Long-Delayed Little Dudes

So over the past couple of years I've been painting up boxed fantasy sets by RAFM in their old Shadows and Steel line. It was a lot of fun, but I finally worked through all the sets. It made me interested in trying to put together my own fantasy warband -- not for D&D or anything but just as a little project. Maybe adapt them to Song of Blades or something.

I knew who was going to be the core of the group. For about a year, I played a wizard by the name of Adjo -- who was, to put it mildly, kind of an asshole. He wasn't specifically trying to antagonize the other party members, it's just he was a wizard and a human and that made him better obviously. But part of being the better man is not to be too hard on others who can't help their unfortunate lot in life and these other yahoos were really helping to further his goals so...

Anyway, a super-fun character to play and I had a reaper mini that really captured his look. A co-worker of mine was big on painting minis and his stuff was really good (he liked Napoleonics). I gave him my mini and then it never got painted and then he was laid off and we lost touch and...blah. I never got around to getting another copy of the mini before the game ended.

But after the Shadows and Steel stuff, I decided to put together a warband centered around Adjo. Reaper minis has a wide range of interesting figures so I picked out a bunch and put them together.

And here they are: Adjo's Assholes!




Obviously, they don't call themselves that. Adjo, when he bothers to think about it, generally puts down Adjo and Company on any legal forms. For the most part, Adjo has things he wants done and these are the people/constructs/extra-planar beings he brings along to help out. Saving people, righting wrongs, dishing out justice...these are usually happy coincidences not a specific goal the group has.

Adjo has put together a group of competent, pragmatic specialists who got that way through questionable life-choices. They've (sometimes grudgingly) gained a respect for each other's talents and if they aren't all best friends, they work together like a well-oiled machine.

Adjo's first order of business was securing some muscle.



Dhavar's armor comes from the plates of an adult white dragon he killed. It was his first dragon-kill and he's kind of run with the theme. He has a suite of cold-related magical items, but Dhavar is more generally interested in taking on large-scale beasties. Dragons, remorhaz, giants, purple worms -- the bigger they are the harder they fall. Thing is, if you go around wearing dragon armor you tend to draw the attention of...well, dragons for starters, and trouble, village crushing trouble, tends to follow Dhavar around.

Von Stubben was a Captain of the Black Legion before that final unfortunate battle with The Grand Alliance. Von Stubben got away and eventually hooked up with Adjo who was sailing off to a new continent. Although an empire that has a Black Legion sounds ominous, it really wasn't too different from the various nation-states of the Grand Alliance who opposed it. All that talk about baby-eating and pacts with unholy creatures is just a lot of propaganda. Von Stubben is proud of his service and unwilling to relinquish his distinctive equipment which can be a problem even half a world away.

His real talent is a keen tactical mind and a skill at leading men. Adjo is no slouch at military planning but it pretty much relies on his spellbook and he doesn't have a lot of patience for dealing with others. When magic isn't available or some low-level fighters needs to be whipped into shape, Von Stubben is the man to call on.

But Adjo needs more than muscle and magic, sometimes you need subtlety:



Almah is the public face of Adjo's group. She's warm, charming, witty, capable of dealing with all sorts of people, and handles a lot of the public interaction with ordinary people. As you might expect, she's an excellent spy and con artist. She'd be an invaluable asset to any Thieves' Guild, but she's from noble stock and is uninterested in paying Guild dues or giving them a cut of her profits.

Almah is used to the finer things in life and can be a bit of a spoiled rich kid, but Adjo's at a level where he has Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion on speed dial so "roughing it" really isn't a factor like it would be for lower-level groups.

Callie, on the other hand, is very comfortable roughing it. She's spent years playing Robin Hood in the forests fighting oppressive Elvish overlords and the fact that she isn't a skeleton skewered to an oak somewhere is a testament to her skills. Adjo helped her put a definite end to her problems and she's signed on with him. Needless to say, things can be a little tense when they have to deal with elves, but if Almah can't cool off the situation, Adjo has any number of powerful, mind-altering charms which he will employ and Callie knows that.

Aside from raining arrows down on her foes, Callie acts as the party Scout and has a keen eye for locks, traps and other magical/mechanical devices. Raiding Elven fortresses gives one a knack for that sort of thing.

