Reaper Bones Slapchop Experiment

As part of the Grand Clear Out I found a bag of Reaper Bones villagers from the previous Kickstarter. These are lovely NPCs; understated, but with character. They are also far closer to medieval dress than the previous lot of villagers. They are made from the newer 'Bones Black' plastic (actually grey), which is harder and seems to hold better detail.

As these are lowly villeins and cottars I felt they'd look good with fairly washed out colours, which got me thinking about Speedpaint and Xpress Colour. While my Karpath army uses Speedpaints and I kind of went for a Slapchop method with the zenithal highlight, I never really got it as good as I felt was possible. Good enough for massed units, a bit lacking for individuals.

I've seen some great results with this method*, and I was sure I could improve.

Preparation

Firstly, a little mould line cleaning and a good wash in hot soapy water. Then I gave the mini a wash with a 50:50 mix of Army Painter Dark Tone and paint thinner. Once dry I gave the mini a heavy white dry brush. This provides additional shade and highlights, which the Speedpaints will (hopefully) accentuate.

The Painting 

My Speedpaints are from the first release, and they do reactivate. It's not really a problem as I know it can happen but it does mean that I can't layer different paints, it's got to be single coats only. 

I chose fairly simple colours as I wanted him to look like he was wearing clothes using natural dyes. The skin is Crusader Skin, hose is Palid Bone (which has turned out darker than I expected). The tunic is Malignant Green, the sleeves are Sand Golem and the hood is Slaughter Red with a little Palid Bone. The boots are a mix of Hardened Leather and Palid Bone, with pure Hardened Leather for the belt (less difference between these than I expected). The staff is Grim Black and the beard and eyebrows are simply the washed and drybrushed plastic from the preparation stage.

Finishing 

The mini was given a spray varnish (gloss then matt) then the base carefully removed, pins inserted into the legs, and a clear base attached. If you think it would be easier to remove the base before painting, then you are right. But the base allows both the shading wash and the Speedpaints to pool slightly, giving a nice dark line along the bottom of the feet. I'll not do this in the future though. Bones black plastic is much harder to cut through, and it took longer to remove the base than the actual painting.

There's quite a bit of waiting for stuff to dry, especially in the preparation stage, but the actual painting took around ten minutes and I'm very pleased with the results. If you compare this with my first Speedpainted mini, I hope you'll see an improvement.

I like the desaturated look, to me it's just right for the type of fabric I imagine such villagers would use. I recently visited Castle Bolton in the Yorkshire Dales where they have a Dyers Garden. This gives some indication of what colours would have been readily available in the Middle Ages, in brief, bright colours were very expensive, and certain colours very difficult to manufacture.

I like the grey beard and eyebrows; I had planned to use a light grey Speedpaint, but I thought the white drybrush looked good enough. 

The only bit I wasn't keen on was the flesh, so after varnishing I touched up some highlights with Vallejo Game Color Dwarf Flesh.

This chap is ideal for RPGs, he'd make a great quest giver, or even the McGuffin. He's certainly going to get some use in Rangers of Shadow Deep as several of the scenarios involve rescuing survivors.

There are a load more villagers in the set, and I think they'll all get a similar treatment. There are also some nice zombies that are obviously reanimated peasants in the same Kickstarter. I'm sure they'd look good using similar techniques, and be equally useful for Rangers of Shadow Deep

* There are lots of great YouTube tutorials on Slapchop, just do a search. 

Janus Post 24/25

It's that time of year when bloggers traditionally try and remember what they did over the past twelve months and set unrealistic goals for the next. Who am I to argue with tradition?

Janus, god of mini painters and hobbyists

Targets Set 

Firstly, what did I set out to do last year?

6mm dwarves; I wanted to get a few more companies and characters finished, sadly very little progress here. Worse, I put 'magnetic paper' on the bases for safe storage and transport, but it has proven not strong enough. The tin wasn't stored level and everything slid to one end, resulting in some bent pikes. Nothing that can't be fixed, but dispiriting. This needs sorting.

Similarly, I haven't sorted through the remaining pile of unpainted 6mm stuff - with one notable exception (see below).

