The pirate life for me

Some quick paint applied to a few of the Variety Pack bases a little while ago.

It's always fun to paint these wooden deck bases, since I can have lots of fun playing around with a lot of different browns.

Carving the texture into the sculpey is also a lot of fun!

These are not super complex, but they can really set a nice scene for whatever miniature is standing on them!

There's a few ways to make the coins... you can either slice a strip of polystyrene tubing, or roll out a tube of green stuff and let that cure.

Bases just like these and more are included on the Wood planks, Barrels and Chests video that I created for the Painting Pyramid series.  That was one of a dozen basing videos!

Don't shoot the Deputy

One more of the Artizan civilians today.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we have been focusing more on civilians to enhance the mayhem in our Wild West Exodus games.  The unique rules of these civilians mean that the battlefield is constantly changing around you.

The more the merrier!!

Safety first

Hey, that's not the safe way to carry that axe!

Of the ten beastmen, at least three were in this particular pose.

I am trying to vary the ones that are posted here, so it doesn't seem like the same guy is being posted over and over again :-)

Variety Pack

As many of you already know, I am working on tons of miniatures all at once, creating a vast assembly line that has figures in all stages of completion.

I am constantly prepping, priming, and basing new miniatures.

This is something I do virtually every day.

Hearing so many times about how painters get bored or burned out, I constantly suggest that they vary tasks.  Instead of painting 100 blue space marines each day for a year, it is a much better idea to tackle other tasks to 'take a break'.

I really enjoy basing, so that's about as close as I get to taking some time out of the work day to have fun.

Now that my basing has such a tremendous variety of types and styles, this can be very entertaining!

If you recall the blog post from a few weeks ago about building around the broccoli bases, that's what I did with these Reaper Miniatures.

These were very simple Happy Seppuku cobblestone moulds used for a couple of Wild West Exodus minis.

These bark and branch bases are for some Warrior Nation and Outlaw figures.

As usual, some form of Vallejo sand paste is used as a 'binder', and for additional textures.

I had fun using some new large gravel on these Dark Sword bases.

Same goes for a few more Reaper figures.

Blasted concrete bases are a favorite sci-fi base design for me.

These pirate theme bases are for some Privateer Press figures.

I love this simple board design, since it also works very well for Wild West theme figures!

News from the Forge

DragonForge Designs has an interesting kickstarter under away.

These are sheets of sci-fi/high tech materials which you can add to your bases.

Plus some additional fun items such as this column.

There are also some base sets:

Getting bigger!

Getting huge!!

It seems like any game of 40k requires dozens of flyer/Knight bases these days, so here you go!

Speaking of Knights...

Here are the sheets and tubing which I mentioned earlier.

A link for you:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonforge/tech-deck-additions-expansion-base-set

Gun toting civilians

One of our favorite aspects of Wild West Exodus is the impact that civilians have in the game.  They can block movement, line of sight, or even step on land mines!  If you don't think I'm serious... this has actually happened in a game.

You can shoot them, and even grab them to use as mobile cover.

I have been experimenting with other elements, such as moving objectives kike a her of horses, the famous zombie attack game, and so on.

These figures are kept to a slightly smaller scale than the WWX minis, so that it's easier to tell them apart.  You have seen a number of Reaper miniatures used in this way, but now I have a string of Artizan miniatures from their Tombstone series.

This guy is one of a few "deputies" which are brought onto the table via a trigger.  That is, accomplish this objective or task, and you get these additional deputies.

They would not have the same stats or capabilities as the 'real' Lawmen, but still a threat.  Obviously, killing them gives the opponents VP's as well.  We do the reverse for the Outlaws.  These really enhance the game, as you can't custom fit a list to an opponent, since you will have to worry about moving objectives, and additional NPC's coming onto the table in the middle of the game!

Best buddies

It occurred to me that it might be interesting for you to see the latest Mierce Monster next to a truly colossal beast.

As a reminder, the octopus man is standing on a base that it larger than a DVD.

And you thought the crustacean's base was big!!!

I was also looking for some symmetry with the color schemes as well.

I enjoyed the play of the brighter reds and oranges vs the cooler purples so much, I had to try it again!

The penny is there for scale.