Category Archives: Miniatures

Zombie Strippers!

Well, these lovelies have been languishing on my desk for almost a year. In fact, I was planning on painting them for ZeDecember last year, but I got distracted by life. All I can say is “better late than never”. And anyway, it’s not like these girls are in a hurry for anything anymore. They’ll be making an appearance in my No More Room in Hell games.

These are Reaper’s Zombie Strippers, from their Chronoscope line. The bases are from Armorcast. I especially love the gal on the left holding the customer’s hand, still clutching some dollar bills.

The strip club (a better view of it above) is a paper building from TommyGun over at Model Paper World. You can find it here. And it’s FREEEEEE!

Death Soldiers of the Jade Hood: Part 1

Since I bought .45 Adventure 2nd Edition, I’ve been itching to run some Pulp games with the new rules. In accordance with my new play style, I thought a miniatures campaign over the course of several weeks would be a good way to introduce all my friends to .45 Adventure while not necessarily needing to have them all present at once. It’s easy to jump into an episodic pulp game at any point, as each scenario doesn’t require much of a backstory.

With that in mind I decided to run Death Soldiers of the Jade Hood, the published campaign for .45 Adventure 1st Edition. It will take a bit of fiddling to get it to run smoothly in the new edition, but I don’t think it’s beyond my abilities. I will give a brief synopsis of each scenario (including special rules), the full After Action Report, and any major differences between 1st and 2nd Edition that I encounter along the way.

The basic plot of the campaign is as follows: The nefarious Jade Hood, criminal mastermind of the city of New Commerce, has hatched a diabolical scheme to turn ordinary, unsuspecting citizens into bloodthirsty maniacs. He hopes to use his mind-controlled army to take over the city once and for all. Standing in his way is Ace Reporter Bridget Rourke, her faithful friend and ex-prizefighter Mo Shrevnitz, and the enigmatic vigilante of New Commerce…the Gargoyle!

Scenario 1: The Waterfront Mystery

The board is set up as shown above. It’s a warehouse district at night, which limits visibility to 12″. Four streetlamps shed light in a 3″ radius. In the middle of the board is a white truck. The bad guys are loading the truck with crates (represented by the tokens) of chemicals that the Jade Hood needs to make his Death Soldier formula. Bridget Rourke has to get behind the truck and snap a photo of the crates being loaded, then get off the board with her evidence. The bad guys need to stop her or at least prevent her from snapping a picture and get away with the crates. My buddy Matt decided to play the heroes, leaving me with the bad guys. He started with Bridget Rourke (placing her on the left table edge, above). Mo started off the board until his encounter card was drawn. I started with 2 Grade 1 Brunos (Flanagan and Baldy), and 4 Grade 1/2 Mooks. I put two of the Mooks on guard duty and armed them with pistols. The other two Mooks were armed with a knife and club, respectively, and they were loading the truck.

A couple of turns into the game, the Mooks have successfully loaded the truck with a few crates. Bridget has managed to avoid being spotted thus far, but she can’t get anywhere near the truck without being seen. A deck of cards is used to simulate random events, such as Mo arriving, random guard movement, and an opportunity to snap a picture. I was a little unclear as to whether or not we should shuffle drawn cards back into the deck, but I decided to reshuffle as there were ten cards and only two chances to take a picture. (What if we drew the picture cards early? Does that mean there’s no chance for the heroes to win?)

A few turns later, Bridget is spotted. She sprints across the street, trying to avoid the bad guys. Flanagan, Baldy and one of the Mook guards are in hot pursuit. The Mook fires his pistol at her, but it jams. Flanagan gets close but can’t tackle her this turn. The other Mooks continue to load the truck.

Mo arrives!

Suddenly, Mo arrives just in the nick of time! He sees his friend Bridget is in trouble and rushes in, meaty fists swinging!

This…HURTS.

On his activation next turn, Mo charges into combat. Now, here’s how 2nd Edition really differs from 1st: combat runs much more smoothly. Most models roll one die and add their Shiv score, keeping the result. Mo, however, is an ex-prize fighter, and he knows how to land a few punches. He has One-Two Punch and two levels of Brawler, which means he rolls four dice and keeps two. Plus, he charged into combat, so he gets to roll an additional die, bring his total to five dice, keeping 2 results. Yeah, Mo is pretty tough.

