No more paints?

Our paints are bound to dry up. Why? you might ask. The answer: Royal Mail.
They have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to forbid shipping of more than four tiny bottles of water-based hobby paints.
Stupid? YES!

Do sign the petition to try to get them to stop this nonsense.
So stupid, it hurts!
If you feel this is important, then do re-post this on your blog.

LRDG at Flemcon

The first weekend of December saw the group at Flemcon, one of the local cons that we have been with from its start. This time we had two games, LRDG and Winter War, both played with Too Fat Lardies’ Chain of Command.

The Miniatures Man of Arabia (it was cold, bloody Winter War)

I spent all my time at the desert table, I was far too lightly dressed for the sub-zero temperatures on our Finnish board. There we had our own Finnish hero, Ville, who had flown in from Finland for the occasion. Way to go!

Both tables got in two games each during the Saturday, and I really have no idea what happened in Finland.

 The setup. Notice the sabotaged fence.

In North Africa both games had three British commanders each, and each commander had three vehicles to game with. The rules were somewhat modified Chain of Command, and it was very much Hollywood feel, with jeeps and trucks zapping around shooting the hell out of the poor Italians. The longer the attack took, the more initiative the Italians got - speed was essential.

Who goes there?

A big plus was that 50% of the attendees were female, who had never played anything like this before and seemed to enjoy themselves.

No wonder the Italians fougt badly, they are not properly painted!

Sneaky LRDG going through the fence. Not fair at all!

 Planting bombs

Going up in flames

 A pilot making a run for it...

...and he escapes with his plane!! Hotly pursued.

 First reinforcement, sort of...

The heroic tricycle-troops score a minor victory

 A more substancial reinforecement, this time a LRDG-trooper tries to plant a bomb on it, a failure by the way...

And another one bites the dust. Planting a bomb on a cistern and having the car stall when you try to get away is not a good thing. LRDG-barbecue.

The Italian soldiers celebrating that one of the cisterns were not blown up! In their mind the most important one.

That was the end of the first battle. LRDG had had lost both men and vehicles, so it was a minor victory.

 The next bunch of players goes all out to cover the airfield with troops in a very short time. 

Some vehicles just drives through the italians to reach the most distant targets, while others takes care of what's closest to the gates. Those two girls were born generals!

 They are everywhere, and the italians don't have time to man the guns or do much of anything.

Reinforcement, that pesky tankette again. It retreated off the table in a hail of bullets.

Everything ablaze, no LRDG-losses and vehicles filled with prisoners. Time for an ice-cold in Alex. A total victory!

All in all a couple of very nice games, each taking around two hours. And another Flemcon done, a very nice small con, well worth a visit. We have already promised to be there next year.

God Jul!

I like the Swedish “God Jul”. It goes back to pagan times. “God” means “Good” and “Jul” is a bit unclear, but one meaning is “winter solstice”.

For me, an atheist, leaving the gods out of this nice time of the year is just fine.

God Jul everyone, whether you believe in a god or not.

Click on the link to our interactive Jul-card. Programed by my son Martin.

       

Brownie from Otherworld

This is the last familiar from the ACC3b Greater Familiar pack from Otherworld. You’ll find the other four figures in the set here.

A nice little figure, to be used as a familiar or ‘monster’ in our D&D campaign. Another very nice figure from Otherworld.

Paints used

Coat – Vallejo 967 Olive Green

Trousers – Vallejo 886 Green Grey

Hood – Citadel Camo Green

Shoes – Vallejo 880 Khaki Grey

Leather – P3 Bootstrap Leather

Pouch – Coat d’arms Unbleached Wool

Knife handle – Vallejo Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber

Everything washed with Citadel Devlan Mud.

Elf compared to the brownie.

28mm Gray Elf Duelist

This is a Gray Elf Duelist, sculpted by Paul Muller, from the Ravilla faction of WoTC’s Dungeons & Dragons Chainmail miniatures game.

