Forward Base Unboxing

Just in time for the Holidays our Forward Base Kickstarter  pledge arrived from Antenocitis Workshop!

Which leads directly to an experiment with unboxing video ... and to a serious attempt to correctly spell Antenocitis! 

This was one of the Forward Base + pledges with a tone of extra stuff added into it... there are five forklifts for example... I really love these non militarized vehicle equipments for objectives and atmosphere, and a lot of different colors on the pre-printed MDF parts.

This Kickstarter had a lot of trouble mostly due to the loss, very early on, of the company's lead resin caster and some other serious health issues.  As a result its been about two years before delivery to the last batch of backers... which included us.

I remain very happy with both the quality of the product and the dedication of the company to seeing this project fully delivered in spite of all the obstacles they encountered.  Communication was excellent throughout the process which helps a great deal when things are not going exactly to plan!  We've since backed a few more of their projects and imagine we will continue to do so in future. 

I'll dig down on the individual sections of this as I continue to work my way through the truly massive size of this project.

 First up is one of the more interesting bits for immediate consideration is the "It's life Jim" add on which is primarily Alien Flora.

Dok Ork standing in for scale!  These fans are a really good size for obscuring LoS.

 There are two primary types of flora here... a thing that looks like a fallen log, or horizontal fungal tube, with big berries and an upright fan with spiky stamens and the big, juicy, berries.

 I'm really interested in the material Antenocitis Workshop used here.  Its translucent and rubbery.  I'm going to attempt to paint it unprimed, or spot primed.. I'll have to do some tests, and try to preserve a lot of the translucent material in the final paint state.

 So things like the Fans, other than the fringe and the base, and the bodies of the berries will get left raw, or maybe veined... hmmm... the possibilities!









This is a "Designed for Inifinty" product so a lot of scatter is included.  While I don't play Infinity myself I'm starting to get really interested in taking a look at it due, largely, to the great stuff that is being produced for it by third party suppliers under license, or with the specific consent of the IP owner Corvus Belli.  This is such a refreshing approach to IP development and product diversity.  So all of our tables can look, and be, compatible but far from identical!

Oi Ladz! Dat's me leg!

 Finally wrapping these guys up!  This was a project interrupted often due to a move of house from Germany to Romania... and I just got word that next year I'm headed to Alaska...  Yeee HAW!  I'm getting whiplash here!

 Anyway here are those fun loving Orks from Kromlech!  The Dok making certain that those lazy Grots keep him in a good supply of "spares" which the little monsters are quite happy to cop from fellow greenskins that might still be "using" them.. such is the life of an Ork physician!

The resin was hard but a little brittle giving good detail but don't drop them!



On the Kings of War front... Bevie can add this Dwarf Drill to her ever growing Throng!  The mini is cast in metal and has the rough-hewn look of the Mantic dwarfs.  The drill is purchasable with Mantic points so can be had as a side effect of building the army.

 As Warmachines go this is a tiny Model.  Based 25x50... same as cav.  But that does make it a bit more handy in maneuver as it scurries about the battle looking for a flank or rear aspect to harry.

Grind 'em up!

 Then comes some odds and ends to finish up a set of terrain and accessories from Tabletop Art.  These are resin and are really top quality.  Good detail and hardness but not brittle and takes paint well.  These will add great atmosphere to the Tabletop World buildings... once I get those unpacked... probably in Alaska! 

Next week I should finish up the Mantis Warrior unit from Raging Heroes and the Legacy Servitors from GW.  I've had good progress on them this week and am ready to start looking for the in line!

Oh... and I just got word that my Forward Base pledge from Atenocities Workshop is shipping!  I'm really excited to see that so... an unboxing of that *might* also creep into the queue...

A WiP kinda Day... Orks and Elves... ish... and some Legacy Imperial Guard.

 Now that we're moved in and, more or less, unpacked... I've gotten back to painting.  I grabbed the stuff that I was messing around with at the hotel and discovered it needed a lot of repair.. I'd painted them without the aid of my magnifying lenses and, when I got a proper look at them it was apparent how degraded my eyesight has become... so...  Loads of touch-ups and some complete re-imaginings are called for.. onward!

First up is this very characterful Ork Dok from the guys at Kromlech.  He took bit of fitting and the resin was a bit brittle around the tools but he's moving along.  

 I love the grot medical assistants that accompany the Ork Dok!  This one I imagine has been tasked to procure some "spares" from among the dead and wounded Orks for use back at the DoK Shop... a scary little wretch if I  ever saw one! There are two others in the work pile so its a whole field trauma team.  I'm playing around with blood spatter to get back in the swing after my long break and am getting way too much entertainment out of the process!

