28mm furies

I continue to paint when I have some time and, this week, I finished off five 28mm fantasy figures.

These are some kind of feathered, bird-based monster. Maybe they are sirens or furies or some such? Anyhow, they were an easy paint and I think I have finished all of the monsters in the fantasy boxes Chen gave me. Now it is on to the last dozen or so adventurers.

Up next: Hard to say. I would guess some 28mm adventurers.

Three 28mm adventurers

Alright, the last few months have been a bit crazy with family stuff and it has been awhile since I have sat down long enough to make any progress on painting,

This week, I managed to crank out three 28mm fantasy figures (at a guess, a bard, a fighter, and a thief?) and a base of wizard fire. These were some nice figures Chen traded me. I wish I had done them a bit more justice but, well, things have been crazy.

Up next: Hard to say. I may actually be taking bit of a break for a few weeks since I have nothing in progress and not much time to start anything new.

Random fantasy painting

With some colder weather, I've spent more time at the painting table these past few weeks and a mixed bag of figures have been finished up.

First up is this beauty. It is a huge figure and, despite my best efforts, turned out darker than expected.

I also made some progress on these five cultists from a box of fantasy that Chen kindly traded me ages ago. I still have a bunch to go but stalled out on these guys for some reason. Hopefully, I'm back on track.

In prepping for a holiday game (maybe that is next week's post?), I needed some flying creatures. Bats would have worked (and I may still get some) but I quite liked these crows (3-D prints).

These were dead simply to paint: black primer, drybrush (blue, brown and grey respectively), then yellow detail and wash.

 Up next: Probably a holiday battle report.

Random painting

I have a pile of random figures on my paint table and this week I finished a few batches.

First up were five 28mm zombies that Chen gave me. These look better in person--the lighting is washing out the highlights on them.

I also bought some Star Wars Risk Clone Wars figures to see what the size was like (20mm maybe). The clone troopers aren't useful but the battle droids will supplement my 15mm army, which includes some other Star Wars droids plus some dog-like humanoid troopers and a bunch of mechs (also on the painting table).

In addition to the mechs, I have a bunch of fantasy figures and some terrain on the painting table.

Back from summer vacation with some 28mm fantasy

Alright, after a lovely break over the summer (mostly spent in the garden and my kayak), Im back to regular posting. First up are these nine 28mm fantasy figures that have been haunting my painting table since spring.

Not my best work but this is the first time I've picked up a brush in literally months so I'm going to call it a success.

I have another bunch from this fantasy box selected for painting next. Hopefully, the knack returns!

Hobgoblins and some terrain

Just a quick fantasy painting update his week. First up are some hobgoblins (I think). These guys ended up a bit pinker than expected (a lesson I learned doing washes on some AWI tunics with cherry red only to create an entire 54mm unit of militia in pink (arrrrgh!) but, apparently, promptly forgot). Anyhow, pink is as legit a colour as any in fantasy.

These are more of the figures Chen gave me and they have really good details, at least for my style of painting.

I also messed around with a fire elemental, trying to do washes with lighter colours. Meh. It's okay.

I also had to do some quick terrain making for a game. I needed some magic symbols (in this case, basically light switches for the button punchers in the party) so I filled in six washers, painted a rock pattern, used a sharpie to put some black lines down, and then painted blue over top. Good enough for the girls I go with.

I also needed six brazers, which I fabricated out of sculpty and baked before painting. And I needed like 20 coffins so I cut, etched and drybrushed some foam core. Not perfect but it conveys the gist of what I was after.

Up next: I have some adventurers on the paint table. They have been stuck there awhile since I vapour lock whenever I look at them and try to make colour choices. I may just need to sit down and not get up until they are done one day in order to move on.

Fistful of Lead Fantasy rules

A few weeks back, Bruce kindly let me take him on a play through of Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead fantasy rules. I'd been keen to give these a try, mostly to find out if they were a suitable set of mechanics to run some kind of Dungeons and Dragons game. The rules span three booklets (melee, magic, and monsters, respectively) and basically treat magic-use like a task role in the basic FFoL game engine.

To give these a test, I used The Barrows dungeon from Dire Den (link is a video explaining the dungeon, there are links in the comments to the maps) since this looked like a sensible dungeon crawl for low-level characters. I then banged up four basic characters (warrior, magic user, cleric, rogue), making them all level 1, except of the magic user, who I made level 2 using the premise that he'd brought together a new group after his old group suffered a TPK (total party kill).

The dungeon starts at the entrance with three doors to choose from. They all lead into a burial crypt wherein there lie zombies. The basic rules work just fine. We had to figure out some house rules about passing others in narrow places (-1 movement per crowded hex) and movement when there were no monster visible (a la Crossfire) but that was about it. The zombies are an easy encounter to explain the combat mechanics. And, unlike most FFoL games, it was mostly melee (there was more magic use in my playtest than in the game I ran with Bruce).

