A new Twist on Miniatures!

Since we first saw the Twisted Game universe a few years ago at Adepticon, I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of these amazing miniatures!  That time has come to pass.

Wonderful figures such as this Nightingale will inspire a lot of painters to do great things.

Some of these creations have arrived at our door for some painting, and you will see those take shape over the next month.  My first thought is to stay as faithful to the concept art as possible.

One reason I like to do this is to have side by side by side images, where you journey from the initial concept to a painted figure.

There is a lot of character and style that goes into each figure, as this Feygin shows.

Every time I look at these, I notice new details... and then more!

This charming set has just about everything you could wish for in a figure.

Here is an amazing piece of terrain which is also part of the campaign.  It's going to be so much fun to paint!

These scenes give you a sense of what it all looks like in living color.  It's quite impressive!

Capturing the whimsical style of the figures in terrain form is a far more difficult task than one might imagine.  That is, if you want it to still be interesting and practical from a game play standpoint.

I have these figures all prepped and ready to go!  A blog post it coming to show what they look like assembled, so stay tuned!

Firing Positions!

This is another case of you learn something new every day.  Or at least I try to do that :-)

I have a large number of artillery pieces to base for my French Flames of War army, and today was that day!  I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I really didn't know if any of the ideas would be practical, given the more unusual circumstances of scale (1/100), and the crews.

I thought I would start with the "easier" pieces, which were the 75mm mobile anti aircraft guns.

In addition to a few types of cork, I had several grades of gravel on hand.  Again, I had some thoughts on what would and wouldn't work... but you don't really find out until you try.

I used the bulletin board cork to establish a platform for the vehicle.  Anti Aircraft guns don't do much good if they are tucked inside a trench or stuck in a forest, so I felt that being on a mound or small hill would make sense.

Also, I would be very bored basing and painting all of these things directly to the plain base stand.  One must be entertained!

This is the first of four styles of basing that I experimented with.

The critical element in this attempt would be the red oxide paste from Vallejo.  I use this all the time, and I'm sure you have seen it used in nearly all of my basing posts lately.  I like to mix in some regular white glue with it so that my rocks adhere even better.

You can see that I added a small chunk of cork as a large boulder, and then placed a few heavier bits of gravel.  I had to keep in mind that what is a somewhat large rock at 28mm scale is a massive boulder at this scale!  So, I used this grade of gravel sparingly.

Where I would normally use a medium gravel, I went towards a finer grade for my "middle" level rocks.

Fine sand was used to complete the process.  This gave slightly more texture than the oxide paste, but would not be too crazy in scale next to the tiny 15mm figures.

I placed the vehicle on the stand in order to pile up some dirt around the bracing sponsons.  I thought this might make it look like it had been firing, and was driving itself into the mud/dirt.

This is my favorite part.  I like to use this mossy material on my "bark and branch" bases to serve as dried saplings or something similar.  Here, however, I was hoping to use them as tree roots sticking out from the side of the mound.

That might convey the idea that this crest was at least partially man made, and that hastily dug positions might find these exposed roots protruding in such a manner.  The other hope was to lend a sense of scale, and make something so tiny seem bigger by adding more details.

When these strands are painted, they will sag down into the mud.  To make sure they were secure, some inexpensive, very thin super glue was dropped over the top, and covered in a bit of fine sand.

Here's what we have thus far.  The vehicle will be removed and painted, while the base is painted and flocked.

There are more experiments to come with this base, as I want to test a few different types of foliage.  I'm hoping that some of the Hangar 18 tiny leaf foliage will give me another 'scale boost'.

I also have some Woodland Scenics foliage clumps that I have been hanging onto for years.  Something tells me that this scale might be just perfect to haul it out again!  We shall find out soon!

And so it begins!

The day has arrived!!  The Shattered Earth campaign from Massive Awesome has begun!

Here's a link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freylis/shattered-earth-emergence

I enjoyed painting these Coyote Warrior figures.  They had a ton of sharp, crisp detail, which made them very easy to work with.

There are options for the heads, which can completely change the character of a figure.  A nice option to have!

These are also true scale, so no giant hands or oversize swords.  All in all, a very realistic look.

A number of other very nice figures are available through the kickstarter, which I am looking forward to!

As you can see, once they are in terrain, they look like they belong right there in the image.  I would like to try these guys in some desert camo as well.

As a size reference, these figures are on 25mm round bases.

I did a number of posts on the individual figures, which I will link during the campaign:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/01/shattered-earth_25.html

As Twilight falls

I have not gotten many opportunities to paint Kingdom Death figures thus far.  In fact, this Twilight Knight is only my second.

You can see I had a bit of fun with the cloak design.  I was looking through some Celtic knotwork design textbooks, and I ended up doing a kitbash between that and a touch of Gallifryan. :-)

The views from above to show the scenic base.

