Painted up a few loose figs for my Ninja-type faction. They are from L to R: a red ninja from the Dark Alliance Stalker set, an Elheim survivor, a street samurai troll from the old Ral Partha Shadowrun line (as an Oni), and one of the Citadel Dark Future street warrior models as a stylin’ Yakuza boss. These characters flesh out the rest of my models to make a full Xenos Rampant Detachment. I might make the Oni character one of the rare Elite Units in my collection. It seems that might make sense with the range and melee weapons he’s packing plus oni magicks. In hindsight, I wish I had painted all my ninja models red. Oh, well.
This is a short post I’ve wanted to get out of my head for a while. Essentially, with all of the options for entertainment and creativity…why do I continue to come back to minis games? I’ve always been attracted to gaming, and like everyone else have played plenty of RPGs and video games over the years, but why do I come back to the subset of games that require the most work? Heck, I’ve had periods where I’ve sold off my entire model collection, as well as paint supplies, in attempts to “move on”. To be honest, I don’t really love painting. What am I doing here?
Ultimately, for me, it comes down to the permanence of tabletop games. I said I’ve gotten rid of collections in the past, but my wife held on to a few models as keepsakes. Here’s one. In fact the oldest painted model in my current collection.
It’s a Citadel Chaos Sorcerer from the mid-80s. He’s not my first painted model – that would be a small handful of Ral Partha figs for Dungeons and Dragons – but he’s the oldest I still own. In the late 80’s, when Mr White was a young 14 or 15 year old, a buddy wanted to run a new game called Heroquest, It came with models, but we could get our own to be the classic Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf or Wizard. Choosing the wizard, and a fan of superhero comics at the time, I wanted a figure that the other members of the party could call “Bucket Head”. This was the nickname Marvel characters would call Nova. This Chaos Sorcerer hung on the sprue at the LGS. I had no idea what Warhammer was at the time, but he looked like a good fantasy match for Nova’s outfit. At least having a helmet.
Anyway, back to permanence. Over the years, RPGs and video games felt a little hollow to me. I’d play them, but when they were done…they were done. Nothing really left but the memories of the good times. If I could get Zen for a moment, even that 14-year-old kid who painted the model above is no more. He doesn’t exist. But when I hold the model above, it’s the same model covered in the same paint that those 14-year-old hands held. That 14-year-old is gone, but he’s also a part of me, and this model is a weird artifact bridging me to that child.
On top of that, if the need arises for me to need a bucket-headed chaos sorcerer… I’ve got one. That need hasn’t happened, but…case in point:
When I got rid of all my original Blood Bowl teams a few decades ago, a buddy asked to have the above converted Warhammer rat ogre. I think I made this fella in about 1993, or maybe it was 1994..whenever the 3rd edition of the game came out. My first BB team was made up of this rat ogre and the 2nd edition skaven models. Last fall, I ran a little gaming event that included a Gutter Bowl tournament where the participants used old school, metal BB models. My buddy reminded me that he had this fig and sent it to me. Again, I had a model in hand that a younger version of myself created. Anyway, I went out and chased down some 3rd edition metal skaven models to rebuild a team around this rat ogre.
Happily, this ol’ veteran rat won the Gutter Bowl Event. (The largest Gutter Bowl Event ever held in historic Lockhart, Texas, btw. lol)
Anyway, I think going back to “why minis games?”…for me, it’s never really been about specific rules, but more the creation of the models, and as I’ve gotten back into the hobby pretty heavily about 8-9 years ago, I’ve become drawn to the fact that once created… the creation persists. These old pieces of lead can still continue on new adventures. And, deep into mid-life now, there is a little bit of an attraction to something old still having use as well as new journeys ahead.
So, what are the oldest models still in your collection? Do they see the table?
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.
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.
Over 30 years ago, my Blood Bowl journey started with the second edition metal Skaven models and the above rat ogre that I converted from an old school metal BoneRipper model. That team has long passed on and the rat ogre as given to WS&TZ’s very own James (@dkok) and he’s owned it for a few decades. This fall, I’m hosting a Gutter Bowl event with an old school flair….pre-2016 edition of BB models only. For this, James had sent me the rat ogre back, and with this model I’ve decided that as he was part of the Alpha Team…he’ll also be part of the Omega.
Next team up on the painting block is my dwarf team. Continuing my trend of NFL themed teams, it’s on to the Games Workshop dwarf team. Pittsburg’s historic history of the steel industry is a great fit for a dwarven team, as is their history of punishing defenses and a strong running game. Thanks to Casey for whipping up the team logo for me! In case you don’t know, Gromril is the Warhammer metal that is prized by all for making of armor and weapons. I went with the city of Zhufbar as it was renowned for its metal working, and it fit perfectly with the theme. The first major question was to determine the paint scheme. Continue reading →
For awhile the lack of road on my table has kind of bothered me. Not that any of the rulesets that I have for my Roswell ’98 Post Apocalyptic games require roads, but it just seemed odd to me to have buildings out in the desert with no road to get to them. Even for something like Gaslands, it seems weird that cars would just drive around randomly in the unpaved desert without broken axels and flat tires everywhere. I mean, even the Mad Max movies pretty much have the vehicles on roads of some sort for the most part.
I’ve never had enough spare time to get my projects complete, so when I got the opportunity to ‘work’ from home I took full advantage of the situation to up my productivity to an eleven. Blood Bowl is my prime mistress, and I have plenty of projects that have yet to start or have labored at an incomplete status for years. With my NFL themed Blood Bowl teams still barely started I decided to try and get one division completed. With my Browns themed Undead team almost done, it was time to get Steelers and Bengals teams going. Continue reading →
This larger piece turned out a little better after some lessons learned on those other buildings. Mainly…don’t add a graffiti transfer over paper… for now anyway. Ha! As my post apocalyptic setting takes place in New Mexico, I thought it would make sense to go with a regional gas station, so Allsup’s it is.
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Wyrd Stones and Tackle Zones 