Maurice on the sub-continent

Bruce rebased his Indian troops over spring break so we gave Maurice a try on the sub-continent last night. The scenario was a large group of rebels (conscripts, foreground) were usurping the local prince (mostly elite, background).

The first turn saw the rebels grab the hill in the middle with two units of foot. The prince immediately sent two units of elite foot to push them off. A short firefight revealed the prince's dice had been sabotaged and the resulting melee saw each side lose a unit.

The rebels rushed in a unit of elephants and traded them for another unit of elite foot. This consolidated the rebels' hold on the hill and the prince turned his artillery to the east in order to bring them under bombardment (oh no!).

More rebel foot flooded onto the hill, hoping to set up and push down towards the prince's baggage train. But then the rebels noticed the exposed flank of the prince's repositioned artillery and sent two units of skirmishing cavalry forward.

Both units of skirmishers died, but bagged three units of cannon (preventing the annihilation of the conscript foot holding the hill). In a fluke of die rolling, a unit of royal cavalry also got greased by the rebel artillery and it was game over for the prince. A big difference was the relative size of the rebel force--the conscripts sucked but the rebels could afford to lose a lot of them.

It is nice to see lucky dice overcoming poor strategy and lousy tactics! That said, the rules played very well. We finished the game in an hour (70 points each) and there was some drama to keep everyone's attention focused. I think, though, there is room for both of us to get better at deploying our forces and setting up attacks. At present, we tend to just charge in and he who rolls hot (and has the most troops to feed in) tends to win.

Up next: I have ten 28mm renaissance handgunners being built. And I think I have another box of them somewhere else, which will bring me close to the end of the troops I have for that project.

Cars for gotham

With a few buildings under my belt, I have been looking around for some other scenery for the streets of Gotham. I ran across a period car from Hot Wheels while out with my daughter the other night.

It was hard to tell if it was the right scale in the store, but for $3, I thought what the hell. Next to the building, it is pretty close to the right scale. The building is a taxi company and the car is exactly as wide as the roll-up door. It looks a bit short, maybe but close enough. All of the scenery is a bit smaller than the figures (my preference).

The car was very clean when it came out of the box (picture above) so I dirtied it up some with a wash (picture below). I wonder, though, where I'd be happier if I sprayed it black, painted it a more somber colour (brown) and dipped it. I think it might fit in better that way with the dirty Gotham I'm going for.

Up next: Some Maurice tonight with Bruce and then onto some terrain experiments for my MayDay Star Wars game (entrenchments). Children's modeling clay is interesting: inexpensive but oddly brittle.

More sewer creatures

As I work my way through the painting pile, I came across some more plastic aliens that I got from Tim in a trade. More 28mm GW tyranids, I think.

I used the same treatment on these as I did on the previous batch so they would look like the came from the same hive when they pour out of the sewers of gotham one night.

These are nice looking figures. I'm not fan of GW's business model and I wouldn't normally buy any of their products but the figures are very nice. Not sure if I will bother texturing the bases.

Up next: Some hex-based entrenchments from children's modeling clay. And a game of Maurice with Bruce on Wednesday. I'm not sure what comes after that.

Last of the Malifaux

And these two pictures are the last of the 28mm Malifaux commission I have been working on. First up, bomb-toting pigs. Kind of like Soviet anti-tank dogs, only slower and less cuddly.

And then there is a base of mechanical spiders. I had a devil of a time getting a picture of these fellows--apologies for the blurriness.

Up next: Some more plastic tyranids are drying. And I have been working on a couple of "entrenched" markers for my MayDay Star Wars game. After that, who knows.

Malifaux Arcanists

I'm almost done a commission of Malifaux figures. Today, I have finished a box of Arcanists, featuring Colette. I have no idea what super powers she has but the olde timey hooker look was interesting to paint. Sort of a Weird Wild West theme.

These were very nice models, with minimal flash and only a few tricky joins to make. The mannequins below have fairly delicate arms that will not withstand much in the way of sheering force!

The only other names figure (at least on the box) is the centre figure below (Cassandra). The others are just "performers". I basically followed the box art for colour schemes. The nylons posed an interesting challenge! A good translucent effect is hard to achieve.

Lots of big bows on the butt (sort of a nightmare bridesmaid effect). But also an opportunity for some wet-on-wet blending.

Up next: I have the remaining pieces (a swarm of mechanic spiders and some bomb-toting piglets) drying. Then I have some more GW plastic tyranids and some guys with big guns to paint. After that I'm not sure--perhaps some more renaissance?

How fast can you go?

Over the years, I've written a couple of articles in gaming magazines about speed painting. The point I usually try to make is that there is no reason to play with unpainted miniatures; by applying mass production techniques, even unskilled painters can field painted armies.

That premise is, predictably, lost on many "readers" who query "you could paint a tank in 10 minutes, but why would you want to?" Umm, because, as stated in the introduction, the article is meant to give new or non-painters ways to 'ghit 'er done'? And that scintillating interchange is one of the reasons I don't write for the glossies anymore.

Fast forward three or four years and one of my viewers asked me "how fast can you paint a 28mm figure?" The answer depends some (the figure, the period, how much detail) but I wondered if I could paint a figure to tabletop standard in 3 minutes. So I pulled out some GW plastics that Tim in Saskatoon traded me and went to town.

I primed them black. Then, literally as fast as I could, I did a "wet" drybrush of flesh followed by a drybrush of white, some white and red detail work to pick out the teeth and tongue and some gray to touch up the weapons, and then a magic dip. Acrylics dry quickly so I production-lined these start to finish in 30 minutes. I did then touch up the base of the figure (maybe another 15 seconds per figure).

The product is not great. But it isn't half bad and these will do as some fresh hell that spews forth from Gotham's sewers one night. Obviously you wouldn't do Napoleonics this way, but my point is that it is possible (with the right figure) to paint up an army awfully fast!

Up next: I have some olde timey prostitutes drying as part of a Malifaux commission followed by some bomb-toting pigs (tomorrow and Monday). I'm note sure thereafter--I'll need to see what is left in the paint pile. I recall have a 15mm DBA army that I might work on.

Hilly-billy gremlins

I took a small commission awhile back and I've finally moved the first part of it off the painting table. These are 28mm Malifaux hill-billy gremlins (from the Outcasts faction).

These are metal figures and were very nicely cast. There was almost no flash and most pieces fit together perfectly. First up was the boss hog character. The challenge with him was getting the glass bottle of hooch to look right. I eventually opted for a wet-on-wet blend of greens to suggest light reflecting off translucent glass.

There were then a couple of meat-shields wielding some sort of revolver long-arm. The fellow below was particularly bijou, in my view.

The guy below is listed as a taxidermist. Behind his back he's holding a very nasty set of pliers and a bunch of other blades. I enjoy his monocle and tricked out hair.

Then a couple of more expendables. How often do you get to paint a banjo, in miniature gaming? This is my second in nearly 30 years--the other being a wild west extra. The guy on the right is looking through a telescope.

Finally, we have the run-away war pig with the poor fellow just trying to hold on. I love the character of this sculpt.

Up next: I have a couple more piglets with dynamite strapped to them about half done and I've just started the flesh on a series of olde timey hookers from a different faction. I hope to finish up this commission this week and then move onto some 28mm lizards with ray guns that I traded Tim for.