Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Brigade Vikings III: Metal, Wood, & Flesh

My preferred method of painting is to work from the innermost levels of the figure outward: thus, In paint flesh and hair and then work out through the various layers of clothing and equipment.

Except...

I always paint the metal armor of chain and plate first. It's a messy process of drybrushing that has a tendency to got little bits of metal around. Naturally, this includes the various sword, spear and other weapons. Here are a series of pictures showing chainmail and some helmets in progress.
Shade Coat

Mid-Level

Wash
Highlight


Following the armor, I paint the wood of any spears, axes or other hand weapons.

Then, it's time to do the flesh, hair, clothes, and lastly equipment. Here are the results before Clear coat and basing:

Brigade Games Vikings: Shields

First in the process is to prime with Black and then damp brush white. I neglected to photograph those stages; but here is a shot of the shields after I applied the metal shade to the bosses:

Next was to paint and stain the wood emphasizing the wood grain. Then, I painted the leather handles and the steel rim...which should be leather, but the commission dictates.

Finally, shield patterns were accessed from various fan sites for the show Viking. Here are the results:


Brigade Games Vikings II: Mould line correction

Sometimes after cleaning and priming one discovers mould lines...it's frustrating but definitely worth the time it takes to correct them. Take a deep breath and look before you start the scrape and file...



I found six figures that needed remediation.  Three had very faint lines which required another scrape with a knife. The fourth was a mystery how I had missed the lines. The fifth actually required some careful filing as the line ran from hair to forehead to neck. The sixth was an accident...it seems the Vikings had trousers with a seam down the side and I scraped the primer but not the seam before I realized my mistake.

Here's the process I followed: clean the figure up. Next brush paint on some black primer. Let the primer thoroughly dry.  Repairing the prime levels is a slow process as you need each level to fully dry. I tend to leave them perhaps an hour unless I use an oven.  When the primer is ready, dry brush on skeleton bone and let thoroughly dry. Finally, dry brush white on the figure and dry.


Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Brigade Games Vikings Painted awaiting basing...

Recently, I was commissioned by Brigade Games to paint some of their Viking figures. A total of seventeen figures were sent. Packs 12-19. I started them some time ago; but haven't posted until now.

These are the figures after I spray primed with Games Workshop Black, zenithal spray primed with Skeleton Bone by Army Painter; and damp brushed with Vallejo White. I neglected to take pictures at each stage...but here is a photograph of them after I glued on a mixed sand.

Looking over the photograph posted on Instagram, I did notice a mould line or two that escaped the preparation the first time.

The next step is to correct the mould lines and apply base coats. 

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Of Armies and Hordes

Recently, I have dusted off my game credentials and renewed writing, editing and consulting for various game companies. My projects span various genres. In addition, I have been encouraged to republish several rules sets...stay tuned.

Andrea Sfiligoi of Ganesha Games has written Of Armies and Hordes. I was privileged to involved in the editing of these new rules. Of Armies and Hordes is an outgrowth of the excellent Song of Blades and Heroes game system. I've kept mum about the rules. The publishing date is imminent. As we get closer, I will provide more detail. I can say they  are an area movement system that is exceedingly flexible and provide for either one-off large battles or entire integrated campaigns with minimal record keeping.

Andrea has allowed me to post the front cover artwork.


Wednesday, October 10, 2018

This Week in Wargaming


From 2008 until 2015, I wrote a weekly update on new releases, gaming tips and various other wargaming related topics. It became a PDF newsletter called "This Week in Wargaming" which had a large subscriber list with issues being sent out to individual emails, and posted on various sites. The newsletter had actually been an outgrowth of a weekly update email sent to friends seerving abroad and with limited communications. Overtime, it morphed into a PDF.  The BLOG also grew out as some subscribers indicated a prference for reading a BLOG or receiving an email update about the BLOG. There was much overlap. The following spanned across the hobby and the population of wargaming and was quite extensive.

Later, I stopped running the newsletter and the BLOG as other elements of life intervened.

Now, I am considering bringing back the newsletter. If you were a subscriber or would be interested in the same, please drop me a line and let me know your thoughts...


Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Fanticide Revisited, Evil Bob's Figure Painting and Express service...

Image result for fanticide miniatures


Throughout the craziness of my life, I added a move...


Fanticide the game was a collaboration between Rick Priestly, Alessio Cavatore, E. Skye Chaney and Ernest Baker. Now, long out of print and defunct, like a Creep it lurks in my collection waiting to leap out into the light and deliver a bite!!!

