2016 The Plan or It's New Year Again

Well Happy New Year to you all.

I've just looked back thrugh the blog and seen how few posts I;ve done and how little gaming that there was in them. In actual fact there wasn't all that much gaming going on. There was more painting than the blogs shows and I guess I will get round to posting some of that.

I have looked back at last years The Plan. I have managed to do something about most of it. I have cleaned up the table. Most of the odds and sods got cleared up within a few weeks. The American Civil War idea is still rearing it's head from time to time but it has not really surfaced. The English Civil War figures are in a box in the garage and the Witchfinder idea has remained an idea. There have been a few ideas for X-Com but as soon as I realised that a new game was coming out I decided to wait for that to surface. The Scavenges Skirmish Survive range seems to have been available in parts but I want to get everything all at once. The VBCW idea saw me buying some figures. these have made it out of the packaging and into a draw. I have probably overachieved on this goal. There had to be one. I have probably painted about ninety figures this year. The Super hero pile has increased but not by much but I have done some paperwork for this. The WWW2 ideas have progressed and I now have a stack of figures for it in need of painting (some of which are also for the VBCW idea).

So 2016.

This probably going to bea year where there is going to be less painting done but I am hoping to get a bit more blogging done. When I paint something, I am going to make sure it gets on the blog so hopefully the number of posts should go up.

I can see more woodwork than figure painting. As well as a TV stand (for the mahoosive TV we just got) I can see a work bench remodel (I have a router to make life easy) if not a completely new build. There is a gaming table and a coffee table that will be aimed at making board gaming and role playing in the living room easy again also in the offing.

Figure wise, this looks like it will be the year of dark age undead. I have a lot of plastic skeletons and zombies to paint. If I am liking the new X-Com then I can see me doing some of that. that said I have been playing a lot of Fallout 4 and most of what I seem to be thinking about at the moment is post apocalypse.

More Viking game stuff is likely to lead the way. I include in that some of the Frostgrave stuff I have gotten hold of, I suspect that I will be getting some more of that. there is a possibility that I will be getting a few games of Frostgrave in, the rules are not really lighting my fire, the figures are really nice and if anything else is on the horizon, I'll be getting that to.

I have done a few test pieces for making a load dungeon terrain. I have been fascinated by the idea for thirty years so it's about time that things get done. I suspect that this means there is going to be a lot of foam core getting picked up again. This should not be a long term project as I think I can get a fair amount done fairly quickly.

What do I really think is going to happen? I am pretty sure that I haven't figured that out yet. This coming year is going to be an interesting one with a lot competing for my time. I am already getting that good news, bad news vibe about it, bit I am hoping for the best.

Looking Back At Christmas

I usually say the phrase "Christmas is coming" like Ned stark would say "winter is coming". There is that sense of foreboding but you remain in ope that it is just that bit further away than you think. Christmas has come and gone and there are no frozen zombies. Just some Frozen Blue Rays.

It's usually this time of year that I start to complain about how many pine needles there are around the house. There are thousands of the things (or should that be "fausands of em" as I managed to watch some of Zulu this morning ) that you just can't get rid of. When we moved  bloody things earlier this year I found loads of them around the house and we didn't have a cut tree the year before. I guess some of them had been there for years despite us always getting a none drop tree. They seem to be able to hide in the most obscure places.

This year the real problem is glitter. It was on the wrapping paper and the cards. Family have been kind eniugh to buy things that onvoling gluing glitter to other things. I suppose I should be grateful that there were no drums or other musical (in the widest sense of the word) instruments. Glitter is everywhere and I mean everywhere. If I told you where I found it I would have to turn this into an adult blog. I can see a dozen pieces on me as I write this.

So Moving on...

The screaming has stopped....Sorry, the screaming has stopped now....again.

Most of the rubbish is in the bin. I am especially thankful this Christmas, since we moved we have a second recycling bin. Yeah. We are at the stage of moving the rubbish into one room, then another as required. With more relatives on the way even more is being moved around.

Still I got a Vault-Tec Pip-Boy box, which I like. Although you can't quite see it but it does have glitter on.

 

Merrry Chistmas And All The Usual Seasonal Stuff

It's been a busy for me. It has been a bad year for the blog. I can't believe how little I have managed to post.

Still Merry Christmas to you all. I hope Santa got you what you wanted. I hope good things come your way.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Frostgrave

I got my stuff from the Frostgrave Kickstarter, I mean Nickstarter today. This has gotten me out of my temporary blogging fugue. I have been doing some painting and a little bit of tarting up of old figures. I should get round to posting some pictures soon.

