Category Archives: painting

painting

Unnamed blog post

Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting, new arrivals, painting, RPG

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.

BBT Squad Prep and Aliens

Alien, Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting, painting

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!

1 Triffid Down…

Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting, painting

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!

1 triffid down, 20 more to do!

FN-2187

Last Days, lego minifigs, miniatures, miniatures painting, painting

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.

Goblin Druid

miniatures, painting

I did some painting yesterday. It was just one figure. But it had been partially started a few months ago. All that had been done at that point in time was the hat mask combo.

So it was time to finish it.

At the time of buying I was after a goblin wizard. It was to be used for the Matt Colville Tomb of the Delian Order Adventure that I was going to be running (my first experience as a DM – and yes the power went to my head).

However my Internet travels looking for one were fruitless. But I did find this goblin druid. It looked wizard like! I could use that, who’d notice?

And no-one did.

The only time this plan will fail is if I need a goblin druid and wizard in the same encounter. Hopefully this will be a rare occurrence. Planning and all that.

So now I have a table top ready goblin druid that will masquerade as a wizard from time to time as and when needed.

Adding Agitators

painting

This is a short post! ‘Thank god” went the shouts around the Internet.

Earlier today I shared on Facebook and Twitter via Instagram the photo below, asking people to guess what I’d been doing.

Here is the answer.

A few days ago I was watching a video on YouTube by Lukes Aps.

After watching that video as I was ordering more paints (I needed more for the cave tiles) I also ordered a bag of 8mm ball bearings.

So with the new paints that arrived at the same time I’ve added agitators to them. I feel so pretentious saying that.

There is not any way in the world at any point in my life I’d think I’d ever be doing this, or speaking like that.

But it’s a useful tip to know.

Update on planning for session 1 #3

D&D, painting, RPG, session planning

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.

Ok let’s start with the painting of the cliffs.

On 3 of the cliff tiles I added some flock. Which was way way too light. I thought I was going to have to clean it off and forget it.

However I was hit by a brainwave, yeah unusual for me I know. So I broke out the green wash and dabbed it on the flock.

I’m now much happier with the results.

Decided to start on the cave tiles with two of the larger ones I currently have. In the photos below the wash is drying so looks glossy. But they won’t end up like that.

I’ve done a supplies restock, and have more of the colours I’m using for the cave tiles on the way.

I now have the Ghosts of Saltmarsh source book (a post will appear over the next couple of days on that). So I can now feed information from there in to my planning.

Such as I now have a location for Saltmarsh on the Sword Coast. I’d originally in my head had it in the area below. But about a week ago when things started to click I moved it much further south. South of Baldar’s Gate and nearer to the border.

However in Ghosts of Saltmarsh they suggest that Saltmarsh is between Neverwinter and Waterdeep. It gets further narrowed down when they say that Thornhold is south of Saltmarsh. So based on the information given, I’m placing Saltmarsh at the northern end of the Mere of Dead Men.

I’ve also identified the islands that the opening encounters will take place on. I was going to treat the second island as a wilderness encounter. But thanks to the new book I have stats for seals! So if they land on the opposite side of the island to the small fishing huts, they will come across seals on the beach.

The fishing huts are a summer resting spot for fishermen while they catch fish, cure them, before returning back to their community with their catches. Which will be fresh fish they caught on the journey back, and the cured stuff. These fishermen will give the party a ride to Kythyss. The fishermen know about the pirate base. There is an accommodation between the pirates and the fishermen. The fishermen say nothing about the pirates, provide them with fish. In return the pirates keep the fishermen safe.

Once the party have reached Alaron for the festival I want the party to get a boat. Most likely a keel boat. There will be one or two ways for them to get one. I like the idea of them owing a powerful figure. And you can be sure that at a later point they will be calling in that debt.

The town map for Kythyss will actually be the Saltmarsh town map. Makes sense because my players won’t be exploring Saltmarsh for a long time. Saves me prep time, and one less thing to create.

