11th October - Rock Terrain Project

I saw the how to for these particular rocks on the Beasts of War site in a Hobby Lab bit and I've been meaning to have a go at them ever since. I felt like a bit of a palette cleanse from the Abyssal Half-breeds (although they're not too far from finished, depending on how I go might even get them done this week) so I grabbed the sponges and got cracking.

The first step which I didn't think to take a quick photo of was to super glue them down to some MDF bases I'd picked up from Miniature Scenery CNC Workshop. Then I shaped them with a mix of cutting and tearing to get some uneven lines and then a liberal coating of a cheap black acrylic mixed 50/50 with water so it could soak into the sponge. Then I grabbed a spray tin of Tamiya Grey Violet and gave it a good coating.

Then I gave them all a fairly heavy dry brush with Army Painter Ash Grey.








Followed by a lighter dry brush with Vallejo Model Color Stone Grey.








Then I used a mix a dry brushing on some of the overhangs and dabbing in some of the crevasses with Vallejo Model Colour Yellow Green.










The next step was to give the bases a coat with Army Painter Oak Brown and the edges a quick run over with Vallejo Model Colour Flat Green.







The final couple of steps were to give the bases a coat of watered down PVA and get some static grass down and then a little bit of flock spot glued here and there. I've still got to give them a final seal to give them a bit of durability but I really wanted to get them on a table to see what they looked like.

I was supposed to be getting that rescheduled game of Frostgrave in with Toby tonight but he had a few things come up so Arwen and I are planning to make use of the table tomorrow afternoon for another game ourselves. I've added a few more bits of pieces to the table since I took the photo and I've come up with a bit of a scenario so hopefully we get the game in with out too much hassle.

I'm planning to do another set soon but using a lighter shade of grey for the spray coat for a bit of variety. I've also begun to glue my remaining Guildball teams and players together (you can see them in the background of one of the photos), Arwen finally decided on which team she wants to begin with (Brewers) and testing a theory on saving shelf space and making it easier to knock down my painting backlog.

23rd May - Buildings!

It's been quite a busy month for me so haven't got as much done as I would have liked. But I have been chipping away at my growing pile of Mantic Battlezone terrain. My Deadzone Infestation kickstarter arrived last week and it put me into a bit of ruined structure focus. The Wife and I have already played a couple of small games with the new rules and I believe they are a much nicer set, streamlining play while keeping the gritty feel. The Youngest and I will hopefully be getting a game in soon as well.

I've got some more industrial themed buildings with this kickstarter as well so that will possibly be my next project depending on how the next month goes.

I'm still considering adding a touch of soot to the vent wall on the last building as well as adding a bit of a metallic feel to the ladders but overall I'm pretty happy with the way they're coming along.

7th January - Quick Hobby Update

Just a quick one before I head off to work today. I've got a few shots of the last couple of Antenocitis Workshop Forward Base buildings and a shot of my Cracked Earth Studio buildings.

The Forward Base Buildings:

Hab 8 - Recreation Centre

Hab 5 - Workshop + TAG Bay

Hab 9 - Armoury

[This will look more impressive once I get the gun inserts painted and in the cabinets :)]

And the prepainted Cracked Earth Terrain:

They are slightly modular with the sphere in cog on the tower and the water tank & one of the chimney stacks being removable from the inn. I'm definitely going to be picking up the ruined building they have on offer and possibly one or two other bits as well.

That's about it for today, I've started painting up the rest of the gargoyles for Kings of War so I'll hold off with the pics of the completed unit and just put them all up when they're done.

1st January - Happy New Years!! and The Last Week

Happy New Year!

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last update with work, Christmas Day and all the bits in between. Hope everyone has had a nice couple of weeks and caught up with friends, family and hobby :).

First off I would like to publicly thank my lovely wife for her main gift of Kingdom of Death: Monster. I've yet to begin assembling any of the many, many, many.... many sprues in the box but I'm definitely looking forward to getting into it soon.











The Christmas Tourney went off well, while we only got two rounds in thanks to some of us (The Brother and myself) getting a little carried away with Christmas cheer everyone had a great time. We ended up with eight players two Vikings, one Pagan Rus, one Welsh, one Irish, one Norse Gael, one Anglo-Danish and one Anglo-Saxon. The Brother took out the day with two solid wins with his Rus. We're thinking next year it'll be probably be a Boxing day tourney so that we manage to get all the rounds in but these are the things you learn as you run family holiday tournaments :).

I've been spending most of today sorting, checking and assembling my Forward Base Power Strain Plus pledge from the Antenocitis Workshop Terrain for Infinity kickstarter. I've assembled six of the buildings so far today and I've only come across one slightly miss packed bag of resin and one missing perspex bag which I'll get sorted out once I've finished the lot. I have to say I'm impressed with the quantity and quality of product I got for myself on this one. I'm only putting the basic structure together at the moment, I'll wait till it's all together before I start assembling the resin exterior and interior pieces but I think already they are an exceptional product and the adding of the final details can only improve that opinion.

 Cargo Containers

 Hab 1 - General Purpose

+

Hab 3 - Dormitory

 Hab 6 - Science Lab

Hab 7 - Admin/Comm Tower

Hab 4 - Big "L"

Hab 2 - Med Lab

They all have internal scatter and various other resin components. I'm hoping to tackle another building or two tonight but we'll see how it goes, either way I'm pretty sure I'll have the basic assembly done in the next few days. I've also knocked together The Wife's Anglo-Danish hovels I got her for Christmas though I still have to finish off the thatching on the roofs.




Gaming wise I'm heading up to The Brothers place on Sunday and we're aiming to get a game or two of Saga in, and then possible another one or something else here on Monday possibly. I've finished off my test regiment of Gargoyles for my Abyssal Dwarf army but I haven't quite got around to getting a photo done yet.

21st December - Saga Game, Hobby and Christmas Tournament Preperations

It's been a bit of a busy week with the Christmas build up at work but I've persevered with hobby along side it all.

I was up at The Brother's house on Saturday for The Sister-in-Law's birthday so we decided to get a bit of a game starting before lunch and then finishing it off after we'd returned. The game had The Brother, The Eldest Nephew, The Eldest and I face off in the A Feast for the Crows scenario.

The game began with the normal first turn moving spree. The Nephew used his second turn to send his rather heavily armoured Beserkers across the table at me and even though most of his men were swiftly recruited to Valhalla only six of my brave Warriors fell. On the far edge of the table the Pagan Rus and Norse Gael quickly closed on each other.

The Norse Gael warriors closed on the Pagan Rus but fate was not with the brave souls on this day and while they did bring down one stalwart Rus Hearthguard only one Dane axe wielding man survived to pull back from the fray. On the other Norse Gael flank my warriors slammed into The Eldest's other warrior unit crying out to Freya and Ullr. While two of my men fell they pushed back the Norse Gael leaving four of them lying dead at the site of the skirmish. The Nephew then closed the turn with a cheeky Loki taking my surviving two warriors from his previous attack.


The Brother took the opportunity offered to him and charged The Eldest's exposed warchief taking him out and unfortunately for my daughter her cursed dice continued as she failed to kill any of the attackers. The Norse Gael warriors hurled their javelins at my warriors felling two more of the brave men. This was followed up by a brutal attack killing two more of my men with her losing one of her hearthguard. I retaliated with a charge from my own hearthguard cutting her remaining hearthguard down.

I decided to take the offered bait from The Nephew charging my Beserkers into his Hearthguard the brutal combat ending with all men lying dead on the ground. I then decided enough was enough and put The Eldest out of her misery for today's game finishing off her remaining warriors and vanquishing her from the field. The Nephew then decided to send his warchief over in an attempt to draw me out for a duel, but with the constant use of his fatigue the poor man fell short. With the generous amount of fatigue on the board thanks to the combats The Brother finally pulled Endless Waste out of his arsenal and began to reap the victory points.

The last couple of turns had the Great Winter roll in limiting all movement. I looked at closing on The Brother's forces but they were sadly out of reach. The Nephew Loki'd my second tattered warrior unit and I finally gave in and closed on his warchief although I brought a handy group of hearthguard along with me and at the cost of one of my loyal followers took out the rival warchief.

The final score saw The Brother take victory with sixteen victory points although I wasn't far off the pace with twelve. The Nephew got a respectable ten and unfortunately The Eldest only managed four and a half, but I have to point out that her dice were heavily cursed on the day.





Painting wise I took a break from my Abyssal Dwarves and knocked over a Jotum for my Pan O Infinity faction. I'm not sure if it will ever actually be played with now though as The Wife has decided she likes the look of the Tohaa which we've now bought the bulk of a first attempt at a 300 point force.

I've also got the table's set up for the Christmas tournament. It's looking like there'll be ten of us playing so I've got five 3x3 play areas set up. I'm thinking we'll be running two boards as Crossing the Fords, two as just a standard fight and possibly one as Sacred Ground.

Finally I've almost finished a small stone circle for the Sacred Ground board, I just want to add a few vines or some poison ivy to the stones themselves and I've gone back to my Abyssal Dwarves starting work on my gargoyles.