Snow Leopard

After the long hiatus that was last year, I have been re-energised by the winter break into getting the paints out.

This was helped along by at least 2 games of Frostgrave over the holidays with my eldest. She

In an attempt to equip ourselves for more varied gameplay at home as opposed to at a store, I picked up a couple of prepainted D&D minis, a panther and a bear, as well as a few odds of scatter scenery (more on that in a future post). Turns out, after googling for some pics of the original to post here, it was actually a limited edition Guenhwyvar miniature. I am not a big D&D fan, so really this means very little to me, other than it works as a big cat!

Photo not mine

The bear doesn't really need any work, but the panther was bought to be used as a Snow Leopard, so needed a little modification and a new coat of paint. I didn't take any WIP shots of the greenstuff job on this mini, but basically, I bulked up its shoulders and added some fur to its head, neck and tail.

So, with that, we have the Snow leopard:

I realise this is far from my best work, but the goal was to finish something, and this was painted in a very short time, is table ready, and the Big'un is pleased with it, so goal achieved. It'll take more than this mini for me to get back up to the standard where I was happy with my work last year, but baby-steps.

The Big'un has a wizard with the Animal Companion spell, and has been trying out the various options in her games, with the Snow Leopard being a favourite, and Ice Toad a close second, so I guess I'll be repainting the toad mini I have next.

2017, a review

This won't take long, I ran through last years post, to pick a few of my favourite minis painted over the year. Here's my top ten.

Ummm, ok. I guess that's it. *looks again* Yup. Those are the grand total of miniatures I finished painting last year. I still haven't even finished the base on the Brainwaster.

2017 was not a year for miniature painting. For one, the closure of my local gaming haunt meant I got out of the habit of getting regular games. I also have been getting my gaming fix by running through the Horror on the Orient Express for Call of Cthulhu.

So is that it for the year in review? Well, I did get a few games of Rogue Stars in over the summer. And I have been playing Widower's Wood and Frostgrave with the Big 'un. Including 2 games over the Christmas break.

For 2018, I'm not entirely sure I have my painting mojo back. Work has also been a factor, and I can't see that changing soon. I would like to try to get my hand back in. I'm close, as I have bought a few WhizKids prepainted minis, to use as beasts and wandering monsters for Frostgrave with the Big 'Un, so I'm hoping that will help.

That and getting back into blogging, as that was one of the reasons for starting this blog in the first place.

Here's to you all. May 2018 bring you all that you wish of it. May you reach all your painting goals, and may your dice roll well!

VASA Archangel

Inspired by the rekindling of the Void community online, and this post I wrote for the Viridian Wars blog, I finally got round to painting one of my favourite models from the Void range (I have a few). The Kev White Archangels are sush simple yet elegant sculpts. The minis were so successful that they were used in Urban War for a while too, before being replaced by (to my mind) inferior scuplts. For a great many years I did not paint them, as I didn't have the skill I to paint the wings in the way I knew I wanted to.


I finally bit the bullet, and painted one. My inspirational bird of reference was the Kingfisher.

I doubt I'll paint a whole unit in this sceme, but it was fun to do one.



CS1 Brainwaster

There is a renaissance in old school gaming right now. With Oldhammer sites springing up all over the place. Frostgrave (and other Osprey games) inspiring gamers to get our their old lead, dust it off and put it on the table.

There is also a resurgence in old games taking on a new skin.

This post is where these two trends meet.

I am a writer for the Viridian Wars blog, which up till recently has been a once a year kind of thing, but I have been inspired to write few posts recently. Much of this inspiration has been due to me finding new uses for old minis that I love, which include a lot of the old Void range. I have ot, however, been getting in more games of Void 1.1. Nor have I found players in this city with which to do so. What I have been looking to play, however, is Rogue Stars, one of the afore mentioned Osprey games, and SLA CS1 a game from the second group which takes a much loved (cult?) RPG from the 90s, and remakes it as a modern skirmish game.

The melding of these forces has led to this.

This is me playing around with the filters on powerpoint to make a mash up of a recently painted figure from the Void VASA range of Militia, and pasting him on top of the original front cover of the SLA RPG. Of course, there are those amongst you who didn't need me to explain that, but for the younger readers, indulge me.

