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 Dysartes wrote:
I don't know much about Deep Madness, Siggy, but it looks like there's some fun sculpts in there (especially the diving suit in the front right), and you've certainly done them justice.

Thanks very much! Yeah, I know very little about the game too. Seems like they ran three Kickstarters (it very much looks like a KS boardgame), one for each of the print runs. Apparently people who got it are happy and praise the components and the hard difficulty.

I actually painted a LOT of figures from that set, including some rather large and disturbing boss monsters and so on, but the world will never see them because against my usual procedure I didn't take any pictures! Rather surprised about that myself. It was a pretty huge order of figures (these boardgame figures plus loads of D&D figures) which had to be finished by a rather dead timeline, and I guess I was just exhausted or didn't have the time to take pictures? Not sure. Anyway, imagine all sorts of tentacle/insect/unspeakable horrors from beyond space and time of all shapes and sizes, painted kinda like the tentacle dudes in the back there in the photo. Blue tentacles, yellow details (boils and blind-yet-mad eyes mostly), pink flesh, blood, black bases.

Yeah, that space suit was fun to do. I immediadely defaulted back to what I felt comfortable with - blue armour (love a blue robot), scrappy looking, bit rusty, hazard stripes, lenses/lamps in constrasting colours and all is well. I based the paintjobs on the Investigators on the character artwork where I had it at hand. Problem is that most of the artwork is that sort where illustrators make everything purple and very dark browns. I love purple, but unless you're a dark elf or a very sinister individual there shouldn't be much of that on ye.

Btw, I have strong and silly opinions on many colours, all available to Patreons of "risotto tier" and up.*



*) This is not true, just a silly joke.




I'm proceeding to painting some LOVELY new 40k figures now. Seriously lovely. There's stuff to look forward to. At least I do. I also started building some of TTCombat's 10mm MDF sci-fi buildigs. They're cool.

Heyhey, last weekend I had a lovely game of Operation Squad!

Wrote a review and battle report about Operation Squad (squad-level WW2 skirmishy things).

https://tabletopstories.net/language/en/2025/04/operation-squad-review-and-battle-report/




Hope you like the article!

As always, the article is available in German and English.

Heyhey, happy Easter!

For many, many months I've been infatuated with the idea of Warhammer Renaissance. As you know, I played a game of 5th edition last year, and it's exceedingly lovely and all, but the problem about GW games is that it's always bound to 'making an army list', points and all of that. And I'm not sure I love that a lot, at least not in the shape of the 4th/5th edition army lists.

In general, I'm a big fan of keeping GW away from rules and let people who care do that instead, so I'd really like to try out Warhammer Renaissance.



Dark Elves are finished enough for now, to try the rules solo (as I like to do) before subjecting others to them, I need opponents.

Last week I somehow got the idea of going through boxes to check just how little I actually got in terms of Empire figures and how surely it would never be enough to turn it into a playable army. Turns out it's more than I thought, especially once i broke out that box I got second hand off ebay a ton of years ago.

So I got out some reading material and try to cook up some Empire units!




Let's see where this goes!

Happy Easter!

Good luck with this Warhammer Renaissance project. It reminds me a lot of Warmaster Revolution!

Cosmic

Had to go back and read your introductory sentence a second time: I thought those Mordian Iron Guard looked a little too much like WWII Red Army....

Very nicely done!

@Cosmic: Cheers! Yeah, it's an interesting how Warmaster made a pretty broad return in recent years. I put a lot of faith into Warhammer Renaissance. Hope it's any good.

@Meer_Cat: Yeah, I got a lovely collection of WW2 Soviets in 28mm. I'd love to bring them to shows too, but WW2 still is a slightly touchy thing, and Russian stuff is a touchy thing. Anyway, some lovely figures I got there. Black Tree Design, Bad Squiddo, Artizan, Conqueror, backed up by tanks by Rubicon, Die Waffenkammer, and Warlord.


