Author Topic: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (update: out) (Read 300855 times)

Timbor · « **Reply #125 on:** April 05, 2015, 04:13:04 AM »

It is a tough call... the rider's pants are hard to differentiate from the black horse, yet the rider's skin is hard to differentiate from the white horse

Both look great though!

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #126 on:** April 05, 2015, 05:13:00 PM »

Yeah, they do start to blend together. That's partially intentional. I do think I might need to scale some of the shades of grey for a bit more variety, though.

I'm leaning towards either white horses or a mix of both plus some in-between tones. Still thinking about it though, might work on something else while I decide.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #127 on:** April 07, 2015, 05:04:02 PM »

While I make up my mind about the horse colors, I decided to finally base & varnish some of what I've recently painted. I decided to stick with the same style base as almost everything else I've got. At some point I will paint something on the banner.

I have been contemplating whether I want to rebase my individual Marienburg figures onto 40mmx40mm bases like these. I've never been a fan of individual based figures for mass combat games. But I'm also not a fan of extra basing work.

Zak · « **Reply #128 on:** April 08, 2015, 12:28:09 AM »

snaptastic dude

Darknight · « **Reply #129 on:** April 08, 2015, 01:25:17 AM »

Zebras. Undead zebras.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #130 on:** April 09, 2015, 12:43:22 AM »

You know... why not zebras? In fantasy setting, I suppose horses don't need to be the same color. Or horses.

I am starting to lean towards a medium-low fantasy concept, or at least something less than the Warhammer world. I've actually been thinking about a setting quite a bit and finally did decide to completely part ways with Warhammer. I think the major fantasy elements will be:

Non-human but "humanoid" races. At this point, in the part of the world in which my campaign will be set, it will be mostly humans, with ogres, and small numbers of giants, great orcs, and swamp goblins. There used to be elves, but as far as anyone knows, they're all dead. Rumors of other races in far flung places. Some may be introduced as part of the narrative.

Undead. Obviously. But this is a new & foreign thing, as far as my Marienburgers are concerned.

Magic. Mostly rare and powerful, and manifesting itself through items and creatures rather than mages flinging fireballs at each other on a battlefield.

Fantastic beasts. See previous item.

The divine. Divine intervention will be about as common as in the real world.

Technology will be mixed. I'm still attached to the Empire & renaissance, so gunpowder, pikes, etc. will be around, but I will probably be leaving out any steam tanks or robo-horses. Navigation & ship-building will be slightly less advanced.

I've quickly sketched out a first, (very rough) draft of a map-like thing. The highlighted area is where the action will happen, centering on the city of Marienburg and the surrounding hinterland.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #131 on:** April 12, 2015, 04:50:05 AM »

I have started putting together a box of the current plastic GW undead black knights. As I’ve been working on them, a few thoughts have crossed my mind. I haven’t put together any of their kits in a long time, so nothing they've done in the past few years or more.

They are really nice models. If the rumors of GW focusing on being a company that produces nice models for hobbyists and collectors first, and a game company second (or fifty-second….) are true, then I think that’s probably not a bad plan. While I have enjoyed a number of their games, I don’t think it’s their strong point. Especially recently, and especially at the insane prices to get the rules.

They take forever to clean & assemble. At least more time than someone like me wants to put into it. By that I mean, someone who wants a table full of nice painted models to play some big battle games, but can’t devote their life to it. I suppose you get out of it what you put into it. As I said, they do look great so far. But I am starting to grow weary of assembling plastic figures.

WTF is with GW and putting flaming braziers on everything, especially HEADS? Are “brazierz” the new “skullz”?

Pics when they're done. That might be a while...

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #132 on:** April 14, 2015, 04:33:40 AM »

While digging around through old boxes, I came across this. I had intended to use it for my old Skaven army, but it will work just as well (better?) with the undead!

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #133 on:** April 17, 2015, 01:14:17 AM »

I stole a series of 5 & 10 minute breaks throughout the last few days to put some paint and a series of washes/glazes on the Caller's beast. This is a bit of a new technique to me -- I've been using it to an extent on all of the undead, but for decades I've been more of layering & blending style painter, and have stayed away from doing many washes. But I'm learning to love it!

However, I've got mixed feelings on how this particular figure turned out. It's not really a subject that should be too colorful, but also felt like it needed a bit more color than the washed out look of most of the rest of what I've done. Hopefully it doesn't look too out of place once the army is filled out.

While I was basing it up, I also finished the base on a previously painted Undeadish giant.

For reference, the giant is on a 50x50 base, the Caller's beast (I need a new name for it) is on a 50x100.

