Bosch Bosch Bosch loadsaminis

NOTE:  the BLogger app has shat itself and no longer posts images, apparently.  Yeah this site is dying slowly.  aaaanyway.... I shall fill in the pictures shortly

My previous hobby streak was interrupted by a slight case of breaking up, moving out, finding a new home and... oh yes... completely retraining in a new career as the games industry exploded. Yep, strangely I am now a phlebotomist.

So now I have a table and access to my storage again, what do I paint? Well, I just grabbed two boxes at random and voila- it turns out that to contained Eureka Minis' absolutely bonkers Chaos Army based on Bosch at his most weird medieval ass.

Here is a sneak peek of what I am working on.



I took the colours directly from Bosch himself and copied his dot pattern decorations too.





Its feels amazing seeing minis I have had for years just undercoated finally bursting with color!

The second box has 2000ad minis (muties, perps and Angel gang), Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia and a few post apocalyptic miscellany.

During my excile from the hobby, I grabbed some Stormbringer magazines for the cheap minis, and slapped a little painty poos on the scenery.



Finally, as is my tradition, I also treated myself to a mini to celebrate finishing a life project- on this case my blood collecting course. I chose this Reaper Gutrag Stitchgolem.  Here is the first pass, I will do more detail and shading once I get him based.



Buggering about with Bugbears

Here is a work in progress of my Reaper Bone's bugbear leader.  About three quarters done methinks.  How do I know he is a leader?  Because he is pointing.  It's a fantasy wargaming trope.

It's amazing the difference good lights can make to your work.  The first bugbear I painted at ther start of this year is dreadful in comparison.  He shall be repainted to match.  I have four of the Reaper bearbuggerers, originally purchased for my Arcade Demo of Skulldred.  Feeling virtuous by finishing them up.

So I figured out what I am doing with that uninspiring troll mini I purchased on a whim.  He is now gonna be a dire bugbear.  Shhhh they exist in my world.

So I started layering up the fur.  I will drill and pin some ears onto him once that is dry.  The trick to good fur is lube.  I use vasolene but KY jelly will work nicely too.  Apparently nose or forehead skin oils work too, according to Kev White.  I remain... strangely grossed out by that.

Apply the putty firmly and smooth it in, then shape it to give it the right general bulk.  Once that is good, grease it up like Groundskeeper Willie.  Drag your tool in downward wiggly strokes, tugging upwards slightly to create each layer.

Hey, I shall do a video tute about it soon (nudge nudge wink wink).

See previous post about VIDEO TUTES!

Reaper Haul Progress

My friend Esther invited me around her pad for a painting session, and I got cranking on my Reaper Bones haul from PAXaus whilst she tortured me by playing Ouran High School Host's Club.  Just... don't ask, you don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

  My goal was to knock out table quality minis for an upcoming Pathfinder game so my elf rogue Ehzarelle took priority.  A few figures came along for the ride.

For me, table ready means 'looks okay from three feet'- which lends itself to exaggeration and bright, crisp edging and bold colors.

I painted Ehzarelle's skin tone more Drowish because in my mind elves are fae creatures and can be weird colors.  The gnarled tree on her base is naught but twisted tissue paper set with superglue and a little scatter.  Great for roots and fallen tree details.  The stale water on her base will be given a coat of modge podge to make it really glossy.

The dwarf and guard are also first pass.  They, along with the lizard man where all free 'paint and take' minis.  Woot for the loot!

When doing table ready, focus on 'good enough' rather than obsessing.  Hold the model at arms length every few minutes to check your work.

For quick game ready models I suggest painting all the flat colors before shading- it means you can hit the model with brown washes that work on belts, metal, padding, skin, fabric and so forth in one go.  A few black washes in eye sockets, armor and around joints can help.  If you are shit at picking out edges- go the other way, start painting the part the highlight color then shade down the middle of the parts- leaving the edges bare.  Far easier.

That's it from me tonight folks.  I have a lot of minis to catch up on.  Should be a productive few weeks.

Senpai notice me!

