Some fancy painting

I've been working on the door frames and the floors since they're the only pieces that require more than the standard 3 color scheme.  All right, yes.  I could have done all basic floors for the rooms and left the door frames painted in the same scheme as the rest of the dungeon.  But where's the fun in that?



I'm going with very bright colors since they're meant to be seen from gaming distance.  No faux anything on these.  There's some floors that match but the rooms are all getting painted as I see fit.  Actually I need to finish building all the floors.

You can see the 2mm foam I use to base them on this picture.  Typically you wouldn't be seeing them from this angle and even now you can see that the foam doesn't go all the way to the edges.  The foam is multi-purpose.  It gives stability to the piece which is important on things like the door frames and the floors where they can be subject to stress when they're used.  It also keeps the pieces from scratching the table.  Lastly it gives a little bit of traction so they don't slide around.  It's not thick enough to call attention to the fact the pieces are raised above the table either.

I found I can paint 40 corridor sections at a time instead of the 30 I was planning for in the paint schedule.  More is good.  I'm using a finer brush so I don't get lines in the paint job.  You'll see them soon enough because once I get these done I can make a small layout for a photo session.  I'm alternating floors (easy) with the walls and corners (more work) and they should all be finished in at most 4 paint sessions.  In the middle of all this I want to finish building the rooms because they're bordered with the cracked floor tiles and I hate wasting painting time.

Quick update - corridors

As I said before almost every corridor section is a 4 x 4 square.  The only exception is the need for a 1 x 2 for the dead ends so the corners work.  Easy enough.  I've been slacking on other things and just pushed myself to start making these.  Of course I justified the break by saying I wanted to wait for my friend to ship me floor tiles he'd cast.  It sounded good.  And it was actually true.

Due to differences in how everyone casts the same bricks from the same molds may come out to be ever so slightly different.  In this case his tiles are slightly smaller than mine and I found that out when I used them under floors and corners.  My floor tiles required almost no sanding for the walls to fit, his required sanding.  So I'm mixing in a very careful way.



This is 47 corridor sections.  I don't even remember how many I need but I'll use up all the casts he sent in making corridors.  You'll notice the ones on the right have alternating white and grey tiles.  If I took a close up of one of them you'd see that the centers don't align at perfect right angles.  Yes, I used geometry to get a square out of them.  I really don't see a size difference in the completed sections when I compare them to ones made out of all my tiles.  I also haven't pulled out the micrometer since I'm not quite that detailed in this build.

Drying on the boards are 9 full sections and enough 2 tile sections to make 12 more.  I guess that means I can make 21 at a time with the space I have.  I'll go through the floor tiles he sent in not a lot of time.

I'm hoping to spend time this weekend building and painting.  I'm holding off on casting until I'm more certain of what still needs to be done.  And I plan on getting the cheap varnish I need so I can finish the ones I've already painted.  Time to buy tacky glue so I can attach the foam bases too.  I wonder if the weather is going to cooperate for varnishing.

Painting done on the pieces I started

I went through and did the dry brushing to complete the paint jobs on all the ones I had base coated.  One thing that didn't turn out correctly was the light grey highlight.  It's the color I've used on all my grey painted builds in the past but it just wasn't working here.  I couldn't tell the difference between the mid color and the high color when they were painted.  So I went to pure white.

It's a little stark but it should show up well on the game table.



I didn't show a picture of all the painted pieces since they didn't really show up well and the light was quite frankly pants.

Honestly I don't think the pure white looks bad as the final highlight since I was going for contrast.  I need to find a better way to paint the cracked floor tiles since they show brush marks more than the other kinds of tiles.  I might use a flat brush instead of the normal less-than-quality ones I typically use for this kind of painting.  It's only an issue on the floors.

I know of 2 mistakes that I will notice but probably no one else will.  They're not obvious enough to make me want to rebuild those pieces so I'm going to try to ignore them as much as possible.  One is going to be very difficult for me.  But it's a small thing and once I'm using the game board I hope it won't bother me much.

That's a small portion of what needs to be painted.  I'll be working in smaller batches going forward so I can get them completely painted and then move on.  It was kind of a pain to deal with the large number of pieces here.

I did start painting room floors.  One is waiting on touch ups.  One broke when I was working with it.  I forgot the large rooms are going to be more fragile until they're on the foam bases.  Nothing I couldn't fix and did fix today.  The other floors are currently frames since the A&K tiles are slightly smaller and I need to work in some filler to make them fit correctly.  I have an idea that I want to test this week.  If it works, great.  If not then I need to figure out another way to evenly fill the gap both in construction and then from the visible side.  I have ideas but they require me to hit the dollar store or the craft store, depending on where I can get the materials I need.

A nice smooth base coat

One of the multitude of problems with being a bit of a perfectionist is that I always have to go over the terrain pieces I paint and touch up all the places the base coat didn't cover.  Typically this is between bricks where they don't fit perfectly smooth and other such areas.  In this case it's also a lot of the floor tiles because I'm using the cracked floor and a lot of those cracks didn't take the first-second base coat.



Going forward I'm not going to base coat nearly as many pieces at one time.  I'm going to do the dry brushing and get them done before moving on to the next set.  I should have done that but at least I figured it out before base coating any more.

The only pieces I won't varnish and base are the door frames.  I want to have the option to do some fancy painting on them.  I'll know in plenty of time if I need to leave some plain since they're getting painted along with the rest of the pieces.  If needed I can always paint over the finished pieces later.

I set the arena aside since it's not necessary right now and I want to focus my time on this project.  I kind of wanted to have it ready for new year's eve but again, not necessary and takes time away from this required project.

Dungeon Bash Doors are Done!!

Yep.   All painted.  They need a coat or two of varnish but that's something I can do as time allows.  I needed the room on my paint table to do the touchups on the dungeon pieces so the doors needed to be done.  It didn't make sense to just move them when they needed to be painted.



Yes, that's a floor tile segment in the upper right.  I started the painting when I had black on the palette.

Up close the doors look just as spiffy.



I went with the "rougher" paint job with the silver to add interest.  Plain smooth silver isn't very interesting in this case.

Remember, these have 2 sides so this paint job is on both.

I did give in and touch up where I got silver on the wood/brown sections.  I might be the only person who would notice it but I'm really the only one who matters in this case.

Onward to painting lots and lots and lots of walls and corners.

Painting has begun, floors left to build

I had a post earlier but it looks like the blog ate it.

The painting has begun now that I actually have the paint.  I thinned it into a nice glass jar and have been merrily painting away.



As you can see I have no kitchen counter to do food things with any more.