Adjo doesn't have a lot of truck with gods. For the most part, he thinks of Clerics like some kind of low-level Amway sales reps. Still, it's good to have friends in high places (for now). So he pulled in a cleric:



Aglanda worships...well...its name can't actually be pronounced by human tongues...or vocal cords...or in a standard Earth-atmosphere (not enough Xenon). As far as Adjo can tell, Aglanda follows a truly alien deity. What this means is that there doesn't appear to be any holy agenda. Aglanda's god doesn't care what she does or doesn't do or how she uses its power -- it may not even be aware that Aglanda is channeling its energy. As long as the healing magics keep coming, Adjo is satisfied.

Aglanda isn't particularly unbalanced, but she's had her doors of perception ripped off their hinges. What's real and what's really real can be rather blurry for her sometimes. The real problem is ignorant prejudice. You worship an alien god whose presence makes reality hemorrhage and people aren't interested in joining your cult. Aglanda isn't much of a fighter, but she does have her hound.

Ah yes, the Hound. Adjo has always had rather a bad run of luck with hounds/wolves/canine-creatures. Hellhounds, Frosthounds, Blink Dogs, Dire Wolves and all other manner of dogs have had their teeth (and status effects) on him at one time or another. Although this is surely random chance, Adjo feels that maybe it's best to confront his bad luck.

Aglanda's Hound (like several other "Hounds" that have worried Adjo in the past) isn't actually a dog at all. In fact, it's not clear what resemblance her trans-dimensional horror has to any known canine -- probably it was the only word that floated to the mind of the first poor soul to see (and survive) one of these creatures. It displays a disturbing level of intelligence and has limited ability to teleport. It can carry party members with it, but aside from Aglanda, no one would do this except in the most dire emergency. All in all, it more than makes up for Aglanda's lack of combat skills and when the two work in concert they can be brutally efficient in clearing a room of foes.

Which only leaves us with the boy and his toys:



Adjo we've discussed at some length. He's now on a plane-hopping journey of research and discovery. He tries so hard to be reasonable but everyone wants to do it the hard way.

The purple whirlwind in back is Nfskr, an astral spirit. The whirling swords come in real handy as does the ability to fly and turn invisible. He really comes into his own when the party is traveling the planes, having a good sense of where and where not to go. Adjo isn't really one for binding demons or the like. Nfskr was basically the first person to join up with Adjo and mostly sticks around because it's interesting (and because Adjo built a magical bracelet that lets Nfskr stay on this plane as long as Adjo is alive -- the astral plane is super boring so it's worth it to keep Adjo alive).

Adjo also spent a short period of time researching the warforged and their construction. As a sort of weekend project, he put together an Iron Cobra which he calls Thrax. Adjo originally intended to use Thrax as a night watchman when he made camp. Over the years, Thrax has been upgraded and can now talk and has a fair amount of intelligence. Thrax still has a number of magical sensors that help identify trouble, but Adjo now uses him much like a smartphone. Thrax stores and curates a great deal of information for Adjo sparing him a lot of tedious book writing. Thrax can attack either by constriction or with a bite that has a variety of toxins with different effects.

So that's it. The figures were a lot of fun to paint. I like modern military figures because they paint fast -- everyone is all one uniform color. I like fantasy figures because they are (or can be) colorful and unique and Adjo's charming band is full of character.

One last photo: The Mage, The Myth, The Legend -- Adjo!



A bit about my process

As you can tell, it's a bit of a rainbow squad. Every figure has some major color that they sport which is different from everyone else's. Callie was interesting in that I used model railroad paints for her greens. She has a dark and light green that were both used by the Burlington Northern Railroad -- the line that ran through my hometown as a kid and which I have a fondness for.

The Hound is my first foray into wet-blending a model. It came out OK, but man...reds/oranges/yellows take for-freaking-ever to put down in an even coat. I mean, I knew this going in and the final result is actually quite good, but I was worried it was just going to be a hot mess.

These photos were all taken with my new iPhone. I think they came out better than previous photos (taken on my iPad). I used the phone's flash because without it the minis were too dark. However, with the flash, the highlights look a bit harsh. On the table they look great, so I'm still working on photographing these guys.

