2016 - I - What, a new year already............?!

Well the last couple of weeks have definitely flown by at an incredible speed. Haven't had too much time to do much blog work, aside from some Star Wars related musing over on the Garage Gamers blog (I, II & III).

That's not to say I haven't been busy with the hobby, quite the contrary actually, spent more time on minis these last two weeks than the full month before. There are even a few finished models to show off, starting with Alucard (Infamy Miniatures). Part of the Big Smoke range/game, I had an absolute blast with this guy. There's an absolute ton of tiny details all over this finely-cast and rather menacing-looking, resin model. He can't possibly be up to anything good with all that gear.

The Big Smoke world promises to be a rather bleak, dark and alternative view of early 20th century London with automatons, legendary monsters, half-robotic monkeys, an evil Homes and Watson and Tesla himself trying to stem the tide. A setting that challenged me to go back a few years to a painting style I've drifted away from further and further - 40K / John Blanche's grimdark approach. Been mostly painting more light-hearted pulp and scifi models these last two years, which generally invites brighter color schemes. Going back to something dark, mixing all your colors from scratch and using about a dozen different shades of brown was quite a nice throwback and something I will stick with once I get around to the other Infamy models on my to do-list!

Now Alucard isn't the only finished model, though the Barrow Wight (Warploque Miniatures) is most definitely an entirely different beast. Certainly no less detail, the sculpting style on this one almost pulls a 180. While Infamy's range is more and more becoming a 3D render-centric product, demonstrating just how wonderful printed models/masters can be, Warploque's Alex does all his sculpting by hand. This has lead to some extremely distinct, characterful and much more organic models, which naturally lend themselves (or force the painter) to a different approach.

There's a lot more blending and free flowing brushwork possible on these models, something I think may very well end up influencing my general painting style. I do not believe this model has had a general release yet, though that may very well change in the near future. In fact, for anybody interested in the Arcworlde models and game there will be a big starter set coming later this/next month:

Thirdly, there's a 'get them painted already'-project from my long, long to do-list on the hobby table at the moment: Relics' Ridend faction (from Tor Gaming). About time these lovely, little models got some attention, there's even some quite challenging stuff in there. The Dragon Tower promises to be quite the challenge, with all those tight spots.

Amusingly enough the simply undercoating process made me change my mind completely on my favorite models in the group. Really like mounts and dragon models, but now the Ladies of the Court have jump to the head of the pack. Really charmed by all the small details, the posing and just how many layers there are to their dresses.........guess I like princesses then ;-)

And yes, yes, part of the reason for my sudden motivation for these is down to the Kickstarter for the newest C'thu faction for Relics (link). Hey, at the very least it will mean more models painted than added to the pile ;-)

Regardless, it's been quite a productive year. Hope everybody out there is having a great new year, both real life and hobby-related, as well!

2015 XII - Supremely focusing on those last two-ish months of the year.

Time for a little update on the current project, starting off with something that's on Kickstarter right now (link).

That's right, Pulp City is getting two new, cold war-themed, teams to add to our collections, who are naturally compatible with other villain and hero-centered teams. Really digging pretty much all the designs, so definitely putting in some cash to push the project. It does somewhat painfully underline my yet unpainted and some even unbuilt Pulp City models.

So while the campaign is running I'm going to try and paint up another batch of heroes, villains and support models. Not 100% sure I'll be able to finish all seven models within those 12 days, but it's a nice target to aim for. Not to mention how cool these are going to be to paint up, who doesn't like a living virus or some dinosaur mobsters. So over the weekend Grimm Digger, Gravito Grimm, Vector, Seabolt and the Mutant Mobsters joined the undercoated Dr. Mercury in the painting cue.

Also placed an ordered to grab those last few missing minis for the collection, so in the near future 100 Voices, the Voicelings and Slug Muldoon will be joining the Pulp City line-up.

In between these models I'll also be making a start on the Kingdom Death Monster starter minis, which I'm hoping to get on the tabletop somewhere next month for what promises to be an entirely doomed campaign. Very pretty, plastic models in this game, though for that retail price they'd better be.

Finally there's the plans for the rest of the year. With the holiday season closing in rapidly and looking back at what's been completed so far this year I have mixed feelings. Nowhere near to a 'catching up'-point, while having joined way too many new crowdfunding projects. Yet at the same time I've done a lot better than the previous year where I only managed a few dozen painted minis in the entire year. Definitely looking to beat that while pushing my style and technique at times.