So, Like I say I got the kicktstarter stuff. There was quite a lot of it. The figures were really pretty on the promo stuff. I liked it a lot so I ordered the full package.

Twenty magic users, ten other metal figures, twenty plastic figures, just less than ten trasures markers, a rulebook, a downloadable scenario, a book of short stories and some wallpapers. Mustn't forget the wallpapers.  so quite a lot of stuff.

The rulebook is a really good quality hardback. Rules are nice and simple. It could use a bit more contact and background to fill up the space but what is there is excellent. the pictures are fantastic the illustrations are pretty good too. Well worth a read and this is set to be my toilet book for the next month. The book of stories, well that's a nice touch but I can't see anyone actually paying money for it. Overall verdict on this book was meh.

 The Wizards are what this game is all about. hugely pretty figures. They just about fit in with what I normally paint for fantasy figures, maybe a little out of period. Twenty of them is enough for any rpg game but I guess only just enough for Frostgrave. You also get a bonus figure of a necromancer. This looks like it's going to be a pain to paint and I don't have a plan for it. This may change when the Liche Lord Supplement comes out towards the end of the year.

There are ten metal retainers. One of them is a bit of a cheat as it's a a figure out the Crusader Range but it's nice to have a free figure. There are some retainers. Again all nice poses and I can find a use for all of them. There are just not enough of them.

The plastic figures look pretty good on the website. Lots of things you can do with these. My current plan is thieves and brigands plus a few other bits and pieces. There are a lot of accessories which I can see ending up being used elsewhere. The only down note with these is that they are a little smaller than the rest of the figures.

There are quite a few freebies in there somewhere. The Liche Lord being the prize but the treasure tokens are pretty good too.

For first run figures, they are a bit claggy, There is a lot of excess metal in the form of flash. There is not much in the way of mold lines though. Some are pretty bad but for the most part, this does not detract from the figures

 The two shorts of the war dog arepretty typical of how the figures turn out. This thing is huge. It probably couldn't eat a human in a single sitting but could probably polish it off in a day or so. it is so big that the base won't all fit on the two pence pieces that I use for basing.

All in all, I think it was worth the money. I am happy with what I got. The story book is a nice touch and I am sure that I will read it but I would have preferred something a bit more useful (I mean more lead). The wallpapers they provide, well they are okay I guess. I'll never use them and I can't help thing that this was a useless incentive and almost like they were looking for something to give away.

Blatant (If Funny) Plagarism

This article has been completely stolen from the Daily Mash. I've done this because it's funny

Veteran of Warhammer 40,000 conflict struggling to come to terms with it

34-YEAR-OLD Norman Steele has been left traumatised after his army of space marines was wiped out during a tabletop wargame.

Unemployed Steele could only look on in horror as his miniature battalion of spacesuit-clad Imperium troops was pinned against a fortress wall by six-limbed aliens.

He said: “They were using venom cannons and spore mine launchers. Not real weapons obviously, but scale models vividly painted to look very realistic.

“Anyway we were hugely outnumbered and there was nothing I could do. Everywhere you looked space marines were getting wiped out.

“Since the battle I’ve been unable to look at a picture of any futuristic alien or monster without experiencing flashbacks.

“Worse still I cannot go near a table of any kind without hearing the ominous clatter of dice and the gloating voice of a middle-aged man in a Sepultura t-shirt.

“I just want some professional help to get back to being the quiet, shy man who I used to be.”

Kidney Stones And Waaargh

It's all good isn't it? Isn't it? Generally I would say that my life is pretty good. That said it's a lot more fun when you don't have to pass two kidney stones. Which, I can assure you from personal experience can really put a dent in you week.

So not much painting. Between the pain and the tablets that make me pee like a carthorse every half an hour and the resultant need to drink enough water to allow me to pee like said cart horse every half an hour, not to mention the sleeping like the dead thing, I haven't had too much time to spend with a brush in my hand.

I do have a very clean and tidy workbench. Well as tidy a bench as I can have with a ten year old learning how to paint figures. Some of the paint manages to make it onto the figures (and pretty much in the right place it has to be said) but he bench itself is looking like a cammo pattern designed by someone with serious mental trauma.

Spirit Of The Forest and Jabberwock

I like painting figures. Not much of a surprise I guess judging by what else is on the blog. I don't much like painting anything much bigger than regular sized figures. I especially  hate painting horses. I have got better at horses over the years, more by looking at pictures than anything else. I rarely play about with anything bigger than a horse. Yet I find myself with a few bigger things on the go at the moment.

