ASoBH: The Necromancer's Tower

A Scenario from from Hour11's fanmade Warhammer/Mordheim Scenario Conversion project: The Necromancers Tower with Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes. There is a magic book rumoured to be left in the Tower Ruins, but several magical defenses have been put in place. Can the warbands get past the defenses and each other for the treasure?

Amera Wilderness Terrain

For months now my gaming seems to have been revolving around towns and cities, be they Fantasy ruins for Frostgrave or modern buildings for Zombie gaming. So it's nice to out into the great outdoors again. At least on the gaming table anyway.

A Tale of Two Cities (Overrun by Undead)

This week saw me trying out not one but TWO new games, both along a similar theme.

Frostgrave Campaign - #3 The Caverns

The cave system with the 4 main caverns marked A-D. 

Down into the twisting tunnels the warbands ventured, both arriving at the central system at the same time, via differing routes. The cultists had obviously been occupying this area of 4 linked caverns for a while. But how many would still be lurking in the shadows....

Targe 2016

New Blog Dedicated to 15mm Skirmish Gaming

One of my plans for 2017 is to push on with my delayed exploration into 15mm Skirmish Gaming.  I know it happens but the majority of 15mm posts I find are either figure reviews or larger battle reports\games. Similarly most Skirmish posts I find are in 28mm. Having dabbled my toes in I feel that 15mm Skirmish has something different in its play, more than "the same but smaller". The scale distances and movement seem more open, so (in theory) the tactics could be as well.

So I'm going for it! And I've started a dedicated blog for the topic and my journey into this world, pretty much from the start.

15mmSkirmish.blogspot.com

I'm quite excited about it actually, as it is a new world of the things I love but newer and more affordable, which has to be a bonus. At the moment I've copied in some of the relevant posts from this blog, but things should start to move towards the end of the year.

But just in case you are worried (which I doubt you level headed folks are!) I'm not ditching my 28mm. Or this blog. It'll be as unfocused as ever!

ATZ - Ground Zero

Ok, so I've spent the last two months making terrain and painting figures for Zombie gaming, so what reason do I have for turning down MacSver's suggestion of trying "All Things Zombie"? No good reason at all (ignoring the fact I hadn't managed to fully digest the latest version (ATZ - Final Fade Out). Queue the familiar learning Two Hour Wargames ruleset learning process of frantic page flicking!

For the table I decided to put most the terrain I have on, just to see how it would look and set up. It was decided that the scenario would be in the first 10 weeks of the outbreak during daylight hours. Our two characters had been in touch with each other and the aim of the game was to meet up and get off table, with each character entering the table at opposite corners.

Zomtober - Week 5

Final Week in Zomtober and probably my favourite mini of the month. This punk is from Hasslefree and goes under the rather unassuming name of Joe. The scuplting is so tipically smooth that I was encouraged to a bit more detailing than I normally do. I had a bash at a Union Flag on his t-shirt and an anarchy symbol on this back. The t-shirt doesn't bear up to too close scrutiny, but from the tabletop distance looks like its meant to, so result. Also the way his left eye had come out (from my variable painting) made me think it looked a bit swollen, so I've tried to give him a black eye showing he's been in a rumble and come out the other side!

The second of this week's figures is Cleaver Vine from West Winds sidelined Road Kill range. He is slightly on the heroic side of scaling, but the pose brings his height down. I always have trouble with faces and eyes and this figure was a bit awkward as his eyeballs have been sculpted almost popping out his head. But the cigar, haircut and dynamic pose are are winners.

All that remains is to thank and congratulate all the other participants in this years event. There have been some great and interesting models across the board. And also to finish with the customary group shot:

Gladiators Back On The Table

Just a quick note to mark two things. One is gaming back in the shed and the other is I've FINALLY had a game of 2nd Edition "Red Sand, Blue Sky" from Two Hour Wargames. I'd started playing a solo First Ed. campaign several years ago then 2nd Ed. came out, I bought it and the campaign ground to a halt. So thank you, MacSver.

