Claudia and Adler

 Recently my wife Gina asked me to paint a figure for her; not for use in a game or anything like that, just something she could have on her desk at work to make her think of me. I'd received a box of figures from Dunkeldorf Miniatures and we went through it together; she decided she really liked "Claudia 'Schwartz' Hinkel," a crossbow-armed member of a criminal syndicate, as well as "Adler, Dieter's Cat." Dunkeldorf has consistently sent me a little baggie of extras with every order I've placed with them, and this time that included a resin base with a flagstone pattern. It was the work of a few moments to clip Claudia's metal tab off and glue her to the resin base.

Talking with Gina, the only specific requests she had for color was she wanted Adler to be an orange cat with white socks, and she wanted Claudia to have purple hair; she also asked for a little flocking to be added to the base. The rest of the color scheme was left up to me; I went with a deep red for her shirt and black pants, because those are colors Gina wears a lot. 

I really pushed myself harder to give this the best paint job I could give it; it's not going to win any big competitions, but those are the best eyes I've ever painted and overall I'm thoroughly pleased with the job I did here. The purple I used for her hair came out glossier than I'd like, but hopefully once she's varnished that will tone down some. Her base reads "With All My Love" and once she's varnished, she'll be glued down inside an acrylic display case to keep her dust free and safe from our own cat's attention.

Orcs & Goblins: Boar Boyz Completed

 In 2021, I took part in the Old World Army Challenge, building an army of orcs and goblins for 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I tried continuing the army the following year, in 2022, but petered out halfway through, and opted out of participating in this year's challenge. Even getting re-energized this past December and again in May, I still have a lot of orcs awaiting paint. In June, I started painting a unit of Orc Boar Riders from Knightmare Miniatures; I'd converted some of them with weapon swaps and turning one into a standard bearer back in 2021, and they'd been sitting primed and waiting their turn ever since.

I completed the first rank, including the command, in June 2023, but the second rank remained unfinished. Until now. I was sick of having a half-finished unit looking at me and making me feel guilty, so I committed myself to finishing them; today, I can call the regiment complete.

Here's the finished second rank:

And here's the regiment as a whole: 

It's not Oldhammer if the banner isn't impractically large, right?

Citadel F2 Fighters: Proof of Concept Paintjobs

I've decided to give the Old World Army Challenge another shot next year, with a fresh army - a 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles Empire army, with a Halfling Allied Contingent. The premise being that these are the defenders of a small, obscure village on the outskirts of the Province of Averland, there's only going to be a handful of regular army troops and a much larger number of irregular militia types. Wargames Foundry has been kind enough to reissue a couple packs of classic Citadel F2 Fighters and F4 Mercenaries, which will make up the bulk of this militia; I grabbed a few original F2 Fighters off eBay a while back to bulk that regiment out further if need be, but decided I'd paint two of them up as proof of concept.

F2 Altdorf Sergeant

These are painted with some GW Contrast paints in conjunction with regular acrylics from Reaper and Vallejo. I wanted to see if I could produce results that I was happy with, faster than I would with regular acrylics alone. And overall, the answer is yes; I painted these guys over the span of three short painting sessions, maybe 3 1/2 hours total from start to finish, including basing. 

F2 Imperial Foot Soldier

I did a bit of work here that I probably won't do on the army itself, like taking the time to paint eyes. But striped leggings, dirty leather armor (GW Snakebite Leather contrast, washed with Agrax Earthshade, then highlighted with Vallejo Plague Brown), gin-blossomed noses all feel very on brand, especially for the militia. I'm imagining they've been recruited straight from the tavern, too drunk to realize they've accepted the "Elector Count's shilling" until it's too late.

Fistful of Lead Fantasy: Battle for the Goddess

 I've had cavemen on my mind lately; between seeing people painting Lucid Eye figures on Facebook, and David Sullivan's posts on his blog about the game Tribal, I've been itching for some stone age action. So I've placed another order at Lucid Eye for a copy of their "Savage Core" rules and some Ice Age-ready Amazons, and ordered Tribal 2nd edition with a tribe's worth of Bobby Jackson-sculpted cavemen. In the meantime, I got out some Lucid Eye "Neolithics" cavemen I painted last year, along with some "Cult of the Cyclops" cultists from Forge of Ice. Going through my terrain box, I found a Venus of Willendorf-style idol from Reaper Miniatures, and a scenario was born. 

A lush, isolated valley holds the ruins of an ancient temple, and with stands the Goddess - a fertility idol of untold age and potency. Two sinister groups - one, the Cult of the Cyclops, led by the vicious and conniving Kandar-Itaa; the other, a gang of thuggish prehumans led by a terrifying and alien Pterro-Man - have converged on the valley, both with evil intentions towards the idol. 

