Weekly Workbench 18 March 2018

I did not get to finish a war band member this weekend as I finished converting the boys triple bunk beds into a regular bunk and a loft bed.

I did knock out this white gorilla for my Frostgrave bestiary.  He is a Reaper Bones Yeti Shaman that I cut his staff off of.

Two of the presents my mom chose for my birthday arrived Friday, 4Ground's Fabled Realms Mordanburg: Stocks and Gibbets and the Ruins of Daldor set 5: corner wall with stairs.

Here are the Stocks and Gibbets.  The Gibbets are very fiddly and fragile, not an easy set to put together, but will make for some good atmosphere terrain.

The ruins are very nice and well constructed.  They are very modular and designed to be able to be added to other sets of the same range to make larger buildings.  I am looking forward to adding this piece to our next game sessions.

Weekly Workbench 29 October 2017

    Missed a post last week, not due to lack of progress as I had plenty of that, but due to not having time to get pictures taken and a post up.  So we will cover the last two week's worth of work in this post.  First though, I have to thank everyone for the overwhelming response to the Birdhouse Towers post, 1399 views, which is almost double my next highest view post!

     First up is Shep's war band, all finished and based and ready for the Skeleton Run!  From Left to Right: John the Archer, Bill the Infantryman, Gu'ard the War-Hound, Sam the Thief, Bubba Timehopper the Chronomancer, Clara the Apprentice, Robin the Thief, Captain Harkness, and Bob the Crossbowman.

    Next was Duncan's war band, finished and based as well.  From Left to Right: Soul Launcher the Archer, Viper the Infantryman, Thief 1, Bob the War-Hound, Zombie 1, Bone Crusher the Summoner, Zombie 2, Quick Shadow the Apprentice, Thief 2, Captain Tough Nut, Death Arrow the Crossbowman.  He still has a number of his summoned creatures that need to be finished but the basic war band is done.

As you can tell from the boys' warbands I gave them all textured bases that I made.  The first step was to drill holes in the MDF bases and add some rare earth magnets.  This allows the miniatures to be moved in their display cases without worrying about them crashing around.

I then used my textured rollers and green-stuff to make the bases.  I used the Cobblestone for Shep's and the Frozen for Duncan's.

Base colors for the Frozen were Army Painter Ice Storm and Space Ship Exterior followed up with a Blue Tone ink wash.  The Cobblestone base colors were Army Painter Field Grey and Dungeon Grey with a Dark Tone wash.

I then did a highlight of Gorgon Hide and another Blue Tone ink wash before using Vallejo Black Primer for the edges on the Frozen.  For the Cobblestone they were dry brushed with Castle Grey and a second Dark Tone wash with Vallejo Black Primer on the edges as well.

I also got the Eternal Guard Skeletons based as well, just in time for the Skeleton Run for Dark Alchemy Campaign of Frostgrave.

Realizing I would need more than five skeletons during the Skeleton Run, I knocked out these Reaper Bones skeletons as well, using the Vallejo Grey Sand Ground Texture for their base, it makes nice snow when painted.

This weekend I started work on Ivy's war-band, here are her Knight and Archer, both from Dark Sword miniatures.

Here are her two thieve's from Wizkids HD Minis.

Last is her snow leopard (summoned during her first game), and Crossbowman from North Star.

Saturday night Shep got in his second game of Frostgrave, completing the aforementioned Skeleton Run of the Dark Alchemy Campaign.  The battle report should be out this week.

Here is the update for this week.  A little behind on Ivy's war band and I am probably going to switch to Mugzy's instead of Gideon's this week as I will have a paper to write for C&S this weekend which will take up some time.  See you all next week!

Weekly Workbench 15 October 2017

Lots of work done this week on the first of the Frostgrave warbands and a bunch of new goodies arrived as well.  I also set my self a schedule and some goals for the Tabletop Commanders' Winter Warmer Challenge.  I am slightly behind but will be caught up tomorrow.  As I am following the schedule to get everything done I will not be breaking it the post into categories as almost everything for the next six weeks should be Frostgrave related.

First up, the skeletons of the Eternal Guard from Alternate Armies had The Army Painter Dry Rust Effect applied to their steel parts and Military Shader wash applied to the copper pieces for oxidation.  They were then dull coated and now just need to be based, more on that later.

