Girl Power

A couple of weeks ago, when "self isolation" was on the horizon, I decided that I'd take the opportunity to finally see what all the fuss was about with Frostgrave.

 I'd initially dismissed it as 'the latest fad' and pretty much ignored it to make sure I didn't get sucked in by all of the hype and eye candy which surrounded its arrival on the scene. My interest was piqued though when the solo rules "Perilous Dark" were announced and I decided to take a closer look at the game.


I'm glad that I did, because I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, and especially pleased to find that the core rulebook and the new title were available on ebay for just over nine quid each including p&p - and not only that, there was also other previously published solo material available on the interweb.
Needless to say, I placed my orders and added this game to my stash of "lockdown loot"!

"Dark Alchemy" is designed to be an introductory solo campaign for the Frostgrave system and I'm going to shoe-horn this into my Dark Conspiracy campaign and use it as a motivational tool to maintain the 'push' to get things painted during this enforced 'down time' (but I've cheated a bit for this first game as you'll see later below!).
The opening scenario requires a reduced strength warband (they're separated from their companions and must try to meet up), an "alchemical monstrosity" and a number of giant rats, and is played on a 2ft square board........ and the time starts - -  Now!

Yep, this is a "speed build" project, so here comes the first short cut (or 'cheat' if you prefer). Stevie most generously sent me a huge box, brimming with Mage Knight miniatures just before Christmas.
Last night I had a quick look through the box (no mean feat considering how easy it is to get distracted by all the cool stuff in there!) and selected some suitable characters for the warband, these just needed rebasing and an Army Painter soft tone wash.

 Wizard and her Apprentice

Sergeant

 left to right Archer, Thief, soldiers

and a possible candidate for the "Monstrosity". 

While I was at it, I also had a rummage through my box of MTG: Arena of the Planeswalkers minis and found three proxies for the giant rats which needed painting from scratch (Boo!) To save time I just primed them black, dry brushed the carapace dark grey, dry brushed the belly and tail segments dark blue and finally painted the tentacles pink before applying a purple ink wash .

At this point I had second thoughts and decided that one of these models would do as the Alchemical Monstrosity (some sort of insect that had been exposed to spilled potions and ingredients!), so the 'tree creature' has been set aside. The giant rats will now be replaced by rat swarms, and though I have several of these already painted, I painted up three more and further reduced the mountain of shame! (If you can call it "painting" - Black primer and a brown drybrush was all these critters got!)

The photo's above were taken on part of my new modular dungeon, and I was hoping to get it finished as part of this project. Sadly this was not to be since there's not enough tiles to give me a complete 2ft square "room".
Time to dig out the 2ft square piece of mdf and free sample of embossed wallpaper kindly supplied by B&Q some time ago

I'll be covering the other side with another embossed wallpaper sample that has more of a 'cobbled' look to it. This should correct any bowing of the mdf and give me a double sided board.
But that's for later - back to now, and the tiled side is ready for (cheap) paint.

And that's where I'll have to leave it for today - but having said that, IF I was using icy, snow covered bases for the minis, I reckon the board could have been called "done"!

Many thanks for visiting, it's been nice to have your company during these anti-social times. Your comments and/or questions are most welcome and I hope you call again soon.

Stay safe and stay positive - let's get through this TOGETHER!

Reboot

Hi there and welcome to the "Lock Down edition" of the blog.

As you may already know, in July last year I had the HUGE honour of being invited to join the talented folks that run "The Game Cupboard" blog, and considering the fact that Stevie, Hils and Tarot have been such an influence and inspiration to me since I entered the blogiverse, it was a somewhat daunting, but irresistible offer!
The original plan was that as well as writing posts for TGC, I'd continue posting here on my own blog, and combine some of the campaign material to form a joint narrative. Sadly with constraints on my free time this didn't happen, apart from " The Quest Finale ", and posts here slowed and quickly ground to a halt............
Until Now!
The emergency measures introduced by the government during the Covid-19 pandemic will mean a lot of time at home in isolation, and I'm so thankful that I have my hobby that I can turn to as a "coping mechanism" since we're in this for the long haul.

The plan is to make use of my weB LOG after this reboot, not just "restarting" it and running it as it was, but to log ALL of my hobby related activities as a kind of morale boosting progress report. I figure that if I can't make a significant dent in the piles of lead, plastic and mdf now, it's never going to happen!

