WFB Skaven: Hellpit Abomination!

In getting ready for the Halloween WFB events I'll be playing in, I've made a radical change in direction as to the army I will field. I'm returning to Skaven! My buddy Rico has decided he wants to do a small Chaos force, so it makes a lot more sense for me to team with him using Skaven rather than Dwarves.

Since I have 1400 pts. of rats already, I just need to freshen them up a bit. Enter the Hellpit Abomination! This massive plastic kit had been sitting unpainted at Phantom for a while, so I cajoled them into letting me have a go at it.

Here's my preliminary results (I may re-visit him and add further details):



As you can see above, I have him on a huge base. His base was missing when I got him, so I made one from styrene and guestimated the size. I think he looks pretty good, but it might be a tad large.







I did not consult a painted image and decided to just go my own way on how I would paint him. I included lots of earth tones--befitting a creature who began its life as a worm!





Tomorrow I will feature a couple of scale shots of the Hellpit Abom next to some normal Skaven and a Rat Ogre.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

SuperFigs: Grannok-5

When I was in Chicago a few weeks back I hung out with my buddy, Jan (known as "Skip" in our comments section). Jan showed me his painting area, and I was wowed when I saw his version of Grannok-5, one of my top 5 favorite SuperFigs.

Jan was kind enough to send me a couple of pics of the finished version to share with folks here.





A talented artist across several mediums, Jan possesses a masterful eye for color, as evidenced with this paint job. Makes me want to bust out my own Grannok-5 and run some SuperSystem!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Off The Shelf: Murch Pulp

I painted these guys a few years back and I am still very happy with the results. I've got around 60 of these figures, many from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures line, but a few also from Old Glory's various lines. It's enough figures to populate a small Chinese village in the Pulp era.

Many will also work for Victorian games as well.











Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Off The Shelf: Reaper Dragonborn Chain Fighter Conversion

A couple of years back when D&D 4E first came out I did a conversion for a Dragonborn Chain Fighter based on a Reaper Miniatures Reptus Longstriker and some of their chain bits. I posted this on RPG.net before I had my blog, so I thought I'd share it here as well for those folks who did not catch it there.

I'll illustrate the whole process with some pics I took as I went along.

Stage 1
Examine the base miniature. Here are all of the components of the Longstriker:



Below are the components from the Reaper chain weapon pack that I used:

Stage 2
Taking a jeweler's saw, I carefully sawed the tail off of the body of the Reptus figure (Dragonborn do not have tails). I did this in several steps, and was careful not to saw into any of the other neighboring details. I then used a sharp xacto blade to clean up the area. Since the area of the cut is largely obscured by the model's clothing and armor, and the cut was clean, no greenstuff putty was needed to clean up the area or fill any gaps.

Stage 3
I then had to cut up the separate right arm, removing the pieces of the halberd on either side of the hand. I decided to leave a large piece of the leather wrapped handle in his hand, and mount the chain to either side of it. The illustration of the spiked chain on pg. 220 of the PHB shows a pair of handles, so I figured I'd include one central handle.

Stage 4

Using a bit of greenstuff epoxy putty, I positioned the lower right arm into the socket hole of the main Reptus body. I used greenstuff for this instead of super glue because I wanted to retain some posability as I fiddled with the chain pieces in later steps. It takes a while for greenstuff to set up, so you have some time to move things around. I would later strengthen the bond with some superglue applied using a toothpick so as not to slop it onto other areas. Here's the model with the complete right arm assembly:

Stage 5
At this point I super-glued the Reptus into the slotted base. I chose a round slot because I prefer them to squares for character models. I then took two pieces of chain from Reaper's chain weapon sprue and dry-fit them into the upper section from the left hand to the bottom of the handle in the right hand, and the bottom of the left hand to the slotted base. After some pain-staking bending and re-bending, I finally found a fit and look I liked for these first two sections of chain. I then applied very small blobs of greenstuff to all three contact areas (bottom of the handle, top of left hand, bottom of left hand). This gave me enough adhesion to settle the chains into place and then fiddle with them a bit to get them right. Once I was satisfied, I again applied some superglue with a toothpick to solidify the hold.

I should add that I use Zap-A-Gap brand Gel super-glue almost exclusively. It's the best in terms of hold and control. It's the one with the green label. Here's a pick of stage 5:

Stage 6
Even though this Dragonborn would be a Chain Fighter, I wanted him to have some backup weapons. I took a sword from Reaper Weapon Pack I and cut it down a bit to make a long knife. I placed this into the gap in his armor plates over his right hip using a blob of greenstuff to get it into proper position.

Stage 7
In stage 7 I attached the lower bludgeon to the chain weapon. I decided to use one of the spiked cylindrical pieces. I cut the spikes off one side to create a side that would lie flat on the base. I put a small blob of greenstuff on the flat side and dropped it on the base near the chain. Then I used my xacto blade push it over into line. I used a bit of greenstuff on the end of the chain to make a nice meeting between the two. Once I flocked the base this would all be pretty invisible. Here's a look at this stage:

Stage 8
In step 8 I positioned a third length of chain over the model's back, connected to the upper half of the handle. before attaching it using greenstuff and a little glue, I dry-fit it, bending it to the desired position, then I attached the bladed bludgeon using, you guessed it, some greenstuff. Once I was satisfied with the way it rested over his shoulder and down his back, I added some superglue with a toothpick to key points along the model's back armor area.

Here is the pic of this stage:

Stage 9
Final details included adding a last-minute pair of throwing knives to model some ranged attack ability, and a heft of rope give him that look of an adventurer. Both of these came from the Mordheim equipment sprue. I desperately wanted to add a small pack or pouch, but there was just no room. I tried, but the figure looked too crowded, so I ripped them off.

