I wish you a Happy New Year

An year that ends, a new one coming... the usual projects and promises and other nonsense! Bah!
But then again... :D

Well, since August when I was forced to put the hobby aside, I even stopped looking at others' works and blogs. (Sorry about that, folks.) But one thing I did even before coming to Toronto was searching for local stores... There are a few, not much, and they are scattered. So far, I went into one of them, very nice store although its medieval and napoleonic figures stock is almost non-existent! :(

Anyway, I like other stuff too and as I wrote some weeks ago, aliens are on my whish-list... or they were!

YES!! 4 boxes!

I wanted one box but I also wanted a couple of extra figures. A good surprise was that this item was on sale (50%!!) but there were no extra figures. Ordering would cost more than buying a box... the seller wanted to get rid of this stuff... the Moon was aligned with Pluto, the wife doesn't know yet... 

Next year I'll get coal in my socks...

Merry Christmas

And that is it...

Tempos Medievais advertising space!

Hello there!!

Yes, the guy is alive! Not much time for the hobby now, but that doesn't mean I stopped thinking about it!

So, I've been living in Toronto for more than two months now, but all I could see was this shop, Sunward Hobbies. Not much figures of my interest at the time, but it seemed they had recently moved and were still setting things there. However, the Pegasus Alpha Centauri UFOs don't come out of my head! :D It seems I'll take one to Portugal... About that, it bugs me that what I would pay for that in Portugal (probably by ordering it by internet) is the same as I will(?) pay here. Consider the wages in Portugal and the ones here... no wonder life in Portugal became so hard! (and yes, I know I am writing about a hobby, but take it as an exemple)

Well, speaking of Portugal, my friend Rui already had his online shop for his books, now he moved on into figures (28, 18 and 15mm) and accessories. So, the link is on your right, Tempos Medievais Store is growing and you are free to visit it.



Ora bem, se já conheciam a loja Tempos Medievais, saibam que agora podem também encomendar figuras (28, 18 e 15mm) e produtos de modelismo. Vale a pena visitar, e voltar a visitar, porque a loja está a crescer e as novidades vão aparecendo!

Tempos Medievais Evento

Olá a todos da Grande Lisboa!!
No próximo Sábado, 7 de Setembro, o meu amigo Rui Sena - criador das regras Tempos Medievais - irá estar na loja Kult Games, com figuras para fazer demonstrações do jogo. Portanto, se já for jogador ou não, dê um saltinho à Kult Games entre as 15h e as 19h.

Sábado, 7 Setembro
entre as 15h e as 19h

Kult Games
Rua Pinheiro Chagas, 78C
1050-180 Lisboa

Final Goblins and another trebuchet

Hi there!!

This is the final picture of the Gonblins. Not finished as I would like, I wanted to add some grass and rocks to the base but I had no time. Just added a bit of flesh tone to the heads since the last photos... I think I got good (enough) result. 

 And this was the 3rd trebuchet, here with the crew (a small crew). Not the best pictures but I couldn't get better ones.

...and this should be the last post for a while, as I had to move to Canada for a while and the figures were left behind.

Cheers

Goblins update

Latest "moves": green skin (strokes a bit stronger than an usual drybrush) over the previous colour.

 Too green! A mix of skintone and chocolat brown (Citadel Color) over the green. I tried that some of the green remained visible but I don't like the result that much... I think what I had before these 2 steps was better.

Well, it's not over yet...

Shame on me - missed one important date!

No, it wasn't the aniversary of my wife... nor of the wedding!
OK, it's not that important, but considering how I got into this, it matters! A bit...

17 August 1808, British and Portuguese forces had their first win against Napoleon's troops at Roliça.

Not much more to say realy...

This Wednesday is the deadline for the Goblins and a 3rd trebuchet, so, stay tunned (or away!)....

Aljubarrota

No figures today.
This is just to celebrate one of our biggest (and few) victories over the our good neighbours, the Spanish! ;-) Well, Castilians at that time...

14 August 1385, after two years of conflict over the crown succession right, a small army aided by a "few" English archers, defeated an army much stronger (some say 6 times bigger, comprising the best Spanish fighters, some of the Portuguese nobility (traitors!) and French heavy cavalry) in what can be seen as a side event of the 100 Years War. Independence was once more

 So, we had an holy man leading the army, the English with their longbows and the infantry square...

and a baker-woman enraged by the Castilians (they forgot to pay for the bread?). They had no chance!

