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Author Topic: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (update: out)  (Read 296155 times)

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Mantic Skeletons)
« Reply #175 on: May 24, 2015, 06:58:42 PM »
I don't think so either.  :wink: I'm thinking that on the table they will read more as a mass of skeletons, and the individual quirks of odd poses & goofy skulls will get lost in the overall appearance.

I do agree, the GW skeletons are too large. But I think I'm more accepting of that because the sculpting, poses, skulls (and if anyone knows skulls, it's GW) and such are better.

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #176 on: May 29, 2015, 06:25:21 AM »
I counted up my Mantic skeletons and discovered I will be one base short of having a nice round number of units. So I painted up an old Citadel figure to use with them, as a leader type figure, along with one of the "emerging" skeletons from the Mantic sprues.






I also dug out an old (already painted) swarm to accompany the undead.


Offline mottdon

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #177 on: May 29, 2015, 12:30:00 PM »
Wow, Zero!  Those look awesome!  I love what you did with the "leader".  He's set apart from the rest, indicating his importance, yet the addition of the "emerging" skeleton doesn't make him look out of place with the rest of the unit.  Love it!   :::cheers:::

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #178 on: May 29, 2015, 01:49:08 PM »
I have really enjoyed catching up on this thread.  The undead force ... barbarians, skeletons, ogres, cavalry, is all a pleasure to see growing.  I also love the idea of your creation of a fantasy althammer world, the map is cool and hoping to see more detail on that, because those types of things create a sense of foundation to the story of what you're building.  All very inspirational, thank you!
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Offline steveb

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #179 on: May 29, 2015, 02:10:06 PM »
zero23, ditto on all the previous comments. steveb

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #180 on: June 02, 2015, 01:08:55 AM »
Thanks. I've been getting lost in a lot of ideas in my head lately...



As I’ve been painting Undeadish and building a table, I’ve been thinking about a lot of the other aspects of my current project, and that has been evolving a lot.

I had started writing up a list of pros & cons for an alternative road to take with the “good guys” and had planned on posting that publicly. But the act of writing it out convinced me to just go ahead with the alternative.

The “good guys” or the “definitely living according to common definitions of life” are going to take on a slightly different character. Initially, I was simply going to use my WFB Marienburgers, and cling to a lot of the background. Previously I decided to transpose most of the general concepts of the city to my own setting. My thoughts on this have continued to evolve, and I have decided that although Marienburg and the existing army will most likely be a part of the narrative, I am going to start with some new ideas, background, and figures from the ground up.

I think it boils down to a few  main reasons. One is that I am really getting into the world building and fictional history creation. (Maybe I will try my hand at writing some actual fiction?) The other is that I would like to construct, paint and base a new army from scratch. I think I can also benefit from narrowing the focus of the setting, background, armies, and map(s).

So I have decided to start my campaign in the rural hinterland, and will be using slightly earlier period figures. As much as I enjoy the landsknecht period & style, I’m also (more?) fond of the late 15th century. I also happen to have some unpainted Perry and Front Rank miniatures to form the basis of the army, left over from my abandoned historical Burgundian army. The new focus will also be far more human-centric.

Behind the scenes I have been writing down some outlines & information regarding the setting, and have plotted out some initial battle scenarios. I will be doing these in “chapters,” and don’t want to get too far ahead of actual games, as I’d like the results of the games to determine the narrative and nature of subsequent battles (and further development of the armies.)

I will share some of these details once they are fleshed out some more. At some point, my long term goal is (ideally) to put together an oldschool “campaign pack” with writing, maps, battles. If I can manage -- and this may be a bit of daydreaming -- I wouldn’t mind creating some illustrations and sculpting a few miniatures to go with the campaign.

For now, I have more undeadish to paint, and now some revised planning to do for their opponents’ figures as well. Since I hate to update without a photo of something, here's what my desk currently looks like.







Offline Timbor

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #181 on: June 02, 2015, 03:08:06 AM »
Your desk is much cleaner than mine  :engel:

Or did you clean it up just for the picture?


Nice to see the progress on this, I would love to hear some fiction in the future!
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Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #182 on: June 02, 2015, 03:20:05 AM »
The photo is strategically cropped. It is a wide desk, with clutter to each side, and a narrow work & photo clearing in the center portion. I also have a small folding tray to the left, and both a set of shelves and a wheeled taboret to the right, all loaded with paint, tools, and misc. half-baked projects.

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #183 on: June 02, 2015, 03:48:06 AM »
I like the approach being taken regarding the development of your project.  Excellent.

