Two more squads of troops for Xenos Rampant

These two squads are based on the Stargrave plastic Mercenaries II box with a few Crew II bodies added in;

Both sets are made up of female bodies and a huge variety of female heads, although I'm not sure that you could tell the difference between a bulbous blue female alien head and a male one. That doesn't really matter, though because with so much variety available, you'll easily end up with a force of troops that doesn't look much like anyone else's.

I think that in Xenos Rampant terms, both of these squads would best be used as Light Infantry, with the second one maybe being more suited to an Assault Doctrine role, perhaps with the Close Quarters Doctrine too. They could also be used as Militia Rabble if you just needs  couple of speed bumps on the table.

Having played a few games of XR now, it seems to me that Light Infantry need some very careful thought to really get much use out of them. They are pretty fragile and you really cannot get them involved in a firefight with Heavies or Elites, well not unless you can get them into heavy cover and keep them in a defensive role. The only other way is to try and get them to flank enemy Heavies who are already engaged with your own Heavies. If you spend points to improve their ability to survive, you'll end up with fewer points to spend on actual tough guys.

Of course, as everyone knows, getting nice-looking toys on the table is more important than winning. Isn't it?

This figure is HUGE

This figure was a freebie that came with  the latest copy of Miniature Wargames magazine. It is for a game called "Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings", which I'd never actually heard of before. Anyway, it is in 38mm scale, which seems pretty unique.

Here is the finished item, next to a 28mm Victrix Roman auxiliary cavalryman;

That is ridiculously big. Here are two more pictures of the Big Guy.

I only made him up and painted him for something to do. I've no intention of buying into a game system that uses such large minis as standard. The thing is this, though; I could see a point to him once I'd glued him together and undercoated him in black.

I think that he would be fine as a gigantic Daemonic Knight, probably as a Warlord for a Saga; Age of Magic warband, such as my Otherworld one, or for a Dragon Rampant force, which is why I used a fairly classic Chaos colour palette of black, bronze, brass, steel and red. His helmet has a weird flaming-looking crest, which I decided would look pretty good as actual flames, so that is how I tried to paint it. 

He was actually pretty easy to paint, because of the size of the model. I liked the idea of his daemonic steed having brass hooves, and they seem to have worked quite well. I left the slight amount of visible face black, to give the impression that whatever is inside the armour is Not Of This World.

Annoyingly, after I'd taken the photos, I noticed a few grains of ballast clinging to his horse barding, which I have now removed with a paintbrush.

A Big Angry Red Guy

 Well, he is a giant, after all.

I wanted a BIG giant for various reasons, and it took me ages to find one who looked like the sort of giant that would work for me, seeing as I wanted one who would fit into various rulesets. I found this giant on the Miniature Heroes website, where he is described as Fire Giant (huge), which seems a pretty reasonable summary, seeing as he is around 7.5 cm tall.

He is a Reaper Bones DHL range plastic figure, which means that he is both reasonably-priced and not too heavy. He is made from a softish plastic but despite that is fairly detailed. 

The body comes in two parts that have to be joined at the waist and his arms, the two morning stars and a small chest that goes on his belt at the back are also separate. They glue together easily enough. I used Gorilla gel superglue, which I think is pretty good stuff. I also stuck him to a 5 cm square MDF base, which I gave a coating of ballast.

On the packaging it states that he doesn't need priming but that if you do prime him, avoid spray primers. I ignored that and gave him a good undercoat of Halford's grey plastic primer, which went on well with no bad side effects.

In the last picture, I have posed him with a Bad Squiddo 28mm Amazon, to give you some idea of how big he actually is. Impressive, I think, even though we all know that size doesn't really matter, does it.

As he is a Fire Giant, I wanted to use a predominantly red, bronze and brass palette, and I also wanted him to have a very red complexion too, to signify all that pent-up fiery anger and power inside him. He even has dark red eyes, to make them look blood-filled.

 Similarly, I wanted the ground he strides across to look hot and burnt, so the ballast was painted black and dry-brushed with red, yellow and orange, with some very pale grey to look like hot ashes. I think it just about works, even though the yellow hardly shows up.

I am planning to use him as Surtr in my planned Norse force for Of Gods and Mortals, which will mainly consist of my Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens, led by the goddess Freyja.

The red colour palette might also make him suitable for my Saga; Age of Magic Otherworld band too, and I am sure that he will work for other things too, maybe a AoM Shieldmaiden Horde, and definitely in a Dragon Rampant setting.

Two more characters for Infamy, Infamy

Here are two more figures for my cohors equitata, a Signifer and a Cornicen.

These figures aren't really necessary to play the game, a Musician (i.e. the cornicen) is a Support option and standard bearers (signiferi) aren't mentioned at all, but I intend to put him to use because, when it comes down to it, why wouldn't I?  I could put him in one of my infantry groups, perhaps or maybe I could even use him as a Status I or II leader support choice

These chaps are wearing bear pelts over their lorica hamata, which was a mark of their status in the century and cohort. 

In real terms, each century had a signifer, but this looks like a far more important piece of kit, maybe the signum of the first century or possibly the signum for the whole cohort, which was carried by the vexillarius, one of the principales, the name used collectively for junior leaders below the rank of centurion.

There were various types of signa. There was the manus, a hand representing the soldier's oath of loyalty, the imago, a representation of the emperor, the vexillum, a rectangular cloth banner, the draco, a kind of windsock with a dragon head, used by cavalry units from the 2nd century onwards and the famous aquila, the sacred symbol of a legion, although auxiliary cohorts didn't have eagles.

The small round shields, a kind of buckler called a parmula, were associated with signiferi and others, like musicians who were carrying something that was cumbersome and which made a larger shield impractical. I have no idea how commonly-used they were in reality, but they look nice on the models. They were also used by the sort of gladiators known as Thraeces, i.e. "Thracians" and were the same kind of shields as were used by  the Velites of the Middle Republican period.

Annoyingly, having photographed them, I now notice the mould line across the mouth of the Cornu. I shall have to deal with that and probably paint the area a darker shade too.

Painting roundup - finally finished all the current Sci Fi stuff

People may remember that I bought a box of GW Blackstone Fortress figures a while ago. I had most of them painted before the end of 2019, but there were a few left over.

Anyway, these are now done, because I buckled down and got on with them.

The first one is this chap, a Chaos Space Marine. He's obviously going to be a NPC in my home-brewed rules. I'm not bothered whether his colours match any of the GW Mythos Chaos Marine legions, but I reckon that he looks OK.

Next are these two odd-looking creations. They are supposed to be Negavolt Cultists, whatever they are, but I am going to use them as Cyborg NPCs.

Finally, here is a guy who simply can't keep his feet on the ground. He is labelled a Rogue Psyker, which seems OK, as he will fill that role as another NPC in my rules.

Well, they are done now. Hopefully, I will get my rules out again soon and get some sci fi skirmish action going. 

The saga AoM Otherworld band grows

Having completed all the big hitters and large models for my Saga Age of Magic warband, I am now getting on with the rank and file troops.

I want to keep a daemonic feel to this part of the force, so both the Hearthguard and one group of Warriors (upgraded to Hunters) will be non-human and will keep to the red/purple/bronze/brass colour scheme. The models I am using are the plastic Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago Snake Men by North Star. This box gives you the opportunity to make 20 figures, and as I have made up six Hearthguard and eight Hunters, I have six left to use later, when an opportunity presents itself.

First, here are the Hearthguard, who I have equipped with Heavy Weapons;

Yes, I know one has a spear and shield, rather than a two-handed weapon but that is just for a bit of variety. It is a heavy spear, OK? Here they are from the other side;

Next, here are the Hunters, who cannot have heavy weapons. I have therefore given them a variety of swords, small axes and other blades. Here they are as the full group of eight.

And below, as two groups of four;

It isn't particularly easy to see the difference between the two types, apart from the difference in weaponry, but the Hunters are actually slightly lighter in colour, being painted over a Skeleton Bone undercoat, with the Hearthguards undercoated in black. I used a variety of Windsor and Newton inks here as glazes and washes, to try and bring out colour differences.

I think that these creatures really fit my overall theme nicely and definitely look like the denizens of a different plane of existence, bred for battle by daemonic sorcerors in the service of daemon warlords.

So, the warband is getting closer to completion. All I have to do now is get working on two more groups of eight Warriors, who will be humans, members of a daemon-worshipping cult. These will also be made up from North Star plastics, this time using the Frostgrave Cultist box. That will be a job for next week, I think.

My current project - Later Imperial Romans for Saga

This project has come as something to do while I am waiting to get my Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath Swordmaidens once they start shipping around the end of April.

I've always wanted an excuse to paint up some Late Romans, because the Roman Empire of Late Antiquity and the early mediaeval period has long been a major interest of mine. A while ago, I bought some Gripping Beast plastic Romans and Dark Age cavalry and more recently. I bought the Aetius and Arthur Saga handbook to go with the Saga 2 rules and the Age of Vikings handbook.

So, with my new knowledge of what is required, I've started out on a new plastic mountain. In addition to the plastics I'd already bought, I bought some more Romans and Dark Age cavalry, plus a box of the Gripping Beast Dark Age warriors. I bought the latter mainly so that I could make up 12 slingers and 12 javelinmen to give me some Levy variants for both the Romans and the post-Roman British. Of course, I'll also be able to make up a load of generic spearmen too, which I'm sure will come in useful.

Now, I know that this will give me far more figures than I'll ever need for Saga, but I am looking at the bigger picture too. I reckon that I'll be able to put together a Late Roman or Romano-British (or generic Romano-Germanic) army for Sword and Spear as well. I just need to carry on buying odds and ends to give me lots of choices. I've already got my eye on the plastic Saxon Thegns and Dark Age archers too, as they will definitely bulk out any 5th-6th century Roman force.

Now, I am just hoping that Gripping Beast are planning some plastic Roman armoured cavalry too!

Anyway, I've just started work, and I'm taking it slowly. So far, I've begun to work on the two command sprues in the Roman box and I've assembled and undercoated eight archers. Once I've got those finished, there will be pictures.

Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago - the Postman Rang Once

I've been eagerly awaiting the postman today, because I was really hoping that my Ghost Archipelago Nickstarter would get delivered and, just before noon the doorbell duly rang. I'd had an email on Sunday from Annie at Bad Squiddo to say that it had been packed and sent, so it wasn't really that much of a surprise.

Anyway, what was in the box?

First off, I love the personalised Bad Squiddo postage sticker.

And here is Annie's personalised delivery note, the obligatory Gunny Pets and a complementary fruit tisane teabag. Thanks, Annie! I'll drink it later.

Now, on to the goodies. First, the rule book, the accessory pack and the book of Ghost Archipelago stories (for some bedtime reading!).

Then, there is the box of plastic crew figures, of which more later.

And the crew sheet, which I expect I'll have to scan and print off, so as not to deface the original.

Now, here are the shiny toys. Top left are the four female crew figures, who are lovely castings. Moving anti-clockwise, there is my chosen Heritor and Warden (I went for a female Stormwarden), the Pirate Queen (she is spectacularly good) with her pet giant iguana, who is clearly going to have to be called Iggy Pop, three one-off add-on figures from Northstar, five resin tokens and, in the centre a Bad Squiddo Ghost Archipelago badge. I've not cleaned the figures up, just trimmed off some of the more obvious bits of flash, but overall they are pretty clean castings and have bags of detail that will look brilliant once painted.

Next, here is the contents of the plastic 28mm crew box. Four sprues of bodies, heads, arms, weaponry and whatnots, which is what one would expect from a Frostgrave box. Plenty of opportunity here to create a characterful and hopefully unique crew for your games. There are also two sprues of 25mm diameter bases. There are plenty of weapons options; swords, axes, spears, bows, crossbows, club etc and some small buckler-style shields, plus quivers, pouches and other bits and pieces. I am rather drawn to creating an Arabian Nights styled crew, because that is the look of the metal female crew members too. Plenty of thinking is required here, though.

Almost at the end now, so here is the contents of the accessories box, the game cards and a special Blood Burn die for recording the decreasing health of your Heritor.

Last but not least, here is a sample of the excellent artwork in the rulebook. From an initial flick through, the art is of the usual high standard we have come to expect from Frostgrave.

So, what now? Should I get started on these, finish off my Congo miniatures or make a start on my "My Last Sunrise" Vampire Hunters and Undead and supernatural minis? The lead mountain grows apace .......................

Some plastic Mordheim figures

I bought a sprue of plastic Games Workshop Mordheim figures earlier this year at the club's Tabletop Sale. My original idea was to use them as warband members for Frostgrave, but in the end I didn't think that they suited the theme of my warband, so I put them aside to decide what to do with them. 

Anyway, a while ago I made them up, adding a shield to one of the figures, and undercoated them, and looked at them for a few weeks until I decided that I'd paint them up and try and sell them on at the next Tabletop Sale or on the Bring-and-Buy table at our annual Reveille II show, which is on 26th November.

I am reasonably happy with the way they have turned out, I've tried to make them look a bit shabby and functional rather than "parade ground", with some chipped paintwork on the edges of the shield and hopefully they will find a home, otherwise they'll end up on Ebay and, failing a sale by that route, they'll get stuck in a drawer and forgotten.

Table-top Sale at the club

A couple of Sundays ago the club held its annual Table-top Sale. The event was reasonably well-attended and there were plenty of bargains for sale.

We started setting up at around 8am and before long people were already taking notes and checking out what others were selling.

There were all sorts of things on sale, from ready-painted armies to board games and sets of rules.

After the sale was over, some of us played a Living on the Frontline participation game, using the Winter of '79 skirmish rules but with a decidedly weird twist. It certainly put a whole new gloss on the phrase "Leafy Suburbs".

The basic premise was that the local council had declared a state of emergency and ordered everyone to leave town. Unexplained outcrops of jungle were springing up in unusual places. A few groups of stragglers, happily armed to the teeth were stuck inside the town and had to make their way to a helicopter on top of one of the buildings to escape.

Before long, it became obvious that getting near the foliage was Not A Good Idea.

Not only was it a Bad Idea, but the patches of greenery began to spread rapidly. Where was Monty Don when you needed him most?

Before long, things were getting decidedly unpleasant. You don't get problems like this on Gardeners' Question Time.

My gang made it as far as the outside of the building where the helicopter was waiting, but it was really too late.

I've never seen one of these at my local garden centre!

In the end, young James managed to get one of his squaddies into the chopper and he made his escape, leaving the rest of his troops to the less-than-tender mercies of a horde of overgrown Venus flytraps, a fate shared by the rest of us.

So, thanks to Clive for a most entertaining game. You can see more pictures of his excellent carnivorous plants here.

Anyway, I am sure people are wondering if I bought anything at the sale myself. Well, I did, but not a huge amount, mainly because I forgot to stop off at an ATM in the morning.

I bought a couple of sprues of Deus Vult foot sergeants to make up as Frostgrave warbands, a Mordheim sprue for the same purpose and 10 rather nice 28mm metal figures by, I think Renegade. These are early Great War Scottish infantry in Glengarry bonnets, but I shall be painting them up in a more generic colour scheme to use in VBCW and other similar scenarios.

A Frostgrave AAR - my warband gets its first outing.

Last Sunday at the club my new Frostgrave warband got on the table against three other bands, those of Owen, Richard and Andy. Kev umpired the game. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but luckily Owen took plenty of pictures, and he has kindly let me borrow them for this blog post.

This was a one-off game but I think that we are now planning a proper campaign, which will be good. So, here is the initial table;

People are already starting to deploy. I am coming in from the right of the picture. Here are some of my desperadoes moving through the ruins.

The game was notable at the start for the inability of the wizards to actually cast any spells, occasionally even causing themselves varying amounts of harm. At this point, I decided to save using magic until it was absolutely necessary.

Andy's band of Orcs made swift progress towards a huge pile of treasure but soon ran into problems and ended up embroiled in combat against a summoned demon that Richard brought on to the table as soon as he stopped failing to cast any spells.

His wizard seemed happier after that and late on in the game managed to cast Scatter Shot, which pretty much damaged everyone within range. He also managed to pick up an imp to fetch and carry coins.

Elsewhere, Owen advanced quite quickly, but became tangled up in a long-running combat with a ghoul. My wizard cast Bones of the Earth on one of his fighters, which anchored him while he was fighting the undead creature, allowing my guys to get past and head for more plunder.

Unhappily, a large and threatening White Worm attacked two of my thugs, killing one easily but the other fighter managed to hold on.

Owen's band seemed like an easier target than a giant grumpy vermiform, so I concentrated my attacks on them, sending an archer and a couple of fighters to pick off his gang.

At the same time, I sent a couple more of my men (including a zombie that my wizard raised from the grave) across the table to secure more loot. Owen's thief in the foreground wasn't really a threat.

Elsewhere, Andy was reeling from endless magical and earthly attacks, but managed to get his treasure away safely, even eventually seeing off the demonic entity that had caused him so many problems.

I also decided to cut my losses and make off with my plunder. Meanwhile Richard was plagued by a succession of attacks from marauding giant rats.

All in all, this was a terrific introduction to Frostgrave. The game mechanisms are pretty easy to grasp and the action comes fast and furious. I look forward to actually being able to gain experience and wealth in future games. 

In the meanwhile, I shall be painting up a few more magic users and maybe some other odds and ends for my Frostgrave collection.