Dungeon Saga Has Landed

A large box arrived whilst I was out today.  in fact it was left unattended by the side of the house, so I'm lucky some trick-or-treat-ers didn't decide it was their treat.
Anyway, the box contained several more boxes, all containing my Dungeon Saga pledge.

All this in the box at the back.  Clearly Mantic's packing staff must be good at Tetris

The basic game -front

The basic game - back

But the basic game really comes in this lovely book.

I'll post further when I have had time to digest all this.  First impressions are very good, though some of the minis are loose on their bases.  Still easy to correct, and the overall look of the thing is great.

One thing that immediately impressed me was the inclusion of a 'getting started' booklet, allowing an easy introduction to the game system and the first series of quests.

A Question of Scale

Today I finally found some of my old Call of Cthulhu miniatures.  I bought quite a few of these old Grenadier sculpts back in the 80's, though in the end we tended to use the silhouettes provided in the old boxed set.  I even expanded my collection with some of the Citadel Gothic Horror range.

Looking at them they are nice sculpts.  Clean detail, especially with the Grenadier ones, the Citadel are less fine, with a realistic look that, for me, fits the subject matter.  I also have some of the creatures, but they haven't surfaced yet.  

Still, plenty to go at for building Threshold teams if and when I get round to Strange Aeons.

Then I put them next to the exorcist I painted for SA.

Oh Dear.

Well I suppose it has been something like 30 years, but even so.  The exorcist is on the short side next to some of my Reaper Bones too.

I can just about/nearly get away with this, after all, people are different heights.  But I am still a bit disappointed that the scales are not a little closer.

More Mythos Madness

Two Mythos kickstarter campaigns have caught my attention.

Firstly a relaunch of the excellent Delta Green background.  The rules have been rewritten and lots of new material, as well as reissues of old stuff, will be available.  Better still it will be available in December, possibly beating Call of Cthulhu 7th edition.

Also a whole new set of supplemental material for Cthulhu Wars.  I played a couple of games of this recently, and found it great fun.  Helped perhaps by my having Great Cthulhu himself controlling the earth in the second game.

Check them out while the stars are still right.

Something Gribbly This Way Comes

I have just about completed the first two of the Strange Aeons starter pack of minis.
Firstly the bonus exorcist figure.

It's a long while since I painted anything 'realistic', so I simply googled 1920's fashions to get some idea of colour palette.  Paints are a mix of my old GW colours and Vallejo paints.

This wonderful gribbly is one of the lurker models, it fits in nicely with some of my D&D pre painted minis, and in fact will get to see some action in tonight's D&D game.

I haven't yet decided what to do about basing these.  I may go with my standard round bases with flagstone or similar texture on top, but this seems a bit odd for the Threshold agent.  If I go for the more traditional sand texture with static grass they will fit in less well with my fantasy figures, though i can see little call for  a 1920's exorcist in D&D.

they also need some form of protection, probably a coat of gloss followed by a coat of matt (or a spray of anti shine), though the monster might look quite good in gloss or silk, as though it is oozing moisture.

Goblin Sharpsticks 9: Done (But for Basing)

Crooknose and his pals are finished! They only await their scenic base.

Yes, I need to work on focusing.  

Really need to work on focusing.  

The goblins have been 'dipped', or rather had dip painted on.  Army Painter Strontone again.  Then a coat of Army Painter Antishine spray.  I'm sure I have missed a few bits with the antishine, but i can touch them up if necessary with a brush and matt varnish.

The dip provides just enough dark tone to shade the model.  The Leather Brown undercoat works well as leather armour, straps and bags, and isn't too glaringly different for the various colours of cloth.  The metalwork looks suitably grubby as well, I doubt Crooknose spends much time cleaning his gear.

So that's 30 goblins painted.  It took rather longer than I had hoped, but there were various other interruptions and distractions.  I suspect that I can manage with fewer that 30 for the horde (which by rights should be 40 figures), but that's fine; I have a cunning plan for any left over.

Goblin Sharpsticks 8, Almost There

Crooknose is just about finished.  Actually I have got all the unit at the same stage now, so it 'shouldn't' be long before they are ready for battle.

The finishing touches were; random metal bits picked out in Balthazar Gold (or any bronze or reddish gold colour), teeth and claws in bone white, spear shafts in GW Bubonic Brown and shields in very dark grey (nearly black).  Again I took the opportunity to see if I had missed anything, though the brown undercoat and the dip will cover many mistakes.

Apart from the dip and a coat of anti shine, the only thing left is the base.

Strange Aeons

I picked up a parcel today containing my Strange Aeons kickstarter stuff.  I vaguely remember that it had been dispatched, but it was still pretty much a surprise, and a pleasant one at that.

What unspeakable horrors lurk within?

I will admit to a certain amount of 'post backing dissonance' with this campaign; not that the idea didn't appeal, but more a case of 'will I ever get to use it?'

The game is a revamp of the original Strange Aeons; a 'skirmish' level game pitting mankind against the horrors of the Mythos.  I actually know very little yet about game play, I saw an early bird pledge level free and snapped it up, and now here it is.

I received the rulebook, two packs of cards, the starter set of resin miniatures, and a bonus bag of unlocked stretch goal minis.  The rule book looks nice; its spiral bound, so no awkward pages flipping over by themselves (or by some unseen and malign agency).  Print quality looks good, and the interior artwork is fine.  There is some colour, but a nice touch is that many of the creatures are shown as black and white photos of the relevant miniatures.

Heroes

and villains (Deep One back left, cultists, Formless Spawn front)

and a bonus bag

The miniatures are all resin cast, a material I am less familiar with than most.  Whilst I have seen more detailed minis, especially in metal, these are fine for the game, and many have great character, and yes, the librarian chap is HPL himself.  There is some flash, but it should be easily removed, and generally avoids areas of detail.  Sadly HPL does have some faults on his back (and a bubble  giving him a cleft chin), though a bit of liquid filler should sort that out.

The Formless Spawn has a separate tentacle, and I think it may well be making an appearance in the D&D campaign.

The cultists are a bit of the 'robes and hood' cliche, but I can see several additional uses for them, such as in Empire of the Dead, and they may well receive reinforcements from the new plastic cultists in Thaw of the Lichlord.  The psycho midget is especially characterful.  The Deep One is OK, but not quite what I think of for Deep Ones.  

I haven't read the rules yet, so have no idea what the pumpkins are for, but the exorcist and the madman look fun, and the tomb is that of Pickman for extra atmosphere.

I may rush a couple of these up the painting schedule just to see how they look when done.  Results, of course, when I have something to show.

If the game takes off I have a lot of extra minis that can see service, not to mention the Mythos expansion in Bones 3.

Oh, nearly forgot, there are also three crates and a chest, cast in brown resin.  compared tot he quality of the other pieces these look rough, but I have plenty of scatter pieces already (e.g. for Frostgrave), so that isn't a problem.  The chest may even become a spare Frostgrave treasure token.

Cthulhu Wars

I tried Cthulhu Wars for the first time last night.  A friend of mine (The Other One) backed the kickstarter and duly received a humongous box of stuff.

The game looks good and plays well, though we were a little shaky to begin with.

The Yellow Sign and The Crawling Chaos

The Black Goat of the Woods

Mighty Cthulhu 

The aim of the game is to dominate the earth with your Great Old One, which you achieve by amassing power to build gates and summoning monsters.

The two player game has four factions on the board, and I suspect it would flow easier, and be more competitive, to have more players, with one person per faction.

Still, a good game, and one  that will probably be great fun once we have the rules fully learnt and more players to join in.  The pieces are great; well designed and cast, and probably have many other uses outside the game.  Now if only I could get a separate faction of my own.....

Wizard Statue 3

It's been while since I have posted, but I have not been completely idle.
The Frostgrave statue is nearly finished.

I was going for an off white marble look, based on statues I have seen (I'm thinking particularly of the collection at Chatsworth House, a bit of culture there for you).  I could have added some veining, but at one time, the purer the colouration, the better they thought the quality of the marble was.

The statue was given a white undercoat (Vallejo white primer), followed by a basecoat of Citadel Foundation Deneb Stone (one of my favorite GW paints).  Then a heavy drybrush of Vallejo Game Colour Bone White, and finally a light drybrush of VGC Off White.

I have a few finishing touches in mind, principally some staining with green and brown washes, to make the statue look a little less new.  Keen eyed readers might note that I did indeed add a bit more damage, and I toyed with the idea of scattering the bits on the plinth, but I suspect that a statue this important (perhaps Fel himself?) would attract souvenir hunters.

I have also finished Crooknose and his mates, they are now just awaiting the dip :)

and a base :o

and the remaining 15 goblins :(

sigh

I will post pictures soon.

What Will They Think of Next?

I just heard about the latest Fat Dragon Kickstarter.  3D printer terrain software.

I don't own a 3D printer so won't be looking to buy into this myself, but it looks fascinating.  This is probably the future of terrain, and maybe miniatures too.

I understand that several sites offer free versions of 3D terrain to print, but I have heard that the detail and quality of the free stuff is variable, I'm sure that Fat Dragon will do an excellent job on this, they have never disappointed in the past, and no waiting for shipping from overseas either.

Just a quick not to say the campaign is now launched and already funded.

dragonlock

Oh, and I have discovered that there are very nice gnomes out there who will print for you, hmm....