Scenes from the Barrowmaze

 

My daughter and I started playing thru Barrowmaze , (which if you are not familiar is a classic mega dungeon campaign for old school style RPG play)  awhile back and I built some specific terrain for some of the key earlyish moments. 

The piece is a bit too large  10" x 12" for good shots of the whole thing in my current photo setup so I couldnt really pull off the scene with both sections and get a good effect.

the scene is really just a composite of the whole level...lots of undead...

 This whole piece here just attaches to dungeon tiles and you can build the dungeon as you explore it and die, there are some great rooms to potentially build out from but this the starting point. If you've played this you should recognize this as the entrance in burial mound # 12,  currently the group explored a dozen areas or so lost 2 hireling one KIA and one ran off and is missing and a PC died in a trap so they headed back to town to regroup

Soulblight Gravelords

Ennis Curse Born and Prince Duvalle of the Crimson Court

Recently finished up my Undead for Warcry,  after picking up the new Tome of Champions 2021 for the game its seems my Sepulchral Guard  fall under the Soulblight Gravelords faction and so does the Crimson Court, so I added these two Vampires for a full 1000 point Warband.  Again these guy where painted with mix of arcylic and oil paints and I am happy with the result..

I have yet to play and still needs to paint up another faction and finish the Terrain from the Red Harvest box set...I am about 70 ish percent done..having all the Sluice / Trenches and the Pit Dredger totally complete and everything else but the two large platforms base coated. should be done soon enough

that we will get a game in the near future.

my Sepluchral Guard

 

Quick look at my Pit Dredger, nothing fancy going on here other than some weathering I took the paint scheme from right out of the book with just slight variation in colors.

The Tomb of Horrors

I put this together last weekend inspired by some diorama boxes I have seen online. I have had the making of some sort of Tomb of Horrors project for sometime and I began casting Hirst blocks in the Egyptian theme some time ago with some sketches done for  3' x 3' larger dungeon layout that was similarly themed. Since then I have put the breaks on large terrain projects, because while they are fun to build the rarely get used and take up tons of space and the wall of boxes in my basement represents. The goal was make something I could get done in a weekend start to finish and use to take photos with.

As mentioned last couple of posts , I have been getting into different painting techniques specifically using Oil Paints and here we have the results on terrain, the entire piece was primed with a pale yellow acrylic and the rest is all Oils, Black, Umber, some Blues and Greens. I am really enjoying working with Oils and have quickly become a staple for everything I am working on right now. The Tomb of Horrors bits where made by Hirst Arts forum regular from years back who was selling this mold of custom pieces and I quickly bought one when I had the chance..this was years ago now and I am not sure, if its still available, if anyone does know who made these bits please let me know so I can credit them.

Skeletons by Games Workshop, Tomb of Horrors Mummy by Gale Force 9

7 of the 13 Henchmen from the recently released Henchmen and Hirelings box set from Reaper Miniatures, I painted these guys back in December.

 The Tomb of Horrors bits where made by Hirst Arts forum regular from years back who was selling this mold of custom pieces and I quickly bought one when I had the chance..this was years ago now and I am not sure, if its still available, if anyone does know who made these bits please let me know so I can credit them.

 I have alot of projects going on right now after a long glut and absence from doing all that much

I seem to be reinspired to finish old and take on new projects, Red Harvest terrain is coming along

and I painted up a couple Vampires I picked up for the Undead warband, by the time my daughter and I get a chance to actually try out Warcry, its will be a couple months yet before everything is painted , if I dont get too distracted by one-off projects like this....

Legions of Nagash

 

Following up on the last post, I spent the last 3 weeks or so looking into Warcry by Games Workshop. after purchasing the Red Harvest set, I have been spending some time assembling the terrain and watching videos on the game and how its played. I mentioned I probably had a enough models around where I could build a couple other Warbands.  I really didnt without just proxying everything, which I was ok with except I could not find the remains of my old box of Skeleton Warriors circa 2010-2011.

I had a post back then venting about what a pain in the butt they where to build, I must of really not liked them because they have disappeared expect for the two models on the far left . I might have just thrown them in when I sold a bunch off my Vampire Counts stuff way back.

I didnt want to just dig into the models in Red Harvest because , there are numerous build options and I want to figure out the game first, plus I figure my revist to the Games Workshop hobby after a decade away, I could work on upping my painting game.

Like alot of you I'm sure I spend some free time surfing You Tube and have good dozen hobby channels I check out.  I have wanted to get into trying out Oil paints, specifically Oil washes for awhile now

If you've  followed the blog at all, you also might notice I had sworn off metallics a very long time ago, in fact any metallic paints I have are at least 10 years old. I have seen such wonderful work done with metallics and inks and oil washes, I want to experiment with all three, none of which I've ever used or havent used in a very long time. In fact I havent owned any inks since Chestnut Brown Ink was a GW product and that was the old hex shaped pots....

 Skeletons are great for new techniques, they are very forgiving and since I seemed lack any GW style Skeletons I picked the "push fit" Sepulchral Guard for $20 something dollars and oh boy has assembly of GW models got light years easier (lol).

 The standard GW Necromancer is very old, I picked him up a painted him when he was first released. he's here just for the photo op,  The Necromancer here is the Mummy figure which is proxy as its made by Gale Force 9, from the Tomb of Horrors resin box, from way back...it was a good excuse to paint him , he and all the skeletons where batch painted. I used a handful of Reaper Paints,  a couple bright reds, some browns,  Bone, and some greys and greens ., Inks used were from Liquitex- white to zenithal prime, ( priming with ink? wtf right? but I used an air brush and it worked great. Black, Burnt Umber and a Pale Green for tinting my decade old GW Chainmail. Oil Washes are burnt umber over the bone and black for everything else.  There is bit of Vallejo Vergidis for some metal effects and some sparse mithril silver highlights and thats it.

For 10 painted models , I got them done in record time ...I like them , and liked the techniques through I need much more practice with this  new mediums, I am not sold on rebuying metallic paints a few here or there are a great accent but I want to try a batch of models with my standard NMM style with the oils and inks..so that will be next..

As far as Legions of Nagash goes, I dont think these 10 guys even make a 1000 point warband or close enough,  I'll still need a few more models.  The new Warcry update just got released so I will see when the book shows up, I cant believe GW is taking my money again, LOL

Oh and I sold my Stegadon, he had his crew, are travelling to their new owner in sunny New Mexico much for fitting for Lizards...

All but Dead, The resurrection comes around..

 

Kind of fell of the planet with the blog and as far as any hobbying goes, but I've been talking about the downward spiral of my hobby and gaming actitivies for years now and yet somehow it just keeps on having life pumped back into it, whether its gaming with my oldest daughter or just picking up an unfinished model of the shelf , like the Stegadon here and deciding to just finish it.

So believe it or not I started this model wayyyyyy back in 2010!!.. When I still holding on to the idea that a new army would help with the incoming aprehension of WFB 8th edition., Inevitably The Empire rules kept my interest initially and I never did much more on the Lizard Army, and just played Empire until my eventual dissatisfaction with 8th Edition finally pushed me out of game completely  somewhere in late 2011.

This model is currently on ebay   listed at $225.00  I had originally planned on less but there are numerous models I saw priced above it at near or above $300..so I didnt want it to undersell myself in comparision it is listed at best offer thou and I happy to take any reasonable offer for this..considering I sold my original open box one awhile back for damn near close to some retail prices on the new ones. and I of course have a ton of hours into this as its a fiddly difficult model to assemble and paint.

Now of course speaking about todays Warhammer Fantasy, I have had zero interest in the Age of Sigmar, the game , however , a couple recent releases by GW reignited some old interest with me based on the strength of the models alone. GW models of the last decades ostentatiousness is very often in conflict with my minimalist old school tendencies, however recent release seem to have stuck a chord with me. Those being the models in Warhammer Quests Cursed City and many of the current Warcry releases. While I passed on Cursed City the 1st time around (apparently I didnt have a choice as it soldout in a day?) recent news of it release has me interested and I did pull the trigger on this:

Purchased on my interest in the Darkoath Savagers models alone, I do like the Spider brood and the terrain as well..its my first GW purchase in about a decade. and I look forward to building and painting it up.  Interesting enough the game seems pretty appealling to me as well..I have been watching a bunch of videos on playing it.  If anyone who plays it is reading this, appreciate your comments on the game.

I sold almost all my WFB stuff a long time ago, I find it kind of humorous I am interested again and what I do have left is some Lizards and Undead its enough to make a couple extra Warcry warbands. Building and painting all this is a quite a project thou, its going to take some time but who knows you might see some Warcry Battle Reports here sometime this summer or fall, wouldnt that be something?

Rogues Gallery

 

Bugbears by Reaper Miniatures, 

I painted a bunch of figures since last September , here thes antagonists from a bunch of differentD&D games we ran, its about 50 models,  then I have about 20 Adventurer types, and then a couple dozen figures from the game Zombicide. All in all Im somewhere around 100 figures, which is alot given my
 time constraints and I am not doing any Army Painting. Also have some newish Terrain as well.
All will be revealed as I move back into posting more frequently.  The Bugbears in the opening shot appeared in both our B2 Keep on the Borderlands and T1 Village of Hommlet games..

