Sunday 26 February 2017

The Grox and Firkin.

So, I think I've finished the frontier colony settlement I've been working on.  Its not perfect but it will do. Its got all the features you'd expect of a town on the frontiers of the 41st millennium- a hairdressers, a Games Workshop, a pub- the fore mentioned Grox and Firkin, some light industrial facilities for processing fuel or something, a police station and a couple of houses.  The industrial vehicle is crude but serviceable.  The buildings are all heavily weathered/stained and I was directed to Dakkadakka to find posters and notices.  I need a few more I think.  The last thing I did was to add all the foliage; just a bunch of aquarium plants to tie the town into the rest of my jungle scenery!









 Also- heres the reboot of my Empire army!  After years of languishing in a box, and occasionally being sold on ebay my once Glorious Army of Averland was a shadow of its former self. It got stripped down last summer, and new recruits were bought.  More are on their way thanks to a recent Landsknecht Kickstarter...though I'm not expecting that batch till June!  This is only the first four units;  One company of 12 Greatswords (Artizan Designs), one company of 11 Archers, and another of 12 Halberdiers (both Battlemasters), and 14 Freikompanie (wargames foundry),  A Captain in fullplate, and Waldo the wizard are the commanders of this small force. Its even been doing a little fighting, providing fighters for Frostgrave and units for Dragon Rampant, which appear to be the games of choice at the moment.

thanks for reading!

Sunday 12 February 2017

Buildings

Just a little update to show some progress on my WIP buildings for a scifi battlefield, which are what I've mostly been working on this week



I've been collecting junk for ages : this lot is mostly made of the tops of spray cans, margarine tubs, spare bits of plumbing , desert pots, and baked bean cans. A sheet or so of corrugated card and an old sieve provided some texture, and drinking straws were applied liberally. 

 Theres a few details I want to add, mostly just a few more windows etc, but otherwise they're ready for painting.  This will give my frontier colony 3 small houses, a small sheriffs office, a pub and a couple of light industrial units.

 I've also made a few piles of detritus , bits of sprue, pebbles and polystyrene mashed together with a lot of glue, to give the impression that somebody has been trying to clear ground for farming or building.  When finished they'll look a bit overgrown.


Obviously the colonists didn't get this lot built with just muscle power, so some sort of tractor was in order.  The result in the photo above was bodged together from spares, and resulted in a rugged little vehicle with dozer blade and an arm that could in theory carry a variety of tools, though I just gave it a grabbing claw, a flat bed to carry stuff and a towing hook. The perfect general purpose vehicle for helping establish a colony. Ideal for clearing ground and unloading spaceships...

Oh, and some more figures for my empire army made it onto the painting table- 5 of the old battlemasters archers. I rather like those figures, its not immediately apparent in that pic, but I upgraded them with spare arrows from the Perry WOTR archer/billmen kit, which seems to work. Theres another 15 to go, and then 25 Halberdiers too.


Sunday 5 February 2017

A painting frenzy!

Its hard to believe its February already, and so I thought a new post was in order.

Its been a very busy month on the old painting table: around 150 models have marched of the production line! I've managed to get a bit of gaming in too, taking part in a large ECW game; the refight of Marston Moor run by Rick which you can see here, and getting started on our new favourite game- Frostgrave!


So, this is my warband, though two more chaps have been added to it since then. I'm trying to stick with old Citadel (or its foundry counterparts!) as much as I can, so we have the 80's LOTR Gandalf as my  wizard, and Frodo, as a thief. The first Grombrindal, a couple of the Mercenaries and Dogs of War ranges (F4 fighters I believe) are my general purpose thugs and fighters, The great Waldo is my Apprentice, and a Dungeoneer acts as a Knight. This last was my avatar back my days of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and is one of my favourite figures, mostly because of that nostalgia I suppose. The original disappeared long ago (along with my copy of WFRP!) and it took years of trawling Ebay to replace him. I'm not sure of the actual place of the figure in the Citadel range though- he appears in a pack of adventurers along with Waldo around 1990 but thats the earliest I can find him in my regular trawls of Stuff of Legends, but he looks older, and Waldo was definitely available around in 1985 in the Wizards range...

Anyway, we've been playing a bit of a campaign. My first game was against Chris, with a witch commanding a bunch of bestial chaps obsessed with summoning fog and Daemons!
My Warband managed to secure the bulk of the treasure early on, and here
can be seen covering the retreat of the treasure carriers

A horde of Daemons and knights charge under cover of fog (all those bits of paper!)
And then just as I manage to get all treasure to safety I manage
to shoot my own Wizard in the back with a crossbow bolt.


Ended up with a modest pile of treasure, and Niggling injuries for my Wizard...so, on to game two!  A three way this time with Geoff and Dafydd. This time it was the Haunted Crypts Scenario, which features 6 buildings containing treasure, and possibly a wight. Now Wights are tricky- you can't hurt them without a magic sword, and I had no magic sword. And they can do a lot of damage. But not to worry...I had a plan!  And the Telekinesis spell.
Most of the Scenery hand made by Geoff from the Hirst Arts Ruined Fieldstone Moulds.
Except the tower made by me and the GW ruin bottom right.
My warband trying to carry the treasure off without entering the building and having to fight the Wight! They managed to get two lots by this method, along with a third courtesy of the Reveal Secret spell, and put up a spirited fight for a fourth! 
During this game I discovered my band has a major weakness, namely a lack of offensive spells! Reveal Secret looks to be a good choice, giving me access to a treasure early on with no opposition. There are some useful things like Transpose, Heal, Teleport, Push and of course Telekinesis, which can be handy for controlling the table top, but XP is earned mostly by killing stuff, and my only offensive spell is Banish.  Which only works on Daemons. I'll just have to hope I can find a Grimoire with an appropriate spell soon! The result was that my Wizard got shot again, and my warband was fireballed to bits trying to contest the final bit of treasure. Luckily no permanent damage was done.  Game three in a couple of weeks!

So on to the results of the painting- a selection of pics, most stuff ended up put away before it could be photographed, including the contents of three of the Dungeon Saga supplements- thats Orcs, gobbos, daemons, trolls, heroes and demi-gods, all painted! Just need the Tryant of Halpi...

The new PSC 25pdr battery, with tractors and limbers. Plus some
 hotchkiss 25mm AT guns, AT rifles and some panzer II 

Harlequin Ogres.

22 Harlequin Orcs. Theres another 18 of these almost finished except for their shields on the table now.

And the Re-Start of my Empire Army! A Ral Partha Knife thrower  next to a Citadel Big Fighter.
Artizan Designs Great Swords behind the Foundry Mercenaries.
Now I was hopping to finish the last of the Orcs today, but got distracted by scenery building.  I had intended  to build a castle... seem to have ended up with a sci-fi frontier town, suitable for GOA or 40k.  Oh well.