If your toning down the base, might I suggest painting it similar to the top of the Tau ships? That way their camouflage is blending in with the “ground”.

Very nice - Sadly I agree that the bottom is slightly nicer than the top - Just have them fly upside down

 inmygravenimage wrote:

Don Qui Hotep wrote:I dig it! I like the idea of dorsal and ventral having different colors, a lot of aerial predators do the same. Do they usually have a lighter belly? I know in the ocean it helps blend in with the light above, but I'm not sure it matters in the sky, cuz they tend to stay in the sun. Anyway, I dig purple as an accent color - you never see bad purple paint jobs.

I'll be honest I was thinking in terms of fish lol

There you go! Figures I've got to make things more complicated than they need to be.

I am super impressed with the updates! I love that belly scheme. I think it works really well at scale. I'm thinking about Theophony's suggestion and it makes a bit of sense - the blues from below to look like the sky, and the camo from above to help break up the silhouette?

GiraffeX wrote:Oh looking very nice Graven!

Cheers chum!

Viterbi wrote:
Thanks, well there's enough board games around at home to get him hooked on other stuff first But he already likes the minis, may give WarCry a try over Christmas, rules are simple enough to learn and see, if he has fun with it. Dreadball always looks fun in your pics, may have a closer look at it.

Dreadball is EXCELLENT and extremely easy to learn.

Theophony wrote:If your toning down the base, might I suggest painting it similar to the top of the Tau ships? That way their camouflage is blending in with the “ground”.

Hmm. Mebbe.

Slinky wrote:Very nice - Sadly I agree that the bottom is slightly nicer than the top - Just have them fly upside down

Lol so true. Excellent plan

Don Qui Hotep wrote:
There you go! Figures I've got to make things more complicated than they need to be.

I am super impressed with the updates! I love that belly scheme. I think it works really well at scale. I'm thinking about Theophony's suggestion and it makes a bit of sense - the blues from below to look like the sky, and the camo from above to help break up the silhouette?

Well I'm thinking of it flying over water, I suppose.

So make of them what you will:

Ksi'm'yen stealth mode! Fairly happy with my ethereal bioluminescence.

I know very little about Tau but I liked the Ksi'm'yen fluff so this pleases me.

Tiny Valkyrie and Vendetta are also built, very lovely, great kits. Again, Imperial stuff feels generally less fiddly than xenos. However, I've not got to the Lightnings yet...

Fun day with the kids today. Out of nowhere, they asked to play D&D?! So that was interesting, a bit of scrabbling around the internet and, actually, rather good. Who knows what weirdness tomorrow will bring?

Hey ho
Graven

Awesome paint theme. How does the game play? ( Sorry if you already addressed this - Still catching up on folks blogs )

Nice work , I do like the undercarriage as well, but still like the alien top.

Great work on those Tau. I'm still trying to catch up on the last couple of years worth of content here... stop being so prolific! (or maybe I should stop getting too busy with work? Who knows...)

I wish shipping prices were not stupid. I just found the perfect print to make for your death guard.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4057326

Great Unclean one riding a scooter (Blight hauler)

This is why everyone needs a 3d printer

I saw that blight hauler the other day and had a chuckle. It's great

Solar_lion wrote:Awesome paint theme. How does the game play? ( Sorry if you already addressed this - Still catching up on folks blogs )

It's a cracking game. Convinced the young spawn to try it and we had a proper belter of a time; details below.

Theophony wrote:Nice work , I do like the undercarriage as well, but still like the alien top.

Phew!

endtransmission wrote:Great work on those Tau. I'm still trying to catch up on the last couple of years worth of content here... stop being so prolific! (or maybe I should stop getting too busy with work? Who knows...)

Good to see you back squire!

Theophony wrote:I wish shipping prices were not stupid. I just found the perfect print to make for your death guard.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4057326

Great Unclean one riding a scooter (Blight hauler)

This is why everyone needs a 3d printer

You're a bloody trouble maker lol. That is genius, for sure.

endtransmission wrote:I saw that blight hauler the other day and had a chuckle. It's great

not going to lie. A printer would be lovely but a terrifying distraction
Bits and pieces done. Finally did the evil zombie AI, Gemini:

Do love some zombie murderbots. Had a great game of Dreadball over TableTopSimulator, got thumped but it was excellent. Learned a lot; having now played against two of the game's top players in the last month (and lost) I feel much more confident about the game; for all that I love it, there's always stuff to learn. The best compliment from my opponent last night was that he was terrified of me going into the match

Aeronautica continues apace. Got the Punishork mounted on a base:

Nice to know it works! And had a game Vs Tau with the kids:

We played using the Low Altitude rules from Taros. Really adds to the tension as you have to be MUCH more careful (Aeronautica is actually pretty forgiving with maneuvers) as collisions are much more of a risk.

The tau are a funny mix. They're maneuverable enough for dogfighting but Barracudas are super fragile. They are inevitably best at long ranges, although at any range, when they hit, they hit hard.

I do love how dynamic the models feel.

It came down to a face off between these two, one structure each left. Terrible destroyer rolls meant Tau won the day, much to the kids' delight! Using the card decks made a big difference, the game flows much more smoothly and the kids found it a lot easier. Good stuff!

It never ceases to surprise me when I get "stuck" in a couple of colours.

SJS judge Gerhardt

Fun figs

And my Orion female themed Kalyshi

Horrid old soft 1st gen mantic plastics, but glad they're done.

Which means... More than 500 painted this year in 6 months! Not too bad lol
Graven

The Khalasyi(Spelling ), look good in the Judge Color scheme

500 thats just insane, but so are the times.

But printers are sooo much fun! Just think of all the objectives etc. you could print for Aeronautica </troublemaker>

 endtransmission wrote:
But printers are sooo much fun! Just think of all the objectives etc. you could print for Aeronautica </troublemaker>

And the files for all the planes. You could have a full air battle with dozens of planes .

Theophony wrote:The Khalasyi(Spelling ), look good in the Judge Color scheme

500 that's just insane, but so are the times.

Yeah, it's unlikely to be repeated or indeed much increased as reality returns.

endtransmission wrote:But printers are sooo much fun! Just think of all the objectives etc. you could print for Aeronautica </troublemaker>

Where is a shaking fist orkmoticon when you need one?

Theophony wrote:
And the files for all the planes. You could have a full air battle with dozens of planes .

shocked. Shocked and appalled.

Foolishly, agreed to build and paint some more thugs for my mate Cavzilla, as his missus has had a baby this week. So that's a bit of a July project (the figs, not the baby). At his request, I've gsd a beard onto Gordon, hockey mask and stick on one goon, ski goggles on another and hockey jersey on the boss. I am a mug.

In addition, general list of stuff to do (inspies by Viterbi's enthusiastic organisation) in the second half of the year:

Part painted:
Dumbledore
Dredd vs Death
Dreadball Dredd
AI Valkyrie
AI Vendetta
AI Lightnings (3)

Primed:
Krampus
Citi-Def (9)
Juves (3)
Dreadball coaches (3), fans (2) Void Sirens (4), Nameless (2)
Harley Quinn (2)
Joker (2) and goons (5)
Supers Unlimited (9)

Unbuilt/unprimed:
Dreadball hobgoblin team (9), mutant team (9), asterian team (9),
Strontium Dog: Search and Destroy (2)
DC: Btas Green Arrow, Promo Lex

WIP conversions
DC: Copperhead Arkham>Rebirth, Catman>Mr Miracle

I do like a list I also have more AI on the way because, frankly, why not.

Long day sorting out mother-in-law stuff yesterday, but got a couple of good games of TFTCG with the boy, and then today started a new Holiday League with the boys. More DREADBALL!

Lastly, on a whim, painted up a Zombicide fatty

Brains, and so forth,
Graven

There is no ork shakeyfist icon because they know it's true

I'm not sure I dare write up a list of things that ar epartially painted, or in the queue... I'd probably have a breakdown even considering it, especially with the new Guard project! You're a brave brave man...

Thanks for sharing the action shots of AI. Your Tau look really fresh on the tabletop - that paint job really suits them. Plus, put one of them next to the Punishork and you get a serious sense of the different aesthetics between the two armies. Not always the easiest thing to pull off at scale!

Glad to hear you're getting a lot of game time in as well.

Excellent stuff. The Tau scheme looks good on them.

endtransmission wrote:There is no ork shakeyfist icon because they know it's true

I'm not sure I dare write up a list of things that are partially painted, or in the queue... I'd probably have a breakdown even considering it, especially with the new Guard project! You're a brave brave man...

Lol out does occasionally engender panic but by and large I think it's healthy.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Thanks for sharing the action shots of AI. Your Tau look really fresh on the tabletop - that paint job really suits them. Plus, put one of them next to the Punishork and you get a serious sense of the different aesthetics between the two armies. Not always the easiest thing to pull off at scale!

Glad to hear you're getting a lot of game time in as well.

I think it helps that the aesthetic is very distinctive. Compliment taken however

Llamahead wrote:Excellent stuff. The Tau scheme looks good on them.

Thanks buddy glad you approve given your initial doubts.

Funny old day yesterday. Sorting out some work stuff for my dad, getting a new window fitted, putting up a blind, blah. BUT got a game of Hellboy with the boys (random scenario: undead, winter, Russia, cats, witches and Baba Yaga - glorious).

Oh and a spot of paint:

Starting Electrix from Supers Unlimited, who is not Livewire, honest.

Also throwing around some ideas for Nora Fries


And petites progress on the imperial navy


Finally got Dumbledore done... Maybe.


It's been a Dredd-ful day...

Dredd vs Death

I also got Dreadball Dredd and a suspicious scientist done

I am really happy with how the reconstruction of Dredd's shoulder eagle went (horribly miscast) and I love the scientist, he's just a generic useful fig for all sorts of games.

I'm definitely embracing the virtual gaming. Dreadball online on TTS has wroked well, but there's a tourney coming up over Vassal also, which I'm up for. Plus, I've been asked participate in the Dune RPG playtest so I'll be keen to see how RPGing works over Discord. Good times to be a nerd!

Next week will be very quiet, we're spending a few days at my parents so no painting will occur. Not sure what games will be going with us but probably Aeronautica, Hey that's my fish! and a bunch of card games: fluxx, gloom and sabacc are most popular with the kids just now. My mum likes Carcassonne and my dad will always play chess so I'm hoping for some proper quality catch up time. Plus my dad has some VERY good whisky that needs attention...
Anyway, happy treason day etc,
Graven

cool stuff as usual, and liking the idea of the preserved Nora Fries, the one villains' motivation for his actions, he is so devoted and in love he will commit what ever he needs to so she may live with him and not be in a display. A Batman series tragedy.

shasolenzabi wrote:cool stuff as usual, and liking the idea of the preserved Nora Fries, the one villains' motivation for his actions, he is so devoted and in love he will commit what ever he needs to so she may live with him and not be in a display. A Batman series tragedy.

Indeed, made even more awful by recent events:

Dumbledore looks ace, very vibrant colors on the fire and his robes!
And was very close on snagging the 2.0 starter of Dreadball, was on Amazon.de for 35€, but after looking at what I already have bought this month and will buy because of the impending release of 9th edition I decided not to clutter my backlog even more

Viterbi wrote:Dumbledore looks ace, very vibrant colors on the fire and his robes!
And was very close on snagging the 2.0 starter of Dreadball, was on Amazon.de for 35€, but after looking at what I already have bought this month and will buy because of the impending release of 9th edition I decided not to clutter my backlog even more

Many thanks indeed. buy Dreadball you fool!


So it turns out painting aeroplanes is surprisingly addictive.

Valkyrie and Vendetta


Lightnings (Strike with the blue stripe)


And collectively:


Gathering up stuff to go away. 5 days with no painting? Shocking! That's going to dent the average but hopefully lots of playing of games - a fair trade
Graven


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh!
Work on Nora Fries:

Knew I forgot something

A tiny little DC update:

Did another bat signal:



And a bit of work on Mr Miracle, a project several years in the making. I have no Affection for, or interest in, Catman as a character or the version of the fig KM did. However, the pose has always made me think of classic superheroes.

That's a Vision head in place of the old, very battered, Catman head. Jewellery chain will go around the fists where I've trimmed back the knuckle dusters. I really love the idea that Mr Miracle, the man who can escape from anything, as a rescue project.

