Dracula’s America in Spaaace.

Posted on 15/03/2018 by sho3box

theottovonbismark’s Crossroads Slaaneshi Cultists welcome safe drivers.

I have been gearing up to some Dracula’s America (in Spaaace) gaming for several months.  theottovonbismark and Mr Saturday were caught up in the perilium rush enthusiasm and headed to Standard Falls (via Uncanny Valley) recently and we played some games.

The Boss Drum Ratskin tribe, the Crossroads Cult of Slaanesh and the Shadow Empire Tong cautiously attempt to parlay in the Uncanny Valley deadlands.

I was lax about taking photos this time around, but Mr Saturday grabbed a number of nice ones that can be seen over at his blog.  It’s also a good place to see some nice photos of the lovely new additions to his Shadow Empire force.  There are some nice photos of theottovonbismark’s Slaaneshi cult over there too.

A three metre tall robot covered in missile launchers and crockery “sneaks” around the scruffy boomtown of Standard Falls.

Although described by some as a “sad” photo of a lying down space bear-man, I choose to see it as the external view of an enlightening vision quest for a lying down space bear-man… lying next to a pervert demon.

Ebeneezer Basshunter, Soundbyte, Mr. C, and Talks Big critique the sub standard guttering prevalent in this part of town.

This photo does not capture the obscene levels of luck attached to the pot-bots at this point. Meanwhile Lo Pan assists a local possessed by Vinz Clortho on his way to meet the Gatekeeper.

As the dust settled, the eclectic citizens of the remote, but newly resource rich mining town got back to regular business.

Advertisement

Filed under: Games in Progress | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 13 Comments »

Ratskins – Skinwalker Tribe of the Boss Drum

Posted on 11/01/2018 by sho3box

The post apocalyptic western genre has shifted back into my focus again over the last few months.  I decided to kill several (thunder)birds with one stone and paint my 1990s Necromunda Ratskins.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , , , | 44 Comments »

Gunslinger/Desperado

Posted on 26/07/2013 by sho3box

Cowgirl1

I painted this beautifully sculpted model so that she could give Inquisitor Verhoeven and my other 40k skirmish types some close range fire support, but the model is suitable for use in a variety of games and settings. Continue reading →

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Malifaux: Guild Austringer

Posted on 03/07/2012 by sho3box

“My arm is tired”


—————–

A man walks into a bar with a gigantic, unusually coloured raptor on his arm.  

The barman says “Where the hell did you get that?”.  

“I won him in a raffle” replies the bird.

—————–

Austringers are effective in Malifaux games.  The bird does all of the heavy lifting, attacking foes, distributing orders to friends, capturing small mammals in its talons, regurgitating food into the mouths of its young, making loud “Raaaawk!” sounds, that sort of thing.  The guy in the coat just stands around looking grumpy.

Just like the Executioner shown a few weeks ago, this guy was painted in the run up to the Malifaux competition that I played in a while back.  I decided to attend the competition late and so some decisions regarding colours used for this figure were based on how quickly they could be applied, rather than necessarily on colour theory or inspiring movies recently watched or whatever.

The “Bayou Raptor” was initially painted the same way that I would paint a crow or raven (just like the guys that feature on parts of my graveyard terrain).  That approach was fine if a little drab, but perfectly good enough for use in games, which I did.

A few days later I decided that I wanted to make the bird look a little less dull.  What I came up with is shown above.  The bird is a little goofier looking than I had intended, partly due to the rather Muppet like sculpt and partly because the pattern of plumage that I tried to paint looks rather  fake I think, despite doing a bit of research into real bird of prey patterning.  Ho hum.

My lack of enthusiasm for the plumage plus the somewhat one-sided nature of the handlers relationship with the raptor has me considering using a more… esoteric scheme on my second Austringer miniature.  Maybe.  Im not sure that adding that level of goofiness to my Guild crew is desirable but it might be a laugh.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , | 5 Comments »

Malifaux: Santiago Ortega

Posted on 25/04/2012 by sho3box

Santiago Ortega

The first Ortega that I finished is this tough looking hombre.  Santiago is the Ortega clan beefcake.

The paint job came out fine, better than the Death Marshals, but not as well as either the Judge or Lady Justice.  The figure is quite cool looking but a bit fiddly to paint for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is one that is common with the majority of Wyrd miniatures that I have come across so far: its multi-part.

Multi-part miniatures can often avoid that somewhat flat, two dimensional look by adding an arm or gun or wing or whatever on an axis that the casting process does not allow.  Despite this, I generally prefer my human sized figures to be single piece as it makes them more durable and it makes painting easier.  Trying to paint Santiagos face behind his big ol’ right arm was a hassle, and it shows in the painting quality.

Santiagos duster came out better than those of the Death Marshals a few weeks ago.

Fiddly reason two is also a feature of the Wyrd style.  The figures are moderately heavily detailed (which is nice) but the detail itself while crisp, is very fine.  When painted well they look fantastic, but I find that miniatures with heavily cut detail suit my painting style (and my patience levels) better.