Another unusual sculpt, and it could be used as a monk or martial artist character. It’s an interesting two piece figure, but rather flat, as you can see.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Coat – 850 Medium Olive and edging 894 Camouflage Olive Green

Belt – Citadel Camo Green

Trousers – 967 Olive Green

Leather – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Metal – Citadel Chainmail

Wood – Panzer Aces 310 Old Wood

Handles for the knives – Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber

Hair – Coat d’arms 223 Horse Tone Chestnut with Army Painter Dark Tone Wash

Everything but the hair washed with Citadel Devlan Mud

What’s this?  Maybe a give-away coming in the next couple of days – stay tuned!

A great giveaway at The Figure Fanatic

My very dear friend Laffe is having a giveaway on his blog The Figure Fanatic, celebrating his number 200 post. 

You know the deal, follow the blog and get some swag if you’re lucky. Praise his blog on you blog, and get extra chances. Doing that by the way J

Anyway, regardless of prices, it really is a very nice blog, well worth following. So, jump over and wish for anything but the SF power generator thingy. That's mine!

Juliette, Wizard from Reaper

This is "Juliette, Wizard" by Bobby Jackson, from Reaper’s Dark Heaven Legends series, no 03547.

My daughter got to choose a miniature for her D&D sorcerer Kjorra and also how it should be painted. Well, here it is!

Paints used (Vallejo)

Dress - 898 Dark Sea Blue, drybrushed with 899 Dark Prussia Blue, 965 Prussia Blue and finally 962 Flat Blue

Hair - 912 Tan Yellow, a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud and drybrushed 917 Beige

Skin - 955 Flat Flesh, Devlan Mud and overpainted with 955 again leaving shadows

Boots – 940 Saddle Brown

Pouch – P3 Bootstrap Leather

Leather girdle – 876 Brown Sand

All leather items washed with Devlan Mud

The branch on the base is dried heather.

Welcome new follower Ricky el Vikingo Dark. 

Telegraph Poles in 20mm

 A quick and easy project - telegraph poles from Auhagen.

They're made with the railway hobby in mind, and are in HO scale (1:87) but they do work very well with my 20mm figures,
Each box comes with 12 poles, and I made a mix of desert themed ones and ordinary grass-flocked ones.

Paints used
Wood: Vallejo 983 Flat Earth, washed with Citadel Devlan Mud and drybrushed Vallejo 987 Medium Grey.
Metal: Citadel Tin Bitz and roughly over-painted with Vallejo 865 Oily Steel.
Isolators: Vallejo 993 White Grey

A very fast way of getting a lot of very handy terrain details. Higly recommended.

28mm pack-bearer from Otherworld

This is HH2a Pack-bearer v1 from Otherworld, and their Henchmen & Hirelings series.

When I see him I think of Knights of the Dinner Table and their constant abuse of henchmen. 

He was a joy to paint, and his face… this is not a happy puppy.

Welcome new follower with the cryptic name “service ration distribution”. Can’t seem to find a website of yours, though. If you have one then please give a link in the comments below.

Time to join the Shadows of Brimstone Kickstarter

I fell for the wild west figures in the Shadows of Brimstone Kickstarter, and pledged on the $150 Outlaw-level, just to get those figures. They are hard plastic 'heroic 28mm', meaning around 35 mm to the top of their heads, about the size of my wild west minis from Black Scorpion. On that pledge-level you'll get 2 full boxed board games with 8 wild west figures and a whole bunch of evil critters usable in these games and others. Some very Cthulhu-inspired, others more traditional and some very wild-west themed but with an evil twist. A whole bunch is defined as more than 50 - monstrous tentacles, void spiders, hell bats, large slashers and night terrors, the extra-large Goliath and Harbinger, and more.

On top of that is now an amazing amount of stretch goals. As I write this we have close to 20 more wild west people (and 50% are female and sensibly dressed! A big plus in my book) and around 75 baddies. You'll see serpent warriors, large lavamen, mutated rats and more. The 1 million dollar stretch-goal, a huge demon, is fast approaching.

Now, this is a great deal if you're after the figures alone, but as it seems as if the game itself could be rather enjoyable too, then then this is great value.

The next interesting level is the Minecart-level, at a rather grim $480 level. Before you faint, let's see what's there.