Away now, but hoping to get some games in:
Graven

Mr. Miracle-- there's a name you don't hear every day. I look forward to the garish Kirby colors.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh!
Work on Nora Fries:

Knew I forgot something

That is really awesome. I love stuff like this. Sinister laboratories.

New head on Mr. Miracle turned out well .

Nice set up for Nora.

Theophony wrote:New head on Mr. Miracle turned out well .
Nice set up for Nora.

Cheers squire!

Fifty wrote:

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh!
Work on Nora Fries:

Knew I forgot something

That is really awesome. I love stuff like this. Sinister laboratories.

I'm hoping that it'll be relatively easy. Lol. Why? WHY?!

JoshInJapan wrote:Mr. Miracle-- there's a name you don't hear every day. I look forward to the garish Kirby colors.

I'm really taken with Tom King's reimagining of him. Whilst he can be hit and miss, when he's on form as a writer, he's excellent.

Got a bit excited, got Electrix done:

She's the not-Livewire from Supers Unlimited

I chose to leave some of the flash on to add electrical zappery.

Scale shot with the lovely goombas that Camkierhi did for me.

And on we go!
Graven

Electrox is very cool where is he (?) from?

Shocking how similar those are

nice work on the glow effect.

I only managed not picking up the Taros Game and AI core set yesterday by Miniaturemarket being out of them at their store . I'd also be obliged to download flight of the Valkyrie to have theme music while playing.

Good work on all the 2 pages of stuff since I last checked in...

 Dr H wrote:
Good work on all the 2 pages of stuff since I last checked in...

That’s like 300 models ago .

inmygravenimage,

Very nice work on the aircraft on the previous page.

Cheers,

CB

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Electrox is very cool where is he (?) from?

Electrix is from Supers Unlimited. She's a great sculpt, who's boyishly slim - I really dig the athletic, non-cheesecake look - and is a single cast piece. Not bad for £8 (well, £7 at KS, but she'll be £8 at retail)

Theophony wrote:Shocking how similar those are

nice work on the glow effect.

I only managed not picking up the Taros Game and AI core set yesterday by Miniaturemarket being out of them at their store . I'd also be obliged to download flight of the Valkyrie to have theme music while playing.

It's absolutely necessary
The game is good fun. Broadly speaking throwing lots of dice is better in that you're only hitting on a 5+. Tau are generally harder to play as they're usually throwing many fewer dice although they tend to damage when they do. Always take drones for things trying to out manoeuvre you at close range. Tiger sharks are solid; Barracudas brittle but agile.
Valks/Vendettas are cheap and nimble but vulnerable at short range. Lightnings are insanely maneuverable. Thunderbolts are still the gold standard despite the 2 PT increase across the board. Marauder Destroyers are brutal. Dakkajets are filthy, as are grot bombers. Eavy Bommers have just got a boost from the faq so we'll see. Fighta Bommers are a bit meh but tougher than they seem.

Dr H wrote:Good work on all the 2 pages of stuff since I last checked in...

Theophony wrote:

 Dr H wrote:
Good work on all the 2 pages of stuff since I last checked in...

That’s like 300 models ago .

This is very true.

Captain Brown wrote:inmygravenimage,

Very nice work on the aircraft on the previous page.

Cheers,

CB

Most kind!
So with lockdown easing a couple of days with my parents was the very ticket. Plenty of booze, lots of grub, and acceptable quantity of sunshine. I haven't started anything new but here's a tease of what's coming:

Freeze themed Back to Gotham goons, plus cops.

Some good review stuff incoming. Terrain Crate 2 from Mantic, and Brutal Cities' Neo brutalist selection (MDF terrain designed by an architect?! Well ok then).
Roll on the weekend,
Graven

Excited for the Freeze crew and more Gotham cops. We need a really big Batman picture at some point, how many minis are that now?

Hey gang,

Viterbi wrote:Excited for the Freeze crew and more Gotham cops. We need a really big Batman picture at some point, how many minis are that now?

Lord I dread to think lol. Too bloody many. At least 4 figure cases, plus display figs.

Meanwhile, I've got on with Nora Fries:

And the reverse.

And here she is with dear old Victor.

So that was fun.

My excellent friend Mark Mckinnon printed a couple of his game pieces from Wreck'n'Ruin at hot wheels scale - a buggy, wrecker and rig (armoured bus, really).

Interested to hear feedback, impressions, etc? These are just quick test prints rather than hi-res versions.

Slowly competing the Dreadball collection, which is rather satisfying. Just missing a couple of figs now. I've also picked up the Rogue Trader game as a mate was offloading it cheap, mostly for Gellerpox as the big buggers seem decent approximations of blightkings. Also going to flesh out the Dredd collection, methinks: the new Dredd set of specialist judges is coming super soon so I'm getting to grab asap. Need to get the Gotham stuff done first though.
Hey ho
Graven

Hope Victor didn’t hear you got on with Nora

Nice display with her under glass.

Cool looking prints. I really should do some Gaslands stuff, but seriously I have so much that I need to start painting

I’ve managed to avoid gaslands so far, but it is kinda tempting as I’ve seen some really nice models for it on thingiverse

Oh I really like that Nora Fries diorama. Tugs at yer heartstrings, it does. I always rooted for Mr. Freeze to have a happy ending.

Theophony wrote: Hope Victor didn’t hear you got on with Nora
Nice display with her under glass.
Cool looking prints. I really should do some Gaslands stuff, but seriously I have so much that I need to start painting

You are so easily distracted lol.

endtransmission wrote:I’ve managed to avoid gaslands so far, but it is kinda tempting as I’ve seen some really nice models for it on thingiverse

So much good stuff

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Oh I really like that Nora Fries diorama. Tugs at yer heartstrings, it does. I always rooted for Mr. Freeze to have a happy ending.

Yup. He's such a well-conceived character. Poor chap, I like the new evil take on her much more than Lazara.

I've been working on the goons for Freeze too.

They're a cool bunch.

Mostly yesterday was a big game of DCU with the boys, Apokolips invasion vs Teen Titans and antiheroes:

Kids were given free rein to build the board


The eldest took the pics, bless him, too.
Much fun, and they beat me fair and square
Next up are the GCPD, Gordon, Gotham-style Bullock and CW Deadshot. Planning a game of Dredd pm with the boy and playtesting the new Dune RPG tonight over Discord, which is exciting,
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct...
Graven

Lots of great stuff since I last checked in, but the main attraction has to be Mrs Fries, that's a great piece you created there

Interested to see what you do with the gellerpox, I picked up Rogue Trader myself last month to see what could come of it

I wouldn't mess with those guys , The one guy is so bad that he holds both guns sideways. Not to be triffled with , and the big guy is wearing a tie to a streetfight. That's a clear sign of how awesome he is because no body with any amount of skill would do that because someone would choke him with it. Just goes to show you how confident he is in his fighting skills that he can wear it against Batman.

Great looking set up
Always love seeing that big yellow crane get table time.

That board is just Well set up by the boys and it looks like it was a fun game.

Freeze goons are great and I gotta echo Theo, they seem very confident and more confident than should be their right

Your DCU gaming boards are epic

Glad to see your junior gamers are still enjoying themselves!

Dang, what a great board set-up! Cranes, acid vats, even a flipped-over car - yer boys have a good sense for the details.

Ignorant question, but is the DCU miniature game the same as the Batman miniature game that came out a few years ago? I remember it had mechanics for fighting battles at night, with people being more vulnerable but more accurate the closer you were to street lamps and similar. I always thought it looked really cool but never got into it.

How did the Dune session go? I literally finished God-Emperor last night - after being really disappointed by Children of Dune I wasn't expecting much, but was actually blown away. Love that world, love seeing how much it influenced science fiction to come for the next few decades. Would be really cool to know if the game is worth picking up, I think my regular group would get a kick out of it!

monkeytroll wrote:Lots of great stuff since I last checked in, but the main attraction has to be Mrs Fries, that's a great piece you created there

Interested to see what you do with the gellerpox, I picked up Rogue Trader myself last month to see what could come of it

Many thanks old son. I enjoyed doing it certainly. The Gellerpox just seemed fun and chunky. I love all the grubs and gribblies too.

Theophony wrote:I wouldn't mess with those guys , The one guy is so bad that he holds both guns sideways. Not to be triffled with , and the big guy is wearing a tie to a streetfight. That's a clear sign of how awesome he is because no body with any amount of skill would do that because someone would choke him with it. Just goes to show you how confident he is in his fighting skills that he can wear it against Batman.

Great looking set up
Always love seeing that big yellow crane get table time.

Thanks amigo. Yeah there's some comedy poses there but I enjoyed modding them in my own style

Viterbi wrote:That board is just Well set up by the boys and it looks like it was a fun game.

Freeze goons are great and I gotta echo Theo, they seem very confident and more confident than should be their right

Cocky little blighters cheers bud.

Slinky wrote:Your DCU gaming boards are epic

Glad to see your junior gamers are still enjoying themselves!

They have fun, for sure

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Dang, what a great board set-up! Cranes, acid vats, even a flipped-over car - yer boys have a good sense for the details.

Ignorant question, but is the DCU miniature game the same as the Batman miniature game that came out a few years ago? I remember it had mechanics for fighting battles at night, with people being more vulnerable but more accurate the closer you were to street lamps and similar. I always thought it looked really cool but never got into it.

How did the Dune session go? I literally finished God-Emperor last night - after being really disappointed by Children of Dune I wasn't expecting much, but was actually blown away. Love that world, love seeing how much it influenced science fiction to come for the next few decades. Would be really cool to know if the game is worth picking up, I think my regular group would get a kick out of it!

We have a lot of stuff which helps.
DCU isn't the same, though same company and many figs overlap. DCU is big silly smashy. BMG is more low level thuggery, objective based plotting and planning.
Re: Dune RPG - Not bad, some interesting mechanics, definitely encourages narrative but lacks a good dice roll bell curve. Nice to spend a bit of time online with old friends though. We have 2nd part next Tuesday, I'll let you know.

I've also painted up the other stuff, but my camera on my phone is playing up. Tablet camera is meh. Still:
Gordon and Bullock

Cops

Deadshot also, but cannot get a pic of him at all

And another Supers Unlimited: The Shark

Colour scheme is Aqualad (Young Justice).

Fun to do.


Oh, and the boy built the black coach, which he'd been saving up for for AGES - then built this with the leftovers from it and harridans:

Not shabby. I thought using the chaos vehicle spikes as graveyard/basing to balance was particularly neat. I did drill and pin the scythe head, to be fair. But the rest is all him. This is a phone pic btw - very annoyed.

Playing Dreadball over Vassal tomorrow, that'll be a learning experience...
Graven

Looking great graven! Very impressed with your son's build. Excellent work on his part.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also really like Gordon... awesome job man.

Your DC models are pretty nifty. I'm partial to the normals (thugs and cops), as one rarely sees that sort of model on the tabletop.

Gitsplitta wrote:Looking great graven! Very impressed with your son's build. Excellent work on his part.
I also really like Gordon... awesome job man.

Yeah it's very slick, he's really done a good job - plus saved himself the price of a fig Gordon was a lot of fun to do, so thanks.

JoshInJapan wrote:Your DC models are pretty nifty. I'm partial to the normals (thugs and cops), as one rarely sees that sort of model on the tabletop.

Yeah, it's one of the great things about DC. I've got Joker's gang of bank robbers to do, plus I have a notion to do some kitbash Joker Bikers (to go with my fast-food Joker gang) so there will be more goons a-coming.

Definitely flitting between oddments at the moment.
Not going as fast as I'd anticipated through the backlog. RL is however interfering somewhat.


Anyway. Did another sponsor for Dreadball, who doubles another civilian for Dredd, but can't get a decent pic. Supers were more successful:

Shark, alongside Shadow Soldier (a shadow universe version of Soldier Hex, who I've not even done yet, but never mind eh? )
Striga, Supers Unlimited's not-Enchantress, alongside Electrix

Much cooler than the official, Suicide Squad movie version.
On the desk right now are my Citi-Def for Dredd, amongst other stuff. Thinking red and green - Chris Cringle block
Graven

Sorry to hear about Mother-in-law , all the best brother.

Strigia looks great, just ask the Shadow guy how to paint the Hex soldier, Cause only he know .

