Thursday, April 11, 2013

Not so long ago, and pretty close by..


After the better part of a year running the unwieldy Marvel Heroic RPG, a change was in order.  A new Good Games (FLGS) store has opened up in town and with the change in scenery has come a change in game.

Fantasy Flight's Star Wars: Edge of Empire is certainly more of a traditional RPG but uses a fashionable dice pool mechanic and funky dice.  I'm hoping to write a little review after I’ve put a few more sessions under the belt.

The move to a more tactical based combat system has allowed me the opportunity to knock out a few pieces of terrain, some modular desert tiles purchased from DriveThruRPG mounted on mat board and finally get a bit of use out of the 200 odd Star Wars pre-painted figures in my collection.  I had originally intended to re-paint all of the SW figures (madness) but may settle for touching up a few that suffer from factory paintjob retardation.  

The rock pieces are made from bits of styrofoam, cut up and glued with PVA to mini-cds before being gunked with a combination of texture paste, burnt umber craft paint, fine ballast and PVA glue.  After drying, the pieces were dry brushed with a buff coloured craft paint.

They should work for 15mm as well as 28s.




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Venerable Ambrosius aka Sniper Dude

"Venerable Ambrosius" is part of the "Griffins of Akkylannie" faction in the Confrontation (Rackham) universe.

  The miniature was included in the Hybrid board game.  I'm not sure I particularly like my work on this figure.  And what's with the tiny freaking ankles?  All miniatures require "cankles" in my opinion...





Baba Yaga.. shaking her thang

I picked up this great Reaper miniature from the now defunct Tin Soldier in Sydney.  I understand that the figure is from the Exalted line of miniatures that Reaper produced on licence from White Wolf.  It's a shame but this range is no longer in production, though I'm sure that there are figures to be found in countless bargain bins scattered across the hobby universe.  

I lost the feather on the staff whilst cleaning up flash but I'm not too worried.  My only problem now is that I need to make a hut on chicken legs to go with her.  Slavs are weird.  





Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Barbarian with Sword - Mega Miniatures

Released originally by Grenadier (?) but now produced by Mega Miniatures, this is a barbarian with a sword..  Obviously.




Ork Nobz - more of them.

Per the title, here are a few more of the plastic Ork Nobz I painted.  These little bastards went for an adventure behind the sofa cushion, were found and fixed up!

Here's the link to the first ones I posted a little while back:

http://sentientbeanminiatures.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Space%20Orc




Rabid man with sword and axe.

Another beaudy from my recent batch of painted figures, this barbarian from Reaper seems to believe that the best defense is a good offense.  

He also likes the bling.   


Yellowbeard, Ogre Chieftain

I particularly enjoyed painting this Ogre chieftain from Reaper.  It's a metal miniature, but you can now purchase the same sculpt in resin-plastic for a few dollars.  I bought another one in the resin-plastic and when I get a chance to get him painted (and maybe converted), I'll post him up.




Monday, January 21, 2013

Ragnar of Utherby

Another Red Box Games figure, Ragnar of Utherby.  Suitably Conan-esq. 

I believe I was RBG's first Australian customer back in August 2008 when I picked up this one and "Belegast the Bloodthirsty"

Lots of great detail on these figs, a pleasure to paint.


Barbarian of chaos

This is another Red Box Games miniature that was until last week, collecting dust atop the lead mountain.

I would say that this is one of the earliest releases by Red Box and is currently out of production.  A bit on the small side in comparison to more recent sculpts from the Red Box, but a fun one to paint.


Sláine

Sláine Mac Roth of the Sessair.  The Horned God.  

A brilliant 2000AD series based on a combination of celtic mythology and Conan, this would have to be one of my all time favorite comics.  

This miniature by Foundry is based on an image from the ultimate Sláine series "The Horned God" by Pat Mills and illustrated by Simon Bisley.  

I chose not to be particularly faithful to the colour scheme in the book, but I did include the eye paint and the blue wode in the hair!  Let's not talk about the dodgy tartan.. 


   

The captain

A well prepared captain of a free company.

My dodgy first attempt at a freehand shield.  This miniature was sculpted by Tre Manor of Red Box fame for Reaper Miniatures.  


King Koboldikus

Alas poor Korrick!

Here is "Snar Mangebelly, Kobold King" by Reaper Miniatures.

I prefer to think of him as King Koboldikus, a deranged lawful-evil paladin I played in a short 4th ed D&D game a few years ago.  Ah, good times.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Beware the beast-man

An old and very charming Citadel beastman.  The pock marks in the miniature suit the sculpt, luckily.


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Paging Dr. Moreau

A figure from Rackham's Confrontation line: "Nurbald the sculptor".  I dare say he will make an appearance as a fiendish Dr. Moreau type in a dungeon crawler.  All I need now is a sewer island, a lab and few suitable subjects for vivisection.  Bwhaahaahhhaaaaaa.  Sorry.