PAX roundup

Well PAX is done for 2016, and it was fantastic.  Welcome to those of you joining this blog for the first time- was great meeting you!

My next event is CANCON 2017- I shall be around in some form or another (probably a solid, maybe a liquid).

It was wonderful being a judge, picking the top fifteen minis of the show.  So inspiring seeing hundreds of versions of the same figures- people are very creative.  Turelio and myself will be stealing some ideas for our versions!

I walked away with a warband of mushroom men, a spider demon queen, Orcus (in memory of Jack), a tardis, cybermonkey, lizardman, elf rogues, familliars, stone golem and some pathfinder figures.

 My new official Pathfinder society figure is an elf rogue.  So knives!  Very sneaky!  Much acrobats!  Wow!  She will be boosted firmly up the paint queue.  She kicked much ass in a near TPK con game!

So nice to reconnect to my hobby after being so down.  Thanks everyone for all the positive energy!

PAX lizardman

So much fun at PAXaus!  This little Reptus spearman is my speed paint at the Reaper Paint and Take table- using just the basic starter paint set and a shitty communal brush!  Photographed infront of Aetherworks lovely little dioramas.  More to come.  :)

And because when you woke up today you really needed to see Velma Dinkley drawing a draaaaaagon with a texta on a sheet.  Jinkies!

PAX AUS DAY 1

Come and visit the Reaper mini area and paint and take a mini!

Behold!  Me and Turelio's sorting skillz, and the bane of my poor, poor kneecaps. One wall of mini goodness!

Oh and I tweeted a penis joke and Realer retweeted it.  Today is a good day.

Bones

Over the last few days I have been rebuilding two cheap Skulldred warbands  using Reaper Bones for playtesting and diagram photos to replace those lost.  You may remember the bugbears I bought for therapy, the pillar to remind me of your support etc?  Well those have been joined by a six pack of goblins, a sodding great ogre, some tiik fishmen and a sea hag.  I have been speed painting them to tabletop standard, and it has been lovely to get back on that horse.

As for rules, I have recovered a Skulldred beta 4 PDF version from an email (it is actually one I sent to Ken St.Andre to review) and am currently porting it back across to open office ready to rebuild.

The nice thing about Bones is that they are durable and heavier than GW plastics on larger monsters.  I worry about snapping my GW giant, but a Reaper one?  I could drop kick that bitch across the room and it would be fine.  Anyone in its path probably wouldn't be.

My friend Rhiannon capped off the warband today by gifting me this bad boy for the size 5 category monsters.

It is freaking huge!  

I do love a good undead dragon, since I first battled The Dracoliche in Pillars of Pentagarn.  I have a couple of great lead ones, but was always loathe to play with them as they are a tad fragile.  This one is dropkickable too.

I am dead impressed by it so far.  Cannot wait to see it in action!

Hellish giftmas

Merry retrolicious leadmas my little Gelfling stabbers.
This year I managed to once again not finish my Christmas specials.  At least I am being traditional.   This year it is Reaper minis excellent Xmas Sophie who stopped shortly after basic washes.  Oh, but I did manage to sculpt up a matching rickety wooden base for Citadel's Sanity Claws from last year.
Next year I plan to not complete some xmas mouslings... and maybe a Christmas dwarf if I can find a nice cheap one.

One last act of xmas spirit had me assemble a Chaos Dwarf Hellcannon that I got for Christmas last year.  Finelycast?  Nope... it was so warped I could barely get it together.  I have done enough resin casting to tell this was untimely ripped from it's mold- the central cannon pivot support holes had collapsed in on themselves.  I used a hairdryer to kinda sorta fix it but once again I am reminded that this is a super expensive, inferior product.  Quality control be damned.

I felt better that I managed to assemble one more of my xmas presents... but it is kinda embarrassing how many I have yet to even get out their boxes.  I have two chaos mounted champions, three chaos characters, a box of hellstriders, dark eldar,a box of chaos knights, skaven, trolls and some plastic human millitia.  Yikes.  I better dedicate some gluey time next year.