Sending some good vibes your way. Hope hobby and gaming is a source of comfort.

To that end, ace conversions/scratch building from your son, and I really like the water effects on Shark's base. Were those sculpted?

Great stuff!
That bit of Nora Fries terrain in particular is pretty nifty.

Not-Enchantress looks great! Sorry to hear about your mother-in-law, gonna hop on Don Qui Hotep's good vibe sending.

Lovely job on Gordon and Bullock, and nice work from the boy

Sorry to hear the bad news, thoughts are with you.

Theophony wrote:Sorry to hear about Mother-in-law , all the best brother.

Strigia looks great, just ask the Shadow guy how to paint the Hex soldier, Cause only he know .

Thanks man I know you're having your own crud right now with that generation.
Yeah, the plan is to do Soldier Hex in "solid" versions of those colours, essentially.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Sending some good vibes your way. Hope hobby and gaming is a source of comfort.

To that end, ace conversions/scratch building from your son, and I really like the water effects on Shark's base. Were those sculpted?

It is. I have learned to embrace the fact that it keeps me sane in a nerdy way.
Shark and Striga are indeed sculpted... Sort of: pva glue, with a drop of superglue over the top to create a skin you can quickly shape before it dries solid.

aku-chan wrote:Great stuff!
That bit of Nora Fries terrain in particular is pretty nifty.

I'm very pleased with her so thanks

Viterbi wrote:Not-Enchantress looks great! Sorry to hear about your mother-in-law, gonna hop on Don Qui Hotep's good vibe sending.

Cheers on all counts.

monkeytroll wrote:Lovely job on Gordon and Bullock, and nice work from the boy
Sorry to hear the bad news, thoughts are with you.

Thanks buddy, genuinely appreciated.

Quick RL update

So not much to show. I did get Soldier Hex done at least -

Pics alongside his evil doppleganger

Came together ok in the end.

So plans not exactly on hold, but no idea how stuff is going to pan out.
Hey ho
Graven

Soldier came out looking good .

I understand where your at in life all too well. I'm at my mom's house overnight with her tonight. Luckily my work called and said it's another week till I return back (next monday now). So I was able to give my sister a bit of a reprieve.

Thoughts and prayers to you both.

Graven, Take solace that she raised an amazing daughter and she married well. May she have Peace and comfort in her remaining time.

SL

Your an evil man sending me designs . Do not feed the Printer any ideas.

I downloaded a half dozen sample packs from Corvusgamesterrain on thingiverse. I'll print some when I wind up with a lul .

Theophony wrote:Soldier came out looking good .

I understand where your at in life all too well. I'm at my mom's house overnight with her tonight. Luckily my work called and said it's another week till I return back (next monday now). So I was able to give my sister a bit of a reprieve.

Thanks man. As a teacher I'm not back till mid August, and the wife's work are being very understanding.

Solar_lion wrote:Thoughts and prayers to you both.

Graven, Take solace that she raised an amazing daughter and she married well. May she have Peace and comfort in her remaining time.

SL

Thanks buddy, kind words. Not long left now alas.

Theophony wrote:Your an evil man sending me designs . Do not feed the Printer any ideas.

I downloaded a half dozen sample packs from Corvusgamesterrain on thingiverse. I'll print some when I wind up with a lul .

I'm truly awful, yes

To keep myself occupied, I decided to finally do my barriers for my roadways

I wonder if the Front one needs black underling

Most are printed, some painted.

I have another 4 untagged long and 4 short sections, debating whether to do them or not. Also wondering if the short ones need... more. Overlaps, less dead space at the ends, maybe some slaps... or just less is more?
Weird that this may end up being my quietest month this year.
Been playing a LOT of Transformers TCG with my eldest. Sadly, the game has just become anther covid casualty Still, at least that should make the ultra rares easier to get
Eagerly awaiting new Dredd set of specialists and FW Aeronautica releases, but there's a bargain set of Teen titans on Amazon and new soldiers of fortune coming for bane paralysis of choice - or at least funds

Graven

Road signs look great .

Sorry to hear about another Transformers game down the tube. Hopefully it will come back post Covid, but the kids will be grown and off to college by then probably.

Top graffito there, that man!

Very inner city graffiti. Nice

Love the graffiti!

Chopper For Oz!

I love those barriers graven. Spectacular!

Swinging through again to say "Good job".

Theophony wrote:Road signs look great .
Sorry to hear about another Transformers game down the tube. Hopefully it will come back post Covid, but the kids will be grown and off to college by then probably.

That won't stop them playing damnit!

Slinky wrote:Top graffito there, that man!

:bows: just the one ?

Solar_lion wrote:Very inner city graffiti. Nice

Thanks indeed. Still debating if I need to do more.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Love the graffiti!
Chopper For Oz!

Indeed, of course now I need a tag by The Phantom didn't think that through at all.

Gitsplitta wrote:I love those barriers graven. Spectacular!

Thanks, I am still undecided about how to do the rest, if at all. I guess the answer will be play the layout and see how it goes.

Dr H wrote:Swinging through again to say "Good job".

Swing by anytime



To take my eldest's mind off things, we had a game of Dredd: Mopad mayhem!

The big Meg's greatest mind against the big sov's greatest weapon! Anderson Vs Orlok and 2 east meg agents, couple of hairy moments for our favourite psi, but a lucky shot to Orlok's knee (tumbled to his death... Or did he?) and despite a brutal katana injury to our Judge, a well timed med pack meant the Sovs didn't stand a chance. A good win to the lad.

I also felt a couple of my barriers were a bit lacking, so gave them an extra lick of paint

The Phantom is a very specific 2000AD tag.

This is the way

Also got Mr Miracle done

Catman's body, Vision's head, jewellery chain, and gs.

Love those Kirby colours.

Yellows were done from a pink base with yellow ink wash. Really pops.

Big cape. Big pin through body and up into head.

And with Electrix, for scale. These pics were taken with my tablet. Serviceable.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Graven

Deepest sympathies.

For what it is worth, Mr. Miracle looks great.

Good luck

Great work on all of the Graffiti und looks like a nice game even if the cause is not, my condolences!

I'm so sorry for your loss. No matter what else is going on in the world a loss of a loved one is always the worst. You guys will be in our prayers and thoughts over the coming days.

Great set of tag additions there

Mr Miracle came out great, good job indeed!

Just wondering when the urge to build a mopad will take you.....


And my heartfelt condolences, no loss is ever easy. Clan graven in my thoughts.

youwashock wrote:Deepest sympathies.

For what it is worth, Mr. Miracle looks great.

Cheers old son

Llamahead wrote:Good luck

Lol thanks

Viterbi wrote:Great work on all of the Graffiti und looks like a nice game even if the cause is not, my condolences!

Much obliged

Theophony wrote:I'm so sorry for your loss. No matter what else is going on in the world a loss of a loved one is always the worst. You guys will be in our prayers and thoughts over the coming days.

You're a good egg sir.

monkeytroll wrote:Great set of tag additions there
Mr Miracle came out great, good job indeed!
Just wondering when the urge to build a mopad will take you.....
And my heartfelt condolences, no loss is ever easy. Clan graven in my thoughts.

Thanks. My damn kid suggested the same thing about the mopad

Been building with the older boy today. AOS scenery for him, gnarlmaw and eavy bommers for me. However, did another Dreadball figure done:

The sponsor (blue guy) is one I failed to photograph before. I inherited a broken 1st ed refbot, which I've rebuilt with selective pinning. She's painted up to play for the Sentinel Overlords, a team of malfunctioning retired bots; going for a vague metropolis look. I'm going to gradually pic up first ed refs to have a full team... Sometime

I also got the teen titans boxset:.
I mean £45 for Raven, Starfire, hawk, dove, robin, wonder girl, beast boy and 3 alternate forms (gorilla, hawk and tiger), plus a Trigon mirror?! That's like £4 and pennies a model, which given that all bar raven (who, granted, I own) are exclusives, is an absolute steal. Especially with the £5 Amazon credit they were offering with it

Pottering on,
Graven

Condolences for your loss; I'm sure your kids appreciated the time that you spent with them.

Really love your freehand work on the graffiti, particularly the Mandalorian. Sounds like you got a great deal on the Tean Titans box set. I always liked Hawk and Dove, excited to see you make them colorful.

Deepest sympathy, brother.

Raven has always been my favorite TT.

Condolences to you and your family :(

Mr Miracle (sounds like a cleaning product!) looks great

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Condolences for your loss; I'm sure your kids appreciated the time that you spent with them.

Really love your freehand work on the graffiti, particularly the Mandalorian. Sounds like you got a great deal on the Tean Titans box set. I always liked Hawk and Dove, excited to see you make them colorful.

Thanks buddy. That was a total whim, I have a star wars pulp fiction canvas in my man cave and it just clicked. Titans were a ridiculous bargain indeed, and crucially have got the boys interested in BMG again.

Solar_lion wrote:Deepest sympathy, brother.
Raven has always been my favorite TT.

She's a great character, gets some shaky writing though.

endtransmission wrote:Condolences to you and your family :(

Mr Miracle (sounds like a cleaning product!) looks great

Thanks, I loved doing him in the end

Sorry for relative quiet. Lots to organise and juggle.

Over the weekend had an excellent game of Dreadball with the boy along with a lot of Transformers. We've also built a lot, I've been doing Eavy Bommers, gnarlmaw and some dredd stuff, he's been working on AOS terrain and yet more nighthaunts.

I did, however, get my Gnarlmaw done:


And the boy did his coach


The main plan for the week, however, was to play through the intro campaign to BMG 3rd in full so we could get to grips with the game fully. Apart from anything else, it's good to be gaming and not JUST chipping away at the shame shelf. I think I've done more than enough to assuage the hobby guilt * (or at least you'd've thought I would've).


So here goes: I'm just going to talk about how the game plays out of the box and how me and my kids fare with it.

Gotham is a war zone, locked down, locked away from the world. The Joker has it in his grip, and it's up to the GCPD to save the day... with a bit of help from the Bat.

The rulebook is clear and well-laid out. My eldest (12) got his head round it fairly quickly - in fact, in some ways quicker than me, as the game has changed pretty fundamentally. The rules have notional similarities but the old willpower token / action mechanic, which was so fundamental previously, is no more. Because characters can take far fewer actions per activation, the game is much faster both in terms of planning and play.
There's a lot of emphasis in the intro game on story, and for all of us this was a big win. It's also an indication of the change in emphasis in the game as a whole: victory comes from objectives, building the narrative as the game goes on, rather than annihilating your opponent.
That being said, the first scenario is a simple skirmish. It introduces the basic dice and action mechanics of the game in a clear and direct way. It also introduces the first of the new mechanics: Effort and Audacity. Essentially, Effort is where you take stun damage to roll extra dice on attack or defence, or (situationally) deny your opponent dice. Very intuitive and fluffy. Audacity markers allow character to take multiple actions (move AND attack, or vice versa) rather than just one (move OR attack).

My older lad got right into it, my younger (10) less so. Whilst the older is keen on tabletop gaming (happily playing DCU, Dredd, Aeronautica, Wings of Glory, Gaslands, AoS, Killteam, Hellboy and of course Dreadball) the younger is more into board games, online gaming and collaborative play (Hellboy, though he's a Dreadball fan too) - he also likes KM's DCU Miniatures Game though, so we thought that might be a hook. As it is, though, it was a bit too crunchy for him: there's a fair bit to keep track of; not necessarily an age thing, more of a preference I suspect.

The second scenario introduces the fundamental, and entirely different, new mechanics: Manipulate actions and Suspect Tokens (Audacity tokens enable them to do all 3 types of action - Move, Attack and Manipulate). Manipulate is used to place your own or reveal an opponent's Suspect Markers - clues, essentially - and by making the victory condition for the scenario to have the most placed at the end of the 4th turn, it hammers home that this is the game's central premise now.

Manipulate can also be used to activate special abilities (signified by a Bat symbol on a trait) - Batman's Batclaw, Harley's Distract or Disturb, and so on - and despite the various special rules it's a very, VERY fast game: the game's standard 4 turn format is easily playable in an hour or so. It's not about killing everyone, it's about the clues in the investigation or the pieces of the fiendish ploy. And, as the boy observed, it feels like a race against the clock. The second scenario also brings back The Night: it's always dark in Gotham, so ranges are restricted, with streetlights providing limited LOS.

Onto game 3, and we have the addition of Objective Cards. At this point, to all intents and purposes, you're playing the full game. Now to be fair, the rulebook does suggest ignoring traits the first time through and then replaying WITH them but, tbh, they're pretty self explanatory... With the exception of Weapon Traits. The fact that they're not explained front and centre - even in the intro rulebook - feels like an oversight. It's important to acknowledge that the rules and the compendium (the latter being where the traits are covered) are free to download, and generally extremely well-written - but as an intro set, they should be THERE, in bold, in front of you (as indeed should be an explanation of conditions such as Poison). I would also like the objective decks to have come preconstructed into 20 card decks ready to go for the two different sides, as this is not an obvious process initially. Not necessarily that hard, but if it's a learner intro game, wouldn't be complex to have prepped and ready. Again, it takes digging in the rulebook; could've been avoided. However, even with this the game is still FUN - it's fast, frantic, comic action. Yes, Batman is brutal, Harley is hilarious, Deadshot is, well, deadly ... But it's Cops arresting goons, and Joker setting off poison fish and explosive teeth that make the game. That's where the story is, and that's how you win. This scenario was won, in the end, by the solitary cop waiting for backup from turn one - he had his objective, and that's how you do it. It's worth mentioning that Objective Cards can also be spent as Resources in-game advantages instead, and this adds to the push-pull of management. In some ways it's reminiscent of the best elements of Card Gaming and wargames that employ similar strategic planning (such as Privateer's Warma-Hordes); the fact that the core of the game is fluffy resource management is an absolute win.

Before we hit scenario 4, my boy asked me, "New BMG or Old BMG?" and without hesitation my answer was "New". I'm a HUGE batman nerd but the time to play BMG was always the thing against it; this game now goes like The Flash. So what does the final scenario bring? Well, it's the return - and the reinvention - of old rules. First up, Sewers. With 2 (previously 3) sewer tokens to be placed, players get effectively the ability to teleport across the board with a Manipulation action. Now whilst in 2nd (which introduced this version of the sewer rules) this felt faintly ridiculous, because 3rd is such a compressed gameplay experience anyway, it doesn't feel at all unnatural - to give a boardgame analogy, it's like a secret passage in Cluedo. Inspire, which is the inherent ability of your team's Boss, has also had a shake-up, giving henchmen within 8" of the boss a Manipulate action for free. This balances the fact that swarm lists are going to be short of Audacity; it also plays into the fact that you can choose whether a Leader (Boss is automatically Highest ranked person on team) is on a 40mm or a 60mm base, as the bigger base means effectively more Inspire radius but leaves them more vulnerable (because of base to base LOS and potentially more outnumbering in melee). Also, if your Boss dies, you pass the status of Boss to another model in your team, albeit with a more limited, 4" radius.

The final scenario feels good and bloody. Joker historically was a powerhouse in the game as his Kaos Agent ability meant you didn't need to pre-plan your turn (thereby making him easier for novices but also skirting one of the main tactical challenges); now, effectively, you simply don't preassign your Audacity markers. It's a nuanced change: it still feels like the old ability, but its power dialed down a notch.

Interestingly, by the time we hit game 4 we didn't have to check the rulebooks even once. This is a sign of a good game if ever there was. Traits are clearly explained on the reverse of the cards, which of course helps, and there's tokens aplenty to track everything. Indeeed, you'll notice is the sheer quantity of tokens. It can be a little distracting, and the fact that everything is a yellow and black can feel a bit overwhelming. Even though the KM tokens are clear, we did find that mixing it up with some of Counter Attack Bases' excellent acrylics helped, particularly their Activation markers, Pass tokens, and KO markers.

All in all, Back To Gotham is an excellent starter set for players old and new, and there's plenty of value in there (all the terrain in the photos, apart from the clown cars, is from the box). More importantly, however, BMG 3rd is fundamentally a move in the right direction, with all the rules, cards etc available as free downloads and a game that emphasizes fun and story, but not at the expense of tactics.

Tomorrow? 2000pts of AoS

Graven

So

Dang, yer boy's a natural! That coach came out swimmingly. I really like the washed-out tones on the base, straight out of a 40s Universal horror movie.

 inmygravenimage wrote:

That being said, the first scenario is a simple skirmish. It introduces the basic dice and action mechanics of the game in a clear and direct way. It also introduces the first of the new mechanics: Effort and Audacity. Essentially, Effort is where you take stun damage to roll extra dice on attack or defence, or (situationally) deny your opponent dice. Very intuitive and fluffy. Audacity markers allow character to take multiple actions (move AND attack, or vice versa) rather than just one (move OR attack).

Thanks for sharing the write-up; looks like the third edition made some necessary improvements. I really like the dynamic of Effort and Audacity you describe above; I like games where you can push your luck, and make certain trade-offs of short-term gain to long-term setback. Zona Alfa has an option like that, and any game that lets you delay an action to make a reaction later is another example. All of my gamer friends are also big comic fans (with one notable exception) so I think this would be an easy sell. Wot's the pricepoint for a few starter gangs?

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Dang, yer boy's a natural! That coach came out swimmingly. I really like the washed-out tones on the base, straight out of a 40s Universal horror movie.

 inmygravenimage wrote:

That being said, the first scenario is a simple skirmish. It introduces the basic dice and action mechanics of the game in a clear and direct way. It also introduces the first of the new mechanics: Effort and Audacity. Essentially, Effort is where you take stun damage to roll extra dice on attack or defence, or (situationally) deny your opponent dice. Very intuitive and fluffy. Audacity markers allow character to take multiple actions (move AND attack, or vice versa) rather than just one (move OR attack).

Thanks for sharing the write-up; looks like the third edition made some necessary improvements. I really like the dynamic of Effort and Audacity you describe above; I like games where you can push your luck, and make certain trade-offs of short-term gain to long-term setback. Zona Alfa has an option like that, and any game that lets you delay an action to make a reaction later is another example. All of my gamer friends are also big comic fans (with one notable exception) so I think this would be an easy sell. Wot's the pricepoint for a few starter gangs?

Indeed he is, he has his mother's artistic talent
The push-pull of risk-reward is by far the highlight of this edition. Want to try to take out Batman? Sure, but it'll cost you, and then you could just get jumped a goon. We had Harley try - and fail - to smash the Bat with her hammer (she did ok, actually, but just not enough), so he turned round and leathered her, jumped down to take out Deadshot, only to get hit by a cheap thug with a chainsaw. Ooh, centre parting... Working out when to chuck your objectives for their Resource value is also key. I was looking over the less good Objective cards today and realised that there's a couple that are clearly there ONLY for their Resource ability. It's very well conceived. A batbox (full gang) will skin you about £50-65 depending on the faction. The Core Box is a steal for two factions and all the rest. I have so much stuff it's ridiculous, mind you

I'm glad they streamlined the BMG game, it was a big no starter for the game store near me. Hopefully that might bring some intrest to the new edition.

Glad the boy enjoyed it.

Also he did a great job on the coach.

You did pretty well on the the Gnarlmaw too .

Boy's coach and your own gnarlmaw came out grand - really fond of those verdigris bells

Nice write up on the game, and although I'm not looking for games these days it does sound good (possibly because I'm also a bat-nerd ). I particularly liked the idea of Night and the streetlights affecting LOS.

Batman game sounds fun and great work on the coach by your son (your tree thingy isn't too bad either )!

Theophony wrote:I'm glad they streamlined the BMG game, it was a big no starter for the game store near me. Hopefully that might bring some intrest to the new edition.
Glad the boy enjoyed it.
Also he did a great job on the coach.
You did pretty well on the the Gnarlmaw too .

It's a much improved game. 2nd got messy quickly.

monkeytroll wrote:Boy's coach and your own gnarlmaw came out grand - really fond of those verdigris bells

Nice write up on the game, and although I'm not looking for games these days it does sound good (possibly because I'm also a bat-nerd ). I particularly liked the idea of Night and the streetlights affecting LOS.

It's always night in Gotham in the old version it was also always day in central city, which remains to be seen as speedsters haven't returned (rightly so, imho, along with magic) remember EVERYTHING is free to print and play I

Viterbi wrote:Batman game sounds fun and great work on the coach by your son (your tree thingy isn't too bad either )!

Cheers on both counts! No unpainted models when playing

So as predicted 2000pt AoS was the order of the day. I did take photos, but on my phone, so they're rubbish and hence haven't uploaded many of them.

I ran GUO with Doombell and Bileblade, winged DP with nurgle's nail (on a 7, opponent is Slain), chaos sorcerer, couple of swarms of nurglings, 20 plaguebearers with Spoilpox and Bilepiper, Plague Flies and Blightkings with Lord of plagues, Blights and Gutrot. The boy had the Black Coach, Olynder, 40 chainrasps, banshees, tomb banshee, glaivewraiths, couple of the ethereal Knights and spirit torments. 4 objectives, 2 in each deployment zone, winner holding the most. It was great, total carnage; the sheer swarming horror of 40 chainrasps throwing out all the dice in the world was matched only by the ridiculous staying power of chaos.

It's a preposterous game, but it was a brilliant way to spend the day. The two sides were really evenly matched, even when at times each of us felt we were in a hopeless position. By the end, we each held 2, and whilst I had a slight edge on points (with both sides largely annihilated) we decided to call it a gentlemen's draw Noteworthy were the (notoriously crap) chaos sorcerer who was constiently effective at both spellcasting and, more surprisingly, thumping glaivewraiths; the Great Unclean One who though largely indestructible but did fail to do much damage at all; and Gutrot Spume who is an absolute killing machine, churning through the Nighthaunt special characters.

In other news... Goodies have arrived from far afield: Brutal Cities scenery and acrylic "neon" signs. I am a *bit* excited: neo-brutalist architecture for wargaming designed by a bored architect on furlough. Tease...

Should be a lot of fun to do.

And some paint to start August (because let's face it, progress is really going to slow to a crawl now, back to work, tsk ), with semi decent, actual digital camera photos.

The Praetorian, Dreadball MVP

Fun with crazy highlights

For Dredd, Citi-Def, Kris Kringle block!

I have been slowly plugging away at these, bit at a time. I think they look rather festive and Gang reinforcements:

Face/off!

Blog likely to be a bit quiet this week. Still, working on an Eavy Bommer:

Wazog, the Alibinork

On we go
Graven

Where the hell is the terrain for that AoS table? FOR SHAME.

--B.

Briancj wrote:Where the hell is the terrain for that AoS table? FOR SHAME.

--B.

I blame the damn kid. He has a garden of mord. It's his to paint.
In truth we have almost no fantasy terrain. I'm gradually trying to rectify that.
Also he plays Nighthaunts and they ignore terrain anyway

Today was a chance to rejig things, getting on top of the cupboard of doom.

And so... Let the organising commence!

This was a fairly massive job whilst helping the boy assemble some Asterians. On the table front to back are Batman, Dredd and Dreadball. So there's a lot there not even visible but I got the job done.

The boy, it turns out, is not feeling the AoS scenery, so I got it primed up and zenithally highlighted also. Yes, I am a mug.

I did get some oddments done also. Bit of work on clean-up of the Teen Titans, blocking in the engines of the Alibinork, freezing Gellerpox to get them off Munda bases - they're getting some planks as I think their rather squiddy tentacular qualities are very fitting for Gutrot Spume's nurgle pirate blightkings. Speaking of tentacles:

A nameless assassin and prone player for Dreadball, and another Sponsor.

Two more rogue refbots, and a repaint of the first ed one as Bad Call, murderous refbot and rogue bot captain. Not too bad then
Hey ho
Graven

On we go!

I caved into the boy's protestations, and did a batch prime & zenithal shading:

I have a nasty feeling I'm going to end up painting this lot
Glorious weather today, spent at the beach with my parents on the east coast. Good for all of us.
Back to school Monday though

Graven

Good luck with the back to school. Luckily here in Missouri they are mostly going virtual for at least the first quarter or semester. I get to brag about my teacher wife. She is all sorts of a BIG DEAL all the time, but she had been the summer school principal and has put forward a proposal for her district to do a virtual classroom/school last year. The school board really loved her proposal and adopted it and she is second in charge of it. With a few weeks to go until classes start up they have 1400+ students signed up for it now. She has been told this is her baby to develop and ride out until she is ready to create something new or to retire (10+ years probably). The person in charge is there to do all the budget stuff, handle the interaction with the board and go between with the district. My wife will be handling all the other stuff including teacher development, planning, PR and day to day. Really exciting time for her.