The biggest I have started so far and by far the most complicated is the Spirit of the Forest. This is a Reaper Bones mini. The figure wasn't too  bad but the legs were slightly curved inward making it a little entertaining to put it on the base. This wasn't a huge problem but it does seem to be a common theme the bones minis. I love metal minis and they definitely win on the quality front but the bones figures win on price every time. Some days you want fish and chips not a double starred Michelin Restaurant. There is still a long long way to go here.
 
I wasn't sure about posting the pictures because currently I think I am making a bit of a hash of it.  I am sure I will bring it around eventually. There is a huge amount of detail on this figure  so it may take a while to get it finished. Given what it is, I was hoping to go to town on it a bit. I was thinking that it would make a great monster for Shadowrun.

Even with the coin as ballast, the base is still a little misshapen.

I have got a few of the larger Reaper Bones monsters and some odds and sods. Most of them, especially the bigger ones seem a little warped. Just to show you what I mean this is the jabberwock. The base is bent and the figure itself has a bit of a list. Currently I am feeling a little Monty Python. A cross between Jabberwocky and the Ministry of Silly Walks.  I am currently debating what to do with it but I doubt it will end up as a mini but maybe some scenery instead?

There is also a dragon which looks pretty good even if it needed to be clamped to the base when it was glued down to get a flat surface. I'll post a picture of this on a another day.  All the smaller stuff turned out to be fine however.

Zombies, Well Draugr Really

Well, not done much today. Had other things to do today. I did some painting and sorted through some pictures. I have been working on these for a while. When I say working on, I mean they have been sat in a box for ages. I was after something that looked a little like the draugr from from Skyrim and evoked what I thought after walkers looked like, Anyway, so pretty pictures.

They are a little off being finished and there are some more to do yet, so expect to see a few more pictures of these minis yet.

I Can Feel A Binge Coming On

I just had a look at my plan for the year. It was a good plan. Still is a good plan. Or maybe I just want to spend some money. So I have been looking. I like the idea of doing some more dark age fantasy.

I want some skeletons. As I can't find what I want I guess that I will have to settle for some GW ones. I would prefer metal ones but the plastics will be easier to convert. I have a stack of weapons suitable for the task but need some more shields. A bit of green stuff should make passable rusty helmets. I have some part conversions but they are not really suitable for this..

Zombies are never far from my mind. I have lots and lots. Trouble is most are not suitable for a fantasy game. I have found a few but not enough to want to make a start. I also have some plastic celtic warband types. They won't do for traditional zombie types but should work fine for draugr or rager types.

I was thinking about human adversaries as well. They stuff I have will pass as a lot of nations but not Normans. I was also planning on getting some barbarians (in the Roman sense rather than the Conan one). One of the races in my game are the Franks which I picture as more the celtic type than the Carolingian type. It so happens that Crusader do some nice ones in both periods so this looks like a good place to start. There are a few other bits I can pick up here too. They are nice and cheap but you get two of each of four models per pack and I don't like to have too many duplicates.

I have some plastic Ents to do too. When I have finished the current  the current batch, this looks like what I will start next.

I found some  Black Tree ratmen I got from a shop in st helens about ten years ago. They got started but forgotten about. There are few of the set missing. There are some more that I want to buy and they don't really fit with in with what I am doing at the moment.


Triples is around the corner. So I might wait but I am starting to have my doubts. I'll look n the garage and see what I find.

Easter Monday

Family are round. I can't do much but I guess I can find the time to put a blog post together. Sadly, I have had to put all my toys away as the visitors might get bored, distracted, shocked or injured or any of the above or, more likely, none of the above at all.

So in the process of moving house, I have found some figures that have been hanging around for a while. I know some of them are still in production but most of these have been sat on my bench or someone else's lead pile for many years.

I think it's Alternative Armies

The first figure is a wizards assistant carrying all sorts of equipment. it is part of a wizard's traveling group which had a wizard, apprentice and mule. I am not sure what he is supposed to be, half ogre perhaps? I have always struggled with the idea of half ogres as I guess they are the equivalent  the off spring of a dachshund and a wolfhound. I am not sure about the genetics but the practicality of the matter would be difficult. Anyway. I started doing this figure maybe ten years ago and I think I have had it for twenty years now. So I guess it's about time I finished it and hopefully I will do it justice now. It is a really busy figure which I think is what put me off. I will finish off the blocking out and see what happens.

