November Minis

A little bit of a shift going on in ZeroTwentythreeLand.

As much as I've looked forward to it every year for the past five or six years, I am going to pass on this year's Old World Army Challenge. There's just too much in flux, and although I have melodramatically struggled the past few years in my monthly entries, 2023 was honestly very difficult and a bit of a let down for me. The OWAC is meant to be a challenge, but also fun. I also feel like I didn't keep up with everyone else's projects very much, which is usually half the enjoyment. I also feel that my current interests diverge from the "Oldhammer" canon.

I've mentioned in some of my recent entries, I will instead be pursuing my own monthly challenge in order to help push me over the edge for some sci-fi solo gaming, hence the Five Months From Painted Factions challenge. I am actually off to a really good start.

Per previous entries, the goal is to start playing some Five Parsecs solo games in my own "Alt Trader" sci-fit setting. To help facilitate that, I will try to frantically paint figures for some of the many factions in Five Parsecs, as well as some terrain each month to provide me with a decent table to actually plat some games!

Thus... I now have the Soulless faction completed. I forget who originally started these sculpts/range, but Heresy Miniature picked up the ones that were previously available, added a couple to the set and started casting them a year or more ago. I had two of the ten and the figures were exactly what I wanted. So I bought a couple packs from Heresy and finally got them painted. My own concept in my Five Parsecs/Alt Trader setting is that they are a former security team who got sick of the corporate shit and have gone off on their own.

Speaking of going off on their own, I painted this chaos renegade-ish figure from Satyr Arts. I liked the idea of a renegade sister from the merc. company I have (barely) started, so tried to keep a similar color scheme. Such a cool, old-school figure. Drew Williams (sculptor) always seems right on target with his "Oldhammer" sculpts. This one is a great tribute to one of the original RT figures.

Speaking of Oldhammer, this little orange guy will serve as a... I don't know. Little space blob sidekick?

Each month I will attempt to figure out and prep/paint some sort of terrain so I can actualy start playing some games!! Here's the latest, some barely modified segments from a "mini brands" type sphere, plus a cap from some feminine shaving cream with some miscellaneous plastic bits added on. Hopefully looks like some sort of small scale radiation harvester set-up or equally vague sci-fi-B.S. ;) 

BOrcKtoBer'23a

 

Random and scattered update...

I am thinking about harvesting a bunch of thistles from across the fence behind our yard and putting them on some bases to use as alien flora.

Completely random, but I regret no buying these shoes yesterday. Still time to go back, I suppose.

I painted some stuff for Orctober!! Half-orc kitbash, mostly Oathmark human, but with a mystery head. Maybe from a zombie? I forget where it came from. The goblin shaman is, I think, from Clan War.

I found bits for most of (3) RTB01 marines. The top green figure is the last remainder from my original 80's Mantis Warrior army. (Started painting them purple but switched when the Badab War article came out in White Dwarf.)

Resin spinner-esque vehicle, I believe from Scotia-Grendel.

Trying to continue building/painting new sci-fi terrain for gaming soon!

There may be a Thomas the Deodorant Stick Grav-Attack on deck...

Five Months From Painted Factions - more planning

I've done some more thinking and unearthing figures. My plan is to start painting in November, prep as much as I can in October.

I just prepped figures for the Primitive faction and started thinking about non-human primitives and there it is, right in the book. So I prepped some aliens. Figures from the Hadross faction from Wrath of Kings.

Contemplating these as a start to a Hulker Gang faction, but they have no guns. I would also need a few more. 

I also gathered together some Supporting Characters, two of which I started long ago but fell by the wayside. These will be "bonus figures" if I finish my goal for the month and still have time to paint more.

So here's the game table, with most of what I've got prepped so far. (Click/tap to enlarge)

 

Still thinking a lot about terrain as well. My hobby budget is back to zero these days, so I'm going to have to do everything on the cheap. Luckily I have a bin in which I save random trash that looks like it could someday be terrain. Pulled out some stuff from my "box o' junk" and think I have a few ideas.

I've lost count of the campaigns & narrative games I've planned out in my head. Among those, a Five Parsecs campaign has been long overdue. So I'm thinking about my own flavor of monthly painting challenge.

Five Months From Painted Factions

The idea would be similar to other themed painting challenges, including the Old World Army Challenge I've participated in the past five years.

If it's not obvious, the challenge would be to paint one faction a month over five months. That should push me over the top for having a respectable variety of painted factions, while still having plenty more to paint later. Below is the menu of options for the five factions.

