Pillar of Skulls!

New terrain project up on the YouTube channel. This week we are building a marble pillar adorned with 4 skulls and chains. It is a cool craft and great addition to any dungeon! Check it out!

Central Asian Agency - IHMN

Quite a bit of progress on my company for "In Her Majesty's Name".

First up, a mission statement:

A loose confederation of governments with interests in the steppe regions. Using their collective strengths they attempt to recover supernatural and technological marvels before the West.


What this means?  I am largely ignoring the politics of the steppe region.  In my world the governments there openly fought over their interests in that region, but globally knew the West was a far greater danger and so formed a loose alliance.  Mongols, Russians, Tibetans.


First up:
Mongols.  I have been detailing my horse painting, but as our first game approached I moved onto the riders.




Mongols on their temporary steeds for painting.  Various stages.

Mongols painted and pinned to their horses.  Riding into battle.

Next up:
Tibetans.  I have very few fantastical elements in my force so I went a little more fun with my Tibetan guys.

Yeti with a base coats of various blue colors.

Yetis more or less leady to kick some ass.

Finally:

Russians.

Nothing even remotely close to completed here.  I have on the table some riflemen from Siberia and a female heroine to lead the company.

Central Asian Agency.

Basic Basing. Vallejo Grey Pumice.

In the past I took a pretty simple approach to basing.

1. Attach miniature to base
2. Place glue on base.
3. Dunk in sand
4. Let dry
5. Coat in watered down glue.
6. Let dry.
7. Paint
8. Drybrush
9. Add some green maybe.

Pretty simple, still I knew and have seen a few people talk about pumice on various youtube videos.  I was ordering some paint on line and I thought what the heck.

1) Apply Vallejo pumice to base.

2) Wait to dry. Paint and Dry brush.

In general this product is an AWESOME way to add texture to your base.  The simplest and easiest I have tried.  I would definitely recommend this product for you figures.

 

 

Cave Troll - WIP - Finished

In testing the new airbrush primer(71.097), which after use I note is actually gunship grey from the Vallejo Air Colors lines, I ended up painting my Troll model a pretty dark grey, much darker than I had anticipated.



A quick look online and I came across this note on Vallejo's website:

7.5. Is your Model Air color 71.097 the same product as the new primers?

No, this is simply a grey color, created years ago in the Model Air Line. We are changing the name to Base Grey precisely in order to avoid misunderstanding.



So buyer beware when ordering online eh?



I decided to roll with it as I had been considering a cave troll anyhow.

In the above image the troll has been painted with 71.097 and then given a black wash, followed by re-highlighting with the 71.097 grey.

Still coming back into this 28mm hobby, but so far I am pretty happy with how this guy is coming out.






updated post with completed troll.

More Bones.

I am primarily into Science Fiction but do stray towards Fantasy a little now and again. 

Recently the big local games store started a "Skirmish Gaming Club" that planned on initially using A Song of Blades and Heroes as it's initial rule set.  I like a lot about the rules and this seemed like a great way to get in some games without needed many figures.

For my first warband I chose orcs.  I have almost always played humans in wargames, so I thought I would try something a little different for me.  I also didn't want boring green orcs......

I picked up a bunch of Reaper Bones models.  I haven't painted bones before and in fact I haven't painted anything above 15mm since I was maybe 20.

I got the first 3 rank and file orcs painted up on the weekend and thought I would share the initial paint jobs, even though the bases still need finishing.

I have a few more of this size to do with bows and then 3 larger hero orcs plus a troll and a goblin.  Should be a fun band once they are finished.

To be continued.......

The Growing Storm

I didn't get a lot of painting done this weekend, but I did get my Orc Chieftan painted up.

Still using Reaper bones models.  The following is my process.

1) Glue model to base.  In this case I am using slightly larger than 1" fender washers.  These add weight to the light models and can be secured for travel using a magnetic sheet.

2) Add 2 part putty to even out base.

3) Wash figure and give it a quick scrub with soap and toothbrush.

