'Characters/Scene from' RossM: Rangers From Three Stories

For this theme entry have opted for three different ranger types from three very different books. From left to right you have a Ranger of Ithilien, Lonewolf and a A D&D Ranger. All three figures are from the hay days of Citadel Miniatures and are part of a series of rangers that are being -slowly- painted up just now.

First some group shots of all three together with the personal favourite centre stage.

The next pictures are of a Ranger of Ithilien as encountered by Frodo and Sam in the Two Towers. Tolkien describes these rangers as 

"Four tall Men stood there. Two had spears in the hands with broad bright heads. Tow had great bows, almost of their own height, and great quivers of long green-feathered arrows. All had swords at their sides, and were clad in green and brown of varied hues. Green gauntlets covered their hands and their faces were hooded and masked in green."

There are three figures in the set and the other two are armed with sword and spear, which will hopefully follow soon.

Next we have Lone Wolf and the first book of the Kai Lord series starts:

"You must make haste for you sense it is not safe to linger by the smoking remains of the ruined monastery. The blackwinged beasts could return at any moment. You must set out for the Sommlending capital of Holmgard and tell the King the terrible news of the massacre: that the whole élite of Kai warriors, save yourself, have been slaughtered. Without the Kai Lords to lead her armies, Sommerlund will be at the mercy of their ancient enemy, the Darklords.

Fighting back tears, you bid farewell to your dead kinsmen. Silently, you promise that their deaths will be avenged. You turn away from the ruins and carefully descend the steep track.

At the foot of the hill, the path splits into two directions, both leading into a large wood."

Lone Wolf at the split in the path - will he go left or right?

Next, we have the low level ranger from the Citadel A D&D character sets produced in the mid eighties, again there were three figures in the set with the other two to hopefully follow on.

The description in the 1st Edition Player Handbook reads as follows:

"Rangers are a sub-class of fighter who are adept at woodcraft, tracking, scouting, and infiltration and spying. All rangers must be of good alignment (q.v.), although they can be lawful, chaotic, or neutral otherwise. A ranger must have strength of not less than 13, intelligence of not less than 13, wisdom of not less than 14, and a 14 or greater constitution. If the ranger has ability scores of greater than 15 in strength, intelligence and wisdom, he or she gains the benefit of adding 10% to experience points awarded by the referee."

 These figures have been great to paint both due to the sculpts and the nostalgia they carry and I hope that you all like them.

In terms of points they are worth 15 plus the bonus theme award of 50 for a total of 65.

Cheers for now

'Armour' from RossM: 20mm German Light Armour

Here are the two models that have been painted for the bonus round - Armour.

As the interpretation of Armour was left to the individual these are technically armoured cars and so qualify as armour. Did think of painting some of Claymore Miniatures finest knights for this as they are also armour just in different style and era.

Anyway here are the pictures of the two armoured cars shown together. The Sf Kdz 221  has the camouflaged colour scheme painted and the Sf Kdz 223 has the ariel recognition flag on or target marker.

Both vehicles have been base coated with Late War German Armour from FoW, any areas needing touched up with Vallejo Mid stone. They are then washed in Nuln, Oil and dry brushed in Mid Stone and Foundry Moss B & C to high light.

The camo is made up of a few light layers of Vallejo Reflective Green before the dry brushing is done. No airbrush here I am afraid.

Looks like the suspension has gone on the left AC offside front wheel

Decals from Skytrex

What the Jabos see

Hope that you like these and there will be more from this era soon just from the West.

Cheers for now

'Antihero' from RossM - 'Silk, Prince Kheldar of Drasnia'

The theme of the entry figure or Curtgeld posed some problems when first announced. Given that there have been a few Chaos Warriors painted by myself in this year's challenge the first thought was of Elric himself however, a suitable figure just couldn't be found.

So staying with a literary theme another character was brought out of the archives; this time Kheldar from David Eddings' The Belgariad. Kheldar or Silk as he was more commonly known was a small rat faced man who was a thief, trader, spy, assassin and heir to the throne (2nd in line) all in the one package. Silk was mostly a cynic who seemed an unlikely hero and yet a times proved to be more than worth of the title of hero. Of his early days little is known, so with some artistic license and no doublets or jaunty hats here is Silk, Prince Kheldar of Drasnia:

The figure is the Human Assassin from Otherworld Miniatures Dungeon Adventurers range and suited exactly what I was looking for. Kheldar was a knife fighter at heart and the figure shows this well along with other items of his darker trade.

Anyway enough of my ramblings here are the rest of the pictures and I hope that you like them.

As with last year's entry figure I have a second model to paint for my own collection. Safe to say there will be more Otherworld Miniatures joining him throughout the coming months. The points for this figure are over to Curt on this one as it sits in two categories.

That's all for now and please leave comments.

Cheers for now