Ruined Farm, Frostgrave Campaign Prep & a couple New Arrivals!

Today I spent some time today with some of my Frostgrave Campaign prep. This involves setting up the games table for a scenario I am creating aptly named, the Outskirts of Frostgrave.

This intro scenario will be designed to get the warbands launched & snag some loot to put into their coffers. The usual loot table will be modified however with a -5 to dicerolls. As this area is outside Frostgrave proper, those who fled have pilfered the lions share of the good spoils, however some cache's still lie hidden amongst the ruins. 

To that end I painted up a ruined foam farm house / barn. Not sure which company made this, as I've had it laying about for some time. It is however very similar to the Ziterdis line of products in material.

The foam was originally in that dark grey colour.

 Next are some of images of the table for the campaign. I still want to make some more haystacks, etc.

The outer walls of the city are in the background.

As well things just keep arriving at the homestead. Today I picked up a few more parcels which contained some Kingdom Death Black Friday sale items, Zombicide Black Plaque & several expansions for Heroes of Normandie which I have been getting. Also just before Christmas my Cthulhu Wars Kickstarter second wave stuff arrived. Needless to say my basement is filled with boxes again, their contents vying to distract.
 

 

It looks to be a good year of gaming in 2016!
 

Boxing Day Myths

An early morning post as I prepare to venture out once again with my lovely wife who just hasn't had enough of boxing day shopping. I guess as this day is in lieu of the Boxing Day stat holiday, she feels that its still Boxing day. No worries though as I plan to hit a game store as well.

However, this morning I did the matte spray on the next 3 Myth figures I am painting for a buddy. These are coming from this game.








So here we have another Warrior (Centre) & what I think are Engineers/Mechanics of some sort.

I have another 4 of them on the painting table along with a couple more creatures for Frostgrave. Until then its off for another day of shopping!

Merry Christmas!

As we all pause in our hobby endeavors, to wish our goodwill towards all men and enjoy some time with friends & family, I wish to take this moment to wish all of those who visit my blog a Very Merry Christmas!

I am sure tomorrow will be filled with wrappings & ribbons as we delve into our presents, seeing what lies ahead for our hobbies! I look forward to seeing what those whose blogs I visit have had the pleasure of receiving.

Cheers!
 

Frostgrave & some Mythconceptions

Yes the title is a bit corny, but those who know me would expect nothing less. This week I have completed several items for Frostgrave, as well as getting my first Myth figure done.

First up, is another ruin piece. This one is the first of the builds I have to do from the Escenorama order. I see another blast of matte over spray is needed on the outside, easily enough to fix. It doesn't seem that shiny in normal light.

From what I can tell, there are 2 building ruin base types. I shall endeavor to paint up a building with the other so you can see the difference. As well all the upper floors seem identical thus far, with the skewed picture frame.

I also completed a couple of the old GW metal men-at-arms who will work perfectly for the same role in Frostgrave. The shields are done with Little Big Man shield decals

Next are a batch of the old Ral Partha Giant Rats from the Fantasy Collector Series. I have seen several other folks using the quite huge rats from Malifeaux, which is size are more like Wolves. But hey, whats to stop a few of the rats from becoming that size eh!

Below is a comparison shot, showing the scale of them to a human. I also opted for a smaller base to allow a swarm of them to surround a warrior

My next lot for Frostgave consists of several of the Harry Potter Chess Set Pawns. As soon as I saw this set, I knew then that I wanted to get a set just to use as statues for various games. A Garage Sale provided me with a spare set & they have sat stashed away...until now.

These figures provided just enough detail, & with being primed black, then painted with Charcoal Grey, drybrushed Rain Grey & then lightly dusted with Sand. The finished pieces then received Army Painter Strong Dip. I am quite happy with the result.

Again, the Frostgrave facebook page has allowed me to see what a good many others are using & I know of a couple other bloggers who are also planning on using these figures.

Another size comparison image of a warrior & the statue. 

Lastly my 1 non-Frostgrave figure. This is the female fighter from Myth. I don't own the game myself, as I am painting these for a buddy. I must say all the figures provided me have quite the dynamic poses. They are all soft plastic.

Christmas is less than a week away, so my focus when I find the time will be to get more of the Myth figures completed. 

I then need to prepare for the Frostgrave Campaign I hope to start in January. So far I have 2 buddies who are in & would like to get a couple more players to join in - the goal being to play through the scenarios from the first book, then delve into the expansion Thaw of the Lich Lord. I am looking forward to playing out the between game content.

Another item I intend to put some time into is getting the beginning characters put together for Kingdom Death & give that game a try as well.

Of course all these plans have a habit of getting sidetracked...more on those side-tracking things will show up in future posts.

Cheers & thanks for reading.

Gangsters at EWG & the building ruin is completed!

For our last club night of 2015, Bruce brought out his new & improved Gangsters game...new as in he is no longer using the Christmas Village set-up from all his previous games. I can't recall the name of the cardstock terrain he purchased, but they do indeed look nice! He does need to do a few more though.

Bruce uses the Chain Reaction rules, modified to use d10's. This allows everyone a chance, which seems to not be the case using a d6.

As we didn't have the 4 players, we just rand a Cops & Robbers scenario, with the Gangsters trying to load the whisky & escape before the Coppers showed up.

The Fuzz makes its entrance. One of the Gangsters with a Tommy Gun, knocked out one of the police cars.

However one of the officers, also armed with a Tommy gun, hopped out & incapacitated the gangster.

At the other end of the table, the Gangsters had managed to wipe out the FBI & were making their escape. However some fleet footed officers managed to tie them down long enough for other officers to arrive.