Among other results, Mo rolls two 10’s. This makes it impossible for Flanagan not to get hit and increases the strength of Mo’s fists from 7 (which is already stronger than most folks) to 9 (which is as powerful as a demolition charge) for two hits to Flanagan’s torso. Since 9 is three times stronger than Flanagan’s defense rating of 3, Moe does three wounds to Flanagan’s torso. Twice.

Being Grade 1, Flanagan only has one wound. So, Flanagan pretty much craps out his bones and keels over.

Ka-POW!

The next turn, Bridget runs away, still trying to get to the back of the truck. At this point, I pretty much gave up with the random event draw, as most of the results weren’t making sense. (The guards had been roused already and were pursuing Bridget, so it wouldn’t make too much sense that they would suddenly get the urge for a smoke and randomly move off.) On his activation, Baldy charged Mo and tried to rough him up, but Mo wasn’t having any of it. Predictably, he floored Baldy with little effort.

WHAMMO!

A couple of turns later, the pistol-armed Mooks ganged up and fired on Mo, but failed to hit him. Mo closed the gap, and using his Sweep ability, knocked both of them into next week with one punch!

Meanwhile, Bridget moved closer to the truck’s rear end. Since we were no longer using the random deck, I ruled that if she could get into contact with the back of the truck, she could attempt to take a picture. The Mooks loading the truck finally decided to drop their crates and get involved. They moved towards Bridget with murderous intent, seeking to silence the nosy broad once and for all!

Bridget popped the flash on her camera, taking a picture of the incriminating chemicals and blinding the Mooks in the process. Despite having their Shiv score reduced to 1, the knife-wielding Mook managed to land a vicious hit on the Ace Reporter, and would have gutted her like a mackerel! But Bridget Rourke didn’t live so long covering crime in New Commerce without being Lucky. Matt spent two Hero points and Bridget managed to miraculously avoid the blow altogether. Now, however, she was locked in hand-to-hand combat with two armed Mooks, and while Mo was on his way, he wasn’t there yet…

Next round, Mo ran to help his friend Bridget. Bridget couldn’t leave combat without taking some free hits from her assailants, so she craftily raised her camera again and ignited the flash, once again blinding the Mooks…and Mo.

Don’t Look Now…

Later, Bridget’s blurry picture was developed. It showed the last few seconds of consciousness for the two Mooks, and incidentally fulfilled a bonus victory condition: she got a picture of combat taking place!

When their eyes cleared, Mo was locked in combat with the two Mooks. Another Sweep, and another two unconscious Mooks. Bridget and Mo were able to exit the board with proof of the Jade Hood’s chemical designs and the fight. A clear victory for the heroes! That’s a wrap, boys!

Rules Synopsis and Differences:

There were a couple of rules differences I noticed between 1st and 2nd Edition. In 1st, Night limits visibility to 6″, whereas in 2nd, it’s 12″. This vastly increased the Spot distance for the guards. In the published scenario, spotting was handled with another deck, giving a 50% chance to not spot, a 25% chance to attempt to spot with a penalty, and a 25% chance to attempt to spot with no penalty. It doesn’t detail the penalty or what happens when the enemy is spotted, so I just threw out this whole mechanic and ruled that once a model was spotted, every model on the board was aware of it.

Also, once a model is spotted, it can’t ever hide again unless it has a special ability allowing it to do so. Bridget didn’t have any such ability, so once she was seen she was effectively screwed until Mo arrived.

Speaking of Mo, he clearly outclassed everyone on the table in combat. In the last edition’s combat system, Mo was nowhere near as tough. The new system really makes a difference.

