Another Leviathan Orc!

 Hi!

I've managed to get a second of the original Leviathan Orcs painted up!

Armed with a sword and shield, this is another sculpt by Tim Prow and comes from the same pack as the last figure but is armed with a sword and shield instead of two swords. Again following a bit of initial humming and hahing about the sculpt, I really enjoyed painting him as he's chunky and characterful. I just wish there were more poses for the original packs as it would be great to have 2-3 more poses to give some variety to the set.

I do like the big carved shield that this guy has but it's one of the inconsistencies with the range that it doesn't match any of the other shield designs that the rest of the Leviathan range is equipped with but what can you do!

Hopefully I'll have something a bit bigger painted next time as it's been fun working on the Leviathan range again.

In the meantime, all the best!

Leviathan Orc Complete

 Hi!

Here's the first of my weekly updates for my Leviathan project!

I finally got round to painting up my first Leviathan Orc infantry:

Sculpted by Tim Prow, the figure is a hefty lump of lead and despite my initial reservations about the ugliness of the figure, I was pleasantly surprised how much fun he was to work on and I've just started work on a second.

One of the issues I have with the original Leviathan range is the limited number of infantry sculpts as the swordsmen pack only comes with two poses and while this guy is armed with two swords, the other has a sword and shield so I think I'll need to add to the variety by using some sculpts from other ranges to give me a more interesting force.

It's been fun getting back into Leviathan and I'm hoping I can keep the momentum going this year and get a good selection of gubbins painted up in the coming months.

I'm also looking at playtesting some forces using my cardboard counters for assorted units but I need to sort out my mancave first as it's currently a bit of a storeroom and my board is covered in stuff!

Hopefully folks will enjoy seeing some battle reports posted up and if all goes well, I will also playtest some new units that I've made up and even explore Earthpower but thats a post for another day.

In the meantime, All the best!

State of Leviathan and 2021 Hopes

 Hi!

Gosh, it's been another year and very little progress has been made on Leviathan which has been a bit of a disappointment for me as I had hoped to get myself moving with the success of the Dragonbane rider from April.

As always, Leviathan is that most elusive of hobby goals, one that I dearly wish to make a go of, but fall at the first hurdle. My previous attempts have always resulted in abject failure too and it has got me to thinking that maybe I have been approaching things the wrong way and instead of trying to collect a warband and paint it up, I should aim for something a bit more scattergun but fun.

With this in mind, I have decided to lower my aim and simply paint something Leviathan related every month from January to December and post my progress here once a week as I love the figures, the setting and even the rules but just cannot seem to get my head around army collecting and painting. Hopefully this way, I will have something interesting to post on a regular basis, be it a single figure, a monster or resin scenic item or heaven forfend, an actual unit!

For the most part I hope to use the original figures where possible but if I find a suitable proxy, I will use it as there are some gaps in the range that never got sculpted. It will also be fun to paint up some odds and ends that I have lying around and not feel the pressure that it doesn't fit in with the specific force I am supposed to be working on.

To date, I think this is the only blog that is dedicated to Leviathan and I don't want it to go quiet again so we shall see how I get on in my project and who knows, I may even make a bit more of a go of it this time around so watch this space!

Leviathan Project Log Part 1

Hi!

Well after a busy start to the year, I seem to have got distracted with other projects which is a bit of a shame as I have been pretty productive in the Leviathan department!

Interestingly I seem to be getting folks looking up Leviathan all of a sudden with a bit of a flurry of posts over on Facebook about it and it's got me to wondering how I can develop this blog. I had thought of setting myself a bit of a challenge but am notoriously rubbish when it comes to such things, especially if I have to paint a load of stuff.

An Elven Dragonbane Rider is confronted by a unit of Dwarven Troops

This got me to thinking about the possibilities of playing Leviathan and developing the setting in a more skirmish style approach. Think Gorkamorka but fantasy if you will, with small groups of warriors from the assorted races accompanied by one or two resin beasties and play out some heavily scenario based games with them.

With this in mind, I took a look at what I could do with approximately 250-300 points in the rules. On first glance, it wasn't too promising as it wouldn't give the supposed minimum requirements for a game. Typically this is a single character leading at least one, but often more units 5 models or more.

But what if I chucked out this and instead used the points given for individual models as the basis for smaller warbands?

After a bit of a rummage, I discovered that for just over 250 points, my Elves could have a champion mounted on an Earthbound Dragon, a single Dragonbane rider armed with a lance, two infantry with hand weapons and shields and a single powerlancer.