First off you'll get one more set of the basic figures from both of the boxes above, so that's another 64 figures. Nice if you'd like multiples of some of the characters or monsters, or just want to be friendly and spread the loot among your friends.
Then the add-ons: another 6 wild west heroes and 4 of the more savage type with a grizzly bear. When it comes to the baddies you'll get more than 50 miniatures, everything from undead soldiers and werewolves to the XXL Sand Kraken and Burrower. On top of that a lot of game-stuff.

Finally you'll get $75 to spend on further add-ons when the pledge-manager comes live.

If you're a miniaholic, like me, then this starts to be very tempting, and if you like board-games, like me, then even more...

Also, more stretch-goals are coming fast. So far we have gotten one stretch-goal every $25K for the Outlaw-level. On the Minecart level it is more random, with one more addition coming now and then.

So, why not checking it out? You've got a limited time-slot, it closes on November 25th. Don't say I didn't warn you, and don't blame me if you fall to the temptation.

Do join, I need more stretch-goals!

LRDG-crew

At long last I have finished the crew to my Chevy, and also two improvised LRDG-soldiers on foot.

The driver is original as base and has had his right arm switched to one that could hold the steering wheel. The arm I used had short sleeve, so I had to build a new sleeve and also shoulder with green-stuff.

The Boys ATR is metal and from SHQ. The crew-member manning it is also based on the original, but I switched the right arm and the head to suitable pieces from the box of little toy soldiers and shoulder and scarf from green-stuff.

The standing crew-member comes from Revell Scottish Infantry, 8^th Army, and I removed his Thompson machine gun and pinned him to a suitable thin base, and got a figure that had perfect height to man the Vickers.

The wounded man on foot comes from Caesar WWII Underground Resisters. I removed his Sten gun and remodelled his left arm slightly to remove the armband. Also a helmet from the bits-box.

The last man comes from Caesar WWII Partisan in Europe and is straight from the box.

All figures painted with an assortment of sand-colours and browns. Washed with Citadel Devlan Mud.

50K hits! Yep, reached it in record time, so a give-away is coming. I just have to have a bit more time to prepare. 

28mm Destrachan from WotC

A prepaint that needed quite a lot of work to reach an acceptable quality.

The original was a two-part model with a very visible joint. I green-stuffed, repainted and based it.

Original

Paints used:

Base colour – Citadel Foundation Taucept Ochre

Markings – Vallejo 875 Beige Brown

Washed with Army Painter Strong Tone wash

Mouth and area around the not-eyes washed with Citadel Washes Leviathan Purple and Baal Red.

Even more Kickstarters

We seem to be swamped by Kickstarters at the moment, and they are rather fun to join or follow. Here’s another bunch.

Olleys Armies Steampunk & Victorian Scrunts aka Dwarfs

Bob Olley returns to his favourites – 28mm scrunts. Here we find steampunky ones, and they are very nice. Steampunk dwarfs are really not my thing, but fun none the less. Runs to December 6.

Total Extinction – Battle for Karnak

28mm sci-fi, humans vs aliens. Big tanks and walkers and ordinary troops for reasonable prices. Interesting, and runs to December 6.

Lost Worlds’ Princesses & More (Mars/Barsoom)

'Just' metal 28mm figures in this Kickstarter. Concept art looks nice, and could be your thing if you’re into Barsoom, or just like little metal figures. Runs until December 5.

Swedish Army of the Great Northern War by Ebor Miniatures

28mm figures from the war of 1700-21. Mainly foot-soldiers, but the last stretch-goal unlocked mounted figures, and artillery is on the horizon. Looks to be good value for money if this time-period and scale is for you, and they're Swedes! Runs until November 23. Gå på!

Ex illis

Rulebook and minis of the computer-moderated miniatures game that went belly-up a while ago. Minis looks nice, and the game could be a hit. Runs until December 6.

Proxy War: Custom 3D Printed Miniatures

Get to print your own custom-made figure(s). This looks intriguing, and is worth looking at. Could be a dud or a real game-changer. Runs until December 11.

From Nature to Art

A very cool Kickstarter this. This guy has taken CT-scans of animal skulls, and intend to 3D-print them in different materials. So different. Not-minis, but... Like! J Runs until December 4.