How bad is your haul pile from previous years?  Go on... be honest.

Oh... I also tacked on another photo of some of my JB style chaos for you.

Limited Edition Sanity Claws (Citadel) and Limited Edition Xmas Sophie (Reaper)

Three Chaos Spawn walk into a bar.  The bar clears out.  All custom conversions.

Sandra Garrity Dwarf

Old school? Why yes, right this way....

Sandra Garrity Dwarf

Reaper classic female dwarf
I had an overwhelming urge to base up some really old Ral Partha skellies with old school bases referencing AD&D battlesystem Skirmish photos. Big fat 30mm square, 2mm ply.
No idea why, I guess a change is as good as a rest.
Once the skellies where done I figured I needed some old school heroes to fight them- and this reaper minis classic Dwarf sculpted by Sandra Garrity (not Julie Guthrie) was just the ticket.

Daves in DARK HEAVEN

Have you ever wandered around a game store and thought, dammit, I wish I had all of these miniatures.  And have you ever, after several visits, looked at the same old stock and thought- you know what, I picked up this figure last time and the time before... I bet one day I will get over that little mental hump that stops me buying it.  Yes, some deep part of you says... you know your mine, and I know your mine... soon...  soon....
I don't know how many hours I killed in the city bending over the Reaper shelves of my game store, mulling over the figures.  I developed calves squatting down to root through the blister packs- probably the only think saving me from deep vein thrombosis was my love of miniatures.  You know, deep down I knew I would have to pretty much own them all if I ever was to be happy.  Such is lead addiction, as you all know.  Is it a curse?  Is lead addiction a cause without hope?

Turns out, Nope.

A weird thing just happened to me in the last half an hour that I though blog worthy.  A client who owed me some money from a long time ago paid up inexplicably.  Ten minutes later whilst nosing through the huge backlog of emails I found an email warning me of an liquidation auction.  I checked, and it was closing in ten minutes.  Ten minutes later I was the proud owner of almost the entire liquidated stock of Reaper Dark Heaven and Pathfinder miniatures from my now defunct local game store.  The total cost?  The exact amount paid by my client.  Spooky.

It just occured to me that a lead addicts dream has come true...  I quite literally am the owner of all those figures.  Mine.  The lot.  Bargain price.  Ridiculous price.  It's like... like... Christmas has come all at... oh, wait.... Oh wait.

Crap.  I also just realised that totally throws out my purchase:painted pledge ratio for the... millenium.


Stiff drink needed.

Life is really, really weird.

Skulldred Raid Project part 1

First up I have to apologise for the camera work this post.  My proper camera is not charged and I have only a short window to blog- buts since this stuffs all work in progress, it will do for now.

The gaming project I have decided to work on first is my Skulldred family battle board- the one I play my wife on.  I decided to complete everything associated with that core game first.  That means some choice scenery items, player models and tokens for things to rescue and loot.

So the project kicks off with a baggage train for adventurers to protect and raiders to raid.  My pack mule collection was rather thin- especially since I picked up a boxed set Bill the pony without reading the text and found, well... something out of The Cell.  Turns out the boxed set was incomplete by one half of bill.  If you ever list things on ebay that are incomplete, I think its polite to write that in the title for lazy people like me in general and specifically for me.  :)

Citadel packhorses- adventurers boxed set and bill the pony... uh, make that half a bill.

Fortunately for our little Demi-Bill I can rebuild him.  I have the technology.  A pointy implement, paperclip and some epoxy putty.
That leads me to a great tip... I have been using 5 minute epoxy putty to do armatures and building understructure for bases.  Its like having a slightly smelly, milliput that understands my patience is limited and behaves accordingly.  The brand I use is Knead-it.  Though it should be called Knead-it-wearing-gloves-or-you-get-a-nasty-rash.  Great stuff.
Once I get some sculpting time (commissions at the moment) I am going to place the model in front of a mirror and sculpt the B side using a bit of green stuff.  I probably will stick my tongue the corner of my mouth whilst I do so, just to enjoy the cliché.

