Fog And Flares

So I am in Wales. It was a hard drive and the calorie count has gone up, a lot. It is a pretty place. Lots of stars that I never get to see and even a couple of shooting stars which could be seen just above the sea mist. Looking up at the stars lead me and my other half to see a series of four red flares going off. Red flares mean something bad is going on and as it appeared to be coming from the direction of the sea, we phoned the coast guard.

No painting today but I have had a few ideas for games that I am working on. Some sillier than others. The Underground game really started as a post-apocalypse bestiary. I have tried to keep things a little more real and a little less Gamma World. The idea I came up with was a Radger, a glowing blue badger found in some parts of London. This was not going to be a big beast of a monster more something that inhabits the city and provides some local colour (irradiated blue). This is just about too crazy for my game.

I have been working on another myth for the Viking game. This one centres around dark elves oddly enough. If I am going to do some figures I thought I'd better give them an origin story.

Now I am in trouble. My other half has forgotten her facial wipes but does has some toilet wipes. When she asked me if I thought it would be okay is she used the them on her face I said, in her case I didn't think it would be a problem. Oddly this did not go down well. Can't understand why....

Just Got There And Going Away

Arguably, and I mean just about, errr, I have just about finished the five figures for the week. I am not entirely happy with them but they are good enough for tabletop. It took me a little while to get going so I haven't got as much done as I could. Jobs to do and this is going to be my last chance with a decent internet connection for a week so I decided to do some downloading and catching up.  I doubt that I am going to get any pictures up as it is way too late.

We will see what I can actually post over week. Maybe there will be some interesting history that I can post about but it might be more like a review of the finest chip shops in the area.

Closer Than Expected

The holiday is looming so time is running out to finish the week's target. With a bit of luck and dedication I will probably get to the five figures per week. ALong with the rats being finished I am more or less up to date. If I get the time I may even make it to ten but I am much less certain about that. What I am seeing is that the week I get back I should make ten. This would leave me on target. Some days I really do think this is turning into Bridget Jones diary. Anyway, here are the clerics that are nearing completion.

Over the last few days I have been looking around for  a few ideas for projects. The Viking game has a major villain called Vetis Bane. I know it's not very Norse but it sounds really good. What I have lacked was a suitable figure for it. Whilst there are a few figures that would probably do the trick, my specific needs are a bit more complicated. What i wanted to do was create a range of figures something along the lines of the mummy in The Mummy. There needs to be stages of decay. Fully intact, a little zombified and skeletal. The plan had been to find a model to convert. So far the figures I have seen would be too difficult to convert. They have goods or are gripping onto something. Then I realised the answer has been staring me in the face for well over a year.

This is a Frostgrave Cultist frame from Northstar. If I take the right body from the frame along with skeletal and zombie arms and a human head and arms from elsewhere (not sure about the head)  but the arms can probably come from the soldiers sprue.

Maybe this is a project for when I get back.

Where Is My Mind?

Today has been painting party time. I have done more painting today than I have done on any two other days for weeks.  Even so, nothing is really finished but it is a lot closer to being finished than I was hoping. At this rate I should bypass my target for the week.

More than that, I have managed to crack on with prepping figures. Another dozen have been primed and more than a dozen have been based, along with some horses. Now I am working on filling a second tray of stuff based, primed and ready to go.


I have finished off the fish / piranha swarm base, this has then been given a coat of brown primer. I need to paint the fish and the plan is to cover it with some water effects. This base has taken a lot of time. All the fish have been made of green stuff, which although I have used a mould, it has taken an absolute age. If I can get the batch of five done, this will probably be the next one on the bench.

As is my usual way, extra paint gets put on whatever is on the bench. There are another ten fantasy figures in the queue. Whilst none are near complete, there has been a fair bit of work done on them so the catch up process (with not painting last week and being off next week) should not be too painful.

Rats & Thieves

The rats that I started painting again last week  are now done, well mostly. Eight of the nine are now complete. I guess that counts as four figures done.

Now I have moved on to the thief miniatures that I have prepped over the last few days. I say thieves but most of them are actually mages they just look close enough to thieves. By that I mean no stupid mages hats or wands. These and a bunch of other figures had the flesh done yesterday. For some reason I have decided to change my usual flesh painting system so I am now worried that they are all going to look like game show hosts. So far I have made a good start of the base coat. With a bit of luck I should have the base coat completed before I go away on Saturday. With even more luck I might have gotten a bit further. Sorry if they are still looking a bit off but they will look better soon enough.