At this point I also added some Renaissance Ink Medium Flocking Gel to the base for texture and to hide some of my messy conversion work. I like this stuff more than sand; when it dries it's like concrete and it takes paint very well.

Oh well. Any way, here is a shot of the finished, unpainted Dragonborn Chain Fighter:

Here's a shot from another angle:

And the finished, painted Dragonborn Chain Fighter!

As always, thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Out With The Old...

I am trying to lighten my load by moving some of my old painted miniatures along to new homes.



I've posted a message on Lead Adventure with details.

Thanks for looking!

Nobody Asked Me, But....

Being a few brief shirt-pocket notes on various activities in my gaming life.

• Over the weekend I played Dragon Dice again after more than fifteen years! The collectible dice game once owned by TSR now enjoys the sage control and management of SFR Inc. I bought one of their 2-player starter sets and played with my buddy Chris Moeller, who is a big fan of the game. We had a great time, and I fully intend to grab another starter and build up my Goblin army. If you like rolling cool dice, this is your game!

• We're playing D&D 4E again this weekend, with master DM Rico once again leading us into plunder and peril amidst the chaotic streets of Neverwinter. My Half-Orc Ranger will reveal himself as a Harper this week, and as that once august group now stands in disgrace and disarray, things could get very interesting.

• I continue to work on Dwarves for the October Halloween game at Bill and Lou's. I think I may expand my Dwarf warrior core unit to a full 30--6 across x 5 deep. The models from the old boxed set are simply a breeze to paint and my current method has them looking pretty good. Figure I might as well max them out.

• Finished reading A Game of Thrones, and I am taking a break before I dive into the next one. In the interim I am re-reading Katherine Kurtz's first Deryni series book, Deryni Rising.

• At some point in the near term I may team up with Rico to do something with Privateer Press' new boxed starter set for Warmachine. I will finally get to do plastic Men of War troops! Yes!

Enough musings for today! Later this week I'll feature an old project log that details one of my more successful conversions.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Warhammer Fantasy Battle: Dwarf Runepriest

Got my Runepriest done this weekend, and a few more basic Dwarfs!





He's a Reaper figure from their Warlord line. Here's a scale comp pic:



And now with the unit:





Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Dungeons & Dragons: Half-Orc Ranger Redux!

We've played two sessions in Rico's awesome 4E Forgotten Realms Neverwinter campaign, and now we've reached 2nd level. I originally chose this model as my miniature:



Now don't get me wrong, I love this figure, and I am super-happy with my paint work on him, but I was originally hoping to score this guy:



However, Phantom did not have him because he was unavailable to shops. Last week I decided it might be cool to place an order directly with Reaper for some other OOP minis, and I added Kanaag to the list. Well, he showed up two days ago and I had to crank him out due to his super-coolness!









I still need to finish his eyes!

And here's a comp shot with him next to the old Morgul Gladeglum:



So this change in minis will actually drive an interesting story development. In Neverwinter characters can select from a number of Themes to further define them. I picked Harper. At the time of the campaign's start, the Harpers (a group of heroes bent on protecting the weak and confronting the evil of the Red Wizards) are in disarray, suffering from a terrible betrayal, and with their surviving members largely scattered and hidden.

In my cloaked guise as Morgul Gladeglum I was actually hiding who I really was, the Half-Orc Harper Kargun Thornspur! In the next session I plan to cast off the cloak and phony ID and go public. Perhaps Kargun's recent successes have made him overly confident, but he wants to openly re-build the Harpers and train young new heroes through the orphanage that he and the other PCs are sponsoring.

I'm sure the Red Wizards may have something to say about this! I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Goalsystem: The Department Hits Its Goal!

Just a quick note to let folks know that my buddy Joe Dragovich has met his goal to fund his Goalsystem game, The Department. You can read more about the good news on his blog right here.

Congrats, Joe! Goalsystem fans are all looking forward to what you've got coming our way! But first, be sure to finish the layout on Blasters & Bulkheads! ;-)



(The above pic is from an old boxed set of Shadowrun minis, and one particularly suited for use with The Department.)

--Scott

WFB: Dwarf Update

Just a quick update and a few pics for the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Dwarf project!

I think I've hit on a scheme that will allow me to get the Dwarf Warrior and Gunner units done quickly and easily. Army Painter metal spray. Instead of priming black as I normally do, I tried some of the metal spray. Then I hit the whole model with Badab Black wash, and then I added details and highlights.

Here's the finished product:





I can finish a Dwarf using this method in 30 minutes, not counting basing.

Anyway, I hope to knock out 5 - 10 more of these guys this week.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

More OG Rioting Peasant Mobs

Last night we played Rico's D&D 4E Neverwinter game, and since my Half-Orc Ranger (Scout) has decided to support a local orphanage in the city, I decided to help the DM out by painting up some non-combatants for him to threaten.

Old Glory's Revolting Peasant Mobs provided some great additional characters to add to some of the fantasy civilians I've already had done for a while now. Their details are not sharp, but they look pretty good with some paint on them.



The two older ladies seen above will act as the "minders" of the Orphanage.



Although perhaps the woman above does a little something else on the side? Who knows!



This cabbage hurling lad will surely benefit from the positive influence of my Half-Orc's steady hand!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

GF9 Tree of Woe

I needed a terrain piece for our upcoming Halloween terrain event, so instead of making one, I decided to cheat and buy one. Gale Force 9's Tree of Woe seemed a really cool piece to use for the games, and I could also see myself using it again in some skirmish games.

This excellent resin piece comes fully pre-painted, and looks great right out of the box!

I plan to dress it up with some Reaper pumpkins and other appropriate extras.

Here are some quick shots of it!











Thanks for visiting!

--Scott