The hobby A.D.D. it never really goes away....

I've referenced Hobby A.D.D. before and although I generally feel like I get quite a lot of stuff done there are periods where my attention span won't stay on one thing and I keep changing gears and starting new projects without finishing old ones.
So with that insight in mind I'd like to share the 5 hobby projects I started over the past 3 days, none of which are completed yet.

Cowboys!

I've been talking for awhile about getting some new cowboys done.  I got my grubby hands on Dracula's America and even though I have a decent amount of stuff done from my recent binge of Warhammer Legends Of The Old West I can't bring myself to play a new game without adding at least some new figures.  These guys are the Earp (or Tombstone I forget the actual name) pack by Black Scorpion.

Orcs!

As part of my recent retro/nostalgia-gaming fix I got some of the Orcs by Antediluvian Miniatures.  These guys immediately take me back to Saturday mornings in the early 80s.  I think my gift to myself when I get all 5 of these projects done will be to get myself another pack or two of Antediluvian Miniatures.

Venger!

Those Orcs need a boss, right?  I might be one of the few people of my generation who could never really embrace Optimus Prime as a noble hero because every time he opens his mouth to speak I hear Venger's voice.  Venger was the chief villain of the animated D&D series in the 80s and still holds up really well as a cool fantasy evil villain.

Frostgrave!

I'm planning a long overdue return to Felstad and much like the cowboys I probably don't need to paint new figures but I just wouldn't be me if I rolled up with the same-old-same-old.  The actual driver for starting these was digging through my unpainted fantasy figures looking for a knight with two-handed sword to try the free print-and-play intro rules for Relic Blade with my newly painted pigmen.

Survivors!

Almost a year ago I ordered a bunch of packs of modern/near-future survivor models with the intention of using them for This Is Not A Test as well as Last Days.  Unfortunately my experience in purchasing these models was not 'free of hassles' and when they finally arrived I had lost any and all enthusiasm I had for them.  (This was one of the customer service things I was up on a soapbox about earlier this year.)  It has literally taken me an entire year to even look at these miniatures again but once I picked them up I decided I really did want to get paint on them.  Oddly enough it wasn't until I looked at them up close I even realised who they were supposed to be.  I had ordered them thinking they would make good pseudo Division-style trained survivors but then when I cleaned and primed them I realised they are actually the two leads from Stargate SG-1.

Well there you have it.  Nothing done, but a bunch of projects that are each one sit-down away from completion.

-Jay

For The Watch!

I took a break from the Lannisters to get a couple more Nights Watch figures done from Darksword's Game Of Thrones line.

These are two of their "tribute" sculpts, which is basically Darksword putting their sculptors into the world of Game Of Thrones (which I think is an awesome idea).

The smaller guy in the mail shirt with a sword and dagger is their Kev tribute while the bigger dude with the axe if their Tre tribute.
I can picture tons of uses for these two figures.  Side-by-side they give off a very Fafhrd & Grey Mouser feel.  I also like the fact that the Tre figure has a loaded backpack and bedroll as one of the things I personally find lacking in a lot of RPG 'adventurer' figures is their actual gear and stowage.  I'm hoping to actually use the Tre figure as my own character model in an upcoming game.
Night Watch figs are also great for Frostgrave as they are all typically attired in warmer clothes with heavier gloves and boots.

....now I just need to paint something that photographs a bit better than guys in 3 different shades of black...

-Jay

Happy Father's Day!

Happy father's day from one of fantasy fiction's most infamous fathers; Tywin Lannister!

Tywin is the Lannister family patriarch in Game Of Thrones and definitely steers his family down their respective paths through the first half of the series.

In addition to Jaime and Cersi, Tywin is also father to Tyrion Lannister, known colloquially as "The Imp".

I've got to admit that even though he's not a character you're supposed to like I really enjoyed Tywin and in particular Charles Dance's portrayal of him on the show.  In spite of the fact that you know he's a bad guy there are moments where you can't help but respect him.

