Dwarfing again

I had a dual need recently to cleanse my palate (and palette!) of goblins and to paint up some new gnomes for Oakbound so I got the last two units of my dwarf army done. Until the Infamous JT's infamous Kickstarter goes through of course!

The first is my new Oakbound gnomes with a couple of Harlequin extras. These were the guys I was playing around with sculpting as 3-ups, scanning and printing but you'll be pleased to hear they're proper metal casts. The idea was to get a little injection mould setup in place, but that might have to wait until summer. There are three different models, though really just weapon swaps (sword, axe and mace). They're based on the style of those lovely Marauder Longbeards and will be part of a special set coming out around the end of the year. Of course if you're going to be at Salute this weekend I just may be able to sort you out some advanced castings...

The second unit I worked on whilst I had the paints out are these lovely fellas I got from Theoc Games' Landsknechte Mercenary Dwarf Kickstarter last year. Their numbers padded out to an even 15 with a couple of Harlequin drunks whose attire looked like it fitted in nicely.

I went for the pikes as I was missing a solid 'regular' infantry core to the army and these guys have that Marauder vibe at a fraction of the price. I tried and failed to count how many variants (head and beard) there are, I think 4? Maybe 5? Anyhow, they make a nice block that will stand firm in the face of their enemies.

The pikes are quite thin and the top of one had snapped in the post, but this was easily swapped for a halberd head to give a good sergeant model. I haven't got any banners in the rest of the army and was going to keep them banner-less but I thought I would try this one. I'm thinking it's actually made of brass since they're an artillery company. Still undecided, but now it's painted it will probably stay. If you like 'em you can get these guys through Macrocosm now.

 

Dwarfing again

Don't you open that Trap Door...

When Fimm McCool's (Fimm McCool's Games Orkshop as it was then) first started way back in the mists of time 'mist' was very appropriate. I had recently got back into Warhammer after about 15 years away and was planning what army I would collect. My boyhood love of Heroquest was, as ever, forefront in my mind and I fondly remembered the somewhat unique big green monsters... fimir! Why weren't they an army in Warhammer? That was what I wanted to do... Back at that time a Nick Bibby fimir noble could be had for about £15-20 which, whilst still hefty for my part time salary budget at the time, was manageable. As a result I ended up with a full complement after some months of ebay watching. I never bothered with the regular Bibby Fimm Warriors though as they didn't inspire me. In any case weren't they too big for Fimm? Reemember that mix up over scales that is such a big part of the Fimir-flop mythos?

Fast forward to BOYL last year and a gent (sorry, I forget who it was) showed me his collection of Bibby Fimir. I was surprised to find the fimm sitting alongside the Jes Goodwin model on 25mm bases, I hadn't realised how much smaller they were! Only the tails were making it difficult to rank up, but something could be done about that, benefit of a soft metal model! Now I had to have some. When another gentleman on the Oldhammer Trading Faceache group posted a set I knew they had to be mine. Another part of the reason for not picking them up is that they must have been really unpopular at the time. They hardly ever came up for sale and when they did, even in the early 2000s you were looking at £25-30 each for them. Luckily we managed to make a trade and one of each sculpt was finally added to my army.

I had been really intimidated by the acres of bare skin on these guys, but Nick Bibby being the genius he is the musculature is all really well defined and they were a lot of fun to paint. I'd had recent practice, of course, with my new myeri miniatures so had refreshed my mind as to the colours and process. These guys got more intricate Maori-style tattoos because special models deserve special paint jobs! One thing that struck me when I had them in my hand was how much the poses with their massive, three-fingered hands and wobbly snouts reminded me of something else from my childhood...

Ah yes! the Trap Door things! I had to paint one of them purple-ish as a nod to my favourite animated kids' series. Now where did I put that Trap Door board game I designed almost 20 years ago?...

Don't you open that Trap Door...

Cult of the Leering Lune months 8 and 9

Had I mentioned Salute is around the corner?