Finally, I still have no idea how to paint eyes. The eyeballs are just so small that all I ever get are bleary smudges. :/

Bonus Figures!

As I was finishing up Adjo's crew, I got involved in a new D&D game and a friend of mine wanted me to paint a figure for her character (in another game).

So here they are:



Tia (on the left) is for my friend. She's a fighter who specializes in ranged weapons. A pretty straight-forward Robin Hood type figure. On the right is Pinja she's the Paladin I'm playing in my D&D game. Reaper has a really good selection of miniatures and a good number of their female figures look like they're actually ready to fight and not just cheesecake (though they've got lots of those kinds of models too). Still, finding a human female with chainmail and a polearm? This was pretty much it. Still, I think she turned out pretty well and she's sporting the colors of her order and that was fun to do.

I'm planning on moving house so these will probably be the last minis I paint for awhile. I really need to start bulking up my terrain collection. I want to start using those 15mm WWII figures I've got but they need something to fight on.

Don't call them "Little Dudes"

So I've been collecting and painting RAFM's "Shadows and Steel" boxed sets. These are boxed sets of adventure parties with a module and some background fluff. Clearly set up for D&D although not directly referenced (back when TSR was serious about their IP). Anyway, there were four sets and I finally put together the last one.

Presenting: The Conquistador Dwarves!


These guys may not be the sharpest axes in the woodshed, but they make up for it with enthusiasm.


Pascale is their fearless leader with sword, shield and classy helmet. He is ably assisted by Torquemazda who will bring the Holy Word to heathens everywhere.



But Dwarves are better in short sprints, for long-distance, the team counts on Guernica, the monster lizard. Riding atop in the box we have Salvidora (with the spear) and Paulo covering the rear with his crossbow.


Finally, to help them punch above their weight we have Crandall with his steam cannon.

These guys were fun to paint up and they weren't much bigger than the 15mm stuff I've been doing earlier this year. I'm sad the project is at an end, but I wanted to put together my own adventuring party. I've purchased the figures (from Reaper rather than RAFM) and we'll see how they turn out. later Tom

The Greatest Little Dudes

Hey,

So in January, some of the guys down at the store started playing Chain of Command, a platoon-sized WW2 skirmish game. People had sort of settled on Bolt Action as their go-to ruleset for this (and indeed, I painted up a bunch of 28mm Soviets), but Chain of Command really blew me away. There's a real focus on good tactics and the fog of war. There's also a short pre-game "patrol phase" where both sides maneuver to set up "jump-off" points where their forces will enter during the actual game. This eliminates a lot of the tedious early maneuvering most games have and basically sets your forces up within shooting distance of the enemy.

A fun game and the guy championing this stuff has mostly 15mm figures. That's good, 15mm is sort of my preferred scale (since my bad paint jobs aren't as noticeable) so I figured I'd paint up a platoon.

In the past two months I've done 4. So I've painted over 120 figures and can field a platoon for every major combatant of WW2 in Europe. So...I think I'm into this game. At any rate, here's a dump of photos showing off everything:

 First up, the Americans:


Here's the full platoon in all it's glory. The Americans have lots of guys and a smattering of support. The large squads can soak losses pretty well and remain functional.


Each squad has a leader, a BAR team and 9 grunts. The BAR was a pretty sub-par squad support weapon, but it was easy to fire on the move.


Finally, the Platoon HQ with the Platoon Leader and Platoon Sgt. (the pack I bought didn't have one, but it did have a spare rifleman so he's the new top NCO). The HQ also has the squad's anti-armor support with a two man bazooka team. I thought the bazooka itself was a little small, but some internet research suggests it's about right. Anyway, the HQ provides some much-needed flexibility.

 Next up are the Soviets. And now I have the same basic troops in two different scales (15mm and 28mm)...I'm becoming a true wargamer!


Here's the whole platoon. Actually, the pack of figures I bought comes with a whole bunch of extra guys. I had enough dudes left over to make a fourth squad of guys and a small SMG team. With a couple more support weapons and a tank, I could replicate my 28mm Bolt Action Soviets and run the game in 15mm if I chose. 

But for Chain of Command, you get a platoon leader and three big squads. Like the Americans, they take a lot of hits before they break. Their LMG team is a bit better than the BAR the Americans use, but there are no support units of any sort. To make up for that, the Soviets will usually get a nice pick of support options to bulk out their forces before the game starts.