I also started tacking down some resin treasure items to poker chips, but think I will post them once their are done.  Besides, I ripped them off from Phreeds treasure tokens on his blog.  ;)

The Adventure Ends
Citadel FS28 Slain Adventurer, Grenadier Death Giant, Citadel WF6 Aggressive Aardvark (Cerebus)

Last to begin but first to finish is my slain adventurer token, played here by a citadel FS28 slain adventurer.  The cause of his situation is Citadels, well, shall we say blatant 'omage to Cerebus.  I have decided to rebase him.  I realised he really should be on a bar room flagstone base standing on a pile of dead folk and spilt tankards.  I am also going to strip and resurface him like I did the pack mule above -he is just too rough and will look great with smooth blending and some properly defined fingers.  Still, no time for that right now, so I will leave him be- and perhaps get some Skulldred sessions in with the little guy first.
The Grenadier Death statue is is inspired by the recent Citadel Garden of Morr statue.  I realised I had just the thing for my scenery, so a quick repaint later and voila!  Again, it needs rebasing on a stone plinth methinks.  I find many of these figures on ebay that are broken.. thinking I may make a bunch of these at some stage for the table if I can get these cheap enough.

Now the progress on the main stars.  I am going to do myself a bandit warband, though since I do not have the figures I need, I decided to finish off the small Realm Of Chaos warband I started so I can game with them.

Kats Amazons rebases.  A mix of Reaper and Citadel figures
Daves Chaos raiders:  Mainly converted and Augmented Citadel 1980's chaos champion figures

So these are the best ones so far- rebasing them took the majority of time here, but I have pushed the painting along a little on my team, and scratch sculpted a chaos shield for the horned champion and blended in the new Reaper weapon swap for Big Bertha.  Lots to do still.
A spike backed chaos warhound arrived the other day, which I think will make a great addition to the team.

Well thats my hobby time all used up.  Back to sculpting figures for other people.  Hope your enjoying the blog so far.

Keeping the Karmic Wolves at the door

Today I broke my painting drought with a full on onslaught of my leadpile.  Many fell to my mighty brush this day, (I hear America has been scoring pretty good on their own to do list today as well), and I discovered one really good trick; and that trick is this... kill your karmic blockers.
There is, I dare say, one or two figures hanging around your collection like a bad smell, never being painted and draining your enthusiasm just looking at them.  For me, its been a half orc (I only have one) loitering around the fringes of my orcs, an elf archer, a samurai warrior (I do not collect Oriental fantasy figures as a general rule) and a dire wolf, the hobgoblin and the Chaos Warrior from the brilliance that is the BC2 Monster Starter Set.
  Having these figures is not good for your hobby soul- they accumulate at the fringes of your collection, gathering as a clogging sense of dissatisfaction that taints the whole.
  Today, being sick with a cold and generally unmotivated to sculpt, I tackled those figures, and the rush of vitality that returned when they where finished was astounding.  Invigorated thus by the fall of my karmic blockers, I stormed ahead and got 90% of the way through 28 figures- completing a handful of those to my liking.  Count em.  28.

Set aside a day of pain to tackle those ones, and you wont believe what it will do for your lead pile.     Kill your karmic blockers today.

Citadel FA19 female fighter with sword, Dwarf Adventurer, Talisman Necromancer,
C13 Lesser Goblin, ADD OH2 Samurai, Wood Elf

The dwarf and Lesser goblin here are what I call 'soft targets'- things I know I can paint really quickly.  On days I do not feel like a challenge, I bee line for these.  I love the old lesser goblins- I have a bag of them somewhere and now I have the smaller 20mm bases I may do up a tiny, tiny warband.  The Samurai here was the biggest karmic blocker in my collection!
I decided to go really far out with the Talisman Necromancer- slapping on a Wizard of Oz makeup to match his cartoonish look.  The FA19 female fighter is one of the best faces on any citadel miniature ever.  EVER.  Its so subtle, and such a joy to paint.  It would have made a great starter character for D&D.

