Paint Them All and Let God Sort Them Out (Part 1)

I told myself at the start of the year that I would not buy another miniature until I finished painting all of the figures that I already owned.

So far I have kept my word, though the free Scot Warlord from the Saga Northern Fury supplement was added to the lead pile a month or so ago.  The key word here is FREE.

Over the weekend, I cleaned and organized my painting desk to take stock of what I owned and needed to paint.  My mission is to get everything painted by the end of this year.
I realized that I am afflicted with Collectoritus, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Procrastination in equal measure.
Not only do I have multiple army projects going on at the same time (A.D.D.) but I constantly add to them with miniatures that I don't need (Collectoritus).  Of course, procrastination rears itself and old projects get shelved in favor of the shiny new.

In order to get everything painted by year's end, I needed to take stock of what I had.  I decided to paint the miniatures that I would least likely paint  and do them first.  For me, it was a box of Warhammer Skaven.
I remember getting these for quite cheap a decade ago.  I planned on using them for a roleplaying game I played with my students but for some reason or other, I never did.  So the box of Skaven sat untouched for years. 
Assembling the Skaven was quite fun as it was a nice change of pace from all things Dark Ages.  I won't bore you with pictures, as there are plenty of fanboy pages on the web.
So once these Skaven are painted up, I've got to paint up or finish the following miniatures in no particular order.

1.  A box of Warhammer Goblins
2.  Some Chaos Knights
3.  A lone Warhammer Knight dude
4.  A few packs of Newline 20mm Vikings and Anglo Saxons
5.  10 Old Glory Mounted Normans
6.  A pack of Copplestone Castings Post Apocalypse survivors
7.  Gripping Beast Plastic Saxon Thegns and Viking Hirdmen
8.  Some anthropomorphic animals from Splintered Light Miniatures
9.  A crapload of huge Viking and Anglo Saxons from Heroes of the Dark Age
10. A Copplestone Castings Mortar Crew
11.  A mega cheapo pile of Wargames Factory sprues for Dark Ages, fantasy, and Post Apocalypse conversion.  (This is going to suck.)
12.  Some West Wind separate heads.  (in need of bodies)
13.  A 2000 point WAB Viking army (mix of 28mm Old Glory and Gripping Beast)
14.  A 2000 point WAB Scots army (mix of 28mm Old Glory miniatures)
15.  Some Reaper fantasy miniatures (Dwarf, Hero, and Troll)
16.  Some Judge Dredd Plastic miniatures converted to Post Apocalypse Cannibals.
17.  10mm Viking army
18.  10mm Dark Age Scots Army

That is what I can think of off the top of my head.  Of course, there is also the terrain projects and Post Apocalypse vehicles which tend to take up half of my time.

This is the mission.  Wish me luck.

Idiot Proof Modular Terrain Part 2

Now that I have found, through trial and error, the right boards for my 10mm modular terrain project, I got to work on some rolling hills tiles.  I wanted some elevation to be integrated into the boards. 
To do this I put some modeling putty directly onto the tiles.  Handicoat or spackle works just as well.

 Here is a closeup of one of the boards.

After the modeling putty was dry, I textured with a goop of modeling paste, brown paint and sand. 

The white on the board is a plaster of paris rock made from a Woodland Scenics rock mold ages ago. 

I then dry brushed and highlighted the boards. 

I then started to work on the rock.  I wanted to try something different from the usual dark gray, medium gray, light gray technique that is so commonly seen in wargaming.  I wanted to try something different that I read about on the Hirst Arts website. 
I first painted the rock olive green.

Then I dry brushed khaki over the olive green followed by a highlight lightened khaki.  Here is the finished effect.

I will have to hide the holes in the rock with foliage later on.
I then flocked the boards with static grass.  I first tried to flock one tile but it looked awful so I moved it to the miniature infirmary for repairs.

Here are the rest of the boards flocked.  I am happy with the results so far.  All that is left is to touch them up a bit.

Please ignore the giant scale dog.  It was a wedding gift ages ago.  It came pre-painted.
Here are the rest of the tiles showing elevation.

A line between the tiles is still visible but that cannot be helped.  It is not as bad a my other uneven boards.  I'll try to flock some more around the edges to lessen it a bit.

Later on this week, I'll go pick up some of the 30 X 60 cm tiles to add to my 10mm modular terrain project.

Idiot Proof Modular Terrain

While walking thorough the hardware section of E-Mart the other day, I stumbled across something that might solve all of my terrain board worries.  My earlier attempts at making flocked gaming boards ending with the dreaded.............

