2015 XI - Piles and piles of random stuff..............

It's been a bit of a messy couple of weeks, with hobby time being erratic at best. Though, this time round, it didn't stop me from getting some actual minis cleaned, built and even painted.

Gave a buddy's copy of the Smog boardgame some much needed weathering tlc. He wanted me to add a bit more contrast to the plastic components, while making things look a bit more dirty. Quick and easy little favor that helped to push all the game components to the same level of detail. The coins in particular were extremely flat and cheap looking when compared to the busts and board.

Naturally things were made a lot easier since he knew exactly what he wanted me to do with this lot:
- Some washes on coins and aether tokens to give the basic plastic more depth.
- Repainted red aether tokens as the brown and red clear plastic tokens were very similar and virtually indistinguishable on the gameboard.
- Basic weathering, highlights and oily effect on bust bases, nothing too special as that part of the models will see handling (though the game does come with a convenient plastic tray that will keep the busts safely protected).
- Blue / verdigris effect on the player minibusts.
- Weathered, almost old newspaper or photograph, look for the shadow agent minibusts.

Also opted to make all the eyes, glasses and lenses a bit brighter as well, makes the busts pop just a little bit more.

Next up some Kickstarter goodies also arrived this past week, extending the painting cue and reading pile once again. I'll definitely won't be lacking any stuff to work on for the next few years. To start off there was the big box of goodies from Mantic Games. There's some cool, new Kings of War rules to read through, which over time will lead to a bunch of old and unused minis becoming new, diorama-focused Kings of War armies. The big, hard cover rulebook is quite pretty and really pushes Mantic's publication quality to a new level. Though it's quite handy that there's still a smaller, softcover version with just the rules and armylists, much easier to bring along to a game!

There was also a big pile of Dreadball / Xtreme rules and minis in there, including those new, clear plastic Ada-Lorana and Crystallan teams. Just had to get one of them sorted out immediately, so spent an hour or three dabbling on the Ada-Lorana. Very quick, clean models that are hellish to photograph, also in there 'Big Slick' Vesh who can swallow an opponent whole turning himself into a Keeper in the process!

Quite a challenge to get decently light up for pictures, but they do look stunning in the display cabinet. Looks like the Mantic-dedicated shelf will need to be extended in the future. Slowly running out of room.

Next up there's the last bunch of Afterlife goodies Anvil Industry still had to send out for their latest Kickstarter. Impressive stuff all round, though I wasn't expecting anything less as a result of the stunning first Afterlife release wave. These have been cleaned and will get washed and assembled somewhere this week, so keep an eye of for a closer look at this entire wave in the near future.

 

Speaking of closer look articles, nearly ready with all the Norsgard models. Everything has been thoroughly cleaned, what little of it was actually needed, washed and assembled. Just waiting for the last few bits to dry while doing some early basing work, but these will be popping up in a dedicated post later this week.

Along with Norsgard also comes to experimentation for basing purposes. A friend who's way to deep into scrapbooking (don't ask.....) pointed me towards Holtz crack paint I'd heard more about online.
Getting some quite interesting result with the first, sloppy trial bases, so combined with some dark, sandy bases and snow effect I think I've found my Norsgard basing theme. Winter is coming!

More on this stuff in the near future as well, still finding out what does and doesn't work. Definitely an interesting look that I hope will work for several of my smaller winter-themed warbands from games like Norsgard, Anyaral, Counterblastt and Kings of War

But before I get around to these it's first back to the Little Heroes Charity drive minis (more info HERE), need to get these seven heroes sorted out in the next week or so. Lots of work, but should be good fun as well!