This figure is a bit of a mystery. It is very old. I have no idea who made it or even where I got it from although I assume it was eBay. I think it's a male figure but as it is a 25mm figure it is a bit small. One of the  problems I find with older figures is that there isn't a lot of detail to play about with. It makes my usual inking and highlighting a bit more of a challenge. I am sure "she" will make a nice evil mage.

This picture is a mixed bag of demi-humans. The one on the left is a halfman (halfling). It is an original grenadier mini that is currently being produced by Mirliton. He is a bit blue at the moment but I have barely touched these minis yet. I have a few of them I painted about ten years ago. I have some old GW hobbits which I am happy with and like, so I use these as gnomes. You just have to hide the feet. Decent gnome figures are hard to come by. Not that anyone ever uses gnomes.

The one in light blue is a bit of a mystery as is the one on the left. Judging by the age and size I thought chronicle or denizen but as far as I can make out this is wrong. If I was desperate I would give it a blast on the forums. The one on the right could pass as a monk, cleric or even wizard. I don't have a dwarven cleric or monk so I am just rounding out the collection. the other one could pass as pretty much any class, of you squint.  I was originally thinking of him as a dwarf but looking at the sizes I am not so sure. The last figure is another Grenadier (not Mirliton honest) dwarf that got missed off the last round of painting so I guess this really is a bag of stuff I am catching up on. I'd still like some suitable dwarven thieves and maybe even some female dwarves.

Paint Table Easter Sunday

I have been busy over the last few days. As is my want, I have been working on about thirty to forty figures. Naturally, I still haven't really managed to finish anything off but I have a lot of stuff that is part way through and some of it closer to being finished than usual. All of this stuff has been on the paint table for a while. For the most part they have been about for two years or just a bit less. A few have been sat in other people's paint queues for so long they have decided to get rid of them. Some of them are more "part way" than others. So just for the sake of me looking like I have been busy. I'll put them together in a few posts. Also I have a new phone with a better camera so hopefully the pictures should startlooking better again.

Monks, I hate these guys

These figures are a bit out of my usual range. They were a bit if an impulse purchase. I got them when I got some super hero figures and henchmen figures last year from Black Hat miniatures. I only really wanted the one on the right and there were two more in the back that I guess will never get used. The one on the right is really for a female PC in a modern rpg I kind of have it in mind to run again. No one ever has actual monks for fantasy games and I personally hate monks as characters. Still they were there so I guess I had to have them.

The one on the left is proving to be really hard work

Whilst I am on the subject of monks, I got some more clerics almost done. These are from Mirliton. Nice figures still, but a few bits need finishing off and a fair bit of highlighting to do. There is a lot of detail on the Bishop and maybe too much detail as it is turning into a real pain to get it finished. I might finish the others and come back to it to give it the attention it really needs. They will make nice character figures when they are finished.

Not sure they have the Viking look but they are a little Tolkeinesque

From the same pack as the above are a couple of wizards. They look okay bit still need a bit more work on them. I doubt I will ever be really happy with them. Again these are really nice figures which have a lot of animation.

I have a few more close to being done but I am getting tired of typing now so I am going to post and see what the new few days bring.

The End Of A Slow Month

This is my first post for about a month. It's amazing how time flies when you are having fun. I moved over a month ago and I am just about getting sorted. Today I have managed to get my painting desk back up and running, well just about. I haven't put it back the way it was as I have a plan, well half a plan anyway.

As well this, I have a workspace. Or a garage. Originally it looked like I would have a lot of space in there but for the old furniture that is to be turned in chavvy, I mean shabby chic, by my other half. I have a few projects planned.  First is huge coffee table which will hopefully be good for gaming. This will hopefully be followed up by an 8x4 gaming table.

Until then, I have started doing a bit of figure painting. More fantasy with a few dark age figures thrown in. Again I'll put some pictures up as things progress.

I Am Not Spock (Anymore)

I've just heard that Leonard Nimoy has died. Almost but not quite the last of the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Perhaps the most talented of the cast although George Takei is pretty funny I haven't seen in him anything like as much as Mr Nimoy. His career was sadly dogged by the role and he suffered in the kind of roles that he got. He was a talented writer and director (Three Men and a Baby not withstanding).

Although I followed the other path, Star Trek did have affect on me when I was growing up. Spock had the ability to sit back from the emotional decisions which is something I think we could all be better at. If I be as funny as Leonard Nimoy, I would be a happy man. 

