Stonewalling...

This weekend I've been making drystone walls for my 14th century medieval/fantasy village project.
After viewing a few tutorials on Youtube, I decided to go the "gravel and PVA in a mould" route:

A traditional Dwarven breakfast porridge. :D

Put it into a mould with some baking paper:

Leave to thoroughly dry and harden and you have:

Dwarven Granola Bars! :D

I had to do a quick test layout:

Need to fill some gaps on the undersides, but this will work nicely!

Time to get basing!

And a little farm setup with the Perry Miniatures medieval cottage.  Just need to stick some pigs in the wattle pen, cows or corn in the stonewalled fields.
I still need to build one or two wooden gates, as these will probably used for sheep/cow meadows. And then I can start painting this batch!

After that I want to add a chicken coop, some veggie gardens and a midden pile, and then I think I can call this first farm complete. Maybe some random tools and farm implements as scatter terrain.

See you next time!

A bit of catching up

Whoop, I sort of forgot to post my progress over the past weekends... I messed up my back a bit, putting a bit of a damper on several activities, including the hobby. Luckily I'm on the mend, but the involuntary hiatus has caused a bit of a lack of focus. So, hobby-wise I'm all over the place at the moment.

The last thing I could do with the airbrush (at least until I get an indoor setup organised) before the weather turned to autumn, was to do a quick test of concept/practice run for the hairspray and salt weathering I intend to do on my Necromunda scenery:

 Lessons learned from this: I need to get/make a more varied and smaller mix of salt grains, as these chips are rather large and thus crude. Plus I will need to find a way to wash off the brine without damaging the non-waterproof parts of the terrain (the Pringles can and plaster are the ones I'm most worried about....). But all in all, a good test run.

 I also received some things. First is what may be the oddest thing I've ever bought for wargaming:

Three sets of animated LED fake eyelashes. Got them for a song out of China. The intent is to integrate them into some scenery for lighting effects as they're cheaper than most model lighting sets, and quite compact, making them easy to integrate. I have two sets of blue LEDs to use for a generator wall I've been wanting to build for my Space Hulk terrain for a long time.
The other one is a yellow light that should be ideal for Necromunda.

The second is Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago:

Haven't read it properly yet, just leafed through it, but it promises to be as much fun as it's predecessor!

So, where is the lack of focus, you ask?
Well, alongside building a tank for my DAK, I spontaneously started assembling/basing miniatures for IKRPG. None of them for characters I'm ever likely to play...

As I was down the IKRPG rabbit hole anyway, I might as well finish of some long-suffering WIP mini's. The leftmost and rightmost are official IKRPG miniatures, the central one in the steam armour is from Hasslefree Miniatures. Barely past the primer stage, these were the project for this weekend:

I'm happy with the progress I've made on these. All that's left to do is finish the metals and bases, eyes and gauges, as well as the hair on the two bareheaded ones (the central one will be redheaded, the right one a dark blonde). Hopefully I can finish them next weekend.

See you next time!

I'm gonna have me some fun...

As I said in my Photobucket gripe post, it was my birthday last week and my wife gave me a Proxxon Thermocut (she loves me, she really does!).
Almost immediately I ordered some supplemental tools from GeBoom at Shifting Lands through a friend. That friend showed up yesterday for a game of Gaslands with those cutting aids.
As they are laser-cut mdf they required some assembly.
Well, some assembly was done today:

(As you can see Geboom also threw in some of his lasercut windows, as a teaser. Thank you!)

Assembly was easy, but you have to pay some attention to orientation of parts (I only messed up on the first one, resulting in the large fence being a bit tilted, but nothing that will interfere with proper functioning.)
Once assembled, they are nice and solid. As with the wirecutter itself, using these guides will take some practice and development of skill. But I'm looking forward to finally getting to grips with that pack of XPS I've had in the garage for years...

So what are the plans? First off: Dungeons, naturally,  as I haven't painted that pile of dungeoneers and monsters over the past two years for nothing! I've stalled on dungeon terrain for a long time, as I couldn't get the accuracy of cuts I wanted by hand. Now, I have no excuse, but I need to figure out seriously how I want to go about building my dungeon terrain first. Do I go with floor plates and loose walls, do I build individual corridor sections and rooms, or do I go with modular tiles?
No longer are these thoughts idle daydreams...

Then there is the idea of building a fantasy medieval village for my Chivalry project (itself part of the larger dungeoneering/fantasy meta-project). Having the cutter will open up the option of making some stone buildings and maybe even a keep or castle for my young lord!

Ofcourse, anything I build for dungeoneering or the chivalry game, will also find use in Frostgrave.

Necromunda as well, as I was envisioning a number of concrete butresses/pillars where gangways and shanty towns were built against their surfaces.

Lots of ideas that can finally become reality!

Yet, oddly enough, it is most likely I will grab my old hand-held foamcutter the coming weekends instead, as I intend to build some Mad-Max style desert wasteland terrain for Gaslands... Ironic really, I've been lusting after this foam cutter for years, and now that I finally have it, I grab the tool that has been in my garage for years. Oh well..