Citadel BC2 Monster Starter Boxed Set 90% complete

If you have been a fan of my blog, you will know my fondness for the BC1 monster starter set.  Here you can see I am almost done painting it- just little things like shading boots and jazzing up the bases to go now!  I remember the first time I painted the dire wolf, I just painted it black with red eyes.  This time around I was determined to go realistic with the fur and really make him pop.  The hobgoblin is now a favourite of mine, having totally ignored the box art and struck out in vivid green lacquered armour instead of the run of the mill copper scales that where making me yawn just thinking of painting them.  I have a second vile goblin, and will be painting him lime green with dark blue trims and black armour me thinks.  Oh, and yes, I have the BC1 complimentary heroes boxed set now... will have to wait for a dry day to prime them up.

(left to right) C22 Creatures Chaos Hounds 1 & 3,
Unknown Vintage Wolf (middle), Reaper Wolves (top right),
BC2 Vicious Giant Wolf

So one thing you can do to get through your lead pile is rack up a bunch of figures all at once.  I hunted around my collection and found all the wolves I had, and saved myself a heap of time by mixing the colours up at once.

Mystery wolf, BC2 Vicious Giant Wolf

If anyone knows the mystery wolf, I would be glad to have it identified.  Its pretty stiff and old looking, but cannot find him on any citadel collectors sheets.  I thought he was the FF giant wolf.

I also managed to knock down some chaos familiars, Norse Dwarves and a couple of Asgard beasties- but they will have to wait for a later post.  I am tired as hell with cold!

Witchhunter cross dressers, bugbears and Nuns (oh my)

This is my AD&D 4th ed character, Regan Black... a male paladin witch hunter trapped by a spell in the body of his worst enemy - the witch who killed his wife.  Without muscle memory his sword skills are useless- and fearing for his life in close combat without his brawn to save him, he is desperately trying to get the witches body to learn the longbow and start off as a first level ranger so he/she can hunt down his real body and find a way to switch back and defeat the witch.
Very dramatic, and EXTREMELY hard to roleplay- considering my GM is a woman and very happy to step on a dodgy portrayal of her fair kind.  So much fun it almost makes up for the horrible AD&D 4.0 system.  Going to convince her to switch to something mega retro like Labyrinth Lord.  :)
Our whole gaming group are digital artists, so quickly we got into painting our characters...

Regan Black.  Day one.

Since the adventure takes place in the frozen north, the effect of being mind switched into a witch wearing a skimpy Frazetta style sorceress costume was instant hypothermia as her protective warming spells vanished.  Having staggered back into town and scrounged up some clothing from the villagers, I ended up stuck with a red / blue ensemble.  She still has the witches red corset and gloves on, but with a male puritanical witchunters eye for fashion, I constructed the rest of her costume with practicality in mind...

Regan Black... as depicted by me.  Now I have to find a mini...

 I needed a figure quickly, but the only thing in my collection even close was an AD&D thief.   A little green stuff and she has a corset, fur shoulders and fur lined boots. The great thing is I can peel off this stuff and the figure underneath is unharmed!

Converted Reaper 'Callie' female rogue and Converted Citadel 1980's AD&D Female Thief

After a few sessions, all the guys got bigger, chunkier modern figures.  Mine was getting a bit lost on the gaming table, and besides, I mainly use a bow - so I decided to get a new figure.  Callie from Reaper minis was close, the had a dorky face.  I dremmelled it out and replaced it with a little green stuff.  Again, a corset and fur was added to give a frozen north look.  Its going to be fun keeping my miniature up to date.  Considering the figures only around 8 bucks, I wanted to keep figures for all stages of her growth.  At the end of the campaign I have some reminders!

Grenadier Bugbears

On a more retro adventure, I picked up these three mystery figures from fleabay.  I found out they are Grenadier bugbears.  To be honest, they are very old school, ugly looking chaps... stiff with a weird head... but hey, I just love painting up old awkward figures.

Polishing turds, some call it.

Anyway, there was a touch of character about them that drew me in.  I tried a little something different here with the bases.

And now... demon nuns.

