Belial, Devil

Belial sat on a shelf for some time before being finally completed over the holidays.  I'm very happy with the undercoat on this figure; Tamiya "Italian Red" (I think!) in a spray can.  I let some of the glossy, metallic red undercoat show through around the brass sections more so by accident than design (my usual method..).

This and Harapan's bases were adorned with flower tufts I purchased from Martin at Tajima1 Miniatures - www.tajima1.co.uk -.  Easy to apply, no glue needed.  Originally intended for a Samurai project that is gathering dust!

Harapan - Tsunami Relief limited edition

My annual painting spurt began over the 2013 Christmas break, ending a many month drought.  Not that I've been entirely idle as I've recently been inspired by Foundry and Jake Thornton's release of God of Battles;  A fantasy wargame which has quite obviously been inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Battles but which simplifies movement, has a low unit model count (usually 12 to 16 figures per unit) and most pleasingly... all of the rules are in the one big, colour hardback book! More on that when I start posting some units.

Would fit in nicely with Monkey Magic! 

Venerable Ambrosius aka Sniper Dude

"Venerable Ambrosius" is part of the "Griffins of Akkylannie" faction in the Confrontation (Rackham) universe.

  The miniature was included in the Hybrid board game.  I'm not sure I particularly like my work on this figure.  And what's with the tiny freaking ankles?  All miniatures require "cankles" in my opinion...

Baba Yaga.. shaking her thang

I picked up this great Reaper miniature from the now defunct Tin Soldier in Sydney.  I understand that the figure is from the Exalted line of miniatures that Reaper produced on licence from White Wolf.  It's a shame but this range is no longer in production, though I'm sure that there are figures to be found in countless bargain bins scattered across the hobby universe.  

I lost the feather on the staff whilst cleaning up flash but I'm not too worried.  My only problem now is that I need to make a hut on chicken legs to go with her.  Slavs are weird.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga

Barbarian with Sword - Mega Miniatures

Released originally by Grenadier (?) but now produced by Mega Miniatures, this is a barbarian with a sword..  Obviously.

Rabid man with sword and axe.

Another beaudy from my recent batch of painted figures, this barbarian from Reaper seems to believe that the best defense is a good offense.  

He also likes the bling.   

Yellowbeard, Ogre Chieftain

I particularly enjoyed painting this Ogre chieftain from Reaper.  It's a metal miniature, but you can now purchase the same sculpt in resin-plastic for a few dollars.  I bought another one in the resin-plastic and when I get a chance to get him painted (and maybe converted), I'll post him up.

Ragnar of Utherby

Another Red Box Games figure, Ragnar of Utherby.  Suitably Conan-esq. 

I believe I was RBG's first Australian customer back in August 2008 when I picked up this one and "Belegast the Bloodthirsty"

Lots of great detail on these figs, a pleasure to paint.

Barbarian of chaos

This is another Red Box Games miniature that was until last week, collecting dust atop the lead mountain.

I would say that this is one of the earliest releases by Red Box and is currently out of production.  A bit on the small side in comparison to more recent sculpts from the Red Box, but a fun one to paint.

Sláine

Sláine Mac Roth of the Sessair.  The Horned God.  

A brilliant 2000AD series based on a combination of celtic mythology and Conan, this would have to be one of my all time favorite comics.  

This miniature by Foundry is based on an image from the ultimate Sláine series "The Horned God" by Pat Mills and illustrated by Simon Bisley.  

I chose not to be particularly faithful to the colour scheme in the book, but I did include the eye paint and the blue wode in the hair!  Let's not talk about the dodgy tartan.. 

   

The captain

A well prepared captain of a free company.

My dodgy first attempt at a freehand shield.  This miniature was sculpted by Tre Manor of Red Box fame for Reaper Miniatures.  

King Koboldikus

Alas poor Korrick!

Here is "Snar Mangebelly, Kobold King" by Reaper Miniatures.

I prefer to think of him as King Koboldikus, a deranged lawful-evil paladin I played in a short 4th ed D&D game a few years ago.  Ah, good times.

Beware the beast-man

An old and very charming Citadel beastman.  The pock marks in the miniature suit the sculpt, luckily.

Paging Dr. Moreau

A figure from Rackham's Confrontation line: "Nurbald the sculptor".  I dare say he will make an appearance as a fiendish Dr. Moreau type in a dungeon crawler.  All I need now is a sewer island, a lab and few suitable subjects for vivisection.  Bwhaahaahhhaaaaaa.  Sorry.

Grenadier now EM-4 plastic fantasy Orcs

This project has been picked up and put down on a few occasions and with time, I've found that some of my painting techniques have changed.  When I started cleaning up and undercoating these very cheap Grenadier figures now sold by EM-4, I went with a dark grey gesso undercoat and a 2 tier "Dallimore/Foundry" base and highlight, followed by a wash.  If I were starting from scratch, I would undercoat with brown spray, base coat only and then hit the model with a dip.  The end result would be the same or thereabouts regardless of the method, but I've found my current technique to be the faster of the two.  

