....So It Started With An Idea

I got a chance to bake the Fimo stuff I made yesterday. I did discover that there is an Urban Dictionary page for Fimo, of which more later.

To be honest I wasn't expecting much. Over the years I have played about with Fimo a few times and never really been all that interested in it. The only project that I liked were some figures I did for Low Life.  This suited my sculpting style (i.e. not very good) as the miniatures are somewhat cartoony. If this was what I wanted for another game, then I would have no problem going for it.

My initial results were about where I expected. The stuff does not solidify in the mould like green stuff. My normal approach is just to cover the thing I am moulding with a fair chunk of Instamould. This makes it even more difficult to get the model out. The idea that I had was to put lots of little bits of the plastic over the model. If you wait for each chunk to go cold, the mould breaks apart easier. What I did need to do was add another layer over the top to keep the bits together. In hindsight gluing the miniatures to the base was probably a mistake although it would probably work out well for green stuff. That said, with green stuff drying hard, the integral base isn't required.

As I said earlier, I wasn't expecting much. The final results are a little better than I expected but I did start out with a really low level of expectation. Would I use it for feature figures, well no. For what I have used it for, the results are good enough. There is about £1.20's worth of Fimo here so it's cheap enough for the miniatures but the craters, I am not so sure. There is some detail there.

I like corpse markers for gaming and little bits of terrain. I did a load for 15mm, here and there. They give the RPG tabletop some more realism that using a wash wipe marker. Most GMs just take figures off the table but I think there should be something left behind, even if it is only a minor obstacle. In the past I have just given casualty figures a very simple grey tone for 28mm figures, mainly for speed but the players seemed to like the "passed over to the other side" look.

So It Started with An Idea....

A few weeks ago, when I was having a fit of preparing figures and priming them, I found the old GW corpses. One I think was a magic user and the other was a knight. These were in the first batch of figures I purchased, I guess this was some time around 1986.

My plan had been to base them, which I did, then prime and paint them.  Something just stopped me doing the priming. They are too bad to use and they have too much sentimental value to get rid of. This is probably why they have sat in a box for so long.

I've run out of green stuff but I still wanted to do something with them. I did find some Fimo though. So I thought I'd get the fimo and see what happened if I combined these with the figures. With most painted minis I would be worried about taking the paint off. The paint job is pretty woeful and it;s enamel so I figured there is a good chance all would be well.

So the moulds are done and filled. The plan is to leave them to cool a bit. I had warmed up the Fimo to make it more workable but even when it gets cool it will still may be too flexible. If this is the case I may put them in the fridge before pulling the castings out. I have also done a few casts of craters but these work out cheaper to buy than to cast and the originals look better. This was more about making multiple connecting craters  than getting something cheap anyway.

So I might post some results tomorrow.

The figure painting has progressed a bit. There are a few details and a little more ink to spread around. Then I'll do some highlighting and dry brushing but I am on target to finish in the next couple of days so I will get to work on some more figures and maybe even finish a few extras.

Where's My Head At?

This is yet another post about missing my gaming mojo. Come to think of it, my mojo has been lacking in general. I have done a bit of figure painting today but my heart has not been in it. Thinking back, this is probably why I did so much prep work the other week. My completer finisher moment seems to have passed me by.

Whilst I am still on target for the end of the week, there was this little bit of me hoping to get ahead of the game, if only by a little bit this week.  keep finding details that I have missed here and there. I 've even been so desperate not to paint that I have been painting bases. For mojo I should really be saying that I am missing a purpose. Noting is really lighting my fire.

What I really need to do is get back into doing some gaming. Painting figures is something I like doing but it's much better when I have an end in mind. At the moment, that is just not happening. All sorts of projects are passing through my head. Fir a little while I can work on one but not for more than an hour or so. This is my mind telling me to do something. Sadly this seems to be the perfect time to watch subtitled films.

Clerics Are More Or Less Done

I've not had much of a chance to get a huge amount done today but a few jobs have made it my way. The clerics are now pretty much done. These strike me as more abandoned than done completely. Tabletop standard is about the best I can say. There are a few bits I am not happy about. To be honest I am not sure if that is down to me or down to the moulds.

After a quick trip to the local hobby store I got some primer. The plan is that I will paint a few horses soon. Horses, the painting of them at least, is not my favourite pass time. It stems from my inability to paint them for a long time. Over the years I have gotten better but it's still a process I hate.

So still on track to get my ten figures complete and maybe the odd one on top of that.

Back To The Plan

It's back to painting. I have another five figures to paint this week as I do every week. Three are finished and two are pretty close to completion. On top of that there are another five that are close enough that I should be up to date. Typically for me, I have spent the day doing a lot of peripheral stuff and probably could have finished everything of if I had gotten down to it.

