Paint Table Saturday - The Dark Age Continues

Things have a habit of going slightly off course I my house om a typical weekend. This weekend being one of them. Easter happened. Or was it Happy Zombie Jesus weekend. Pagan festivals with lots of chocolate? It's like it's fated that LARPing would start. This all served to make it slightly more complicated than normal but lets face, normal is a fairly abstract concept  at the best of times.

So this is paint table Saturday. I did most of this on Saturday with a few bits finished off this morning. It started with a brew, a change of water for the brushes and a clean up. This where I started:-

I had spent a bit of money when I went shopping. I had wanted to try some Windsor and Newton ink and whilst I was out I got some mineral gel to see if it worked for basing.

This is where I ended up. It was a day of finishing things off and starting a few new things. most of this had already been started, but now, short of a spray of varnish, a lot is now finished.

If you are wondering what the big pile of wood is, it's set to be the deck of a home made Viking Longship. It might take a bit of time to finish it and I have to work a few things out as  do them but it should be ready in a few weeks. the idea behind a lot of this stuff was to make the table top world a bit more interesting. I like games with a visual element and I was hoping that the world would look a bit more like the villages in Skyrim.

This is a big celtic cross from Ainsty. One of the images that started me going towards the Viking game was a celtic cross in a graveyard in the Lake District. If  was going to do a dark age game, I would have to have one. I swapped out the original base because i wanted something that would work better with grid movement.

 The sheep are from gripping beast. I thought I was doing okay but I have seen some done much better recenty that ut mine to shame.

More stuff from Ainsty. I like the way the cabbages turned out. Not much use for their wares but will hopefully trip the layers up.

More Gripping Beast stuff. A hand cart. This is more for trip hazard and cover than anything else. as I don't usually undercoat, it was hard work to get the paint to stay on. Once it has been varnished, it should be fine.

This is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the barrels are Rendera and some I was given a long time ago. There are a few gripping beast bits and the rest is more Ainsty stuff.

Lastly, I got a bit distracted, I had some paint left on a brush, So I ended up dabbling with these figures. There was a zombie as well but I haven't got a clue what happened to that one. These are obviously a long way from being finished.

Booty Haul

The Viking game is now set to start in May so I guess it's time that I really get on with it. I have been working on some ideas for the RPG and developing a rule set for Savage Worlds. So the trip to York yesterday was all about getting some more stuff for that. I was after some more dark age civilian types so I got a pack from Foundry. I was also after some farm animals. This will give the players something to pillage. So I got some cows, pigs and from Gripping Beast. I al found that they were doing some buildings so I got a couple of them. I have to say that when I compare them to the old PMC/new Caliver building, they come out a lot more expensive, much less weighty and unpainted.

I like my casualty markers so I got a pack called Carrion Regardless from Warlord. Lastly, I got a few bits from Ainsty which is where I seem to be spending a lot of my money when I go to shows. The main purchase was a huge Celtic cross but I also got a couple of water troughs and some trade goods.

On top of this were some more foam trays. Most of the people I game with seem to be developing large collections of foam trays. I had really bothered buying a lot of storage until I started going to club games again.

Phalanx Show

Phalanx is my local show and pretty good despite being in St Helens (where they make glass and terrible rugby league teams (for the Americans out there rugby league is like American football but you don't get a rest (time out to catch your breath in the middle of a game, only in American :-) ), helmets and body armor because we're hard). It is a good little show and I go just about every year. They support the charity Combat Stress who help former soldiers with mental health problems so can't be all bad.

I am planning a new RPG game in the near future so I got some minis for that. So expect to see some 28mm stuff arriving over the next days and weeks. Most of the stuff was brought from Ainsty Castings and also sell some Crooked Dice stuff too.








For the first time in a while I didn't buy anything for 15mm. This was not through lack of trying just that there wasn't much there that I fancied. I think that this might pass as 15mm. I'm thinking they might make alien ants nests of something like that. I have no idea who sold me this so if anyone recognises it please let me know. The same goes for the wind turbine below.
So keen to get on with things was I that I found that I was well into the basing and painting process before I had even started. So here are some pictures. These figures are kind of inspired by a 1970s TV series called Space 1999. This was Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds etc) at his best. The suits are pretty close to the ones n the show and have been used elsewhere. The scientists are not really from Space 1999 but the heads

really are. One of them has just a hint of Martin Landau.

These are some scenic bits from Ainsty castings. I have a fair bit
of their stuff now. They also sold me the Crooked Dice stuff.








The last couple of pictures are Federated Security Troopers also from Crooked Dice. These are so closely based on the Federation Troopers from Blake's 7 it is untrue. I was figuring on using these for internal security troopers in an upcoming RPG I have pending.

Continuing the Diversion

As I said the other day I wasn't very happy with how the crew compartment turned out so I have ripped it out and started again. I wanted to be able to get a penny sized base in there as well as be able to get my big fingers in there to move figures around. I also realised that I had made a mistake with the computer room which has been put right. If you enlarge the pictures you will see that I have started adding small details such as pipes, around the ship.

The crew compartment

I wanted the drive room to look busy but still have some  space to move figures around. The bits and pieces were largely stuff I had hanging around, empty pots and some bits from GZGand Ainsty Casting. I haven't fixed most of them in yet as I want to paint the crew compartment grey first.

The drive room

The plan was to paint the hull gold which I have started since I took these pictures. I have some spray paint that has been hanging around for a few years so I might as well use it.

Terrainfest

I have found the right lead. I did it almost as soon as the last post I put out. Think there is something to that? I might as well get June going with a flurry.

***

I almost forgot. 1st June is the birthday of my best mate from school Andy who is sadly no longer with us. Even sadder still is that it has been a long time since he was. I make a point of thinking about him on his birthday. If you are out there, I am thinking about you mate.

***

One of the main aims I had for Triples was to get some terrain bits that I could use to jazz up my exisiting terrain and the buildings I am working on at the moment. In some respects I was a little dissapointed but I had a few unexpected finds that helped as well.

The biggest project on the terrain scene is the factory. This will be the largest 15mm building to date with some infrastructure and barriers to support it. I found some generators at Urban Construct Wargames terrain. I thought these would do as part of the production line. When I get round to doing the post apocalypse game, this would make a nice place to investigate. I got a few other bits including some rubble, tank engines, a pressure vessel and a few other bits and pieces.

I also had a quick look at Ainsty castings and came away with some large liquid tanks  and some odds and sods storage units. There are also a few bits from Urban Construct / Wargames Terrain. Some of these will be for the factory complex and others will end up being part of the general scenary.

Ainsty and Urban Construct. Not really 15mm but will do dor what I want

My other two stops were at Magister Militatum where I have brought a lot of fantasy stuff in the past. I got some small bits from their Baueda stock mainly barrels and boxes. I also went to Ground Zero Games to increase the lead pile a bit more. The GZG stuff was more like I was looking for. I am going to use this to add a bit more colour to the buildings. With a bit of luck I will get an order off to The Scene at some point and add a bit more of a tech feel to the buildings.

GZG terrain bits

Better get painting then.