Whilst my head is on what I am going, my heart is telling me to go and work on the Dark Elves. What has been putting me off is the basing. I have almost run out of green stuff. However, I came across the basing tutorial to make glowing desert bases. The video is here and this is my attempt.

In the video it mentions that he got the idea from a lava base. That has given me an idea. In my game there are some dark elves on Muspelheim, the land of the fire jotunar and some on Svartalfheim, the home of the dark alf and dvergr. In Norse mythology there is little to say about each of the worlds but the seems to be pretty dark dusty worlds and possible have a connection to fire so lava is not too much of a stretch. This might be a project for tomorrow.

Where Did That Day Go?

A strange morning. For various reasons I can't really say much about it, but it was made more interesting by knowing Matthew. Then the day kicked into full gear and the next thing I know I am sitting down at the bench just before six. It's almost like being back in the real world again. GOT and dinner got in the way but I got back to the bench a few hours before bed.

I have managed to do a huge amount of stuff last week, by my standards at least. All that and I still didn't paint anything so I need to put that right. I was going to work on the Dark Elves but as I have put some effort into some of the bases, I wanted to finish them off but I am going to need more greenstuff. There seems little chance of that happening this week so I have moved onto something else.

In fact it has been several something elses. My lack of focus this week is not as bad as last week. I have painted about fifteen faces of minis. Last week I was going through what I have in storage and I found a few thieves and clerics and some stuff that will do as both. These character types are not well represented in the figures collection. Some of the thieves might actually be mages that have hoods so I guess they can do double duty. Over the years I have found myself short of thieves and I have always wanted a big group of them that will double as brigands. as well as the ones on the desks I have some GW LOTR rangers will do the job.

The game I run features three types of clerics. Druids, these that follow the old Norse goods and Christian ones. Druids are quite rare. I am talking about the historical type of druid not D&D druids which are common enough. Christian clerics are not all that common but there are enough friar/monk types, the odd senior member of the clergy and even a few nuns. Some of what I have on the bench will add to this number. I think they are from Midlam Miniatures. There are also a couple of figures that will do as Norse clerics which I think are Frostgrave miniatures. Sadly no more druids though. along the way I am thought about introducing Islamic but I think I am too worried about pissing someone off.

The last group is a kind of catch all. Mostly Frostgrave stuff. A couple of barbarians are here. They don't really fit my picture for the game I run but I like them so they are on the bench. At the back of my mind is the idea of a conan game which these would be perfect for. A couple of wanderer / traveller / mage types are also there, just to make up a round five.

So these are the projects of the next few the next month or so. That is of course assuming I don't get bored and mentally wander off. Judging by today there is an excellent chance that this might happen. I am working on a couple of swarm bases, a large earth elemental made out of foam, the glowing base, a dungeon section, sundry bits of terrain and the dark elves all as side projects.

The trouble is I am enjoying it all. Stuff that should be background projects are coming increasingly into the foreground.

End Of The Week And Stuff

This week has been more about getting stuff done than painting. My neck is killing me so painting has not been much fun and it has been a bit easier to do the other things. So all basing, gluing, varnishing and priming. There has even been the putting stuff away in boxes that will only get opened once or twice a year. In my head I am using what could laughable be call the British summer to use sprays outside. Even then the house still smells of propellant. Over the weekend I had hoped to go to a show and maybe pick up some foam trays to store figures but this wasn't going to happen.

Now I have a few days of grace. There is a bit more finishing off to do. To be honest, there are now some many projects on the go it might take me till the end of the year to finish them. My fucos (that was a joke) is far from clear. I am on holiday in a week so I have a little time to catch up but I am happy doing the scut work which is usually my biggest downfall so I am making the most of it.

With the next week looking like I might catch up on what The New Cruelty dicates, what I have started already and maybe a few new figure should see me get to my target. Then I'm on holiday so I doubt anything will get done.

Anyway, here are some of the figures I have put into long term storage today. Ex Harlequin now Black Tree Designs I think. No they are not Skaven they, are Ver men.

Really not sure why I got round to painting these figures now. Some have been sat around half painted for over a decade. I ordered some more when I got some High (I mean Dark) Elves last year. They so don't fit into any game I am planning at the moment. Although, that said, I could see a conversion job to sci-fi post apocalypse quite easily.