Heyhey, here's a snapshot of my desk:

The crossbowmen look nice, Siggy - the Halberdiers, on the other hand, may need a few repairs.

Some nostalgy in these empire minis

@Dysartes: Cheers! Yeah, funny thing is that I tried to strip them for days, but the stuff didn't come off. So I thought "fudge it" and just removed the mold lines and will repaint them.

@moskolector: Oh yes indeed. I bought them many years ago, shortly after the 7th edition Empire plastics came out, which I wasn't a big fan of (but which I worked with a lot for commission stuff. The greatswords and archers are really good; those arebascially the second wave. But the state troopers from that time I'm not too much into.). Just in case I'd ever do an Empire army.



Right, since we last spoke I got my hand caught up in a shattered glass door ("real glass, go cry me a river!". Loads of blood, stitches, no nerve damage though apparently, so I was lucky.), which hampered my painting for a few days. Now I'm back at the desk and made some photos to catch us all up on what happened the past weeks.


Where can you find pleasure, search the world for treasure
Learn science, technology?
Where can you begin to make your dreams all come true
On the land or on the sea?

Where can you learn to fly, play in sports or skindive
Study oceanography?


Right you are indeed, in the Navy.


Sadly the white background ate the reflections on the metallics; they look so lovely in real life. I'll make some more photos before I sent them back home.

Anyway, these are amazingly lovely figures. Perfect imperial armed forces figures in my book, for several reasons, and spiritually the closest thing we ever got to the nominal and legendary depiction of imperial guardsmen in Codex Imperialis.




Staying with the imperial armed forces, well, a different branch altogether really but they are also imperial, also armed, also bring force to the table - Imperial Harbinger Space Marines.



These are an addition to the lovely Imperial Harbingers army I got to do in 2023. A very underrepresented chapter, and a tricky colour scheme, but I really enjoy how pragmatic and no-nonsense they look, and I kinda underline that with the colours used. These here in the photo are still WIP, once the last bits of colour are added they'll look perfectly rounded (hopefully).


Last but not least, there's yet another completely different branch of imperial hard power - employees of the Officio Assassinorum!


Even though I'm pretty sure that Death Cult Assassins aren't part of that club at all, but rather one of these less-than-official pals to the Adeptus Ministorum. Anyway, they're also still WIP, but getting there.


Hope you like them and a happy 1st May in advance!

Ouch, hope the hand heals properly. Tiny glass fragments capsuled inside your skin can get nasty later down the line if the removal isn't done thoroughly.

Looking good on the Imperial front, though. The naval armsmen are lovely even if they don't exactly sport the greatcoats of that Jes illustration there, but who does.

Damn accident hope you will entire recovery!

Yep the Empire is getting old, that’s why I use highland miniature now mixed with last empire realise, hop its great return when we seeing the Cathay minis.

happy to see some stuff painted waiting for more .

Im sorry to hear about your hand Sigur, but am very glad it looks like you'll come through just fine. The guardsmen looks simply amazing.

... words I don't think I've ever said before.

@Sherrypie: Cheers! Yeah, it was old glass, so it kinda broke instead of shattering into a billion little bits. The doctor at the hospital had a good look, so I assume there are no foreign objects in that finger (at least i hope so!). I had a look at your plog, btw. Your stuff looks great. Really love the BFG ships. Can't really do a lot with them, but your chaos ships' bows look really fancy. Oh, and the bases are top notch.

@moskolector: Thank you! I have to admit that I ordered a print of a Highland miniatures war wagon. Waiting for it to arrive. I have not a high opinion of Etsy and what happens on there, but let's see.

@Gitsplitta: Cheers! yeah, the navy dudes look great, especially the ones with the visors and crested helmets. Kinda retro-futurist.

