Gamer A.D.D. - Dwarf Warband for SoBaH

I went on a Reaper BONES buying spree, trying to collect all the Dwarfs they had. I love reaper bones minis for several reasons. The big one is they are cheap and easy to convert. I had originally collected all these guys for Frostgrave, but lately Song of Blades and Heroes has begun to fill that spot.

The left mini I replaced the greatsword with a gromril hammer from the Hammerers kit. The right mini was simply replacing the religious icon with a pair of tongs holding a smoking rune from the Runelord kit. He was originally supposed to be my enchanter wizard for Frostgrave.

With these two, I replaced what they were holding (crossbow and spear) with good ol' dwarf handguns from the Thunderers kit. I also sculpted on proper dwarf beards, as all members of my warband should have. These are smaller beards, so they are the young members, beardlings, if you will.

The left mini I just sculpted on a young beard, as well as with the right mini. These guys are the trappers and mancatchers of my warband.

This mini was originally supposed to be a construct for my Frostgrave wizard, he still definitely has a place in my warband as the stone beard I sculpted on him fits with the theme perfectly.

And finally for a couple minis that were never part of my original warband because Frostgrave has no rules for mounted minis; but this game does! I love the idea of dwarf bear riders since I read this book. It's just a cool concept and very fitting I think. The mini on the right is complete, I just added a face shield on the rider, barding on the bear, and replaced her sword with a dwarf axe. All these bits I gather are from the Warriors kit. The mini on the left was a much bigger conversion project, and a little daunting at first. The bear is metal, and was one of the minis I bought as I was experimenting for which bear head I needed for my Lord-Celestant conversion. Since the bear wasn't going to work, I just stored him away, thinking I may need him later. Well I wanted 2 bear riders, so I figured this mini could be reposed. I just cut away at her armour and by sticking her in boiling water I could spread her legs a little wider and she would keep shape. Then with greenstuffing for the saddle and bits for barding, she was complete!

I own more Bones Dwarfs, but I kept them pretty much as is. And here they are, all named and profiled, ready for a basic game of Song of Blades and Heroes!

Gamer A.D.D. - Song of Blades and Heroes (SoBaH)

I have just recently happened upon the Song of Blades and Heroes family of games by Ganesha Games. I gotta say I am getting hooked. I love the idea of skirmish gaming, and lately I have been interested in fantasy. This has started to take the place of Frostgrave for my interest in fantasy skirmish (Note: Age of Sigmar I do not consider a fantasy skirmish, so that still holds the mass battles spot for me).

From what I am reading, the core game system is simpler and more flexible than Frostgrave. You build the profiles for your models from scratch, and it uses an equation for configuring their points values. This is a really good feeling because I love the idea of making profiles to match the miniatures, rather than making/finding miniatures to match the profiles.

The system is really simple and could be a great intro to teach people about miniature wargaming, because all the elements are there for it, without going too complex. One of my Youtubers did a video on it that I like. Also another blogger I follow used this game to teach his young daughter her first miniatures game in a post. A lesson I plan to emulate with mine. Right now my daughter is only 4, and so we are still trying to teach her the fundamentals of Uno and Candyland.

So for fun I went around and started making profiles for a bunch of minis. This is what Reaper was made for. Cheap minis with a huge variety, allowing you to build whatever warband you want.

I have 3 books of this, I will go through each one with a description.

This is the basic rulebook for SoBaH, and the rules in their simplest form. With this you could easily build a warband of just about any type and theme, and all the images above use the rules from this alone.

For those wanting more granularity in the game, and this provides just that. Mainly an additional reaction mechanic to make the games a little more interesting, along with actual weapon and magic rules. The other edition has an abstraction of weapons and magic to keep it simple. This is pretty massive in what it brings and can be kind of overwhelming. The unfortunate thing is when reading through this book, the simplicity of the game loses some of its charm, but the good thing is there are a lot more options for building profiles.

This is a standalone post apocalyptic scifi game using the SoBaH system. I actually got to play a demo game with my brother using this, and it was a lot of fun. It's very interesting to experience the core game system and see how it works. He played his Orks, using them as mutant humans, and I played my Inquisition, using them as pureblood humans. Again, the beautiful thing about these games is you build the profiles to match the minis you have, not the other way around. It really makes those conversions you do worth while.

I will go over some conversions I did on some Reaper minis for my Dwarf warband in a later post.

Quick Tip - Cupcake Trays

Just a little hobby tip I thought I'd share. I love this.

