Dominion of Sigmar: Timeworn Ruins

I finished up the first batch of the Dominion of Sigmar: Timeworn Ruins that I picked up last week.

Dominion of Sigmar: Timeworn Ruins

These eight bits are all the bits that DIDN'T require any sort of assembly (less one of said pieces that I used on Radukar the Beast's base!). 

There are three or four more bits that need assembling... Hopefully I will get to assembling them along with the Skull Altar and Judgements of Khorne. 

These turned out to be a bit bigger than I'd expected them to be, which is nice!

They fit in nicely with the other Age of Sigmar terrain I painted - from the Skaventide box and really "pop" on the reddish matt I'll be using for most battles on the Ravaged Coast of Aqshy!

They're big enough they might actually provide some COVER for units that hide behind them! Should they encounter an opponent with ranged attacks... I'm kind of surprised how many armies just DON'T have ANY ranged attacks!?

Terrain - Slit Trenches

I don't know exactly WHEN I started these... It might have been eight years ago - either when I was working on the Regina Trench terrain or some new generic Urban Ruins terrain...? But it COULD have been as recently as five years ago when I was making Movement Trays (as the process is very similar). Regardless, I'd roughed out four of them - two two-man slit trenches, one three-man slit trench, and one for a crew-served weapon. I'm MOSLTY finished one, and never got around to posting it or finishing any of the others... 

Having started a Five Men in Normandy campaign, I thought these might come in handy, so I went digging through some boxes to find them and finish them up. 

 

The idea was to find a way to show that troops were dug into slit trenches.... that could be placed on a flat tabletop - and could be placed almost anywhere that's flat - so I wouldn't have to build specific terrain tiles for scenarios in which someone was dug into a slit trench. 

I've played around with the idea of doing just a short stack of sandbags, but then thought of this idea and hoped it would LOOK more like the troops were entrenched. 

These were clearly a TEST set, as any of the games I would have been thinking of using them for would clearly need a LOT MORE if an entire platoon - or even a few squads were all dug in!? This number works PERFECTLY for Five Men in Normandy, however. 

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!!?

Work-In-Progress Wednesday - 7 August 2024

 Welp... Having finished up the Blades of Khorne Spearhead Army... what was I do do next!? MOAR KHORNE!? A new Spearhead Army? Build some terrain? Back to Warhammer Underworlds or Warhammer Quest!? Something entirely different!?

Obviously, I tried to do a bit of them all!? 

And the workbench is a bit of a mess now?!

I started clearing things off after taking this picture... 

Taking up a lot of prime real estate on the workbench are all these Khorne Dogs that I am rebasing. They are the last of the Khorne Daemons I'd originally based on Warhammer 40K Sector Imperialis bases, Which I've been slowly re-basing to the flagstone and rubble bases I've been putting all the Khorne stuff on so hopefully the Daemons can pass for fantasy or far future... 

Because they're taking up SO MUCH SPACE and will be relatively easy to finish up, these will be the first things off! 

There were also these to Hounds of Chaos... I also rebased, but kept them on 40mm round bases as the larger oval bases just looked too huge for them... the could have been stuff onto 32mm bases... but that looked a little cramped... 

Gorechosen of Dromm - Warhammer Underworlds warband - I was working on these a little but as I was working on all the other Bloodbound for the Khorne army... I decided to stray from the dusty desert bases I've done all the other Khorne stuff for Warhammer Underworlds and tried to do something more like what I've done for all the other Bloodbound... I'm not sure it's worked out. I may just put them onto new bases with flagstone and rubble... 

As with the above, took the opportunity of working on Khorne Bloodbound to try and finish these off... I think I might just pop these off their bases and put them on Flagstone and Rubble bases as well...

The Melusai Ironscale has been joined by a unit of Blood Stalkers in preparation for working on the Daughters of Khaine Spearhead army! 

