Et tu Albino Rat?

Finished one more rat for Zoe's Animal Adventures game last night.  This time I guess he's a 'boss rat'.

This is another rat from the Malifaux/Through The Breech Brotherhood Of The Rat box set.  Although he's the same size as the other rats he's posed up on his hind legs which I felt made him stand out (no pun intended) more.  I really like the pose on the model and I feel like he'll be a memorable character based largely on that alone.

In addition to the endless parade of rats I also started on some undead for future Animal Adventures outings.

These little guys are one of the extra bits that comes on the Mantic King Of War skeleton sprues.  I thought I had a ton of these but so far have only been able to dig up two.

And please remember that these miniatures and many more are available from your Friendly Local Game Store.

-Jay

Rats!

I can now officially say I'm past the half-way point of getting models done for Zoe's Animal Adventures game!

Her PC and 3 NPCs were all finished by my the time I published my last post and that just left me with 11 models worth of baddies to paint.

I needed a half-dozen rats as they are among the principal antagonists of the early Animal Adventure modules.

These particular rats came from a box set that was a dual purpose Malifaux/Through The Breech scenario pack entitled 'Brotherhood Of The Rat'.  These guys are getting done first but 4 of the remaining 6 figures from that box should feature in an upcoming game for me as well.

Obviously I went really basic on the paint jobs on these guys but I think they're certainly adequate and should provide some suitably scummy opposition for Zoe's heroic dog adventuring party.

Somehow I've gone from getting to play virtually no D&D since the start of the year to having two different games scheduled for this coming week...but more on that shortly.

And please remember these figures along with everything else you need to go adventuring from the comfort of your own home are all available from your Friendly Local Game Store!

-Jay

Satanic Panic 2019 edition (sorry, not sorry)

This is a follow up to my post from yesterday (mild spoilers for Winter's Splendor ahead).

For Winter's Splendor I needed some fairly northern/wintery themed monsters which for the most part I already had, I won't list or show them for fear of ruining the impact of their potential appearance.

I did however need 2 new miniatures, 1 of which I had meant to add to my collection for sometime and 1 of which I ended up compromising on because I couldn't find anything quite right.  In addition to it's wintery creatures Winter's Splendor features some fiends to pop up and challenge the players.

The smaller of my two fiends is my stand-in for one of the Imps.  I like this miniature (it's from the WizKids pre-painted line of young adventurers and animal companions) and his mischievous grin suited my Imp quite well.  But...he's actually meant to be the Imp from the front cover of the module, which if you haven't seen it is an Imp in a Nutcracker costume.  What struck me as odd was that I was prepping to run this adventure in the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas and I couldn't find a small enough Nutcracker toy ANYWHERE.  I had something like a Kinder Surprise toy in mind but just couldn't find anything suitably Imp-sized.  If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them, even though I've already run the adventure it now feels like a model that's 'missing' from my collection.

The larger fiend is one of the Nephilim models from Malifaux.  Historically my D&D games have not included a lot of demons and devils so I've never needed miniatures for them but in the last year I've run 2 published adventures that required a small-to-medium sized devil and really needed to add on.  This model fit the bill perfectly and has me looking at adding another Malifaux Nephilim even though I'm not sure I need it for anything anytime soon.

That wraps up Winter's Splendor for me.  I'm actually thinking ahead (for a change) and am looking at some Valentine themed adventures to potentially run as another one-shot in February.

-Jay

Catching up a bit on models for D&D

Hi all,

The last 2 weeks have seen far less painting than usual but I have gotten a few odds and ends done I just hadn't gotten around to posting yet.  I'm going to catch up on those today and then it will be back to "projects" tomorrow.

First up I painted a model to use as my character in an upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics game.  I'm playing a level 5 thief named Jaqar, I did have a model I had been using previously but he was just one of my Forstgrave figures being repurposed.

This time out I painted a named Pathfinder character as he had the perfect combination of armour and equipment, and I really like the fact that he has a backpack and other load-bearing gear to sell the idea that he's an adventurer.

Next is an NPC Dwarf Cleric I'll need for an upcoming game of D&D I'm running.

I wanted something a little different and this Games Workshop Dwarf Miner Champion seemed to fit the bill.