This reminds me a bit of a project I started in 2013, although it was more of an Imagi-Nations project based on historical miniatures and time periods.  I've been slowly developing this completely human oriented campaign world with a framework of "history"  to it, yet interested in developing the story in a way that the results of the gaming of the conflict(s) inspire additional story development.  However, I don't want to clutter up this thread with my stuff, yet perhaps I'll start a thread one here on W-E regarding this project.

Keep your imagination flowing, and I'm looking forward to following how this grows. :icon_cool:
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

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"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

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Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #184 on: June 04, 2015, 08:16:26 PM »
I'm thinking about starting a gaming club. I'm chewing on some names like Lonely Attic Wargaming, or Lonely Attic Wargaming Group. The former has the advantage of a great acronym ("I am the LAW!") but the latter has an amusing irony, since I will most likely be the only member.

I may even "rebrand" mu blog with the name. After all these years, it still doesn't have a proper name. I'd like to redesign the layout & graphics anyway. Maybe even come up with a logo...

« Last Edit: June 04, 2015, 10:10:14 PM by ZeroTwentythree »

Offline steveb

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #185 on: June 04, 2015, 09:12:10 PM »
ZeroTwentythree, Remember to close, and lock the door. Since you are the only member, you do not want to be discovered playing with yourself.    Personally I would name a small game group after H.G. Well's book, "Little Wars" i.e., Little Wars game club, or Little War gamers.  Good luck, steveb  (or even small game group)

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #186 on: June 05, 2015, 05:39:32 AM »
ZeroTwentythree, Remember to close, and lock the door. Since you are the only member, you do not want to be discovered playing with yourself.

Zing! :eusa_clap:



I finished up five more bases of Mantic skeletons, and finally based the undeadish ogres (Golgfag v.2.)







Offline Siberius

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #187 on: June 05, 2015, 12:33:16 PM »
Those ogres look really good in your paint scheme, they have just the right look for it.
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Offline mr chumley warner

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #188 on: June 05, 2015, 02:57:01 PM »
Those Ogres rock out, undead or otherwise !

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Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (King of Old and a Swarm)
« Reply #189 on: June 05, 2015, 05:07:23 PM »
I'm thinking about starting a gaming club. I'm chewing on some names like Lonely Attic Wargaming, or Lonely Attic Wargaming Group. The former has the advantage of a great acronym ("I am the LAW!") but the latter has an amusing irony, since I will most likely be the only member.

I may even "rebrand" mu blog with the name. After all these years, it still doesn't have a proper name. I'd like to redesign the layout & graphics anyway. Maybe even come up with a logo...
The latter's irony could still work with ... "I am the LAW Group".  Sounds like a not for profit legal service, too! :icon_lol:
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

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Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #190 on: June 10, 2015, 07:56:09 PM »
I just sold some other gaming stuff, so I'm going to take a small portion of the proceeds and treat myself to one last small addition to the Undead. Still undecided what to do, but here's what's under consideration.

  • Two skeletal ogres and the old Tom Meier undead dragon, from Ral Partha Europe.
  • Another batch of the Bane Thralls to convert.
  • Get started on rounding out the "good guys" with a box of Perry WotR minis.
  • A few Reaper giants I'd like to get.

That's roughly in order of my current preference.

 

My plan is to wrap up the "first wave" of Unead/ish as soon as possible. I think I'm pretty close to having a decent selection to use for small games. (Should I ever get to the point of actual gaming.) My plan is to use them in "units" of 4 bases. In the future that could get scaled up to 6 bases per unit. I may also add in new troops to the mix, depending on how things evolve.


The next stage of painting will be the Marienburg faction. I'm really anxious to start, but still haven't decided on colors, etc. I did make up my mind to follow through with using the 15th century figures for the militia/rural troops and add the existing (and new!) landsknecht "puff & slash" guys later. I've already got most of the figures I will need, but would like to pick up a few boxes of Perry WotR plastics to round things out a bit. The new light cavalry and a box of dismounted knights are at the top of my list.


Offline Shadespyre

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #191 on: June 10, 2015, 08:32:42 PM »
Definitely get the dragon! It's an absolute classic, and I want to see you paint one, please.

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #192 on: June 11, 2015, 04:24:47 AM »
OK, I really wanted to order the dragon & ogres, so I went ahead before overthinking it. They're ordered.  :D

Speaking of Tom Meier and his dragons, I've been looking for an excuse (as if I should need one) to repaint one of the others -- a favorite of mine, and another one to fit with the scale of the current project.





