HAWKS

Chris Palmer

     This past week I worked on the second half of a unit of 10 Squogs to add to my old Poison Dart Frog Army.  I thought the Squogs would fit right in with the rest of the troops, as some sort of more tribal cousins.
      I started with the ones that came from the Bones 2 Kickstarter in the Swamp Things set, and ordered a couple more packs from Reaper to bring the total up to 10 figures.
     Last week I completed the first five Squogs, which were the version of the figure that is armed with a trident.
      I prepped these figures in the usual way; soaking them in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying them.
     My plan was to do some conversions on two of the basic models to turn one into a standard bearer and another into a unit leader.  Last week when I did the trident-armed ones I converted one into the standard bearer; this time I did the leader conversion by cutting down one of the spears and reusing the spear blade to make a sword.  I did this by by gluing the spear blade directly to the figures hand so it looked like a short sword.  I also cut his right arm at the elbow and repositioned it so it would look like it was more naturally holding a sword. Lastly, I glued on a skull helmet that I had removed from an extra Mudcroak, Squog Shaman, figure I had.
    I then glued the 5 figures (including the converted leader one, to black-primed 1" fender washers with Aleene’s Tacky glue, and then glued the washer-mounted figures to a 2 tongue depressors with a couple drops of the Elmer’s glue under each washer.
     My plan was to try and make them look like this kind of Strawberry Poison Dart frog like I did with the last group:

   The converted leader figure can be seen on the far right.

      I began by giving all the figures a wash with heavily thinned Reaper “Brown Liner” using a wet brush.  When that was dry, I painted the bodies with Ceramcoat “Opaque Red”. I then painted the shell armor with Americana “Bleached Sand”. After that, I went back and painted their hands and feet with Americana “Dove Grey”.

       Next, I painted the grass skirts with Duncan “Olive Green”, and then painted the little diaper-like bottoms they’re wearing with Crafter’s Acrylic “Bright Yellow”.  I then painted the back side of the shields, and the spears, with Americana “Sable Brown”.  After that, I painted the teeth with Crafter’s Acrylic “Light Antique White” and the skull helmet on the leader with Folk Art “Barn Wood”.

      I then painted all the straps and ties with Americana “Terra Cotta”, and then I painted the heads of the spears the armbands, the dagger fittings and the leader’s sword  with the “Terra Cotta” as well. After that, I painted the pouch on his left hip with Americana Mississippi Mud".   I then went back and repainted the heads of the spears the armbands, the dagger fittings and the leader’s sword with Ceramcoat “Bronze”.  After everything had a while to dry, I then applied a wash using Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” wash using a wet brush.

     When the wash was dry, I painted the eyes with Accent “Real Umber”, and then gave them Black pupils.  I then highlighted the skin with the base “Opaque Red”, and the hands and feet with Crafter’s Acrylic “Light Antique White”.  I then painted the spots on their skin with the Black, and afterward painted their shields Black as well.  Next, I highlighted their teeth with White, and then used the White to accent some of the carved lines on each shield’s face.  Then I highlighted the shell armor with the base “Bleached Sand”.  After that, I highlighted their loin cloth with Crafter’s Acrylic “Daffodil Yellow”, and the grass skirt with Americana “Reindeer Moss Green”. I then painted highlights on all the straps with Reaper MSP “Pumpkin Orange”.   I moved to their spears next, highlighting the shafts with Americana “Khaki Tan”, and the spear heads (and sword) with the base “Bronze”.   Lastly, I highlighted their pouches, as well as the skull helmet, with Americana “Barn Wood”, and then painted their integral bases with Ceramcoat “Walnut”.
      I let the figures dry overnight and the next day I gave them a coat of Folk Art “Satin Varnish”. When dry, I flocked the bases. Another overnight dry, and I sprayed them with Testor’s Dullcote". When the Dullcote was dry, I went back and painted their eyes with Americana “DuraClear Gloss” varnish.

