On the painted table - Fortune and Glory

/

Board Games - The sheer number of board games on the market with good quality miniatures is pretty amazing. I don't have anywhere near enough time to play all of them so when a client brings me something I haven't seen before I get pretty excited. Theminis from Fortune and Glory remind me of Indiana Jones a bit. With mobsters, cultists and Nazis it seems the heroes will have their hands full.

These are painted to my basic tabletop standard. After blocking in the base colors and applying a wash I went in and applied highlights and details on each piece. Once you get paint on them they don't look like blobs of colored plastic and feel closer to a standard tabletop miniatures game.

If you pick this game up I suggest painting or having the pieces painted to bring the experience to life.

Off the painting table - Shadows Over Camelot Expansion

/

Board Games - With King Arthur coming out I think this game might get a second look for people looking to do a theme night before going out to see Charlie Hunnam trade in his hog for a horse and suit of chainmail. ThisDays of Wonder title is one of the traitor mechanic games that seemed to be all the rage a few years ago.

This set of models is from the Merlin's company expansion that introduces Merlin as a character and gives Sir Bedivere his own figure with special coat of arms.

Mad in the Mansion

/

Board Games - Mansions of Madness looks like a pretty amazing game, that is if the game is anywhere near the same level of quality as the miniatures. I'm going to have to check this on out if I can ever get to a board game night and demo the game. I've heard there may be some type of deck builder that feels similar to the board game but I haven't done my research to confirm. (currently my game nights don't have room for another game of this type, however after painting these up I might need to see if I can squeeze it in.)

These are painted to a tabletop level. Some basic shading, highlighting and variety of colors across the full range. I kept the bases black as my understanding is the game carries across several different types of terrain and as such it makes more sense for a simple black base to frame the models.  

We're all Mad Here ... Mansions of Madness WIP

/

Board Games – Fantasy Flight certainly knows how to fill a box with cool little extras that add a ton to a game. Case in point Mansions of Madness could function just fine with paper cut outs, or wooden meeples but going the extra mile and doing 3D sculpts of every monster and character really takes it to the next level.

My regular board game client recently dropped of the core game and what looks to be all the expansions. There's something like 75 pieces to this batch that need to painted to a tabletop quality. 

With a big batch of models like this I start by separating them into models that will share similar colors. For example Cthulu and most of the deep ones are green, the cultists are red etc. This lets me assembly line the base coats and shading quickly so I can get to the detail stage which takes a little while with board game minis as they don't have the level of detail that pops out after a wash that traditional tabletop models do. Which means I need to work a little harder to bring out what's there.

 

On the painting table ... A Touch of Evil

/
On the painting table ... A Touch of Evil

Boardgames – It's always a bit odd for me when I get a painting job and I know very little about the game system the models are used for. Lately that's been happening quite a bit with board game miniatures. My primary focus has always been on table wargames so many of the cool board games fall off my radar. 

Read More

Angels of Death - Space Hulk Complete

/
Angels of Death - Space Hulk Complete

Warhammer 40,000 – The second half of the Space Hulk commission I've been working on has wrapped up. These are really basic Blood Angels. The whole job is a simple 3-Color job with a wash. Since they are just board game pieces my client didn't want anything fancy. I have more photos of these in the 40K Gallery.

Read More

Stealing Genes ...

/
Stealing Genes ...

Space Hulk – Genestealer Cults are back and I for one am excited. One of my regular clients recently dropped off a set of Space Hulk miniatures from the most recent version of the game to have me paint up to a basic standard. I never managed to pick up a copy of the game for myself, partially because a friend owns it and partially because I have a full bug hunt corridor set that I can play Zone Mortalis 40K on to get that type of feel. Or so I thought ...

Read More

Sin City ... Welcome to Haven

/
Sin City ... Welcome to Haven

The Others: Seven Sins – I recently received a big box of stuff for the C'MON kickstarter The Others: Seven Sins. (yeah the name is a bit long... I'm just going to call it The Others). As wil most C'MON kickstarters it was late about five months or so, nothing compared to the several year delay of Kingdom Death or Relic Knight but still a sizable delay. I'm not sure how their estimator still has a job with that kind of track record, but honestly this wasn't something I was super eager to get, the amount of stuff you got for $100 was pretty sick and even if the game turned out terrible they'd be fun to paint.

Read More

On the painting table ... Deathwatch

/
On the painting table ... Deathwatch

Warhammer 40,000 – One of my regular clients sent over the Deathwatch marines from the Overkill board game to have painted to match his Inquisitor/Grey Knight/Assassin force. I don't know how effective they are on the battlefield but the models look amazing. They are however one pose models, which is the thing I dislike about other companies plastic models. The poses are dynamic and look cool, however the end result is you have the exact same models as everyone else that chooses to play it. The thing that always set GW above the rest was the possibility and customizability of their models and kits. I have bins of space marine parts and can spend days building random dudes that just look cool. With the new direction that is significantly harder to do. Hopefully the multi part kits with more possibility stay part of the range in the future.

Read More

Execution Force ... The Chaos Side

/
Execution Force ... The Chaos Side

Warhammer 40,000 – As part of the massive pile of commission work I'm attempting to crank through one of my clients dropped off the models for Execution Force that he wants to have painted up in a generic scheme. He's actually going to use these to play the game and wanted a basic three color with a wash. 

Read More

Beware Ninjas

/
Beware Ninjas

Ninja All-Stars – I recently received a big package from Soda Pop Miniatures containing the backer rewards for their Ninja All-stars Kickstarter. Since they've taken over running their own Kickstarters everything seems to be delivering on time or at least really close. Makes me wonder who was at fault for the Relic Knights debacle (Really a shame because it's a great game with a fun system and background that got the shaft because of the way the Kickstarter went)

Read More

Busting makes me feel ... good?

/

Kickstarter – So the Ghostbusters Board game had it's retail release on 11/11/15. As of his writing I still haven't received shipping notice for my "pre-ordered" game. I'm not really sweating it but on the comments section for this project people have had their pitchforks and torches ready since Halloween. (Initially promised to be in backer's hands by Samhain or 10/31 depending on your preference).

Read More

On the painting table ... Kingdom Death: Monster

/

Kingdom Death – After having a few play sessions of this game I've decided to focus on getting the core monsters and survivors painted up. Initially I started with a grey base for the face cobblestone/gravel bases I made. After seeing them on the board I decided that I needed to match the color of the board. I mixed up a really dark brown color and repainted all the bases. From there I worked up the highlights to match the sepia tone of the game board. I'm really happy with how much better these match the game board.

Read More