You can see the progress along with some of the completed arena pieces.  I'd like to get 2 projects done at the same time and the arena just needs the same paint as the game board/modular dungeon.  So it all works out.

Base coating is messy fun!

I can't base coat terrain without making a fun mess. I'm using thinned latex paints and have to put the base coat on heavy so it soaks into all the details, nooks and crannies. So I end up with a lot of paint on my hands both from the pieces themselves and the painting process. Luckily it's latex paint so it just scrapes off.

I'm probably going to paint the pieces completely and then varnish them rather than move them around during the process. Otherwise I'd have to do even more touch up painting than I do now. Yes, I go back over the pieces with a small brush and fill in all the spaces the base coat missed. I'm just that way.

I'm also painting the arena I finally finished building. I know it has nothing to do with the game board but it's a project well on its way to completion and I'd really like to have it done. If nothing else it makes sense to paint it while I have the paints out and it's just sitting there in the way.

The game board pieces can all be base coated in one step. That's great! The arena pieces will take more than that but eventually will get paint on all the sides. I've learned to take my time and paint in sections when there's no easy way to hold the piece without taking the paint off in fingerprint size pieces.

Putting the paint in a glass jar works great. I can close it up and shake it to remix as needed and it should stay useful far longer than in plastic. The dry brush colors should probably also be moved to glass jars but I'm not sure where I can get those in time. The plastic I have now should work as a short term solution.

I can easily paint 25 wall sections in the space I have and probably add at least 10 corners. The arena is taking up space but it's been doing that for a while now. Eventually I can move it off to the side. Once it has all its stone painted.

Tomorrow I'm back to casting floor tiles. I need them for the corridors and I'm using up what I have making the room floor frames. My friend is sending me a whole lot of casts but they're ever so slightly smaller than my casts so I need to mix up how I build them into the corridor pieces so everything lines up. Now that I know it I can adapt. They're smaller due to variations in plaster mixes and shrinkage. Yes, these things matter.

Just One More Thing syndrome

Sure, I planned on going to bed. But the empty building jigs were just too tempting.

The required corners are assembled so they can be put on their tiles tomorrow. The tiles I put together tonight.

The door frames all have their top pieces so they're completely assembled. I was going to play with designs when my friend came over but that got put into the "some time in the future" so I went with my original idea. I even took the time to sand down the tops to make sure the finishing pieces would sit smooth. They look pretty good, I do have to say.

I've been putting together the 2 tile segments as I have space. I need those to border the room floors. I'm going to mix my casts with the ones my friend is sending me so that I can keep things consistent. So I won't be making any more corridor pieces until those arrive. I'll cast a whole lot, I just won't assemble more than I need to border the room tiles. I think if I alternate the two types of casting correctly I can get consistent 4 tile components.

I'm leaving everything that's currently in the jigs there until the morning.

I also tried sanding the sides of the A&K tiles and it seems like there was a slight angle to the pieces. I'm doing a 2 piece assembly for a floor and I'll see how that works out now that I sanded them "true". I also put a weight on the pieces so no matter what the tops should be flat. That will let me know for certain. And I was able to salvage the one large room tile that I made to the incorrect dimensions. It was designed in a way I could do that. So now I'll need to sand off the glue and reassemble. Not a big deal, actually. Much easier than making a new one.

If this works to make the other decorative floors match up I have a nifty chain floor pattern that I can put together for a small room. I'm still very excited about painting these. I'm not exactly sure what colors the chain floor is going to be. I'll figure it out.

Getting ready to get things done!

Yeah, well. I should have done more stuff today but it was "one of those days". I did spend FAR too much time getting a new quart of paint for the base coat. But I did and while it doesn't exactly match the original shade (Note 1) it will work just fine since I don't have to match anything at this point. It might have made a difference half way through the project.

Obviously walls are done. I thought I was over on my corner needs but looking at the spreadsheet shows I'm actually 8 short, not 5 over. So I've got the floor tiles for 8 corners setting up. I'll stay up a little later to get the corners themselves started. Remember, these take the extra step.

I started building the floor border for the one completed floor. This one doesn't need to be inserted - I should be able to build it into the tiles. Any non Hirst floor tiles will take a little extra work but I knew that already. I still need to work on getting them to assemble the way I want them to (Note 2).

Tomorrow I'm planning on another full casting and building day and I can add in the painting part. I forgot to pick up cheap varnish while I was out but I need time for the paint to dry completely before putting on the hard candy shell.

Note 1 - The original shade was a mix using the paint chips Bruce sends out. And, of course, I had a smear of paint over the formula. The guy mixing the paint really couldn't get a good match and it would have been a custom mix from a custom mix. We found a standard color that's close enough. They really shouldn't put those labels on the can lids.

Note 2 - I'm not a noob and I can match up floor tiles. I really think these aren't 100% square so I'm going to take the True Sander and see if it takes anything off the sides. If so it would explain why I keep getting gaps when I try to make floor patterns match up.

Of course

I set up the other half of the kitchen counter (such as I have one) to be my terrain paint station. I have the wax paper down and all of the arena pieces moved there with plenty of room for walls and other completed pieces.

And my paint is no good. The pre-thinned stuff has dried in the plastic container - no real surprise. I'll just toss that and put the fresh paint in a new container. But I'm pretty much out of paint for the base coat. It's not worth heading out to Walmart to get a new quart mixed up tonight. I'll do that tomorrow and pick up some paper/plastic cups to use while measuring and painting.

I did get 22 of the remaining corners on their bases and the side pieces on the door frames. Turns out I made 5 more corner bases than I have corners so I'll fix that by making 5 more corners. I suppose I could just add another tile and make them corridor pieces but extra corners might come in handy. Once the door frames have dried thoroughly I'll lightly sand the tops to take off any high spots and put the last 2 bricks on top to finish them completely.

I'm darn close to having all the walls, corners and door frames built. Then it's just a matter of making lots and lots of corridor sections. I need 79 of the 4 x 4 sections to make all of the pieces listed with the game. It seems low based on the number of floor tiles I originally estimated. I'll redo the math later since I'm a long way from making that goal.

I'm also working on designing the rooms. The small rooms can have design sections of 3 x 4 or 2 x 5 and the large rooms can have design sections of 5 x 6 or 4 x 7. I had to take into the border of cracked floor tiles to match the rest of the dungeon. It's how I plan on the rooms integrating well with the walls. It seems limiting on the types of decor but it also makes it easier since they're actually not that large. I may make more rooms than the game calls for in case I need to stretch it out to fit the time slot. And since every room requires 2 corners the extra ones listed above are a good thing.

Doors WIP

I'd say they're over half done.  I need to dry brush the wood sections, sand them down to fit the doorways easily and with clear plastic to make them more stable, touch up the black and finally dry brush on silver.