Skyranger MK II What Did X-Com Ever Do For Us?

Another shot of the Skyranger. This time with the wings folded down and I managed to get the whole image. I think this is the version I am going to use for the game. I know the wings should probably be out when it's moving slowly but I think it's going to be easy to use in practice. I might to be putting it onto a background and doing something with the interior in the next day or so. It should give me something to do that isn't complaining.

Skyranger

I was just playing about with an idea for a game again. I had some time to kill and a laptop sat in front of me. So it's back to the X-Com game again. This is my first draft of Skyranger. This will be part of the game set up and terrain for the game when I get it started. I am  not sure why I am only getting a bit of the image to show up on screen but I have done the whole top side of the vessel. I have just about scaled if for 28mm, I think. That should become clear when the next version comes out which should have an interior lay out.

The plan is to do a cutaway for moving around inside the Skyranger. This may be a bit old school, but I liked the original game more but I like the newer graphics better. The idea is that there will also be a cockpit interior and this model is just about right to allow six troops, two pilots and a ramp down to the ground. I plan to do two versions, one on a tarmac back ground and one on a green turf background just so I can have a bit of variety. I may even get a bit of use for this model if I ever get around to running the For All Mankind game again.

View From The Window - Not Really A Gaming Post

I have had an easy day. The house was empty and aside from a load of little jobs, I have only a little time to do some gaming stuff. By he time I had done everything I was to tired to paint anything so I sat down and took a look out the window. Oddly there was a pheasant on the fence staring at me.

A bit more interesting that the usual squirrels.

Inspectors

I am on a roll again. Well no, not really. I finished this off last year and I am just now getting round to posting the picture. I got these last year, so not the oldest figures I have but at least it goes to show I am painting what I buy. I say that and try not to think about the boxful if dark age lead I have floating about.

I got these last year when Heresy were having a sale. I am getting better at not doing the "shiny" I must buy it thing. Age brings patience I guess. There were a few minis that I wanted from them so I took advantage of the sale.There is another one somewhere but I couldn't find it when I got round to basing it so I suspect that it will get painted  up as something else.

Je Suis Charlie

Having lived through one terrorist bombing and came seriously close to another, I am not  a big fan of people who try to use terror to try to get their own way. I have been watching the news unfold much of the day. I hope they get what they deserve and I am pretty sure that this does not involve any number of virgins.

What worries me more is that people will act on this. I can see UKIP having a field day. The more reactionary we get, the more reactionary the terrorists will become. I also feel for those who will suffer because of the actions of a tiny minority of Muslims.

Religion should not be used as an excuse to do these sort of things to people. It makes me question the merits of religion at all.

My thoughts are with the victims and all those who are suffering because of it. So what else is there to say. Je suis Charlie.

Space 1889

I guess I am getting carried away with the new year. It's given me the urge to do something on my blog. I hope to at least achieve as much this year as I did last year. Maybe I'll even break to 200k barrier. I am not going to get very far if I don't actually post something.

So, I was at the gaming club I go to on a Monday night this week. New Year, New Season, etc. So I have started playing Space 1889 again. I have always liked the background and I guess I am getting into Victorian Science Fiction again. 

The game is set on Mars and this time we had a wedding ceremony to go to. Nobody happened to mention that the ceremony involves the groom and eight of his chums battling through a maze filled with monsters to prove that the groom, who seemed a little on the fragile side, was worthy enough to marry a Martian princess.

It started with a dead end. I don't think the figures were meant to be wolves but some Martian equivalent. As well as being quite handy, they were also infected with foaming dog fever (it may have actually been something else but foaming dog fever was about the size of it).

My character is quite gun focused. He is an older chap and whilst he is okay at fighting, shooting is what he does best. when we entered the arena, our guns were taken off us. So I was a little aggrieved that not only did the bad guys in the next encounter have guns but that I didn't get one. Not that martian muskets are much good.

The next thing we found was I think the wirst of the lot. Apparently it was actually a tamed down version of what it is in the book. It somehow has a phase shiftt thing around it making it difficult to see. One of the other players had gone in the wrong direction when the fighting started. When we had killed all the guys with guns, I ran to help him out. That's my character in the background.

 

We did eventually manage to kill it. I was fascinated by the model and kept thinking I want some of these.

 

The last battle was the hardest. I actually had more fun in some of the other battles but I guess this was the hardest. Three big beasties and a bigger, faster beastie as well. The bigger beastie was very fast and equally unpleasant.

