Wizards, Orcs, Undead, and what is going on...

So while it has been a while since the last time I posted I have not been inactive! I've finished another unit for the Romans, no picture since they look like the other unit. I'm also almost done with another so that will bring me to three. I also did some work for a friend and am part way through a squad of Imperial Guardsmen as a test unit. Also I cleaned up a couple Ultramarines units I got in trade to bring them into coordination with my third company adding a terminator assault squad, another tactical squad, and an assault squad. This brings my Ultramarines to over 3,000 points and I still have a couple units to paint and add to them! Very exciting!

Talking about exciting how about some miniatures? The bones have been getting painted up surprisingly fast. Mostly because I am not putting any degree of complexity into the paint work and I enjoy painting fantasy figures that aren't part of a unit. There is a certain freedom in them that you don't get when you're working to get thirty five men-at-arms on the battle field. Anyway here goes...

A wizard with something on his shoulder. The loss in detail makes it hard to know exactly what is on his shoulder but I decided it would be green indicating it may be reptilian. This is more a display piece than a play piece as it has that look about it and a huge stack of books behind him, and its unlikely he hauled those into the dungeon isn't it. 

Speaking of dungeons this guy will fit nicely into some brutally dangerous encounters. You can't tell but he is quite large in comparison to a "normal" sized figure making him a little intimidating. The absurdly huge axe should reap a terrible toll I would think and that shield, well, lets just say there is always room for another hand right?

I find that my collections tend to coagulate into certain pools, such as lots of undead and lizards. It was nice to add something a little different to the collection with this harpy even if she is a little scaly. It is a nice figure and a great addition to my RPG collection. I'm sure my son will find a use for it pretty quickly ;)

Finally some zombies. I just said I tend to have pools of certain types of figures and adding five zombies to my considerable undead collection is like adding cat's eyes to a marble collection. Never the less zombies are easy to paint and you can never, NEVER, have enough of them. I love throwing the undead at war games opponents and players both.

Re-blogging is like Necromancy

So I rarely re-blog something but this is something worth re-blogging. A super fine old school Warhammer undead army.

I'm so jealous of this army I can feel it in my bones...pun intended. 

Cleric with a Book (UPDATED!)

So as I said I'm throwing a single bones miniature on my table as I paint other projects and in general because I'm not looking to create a display piece, just a finished painted miniature that could be used in gaming later, they get done pretty quickly. I am almost finished with another Roman unit, but until then this should tide you over...

...with the nights coming on so soon in Ohio now it is at best freaking hard to get a good picture. Also, i'm not so great a photographer either so that means you get work like this. I also have finished a set of 5 zombies finished but forgot to photograph them, which is a shame as it would have made a great scene of him fighting them!

Oh well, maybe next time.

I'm moving along with the Romans/Celts nicely and with this unit about to be finished that puts me at 2 Roman units and 3 Celt Chariots. I think i'll keep plugging away at the Romans till they are done. I've got a conundrum though; I don't really have enough Celts. No matter what rules system I look to I'm really short. My Roman's will have six infantry units, a cavalry unit, and a psiloi unit but my Celts only have the 3 chariots and what will be six units of war band. If I was going to adhere strictly to Neil Thomas' rules I would need at least another 9 chariots as he units them in groups of 4. I'm thinking i'm going to have to write some of my own rules, but even then, I think I need some Celt cavalry.

Well either way it will work out I'm sure. Tomorrow night I'm supposed to get some war gaming in so i'll try to do a batrep and I plan to use my Doom Wheel which has never seen the battlefield yet! HUZZAH!

Oh yeah, meant to do this too...

...doing NO SHAVE NOVEMBER and I am growing a manly beard sir!

Celts and Monsters

So while it has been...fifteen days...since the last post I will have you know I have NOT been idle in the least. As a matter of fact as of yesterday I have cleared my paint board! Huzzah! A rare feat for me as commonly more and more projects slide onto the board and others just don't quite get finished. Many projects got completed as a matter of fact; some plague marines, some historical, some reaper miniatures, and various other stuff. I'm not going to post them all at once ya know, but i'll give you some of them!

First up I think it's important these get the limelight...

BAM!  Chariots...

...slightly three-quarters view...

...and in the back of the most important chariot Boudicca herself!

These are Wargames Factory Celt chariots and they are nice enough for such a good price for three. These have been sitting in the "soon to be done" box half primed for a long time...like maybe a year. I finally decided it was time to get on my historical project and these were on deck so I got them finished.

My Boudicca isn't the best figure but it was the one that came with the chariot so I wanted to make use of it rather than buy another one. I will probably get another later, its not so much the garb (which is wildly inaccurate) but instead it is just not that well molded the detail is kinda muggy.

With those done i'll look to either dig into the Romans to completion or the Celts, I'm unsure at this point.

With the Celt chariots done lets look at something less authentic shall we?

"Rawwrr! Don't look at the gap in my arm!"

"..." I have no idea what an Owlbear would say, sorry.

