blog header

blog header

Monday, 10 March 2025

Under Mount Silence

It's been a long time in the pipeline, but finally Thunder Under Mount Silence, the first Oakbound boxed game (if you don't count Tripods!) is on the doorstep. I've cut 98 sheets of nice, thick, glossy dungeon tiles, just two left to do! The artwork on the tiles was produced by photographing 3-dimensional pieces I had made, so I thought it would be fun to photograph some scenes on them. The walls aren't very high and in places the perspective has been forced in order to read better from above, but I think they're quite fun little vignettes.




 







Share/Bookmark

Monday, 24 February 2025

GROG in the snow

There hasn't been a GROG (Gloucestershire Retro Oldhammer Gamers) winter game for some years now. Even the Halloween game that was our most regular has been paused for a bit. Hopefully life for all members is a bit more settled now and we can get back to some good ol' quarterly wargaming!

This February's game (it's always half term week for the winter game as Christmas is so busy) was a cross-country skiing challenge Alpine Dwarf style. Harry introduces the game-


According to Dwarven History, the Alpine Dwarf challenge is rooted in the skiing traditions of the Norse Dwarves.

Early inhabitants revered the God Ullr as both the god of skiing and the hunting god. Historical research suggests that Ullr was a very ancient god, with ties to magic.

The Alpine Dwarves compete every year for this title and the honour of wearing these runes on their uniforms.

The activity that developed into this annual contest were initially training exercises for the Norse Dwarf Alpine Rangers as an alternative training to the regular Dwarven army. Norse Dwarf skiing regiments organized training into: shooting (Standing and prone), shooting at mark while skiing at top speed, downhill race among trees without falling! … and a long race on flat ground while carrying rifle and military pack. They also train in rock and ice climbing.

More recently the Alpine Rangers have been training with ice skates. Ice skates were first developed by Finn Mcswift  from shank or rib bones of elk, oxen, reindeer to make traveling in icy winter conditions easier and faster when hunting around the northern lakes

Many years ago during a particularly harsh winter the Goblins raided the dwarf Kings court and stole the Christmas presents. The rangers went after them and recovered most of the presents and saved Christmas. To celebrate this event the King came up with an annual challenge for the rangers to compete for the highest honour given to a ranger.

The challenge consists of a ‘race’ in which the best Alpine rangers are chosen each year to compete against each other. They set out from the Kings court and find as many presents as they can and return them to the king in the fastest time possible. They ski a cross-country trail divided into four sections with shooting rounds. Depending on the shooting performance, extra time is added to the contestant's total skiing time. The best shots get to head out on the next stage first and then they are followed by the rest after they have spent their time penalties based on their shooting performance. They gain time bonuses for each present they return with. The Ranger with the shortest total time wins.

For each shooting round, the Ranger must hit five targets or receive a penalty for each missed target. (They must miss a turn for each missed shot).

So, they Ski the first part of the course, then, on reaching the first check point the shoot at prepared targets. They then head out on the next stage at intervals based on their shooting… and shoot again upon reaching the next checkpoint. During the next stage they shoot on the move without stopping before reaching the final checkpoint for the last shoot before the climb back up to the king's Mountain. 


The King proclaims the great race on!


Beardy ones line up at the starting line... to place their dwarfs!

After a first round of target shooting they're off down the slope, with barely a turn between them.

Until Mike uses some crafty dynamite to bury everybody whilst the steep slope offers some serious speed for him to grab a head start.

A slight detour over the meltwater rapids yields a hidden present.

At the bottom of the slope the first river section must be jumped... or crossed with the help of a lumberjack and handy pine tree.

Once across the first checkpoint is reached for another round of shooting.

Whilst they wait to hit the target a sabretooth tiger lopes out of the crags to see what all the noise is about. Mike's up in that cleft because he somewhat misjudged a ski jump, but at least he's the other side from the tiger!

Meanwhile, up the back, a yeti breaks cover. He's mad at being disturbed by the explosion! Too slow for those pesky skiers, he will nevertheless hang around for their return!

Father Christmas gifts some new toys whilst the mountaineer helps them to the top of the next slope and the marshal makes sure there's fair play. The sabretooths keep on coming...

For those with skates the frozen lake offers a fast route around the mountain.

Up top there are presents galore waiting. Enough to tempt the dwarfs into yeti country where the abominable snowmen are waiting.

Chris takes a fast run down the steep slope and barely manages to avoid flying striaght off the edge of the table.

Paul picks up presents galore as he takes to the rails.

Luckily they're just close enough together for his skis to slide over the rickety bridge.

