Boarboy conversions

I have loads of Boars and hopefully a load of riders for them. I haven't dug through the bits box to see exactly what I have yet but there should be some. I don't really like the old Boars that much so I have decided to make a few changes. As the heads are what most people will see that is where I have focused my work. Firstly extending the tuft of hair on the head makes the boar look a little bigger. I don't have a rider here to see if I went overboard or not but it should be fine. Then some armour allows me to do some more interesting painting on these guys. A large plate on the front will let me do the check patteren I have done on the rest of the armour. I am debating whether or not I should add a blade or a spike. I probably will. I also have to add some rivets but I will only do that once I am completely finished. I have also added some chainmail. I did this before I stuck the head onto the boar and I managed to get the angle of the fall wrong. I will take the chainmail off and redo it maybe with some plates or even some leather. I would like to improve my chainmail sculpting as I may use it on more models in the future. I also want to add a few smaller details such as spikes along the bottom of the facial armour plate, again this needs to have the angle changed slightly and a rivet added. It worked out decently well though and it looks like I can use it on the other models.

If anyone has spare plastic rider legs from the old Orc regiment box please let me know as I will need some to get a nice sized unit of these done.

Belated Spider Riders

I finished these models a while ago but I forgot to post them here. I am really glad I got them finished as I was not enjoying painting them. I can't say that they were particularly hard to do but they just took so long I got bored. I had intended doing ten or twelve of these but five was the limit. I left the rest of them in Hamburg when I came to Finland. I can revisit the regiment at a later date. I have doubts as to their effectiveness in the game. They are too vulnerable to panic tests, especially small regiments. Also they tend to operate away from the general or battle standard bearer so they can't use their benefits. The biggest problem for a fast mobile and useful regiment of light cavalry such as these is the fact that at least one turn of a standard game they will be sitting around doing nothing due to animosity. I don't know if this is really reflected in the points cost of the regiment. Once I get the rest of them painted up I can test them in a few games and see if they really are worth it. I do have forty of these models and so I could do a rather large single unit. I doubt I would punish myself with that though.

A third of the way done

There would seem to be a lot more Night Goblins in my army in comparison to Orcs. I have brough sixty spearmen with me and now I am almost a third of the way through the regiment. Not bad going for ten days painting. I have absolutely no basing materials so I can't do anything more a this stage with the bases. Having the models done is of paramount importance and as I won't be gaming with them anytime soon I don't have to worry. Hopefully I can keep the pace up over the coming few weeks and knock out the entire regiment before Christmas. I am slowly getting tempted to just continue with Night Goblins and get a large army of them done. It would involve buying and converting a fair few models so we shall see if I get really motivated to do it, I doubt it.

Finland, Finland, Finland

I have just moved to Finland. A new opportunity for work arose and I went for it. At the moment absolutely no gaming is happening. Not only do I not have any time but I really didn't bring anything with me. The best I can expect is a few board games or some games on VASSAL. I did however pack a few paints, brushes and models. I even managed to unpack them last night and start some painting. I only brough a few models, sixty Night Goblins and thirty something Savage Orcs. They should keep me busy during the long dark evenings here. I will actually be heading home to Ireland for Christmas so if needed I can restock my painting inventory from the leadpile there. I believe there is a Wyvern, Snotlings by the score, spear weilding Orcs and Golfags Ogres there that I would like to get painted eventually. As it will be late spring before a restock opportunity presents itself I guess I will be bringing back quite a lot of stuff.

Spider Riders still

Finally some progress on these has been made. I don't think I really like these models much but as I paint them and assemble the regiment they are starting to grow on me. Though I think everyone experiences that as they paint the large regiments in Warhammer these days. Painting the spiders is a chore. I am not sure if it is the sheer volume of the model, the fact I have had to convert almost every spider or that they just take time to do. I like to see a lot of progress on my models and armies but these few seem to have been on the table far beyond their welcome. I had planned to have a regiment of twelve but that number has been slowly diminishing as I continue painting. Just getting five done would be enough I think. I am guessing that they function best in a regiment of twelve or so as they need to outnumber the other light cavalry they will be hunting orat least holding up as long as as is possible considering their quality. The plan for these is to have them operating on a flank where they can intercept light cavalry and hopefully hold them off long enough for them to have little effect on the battle or to drive them off due to the fact that this unit can absorb a few casualties unlike other more expensive light cavalry units. They can also function to hunt down warmachines even though they will be less effective at this. They will probably just occupy the machine for a few turns.

Night Goblin Shaman

While I should have been painting some Spider Riders I instead got distracted with the Battle for Skull Pass Shaman. I don't have much painting time, less than the last time I made the same complaint but I am making some very slow progress on this army. I have recently been browsing the Give'em Lead blog and there have been a few excerpts from old White Dwarfs there. Some of these were fairly influential to me back in the day especially the Stillmania articles. Having read through them I am determined even more than ever to get this army done. I doubt I will hit my christmas deadline but I will make a fair stab at it. Nigel mentioned building the army in blocks or detachments and I will do the same. The first is a 1000pt detachment of Night Goblins. I will stick with the standard force percentages so that it can easily slot into any further developments of the army.

Basically while waiting for washes and glazes to dry on the Spider Riders I managed to complete the shaman. The Spider Riders are easy enough to paint but they can take a while to dry. I found that once I had progressed about half way with Shaman I had the momentum to complete him and so I pushed the Spider Riders to the side. The base needs to be completed much like the rest of the army but that can be done at a later date. I went with a red colour on the staff puppet thing as I thought it would offer a nice contrast to the green. Whie it is fine I don't think it had the effect I wanted. I have two more of these models and I intend eventually to convert them and paint them as a coven to use in a larger battle at some future time. The models are going to be tough to convert but it should be possible.