Neither have I finished my MESBG Haradrim, nor any Orks.

In fact, none of my existing projects really got much further.

But looking at my actual post, these were hopes rather than goals. My goal was simply "". And I think I accomplished that.

Looking Back 

Last year saw me reorganise my Old School project (yet again) and a considerable increase in my Oldhammer orcs. I've nearly finished painting the minis required for the Severed Hand orcs in the classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario pack 'Bloodbath At Orc's Drift' (just seven Hobhounds to go at time of writing). This led to Bodvoc and myself, always searching for the perfect set of rules, to try out Warlord Games' Warlords of Erehwon, written by Rick Priestley. So far they seem to give the right sort of feel for the size and type of games we want to play with our Old School stuff.

All this Oldhammer led to me attending BOYL for the first time. Not actually my idea (Andy first mentioned it, and I'm very pleased he did. I'd never have gone on my own, but it was great to have a group of us there, three quarters of the MEGAforce).

My only bit of 6mm painting was my Orctober project. Bodvoc and I tried to get at least 500 points of Fantastic Battles stuff painted, including scenery. We both managed it, though mine are not really a balanced force. Most were restored previously painted minis, which gave me the opportunity to sort through what I have for orcs, and an opposing force for my dwarves.

I took part in the RPGaday project during. This was fascinating idea, and it got me thinking about what I play and why, and it should help me decide what games to keep and which to let go or avoid in the future. I had hoped for more engagement with my blog as a result, I'm not sure that happened. Perhaps next time I'll do something that provides more generally useful content?

The tail end of the year saw me finally get round to playing Joseph McCulloch's Rangers of Shadow Deep. This cooperative skirmish game seems to be a hit with the MEGAforce (though Grim has yet to try it) and has inspired me to build up some more of the various plastic minis that I have (OK, yes, and buy some more), and build up some more suitable terrain. 

For various reasons, I played far fewer wargames or skirmish games than 2023. While disappointing, it gave me the opportunity to concentrate on just a few things. This certainly helped me to really enjoy painting. Although I'm still not where I want to be regarding hobby stuff, I can see where I'm going with it. 

The thinning out process started very well, clearing a lot of RPG minis, several whole armies and quite a bit of Lord of the Rings stuff, but slowed towards the middle of the year. The arrival of Bones 6 has got me looking through my roleplaying minis again, and I'm in the process of further thinning.

Looking Forward 

'More of the same' is too broad and unhelpful, but, in essence, I want to carry on as I have been doing. 

The thinning exercise must continue, and linked with this is the ethos that collections of minis and terrain must be as useful as possible. Either relevant for a game I really enjoy, such as my Kings of War armies or my Middle Earth stuff;, or useable in several games, like my terrain or the Old School orcs. 

Thus I've made a set of generic tokens that I can use in Rangers of the Shadow Deep as well as Frostgrave and many other wargames, rather than model dead bodies, cocoons and other scenario specific objectives.

This is the secret motivation behind the Orc's Drift project. Once I've painted the minis and built the terrain, I'll have plenty to use in many different games.

So for 2025 I'm going to steadily build up terrain and armies so that I have stuff ready for play. I may revisit some of my Kings of War armies (it's too long since I played) and I certainly want to get further with both the Rangers of Shadow Deep stuff, which is really generic fantasy skirmish stuff and most of which is good for RPGs as well, and the Old School Orc's Drift collection.

Terrain is an issue for both 6mm and 10mm games, but I have some stuff, I just need to make a few more bits then I'll have a set for each scale.

As I've said before, if I have a deadline I might achieve the target, but it will be rushed, probably incomplete and I won't enjoy it, especially towards the end (it'll feel great having it finished though). If I have no goals at all, I'm lost, unable to decide amongst the many possibilities. I've wasted a lot of hobby time this way.

'Fuzzy Targets' are best.

Above and beyond  these worthy goals, there are three things I'd like to explore.

Last year my blog hit 75 000 views, and is moving nicely towards 100 000 views. It seems appropriate to have a special battle report for the occasion, but I'm not sure what. 