One of the things I have really enjoyed about DMing Curse Of Strahd is that the adventure us filled with interesting and characterful "random" encounters.  Before I start gaming again I want to cook up about a dozen detailed interesting encounters I can throw into the mix whenever I want.  Rather than sitting down and trying to write these up I thought I'd just do them one by one as ideas hit me.

My first idea was for an evil ginger hobbit (I used Lobellia Sackville-Baggins) that is a corruptive ruinous force on the countryside.  I also wanted to tack on some muscle so I threw her in with 'Frankenteddy' to give he some muscle from an encounter point of view.

I've got seven more models to paint for D&D and then if all goes according to plan I'll paint my Teknes starter set this week.

-Jay

Some toughs and another hero for Marten's Marauders

After taking my sweet time I finally put a rush on getting some outlaws done for Legends Of The Old West late last night for a game that I had this morning.

First up I painted up one of Black Scorpion's cowboy packs to represent the "toughs" in my Outlaw gang.  These are really good serviceable old west figures that look and feel great and are extremely well cast.

From left to right the Marauders are; Six-Gun Sid, Randy Randy, "The Gent" and "Dollar" Bill Dollarhyde.     

I also finished up my final character Artemis "Clyde" Frog.  This is an older metal Malifaux Guild sergeant that I had laying around. He felt like he fit the setting but also had some character of his own.  I'm typing this up after having played 3 games with him and I have to say over 3 games all my other characters had some highs and lows but Artemis accomplished NOTHING and managed to get seriously injured in 2 out of the 3 games he participated in.

I'll be circling back to the Old West in a week or so but I'm going to try to focus on finishing some Walking Dead models and a piece of scenery over the long weekend here.

-Jay

 

The most wonderful time of the year!

I've been very scatter shot on my painting for the last couple of weeks (lots of Suicide Squad coming soon though...) but I wanted to show some non-painting I've been doing.

Last year in the late fall I first got into Frostgrave and joined a number of Frostgrave groups on Facebook.  One of the things that really stood out with the Frostgrave groups was how much they re-purposed non-miniature products as scenery.  Everything from birdhouses to aquarium features to Christmas village dioramas got used for Frostgrave.  Some of it wasn't great and it was obvious that the main appeal was that it was cheaper than conventional hobby scenery but some of worked really well.

The other day a friend of mine posted some street lamps that he had gotten and it made me think I should bust out some of the stuff I've acquired the past few months and share what (in my opinion) cool stuff can be had on a budget.

First up the thing that really got me to start considering this a year ago; trees.  There are loads of retailers that carry trees for Christmas village dioramas this time of year and last year I made the mistake of waiting too long to get some and by the time I circled around to it they were sold out everywhere.  This year my wife remembered that I had been trying to get some and one one of her trips to Michaels to get yarn got me a bag of trees.

This bag was $29.99 sticker price but basically went on to the shelf marked at 50% off so it actually cost $15.

Here are all the trees spread out and to give you some idea, those small trees in front are basically 1" tall so this is a lot of trees for the money.  I'm pretty sure that anything short of a full forest on a 3'x3' table can be done with one bag of these trees.

Also given that I play the undead for most fantasy games I figured Halloween clearances might have some options for me and they did not disappoint.  Again Michaels was the big winner with coffins, headstones and a cemetery fence (not shown).  Unfortunately I left the fence (which is really cool) at a friend's house so I don't have it to show off.

These packs were $5.99 at full price but by the time I bought them they were 60% or 75% off (I can't remember) so for some scatter terrain they're pretty good.

The only downside with the Halloween pieces is that they are a little big (only just a little) and they're unique looking enough that buying multiple packs isn't as appealing as for the trees.

Last but not least back to the place I started.  When I saw Tod's street lamps and I had just gotten the Suicide Squad starter for Batman which means I need a pile of street lamps.  Unfortunately by the time I decided to grab some my local Michaels was sold out but my daughter wanted a few things from the Dollarama and they had some lamps that look perfect to me.

These were $2 per pack (so super cheap!) and to be honest the reason I only bought 5 packs is because they only had 5 in-stock.  When I'm on the road over the next week or two I'm going to hit up other Dollaramas in my area and see if I can find more.

Well there you have it.  I think this stuff works great and it was really inexpensive which leaves more money for toy soldiers.

-Jay



  

You've got a bit of red on you...

I've got a bunch more post apocalyptic miniatures sitting on my desk right now waiting to get some paint but I decided to take a brief break and paint up a Malifaux fig for a game (which I then forgot to bring to the game anyway).

Rafkin the Embalmer is a model that pairs up well (thematically at least) with McMourning and the rest of his 'hospital' staff.

Rafkin embodies the best of the horror and murder themes of Malifaux.  He makes his way through the world by presenting himself as a loyal servant of the Guild while secretly practicing the necromantic arts in the morgues of the city.

That was my slight detour from the apocalypse, back to the wasteland tomorrow.

-Jay

Free mustache rides!

The third of Lucas McCabe's upstanding gentleman adventurers is now done!

The McCabe box came with three 'Wastrels' who are basically men of privilege who have wasted their gifts and now survive on the fringes of society while indulging in the occasional spot of ultra-violence.

In addition to the three Wastrels that came in the starter box I was able to use my 2015 Iron Painter winnings to get the Miss Anne Thrope miniature, so hopefully she will be showing up here tomorrow as well.

-Jay
 

I'm back again!

Hi all.

Wow, its been almost a full month since I posted last.  No tales of busyness or mayhem I just lost my painting mojo for a bit.  I hit one of those walls that's very similar to a new hobbyist trying to get started (I don't have time, I'm not going to finish, there's too much to do, etc) so I'm going to be easing my way back into the swing of things with a few easy wins.  Translation things I started but never quite finished and/or models that are fairly monochromatic.

First up is a Wastrel for Malifaux and/or Through The Breach.  I started running a Through The Breach adventure last year that featured all three Wastrel models fairly heavily but never got to any of the combat encounters they were needed for so they ended up on the perpetual back burner.  One got finished and the other two have been sitting half done for months.

This is the second of my three Wastrels but I have since acquired a fourth.

I'm not sure if this fig will see the table for Malifaux or Through The Breach first but either way he feels like a useful addition to the collection.

-Jay
 

Some more scatter terrain

I got two more sets of the Color-ed scenery from Plast Craft Games assembled/done last night while watching TV.

These are both smaller sets meant to supplement the larger building kits and break up the table a bit.  The three main features I have to call out about the Plast Craft sets are:
1.  They're inexpensive
2.  They're easy to put together
3.  They seem pretty durable
All in all I highly recommend this stuff!

First up is the Rusted Barricades from their Post-Apocalypse collection.

I REALLY like these!  They were less than 10 minutes work to assemble and they are tabletop ready.  I'm considering getting a second set as I think they will be great for framing in areas or perhaps even building a whole junkyard (or ghetto Gorka Morka fort?).

Next is the Railway Prop set for Malifaux.

Unfortunately this is going to be the first set I have to say I'm not too impressed with.  Unlike the Rusted Barricades the wooden barricades that come in this set are only printed on one side, so from the back they are flat grey and untextured.  I also had some minor assembly issues that honestly wouldn't be a deal breaker for me but given that part of the appeal (for my anyway) with this stuff is how fast and easy it is to use I'm not sure that I'm signing up for extra assembly work.

All in all I'm still very happy with my purchases.  Each of these sets was under $20 Canadian and I'm sure they'll get used in dozens of games.  I've got a bunch more building kits to do so we'll see what's next!

-Jay

Some scatter terrain and a bear!

We all go through different journeys through hobby gaming.  Some people start with role-playing games, some with collectible card games, some with euro games and some with miniatures.  It can be funny how where you start can sometimes influence how you buy, collect and use hobby materials years later.

