Season of Scenery 2023

     Alright, recall the search parties, and take my picture off the milk carton. I was always here, just a bit busy with childcare and working. Though I did manage to get a few terrain pieces done for Season of Scenery this year. 

    I picked up some MDF modern house terrain from cardboard dungeon two years ago or so. These kits are pretty cheap at $20 CND or sometimes less, so one of the reasons I hadn't had the energy to tackle the two houses I had picked up is due to the lack of detail. Coyote Manor doesn't have detail on the exterior. I started cutting out cardboard to look like vinyl siding, this I didn't finish as my mind thought other things to add. Wires? meters? A basement... somehow? The Grey Harbour house C that I painted, at least had laser cut details on the walls.

    You'll notice that the windows on each floor look different, that's because I made my own on the top floor when I couldn't find the ones that came with the kit. I tried to remove the bottom ones, this made the carboard rip or remove the paint. I might come back to it later, but for now, I am fine with it.

    I only did the exterior as the interior would need a lot of detail work, stairs for the second floor, wallpaper, furniture, etc. Design wise it also doesn't really led itself to a real home structure. I can't see stairs, kitchen and a living room being in that small space. Upstairs could easily fit a bathroom and a bedroom with stairs going down.

    I also finished some 3D printed doors, six of them to be exact. These are to be used in Resident Evil 2 board game. 

    I also played a solo game of Don't Look Back, a co-op survival game that emulates 80's slasher flicks. Some interesting mechanics, hopefully I can run a group through a game or two during October. 

    Black Magic Craft does have a video on how to transformer these Christmas Trees from Michaels into regular looking tree, so I am working on getting them done soon.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Finishing up some of the adventuring party challenge, some have been finished for awhile and haven't had the motivation to post on here. Five are done... and it's basically October.. I gotta get moving on them if I want 7 more before the end of the year.

Reign in Hell - Finished Cabals

        In 2021, Snarling Badger Studios, released a daemonic combat skirmish game called Reign in Hell. This is the first game that Adam Loper and Vince Venturella, of YouTube fame, have created together. Initially, this was a PvP game with cabals fighting each other for control of Hell with campaign play as well, they have since released co-op and solo rules in a free PDF called The Oculus Spear to help players get games in during the height of Covid.

    Just this week, I have finished two cabals from the Dreamblade miniature I had picked up off eBay the same year Reign in Hell was released. The game can be played with up to 4 players, and has several different philosophies which dictates what type of daemons you can bring in your cabal. Painting up only 14 of the 51 miniatures I picked up, I see more cabals being created in the future. But for now, this will be enough to learn and play the game, besides, I have a BUNCH of daemons from 40k I could use in a pinch. 

Reign in Hell Cabals

    The two philosophies I picked for these two cabals were, Earth-bound and The Empty. Earth-Bound are daemons that want to return to earth, where all the fun is at, you know manipulating weak humans. Searching through the Dreamblade minis, I picked out figures that you might find on a metal album cover. The leader can be of three different types, Warrior, Zealot or Schemer. I chose Schemer, which has the ability to leave combat once per round and is able to activate another daemon near by after his activation. The Devout for an Earth-Bound cabal is a Succubus, able to Charm other daemons into attacking others and deflect some damage when she sees friendly daemons slay opposing daemons. 

Schemer and Succubus

    Some of the daemon profiles are up to interpretation so go ahead and use that sweet models that you can't seem to fit into any other games. I got a local 3D printer to print some bases for me, there is some hit and miss for quality but they were pretty cheap to get made.

    The band members all lined up ready to rock your socks off and devour your soul!

    

    For The Empty cabal, they are trying to unmake Hell. I went with a more muted paint scheme, mostly to get them off the table a bit quicker, but it also fit their theme. Only giving them splashes of colour besides the "Pain Smash" which just screamed to be bronzed. All daemons in The Empty cabal can destroy terrain or objective markers with a 6 on their attack roll. Both the Leader and Devout have some teleporting shenanigans as well. 

Devount - Void Demon and Leader - Zealot

    I went with models that were blind in some fashion, the bases were painted as a contrast to the Earth-bound bases, adding a hint of their base colours to them. 

For someone without eyes, the Pain Smash is quite the exhibitionist.

    My brother, Shawn, and I tried out Reign in Hell on Saturday. We played the scenario called The Prison, which has the cabals seeking forbidden knowledge from the captured daemon in the center of the table. Daemons who move within 3" of the pillars claim the objective, they only give it up after being slain or move away. However, the rules aren't clear when more daemons show up and the first original daemon has moved off the objective. I think we rolled off to see who claimed it, but I think in the spirit of the game, I think both would own it till either were slain.

