Reaper Cretus the Minotaur

I've had Cretus for a while, and I finally got motivated to paint him up! He is by far my favorite of Reaper's minotaur models, and I think he fits best with the scale and style of their most recent releases.











And here he is with the other members of his mercenary band:



For his basic flesh color I used Foundry's Peaty Brown, and the old reliable Bay Brown for the hairier areas. Game Color's Brassy Brass and Badab Black ink took care of most of the metal areas. The loin cloth was painted using Foundry Rawhide.

This week I plan on returning to Malifaux to work on some Waldgeist models! They are beasts, and can be inducted into my Arcanist Marcus warband.

As always, thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Phantom Kill Team Tourney Report

We just finished up our Warhammer 40K Kill Team multi-week event at Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh, and everyone had a blast!

The full report can be found on the PotA blog.

I wanted to highlight my favorite Kill Team in the event, Andrew Lotz's all-Ogryn B-Team! Check them out:



His conversions are phenomenal, and his tactical acumen won him the overall victory prize. You can see in the pic from left to right, Mad Murdock (in a wedding gown), BA, and Hannibal. Face-man drives the custom Chimera.

I love it when a plan comes together!

--Scott

Reaper Ice Toad

Since he first showed up in stores last year, I have wanted to paint Reaper Miniatures' Ice Toad. My buddy Sky painted him up and showed him off last Sunday, pulling off a wonderful icy blue scheme that perfectly suits the model. I will share pics if Sky sends me some.

Anyway, there was one of these models left on the rack, so I snagged him, and decided I would go a different route. After all, Robert Frost did "hold with those who favor fire."











Here is a scale comparison shot with Malifaux's Myranda:



Later this week I may paint up some of OG's 15mm pirates, just for something completely different!

--Scott

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

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

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

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

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

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