Dreamblade 2D Shades

Another great re-purposed Dreamblade mini I'd like to share are these 2-dimensional monstrous shadows. They make excellent ghosts, spirits, and, well, animated, monstrous shadows!

Anyway, perfect for fantasy, horror, or a combo of both!









Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Reaper Bones Werewolf

Managed to get the Reaper Bones Werewolf done. Can't say enough about the quality of these low-cost plastics!







And a comp shot for scale:



Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Announcing: Goalsystem Dungeon Delve!

Over the last five years, a lot of folks (well, 49 e-mails--is that a lot?) have inquired about an expanded Goalsystem Fantasy skirmish game. Well, I finally find myself in a place where I feel comfortable working on this, so here I am to announce that I have commenced work on Goalsystem Dungeon Delve!

I'll need a few weeks to knock together the nuts and bolts of this thing, but here is a list of some basic design goals, in no particular order:

• Utilize the latest version of GS as seen in Blasters & Bulkheads and the upcoming Department

The more I work on this the further away I am getting from this goal. Nothing for it, just the way I work as a designer. --SRP

• Adapt the rules to faithfully cover the Dungeon Fantasy genre (i.e., level-based advancement, monsters, treasures, etc.)

• Expand the role-play aspects of the system to better cover non-combat encounters, but do so in such a way as to not infringe on players who just want to kill stuff in the dungeon

• Include mechanics for building your favorite races and classes into the game, because we won't be able to fit them all in

Those are some lofty goals, and they'll likely mature as the project moves along. My good buddy Joe Dragovich will be handling the layout and visual design chores. He did Labors of the Gods and Blasters & Bulkheads. Super artist Thomas Scioli is along for the ride to provide character designs and artwork. If I can twist his arm, I'll also have my pal Schuyler Hernstrom along for some lavish prose on the chapter intro pieces.

And I hope to involve some of you folks in the play-testing. You know who you are, the usual suspects! The folks who've helped keep me going in this hobby the last 10 years.

Now for some gory details. I've always wanted to do a cloth-bound, hardcover book with a sewn binding. Maybe smallish, 6" x 9". Call it a fetish of mine. I dig those sorts of books. In order to do this, and really, in order to fund any kind of real print run on this book, I would need to go the Kickstarter route. Is this something folks would be amenable to? It may not be practical, but I am considering it. We'll of course also be doing an ultra-affordable, printer friendly PDF version no matter what way I decide to go with the print. It will be B&W no matter what we decide to do, I think.

This is just me doing some fishing right now. If we go this route, Joe and I will put together a proper Kickstarter pitch and the first place I announce it will be here.

So, yeah, Goalsystem Dungeon Delve! Tell your friends, hide the Kobold women and children (Chaotic Neutral, indeed!), and sharpen your swords! There will soon be quests to undertake and evil villains to slay!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Reaper Bones Ogre Champion Completed

Got him done this morning!

Here he is:









I figure his club is a magic, sentient weapon. Who's really in charge? You decide.

Here's a scale comp shot:



Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Another Dreamy Find

You know, Dreamblade miniatures have really served me well over the years. This line of incredibly odd, weirdly scaled pre-paints from WotC contains a number of gems suitable for 28mm gaming.

This latest piece I have re-based is a Soul Grub, #68 from the Base Set expansion.











I used it as a beast in my latest Freeport game. A local beggar was actually a dangerous serial killer, and in reality, he was this crazy beast! A dark, soul consuming servant of the Yellow Sign!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Next Project: Reaper Bones Ogre Champion

I've been waiting to get some Litko 40mm plywood bases to work on this guy. Well, they arrived, so now it's time to work on him!

Here are some preliminary shots:

'







There's nary a mold line on this guy, so prep will be a snap! I will base him up tomorrow and get to work on him.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

LotR: Wood Elves

I've got a small warband of plastic Wood Elves done. They'll be a nice complement to my Dwarf Rangers.











These are nice, dynamic single-piece plastics, but you need to use some subtle techniques on them to get the most out of them, as they do have a bit of "detail melt" here and there.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

LotR: Combat Hex Cave Troll Re-Based

Got the big fella re-based and touched up a bit. Not a lot of work had to be done to make him "table-ready"--a nice find for $5 in the FLGS discarded bin!