Shadespyre · « **Reply #134 on:** April 17, 2015, 12:57:51 PM »

I like it. I think I said before that I like the irony of the actually undead units having a little more colour than the undeadish ones.

Btw, I agree with your views on the newer GW plastic kits. I built that box up as Hexwraiths and found them unnecessarily fussy to assemble. The same with the High Elf Dragon Princes I've been converting. It seems a shame that they all have to be assembled "just so", like Airfix planes.

steveb · « **Reply #135 on:** April 17, 2015, 02:12:23 PM »

wow, the giant and beast are really nice, the giant is one of my favorite pieces, when I painted mine it almost seemed to paint itself, all I was doing was transfering the paint from the pot to the figure. How was it for you? great job so far, and yes I agree the plastics are getting way to fiddly to be enjoyable. steveb

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #136 on:** April 17, 2015, 04:06:35 PM »

Quote from: Shadespyre on April 17, 2015, 12:57:51 PM

Btw, I agree with your views on the newer GW plastic kits. I built that box up as Hexwraiths and found them unnecessarily fussy to assemble. The same with the High Elf Dragon Princes I've been converting. It seems a shame that they all have to be assembled "just so", like Airfix planes.

I think that's my problem with how fiddly and time consuming they are -- they are designed to be assembled more or less in only one way. If they were more interchangeable/modular to make conversions or swapping between kits easier, as with many of the older models, it might be worth it. On the other hand, the detail and quality of the recent kits is astounding. I'm fending off the temptation to eventually pick up some of those Wood Elf deer cavalry just because they look really good!

Quote from: steveb on April 17, 2015, 02:12:23 PM

wow, the giant and beast are really nice, the giant is one of my favorite pieces, when I painted mine it almost seemed to paint itself, all I was doing was transfering the paint from the pot to the figure. How was it for you?

The same, really great figure and maybe because of the size of this one, it really painted up quickly. I'm looking forward to getting ~~some~~ all of the other Reaper giants eventually.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #137 on:** April 19, 2015, 04:58:57 AM »

Earlier this week I received a box of Warmachine Bane Thralls. I've been looking for an option for some armored "elite" skeletal troops. I had been considering a few different ideas, and these were on the list but I kept resisting because I think the shoulder plates (pauldron?) look ridiculous, as do the bits of someone's iron fence they are wearing on their backs. The latter are easily left off. I had considered clipping the shoulders, too, as illustrated by my quick photoshoppery to test the idea...

So now that they're in my possession, I can see that the square "pads" on which the separate shoulder plates sit might look like decent, if someone bland, armor plates on their own, with the exception of the "champion" figure who is designed completely differently. I could just leave his on, as above. Honestly, though, I think the plates look less ridiculous in person.

Other observations about these figures.... they are sold as "plastic" but they are not polystyrene. Maybe a lightweight, hard resin? Not sure the shoulder plates will be nearly as easy to trim down & clean up as if they had been polystyrene. The detail seems OK on most of the figure, but the skulls look pretty disappointing. I was already on the fence a bit when I saw close-ups of the skulls in photos. In person they are even more caricatured with pretty soft looking detail. Looks like there will be a little cleanup, hopefully this plastic isn't too tough to work with.

I'll withhold final judgement until I've actually worked on & painted these, but at first unboxing I find them a little disappointing given the regular retail price.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #138 on:** April 19, 2015, 05:14:26 AM »

After exploring the Oldhammer forum a bit more this week, I've started thinking about the idea of "remote gaming" as an alternative or supplement to solo gaming.

The concept would be that I would set up the battlefield, the figures, etc. and would play against a remote opponent by keeping a blog with updated photos of the table, use an online random number generator to get dice results, and would get instructions from my opponent that I would carry out on their behalf. This got me reconsidering Hail Caesar as the basis for a fantasy game, since the movement is somewhat loose, based on a verbal description, and partially dependent on dice. There would be little change from playing an in-person opponent other than me moving their figures for them.

So now I'm considering digging up an opponent and giving that a try.

Below is a pic of two older figures I finally based. The figure from the Confrontation range is quite a bit bigger, even when taking into account the larger base. But between that and his proportions, I think he might make a good partner for the old GW "Death Elemental" that I will be painting up sometime (hopefully) soon.

Shadespyre · « **Reply #139 on:** April 19, 2015, 11:52:44 AM »

Remote wargaming - great idea!

steveb · « **Reply #140 on:** April 19, 2015, 04:32:01 PM »

avalon Hill board game company used to have a stock market based dicing system for playing their board games by mail, I do not remember all the details as it was over 50 years ago that I used it, but it worked quite well, and could be used for multiple rolls on the same date.

regards the thralls, new heads and shoulder armor I think are needed, those are way too much, especially for skeletons, but I think the body is an excellent basis for a conversion, good luck. steveb

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #141 on:** April 21, 2015, 03:07:12 AM »

I really like the bodies and even the oversized axes. I think I can work out the other details.

The stock market randomizer sounds interesting! But I think there are a number of web sites catering to gamers now. I started looking into it a bit and learned that long distance RPGs are a pretty big thing, and there are a lot of cool tools for people to make use of. The big difference being that they seem to be based around video conferencing style gaming, where I'm thinking about good old fashioned "play by mail" gaming but with as many modern conveniences as I can make use of.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #142 on:** April 22, 2015, 09:25:58 PM »

I attempted to clean up and assembled one of the Bane Thralls, sans pauldrons. I set them up next to the figure so you can see how huge they are. They look like pieces from a segmented sewing thimble! You can see that the platforms on which the pauldrons are supposed to sit could look like more modest pauldrons on their own, if I dressed them up a little. So I might just try that.

I need to go back and spend some more time cleaning up mould lines, especially on the fingers. I can't say I am a fan of whatever this material is. It's like they used something that combines the worst qualities of lead/metal and polystyrene. Filing the stuff leaves a lot of texture and "fluff" that needs cleaned off, similar to styrene. Normally I use an knife on the styrene, which did seem to work better with this stuff. But it's a harder plastic/resin, so it doesn't cut/scrape as nicely. This one looked like it had a gate/tab/sprue/whatever on the collar that had been cleaned off, but left behind a pretty rough, chunky surface. That and the fingers were the worst parts to clean.

In spite of that, I still like the sculpting, aside from the head and pauldrons, and they are nice designs. You can see in the pic that they are much smaller than those old, monstrous Citadel skeletons. But they're bigger than just about anything. I think the Bane Thralls should fit well with the Mantic stuff, which is good since I have a big pile of their skeletons to work on eventually! In fact, I think I will also look into using some of the Mantic skeleton heads on these. If I can get my hands on some of the current GW skeleton heads, those might also fit.

Grizzled Hochlander · « **Reply #143 on:** April 22, 2015, 10:24:36 PM »

Really great stuff here! Pardon if I missed it, but what is the manufacturer of your Celtic enslaved guys? I'd love to know, they look really great (especially with that color scheme!)

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #144 on:** April 24, 2015, 12:54:15 AM »

They are ancient Germans, about 80% from Wargames Foundry, the rest from Crusader Miniatures.

A few other brands that fit well with these are the Grenadier Fantasy Warriors barbarians, now manufactured by Mirliton (same sculptor as the Wargames Foundry figures) and Black Tree Design's ancient Germans. Some of the now OOP Sons of Kronos barbarians from Chronopia might also fit (I'm going to try that for a couple of heroes.)

Grizzled Hochlander · « **Reply #145 on:** April 24, 2015, 02:21:41 AM »

Thanks, that really helps!

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #146 on:** April 24, 2015, 03:36:26 AM »

I dug up some old comparison photos from when I was putting together my ancients armies. These include both Germans & Celts.

This last one is Renegade Miniatures Celts on both ends, the women are all from the game Celtos, ant the standard bearer is a Foundry German.

Grizzled Hochlander · « **Reply #147 on:** April 24, 2015, 08:23:17 PM »

Thanks! I've been interested in branching into that genre of wargaming recently, so these are really helpful.

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #148 on:** April 28, 2015, 06:12:21 PM »

The Secret Weapon skulls arrived today. They look great! They're a decent size, well sculpted & cast. I just wish some of them had lower jaws. But I think I will still have plenty of use for them. Here's a pic next to an old, huge GW skull, and one of the Warmachine Bane Thrall skulls (has a peg on the bottom.) I think these will work as perfect replacements for the Bane Thralls!

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=47_55&products_id=230

ZeroTwentythree · « **Reply #149 on:** April 30, 2015, 03:51:45 AM »

Quick paint test for the heavy skeletal infantry. Obviously I did leave the excessive paulrons off, and swapped out the skull from one of those I got from Secret Weapon. Pretty pleased with how it looks.

This was also a bit of a photographic experiment as well. I used my phone and a pretty well rounded online, Flash based image editor called Pixlr for the photo editing.

While I was cropping the photos, I also noticed some of the extra stuff in the perephery of some of the photos and thought I would post this tiny peek at other parts of my desk...

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Author Topic: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (update: out) (Read 300855 times)