Reaper Bones Zombies 07055; More Slapchop

With the success of the old chap from the Townsfolk set using the Slapchop method, I tried a few variations on some zombies included in the latest Reaper Bones Kickstarter. These are lovely zombies, as with the villagers, they are dressed in a suitably 'historic' fashion. These are dead peasants brought back rather than warriors or adventurers. They'll be ideal for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and many other RPGs and skirmish games. Although these minis arrived in the Bones 6 Kickstarter they were the bonus pack, I believe they were originally in the previous Kickstarter.

The four different zombie sculpts

Painting the Zombies

As with the old man, I gave the minis a shade wash using a 1:1 mix of Army Painter Darktone wash and Vallejo Thinner, followed by a white drybrush.

This time I used my small (but slowly growing) collection of Vallejo Xpress paints. I've no problem with the Army Painter Speedpaints; I've got used to them, I'm learning some nice mixes and the reactivation can be used to blend. But they don't allow me to use different layers of paints and washes. I also felt that my first go with Vallejo Xpress paints was less than satisfactory, and I was sure I could do better.

I've recently seen a couple of YouTube videos for zombie flesh that I thought I could adapt. Essentially a thinned flesh wash followed by a green/grey wash. This seems to be becoming popular in the hobby-sphere, but I remember doing a cruder version of this back in the 1980s using Bronzed Flesh and thinned Goblin Green.  Nowhere near as well, I should add.

Test Zombie 

For the flesh I used a 1:1 VXP Dwarf Flesh:Xpress Medium mix, followed by a 1:1 VXP Plague Green: Xpress Medium mix. 

I like the result, although it's darker than my usual zombie flesh colour of VGC Dead Flesh followed by a Strongtone or similar wash. I checked with my local friendly zombiemeister, T'Other One, and he assures me that zombies have quite varied skin tones. 

Test zombie skin tones

Clothing was simply a case of choosing suitable fairly desaturated colours, though I'm slightly hampered by my limited stock of Xpress paints.

 

Three More Zombies 

I liked the test results, but for the rest I decided to slightly vary the skin tones. Nothing drastic, but I think the variety works for the subject matter.

They all got a drybrush of Vallejo Game Colour Earth around the feet and lower legs and lower sleeves to dirty them up.

Four More Zombies 

I enjoyed painting them so much that I painted another four to bring the number up to eight, as per my planning.

The second batch were pretty much the same, but I tried to make them look a bit different. This was mostly through different colours for the clothing, but also different washes on top of the flesh colour. Some of the clothing looks a little garish to me,  especially as I'm trying to make them look naturalistic (for zombies), but some of it is fine.  I'm particularly pleased with the lady in the light green dress (VXP Orc Skin) with yellow trim. 

There are a couple of things I'm not completely happy with.  Mould lines and hair.

Slapchop really emphasises mould lines, and although I thought I'd done a pretty good job of cleaning these up, there are quite a few obvious lines.  More care and attention required next time.

None of the zombies have particularly convincing hair colours.  I'm not sure if this is down to my limited range of colours or a result of using the Xpress paints.  I can easily go over these again with more conventional paints.

Vallejo Xpress Paints

At the start I mentioned that I wanted to give the Vallejo Xpress Paints another try. What did I think this time?

Well, I'm impressed. I've seen YouTube videos about them, particularly from Juan Hidalgo (who helped design the latest batch) claiming that they are particularly good for Slapchop. 

I agree. There's a better gradation between the highlights and the shadows than I get with Speedpaints, though it's not such a difference that I'll stop using the Army Painter stuff. Indeed, I used some Speedpaints on the second batch of zombies as I was running out of colours for clothing and I wanted to make them as individual as possible.

My collection of Xpress paints is small (but growing) and the first release lacked some important shades. I particularly miss anything similar to Pallid Bone, which I use frequently to dull down and lighten other colours. The second batch does include some of these sorts of colours and I intend to get some,  but my local shop selling Vallejo (Boyes, a good old fashioned department store) hasn't expanded their stock yet.