That's awesome for your missus

Be happy that it's just terrain you have to paint and it's not a "I want a dog" situation und you have to walk him all the time

 Viterbi wrote:
Be happy that it's just terrain you have to paint and it's not a "I want a dog" situation und you have to walk him all the time

Spoiler:

Sounds always weird, but good to know the funeral "went well" and that family could be there.

Walking them isn’t the issue I used to have, it was picking up the . That’s why we have cats now, they tend to entertain each other by chasing after whichever one looks weakest at the moment .

Oh believe me the middle kid wants a dog desperately but the eldest is monstrously allergic. They can settle for our cantankerous cat.

Viterbi wrote:Be happy that it's just terrain you have to paint and it's not a "I want a dog" situation und you have to walk him all the time

Walking them isn’t the issue I used to have, it was picking up the . That’s why we have cats now, they tend to entertain each other by chasing after whichever one looks weakest at the moment .

Our cat is old and crabbit. She's a skinny wee rake of a thing, and very stupid with it. She's has been known to eat ribbon, rubber bands, and space marine grenades.

Been looking at model agnostic super systems, as I've got a bit of a thing for supers. You may have noticed... Really liking Super Mission Force, it's got logical rules, sensible card layout, good fluff to crunch ratio, and mechanics for narrative/rpg built in. I am also looking at Pulp City - super crunchy, awful card layout - and the beta of Super Breach, which uses the same odd (but interesting) panel dice mechanic as Star Breach.

Meanwhile, I started laying down the colours for the AoS scenery.

Going to keep it very simple. Next is lots of deck tan drybrushing on the stonework skulls and foliage, brass over verdigris, Oily steel over orange, and then various washes to finish.

Very taken with the Gellerpox, especially having read Gutrot Spume's fluff (tl;dr nurgle pirates). They really feel like they fit that squiddy aesthetic so I've added another into the mix also.

I have zero idea what the base model is, it was merely sitting in the bits box minus a head. One more and he'll have his own bloated plague crew for deep strike nonsense. Tbh I'll probably just use the boss. There's that much steampunk stuff in AoS that I can use him with his chubby boiler and smoke stack.

Going to try to crack on with the scenery. But lots of bits and bobs. Really should aim to get building on the rest of my tiny planes and huge buildings...
Graven

Well now, a brief update. Got the scenery done.
Statue

Crypts




Walls and gates



And as a whole.

17 pieces of scenery, and a rather good 2x2 coverage now.


Back to work tomorrow. Mixed feelings, going to be strange after so long but, bottom line, it will be good. No doubt there will be much bureaucratic nonsense and incessant juggling, but I'm sure it'll all come out in the wash hey ho
Graven

That is some lovely terrain you have there. Your son chose well with leaving it to you to get done,

Good luck tomorrow.

Terrain looks great, love the vegetational (is that a real word?) detail and very nice patina effect!

And have a good work start!

Theophony wrote:That is some lovely terrain you have there. Your son chose well with leaving it to you to get done,

Good luck tomorrow.

Lol yeah I'm a mug. And thanks, hope all works for your missus also. My dad runs a digital publishing business that a lot of US/Canada districts are using this year for school books, so I'm hearing a lot about how things are progressing over there!

Viterbi wrote:Terrain looks great, love the vegetational (is that a real word?) detail and very nice patina effect!

And have a good work start!

Thanks on both counts. Vegetation was simply VJ green ink with a speck of VJ sick green to add opacity, and the flowers were VJ Scarlet Blood. Patina was simply Nik Oxide, Drybrush VJ Brass, and some dirty paint water for runs and streaks

Couple of bits:

A little demonic fanboy for my Infernal team.


Animated Green Arrow

And Warboss Wazog's Eavy Bommer... Da Albinork!


I had *much* fun with this.
Work was... Weird. Everyone knows it's going to be very strange, but is - just about - keeping it together. We'll see what the rest of the week brings...
Graven

Good luck with work. I feel sorry for teachers having to go back face to snotty face. A local municipality here in Saint louis has parents suing the school district and teachers union trying to force them to open schools up and get the teachers off their "Vacations". Seriously, they think teachers are sitting back with mai tais.

Animated Green Arrow Unfortunately that made me look for the Animated Batman sculpt which as far as I can see is OOP I sometimes know about stuff too late it seems

Plane looks great too!

Some friends of mine are teachers too and Theo is right, they did not lounge around drinking Mai Tais... they drank beer I'm playing BSF with them on Friday, interested to see how their week went, with the little heat wave here and obligatory masks for kids and teachers.

Really liking the AoS scenery Graven you did a great job there!

Theophony wrote:Good luck with work. I feel sorry for teachers having to go back face to snotty face. A local municipality here in Saint louis has parents suing the school district and teachers union trying to force them to open schools up and get the teachers off their "Vacations". Seriously, they think teachers are sitting back with mai tais.

It's so depressing when you hear things like that. Our systems aren't perfect but it was genuinely ok, and really nice to see the kids - although I've already had to issue work remotely to kids isolated with covid (ain't no party like a Corona party... ), as we're the cluster in Glasgow the size of New Zealand

Viterbi wrote:Animated Green Arrow Unfortunately that made me look for the Animated Batman sculpt which as far as I can see is OOP I sometimes know about stuff too late it seems
Plane looks great too!
Some friends of mine are teachers too and Theo is right, they did not lounge around drinking Mai Tais... they drank beer I'm playing BSF with them on Friday, interested to see how their week went, with the little heat wave here and obligatory masks for kids and teachers.

It is true, beer, and a quantity of gin also. BTAS stuff does pop up from time to time, they're lovely sculpts, but it *has* taken me 5 years to get the 5 figs made lol. There's always the IDW BTAS boardgame sculpts though.

GiraffeX wrote:Really liking the AoS scenery Graven you did a great job there!

Cheers buddy! I am rather pleased with it. I fancy some of the spiky warcry stuff too, just for variety. But I have Brutal Cities stuff to tackle and that's a huge terrain project. I have a can of silver alloy paint sitting in my garage and I'm sorely tempted to use it to seal the mdf. Slightly worried about losing detail though.
So as I say I'm back at work, which means less regular updates / some semblance of normality.
Nevertheless, I have been able to get something PAINTED!

¿!Why So Serious¡?

This, and watching Titans, was a fun way to spend the evening after the first week back.

I'm teaching Dark Knight again this year, I think
So what else is on the desk right now?
AI: Eavy Bommer 2 - it's VERY green.
KORE: Police Car (which is going to be done as a tribute to Barricade), NY Taxi, NNY Hover Taxi (both very pink, ready for yellow ink). And a primed Tuk-tuk.
Speaking of primed...
KM: Holiday Joker, Bombshell Harley, Animated Harley, Retro Lex
2000AD: Johnny Alpha and Wulf on speeders, Sky raider and hover boarders.
Mantic: Krampus, half a dozen or so assorted DB figs (let's not count the 5 unbuilt teams, shall we? )
Kitbashgames: Doc Cosmos, The Cowl, Ace and Roughneck.

Oh and of couse this:

I have also been slowly building my remaining AI stuff, so that's me got another 2 Valks and 2 Vendies done, with a Vulture and an Arvus on the way (split the packs with another member of our local club, felt less of a brutal hit to the wallet). Gellerpox need primed also (they'll go in with the AI bits, because Pistachio primer ) and the various critters from that set will get scattered in amongst my plaguebearers as extras. Need to get the Teen Titans built (I know, I know, that was the original plan this evening, but they're horrendous to build), reckon they'll be fun to throw around. On order are Giant Robot Hellboy, Hobgoblin Captain for DB, Specialist Judges for Dredd and the Wurmspat.
All the toys I'm like Kivas Fajo (ah, obscure Trek references ftw!)
Graven

Hey gang
So I figured I didn't have any time this weekend, as we're gradually clearing crap into skips from my in-laws. But I thought I'd take a quick look at a Brutal Cities kit, above...
5 minutes later.

I have NEVER had a kit got together so fast. Popped off sprue. Everything lines up. No cleanup. No glue except for the vents and other exterior details. However in the end I glued it for rigidity, which is what is recommended.

Elevator and back of building completely removable.

I have built an awful lot of MDF buildings in my time but this is astonishing. It's one of the very best kits I've every encountered.Given how little time I have juggling the kids and real life, this is a big win in my book.
I've started another one, and I'm looking forward to more
Graven

Nice looking kit . I like the fact that they botherd to put tile like pattern on the floor as well.

Hope the clean out went/goes smoothly, one can never tell when family is concerned.

That is a nifty building. Is it big enough for your hand to fit inside to move models around?

Thanks for the tip with the IDW game, will have a look.

Nice start on the terrain, hope it takes color well. And great work on the Dark Knight Joker, looks really cool!

Kivas Fajo

Theophony wrote:Nice looking kit . I like the fact that they botherd to put tile like pattern on the floor as well.

Hope the clean out went/goes smoothly, one can never tell when family is concerned.

It's had its moments of friction for sure. There's some lovely details on the kit.

JoshInJapan wrote:That is a nifty building. Is it big enough for your hand to fit inside to move models around?

Absolutely, but not a big deal regardless as the back comes off.

Viterbi wrote:Thanks for the tip with the IDW game, will have a look.

Nice start on the terrain, hope it takes color well. And great work on the Dark Knight Joker, looks really cool!

Well I've tested a section of AC pipe with silver spray and seems to be working. and thanks!

Theophony wrote:Kivas Fajo

Hurrah!
Funnily enough I started getting ready to play in a trek game tonight. Good catching up with mates and gearing up for some Actual Gaming (TM).

I've built the Easy-Aug shop next:

More of a conventional kit, not fiddly but more complex.

And again, all comes apart. And those stairs were a breeze to build - a rare treat.

And a rear view. I have actually deliberately damaged it slightly on purpose, not a reflection on the kit.

Got a couple of figs done. Retro Super Lex:



And did Kitbash minis' Ace as Black Lightning:


And a wee scale shot.

Good times Also worked on the Teen Titans pinned Dove up through the foot and added a support strut, filled the gaps on Starfire and Beast Boy's Gorilla form. Bastard models
Onwards...
Graven

Nice job on purple lightning I mean black lightning . They definitely didn’t use him as any sort of inspiration did they?

Lex is looking great in his old suit. Always reminds me of the old cartoon show as I didn’t read DC back then it was my only image of him.

Theophony wrote:Nice job on purple lightning I mean black lightning . They definitely didn’t use him as any sort of inspiration did they?

Lex is looking great in his old suit. Always reminds me of the old cartoon show as I didn’t read DC back then it was my only image of him.

Lol no far from it, the sculpt, Ace, is a white guy in a black and white suit with an ace of spades on it; the lightning bolt is freehand (which is why it's a bit wonky!) I love retro Lex, and tracking down obscure promos always makes me happy. He's also decent in game, not broken, but not a synergy dependent as the other versions.

Hmm. So what next?
Well, I ordered a couple of 28mm drones off Anvil Industries and they came in a day, which is frankly amazing in these crazy times. They're for my Bane crew (they can turn suspect markers into them) but also modern age gaming. They don't come with flight stands so I improvised, cutting off the gimble from a couple of AI ones and making appropriate slots in KM bases.

They're not glued into the bases so easy for transport.

Also got a Goblin Gaming order (if you're UK and want a £5 discount code, hit me up ) of The Wurmspat and Specialist judges for Dredd, and a Lord of Plague, Vulture and Arvus from a buddy. A good day to nerd

I also cranked out a couple more Kitbash Supers:

Roughneck, definitely NOT Casey Jones.

Doc Cosmos. These two might be the first Kitbash Games fig I've painted in their actual colours. No DC match That just left me working on the The Cowl (female, armoured, mask, guns), who I'd originally intended to use as Orphan (comics, not BoP movie) but I ended up doing as Sister Night, the lead character from Watchmen (TV):

GS scarf and rosary. Pretty happy

And together, as a Covenant team (well Roughneck is an Outsider, so can play with anyone, but still)

Anyway...

BTAS Harley Quinn!

Lovely fig, and nice to finish BTAS figs as a whole

Other PIPs? Well, still working on Bombshell Harley, Holiday Joker (both of which are finally coming together, really struggling with Harley's face), KORE Vehicles, and my other Ork Bommer. Bunch of stuff primed too, the Rogue Trader set, Valks, Vendies and... Brutal Cities! Which will take over the desk as a priority, for review purposes.

On we go
Graven


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Decided to finish Joker.

Not bad.

Wow, that's a pretty action packed update! They are all looking great.

Joker had better put on more sunscreen, his pasty legs might get burnt while he is on his Mexican holiday tourist trip.

Looking great. Sister Night Cowl came out nice too

Great update and nice work on Joker's shirts, those palms are very fitting!

endtransmission wrote:Wow, that's a pretty action packed update! They are all looking great.

Cheers buddy!

Theophony wrote:Joker had better put on more sunscreen, his pasty legs might get burnt while he is on his Mexican holiday tourist trip.

Looking great. Sister Night Cowl came out nice too

Joker was actually ok in the end, I'm glad I added the lei from gs to strengthen that gun arm though. Very pleased with the Sister Night, I must admit.

Viterbi wrote:Great update and nice work on Joker's shirts, those palms are very fitting!

Thanks, that was the second attempt at those; the first ones looked like nothing in nature, that's for sure

So whilst it's by no means great it's a LOT better than it was

Very frustrating. I cannot get the level of brush control I had 5 years ago and it's killing me. I've ordered some new brushes with a slightly different triangular barrel to see if that helps at all... Of course, I got distracted by cheap deals on Amazon and ordered Kite Man and display Wonder Woman at the same time I may have also agreed to do a bunch of scenery for a mate in exchange for a set of Joker Bikers.

Speaking of such things... How about a terrain feature?

Might be more to this than meets the eye

Not the smoothest prints, a fair bit of filling required.

Fun to do though, and a nice easter egg to add to a board.

Scale is spot on for Super gaming, too.

That's model #599 btw. What of #600? Well as you asked...

Vandann building for Brutal Cities!

Bit of signage

(signs are brutal cities also)
And some interior/scale shots for various systems:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/1074562-Brutal%20Cities%20Dredd%20rear.html
Dredd


DC

And Supers Unlimited.

Such a good kit; really blown away by it. I'll have an interview and a giveaway over on bigcomicpage soon enough.

Life? Don't talk to me about life.
Work is... Oddly fine, plague notwithstanding Home is another matter, wife still struggling to come to terms, not much fun chez nous.

So, 600 figs done - quantity if not quality what is my target now then, 732?
We'll see I guess,
Graven

Congratulations on making 600 figures, man. Damn impressive. Thanks for sharing the apartment kit too, that's a pretty amazing kit.

Shan't talk about life except to say; have some good vibes, and and yer painting goals are on point.

Well done on getting to 600. That's no mean feat.

Like the deceptive cop car.

Sorry to hear about the home front situation. It's never easy, but with current restrictions where you can't just go and do things spur of the moment it's extra hard.

"To Punish and Enslave" was printed on the Transformer figure and i think in the movie as well.

All looking good, Joker and BTAS Harley especially. Decepti-cop as well. Did you know WizKids to some really cool G1 style Transformers minis in their Deep Cuts line? Big, pre-primed and cheap, so they might be good for your kids if they're starting to practice painting... or. y'know, just for yourself because awesome minis...

I hear you on the brush control frustration, I'm having a similar (albeit reversed) problem where my hands are fine but my eyesight is going to hell and I'm just not getting anything worthwhile painted at the moment. Hope the new brushes help, but even if not, any excuse for Kite Man right?

Nicely done. Not a DC fan but thanks to you I now know more than ever.

Congrats on the 600 and love the deceptively parked police car

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Congratulations on making 600 figures, man. Damn impressive. Thanks for sharing the apartment kit too, that's a pretty amazing kit.

Shan't talk about life except to say; have some good vibes, and and yer painting goals are on point.

Brutalcities.com are making truly excellent stuff. It's most impressive. And thanks.

Dr H wrote:Well done on getting to 600. That's no mean feat.

Like the deceptive cop car.

Cheers buddy. Yes, we're being deceived...

Theophony wrote:Sorry to hear about the home front situation. It's never easy, but with current restrictions where you can't just go and do things spur of the moment it's extra hard.

"To Punish and Enslave" was printed on the Transformer figure and i think in the movie as well.

Yeah, I'm not sure how clear it is that it's written on the doors :/

Paradigm wrote:All looking good, Joker and BTAS Harley especially. Decepti-cop as well. Did you know WizKids to some really cool G1 style Transformers minis in their Deep Cuts line? Big, pre-primed and cheap, so they might be good for your kids if they're starting to practice painting... or. y'know, just for yourself because awesome minis...

I hear you on the brush control frustration, I'm having a similar (albeit reversed) problem where my hands are fine but my eyesight is going to hell and I'm just not getting anything worthwhile painted at the moment. Hope the new brushes help, but even if not, any excuse for Kite Man right?

The G1 Deepcuts are really nice but I have so, so much stuff And yay Kite Man indeed! Great sculpt, easy to build, and really solid in game (dirt cheap henchman with dynamic movement plus Charismatic). Throws into sharp relief how questionable the sculpts and poses for the Teen Titans are.

Solar_lion wrote: Nicely done. Not a DC fan but thanks to you I now know more than ever.

Lol I live to serve.

Viterbi wrote:Congrats on the 600 and love the deceptively parked police car

Cheers, I'm looking forward to just sneaking it onto various game boards

Incoming Teen Titans rant I have ZERO idea how to stop Hawk's capes from snapping, but they're wafer-thin as it is. I can't think of any good, logical sub-structure I can apply to them - smoke from a chimney maybe but that's about it. I've added wafer-thin gs layering to strengthen the "fabric" and pinned them in at the collarbone but I'm really worried that they'll just snap immediately. I suspect he's going to have to live on the display shelf rather than in a case

Anyway, on the subject of cars, I did the ones from Crisis Protocol for a mate

Fun with highlights.


And finished the other Bommer

Big Morka!

Ooh, what a lovely pair


So on we go. Work continues to be acceptable. Life slowly looking up. More building to come.
Hey ho
Graven

The Crisis Protocol cars are great. Looks like they could transform at any point.

I love the Decepticon (even if my old fanboy instincts cry out that Decepticons turn into planes and weapons not cars!).

Hah, there's a reason my Hawk remains unassembled! That cape,is ludicrous, gotta assume it was designed back when KM still worked in metal as in resin it's just daft. Though of the whole Titans box, Donna and Beast Boy are the only ones that look like they won't break in a stiff breeze. I love the sculpts for the most part, but god they're flimsy buggers.

Green Bomma looks waaagh-tastic.

Theophony wrote:The Crisis Protocol cars are great. Looks like they could transform at any point.

Lol ta. I briefly considered bot and con logos for them

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I love the Decepticon (even if my old fanboy instincts cry out that Decepticons turn into planes and weapons not cars!).

I know ah, G1!

Paradigm wrote:Hah, there's a reason my Hawk remains unassembled! That cape,is ludicrous, gotta assume it was designed back when KM still worked in metal as in resin it's just daft. Though of the whole Titans box, Donna and Beast Boy are the only ones that look like they won't break in a stiff breeze. I love the sculpts for the most part, but god they're flimsy buggers.

Green Bomma looks waaagh-tastic.

Cheers! Starfire is ok, just a bit gappy. Had to fill Beast Boy's gorilla form's back full of GS. But that Robin pose is a nightmare. Yeah hawk and and dove are both metal "legacy" figs that never made it to production until resin.

On the subject of DC, managed to nab a Big Barda for almost nothing (well, caved and bought the box she comes in, but have manage to sell the rest of the set for what it cost me), meaning I've got just about everything for DCU (not got Display Supes, not that fussed though, and made my own Mr Miracle & Cyborg) - not that I'm obsessive you understand
Been working on the Easy-Aug shop:

A very satisfying kit to paint, lots of pottering away at bricks and plasterwork.

My whole feeling on these is low-key Mega City One, so they are grubby sci-fi that won't feel out of place in Gotham or really any pseudo-present.


And, on the Brutal Cities theme, built The Institute.

This took 12 minutes to build, using the video instructions (which last 8 1/2 mins, but he starts with the parts out of frames).

Unreal. Given the awkward angles I did consider pre-priming but I'm out of spray anyway so it's a moot point, though again the AC pipes have been hit with silver and will attach after. I'm most likely going to prime it black so it's a bit more sinister.

Need to get the other Crisis Protocol stuff done (newsstand, traffic lights, streetlights and dumpsters) as a priority for my buddy. I do hate HAVING to do stuff rather than indulging in hobby ADHD I have also had to construct new heads for two of the Joker Bikers (typical Knight QC), so one has now got a clown mask and the other a spare Harley head - the leather jacket will get some SUBTLE chest bumps with gs. I do mean subtle, I'm not a fan of cheesecake. My plan, tentatively, is to do them in Fast Food delivery colours, white/turquoise, black/grey/green, red/rainbow (Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat) to go with the MacAttack Joker stuff I did.

Got ID'd buying superglue last night madness. Mind you I am not to be trusted.
Graven

The buildings are coming along nicely. Depending on price I might have to snag some as I found some 3D print building accessories like rooftop ac units, fire escapes and awnings.

HAVING to do stuff after getting your 600 done . Oh the humanity .

Just think of getting to use the painted stuff hen the x-men models are released .

... superglue?

Why is superglue a controlled substance in Scotland?

--B.

 Briancj wrote:
... superglue?

Why is superglue a controlled substance in Scotland?

--B.

Because the sheep really can’t get away when they are glued in place .

Sorry, that was a really baaaaaaaaaaaaad attempt at a joke.

Thanks for highlighting Brutal Cities, really good looking kit with The Institute. The two views you shared give it a kind of M C Escher design feel that's very fun. Congrats on rounding out the DCU stuff. Was Big Barda the white whale?

 Theophony wrote:

 Briancj wrote:
... superglue?

Why is superglue a controlled substance in Scotland?

--B.

Because the sheep really can’t get away when they are glued in place .

Sorry, that was a really baaaaaaaaaaaaad attempt at a joke.

Ewe little stinker!

Theophony wrote:The buildings are coming along nicely. Depending on price I might have to snag some as I found some 3D print building accessories like rooftop ac units, fire escapes and awnings.
HAVING to do stuff after getting your 600 done . Oh the humanity .
Just think of getting to use the painted stuff hen the x-men models are released .

Brutal Cities stuff is brilliant. Ryan (designer) says he should've named it Lazy Scenery instead it's fascinating, because these are effectively real architectural models and the precision of the cut - and so, easy of building - is impeccable. Postage is really reasonable too.

Briancj wrote:... superglue?
Why is superglue a controlled substance in Scotland?
--B.

Glue sniffers. Apparently.

Theophony wrote:

Briancj wrote:... superglue?
Why is superglue a controlled substance in Scotland?
--B.

Because the sheep really can’t get away when they are glued in place .
Sorry, that was a really baaaaaaaaaaaaad attempt at a joke.

that's Wales

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Thanks for highlighting Brutal Cities, really good looking kit with The Institute. The two views you shared give it a kind of M C Escher design feel that's very fun. Congrats on rounding out the DCU stuff. Was Big Barda the white whale?

Theophony wrote:
Because the sheep really can’t get away when they are glued in place .
Sorry, that was a really baaaaaaaaaaaaad attempt at a joke.

Ewe little stinker!

yeah she's basically impossible to get hold of, because they'd already rereleased the set once to add Steppenwolf, so no one buys it. Still, meant I found a cheap one. Back when KM had staff - pre-Covid - they'd intended to send me one along with display Wonder Woman and Supes for review, but they've laid off almost all staff and that's been lost in the mists.

Finished up the Crisis Protocol core set terrain

Fiddly but fun

Had to get a batman reference in


And together:

So a decent way to round out the month.
Lots of bits of building gone on too, got Giant Robot Hellboy done, Vulture and Arvus cleaned up, so I'm not short of things to do
Graven

Still rollin' along my friend. Wonderful to see. Keep up the fantastic work! You remain one of my great sources of inspiration.

Nice job on the Crisis Protocol terrain!

I should paint mine, but I'd need to buy bigger brushes.

Nice go on the terrain, I really like the rusted paint effects on the blue car there.