Once through the main level, players drop into the basement where more and fiercer baddies lie. One feature of the rules is that melee is competing d10 rolls and that can create some really swingy results (e.g., a healthy fighter attacks a downed skeleton and rolls a 1 to a 10, then the skeleton rolls well on the wound table and poof, your fighter is out of action). This effect can be attenuated a bit with magic (potions or spells). Whatever you think of that, it is dramatic and the effect runs both ways.

We skipped through the roleplaying aspect (since neither of us is really into that) and just tested the movement and combat mechanics. We had three fights (zombies, rats, and the big boss) done in an hour including me explaining the fantasy chrome to Bruce. I'd guess with some role-play, you could move through this dungeon crawl in two hours.

Bruce's observation was that role-players likely wouldn't be all that interested in the miniature gaming elements of the rules. I'd agree that you'd need a group that was at least a bit oriented towards miniature gaming (versus storytelling). I'd think the rules would work just fine if you wanted to have two players skirmish with separate armies (and are likely meant for this).

In both games, the adventurers won, once convincingly and one barely, relying on a fireball spell cast in the same room they were in (cough, cough)! Now maybe we know why the magic user was a veteran of a TPK!  Overall, the vibe was very reminiscent of the 1977 D&D basic box set (which I liked), with low-powered characters, basic monsters, and not a lot of chrome.

Dragon's Rampant

A few weeks back, Bruce and I dug out some fantasy armies to give Dragons Rampant a go. It has been a while since we've played this game. I used some old 15mm figures from the first edition of Battlelore. Bruce used some 28mm lizards he got from Kevin Barrett's estate.

We each worked out 36-point armies. First up were some dwarves versus the lizards. Most of the game went down on the right flank, with Bruce's war beasts charging some dwarven foot. Neither of us could get the left flank to move much.

Eventually the giant lizard bit it but he took down a couple of dwarves unit. An enormous dinosaur came up the middle and I could not get my heavy shooters going worth beans.

Then the left flank came alive. My giant bear (which I also think was a gift from Kevin years) munched a bunch of lizards but eventually ran itself down.

I thought I had Bruce on the ropes at one point but he retreated just out of range for the kill. 

And then Bruce put it away on the left flank.

The game took about 45 minutes so we switched side and I pitted some medieval Arthurians against a second lizard army of five very high-pointed unit. Bruce initially creamed two of my units but subsequently got shoot and charged to pieces.

 

Overall, a fun game with almost nothing to look up and I don't think we used the QRS after the first turn, just some unit stat lists. Happy that the lovely figures Kevin painted got bloodied.

Shambling Mound

One of the bigger figures in the fantasy box I got from Chen was a shambling mould (think animated compost pile). I'd say this monster has use beyond D&D.

I had to look online to figure out what colours might be appropriate. Basically green and brown seemed to be the answer.

I did a brown wash over white, then a medium green dry brush followed by a lime green drybrush and some yellow highlights. The mushroom was just some tan paint, then everything got a wash.

The colours look better in person. Below, you can see the brown wash and the various highlights. I was pretty happy with how the mushroom turned out.

Up next: Maybe a wrap up of some games Bruce and I have been playing.

Wolves and a water elemental

This week, I knocked off five wolves. I went with a grey palette since I already have five wolves in a brown scheme.

I also have this watery creature shooting up out of the ground.

It was tricky to get a shot that showed off the nice sculpting of its face.

It is also a good-sized figure (28mm druid for comparison).

Up next: I'm not sure, maybe a recap of some gaming?

Werewolves and ghosts

This week, I finished up some 28mm werewolves and ghosts. These are more figures from the lot I got from Chen. I decided on grey for the wolves. The remains of the clothing is a tan colour but, overall, everything kind of washed out in the lights. Oh well! Maybe light blue would have been a better colour.

 

I also had some ghosts, again cast in translucent blue that hid the nice sculpting. I may have over drybrushed these. Meh.

Up next: Some wolves and a water elemental.

More adventurers

So more adventurers this week and a mixed bag. I continue to try to get away fro my medieval peasant palette and use brighter colours. Like any new approach, this means mis-steps and today's batch is pretty visually so-so.

First up is a fighter and what I assume is a cleric, or possibly (the dreaded) slam poet. Or a bard, if that is still a character class in D&D these days.

Next is an elf and a lady barbarian. Both of these figures look much nicer than the pictures convey.

And finally, some magic-users. I have no idea about the dude on the left. The guy on the right I painted as an illusionist. He could also have been a druid, maybe? I hate the green cloak, but love the translucence. Lesson learned about Christmas colours.

Finally, I did these five giant bugs. They were a disaster from the moment I picked up a paint brush. These things happen.

Up next: Some terrain.