Old World Army Challenge, April

I finally finished all the painting for the OWAC. The last unit to be painted are the Chaos Knights. I've held off on these guys because I could not find all the bits to complete the unit. I lost the Standard Bearer figure. So I bought a figure off ebay to replace my lost guy.

The figure arrived in early April and I started painting early as opposed to waiting till the last week. I got the bases done, started the riders and started in on the horses. Then I just ran out of steam. I stopped working on them, or I was busy or I was playing Overwatch(my latest video game addiction). Anything but painting.

Finally in the last week, after some encouragement from the other painters in the challenge, I got back to work. I finished on the last day, of course. Got some pics and I was done!!!

Here are the knights. I will do a wrap up post with all the units in a few days.

I didn't paint a design on the plain shields as I can't do that to save my life. I will either buy some transfers or ask a friend to paint them on. What a fun challenge. We have already talked about doing it again, but not too soon. What a great way to motivate  you to paint. I now have a 1000(more like 1300) point chaos army, that I didn't have 6 months ago.

Cheers, Xin

Old World Army Challenge, March

Trying to catch up on posts I meant to make months ago...sigh.

Anyway, here is March's entry to the OWAC.

I finally finished my Chaos Warriors. These guys I started back in December, but had to take my mulligan that month. Then I did my Jan and February submissions I went with Dragon Ogres and Harpies. The OWAC is almost over and so time to get back to these guys.

I held off on them for so long as I was not sure how I wanted to paint them. While I love the look of GW's painted figures from back in the early day, bright, bold and garish, that is not my style. So I wanted a little more subdued paint scheme. In the end I did not get some new inspiration, but painted them to match the Chaos Knights I had already painted. Here we go.

10 Old GW Chaos Warriors

 These guys are big, I had to play a lot of mix and match to get them to fit together base to base in formation.

I didn't paint any specific command figures. These guys are pretty bad ass all on their own. Though I think I see at least one, maybe two champions in there. I can run them as one unit or two.

 Chaos Warriors with Air Support.

Putting the CW's next to the Dragon Ogres really shows how big the DOs are.

Group Shot.

As I'm behind I should have time to get April's figures up soon. A unit of Chaos Knights up soon.

Xin

Warbands for Cold Wars FGA game

I have been frantically painting for my Cold Wars game. I have 3 warbands done, with more in varies stages of completion. I am re-using 2 warbands from my Frostgrave game, Skaven and my Cleric warbands. 

These are all Northstar plastics, FGA Crewmen, Oathmark Dwarves and Goblins. My friend Lou painted the Gobbo's and Crewmen. 

The Goblins

My Arabian Knights.

My Dwarves.

I really need to tweak the pics before posting, the color gets washed out. 

More to come,

Xin/Jeff

Something stirs in Frostgrave...

Here is a Pathfinder Battles figure I picked up on ebay. It's an Owlbear from the Rusty Dragon Inn set of pre painted plastic figures. Named Beaky. The Owlbear is a classic D&D monster. Great for terrifying lower level parties. 

I loved the model when I first saw it, as I wanted to add it to Frostgrave. I decided to come up with an arctic paint job to make it fit Frostgrave.

As you can see from the picture, he's a big fellow. I think I will add him to the Cold Wars game in March.


Xin

Last painted miniatures of 2016

I finished these on New Years Eve before we went out. Gnolls from Northstar Figures. I got them with the Nickstarter Deal for Frostgrave. Nickstarter is a pre-order program run by Nick Eyre of Northstar.

I'm actually one Nickstarter behind in my painting. I've got the Barbarians which are brilliant. I'll paint those soon. 

Back to the Gnolls. You get 20 in a box, with lots of options from the sprues. In the box are 4 sprues with 5 Gnolls per sprue. Some of the options you can arm your Gnolls with, 2-handed weapon, Xbow, bow, sword, axe, dagger, and spear. 

I made mine up with Frostgrave in mind, so armed as soldiers I would pick from Frostgrave. 

I also converted 2 too be a Wizard and Apprentice so I can have an all Gnoll Warband.

Ok on with the pictures.

 Wizard and Apprentice. Wizard Staff and Orb from Reaper. I converted a spear for the Apprentice to match the Wizard. Apprentice wearing a backpack from the Frostgrave Soldier box, with green stuff straps.

 My 2 handed choppers. This will cover Infantryman, Templar, Barbarian

 My shield bearers. Good for Gnoll-at-arms and Knight.

 Dual wielding Gnolls. I would use them for my Treasure Hunters. Or Thief.

 These guys just have a single weapon. You need thugs to carry all that treasure.

And lastly my missile support. These can be Archers, Trackers, or Rangers.

I missed some troop types, but you can make them if you want to with what's in the box. I also have some Wardogs on the way and a few other things.

Here's the whole gang laid out for some action.

After painting these guys up, I ordered a 2nd box. I will expand this Warband into a Dragon Rampant sized force. The 2nd box will round out unit sizes. So 2 more archers for a total of 6. Three more 2 handed guys for 6, and so on. I am pretty sure I will need a 3rd box, but trying to control myself. You know, the unpainted pile has to be kept under control.

More too come in 2017. Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Xin

Painting update from January

Here's a few things I finished in January, but didn't get around to posting. First up some items to spruce up my Dungeon. One of these days I'll get around to actually playing a game instead of just blogging about it. For me having all the little details really brings a table to life. You can't have enough accessories or scenic items. The more you have the more life like it becomes.

So this is a mix of stuff I've been collecting over the years.

I have a lot more to paint but this is a good start.

WS is Windsword Accessories. I think some of their stuff is Hirst Arts
RB is Reaper Bones
MM is Mega Miniatures, sadly now out of production.

Next up is Otherworld Stirges

 A Stirge is a mosquito-like monster from the 1st edition of AD&D.

Picture from the AD&D Monster Manual

Monster Manual artwork, Stirges attacking.

At Fall In I picked up a Swarm Pack for 1/2 off since Architects of War was dumping their line of Otherworld Mini's. Too bad as I would pick some up at every convention. I hate paying for shipping.

 I got half of them painted up.

Otherworld nailed them spot on as they look in the Monster Manual

Mean little bastards.

Good thing they only have 1 hit die.

Hopefully real life will ease up some so I can get back to painting and terrain building. Until then, thanks for looking, Xin

Stocking up the dungeon

With the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons coming out this year, I thought it was a good time to dive back into Roleplaying. Playing D&D was how I got into this hobby when my brother brought the game home from college in 1977. All it took was one session and I was hooked. At some point my interests switched over to Wargaming and RPG's got shelved for about 20 years.

I bought the Players Handbook when it came out and for Christmas I got the Monster Manual and DM's Guide. The excuses not to play are getting fewer and fewer. In the last few months, the focus of my painting has been to towards monsters. So here are some Reaper Bones Mummies I bought recently. I'm pleased they were painted with in 2 weeks of purchasing them. That is not how it normally goes...

Here they are, in my Dwarven Forge Dungeon. I double stacked the walls for a better picture.

They come 3 to a blister and are all the same pose. I tried the hot water trick to bend them into different poses, but I didn't use hot enough water. So I cut the head off one and turned it. I cut the torso of another and turned it so the arm is more forward.

I tried to cheat on the bases. Using grey's and browns and a brown flock so they won't look horrible outside or in the dungeon. It's a compromise that I can live with. Mounted on one inch fender washers and the bases covered with a gel medium to hide the molded base. Other than that, it was easy just dry brushing lighter and lighter colors.

 This is a Reaper Bones Mocking Beast. Or better known in D&D as a Mimic. This clever monster morphs into something like a treasure chest too lure in greedy adventurers. Once in close the mouth opens and chomp chomp chomp.

 Mounted on a one inch fender washer. The washer has a thin layer of gel medium for texture and painted in grays as this is a dungeon monster.

 I painted parts of it shades of pink as I imagine it's morphing during the attack to get at the adventurers

 Some adventurers want to see what's in the chest after defeating the Mummies. Here are 2 Reaper(left) and one very old Citadel figure(right).

I hope he doesn't lose that hand. I just noticed 2 things about this picture. First is I didn't finish the base, Bad Xin, Bad. Secondly, the camera mode I used washed out the subtle drybrushing and it looks like crap. or half done.

I am building a new "stage" to photograph my painted figures. Once done I will have some more Reaper, Otherworld and an old Citadel figure to show off.

Thanks for reading, Xin