Loonies for objectives

    And you are probably thinking, maybe, oh wow that's a neat mat that you have your miniatures displayed on there Jon. I have just made two mats based on the Black Magic Craft video here. I didn't use the oil washes and I was trying to add more of my mossy bits that I had, so it's bit rough. I also wasn't straying my watered down glue at first, which actually helped as it gave the grass some depth. 

    I have had the mats out in the garage which is a bit moist as the mats like to curl on the ends, so hopefully I can glue the opposite side to prevent this or the house temperature is more suited for them. 

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    I have joined a Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Tournament for July, now I just need to paint and assemble all the miniatures I need for it! Shouldn't be too bad, as I'll be playing Evil so a healthy coat of black is basically all I'll need.

Monster May(hem) 2023

    Looks like another May has passed us by! I can hardly believe it. Was planning for more, but with some travelling and tending to a backyard that hasn't seen much in lawncare in the passed two decades or so, it just wasn't in the cards. I hope Keith won't mind if my candidates for next year have a small head start (they were painted in May). As an extra kneecap to any progress I made, I accidentally broke off an arm on one model, so even, right? Painting a monster outside of May would be sacreligious, how dare you suggest that!?

Here are my entries for this year.

Nightwalker (Wizkids)

        Wizkid's monsters are very well done, good detail, and reasonable price. I prefer Reaper Miniatures for any smaller models. No real play for the Nightwalker, I liked it so I bought it, was thinking of using it for Reign in Hell, but it's base is double the size of all the other miniatures I have for it.

Rancor (Star Wars IA: Jabba's Realm)

    My partner gave me the Jabba's Realm expansion for my birthday... in 2017. Haven't played in sometime, would really like to get the core box and this expansion painted up and on the table again. 

    This rancor is the famous beast that resides the pit below Jabba's throne. Or at least, that's what the set implies. Witches of Dathomir are force sensitive warriors that ride rancors into battles, I painted mine to be owned by one of the sisters, giving her mount a tattoo after fierce battles together. Which brought me to my next idea, painting several Rancors with mounts. Imperial Assault can be played as a competitive tabletop game, so they could be fielded as an army. However, this Rancor is sold only in the Jabba's Realm expansion, a costly endeavor for what would most likely be a passing fancy. With a quick Google search though, it looks like someone has made a rancor with a rider in STL form. That's one step closer to my rancor army, haha! 

Size comparison to dandelions in my yard

    There you go, my meager entries into Monster May(hem) this year. I had two more miniatures planned, a fungal giant and a colossal skeleton. Yes, it's a skeleton, but it's big! Like a giant's or ogre's skeleton! Those count as monsters right?!

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I have a Reign in Hell warband almost finished off to show, just need a few highlights. For June, it will be time to finish off all the mostly done miniatures kicking around on the desk before I jump into the Season of Scenery for this year.

Aquatic Plant Terrain

     On my hobby journey, I have acquired many plastic aquatic plants for use as terrain. Krazy bins has been a good source for bulk amounts of 'terrain potential'. Three bucks for a medium bag of rubber tubes! Hells ya! Another three for a large bag of aquarium plastic plants? Don't mind if I do!

    So after collecting dust for sometime, they are now glued down to CDs and painted. Behold! My terrain for underwater/ alien planets!

    

    Took them out on my official studio transfer canvas, of course Stan Lee really want to make a cameo for scale.

    The snake skeleton was from dollarama, probably around Halloween, I figured this planet had chemicals in the atmosphere that would bleach the bones.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    After pushing it to the side for several projects, I have a character of the month done....and it's almost May.

For who the bell Trolls

         Oh boy, I need to work on my timing with these blog posts! These models have been finished close to the beginning of March. Once the bases were printed off, the trolls painted up quickly. They were picked up for about $30 for four soft plastic miniatures from Red Alliance, instead of $50-60 Canadian. This company specializes alterative Lord of the Rings models, perfect for MESBG if I am not going into anything official. 

Mordor Trolls - able to protect head with helmets

Cave Troll - Club smash!

School reunion outside Minas Tirith

    You might be asking yourself, hey wait that der troll are on different bases. But more accurately you are literate and talk normal in your noggin. But either way you say it, you are correct, the all powerful GW deemed Cave trolls lesser, providing them with a meager 40mm base for their impressive visage, while the Mordor trolls are on 60mm bases. The armoured trolls seemed to fit better on the bigger base too. Why worry about official bases on unofficial models? I'll tell you when I figure that out.

    They turned out pretty good for how quick they were, the cheap plastic didn't like the washes I used as much as something from better companies so there are some spots I had to repaint. 

    Reading through a new blog called Bedroom Battlefields, I found his list of companies that sell models similar to GW old hammer models. It's great to be able to see a curated list of the top UK wargaming sites as I am not as familiar with the hundreds that are commonplace across the pond. King Games, specifically Dunkeldorf miniatures, was one of the sites linked. I picked up a couple blister packs, Claudia "Schwartz" Hinkel, Agnes "Fleischer", and Esther the Zealot. Though they don't really invoke hand sculpted GW models, I thought they would fit into Rangers of Shadowdeep as survivors or rangers. I also picked up a swarm of rats that I quickly knocked them out to play RoS solo. I have been looking for a Canadian store that carries osprey and fireforge games without them being sold out, so I picked up the very well regarded female wizard box and a peasant rabble, the latter I hope to use some (there are 18 minis in the box!) for a non-combat TTG called applepicking28. One of many non combat games being worked on by the @4ydra community.

Shipped with some nice artwork...

.....and free goodies!

    So this is a first for me, finishing up models as soon as I buy them, what a quaint idea! The reaper bone rats were easy to base and paint. 

Rats swarming Minas Tirith

Get'em boys, he smells of cheese

    I played the first mission of Rangers of Shadowdeep which was split into two scenarios, first one finds the Rangers in a village that has been turned into zombies, and the second is rescuing the remaining villagers from spiders. 

    Playing it solo was fun, I used random painted miniatures, the stego Ranger leading humans and dwarves into battle against evil.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Should have some terrain painted up soon, and May is just around the corner. You know what that means? Monster Mayhem is upon us!

Dark Eldar Archon with Incubi

     Back in the early 2000s I went on a band trip to Edmonton. It was on this trip that we visited the West Edmonton mall, and my first Games Workshop store. My friend picked up the 3rd Editon Warhammer 40k Starter set, for the Space Marines. Working only a paper route at the time, I had considerably less money to spend, only picking up some metal wyches and the codex. Andrew let me use the kabalite warriors included in the starter set, living in Weyburn, it's easier to hook a friend then find ones that already play right? 

    Since then, I sold off all my Dark Eldar, which wasn't much more then the Kabalites Warriors, which Andrew eventually gave me, Wyches, Incubi and an Archon. The lack of vehicles really didn't help grow my gaming prowess. I eventually turned to Chaos Space Marines as my second army.

    I have now started collecting Dark Eldar miniatures of that era. Here is part of that collection that still needs to get painted. The Archon I painted up is from Hasslefree miniatures with a splinter pistol added to her hand, not much of a kitbash, but looks pretty natural. But what's an Archon without their Incubi?

    Couldn't find a second double fist backpack, but I am not really into them anyways. Incubi are usually in groups of five, but I only found four of this sculpt. I'll need to keep looking for the last one.

    I tried to match the paint scheme I used for these Wyches which I planned to use for Kill Team 2018. Loads more to go! I think the next step will be painting up a Raider and filling out the two units.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I picked up some miniatures from King Games Miniatures which I will show off here. Hopefully, I can show off some more finished projects soon as well!

Stegosaurus Barbarian

     Okay, so I am participating yet again in the_goodground 's hobby challenge called Paint an Adventuring Party. This time I was hoping to get my entries in on time and all 12 of them finished! Well, I am off to a good start seeing as this will be my January entry being posted on February 1st!

No matter! Here is my Stegosaurus Barbarian, from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter 5 Fantasy Dinosaur series. I figured I would continue the trend of painting up a dinosaur miniature in January. I glued one of the arms earlier making it a bit difficult to pain up, but I think he turned out good, I am not the best yellow painter out there.

If I had a hammer....

I'd hammer all over this land

    Here is Pelgwis Ambletrek from last January, you think the Barbarian suspects that he is really a gnome in a very finely crafted mechanical armour? 

    Probably not, Stegos didn't have much of a brain, and neither do barbarians, besides there is more hammering to be done!

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    I had a great idea for my birthday, we are renting out a room at the library (due to cat allergies and naps) and was going to just play random board games. What I might actually do is paint up a few more cars and terrain for Gaslands. Plan is to run a scenario with a war rig or monster truck, something bigger, trying to escape the board. While the other players are trying to prevent it. I'll need a few more terrain pieces as well as a war rig and a single car. For some options, I might paint up 4 extra cars. Time to get to work, the event is less then two weeks away!