And it was good. The movement is much better in the second version. It was very linear in 1st Ed. And the whole tactical play, from bonus dice to arena movement for catching breath. Great fun. We'll get the other Hlafiator types out next time. I think the tenses of having a Retarius throwing nets will be good.

That's all I have to say at the moment except MacSver wrote up a game review from the evenings play HERE.

Zomtober - Week 4

With the October break this week time was short for painting (was away with the family on a short break to South Ayrshire, Scotland), but a couple of simple paint jobs have seen me through!

Two survivors possibly from different ends of the social scale this week. First up is a business woman from Foundry's Street Violence range.

The other survivor is by ZonbieSmith. His rifle seems to have been damaged at some point, which obviously hasn't done him any favours as I painted his Zed version for Zomtober a couple of years ago.

Zomtober - Week 3

The original (not) Rick and Carl from Studio Miniatures. These two are earlier releases which are more comic book based. S.M. have since released a couple of excellent sculpts of a more serious vein as per their later zombie survivor releases. I won them on ebay without the Lori figure. Also, strangely, the Rick figure has two pistols, whereas the website has him holding a rifle in his right hand. I don't know if they come with weapon options.

The Rick figure is really nice to paint. The Carl one is a bit cartoony, or at least small for his age. Having said that the wide brim of hat hides the face. He'll also probably mix well with some of my other kid figures, once they get painted..

EDIT: After writing this post I got round to pulling out some of my Walking Dead graphic novels. In these early volumes Carl is indeed very young and the sculpt above is quite accurate.

Zomtober - Week 2

If you are wondering what happened to Week 1 so am I. It seems that week 1 of Zomtober was condensed into Saturday 1st Oct so I missed it!

Anyway we'll move on. Bigger woes to tell. I had planned to "catch up" with a raft of HeroClix touch-ups\repaints this week that I'd quickly based years ago to get gaming. But the first batch out on the table demonstrated the variety of detail quality of these sculpts. To cut to the chase I became too frustrated with them and the majority went in the bin! (I was a bit tired and cranky) HeroClix scale is slightly oversized, so in the long run I'll have a better sculpted and scaled collection.

 One of the two that made the cut were this young lady with her Uzis and face paint, who got a bit of a touch up and highlight. Not much but enough to improve her no end.

Second Survivor the this gent, a Detective I think originally. He's got a wonderful dynamic pose and, thankfully, defined facial features. The figure got a complete repaint in pretty much the same colours. Don't ask me what the point of that was, but he's better for it (and definitely counts towards the painting total as a result!).

And finally this grizzled Survivor from RAFM's USX line (Karl H. Unger to be precise) He's been sitting primed in a tin for more years than I care to remember so I knew he had to be done this month. I've painted his attire to match the red beret wearing militia I already have painted (as seen in the Filling Station post previously).

No time to rest though. There's a Police Officer and his young son calling for attenion.

TT Combat Filling Station

Real life is trying to weigh me down a bit, so it took a bit longer than hoped to get this kit to a playable state. It didn't help that the cheap red paint that I'd picked up was a real pain. It was marked "water paint" which I naively took to mean acrylic turned out not to be anything of the kind. Despite being dry for the best part of a week , any fluid, including neat paint, caused it to re-activate and smear. Fortunately repeated blasts of Matt Varnish Spray (I daren't have brushed it on) sealed it enough for me to continue.

There is still work to do. I didn't like the large "DinoGas" signage that goes on the roof so didn't add it. Haven't had time to fill the holes yet. Also I've not had time to do a proper interior yet past gluing down a printed out floor.

But it all stands as playable enough for the moment as I'm aware that Zomtober has started properly now and those participating have rushed out with the early Sunday.