My teenage son, a former wargamer, stumbled across the Fanticide rule book in the process of moving. Surprisingly, he expressed an interest in playing a game. Imagine my shock and pleasure...

The game was written in 2012 and is a large 
skirmish game for battles between opposing homicidal warbands. It is very whimsical but also quite grim and does have some PG-13 elements. The system is a card driven sequence including random events. As it's card driven and not I-GO-U-GO, command & control choices for determining what units can move and act keep the players engaged throughout. A card is assigned to each unit, character and monster in the game and also includes random events which produce random outcomes like killer unicorns enraged by the ‘Rainbow’ Event. While not a mass battle game it is also not a skirmish game. The "typical" battle is 30 to 40 figures per side.

The universe is friendly to all miniatures and genres. There are very clear guidelines for building four of the Fanticide specific war bands with some guidance for use of any figures including SciFi and Historical collections. The four starting bands were the Liberi (Native American themed centaurs), The Fae (Faeries and Forest creatures), Creeps (a bizarre race of skin eating Cylops that run from the very small to the terrifying grotesque), and Flying Monkeys (think of Wizard of Oz with guns and dung bombs).

Is there a downside?
Although open to inclusion of any genre of figures, there is no large list of special abilities with balanced point costs. I am not a fan of points based games; but, some guidance would have been nice. You will have to make things up and balance them yourself to add something not covered. We plan to play it a bunch... in the mean time.  I do suspect to ultimately end up back playing the excellent go-to fantasy rules for me: Dragon Rampant for the large skirmishes; and, Song of Blades and Heroes for the smaller skirmishes.

Where to get the rules and figures?
Architects of War created the game under its Alien Dungeon line.  Unfortunately the company is no longer. I am told that many of the figures they used were made by other manufacturers like Eureka so you can still find them. Sadly, the pieces they made specifically for their game are gone. Evil Bob tells me purchaser of the liquidation  did not save all of the molds so some are now lost. Let's hope the the others may resurface some day. The figures and terrain were all sculpted by Mike Broadbent, Alan Marsh, Paul Clarke, and Ernest Baker

Here is a list of 28mm manufacturers that might provide some forces:

Where to get the rules?
AmazonMiniatureMarket.com and Noble Knight Games all have copies. At time of publishing, there were twelve or more copies available. Make sure you get the cards with the rules.

What does a force look like?
If you can't find the time to paint, then you can always hire from the list of painters I have used: Battledress StudiosEvil BobGlenbrook Games or Stan Johansen. All are excellent!

I have been sorting out the Fanticide collection from my unpainted and painter figures. I do not seem to be able to find the time to paint; thus, I asked Evil Bob to paint my Fae army. He agreed as an experiment to cycle it into his New and VERY popular Express service. You can see all of the pictures and read his post at his BLOG.

Enough typing...here are images of a recently completed Fae army and a few extras by 
Evil Bob for the game Fanticide:

Satyr Legend and Unicorn
The Satyr legend may appear at battle and are stronger, faster and quite a threat on the battlefields
The unicorn is NOT part of the Fae army and are a much feared, deadly and CARNIVOROUS random event which disrupt and otherwise ordered(?) battle.


Satyr Infantry & Satyr Master with club.
The most common types are shootists (missile troops) and stickers (spears). Additionally, a much tougher type (Female Thumper--which I do not yet have a unit of figures...yet) can be added if the army has Sprytes who are required to urge them to come forth from the forests and do battle.



A Spryte Swarm which can be used as swarms or to attach to units to provide magical defense. They do have a soul-searing scream which can cause insanity. Sometimes hidden in the swarm is a Spryte Master that have magic and are destined to become a May Queen or Faery.


Brownie Heroes on snails (heavy cavalry?!?) and Heroes on squirrels and Swarms can be a nasty force to overwhelm much larger opponents.


Forest Fathers and Bogies are large immensely strong tree spirits which can be infested with Sprytes to give them magic resistance.


Dryads which are not part of the Fae army, nor do they appear in the book. I will have to stat them up or possibly use them as a "counts-as" the very rare and tough female Satyr unit.

Fungal Herd is not actually part of the Fae army. They shoot spores and feast upon dead flesh. Only the Creeps are immune.


Lastly, the Iron Wind Kickstarter has plenty of figures usable in the Fanticide universe. and is closing soon...check it out.