I usually plan out my conversions and building units of models ahead of time, this means arranging all the bits and ensure there are no doubles in pairings of similar bits to each other to help ensure each model in a unit is uniquely posed in some way.

I used to lay the bits out on a table, but it took up too much space and was prone to getting knocked around or bits rolling into other piles.

This was me planning out the bits for one of my units of Wracks.

So I use a cupcake tray. It keeps the bits separated and I can arrange them at ease. Whenever I build a unit, I will always use this first. Also as I am gluing models, I use the assembly line method just like with painting. I will go through each mini and glue the legs to torsos, then once I get through them all the paint should be dry for me to do all the heads, etc.

Commission - Ork Lootas and Painting Guide

The last part of the commission for my brother is complete. The lootas. Also to help him out, I am providing somewhat of a simple painting guide to help him out in doing the rest of his army. I kept the painting using simple quick techniques for speed and ease.

First you start off by priming grey. I used the Rustoleum gray primer I reviewed here.

Next I did Agrax Earthsade over the entire model. Everywhere. This creates a pre-shade, because we are mostly going to paint with washes.

Next I drybrushed Leadbelcher on all the metal parts. The combination of the gray primer, and brown shade makes for a dulled dirty metal look.

Next I applied Biel-tan Green on all the ork skin. Be careful not to get the wash anywhere else but the skin, as it is hard to cover up a wash color with other washes. Don't worry about getting it on claws and teeth, as those will be painted with actual paints.

Next I wanted to paint the cloth and any gloves. I was sure to avoid any leather and pants. The cloth I did a red, which was some Carroburg Crimson was mixed with a drop of Mephiston Red. This makes the wash a lot more opaque while keeping its good wash property of pooling in recesses. Then I did the same on the boots, but it was a mix of Nuln Oil with a drop of Abaddon Black. Also I did just plain Nuln Oil on the recessed metal parts, and sort of messy in various spots. I didn't want to cover the rusty look from the Agrax Earthshade, and you want the black oily look uneven to sell the look of orks. This is what's great about orks, you can afford to be a little sloppy.

Now we applied a simple layer of the signature Tau sept blue and tan. The colors used here are Karak Stone and Caledor Sky. I wasn't too thoorough with this because I didnt want to get paint on unwanted parts (again it's hard to cover paints with washes) and this is metal and material that has been scraped to heck through rough ork treatment and hammering.

Now we are going to do a chipping and scraping on the tan and blue paint. I used as crappy brush and a spackling technique to paint Mournfang Brown on the edges of the bits (pretty much anywhere parts scrape and rub against each other or other survaces mostly). On larger stuff you would do the same but using a sponging. This is the base rust of the chipping.

Now I used the same spackling technique to apply Leadbelcher on all the spots with the brown, but keep it within the brown trying not to cover it up too much. This shows the paint completely chipped off. I didn't show it next, but I also went back over the new metal and painted bits sporadically with Agrax Earthshade again to put a dirty rusty look over that.

All that is pretty much left are the small details, like glow effects, teeth, etc.

Basing my Duardin and Forgesworn Eternals

For a while I was debating on how I would base my Duardin and Stormcast Eternals. I wanted to try something other than sand and paint. I also know I wanted to try some snow, using a handy little tip I discovered to make snow paste out of a mixture of baking soda, white acrylic paint, and PVA glue (I'll do a post about that method when I get to that point).

Then I saw this kickstarter, and fell in love. I've seen the basius kickstarters before, but as with most things from over the great pond, the price range keeps me at bay. However this new kickstarter is doing smaller 50mm square texture pads at a much more affordable price range. And it was this pad I am totally stoked about:

So I will be using that texture on all my bases to join both armies' themes together, and add some snow on top of that. I can also see some use for this on my display board.

So check them out. For about $15 US (incl. shipping and handling) is about how much one pad will cost. They still have about a week to go and are way past their goals.

VEGAS BABY!

 It's happening, I am actually doing it. I reserved my ticket to the Las Vegas Open this February 2017. I will be attending the Age of Sigmar grand tournament, wherein I will bring my Duardin and Forgesworn Eternals. This is exciting because they said that Games Workshop will be attending the event, and this may be the first AoS GT since the awaited release of the much anticipated General's Handbook.

What this means is painting priority of my Forgesworn Eternals and Duardin models have been bumped up to the top again, right after I finish painting my Haemonculus Covens. More as that develops.