Falling off the Oliphaunt

      Whelp! It happened! I was doing pretty good at the paint what you got challenge for this year, only having 2 or 3 miniatures positive or negative of zero (at least points wise).

      But then I have been listening to podcasts about Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Battle Companies and I might've found a really good listing on Ebay......

       So that's 41 Haradrim Warriors (23 archers and 18 spears), 3 Serpent Gaurd, 12 Haradrim Raiders (6 spears, 1 banner and 5 archers which aren't shown) and The Betrayer on foot and mounted. 

       I think I have enough for Battle Companies.... running all this plus 

24 more Warriors I had before hand would be roughly 700 pts. The Betrayer is a Hero of Valour able to lead only 15 soldiers under his command. I did just paint up several Ringwraiths that all could lead an extra 15 each. Can't recall if there is a max duplicate heroes you can have, I'll have to check my rulebook.

       I'll probably trade some of these as this seems too much. Kitbash some to be chieftans heroes. Eventually get a 3D Printed Oliphaunt. 

Painted: 0

Purchased: -17

Total: -86 (ouch!)

Next on the Hobby blog

       I might have also went to Sentry Box during our stay in Calgary..... stay tuned for pictures of the haul.

Monster May(hem) 2024 Wrap-Up

     Another May, another batch of monster painted. At the start of May, I was going to just do a smattering of random creatures in my collect. But as I looked through my pile of opportunity, I found something a bit more themed.

Rising Sun is a CMON game with clan vying for power over territories all over Japan. One aspect of the game is summoning Oni to help spread their influence. And what is an oni besides a monster?

Oni of Souls

Yurei

Cool shoulder and seemingly walking away?

Komainu

Oni of Spite

River Dragon

    Here are all the monsters gathered together for their group shot. I have previously painted up 3 warriors from the Koi clan which I used for scale.

    I have also picked up Fistful of Kung fu, which is why I have based them, just in case I want to use them as oni in that game as well.

    I am overall pleased with the results, they paint up pretty quickly which is good because I have another 3 to paint (Oni of Skulls, Hate and Blood). These last three look like they might be more difficult then these five. As per Keith's challenge? dare? ultimatum? mild suggestion? I have painted a dragon, a river Dragon. I believe I have a couple more Reaper dragons, and I have dragonmen? Do they count? Surely they were dragons before being men.

Painted: 15

Purchased: -17

Total: -2

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Our summer is going to be booked pretty solid with trips during the summer, I might see you all in the fall! Just kidding, I will have sometime later in June for painting. Probably go back to Tail Feathers to finish it up.

What's in your head? Zombie, Zombie

     Zombicide Black Plague is a 1-6 player game by CMON games, where players fight against a necromancer, hordes of zombies and nightmarish abominations. The box comes with 70 zombies to paint up. Most are generic, but there are two special zombies, Runners and "Fatties" as the manual calls them. The player controls your typical dwarf, human, and elf characters. While slaying zombies, your character instantly improves in skill.

     My goal right now is to paint up one hero, the necromancer, abomination as well as enough zombies to fill up the rest of the board (probably like 20 for solo). Basing every miniature was probably a bit much, but I did pick a simple three colour scheme for the zombies, mixing colours between hats, shirts and pants, hoping it would speed up painting. This is what I have finished so far.

    Ooops, those pictures probably could have been a bit clearer. If you couldn't see it, there are 12 zombies, with 2 "bulky" zombies and 3 runners in the mix. 

    After painting up a small batch, I might start another three colour scheme to add in a bit more variety. 70 in this colour scheme might blend in too much. There are some accessories that haven't been accented with their own colours, I might come back to finish those once the other zombies are done, for now these are finished.

    I wasn't going to count this towards Monster Mayhem as they aren't nearly monstrous enough for the challenge. The real monster here is my photography!

Painted: 12

Purchased: -17

Total: -5

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I am rounding the bend on some of the monsters that I have been painting up. Stay tuned to check them out!

Tail Feathers

     One board game that I have been focusing on is Tail Feathers. Just replace the ships in the x-wing miniatures game with mice riding birds, and you basically have Tail Feathers. It is set in the Mice and Mystics setting, which has you control a Prince and some of his followers as they explore the castle to undo the spell that has changed them all into mice.

Expansions seemed to have been planned for the game, possibly new mice and bird ship models sold separately, but it must not have sold well enough to warranty Plaid Hat's investment. Where is my pelican bomber? 

