Tag: Miniatures

Miniatures, skirmish games, Uncategorized

Fantasy Skirmish: Setting Yourself Free

For a lot of us middle-aged wardolly junkies, Mordheim was the Alpha and the Omega of wargaming when it hit in 1999. The art design defined what Grimdark meant without losing that whimsical edge that made it great. Playing with a dozen minis meant you could get a warband together in a good weekend of hobbying. It was also built off of (I think) Fourth Edition Warhammer Fantasy Rules, so it was easy enough to learn one if you knew the other.

Todd, a respectable demon lord, and his personal Valet, Timothy.

And then, like most great things, it disappeared, unloved and scorned by its creator, like the Creature when Victor decides to cast the wretch out to pursue other endeavors.

I’ve been chasing Mordheim now for over a quarter century. The rules set feels a little antiquated now, and while there are modern contenders to the game, I’m not smitten by any of them in the same way.

A desperate thug tries to sneak up on an unwary magician

Necromunda is pretty great in its modern incarnation, but I really don’t want to have to carry around half a library worth of books to get a game in. One Page Rules is fun, but a little too simple for what I want to sink my teeth in to. Frostgrave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands both come much closer to what I’m looking for, but I’m still struggling to find that Goldilocks system that works just right for me.

So, I think I’m just going to have to write it out myself. Something that bridges that gap between crunchiness and simplicity, allows some customization, and, most importantly, is miniature agnostic.

A group of barbarians in search of a hot bath…

I’ll be starting with a Witch Hunter warband, using the ideas I have in my head to get the classic warband on the table. I have plenty of figures to build out a good roster, and that’ll help me get more of my Paint What You Got challenge figures finished.

At first, I was a little daunted about base size, since I’ll be using some modern Warhammer minis in this warband, and they have larger bases. Then I realized that I’m not bound to those restraints, as I’m working my own forge now. So, the first step in setting myself free is setting those minis free. Goodbye, lovely decorative but overly large bases, and hello 25mm classics!

I’ll be mashing up some classic GW sprues with some modern classics from the Frostgrave range, which should allow me to have some fun with the warbands.

Next up, I’ll share some of the ideas I have for the mechanics, because why not? They’re not entirely mine, but after 40 years of gaming I have a billion game systems in my head that I am going to openly pillage.

Now we’ll see how long this conviction lasts, I could do almost all of this with the 5x from x system and be just as happy!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Web Warriors, Part One

Looks like we’re having a double dip week for Marvel Crisis Protocol, as I have a huge backlog of these minis and we’ll probably see a lot more as the month progresses!

Ghost Spider is a great character, I really enjoy reading the comics and she’s one of the highlights of the Spiderverse movies that Sony put out.

MCP’s take on the character came pretty early on, which is great. The pose is still pretty good, but I would love to see a fresh take on the character now that the team at Atomic Mass Games has really hit their stride on the sculpts.

Ben Reilly, star of the much-aligned Clone Saga from the ’90s, is another great mini from the MCP crew, I especially enjoy the Reilly Drive signpost on the base!

More to come soon, thanks for stopping by!

Warhammer 40,000

The Salt Mines: 40k Space Wolves

Anyone who has followed this blog for a longer period of time knows that I’ve been struggling with Warhammer 40,000 for a while. I’ve been playing off and on since 1989, and I honestly can’t stand the business model. If that game needs to be updated every three years after being in print for close to four decades? You’re doing a shit job.

He’s mean! He’s beardy! He’s not a dwarf! But he should have a hammer anyway!

Sadly, most of my friends have a bad case of 40k Fever. It’s pretty much all they want to play, so I can either NOT play games with them and happily plug away on my other projects, or I can put together something that I do like in the lore and grumble about it a lot.

Yeah, I’m a bundle of fun. People line up around the block to play games with me.

Space Wolves have always had a special place in my heart. They don’t care about the Codex Astartes, they look like they can pilot a longboat, and beards are cool. Plus, they have wolves. Wolves are cool.

