Rogue Stars Video

Wargames Illustrated have released this 'Unboxing Video' for Rogue Stars. It give a little more insight into how the game works.

Yup, that looks like a lot of fun. Count me in!

Urban War: Triad Retainers

The third batch of minis from the list I have made myself is now complete.

I've recently finished off two 'units' of Urban War Triad Retainers. I hesitate to call them units, as in Urban War all figures are individuals, but the paint scheme certainly splits them into two definite groups, as do the paint jobs. The first, the red and white, were initially painted in 2004 (with the details being finished recently), and the second group, the green and orange, being painted in 2016.

These miniatures were originally released in 2004/5 (I know because it said so on the tabs, not because I could actually recall when I bought them) by Urban Mammoth, and are now available from Scotia Grendel. I bought these guys from Urban Mammoth's brick and mortar store in Edinburgh, and they finally made the trip over here a couple of years ago.

As you can see, the shading technique I used on the first batch was very rudimentary. The 2016 group has some quick and dirty 2 brush blending, so looks a bit smoother, I think.

The bases are the ones that I spoke of earlier, with the last two that I painted in this batch being put aside for the Triad Boss and a Kabuki doll, both of whom have languished in a half painted state for about as long as these guys.

As much as I would like to use these guys in a game of Urban War, it is more likely that these will go with the Viridians I have also finally put some finishing touches to (i.e. based) to be played with in some of the SciFi games I am trying to get set up.

Urban War: Viridian Special Forces and Sniper

Next batch of minis for this winters Cleaning out the Closet challenge are done.

These are the first wave of Viridian Special Forces minis, and were painted a couple of years ago. They lay languishing in a box since then but I'm looking to get them on the table soon. The Viridian forces are also known for their snipers, and the sniper minis are in my opinion, some of the coolest from this range.

Head over to the original post for the 360 views, here I've concentrated on the group as a whole and the bases. The bases are Secret Weapon Urban Rubble bases. The original group of Viridians were based on a similar set, that has now been discontinued. The original set were much chunkier and more 3D, and I really liked that about them, however, they may have caused issues with the moulds or something, as the new/replacement set are much flatter. The Special forces leader in the last two pics is on the old style base, as are the Marines in this post.

Frostgrave Ranger

It took me a while to find the right Ranger mini for my Frostgrave force. I wanted a mini that suited the look of the North Star wizard and apprentice, the old school GW troopers an the Reaper minis that made up the rest of the band. I also wanted it to be a female model, to try to give the warband more of a gender balance. In the end I settled on the Otherworld Miniatures range, and bought the female Ranger and Thief minis.

Now the full warband is complete. The rest of the gang is listed here: Wizard and Apprentice, Archers, Captain,Treasure Hunter and Rangifer, Knight and Male Treasure Hunter, and of course the Snow Golem.

I plan to organise a new round of games of Fristgrave in the near future, I'm unsure of I'l go with these guys, or start another warband. That's the thing with the lead pile. You finish off one set of minis, and there's another lot sitting ready to go.

This is also the first of the minis from the Cleaning out the Closet list for this winter.

Cleaning out the Closet

Hopefully, this post will be the first in a new series where I 'get stuff finished'. I have a long backlog of half painted minis and mostly done units and armies. The plan is to work through these and get them posted here over the coming winter. The list is as follows:

Frostgrave Ranger

This otherworld ranger mini is the last of my Frostgrave force from the Thaw of the Liche Lord campaign, and is almost finished. There is a bit of paint to splash onto her, and the base to finish, but no more than an hour or two of work. Then I can post the warband as a whole, and more on to the next one (a Chronomancer, but more on him later).

Dystopian Legions French Legionnaires

These are base coated, but have been sitting at the front of my cupboard for the last 2 years. Shouldn't take much to get them up to tabletop quality, then use them in 'The Men who Would be Kings', my new Dystopian Legions surrogate. Once I count up how many units like this I'll need, there may be more Dystopian Legions troops to complete that find their way onto the list.

Urban War Triad Retainers

The next few on the list are all old Urban War minis, that I intend to get ready for the SciFi gaming I plan to get into in the new year. For the retainers, I have 2 units of these, both bought back in 2004/5 one unit was painted back in then, but needs finishing off, and another companion unit that are undercoated. These, along with all the following Urban War minis, were in the large batch of minis I brought over to Canada a couple of years ago, and have been languishing in their storage box since then.

Urban War Viridian Special Forces and Sniper

I painted these back in 2014, all that needs done is the bases painted and them mounted. The minis can be seen here.

Urban War Triad Boss and Kabuki Doll

These are in need of being finished, the Kabuki doll has been picked up and put down at various points over the years and is mostly done, the Boss not so much, but these will finish off the Squad with the retainers and make them a playable force.

Urban War Triad Sumotori

There are two of these guys that fit with the rest of the Triad gangers that can easily be painted up to match this guy.

Urban War Viridian HMG

This too is painted, but the base needs a bit of conversion work and painting to make it fit with the rest of the squad.

Menoth Army

Finally, I pulled my Menoth army out of retirement (a locker at my FLGS). These guys were last used in MKI warmachine (we're now on MKIII) and are in a sad state of repair and variable state of completion. These guys were painted so long ago, there is no real trace of them on this blog. There's a lot to do in this pile, and could easily be a list unto itself. Once I get sown to this army, it will likely become an itemised list. So let's call this Wave Two.

So that's the list. A long post, but we had our first snow this morning here in Montreal, so winter is not so much round the corner as already here. Time to cosy up with Netflix and a paint brush and get on with this!

Base problem

That moment, late at night, when you've just finished a batch of bases for some minis, then you go back to the minis you have ready to rebase, and realise you didn't do enough.

Guess I'll be painting four more of them tomorrow evening!

Scifi minis

Summer is winding down, and that seems to have meant I get back to the painting table. With the heavy reference on Sci-Fi gaming in my last post, it only seems fitting that the minis I have painted this week are in that genre. These are some old minis, that have been bumping around in various lead piles for quite a while Fist off, we have two old Void VASA minis, one civilian and one marine one marine. The marine was painted and previewed a while ago on some Facebook groups, but not, apparently here on my blog. She has now been transfered to a better base and finished off. The Civilian has been painted up with the thought of him being a SLA Operative for Cannibal Sector 1 despite the lack of apparent armour. He is generic enough to fit in with Rogue Stars and also the Black Ops mission I'm planning too.

One commonality these three minis have is that I busted out some freehand on all three, to greater and lesser success. The Escher Juve, for example has a knife, sponsored by MAC knives of SLA industries, whereas the Op at the start has kneepads with various freehand attempts (can you tell which film, recently available on neflix I was watching when I did the right kneepad?). The tiger pelt helmet is the freehand I'm most proud of. despite the success of this attempt, I'll be unlikely to complete the rest of her unit in the same theme.