Here's a single Soviet quad and the platoon leader (there's really no one else in the platoon HQ). You get a leader, an LMG team and 8 troopers. The squad has some flexibility to detach scout teams, but mostly it just wants to roll over the opposition. Again, the Soviets hope for a mass of support options to beef up their firepower.

 And now for something completely different...


A group shot of the British platoon. The British platoons are a sort of jack-of-all trades. The platoons have a little fire, a little movement, a little artillery and a little anti-tank. The squads can take a few hits, but they won't take a real pounding and have to use everything at their disposal to win. I'm curious to give these guys a go since I think they need a delicate touch to be used well, but once you understand how to use them, they'll be a real menace in the field.


So the rifle squad is very firmly centered on a fire and movement doctrine. The Bren team set up a very accurate base of fire while the rest of the squad moves around to flank and close with the enemy. The only question is where do you place the squad leader? Ideally, he should be with the maneuver unit ready for the final charge, but keeping him back with the Bren to direct fire is a good idea too.


The British Platoon HQ is where the Brits keep the good stuff. The Platoon leader also has a Platoon sergeant who gives the force a lot more command and control options than other forces. There's also a PIAT team who can take their spring-loaded mayhem machines and try for a flank shot on a panzer. The HQ also has a 2" mortar team (only the British platoon have organic artillery pieces). The mortar can fire explosive rounds but is probably better employed in dropping smoke to cover the advance of other members of the platoon. Again, how the British makes use of all his toys will probably determine victory or defeat.

And finally, some Germans for all those other guys to fight.


For the Germans, I put together a Panzergrenadier platoon. This formation has proven to be an interesting opponent. Although the platoon is smaller that the other forces described above, each squad comes with two LMG teams. This means that when a squad fires, it's rolling buckets of d6s and putting a serious hurt on opponents.


And here you can see the platoon. Two LMG teams but only five troopers. If you can get a few hits on this squad it starts breaking down pretty fast, but getting those hits is a real challenge. On the attack, the squad can make effective use of bounding fire to approach a target. Dug-in on the defense, they're almost impossible to shift. They're always an interesting problem to solve.


The Platoon HQ for the Panzergrenadiers is a little thin. There's no Platoon Sgt. like the Americans and Brits have so the Germans can run into Command and Control problems. The HQ also contains the platoons anti-armor support in the form of a panzershrek team. Alas, I couldn't find the right figure pack for that, so two panzerfaust-wielding troopers are standing in.

Like I said, that's some 120+ little dudes in two months and now I can field a basic force for pretty much any ETO game. Although my photos continue to be crappy, I'm really happy with how these guys came out. I tried a few new things and I think my painting has really improved in this batch of figures. The improvements basically boil down to two things.

One: I used a bigger brush. Until now, when I paint 15mm the idea was "smaller figures, smaller brushes" and it works ok, but after watching a few videos I did all of these with a larger brush. I say "larger" but it's still pretty small (a size 0 brush instead of a size 3/0 brush -- apparently you can divide by 0 when you're doing art). In the past, I found this larger brush to be too big, but apparently my brush control has improved to the point where I can effectively use the larger brush. This has made things go faster and the brushes have lasted longer than the smaller ones.

Two: I did a lot more highlighting this time around. Normally I block out the basic colors, brush on the shade and that's about it, but this time I really added some serious highlights. This has made the figures really pop. They look a bit funky up close but on the table they look really good.

So I'm happy to see that practice does make perfect.

So that's how I've been spending my free time the past couple of months. I need to paint up some vehicles for each of these groups (and maybe add a few more support troops), but I'm ready to give this a rest for a bit. The next item on my docket is the last of the RAFM Shadows and Steel boxed sets I've been working at on and off the past couple of years -- The Conquistador Dwarves! Should be a fun project.

Stopping the Hun

Hey,

 So back in the Spring of last year, I painted up a mess of Soviet troops in 28mm for Bolt Action games. Since then, they've never made it to the table and I've fallen in love with Chain of Command for small action WWII games...and the scale of choice for the guys who play that is 15mm.

