Cangames Prep - Odds and Bits of Terrain

Hey everyone,

Hope all is well on your respective fronts. Given that I have been a little pre-occupied for the last few weeks, this is just a quick post to plant the May-post flag onto the blog. The good news to this tragic tale, lol...is that I have been prepping figs, painting up terrain pieces, and scratch building some terrain for a game that I'm putting on for CanGames this upcoming weekend!

The game will be using the Danger Close rules, adapting them for the con and my memory...right now planning for 4 players who will have between 3-5 figures each. I have gone back and forth on what the setting is, I did have plans to have completed a few more buildings so that this was like an isolated farmstead or basecamp. As it turns out, my time was getting taken from me, so I painted up a bunch of 'contingency' terrain pieces so that I could have something if my fabrication was delayed…which wasn’t a bad idea given the past week or so.

So anywho…I ended up fabricating 2 terrain pieces…a shack/cabin in the woods/fallout looking piece, and a larger set-piece that looks more like a garage type structure. They both have removable roofs so the interior can be used and offer some flavour to the table…I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, and I really stepped up the weathering on them.

As well, I did some quick work on some dollar store 1 inch wooden cubes, 3 x sea containers by Reaper, and handful of terrain from Mantic’s Walking Dead terrain box. All in all, really happy with the output.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         27 

28mm+       26, +19

Fabricated

Terrain          2, +2 (28mm terrain pieces)

Bought          8

Progress   +47

Some Reaper Recruits

Hello folks,

I hope everyone is well...it would appear that we are presently into the second coming of 'summer', the temperatures of the past week have certainly stood out as the highlight of the past few months and especially given the cool trends we were having at the beginning of the month.

Personally, I'm good with the cooler weather, but we also didn't have our normal summer in this neck of the country...so I see why folks are pretty pumped.

I thought I'd share with you a few Reaper pieces that I finished near the end of July, beginning of August...I really do like the Reaper pieces...there's a lot of character in the individual figures and the Pathfinder series of minis are outstanding.

I'm trying to kickstart some posting momentum so I'll keep this only relatively short and simple and let the pictures do the talking.

Cheers.

First off, for our more advanced treks into the Northern City, we have 'the Overladen'...a great looking fig, packed down like a good little pack mule hauling the treasures and necessities for an adventuring band.

slightly different aspect...looking downwards toward the figure...

I'm not sure if I'd trust that chicken...looks a little off coloured...not sure if it's supposed to be supper or a trap for beasts...

A couple of great aspects of all the various kit that our apprentice/pack mule is carrying...the figure itself was a lot of fun to paint, the main challenge being the identification of all the different kit and ensuring a consistency of colours amongst the pieces of kit and the ways they overlap and cover each other up.

The next figure I have is from the Reaper Pathfinder line...it is Merisiel the Iconic Elf Thief.  I really like the various 'iconic' figures they have...my first attempt was with their Iconic Skald which I'm really happy with how it came up.

So, inspired by the Iconic figures, I am slowly and deliberately putting together a separate Company of Adventurers all based on these figures.  When I saw Merisiel, I automatically thought she would be perfect as a Treasure Thief, she literally has a buttload of daggers...as well, depending on the rule additions, etc. she could easily serve as an assassin.

So, to keep some consistency amongst my Company, I wanted to make sure that each figure had at least some green within their paint scheme, the Skald was fairly subtle green trim showing beneath his leather robe...for Mis, there is more to see, however I did not make it the primary colour of her outfit.

Various profiles...the figure took a bit to come to life for me...I had tried at least 2-3 variations on the main colour schemes before settling on the blue and green...another great figure that I'm very pleased with.

 

While I can't 100% remember...I think I received the Skinsaw man as a Christmas or Father's day gift...I wasn't certain how to get it to work in the company, BUT, I really liked the look of the figure and the character of the figure...and after reading some of the backstory to the Skinsaw man I was more determined to include him into the warband.

Again, I made sure to add some green in the figure, but reading the various Frostgrave characteristics of the different wizards, I thought that the Skinsaw Man would be an excellent Fire Elementalist...and to help emphasis that I tried to make his jacket look as closely to fire as possible...getting the jacket to this point was really enjoyable and I can't even remember how many layers I invested into this look...I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end...I used VJ Red (vermillion I think) and then introduced a small ratio of bright orange with each layer.  The last layer or two was a heavily watered down bright orange applied deliberately in select spots.