Mystery Steampunk Knights

A call for help here. I've picked up these 8 minis from ebay this week. They were listed as "28mm Steampunk Knights Templar". Having looked at them now they've arrived there are no manufacturer marks on them. They do indeed appear to be medieval knights. Nearly all of them have pistol holsters and some of them are brandishing either pistol with mounted sights or some sort of carbine.

I've done the usual googling and searched a few forums but to no avail. Does anyone recognise them??

EDIT: Mystery Solved.

Thanks to Don Lancaster on the IHMN facebook page who pointed me in the direction of Cornish based company "Heroes of the Dark Age". They only list one of the set of 4, but the link is HERE.

Rubbish!

A quick bit of street dressing painted up. Some wheely bins, bin bags from Black Cat Bases and good old trash cans (as T.C. would refer to them) from Studio Miniatures. All from making those alleyways more interesting. Also sprayed the toy set street lights I'd saved.

Warhammer 40k Legends Book Collection

After seeing it advertised on TV last week my curiosity had been raised by the new Warhammer 40k book collection. So when I found myself in the vicinity of an appropriate outlet (W.H.Smiths) I popped in took the plunge for the first release (£1.99). Thought I'd give a quick first impressions review here.

TT Combat Bus Shelters Completed

One of the brace of kits I ordered in from TT Combat was their Bus Stop set. It comes with 2 bus stops and 2 lamp posts.

Frostgrave Campaign - #2 The Wizard's Tower

After searching the ruined city the Wizard's Tower is found, a reported by the dying Captain in the first battle. The Magic user's can feel the presence of a magical item high up in the tower. There is a catch however. The Tower has a new occupant, a giant named Svanfus.

Fat Dragon Buildings Added

Just a quicky.

With more time consuming pieces on the horizon, I printed out a couple of Fat Dragon buildings and put them together. They are simple kits and fly together. I didn't glue the room sections onto the walls as the collapsible version is handy for storage. The higher building has the fire escape option for extra play options.

I need to get some more card to add a couple more to properly have all those back alley venues.

The sky line was starting to look a bit flat, so I added the roof access on one and an AC Unit on the shop. Looking at it now, the taller building could really do with an old chair, etc next to the roof access. Perhaps with small sign saying "Burt Reynolds".

Zomtember?

Yes I know that Zomtember isn't a thing (it's actually Zomtober) but one of my main aims this year was to give Zombie gaming the attention I'd been so longing to give it for a few years now, so I've cleared my table (mostly) and decided to go early and for longer!

With around 50 or 60 zombies already painted, this period will have both Survivors and scenery in it, although I plan to still join the Zomtober crew when it starts and keep to the rules.

The streets are [too] empty

Steampunk Victoria

I (for once) had some time between projects, so I've taken the chance to put some paint on a Steampunk Queen Victoria (from the Wargames Illustrated Giants in Minature limited range) that I picked up at Targe in Kirriemuir last November.

I found this quite a fiddly figure to paint for some reason, despite the prominence of the black dress. Also her face (I always have trouble with painting faces!) has fallen to my ill practised inconsistencies. Should be OK on the table though (most my painting doesn't bear close scrutiny anyway!)

There is something about the armament that makes me think of a Steampunk Ghostbuster. Now there's a game!!! Maybe if they did the backpack & gun as separate pieces?...

Surely Nikola Tesla and Arthur Conan Doyle would also be in the team!

Many More Ruins (part deux)

Last of my Physical Fantasy Ruins (for a while anyway).

IHMN Cultists Company

Final Cultists

Last 2 cultists for my IHMN company.
The first is from RAFM's Cultist set in their Cthulhu line. He is obviously inspired by the famous picture of Aleister Crowley. The body ratio seems to be a bit out (unless Crowley had especially short legs) but the combination of a long robe and a stone plinth (which I suspect was added onto the sculpt to make up for the short legs) brings him up to average height and looking OK.

The second figure is Ibrahim Namin from Harlequin's Doctor Who range (from the 4th Doctor story "Pyramids of Mars").

I have also quickly painted up a Grendel Summoning Circle for some occult rituals (from their Magicians Accessories set).