Forest Goblin Test

Here is my test Forest Goblin, I even managed to do the base. I am not 100% convinced yet on the basing. It is more or less what I usually do but so far so good, eh? As for the model itself I am happy. The green is the same as the Night Goblins. With so much skin exposed it takes a little more concentration to get it looking correct. I went with a neutral scheme overall and avoided too many bright or vibrant colours. The white and black feathers look more natural than say yellow or blue. They still offer a contrast point but don't clash at all. The shield was annoying to paint and I think I shall have to redo it again. The spider motif is poorly defined and as such is hard to paint without it looking like a dark blob. As for the spider mount I stayed with neutral enough colours. The red in the legs and the carapace isn't very vibrant and serves to define the legs a little better. So the first one is done, now to get the next nine finished too.

Horrible Spiders

I think the weirdest thing about the Forest Goblin Spider Rider's mount is that at a distance of two or so feet in a darkened room they look all too convincing.

However I managed to get forty of these models I don't know. Even though it would look awesome on the table I doubt I would ever be that crazy to do it. I will be converting the Spiders in this regiment of ten at least though there are limits to what I can do with the single piece models. Three of the four here have had their legs repositioned. I haven't as yet greenstuffed the joints as I can't find my greenstuff. The difficulty is that when I reposition them they stop ranking up properly. The picture doesn't quite pick it up here. I checked out Psychosis Pc's pictures of his nicely converted Spider Riders and I may get brave and attempt something similar. The miniatures are rather tiny though so I will be limited in what my meagre skills. I would like to try a few feather cloaks though. I guess if you can manage one feather a cloak can't be too much harder right?

Night Goblins done... for now

I finally managed to finish my second regiment of Night Goblins. I manage to snatch about half an hours painting every evening after work and some longer stretches at the weekends. These thirty were easy enough to paint too as the models while excellent are rather simple. There is no extraneous details that need to be painted. I often wonder why Orcs and their ilk need so many pouches when going to battle, what exactly are they carrying?

I want to take a break from Night Goblins for the moment. I don't want to start into the next regiment of sixty spears and end up getting bored or annoyed halfway through. I think that will be my next unit taken from the pile. Its sheer size will be impressive even if I doubt that their performance will be. I have no idea what the new book will bring but I guess Goblins will remain cheap. So instead of a massive horde I am moving on to some Forest Goblins. I used to have an infantry regiment of these once upon a time. I have no clue where they ended up. Now I have forty Spider Riders and I would like to get some of them painted. A regiment of forty would look cool on the table but it might be a little excessive. I am going to convert them a little and I think ten is enough.

Yet More Night Goblins

I am slowly working on my Night Goblin Arrer Boyz at the moment. Work is once again busy and combined with good weather and a few beer festivals I am supplying I really don't have as much time as I would like. I do get to squeeze in about an hour a day however and that allows me to make some progress on the goblins. I don't go into too much detail with them and if I paint six at a time I can usually get one thing done before I have to stop. The face/skin takes the most effort but it is worth it as the most distinctive piece on the model. I have another eighteen to go but with some luck I will have made a decent dent in them by next week. I will have to get back to painting orcs soon. The problem is that they take much longer to do and I can't easily carve out more than an hour a day. To get through four orcs I would need about two hours for each element and a good block of time to get the skin done in one go. I have lots more Goblins to paint but I wouldn't mind taking a break from them at this stage

Nasty Night Goblins

I finally finished the last model in this horde. Forty night goblins can take a while to paint. I would definitely like to have a few more in this regiment but I currently don't have the models. I have a few hundred spear armed models but they aren't that easy to convert into hand weapon armed goblins. I think forty of these are viable as a flanking unit in the current edition of Warhammer. I will be backing them up with some archers eventually too. I have quite a few of them also. I think I ended up with upwards of four sets of Battle for Skull Pass and a few extras too. It is good to be finally doing something with them.



I still have to make sure that I didn't miss any detail on these goblins. There is always something left out I find. I also need to decide what I am doing with their bases. I think I will add tufts, autumnal ones and a few leaves. I would like something distinctive on the bases though and I am not really sure what. I like how the standard came out. I didn't pay enough attention to the check pattern but it is decent enough. The banner flares at the bottom and I didn't accommodate that correctly when lining the pattern in the first place. I was also worried that the moon wouldn't stand out enough but it does seem to.

Bonus Boss

I picked up a few Black Orcs recently on eBay. This miniature was included so I decided to paint him up as a break between the tedium of rank and file. I had to spend a lot of time cleaning him up as he hadn't arrived in a good shape. Mainly the arms needed repositioning and all the

mould lines had to be cleaned.

I painted him up to fit with the rest of boys. I intend making a set of shields similar to the one here for the rest of the orcs. They look really awesome. I saw an article on a blog about making them and it looked fairly simple. Basically just some plasticard as I have a rivet puncher that will work really well for rivets on the shields.

I just need to get the Night Goblins finished first. They are coming along slowly at the moment.  It is mainly the skin that takes the most time.

Night Goblins

I have absolutely no time at the moment for just about anything especially keeping this blog up to date. I have been slowly painting of an evening and here is the current WIP of my Night Goblins.

I am going to get my long neglected Orc and Goblin army together for an event at the end of the year. I am going very infantry heavy so I guess I am already behind schedule. I am  hoping to get another twenty or so of these Night Goblins done over the coming weeks and then I can get back to doing some Orc Boyz.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month Two

It is better late than never. I wasn't able to get to the internet until yesterday and so I couldn't update the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers. I have a few minutes this morning to get my stuff updated between various errands. So first of all I still haven't managed to pick up my starting box. Seemingly the weather in America has caused a delay to the European delivery and so nobody should have the new boxes yet. I am off this morning to an interview beside the gamestore and so I think I shoul be able to finally get McMourning. It does mean a lot of painting this month.

This month I won't be buying too much either as I have plans for months three and four maybe. The one thing that is essential in a McMourning crew is Flesh Constructs, you are either bringing them along anyway or summoning them with great rapidity. Therefore I really need to have a second and thankfully an alternative model comes out this month. I will be picking one of those up for sure. I am seriously tempted by a few more Canine Remains but as they haven't been released yet in plastic I am not too eager. I do want to wait until they are available. Sadly I haven't seen any rumours or confirmed releases so I shall simply continue to wait for those. That is quite annoying about Wyrd's releases. I have all the rules I need to play but I don't have the models. To make it worse I have to wait for the models. I am sure this will cost them a good few players in the long run.

Month Two

Alt. Flesh Construct $15

Monthly Total: $15

Remaining Total: $20

I am only spending fifteen dollars this month and with the ten dollars remaining already from last month, actually I have to check what the budget was, I will have a good warchest next month. I want to start focusing on alternative minions and enforcers so that I can explore McMourning a little more as I go through this project. His poison tricks are excellent but I think there are some other synergies to be exploited there. I will also have to gind a second opponent as I am very fearful of some of the abilities and tricks out there that I am not at all prepared for. I have never played Neverborn for instance and from what I hear they are quite good. Hopefully I can get what I am after soon and get to the painting.

Gathering the Clansmen

Looking at the collection of Dwarves I have I noticed that I have a lot of regiments that I wouldn't consider finished. I have for instance thirty three Clansmen. So with the current thoughts about Dwarves I decided to finish off a few of these regiments. Here are three Clansmen. They are relatively quick to paint and as I only need seven to finish the regiment I jumped in and got them done over a few hours. They are originally from a Batlle for Skull Pass. They are really simple and thankfully easy to paint.

Angry Anglo-Danes for SAGA

I had been attempting to get a few more models done for SAGA recently. The easiest way to increase a force is to paint some Huscarls. I painted these four in a rush to try and have them ready for last weeks eight point clash. Work intervened and I finally managed to finish them the other da. I kept the shields simple. I probably should have done some more elaborate designs but my heart wasn't in it and I left them plain enough. I have a huge amount of painting to get done and I didn't want to spend so much time on these. We are slowly, well truthfully I am being slow, gearing up for some Warhammer Ancient Battles here. I have at least one regiment more to do and I probably have to bulk out some of my existing regiments. I shall be playing the Anglo-Danes with some viking reinforcements. I haven't built a list in depth yet but I know I will be wanting a lot of Huscarls so I have to get through the ones I have here as soon as possible. I am also falling well behind on my French force for Muskets & Tomahawks. Too much painting too little time.

SAGA 8 points

I managed to finally get another Saga game in recently. This time at eight points. I wanted to test how the system worked once you increase the points value. This time extending it a third beyond its comfort zone. I was playing my Anglo-Danes and was facing off against a Norman force. Eight points of Normans looks huge as those horses can be really intimidating. I added a levy and eight warriors to my usual six points. I split the warriors amongst the three units I already had bulking them out considerably. I think this is a good way to go with larger point games. It doesn't increase your overall number of units and therefore stress your activation pool and yet it makes the game look much more impressive. The picture here is deployment. I concentrated in the centre while the Normans concentrated on the flanks.

The Flemish mercenaries in teh centre caused me massive headaches and lead to my downfall in the end. Once they had positioned themselves infront of my force there was nothing I could do but engage them. Every time I did I would suffer a lot of casualties and take a fatigue. Over three turns I bounced off them inflicting four casualties and recieving about twice that, including a large number of dead Huscarls.

Finally I sent my Warlord to deal with the Flemish and he easily wiped the remnant out. The Normans had completely swung around my army forcing my right flank into a complete retreat and as I had no resistance on the left the Normans that came that way were ready to pounce on the rear of my lines. I had my levy on the left and while they were effective I had used them against a smaller unit of Hearthguard rather than the more numerous warriors. My warlord was out in the middle relatively unsupported and in the end the cavalry proved too much and he died in the fourth turn thus ending the game.

As far as I can see eight points are fine to play SAGA with. The rules allow for a second we obey activation. We used this and it seemed fine. As I didn't really have any extra regiments it was a big benefit but I can see people who add two more in really needing it. We played Clash of Warlords as a scenario and as it is the most basic way to play it worked out fine. I would like to try some other scenarios at this size, especially the Ford, and see how it works.

Dwarven Expeditionary Force

I am bizarrely interested again in my dwarves as I have mentioned a few times. I have quite a few other projects going at the moment from SAGA , Malifaux, Warhammer Ancient Battles to Muskets & Tomahawks. I am being really ill-disciplined at the moment and my desk is overrun with models from a variety of sources. Usually I do manage to produce some finished models from this chaos but I also tend to wallow in the slow progress doing a little here and a little there and never making much progress by the end of a painting session. However I really want to get my dwarves updated to the current edition and while I won’t be playing them anytime soon I would like to be able to at least. The delay in getting my models for the Tale of Malifaux bloggers has thrown my schedule awry. I have a backlog to get to there. I can at least leave my French for the moment as I need my opponent to get more of his stuff finished before we will play.

