Reaper Fantasy Scenics Ritual Circle and Statue

Reaper Bones 4 has a Fantasy Scenics segment that I'm working my way through.  Today I've got the Ritual Circle and The Statue.. which also includes a small ruined temple.

For the Ritual Circle I thought I'd go more towards a horizontal Stargate or Portal since more of my scenarios would find that useful. Transiting models can stand right on it.

First its a black Primer coat then the red lettering with Blood Red (Reaper (R)) and a Drybrush to Highlight the edges of the lettering with Fiery Orange (R).

A quick Drybrush of the whole model follows moving through Cloudy Gray (R), Sky Gray (R) and Solid White (R).

Then the Washes. Blue (Secret Weapon (SW)) in the circle center and inner Surface of the Arc Structures then Sapphire around the outer edge of the circle and on the outer side and crevices of the Arc Structures. The coverage of these was intentionally uneven and the edges blended. Once completely dry Solid White (R) was dry brushed near the cracked details and to create some sense of motion across the main circle. The edges of detail on the Arc Structures were treated the same way.

The sandy earth areas were washed with Flesh (SW) and Dry Brushed with Sunny Skin Tone (Vallejo (V)).

For scale you can see a WiP Wood Elf from Atlantis Miniatures.

The Statue and Temple were treated similarly to the Ritual Circle but use a lot more colors. The floors got some of the same Flesh (SW) as a glaze in places to show the effects of traffic and time.

The Pillars have glazes of Blood Red (SW) and Green (SW) and are re dry brushed with Solid White (R) in an effort to represent some of the more complex Marbles and other stone types used in temple construction.

The Statue itself got a wash of Blood Red (SW) and The Robe of Verdigris Light Green (SW) before getting a final dry brush of Solid White (R).

Both of these models are intended as regular to heavy use game scenery so I avoided putting in details like weeds and leaf accumulations in favor of simple and durable in hopes that they wear better.

Our Atlantis Miniatures Wood Elf WiP has returned to provide scale.

Speaking of the Wood Elves. Here is a WiP shot taken just after the red lettering was started on the Ritual Circle.

These have had color blocks and shading done but not yet highlights or fine detail. I'm using a lot of blue and purple to shade to give some verve to the green base color. I'm painting the bases at the same time as the model to see if that helps to get a camouflaged feel but maintain enough separation to keep them from actually disappearing into the base. Early days on these.
 

Atlantis Miniatures Wood Elves WiP

 

I'm really excited about these Wood Elf minis from Atlantis Minatures. They are part of a Kickstarter fullfillment so might not be up in the shop yet but they historically move pretty quickly from Kickstarter to regular product.  Very nice and kinda rare!

The models came with an assortment of bases. Some are fully detailed resin some are beveled plastic rounds. There was a good supply of basing bling to add details like forest critters, mushrooms, vines, big stones, and the like. This really inspired me to dive into the greenstuff and get to sculpting!

There are four different types of mounts in the set. A giant elk for the Male Warlord, a big panther for the Female Warlord, large Stags, and smaller Deer.

There are male and female versions of all the elves so this will make for a very thematic, and very scary, wood elf Kinband Warparty. You'll be seeing more of these soon but I wanted to say these are not your kinder, gentler type of "Wood Elf"... they are more like "Feral Elf"... many have horns themselves... they look like the sort of merciless forest guardians that might even eat any trespassers they find! They are gonna be fun! 

Mixed Stone Ruin Process

 After working for a long time in the Greystone Village format I started thinking that I needed some other complimentary stone colors to liven the place up!

This is a step by step of the process used to get to the end state you see on the left.  

This is a very fast process but gave a solid result.

The model is a ruined doorway from the Reaper Bones 4 Kickstarter Fantasy Scenics set.

I undercoated this with Krylon Camo Brown paint/primer.

Picked out some areas of color with 4 basic colors.

Stormy Grey (Reaper(R)), Grey Mist (R), Handle Wood (R), and Krylon Camo Brown. (This is the undercoat color and was not re-applied... just left "bare")

 Stormy Grey is a very dark grey, Grey Mist is a lighter grey with a fair bit of blue added. Handle Wood is a very light brown that is almost tan and the Krylon Camo Brown is a very dark bark brown.

Base coats of the greys were brushed on damp while the handle wood was wet stippled on to give the uneven coverage an irregular rocky texture instead of weak brush strokes.