Right, I got the stitches out today. My right pinkie still is a little numb in places; may have hurt a skin nerve. The feeling may return if other nerves take on the job of the hurt nerve (i never knew they could do that. Crazy.), or mit may not. Either way, I'll live, and given the accident, I was very lucky. So I just got a big patch over the partof the hand in question now and unless something unforseen happens I won't pay a visit to the hospital any more. They made the farewell easier for me by not having the friendly ladydoctor on duty today who did he treatment so far, but a German doctor with better hair than I have.

LOL!

I'm glad things seem to be coming along well Sigur. Best wishes for a complete recovery so you can get back to your normal life... and whatever ladydoctors might be in your future!

You gotta watch those Germans... he's probably just compensating for something with that hair anyway.

@Gitsplitta: Cheers! Yeah, things are largely back to normal now. Tip of the finger's still a bit numb, which hinders my typing. But not in a major way.

Right, update time!

Imperial Harbingers:



Inquisition:





Battlemechs:




Boardgame figures! For Anachrony. Pretty interesting stuff. All 50-55mm tall, made of the usual annoying boardgame material, but despite this I'm fairly happy with how they turned out!

Path of Dominance:





Path of Harmony:



Path of Progress:





Path of Salavation:





Path of Unity:



Guardians:




I actually like those designs a fair bit. Looks very far-sci-fi, bit of animals in there, bit of Giger.... and no "industrial space sci-fi with cthulhu and zombies thrown in" for once.


15th (King's) Light Dragoons (Hussars):





The gentleman whom I painted these for is quite keen on the combination of Foundry figures with Perrys plastic horses. Which is a pretty darned cool idea, because they really fit together perfectly. Funny side note - I was dead sure I never painted the 15th Light Dragoons before; only when I saved the photos I realized I painted these guys a few years ago in 15mm for Waterloo!

Another side note: This regiment - then under the name of 1st King's Royal Light Dragoons - suppressed the Nottingham Cheese Riot in 1766. Wikipedia notes:

"A riot broke out on 2 October 1766 after several Lincolnshire merchants purchased a large quantity of cheese with the intention of selling it in their county.[nb 1][9][2] They were subsequently surrounded by a group of "rude lads" who demanded the merchants not take away the cheese and instead share it out in Nottingham.[2][3] Violence eventually broke out over the dispute and rioters proceeded to loot a large quantity of cheese throughout Nottingham; shop windows were broken and hundreds of cheese wheels were thrown and rolled down the streets, including in Wheeler Gate and Peck Lane.[9][5][10] The mayor of Nottingham, Robie Swann, attempted to disrupt the riot and restore order, but was knocked over by a rolling cheese wheel.[5][11]"

Well, I hope that you like them!



In other news... I got to finish some Empire figures. In chronological order:

Ostland crossbowmen:


Hochland handgunners:


Knights of the White Wolf:


These I actually painted about 10 years ago already for a game of Lion Rampant. All I did now was add the standard bearer and give the guys a bit of a do-over. One of them also got a new hammer, because his had lost its head over the years. Extremely lovely faces on these figures.

Ostland Greatswords:




Aso lovely figures; 6th edition metals. I couldn't think of anything to write on the banner off the top of my head, so i left it blank for now. But of course that banner should have some scross with the regiment's name or motto on there. Hope to add it later.

...and here's all of them together:


That's what I painted by now (Boris Todbringer there way in the back left needs a bit of a fancier shield. I also painted him in 2014 for that Lion Rampant game and apparently didn't have the time for a fancier shield. ). On top of that there's 16 spearmen, cannon and 16 handgunners IIRC from the 6th edition starter box, painted by the gentleman I got large parts of this army from a long time ago. So these may need a little bit of an overhaul.

Right, that's that. Now I think I have enough for a solo test game of Warhammer Renaissance.

....and then I went and finished a Gold wizard. I'd started painting him around 2008.



The face gives me a lot of joy. Some of the robe did not, especially that frontal fold in the picture, so right afterwards I went and redid some of the robes; looks better now.