Lastly, there are no Grade 1/2 models in 2nd Edition. Basically, they made Grade 1 models much weaker and did away with Grade 1/2 models altogether. If I was playing 1st edition 45 Adventure, this would have been a bit more of a challenge for Mo and Bridget, as the bad guys would have been able to stand up to Mo a bit longer. I played the next scenario the same way (coming soon) and it was even more one-sided. From now on, when converting from 1st to 2nd edition when I see Grade 1/2 models, I’ll make them Grade 1; and when I see Grade 1 models, I will make them Grade 2. That way it won’t be as much of a cakewalk for the heroes.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode, coming soon!

Bringin’ the Thunder

Two posts in one day! I did a little more work on my Dwarf Army recently and I thought I’d share the latest additions to my bearded host with you. I decided to paint up the artillery and some handgunners, so here they are.

First up, the artillery: two Dwarf cannons with crew. The one on the left is the old-school metal cannon, the one on the right is the plastic (much smaller) cannon from Battle for Skull Pass.

Next is a unit of Dwarf Thunderers from Battle for Skull Pass, along with an OOP Dwarf Lord holding a pistol. Ten Thunderers do not a unit make, IMHO, but there are enough for a skirmish or two.

This is my organ gun (painted previously). Together with the cannons, it should make life difficult for anyone in front of them.

Here are most of the shooty units in my Dwarf Army…coming along slowly but surely. Apologies for the blurriness. Up next: Miners!!!!

It’s all about Gnomes.

With The Recent Demise of My AD&D Campaign, I have decided to share some of the miniatures I was holding back from the blog for fear my players would see them too early. I figured I’d start with the last (and final) adventure, in which the PCs explored the long-abandoned laboratory of an eccentric (but legendary) Gnome inventor.

These three gnomes hired the PCs to help them explore the lab in the hopes they could find something that would be of use in repelling the evil svirfneblin who were attacking their homeland in force. The miniatures, L-R, are Reaper’s Balto Burrowell (02510) and Marius Burrowell (02959), as well as an old-school Ral Partha Dwarf, repurposed as a gnome because he scaled nicely.

Of course, the opposition had already invaded the lab in the hopes of sacking it themselves. I decided to use Reaper’s Bloodstone Gnomes for svirfneblin. I went with a brownish skin tone as opposed to the blue of true BSGs. The majority were Bloodstone Pinners (06212). I also gave them a couple of Beetle Lancers as sergeants (14548), as well as a captain (Bata, Beetle Rider Captain 14568).

Along the way the PCs ran into some of the gnomish inventions, still active and guarding the lab from intruders. These Brass Arachnids and the Arachnid Swarm are from Wyrd’s Malifaux line. I actually never got to use the Brass Arachnids, but I’m quite happy with how they turned out. On a side note, the Arachnid Swarm was a cast iron bitch of fiddly parts that I never want to assemble again. I lost count of how many times a leg broke off. In fact, I had two Arachnid Swarms, and I gave up trying to assemble the second one. The Iron Golem is from Reaper (02728), and I can certainly find a use for him in other games as a robot or something. He was originally supposed to accompany the PCs in their quest. If you were paying attention, you may remember they’re already hanging out with an animated scarecrow. Scarecrow…Tin Man…off to (stop) a wizard…you get what I was going for here. all the above miniatures are based on junkyard bases from Taban.

Lastly is the big Boss miniature my friends never got to face. He’s Frank-n-Steam, from Armorcast. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be available any longer, although there are still some similar Frank models on the site. Being resin, he required a lot of filling and cleanup before I painted him, and even then he still shows some bubbles and seams. I scratch built this base out of junk and bitz I had laying around. And yes, that’s a guy’s face in the chest. Much like the Iron Golem, I can use this thing as a mech suit or a robot body for a mad scientist in SuperSystem or .45 Adventure, so I’m not that bummed out that he never made it into my AD&D game.

ZeDecember Week One : Crazy Oscar!

In honor of ZeDecember (courtesy of SamSagace’s blog) , I have painted a new zombie apocalypse survivor: Crazy Oscar!

Oscar wasn’t exactly sane (or hygienic) before the dead started walking around and eating people, but he’s even less so now. The miniature is from Mega Miniatures; however with the recent selloff of that company, I have no idea what company now owns the rights to the mold. I tried to paint him to look as dirty as possible (as a guy named Oscar who lives in garbage should), so I used a lot of black and brown washes over my highlights.