 Some Legacy Imperial Guard Sanctioned Psykers... They look a lot like clones to me so we'll be fielding them as the "Brothers Frank" these are salvage works and the colors will be changing, except for the purple cloaks, skin, and the red weapon details.  As a clone group I'm still chewing over making them identically uniformed but with distinguishing tattoos (ala Clone Wars) or having a uniform detail variation to distinguish them... hmmm...

 Along the same lines... these legacy servitors are also a salvage job and the color scheme is subject to revision... The skin is the area that I've been working and some browns but the rest is still TBD.

A sample of the Raging Heroes Mantis Warriors in progress.  These were the models most afflicted by my poor eyesight and are taking a lot of work to get back to a good place.  The upside is that the chitin areas are getting some depth.. also the heads on  these are now strongly reminding me of Asari from Mass Effect so the next batch of them might be blue!

... and ... finally... a look at the full batch of stuff on the desk at the moment.  A lot more Mantis Warriors, a Mantic Dwarf Drill, a Legacy Tech Marine salvage, and a Legacy Hero Quest Ogre Salvage...  That pile should knock the rust back a bit...

Moving in!

 

Testing a new blogging app for posting on the go... a little late in the moving process to be sure but hey! Im having trouble moving pictures around and resizing them is a bit tricky as well.  I'll have to see if I can work round that... Most likely it's operator error!

 

The empty space before the minis arrive! I'm really digging all the 1960s style hanging lamps! They add to the whole Retro Sci-Fi feel of the place.

The last granny flat worked out really well as a combination studio/game room so we decided to go that route again this time. Having a working kitchen in the space is really handy! 

 The place came partially furnished so the studio now features a comfy lounge area... Perfect for plotting strategies, having a coffee, or settling into an RPG session.

 The attached dedicated storage room to organize the backlog and, as a bonus, enough room for an extra table or two if the gaming is really crazy.  I'll also put a spray booth in which, I hope, will get me past my airbrush learning block... And will, at least, make priming and sealing a lot easier to manage.

Stuff arrives next week but I think I'll get a few more things painted before it does.  I brought a sturdy travel kit and a pile of minis... And... I just got the "Post apocalyptic dwarf bikers" Kick Starter in so I'm looking forward to busting that out of the box as well!

Mantis Warriors and Ork Dok & Grots WiP

We've been living in a hotel room for the past month which has played Havoc with my Hobby time!  I've got a few bits of work done but have mostly been consumed with the moving process.

Anyway I did manage to build and prep some of the new Mantis Warriors from Raging Heroes TGG 2, a Dwarf Drill from Mantic's Kings of War bonus points program, and an Ork Dok with some Grot assistants from Kromlech via Bits of War.  All are still very much WiP.

The Mantis Warriors are brilliant sculpts with fixed leg poses and ball joint shoulders.  There are, as is typical with RH kits, a fair amount of spare bits... in this case mostly claw arms in different poses, or heft. 

 I'm using the basing scheme I used with The Blood Rain and painting these in sort of an earth elemental style with the idea that I might use them as alternative Wracks for Dark Eldar, as Wood Elf Dryads, as part of a Forces of Nature collection for Kings of War, or Daemonettes.

I've based these Vallejo Foundation White and then base coated Vallejo Dark Flesh. In the test model I've followed that with an application of Secret Weapon Green Wash to hair and clothing bits then washed the whole thing with P3 Flesh Wash... which is a purplish flesh and seems to sit well with these colors.

The Kromlech Orks are hilarious sculpts and easily large enough to stand with GW Orks. they cleaned up well and take paint quite well but are a bit on the brittle side, as resin goes, so there was some breakage, particularly among the tools, that I'll have to patch up.

I've been experimenting with an ultrasonic cleaner on these new models with mixed results.  Hopefully that will improve as I get more practice using it.  Basically it does a great job on metal but resin is still hit and miss.  The Kromlech stuff came out clean on the first bath but the RH models took about four baths with some good scrubbing in between.

Tabletop Art on the road

We've arrived in Romania!

Of course, we're holed up in a hotel while getting the house hunting, residency permits, car details.... phone... etc... all sorted.


I did manage to get a travel kit together and these are the first results.

At right are some terrain pieces from Secret Weapon.  They are great transformer/generators and large enough to provide cover in any system.

I got them in a "Bag of Crap" which is basically an assortment of the miscasts and seconds that Secret Weapon periodically bags up and sells for a song.  These had some air bubbles on the underside that I pilled with putty and they'll see plenty of years on the tabletop.

