Oh distraction...though art a temptress!! - edited 03 December

Howdy folks,

A few months back, North Star Miniatures announced their most recent Nickstarter as an expansion to their Frostgrave game...while I did not buy into the original Nickstarter...I couldn't help but be somewhat taken by the expansion.  I'm not sure why, but I do like the various storylines behind the Lich King.

Without a doubt, my favorite storyline stemmed from a small online diversion by the name of World of Warcraft...yes, me to Julius...I did dabble in the realm for a small time and my favorite part of the WOW universe was definitely Northrend, the legend of Arthas, and his corruption by the Lich.  I had long ago left Northrend...I thought for good...but alas, North Star's supplement really got me re-hooked into the Lich.

Now depending on the forum, age group, and whatever random variables you can think of, the WOW  Death Knight character that came from their Lich King story was definitely a guilty pleasure of mine in the game.  With all of this in mind, and no idea of North Star's plans for the Lich or his servants, I was inspired to take one of my Teutonic Knights figures (unfortunately manufacture unknown...can't remember.  I just found the figures online...they are from Gripping Beast ) and turn it into my version of a WOW Death Knight.

I really tried to present a resurrected soul, serving the Lich, heralding from the Northern city...I intentionally put in a lot of blue hue colours to give a sense of frost and cold...I like the results, I hope it works.

Enjoy.

Death Knight...bloodied and died in battle...

 

Death Knight...frost presence visible in his eyes and blade of his sword...

German Stormtroopers...another instalment...

Hello everyone,

Just a very quick post...thought I'd showcase another distraction that I finished last weekend...a couple of more stormtroopers for my Great War Germans.  These are more North Star minis from their Great War Miniatures line...IIRC these are from the trench raiders blister.

I painted them up using my previous tutorial techniques...and to be quite honest, they really did not take that long at all this time to brush up.  Now, I'm using a different lighting set-up and background this time, so the figures are a little more 'brighter' than before, but I'm very happy with the results.

Take care folk.

Front profile, 2 German trench raiders..

Rear profile...very subtle differences in equipment colour captured very nicely.

Different profile angle...I like the 'badassness' of the gas mask figure...he is literally loaded for bear.

 

Crusader Warband...warriors up!!

Howdy folks,

I recently finished up the last touches on my Crusader Warband for SAGA...the final touch was the 1 point worth of warriors.  The figures are from Fireforge Miniatures...they are the first plastic minis that I've worked on, painting and assembly wise.

While I'm still not used to the lack of weight to the figures, the sculpts themselves look really good.  The ability to have multiple options and to really make each soldier unique depending on how you configure it is kinda neat...I like the idea that the models can be really personalized beyond just how you paint them up.

So, for my first foray into plastics...neat!

Hope you enjoy the pics...as always, comments and advice are always welcome.

Cheers.

The Warriors...eight crusading soldiers fighting for God...



Two random figures...lots of pop-able detail in each figure.

 

The entire Crusader Warband...6 points worth.

SAGA Tournament...a crusading we will go...hi-ho

Happy Sunday folks,

Thought I'd post up some pictures from our SAGA tournament that Mike ran down at the club a couple of weekends ago.  This was my second go at the ruleset and my first unveiling of my Crusader warband.  As with my initial taster of SAGA, thanks to Mike, I thoroughly enjoyed this taste as well...3 games later I certainly felt a little more comfortable with the rules and I think I was finally starting to get the hang of the Crusader battle board.

If I could offer any advice for budding SAGA warlords...if you can, take some time beforehand to look through your board and see what the perks are.  By my 3rd game, I was mixing battleboard perks with special rules from my Warrior Priest that gave me mounds (figuratively) of dice to attack and defend with...ascalon and what not...very cool.

After the day's gaming my warband stood at 1 loss and 2 wins...pretty happy with that result, after all only my second foray into actually getting dice downrange.  My original intent leading up to the tournie was to get 'battrep' type pics...I ended up just trying to get good quality shots without the blurs and shakes that highlighted the little dudes in action. 

BTW...my buddies Mike and Duncan beat me to the post, so if you're interested, here are their perspectives:

Mikes tournament summary
Duncans tournament report

Enjoy the pics.

 

Game 1...Crusader foot warband vs. Duncan's Mutatawwi'a warband 



Suicide charge of camels against hearthguard with Warlord just behind them.  Eventually my Warlord would move back down the ridge and later gloriously charge towards Duncan's Warlord in 1 on 1 combat...and take a big camel hoof to the forehead. 

 

Other flank...horses charging more hearthguard 

Warrior Priest in the background leading the footmen forward (they have since been 100% finished)...

