Part 1 Part 2

Lothar

List

Notes

This is the fourth of my Barsoomian armies, based on the Orovars encountered by Carthoris in 'Thuvia, Maid of Mars'. Powerful mentalists were able to create illusions of vast armies of bowmen from their distant past. The army is a mix of shooters (to reflect the effectivness of the bowmen) and hordes (to reflect their limitless numbers). The banths were a mixture of real ones and illusions.

Most of the army is made up of Essex ancient Chinese barbarian bowmen. I gave each a shield made from small circles of card. The general is a Peter Pig small humanoid Martian with a milliput cloak. The banths came from a some Tarzan playsets that I was sent from the USA by John Leahy.

Pictures of this army in action can be seen here.

Orc

List

Notes

I wanted an Orc army to replace one I had made a few years ago and with which I was now dissatisfied. I went for a look and feel that was a close to Tolkien as I could get with the figures I wanted to use.

The core of the army is hordes, taken from Peter Pig's Orc army pack. Their Orcs are actually very human in appearence, with their only real failing being that they do not have much armour. The trolls and wolves are also from Peter Pig. The wolf riders and the Black Rider are from Alternative Armies, although the Black Rider is accompanied by a pair of Orcs on horses as subordinates.

I used this army in the HOTT competition held at Bifrost 2005.

Squidmen

List

Notes

This army is made up almost entirely of figures from Evil Gong (purchased in the UK from East Riding Miniatures). the only exception is the Ral Partha Walktapus. The squidmen looked wild enough to be classed as warband, and the landsharks fierce enough for knights. The walktapus is big, so is perfect as a behemoth. and that's it really. The whole army is impetuous of course.

Elephantmen

List

Notes

This is another army made up almost entirely of Evil Gong figures. It's the one non-Evil Gong figure that inspired it, though. A few years ago I bought a figure of Kali; I don't even remember the manufacturer, but I seem to recall that it was associated with a rock band of some sort. Someone on the HOTT mailing list suggested associating it with the elephantmen, but it's taken me until now to do it.

I have done the elephantmen as a discplined temple army. The general is accompanied by an acolyte and a big copper gong. The rest of the elements each have a priest on them to encourage the troops. I classified them as blades to give them a feel of disciplined solidity; spears would have worked as well, but too many of the figures were armed with swords or maces. Kali is the aforementioned Kali figure. The cavalry are the Elephantman riders but are mounted on horses from Grumpy as I didn't like the strange riding beasts that Evil Gong provide for them.

This was the army I used at HOTTBAP 2003.

Pictures of this army can be seen here.

Red Martian (Jahar)

List

Notes

My fifth Martian army, and my first 'repeat' in terms of race. Jahar is a city state that goes to war with Helium in the seventh book in the series 'A Fighting Man of Mars'. It's ruler, Tul Axtar, has two weapons at his disposal. Firstly he has instituted a forced-breeding program to boost his empire's population and supply of fighting men. This has lead to cannibalism breaking out in some provinces as the population outstrips the food supply. Secondly he has the disintigrator ray invented by Phor Tak fitted to all of his ships. This is represented in the army by giving them a fleet equal in size to that of Helium (assume it is fewer ships but armed with the secret weapon) and by fielding Phor Tak as an artillery element to provide extra firepower. Needless to say in the book his plans come to naught, but on the wargames table? Who knows?

The basis of this army is, of course, the Peter Pig small humanoid Martians set. Once again I have ditched the airboats and replaced them with Battlefleet Gothic ships from Games Workshop. The hordes are natives from Peter Pig's pirate range, and the chief native, once given a milliput harness and a sword, made a nice, corpulent, Tul Axtar on the general's element. Phor Tak is fielded in his laboratory firing the disintigrator ray. The basic figure is one of the Peter Pig airboat gunners, but with a head transplant from a buddhist monk from their Vietnam range. The laboratory items were scratchbuilt from card, bits from my bit-box and some electronic components I acquired from work.

Pictures of this army can be seen here.

