Steam Tank painting in progress...

Last picture before I post the finished version. The hull is mostly done - although the weathering got a bit messy so it needs some retouching. The weathering may seem a bit excessive at this point, but that's the look I was aiming for - it will look better in the end, just trust me on this one :) (as always - click the picture to see the bigger version).

WIP 15mm LotR: Gandalf the Grey and Legolas

While I wait for the putty on the steam tank to dry, I continue to work on two minor conversions for 15mm Lord of the Rings. As you have seen with Aragorn, Faramir and Saruman, I try to go for the Peter Jackson's movies looks as much as it's possible in 15mm. With Khurasan Orcs and Eureka Man-Orcs (a.k.a. Uruk-Hai) and many Viking/Norman/Late Roman miniatures (read: Rohirrim) available, it's not that hard - but sometimes, even if a certain mini is 'close enough', I want to take it even closer.

Legolas is based on the Splintered Light Miniatures Wood Elf Archer (second miniature from the left). His shoulder pads, shoe tops and gloves were trimmed down and replaced with ones made from putty. These still need some corrections, but even with the elven cloak and webbing still lacking, I'm much closer to The Two Towers look I am aiming for.

Gandalf the Grey (as seen in Moria sequence in Fellowship of the Ring) is based on the Chariot Miniatures wizard from WIZ001 pack. I've modified the end of his wizard staff, added a hand with Glamdring in it and replaced the hat so that it would resemble the movie prop more.

Detailing on the 15mm steam tank continues

Added more riveted plates, gun slits (made from some H0 scale fence), shields and the inscription at the base of the hull. When finished, it will read IN SIGNO IMPERATORIS/AD GLORIAM SIGMARIS ("Under the Emperor's sign/For the glory of Sigmar").

A glimpse at the workbench... steam tank

Just a quick WIP photo of the imperial Steam Tank. I'll post better pictures later this week when I'm finished with detailing and (hopefully) get on to painting.

15mm LotR: Saruman

A simple conversion based on Splintered Light Miniatures Wood Elf Mage. Click the pictures to see the bigger version.

Comparison with original mini (photo taken from SLM blog)

More 15mm Star Wars

I've waited long enough with posting anything new, so without further ado - the pics of my versions of Rodrick Cambpell's Chewie and Boba Fett (as always, click the picture for a larger version):

Chewbacca - front

Chewbacca - back

Chewie with my Malcolm-Reynolds-to-Han-Solo conversion

Boba Fett

And last but not least, some WIPs:

An armed Highwayman for Fallout gaming (it comes from an OOP Krush range of vehicles)

A griffon for the king of Bretonnia

Random ideas on gaming Star Wars

At the moment I have some more Star Wars miniatures and vehicles in the works apart from Han.
Namely: Mara Jade, Chewbacca, 16 Hoth Echo Base troopers and an AT-AT. As you can see - it's a pretty random lot, but I guess I could pitch Han and Chewie against some of my different 'scoundrel' minis (GZG Ravagers etc.) or do minor conversions on Rebel Minis Titan Marines, getting some snowtroopers for Hoth games. Yes, I really need to get away from my undead and Bretonnia for a while ;-)
Nevertheless, a problem arised: what ruleset should I choose for Star Wars gaming?
Both WEG "Star Wars Miniatures Battles" and WOTC "Star Wars Miniatures" always seemed too generic for me - not mentioning other create-your-own-army rulesets (like Defiance or Flying Lead), which (as much as I love them, especially the latter) just don't capture the feel of the movies in my opinion. I began to toy with some ideas - none of them being an actual rule, but I hope that some of you may find these interesting:

• defences. There are four ways one can defend against a blaster shot: absorb it with an energy shield (see: Destroyer droids), deflect with a lightsaber (Jedi only), duck for cover or make a serious wound into a scratch by using a mechanism similar to GW LotR Fate points (see: Leia during the battle of Endor), available only to Hero characters. And that leads us to...
• armor. Have you ever seen a stormtrooper not being killed by a blaster shot? In a Star Wars ruleset the armor shouldn't give any bonuses against ranged weapons. It should be helpful when attacked with some primitive melee weapons (Ewoks, anyone?) or hit with fragmentation charge (as seen in the new trilogy) - but that's not the sole purpose for it. When you take a look at the imperial stormtroopers, Boba Fett or Lord Vader himself, it's obvious that the armor - even if it's barely effective - makes for an intimidating appearance. A rule for that? If a character in armor is present in a certain radius from the miniature being activated/reacting to the opponent's action - make the activation a bit more difficult.
• Heroes vs. grunts. When you take a look at the Imperial and Rebel forces in the old trilogy, the differences are obvious: while the former rely on large number of anonymous troopers, the latter depend mainly on a small group of named characters possessing extraordinary skills. The difference is not really about how each force is organized (army list choices), but which part of a given force can be activated at a time. I'm thinking about using some kind of action/command points, the amount of which would depend on a different factor (e.g. Empire gets x APs for each squad or vehicle, Rebels get the same amount for each Hero), and which could be spent a bit differently (e.g. the max amount of APs that can be assigned to a single miniature depends on its 'level' or 'ability'). I have to take a look at Ambush Alley and Infinity, from what I've seen there are some pretty clever ideas on that type of mechanics there.

