Next!....Another Barbarian

Painting continues on my Barbarians. Here is the next built from the Northstar Barbarian Box Set for Frostgrave

Continuin to dabble with the GW Contrast paints on things like wood. I used the Wyldwood for his shield. I do like the effect!

As we are confined to our homes, I've begun the monumental task of hauling all the stuff I've stashed in the crawlspace out & am taking stock of what's there, what I still want & now builing the pile of what eventually will be posted for sale either online or through swapmeets down the road. This also means I am finding odd miniatures that are now making their way towards the paint table.

Stay tuned!

Dungeon Painting continues

I continue to paint my Deathray  Designs mdf dungeon set. One of the comments on my previous post was from my friend Scott asking about the colours.

So today I will present the stages & colours I am using on this project. For the basecoat, refer to the previous post.

I've sourced a bunch of cheap stiff bristle brushes from the Dollar store. So up first is the Gray/Green. Dabbled on with drybrushing.

The next colour I've gone with is a Spanish Olive. Not sure of this paint as its brushes on fairly transluscent. This has meant numerous coats of it when used on miniatures. However for this project this has worked well. Again drybrush/scrubbing it about the piece.

Then onto Yellow Ochre. As I've mentioned before the Yellow Ochre/Sand combo is my go-to for drybrushing most of my miniature bases & walls/stone/statues etc. Whether I've used a brown or gray base, it works wonders.

The icing on the cake is this Sand colour. I do a light drybrush dusing across the entire piece, hitting the edging everywhere. It also mutes when scrubbed over the previous colours nicely.

All the paints I bought at Michaels. In fact I use a lot of craft paints on my miniatures. They blend well enough with the more expensive GW, Vallejo, Army Painter paints & the range of colours is extreme. I've found however that I often require 2 coats when doing my miniatures with them. Otherwise the price for quantity can't be beat.

Hope this helps some of you who were also curious as to my system. Stay home, enjoy your hobby time & stay Safe!
 

This is my dullest post

For those of you checking out my recent painted figures, you've seen my frustration with shiny anti-shine results, and yes I've already posted about these miniatures below...however;

Today I am happy with the purchase of the Testors Dullcoat I made. I've also gotten wind of other products, thanks to Michael Awdry, that I will be hoping to check out once I can source them.

So here is the result of the Army Painter  Anti-Shine left beside the same figure after being sprayed with Testor's Dullcoat

You can certainly look back on my previous posts for the recent barbarian figures I posted below. These have all now been revisited by the said Testor's Dullcoat & I am a much happier fellow due to the results.

It's plausible that the extra spray over the already Army painter Anti-shine just adds to it. More testing with mulitple sprays of the Army Painter product may be needed to prove /disprove my thoughts.

However the next figure I finish will be sprayed directly with the Testors Dullcoat. Let's think of it as a little experiment while we wile away the hours at home. Thanks to those who commented with my dilemma & offered options.
 

Frostgrave Barbarian Infantryman

Continuing to work through the Barbarians, today I present you with an Infantryman.

GAH! I really do hate the shine! But a solution will soon arrive as I've ordered some of the Testor's Dullcote. So these fellows will be getting another spray soon! This guy was sprayed with the Army Painter Anti-Shine...

I have done a bit of research into what are the best Anti-Shine products as posted by other miniature painters. Many tout the Army Painter one & indeed my previous cans 'did' the job with 1 coat. Then there were comments about doing several coats of it.....really? I feel its possible I just got a bad can. So once this runs out, we will test the theory. So for now, please bear with me & my shiny guys!

This is another of the ones made from the Northstar Plastic Barbarian box set.

 Lots more Barbarians are in the primed box awaiting my brush. One of the positives about this imposed stay at home directives, is that its afforded me more miniature painting opportunities!
 

Dungeon Test Piece

If you recall back at the beginning of the year I started putting together one of the DeathRay Designs Dungeon sets I had snagged during last years Black Friday Sales.

We have finally had some nicer weather where I could get out & start prepping the pieces for paintng. I bought a few cans of Rustoleum at Wal-mart. One of the few places still open for business at this time.

With the base coating done on quite a bit of the set (still more to go) I wanted to do a test piece of the paint scheme I wanted for it. Grabbing one of the smaller pieces. I worked on it today during lunch.

Once again I am happy with my go to Yellow Ochre & Desert Sand craft paints! Will just be going through several of my cheap dollar store brushes to perform this task. I have another barbarian drying from the dip, so he will be presented tomorrow.

Thanks as always for taking the time to visit!
 