Plus I did a crappy job on the flocking.
My current modular terrain project looks great but I realized that the measurements are slightly off.  The gaps in between the boards are too wide for 10mm gaming.  Plus, I goofed and ended up using a foam board that I needed to trim by 5mm.  So, I am an idiot.

Hopefully, these interlocking deck tiles won't warp after I flock them.  They fit tightly together and come in three sizes- 30X30 cm, 30X60cm, and 10X30CM.   Plus they are thin and easy to store.

Here is a picture of the plastic interlocking pieces.  The one drawback is that the sides can only attach from from two possible sides.  Fortunately, there are the 10X30CM tiles to help with that.
The wood comes in three strips that needed to be glued together.  Hopefully that will lessen the chances of a warping when I flock the test board.

So far everything looks good.  The wood glued securely and  there hasn't been any warping.  Hopefully they remain idiot proof and I can finally get this modular terrain board out of the way so I can work on adding more unfinished projects to my already large Work- in-Progress tray.

10mm Sheep and Me

I bought some 10mm sheep.  Although I am not in the wargaming business, it is reasonable to assume that certain types of miniatures sell better than others.  Fantasy figures sell better than historical ones, and everything sells better than 10mm sheep. 
Which is a pity, because these 10mm sheep from Irregular Miniatures are true gems. 

Note how these Pendraken Bondi have their shields raised when the Irregular sheep are near.  These sheep are just that cool.

These 10mm sheep not only look fantastic on the gaming table, but research shows that a steady diet of 10mm sheep will help you fit into those Chuck Norris action jeans you bought in the 80's.

It appears that 10mm sheep also are beneficial to women as this newspaper advertisement clearly demonstrates. 

In conclusion, Irregular 10mm sheep make a welcome addition to many battlefields from ancients to modern.  Note this product contains lead and will kill you. 
On a side note, a lot of wargaming bloggers have been posting pictures of themselves at Salute this year.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend as it is half way across the world.  It was interesting to see what everyone looks like.  So, I decided to offer my readers this one chance to see what I look like, too. 

This is me, six months after starting my 10mm sheep diet.

Modular Terrain Boards (Part 3- Hills)

After I finished flocking the grass boards, I got to work building 2 modular hill boards.  At the present, the boards are good enough to game on, but still need a light drybrushing to make the grass look less like a golf course and more like a field.

The white foamex around the edges will be painted either brown or black at a later date.

In order to have the energy needed for a day of terrain making, I needed to eat a hardy breakfast.  I found this gem at the local supermarket the day before.  How it found its way to South Korea one can only guess.

As you can see, one of the ingredients is baked British whole grain oat clusters.  Sadly, British oats seem to taste the same as oats anywhere.  My daughter wouldn't have anything to do with Jordan's Country Crisp and insisted on having her usual dad serving breakfast fare.

While eating I got to thinking how breakfast cereals companies are a bit like miniature companies.  Kellogg's, which is big enough to actually sell tons of cereal in South Korea, has all the bells and whistles to attract customers.  I mean, look at that brown character.  Doesn't he look edible?  Poor Jordan's Country Crisp doesn't stand a chance.

Here is a comparison of the two ranges.  They should not be based together as the Kellogg's is 28mm and the Jordan's Country Crisp is 15mm.

I built two modular hills after breakfast.  I followed the same method as the grass boards.

It was a bit tricky to get them to match up as I am an imbecile when it comes to measuring.  I definitely will make the hills in one piece rather than four next time.  Then cut the hill afterwards.
 Originally, I had planned to make four boards with quarter hill sections, but I switched to two rather than have to chuck out the foam.
I'll make the four quarter hills sections on 1 by 1 foot modular boards at a later date.

I checked the layout to see how things were going.

So far, so good.  I got to work add the texture to the boards.

I found that a foam brush is the best way to apply the 'goop'.

Now all that is left is to dry brush and flock.  All in all, a good day.  I found a good breakfast cereal and nearly completed two more modular boards.

Modular Boards Project (Part 2- Test Boards)

I spent quite a bit of time online reading how other people constructed their modular boards.  I realized that in order to make a really great modular board I would need to do the following things in this particular order.
1.  Figure out the word for MDF board in Korean.
2.  Find some MDF board.
3.  Get some power tools.
4.  Find a place to use the power tools.
5.  Learn how to use power tools.

Finding MDF board would have been a hassle but I think I could have found some given a little time.  It was the fourth and fifth which I dreaded.  Simply, I hate power tools.  Somewhere deep in my genetic code there is a missing strand; I call it the construction gene.   My father has it, my brothers have it, and even my sister has it, but somehow it passed me by.  Not only was I inept at their use, but there simply just wasn't enough room in my apartment.
I knew that if I was going to get this modular board project started then I would have to figure out a way to protect the foam from the wear and tear of gaming.  I needed to do it without wood.  It needed to be done without power tools.
I asked myself, what would Tim Allen do?