A Note on Costume 

The different coloured collars might seem odd, but my musical friends who play in costume assure me that this was quite common. In fact, in most illustrations, what can be seen as a collar is actually a separate hood, the actual hood bit being frequently worn off the head, just hanging down over the back.  Medieval illustrators didn't always show the hood, leading to speculation if it was there or not, but my friends assure me that it is much more practical to have a hood rather than just a wide collar.  

Painting Reaper Bones Spiders SKU77126

CAUTION. THIS POST INCLUDES PHOTOS OF PAINTED MODEL SPIDERS. I'll put the pictures right down at the bottom if you'd rather not look, and include something less potentially upsetting for the thumbnail.

Wallabies, definitely not spiders 

Old Unpainted Minis

I've had these models for around ten years. A couple were included in the first ever Reaper Bones Kickstarter, though those particular ones seem to have scuttled off somewhere. These four were included in the second Kickstarter, along with extra beetles and other vermin. 

When I saw that I'd need spiders for the second scenario for Rangers of Shadow Deep, it seemed a great opportunity to finally get them painted.

I had hoped to get another pack to bring them up to the six required (see my planning post) but for various reasons they are proving elusive. So here are the four painted arachnids.

Painting the Minis

I gave them a base coat of black (Vallejo Game Color Black, but any will do) then a drybrush of VMC Scorched Brown followed by VGC Earth, just to accent the various details, especially around the head.

I painted around the various leg joints with VGC Gory Red, trying to leave the crevices of the joints black. I then added highlights with VGC Bloody Red.

The eyes proved tricky. Most real spiders eyes are shiny black, at least the ones I found on the internet are. This just didn't work at such a small scale. I tried dotting in some yellow, but it didn't look quite right. Then I tried VGC Goblin Green, with a dot of VGC Livery Green, which seemed ok.

Finished.  But they looked very drab. So taking a cue from the Black Widow I decided add a patch of brightness on the abdomen.  The mission implies that the spiders' bite creates zombies, at least that's how I read it, so I thought this design was appropriate.  In fact, I sort of wish I'd made the mark bigger.  Maybe for the next ones?

I'm pleased with the end result; there's nothing amazing about them, but they're fine for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and many other roleplaying games as well, and it's good to finally get them painted after nearly ten years. I need a couple more for the scenario, but they'll have to wait, meanwhile, these qualify for the Paint What You Got challenge. 

And leave a comment and award yourself a pat on the back if you recognise the inspiration.

Scroll down for the pictures

Four Reaper bones spiders

Spiders doing handstands

Bitey bitey spiders

Rangers of Shadow Deep; Painted Companions and Marine Juice

Back in December I built three Companions to match the ones Andy and I chose for our first game.

I've finished painting them now, and in the time slot for the Paint What You Got challenge too, so here they are.

Painting the Three Companions 

I gave them a base coat and chose colours suitable for the Kingdom of Alladore; green, since the Rangers wear a lot of green, and yellow as a more 'uniform-y' alternative to the Rangers' browns. I took inspiration from the game's author, Joe McCullough on his blog, The Renaissance Troll.

L to R: Uli, Arthur and Skegi

An Experiment 

After base coating I gave them all a bit of a highlight, then I tried something new. YouTuber Sonic Sledgehammer uses what he calls 'Marine Juice', apparently based on a mix used by the Forge World painters. His updated recipe, along with various tips on how to get the best out of it can be found on his YouTube channel*.

Now long time readers will no doubt think this is pretty much what I do for my orcs (and other, similar, minis) but the addition of the Flesh shade and Medium makes a difference. I was amazed at how well it works on the Caucasian skin tones, (I guess the clue is in the Flesh shade). It's also less brown than my 'Orcwash', making it more suitable for general use. I'll still use Orcwash, but I think I'll mix some acrylic medium in before use.

Uli

Arthur

Skegi

So here they are, with the rest of the gang from the first game. I'm pleased with the results, Marine Juice certainly speeds up the painting, but gives a good enough result for the supporting cast. I'd still want to put in the time with the Rangers, but this is fine for Companions.

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

*You really should check out Sonic Sledgehammer's video, but if you need the recipe, it's one bottle of GWs Reikland Fleshshade, one bottle of Lahmium Medium and one bottle of Army Painter Darktone. 