Remember there's another side to these so what you're seeing is half of the work that's been done.  These fall into the "detailed painting" category along with the room floors.  Almost everything else is basic grey.

OK - the light bulb just went off

I'm assembling the floor pieces in sections.  2 tiles into 4 tiles, etc.  As I was making the first set of 4 tile squares I realized that everything in the dungeon corridors is based off that 4 tile square.  Well, I had to change the dead end to make the corners fit but that's an exception.

Since I haven't had any caffeine yet today the thought was kind of slow but it came together as "Well, if everything is made out of these 4 square tiles do I really need to make larger pieces?"

Correct.  I can make the components on the go.  That way I don't have to worry about needing a short corridor but only having long corridors left.  The dead ends just mean I leave some pieces as 2 tiles and that makes up the difference needed by the corners.  And in a pinch I can use 2 of the 2 tile pieces to make .. a 4 tile piece!

This will simplify building and transport since it's easier to deal with a bunch of 4 inch pieces than the longer and more fragile finished ones.

And this is why I've been taking my time while building.  Except for the miscalculation on the room sizes (which I should have noticed in Sketchup, it turns out) everything else has been working out well as it builds.  I actually have more corners built than I calculated but I'm fine with that.  I was thinking about making extra rooms to keep the game going longer and now that the corridors are modular as well I can just keep building as long as I have tiles.

Today I hope to paint up a couple of the player character minis.  First up are the mages.

I'll keep showing progress

Just to keep showing myself I'm making progress I'll keep posting here when I, well, have progress.



153 of the 157 wall segments.  The other 4 are setting up since I attached them to their floor tiles.  So I can consider all the walls built.

Including the 14 corners that are setting up I have 36 of the 52 needed corners.  With the OOP mold I received today that has nothing but the 3/4" bricks I need I'm well on my way to having enough to finish them up.



The 23 basic door frames on their floor tiles.  The last 3 are still setting up which is why they have the spacer bricks in place to keep them true while they set.  I'm still playing with ideas for the tops but I think the option with the point at the top will be the way to go.

I'm redesigning the room tiles since I found out I miscalculated how they needed to be sized.  I could probably salvage some of what I already built but they're not quite as accurate as I would like so remaking them might make me happier and I can give the old ones to my friend making a ruined tower setup.

And yes, there's a lot of painting to be done.  Plus I have to figure out how to store and transport the thing.

A quick preview of how it might look

Unpainted, without corridor sections and with unfinished room tiles.  But if I waited until things were done I'd never post anything.



The room tiles need to be tested some more.  I thought they needed to be odd by odd for the corners and walls to work but now it seems like I need odd by even.  I have enough pieces I can test it and confirm.



Yes, I can see that the tops of the walls aren't going to line up perfectly.  I'm doing enough by sanding down the edges so they fit together smoothly.  Trying to get them all exactly the same height would have been well beyond my needs.

Grumble grumble grumble - door frames

I need 23 door frames for the 23 doors.  Pretty darn obvious and included in my planning.

What I did not anticipate was just how fragile the door frames are during construction.  There's only 2 small attachment points on the core pieces and until I finish them up with decoration and support pieces they're going to continue to be fragile.  I've already "unbuilt" half a dozen of them while moving them from the construction board to where I'm stacking them up.

Here's how they look while being built:



There's filler pieces at the top of the arch and to hold the side pieces the correct distance apart.  The doors are sitting in the frames to make sure the door frames will be the correct shape.  And yes, I still play with Lego*.

You can see that there's very little contact between the arch and the uprights.  That's caused me the headaches.

The next step is going to be attaching them to the floor tiles.  They'll be slightly less fragile but until I have the tops finished I need to be very, very careful with them.

I still haven't decided on just how I'm going to finish them.  I have a couple of ideas and a friend of mine is going to be spending some time with me going over various ways to complete them.  My original idea isn't bad but I'm always open to fresh ideas.

So now I'm working on the floor pieces so I can attach the door frames and have them ready for completion.

* These really aren't Lego.  They're Brix Blox, the Sears equivalent that I've had for at least 25 years.

Quick update with numbers

I can't count the rooms complete until they get their border of cracked floor tiles to match the rest of the dungeon but I do have 4 of the 6 small room inserts done.

99 wall sections are done and waiting for paint.  That leaves 58 to be glued to floors.  That's 12 casts of the floor tile mold.

I'm still at 5 corner sections since I was focusing on the wall sections so there's no floors for them.  I do have more built, just not finished.  I have a out-of-production mold coming that will speed up casting for this considerably.

I have most of the doorframes cast and built.  And I think I have the complete design finished.  I need to count up the rest of the pieces and see what needs to be cast.  It's annoying to cast one brick out of a mold simply because of the limited casting space I have.

I have 21 of 23 doors complete.  That means 4 more casts of that mold and it can be moved out of the casting area.  Making room for the fieldstone wall mold, probably.  There's always another project to finish.

And I've stopped casting other decorative floor molds since I have all the tiles I need right now.  I replaced that one with the mold to make the advanced gothic arena pieces I'll use to expand my basic arena.

Obviously I haven't started on any of the corridor sections.  I want these walls,corners and doorframes done before I start using floor tiles for, well, floors.

Wanna see my progress?

Yay pics!

Looks like I have all the wall segments assembled but not attached to floors, since I'm now limited by the number of floor tiles that I have at the moment. I'm casting quickly but I'm still not nearly close enough. My friend is still casting for me and between the two of us I'll get to the number of tiles needed in good time.

I only have 2 more doors to make, which means 4 casts and then that mold can be taken out of the rotation. I was only casting the door and a finial for future use.

I'm finished casting the A&K floor tiles since I've built the floors I'm going to build with them. At least I think I am. I have 3 of the 6 small room floors built from them and I may make 1 of the large room floors with some of them but I have enough cast for that. I haven't matched them up as well as I would have liked but they're more than good enough for this game board.

But I digress. You wanted to see pictures!



Sorry - I just have the one. But you can see the solid block of wall segments and it is solid. Tucked next to them on the right are the completely finished wall segments. They're on their floor tiles and have been sanded (as needed) to be flush. Seems like the new walls fit better for some reason. The last dozen I assembled don't seem like they're going to need sanding. I like that.

I'm not worried about putting the corner sections on floor tiles just yet. There's so many more walls than corners I'm working on getting those done faster. I'll take a break and assemble corners when I get an influx of floor tiles.

Good planning means that I can assemble the floor tiles in pairs since everything is built off of those components. So lots of making two tile segments but they're easy and should make for consistent larger builds.

