Saturday Painting - 03051: Orin Ramheim, Dwarf Warrior

Sat down today to do something very different from painting WWI US Marines. I finally went to work on my character miniature for our Saturday night game. I prepped him last night. Did the typical file work, added him to a base, converted his chainmail to leather with some greenstuff and sculpted the base to match the rocks he is standing on. Heading down to the workshop about 10 this morning and had him finished 4-5 hours later. He's just drying long enough for me to seal him and get him into the game tonight!

This is Orin Ramhelm, Dwarf Warrior sculpted by Jason Wiebe. Reaper Miniature 3051

I was going to start taking pictures sooner than this but I forgot!

  

And finished!

I particularly like out the shield came out.

My PzKfw III (SdKfz 141) Library

As I have indicated in other posts the PzKfw III (also known as the SdKfz 141) is one of my favorite tanks of WWII. I thought I had a pretty extensive library for it  but it turns out to not be as extensive as I thought. I went to pull out my books and discovered that I don't have nearly as many direct references as I thought I had. I have lots of books that talk about it and have pictures but they aren't specific to the vehicle itself but to units and campaigns. I have been developing a good sized want list at this point but I do have some excellent material already. So here is the list (a couple of these are truly golden oldies and are long out of print).

Panzer III in Action, Signal Armor Number 1, Squadron/Signal Publications 1972 (no author credits)
The first book in the Signal Armor series. It is essentially a picture book with captions. There are some great photos but almost half the books is dedicated to the StuG III. The only color plate is on the back cover. This is one of my eye candy books, lots of pictures with out a lot of detail to go along with it, any book in this format falls into this category.

The Panzerkampfwagon III, Vanguard 16, Osprey Publishing, 1980, Bryan Perrett
This book goes through a basic description of the variants and the different fronts it was employed on. Its a good generic resource. There are 8 color plates in the center.

Yes, there is a version of this in the New Vanguard series but the material is so similar I have put off buying it

PzKfw III in Action, Armor Number 24, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1988, Bruce Culver
Much like the original #1 (long out of print) this is essentially a picture book with captions. There is more text than the original  and a lot of pictures. There are line drawings for each variant as well as drawings for some of the more important features like the suspension. It has two pages of color plates on the interior as well as the back cover.

16 years for the update!

Panzer III & Its Variants, The Spielberger German Armor & Military Vehicles Series Vol. III, Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1993, Walter Spielberger
Contains historical information, specifications and line drawings. Plenty of pictures with text to go along with it. Information on the variants includes the StuG and StuH family of vehicles as well, not just the Pz III variants. There are four pages of color plates in the center of the book.

Panzer III, Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1994, Horst Scheibert
In the same basic format as the Squadron/Signal Publications. It has a bit more historical text and the line drawings point out the major changes between the variants. Many photos in this one that I hadn't seen before. The only color plate is on the back cover.

Panzerkampfwagen III, Osprey Modelling Manuals 15, Osprey Publishing, 1992, 2001, Rodrigo Hernandez Cabos and John Prigent
This book is all about building models of the PzIII, It includes builds of different models, reference photos, walk around photos, line drawings, model kits and book references (some of which are part of this list and some others that I would like to acquire). When working on a kit or even super detailing a game piece this is really my go to book as its concerned with the things I'm concerned with on the bench rather than just from an historical perspective. Its a modelling reference guide so there are lot of color pictures and plates inside.

Panzer III, PzKfw III Ausf A to N, Tanks in Detail, Ian Allen Publishing, 2004, Terry Gander
If you are in to the technical details this is definitely the book for you. It goes into the development, the main variants, armaments pretty much the whole nine yards with lots of close up photos. If I'm working on a modelling project this is the other book I grab. There are six pages of color plates in the back. One of my favorite books.

Sd.Kfz. 141 Pz.Kpfw.III, Model Hobby, 2005, Waldemar Trojca
This is a massive tome, 376 pages of Pz III goodness. The pictures are organized by variant with technical information proceeding each section. Each of the special variants have their own sections as well, like the command and flammtanks and other special variants. There are close up shots, line drawings and plenty of color plates in the back. It also comes with two poster sized
 sheets with color plates from the book. Its pretty much the bible for the Pz III. A bit on the expensive side but well worth it.

Call it 22"x17" (no ruler close at hand) 

Workhorse Panzer III in North Africa, Battleline 1, The Oliver Publishing Group, 2011 Claude Gillono
This is my latest acquisition and I covered it in a post last month. For a small book it has a lot of bunch. From the historical standpoint it shows the Pz III at its finest in Africa. It includes historical commentary, unit organizations, lots of photos and 4 pages of color plates. On a page per page basis probably the most expensive book in the bunch and its only 33 pages long. If you are a fan of the Pz III in North Africa though, this is probably a must have book.

I think it cost more to ship than the book itself, but not by much its still an expensive book even without the shipping from Australia. Although I managed to get this one from the UK.

Wargods of Aegyptus - Basti Army and Allies

It has been a long time since I pulled this army out, in fact I think it was for a tournament at GenCon for the Croc's first world campaign event. I remember desperately painting some of these mini right up till I had to fly out for the convention. I do need to find a better transport for them though, I really have come to dislike the abrasive nature of the foam in my army transport. I would prefer something that keeps them standing upright instead of laying on the foam. I see some areas that needs to be touched up and, especially with the Asar, upgrade the basic paint job that most of them received.