This may be a bit overly academic and/or odd, but I've been mentally picturing myself in scale with the figures scale lately. Or, more accurately, imagining them in scale with the real world. Contemporary figures have just been exploding. "Scale creep" to the extreme. It really hit me when I painted up that Reaper giant a few months ago. I was thinking it was a bit on the small side compared to many other recent giants. And that is correct. But in proportion to the regular human figures, she would still be terrifying. Maybe more so, because it's more... I don't know... relatable? personal? I think that a giant the size of a skyscraper becomes more like a force of nature, and less like another creature. A creature that's fighting you with a significant advantage. After a certain size, it's more like a building toppling, or a rockslide, or some other faceless disaster. So I like that these Meier dragons, for example, are more like the size of a school bus rather than the size of a large school. Not sure if this is making any sense or if I've lost everyone at this point.  :ph34r:

I do think there's still a place in my concept/setting for the impersonal force of nature type creatures. But I'm not in a hurry to get there yet, and I'd like to keep that more rare. Maybe better for sieges and similar scenarios?

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #193 on: June 11, 2015, 04:42:57 PM »
I like the idea of having dragons that fit the scale your describing. :icon_cool:
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Offline Shadespyre

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #194 on: June 11, 2015, 06:01:03 PM »
Excellent thoughts on the subject.

Lots of reasons for bigger monsters -

resin and plastic allow for more practical large models
a bigger marketplace makes developing them affordable
scale creep - a 1979 Ral Partha adventurer looks like a child alongside a modern Empire soldier: gamers and collectors are now buying 32mm or 35mm scale models, not 25mm.

I wonder if the shift away from (A)D&D being the driver for fantasy mini sales has made a difference too? The old Monster Manual set Giants (for example) as quite small - I think an average hill giant was only 8 or 9 feet tall! Minis of course reflected this. And freeing Fantasy minis from the dungeon crawl environment means you don't have to worry about your monsters fitting down a 10 foot wide corridor!!!

My Tom Meier zombie dragon is 15cm long, and 3.5cm tall at the shoulder, which is a little taller than an Empire soldier stood upright. Pretty scary!


Offline Bishmeister

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Skeletons & Ogres)
« Reply #195 on: June 12, 2015, 11:53:20 AM »
I really like your black tones, subtle but obvious highlights without losing the overall blackness, difficult to achieve for many painters.
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Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Terrain Sidequest)
« Reply #196 on: June 13, 2015, 01:29:57 AM »
I wanted to work on something different for a while, so I'm on a terrain sidequest. I got some insulation foam for some hills, but I want them to be a bit rocky. I may cut up some of the foam off-cuts for larger rubble, but for smaller stuff I went to the craft store armed with $5, and came home with $2 and this:



Dumped into some storage for a better look:




And after I took a hammer to the "deco stones":




Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Terrain Sidequest)
« Reply #197 on: June 13, 2015, 04:06:01 AM »
First set...







In both of these arrangements, each is 20" wide (so that's about 8" gap in the second photo) and project 18" out. Both the long and short edges match up.

Not exactly what I had pictured in my head. Not digging those top levels. They look like OK gaming hills, but I think I'd like to do something more visually interesting. Hard to make that balance -- not to mention figuring out WTF I am doing. All previous hills I've done have been of the "stepped pleateau" style -- heavy on the gaming practicality, but not too interesting to look at.

Meh, I'll give them a chance. I've still got more foam & hills to make. I think the next one may be a pair of 1/2 hills (as opposed to 1/4 hills above) that can either go on table edges or be put together as a big free standing deal. Or maybe a big "filler" that can go between the two 1/4 hills above, so I can stretch it along one long table edge like a ridge...

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Terrain Sidequest)
« Reply #198 on: June 13, 2015, 05:30:44 AM »
OK, one more. I had some 1.5" pink foam left from an older project, so I used that for a big hill. And as I sat carving it, and even after, it gradually warped (cupped) so that the center of both hills lifts off the table a bit. Not sure how to remedy this. :dry:

I made some quickie rock pillars with some of the scraps.


Offline steveb

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Re: Pandemonium Multi-PLog (Terrain Sidequest)
« Reply #199 on: June 14, 2015, 02:12:52 AM »
love the black undead color scheme, it is a strong statement and works well.  are you going to rust treat the metal on the ogres, they are really imporessive but I think a little rust on the metal would be terrific.    I have used stone in the past but I went to garden shop and asked for free scraps of shale, slate, and sandstone, also some lose bark chunks, when I explained it was for miniature terrain settings they gave me a grocery sack full of stuff for free including some sphagum moss and some lichens.  I also got some free glass nuggets from an auto glass repair, they ditch the busted windows and a hammer smack yields a lot of useable stuff.    I   hope you or anyone reading this is able to do the same in their town or neighborhood.  steveb