Quantcast
Channel: The Beard Bunker
Viewing all 459 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Daffodils and Dust

March 5, 2017, 4:30 pm
$
0
0
We here at the bunker often talk about the hobby butterfly. Like the butterfly we are drawn, powerfully and inextricably toward something beautiful and all consuming. It takes over our hobby desire so completely. We throw ourselves into that project and immerse ourselves in its beautiful nectar. For a short while. Until we catch the alluring scent of the next bloom and we find ourselves floating towards that next shiny thing.


So then what happens to all those forgotten flowers? All those neglected blooms? All those undercoated Orks? They sit on shelves, or packed into cardboard boxes stuffed under the stairs. They slowly gather dust, hoping for the day when they will feel the sweet caress of a brush and given their time in the sun.


When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils
I’m certain, if you are anything like me, this will be a familiar story. You will have those projects that started with such zeal only to wither and dry out like daffodils left on the hobby room window sill. Also, if you are also like me, you may be utterly unaware of the life cycle of the daffodil. I once believed that once those dazzling yellow flowers had passed and the fresh green leaves had wilted, the plant had passed from this mortal plane. Emma, however is somewhat better informed than I am about such matters, it being up until recently her job, explained to me that the splendour of the daffodil just retreats back into it’s bulb only to come back all the stronger next year.


Ok, you might be thinking that I’ve taken the butterfly/flower metaphor and run with it in a way that would make Forrest Gump feel lazy. I am, however, trying to introduce the Beard Bunkers grand plan for 2017. In short, we are going to be clearing our to do lists. Breathe life back into those semi-forgotten projects with painty lips. Then we’ll be blogging about it, partly as proof of things getting done, but mostly as a way of motivating ourselves here at the Bunker with one of our favourite motivational methods, guilt. This may not sound like a particularly grand plan but A), you don’t know quite how many projects we have on the go and B) just how psychologically good this is going to feel to not have all those little unpainted voice screaming guiltily at the back of our heads when we click buy on that box of Thousand Sons marines that you just couldn’t resist.


This is one of our 'To Do' shelves!
This Plan, and it’s really a Plan with a capital P now, was set upon at a recent Beardy gathering and we were discussing where our collective hobby is going. As most of you would agree, the hobby is best with others, and we like to work on things together, or at least have a collective objective. As many of you regular readers (and pats on your patient backs for sticking with us) might have picked up on the last few years we have been in a rather barren place with our hobby. After what happened with the end times and WFB and that last few editions of 40k sucking the fun out of the game (in our humble opinion) we’ve been in some kind of existential malaise. A hobby funk if you will. In an attempt to resolve this we’ve been dabbling. Dabbling here, dabbling there, but without much commitment and drive. This has left a lot of half-started things laying around. Then we hit on the idea of having a hobby spring cleanse. Clear out projects and begin to work on something a little more long term for later in the year. Something a little more thought out and better prepared.


This has actually has watered my hobby plant pot. Me being me went straight out and made a list. Then I added a deadline. I’ve always said that all I need is a list and a deadline then I’m fine. So I’ve arrived at this:


Maisey’s Hobby To Do 2017:


- WFB: Ogre Scrap Launcher. Feb
- Bolt Action: German Veteran Heer Grenadiers . Feb
- Frost Grave: Scenery - Gothic Buildings finishing + Finish remaining Tabletop world buildings. Feb
- 40k: Charlie’s Storm Eagle - build and paint. Mar
- Bolt Action: North African/Desert Board - source buildings and make scatter scenery/trench works etc. Apr
- WFB: Vampires - Finish 35 Skeleton Unit, Maybe upgrade 25 Skeleton Units to 35’s?. May
- WFB: Empire - have 30 slots in case. Bulk out line units + detachment. Add new line unit? Jun
- Bolt Action: DAK - get book 2nd ed, write army list, start getting any extra models. Jul/Aug
- 40k: Thousand Sons - work out colour scheme/painting method. Get hero models. Get extra troop choice models/convert up cultists. Sep/Oct
- Bolt Action: NWE British. Paint Trucks + get a Tank (Firefly?). Nov
- 40k: Industrial Scenery, Dec
- 40k: Tyranids, palate cleanser/gap filling/drying time project. All Year
- Bolt Action: Pacific theatre project planning. Back Burner/2018?
- The Beard Bunker 2018 super secret project planning. Back Burner/Nov/Dec


I know that is it is now March, but I did actually hit my target for February and here is a load of photos to prove it. The scrap launcher has been done, which now finishes off my little Ogre project that I started back in 2014 (shame).



 

The Heer Grenadiers are now completely done. I only picked these because Warlord sent me a voucher because I hadn’t made a purchase in a while (more shame).




The scenery I feel less bad about. The Frost Grave project was a fairly recent thing and these haven’t been sat there too long, but I decided to get them cleared now just so I can draw a line underneath that project for the time being (avoided shame).






The Tabletop World buildings however have been sat looking unloved for a long time (SHAME!). These are such lovely models I don't understand what possessed me not to paint them for so long.

  
  

Now only time will tell if I hit the rest of my targets, or if something else will come along and sweep my hobby butterfly away in a hurricane of irresponsibility and joy. As I said above, hobbies are best done with others, so what is on your to do list that is crying out to be finished?
↧
Search

Storm Eagle - A Work In Progress: Part 1

March 12, 2017, 3:41 pm
$
0
0

Hello my little Beardlings,

In my post last week I said that 2017 is going to be a year of getting things finished and I also went on to list out the unfinished projects that have been sat around waiting for some love, care, and attention. I also had set myself some deadlines, and as much as I love hearing the whooshing noise that deadlines make when they go past, I really am going to be firm with myself about sticking to them. 

So, what's on the list for March?

Maisey’s Hobby To Do 2017:

- WFB: Ogre Scrap Launcher. Feb
- Bolt Action: German Veteran Heer Grenadiers . Feb 
- Frost Grave: Scenery - Gothic Buildings finishing + Finish remaining Tabletop world buildings. Feb
- 40k: Charlie’s Storm Eagle - build and paint. Mar
- Bolt Action: North African/Desert Board - source buildings and make scatter scenery/trench works etc. Apr
- WFB: Vampires - Finish 35 Skeleton Unit, Maybe upgrade 25 Skeleton Units to 35’s?. May
- WFB: Empire - have 30 slots in case. Bulk out line units + detachment. Add new line unit? Jun
- Bolt Action: DAK - get book 2nd ed, write army list, start getting any extra models. Jul/Aug
- 40k: Thousand Sons - work out colour scheme/painting method. Get hero models. Get extra troop choice models/convert up cultists. Sep/Oct
- Bolt Action: NWE British. Paint Trucks + get a Tank (Firefly?). Nov
- 40k: Industrial Scenery, Dec
- 40k: Tyranids, palate cleanser/gap filling/drying time project. All Year
- Bolt Action: Pacific theatre project planning. Back Burner/2018?

- The Beard Bunker 2018 super secret project planning. Back Burner/Nov/Dec


How Charlie convinced me to build his Storm Eagle for him was a blurry mix of flattery, self deprecation, and off handedness that meant I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. Yes, I've built big kits before. Yes, I've worked with resin before. And Yes, I do silly things with static model builds that involve methods that wargaming miniatures don't normally use. Long story shortened, I'm building a Storm Eagle.


It's a big kit. Not as big as some of the Titans that Jeff has built and painted (Jeff's Titan work), but still big. It's also a very non-organic shape, which resin doesn't actually like to be. Resin is great for details, it great for big creatures. What it's not great at is staying is a straight line. Above we can see all the bits after been thoroughly washed in warm water to remove the mould releasing agent. 


Cutting back the contact points for the mouldings. Vigorous action with the clippers, followed by a lot of sanding. Remember to wear a face mask while sanding resin, it's really not good for your lungs. 


Engines are on. I'm using a mix of super glue and two part contact glues to stick it all together with.


As you can see above, some of the parts needed sanding back. I'm using multiple grades of sanding sticks, and a polishing stick to get everything smooth again. 


I'm also using Squadron Modelling products Green putty to gap fill/bulk out where needed. It's a lot thicker than liquid Greenstuff, but a lot thinner than regular Greenstuff. I use a pointed stick to slap it on. The big difference between the Green Putty and actual Greenstuff is the Green Putty can be sanded and polished smooth again. 


More gap filling.


Yet more gap filling. I've only been taking in progress shots as and when I remember. But most of these have been filled smooth before I begin the process of sticking the hull parts together. 


Getting the hull parts to fit was a challenge. The large flat pieces of resin has warped quite badly, so a mix of soaking in hot water to soften them, and then carefully reshaping did most of the work. Then some very gentle heating using Em's hair drier for some focussed reshaping. Please be very careful with the hair drier thing. It gets very soft, very quickly and can break or become misshapen if you're not gentle with it. 


The parts of the hull got taped in place and then wrapped in tight elastic bands to keep it together while the glue cures properly.


Here we see the baby Storm Eagle emerging from it's rubberised cocoon. It won't be long until the wings start to sprout out and the rest of the details will be added. 


So far I'm enjoying the modelling challenge despite some of the problems with the kit and materials. Currently the wing assemblies are done and the hull is waiting for me to have time to get in and do the next round of gap filling/sanding. I'll give you all an update once the build has finished.
 
↧
↧

Frostgrave: the Thaumaturgist's Warband

March 20, 2017, 5:01 am
$
0
0
Maisey has been organising a four-player Frostgrave campaign of late, and the prospect of a wizard-centric spiritual successor to Mordheim was more than a little tempting. We decided we’d do this aaaages ago but as with so much last year, it never materialised. Well by Jove, 2017 remains the Year of Finishing, and thus have I finished another project: my Frostgrave warband. As such, I thought I’d wurble about my spell choices, my henchfolk selections, and a wee sprinkling of each character’s background.

The initial warband

I won’t be reviewing the game just yet; we’ve played a few skirmishes and they were great fun, but I’d like to have a full campaign under my belt before presuming to have an opinion of any relevance.



THE WIZARD
This is Ilandrin. He’s convinced that other wizards are irredeemably selfish muppets, and if they’re allowed to plunder the ruins of Felstad then the prevalence of destructive magical duels will inevitably worsen, catching the common folk (and probably livestock) in the crossfire. He therefore intends to hoard all the swag, put it somewhere safe, then go back to a life of quiet contemplation in his tower having averted certain disaster. He sees absolutely no flaws or double standards in this plan.

