Skeleton horde and more

       Whelp! I should probably show an update for all the miniatures I have acquired over the summer. In July, we visited Sentry Box, I mean Rachel's half brother, in Strathmore. The night before going to the game store, I went through their catalog of reaper miniatures and sent Rachel and Rosie to pick them out while I looked through their wide array of RPG, tabletop games, etc. Most of their stock is not carried by our local store in Regina. I might grow a second beard looking through their stock, but we were on a time line with supper looming over our heads after a fun day at heritage park.

    From top left they are:

• Unicorn, Young Ice Dragon (both for my daughter)
• Dwarf Cleric, Corinna, Dwarf Master of the Hunt
• Zombie Pirates, Gloom Stalker, Ticks, Troll King

    I also picked up two Ghost of Archipelago supplements, Gods of Fire, which adds tribal warbands, small boat mechanics and notable beasts like a kraken! and Lost Colossus adds a campaign mostly.

    I picked up Battletech Alpha Strike from Dragon's Den in Saskatoon, which adds another 13 mechs to my already expanded collection.

    Though it is the Season of Scenery over one Wargames Terrain Workshop, I haven't been in much of a paint mode for the Heart of Ghurr terrain that I have started. Especially when I had these Conan mummies and skeletons on the hobby desk. I did a quick wet blending for the whole body before picking out small amounts of metal with some silver. Good enough for undead fodder. I did miss one skeleton that was hiding out in the game's box. I'll get around to it after the challenge.

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    

    Time to reveal all the terrain I was building and not finishing with any sort of paint!

Monster Mayhem Challenge 2025

    While I wasn't as motivated in sitting the hobby room this month, I did get a few things done for the Monster Mayhem Challenge.

    First up, and I am not sure how much these would count, but these five hyenas from the Conan board game. Judging from the size they look more like dire hyenas, towering over the NPC character, Yselda. This seems to be a common theme with my monsters this year, super sized animals/ dead humans. Giant Snake for example. With these enemies painted, I can now play the first scenario with all painted enemies that is, still have the heroes to work on. 

Focus!

    One model that has loitered on, near, around the hobby desk for far too long is my Colossal Skeleton from reaper miniatures. Purchasing the metal figure for way too much money, double the bones version and probably half the headache. It was one of the monsters I was going to paint in 2024, but with a bent base and a snapped arm, I found every excuse to set it down for anything else! I am going to call it a Ogre or Hill Giant Skeleton, which makes it sound more monstrous. I am also going to call it done!

    Last but not least, while out searching Value Village, I found a megabloks set with a large scorpion. The limbs were ball joins that swiveled around which I removes to glue them right to the body with some green stuff for support.

    It was not my intension to paint up monsters that all could fit into Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago, but it is a nice happy accident. 

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    I finished painting my trash terrain, time to post it. Also a glimpse of my next garbage build.

Sentry Box Haul

     Well here it is, the anticipated Sentry Box haul and I was doing so good till now. I was close to zeroing out what I had bought at the beginning of the year. *sigh* Oh well, more painting!

    Rachel and I were able to visit Sentry Box during our kid's nap. Walking in it I felt like overwhelmed with the selection. 

Paint what you got mission that is.

    My local store, Comic Readers, and even Dragon's Den in Saskatoon mostly just carries Warhammer and Wizkids miniatures. Sentry Box carries Reaper, Osprey, Warlord games and more for miniatures. There is also an extensive used section for board games and minis, I could have send a while just looking at the Warhammer used section, but time was minimal. 

    First up, I picked up the Anus Hag Annis Hag from Wizkids. Oh wait, no this was from the Dragon's Den trip after Calgary. Well anyways, I thought she would be a good Killer for Don't Look Back.

    Browsing the Used GW section, I found some old orcs/goblin. I seem to be on a kick with this era of green skins, as I also picked up some with my New Years Eve shipment. Originally, I thought I'd paint them for a Heroquest living ruleset, but more realistically, a warband in Song of Blades and Heroes. 

Horace "Action" Jackson for Fistful of Kung Fu

Variety of Deep Ones

    I really like Deep Ones, maybe they will be in Brawl Arcane 28 if the Shaman isn't too big.

Wererat, King Axehelm and Barrow Warden 3

    King Axehelm looks great, and I don't usually say that about dwarf models, they all feel a bit the same, but his pose really drew me in. Wererat could be for Frostrgave, as well as the Barrow Warden, as I do have an undead warband started.

    Rachel picked up Burrows & Badgers as well as a pirate mouse and some wizards. I picked up Into the Breeding Pit as I seem to be collecting Frostgrave supplements. Better start making a winter board to play it on.

    These Slaine packs were discounted to $15 each, I think they look fun to paint, but I am not certain what I'd play them in. Next time I go to Sentry Box I will pick up a box of something, instead of odds and ends. Oh well, I like all this but it was a bit more expensive buying it piece meal like this.

    I did paint something... well it was awhile ago.

Scunner and Gipse Danger

Time to find a city to tussle in. 

I do have some Tzeentch Pink Horrors and a Orgroid thaumaturge pretty much finished on the paint desk. Just need to snap some pictures of them. 

Painted: 2

Purchased: -15

Total: -99

Next on the Hobby Desk

Enough purchases for now, time to paint! I need to change with the season. 

Adventuring Party 2022 Wrap Up

     I finished off two more miniatures for the paint an adventuring party challenge that is ran by the_goodground on Instagram they were basically finished last year besides varnishing. That counts! right?

    On the left is Azura, Halfblood metal from Hasslefree miniatures and a metal Reaper Bones Townsfolk IV on the right. The townsfolk was picked up at Dragon's Den in Saskatoon when they had half off their metal reaper miniatures to make way for the Wizkids miniatures. When I base coated the townsfolk, I thought the colours clashed with each other. Now that he is finished, it doesn't look that bad; a backstory was forming in my head that he was blind so he didn't notice what he wore or that he was poor and just wore whatever he found. In the end, he is just a hip old thief. The other townsfolks in that set had been painted up for Rangers of Shadowdeep before the baby arrived.

    With that I have completed my adventuring party, it wasn't done within each month or even enough for the full 12 months but it was a fun challenge to be a part of. Here is what I got finished, they all decided to have a party on the gate to Helm's Deep there was cake.

    Nine out of twelve ain't that bad, hoping this year to complete the full twelve and one a month. I did enjoy thinking of backstories, but then got busy/lazy and a painted miniature wouldn't get posted till the next month to give me more time to write their story. 

    The challenge is also to paint up several different classes and races, which I was more focused on in the beginning of the year, but then starting picking miniatures I liked the look of instead. As far as model distributors go, I feel I am very fond of Reaper Miniatures, usually their metal minis, as they are usually big and chunky for good detail. Wizkids are quick to paint up, I bought a lot so I better get used to them!

Next on the Hobby Desk

Looking forward to 2023, what should I play? What adventuring party will I paint? The Fellowship? Seven months for seven members, the year of the hobbit! 

    

Season of Scenery 2022 Part 2

     So as with the last SoS post, let's start with what new shiny has distracted me in.... ONE MONTH! I might have a wee problem... let's call a dragon's horde of opportunity as a result of my habits. Lately, painting up Dark Eldar for Space Hulk (mostly) has peaked my interest. Someone was selling all his army, so I picked out a Talos, a squad of 5 Scourges and a squad of 5 Mandrakes. In my head, the Talos could be used as boss in Space Hulk. There are fan made rules for a Dreadnaught so why not try fitting a Talos, clearly a less bulky cousin. Harlequin have rules, which would probably play similar to Dark Eldar.

    The other pick ups are for Cities of Sigmar, Black Arc Corsairs was a box sitting at my FLGS that was pre-pandemic priced. I always liked the look of them, with their Cthulhu inspired armour and PIRATES! YAR! And a random Battletech mech for.... fun! Wee! The other Cities miniatures, are Great Swords, Demigryph Knights (recast), a metal Battlemage and Free guild pistoliers (recast). I am not one to buy recasts new as they are usually on some Chinese site, but these were local. That should be enough to give me some options for a warband!

    I start a terrain challenge only to be drawn back to miniatures. After painting up the Lucky Gods terrain, I wanted to continue with the samurai themed miniatures. The Reaper miniatures kickstarter Daimyo set has several dinosaurs kitted out in ancient Japanese wear. Nice little break between terrain, I would have done some more, but realized I was just procrastinating on the terrain.

Parasaurolophus Kyudo

Samurai T-Rex

Ninja Dactyle

    Typical Jon, I get a bit stalled out on terrain sometime, especial ones that I am making myself. I get about half way through a piece and doubt my process. That's too big, I need less of that, why did I do that? Yadda ya all these pieces! Yadda, yadda. You know, hobby hang ups. This time I took a different angle, what if I don't make clean terrain? Lets get dirty with it!

First up, multi-use tree, cave people for scale, I wanted to allow movement underneath the tree. The tree is ancient, life always seems to cling to it despite almost looking deceased . Generations of tribes tell of an evil that lurks beneath this undying sentinel, one that has pushed the earth and uprooted life. Nature keeps this darkness at bay... for now.

    I also did a few objective markers for PrimEvo, resources to find or fight over, some bones for weapons and shelter and flint for warmth. Make a few more for food and hides too. This piece of terrain turned out fairly heavy with the plaster of paris on the tree. I probably could have just painted up the cloth mache that was over my wire frame. I picked up some winter trees at Michael's on my last visit, these would be good for a winter board for PrimEVO, but could be used for Super Mission Force or Don't Look Back as well.

    

    My first thoughts on this 3D Space Hulk piece was to throw on everything but the kitchen sink and grime it all up. BUT what if the ship had lower decks that some cults were worshipping chaos gods? With a peak into my bits box, I didn't really have the right stuff for an ritual alter. However, maybe it wasn't Chaos, but Dark Eldar having a bit of fun with their victims.

    Filleted flesh pinned to the wall, a massacred Salamander Space Marine left as a warning to those that would enter into their territory. I made a flesh sack of body parts from multiple victims too, but didn't find a good spot on it for this walkway with out impeding functionality. Which is to accommodate 40mm Terminator bases and visible squares to actually play the game. I left the back of the harddrive mount open for now, mostly didn't know what material to use for closing it off. I don't have much for sculpting tools, something which should get fixed in the future.

Sector Mechanicus Forgeshrine is up next, corrosion on the sides adds a nice lived in feel to the board. But is it enough? My inner nurgle player side says I didn't go far enough, coat the whole model in decay! If I did that, what's the point of spending my Jon bucks on featureless blobs of entropy? To please Papa nurgle of course!

Next on the Hobby Desk!

September is here! And with a month away from spooky month, what does a closet vampire work on between challenges? Why his skeletons challenges in his closet of course! Time to get back to the character of the month challenge and either actual skeletons or something to prepare to play Don't look Back in October.