Work-in-Progress Wendesday - 25 September 2024

My painting station is usually a bit of a mess. But every wednesday for the last bit, I've tried to take a moment and tidy things up and take pictures of things I've been working on this week. Maybe have a hard think about what should really STAY on the workbench and what should maybe be shifted off, to the side... into a box... onto the shelf... 

I don't know what it is this week, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all and just can't be arsed.. 

Maybe it's because I'm sick (AGAIN!?).

Maybe it's because I brought on a few too many side projects... and they're ALL SO CLOSE to being done I don't want to remove any... but at the same time there are just too many ON the workbench to get anything I really want to do done... which is EVERYTHING?!

This is the main part of the workbench and generally what it looks like from day to day... 

Off to the right, storage for some bigger bottles of stuff I use on the regular... and other stuff I've litterally just shoved off to the side because I don't currently have the mental capacity to make any decisions about what to do with them for now... 

Off to the left, lights and MORE stuff that has literally been shoved off to the side... 

The whole workstation... 

Zooming in on the left side of the main workbench - closest to the lights and the stuff that is MOST CURRENTLY been worked on... There are a number of re-basing projects on the go. Some more Greeks, more swashbucklers, even some warriors for Frostgrave warbands... and the Sylvaneth I REALLY want to get done for Sunday.

More re-basing projects and the Saviours of Cinderfall and stuff literally piled up on top of each other... 

Trying to finish up a little terrain project I started YEARS ago, but suddenly have a use for NOW!! I had completed one, but I don't think I ever posted any pictures of it... probably because I thought I'd finish up these other three and post pictures of all of them at the same time... and that was at least six years ago...? 

It might have been around the time I was making the Regina Trench terrain... or maybe when I was making movement trays...? Or when I was making more Ruined City terrain...? Probably Regina Trench or Ruined city... which would put this closer to 8 years ago... 

I DO want to get the Sylvaneth ready for Sunday, though... So I'm probably going to have to go back downstairs and shift a BUNCH of stuff off of that workbench and make space to just work on those... regardless of how close ALL THE OTHER THINGS are to completion, they're going to have to wait.. 

(though maybe I'll keep the slit trenches on the table, as they can be done on the side and I will likely make use of them BEFORE Sunday, carrying on with the Paras in Normandy Campaign I started yesterday... 

WHAT'S EVERYONE ELSE WORKING ON THIS WEEK!!?

Terrain Bits and Tokens.

 Just a few little things rolling off the workbench... 

I finished up four little wall bits and three clue/treasure tokens. 

The Wall bitz arrived this summer with the Reaper Bones V Kickstarter stuff. I also got Walls of thorn, but they're tricker to assemble (and PAINT!), so, it might be some time before I get to those... probably when I actually have someone who NEEDS them. 

One of the Tokens (the book) I actually just rebased. The other two are newly painted, tho. Teh Book and Backpack came from the Dwarf Gold Fever kickstarter by Lead Adventure Miniatures. The little imp sitting on the skull (facing away!? I guess its's shy!) - I think - came from a Reaper Miniatures set of metal familiars. 

while I was at it... I took a few more pictures of things on the workbench.... 

Dwarves I'm working on - also from Dwarf Gold Fever kickstarter by Lead Adventure Miniatures - they will form the hired soldiers part of a Thaumaturge's warband in Frostgrave. 

I did manage to track down some more Space Marine Scouts for my Imperial Fists Space Marine Scout Kill Team. I picked them up off ebay and they were previously painted. So, Ive had to strip these (and the two other snipers that came with the unit) and have based and primed and started painting these three... 

There are a few other things starting to creep back onto the workbench that I really need to CLEAR OFF so I can FOCUS and get things done... but I've run out of the little storage boxes Im using to hold "ON DECK" or upcoming projects in the queue.  

RPGaDay 2021 - Day Twenty-Five

 

DAY 25 - WELCOME - TRADITION - FRESH - BOX

All I can think of is BOX… the new Warhammer 40K Kill Team: Octarius Box that is to be release this weekend, which I am SUPER excited about… I know, it isn’t a “Role-Playing Game”, per se but I’d argue there is SOME element of role-playing in miniature wargames. You are, essentially, taking on the ROLE of a battlefield commander, ordering troops into combat, here and there. 

The above image is ©2021 Games Workshop and used here without their permission for review purposes only.

With a small skirmish game, like Kill Team, this is even more pronounced, as you take on the role of a commander of a small team of fighters - where individual actions matter - and those individuals are often named. It really reminds me of my early days of playing D&D - where we all playing with more than one character in those first dungeon crawls. 

