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...

Ogres and Fungus and Ooze

Some odds & ends I've painted recently.

A couple of ogres...

One more shruman...

Experimenting with homemade oozes based on other people's blogs...

And some more Shroomfolk. The two on the left are supposed to be "snow golems" but I thought they would make good puffball style mushroom creatures. 

...and one more with a bit more color.

Eyes in the Sky

These little fellas will serve as Void Rippers for Five Parsecs from Home. Possible also giant bats in The Liche's undead army and other roles as well.

Figures from Ral Partha Europe's Das Schwarze Auge range.

Crew Complete and Eternal Death

A little bit of progress on the sci-fi project. I completed the final figure I needed for my Five Parsecs crew: G-Roy, the fame seeking special agent. Figure by Satyr Art Studio/Drew Williams.

 

 

Now I need to get enough terrain on the table for a game, and to finish painting a bigger variety of opponents. Working on both, you can see some of the more recent small terrain pieces in the bacground of these latest photos.

I've also decided to follow up on my previously painted pair of "avatars" of Life & Death I decided they are eternal and needed a second set of figures to match the sci-fi basing. Death is finished, Life is partially painted and should be done soon. I photographed death with the Astro Zombies in the background. Seems like a logical pairing. I'll have to figure out what sort of minions/associates Life would have in a sci-fi setting. I was thinking of dryads for fantasy, but that won't necessarily translate well to the sci-fi setting.

Life and Death, pt. 2

I finished the second half of my "Life and Death" duo. The concept was a priest serving each cause. As it turned out, a liche and a healer.

This started as an excuse to paint the liche. So I had to look for a suitable counterpart and found this healer from Reaper. I obviously inverted some of the major colors black/white and crimson/turquoise. But I stuck with gold baubles & accessories and matched the liche's red orb with a similar feature in the healer's staff. In hindsight, I'm wondering if I should repaint the brown "wrap" on her staff turquoise, both to add some more color and to mimic the red on the sword grip.

The healer is hard to photograph, the colors get washed out. I'm very happy with the way this pair turned out. I'm contemplating whether they each need followers or minions. I've already got plenty of generic undead. Maybe a sidekick/henchman? What to do for the healer? I do have the old Citadel Life and Death Elementals for them each to summon as well.

Life and Death, pt. 1

 I'm working on a new "Life and Death” themed pair of figures and finished the first one. Guess which one this is?

Crucible Goblins to Daemons

I've based the new test figure, and repainted all green flesh on all the old Crucible goblins I had previously painted. I think these will to quite nicely as another regiment of daemons! I think I like the solid red feathers on the new figure better than the "stained" feathers on the old ones, though. Maybe repaint....?

Next... painting some of the unpainted Crucible goblins to round out the regiment.

I'm already starting to consider what other figures I could recruit as non-RoC/unaligned daemons.

My memory was jogged by a comment from Beefcake on the LAF that I still had a half-painted bat rider to accompany the Crucible goblins. After searching through some boxes, I found it. So that may (finally) get finished at some point.

In the same box I found these guys, in pretty rough shape -- a little bent, old paint chipping off. Ral Partha giant bees with a couple of unknown 15mm knights, since I didn't have the original riders. Painted for a never completed Hordes of the Things army. The figures were OOP for a long time, but I think Iron Wind Metals recently brought them back into production.

Not sure what to do with these.

Dragon?

After painting rank & file, trolls and giants for so long, I feel like a change of pace.

Paint a dragon?

Here's most of my options....

I've also got an old RP frost dragon somewhere, as well as the RP shadow dragon who, unfortunately, could not support the weight of his own wings and sagged until it finally broke from metal fatigue. I keep thinking about making it into land-dragons...

Sellswords -- The Other Side

I'm also considering something like this for a themed "the other side" warband for Sellswords & Spellslingers.

Oddier and Endier Skeletons

Two big skeletons from the last Reaper Bones KS. I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the minotaur, but I had already decided that I wanted to get the metal version as I was cleaning up the mold lines. So he will be getting replaced at some point. Just a really nice figure. Both are.

