Black Primer Paint

Shadowforge Sci-Fi

2010-05-21T00:31:00.001-07:00

The commission is done! Hooray! Here's a not-very-good picture:

15mm Essex Medieval Russian Army for DBA

While I was working on the commission, I had a few days where I was all set to work but for various reasons couldn't. Some problems with the shield decals left me with a weekend set aside for applying decals and painting but no decals, so I ended up painting up a bunch of the Shadowforge miniatures I've picked up recently, all of which came from the Sci-Fi line.

First up was the Politburo Worker Battalion. These are very nice figures, well sculpted and beautifully cast with minimal mold lines and little flash. They required almost no cleaning at all, and the multipart models (most have separate gun hands or arms, plus backpacks) went together very smoothly. None of them required any pining at all, and in many cases were cast with pins and corresponding holes. I found that many of the models held together without glue, which tells me that Shadowforge's mold maker really knows what he's doing. Out of the twelve miniatures there was only one flaw, a miscast rocket launcher in the heavy weapons set that was missing most of its arm. I contacted Shadowforge and they got a replacement part to me within a week (and that's sending it from Australia). So good on them. They're also nice guys.

The designs are sufficiently generic that these ladies could be modern or near-future soldiers. They could easily serve as Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard, but they are small compared to GW's models, and would look fairly puny next to a Catachan Jungle Trooper. I decided to go with a bright blue for their body armor and berets, drawing inspiration from the blue berets of United Nations peacekeepers, and might use these as near-future UN alien fighters. Or maybe some sort of hybrid of Morrow Project and Macho Women With Guns.

Politburo Worker Battalion

Politburo Worker Battalion Command

Politburo Worker Battalion Support Weapons

I'm far from finished painting these, but I've made progress on both sets of Shadowforge's Gangers and their set of Scavengers. Below are two gangers from Gangers Pack #2 and a Scavenger. I didn't like these quite as much as the Politburo models. Most are great and would work well in a game like Necromunda or any post-apocalyptic or cyberpunk game, but it seemed each set had at least one kinda lame sculpt that didn't compare with the rest. Also several of the models are carrying pistols with barrels that are just too tiny and thin. Realistic perhaps, but I prefer my guns oversized.

The Scavenger looks just like the chick at the coffee stand I go to in the morning.

While painting all of the above, I mixed in a few miniatures from other companies. I thought this Heresy sculpt, Ellie Mental, would fit in well with the Gangers. Since she's obviously supposed to be Leeloo from The Fifth Element I painted her to match Milla Jovovich's outfit in the movie. Like pretty much everything Andy Foster sculpts, this is an awesome figure with nice detail and a great sense of proportion that just pushes the edge of cartoony without being ridiculous.

I also picked up this truly awesome miniature from Khurasan Miniatures, the Genocidal Dictator. I absolutely love the pose. I painted her up to serve as a Commissar for the Politburo Workers Battalion. She comes with a choice of two hands, one with the cigarette as shown, another with a pistol. In a move that is truly rare amongst miniatures sculptors, she also comes with two holsters. One with pistol, one empty. Much like the Shadowforge casts, this required no pining and held together without glue, but it did have a brutal mold line cutting across the face. With no way to get a file in there, I ended up painting the mold line as if it were a scar passing straight through her eye.

Khurasan's Genocidal Dictator

Games Workshop

2010-05-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

There is a new post up at City of Crows with concept art for our first miniature, Crowfeed. In other news I am only a few short days from being fully finished with my first commission, after which I definitely plan to post some stuff to this blog!

But right now I want to talk a little bit about Games Workshop. As I think I mentioned earlier, they opened up a Games Workshop store within a 15 minute drive of my house, actually at the mid-point between my place and my favorite comic shop, and I've let myself get sucked into the world of Warhammer once again.

I like Warhammer fluff. There is a lot of fun, goofy and awesome stuff in the Warhammer fluff, both Fantasy and 40K. But like many gamers, I also feel the game and its accessories are over-priced. They're really not though when you consider what you're actually buying when you shop Games Workshop, I think it just appears that way to many gamers, especially older gamers who are more likely to play with friends and not get involved in the in-store tournament scene.

Because that's why GW is so expensive, the sale of models subsidizes the tournaments and promotional materials, the stores and the red shirts. Some people say GW doesn't support the hobby as a whole, and while I think that's true, I think it also has to be noted that they do support Warhammer players quite a bit, and if you can swallow the "GW is the only game in town" paradigm of their stores, I would say that GW stores beat your average brick and mortar store hands down in terms of giving hobbyists support. I also think GW makes entry into the world of wargaming a lot easier than other games. And that's what you're paying for when you buy GW models, and I understand that many established gamers, especially those who remember when GW was just a company, and not a lifestyle, feel that added value is of no value at all. But I think its still important to remember that all that exists when complaining about the prices, which I think everyone can agree is old news. Water is wet, fire is hot, Games Workshop is expensive.

Anyways, I decided to participate in an in-store game in which new players can buy a different model or box each week and build up to a 500 point army. The idea is you come to the store, buy a box of models, assemble it there and then play an often lopsided game against another player with a GW employee refereeing the match and teaching you the game -- which I needed, not having played Warhammer since I was in high school (class of '94!).

So the first night I drop by I mistakenly assume that the store will have some tools available for assembling stuff. They do not. No, instead I had to make a choice between buying a whole new set of tools there in the store at full GW prices, or drive home and get my tools and come back. Having more money than good sense, I bought a set of GW tools. To make matters worse, the store was having a promotion where if you bought basically all the tools, the books, templates, dice, some paint and some brushes you got a gift certificate and a chance at winning one of the in-store armies. Did I mention having more money than good sense? Guess who has the full range of GW tools now! Me! I thought I would review them. I won't include pictures because GW is trigger-happy with the legal pressure. You can see all this stuff in the stores.

Hobby Knife: The Citadel Hobby Knife is a ergonomically shaped plastic handle with a rubberized grip and a metal collet for holding standard Xacto blades. It has a plastic cap to protect the blade that also serves as a gripping device for blade removal and replacement. At US$15 its about three times what you'd pay for a standard Xacto knife in a gaming, hobby or art store. Is it worth it? I'm going to say it is, and here's why: The ergonomic grip is a very nice feature, and I was very surprised by how much easier it was to work with the Citadel hobby knife compared to the Model Master tool I've been using for years. Even better, the rubberized grip and triangular base keep the knife from rolling across my table and causing mischief. I've poked my fingers on many a blade trying to fetch it from some awkward space it rolled into -- though I tend to do a lot of work with a lap board, so my work surface is typically less level and more prone to shifting than most. Finally, the cap is a nice touch, though I think this feature is common on a lot of cheaper knives.

Plastic Clippers: I wasn't going to buy these originally, because hey, I just bought the hobby knife and I can de-sprue miniatures with just that. But as I was sitting there cutting my Bloodletters free, the store manager was doing their Academy lessons thing for some older lady interest in Lord of the Rings. And he was telling her all about the clippers, and dammit, I broke down and bought a pair. He made them sound so great. Did they live up to his description? Yes, completely. For years I have used standard wire clippers for clipping out plastic sprues, and then using a hobby knife to remove the small nub left behind. The GW clippers combine a very sharp blade with a shear cutting surface and leave no nub. They have the same rubberized grip as the hobby knife, and large handles for an easier grip. These are about three times the price of non-shearing wire clips, and slightly more expensive than other brands of shear clips. I think they're worth it if you're getting the hobby knife, just because they match.

Files: GW sells a set of 3 files for metal or plastic. I've been using them a lot recently, and I don't think they're particularly good for either. While I give GW big points for putting a real grip on these, giving the handle the dimensions of a pencil rather than the toothpick most files offer, the grit on the files is sort of medium coarse and I find I have to go over any metal work I do with them with my old files to get a smooth finish. The blades are also large, making these less than useful for the sort of tricky grinds that miniatures tend to offer. The grit is also apparently only in one direction (?), and I don't like that. If you like having a wide range of tools, these might be worthwhile -- their large size does make the flat useful for smoothing the bottoms of bases, and the triangle can be useful for quickly grinding strong mold lines, and the round does the same for those tricky curls. But I'd only buy these if you already have set of the standard steel files common in the hobby for decades (available under dozens of brand names) and a set of Gale Force 9's micro-sized diamond files.

Brushes:No game company produces decent brushes. GW is no exception. Go to an art store, get brushes three times better for the exact same price. Series 7's are the same price, why would you buy these? Why did I buy these? Okay, actually, the Small Drybrush and Medium Drybrush are pretty nice, and I haven't seen anything comparable in typical art stores. But give the Detail brushes a pass.

Water Pot and Palette: Yeah. I bought these to get the gift certificate, and I deducted their price from the value of the certificate. It was literally spending $10 to get $20, because the actual products have no actual value. It's a $5 cup and a $5 plastic palette. The pot has some nice features, a screw on cap that holds your brushes and keeps water from sloshing out of the cup. But screw this thing, spend $2 more and get a Silcoil Brush Cleaning Jar. The metal coil in the Silcoil actually, you know, does something that justifies buying it rather than using an old coffee mug. I love my Silcoil and the way it clears a brush of paint with one pass, and recommend it for serious painters, but for most people a $5 water pot is a complete waste of money.

As for the plastic palette, this thing is beyond stupid. It's $5 for something you can get in the craft section of a department store for $1 or less, and worse than that it's not even well-deisgned, with buckets that are too small and a giant logo wasting valuable space, and a stupid thumb cutout that begs the question "If I'm holding the palette in one hand, and the brush in the other, how do I hold the miniature?" I use these 3"x5" plastic cards with six mixing depressions that cost $0.25 each and throw them away when I've covered them with tiny blobs of paint.

Plastic Glue: The GW brand of plastic glue works very well, has low odor, an easy to use applicator, and a screw on cap that is well-designed and does weld itself shut like some brands I could name. A bit expensive, but I'll buy more when the bottle I had to buy runs out.

Thin Super Glue: This is basically Zap-A-Gap Thin (Pink), except about six times the price when you compare volumes. However I would recommend picking up a bottle for the applicator alone. It's a very nice little brush with a well-designed handle. I kind of hate Zap-A-Gap Thin and almost always use the Medium (Green) because the Zap-A-Gap applicator tends to be hard to control, and the thin comes out so fast that I often get it on my fingers and weld myself to small fiddly bits. I hate that. But the GW brush applicator makes it much easier to control application of the thin stuff, and the lid/handle is designed to remain glue free, so again, it doesn't weld itself shut like many brands. I would get ONE bottle of the GW Thin Super Glue and a GIANT bottle of the Zap-A-Gap Thin and refill the GW bottle from the Zap-A-Gap bottle. Best of both worlds.

So there you go, that's my opinion on the GW range of tools. I also picked up the Spray Gun, which is kinda awesome just cause it looks like a bolter, but alas I have yet to find a reducer to connect it to my air compressor, so I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

Next week I'll be posting a demo involving some GW terrain pieces, Crayola model magic, and the power of magnets.

City of Crows: The Blog

2010-05-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Rather than clutter up this blog with discussion of City of Crows, I've created a new blog for development of the game. That is all.

City of Crows: White Hats, Black Hats

2010-04-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of an artist when it comes to drawing, and it takes me weeks to do a half-way decent concept drawing, so I cheated and used Fabrica X to do some simple preliminary character concept sketches. The final concept sketches will be done by someone else, probably Matt (he and I chatted a it last weekend and will definitely be working together on this project), and will look more realistic and less DC Comics.

But that said, here are the basic concepts for the "Good Guys" and the "Bad Guys."

On the left is an "Imperial Soldier." Clean cut, dashing and heroic with fairly modern styling for a medieval outfit. With the heart of the Empire destroyed, the once mighty Imperial Army has fallen into deep disarray. Most of its numbers have deserted or tossed in with the ambitious nobles who have carved the Empire into a thousand tiny kingdoms, only those most loyal to the ideals of the Empire remain. The Imperial taxes and levies that once supported them are gone, so the remaining soldiers have been forced to scrounge and plunder to keep the army fed and armed. Lead by the Emperor's Paladins, many Imperial squads search the ruins of Cloneheim, gathering treasure to fuel further exploration. Their ultimate goal is to find the lost Crown of the Empire, which would give them the power to select a new Emperor and begin to rebuild.

On the left is a "Darkling." I want to get away from the boring heavy-set and doughy orcs or tiny and feeble goblins, go for something that is a bit more graceful and athletic. I want bad guys that can be every bit as dashing as the good guys. Darklings are near-humans originating from one of the Demon Dimensions. They are slightly tougher than humans, but are poorly organized and don't work together well. While not stupid, they tend to be too clever for their own good and are prone at thinking themselves into circles, which often leads to explosions of rage. On their native plane they roam as small bands of feral hunters, with a few of them achieving a barbaric mockery of civilization under the leadership of demon overlords. The magical cataclysm that destroyed Cloneheim ripped holes in the fabric of space that allowed hordes of Darklings to invade the ruins and set up a breach head for the eventual invasion of the whole world, but even here they find themselves fighting amongst themselves and falling under the sway of powerful wizards and warlords.

So two of three basic starting units will be Imperial Soldiers and Darkling Warriors, and I'm working on the third group. I'm kinda thinking pirates, but pirates are kinda overdone. I don't think the market really needs more pirates.

City of Crows

2010-04-27T01:01:00.000-07:00

The game I'm working on is tentatively titled City of Crows. It is a dark high fantasy skirmish game that involves forces between 5 to 15 models per side. "Warbands" will be divided into roughly two types: Denizens and Explorers. Players can choose to build a squad of Explorers: rough and ready adventurers with assorted henchmen and followers, or they can build squads of Denizens: the terrifying and fearsome monsters that prowl the city's ruined streets. While not every character can work alongside every other (due to alignments), players will have tremendous freedom to build forces to represent any kind of squad they like.

For example, Undead all have a trait called Hate The Living which makes it impossible to mix undead and living forces on the same squad...unless your squad includes a Necromancer, whose I Am Your Master Now ability removes the Hate The Living trait from Undead! This allows a player to build a force of Orcs* lead by a Warchief allied to a Necromancer who brings along his own Undead minions. But of course the Necromancer is evil, and thus cannot join a squad that already contains a Paladin with his Righteousness trait (which prevents the Paladin from joining a squad with an evil character).

Other characters can only join squads in units. For example, one never finds a squad with just one lone Imperial Soldier, instead one finds a unit of 5-8 Imperial Soldiers that all join together. And once a unit joins a squad, along come the various unit attachments that are only available to squads that contain their specified units. Add a squad of Imperial Soldiers and now you can add an Imperial Wizard, but don't expect to ever find an Imperial Wizard unaccompanied by a half-dozen of the Emperor's finest to protect him from melee fighters.

Setting: City of Crows is set in the ruined city of Cloneheim (obviously a placeholder name). Cloneheim was once the seat of the most powerful empire in the world but was destroyed in an arcane holocaust. Now most of the city has been reduced to rubble and swarms with demons, mutants and the undead. While mere rumors of the horrors of Cloneheim are sufficient to keep most at bay there are many who seek the city out. Afterall, it was the heart of the empire, home to ancient temples and occult schools, to merchant kings and pirate princes. When the cataclysm occurred there was no warning, no chance to escape, and the wealth of an empire was buried in the rubble. Now small bands of daring explorers battle the denizens of the dark city -- and each other! -- for the right to loot and plunder the city's treasures.

Gameplay: Straddling the line between wargame and role-playing game, City of Crows will offer a deeply-detailed exception-based rules system that allows for very creative tactical game play and takes full advantage of finely detailed terrain. Models can sprint across open ground, run up the sides of walls, leap to catch ledges, and dive through windows. Players take turns activating models, and many models have rules-bending abilities that allow them to act out of sequence -- a well played combination of abilities can allow a player to make devastating coordinated strikes against his enemy.

And the game doesn't stop when the battle is over, drawing inspirations from classics like Mordheim and Necromunda, the game includes a detailed campaign system that allows bands of Explorers to amass skills to go with their growing piles of treasure, and lets Denizens capture ever greater amounts of territory within the city -- growing their squad size until they are a horde ready to strike out into the world beyond the city and bring ruin to it as well.

The mechanics are primarily based on the blood-die mechanics of Spinespur. Though instead of a "blood die," players will have a power die. Most game action will be resolved with a 3d6 roll (death to single die systems and their lack of a predictable curve!), with triples, doubles and straights playing a role in die rolls as well. Weapons have their own attributes, allowing them to be dropped and picked up by other characters.

City of Crows builds on Spinespur's mechanics by replacing the confusing actions and half-actions system with a quarter-activation system that divides each activation into 4 parts, allowing for Quick Actions (1), Standard Actions (2), Extended Actions (3) and Full Actions (4). Another addition? A proper morale system, because troops aren't always reliable. And sure those Kobolds** are dirt cheap, but when one of them gets splattered (and they splatter easy) and the rest scatter, well...you get what you didn't pay for.

I'm shooting for an 64 page rulebook with 16 pages of color plates, a 54 card deck of model, spell and weapon cards, and an initial wave of 25 figures -- 3 units of 3 each (will be 5 minis with 3 sculpts per unit), 6 unit attachments (2 for each of the 3 units), and 10 solo models (probably 5 good and 5 evil). Hopefully to be released summer of 2011.

* The game probably won't actually have Orcs. Maybe. I dunno. Orcs are kinda boring.
** Kobolds either.

Where Did The Month Go?

2010-04-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Oh my, it's been almost a whole month since my last post. My writing class ended last week, but it was absorbing a lot of my time since then. I have got some painting done for my own collection -- I somehow got sucked back into the vortex of money-draining that is Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Warhammer 40k. So far I've painted up 10 Bloodletters, 10 Daemonettes, and 5 Pink Horrors, with more on the table. I'm also about half done on a Games Workshop "Temple of Skulls," the first pre-built terrain piece I've ever bought. In 23 years of gaming. So you know I was impressed by it.

But all of that, and blogging projects, are on hold at the moment because Black Primer Paint got its first commission! I'm currently working hard on painting up a 11th century Russian force in 15mm for a DBA player. These are the first pieces I've done in 15mm, and I was quite surprised by how nice they are. Especially the horses, of which there are quite a few. A lot of detail for something so small.

I feel a little bit behind on the commission, though I think I'm still on schedule for the time estimate I gave (and have a ton of free time this next week), so I won't be doing anything for the blog in the next week. But I definitely have some stuff in the works.

Also, work progresses on my miniatures game rules. I've moved away from my original post-apocalyptic vision more towards dark fantasy, mostly because I've been thinking of Mordheim a lot -- I just picked up the original box in mint condition off eBay (for $100!) -- and I've been thinking of making a more contemporary version of the game, since the original Mordheim rules are totally relics of the 80's and were born in a time when innovation in gaming was mostly dead (i.e. the 90's). I mean christ, they use an IGOUGO system! And random magic! Games Workshop designers are living proof that sensible rules design isn't what makes a games company successful.

And whoever came up with the random magic rule was on crack. That is so dumb.

Cygnar Gallery

2010-03-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is a gallery of my Cygnar forces for Warmachine. For army cohesion I've used Cygnar blue as the main color on all the models, and generally aimed for a American Revolutionary Army color scheme (with the addition of Cygnar Yellow), since it's clearly a source of inspiration for the Cygnar designs.

Battle Box (l. to r. Charger, Ironclad, Commander Stryker, and Lancer)

Journeyman Warcaster (Alt. Sculpt)

Sentinel Light Warjack

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

Stormsmiths

Arcane Mechanik and Gobber Bodger Assistant

Reaper Chronoscope "Sascha Dubois, Time Chaser"painted to match Cygnar forces

Unexpected Delay, Further Progress

2010-03-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I encountered a rather surprising difficulty today. I had intended to take an hour and finish the Scraphounds and Junkyard Dogs, but it turns out I'm out of the 30mm display bases that are used in Spinespur. So I went to my FLGS and...they didn't have any! Gasp! Shock! Horror! Now I have to wait forever and ever (by which I mean a week) to mail-order bunches more.

But it's okay. I decided for my post-apocalyptic games that I would use 25mm round bases as the standard, on account of the Shadowforge models being true 25mm and thus rather small to my eye. This is compounded a bit by the fact that they are all female, and thus somewhat smaller in stature to begin with. I would show some photos (they're lovely minis) but I've already primed them black and the photos I took are next to useless.

So my post-apocalyptic mutants are on 25mm rounds, and already based and primed, so I put down a base-coat this afternoon. I will be layering up paint on them all day, and hopefully around 10 pm or so I can kick into detailing mode and finish them up.

UPDATE: Not done yet, but coming along nicely

New Project, New Ideas, New Pics

2010-03-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

The Spinespur minis are coming along and will soon be finished. The Trauma Hounds came out very well, can't wait to show you all them. They're awesomely mad. On the table now are Aniel, Warriors of G.O.D., proxy Nightingales and Composites, all primed and a few with base coats. But in my mind that project is done. Done except for the painting and playing. Part of my brain has already moved on to new projects.

So one of the reasons I wanted to make the Scrapyards was that I wanted a good Post-Apocalyptic board. For years now I've been meaning to pick up some minis and vehicles and have some post-apocalyptic fun. So with post-apcoalyptic visions dancing in my head, I went out and rented a bunch of post-apocalyptic movies. Raiders of the Sun, Six-String Samurai, The Last Warrior and She-Wolves of the Wasteland. That last one reminded me of a much better film, The Sisterhood, which is one of my favorites in the genre.

As I was watching She-Wolves of the Wasteland, I was looking at various manufacturer's websites, thinking about minis and I took a stop at Shadowforge's site, specifically at the sci-fi range. Shadowforge, if you don't know, specializes in female miniatures. If you want to field an all female force they're pretty much the only people you can get full units with command groups and attachments from. Mostly fantasy, mostly "dungeon bunnies." But they fill a niche. There sci-fi range includes military sci-fi figures of the Politburo and some gangers, bounty hunters and very post-apocalyptic scavengers.

I'm also taking a writing course at the moment, and need to be writing. And the need to be writing, the movie, the miniatures. It all just congeal in a flash and I realized I had an idea for a game (basically a very heavily house ruled Spinespur), and that I could write the game and write fluff for it and my writing class. It was brilliant. And I would base the whole game around the Shadowforge minis that were available.

So I ordered a bunch of the Shadowforge minis. The Worker Battalion, the WB Command Group, and WB Heavy Weapons, and the Scavengers. I'm writing up background and setting fluff pieces (I can post some if anyone wants to read it, it's good (in my humble opinion)), hammering out the rules, and its clocking along very nicely. But at some point I realized I needed more factions than the Politburo and the Renegades (mix of Gangers and Scavengers), especially if I wanted the Politburo to seem like anything but pure evil. So I borrowed a trick from Warhammer 40k (and some minis). Want your fascist tyranny to seem like the good guys? You need chaos. You need mutants.

So I'm made some mutants. It was easy. Catachan Jungle Fighters, Genestealers, Chaos Conversion bitz, and Lizardmen, all from Games Workshop. Oh, and one arm from a Fenir from a Milton-Bradley HeroQuest mini. And I got mutants.

Sorry for the crap pix. Like I'm going to set-up a tripod to shoot unpainted plastic.

In the year 2123 there was a global cataclysm, followed by plague and famine. A virus broke out (or was it created?) that killed everything with a y-chromosone. A counter-virus was engineered. Called Chimera, it was worse than the disease. It's effects can only be describe as a global genetic holocaust. Now almost all mammalian life on Earth is gone. Mutants rule the earth. All that survives of humanity is one city, New Eden, and its population of roughly 200,000 women. And only women. At the heart of New Eden is the Hyperdyne Arcoplex, the world's first, last and only nanobuilding. Designed to survive anything, to be self-sufficient and self-repairing, and to home half a million people, it is the last home of womenkind. Dependent entirely on cloning technology they no longer understand, the fight a desperate struggle to stave off the End of Generations. Neat title, huh? Should be fun.

Obviously I won't be publishing it, but I'll make it available. And talk about it endlessly on this blog.

Scrapyard Scavengers

2010-03-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

I finished the proof-of-concept for the Scrapyard Scavengers. This is a Pig Iron Production Kolony Feral with a Kolony Militia Head and a cowl made from greenstuff. I primed the miniature with the Ruddy Brown primer, then did some detailing before applying the Antique Walnut magic dip. Some more detailing, including some weathering on the gun, and a drybrush of Chestnut Gold were followed by Testor's Dullcote.

And that is pretty much exactly what I was imagining. I can't recall what movie these guys are from, but I know the idea in my head is based on a half-memory of something from a Post-Apocalyptic movie. I think it was World Gone Wild. But I'm not sure.

He's cool looking either way. And it was quick, I should be able to get the other four done very quickly tomorrow.

Pictures From Game Night

2010-03-22T14:18:00.001-07:00

Braden gave me a disk full of images from the last Game Night, including a bunch of the Spinespur game I demo'd for everyone. Morgan and Rich played Slaughterhouse, Andrew and Eric played Uncorrupted.

l. to r. Rich, Morgan, Matt, Andrew

l. to r. Matt, Andrew, Eric, Ken (Gailbraithe)

She got some shots of the game, but they're not the greatest photos. We did the You Better Run scenario, except I changed the Men of G.O.D. agenda squad to a Uncorrupted Philosophy squad:

UNCORRUPTED SQUAD
31 Martin Greygun
15 Brother James
15 Brother Malcolm
61 Total

This was the third time I'd run this scenario, and the only time the Defender (Uncorrupted in this case) won was when I played them. My strategy in that game was to spread my forces as wide as possible, forcing Slaughterhouse to cast as wide a net as possible. When other people played the Defender, they choose to keep their force together, generally trying to use the Fists of G.O.D. as blockers to cover the central character's escape. This only works if Slaughterhouse falls for it and wastes resources engaging the blockers, but with the three weighted chains on Slaughterhouse's squad they can easily defeat this tactic.

Eric and Andrew tried to use this tactic, but Morgan and Rich got Elmo into base to base contact with Greygun and stopped his forward movement. Then Rufus toppled him with the weighted chain and dragged him to within 4" of a yet to be activated Pigskin.

"Get over here!"

Being prone within 4" of Pigskin meant he was easy pickings for a Death Drag/Practiced Butcher Combo. Already wounded by several earlier attacks, Martin went down for the count. After that it pretty much turned into a classic clusterf*ck.

The game highlight though came right after Brother Malcolm went down. Brother James turned so that he had Pigskin, Manny and Elmo all in his forward arc, with Greygun's corpse behind him. But Elmo wasn't actually engaged with James, and when it came his turn to activate, he took a 1" half-step action, followed by Scavenge half-action to pick up one of Greygun's dropped pistols, followed by a Distance Attack into the Unaware back of Brother James.

"Pow! Cap in your ass beyotch!"

Elmo truly lived up to his designation of "Thug." And thus ended the valiant but futile effort of the Uncorrupteds to escape the Slaughterhouse.

And hey, check this out. Matt is a sculptor.

I'm trying to convince him to work on some castable pieces for wargaming purposes. Because damn, that is some amazing stuff he does.

In The Land Of Make-Believe: A Spinespur Battle Report

2010-03-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

This is a battle report for the first game of Spinespur to take place on the new Scrapyards terrain board, a battle between the orphans of the Orphanage and goons from the Slaughterhouse. The players are myself (Ken), and my roommate (Eric). The scenario is Survival, set in the The Scrapyards, with the following force compositions:

THE ORPHANAGE (KEN)
30 Billy Burns
22 Amy Brighteyes
11 Granny's Helpers
63 Total

SLAUGHTERHOUSE (ERIC)
41 Pigskin
13 Manny (Shackler)
8 Elmo (Bludgeoning Thug)
62 Total

IN THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE

"This is far enough," Billy said as he looked around at the heaps of junk and walls of cars that dotted the landscape. They had been running all morning, keeping just ahead of Pigskin and his men. The butcher had spotted them in his fields playing "Children of the Corn" with his farmhands. He hated it when they did that. Pigskin was no fun at all.

Amy looked at him expectantly. According to Amy, she was his girlfriend. Billy wasn't so sure he wanted a girlfriend, or even if he knew what to do with one, but he'd learned pretty quickly that whatever Amy said was so, and if it wasn't, well you better act like it was if you knew what was best for you. Amy had said that his job as her boyfriend was to take her on dates and entertain her, so that's what he was doing. Amy didn't find running very entertaining, and he could tell her patience was wearing thin.

"Okay, so this is the new game," Billy said as he climbed onto the back of a rusted out heap. "I'm the King and Amy is the Queen. The rest of you are my Knights. Out there in the Magical Kingdom of Trash is a great big ogre and his little ogre brothers. They want to kidnap the Queen, and we have to stop them? Sound like fun?"

Amy squealed with delight and clapped her hands. "Oh, I love this game!"

The rest of the gang quickly nodded. If Amy liked the game, they liked the game. "Okay, let's go."

Billy turned and ran back in the direction they'd come, bounding up the side of massive tire pile to get a better view. Off through the stacks of rusting cars and decaying junk he caught sight of one of Pigskin's men. "I see you!"

"I see you!" yelled Billy.

Pigskin's soldier shouted for his boss and began moving towards the gang of kids. Billy whistled and pointed towards a gap in the junk, and the other kids rushed forward to fill it, readying their slingshots. As they came through the gap one of Pigskin's soldiers came into view and they unloaded into him. He howled in rage, rushing towards them, swinging a baseball bat. The kids scattered to either side to reveal Amy.

Amy was twirling around, her skirt flaring out around her as she sang some nonsense song. She looked up into the big bug eyes of the man's gasmask and her eyes flashed brightly. "Dance with me!" she said with a laugh, spinning a pirouette.

The baseball bat trembled in the man's hands for a moment before he smashed it violently against his face. Amy laughed, a tinkling little titter, as he smashed the bat against his face again and again, shattering the lens of his mask and knocking it from his now broken face. He was screaming, begging for it to stop, and then he fell silently to the ground and twitched. Amy continued dancing.

The man Billy had spotted appeared around the other side of the heap. He swung a weighted chain and sent it crashing into the group of kids, plucking little Molly from their midst and dragging her towards him. A second later and Pigskin himself appear, but as his own chain was thrown the gang broke apart and scattered, fleeing into the safety of the scrap piles.

"You cowards!" Billy screamed as they ran. "That's no way for knights to act!"

Pigskin was twirling his chain again, his eyes fixed on Billy's position. The chain flashed out and Billy narrowly dodged it, bounding down the side of the tire pile. As he leaped he felt his anger growing and the fire stirring. He brought it to his hand, filling it with flame. With a casual flick of the wrist he sent a fireball hurtling towards Pigskin. The butcher scrambled back too late and burst into flame.

"Stop it!" screamed Amy from his left, and with a quick glance Billy saw that the shackler was trying to catch her up in his chains. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"

Veins were throbbing in the shackler's face, blood trickling down from his nose and ears, his eyes filling with red as he tried to take aim on the little devil girl. Suddenly his eyes went wide with terror as he raised his hands and wrapped his chain around his throat, pulling it tight. His face turned red, his eyes bulged and then it was over.

Pigskin was running around like a madman, unable to douse the flames. He rushed at Billy, but the boy threw him back with a blast of explosive force. He dived out of the way, but it gave Billy the opportunity to run to Amy's side.

"We should get out of here!"

"But I'm not done playing!" She pouted and stomped her foot. Turning to Pigskin she broke into a wicked smile. "Dance with me!"

Pigskin flipped his big blade arond and stabbed it into his leg without a pause. Only after the blade hit bone did he seem to realize what he'd done. He screamed in rage and, still on fire and angrier than Billy had ever seen him, lashed out with his chain, catching Billy in the side and dragging him towards the butcher. Why they never went for Amy was beyond Billy's comprehension.

"I'm gonna split you open and make cutlets out of you!" he shouted as he raised his chopper.

"Leave my boyfriend alone!" Amy screamed, her eyes flashing, and while Pigskin's hand hesitated he kept his attention on Billy. Amy's eyes went wide and she let out an indignant huff. "That's not what you're supposed to do!"

Billy twisted and turned, narrowly dodging the knife. He was bleeding bad, the chain had ripped him open good, and he knew he would survive another blow from the butcher. He wanted to unleash the fire to its full potential, but Amy was standing right by him. Pigskin raised the knife again, readying it to cleave through Billy's skull, and he let go. The fire exploded out of him, sending Pigskin hurtling back. The massive brute twitched for a moment, still smouldering, and then collapsed with an angry moan and died.
Billy panted, clutching his side where the hook had caught him. He'd won, he noted with a small rush of pride. He turned back to Amy, a smile about to form on his lips. She was rising to her feet, dusting herself off. Her face was black with soot and her dress was still smoldering. She looked unhappy. Dangerously unhappy.

"Oh, uh, sorry about..." Billy said, but he knew it was too late. "Please Amy, don't-"

Amy's eyes flashed and Billy felt the fire growing inside him. It exploded out along his arms and legs, burning him alive as Amy took control of his power and turned it against him. He fell to the ground a smoking and charred corpse. At least he'd have a few days to himself he thought.

THE END

FINAL SCORE

Orphanage
8 Killed Elmo
13 Killed Manny
41 Killed Pigskin
62 Victory Points

Slaughterhouse
11 Killed Granny's Helpers
11 Victory Points

This was a very fun game. Amy Brighteyes is the scariest little girl ever. Eric had no idea what the orphans did, and passed on the opportunity to read their cards before the game, preferring to play it "real" and learn as they used their abilities. His jaw almost dropped off when I described what Amy did to Elmo. Or, more specifically, what Elmo did to himself.

Billy Burns is a freak. He defines "glass cannon." But oh, what a cannon he is. All in all, the Orphans are very fun to play. I can't wait until I have enough miniatures to field a larger squad. All of the units are very fragile, and having more Granny's Helpers and some Thugs to absorb some damage would be very nice.

Orphans may quite possibly be my favorite squad ever.

The Completed Scrapyards Terrain Board

2010-03-21T01:08:00.000-07:00

It's done!

For a project I started two weeks ago, this came together very quickly and easily. Especially given that my allergies were acting up all week. Not as fast as I wanted, but in retrospect there was really no way I was going to get this done in a week.

Here are some lovely and very large photos of the complete Scrapyard Terrain Board, featuring Pigskin and his boys walking into an ambush by Martin Greygun.

Whew. Well, I'm ready to take a week off. But I have painting to get done!

Sludge Pits

2010-03-20T01:59:00.000-07:00

While the Sniperwrecks, Wreckwalls and Junkheaps give a nice variety of scenery, they're all essentially the same in terms of game effect: LOS-blocking hard cover. Great for melee units that need to take advantage of cover to close with gun-toting opponents, not so great for the gun-toters. What they want is terrain the slows down opponents while leaving LOS clear.

Over on the TMP forums 28mm Man suggested "sludge pits," and I dug the idea. Big oozy pits of oozy goodness. I also want to add some color to the otherwise monochrome board, so I'm going to go with bright green slime. Of course, where there is bright green slime, there must be leaking drums. I'm going to need a lot of leaking drums, so this is good opportunity to do some casting.

Here's our ingredient list: Alumilite White, Alumilite Yellow, legos, some plastic bits to make vents and pouring funnel, a couple of 4 oz. measuring cups, some dixie cups and (not pictured) some non-hardening clay, such as Sculpy. Also needed is an object to cast, in this case an O-scale 55 gallon drum from Scenic Effects.

In this shot you can see the drum and the plastic bits better, set into the Sculpy. The topmost piece is the vent, and needs to be placed to allow air bubbles to escape the mold. The piece connected directly to the top of the drum is the pour channel. I made mine from a lego piece and two pieces of Plastruct tubing, one bigger than the other. Once you've pressed the Sculpy in place and set your casting items, add another layer of legos.

Yes, my legos are pink. You got a problem with that?

The next step is to mix up a ball (about 1" diameter) of the Aluminite Yellow and press it into the mold. Let it cure for twenty to thirty minutes and then break down the legos. With the pieces set in place flip the mold over and coat it with olive oil or a proper expensive mold release. I use olive oil because it's cheap and I always have it on hand for cooking. Once the mold is coated, make another ball of Aluminite yellow and press it into mold. Now you have a two piece mold. You can find a more detailed article on the process of making a two-part mold at Dakka Dakka.

You can repeat the process several times and make multiple molds. I made one mold like this, and two that are one piece molds with two drum impressions.

Here's why. When you mix up the Aluminite white, you'll fill one of the two measuring cups with Part A to the 1/4 oz. mark, the lowest mark on the cup. Then you'll pour Part B in the second cup to the same depth. You want to get as close to exactly even proportions as you can, so you always want to fill to a measuring line. Mix the two together in a Dixie cup, that way you can just throw it away when you're done.

Pour Part A into the Dixie cup first. Part A has a higher viscosity than Part B, and takes longer to pour. So if you pour it from the measuring cup into the Dixie cup first, you can get every last drop. Once they're mixed, you can crease the lip of the Dixie cup by squeezing it gently and create a nice pour spout.

Because we're casting such a small part, this is way more than we need, so the excess is poured into the one piece molds. If there isn't enough to fill the mold, that's okay. These half-drums will be "buried," so it really doesn't matter how big they are.

Once the Aluminite White has set, you can demold it and start a new batch.

A quick bit of work with an xacto knife and you'll soon have the start of a very large collection of drums and half-drums.

Now it's time to whip out the hot glue gun and stick them on a terrain round. As you can see, I've clustered the full drums at one edge of the soon-to-be pool, and intimated a ring of half drums buried in the muck.

Next I use some Loctite 5-Minute Epoxy Putty, one of my favorite products. While too coarse for most modeling applications, it's a superior filler that dries quickly into a hard, stone-like substance. It's excellent for applications like this. What I've done is mix up a small ball (about 3/4" diameter) and pushed it into the gaps between the drums, even making a long ridge where the gap was large enough to fit several drums. I used a popsicle stick broken in half to press it into place, leaving a very rough texture all over the putty. The goal here is to ensure that there is an unbroken raised ring around the edge of the round, so that when we pour the clear resin into place it doesn't immediately flow right off the edge of the round.

The next step is to paint the Sludge Pit up. By now the process should be quite familiar. A coat of the Ruddy Brown primer, followed by a wash of the Antique Walnut minwax, and then drybrushed with the Autumn Brown poster paint. In addition to drybrushing, I also painted the entire pool area with the Autumn brown.

Next I squeeze out a fat dollop of yellow poster paint into the center of the pool area, while the Autumn Brown is still wet.

Blend outward from the center, so that it's brightest at the deepest points of the pool. You can skip this step if you plan on messing up the next step like I'm going to.

Now its time to assembled the ingredients for the Sludge. We have a clear casting poly resin from Castin' Craft, another Dixie cup, some Clear Green from Reaper's Master Series, and some decorative glass marble things from Jo-Ann Fabrics floral department.

It's not easy being green.

Mix the paint and the resin -- but not the catalyst!! -- in the Dixie cup. If you use a paint other than Reaper's make sure it's a CLEAR paint. The Clear series from Reaper has only tint, no hue, so it won't make the clear resin opaque, it will just tint it green. That is unless you do what I did, and add way too much. Then it will be fairly opaque. And you'll feel stupid for painting the bottom of the pool. As always, do a better job of it than I did.

Now add the catalyst. The thinner the layer of clear resin you're making, the more catalyst you want to use. Mix it quickly then pour. Once you've poured the resin into the pool, plop a couple of the marble things into the pool to form giant bubbles on the surface. Now let it set overnight. Make sure you leave it somewhere with good ventilation, preferably outside. As my roommate put it: "That thing looks almost as toxic as it smells."

Junkheaps

2010-03-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

No true scrapyard is complete without large piles of rotting machinery and industrial slag lying around looking like a tetanus shot waiting to happen. So the final stage in completing the Scrapyards board is naturally to create some slag piles.

The first step is collecting a bunch of junk. A trip to Goodwill scored me several constructable toys, including a large bag of Robotix bits and some Lego motorcycle things, as well as bags of hot wheels. To this I added more bits from the harddrives my roommate disassembled, as well as the remains of some old instamatic cameras he salvaged for the optics. The great thing about this project is just about anything can be used. To the pile I added some scrap balsa wood bits and pieces, and I threw in some spare Plastruct tubes, rods and corner joints.

I sorted the pieces out into two large piles. One of these piles I spray painted with the Ruddy Brown primer.

The other pile got black primer followed by Gunmetal.

To age the wood I mixed a small amount of india ink with tap water and soaked the balsa wood bits in it overnight.

This gave the wood some interesting stains and discolorations. Try using something other than india ink, like maybe coffee or tea, tell me what kind of results you get.

I also found an old coffee can full of rusted metal bits in my dad's garage. I'm going to save some of these pieces for later projects, but tossing in some random chunks of real rusting metal could work out well.

So now I've assembled everything into one place. Time to make industrial slag salad. Dump everything into a large mixing bowl and mix it all together.

For the "dressing," I'm using a mix of 2 parts white glue and 1 part water. I used a whole 32 oz. bottle of Elmer's, and two cups of water, mixed up in a juice jug. I poured it in, then just dug in with my hands and mixed it all up. Obviously you'll want to wear gloves.

I laid out a half dozen terrain rounds on to sticks (so the overflowing glue doesn't weld them to the painting surface) and used a slotted spoon to scoop out the junk and dump it on. The spoon didn't work as neatly as I had hoped, and so I had to do a lot of hand shaping to get everything piled up in a stable manner. After I was done filling rounds I drained out the remaining glue and dug through the left over junk, fishing out any small bits, tubs, and rods I could find and adding them to the bases.

Once they were dry(ish), I gave them a thin coat of the minwax Antique Walnut and followed it up with some drybrushing with the Autumn Brown. Voila! After a week's worth of work, I have transformed a single giant pile of crap into four smaller piles of crap! Wait a minute...

Introducing...TONK!

2010-03-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Tonk is a giant robot wrecking machine that dwells deep in the Scrapyards, savagely attacking anything that stumbles too near. Built in the early 70s, Tonk looks like the result of a crossbreeding program involving bulldozers and gorillas. Tonk is not a member of any faction and cannot join squads. Tonk appears randomly in the Scrapyard and indiscriminately attacks the closest thing to him.

Tonk is a Privateer Press "Renegade" warjack mounted on a 40mm resin "trash" base from Micro Art Studios painted to match my Scrapyards board. He is the first of three random encounters I am planning for the Scrapyards board. Also on the drawing board are a pack of six junkyard dogs (Vendel Miniatures "uncollared mastiffs") and a band of scavengers (converted Pig Iron Productions "kolony ferals").

Storing and Transporting Your Terrain

2010-03-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hey, want to know another reason why CD-based terrain is such a great idea? It's easy to store and protect. How's that, you ask? Simple. Just go to ebay and search for empty CD cake boxes. You'll find them for pretty cheap. Not quite as cheap as you'd get from the manufacturer, but you won't have to order 10,000 of them (trust me, I looked into it). Since most of us don't have batcaves under our houses where we can store 10,000 of something, ebay is the best source of deals.

A few seconds work with a hacksaw to remove the spindle, and presto. Instant protective case for your terrain rounds. With pieces like the Sniperwrecks, where the center hole isn't covered over, you can leave a bit of the spindle sticking up to keep the terrain round really stable. The cake boxes come in four sizes: 10, 25, 50 and 100 CD boxes. The 50 boxes will serve you best, but the 10's and 25's are useful for small, flat terrain and the 100's are great for pieces with trees. Toss a handful of packing peanuts in before you put the terrain in and you can keep fragile pieces from wobbling around.

Wreckwalls

2010-03-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Before I dive into this, I want to say a few words about Krylon Ruddy Brown Primer. I hate it! Oh sure, it's a nice, rich color and when it goes on, it goes on smooth, coats well, and has a lot in its favor. When it goes on. But here's the thing: Between the Sniperwrecks, the Terrain Board, the Terrain Rounds, and the Wreckwalls, I'm using a lot of this primer. A lot. A can and half already, and still more to go. But I've had to buy five cans. You know why? Because 3 of those 5 cans did not work. Two of them simply wouldn't spray. At all. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. The third can sprayed fine for a test spray, and then as soon as I pointed it at the model it belched forth a short stream of chunky paint the same consistency as snot then refused to work any further. I'm sorry Krylon, but when your product has a greater than 50% epic fail rate, you suck. You hear me Krylon? YOU SUCK.

Anyhoo, the Wreckwalls are finished. As I mentioned in the Terrain Rounds post, I also covered 36"x2" of basswood (available in any hobby/hardware store) with the Kel-Seal mix. Specifically it was four strips of basswood, each 2" wide. One is 18" long, the other three are 6" each. These became bases for the Wreckwalls.

Constructing the Wreckwalls isn't really any different than making the Sniperwrecks. Exactly the same ingredients. Less involved if anything, since you don't have to cut off any bits from the Hot Wheels. It's like the difference between an omelet and scrambled eggs. Same ingredients, much easier to put together. Just smash them up a bit and they're good to go. Caving in the roof is the best plan, since this give the car the flattened look of a processed wreck and give it almost a brick like shape, easy for building walls. Just lay them out as you want them, then get out hot glue gun and go to town. As you can see, I went for a three car high stack. Two cars are all you really need to block LOS, but I wanted the walls to tower over the miniatures. And again, the scale problems inherent in using Hot Wheels are greatly mitigated by the monochromatic paint job and excessive bashing.

My cars are up on blocks. I must be a redneck.

Once they are assembled, spray coat them with the Ruddy Brown primer (or you could learn from my misadventures and try a different brand), then a heavy coat of the Antique Walnut polyurethane stain. I didn't have any mineral spirits when I made the Sniperwrecks, so I ruined my staining brush (now it's my staining block). I forgot to pick up a new brush, and tried to use a foam brush to apply the stain. BAD IDEA. It went on far too heavy, got poor flow, and pooled all over the base. Do a better job than I did, do it right. Mine came out too heavy and I'm a bit unhappy with them.

Still, once they dried and were drybrushed, they look nice and more than good enough for terrain pieces. As you can see below they aren't a perfect match for the Sniperwrecks, being just a bit darker. I also tossed together a random pile of cars and some other junk for variety. And clearly I need to give the tire pile a bit of the magic dip, because that's an awfully shiny pile of brand new tires for a junkyard.

Click for much, much larger image.

Terrain Rounds

2010-03-14T16:50:00.001-07:00

While I wasn't able to finish the project in time for game night (i.e. last night), I haven't abandoned it by any means. We do game night roughly once a month, holidays and life permitting, so I want to be sure this stuff is ready by next game night! It's for the best, give's me enough time to do things right rather than half-assed and rushed.

It turns out I had no chance of finishing the project by yesterday anyways, since I'm waiting on these resin "broken tiles" bases from Armorcast to finish off my Institution forces. I was expecting them Monday, and instead I got a notice from Armorcast that they had been "reshipped." Grumble grumble! Oh well. Them's the hazards of doing mail order. While I wait for my bases (and more miniatures) to arrive, I thought I'd get closer to finishing working on the terrain.

These are actually DVDs. They're all copies of "White Chicks."

So the first thing to do is create some bases for my terrain pieces. As you may have noticed I am a fan of basing terrain on CDs. I like CDs because they're easy and quick to layout, easy to store, and look nice on the board. Like with the Sniperwrecks, I just spray them down with some black primer to reduce the shine. While I didn't bother with the Sniperwrecks, this time I stuck a small square of black electrical tape over the hole on the "underside" of the CD. It makes the next step much easier, and gives more options when you actually stick terrain on the round.

Next I mix up some Kelly-Moore Kel-Seal and "Beautiful Brown Eyes" latex paint from ACE Hardware. This time I mixed it in a sealable container. It stores pretty well, but tends to separate a bit, so mix it throughly each time you use it. This is about four cups of kel-seal and 1/2 cup of paint, and after doing 10 CDs and 36"x2" of basswood I had enough left over to do another set of the same size. This Kel-Seal stuff is freaking awesome. I love it.

So I used a trowel to spread the kel-seal mix over the CDs and set them out to dry. It was raining hard and quite cold so they took almost twice as long to dry as the terrain board. Once they were dry and it stopped raining, I took them outside and went over them lightly with the ruddy brown primer. I've got pretty involved plans for a bunch of them. At least one of my ideas was pretty damn simple though.

Hot glue + tires = 2 minute terrain project

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow night I'll have a lot of cool stuff to post. I'm working on slag piles and junkyard walls. Getting very close to being able to fill the board with sufficient junk to sell the idea of an endless wasteland of junk.

It's like America, but in miniature.

God Doesn't Want This To Happen.

2010-03-10T00:43:00.000-08:00

I'm never going to finish this by Saturday. The universe is conspiring against me. My mom wanted to go to a movie on Sunday, so I couldn't get to the store to get supplies, then Monday was a wash due to class. I managed to get started on my Institution force Monday night, but a cold snap made it impossible to prime anything, and then I used to much retarder in my leather brown mix and each coat took for ever to dry. Today I got nothing done due to work, and tonight I can't paint due to an allergy attack that is making painting impossible.

And then just as if to drive the point home, I just put a wash on my stupid Trauma Hounds...and it removed the entire base coat of leather brown and ruined the figures.

I give up.

Chrono-Salvagers, The Crew

2010-03-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

The Chrono-Salvagers
This crew of steampunks travels through time and space rescuing objects of historical significance from destruction. Their captain hails from Earth-23, a world where Jules Verne and H.G.Wells were not writers, but scientists who invented all manner of incredible devices, including the (flying, submersible, space-worthy) timeship the crew uses. Whether it be evacuating the contents of the Library of Alexandria or preventing the loss of countless works by the masters of European art during the bombing of Berlin, the Chrono-Salvagers constantly plunge into the heart of history's greatest battles, all while being doggedly pursued by agents of the sinister Alliance for Temporal Stability.

Reaper Chronoscope's Sascha DuBois, Time Chaser

This is Captain Sarah Douglas, formally of the Alliance for Temporal Stability. Currently she is a wanted fugitive. Growing tired of the hypocrisy and manipulations of the ATS, she stole a timeship and recruited a crew from across time and space. Captain Douglas prefers words over bullets, and lives by the philosophy "walk softly and carry a big stick."

Privateer Press's Croe of Croe's Cutthroats

Calum Black hails from the 16th century (Earth-62), where he lead a band of merry bandits raiding the Scottish countryside and generally making hell for the British. Captain Douglas saved him the gallows, and made him the first mate of her crew. Fiercely loyal to the Captain, Black is the big stick that Douglas uses when words don't work. His favorite weapon is his great claymore, but he also carries a .45 automatic at his hip.

Privateer Press's Valeria Alvaro, Ordic Pistoleer

Francesca Alvarez is a gunslinger and bank robber from 19th century Mexico (Earth-08), the uneducated and simple daughter of a poor farmer killed by greedy land speculators. She and her partner Gabriella were heroes of the people, stealing from villainous robber barons and giving back to the poor. Captured outside Mexico City, Douglas saved them both the night before their execution. Her (and Gabrielle's) weapons are not simple flintlocks, but rather sophisticated energy weapons built by the finest scientists of the alternate England from which Captain Douglas hails.

Privateer Press's Taryn di la Rovissi

Unlike her partner Francesca, Gabrielle Sandoval was educated in the finest schools in Spain. None of her wealth and status meant anything after her father was murdered and his property stolen by an American banker. She joined Francesca and began a legendary crime spree across Mexico.

Hasslefree Miniature's Ray

Rounding out the crew is Ray Douglas, Sara's great, great, great grand-nephew from the 20th century (Earth-12), whom she snatched up from his cushy little job as a collections curator for his knowledge of lost antiquities. He's a bit in-over-his-head, but he has a shotgun and a cricket bat. So he's alright.

The Race Is On

2010-03-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

So I just found out that some friends are having a game night on Saturday, and they'd like me to demo Spinespur. I can do the You Better Run! game again, but my preference would be to demo something I haven't already played. I'd like to get a Scrapyards scenario together for then. To pull that off, I'll need to paint roughly 24 miniatures and build at least six or seven more terrain pieces. With hopefully at least one larger, central terrain piece. And I have a budget of about $50 unless a miracle happens. So this is going to be interesting.

Here's the plan, taking into account I have class Monday and Thursday nights:

Sunday: Paint my Institution forces (9 minis).
Monday: Make rubble and slag piles.
Tuesday: Paint my Thugs (8 minis).
Wednesday: Complete the Shitcorn Refinery terrain piece.
Thursday: Paint my Men of G.O.D. forces (4 minis) and Orphan proxies (4 figures).
Friday: Make cards for all the characters I've painted, finish painting.

Oh yeah. This will be fun.

Scrapyards Terrain Board

2010-03-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

The Scrapyards terrain project continues as I construct the actual terrain board itself. After reading Alfrik's articles (Armored Ink) on using Kel-Seal for terrain construction, I decided to try it myself. See my first terrain board, a dry river bed with a ruined fortress, came out very nice (still not perfect) but cost me almost $200 (most of that being matte medium) and...well, let's just say a lot of blood, sweat and especially tears went into that project.

Site of many a Warmachine battle.

One thing I definitely learned from that project was the value of movable terrain pieces. While the river bed is beautiful and works for many scenario types and many different, interesting battles...it is still always a river bed. That gets annoying. So this Scrapyards board is going to be flat, featureless, and cheap(er). All said and done I think I spent about $50 on this one.

The ingredients: A 8'x2'x2" board of blue insulation foam, cut into two 4'x2'x2" boards and then glued together with carpenter's glue. Edge wrapped in duct tape to protect during construction, it'll be replaced later.

Over that goes the base coat, again thanks to Alfrik for the idea. I used Kelly-Moore's textured, spreadable Kel-Seal (not the brushable kind) mixed with a rich, chocolate brown latex paint. About 3 parts Kel-Seal to 1 part paint. The specific color I used was "Beautiful Brown Eyes," which I got at ACE Hardware. I mixed it up in a cheap plastic pail and spread it with a cheap plastic trowel.

Once that dried (about 24 hours), I took the ruddy brown primer I used on the sniperwrecks and spray painted roughly one third of the board with a thick coat, lightly overspraying another third, and leaving the last third bare. I say thirds like I divided it evenly, but I was going for a mottled pattern. Once the primer was dry, I put down a layer of the antique walnut poly-stain and let it dry. Here's a photo of it taken in the extremely poor light of my backyard.

To finish off the board, I knew I would need to drybrush it. I don't like drybrushing very large surfaces, because I tend to brush too heavily on areas I have to stretch to reach. I haven't seen anyone do any experiments with sponges, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I've used sponges on furniture to great effect. So I took the Autumn Brown creamcoat I used on the sniperwrecks, poured it into a tray, and lightly wetted a painter's sponge.

My first experiments with the sponge had a less than desirable effect. Dabbing it like I was doing furniture left very little paint on the board with a very distinctively rectangular edge and very little in the center. The textured surface of the sponge and the kel-seal were not playing well together. Quickly though I discovered that if I simply rubbed the sponge over the board -- like a scouring pad -- it very quickly highlighted the texture. This did tend to apply the paint too thickly over the smoothest areas of the board though, but I found that rolling the clean backside of the sponge over these areas picked up most of the paint and left it with a very nice texture.

This is what a barren waste looks like. Kind of boring.

Dante Hayte wanders the desert. Like Caine, in Kung Fu.

Now I'm off to Flikr to look at pictures of junkyards and landfills.

Sniperwrecks: Auto Wreck Sniper Point

2010-03-05T23:32:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm building a Scrapyards terrain board for Spinespur. The Scrapyards are a seemingly endless wasteland of rubbish, slag, junk and trash. I'm drawing my inspiration for this board from some childhood memories of living in Southern California, in Imperial County. I live up on Santa Rosa mountain.

Down in the valley below one could find the Salton Sea, a completely dead body of salt and water surrounded by a desert more devoid of life than usual. The combination of the salt and heat would break down the toughest structures, and the area was pocked with junkyards full of salt-corroded and rusted hulks all covered in a fine silt.

Up along Highway 74, where I lived, the boulders were so iron-rich they turned rust red over the centuries, with tannish streaks where they chipped and cracked. Cars would run off the highway and fall into the mountain ravines, and the desert heat would strip the unrecoverable wrecks of their body panels and interiors. All that would be left would be the frame, a broken engine, a bent transmission. All of it the same rich red-brown as the rocks as it rusted under the harsh sun.

The descriptions of the Scrapyards in the Spinespur book reminded me of this area, being desolate and empty, devoid of anything of value. A wasteland in every sense. With that in mind, I began creating terrain pieces. The first piece I envisioned was a sniper's perch built from sagging stacks of rusted out cars. An auto wreck sniper point, or sniperwreck. This would also be usable in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

First, I assembled the materials I would need. We have Talus in fine, medium and coarse grades. Arleen's Tacky Glue, Krylon ruddy brown primer, Duplacolor black primer, a CD, several hot wheels style cars including at least one truck or van, and a pile of industrial scrap. This pile consists of some arms salvaged from busted hard drives and a transistor board from an old stereo that I took a hammer to. You'll also need a glue gun, some poly-stain (I used Minwax antique walnut), and a top coat. I used some poster paint, "Autumn Brown." Any warmish tan color will do.

Next I spray prime the CD black. This will give a dark ground and reduce the shine from the CD.

While that dries, I prepare the cars. The hot wheels are really too small for 28mm, let alone the 32mm of Spinespur, and too big for 15mm, but the scale issue isn't so meaningful by the time we're done smashing them. Also, I got 45 of the things for $20 at Goodwill. Dirt cheap.

Preparing them means bashing on them with a hammer until they're nice and wrecked looking. I smashed one of the sedans (blue) to almost flat and removed the undercarriage, hot gluing some window chunks and splayed wheel back on. The other three sedans had their tail ends removed with a band saw. You can also use a hacksaw or a hobby saw. Save the tail end pieces!

Next I use the hot glue gun to attach the cars and some junk to the CD. Put the van or truck in the center, this gives your sniper a place to stand and get a good view. Next down are the three chopped sedans. Those chopped ends are glued to the CD, with a little blob to ensure the cars "lean" against the truck. The front ends form a rough wall for your sniper to hide behind.

The flattened car gets placed to serve as a step, or under the van if its not high enough. The severed tail ends can also be placed as additional steps, making it easier for the sniper to ascend. In Spinespur stairs are as easy to navigate as open ground, but climbing introduces difficulties and dice rolls; I wanted to clearly indicate this is a "walk-up." Finally some slag from the circuit board and the drive arm are glued down. The snipped wires will become pipes poking out from the ground, the resistor a large barrel, the drive arm some abandoned machinery.

After making a temporary pan of aluminum foil, I paint all the visible surfaces of the CD with some very slightly watered down Arleen's tacky glue; thinned just enough to brush on, but not runny. Some larger talus is placed strategically around the cars and truck to hide any messy patches of hot glue, and then I pour a handful of medium talus followed by a handful of fine talus. Pouring in this order will give you the most natural looking rock piles, as each successively finer layer will fill any gaps between the larger pieces as nature intended. Give it an hour to set and shake it off, pouring any excess into a tub.

It should look something like this now. Take it out back, and spray it down with the ruddy brown primer. Any rust color will do. You want to spray it just heavy enough that you can't tell what color the cars once were. Don't worry about the windows, they'll just be caked with dust and dirt.

As you can see, I've switched to an earlier model (before I realized I had that stereo) while the other one dries. I've drybrushed this one heavily with the Autumn Brown creamcoat.

Next comes a layer of the polyurethane stain. I let them both dry over night, and then I drybrush them with the Autumn Brown again. Finally I hit them with a few blasts from a can of acryllic matte sealer and presto -- two Sniperwrecks!

Privateer Press's Taryn di la Rovissi shown for scale.

You Better Run: A Spinespur Battle Report

2010-03-04T20:58:00.001-08:00

This is a battle report for my first game of Spinespur, a battle between the Men of G.O.D. and the Slaughterhouse. Think Men In Black versus Texas Chainsaw Massacre and you've got the basic idea. The scenario is The Better Part of Valor, set in the The Tainted Fields, with the following force compositions:

MEN of G.O.D.
30 Brother Aniel (using Hasslefree's Ray as a proxy)
15 Brother James (Fist of G.O.D.)
15 Brother Malcolm (Fist of G.O.D.)
60 Total

SLAUGHTERHOUSE
41 Pigskin
13 Rufus (Shackler)
13 Manny (Shackler)
8 Elmo (Bludgeoning Thug)
75 Total

Pictures of these miniatures (all painted by me, of course):

Brother Malcolm and Brother JamesPigskinElmo
Rufus and Manny

YOU BETTER RUN!

James panted heavily, trying to catch his breath. Brother Malcolm knelt beside him, equally exhausted from the days ordeals. Both looked with pride to their leader, Aniel, who had engineered their escape from the butcher's holding pen, found their weapons, and set fire to the shitcorn refinery that dominated the Farm's eastern field to cover their escape. Now only a few pig sties and a patch of tainted corn separated them from freedom. Only an hour ago, James had been preparing himself for death. Now he believed he had a chance. He had faith in God, but even more than that, he had faith in Aniel.

The roar of a diesel engine dashed James' growing sense of hope. Even in the dark, from across the field, they could see the truck. A big rusted out hulk, belching noxious black clouds. Several men hopped out of it and James caught the silhouette of the slaughterhouse's terrifying leader, the maniac Pigskin. The cannibals began moving towards them, spreading out like a net and closing off their route of escape. James turned to Aniel, desperation threatening to choke the words in his throat. “What are we going to do, sir?”

Aniel's jaw was set hard as he looked out over the fields of corn. “We're going to do the only thing we can do, Brother James. We're going to pray. And then we're going to run for our lives.”

Aniel lead them in a quick and silent prayer, then gave them the signal to split up and move out. The soldiers nodded as they powered up their Sintech gauntlets and activated their force shields. James knew chances that all three would make it passed the cannibal pig farmers was slim, but better if they spread themselves out and forced their hunters to cast a wider net with fewer strands. In the distance they could hear the eager howls and grunts of Pigskin's men as they scrambled over the barbed wire fence. The night sky was suddenly pierced with crackling blue light as Aniel fired his conciliator pistol at Pigskin as the appear out of the cornfield. Before James eyes could adjust Aniel had already disappeared, dodging back behind the pig sty. James blinked as the corn rows loomed ahead of him, suddenly realizing his way was blocked by a dirty thug in a mud-stained army surplus jacket with a baseball bat. He was wearing a gasmask and James realized he was one of the men they'd seen working at the refinery. The whirl of a weighted chain whizzing over the long stalks of tainted corn announced the approach of one of Pigskin's shacklers, those ruthless herders who dragged the long pork to Pigskin's butcher block.

Aniel appear from the other side of the pig sty, firing his conciliator again. The whirl of the chain became a crash and a rattle as the chain fell loose and its wielder staggered back. The thug in the gasmask glanced over at wounded shackler, and James took advantage of their confusion, closing the gap between himself and the thug and slamming into him with the gauntlets.

In the distance he could hear Brother Malcolm shouting in frustration as he tangled with a second shackler's chain and tumbled to the ground.

Casually blocking the thug's swing, James swatted him down like a fly. Reaching out he grabbed the wounded shackler and squeezed. The massive Sintech gauntlet crushed the flailing farmhand like a ripe orange. James felt flush with victory, and glanced back at Aniel, only to see his leader cut off by Pigskin. The brute had slipped right past James, and wasn't falling for Aniel's attempts to keep the pig sty between them.

A scream in the distance shattered what was left of James confidence. For a moment he almost thought they'd escaped, but as the second shackler emerged from the corn rows, his pig bone blades dripping with Brother Malcolm's blood, James knew all was lost.

Aniel was shouting at him, telling him to run. It was too late for Aniel. Pigskin had seen through his ruse and caught him in the open. The butcher lashed out with his great meat hook, the chain sailing through the air until its wicked tip caught Aniel's shoulder.

"Get over here!" Pigskin shouted as he dragged Aniel to him, his massive blade dropping with mortal effect. Aniel was struggling futilely, flailing against Pigskin with his now empty conciliator. It would be over in seconds, the butcher was far too skilled at cleaving meat from bone for anyone to survive his ministrations.

James turned and ran.

Obviously a stunt double.

FINAL SCORE

Men of G.O.D.
13 Killed Manny
8 Killed Elmo
30 Brother James Escaped
51 Victory Points

Slaughterhouse
30 Killed Aniel
15 Killed Brother Malcolm
45 Victory Points

A hollow victory at best for the Men of G.O.D., but a very satisfying game for all involved. True to the maker's word, Spinespur has a very cinematic feel full of story potential. It really did have a sense of a (rather bizarre) low-budget horror film. I'm looking forward to playing more games, and am currently working on some terrain for a Scrapyards board. I'm thinking a survive-the-clock scenario featuring Martin Greygun as the hunted, and the Orphange as the hunters...

In Spinespur, this is a hero...

...and these are the bad guys.

Oh, Spinespur. You're so very wrong.

'Nam Specialists

2010-03-04T02:22:00.000-08:00

So this is how unfamiliar with 15mm I am: I went to American Eagles today and picked up a few blisters of some 15mm soldiers from RAFM's Nam line. Which are apparently long out of print, having been replaced by RAFM's Charlie Company. Both of these are 20mm lines. I didn't even know there was a 20mm scale. But yup, these are 20mm to the eyeline. I pulled out a ruler and checked. ETA: According to the guys at TMP, this line is now being published by Platoon 20.

I painted them anyways. I need to get better at photographing these things, because the photo doesn't do them justice. They look gorgeous on the table.

The blister I opened was US Army Specialists, and contained 8 20mm American soldiers. Two have rocket launchers, three of them are crouching tunnel rats, one is a green beret (LRRP?), another has a moustache, and there's a photojournalist for Stars & Stripes.

If anyone wants these, drop me a line. They cost me $5, I spent 5 hours painting them, offer me whatever you think is fair.

Welcome to Black Primer Painting

2010-03-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

This is the official website for Black Primer Paint, a custom miniatures painting service. I offer high quality professional painting service for all types of wargames, specializing in top of the line fantasy and science-fiction 28mm.

What I can do for you: Black Primer Paint is a single-man operation, and to ensure I can do a regular turnaround (and prevent repetitive figure fatigue) I cannot commit to painting very large armies (at least not all at once), and so orders will be limited to several units only. I'll commit to up to 5 units of up to 10 figures per unit at a time.

I use Reaper Master Series and Privateer Press P3 paints, and paint in the 'Eavy Metal style over a black primer base. This gives the miniature a dark, heavy quality perfect for modern horror and dark sci-fi/fantasy. It is especially appropriate for Warmachine, Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Zombie hordes, post-apocalyptic survivors, and modern-era (20th century) military. You can view samples of my recent work below and throughout this blog. I charge a very reasonable rate for the quality level of painting you will receive.

All prices assume a standard human size 28mm model. Add 50% to the price for cavalry units and larger figures. Buyer assumes all shipping costs, and a small handling charge to cover the costs of packaging materials. You have multiple options for payment, including PayPal, check or money order, and credit card (cards will be billed to Schumacher Creative Services).

HERO - US$10 per figure (US$15 for large figures) - Appropriate for unit leaders, individuals, and star units, HERO paint jobs approach display quality, but they're painted for the table and will stand up under repeated play. HERO paint jobs receive standard basing as part of their cost. This is a Necrotech and Scrap Thralls unit painted to HERO quality with standard basing ($30), as are most of the miniatures you'll see on this site (including the Cygnar Battle Box above, which would $55 to paint, +4$ for the premium basing).

GRUNT - US$8 for the first figure in a unit, +US$5 for each additional unit (US$12 +US$8 for large figures) - A high quality paint job excellent for units (note the special unit pricing!). Here you won't get pupils in the eyes (though the eyes will be indicated!), and not every buckle will get treatment, but this will still be the envy of many a opposing player. The major difference is that with a Grunt paint job I make far more use of washes and dips to bring out detail, rather than the far more time consuming hand shading that HEROES get. This is the perfect level for those plastic miniatures, most older and old-school sculpts, and units that tend to spend little time on the table being appreciated. GRUNT paint jobs receive black basing as part of their cost. Here is part of a unit of Warmachine Mechanithralls painted to GRUNT quality with standard basing ($21).

ADDITIONS
Want to upgrade the basing on your miniature?

BLACK BASING - Comes standard on all miniatures painted by Black Primer Paint. I use kneadite epoxy resin to fill in any gaps in a standard slotta base, and paint the whole thing a nice gloss black. Very functional. FREE!

STANDARD BASING - I apply a thin layer of glue to the base, covering it with one of several choices of basing material. I can do grass, desert, snow, gravel, mud, and tarmac. +US$1 per figure, FREE with HERO paint job.

PREMIUM BASING - I go the extra mile, adding bits of static grass, talus and other nifty things to give a richly textured and realistic base that will draw as much attention as the paint job. I can do all kinds of themes, and love a good challenge. +US$2 per figure.

URBAN BASING - Have modern 20th century miniatures that need urban environment basing? You can go the easy route -- gravel or tarmac -- or you can choose this option. Here you get a custom crafted urban base. Want your miniature standing on a sidewalk? Stepping off a curb? A patio? A tiled floor? I can do that! +US$3 per figure.

SUPER PREMIUM BASING - This is almost a miniature in of itself! You choose a molded resin base, I pin the model to it in as dramatic pose as possible, and paint the whole thing to the same quality level as the miniature itself! +US$5 per figure.

CONVERSIONS - I can add hair, change hair, add weapons, change weapons, and do other interesting conversions such as creating a more dynamic pose. Price is negotiable and highly dependent on the nature of the conversion, how much sculpting is involved, etc. Assume a cost of about US$1 per figure for very minor conversions, such as changing guns. Here are two conversion of Warmachine Deathrippers. The one on the left has been given a more dynamic pose, with a wide open mouth and leaping posture. The one on the right has a tasty snack!

Thanks for reading, and I hope I can help you get your army onto the table.

Don't game in 28mm? I can also paint 15mm and 20mm. I do not do large armies, and greatly prefer irregular forces that allow for some creativity. I recommend Dragon Painting Service in Hong Kong if you just want paint put on a massive army. For smaller orders -- 50 to 100 models -- my prices are 50% as for 28mm, or $5 for HERO and $4/$2 for GRUNTS.

All of my prices are negiotiable. I can be talked into giving large orders a discount if its a project I'm interested in, which currently is mostly stuff in the Modern Horror, Gothic Horror, Pulp/Space Opera, 50's Sci-Fi Kitsch, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Somalia, and Police/Tactical genres.

Send email to blackprimerpaint@gmail.com