Mordheim – Ongoing renovations of space & Gaudy Baubles

17/08/2016 4 Comments

The second Mordheim ruin I was renovating is finished.

Originally seen here it was one I’d used polyfilla on to give texture.

But I wasn’t happy with merely touching the paint work up, I decided to go on a proper overhaul.

So Byakhee Rich provided some flaming braziers for the door, which itself was painted marble white, as was the second storey window, and the tiles were red rather than grey.

I then added some graffiti. I think most people know what AOS is. 😉

Part of the second floor flooring had become damaged and hung at an angle, but I left it like that deliberately.

I also added some paving outside the front of the house.

By coincidence, I was watching a certain show when i realised this ruin had ended up looking similar to one of the locations.

Points awarded for guessing which comedy I was watching.

Jack Dee: Points will be awarded, and what do points mean ?
Audience: POINTS MEAN PRIZES !

Brucie bonus point for what show that comes from.

Whilst I was at it, I also finished off some more gaudy baubles.

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim, Scenery

Film: Star Wars – The Force Awakens

12/08/2016

Having been to see Star Wars (later A New Hope) as a 7 year old, I was disappointed by the prequels, so was very tentative about the new sequels.

I was both pleased and disappointed when I got the DVD of The Force Awakens.

So, a new desert planet (hmm where have we seen that ?), and a new cute droid BB8.

On the upside, the main character is a woman so we move into the twentieth century at least.

Again on the upside, we have a black actor as a main character. Finn is introduced well and provides some interesting ideas about why Stormtroopers always have their helmets on.

So we have The First Order (son of The Empire), which is only sketchily described which may be partly for dramatic tension, but annoying for those who don’t go looking online as to what is going on. Three main protagonists are introduced – Snoke; Ren; and Hux. They’re fairly well fleshed out for what little time they have.

Their screen time is fairly short as with any new film setting up a franchise deliberately, a new swathe of characters have to get screen time to set up the framework the rest of the sequels will populate and develop. So as part of a franchise series no problem – annoying as a stand alone movie and therefore it compares badly to SW ANH when compared one to one. But given SW ANH was pretty much a shot in the dark and didn’t assume a trilogy was a given, its not a fair comparison. So, characterisation so far not bad, not astounding.

Leia and Solo then turn up to support Rey and Finn all of which mesh well together, along with the return of C3PO and eventually R2D2. Solo’s killing was really good, very unexpected to kill of such a popular character at such short notice in the first of the sequels.

The First order’s “Star Destroyer Base” is fairly lame and results in the overall plot of the film feeling like a re-tread of ANH, which detracts from the many upsides of the film.

So overall I think this is a good romp, much superior to the prequels and approaching the original series in enjoyability, and hopefully setting things up for the XII and XIII episodes.

But…

Captain Phasma.

Well she got ran appearance on the posters, got a name, got a unique outfit, and was obviously set up as a major character and then…

…@….@….@….@…

Yes, the gag with Solo allegedly dumping her into a garbage chute was a nice one, but really, she needed much more screen time to establish her character.

A missed opportunity, IMHO.

Looks like she will return, and I hope she gets a better amount of screen time//characterisation in the following sequels.

Overall, a good start to a new series of sequels, as a stand alone film so so.

Filed under Film

Renovating buildings

11/08/2016

When I started building Mordheim buildings from scratch, I hadn’t discovered textured masonry paint, and nor were there any suitable craft/model paints available.

So to provide texture and also to cover up joins between the foam core that i used for the walls, I mixed up some polyfilla (very watered down). And then painted that on to the foam core buildings I’d done.

But as you can see years later, the polyfilla gets knocked and damaged, exposing the white powdery material underneath.

And consequently don’t meet up the rural/ruined aesthetic…

So, I covered up the damaged and other vulnerable areas with a liberal dose of PVA white glue (it is meant to be a sealer).

So after the glue dried, I repainted the walls, and also took the opportunity to highlight the windows and timbers, plus brown/green washes to jazz the old ruin up.

the other ruin pictured needed a bit more work, so that’ll be up next, along with some more colourful scatter scenery pieces.

Filed under Mordheim

Also, I paint figures

10/08/2016

Long time no post, have been busy with a few projects.

One of which was tidying up the rest of the Mordheim and human figures I have, and a very gaudy project needed finishing off.

Yes, Lady Kate, who I created for a game of Frostgrave, but wanted to integrate with my Mordheim Marienburgers, who are stylishly decked ou in Orange (marienburg/the Wasteland being based on the Dutch Republic).

So the dress colour of Orange and black was sorted, then I hit the wall. What hair colour ?

So I was stuck, I didn’t want to do blonde hair, nor red. Black would be boring, as would brunette.

Then of course I realised a week or so ago whilst watching BSG, the answer was on the screen…bottle blonde. Tricia Helfer’s hair colour for Number Six would really stand out.

And the reason for such a selection of gaudy dress and hair…

…was because a mentioned previously, the Mordheim/Frostgrave terrain is very very dull, full of greys and tans.

So by choosing these colours the figures really stand out, are photogenic, and are totally different to the black based themes of Dark Elves, and the endless khaki of AVBCW and BoB.

Filed under Frost Grave, Mordheim Tagged with , ,