Sunday, May 30, 2010

Old Glory Terrain Board System

Last post I hinted at my admiration for Old Glory's relatively new Terrain Board System. These nifty 2' x 2' squares are cast from extruded foam, and come ready to play right out of the box!

Full disclosure, I work with OG on a number of Blue Moon related products, and we share stewardship of the SuperFigs line. However, I get no cut from sales of these terrain boards, I just think they're a wonderful product that folks should know about. The limitations of the OG 25's web site (linked above) do not really allow the boards to be shown off as they should be. So I am taking this post to do just that.

The boards are sold in sets of 3 for $115. For $230, you can have a 6' x 4' board that is tough and versatile, ready to play on right from the box, and that can be added to with additional squares as desired.

Anyway, this morning I laid out some of my newly acquired Terrain boards at Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh. I also took about an hour to lightly drybrush them and give them a bit more pop. This was not necessary to make them look great, but I wanted to create some extra color variation. If you really wanted to get ambitious, you could prime these and completely re-paint them! All texture is cast-in--there is nothing on these boards to be scraped off, dented, or chipped. They are rigid, extruded foam and are quite sturdy. Wonderful for a games club or store environment, and easily stored so they could also be used in the home.

Enough blather, on with the pics!

















On these next few pics you can more clearly see the effects of some of the dry-brushing I did. Again, this took very little effort, and I never had to touch the stone areas, they looked that good out of the box. I just added some depth to the green areas.








As I get more sets of these I will show them off with figures in action.

I really think they're worth a look!

--Scott

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Malifaux: Razorspine Rattler

If Marcus' little sub-faction of the Arcanists has one boffo, signature piece, it is the Razorspine Rattler, a big, nasty mutant snake with some real potential for mayhem.

Assembling this big nasty was not hard, but it did require some pre-planning, and the employment of some cork to use as a rock--not usually my style, but necessary to make the pose work.











I used Foundry Buff Leather and some Devlan Mud mixed with white glue to create the textured effects on the skin/scales. The model is lovely, but the details on the top of the body are not deep, so one has to take care to maintain the illusion of depth in the scales.

Here are some size comparison shots with Marcus, and then also including a Mole Man:





These shots were taken on some of my newly acquired terrain squares from Old Glory. I will do a separate post about these soon, as I believe very strongly in them as a quality gaming product. I need to do some dry-brushing to add some depth to them.

The Malifaux band is at 23 soul stones (game lingo for points), so I need to add +2 pts. to get to 25, a good starting battle total. I have the Wendigo totem on the bench for the next addition, and he is, nicely, 2 pts.!

I wish Malifaux would release the Jackalope totem. He is meant to work with Marcus; if anyone knows of any 15mm - 28mm Jackalope models, let me know!

As always, thanks for looking!

--Scott

Friday, May 28, 2010

Malifaux: Mole-Men

Continuing on with my foray into the world of Malifaux and the Arcanists, here are some shots of the Mole-Men, the latest beasts to join the cause of Marcus!









I tried a new technique for doing black with these guys. I mixed some Foundry Mauve-A (really just a purple) in with some black in about a 60/40 black to purple ratio and highlighted with that. The effect is subtle, and better in person, but I like it better than the old method of using Vallejo German Field Gray over black.

I really like the simian qualities of these models, and their burrowing abilities could prove useful during a game. We shall see!

Next up, the formidable Razorspine Rattler!

--Scott

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Malifaux: Myranda

Well, Myranda is done and the Mole Men are soon to follow! I am enjoying reading the rules quite a bit. As a game designer, I am always intrigued by card-based mechanics, so I'm finding it pretty instructive.









Myranda is a shapeshifter, so I will have to get some extra beasts for her to change into.

Next up, the Mole Men!

--Scott

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Malifaux: First Figure

My buddy Joe Dragovich has been doing some great stuff with Malifaux and Steampunk related minis on his cool blog. Now my local shop may be doing some Malifaux gaming. That was enough to push me into giving the figures a try.

All of the Malifaux figures from Wyrd are really well done, but some are just too strange for my tastes, but I have settled on the Arcanists faction to start with. Among them, Marcus the beastmaster is among my favs, and I started with him.










Wyrd and others are really fond of putting their minis on rocks, but I just went with a normal basing scheme, except, since he is a beastmaster, I threw in one of Khurasan's excellent 15mm "Critters" to dress up the base. I also added a simple GW dagger from the Mordheim sprue.







I intend to pick up the rules and some cards for it this week. Next for Malifaux, some beasts for Marcus to master!

--Scott

Friday, May 21, 2010

GWI Preview: The Robots Are Coming!

Here's a first look at some of the models from our all-robot faction. The idea will be that any of the armies of the first Galactic War can hire a legion of robots. The quality of their weaponry and combat computers will be determined by their color. Red robot legionaries will be the most dangerous. But what's to stop a general from hiring some blue ones on the cheap and re-painting them red? All's fair in love and war!












These guys would also work great as 6mm mecha!

Here are some comparison shots!







More robots to come!

--Scott

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Mythic Skirmish Using SOBH

Me and my buddies Aaron, Lou, and Lee may be getting together on occasional Thursday evenings to do some mythic skirmish using Song of Blades and Heroes and some of the supplements. Aaron is going to do Etruscans with some cool monsters, and I think I may do Herakles and a band of followers.

I have several options for models. I intend to paint a few Cretan archers from my backlog, but I have a really nice Wargames Foundry limited edition Herakles I intend to use. I really prefer this Herakles to the one that was more widely released and still sold with Foundry's Argonauts (check the pack in the lower left corner), but both minis are quite good.

I've included some shots of him and some of my mythic monsters and other cool stuff.











That minotaur is from Harlequin's old fantasy line. He sat in my backlog for the longest time until I painted him earlier this year. He's tough, but I still think Herakles has the edge!

Here's another mythic foe, the Cyclops!





This particular Cyclops is from the old D&D 25th Anniversary miniature line from around 2002, I think.

A while back I think I showed off some of my painted Glorantha miniatures, which have a very Bronze Age, mythic feel to them. Here is my favorite again, which could easily pass for a Herakles miniature!







This is a dynamite line of metal miniatures, once carried by Lance & Laser, but now handled by someone else. Can't remember who though...

Finally, I took some quick pics of my Ral Partha armored centaur, a really solid and tough looking centaur miniature, I think!





If we do manage any games, I will take some pics and report back!

--Scott