The Inland Dwellers of Etah

List

Stronghold: Inuksuk

Notes

This is the 'evil' army to go with the Inuit army described above. It is not an army, as such, but an amalgamation of diverse things from Inuit myths and legends. Various spirits abound in both animal and other forms. Tupilaq are creatures made up of reanimated body parts, whilst a kajutaijuq is a huge head on stumpy legs that crashes around encampments at night. The Inland Dwellers of Etah was the name given to the people who lived in the interior of Greenland in one particular story, but seemed a good name for the army as a whole.

The figures for this army come from a variety of sources. The magician general is an MY Miniatures Inuit shaman, with an ERM skeleton representing a tupilaq guard. He is summoning a figure from the Peter Pig elven magicians pack as a spirit from beneath the ice. The hordes are a mix of Chariot goblins, Evil Gong fishmen, GW Warmaster trolls and chaos hounds and ERM zombies and skeletons. The beasts consist of an element of polar bears, from Demonworld, some wolves, from Peter Pig, some reindeer, from Steve Barber and some animated boulders, from my garden. The powerful evil spirit is the GW C'Tan Deceiver from the WH40K Necron army; a lovely figure that was just itching to be put into a HOTT army. The giant narwhal is from GW's Man O'War game, part of a pack of aquatic monsters I picked up on a bring and buy some years ago. Kajutaijuq is the head from an Incredible Hulk action figure I picked up at a school fete, but with legs scratchbuilt from Milliput. The whole army is based with a mix of fine sand and PVA glue, which was then painted in splotches of light blue before being coverd in a coat of white.

Pictures of this army can be seen here.

This was my main army in the Berkeley 2003 tournament.

Australian Aborigine

List

Stronghold: A sacred painted rock

Notes

This army is based on various myths, legends and fables of the Australian Aborigines and represents what could be termed the forces of 'good'. The warriors are the hunters that form the backbone of most tales, with faithful dogs being a feature of many. Baiame is known by many names across the continent, but is the great creator spirit. In a couple of tales he intervenes directly in earthly affairs. Wurrawilberoos are whirlwind spirits, whilst Tuckonies are shown as miniature men with a mischievous bent although essentially kind-hearted. The Winjarning Brothers are wandering heroes.

The majority of the figures for this army are the splendid Koori made by Feudal castings. They make up the warriors, Baiame, the Wurrawilberoos and the Winjarning brothers. Baiame is stood on a rock to raise him above the mortal part of the army, and is the only warrior to not have body paint of some kind. The Wurrawilberoos are mounted on whirlwinds made of wire spirals with pieces of tissue paper stuck to them, varnished and painted. The Tuckonies are Heroics and Ros 6mm Mahdist infantry, with some minor conversion done to them to turn swords into clubs and boomerangs. Finally the dogs are ERM hounds from the Border Reivers range; these are lop-eared, but a bit of knife-work and some Milliput gave them ears more suited to dingoes.

Pictures of this army can be seen here.

Dracci

List

Notes

This army exists because I was seduced by the Alternative Armies Dracci figures. The Dracci are very large humanoid dragons wielding weapons that appear to be made of stone. Since I went for the policy of buying the figures first, I designed the army after I got them. An all-foot army seemed the obvious choice, and it was merely a matter of deciding what should be what. The spears were obvious, and the choice of blades and warband was to create some variety (I could have gone for all blades with no problem). The Dracci lord is so large that I wondered if I was going to use it at all, but decided that it would make the general's element very easy to identify.

Thus far I have been unable to summon any enthusiasm for this army having painted it. The figures just aren't as good as they look at first glance.

The Knights of Simba

List

Notes

The Knights of Simba are an army of lion-centaurs. This army was inspired by three things. The first was that I won some Tabletop Miniatures Centalons at Berkeley 2003. Although half of them had Big Guns, and were no good to me, the others had force batons and shields. A little work showed that the batons could be converted to useful weapons. The second inspiration was a desire to see if large numbers of beasts could be effective. And finally there ws the feeling that warband were rubbish. With Macclesfield 2003 on the way I needed an army and decided that one heavy in warband might be a good way to put this theory to the test.

There are only two different figures in use in this army. The Knights themselves are the Centalons, with their batons converted to a range of axes and halberds. One of them was given a flag downloaded from the DBA Resource Page, and the general had his baton flattened into a sword. I did think of actually classifying the whole lot as knights, but decided that they would have a good rough going capability and went for beasts instead. The ape-men are Tabletop Miniatures were-monkeys. They are actually 25mm, but look suitable awe-inspiring as giant warriors in 15mm. The only changes I have made to these is to file the shield pattern off so that their shields look like Zulu-style hide shields. Because of their size they are based two to an element. Like the Squidmen above, the whole army is impetuous.

This was my main army for the Macclesfield 2003 tournament.

Weird Reich

List

Stronghold: The Sinister Schloss

Notes

This army was inspired by the Operation Sealion lists on this site and was designed for the 2004 Burton Beer and Pretzels HOTT competition which had an 'England Invaded' theme. Rather than build a basic WWII German army and add a few supernatural of super-science elements to it, though, I decided to make the whole army 'weird'. Hitler was heavily into the occult, and as I had a figure of him to hand I decided that he would make an excellent evil magician general. He is accompanied by other sorcerors and a Tibetan monk, as some of the latter were rumoured to have been found in Berlin at the end of the war. Werewolves and undead seemed about right for the infantry, and a Wagnerian Valkyrie and an experimental flying saucer for the aerial elements. Robots back up the infantry and a tank possessed by a demon provides extra support.

A lot of the figures for this army come from Peter Pig, as they do an extensive range of 15mm WWII stuff. Hitler himself is a plastic 20mm figure from Atlantic, but doesn't look too out of scale; as the general he's supposed to be a little more impressive than the rest of his troops. His fellow sorcerors are from Peter Pig and Chariot Miniatures, and the woman they are sacrificing is a Martian Princess from Peter Pig. The Werewolf infantry and Death's Head Legion are both based on Peter Pig German infantry, but with new heads from Peter Pig's Odds and Ends range. The Werewolves have wolf heads and the Death's Head troops have skulls; the Werewolves are accompanied by some Peter Pig wolves. The flying saucer is a spinning top toy with a Luftwaffe paint-scheme and some suitable waterslide transfer markings. The Valkyrie is a Peter Pig mounted elf with the horse given wings from a Games Workshop 10mm eagle and the rider a Milliput cloak and scratch-built shield. The robots are Games Workshop Epic 40K Ork dreadnaughts with a 1940 panzer colour-scheme. The Demon Panzer is something of a centrepiece of the army. It is based on the Peter Pig Panzer II, but has parts added to it from a Games Workshop Tyranid Dominatrix, a plastic crab toy, a GZG organic tank and some bits of Milliput and wire, the whole thing being an unholy mix of armour and organic material.

This was my army for the Burton 2004 tournament.

Pictures of the army can be seen here.

Read the Comments on The Miniatures Page.

Ophidians

List

Stronghold: Snake Temple

Notes

I fancied trying an army with a similar structure to my Elves (two magicians, six warband and two shooters) for Berkeley in 2004, especially with the proposed changes to warband and shooters being 'official' for that tournament. Although I set out to do exactly the same structure I changed it in the end, swapping out a couple of warband and replacing them with a third magician; a combination I had not tried before. The wonderful snakemen from Thanes Games gave me a hook to hang the army structure from, and a good exchange rate between the dollar and the Pound made the cost of having the figures shipped from the States viable.

The army pretty much uses the snakemen straight 'out of the box'. The metal they are made from bends well, and allows for reposing of arms to create some variety within a single pose. Otherwise I just used leader figures for magicians, the Kaa figures as acolytes/bodyguards for the magicians, and the ordinary snakemen for rank and file troops. The mixed weaponry lent itself well to warband classification, whilst the archers were obvious as shooters. Only two modifications were made. One warrior was converted into a standard bearer, whilst another was converted into a drummer and placed in front of a big command drum made from an ornate bead from my bits box.

This was my main army for Berkeley 2004, and won the Best 15mm Army prize.

Hawaiian

List

Stronghold: Sacred Volcano

Notes

This army uses the Hawaiian figures sold by ERM for Blood Axe miniatures. Not the best looking figures on the market, but from where else do you get Hawaiians (Eureka now do them I believe). A description of the different elements in the army can be found here.