I would like to get a themed dwarf list together and so I took out my 6th edition book which had a few themes in the back. I don’t think I ever actually used them back when the book was valid but they were decent guidelines towards having a theme. I would really enjoy seeing a few more of these being officially printed and supported. I do know what I want at least. I would like to represent a trade caravan bringing goods from the hold to either a trading post or a nearby Imperial town. The theme that suits that best from the sixth edition book is a guild expedition. That really doesn’t represent what I want as it is based too heavily around the Engineers Guild and relies very heavily on warmachines and shooting. Enough dwarf lists are based around that already. I want to have some shooting alright but something light weight that you could envisage transporting around and being quickly ready to use. I also want to have some stalwart dwarves scouting ahead of the main force.

Therefore I have gone with two Bolt Throwers. They are suboptimal I think in the current edition but they work fine within my restrictions. The chances to hit are relatively low as they will most likely be firing at long range and therefore incurring a minus one penalty. I think that between the two of them shooting a turn I have a 44% chance of hitting with one of them at long range. To include them however there would have to be someone to repair them on the march and so an engineer is required. I will make the model up out of some plastics I have spare from the Organ Gun sprue. He will be kit-bashed but I think it will look fine in the end. I haven’t as yet absorbed all of the possible options he can take so I haven’t begun any work on him yet. By including him and using his ballistic skill on one of the Bolt Throwers I increase the chance to hit with at least one to 61%. I am tempted to include a Stone Thrower too. I have the excellent old model which is wheeled and made of wood but I don’t think it fits in the theme. The two Bolt Throwers should be enough and I guess I can rune them up a little bit to help with their chances to hit and wound. I don’t think any of the other Warmachines fit either. However a Gyrocopter definitely does. At least this way the force can effectively scout over the most difficult of terrain and also keep in contact with the Hold over long distances. It also keeps the engineer busy repairing the inevitable battle damage. I only have one model but if I got a second cheaply I would add it in. The new model is ridiculous and I am glad I have the 3rd edition version. I don’t really like the 6th edition model either but it is by far better than the new one.

Speaking of scouting I can’t leave out my Rangers. I probably won’t take anything else from the rare section and these guys really fit the theme. They are out in advance ensuring the path is clear. I have forty of the Bugmans Ranger models and I want to use them. They are really characterful in my opinion. I will endeavor to get a scouting hero included in the unit though I haven’t seen a rune that allows that yet. These will form a large block in the army but they won’t really be guarding the wagons. I guess that my other two infantry blocks will have to do that. I will include thirty five Clansmen. I have the models to do a regiment composed of forty but that entails a good bit of painting so thirty five is enough at this early stage. I could do two units of twenty with full command but I doubt that would fit in the twenty five percent allowance. Accompanying them are the veterans of the expedition, twenty five Longbeards. I have them armed with great weapons. I could also add in some shields but I doubt they are worth the cost. These are meant to be an effective offensive force. I would be very tempted to add the Strollaz rune but to be honest they would most likely end up too far ahead of the rest of the army and relatively unsupported if I did that. I guess the Lord and battle standard bearer will go into this unit. Having them in the unit serves to force my opponent to engage with them as they will probably be worth a large proportion of my points. I am tempted to fill them out to a slightly larger size as a unit of twenty eight doesn’t look right deployed on the table. I guess it is my obsessive nature but the ranks need to be full at the start of the battle.

Looking at the rest of the list I don’t know where to go. I have a few different characters I can add and I haven’t decided on their equipment yet. Other than the ones already mentioned above I will add a runesmith, a lord and probably another hero level character. I am very tempted to add a wandering Dragon Slayer to the force. The models look excellent and are a good contrast to the rest of the army. I would like to get another block of troops in but I don’t really see anything else suitable at the moment. Another sizeable unit of warriors would be very nice. Hammerers, Miners, Slayers and Ironbreakers don’t fit the theme. I have some Thunderers but I think I have enough shooting already to deal with larger creatures, albeit somewhat unreliably. The rangers have enough shots to worry the ablative skirmishers and light cavalry threatening the flanks of the rest of the army. I am very tempted to add some allies from the Empire army. I imagine some spearmen looking very nice ranked up with the Dwarves. They would be interested in protecting the trade also and so could fit in the theme nicely. I don’t know if I have the models. I will have to dig through my collection and see what I do actually have. I don’t really see any other allies fitting in.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Mid-Month

I have only managed to play two games during the course of the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers. At least both of them have been with the assigned crew. My crew box hasn't arrived at the local store yet so there is going to be a lot of pressure to get it finished by the start of the next month. I would say there is a slim chance if the box is finally there on Thursday. At least I did get a start made with Rafkin. I am impressed as the white came out a lot better in this photograph than many others I have taken. Seemingly I am getting slightly better at the whole photography thing. The painting was farily straightforward. The model is simple and doesn't have too many details, my favourite type of miniature. He is still very characterful however. I kept the clothes in standard enough colour. I had intended to add some blood splatter but I can't be bothered now. The white came out well and I don't want to ruin it with improperly done blood effects.