This is the old elven mage from Mordheim, appropriately enough.
He was chilling (and perhaps even maxing) in my bitz box, along with 21,839 other dudes.

Most people would describe Ilandrin as a reclusive snob. They’re right. That said, those who know him better would add that he’s a thwarted idealist; someone who spent their youth fighting for a better world only to lose heart when he realised the fight could never be won with any permanence. People would always be selfish and short-sighted, and nothing he did would change that.

The rediscovery of Felstad is the first thing that has motivated him to leave his tower for decades. Here he sees a finite goal that will make a tangible difference, and has thrust himself into the endeavour with a long-lost determination.

His rekindled enthusiasm has also brought back his sense of humour, although his associates consider this to be something of a curse. What Ilandrin calls wordsmithery, they call dreadful puns of the sort made by a father determined to humiliate his progeny.



SPELLS
There are ten different schools of magic in Frostgrave. When creating a starting wizard, you have to pick from a variety of disciplines as well as spells from your own school, which makes for an enjoyable level of flexibility to your initial character build.

Ilandrin is a thaumaturge, which means he’s mostly into healing people rather than exploderising them. Thus, my initial spell choices are mostly about trying to be a nice guy in an ultraviolent situation. This has the major downside that a fair chunk of the experience in Frostgrave is earned by killing/injuring people, but dash it all, one must be true to oneself.

Thaumaturgy spells
  • Heal. This feels pretty much de rigueur for a thaumaturge.
  • Blinding light. Incapacitate someone without hurting them? Ideal.
  • Restore life. Ilandrin won’t lead people into certain death if it can be avoided. He’ll lead them into certain pain instead.


Aligned spells
  • Mind control [soothsayer]. This spell has the duel advantages of being nonviolent and also mitigating the small size of my warband by stealing the opponent’s minions, although I swears on the Precious I’ll send them home when I’m done with them.
  • Teleport [illusionist]. If you’re not planning on fighting people, it’s a good idea to have an escape route.
  • Absorb knowledge [sigilist]. A chance of accruing bonus XP? Yes please. This is to offset the reduction in experience I’ll be taking as a result of being such a hippy. Taking it as one of my starting spells means it has a chance to start paying dividends right from the outset.


Neutral spells
  • Enchant armour [enchanter]. With a small warband, one must look after one’s employees.
  • Elemental bolt [elementalist]. Here we have the token facepain spell. Ilandrin is well aware that, in a monster-shaped emergency, one does occasionally have to make things go zap-sploosh. I shall endeavour to use this spell as little as possible on sapient characters.

Spells wot I want in the future
If I can scrape together the coin, I’ll strongly consider forking out for dispel, and possibly also miraculous cure if I accrue any nasty injuries. Maybe Lady Luck will let me pick these spells up as random loot, but it seems statistically improbable!



THE WARBAND

Apprentice: Gili the Exile
The Rite of Nullification is carried out on those few dwarves who have any magic in their blood. A dwarf would say this is because combining a lust for gold with a lust for arcane power is a recipe for disaster; cynics suggest that dwarves are just rubbish at magic and don’t want to embarrass themselves. Either way, the important thing is that no-one refuses the Rite of Nullification.

Except Gili, daughter of Thodrum.

When she became the first dwarf in recorded history to refuse the rite, her family exiled her to avoid dishonour. Appalled by the family’s willingness to cast her aside, Gili’s brother Gandric followed her into exile, leaving the House of Thodrum heirless, and the two of them began searching for a tutor in the roofless realm of the surface.

Gili's model can be found here.

Every wizard they met laughed and turned Gili down; life was too short to even try training a dwarf. One said he’d have more luck squeezing gold out of a goose. It became apparent to Gili that she needed to find a master so long-lived that time was no issue, and so headed off to the elven city of Arn Thalor. There she met a new problem: blatant racism. She persevered, and eventually knocked on the door to a tower in the hills overlooking the white walls and blue slate rooves of the city, and Ilandrin answered the door.

He seemed neither friendly nor interested, but offered her access to his library and said that if she could look after herself she could stay. It seemed like the best offer going, so Gili and Gandric rented a room in a local tavern, and while she made the daily trek up to Ilandrin’s tower, Gandric kept them in bread by working as a mercenary. Gili slowly got to know the wizards in the area, and saw humans and elves who started learning after her become fully-fledged wizards. She spent years trying to master even the most basic cantrips, and while she came close to quitting on several occasions, she never gave up. In time, her determination moved Ilandrin, and he began to train her properly. This has earned Ilandrin a fair amount of mockery from his peers, although he doesn’t seem to care.

Something finally clicked in Gili about three years prior to the rediscovery of Felstad, and since then, her skills have grown at a normal rate. Just as well, Ilandrin reasons, since he’ll need all the help he can get in the ruins of the frozen city.


Henchpersons
Since Ilandrin is a perfectionist and a snob, the value of hiring plenty of cheap thugs and thieves to carry treasure is lost on him. He’s hired the best bodyguards money can buy, and even his expedition’s cooks and camp staff are well-trained marksmen.

Gandric the Exile
Gandric's model can be found here.

Gandric is far more pragmatic than his sister, and worries that her relentless optimism will get her killed. As such, he rarely leaves her unattended. This is a source of both gratitude and frustration, but ultimately Gili knows she’d be dead if it weren’t for her brother’s axe. In rules terms, Gandric is a templar with decent armour and a two-handed weapon.

Uhtred & Adebola
These two warriors come as a pair in more ways than one. Uhtred, a well-travelled and respected mercenary, met Adebola during his travels, and brought his lover home with him after hearing a big magical ruined city had thawed out right next to the village he grew up in. Their relationship is somewhat inspired by an incredibly NSFW and hilariously penis-filled episode of Oglaf.

Uhtred's model can be found here.

Adebola's model can be found here.

What Ilandrin doesn’t know (yet) is that Adebola isn’t really a dedicated warrior but more of an explorer, despite Uhtred’s claims otherwise, and will mainly be using muscle and enthusiasm to survive in Felstad. This little facet of Adebola’s character came into being because the sculpt of the model is leaning forwards spectacularly, implying a total lack of discipline and training.

In rules terms, Uhtred is a knight and Adebola is an infantryman.

Hesla & Bolbert Whindle
Halflings are famous for their cooking skills, and so when Ilandrin saw husband and wife Bolbert and Hesla advertising themselves as local guides, trackers, and cooks, he hired them on the spot. If left in the same place, they can spend hours bickering over a bubbling pot of stew, and so Ilandrin is finding it best to take one of them along as a pathfinder whilst leaving the other to mind the camp.

Hesla Whindle's model can be found here.

Bolbert Whindle's model can be found here.

In rules terms, both Hesla and Bolbert are crossbowmen, and until I’ve gathered more gold only one of them can come along on an excursion.

Reinforcements
In case things actually go well and I manage to yoink swag aplenty, it seemed prudent to paint up some reinforcements. These come in the form of a bonus Halfling (as explained above) and two well-equipped knights: Solveig Ulrikasdottir and Ragna Yngvildrsdottir. This would take me up to nine warband members, and the absolute max is ten. I’ll wait and see how things pan out before I decide on a tenth trusty assistant.


Ragna's model can be found here.

Solveig's model can be found here.



PAINTING WOES
Something else worth mentioning: painting a warband is essentially a chance to paint a bunch of completely individual models, and that gave me an unmissable opportunity to experiment with various painting techniques. I wanted to try and create old, worn-looking fabrics rather than the cleaner look one achieves with conventional highlighting/blending. Did it work? No. I misjudged the strength of my glazes, or misjudged colours, and the end results often looked a lot flatter than intended, particularly on Ilandrin. The problem was compounded by the limited amounts of painting I’ve done over the past few years, but oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and this has been a fun little side-project. The warband has the overall tone I was going for, even if the end result isn't necessarily my personal best.


There’s still some scenery and some NPCs to paint, and then we’ll creep our way into the ruins and try not to get eaten / shot / fireballed / frozen / zapped / mauled / clawed / trampled / splattered on a wall. Good times.

~Charlie
↧

A Thousand Sons

March 27, 2017, 1:24 am
$
0
0


As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.

Wait, that's not right. Let me try that again.

As far back as I can remember, I always was drawn to the ambiguous elements of the 40k Universe. The gooder than good types never interested me, neither do that baddest of the bad. It could it be that these characters always felt a little obvious. No room for a little wiggle. I liked anything that was sat firmly in the shades of grey. It's one of the reasons the Dark Angels appealed to me with their tragic backstory and sometimes questionable loyalties. That and the iconography. Also the same with the Thousand Sons. Yes, they where a chaos faction, but their fall to chaos was not their strictly their own doing. Also the iconography and aesthetic.

One day I'll do a post showing off all the Dark Angels at the same time as there are a lot of them, but there are a few posts back in the archive Here& Here if you are interested. However today is about the Thousand Sons.

I did actually have a little Thousand Son warband about a million years ago. Using the old metal conversion kit for the Chaos Marines, but it never really got too big, and looked like it had been painted by a 12 year old (I was in my early 20s at the time). With the update plastic kits I knew I just had to get back on that mercurial bird that is Tzeentch. The release being time just before Christmas and thanks to some very generous family members I got my mitts on a box of Rubric Marines and of Scarab Terminators.

Fast forward to today. I know that the plan for 2017 was to get things finished. And I know the March deadline was to get the Storm Eagle finish (I am working on that I promise and it will be done in time), but the Storm Eagle construction left a lot of downtime while things set, dried, cured, and generally left me waiting. I know that I had planned to do the Thousand Sons later in the year, but I couldn't wait, so the Rubric Marines became my drying time project.

It's always important to have a drying time project, or just something you can dip into while your focus on your main project is waning somewhat. A Plastic Pallet Cleanser if you like. I did say that it was going to be my Tyranid Army but, in honesty, I have no inspiration or excitement for them right now. I find them so very hard to paint. The balance between speed, organicness, and alien weirdness just totally eludes me. I know that it is said that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and the enemy being me this time, I adapted the plan to fit my whimsy. I'm not cheating as such, because I'm still getting things finished. Just being a little flexible with the order in which I do it.

