Move, you Maggots!

More Heresy Miniatures this time. His "lovely" range of maggots this time.
Here's the whole happy family:

 The paintjob was fairly easy, just a mix of washes and drybrushes over a fleshtone basecoat, leaving me to focus on choosing the right colours for maximum ickyness. : )
After that it was a matter of painting them all in satin varnish to offset the matness from the drybrushings, giving them the ever so slightest sheen and hitting the hard bits, like teeth and spines, with gloss varnish. A little dab of Tamiya Transparent Red over the bits of gore in one of the Maggotmen's hands and Bob's your mothers brother!
Because they are resin casts and the bottoms of the minis have plenty of contact surface for a secure glue bond, I painted the bases and minis separately and glued them together at the very last.
These will join the 5 giant maggots/grubs I already had, giving me a gross little herd to swamp heroes with!

Here are a few more closeups of the lot:

"Mother", the God-Grub:

(To give an idea of size, she's on a 50mm base.)

"The Keepers", servants of Mother and herders of the giant maggots and grubs:

(These are on 25mm bases)

"The Children", giant maggots and grubs:

(On 20mm round bases)

These nasty gribblies were all so much fun to paint!

See you next time!

That's a load of bull!

Highland bull, that is!
So, a double feature today, two posts within 24 hours! I managed to finish a second figure yesterday. After all, I had a whole day of nothing else to do but wait for the cable guy. I lost no time faffing about on the PC as I'd lose the internet connection the moment the guy started working, so I didn't bother switching it on in the first place and just kept painting.

Which means now I can present to you; the Highland Minotaur.
Like with the chicken-keeper from last post, it was to dark to photograph them by the time they were finished so I took pics today.
Here's the beast:

He's a conversion of Heresy Miniatures Snow Troll. I simply added horns, lopped off it's toes and replaced them with hooves. I hid any seams or connections by sculpting fur over them, to blend into the existing shaggy coat. Paint was a series of washes and drybrushes for the fur.

(P.S. the gritty texture on his left hand isn't a casting or sculpting defect. It's just me being a klutz and not noticing there was still some sand stuck on his hand until well after primering... Being on the underside/inside of the hand, and so not noticeable from tabletop angle, I opted to just keep it there instead of trying to scrape it of and potentially messing up the WIP paintjob or surface of the mini. Just so there is no confusion, Heresy's Andy his casting is impeccable!)

Some conversions in progress

With the stormy weather, the light isn't decent enough to paint ( I did manage to paint some chickens for the village on saturday, but I won't show these yet as I want to show them with the accompanying villager, and she's not finished yet.). So I decided to build some figures instead. The results are below:

Catching up (Aka Loot-tober)

So, what have I been up to the last couple of weeks?

Well, reading, as my copy of Badab War arrived:

I've wanted these books ever since they came out, but just couldn't justify the price tag. But recently, as I was browsing the Forgeworld site, I saw that the price had come way down, I guess because the rules inside are now several editions out of date. As I mainly wanted it for the background and decidedly less for the rules this doesn't bother me, so I struck.

A while ago my son expressed interest in painting a mini. The past two weekends we spent an afternoon painting together, teaching him the basics of basecoat, drybrushing and washes.
As I didn't want to paint anything involved while doing this I started on some Deathwing terminators from Dark Vengeance (Yeah, I know, the fact that I don't consider Deathwing terminators involved panting-wise should worry me).
I don't have a Dark Angels army, nor an interest in starting one, but they are useable in Space Hulk and I could put them down whenever I needed to help out or advise my son while painting.
For him I prepped a few spare miniatures (a Chaos warrior, Space Marine, Lizardman and an Ork), being an 11 year-old boy, he chose the Space Marine... :D
He actually impressed me with the focus, attention and calm he was painting with (especially as he has ADHD) and the result is quite nice for a first mini:

A proud parent am I....
After this first taste, he seems to be interested in doing more. Not going to push him on it, we'll see where it goes.

