The Ogre Advances

In the dim light of the pub, the Ogre MkIII advances, while its commander carefully checks the maximum range on the enemy howitzer. 

I was quite excited to get this Steve Jackson classic back on the table. It's just an incredible piece of game design. Really simple, completely asymmetrical, yet finely balanced. My friend (a new player) and I, got in two games. In the first game, I took the defence throwing my army against his gigantic cybertank. I made a couple of mistakes, but I think one lucky turn and I could have stopped him. As it was, the nearly weaponless tank crashed into my command post. In the second game, I took the Ogre. My opponent gambled on my strategy, but guessed wrong, and left me with a relatively easy run to the target, blasting it with one of my few remaining guns.

I didn't take any of my metal Ogres to the pub, as I don't have great transportation for them. I need to look into the that. Still, a lot of fun was had and plenty of lessons were learned!

Skulltoppers

 

I was in a shop called The Range the other day and a found a little bag of 'wooden bobbins' for £1.29. I figured I could pretty easily get my funs worth out of that. Two of those bobbins were used in my 'evil columns' seen here. I glued the bobbin to a Hirst Arts flagstone and then glued a Hirst Arts skull on top. I primed them black, and brushed on a couple of layers of grey. I liked them, but they looked a tad plain, so I painted some 'strange runes' around the rims. Better, but still slightly lacking in visual interest. So, I added a bit of blood, including a bloody hand print. Now, I think they look pretty good. They are generally going to be dungeon dressing, so I don't want them to stand out too much, but I think they'll will really help mark important rooms, and might get some special rules here and there.

I also painted up a skeleton archer to give my undead a bit of ranged threat (though not much, skeletons aren't know for their aim).

I've got several more dungeon tiles in progress as well, so things are moving along!

Tubby Tinkerpot and Reginald!

 

It's true, one of the bonuses of being a game designer is that you get the miniatures early! Here is my first Hairfoot Jouster. I've got two more based and just waiting a low-wind day so I can prime them. Could this be the first time ever that I've had a playable 'force' before the game is even officially out? We'll see...

You can now pre-order all of the miniatures at North Star. They are all sculpted by Bobby Jackson and just bursting with character.

Dungeon Test Paint

 

I couldn't wait to do a test paint of my dungeon tiles - so I didn't. I took the plaster tiles out back and hit them with black spray primer. Then I brushed them down with Warpaint Fanatic - Ash Grey. For the first time ever, I used a make-up foundation brush, and it worked amazingly. The best brush I've ever used for this kind of quick, surface painting. I then gave the tops of the stone borders a light drybrush with Matt White. Finally, I hit all of the paving tiles with a Strong Tone wash. Then I sprayed them with some varnish and called them done! Okay, I did a little more work on the door, but not much. Really quick and easy, but I think it looks pretty spiffy! 

Making a Mess! (And Hopefully a Dungeon)

My last few posts have shown off some of the miniatures that I have painted for my Dungeon Crawler. The biggest problem, though, is they don't have a dungeon to crawl through! 

I gave this question a lot of thought and came to a few of conclusions. I wanted a 2D+ dungeon - so mostly flat but with 3D details. I find this is the best compromise between look and playability. I wanted to make this dungeon myself, and I wanted it to be infinitely expandable. So, I didn't want to limit myself to what was commercially available or rely on any services such as 3D printing. While I was always going to start with basic rooms and passages, I want to leave it open so I can make bespoke and one-off pieces in the future. 

I originally tried playing around with foam and paper, but wasn't happy with either the look or the heft (foam tiles tend to slide around the table). Instead, I turned to Hirst Arts, makers of the best molds for casting your own wargaming terrain building blocks. This company has been around for decades, and I used to use their molds a lot when I lived in the USA. That said, a decade or more ago, I sold off my molds, thinking I wouldn't use them again (mistake). 

So, I ordered some new molds - which is rather expensive, since they must be shipped over from the USA. I ordered up four molds, two identical ones for casting floor tiles, one to create a field stone border, and one for making doors. If the project goes well, I will probably order some more in the future for more elaborate builds. 

I remember from the old days that plaster of paris is way to soft for this kind of casting, so I ordered some 'Dental Plaster' from Amazon and got excitedly to work! Unfortunately, this plaster also proved to weak, with even the floor tiles snapping easily in my fingers. So, I did a bit of research and ordered some Crystacal R High Strength Casting Plaster. My first attempt at this was also a disappointment, as the tiles still snapped easily. However, I realized the mistake this time was my own. I hadn't got my plaster/water mix correct, and I hadn't given it enough drying time. So, I tried a third time, and got great results! 

Now, the downside to Hirst Arts molds is they are extremely messy. You have to mix the plaster, poor it into the molds so the plaster slightly overfills the holes. Then a few minutes later, you scrape off the extra plaster, and leave it to harden for 30min or so. The real fun is pulling these beautiful little pieces out of the molds, but this does include lots of little plaster flakes.  

Lucky for me, the family was out for the day, so I set up a casting station and did 8 casts. Might as well make one big mess instead of a bunch of little ones! I now leave the pieces to dry for a few days, and then they are ready to go!

This shot above is actually three separate tiles, two straight passages and one bend. I started by gluing the bricks onto a sheet of cardboard using basic white craft glue. (I tried a hot glue gun, but the glue was too thick and made the blocks fit unevenly). I then glued a thin layer of cork board to the underside of the cardboard. This not only helps absorb impact, but helps keep the tiles from sliding on the table. 