Confrontational Barbarian

I continue painting up barbarian figures for Frostgrave & have just completed this 2nd of the Confrontation Warriors of Avaghdu figures. 

These are multi-part metal figures from the OOP Confrontation Game.

These are beautiful miniatures, with lots of detail. I do see that mold line on his head now with the image so large hehe.

As stated previously, Confrontation is returning. They had a kickstarter about a year ago working on getting all the original miniatures back in production.

Still waiting for the temperatures to warm up for some more priming. It seems winter doesn't want to go away....though all of us with it would. 

No worries though, I have many more barbarians that need painting.

Frostgrave Barbarian Thief

Another of the plastic figures made from the Northstar Barbarian box set. This time I've made another thief

The box also has several pouches, sheaths, etc that can be added. For this fella I gave him a pouch, knife sheath & another small bag attached to the back of the belt.

I've now overtaken my painting output so the next post will likely be a little longer in coming. Thanks for stopping by.
 

Frostgrave - Barbarian Tracker

Another miniature completed! This time what I took to be a Barbarian Mage/Apprentice figure, I went to the Northstar site to be sure


Turns out this is actually a Barbarian Tracker figure FGV226 

This is a metal figure with excellent detailing on the hair & fur, allowing for nice shadowing.

I have another of the plastic box barbarians almost finished & he should be ready to post tomorrow.

Voyage of the Pandora

With all of us now working from home, self isolating or whatever system is in place trying to stem the Pandemic, I had someone come to the door.

Imagine my surprise when my friend Bruce was standing on the walkway, & after greeting me, pointed to a small parcel he had left on the step. It seems Bruce was determined that we keep our group gaming during this time.

My first thought was OH...a play be email campaign. But upon removing the items within the envelope, it was soon discovered that this was a solo affair.

Bruce took the original counters & made his own versions of them, creating much nicer & easier to figure crew, creature & equipment counters. Your provided with the choice of either a 10 year (45min), 20 year (2 hr) or 30 year mission. Your given your space with various planets you will be able to explore.

I would start with a 10 year mission. 

You must then roll a d6 to determine the Intelligence of each crew member. The higher the dice, the higher the Int stat.

Now I must state that this is a system from the Grognard Wargame era. Even with Bruce giving us a set of crib notes, I was soon to be a bit boggled with wording....

Anyway off I went. The Pandora flew to the nearest planet - Mephisto.

The game works with a list of 232 paragraphs, each numbered. As you perform various things, you consult the specified paragraph to determine the situation.

I orbited Mephisto & determined that the Gravity was Light, Atmosphere Normal, Geology Active, etc. There are counters to track this. You will also be informed that if you wish to explore there are 3 locations you may get by the roll of a die.

This is where it gets convoluted. You decide what you want to take down to the surface on your shuttle. The shuttle has so many portage points of equipment & people it can take to the surface. However once there you will then send out your group. I went with the Ground Survey member with 3 pieces of gear & 3 supplies. Supplies will be used once you reach a certain threshold & roll a die.

I decided I would walk. Now it states that the hex you land in must be explored. Each time I search or move it consumes time (in hours). Based on the chart it would cost me 3 hours to explore my hex.

There is a chart that you roll on to determine which paragraph will be read. There are generally 3 listed events per paragraph based on what terrain your in. If none of the 3 fits your location, you get to perform an Expedition Action. 

As this is the result I got, I moved to the next hex (costing a further 2 hours) 

I got the same result again & now found myself entering the cave, which is where I was headed anyway.

I discovered an energy creature, which I opted to try to communicate with. Its a good thing I didn't have a robot with me, or he would have been damaged by the electrical surge of the creature.

Due to its lack of intelligence I was able to capture the critter in an E-cage. 

From there it was back to the shuttle & up to the Pandora. This took me more than 45 minutes just to get through 1 expedition. I am sure once I play more, it will move faster.

This finds me with 5VP for my first year of the voyage.

I will be contacting Bruce to get some clarifications & hopefully get further into my voyage next week!

Frostgrave Barbarian Wizard/Shaman

Here we have the Northstar Miniatures Barbarian Wizard or Shaman, however you prefer.

This is a metal miniature, quite nice, though a bit of flash needs scraping & there are areas which are a bit of a trouble to get at. Otherwise an excellent miniature, complete with fetishes & charms.

My latest discovery of sorts, is for doing wood. Previously it would be a dark brown with lighter drybrushing. Now however I've been using a light (in this case Barn Wood) followed by the GW Contrast paint Gor-grunta Fur. I find it makes a nice mottling effect.

She will of course be added to the list of those needing another anti-shine treatment once a product is found. Up next I am working on the apprentice figure.