Summersby Retainers

Hi!

Well after quite a delay in finishing them, the first of the Summersby retainers have been finished!

Summersby Retainers

I'd usually be able to churn out quite a number of painted figs in this scale quite quickly but the detail on the Demonworld sculpts is really top notch and required a bit of effort to get the best out of them and do them justice!

Hopefully I can get through the next five a little more quickly though but its hard to believe that they are  15mm scale and mounted on 15mm square bases!

Instead of going for a super bright colour scheme, I decided on a more downbeat look with a white and grey uniform mixed in with some non standard gear to give them a bit more of a sense of being a down and out unit following an out of favour duke and living on a wild frontier. Future units may have a more thrilling colour scheme but for the time being, I am quite happy with what I've got!

In other news, I have been re-examining my Battletech gubbins and having looked at the cost of buying new mechs, am seriously considering moving to a different scale. Theres some reasoning behind this though, firstly the Mechwarrior Dark Age plastic clicky mechs are still fairly easy to get hold of and secondly Reaper is going to be releasing CAV in plastic too! Its a sad state when its cheaper to buy a chunky 10mm scale figure than it is a 6mm scale one!

For anyone interested, its well worth a peek over on SPACEMAN SPIFFS BLOG as the stuff he produces in 10mm is truly amazing!

All the best!

Conquest of a New World Oldhammer Style

Hi!

Following on from my last post, I have decided to try and sort out what I am going to do over the coming months.

I had thought about sorting out a campaign based on the Warhammer world but just couldn't bring myself to do it as I've never been too big a fan of the setting itself. Instead I am going to use Crucible with an Oldhammer twist!

For folks who have followed this blog or my old Leviathan one, Crucible has been a favorite setting of mine for quite a while, ever since reading the rulebook back when it was first released and it perfect for theming a campaign around!

The setting itself is rather interesting and bears a bit of time being spent explaining it!

The lost continent of Crucible has been discovered by a ship of the Queens navy which was blown far off course and lost in an impenetrable mist. The human crew landed and found a mighty continent dotted with strange ruins containing artefacts of great power from an ancient and forgotten civilisation.

This wild and untamed land is inhabited by Orcs which inhabit the great savannah that lies in the centre of the continent and they are not surprisingly distrustful of the invaders but word spreads and the other races of Ashkelon send their own expeditions to explore its mysterious interior.

Essentially its a fantasy version of the conquest of the new world, something that GW began exploring back in the days of 2nd edition of Warhammer and then forgot all about for over a decade and even now its not really fully fleshed out. Crucible on the other hand has some great ideas and is just the setting to allow me to footle around with both 15mm and 28mm scale stuff as the forces will be rather small initially, representing exploration parties of all the races.

This brings me onto the setting of the project itself. I am going to use my attempts to clear my lead pile and make the most of the space I have to chronicle the adventures of the Duke of Summersby, a lord who has fallen out of favour with the Queen and has left his ancestral lands in the old world to settle the new one along with his family and followers.

This will allow me to set some realistic targets for what I want to do and give me some goals to work towards with the initial plan being to paint up Summersby and his immediate retainers this month using some Demonworld figures from Ral Partha Europe!

The initial aim is to get a couple of units of 10-12 sorted out along with Summersby himself and over the coming week or so I hope to add a bit more background and a campaign map too!

All the best!

Gaming Space

Hi!

Well I am back from my hols, relaxed and ready for my return to work tomorrow but have been having a bit of a ponder on where I am with my various projects at the moment.

I seem to have been getting quite a bit of painting done over the last month or two which is great but have come to the realisation that theres no way I am going to be able to play Oldhammer in 28mm scale. Theres a couple of reasons for this, one being the cost of collecting a decent number of 80s/90s sculpts which due to the popularity of Old School Gaming at the moment has risen considerably over the last 18 months or so making it increasingly difficult for me to collect a force without spending an arm and a leg.

Coupled with the fact that I paint at a rather glacial pace, the prospect of spending months to get even a small force put together is rather unappealing.

Slow Progress!

The second and greater stumbling block is the fact that I just don't have much gaming space. In fact I can only just manage a 2'x3' board which makes for a rather cramped game.

Small Space!

I have however come up with what might be a bit of a solution! Firstly I will be using my 28mm scale stuff for small RPG lite type skirmishes and relying on 15mm scale for larger battles essentially allowing me to collect up a decent army quite quickly and cheaply and play a game by simply halving all the ranges and movement! 

Skirmish Fun!

Hurrah for 15mm!

I also hope to flesh out my small 6mm forces a bit too and actually get a game or two in as well and looking back at my old posts, I had a vague idea of getting some down at heel mercenaries put together using Battletech figures too!

A Squat Platoon

I actually have enough bits and bobs to represent quite a few forces of Marines, Orks, Eldar and Chaos not to mention Squats so who knows what I will get round to painting next. I suspect that its going to be important to keep varying it to keep me interested so I don't get bored!

All the best!

Deadzone Kickstarter

Hi!

Well I'm off on my hols to the south coast for the week but spotted that Mantic Games has launched a rather interesting new kickstarter campaign, Deadzone!


It's a rather interesting looking concept which features their Warpath Sci-fi setting and features a combination of miniatures game and boardgame and features small groups of figures fighting for resources on a doomed planet infested with mutant monstrosities.


The contagion are mutant creatures unleashed with the discovery of some sort of lost alien tech which turns anyone infected by it into a homicidal killing machine and the sculpts kind of remind me of the rather fun game Trimity by White Wolf Publishing. What's even better is the rather old school orx:


I must admit I'm really rather tempted by a game that only requires a small number of figures and a 3 foot square surface which is most definitely of interest to those of us with very limited gaming space! It has a distinct Necromunda type of vibe to it too and it will be interesting to see how it develops!

All the best!

Dark Elf Crossbowman

Hi!

Heres the latest addition to my warband in the form of a Crossbowman:

 Crossbowman

He's another Grenadier Dark elf. Sadly I lost the tip of his crossbow and have had to bodge another and he had a miscast face so I had to cheat a bit and resculpt his hair a bit to hide it but he looks ok!

Groupshot

Rummaging around my bits box, I only have another three Dark Elves to paint but I am trying to avoid buying anything until I have painted everything in my leadpile so they will have to do for the moment!

Heres a quick shot of what I painted in March too. Not too bad considering how slow I tend to be at painting!

 Fantasy Gubbins

Sci-fi Gubbins

I doubt I will be quite so productive this month but I seem to be doing ok thus far!

All the best!

Dark Elf Warband Witchelf

Hi!

Just a quick update with a new female addition to the Dark Elf Warband I am working on:

Witchelf

She's originally from the old FASA Crucible range and is rather characterful and includes some rather gruesome trophies in the form of a jawbone and ribcage armour!

Although a bit different in style from the Grenadier elves, the Crucible ones are rather well done and I will have to have a rummage and see if I still have any others!

All the best!

Dark Elf Warband Captive Audience

Hi!

Well I seem to have managed to finish a couple more bits and bobs in the form of a captive and some unspeakable horrors!

 Ramshackle Games Trixie

I must admit Trixie is a great fun figure to paint and whats even better is she is free with any Ramshackle Games order! She should make a perfect objective for games too!

 Giant Spider and Grimelf Leader

Spiderbeing

The Spiderbeing is a repainted D&D bendy plastic Ettercap but is doing ok for a monsterous creature until I find something better and is suitably gross with its bulging sack like gut and excessive veins!

I have some more giant spiders to paint and will try and even get another Elf sorted out too!

All the best!