But I should stop moaning.  Santiago looks like a pretty cool alt-cowboy type and the paint job came out pretty solid anyway.

Lastly, here is a picture of Santiago with part of my next terrain sub-project.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Mali-photos

Posted on 28/03/2012 by sho3box

I have been playing Malifaux since mid-February.  In that month or so (at the time of writing) time I have got seven or so games played, which is an awful lot by my standards.

The majority of the games have been at home, although I got an opportunity to play in another gamers house too (the games played on the green table shown below).

One of the things that I have enjoyed most about the process is digging around in the boxes of terrain that I own in an effort to make each game table coherent and unique.

After the effort that I have put in over the last couple of years I now have a lot of terrain, most of it practical and of pretty decent quality: I am happy to say that it is largely better than the majority of the terrain that I have seen in actual use (actual use rather than set pieces for shows or spectacular set ups for rulebook photos) over the years.  Its far from award winning stuff but its solid, practical and is supplied in volume.  Malifaux is finally bringing a lot of that stuff to the table for actual use, which is very satisfying.

I have been taking photos at various points during each game.  A selection of these quick snaps are shown below, just for fun really.  Lady Justice features a lot, seeing as she is the leader of my first completed Malifaux crew.

Lady J considers a game of Pooh-sticks swords during an away game.

The Judge leads his Death Marshals through the hazard strewn Badlands.

The Viktorias take on the Guild in an abandoned shanty town.

A ruined industrial zone is the stage for a three-way battle between Neverborn, Arcanist and Guild forces.

Ancient statues provide cover against flying lead.

Cowboy exorcists collide with twin psychic samurai ladies in a badlands canyon.

Ramos conjures up arachnid robots in the ruins of a factory.

Death Marshals attempt to encircle a Ronin.

I have some more terrain in the pipeline.  A few more post apocalyptic shanty type bits and pieces will be first in all likelyhood.

I also have plans for some cow town stuff, but it will need a little bit of wiki-wiki-wah-wah west-ifying before I will be happy with it.  I want it to look like something suitable for a Firefly/Malifaux setting as well as suitable for the Cursed Earth and the occasional frontier planet for 40k folk to show up on.  We will see how that goes.

Filed under: Games in Progress | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Malifaux: Objectives

Posted on 21/03/2012 by sho3box

Malifaux play is geared around “Schemes” and “Strategies”.  While there are a small number of these that are based on simply battering the opponents forces, most involve holding areas or moving certain items.  These objectives are represented in game by 30mm diameter bases.

The treasure chests above were purchased in Games Workshop, Oxford St, London way back in 1989.  I originally bought the pack of ten (or perhaps two packs of five, I cant remember) for use in Dungeonbowl, a Blood Bowl variant which was… wait for it… played in a dungeon.  The chests languished in the lead pile ever since, only to finally be given some love this year, a terrifyingly distant twenty-three years later.

I added the letters in case I will at some later stage need to randomise the chests for whatever reason.  A brilliant and much more aesthetically pleasing way to achieve this (that I was too lazy to copy) was done on Phreedhs Miniature Stuff a while back.  Unfortunately I cant currently find that particular post on the newly organised blog (Mattias, if you see this then put a link in the comments if you would like to show off your lovely work).  EDIT: that link is HERE.

The next objectives are trapdoors that were supplied with some GW LotR stuff.  PB gave me a lot of the accessories from those sets as he knew that it was unlikely that he would ever get around to painting them and that I likely would.  It looks like he was at least half right.  Ta-da!

The two above are my favourites.  I think that they both suggest a little story and playing miniature games is all about story.

The left hand one is supplied as a tiny two or three piece kit which I then stuck to a base.  It is another LotR bit from PB.  The lantern, scroll and book on the base on the right come from a Mordheim sprue (I think that it was supplied with Empire Militia figures for a while subsequently).

I like making/painting small miniatures to represent these sorts of things.  Fighting over a little model of a forbidden tome or briefcase full of diamonds or other all-important Maguffin adds a lot to the atmosphere in a game and is far nicer than fighting over a scrap of paper or similar.  Little bits of set dressing help with the narrative and to me the game narrative is the whole point of the process.

The fact that modelling and painting these items can be quite fun and a good change of pace from painting yet another guy with a gun means that I tend to finish off a lot of these objective based items.

A quick look through the blog archives brings up the following list of similar items if anyone is interested.  I had actually forgotten that I had modeled and painted some of these: I tend to consistently get motivated to finish these mini diorama type oddments.

Scrap counters, vultures, encampment, tents, gas cans, oil barrels and butane cylinders, zombie spawn points, mines,bombs and boobytraps, altars and tombs, distressed damsel, crows

Filed under: Miniatures, Terrain | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

Fixer Upper

Posted on 14/03/2012 by sho3box

I found this model in a box in my mancave last week.  I had almost completely forgotten about it, even though the nondescript box that it lives in has been staring me in the face for seventeen years,

Obviously its a fantasy building of indeterminate sort.  Its quite large as these things go, so its probably an inn or coaching house.