 

The Pterro-Man, with its second in command, Chief Mu-ok Man-God and his tribe, sought to perform a ritual at the feet of the Goddess that would give the Pterro-Man greater influence over other tribes of prehumans, bringing them under its evil sway. The Pterro-Man can fly and exert hypnotic influence over humans (in proper Burroughsian fashion), while the cavemen have an assortment of traits making them much more vicious in close combat.  

 

Meanwhile, under warlock Kandar-Itaa's direction, the Cult of the Cyclops seeks to corrupt the Goddess, ensuring that there would be a huge increase in the number of cyclops mutations born across all the kingdoms of the Hollow Earth. Kandar-Itaa himself has spellcasting powers, Urgu the Cyclops is large and frightening, and the rest of the cultists are armed with bronze swords and studded dinosaur-leather armor.

 Both groups began to fan out as they moved towards the Goddess; before long, Urgu and one of the cultists encountered Torg the Hunter and a lesser tribal warrior, while Kandar-Itaa blasted Mu-ok Man-God with a Searing Bolt. The ape-man chief, writhing with pain, lost his next activation, while Urgu bashed Torg to death with a huge, roughly-shaped chunk of obsidian. 

 

 

 

The smell of blood drew a huge predatory dinosaur into the valley, where it beelined towards the first humanoid it saw: Jaal, one of Mu-ok's tribal hunters. Jaal managed to stick the gigantic beast with his spear, and another tribal warrior raced to assist.  

 

The giant dinosaur quickly ate both Jaal and the lesser warrior, striking fear into the hearts of both the Pterro-Man and Mu-ok Man-God. The Man-God lived up to his name and shrugged off the fear, charging the dinosaur...and getting eaten. The dinosaur, sated, stalked off. 

 Meanwhile,  a pair of tribal warriors charged Urgu and a nearby cultist, savagely beating them with clubs until both the cyclops and the cultist fled the battlefield. 

The Pterro-Man, rattled by the dinosaur eating so many of its underlings, was not able to put up a strong defense when Kandar-Itaa and his followers arrived in the temple. The Pterro-Man died shrieking under the hacking bronze blades of the Cult of the Cyclops, while Kandar-Itaa himself polluted the mystical power of the Goddess. A new, darker future dawned for the tribes and kingdoms of the Hollow Earth...

All in all a great game, and a fast one too; I think this one was over in about four turns. No complaints here, because I got a late start playing tonight, so I'm very satisfied with how this one turned out.

New Terrain Haul

Last month, my wife wanted to buy me some terrain, and we were specifically looking at Black Site Studios' prepainted MDF buildings. They'd announced a trailer park, which seemed like a lot of fun, and we decided on adding a couple extra pieces as well - namely, a bingo hall and some dumpsters for scatter terrain. 

Everything arrived the other day - an 8 1/2 lb (3.8 kg) box! And not a moment too soon; my neighbor's seven year old son is Mr. Popularity, so all the kids in our apartment complex gather at our unit to play, and my priming box almost became a target for Super Soaker practice last week. Having things prepainted is going to be a godsend I think. 

I assembled the dumpsters last night to give myself some relaxation post a very long and stressful work week, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. The kit gives you two dumpsters, each comprised of 10 parts - base, four sides, a hinged lid, two side handles and a pair of casters underneath. Everything fit together beautifully, took glue just fine, and the final construction is really sturdy. The hinged lid works perfectly, and as a bonus, a figure on a 25mm round base can comfortably be placed standing inside the dumpster.

Peekaboo!

I'm hoping to spend this weekend getting the Bingo Hall assembled, because I think that will be a very fun addition to my wargaming tables.

Taco Tuesday

 Not much the report here, but I did finish up a 3D printed food truck, from Corvus Designs, for my modern games. My wife bought it for me as part of my gift for our anniversary last month. The color scheme is inspired by our favorite local Mexican restaurant - they have a food truck that they use for events and catering jobs that has a yellow, green and red-violet scheme. I shifted the red-violet to just straight up bright red. I think it'll be an eye-catching piece of scatter terrain, or even a battlefield objective. After all, who says no to a taco?

G.I. Joe Project Update

 I haven't posted about it much, beyond a couple of play reports, but the GI Joe in 28mm project I started back in January 2022 is still ongoing and still getting updated here and there with new figures. The other day I got everything I've painted to date for this project out on the table and grouped for a photo shoot. I realized I should post them here as well.

Lifeline, Duke, Scarlett, Rock 'n' Roll, Shipwreck

Alpine, Snake Eyes, Breaker, Flint, Lady Jaye, Cover Girl

Mutt, Junkyard, Gung Ho, Low-Light, Sgt. Slaughter, Spirit, Roadblock

Tomax, The Baroness, Xamot, two Cobra Commanders, Destro

Storm Shadow, Major Bludd, Scrap-Iron, Wild Weasel, Copperhead

The Dreadnoks: Ripper, Zarana, Zartan, Torch, Buzzer

The Crimson Guard

Cobra Troopers, including officer, RPG, and field medic