First highlight layer:

Sky Gray (R) Drybrush over all grays.

Sunny Skin Tone (Vallejo (V)) Drybrush over all browns except the "ground" part of the base.

This starts tying the different colors together so they will look like they've been standing in a pile together for a long time.  The underlying color differences are reduced a little but still have a variegated appearance.

Lining:

Sewer Water Wash (Secret Weapon (SW))

Line all rocks and cracks edge the divots. This is fast and easy and uses a mid size brush with a decent tip just wipe off any excess that looks like a brush stroke.

Damp brush Saddle Brown (R) over the "Ground"

Of course more could be done with the ground but this is a generic game piece that to look at home in a dungeon, a jungle, or in the frozen wilds so it remains neutral here.

Final Step before sealer!

Lightly drybrush the whole model with Splintered Bone (R) focus a little extra coverage on the tops, edges, and broken stone to make them pop.

Splintered Bone is a bright off-white color.

Reaper Dwarf for scale.

Raging Heroes Holy Blades All-Stars

Raging Heroes has had a few regular releases that expand on the TGG Kickstarter offerings.  Its very nice to see them working outside the massive Kickstarter format.

The Holy Blades All-Stars are a group of female Paladins that I'll use for warbands in Vanguard, Mordheim, and Frostgrave.  I'll also get a lot of mileage out of them in some RPGs, especially High Fantasy in the vein of Dragon Age.

 The Models were pretty clean and the resin has crisp detail and is just flexible enough to make handling them easy.

 The Models are very light weight and several of the more dynamically posed, the Standard Bearer in particular, were prone to falling over if the terrain was at all uneven, or the table was bumped, so I added a 1" (25mm) steel  washer to the base and now they are super stable.

 The flag staff of the Standard Bearer is holding up a huge, otherwise unsupported, banner and I'm afraid that it will eventually break during handling.  I'll probably try to replace it with a brass rod or similar if that comes to pass.

Painting wise the banner is not finished.  I'm going to add some patterning and images to it after we get on the other side of the big move.  So its mostly just concept at this point... playable but not really done!

 I experimented with a different way of doing armor and started with Tire Black (Secret Weapon) over the standard Khaki primer/white dry-brush foundation.

This was then dry-brushed with Engine Metal (Secret Weapon) and edge highlights were Necron Compound (Citadel) then lining with Tire Black thinned 50% with Glaze Medium (Vallejo).

 The rest of the color scheme is kind of traditional for warrior nuns and I viewed them as an Order of Paladins that specialized in fighting the Undead and so are equipped with a lot of tools for the consecration/reconsecration of burial grounds so that the Necromancers could be stripped of their access to the mortal remains that fuel their endless hordes.

 With that in mind there is a lot of gold on these models.  I tried to make the embroidered cloth of gold details have a different texture to the ecclesiastical tools that are meant to be metal.  To accomplish this the gold cloth is entirely non metallic while the tools etc... are done with regular metallic.

 The gold cloth is Iron Oxide dry-brushed with Sun Yellow (Reaper) while the metals are Brass Casings (Secret Weapon) washed with 50/50 Flesh Wash (Secret Weapon) and Glaze Medium then spot highlighted with Shining Gold (Citadel)

Whites are layered with the Reaper Bone Triad (Dirty Bone, Graveyard Bone, and Splintered Bone) and lined with diluted Soft Tone (Army Painter).

Lots more to do and the packing is accelerating!  I'm hoping to get some a few more Raging Heroes, Lead Adventurers, Hexy Shop, and RWBY figures done before the end... fingers crossed!

Tabletop World Fisherman's House

Its no secret that I really like Tabletop World.  I'm super excited that they are doing a new line of Heroic scale "modular" buildings.

The demise of the old square base 20mm=human standard made me look at what to plan for in future. The current poplar base size is a 30mm round lip base which is more like a 35 mm.  This has a huge impact on terrain bits, like this one,  that were scaled around 20mm standards. 

I'm still putting stuff on 20mm squares but I also have interest in the new size bases and the associated games so... looks like I'll be going down that rabbit hole anyway!

 This is not quite complete.  I'm packing for a move of house and many of the finer details... like seagulls and hanging fish, have been left off while others like the dock rails and fish hoist are stuck on with Blue Tac.  There are enough fiddly bits on this that I may end up doing magnets to attach the parts most likely to be knocked off during handling... but that is not today!