I've got a lot more blocks cast than these, but these are the first I've managed to assemble. I want to get some paint on them and see how they look before I go any further. That said, at the moment, I'm really pleased! Each tile has a nice heft to it, without actually being heavy. I wouldn't want to drop them, but they aren't going to break through normal use. The door came out even better than I expected (it's by a far the thinnest piece, so the most likely to fail to cast or break). 

Is this project going to take a long time? Yes, but that is part of the point. I want it to be my handiwork, a unique set that I can be proud of having created. In these days of 3D printing, working with plaster molds might seem quaint, but there is a value to the work.

I'll post again when I've got some paint on the tiles.

Skeletal Champion

 

I'm continuing to populate my (not yet existent) dungeon with undead. Most notably, I have added a skeletal champion. Skeletons are such great bad guys, it's nice to have a few more powerful ones to increase the challenge. 

After painting a lot of GW Middle-Earth minis earlier this year, it's refreshing to switch to the bigger, chunkier Reaper Bones models for a bit!

The Archer, the Skeleton, and the Mystic Basin!

A few more pieces for my dungeon crawler. The skeleton and the kneeling archer are both Reaper figures while the basin is from one of the Mantic terrain kits. 

As you can see on the skeleton, I accidently hacked off some toes while getting him off his integral base. Then I learned a neat trick. If you soak the feet of bones figures in boiling water for about 20 seconds, the material becomes much softer. Doing this, I was able to easily slice the archer of his base, despite a much thicker connection.

I also got a new can of 'Colour Forge Matt Varnish' to try out, and made my first test on the archer. I've got to say, I'm very happy with the results. The can had a more powerful spray than any I've used before and gives a very pleasing finish. I'll need a few more tests, but I might have found my new go-to varnish! 

I am awaiting delivery of some Hirst Arts molds to start making my dungeon tiles. I sold off my original molds long ago - which I regret. I'll do another post going into why I've decided to go that route for dungeon building when I get them.

Guardians of the Icon

I had a good weekend of painting, moving ahead with my 'Dungeon Crawler' project. First up, I painted two skeletons from Reaper. These were part of one of their Bones Kickstarters, though I bought them from a reseller. In the past, I have been somewhat critical of the harder Reaper Bones material, but these painted up really well. Although, there seem to be so many different varieties of the Bones material now, it's hard to keep them straight. Anyway, the challenging part was cutting them off their integral bases and gluing them to GW style bases. I think these look a lot better in the dungeon with their uniformity and the way they sit perfectly in a square. I used the Army Painter 'Pallid Bone' speed paint for the bones, because honestly it does a better job than I could. The rest is painted with more traditional layers and washes. 

The little shrine was something I threw into my order not knowing what I would do with it. At first I thought it would be a tombstone, but I thought that would just look too plain. So, I decided to see if I could paint it like a medieval icon, an artform I've always been attracted to. I tried to copy a depiction of St. Nicholas that I found online. While I'm no great freehand painter, I think it came out really well. It'll make a striking little piece in the dungeon... and who knows what special properties it might have! 

Dungeon Base

The above figure is a plastic boardgame piece from one of the Cthulhu: Death May Die sets, and the paint job I gave it is nothing special. In fact, I was less interested in the figure itself as I was the base. I wanted to experiment with painting a 'dungeon' base. You know, a base that looks like the irregular flagstones of some forgotten underground corridor.  It's a technique that Kev Dallimore uses in the work he's done for the Frostgrave photography, though he usually goes with more regular looking stones. Obviously, my work isn't up to his, but I think it came out pretty well for a first attempt. I even added a few little blood splatters for colour! 

The doorway is also a bit of an experiment. It's from the modern HeroQuest game. I painted up a bunch of these figures last summer... unfortunately, most of them became 'sticky'. Some of you will know what I mean. Essentially, there is some combination of plastic (usually of the cheaper, bendy boardgame type), primer, and varnish, that sometimes causes figures to 'sweat'. This can make them very sticky and unpleasant to use. I tried hitting them with another layer or two of varnish, but it was only semi-successful. It actually killed my enthusiasm for the game. However, over the weekend, I pulled out an unpainted doorway. I used brush-on primer (a first for me!), gave it a quick paint job, and then used brush-on varnish. Hopefully, this will keep it from getting sticky - though it may be a few months before I really know for sure.

Anyway, as you might be gathering, I'm thinking about constructing my own dungeon crawler set - just for my own hobby amusement - it is not part of a professional project, though that distinction can grown blurry at times!

Hairfoot Jousting!

It exists! Osprey sent me an advance copy of my new game, Hairfoot Jousting. The first game I have written that could probably be called 'cute'. I believe it will be available in late May! And yes, you need 4d6 to play the game. More information coming soon!

The Muster of Dol Amroth

There is some talk amongst my friends of doing a bit of Middle-earth gaming, so I thought I'd better break out my Dol Amroth forces and see what I've actually got. I've been (very slowly) working on this army for a few years now, but never put it all on the table at once. Here's what I've got currently.

12 Spearmen

10 Swordsmen

10 Archers

6 Knights on Foot

2 Mounted Knights

3 Rangers

2 Men-at-Arms

1 Knight Captain

Prince Imrahil on Foot

I've got 5 more mounted knights waiting to be painted, which is the biggest hole in the army at the moment. Cavalry just takes so long to paint! I'd also like to get a few more rangers to get that unit up to 6 or 8.  And beef the swordsmen and archer units up to 12.

I really should paint up the mounted Imrahil, though I'm not a huge fan of the official figure. I've been thinking about conversions. For the moment, I might just use my 1 metal knight to represent him.

Longer term, I'd like to get a ballista for when they are fighting on the defensive. I'd also like to make a supply wagon as a scenery piece / objective marker.