Hey if you are part of the adventuring party and don’t heed the following warning. Just don’t blame me for any disappointment from knowing too much!
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
This should be a very short post. A bit like the previous one really.
I actually had a moment of madness this morning and primed the new minis that arrived the other day. Plus also the four new minis I picked up last night from Colin at club night.
I now have four mummies. So super chuffed about that. Plus a mystery mini that inspired me when I was shown it.
I’m not sure what or who this humanoid is, but I think they will be the owner of the haunted house. Possessed probably and extremely dangerous with that meat cleaver(?).
The shadows I’ll finish first. They will get a dry brush finish similar to the one I did on the Alien figures to give them some highlights.
After that it’s a little research into how to paint mummies!
And we’re back. This post is going to be all over the place (when aren’t they?) But we are starting off with a look at the progress I’m making with the Alien miniatures to use with Last Days (and the RPG).
I have 13 aliens assembled which includes the Queen. Which means I have 12 more left to do. However I decided to paint the assembled ones before putting the remaining ones together.
That meant I needed to decide how I was going to paint them. So it was off to the internet to look for some painting tutorials. Luckily with the older now out of print AvP game and the new Alien game there are one or two posts and videos about painting the aliens. And you guessed it they all had different colour schemes! Which means choose the finished look you like the most and follow that. And that’s what I did.
Here is the tutorial I decided to follow.
So far I have primed the figures with a black primer. Then dry brushed the models with Runefang Steel (which I just realised is the wrong paint! It should have been Leadbelcher! But I actually like the way it’s turned out.) Finally after the dry brushing I applied a wash of Nuln Oil. Now I just have to wait for that all to dry now before proceeding with more dry brushing. But that’s tomorrow’s job.
Painting progress of the Alien miniatures
You’ll also see above that I have some more supplies in to start painting the Big Bang Theory figures with. The important one was the orange brown for Raj. The others were just getting more in off paints I already had.
Not board game related but I do talk video games from time to time on here. And let’s face it I have been playing them since the dawn of the entertainment media that it is.
A couple of years back the Royal Mail issued commemorative stamps celebrating the rich history and achievements of the British video game industry.
Back then I didn’t have the resources to get a set of the stamps. But I did now. So when I saw that I could still buy them whilst pre-ordering the upcoming commemorative stamps celebrating British sci-fi. Well I snapped them up.
Royal Mail commemorative stamps celebrating the British video game industry.
I’m not a stamp collector. But these like the Asterix stamps that I have are just pretty cool to own.
The stamps bring back some find memories of simpler, more care free times. There was a sense of pioneering, pushing boundaries with the games back then.
The only drawback I see with these stamps is that Llamasoft and Jeff Minter are not represented. I love Llamasoft games. They have a unique feel, almost purity to them. Minter has been a gaming hero of mine since the early 80’s. He’s a coding god in my eyes.
Alice is Missing arrives
Finally I’ve been able to get a physical copy of the silent RPG Alice is Missing (I have a digital copy).
I just now need to organise a game or two using the discord server I have access to. Oh and learn how to assign roles, etc in discord. But that’s an apathy thing to overcome.
It’s been a couple of days since I last graced this blog with my shallow thoughts and poorly formed opinions. But isn’t that just the way things are during this global event?
Although gaming has not been taking place in meat space, we did have another virtual game night last Wednesday. And our four player game of Wingspan has reached just over the mid point of round three! But that is all hardly worth writing about (unless I get really desperate for something to say, and that includes a massive misplay by Jonathan in our game of Love Letter).
I did dig out the Zombicide figures for the Big Bang Theory characters and primed them ready for painting.
The Raj figure presented me with a problem painting that I hadn’t come across before. That problem being skin tone. Luckily Duncan was able to point me to some great resources online, such as this CMoN post and this one. I now have a Vallejo Orange Brown on its way.
Looking back at the post where I spec’d them out as a Last Days squad to use I felt a bit embarrassed by what I did. So I will be revisiting this squad and “fixing” it.
I did spend some time this morning cutting and gluing some of the Alien miniatures that Gale Force Nine sell and that have ended up in my possession. The plan is to try and do some of these each day. Or every other day. Or the mood takes me! Look apathy is a real thing ok?
At the moment I have 20 more warrior aliens left to put together. Plus the Heroes of Hadley’s Hope which is 13 figures. And at some point hopefully in the near future the assets and hazards model pack will also drop through the letter box, and that also gets added to the model building queue.
Now you can see why I came up with the above plan to tackle the number of models that need building.
After all that building I then have to paint them! Although I think I might be able to get away with not painting the aliens!! Plus finish off the outstanding bits I need to do rules wise.
All this to add Aliens to Last Days and to use if I get to run the RPG. But I think it’s going to be worth it. Last Days has the potential to be the best Alien based game going!
After the first update to the stats I got some further feedback. Which raised some good points. So I’ve included once more the feedback from Facebook below, but not the feedback/comments from the first update (you can view them easily enough if you click on the link).
Please also remember that my inspiration source is the 1981 BBC tv series adaptation of the book. Although where there are gaps that need filling I use the resources linked to in the original post. The aim has also been to try and keep things rule light as possible while getting the triffid theme over.
I need to think about the spawning rules, and if they need changing from the core rules, and see how things feel. I do like the points raised. So once I can play test these with my friend there may well be a future update covering this.
The fire weapon doing double damage, see what you mean when I reread the Head Shot trait. Hopefully fixed that.