When I first got into hobby gaming it was via the role-playing game route which then transitioned into miniatures.  That meant that when I first starting buying stuff on a 12 year-old's restrictive budget I prioritised rulebooks, then some models and after that scenery/maps.  As someone who has now been collecting for years I find I rush to get new books, buy models steadily (don't we all), then grab up cool buildings and scenery kits.  In the past I always played game with a lot of figures on each side so my scenery focus tended to be on "full-sized" pieces (buildings, hills, forests, etc) , now that I'm skirmish gaming more often I've found I have tons of scenery but a lot of it is too big or doesn't work well together.  To that end I've really only in the last couple of years started adding scatter terrain to my collection.  A while back I showed the two ruined Undertaker's carts I had done as an example.  In each of those cart boxes came a second pieces (2 crates with a sack draped over them) which I just finished up.  I also painted up 4 cake pillars to use in the Storm Of Undeath scenario from Thaw Of The Lich Lord.  Having done those I think I'm going to buy a second set and do them as broken pillars.

While shopping at Michael's for cake pillars I also came across a small vinyl toy bear figure.  I've been looking for a bear for Frostgrave but they seem to be really difficult to find.  I repainted this guy as a polar bear and he seems to work just fine.  He's quite a big beast (that's a 60mm base he's standing on) so even though he has a friendly look on his face I'm assuming he'll be quite menacing on the tabletop.

All right, so here's the count down for this week.  All of this stuff is do-or-die, I need it for an assortment of games/events I'm participating in this weekend.
1.  Barbarian for Frostgrave (needs to be done by Friday morning)
2.  Soothsayer and Apprentice for Frostgrave (need to be done by Saturday morning)
3.  Renegade & 2 Motorcycles for Dark Future (need to be done by Saturday night)

Wish me luck!

-Jay

Project Plans For The Next 3 Weeks

Honestly I should probably stop stating my plans because every time I do I end up not entirely following through.  Having said that I have an event coming up that I want to use as a deadline to get some more stuff done so here's my plan for what that looks like.

FROSTGRAVE
I should be able to play Frostgrave one more time before I have to hit the road for work.  For the next scenario from Thaw Of The Lich Lord I will need 4 pillars/columns which will be some cake pillars I'll be painting up and then adding to my scatter terrain as well.  In addition I need 6 Armoured Skeletons which will be represented by Mantic Undead Revenants.   Once I get a few more of those done they will also be joining my Age Of Sigmar Vampire Counts.  That's all I need but I suspect I will try to do a few odds and ends to add to my wandering monsters as well.

Also at the end of the month Lords Of War here in Oakville is hosting a Wizard & Apprentice painting contest.  Speaking honestly I never expect to do that well in painting contests but they are a great way to push yourself to get some stuff done by a fixed date.  The plan is to get the Soothsayer and Apprentice done before the end of the month.

BATMAN
On February 6th my local FLGS will be hosting their 1 year anniversary and is running some mini-games for people to participate in.  For the Batman event each participant is invited to bring in a single character up to 150 points.  I just picked up The Wonderland Gang so even though he's only 75 points I'm going to get the Mad Hatter done up to play with.

MALIFAUX
As part of the same celebration at Lord Of War on February 6th they will also be hosting an Enforcer Brawl.  This is basically a free-for-all where everyone fields a single Enforcer model.  I've got a bunch of Enforcers done but again this is a great push to get something new done.  I'm planning on painting up a Mature Nephilim that I will be needing for a Through The Breach campaign this year.

Well that's the plan.  Will I get it all done (for a change)?  I hope so.

-Jay

Closing out 2015.....can we pretend it's still 2015?

I've been hobbying steadily but I've been super-slack about posting stuff on line lately.

I wanted to wrap up (and show) the last of the stuff I painted the last week or so with the goal of setting a clean slate for 2016.  My hobby focus has been on Frostgrave since I got back from B.C. and I'm starting to look at what I'm painting as possibly supplementing a D&D or Pathfinder game in the near future.

My friend Stan and I are trying to get all the scenery and models done that we need to play through Thaw Of The Lich Lord.  The next scenario on the schedule (we've already played through the first two) involves four cultists defending a broken down cart filled with their loot.  Sticking with my traditional lack of attention to detail I picked up a scenery pack for Malifaux with a broken down cart....not realising I had already bought one, so now I have two for when I need some extra scatter terrain for Malifaux.

