Another Townhouse III is built in Greystone Village plus Yagas vs Death Marshals?

This is my second iteration of TTW's Townhouse III.  I took a different tack on the exterior weathering on this one.

It's a bit more yellow.  I'm not sure if I like it as well as the more white plaster effect... or maybe I just need to add some more cream highlights in the yellow... hmmm...

 The roof is also a study in low contrast.  It looks a bit rotten or wet.  Overall this house just feels more decayed that the others.

 Of course its not quite a haunted house... but it could play one in a pinch!  Just add some suitably scary denizens and some tombstones.... maybe some fog!  ok ok... maybe just a whole herd of cats and a cantankerous robot!

The interior process is the same as the earlier version.  I added a picture of the newly expanded village. I found some scale picture frames and paintings, as well as some rugs to add to the interior scatter. 

A couple more houses and the village will start to be convincing.

I was attempting to do a street level view video... which I'll eventually get figured out... when, in the interest of providing some scale reference, a fight mysteriously broke out.

The Yaga Sisters Tarja and Shashenka, accompanied by their mascot Charlie, were assaulted by Lady Justice and the Death Marshals!

  Tarja was doing some shopping when she came to the attention of Lady Justice and The Scales of Justice...  They're in for a chilly reception!

The Judge assaults Charlie!?!  Now ITS ON!

Shashenka levels her fiery wrath at one of the leaping Death Marshals!

But seriously... I did a couple of passes with the video thing and then realized I have no idea how to edit the video... after fidgeting around with it for a bit I've decided to ask a few folks to help with that... Hopefully I'll get something together next week on it.

Back to the painting table!

Deep Cut Studios mats and Tabletop World Village Progress

 I got a couple of tubes in the mail yesterday from Deep Cut Studios with some really cool looking cobblestone print vinyl game mats.

 I was pretty jazzed to see them so I pulled out the TTW buildings and slid them around the mats just to see how it looked.

 The mats are thin vinyl but seem waterproof and scratch resistant.  I got two 4x4 mats... this one with streets and one that is entirely cobblestone.  I'll use each or both of them depending on the setting.  I like the freedom of the cobblestone only print but this street layout is pretty appealing as well. 

The edges of the mats do not lay flat even after putting books on them overnight.  I imagine I'll have to use some tape... thats probably a good idea anyway as a heavy 'lean in' across the table might unseat the whole business and create a model shattering launch event!

The street/grass gets that haphazard but organized village feel.  Lining up the buildings so that their doors open in logical areas just feels more organic.

 I realized that, although I've painted several TTW buildings recently I'm really only about Halfway through the pile.  I also noticed that I have somehow not yet painted up an example of the Townhouse II which has a very cool covered second story gallery.  Chop chop!

 I've been keeping an eye on Zuzzy to put out a textured rubber cobblestone mat without the grid overlay because I thought I'd miss the ground texture.   I'll still get one I think but these are ready to play right out of the box and the smooth surface makes sliding things around much easier... so I'll probably use these most of the time and add them to my 'away' kit.

 Here is a birds eye view of the painted village to date.

In the painting que there still remains 1x Townhouse I, 2x Townhouse II,  and 1x Townhouse III.  Townhouse II and Townhouse III are large buildings which will add interest to the skyline and fill out this mat nicely.

Reaper Bones I Fire Giant Warrior and Bones II arrives

 A Fire Giant Warrior from the Reaper Bones I Kickstarter.  Hot colors, of course, from Vallejo Scrofulous Brown through Reaper Master Series Yellow Triad, Fire Triad, Vallejo Skin tones in the rosa range, and a little GW technical Blood Red.

I primed these Rustoleum black... which never really set up... as they, nonetheless, took paint readily and the tackiness did not persist through the paint/sealer so that's a win!  Seriously though, this 'slightly hydrophobic' material makes me a bit batty.

 Giant dude standing or, more accurately, hunching next to Mortaria for scale.

Metals are metallic with some washes and highlights.. GW Tin Bitz, Hashut Copper, and Dwarven Bronze washed with Secret Weapon yellow snow and top glazed with Secret weapon sunshine.

I'm adding in a few of these Reapers just to remind myself that they are lying about... the price of too many ..."oh... shiny"  Kickstarters!

 I'd been meaning to add to my stash of generic FRP minis and who doesn't need some giants AMIRITE!





The sculpt is generally pretty cool and massive, if somewhat short, enough to make a passable giant but the excessively hunched pose makes a lot of the mini unavailable for viewing... a cool face... pointed at the ground... darn!

... and then Reaper Bones II showed up!  I did manage to exercise a bit more restraint for this second offering but still landed a pretty sizable haul.  Pain paint paint!  I've just looked at it in a cursory way but already it seems that the material has been altered a bit.  Its stiffer, which is a great thing, so the minis feel more rigid than rubbery.  It remains to be seen if they are as 'hydrophobic' as their predecessors but we'll find out this week!

Darksword's Harbinger

 Darksword's Harbinger is a really beautiful mini.  I don't paint many stand alone figures, which is something my friend Tanya B thought I should correct... and I agree!

...but... I couldn't resist working Harbinger into the background fluff for mt TGG armies! DoH!