Salute is around the corner.

That means at least a month of casting, sorting, packing, arranging display stands, replacing old electronics, ordering books and promotional materials etc. etc. etc. As a result I am going to have zero time for painting over the next few weeks except for the miniatures I need to get painted for the display cabinets. I have therefore snuck two months' worth of models into one here, and to be honest I cheated and started painting them in February. It probably won't be my only addition to the army before May as I will have a couple of weekends after the big show but I'd rather make sure I'm covered in advance.

Now I have oodles of infantry it's time to give them some support. Missile weapon and war machine time! Doom Divers are so cool I just had to have four of them. And then got the opportunity to have five so did. I made up one of each in their 'original' form and then did a bit of modelling on the others for variation. 

According to the list, Doom Divers are technically a common goblin thing (which is ok as I have a unit of common goblins in the army so can 'legally' take them) but look at them pretending to be big, scary vampire bats! Definitely night goblin appropriate. In fact, in the colour section of the 4th ed O&G Armies Book they're listed as 'Night Goblin Doom Divers' so there was clearly some confusion among the ranks and I reckon the army list listing is wrong.

Some less effective missile support in the form of 20 night goblin archers. Their job will be to stand at the back and be generally annoying, but if anyone gets too close then, of course, the requisite Fanatics will join the fray. Probably the most effective thing they could do is get charged!

I've mounted them on two 2x5 movement/display trays as they'll want to be spread out on the table. Preferably on a hill.

Some more classic Kev Fanatics for this unit. It's essential for an army with Fanatics to have one upside down with his ball buried in the dirt and so I have. I've also moved the ball (they're very prone to snapping off!) of one of the others to look as if he's just winding up for the swing.

I've wanted to get this gobbo jester from Foundry for ages but he wasn't available online and I couldn't find him on the racks at BOYL. I asked at NOTLL and the helpful attendant managed to find me one in their casting room. He'll be another madcap magician for the ranks. His assistant was a freebie from BOYL, but I forget who from so I can't give them the appropriate shout-out. Let me know if you do so I can update!

As I was hunting Foundry for the jester I spotted this chap in one of the cabinets and they located one of them for me as well. You can never have enough shamans in a gobbo army, right? I guess he's a bit forgetful as his assistant has to write the spell words really big so the shaman can read them at a  distance as he is borne away at speed.

 And a bonus. I had my Army Standard Bearer and his wolf undercoated so thought I should get him done alongside the rest. I imagine him just about to leap onto the back of his steed and tear off at great pace. The wolf is from the Dungeon Monsters Starter Set and is a nice big 'un befitting the carrier of the chief's banner. Hopefully he can get himself quickly to wherever morale is needed on the field!

Points then... Um.. I must confess I am a bid mixed up here as I haven't actually painted what I had intended and costed out. Here goes:

March- 5 Doom Divers @100pts each is 500pts (nice easy start). 5GC each so 25GC total. Brings the War Machine total to 586pts within a 3476.5pt army. That's bang on for GC leaving me with 8.85 left over still.

April- 19 Night Goblins with short bows (35pts, 10GC) and a big boss (33pts, 1.5GC). Two Shaman Champions (166pts, 4GC). Takes the Mobs total to 1680.5, the Characters total to 1463 and the army total to 3710.5. 15.5GC is 9.5 under leaving me with 18.35 in the bank.

The battle standard is 69pts (without a magical banner) and 2GC leaving me heading out of April with 16.35GC to spend and a still 4th edition tournament legal army. Get in.