I'd bought the Arena of Shades Battle Box because it had the other two units I needed for the Daughters of Khaine Spearhead army... but when I went to assemble the Witch Aelves... I discovered it did not have the assembly instructions for Witch Aelves, only the Sisters of Slaughter (the sprues included can be assembled as either... but as the background fluff for the box only concerned Sisters of Slaughter, it only included instructions for those!? 

So, instead of assembling Witch Aelves I started assembling all the terrain from the Extremis Starter Set... But they were taking up TOO MUCH SPACE on the workbench so I've mostly moved them off to shelves nearby... 

Then I decided to assemble all the Stormcast Eternals Heroes from Skaventide!? 

AND I rebased a few more Heroes from the Blades of Khorne army... 

And these guys are still there... (I did do a little work on them this past week...) 

Then there are all of these still haunting the corners of the workbench, which I am loathe to move off because they're all so close to being finished?! 

And I also decided to start painting some control markers for the Spearhead Armies I've already finished... 

and... that's about it... 

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON THIS LAST WEEK!?

Spearhead Terrain: The Large Bits

 I rushed to finish up the two larger bits of terrain included in the Skaventide boxed set - which are required for playing Spearhead - because Orion contacted me earlier in the day and inquired if I would be available to PLAY some Spearhead! As I'd finally finished the last unit for the Hedonites of Slaanesh force, and was super keen to try them out, I said "YES!!!" and got painting!!

Two Large Terrain pieces. 

They're not all THAT large... I guess it's just in relation to the smaller pieces. 

All four pieces of terrain on the spearhead board (Aqshy side!) 

All four pieces of terrain on the spearhead board (Gyran side!) 

Stay tuned for a GAME REPORT of the ensuing action! 

I need to get a second force done and see if I can convince Amanda (or Finnegan?) to play! 

In the rules it suggests there will be different boards for different Mortal Realms available at some point. I wonder if those will be available in a Gaming Pack with a double-sided board, some new terrain bits and cards specific to the new Mortal Realms depicted on the boards...? Or will they come in new started sets with two complete Spearhead forces!? 

I kind of hope it's the former - just board and cards available separately... And hope they call it Death & Shadow and include boards and cards for the realms of Ulgu and Shyish... 

If it HAD to include two Spearhead armies... It could still be Death & Shadow and include boards and cards for the realms of Ulgu and Shyish... along with a Daughters of Khaine army (but, like a DIFFERENT one that the one currently available) and... some Death army that ISN'T Soulblight Gravelords...? I wouldn't mind Flesh-Eater Courts... but it would probably be Nighthaunt or Ossiarch Bonereapers... All at a price significantly lower than the cost of two Spearhead forces on their own... (Spearhead armies are $175CAD, so.... less than $300CAD...? $275?)

Warhammer Underworlds - Blocked Hex Terrain Project

Didn't do a Work-in-Progress Wednesday post this week as... well... I hadn't done any work this past week (other than finishing up the three undead for Cursed City). Been having some health issues and feeling a bit down... Hopefully this next week will be better! 

Something arrived in the mail this week, though, and I thought I'd share a bit about that.... 

Now, if you've been following along, you are no doubt aware that I am a little HYPER-fixated on Warhammer Underworlds at the moment. I've played forty games so far this year!? Also, I have discovered that I really do like playing with terrain bits sitting in the blocked hexes! I have some that Games Workshop produced for Nightvault and Beastgrave (here and here and here - and there is still more to paint!). But they stopped after that and so I don't have any specific things for the Harrowdeep, Gnarlwood or Deathgorge settings... So I thought I'd make my own... some reefs for Harrowdeep? Log piles for Gnarlwood? Heaps of snow and ice for Deathgorge. 

I've seen that there are laser cut wooden (or plywood or MDF) hexagons of various different sizes available on Amazon for not-totally-insane prices, so I thought I'd try and pick up some of an appropriate size to use as a base... Finding an appropriate size, wasn't as easy and straightforward as one might think it should be. 