Anyway, enough rambling, here are some photos!
↧

Storm Eagle - Work In Progress: Part 2

April 2, 2017, 5:00 pm
$
0
0

Good day to you all,

Not a great deal to say on this one, check back to the first post here for the background. This is just a quick post covering the remaining building stages. Lots of pictures ahoy:

Adding the wing assemblies 

Lots of elastic bands, tape, and matchsticks to hold everything in place while the glue sets.

So much tape...

That doesn't seem to fit

Down, down is always an option. A fragile option, but still an option. Would have been a stronger option if I had painted the insides before sticking it all together.

Doesn't fit that way either. 

So, after some trimming and sanding I finally got it to fit. Oh, and a lot of sprue glued on the inside as a cross brace.

Starting to look like the picture on the box.

There's a little man in there!

Prepping for paint.

More prepping.

Added a few neat brass etch symbols 

All prepped, masked and ready for some paint.

↧
↧

Frostgrave: Something Wicked This Way Comes...

April 9, 2017, 11:12 pm
$
0
0
As regular Bunker Dwellers will know, Maisey has been organising a Frostgrave campaign for a little while. We've done some testing, figured out warbands and got to painting. To my considerable surprise, I've come in last in the "race" to finish warbands. But finished I am! Sort of, nearly, you'll understand later...


Thar they blows! A mean band of na'er-do-wells ready to take to the streets of the frozen city in search of riches and hidden knowledge that man was not meant to wot of. Mercifully no-one ever bothers to say what women may not wot of so my wizard is golden as far as the forbidden knowledge is concerned. Speaking of which...


Meet Freyja Seshat, Elven (mostly) Summoner and five times winner of Head Covering Monthly's: Least Likely To Wear A Hat award. I had wanted an excuse to paint Hasslefree's lovely Semira Marise model for ages, with Frostgrave, I had the perfect opportunity. I knew the rest of the warband would be in practical, dark age esque colours and wanted my wizard to stand out a bit. Thus I went for the pale coat covering that strong cold turquoise. To me she looks wealthy and unconcerned by how much she stands out in the warband, confident. The back of the coat was a bit flat so I went at it with freehand and optimism. Turned out all right I think.

Ms Seshat, as her unconventional appearance may indicate, is a Summoner: One who brings demons forth in to the real world. As an apprentice she read a few too many tomes that she was not quite ready for and was possessed by a powerful Outsider. It has been guiding her steps ever since, through the murder of her master and the acquisition of her own followers. Every step drawing her closer to the ultimate prize of the Frozen City - Transendence, or as her passenger would put it: "going home".


As we're on the subject of Freyja's apprentice, I guess we had better, reluctantly, turn our gaze on her adoring spavined assistant Simeon. Simeon the Skewed - as the warband call him behind his back - is consumed with admiration and smitten with his beautiful mistress. His power is considerable, indeed he is much more the talented necromancer, but believes himself second in all things to Freyja. If his confidence ever matches his talent he could be dangerous indeed.

Simeon is one of Red Box's "Gregor the Crooked" halfbloods. I loved the idea of a morally compromised wizard having a real "Igor" of an apprentice and fell in love with Gregor on first sight. I debated taking some elements from the Summoner's colour scheme and replicating them on Simeon but in the end rejected the notion. He looked so much better in lowly green and russet brown. After all, he's barefoot in snow. Rich colours do not suit him at all.


Opening the "meat shield" section of the warband is my knight: Sir Aelrik the Reckless. I've already talked about his painting on the old blog so I'll prattle on about backstory and so on here instead. Aelrik is a sellsword of dubious morality, his knighthood was long since revoked by the Theign that granted it to him but he stubbonly keeps on using the title and dares any to quarrel over it. He came to work for Seshat by being defeated. He was in another wizard's warband that squared off against her - at that time - small band. A challenge was agreed in lieu of outright slaughter and Aelrik strode out to face her champion, a beardless boy, a street rat thief with the muscle tone of a string bean. One possession spell and five minutes later Aelrik was bludgeoned unconscious as the territory ceded to Seshat. Aelrik upon awakening swore allegiance to Seshat and asked only one thing of her: To grant him that power. This she has done regularly, willingly, and happily ever since.


Backing Aelrik up are a pair of Infantrymen, the first of which (again, painting over on the old blog) is a highlander by the name of Declan. Declan fell on some hard times, hurt himself on them, and needs to drink to forget the impact. This needs coin and so Declan is willing to work for any Tom, Dick or Harry who can tolerate his surly manner and offers him silver.


The other infantryman is, at first glance, a bit of an odd fit for this band. Being as she is a clean cut, decent, Elvish lass. Sarisia of the Greenwold is a young, impetuous and rather naive runaway seeking her fortune as a mercenary in the Frozen City. Her first weeks were terrifying and deeply unfriendly until she ran into a charming, mysterious Elven women with a hint of attractive danger about her. Perfect for a runaway trying to reject her old life while keeping as much of it as possible. Sarisia is rather out of her depth and an Olympic champion at rationalising away red flags. Hopefully she'll come to her senses before Seshat gets her killed in persuit of even more forbidden knowledge but we're not holding our breath.

Sarisia is another Hasslefree acquisition ("Luna") and needed to look respectable for want of a better word. I tried a bunch of different combinations of green, but none of them were doing it for me. Even the current stone grey/green mix was initially not looking great until I darkened the cloak to its deep brown/black shade it is now. Then it was perfect, respectible dressed young elf hiding away in a big dark cloak in smokey taverns radiating "please don't notice me". That'll do.


All that muscle needs some fire support and the first half of that is well provided in Thorfal Borrson: Dwarven archer extraordinaire. Thorfal (who I have, last time I promise, talked about before) is not actually much of a warrior, he's a hunter and farmer from the villages above Felstadt. With the local climate being thrown out of whack by the Frostgrave spell ending, his harvest has been poor and game scarce. With a family to feed and few marketable skills Thorfal knocked the rust off his father's mail and headed for the frozen city. His lack of combat credentials didn't bother Seshat as it had other wizards, she just saw a sure shot and a simple motivation. Perfect for her purposes.


Rounding out the warband is "Shady Ivan", very likely not his real name. Ivan is a recent hire who had recently arrived in something of a hurry from "out west somewhere..." and tends to keep his face covered; stays away from bounty hunters and wanted notices. With this barely concealed backstory writ large in his every action most reputable wizards want nothing to do with him. Fortunately for Ivan, Freyja Seshat is in no way reputable and his employment is assured. Ivan spends his days practicing with his crossbow and making innapropriate suggestions to Sarisia. Charming chap.

Ivan is actually another Red Box figure, this one from their Aenglish range (as they're called on Hasslefree's site) and is normally called "Grim Garrett". It's so nice to have models wearing gambeson as their only armour - they are actually quite effective armour - and I can really see myself getting more of these. As for colours, undyed linen for the gambeson made sense and I just reached for the russet brown that the rest of the warband seemed to have elements of. Otherwise, he's not all that complicated!

Now this post is already massive so we're stopping here for today, but we are not done, not by a long way. Because as I mentioned, this is a Summoner warband, and if there's one thing Summoners do well it is making that warband bigger by supernatural means. So the summon-able elements I'm keeping for next time... oh all right, just one sneak peak then...


Till next time, lovely people...

TTFN
↧

Frostgrave: They Came From Beyond!

April 17, 2017, 12:00 am
$
0
0
Yes, like the tagline to a 50's movie this time we're all about things that "Came From Beyond!" as the other half of my Summoner warband coalesces into the world:


One of the things about Summoners, I realised during playtesting, was you need a bunch of additional models. If you want a "lowest possible cost" warband, Summoners aren't it. But for me? Oh no, don't make me paint more awesome stuff... As I've tooled my wizard's spells up for being in the Summoner theme, I've got almost all of the ones that allow you to bring in other models for the warband:


Summon Demon, Raise Zombie (yeah, still waiting on the zombie) and Familiar all bring extra models to the table. Initially I thought I'd just need one of each of the sizes of demon and a familiar because I'd been thinking of them like the zombie. You can only have one of those. But each spellcaster can control a demon so theoretically you can have two of each size of demon. Each spellcaster can also have their own familiar, so two of those needed as well. Actually, let's start with the little guys shall we?


Those are a Hasslefree "Demon Child" and a Reaper Miniatures "Attic Whisperer". The Demon Child belongs to Freya Seshat (my Wizard) and the Attic Whisperer belongs to her apprentice, Simeon. Freya being part demon made the mini hellboy (who looks waay better in person, the paintjob lacks enough contrast for the camera but it just fine in the flesh) seem right for her. Simeon does most of the necromancy so having a little creepy skeleton thing clutching a teddy bear belong to a simple minded soul felt very appropriate. Regardless, neither are terribly interesting to talk about from a painting aspect so I'll take the time to talk bases.

All my frostgrave bases are designed to appear as overgrown rubble covered in snow in various states of melting. For the snow I use my favourite Secret Weapon product: their crushed glass snow flock. It has a wonderful translucency and sparkle and when mixed with water effects it makes a fantastic slush. For a bit of opacity and body I mix in some of the more normal snow flock with the glass and water effects and apply the paste where I want thicker, less melted snow. Works wonders. Disclaimer though, the crushed glass stuff isn't safe in the same way scalpels aren't safe. You need to take some elementary precautions as it can irritate skin and really, really hurt eyes so be careful. Worth it though.


Now we've got the dinky chaps out of the way, let's get ready to rumble! The first trio of demons belong to Freyja Seshat. She's the more competent summoner and in my head-canon it is easier to summon an incorporeal being than to pull actual flesh into reality. I thought long and hard about what sort of demon I wanted Freyja to have, I didn't want the "classic" demon look as I can get that all I want from Warhammer. Instead, I wanted a more protean, more chaotic look, a bit Lovecraftian if you will. Lo and behold I find Fenris Games Cthulhu Wars range and this "Formless Horror". Perfect for my needs. I can imagine her drawing it through and then stroking and cooing over it like it is a cute kitten. Creepy as all get out.


For the middleweight version, Red Box came through again with their "Lesser Horror". In painting these guys, I decided to go for dark, unformed flesh tones with very realistic eyes and mouths. I always find realism in the face of the fantastical more frightening than any amount of bright blue tentacles and the like. So lots and lots of research of different animal eyes went in to these.


