28mm War Apes from Chainmail/WotC

This is one of the reasons I liked the Chainmail game from Wizards of the Coast – the unusual miniatures. Most of them were rather ordinary, but then you got some very special. Like these War Apes.

Great figures sculpted by Jason Wiebe, and made around 2001.

Paints used (Vallejo):

Fur – 871 Leather Brown

Face and feet: 822 German Camouflage Black Brown

Drybrushed 988 Khaki

Rump: 822 with a heavy drybrush of Citadel Red Gore

Metal: 865 Oily Steel with a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone wash.

Welcome follower Collect and Paint Plastic Figures 1/72. Lots of very well painted 1/72 figures. Well worth a visit. I can’t seem to find a Follow button unfortunately. 

----------------

For Thomas, a comparison shot with an ordinary 28mm miniature

20mm fences from Central Valley

Always on the hunt for stuff that will enhance the gaming table. I visited MJ Hobby a while ago, an excellent shop for model railway stuff. There I found this set.

HO scale Fence & Railing from Central Valley

For the game on Saturday I was told we needed fences, so had to make these quickly.

For basing I used steel washes with a blob of DAS Pronto modelling clay and I stuck the fences on these. One or two washes per length. When the clay was dry I removed the fences, put a blob of super glue gel in the hole and put them back in place. I also had to glue some of the dry clay to the washers as they sometimes fell off.

Painted with Vallejo Chocolate Brown and drybrushed Vallejo Buff. Bases covered with my usual brown paint/sand mix and static grass.

Gates were set on separate washers and by nipping off the end posts of the fences they can be placed where you want them, opened or closed.

To get an idea of the height of these fences

Also in this set you will find two other types of fencing, vertical board and welded pipe. But that is for another post.

Welcome

Peter Regan with Oubliette Magazine, a magazine for old school roleplayers.

Wild West plants

I had quickly made some bushes for our game of Dead Man’s Hand the other day. Had to have more, and here are pics of what I did.

These are really looking good. Based on washers.

Resin cacti from Great Escape Games. Just painted the bases and a light buff dry-brush.

All are bought in home-decorating-, flower- or pet-shops, and have been in a box for several years. I have made jungle plants of others before.

Dead Man’s Hand – a first test-game

I bought Dead Man’s Hand a while ago, have built some 4Ground buildings and stuff and painted a couple of wild west minis from Black Scorpion.

This Sunday we (me, Thomas and Laffe) did a test-game, to get a feeling for the rules. You will see some unpainted Black Scorpion figs on the table (shudder… apologies). The buildings are 4Ground, Paul Darnell and, as we were short on buildings, some Hovels adobe buildings had to be used. A bit of a mish-mash, but it had to do.

The rules

First off, you can have an excellent overview of the rules in Meeples & Minitures podcast number 114, where Neil interviews the rules writer Stuart McCorqaudale about the out and ins of the game.

I was to only one to have read the rules and over lunch I tried to give a short over-view . They are easy to learn, so that went moderately well. As usual when you start playing with new rules, we got some things wrong, but I think we got everything sorted out in the end.

You will see cards on the table in the pics, and those are  used for activation.

We played The Law vs Outlaws and the three scenes of The Good, The Lead And The Ugly.

Scene one, The Stranger, pits a lone good gun-hand vs three drunk outlaw dudes.

A fast game, where the single guy was surrounded and finally shot in the back. Not a good start for The Law, as they couldn’t use that figure in the next scene.

Scene two, This Town Ain’t Big Enough.

It’s pay-back time for the cowardly murder. The Outlaw boss is contemplating the outcome of his evil deeds, and is out of the game until one of his minions falls. One group of The Law is enjoying a breakfast of Whiskey. The other men are divided into groups spread over the town. 

Men falling off roofs, simultaneous shots (and kills).

Well, let’s just say it was the wrong day for payback. The Law loses with three men down.

Scene three: We Will Be Waiting.

This time it’s the final shoot-out. The Sheriff and the Marshal faces off with half the Outlaws in the middle of the town, and in the first round they waste two outlaws. It’s very much Open Range… 

With a hidden Law marksman on one of the roofs, it’s getting tough for the outlaws, and they are shot, one after the other. 

It’s a massacre.

This was fun. It was great fun. Actually, it was even better.

What a great game! Lots of cinematic moments. Lots of nail biting. Lots of laughter. It had it all.

We are so going to play more of Dead Man’s Hand.

I have all those unpainted figs, and a couple of un-built 4Ground houses. Also, I have to get a terrain-board, or maybe just a sand-coloured cloth. And more scenery; plants, fences etc. Guess there will be lots of Wild West here...

You might also see something on Laffe’s and Thomas’ blogs on this project.