As I have said before I put a reaper mini on the painting board any time I'm working on a project and paint on it along with the project. This has resulted in a surprising number of them becoming finished actually. The two rather large monsters above were pretty easy paints since they weren't complex. This adds a nice set of monsters to my collection for delves or war gaming. I plan on keeping up with this practice as they bones aren't terribly hard to paint and my pool of painted miniatures needs some that aren't GW models :)

I have more to share and will post it soon, but now back to the bench.

Swordswoman

I have been pulling out a figure from my Reaper Bones collection off and on to paint up just to slowly work through them while I work on other projects. There are so many great figures, even if I don't get to use them, I do get to display them. My most recent one is this lady...

...quite a nice warrior woman I think. She is well armored and armed with a substantial sword and quality shield. Definitely looks like she is ready for some battle and looks like she can hold her own against any foe. I went with a blue theme and made her a redhead because frankly I make most of my female figures redheads because my wife is one and I think she is a very strong woman and in my mind redheads are fierce and popular literature kinda backs that up a bit. It is a complete fallacy of course (maybe, not sure) but I like to honor the strong woman my wife is with incarnations of her in miniature.

With swords...

...I'm not saying I am afraid of my wife...

...okay maybe a little.

ANYWAY...

This great figure aside I gotta say that the bones are lacking in comparison with other plastics and metals. I have some of the bones in their original metal and detail has been lost. Also, some have had to take short cuts in order to make the mold easier with the plastic they are using. For example on this figure her side below her sword arm becomes kind of a blend with the cloak and loses definition. Not a killer by any means but noticeable from Reaper's normally very high quality work.

As a side side note Dark Souls has me stumped again. My one son has beaten it, the other is nearly there even as I write this, but my cleric is in a tough place again. After accidentally killing Andre my weaponry is lacking. I'm trying to level my lightning spear to +5 but I need a piece of titanite I don't have...a slab I think...and I can't seem to find one. I did kill the hydra in dark root basin and the undead dragon in the valley of the drakes. I have the lord vessel and I can get to the four kings but I haven't tried fighting them feeling inadequate.

I so wish Andre wasn't dead :(

A Shattered Bridge

So I posted something a while ago about delving into dungeons.

My sons have been exploring the hobby of role playing with 4th edition D&D (which is a good game naysayers, just go away!) and so far it has been hit or miss. The concept of role playing games is something that is an exercise in active thought in my humble opinion. Board games and war games don't require the same mental insertion that rpgs do. You have to become the character, you have to actively try to see the world the character is in, and you have try to work out the decisions the character would make based off these ideas. I think this is the essence of why role playing is fun but also why it can be so alien to some people. I think it teaches a lot of things to the players and one of those valuable skills it teaches is empathy. That aside, everyone loves to chop up monsters with an axe!

I've been writing short "delves" for them to play in. Three to five room dungeons with some monsters and traps and treasure and sometimes hidden treasure. I try to set them in interesting places or interesting events. I've made one a timed run (a terrible magic storm that would blast them to pieces) but usually they just get to explore the area as they wish. Last night it was a bridge that was broken in the middle with two toll houses that could be explored and beyond it a statue in a ruined neighborhood.

The "gotcha!" moment was the young white dragon that would pounce upon the party as it crossed the broken gap in the bridge. It was suitably dramatic and I had written the dragon to flee after taking only a small amount of damage. It was looking for an easy meal, not a fight.

The dragon caused suitable panic in my party when it crashed even to the point that one character rappelled down into the ravine to avoid being a target. The dragon did some great hurt but they perceived and drove it away.

I think they are starting to get the idea of how role playing works and how the game is meant to be played. I also think they are enjoying it more than originally. I know I am, it is really nice to be a father and have your children play the games you love :)

4th Century Indians

De Bellis Antiquitatis is a game that has always fascinated me. It is considered THE historical war game. I don't know if it is because the rules are so well done, it's apparently so simple, it is relatively easy to build armies for, or if it is because it is played on such a small space.

As I looked through the various armies from the 2nd edition of the rules I decided I wanted to select something I normally wouldn't and came upon the Fourth Century Classical Indian and saw it required 3 elephants and I was sold! I was kind of embarassed I was a war gamer with out elephants in some army somewhere. I mean I have a stegadon in my Lizardmen army which is a fantasy dinosaur elephant, but no TRUE elephants.

My understanding is that this is a pretty tough army to fight. I think that is because it has 3 elephants which have the best combat ability in the game and one of them is a general which makes it even tougher.

Seven elements of 3 Bow. SEVEN DO YOU HEAR! I will darken the skies with arrows and drive my foe to his table edge!

Two speed 3 Cavalry units. They seem kind of out of place in this army but I think i'll use them to threaten a flank or defend a flank.

BOOM BABY! Here they are, the ancient tanks! Three death machines ready to stomp and grind my foes into little pieces of...ground up foes.

The entire 12 elements in all their glory!

The army list has space for some blade, psiloi, and chariots and while I could easily field the blade and psiloi I didn't feel one blade element would enhance anything and the 2 psiloi seemed like a bad replacement for the long bow elements. The chariots would be SUPER cool but I didn't have the miniatures for it and it seemed excessive to buy them when I could field an effective army. If I really get into playing DBA I may add them.