Werewolf III

Seriously, I didn’t need another werewolf. I mean, I’ve got a couple already and how often do you need more than two? But then I saw this gem-of-a-sculpt by Tre Manor, and I just couldn’t help myself. It’s just got such an awesome look of ferocity and power.

In truth, this is one of those miniatures that does most of the painting for you. The fur is so detailed and crisply cast that a few layers of dry-brushing and you are most of the way there. I then painted up the details to match my other wolves and werewolves so he’d fit right in. Well, not quite. This guys is obviously ‘the boss’.

One of these days I’m going to have to write a scenario set in Tol-in-Gaurhoth (The Isle of Werewolves from Tolkien’s First Age stories), just so I can use them all at the same time.

Legolas!

You may be forgiven, dear reader, if you think this figures comes from Games Workshop’s official Middle-Earth line of miniatures. In fact, it is an old Reaper figure sculpted by Sandra Garrity, and it almost exactly fits my mental image of Legolas.

He’s armed with bow and knife, just like in the books. He is dressed in practical, travel clothes, but still has something of the prince about him. Perhaps most tellingly, he is wearing a leaf-shaped cloak clasp.

So, with apologies to Orlando Bloom and WETA, who I really do think did a great job of bringing him to life in the films, this is going to be my go-to Legolas for wargaming.

Wanting him to fit in with my other LOTR minis presented an initial problem. The miniature comes on an integral base. In truth, this is right about the size of a GW base anyway, but not close enough for my liking. So, I started by painstakingly cutting him off his base. I managed to lose just a little bit of one of his boots doing this, but sculpted it back with green stuff. Thankfully the flocking covers this up anyway.

I based the colours of his tunic and shirt on the original Orlando Bloom outfit, though adding in the gold tunic edging to give him that princely touch. For the most part, it was an extremely fun and easy miniature to paint. I painted the cloak grey, since this is obviously the one given to him in Lothlorien. The only real challenge was the ‘Lorien Leaf’ at his throat. This is a very detailed little piece, and I wanted to see if I could match the colours used in the movie. So, I did something I rarely ever do. I put on a pair of heavy-magnification reading glasses and painted a bit of emerald between the silver outlines on the leaf, which worked out really well.

Thanks to photographing the mini for this blog, I can see just a few bits I’d like to tidy up, but overall, I’m extremely satisfied with the figure, and hope to work him into some games in the future. As you can see below, he’s a very good fit with the GW Middle-Earth Range.

Back in the Mags (with Ghost Archipelago!)

My summer of writing magazines articles continues to pay off in this month’s Wargames Illustrated, Issue 385. In fact, I’ve got two pieces in this issue.

The first is a new Ghost Archipelago scenario I wrote at the express request of the magazine’s owner and editor, Dan Faulconbridge. WI is releasing a cool new ‘Captain Flint’ miniature and were looking to place him in a scenario. As a huge fan of Treasure Island, I just couldn’t resist, even though the character doesn’t really belong in my fantasy world. So, in this scenario, the Heritors come across Captain Flint just after he’s buried his treasure and killed the crew that helped him. Of course, the crew aren’t quite as dead as the players might want…

As part of the article, I also allowed WI to reprint my black powder rules for Frostgrave and Ghost Archipelago that first appeared in Spellcaster: The Frostgrave Magazine #1.

My second piece in the issue is a discussion of ‘new editions’ of games. Having spent over a decade working in the industry, in several different capacities, I have completely changed how I think about new editions, and I thought other people might enjoy an insider’s take.

There are lots of other interesting items in the issue, especially if you have any love for Judge Dredd…

You can get your copy directly from Wargames Illustrated or from North Star. 

Tracker

A half-dozen miniatures stare down accusingly from my bookshelf. They are all painted, but none are varnished. It’s not my fault this time, or even an unhappiness with varnish, but simply the weather. It has rained, on-and-off for the past week here in Kent. There have been a few periods of calm and sun, but they have been notable as the exceptions. I know most American’s think that it is always raining in Britain (why else would Englishmen always carry umbrellas?), but it’s not true. The summers are glorious and generally dry, but come Autumn…well, the plants love it.

Anyway, thankfully I still had a few minis primed and ready to paint, including this tracker who’ll be joining my new Frostgrave warband. She’s an official Frostgrave miniature, sculpted by the legendary Mark Copplestone. If you’ve never painted a Copplestone, give it a try, they just have detail that is designed to be painted.

In order to give the figure some extra colour, I tried painting some simple flower patterns on her skirt. I wanted to hint at the same kind of colours often seen in Native America dress. My free-hand skills are not great, and limited to simple patterns like this. Even then, it is far from perfect, but when viewed from a couple of feet, as it usually will on the table (or my bookshelf) it looks really good.

Six members of the warband down. Four to go!

Sabretooth Tiger Man!

Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it – I’m really proud of my paint job on this mini!

