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...and then of course the battle report of the big season finale of Star of Bravery. In which both our heroes enter the field as part of a large battle at the doorstep of Vienna. The final clash between Napoleon and Archduke Charles.
@Captain Brown: Cheers. The great thing is that Cpt.Shandy really puts a lot of effort into working out these scenarios, and his research is amazing. On his blog he's writing a series on what landscapes and villages looked like in the early 19th century. Highly recommended. Just earlier today he put up an articles about fences: https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/
@IceAngel: Thank you for reading! Sharp Practice absolutely is a neat game.
@Dysartes: The new working title for the mech variant of What a Tanker! was very well received. And indeed, the Sharp Practice campaign was really good. Not the least because it was tightly directed and because I had to do very little except show up, play, and write battle reports.
Heyhey, I guess it's high time for an update on the Eldar.
Painting-wise these are done now, but I still have to add decals. The Cobra (the big tank/titan hunter) needs some more detailwork done, but then it's there as well.
But first I'll paint up two phantom knights and three heavy weapon platforms, then everybody gets their decals to finish off the look.
@moskolector: Thanks very much! Glad you like those two, because those are the main colours!
@Gitsplitta: Indeed. Can't go wrong with the classics.
@Dysartes: Cheers!
@Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll: Aye, that one was tricky. He's very reminiscent of the old Armorcast vehiles I thought, so loads of surface to cover (literally). So it was either a flame pattern or that heat mark stuff.
Right, here's the rest of the pictures now!
Crimson Hunters Exarchs:
Cobra:
Hemlocks:
Fire Prisms:
Night Spinners:
Serpents:
Heavy Weapon Platforms:
Wraith Knights:
...and that's that! Hope you like them. I hope that some day I see them along with the infantry.
@Camkierhi: Cheers. I'll be completely honest - I'm a bit embarassed about how 'fake' the models look in the photos. But that's the style I was going for: very sleek, very contrast-y, very much along the Eldar vehicle designs. And I put a LOT of effort into getting them done in a clean manner, which drove me half-mad. So overall I'll view it as a success.
@Captain Brown: I can live with that nickname. Or just "the exalted one", to my friends. Thanks very much, Sir!
Alrighty, on to new adventures. The models ain't getting any smaller with this project. It's the prettiest fantasy/kinda-historical 28mm buildings around, it's Tabletop World buildings:
Two smaller ruins (by which I mean: still pretty darned big) and twice the MASSIVE Merchant's House, one destroyed, one intact.
By now the Merchant's houses look like this:
The destruction on the one in the left wasn't caused by me, that's been done by a friend of the gentleman I paint these for. And very cleverly done too. Other than earlier TTW buildings I painted, I won't go with the blue roofs exclusively, but shake things up a bit as you can see.
These TTW resin buildings have been the best on the market for a good while now and are the best I know to date. Excellent sculpting, excellent casting, crazy detailled, and a ton of extra bits. These basically are like forgeworld models (hey, wouldn't it be cool if FW did fantasy buildings again? Yes, it would be.), in price and in work you have to put into them to justify getting them. This does't go for the assembly, mind you. Each level is basically a one-piece cast, without any flash and slots into the other levels perfectly. So it's like a FW model that's been really well cast.
The downside is that they don't have too big productions runs and their buildings go OOP pretty swiftly. And of course there's the problem that they started using Kickstarter a few years ago, focusing on 'well selling' big things instead of stuff one would actually need more to put a nice city on the table. But oh well. Either way, it's amazing models. So many bloody wooden beams to shade, highligfht, blackline, etc.
Yus, it's some stuff you get with the humongously big Merchant's Store by Tabletop World. Still the best 28mm fantasy/medieval buildings around, and makers of excellent scatter terrain.
@Gitsplitta: Absolutely. The best resin buildings. They pretty much are to be seen as Forgeworld models (with zero flash and perfect fit) though: Not inexpensive, and of course the paintmonkey of your choice has to invest a lot of work into them because there's loads of details and of course interior.
