Unmatched Battle of Legends, Volume 1: Sinbad

 

"Well this is embarrassing. And why did he forget to paint my right eye?"

I love the Sinbad figure from Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume 1. To me, I immediately thought the inspiration for the figure was the classic 1973 fantasy adventure film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad directed by Gordon Hessler, with stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Sinbad is portrayed by actor John Phillip Law. There was no doubt in my military mind that I had to replicate the character as close as possible to the film.

A bit of trivia, Tom Baker plays Prince Koura, the main antagonist of the film. Baker's performance helped him get the lead role of the Fourth Doctor in the TV series Doctor Who, because the show's producer, Barry Letts, was impressed with his performance. The Doctor!

For this hard plastic 28 mm figure, painting the skin had to be right with the muscular body (not to mention going back and painting his right eye!). I started with a base of Citadel Tallarn Flesh Base, followed by Vallejo Dark Flesh and then a wash of Citadel Contrast Snakebite leather.

The artistry of Ray Harryhausen stop motion photography.

"I started my own business: Killing Monsters and Rescuing Princesses, Inc."

Unmatched Battle of Legends, Volume 1: Alice

Big Trouble in a Small Package. Anyone up for a game of chess?

She's been through the Looking Glass and came back with a vorpal blade and the Jabberwock in tow. Catch her at the wrong size and it'll be checkmate for you . . .

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

Catch her at the wrong size and it'll be checkmate for you . . .

Okay - here's the deal: Alice is undefeated in our games. She is sneaky, can change size, has the Jobberwock as her personal pet and uses neat gimmicks from the Lewis Carrol books. I think it's time for her to face the characters from "Unmatched: Cobble and Fog" or fight bad guy monsters and Martian Invaders from "Unmatched: Tales to Amaze".

Alice's cards.

My only complaint is the figure which had so much potential (this is the personal preference portion which represents what I want in a figure). The game designers went with a school girl, Anime look with the butch haircut (Brrrr . . . shudder) instead of a more Victorian look. I would have prefer the hair style from the cover art. I love the vorpal blade, love the clock, and love the potions; but, the anime feel ruins it for me. I personally would have liked her in an older looking Victorian, adventurers outfit and longer hair. My opinion.

To make Alice to look like she is standing on a stone floor, I used my handy dandy hobbly knife to make the lines and then used Citadel Contrast Space Wolf Grey to get the effect.

I always enjoy looking at my photos when I start posting them on the blog and as usual, Alice needs a little touch up here and there. Having said that, a versatile 28mm hard plastic figure for many games and if you play "Unmatched" do not, I repeat, DO NOT, underestimate this character.

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, . . . and he needed a bigger base."

 

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”

Come on . . . admit it! You read Conan as a kid and loved it. Sure, Robert E. Howard was a product of his times - but it's Conan!

A while back, a long time back, a friend gave me a copy of the old Milton Bradley/Games Workshop board game Hero Quest.  I dusted it off recently to paint the figures with a mind toward doing some dungeon crawling . . . and then I purchased Dragon Rampant.  How could I not have everyone's favorite barbarian join the fun?

The Barbarian hard plastic figure is relatively easy to paint. For the skin I gave it a base of Vallejo Dark Flesh followed by a wash of GW's Dwarf Flesh and then some lighter highlights.  Everything else were various browns and of course the hair is black!  I initially painted the base for the dungeon environment of Hero Quest.

Barbarian and Elf Hero.

Once I decided that he would definitely have to be in Dragon Rampant, I mounted Conan on a 40 mm round plastic base so he would have a slightly larger footprint on the battle field. A few weeks ago I was looking at the figure and said, "Nah nah, that stand needs to be bigger. Here is how I did the original stand:

The rock is from my gravel rock path in the backyard.

Add same sand . . . 

  . . . then paint the sand dark brown and dry brush with flat brown then buff.

 Add some static grass, a bush and some lichen and we are done.

Conan in Middle Earth fighting some GW Uruk-hai from their LotR range.

Now that he is on a 60mm base, I think he looks even more impressive.  For Dragon Rampant Conan is definitely going to be Elite Foot with the Special Ranger rule and fielded as a single unit model unit or adding a few others and as a reduced model unit.  In addition I'm going to give him the Fantastical Rule of "Fear" for 2 points for a total cost of 8. Let's face it, do you really want to face him? The bird of prey is from the Reaper Bones range; I think it was in the pack Animal familiars - I think it adds a nice touch and fills up the base.

High Elf General and Bodyguard for Dragon Rampant

These look awfully familiar.