  Who's to say that I won't be painting in a completely different fashion in a year or two (house paint and pliers?)?  This is one of the challenges of painting an army over a long period of time.  Another would be remembering a painting recipe and even the availability of paint itself.  I'm sure most of us have had a colour discontinued or a range dropped (ask GW customers about this..) usually sparking a run on "Tentacle Pink" or "Fistula Green"...

  These chaps mostly have been painted with a grey gesso undercoat, single base colour followed by the dip and a dullcote.  They frosted up after the dullcote but I fixed it by rubbing a little olive oil over the figures with a bit of old blister pack foam.  I've yet to find the shields for the swordsmen (choppas?) but will post a little update when I've got that sorted out. 

  These figures have quite a history, being Grenadier's failed answer to Games Workshop's Warhammer starter box set plastics.

  Fantasy Warriors by Grenadier was a game designed by the sculptor Nick Lund and released in 1990. According to Boardgamegeek, the box set contained the following:

• 102 Plastic Miniatures (Orcs and Dwarves)
• 51 Plastic Shields
• 5 Dice
• 150 Order Counters
• 56-page Rulebook
• Quick Reference Sheet
• A very flimsy box

    It's similar to Warhammer in many respects but utilises a unique-to-the-game time system, with certain forces performing better at different stages of the day.  FW also allows for pre battle scouting and a few other rules that let the battle feel like it's taking place in a wider world or war.  The points system is apparently (see Frothers forum) flawed and there are other issues that would likely require house-ruling to overcome.

  On the whole, I'm keen to give the game a go as it is has a fairly exhaustive set of army lists for the genre (a barbarian list that isn't GW "Chaos" too!) and interesting rules that aren't too unfamiliar.  It's a bit of a novelty and I've got a stack of the plastic Orcs and Dwarves from EM-4 and a box set from ebay.

  A word of warning regarding the miniatures:  There are mold lines galore and a big fat injection nub on the back that needs to be ignored, or clipped and filed down (I chose latter).  A real prick to deal with as the plastic is particularly tough.  They're super cheap though and easy enough to paint up.

Rackham Boy Band

These chaps were a bit of a bastard to put together but it is satisfying to have them done and in the glass cabinet waiting for the call for gun toting fantasy dandies... 

 

Warhammer Townscapes

Terrain.  Pre-built, scratchbuilt, un-painted, pre-painted, you name it - there is an option to suit most budgets.  Hell, how about the old "book under the mat" technique?

  I tend to want to go for an inexpensive and modular option.  Usually this tends to be pretty time intensive and ends up being a holiday project (ala Hirst Arts) or never goes further than the purchase of materials and perhaps one or two moulds.  As a "hobbyist", it goes against the grain to purchase pre-built/painted terrain.  Testament to this is the boxes of crap I've accumulated over the years.  How many pipe cleaners can a man have?  Have I even used one or own a pipe?  No.  I've got more ice-cream sticks than the Paddlepop lion and apart from an abortive WWI trench project, they've only been used as a handy thing to blu-tac miniatures on or as a rudimentary cutting guide when the steel ruler disappears.

  My place is small and putting a table's worth of terrain together is not an evening worth of work and without a dedicated space for it, these things tend to take over.  I don't fancy ironing my work shirts on the back of Karak Eight Peaks or whatever and I was never very good at putting the toys away so building a fantasy town's worth of buildings in my apartment is out of the question.

    There is pre-built and/or painted, though.  You can pick up some wonderful houses from places such as Kobblestone and they tend not to be too expensive, but often as I'm about to pull the trigger on a purchase I realise that I can't really just buy the one or two pieces.  The postage costs to Australia prohibit a large order and I don't think I could muster up the recklessness to hit the card up again and again to fill a table.  If I had money to burn and the space.. 

  So, that leaves me with a few remaining options, one of which being paper/card terrain.  Not since the heady days of the cardboard Warhammer wyvern and the little cottage and tower that came with the Warhammer Fantasy 4th edition box set had I considered a card building worthy of the table.  Don't get me wrong, in the hands of a Japanese person, a folded bit of card can look awesome..  my tendency is to build into a crumpled sphere something that should have the shape of a cube.

  For about $400 with shipping, I could buy a CraftRobo or Silhouette cutter; a desktop printer-like machine that when fed a data file can make precise cuts.  A fair few at places like the Worldworks forum swear by them as they seemingly take the drudgery out of the cutting and replace it with the annoyances of modern technology.  I don't fancy dicking around with a new bit of gear and the cost of set up defeats the purpose of going for paper in the first place.

  Ok, I don't have a Japanese person or a robot to cut and fold my paper.  And what of the model itself?