@Captain Brown: The prettiest too, if you ask me! Yeah, I'd love to see that whole force all together at some point.
@Gitsplitta: Aye, they are fan favourites. And that's why the makers of the video games tied a very sad story around their necks, because that's what these evil people do.
About the ruin: A friend of the gentleman for whom I painted these buildings has taken over the ruining of the Merchant's Store. This friend is an insanely competent model builder; I've admired his tables several times at various events. I don't think we've ever played anything, but I'm sure we will at some point. Anyway, he did a great job of ruining it. All I did was sticking a rat and some rubble in here and there, where it just makes sense. The thing is, the way the house collapsed, it makes very little sense that rubble would be lying inside. Instead, I made three rubble bases that fit in specific places on the house. Two fit right at the front and the broken corner in the back, the third can basically be used flexibly.
I also damaged the ladder to the attic a bit and mounted it crooked, and had to come up with something for the steps up to the 3rd floor. They're of an interesting design, so I made them look like they were broken off in a way that made sense to me (involving some balsa wood and so on), and then just built a piece of the stairs into the matching rubble pile as well.
The shutters are crooked and will break off 200 times in the next years, but they can easily be glued back together. The sign at the back of the house is also only hanging halfway on the pole, but it is surprisingly sturdy. Last but not least, I have to note that these are basically models for playing (Mordheim). That's why there are no pieces of furniture glued inside (further down at the intact Merchant's Store everything is just placed inside for the photos), so that you can move the figures around. That's also the reason why the shutters are all open: so that a villain can keep his jezzail out. The doors are all movable as well.
Yep, I think that's it as far as details and info are concerned. As always: These Tabletop World kits are great, no doubt. Large, it's easy to place and move figures inside, technically top class, good handmade textures, all around great.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Right, let's move on to the other buildings in that batch. First: Two ruined town buildings. There are some subtle differences (I took the dremel to one of them to make it look at least a little different), but I also painted them in a different fashion: One suffered a direct fireball hit (or maybe an alchemist's experiment gone awry in the upper floors), the other one collapsed by other means. Maybe it got in the way of a Nightgobbo Fanatic.
That's that! Still to come are pictures of Knight Artorias and his doggo. Funny thing is that somehow the camera really dislikes the paintjob I did on the wolf. Looks nice in real life, looks kinda crap in the photos I took last night. (bar for the scenic shot. maybe something about the grey highilghts and the lighting or something). Anyway, hope you like'em!
Right, last weekend we had a game of Dungeon and Dragons. For the first time in a long time face to face. Meaning my flat's also as clean as it hasn't been in a while, which is a good thing. Also, I found this little guy in the "general purpose roleplay figures" box:
Obviously, he's a bit shaken because he spent the past 20+ years in a box with the heroquest sorcerer and other shady individuals. Most of all though, he missed out on the repaint all his beastmen pals got two years ago around christmas when I decided that I needed lots of generic antagonists for heroic fantasy skirmish games. So I gave them a very time-efficient repaint.
So I repainted the little Ungor. The fact that unil now the whole herd fit one foam tray exactly, and now they're one slot short doesn't help calm the situation down either. It's a whole big drama with this little guy.
@Dysartes: Aye, my brother was way into the games since Demon's Souls. I got DS3 on a whim, and loved it. Then I played my way through the franchise backwards.
Heyhey, I'm back at painting Marvellous people. This time it's some Guardians of the Universe, and here's a WIP shot:
Hope I can present you with the finished versions soon!
@Warboss_Waaazag: Cheers! One of the perks is that it's much harder for the small ones to get lost across the table. My niece likes them as well. We played with them the other day.