Here of course is the original artwork, and paint scheme inspiration for the figure, along with some better pics of the figure himself.

Of course, he is still to be based. but the painting is complete. I rather like the way the shading on the coat is based on the artwork, rather than the lighting as I would normally do.

::: Welcome to the World of Progress :::

2016, a review.

So, we're well into 2017 now. I'll hold off on any commentary on how 2016 was in general, but here stick to a review of my painting for the year.


I'm not sure it was a particularly productive year, but there are some pieces I'm happy with. At least I have complete Frostgrave and Rogue Stars warbands.

 

 

 

 

Here's to 2017. May it be productive and full of gaming, modelling and painting.

Urban War: Oni Class Shogun Battlesuit with Katana

After completing my Triad Boss, and reading through Rogue Stars, I figured I really need some kind of Robot to go with my gang. To this end, I pulled this Oni Battlesuit out of storage. This is supposed to be a battlesuit, but looking at it, there's not much space for anyone but the smallest of pilots to go, so I'm calling it a Robot.

Pictured with the Triad boss here to give an idea of scale.

In the original Void 1.1, the Shogun was a battlesuit, armed with katana and shield, but of the many versions on the VASA battlesuits, I liked it the least. However in the Urban War iteration, this name was given to this melee orientated battkesuit, with some small range capabilities (there's a small gun in the battlesuits's mouth.

I'm not a fan of the back of the shield. It is really plain, which is unfortunate since you see most of the back of the shield after it has been attached to the miniature. I'm going to have to go back and do something with that.

Urban War: Viridian Colonial Veteran HMG Team

Yet another miniature for Urban War, a Viridian HMG support team. Painted and repainted a long time ago, finally got round to finishing the base.

Quick post to get this up there. I'm not sure if this is much use in any games I have planned, as it has two minis on the same base, but we'll see.

Urban War Triad Boss

So after 2 hours at the pant table, give or take, I've squeaked out another of the minis I wanted to finish off for my Cleaning out the closet challenge for the end of the year. Ideally, I should have dropped the 2016 from the logo I made, as I had originally wanted this to be a winter event, but you live and learn.

This is the Triad Boss for Urban Mammoth's game Urban War. This was a limited edition release that came when you bought one of the original magazines that were the rules for the 1st Edition Urban War (issue number XX). He has his katana in hand, which I always thought a little cooler than the pistol wielding general release version.

In the end, I didn't paint over the cherry blossoms, as I previously planned to, but I do think they are looking a bit better than they were, if still not perfect. He also looks like he's leaning a little, which is kind of annoying, but is down to how he was placed on the scenic base I had already prepared. Good enough to get on the table at the head of a Triad gang for Rogue Stars for sure, though now I like the idea of fielding my Oni class Shogun battle-suit as a big ass robot to stomp on the other side. Either way, my growing Triad force has already gotten too large to be played as a Rogue Stars force, and will have to find another way to make it all on to the table at once.

I'll post a run down of what I have managed to complete for my challenge in the New year, but after finishing off this guy, I based up the last of the Viridians I had previously painted, leaving not so much to complete. 

Anyway, Happy Hogmanay to you all, see you on the flipside!

Somewhere in Time

So my last post was a sneak peak, or hint as to what was coming next. Finally, after a break form the painting table, I finally got round to actually painting him.

Who's him you ask, well, Eddie of course!

This miniature was originally supposed to be part of the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter, but he didn't really fit in with the rest, so was sold as a pre-Kickstarter fundraiser. What a novel concept!

I didn't buy into the Kickstarter, as Chaos was never really my thing. But I couldn't pass up on this guy. Eddie and Iron maiden to me just remind me of a time back in the UK when I was playing GW games. So even if he is not really an Oldhammer mini, British Metal is so intertwined with so many themes that are Oldhammer, that he gets an honourary acceptance into the genre.

Now, where to use him. Maybe in my upcoming Frostgrave Chronomancer warband, as Time is on his side. Or Maybe as a cyborg for Rogue stars, or a serial Killer for CS1.

Of course, this is but one incarnation of Eddie. If I were to ask that another was made, well, then Eddie from the cover of the single 'The Trooper' has to be a shoe in (although I did find this conversion someone has done so I am clearly not alone).