HAWKS

Rob Dean

The weather on the east coast of the US has been cold all week, so I didn’t end up walking for exercise during my lunch break, although it would have been good for me. Instead, I took the opportunity to break out my small painting box (about 20 colors and two sizes of brushes). I posted the first batch of figures previously, the skirmishers for Dux Bellorum. Unfortunately, this has not been a good week for being organized in the morning, so I didn’t have any more of the Dux Bellorum figures stowed at my desk.

Therefore, I broke out what I did have. This first figure (and I apologize for the close cropped shot making it appear a little fuzzy) is one of the ten poses of elves from the Caesar fantasy range (now apparently out of production, temporarily, I hope). He didn’t take my entire lunch period to complete, so I also added some paint to a 28(+)mm Reaper Bones fighter, still unfinished.

The next day, frustrated by the Bones figure, I decided to grab something else from my stash, and came up with this pair. The lutenist on the left is from the Linear-B Age of Tudors set. He’s likely to be dropped into a game as a D&D-style bard. The figure on the right is from the Red Box War of the Roses Irish troops set. I think the galloglasses from that set have a great “fantasy” look to them, even though they are pretty historically correct.

As far as D&D goes, I could use these two as representations of two of my original game’s player characters…there’s probably a scenario seed in there somewhere.

I’m finishing a few Caesar skeletons and basing all of these this morning, so perhaps there will be pictures of the whole lot later this weekend.

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Rob Dean

I had a quiet lunch break yesterday, so I pulled out a stick of home cast archers, destined to be a skirmisher stand for the Dux Bellorum project. Start to finish took an hour, so I wasn’t using refined paint techniques on these rather rough castings. They still shouldn’t look too bad when fully based.

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Buck

Police from the RAFM Call of Cthulu range

As I continue to await the arrival of my 28mm Winter War figures from the Kickstarter campaign, I have been clearing out various odds and ends from my unpainted lead box.  Last weekend I found these pulp figures and knocked them out.  It was fun to paint a few one-0ff figures instead of a larger project for a change of pace.

Household staff from the RAFM Call of Cthulu range

Dangerous dames from various Pulp Figures sets

Two “scientists” from the Steve Jackson giant ant set

I love this guy holding the brain in his hand.

Three figures from the RAFM Call of Cthulu range

Sleeping cowboy

I have no idea who made this cowboy figure, but I like it.  It was a flea market find.

Duck!

When I was running my Tunnels and Troll campaign as a cadet, I made a typo in the description of one of the rooms.  I meant to say “guard” but instead said “gurad.”  From then on, these armored ducks who patrolled the halls of The Dungeon of the Athelfrog were known as Gurads.  You actually had to pass a saving roll the first time you saw one or you would fall on the floor in a spasm of incapacitating laughter.

A heavily armed duck

I have no idea who manufactured this figure.  A buddy found it in a flea market bin many years ago.  It has been languishing in my unpainted lead box, because I had designs on making a mold and creating a full unit.  I finally abandoned that idea and painted it.  Does anyone know who made this figure?

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Chris Palmer

     This week I completed another figure from the Elves set; Aviriel Tellerion, Female Elf; as I embark on the second half of my Bones Kickstarter figures.  Two more elves to go after this one.  Then I will either work on the Dwarves, or take a break from Fantasy for a while and work on some of the Sci-Fi figures.
      I prepped this figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying.  I then glued the figure to a 1” black-primed fender washer with Aleene’s Tacky glue, and glued the washer to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of Elmer’s White Glue.   In thinking about how to paint this figure, I decided I would go for the traditional green-clothed  elf look.

     I began painting by giving her a wash with thinned black ink with a tiny pin-point drop of dish-soap added to help it flow into the crevices and help show the sculpting outlines. I then painted all her armor black, and then drybrushed it with Ceramcoat “Metallic Pewter”

     Next, I painted her pants Americana “Leaf Green”, and her sleeves Americana “Olive Green”.  I painted the shield and scabbard Americana “Forest Green”, and the pair of hangings running down her back with Folk Heart “Hunter Green.”