Just a little thing as a follow-up on my review of Heresy Miniatures things last week: They're currently running a -30% sale across the ranges. Maybe worth checking out? http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/
@Gitsplitta: They're really hard to beat in terms of price. Even factoring in extra cost of roofing tiles and tufts, this one came in no more expensive than a comparable 4Grounds cabin about one third the size: Of course 4Ground's engineering is a bit more elaborate. Did you ever have any fitting problems with the TTCombat kits?
Here's a group shot of the MDF cabins/sheds built over the past months. Review of each of the four will go online starting this Sunday.
@Dysartes: Thanks very much! Takes away a bit of flexibility, but it just makes the MDF look so much nicer.
Heyhey, here's the first article in a series of reviews I got lined up for this and the next two Sundays. The theme is 'sheds and cabins made of MDF'. A tricky subject.
Today it's all about 4Ground's New France Pioneer's Cabin:
Dysartes wrote: Nice little review, Siggy - if I can suggest a minor edit, you've got a little repetition in the first sentence of the Painting section.
OOps, thanks for pointing that one out! Many first sentences go through some editing steps, some of these steps sometimes these steps leave some 'baggage'.
@Gitsplitta: Ah, okay. Do you have photos of those buildings? I have this weird thing with Feudal Japan - I've got a small collection for skirmishy things, but most of all I love the terrain.
Heyhey, here's the latest review of sheds or shed-likes. This time I'm taking a look at Warbases' Potting Shed and Wood Store.
Hope you find the article interesting and useful! Also, happy second advent Sunday and be sure to lock the doors at nightfall, because it's Krampus night!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/12/05 12:26:35
Here's two bosses from the order of Teutonic Knights:
Repurposed for fantasy gaming, but painted pretty much historically accurate. Very interesting dudes. Loads of whites to vary and balance. Figures by Fireforge.
@Dysartes: Those are by Fireforge. Believe it or not, it was the first time I've had FF figures in hand. They're interesting. I think I'll write something about them when I put the pictures on the blog/website.
Righty-o, happy third Advent Sunday. And fittingly, here's the last review article in the miniseries about huts, sheds, shacks and cabins made from MDF. This time I'm taking a look at TTCombat's Grey Harbor House A:
This one's comparable in design (albeit modernized) to the 4Ground New France Pioneer's Cabin, so the last paragraphs in the article will compare those two a little. Hope you find the review interesting and helpful!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/12/12 10:42:18
Asylum Demon (right at the beginning of Dark Souls1):
...and friends from Iron Keep (Dark Souls 2), including Smelter Demon and Lord Alonne:
Keep in mind that these are pretty big figures. The regular armoured dudes are 35mm foot to eye.
For research reasons I installed Dark Souls 2. As it turned out, it's quite a way from the start of the game to Iron Keep, so I'm not even there yet. But I take my reseach seriously, to make the figures look like their counterparts in the games, and I put extra effort into making the bases look right as well (ie appropriate to what the boss room or floor where you encounter the enemies looks like).
Btw, Dark Souls 2 is great. Sometimes it gets snubbed in favour of 1, 3 and Bloodborne, but even if it's a nudge weaker than these other games it's still great. Two nights ago I was playing the Rat King's dungeon (Grave of Saints). What a fun, amazing concept. I have NO idea how it works technically, but it does, and it's great fun.
Anyway, you can see those little Crystal Lizards they put in this add-on with the figures. I skimmed their rules for the board game, and they seem to work very much like in the video games, and thus seem like a very fun addtion and a great opportunity to get yourself killed.
Well, that's my important observations. I hope that you like the pictures of the figures, and that you're having a great 4th Advent Sunday. Tomorrow I'll get them to the gentleman I painted these for and will get another batch of Dark Souls boardgame figures (for way after christmas. Whenever I get to them). Good times.
The new working title for the mech variant of What a Tanker! was very well received. And indeed, the Sharp Practice campaign was really good. Not the least because it was tightly directed and because I had to do very little except show up, play, and write battle reports. 
