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.

Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work.

I still haven't recovered from the holidays that is for sure. There was far too many nice homebrewed and craft beers to enjoy never mind the food. I have been relaxing over the last few days and managed to get the finishing touches done on Mortimer for my ressurectionist crew. Again the camera washed the whites out. Eventually I shall upgrade, eventually. I have a game next week and I want to get my Molly crew together. I doubt I will manage that but who knows. I really like Mollys playstyle. She tends to be strong in scenario play or at least the way I play scenarios. Other than painting her I am not sure what else I will do. Maybe some more Dwarves, maybe more Vikings. There is enough of a backlog I have a plethora of choices.

Three Dwarves

I don't often paint Warhammer stuff but I picked out a few Dwarves over the Christmas and decided to finally finish them off. These are three of the four incarnations of plastic GW Dwarves. I have only a few from the original fantasy regiment boxed set. I painted this one, the model on the far left to fit in with the current scheme of my Dwarves. I somehow swapped from a blue/white to a red/green colour scheme without noticing it. The model in the middle was the terrible 3rd edition plastic version. These were one piece models that could have a shield attached. I have added new shields to them all so that they fit in with the rest of the regiment. This version was actually way worse than the previous one. I really wonder why they didn't continue to produce them instead of these hideous things. Maybe due to the fact that the first ones were multi-piece kits and at this point GW had switched to their child centred policy. I still have a few of these Dwarves and I may paint them up eventually to inhabit the rear ranks of the regiments. With the current prices every miniatures is precious even when ugly. The last model on the right is the single piece Dwarf that came out with the seventh edition boxed set. This guy is an impressive improvement on the previous one, especially considering that the shield comes moulded on.

I have heard that the Dwarf book is coming out soon and I am trepidatious.The play style of the Dwarves is stale. While I would often play a more movement orientated force I still had to rely on shooting if I wanted to win. People ended up hating to play against Dwarves and in the end I wasn't having as much fun as I would have liked. I wonder what will come out for these guys? A zeppelin is probably too predictable. Iron Golems I could imagine. Though they start to step into the Warmachine imagery of theey go for steam powered large miniatures. They would of course look very different but comparisons will still be made. The Anvil of Doom will get a large kit thats for sure, I assume it will be able to make two models probably a Throne of Power. I wonder if Warhammer 9th edition will see buyable terrain. I could imagine the Dwarves getting some type of a fortification to buy in their army list. That could be a precursor of the changes coming soon. I am only really interested as Dwarves are probably the only army I will keep up to date for Warhammer Fantasy.

SAGA Slaughter

I got less gaming in over the holidays than anticipated. However I did manage two games against Steve at least. The first was a desparate defence on a hill when raised voices at the parley led to drawn swords. My Anglo-Danes managed to hold the hill till the bitter end but it cost them dearly. Only a handful remained, outnumbered by the angry Normans. The cavalry preformed really well in this battle and I wish I could get some for my forces. As I had no archers there really wasnt't a disadvantage to fielding them and they almost outflanked and surrounded me, as they had in the last two encounters I played against them. The hill did have a large cliff face and their speed just wasn't enough to get them around in time. I really have to check and see if the Vikings can include some. The extra speed can really be useful at times.

In the second game the Jomsvikings were scouting a pass in Yorkshire when they were ambushed. The previous battle had been a Challenge scenario where the Warlords barely fought at all. In this scenario, Clash of Warlords, they both went at it hammer and tongs. It is quite possible that more troops were wiped out to cancel hits on the warlords than in the fighting themselves. They both killed each other in the end and granted the victory to Steve's Anglo-Danes.

It looks like I will be playing a lot of Dark Ages stuff this year. A specific Dark Ages group has been started here in Hamburg and every one seems to be enthusiastic. I even have some urge to play some Warhammer Ancients. I have enough models to put together a decent army for sure and Steve's Normans are expanding at a rapid pace. I need to get some scenery constructed as I don't have much that is appropriate but I enjoy making scenery so it won't be much of a chore.