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Grenadier now EM-4 plastic fantasy Orcs

This project has been picked up and put down on a few occasions and with time, I've found that some of my painting techniques have changed.  When I started cleaning up and undercoating these very cheap Grenadier figures now sold by EM-4, I went with a dark grey gesso undercoat and a 2 tier "Dallimore/Foundry" base and highlight, followed by a wash.  If I were starting from scratch, I would undercoat with brown spray, base coat only and then hit the model with a dip.  The end result would be the same or thereabouts regardless of the method, but I've found my current technique to be the faster of the two.  

  Who's to say that I won't be painting in a completely different fashion in a year or two (house paint and pliers?)?  This is one of the challenges of painting an army over a long period of time.  Another would be remembering a painting recipe and even the availability of paint itself.  I'm sure most of us have had a colour discontinued or a range dropped (ask GW customers about this..) usually sparking a run on "Tentacle Pink" or "Fistula Green"...

  These chaps mostly have been painted with a grey gesso undercoat, single base colour followed by the dip and a dullcote.  They frosted up after the dullcote but I fixed it by rubbing a little olive oil over the figures with a bit of old blister pack foam.  I've yet to find the shields for the swordsmen (choppas?) but will post a little update when I've got that sorted out. 


  These figures have quite a history, being Grenadier's failed answer to Games Workshop's Warhammer starter box set plastics.

  Fantasy Warriors by Grenadier was a game designed by the sculptor Nick Lund and released in 1990. According to Boardgamegeek, the box set contained the following:

  • 102 Plastic Miniatures (Orcs and Dwarves)
  • 51 Plastic Shields
  • 5 Dice
  • 150 Order Counters
  • 56-page Rulebook
  • Quick Reference Sheet
  • A very flimsy box
    It's similar to Warhammer in many respects but utilises a unique-to-the-game time system, with certain forces performing better at different stages of the day.  FW also allows for pre battle scouting and a few other rules that let the battle feel like it's taking place in a wider world or war.  The points system is apparently (see Frothers forum) flawed and there are other issues that would likely require house-ruling to overcome.

  On the whole, I'm keen to give the game a go as it is has a fairly exhaustive set of army lists for the genre (a barbarian list that isn't GW "Chaos" too!) and interesting rules that aren't too unfamiliar.  It's a bit of a novelty and I've got a stack of the plastic Orcs and Dwarves from EM-4 and a box set from ebay.

  A word of warning regarding the miniatures:  There are mold lines galore and a big fat injection nub on the back that needs to be ignored, or clipped and filed down (I chose latter).  A real prick to deal with as the plastic is particularly tough.  They're super cheap though and easy enough to paint up.




Thursday, January 10, 2013

Rackham Boy Band

These chaps were a bit of a bastard to put together but it is satisfying to have them done and in the glass cabinet waiting for the call for gun toting fantasy dandies... 



 

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Space Ork Nobz

These chaps are from the 5th edition 40k boxed set, picked up cheaply on ebay.  They were great fun to paint and I was able to try out a rust effect that looked ok after a good dipping.  Recipe:  Metal, stippled brown, then orange.


Space Ork Buggy

Red ones go fasta!

Mantic resin Marauder (Ork) Buggy.


Space Orks with 'Eavy Weapons

Always a silent "H", am I right?

Here are some dipped Mantic Marauders (Orks) with (h)eavy weapons.


Space Ork Nob in Mega Armour

After an annus horribilis, I have returned to painting and blogging and the first cab off the rank is a fella that I painted earlier in the year but never got around to basing.  4 more to go!

  I'll be fielding him in a 2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000 Space Orc force at some point.  Why 2nd ed?  Well, if I was being entirely honest, it would be for reasons of nostalgia.  My first foray into 40k (having started with Epic Space Marine and Space Crusade) was very late in the Rogue Trader days.  In fact, we never called it Rogue Trader, everyone knew the game as 40k.  Before I knew it a new edition was out (some things never change) and with it, a big box of plastics and some wacky, yet well organised rules. 

Since the days of 2nd, I've found that in an effort to simplify and speed up the game, a lot of the actual fun of playing has been lost.  Everything seems to be "4+ to Hit, 4+ to Wound, 4+ to Save".  Sort of just endlessly flipping a coin.

The pendulum seems to be swinging in the other direction for 6th edition but it is a little too late for me.  Make mine 2nd!

I painted the Nob by my now usual technique of spraying brown, base coating, dipping and matt varnishing.  In this case, I applied chips to the armour with Vallejo steel prior to the dip. I used a chestnut Dulux wood stain rather than Army Painter as my dip as I wanted a dirtier look.