  I then painted her boots with Accent “Mustard Seed”.  I decided to give her gloves, and painted them this color as well.  I painted the inside of her shield with GW “Vermin Brown”, and the handle straps on it, as well as her belts, with DecoArt “Cinnamon Brown”.  The face I painted with GW “Elf Flesh”, and her hair with Crafters Edition “Spice Brown”. I painted the trim on her back hangings with Apple Barrel “Yellow”, I also used the “Yellow’ to paint some runic symbols running down the hangings.

    I’m pleased with how the figure turned out.  I’m not a big fan of the sculpt, and I think the nice simple paint scheme did it justice.

Figure 134 of 265: Complete

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Buck

Steve Jackson giant ants attack

As I have been recovering from knee surgery, I haven’t been too productive in terms of hobby painting.  As I began to feel better I found a small box of unpainted figures I had forgotten about — a mishmash of things that went into a box during our last move.  In addition, I prepped and painted six giant ants from a short-lived line of figures from Steve Jackson Games that Don Hogge found while cleaning out his basement.

First batch of Old Glory robots

One of the items I found was a bag of Old Glory figures from my last subscription to the Old Glory Army.  These were “make your own robots.”  They came with ten torsos and lots of legs and heads.

Second batch of Old Glory robots

I had a rough night last night trying to sleep.  After a few Aleve, I was finally able to get some sleep.  When I woke this morning, I wasn’t in the mood for any detail painting, so I just dry brushed the ants.  I also mostly dry brushed the robots and then painted in a few details here and there.

Third batch of Old Glory robots

The robots from Old Glory are pretty nice figures, but my camera pictures don’t really do them justice.

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Don
Continuing to finish up the figures required to help Jim run his SAGA game at Cold Wars.

This time its a unit of Saxon spearmen from Gripping Beast’s “Dark Age Warriors” plastic box set.  The figures glued together easily and were great to paint.

A unit of Dark Age Warriors

Although I intend to use them as Saxons, I think they could be used to represent any type of Dark Age levy.

Back to the paint table…still a few more figures to go.

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Buck

The “bomber” in its starting position

Last night would have been a Traveller night for those in the HAWKs participating in Eric’s campaign, but not enough players could make it, so Eric suggested that I host a game at my house.  I recently had knee surgery and am still not too mobile.  We pulled together a couple of folks at the last minute, and I hosted the game.

The German side setup

The objective of the game was for the pterodactyl “bomber” to get across the table.  It had limited mobility and had to weave back and forth across the table to avoid stressing the pilot.

A group of Brits on Griffons in their starting positions

I used a very slightly modified version of X-Wing for this game.  I found a site that let be build tailored order dials and another to build the pilot / ship cards.

The fur ball begins

I placed a few mountains on the table to add a little interest to the table and a few obstacles around which to fly.  It turned out that the “bomber” got too close to one of the mountains while trying to avoid the onrushing griffons and eagles and took some damage.

The beginning of the game

The action builds

While the “bomber” could sustain twelve hits, that wasn’t enough.  An American with a Garand did the last point of damage, and the pterodactyl fell screeching between two mountains.

The griffons swoop toward the giant pterodactyl

I think the sides were pretty evenly matched.  The Germans had slightly better pilots and several auto cannons that were big killers.  The Allies had numbers on their side, and even the Brits with their bolt-action rifles were able to get in a hit or two.  Very little tinkering is necessary to be able to run this game at Cold Wars 2015.  I made some mistakes on the German pilot / ship cards that I will correct.

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Buck

Brits closing in on the “bomber,” which is defended by a couple of German “fighters”

In a previous post I showed pictures of my recently completed Griffons, American Eagles, and Stukasauruses for my Cold Wars Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, USAAF, and RAF game.  I mentioned that I intended to use a slightly modified version of X-Wing for the game.  I found a cool site that allow you to make custom movement dials.  From that site, I made these:

Dial for Giant Pterodactyl “Bomber”

Dial for German Infantry Riding on Stukasauruses

Dial for American Infantry Riding on Giant Eagles

Dial for British Infantry Riding on Griffons

I plan to print them on card stock and find some fasteners that will allow them to spin.  They should be good enough for one or play tests and the convention game.

I found another site that lets you build the ship/pilot cards, but a lot of the words are in French.  Hopefully I’ll find a similar site in English before long.  Otherwise, I’ll have to make up cards myself — which shouldn’t be too hard.