The skin tones on the face were quite important, as that was the only area where I could show skin, hair, etc.  Getting the grayish tones was very interesting, with a slightly different approach.  There was a lot of "underlayment" of greens, which were then covered over with translucent layers of pinks.

Normally I go back over that with a flesh color tinted with a green wash, but I wanted to reflect a bit of the purplish pinks that were on the cloak, the monster head, and so on.

Taming the West

Here's a fun miniature from Artizan Miniatures.  We used to have these represent our characters and the NPC's in our Deadlands adventures.

Some of you might recognize the color scheme from my Lawmen.  I'm not sure why I liked the white coats so much, but I thought it would be very fun.

I have also used him as a civilian in our games of Wild West Exodus.  I believe his name was Clyde.

The Wrath of Shobik

After countless centuries of looting and pillaging of his Tomb Cities, Pseusennes has decided, at last, to leave his Empire behind and pursue those treasures which have been taken.

Shobik was leading an army in the field against the Kindgoms of Men, hoping to seize all four of the statues which had been erected around the Artifacts.  While the bows and breath weapons of the Ahmuntites was grinding down the hapless men, it would not be enough.  They would have to leave those firing positions to take these objectives.

The Enslaved Guardian archers were chosen, and they were surged forward by incredibly powerful magic, aided by the Monolith nearby.  They were set upon immediately by a unit of knights.

However, this charge was not enough, and the great archers held!  This meant that the Bone Dragon could join in that fight, and slaughter the knights.

Fresh from the victory over the knights, units all across the field began to move towards the objectives, hoping to solidify those gains before the strong remaining combat units of Men could be brought to bear.

Those combat units, like the Beast, moved swiftly on the right flank, threatening to roll up the Ahmuntite position in one great sweep!

The Soul Snare had trapped many of the souls of men inside the daemonic marble floor at its base, but now it faced its own destruction, crushed by the blows of two massive beasts!

The dastardly gunpowder weapons of the Men had been blasting away chunks of the great Bone Dragon, as well as the lightning bolt of the hidden wizard.  It would be essential that the Dragon destroy this unit with its charge, lest lightning and lead bring him down once and for all! 

The anticipated hook from the right was now in full swing.  The winged Daemon leaped into the archer horde with sound and fury, but could not vanquish such a massive unit on his own.  His support had either left the field, or was moving back towards the statues.

This was a battle of extreme movement, and it ultimately turned completely around on itself.  Both sides had advanced deep into each others territory by the 5th and 6th turns.  Any small or damaged units risked imminent ruin.

The Cursed High Priest was able to use his magical breath to wipe out the last of the spear block, so the Winged Daemon would either have to wipe out entire units by himself, or fly towards one of the statues which was no being held by the horse archers.

This he did, smashing the skeletal horses and riders to pieces with his ensorcelled axe.

The Revenant Worm Riders slithered directly towards the statue which was being held by a horde of pikes.  Such was the damage to their morale from the incessant shooting by the archers, that block had no chance of holding against the fierce charge of the giant snakes!

The Bone giant had managed to clear out the gunners, while the Scavengers set the Standard Bearer ablaze.  The Bone Dragon must destroy the cannon, or it could possibly move towards the statue, therefore contesting it in case the battle should continue.

The roll for additional turns was made... and it was a six!  The combat would continue.

This would lead to the final showdown between Shobik and the Beast.  The Cursed High Priest weakened the beast of Men with his breath weapon, and then used his magic amulet... surging the great Idol directly into the beast!

Shobik would defeat the monster, and secure the statue at his feet.

Well past the mid point of the battle, the Men could lay claim to 3 of the 4 statues.  By the sixth turn, this had changed dramatically.  Still with the additional turn, the forces of Men might still be able to contest enough objectives (or kill units holding them) to force a draw.

However, the magic of Men proved no match for the eternally ancient sorcery of the Ahmuntites, and only the Daemon could create any possibility of turning the tide.  In the end, it would not be enough, and Shobik would bring three of the Artifacts back to Pseusennes.  The fourth was left abandoned on the field.

This army was very different from the first game.  Not only were there more archers, but their range and accuracy had been enhanced by magic items.  This is a very different mechanic than what I had become used to, but it is fantastic for creating more variety in an army!  The enhanced scavengers ultimately played a very different role with their own ranged attack.  They didn't have to risk destruction by attempting to supplement the charges of other units, leaving them exposed to fire and charges themselves.

I had not realized that shambling units can charge a full double move.  Not sure why I thought this was the case, but it made a big difference in how I played the last few turns.  It will certainly make a big difference moving forward as well.

I am working on many more units for the army, so that it changes dramatically in structure each game.  This is something that I really missed before, and I am so glad that it is possible in Kings of War!!  Stay tuned for another match up!!