     And here’s the whole unit of ten, including the five I did last week.  

   Coming up this week, I will be working on the last of the Bones 2 Squog figures: Mudcroak, Squog Shaman, to post next Monday.

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Chris Palmer     We bought a package of cheap plastic ornaments at Michael’s this past Christmas, and I commandeered two to make a couple of simple storage tanks with the goal of trying out a chipped paint and rust technique I had seen on Youtube.
   I began by gluing the ornaments cap-down onto a pair of small plastic cups, after first cutting holes in the bottoms of the cups to fit the ornament caps into. I then glued the cups to 1.25" fender washers.  When all the glue was dry, I sprayed the finish storage tanks with flat white spray paint.

      I then painted the bases and the undersides of the tanks with Ceramcoat “Walnut”, and then added splotches of Americana “Terra Cotta”, to give a weathered rusted look.

      Then when the rust paint had had a day to dry, I prepared a jar of kosher salt and can of hair spray, that I had purchased a while back at the local Dollar Tree store for this purpose.

      I liberally sprayed the bases and underside of each tank with the hair spray, and while the hair spray was still wet, I sprinkled the areas with the kosher salt.

      I let everything dry overnight, and the next day I sprayed the storage tanks with a khaki tan spray paint

      I then weathered the tanks with a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade" wash,  applied with a wet brush, carefully so as not to dislodge the salt.  When the wash was dry, I drybrushed the tanks with Americana “Bleached Sand”.

     I let everything dry overnight, and the next day I ran the storage tanks under a weak stream of warm water as I gently scrubbed at the lower ares with an old soft toothbrush, to remove the salt.  When everything had overnight to dry, I gave them a spray varnish with Testor’s Dullcote.

Shown with a 28mm Reaper Nova Corp Sgt. for scale.

     I am really happy with how they came out.  They’re not perfect, but it was a good learning opportunity for the process.   I’m looking forward to making some more things I can try this on.

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Buck

Ma’k Morin tried his hand at an original creation — a futuristic tank as envisioned in Popular Science in the 1930s.  See his blog (link at the top of the page) for details.  I was lucky enough to get one of the first out of the molds.  I tend to paint a lot of my retro science fiction vehicles in metal colors like the older serials rather than primary colors like the comic strips.

The Ma’k I Space Panzer on the painting table

According to Ma’k, the guns in the sponsons have a reasonably long range, but the beam in the Martian eye from the 1953 movie version of The War of the Worlds has fires like a flame thrower.

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Buck

My buddy Ma’k molded these space bugs from the old Archive Miniatures Star Rovers line.  Apparently they are called Phraints.  I just call them “space bugs.”  For these I wanted to try something a little different.

I found this spray paint at my local Michael’s store.  It is “citrus dream” glitter blast hobby paint from Krylon.  I wanted the bugs to have a shiny appearance, and I was thinking about many layers of increasingly light greens.  Instead, I brush painted the bugs forest green and then sprayed them with this glittery paint.

After spraying them, they definitely had a different look than I would have achieved by layers of dry brushing.  I should have thought about it a little.  For the glitter to be part of the paint, it sprayed on pretty thickly and gunked up some of the details.  More importantly, it left the areas that weren’t skin (exoskeleton, whatever) with a rough texture that was difficult to cover.  The glitter paint stuck to the figure just fine, but I sprayed them with dull coat to make sure glitter didn’t scatter everywhere.

Phraints as works in progress on the painting table

I painted the “sergeant” and “corporal” with different colors on their antennae than the troops.

I’m not sure I’ll mess with this glitter paint again, but I am happy with the effect on these bugs.

I think they look suitably menacing.

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Chris Palmer    Ever since I started working on my Frostgrave waterfront last year, I have thought that the Reaper “Dark Maiden” figure would make a cool addition to my Frostgrave figure collection; taking the roll of either a dockside Construct, or even a Wraith.  I was lucky enough to pick one up in a trade a while back, and it’s been lingering on my painting table until I built up the courage to tackle it.  I finally decided with the River scenario from the Frostgrave Thaw of the Lich Lord  supplement on our schedule for next month, that it was time to build up my courage and tackle this beautiful figure.