For the final one, I just could not get a model that I liked. So I decided to sculpt one, as this was the smallest and weakest it didn't matter if it was a bit naff looking. So armed with procreate and optomism I set forth. I actually think I did OK, could have done with some more squirmy flesh rather than the cowpat and maybe a tongue on that mouth to match the others but overall, not bad for someone who really does not sculpt much.


For Simeon I wanted a real contrast, something utterly opposite to Freyja and perhaps hinting at his hidden depths. Finally, I hit upon fiery demons, as incorporals they are easier to summon and the contrast between dark flesh and bright flame was appealing to me. Reaper minis came through again for this large elemental and the medium one below:


All the fire demons were airbrushed white over their primer coats to get the cleanest, flattest white I could manage. I then mixed yellow ink with some acrylic medium and thinner and built up layers of yellow with the white shining out through the translucent ink. I went back in to some deep areas with the white (with just a hint of yellow added) to build up the heat and then faded out to red via oranges on all of the exterior parts. Black was a final accent on the coolest parts of the flames.


The final demon is a GCT Studios "Kami of Flame" from their Bushido range. It was literally the only small fire elemental I found that I liked at all and am therefore lucky that it's a good one. The little phoenix at it's heart is a nice one. It also illustrates what I did with the fire demon basing, which was to have the snow retreat and melt away from them. I kinda wish I'd thought of using one of those slightly larger Space Marine bases for the medium weight one as I couldn't get any snow at all on her.

And with that the warband is all but done. I'm waiting on some Red Box zombies to arrive which I'm going to paint as a gang of roving NPC dead 'uns and nick my favourite for what the warband will almost certainly refer to as Stinky Pete. Until then...

TTFN
↧

Storm Eagle - Work In Progress*: The Storm Eagle has Landed

April 23, 2017, 4:30 pm
$
0
0





Part three of the Storm Eagle build. It's all about the paint today. I know that this was my March project, and in honesty it did get finished and delivered in March, just only now getting around to sticking up a post about it.  Next time I'll show you all what I've been getting up to in April. Anyway. Here the photo dump. 



Cockpit details

Little Mens!

Base coated in a mid grey.

Preshaded in black. Just in the recesses. Doesn't need to be super neat.
Then lightly dusted with black again, letting the midgrey show through. The preshade should give us a nice mottled/faded in look to the black.
Done with the airbrush
A very light drybrush of the midgrey just to bring out the edges. 
I think it worked out ok.

Door Details
Top down

The nose guns I've left off and can be swapped out depending on the mission
Adding some Imperial Inquisition Red bits. 
Now the fun begins, weathering!
Paint Wear and tear applied using a sponge.
Backside!
Full Frontal!
Dust added, the dust was just paint watered down very heavily and applied, the excess removed, and applied again to build up the layers. 

Done!
*This is the point where I have to admit of excitedly handing the finished model over to Charlie, and forgot to take decent pictures of the finished item. I'm sure if we all ask nicely enough Charlie will take some for us all :D. 

↧
Search

Tabletop World Guard Tower

May 1, 2017, 1:54 am
$
0
0
The rule for the Bunkerettes this year is simple: finish old projects, don't start new ones.

I broke the rule.


Oops.

In my defence, there was a UK webstore selling Tabletop World's Guard Tower for a reasonable price, which meant no epic wait for the thing to come all the way from Croatia, and no chunky VAT charges. Furthermore, said UK retailer (http://zealotminiatures.com) only had one left in stock. My sweaty little fingers could hardly whip out my credit card quickly enough. I know, I know... I've got problems.

Having broken The Rule, it became a matter of honour that this 16" architectural wang should get painted damn fast. As soon as I finished my Frostgrave warband, I stuck to a rule of doing at least one stage on the tower every evening. This often meant spending only fifteen minutes painting, so I didn't get daunted by the hugeness of the building and just plugged away at it for a month in little bitesize chunks. 


At last I finished, and proudly plonked it in the light box for photographing. At this point a logistical problem emerged: sometimes a gentleman's tower is just too meaty for the box in question.


Well this is awkward.

Well-intentioned yet sleazy lothario for scale. Thanks, Oskar.


Like the other buildings I've had from Tabletop World there weren't any bubbles in the resin, and aside from the standard wash in warmish water, no preparation was required. The only gripe was that there were some moulding issues on the corners of the roof which, unless I were to spend a long time with some sculpting putty, would have been impossible to clean up without damaging the surface details. Given that I can just about see the same thing happening on Tabletop World's own paintjob, I'm assuming this is just a byproduct of this being one of their earlier sculpts.





Painting was simple enough; a basecoat drybrush of the same grey-brown emulsion I used on my Realm of Battle board ensures one has sourced local stone, after which I drybrushed a variety of greyish mixes on individual bricks to achieve some tonal variation (ding!) before tying it all together with a light grey highlighting drybrush. The wood was just a three-stage drybrush from dark brown to bone, and the verdigris on the roof was achieved by basecoating dark silver, then bronze (it needs the silver since bronze is pretty transparent), then brown ink, then nihilakh oxide, which is something I cannot thank GW enough for producing.


Given the texture, I suspect they made the plaster out of actual plaster.


Again, like other TW buildings, this thing has interior detail. The tower's floors are held in place by sockets in the sculpt, and it seems reasonably secure so long as no-one elbows it mid-game. The join between the ground floor and the first floor is surprisingly hard to spot:







It's fair to say I was pretty lazy about painting the interior--I imagine it won't see the light of day that frequently--but I can always go back and fill in the details if it ends up bothering me.

There's other stuff TW do that I'd love to get; the ruined townhouse would be perfect for Frostgrave and fantasy battles alike, but I really must move on to the next thing on 2017's hit list: the ships of the next Battlefleet Gothic campaign.

At some point we should probably get a photo of all the TW buildings the Bunker's members have accumulated. At this point it's a decent-sized village... possibly even a very small town. It's alarmingly close to having a collection of dollhouses. MANLY DOLLHOUSES.

~Charlie
↧
↧

Getting Your Just Deserts

May 7, 2017, 3:07 am
$
0
0

This post is a bit of a two for one special offer this week. Firstly we have a rather large selection of photos of my finished desert board including a few with the 8th Army boys from before. The second part is a step by step of how I made the trees/scatter pieces for said board. If you want to get straight to the step by step feel free to just skip to the end.

So here come the pictures. The buildings I got from Timeline Miniatures and the earthworks I picked up from Red Dragon Gaming. The trees/scatter were scratch built as I'll show below.












Tree Scatter Tutorial

Now for the tutorial/explanation for the scatter pieces. I do have to state right out the gate that I've not really done anything like this before and I was kinda making it up as I went. Which, seeing how they turned out, is probably the best bit of advice I can share from this. Just give it a go and see what happens, even if it goes a little wrong it can always be fixed or adapted. As Bob Ross so rightly said, there are no mistakes, just happy accidents.

Right, step one. I found some 2/3mm plywood in the shed that I had thought would be useful to keep. Turns out I was right and it seems to make a good base. Since I didn't really know how big anything was going to get, I kept the wood whole and just cut around it afterwards. So I picked up some cheap air dry clay from the local hobby/craft shop for about £4 and a bunch of stones from the garden. The trees I found on ebay and it cost me less than £5 for 28, including postage. I think they are intended for aquariums and came in rather plain brown and green plastic and needed a little clean up first. As for fixing it all together the stones and trees were either molded into the clay or smothered in PVA and hope. A few bits fell off later but they just got more PVA glue and left overnight to dry properly.



Once I had finished all the pieces the clay needed a few days to dry out properly before I could do anything further. After it had all dried (I left it for 6 days just because thats how my shifts run) I marked out the bases and got to cutting them out with a stanley knife. This is the bit where you really should get some adult supervision. Then I sanded down the rough edges to get them nice, neat and rounded. 



The next stage was to smother everything in PVA and modelling sand for texture. Once it has dried properly everything got a thinned down PVA layer to seal in the sand, stone, and any bare wood ready for painting. 



Painting was mostly a simple affair, layers of dry brushing our pre-mixed desert board colours, with a little tonal variation (Ding!) in the rocks. The tree trunks got a base coat and drybrush of various browns. I can't actually remember which ones now, but I was looking up some reference photos online to get the colours and picked the closest matches I had.



The leafs were spray painted using a Humbrol Grass Green paint from a rattle can for ease. I stuck a match stick in the hole of each leaf cluster to make it easier to work with. Then the leaves got a yellow/green over brushing on the outside edges of the leaf. You can also see here why they call me Doctor Green Thumb.



Once everything was dry and set, just needed to stick the leaf clusters back on and we're all done and ready for the table.


↧

Hobby Brain Explosion

May 16, 2017, 1:27 am
$
0
0

Today I would like to talk. About how Project Get Things Finished is going. About why I have butterfly brain. About how I react to creative urges when there is no outlet, or direction to them. Also about what I want from the hobby.

Firstly, Project Get Things Finished. This is actually going well so far in the sense that things are getting finished. I can say that so far this year I have ticked the boxes on a Frost Grave warband, and the board and scenery for Frost Grave. I've finished off the few Tabletop world buildings that were sat ready and waiting for the love. Whilst we're talking about scenery I've also got a usable amount of scenery for my desert board as well as starting to clearing out of the backlog of my industrial scenery which should be all done this month. As for models, well we have finished off the Ogre Scrap Launcher that I never got around to, a bunch of German Veterans for Bolt Action, as well as a fairly large pile of Thousand Sons. Oh, and the Storm Raven. So all in all a successful first half of the year.

I still have a squad or two of models to do to get the Thousand Sons finished off and playable. I have an entire German Afrika Korp army to build and paint and a few other odds and sods related to Bolt Action. There is also some undead stuff kicking about as well (there is always more undead to deal with). The Empire I've struck off the list as the only reason I was including them was because there was some spare space in the figure case, and not because they felt incomplete or unfinished. The Tyranids I've also struck off because, frankly, I can't paint them. Simply I cannot find a scheme that balances between the organic style the 'Nids need, the speed required to get through the hundred odd models, and the standard I'm happy with. Which means it's kinda killed the whole project for me and I'm going to be honest with myself and say that I'm never going to enjoy doing it, so no point in forcing it just for the sake of doing it. One has to know which battles to fight I guess.