And look at it it this way; at least he's not Denethor.

-Jay

Sandor "The Hound" Clegane

While I was waiting for some washes and basing material to dry on my next 4 Arbites I was able to crank out another Game Of Thrones model; Sandor Clegane.

As I've referenced before one of the things I like about Game Of Thrones is that a lot of the heroic characters are flawed and a lot of the villainous characters have redeeming quality.  At this point I'm honestly not sure which of those two categories The Hound fits into.  During the first season he does some pretty terrible things (he's on the GoT list of child murderers) but by the sixth season hes trying to be a better person (although still violent and profane).

My favourite feature of this model is that is actually comes with 3 separate heads.  The first is a bare head showing Sandor's scars, the second is wearing his helmet with his visor up, and the third is the one I used where his helmet is on with the face-plate down.

I liked this option the most as it was the most unique and sinister looking.  I also figured if I wanted him to be a nameless/faceless nemesis in a future RPG that helmet is pretty intimidating.

Okay, my Arbites look dry, back to work.

-Jay

Let the D&D experiment begin!

I've decided to give something a try based on a combination of nostalgia and some conversations I've had with friends about gaming (D&D specifically) over the past few weeks.

One of the features of the new/current editions of D&D is that the rules are open, simple and flexible enough that they seem to allow material from any previous edition of the game to be used with little to no adaption being necessary.  I thought this sounded great, and when I look at it it seems correct but I haven't really tried it.  I'm run a few adventures using the current rules but they've either been things I've written using the current rules or a published adventure.  I even dug out a few older modules thinking they'd by fun but then got distracted by Tales From The Yawning Portal taking two of those adventures and updating them to the current rules anyway.

So, I've decided to take the current rules, make a character and play through some old (not older, truly old) published SOLO D&D adventures and see how that works.  The biggest change I'm anticipating making is updating the monsters to use their current versions so that every successful attack from my character isn't an instant death blow to an old school 1HD monster.

I built my character (Konnor) with some insight and planning into what my first 3 adventures will be.  To that end rather than being statically primed I made his background fit the first adventure and set him up to be able to multi-class as I need for subsequent adventures as old school solo modules were typically written with a specific class or group of classes in mind.

So without any further ado let's meet Konnor!

Also, because it's me even though I'll be playing solo I had to paint an miniature.

The miniature is one of Darksword's modular Knight Watch soldiers and he fit perfectly for what I needed.  For my first adventure I needed an unarmoured warrior with a sword and shield (that's harder to find than I thought).

My first adventure will be "Rogue Mage" which was written by Graeme Davis and published way back in Warlock Magazine (the official Fighting Fantasy magazine).  What seems great and different about Rogue Mage is that it was written to use either the Fighting Fantasy gamebook rules system or D&D Basic edition with a 1st level fighter character.

I'm excited to try this out and will have a follow up on Konnor's first adventure later this week!

-Jay

More Game Of Thrones characters

Coming out of GAMA it was announced that a Song Of Ice And Fire miniatures game was on the way (which I am super excited for!).  I've been using some of Darksword Miniatures' figures for my RPGs and Frostgrave so it was the trigger for me to get a couple more out and get them done up.

One of the things I really like about Game Of Thrones is that the characters feel a lot more 'lived in' than traditional fantasy.  Heroes are often highly flawed and villains are not without their redeeming qualities.  This is typified by one of my favourite characters on the show; Jaime Lannister.

When we are introduced to Jaime Lannister three fact get established very early on:
1.  He stabbed the last king in the back (literally) thus earning him the nickname "Kingslayer".
2.  He is in an unbelievably inappropriate relationship with his own sister.
3.  He ends the first episode by attempting to murder a child.
So that in addition to being an arrogant bully mark him out as probably one of the villains of the show.  As the story progresses Jaime falls more into an anti-hero role and in later seasons definitely comes across as a man with his own code of honour who can be trusted to act within the bounds of that code.

