Category: project

Endor Bunker

I needed a stronghold for my Battle of Endor matched pair of armies for Hordes of the Things, so I made the obvious choice: the bunker that the rebels assaulted and then defended from an Imperial counterattack.  With a bit of imagination it’s usable by both sides, and it’s pretty much the only thing attached to the surface of Endor that isn’t a tree.

Here’s a Work in Progress shot showing the basic construction.  The main building is cut on the band saw from white foam.  I cut three pieces at the right angles, and glued them back together.  The roof is two pieces of foam core, and it’s on a masonite base.

Next, I cut the door and vent-like shapes out of cardstock and glued them to the foam.  On the roof I added some details made of some washers and bases I had lying around.

I measured a toy playset to get the dimensions of this, which may have been a bit of a mistake.  The actual bunker had side walls that angled back into the hillside instead of a 90 degree angle.  So, this isn’t perfect, but it’s easier to transport.

Also of note: stacking heavy books on foam squishes it.  Who knew.  It’s a bit lopsided because of this, but the more obvious defects problems where the cardstock details buckled.

DBA III/78: Early Russians; German Knights

German knights for III/78: Early Russians; Essex Miniatures, 15mm

When I first painted my Early Russian DBA army, I didn’t finish the knight element.  This is a “3/6Kn” which represents German knights fighting for the Russians.  3Kn would be a bit earlier, and 6Kn a bit later.

I came so very close to basing a 6Kn element, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, when 2x3Kn elements are so much more useful.

For heraldry or shield designs, I looked in the Zurich Roll for some authentic German heraldic designs that caught my eye as looking at home in the East.  They are totally anachronistic for knights of this period; I’d hardly expect heraldry on kite shields.  And I have no evidence that these particular people were ever in Russia, let alone in the 12-13th century.

However, they look really good and fit with the rest of the Russian army, which are my main goals.

These are Essex figures from the III/78 army pack.

DBA Army IV/61: Italian Condotta

Here is my most recently completed DBA army: Italian Condotta, IV/61.

The army arrayed: DBA IV/61: Italian Condotta. Mirliton Figures.

The figures are Mirliton, 15mm. Most are from the DBA army box, but I supplemented this with extra packs for dismounted knights and gunners. The flags are also from Mirliton.

Condotta Knight general and four other knights.

25 stands for only one army, and I still don’t have the 3Bd and 4Ax stands done? Crazy talk.

JM and I decided the halberdiers provided by Mirliton weren’t appropriate for the Bd/Ax, so we bought sword-and-buckler men by Essex.  However, they arrived after most of the rest of my figures were painted, so I haven’t started them yet.

I’ve painted this army for the Two Davids campaign event at Cold Wars 2012: Condotta Chaos. I’ll be playing Verona in a series of battles stretching across Italy and beyond.  The red flag with white cross is Verona’s (among others), and the rest are Condotta banners.

Light Horse: mounted crossbows and light cavalry. 

The DBA army list has many options: 1x3Kn (Gen), 4x3Kn, 1x2LH, 2x8Cb or 2Ps, 2x4Sp or 4Pk, 1x4Cb or 4Ax or 3Bd or 2LH, 1x2Ps or Art.  In addition, the campaign allows all knights to dismount, requiring another 5x4Bd.   But there’s also a DBA-RRR event at Cold Wars, which I didn’t have a good army for, so I picked up 2x4Sh for that as well.

These are very nice figures, but they did require a bit more cleaning than I’m used to doing.  Some of the crossbowmen and hand gunners ended up with unsightly blemishes on their faces, but I’ll just blame the rats.

Pavisiers.

I chose red and white or red and yellow for militia forces, and green and yellow for Condotta troops (if they needed any color at all).  The army has color, but it doesn’t dominate over the neutral colored armor.  I much prefer the look of this period over earlier gaudy tabards and caparisons.

Before the campaign was announced, I knew nothing about the Condotta, and wasn’t very interested in the period. The first thing that triggered my interest was an opportunity to play with the new Pavisier rules the Davids came up with.  In DBA 2.2, these are treated identically to other bows, so it never seemed worth painting 6-8 figures when 3-4 would do.  But with different rules, I’d have to paint the larger element to try the rules, so why not now?