Reaper Battle Nuns

Ye Systrs Infernale, my Hordes of the Things 28mm army made up of demon possessed nuns expands with another blades unit.  These are straight out of the box Reaper battle nuns.  I love these figures... having converted a bunch into 40k style Sisters of Battle elsewhere in this blog- I have a bucket load of the things in my bits box.

The other units are a little too rude to post- having been lovingly converted to show a little more flesh, and one having snapping jaws where a woman shouldn't have them if you catch my drift.  The army features bits of Slannesh figures, Reaper figures and lots of scratch built stuff- insane nuns tearing at their clothes, changing into succubi and generally enjoying the battle.  Its a scream to do, but not sure if it should be brought out at a family orientated gaming convention.
Its a big time commitment considering I have yet to play Hott- but I figure I can always use them in Skulldred- as multi based models are perfectly acceptable!

Unkillable cheap scenery

So, dear reader, I am a gamer cursed with no suppliers of that dense pink foam everyone uses to make scenery.  Being Australia, the land of the robber barons, it would probably cost a fair packet to0.  But I no longer care- I have found a technique to make UNKILLABLE scenery from recycled expanded polystyrene. Free from any household buying a plasma screen in your neighbourhood.

The problem with styrene is that it has no strength.  Apply any weight to it and it will snap.  Drop a metal mini on it, and it will dent.  That, and it looks like crap when you paint it.  It does.  Stop doing it.  Thats an order.

To fix the first problem, I turn my styrene into super sized, super cheap foamcore by sandwiching it between two sheets of paper using PVA glue and pressing it under heavy books overnight.  This distributes the energy across the whole surface and makes it really hard to snap.  To make larger pieces of scenery, I first sculpt them using a foam wirecutter (a must have tool)  and assemble them using cocktail sticks to pin the layers together.  Once I am happy with the cut, I mark the edges with a pen so I can align them again, take them apart and sandwich them individually.  Finally I reassemble with PVA glue and wooden skewers to add strength.

To fix the problem of denting and overall look crapness, I use the holy grail of mini scenery making.


Pollyfilla Woodflex.  Oh yeah.

King's Un-killable combo.

Now woodflex is not as cheap as whacking sand into PVA glue, but the results are so, so much better.
Woodflex does not crack or flake, is slightly rubbery and has a perfect texture for stone, mud and rock straight out of the tub.  Not having sand glued to the surface means its less likely to sandpaper off your paint job too.  It forms a rubbery skin over the surface that will distribute any force across the whole model- so no dents or snapping!

I thin mine down using demineralised water.  I use a palette knife to smear mine on.  Leave it ten minutes, then shape it.  Leave it over night to dry.


If you want to get some brickwork effects I suggest a two step approach.  Do a base coat and use a damp sponge to stipple down the surfae, let that dry overnight to form a tough skin.  Applying a second thick coat, give it fifteen minutes to dry then score in the brickwork or cracks.  Use the sponge again to tamp down the scratchy lines and give a natural effect.  The stairs in the next picture are unpainted, but you can see its a great look.

Citadel 1980's Runequest duck.
Converted Reaper 'Callie' female rogue and Converted Citadel 1980's AD&D Female Thief

The polyflex gives a great rocky look, and forms a skin that protects the polystyrene.  Its a really cost effective way to make unkillable gaming scenery.  More pics of my finished gaming tables later on!  With luck I may have a Skulldred table at CANCON or MOAB with some pretty scenery.

Hope that helps... comments as usual below.

Bederken Dungeon floorplans get an airing

As you probably know I recently released some 30mm square dungeon floorplans in .pdf format through my Bederken blog.  Well, I got my first prints all back and mounted up and I thought I would take some quick snaps to show it in action.  As you can see, going up from 1 inch standard to 30mm makes it much easier to play without minis bumping up against each other- plus you have the freedom to use modern lipped bases.

So the first fools to brave The Dungeon of Dave are some classic citadel paladins who probably have not had a decent dungeon bash since Dungeons & Dragons came out.

