Hasslefree Adventurers

A quick post this week, lots of projects on but nothing finished yet I can share.  Instead I've got some great Hasslefree figures I painted last year as part of my Inquisitor army that I didn't get around to taking shots of.

The other reason I thought of these this week is that local game designer Taran will be using them at his Infected Dead launch event in a few weeks time - check out the link and come face the zombies if you can make it!  My own legions of zombies from a little while ago are going to join in the carnage, as well as the lady troopers from way back.

https://www.facebook.com/BlackRoninRolePlayingGames

Taran is also responsible for the splendid new banner at the top of the blog, many thanks!

Taken from their wide range of adventurers and other ranges, these figures are destined to be members of my henchmen squads.  Where the troopers I have from Heresy and Hasslfree are somewhat regimented, this figures are a more rag tag bunch, deliberately so as they are going to be on more dangerous missions, whether embarked in a flyer or acting as melee troops.

This first lady is, I believe a reference to Seline in Underworld, played by Kate Beckinsale.  Regardless, she's a tough looking one in a trenchcoat, bodyglove and packing 2 pistols.

Arguably this character is the same reference, but I am wondering if its more Kate in Von Helsing.  On this figure there's a great sense of movement in the swinging sword arm.

The huge bloke (no size reference I know, but trust me he's marine scale) is I think a Ghost in the Shell reference to Batou.  Wearing a bomber jacket and a t-shirt he's clearly not scared of anything - tiny gun too!

This gun toting teen is I think Buffy - I chose to give her a pulse rifle as I like the pose but there's no doubt she can handle herself at close range I like to think!

Lastly here's Hasslefree's own character Libby (who is I think is inspired by Sally White) in the Leia/Jedi cross over style.  A great figure and frankly with a light sabre a terror on the tabletop.

Where these characters had shiny leather elements on them, I've used some clear gloss finish acrylic to make them look the part, I think it works well and I've made sure I have a pot handy now for anything I do - although I have to paint it after varnishing as I use anti-shine spray!

This is only the first 5 I've completed, I have a bunch more ready to go at some point and Hasslefree have released a whole load more characters since my last order who are great as well!

Big based undead nasties

Despite chugging through quite a lot of hobby stuff in the past weeks and months, I'm not finding taking photos of stuff any easier or more enjoyable, half the time things don't come out looking very good, the other half I notice that the figures aren't nearly as good as I thought!

Well that's the excuse for my slow updates out of the way, here's some pictures.

I've actually had the first bunch close to completion for a while, they just needed some final details and basing.  Its a unit of Vargheists, new additions to the army this latest version of the book.

The kit allows you to make the winged terrors shown here, or huge ghoul like creatures that really don't float my boat - I'm looking for some werewolves to use instead.  I've gone for a slightly unusual colour scheme, using the new GW paints - the space wolf armour progression I think for the skin and a slightly unusual blue to purple blend for the wing membranes and fur.

Each of the new guys is a completely separate sculpt which makes them all very characterful.  The downside is should you get more than 3, the parts aren't multi-pose or even compatible with different bodies, so without converting you are stuck with the same 3 poses over and again.

This chappy with the extra set of wings is the unit champ, my favourite pose of the 3.  I've found the unit to be an interesting addition to my army, so very useful in most match ups if you can save them from being shot!  I've based them consistently with the rest of my newly coherent undead, although I've added some small bits of shale to break up the larger bases.

Next up are the figures I use as spirit swarms who have been around for a while now.  I really don't like the current standard models, so I've used instead Lord of the Rings army of the dead models.  I've used the metal set that included the king which I don't think is available now, but you do get a lot of plastic warriors in the set now.  I've mounted 3 to a 40mm base (what we called Monster bases back in my day, relatively tame these days that size!) and when formed up they do look like a mob of ghostly warriors which is perfect.

I painted these very easily, I recommend the trick.  Painted over a black undercoat (my standard) I dry brushed the entire lot dark grey.  I then progressed the grey tone lighter and lighter till I used only the slightest amount of near white paint.  Once this was all done, I liberally doused the lot in green wash and ta-da, job done.

Henching for Wyrd

I've been enjoying Malifaux a lot this past year so after discussion with Matthew the local Henchmen, I've applied for and been accepted into the Henchman ranks for Wyrd Miniatures.  This means I can demo games and run events officially on their behalf.

I'm very excited by this opportunity and have already run a number of demo nights at my local gaming store. Next up is a tournament on the 2nd of March - anyone who can make it is welcome!