Condotta Artillery, manned by Curly, Larry, and Moe.

In playtesting play by e-mail games, I have enjoyed Pavisiers.  Their combat factors and combat results make them very different than other bows.  They’re more resilient in close combat, and actively want to close the ground when in a shoot out with ordinary bows.  They are also quite large and a bit cumbersome: they advance slowly if they’ve been forced to recoil in a previous combat.

Crossbowmen and gunners.

As usual, as I started to learn more about the Condotta in order to paint them, I became more interested in them. During the 14-16th centuries, Italy was in a very interesting military situation.  They disarmed the civilian population to reduce violence, and instead, every city-state hired its own mercenary army to supplement the local militias.  “Condotta” means “contract,” and refers to the complex binding contracts these mercenary forces engaged in when providing services.

Armies are expensive to hire and require a lot of food to maintain.  They also have a tendency to bother the local population.  All of the economic and social incentives at the time pushed Lords to keep their armies on campaign in enemy territory, so they ate the enemy’s food and fathered the enemy’s children.  This made for a long period of fighting between the Italian city states.

Psiloi: gunners and archers.

The colors aren’t based on any particular historical evidence, but choosing colors ahead of time was crucial to allowing me to finish the project at all.  Paints are all my standard selection: primarily Vallejo, with some GW for metals and Snakebite Leather, along with a few craft paints.

I’m glad I’ve finished with this army.  It was fun to paint, but the sense of  accomplishment that comes from completing a project definitely helps start the next one.  At this point, all the rest of my armies look small and easy, so I’m hoping to tackle Post-Mongol Samurai without butchering them too badly.

Italian Militia Pikes

Italian Militia Spears
Condotta Dismounted Knights (Blades)

DBA Army III/78: Early Russians

Here is my most recently completed DBA army: Early Russians, III/78.  This is an Essex army pack. I haven’t finished the Knight option yet, and may not paint the Horde at all.

Essex Early Russians: 3Cv(gen), 3Cv

Inspiration for shield patterns and clothing colors came primarily from Osprey titles and some creativity.  My goal was to use a variety of bold colors without looking too bright or gaudy.  I’ve also tried to keep trying new colors instead of getting stuck in a rut.

Essex Early Russians: 2x3Cv

The figures are quite nice. Not all Essex figures are sculpted very well, but these have nice sculpting and a good variety of poses.

Essex Early Russians: 3Cv

Unfortunately, there is a bit of hazing from CA glue on the horses from gluing the grass onto the bases.  This has cleared up a bit after I took the pictures, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem in the long run.

Essex Early Russians: 2x4Sp
Essex Early Russians: 2x2Ps
Essex Early Russians: 2x2LH
Essex Early Russians: 3Ax

Hordes of the Things army: Die in a Fire

David Kuijt and Dave Schlanger threw down the gauntlet before Fall-In: Paint up 48 points of Hordes of the Things in time for Cold Wars, and they’ll have a matched enemy to fight against it. 

Well, I already had a bunch of prepainted D&D fire elemental (and related) figures I planned to build into a HOTT army, so why not do that?  At Cold Wars we played a 72 point Fire vs. Ice battle, and lost, so this project has turned into a grudge match.

Here is the army so far.  I may augment it if I get additional figures for Christmas, which would push it up to 72 points.

The bases are laser cut masonite, with chunks of broken plaster attached using paintable transparent silicone caulk. I built up enough caulk to swirl into a lava texture, and placed the rocks so that on each base, the miniatures would be appropriately either standing on a rock or emerging from the lava.

The lava colors were painted starting with white, then yellow, wet brushed orange and dark orange, and then over the black I applied dark red and grey on top.  Fire is brighter where it’s hotter, in the center, and darker at the edges where it’s cooler, so you end up using the reverse order for shading.  Adding a lighter color over the black can make it lit from below in some places.

The only concern I have about this army is its durability.  The figures mounted on lava are likely to pull the paint off and break off, because I didn’t strengthen the plaster with anything before I painted it.  I’ll just bring lots of superglue and touch them up when I’m finished.

In the center is a Fire Titan (behemoth).  On the right, a magician, and on the left is an Immoleth, which I’ll use either as a God or deep warband (using WADBAG’s excellent variant rules for deep spear and deep warband).