Alien vs Predator The Miniatures Game

Alien, Predator and a couple of Marines in between. If you ‘d like that idea then this kickstarter might be for you. Runs until November 29.

Dwarf Mercenary in 28mm from Otherworld

Another figure from the Otherworld Indiegogo. You can find it under ‘Henchmen & Hirelings’ as HH03a. 

You can also find some other lovely figures in the shop, like the Female Characters and Henchmen & Hirelings, either as a pack or as individual figures. You know, those packs we pledged for on Indiegogo a year ago, and still haven’t received. Do I sound bitter? You bet I am. There is just so much wrong here. A company I have always held to high regards, and now they are just ignoring some of their most loyal customers. Delays are one thing, but this is ridiculous. If only we could get honest information, or any information. A crowd-funding campaign that leaves me furious, I’m afraid. It’s such a pity, as their products are great, and previously their service has been good. Oh, and I'm one of the lucky ones, I've got the first half. I can imagine what the poor blokes that still haven't gotten anything yet thinks.

Enough of the rant, to the figure:

Paints used (Vallejo unless noted)

Armour – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather and edging 984 Flat Brown

Shirt and trousers – Citadel Foundation Charadon Granite

Boots, gloves, scabbard and flat pouch/case – 875 Beige Brown

Handle on warhammer – 843 Cork Brown

Handle on sword – 862 Black Grey

Hair and beard – 940 Saddle Brown

Belt and eye-patch – 921 Light Brown

Belt-buckle - 56 Brassy Brass

Pouch – 987 Medium Grey

Everything washed with AP Strong Tone.

Base – 821German Camo. Beige + AP Dark Tone + drybrushed with 821

The base comes with the set, as is the self-adhesive felt that I should have applied after I was finished with painting the base…

All in all a very nice figure.

Some more Kickstarters

There are a lot of interesting kickstarters out there at the moment. In my last kickstarter-post I mentioned a couple, some still going on.

I jumped on the Reaper Bones II, and are moderately happy with how it turned out. Went in for one core set and a few add-ons. The expansion sets could have been great, but as they had no themes, they turned out to have to few figures to interest me in the end. Bones II will ship in about a years’ time.

I’m waiting for the minis from Baker Company, and their great Winter War Kickstarter. The first batch should turn up before years end, really looking forward to that.

All that waiting… well, until I get all that stuff, there’s good reason to check what else is happening on the Kickstarter front.

Shadows of Brimstone

Cowboys meets Cthulhu. This immediately struck a chord. For $150 you get the two basic board games and a ton of stretch-goals. Did I tell you that there are lots of very nice figures? For $475 you get even more, some of it really tasty, but this is too big a leap for me, so I hope they will come down to a more reasonable price for a bit less stuff but most of the mine-cart stretch goals.

Something to watch, I’m not decided on whether to pledge or not, but the figures looks fantastic.

Call of Catthulhu

This really made me laugh. Cuddly cats and Cthulhu, what’s not to like? A “rules-light roleplaying game where all the characters are ordinary cats, opposing the Chaos Cults of the other Animal Gods.” The PDF-rules-book is $10 and a softcover book will cost you about $20 + P&P. 

Fantasy Worlds

Fantasy terrain for your 28mm minis to fight over. Some rather nice plastic/resin pieces that could be worth a look.

Journey – Wrath of Demons

A cooperative boardgame with some amazing figures. $100 (add P&P outside USA) will give you the game and a lot of stretch-goals. Add $80 to get even more stuff. Niiiice.

Dawn – Rise of the Occulites

A miniatures boardgame with adorable minis. $75 will get you the game.

Elven adventurers

Elves, lots of elves. 28mm for use in RPG:s or miniatures games. Looking good and worth a look if elves your thing.

Near future/SciFi tabletop city

MDF-terrain, and some look really terrific. Check out the holographic advertisement set, my favourite, and the Pool House.

Battle Systems Sci-fi Modular Terrain

This looks fantastic, and it just went live. Card terrain. Haven’t had much time to check it out, so I think you’d better do.

So much stuff, so little time