Han (and the Falcon)

It surely looks like 15mm Star Wars gaming will get some interest in the following months with Blue Moon releasing 15mm Space Knights and Rodrick Campbell showing some truly inspiring stuff on his blog (see Boba Fett and Space Pals) - and as a fan of Star Wars, I'm more than willing to get into this niche of 15mm Sci-Fi gaming.
A while ago I've posted a simple conversion of mine based on a figure from Splintered Light Space Team set - but as it was unpainted, it was a bit hard to recognize the character I've turned the 'not-Nathan Drake' into...
He's finally finished and there are some other SW miniatures and vehicles coming onto my tabletop soon too (as you can see on the last picture with the WIP Millenium Falcon):

We're getting out of here, Chewie...

Great news from Blue Moon

In case you missed it: Blue Moon Manufacturing previewed their first pulp/victorian horror miniatures - and they are, without exaggeraton, awesome. What are you going to use those little fellas for?:

(via TMP, where you can also see more pictures of those minis)

Ain't dead yet (you still need a tray!)

Finally finished my MA thesis and put to rest some other university issues - it seems that soon I will be able to get back to blogging.

I've actually found some time last week to paint - not much, I must say, but my 15mm Warmaster armies (Bretonnia and Vampire Counts) are slowly approaching that magic 'painted 1000 pts.!' moment.

Wait, what? Warmaster? Aren't you basing your minis individually?
Actually, I do do. But as I want to play as wide a range of rulesets as possible with what I have, I've decided to put the single-based minis (20mm for infantry and 28 for cavalry) onto magnetic trays measuring 30x60mm.
Below you can see my Ethereal Host (wonderful minis from Khurasan The Great Enemy range) - when used without the tray, they make perfect Army of the Dead for LotR.

Ethereal Host (I've decided to add some simple 'graveyard' elements to all my VC trays)

...and the same minis as LotR Army of the Dead

More 15mm Mordheim buildings

No, I'm neither dead nor did I lost interest in blogging. The thing is, the conference season is at it's peak and I had to spend some time preparing my papers - leaving little or no time for the hobby. In fact, I'm leading my first-ever panel discussion tomorrow and I'm quite nervous about it. And as there is no better way to relax for me than to work on some minis and terrain - here are some new 15mm fantasy buildings, intended for Mordheim, but easily usable across variety of medieval/early modern settings. The first one is already finished, the second (a ruined inn/shop) still needs some detailing and therefore it's not even basecoated yet.

Large ruined house - front

Large ruined house - back. I'm quite happy with how the weathered wood came out here.

Ruined inn - interior.

Ruined inn - exterior.

Ruined inn - entrance details.

New Heroes/Personalities packs from Splintered Light

Some new releases from Splintered Light Miniatures are up on their site - and I have to say I can't wait to get my hands on some of these! As I prefer skirmish gaming (mostly Ganesha Games' SOBH at the time), I'm especially keen on their new personality packs for dwarves, dark elves and wood elves. If anyone still has any doubts regarding whether you can have really unique character miniatures in 15mm - take a look at these (bald, cigar-smoking dwarf? hell yeah!):

Some 20mm WW2 terrain for sale

As I'm making some 15mm buildings right now, I've decided to do some spring cleaning and get rid of 20mm ones I've been using a few years ago for playing Operation Overlord (now Operation: World War II). You can visit the post on TMP Marketplace by clicking HERE

Inspiration: Bruegelburg

It's 28mm actually, but those are one of the most interesting minis I've seen in a while. Lead Adventure just gave a great answer to the question about where to look for inspiration for 'dark early modern' (read: Warhammer) miniatures: paintings of 15th/16th century flemish masters! Click the picture below to see the entire range in their store.

Modular board on the cheap

There always was a thing that bothered me in terrain making: making the gaming board itself. 

Back when I was living at my parents' house, I had some space at the attic where I could store two 4'x4' boards for some Warlord and Necromunda games - but when I moved out, it really was no longer an option. So it became obvious that I will have to make a modular board of some sort.

The results up to now were less than pleasing - the tiles you could see in my previous posts are far from perfect: cutting the styrofoam to size (especially for the larger modules) is pain in the ass, and no matter how precise I try to be there - the pieces never fit perfectly and because every tile is ~24mm thick, they make quite a hefty pile when put on top of the other.