Cult of the Leering Lune months 8 and 9

Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 4-

 

I spent quite a few weeks thinking about how I was going to approach the water on this board. I checked out several 'realistic ocean waves' tutorials, some good, some not so realistic. I decided against foil waves and tissue paper waves as I wanted the transparency to them. These techniques look great on a small-scale model railway layout but they're a bit fragile and not all that convincing in 28mm. I had already done the resin pour, knowing that I wanted that layer or translucency to create depth- although as it turned out I over-pigmented because the green came out too strong so it's not as translucent as I would have liked. I did see an interesting video making a big wave from resin, which intrigues me but which had the opposite problem, it looks too big unless I want all my models to get swamped. However I wondered if I could combine two effects, making a silicone wave bed and a foil one (to test both approaches) and casting clear resin into it. Not having any silicone to hand I started playing with No More Nails... 

When messing around with the No More Nails I found it was pretty easy to work it into convincing waves forms for the kind of rough, crashing water I wanted. No point doing water if it's not dynamic! Initially I thought I would do all my waves with this and then paint where he light would come through the wave bright turquoise like the land descending below the surface. On my test pieces though this wasn't very effective. The crests were good (though No More Nails sets kinda creamish, not ideal but ok for slightly scummy water) but the body of the wave didn't look right. On previous builds I have done big water effects with clear silicone, but I wanted to be able to add foam and spray which wouldn't stick to this. A couple of other videos lead me to Fix All Crystal Clear which I could easily pick up from Screwfix. I did a couple of tests and instantly decided this was what I was going to use. It's quite blue tinted, which would piss me off if I had bought it for DIY purposes, but works perfectly for adding the layer of translucency I wanted from the resin.

Most people using this acrylic polymer product are cutting it with Isopropyl Alcohol which gives a kind of jelly substance that can be spread. That's ok for a leisurely flowing river. I kept mine neat because I wanted to lay it on thick and pull it around with a coffee stirrer, using the viscosity to make big ocean wave forms. It dries pretty fast so I could lay down a good bed, work it into small crests, then build big waves over the top after waiting ten minutes or so for it to harden. Initially I was laying it in quite fine ribbons across the direction I wanted the waves travelling, blending these together with a swirling motion. I soon found that this was producing quite a delicate rippling effect, not the dynamic peaks and troughs I wanted so I cut the nozzle right back to lay down big thick sausages. In hindsight before I did this I should have done the area up against the beach with the finer nozzle to create more delicate lapping, but I wasn't sure if I was going to have enough and wanted to prioritise doing the small bard as a test and then the demo board. As it turned out I had almost exactly the right amount, a bit left over.

Once it was set I used a blue ink to wash into the big furrows and under he big waves, adding more depth. This made the acrylic polymer quite dull, previously it was super-glossy. I went over these areas with Liquitex Heavy Gloss medium to bring back the shine and found that it set the Fix All much firmer. Not quite solid but definitely less spongey. I went back and covered all the water with the gloss medium. This added some extra small ripples and firmed everything up.

The Fix All allowed me to build quite tall waves in three or four passes. I may have got a bit carried away and forgotten that less is more... but DYNAMISM! This wave above I tried to copy as close as I could from a photo of water crashing into a similar cave mouth. The white crests I made with No More Nails which bonds just fine to the acrylic polymer and can itself be built up quite heavily if desired. I applied this with a coffee stirrer though as I felt the gun was a bit overkill.

I added a little bit of foam on top of the crests with dabs of No More Nails, but only on the bigger crests. Since it goes quite yellow when it sets I want to do most of the frothy wave tops with white acrylic paint. I did also go around the board at this point and put in where the waves would reach with the gloss heavy gel to make them look wet and slippery. I realised afterwards what I should have done was to paint this area darker where the water would soak into the rock itself. Might have to go back later and do that.

The foamy, frothy tops of the crashing waves was made from Woodland Scenics flake snow mixed into clear resin (very heavily, mix a lot in!). This was really easy to paste on in big, dramatic clumps using a coffee stirrer or lolly stick... so I went massively overboard and overdid it again. Didn't want to waste any! Ah well, fantasy innit. For future reference, less is definitely more! That being said, the big sprays coming crashing up through the gaps in the columns is definitely atmospheric and fun.

Here are some of the biggest waves with their foamy, crashy crests. The translucency of the Fix All really makes the wave look convincing. Once I had pasted the foam in place I lightly sprinkled over the top with neat Woodland Scenics snow. I thought this would make it look a bit more granular and whiter but I don't actually think it added anything. If anything I actually think it looks less like froth, but not enough that I'll scrape it off and do it again.

Because the breakers on the beach were more pronounced than I had hoped I decided to add a big wave to explain them. Actually, if this is the same body of water that is being pummelled onto the basalt columns it doesn't make sense for it to be gently idling up the beach, so that works ok. The mega wave was built up in the same way as on the Salute board but this time I did it in 4 stages, blending each one into the last, so I could make it curve up and actually roll over with a channel underneath. The neat Fix All hardly sags at all when pulled into place so it wasn't to difficult to coax it all the way over without collapsing. I put another big splash of foam in where it's crashing down.

I went in with some white acrylic and painted in the foamy bits around the edges of the rocks. I did also finally get around to using a sepia ink to 'wet' the stone where the waves are crashing. Just need to go over it with a varnish and put the glisten back. 

So here are some shots of the board pretty much finished. If you'd like a more 3-dimensional view you can check out the video coming soon to my YouTube Channel and, of course come along to Salute or join us for The Woods In The Woods games day this year. Details to be announced soon.

Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 4-

Cult of the Leering Lune months 6 and 7

 

Crazy to think we're halfway through the Tale of Fourth Gamers challenge, but we are. I counted up my painted gobbos and my remaining gobbos and I am pretty much exactly halfway. You may have noticed I didn't do a blog post last month, that's because all I managed ("all") was the dude above. He's now been joined by February's unit though so it seemed worth posting. 

Here's the next bunch of grots. I tried to nod a bit more to the 'conventional' Night Goblin scheme with the black and yellow on this one.

Some more Goblin Hood and Harlequin figures filling out the unit. Not my favourite to paint as has already been said but there are some fun chappies in there. I particularly like the sneaky cloak and dagger chap and a drunk gobbo in a barrel is always fun.

Most of this unit are the more recent BTD Nightlings. On the Kickstarter for the production of these it says they were sculpted by Kev Adams and Kev White. Looking at the pictures on the BTD site I thought they looked very Kev Adams but as I was painting I have revised my view and now think they are mostly Kev White with just a couple of Kev Adams sculpts lurking in there. Never mind, their cheeky grins and big hoods give them a good aesthetic fit if they are a bit on the large side.

Can you spot the Goblinmaster head? I think out of these the only Kev Adams sculpt is the chap second from right. I'm not sure about the one on the right end as most of his head is covered by the spear but I don't think he is. The one on the very left is another possible but there's something in the proportion of cheekbones to chin that makes me think not.

The command group is genuine Night Goblins, except for the older gobbo who has donned his hood and joined the party. With the taller Nightlings surrounding him he gets away with it, just looking a little lanky. I've used my second swearing goblin as a standard bearer since he has such gravitas, and look! The other musician, finally tracked one down. :)

Of course, being a Night Goblin unit, there are Fanatics. This time some of the older grinning loons.

Then there's the January submission. He's counting as a Shaman Lord on Hydra since his steed is tough, armoured and with a squig and retinue of snotlings aboard has many heads! But can't fly... This is the second RAFM war tortoise in my armies, my halflings also having a pet to carry their flour and apples around. 

The snotlings are tasked with keeping the shaman's pet squig entertained... and placated. This is achieved through a mixture of insults, bonks on the head and the occasional meal of grot. On the other side is a late addition, a gobbo who has fallen or perhaps taken a dive to avoid being lunch. I have no idea what this figure is but saw it on a second hand stand at a show in December and thought I had to fit him on. Anyone know what it's actually supposed to be or is from?