Skirmish games with campaign systems - where experience and injuries are tracked from game to game and individual members of the team can improve through play - especially lend themselves towards more role-playing. The members of a squad/gang/team can end up developing their own “personalities” and a team dynamic can begin to unfold and a narrative develop. What is a role-playing games beyond cooperatively building a narrative about a group of characters? 

Who can forget everyone’s frustration with Pavel - the sniper in my Mutants and Death-Ray Guns team - whose rifle was constantly jamming - always when the team REALLY NEEDED him to suppress a team or take out a particularly terrifying opponent that was keeping them from fulfilling an objective… and… nothing… and everyone started shouting “GODDAMMIT, PAVEL, CLEAN YOUR FUCKING RIFLE!” That all developed because of a couple of really unlucky rolls that ended up with a weapon jamming… for the sniper… the one guy everyone would think would have a well maintained precision weapon in the team. 

Some Skirmish games even PROMOTE role-playing more than the original D&D did. The previous edition of Kill Team had tables of Demeanours you could roll on for the individual members of your team. 

What is Frostgrave besides a competitive game of role-playing a Wizard - with an apprentice and a bunch of hirelings - exploring a frozen city full of magical artifacts to be collected and monsters to be slain. Again, playing that brought me right back to those initial days of playing D&D! 

Back to Kill Team, though… I didn’t want to get so excited about the new Kill Team. When they first announced it, I thought “Ugh, hard pass”. I has been so excited about the previous edition - and did play a LOT of games of it (33 recorded on BGG) - but ultimately it was a big disappointment. I figured I would just carry on this fall with my original plans of building Age of Sigmar armies and playing that - ideally as part of a Paths to Glory campaign!) and maybe some Warcry (Age of Sigmar skirmish game - also building a campaign) and some Warhammer Underworlds (also set in world of Age of Sigmar) and revive/reboot my Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Role-playing game… basically keeping focuses on Age of Sigmar (with maybe a few games of Necromunda with Orion on the side… maybe even start a CAMPAIGN of THAT!?)… 

And then I started reading and watching reviews of the new Kill Team…

The new rules look really great. Basically, this new version of Kill Team is looking like it might be everything I’d really HOPED the previous version would be! Possibly more!? Alternating, individual activations with action points, a solid-looking campaign system, tracking experience for everyone. 

Oh, and the toys… Death Corps of Kreig? SIGN ME UP!!! (Because, apparently, I just don’t have ENOUGH Imperial Guard forces already). Ork Kommandoes!? (Another one of my first loves and first 40K forces - that box of metal Space Ork Raiders, which was eventually reinforced with a very heavy Attack Buggy and a halftrack flamer bike thing…). Orks were Finnegan’s first 40K force as well, so HE’s pretty excited about them too (though, not so excited as to want to paint them himself!) AND all that terrain - which could double as necromunda terrain or any sort of post-apocalyptic terrain (Mutants and Death-Ray Guns!) 

Yeah… SUPER EXCITED… I know what I’ll be doing all weekend! Madly assembling and prepping all the new toys - and maybe even trying to cajole Amanda or Finnegan into trying out the new rules with some of the Kill Teams we can cobble together with the models we already have. 

Ludmilla Farhazzi - Azur Wizard

One of the recent rebasing projects... 

My friend John picked up a copy of Frostrgrave Second Edition for me - as part of a bribe to paint some miniatures for him (including some Frostgrave miniatures). I have not played Frostgrave in ages. It's not that I stopped liking the game... I just... y'know... got distracted by other things (Vimy Project, which was pretty all-consuming for the better part of a year) and just haven't gotten back to it yet... In addition to doing some work on John's miniatures, I took a look at the rules, briefly, and tried to organize a couple warbands and started rebasing them in readiness for trying out the new edition... at some point... probably in the fall. 

I finished this first warband for Amanda as it only required rebasing (and a few touch-ups). I'm organizing another for myself, but it requires finishing up a few minis. I still have the Jade and Gold wizards that could go at anytime... and so many others that could be cobbled together.

I'm not sure exactly which type of wizard Ludmilla will be, I might just leave that to Amanda to figure out. I'm thinking she kind of looks like an Illusionist, though

Ludmilla Farhazzi - Azur Wizard - and her warband

Ludmilla Farhazzi (right) and her apprentice, Grace. (left).

Ivanka  and Ariana - the two "specialist" archers.

Jane and Bianca - Women-at-Arms

Mandy and Zora - Thieves

Belladonna and Kate - thugs

With these I was trying out my new cobblestone rollers from Green Stuff World. I was kind of still getting the hang of them with these... I like them. I might end up rebasing the other Frostgrave warbands similarly. I like being able to paint the names on the back of bases. 