Back to some minis then.  As the Malifaux league grew last year, I was wondering how to expand my Zoraida crew.  The stitched togethers were my first additions, but after those there were a lot of options so I had to decide which way to go.  Dolls was one route - with Collodi and his retinue and so on.  I'm not a massive fan of some of those models but I do really like the Puppets Wars plastics so I am hoping Wyrd will redo (in plastic) a number of figures in future.  Neverborn Nephilim were another route, but that felt more like Lillith's thing so I may come back to that.

So instead I went the cowboy/shooty route.  This isn't all that common from what I understand and the options are limited, but I was really interested in seeing what I could do here.  Zoraida is a subtle enhancing leader and can work with anything, in this case I was looking to maximise the amount of bullets I could put in the air.

First up, the only real Neverborn cowboy option, Tuco.  Clearly a reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, this chap is an ex-guild Ortega family member who was captured by the Nephilim and has become tainted whilst held in captivity.  Now resenting his former clan, he works for the Neverborn to try and reclaim Malifaux.  With a bit of "Smooth Criminal" style going on with this figure, I opted to copy the official paint job closely and am pleased with the outcome - although I can see a few chips on the photos so I need to sort those out an finally varnish him!  In game he's been amazing.  Extremely sneaky, fast and surprisingly durable, he's been a real asset to me.

Next up is the Brutal Effigy.  Created by Zoraida to learn about and exploit the other faction's weaknesses, the Effigies were created in mockery of the very things that made each faction unique.  This backfired during 'the event' and the effigies awoke with their own intelligence and agenda - they felt kinship with the factions they were designed to weaken.  All this said, the Neverborn can still command them when nearby so Zoraida can make good use of all of them.  I have chosen the Guild version, the Brutal, who at once resembles the Judge, death marshals and has 4 horse like legs.  This little chap lives up to his name, pretty cheap but hard hitting, he also comes with a pretty easy to cast healing spell that fills a utility gap in my crew. Again I've stayed close to the official paint scheme here and am very happy with the outcome.  Thinking ahead to the inevitable Guild crew I will own, I have started basing that faction differently - using cork.  My Kirai crew is on wooden boards, my Neverborn on swampy or badlands type bases, I wanted the Guild to be different again.

Next we have some minis that aren't official Wyrd products (traitor!).  I picked up some Black Scorpion cowboys as the Wyrd equivalents for the minions I wanted to use were't quite what I had in mind - i.e. more cowboys!  I've reviewed the complete pack on my brother's blog.  This slightly over the hill cowboy is my choice of desperate mercenary.  Very cheap to hire and in all honestly not great, these mercenaries are an easy way to increase my figure count and get more cowboys in to my game.  I've found that having a figure I really don't care about is actually very useful - more than once Tuco has plucked some treasure from the centre of the table, danced back to this guy and then left the poor sucker to lug it round and hide for the rest of the game while Tuco goes back to the party.

The last cowboy I've managed to squeeze in is this amazing looking chap.  The second Black Scorpion figure in my crew, I'm using him as a convict gunslinger.  The figure is suitably menacing and ready for mayhem.  Ruleswise this guy is where the pain is at, possibly the most bullet based output per soulstone in the game.  Combined this with Zoraida's abilities to control her minions, this guy is a one man army with the right cards. I've shot to pieces Dust and Ashes - and the urn he left behind.  I've also shot McMourning's face right off.  He's good.

So here's the main part of my Zoraida crew - the figures I've completely painted.  Its not quite everything I used in the league, I had some success with the Arcane Effigy and Zoraida's Avatar too, but they aren't finished yet.  I never quite got around to using my Spawn Mother or her Gupps, the all fishman crew is surely an experiment for another day :)

So just to round off on the league (as it finished last year I should really get these catch up posts out of the way!), I was very pleased to find that I had won the league with a combination of winning most games and getting so much of my crew painted.  I was also voted best painter, which I am really happy about as a lot of time and effort went into these guys.  Most hobby points went to Matthew who painted a huge array of mardi-gras themed undead and best sportsman went to Si, with his Orphelia lead crew and exemplary playing attitude.

Stitched Together

Well its been a while since I updated my blog!  For 2013 I am going to try to post smaller updates more often rather than trying to save up for the perfect, but far too long (and daunting to type), posts.

Looking at my last post the Malifaux hobby league had just started and a lot of games and hobby effort has been and gone since then.  I really enjoyed the league and did far better than I had anticipated - I'll hopefully come back to that in another post.