It's getting there

40 casts later and I think I'm good for the walls. I didn't take into account the 2" brick block (say that three times fast) which I can use instead of 2 1" bricks so that means I really need fewer of the 1" than listed. Then when building I found out that the 1/2" bricks are a bottleneck but I can build the same size wall using 1" bricks and that actually matches up the style with the corners so it looks good. Thereby using up the "extra" 1" bricks I cast.

Confusing, isn't it?

Yesterday I was able to build using the bricks I cast on Wednesday. I'm letting them dry for 2 days before using them. And since these are small and simple pieces I was able to build and let set during each cast. I used up everything I cast on Wednesday into everything I could build. So I've got a huge stack of walls waiting for floors.

I'm down to casting floors and individual pieces needed to make doorways and corners. A friend of mine is selling one of the out-of-production Hirst molds that makes nothing but the 3/4" brick and I told him I'd buy it. Very special use but now that I've found a way to use that brick and there's an advanced version of this game I know I'll be building onto the set I have. So it's a good investment all around. And it's out of production so it's one of those 'get it while you can' things.

I'm also finishing up my basic arena build. I have the 2 most complex pieces in construction and will work on the other 8 pieces while building the game board. Most of it is simple wall building, just larger and with a few decorative bits. Once the arena is done I'll paint it and all the finished game board pieces. I get my paint mixed up in quarts so I know everything will match. Then I can smile and show that I've made progress. And if I'm smart enough I'll also have a few floors done so I can do the fancy painting in good time.

Oh yeah. And I have to paint up the miniatures too.

DungeonBash Board Info

I'm running several sessions of the miniatures game DungeonBash at GenghisCon in February. I decided that a Hirst board would look way better than the cardstock tiles provided with the game. Perhaps I need therapy.

The (sadly defunct, it seems) game is a randomly generated dungeon built on-the-fly as are the encounters. This means I need to build enough pieces to cover every configuration possible, using every section. I know I'll have more than I need in the game but better too many than not enough. The sections themselves are pretty small. Walls are 2 tiles, 2 levels high. Corners are 3 tiles, 2 levels high. I finally sat down and figured out just how many of each I needed. Turns out I need 157 wall sections and 72 corner sections. And 23 doorways with doors. Doorways are 2 tiles wide and each door needs to be cast twice to make them double sided. So 46 door casts.

The floor tiles are actually twice what I thought I would need because I forgot to add the wall, corner and doorway bases into the mix. So instead of 60 casts of the floor tile mold I need 120. 10 tiles per cast - 1,185 floor tiles in all. That's not including the fancy bits to fill the room tiles. Since I'm making each one different I'm casting them myself but I still need 340 tiles of some sort to make the rooms.

Floor tile total - 1,525.

Walls are 2 rows high. Each wall needs 3 1" blocks and 2 1/2" blocks. 471 1" blocks. 314 1/2" blocks. Luckily there's a piece on a couple of molds that's 2 1" blocks in a single cast but I'll be mixing them. I could have made a custom mold and made each wall a single cast but that would actually have been more casting. I don't mind building.

Let's continue.

Corners are 2 rows high. Each corner needs 3 1" blocks and 4 3/4" blocks. 216 1" blocks. 288 3/4" blocks. The 3/4" blocks will be the ones I need to cast more since there's fewer on the molds.

687 1" blocks. 314 1/2" blocks. 288 3/4" blocks.

Doorways use separate types of blocks and while I have a custom mold to cast the uprights in one piece (each cast of the mold makes the base doorway) it's currently AWOL. Now that I know how many I need I'll take a little more time to look for it. Otherwise it's 6 pieces per upright, 2 pieces per arch. And I haven't decided on the finishing detail for the tops of the doorways so I don't know what I need there.

Casting!

If I use all the molds that just make the basic blocks I get:

• 17 1" blocks per cast. 41 casts


• 3 3/4" blocks per cast. 96 casts


• 9 1/2" blocks per cast. 35 casts

Yes. 96 casts to get the necessary blocks for the corners. Luckily I can cast just those blocks when I move into casting floors and other bits. Just because a block is on the mold doesn't mean I have to cast it. Only counting what I have completed I still have 600 1" blocks (36 casts), 268 3/4" blocks (90 casts), 266 1/2" blocks (30 casts).

Making this kind of game board takes a lot of patience and a LOT of casting. I did a bunch yesterday, probably 12 casts. That doesn't sound like a lot but if I keep up that pace the 1" and 1/2" blocks will be done in 2 more sessions. The 3/4" ones in about 8 more. But I still have a lot of floor tiles to cast and once I get the basics done for this board I can work on pieces for my arena and another project as well. So a little more than a week of casting left to get what I need and I'll be building at the same time.

Again, this is why doing up totals makes me sad. But it gives me a constantly reducing number of blocks to cast and that shows progress.

The pieces themselves aren't very exciting but once I get enough to make a small example I'll post a picture. They won't be painted but you can see what it looks like.

Impatience is NOT a virtue

I thought I learned my lesson about slowing down and doing Hirst builds clean and correct. Of course I forgot that.

My decorative floor inserts aren't squarely aligned. That's my own fault for trying to do the entire floor build at once. So I took them apart, will sand off the glue, and then assemble them in the much slower but much more accurate way. What's that way? Doing this row by row so I can confirm that they're square before putting them together. That and using the absolute minimum amount of glue since they're going to be attached to 2mm foam and will have support.

Yes, this is much slower than just putting together the whole floor but what's the point if the decorations don't line up?

The floors I'm building now are being assembled in that method. Even though a 3 tile segment isn't quite square. I need to examine it and see if it's off kilter enough to A) be a problem and B) bother me. If either of those apply I break it apart and do the same darn thing. I have time to do this right.

On a positive note it turns out a custom mold I made lets me make the doorframes in many fewer casts with little assembly. I had 7 sets cast up and while I can't find the mold right now between those and building the others I may have enough for all the doorframes! Once I know for certain how many I need. This game board is difficult to plan.

Unicorn!

He's actually part of my elf army. If he's not immediately killed he's got some cool special abilities. When I play, he tends to get immediately killed.

Reaper 14457 - Silvermaine

He's been converted by the sculptor to be anatomically correct and there's a whole story to go with that.







The colors match my army colors and even though it's difficult to see his eyes are painted in gem fashion to match the coordinating color I used for the entire army. His horn is highlighted the same way. Kind of a nice change from the white/grey typically seen on unicorn minis I think.

Monstrous spider - with freehand!

I'm working on improving my extremely poor freehand skills. Hence the use of the phrase 'the F word' when I refer to freehand. But if I ever want to get better I need to keep trying.