At left are some accessories from Tabletop Art that I picked up at a shop in Saarbrucken.  I'm really impressed with the quality of the casting, the crisp details, and the very paintable resin material.

Since we're in a hotel and there is very little ventilation possible I used brush on primers and sealers from Vallejo.











Finally... I remembered to include a mini for scale!  This one is one of the new renditions of the Mantis Warriors (WiP) from Raging Heroes TGG2 Kickstarter that just arrived on the last day that I got mail at my old address!  That was a bit of luck!

We had a bit of a scare on the way here as I somehow managed to leave the whole of the unpainted TGG1 kickstarter, and a Dwarf Mega Army from Mantic.... and some other stuff..... wow in the hotel room! I remembered it as we were fueling up and returned after 40 minutes to find that one of the maids had rescued it and stashed it for us.... lesson of the day .... remember to chat with, and to tip, the maids!  She really went above and beyond to save me from a disaster.

Reaper Fire Giants

 When I first started thinking about getting back into tabletop roleplaying I realized that, for many years, I had been so focused on tabletop wargaming that my collection was stored in such a way or lacked the depth of minis Id like to have for RPGs .

Enter Reaper Bones Kickstarter!

These represented and affordable way to get my collection of dedicated roleplaying minis up to speed.  The Bones II Kickstarter continued in the same vein and these are from that project.

This group represents King Skorg Ironskull, Queen Vanja, and a Body Guard.

I've based these using gravel chips, which makes the bases quite heavy, to keep in theme with the Fire Giants from the Bones I group I did earlier.  That group had yellow spot colors instead of the green I used here.  I like the green better and am imagining the difference to be due to this being a Royal group while the previous set was rank and file warriors.

 I really like the body Guard model.  It's simple but has enough little decorations to differentiate it from the regular warriors.

 King Skorg Ironskull cuts a huge, and angry, figure. 

The skin was worked up from Vallejo Rose Brown and a wash of Secret Weapon Ruby.

The Base was Painted with Americana Alizarin Crimson.  This is a very inexpensive craft paint and really useful for times like this since the tiny gravel really eats a lot of paint on the base coat.  This was then dry brushed with Reaper Fire Orange twice.  GW Blood for the Blood God was applied to make little valleys of deep red and then a final, light, dry-brush of Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone to tie it all together.

 The Greens were worked up from the Reaper Olive Triad, washed with Secret Weapon Baby Poop, and then highlighted with Vallejo German Camouflage Bright Green from the Flames of War line.

Yellow metals were Army Painter Gold, Secret Weapon Flesh Wash, Vallejo Model Color Gold and Fantasy Forest Rustungs Farbe... (read silver of some sort)

 Vanja, Fire Giant Queen was one of my favorite concept drawings from the Bones II Kickstarter and the sculpt was pretty good too!  I really love the massive pile of hair!

 Hair being Vallejo Scrofulous Brown, Reaper Buckskin Pale and Secret Weapon Ruby wash.  The same process was used for all three giants but you'll notice Vanja's hair is a bit darker... I accidentally hit her head with a brush load of glistening green that I was unable to remove completely so I use a little Reaper Yellow from the yellow Triad, redid the buckskin pale and rewashed the ruby.  I think it gave a little more depth having done the process twice so... a fortuitous accident in my book!

 White metals were Vallejo Gun Metal Grey, P3 Armor Wash and a light brush up with Rustungs Farbe.

 As befits a Queen she has a fair load of gems on her.  I mixed the colors with red, yellow and green gems.

... and I almost forgot!  Since these are giants it might be nice to see them alongside a regular sized model!  So Here is Yoko the Psycho, from the Raging Heroes Toughest Girls of the Galaxy, being eyed suspiciously by the Fire Giant Body Guard... Careful Yoko that flamer isn't gonna scare this guy!

LT Parker in two versions

 A quick post as I'm madly getting things together for the impending move...

Two of the metal version of LT Parker from Raging Heroes TGG 1.

This was a very popular sculpt and has great imagery for a small unit champion/commander.  We see her carrying the ubiquitous ZoT! Energy Drink, both in hand and couple of cans spilling out of her pack,  sporting some official ZoT! Sun Shades, and smoking A Lucky ZoT! Glow Stick!  She is ready for action!

I've done her as Basic LT Parker in Olive, Brown and Ivory and as Veteran LT Parker in Prison Pride colors.  The kit comes with an alternate arm which I've used in the Veteran version.  It looks like a power glove of some sort but could also pass for a target designation device.

