Brian Nelson Big'uns

Firstly, a confession, these are not really Oldhammer, being sculpted in the mid 90s.  But I really like them, so I'll be including them in my orc force anyway. I got these three via a swap, and they got pushed up the painting queue. There's a simplicity about them that appeals to me, and the painting choices are easy. 

All three were designed by Brian Nelson early on in his career at Citadel.  Sadly, although he went on to sculpt many iconic Citadel minis, he only orcs he did were these three troopers and three command minis.  I have the standard bearer, and I'm looking for more to bulk out the unit a bit.  I'm avoiding evilbay, as most of the sellers on there seem to have solid gold versions, judging by the buy it now prices.

Planning to Paint

Everything about these models is either skin, metal or equipment. No clothes or anything else. This does mean that they could look a bit dull, so I want something to add interest, which means the shields and any little bits of decoration (basically the belt buckle) will have to provide that colour and brightness.

I have a rough guide when painting units.  If the unit is mono-pose, or the minis are very similar, I try and add variety in the paint scheme.  If the minis are varied, with different poses and equipment, I try to give them some uniformity through the colours.  Of course, sometimes this is inappropriate, such as for uniformed regulars, but its a good general rule.  For these orcs I was looking for that variety, so I chose different skin tones, and decided to have different shields with some variety of background colour.

The actual painting was straightforward, using my standard orc painting style. As with the goblin wolf riders I added a bit of extra detailing after the wash.

Shields - a Splash of Colour

I had originally planned on using more of the Marauder shields, the ones with the Evil Sun, to give a nice bit of red, but a full unit of theses can looking rather regular. So to give a bit more variation I chose a selection of the old plastic Citadel shields.

While I deciding what to paint on them I looked at the standard bearer; there's a skull on the top of the pole, which got me thinking of skulls on shields, but not white skulls, red skulls.  To give even more colour and variety I decided to paint the background of each shield different.  These are taken from defeated enemies that the orcs added their own symbol onto.

I may come back to these and add a bit more detail, the eyes could do with a pupil, maybe red, and the red skull looks a bit crude. Then again, it was painted by orcs. I suppose a bit of blood on the severed head, though I'm not a fan of painting lots of gore on minis.

Once again I really enjoyed painting these lovely minis. I like the look of the trophy shields, and I have some similar plans for the standard bearer. 

One observation though, for Big'uns they aren't actually that tall. They slouch and are quite bulky, but I like that look. If only the range were bigger.

*EDIT* As Snapfit mentions below, GW have re released these for The Old World.  They are available as a command pack and a trooper pack with five minis.  While not cheap, I've seen single minis for more than a pack on evilbay.

Boardgame Night: Warlock and Kingdominos

The MEGAforce played a couple of games last night, one old one and one new one.

Warlock

I remember Games Workshop's Warlock from decades ago.  It was a staple at the Kirklees Military Modelling and Gaming Society, but how well does it stand up today?  I dug out my copy to show the rest of the group.

The aim is to be the last remaining wizard and claim the title of Warlock. The 'currency' of the game is magical energy, which is used to cast spells. There are 128 spell cards (with lovely nostalgic artwork) which are used to attack or defend and can have either a magical effect or a physical one. Think of this as casting spells directly or summoning help. A matrix shows which spell counters which, for example the 'Damsel in Distress' can be used to counter the 'Hero', and the 'Saint' can be used to counter most of the monsters.  It's left to the players' imaginations exactly how this happens. Physical effects can always be dealt with by summoning something else bigger to fight, or even tooling up the wizard with a magic weapon to sort it out themselves.

If a spell can't be countered the victim is banished to Limbo.

The game is played out over a series of three duel rounds, and the last wizard with any magical power is the winner.

The game, from its components to its slightly fiddly game play, is very much of it's time. The experience was also slightly hampered by me confusing the various house rules we used back in the day with the actual rules as written. Careful re-reading showed me just how far we had departed from the official version. 

Warlock in play

Kingdomino

Kingdomino is a kingdom building game where the aim is to have contiguous terrain types with crowns (representing resources) in them. The game has nice chunky tiles and wooden meeples for the kings. There's even a little card castle for each ruler. Scoring multiplies the number of contiguous terrain by the number of crowns in each terrain. There is an elegant method of picking the dominoes, where picking the least value tile one round gives you first choice next round.

My kingdom, bottom right, is mostly lake and wheat fields

It took us about 40 minutes to play through a full game. Sadly my huge lake lacked enough crowns to win me the game, Andy did much better with his mountains.

The winning kingdom

Opinion

Of the two games I preferred Kingdomino. Play was simpler and more streamlined, but there is plenty of tactical choice involved. If I'm grading these games I'd give Warlock a B. It's still fun, but I think game mechanics (and components) have generally improved over the years. 

I'll give Kingdominos a solid A, it was much easier to pick up and I had more fun. I should say that it is marketed as a game for younger people than the MEGAforce, which might explain the relative simplicity and shorter gameplay time. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

*EDIT* I should point out that Kingdominos is available from many stockists, including the big South American river.  There is a younger audience version called Dragominos, Queendominos, which is both a stand alone game and a supplement to Kingdominos, and also a supplement to either King- or Queen- dominoes called Age of Giants

Oldhammer Goblin Wolf Riders

I posted recently showing three wolves, now here are the riders.

MM32/2(b), MM34/2 (b) and MM32/1 (a)

A Change of Plan 

After preparing these three Marauder goblins I decided to keep these for the matching Marauder wolves. I have some of the Kev Adams Citadel goblins, so I chose my favourite to go on the Citadel wolf, 0706/14 Gaglob 2.

Painting the Goblins 

I gave each goblin a slightly different skin colour. There was no attempt at uniform colours for clothing and equipment. 

I used my standard orc method of base coat, extreme highlights and wash, but given that I'm only painting a few of these I gave them extra highlights after the wash and tried to give them better detailing.

The three Marauder goblins, with Gaglob 2 on the right*

The Shields

All the goblins have a stud to hold a plastic shield. Unlike most of Citadel's plastic shields, where the stud fits through a hole and acts as the shield boss, the Marauder shields have a recess rather than a hole and the stud is a lot shallower. The Marauder shields all have moulded detail. I still have some of these, so it seems appropriate to use them. I was tempted to use the crescent shields with a wolf on them, but in the end I chose a small round shield with wicker texture and a small 'Evil Sun' boss.

Blurry shields*

So there they are, three lovely old school goblin wolf riders. You may notice that I've painted the wolves' eyes in yellow since their last post.

I'm pleased with how they've come out, and I'll get the remaining wolves (two Marauder ones) painted soon.  I have one painted rider already, and a couple more unpainted, one of which is missing a hand, so may become a standard bearer.

I'm also pretty pleased with the photography.  Again just using my phone, but this time experimenting with the Portrait setting and the Food filter, both of which seem to accentuate the warmer tones.

This goblin appears to have picked his shield up upside down!

At this point I would usually remark that in fact, this is more than I ever actually managed to properly complete back when I originally collected them, but not this time. I had a unit of ten Goblin Wolf Riders back then, although they were Citadel rather than Marauder. I remember being very pleased with them, though they never did very well on the battlefield. They did suffer from varnish misting; repeated applications of newer varnish never quite corrected it. 

Apart from Warhammer, they also saw action in a 3E D&D adventure where the characters had to defend a hamlet from marauding goblinoids and an Oni. Leave a comment if you remember High Verge.

* Yes, blurry pictures.  Despite the attempts at better photography, these are just WiP snapshots, and I actually can't tell how out of focus they are until I see them on my PC screen, by which time i've moved on in the painting process.

Artefacts From My Gaming Past 5 - Even More Orc's Drift

I don't just find old minis or games as I tidy through my accumulated 'stuff'. I recently found more photos taken when we played the multiplayer Bloodbath at Orc's Drift campaign may years ago.  You can find a bit more about that here.

These photos were taken at the first session, where we played the first three scenarios on three separate tables.  

Kachas Pass

The aim here is for the elves to hold off the orcs long enough to escape, helped, hopefully, by reinforcements from the woods.  The lovely stockade was provided by Bodvoc.

The Orcs advance on the Kachas Pass outpost

Nearly at the gate

The Rock Giant Guthrum Mane leads the assault, in the compound the defenders have to deal with an escaped half orc spy

Ashak Rise

Meanwhile, the dwarven outpost of Ashak Rise is gripped with gold fever.  No heroics here, when the orcs appear the dwarves just want to load up their gold and go.  The building is the 'Rough Inn' from the Tragedy of McDeath pack, I still have it, it's overdue a bit of restoration and a better paint job.

Orcs on the horizon, and Hobhounds at the river bank

The dwarves and their mules flee down the road

Linden Way

The garrison at Linden Way must hold out long enough for the villagers to escape.  I still have two of the buildings.

Guards in the watchtower nervously look out on the advancing orcs

The action moves into the village

Orcs attacking the villagers

Sadly I can't remember what the outcome of any of the games was.  If I had to guess, I'd suggest that the elves at Kachas Pass successfully held out, it's difficult to shift elven archers from a defended position.  The dwarves at Ashak Rise look to be escorting their gold off, but it doesn't look good for the villagers of Linden Way in the last picture.

If you want to see some pictures of the final battle at Orc's Drift, you can find them here and here.

I hope you found this nostalgia trip interesting, it certainly brought back memories for me.

More Miniature Photography

I was so pleased with the results of the photos taken using the new backdrop that I decided to do more photos.

These are minis that have been featured on my blog before, but I'm taking the opportunity to get better photos.

One point, the hydra was photographed in daylight, these were all done in the evening with room lights on. It certainly made a difference, with the photos being much cooler and bluer. Still, I was able to alter the colour balance and get better colours.

The three wood elves first seen here 

Half the dwarves 

And the rest from here.

And Flosi and Praetorius 

Despite altering the colour balance, I'm not quite as happy with these, I'm posting them because I think it makes an interesting point about light levels and quality. I doubt I'll retake these again, unless I suddenly get a better way of photographing minis.

Lesson learned, photograph in the daytime.

75K!

Well, not long ago I posted I'd reached 50000 views, and only a short while later my blog is over 75000. 

I'm aware that not all the views are genuine, but given how a topic is followed through various posts, I think many are. It's nice to think that people around the world are reading my words and sharing my hobby experiences.

Big Thank yous 

I'd like to thank everyone who reads it, especially folk who come back to see what's new. If you leave a comment, you're a real star, these show that fellow hobbyists are directly engaging with my content.

If you want to go even further, share my content with other hobbyists, and maybe think about subscribing.

Looking Ahead 

That out of the way, where is the blog heading in the future? I don't imagine there will be any major new projects. Whilst I'm not winding down my hobbying, I am reassessing what I paint and what I play. I'm part way through a massive sort out and clear out of all my stuff, as I've discussed in several posts recently. I suspect that in a few months time I'll have a smaller collection, but one that's far more useable and (fingers crossed) with far more painted minis.

Oldhammer, or Old School, has been a big feature recently. However, this is a bit of a vanity project. Realistically I can't see myself going back to the original rule sets, but the minis may find a use in Dragon Rampant, and small groups of minis are always useful in skirmish games like Fistful of Lead or Frostgrave. I've also recently got interested in trying Rangers of the Shadow Deep. I'm sure that I'll find a use for some of the Old School minis, but it will also prompt me to get some of the VPoURB* done. I'll be trying RotSD with the MEGAforce once I've got the requirements for the first scenario done.

The VPoURB is an issue. As part of the sorting out exercise I'm once again looking at minis for D&D. Sadly, at the moment, I don't have a face to face group going, and I'm not sure that's likely in the near future. As I discussed during lockdown, I do seem to need a vague target for my hobby activities (even if it's just to ignore), and there just doesn't seem to be one for all this stuff.

To compound the issue, there'll be a big box of the latest Kickstarter Bones arriving soon.

I recently spent some time in Anglesey (highly recommended) and a couple of things are inspiring me to get back to my Trident Realm. Two of the things that have stumped me with this army are colour schemes and basing. A trip to the Anglesey Sea Zoo gave me some colour ideas, but I'm not sure if I can match them. It should be possible to get something close though.

I'm thinking the pale blue fish in the background.

As for basing, this looks about right to me.

Red Wharf Bay - Littoral zone

A sandy base with some patches of water and raised areas of grass.

Well that's plenty to be going on with, I wonder what I'll have achieved by the time I get to 100 000 views?

*Vast Pile of Unpainted Reaper Bones**

** Not all Reaper Bones, though largely. There are some of the WotC prepainted minis saved from the cull, some Heroclix minis, and assorted other bits and pieces.

Oldhammer Wolves

Evil Cavalry 

As I continue to clear through the piles of old minis, I'm putting to one side anything that I think will fit my Oldhammer project.

I recently found these three wolves, along with a handful of goblin wolf riders, so I decided that a unit of three (to be later expanded to six) would be a great addition to Team Evil.

The models are two Marauder Miniatures wolves, MM32 (W1) and MM34 (W1) and one Citadel wolf 4787/9 wolf 1

What Colour is a Wolf?

I've done some googling, and miniature painters seem to choose either greys or browns for wolves. A bit more research into real wolves showed me far more variation than I thought possible. 

Still, the choice is largely greys or browns, with further choice in lighter or darker colours (bellys tend to be light, and the top side, especially the spine is dark). 

In the end, I decided not to try to copy any particular wolf, but make up my own wolfy colours.

Now I have painted wolves before, you can see my 10mm wargs here and here. I also painted some of the Marauder wolves years ago to use in roleplaying )I can't remember how long ago, but it was third edition D&D). I still have one of these for reference.

Painted MM32 (W2) looking a bit the worse for wear

In the end I decided to go for greys. I think this will contrast well with the green skin of the goblins and the browns and tans of much of the equipment. Besides, if I ever do any orc boar riders, they will be browns.

There was one small problem, one of the wolves has lost it's slotta tab, but careful drilling and pinning allowed me to have a wire to attach it to a base (I'm using slotta bases as a temporary measure).

Tabless MM 34 (W1)

Three Painted Wolves 

The wolves were primed with Vallejo Surface Primer, then a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Wolf Gray on the underbelly, legs and flanks. 

Then I overbrushed VGC Fortress Gray moving up the flanks, leaving plenty of the Wolf Grey showing.

Then a smaller area of the flanks and the top side was painted in VGC Cold Gray.

Finally the very top, from the forehead down to the tip of the tail was painted in Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal Gray. 

The detailing was pretty simple; claws and fangs were VGC Khaki, highlighted in Bonewhite, then Off White. The edges of the ears were painted in Wolf Gray. Gums were Charcoal Gray with a bit of black mixed in, the snout was the same darkened Charcoal Gray. Pads on the paws were VGC Dwarf Flesh. I finished by running a bit of black wash along the spine.

I'm delighted with how these wolves have turned out. I've already stripped the paint off the previously painted model, and found another unpainted Marauder wolf to add to the pack.

The Riders 

The goblins were pretty straightforward, but I'll give them their own post, including the completed wolf riders.

Experiments in Miniature Photography 1

When I showed my Oldhammer Wood Elves I mentioned that I was working on improving my photography. As part of that I've tried a couple of different backgrounds in my light box.

New Backgrounds

Both are sheets of thin EVA 'craft' foam. My intention was to find a smoother surface to avoid the phone camera focusing on the backdrop rather than the mini (sadly, my eyes don't pick this up well until I've enlarged the picture).  I chose a pale blue and a pale grey colour to see if they would work, and what difference the different colours would make.

Comparative Shots

So here are shots of an old hydra that I painted many years ago with pale blue and pale grey backdrops.

The Verdict?

Well, I think the new background certainly make a difference.  The focus is much clearer on the mini, and there's no 'background noise' to distract the eye (or the autofocus!).

What I find particularly interesting is how much the colour of the background affects the colour of the mini.  The blue makes the hydra look warmer.

I like both these effects, but I think I'll stick to the blue for most things.  What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

The Hydra

The rather impressive hydra is a C29 mini designed by Trish Carden.  I've got a few of her Marauder sculpts, and they are generally excellent, though there was no deliberate plan involved in buying this.

I painted the hydra many years ago to use as a D&D monster.  It has a satin varnish finish, and it needs at least a coat of mat.  I suspect that underneath that slight shine there is more damage that needs sorting, and perhaps I should put it on a bigger base and texture it to match my current basing style.