You can see the differences between the first picture, where I used models with 20mm square bases and the following pictures with 25mm rounds.  The newer style skirmish and RPG bases are even larger so I think it'll be worth the effort to update some buildings to have larger interior spaces.

 The 'for scale' models here are (top) from the Bruegleburg: A day at the fair from Lead Adventurers and the rest from The Order of Vampire Hunters board game.

As with all the Tabletop World stuff the interior is detailed and fully accessible.

 Some of the smaller detail bits. 

House second floor.

 Roof with integrated balcony door.  The new line will feature operating doors and view through windows.  Many of the new game systems use some version of true line of sight that is a bit stymied by these solid windows and permanently closed doors.

Blue roof weathering.

The Order of Vampire Hunters Cain, Dallas, and Ash from the Kickstarter Exclusives.

Lots more to get done before the pack out so back to the desk!

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 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.

Proxy Wars Episode 1: Mordheim

I play a lot of games, and dabble in quite a few more, and for many years I scrupulously used only the exact minis intended by the manufacturer for use with their game.  Its helpful, of course, especially in terms of WYSIWYG, but eventually everyone that plays a faction within a game ends up looking very similar.

( Brunhilde, Kinght of the Blazing Sun and acting  Witch Hunter Captain stands firm against an assault by a Sigmarite Sister and two Novices...Brunhilde is a real Heroine putting one novice out of action and keeping the remaining Sister and Novice tied up in melee for the rest of the game (top and left).  Brunhilde is from the Raging Heroes classic line and the Sisters are GW originals. Below: MVP Gretchin interrupts her journey rescue of Captain Brunhilde to ambush a novice sister that was searching for warpstone.)






For me, these days, the "Looks Cool!" factor is a big deal so I've branched out into proxies in a pretty big way. I'd always used the odd alternate manufacturer figure for special characters, especially those written up in the rules but whose figure was missing from the product line, or just because it looked like it would be a good fit as a sergeant or unit champion/standard bearer/musician as these types of miniatures were often available in only one pose or might even be entirely absent.

 The table was set with a Deepcut Studios cobblestone mat and a pile of Tabletop World buildings.  To give the game a "night time feel"  I used a blue light and a couple of overhead white spots.  The result was stark shadows and a gloomy night time feel while still maintaining enough light for comfortable play.

The match was the opening round of a campaign and first up were Witch Hunters vs Sigmarite Sisters!

 Fueled mainly by the amazing complete proxy armies that are available from folks like Raging Heroes, Avatars of War (Although they now have a rule set of their own in Warthrone), and Scibor, I'm building complete proxy armies as my first choice.  In doing this I'm not necessarily looking for a less expensive way to produce an army.  Raging Heroes, for example, is not a discount mini shop.  I'm looking for the minis that best portray what I want to play.







 There are downsides to proxy armies, of course, but they are largely confined to official company events and tournaments where there may be a requirement for official miniatures in order to participate.  I don't do tournaments for the most part so it doesn't really have an impact on my gaming.



(Above and above right: A large central melee broke out.  The Witch Hunters face off against the Sisters.  Witch Hunter Gretchin, supported by the Warrior Priest Whilhelm and the wardog Walter, faces off against the Matriarch Beatrix.  A lucky crit by Gretchin with the dueling pistol takes the Matriarch out of action before she can strike! Witch Hunters Hildegard and Johan hold fast in a furious engagement with Sister Superior Magda and two Sisters.  One turn later, Wardog Walter, and Warrior Priest Wilhelm add into the grand melee while Gretchin exits the area to head towards Mercenary Captain Brunhilde who is all alone and engaged in a lopsided duel.  Meanwhile two novice sisters decide to dodge the grand melee and scour the area for warpstone.)

After dispatching both the Matriarch and a novice Gretchin claims final victory by forcing the game ending route check...











The teams!  The Sisters spent more gold building their warband (492 to 485) but came up short on rating compared to the Witch Hunters.  The ratings ended up being Sisters - 68, Witch Hunters - 96 not enough for an underdog bonus but enough to notice.

 

The minis:  Sisters of Sigmar are all Games Workshop while the Witch Hunters are a mix of Games Workshop and Raging Heroes.