Stuff from the interwebz #9 - shields as art

This time of year is rather full for me at work (report writing, working out the impact of new exam syllabi etc.) and in the garden (I'm rather proud of the new shed that I've built), so most of my geeking has been in short bursts and of the writing (or miniature purchasing!) variety. I'm continuing work on Knights' Quest in light of the feedback I've received from the playtesting (really positive, but with two aspects that could be even better) and am dabbling with a linked set of scenarios for GM-led narrative oldhammer skirmishes.

To get me back to the painting desk I was browsing the Lead Adventure Forum and found some lovely brushwork by a chap going by the name "Hobgoblin" who has something of a knack for shield painting as you'll see below. One of the things that has always been an intrinsic part of the old school fantasy gaming aesthetic, regardless of the vintage of the figures themselves, is the intricate freehand detail lavished on shields and banners. This is something I'm particularly keen to work on in my own painting and have been resolutely plugging away at improving the face-shields on my orcs each time I paint another.

Here are six of Hobgoblin's pieces....

Oyumaru

Oyumaru, oyumaru,

magic stick.

Hot water, make a mold, 

new piece quick!

Last night I headed over to antipixi's to catch up - we live twenty minutes apart and I've not seen him more than once since BOYL last year. Absurd!

We were going to play a game of Elfball and I was all ready to field the Irn Bru-sers and have them get their hairy little backsides handed to them as it's an age since I played.

Captain of the Irn Bru-sers, shaking his fist in fury at a missed gaming opportunity.

But.... there was chat, then food, then beer and somehow we'd left it too late to game. Never fear, however, aside from blether there was actual tangible geeking as well in the form of oyumaru, or Instant Mold.

Stuff from the interwebz #8 - Warmonger miniatures

Aaaaaaaand.... it's live!

The costs of gaming - May 2015

Jan 2015  -  £00.00 (0/0/0)
Feb 2015  -  £24.99 (5/5/0)
Mar 2015  -  £46.11 (20/7/-13)
Apr 2015  -  £06.40 (2/12/10)

May 2015

• BOUGHT - X-wing "plastic crack" (starter set, Falcon, Tie, Tie Advanced, gaming mat, card protectors) £84.57
• TRADED - 
• SOLD - four unpainted Perry Napoleonics £4.00
• SOLD - six painted cowboys £20.50 (so won't count as leadpile reduction)
• SOLD - two unpainted Marauder witch elves £2.50
• SOLD - nine unpainted preslotta orcs £12.50
• SOLD - eight unpainted Napoleonic riflemen, two cavalry and two boxes of plastic infantry £38.00
• TOTAL for May - £07.07   (-25/2/27)

Total net. expenditure for 2015 to date         = £84.57

Remaining acceptable expenditure for 2015 = £66.43

In something similar to the LAF lead-hoarders vow, I'm also recording the number of figures purchased versus the number painted, which is what the numbers in brackets after each month's total represents - (net unpainted acquired/painted/net total for the month). I'm not including the X-wing ships as they come nicely pre-painted. So, here you go:

Net. unpainted figures acquired in 2015   = 2
Of which, painted to date        = 0
Total no. figures painted         = 26

Net. hoarding status = +24

Woohoo! I'm winning the unpainted-lead hoarding battle! And, thanks to some clearing of never-to-be-completed projects, not doing too shabbily on the budget either. Nice!

Right place, right time

That's right, Caslon Antique and a skull!

I was pootling online earlier today (prepping for a new term, honest) when the fab pencil sketch above appeared on the Oldhammer Community FB page with the challenge to turn it into a header image for the group for a while. Well, it was either that or double check my lesson plans for tomorrow, so I fired up Photoshop and quickly slapped some Caslon Antique lettering on. Sometimes getting there first is more important than being actually artistic, and simple can be best! It now graces the top of the page, which was a nice little geeky fillip at the end of the holiday.

Happy birthday to me

Ok, three days late, but that's still under 1% of the way to the next one so I'm going to claim it anyway. I had a lot of fun, was the subject of much generosity, and generally felt feted, feasted and well-loved. Nice!

There was even a rare outburst of gaming giftage from my parents who got me the first hit of a new drug starter set of the Star Wars: X-Wing miniatures game. It. Is. Totally. Awesome! Seriously, I love it, and so do the two boys, despite them never having watched the films (the younger one isn't ready yet but it would cause more strife than it's worth to show it just to the elder). They picked it up quickly (the mechanics are simple) and even pulled off a frankly excellent feint and pounce manoeuvre between them in a pair of x-wings through an asteroid field that allowed them both to double-team and evaporate my lead TIE while remaining out of any return fire arcs. Curses!

The only downside to the game I have found so far is the delicacy of the laser cannons on the x-wings. I had a real scare when one of them got stuck on its peg and when it came off I'd knocked a cannon skew. Cannon duly fixed, I decided to "improve" the stands...

First, fleet and tools assembled - clippers, scalpel, superglue, and 2mm pin-vise.

LAF resurrection project (gladiators) - 4

Another one, this time the iconic retiarius. These lightly armoured gladiators didn't even get a helmet but did have that unique weapon combination of a net and trident. With equipment like that, it's not surprising that they were considered to be the fisherman striving against the sea as represented by the murmillo. Attacking from beyond sword-stab distance, and relying on skill and cunning to disarm or entrap their opponent in the net before finishing them off, set them apart from other gladiators and they seem to have been considered at a slight unfair advantage or even effeminate in their behaviour!

As far as this project is concerned, though, I now have three gladiators from which I can from two historical pairings (murmillo vs thraex, and murmillo vs retiarius), leaving me one more to do from my initial pledge (a secutor) who fought against the retiarius and probably the other two as well to take me up to five pairings. His arm needs redrilling and filling to get the forearm to attach properly which has been the cause of the delay.

Enough waffle, here he is:

Given that I always seem to struggle with painting (human) skin, I quite like how this chap turned out. I did a few really-really-really-watered-down glazes of mid-tone flesh (Foundry, 5B) mixed with Army Painter Soft Tone ink and that tied it all together nicely.

Now back to sorting out greenskins...

Rab

Orc boss, now with shield

My elaborate intentions for a checked border around the face were abandoned very early on yesterday evening when I thought I really should finish this fellow off, so I've gone for just a face instead. I think it's more textured in its highlighting than the previous shields I've done, giving it a hint of Bob Olley, which is never a bad thing!

Two slightly different views especially for you:

I have another couple of orcs WIP, a few goblins I need to rebase from hex to 20mm square (sorry Gaz!), and a few teeny tiny "coblynau" snotlings that need some greenery on their bases. Then I really should take a group shot of my slowly growing greenskin horde.

TTFN,
Rab

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

Click play to hear Epica's soundtrack for this post...

 

As Molesworth and any other fule kno, space is really big. So big that any light we see from distant stars has been travelling a very long time. So when you look at the night sky and spy a cluster of stars, you're seeing a galaxy far, far away as it was a long time ago. And we all know what that means - lasers, spaceships, jedi, evil empires, pewpewpewpew!

There's a particularly beautiful swirl of stars that fall within what sailors and airmen in the northern hemisphere have often used for navigation called the "summer triangle" and looks like this when snapped by Hubble:

The brightest stars are between 16 and 35,000 light years away. I reckon 35,000 years counts as a long time ago. Perhaps if we all look really carefully....

Recouping the costs of gaming

I've got a sale of surplus lead and plastic going on at the moment over on the Lead Adventure Forum - do swing by and fund my purchase of other lead :)

Click -> here

Ah, go on, you know you want to...

Rab