 

Game 2...my Crusaders vs. Viking warband  

Warlord...keeping a relatively safer distance from the fight with his hearthguard armed with heavy weapons...at this point they could push either left or right depending on the need. 

left flank where most of the action was. 

Hearthguard on hearthguard violence...my crossbowmen had reduced the Viking hearth by half and then I moved into melee contact 

the very quiet right flank... 

the remnants of the hearth on hearth contact...my Warrior Priest moved up to fight the Viking Warlord...didn't kill but pushed him back.  This game timed out, but I pulled out a win for the bodycount. 

 

Game 3...versus Teutonic badasses on horses...luckily I was on the defense in buildings due to scenario setup...in the end, 6 turns later, I had successfully defended the hamlet for the win. 

Crusaders...the good ones...in place to repel the titanic Teutonic t#&ts...thank you Blazing Saddles and Mel Brooks for that line... 

Repelling attackers one wave at a time...  

Great looking opponents...these Teutons were painted by Mike and were available as a loaner army.

 

Unintentional hiatus...or...where's my gaming mojo?!?!

Howdy all,

In a blink of an eye and a flurry of activity and October and part of November are past...wow, that felt quick and horribly long all at the same time.  The past six odd weeks ended up being an unintentional hiatus from blog posting as life got very busy...and to be honest...

 

However, the over the past week, it looks like it's coming back...over the hiatus period I managed to paint through about 2/3's of a Great War infantry platoon, about 90% of a SAGA warrior unit, and a couple of other single random figures...the mojo looks to have come back as of last weekend.

 

I played in a SAGA tournament including my, <sheepish look> unfinished warriors, and got home and finished them up and then started base coating and flocking figures and stands of infantry...hooray!!

 



So, with that I think I can safely say...

Old West Gunslingers...a legend or two in the mix...

Howdy howdy all,

My buddy Mike has been on an Old West kick lately after he picked up the Dead Man's Hand ruleset and figures...in the past month or so he has put up a bunch of posts of his progress including a battle report.

Inspired, I grabbed a quick set of four figs to paint-up...I really do like the era and the figures, so this wasn't a particular hardship for me...I'm actually running near the end of my Old West minis...I'm almost at the end of figures I picked up from North Bay Hobbies.

These ones came up really fast, I was fairly surprised how easy they felt to paint this time.  Amongst the chosen, I painted up Pat Garrett, Kid Curry, Wild Bill, and William H...aka, Billy the Kid.  They only took a couple of nights for me to tackle, and one of the nights I also had the American History Channel show "Gunslingers" on in the background for inspiration...

I think my favorite episode so far is the Wild Bill...

 

of course, followed by Wyatt Earp (if for no other reason than to see a cheery Kurt Russell...

 

The figs...

 

Group shot...Mr. Garrett, Kid C, Wild Bill, and Billy the Kid... 

 

 Pat Garrett and Kid Curry

 

And larger than life, J.B. Hickok complete with longhorn belt buckle and army scouts sash, along with William H. Bonney...or Henry McCarty depending on your preference

 

Tomorrow's War - Miners 2249'er

Howdy folks,

A couple of weeks ago I managed to slog through another batch of figs that have stood fast for an extended period of time on the ole work bench.  I was lucky enough to get these figures from a buddy of mine at the club...can't remember what they cost, if anything...but he got them through a figure swap and had no interest in sci-fi...If my research is proving me correct, then these belong to micropanzer miniatures...I expect these troops to see action in Tomorrow's War as either an accompaniment to or belligerent force against my Neo-Sovs. 

In terms of backstory, I've painted these figs up in fairly obvious colours, no camouflage here...these are deep core miners for the Novo-Tajik Mining Consortium...they see action against the Neo-Sovs when the labour force goes on strike.  If I take them as Neo-Sovs, then these troops represent the assault force who are disguised as Novo-Tajik miners...they infill'ed into the mining camp on a NT transport craft in the same manner as when the Neo-Sovs descended on Kabulitz during the brief intervention invasion into Benbecula-stan.

Anyhow, here are the pics...enjoy.

Group shot...Green suits are the scouts, Reds are heavy support, Blues are the grunts, and 'Yellows' are the leaders...

 

Scouts...

 

Shot of the Reds with Blues in the background 

Special Ops groupshot + small preview...

Hello Folks,

A while back I completed a bunch of Khurasan Miniatures special ops figures...as I said before, I really enjoyed these ones...unfortunately, I seem to have a bugger of a time taking pictures of these ones and have struggled in the past.

Today I decided to give it another go...I changed my lighting setup as well as my shooting points and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

So, just a quick post, but I thought I'd share some promised group shots.

Take care.

Oh yeah...this past weekend I decided to get back to my Great War guys...here's a very small preview of a few stands I've worked on just to give me a feel for the basing and painting.