 BUT! Last Saturday my gaming group had their belated Holiday party and ran Bolt Action games all day. In the morning, my Soviet soldiers made their tabletop debut... We rolled up a scenario and my job was to defend a set of three objectives spread out over my side of the table. My opponents would be trying to wrest away as many as they could in six turns. I had the pleasure of setting up first:


Here you've got a long shot of my line at set-up with my left flank at bottom and my right flank at the top. We were spread out over a long ridge that overlooked a small town and some forrest area. The Germans have to push up the hill and take as many of the objective markers as they can.


In Bolt Action, the Soviets get a free squad of Inexperienced troops to bulk out their forces. I placed that squad on my left flank along with a 2nd Lieutenant and his flag bearer to help rally the troops. I also gave them some confidence by placing my T-34/76 tank. It was also the only place with a break in the hedge line that would allow the tank to get out onto the road before it and move where it needed to be. Those barrels mark the position of an objective.


In the center of my set-up area, I placed a regular infantry squad and the mortar team. The tank in back isn't functional and acts as another objective point.


On the right, I looked out over a small town. This provided the most cover for an approaching enemy so I bulked up on this side. There are two squads of infantry, a machine gun team, a sniper and a Captain to help provide morale and activation bonuses to the various groups. The crate on a silvered disk marks the final objective.

 The game began with an artillery bombardment. This kind of artillery bombardment can be deadly, but most of the time it's just an annoyance. It puts a few points of shock on your groups and this can make it harder for them to activate (or you can waste a turn trying to rally it all off of them). Considering how far the attackers have to run to get at you, it's mostly a nuisance. The only real effect the barrage had was to kill the sniper. A small bit of irony there. The loud booms also scared the tankers who botched their activation test and froze up for a turn.

 For most of the turn I just put people on overwatch. I did send the machine gun team down the hill to take up positions behind some crates near the crossroads in town. I also started feeding a squad in from the far right into the building next to it and got the mortar team's forward observer into a building to try and direct some fire.

 The Germans had small squads of Veteran troopers with lots of machine guns and almost all of them started moving into the town with one squad on my left moving behind some woods to approach the town from that direction.

 The also sent a Stug down the street right towards the MG team.

 By the end of turn 2, things looked like this:


The tank was finally rolling forward, but I was worried about the German squad swinging in wide from my left. The machine gun team was drawing a lot of fire, but hanging in there. The squad in the house next to it kept growing as its members dashed down the hill to jump in. They exchanged a lot of fire with the German squad just up the street from it. And still the Stug closes....


On Turn 3, the machine gun team finally succumbed. The Germans sent a squad around the right side of the town and tried to bring down the forward squad in a withering hail of fire. They did catch a few brave soldiers trying to reach the safety of the building but the squad (in the building with the blue dice next to it) was largely intact. They returned fire and crippled their assailants. Up on the ridge, the whole Soviet line began to shift over to the right in order to gain a better angle on those Germans in the open and get some reserves ready for the inevitable losses that are soon to come.


Near the start of Turn 4 things are looking a little better. Continued fire on the open German squad has whittled it down pretty sharply. My Forward Observer was driven out of his post by a German rush, although he did manage to kill a couple of guys on his way out (doing more damage than the mortar team ever did). Still, there's that Stug to deal with, my tank is out of position and the Germans are prepared to rush behind it and take my positions.


But my brave Soviet troopers have a nasty surprise for the Stug. Every man carries anti-tank grenades for just this purpose. The squad rushes from their house, swarms the tank flinging grenades at it, and then retreats back into the house leaving the Stug shocked and immobilized for the turn. This is exactly why I purchased the anti-tank grenades for the troops and I'm so very pleased I got to use them to such effect on the first game. I suspect future opponents won't drive up so close to me, but making them worry about every knot of dug-in infantry will almost always be to my benefit.


  By Turn 5, the fight's gone out of the Germans. That open German squad on the right was wiped out to a man, the Stug either has to retreat or get brutalized by the troops in the house and if it goes forward, my T-35/76 will get a nice shot into its side. In the meantime, it can spray the Germans in the nearby buildings with machine gun fire. If all the Germans rush forward, they'll be cut down rushing up the hill and the survivors are not likely to overpower the large Soviet squads (Close Combat in Bolt Action is pretty decisive). They don't believe they'll be able to get one of the objectives so we call the game there. Victory to the People!