With a wee bit more tweaking to make things interesting, I decided to go for 300 points for a starting warband and if I feel brave, I will always have the option to paint up more to build a full sized force.

Half Orcs tangle with Tox Spirits

Looking at my bits box, I think I have enough Elves to make do for the time being as the Dragonbane rider is done already, I have the Earthbound based and ready to prime and I think I have some Elven infantry lying around somewhere which may need a bit of TLC but I think they should do for the time being.

Further rummaging amongst the armylists has given me the impression that each force should be able to manage a playable little warband with the exception of the Dwarves whose use of heavy tanks and artillery may make them a bit too powerful but I'll see what I can put together.

I'm also keen to add some new denizens to the mix with the Tox Spirits and Half Orcs being first in line so I shall have to put together a bit of background for each and some playtest rules for them to see how they perform in a skirmish!

Hopefully I'll get an update on soon with some more painted stuff and random ramblings so watch this space.

All the best!

Elven Dragonbane Rider

Hi!

I had intended to just start work on the Elven Earthbound but wanted to get a bit of practice in painting large resin models so settled on an Elven Dragonbane rider to get things going.

Elven Dragonbane

I was gifted some Leviathan gubbins a while back and amongst them were a pair of Dragonbane riders, the swift moving cavalry of the Elves. 

Catalogue Pic

The models themselves were, I always felt some of the worst from the Leviathan range, with the stange pot bellied lizards with their odd pose and the puny lances their riders came with but on closer inspection, I found them to be an absolute pleasure to work on.

The pair I have were missing their lances so I bodged one from plastic rod and an old Dark Elf speartip that I had lying around and the longer lance looks far better than the stubby ones that originally came with the pack.

Painting wise, I went for a dark red for the Dragonbane who are the mutated offspring of true dragons so I wanted to go for something a bit menacing. The rider ended up being gold and black which wasn't my original plan but it just looked right when I looked at it so I'll stick with it as it gives him a sense of sinister richness which works for the thrice cursed Elves of Aeroth!

The miniatures themselves are absolutely chock full of character with the Dragonbane having lovely scales and texture on it's skin and the rider looking suitably debauched and alien and there's some lovely little details such as grinning faces hidden about his armour that was loads of fun to paint!

I suspect the second rider will get a banner or possibly a powerlance to see how they work in the game. One of the most annoying things about Leviathan is that for the most part, the cavalry models all single poses and sometimes I wish the sculptors had given them separate heads so that they at least have a little bit of variation.

I plan on converting the second rider a wee bit to see if I can't give him a bit of variety so we shall see how he goes.

All in all, I really enjoyed working on the first of my Elves and really need to see if I can track down some suitable infantry for them.

I may have to try and track down some of the Tim Prow Heartbreaker Elves as they are really similar style wise and suitably chunky figures but are really hard to find these days as I don't think they were too popular back in the day.

Ideally I'd use some of the old Citadel Dark Elves but they are rather pricey to pick up second hand so I will need to have a bit of a ponder as to what I can do.

In the meantime, All the best!

Barbarian Earth Elemental

Hi!

I found myself an old soft plastic D&D Earth Elemental and figured it would be a nice addition to my Barbarians!

Earth Elemental

The detail is a wee bit soft in places but with a fair amount of drybrushing and washes it turned out rather nicely.

I'm finding myself drawn to the skirmish side of things in Leviathan so some of the larger Battle Elementals are maybe a bit big for my 3'x3' board but still wanted my Barbarians to get access to some Elemental support.

Game wise, I need to stat him up but will have him somewhat tougher than a cavalry miniature but not as powerful as a mighty Elemental!

My next update will be an update on my Earthbound Dragon so watch this space!

Earthbound Project Log Part 1

Hi!

Just a quick update this evening to show the work I've done on repairing the Earthbound Dragon!

I've got his head attached and filled in the air bubbles, sanded the base and given the whole model a really good was in soapy water to remove any release agent or dust.

 Earthbound WIP

I also thought that the front claws needed a wee bit of work to make them longer and more fierce so I lengthened them with greenstuff. The beast's head and neck has also been slightly reposed to give it a more satisfying look.

I've textured the neck with greenstuff and fixed the snout as well as well as reworking its chin to give it the sharp spur which makes it more closely resemble the concept art.

That's the Earthbound done for now and I'll be working on the rider next so hopefully I'll have a new post by the weekend!