The Hexagons on the board are 50mm from flat edge to flat edge, about 58mm from point to point, and each of the edges are about 29mm . A lot of the listings on Amazon were just listed as "60mm" with no diagram or description of WHERE that measurement was taken... flat edge to flat edge? point to point? along one of the edges!?

Posts WITH diagrams weren't much help either... 

A lot that did have diagrams looked like this!? At first glance it seemed like they were suggesting it was 6cm (60mm) both from flat edge to flat edge AND point to point...? That's... not how Hexagons work!

I did notice, on closer inspection that the lower arrows did NOT go all the way from point to point... so... MAYBE this was... accurate... -ish...?

But then I noticed IN THE SAME LISTING as the for the above 60mm hexagon, they had THIS diagram for their 40mm hexagons!? If these "40mm Hexagons" were, indeed 40mm along the edge, then they would be BIGGER than the "60mm Hexagons" in the same listing that were show to have been measured flat edge to flat edge... sort of... maybe... 

So I decided THAT seller could clearly not be trusted with any measurements... 

Another seller had THIS diagram for their 50mm hexagon!? JFC, WHAT!? How do they not see that those two lines are NOT THE SAME LENGTH!?!?

In the description of the produce it even claimed the dimensions were 50mm x 50mm x 2mm.... WTF!? 

NOT HOW HEXAGONS WORK

Math is hard, I guess...?

I did find another seller that had this diagram, which was much clearer... but theirs cost 4x what the others were selling things for... and I just did not want to spend THAT much money on a little project that I didn't really NEED to do in the first place... 

Also, though... which is it? 2" or 50mm...? I mean, they are CLOSE, but not exactly the same?!

And then I found this one... and it described the hexagons as 50mm ( I think) and had an actual picture of a ruler next to it and that was right - as I mentioned, edges for a Hexagon that is 50mm from flat edge to flat edge would be about 28mm along one of the edges... The only problem was it LOOKED like a plywood... but was described as MDF...!? I decided I didn't care if it was MDF and went for it anyway (They were also marginally cheaper than most of the others)! 

Three weeks later (which was this past week) they arrived!

Maybe it's a super thin veneer over an MDF core...? 

And they happen to be the PERFECT size! 

So hopefully, at some point, I will be posting some scratch-built terrain bits for some of the OTHER Warhammer Underworlds settings... Probably Deathgorge first, as piles of ice seem like they'd be the easiest to knock out quickly! 

Warhammer Underworlds: Soul Refractors (Terrain)

 I took a bread from the Warhammer Underworlds warbands last night to finish up three little scatter terrain bits from the Nightvault era

These are Soul Refractors. They show up on two boards...

The Soul Refractor board (from the Nightvault core box)

(and the Shattered Refractor from the Forbidden Chambers board set, which I don't have!) 

The Soul Refractor Board with terrain pieces. 

These could easily be used as scatter terrain for loads of fantasy settings. They'd be perfect for Frostgrave! 

I do really like these little terrain bits to mark blocked hexes. I think I'd like to make some more for some of the other setting's boards. Deathgorge should be pretty easy - just need to make big piles of snow! Others are mostly big rocks or brambles... should be easy enough to make... 

Still working away on Goblins, which I will hopefully finish up later this week! 

Terrain Bitz

 I've had a handful of wee terrain bits on my workbench for a few weeks. Thought they'd be fun and easy to knock off... But there were also an HUNGREG OTHER THINGS that I ALSO thought would be fun and easy to knock off. I started working a bit quicker when the prospect of playing Hellboy: the Boardgame popped up... but I didn't quite get these done in time... 

I'm pretty sure the furniture bits came with the Hellboy game (I went ALL IN and there was an option to get furniture upgrades from Mantic Games- to use instead of counters) and the stump was from the last Reaper Bones we kickstarted. 

Hopefully we'll be playing Hellboy again before another two years pass! 