 So, I'm quite pleased that in their first battle, my little dudes acquitted themselves so well. They were pretty well set-up for the defender role. Although my casualties were light (eight men total), I had plenty of extra guys to soak up losses. I was just able to spread pretty thinly across the width of the table, but once the Germans committed, I was able to shift guys over to where they needed to be. If I had been on the attacking side, I'd like to think I could rush a mass over the top of the defenders, but it's always a gamble.

 The only thing that really didn't work out for me was the mortar team. The way mortars work in Bolt Action, you want to attack the same target over multiple rounds (because your odds of hitting get better as you "dial-in" the range). It's designed to make people shift out of their positions as the fire gets more and more effective. Here, the Germans were almost always on the move so you could zero in on them. The mortars would be great if I were on the attack since defenders usually want to stay close to one position. I should look to see if I can swap out the mortar for something else (another machine gun would be nice but I'd also take a small squad of SMG-equipped maniacs).

 So it was a fun game and although I'm shifting away to another system/scale, I think those Soviets will hit the table again in the future.

Slightly Larger Dudes of the Far Past

Hi,

 So in the late 80's RAFM put out a series of boxed sets of miniatures under their "Shadows and Steel" line. The idea is that you'd get an adventuring party with a backstory and adventure good to go. Collect all four boxed sets and you'd have a mini-campaign. I picked up a couple of these two years ago and through some ebay action have managed to snag the other two. Last week, I finished the antagonists of the series.

 Behold! The Vampyres of Tandaloor!


The terrible overlords of their hidden valley, these Vampyres and their associates are a menace to all living things. Note that we say "vampyres" -- the background text makes it clear that these aren't vampires although they are very similar. In particular, sunlight weakens, but does not destroy them and they have a range of small bonus powers the "canonical" vampire wouldn't have.

 And what fuels their unholy power?


  The coffin -- pardon me -- the "communing bed" of Tandaloor. The large vampyre bloodstone above the gem acts as a focus allowing the vampyre to connect to the Negative Plane and draw strength. Naturally, stealing or smashing the stone will render the vampyre powerless. This is the only piece of "scenery" in the Shadows and Steel set and it's a nice piece. It painted up well, the "gemstone" was a very nice touch, and any fight involving the vampyres is almost certain to revolve around one of these communing beds so it's nice to have one on hand.

 This piece also highlights a new technique I was trying out for this round of figures. The stone paving the coffin sits upon wasn't part of the kit. Instead, I used paper clay to cover a metal base and then scored lines into it in a brickwork fashion. Then I painted and drybrushed it up and got the result you see here. I did this for all the figures but you can most clearly see the results here and I rather like it. I think it has some possibilities outside of simple stonework, but it did take a while to dry out completely so I'm not sure how soon I'll repeat the process.

 Now that they've got a place to lay their head, let's meet the vampyres. Starting with their fearsome leader:


  This is Tandaloor, High King of the Vampyres. A creature beyond the petty concerns of mere mortals...and fashion. Interestingly, I discovered that what I thought was mauve, wasn't. I envisioned mauve as a kind of dark, reddish-purple-y color. So I was surprised at how pink the paints all were. Still, when I looked at the box art, it was that same bright pink and I think it's actually not too bad after some shading and highlights. The wings were a little tougher. I'm still not super happy with the way the yellow came out although I did undercoat with a dark-yellow to help get the bright yellow to pop out some more and that worked ok.

 In any event, Tandaloor has a +1 magic sword, but honestly, his unarmed attack is 3d8 so he's better off just ripping you to pieces in most cases. He's presented as a cautious, careful opponent which gives an opening to impulsive attackers, but they'd better get the job done fast.

 Then there's Tandaloor's family:


  That's Tandaloor's main squeeze Lady Elvira (because it's the 80's of course she is -- I'm a little surprised they didn't try for more of a resemblance). She has a reputation as a deadly practical joker since she's immortal and bored. The fellow next to her is Count Nosferatu a long-time ally of Tandaloor whose gem got a little cracked during a move and now he's playing his vampire role to the hilt. If there's one thing worse than a vampyre, it's a crazy vampyre. He vants to suck your bluud!