One idea is to return to Mars. I still have some 18mm Mars stuff. Not much, but enough for a skirmish game or two, perhaps Fistful of Lead? It would mean starting from scratch though with terrain and minis, and I don't see it as a game I'd be playing a lot.

I've also got a lot of 28mm Star Wars minis from the WotC pre painted ranges. I've repainted some in the past, but never done anything with them. It would be nice to have some games, probably using Fistful of Lead as it worked great in our 20mm scale games. A short campaign with competing gangs sounds fun, but it would need terrain building.

One final possible diversion is Trench Crusade. My son-in-law is very interested in this, and I'd happily scratch build some terrain and models. It breaks my 'rules' in that it would be very specific in use. Fun though.

A Hobhound is for Life

I realised that I never posted my first four painted Hobhounds. Back in July I spent a while trying to decide what to use for the Severed Hand's four pawed component. Here are painted examples of some of the options, I was trying to decide what works for me.

A Hobhound, two demons and a Blink Dog walk into a bar...

Actual Hobhound model 

Blink Dog 

Karmanthi demons 

These are two of the three poses in the pack.  They are available from Ral Partha Europe.  

I don't have any more Hobhounds, but I've got eight more of the demons and four more Blink Dogs. I've also got a selection of other dog models from various manufacturers. 

All the minis were painted to suggest actual dog breeds, maybe not very well, but the intention was there. The Blink Dog got a standard 25mm round base, as this was an AD&D mini, it would originally have been a hex base, but round fits in with the rest of my old school collection. Hobhounds were classed as cavalry, so gets an oval base. These are from Fluid 3D workshop, and I put magnets in for storage/multi basing.

Further thoughts and choices 

On reflection I'm not going down the Blink Dog route. I do need to keep the original Hobhound mini, but the rest of the unit will be the nine demons. This fits well with my long ago belief that Hobhounds were something a bit more sinister and fae than just big dogs.

The Blink Dogs will come in useful for guard dogs or similar, indeed, one of the set is the official mini for Fritzi, the Bogels' dog in the Terror of the Lichemaster scenario pack (annoyingly, I can't find that particular pose).

So the decision is made; one original Hobhound and nine Karmanthi Demons. I just need to get the remaining seven done then the Severed Hand will be scenario ready!

Rangers of Shadow Deep - A Token Effort

Clues and Treasure

Most of the scenarios for RoSD require objective markers. The first scenario, for example, has five 'clues' scattered around the village. When we played we used Frostgrave treasure tokens, which did the job, but really they should have been the corpses of villagers. The second scenario has five cocooned bodies that can be searched. 

It's very tempting to try and model these. Indeed, when I went to RECON I was looking for some medieval style bodies and some cocoons. I failed to find the former (though I have since seen some nice ones on eBay).  Cocoons are available in the Wargames Atlantic Spider box (along with two different sizes of spider), I was sorely tempted.

However, the box contains far more than I would need, and I'm trying to avoid having too much limited use stuff in my collection.

Generic Stuff

It's easier just to make generic tokens, maybe a few different types.  These have an added advantage if I can use them in multiple games as well as multiple scenarios.

I can always upgrade these if the game proves really popular with the group.

I used 25mm round bases for the tokens. These are the flat ones from Renedra, and they were included in the Frostgrave boxes I bought. Since I'm going to use clear acrylic bases for the minis, they were going spare.

It was a simple matter to prime then paint them. I left them on the sprue for convenience. 

Some of the scenarios require a couple of different kinds of tokens, Clues and Treasure, so I painted two different designs, I'm sure you can work out which is which.

There. Simple.

And I can always model some specific pieces later.

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Building the Company 2

Previously I showed three of the Companions from our Ranger Company. They were all built with a combination of Frostgrave Soldiers and Oathmark Human Infantry bits. I still have one more Companion and the two Rangers to build.

All three are female heroes, which is why I got the Frostgrave Soldiers II and Wizards II sets at RECON.

Portus Fell

She was the easiest to build, simply using bits mostly from the Frostgrave Soldiers II sprue. Her head is actually from the Wizards II sprue, as Andy wanted her to have obvious red hair, and the hooded heads on the Soldier sprue had most of the hair covered.