Also, my Gwent decks from the Witcher 3 expansion arrived:

For those that don't know. the Witcher 3 is an open-world fantasy RPG for the PC based on the world/setting of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels. Unsurprisingly it is the third part of the series of games...
Gwent is a (mini-)game within the game, that has become quite loved and popular (with people making emulators to play it outside of the Witcher game and even some making physical cards to play it in real life).
It's quite a fun game, each player builds a deck, of which he draws ten cards for a game. Each card has a value, you play over three rounds, the highest total score when both players pass wins the round, the first player to win two rounds wins the game. You don't replenish cards between the rounds so there is a fair bit of strategy to determine what cards to play, which to hold in reserve for a next round and when to pass. Certain cards mess can influence your strategy even more by either modifying the value of cards or removing/recycling cards from your or your opponents hand. This man on youtube can give you a beginners tutorial.
 The collector's edition of the game contained two of the four decks (I didn't get it, it was too expensive for me at the time of release), but the first expansion allowed one to order the other two decks. I'm hoping the second expansion will allow me a second chance to get the first two decks as well and complete the set.
I'm looking forward to playing this with a real live human.

Yesterday I went to Crisis, a Belgian wargaming show hosted by the Tin Soldiers Of Antwerp. A great show, especially now that they seem to have settled into their new venue quite comfortably.
As usual lots of great and good-looking demos and participation games, nice and friendly traders with a good mix and diversity of products and ranges and a well-run bring and buy. (Though I couldn't buy much at her stand, due to previously reserved funds, I especially enjoyed the visit to the Dice Bag Lady. Cheerful and friendly service and I quite appreciate her intention and effort to find and promote miniatures of women that are sensibly equipped/dressed and capable. While I enjoy the occasional cheesecake, I have set myself  a goal of making my collection of Dungeoneering/Fantasy heroes as gender-equal as possible and found myself surprised at how difficult that actually turns out to be.)
The bring and buy, while always good, had an unexpected treat for me this year, as I managed to snag a very good condition copy of the Realm of Chaos- Slaves to Darkness hardcover for a mere €25, whereas it usually goes for a princely sum on Ebay. Now I can only hope to have similar luck someday with the companion book, the Lost and the Damned, which usually goes for even sillier money online...
On the miniatures end of Crisis, I acquired a wizard and apprentice from Frostgrave (Sigilist as I like the minis, not sure if I'll actually use them in Frostgrave or for something else entirely. I'm somewhat eyeing an Elementalist for Frostgrave with regards to spell selection) as well as the populations and livestock for a medieval/fantasy village through Foundry and Warbases:

So now I'll have to (re)research appropriate colours for medieval livestock and village buildings before I build and paint them. Maybe I'll even have to rewatch Tales from the Green Valley again...
Ah, the toils of knowledge... ;P

I kept a little bit of cash set aside for things that I wanted to get, but weren't available at the show itself, which I've now ordered online.
Even though it's in November, the visit to Crisis wonderfully concluded what I've come to think of as Loot-tober this year as, in addition to the above, this month also saw the Heresy monsters Kickstarter delivered, along with the last set of coins from a coin Kickstarter. :D
It also effectively concludes my hobby purchases for this year, aside from a little bit of currency reserved for a Kickstarter I know is coming in december (Late 14th/early 15th century styled armoured halflings, I just can't resist!), I'll talk more about that when it starts.

See you next time!

Fulfillment...

Of a Kickstarter, that is.

Today I picked up my Heresy Miniatures Kickstarter package (Apparently  previous delivery attempts had been made. I assume by one of those  "stealth"-postmen that don't use doorbells and delivery cards, as I had been home that entire day and hadn't seen or heard anything... If they'd used a regular postie, I'd have had my stuff a week earlier...)

Here's what came out of the box:

As usual, Heresy miniatures shows the excellence the  "Forum of Doom-collective" has become known and loved for. The package was sturdy and caringly wrapped, with a nice thank-you note and some candy. Little touches that really make you feel appreciated as a customer, and the fact that Heresy keeps this up, even with the insane workload of the Dragon and Kickstarter fulfillment really speaks of their dedication and deeply entrenched customer care.
But it was the contents that really blew me away this time. Heresy Miniatures metal casting has always been very good, especially considering that essentially it has always been a one man operation. (Two man now, wouldn't want to ignore "Minion Dave")
But with the resin casts from the Kickstarter Heresy really kicks it up a notch, they are just near perfect! Clean neat detail, all perfectly cast with no bubbles, no flash, barely any moldlines at all!
Really looking forward to building and painting these.

So what did I get?

I didn't go crazy overboard (My budget nowadays simply doesn't allow it anymore), but I got some cool bits to make my dungeon that more dangerous:
6 More Gribbly Slugs, the six I already had simply weren't enough, I really want to swarm my adventurers!
3 Maggotmen to serve as herders for the above.
1 Terror Grub, a huge, hideous maggot to serve as a mother/living god to the Maggotmen. Perhaps, at some point I'll also add the Maggotmen Leader to this crew of creeps.
And two trolls, a Dungeon Troll, who gets to stay just as he is, and a Snow Troll, who will get horns and hooves to become a Highland Minotaur. The latter is a conversion I had wanted to do since I first saw the snow troll, but never got around to while he was available in metal.

What's a Highland Minotaur?  Well, imagine this, but bipedal, carnivorous and extremely vicious:

See you next time!

"It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a..."

Guess what I painted this weekend? 

A cute little quartet of Cave Grues!

Here they are:

The photo washed out the highlights and richness of the brown a bit. :(

As I said, I will be using these as Cave Grues: Absolutely lethal monsters (they're on 30mm bases, which in my basing scheme makes them the equal of epic heroes in prowess!), but very intolerant of light. So, on certain scenarios, these will be lurking on the edge of the board and players will have to track their light source(s). As long as you have a light source, they will stay outside of the light's radius of illumination.  Light goes out? Grues close in. Better get that lantern re-lit before they reach you!

The miniatures are Heresy Miniatures crouching and leaping Lurkers, which he sadly doesn't make anymore. (Unless you've taken part in his recent Kickstarter, where they were part of the perks, hopefully their inclusion means they may get a return in the future.)

Barking up trees

This weekend I had originally planned to make some more progress on the Warhammer Quest display unit for the glass cabinet. However, I had neglected to calculate for the various celebrations (an anniversary and two milestone birthdays) within our family... Which my loving wife dutifully reminded me of, as I was pulling out all the hobby gear.

So the progress hasn't proceeded as progressively as planned. :-(

I did get the trees for the display covered in bark-like texture. (Hence the title of this post.) I painted the wire skeleton with several layers of wall-filler made slightly thinner and goopier with the aid of PVA glue. I brushed on an initial layer of watered down filler, to act as a "primer coat" for the following layers to grab on to. Then I added several layers of a thicker mix until the wire frame wasn't protruding from the surface anymore. For the final layer I threw a handful of sand into the mixture, to give it some more texture. I put this on roughly and with visible brushstrokes to emulate the texture of bark. Once dried it is a bit more subtle than I'd hoped, but when painted it should suffice:

As I had several tree wireframes still lying around, I've textured them at the same time, as you can see above.
Here is a close up of the two trees (and separate branches) for the display, so you can see a bit of the texture I achieved:

As a bonus, while these were drying between layers, I managed to clip and clean 18 GW the Hobbit Goblins. I'll be using these as some sort of underground degenerates, and they can double as mutants for games of 40K or =I=Munda, so they'll be based somewhat generically. I also managed to greenstuff the torsos of 11 second-hand Battle for Skull Pass spiders, so they are ready for primer. Additionally (filler is applied quickly, but dries slowly) I filled the gaps in the Heresy Miniatures Lurkers I showed a while ago and attached them to their bases.

All in all, looking back, while I didn't do what I planned to, I've been quite productive. And all that in a weekend I, beforehand, considered lost to sitting up and playing nice with relatives...

They dwell in the dark places of the world...

Two posts in one weekend! I know, wild, isn't it? ;p

The beastmen warband is fully assembled. I just need to fill any gaps and do their bases.

Here's the chieftain and his elite warriors:

The lesser fighters of the clan:

 So, once I have the last remnants of my Undead warband painted (2 Skeleton leaders, 1 Dread Knight, 2 Wraiths, a Banshee, Necromancer and the Skeleton King himself. Hm, sounds like a lot still...) I should have the next evil warband primed and ready to go.

I also made a base for the Dwarf today:

And, as an extra, I assembled my Lurkers from Heresy miniatures:

Sadly, he doesn't seem to make these anymore. I believe they wore out their moulds too quickly.
The leaping ones are on 25mm bases only temporarily, in the end they will all get 30mm bases.
As I normally use 30mm bases for my major heroes, these will become rather dangerous critters....
I like the idea of fielding them as (lesser) Grue, just for the nerdy reference. Don't let your torches go out!

Now, time to mix up some greenstuff and start filling gaps...

See you next time!

Some stuff

Not much going on hobbywise due to a chronic, stubborn case of Real Life. But, still a little sign of life now and then is nice, isn't it?

Past weekend, a friend of ours threw an arts and crafts day/party. As we had to keep things compact this time the option of taking my miniature painting gear along (as I and a few friend had done previous times) fell by the wayside. Instead I opted to bring my dungeon basing tools along and prep some milliput discs the evening before.
To summarise the party: There was cake, lots of cake, delicious cake! It was good. Cake.... My friends were silly and hilarious, as they are wont to do in congregations above a certain size (i.e. more than one ;P ).
Oh, and I finished the milliput work on the bases for my Knights family, a minstrel, a druid and a paladin. I guess that bears mentioning as well...
This means the minstrel and paladin are effectively ready for paint. The family still needs dirt added and the druid needs erupting plantlife and dirt added before they are ready for primer.
Here they are:

(For completeness sake: the Paladin is a Privateer Press IKRPG Paladin of the Wall with a headswap and serial numbers Menoth Icons filed off, the family and minstrel are from Hasslefree Miniatures, and the druid is from the former Spyglass/Eolith range, now sold by Heresy Miniatures.)

Also some housekeeping: I intended this as a gaming/miniatures blog, but I found that I had an increasing number of medieval/re-enactment related blogs in my blogroll. I consider them relevant to this forum, as a lot of my interests in gaming are inspired by history/historical interest. But to keep things tidy and to prevent confusion, I've separated them into their own little blogroll.

Finally there is this:
An online petition to GW to change their ways and reconnect with their customer base.
A candle in the wind, I know, but I might as well spread the word. For a long time they were the reason I started, and continued, to wargame. They'll never be again who they were when I started gaming, but who knows, the new CEO might take notice? ;-P

See you next time!

"Vade Retro!"

Introducing Father Gerhardt:

Father Gerhardt is the monk assigned as a tutor and protector to the children of my Knight (I really need to decide on a name for the guy!). As such he also does double duty as the priest of the village that forms the heart of the demesne.
The figure is Heresy Miniatures' Brother Bude. A lovely figure to paint, the only problem I had while painting was that I dropped him, bending his cross and taking the paint of his knuckles!
His base is done with my usual milliput method, I've detailed and painted it to look like the well-worn stone floor of a family chapel or catacomb. If you look closely near his left foot you'll see some familiar, but faded, heraldry...

And finally, the view most commonly seen by the undead and unholy things that sometimes invade the catacombs near the village:

I just love the determined look he has on his face!
If his faith won't stop you, his mace will...

So, what else have I been painting the last week and a half?

Well, there's these lovely fellas:

Giant Slugs* from Heresy Miniatures.
*: The majority of them actually look more like grubs or maggots, but who cares, they're nasty-looking and that's what counts!

I also finished the spearmen for my knight's retinue:

This group is a bit more mixed than the archers, who are all more or less of equal standing.
Among these spearmen is the knight's Sergeant, who is in overall charge of the knight's armed retainers, regardless of their armament. This is the veteran who, in his lord's keep, sets watch rosters, oversees drills and exercises, manages the day to day running and supplies of the garrison, etc. In battle he commands the retainers, so his lord can concentrate on his combat knowing that his men will be where he needs them, when he needs them. He is the man in maille with the pigfaced bascinet and the fancy shaped shield who is enthusiastically waving his sword in the air...
In this group is also the spearman selected to bear his lord's personal banner. It's an honoured, if hazardous, duty...
Here is a better view of the banner:

So, this is where my recent painting leaves the knight and his retinue:

So, where next?
Currently on the painting table is the knight's squire (like the knight I have both a mounted and foot model for him). And once he is done, I still have the knight's wife, children and faithful hound to paint.
Of course there is still the rest of the Warhammer Quest boxed set to finish, several other heroes to paint, my own stable of monsters to paint (and collect more of)...
And let's not forget I've still that diorama display to finish, and dungeon terrain for gaming to consider.
Thankfully I've got several other projects to switch to, whenever this one seems to be getting too much for me... ;-P

Heresy!