28mm Giant Spiders from WotC

Even more minis from the Castle Ravenloft boxed game. This time it is spiders, of the giant kind. Another useful monster-type that you seem to bump into all the time if you’re a hobbit or fantasy adventurer.

I based these black and drybrushed with Vallejo 994 Dark Grey and 990 Light Grey… and that looked like shit. Another drybrushed, this time with 987 medium Grey, and it turned out better, but still not really….

As I didn’t want to put too much effort into these I tried to take the eyes from the whole and to the details, so I drybrushed the abdomen and every other segment of the legs with Vallejo 883 Silver Grey.

Presto, you get a nice pattern that takes your eyes away from the rest. I’m rather satisfied with how these turned out, considering where I was halfway through. Got more spiders in the stash, from Otherworld. They will come soon.

Eeeeeek! Spider vs human to get an idea of size.

Welcome follower The Lord of Excess with The Excessive Gamer – D&D, Song of Blades and Heroes, Fantasy, SF, WWII, games, stuff – check it out.

28mm Rat Swarms from WotC

More minis from the Castle Ravenloft boxed game. Rat swarms, well you can never have too many rats in fantasy gaming, so these will see use on the gaming table.

The details of these are a bit rough in places, the moulds seem to have seen some use. Some noses and heads especially are lumpy or gone.

Paints used (Vallejo paints):

Basecoated with black

The rats were drybrushed with 871 Leather Brown, 875 Beige Brown, 874 Tan Earth and finally 912 Tan Yellow.

Snouts, ears and tails 835 Salmon Rose.

Another fast little project.

28mm Gargoyles from WotC

I still need a dose of Cthulhu and find no more critters with tentacles in my tin- and metals-mountain. In that case, I’ll go for the next best thing – bat wings.

I have this Castle Ravenloft boxed game, a nice enough game, and in it are quite a few plastic miniatures. All unpainted - that could not be a good thing.

Some of the minis are useful in fantasy gaming, so it’s time to meet the brush.

First off are three gargoyles.

I first washed/brushed them in warm water and a bit of detergent.

Paints used:

I painted the bodies in three different colours: Citadel Foundation Dheneb Stone, Citadel Fortress Grey and Citadel Codex Grey.

The pedestal was painted Vallejo 821 German Camouflage Beige.

Everything washed with Army Painter Strong Tone wash and deep creases also Dark Tone wash.

Eyes are Citadel Blood Red.

Another evenings work that turned out rather well.

The game.

Paint Table Saturday no 1, February 15

Sofie, of Sofie’s Paint Blog, has kindly invited me to join in the Paint Table Saturday thingie, and here it is, my paint table today.

Seen on it are a lot of early war BEF vehicles. As I at last found correct paints, all my British vehicles are on the table, or close by, waiting to be built and painted. You will find several different trucks, scout cars, cruiser tanks and light tanks, carriers and a staff car. Enough to start a war…

Also, interspersed, are odd 28mm figures; some pre-painted that needs a brush-up, wild west, a couple of Infinity bikers and some fantasy monsters and adventurers.

Here’s a couple of painted vehicles, waiting for decals. Lovely scout cars and a couple of rather simple resin trucks. Also several MkVI light tanks under construction and cruisers in the background.

I need to finish some of these, to get free space, as it is rather cluttered…

Tentacles, I need tentacles! Gricks in 28mm

I’m eagerly waiting for figures from two Cthulhu-inspired kickstarters, Shadows of Brimstone and RAFM Call of Cthulhu. I have to wait a long time still, before anything shows up… but I want tentacles now!

Checking all my boxes I found something with at least tiny tentacles. Prepainted plastic gricks by WotC, made in 2008 and sold for their AD&D skirmish game.

The paintjob on them was horrible, bright blue… argh.

A fast paint-job, made yesterday evening.

Paints used

Body – Citadel Foundation Charadon Granite

Stomach drybrushed with Vallejo 870 Medium Sea Grey

Rest of the body and tentacles drybrushed with Foundation Calthan Brown

Suction cups – drybrushed Vallejo 944 Old Rose

Tongue – Citadel Scab Red

Army Painter Dark Tone Wash painted in creases

The base is coated in a household grafite-grey paint with some added fine-grained sand, and drybrushed with Vallejo 884 Stone Grey

Two new 50K winners!

Two of the original winners didn’t get in touch, so I rolled the dice once more.

The lucky bonus-winners are

Michael Peterson, aka Mad Padre, who will get the Deff Kopta

and

Leif (Laffe) Eriksson, aka The Figure Fanatic, fellow gamer, who will get the grots.

Get in touch within a week, please, at miniaturesman(at)gmail.com