  There are a few on the market and some that are available for free download.  With rare exception, the available paper models are computer generated.  Not an issue with sci-fi, but fantasy on the other hand needs a bit of character.  A little bit of google-fu yielded the Warhammer Townscapes set; a product sold by Games Workshop in the 80's with a whopping 38 different medieval style buildings, ready to be cut out and assembled.  Lovely stuff, this.  Oozing with character and cleverly designed so as to be easy to assemble, I hit the jackpot.  A kindly person has scanned the out of production sheets into a pdf file (see Google), and the quality and resolution is quite good.

  I'm working my way through the set now, having built about half this weekend whilst being house ridden crook.  I decided to print them out on A3 instead of A4 as I found that the A4 size sheets yielded a building a bit too small.  A3 is perhaps a tad big, but it looks more "right" with modern 28mm figures.  With 28mm not being an actual scale, it can be tricky to find scenic products from other hobbies (model trains for example) that fit in with the miniatures but that's another post.

  Attaching the printed buildings in sections to foamboard was the best bet in the end.  Foamboard is great in that it is a piece of foam, sandwiched between layers of paper and this gives the foam some protection and support.  You should know what a knife and a ruler is, so on to the assembly..
 
   To attach the walls of the building, I cut a groove along the side edges of the front and back facing walls, removing the foam and leaving the backing paper.  It's then easy to wedge the wall to be attached up against this groove, PVA glue in the join, for a nice sharp bond. 

  I had some thin mounting board in a box somewhere and this made a great base for the roofs, being a bit sturdier that the recommended cereal box card.

  So, there you go.  I tried edging the white areas near joins and the roofs with a brown marker pen, but I found that this stood out more than the white. Cheap, cheerful and reasonably sturdy.  Definitely wont win me an award but it was great fun putting them together and I'm happy.  Should suit the next city D&D adventure.  Now I need to clean up and undercoat the pile of revolting peasants I have on my coffee table!

Flagstone Paven - Zuzzy latex mat

  Painting a gaming mat that you've spent a considerable sum on is quite the daunting prospect, so this little latex number has been gathering dust in my cupboard with umpteen other bits and pieces that have been purchased and immediately stored.

  Well, as I've just recently purchased 90 odd Old Glory revolting peasants and have been constructing a bunch of medieval fantasy buildings out of the old Warhammer Townscapes set (to be posted once finished), I thought that I'd had better get move on.

  Scouring the net, I've found only three painted examples of this particular mat.  None of which provided instructions on the respective techniques applied, although I'm sure a brush and some paint was involved at some point..how hard could it be?

  As I chose a very simple colour scheme, the mat proved to be very easy to paint indeed.  I was tempted to paint each individual flag stone at a time.  I'm sure would have provided the most aesthetically pleasing result, but knowing my patience threshold, I would have lit the thing on fire and tossed it into my neighbour's yard 3 hours in.  To keep things simple and to allow for some compatibility with my sandstone coloured modular dungeon terrain, I went with a brown and then tan highlight.  As the mat comes in a nice dark grey, I could have highlighted with some light grey/white and the job would have been done after a black wash to tone the highlights down.

  So, paint roller in hand, loaded with a 50/50 mix of burnt sienna and water, I went at it.  The surface takes paint exceptionally well, a good 5 minutes rolling and the 1st coat was on.  As mentioned, the mat comes in a dark grey and I would have been happy with a semi-opaque finish, allowing the grey to come through, but the watered down brown went on like a dream.

  Giving it a good 2 hours to dry, I then came back with a chuck of foam left over from a miniatures case.  A few minutes dry brushing with "Naples Yellow" craft paint, sweeping across the top with broad strokes, was enough to pick up all the nice details and texture on the mat. 

  At this point I could have pulled the pin, but it really just didn't look grimey enough for a fantasy/medieval town square.  I pinched a black wash recipe from somewhere: 

Water in a jar; add black paint.  The black paint I used was luckily completely crap, being exceptionally watery and thus good for a wash.  Thank you rude 2 dollar shop lady!

Added to this, some Jo Sonja flow medium and a bit of window cleaning liquid.

Over the top with a brush, I spread it around, not letting it pool up too deeply as apparently this can cause cracking of the latex.

On the whole, I'm pleased with the result.  The mat will be used for RPG combat (Dungeon Crawl Classics, D&D, etc) and for that it will definitely serve well, it being easily transportable and the squares easy to make out on the surface.  I've heard good reports about these mats surviving transport and frequent use without a layer of protective varnish, so I've given that a miss for the moment.

Now, to finish those buildings...
 

Have you heard the word?

Citadel:

Empire - flagellant

 

Scarlett Johansson

I believe that this is the 1st release from Red Box Games...

Finally got around to painting the figure.  The base was designed by a mate.