I’m going to put together a total of 2,000 points for this army, for a game I really don’t like, just because the people I play with are a lot of fun and I don’t want to NOT play games with them!

Still not sure how to keep engaged enough to learn the janky ass rules without lighting it all on fire, though. Sure, One Page Rules has a good alternative, but good luck getting anyone with 40k Fever to break from the GeeDubs greed train. Grumble grumble.

I’ll have some Terminators up soon, and probably a Rhino or two. And some Bloodclaws and a Dreadnaught. That’s still not 2,000 points, but that’s what I own already, so it’ll have to do for now, hahaha!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Medusa

I started reading comics for real when I was about 10 years old, so indulge me as I take you on a trip in the Way Back Machine to my public library in 1980. I would spend hours there every week, since we didn’t have a television, and I would often find the big compendium books of comics and lose myself on a couch for a few hours. One of those books was a big Silver Surfer collection, and there were some cross-overs with The Inhumans, who seem kinda silly to me now, but 10-year-old me loved them. Especially the Jack Kirby stuff.

Why Kirby? By today’s standards, he looks to be a bit of a hack. But if you really look at his work, especially in the ’60s, he was a master of speed and efficiency. Kirby famously had no idea how many circles Thor had on his chest, he just drew what worked for the panel. He also drew over 100 issues of various Marvel titles in 1964… which is insane.

Plus, the dude drew this, and as we all know, everyone wins when a Nazi gets punched…

Kirby’s other big strength was an understanding of what works with four colors. We can learn a ton from the dude as miniature painters! Hulk doesn’t wear purple pants because they were the rage in 1963. He wears them because purple complements green on the color wheel, and we want our subjects to pop. Half the time I pull a blank on a color scheme for a miniature, I’ll just look at old four color comics and find something that works… and it always works.

Decades after her debut, artists are paying tribute to Kirby by keeping what works, working. Art by the incomparable Terry and Rachel Dodson.

For the Marvel Crisis Protocol Medusa miniature, I wanted to make sure to honor the original color scheme. Luckily, most everyone since Kirby has stuck to the purple costume. It looks great with the red hair, and really draws the eye straight to the miniature!

I have to give huge props to Atomic Mass Games for this Medusa sculpt. My wife hardly ever comments on the minis on my workbench, but the second she saw Medusa, she was suddenly paying a lot of attention. In thirty years together, she’s patiently endured my hobby, but actual interest in a figure has been rare!

Looking back at the Dodson art, though, I’m debating going back in and doing the mask, gloves and boots in black. Regardless, this is a fantastic take on a classic character from Atomic Mass Games!

skirmish games, Workbench

Warcrow Orc Revenant

New year, new game!

I have always been a fan of Corvus Belli‘s Infinity miniatures, and have probably painted more Infinity figs than any other game. Mostly, that is because I worked in a game store that sold a ton of Infinity, and I was often contracted to paint armies for folks. I loved it. Loved the minis, loved the lore, but the game? Damn. I’m just not that kind of masochist. It’s crunchy, tricky to play, and I often found myself knowing I had lost in the first turn. Still, those minis are sublime!

We had been hearing about Corvus Belli developing a fantasy game for years, and most of us just assumed they would be putting out a fantasy re-skin of Infinity. Flash forward a few years, my store is gone, my game group is fractured, but dammit, CB just put out some lore for Warcrow, their new fantasy game. And… wow. It’s not an Infinity clone. It’s a good, solid game with very little crunch, and some amazingly well done minis. The lore is pretty spiffy, too!

My first fig for Warcrow is an Orc Revenant. The Orcs of Warcrow expect to die gloriously in battle, but they also continue growing throughout their lives. Once they reach their 30’s, they are pretty damned big, and salty as hell about not being dead yet.

These salty lads and ladies become Revenants, and set out into battle to meet the best end possible. The figure makes me happy, and I had a really good time painting him!

Assembly, on the other hand, wasn’t so great. The model is made from Siocast, which is a pretty environmentally friendly type of thermoplastic. I approve of that. The mold lines? Not so much. I also snapped the blade that goes on Punchie’s Stump, since it appears that Siocast is pretty fragile. I was going to complain a bit, but having put together more recent Warcrow minis, I’m happy to say that CB has worked out the kinks in the molding process and Siocast is working out pretty well for them!

10mm miniatures, Miniatures

10mm Fantasy: Vampire Counts Skeleton Command Rank

New week, new strip of 10mm skellies! This will be the command rank for the skeleton unit, They’re a fun little collection of boney bois!

I’m still working out in my heart if I like 10mm or 15mm more, but honestly, half the fun is painting up the different units in different scales and figuring it out. This is a riddle that may never actually find an answer!

With the original strip of infantry, this makes four ranks of six warriors done, and they look so freaking cool ranked up together!

I’m also having a lot of fun taking pictures of models with finished terrain, it makes a cool looking project even cooler!

10mm miniatures, Miniatures

10mm Fantasy: Vampire Counts Skeleton Unit

Apparently, the holidays broke my damned brain. That’s the only reason I can figure that I would have broken down and tried to paint God’s Forbidden Scale again… I swore I would never touch 10mm again, and yet, here I am, brush in hand and ridiculous grin plastered on my stupid face, painting incredibly tiny skeletons.

And, truth be told, I had a better time of it this time around. The trick to tricking my brain into not shutting down this time was painting with the suggestion of color instead of actually painting the models. The details are so small that you’ll just lose your hair if you approach these like a 28mm model.

But, wow. The finished result is actually pretty spiffy. I love the look of two ranks of boney bois, just shambling up for a scrap! I had so much fun with these that I’m already working on a command unit for these troops, and a commander model for the army!

And, just for fun, here’s a picture with a US penny for scale!

Miniatures, Moonstone

Moonstone: Boulder the Troll

Here’s my first Moonstone miniature for 2025, and he’s one of my favorites! (They’re all my favorite, who am I kidding?) Boulder the Troll borrows a lot from Ludo the rockfriend from Labyrinth, but Ludo’s cool as hell, so I’m not faulting Goblin King Games for paying homage to such a great character!

In game, Boulder can summon rocks, which sounds pretty familiar. He also has a cool trick that lets him sing to Moonstones and bring them higher up out of the ground, effectively reducing the amount of time characters have to spend digging them up!

I went with a couple of oil washes on this figure, with a little Payne’s Grey on the cool colors, and a burnt umber wash on the skin tones. This toned down the greens pretty well, and really helps the figure stand out on my display shelf!

Boulder can be played with a goblin crew, I’ll have to post a shot of some of them together with their big friend!

Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures

MCP: The Juggernaut

I am blaming my friend Randon for this. I just fell helplessly back in love with Marvel Crisis Protocol. It’s not entirely his fault, the models are incredible, fun to paint, and really easy to collect… but I’m blaming him, primarily because he’s a fun guy to pal around with, but he’s also an incredible painter, which can get the inspiration juices flowing pretty easily!

The first model off the workbench is Cain Marko, half-brother of Charles Xavier and the wielder of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak… but you probably know him as the Juggernaut!

This model is incredible! He’s so dynamic, and the base alone conveys the brutal stompiness of the character in such a huge way! I also love that Cain just grabbed a stoplight to hit someone with on his way to the fight!

Juggernaut is one of those characters that I’ve loved since I was a kid. He’s a bad guy most of the time, but he seems to have some redeemable qualities. There was a run in the early 2000’s when he was a member of the X-Men that I loved, especially his friendship with Sammy the Squidboy. Good stuff, and it still hits me like a ton of bricks 20 years later!

There’s a bunch more MCP on the way, but Juggernaut is a great way to kick off this year’s projects! He also lets me check off a hobby bingo square, since he’s been sitting partially finished on a shelf for almost two years! Woohoo!