While I have finished a lot of things under the name of Project Get Things Finished, I've not stuck to the plan as rigidly as I first hoped that I might. Nor have I been quite as focused as I should have. This isn't a complaint, this is me being flexible. I wasn't in the mood to tackle the Undead, but in the mood to work on the Thousand Sons so I swapped things around. Also changing priorities due to need as well. Charlie saying he wants to do part of a campaign in a shipping yard, but doesn't know how to model it and I happened to have a boat load of unbuilt shipping containers say on my to do list (that Charlie didn't know existed). So I've swapped things around based on needs and started working on those instead. This is me being flexible. That doesn't mean I've been totally good about things. I've started finishing things and then not finished them because I wanted to finish something else, or had a mental flap about finishing something that wasn't as finished when I really should have finished something that was closer to being finished first. Anyway, TL;DR shit is getting done, one way or another.

My butterfly brain hasn't made this easy. Nor has the news about Warhammer 40K 8th edition and all the information being released. It's very exciting and has left me with nursing a seriously large creative boner. I've had about a billion and seven ideas for new projects. These include:

- Ork Goff Mob led by Warboss Grommel
- Expand my Dark Angels 3rd company
- Dark Angels from a different company
- Dark Angel successor chapter
- Imperial Fist project (because I found a tutorial for painting yellow that I liked)
- Blood Ravens chapter (because I've not done a red army)
- Make up a totally new Space Marine chapter
- Loyalist Imperial Guard army using Cadian models
- Loyalist Imperial Guard army using Victoria Miniatures models
- Loyalist Imperial Guard army using Mad Robot models
- Renegade Guard army using forgeworld bits
- Renegade guard army using Victoria Miniatures models
- Renegade guard army using Mad Robot models
- Pre-heresy Spire Guard army
- Post-heresy Spire Guard army
- Tzeentch daemons army
- Pre-heresy Thousand Sons army
- A mixed faction daemons army
- An undivided chaos army
- Iron Warriors chaos army
- Tau, painted in blue/white (because I had an idea about a colour scheme)
- Necron army in a purple/gold (again because I liked the colour scheme)
- Some kind of Eldar based project (because I've never really looked at doing an Eldar thing).

That is just a list of the one's I can remember, and just for 40k. I've had similar mental dealings with Fantasy, Bolt Action, and doing static display models. It becomes a cycle of musing on a vague idea. followed increasing excitement as I decide on what models I want, read up on the background, figure out what to get from where etc. Then the sensible part of my brain kicks in and goes through all the reasons is a dumb idea, normally along the lines of: Maisey, you don't like painting Orks Remember? Maisey, not ANOTHER Imperial army, try doing something non-Imperial for once? Maisey, you already HAVE a load of Dark Angels why don't you just add to that? Maisey, you already HAVE a load of Dark Angels, why don't you do something new? Maisey, are you really going to convert all those vehicles? Maisey, do you actually find Tau the least bit interesting? Maisey, Eldar? on so on and so forth. Not only is it mentally exhausting, it's also very frustrating having lots of ideas but never actually following through with them. Either because of practical reasons such as time or money, or silly reasons like how do I explain that I want to do another Dark Angel army? Is it because I think this time around I can do it better? Even though my current Dark Angels are done to an acceptable standard so why am I not satisfied? Repeat ad nauseum for each and every project. Anyway, all of this just leads me to wanting to do a hard reset.

A Hard Reset, where I ditch everything and just start from fresh because my brain has become so clogged and tainted that I stop being rational for a while and the only I thing I think of doing to shaking the whole thing like an etch-a-sketch and starting again. This is because I have, like most people, a few character flaws that contradict each other. The relevant one's are:

1) I have fairly poor impulse control when it comes to toys. Sure, I think a lot of us have this one, it's part and parcel of being a hobbyist.
2) I have a wide range of interests. Oh how I envy those with a consistently themed and focused collection. I really do. It looks amazing, I envy your passion and dedication, and I'm somewhat jealous of it.
3) I have a short attention span. Ohhhhhhh look at the shiny new thing.
4) and this is the big one. I really dislike things getting complicated. I like things to be clean and simple and focused. However, because of the above, just can't stop things from getting complicated.

I know, this is probably a little deep for a blog post about little plastic mens, but I think it does adversely affect my enjoyment of the hobby because I'm stressing myself out over the contradictions in how I wish to hobby and what effect this has on my hobby group (because none of us hobby alone). I do have to fight myself between being expansive and being focused. I'm still trying to find the middle ground, and with every new project there is a little glimmer of hope that this is the one, the one that becomes my all consuming focus. It, as yet, has not.


↧

Imperial Guard Mechanised Platoon

May 29, 2017, 12:22 pm
$
0
0
For many years now I've been feeling that 40K needed a major overhaul. The last few editions didn't go far enough for me, but as yet almost everything I've read about the new edition is encouraging, and thus my ancient love of 40K is stirring. Stirring like a kraken from the depths of my loins.

Now I'm faced with a conundrum. Clearly this excitement demands that some stuff gets painted and, come release day, some 40K must be played. But there are two armies I could go for: my fledgling mechanised guard, or more speed freeks. I love both armies dearly and I'm too slow for both. Ultimately it'll probably be orks but I do love me some guard, so before diving into painting more kustom trukks, I made a point of at least finishing the platoon I started waaaay back in 2014.

It's not that I'm a slow painter, it's that the river of 40K love really did run that dry.


Let's face it, these guardsmen (and women, all two of them... good luck spotting them) have been given a mediocre paint job. Better to have twenty-five mediocre troopers than three masterpieces and twenty-two regrets. In the vanishingly unlikely event that you want to know how I painted these dudes (they are hella quick to paint) I wrote about it here. If you're curious about the true-calibre Leman Russ, you can check it out here.


As with all my projects, I had to know who these dudes were. I'm no longer capable of just painting some random spods. This is Lieutenant Adi "Bolt" Kahurangi's platoon. Bolt is known as a rash and enthusiastic officer, often picked by his captain when she needs someone to take an objective, but she wouldn't generally trust him to stay inside a defensive position, hence his nickname. He was given his now signature weapon - his boltgun - in recognition of his various acts of successful recklessness (his detractors point out that this was essentially rewarding an idiot for being lucky). A casting director would probably pick the likes of Dwayne Johnson to play him. In fairness you'd have to be gurt hench to haul a boltgun about.


Lt Kahurangi was a relatively simple conversion achieved with nowt but some careful scalpel action; no green stuff needed. The arms and hands needed a fair bit of angling and repositioning, since funnily enough, there are no models of a guardsmen running forwards blazing away with a bolter.



Ankran unit designations are contained within their squad markings. They're the 2nd platoon of the 3rd company of the 5th battalion of the 107th Ankran Mechanised Infantry, and with the exception of the regimental number, here's how that works on the model:

- The battalion is indicated by a coloured shape on the right shoulder pad, orange being 5th.
- Company numbers are indicated by the number of sides to the battalion shape, so a triangle is 3rd company.
- Platoon numbers are displayed in roman numerals within the battalion shape.
- Squad numbers are displayed on their left shoulder pad. The command squad and chimera use an icon chosen by the lieutenant, a hangover from the heraldry used by Ankrah's old noble houses.

Why yes, I am a nerd.

2017 continues to be a productive year; I've now painted almost all of the models needed for the next BFG campaign, and then next month it's on to a genestealer cult army I need to produce by the end of July for another Deathwatch scenario. I can't share the BFG fleets until the players discover them in-game, but I'll be blogging about my endeavours with the genestealers as I go, so you can all laugh as I try to find a fast-yet-fruity method of painting them.

Here's to a new edition of 40K! Hopefully you're all as excited as I am.

~Charlie
↧

Scarab Occult & Tzaangors

June 4, 2017, 11:45 am
$
0
0

It can't have escaped anyone's attention by now that the new edition of 40k is nigh. This is rather exciting news and the steady drip of information coming out each day is only causing further excitement. So in order to avoid the hobby equivalent of blue balls we have all found ourselves getting stuck into some painting to satisfy that particular itch.

I've got stuck into more of the Thousands Sons models. The Scarab Occult Terminators are now done, in the same method as the Rubric Marines


                                          



The other main troops unit was a blob of Tzaangors, which are Tzeentch tainted beastmen. These are painted a little bit different to the Thousand Son legionnaires. The metal work is intended to look much newer, but keeping the same red touches to tie them in. 




So with these I've nearly finished all the Thousand Sons stuff that I own. I have been lusting over the new Forgeworld Dreadnought thing that I want to include at some point. I also do want to get into some serious conversion territory and Tzeentch up a tank or two to match the armour style of the Marines. This will be a bit of a challenge as I've never really done any sculpting and all my conversion have been kit-bash type of things. So it'll be new ground for me, but it would be very much worth it as the current selection of Chaos tanks are woefully lacking.

↧
↧

Preparing Narrative Games

June 12, 2017, 2:33 pm
$
0
0
There are some skills that can never be perfected, only improved. Among these is the skill of running a narrative game. I’ve been at it for decades now, probably since before I could spell the word narrative (nailed it last Tuesday) and certainly before I learned ‘denouement’ (which I learned by googling it just now; totally thought I could spell it, but auto-correct showed me otherwise).

To cut the BallisticSkill: I make no claim to being a master. With that out of the way…

Last October I finished a long-running Battlefleet Gothic campaign, and two Beard Bunker readers (MajorTheRed and Malcus the Defiler) asked to know more about how I prepared it. Hopefully by answering that question, this post will prove useful reading for budding GMs curious about running their own narrative campaigns, as opposed to the matched play that so often dominates wargaming.


Urr nurr! Spehs urks! Is rusty trubbles.

Thing number one: what’s the conflict?
All stories need conflict. Even in a story like The Martian– which doesn’t even have an antagonist – Matt Damon’s character is in conflict with his environment. By conflict I'm not referring specifically to violence, but that the protagonist wants something and finds hurdles in the way. The story ends when the protagonist’s goal is either achieved or denied with enough finality to provide closure.

The main conflict in the BFG campaign was pretty basic: an Imperial colony was under attack by a large ork fleet, and Jon and Maisey’s characters would encounter said fleet with only a reconnaissance flotilla and no chance of reinforcements. Whatever happened next was up to the two of them.


Is not enough spehs sheeps to fight urks' spehs sheeps.
Much narrative tension. Such wow.

For added spice, I added a second conflict. Increasingly I’m coming to the conclusion that an essential ingredient in a good narrative is a conflict that can’t (or at least shouldn’t) be resolved with violence. Armed conflict against orks offers no moral or social complexity, but it does offer strategic challenge. For the social complexity, I decided that Commander Gereon Priscus, the executive officer on Jon’s ship, was an embittered man who felt he should be captain instead. He would therefore seek to undermine Jon’s authority without technically breaking any rules. Jon would have to win him over, or limit the spread of his influence by keeping the rest of his senior officers on-side.

Since one can never predict what players will do, I don’t bother to plan what happens next. I simply set up a conflict, and let the players resolve it. Protagonists are meant to shape the story, and they can’t do that if I’ve already written it!

What is the pace?
Once you know what the conflict is, you need to have a think about how long the story should last. The length is, you guessed it, directly proportionate to the complexity/size of the conflict.

Anticipating story length can be difficult, particularly given that everything seems to take twice as long as it should (that might just be me, to be fair) but expectation needs to line up somewhat with reality. If your players are expecting an epic and you give them a short story, it feels underwhelming. If they're expecting something quick and punchy, they'll run out of steam with a meandering odyssey.

Either way, deciding length at the start forces you to decide when to hurry the players up and when to give them space. Should it be a single evening? Six evenings? Maybe one full day would be sufficient, or maybe it'll take twenty sessions. Whatever it is, the players should know before they even agree to participate.

With the Xephone campaign, I knew it would be a relatively slow story. There was an extensive cast of NPCs to meet and form relationships with, and a challenging objective that would take time to complete, so we agreed to play weekly sessions, with the expectation that it would take months to complete.

What do the players enjoy?
Obviously it's essential for a GM to write something they're excited to run, and it's just as important to be mindful of the players' preferences. If those don't line up, then don't invite everyone, or write something else. I knew that Alex (my other half) would love all the interplay between the landed-gentry-in-space that made up the fleet's senior staff, but she would also have been bored to tears by the space battles. Conversely Jon would be all over it like sexy lycra on Super Manatee, and Maisey always did love an opportunity to stare forlornly at impossible odds.

What is the tone?
Is it campy? Gritty? Derpy? Moooody? With the Xephone campaign I aimed for somewhere between Jane Austen and Terry Pratchett, with sarcy space butlers and toff-tastic naval officers enjoying five-course dinners while a string quartet scraped out Dvořák's finest offerings.

Create the world
Now you know what you're aiming for, the work begins. This is where I tend to get over-excited. Since 40K is a well-established setting, much of the work was already done for me, but there was still plenty to do. Firstly, since the whole story would be set in one star system, it seemed appropriate to have a map of said system.



Next, I knew it would be useful to know where stuff was on the planet's surface, and what Xephone Prime was like. To that end, I sat down and thought through both the climate and the culture, then I added all that information to the Beard Bunker's setting wiki, since it was all information that would have been freely available in the Imperial archives. I have to say, using a wiki to keep track of story world information has made it much, much easier for a group of people to collaborate on a setting. Wiki wiki wa-wa win.




Similarly, I thought through how the orks had attacked and how the invasion had gone thus far so that I could be consistent in what I told the players. This was also a stage where I had to come up with a lot of place names, because coming up with a place name on the fly is almost physically painful.


Prepare the NPCs
With the setting sorted, I began figuring out the NPCs. The Xephone campaign had an unusually big cast, because I felt it important to nail the sci-fi trope of getting to know the bridge crew. The added challenge was that we didn't just need the bridge crew of Jon's ship, we needed them for Maisey's ship, and we needed the captains of the flotilla's escort ships, and for any of these people to have a name, they also needed to have at least some semblance of distinctiveness.

I also wanted to flesh out life on board these giant flying towns, so went into... enthusiastic detail about the capital ships' innards.


  • The Intemperance, a dictator-class carrier, was the flotilla's flagship. Read about her and her crew here.
  • The San Celestine, a dauntless-class light cruiser, was the flotilla's only ship of the line, which made ork kroozers a touch intimidating. Maisey did an amazing job of using the San Celestine's manoeuvrability to stay out of harm's way. Except that one time when he failed, and then got lucky when a kill kroozer unloaded all its guns right up the San Celestine's chuff and whiffed its rolls like a complete space potato. You can read all about the San Celestine and her crew here.

TL;DR: plan your world in excitable detail, but don't plan your story.


The San Celestine

Okay now I've rambled on for longer than I'd like, so I shall sign off with a promise to, at some point, tell the tale of the campaign. With the new BFG campaign having started last week, there may also be some narrative treats in stall for y'all via Jon, but I make no promises on his behalf.

If there are things you feel I should have covered but didn't, do let me know! There might also be things you feel I've not covered in enough detail, despite the meaty length of this post. I'm happy to elaborate on demand.

~Charlie


↧

Blood Angels 3rd Company (ish)

June 19, 2017, 12:03 pm
$
0
0
Greetings Bunker Dwellers! Unless you have been living under a rock, blindfolded, with noise cancelling headphones and singing an old timey sea shanty, you will have noticed that a new edition of Warhammer 40,000 is upon us! With it has come something of an upswing in enthusiasm for the bolter-flavoured version of Warhammer among our little band. You see, the previous edition of 40k, (while I am sure was fine for many, if not most) had for one reason or another all but killed 40k as a game among us Beard Bunker-ers, it just wasn't an enjoyable experience for us. The more we heard about the new version, the more excited we became and now... it's here!

Knowing that I was going to be looking back at some older projects with a view to sprucing them up and getting them all new-40k-ified, it suddenly struck me that some of them are of sufficient vintage that I haven't really shown them here practically at all. As a result I have resolved to reintroduce some older-but-still-good armies, talk about where I'm going with them and what had gone before. We start with my favourites, my Blood Angels:


That right there is the best part of the entire Blood Angels 3rd Company. They're missing a few folks here and there (we'll get to that later) but the vast majority is right there. I'd decided from the off that this was going to be very much a tactical company, despite the Blood Angels somewhat creative reading of how the Codex Astartes works. Unusually for me, the army is led by a special character straight out of the rulebook: Captain Erasmus Tycho. There's a reason for this, and to find out what it is we kinda have to do that thing where someone plays harp scales and the screen goes wobbly.

My well loved copy of White Dwarf 139, a little foxed, bordering on badgered...

The year is 1991 and a twelve year old Jeff has just picked up White Dwarf 139 from WHSmiths. Although most of the issue is all about Space Fleet - the precursor to the excellent Battlefleet Gothic - there is an article by Andy Chambers and Tim Prow all about this new studio Blood Angels army that they've made. They go through inventing unit markings, deciding colour schemes to denote sergeants and the different tactical roles... and they roll up (yep, in Rogue Trader you randomly generated characters) a character using the existing "Blood Angels Captain" model. They called him Tycho and that random roll was where his combi-weapon, digital lasers and all the rest came from. I was hooked. No-one had shown me how armies were made before, I thought you just got all your dudes and a lego technic guy standing in for a giant and had a fight.


In later years we saw Tycho's story grow, all through the pages of White Dwarf, he was killed in a fight with a Ork Weirdboy but they decided that he survived and got disfigured. Sure enough when a proper model was made of him, there he was. We saw when he finally fell to the Black Rage in the defence of Armageddon. We watched a whole mini-series about this one dude and his army. It left something of an impression on me. Of course, being a callow, fickle youth, Space Wolves appeared and in 3rd edition I collected them instead, an army of 15 space marines and every special character in the range of course... But the Blood Angels never really left me, there was something about the tragedy of their situation, the nobility of Sanguinius and his fall. I liked that they were flawed, that they weren't goody-goody. Finally, about seven years ago. There was a new release with all new awesome plastic bits and I saw the sign. It was finally time to collect 12 year old Jeff's army.


I made a slightly crazy decision with this army. I chose a slightly simplified version of the colour scheme that Anja Wettergren had detailed in an 'Eavy Metal Masterclass article (this really is The Army That White Dwarf Built if you hadn't picked up on the theme!). This led to some hellish long batches being painted, the red alone is like 8 stages. But the finished results were that dark, dangerous looking red that the Space Hulk terminators have rather than the nineties dayglo orange. Very nice indeedy. The picture above is of the tactical marines of the 3rd company. If you check out the kneepads, they're all properly assigned to squads, very old school. I decided to have the Veterans of the army being the first Assault squad and first Tactical squad of the army. The Tactical Veterans were of course Sternguard. The Assault Veterans....


Of course became Vanguard Veterans. Joining them are the other fifteen Assault Marines forming what I tend to think of as the Ca-Caw Corps of the army. Almost two dozen lunatics dropping from high altitude transports onto you can really spoil your day and the Blood Angels excelled at it. We'll have to see how they fare in the new rules but the old playing experience of my army felt like this: deploy a bit of a defensive force to provide fire support, then as of turn two begin raining down nutcases from orbit to mix it up close and nasty. When those are your tactics, you really need some heavy friends who can help out. Good job I brought some:


A pair of Dreadnoughts and their attendant orbital taxis fit the bill nicely. In the picture there is also the fourth tactical squad's drop pod, they're the ones with all the melta weaponry so makes sense to drop them where they can do some hurt. Supported by at least one of the two dreadnoughts (the old way that drop pods worked) they were an unpleasantly adjacent problem for most commanders facing this army. I should mention, while I am going to talk about expanding this army later, very few things on this earth would convince me to paint another drop pod without having a long hard word with myself first. They are the most hateful things to paint.


All that close in stuff needs some boom to back it up and so here we have the big guns of the army. The Devastators, the Terminators (with the lovely, lovely Forgeworld pads) and the Land Speeder fire support. You may notice the helmets on the Land Speeders, Devastator rather than assault. This is part of my Blood Angel head-canon, there is no reason to consider a Land Speeder an assault unit except for it's speed. Given that the entire Blood Angels army is built around going fast anyway, this is not a unique feature. I see them as highly mobile heavy weapon support. I.e., as Blood Angel Devastators. Plus the blue helmets look really cool and I had loads of yellow ones in the army already.


Speaking of going fast, those tactical units up there need their taxis. No Blood Angel worth their salt is going to walk when they could be being hurtled there in a turbo-charged APC. The four razorbacks up there belong to the first three tactical squads and the command squad (later) and are ably supported by the Baal Predator. I've got a few variant turrets for the Razorbacks so I can swop out the assault cannons for more lascannons if I'm up against heavy stuff and a heavy bolter turret if I'm feeling cheap. I'd always planned to fabricate some round hatches with some sort of remote firing storm bolter to fit in the sockets for the razorback weapons and turn them into rhinos for if I needed the whole squad moving. Then the 40k malaise hit and the project was abandoned... time to go for it I think!


We've run out of the "normal" Blood Angels now and are into the nutcases. This merry band were originally intended to be deployed by Stormraven so there's another dreadnought and the assault marines to bail out and slaughter things. They're led by either Chaplain Lemartes or "Just Some Chaplain in a Jump Pack" depending on how I'm feeling. What's that? Over there on the left? Why yes, that is a second Tycho (I've got issues) this time in his "fallen" mode. I painted him to look greyer, older than his younger self (coming up next) and always intended to paint up a squad of non-jump-pack-Death Company to keep him company. They're upstairs, assembled, they just need paint. So expect to see them soon-ish too.


For his younger self I went a bit off piste for Blood Angels, most people paint the characters in blingy gold armour. But it's the one bit of Blood Angel design I wasn't keen on. I thought that just having his heraldry and artificer armour but in red would be a nice look. I think I'm right, what do you folks think? You'll notice that the torsos of his command squad are those blingtastic roman style ones off've the Sanguinary Guard. Their fancy jump packs went to the Vanguard Veterans, in fact, the whole army is basically comprised of normal tactical and assault marines with the occasional bits from the death company box and the Sanguinary Guard power weapons on the Sergeants. Really helped theme it. Of course, these days there are upgrade sprues and all sorts.


Backing up the captain are a couple of Sanguinary Priests - both conversions - and the Third Company's Chaplain. I'm pretty sure that the terminator armoured one uses bits from the Grey Knights. This army took so long to complete that they'd been released by that point! In practice I tend to think of the third company as having just one Sanguinary Priest who has a suit of terminator armour on standby if he needs it. I do the same with the Chaplain. I don't have both the jump pack one and the one on foot in the same army. When, inevitably I do a Terminator Chaplain it'll just be another outfit for him. Like a terrifying, dogmatic, murderous Barbie.


Finally we have these three, my Techmarine, my converted Librarian, and the new Captain of the Third: Machiavi. You see, when Tycho died, Machiavi succeeded him and the third company became known as the Ironhelms. There's no more lore than that so I invented some. I imagined Tycho's grief stricken First Sergeant, seeing him slipping into the pit of the Black Rage and having to take command. With no time to do any fancy painting he simply stripped the paint from his helmet to help quick battlefield recognition and went to work. He's refused to change it ever since and so the bare metal skin sealing the ceramite innards remains just bare metal. An Ironhelm. Or something, it's the nice thing about vague details in codexes. There's room for your own headcanon to take root. Speaking of which, I really must name everyone, in the intervening years I've gotten much more strict on every unit and character having individual personalities. Must retrofit some to the old army as I renovate it.


So here we are, full circle. I've hopefully done what that old White Dwarf did. I've explained my army, my reasons for making certain decisions. My motivations in collecting in the first place, my own little bits of lore (which I'm starting to like as an alternative name for what I was calling fluff). Going forward, I've got plans. Sadly they have to be somewhat small plans as the paints that gave this army it's exact colour have long since gone. I'll have to do best matching to do any more. But I really want to get at least a few things done:

  1. I've got a second half for the Sternguard to bring that up to full 10 man strength. Need to paint them. 
  2. There's a full ten man bike squad (well, eight and an attack bike) that I'm going to use to represent the sixth tactical squad. Again, headcanon, Blood Angels are fast moving, what's a bike except a faster tactical marine with an extra boltgun... can we all have one?
  3. Scouts! There's no replacements for the casualties my underwhelming generalship will bring. 
  4. I've got a box full of marine tanks (Land Raiders, Whirlwinds etc.) all primed red. Then left. So they need painting too.
  5. Ultimately, I'd like to add the fifth tactical squad and a second devastator squad. I'd like the whole company as I'm so close to it anyway. 
As you can see, the minute I get the keen to paint some more marines there are projects just waiting for me to get the brush on to it.

What do you think of them? Got any fond memories of ol' 139? Or a story of your own inspiration from elderly sources? A passion project from your younger self? Let me know in the comments. Would love to hear your stories.

Until next time gentle Dwellers

TTFN
↧
Search

Captain’s Log I

June 26, 2017, 6:02 am
$
0
0
After months of preparation, the new Battlefleet Gothic campaign is underway! Andy and Jon have begun their exploration of the Scyrian Expanse, an uncharted sub-sector at the edge of the Achernar Sector (that's the sector we Bunker dwellers made up as a backdrop for most of our games/stories, like the Daniverse or the Calixis Sector... feel free to suggest an appropriately irreverent name in the comments section).

As with other recent campaigns, we're keeping track of everything using a wiki. As they explore strange new worlds and stranger civilisations, or boldly go where no rogue trader has gone before, new entries will appear on the sub-sector wiki page.

Below is a star chart of the Expanse. Most sub-sectors only have ten(ish) useful star systems in them, so you can infer from this map that space is big, and it's up to the players to find the good stuff.



Jon is playing Captain Laius Ortano, the commodore of the Imperial Navy flotilla. Andy is playing Hassiq Betancourt-Xing, a rogue trader with his very own capital ship. Given the concept of the campaign, Jon thought it'd be criminal not to keep a captain's log, and such a glorious endeavour ought to be shared.  Here, then, I present what I hope is the first of several guest-posts from Jon...



EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF LAIUS ORTANO


Captain's log, star date 3.127.999.M41

High anchor at Xephone Prime – combat drills completed – enemy vehicle convoy sighted, bombing run commence... enemy convoy destroyed – vidcall with Governer Torosian and Captain Dorschel – message from Admiral Tryphosa – arrival of the Amphion


Journal Entry: 782

Today, I am in a solemn mood. It has been three months since we defeated the xenos threat on Xephone Prime, and not a single day goes by when I don't think of the men and women who sacrificed their lives in pursuit of our victory.

The few remaining tribal bands continue to be exterminated. And although they are but a mere nuisance now, squabbling more amongst themselves rather than posing any real threat to our continued efforts of restabilising the region, the Orks continue to pull our resources, our surveillance, ammunition, and continue to cost us lives. Each day, another group of Orks are found roaming the Badlands. Could it be that every world visited by these uncivil creatures become infested like this, seemingly without remedy?

The notion terrifies me.

A message from Admiral Tryphosa arrived today. She continues to congratulate me on our victory. I must admit, I am surprised we held out, outnumbered ten to one. But even still, the loss of the Reprimand continues to plague my mind. If only I had not have ordered them to chase down the remaining Orc ships, they would not have been caught in that infernal fusion blast that signalled the very victory for which I am now praised!

I realise that, over the past few weeks, I've already described these feelings at length, more than perhaps is healthy, but I mention this incident once again because it pains me still, and because Squadron 17 has at last received its replacement: the Amphion.

We passed it in orbit a few hours ago. It looks like a fine frigate. A reserve from Squadron 40, Captained by Commander Zhi Cheung, but an inexperienced crew. This would not concern me had Tryphosa's message not said the following:

You are to take an expedition into the Scyrian Expanse, in order to locate the origin of this Ork threat, and elsewise scout the area for additional threats, resources and habitable worlds.

She has also assigned a capital class rogue trader to the mission, a few days inbound from the BXK Mercantile Company: the Zenith, captained by one Hassiq Betancourt-Xing, a well-travelled and experienced merchant. He will accompany us to assist in destroying any threats we encounter, and provide expertise should we encounter any alien civilisations.

I do not feel ready to leave Xephone, but I must admit, the crew have become restless these past few weeks, just as I have languished in remembrance of the Reproach. And I must admit, the mystery of what lies out there in the Scyrian Expanse is thrilling, if somewhat terrifying. Perhaps Admiral Tryphosa's timing is well rehearsed? 

Xephone Prime



Captain's log, star date 3.142.999.M41

High anchor at Xephone Prime – safety drills completed – food stock full – preparations for departure – arrival of the Zenith – dinner with Hassiq Betancourt-Xing

Journal Entry: 786

Ferrer broke my quarter's comms pad today. The man is a brilliant assistant, but dash if he doesn't express a mote of emotion or surprise at anything.

I met with Hassiq Betancourt-Xing and his crew. They came aboard for dinner, and I invited the senior members of the Intemperanceand the captains of all six vessels that make up our escort squadron for the trip into the Scyrian Expanse.

My first impression of Hassiq was rather positive. He has a grandiosity that reminds me of my grandfather; a model statesman. He even exhibits the same boisterous, drunken enthusiasm.

But then there were his crew members:

Antono Karolo, the second mate, spent the entire evening attempting to talk his way into my flight officer's under-garments! At one point I almost imposed myself, I couldn't tell if Sarala was uncomfortable or enjoying the attention. Regardless, it was not proper conduct.

Then there was the logistics manager, Sifira Joyner. She had kindly brought a data slate with details of the Zenith's operational performance. I thanked her and said we would take it and look on it in the morning, but she proceeded to bore Westcliffe half-to-death with it! I'm thankful he is a hardy Captain.

I suppose the crew of the Intemperance has its own eccentricities. To be fair, when I was transferred here after that horrific debacle in the Gothic sector, I thought similar things about this crew. As it turns out, the war in Xephone proved I couldn't have asked for better.

One more thing crossed my mind tonight while we were sat at the dining table:

Hassiq and Commander Priscus were sat either side of me. I asked Hassiq how he came to captain the Zenith. Priscus was utterly enthralled at the story. It wasn't long before Hassiq seemed to be speaking over me.

I leant back to let them speak, listening as I watched Antono's advances on Sarala and Westcliffe's boredom.

Hassiq told us how he had been held back by his parents. How he had fought for the opportunities that would lead him to captain the Zenith.

Now Priscus, he comes from a mercantile background. He no doubt fought hard for his opportunities too. I began to wonder if the dull, often blunt demeanour of Priscus was not a character flaw, but a personal distaste for me, a man who had briskly thanked him for his role as acting captain before pushing him off his seat to command this ship where he now serves as a subordinate to me, a man from a well-bred background, a man who was given his position on a platter and, truth be told, never wanted it.