Once I'd got over the 'system shock' of what was happening, the first job I tackled was the 28mm ruined village set of mdf terrain from JB Wargaming Scenery ("banksjohnedward" on ebay).

They took an evening to assemble, and I let the glue fully cure overnight before making a start on painting them decorators test pots and finishing them off with a home made wash. They'll get a bit of titivation and further weathering (to hide some of the joins) before their first use, but I could use them as they are so I'm calling them "done"!
Incidentally, they're intended for some planned WW2 skirmish games, but I hope I can get away with using them in other genres as well - zombie apocalypse and cyberpunk for sure, and some of 'em will be OK for fantasy and ECW (I hope).

So, we're back up and running and I do hope everyone reading this is staying safe and getting used to the "new normal" we find ourselves in.

Greg.

The last of the Sengoku fantasy minis.......

..... for now!
Yep, I've reached that happy/sad point where I've painted ALL of my accumulated mythical beings for my Sengoku era fantasy setting - happy because it's always satisfying to clear a painting queue, but sad because there's still gaps to be filled (though of course the challenge of filling those gaps will bring its own rewards)

I've already shown the Tengu minis from the Forbidden Fortress boxed game, but to join them here's the Dai Tengu from Zenit miniatures - a multi-part model, after priming and base coating him I unfortunately knocked him off the paint table! His left hand, head and wings were broken off in the fall but the repair job is acceptable for "tabletop standard"!!

This female ninja just HAS to be the worst Reaper Bones mini in my possession - I dunno if she's an old sculpt, but the proportions (especially her head) are just too 'spindly'. That aside, she's a welcome addition to the ninja collection.

These Reaper Bones "Turtle Men" have been pressed into service as Kappa, and in my minds eye fit the bill - they're a bit chunkier and more ferocious looking than some traditional images, but hey, whose fantasy world is this anyway??

The last of the "Creature Collection" are this pair of Reaper Bones Kitsune - again a slight deviation from some traditional images, but perfect for how I see them for my campaign in their fox form.

So, no more mythical beasts for the time being, but it nagged me that apart from the 4 heroes in the Forbidden Fortress set, I only had 'historical' minis in my human population -  what about a pair of 'High Fantasy' heroes?
Reaper to the rescue again with this onna bugeisha and samurai!

The customary group shot to finish and show size comparison, with the crafty male kitsune and stealthy female ninja hiding in the trees!

Thanks once again for dropping by, and for anyone wondering when the next AAR is due - now the painting's on pause, SURELY the gaming can resume!

Sengoku era fantasy additions.

Precious little hobby time these last few weeks, so alas, still no AAR. Thank goodness my painting setup allows me to grab a few minutes whenever possible, which has allowed me to at least have a few minis to form a blog post!
First up is the Reaper Bones Oni.

His size and wide stance meant he had to be mounted on a large base, but this is OK  since "in game" he will take multiple 'kills' to actually remove him from play and the base allowed me to incorporate a "wound tracker".

Next are a pair of Dixon Miniatures Dai Bakemono to lead the rank-and-file goblinoids into battle. The larger figure on the right is an actual Dai Bakemono, and I copied the skin tone for the smaller 'regular' Bakemono (as well as giving both of them more colourful armour) to distinguish him from the green skinned riff raff!

I believe this is an old Citadel Miniatures sculpt (please correct me if I'm wrong), and he now represents the necromancer in the Bakemono clan.

Of course, having a necromancer is no good unless there are some corpses for him to raise - these are additions to the "Dishonoured Dead" skeletal samurai (the plastic minis I got with the Forbidden Fortress game).
They're metal castings sold in pairs by Second City Games via ebay, but I have no idea what range they're from - if you know, could you please enlighten me via the comments section PLEASE 

Finally, yet another "unknown manufacturer" (though I suspect it might be from Zenit Miniatures), again, if you recognise him I'd love to know where he's from.
He's quite large compared to the rest of my 28mm collection, but he fits nicely as a typical 'larger than life' character typical of Japanese myth and folk tales.
While wielding the brush, I envisioned him as a mysterious traveller - possibly a travelling warrior monk, but whose side will he be on????

 To close, here's a group shot of the new additions, which shows their different sizes.

All that's left for this post is to thank you once again for visiting, and invite your comments, questions and critiques, which are always welcome.
I must also mention that with the blog's anniversary fast approaching, I'm intending making a few changes - nothing drastic, but hopefully a few tweaks and improvements which I've been meaning to do for some time.