Due to my general incompetence as a photographer the rear view picture came out in this crazy low res that reminded me really strongly of the Borderlands art style... I may have to investigate that further, I mean the Jailbirds are already towing some Claptraps around! Making Lemonade!

Olives were worked up from Reaper Olive Triad and Secret Weapon Sewer Water, Ivory from P3 Menoth White Base, and Menoth White Highlight,  Prison Orange was Vallejo Scabrous Brown washed over white primer, washed with Secret weapon Orange and Secret Weapon Yellow Snow.  Anime blue hair was Reaper Nightmare Black washed over white Primer, highlighted with Vallejo Sky Blue and washed over with Secret Weapon Sapphire.  Anime pink hair was Reaper Brains Pink washed over with Secret Weapon Ruby.  ZoT! signature green was old Citadel Glistening Green washed over with Secret Weapon Sewer Water.

Hopefully I'll get some Reaper Bones up a bit later this week.  Then I'm hoping to get Space Papess Arthemesia VI, some scatter, and a pile of movement trays up before the pack out.

Supreme Ironcaster on Greater Abyssal

Its a Mantic kind of day.  I'm trying to clear the stuff that is currently on the table while I begin preparing to move at the end of next month.

I started this guy a while back when my wife, my nephew, and myself went on a Dwarf jag!  This is the first of the Mantic Abyssal Dwarfs that I painted as a result of my participation in the Kings of War 2 ed. Kickstarter.

The model is huge and based on Mantic's Dragon.  It uses the plastic body and wings of that model and marrys it to a huge metal head/saddle/Ironcaster.  It's a good thing the base is so large as the model is tres top heavy!

 The model was painted in sub assemblies, sprayed black and brushed up with basic colors then washed and highlighted.  The saddle area got some patterning that was buried under a few layers of red glaze.

The Ironcaster himself has filed teeth and looks to be wearing clothes made out of large bits of material roughly stitched together.  A very... evil cannibal... kinda vibe. I elected to treat it as the tanned hides of fallen foes... possibly used in the process by which the Greater Abyssal, which is a denizen of The Pit and not actually related to Dragons, was bound to the Ironcaster's service.

 The Model will also Serve in my WHFB Chaos Dwarf army... which exists in my collection mainly as an allied contingent from 3 ed... I've been collecting for a bit and will update to the Tamurkhan list using an appropriately heretical mix of Mantic and GW models.

I still have not made the transition to Age of Sigmar... and I may not for mass Fantasy Battles.  I understand its a good, fun, game but its not Warhammer as I know it so instead of leaping directly into something Nothammer from GW I'm looking at a lot of different rule sets.  So far I've investigated Kings of War, 9th Age, Shieldwolf, and Warthrone to fill that Mass Fantasy Battle slot.  Of that group, so far, I prefer 9th Age and Kings of War.  Warthrone seems a bit twitchy with leadership and Shieldwolf isn't as far along in development as the rest. It's also entirely possible that I'll just fall back into a modified WHFB 3 ed. updated with the models and some the rules improvements of the later editions.

A Tale of Two Ravens part 2. and some TGG 2 freebies

 Raven the Chainbreaker.  Iconic Freedom fighter of the Jailbirds.  This model is in a great pose that such screams rage and rebellion. 

Here they are in both scales... heroic 28mm and 54 mm.

I've depicted her armed with silver ammunition and blessed guns thinking that she is the best, and possibly last, line against the Kurganov Werewolves that hunt the elusive rebel Jailbirds.

 In 28mm she'll take the field mostly against KST (Kurganov Storm Troopers) in my adaptaion.  She'll have bonuses against the KST (Particularly against werewolves) and will, of course, have a price on her head that would make her joining a Jailbirds Division unit in KST service impossible.

She is wearing Prison Pride Orange and appears as the Bloody Red Banner of Revolution itself. 

 The models come in 4 parts and this version is resin. 

 The 54 mm version was a lot of fun and allowed me to more easily see some of the details that I might have missed on the 28... like the little smiley face button and ribbon or the boot straps that are mixed in with the rags around her legs.

 Next on deck are a couple of metal version Jailbird Division LT Parkers and something from Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf Army.

 Lastly a couple more of the freebies from the TGG2 Kickstarter!

Based for Mordheim is Scout Celenia who will also often serve as a vampire hunter both in Mordheim and in Frostgrave.  With her is the mascot Tobias although this one is intended for use with the SF version of the Sisters of Eternal Mercy.

Scout Celenia has an awful lot of armor for a scout so I chalk it up to the vampire problem... and trimmed her with a little green just to be kind of scout-y...  I like the red blaze in the middle of her abdomen and she'll have that in common with the rest of her order.