The pikemen, warriors and hero are all just figures taken as they come. The Menehune are 6mm Dervishes from Heroics and Ros. Pele is an old 25mm Grenadier superheroine from their Champions range. She has been given a wrap-around skirt and necklace of flowers made of Milliput, and is mounted on a lava plume made of PVA-soaked tissue paper. The lines of her skin tight costume adapted well to being repainted as tatooing (all the figures in the army are tatooed). The Water Dragon is a small plastic Chinese Dragon from the Early Learning Centre. It is mounted on a scenic base consisting of garden stones as rocks, a plastic palm tree and a lake made from thin plastic and is accompanied by a naked female figure representing the dragon in its human form.

This was my main army for Macclesfield Manouevres 2004.

The Sorceress of Lanai

List

Stronghold: Sacred Volcano

Notes

This core of this army uses the remainder of the Hawaiian figures I bought from ERM, and represents an 'evil' force to oppose the previous army. A description of the different elements in the army can be found here. The god and hero are included as they were both rivals of Pele, who is in the other army. Given the capricious nature of Hawaiian deities, the gods could be swapped between the two armies with no problem.

The hordes are the ordinary ERM Hawaiian warriors painted as ghosts (light grey with a pale blue wash). They can be considered to be the Huaka'i Po, or Night Marchers, of Hawaiian legend. Kamapua'a is accompanied by a couple of wqarriors, and is himself an Alternative Armies were-beast. I suspect that the figure is a were-wolf, but it is nebulous enough to look pig-like if you apply a little imagination. The Sorceress is a Museum Miniatures nude, with a tissue paper skirt. She is accompanied by an acolyte (an ERM Orc shaman) and a familiar (the ERM creeping ghoul, which looks suspiciously like Gollum). The sacrificing priests are also ERM Hawaiians, with a scratchbuilt altar, temple paraphenalia and smoky fire, and the Nana'ue is a Games Workshop Megalodon from one of the old Man O'War monsters packs erupting from scratchbuilt waves.

Astute readers will notice that both Hawaiian armies use the same stronghold. This is deliberate and saves me the effort of making two different ones. After all, only one of them is going to be in use at a time anyway.

Horrors of the Dreamtime

List

Stronghold: Sacred Place

Notes

This army is the 'evil' opponent of my Aborigine army, and consists of a variety of horrors and nasties from Australian mythology. Most of the information about this army can be found here, but I made some changes. Marmoo, the evil, organising force behind the army, is depicted as a flier, partially because it makes him a little more effective than a horde, but also because he appears in that form in at least one story. The Wooden Devil Devil was a construct built and animated by evil magic. A strict reading of the story puts it at roughly man-sized, but when attempting to scratchbuild it I got a little carried away, and ended up with something that works out at over 20 feet tall! It makes a splendid behemoth. This is not the most effective army I possess, as it lacks an overall coherence. The behemoths and magician make a centre of sorts, but they are vulnerable to being outflanked and the hordes do little to prevent this. The beasts make a useful force for sending into enemy flanks, but it is a difficult army to co-ordinate. The lone flier general is vulnerable to all sorts of things, and needs to be either well-protected or kept out of the way. He can, however, nip into a fight pretty sharpish, and tip the balance if handled right.

Marmoo is a Games Workshop plastic bat from their Swarms boxed set. I disguised the flying stand as a tree to make it look more interesting, and added a Feudal Castings aborigine to represent his human form. The Great Whowhie is a plastic lizard toy from a Cadbury's Yowie, but I repainted it and tried some aboriginal art patterns on its back. The Wooden Devil Devil is scratchbuilt from sticks from the garden and wire and was again decorated with aboriginal art patterns. The dogs on both beast elements are Peter Pig wolves. The Old Woman is a Chariot orc, whilst Cheerooneer is a Feudal Castings aborigine figure with a Peter Pig wolf's head. The Goose Women are naked females from Museum Miniatures, whilst their geese are from Museum's farmyard range. The Yara-ma-yha-who and the Bunyip are both from Games Workshop; the former are trolls from their Warmaster range, and the latter is a sea serpent from the Man O'War monsters set. Marmoo's insect hordes are a mixed bag of figures. They consist of various creepy- crawlies from companies such as Games Workshop, Copplestone Castings, Amazon Miniatures, Pendraken and Tapletop Miniatures, but also include scratchbuilt beetles (made from lentils) and butterflies (made from, of all things, the circles of paper produced by a hole-punch). All of the bases were 'contoured' with layers of card to give them some topography. In the case of the Goose Women this allowed them to be positioned on a shoreline sloping down to a pond, on which the geese are swimming.