I put it together from scratch in 1995 as a project for a course that I was doing.  The scale is a little off for 28/30mm figs, but its close enough.

The privvy is cute. I am absolutely astonished that it has survived intact for so long. Its 100% balsa construction makes it a bit like a city built on rock and roll: structurally unsound.

The piece isnt undamaged though.  Note that the circular window at the top of the photo above has fallen in to the structure.  The paint on the tiles is coming off in places in a disconcerting fashion too, as can be seen below along with the missing second chimney pot.  But all in all its in pretty good nick.

The chimney is made from air hardening clay applied in an effort to look like stone work.  The “stones” are a bit soft looking, but intact.

I am planning to fix some of the damaged areas and to add some light weathering.  I also plan to add a few posters to the walls plus a sign declaring the building a coach house or inn for use in Malifaux games.

I havent fully decided on a name for the establishment yet.  Considering the goofy steampunkhorrorvictorianwestern nature of Malifaux I am seriously considering naming it The Cowboy and Necrophiliac.  Thats what I have been calling Malifaux at home recently anyway (as in “Im off to play cowboys and necrophiliacs honey.  Dont wait up” or “I cant wait to get finished with this sexy nurse so that I can play cowboys and necrophiliacs with her on Tuesday when the lads come over”).

Admittedly The Cowboy and Necrophiliac is a bit of a mouthful, but it should make for funny signage.  Anyone have any better name ideas?

 

Filed under: Terrain, Workbench | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

Malifaux: Lady Justice

Posted on 26/02/2012 by sho3box

Lady Justice

Lady Justice is in charge of the Death Marshal elements of the Guild in Malifaux.  She is a blind, Buffy the Vampire Slayer type cowgirl who, judging by that massive hairdo, moonlights as an eighties rock star…

I bought my Death Marshals box before I had any interest in playing Malifaux.  I bought it because of the cowboy aesthetic that the other figures in the box have.  The Lady Justice figure was not originally a draw for me.

The sculpting is very nice technically but the subject matter and design initially left me cold.  In particular the massive amount of hair on the figure, which spreads left and right to span the length of her sword gives the figure a lozenge shaped silhouette, which doesnt really appeal.  From behind the miniature looks a little like Cousin Itt.

Click for image credit.

Lady Justices voluminous barnet also obscures her scabbard, the strap suspending her scabbard, bits of her fingers and elements of her pistols and holsters in a confusing way.  And I dont just mean confusing to paint (which it was).  I mean confusing in the sense that depending on how the figure is painted and the colours used it can be very hard to see whats going on.

This view is pretty much all that I ever see when I play games with Lady J.

And yet, despite my apathy towards the figure initially,  as I painted Lady J it all started to make sense.  To start with I had difficulty imagining what colours to use as I wanted to make sure that the elements somewhat lost in the hair would be visible and identifiable.  I also wanted the figures palette to tie in with the other figures in the crew but without making the figure too gaudy.

But, as I decided to embrace the (as I see it) eighties rock vibe I found the figure easier to work on.  As I painted my original attitude turned around 180 degrees.  I went for the vaguely Dick Turpin, somewhat Adam Ant and definitely Meat-Loaf-one-minute-into-the-video-shown-below look shown and ended up quite happy with it.

By the time that I finished painting the figure I was really quite pleased with both how it turned out and with the design of the figure overall.  I dont remember my opinion of any miniature altering so drastically during painting before now, but in this case it did.  And it all turned out pretty well I think.

Here is a group shot of my first completed Malifaux faction, the Lady Justice crew.

Lady Justice Crew

Incidentally, the three gravestones were prepped for use in the game when the Death Marshals “bury” opponents in those magic coffins that they lug around.  I dont know if they will be of any use when playing, but they were fun to make anyway.

Comments and criticisms all gratefully received.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Malifaux: Death Marshal 3

Posted on 25/02/2012 by sho3box

My third Death Marshal.

I had a big painting slump last year and it impacted on my painting standard quite badly.  Although I am again starting to remember some of the things that were second nature last year, I seem to have forgotten some others.

This is visible in by comparing the coat on this figure and that of Judge.

I painted the Marshals before I painted the Judge and my treatment of the large smooth areas on their coats differed quite a bit.  I suppose it shows progress at least: the slow process of relearning what I have unlearned seems to be progressing.

The odd spirit flames in the coffin came out at an acceptable level, but after my more successful treatment of Judge Fire recently I had hoped for a better result.

Another issue with this area of the figure is that I was reluctant to try object source lighting techniques when painting it: I am afraid that the apprentice period required to get the technique to a decent level will result in significantly poorer miniatures in the interim.  Well executed OSL may have helped the painting on this figure, but I wasnt prepared to risk it this time.

The final figure from my first Malifaux crew is up tomorrow.  Its the Master of the group, Lady Justice in all her eighties rock glory.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Next Page »
%d bloggers like this: