Insta-what-now?

Blogging has been the thing that has continued to feel like a drag since more-or-less recovering my mojo after a slump in pretty much everything last Spring. It has felt like a chore; like something I ought to be doing and it has hung over me somewhat.

Utterly daft, considering this hobby is my escapism from real-world responsibilities!

So, I've gone down the micro-blogging route for now. Maybe that's where I'll stay, maybe I'll run them side-by-side (certainly Averaigne reports won't work anywhere but here), maybe I'll end up back solely here. We'll see.

In the meantime, if you're interested in keeping an eye on what I'm up to (including my newly added interest of gaming the English Civil War in 10mm), I can be found on Instagram as @rabsgeekly.

Maybe I'll see you there?

3D dungeons, part 2

Following on from this post...

It turns out that Frank is not just a modelling inspiration for yours truly, but also an open-handedly generous and helpful chap. Within a few daylight hours of me emailing him to ask how much silicon he'd needed for his mammoth project, I'd had two detailed replies and plenty of good advice.

First, it turns out he needed FIFTEEN kilos of silicon just to make the moulds (Side note - mold is the American spelling, mould the British - both are used for the black gunk that grows in damp corners AND the cavity to pour plaster or resin into. Fun fact!). Fifteen! A quick scan of ebay suggested that this would come to about £250. Gulp! Add in Frank's estimate that the resin needed to fill those moulds the requisite number of times (just over 25kg), and that's another £300. Or more. And that's assuming I don't make any mistakes, which is unlikely since it would be my first casting project, and without the cost of making the original masters.

Sigh...

Dammit, Frank!

Around about this point in the year (October half term for us teachers), I start thinking about what gaming projects and ambitions I want to set for myself for next year. For painting miniatures, I've got three priorities: more progress on my Chaos project, finish the World's Edge Wyverns bloodbowl team, and crack on with all the space orks I bought over the last month (more on them over the next couple of months as well). BUT, that's not the only part of this hobby that I enjoy, I also like to write and refine rules or scenarios (I'm excited about contributing to Whiskey Priest's dark ages mythology skirmish... thing for example), and increasingly to build terrain.

So, there I was, idly browsing t'internet and pondering future projects, when Frank happened.

Stab!

Well, Japanese stab binding at least, which is a binding style that threads around the spine of the book, making it perfect for single sheets.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to pick up a new hobby, especially if it involves some aspect of creativity, I've been doing a bit of basic bookbinding. Aside from notebooks I've made a couple of sketchbooks, one of which is a thing of beauty if I say so myself and will be a Christmas gift to an artist friend. I also thought that the various pdf modules I've downloaded from RPGDriveThru would be easier and nicer to use if I printed them and bound them.

In order for my printer not to die, I put together my own black and white covers, reusing some of the lovely oldschool artwork from within the modules themselves.

So here we go:

Peg pirates

About ten days ago I was playing a new tabletop pirate game with my two sons. Each player had a small wooden ship about seven or eight inches long, with painted peg dolls representing the crew. It felt a bit like a cross between playing an episode of Captain Pugwash, a kid's game of make-believe, and X-Wing (for the movement). We had so much fun, laughing and joking, with outrageous boasting and comedy accents aplenty.

And then I woke up.

How a [boy] shall be armed for his ease when fighting on foot

Long time readers will know that I have two sons, the Rab-ble as it were. By nature, and certainly by nurture, they have a keen fantastical and chivalric interest - their wooden swords have slain many a fearsome foe and graced many a tournament field. All good stuff.

When we were at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge earlier in the week (absolutely fascinating exhibition on personal vs. public devotional items in 16th century Italy), they spotted these felt scabbard in the shop and, without nagging, made their admiration of them quite clear.

Thug life

What do you get if you make an unholy mixture of evil magicks, Black Friday shoppers, the school dinner queue on the day they serve chips, and hardcore football hooliganism before representing it in miniature form? Why, chaos thugs of course!

Now, Whiskey Priest has written extensively (don't worry, there are pictures too) on this subject already, so I shan't duplicate his efforts even if I have reused the title, but instead show you the start of the dregs of my RoC warband. He's an early Citadel Fighter, but that gurning face called instead for blue skin and a tiger pelt cloak. Obviously.

Half a character sheet

Inspired as so often by Dyson Logos, and the fabulously illustrated sheets from the Doomslakers pages, and trying to get a handle on my encumbrance issues that I discussed recently, I've come up with the front of a planned two-sided character sheet for humans, elves and dwarves in BFRPG. I might redraw the backpack with one row fewer boxes for halflings.

Still to come is the reverse side with spell-book, thief skills and space for notes.

Feedback and suggestions welcome.
Rab

[Catacombs] Retinues WIP 1

Rather delightfully, new projects (even little side projects) require or allow new miniatures. They are a spur to collecting, modelling, painting. Small projects, particularly those that are self-contained like this, also give a chance to try out new methods or styles knowing that if they prove to be onerous or underwhelming, they aren't going to need to be repeated ad nauseam. Fun, eh?

Here are the retinues for my Catacombs project, in their pre-painted state. I'm not very used to plastic kits, but cutting and sticking three different kits together (Conquest's Dark Age Archers, Fireforge's Foot Sergeants, and a couple of heads from an old GW Bretonnian set) proved rather enjoyable and allowed a certain level of creativity from your truly. They didn't all work out as well as I envisioned, but I tried to be guided by the archery and sword-fighting I've done over the years as I did my best with the nice range of bits in front of me.

The two metal figures, oldhammer stalwarts seeing service, finally, since their moulding in the 80s or 90s, are the two knights who will lead their retainers into the darkness. There is one figure missing from the line-up, the mage. I've chosen a figure that has no company stamp on its slotta base, and merely says "WIZARD" on the other side. He looks decidedly 80s and will fit in nicely.