I need 2 monstrous spiders for a game I'm setting up and here's the first one, painted to tabletop quality.

[caption id="attachment_429" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Monstrous spider with blue markings"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_430" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Monstrous spider with blue markings looking at ya"][/caption]

He's not based yet. I attached him to a spare Hirst custom block so I could paint him without continually rubbing off the paint. I'll base him and the other one at the same time. Next one gets red markings!

Mini progress. Well, proto-progress

I call it "proto-progress" because I haven't actually put a brush to a mini. But they're on deck for painting.

8 skellies on sticks, based and primed.
2 large spiders on wires, primed.
6 elves (to be painted as drow) prepped and based

There's some other monsters that are prepped and based but I can't remember exactly what they are in the game. I could probably look them up but I'll just note there's 2 of one thing, 2 of another (think that is a partial group) and 4 of one other thing (I think that's a partial group too).

I'm working on matching up the minis with the monster list to know what the heck I'm painting and so I can mark off progress as I paint them. Luckily they're monsters and don't need the full detail painting.

And for whatever reason I don't know if I bought the character minis or not. I need to dig through the boxes I brought back from ReaperCon to make sure they're not hiding in there. I wasn't that organized when I made the list and bought the minis.

Some DungeonBash in process shots

I don't *need* this until the convention in February so I'm finally being kind of responsible and not rushing at the end.  I planned it using Sketchup and need to tweak the 'official' pieces to match adding in wall segments.  That's easy.  A few sections need to be enlarged a bit to accommodate the walls and corners.  It won't matter in game play so I'm not worried.  That and that DungeonBash seems to be a dead game since the publisher isn't available any more.  Sad.  I would have liked to have shown him the game board.

Yep.  I use my off-brand Legos from when I was a kid as building frames.  Still playing with toys.  There's a couple of gothic arena pieces tucked in this construction set.

Here's a nice stack of wall and corner sections.  There's also a stack of wall bases on top.  I need to use my True Sander to smooth the bottom edge of the walls and then I'll epoxy them in place.  One thing I've learned is that I can use wood glue on almost all of the construction but when attaching walls to floors for pieces that will be handled I have to use epoxy or they snap off.  Easier to just attach them correctly in the first place.

I prepped these tonight and will GENTLY reposition them tomorrow before priming so they're a little more dynamic.  Reposing skellies is tricky since they can break easily.  I can probably pin the arms back on if needed but would prefer not to do so.  Heck, if they seem weak I'll probably put in a small pin just to make them more durable.  Looks like the bases on this set will be sand painted similar colors to the dungeon itself.  It's a cheat but if you're not cheating, you're not painting.

By the way - I need two sets of every encounter since there's a chance that if there's two random encounters going the second one can be the same as the one that's in progress.  That's the luck of the dice.  So not only do I have to paint twice the number of minis I want to distinguish them so each encounter is visibly different.  In the case of the skellies I'll do different color glowing eyes and different colors on the shields and weapons.  And I'll be numbering the back of the bases to make record keeping easier.

On my way to casting!

I have to accept that my preweighed plaster and other bits might be walkabout so I'll be getting more Hydrostone in the very near future. But I had a "D'oh!" moment when I realized I had an almost full jar of plaster here. So I spent a bit of time weighing out packets and plan on starting casting tonight.

I have my plans in SketchUp and I really just need to cast basic blocks for that one. I'm also going to see where my arenas are and cast for those. I don't have to cast all the floor tiles (thanks to a large credit at Naloomi's Workshop) but I still need a ton of bricks for my wall segments.  And I'll be casting floor tiles for miniature bases.

I don't have a problem. Really.

There's no way I'm addicted to porcelain palettes.  Nope.  Just because I have 5 different ones and am looking at another one means nothing.

The latest addition - 11 wells.  Actually it's a little larger than I typically like so I'm probably going to use it more for terrain painting than miniature painting.

 

[caption id="attachment_408" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="11 well palette - kind of large"][/caption]

 

That line in the large middle well is just that - a line.  They sell a version that has a divider in that section and it's the one that's tempting me next.  As much as I love my palettes I don't know how useful another one like this one will be.  I might actually restrain myself.

Progress, some repainting, more paints and bases

Wow.  That's some subject.  Let me break it down.

I apologize in advance for no pictures.  I can't get them from the camera to the computer right now.

I have 4 sticks of fusiliers in good progress.  1 stick = 8 minis.  The coats are painted as are the cuffs and collars.  I just put the coat of linen white over the rest of the uniform.  I was told the poms were all red so I painted all those at the same time since I had red on the palette.  I can move forward without the new paints since the Reaper Master Series will work for the accessories.

I had to paint over the poms.because it turns out they're not all red. They're divided into companies - purple, orange, blue and green (I think - my notes are in the car).  So I painted over all the red poms with the linen white so the colors would show up correctly.  Not a lot of work, just one more thing.  I had the time to spare.  And I think I'll hit the rest of the poms with linen white as well to make a nice base for the other colors.

I ordered the black and white versions of the paints I've been using.  I want the coverage.  Those should be in by the end of the week.  I have line commanders I should be able to start painting while I wait.  I can also work on rifles and a few other things while waiting on the paint.  I knew I should have ordered them from the beginning.

My complete set of bases for my entire army has arrived.  I had some of the infantry/cavalry bases already but now I have everything I need for my army.  This is important because I can mark the bases and play with stands even if they don't have their minis yet.  This lets me play and learn the rules much better.  I took the time to put the steel on the bases so I can put them on sheet magnet in the carry case and they won't move around.  That extra little bit of height is nice too.  I only did the limber bases since there were 10 of them and I'm tired.

I found that one of my minis is actually 2 different kinds of soldier with just a couple of color differences.  I have enough to put them in the battalions.  Now it's just a matter of remember to paint them correctly.  I'll make a note of that.

I'm going to make a spirited attempt to paint a battalion of Hussar for the theme entry competition, mostly because it seems hardly anyone is entering and I'd like to see at least a few in there. I hate competing but this is for a good cause.  That's 12 horses and riders.

My friend Kris was nice enough to drill out the eagle bearers' hands so I could replace the noodle standards with something more solid.  The eagles at the ends were no problem.  He had a problem with the minis themselves and I'll be resculpting a few hands.  Nothing major.  This lets me make them removable as well so I can mix up the eagle bearers and standard bearers depending on my mood.

Finally I'm ordering the last of what I need to complete my army.  I needed 3 more battalions of Dragoons and some guns to complete the limbers.  Turns out they give you the limber but only the guns needed for the individual artillery units.  So to make a complete limber you either need to move the gun over (or move a stand behind) or buy more guns.  We're buying more guns.

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Paints are here, excuses are out the window

My paints for the uniforms are here so now I have no real excuse not to buckle down and get cranking on them.  I'm not even trying to make excuses.

In the meantime I've been working on the command horses even if I can't work on the command figures. I actually think they're done except for a bit of silver on the bridles if I want to get fancy.  I just finished the touchups tonight.

My friend is ever so kindly doing the work so I can replace the noodly eagle bearer standards with something more sturdy and even make them removable so I can use eagles, standards or both.  Depending on my mood.

No bases yet, which is annoying but not a problem.  I don't have anything ready to base yet and if I did I had some here already.

Sunday I start on uniforms so I should have some pictures of them at least partially painted to show progress.  I'm hoping that the painting goes relatively quickly.  Even the futzy stuff doesn't seem as difficult as in the beginning.  I've been asking the experienced painters for advice on that kind of thing.

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Infantry skin and hair done

I got the hair and skin painted on all of the infantry!  I decided to try for some variety in the ranks by using 3 different hair colors and 4 different skin colors.  It wasn't that much more work to do that since after a few sticks I had to refresh the paint anyway.

I used the new Reaper washes to, well, wash the skin and hair.  The flesh wash was too red and the brown wash was too cold.  But a 2:1 mix of flesh to brown seemed to work quite well on everything.  One of the painters thought the Reaper washes were too thin but they seemed to work very well for putting in the shadows without me having to go back and hit the highlights.  Which is great.

Infantry Samples 01

They're not the best pictures, as shown by the yellow tint, but they kind of show the colors.  After the wash all the skin tones seem to even out about the same as does the two shades of brown.  What I feel looks best is the brightest pink skin tone and the blond hair.  The wash tones them down to some nice colors.  I was worried that the blond wouldn't work well and now I find it's the one I like best.  Second would be the more red brown hair but the skin is all going to be that bright pink.  There just wasn't enough variety to justify working with more colors.

I won't bother to take pictures of the painted rank and file since they look just like the primed ones with brown blotches where the hair and skin are unless I take close up shots.

I'm waiting on the paints for the uniforms.  My local store can't get them from their distributor so I'll be ordering directly from Reaper so I can try to get them painted.  I'm going for the bright colors to really be seen on the table so that means a single layer of paint and no washes on 99% of the uniform.  That makes for much quicker painting.  And the conquest French uniforms are the same regardless of regiment so no worries about changing up colors.

Until those paints come in I'm going to work on the commanders' horses.  I have the paints for those.  These horses can be different colors unlike in the cavalry units where they tried for similar colors in the battalions.  I can experiment with how to paint them quickly and well.

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Prepping is done

Dedication is a wonderful thing.  A number of army painters will recommend against doing what I just did, because it can be discouraging to see the overwhelming number of minis to be painted.  I wanted to get all this out of the way.  I plan on painting them in batches and then being able to mix up my battalions because of that.

I know, I know.  At this scale the variety really isn't that visible.  But it is to me and that's all that matters.

Here's how it works.  I need 8 battalions.  Each stick holds 8 minis.  So I can paint each 8 the same except for the battalion designation.  Those will go one per mini per stick.  I can do the bulk of the army painting the regular style then just do the battalion designations across sticks.  Poms and plumes are quick paints.

On to pictures.

Infantry 04 - Prepped and Primed

This is the command figures and the skirmishers.  Total of 24 skirmishers, 8 eagle bearers, 8 drummers, and 3 sub-commanders.  I had to break up some of the organization to make it fit on the bookcase.

Infantry 05 - Prepped and Primed

More command figures.  6 mounted generals, 8 mounted commanders, 8 aides de camp (I think), and 64 grenadiers.

Infantry 06 - Prepped and Primed

Regular infantry. 104 advancing fusiliers.

Infantry 07 - Prepped and Primed

More regular infantry.  96 fusiliers.

So that brings the minis so far to 329 and that's just the core infantry.  I think I've got too many of the fusiliers but I'd rather have too many than not enough.  The mounted generals were just because I had them, I was prepping and priming minis and they might be a fun break to paint.

My paints are on order yet.  I'm using Reaper Pro Paints for the bulk of these.  The paints are vinyl based so they cover very well in one coat.  Very important in painting this many minis.  And I'm planning on painting in what I call "cartoon style" so the colors are very vivid and stand out well on the table.  With so many of them bunched up together the subtle stuff gets lost.  One of the club guys has his painted that way and I really liked it.

While waiting for the uniform color paints I'm going to work on skin and hair this Saturday.  That is easy enough - base coat and wash.  I don't even know if I'm going to do the highlight since I'm going to try moving away from the dark brown wash to the lighter, more reddish flesh wash.  I'm also going to be just a little OCD and paint each stick with a different color of hair.  That also gets a simple wash.  I know it shouldn't show much from a distance but I'll know and when someone picks up a stand of minis it will look like I made a lot more effort than I did.

The next shots should show paint on the minis.  Primer is not a color!

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Prepping an army

Like I don't have enough armies.  Previously I showed some 15mm I was painting.  Now I've got most of the rest of the army and have been prepping like crazy while I've got some time and the need to do repetitive tasks.  I'm still waiting on the paints I want but I've got painting I can do until they come in.  French Conquest is pretty easy - red, white and blue.

Here's slightly less than half of my line infantry.

Infantry 03 - Prepped

Each stick holds 8 minis and there's 12 sticks.  It should have been 11 sticks but I had enough for one more and I would rather have too many prepped than not enough.  I still need to do at least 10 more sticks of regular infantry.  Yes, I need a total of 232 minis for my battalions.

Here's a combination of my Grendadiers (need more), drummers and eagle bearers.  The drummers and eagle bearers all belong to the command unit - there's enough of those.  Yes, I have 8 battalions to do.

Infantry 02 - Prepped

And finally the skirmishers (done) and the horses for the commanders and possibly sub-commanders.  I'm not sure if I'm using those horses or if I have other ones for the sub-commanders.  I need to dig through the unprepped stuff and see what's there.

Infantry 01 - Prepped

Hrm.  The last stick of skirmishers at the bottom didn't seem to be in the picture.

Let's total up.

• Line Infantry - 96
• Grenadiers - 24
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Skirmishers - 32
• Commanders and Sub-Commanders (we'll count as half since the riders aren't attached) - 12

Grand total - 180 prepped minis.

Next up is the remaining line infantry.  So that's another 88 or 96 minis, depending on how many I prep.  Or maybe 80.  I'm hoping there's more Grenadiers in that set since I need another 40 to fill out the battalions.

For those who don't know the Lasalle rules a battalion consists of 4 stands, 8 minis each for 32 minis per battalion.  With one exception.  There's 3 stands of 8 infantry and 1 command stand of a mounted commander (counts as 2 minis), a drummer, an eagle bearer and 4 infantry.  Mixed in with the 28 infantry are 8 Grenadiers.

I need a total of 8 battalions since I'm playing French.  We get 2 additional battalions when we attack.  This is before the French turned into cheese eating surrender monkeys.  Along with a regimental battery (artillery - 3 cannons and 1 howitzer) that makes up my core force.  Of course the artillery needs to be modeled and painted as both limbered (hitched to horses) and unlimbered (unhitched and about to cause havoc) so essentially it needs to be painted twice.

Let's do more math for a total core division.

6 Veteran Infantry - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander, 1 horse
1 Regimental Battery - 3 cannons, 1 howitzer (unlimbered with 12 crew); 3 cannons and 1 howitzer (limbered with 6 horses and 3 riders/drivers)
2 Veteran Infantry (attacking only) - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander

Now this is where I start sobbing.

6 Veteran Infantry - 120 line infantry, 48 Grenadiers, 24 Skirmishers 6 drummers, 6 eagle bearers, 6 commanders, 6 horses
1 Regimental Battery - 6 cannons, 2 howitzers, 12 crew, 6 horses, 3 riders/drivers
2 Veteran Infantry - 40 line infantry, 16 Grenadiers, 8 Skirmishers 2 drummers, 2 eagle bearers, 2 commanders, 2 horses

Grand total of minis for the core division:

• Line infantry - 180
• Grenadiers - 64
• Skirmishers - 32
  
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Commanders - 8 on horses
• Cannons - 6
• Howitzers - 2
• Artillery crew - 12
• Limbered horses - 6
• Limber drivers/riders - 3

Total of minis for the division.  I'm counting the commanders and horses as separate minis for painting purposes even though they create a single mini.

Total - 337

Sound bad enough?  There's 2 different support divisions as well.  Cavalry and artillery.  Light cavalry is 32 mounted figures and artillery.  Dragoons are 32 mounted minis and artillery.

Oh yeah - I need a commander and 3 sub-commanders.  So that's another 5 mounted minis.

Grand total is around 445 miniatures and if I want to do casualty disruption markers I'll need 15 of those as well.  I can use dice for that but it's not nearly as cool.

This is why you don't count up the number of minis in a historical game.

On the plus side I've got them on the sticks so that I can paint up the 99% that's the same on every one.  The last 1% is the color of the pom/plume to designate the different battalions.  I plan on breaking an army painting rule and not do the same color pom/plume on each stick.  I'm hoping to do some variation in hair and skin color per stick so making each stick one of each battalion will spread those around.  I like a little variety on the battlefield.

Let's hope the weather holds and I can get these primed.  I'm going to prime white since so much of the uniform is white and I want the bright colors for the uniforms. That and my grey primer has been hijacked.

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I didn't forget my elves

Honestly, I didn't.  Once I finally got them here I carefully examined each one, put them in the "good" and "repair" piles and then went about fixing the paint on the ones that got abused.  I have all of the repairs done.  There weren't many - mostly a paint chip or where it rubbed on the foam.

I have to finish up the 3 that were painted onsite.  They were painted but need detail and cleanup work.  They're off to the side, watching me work on a small commission.

Yes, I said commission.  A friend needed some minis painted as part of his booth display at a large convention and asked me to do it.  How could I refuse?  Yes, I know.  Easily.  But that's what friends do.

After all that I hope for pictures this week.

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A couple of pictures of my elf army

I hope to have good detail shots in the near future but until then feast your eyes on the army on the table.

Elf Army 01

Elf Army 02

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Unprepared, as always

Somehow I forgot both the cable and the adapter card to take pictures from my camera to the computer.  I may have to prevail on a friend or two to move them from my camera to my thumb drive so I can post them in something resembling real time.

I've taken some pictures and hope to take more as the convention continues.  I've been lax the last couple of years but I have excuses, as some of you know.  If you don't know, then just consider me a slacker.

Events and commentary so far:

Wednesday afternoon - Rastl's Hot Tub Party was a great success.  More than double the number of attendees.  We had a good time and I think the guys' nads have once again returned from being drawn up into the warm safety of not being in cold water.  Outdoor pools are not heated in Texas and they're a bit of a shock after the hot tub.

A group run to the package store for booze.  Lobotomy Boch, Devil Dog and much Shiner made their way back to the hotel.  Preparation is key.  We love having a package store in the parking lot of the hotel.  Just makes things so much more convenient.

Wednesday evening - Reaper Meet and Greet.  A very informal way for Reaper to put on a spread of food and for folks to start the socializing.  Since July is Reaper's 18th birthday and none of us are around then they celebrated early with cakes.  I don't have pictures but I'll get some from other people.  Each cake had the logo from a different product line.  quite tasty.

Wednesday night - And so it begins.  ShinerCon (which doesn't really exist, is an urban legend, etc) was once again hosted in my room ~sigh~ but it was nice seeing everyone again and having some fun.  We even kept the noise down because there wasn't one complaint from the hotel or the other con folks staying on either side of us.

Thursday morning - Reaper decided to put on a pancake breakfast.  Freshly made pancakes, sausage, bacon and fruit.  It was wonderful.  I even paced myself and didn't eat too much.  Some rather blurry memories of talking to lots of people and finding out if my army survived being dropped from 4 feet right in front of me while being carried to the car back in CO and how it survived the trip.  A bit of wear but nothing broken.  Many people wanted to see it.

The tournament organizer has been trying to get awards for "best painted army" used in the tournaments because we put in a similar number of hours as the competition painters but just paint more of them.  I don't see that going anywhere this year but maybe next year.  Right now my personal goal is to get the last figures painted and the basing done.

I participated in a few dungeon crawls, 2 of them to make up enough players.  I'm trying new strategies in each game just to make things fun for me.  First it was a standard crawl of picking up loot.  Second was trying to get loot and get to the central room where the good loot was.  If you didn't get munched on by the dragon.  I was very, very lucky in that one and got the maximum value for treasure.  Then I got munched.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to see about taking on the other parties and stealing their loot.  I like trying new things.

I have a game tomorrow morning and the rest of the afternoon to paint minis,  My friend Kris brought a lamp with him (thank you Kris!) and some grass tufts that will make finishing the bases sooooo much easier.    After my game is a lunch break then I think I'll sit in on Kris' army painting class.  I helped proof his class handouts and I'm very interested in what the class has to say.  I neglected to print out my own copy of the handout but will get one so I can take notes for making it better next year.  If he cares what I have to say.

I can't get the pictures off my camera just yet but will see if someone can move them to a thumb drive so I can put them online.  Nothing too interesting but let's see if we can change that tomorrow. :D

OK - off to bed for far too little sleep.  As I've said in the past, if we don't look like death on toast by Saturday morning we're not doing it right.

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More mini progress!

I keep getting distracted by phone calls so it takes me a little longer to get the minis done but I also get the fun of talking to my friends.  Go figure.  Of course I could use my Bluetooth earpiece and try to do both but I hate fixing the mistakes that happen when I attempt to multitask.

I've got Saturday to try to finish painting the last minis and paint the bases.  At least try to paint the bases.  I can always do the basing while I'm in Texas but it would be nice to actually have a mostly finished army for once.

I'm hoping time permits me to put up the light tent and take pictures of what's done.  Well, mostly done since the bases aren't painted.

Once again the newly finished stuff is in green.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

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6 more minis painted

No pictures - I hope to set up my light tent this weekend and get pictures of what's been done.  The bases aren't painted yet but I might take some time to do that since it's pretty relaxing end-of-the-night work.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

The ones crossed in green are the latest ones done.  The unicorn and the treeman have base coats on them so they're "in progress".  Next up are the centaurs since they're kind of grunts as well so they don't need as much attention.

Two of the centaurs have their torsos done and one has the horse body started.  I'm trying to get away from the 'brown with black socks' that seems to be a standard horse color.  Of course it takes longer to paint but looks SO cool.

If I push myself I should have 2 of the 3 centaur warriors done before Saturday and the third one started at least.  Saturday is the monthly paint day so I'll bring a solo figure (one of the ones from Troop 1) and see about getting that done during the paint day.  Maybe 2 of them since I might even finish the first one.  Gotta love army painting.

Oh, and for the record.  Spraying varnish on fairies feels like spraying them with bug spray.  Icky.

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Some work in progress shots

The colors are tinted yellow even after correction so they're not quite as vivid as in person.  The blue is really a nice blue-green that I love.  I'll have true color pictures when they're painted.

I'm making this army for the ReaperCon Warlord tournament.  I know, I know.  I've been painting dwarves like a fiend but didn't want to field them this year.  And then there's the troop of battle nuns.  But those are for later.  This year, elves take the field.

WIP Elf 01

WIP Elf 02

WIP Elf 03

Obviously the armor isn't nearly done yet.  The plan is to pick out some details with a thinned metallic blue and then wash all the silver with green liner.  That should get me the blue-green to match the dominant color in the minis. I'm a big fan of color washing my silvers.

I got myself all confused by trying to work blues and greens into the colors to go along with that blue-green I like so much.  For the record, it's the Ocean Triad by Reaper.  I love using it as a skin tone too.  But I digress.

A friend of mine helped me talk colors and that's why almost everything else is a neutral.  The leather is a red-brown but not heavily so.  Mr. Color Wheel says it's the compliment of my blue-green and I think it looks pretty darn good.

I did spend a good chunk of tonight fixing and cleaning up the work I did here with inadequate lighting.  My paint table lamps has been packed away, along with the chair I've used for over 20 years at my work tables.  Excavating in the small bedroom resolved both of those issues.  The lamps are yellow shifted but I don't use them for picking colors so it's all good.

I also got most of the rest of the army based and primed in the last couple of days.  The last pieces are on order so I'll be painting like a fiend for the next few weeks.  I need this to keep myself occupied.

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Teaser!

I get to be a tease once in a while.  OK.  I get to tease as much as I want.

Tomorrow I'm going to be playing at least one demo game of Warlord with the game group here.  I'll have my "normal" demo armies but have also put together a couple of slightly larger, more complex armies.  These guys are experienced gamers so after getting the basic rules out of the way I think we can move on to the more fun stuff.

On a related note I plan on testing a 500 point Dwarf army, since I need one to kick some orc butt.  Yes Spike, I'm smack-talking your precious green overgrown goblins.

I'm going to try to take pictures for battle reports but it all depends on how the games go.  Battle reports are fun.

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Just what the heck do I have?

I did pack up all my minis for the move but now I need to sort out the armies so I know what to acquire at ReaperCon.  This is not as easy as it seems.  Luckily most of them are still in their blisters so sorting is relatively (hah!) easy.  Please note the number of boxes below.

Boxes o Minis

The storage container at the very top is one of three that I have, filled with minis both in packaging and not.  In one of the three is an assembled and primed elf army.  This isn't even considering all the painted dwarves I have.

If you count along with me you'll see 7 boxes on the floor.  Add dwarves for 8.  And there's a mini-faction that isn't represented here for 9.  So far.  I might find another faction lurking in a storage container before this is over.

Once I have them sorted out I'm taking a page from a friend's book and making a "list" of what I have.  You'll notice the quotes around the word list there.  I actually made an Access database with the Reaper product list so I can do some reporting on these armies.  I'd really not like to have to look at a box and ask myself "now what's in here again?".  Again.

These are all armies for the Reaper Warlord game and they put out new rules, new data cards and there's a new command structure.  I know I'm light on command figures.  The question is just how much.

I'll report back as to what my findings are.

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Little tiny metal men

The game club got me into historicals by offering me a free brigade (aka - the "Bag o' Crack") so I had something in hand.  Yeah.  I bought the Lasalle rulebook already and found out I need to get a LOT more minis to make up my army.  ~sigh~  Like I didn't see that coming.

Luckily these guys have painted a lot of 15mm minis so they're more than willing to provide reference material and help.  It's a bit funny to see half a dozen people sitting around a large table, each of them with 50 to 200 figures being painted at the same time.  That's a lot of little tiny metal men.

French WIP 01

French WIP 02

They're glued to the jumbo craft sticks, which are about tongue depressor size.  That might give you an idea of scale.

They're based mostly in 8 models per infantry base and then differing numbers depending on what else they are.  I don't have any artillery yet.  Those get even more interesting since you have one set that are limbered (hooked up to the horses and can move) and unlimbered (shooting at things).  It doesn't seem to end.

Tomorrow my goal is to get the coats done on everyone, including the facings.  Those are going to be red.  The rest of the uniforms are white.  Tell me, who puts armies in the field wearing mostly white??  Oh yeah, Napoleon.

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Just a quick post for a link

My overload of Hirst molds came up in a forum discussion and someone was looking for the link to my web page.  Yes, I have enough molds that I made a web page to keep track of them.  Sad really.

Rastl's Hirst Arts Mold List

And I'm probably going to be adding to the number I own in the near future.  It's not my fault!  Honest!

 

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