That looks great Graven really like the cars, are they moulded models or do you have to put them together?

Daily Bugle Newsstand is my favorite, love the brushstrokes on the glass, looks very fitting and comiclike!

Gitsplitta wrote:Still rollin' along my friend. Wonderful to see. Keep up the fantastic work! You remain one of my great sources of inspiration.

The feeling is entirely mutual!

aku-chan wrote:Nice job on the Crisis Protocol terrain!

I should paint mine, but I'd need to buy bigger brushes.

? Why bigger?!

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Nice go on the terrain, I really like the rusted paint effects on the blue car there.

Cheers, really enjoyed them.

GiraffeX wrote:That looks great Graven really like the cars, are they moulded models or do you have to put them together?

Thanks. Plastic kit, very simple.

Viterbi wrote:Daily Bugle Newsstand is my favorite, love the brushstrokes on the glass, looks very fitting and comiclike!

Cheers amigo. I was aiming for that aesthetic, I'm not entirely sure I'm there but it's progress.

Got my Big Barda <3 Pathetic how delighted I am so she's added to the pile to prime

Bunch of DC, Giant Robot Hellboy, some bits to turn into Tau bunkers, etc.

And a bit of progress of The Institute

Debating what directing to take the grey, lighter and flatter like the other buildings or a darker shaded grey

Roll on September...
Graven

I think your photo backdrop is perfect for Dr. Strange with the roads all in different angles . The newstand and scatter terrain are great.

Wow so much going on here, DC stuff as always looks like it jumped off the comic page. How do you like the crisis protocol for Marvel?

That looks like "Deep Thought" from HHGTTG. I think I have the name right...

Giant! Robot! Hellboy! Can't wait for that. Congrats again on Big Barda - she's looking eager for some paint!

That institute model reminds me of some of the architecture around Slough... it is giving me traumatic flashbacks

Fantastic work on all these. I'm really liking the Marvel terrain kits, but can't really justify getting into another game that no-one else I know plays...

Theophony wrote:I think your photo backdrop is perfect for Dr. Strange with the roads all in different angles . The newstand and scatter terrain are great.

Lol yeah it's all a bit Inception now you mention it and ta.

Yorkright wrote: Wow so much going on here, DC stuff as always looks like it jumped off the comic page. How do you like the crisis protocol for Marvel?

Cheers mate. I actually don't really like the game - there some odd mechanical stuff and it employs some of my least favourite aspects of synergistic play. I'm just painting this stuff for a mate.

Gitsplitta wrote:That looks like "Deep Thought" from HHGTTG. I think I have the name right...

Do you know I don't hate that film? I love the books and radio shows, but I actually like the movie more than most fans do. Must be because I'm 42

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Giant! Robot! Hellboy! Can't wait for that. Congrats again on Big Barda - she's looking eager for some paint!

He's a brilliant model. And yeah, Barda is going to be fun

endtransmission wrote:That institute model reminds me of some of the architecture around Slough... it is giving me traumatic flashbacks
Fantastic work on all these. I'm really liking the Marvel terrain kits, but can't really justify getting into another game that no-one else I know plays...

The channeling of awful brutality is de rigeur The marvel terrain is great, and the kits are available separately. I only slightly regret having to part with it.

I have decided to spend the current hobby fund on a new phone, rather than getting yet more BMG as planned (I was considering Ivy, Frank, and new Birds of Prey stuff). The only other oddments I'm after just now would be Sky Raiders for Dredd or Avengers for Aeronautica; I'm not exactly going to run out of things to paint. This was not an easy decision as, well, TOYS, but I use my phone camera all the time so given that mine is stuffed investing in a new one is a legitimate hobby spend. Plus, massive bonus is that the Mrs is 100% behind it or at least, not more toys

On the subject of decisions, one reached on The Institute: another zenithal light grey.

Better. Which lead to this:

And this:

Much better.

I do love a removable roof And, side-by-side with the Easy-Aug:

2 left to go, the apartment block and living pods.
I've started the Krampus, Valkyries and Vendettas. So, plodding along. Looking forward to getting paint on all the rest of that raw plastic...
Hey ho
Graven

Institute is looking much better!

Gitsplitta wrote:Institute is looking much better!

Thanks old son
So good news: new phone came.
Bad news: vomiting bug came too.
Papa nurgle clearly unimpressed with me using death guard green to highlight Imperial aircraft. they're coming along nicely.

I also got a spot of paint on Krampus

Very happy with him.


And built, and started to paint, the apartment block, Cabbage Palms:


Lovely kit.

Getting everything primed. Toddling along!
Graven

That looks really cool my friend! Excellent job on Krampus. Is he a DC character now too?

Gitsplitta wrote:That looks really cool my friend! Excellent job on Krampus. Is he a DC character now too?

It's huge isn't it?! Nah, he's a hellboy promo

Cabage Palms looks great so far. Though depending on how movement works it might take all day to get up to the top from ground level.

Krampus looks great and love all the buildings, very Mega City One vibe.

Hope you get well soon!

 inmygravenimage wrote:

aku-chan wrote:Nice job on the Crisis Protocol terrain!

I should paint mine, but I'd need to buy bigger brushes.

? Why bigger?!

I don't paint much big stuff so all the brushes I own are size 0, and I don't even want to think about how long it would take to paint that news stand with one of those!


Nice work on Krampus, that's a lot of skulls.

Theophony wrote:Cabage Palms looks great so far. Though depending on how movement works it might take all day to get up to the top from ground level.

Indeed; one assumes there are interior stairs. It's less of an issue for BMG what with batclaws etc, but for Dredd you would have to think about Ricochet rounds etc. Dredd is a narrative beer and pretzels game though, explicitly non-competitive, so you just go with what works.

Viterbi wrote:Krampus looks great and love all the buildings, very Mega City One vibe.

Hope you get well soon!

Thanks, I think it was just a knuckle-rapping because I literally got out my primed gellerpox and blightkings only to promptly ignore them for :aquila:

aku-chan wrote:

inmygravenimage wrote:

aku-chan wrote:Nice job on the Crisis Protocol terrain!
I should paint mine, but I'd need to buy bigger brushes.

? Why bigger?!

I don't paint much big stuff so all the brushes I own are size 0, and I don't even want to think about how long it would take to paint that news stand with one of those!
Nice work on Krampus, that's a lot of skulls.

Ah, gotcha. Well, the main colours are just sprayed on... Just a thought

Speaking of Aeronautica.

Coming along nicely I think.

Laid down a cherry red on my giant robot Hellboy pre weathering

Only problem is I like it so much I don't want to weather it
Weirdly down today. Just don't feel like I had much time to myself. Running around doing errands for everyone. Ah well. Will bounce back, no doubt.
Hey ho
Graven

Hey Graven it’s your hobby paint it anyway that makes you happy! Hope your feeling better soon.

Krampus is v cool!

I quite like Hot Rod Hellboy! It fits the 50s pulp aesthetic pretty well.

Yorkright wrote:Hey Graven it’s your hobby paint it anyway that makes you happy! Hope your feeling better soon.

Thanks amigo!

Slinky wrote:Krampus is v cool!

Cheers. Frosty and festive! or at least skulls and santa

Don Qui Hotep wrote:I quite like Hot Rod Hellboy! It fits the 50s pulp aesthetic pretty well.

Well, I thought so, so I'm glad you got that too. It has a nice retro kaiju vibe, too.

So the solution I think was shading down the recesses with earthshade and ramping the highlights with pure white, along with some chipping on the robot right hand of doom and feet:


All of the "light spots" are painted. You get a real sense of it (a) without the background and (b) macro'd:

I am very, very happy with this, not least because having a phone camera that can properly do macro mini photography at last is a god-send. Intimidating, but in a good way - nowhere to hide. That being said, first model I've painted in ages where I've enabled gallery voting (hint )

Not really got anything else done, made up some 20mm billboards that were lying in a box but will likely do them for Dredd (which, tbh, will work for Gaslands too). I've been asked to do a weathering tutorial for Brutal Cities so I'll likely post that here first, or at least as well.
Trotting on,
Graven.

Robot Hellboy looks ace! Got the announcement in the mail, but seeing as I haven't painted a single Hellboy mini I resisted in buying him.

Nice progress Graven, really like Krampus that’s a cool mini!

I came for the GIANT ROBOT HELLBOY and was not disappointed.

I like Cabbage Palms too, I think I lived there in Japan...

Nicely done, really fun model. Love the vent where his goatee would be and the little spade of his tail. Great job on it; you really threaded that needle of adding enough weathering without overwhelming your actual paint job. I bet it was a lot of fun to put it all together!

Love the Giant Robot Hellboy! Fantastic job.
I love/hate it when I don't visit your blog in any amount of time. I have so much amazing work to scroll though, but it takes forever and I often forget about half of what I want to say.

And, Douglas Adams co-wrote the screenplay to that movie. It's why it's as good as it is.
I always pictured Marvin differently; not so much head.
I think Bill Nighy is stellar, but was not satisfied with Slartibartfast.
Martin Freeman does a spot-on Arthur Dent.

And speaking of Hitchhiker's Guide, I noticed this comment a few pages back:

inmygravenimage wrote:
Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Robot HellBoy looks great, really like the stark white highlight.

looking forward to reading your tutorial about how to muck things up .

Viterbi wrote:Robot Hellboy looks ace! Got the announcement in the mail, but seeing as I haven't painted a single Hellboy mini I resisted in buying him.

DO IT!

GiraffeX wrote:Nice progress Graven, really like Krampus that’s a cool mini!

Yeah, bit fragile, but lovely.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I came for the GIANT ROBOT HELLBOY and was not disappointed.

I like Cabbage Palms too, I think I lived there in Japan...

Huzzah! My mate who designs the stuff is very heavily influenced by east Asian urban design.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Nicely done, really fun model. Love the vent where his goatee would be and the little spade of his tail. Great job on it; you really threaded that needle of adding enough weathering without overwhelming your actual paint job. I bet it was a lot of fun to put it all together!

Well thank you! I have noticed that I forgot to paint the roof of the water tower

DJJazzyJeff wrote:Love the Giant Robot Hellboy! Fantastic job.
I love/hate it when I don't visit your blog in any amount of time. I have so much amazing work to scroll though, but it takes forever and I often forget about half of what I want to say.

And, Douglas Adams co-wrote the screenplay to that movie. It's why it's as good as it is.
I always pictured Marvin differently; not so much head.
I think Bill Nighy is stellar, but was not satisfied with Slartibartfast.
Martin Freeman does a spot-on Arthur Dent.

And speaking of Hitchhiker's Guide, I noticed this comment a few pages back:

inmygravenimage wrote:
Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Oh, now I've got a headache. Well it's lovely that you have swung by.

Theophony wrote:Robot HellBoy looks great, really like the stark white highlight.

looking forward to reading your tutorial about how to muck things up

Fair enough:
I have no time. But there was a PTA meeting I needed to listen in on via Zoom tonight. 38 minutes to paint a building? No problem! So as usual I use a mix of Vallejo paints for my main colours and GW washes, mostly.


1) Vallejo Model Air Black. I like this because it's thin enough to show throw the base grey as a highlight quickly. Drainpipe was painted with this, as were the inside of the vents and grills, and the edges of the wiring. Whilst still wet I dragged a finger down from the grills to add grime.
2) GW nuln oil. This is the most time consuming stage. Working one surface at a time, mark out each horizontal or vertical line that there is. Then, take a damp brush - dirty paint water is perfect - and simply run it along the lines, so it starts to drip and run. If it's gathering too much just smear with you finger.
3) GW Corax white (or any light grey really) along each shutter. I worked in a triangle shape from top to bottom. I also marked out the triangles of the neon in the same.
4) Vallejo Game Color Squid pink to mark out the inside and outside of each triangle, smudged with finger tip to blur.
5) Green shade (I usually use Biel-Tan but tonight it was Thraka that came to hand) down the inside and outside edges of the drainpipe.
6) Using a pure white like VJ Game Color Dead White inside the triangle of the neon and sketch out a big tag on the wall. Then, widen it out with overlap between the letters.
7) VJ Model Air blue to write the tag. Because it's airbrush paint, and the white is still wet, they'll naturally blend together. Then, drag a little extra blue at the corners of the tag for drips if you want.