A mixed bag.

Still no "Forbidden Fortress" game report I'm afraid, but here's a quick round up of what I have managed hobby-wise since the last post!
First off, here's a contingent of the Ii clan on the march to support their allies the Takeda (you may remember that the Takeda clan were having a tough time of it in the Test Of Honour clashes with the Mori clan).

The Ii were well known for their red armour - intended to intimidate their opponents, but also making the ideal subject for what's been a 'speed painting' exercise!!
The trees they're marching past are also a new addition. I'd seen someone using cheap trees from China and thought I'd give them a try, basing them up on mdf scatter bases I had to hand. At £5.85 including postage for TEN trees I think they're an absolute bargain.

Now, talking of speed painting, I've acquired a few minis from Greenbriar Games "Folklore: The Affliction" game, and two ghostly types only needed a prime and a wash to make them 'table ready'.
I thought this one would make a pretty good Yūrei (Japanese ghost) for my Sengoku era fantasy setting.......

 .... and this one provides me with a Banshee that will be useful for Witchfinder General (or even D&D)

I'm going to stray from gaming now, and mention my "other hobby", which has taken very much a back seat since I succumbed to the siren call of the Dice Gods once more.
Because of the dry sunny weather and time of year, my services have been required out in the garden, and oh dear, my narrow gauge model railway is showing severe signs of neglect!

It puts me in mind of the state of the Tallyllyn when it was 'discovered' after years of closure by Tom Rolt (sparking the whole concept of Railway Preservation), and even though it's not been touched in months I thought it looked kind of photogenic.

 I might have to re-visit these scenes once the line's back in running order,

 or maybe I'll try and photograph the "volounteers" as they set about restoring the railway!!

And that's about it for this post, other than to thank you for visiting, and inviting your comments which as ever would be most welcome.

Sohei, Bakemono and Yurei.

Steady progress on the painting desk since the last post, with more additions to the oriental collection.

Someone's in trouble - the Sohei, or Buddhist warrior monks are armed and making their way down from the temple! These are AW Miniatures, led by Masahiro from the Warlord Games "Masked Men" box set for Test Of Honour.

A Bakemono (goblin) warband led by a large Dai-Bakemono on a village raid - could these be the reason the Sohei are on the march? The Bakemono are by Dixon Miniatures and I believe the leader is on old Oni from Citadel Miniatures (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Before anyone says "Bakemono aren't green", this warband has been put together to try and tempt an opponent into a game - he's previously only played Warhammer, so I thought greenskins would help win him over!

The spirits of the Yurei (ghosts) have risen from their graves - a portent of things to come? These are "Chinese Ghosts" from Black Hat Miniatures old Tales of the Dragon Kings range, but fit the bill in my humble opinion.

 

It's been a very busy week non-hobby wise but I've managed to acquire a new van, transfer the "mod cons" (carpet, bed, sink and cooker) and sell on the old van to its new owner! The process took about three weeks last time, so I'm well chuffed!!
Many thanks once again for visiting, the samurai bias is set to continue for a while yet, but I'm feeling the urge to visit one of the other projects by way of a short break / diversion so if "Nippon" isn't your thing just hang in there!
Your comments, criticism or questions are most welcome - especially if you can help me identify the leader of the bakemono gang. I really should have looked at the bottom of his base before gluing him to that circle of mdf and painting him!!!

Here Be (the) Monsters

of The Forbidden Fortress core set.

Despite it being "Birthday Week" - my own and the financial dictator's are six days apart, so we have an extended annual bash, it's also been fairly busy work-wise, but thankfully I've still managed to get the beasties for Forbidden Fortress painted up and ready to use.

First up are the Acidic Tentacles. These belong to a huge beast that lives beneath the floor of the fortress and are capable of bursting up to attack the heroes at any time!

 Next are the Dishonoured Dead - the skeletal remains of the fortresses mortal defenders who fell foul of The Darkness, and now reanimated to serve a new, foul, master.

The Tengu are the first of the truly "mono pose" mini's. That minor gripe aside, I do like these creatures and their ability to fly over any obstacles in the fortress will probably make them a dangerous foe!

More mono pose, this time in the shape of three large Oni, evil demons now serving The Darkness.