And here are some comp shots with Dwarf Rangers:





I think that trio is going to need some back-up!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

LotR Dwarf Ranger Unit Pics

Here's pics of a complete Dwarf Ranger unit, plus one (I miscounted). You might notice I jazzed up their bases. I figured they needed some punch, since they spend a lot of time tramping around foothills and forests outside of Dwarf hold-fasts.









Next post I should have that Combat Hex Cave Troll re-based and ready to roll.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Oh Captain, Dwarf Captain!

I wanted a plastic Dwarf Captain to go with my Rangers, but converting these figures to get exactly what I wanted seemed too much bother at this point. So I took the easy route and selected one of my favorites of the plastic Rangers and simply painted him again using a slightly varied color combo to make him stand out.

Here's where I ended up:







In my story line the green cloak was a gift from a Wood Elf ally, a rare thing among Dwarves. I think I will name him Argan Whitebeard. His grey beard means he's a crafty fighter and cagey leader, a survivor of a hundred battles.

Another Captain option is this lovely metal Ral Partha figure who scales up pretty darn well with the Rangers. Check it out:





He's got a cloak, and that mace makes an excellent two-handed weapon. I think this guy will lead my second unit of Dwarf Rangers.

Next post I will show some pics of the whole warband of Dwarf Rangers.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Hobby Methods: Five Foundry Paints

Some folks have expressed a desire to hear more about the process I go about in painting stuff up.

Well, with the release of GW's all-new paint line, it got me to thinking about the paints I currently rely most heavily on: Wargames Foundry 3-step palettes. Today I'd like to quickly name the 5 palettes I use the most, and why. Here they are in no particular order of importance.

1.) Rawhide 11 I've used this amazing earth-tone for everything from leather to cloth. It will even work as a monstrous flesh tone. Very versatile. Features heavily on my LotR Dwarf Rangers, but you'll also see it a lot on my other figures.

2.) Phlegm Green 28 For me this is the best acrylic green going. I can often "feather" between shades A and B and get the desired effect, saving C for that final line to make an edge pop. This is my go-to color for cloaks.

3.) Granite 31 This wonderful 3-step gray really blends well across all of its layers, and when I don't paint a cloak with Phlegm green, it often gets painted Granite. Also excellent for gray hair and beards.

4.) Native American Flesh 120 I started using this flesh palette about a year ago and it has quickly become a mainstay for me. Pot A provides the ruddy, darker undertone I like, but I can quickly take it higher by moving through B and C, and I can always start with B if I want a lighter skin tone.

5.) Bay Brown 42 I use a lot of browns in my painting, and no brown performs better than Bay Brown. Originally formulated for painting horse flesh, I am not sure I've painted more than one horse with it! But I can tell you I have painted hundreds of belts, packs, boots, and jerkins with it. This color blends supremely easily across all three levels, and for my money provides the truest brown you will find.

I want to note that all of the above paints (and most other Foundry paints I have used) cover a black undercoat with ease, and for me, that's a critical point to make. If you have no experience with Foundry paints, the first thing you may notice is the price--they're not cheap at $16.33 for a 3-pot palette, but you get what you pay for.

I can only speak to my personal experience, but I will contend that using these paints has made me a better painter. They'll make an average painter good, and a good painter great, and that has to be worth something.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

LotR: A Trollish Project

While rooting through the "misfit toys" at my FLGS I came across the awesome Combat Hex Cave Troll from Sabertooth's short-lived pre-painted line.

Intended to be 40mm scale, this Cave Troll actually will make an awesome piece for my LotR Strategy Battle games in 28mm.

Here are some initial shots of him out of the box:







The paint-work on him is pretty great. The task this week will be to get him off of his hex base and onto a proper GW round plastic base. I'll provide updates as I go.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Skaven: Classic Plastic

I painted up two classic plastic Skaven yesterday. I figure I will throw these guys into the back ranks of my Stormvermin unit to fill it out a bit more.

Surprisingly nice details on these models!







Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Based Objective Counters

I recently took some Armorcast resin crates from their 28mm range and mounted them on some Gale Force 9 pre-cut 45mm bases. These counters make excellent objective markers for sci-fi skirmish and 40K Kill Team style games. They also make excellent counters and terrain for Pulp and Wild West games.









I used my usual Liquitex Resin Sand mixed with sand flock for the texturing, and added some tufts to finish them off.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott