Irony, MT - Part 1

For my wife's birthday this year, I somehow hit upon the idea of giving her a set of miniatures and rules for western role play. 

Rules were easy, as I went for a hard copy of Go Fer Yer Gun, printed by Lulu. I also managed to get a PDF or the rule book when it was a free item from Drive through Games. This system is based on D&D, and should be pretty easy to pick up.

For miniatures, I went with Foundry figures, sculpted by Copplestone (OW9/2, OW11/8, and DA1/6). At $15 a pack, the Foundry figures were a pretty good deal, although the flat rate shipping was a little harsh, particularly considering that it took longer than expected for them to get to me.  I was pleased with the sculpts, but there were more mold lines that I was expecting, some of which were too difficult to remove.  I also painted a random Artisan figure, which had character, but was less technically accomplished than the Copplestones (particularly in the hands).

I painted the figures predominantly at work during my lunch hour, and had pretty good success with that.  My office gets fairly good light, so it is not too bad for painting. I did run into some technical issues, mostly having to do with the Citadel screw top paints having dried up.  My flesh wash was a solid mass, and the propellant from my DullCote had long since vanished, necessitating a trip to the hobby store to procure more.  I experimented with some new techniques whilst painting these up, including using a sponge for some of the weathering on the clothes, painting reflections on a bottle, and I used the Perry Miniatures article on Painting Dark African Skin by Steven May to inform my painting of this first fellow.

For basing, I tried out grass tufts for the first time, and was somewhat pleased with them.  It seems like the particular set of tufts I had were more irregular than clumped, but I think that the overall effect is good (and quick, which its own sort of good).

Enough words, here are the first four of the miniatures (out of 13)

  Clearly I need to work on photography, since they are much better "in the hand" than they are showing here.  Limited in this case by taking pictures at night with a cellphone.  More to come, including a map of Irony City, Montana Territory.

On sculpting

I have been working a bit on the various Inquisitor figures I have going, and have been thinking about how much I need to work on my sculpting skills.  Most of the figures need at least filling before they are ready to be "finished", but some really need replaced hands, or resculpted pants, or similar, which currently exceeds my skill level. Fortunately I have been pretty satisfied with the various heads I have in my bitzbox, so no need to sculpt one yet, but I am sure it is coming some time.

So, I need to practice more, and here are some tips and tutorials that I have been collecting in support of this.  [and do not take these as any indication as to where my figures are going, they are just useful links!]

Tentacle/cable making with a comb: http://40kaddict.blogspot.com/2012/12/impromptu-tentacle-maker.html
Octopus style suckered tentacles: http://eyeoferror.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/sculpting-octopus-like-tentacles.html
Quick hands: http://commissar.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=conversion&action=display&thread=10322
Hand holding a spear or banner: http://xenite.wordpress.com/modeling-painting-and-hobby-articles/sculpting-hands-with-greenstuff/
Five minute hands: http://www.sciborminiatures.com/en_,sculpting.php?id=508#i/kwadrat/big/hand_tutorial_01.jpg
Sculpting Chain: http://www.underthecouch.net/tutorials/sculpting-chain/
Foil straps: http://maquette-garden.forumactif.com/t16914-tuto-fabrication-de-bretelles-d-armes-a-feu
Wreaths: http://www.underthecouch.net/tutorials/sculpting-wreath-badges/
Peaked Cap: http://colgravis.blogspot.com/2009/05/tutorial-sculpting-mordian-style-caps.html
Hood/Robes: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/68547-modelling-green-stuff-templar-style-robe/
lettering: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/507091.page
http://www.rolljordan.com/pega/sculpting_tutorials/How_to_sculpt_letters.jpg
Head sculpting (larger scale) http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=15700
Hex headed bolts http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=16689
Power clamp arm http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=8086

In a related vein, I have been collecting a few images of useful conversions in my Pinterest. [which surprisingly has 13 followers now]

Freikorps Werdenfels

I noticed that Tsuba miniatures had released figures for Frikorps before I left on vacation, but other than admiring the figures, thought little of it.  Today I was browsing around the web, as one does, and noticed that there was more information out on them... hmm, the unit was from Bavaria, and further, was raised from Garmisch-Partenkirchen (then just Garmisch and Partenkirchen), which is one of the places where I stayed on vacation!

Aside from the pictured figures, there are two packs of riflemen, a heavy machine gun, and one of "specialists" which includes a medium machine gun, a standard, and a figure with a hunting horn, so you could easily build up a little force with the produced figures.

Anyway, these are great looking figures, and aside from their strictly historical uses, they would be excellent for a variety of interwar or pulp actions.  German volunters for a VBCW?  "Alpine" units in a 1930's general war?  Who can resist Paul Hicks figures in lederhosen?  And for € 7.50 not too expensive either.  If they sell well, there are plans for civilians too...

Otherworld Adventurers

For those of you who are not burnt out on crowd funding following the very successful Reaper Bones kickstarter, old school miniatures favorite Otherworld has entered the arena with an appeal for funds to launch a new line.

First figures are already sculpted

Instead of more monsters to fill out their excellent range inspired by the Monster Manual, they are now turning to adventurers, and rather than dribble them out over years, they want to launch a complete range all at once.  Which is where the crowd funding bit comes in. Using Indiegogo, they want to raise a paltry $5,000 to hasten the release of the various boxed sets they have planned. 

I personally like the look of some of these, and am eager for their success.

Perry Plastic Men At Arms

As some of you probably noticed over on The Miniatures Page, the Perry Brothers have announced that the Mounted Men at Arms will be available at Salute, and that if you buy three boxes, you get a "free" Charles the Bold figure also, which is pretty cool.  I should probably paint one of my existing knights regiments before buying a new one, but these are pretty good looking figures, and should work nicely with my Empire/DOW army, as well as being useful for various historical battles.  I have frothed over these figures before, but they look great, and you should buy some.  [12 Knights and horses for £18]

Also, I apparently missed Conquest Sac again, which probably says more about my attention to conventions than about their advertising.  Looks like a good time was had, and Black Cavalier reports that attendance seems to be up as well.  Maybe next time then.

We have been sick at our house, so not much hobby activity going on, which will hopefully change soon when the taxes are filed.

Perry Miniatures Review

This weekend I got my first order from Perry Miniatures.  While I certainly have more than a few figures sculpted by the Perry Brothers (more like 100s), I had never previously ordered from their own figure company.

I ordered a few figures to use as NPCs in the D&D game that I am running in January, drawing from their First Crusade line. Indeed these are figures that I am using as the benchmark for the project, because they fit the look I want so closely. In this case the figures are sculpted by Michael Perry, although most people would be hard pressed to identify between the work of one or the other of the brothers.

This first picture is our lovely comparison models "Franz" and "Jean", which you may recall are 6th and 5th edition GW figures.  As it happens they were also sculpted by the Perry Brothers (I may have missed a zero on my previous estimate of the number of figures I own that they have sculped.)  As you can see, the figure matches most closely with the 5th edition metal Bretonnian figure, which is to my mind, excellent.
 
One of the things you read about online occasionally, is that Perry figures are "terrible" in terms of flash and other clean up work.  As you can see from the figure below, there is some extraneous metal that needed to be cleaned up, but I think it was nothing out of the ordinary, and it only took a few minutes to work through the set that I got.

This last picture is of CU25, one of the only packs that does not have a picture on their site.  As you can see they are quite dynamic figures, and should look quite nice slaying orcs down in the dungeons.



Perry Miniatures CU25 Mailed Sword and Axemen, advancing/attacking



The figures are packed in little black boxes for each code, and this seems to be good enough for overseas shipment.  Shipping times were perfectly adequate, and the VAT rebate offset the price of postage. In conclusion, these are lovely figures that I am already planning on supplementing sometime in the future.

Dreadfleet

The long rumored "special September release" from GW has been reveled... and it is a Warhammer World Pirate game.  Two years ago, they rereleased Space Hulk, and I failed to get it, so I was pretty interested in this year's release.

Araby Djinn powered ship

Skaven "ship"

Fighting it out on the battlemat with some skull islands

Here is what Games Workshop has to say about it:
Dreadfleet is a boxed game for two (or more) players that includes everything you need to make war on the turbulent seas of the Warhammer world. At your command are two fleets of ships - the Dreadfleet led by the Vampire Count Noctilus, aboard his gargantuan sea-hulk the Bloody Reaver; and the Grand Alliance commanded by the Pirate Captain Jaego Roth, who recently stole the Heldenhammer - the pride of the Imperial Fleet, and one of the largest galleons to ever sail the high seas.

As your ships engage in furious battle, it's down to you, the fleet captain, to make important split-second decisions. Do you bring all guns to bear on the closest enemy warship, or do you sail into position for a furious broadside? What happens when the warship catches fire, or worse, the powder kegs ignite? Exactly how much punishment can your warship take before it sinks without a trace? Are those Undead seagulls or flying piranha fish? And, when all else fails, do you have the courage to ram your foe, board their ship, and engage them in a duel to the death?

This boxed game contains:

98-page Rulebook
Seascape Gaming Mat
10 Warships
10 Scenic Bases
7 Cog Auxiliaries
1 Dragon Auxiliary
1 Dirigible Auxiliary
7 Islands
5 Shipwreck Pieces
3 Sea Monsters
5 Treasure Tokens
12 Dice
1 Wind Gauge
2 Ship's Wheels
1 Navigation Rod
10 Warship Cards
55 Damage Cards
40 Fate Cards
12 Auxiliary Cards
10 Wound Cards
11 Miscellaneous Cards

For $115 in the US, it unfortunately does not rise to the level of product I expect for that price.  At $50 I would be very interested, but at double that price... not as much.  I am also disappointed that it is a "Grand Alliance" styled game, where each race only has a single ship, which means it is certain that there is a race you are not interested in.

Pity.  Maybe next year will be the year that they rerelease Warhammer Quest.

Pro Gloria Miniatures

I probably would have noticed these figures earlier if I had been to the Warhammer Empire forum lately, but a new company (to me at least) called Pro Gloria, has just released some lovely HRE civilian figures, sculpted by Paul Hicks!

Very exciting, and not too expensive either, at €5.95 per pack.  There are currently four packs, and hopefully there will be many many more. These figures will be excellent as NPCs for WHFRP, or for Mordheim type skirmish games.  As an aside, the paint job on these is by Andrew Taylor, and just look at that herald... he has a double eagle under his arms... amazing.

Sometime in the future, I need to get these figures.

Why must you tempt me so?

As is common with me, my attention flits from one war gaming project to another in the space of a week or so. I believe this is the case because of my very long term researching, collection, building, painting timeline, which can stretch for years (still working on my first Space Marine company nearly 12 years on, with not much to show for it). Last few weeks I have been thinking about Necromunda, and running a campaign. I even went so far as to convert a figure for the game, and to examine my bitz stockpile to see what else could be made for the game. Then there was a brief period when Warmaster became the interest, and I paged through the Warmaster Ancients book while also thinking about my Battle of Five armies box. And now on to our current issue.

The interest de’jure has become 15mm Napoleonics. As you probably know, Napoleonics are widely seen as the most pedantic of all war games due to the huge amount of information available on the period, the colorful profusion of uniforms, and the relative obscurity of some of this detail. The lack of dominance of a single game probably helps to keep the period muddled for gamers.

I have long desired to collect a 15mm Napoleonic army, using the rather wonderful AB figures. I once spent a month of lunchtimes reading everything I could about the period, rules, basing etc. I even read Swords around the Throne, a lengthy detailed book on the composition of Napoleon’s army, as well as a few Ospreys on the regiment types I would want to build. I have half way written a set of rules for the period, which is fine because like most of my projects I expect to have to collect both sides, and will for the most part be a solo gamer (or will train a friend to play, so might as well do things like I like)
[for the interested, FOW sized bases, companies as elements, around a 1:10 figure ratio]

So just while I was thinking of this project again, and even going so far as to look at figures, draw up a cost sheet, and figure out what each company would need for a French Battalion, what do I see but that AB figures are on sale! http://theminiaturespage.com/news/433301/

Truly temptation is everywhere.

Christmas Gift Selection aid

Semi random surprises which my wife could purchase for Christmas:
1. Copplestone Neo-Soviet Platoon, Packs FW37(1),FW40(1), FW38(2), FW39(1), FW41(1), FW42(1), order direct
2. Copplestone Horse People 10mm army, Packs TM16(1), TM11(3), TM12(2), TM13(1) TM14(1), TM15(2), Order direct
3. Copplestone gangsters, wife’s choice, order direct
3. Necromunda Van Saar gang box from GW, $40, Order from Great Escape Games
4. Perry Bros ACW INFANTRY Plastic Box Set, $25, from TheWarstore.com
5. Perry Brothers Pavesiers standing(4), $48, from thewarstore.com
6. Warhammer 40k 5th edition rule book from GW $50, from Great Escape Games
7. Warmaster Araby Army from GW, order from Great Escape Games

From WFRP to fine art

From Miniatures

Recently, I have been interested in Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (WFRP), a role playing game based in the Warhammer Old World. Miniatures are not needed for the game, but being me, I wanted to convert some for it. I had this miniature from Pizzaro's lost legion, which I got to see if they could be converted to Spanish conquistadors armed with swords and bucklers. I think this shows that they can. I finished this figure to use as an Estalian fighter character for WFRP, should I ever get to play. (Outragous Faux-Spanish accents alone should be fun)

Once presented with the large blank canvas of the sheild, I had to do something more than usual. In this case I went for a rendition of Caravaggio's Medusa Aegis. While more ambitious than I probably should have been, I think that the final effect is quite nice.

From Miniatures

What do you think?