Although you can’t really see it, I also tried a new technique with Oscar: I used MIG productions rust pigments on his axe-head and on the old tire on his base. This dust looks different than a rust-colored paint (my go-to rust paint was GW’s Tin Bitz) , and I like the results.

I posed him with an Armorcast Dumpster and Trash Pile, just because.

Ill-Met in Lankhmar

Figured I’d post a few of my painting projects from a few years ago. First up is a duo likely familiar to any classic Sword-and-Sorcery devotees out there: Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser!

I’ve loved the Lankhmar stories since I was introduced to the characters in TSR’s Deities and Demigods, way back when I was a kid. Both of these are Reaper miniatures, sculpted by the legendary Sandra Garrity. The Mouser is (02034) Kurff the Swift, while Fafhrd is (02152) Fafnir of Kjord (an homage if ever there was one). These miniatures together would make a very cool diorama if done properly, with the Mouser preparing to scale a wall, and Fafhrd covering his back. Unfortunately, I painted Fafhrd years ago and the Mouser only a few weeks ago, which is why they’re based differently (and why I think the Mouser looks better.) I’m not wild about this picture. I can’t account for the shiny, glossy look on Fafhrd. Must be the camera flash, as I never use any kind of glossy paint or sealant and he certainly doesn’t look shiny in real life.

Up next is another duo, from my current AD&D campaign, the Tears of Yevona. This is Scarlet and Rouge, a pair of renowned “crime-fighters”. Many bards have written songs extolling their deeds of derring-do. Unfortunately, every time they’ve appeared in my campaign, the PCs have had to rescue them from someone or something. (“Of course, a few more minutes and we would have managed to free ourselves and overcome our dastardly captors. But your aid is appreciated nonetheless, comrades!”)

I actually forget which one is Scarlet and which is Rouge, so I’ll just call the girl Rouge. Rouge is another Sandra Garrity Reaper sculpt, (02006) Sidrith, Sword Sister; while Scarlet is (02430) Rictur Deihn, Assassin, sculpted by Bobby Jackson. (I used Rictur Deihn as a character miniature myself in a GURPS fantasy game years ago, and found a new use for him as an NPC in my AD&D campaign.) I painted both of these several years back. I think they could use more facial shading, but overall I’m ok with how they turned out.

More Heroclix Repaints

Took a break from my usual stuff to paint up some more Heroclix for use with Supersystem 3.

First up: The Wrecking Crew. Thunderball, Piledriver, The Wrecker, and Bulldozer. Although they’re a bunch of losers, I’ve always like the Wrecking Crew. I have to say that the Piledriver miniature is one of the worst miniatures in the Heroclix line. He doesn’t even scale well with the other Crew members. I really like the sculpts on the other three, however.

Next up: the original Uncanny X-Men! Iceman, Marvel Girl, Angel, Cyclops, and Beast. I’m pretty happy with the team overall. Iceman’s base is the only one I made from scratch, the rest are modern urban and tech bases from various companies. I was reminded how much I hate painting yellow when I did this team, as yellow is notoriously difficult to shade without it looking like crap. I think Cyclops looks the worst, but I can live with it.

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 2

The zombies activate! We rolled 11 dice in the dice grave, scoring 7 zombies. They spawned at random points all over the board. None spawned close enough to Mr. Wisdom or his girls to threaten them this turn, and Honey Velvet and her group were far enough away from any spawning points that they only had to worry about the zombie that was still trying to eat B-Train this turn.

Feel the Fist of Funk!

A zombie spawned right next to Spartacus Jones and since he was within 6″, he charged right into Monstrous Melee! Spartacus could have Snap-fired at the charging zombie, but why bother? Instead he showed that dirty rotter what it means to meet the Fist of Funk! Ka-POW! One zombie down.

Meanwhile, the zombie on the truck with B-Train failed to do any damage, and so did B-Train. They remained in combat.

