Category Archives: Dragon Rampant

Dragon Rampant: Old School Fantasy – Evil

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Here’s my third attempt at a Dragon Rampant force. This time… the complete army is done! Previous attempts stalled because a) I switched scales and b) I didn’t wanna paint all orcs. 

I took inspiration from the “Old School Fantasy” lists in the Lion Rampant books. I might not wanna paint 50 orcs, but I’ll paint 12. The thought of getting to play and paint with the different Oathmark models appealed. Most of these figs are from that line with a few Reaper and a Gripping Beast. I also added a few extra models so I could use these with the LR ruleset as well.

I’ve always liked this old cover to Dragon Magazine, and along with the Old School Fantasy lists in LR having each unit be a separate race, I was finally able settle on my DR force. And like I mentioned, painting several different creature units seemed more fun than a whole army of the same creature.

As a regular reader of Dragon Magazine in the 80s, I felt like I saw a hundred Clyde Caldwell paintings of a female character of some flavor with a small dragon familiar nearby. Maybe there weren’t as many as I thought, but they seemed to have stood out. I’ve also always wanted to do a larger base for a SMU leader or hero, so that was the approach I took with the leader of this warband.

In my head cannon, I envision the sorceress being to MotU’s Skeletor as the unit leaders are to Beastman, merman, evil Lynn, and the like. That’s why they’re all different skin colors, like Skeletor’s lackeys. Unified in a muted scheme but also clearly their own unique creature. It’s not an obvious nod, but part of the inspiration when I created the force, and why I arranged them around her in the first photo.

I painted up 7 or 13 models for each of the normal human sized units so I can pull the leaders of each out into an elite foot leader group in Lion Rampant (in place of the SMU sorceress) while still having 6/12 models in each unit. Now… let’s look at these units.

Dire boar SMU – lesser warbeast maybe with hatred or cunning

Stone Trolls RMU – bellicose foot

Goblin wolf riders – heavy or light riders

Gnolls – scouts maybe with fearful

Night orcs – scouts

Orcs – heavy foot with offensive

Skeletons – light foot with undead

This is all over 24pts, but still fits in a single Really Useful Box. Since taking these photos, I’ve received my copy of Dragon Rampant 2nd edition which greatly expands the Fantastical Upgrade a Spell Lists. The new book increases the standard game to 30pts, but 24 is still viable. So, after spending a little time with this new tome of wonder, I’ll need to revise the units here. But that part is easy, the hard part…putting paint to models…is done. This is a big relief and I’m pleased with the result.

What are your thoughts of this Old School Evil army of mixed units?

Dragon Rampant: Dire Boar

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A third post in under a week! Both of the blog’s readers are eating well! 😉 Seriously though, last week I took a few days off work to spend time with the kids on Spring Break and I was also able to get quite a bit of painting done. Don’t expect this many posts as the new regular. ha.

Anyway, here we have a Reduced Model Unit Lesser Warbeast, a Reaper Dire Boar. They had this fella down at the local game shop and I thought he’d be a good, cheap addition to the warband. I think he cost about $5. An ornery Dire Boar seemed like the sort of ill-tempered creature to fit in an orc warband. I’ll probably give it the Hatred Fantastical Rule. If I remember correctly, there was a dire boar of sorts causing mayhem in Arthurian legend? He just needs a terror-inducing name like that ram in LotR, Grond. I think I’m gonna go with Morthog unless something else comes up. I’m open to better suggestions if you’ve got ’em.

This was three quick-to-paint units putting me at about 12 points. Half the warband already! But where are the orcs in this orc warband?!

Dragon Rampant: Orc Shaman

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Had a little momentum, so painted up the next Orc Warband unit, The Orc Shaman. I’m thinking this is going to be a Light Foot Unit with the Wizardlings fantasy option added, so a 5 point unit. This gives the unit three spells, which’ll probably be Power Bolt!, Befuddle Thee! and Heal Thee!. A range attack, a spell that batters a unit, and a healing spell. Pretty generic but probably the most flexible.

I’ve modeled this Light Foot unit with only two models. The Orc Shaman and a “summoned’ Bog Beast. The summoned part is just for Rule of Cool, I’m not going with the Summoner ability. This unit of 2 models will be 6 ST points each. Clearly, that Bog Beast can soak some damage, and the shaman has…”magicks”.