Terrain Bitz - Bones Porta Potty

I Know I've painted something else from the most recent Reaper Bones Kickstarter... But, admittedly, not a lot! Here's one thing, though. 

Reaper Bones Porta Potty - Portable Toilet/Outhouse.  

Many years ago, I made a little wooden outhouse... for years it was a favourite terrain bit on the playing field and the butt of many, many jokes. Later I made one made of brick. It generated many laughs as well. When I saw this in the Kickstarter I had a good laugh, fondly remembering those old terrain bitz and knew I had to have one... 

Warhammer Underworlds - Terrain!?

 Yes. Terrain. 

There were two sets of terrain made for Warhammer Underworlds. One for Nightvault and one for Beastgrave. The Ones for Nightvault very, definitely match blocked hex elements on the boards from that set. The ones for Beastgrave seem a little more... generic... 

I priced up both sets a while back. I think they were on sale...? Like, on the bargain rack at my FLGS...? Or... maybe it was just boxing day...? I figured I might try them out with Warhammer Underworlds - or, at the very least, they would make interesting scatter terrain. I seem to recall an article in White Dwarf where some of them were used as elements modelled on a Heroes base!? 

It was kind of funny, because when I'd mentioned I had picked them up to Amanda, she had said "WHY!?" The Hexes are MARKED as blocked!? Putting a bit of terrain there seemed totally unnecessary! Then last week (or maybe the week before, when I was playing Drepur's Wraithcreepers...) when I had a board with blocked hexes, she actually mentioned it might be nice if there were things there to remind us that they couldn't go through them (as she had been trying to figure out a route to get to a objective marker, but then realized as she started to move.

First two bits of the Beastgrave Terrain. The pool could probably be used as a Hazardous Hex Counter (if there were only one... otherwise it. might be confusing if ONE hazardous location was marked with a similar item that is marking Blocked Hexes elsewhere...? 

I also finished this little bit up. It's from one of the Reaper Bones kickstarters, but would work really well as a Blocked Hex Marker for Beastgrave! 

More Warhammer Underworlds coming up! My plan is to finish up Hrothgorn's Mantrappers before Wednesday and then PLAY with them on Wednesday... So, there should be a post of the newly painted miniatures and a game report coming up later in the week! 

Candlesticks and Iron Maiden

 

(image pinched from Pintrest)

Every time I hear "Iron Maiden" I think of this scene from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and laugh.

And now I have a miniature Iron Maiden that, if I ever had Bill and Ted miniatures, I could threaten to put them in it! (And then they would say - in the game - "IRON MAIDEN!? EXCELLENT!" and do a little air guitar riff!) 

Iron Maiden from Raper Minaitues (I think...? Probably came with one of the Bones Kickstarters?). 

I figured it would make and interesting Clue Marker or just weird scatter terrain in either The Silver Bayonet or Hellboy: The Board Game!

Candelabra - also from Reaper Minitures - one of the Bones Kickstarters. I have two, but I couldn't locate one of them when I was basing and prepping and priming and painting... Of course, once it was DONE, I immediately found the other... Here is one. I have no idea when I'll get to the other.. Again, I was thinking Clue Token for The Silver Bayonet (or Hellboy). One of the things you can find in the second scenario (which... we've already played) is an ornate candelabra!? I'd hoped to get this or the ones below done before we'd played it... but didn't quite get to it! 

MORE Candle sticks! These are metal and came with the Lead Adventure Miniatures Dwarf Gold Fever Kickstarter. Trying to go with a wrought iron look with these....

Trying something new with these pics.... 

I got a phone this week. 

Well... Amanda bought a phone FOR me. 

Seriously, I almost made it to 50 without one of these. 

Finnegan also got one. They were sort of an early birthday presents for both of us. He turns 18 in two weeks. 

Phones have cameras these days. 

I was experimenting with using the phone to take pictures and fiddling around with how to get it from the phone to the blog. 

The pics aren't too bad. 

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.