On another part of the Game Of Thrones moral spectrum is Bronn.

Bronn is a sellsword who comes into Tyrion Lannister's service early in the show and although he is clearly an amoral murderer who will do just about anything for money he seems at times to have a certain amount of loyalty.  To be honest my main driver for painting Bronn had little to do with the show or fandom and was more driven by the fact that I needed a new low-level classic human fighter for D&D and this figure fit the bill perfectly.

I've really enjoyed an appreciated the Darksword Miniatures I've painted so far and I can't wiat to get my hands on an actual miniatures game meant to use them.

-Jay

Some ramage to carry you through until next weeek

Most of my painting this past week is staying under wraps until the players in my Ravenloft game get started in a few weeks.

Having said that I did manage to wrap up a couple of figures that have been hanging out on my desk half-done for about a month or so.

First up Jon Snow from Darksword miniatures.  I haven't decided exactly what to use Jon Snow as yet and to be perfectly honest I wasn't as excited about him as I was about his pal Samwell earlier.

Jon is a perfectly adequate fantasy fighter/ranger/maybe-rogue miniature but there's nothing about the figure that truly jumps out at me.  Part of it might be the colour-scheme, but if he's a member of the Night's Watch there's not going to be much variation on that.

Next up is a Flesh Golem for Frostgrave.

This figure is also pretty basic but in this case that worked really well for me.  In the past every type of flesh golem figure I have gotten has either been monstrously large or overdone for my taste.  This one is a lot more basic which should work for me in multiple games.

I'm hoping before the weekend is out to finish two player character models that I can show for my game and possibly the count himself (hey, if he's on the module cover they can't exactly be surprised when he shows up).

-Jay

And now my watch begins

In researching fantasy figures both for Frostgrave and D&D I came across Darksword Miniatures.  I'm a bit surprised I had never seen these before as they have a ton of figures inspired by the artwork of a lot of the old-school TSR artists.  Their other offer is a line of figures for the various characters from George R.R. Martin's Song Of Fire And Ice series.

I only recently started watching Game Of Thrones but I've been really enjoying it so I decided to order a few models to use where I could.  They seem like they will fit great with Frostgrave and should make good models for D&D.  I'm planning on running a Ravenloft game next month and the men of the Night's Watch in particular seemed like they would make good fits.

I decided to start with one of my favourite characters from the show Samwell Tarley.  Sam is the son of a minor noble who's father has always hated him for being fat and weak and not much good at any fighting skills.  Within 5 minutes of Sam's introduction on the show he has confessed to his new companions that he is a coward after taking a one-sided beating during a fight with practise swords.  What's great about Sam though is that he's smart and loyal and when the pressure is on he finds out he's not really a coward at all.

What I really like about this figure is that he's different from most traditional fantasy figures.  He's obviously overweight and doesn't cut a particularly dashing figure, but having said that he's not catoonishly obese of comical looking.  It's always great when you can find figures that look like 'real' people and not just high fantasy artwork.

I took a few liberties with my colour choices on Samwell.  When a man joins the Night's Watch it is traditionally referred to as "taking the black" as the Night's Watch dresses head to toe in black.  I've had a lot of experience lately with how washed out and incomplete that looks so  I decided to paint his tunic and breeches a flat green and then give them multiple thin black washes so that his clothes are almost black but still show some colour.  His dagger is also a shard of Dragonglass (obsidian) but once again I didn't want the figure to be be 100% glass so I painted it a bit more like traditional glass.

In addition to Sam a couple of days ago I finished a Mantic Zombie Troll for Frostgrave.

This unfriendly looking guy will be used for the next scenario for Thaw Of The Lichlord and then may also make an appearance in a D&D game at some point in the near future.

That's it for now.  A few more baddies for Frostgrave coming soon and I need to get started on my models for our Ravenloft game.

-Jay