The Survivors won the activation next turn. Mr. Wisdom managed to get into base contact with a zombie spawn point and destroy it, which made his section of the board just a little bit safer.

Ramses Magnum fired at an approaching zombie not too far away, but failed to kill it. Lorenzo leveled his shotgun at the zombie and blew it into next week! Honey Velvet joined the melee between B-Train and the zombie in the truck. With her machete, she made quick work of the zombie before he could sink his yellow, decayed teeth into B-Train.

Spartacus Jones was still trying to rally his group, considering Foxxy Dynamite was still suppressed. Not willing to move on without her, he consolidated the troops and waited it out this turn.

The zombies spawned at an alarming rate, due mostly to the sound of gunfire from Honey Velvet’s group. We rolled a whopping 17 dice for the dice grave and scored 12 zombies. That was enough to hit all remaining spawn points once, and one twice! It was beginning to get crowded…

To make matters worse, the zombies won the activation for the fourth round, which means they spawned AGAIN. Luckily, there were only 6 this time, but it didn’t help any, as there were now enough zombies on the board that they started to herd together. Many of them began to close on the park, where Spartacus Jones and his group had been stuck for the last two turns.

Yikes!

Both De’Andre and Cyrus Snap-fired on the approaching zombies, but didn’t do anything to slow them down, and they wound up in Monstrous Melee. Foxxy Dynamite finally came out of her stupor and shot one of them down. Spartacus fired his gun but missed. That’s a LOT of gunfire.

Mr. Wisdom got charged by a zombie, but made quick work of it with his sword-cane.

Don't mess with Mo'nique!

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom got close to another zombie spawning point, and took that one out of play too. His area was rapidly becoming the safest part of the board, as zombies weren’t moving towards him at all, really. All the spawning points left were closer to the other groups. However, just to be safe, Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay moved around a car wreck to confront two shambling zombies. Mo’nique put one down permanently with her purse, while on the other side, Yu’nique made it to a car and looted it, finding 2 units of Food!!

Honey Velvet’s group began to move around the Gun Shop, staying away from the front as more zombies were heading there all the time. Ramses Magnum kicked open a nearby door to a SURVIVE! Location, and once inside, opened a fridge only to find it filled with disgusting zombie guts, which promptly coated his expensive, polyester powder-blue suit in gore! This had the unfortunate effect of raising the Zombie Threat Level by one for the rest of the game, ensuring that more and more zombies would be attracted each turn!

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The zombies activated first AGAIN the next turn. Based on the amount of gunfire the previous turn, as well as the heightened threat level, we were rolling a truly horrendous amount of dice to spawn zombies. They seemed to come from everywhere at once! Poor B-Train lagged a little too far behind Honey Velvet’s group and wound up in Monstrous Melee as a zombie lunged at him. He was pulled down and eaten before our eyes! Honey Velvet could do nothing for him and turned her head away. Ramses Magnum, being Dead Inside, was calmly indifferent to the whole scene. It gave them some breathing room as all nearby zombies would be attracted to the feast next turn.

OM-NOM-NOM!!!!

But poor B-Train wouldn’t be the only one to become zombie chow this turn. In the park, both Cyrus and De’andre were pulled down and noshed on by zombies while Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite could only watch helplessly. Both passed their GUTS checks, so they could act freely when their time came.

Once again, Mo'nique ain't playin'!

Zombies charged at Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay. Lady Chardonnay put one down with Snap-fire, while Mo’nique bludgeoned yet another zombie into final rest with her purse.

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom moved to join his group, taking a shot at a zombie at long range and missing, while Yu’nique looted a nearby dumpster and scored a Big-Ass Knife!

They're breaking through!

Meanwhile, Honey Velvet’s group continued around the Gun Shop, only to find a hastily-erected barricade collapsing under the weight of half a dozen zeds. They would have to fight their way through next turn!

Let's get the FUNK out of here!

Spartacus and Foxxy ran into a nearby Hummer and locked the doors as the groaning zombies outside mobbed up and gave pursuit. He couldn’t get it started this turn, and would have to wait. Meanwhile, the zombies were getting closer, and a car door isn’t much protection…

To Be Continued!!!!