One thing is certain, working on focused projects / batches of models seems to have done wonders for model output and motivation, now if only life would do the same. So I'll definitely be doing more of that in the future, have quite a few small, warband-esque groups of minis begging for attention. Some Dreadball teams, Counterblast crews and Anyaral or Arcworlde warbands definitely come to mind. So once these current models are finished I'll pick another 'bundle' of models to work on before moving on to painting anything else.

That said, I've definitely got a few more Look at-articles coming up in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for more shots of ShadowSea, Counterblast, Norsgard, Oddysey and various other goodies. In fact Oddysey and Norsgard are both on the schedule later this week!

A closer look at the models of......................Ganesha Games' Fightin' Fungi

When I accidentally ran into the Fightin' Fungi Kickstarter earlier this year it felt like the best coincidence of the last couple of years. I'm a big fan of mushrooms, both on the tabletop and on my dinner plate, so the idea of a full skirmish-level set of minis centered around mushroommen was a dream come true.

Though it were the initial master sculpts sculpts by Micah Nichols (link) that drew me in, a quick look over the project information revealed more and more positives. Visually interesting and personally appealing miniatures are one thing, that range being support with a full ruleset by one of my favorite companies is even better. It turned out Ganesha Games (link), the guys behind the various variants of the Song of Blades and Heroes fantasy-skirmish ruleset (SoBH), were leading the project.

Suffice to say I was sold on the idea after about 10 minutes of reading and, luckily, it turned out I wasn't the only shroom nutter out there. Nearly 300 people jumped unto the project, leading to 25K+ funding and about 35 unique sculpts being created. Interestingly enough this also included a few backer-created models that really added a ton of character to the line, the spore launcher for example may just be one of my new favorite models ever!

Last week a package with all my goodies arrived and I just had to take those models, some bluetac and share their awesome uniqueness. These are straight out of the box, so zero cleaning or moldline removal. Bit of a busy week, so no time for that. Though in all honesty, there really isn't a ton of clean up work here at all at all. Little bit of flash, the odd mold line and a tab or two that need to be sliced to bit their bases.

The rulebook is also quite a colorful gem with tons of content. In fact, this version of the Song of Blades and Heroes pushes the base system to a new level, streamlining a few elements while adding a ton of options in other places. There's even a follow-up project underway to take this version of the rules and use it for other setting, see further below for more information.

The actual Fightin' Fungi book uses the SoBH rules to create the magical realm of the Sun-Kissed Vale where the Fungi Folk fight amongst themselves and against the various outside forces wanting to intrude upon their dampened lands.At 95 pages, this little book, provides and absolute wealth of rules and options. You get rules to play four different Fungi factions:

- The Rotten Hearts, powerful, but fragile spellcasters draw to the rotten and necromantic arts.
- The monk like martial artists of the Path of the Underwood.
- The warlike, adventurous and even mercenary Oakenspears.
- And the Autumn Folk, protectors of the land.
In addition there are also rules for various types of Halflings, Wood Elves, Hobgoblins, Humans, Goblins, Orcs & Trolls for which I am certain a lot of us have tons of suitable models for.

On to a closer look at the models, which are rather varied and quite interesting to say the least. These should be available from the Ganesha Games webstore (link) any day now. Starting of with a selection of character models; the Master of Mushrooms, Mykityad Forest Nymph, the Fungus Queen and The Reaper.

 Followed by the rather regal looking Fungus King, the Rotting Heart Enoki Cleric and one of my personal favorites from the range, the Spellcaster.

 The Kickstarter also had a special figure, the mushroom collecting Halfling Andrea Underfoot and his loyal pig Davey Snoutbottom. And he's going to need that extra speed to get away from the Swamp Lion Fungus.

 Next up with we have the more evil and spore-oriented monsters with the Goblin Fungus Zombie, Sporeling, Spore Monster, Greater Sporeling and Zombie Fungus. Fungus spread after all!

 There's also a rather old school-themed Vampire Fungus, who's going to be a blast to paint up.

 And then we come to my absolute favorite models of the range the Puff Ball and Puff Ball Spore Launcher. Effectively a walking trebuchet with the fantasy world's most grumpy, living ammunition. This model just screams character and who can't fall in love with the adorably, grumpy Puff Ball. I mean, just look at him:

 There's also a set of regular fighters, including some martial artists that go for a more oriental look.

