Roswell ‘98: Sliggs and Squarg

Added another touch to my Alien Invader faction, this time some reptilians and a thing that should not be. All three are part of the Reaper “Sliggs and Squarg” blister. With a brainy Martian, greys, and now reptilians, (and human collaborators) this faction has all the elements of a 90s ufo conspiracy.

Dragon Rampant: Dire Boar

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 Scouts

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?

Nuffle Amorical Football: Zhufbar Gromriliers Part 1

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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

Roswell ’98: Roadway

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.

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The Silver Bayonet: Vampires and Demon

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Continuing my ongoing project for The Silver Bayonet, I have again turned to AD 1666 to fill in some of the missing creatures I need for the game.  Keeping the single player scenarios in mind, it is essential that I get zombies, wolves, and vampires knocked out.  The numbers of zombies and wolves is pretty high, so instead of starting with a large group I decided to knock out the smaller group of vampires first.  Continue reading

Blood Bowl Building Frenzy

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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

What Went Wrong: Post Apocalyptic Scatter Terrain

I contemplated not posting some of my recent work because the end results are a bit disappointing. Maybe I attempted something outside my skillset, but probably it was just more outside my patience. Let’s take a look at what happened…maybe it’ll help someone else with what _not_ to do if they want to try something similar.

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Silver Bayonet: Goblins

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With my Prussians ready to see some action it was time to get some of the many creatures of the Gothic-Horror game ready for play.  I have just about all the models made for waves 1&2 of the Silver Bayonet line, but I am determined to get all of wave 1 finished before I start working on the second.  Up first I decided to tackle some of the best dressed goblins on the market.  How can you beat a goblin wearing a tricorn?  Continue reading