See you next time!

P.S. Still working on downloading all my pics from Photobucket to restore this blog, but PB is fighting me every step of the way....

I feel like sushi tonight.

Our  DnD Campaign set in mythical Japan has picked up steam again, which has gotten me looking at my medieval Japan references again. At the same time Gunbird started building Japanese houses and a second hand copy of Daisho came along on the LAF. Apparently Samurai are in the air... So why fight it?

Especially as I have a Pappis box full of the belligerent little dudes. :D A couple were already paint in progress and I had a basecoated Torii. As good a point to start (or continue) as any.
Here's the results of a day's painting:

 I tried to get the Torii to look like a simple, weathered, rural one, the design just lent itself to that. No idea where it came from, it was a gift from Gunbird.

And more of a close up of the Samurai themselves:

The mini's are from The Assault Group, Gempei Wars era Samurai.
I've got a few more primered and ready to paint, but those will have to wait for another weekend.
Once my Daish rule set arrives, I'll have a root through my box and assemble a warband/Buntai. I should have some ashigaru as well. And if I have the right mix of weapons and gear, they may even visit Frostgrave?
For now, it's just fun to be doing hobby stuff again and sharing enthusiasm with Gunbird.

See you next time!

the Shire Defense Force mobilises!

Today, my first package of the Westfalia Miniatures Halfmen Kickstarter arrived, and they are glorious:

Tomorrow a second package should follow, containing the last few miniatures, and then I should have everything in my hands.
I had a quick look at them, and once again Westfalia Miniatures really impresses. (They already went well above and beyond coordinating with me to make sure my miniatures wouldn't arrive when I was away from home.)

Their choice in resin is excellent, it's light and takes detail very well, transferring every detail of the absolutely marvellous sculpts, while being ever so slightly flexible, which is great boon to actual wargaming use for this miniatures.
The casting is virtually flawless, with barely any mouldlines and little excess resin to deal with. (The only flaw I could find after checking every single miniature, was a slight misalignment of the mould on the visor of one my Goat Knights. Nothing a stroke with a file and maybe a dot of putty won't fix. Which for working with resin, and the sheer amount of miniatures I got, is so minor an issue it doesn't even properly count.) There are the usual slight bent spears and such that are part and parcel of resin minis, but even those are few and far between. And knowing Westfalia, all their shipments are to this standard of quality. They're just gobsmackingly amazingly good and very, very dedicated.

The sculpting is just exquisite and very, very clean. These will be an absolute joy to paint up.
I'd better start clearing my hobby table... :)

Hopefully they'll make their way to the Westfalia Miniatures online store, as I can certainly see myself expanding the collection.

So, what are my plans for these? Well, they'll get fed into the greater Dungeoneering/Chivalry/Fantasy monster project. I think they'll get divvied up into groups of a single Knight and his/her retinue, similarly to what I did with my Bretonnians. And mayble I'll cherrypick a few of them to accompany a Halfling Wizard to raid the kitchens and pantries of Frostgrave for frozen treats...

See you next time!

Edit: I feel these might come in handy at the painting stage... ;)
Food in Heraldry
The Wiki on food in heraldry

Wallpainting

I painted the first half of my walls (made another two in the evening last night, so I now have 6 total).
Here they are:

Painting was quite simple: I took basic black and white craft paint and mixed a dark grey colour. This I drybrushed on with a cheapo 2" round housebrush. After each pass I added some more white to the mixture and drybrushed again, until I reached the desired colour and contrast. That's it.
Before painting I undercoated the walls with a ever so slightly thinned 50/50 PVA and black paint mixture (the same black hobby paint) to primer and toughen the surface of the foam.
 Hopefully, tomorrow I can crank out the next three.

Until next time!

Walled in.

We, Gunbird and I, started playing Frostgrave sometime after Crisis 2015, and are now building up a local group of players (started at the two of us, now at 5, maybe 6) and getting the hang of the rules before hopefully launching into a campaign.

The "Wall" spell has turned out to be quite popular, but so far we've been making due with folded paper walls as placeholders. High time to do something about that! I didn't feel like painting today, after finishing the Maggot Family, so grabbed some tools, mdf and foam and started building.
Heres what I got done in an afternoon:

 The mdf bases are somewhat conspicuous, partly on purpose, so these can be identified as walls created by spells. Maybe I'll paint the edge of the base with some kind of runes or script to really drive the point home.
If they were to be regular scenery, I'd have carved the bases back into stones, or hidden them in another way, or simply used a significantly thinner material for the base.
They're each 6" wide, 3" tall and about 2/3 of an inch thick.
I know the walls generated by the "Wall" spell have no appreciable thickness, but I made my walls a bit beefier. For stability, but also so I can use them as regular walls in other games. I've got four finished so far, which should about be enough for a single game of Frostgrave, unless both players really go crazy with the spell. Maybe I'll make some more so we can use them when playing several games at the same time. Perhaps even try a different style of wall altogether?

These four still need sealing with (thinned) PVA-glue before I can paint them.


See you next time!

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.