"During the night and throughout the next day, as many as 5000 more Castilians were killed by the neighbouring towns' villagers; according to Portuguese tradition surrounding the battle, there was a woman called Brites de Almeida, the Padeira of Aljubarrota

 (the baker-woman of Aljubarrota), said to be very tall, strong, and to possess six fingers on each hand, who ambushed and killed by herself eight Castilian soldiers as they were hiding in her bakery trying to save their lives after the battle in the town of Aljubarrota itself."

Medieval siege troops and machines

That's right, not only the guy doesn't finish those bloody goblins and he is already doing something else!!

Yes, the goblins are at the same point and I have some excuses... reasons for that, one being this idea I wanted to see how it worked out.
I was about to start a "full scale offensive" on my medieval diorama... but life plays with us sometimes...
I've read a book I bought last year about the conquest of Algarve by the portuguese kings, and saw that the trebuchets used at Silves were of traction type (man-powered! also called "bricole" by the french), by both portuguese and muslim (defenders) forces. Now that I think about it, can't remember about the ones that crusaders built (yes, we had some help from english, german and... danish or flemmish (I've seen both "versions") crusaders).

Well, scratch built trebuchets, each different from the other, and the figure here is from Orion's Medieval Siege Troops. I must say I am pleasantly surprised with their quality. There's some flash, but the faces are really nice! Well... this one has a somewhat feminine face...

While the previous machine was being reloaded, the next is idle. No crew, nothing. 

 

The Sling staff was of current use as were hand slings (HaT gives us many slingers in their El Cid infantry sets!). I am not sure if this was used at Silves, but I wanted to include it in the diorama. It must have been used! Figures are from the same Orion set but one is from Miniart's Hussites.

 Reloading...

Just fired!

Giveaway prise and goblins almost done

That's right, I won one of the giveaways (the 2nd) from Tempos Medievais and got myself an English army!
This is a mixed lot, with figures from Italeri's boxes English Knights and Archers and also The Knights and Zvezda's English Knights of the 100 year war! Lucky me!

Now I'll think about what I am going to do with them! Keep the all army together, or make them join the other 2 armies I have? hum...

Meanwhile, the Goblins are slowly coming to an end! I guess they only need some wash(es) and proper bases.

Moria Goblins from GW - WiP

That's right, a new project on the table!
This is only a first look, as I've just started painting these Goblins and I needed a place for the pictures...

The sequence: primer (over older painting - yes, I know, not wise) which, for that reason, smoothed some details.

 Base: green. I don't have the array of colours sugested by Citadel (I saw a tutorial in the web) so I started with another green. I don't even like them green!

 A brownish wash. Better...

 Other brownish (should have been) wash but it was too strong...

Anyway, I'm thinking about a drybrush of a light tone of skin...

Update 1 - July 15th

I did try the drybrush with Vallejo Basic Skintone. Maybe a too light tone, but worked for this stage. Some figures got better than others, but I think that in the end it will be ok. The armour also got a metal colour.
Next step... clothing?

Another 2 giveaways

Again, a medieval army (don't know the side) for centuries XII - XIV...

You must be the 15th correct answer (I'm sure I was the first again! I hate this method! ;) )!

All you have to do is to register at the online store (this can be a downside for non-portuguese users) and answer the question "What is the year of the Royal Battle between Portugal and Castille?" The concept of "battle royal" may be different from the translation to Portuguese, I found it close enough but I am not sure. The original in Portuguese is "Batalha Real".

Anyway, it is a tricky question, but I will give a hint... like nowadays, early Spanish loved August in Portugal!


Second giveaway, click here:

BLMA's Millionth Pageview Givaway

1.000.000 !! WOW You can't get that many if you don't paint (and paint really good!), and I can compare: I added the counter about one year after starting the blog in the end of 2010, so I think that the real number, from the beginning would round about 12.000. Another 2 years (going back to the beginning of 2009) and would reach to 22.000. Let's make it 25.000 hits! Pretty far from a million!! Congrats, Big Lee!!

I didn't win that giveway but I have painted Helga... and Herr Flick!

That's right, somehow, I didn't win this time (was the first to answer) and the figures went to some lucky fellow!

Right, no Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies but 2 minor conversions of YKREOL figures to get Helga and Herr Flick (well, close enough).

 I wanted some an individual base for the figures but again, I forgot to cut that extra that comes with the figure. So, to hide that bit, I made a almost circular base with miliput. Terrible!

 The uniform isn't quite what Helga used to wear... 

 Painted these stockings 3 times! 

Herr Flick! I couldn't make glasses for this guy even if my life depended on that!

 Terrible painting! I got the desired effect (that's why I don't redo the figure) but it got bubbles that I saw only  after taking the pictures!

 The gabardine is not quite like the one Flick used to wear...