Trying out a new (to me) camera, that is actually of an older generation of the one I was previously using. The older one had a scratch on the lens and always had a blurry spot right in the middle of the pictures and it was just too irritating... but I am loathe to look for new things - especially anything tech-related. Finnegan happened to get a gift card from his school for some sort of points accumulated over the last few years? Amanda used it to get him a new, FANCY camera - as he is taking a photography class in the fall and been talking about doing YouTube videos. So, I've got HIS hand-me-down camera (which he barely ever used. EVER. It's taking some getting used to, but it's nice to finally have clear photos again! 

I'm not sure when we'll ever get to playing Frostgrave... Maybe I'll get a campaign going in the fall... or, maybe I won't. I definitely want to play some Age of Sigmar soon and would very much like to get a Paths to Glory campaign going - that I hope will carry on into the fall! 

I also want to get my Soulbound game going with my out-of-town buddies - AND might even want to try getting a SECOND going, in person... 

So... not sure when Frostgrave might fit into that. Maybe it'll be a once-a-month thing...? 

Or a "Maybe-Next-Year" thing... 

Frostgrave Warrior Wimyn!

 A pair of female warriors for Frostgrave I painted up for my friend John. I finished these last week sometime and was waiting to post them with some of the others I currently have on the workbench. Progress on those has been delayed by the arrival of Nightvault and me painting TWO Thorns of the Briar Queen warbands and finishing up Lady Harrow's Mournflight this past week. Finishing off the rest of the Frostgrave ladies will likely be further delayed by me painting ALL THE STORMCAST over the next week... or two... 

It has been a LONG TIME since I played Frostgrave - but I think these are a Templar (Two-Handed Weapon, Mail Armour) and a Knight (Hand Weapon, Shield, Mail Armour)? The miniatures are from North Star Miniatures. I really like them. I might have to get my own at some point! 

I have mixed feelings about the snow... It's definitely looking better than my first few attempts. But I still feel like it's almost a little TOO white! I don't know... it's growing on me... I wonder if just painting sand a really light blue-grey and drybrushing white might look better... I'll have to experiment. 

Looking forward to trying out Thorns of the Briar Queen tonight! Stay tuned for a game report over the weekend! 

John's Orc Blood Bowl Team/Warband

A little over a decade and a half ago, before this blog was even started, my friend John was living in Calgary. Once or twice a year we'd get together and when we did we'd usually play Mordheim - which had been introduced to us by another friend - who was by then in Edomonton, CVT (CVT had run the Mordheim league here in Saskatoon and continued to come back and run tournaments at the Hero's Gambit convention in Saskatoon for a year or two after he moved to Edmonton).

At that time, the Games Workshop store in Calgary apparently had monthly auctions to ditch old stock. John went to these. Once or twice he picked up something. One of those times he got a Tomb Kings starter army (or... battalion box?)- BEFORE they'd been officially released (it was an accident, the dude auctioning it off picked it up out of the wrong pile in the back, or something...?). Another time he scored a bunch of old metal Orc and Goblin and Hobgoblin Blood Bowl players. Oh man, there were minis in there that I'd seen in White Dwarfs and had coveted, but had never seen in person.

I should back up even further: Blood Bowl, I think, may have been the first miniatures game John and I had ever played together. We'd known each other for a while, and played role-playing games together, and I know we'd PLANNED to play Warhammer Fantasy, and had started collecting minis for that... but I can't remember if we ever actually got to PLAYING WFB before Blood bowl (Second Edition) came out....? (this was THIRTY YEARS AGO now, I have trouble remembering things Amanda told me this morning!). We played a LOT of Blood Bowl. I mean, a LOT!!! I ran the first few leagues through the Wizard's Corner (the original FLGS in Saskatoon that john, at that time, was managing and I worked at 3 hours a week on Thursday evenings - but generally hung out there every waking hour that it was open and I wasn't in school!).

So I have (mostly) very fond and happy memories of blood bowl (of some of the dudes that played in those leagues.... less so...).

Flash forward 10-15 years and John has all these awesome Blood Bowl minis... but we don't play Blood Bowl anymore... and when we do get together we play Mordheim... so he hands them to me with a bunch of plastic weapon bitz and says; "Make me a Mordheim Warband" - the backstory being that this is what the team did in the off season - went REaving about the Empire and made their way to Mordheim to plunder the ruins...

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I converted the lot of them, pinning and gluing weapons and hands on to each one - the results can be seen below...