Once I've got the stats set up for the additional figures I'll get a group show done and profile list.

Oh, Mummy!

An odd selection of figures here:

(a) North Star "Servants of Ra" Greater Mummy.

(b) Harlequin mummies (HM1029 A,B & C)

(c) Chronicle CM5 Mummy

(d) Games Workshop Warhammer Fantasy Mummies (1993)

(e) Games Workshop Mummy released originally as part of the "Curse of the Mummy's Tomb"  miniature set this figure was incorporated into the C18 Night Horrors range. The slotta tab had "Mummsie" written on it's front.

and for good measure (and because I need a proper fantasy looking zombie painted up) a

(f) Grenadier 208a Zombie from their Call of Cthulhu range. The rat on the base is part of the cast.

This little bandaged lot are mostly to be used for my "In Her Majesty's Name" Servants of Ra company, with the exception of the 2 Warhammer Mummies and the Zombie (which was painted with my Frostgrave Necromancer in mind).

4aD: Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters (pt1)

My intrepid party move on to their next adventure. I was going to have another randomised Dungeon, but the temptation was too great to try one of Ganesha's published adventures. In this case "Caves of the Kobold Slave-Masters". This a 3 part adventure. The first part here is a programmed dungeon.

Firstly an confession. On adjusting the party sheet for level upgrades and shopping after the last outing, I have found that I had made a few mistakes (a) with my documentation and (b) noting some of the skills & traits of the characters. This means that the party sheet below seems to be suddenly bulging with extra spells and abilities, so it will be interesting to see how I use these in this game!

Secondly a DIRE WARNING (all good adventures should come with a dire warning, preferably from a strange, old, bearded man - which I manage to fulfill all criteria). As this first part is a scripted adventure, continuing past this point shall reveal  SPOILERS !!!!

WIP Wednesday

Some more terrain. On the right is the last of my Amera order - two of their ruined building corner kits to make one structure. I've put in a collapsed middle wall to fill the middle space, provide cover and act as a elevated firing space\ramp to the higher floor.

On the right I've put doewn some texture on the basing before looking to fix down some Hirst Moulds wall parts I've had kicking around (and used) for years. I think they might get a bit more play if they are actually set as a terrain piece rather than a collection of blocks. That's the theory anyway...

Not in the picture I am also on the last trio of a gang of mummies for my IHMN Servants of Ra company. Hopefully they'll be presentable very soon.

Four A Miniatures Chaos Dwarves Kickstarter.

We all have companies we have a softspot for. Four A Miniatures is one of mine. Run by an enthusiastic gamer who decided to commision a few new sculpts to call his own and sell - something I'm sure many (if not most) of us dream of.

Tablet Tabletopping

Many moons ago, when the second edition of Two Hour Wargames Gladatorial ruleset, "Red Sand, Blue Sky", came out I had a bash with Adobe Flash to make an online-ish board. Some of the functionality did not work with touch devices though. I have just bought an app that will let me play on my Kindle Fire (also on android and ios).

Many More Ruins

Not been feeling too great over the past week, which means that I've not felt like concentrating on painting figures. On the flip site I quite often end up making a bit of terrain to scratch that hobby itch, and this time with the painting process and colours being the same I did a few pieces at the same time.

4aD: First Adventure - Life Can Be Random

Earlier this year Ganesha games brought out their core rules for "4 Against Darkness", a dungeon crawl rule set to harken back to "the good old days". It was inevitable that I was going to pick them up. Simple rules, solo game play and random dungeon (and encounter) generation - what's not to like? With no miniatures required either, just the rules, a dice app on the phone and a pencil,  those lunch breaks suddenly seemed to have a new avenue to explore.

So here is the report of my first game. For those who have already bought and played the game some of the narrative may seem slightly out of step as I made a few errors, forgetting some paragraphs, backtracking sometimes to correct, sometimes not! But a tale was woven none the less...