 

 

Painting so far in 2017:

 

Painted:

28mm - 58
15mm - 11

Bought:
28mm - 53
vehicle - 1

15mm - 0
vehicle - 7

 

Overall PROGRESS: +8

Northern City Terrain and Golem

Hello folks,

I've had pretty good momentum with my posts at the end of last month...largely thanks due to Cangames, but, local convention notwithstanding I hope to keep some of that momentum going into June.

Over the past couple of months, I've had a couple of small terrain pieces on my side table just to putter at from time to time...nothing focused, but a couple of bits thrown together and then take my time getting the paint on them...make sure I like the looks, etc.

If I recall correctly, sometime around February I found a couple of interesting cardboard packing bits down in the recycling...they look fairly solid, they had a nice shape to them...and given that I had binge watched Game of Thrones over the Christmas holiday, I thought that these packing pieces could make some nice ice walls for Frostgrave and the Northern City.

I added some styro where there was a gap...I didn't want to have to cut everything down further...and I thought on the table the styro would help it look like the walls literally sprung up from the rock...that was the thought at least, lol...

the smaller piece in the middle was a 'flappy' extension of the cardboard and I thought it could make a handy perch or spawn point for some particular piece of no good...I intentionally painted these smaller perches up without the 'ice' blue tones...

A different view of the perches and you can really see how the tone between the pieces compares.

 

Now the best test of any terrain piece...putting a figure against it to see how the effect goes.  I recently finished a Reaper 'Stone Golem' figure...I was initially at odds as to how to paint this one up...whether to go stone heavy or dirt/mud heavy...in the end I chose to follow how I envision the Northern City and I went with a much more stone like appearance.

I just changed up my phone over the past month and I've really been trying to get proficient at using the camera it came with...I tried a few pics with the flash...this one I wanted to get a good view of the figure over all with the ice wall behind him.  When I went with the stone look...I based in black and then Vallejo German Grey...then I thought I'd use more of a wet brush to make the colours pop more... 

I painted VJ stone grey over the figure and then hit it with a heavy dark wash and went from there...VJ black grey, and then several tones down with that cut with stone grey and some off white.  I chose to go camouflage green with the headpiece and 'skirt' to really show off some contrast on the figure... 

Looking at various stoneworks online and a few pieces around the house, I then emphasised specific areas of the figure...I finished the green first...those areas were the easiest to paint up for me and really took the paint well...the stone tones took me more time but I really like how they turned out.

 

As always, I hope you enjoy the pics...take care and we will blog you later.

 

Painting so far in 2017:

 

Painted:
28mm - 45
15mm - 5

Bought:
28mm - 53
vehicle - 1

15mm - 0
vehicle - 6

Overall PROGRESS: -10

Northern City - flurries of painting

Good evening folks,

Well, it has been a silent December to say the least...haha, 2 puns in 2 lines, post title and first sentence...boom! While I haven't been posting as much lately, my painting progress has continued nonetheless.

I thought I'd share with you a batch of Frostgrave and Northern City themed Reaper Bones figures that I recently finished...mixed in is a couple of other figs that I got from my buddy Mike...Mike, if you can...please remind me where you got these guys from.

Not messing around...here we go...the pics:

Reaper Bones

I picked these little guys up a while back...took my time letting them tell me how they wanted to look in this world...in the end, I used some of my WoW DeathKnight inspiration and chose the 3 DK presences: Blood, Frost, and Unholy...and have for you the 3 plagues of the Northern City...

 

BLOOD PLAGUE

cute-ish little guy with one big Mike Wazcsoski eyeball...wherever he walks pools of blood rise to the surface... 

 

FROST PLAGUE 

This little guy looks like he stepped out of the local gym, ripped and ready to pose-down...wherever he goes, the grounds of the Northern City become extra frozen

 

UNHOLY PLAGUE 

This pint sized bringer of plague, pestilence, and rot is a blistery, greenish yellowish oozing, disgruntled imp of hell...wherever he walks, the ground goes green and yellow with rot, sick, and illness

 

Their best views...

 

 

Skeletal army of the dead...

 

For s's and g's...I decided to pick up a 3 pack of skeleton soldiers one day...I've had them on the bench for about a year...these guys, like the plagues came up very quickly...I think it only took me 2 nights to finish these guys

 

Random Skeleton dudes...from Mike...thanks Mike.

 

A skeleton captain...or warrior, and an archer...pumped and painted to serve any evil minded Necromancer that needs them...I can't remember who the manufacturer of these two are...they were fun and quick to paint up as well.