For today, here's the Stitched Togethers I am now the proud owner of.

These little critters are some of the more unpleasant characters in my Zoraida crew.  Zoraida can create all manner of evil dolls and bestow a mockery of life into them.  Based on Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas (they have abilities such as "Gamble your life" and are clearly little burlap sacks filled full of nasty) I love these figures so its a bonus that they look great and work extremely well in the game too. On this first little figure I extended his head a bit, adding the "pony tail" with some green stuff to make him look even more like Oogie.

This first sack of unpleasantness is mounted on a raised base that supposed to be a sewer pipe outlet, leaking some nice green ooze.  The figures are quite small but in game they are "height 2" which is average so larger bases help remind me and my opponent of this during play.  The small die was added to the base to again emphasise the gambling aspect of these guys, plus again they are Oogie's favourite toy in the film.

This second little chap is again mounted to add to his height.  This time on a sewer grate, he's just rolled a pair of dice and (after a little bump) managed a double 6...little cheat!

Anyway, short post was the plan, so there we go.

Making your own wargames scenery - swamps

So as promised previously, here's a post on making some swamps.

I've made these specifically for my Hordes Minion force, but the bigger templates and the technique can definitely be used for other games.  I am working on a bigger swamp for Malifaux and we'll see if that's a good size for games like Warhammer and 40k too.

After the jump you'll get to see, in best Blue Peter style, a step by step of one I made earlier.

Sci-Fi Troopers from Mantic and some 40k action

Some weeks a lot of projects come together all at once - its one of those this post.  I've been playing some bits of the new edition of 40k and with so many space marine armies around in our local group I was keen to bring something not in powered armour to the table.  As I've posted previously I'm collecting a Grey Knights army based around Inquisition troops and various other sci-fi miniatures I am interested in.

Very recently I got a copy of Mantic's Project Pandora as I was keen to try the game as I had heard good things from Frontline Gamer and the designer himself.  My ulterior motive was to get some of Mantic's Corporation figures to see if they would be another good source of troopers for my slowly growing force.

The Status Quo guitar swing in full motion

So what do I make of these guys?  They are roughly the right size to go with my Heresy and Hasslefree troops, although somewhat more spindly (possibly more realistic but less fun!).  The figures come with very limited options - a few alternate heads and a few special weapons (which I elected not to use).  Not the end of the world in my experience, but even the repeated 3 fixed pose bodies are very similar meaning the overall look of the squad is very repetitive.

My favourite kind of trooper, one with no face

The figures arrived already removed from sprues so I'm not quite sure whether what comes in the game box is the same as what's in the squad box if you buy them separately.  I also discovered the plastic is somewhat different to the previous plastic Mantic used, superglue being a better choice with this stuff than liquid poly.

The guns I found really hard to paint for some reason, especially given the industrial polymer (or 'grey') look I am using on my guys.  They also look slightly bent to me - see the blue dude above.

One of these things is not like the others...

Like the rest of the troopers so far, I'm continuing the red and blue squad split.  I was originally planning to make each squad a different colour, but this limits the intermixing I can do - especially as I don't know what figures I will eventually put in the army overall.  Inquisition henchmen squads have a lot of options.

The powerfist equivalent thingy is pretty nice actually

Overall I didn't much enjoy painting this squad, the model's details are quite shallow which means most of the detail is sort of hinted at rather than nicely raised and accessible to paint - especially for rank and file troops (potentially as cheap as 3 points each) I'm not willing to spend a lot of time teasing out subtle details!  The guys do fit into the rest of my troopers reasonably well, especially when mixed in.  I don't think I'll be getting any more of these to increase my army size and I fear these chaps will long be the first casualties from a squad (which in the new rules means putting them in front...)

So moving on, and to prove I'm not unfairly judging these guys, its time to show off some other figures from my growing force.  I'm still experimenting with the best way to get photos of my figs (I will give up and get a lightbox at some point) so excuse the spam here!

First up and key to the selections I am making is Inquisitor Coteaz.  By taking this dude as my HQ I get to take henchmen as troops rather than elites, allowing me up to 6 squads!

This is the first Finecast figure I got from GW and despite a few issues (I had to sculpt a new finger, fix a toecap and a few bubbles) the detail is exceptional on this thing.  I've since varnished it, but for the first few games he was unprotected and no paint rubbed away so the material seems to be pretty good if you can get a good casting.  My Mannfred Von Carstein on foot is story for another day...