Not shown on the picture below, I added a backpack and blanket roll from the Soldiers II sprue, apparently for carrying lots of treasure.

Besaria

I spent far too long dithering over what I wanted Besaria to look like. Although she is a Ranger, and wears light armour, I did want her to look like someone with some magical abilities, hence the Wizards sprue for the more magical bits. My thoughts were to either use a soldier torso with bits from the wizards to show the magic side, or a wizard torso with solder arms etc to show her martial side.  In the end I decided she is a Ranger first, so went with a soldier torso and helmeted head. The left hand is gesturing as if casting a spell. I wanted her to have a weapon held at the ready and this rather nice one matched the other arm for sleeves etc. I added a quiver and bow on her back, as she's a reasonable shot with it, though she tends to use her magic first.  The book ended up being rejected, she looks busy enough without it.

Ellen the Archer

Ellen was the most fiddly, as I wanted her to fit in with the rest of the Companions using Oathmark torsos.  I was sure I could model a female archer based on the Oathmark torso in a tunic.

I removed the knife and gave her a quiver on one hip.  That and the pouch on the left hip help to disguise her rather chunky waist. A bit of greenstuff/milliput to slightly bulk out the chest (and rebuild the collar) and female heads and arms gave a good enough result. In fact I'm rather pleased with it.

I didn't take a picture of her components, but you can see her completed in the pictures below.

L to R, Portus Fell, Bessaria and Ellen

So that's the company built, now I need to get them painted.  I'll probably take inspiration from The Renaissance Troll, Joseph McCulloch's own blog.  His rangers primarily use browns and greens.  I'll use a similar colour scheme, but I'll probably go for yellow cloth on the Companions, rather than brown, it seems more appropriate for a uniform.

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Building the Company part 1

Both Andy and myself really enjoyed our first game of Rangers of Shadow Deep, and we're looking forward to playing more of the campaign. I cobbled together terrain and minis for that first game, but it would be nice (and a spur to get me doing some painting and modelling) if we had a better set of minis and terrain.  So I picked up some Frostgrave sprues to build some dedicated Rangers and Companions at RECON. 

The First Three Builds

Before I plunge into building our Rangers I thought I'd practice on the Companions.

Skegi survived his rat bite and managed to avoid catching a disease. He's a Man-at-Arms, so wears light armour and uses a hand weapon and shield. The book suggests that men-at-arms are drawn from Alladore's army, and I wanted a mini to reflect this. I had planned to use the Frostgrave soldiers sprue for most of the Companions, but the military background got me thinking.  I've plenty of the Oathmark Human Infantry left from my Kingdoms of Men Kings of War Ambush force, suitably military looking if I can match the equipment. The Oathmark sprue does have bows and hand weapons, but no two handed weapons or crossbows, so I looked to the Frostgrave Soldiers sprue for these.  Given that I was using Frostgrave arms I thought about using the heads too, but they don't quite fit the Oathmark torsos.  Nothing a bit of greenstuff couldn't fix, but why make life difficult?

Oathmark torso and Frostgrave arms

Arthur is a Guardsman, essentially the same as a Man-at-Arms, but with a two handed weapon instead of the hand weapon and shield.  Again, the components are a mix of Oathmark and Frostgrave, it took me a while to find the correct left arm on the sprue, but I really like the end result.

Oathmark torso and head with Frostgrave arms

Uli is and archer with the crossbow option.  The arms with the crossbow come from the Frostgrave sprue, and the quiver is a cut down version of one of the quivers on the Frostgrave sprue.  Yhere is a case of bolts on the sprue, but its not obvious what it is, so I went for something that was.

Another Oathmark torso and head, with Frostgrave arms, crossbow and quiver

Apart from the general clean up of parts, I removed the solid base as they will all be mounted on clear bases.  The Frostgrave arms all have a sort of shoulder pad which I shaved off to better fit on the torso.

All three Companions are assembled and are awaiting painting, but I'll get the three women built before I start painting.