4) Hot glue base to a craft paint bottle, giving me something to hold.

5) Prime figure using air brush

6) Now on to painting.  I am using a #2 brush.


7) Base colors

8) Localized washes.  Skin tones, black lines, browns.

9) Highlights on skin.

10) Army painter soft tone across model.

11) Final highlights and dry brushing

12) Eyes.

MORE NOT SCIFI! MORE NOT 15MM! Orcs again!

We are Orcs.  Do not judge our motivations.  Perhaps you are the evil ones?

Got some more models painted up....  Three basic archers to go with the three basic swordsorcs.

Also thought I would share the current iteration of my Song of Blades and Heros unit cards.  One of my standard Orc warriors.  Stats are just fillers.  Points cost in the upper left, Combat of 3 and a Quality of 4+.  I can never remember what occurs on the even/odd rolls so I included a quick reference on the bottom to remind me.

 This card is a 3x5" word document.  But I will normally print them out to a .PDF and then print them on a multiple pages on a sheet and then print on card stock.

Updates

Things have been pretty quiet on the miniature front.  Painted up 5 standard troopers for the desert troopers.  I also did some more work on a piece of terrain I am working on; a pond based on a CD. 

Ruleset wise I haven't done very much.  Poked and prodded a few things.  Decided to change from order wheels to order chits, but I am still not 100% happy with the game mechanics, so I am mulling them over still.

In other news I ordered a few new battlesuits for the desert guys and nearly have a concept for a flyer in my brain.  Might be time to sketch that out a little.

AAANNNDDD

Even more unpainted metal is heading my way as my first miniature kickstarter I supported is headed my way from Loud Ninja.  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/485545784/the-yandrassi-invasion-new-15mm-scifi-alien-force

We shall see how I like them as I am not typically an alien guy, but it might make a cool auxillary force.

MAN & MACHINE: RULES & SAND

As I worked on the rules and made a few changes, I started messing around with Roll20 and building a few units.

I came to the conclusion that it needs re-working, that for what I see in my brain the number of stats I have is too many.

This means some mechanics simplification and changes in ideas.  So for now my brain is chewing away on that and I am trying new ideas, some I love the idea of, but don't seem to work on paper.

In other news I have completed my first two command groups for my Dessert army.  Loosely inspired by the Fremen of Dune and largely populated with Sahadeen miniatures from Rebel Minis.


Based miniatures.



Primed and washed.



Base colors added.  Dark brown and flesh tones



Lighter brown jackets, washed with a dark umber and then dry brushed.

 

Command group with dessert bases.

RESD and a new Force and a little Man & Machine as well.

Spent a little time last night finishing up the bases on my RESD power armor, as well as adding a few highlights. Still need a protective coat, but they are essentially done.

 

 

In the background of the above image are a new force I picked up sometime ago from Rebel Miniatures: http://www.rebelminis.com/sahadeenarmy.html

I am planning on a Dune inspired Fremen desert army.  Color schemes will be along the lines of dark brown and lighter brown,  ala this image search for Fremen.

 

 

The first six of the new force all based up and ready for a final cleaning and prime.

On the Man machine front I have started running some quick tests of the combat rules via the roll20 engine.  There are a few issues to work out I think, but I will need to use more than just a few random stats.  I will need to sit down and make a couple of actual soldiers with points value to see if what i am seeing is something realistic to the game or not.

 

 

Earth Doom.....

One of my favorite models from Khurasan are the Earthdoom suits.  I knew I wanted to use them as the power armor for my RESD troopers.

I killed two birds with one stone over the weekend and set up my new airbrush, an Iawata Neo CN and got one suit painted and my other two base coated.

Base coasted models with a 15mm trooper for scale.

Completed minus the base.  This is the scheme I am going to go with.  Although I am still considering the troopers using custom paints over the cockpit.  My original thought was a hand print.  Some kinda tribalish ideas maybe.

I had some issues with the white paint drying too fast, making it difficult to get the skull to go smooth.  I ended up making a wet pallete after the fact, and will give that a shot this week.