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.

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 :::

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!

Triad Boss WIP

In a final push to clean out the closet this year, I've decided to finish my Triad Boss. There's a bit of time left in the year, so I reckon I can do it, but here's a WIP in the meantime. I tried to freehand some cherry blossoms on his kimono, that didn't work, and will be painted over. Otherwise it just feels good to be getting on with this guy.

One of the antlers on his helmet broke, and I had to green stuff him a new one. I'm not particularly happy with the result, but with the paint on him, if you don't look too closely, it's not too bad. A couple of hours this evening should see him done, and based to match the rest of his troops. Then to stat them up for Rogue Stars.

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).

Urban War Triad Kabuki Doll

It may not seem like it from my entries, but I have been painting. Not quite with the gusto of the first week of this challenge,  but the nice thing is I didn't give myself a time limit, apart from 'this winter'.

I have a couple of posts ready to go, and this is the first of them. My Urban War Triad Kabuki Doll.

I'm pretty sure I've tried to finish painting her on three separate occasions over the 10-12 years she's been in my collection, but she's finally there. I think I might want to go back at some point and do something more interesting with the mask, but then the plain white look is kinda creepy too, so maybe not!

I am pretty happy with the hair. Painting black hair is something I am not good at, but this one looks okay from a distance!

She of course can be used in any upcoming Scifi games, and he base reflects this, but she could also be used in other time periods and eras due to the lack of hi-tech weaponry she carries. She would fit rather well into an Asian force for In Her Majesty's Name too.

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.