I was wondering about using Rafkin in the crew. He seems to repeat a lot of abilities that the other members have and doesn't offer anything new. However a deeper look at the card shows some interesting possibilities. Firstly he is another poison vector. While that seems to simply repeat the theme but that is important. Your opponent has to fear anything that can cause poison as with the various abilities stacking it can result in six points of damage a turn. Secondly I have been using Rafkin to attack fairly powerful enemy pieces, Izamu mainly. With a point of poison placed on them with a 0 action you can charge for a single activation which allows a non-direct charge. That is great as it is hard to account for it when positioning a model. Once the opponent is poisoned Rafkin can dish out a lot of damage. His melee is decent and he has enough wounds to withstand some attention from the enemy. Thirdly even if Rafkin isn't in combat with a model he lasses on an extra point of damage within 6" which can really be the tipping point in a conflict. It is a different effect from Sebastian and McMourning and so it stacks nicely with them.

I haven't heard much disscussion on Rafkin and I find that strange. He seems to have been overlooked somewhat. I guess it is based on the fact that his abilities are very similar to others in the McMourning crew. I would suggest to evryone to try him out. I almost couldn't consider a crew without him.

Dwarf Longbeards revisited

You may recognise these models from a post a long time ago. Whatever the source of my current urge for Warhammer is I am unsure. However I took these models out of the cabinet and gave them some of the face masks that come on the sprue to make them destinctive from the standard warriors. I never really liked the idea of using them but now that I tried them out they are quite good. It should be enough, along with the white beards, to differentiate them for my opponent too. I like the new models but I don't fancy buying any. I have more than enough Dwarves to paint and I definitely don't need to add to the pile. So once again I have completed my Longbeards. I wonder will I update a few more models for the army?

Wayne Englands 4th edition Dwarves

Lord: Light Armour, Great Weapon, Crossbow, Magic Blade (50)	214
Hero: Light Armour, Shield, Magic Blade (25)	132
Hero: Heavy Armour, Shield	108
Master Runesmith:	178
Champion: Light Armour, Pistol	52
19 Longbeards: Full Command, Warbanner, shields.	370
19 Clansmen: Standard, Musician.	257
19 Warriors: Spears, Standard, Musician.	276
Bolt Thrower: Light Armour	60
Cannon: Light Armour	116
Flame Cannon: Light Armour	125

So I finally got some time to sit down and work out the list I mentioned in one of my previous posts. It has been a really long time since I had to make an army for fourth edition Warhammer. It took me a while to find out what the costs for command groups were and I had forgotten the fact that Champions were actually separate characters. So here is my fourth edition version of Wayne Englands Dwarves. I equated everything as much as I could. I swapped the Wizard for a Master Runesmith. This was rally the only change as Wwizards were dropped completely from the Dwarf fluff at this point, sadly in my opinion. I think there could still be a place for some low powered wizards in the list but restricted to something like the Lore of Metal. I am also unclear as to what the difference between Clansmen and Warriors are in 3rd edition. I assume it is more than just a different name. I was impressed that spears were possible still in fourth edition for Clansmen to take. I would love to have some spear armed Clansmen in this current edition. I also approximated the cost of the magic items as I don't know what they were in 3rd edition and I don't have the cards from fourth to hand to check what they are close to.

The points for the two lists came out fairly close with the 3rd edition being 1780 and fourth editions being just over a hundred points more at 1888. I am really eager to see how that translates into the next book an sixth edition. The army feels right for playing in fourth edition still and only lacks some ranged units I feel. I think though once I get around to the next three editions that the army is going to feel really small really quickly.

Compagnie Franches de la Marine

This is a WIP for my Compagnie Franches de la Marine for Muskets & Tomahawks. I picked some up at the Tactica fair here last weekend. I think I have enough for a 300pt game now. I just need to get painting. I am not investing too much effort into these as to get them to look good would take a lot of effort as white isn't the easiest to paint. The models are also not great. The standard historical standard which is poor. I am hoping that they will at least look good en-masse.

Ancient Dwarf Lord

It has been a busy week. Work has been overwhelming and I not only haven't been able to paint but I haven't been able to blog. However the dwarven urge has not left me and I pulled out one of my old unpainted models. This one definitely qualifies for Oldhammer as it is from 1991. It is really interesting to compare this model with the new characters. While this model is fine the new ones are really great. They are better detailed and more dynamic. Just look at Old Fogey's recent character. It not only sports a great paint job but the model is brilliant.

Wayne England's Dwarves

I think one of the main reasons I started collecting Dwarves was due to Wayne England's army previewed in White Dwarf 135 and 148. I could be wrong on the numbers but they are in the general area. The links will direct you to copies of the articles in question. I have had fairly strong memories of the article and when I seriously started collecting my Dwarves in about 1997 I even went as far to emulate the blue and white colour scheme. With the release of the new army book and the fact that all the Warhammer media are chatting about Dwarves at the moment I took out a few of the models I have in my large collection to look. There always has been a dwarf on my painting desk. It is never the same dwarf but I have never stopped painting the army. Infact I really have two armies. One in the blue and white scheme and one in a red and green scheme.I have been trying, over the last few months or maybe years, to decide if I have given up with Warhammer Fantasy or if I will continue playing. The Dwarves are my army and if I let this release go by, as I suspect I will, then I think I really have given up. Well by saying given up I refer to the playing rather than the painting. That would be sad as I really have had a lot of fun with good friends playing Warhammer over the years. I guess maybe as I am not in such good contact with these friends anymore that Warhammer has become the casualty of my move to Germany.I can't even say it is because the game is not good. It has never been good but that also never stopped me from enjoying playing it.

Today despite being sick I decided to paint something. That lone Dwarf on my desk was the target of my paintbrush. I snapped a quick photo with my phone of the gunner. It was a one hour paintjob and to be honest it came out pretty good. The model is a one piece affair though the detail is excellent. Once I had finished him I rummaged through my bits box and came up with another five to sit on my desk. I am very tempted to pull out a load of Dwarves and start painting them. I know I have huge amounts stockpiled somewhere. There are definitely about twenty more Bugman's Rangers somewhere and some of Colin Dixon's Miners too.

Listening to all the chats about Dwarves over the last few days returned an idea to me that might be an interesting exercise. I had intended to make a number of army lists that was the same in terms of content but came from each edition of Warhammer. I think it would be quite rewarding to start with Wayne Englands army and do that same list as it appeared in White Dwarf for each edition. I am really interested to see how it would work. Who knows maybe it can provide the spark to ignite my interest in the Dwarves again?

Canadian Militia

I have nailed my colours to the mast and they are white. Here are the first of my Canadian Militia for Muskets & Tomahawks. The models were a christmas gift from a friend. With all models I get that are gifts I try to paint them as soon as possible. There is little point in giving someone a gift if they don't or won't do anything with it. I have four more to go and they are at least base coated. I am going to go with a militia force at the start as I like the scenarios they usually play. I will have a smattering of various other models though and this depends on what is available at Tactica at the end of the month. I will probably pick up some stuff from Warlord games but I am eager to find some other interesting models I can use.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month One

So it begins.

There are a few supply issues it would seem in getting models not only to Europe but to Germany and so I am a little worried I won't be getting my first month models anytime soon. The game store has been informed at least and so I hope that once they are in I will get a message to tell me to come and pick them up. I am starting with the crew box of course. I choose McMourning simply because he is one of the original three Ressurectionist masters and I have the other two already. I think that is as good a reason as any. I also don't fancy the Ten Thunders dual faction Masters and Tara isn't available either. The choice was probably made for me. I was quite tempted by Tara but I am struggling to see with what I can build the original box contents. At the moment there are very few things that thematically fit with her, that I can see at least.

Month One

McMourning Crew box: $45 Rafkin: $10

Monthly total: $55

The crew box represents the biggest expenditure of the month. I had to go with what was available and suitable for the remainder of my budget. Rafkin was and I snapped him up. I haven't heard any chatter about him at all and that makes me wonder if he has been relegated to mediocrity. I guess in a crew that is already dealing a lot of poison why do you need more models that do the same. I suspect he is good in support of a less focused crew. He can then amplfy their poison abilities a little more. Still he fits in theme and so I am happy to have picked him up. I very much think I will be sick of painting white by the end of these six months. Especially if I pick up some regular Frenchies for my Muskets and Tomahawks army.

I have $10 left to bring forward to next month. That should hopefully allow me to pick up a few models extra and doesn't pack too much into this month. I am aiming to have everything painted within the time frames set for purchase so it shall be interesting to see if I can manage that. My first game with McMourning is on this Wednesday. I will play on Vassal as usual and I am looking forward to it.

Seamus - the Mad Hatter, the Joker and Jack the Ripper

I am still struggling with my camera. I guess I can't expect any better at this point. The photo is fairly poor but at least is conveys the colours for Seamus and his lady. As the model is essentially composed of two people I wanted to contrast them fairly strongly. I went with a rich skin tone for Seamus as he is at least alive. For his undead hooker I went with a really washed out pallid tone. I began her skin with Elf Flesh (GW) and highlighted with white. I started the skin on Seamus with Dwarf Flesh (GW) and highlighted with Bleached Bone (VJ). That kept his skin in a nice warm range. I highlighted everything on the hooker with white. The pink didn't come up to a light tone as quickly as I hoped it would and it is still fairly rosy. Her hair was bleached bone to start off with and I just highlighted with white. To contrast I kept the roots of the hair black, its a cheap dye job after all. I think this worked out fairly well but next time I would go for a dark brown I think. I want to start working a little more with the tone of the colours I am using and models like this are a great place to start. I do have the McMourning crew to paint soon and they feature a lot of whites being essentially morgue assistants or undead constructs. These will be annoying as hell to photograph but should be fun to paint at least.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month Zero

I was listening to a recent podcast about Malifaux called Malifools. They mentioned that they were organising a Tale of Four Gamers style project where people would buy and paint a decent sized set of Malifaux models over the next six months. If you don't know the famous Tale of Four Gamers it is an old and excellent series in White Dwarf where four gamers were given a monthly budget and with that they had to eventually collect and paint a new army. I heartily jumped in and I believe Owen, my regular Vassal opponent from Farfarawy.org, is going to take part also. I will be collecting a McMourning crew for this, so far I am the only one to have selected him. I was picking up the crew box anyway so it was quite serendipitous. The first post is on the 17th of this month and hopefully the local store has the models in by then.

Wargames Building Pt. 4

I am making really slow progress on this building due to not really having all the material I need. Today I picked up some thinner balsa and I was able to get the tiles done on the veranda roof. I measured them all out at 1cm intervals but due to the difficulty of keeping them all aligned there is a good bit of variability in them which is fine. I glued a sheet of paper down and I added the tiles on top of this. I also added the first section of the removable roof. To make any more progress I need to get this building based. I will go on the hunt tomorrow for some plasticard. Hopefully I can find some that's at a decent price.

Wargames Building pt. 3

After many hours of cutting and gluing here is the result. This part of the building is the easiest as there really isn't anything complicated to do. The windows aren't finished yet in the back. I have to let the glue dry a little more before I can get some wood in there for the frames. I haven't figured out how I am going to join the stone chimney which is fairly irregular to the rest of the structure without leaving a lot of gaps. I am hoping it won't prove too difficult. I also need to pick up some thinner wood as the thickness I am currently using isn't right for the tiles. I need a thickness of about .5mm and I have one of 1.5mm. Hopefully one of the cafes around here has some coffee stirrers that are the right size.

Lots of Trees

I have been busily building more trees. I really want to get a good few of these done as they look excellent, especially en masse. I have another fourteen to do here in Hamburg still and twelve I intend to bring back from Ireland next time I am home. Thirty six to forty eight of these spread around a board is probably a little too much but I am figuring that especially with Malifaux which uses a 3'x3' board the extras can serve as dressing along one side. I had considered building a small cliff face to go down one side and while I still might it would be annoying to store.

Wargames Building pt.2

I took a while to figure out what I would use to build the chimney section of the building. I finally settled with some air drying modelling clay. I usually don't like the stuff and for this type of building it really isn't that good. However as I had nothing else I just went with it. The problem is that it dries and shrinks. I couldn't really glue it before it dried and so it was likely to fall apart once I started doing anything with it. To over some this I added some reinforcing wire into the corners. I built the entire chimney in four sections and joined them together once everything was dry. Using the plan from the last post I could maintain the scale I wanted despite working in four sections at once.

Once each section was close to dry I painted the joins with a coloured watered down PVA glue. This gave enough support that once everything was 100% dry I could apply a stronger glue. I only had one or two problems where the bricks I had made weren't glued but I could get them back into place easily enough. Again once this was done I got busy filling the tiny gaps in. There were loads. The clay shrinks a lot and so I added in small stones to cover the holes left behind. As these were small the dried really quickly and so by the time I was finished the last face I could already glue the ones into the first face. I covered everything in a dark brown paint at this stage and also sprayed some black up through the centre so that the white of the clay was no longer showing. When these coats were dry I used a thick gloss varnish to hopefully prevent the inevitable chipping from coming up with the original white. I guess the building shouldn't recieve too much wear and tear. I don't play at home that often. However the removable roof will probably cause some wearing so the gloss varnish is a good way to try to stop that.

Here is the chimney finished. It looks a little more grey in the photos than in actuality. I went with a few colours for the base coat, mainly a very dark brown. I added some grey to this and then highlighted with some Bleached Bone (GW) additions. I washed it with a little green in places and then some dark brown to bring out a little of the texture. As you can see in the profile as I went on with the building the stones got smaller and thinner. It is definitely something I would do if I was to repeat the process. The larger squared stones don't look as good as the thinner ones. I tried to mix the sizes but I could definitely have done with using more of the smaller ones. I will eventually have to build a second building in the same size for Muskets & Tomahawks. The game demands them and the minimum number is two. I was half thinking of building it completely in stone but that would take too long. I might use this technique to do the lower floor in stone and then the top half in wood. Using small thin stones I think I could get it to look quite good. Now I have to start building the rest of the house.

Wargames Buildings pt.1

I have been building a few buildings recently and I thought I might show a step by step of exactly the process I use when building them. I don't tend to get too complicated with what I do. Mostly I rely on the lessons learned from an old White Dwarf article from issue 130. I don't know if many of you will remember that exact issue but it thought me the basics of constructing a building. Despite searching I can't find a picture of the cottage.

To begin with I usually construct a single wall of the building. Once I get to this point I realise that I need a plan and so I start sketching ideas. For this building I want it to be primarily used for Muskets & Tomahawks but I would like to be able to use it for other systems. I knew then that I would be going for a French Indian Wars style with a wooden veranda and stone chimney stack. This picture from 4ground buildings is an excellent example of what I want to build. They also have some interesting information on styles of building in this period so they were an invaluable resource when it came to doing this project. There must be a good book on the subject but I can't find it. Now that I know what I should be doing I can get busy cutting the balsa to make the rest of the walls.

Another Kid

The two Crooligans for Malifaux have been fun to paint. I still have one left but I donÄt like the model and it has languished on my desk being steadily pushed back behind other models. It may get done eventually. I have some Dead Doxies, Seamus and potentially the new McMourning box to do and I am far more eager to paint them than the last Crooligan. For this model like the last I kept the scheme very dark with a few light areas to break up the model. I think this photo catches the subtle colour differences in the darker shades I was using. These definitely aren't something that you will notice from across the board but they were fun to do. Skirmish games allow you to paint models in a style like this whereas the larger battle games don't. A Warhammer Fantasy regiment painted like this would like like a black blob on the tabletop.

Poor Molly

I am jumping around a bit in what I have been painting recently. I managed to get Molly done despite having loads of other close to finished models. I had been expecting a game and so I wanted to get her finished however the game was cancelled. Eventually I will get a Malifaux game played locally. I painted her fairly closely to the picture on the box. I wanted a stronf scheme so I went with two contrasting colours in blue and orange. The skirt seemed to take forever to paint. I don't know what I was doing but hours later I still wasn't finished. I really don't think the effect was worth the time but well it is done now so I won't complain. I used the old Macharius Solar Orange (GW) as I had that sitting around and it was the only orange left that wasn't completely dried up. I don't use the colour often.