As I came home from a day of sightseeing with the misses (went to see Hieronimus Bosch's paintings. Great stuff!),  I found a  small discreetly wrapped package behind the front door...

My little order from Heresy Miniatures had arrived! What a perfect way to end a nice day out!

So, what did I get from them?
Well, 2 packs of their brilliant Giant Slug, to terrorize and gross out any hero who wants to venture into the dungeons. And two new additions to the roster of heroes: Brother Bude, the Exorcist and Autumn, the Wood Elf sorceress.
And as a bonus, a nice roll of Fizzers was included as well! Together with a little personal note from Andy.

The miniatures I got were, as expected, great: well sculpted and impeccably cast, a few very minor specs of excess metal where the vents were cut onto the mold and I really had to look to see mold lines.
These figures will be an absolute joy to prep and paint!

But what impresses me most is the treatment and appreciation you get as a customer:
Andy Foster, Heresy's owner, replies personally if you order. In my case he even apologized for his late reply... He responded well within 24 hours! Not tardy by a long stretch in my books!
 As his website clearly stated there would be delays and it might take a while to send orders out due to a big project he is working on, I was actually rather surprised he responded that fast. Especially because he wrote the mail to let me know he had shipped my order. Several items in my order were listed as "out of stock" when I made my order, the day before, but that didn't stop Andy's 24 hour order fulfillment. Wow!
It's things like this that bring a big old smile to my face and gets you a spot on my "bloody brilliant companies to deal with"shortlist.

This high standard of service, of genuine attention and care to you, as a customer, is something that exemplifies Heresy miniatures and the other members of the "Forum of Doom Quartet"* and because of that, I can't sing their praises enough. If there is any regret I have when dealing with any of them it's that I simply don't have the amount of money this collective of fine people deserve to have thrown at them...

*: aka Hasslefree Miniatures, Heresy Miniatures, Fenris Games and Black Scorpion.

In places deep, where dark things sleep,...

...In hollow halls beneath the fells.

But no Hobbit miniatures, oh no! I'm talking about the murderous hobo lifestyle; adventuring and dungeoneering!
But since both mini's I want to show have something to do with the subterranean realms the lyric quoted seemed apt.

So, here is number one, a Rhulic (aka Dwarf) Rifleman for the Iron Kingdoms RPG:

As the miniature is not of a character I am currently playing, he's as yet unnamed. 
He's is a conversion of a Heresy Miniatures Dwarf Miner/Inventor. I remodelled the original shotgun into a Iron Kingdoms style Repeater Rifle and added a greatcoat.
 I started this conversion some years ago, back in Iron Kingdom's D20 days, to represent a friend's Rhulic Ranger. But I couldn't get a decent greatcoat sculpted on. We have since moved on to the IKRPG 2nd edition with all new characters, so he was no longer immediately necessary. I came across him when sorting through my mini's for Iron Kingdoms and decided to give him another go.
I'm quite happy with him now he is finally finished.

And dungeoneering related miniature number 2:

A nice big barbarian warrior from the tribes around the Seas of Sand in the eastern lands.
He is Hasslefree Miniatures' Wolf (b) with a braided mohawk/topknot added in greenstuff. I've painted him with a darker, more bronzed skintone to appear like someone from the Middle East. He's a big brute of a mini, over 35mm tall, excluding his base.

With him finished, it means two companions are finally together again:

The moment I pulled these out of the parcel, I knew they had to go together, they're just such a characterful duo.
Two adventuring companions, having shared many adventures and perils over the years. Despite, or maybe because of, their obvious and significant differences, they only truly seem to be at ease when the other is near. Rumors have it they may even be lovers, but no-one has yet had the courage, or deathwish, to ask...

There is a third member to this little adventuring outfit, a mutual friend who joins them from time to time, but he resides still in his little plastic baggie... A grizzled older warrior, also from Hasslefree.

Oh, and the prop for my son's costume is finished, but still needs final fitting and pictures taken, it will get a post all of its own later this weekend.