     In mulling over paint schemes, I decided that I wanted to do something like the grayish-brown of the masthead shown on the shipwreck of the Charlotte during the opening scenes of the movie “National Treasure.”

    This seemed simple enough, just some brown and grey drybrushing over a dark base.  The hard part was going to be that I wanted to make it look possessed, with glowing eyes and glowing swords; and Object Source Lighting (OSL) still is not a strong technique for me.
  So I began by assembling the model and then priming it with flat white spray paint.  I then painted the entire thing with Americana “Mississippi Mud”, followed by a complete wash with Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” wash.

      Then, when the wash was dry, I drybrushed the figure with Americana “Neutral Grey”, followed by Americana “Barn Wood”, and lastly Americana “Dove Grey”.

      I then worked on the metal parts; painting them first with Americana “Asphaltum”, followed by splotchy areas of Crafter’s Edition “Spice Brown”, followed by more splotches of Reaper MSP “Pumpkin Orange”.  I let it all dry a while then gave the metal parts a wash with Citadel “Nuln Oil” wash.

     My next step was to paint her eyes and swords with Reaper MSP “Dungeon Slime”.  When dry, I gave the eyes and swords a wash with Iron Wind Metals “Medium Green” ink.  When that was dry, I built up central highlights along the blades and in the eyes working from the base “Dungeon Slime up to Reaper MSP "Peppermint White”.  I then gently drybrushed, using the “Dungeon Slime”, anywhere I thought the glowing eyes or swords would cast their light.
    I then repainted the base with Americana “Snow White”, and glued on some “ice” made from letting a thick layer of clear crackle paint dry in a plastic container.
   Lastly I textured the base with a mix of Citadel “Vahallan Blizzard” textured paint, and regular White paint. The next day I sprayed the figure with Testor’s Dullcote.
    I’m really happy with how it turned out.   While I wish it had turned out a little more aged grey, and less brown; I still think it looks properly demonic. 🙂

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Chris Palmer

     This past week I started working on a unit of 10 Squogs to add to my old Poison Dart Frog Army, which is made up mostly of Eureka Miniatures’ Frog Warriors.  I thought the Squogs would fit right in with the rest of the troops, as some sort of more tribal cousins.
     I started with the ones that came from the Bones 2 Kickstarter in the Swamp Things set, and ordered a couple more packs from Reaper.
      I prepped these figures in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying them.
My plan was to do some conversions on two of the basic models to turn one into a standard bearer and another into a unit leader.  I began with the trident-armed ones; and took one and removed it’s weapon arm, and cut off the top of the trident.   I then drilled a hole n the cut end, and glued in a section of paperclip wire to make a pole for a standard to fly from.  I then re-glued the arm to the body so the standard pole sat vertically. (See center frog in the picture below)
    I then glued the 5 trident-armed style figures (including the converted standard bear one,  to black-primed 1" fender washers with Aleene’s Tacky glue, and then glued the washer-mounted figures to a 2 tongue depressors with a couple drops of the Elmer’s glue under each washer.
     My plan was to try and make them look like this kind of Strawberry Poison Dart frog:

     I forgot to take a picture before I started applying paint, so we’ll get right into it.  I began by giving all the figures a wash with heavily thinned Reaper “Brown Liner” using a wet brush.  When that was dry, I painted the bodies with Ceramcoat “Opaque Red”. I then painted the shell armor with Americana “Bleached Sand”. After that, I went back and painted their hands and feet with Americana “Dove Grey”.

     Next, I painted the grass skirts with Duncan “Olive Green”, and then painted the little diaper-like bottoms they’re wearing with Crafter’s Acrylic “Bright Yellow”.  I then painted the turtle shell shields with Accent “Mustard Seed”, and the spears and standard pole with Americana “Sable Brown”.  After that, I painted the teeth with Crafter’s Acrylic “Light Antique White”.