I bought this guy for no better reason than that he is completely awesome (which is the best reason of all, if you ask me). It is sculpted by Jason Wiebe, who has always been one of my favourite sculptors of big, hairy monsters.***

I later realized I could work him into my new Frostgrave warband. He’s a big guy, and needs appropriately big stats, so I decided I would use him as a ‘bear’ animal companion. That makes him large and fearsome, but does mean he’s a little too focused to stop and pick up treasure…

Down the line, when gold is aplenty in the warband, I will probably upgrade him into a Barbarian so he can carry treasure and an item, but we’ll see.

At first, I thought I was going to give him a simple, mountain-lion style paint job. But, when I picked him up to paint, I just thought ‘go for it, man!’ I looked at a couple of painted examples on line and figured, I can do a tiger…

 

I probably spent more time on this figure’s head, than I have ever spent on a figure’s head before. Partly, this is because the head is big enough to really concentrate on details, and partly because most of those details had to be painted free-hand. So, so pleased with the finished head.

Also of note is the blade of the sword. I painted it ‘semi-metallic metal’, that is, I mixed just a drop of silver into grey. I’m not quite sure why I did this… I just felt like that much metallic wouldn't work when the rest of the figure is so organic. Anyway, it seems to have worked out nicely.

Five members painted, five to go!

*** I actually wrote this blog post yesterday. This morning, I was surprised to see that North Star has released images of the 'Cronohound' miniatures that will be released for Frostgrave: Perilous Dark, and they just happened to be sculpted by Jason Wiebe! I honestly didn't know he was part of the project.

Tunnel Fighter and War… Goat?

I’ve been continuing work on my new Frostgrave warband, and recently added two more figures. The first is my Tunnel Fighter. The miniature comes from the Rangers of Shadow Deep line, and I have painted it before, but it is such a great mini that I decided to use it again. I did, however, want to paint it completely differently to the first one.

I have decided that my warband is going to be a better-dressed than the untidy thugs and thieves that often accompany wizards into the ruins. With that in mind, I pulled magenta, one of my least-used paints, off the paint rack and got to work. I’m not sure I got the blonde hair quite right… it looks a little too vibrant, but otherwise, I’m happy with how it came out.

The rules for the tunnel fighter can be found in Into the Breeding Pits. It’s a rarely used soldier as its special ability (it’s better at finding secret passages) only comes up if players are specifically using the secret passage rules, which is uncommon outside of dungeons. That said, the soldier is no slouch in combat, and carries a pair of hand weapons, which is just cool.

The other figure is going to represent my warhound. I couldn’t find any dog models that caught my fancy, but I did have this Ghost Archipelago mountain goat laying around. I figure that not only will he do, but he actually matches the setting well. I must admit, I didn’t spend a lot of time working on him. That said, after originally painting him all white, I thought he really need some contrast, so dry-brushed on some black and grey.

Four members of the team are ready for action, six to go!

Painting Lesson 2: Rainbowmane

A few weeks ago, I invited my daughter to have her first miniature painting lesson, which she enthusiastically accepted. I have been waiting for an opportunity for a second invite, but time has been hard to find during the busy school year.

I had a go this past Sunday afternoon, as we were all at home with no plans. In retrospect, this may have been a poor decision as we had gone swimming that morning, which generally leaves the kids exhausted. It’s probably a better time for reading stories than trying to teach painting, but I was excited to give it a try, as I had planned something special.

After our first session, I decided to find my daughter a miniature that would really excite her. She’s really into unicorns at the moment, so I figured that would be perfect. I knew Reaper did a good one in their Bones line, so it wouldn’t cost too much. As it turned out, it proved a little tricky to find one in the UK, but I eventually did with Spirit Games (great service by the way, and extensive Reaper selection).

So, I invited her to come paint with me, and when she accepted, I presented her with the miniature. She greeted it with mild excitement, and we sat down to get to work. My plan was two-fold, to continue with a main focus on care of the brush, but also to see if I could engage her imagination by asking questions about the unicorn – what is its name? what adventures has it been on? My wife is very good at inspiring this kind of creative play with the kids.

As it turned out, the whole session was a bit of a failure. She spent about ten minutes painting the unicorn. She destroyed the paint brush (well, for my use anyway, it’ll probably still work for her), and she wouldn’t really engage with my questions. We did name the unicorn ‘Rainbowmane’, but that was my suggestion. Then she said she was done and left the table. She immediately went and joined her mother and brother in the zoo they were creating in the living room.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that this is a girl who can happily colour, or do crafty bits with paper, all on her own, for an hour or more.

I sat there for a few minutes, looking at her unicorn abandoned on the table, and my own miniature that had only had a colour or two applied, and ruminated on the challenges of parenthood. I knew my daughter was tired, and I think she did actually enjoy those ten minutes, but I was so hoping for more – more time – more connection.

A lot of the time, when you are a parent, you feel like you are treading water - just trying to survive the day, keeping the kids protected, fed, and clean. For the most part, you don't expect any thanks for these things, and perhaps none is deserved. But, when you go out of your way to set up something fun, and really put some care and attention into it, in the hopes it will lead to some quality time, it hurts when it falls flat. 

I cleaned up and put the paints away.

The next day she did ask if she could put grass (flocking) on her unicorn, like I did with my miniatures. We couldn’t do it at that moment, but I told her we would the next time we painted…