Planning Rangers of Shadow Deep for the Paint What You Got Challenge

Recently I mentioned that I'm entering Dave Stone's Paint What You Got challenge. While literally anything completed in the time slot could count, I've decided to use it as an opportunity to get some minis ready for Rangers of Shadow Deep (and many other fantasy skirmish and roleplaying games). 

The Creatures

The game plays through a series of missions, split into scenarios, so lets see what creatures I want for the first mission, The Missing.

Scenario 1, The Deserted Village, calls for zombies and giant rats. Initially there are 4 zombies and 2 rats, but more arrive throughout the game both as a result of Events and investigating Clues. If the heroes do nothing, there'll be a maximum of 14 zombies and 5 rats, but I don't think I'll need that many. There's also the chance of finding a survivor.

Scenario 2, The Infected Trees, starts with 5 giant spiders, with the chance of encountering a couple more, and searching can reveal up to 5 zombies, up to 5 survivors or perhaps nothing significant. 

Now I doubt I'll need 14 zombies, I'm planning on 8. Similarly, 3 or 4 rats should be sufficient, and 6 giant spiders.  As for the survivors, I suppose 5 would be playing safe.

I've put aside most of the minis, all Reaper Bones.

Future painting.  Rats, zombies and villagers, plus some Frostgrave etc bits for a possible Ranger

I've already painted one of the Townsfolk, 4 more using the Slapchop method should be fairly quick to do. I'm also well on with the zombies and I finished 4 spiders recently (well within the challenge window) but I'm waiting for an order for another pack.

Previously I used the old giant rats, but there are some much better looking ones that I hope to get on to soon.

The Heroes 

Of course, we don't just need creatures, we need heroes. Like it's predecessor Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadow Deep focuses on particular characters. Frostgrave had it's wizards, Rangers has, well, it's rangers. But they all have their retinue of companions.

As RoSD is a cooperative game for 1-4 players, the number and relative power of the companions varies with the number of Rangers.

One ranger can have up to 7 companions, and they have 100 points to spend*, two rangers get up to 3 companions each, and they each have 40 points to spend.

Three rangers get up to 2 companions and can spend 30 points, while four rangers can only have 1 companion each, costing no more than 10 points.

Now archers, men at arms and guardsmen all cost 20 points, recruits only cost 10 points. There are more expensive companions, such as conjurers, knights and templars, and a few more cheap companions, such as war hounds and birds of prey, but I think they are less likely to be chosen, at least to begin with.

It's clear that archers (bows and crossbows), men at arms and guardsmen (basically men at arms with a two handed weapon rather than a hand weapon and shield) are going to be needed, as are recruits. 

So I'm going for four recruits, being the most likely choice if four of us are playing, plus a selection of guardsmen, men at arms and archers, some of which I built in December. If I have time, and if I see something that I like, then I might add to this.

Finally, there's the rangers themselves. I've got 3 rangers finished, and some ideas for building a fourth (in the little bag in the photo). As with the companions, I may add to them as and when.

And Then?

Once I've painted the above, I've got a decision to make. More minis for the next mission, or terrain for the first one? 

I've already done some terrain for The Infected Trees (which will get it's own post soon) and I've got the Frostgrave gnoll kit, which will be very useful for Mission 2. I've even got a couple of minis I painted years ago that will come in very useful for that one. They won't count for the challenge of course, but I'll definitely be using them for the game.

*There are ways to boost this slightly at the character generation stage, and it eventually increases as the rangers improve in level, but this is the norm.

The Periodic Painting Table; A New Look

Don't worry if you don't recognise the look, I've gone for a new Theme.  Apparently Blogger works better if this is changed occasionally.

I'm also working towards making the blog more accessible, with better links, more sensible titles (don't worry, you'll still get my attempts at humour as sub headings) and some long overdue general editing.

I'm also adding Alt text, so I'd be interested if you find this helpful, and if so, if you  have any suggestions for improvements.

As the blog heads towards 100K views, thanks for checking in. If you like what you see,  please consider commenting and/or following. 

Finally, this particular post has a limited lifetime.  I'll delete it once I think it's done it's job.