This was my main army at HOTTBAP 2005.

Wonderland

List

Stronghold: A House of Cards

Notes

This list is based on 'Alice in Wonderland', and was inspired by one of Hasslefree Miniatures' Alice figures. Since she is a 28mm figure and the rest of the army is nominally 15mm, Alice is classed as a behemoth. Given that she spends a lot of the book being larger than normal this is not unreasonable. The Queen of Hearts is classed as a blade because her propensity for demanding head removal means that she is accompanied by an axe-wielding executioner. The rank and file soldiery are classed as spears because this seems to best fit their organised playing card nature. Classing the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle as beasts didn't seem too unreasonable, but the flamingoes are an extra that just grew out of the fact that I had the figures (or the desire to make the figures anyway). The Caterpillar and the Tea Party are both classed as lurkers because they are annoying distractions rather than anything really dangerous.

Few of the figures in this army are 'off the peg' and many of them are scratchbuilt. The Hasslefree Alice holding the Cheshire Cat is used for the girl herself. The Queen of Hearts is the Peter Pig Mrs Lincoln figure, with an added crown, whilst the Peter Pig Abraham Lincoln figure makes a reasonable Mad Hatter. The Queen of Hearts is accompanied by the White Rabbit, who was made from a renaissance musketeer with an added Milliput rabbit head. His musket has been converted into the Queen's sceptre. The soldiers are almost entirely scratchbuilt. Their bodies were made by scanning a pack of playing cards (front and back), and scaling the image down. These were printed off, then stuck to card, to make a miniature deck of playing cards. Arms and spears were made from florists' wire, some small card feet added, and Milliput used to make hands and hide joins. The heads were from Peter Pig; WWI British Infantry in Helmets, as the helmets look suitable Medieval out of context. All of the spearmen were made this way, with each figure being a unique pose. In addition to the spearmen I also made the Queen of Hearts' executioner and her standard bearer in much the same way. The Gryphon is based around an Irregular Miniatures 15mm lion, with the head removed and replaced by the head of a Kallistra 10mm eagle. The eagle also provided the wings. The Mock Turtle was entirely scratchbuilt from card and Milliput and the Caterpillar mostly from Milliput and wire, with its hookah being based around an ornate bead. The body of the Caterpillar is made from a Pendraken Dungeon Crawler. As already stated the Mad Hatter is Peter Pig's Abraham Lincoln figure, whilst the March Hare is another Peter Pig figure with a Milliput head replacement. The tea party itself consists of tables and chairs from pendraken's dungeon furniture range, with a paper tablecloth and cups, plates and a teapot made from Milliput. The teapot has the Dormouse in it, of course.

This was my main army at Berkeley 2005.

Enemies of the Morthbrood

List

Stronghold: Iron gates hidden in a rock-face.

Notes

This army is based on the forces of 'good' in Alan Garner's pair of novels 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' and 'The Moon of Gomrath'. It includes elements from both books, although relies heavily on the second for most of the troops. A description of the troops can be found here.

The figures come from a range of manufacturers but required little conversion work. Cadellin is an ERM magician with staff, whilst Albanac is converted from one of their Border Reivers - all I have done is swap the helmet for a floppy hat. Uthecar and the other dwarves are yet more of the splendid Peter Pig figures. The lios-alfar are 10mm elves from Irregular Miniatures. The Einheriar of the Herlathing are horsemen from Outpost Miniatures' Arthurian range. Colin is converted from a member of a Napoleonic naval gun crew (manufacturer unknown), whilst Susan is a Peter Pig WWII resistance fighter with the gun cut off. Both are quite small figures, so work well as children.