One of the elements that is different with Frostgrave from a traditional fantasy skirmish game is that as warbands snatch treasure it can attract wandering monsters which function independently of the players' forces.  I have a fairly extensive collection of 'classic' fantasy gaming monsters however there are some uniquely Frostgrave critters I wanted to add to my collection.  To that end I got some Constructs (basically magic powered robots) which I thought were great because they broke with the traditional steam-punk look of most fantasy robots as well as a Snow Leopard and Ice Toad which basically call out that we're not playing in Middle Earth or The Forgotten Realms.

I finally got around to replacing my Bretonian Men-At-Arms figures with some proper Frostgrave soldier models.

In addition I've rounded out my force with a wizard (Malbeth The Seer from  GWs Lord Of The Rings line) and apprentice (Bretonian plastic from Warhammer).  Eventually those figs will also be replaced but for now they are my Thaumaturge and Apprentice.

Last but not least I touched up and rebased Boromir (again GWs Lord Of The Rings) to use as my knight.

For the first time in a few years I also got some models for Christmas so 2016 starts now!

-Jay

Happy (early) Halloween!

Let 'The Night Of The Carver' begin!

One of the things the folks over at Wyrd have added to the second edition of Malifaux is story based encounters.  Some of these encounters come as pre-packaged box sets (The University Of Transmortis being the first one) and some of them revolve around one special character or model who features centrally in a scenario.

The Carver is a Neverborn model that has it's own scenario in Malifaux and has also had a Through The Breach one-shot adventure written around him.  The Carver is one of those new takes on a horror classic that Wyrd seem to do so well.  This time a scarecrow that seems to go one step beyond the stuff of basic nightmares.

I had really hoped to be able to play Night Of The Carver around Halloween but unfortunately it's just not going to work out for me this year.  However on the plus side I've had the good fortune to loan the model out so at least some other players can make use of it and play a cool scenario appropriate to the season.

Best of luck to everyone facing down The Carver this Halloween....you'll need it.

-Jay 

Yep...pretty sure this means I'm an Arcanist player now...

If wrapping up the Oxfordian Mages the other day wasn't enough I finished 3 Fire Gamin tonight.  So that feels like I'm an Arcanist player now.

These were fun (and easy to paint) basically being living fire elementals/imps.  One thing I did differently than I would normally do on figures like this is that I didn't actually use ANY red.  I basically worked through 3 shades of orange and then used yellow to pick out the actual flames.  It's a very basic colour scheme but it looks very tidy and creates a pretty sharp effect, I'm happy with it.

Oddly enough there is a very slim chance I'll actually need these models in the game that I'm playing but I know if I didn't get them painted then I would definitely need them.

-Jay

Wizards!

Lately for someone who doesn't play mages in RPGs or use a lot of wizards in wargames I feel like I'm suddenly painting a lot of spell-caster models.

Today's addition is for Through The Breach although I'm pretty sure this along with a couple of more projects looming on the horizon means I'm also now becoming an Arcanist player for Malifaux as well.

The Oxfordian Mages are a set of 3 Enforcers for Malifaux who provide some spell-casting in a crew beyond the usual Masters and/or Henchmen.  Their background is really cool, they're basically magical students of minor ability from Earthside (the real world of 1901ish) who find their powers greatly amplified when they cross over through the breach into the world of Malifaux.

Conceptually I like these figures a lot and they really feel unique and not like something you're going to find in other model ranges.  The other thing I hadn't really thought of initially is that a long time ago (a year, maybe two) I mentioned I was looking for young male human wizard figs for fantasy RPGs and I'm actually pretty sure that if I need one now I'll be using the Oxfordian Mage in the running post with the purple flames creeping up his arms.

The paint job ended up being a little rushed as I need these and three other figures for a game I'm playing tomorrow but with the exception of the brown looking a little flat I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

There should be one more Malifaux/Through The Breach update tomorrow and then back to Frostgrave for a day or two.

-Jay

Nythera rolls on....

Another week gone by and a bit of work done on updating my Malifaux collection for Nythera and some work done on adding a few things I need for Through The Breach.

First up I just wanted to highlight one of the great things about campaigns/tournament play.  I've had my last 3 unpainted Resurrectionist models sitting on my desk for months because as I moved through various games and projects I just never really circled back around to them, last night 2 of those figs got painted, it's great sometimes to have that extra little push to get you to do something that you wanted to do anyway but kept putting off.