Heading off on the third stage of the course past the trading post, Mike comes face to face with a lurking sabretooth and completely fails to hit it with his blunderbuss.

The race up the final slope begins. Thanks to a long run up and some good shooting I was out in front, but a lack of snowshoes left me trudging painfully slowly up the incline. Would the sabretooth and yeti hold off the others long enough?

No. Falling easily to blunderbuss fire the last obstacles were out of the way and those with snowshoes and cramp-ons made it up both the snowy rise and the icy cliffs.

A mad dash for the finish across the last stretch, a tight finish once points for shooting in the last stage were added in.

Sadly bringing up the rear dwarfy-me decided to open the present he'd carted all the way around, hoping it wasn't the snow shoes that would have given him the edge. It wasn't. A collapsible wheelbarrow would have made no difference at all. At least it gives him something to ride home it.

Thanks to Harry for hosting (and freeing up my studio of the big snowy boards!), to all the GROGgers near and far who joined in and to Jamie Loft at Old School Miniatures who got John Pickford to sculpt a full set of Alpine Dwarfs! Go get yourself some right now.



Share/Bookmark

Monday, 20 January 2025

Big Bob


 For the last five years it has been a New Year's tradition for me to paint along with Bob Ross. For about the same amount of time I have had a large canvas made up to go behind my gaming table as a scenic backdrop. I kept putting off starting on it because I was a bit scared... but this year I finally summoned the courage.

This wasn't all done in one sitting, it took four innings- the sky, the rocky midground, the foreground and then some tweaking on the foliage. After so long of it sitting in a corner of the studio I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted it to look like and it has turned out much as I imagines. I have been compositing and cribbing up of Joy of Painting episodes to find the right features! Sadly the light is pretty poor at the moment so this isn't a brilliant photo. Hopefully I'll be at home in daylight sometime soon to take better photos.


Share/Bookmark

Monday, 6 January 2025

Infamous dwarfs!

You know how my dwarf army was finished? I lied.

To be fair I had always intended to add a unit of Longbeards. The Marauder Longbeards have a special place in my heart since a mate bought a blister of them when we were kids. They seem like the ultimate depiction of dwarfs  and are very much what was in my mind when sculpting my own Cavern Guard (of which more to come). Just before Christmas Harry and I met with the most excellent Mr Matthew Streety in Reading Wetherspoons for a day of sheltering from the storm and playing board games. Both fine gentlemen had little lead gifts... Longbeards! Christmas painting coming up. But how to get a decent unit of the little guys? They're not exactly easy to pick up, people are understandably holding onto such treasures.




Fortunately another packet arrived before the holidays... the Infamous JT dwarf Kickstarter! Long awaited this one, not that the fulfilment was slow- one of the fastest turnarounds I have had the pleasure to witness. No, these guys were a long time getting to KS due to a few issues, but I have kept my eye on the project as they're absolutely beautiful models. They'd do nicely as the rest of the Longbeard unit.

You may notice the old Marauder gentlemen have wildlife perched on their heads. Well, much as I like the flat helmets, I wanted them to match the heraldry of these swanky gentlemen. Fortunately I was able to find enough small critters to squat on their bonces. Meant to do a hare on one but somehow couldn't find a spare, oh well, a couple of duplicate beasts no terrible thing.


I'm keeping these photos smaller than usual. Back at the end of November my DSLR has some issues and it's currently off being (hopefully) fixed. However, around the same time my phone also started having problems so I got a new one with a fancy camera. I've been using that instead for these pictures. Not bad, but the autofocus, autoshutter, autoaperture etc. meant I didn't have an awful lot of control. Plus I had to get the camera really close so haven't been able to take a unit or comparison shots that I would like. Maybe when my real camera comes back. 


There were a few characters in the Kickstarter which I wasn't really bothered about since I was looking for troops, but I enjoyed painting them anyways. A festive fool which I decorated in the same colours as the Longbeard heraldry to keep it bright but complementary. He'll be called Merrylion.



A female dwarf without a beard... maybe she shaves. In the army she's going to be the cousin of the general, King Grimmson.. so she's Lady Grimmsniece and the other dwarfs call her Mortissue. Apparently she likes her cosmetics.


Then there's this elegant gentleman. The second wizard in the force now, let nobody say the dwarfs don't know how to magick. Merlin would be an appropriate name.

As well as the Longbeards I picked up the dwarfs with bows as a small ranger/scout party. All the models are great, with just the right level of detail/kit to give interest without being too busy. They scale really nicely with the Marauder, Macrocosm and Assault Group models. One day I'll be able to do a side-by side shot.









Share/Bookmark

Fimm McCool's

Fimm McCool's