Trying 7TV

Introduction 

T'Other One has been busy painting and modelling his 7TV 'Beneath the Mountains of Madness' kickstarter stuff. As a keen fan of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and his story At the Mountains of Madness,  this was sure to appeal to him. He's currently covering his terrain builds on his blog, I recommend you give it a read. 

The minis and accessories look great, but we'd never tried the actual game,  so we tried a quick game using Star Wars minis and Deadzone terrain. How does it play,  and do we like it?

The cast of the show (do you really need me to name them?)

What is 7TV?

7TV is produced by Crooked Dice. It's currently in it's second edition. At it's heart,  the game is a skirmish game that can be set in just about any background, from real world history to fantasy or science fiction.  But the game's conceit is that the players are directing casts of actors performing in an action packed TV show of the sort that seemed to fill the screens back in my youth. 

So the game has two aims; to provide a good skirmish system (otherwise it would be no fun to play) and to feel like TV show (otherwise why not just play any one of several excellent rule sets?). 

Skirmish in the Deadzone 

For a first game we both had small casts,  as a players' minis are known.  I dug out some of my WotC pre-painted Star Wars minis and we used the generic stats from the main rules,  although there are Star Wars specific cast cards available. We each had a Star,  a Co-Star and a bunch of Extras. 

The studio set ready for filming

T'Other One played the Rebels, he had Han Solo (a Loveable  Scoundrel), Chewy (Loyal Sidekick), Leia (Commander ) and four rebel troopers (Freedom Fighters). As the Imperial player I had Darth Vader (Dark Overlord, but we ignored his magic for our first game and gave him the light sabre from the unofficial cards), IG-86 (Ruthless Nemesis) and five Stormtroopers (Imperial Troopers).

The Rebel cast assemble

and the Imperials face them

This was a Pitched Battle, victory points were gained by taking objectives as well as by wiping out the opposition.

I'll not give a blow by blow account, but here are a few pictures followed by comments regarding how the game plays.

The Stormtroopers and Han in a firefight. Chewy is just beneath the gantry.

The Imperial view down towards the wookie.

Leia and IG-86 battle it out. Despite Leia being a mere extra, it ended badly for the droid.

Leia and Vader fight it out. The Sith was triumphant.

The last shot of the game. Fittingly the stormtrooper missed Han hiding behind the girders.

The action can quite rightly be described as cinematic. High points included IG-86 using a Grappling Hook to reach the objective on the highest tower. But he didn't have the action required to claim it. Then next turn the script allowed T'Other One to swap two minis positions. Of course, he swapped the droid for one of his Rebel fighters who duly claimed the objective.

Imperial shooting was better than expected, by the time the credits rolled, I'd lost IG-86 and two Stormtroopers, only Han survived out of the Rebels cast.

The Rebels won a minor victory, down to them claiming four out of five objectives. I'll admit that I hadn't appreciated how important they were. 

Thoughts about 7TV

Firstly, I have to say that the game played very well. Despite us being new to it, we quickly got the hang of things. Play is smooth, and various mechanics, like using Plot Points as an overall currency to activate minis, gain extra Stretch Dice and power certain abilities, are first rate. Script Cards regulate the pace of the game and add extra events. It was such a card, Script Editing, that allowed T'Other One to swap a rebel trooper with IG-86, denying me an objective. Set Change allowed me to move one entire piece of scenery, and I was able to use Action Packed in the final turn giving three of my cast bonus activations, which allowed Vader to take out Leia. Many of these can be rationalised as part of the skirmish, some, however, such as the aforementioned swapping of minis and shifting scenery belong squarely in the TV show 'meta'.

We noticed that Strikes (combat) can be pretty swift, as befits action TV shows, and deciding how to spend Plot Points is an interesting tactical challenge. 

Strikes covers three forms of combat, shooting, melee and 'Presence' attacks.  The latter are the quips, puns, put-downs and one liners that you would expect for the cinematic feel (we actually used very few of these in our first game) these add Status conditions such as Immobilised, Dominated or On Fire,  rather than damage Health (although one of the script cards we drew, 18 Certificate, meant all 0 damage strikes did one health for that turn), any mini taking two of the same condition loses 1 Health. 