There are one or two adventures in Ghosts Of Saltmarsh that I can use for the campaign. So if I fancy a break from planning I can use on of them.

I’d also at some point like to run some underwater adventures as part of the campaign. But at the moment I don’t have a credible excuse for allowing the party to breathe underwater.

Anyway I hope you found this thought sharing interesting.

Chains and Barrels

D&D, painting, RPG

The bank holiday weekend saw me experiment with painting one of the barrels that was printed for me by a friend. Plus an attempt to paint the piles of chains that came with the cage I bought.

The end result for the barrel I’m very happy with. The metal was painted with Runefang Steel, and the wood with Mournfang Brown. Then a mild brown wash applied. The groves in the wood didn’t come out dark enough for my liking. So I applied a second layer of the wash just to those groves. Which gave me a result I was more happy with. I do like how the wash gave the metal a rusted/copper look.

The chains are ok. And will do. For those I used the Runefang Steel again, and then a dark tone wash.

I also started a couple of chests, that I think need the wash applying again to darken the groves more.

Now to do the other barrels I have printed.

Meat Damage

expansions, Fenland Gamers, game night, netrunner, painting

Easter Monday, a bank holiday in the UK, and the last day in a four day weekend that started on Good Friday. For some it's a religious holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, for others it's just a long weekend and an excuse to pig out of chocolate. On the chocolate front I pig out after Easter when the shops reduce the price of their Easter eggs, more sugar high for your money.

My Easter Monday afternoon was spent at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole at Chatteris.

I was there for an informal painting workshop that was being run. I was given a Warhammer tyranid that had already got a base coat on so was ready for painting to practice with. After doing a poor job painting the main areas, I got to try dry brushing. A technique I have wanted to get a grasp of. Yes I knew the theory of doing it. But needed the confidence to do it. Having the practice miniature and guidance was enough to help give confidence I needed.

Naturally I hadn't gone to the store empty handed. I had a small bag of games and decks with me also.

I had leant my copy of Get Bit! I'd taken along to a family there to play with. It was the least I could do having won a game of Fluxx with them. After the painting I got roped into playing a two player game of Get Bit! In the two player variant both players play two robots. The game was enjoyable, not earth shattering. It won't be leaving my collection soon, but only because I have very few games that youngsters can play.

Chris and I played our first game of Netrunner. It was my Shaper deck against his Jinteki Corp deck. Chris won this easily scoring agendas. He'd built up a nice scoring server that was well protected. I was getting cards in place, but economy was an issue this time for me this time. Not having funds to make runs because you can't pump your ice breakers isn't good.

Our second game saw his Kate deck against my NBN Corp deck. Turn one I set a trap for the runner in a single remote server, iced up R&D and HQ, on the runners turn they played a couple of cards, did a run on my trap and took a tag. “How many cards are in your hand?” I enquired not casually enough. I think the runner knew what was coming. Scorched Earth, BAM! Turn two kill!

Quickest win of my short time playing Netrunner. Wow that was like shockingly amazing.

We reset and played again. This time the game played out more like a typical game. Once again early on I had the cards to do the kill in hand. But the runner was more careful in avoiding tags this time.

My little “tricks” we're playing out. I let the runner score some one point agendas and getting Franchise City scored in response. The runner scored 15 Minutes, that went back into R&D on my turn. I was allowed to keep two Pad Campaigns in play, even with three agendas in hand and a Scorched Earth, I was still able to create lots of new servers. The bottom of R&D was getting loaded up with agendas thanks to Daily Business Show. The runner had even taken News Team as a minus one agenda point to avoid taking a tag.

The game came down to one final play, if the runner failed on the run I'd won, because I could score out the agenda. The first ice they hit was a Wraparound, which got +7 strength, breaking that with Crypsis emptied the runners pockets of credits. Next up Turnpike, the runner gets a tag – finally! Then he final piece of ice an Enigma that the runner was able to break. Bugger they were through and got the win. Next turn I could have played the two Scorched Earth to kill them, or scored the agenda.