I painted up the Bog Beast with the same technique I do terrain. I recently acquired a pot of Dirty Down’s Moss Effect which is great, but I wonder if that sort of technical paint makes it visually too different from the orc models. Well, it’s also a Meirce Miniature that I had kicking around the bits box for awhile and the sculpts on those are a bit more detailed than my preferred style which lies closer to the Oathmark Orc Shaman from Northstar. I hope the duo fit together though.

Dragon Rampant: Orc Scouts

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Been awhile. Life has been a bit wild lately, and I’d be lying if I said the geopolitical landscape hasn’t effected me. Anyway, whether I’m fiddlin’ while Rome burns or I’m an echo-chamber victim and things aren’t so bad, I’ve decide to finally push forward on a project that’s been on the burner for years… Dragon Rampant proper.

As a big fan of the Northstar Oathmark line, the original idea was to just use one box of plastic warriors (30), a blister or two of metal characters and the occasional cheap Reaper creature to supplement. It’s a pretty low cost option for a DR warband. The decision always came down to either Orcs or Dwarves and it looks like Orcs won out. Northstar recently added some fantastic wolves to their catalaog, so I expanded the original idea here and ordered a set for goblin wolf riders.

In order to get any sort of momentum on this, I’ve decided to go with my fastest paint technique which is basically just grey prime, then paint inside-out, no mistake touch-ups, and wash the skin one color and everything else Agrax Earthshade. I was never a great painter, but I would try to clean up errors and wash and highlight with appropriate shades. But now… to get though 30+ models… I’m just doing everything in Agrax and applying a little more in spots where I painted outside the lines. I don’t know how often the mood to paint will strike in these dark, modern times, but when it does I want to get through the models ASAP.

Originally, I was looking to do an old-school blue-grey shade of orc. It was suggested to me to use Vallejo Luftwaffe, but I found that to be too dark. I ended up going with that on the unit leader model above. I’ll probably use it for all the unit leader and character type models. Sorta like the black orcs of Warhammer lore being the stronger and wiser. I had a pot of Fernesian Grey that I thought looked good, but it turned out a bit more blue than I thought. Maybe because I used Citadel Nightshade? Either way, they have a Rogue Trooper-like appearance, which to be honest, is a bit of a happy accident. I’ve always wanted to do a blue Rogue Trooper like warband, but never really had a game to do that with. I guess these Dragon Rampant orcs are gonna be that.

Anyway, thoughts on these shades of blue?

Terrain: Painting Realistic Stone

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I’ve been sitting on a lot of terrain. In the past I never did much in building or painting terrain, usually relying on others to put up the scenery. Being a naturally slow painter and being burdened with long hours at work, taking the time to paint terrain seemed a luxury. Recently though I have started buying terrain pieces. Mostly components to fit in with Dark Age to Napoleonic eras. Most of these buildings are stone so I wanted to find a system that could easily paint up stone while making it look realistic. Following my usual modus operandi, I scoured the internet to find someone who had the solution. 

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Ronin: Dragon Rampant Warband

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The Rampant series from Osprey is another ruleset I’ve become enamored with in recent years. While painting Ronin models, I’ve kept an eye on what could be combined into a larger force so I could flex the same models between both rulesets. So, without further ado, here’s the 24point Dragon Rampant warband using three Ronin buntais and three mythological creatures, the Yami No Taiyo (or the Dark Sun). Starting with the Jorogumo and going clockwise:

  • Lady Kage (Leader): Light Riders (Single Model Unit – 4pts)
  • Shuten-Doji & the Amanojaku: Bellicose Foot (Reduced Model Unit – 4pts)
  • Shadow Dancers: Scouts with Invisibility (5pts)
  • Bandits of the Dark Sun: Light Foot with Mixed Weapons (5pts)
  • Hypnotized Swordsmen: Elite Foot (6pts)

Even though Jorogumo don’t work with Bandits, officially, in Ronin, I painted them in similar colors knowing they were going to be her general foot troops in Dragon Rampant. As shared last post, Jorogumo can lead Koryu by entrancing them. Here, I’m using them hypnotized as her elite guard. The Oni, Amanojakuo, and Ninja…well they’re up for working in her employ for their own shadowy goals.

Dragon Rampant: Clan of Cyclopes

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Another wave of Covid has rippled through the house, so figured it was time to jump on that second Dragon Rampant warband. I expected this one to take two days as well, but it took a little under four hours so went ahead and put paint to an Elheim warlock figure as well.

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