Flash forward another 15 years and John is back in Saskatoon and stops by one day and gives me a pack of two plastic D&D Hobgoblin Shamans that he just picked up at the Dragon's Den (our current FLGS that just celebrated its 25TH ANNIVERSARY!!! WOW!!)

I says; "what are these for?"

He says: "Remember that goblinoid blood bowl team/warband you painted for me years ago...? I want to use them as a Frostgrave Warband!"

I says: "No."

Not as in: "no, I don't remember them"...

Not as in: "No, you can't use them as a Frostgrave Warband because that is stupid"

(because it ISN'T stupid, it's AWESOME!!!).

It was as in: "No, I'm not painting those ugly-ass miniature that look nothing like the rest of the war band" - I've got a certain sense of aesthetic, you know...

I point out he should either track down some old metal Blood Bowl Orc Throwers (as they'd fit right in and kind of look like they're casting a spell...? (One hand balled into a fist, the other pointing (as in pointing where they're going to throw that ball) or, at the very least, get some Warhammer Fantasy (or Age of Sigmar) Orc or Goblin wizards... so they at least look a little like the rest of the war band. We could call them the coaches... or a coach and a trainer...?

So, he tracked down a pair of metal Warhammer Fantasy Goblin Wizards (or Shamans...?)



The Whole Team. All miniatures from Citadel/Games Workshop.

I didn't ever paint a logo on them anywhere, but I seem to recall red and white might have been the colours of one of the Orc Blood Bowl teams mentioned in the GW fluff...? The Gouged Eye, maybe...?

I'd had a few Orc teams of my own (hence the coveting of these minis - especially the Cheerleaders!!). One was the plastic team out of the boxed set which I'd painted as the Orcland Raiders. The other was a mixed team of Orcs and Goblins which I called the Gnarly Green Guys. I dug them all out recently... I should take pics of those sometime... maybe play a game with the kids...? I digress...

(Edit: John has reminded me that the red and white colours are for the Killgory Stompeders - a play on Calgary's CFL football team, the Calgary Stampeders! I also had a skaven team called the Hammertown Tiger-Rats - after the Hamilton Tiger-Cats)



The NEW wizard/apprentice/coach/trainer team.



Big Bad Troll.



The Question Mark on his helmet and shoulder pad is his "number".

I have no idea what the fish bones stuck to his arm is all about...?



The Orcs

Originally these were all based on square bases. I think this was because, at the time, Mordheim miniatures were usually on square bases, because Warhammer Fantasy miniature were, for the most part, on square bases, because it was easier to rank them up in battle. I always thought; "who cares?" None of these will EVER be used in a game of Warhammer Fantasy!? But apparently a mutual friend of ours that John was gaming with at the time complained when John had used other minis I'd painted for him, that were on round bases, in Mordheim -0 even though I don't actually recall there ever being ANYTHING that said what shape or size anything had to be on in the rules... His complaint was that it gave one an unfair advantage somehow...? Something to do with how many miniatures could get into base contact with it...? I don't know... He got like that when he was losing! (despite that I love the guy, dearly!)

Well they're not likely to be used for Mordheim ever again, so I rebased the lot of them onto round bases! The orcs I put on 32mm bases as that's what Orcs are on these days... they look a tad big for a couple of them, but I wanted to differentiate them from the goblinses.



A couple of hard-hitting muthafukkahs. #1, who I think was the captain, and #Ø (number naught) Lemdim Greazee. The name is a play on the name of a friend of mine from high school that I don't think John was ever particularly fond of. Greazee had been the name of a Star Player in a couple of our Blood Bowl leagues. I can't remember if it was me or John that had originally came up with the name...?



Now these Blood Bowl figures, and they weren't part of the lot John had given me - they were just minis I had from back when we played Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I stripped and repainted them and added them to the war band to give them some shooty power.



A pair of Goblin noise-makers. I love the guy with the bag pipes... I'm a little surprised I didn't just steal him from the lot...



The whole cheering section...



Squigs...

 

I tried to paint them to look like footballs...

Of course it's AFTER I take all these photos, somehow, that I notice all the bits of chipped paint.... Ugh...



Squigs with their goblin herder (with a snotting-on-a-stick!)



Hobgoblins with Spear and Shield.



#s 77 and 36. #36's name (or PART thereof) can be seen on his back betwixt his shoulder pads: "LUR"...? I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be PART of his name... BLURT? SLURB? I have no idea... I'm sure it was something I thought was pretty funny at the time...



Hobgoblin with Shield and Axe (Hand Weapon)



ANOTHER #5. I think this was because I was painting them in batches and mailing them off to John in Calgary and I totally FORGOT what numbers I used...



