First Point for My Saga Vikings!

These are plastic Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors.

They will make up the Warriors (as opposed to Hearthguard) for my Saga warband - 8 warriors counts as 1 point. Four points is a starter warband.

Initially, to keep costs low, I'll stick to 4 units of Warriors, which I can make from this one box of plastics. I'll pick up some Hirdmen, probably in metal since I only need a small number, after I've played a bit.

Admittedly, their shields can use some work, but overall, I'm happy with their appearance. 

Pictured on my S&W Whitebox digest-sized hardcover.

I was under the impression the box came with bases, but I might have misread that. I bought the box on ebay, so make of that what you will. 

I ordered bases last week and they should be here in a few days.

Saturday DCC: The Rise of Fandar

It's rare that I get out during daylight hours to play an RPG, but Saturday, I made the effort and arranged for a sitter, so I could play some Dungeon Crawl Classics. 

I haven't been a player since DragonCon, so I jumped at the chance when I saw the announcement in my Meetup.com feed. 

My character, Fandar the Blood Crazed Barbarian, is a level 1 warrior randomly generated via the Purple Sorcerer utilities. The returning players had played 0-levels last session and all had at least one character survive to level 1. The new folks, which turned out to be me, would jump in at level 1.

Which I feel oddly about. I mean, to me, that's the most fun amazing game idea ever. So, it was strange playing DCC and not having a horde of rabble to run, and more hit points than 4 level 0s combined.

So, in honor of my first DCC game with a leveled character, I painted up a mini:

Fandar is a Reaper Bones mini. He took about 3 hours, start to finish (all on Friday night).
This is before his shower of gloss varnish. I'll use dulcoate eventually on him, for now, he appears to have been slimed.

Here he is on the table at Gigabites:

I tried a Mighty Deed just about every attack - and succeeded once. I'm playing him as a Conan / Thongor type of pulp barbarian, so it's go big or go home, even if I just have leather armor and 12 HP.

We survived the adventure although we didn't succeed in our quest. We voted as a group to not return to town, but maybe drift away someplace where people won't know us. 

Also, as a side bonus, one of the other players is into historical gaming, and we talked about Saga a bit. I did some digging around, and before you knew it, I had ordered a box of Gripping Beast plastics to form my 4 point viking army.

A Picture, 1000 Words, Yadda Yadda

Although my postings here are a bit slow of late, I've been posting more elsewhere: G+ and especially on Instagram. 

I really like the latter, as I don't feel compelled to say more than a few words about what's pictured. 

Sometimes, i don't want to slow the game down to take a dozen pictures, and then type and edit a summary, especially when I'm learning to play (like Song of Blades and Heroes presently - and which I'm really enjoying. There's something about fantasy skirmish that brings out the kid in me. More than usual, that is.) but I still want something for posterity. 

I find it's also a great way to share painting progress. A picture or two is all it takes, and since I'm using my phone anyway, a few finger taps later and it's posted. 

Current Painting Table

Seriously, it must be the change in weather.

Here's what's currently in my painting queue:

I'm rather pleased with how the horses are coming along. I'm using this tutorial from Ken of All the Kings Men Toy Soldiers and despite being written for 54s, it works quite well on the 1/72 figures. These figures are Zvezda mounts for Russian Dragoons.

I am trying something new with this batch of Swedes (the guys in blue and yellow) - a white base coat for one (which I hate), and blacklining after the fact, rather than leaving a gap between colors (can't do that with a white base coat). After this group is finished, I will be focusing more on dragoons for both sides. And not just because i really like painting the horsies.

The Soviet riflemen may not look it, but they are primed; I use PVA. This has been my method of choice for most of this year for the big figures - so far, it seems to work. I will follow this up with a second coat of PVA once the figures are finished.

The buildings are birdhouses from Jo-ann's and Michael's that will be pressed into service for my 54mm games. The cabins, with a little work, will serve on the Eastern Front, primarily.

Another fantasy figure? (well several, if you count the rodents of unusual size)

What can I say, Song of Blades and Heroes is rather enjoyable and it's a great motivator for painting up some of my Bones minis. I have to say, they really don't take primer well at all, and still feel tacky a week later. A base coat of black acrylic seems to resolve that issue, however.

Oh, yeah. This guy., Skeletor, the Wraith Lord!! 

Paint Table Friday

I started in on Song of Blades and Heroes (part of my 10 games, 10 times challenge) and it's done two things: got me psyched about paper figures again but also, maybe I should try to paint some of the Reaper Bones figures I've got taking up space.

Shields need some touching up and the swords aren't finished yet.

And here's a blurry picture of a portion of my paper goblin warband (led by the red chaos knight):

Wheren I Finally Paint Some of My Reaper Bones Minis

The painting bug overtook me Saturday night and I finished the first 6 of my Reaper Bones KickStarter minis. Just 194 more to go.

A lot of people think goblins are green. They're wrong.

Why start with goblins and kobolds? Simple.

I have loved koblods ever since I first saw this image in the Moldvay D&D Basic book.

And it seemed to me that if they were going to fight anyone, it'd probably be goblins.

While these aren't my favorite kobold sculpts (the Splintered Light kobolds are my favorite), they will represent my favorite monsters in 28mm. I have 4 sprues of 3 for each side, which is enough for two small warbands for Song of Blades & Heroes, as well as other skirmish rules. I do plan on eventually picking up the Reaper kobold shaman and chief in metal to complete their force.