Porkchop express

Last weekend I painted the pigs and started on the swineherd, part of the medieval village populace I bought at Crisis this year. Today I had the time for a little sitdown with brushes and paint and finished the swineherd.
Here they are:

The pigs are from War-bases. They're Iron Age pigs, whereas I'm basing my fantasy village in the 14th century, but as livestock wasn't systematically improved and bred until Victorian times, I guess I'm good.  I tried to make them look like Tamworths.
The swineherd is from one of Foundry's medieval villagers packs. I chose the running one, as the various "period" Farm shows on Auntie Beeb the past years have taught me that herding swine involves a great deal of chasing...
As they're essentially to be used as terrain, I kept the paint job fairly basic.

I'm trying to match villagers to animals in sets, to make painting a bit more enjoyable and aid me in setting up a believable living village. Next in line: chickens and a maid. Unless a certain rooster-toad offspring pushes it's way to the front of the line. It is after all, the time of year for monsters...

Finding Felstad.

I played a test game of Frostgrave yesterday with a few mates, one of them acting as a "wizarding instructor" of sorts (a.k.a. he explained the rules to us).
I won't do a full write up, if you want, you can read more about the game on Gunbirds blog. Suffice to say that I'm sold, this game is fun!
We both opted for a "loot and scoot" approach, instead of trying to take out the enemy warband, so we ended the game with only 3 casualties (and a near dead apprentice, due to failed castings...).

So, I'll definitely be doing more with this game, I'll just have to see how to fit this into the greater Questing/Chivalry/Dungeoneering project(s). I won't be building a full set of snowed-in ruined city terrain, as I've more than enough scenery projects to build/complete for my fantasy gaming as is, especially now that I have a village worth of civvies and livestock. (There's dungeon terrain, a dread forest, a medieval/fantasy village, maybe some caves and a castle... the snowball keeps rolling. Step one is a storage solution, though, no use building it if I can't store it safely.)
I had already decided that my, loosely defined, setting would incorporate a dark mysterious forest (a classic chanson de geste/chivalry romance trope) and a "Coast of Lost Cities": A long stretch of deserted coastline filled with ancient, ruined, cyclopean cities that extend into/below the waters of the sea. Probably millennia old and riddled with subterranean catacombs, no-one knows what race built these cities and if they are partially submerged due to the rising of the seas or by original design.
Oppressive and inhabited by all sorts of monsters and creatures, people avoid living close, but at the same time the hidden treasures and promise of ancient knowledge attract adventurers and fortune-seekers by the droves.
Either would make a good alternate setting for Frostgrave games. So, for me, depending on what I build scenery for first, I will be playing either "Waldgrave" or "Ruingrave".
Plus, wizards could have many reasons to clash in other locations as well. Maybe they need rare ingredients, leading them to raid a Griffon breeding ground, or they raid a village for youths with magical talent, they may both want to recharge an item in an ancient henge... Or they're just feuding over a border town between their respective territories. Or one wizard raiding another's supply caravan. Plenty of reasons for a magical showdown without needing to loot some dilapidated old place. :)
I need more wizards, though.

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!

Brother Astarte

This weekend I started painting my first true scale space marine*, but I didn't get him entirely finished. Today I had the chance to do the last few touches.

*: Now he isn't my first true scale space marine, I did one a few years back, trying to use only regular marine bits, it didn't quite work the way I wanted. He is however the first of the Howling Griffons true scale warband for games of Inquisimunda and such.

I present to you, Brother Rolan of the Howling Griffons:

The last known pict-capture of Brother Rolan, during the height of the Luyvan Insurrection, early 997.m41. The image was recorded by a security pictor inside a manufactorum near the Luyvan spaceport, hours before the final evacuation preceding Exterminatus. The Howling Griffons 5th Company performed desperate rearguard actions to allow as many key personnel and civilians to escape. As the 5th Company hasn't fought in the subsector since, it is unknown if Brother Rolan was among the last evacuees.

Brother Rolan is a battle brother of the Howling Griffon's fifth company, second squad. Brother Rolan is a recipient of the Aureum Gryphe (seen on his right greave) and has been awarded the right to personal heraldry, as depicted on his right pauldron. Both are unusual, as the lack of other markings or awarded honour-gear seem to indicate that he is still young in his career among the Astartes. On his left greave you can just make out the  badge of the Jülich Sanction campaign. The aquila beneath it indicates he was present at that campaign's culminating 5 day running battle in the great city of Lorimar's Fall. It is speculated his Aurum Gryphe and personal heraldry were earned with feats of valour during this conflict.

Plains of glass

A couple of months ago (wow, time flies) I got an extra set of glass shelves for my display cabinet, as it was slowly getting crowded.
This weekend I finally added those extra shelves to the cabinet.
For that I needed to drill extra holes to support the shelves. While I originally hoped I could do this in situ, after clearing the mini's out of the display cabinet, it quickly became obvious this would be impossible, there simply wasn't room to move a drill about and the risk of shattering the glass was too great.
So, with the aid of my loving and patient wife and son, I completely disassembled the entire thing, drilled all the holes, and proceeded to reassemble the whole contraption... I took the opportunity to properly clean it out as well, as now I could get to every last nook and cranny.
There was a moment of confusion when, instead of having parts left over as usual when assembling furniture, I had to feed extra components into the heaving mass of proto-furniture. But we overcame that and all was well.
I had a few scares when reinserting the glass shelves: Because the shelves were closer together, and there were more of them, I had more nasty little metal pegs to maneuver around, the occasional unexpected tink of impact causing me to freeze nervously. In the end, nothing broke, except a sweat, and I now have a shiny, roomier display cabinet:

I believe this is the largest conversion I've made to date. ;P

Next on the schedule is to repopulate it with my miniatures and arrange them in such a way that I can safeguard for future expansion, as I will not be undertaking the adding of shelves again!
I'm hoping I can do that over the next couple of days. Currently all my miniatures are clumped together in the old display units, which will be handed of to my sister for her hobby stuff, once I've emptied them out again. Here they are, all base-to-base in the largest inter-setting, inter-range and inter-scale melee ever:

Not really a way to do justice to lovingly assembled, converted and painted figures, is it? I'd better free them soon.

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.)