Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 19 November 2018

Thylacines and more.

         Thylacines   
After a week of the usual ups and downs of real life I managed to finish off my four "Steve Barber" Thylacines, the prehistoric "Tasmanian Tigers" that only became extinct in the 1930s.
It did take me two attempts to get a colour scheme that I was satisfied with and although maybe not an exact match for the real-thing, I reckon it's close enough for my purpose.
They're meant to have 15 to 20 stripes from their tail almost to their shoulder, but I managed about 10 and they're not that obvious from the photographs, just as they were in reality (especially with my current vision). They're small carnivores and from accounts hunted nocturnally.
The almost obligatory rear view (only slightly blurred)
Size comparison with a hunteress (she's on a 20mm diameter base)
Full frontal view
The whole order - five critters
In other news, I received my second order From "Steve Barber", a mere eleven days after ordering, a major improvement on the five weeks, four days of my previous order!
The two "terror bird" types (Phorusrachus), came with nests and they're great sculpts (- probably his newer ones) as is the Smilodon - one of the best I've seen imho.
The woolly rhino is yet another two part model and didn't go together that well, requiring the usual filler to get a result and it was also a bit small imo, so probably an earlier sculpt to fit his previous 20mm prehistoric range.
The reverse of the Woolly Rhino kit
Finally the Megalosoros, a giant Elk thing, looks beautiful in the web site's picture but was a nightmare to get the head to fit the body and of course required filler. To get to the stage of having the head affixed to the body took about two hours of filing, drilling and a lot of swearing, plus I still haven't added the huge spread of antlers!
It's a huge potentially beautiful model, as it should be, but those antlers I've no doubt will be a pain to add too, as the fixing points are very small.







The day after my order to Steve Barber,  I also put in an order to "Fighting 15s", my first to this particular website.
What a load of Aurochs !
The order was for the "Eureka Figures" Auroch Family group, a Bull, two females and a calf. Their communication was very good and despite stating that they would be not dealing with order between the 7th and 11th November (my order was placed on the 5th) they arrived at the same time as the Steve Barber order - the 15th of the following week., so I was very pleased!
Left to Right - 28mm Female Auroch, 28mm Ox, 28mm Auroch Bull
Aurochs were extinct in Britain by about 2000 BCE but Julius Caesar mentions them in his annals and were extanct in Eastern Europe until the 17th Century..
Their horns and demeanour remind me of the archetypical bull-fighting  bulls generally depicted in cartoons.
They fit in well with prehistoric games imo and their colouring is a bit unique too - Black bull with white stripe down its back but tan coloured females and chestnut calf; the latter darkening to black if male and lightening to tan if female.

So whilst it's not  been a particularly productive week,  I have finished four models and have started on the six wolves that I have and also started basing up all but the Megalosorus.

That's it then for yet another week and as always your comments are both welcomed and truly appreciated.

20 comments:

  1. Terrific post, Joe, with lots to see and admire. Great paint-jobs and another load coming soon too, marvellous stuff, and great to see how inspired you currently are with this project :-)

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    1. Thanks Blaxx, it's the thought that maybe I can entice someone to play with me that keeps me going, but I'm not holding my breath.

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  2. Everything seems to be coming along nicely Joe!

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    1. Thanks AL, I'll have some other thoughts about this genre of gaming and this project in particular sometime soon.

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    1. Thanks Clint, I think you've summed the up perfectly.

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  4. Great looking Tasmanian Tigers! The newly arrived stuff looks interesting too!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iian, I fear I'm becoming too fascinted with this era.

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  5. I'll be interested to see haw you go with the Aurochs, when I was doing the same research as you I thought Black Bulls, Dun Females - that's going to look weird, that and the fact I'm a cheapskate so I went with the farm animal set, the bulls from that set looked big and meaty and I painted them all black because I thought they would fit in other games.
    It's good you're doing this properly.
    The Tasmanian Devils look good, are you going to use them as a similar thing to the wolves? Pack Predator, I know there's a supplement to the rules that I've not seen so maybe there is another category they fit in.

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    1. Thanks Vagabond, I didn't reckon on there being so much research to do when I started down this road. As for the Aurochs, the size of the females will be enough to match them to the bulls imo and a middle dark tan for the calf, should all be enough to start an interesting conversation.
      I doubt the thylacines would be as aggressive to humans (being so small) as wolves and I'll probably have to mix and match reaction tables to come up with something suitable, maybe as you say, in the supplement there will be answers!

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  6. This project is full of interesting figures Joe. Great stuff.

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    1. Thanks MJT, I fully concur with your view and the more I fiind out about this gnre, themore I'm fascinated and intriuged with it. Who needs D,D creatures when there'sso many real life examples of the strange and wonderful ?

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  7. Cats look nice, Zab. LOL when I noticed you spelled "swearing" instead of "sweating" in your post document. (:o)>

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    1. Thanks Jay, and thanks again for having my back, but I stand by what I typed!

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  8. They look great Joe & you did a wonderful job on the stripes, I look forward to seen the rest painted up & seen them all in action :)

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    1. Thanks Frank, I'm surprised you can see the stripes, I can hardly see them and I painted them!
      The remainder will take me quite a while to finish as more time will undoubtedly be eaten up by the real-life demands of the festive season and others things

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  9. Great looking lot Joe! Can't wait to see you paint up that wooly rhino :)

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    1. Thanks Ivor, the rhino is the smaller one of a pair of them andI can't decide which colour to paint them as I really don;t want to go grey!

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  10. I've got to say Joe, that this genre has never appealed to me, but you're doing such a great job that I'm finding your posts not only a pleasure to read (and soak up the eye candy of course), but also educational - many thanks and keep up the good work :-)

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    1. Thanks WA, nice to see you around again.
      I think my interest started as a teenager and may or may not have involved "Raquel Welch"

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