For those who care: That's 175 points of mobs, 512 points of bosses (with the hydra) taking the total so far to 1443.5 points of mobs, 1262 points of characters and 86 points of war machines for a total of 2791.5 points. This 2 month's worth of submissions is 41.45 leaving me 15.75 surplus for use in coming months.

Cult of the Leering Lune months 6 and 7

Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 3- Groundworks

 

Last weekend I spent some time messing around with flock. I wanted to put the groundwork on the boards before doing the water effects as it's easier to clean loose flock off smooth resin than off textured waves! I did also do some test pieces for the water, none of which I am totally happy with yet... more to follow.

The majority of the grass is static grass mat from Noch, the closest I could find to match in with the original boards I made from the Citadel fabric mat (stupid boy!). These paper-backed grass mats are great at flowing over lumps and bumps (wet the paper thoroughly with PVA, apply more glue to the base board, let them sit for 5 minutes so the glue soaks in and goes tacky then smooth/stretch carefully over the contours) and covering big areas quickly with grass that won't come loose. However they are pretty uniform so don't look very natural by themselves. I like to overwork them with an assortment of scatter material that I can also blend into the tight areas I can't get matting into easily.

The pictures on the left show the mat with patches of sponge scatter and a mix of sand and cat litter for the path applied. I like sponge scatter as it soaks in the PVA and firms up, staying in place where sawdust flock would fall off. I also think it looks more natural and mossy than sawdust flock. Static grass is great but it can be easily compressed by bases where the sponge scatter either sets hard or springs back into place. The pictures on the right have clumps of foliage and bushes added. I debated buying commercially-available bushes but on investigation they are just coir/coconut fibres dipped into scatter material. I can do that. So I bought rubberised horsehair (£2 for more than I will ever want, also available cheaply in hanging basket liners), cut it into rounded shapes, brushed on PVA and dipped into one of three bags of sawdust scatter I bought for the purpose. The whole cost me less than a tenner and I have enough left to this five or six times over whereas this amount of commercially made bushes would cost be £15-20. 

The bushes are important for creating places to hide without seriously reducing the amount of space to move around. I tried to place them in a way that could be used to make careful progress across the field. I've tried to be 'targeted' in my use of scatter materials so there are more dead leaves/mulch under the tree for example, bushes cling to rocks and the bank of the stream, there's a darker scatter directly below the bushes and rock faces to suggest shadow, the grass in the centre of the area is paler/browner to suggest it gets dried out by more sun and wind etc. Thinking about how the landscape forms and is affected by the elements is one of the keys to natural looking terrain. Of course, it helps to have a good library of scatter material to hand. I think I used seven different colours of sponge scatter, five different static grasses and four types of clump foliage on this board... and using such small amounts the materials last a good long time.

I gave the hut and tree a couple of liberal washes of ink. I wanted them to be more textural than painted and have added bits of moss etc. to blend them into the board. They shouldn't stand out as being 'placed' elements but look part of the whole. At this point everything is stuck down but still a bit loose. Before giving it a good shake off I sprayed the whole thing with isopropyl alcohol and ripped over heavily diluted PVA. This was the first time using the Isopropyl, normally I just add a bit of washing up liquid to the diluted glue. It did seem to increase the flow and firmness of the materials quite a lot so I intend to go back over my other boards and do the same. It is pretty smelly, spraying it is atomising nasty particles and combining the alcohol with PVA may be creating a nasty substance called Polyvinyl Acrylic which isn't fun to handle so open windows, wear gloves and put a properly fitted FFP2 mask on if you're going to do it. Close the room off from the rest of the house and leave it ventilated overnight whilst everything is drying and fumes are dissipating just to be sure. I did try flow aid as an alternative (as suggested by Mel the Terrain Tutor) because I was concerned about the alclohol on the foam even though it was covered up. I was using the airbrush reducer I used on the washes for the rocks and it wasn't working as well as the isopropyl so I stopped using it. Maybe Mel has a different/better flow aid.

Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 3- Groundworks