By games end, almost every vehicle had been disabled by fire.

The FBI lying near their disabled car. The officer to the right was running away.

In the end, the Police managed to keep the peace, having slain or apprehended all but 2 of the Gangsters.

The game is certainly better with more players, as it creates all kinds of mayhem, with corrupt cops, bamboozling badguys & femme fatales.

I also finally completed the building ruin from the earlier post, having finally added the roof, & floors. 

The inside of the roof piece is detailed, the floor pieces are not on the underneath portion.

As mentioned in the previous post, I went online & tracked down images of Medieval art to use for the frames hanging on the wall.

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but the ruin set also came with some corner rubble piles.

Which fit nicely at the corners.

With Christmas looming ever nearer, I've found my actual painting time to be near non-existant. I still have the Myth figures on the paint table as well as a couple GW Footmen I am painting for Frostgrave.

Speaking of Frostgrave, I've received my expansion set & yesterday another order of some of the new Cultist blisters. Also arriving were some Hassle-free Miniatures ordered during Black Friday. I have a few more outstanding orders from that day as well as some Kickstarters arriving, oh what a Christmas it will be!

Thanks for stopping by.
 

Chain of Command - Operation Martlet

Dave launched his Chain of Command Operation Martlet campaign at the club last night. Scott will play the British Commander, while I command the Germans.

Scenario 1: Probe into Fontenay
This scenario sees the Royal Scots launch their attack into the northern edges of Fontenay. This is a Probe scenario, where the German outpost line will withdraw if the British player can exit a team off the Germans board edge. The British were led by Quinton Tiberton, while the German forces were to be led by Jurgen Kiebler.

 Dave prepping the forces

After the patrol phase, the German jump points are located where the barrel piles are.

The British arrival was hampered by Fog, while the German arrival was hampered by a Bombardment. The British show up early & begin moving down the road.

The British got a jump point inside one of the buildings, however a lucky HE shell from my Panzer IV rubbled the building forcing the Vickers HMG team, Sniper & Senior leader out into the open.

After taking some withering MG fire against the squads on the road, the Sherman dropped a smoke round in front of the MG teams. I was able to end the turn however & removed the smoke.

Scott managed to get a couple round of good dice allowing him successive actions. He began running one of the squads forward taking advantage of the few German troops that had been deployed, however he eventually suffered Pinned results due to shock & although getting quite close for a victory was halted when another German squad with 2 MG's deployed & managed to break the squad. At this point, the British withdrew.

The after action report direct from the host - 
"First game went to the Germans, aided by a lucky round of 75mm HE which  collapsed the forward British jumping-off position very early in the fray. Accurate German fire from forward deployed forces held the British infantry off for the most part, yet one team of rabbits almost made it through only to be bushwacked by a section of SS foxes hiding in a copse of trees. The British pulled back to regroup and reconsider their approach, giving the Germans additional time to bolster their positions.

So it appears we will again be fighting over this plot of land. The Germans suffered 3 dead & 2 injured (miss next battle). As the Allied forces are getting more reinforcements, each German casualty is much harder to make up.

Thanks to Dave for hosting.
 

Escenorama Building for Frostgrave / Mordheim - work in progress

Having finally gotten all the Escenorama order primed, it was time to figure out just how these were to go together. I didn't see any instructions available, so pulling out the bits, it suddenly became clear!

I finally understood what those little bits were for. They are used to level out & allow for the support beams to be mounted. (this is just set together at this point).

The second level & floor are then able to be added.

So with that being said, this first building is now drying from the superglue. But I wanted to get started on one of these buildings...so I grabbed the multi-story one that came with the set & off to work at the paint table.

Starting off primed white, I painted the entire building in a mid-grey colour, followed by Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre & Sand in sequence. The wooden beams are Burnt Umber & hi-lighted with Nubby Linen. 

The main structure is now painted & apart from needing the Army Painter dip, & a final touch up of hi-light colour is ready to go. One of the things noticed were the frame askew on the wall. I think I will be doing some internet searching to find some images to fit into these. Yes they are on the several of the buildings, so a range of images will be required.

So the first of the ruined village set is usable for the next game of Frostgrave or Mordheim.

I am trying to match this ruined bridge piece I have as I really like the colouring of it. Here they are side by side. Not too far off, so I think once I get the dip on it & matte sprayed it should be almost bang on.

Still have a couple figures for use in Frostgrave on the bench as well as the Myth consignment I am working on.

Cheers & thanks for reading.
 

Another Thug & Prepping for Winter

As we continue with above normal temps +5C today, it provided an opportunity to get the Wreath on the garage & to get a bunch more items primed for winter projects, as mother nature will always get her due.

With that being said I didn't get much painting done today, tis the season & all. However I did get to complete Geeb the Grotty with club & leather armour. Perfect for another Thug.

He is another of the Citadel Scoundrels, Rogues & Thieves series. I may have to find the others of this series I have & make a point to paint them up so I can have a completed project for once hehe.

As alluded to previously, its a Prime time to Prime! So here is the first bunch of the Escenorama order I received a couple weeks ago. I picked up the ruined village set.

Now to figure out how to get the upper floors on, there aren't any how-to's that I could find, so if someone has found them, let me know! There is still a pile of the smaller bits, floors & roof pieces that are still in the garage awaiting the spray.

As well I am working through the Myth figures for Brent, so they will be gracing my blog in the next couple of weeks.

Oh & how could I forget! I received my first Frostgrave Thaw of the Lich Lord Nickstarter. However as I somehow managed to order 2, I am expecting the second sometime this week & hope to find this one a new owner.