Tuesday 2 May 2017

A May Mixture...

Introduction

I'm supposed to be writing an All Things Zombie battle report, but I'm procrastinating.  Battle reports are a lot of effort!  Instead, here's a bunch of oddments that I'm working on or have just finished...

Frostgrave


The Golem


This guy is a Reaper Bones golem; I intend to use him as a large construct for Frostgrave.  He is certainly large: that's a 40mm base on which he is standing!

This was a very easy model to paint.  I used a pale grey base coat with gold bands and fittings, all covered with a black wash.  Once that was dry, I added some colour to make the eyes glow and that was it!  A cheap, simple model, but I think he's quite effective.

More Ruins


I recently ordered a fair quantity of MDF ruins from Blotz.  The package arrived promptly and I spent part of a couple of evenings gluing it all together.  Now comes the tricky part, though!  I intend to mount these permanently on building-sized bases; the picture above shows one possible configuration that would give 3 separate ruined houses of roughly equal size.  But obviously there are other ways in which this could be done.

Once glued together, I plan to add more detail to the bases so as to make these a bit more "lived in" (although that's not really the best turn of phrase for abandoned structures, is it?).  But that's where I'm having difficulties: how to turn these base pieces into plausible, but still playable, ruined buildings.  Hmm...

Super Dungeon Explore

Not so long ago, I discovered that buysend.com has a fair number of Super Dungeon Explore sets available at a very reasonable price.  I've now bought more of these than I should and I still have the best part of 2 complete warbands to paint up.  Here are some heroes and villains that I've finished recently:

Dragon Blade


This hero comes from the Kobold warband set "The Claws of the Wyrm".  It's not clear from the short description on the packaging whether he's an elven hero with a magic sword or a kobold hero with a magic elven sword.  Either way, he's growing on me...

Candy and Cola


Candy is something of a mascot for Soda Pop Miniatures.  In this incarnation, she has (some) armour and a large sword.  She's always accompanied by her pet, a 3-tailed squirrel-thing called Cola.

Nyan Nyan


Nyan Nyan is another hero, though in this case she looks as if she'd be more at home at a pyjama party.  She's dressed up in a tiger costume and wears a pair of oversized gauntlets equipped with large talons.  Very odd...

Captain R


Finally, here's an evil mini-boss: Captain R.  He's an undead pirate captain - I really don't know where they get these ideas!  Most of the front of him is beard and face, whilst most of the back is coat.  He's carrying quite an array of weaponry, as might be expected.


Conclusion

I'm a bit surprised to see that all these models are for either Frostgrave or Super Dungeon Explore, as it doesn't feel to me that I've been concentrating solely on these two games recently.  Indeed, my painting table is full of stuff for Pulp Alley, Saga and Congo right now.  Perhaps I'll show some of them soon - right after I write up the ATZ game I should have produced last weekend!

16 comments:

  1. What a great mix of wonderfully painted miniatures! The ruins are interesting, do you mean to have three separate ruined houses? They look like they have flagstone bases and that might be what I would use to link the floor plan of each dwelling, allowing them to be played through. Perhaps an upturned flagstone hear and there with weeds growing through, but certainly plenty of snow to cover a multitude of sins. Extra rubble could be played conveniently outside the building, against the wall so as not to prevent movement.

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    1. Thanks, Michael. Yes, I was thinking of 3 ruined buildings, with some (hopefully not too naff!) scratch-built rubble in the centre and/or around the edges of each one.

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  2. Nice collection of different figures, I especially like the golem. You could base the ruins individually, with other bases of rubble. That way you are not fixed to a specific shape and can mix and match the pieces - especially useful in games like Frostgrave.

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    1. I did think of basing each ruin piece individually, but I think that making larger bases will allow me a bit more scope for ladders, extra rubble and so on.

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  3. I like the golem. (And the ruins)
    I am aslo sure I will enjoy the bat rep when finished, but take your time. No rush!

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    1. Thanks, Clint. I'll get round to the battle report eventually, I'm sure...

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  4. A nice eclectic mix of stuff, with my favourites (obviously) being your SDE figures. I have all of them myself. As far as I'm aware, Dragon Blade is a Kobold with an Elven blade.

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    1. Thanks, Bryan. I thought that you might recognise these SDE figures :-) . I think you're probably right about the Dragon Blade being a kobold (albeit an unusually noble one!)

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  5. Some ideas regarding the buildings.
    I've done some investigation of my own into ruined stone buildings.
    Most appear relatively intact unless two forces have been at work: Earthquakes (Knocking down outer walls or displacing internal supports), people (Stealing the stones of old buildings for constructions of their own). The Frostgrave world would obviously add magic as a third cause of ruin.

    My suggestion (based on some abandoned local stone houses) would be to consider the fate of the roof and the beams (usually wooden) that supported it.
    Expect a scattering of slates or tiles scattered across the floor.
    Beams may still be in place, or fallen from one end, while still resting against one wall.

    Previous explorers may also have improvised ladders to access the walkways (whose sturdiness is probably unknown until they are first tested in a game).


    The golem looks fantastic. Excellent stone effect.

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    1. There is a tension between making robust, usable playing pieces and building fine scale models. I aim for the more detailed end of the "playing pieces" part of the spectrum, though my efforts sometimes disappoint me.

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  6. Glad to see I am not the only one, all over the map, so to speak. Excellent work & you've touched on something I've pondered for some time. Creating building ruins that are static in size, though this does create the travel problems of said template buildings. One of the main reasons I do want to pursue it, is to get rid of the cobblestone floors in the building ruins. Going to watch how yours turn out before progressing. Cheers!

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    1. Ah, my gaming & modelling interests are all over the place, Terry! I'm still not sure how to proceed with my ruined buildings, but I'll keep people updated when I make any progress.

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  7. Thw golem does look the part, large and imposing - as it should be!
    As for the ruins I'd suggest adding rubble - lots of it and keeping the pieces separate.
    I still can't find the attraction of the SDE stuff, despite your excellent paint-jobs on them.

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    1. Yes, lots of rubble would seem appropriate - thanks, Joe!

      It would be a less interesting world if we all liked exactly the same things, wouldn't it :-) ?

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  8. Awesome work on the SDE chibi figurines! I'm a fan of that board game's miniatures.

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    1. Thanks! I'm not quite so sure about Captain R, but i like the way the heroes above him turned out.

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