 In order to add a bit of variety, as well as a core model that can be used by multiple factions, Ganesha also produced a multi-part warrior that's going to be very easy to convert or adapt to various other projects. In fact with some clever green stuff work on the shroom tops and mouths you could easily build up an entire regiment of these Fungi for use in a game like Kings of War.

 Some more close combat-oriented Fungi, including the rather imposing Matanagar.

 Naturally there are also various ranged models to add to your warband.

 Things get a bit more D&D as well with the Flying Eye Fungus, which is quite an imposing sight on the table. I can definitely see one or two of these models making it into other SoBH games as environmental hazards. Should be a very cool model to paint up as well!

 The Spore Monster provides some heavy infantry support, but is just a small fellow compared to the monstrous Swamp Fungus. This fellow turned out a lot bigger than I'd expected. This model went from 'cool Cthulhu-esque tribute' during the campaign to 'warband centerpiece' when I pulled him from the package.

 Finally there's also the option for some cavalry model in your warband and Ganesha did an amazing job sticking to theme here.. We get the adorable Pillbug Rider, the Giant Worms and the Grasshopper Cavalry (misplaced the legs while unpacking, but there's quite a bit of posability in this model).

 The Pillbug, in particular, is another favorite for me. Cute and menacing at the same time and bound to be a blast to paint up. Rather happy I picked up a few of these, should mix well with the multi-part warrior as well!

MORE MODELS AND RULES ON KICKSTARTER
Given just how well all this material turned out I am more than happy to see Ganesha Games is going back to Kickstarter to expand the world and rules for this game. In fact, they're currently running a project that looks towards the eastern Dwarven kingdoms with dozens of unique sculpts, as well of Hobgoblins, a separate version of the new SoBH rules and more (link).

Well worth checking out, even if you're just somebody who like Dwarf models. There's a lot of cool stuff in there. A few quick shots of some master sculpts, the Weremole Dwarf in particular is just fantastic:

And that does it for this look at-article, definitely one of my personal favorites thus far. Keep an eye out for several other articles coming in the near future, including all those new Norsgard goodies I was talking about earlier in the week, a mushroom-themed model to accompany these new Fightin' Fungi, more Mantic goodies and the latest batch of Anvil's Afterlife models.

Fungus among us!

Recently been sculpting mushrooms for pretty much all my models, so when a Fungus-themed miniatures Kickstarter popped up I just had to have a closer look. So this post will be a bit of a Kickstarter highligh.

I was drawn in by the rather cool sculpts, which will be cast in metal. Mica Nichols (Facebook page) is doing a great job on these! Now models are cool and all and I was figuring these would simply go into my Kings of War collection. Forces of Nature will be needed a ton of new stuff once Kings of War 2.0 hits, but then it turns out these minis are getting their own rules.

Andrea Sfiligo, the writer behind the Song of Blades and Heroes ruleset, is tackling this one, effectively creating a separate module for the minis. There will be several Fungus faction and a whole array of humanoid profiles to fight against them (go count as heaven).

Managed to get a look at the wip rulebook and things are looking great, it's effectively an adaptation/update to the SOBH ruleset. Backers can even request a pdf copy of the beta rules to join in on the testing process!
What's new in this version of the Song of Blades and Heroes rules?

• New armor rules - instead of these being just a +1 on the C score, we now have listed when the Armored or Protected status apply, against which attacks etc
• weapons now have their own rules, you get javelins, flails, heavy bludgeoning weapons, warhammers, two handed weapons etc
• Shields: choice of buckler, small, large and magical shield
• new spell system with 30 spells, backwards compatible with the less detailed way of doing magic in the original SOBH
• spells are described with tags so info about range, area affected etc is not repeated . Spells are chosen when a characters is created (you may have a number of spells based on your Q, but you need to pay points for every spell, and if you want to create a standard SOBH spellcaster just select Magic Bolt and Transfix).
• about 10 new traits, 3-4 of which are spore-related so they would apply only to fungi folk, but the others are quite generic in nature.
  

 Think there's a lot of cool stuff here for folks looking for some nature-themed models, getting an extra ruleset to play these fungals in their own setting is a rather nice bonus. Not to mention that the rulebook is already filled with great artwork and the King deal gets better and better as more people join in on the projects.

                         Check out the project page HERE




Rather curious to see where the project will go in the end, plenty of cool concept and models to be sculpted it would seem. Definitely keeping an eye on that Pillbug rider!

 

 
And that does it for today, back tomorrow for the biweekly update!