K'Erin Eru-Kin

Scrappers

Soulless

Pirates

Swifts

Primatives

Mercenaries

Precursor Eldar Exiles

(There are 5+ more that still need cleaned & primed)

Tech Gangers/Tech Zealots Rogue Mechanicus

Gene Renegades / Cultists / Feral Mercenaries / Mercenaries / Mutants / Whatever

(The two loose sprues are Frostgrave cultists & gnolls.)

 

Green Dragon and Space Bug

Just a little painting lately. Green dragon and space bug.

Five Parsecs from Catching Up

It's funny, I've been planning and painting and rolled two separate crews (1st ed. & 2nd ed.) but still haven't played! I've been thinking about the game a bit lately, and how there's a of off-table development involved and I think that's appealing to my currently limited time & space for gaming.

As a result, I've been looking at catching up with my plans and posting of my progress!

First off is this beast. I've been painting a lot of random creatures, personalities, and 'bots that aren't necessarily part of the Five Parsecs rules, but I plan on making some modifications to make it my own campaign after a bit. I just sometimes see (or accidentally obtain) figures and really want to paint them and use them! This was painted many months ago, but I realized I never posted it here.

Some but not all of these were posted here before. These are my "eternals". I have both fantasy and sci-fi versions of each figures (mostly just basing differences.) They are from left to right, a/the Geier, one of my own sculpts that was briefly in production at a small manufacturer; the avatar of Death, a figure of complex and interesting history but now available from Ral Partha Europe; the avatar of Life, an unassuming figure and perfect foil for Death, from Reaper Miniatures; and lastly, Kev, a self-portrait limited edition sculpt by Kev Adams from Wargames Foundry. Somehow I ended up with two Kev figures. One acted (appropriately) as a hero in my now-gone goblin army for many years. Since I had another, I recently figured I may as well paint him up find a role for him in some sci-fi games!

Lastly, some recent figures. I'll be using these as Abductors for Five Parsecs. I was going to leave them out of my games, but saw these Reaper Bones figures at very affordable prices. But I was underwhelmed by the bent poses (tried fixing them with heat & ice water several times), soft detail, and difficult mold lines. I ended up doing a fairly quick paint job on them just to get them over with because I couldn't muster any additional enthusiasm for them. The photo is a bit rough, they do look half decent other than three of them leaning at awkward/unnatural angles.

Almost forgot, I narrowly avoided the Orks in Alabama not long ago...

New Shroomfolk

A little while ago I picked up these three 3d shroom prints. Found some time to paint them recently, pretty happy with them -- prints and painting.

I occasionally think about getting a 3d printer, but I hear it is "a hobby in itself." Plus there are plenty of traditional cast or plastic/resin minis to keep me occupied. But some of that 3d printed terrain that's available.... mmmm.

June OWAC Skaven (Leader) and Skavenslaves

This is the way the challenge ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

For various reasons, I limped across the finish line for this year's Old World Army Challenge. Not a great year for me. This Grey Seer did turn out pretty well, even if it was the only figure I painted all month.

Last month I painted half of the slaves I had intended to paint, but at least the quantity was lucky number 13!

Due to landlord shenanigans, I lost use of the basement for painting and gaming, and have had to pack up and move most of my stuff into storage. Hopefully temporary, but not sure. The Skavenslaves were painted outside, which looks pleasant but is very difficult on my old eyes.

OWAC April - Clan Skryre

This month's entry is up at the Old World Army Challenge site. I used my wild card month to paint mostly Skryre troops/monsters/contraptions.

Pics below, but click the link above for the full entry.

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A comparison shot of the new (red) Satyr Art Studio jabberwock with the old ones from Ral Partha & Citadel.

Families and Dragons

Last year I had a bit of eBay drama that left me with a headless dragon. I didn't want to let a classic sculpt go to waste, so I made do with a substitution. :) He looks so sad, I figured I'd give him a pet dog to help cheer him up. Not sure where I got teh dog from.

Body & wings are old Tom Meier sculpt from Ral Partha. Head is a spare from the Satyr Art Studio trolls.

Speaking of dragons, I've been on a bit of a roll with them. Yet another old Tom Meier/Ral Partha dragon. Cold drake, more specifically. This one is a repaint of an old figure from my childhood.

I also finished the whole owlbear family. Mama had to go through some reconstructive surgery. I has to sculpt a new beak after dropping her and half of the original broke off. Owlbro & eggs are from Westfalia, the rest are 3d prints I received for Christmas, sculptor unknown.

Speaking of families, I've had these two Reaper half-orcs partially painted on my table for a couple of YEARS. I recently was inspired by the idea of them being a family of successful merchants dealing in exotic wares. Figured they also needed a kid (forget where I got them from). Pet and caravan coming soon. But right now I'm stuck on colors for dad's clothing!