May | 2017 | The Lost City of Carcosa

Demons & Thieves

29/05/2017

Light levels here have been bad, so not quite as much progress as i’d like. However…when I did the Foundry order I also got some Demons from their Casting Room Miniatures range. There was a 20% sale on, so I thought that they’d be worth the price, and thought they’d be good for Imps.

As you can see they were quite a bit larger than I’d anticipated. The red one is big enough to be a greater demon, and the green one a normal demon.

The models themselves are very simple ones, but for the price and amount of time they’re likely to last worth it. I used the Foundry Triads (Madder Red & Caverous Green) with appropriate wash and that was pretty much it.

The Thief is really just a re-base and touch up job but the first of the C04 Thieves which are my latest project.

The rest of them have been based and the flesh base coat and ink has been done. I also acquired a pre-slotta their (Ronald Byggs) on the right hand side which is a good match size wise.

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim, Painting

Arachnophobia, Frostgrave style

27/05/2017

One of the wandering monsters or random encounters in frost grave are Ice Spiders – singular and plural.

I have had a couple of packs of the Copplestone Castings Giant Spiders for a good ten years or more, so when clearing the house decided I’d bring them with me and paint them up.

the sharp eyed amongst you will notice the packs include 8 of the arachnids, and only 7 are shown painted…

Because one of them had become damaged and was missing a leg.

So here is the eighth critter.

I painted him upside down leaking a horrible blue goo, so it gives a better photogenic results when they inevitably get slain by a war band minion !

They’re on 32mm round bases from GW. I added the flock first and then sealed it in with varnish, then glued them on as the contact area is quite small. Dead grass was added afterwards and the entire lot sealed in again with varnish.

IIRC the original e-mail announcing their release came with the comment, they’d make great ear ring decorations. 😉

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim

Look at my rack

26/05/2017

Paint rack that is.
Both of them.

the long overdue sort out has happened. the two trays at the front (baking/roasting trays) are the left overs and spares.

I ditched a good 30 or so pots of paint that had dried up or were unsalvageable.

Spare rack, where I will temporarily house the “in use” paints.

MDF racks, bought as kits about 10 years ago from Miniaturcanium, who no longer do them. 😦

Very handy for keeping things in order.

Just the GW/Citadel paints to sort out.

I managed to save some of the semi-dried out paints using Revel Colour Mix:

very good for rejuvenating paints, stinks to high heaven much like their Painta-Cleaner that I use to wash my brushes in (diluted with water).

In aditionto rejuvenated paint pots, a small Lead Cross parcel (TM), will be going to JP with the endless supply of Slate Grey and Boneyard (and others) I had. Space limits mean I have to pass them on to a good home.

Filed under Painting

Too much paint, too much bunny

24/05/2017

Having embarked on my project to paint more figures especially the C)4 Thieves, I found, or rather didn’t find the paints I wanted.

Having hurriedly packed them, they were all over the place, and I got fed up of trying to find the right colour only to find I had three pots of the same shade, but not the base or highlight.

This is about 1/2 of the paints I have, and I’m sorting through. They’re the Foundry paint system which is excellent.

More paints on MDF shelving unit. As well as Foundry I use some various GW/Citadel paints to bulk out the system, mostly for foundation paints, washes and metallics as they have a larger range. Plus with stuff like Agrax Earthshade I can pick up a load in one go for scenery projects.

So I’m now doing an audit, ditching the dried (or nearly dried) out pots of paint and working out what ones to store for later use, ones to pass on to mates, or which ones I need to buy. Looks like flesh tones are the order I’ll need to put in.

Still not able to find a range that does metallic colours (blue, green, purple etc), I had been pointed at Coat’d’arms but they no longer do them, so it looks like the Blanitsu style of the tomb palette on an ad-hoc basis.

Talking of too much…

<y parents' had visitors and went out for the day, leaving me in charge, so Humphrey their cat decided to use this opportunity to bring home his second rabbit in a year, and let it loose in the kitchen.

I helped him recapture the live rabbit, and expelled them from the house, where he promptly hid under the trees in the garden and devoured the bunny.

He turned up at 10pm, stretched out a VERY LARGE BUNNY TUMMY, and refused to move, or eat any food until this afternoon.

Filed under Cats

Register to Vote NOW

22/05/2017

For those of in the UK, you now have until midnight tonight to register to vote.

Having just sold my house and gone into temporary accommodation with my parents I’ve had to do this, BUT it takes all of 5 minutes.

Click here to register to VOTE

Don’t leave it to the last minute as the website will probably be overwhelmed.

Five minutes of your time, is small change compared to the efforts of millions over the years to gain and extend the voting franchise in this country. Don’t let them down.

Filed under Uncategorized

Film: Rogue One

21/05/2017 2 Comments

Well its been a little while since I’ve done a film review, but I felt motivated enough to do this one.

Telling the story of how the Rebel Alliance got the Death Star plans this is a stand alone film set in the Star wars universe.

I wondered if it’d stand up to the behemoths of the ongoing story (the original trilogy and the start of the new one).

It does so very well.

The style, aesthetics and props all tie (!) in with the main films seamlessly. The plot is a good one and as others have mentioned is more of a war film than a space opera.