Ogre by Reaper Minatures

Like wise this Ogre appeared in B2 Keep on the Borderlands and and as Lubash in the Moathouse Dungeon of  T1 Village of Hommlet 

Bloodhoof Minotaur by Reaper Minatures

The Minotaur was a TPK machine in our B2 Keep on the Borderlands game

Owlbear from Otherworld Miniatures

The Classic Owlbear from the inside cover of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, The kids didnt stumble into his Den, 

Goblins by Reaper Minatures

I really started to like these Reaper Goblins and they keep making better and better ones so I just keep painting them.  I gave up on using my Otherworld ones, because the scale on these guys is just way better.  Used, in Lost Mines of Phandelver, Keep on the Borderlands, and my version of village of Hommlet .

Lizardmen by Reaper Minatures

I hope they make more poses of these guys and out of the newer plastic material Reaper is using, I've gotten lots of use of them, Keep of the Borderlands, Village of Hommlet and now Barrowmaze.

Kobolds by Reaper Miniatures

Spent about a week working on all these guys...think I have another 6 still and then there another set I want of new ones Reapers released which would give me about 30....made a brief appearance in my Keep on the Borderlands game.

Giant Frogs and Giant Crocodile by Reaper Miniatures

Swamp Creatures appearing in the Village of Hommlet

Giant Crayfish by Otherworld Miniatures, Green Slime by Reaper Miniatures

Denizens of the Moathouse Dungeon both these guys claimed many of daughters Hirelings and Henchman, ouch a nasty pair.

If you want to read a narrative of retake on the Village of Hommlet as the starting point for Barrowmaze head on over to my Sword and Sorcery Blog, Iron Shadows in the Moon. I'll try to get my painted Adventurers up soon.

Plastic legions update , Iron Shadows in the Moon

 

Well from my last post you can see where I started messing around with Board games, and that continued sparingly throughout  this year- Gloomhaven, Zombicide, A Touch of Evil, Catan nothing really stuck for us more than an occasional game here and there. Skirmish games like Rangers of Shadow Deep, Frostgrave,  and Fallout: Wasteland Warfare fell by the wayside with the  advent of the introduction of D&D with my kids.  Its pretty much taken over and when we do get to game, we are doing that, any hobby Time I have had is for prepping those games, and it should go without saying- I do a lot of prepping!.   I think I have definitely painted more single figures in the last year than I have since back when I was war gaming on weekly  basis and doing a 2-3 events conventions a year.

 

While the blog here has been out of commission  technically since last fall,  I still , despite the my time sinkhole,  have a keen interest in the hobby. The change is really how the hobby has just morphed for me in the last decade and a half.  Wargaming easily translates into roleplaying games, to ever think that as a kid when we were pushing  unpainted miniatures around on black and white grid. , I would have the massive amount of painted figures and terrain that I do now, is somewhat unreal , it wasn’t even a gleam in my eye back then.

 

Needless to say the my kids today take this for granted and have no idea but remain quite impressed as their games come to life on the table top.  While we started out with modern 5e D&D, some of them found the rules a bit complex additionally with my lack of knowledge in the explanation department on said new rules.  I did an experiment and moved us over into a one off with some B/X D&D , which isn’t even my background, ( Im a blue box, the 1^st Ed late 70’s guy) but I know it well enough and surprisingly we ended up sticking with it , so here I am in mid 50’s running an 80’s style B/X game with my 14 year old and her friends, and its been really fun. I find the Kids prefer to just be an “Elf” or a “Fighter” or a “Thief” and not a one of 3 strains of elves and then whatever  subclass of your main class, with the extra tracking of abilities , actions, bonus actions etc. (and I will certain be pontificating on the new D&D vs old moving forward as that is quite of modern topic of conversation)

 

Needless to say, I no longer taking to time to log entire playthru’s  of various skirmish games like I was or writing up the blow by blow to a D&D session both of which incredibly time consuming,  previously I was making an audio recording the session then painstakingly going thru the play back.  And typing out the details. As your can imagine that takes awhile.

 

Moving forward here, you will see pictures of painted models and terrain and a typical chronicling of the hobby that I have always tried to do here. Now that I am refocused I think its appropriate that I separate my new interests from the old and let the cross over happen where it may. 

If you are an occasional visitor here who wants to check out my models and terrain , look for bunch of it being posted before year end.  IF you are interested in a narratives about OSR D&D games, or essays on classic Fantasy and Science Fiction in Books, Magazines and Comics about characters like Conan, Kull, Fafhrd and the Gray mouser,  or countless others, please come check out  the reinvention of the my hobby over at Iron Shadows in the Moon