     I then painted all the straps and ties with Americana “Terra Cotta”, and then painted the pouch on his left hip with Americana Mississippi Mud".  After that, I painted the heads of the tridents, the armbands, and the dagger fittings with Accent “Golden Harvest, and wen dry, I went back and repainted these areas with Ceramcoat "Bronze”.  After everything had a while to dry, I then applied a wash using Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” wash using a wet brush.

     For their banner, I bought a stem of artificial flowers at the Dollar Tree and cut off one of the petals, and then poked two holes in it.  I then glued it onto the pole.

     I’m happy with how these fellows turned out.  Now I’m going to work on the next five of the second figure.

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Buck

Mk. III Robots, Space Roomans, Space Centaurs, Phrinx, Space Ducks, and Dragon Spawn in front of the Phantom shuttle

 I was supposed to go play a war-game with some board gamers from where I used to work on Saturday evening, but Saturday morning I picked up some sort of cold / flu / upper respiratory bug that knocked me out.  All day Saturday and Sunday I would do something for an hour and then take a nap.  I don’t get ill very frequently, but when I do, it really saps my energy.  So, between naps, I worked on two more sets of figures from my buddy Mark Morin (see the link to his blog at the top of this page).

Space Centaurs on my painting table

Mk. III robots on my painting table

This set included space centaurs and Mk. III robots, both from Star Rovers, I believe.  I started by priming them in dark gray and then dry brushing them white.  For the Mk. III robots, I decided to do something a little different.  I typically paint my robots in 1930′s metallic, but I decided to go with a more Star Wars look of painted robots.

Mk. III robots backing up some Space Roomans

I decided to paint the horse portion of the space centaurs in a variety of colors.  I set out to make them look like Indian paint ponies, but there wasn’t enough horse showing to provide enough opportunity for variation, and the all started to look too similar.  so some of the centaurs became black, brown, and white.   I decided on an orange space suit for the human part of the space centaur.

Two squads of space centaurs

In Combat Patrol™, I plan to allow the space centaurs two movement cards, rather than one, just like cavalry in the Napoleonic supplement.

Closeup of a space centaurs

As I mentioned earlier, I went with a  basically white paint scheme with just a few details.

Mk. III robots are organized into two teams (led by corporals) and a squad leader (a sergeant).

I have quite a large collection of out-of-produciton figures molded by Ma’k.  I just have one set left to paint — some anthropomorphic space bugs.

The bottom half of a Really Useful Box full of figures cast by Ma’k: space Roomans, space centaurs, and Mk. III robots

The top half of a Really Useful Box full of figures cast by Ma’k: Dragon spawn, space ducks, and Phrinx

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Don Hogge
It finally arrived, our kick-off game for the 2017 campaign based around Thaw of the Lich Lord.  We would be starting with scenario one – where else would we start?

For game 1, we only had six out of our normal eight members available due to last minute schedule conflicts.  The wizards present were one Soothsayer, two Sigilists, one Necromancer, and two Elementalists.

Getting ready to start

Another view of the table

The action begins…..

Bemis led his newly hired warband towards the ruins of Felstad for his first foray into the frozen ruins.  The day was rather overcast and several of the denizens who lived near the ruins had warned him not to go exploring today – they said something in the air wasn’t right.  But having waited so long to get started, Bemis had no intention of delaying his expedition.  Besides, his warband could eat and drink with the best of them, and were draining his account at an alarming rate.  Time to get some return for his investment.

At the edge of the ruins, Bemis and Agarn attempted to divine the location of any nearby treasure items (Reveal Secret), but both failed their attempt.  Bemis made a mental note – More studying of that spell would be in order upon their return.