Duncan's warband is off to a great start with all his main party from North Star being painted and washed with Strong Tone.  They just need some quick highlights on selected miniatures and a dull coat before basing.  Here we have his champion and two extra zombies he may raise into his service.

His two thieves and his archer are nearly ready as well.

Also coming along is his crossbowman and war hound.

One of his extras, his fire giant warrior from Reaper, which on a rare chance he may be able to summon to help him, is also being worked on.

Now onto the goodies that arrived this week.  First up is the shipment from Footsore with a bunch of Arthurian legends.   

 Guinevere was their special miniature exclusive for September and I purchased several of the court to get her.  First is Lancelot and Merlin.  Also arriving are Bors & Tristan and Gawain & Galahad.  I will look forward to painting these in December and once I complete the collection with King Arthur and Mordred making a nice diorama with them.

I also received a shipment from Green Stuff World that included four rollers and their silicone guide rings.  The four rollers I chose were the plain, frozen, cobblestone, and wood.  I also received some more green stuff epoxy putty as I will be making a lot of base tops and some MDF 25mm and 40mm round bases. 

I also ordered from the small boutique company, Dark Sword Miniatures, in order to pick up some female characters for the girls' warbands.  The miniatures are all of outstanding quality; supremely detailed and with mold lines nearly invisible.  In fact, half the miniatures did not even get scraped as I could not find the mold lines.  I cannot wait to start painting these and I will definitely be ordering from them again.

 First up is Mugzy's archer and knight.  She had first pick and chose this archer.  Once Ivy picked her knight Mugzy chose the mace instead of the sword or axe for her knight's weapon. 

 Ivy ended up with the Wilding Spearwife with bow based on the Song of Ice and Fire for her archer.  She then chose the the female cleric with mace for her knight.

 I also picked up two thieves and a paladin for myself.  In this case my wizard has enchanted some woodland creatures to come to his aid.  Ella the cat and Chet the field squirrel are his thieves.  The frothy UK badger will be his paladin and I think I shall name this large fellow Sunflash the Mace (bonus points to anyone who knows the reference without looking it up).

Dark Sword Miniatures also included to free miniatures in the package.

First up is this Female Mage who may very well make an appearance in Felstad one day.

The second miniature is Thief of Hearts #5, she is a little under dressed for use with the kids but she looks to be another lovely model to paint up. 

Last we have the status update for the Winter Warmer Challenge.  See you all next week for another Weekly Workbench and I will do my best to get the terrain tutorial out this week!

Weekly Workbench 17 September 2017

    A little late this week, between Cub Scouts starting up, PME starting back up, and my mother arriving a day early for her visit it really threw my week out of wack for getting things done.  This includes the Painting Guide post which will be out on this Wednesday.  I did get in a game of Warlord Games' Test of Honor on TableTop Commander's After Hours Paint and Chat Ep.99 hosted by Rocky's War Room.  The game was surprisingly easy to learn, especially online with no rule book to refer to.  I had a lot of fun and won the first scenario.  Thanks to Matt for hosting and to Bob for being a worthy opponent! I will likely look at picking this up once the Frostgrave campaigns are up and running and my SAGA war bands are completed.

Fantasy:

    Here is where the majority of my work this week got done.  First up is Duncan's Frostgrave Summoner crew.  They have been base coated and washed and now just need some minor highlights and then dull coated.

First up is the Summoner himself.

The Apprentice bringing forth some extra-planar entity.

The Captain.

Sheppard's Garr War Dog from Reaper Bones is in the same state.

War Hound in need of some highlights.

And I also finished up six large Reaper Bones rats, always useful and playing a role in the first scenario.

Playing the primary antagonist in the first scenario will be the Alchemical Monstrosity, represented by this HD Minis D&D Displacer Beast.

Need to clean up the lines and add some dull coat.

Terrain:

    Dave Graffam is  having a sale on his paper craft sets over on Wargame Vault.  Most sets are only $1.00!  This is a cheap way to quickly get some terrain on the table and add some variety.  He has everything from fantasy buildings, medieval buildings, frontier buildings, ships, walls, bombed buildings, floor tiles, and accessories. The first set I printed out and started putting together are the Wooden Crates, which will add more dimension to the Alchemical Workshop in the first campaign and find uses in other scenarios as well.  I am using insulation foam to wrap them around for added stability and durability with the kids.  After attempting to cut the foam with a hot wire cutter and an xacto knife I found the band saw works just fine and provides the straightest, cleanest, and quickest lines.