Speaking of bases, you might have noticed that the figures above have no bases attached to their feet. That's because I'm going to take advantage of the "small project" freedom and try my hand at sculpting some flagstone bases for this lot and then pin/glue them directly in place. I have some Mantic bases that will form the canvas for my putty-pushing.

I'll keep you posted,

Rab

Catacombs teaser

Whatwhatwhat?! This looks dangerously like a new project...

Sprues from Fireforge and Conquest Games (bought from 2nd City Games at a very reasonable price per sprue):

Into the West

So in the morning Mrs Rab, the two mini-Rabs and I will be starting the seven-hundred-and-twelve hour drive down to the far tip of Cornwall (leaving Castle Rab well guarded, naturally) for what I hope will be a fabulous holiday. Sun, sea, cliffs, stone monuments both ancient and industrial, maybe even a dolphin or two. Plenty of Clannad and Show of Hands for the car, because folk. Lovely.

But, I hear you cry, what about geeking? Fear not, I have packed some Stuff for evenings or wet days. Taking a leaf out of Asslessman's book, I've got tools and bitz for making up another couple of chaos centaurs, as well as some medium-sized models that will probably need filing and gap-filling. If the putty mood doesn't take me I've also packed some squared paper and my notebook to extend Averaigne for a September restart.

On the other hand I might just eat fish and pasties, drink wine and beer, and skim stones into the ocean at dusk. Decisions, decisions...

Dice

A few weeks back, a chap from the West Yorkshire Blood Bowl League (WYBBL) asked for a spot of help on FB to turn their logo into an appropriate format for lasering into some custom dice to use as giveaways in an upcoming tournament. Having enjoyed doing just that for BOYL '14, and wanting to not get rusty using Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as helping a fellow gamer out, I volunteered.

This is their logo:

Can't see the bloodbowl for the trees

Busy Rab is busy! But at least I've managed to clean up my sprawl of loose flock and random junk after the mammoth terrain building of earlier this month and get access to my painting table again. To celebrate I based, base-weighted, magnetised, and spray undercoated my main roster players for my orc bloodbowl team. I haven't sprayed the stars yet, and I still need to get hold of a non-duplicate blocker and Varag, as well as stripping Morg, a goblin and Fungus, but progress is being made.

Terrain boards - 07

Aaaaaaaand that's the groundwork finished, folks!

Terrain boards - 06

Things I have learned flocking these boards.

1. You need more scenic cement. No, more than that. 
2. You don't need as much flock as you think, but you do need variety

Other than that, I'm rather pleased with how they look for their first layer. Some bits need the gaps filling, other bits have a rather stark colour change, the edges need thickening up, and the large "village" bare patch needs to have the edges feathered with some earth blend. Getting there!

The process I've been following is to mix up some flock (Woodland Scenics burnt grass fine turf, weeds fine turf, mixed earth blend, burnt grass coarse turf, Javis bright green meadow scatter, a couple of bits and bobs that I had already but long since lost the labels for) in a tub, brush on some scenic cement, scatter the flock on thickly, let it dry for a couple of hours, stand the board on its side and tap the back firmly, gather up all the flock that falls off, repeat!

The flock:

Terrain boards - 05

Another day of holiday, another step closer to being able to play on these boards. This time, the initial drybrushing, followed by the spotting of blue foam that somehow escaped paint, dammit!

I did several layers of drybrushing, all with a cheap 4" brush from Wilkinson's (a quid, I think, grey handle and black bristles). First I used the main base paint I'd used in my board coating mix (Valspar "Norwegian Wood"), then increasingly added some of a sample pot I'd got free with a voucher a couple of years back,

Terrain boards - 04

Gettin' dirty! I've been looking forward to this stage, the point at which all the splatters of filler, the cork bark and the blue foam get brought together and become a unified surface. In a word, gloop.

Terrain boards - 03

Today? Bark.

Sorry. Of course I don't mean that bark. Rather, I mean the use of cork bark as rocks in terrain building. Because the free rocks in my garden don't look enough like rock. Apparently... No, tradition insists I hold back on making 28mm cliffs until a parcel (with a clipart lizard jauntily emblazoned across it) arrive suggesting a sudden enthusiasm for the comfortable sleeping of my non-existent gecko...

And who am I to argue with tradition?

Terrain boards - 02

Hills. Rolling countryside. A realistic landscape over which medieval, fantastical, and futuristic antagonists can pursue their goals. That's what I'm after, anyway. I'm learning that it's just as tricky as one might expect from the preponderance of flat green battlefields that dominate gaming events and internet photographs!

Nevertheless, it was to the internet that I turned once again to help me de-flatten my terrain boards. In particular I referenced three fabulous projects, two of them by the same person:

1 - Captain Blood's French & Indian War board
Anyone who has even accidentally stumbled across the Lead Adventure Forum will be aware of this hobby giant. Not only does he imbue, among others, his War of the Roses miniatures with an almost luminous quality of colour (they've appeared in at least one print magazine as well), but he also produces fabulous and realistic terrain boards.

The full build log can be found here: LAF link

Terrain boards - 01

A good spot of holiday geeking today. Last year I built a gaming table, complete with shelves and a sunken surface to hold terrain boards. It has seen some action (Inquisimunda, X-Wing, Knights' Quest, Dragon Rampant, and Blood Bowl), but it hasn't reached its potential yet because it was missing its terrain boards.

Time to do something about that!

My intention, since the start of this project, was to produce four terrain boards that could be rearranged to give multiple configurations of three of them. One would be completely flat, the other three will have more or less river and hill and are shown below.