The largest of the horrors that the heroes will face from the core set is the Living Statue,

while one of the smallest (yet possibly most dangerous) is the ghostly Harionago, levitating while her long barbed hair weaves about her, ready to impale any of the heroes who might get too close!

As with the heroes, I've painted all the bases plain black as per the illustrations in the painting guide, but intend re-visiting them as soon as I come up with a plan that will make them look OK on both the game tiles and the table top.
Short and sweet progress report, but a post is a post. As ever, many thanks for dropping by and any C&C's are more than welcome in the comments section.

Heroes of the Forbidden Fortress

There has been no contact from a local fortress belonging to an allied samurai clan. Fearing the worst, Matsushita Akitane has sent one of his most loyal warriors to discover the fate of their brothers in arms.

The samurai Kawamura Naotomo departs on his mission -

At the same time, the head of the local monastery despatched sohei Hashiba Aritame to discover why a group of monks had not returned from the same fortress -

That night, the shinobi Sanjou Joko has been sent by the head of her clan to discover what has happened at the fortress to delay the routine report from their spy -

and the following morning, shugenja Azai Komako is traveling to the fortress in search of her master, who was due back from there two days ago, the old wizard is so punctual that she just knows something is wrong!

The four heroes from the box set are painted and on their way to the Forbidden Fortress. Their bases are plain black at the moment which is fine for use with the floor tiles, but the plan is to use them for table top games as well so I need to texture them in some way that they'll be compatible for both.
The "monsters" are on the bench and progressing through the paint queue, and the sharp eyed among you will have noticed some additions to the oriental terrain collection.

Many thanks for reading, and your comments,critiques and questions are more than welcome - no predictions about the next post (I'm still convinced my blog is under a curse!), but I'd like to get the monsters finished so that I can play my first game, and of course clear the bench to crack on with other projects.

Post Zomtober Post

Crikey!

November already, and while Bonfire Night looms large, I completely missed out on the second half of the Zomtober painting challenge.
As previously stated, "Hobby time" was under pressure last month, but when a drive shaft and wheel bearing on the van gave up the ghost, I'm afraid that was the end of my planned free time.
Every cloud has a silver lining though, and while the breakdown repairs were being done I also got the work needed for the MOT out of the way and the test done, which was due this month - so I've gained a little free time for the coming weeks which kinda makes up for some of what I lost!

The min's for the challenge have been sitting on the paint table, so I tackled them today - nothing special, just some male and female survivors from Mantic's "The Walking Dead".
I hope I've not upset any purists of the comics or TV show, but I've gone for a basic and generic paint job on these characters. They may be stars of TWD, but they'll probably be strting as grunts in my ATZ campaign!

The Guys - Rick & Carl facing off against The Governor.

The Gals - Andrea, Amy, Carol &Sophia.

Not much else to offer for this post, other than to mention that as a wargamer deprived of playing, modelling or painting, I took solace from a little 'Retail Therapy'......but more on that in a later post.

Many thanks for dropping by and not giving up on this humble scribe, and now the gig dates are settling back to 'normal', I hope to be getting back to some serious gaming and blogging - well, not "serious" serious..... you know what I mean!

Zomtober 2018 week two.........

......... and after the long days and late nights this week, I feel like a zombie!
Still, apart from domestic duties I've had a day at home today and managed to add another zed to the horde thanks to the Zomtober Painting Challenge.

It's only a single mini, but if it weren't for the challenge, I know I would have done absolutely nothing hobby related today, so a huge "Thank You" goes out to everyone involved - you guys are awesome!

To see the inspirational posts from this years participants, just click on the links below

Pulp Citizen- Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
Rob Bresnen- Four Colour Super Minis
Kieron-Cheaphammer!!!
Terry Silverthorn- Miniature Mayhem
Ivor Evan- Saturday Mornings
Bryan Scott aka Vampifan- Vampifan's World of the Undead
Colgar6- Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
Clint- Anything But a One!
Phil Curran- Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera
Dai- The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted
Dick Garrison- Rantings from Under the Wargames table
The Angry Piper- Dead Dick's Tavern
myincubliss -Dead Lead Project

LATE POST

Well it's been a while, but at last here's a LONG overdue post on the blog!
Family commitments, work, a leaky gutter on the front of the house and mechanical problems with the van have left me with virtually no hobby time to speak of, but thankfully there's still been a trickle of post-worthy progress and finding myself with the opportunity, I'm making the effort - just to restore my mojo.
I'm not going to do anything daft like saying "Things should start returning to normal" (whatever 'normal' is), because the last time a did that, they didn't!!!

