Pict Hunters from Conan and some planning

Five of the fifteen Pict Hunters from the Conan boardgame

As you probably know I’m somewhat allergic to painting uniforms or multiples of the same mini, so I usually take a manageable number of identical minis at a time, in this case 1/3 of the pict hunters.

Very simple block painting and a wash and that were that. I like the figs and they turned out well from such a basic job.

I’ve had a couple of days without much painting as I’m upgrading my hobby corner in the garage. It starts to look like I would like it to look, but still quite a lot to do to be finished. More on that in a future post.

I’ve also had my 3D-printer serviced and it is up and running in my hobby corner. Churning out lots of stuff and will be even more productive in a couple of days’ time when I’ll get a dedicated computer for it. More on that soon.

I’m also preparing for a terrain-day this weekend, when me and a couple of pals will have a go at making more terrain. So I’ve prepared a lot of stuff that needs static grass, dusted off all that rubberized horsehair, prepared flock and whatnot. Looking forward to that and you’ll probably find something about it here in the not too distant future

Star Vampire from RAFM

After far too much hassle I finally got the last missing figures from RAFM and their two terribly late and missmanaged kickstarters. Well, it was mostly everything but they failed sending one of the missing figures - after I had waited for three months for them to even acknowledge that they had read my mails to them (one mail per month and not a peep) and they then sent two of three missing minis. Annoying and certainly a company that won’t see me as a customer in the future but I do have quite a lot of unpainted resin and metal from them.

Anyway, one of the minis I got from their Cthulhu kickstarter was this one, a Star Vampire. A very strange creature that I wasn’t even certain I would paint. I let my daughter pick monsters and characters now and then for me to paint just for the fun of it and this was the first of the monsters. Well timed as it turned out.

This is actually a four-part metal model, but I skipped the strange arms that came with it and just pinned and glued the tentacle-foot-thingie in place and did a rather fast paintjob. It’s also pinned to the transparent base from Sally 4^th.

It saw action in yesterday’s Pulp Alley game, of which you will learn more shortly.

Update. I see it is called Star Leech on the RAFM webshop.

Conan: Balthus

Balthus

Not one of my favourite minis from the Conan boardgame, but one of the players wanted this mini as his Rogue-character in the upcoming D&D campaign. So he hit the painting table and was rather quickly painted up.

I think the sculpt is rather boring and flat, but he looks decent with a coat of paint. On the plus side he will be multi-use, both in D&D and in the Conan boardgame (and possibly in other fantasy games).

Zombicide: Black Death – Cadence and Antha

Cadence

Two more finished heroes for Zombicide: Black Death. This time we have Candence and Antha.

Cadence is inspired by the art.

Antha the Witch

I strayed from the art for Antha as she had far to elaborate clothing. I went for a very easy paint-scheme for her, to get another playable hero. Got to play her the other day and we were extremely lucky in that game and just breezed through.

With these minis finished the Marc Simonetti box of heroes is done. Next will be some assorted heroes, I’ll go for the easily painted ones just to get more heroes on the table.

Female Barbarian from Otherworld

Another mini for the upcoming D&D campaign, DAH19 Human Female Barbarian from Otherworld.

This one will work as my daughter’s druid-character.

It’s a fantastic sculpt, as usual with Otherworld stuff. 

A big welcome to follower Mate Lavotha with a great blog of his own – Zorro’s Miniature Sculpting Blog. Mate is a very talented sculptor and I’ve painted one of ‘his’ miniatures and he kindly asked if he could repost a picture of it. Go check out his blog as there is a lot of cool minis there. I really like some of them.

(And please, Mate, get a “Follow” button so I can follow what you’re doing!)

Hangman’s Gallows from 4Ground

Hangman's Gallows from 4Ground

Another piece finished for my Old West games – a Hangman's Gallows from 4Ground. What Western town could be without one?

I painted this one as I wasn’t too fond of the prepainted wood-look. A relatively easy job.

The ropes are provided in the set and I stretched them and soaked with super-glue to get them stiff as they have a tendency to bend if untreated and that looks like crap.

Finally a big welcome follower Leo Donkersley.

Infinity – Haqqislam bikers

I’m sure some minis are cursed and these certainly were. I started them years ago, when I thought I would start playing Infinity. It turned out that the system with all the extra rules for different figures burned by brains to cinders and I gave up on ever having a game. Anyway, I did have some minis already painted and these half-painted. So I started on the bikers again, finished the bikes and just had to finish the men.

Then I dropped one of them. Straight onto my palette. Straight into a blob of paint.

Cursed, wiped it clean and… dropped it again… into another blob of paint.

Needless to say, I just gave up.

But they have laid there in a box, nearly finished, for years, and every time I opened the box they were there, pointing at me with their rifles.

I finally managed to move them to the painting table and finished the men. I might not ever use them in a game, but now they are done. Finally!

Empress Leonesse and Holly from Left Hand Miniatures

I won a bunch of minis from Left Hand Miniatures last year in a name-the-mini-contest. My name-suggestion for the priestess-like figure was Empress Leonesse, as she comes together with a lion, scientific name Panthera leo. Seemed like a good name and it was as that is now the name she sells under.

I sort of had to paint Leonesse and here she is. I decent figure, even if I’m not particularly fond of the coconut-bra she wears. She will probably serve as an adversary in a pulp adventure.

The next one is perfect for my Pulp Alley league, and with hair like that she IS the sister of Anders Einstein. Meet Albertina Einstein, twin of Anders and illegitimate daughter of the famed Albert. She definitely inherited her father’s unruly hair.

She is an ally and is armed with another of Ander’s contraptions, a grenade launching automatic rifle. It works as Burst Fire.

I can’t wait to have her join the league.

Exit 2016, Welcome 2017

Another year gone and whatever physicist say – time is speeding up. A year now is decidedly shorter than it was when I was younger.

A year now also seem to be more productive regarding modelling than it used to be. That is probably more due to me becoming a faster painter than to time-dilation. It’s been a good year, slightly better than last.

2016 in numbers:

Blog:

Posts – 115 for a total of 594

Followers – up 21 to a total of 185

Goggle+ followers – a total of 95

Hits – the bots have had a great year, so number of hits don’t mean much anymore.

Miniatures:

6 and 20mm

Another year with nothing at all.

28-32 mm

Fantasy: 126 small and medium figures, 9 large and 1 XL

Pulp: 23 M

SF: 20 figures for Mercs, 2 bikes for Infinity

Indochina: 12 soldiers

Dust (1/48 scale): 7 soldiers and 2 vehicles

Other: stage coach and gunboat

A total of 193 minis this year.

Painting Zombicide characters after the art. Great fun and makes the games easier.

Terrain and scenery:

Some scatter terrain suitable for a deep dungeon.

Lots and lots of scatter terrain this year, but also larger scenery pieces for Wild West and fantasy.

Kickstarters:

Another huge KS-box. This time it was Conan.

This was the year when I received A LOT of kickstarter stuff. It was easy to jump on another kickstarter when I hadn’t received that much stuff, but suddenly everything started to drop in. During the year I got stuff from RAFM Call of Cthulhu and Airship Pirates, Mercs, Dust, Return of the Monsters by Heresy, Conan, Zombicide and Oathsworn. Ouch, the hobby-corner is full of unpainted stuff…

I’ve been much more restrained lately and really think twice before I jump onto more kickstarters. Sometimes I fail my Saving Throw against Shiny, though, for example with Mythic Battles: Pantheon.

I’m looking forward to a few more kickstarters showing up during 2017, primarily the (huge) rest of the Shadows of Brimstone stuff, and also Reaper Bones III (something I really don’t need considering how much minis I already have

Other hobbyrelated:

I bought a small 3D-printer before summer and that promptly broke after summer. Haven’t taken the time to fix it yet, but really should.

Organised the paints by my painting table and I’m really pleased with that as I have a much better overview of paints now.

A new league for Pulp Alley this year - Anders Einstein and friends.

Still playing a lot at Little Wars Stockholm gaming club. My pal Thomas and I try to meet weekly and my son David participates quite often. We have mainly played different miniatures boardgames but also some Frostgrave. There is also a Pulp Alley campaign going at the club – great fun that.

A game of Open Combat. The rules works well, are easy to lean and fun.

Best gaming moment 2016: My bear eats a third of Koen's warband in a game of Frostgrave.

2017

So, what will you probably see on the blog during 2017?

Soerabaja Harbour XL is still a work in progress. A lot of it prepared and I “just” have to scribe a lot of stones.

Old West – finishing a lot of buildings now and have a few figures to paint. Dead Man’s Hand is such a good rules-set and I’m really looking forward to a game or two.

SF – I’ve painted everything from one of the Mercs boxes and just have to have a game or two to see if I will go further with that games-system. I’ve got a lot of boxes and hope it’s a set of rules that suit me, otherwise I guess I will sell it all.

A game of Zombicide Black Plague, with all minis painted!

Fantasy – I will play Frostgrave, D&D and probably Open Combat and will continue to paint what I fancy. Might even be another games system or two that needs trying out. Then there is always boardgames that scream for painted minis – Zombicide, Conan and Blood Rage. Not to mention terrain – got a lot of scatter terrain from the Twisting Catacombs KS that needs paint and I’m trying to finish some things every month.

Pulp – Pulp Alley is still going strong and I have unpainted humans and a lot of Cthulhu-monsters that needs painting.

Dust - yep, I will continue painting stuff. Still like the minis.

Thomas and Koen prepairing our Chain of Command game on Gothcon 2016.

Other- well, there’s always others, for example Gothcon where I will play and have fun with my kids. I hope to see some of you there! Maybe a blogger-meet-up to say hi?

A handful of hobbits

Here’s a handful of hobbits from different manufacturers.

There is a slight difference in size J

Male Halfling Thief from Otherworld

Woody, Halfling Ranger from Reaper, sculpted by Werner Klocke, and a giant among halflings...

Two hobbits from Mithril. These come from the MV375 In the House of Tom Bombadil and MV373 Gildor Inglorion vignettes and I got them at a sale a couple of years ago. About time I got them painted.

Welcome follower Jean-Pierre Lelain with blog Les batailles anciennes et fantastiques de JPP - a really nice blog about obviously ancients and fantasy. It's in French but that is no problem with autotranslate. Check it out.