Television is rather a frightening business. But I get all the relaxation I want from my collection of model soldiers.
Peter Cushing

Thursday, 23 April 2020

At My Command

Having finished both lots of Titans and being ready to play Adeptus Titanicus (don't worry, shots of my Traitor Legio will be coming soon) I turned my attention to the command terminals.



Given their importance in gameplay the main concern for me was the likelihood of the markers  being knocked in play. Seeing as I had all these magnets kicking about, I decided to crack on.

I ordered some magnetic sheet from Amazon - 0.5mm thickness, £4 for 6 sheets of A4.


The little terminals are A5, so you can easily cut each magnetic sheet in half with a craft knife. 

Then I turned my attention to the markers. I already had to trim the locator pegs off the back so this was where I glued my 3x1mm magnets. 


 Et voila!


 And a full set, ready to play and won't fall off or move if the terminal gets knocked during play.

It also has the added advantage that you stick your favourite Titan to the fridge.

Tuesday, 21 April 2020

The Lady of the Woods

[...] and she grew to be tall beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor; she was strong of body, mind, and will [...] Even among the Eldar she was accounted beautiful, and her hair was held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the hair of her father and of her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold was touched by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother; and the Eldar said that the light of the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, had been snared in her tresses.
—Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"

I popped into Vapnartak before the current strangeness - which everyone seems to have agreed, in a very British way, to refer to as 'all this' - started and picked up a couple of Middle earth miniatures at the Bring and Buy. One of them was Galadriel, the lady of the woods.

I decided to paint her up between other projects - basically as something to fiddle with while waiting for bits of Titan armour to dry - and as a result decided to experiment. Would it be possible, I wondered, to paint a miniature using nothing but Contrast paints to a good standard in less than 30 minutes?

Here she is.








White undercoat, one splash of contrast in each area - only three colours used - as a tiny bit of gold for the circlet. 30 minutes. It's a pretty good result, I think you'll agree.


Here she is with the other members of the White Council I have; quality wise it's difficult to spot the difference between her and the one of them that took nearlty six hours of patient layering or the one than required painstaking wet blending.


Lands of the Horselords

I've been using the lockdown to catch up on a few projects. This one was close to my heart - it will come as no surprise to long time readers that I'm deeply in love with Rohan from Lord of the Rings so for Christmas I was lucky enough to get some of the new scenery .

And how lovely it is!

I followed the GW suggestion for paints more or less exactly as I really liked how close it was to screen accurate. It had the added advantage of getting me used to using contrast paints as tints and glazes.




What you can see here is one house and one set of palisades. That's easily enough fencing for a 4x4 table. 






Obviously I will be buying a couple more of the houses. I have a plan for a stable....




Overall, great kits, easy to build and very flexible. Highly recommended for general fantasy use. 



Sunday, 19 April 2020

The Living Icon

"The very stone itself was alive, Wilson. Writhing and squirming with rugose vitality, a myriad of eyes turning and looking toward us.... God help me, Wilson, I ran - ran and left them behind. I can still hear their cries -- not of pain but of worship!"






This was bought on a whim to help out a small business caught in the lockdown. It painted up beautifully and I painted it to match the palette of my Warcry scenery. 

If you want one - or something equally squamous - pop along to Fenris Games

Sunday, 1 March 2020

Warcry




POST 400! Seems nice to celebrate with a finished project.

Quite some time ago I bought the Warcry box set and it's been a project that's been ticking over in the background. I finally got the scenery and the first warband finished so it seemed like a good time to put it on the blog.






The scenery is lovely. I chose to go with a jade look which I achieved with an airbrush for the two base coats - brown at the bottom and then green at the top - and then successive dry drybrushes of green with more and more ivory mixed in. The metal was just washed with black and then rusted. I added some moss to help with the ruined feel.






I also painted the Iron Golems. Given that their heads put.me in mind of diving helmets, a sea-based palette seemed in order. 





 

We had our first game and, surprising no one, my eldest aged 7 managed to pummel my arcanites into the ground. 

Breaking news - it's a very good game.