Bemis and friends enter the ruins

Bemis with Niko (thief), 9Toe (thief), Doyle (thief), and Hatch (thief) set up to the left.  Bemis could feel the unnatural aura of a necromancer in that direction and wanted to reduce Agarn’s exposure to it.  Necromancy was not an area that he enjoyed dabbling with.  To the front, Bemis thought he detected faint traces of elemental magic but it also seemed to be coming for the far left front as well.

The Necromancer’s warband

Bemis sent Captain Nigel to right with Agarn (apprentice), his right hand man Alleyne (treasure hunter), Piko (thief), and Shadow (warhound).  Bemis thought he detected a Soothsayer in that direction but it seemed far off.  It should be safer for Agarn in that direction, especially with Nigel to protect him.

An Flementalist’s warband

As Bemis was surveying his position, off in the distant haze (it was 20 inches away but visibility started at 16 inches) he thought he saw an urn sitting atop a small ruined temple.  He decided to move closer and sure enough, it looked like a gem-encrusted urn.  He quickly spoke the words to pull the urn closer to his location (cast Telekinesis).  As it hovered in the air, he directed 9Toe to move in that direction, along with Niko.  Hatch immediately spotted a treasure chest laying in the snow atop a ruined archway and ran quickly to pick it up.  Doyle moved up with him to provide protection.

Nigel directed Piko to check out a nearby ruined building while he led the other around the side – with Shadow bounding ahead.  Agarn successfully cast Fog to screen their movement.  Piko quickly moved up and entered the building through a window.

After his eyes adjusted to the reduced visibility, Piko spotted a small chest hidden up in the rafters.  He quickly climbed up and tiptoed across the beams to claim the chest (A dwarf tiptoeing, that had to be quite the sight….).

Bemis attempted to keep the urn floating closer but misspoke the Telekinesis spell causing it the drop into the snow.  Agarn, boosted with confidence from casting his first spell, attempted a much more difficult spell.  Waving his hands correctly while properly speaking the incantations, he caused a magic rune to appear in the darkening sky which would negatively affect all castings of the spell Bone Dart (Draining Word). 

Seeing the rune, Bemis silently praised Agarn’s casting and decided to cast his own Draining Word spell.  With little effort, he was successful.  The Elementalists in the ruins today would find casting Elemental Bolt a little bit harder.  Meanwhile, over confidence caught up to Agarn as he burned himself attempting to cast Fog (failed and took a point of damage).

9Toe managed to reach the urn and quickly stuffed it into his pack.  Just in time as he sees two figures heading his way through the ever diminishing light.  Luckily, Niko is by his side to provide protection.  Once more the sky appeared to be darkening.

Alleyne has spotted a chest lying in the middle of a small bridge and moves to pick it up.  Shadow bounds pass him and encounters a thief from Quail’s warband on the other side of the bridge.  He pins him in play to allow Nigel to engage in hand to hand.  With an air of confidence that only a man of his experience could display, he lunges at his young foe.  The thief was quicker than he looked as he stepped away from Nigel’s thrust, stabbing him in his side before stepping back.  Nigel stumbles backward, more out of surprise than from the minor wound he received.  As he stood there recovering, the thief turns on Shadow, thumping him on the head with the hilt of his dagger, and retreats from the fight.  Shadow collapses into the snow, knocked out cold.  Nigel thinks about pursuing but decides against it: “I must be rusty letting a young whelp like that get the best of me.  Luckily no one witnessed it."  Nigel picks up Shadow and moves back across the bridge, following Alleyne.  Agarn casts Fog to help cover his move.

Nigel and Shadow engage a thief

Agarn helping Nigel

Up on the old ruined bridge, Hatch is heading toward the exit point with a chest strapped to his back.  As he does so, an arrow goes whizzing by his head.  "Keep running.  I got this” yells Doyle.  Doyle advances across a wooden walkway towards the ranger who had appeared on a nearby tower.  As the ranger is reaching for another arrow, Doyle lunges low and strikes the ranger with a decent blow.  He follows through, giving the ranger a shoulder block.  The ranger teeters on one foot before falling from the tower; landing with a loud thud (Doyle won combat and pushed the ranger back 1"; the fall plus the previous damage was enough to take him out of the game). 

Overhead view of the area to Bemis’ front

Around this time, the sky was extremely dark and visibility was waning.  Bemis could feel a great surge of magical energy in the air.  He had nothing else to channel it into so he cast Fog to cover Doyle’s movement.  Agarn did the same to cover the movement on his side.  Piko heads out the area carrying a treasure chest on his shoulder.

9Toe and Niko are making their way to the exit area when they are attacked by a thief from the Elementalist’s warband.  Niko fights and is forced back.  The thief then moves toward 9Toe and his treasure.  Niko jumps in again, and is once more forced back.  9Toe holds his own and forces the thief back.  As 9Toie turns to run away, his mind goes blank momentarily and he starts to head away from the exit…..but he quickly shakes it off and resumes moving back towards Bemis’ rendezvous point (The Necromancer’s apprentice cast Mind Control but 9Toe made his will save).

Bemis and Agarn continued to back out of the ruins, each casting Fog one more time to ensure no stray arrows or spells would hinder their movement.


Post game photo op with recovered treasure

Four treasures and only one casualty – Shadow – who fully recovered from his encounter with Quail’s animal abusing thief.

The treasure haul included: Sword of Undead Slaying, Cloak of Protection, one Grimoire (Grenade), three scrolls (Elemental Bolt, Raise Zombie, and Write Scroll), and 70 gold coins.  Bemis was immensely happy about finding all the scrolls and the grimoire, not so much about the small amount of gold.  He perused all the documents, noting the different writing styles of the scrolls, and admiring the leather detail and binding on the grimoire.  As he was doing so, he felt a tremendous surge of insight (successfully cast Absorb Knowledge).  He couldn’t wait to have time to explore the writings in more detail.

Bemis decided he needed to search for a suitable base of operations, an old library or abandoned wizard’s tower might work.  He would send some of the lads out in the next few days to scout about for possible locations.

For now, he had some reading to attend to……

******
A great game only marred by the absence of two of our players.  Bemis, being an academic, lacks damage spells so the addition of Grenade will be closely considered.  It will be a 12 to cast but may come in handy.

Bemis managed to earn 390 experience points:  4 treasures x 50, 50 for being on the table during the eclipse, 9 spells successfully cast x 10, and 50 from Absorb Knowledge.

Nigel’s poor performance earned him 20 experience plus his cut of the gold, 7 gold coins.  Maybe some new clothes are in his future.

My apologies for the lack of photos, I got caught up in the excitement of the game.

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Buck

Back in October, Ma’k Morin posted an item on his blog about making a mold of some old Star Rovers Dragonspawn figures.  He sent me a bunch of these figures to paint.  I finally got around to them this weekend.

Star Rovers Phrinx

Recall that some weeks ago I painted some other figures that Ma’k molded, the Phrinx.  They sort of looked like ducks in Stormtrooper suits, so I painted them to look like Stormtroopers.

I thought that the Deathspawn looked like rebels to me from the attack on Princess Leia’s ship at the beginning of Episode IV, so that’s how I painted them.

Ma’k sent 12 of each of the two poses.  This allowed me to make two units of ten with four figures left over.  I made two of the leftover figures.  I decided to modify two of the extras to create heavy weapons for the Dragonspawn platoon.

This one is meant to be evocative of a Lewis gun.

This one is meant to be some sort of anti-vehicular weapon.  Can you see what I used to make this weapon?

It is the center section of this Dalek.  For some reason I had an extra one.

I also knocked out these three weeping angels for Dr. Who.  Finally I added the snow to my Winter War Russians.  This was done in the same manner as my previous post about putting snow on the bases of my Winter War Finns.

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My victorious war band for Frostgrave

We played the first game of the 2017 Frostgrave campaign on Saturday.  For this year, I have chose to be an Elementalist.  I did a little better than average, getting off the table with four treasures.

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