Dragon Metal Tag III: Citadel Oriental Dragon

I didnt need a dragon model for my current project, but I wanted one.

DRAGON METAL TAG II - Djh'mee and Joh'dee

There comes a time in every Creep's life when he looks upon a thing that he loves and thinks, 'I need to cut this until it looks more pleasing to mine eye.'  Such was the case with the Citadel Nightmare Dragon, sculpted by Nick Bibby.

La Déviation Fatale - A Discourse on Paper Counters

I'm not entirely sure how it started. I may have made some vaguely taunting comments about using paper counters for gaming - not the printed, card-mounted versions mind, but the hastily scribbled ones on scraps of torn paper.

Some time later, this had become a running joke. It turns out that cheetor has a deep-seated abhorrence towards such low tech gaming aids. Like these:

A helpful clarification.

Who needs a model when you can proxy with paper?

Meet Your Maker: An Introspective Blog

There comes a time in every ongoing group 'flow-of-consciousness' type chat scenario where someone will suddenly say, usually in the middle of a frank discussion about the current global political landscape, "OoO! If we were minis, what sculptor would do us?"

In this instance it was Mr Saturday, and we managed to boil this massively vain, self-appraising concept down to the following answers:

Girls, Girls, Girls!

I'm still not sure that this is a good idea, but here goes anyway.

There was a plan.

And that plan was to play wholly non-serious bar game involving brawling Orks. Patrick Swayzork, Da Sweedork Chef and Rubbaleg had already thrown hats into the ring, but a new contender was required.

Then there was an idea.

And that idea was to do something really silly. REALLY silly.

Components were sourced...

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #2

Another couple of additions for the Deadites today. Two more of the warband's characters, The wizard and the captain. I might be taking something of a risk pouring all that gold into a captain for a starting warband, but what the hell, it feels right.

The Kandarian is the warband's wizard. The 'Dark Ones' are shown to be the authors of the Necronomicon in Ash vs Evil Dead, so it made sense to include one of these mysterious dudes as the warband leader. He'll mostly be using Necromancy.

You all know who this is. Bad Ash will function as the warband's captain. I'm assuming he will bungle any duties given to him in spectacular fashion, but as long as it proves entertaining I'm cool with it. It wouldn't be a Deadite warband without Ash's evil twin in the mix. It'll be fun picking traits for him.

With these two done, the warband is starting to fill out. Next up we have a flying Deadite (thief) and an undead hound for Bad Ash to confide in.

Frostknave Part 1

As we are such a bunch of lonely saddoes, we Wipsters have to go to extreme lengths on order to get some games of mini-men pushing in. 

In our latest globe trotting effort we are all heading to Ireland to be regaled with local legends, drink several kidney's worth of alcohol, gingerly manhug each other and principally to gate crash a board game convention. We've already discussed the mornings RT shenanigans (I'm manfully attempting to get more mooks painted) but in the afternoon and into the evening we are planning to pop our collective Frostgrave Cherry. Hopefully our familiarity with the rules will keep pace with our level of inebriation and we'll all have a great time and win some games.

With this in mind we have been feverishly painting our Warbands ready for that fateful weekend, you will already have seen Mr Saturday's burgeoning deadites and now it's time for me and the Assless one to show you what we've got and why we decided to pick, not only the figures but the henchman for our warbands.

What do you mean you've never seen....?

"- Dude, I think I haven't seen that movie...
- Jeeeeez, how is that even possible !"

There are some films out there that could be considered 'formative' - they help define a period, create a culture of references, in-jokes, memes and fond memories. These are films that 'everyone' has seen, that 'everyone' can relate to, that everyone just knows.

Except there's always that one friend who goes "what's Bill and Ted?"

And there is a collective hush.

And someone says "Dude how the fuck can you not have seen Bill and Ted??"

Most of those films are like made of bricks of imagination we each process with our own imagination to come up with new ideas and creativity.

For Fantasy, those films would be :

- Bakshi's LOTR and Wizards

- Willow
- The Black Cauldron

- The Dark Crystal

- Conan & Red Sonja

- Heavy Metal

- Evil Dead

- Excalibur

- Highlander

- Legend

- The Princess Bride

And for Sci-fi :

- Bladerunner

- Starwars

- Dune

- Running Man

- Terminator

- Alien

- Aliens

- Total Recall

- Robocop

- Flash Gordon

- Escape From New York

- Mad Max (and 2)

- Wrath of Khan

- Brazil

- Predator

Boltgraaaavvveeee!!! Who needs snow?

April is advancing upon us. A good proportion of our merry band of bloggers, including myself, will be playing some toy soldier games, including one that I hear is rather popular these days. That's right, Frostgrave.

I know some of you fine folks can look at some written rules, and instantly understand the game mechanics. Not me. I have to play the thing to understand how it works. And I really want to make sure that in April, I'm not the simpleton who has no grasp of how to play Frostgrave.

Happily, my good friend Graham agreed to learn the game with me. Except I hadn't finished painting my warband. And Graham doesn't have any fantasy miniatures. Damn!

"What if," I asked Graham "we just use some 40k figures?"

"You mean, play a game of Boltgrave?" Graham replied.

"I like it!" I said.

Playing Boltgrave

Long ago the great city of Boltstad sat at the centre of the Imperium. Its towering industrial flues, labyrinthine slums, and immense data-libraries were the wonder of the age...

If you change the focus, tweak the lenses, and look left instead of right, you can easily flip from the snowy fantasy ruined city of Frostgrave, to the darkly gothic setting of the 41st millennium. Wizards can become psykers. Fighters and soldiers can become...um...fighters and soldiers. Pistols become very close range (i.e. combat only), exotic heavy weapons become bows or crossbows. Pretty neat if I say so myself!

Don't believe me? Here's my 'Wizard' and her warband, masquerading as a pair of Astropaths and their Adeptus Arbites escort:

Alternatively, if gribbly subversive alien cults are more your thing (and why wouldn't they be with Deathwatch Overkill on the horizon), here's another 'Wizard' and his warband, masquerading as a Genestealer Coven:



Additional 'Archer' and 'Man-at-arms' not pictured.