L to R Skegi, Uli and Arthur

RECON 2024 End of an Era

Saturday saw the last RECON show at Pudsey Civic Hall. It's always been one of my favourite shows, and I went to one of the first ones in a church hall in Leeds. The first shows featured a Hordes of the Things tournament, and I was pleased to see that there was still one being played today.

I met up with both Bodvoc and the Settle and District Gamers and T'Other One and had a good browse.

I didn't take any more pictures as my phone was just about out of battery, but there were some great demo games, including a stunning Starship Troopers siege and some large scale 40K stuff. One table was set up as a lovely English village, it even boasted of being the winner of the Britain in Bloom competition, I have the feeling that something nasty was about to happen though.

The Goodies

My haul was pretty limited; a new brush, some non-metallic paint agitators, some pipettes and syringes for adding sealant to textures and some d10s for Warlords of Erehwon.

Minis wise I restricted myself to just some Frostgrave Soldiers and Wizards, in both cases the newer sets. I'm going to be using these for Rangers of Shadow Deep, amongst other games, and I'm already planning how to kitbash Besaria.

I hope RECON continues at another venue, there do seem to be fewer games shows in my area these days. At least Chillcon should be back in Sheffield next year.

Trying Rangers of Shadow Deep - The Deserted Village

Recently I tried Rangers of Shadow Deep. I've owned the book since 2020, it seemed a sensible idea to try a game that could be played solo back then. However, I did very little gaming at all and it got put back on the shelf.

For a while I thought Fistful of Lead would replace my various other skirmish games. I still like it, especially for Star Wars, but playing Frostgrave with Andy and Grim reminded me of how much fun Joseph McCulloch's game engine can be.

When Andy mentioned that he'd be in the area and fancied a game of something, it seemed a great opportunity to finally get RoSD on the table. So here's our first game, with apologies for the rather 'thrown together' look of the terrain and minis.

Uli, Portus Fell, Skegi, Arthur, Besaria and Ellen

Rangers of the Shadow Deep is a solo/co-op game that plays through a series of written missions telling the struggle of the kingdom of Alladore after it's neighbour Lorenthia is consumed by a mystical darkness, The Shadow Deep. We played the first scenario of the first mission; our Rangers and their companions were investigating and eerie abandoned village where Aventine, a fellow ranger, had gone missing. As we stood in the village centre pondering what to do, groans and moans announced the arrival of the undead.

The Rangers and Companions explore the village 

"It's too quiet, where is everyone?" "Wait, what's that sound?"

The Opening Moves 

Portus Fell Enchanted her sword in preparation for the dangers ahead and Ellen shot at an approaching zombie but missed.

Besaria used her deeper understanding of magic to Enchant both her and Portus' armour. Uli cranked back his crossbow and skewered a second zombie, dropping it to the ground.

The zombies shuffled forwards, some seemed more interested in the buildings than the Rangers.

In response, Arthur moved up ready and Skegi, spotting an ugly rat, charged it. Sadly, he missed it completely. It flew at him in a frenzy and the poor chap fell screaming to the ground.

Still, one zombie down, but then the rangers spied four more closing in on the village.

Portus ran to the house to see what was attracting the zombie. Inside she found a villager huddled in a corner. "Come with me if you want to live" she called. 

Besarin investigated the rough looking inn. Inside was a body. A quick inspection revealed bite marks; she had an idea what might have caused them, perhaps what was behind the mystery of the village. Did it also explain Avantine's disappearance? 

The zombies shuffled closer, some moving towards what looked like bodies in the woods, others towards the rangers and their companions.

Ellen loosed at another zombie, missing again, and then retreated back to the well in the village centre. Uli showed her how it was done, dropping that zombie too. The villager moved to the relative safety of the well and Ellen's protection and Arthur squashed the rat, vengeance for Skegi.

Two zombies and a rat, but further moans announced the arrival of two more zombies.

Skegi falls to a rat.  The ignominy

The Main Phase 

Portus charged a zombie on the edge of the village. Despite her superior swordplay, she was unable to damage it. 

Arthur moved round to investigate a body. Sadly there was nothing to be done for the unfortunate, but he was able to identify the strange tracks around the body.

