Bark, Branch, and tree...

You have seen many examples of my Bark and Branch basing technique, but I did a little experiment with this set.

I had a few chunks of dried tree wood, and I wanted to see how that might work out.

While my "standard" bark provides a shale like texture, the chunks of wood had some very nice striations.

These bases were created with very heavy bark from a red pine.  It almost resembled lava flows in some ways.

These bases were made for my 7th Cavalry and Pony Express rider NPC characters.

Each of these three primary textures look fantastic when they are painted, and some extra foliage added as well.

These bases are made with those chunks of wood.  I believe a few of them were actually pieces of mulch, or from trees that had been recently cut down.

What'cha doin' there, kid?

The Outlaws of Wild West Exodus are very character based.  This is designed to play to the story of the Outlaws, where nobody can really be trusted.

The hired hands are intended to be whatever drifters, thieves or criminals that they can find who can carry a gun.  These Bosses, Underbosses, and Sidekicks tend to pack a real punch, and don't offer any of the "buffs" that you would find in more highly trained factions such as Lawmen, Union or Holy Orders.

I didn't realize how prominent a point this was until I read the novels, and then started to examine all the individual unit profiles.

There are many ways where differences are established between factions, and this one is a very interesting an unique approach.

Is the grass greener...

Here's the second box that I brought back from GenCon, also from GreenBrier Games.

Once again, the game system is called Fairytale Games.

This time we have the Mercenaries.

Just like the previous set, they are all one piece plastic poses.

The Huntsman.  I might go more Vampire Hunter with this.

Goldilocks!

This is Piper.

Red.  Tempted to go Wood Elf here.

Robin Hood.  Ranger time.

Obviously this is Hook.  Pirate theme no matter what!

The Hatter.  I will try to find some fun references for this.

This is Hua Mulan.  I will put some of my paper foliage on the base.

Stabby Spica

One of the things I spent a great deal of time discussing at the dealers table was my brand new Holy Order of Man posse.  As I mentioned more than once, I am very excited, but also very nervous, as playing them will require a big shift in my normal gaming style.

Unlike the other hired hands,  these Spica have no distinction between close combat and long range.

I will have to learn new ways to take advantage of such flexibility.  Exactly what form that will take, I have no idea! :-)

The new Mimreg Salto was also added to my collection, so I look forward to having those portal options as well!  Stay tuned...

In the Brier patch

Over the entire duration of my time in the dealers room at GenCon, I had about 7 minutes to run around like a madman and find booths with new and fun miniatures.

I was able to hit just two of them, and those will be the subject of a number of new blog posts in the coming weeks.

Let's begin with something from Green Breir Games.  I had been told about their booth by friends who dropped by and said... "Hey, did you see these?"  Fortunately they were not too far away, and they listened to my incoherent, rushed pleas of blog...pictures...you... minis...paint...unboxing.

You see where I'm going.

I walked away with two boxes to begin, and here's the first, called the Children of Magic.

There are several boxes of eight figures, all of which represent different factions in Fairytale Games... the Battle Royal game.

The figures are 28mm, and as you can see, they are in one piece.  In terms of material, it feels a bit like the newest BONES material, in that it is flexible.

I have not had a chance to see how the mould lines file away, or if they need to be washed, etc., but the details are pretty darn crisp!

This image shows that there is no 'sag' to the thin parts, and there's not lots of unusual 'bendiness' either.  I believe each box retailed at $40, which is pretty decent for 8 nice figures.

I was asked to put my own take on them in terms of colors, so this should be very fun!!!

This is Glinda.

Alice.  I may still go with traditional colors, but I will be adding some chopped up body parts to the base, and have a lot of gore :-)

This is King Arthur, who will be done in paladin style.  Lots of SE-NMM!

This is Tinker Bell, but I will either paint it as a Monarch butterfly or perhaps a more exotic species.

Meet Snow.  I might paint this in burgundy, lavenders and purples.

Peter Pan will look more like a rogue or street urchin.

I will have to think of something fun and different to do with Dorothy.

Pocahontas might end up being an objective or some kind of NPC for Deadlands and Wild West Exodus games.

Stay tuned!  Lots more from this boxed set, and the other box as well!!!!

Many thanks to the folks at Green Brier Games.  Here's a link to their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Greenbriergames

A quick post GenCon report

My second GenCon has come and gone.  It was a long week following just 15 days to prepare!

Based off my experiences from 2014, I made some adjustments.  In the end, that all seemed to work out well.  I was also fortunate that a huge number of friends would be there as well.

It began with a new experience for me, and that was getting into the Ram to see all the Privateer Press setup, including the themed menus!

An interesting moonlight night.  The moon was out every night, which were very warm compared to last year, where high winds and temps in the low 50's had us shivering.

Trying to bring a little bit of Wappelville to the hotel.

Tuesday and Wednesday were sweltering days inside the dealers room for setup.  The doors were open, but the air conditioning was turned off.  Needless to say, it was stifling in there by day two!!

This is me trying to figure out how best to set up the table.  Aside from leaving myself a space for painting, I did want to have each of my Posses out there for people to check out.  I felt that having the cards next to the figures was essential.

And there you see the painting area.  It was not completely intentional, but traffic flow proved very quickly that I had chosen the correct side of the table to place the Figure Forest!!

Its location tended to draw people in approaching from that corner, and they could follow along with the goodies on the rest of the table.

The crew members of every booth were going to lose a few pounds just standing in the Heater Dome.

At the last minute, I thought I would pack one of my smaller black display cloths.  This became a very nice backdrop for the Lawmen, Outlaws and Union figures on display.

I attempted to place the figures in such a way that folks could get an impression of what they might do in a real game, as opposed to a simple pose in front of a structure.

It was also fun to see the WWX terrain in person!  I had seen the pictures online for years.

Even Lathan's Burn in Designs card holder made a nice backdrop.

There were lots of costumes, but I happened to know some of them pretty well.  Here's Rich and Belle on their first day of costuming.

The Addams Family!!!!  They were quite a hit, and hundreds of pictures were taken of this fine looking group.

Rich and Belle at it again.

Belle did major makeup magic with some simple homemade ingredients, and Rich created a safe chainsaw.  That zombie doesn't stand a chance!!!

Sunday was an unusual day, as I had to take over the demo game area unexpectedly.  I did a number of them, but they were definitely a lot more involved than the usual faire. :-)

The final demo lasted well over half and hour, and they kept at it, playing to a dramatic conclusion.

Speaking of conclusions, it was time to make like the wind and get back to the Windy City!

I feel very fortunate about how everything worked out.  While I had not intended to be at this GenCon, I had formulated ideas about what I would want to accomplish here before I had even left in 2014.  Thanks to Rich for letting me bounce those ideas off him for many months!

Thanks to Jen and Roy, Chuck and Theresa, Dan, Mike, Fletch, Ron and everyone else who came by, said hi, brought me food, talked about minis, painting, and just about anything!  It was great to see Kevin and Laura as well.

You will also be seeing some interesting new things here from Scale 75 and GreenBrier Games, so stay tuned!!!

GenCon 2015 concludes

 

With Sunday night comes the end of GenCon 2015.  Thanks to everyone who helped make it memorable and special!!!!

 

I will have the photos processed and posted tomorrow.

I have lost count of how many of these barbarians I have painted from Red Box Games :-)

As you have seen, all of this has been painted to match a certain theme and setting.

I may have some big army shots in the next month or so from the buyer, who has been using these in his games, so stay tuned!