Knowing that it would be damn near impossible to remake myself into a dude who can use power tools, I decided to try something different.
I read that you can just duct tape the sides of the foam to protect it but I had my doubts.
I decided to try using 'Foamex'.  I think that is what it is called in English; the phonetics for the Korean is 'Pomeksu'.  It is the same stuff I use for basing my miniatures.  I dedicate these terrain boards to the men out there who just can't use power tools or drive big trucks.  I stand with you, brothers.

I got to work cutting the foam with my hot wire cutter.  I am terrible at straight lines as well as power tools. 
I cut the foam into 30cm by 60cm (roughly 2X1 ft.) boards.

I attached the 'Pomeksu' base boards with wood glue.  I stacked some books on top of the black Foamex until it dried.  I tried to find some books that would not only be heavy enough but also show that I was a smarty pants who didn't need to know how to use power tools.  I was not successful.

I then glued strips of 'Pomeksu' around the foam.  Only white was in stock at the art supply store.  I will have to paint it black later.

I then used acrylic sealant to fill in any gaps between the foam and the foamex.

It came out much better than I expected.  It is very light weight and will be no trouble to carry about.
Then I got to work on giving the board some texture.  I tried out a new recipe for making my texture goop.  Also I added in some brown acrylic craft paint to my goop.  This allows me to skip one step when painting them later.
Here is the ingredients for my texture goop.

Essentially, it is modeling paste mixed with gel medium.  The Gel Stone is just gel medium that comes premixed with sand.  It comes in a lot of different colors.  This one was gray which I use for pavement.  I  also added some thicker black sand and some fine talus.  I mixed in some brown paint which when mixed with the gray of the gel stone made a nice earthy brown.

The texture came out really well and will look good on the hill and river boards.  Here is a close up of the texture after it dried.

Now, all that is left is to dry brush the earth tone, flock it, and paint the 'Foamex' black around the edges of the board.
Two down, ten to go!

Dark Age Battle (DAW Rules)

Played my first game on the new wargaming table using the D.A.W. rules system (Daughter Always Wins).  I played the Pseudo-Viking raiders and my daughter and wife played the Faux-Saxons.  It was my wife's first foray into wargaming and my daughters second using the D.A.W. rules.

The rules are very simple.
It is turned based and each side gets a total of 4 actions.  A single figure can make a total of 2 actions.  There are only two possible actions, move and attack.  One move is a popsicle stick long and ranged attacks are three popsicle sticks long.  Each side has three heroes who get to roll two dice when attacking.
You must roll a 3 or higher to hit an unprotected opponent, 4 or higher if the opponent has either a shield or armor, and 5 or higher if the opponent has both armor and a shield.  There are no armor saves.  Simple and bloody.

The figures in the game were all painted in February.  They are a collection of Gripping Beast civilians and monks, some Warlord dogs, and miniatures from the dark age and fantasy dark age range from Heroes of the Dark Ages.  They were dipped with Minwax after painting and have yet to be matte varnished so have a bit of a shine to them.  I plan to varnish them after finishing the bases.

The Scenario

The Faux-Saxons have captured the leader of the Pseudo-Vikings and plan to execute him.  They must bring him to Executioner's Hill and lop of his head before he can be rescued by his ship crew.  The Faux-Saxons must also protect their village from the Pseudo-Vikings wrath.

The leader of the Pseudo-Vikings being led in procession through the village.  Much fruit is hurled.

The bishop and attendants wait on Executioner's Hill

Villagers and thegns gossip in the streets.

The Pseudo-Vikings attempt to rescue their leader but are repelled by the thegns.  He is promptly beheaded and the howls of impotent rage echo across the field.

They take out their wrath on the village.  It is not well protected.

The Pseudo-Vikings mount an attack on the village.  The defenders are not prepared and reinforcements rush from Executioner's Hill to protect the women and children.

The village is on the edge of destruction if the thegns cannot hold off the attack.
They repel the first wave of marauders but too many troops are killed.  The second attack could be the end for the village

But unfortunately, it was bedtime for my little one and the game was put on hold.  My wife, to my surprise, really enjoyed herself and told me to keep the table set up so we can finish the game later.  My daughter checked the table the following morning to see if we played without her.
So now, I have a war games table set up in my living room, and a wife and daughter who have a budding interest in wargaming.  What more can a man want?