And that's it! If I'd had more time I would have done another set of highlights, just drybrushing corners across the building as a whole with the pale grey. However, all the washes need to dry out first so, realistically, that'll need to wait till at least tomorrow.

And with the others, so far:

So there we are.
Graven

Great Hellboy bot, the damaged areas and eyes are my favorites part of the model. Well done Graven!

As always your graffiti style is on point. It would be cool to see an urban landscape shot of all the terrain you've got painted up!

Building looks great, 38 minutes .

If you ever disappear it won’t be because I have gone to England kidnapped you and have you trapped in my basement to work on my pile of shame

Yorkright wrote: Great Hellboy bot, the damaged areas and eyes are my favorites part of the model. Well done Graven!

Many thanks! Really need to pop a drop of brown on the wee water tower, but other than that I am very happy with him.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:As always your graffiti style is on point. It would be cool to see an urban landscape shot of all the terrain you've got painted up!

Cheers. I debated adding more tags, but it's a question of balance. I have one more set of Brutal Cities buildings to do, the modular pods, and then I'll get a group shot, never fear. Or, as my son puts it, "We really need to have a game of Dredd."

Theophony wrote:Building looks great, 38 minutes .

If you ever disappear it won’t be because I have gone to England kidnapped you and have you trapped in my basement to work on my pile of shame

That's fine, go to England, I live in Scotland


So I've got a bunch of Dredd figs to paint: specialist judges, Sky Raiders and Stronts. However, before I start the 2000AD stuff I have a separate set of greenies to get on with, by Grudd:

Not to be confused with Grodd, of course. Yup, working on the Teen Titans, and specifically Beast Boy. I've gone for Teen Titans Go colours (black and pink) rather than comic red and white because, honestly, I prefer them.
Tiger form:

Really enjoyed this. Approached the stripes the same way I did Shiva for The Walking Dead.

Thinned paint lines, feathered at the edges.
Gorilla Form

Really great pose, horrible amount of back filling required. Literally, he is green stuff
Hawk form:

Least happy with this. The left wing is too thick, really should've carved it down a bit. It comes on a naff swirly stand which I've painted as a root but it's still a bit random.

And the Changeling himself:

Lovely model.
Need to dig out my chicken that I painted green, and have decided that any time I come across a random 28-32mm animal, I'm going to paint it as another form for him. If anyone has any suggestions, requests, or random spare familiars, lmk

Can't do Beast Boy with waving Mah Butt!

Very much enjoyed these, and keen to get on with the rest: at same time as this I did the greens on Titans Robin and on Kite Man (woo! Kite-Man ) so they're next, leaving Donna, Hawk (came up with a cloak solution, as you'll see), Dove and the Trigon Portal to do.

Also starting some scatter terrain for Dredd:

Shuggy is a shady game a bit like a cross between pool and crazy golf in the Dredd-verse. This a 20mm Blotz gaslands sign I'm jazzing up with mdf bits.

Played Modiphius Trek RPG on Tuesday night, which was great fun. Very intuitive, and good to be gaming again (albeit via Discord).
Hey ho,
Graven

Well you being in Scotland naffs that plan even more doesn't it

Beastboy looks great, so do all the animals.

Most Dollar stores/Pound shops have those cheap packs of farm animals. Usually some horses, sheep, cows and dogs in their. They might be the right size for DC as they were just too big for frostgrave (25mm). They might also have dinosaur kits too. Otherwise Warlord games has a sprue for farm animals.

Beast boy and beasts look great, if we get a vote there was a show when he transformed into T-Rex.

Theophony wrote:Well you being in Scotland naffs that plan even more doesn't it

Beastboy looks great, so do all the animals.

Most Dollar stores/Pound shops have those cheap packs of farm animals. Usually some horses, sheep, cows and dogs in their. They might be the right size for DC as they were just too big for frostgrave (25mm). They might also have dinosaur kits too. Otherwise Warlord games has a sprue for farm animals.

The warlord games ones are ace. I'm thinking more of just casually picking up figs if I see them in a store. Or, you know, stealing off small children.

Yorkright wrote: Beast boy and beasts look great, if we get a vote there was a show when he transformed into T-Rex.

Indeed lol. Also a blue whale, amongst other things it's good to have things that represent different kill sets, I mean skill sets.

I've been working on signs, as mentioned.

Got to have a good sky surfer tag, and all my other Chopper ones are tiny transfers. Rebellious robots needed a wee nod also. Debating how to paint the Shuggy player, and indeed its reverse.
Shuggy , being illegal, is on the back of an official sign:

You need a nice cooling treat? Well, look no further! It's sump-ly amazing! (Otto Sump, the ugliest man in the Meg, is famous for his delicious yet disgusting food).
Obviously, a very long way still to go on these. Like, actually painting them.
But as for actual paint, well, I'm still a bit Green:

As he would say... Yeah!

Kite Man. He's got a Kite.

I'm steadily working on Robin, also, but I may have to throw together a Dreadball team or something to ensure I keep the numbers up this month. Wouldn't want to be slacking off now, would I?
Graven

Love those signs man. Way cool.

Still no idea who KiteMan is, but he’s growing on me .

Billboards are looking great, double sided/double duty

Stealing from small children.....why haven’t I thought about that

Kiteman blows me away! Don’t care what his super power is, the idea of a super hero or villain with a kite is really out there.

Gitsplitta wrote:Love those signs man. Way cool.

Thanks, though I'm just avoiding the challenge of painting the big bits, really.

Theophony wrote:Still no idea who Kite-Man is, but he’s growing on me .
Billboards are looking great, double sided/double duty
Stealing from small children.....why haven’t I thought about that

Playing Gaslands inevitably leads to stealing from kids toy cars are a gateway drug

Yorkright wrote: Kiteman blows me away! Don’t care what his super power is, the idea of a super hero or villain with a kite is really out there.

Thanks! Kite-Man is a really hopeless one trick-villain who's enjoyed a bit of a renaissance lately. He's effectively the narrator of one of Tom King's better Batman runs, The War of Jokes and Riddles, as you see a fairly ordinary crook get pulled into Gotham's descent into costumed villainy. King can be very hit and miss but WoJR doesn't miss a beat. He's also the hopeless sometime-boyfriend of Poison Ivy in the new animated Harley Quinn series, which is much, much better than it really has any right to be. This version is essentially the latter take on the character, complete with his cheesy grin, thumb-up and having the True Love: Poison Ivy rule. He's dirt cheap, pretty hopeless but surprisingly useful for when you need rooftop access. Me, I just love obscure characters. I've got Archie, a really obscure Joker sidekick to do (as in Pagliacci - Pally Archie).

On with the Teen Titans! It's time for the Boy Wonder!

Again, lovely fig. And am actually happy with the face for once.

Cautiously optimistic that I seem to be getting more brush control. New brushes are really helping.

And continuing with that palette, did my Johnny Alpha on speeder.

I did also do his partner Wulf's speeder also, but Wulf himself is still just primer.


Although Strontium Dog is a separate game to Dredd, they are fully compatible - plus Stronts can appear from the future (they're mutant bounty hunters) as an event in Dredd also.


And, finally got around to sorting my Aeronautica!

This is the first of the Night Runners, my delightful elite squadron of Vs

The rest are done bar wing stripes (Vendetta, 2 Valks, Vulture and ArVus) so that's Sunday's job. House stuff today, fitting a roofrack/box and fitting a new battery in the wife's tablet. Woo maybe play some Transformers draft with the kids, picked up a cheap box of the new/final wave. Good times ahead.
Hey ho
Graven

Why use another colour? The white is actually really striking and good for contrast.

Oh, not to the white. The blue stripes on this will be green on Valkyries and red on Vulture.

I was talking about the signs actually. Sounds good on the aircraft.

Llamahead wrote:I was talking about the signs actually. Sounds good on the aircraft.

Ah right. Gotcha. Yeah a lot of the signage will still be white to be the neon across.

Well hello chums!
A very brief update, got my Night Stalkers navy flight done:

Happy with how they turned out, got a shout-out from one of the Angel Giraldez team on Insta which was pathetically exciting.

My desk is gradually looking less cluttered...
Graven

You should be over the moon with a shout out from the AG team . They are indeed fantastic pieces, even the cute itty bitty arvus lighter.

Love the stripes!

Flyers look amazing, the stripes add so much character!
And how have I never heard of Kite Man before? And why is there a Kite Man, I mean seriously, he sounds like a parody and not a mainstream character

Theophony wrote: You should be over the moon with a shout out from the AG team . They are indeed fantastic pieces, even the cute itty bitty arvus lighter.

Yeah, a huge boost to get recognition from a pro-painter, especially as he's not one I follow generally.

Gitsplitta wrote:Love the stripes!

Hate the things Nah, I'm glad I did them, thanks

Viterbi wrote:Flyers look amazing, the stripes add so much character!
And how have I never heard of Kite Man before? And why is there a Kite Man, I mean seriously, he sounds like a parody and not a mainstream character

There's so many bizarre and awful characters, it's not that surprising. Sometimes the gimmick is the joke, sometimes not. And cheers!

So, finally, Wulf Sternhammer:

Johnny Alpha's fellow Strontium Dog from the Search and Destroy set.

(and The Gronk!)
https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/1077342-Wulf%20Sternhammer%20and%20The%20Gronk%21%20Rear.html
Great model, much like Johnny also. Here's the pair together.

Looking forward to adding them into Dredd just to mix things up with - or hunt down - my Mutant Raiders. Who I really should do it's good to feel like I'm chipping away at the pile, and not feeling like I'm under pressure to do any particular thing.
Till next time,
Graven

Stripes on aeronautica planes look good, I have no idea who Gronk and Stern are but I like those too.

Great job on the AI! Great control on the stripes; did you use any tape or similar to block them out? Regardless it's hella impressive.

Woohoo! Kite-man! Awesome stuff.

Yorkright wrote: Stripes on aeronautica planes look good, I have no idea who Gronk and Stern are but I like those too.

Thanks! Wulf is a mutant bounty hunter, the Gronk is an alien with a weak heart who helps the Stronts (medics, occasional eaters of metal). Wulf wears Gronk's brother's pelt to honour him. Not at all weird

Don Qui Hotep wrote:Great job on the AI! Great control on the stripes; did you use any tape or similar to block them out? Regardless it's hella impressive.

I did, I used tamiya hobby tape. Many thanks

aku-chan wrote:Woohoo! Kite-man! Awesome stuff.

Yeah! Kite-Man!

Definitely feeling a 2000AD vibe just now, so - rather unusually these days - here's a WIP of what I've been up to:

Specialist Judges for Dredd. The Mechanismo (robot judge) is almost done, the judges obviously less so as apart from anything else they all need the green (I think I OD'd on green the other day ) My stuff's been getting featured on the Warlord Insta, so feeling very positive about painting generally atm. Also, I've been building mod-pods for Brutal Cities:

There's a dozen of these bad boys, plus two scaffolding sections and a LOT of connectors I'm really looking forward to having them dotted about various battlefields; they might actually be my favourite set of the lot. A single pod takes about 4 minutes to build, just to make sure it's all glued together. I've also added some bits from the AC unit set and Greebling set (great kits, dirt cheap) to have a little - but not too much - variety.
Looking forward to more nonsense,
Graven

Like the mod pods!

Gitsplitta wrote:Like the mod pods!

Cheers dude! Here's a wee update on them:

I got distracted by this:

Done with Aeronautica transfers, tape and patience. The horror...

With work busying up, paint time diminishes accordingly, but that's ok. I'm not about to rush stuff and I've still got lots done. If hobby becomes stress there's no point.
Graven

Pods are cool .

Is the cab 28mm scale? Reminds me of the A-Team episode where they help out a cab company .

Well, I'd say it's closer to 32mm, so 1/42 than 1/47, but legitimately superheroic

Nice multipurpose pods. They should prove very versatile for lots of games.

Viterbi wrote:Nice multipurpose pods. They should prove very versatile for lots of games.

That's the hope, certainly.

Meanwhile, got the Checker Cabs done:

Pretty happy, on the whole.


And its future partner.

Plenty of 5th Element references on this

Meat Popsicle

Scale Shot

And got the Specialist Judges done


Tech Judge

Psi Judge

Rad Judge

Med Judge

And my personal favourite, the Mechanismo

And alongside the Cab

Yeah. That'll do back to scenery now
Graven