For the moment, they will be joining the ogres, so I can run a "counts as" KoW horde of undead trolls.

Indecisive about what to paint next...

Load 'o Bones

My Bones 3 KS figures came in. Plus I picked up a pack of 3 of the Bob Olley orcs in Bones to see if they would fit with the recently nearly completed half orc unit. I thought I would post a few comparison pics. I didn't get a ton, but this isn't pics of everything either.

The best two figures from the "Lords of Undeath" are the two big guys. The halfling is OK, and I'm not sure I will ever use the elf & dwarf (not pictured.) The latter three are skeletal, but have pristine clothing, equipment, and hair -- which seems a bit odd. The two big ones shown here compared to skeletal ogres from Krakon Games, RPE, and the one I picked up (via FB) from a small personal project someone had cast. I think these will all work pretty well together!

Bob Olley orc in Bones material next to a couple of the half orcs. Nice figure, but unfortunately hot certain I like them together. I also realized I should show a scale pic of the half orcs next to my standard reference.

One of the most fun minis from the KS. GOREMAW. Sort of an impulse buy, a ridiculous miniature I just had to have & paint. I think it will be a big nasty summoned by Fomorians & others. Pic next to the Fomorians/Fimir, plus the (formerly) largest critter in their arsenal -- Reaper bog demon.

Reaper is "super sizing" their giants. I've got mixed feelings on this. I felt the fire giant queen I previously painted (second pic) was a great size for a giant, that bucked the trend of "bigger is better." Maybe hypocritical of me to say that given some of the enormous models I've picked up and/or painted the past few years. But in terms of background/setting, etc. I really do like the smaller ones -- and she was really well sculpted (and a nice casting, give that she's also in Bones!)

So here are some of the "super sized" fire giants, next to the old-ish Citadel giant, and the earlier version of the fire giant queen mentioned above. Definitely going to need some work on the bendy issues, but looking forward to seeing these painted up. Someday.

Also in the package is a restock of conversion fodder for my Fomorians. So those are back on teh menu now that I finally have more bodies to work with!

Big April '17 GIant Roundup

A quick roundup of this year's Big April, plus some group shots of the painted portion of the collection so far. Too many big minis -- had trouble photographing them, even in batches!

Painted April 2017:

Painted Meat-giants as of April 2017: 

(Note: I didn't paint the big guy on the left)

Painted Skeletal Giants:

And just for completeness, my ratgiant...

An Assortment of Large Skeletons

It's officially Deadcember, and I've officially finished the first of the (un)dead.


Skeletal demon and giant from Ral Partha.

Skeletal ogres from (left to right): Ral Partha Europe, Justin from the Oldhammer FB group, Ral Partha Europe, and Krakon Games.

 Time is getting a little tighter for me, so I cut a few corners but I still think they all look pretty good!

Premature Deadcembulation and the Nun Superman

I've kept going premature Deadcember painting and prep work. Here's what's new.

I found a few more skeletons to paint, three more Nightmare Legion, Kreuger from the Cursed Company, and five identical old armoured skeletons. I've decided to put some on individual bases for flexibility. I also trimmed & cleaned the bits for other 16 plastic skeletons. Not sure if I will get to those. I painted a bit too. The big guys are almost done -- the skeletal daemon and the four skeletal ogres.

I'm not a major Oldhammer collector, by any means. But as a fan of old figures, and Empire in particular, I know the rarity of the elusive Nuln Spearman. So when I heard there was one on eBay, I wanted to watch the bidding as a spectator. I follow eBay on my phone, because it's a rare example of a really great mobile app that offers a better interface than the equivalent web site. When I typed my search into the app, I was amused at the alternate "Did you mean: ...?" suggestion. In hindsight, I'm a little curious what those (2 items) are.

Deadcember in November

Brace yourselves, Deadcember is... oh, well... never mind. It's here early.

 I've been putting aside undead(ish) stuff for a while, figuring I would get to it in Deadcember. What little free time I have had has been mostly agonizing over other stuff. About 11:50 pm, Black Friday, November 25.... close enough. I'm not sure how much time I will get in December, so I figured I would enjoy a little late night painting while I can.