 Naturally, someone needs to keep these jokers in line:


The guy on the left is Veratu Mikto and despite appearances, he's actually a Vampyre too. He just can't be arsed to maintain a passable human form. As Tandaloor's majordomo, the look help keeps the peasants in line. Again, he's got a +2 magic axe, but his hands do 2d12 so taking away his toys might make you worse off.

 The guy next to him isn't actually part of this box set. It's a figure from Reaper listed as Iks, Overlord Sergeant. He was a random giveaway from Reaper one Gencon long ago and I figured as long as I'm painting up armored skeletons, I might as well do him too. That's why he's on a different base.

 For inclusion in this set, I've renamed him to Gorte and declared that he's a Revenant created by Veratu Mikto to help offset his workload. Mostly Gorte's duties consist of hanging around Count Nosferatu and making sure he doesn't go on a blood-sucking rampage through the valley.

 I really like the way both of these guys came out. I tried out some new shadings on Gorte's magical sword that came out well and I like the splashes of red against the dark metallics.

 But it's not all vampyres and the undead here at Castle Tandaloor:


  You'll also find a pair of Gargoyles. Here we have Nagy (on the left) and Glatu (on the right). Yeah, their boss is Vertu Mikto -- look it's no dumber than naming them after New York boroughs. Anyway, these two guys just lurk around the communing beds until some unwary adventurer passes them by and then Whammo! They were dirt easy to paint up (since I basically painted them the same way I painted the flooring) and I think they came out pretty well.

 So that's the whole necrotic bunch. There's just one more set of guys to paint up and then the whole set will be finished. I might actually try putting them on the table in the actual adventure written up for them. Although players will have to control an entire team...or maybe it'll be more of an ensamble game where people play different members of each group. We'll see.

Little Dudes of the Far Future

Hey,

 I've been pretty busy with a number of things the past couple of months but I haven't stopped painting up little dudes. I realized that I didn't show off the end of the New Vistula Legion (NVL) sci-fi forces I was painting up.

 So let's fix that. First up, some much needed heavy support:


  You've got a pair of Heavy Machine Gun teams, a pair of Railgun Teams and two Mortar teams in the back. Considering the lack of vehicles for this group, they'll be depending on these guys for some time until I get a few toys for their motor pool.

  Finally, the big boss might drop by along with his retinue:


  So you've got the overall commander, the staff sergeant, a communications officer, a couple of grunts and a driver/pilot. Although you can't see it really in this photo, the guy on the far right has a green mohawk. That was fun to do up.

  There was one more pack in the lot I picked up and that was a set of TV reporters. These guys seemed useful in both a futuristic and a modern day setting so I painted them up and gave them more of a desert base since I figure they'll probably see more modern-day Middle East/Africa action than far future stuff.


  Two reporters, two cameramen and two photo-journalists. It'll be nice to have these guys around mucking up the works and reporting on atrocities far and wide.

 Anyway, I'm happy to have these guys finished up. I can now play small battles with the sci-fi stuff I have so hopefully those guys will be hitting the table later this year.

One LIttle Dude, One Kill

More little dudes that I've been painting up. Once again, these are all from Odzial Osmy's New Vistula Legion, a 15mm sci-fi range. These are all mostly groups of one type of specialist so there's not a whole bunch to say about them, though the last group is pretty interesting.

 First up, a batch of snipers to lend some long-range support for our brave boys in red:

Well...they blend into the ground pretty well. My photography was really crap this time around.

Speaking of blending in, how about some scouts/forward observers:

I might pair these up with the snipers from time to time but they can also go out on their own.

 Finally, the most interesting group in this batch, the Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol:

A small six-man team to operate deep behind enemy lines. They got a little bit of everything. All kinds of heavy weapons and technical/commo gear. They even have a drone, but I'm looking to get some wire to mount them on a separate base.

 So that lot is finished. Next up are the heavy weapon teams. I'm hoping these should go up rather quickly and then this project will almost be finished.

Garish Little Dudes

  So I did more than paint buildings this summer.  I also painted (and am still painting) some little dudes.