But it seems I came up with a solution - at least for the time being. What is it? This:

(people working at the toy stores seem to be quite suspicious about what a bearded grumpy man is doing there. You have been warned ;-) )

These are large (about 1'x1') jigsaw puzzle mats you can get at a toy shop. They are made from an EVA foam - a soft material a bit similar to rubber. A package of 8 pieces goes for about $5 - so it takes $10 to have enough pieces for a 4'x4' board and half a package to make a 15mm skirmish table (2'x2'). And if you want to make a modular hill like the GW one that could be easily fit together - it's a nice way to go too.
After getting the pieces out from the package (mind you: the smell of the foam is awful), I covered a test piece with brown elastic filler to add a bit of weight to the module and to make sure that the happy turtles (or blue foam, as I used the back of the piece) won't stare at me should the PVA and sand fall of somewhere. After that it was an usual coat of PVA and sand, followed by brown undercoat.
The module was then drybrushed earthly brown and khaki and after that I've glued on some grass and flock (taking the chance to cover the areas where I overdid the drybrush). Here's the final result along with two pieces waiting to be flocked and painted too:

(click to enlarge the picture)

Hope you guys like it. Happy gaming!

You encounter: A family of radscorpions (and some WIPs)

Once again real life is keeping me away from the hobby - with a large project at work and a deadline for conference papers coming, I had little to no time to paint this week. Nevertheless, I managed to take some pictures of what I'm currently working on - please let me know what you think! (as always, the photos are clickable)

A family of Radscorpions confronts some wasteland adventurers. The larger scorpions are Dust Scorpions from Reaper, the smaller one is from 15mm.co.uk

The 15mm Warrior Priest. His right eye obviously needs some touch-ups.

 

An Averlander with Zweihaender. The mini comes from Venexia Miniatures landsknecht command pack - and it became one of my favourite 15mm minis ever as soon as I laid my hands on it.

Etoiles Mortants at various stages of completion. As you can see, I've decided to exchange the hand-made swords for plastic bayonets from Warzone Imperial infantry, as I had a bunch of those in my bits box.

Finished Averland sergeant/hero

Warrior Priest of Sigmar in 15mm

My order from Vexilia Ltd. has arrived on Thursday - containing mainly some of the Mirliton and Venexia infantry I plan to use as my Imperial characters in Mordheim/Warmaster/WFRP. I knew that there will be some spare weapons included with the minis, but at first wasn't really sure what to do with them. 

Seriously? No. 

When you're doing an Empire army in 15mm and you get your hands on some nice warhammer bits - there's only one way to go:

(I still need to finish the hands and add a scarf around his waist - but he's about 85% complete)

Of good things that come from Denmark

OK, some of them may be more fun (like LEGO), some of them - more important (like writings of Kierkegaard), but wargaming-wise, one can hardly imagine something cooler than this:

Yes, that's a bunch of Empire army regiments marching to war - with uniforms, icons and stuff recreated as carefully as when we're talking about 'historical reenactment'.

Praise for Critical Mass Games

Last month I've decided to make my first order from Critical Mass Games - I've been oogling their combat walkers and ARC Fleet Heavy Infantry for a long time now and decided that the February sale was a good opportunity to finally place an order.
Not only were the miniatures sent the next day after the payment (which is not always the case...), not only the quality of the figures themselves is exceptional, but Craig at CMG did a splendid job to make sure that everything was right with the order.
As there was a single part missing from one of the sets, he not only was quick to apologize when I've noticed them, but in a few days I've received the missing part and a bonus sample pack (which, considering I had some doubts about how their other figures would fit in my collection, was more than welcome) with shipping paid by the guys at CMG.
I know that it's probably a standard procedure - but the speed, great contact and the will to correct any mistakes made surely deserve a mention.

WIP Sergeant

I know that devoting a third post to a single miniature can be pretty annoying (and perhaps says something about my absolute lack of modesty ;-), but - despite all the flaws that I am totally aware of - I'm just really proud of this one. So here are some work in progress shots:

On Painting Averlanders

If there exists a circle of hell intended for the wargamers, I believe one of the more common tortures involves painting yellow over black undercoat. 'Nuff said.

Finished Averland sergeant sculpt

I've finished sculpting the Averland sergeant yesterday and must say that I'm quite pleased with the results. I did some major conversions before and tried to sculpt a few minis, but this one is actually the second complete sculpt of mine (the first being my 15mm Aragorn). There are some things I'm not really happy about: mostly the blade of the sword (I have to get my hands on some brass sheets as shaving the ProCreate putty can be quite tricky), the hilt of the dagger on his back and the armor on his right leg. The facial features may also seem shallow when you look at the photos - but they came out much better IRL.

WIP Averlanders

Just some quick sculpts of Averlanders for my Mordheim/Warmaster gaming. I plan to use mostly different Landsknecht/Swiss/Burgundian miniatures as the bulk of my army - but as there are few or none militia/free company type troops available, I decided to sculpt a few myself. The dollies I use are from Splintered Light Miniatures (not available on the site, but you can order them by dropping Dave an e-mail with your order).

An old archer

Sergeant (he will be armed with sword and shield).