These are five priestly types. Admittedly one of them is meant to be a magic user and one is meant to be a potioneer. The first three are definitely Christian clerics and the last two will do for Norse clerics, something I don't have that much of.

Religion is definitely something I skirt around. Most games do not use mainstream religion and if they do they tend to minimise the way it interacts with the real world. I am a little uncertain about using Christian clerics in the game. This goes double for Islamic clerics although there is no chance of that happening any time soon. This covers a geographic area that I am not about to deal with in the game until everything else is done. The Middle East in the dark ages is all Aladdin, Sinbad and A Thousand And One Nights so not an Islamic world as such. The Middle Eastern fantasy thing has been on my mind for over a decade. In general though, the figures that I want just aren't there.

Oddly enough the only person that is in anyway religious that might possible play the game, and therefore run the risk of getting annoyed is actually a practicing Pagan who is almost an Odinist. Odd the way things go.

Winter Is Here

I've been away all week so I have spent some of my day today catching up with the TV I have missed. Not least of which is Games of Thrones. Despite it being a short series it has been an eventful one. Baelish is dead. This is a good and bad thing. It's about time but the character is too good to kill off.

What I have been doing with the time I have had this week has all been about the Viking game. GOT does not give me direct inspiration. My game is something where I could take many ideas and make them work. What it does give me is ideas for staging.

Lord of the Rings has a good strong narrative. There is a reason why it is the best selling fantasy novel of all time. To give players a better experience, you have to give them plenty of options. In LOTR you are going to fight the forces of sauron. If you don't fight, the evil wins.

Winter is here but what happened to autumn. That's the British weather for you.

In GOT it is arguable that you must take up arms to fight the army of evil. To me is seems that there are more options. You can nail your colours to many masts and even flee. You are still going to end up in the same place, your path there is however far from direct.

In terms of running an RPG it gives you cause to think. History has a knock on effect on the present. In my game I am trying to create some form of history, It doesn't need to be too detailed. What it does need to do is explain the present and what is going to happen in the future.

Why are you enemies your enemies? Who did what to whom and when and why? I look at what I am doing and it is easy to figure out why the Vikings are not popular. They are traders and everyone needs trade so I guess they pick where to trade and where to raid. Within their own culture their are rivalries. Vikings probably loved their feuding like everybody else. Then there are external forces, monsters, weather and gods to name but a few.

So I have tried to come up with something of a timeline. I haven't put dates on any of them because I think these are the kind of details that get you bogged down. So there are recent events, events sinec your children were born, when you were children when your grandfather was alive and going all the way back before the times of legend.

Players need a place in the world. Preferable that place should be unpleasant enough that they have some motivation. It may be oppression, imprisonment, some external force or just the desire for a slightly wealthier lifestyle.

Viking Trading, Vanity Projects And The End Of The Holiday.

The end of the holiday is almost here. I should be back home tomorrow. Whilst I am enjoying the holiday, I will be glad to be back home.

Yesterday I found a nice little model shop in Port Madoc. It was a bit of a surprise as the place seems to mainly be a mix of shops that sell Port Merion pottery and charity shops. I got a few bits there but most of what they had isn’t currently on the shopping list. The staff were pretty friendly and the prices were reasonable.

What time I have had has been spent on the Viking game. Even the paperwork for this is turning into a never ending project. I have my bad guys worked out and ready to roll out mayhem across the land. I have tinkered about a few of my “myths” to ensure they all have internal consistency and I have been working on a trading system.

Having played way too much Traveller when I was younger I am still fascinated many of the systems. One of the ones in it, the trading system, has never really been attempted outside of Traveller. Trading was a big part of the Viking world. Along with raiding, it was trading that extended the influence of the Viking culture and it was this I wanted to give the players a chance to play out.

Essentially I took the basic Traveller trading system. I changed the goods around. There are no ATVs or radioactives in the Viking world. So I did a bit of research about the kind of goods traded and put them in the list. Then I had a think about the way the modifiers for trade. I took some categories and left some others out. Then added a few more. Population plays a part in the system so I had a few ideas about that. So I created a table and some modifiers and so on.

When it gets down to it, this is a vanity. The game would play without it as it would with a few other systems. Over the years I have criticised people for doing the same. It’s not the only vanity project in the game. There are already a few created for the game.

There is an even bigger vanity project to follow. Savage Worlds already have a couple of mass battle systems but none fit what I want for this game. What I am after is something more like a wargame (almost DBA) that allows for characters (player and non-player) to have some impact on the battle Showdown is not a bad system but I am after battles with hundred involved not dozens. This needs something completely different. There is a plan but it needs play testing. I want to do this properly so this might start out as a project for the laser cutter later in the month when I am back at FabLab.

Early start in the morning and a long day of driving so probably best I go to bed now.