A new town deserves a new mat.

I'm trying some new mat options.  I picked up two 'Autumn' mats from Geek Villain to try out.  Sadly they're far more green than advertised (or so I find), but they seem to work well with the stuff I have on hand, so I may well keep them.  If it bugs me too much I'll flip them.

I also knocked out two small fenced in yards/gardens --- one of which will need plants applied in the future.

I also finally set up eight of my ten new "village" buildings I built a month or two ago.

These are MDF kits from Knights of Dice's 'Tabula Rasa' range --- sadly the company is closing shop this month.  I've paneled them and added teddy bear fur as thatch.  After seeing them on the table, I may try to darken the thatch some more - not sure.

I tried setting up a simple village just to test all the terrain from the past month or two.  I don't love the neoprene road, and I need more fences, but it's a nice start.

'Scatterpalooza' 2023 comes to an end...

Well the majority of scatter terrain has now been purchased and painted. I finished up with some old resin boats and another Wizkids kit --- mainly because I really liked the barrel rafts they included.

More...and more scatter. Nonstop scatter.

I may not have painted as many miniatures as I normally do by this point in the year, but the "year of terrain" continues.  This is more scatter for the as-yet-secret terrain project.

I was so happy with the Wizkids stuff from the other week that I picked up some more - and I have even more to paint!  They really make excellent stuff for ancients and fantasy settings --- even if I prefer to repaint them to bring them tonally inline with my other terrain.

More stuff for the farmsteads and similar settings.

Some interior details and stuff I'll probably use in the dungeon crawl along with ancients and the fantasy skirmishes.

Some 3D printed fantasy scatter my buddy sent to me a while ago.  Actually put them under something, and forgot about them!

Breaking the painting hiatus...kinda...sorta...

I've been off of painting for the past month or so.  Initially it was a week spent moving my brother into his new house.  Shortly before that I was sick for a few days.  Then after that...I was sick again for a week or two.  Since feeling better my motivation has been pretty poor.  I have - in fact - been working on "something" in the background, but it's not blog-worth just yet.

 I finally got off my ass today and did a little something.  I have ordered a handful of the rather decent Wizkids D&D pre-painted terrain sets.  They're selling for 30-40% off on Amazon and have proven to have some decent scatter terrain in them.  Of course, painted.

 Which...meant I opened the box and immediately primed them to repaint them!

Some various live-stock.  I re-based some horses I had from about a year ago, so that they match the table more easily.  I repainted the oxen and simply based the cows.  I may use the oxen to pull carts, and the rest of the animals are just for scenery (or use).

 

A bunch of the new scatter terrain promptly repainted.  It's some nice farm stuff.  The sculpts are not bad at all, though they don't clean too well with knives/files (it's that kind of plastic). 

 
 

A game and some Berserkers.

 Nothing much to report lately, but a small GM'ed game of Merciless.

And painted up a few more stands of Berserkers for my FSF army.

Games!; Merciless, Scrapheap and a Secret project!

 A few awful pictures from a handful of games over the past week.

Also had a buddy over to playtest a new secret project!

Caw, caw motha f***a!

So, a random and...semi-pointless post.

For Merciless and Scrapheap I need vultures, birds of prey, and proto-hawks, etc.  I scooped up a box of Malifaux Raptors, and they'll stand in until I find some more appropriate miniatures (if I ever bother, it's pretty low on my priority list!).

Received today, whipped em up, primed, painted and based them.  They're exceptionally fragile - par the course for Malifaux unfortunately.  I don't imagine they'll survive much gaming, particularly their exceptionally slender (sub 0.3mm) legs.

Goblins and Dwarves & Behind the Scenes nonsense.

 I know my blog has stalled a bit in the past month, but that's due to a couple reasons.

1. I'm working a ton on writing rules for Scrapheap and Merciless (and will then resume CCC work).  So there's nothing to show on the blog when I type a few more pages or edit more files, etc.

2. I've been trying to clear off hobby pests; or items that have sat on my hobby desk for six months or a year...without being resolved.  I painted a leftover piece of river that I missed doing when I re-did my Gale Force 9 rivers maybe a year ago.  I finished(?) assembling and quickly spraying my 4Ground train which was...the most hateful hobby experience I've had in years.  No pictures because I hate it, but it sat unfinished on my desk for a LONG time after starting it.  An abysmal kit of paper and card...and minimal MDF.  Over-engineered and flimsy as fuck.  However, finishing it (while throwing out half the pieces) meant I could just tick off that box and get it out of the hobby room.

3. Dip.  I've a few new cans of Army Painter Strong Tone dip and for some reason...they take a week to dry instead of overnight like my previous cans.  Perhaps they changed a formular or I magically picked up three bad cans...but the result is that I have a bunch of miniatures just sitting...waiting to dry.  So you're more likely to see bursts of pictures/models on this blog than the daily stuff - as I might spend three nights in a row painting...and not be able to show anything for a week afterward.

4. The great sell off.  I've been spending a lot of time listing old stuff on eBay to clear space.  My 40K projects are being sold off as I don't see myself ever playing the game again - probably not even 2nd edition, which has been a pet project of mine for some time.  There are a few Necromunda kits I'd like to pick up, and maybe the Eldar Corsairs (for use with Scrapheap), but I can say my 40K days are actually over...unless someone develops a fun skirmish game for it.

So...now a few pictures of some Merciless we did with a scenario of Goblins raiding a Dwarf hold.

The dwarves must hold out against an entire 54-card deck of Goblins.

As the dwarves set to defend themselves, Goblin arrows find their mark.

A large spider NPC consumes one of the most well armed dwarves.

The Goblins slowly funnel down the stairs into the dwarf hold.

Games!: Merciless, but in a dungeon

My buddy felt like DM'ing some dungeon crawling style scenarios, so we used Merciless to do so.  It worked well, and perhaps I'll add a simple bestiary to the Merciless rules to make it easy for players to run ad hoc scenarios.

Games!: Merciless

Yesterday was deemed to be a good day for fantasy skirmish gaming and lasagna.  A crazy couple of tables, and some silly games ensued.