Plot points can be spent to add Stretch Dice. These are rolled along the one defence or attack dice, but the way they work is nicely done. The highest die is added to a stat such as defence or strike, any remaining dice scoring 4+ add +1 to this rather than their actual score. This gives the players a chance to improve a score rather than a guaranteed bonus and the potential improvement is never so great as to make their use a no brainer.  And yes, we did forget to begin with, and add the score on the Stretch Dice, but we soon go the hang of it.

Conclusions?

This was a great fun game. The rules flow well, so my first point from earlier, is it a good skirmish system, is well answered. It certainly is.

I think Crooked Dice have done a great job capturing the feel of a certain sort of TV show. So that's a tick for my second point as well.

And yet, the game, fun though it was, felt like a fun game of 7TV, it didn't feel like a fun game of Star Wars.

Now this is partly due to the naming conventions, one could easily swap Hero, Champion and Soldier for Star, Co-star and Extra. Some things are harder to obscure, such as Script Cards moving terrain or transposing models. I can't see a place for them in, say a game set in Middle Earth or even, despite the fun I had, in the Star Wars universe. I appreciate this is a very personal matter, YVMV. There's no right or wrong answer here, it depends on the individual.

There are many changes that could be made to 'de-TV' 7TV, but I think this is being dishonest to the game. Play it because you want to play a game where you play a TV show of a skirmish, not because you are looking for a good universal skirmish system (although it is very good). 

Personally, I'd absolutely play 7TV again, and we discussed further potential games for the future, quite apart from the Beneath the Mountains of Madness. I've even been thinking about a few Sherwood Forest games, with Robin Hood and his Merry Men battling the Sheriff of Nottingham, Guy of Gisborne and numerous soldiery. I think 7TV would nicely fit for the style of TV programmes I remember as a kid, or even the lower budget Hollywood attempts at English history. 

Ambushing the tax collector, archery contests, rescuing Maid Marion, the inevitable capture and the final showdown all seem like great episodes, I'd even suggest deliberately stopping the final game part way through to be finished the following week.

Now should I craft castle walls from cardboard with the lines obviously painted on? Perhaps this could be another use for some of my Rangers, or should I look for some of the old Airfix Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham minis?

Final Notes

I should mention that the production values are very high.  The rulebook is nicely illustrated with full colour diagrams an photos of Crooked Dice's own range of (excellent) minis.  A special mention to the index.  It never once let us down, despite frequent recourse to it.

The various tokens and templates are nicely colour printed on MDF.

If you want to take a look at the rules, Crooked Dice have a Download what you need to play section on their website.  It's free.  Go on, you won't regret just looking.  And while your there, check out their minis range.

Now where's my megaphone?

"ACTION!!!"

Rangers of Shadow Deep; Rangers Completed

**Please note, the photographs in this post are poor, I'm still getting to grips with my new phone camera.  I hope to replace them once I produce something better.**

Back in December I showed my kit bashed Rangers, built from various Frostgrave and Oathmark sprues. Well I've finally finished painting them, and they are ready to tackle the evils of the Shadow Deep.  They'll even qualify for Dave Stone's 'Paint What You Got' Challenge.

Reaper Bones Dark Elf

Included is a Reaper Bones Drow, SKU 44070 (I thought she was an elf, and painted her accordingly), previously seen part painted and filling in for Portus Fell in our first game. I've since added a few extra details and replaced the integral base with a clear plastic round.  I'm going for a dark green cloak for my rangers with mostly browns, light greens and yellows for other bits of clothing

Ellen

In our first game, Ellen was played by a dwarf archer with a very bushy beard.  This was the new version that you can see in the 12th December post (linked at the top of this post).

Bessaria

I'm less than happy with the skin tones on Bessaria, I clearly need more practice, although the photograph doesn't do my painting any favours.  She's not wearing a cloak, but I've used a similar dark green to the Drow above for her coat.

Portus Fell

The new version of Andy's Ranger.  Like Bessaria, she has a dark green coat rather than a cloak.  The red flask on her right hip allowed me to give her a bit of spot red.

I'll continue to do a 'proper job' on the important characters, but for less important minis and large numbers of creatures I'm going to be looking at the Slapchop method as used on the Reaper Bones villager.  

I've got the companions to finish, as seen being built back in December, and I must get some sort of plan for what I'm painting for both the challenge and the game.