So we'll start with 1 new figure sitting side by side with a re-based figure.  When I started painting for Nythera I did something I almost never do which is to pick a new basing scheme for an already existing force.  Sybelle and the Dead Rider got the cool textured bases from Secret Weapon miniatures and then became the leaders of my Ressurectionist force.  Fast forward 2 games and all my stuff on my old basing scheme looks a little week next to them so I've decided to go back and re-base some stuff.  I re-based the Nurse with the large syringe and then painted the second Nurse to go with her.  They're pretty basic (and one of them almost single handedly cost my me last game) but they're a great addition and as it turns out I will need them in an upcoming Through The Breach game....more on that later.

Next I still had my 2 Onryo from my Kirai box set unpainted, and once again I needed one of them for Through The Breach.  I had started these figures a couple of months ago and what was funny in the end is it took me less than 20 minutes to finish this one but for some reason I had been putting it off for a long time.

And lastly something that's a bit new for me but I will be doing more of over the next couple of weeks, this is a counter/marker for a game.  I can't say what for just yet but all will be revealed in another week.  Traditionally I have been one of those players who uses bases/coins/glass beads/whatever for counters and markers in games but Frostgrave has really encouraged me to step that up.  I got some treasure chest for that game and now I'm going to start creating some more visually interesting stuff for other games as well.

That's it for today, I have 6 more models that NEED to get done by Wednesday this week and then after that I should be able to talk more specifically about exactly what some of this stuff is/was for.

-Jay

Somebody hasn't been updating their blog lately.....

It's been one of those odd breaks again.  The truth is I've been doing a reasonable amount of 'hobbying' but I haven't been blogging much lately.  Same old same old, still struggling with photography issues and clearing workspace....some day...some day....

Lately I've been focusing on getting stuff done for three games; Age Of Sigmar, Frostgrave and Malifaux/Through The Breach.  I'll show you what's gotten done in the last week and then we'll talk about what's next.

First up; NECROMANCERS!

Painting Necromancers is nothing new for me, having many different undead and horror themed armies for different games.  What was different this time out is that these figures were assembled and painted for Frostgrave but made it to the table in 2 Age Of Sigmar games before I finally circled back around to Frostgrave.  Both figs are made out of the Empire Wizard kit with a bretonnian archer head thrown in to make the apprentice appear hooded.  These figures are fairly basic but I'm really happy with how they turned out and so far they have been HUGE contributors in the three games they've played in.

Next up: Bretonnians.....I mean Frostgrave soldiers....

I picked up some bretonnian men-at-arms a while back with the intention of using them for Warmachine or Iron Kingdom roleplaying, once I really saw how they scaled with Privateer Press miniatures I abandoned that idea.  I will be using some more of these figs for an upcoming RPG but in the meantime they made great troopers for Frostgrave.  Having painted a bunch of them now though I can't help but wondering if my Vampire Counts should have some men from Mousillon working for them as well........

Last but not least; Nythera campaign for Malifaux

I had to paint up a henchman to lead my forces in the Nythera campaign for Malifaux and having just picked up Seamus' box I decided on Sybelle.  While I was at it I also added the Dead Rider to give me a decent beat-stick for my Resurrectionists.  The bases on these models will be the basing for my Malifaux stuff going forward, now the question is just what to re-base......

That's got me up-to-date on games I've been wanting to play.  My next three projects are:
1.  Nythera Through The Breach.  This is pretty straight forward, I'm committed to running the first scenario for the campaign in 10 days, I need to get a bunch of stuff done by then.  Model selection and deadline is bascially non-negotiable.
2.  Batman.  I've got a bunch of the Batman stuff from Knight Models and I want to get it done and start playing.  The good news is I really only need to paint 5-6 figs so as soon as my current Nythera stuff is done I should be able to crank it out.
3.   A Red And Pleasant Land.  I need to get some fairly odd miniatures done for my next D&D game set is Zak Smith's Red And Pleasant Land.  I'll leave it at that until I start working on stuff but if you think Alice In Wonderland meets Dracula you won't be too far off.

-Jay