look of piece and are easy to paint.