Spooky Scary Skeletons

    For October I like to paint up something suitable for the Halloween Season. I already painted up the core set of Don't Look Back in February because what's scarier then winter in Canada, am I right? So the next logical step should have been the Nighthaunt Broken Realms box I picked up two years ago? Nah, it's a horde of skeletons, most that were bought earlier this year. 30 from Oathmark's skeleton infantry range, 20 from an old GW kit I picked up awhile back and 8 from RuneWars, the reanimates. For a total of 58 miniatures.

    First pictures are of the GW range. These surprised me with how posable they can be if you aren't concerned about fitting them into a rank and flank square. They also look good with the other skeletons in the group albiet from slightly thicker bodies, maybe like a beastman or a nurgle blightlord. I also am detailed about the options for a flail and the scimitar instead of straight blade. Grave guard are on my short list of additions I would like to add to this undead army. The warcry box for Legions of Nagash contains 1 necromancer, 5 grave guard and 10 skeleton warriors. I would prefer more guard, but that might be the best option unless I want to pay $60 for 10 grave guard, which I am not that into.

    Next up is the Oathmark Skeleton Infantry. The set comes with four options for weapons, sword/axe and shield, spear and shield and bow with arrows. Axes being less numberous then swords I mixed the two together and did ten of each weapon type. Each sprue has 5 of each weapon (besides axes) so I have plenty of spare skeleton arms which can be used for base decorating or kit bashing with other Northstar miniatures, like the undead, cultists, gnolls or knights boxes that I have. Oh boy do I need to get on those! Wargames Atlantic has their own skeleton infantry box that I almost picked up instead. Their skeletons look similar to the GW models which I didn't feel like I needed to double up on as I had 20 to paint already.

It's a living!

Sometimes you pick up the wrong arm in the heat of battle.

    The Runewar aniMATES, brought back to life to share a pint at your local pub, at least that's what goes through my mind when I hear their name. The necromancer must have been lonely drinking alone. Runewars miniatures seem to be on sale most places I shop, they were picked up on my last board game bliss order at the beginning of the year. Their size and small amounts of armour would make them stand out as a hero or special in song of blades and heroes or other such games. Definitely some nice miniatures in that range, and is being phased out so there might be more joining my ranks in the future.

The animates and Oathmark Skelestons

A graveyard full of bodies

    That's my scary contribution to the month of October, I have some frostgrave zombies and the Sorrowmourn Choir Broke Realms box to add to my undead army in time. 

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Now that I have my painted out of the way, I feel a bit better about sharing what I have bought in the last few months....

Terrain and Rangers (companions)

     Already half way through February, where does the time go? For a birthday present to myself, I took holidays for the coldest week in February. *Knock on wood* The plan for this week was to get a lot of painting done and reading for the graphic novel book club I am part of. In reality, it was an excuse to not have to leave the house and relax. 

    And that was mission accomplished, had a relaxing week, painted some fantasy terrain as well as models. Besides driving Rachel to work and back, I didn't really leave the house besides doing a boost for one of my friends. Am I ready to go back to work tomorrow? aww man, it's tomorrow?! Ugh! That's alright, the key to a good week is to have a good routine on Sunday, warm bath, Cobra Kai, read before bed, and be glad that it's not -45°C for the week to come!

    Most of the terrain I have in my collection is 40k, with the exception of the Corpsewrack Mausoleum, I don't have much in the form of plastic fantasy kits. I ordered some MDF off of amazon a week ago, not paying attention to the thickness before purchasing it. The MDF was to be used as a base for the metal Colossal Skeleton from reaper miniatures. Once it showed up it, was way to thin to support the heavy metal colossal. With several sheets of the MDF kicking around, this would be perfect for the rivers. They turned out alright, but there was a lot of curling from the PVA glue. Using more MDF on the bottom helped to straighten it out. 

Modular River, curves and forks to come

    Rachel made a comment that the small island in the middle of the river looked like a large piece of poop, wanting to save face I told her that there actually was a giant upstream that was relieving himself. It's not happy little mistakes, it's world building! I do tend to agree as I don't think I cut the insulation form down enough, and it was dark brown at the time. 

    Each scenario in Rangers of Shadowdeep provides you with miniatures list for the adventure. The first one requires 6+ zombies, 3+ Giant Rats, 6+ Giant Spiders, and 3+ Survivors. Scouring my Castle Ravenloft Board Game I was able to find 3 Giant Spiders, 3 Zombies and 3 swarms of rats which is close enough. Undead Encounters comes with 7 zombies and oh hey! a skeleton rat maybe it will be one of the giant rats (if I can find them)

Two companions and one survivor

All Reaper Miniatures, I left the companions off bases as I would like to find some lipped bases for the PCs as that's what I used for my Frostgrave Wizards. I really enjoy painting up metal character models, quick to paint and they look great afterwards. The crossbowman has been kicking around as a metal thug for my D&D sessions for sometime, glad he finally will be on the table. As for the Ranger, you know, the leader of this intrepid band of heroes, she is a witch hunter from hasselfree miniatures. Like normal Jon fashion, I put the cart before the horse.

The wolves will be used for the second adventure.

3 Wolves from Ravenloft

    Four zombies finished, the two flanking ones are from the cultist set. The kit gives you an excess of bits, proving an abundance of variety for all your misguided sects. These two must of went a bit too deep into the forbidden magic.

Scatter terrain and 3D printed ruined house

Stand off in the tavern

"You shall not pass, unless you are 19"

Rachel and I also played another round of Root: The Underground Expansion. This time I was the Underground Duchy and Rachel had the Marquise de Cat. I felt like I was playing keep up most of the game. In true Rachel fashion, the dice didn't like her, rolling double zeros on attacks that should have been a sure thing, twice! I finished the game with 30 to 17, at the mid point of the game I started  cutting hard into Rachel's resources, making it extremely hard to come back from. Root is much quicker to play now that we had it on the table a few times. 

Next on the Hobby Desk

After playing Warhammer Underworlds this past week, it's gotten me excited to finish off the Dread Padgeant. Next weekend is also the release of all the new Slaanesh models and battletome. Debating if I NEED to get the battletome right now,  would be nice to see the new rules and lore but that all could wait for when I am actually playing AOS.