3D Printing

I'm sure I'm not alone in seeing the rise of 3D printing and wondering how useful it may (or may not) be for your hobby.

So I was very interested to see this series of articles on TMP (The Miniatures Page) describing the basic 3D process and then documenting some attempts to use it.

3D Printing: Striations, Surfaces, Wisps & Fusing

Printing a 3D Model From the Internet

3D Printing 28mm Fantasy Figures

Ruined!

Or at least maybe more ruins??

1979 Ral Partha Hill Giant

 Painted up an old figure. I originally had him dug out of the pile and primed in a burst of enthusiasm after my test game of Dragon Rampant, but then reality kicked in. However the Frostgrave Campaign being played at the moment needs a Giant for the second battle - handily I had one ready to paint!

He's an old Tim Meier scuplt from 1979, Ral Partha's 01-052 Hill Giant (version 2). To be honest, beforehand I found his positioning a bit strange, but now he's painted up I like him. There's loads of great deep texturing on him which makes him fun to paint up. His club looks just ready to give a little "Tonk!" on the tops of some helmed noggins.

Frostgrave Campaign - #1 The Discovery

Part one of the "The Diabolist's Scheme" campaign published (for free) by Cigar Box Battle Games.

The first battle starts with a standard Frostgrave set up, but with two treasure markers replaced by mortally wounded captains.

Chariot Fun

Just a quicky.

And they're off!

This week I had the pleasure of helping MacSver continue playtesting the upcoming "Faustus Furious" chariot racing ruleset from Ganesha Games. With a 3 player game going on (controlling 2 chariots each of different types) great fun was had.

A Heavy Chariot forces it's way down the inside.

MacSver has already painted a lot of different chariots up to represent Heavy rigs, agile one and archer carrying setups. As you can see from the pictures he has also started on a custom demo table which will look fabtastic when finished.

Coming up to the final bend, but a mob of spectators
have run on. They must think it's all over...

I believe that the final editing and tweaking is being done. The rules are great fun with much crashing, spinning and careering going on the keep the races unpredictable.

Definitely one to look out for when they become available.

(more playtest details on MacSver's Blog)

Painting Amera's Ruined Tower and Amphitheatre.

Itching to make a start on my Amera plastic I picked out the Amphitheatre and Ruined Tower (as couldn't resist the latter!). This is not so much a tutorial but more a work log, as everything did not go exactly to plan.

The Plastic Mountain

Well not so much mountain - more ruins. Like so many others recently it seems, I've made an order to Amera Mouldings for some ruins. This doesn't mean I'm ditching my Graffam ruins by any means, but I have a (too) small selection of "physical" ruins and wanted to add to them as a different option.

For the record: 1 x Ruined Chapel kit, 2 x Building Ruins, 1 x Amphitheatre, 1 x Temple Ruins.

Now we'll see if all the reports of the ease and speed that these paint up are all lies!!

WoW - Attack on the Intrepid: Wave 2

This week MacSver came down to continue his attack on the USS Intrepid.

Steam Powered Sawmill Finished

Finished my Steam Saw mill. It is intended to add to my Dead Man's Hand scenery (which is of a more industrial mining town theme rather than the traditional town) but will easily fit into other games (Victorian or Horror I suspect).

The main building is a Stables kit from Warbases with the stalls left off.  I like my buildings to have more than one point of entry\exit if possible, so I cut a side doorway. I also left the back roof section loose for access, adding a tab of scrap mdf to stop it sliding off. The roof is corrugated card from Hobbycraft.

The steam powered sawmill equipment is a resin kit from Frontline Wargaming. They unfortunately forgot to pack the funnel, so I've had to improvise with a straw.

I've used small animal gnawing sticks from a local pet store for the log piles (they are nice and straight). Much to the bemusement of my wife I've had to paint them to look like wood!

I think I need a pile of planks as well as logs, but I have plans to do a load of ladders with wood stirrers and will do it at that time.