Big Beastie

A fun evening out. I just have my eye on buying some new toys.

Pirates - Arrrrrrh

Just before Christmas I finished playing a Savage Worlds game of Pirates of the Spanish Main. I really enjoyed the game. I had played in it the camapign previously for one session and enjoyed it so much I decided to join the game for this run.

This the fnal session and the big battle. I think we had naffed off the Spanish a bit. It might be something to do with the fact we kept sinking their ships and stealing their gold. It was a bit of overkill to send out half their fleet after us. I guess it was the way the Spanish were back then. Big ships, big guns and all the machismo of being a sailor. Ahem.

It was a good game and we gave the bad guys a bit of a drubbing. Aside from enjoying the game as played, I was reminded what a flexible system Savage Worlds actually is. You can pull in whatever you want from the gaming world, like the cardboard ships, and make it work for you.

Demons

Just a quick post really. I got a few foundry demons last year. I liked them enough that when I saw some more on eBay before Christmas that I thought I'd get some more.

One them is bigger than the others which I think fits the range and might be the same as one of the ones I did a while back.

Whilst I was having a search round for stuff to paint I found this. I think it's an old GW night horrors mini. As I had the red paint out, I thought I might as well give this a whirl. Not my best work and I really struggled with this one.

Finally some more demons. I need to have a look at the teeth and eyes before I spray them with some varnish and do the basing.

Clearing Up

I haven't done much painting. I will rephrase that, I haven't done much painting that didn't involve a roller. Some might say, uncharitably, that this does not end up much different result than usual. Still the desk clean up continues.

I am mucking about with some stuff I started many years ago and never finished. Then I restarted them when I didn't have a magnifying lamp. My only real mission at the moment is to clear the desk and I guess these show that I am getting a little bit closer. Some bits in the picture below have already made their way back into long term storage.

This is what the work bench looked like at the beginning of December. The only stuff that is finished are the alien eggs  (which are a little too dull to post) and the half-orcs. The Alien eggs date back to the late eighties I think.I suspect that they would be worth quite a bit of money on eBay, for the lead rather than the paint job.  I was well into doing stuff for Summerland/Scavenge, Skirmish, Survive/Death By Trees at the time and they were all that I could find that I wanted to paint.

These are some gangers which I think I got from EM4. A lot of them got converted into zombies a long time ago. They got picked up when I was short pf something to do in November. On the plus side I think these have been in the queue for about ten years.

These are some modern soldiers that I got about twelve years ago. The idea was to use them for a post apocalyptic game probably involving zombies. Now I am considering using them in a Very American Civil War game that I have been planning for a number of years. They are British SAS and American Marines.

I hope that I will finish them off in the next week.

Bad Guys + A Happy New Year

Well despite he odd bit of urgent action last night, the New Year arrived as expected. Happy new year to you all. Hope you had fun and your hangovers are now forgotten. No Mayan's to ruin it this year. This post is a bit of a cheat as I finished these a few days ago and have just  got round to posting the pictures of them.

I am always looking for bad guys for games. It's one thing giving the players a choice of characters, it's another giving them a range of bad guys to fight. I seem to be doing a lot of antagonists at the moment. I wanted a villain and the Mordred character miniature from West Wind fitted the picture nicely. I doubt the character I use will be called Mordred but I am pretty sure he will have most of the same characteristics. I have a female magic user that I plan to use as Morgan le Fey esque character from Mirliton which I have also been working on along with a necromancer type from West Wind.

Mordered

In my head, I see the character from the Merlin mini series rather than the more recent Merlin series. I guess I would be happy if the players felt that I had built up something like the mini series.

I am not a big fan of painting figures in black but what other colour can you paint a bad guy who has everything else. I haven't been too confident painting a lot of black on a mini but these haven't turned out to bad. After painting some GW ringwraiths, I kind of got some confidence to do something a bit more intense.

When I started painting the Mordred figure, he came with a few others that I thought would fit in nicely and one from another pack that also seem to fit the plan. So some more got painted black just to fit in well. Every bad guy needs henchmen after all. For some reason a mash up between the Talon Company from Fallout and various characters in Skyrim also came to mind. I'm not sure where a Private Military Company would fit into the ninth centuary but it's high fantasy after all.  I then started thinking that they might do for something like the Night's Watch. Sometimes good guys wear black. I might just have to paint some more.

I am hoping to do a bit more work in Janaury so there should be a few more posts coming soon.