Preslotta Citadel Paladins and C11 halfling attack Kev Adams Zombies and Reaper Wizard

Classic early 1980's Citadel creepy crawlies and Red Orcs attack!
Grenadier halfman takes aim in background.  Molemen by Reaper.  Ooze by me.

Thirty year old minis get some playing with!
Some classic Red orcs have been converted here- headswaps and
scratch built weaponry.

Another angle.  Note the green ooze sneaking up on a red goblin in the background.
It was made with a hot glue gun and a plastic base.

 As you can see, my red orc tribe has expanded since I last posted.  These guys are about 50% done.  I swapped out a couple of heads and weapons to give more variety, keeping at least one of each variety in archive state.

The creepy crawlies are a personal favourite of mine, I have been collecting these for a while now.  When you get them they just look like a little lug of brown metal, but with a little TLC they transform into some classic vintage gaming niceness.

Well that's me for tonight... enjoy dungeon bashing!

HotT on the trail: Succubaen Nunnery continues

Stand 1:  Warlord BattleNuns (Reaper)
Stand 2 Converted Warlord figs (Reaper), familiar (Rackham?), 10mm Chaos Beastman (Eureka)
Stand 3, Citadel Dark Elf Prisoner, Anti-Paladin (Reaper), Familiar (Reaper?)

The HotT army continues slowly, as I now need to convert a great deal of the remaining figures to polearms and bows.  Still, I toyed around with a couple of new stands.  I want the army to feel like the Fae world is rupturing through, so I am using 10mm beastmen as tiny little imps running amok around the legs of the wanton devil nuns and their sexy slaves.  I am thinking of switching out those reaper battle nun blades for red hot demonic pokers, complete with braziers strapped to their sides, scorched rips in their clothing and skins.

Dungeon of Dave photos

Hey folks,  the picture drought is over.  After all, thats really why your all here right?  Inspirational nerdiness.

Well this is some pictures my wonderful wife Kathryn took of my latest hobby project- an old school dungeon tile set.  I always was envious of my mates who had the Games Workshop Dungeon Floorplans and Halls of Horror boxed set, a feeling instantly resurrected on seeing a picture of it in the Heroes for Wargames book.

Modern Reaper Kobolds descend on the Retrodel Dungeoneers!

These prototype boards are made from 3mm MDF board, with very thin resin casts of flagstones on them.  I sculpted a 5x5 square original, then cast it using pinkysil silicone in a lego frame.  I would say for my next batch I would reduce the thickness of the MDF, as these are very chunky.  Satisfying, but chunky!

F4 Mercenary 'nob', a mildly converted AD&D female thief (green stuff added- no damage to original) and a C11 Halfling "Renko"

Finally back on subject, the adventuring party is made up of 1980s Citadel figures - for your shopping pleasure they are... left to right, F4 Mercenary 'nob', a mildly converted AD&D female thief (green stuff fur trims and corset added- no damage to original underneath) and a C11 Halfling "Renko" who has appeared elsewhere in this blog.  You can just see the foot of Fluffy the Chaos Hound in the top left too.

Once I have the basic floor tiles, I am planning to sculpt and cast some suitably chunky doors and arches.  I am not sure I will go as far as making walls yet - my wife keeps giggling at photos of 3D dungeons and saying things like "ooh, what a cute doll house".  Do walls get in the way I wonder?


So I dont know about you, but I am totally disliking the direction of AD&D 4th edition- and after a quick skim through think I may try to bend my DMs arm into playing Pathfinder rules instead.  As far as I am concerned, 4th ed is not Dungeons & Dragons.

I am not alltogether happy with the Reaper Kobolds- the Otherworld ones also do not do it for me - though they are great figures they are not what I have in my head when someone says Kobolds!  I did actually do the textures of all the Kobolds in the video game AD&D Online: Stormreach, by the way.  Something I am very proud of because it was a massive job to do all the different tribes.  Anyway, the modern lizard Kobolds are not what I picture either.  Maybe I might tackle sculpting some Dungeon Critters after my Dwergs line is released!