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Don
Finished painting two more units for Muskets & Tomahawks – Canadian Militia.  The figures are not the best sculpts but the price was right – Old Glory Army Card.



Here’s a group photo of both units

The eight man unit

And the six man unit

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Chris Palmer

     Hooray, and welcome to the half-way point painting celebration! 🙂  This week I completed figure 133, Svetlana the Frost Giant Princess from the Ice Giant King and Queen optional purchase set, which both puts me both at and over the half way mark in my 265 Bones figure painting journey.  It’s all down hill from here!  I thought I’d try my hand at one of these larger figures as a way to mark this special occasion.
    I prepped this figure in the usual way; soaking both the parts (body and hand) in water with a bit of dish soap added, giving a gentle scrub with an old soft toothbrush, then rinsing and drying.  I then used Gorilla Super Glue gel to glue the hand holding the weapon to the arm socket; and when dry, glued the body to 2” black primed fender washer with Aleene’s Tacky glue. The washer was large enough that I didn’t feel it was necessary to take my usual step of gluing the washer to a tongue depressor for ease of handling.
       I then spent some time Googling Eskimo costumes to get some inspiration for painting this figure.

   I began by painting her skin with GW “Vermin Brown”.  I then painted her pants Folk Art “Poppy Seed”, and then painted her top, waist furs, wrist wrappings, boot fur trim, and face mask with Americana “Dove Grey”.

Next, I painted her fur cape with Americana “Mississippi Mud”.  Then I painted all the bone looking splints she has on her outfit, the skulls she is holding, her tooth necklace, and the jaws on the back end of her weapon, with Americana “Buttermilk”. Her lower boots I painted Ceramcoat “Maple Sugar Tan”, and the sole of the raised left foot I painted Ceramcoat “Raw Sienna”.

 I now painted the various belts and straps on her outfit, and the ones wrapped around the skulls with Folk Art “Medium Grey”. Then I painted the bottom third of her mask with  Folk Art “Barnyard Red”, and the top third Folk Art “Settlers Blue”. This pattern was based on an Eskimo mask I had seen while Googling Eskimo costumes. I also used the “Settlers Blue” to paint some of the decorations on her outfit.

   I worked now on finishing her weapon. I painted the blade with Folk Art “Porcelain White”, and the shaft with Americana “Sable Brown”.  I finished up with painting all the strapping on the weapon with Ceramcoat “Walnut”. I then used some Ceramcoat “Metallic Pewter” to paint the rivets on the shaft, and the two bump-like protrusions on the mask by the mouth.

     After everything had had time to dry, I then gave the entire figure a wash with GW “Agrax Earthshade” wash.

    I now worked on the hair, first painting it black, and then drybrushing it with the “Settlers Blue”. I then mixed in a little Anita’s “Baby Blue” with the “Settlers Blue” to do some lighter highlights.  Next, I used the base “Mississippi Mud” to do drybrushed highlights to the cape.  I then mixed in some Americana “Khaki Tan” to the “Mississippi Mud” to do even lighter highlights. I mixed some white with the “Poppy Seed’ and added some highlights to her pants.  For her skin, I added some Apple Barrel “Apple Flesh” to the “Vermin Brown” to paint on highlights.
      I now did highlighting on all the bones and teeth with some white mixed with the base “Buttermilk”, and then a bit of just plain white. I also used the plain white to drybrush highlights on to all the white-ish fur clothing and trim.  I drybrushed the weapon’s blade with the base “Porcelain White”.  I added some highlights to the blue areas with the base “settlers Blue, and to the red part of the mask with the base “Barnyard Red.”   Lastly, I added in the eye; first painting the mask’s eye holes black, and then adding in smaller whites and then black pupils.
    I painted the washer and any unpainted parts of the figure’s integral base all white. I let the figure sit overnight, and the next morning I gave it a coat of Ceramcoat “Matte Varnish”.  Later that afternoon I flocked the base, using Woodland Scenics snow flocking, and added some dry grasses with a bit of unraveled twine and a bit of twig.  The next day I gave her a coat of Testor’s “Dullcote” spray varnish.

  I’m really pleased with how she turned out.   I like how all the natural tones work together. I have included a picture of her below with the Elf wizard I completed last week to give a sense of her size.

Figure 133 of 265: Complete.  On to the second half!

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