  There's a company out of Poland called Assault Publishing that puts out wargame rules and miniatures.  They do a line of 15mm sci fi and the human faction is called the New Vistula Legion.  A fellow gamer was selling off a huge lot of them at discount prices so I snapped it up.  I figure they'll be good opponents for my professionally painted group and just good sci-fi figures in general.

  I've gone though about half the figures and have enough of them organized that I can show them off.  So let's see what I've done so far...

So here's a group shot:




 I've gone with a red color scheme for these guys.  In part because it will contrast well with the blue forces I have and mostly because I got tired of painting drab camouflage schemes on modern armies.  You're looking at about 60 figures here.  Two platoons made up of three six-man fireteams headed up by a six-man HQ squad.  On the left are the Anti-Air support teams and the Anti-Armor teams are on the right.

Let's break it down a little:





This is the basic fireteam.  A six-man squad consisting of a leader, a SAW gunner, a LAW trooper and 3 riflemen.  It's a bit larger than most force-on-force squads but they'll probably have less armor/support gear to compensate.

Three of these squads form a platoon lead by:





...the platoon HQ squad.  There's the leader, a medic, a technical officer and three grenadiers bearing rifle/grenade luachers.  The technical officer is great.  It's hard to make out in this picture but he's kneeling and is working on a laptop.  It's nice to see dedicated IT support trooper in a sci-fi model range.

Then come the support squads:





An anti-air squad.  There's a spotter/leader, the MANPAC AA-missile trooper and a two man security detail.  The extra trooper can be siphoned off to help the anti-armor teams or fill in as needed, but I put them here for now.  Actually, now that I think about it, I might make them all three man teams rather than four so that the anti-armor teams can also be three-man units.  The third guy is security/ammo bearer.

Speaking of anti-armor:





The anti-tank hunter killer team is a spotter/leader and a guided missile trooper.  As I mentioned above, I'll probably add a rileman from the Anti-Air squads to act as security/ammo bearer.

Anyway, that's all the figures so far.  Next up are the snipers/scouts/LRRP teams, then the support weapon teams and finally the company HQ and a set of TV crews.  Should be a lot of fun.

Tiny Construction Work

  So I've been remiss in not updating my various miniature gaming projects.  So let's take stock of what I've been doing this summer.  There's two parts so there's going to be two posts.  First up, more terrain.

So I wanted more Middle Eastern urban terrain both for Force on Force and just any general modern day/near future fight.  I ordered up a batch of stuff from Game Craft Miniatures.  They have a wide selection of stuff in 15mm and I had fun putting together a previous building of theirs.  So I put in an order and soon the smell of laser-cut wood filled the house.

First up are these modular buildings:





There are two types of buildings here, the smaller square ones are 4.5"x4" and the larger, rectangular ones are 6.5"x4".  The best part is that each of the floors is a separate, detachable piece.  So I can adjust the heights of the buildings up and down as needed.  In fact, I made a bit of a mistake.  I forgot that both the ground floor section and the top floor section also count as buildings.  So all of my buildings are 2 stories higher than I planned on.  I plan to go back and order a couple more ground/top floor pieces for both sets so that I can have up to 4 shorter buildings of both types -- I can put up a real city block in a hurry.

After that come these two:





These are smaller, one-piece buildings made of MDF, but I really like the Middle Eastern look and feel to them.  The modular buildings are pretty generic, but the detailing on these guys lends a sense of place.

But nothing says authority like slab-sided construction:





This is an educational or administrative building based off an actual design in Baghdad.  This was a model I'd been hoping to have for a previous game, but didn't have the time to get it put together.  Now it's ready to go and I really like it.

Finally:





It's not the Middle East without a mosque.  This model, unlike the others, was made of foam-board and I'm not as happy with it's construction as I am the rest of them.  The others were all made of MDF and it was pretty easy to work with, but the foam-board was a lot more finicky to handle.  I will admit, the spackle I used to cover up the joins produces a nice stucco look, but the dome on top is styrofoam and not given to taking paint well.  Plus, I should've applied it after I built the rest of the structure, but didn't.  Still, I now have a mosque with courtyard and a place for cowardly insurgents to flee to when things get hot.

So I've greatly expanded the range of buildings and urban terrain I have available for my games.  I can probably do some of the denser urban scenarios which should be a lot of fun.  Hopefully this will all get to the table soon.