A long time between pagodas, Spartan progress!

  So I'll admit it, its been a fair while since my last update! It's not because i haven't done anything, it's just that every time i got near my pc i'd have a little thing called skyrim, or battlefeild 3, or assassins creed, or deus ex 2 (to name a few) distract me. If i'm honest it's my fault for putting them right there on the desk top really..

 Since my last update the spartans have seen a massive amount of progress, Ibelieve the last time I updated I had 1 unit built and based, and 1 test model finished. Well since then i entered them into a tournament, wich gave me 3 weeks to basically build and paint the entire lot. Very nearly got this done too! In the end i copped out and painted the chosen, warshrine a couple heros and the bases to "tournament standard as written"  ie.. base colours, but it earned me 20 points for the tournament, so yay for rules lawyering.

  Any way here's some pics of the progress.

Since the model range is pretty limited from Croc mini, and i wanted to create some variance so i could use the same minis as chosen as well as warriors, I decided to sculpt plumes and pony tails on a unit to denote them as chosen. Pretty simple green stuff work, but really happy with how it turned out, in particular the ponytails.

I also converted a muso and standard bearer for the unit, from goblin parts actually, they seemed to work the best.

Here you can see a few of the ponytails. Really happy with how they came out in particular.

Dif angle on the ponytails.

 So next stage of building was characters. I basically bought the entire croc mini range of characters, but for my general I picked up the Cool mini or not Leonidas model, his face isnt quite up to the same standard of casting as the other minis, but his dynamic pose really won me over.

These 2 blokes ended up being champions for units, the one on the left the champion of the chosen.

The 2 mages, they looked the wisest and least choppy.

Leaping leonidas! Ill be honest this was an absolute bastard to pin to his base, since hes only touching the ground with his toe.

Better shot of the pinning required, he also got a weapon swap to a suitable sword.

The bsb required a lot more conversion, since there wasnt a standard bearer model in the range, i picked one of the heros and had to resculpt a hand and added a banner from the plastic black orc kit, as well as some armour and a sheild from the croc mini range.

Quick hand removal and pinning the standard pole.

Really messy green stuff hand, but i figured its going to be hidden behind a massive banner, so i wasnt too particular about it.

The final Bsb, pretty happy with how he came out

Next up was the war shrine, again a straight up croc mini model, with a base made from foam and some resin ruins.

High density blue foam is fantastic stuff, just cut out some rough shapes, scored the blocks into it and roughened it up to look like rocks, the resin ruins are from dragon forge, i dotted them all over random bases

So next up was basically 2 weeks of painting non stop, in that time i managed to finish the 2 warrior units, and the heros, but not the bsb, nor the warshrine. Sadly i seem to be unable to take a good photo of painted minis, so you'll have to make do with a few WIP pics, and some terrible finished ones. Also keep in mind none of the bases have been touched.

Wip paintjob, as i was churning through normal troopers.

Wip of the bsb and warshrine, ignore the horde of grey knights behind em

The 2 units I finished, and the 3 heros that i finished, again sorry for the bad shot, and the bases being unpainted kind of dulls the paint job.

So hopefully these guys will get finished soon, theyre really quite close now. Also i just ordered a bane legions giant spartan "talos" model.. basically hes just a giant spartan (stands 15 cm tall) to be my hellcannon. Havent decided if he'll be bronze or marble to match the bases yet.

Expect more updates, now that I've worked my way through the christmas games deluge (mostly.. still havent finished skyrim if im honest)