All of the figures shown here are D&D miniatures, except for the Mage Knight figures shown here and the dragon below. There would be a lot more army potential in MK figures if more of them were as good as these.  On the left and right are blades and in the center is an aerial hero.  It’s not very visible from this perspective, but the flame guys on the left are flaming skeletons.

The fire elementals on the left are warbands, and the Azer Fighters and Raiders on the right are blades.  Some of the Azers are repaints of ther crappy model, done to match the not-crappy Azer.

The Magmins on the left and right are lurkers.  The Flame Salamander will be either a beast or a deep warband (they have the same depth).  

 Here are two fliers on the ends, and either a flier or an aerial hero in the center.  As you can see, when I originally purchased my figures I didn’t consider how I was going to base them, so I have a few mismatched bases that I don’t prefer.  Clearly it means I just need more figures…

In the center is the impetus for building this army in the first place: a phoenix I bought at Michael’s crafts.  It’ll be a dragon in HOTT.  On the ends are large flame elementals, deep warbands.

Miniatures: D&D Characters

I’m planning to start playing some D&D 4E with my daughter, her friend, and his dad. I’ve sent them all through the new red box “build a character” section, but we haven’t gotten all four of us in the same place at the same time to actually play a session.

It’s been so long, I don’t remember any of the characters’ names, but I’ve had a chance to paint figures for all of us.

Daniel chose a female Halfling cleric.  Clerics with swords? Blasphemy!  This is Reaper Miniatures Gnome, because it’s virtually impossible to find a halfling cleric figure.  She’s too tall compared to the elf, but she’ll do.

This is a Reaper miniatures human thief I painted years ago.  I just rebased it on a square base and modelled some more stones for use with the D&D square grid.  This is Levi’s character.

Martine chose an Elf wizard, wearing maroon (just like House Gryffindor).  This is the Celeborn figure from Mithril Miniatures.  Not exactly a level 1 wizard, but he’s wearing mundane red, and we’re pretending that scepter is a wand.  I like the way the green gems turned out.

Mung smash!  Raah!  I “rolled” up a fighter to beat stuff up.  This is a Mithril Miniatures Easterling. I’ll play Mung when no one else is around, but I expect we might invite another friend over once and a while.  All theoretically, of course.

Norse Irish, Painted for the Kids, part 2

I’ve finished basing the whole Norse Irish DBA army. Soon I’ll be auctioning it off on the Fanaticus Forum with the proceeds going to the Child’s Play charity.

DBA army II/46, Norse Irish.

Here are the elements not described in my previous post.  Most of the figures here are from an Essex Miniatures army pack.  The camp followers are Trey Corbies, donated by Sean Devitt of Trey Corbies miniatures.  Paul Potter donated two elements of Auxilia from mixed manufacturers.

Thanks to all of the painters who helped on this project!  I should have the auction thread started on Fanaticus shortly.

Jon Barmore painted 2x3Ax.
JM Seman painted 1x3Ax and 1x2Ps.
Paul Potter donated and painted 2x3Ax, various manufacturers.
Sean Devitt donated and painted camp followers from Trey Corbies, as well as the camp.
Tim Hladon painted 1x3Ax and 1x2Ps.

Preview: Norse Irish, Painted for the Kids

Over on the Fanaticus forum, I’m organizing a charity painting project.  Painters have volunteered to paint one or more elements of a DBA army.  When it’s finished, I’ll auction it off on Fanaticus, and all proceeds will go to the Child’s Play charity.

The army I selected was Norse Irish, II/46.  Most of the figures are from an Essex army pack, but some painters have volunteered to provide their own figures to save on shipping costs.  There will also be a camp and camp followers to go along with the army.

I sent out the unpainted figures, and completed the basing and groundwork after they were returned.  I decided having consistent basing would be important to giving the army a unified look, since the painting styles would be different.

Here’s a preview of the first 6 elements completed. I’ll be taking better pictrures when everything is finished.

A hearty thanks goes out to all of the participating painters! 

Jeff Franz painted two elements of Psiloi.
Frank Wesner painted the General (3Ax) and one 4Bd.
Alan Ferrency (me) painted one element of 4Bd.
Vincent Maloney painted one Auxilia.