In contrast to my issues with the Mantic guys, this figure was sculpted to be painted.  Despite the density of the detail in places I had no trouble going to town on him and am very pleased with the final result.  I also changed the skin tone as a nice reference to Samuel L. Jackson in Star Wars - you'll notice the hammer has a purple (s)haft.

Next up is another Hasslefree figure, the Smudgester.  Despite being tiny (that's a 25mm base he's on) he's full of character and perfect for use as a Jokaero in my henchmen.  I quite like the orang-outangs of 40k but this guy is even cooler if you ask me.  He also reminds me a man-hound character from the Ravenor series of novels called Fyflank - we'll come back to his owner in future.  The Jokaero are also quite small and have some unique abilities in game, the key one illustrated by this figure is being able to fire one of a variety of very heavy weapons each turn so I am very happy with this proxy.  I've named him Frank in reference to Men In Black's little alien talking Pug dog.

Next up are a couple more ABC warriors (from Foundry) - I'm getting close to having them all done now.  This is Deadlock who despite being generally a nice model has a pretty awful sword blade - I might replace it at some point.  So aside from being armed with a spatula like weapon this is another figure I like a lot with a lot of cape to go to town painting.  In game so far I've used him as a lone Paladin - yes I've actually got a Grey Knight (proxy) in my Grey Knight army, don't worry there wont be many!  Turns out having a unit of one is quite a lot of fun and the rules aren't a bad match for Deadlock's character.

Here's Ro-Jaws.  He's a toilet cleaning bot in the stories, so I use him as a servitor, it sort of fits.  I've upgraded the heating unit in his head to a multi-melta so he can do more than just fling poop at my opponent.

Finally (usually for me) some sneak previews of future bits for this force.

First up is a Knight Paladin figure.  Based on a design a friend of mine came up with using pieces from all sorts of GW kits, this huge figure (that's a Dreadnought base) is a reference to the Epic games of yesteryear. I've decided to use this as a Dreadknight - if I ever get my Mongrol built I'll have 2 then!

To finish here's my first Chimera proxy.  Its a land train/ bull dozer thing from Ramshackle games. This was a bit of a pain to build but it looks great (and check out the prices) so I may just get several more when they reopen their store.  They are roughly the right size and again fit in with another character theme I am working towards in this force.

Privateer Press: Journeyman League - The Conclusion

So the Warmahordes Journeyman League came to an end a few weeks ago but I've not had time to post on how things went, so here's my round up post.  I've been fiddling with photography again this post and given up trying to lay the pictures out better on Blogger for the time being so excuse the rather scattered look!

So after my last post on the subject I had one round left to play before the league finished.  I was also trying to get some more bits painted before it all ended.  At the end of the league, games played, games won and figures painted all counted for points!

My final game was 35 points again Brian, using his Khador.  Brian is the very model of the best sporting attitude and he pointed out a number of things I was about to do wrong (turn order and so on) which meant I was able to play my force to their very best.  I did manage to win as a result, but Brian was very generous to allow me to do so!

I managed to get one of my favourite gators painted up in time - Snapjaw.  This guy is a character warbeast who hangs around with a mini-warlock called Wrong Eye.  The pair of them make a reasonably effective team and look great on the table.  I think I especially like Snapjaw because he reminds me of Godzilla - look at the profile in the first picture above to see what I mean.

The final scores for the league meant that thanks to me persistently turning up and playing (8 games), sometimes winning (4 games) and painting a fair old amount (3 large warbeasts, 5 medium infantry and 1 small solo) I collected piles of hobby points. It turns out I received the largest amount of painting points and came top overall as a result!

After the league finished, finally my Bullsnapper came into stock.  I love this little guy so have painted him up to near completion quickly.  This dude is much brighter than my other gators as I seem him being quite a different species and also rather nippy.  The colour scheme I think works nicely.

5" template for the Swampy Pit spell Barnabas uses to great effect

Part of the way of gators play allows me to set up swamps on the tables before the games starts and also create temporary pits throughout the game.  I decided to make some scenery to represent these rather than just use templates.  I've not completed all of them yet and intend to do a post showing how I went about it, but for now here's one of the big pits I've made complete with tree stump, fetid pools, grass clumps and little mushrooms!  This is also the reason my painted gators aren't based yet, I am still figuring out the best way of achieving a decent water effect.

Finally for this post, a shot of Steve the Mad Wizard's tower from last time.  Now completed with flock to match Rob's modular table in 7th Heaven, looking good!