Grubby Adventurers

 Hi!

Just a quick post this evening with a sneaky peek at some adventurers that I put together from the Frostgrave plastic range.

I painted them with a mixture of my usual acrylics and some of the Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0 range and I must admit I'm really pleased with both the figures and the paints!

The Frostgrave miniatures go together well and are rather characterful with a good selection of grubby looking types for a great price and have enough options to ensure that no two are the same and have enough interesting accessories and details to be fun to paint without being fiddly. My only criticism of them is the cast on knives that the figures all have at their waists are a bit blobby but as they're mostly covered by arms its not really noticable.

 Similarly the detail on the entertainingly massive two handed sword hilt is a bit vague but it still paints up well but otherwise the figures are cracking and just what I needed to get out of the hobby slump and represent a bunch of suitably shady types for hire!

As I mentioned, I used a small selection of the Army Painter Speed Paints and I love them. Burnished Red applied by itself on a grey undercoat gives a rich dark brown that is easily highlighted while slightly watering it down and applying it over mid brown basecoat makes for a really nice wash. 

I've got a couple of other colours namely Red, Blue, Green and Yellow as well as Rosy Flesh and they're making painting fun and a relatively speedy experience again and while I'm probably not using them as intended, they are absolutely doing the job to the point I think I'm going to expand my collection in coming months!

I've still got another 15 miniatures from the original box to construct and paint and at present I'm not sure if I'm going to make them all blue themed or make a few different groups but the figures will come in handy for all manner of games which is why I went for a fairly neutral base with light texture and some washes of browns and orange.

While I've now got some goons, i want to paint up some heroes to do battle with them so I'll have a rummage in my bits box and pile of shame to see what I can find.

In the meantime, All the best!

Rumblings from Leviathan

 Hi!

Just a quick post this evening as I've decided to re-activate my old LEVIATHAN BLOG!

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the game's original release and its been a bit of an obsession with me on and off for nearly that entire time. I had originally intended on getting a Leviathan project off the ground this year but had a bit of a hobby slump combined with real world getting in the way of things so it got shelved but I've decided to have another bash at least getting the blog up again without all the spam comments and having it as a reference to folks interested in the game, its development and what might have been.

The Old Horde (sadly mostly gone now!)

I've also tentatively decided on putting together some small warbands for at least the four original factions over the course of the year like a lunatic.

I have however decided to do something a wee bit different with it though as there's no way I have enough space for the required 4'x8' board and tons of resin and lead figures which I'd never get chance to actually paint, let alone get a game for so I've delved back into my notes from previous projects and have decided to make it a bit more doable.

While the original game was supposed to be clashes of large armies, during a brief conversation with Neil Dunlop, the original rules writer for the game mentioned that it had originally been intended to be a skirmish game and I'm going to lean into this and make something more akin to Mad Max with magic.

Orc Spearmen

Using a mixture of resin, metal and plastic figures as well as a bit of sculpting and conversion, I plan on playing something a bit more like Gorkamorka with small gangs roaming the wastelands of Aeroth in search of loot! 

Orc Necrodon

The whole premise of the setting is that a magical apocalypse has happened so the survivors must explore the wastelands with all its perils in order to scavenge supplies so I think a skirmish game along these lines is potentially rather fun and will make for an interesting and engaging project for the medium to long term.

Lesser Goblin Wartower

With this in mind, my Leviathan blog is going to delve into the setting, its factions, the development of the original game, its figures and whatnot as well as the forces as they begin to develop!

This blog will continue as usual with everything else that I ramble on with but as Leviathan has been such a part, not to mention obsession of my hobby, I think it deserves its own record of progress, especially as its been running even longer than this one!

I'll be posting an update a week going forward on the Leviathan blog, initially focussing on getting the old articles revamped and more legible before then moving onto a project log next year. It will hopefully help me focus on the driving force of my hobby that has been one of those things that just hasn't worked out over the years.

In other news, I'm hoping to get some pics of my latest painted stuff tomorrow (weather permitting!) so until then, All the best!

Richard

Scrapbooked RPG Adventures

 Hi!

Just a quick update this afternoon as it's the last day of my hols and I'm back to work tomorrow!

I've got a group of minions painted up but its too gloomy to actually get the chance to take photos of them so I thought I'd post a quick run through of another project that I've been rather enjoying working on, namely my Wandering Library scrapbook RPG.

The premise is that you are the owner of the Wandering Library, a magically moving library that travels throughout different locations while you record the progress and write the story of your adventures.

It's an incredibly simple one page RPG set and its a rather charming process which has resulted in my character first being summoned into a new world in true Isekai fashion and then having to repair the rather ramshackle library before trundling around having slow life style adventures.

Thus far my story has seen my character arrive in the library and meet Mora the Golem who inhabits the library and is responsible for his summoning and set about exploring the Oakheart Forest and happening on a long abandoned city which has been largely overtaken by nature.

The ruins are not entirely uninhabited though as a small settlement called Oak Springs has grown up among the ruins. Here I meet Breglor, the owner of the Leaning Cloak Tavern, which has served customers for over a thousand years. Breglor is also a Golem who is mourning the disappearance of his creator, Pela who was somehow caught up in the magical catastrophe that resulted in the city being ruined.

He mentions that the city once had a library and I set out to explore the place but come a cropper when I fall off the ruined watchtower I've been using to survey the area and end up returning to the tavern empty handed. I do manage to salvage some much needed supplies to repair the library. While on my way home I stumble upon a fairy pool and have to deal with some meddlesome fae (one of whom ends up squished in the pages of the journal).

I get back to the library to find we've had company and end up meeting an Elven waywatcher called Eluned who is keen on us getting the library moved from the sacred glade she's charged with protecting and is supremely unimpressed by my diy skills so offers to get some craftsmen from her village to come and effect enough repairs to get the library moving.

With the library fixed up to at least a reasonable level, Mora and myself and vanish from the glade and arrive in the settlement of Oak Springs. Upon our return, Breglor suggests we may want to go see the local herbalist who knows the ruins like the back of his hand and may aid us in finding the lost library.

We go and visit the old man and find Helebore's Herbal and its rather crotchety old man called Helebore who tells us he's not encountered the library but his grand daughter Flora arrives and tells us about her invisible friend Boo. The next morning sees the library opened and the locals headed in to see what all the excitement is about and Flora and Helebore visiting to get some books and the young girl tell us that her friend is keen to meet us.

The next day sees us meeting up with the herbalist and his grand daughter and heading out into the ruins in search of both the missing library and indeed Flora's mysterious friend. We eventually encounter amid a tree chocked ruin a ghostly figure who Flora identifies as Boo, her friend. It is then revealed that Boo was the librarian Golem of the lost library and even after death she's kept the place as best as she could but it's become an increasingly difficult task as unfriendly ghosts have been drawn to the place and begs us to help deal with them and save her home.

This gets us up to date with my progress thus far! Its been really enjoyable to just potter about doodling and developing the story using all sorts of bits and bobs I've picked up over the years and making something a bit more interesting than my somewhat illegible scribblings in a journal!

I think my next step will be to clear the haunting menace from the library, which will hopefully give me a clue to the disappearance of Pela and possibly repair Boo before moving the library onto its next location.

I'm thinking of doing something similar for a campaign journal for an upcoming campaign game but tying it into my Miss Fisher project but we shall see how things go.

Hopefully my next day off will see there be enough daylight to get some photos taken of my warband progress but until then, All the best!