Dual-Weilding Hobgoblins. Not sure why there are so many of these and not more with shields. I'm sure that could be fixed...



I'm certain the #37 was a reference to Clerks (the movie).



Goblins... again with the Dual-Wielding...? Was Dual-Weilding super awesome in Mordheim?



So many references to the number five. I was a teenage Discordian! (7+1= 8, 8=2³, 2+3=5... it... made sense at the time...).

I know John's immediate plan is (or WAS, when he dropped off those goblin wizards... um... a few months back). I'm not sure what all these would be in Frostgrave - it's been over a year since I last played (maybe TWO!?). Those goblins could be Thieves (count those dual wield weapons as "a dagger"). The Dual-Wield Hobgoblins could be Thugs (count THOSE dual wield weapons as "a hand weapon"). The hobgoblins with shields could be Men-at-Arms (were there different soldier types for hand weapon and shield and spear and shield...? or was is all just HAND WEAPON and shield? The rest...? I have no idea, I'd have to dig out my book and get creative...

Not quite enough of any of them for Dragon Rampant, but they'd make a wicked-cool Song of Blades and Heroes warband!! I'll have to get him to play THAT at some time!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Necromunda Game Weekend!

Lelith Hesperax and Dwarf Wizards

The painting pace slowed a bit this weekend. I had to take a bit of a break. I was tiring of the Hellions (and Drukhari in general) so I splashed a bit of paint on a few other things and I even managed to finish up a few of thems Saturday evening! (I often keep a few other things around the workbench for just such an occasion - when I want to paint something but just getting sick of what I've been working on).



Lelith Hesperax - a Drukhari named character. Lelith is a succubus of the Cult of Strife.

She'll probably end up being used as a "Counts As.." mini in a detachment using the Cult of Strife rules. This may or may not be used in the upcoming tournament. I may finish up one of the regular generic Succubi for the force Finnegan's going to use.



Dwarf wizards from Lead Adventure Miniatures. I actually painted the female wizard some time ago, but repainted her dress as I didn't like the colour. It was originally painted blue, but that just wasn't working for me (and besides, I also painted another pair of Dwarf Wizards in blue).

I like this pair. I feel like I could build a Frostgrave warband around them... Not sure what TYPE of wizard just yet! Any followers still playing Frostgrave? Any suggestions?


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

NOT DWARVES! I think I got that out of my system and am ready to push forward with more Drukhari!

Gangers, Preachers, Wizards, and Slugs

Taking a break from the Eldar to finish off a few things that have been lingering a little too long on the periphery of my painting desk...



The Lot of them.



Additional Cawdor and Delaque Gangers for the gangs I've already painted...



The complete Delaque Gang.

I'm not bothering with a picture of all the Cawdor Gangers so far, as I have another batch of them still to finish up...



Necromunda Esher Gangers. Actually only four of them are Esher Gangers (three of which I recently picked up from Airborne Grove)- the one I'm using as a leader is actually Mad Donna - a hired gun, and the one in Purple and Green (second from the right) is an old Judge Dredd Perp that I've had forever (and recently stripped and repainted).



Preachers and Missionaries from the Adeptus Ministorum. I'm not sure why I based Uriah Jacobus on the rounded plastic base....? I was probably thinking he'd be a "leader" of this lot and needed something bigger... but didn't have a bigger washer...? Or perhaps when I picked him up I was thinking he could be part of Amanda's Battle Sisters - until she said "No way! Only chicks in this army!"



Here they are with the other two preacher/misionaries I have.

Ah... as I type this up and look at the pictures I suddenly realized I didn't paint anything on Uriah Jacobus' banner! I was thinking of the "I" and skill motif of the Adeptus Ministorum...



Giant Slug-like critters from the Kill Team: Rogue Trader box... slowly getting through a few of these...



Dwarf Wizard and Apprentice. The Wizard is from Lead Adventure Miniatures, and, I think, the apprentice is from Black Tree Design. My friend John got talking about playing Frostgrave again and I was looking my Dwarves... I also painted up a couple of torchbearers a few weeks back - to use as thugs or thieves... I should probably figure out what I'd use in the party and figure out what others I'd need. I have a BUNCH of these Lead Adventure minis still to paint - which would all be so fun to use in a Frostgrave adventure party.



Young lad with a big-ass wrench from Lead Adventure Miniatures.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I actually played a game of 40K last Wednesday with Other Tim and have a half written game report I should probably finish up...

Lots of Necromunda Gangers (Cawdor and Ratskins... mostly...) and Grey Knights and some Chaos stuff and odd and assorted other bits flooding the painting desk at the moment.