Delusional requests aside, here is what I have actually painted. 

Autumn Archer Mice

Crossbow Rats

Rat Assassin

Both Tail Feathers Infantry 

    With the infantry in the bag, all that's left are the bird with riders and a measuring stick. I am looking forward to painting fun bird colours, but that will need to wait. I have joined the Monster May(hem) again this year, so that will be my number 1 project for the rest of May. 

Painted: 13

Purchased: -30

Total: -17

Next on the Hobby Desk 

    I have zombies from Zombicide Black Plague that I have been batch painting off and on between projects. Hopefully complete a couple monsters too.

March painting, finally.

     After a productive first two months, I have started to slow down on the painting it seems. Not because I don't have stuff to paint, but I am a bit directionless as I don't have any specific wargame that I am currently playing. This blog entry is well overdue, as a lot of the miniatures have been finished in March and it's apparently mostly thought April now!?

    First up, a triple threat of metal harpies from Gamesworkshop. I bought these when Thunder games and gifts closed in January. Frostgrave has peaked my interest recently, so now I wish I had painted them in cooler colours. Doesn't matter, still enjoyed painting them, pick out more metal minis to paint soon.

S'Kara, female Skoli (reaper miniatures) was painted up to about 90% last year, adding I couple more colours has now taken her off my painting desk. Was going to be part of the Paint an Adventuring Party Challenge for last year, but didn't get much finished for it.

Obligatory battle scene

    Mech Attack! is a skirmish game that simplifies the rules to Battletech for those that don't want to read through all the crunchy rules. (though I might dip into the lore a bit more). I have Alpha Strike on PDF, a simplified version of Battletech and it is 250 pages? That doesn't sound very streamlined to me. I first heard about Mech Attack from the Chicago Skirmish Wargames blog. They take the game to a whole new scale, a scale I'd love to build for but for now, I'll repaint my heroclix.

Slattern and Coyote Tango rebase and repaint

Scunner and Gipsy Danger WIP

        A friendly local game store one town over called Dragon's Den has had a couple Resident Evil 2 board game expansions on their sale rack for over a year now. I offered to buy both for an additional discount on one expansion. This was my second big purchase of miniatures this year. B-Files came with 8 zombies, 2 Lickors and 2 forms of Mr. X, the stalker type nemesis that hunts you throughout the game. Survival Horror adds a PVP mode adding 7 survivors to play as in the main game, as well as 2 Ivy plants, 2 Giant Spiders and 2 zombie survivors. A grand total of 25 miniatures to paint up. I also traded away a box Kabalite warriors for 3 Space wolf Thunderwolf cavalry as well as 2 Space Marine Captains and 1 Dark Eldar Incubi and wytch. Broke even on the trade as it would be 10 points total for both. 
    

Hunk and Tofu, yes, a walking piece of Tofu

    In the Resident Evil game, when tofu gets damaged, he turns pink and has chunks bitten off of him. Hence the pink colour scheme.

Painted: 8 points

Purchased: -38 points

Total: -30 points

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Birds! Well actually mice and rats. I have been working away on Tail Feathers and have finished up all the infantry in the box. I just need to get some pictures taken.

"They are the Nazgûls, Ringwraiths, neither living nor dead."

    So far so good for the painting challenge this year, I haven't purchased any new models yet.... well, that's not quite true. I did buy some X-wing miniatures used for Full Thrust but I don't plan on painting those and thus not going on my pile of opportunity. Now to actually read the rules for Full Thrust to play with them! 

    

    Hot on the heels of the fellowship are the Ringwraiths. These beings that are devoid of anything expect their will to hunt down the one ring were great to paint up. I thought that using the blue/ purple on their cloaks would make them too bright and cheery but it seemed to work out well. I do have more to paint, I just picked out models that didn't need much work to get to painting. 

Nine would have been a better number.

Mounted Nazguls

Ringwraiths on foot

Forces of Evil

    A good start to my Evil forces, I would be able to run the trolls and wraiths together. Next would be to paint up some minions to be led by these leaders.

Painted: 10 points

Purchased: -32points

Total: -13 points

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Not much painting going on the desk right now, making some 10mm buildings for a game called Mech Attack! which is a simpler Battletech game. Nothing to show yet, but hopefully I can get some time to tinker around with it.