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 1

One of my friends has been pestering me to play a zombie game on my table for a while now, and I figured it was about time for some No More Room in Hell. The last time I played the game was also the first time I played it; and while I really loved the game, I didn’t like some of the mechanics. So I fiddled with the system, came up with some house rules (see below) and got familiar with the rulebook over the last week or so.

One of the big problems I had the first time around was that my survivors kept getting trapped in melee endlessly simply because they were too close to a zombie spawn point. By the time they dealt with whatever zombies they were fighting, they were unable to move away before they were instantly charged by a zombie and the whole cycle started over again. So, for example, my survivor ends his activation within 6″ of a spawn point. The zombies spawn, and because one spawns within 6″ of the survivor, it charges into melee. Next round the survivor activates first, but all he can do is melee with the zombie, he can’t move or shoot. Whether he beats the zombie or not, he’s effectively stuck in the same spot until the next zombie activation. If enough zombies are spawned, he may be facing the same situation next round. This becomes more and more likely as more and more zombies join the melee. Sooner or later there will be too many to defeat. But it’s just not fun to be stuck in one spot.

The rules have no way of getting out of melee once you’re in it aside from either getting killed or killing your opponent. You may retreat as you’re being charged, but who wants to do that? And even if you did, it wouldn’t prevent the above situation from happening, assuming you found yourself close enough to a spawn point again.

So I made a house rule. You can attempt to leave a melee assuming you have initiative. If you’re facing one zombie, you need only pass a FISTS check (one zombie isn’t hard to fake out). However, if you face more than one zombie or any number of survivors, you must succeed in a difficult SURVIVE check (2 successes), which is a lot harder to do. If you fail, you’re stuck in combat and can’t retaliate that turn. This also makes it pretty much impossible for Sheeple, who only have a SURVIVE score of 1, to ever voluntarily leave combat. But then again, they’re supposed to die.

My other house rule has to do with zombie feasting and zombie movement. Normally, zombies move towards the closest survivor, period. My house rule states that zombies move towards either the closest survivor or the closest zombie feast, whichever is closer. Once the feast is over, normal zombie movement is restored. So it really only affects one turn, as zombies only feast for one turn. It gives the survivors a little break every once in a while.

Next I threw together some Survivor Groups for me and my two friends. I decided to go with a 70’s Blaxploitation theme to the game, because I love those movies and because I have the miniatures. I wish I had the time to throw together an appropriate playlist before the game but I didn’t. (the Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown soundtracks would have worked well.) I decided to collectively call the Groups the Soul Survivors. Although Group on Group combat is accounted for in the NMRIH rules, we decided to play a cooperative game. Three different groups deploy separately, but with the shared goal of meeting the mission objectives and getting the hell out alive.

The Fist of FUNK!

First up was my group, led by Spartacus Jones, the Fist of Funk (Shot-Caller). He’s backed up by the lovely Foxxy Dynamite (Back-Up). Behind them is De’Andre and Cyrus (both Sheeple).

Cue the Curtis Mayfield...

Next is the group led by Mr. Wisdom, the Earl of 139th St. (Shot-Caller). Backing him up with her Colt Python is Lady Chardonnay (Back Up), and her two girls Mo’nique and Yu’nique (both Sheeple). Mo’nique is the big one.

They call me MISTER Magnum!

Lastly, we have the group led by Honey Velvet and her submachine gun (Shot-Caller). She’s supported by Rameses Magnum in his powder blue suit (Back Up), and B-Train and Lorenzo (both Sheeple).

The Board

The mission was a Supply Run, the goal of which is to obtain one unit of food or ammo or fuel per survivor. All the SURVIVE ocations are marked with a red glass counter. There are three unique locations: The Gun Shop, currently barricaded up (wonder what’s in there?); The Med Stop, and the Food Mart. All of them have a water bottle cap on them to denote their unique status. There are many vehicles scattered around the table; any that could possibly be used have a small key-shaped screw on them. And away we go!

Maybe we can get this started.....GAAAAH!

