Up River...one nerds trip to a miniature heart of darkness: 2020

I think this is my last post of the year...so some more figures from the Night’s Watch starter box. I was able to get half way through the box before distracted with other figures earlier this year. Again, I was really impressed with how the minis looked.

I hope you enjoy the pics...and have a safe and happy New Year!

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

Painted:

28mm 102 (+14)

15mm 135

Terrain 17

Bought: 40

Progress: +214

10th Post Over Christmas...

Ok...getting tight on this one...here goes,

On this tenth post over Christmas,

This post has for you...

10 bits of scatter terrain...

9...actually 7...scratch built...

...pieces of terrain.

8 (-ish) step basing tutorial...

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Hey all,

So for this one, I’ve got some scatter pieces and terrain bits that I hauled out a week or two ago. I bought these on a whim a few years back and was able to whip them up pretty quick. If I remember correctly, I got these from my local gaming store and I think they’re from Wiz Kids.

These will be great for any Frostgrave type setting...looking forward to getting them on the table.

Take care...

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

Painted:

28mm 88

15mm 135

Terrain 17 (+10)

Bought: 40

Progress: +200

The 9th Post Over Christmas...

For my ninth post over Christmas,

I have some pictures for you...

9...actually 7...scratch built...

...pieces of terrain.

8 (-ish) step basing tutorial...

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Evening all,

I just finished up some scratchbuilt terrain that I started putting together early in the isolation. In fact, it was originally my intent to have this ready for CanGames in May...and when I say I just finished, I literally clear coated the last piece yesterday.

So my main idea behind these pieces was to have some 28mm-ish terrain ready so that I could try my hand at some Zona Alfa, nice Chernobyl inspired setting...as well as something that would work for Fallout Wasteland Warfare. To be honest, looking at the results I think it’s more Fallout inspired and ZA workable. Regardless, it was good to have some terrain that could work, and felt nice getting back to terrain building. When I first started in this hobby, I was really inspired by other folks and I ended up building quite a bit of 15mm city terrain...enough for a 4x4 Stalingrad table.

Anyway, the parts for this was anything that was laying around my work bench, some Starbucks cup sleeves, popsicle sticks, and used spruces.

I hope you enjoy the pics.

I even made a door!!

A couple of Crisis Protocol figures for scale...

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

Painted:

28mm 88 (+7)

15mm 135

Terrain 7 (+7)

Bought: 40

Progress: +190

The 8th Post Over Christmas...

For my eighth post over Christmas,

I thought I would write up for you...

An 8 (-ish) step tutorial...

...for basing the figures you do...

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Hello folks,

For anyone that has followed religiously, you may recall that late summer I finally got around to basing my Canadian grunts and Soviet rifles for Team Yankee. Given that this is a special project for me I really wanted to take my time on this and make sure next steps, painting, etc were deliberate and achieved my goal.

Canuck Infantry

Soviet Motor Rifles

From this work though, and to be honest, because I needed something that roughly fit into the 8th day slot, I thought I would write up a quick tutorial and guide showing my colour progression for my bases including flocking.

As always, I hope all you enjoy the post and that all is well...happy New Year to you, may 2021 be a good one for you all...we'll see how close I can get to #12 by the time the ball drops!!

The end results first...

1. Battlefront has been recessing their bases for some time now. It takes away the worry over evening out the surface or need for filler, you can get away with a technical paint from Citadel or just glue and sand. In this pic, I started with sand and then went over with some Citadel Stirland Battlemire and then I quickly laid down some Vallejo burnt umber.

2. After going over the bases with another wet layer of burnt umber, I then added a wet-dry layer of VJ flat earth...I’ve left one base to show the differences in the colours.

3. Next step was to hit the bases with a dry brush of VJ beige brown...I may have gone over a couple of select spots to emphasize the tone...

4. After the beige, I then put a dry layer of VJ tan earth, reducing the amount of coverage from before and certainly from the flat earth layer...

5 & 6. At this point I want to make my last highlight a very sparingly-applied layer of VJ Iraqi sand...which I then follow up with Army Painters strong tone wash...I don’t apply the wash everywhere! Only in those spots where I want to reinforce tones or a feature, but not over the entire base.

7. At this stage you can paint on any other effects you may have, for example...if you have some urban debris, then you could paint up highlights or touch up details. I did this for my Sov’s with random ‘grey’ toned building debris, etc.

8. Finally, you can get any flock down that you’d like...

Wednesday 30 December 2020

The 7th Post Over Christmas...

For my seventh post over Christmas,

A little magical inspiration...

I have for you:

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Howdy all,

With New Years coming closer I hope the work days between the stat days is not too taxing for anyone. I myself am taking advantage of the best of both worlds right now, so I hope you are able to do the same.

Early this summer, we decided to try out a new pizza take-out place that is about 5 minutes down the road from the house. My wife went out to do the curb-side pickup thing and when she came back she told me she had a surprise...totally stumped and not expecting anything I couldn't even muster a single guess. When she passed me a plastic bag, the last thing I was expecting was a stack of miniatures from Knight Models and their Harry Potter range!!

At some point just prior to the start of isolation, a gaming store had started up practically in my backyard and I was none the wiser. Luckily, they adapted well at the beginning and actually have continued to thrive in isolation and with restrictions. While I do try to spread my gaming budget between the various shops in my area (FDB, Fandom, Kessel Run, Hobby House), I do have to admit, having the selection and proximity of Red Dragon is a really great thing!

So, amongst the figures my wife picked for me some Deatheaters, Voldemort, Hogwarts Professors, Doby, and the Order of the Phoenix. Now the detail on these figures is quite something to see...very crisp, very well defined. If I guess correctly, they are 3D printed which is great for the quality, unfortunately it does leave some points a little fragile, but with some patience and care, you should be good.

The first figures from this collection that I've been able to crack out is Doby, Creature, Fang (from a poorly packaged blister that I was compensated for), and the Hogwarts profs. These were fun distractions and painted up fairly quickly. If you're a fan of the movies I don't think you'll be disappointed with the figures...I can't speak to the game as I have no intention of playing it at this time, I was just an admirer of the figures and how they were painted up.

And now the pics...I hope you enjoy.

Left to right: Fang, Doby, Creature, McGonagall, Snape, Lockhart, and Umbridge

Doby and Creature came in their own pack...given their size I was pretty impressed with their expressiveness. I’m really happy with how they came out and how I was able to capture their definition...