 Here she appears to be crying... some bloodstained tear tracks down her face.

 I opted to steer away from the very smooth highlight transitions because the figure just seems to be made of drama... sharp shadows and highlights make for easy drama.  I ended up shading the shadows which was a fun experiment.

I used GW Asurman Blue as the initial shade and then Secret Weapon Blue as a highlight shade.

The base robes were an old Rackham Glacial Blue (thanks Pat!) that got highlighted with Vallejo Foundation White and Vallejo Pure White.

 This is the plot board for the freehand designs.  I was trying to come up with a simple symbol I could use in the fluff for the "Cult of the Harbinger" which worked out pretty well in the topmost circled rune.

Then a border design and some experiments for spacing and some modified lettering.  My first take was a little crowded looking so I went with (circled) a wider spacing.

I've got a long way to go to get really strong, regular and subtle designs but I feel like I got a good start on it.  I'm already able to repeat the simple designs in fairly uniform size but the strength and depth of the lining needs work.  I'll be able to compare future projects to this and see how its going.

  ...sigh... feathers!  I am going to need to do more feathers... as I seem to not quite have it yet.

I wanted to give the impression that Harbinger's appearance was accompanied by a spurt of growing, living, things.. so the a profusion of  flowers got added to what was an otherwise barren landscape on the base.   I originally intended to work outward with dead grass and weeds but it turned out to be a bit too much and blurred the transition zone.

 Here are some of the WiPs as I was figuring out actual placements for the designs.

Messing around with feathers....

Thanks Tanya!  This is going to launch me down a different path for a bit.

... now to find something challenging for her! Muahahahaha!

Malice RPG: Tombs of the Dark Sun - Starter Set

 So... technically this is really a WiP.  For two reasons actually.  First... the very cool

Tombs of the Dark Sun - Starter Set

 is not yet complete.  I finished the floors and several of the wall sections are well along the way.... actually I thought I'd finished them until I saw how cool the candles could look with some OSL... sigh... SO those will have to get retrofitted! 










I wanted to set up these tomb like areas to support some scenes with the Iron Empire as I'm spinning them as a hidden remnant of the Necrontyr.  So... Tombs.. Mortuary Cults... some pseudo-Egytptian flavors... etc...


 
 Since the Iron Empire is being worked up in Purple and Cream I was thinking about staying with cool colors. In retrospect using some warm OSL for the candle alcoves will look awesome... er soo... yeah better get on that! I wanted a sandstone and turquoise kinda feel so I started with a Blue base coat and worked up some sand colors from there... Vallejo Tan Earth, Vallejo Sand, Secret Weapon Dark Sepia Wash, top up with Vallejo Sand.

 













 



The rest of the set is doors that work, some water features, and a tomb.  I'll most likely use this set for Heroquest or a Fantasy RPG but it'll always be an Iron Empire Crypt in my mind!



 
  

 That brings us to the early stages of Harbinger.  I did a reboot on my basing scheme as I suddenly got this hair-brained idea to work her into the Battlezone scenarios as an omen/special effect that can appear on battles in the zone.  I'd originally gone with a more elaborate base with a ruined arched window... that sort of thing... but it was looking to busy and distracted from Harbinger itself.

Currently she's planned to be a ginger at the orange end of the spectrum with cool colors in the robes and the long-feathers with the warm spot of her hair and some strong dark accent in the short feathers.

I've been scratching my head about some free hand in the robes but haven't settled on anything just yet... I better do it son though because its time!  The subsurface, cool color, shading  being held up while I dither!

Raging Heroes Jailbird Troops

So I finally gelled on troop themes...  I'm still shooting for the refugee army thing but the troops ended up being slightly more uniformed than I remembered.   Its OK though as they have a lot of personality and the variety from the ball joint style construction should be really excellent.






 On the Veteran Sergeant I failed to notice that an officer's torso was in the kit... oops... next time!


These come with a lot of spare parts and weapon options.  I'll have to keep an eye on the weapon mix going forward and make sure to build several of each option of special and heavy-ish weapon.  Its a bit odd for heavies as most of those should be covered by the weapon teams. 











A lot of work got done on the Codex for each faction which helps when deciding how to build squads.  Those will go up once I've kicked them a few more times.

Each group of five came with eight heads so... loads of variation down the road.








I decided for the veterans I'd go with a "Prison Pride" vibe and have them in, or in portions of, their prison uniforms.   Now that I've said that I might want to add id numbers in.... I'll leave those till the end.









The Lookout!  Might have to make that an actual job in the fluff.

 For the regulars I'm going to have a variety of non-orange clothes. I figure I'll paint each batch up in a similar way and then mix and match to get the right mix of military green, workman blue, khaki, and whatever else strikes my fancy.  We'll have to see how that grand plan works out!

 There are some blood red uniform accents scattered throughout... the "Bloody Red Banner of Revolution"  I imagine that the Kurganova Overlords frown upon such displays in the Jailbird Division but the girls are Tough! and quite used to KST disapproval.

 Washes and glazes over white primer. Some layering particularly on the gun details and on the Veteran Sergeant's epaulettes.