The Basti are a tough army to play with. Their strengths are archery and speed (and making sure they look good while doing it, cats you know) but they are not very good at melee. To compensate I have a lot of Asar to use as City Dwellers, essentially humans that are followers of the Goddess Bast. That means that I have a pretty good start on a straight up Asar army as well. The rest are "allies" the thought being that the allies will do the heavy lifting in combat while they are supported by Basti archery. I have pulled it off a time or two, they are definitely challenging.

All the Asar need some additional work to really make them pop most of the allies are in pretty good shape although the To-Tanem infantry and the Khemru slingers could use some more work. With Wargods of Olympus looming on the horizon I think I'll spend some time getting these whipped into shape before packs of Amazons land on the doorstep.

Here is my Basti Army for Wargods of Aegyptus

The key to any Wargods Army, the Harbinger. Here is the male version

And here with his retinue of lions

The female Harbinger of Bast is wearing more, yet somehow wearing less than her male counterpart. This one was painted by Ali Bailey (Jubilee). I love the paint work but I should have given her more direction on the skin tones as she as a very human look to her.

The  Mistress of Words, the Wargods equivelent of a sorcerer and  another one from Ali. The staffs and banner poles are another reason I dislike my army transport. This one needs some serious touch up work.

The Priestess of Bast and the last one painted by Ali for me. I need to work on my own versions of these if I start taking the army to competitions again so that the paintwork is all mine. But Ali did awesome work on all three of the ones I commissioned from her. She was much cheaper back then.

One of my favorite units my Basti Skirmishers. I painted this unit up for a painting competition years ago.

Standard Bearer and Musician

What the Basti do best, shoot things!

This is the whole of the Basti portion of the army. Two Archery units, a skirmisher unit and the various leaders. The rest of the army is made up of city dwellers (Asar) who count as Basti units for army builder purposes.

An Asar Priestess, in a pure Asar army she would be a priestess of Osiris. Since my Asar are usually used as city dwellers she doesn't see the table very often.

A unit of Asar Spearmen. I kept these units at the minimum so that I could bring more allies if I felt the need.

An Asar melee unit, A slightly larger unit, enough extras to experiment with unit size. I used the shields to tell which mini belonged to which unit.

Another smaller Asar melee unit.

The fourth and final Asar Melee unit. This one is short a man. I'm not quite sure when he went missing.

The Heru Heavy Infantry with polearms. This is a rock solid unit, the Heru are one of the best melee troops in the game.

Another unit of Asar but this time appearing as City Dwellers of the Heru. The Warhawks are one of the few specific city dweller units that the Croc produces

Khemru slingers, another skirmisher unit. These guys definitely need some additional paint work.

Khemru infantry, maces and horns they just go together.

The To-tanem, you can think of them as dwarves but they are literally living rock. They are a bit slow but definitely a rock hard infantry.

That's all that I could find last night. I know there are a couple of pieces missing and I'll need to sort through my box of minis and see what else I have to paint. My Beloved of Sobek wasn't in the case nor were any of my Basti or Asar Champions so I must have them in a "safe" place.

Kickstarter Progress - The Amazons for Wargods of Olympus

The Wargods of Olympus Kickstarter is being delivered in "waves" but with a slightly different approach than with most delivery "waves". The Croc is shipping things, mostly, by faction. If you were in at the painter level that was delivered as the first wave, followed by the Trojans, then the Spartans and Mycenaeans (both of which already had fairly solid forces available and just needed a few extras to fill out their armies) and now the Amazons and Automations. I knew this Kickstarter was likely to be delayed because of the large number of new sculpts that were required. The Amazons are likely to take a little longer than expected as well because it is by far the most popular faction of the Kickstarter according to sources at the Croc. But it sounds like the last sculpts are getting finished up now and casting should commence shortly. Unfortunately the Amazon Cavalry are a Wave 2 item so I won't see those models until after the Athenians, Corinthians and Wave 2 Troy models have been completed. I haven't pulled out my Wargods armies in a long time, but its still one of my favorite miniature games to play. I should pull out my Basti army and see what I need to do to expand it while I wait for the Amazons to arrive.

The Amazon army is one of the reasons I'm participating in the Basius 2 Kickstarter. While its a smaller army I'll still need another 60 25mm square bases and  11 25mmx50mm cavalry bases, I may decide to redo my Basti army bases with the Basius pads as well, they are rather plain right now and could use an upgrade. 

Here are some pictures straight from the Croc:

Weekend Trains

Its been a while since I have managed to pull off some good train pictures. The first is a north bound UP coal train and the rest are from an empty south bound UP coal train. I need to remember to make sure my Nikon is in the car from now on!

North bound double header UP 6005 (AC44CWCTE) and 5884 (AC44CWCTE). 

South bound double header UP 5676 (AC44CWCTE)

And in the #2 spot Ex-Southern Pacific 6171 (AC44CW)

Sometimes you get lucky, I'm really quite pleased with this shot, just wish it had been with my Nikon and not my phone!

Part of the empty south bound coal cars