What a fantastic game. Who cares that I lost, it was a blast.

After a flurry of text messages from Jonathan, our Pandemic Legacy evening was moved to Wednesday, and transformed in to a three player gaming evening.

Our first game of the evening was naturally Five Tribes, since in the text exchange Jonathan had said he wanted to play the game again. How much did Jonathan like the game? Well in a virtual shopping basket in a virtual store, in a virtual world, is a virtual copy waiting to be turned into a real physical item in meat space once a virtual button has been pressed, and digits representing money are moved from one virtual place to another. Or without all that waffle, it's sitting in his Amazon basket.

Once again Jonathan's tactic of buying items, ignoring the djinns or clearing tiles paid off and gave him the win. Obviously I'm really bad at this game and came in last by a point to Debbie. A single point!

We then switched things up by playing Five Tribes again but this time with the expansion The Artisans of Naqala. Wow this is a great expansion. It doesn't add tonnes of stuff, but boy oh boy. With the mountains and chasm more thought has to be given to routes, because these obstacles have to be gone round. The sixth tribe adds a new scoring avenue and power ups, the tent wooden token, adds a scoring booster. It's a very nice expansion that doesn't overload you with new rules to learn, it just fits very naturally with the base game.

Jonathan and Debbie's scoring just went ballistic this game, Jonathan burst through the two hundred points barrier. Debbie hit 179 points, while I managed to beat my previous score but was way way way behind the other two on scoring. So yes I lost again and Jonathan won.

We finished off the evening playing a couple of games of Batman Fluxx. I won the first game, while Debbie took the win for the second game. Like Love Letter with Fluxx you choose the theme you like and play that. Some slight changes to rules, the way things play, but you expect that. In Batman Fluxx keepers have abilities/rules that can be used. For example I think it was the Batmobile I could discard to gain another turn straight away at the end of mine. Or the Batcave increases the number of cards you can draw, hand limit, play by one.

I enjoy Fluxx, I like the changing rules and goals. It's not everyone's taste, I think the theme for tonight was right, and the others enjoyed playing it.

So a great bank holiday playing games, doesn't get better than that.

 

Painting Stormtroopers Part 1

imperial assault, painting

So finally I've got round to start painting some of my miniatures that come with my games. I'm starting off if you hadn't guessed by the posts title with the Stormtroopers that come with Imperial Assault and also Kayn Somos Trooper Commander the just released Villians expansion.

These posts will be documenting my first efforts in painting miniatures, something I've never done before. Capturing my successes and my many failures. Hopefully you will enjoy watching the trainwreck happen.

Today I've done the easiest part of the whole thing, and the quickest part also. What am I doing? I'm applying the primer coat to the miniatures.

For this stage I'm using Elmer's Tack, and Citadel Corax While model paint. In total I will be priming nine Stormtroopers and Samos, so a total of ten miniatures.

Before applying the primer using the Elmer's Tack I attached the miniatures to some cardboard. In my case it's some old Amazon packaging. This allows me to hold the figures and turn them around as I spray on the primer.

Next I went out side and sprayed the primer coat onto the models, turning them so that I covered them from all angles. While applying the primer coat I was trying to make sure that I wasn't applying it too thickly, so that I didn't cover up any detail on the miniatures.

Finally I left them to dry ready for stage two – applying a base coat. Naturally during this stage I made sure that the dark destroyer of plastic miniature figures Loki was safely relocated round my Nans.

Lo lo as I also call him, may look all cute and innocent. But I must remind you of the damage and expense he has inflicted to three of my Zombicide figures.

Right now I need to go “research” what base coat colours to use.

This series of posts are dedicated to my great friend, mentor and Scottish version of me! Duncan. Who I know will continue to nag me to get these done, and offer advice and tips.