I also played things again! First, Cpt.Shandy invited Virago and me to play a more or less cooperative game (with cpt.shandy being umpire and opposition), depicting torpedo boat actions in the Adriatic in 1943:


https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/archie-pulls-it-off-4th-coastal-forces-aar/



The game is based on Galleys and Galleons by Ganesha Games (whom we're fans of); Cpt.Shandy modified the game to fit WW2 torpedo boat shenannigans. Highly impressive, and I strongly suggest reading up on this project on Cpt.Shandy's blog.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also played more! Rogue Stars, for instance.

Took me a week to write, but here's my review (with accompanying battle report) of Rogue Stars, the sci-fi skirmish game by Andea Sfiligoi that's as close to a role-playing game as a skirmish game can get!

https://tabletopstories.net/language/en/2025/05/rogue-stars-review-and-battle-report/




The article features a lot of words; I hope it's halfway comprehensible and I get the points I want to make across. It also features rock stars, silly references to things, cyber-dogs, snipers from the bushes and much more! As usual, the article is available in German and in English, so you can even use it to learn a new language or point out differences in the different language versions! It's fun!




Hope you like the article!


I also played Battletech for the first time.


What a game that is. I'll have to write something on that as well in the near future once I find the time.

THEN I had a busy Saturday last weekend. First I drove a bunch of my models to Vienna Comix. Local modelling club had asked if they could exhibit my gundam models. A lovely honour.



Was only able to bring the models, leave some business cards, and then had to leave again due to other commitments. Have yet to pick them up again from the club guys. But the models are robust; I'm not worried that anything was damaged. Saw some pretty kits there by others, including the very tempting 1/48th scale Gundam and Zakus, which of course would fit 28mm figures in size. Maybe some day.

Until then I'm on 1/44th. Seeing the club guys inspired me to get my own Zaku II out again after months and I stuck some decals, added a resin-cast eye bit on him and fixed some other things. Noticed I broke a joint part which led to a wobbly leg, so I had to fix that. But anyway. Here's a green Zaku before the actual work commences:

As always, some beautiful work Sigur.

A couple of exalts left for you.

Cheers,

CB

@Captain Brown: Thanks very much! Sorry, not sure I can follow on the second sentence. Is there a sort of Dakka-internal reputation system measured in Exalt points I never knew about or do you - in a theatric gesture - call your hit squad of goons The Exalts?


Right, friends. Took some more photos. These make me slightly happier I think.






Love the grey background, but, as with everything else, it's not a "one size fits all" solution. Hope you like the pictures!


Right. Weekend. Do we have lovely plans?

 Sigur wrote:
@Captain Brown: Thanks very much! Sorry, not sure I can follow on the second sentence. Is there a sort of Dakka-internal reputation system measured in Exalt points I never knew about or do you - in a theatric gesture - call your hit squad of goons The Exalts?

Sigr, there is a Dakka-internal reputation system measured in Exalt points. Bottom right of each post there is a red 'Exalt This Post +1' click and you exalt that post.

Nice work on the Imperial Harbingers and Inquisition.

Cheers,

CB

 Captain Brown wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
@Captain Brown: Thanks very much! Sorry, not sure I can follow on the second sentence. Is there a sort of Dakka-internal reputation system measured in Exalt points I never knew about or do you - in a theatric gesture - call your hit squad of goons The Exalts?

Sigr, there is a Dakka-internal reputation system measured in Exalt points. Bottom right of each post there is a red 'Exalt This Post +1' click and you exalt that post.

Nice work on the Imperial Harbingers and Inquisition.

Cheers,

CB

Ooooh, that thing! Right. I never used it, so I stopped noticing that button over the years. Thanks very much!

Well done dear friend.

Astounding work Sigur. Man, I haven't played WWII ships since college. I still have the Japanese 3rd Fleet stashed away somewhere. The Hussars are probably my favorites, though I always love it when people paint board game plastics.

Some nice work in that last big update, Siggy - looks like your Empire force is off to a grand start.

What's next in your pipeline - that you can tell us about, at least.

Nice work throughout, Sig'.