Malifaux: More Totems and Spiders

Before I recently finished my DBA Viking army, I painted some more Malifaux figures.  Here are some pictures, now that I have some that are in focus. 

I prepared and primed my Guild totems about a year ago, but didn’t get much paint on them until a few weeks ago.  I bought Abuela just after Christmas.  So: Yes!  Some of that old lead does end up painted eventually…

Governor’s Proxy
The Governor’s Proxy has a basic, serviceable paint job without too much interesting going on.  The basing matches all my Malifaux bases, which will make it harder for me to change my mind later with a new crew.  All of the bases shown here are from Dragon Forge Designs.
Enslaved Nephilim

I decided to go with red skin for my Enslaved Nephilim.  I like the way the grey hair and red skin turned out; it almost has the look of ashes and fire.  His wing stumps, not seen here, are also grey.

Abuela Ortega

Abuela Ortega was a fun figure to paint, but apparently I’m running out of different colors of brown to use for outer layers.  I tried to add some interest to her dress and shirt/apron but not much of them shows.

Overall I seem to be taking more of my 15mm technique onto these larger figures than the other way around, these days.  It works well enough and produces a reasonable result, especially for the B-list figures instead of the big names.

Steampunk Arachnids

Finally, my last stand of Steampunk Arachnids?  Hopefully.  This brings me up to two sets of three Arachnids, and two Arachnid Swarms.  Unfortunately these models are a slippery slope.

I have most of the Hoffman box set crew assembled and primed, as well as a Peacekeeper and a few other M&SU/Guild figures.  I’m not sure when I’ll get to those. They’re an excellent crossover crew for my Ramos and Perdita crews, because Hoffman is guild and can use Perdita models; Ramos and Hoffman can use each others’ steam punk models; and Hoffman is M&SU so he can use my M&SU mercenary cheaply as well.

DBA Army III/40a: Vikings

Baueda Vikings: DBA III/40a

Here’s the army I’ll be playing in the Two Davids “Viking Fury” campaign game at Fall-In 2011: III/40a, Vikings.  JM and I bought identical Baueda figure packs for our armies, and I look forward to contrasting JM’s paint job with mine.

3x4Bd(gen).  “You’re not doing anything, you must be in charge.”

The Baueda figures are good: not the best I’ve ever painted, but also not the worst.  They have an extreme variation of poses, which is good for this kind of army, but they are also reasonably static poses that don’t get in the way of fitting the figures on the bases.

3x3Bd.

The army pack usually comes with a viking tent, but I already have one, so I ordered it without the tent directly from Baueda.  Unlike most DBA army packs, which provide only exactly as many figures as you need for the army, Baueda provides enough figures to build either III/40a or III/40b with all options, and you’ll end up with spare figures on top of that.  We also received additional free samples from Baueda, with even more Viking scouts.  Between our two army packs and the samples, we’re only short a few handfuls of figures to build a third army (not that we want to right now).

2x3Bd, 1x3Wb.

There are a variety of different shields, weapons, armors, and poses, resulting in a wider variety of combinations of those features.  I like the level of detail the figures include: they have belts and a few pouches, but the figures aren’t cluttered with a bunch of “what is that, anyway?”

3x3Bd.

The only problems I have with the figures are that they required a bit more cleanup than I’d prefer, and some of the individual figures have poorer sculpting than others.  The quality of faces varies widely across the figures, and some of them have rougher cloth sculpting and a few missing details.

1x3Bd, 1x2Ps.

I had some goals when painting this army.  I wanted a variety of colors and patterns across the army, but I also wanted a coherent look that didn’t end up as gaudy and garish as I think my Leidang turned out.  I also wanted to try some new color combinations, since I’ve been getting stuck on a few standards lately.  Overall, I think I achieved my goals, but only some of the experiments were successful.

I also used a new sand for the bases.  It has a higher contrast between darker and lighter grains mixed in the sand, which is more apparent at this small scale.  Overall it reads a bit lighter than I’d prefer, but it will probably work just fine.

Overall, once again I’m happy with the way this army turned out.  I look forward to trying it out with the special Raider rules that will be in effect during the campaign.