More warriors ready for an adventure

In spite of having a cold, I mustered up the energy and will to finish off the three warriors. After some consideration, I decided to attempt a different skin colour scheme on the Pit Fighter. It is achieved with a mix of Dheneb Stone, grey, black and Elf Flesh. Though in what amounts, I cannot say. I just added colours and mixed it around until I achieved the desired colour.

We three

Almost finished putting together issue 4 of The Campaigner. And slightly ahead of schedule too!

Celebrated by making some progress on the three warriors I have been working on.

This is the first basic layers applied. Khemri Brown on first, most of it going onto the Wardancer. Then mixed black with a little grey and applied this to the Witch Hunter. Finally a thin layer of Elf Flesh onto all the skin areas.

Once those were dry, I could apply the next level of base colours. Firstly, another layer of Elf Flesh, to flatten out the tone. This was followed by Mithril Silver onto all the metal areas. Scab Red followed, picking out a few choice areas. Finally, I applied a layer of Dheneb Stone to areas I intend painting quite light colours, like the Wardancers hair.

That should be all the base colour painting done. Next I can move onto washes and highlights.

Slight warrior progress

This is more of an update post than anything, though some painting will appear in just a moment.

I have been hard at work putting together issue 4 of The Campaigner. I am especially eager for this to be something special, as it is the issue I will be hauling along with me to PAX Australia. It is really coming together nicely, and at 44 pages is the longest issue yet.

With that said, I pulled a half hour out of my schedule this weekend to make some slight progress with the Warhammer Quest miniatures. With the Wardancer, Pit Fighter and Witch Hunter undercoated black I applied a Bestial Brown first coat, as well as a grey to the base. At the moment I am still sorting the colours out in my head, especially with the Wardancer. It will be a challenge making him fit the dark red primary colour theme I have been utilising, while still having him look like a Wood Elf. However, I am looking forward to the challenge.

The Pit Fighter, the Wardancer and the Witch Hunter

Managed to slip some hobby time in this weekend, amazingly. Painting was out of the question, but preparing some models for eventual painting was certainly an option.

I have three metal Warhammer Quest Warrior Pack miniatures that I want to add to my Warhammer Quest set. These are the Pit Fighter, Wardancer and Witch Hunter. Two of these I could attach to the bases I sculpted earlier, which meant I just had to create an additional base.

Since I haven’t bought some more Milliput I decided to go with the wood filler. This time I added more filler than I needed, with the idea that I could sand it back to the level I wanted. Once I had filled the base with wood filler I allowed it to dry for a couple of hours. This meant it was easier to manipulate the wood filler and create the details I needed.

The Pit Fighter and Wardancer went onto the two bases already created, and I prepared the Witch Hunter to go onto the new base. I drilled out both his feet and inserted pins, which I then pushed through the drying wood filler so create a guide for where the model was to go.

Once the wood filler  was dry I sanded the top down to create a more even surface. When the pins were dry I glued the Witch Hunter to the base. I also glued the Pit Fighter and Wardancer to their bases. Once this dries I will undercoat them.

I am very happy with how the wood filler base came out. Making the base higher than I needed and sanding the top down worked well. It gives the base a more consistent look with the other bases from Back to Base-ix. Also, letting it dry a bit before creating the details made working with the wood filler a lot more manageable.

Once I pick up some more Milliput I will have to go through the Warrior Pack rules I have left and see who I can add next. I do not believe I have any more official models left, so the rest I will have to convert.

For the ancestors

Sat down and painted the Warhammer Quest Dwarf today. Took me three hours at the most, which is actually quite quick. But it all just came together really well. To be honest, I think the large areas of metal helped a bit.

With the other three Adventurers already painted, the groups actually looks quite impressive together. They all look really individual, but their unified colour scheme just ties them all together perfectly. I am now really excited to take these guys for a spin some time.

 

Warhammer Quest games of the past

Some more blasts from the past.

I ran a few Warhammer Quest campaigns in the early 2000s. Normally I would use the standard Warhammer Quest cardboard tiles, but on a couple of occasions I changed things up. In this case, I laid the playing area out more like a Warhammer battle, where the players could move a number of inches equal to their square movement. From memory, the players were escorting a caravan of carts which was ambushed. The warriors end up on a raft which docks at this abandoned town/encampment.

The players, and the characters they are playing, are:

• Brad is playing as a Warrior Priest called Sanchez.
• James is playing as a Barbarian called Aragorn.
• Jarryd is playing a Vampire called Count Cagliostro.
• This leaves Craig who must be playing the Elf Ranger, whose name I cannot discover.

I seem to recall that this campaign I introduced the diary mechanic. One of the players was in charge of a journal, and was responsible for recording the characters adventures. This was supposed to fulfil a number of roles. First, it meant that the players could read the journal to get some back story, rather than having to ask me the Gamemaster constantly where they were up too and what they were doing. It also allowed me to get a perspective on how the games were coming together from the player’s side, since the could only record the information and events they had encountered. Where as I knew about every little aspect of the games and story, and occasionally forgot that the players didn’t know all I knew.

And now some photos, taken with an ancient digital camera.

Game in progress.

Sanchez hides in a forest.

The ‘dungeon’ with everyone set up ready to play.

The ‘dungeon’ before everyone arrives.

Count Cagliostro scales the church.

Aragorn attacks a Minotaur in a camp.

Craig, apparently drumming with rulers.

Jarryd and Ziggy.

Brad and Craig.

Quick goblins

If I ever need to prove my speed painting credentials, I think goblins are my choice of model.

I started the goblin archers today. It took me about only an hour to get all the base colours on.

And then about another hour to Bedab Black wash them and highlight them all.

As with the goblin spearmen, the black cloaks are a mix of black and brown highlighted with a mix of black and grey, to give them some tone.

All that is left with the current miniatures is the Dwarf adventurer. Then I have to sort out 12 Snotlings and 12 Giant Spiders.

Corridor Clanrats completed

Managed to find a couple of hours both Saturday and Sunday and finished the Warhammer Quest Clanrats off. Again, I am really pleased with how individual they look, but also how cohesive they are to not only each other, but the entire miniature set for Warhammer Quest as a whole. There are eight Clanrats sporting shields, not only Skaven but Chaos, Bretonnian and Empire as well.

For the record, the Clanrat with the horse skull on his back is also holding his Empire shield upside down. He might look important, but is obviously not the most observant of the crew.

Putting these guys together has given me an idea for a Skaven background piece. It would deal with how Clanrats like this exist in a quite small dungeon area with a host of other monsters and survive more than a day. Another project to add to the pile!

No bull

Finished off the rest of the Minotaurs today. The red cloth sections, wood, metal and bone are basically the same as on the rest of the other models. I couldn’t, however, use the same cloth colours as on the other models, as this was already too close to the Minotaurs skin colour. So I used a lighter brown set, with Khemri Brown as the base and Dheneb Stone as the highlight colour. I also watered down some Blood Red and lightly washed this over parts of the weapons, the ends of the horns and the knuckles of the fists.

Since the lighting was so nice, I also took a picture of how the Warhammer Quest miniatures are shaping up.

Something to cow about

It has been hot here the last few days, reaching at least 40 and above. So of course, it is perfect weather for sitting in the shed and painting Minotaurs.

I did the base colours yesterday, where I could get out small amounts of paint and get though it that way. Then this morning I got up fairly early (extremely early, for a Sunday) and did the washes and skin highlights before it got too hot.

The skin is a base of Bestial Brown, with Snakebite Leather layered on top. This was all washed in Bedab Black, and then I used a mixture of Snakebite Leather and Dheneb Stone to highlight it.