Just base coats and initial washes on the bones. But it's a start -- an early start.


Have you ever thought that you've got some privacy... say, in the bathroom. But you can's shake the creepy feeling that you're being watched...  :(

Some day soon I'm going to need to work up a simple game where I can pit my undead against my daughter's princesses. ;)

Like some sort of Disney, Black Cauldron mash-up.

Somewhere on the Horizon

So far the new schedule isn't as bad as I had expected, in some ways. (But worse, in others.) So... sort of a wash, I guess? I'm still managing a little bit of time now and then for painting, etc. AND sleeping in an extra 15 minutes in the mornings.

So now my chief complaint (there's always got to be something, right?) is my desk. I've been trying to work around the tight work & storage space, but there are two remaining problems I need to work out. One is the inability to leave unfinished projects laying around. Coupled with the loss of a heat lamp for curing putty, this is kind of tricky and will become more problematic when I start working on some of the large vinyl toys (which I need to do ASAP.)

The second problem is the desk height. It's 28". I'm used to working at a drafting table that I kept at 36" high so I could sit upright. But after just a short time at the 28" desk my back is sore. Since have an armchair I sit on while working at the computer (and 28" is a decent height for that) I'm thinking about chopping down the legs to my painting stool. I'd hate to do it, because they're apparently not sold in the US anymore, and I'm still holding out a desperate hope for some sort of studio space again. The other option would be to build some sort of desktop "riser" for painting, etc. It would be doubleplusgood if I could work out something with some storage. I'm thinking maybe something like a box with a drawer. Maybe that could be the storage for works in progress? Or throw caution and thermal comfort to the wind and make it an epoxy oven? I'll keep working on my back hump for the time being, but I think I can work something out -- maybe even re-purpose something that's already built.

Enough of my rambling. On to some pictures. Y'all don't come here to "read the articles."

Two things. One is this:

Yeah, a full unit (in my terms) of skeletal ogres. The two on the ends are from Ral Partha Europe, as I've already shared. The center-left is a familiar looking (minus his flesh.) If I understand correctly, this is the first full sculpt from Justin/Golden Age Miniatures. If that's the case, I can't wait to see what comes next! The resin figure center-right is "Slanga" from Krakon Games, the same place/sculptor as Morrighu, the Fomorian witch I posted a while ago. Another excellent sculpt. I can't wait to get started on this ragged crew. I've been looking forward to a unit of four for a long time. I had started trying to sculpt my own to go with the two RPE figures, but never got past two badly misshapen skulls. I'm grateful that Justin and Ross came along with similar ideas and did it right!


Next... I've decided that I'm going to find a way to get to the Oldhammer USA weekend no matter what. So, with that in mind, I wanted to bring a 1500 pt. WFB 3rd ed. army. As much as I would love to bring Fimir, there's no way I can have enough done in time. (But I've got my eyes on you, Oldhammer 2017!) All of my undead is multi-based, and really not built around the practicalities of WFB. So Marienburg seems to be the logical choice. Unfortunately, I find the Empire list in WFB3 to be among the least interesting.

But I eventually worked out (well, I'm 95% of the way there) a 1500 point army in character with the Marienburg theme. (Sadly, no pikemen at this time, though.) As long as I'm going Oldhammer, I may as well make my roster fit the look, too. They're not done yet, but this is the basic idea...

I still need to photograph a cannon & crew, tweak it, and add it to the entry. I'd like to re-shoot the knights & gunners too -- those were the first two I did and I prefer the more sparse look of the other entries, which are more in character (sort of) with the old Armies book.

The halberdiers ("Helblitzen") are still being painted. Yeah... all these years, I've never had any halberdiers. So I'm trying to speed paint some before the event. Always need to have some last minute pressure for every event, right? I was actually in the middle of painting some for someone else when the move happened, and I thought about racing to get those done. But I don't want to rush myself on someone else's figures. Luckilly, I did have some of my own assembled & primed.


So that's where things are headed.... quick halberdiers & skelogres, plus some minotaurs and Empire figures I owe two other people. And some antiquated 3rd ed. gaming!