We deployed our Groups separately. Honey Velvet and her crew made a beeline for the closest vehicle, an old pickup. (Astute readers may notice the color of the pickup changed from blue to red. That’s because my friend wanted a pickup that looked like the one from Sanford and Son.) B-Train hopped in and tried to start it up, only to find a zombie inside! B Train found himself in Monstrous Melee on Turn 1! He managed to hold it off for this turn…

Elsewhere, Mr. Wisdom and his girls made his way around a building towards a spawn point. Mr. Wisdom has the special ability to destroy zombie spawn points, an ability he put to good use in this game. He didn’t make it this turn.

Meanwhile, Foxxy Dynamite moved quickly over to an abandoned tractor (a SURVIVE location). One quick exploration later, she discovered a battery operated television broadcasting the fateful last newscast of a doomed anchorman as he became zombie chow on camera! She rolled on the Fear Reaction table, and was so traumatized by what she saw that she collapsed and was suppressed for 2 turns! Spartacus Jones got into a good firing position, as it was time for the zombies to activate!

To be continued!

The Dwarves are Upon You!

I have found a cure for my painting blues. I’ve decided that rather than drive myself crazy painting things I don’t want to, I’ll take a break and get started on those Dwarfs I’ve been meaning to paint for a while. Here are the results.

It’s a modest start: one unit of Warriors, one unit of Miners, a small unit of Quarrelers (that’s crossbowmen, not argumentative dwarfs), and an organ gun. It should be noted that with the exception of the organ gun and its crew, none of these are GW models. Like I give a shit. Both the Warriors and the Miners are from Black Tree Design, the Crossbowmen are from Mantic. I placed them around some Gale Force Nine Battlefield in a Box Rocky Outcroppings.

First up are the Miners. I love the look of Black Tree’s dwarfs, as they are all metal and chunky, reminiscent of that old Citadel Dwarf range, which I really like. The only criticism I have of them is that there isn’t enough variation in the packaging. Out of 20 figures, I got 5 of one sculpt and 4 of another, while conversely I got 1 each of two very cool sculpts. Oh well. I did my best to paint them with enough variation so that they are individualized, but I tied the unit together by using the same dirty colors across the board (they’re miners, after all). I used some leftover mat board from my Modular Roads project as movement trays.

Up next are the Warriors. Again, I like the look of Black Tree. These guys are doubly cool because they’re so armored up, I could easily use them as proxy Ironbreakers. (Quick Math: I get 20 of these metal dwarfs from Black Tree for about $40. The same unit of “official” GW Ironbreakers would cost me $100. I’d say they’re likely to be Ironbreakers most of the time.)

I didn’t make any banners for either unit yet, because I kind of suck at scratch-building banners. Maybe one day I’ll get around to it.

Last are the Quarrelers and the organ gun. The organ gun is an old-school GW metal version. I actually like the newer version better, but this one is fine. I have mixed feelings about the Mantic Dwarfs. They definitely have a look all their own, and you can’t beat the price at about $1.50 each. I really dislike the fact that in this pack of 10 dwarfs, you get a bunch of head variations but can only really use 5, as the other 5 dwarfs are all one piece. The one-piece dwarfs are the dwarfs that are firing the crossbows, pretty much the front rank. There is a noticeable lack of detail on these models as opposed to the ones with separate heads. In addition, they don’t really rank up well unless you want the back rank to be facing off to the side. A somewhat annoying design flaw.

So, what next? Well, I have all the dwarfs from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set awaiting painting: 12 Warriors, 10 Thunderers, 8 Miners, a cannon and crew, a Thane and 1 Slayer. (I’ve always thought Dwarf Slayers are stupid.) I have an unbuilt unit of Mantic Shieldbreakers that seem to have the same annoying lack of detail on the one-piece models as the Crossbowmen. And I have another regiment of GW dwarf Miners (making that 15 more miners in total, minus my unneeded second command group). I have another dwarf cannon and crew, and a proxy Flame cannon to paint, plus a few lords and heroes…So the army is a long way from complete, but I need to get back to my other projects for now.

Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging

The Angry Piper's miniatures and gaming blog.