Anyhow, I've hardly lifted a paintbrush over the last month, but was determined to keep things at least ticking over, doing a little bit whenever I got the chance - usually while having a Java Lava before setting off somewhere else in the van.
The result of this plan are presented here.....

The drummers are "Musicians" for my Test Of Honour warbands. I decided to mount the pair with the portable drum together on a base, and will treat them as a single mini in the game. Conversely, I trimmed down the large base provided with the Dixon's mini and mounted the drummer on his own base - the drum can now double as a terrain piece.
A "Bannerman" and another Sergeant for the Takeda round off my total, but there's a Mura clan standard bearer still on the bench as 'work in progress'.

Something I would definitely have mentioned earlier was the Warlord Games "£1.00 sprue sale", where I splashed out and ordered a couple of Modern Military and a Female Survivors sprues for the All Things Zombie campaign (Mentioning ATZ, the sharp eyed among you will have noticed that my "Currently Reading" info box displays the latest version of my favourite zombie game, and I have been giving it a thorough read since its release - expect a review / game report soon.), and a Terminator endo sprue for Bladerunner droids, plus Terminator Resistance fighters - also destined for Bladerunner (and any other Sci-Fi games).
Not only is the number of mini's for a fiver great bang-for-the-bucks, but I received another 10% Off all in store purchases voucher....... all I need now is the time to pay them a visit!

I also picked up issue one of the Games Workshop part work whilst on my travels - three pots of paint and a brush for £1.99 is not the sort of price associated with GW, so how could I resist?

 The Space Mu-Reens have gone in the bits box for now, but let me know if you happen to need them to finish off a squad or something.

Now, after the painting and collecting, we move on to the interesting part of this post - gaming.
Being away from home and not being able to play was getting me down, and bless her, my wife noticed. Both of us are big fans of The Walking Dead tv series, and she'd been playing a new game on her mobile phone........

I'm far from keen on this kind of game, but she convinced me that "owt was better than nowt", so I downloaded it and started playing.

DON'T WORRY - THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT A MOBILE GAME APP !

It's OK as a "gaming fix", but here's the revelation..... for the first time (apart from some 'social' D&D sessions with friends) - we were gaming together and not only that, it opened up the opportunity for me to talk her into actually trying a game of ATZ !!

So, it is with great pleasure that I present a brief AAR introducing Jackie.

Jackie and Cory were out on a foraging run in the downtown area of Lubbock - it's normally quiet around here, but the "Differently Dead" seem a lot more active today!

Even though they've gone in quietly, there's a whole bunch of zeds closing in from all sides. Jackie has ditched the original plan of checking out the diner across the road and decided they should duck into the general store on the corner.
The first PEF has emerged onto the street, but the school bus blocks the line of site

The pair enter the store and thankfully find it clear of zombies, they also see it's already been picked over - but whoever was here previously had left behind a loaded rifle!

Gratuitous overview of the zombies closing in on the store and all three PEF's on the move.

While Jackie started searching for anything else useful, Cory barricaded the front door by pushing shelving and shop furniture up against it...... and here, dear reader, I became engrossed in running the game and its narrative for SWMBO and made a complete hash of what few photo's I did remember to take!

Somehow, while barricading the door, Cory sprained his ankle very badly (Random Event after rolling "doubles" for initiative),

his cry of pain and stream of foul language distracted Jackie, who was sure she'd just spotted someone else out on the street over by the diner entrance (one of the PEF's moving into cover).

The walking cadavers were gathering outside the front of the store, and looking at the state of Cory's ankle, it was no time to risk checking upstairs.

The pair made their way over to the side door and checked for an escape route - a pair of zombies were shuffling along the alley but the crash of broken glass as the store front window gave way under the weight of the swarming undead spurred them on! A blast from Jackie's shotgun took down one of the zeds and cleared a path to safety.

As ever, ATZ:FFO took the game in a completely unexpected direction with the number of zombies generated, and I was worried that my Better Arf wouldn't get as much enjoyment as I'd hoped from such a restricted encounter ("First Impressions" and all that) - however, to my amazement and delight, she loved it !

Many thanks to regular visitors to the blog for your patience, and a big "Hiya" to newcomers Mike and Jonathan. Fingers crossed it won't be another month before the next post!