I’ve watched it a couple of times now and really enjoy it, in fact its main drawback is that all the main characters die – I’d have loved to see more of them ! Even the supporting characters could have had a longer life IMHO.

Minor quibbles – the opening ten minutes or so has a few too many new locations and jumps around a lot so repeat viewing is a bonus.

There’s a lot of new Imperial Stormtrooper types that aren’t seen in the original trilogy (maybe in the next trilogy ?) so a bit of a discontinuity error. That and the whole “Bothan spies” comment in SW:ANH.

Stand out supporting character was the droid, K-2SO. At first you think he is just a pale imitation of C3PO, but it soon becomes apparent that while he is a pedant, he is also much more cynical and perfectly capable lof a bit of direct violence.

Criticism has been levelled at the CGI of Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) and Princes Leia (Carrie Fisher). Whilst I have not watched in HD, the former is easily part of the scenes and does not jar. The later is slightly more “plastic” but as it is towards the end and very limited not a major problem for this film.

Go get it, and watch it a couple of times, its a keeper.

Filed under Film

FG: The Silent Tower III (Part Two)

20/05/2017

One wizard down…

And my Captain goes down as well.

As does my Apprentice to an arrow (another 20).

The swirling melee continues with another Imp summoned.

On the other side of the board, a fleeing minion is pounced upon by a wolf.

And then a second one, and in the ensuing melee all models died !!

The Imps despatched, a construct lunges forward after my fleeing thief. So KIY summoned a minor demon for the first time.

At this point, I forgot the summoned demon is also bound.

A well placed wall, separated the demon from its victim so (unbound) he killed my archer instead.

As my war band was picked off one by one and the last their cut off from escape, KIY retreated giving supporting fire.

…before getting an arrow in the face !

So other than forgetting that my demon was bound and should not have attacked my own war band models, the game went well. Not least downing the enemy wizard raked in a lot of XP !

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim

FG: The Silent Tower III (Part One)

20/05/2017

The second game Jim and I played, was The Silent Tower as he had not played that one – this is my third go at it.

Using the pringle tube towers that have been in the news recently.

Now with a base (an Inn) KIY had recruited a Captain, and raised a Zombie.

Ramses (Jim) sets up opposite. Having learnt Reveal Secret, KIY casts it and gets another treasure chest plonked in front of his Zombie.

two turns in, and playing a telekinetic tug of war with a treasure chest, Ramses is tempted to come out into the open so I speculative shot from an archer, hit but failed to wound.

The good old Wall spell put a stop to any more speculative shots !

So I sent in a war dog, only the minions to turn up, and which started a swirling melee lasting half the game.

Jim had borrowed my Constructs for his Enchanter Ramses to use.

Jim insisted on this dramatic photo, with the newly summoned Imp (an old Citadel D&D Satyr model), in the claws of the scorpion, which had just killed it.

KIY had summoned an imp as had Klotidla his apprentice (or Appendix we joked, more of which later).

Ramses then made a big gamble and teleported behind enemy lines to try and cadge a treasure chest off the shambling Zombie – great move…

Unfortunately, KIY turned round and zapped the interloper with an Elemental Bolt, rolling a 20 on the to hit roll…the first time a wizard has killed a wizard !

To be cont’d….

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim

C04 Thieves from the archives

18/05/2017

Now many people playing both Frostgrave and Mordheim have raided their lead mountains to find useful old figures that aren’t suitable for massed combat, many of them from the good old days of D&D style dungeon crawls.

For me I did this too, but my “in between” houses status and the ned to reduce the lead mountain range to a modest hill helped focus me, and one of the first things I did was to ensure that all the Thieves I had were with me in my few boxes.

As you can see in varying states of painting, this lot are the first generation(and last) of Citadel’s C04 Thieves range.

All 12 of them and ideal as Thieves, Thugs and ne’er do wells in Frostgrave and Mordheim.

I’ve had to jack a few of them up on greenstuff as they are slightly smaller than modern day models (scale creep !).

So my plan is to paint them all unto modern standards and use them in anger – a side project from the general Frostgrave stuff I am doing more of which later.

I have a few of the even older metal based ones and they’ll be done up too.

Here’s the original advert from the Spring 1986 Citadel Journal. I bought this magazine on holiday in Yorkshire and its seen a lot of use.

(NB: For once Stuff of Legends has got it wrong)

As you can see the photos came complete with rules for units of Thieves in WHFB !

Filed under Frostgrave, Mordheim

FG: This town ain’t big enough for both of us (Part Two)

17/05/2017

The “bear” moved in to defend the loot that Jim’s war band had filched, only for me to mob it with two thugs and a war hound.

A randomly provoked wild dog bit the dust, as KIY summoned an Imp (in the back ground) to try and distract the advancing hordes of Jim’s war band to allow my own thieves to get off the table.

Leaning out of the ruins, Jim’s Apprentice also used Telekenisis to move the treasure up into the building next to him, only to get shot with an arrow (20 rolled !). So promptly fell out onto the ground below (dramatic licence applied in this photo)

Dodging the wandering dog, imp and even a Planar Tear, Jim’s Tracker got into combat with one of my treasure carrying thieves and was again mobbed by a Zombie and another minion.