Yet here I am.

The Zenith


Post Script, star date 3.143.999.M41

Priscus just called me. It appears that the data slate Sifira gave us mentions a whole host of inoperable weapons and machinery on the Zenith.

I can't quite believe it. We are supposed to leave tomorrow on a trip into the unknown, with no means to repair or re-stock, totally alone – into a vast and uncharted sector of space, and they don't even have long range scanners working!

How did Admiral Tryphosa come to choose this ship? Surely she must have asked for a logistics and operational report before appointing them to the expedition?

A quick call with Captain Hassiq has left me uncomfortable and full of doubt. He was reluctant to accept our help, possibly due to an embarrassment. I understand his desire to be on this expedition may have pushed him to be lax on the details, but to be honest I feel it has been utterly irresponsible. We are risking the lives of ten thousand in this mission!

I have sent a message to Admiral Tryphosa, but with four weeks before response we cannot delay tomorrow's departure.

I have also asked for a crew to investigate the workings of the Zenith and for materials to be brought up from the surface of Xephone Prime so that we might craft the components needed to mend the dysfunctional combat and surveillance equipment.

Even still, we won't have what we need and it might take months before we even start repairs. We don't have time for this.

How I wish for the dulcet tones of Captain "Pragmatist" Dorschel to accompany me into this Scyrian Chasm, but someone needs to guard Xephone.

Between the inexperienced crew of the Amphion and the inoperable Zenith, I am beginning to have serious concerns about this expedition.


↧

Three week genestealer cult part 1

July 3, 2017, 2:02 pm
$
0
0
Charlie: Oh dear lord. On the 29th of this month, I'm running a Deathwatch scenario involving a genestealer cult. Anyone who's read enough of this blog will know how slow I am to get things done and now I have to paint a whole heap of models in... [counts] THREE WEEKS?!

So boned.

My five victims players know I own the hilariously named Deathwatch: Overkill box, and at least half of them know I've added a goliath truck. So here's the pile of things they're allowed to see:

Yay for unfinished truck! Boo for unpainted crew.

There's some other stuff, but that'll have to stay secret until after the 29th. Suffice to say, I've never tried to paint this many models in such a small window of time to anything approaching non-crap standard. One of the victims players, Andy, has offered to come over for a day and help out, but still, it ain't looking good.

Over the next three weeks I'll be posting frequently but in smaller, bite-size chunks. Bit of a change to our usual format, but the other Beard Bunker authors will I'm sure produce more of our usual fare as well. Follow along, and laugh at my hubris!
↧
↧

Exalted Sorcerers and Industrial Thingies

July 10, 2017, 9:25 am
$
0
0
If you hadn't guessed from the title, today is about two totally distinct things. In the first half we have a trio of Exalted Sorcerers, along with a group shot and a run down of the painting process as requested. Coming in the second half we have a somewhat rusty pile of industrial scenery. Neither of these things are connected to each other but on their own they aren't really big enough to warrant a single post. At least not a post with the girth that you, the dear reader, deserve.

The Exalted Sorcerers:


As with all of the new Thousands Sons kits, there are a ton of options right there in the box to create three Exalted Sorcerers. It did seem a little strange initially that the character option comes as a three pack, but I am grateful for that in the end. Mostly because you don't have to choose between parts when you can create three cool models. Also, being able to pump out 8 Psychic powers every turns, 2 each for the Exalted Sorcerer and 1 a piece for the Aspiring Sorcerers, is not something to be sniffed at.



I have started to name and come up with backstories for each of the Sorcerers in the army (Exalted or otherwise). If there is an interest I'll put it into a post for you all to enjoy.


I was asked in a comment in an older post how I did the gold. I did reply, but I'll go through the steps here:

1: Spray Black
2: Airbrush the whole model with Vallejo Model Color 70.878 Old Gold.
3: Wash whole model with Carroburg Crimson.
4: Drybrush with Chainmail (yeah, I'm still rocking a few of the old paints).
5: Paint in the armour panels with Sotek Green.
6: Wash the Sotek Green panels with Biel Tan Green. However don't do this neatly, allow the wash to spill over onto the gold. I also added extra green wash into the deepest recesses which darkens up with the red nicely.

Here is everything together, in the desert, posing nicely for the camera.

Everybody say 'TZEEEEEEENTCH'!

With the Exalted Sorcerers done I can technically tick the box on the Thousand Sons. This doesn't mean that I'm done with them, there is certainly going to be some more units added. However for the purposes of this years Project Getting Things Done this is everything I currently own for them painted and sorted.

Industrial Scenery:

This part is a bit more a photo dump. I've had the platforms and gangways done for a while now but they have always been a bit hit and miss when it comes to gaming. They take up a lot of vertical space on the board, but they don't block line of sight too well once you're down at a model's eye level. So I've added a bunch of bulkheads, shipping containers and more solid buildings, as well as the crane. These help break up the lines of sight a lot more, which makes for a more tactical game. These pieces along with my Skyshield landing pad and a few other odds and ends is enough to cover a 6x4 board with enough scenery to be tactical but without being over crowded. As with the Thousand Sons this gets me to the point of being able to tick the done box happily but when I let myself start buying new things I'm certainly going to be adding a whole bunch of industrial knowhats and thingys to give the gantries something to go over.












↧

Three week genestealer cult part 2: big yellow goliath truck

July 14, 2017, 12:26 am
$
0
0
Charlie: I now have exactly two weeks until the deadline, and out of about 40 models I have now painted... one truck.

Minus the crew.

Everything's gonna be fine. A hundred percent fine. I mean, I've primed the other models and that's like 1% of the battle already won!


Overall woes notwithstanding, let's move on to the truck itself. The goliath truck was one of those kits I wasn't entirely convinced by when it was released. Whilst Andy pointed out that the drilldozer blade is probably a homage to a certain scene in Total Recall, it still looks utterly preposterous. Furthermore the standard twin autocannons and pintle-mounted heavy stubber make it look like a purpose-built military vehicle, which is the opposite of what this thing is meant to be. Thus, I ignored the standard build in the game's rules and built it so that it looks like an industrial vehicle with a dangerous piece of equipment that could be used to cut holes in tanks.

Whilst this thing could be a mining rig, in the context of our Deathwatch scenario it's going to be an emergency reponse vehicle that uses its industrial laser to breach the hulls of crashed ships to extract survivors. Or, you know, cut space marines in half.

In case you're interested in how I'm painting this thing, here's a step-by-step:

Basecoats
I needed the paint job to both say "industrial" and "easy" since time was of the essence, and thus opened the festivities by spraying it with the Averland Sunset spray, which was bloody marvellous. Well played, Citadel. The spray was followed up with a few thin layers of Yriel Yellow, then an edge drybrush of Flash Gitz Yellow which, to be honest, I probably could've skipped. At this early stage I also painted the old calthan brown foundation paint onto any areas of bare metal, but any mid-brown will do.


Next, I slapped a mid-grey on the wheels and wires/hoses, then drybrushed a mid-silver over the mid-brown. Why all these mid-tones, you ask? Because of the next step.

Hadn't actually done the hoses at this point. Never said I was totes profesh.

Wash dem mid tones
Next I thinned some army painter black paint, since unlike Citadel paints this stuff remains matte when watered down. This got sloshed over everything that wasn't yellow. This is pretty much my standard method for quick and dirty rust, although you can spruce it up very effectively with some rusty weathering powders. The wash also took the tyres down a few tones and thus made them look more rubbery.

Once the wash was dry, the tyres got a grey drybrush to simulate dust on the road, deliberately focusing on the treads rather than the rims.


Chips n' dings
Next comes the longest stage by far: the chips in the paint. Using the same mid-brown I'd used on the areas of bare metal, I went over most of the edges and other bits where I wanted the paint to look worn away. This felt like it took forever, and could be speeded up substantially by stippling with a drybrush instead. Once that stage was finally finished I quickly dabbed some silver into some (but not all) of the chips to give them some depth and distinguish between old and new dings.


At this stage I also painted the lights and buttons, basecoating with Ceramite White (the gods' own paint, that) and putting a thin wash of colour over the top followed by a gloss varnish. If you're painting a light source, undercoating it with white gives it a natural vibrancy that makes it pop out from the rest of the model. Again, super simple... I make no claim to painting something impressive here.

I also drybrushed black paint over the exhaust to provide soot, and drybrushed silver over the bare metal areas to add another layer of depth.


Filth
Finally, when all's done comes the final stage: black weathering powder. I'd use Typhus Corrosion if this was in a muddy environment, or grey dust if it was in a mine, or... whatever; pick a colour for the bases you're giving the rest of the army. This cult is based in a hive, so sooty pollution made sense to me. I just rubbed black powder into many (but not all) recesses with an old drybrush and voila, said ERV Goliath looked like it'd been around the block a few times.




Now do to the crew. And the hybrids. And the cultists. And the characters. And the--oh wait that's a secret.

I'm curious about how other people have painted their goliaths, if they have 'em. Having painted one, I actually really like the kit, and may well convert one for my orks. Might even get another if I decide to use the cult as an army in 40K at some point.
↧

Three week genestealer cult part 3: you gotta do a montage

July 23, 2017, 11:39 am
$
0
0
Charlie: Welp, here we go. The big game is less than a week away as I write this, which means it's the final countdown and I'll need the eye of the tiger if I'm going to avoid the danger zone. At this point I'm probably gonna need a montage. On the upside, it's not looking hopeless. Here's what's finished thus far:

Rising up, back on the street.

How has this much progress occurred? Well for one thing I had help from one of the other players: Andy of the Iron Legion blog. He and I took Thursday off work and painted for ten hours straight, painting all the cultists in one huge batch, starting from a mournfang brown primer and slapping on basecoats with more enthusiasm than caution. With a combined 20 man-hours under our belt, we didn't quite finish the 35 cult members, but it meant that after another 12ish hours over this weekend, they're done, and with more highlighting and facial detail than I expected.

I've still got the primus, magus and purestrains to do plus some other minis, and I have tomorrow off work plus... three evenings. There's some other preparations yet to do, and I guess I'd better spend some of this evening working on those since my wrist is starting to feel weird.
↧
Viewing all 459 articles
Browse latest View live
Search