I went really pale with the skin almost to white. I also just left the orbs of the eyes white. It is quite an effective effect and one I will defnitely do again in the future. I generally always use something similar to Bleached Bone (GW) as my highlight colour but using white has given me some interesting results on the malifaux stuff. I shall definitely consider using it more often. I do still have the base to finish here. I had started to sculpt a teddy bear for it and maybe I will get it finished soon enough. I also had some playing cards painted to scatter on there but I seem to have thrown out the piece of paper I had them painted on during a recent clean up so I have to redo those. It is definitely a message to remind me not to clean my desk: embrace the mess.

Stomp, Stomp, Stomp

As a break I started painting these Stompers. Aas far as I remember they constitute a complete formation in the game. I have never used them so I am unsure. There has been a lively showing of photographs on the Epic:Armageddon facebook site. That got me in the mood to paint these. I thought they would be quick enough to do rather than a formation. However these ended up taking longer than I anticipated. I did cut some corners when doing them but the object was to get a break from painting my Malifaux stuff rather than learning a new technique. I hope you like them?

An Endless Horde of Mindless Zombies

I finally managed to paint the last of the Mindless Zombies. I have thankfully been managing to keep up the painting and I have a few models just about ready. I painted this guy quickly as I was uninspired to do anything special. It is a zombie in a suit I really didn't think there was much more to do than what I did. The suit is dark and I kept the skin and waistcoat light for some contrast. It was quick and easy unlike a few other models in the range. I have only been playing online via Vassal. The game isn't really popular here in Germany and I attribute that to the fact that the rules are only available in English. Warmachine has German rules and as such it is gaining in popularity for the last two years. People don't want to have to struggle with the rules so when they are in a different language they don't see the point in bothering. I can understand that 100%.

Lost in the Bogs

Since my recent game of SAGA at home I have been building some terrain. During the game we talked about eventually recreating the Battle of Hastings but that we would need some boggy terrain for it. I had been thinking about creating some so a while. Most swamp terrain for wargames is based on the american bayou rather than bogs or marshes. I think the swamp terrain is fine but often it looks more like a pool than anything else. With that in mind I set about a test piece creating a bog somewhat similar to that I used to live near.The dominant thing I remember was the broken nature of the ground with thin but deep cracks everywhere. The ground was actually higher than the dry areas around it as the water it contained caused it to swell. Heather was the dominant plant at least in terms of coverage. There was not really much water pooled everywhere but this was due to the fact that the bog was worked and drained in the main places I could access.

I tried to incorporate all of the above in the piece you see here. I used a CD as a base asI don't currently have better basing material. Using wood on this would have made it way too tall in the end. The CD is a perfect thinness for basing and I have used them fairly often before. I put some air drying modelling clay on top of this. I sculpted it with some texture tools I have made. This gives a nice rough texture to the clay and visually separates it from the normal sand flocked surface. It also serves to raise the surface gently. Painting was simple, a layer of black and then some dark browns over the top. I added a few pools to the piece to indicate that it is a water feature. These aren't finished yet but I used a high quality gloss varnish to fill them. It is a slow process as I can only add a very thin layer at a time. For finishing the piece I added various plants. In the light of the photograph these are quite bright but generally they don't look quite so stark. A few grass tufts to break up the flock worked perfectly and with that the piece was finished.

I am happy with how it came out. I would like to get one or two other plants to add to the piece. Maybe a flower tuft or something in that direction. I can't really use a plant similar to heather despite the fact that I have figured out how to make them. It wold be impossible to move miniatures onto the piece with them there and making them removable would be too much of a headache.

Lost Lonely Undead Children

I have been slowly painting the Horrors starter box for Malifaux. I have been distracted by Torchlight coming out for free on steam. Yesterday I resisted the temptation to play and got one of the Crooligans finished.I went with a really dark scheme similar to what is shown on the box. It isn't executed with quite as much skill but I think it came out really well. By keeping certain elements of the miniature really bright and light there is a lot of contrast and the model doesn't look too dull and dark. The miniature is really detailed especially for its size. These represent lost undead children from the little I know of the background of the game. The miniatures are true enough to scale and so these are a good bit more delicate in detail than what I am used to painting. I have a second one just about done too and I will have some pictures soon.

More Trees

With the recent games at my house I noticed I am missing a few standard terrain pieces. Having moved from Ireland I left a lot of what I had behind and that included the rather difficult to transport collection of trees I have. I have two small trees here that I use as part of a spell template for Hordes. So with that in mind I sat down and started to put together some of the pieces I have here. They are Woodland Scenics frames with their weird sponge cover stuff added. Foliage is probably the name but I am not sure. Anyway These actually take some time to put together but they are worth it. There are few relatively cheap trees on the market that look this good. Back in Ireland I have two full packets of the largest trees put together and I guess I will have to bring them back here once I get the chance.

I base these for the moment on individual flying bases from GW. I don't think these are available anymore so I will eventually have to swap to something else. I sculpted some rocks on these ones so that they are a little less plain looking. A few plants in the form of various flocks and even a sapling makes up the rest of the added detail. I usually then put these down onto another base that denotes the edge of the forest so that the tres can be moved around as much as is needed during battle. I have a good few more of these to get through and I need to get some more foliage stuff. I prefer the lighter coloured one and hopefully I can find it here easily enough. I guess one of the train shops should have some Woodland Scenic stock. I am also working on some relatively simple boggy ground. I will hopefully get that finished over the weekend so I can post it here on Monday.