The start of my crates.

    So far I have completed a 4x4x2, 4x2x2, 3x3x2, 3x3x1, 3x2x2, 3x1x1, (2) 2x2x1, (2) 2x1x1, and (5) 1x1x1s.  I still have (2) 4x1x1, (2) 3xx1x1, 2x2x2, (2) 2x1x1, and (4) 1x1x1s left from the first 15 page printing.  The kits look really good, though I will need to invest in some other color sharpies to handle edging as the black is really apparent on the crates, and pretty sturdy on their own when printed on 110lb card stock.

That is it for this week, the painting guide will be out this week and next week will have a terrain tutorial as I finished the painting last night.

Weekly Workbench 27 August 2017

 

    Another week of lots of different happenings, though  not enough finishing so far.  The humidity finally started dropping and looks like we are going to have a good week coming up as well.  This will allow for a lot of priming and and finishing to be done.  Be sure to click on any pictures that interest you for a larger view.

Historical:

    On Wednesday, with a nice drop to 47% humidity, I got a lot of priming done and the rest of my SAGA Scots warriors primed and ready for painting, which will hopefully be this week.

I also primed three Dark Age Archers, will will be used across multiple different games.

    Continuing my work on SAGA miniatures on Wednesday I started my base colors on my last Scots Thane and first warrior and finished them on Friday.

    Friday night I finished the the base colors, and following a technique Kenny Boucher of Next Level Painting recently displayed, I varnished the miniatures with a gloss varnish and once dried, applied the flesh wash and dark tone wash.  This seemed to work a lot better than usual and did not leave any "coffee stains".

On Saturday, I finished up with some highlights and laid down the dirt for the basing using Vallejo Earth Texture 26.219 Brown Earth.

    I also did this for the other Thanes and Warlord.  While I should finish the bases for the Thanes this week, the Warlord is waiting on a wolfhound coming from Footsore Miniatures. Unfortunately their furnace broke right after I ordered them and so shipment has been delayed going into the second month now.

I also placed the LBMS transfers onto the shields. I will touch up the paint this week and attach them to the Thanes.

Also on the historical side on Wednesday, I textured the Normandy base with Rust-Oleum Multicolor Textured spray paint in Desert Bisque.

Sci-Fi:

    No work on my Boromites as I am still debating on continuing with touch-up and dark tone or stripping and starting over.  I would like to get them on the table though so I might just push through with them.

Fantasy:

     My Dwarf Runic Golem arrived and after some cleaning and washing I glued him together and primed him.  I cannot wait to paint this large fellow up! 

Standing next to Shep's Chronomaner shows just how Large a construct he is!

    In the same delivery from Alternate Armies I also received their Eternal Guard which will make for some nice armored skeletons in Frostgrave!

    I started with the base colors on Mugzy's Sigilists from North Star Figures, as well as their flesh and eyes.  Their trim and cowls will be in white, while the fur lining will be in a snowy grey.

    I also did some sculpting work on the wizards' bases, a skeleton's cloak, as well as some spear hafts and sword blades to replace the flimsy PVC ones on the Reaper miniatures.  The Green Stuff is only slightly more firm than PVC at that thickness though, so I am not sure how well it will work out.

Terrain:

    I finally broke out my hot wire foam cutter and tried out some terrain building with insulation foam.  Here are two 3" x 6" walls that will be useful if any of the kids' wizards take the wall spell.

    I also build the corner of a ruined building to give the Frostgrave board some height beyond the Stone House Miniatures wall segments.  I started off planning on doing the walls in field stones and realized how much time it was going to take I decided the ground floor was good enough before being switched to cut stone.

    The outside join came together pretty smoothly and only needed some minor compound to smooth the lines.

    I did realize I am going to need to find some thinner foam or a way to uniformly split the thickness of the foam as the two wall pieces did not come out even thickness.  I think I could figure out a couple of plywood jigs to do the trick.

  Well that does it for this week, be sure to stop in Wednesday to see the painting guide on the King Under the Mountain himself, Thorin Oakenshield!