Yeah I know these are the OOP production metal High Elf Phoenix Guard from Citadel Miniatures for the old Warhammer game. And that’s the beauty of Dragon Rampant (Paid Link); it is not tied to any particular figure range or company.

 

The High Elf General

Dragon Rampant (Paid Link) allows you to recreate any fantasy world with the rules. With rules I have gamed in Middle Earth with “The Three Hunters” chasing marauding orcs to rescue hobbits, battling a sinister evil necromancer’s army with a certain Cimmerian Barbarian, and protecting the knightly realms with a friendly dragon. You name the fantasy world, even your own, and I bet you can game it with Dragon Rampant.

Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher) found the Phoenix Guard figures on eBay for a very low, and I mean low, Buy it Now price and grabbed them up. He asked me to paint them for him (it took him about 2 seconds to convince me) and of we were. We decided on a variation of the “Classic” Warhammer” look a charged ahead. And then disaster struck.

It may not look like a disaster now . . .

The elves with halberds are two piece castings; the halberds with hands must be attached to the bodies. I painted the figures first and then started to prep the halberds for painting and broke one of them in half. Yikes! Thank goodness I have a bits box (always save those bits!). With a little trimming and filing I added an axe and sword from the Gripping Beast Hirdmen 28mm hard plastic box. It doesn’t look too shabby.

Here are the rest of the figures. How my son will rate them I will find out in the next battle. I’m getting the sneaky suspicion they will be some variant of elite heavy infantry.

Great Battles of History: The Battle of Five Armies (What do you mean it's fictional? Shame on you!)

The Wood Elves of Mirkwood Forest, under the command of King Thanduril and accompanied by Thorin Okenshield attempt to stem the tide of the Evil (BWAH HAH HAH) onslaught.

Over the Christmas break Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher) and myself played an oldie but goodie: Games Workshops' The Battle of Five Armies. The Battle of Five Armies using the Warmaster rules concept, one of the more innovative sets of rules developed. We see its influence, combat and activation system in many subsequent rules that have been written. Sadly, it is out of production.

The Field of Battle.

The scenario is faithful to The Hobbit and is one of the most play balanced games I have ever participated. I have played the Evil Side (BWAH HAH HAH!) and the Forces of Good equally and I win, with both sides, about 50% of the time. In addition the game is a nail biter just like in The Hobbit. And with the 10 mm figures it looks like there are actual units lined up ready to fight.

"Halt!" cried Gandalf, who appeared suddenly, and stood alone, with arms uplifted, between the advancing dwarves and the ranks awaiting them. "Halt!" he called in a voice like thunder, and his staff blazed forth with a flash like lightning. "Dread has come upon you all! Alas! It has come more switly than I guesses. The Goblins are upon you! Bolg of the North is coming!

For this iteration I was going to be the Wood Elves, the Dwarves, the men of Lake Town and the Eagles. Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher) would be the Goblins, Wargs, and Goblin Riders (BWAH HAH HAH).

Dain of the Iron Hills.

King Thanduril, father of Legolas, of the Wood Elves.

King Bard of River Town, the Slayer of Smaug.

The Elvish Army deploy on the Eastern Spur to the right of Thorin's Gate.

In the scenario, all of the Forces of Good (except the Eagles and Beorn) are deployed while the Army of Bolg deploys his Wargs and Wolf riders. The Goblin infantry each turn must roll a six sided die to determine how many goblins units arrive. Traditionally they arrive helter skelter allowing the Forces of Good time to deploy, disrupt attacks and buy time for the Eagles and/or Beorn to show up.

Thorin's Gate.

Thorin and Company. Once Thorin Oakenshield passes a command roll, the gate comes crashing done and the mighty warrior and fellow companions enter the fray.

The Dwarven Army under Dain Ironfoot and the men of Lake Town under the command of King Bard await the enemy onslaught.

Usually when I play the Forces of Good I am more cautious as it is easy to get overwhelmed or outflanked by the faster Wargs and Wolf riders. This time I decided to be more agressive, advance with all of my forces and combine them near the ford and wait for the Eagles and /or Beorn to show up.

Bolg.

Bolg and his bodyguard marching through the ruins of Dale.

To make a long story short; for once the goblins moved onto the table like maniacs. The Forces of Evil (BWAH HAH HAH!) fought a sacrificial delaying action to keep the men and dwarves out of the main battle (and I had trouble getting the men and dwarves activated!). The Elves were left to face the full fury of Bolg and the goblins in the open. The Eagles and Beorn never showed up. It was not pretty but we went down fighting!

What the Eagles look like.

Beorn. He is like a panzer tank going through butter if he arrives.

Here are some pictures from the battle:

A hearty handshake, some laughter and another game well done. Now where is my ring, pipe and hot chocolate?