Along with the matching Morthbrood this army was used at the Macclesfield Manouevres 2005 tournament.

Weird WWII Russians

List

Stronghold: The Road To Moscow

Notes

This army was designed as an 'historical' opponent for the Weird Reich. It is based on Soviet propogand and mythology. Since Hitler leads the Weird Reich, this army is led by Stalin who, as the Steel Man, rides in a giant armoured walking machine. The Heroes of Old Russia and Proletarian Hordes are based on propaganda poster images showing square-jawed workers and soldiers under the Red Flag being urged on by the spirits of such leaders as Peter The Great. The Hero of teh Soviet Union was included to inspire the lesser troops, and (from a practical point of view) provide viable opposition to the Reich's aerial elements and protect Stalin from Hitler's dark magic. The ape-men are based on a recently released report of experiments performed in the 1920s. No Soviet army of WWII would be complete without General Winter.

Stalin is a 20mm plastic railway figure, from a set of WWII leaders. The 'battle-suit' is a GW WH40K Ork Nob - the head can be removed leaving the armoured suite, with the hole previously being occupied by the head making an excellent cockpit for the figure to sit in. The Heroes of Old Russia are a selection of mounted Russian figures from Irregular Miniatures' historical ranges. Some represent un-named heroes, others represent such men as Alexander Nevsky and Peter the Great. They are depicted as ghosts - a simple technique which involves painting the figure white and then running a thin blue wash over them. The Proletarian hordes and the Hero of the Soviet Union are various figures from Peter Pig's WWII, SCW and RCW ranges. The Hero of the Soviet Union is loosely based on the famous photograph of the Red Flag being raised over the Reichstag. The ape-men are 10mm trolls from Kallistra as, sadly, no-one seems to do Planet of the Apes style figures with guns in 15mm. General Winter is a 28mm Commissar figure from Copplestone Castings painted to look cold and icy.

This was my main army at the Berkeley 2006 tournament.

The Spawn Of Tiamat

List

Stronghold: The Sea of Chaos

Notes

This army is based on Sumerian/Babylonian mythology.

The Tiamat figure owes more to 'Dungeons and Dragons' than to strict adherence to mythological sources, and is a Yu-Gi-Oh plastic dragon toy with three heads. Qingu rides in a Sumerian battle-car from Chariot Miniatures. The Snakes come from Tabletop Miniatures, as do the Lionmen, whilst the Scorpionmen are Blemmye from ERM. The Bull Centaurs are Esci plastic barbarian torsos monted on the bodies of Irregular Miniatures 15mm African cattle. The Spawn of Tiamat are a mixture of beastmen from ERM and Pendraken. The Dragon is a resin gargoyle figure from the gift shop in Westminster Abbey.

This was my army at HOTTBAP 2006.

Imperial Daleks

List

Stronghold: Dalek Control Centre

Notes

Another 'Doctor Who' army, and a difficult one to do because there are no commercially available 15mm Daleks. However persistence and a very good friend mean that non-commercial home-casts are an alternative, and that's just how I got mine. I went for Imperial Daleks from the 1980s, as they have my favourite colour scheme, but included some human mercenaries for variety. The sneaker was going to be a simple Dalek agent, but the Master was a more obvious choice given that this army's main opponent would always be U.N.I.T.

As stated the Daleks themselves are priavetly produced homecasts. Say no more. The human mercenaries and the Master are all from Tabletop Miniatures' science-fiction range, whilst the Master's Grecian column Tardis was scratchbuilt from card and an old pen-top. The stronghold was also scratchbuilt, from card and lentils, with some spare daleks placed in it as operators, and Davros (in his Dalek Emperor guise) added to supervise the whole thing. The Davros figure was especially made for this army.

I have enough Daleks to create a 'pure' Dalek version. This drops the shooters and teh sneaker, and adds another Special Weapons Dalek (artillery) and three more blades (Daleks), making the base army nine blades and two artillery.

Back to The Stronghold