I have added stats for a triffid gun now. The disclaimer below really does apply to this.
On the first aid front, yep not thought that out enough. I think for this to work medical supplies needs to be something that can be equipped from the start, and used in game with the interact action. If used this way it’s gone and can not be used again. One and gone so to speak. I’m thinking a cost of 2 scavenger points to add medical supplies to a character.
Please note: These stats have not been play tested. I repeat have not been play tested. They are my initial thoughts, and a work in progress (this is the third interation). They are likely to change once I get a chance to play test them.
To Do (still):
▪ Play test this!
▪ Come up with campaign additions to cover a character becoming blind if they survived an attack and got hit on bare skin.
The source I used to help with the Triffid Gun stats is this link.
I know I should be finishing the stat update for the triffids. But hear me out. I started painting the triffids instead.
Basically what follows are notes for me so I don’t forget what I did. All paints used are Army Painter.
Despite painting the base coat of all the triffids, I decided to do just one to completion to iron out any kinks in the process.
The base coat for the stem of the triffid is deep yellow and white mixed together (equal parts). I think this when dry works very well, and gives me the colour I wanted on the stem in the middle.
I then used Pure Red, Lava Orange and Phoenix Flames for the layering/gradient. I didn’t go straight from one to the other when painting. I would mix equal parts of the previous colour with the new colour first and do a layer of that, before moving onto the new colour. I’m not too happy with how the “flower” front came out. It’s too solid one the red, and needs a bit more orange coming through.
The base of the triffid is Wet Mud, with the bit around the prongs Wet Mud mixed with equal parts white. And the prongs are ash grey.
A diluted Green Tone wash is applied. I like the green tinge the stem takes on. And I think it has really worked wonders on the lower half.
Once dry I super glued the triffid to a base. The I flocked the base. For once a little glue sticking flock to the triffid bottom works in my favour and makes the whole thing look better!
At the weekend for some reason I got it in my head I wanted a Finn Lego minifig with the now infamous First Order helmet with the bloodied hand print on it.
Naturally that isn’t something Disney or Lego are likely to sell.
So I did a quick Google to see if anyone was selling a custom figure. Instead I found a post/video showing how to do it myself using a toothpick and red paint.
I just needed Finn as a First Order trooper. Ok technically any First Order trooper would have done. But not for me. So eBay helped out by allowing me to purchase Finn in his First Order uniform. Which arrived this morning.
I then dug out a First Order trooper and removed its helmet. Then using a toothpick, and the Army Painter Zombicide Glistening Blood paint that I had, I painted on the infamous bloodied hand print on the helmet.
Which I think has come out looking quite good.
Yesterday I did finish off removing the supports from the final 6 triffids that Duncan printed for me.
I’ve now primed all 21 triffids ready to be painted.
After doing some research in how to paint the triffids. Which was mainly looking at triffid pictures from the 1981 BBC tv adaptation. I have a colour scheme that I will be using (just waiting for the Army Painter Wet Mud paint to arrive). At the moment I’m looking at tutorials on layering/blending because that’s the main technique I will need to painting the triffids.
Lastly the Alien miniatures arrived from Thirsty Meeple this morning. I just need the alien egg/face hugger pack to arrive.
A parcel arrived this morning from my friend Duncan. As you can see below, it contained the 3D printing he’d kindly been doing for me. And no before ask Duncan did not send me instant coffee as well. That also contained 3D models he’d printed.
I have a lot of printing supports to remove now from the various models. As you can see below I have only got round to doing that to two of the triffids.
But once painted they will look soooo cool on the table.
I did something brave and possibly foolhardy after publishing my post Last Days: A Triffid Apocalypse! I shared it on the Last Days Facebook page.
I was nervous about sharing my work. How would it be received? Luckily people seemed to like it and I got some useful, constructive feedback as well. Which I have included below. I was rather star struck that Ash Barker liked the Facebook post. Did he read the blog post? No idea.
I’m pretty sure I read that triffids can’t go indoors, and their size would hint at that. But can I find where I read that? Not a bloody chance.
Below are the updated stats for a triffid.
Please note: These stats have not been play tested. I repeat have not been play tested. They are my initial thoughts, and a work in progress. They are likely to change once I get a chance to play test them.
I’ve added a Sway and Hit the Head special rules for the stinger. And tweaked the notes on the behaviour and traits.
I don’t think that there needs to be a hidden rule as described above. I think this would be counted as cover. But I need to think more about this.
UPDATED: to avoid confusion over units used for range of stinger.
I think these take on board the advice given, and make the triffids feel on theme! Any character that becomes out of action from a triffid attack and part of a campaign still needs additions made to decide if they die, blinded or seriously ill for a period of time. But that’s for another day.
To do:
▪ Play test this!
▪ Come up with campaign additions to cover a character becoming blind if they survived an attack and got hit on bare skin.
I thought I’d just share the progress on printing the dwarven gate(s) that Duncan is doing for me.
The first gate has finished printing. Duncan sent me some photos of it assembled, that I’m sharing below with you.
Ok it is being held together by blutac. So once I glue/fix them into position it will fit more cleanly. This was only done to give me an idea of how they will look, and progress.
I have to say it looks pretty amazing. I really think when these get out on the table they have a wow factor.
Duncan has nearly finished the second gate. With all the hiccups worked out in printing them he’s raced through the separate parts that make up the gate.
Can’t wait to to get my grubby mitts on them, and more importantly use them in a game of D&D.