Besaria ran out of the inn and hacked at an approaching zombie. Like Portus she easily beat it, but couldn't hurt it. Still she forced it away. Taking advantage of this, Uli shot it, his bolt smashing through it's skull (a critical hit!).

Ellen once more failed to hit any of the undead, and two more were approaching.

Besaria conjured a Fireball, burning a couple of zombies to a crisp. Uli took aim at another, but missed.

Portus investigated another body. This poor villager was dead, but ironically was clutching a bunch of Healing Herbs. 

Arthur was charged by a zombie that gave him a nasty wound.

Two more zombies shambled forwards to contact Ellen and Besaria.

Arthur struck back, beating his opponent away, while Ellen took out her zombie, then moved back.

The poor villager, overcome with the horrors he was witnessing, froze in place by the well.

Besaria beat back her zombie and Uli shot another, but couldn't quite finish it off.

Portus took advantage of the injured zombie's confusion to put another arrow in it, bringing it down.

A rat made a surprise appearance (we missed it, hidden away by the side of a building), charging into Ellen and felling her.

Arthur fared better and led a couple of zombies a merry dance away from the village.  He hoped to outpace them and investigate a couple more bodies he had seen. 

Unseen by the rangers and their companions, a couple of diseased rats snuck out of the buildings.

Mopping Up

Portus Fell charged into another zombie, chopping it down, but taking a wound in exchange.

Besaria uses her arcane training to recall the details of the Fireball spell, and launches it at the newly appeared rats and an encroaching zombie.  Both rats are incinerated, but the badly burnt undead stagers on. Seeing the danger to the villager frozen in fear, she then moves up to stand between him and the enemies.  It was fortunate she did, as a rat and then the still burning zombie moved in.  She was able to despatch both enemies.

Arthur, outrunning his undead pursuers, found the body of the missing Ranger, Aventine (sadly he didn't recognise the importance of the sword).

As the Rangers looked around they breathed a sigh of relief.  Only one zombie could be seen, shambling after Arthur.  Then with a crash, the Rough Inn collapsed, fortunately, no one was near enough to suffer damage.

Seeing Uli bleeding profusely, Besaria used her healing magic to help him.  Portus inspected another body, only to have it spring up and attack.  Fortunately, she quickly swung her sword, beheading it (another critical hit!).  Arthur turned to face the oncoming zombie and smashed it with his warhammer (another critical hit!).

Portus is just about to move, allowing Besaria to Fireball the rats and zombie near the building

Another view of the village centre just before the second Fireball, the last few rats and zombies were soon despatched 

Summing up

This was a great fun game. There were times, especially early on when I lost Skegi, that we thought we wouldn't survive. The event cards gave us lots of zombies in the first few turns, but that did mean that, once they were dealt with, the pressure slacked off in the last couple of turns, not that they were any less exciting!

The system works really well and our familiarity with Frostgrave helped a lot.  There is a good sense of following a story, but with enough choice and random elements to keep it fresh. We are both looking forward to playing the next scenario in the mission, where we confront the source of the zombies and find what made those tracks.

If you like the sound of RoSD, its available as a pdf from Drive Thru RPG.

A Note On Terrain and Minis

I put this game together in a bi of a rush.  Of course I plan to have a set of dedicated RoSD minis and terrain, all matched to missions.  Eventually.

For this I grabbed a couple of 'ranger-y' minis and used my Oldhammer dwarves for the Companions.  The zombies and rats came from my Frostgrave collection.

I scavenged through several terrain boxes for trees, and was surprised at just how any I found.  Some of them need a bit of attention though, better and more consistent basing for a start.  You may recognise the Bake House from the Great British Terrain Build-Off.  The remaining buildings were built decades ago based on card buildings in various Warhammer Fantasy Battle Scenario packs (and reprinted in the Village Pack).  I think the tall building is from Terror of the Lichemaster, the wooden planked building is the Rough Inn from The Tragedy of McDeath, and the small cottage is, I think, from one of the early Citadel journals.  I'm pleased with how well they stand up (not just physically, but in comparison to the Bake House).  Someday I'll get around to basing them and doing bits of repair work to bring them up to match my current terrain builds.