A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Chibi Style – Ages ago I picked up a bunch of minis from Impact Miniatures fully intending to create some rules for Super Dungeon Explore. Unfortunately I managed to get distracted and they sat on the shelf for years. Fast forward to 2020, between having lots more family time and realizing my boys can both read well enough to finally play my games meant lots of games found new life.
Read MoreNinja All-Stars – I’ve been able to make a dent in my personal backlog this year, not necessarily the models I had planned on painting for the Year of the Rat. (This was going to be all Necromunda all the time, but the nature of that game requires social interaction with a group of people, 2020 being what it’s been my gangs have been on hiatus.) The amount of time I’ve been spending with the kids has reinvigorated my interest in some game that I had shelved, Ninja All-Stars is one that didn’t quite click with my gamer friends but my kids love it, and to be honest it’s grown on me.
Clan Yamazaru is the fourth named clan I’ve painted up, leaving me with just Clan Kitsune, Tanchyo and some Ronin to complete. I don’t think Ninja Division is supporting the game any more so once I finish the stuff that’s out I’ll have the entire game fully painted. Which is really exciting because the game is beautiful and the models look so good with paint on them.
Warhammer 40,000 – Up until recently I rarely saw Necrons on my table. Generic silver models with pre-colored plastic rods meant most anyone could paint them up with little to no effort. As the line was refreshed and the glowing acrylic rods began phasing out painting them became a little more work and with the recent releases player want to get their killer robots back on the table.
These two vehicles are painted to match an existing force which means the scheme is just generic silver and black with green accents.
Warhammer 40,000 – I think the coolest models to come out of ninth edition are the Outriders. At least in concept, the models that came with Indomitus are cool but I feel that when the “real” box comes out they’ll be even cooler.
This project is a simple Ultramarines scheme to match the force I’ve been painting up over the past year.
Warhammer 40,000 – Black Library books always have some of the best characters, and sometimes they make special edition miniatures of these beloved characters. Most of the time the rules that come with these models are pretty bad so the models are more for display purposes. I don’t play Sisters of Battle so I’m not sure how the rules for this model are but the sculpt is really great and it was fun to paint.
Since I was already painting one sister I finished up two more random sister models that will go with a force I previously painted.
Warhammer 40,000 – Eldar are in a weird place. Last edition they gained access to some really broken mechanics that allowed them to mix three books willy-nilly and activate units more times than their opponents. At the end of the edition it was apparent that these mechanics were bad for the game and the pointy-earred fiends were beaten into submission with a nerf bat.
I honestly have yet to play against them in the current edition but my guess is much like any of the books that have been updated, Eldar are going back to single faction lists with a focus on their craft-worlds. Which makes sense and brings that game back to a spot where more people are comfortable with army composition and list building rewards being thematic.
Board Games – Earlier this year I painted up one of the expansions for Star Trek Ascendancy in a test scheme to see if I could efficiently paint up the large number of ships included in each box. In this go round I have two more factions to paint up, the Andronians and Vulcan High Command.
The goal of this project was to keep the player color obvious, make the pawns look more realistic and keep it simple. My solution was to base everything in a brushed silver color with a coat of Contrast paint in the player color. The Vulcans are orange and Andronians are blue.
Warhammer 40,000 – These gear based marines keep finding their way to my table. A really simple gunmetal, khaki and green scheme makes these guys stand out among their black and white brethren.
The command squad and drop marines are mounted on a custom printed base that ties the mechanical theme of the force together. I’m really happy to see the original Grey Knight repurposed as a Librarian, it’s such a fun model that brings back memories of some of my first GW purchases.
Board Games – At this point I think I’ve painted all the expansions for Blood Rage and still haven’t painted the core set. This latest project is the 5th player expansion which adds additional components to allow for a fifth player (obviously).
Vikings are always tricky because they’re mostly fur, leather and beards so finding a good mix of browns that work with the player color, in this case green, can be tricky. I achived some additional depth to these brown by using a variety of brown base colors and then applying Contrast paint to bring out the detail. The result is pretty decent.
Warhammer 40,000 – Khorne Daemons are having a great run on the new table sizes that 9th Edition suggests. The few games I’m been able to schedule between health advisories have all been 50PL games which use the 30”x44” size battlefield. Being that close to some raging daemons is really rough.
This batch of Bloodletters was painted up in my basic 3C paint level to match what I’ve painted up previously for this force. It's a really quick paint job that has a red base, brown wash and quick dry brush to bring back out the red. Neon green and bone details finish off the scheme.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Guard always get the coolest toys. Of course not all of them are “official” kits, many third party manufacturers make some nice counts as kits that fit with the range nicely. This Victoria Miniatures model makes a nice stand in for a Basilisk and is in my opinion a superior model.
This big gun is part of a Death Korp of Krieg force that has been slowly finding a place on my table. The scheme is army green, brown oxide and grey which looks great in the camo pattern I came up with.
Warhammer 40,000 – Objective markers have never been more important than they are in 9th Edition Warhammer 40K. The new mission structure actually defines how big they need to be as well as where they should be placed.
In my first few games I just used some 40mm circles to denote the objectives but in practice it looked a little boring. Having nicely painted models and terrain on a nifty mat looks so great that it’s a shame to mess up the immersive experience with blank bases.
I decided to make some Imperial Supply Drops using some crates mounted to the same style base I use with all my Imperial Armies. Having themed matching objectives to fight over really adds something to the game.
Board Games – Often I get board games crossing my painting table that I’ve never heard of, The Refuge is one of those games. Doing a little digging this beautiful game can be played co-op or competitively as players take control of a dive team that has to battle a nasty tentacle monster.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The Indomitus Box set was a pretty amazing deal. If you’re just getting started in 40K it gives you two “complete” 50PL armies as well as all the rules you need to play. I’m starting to see more of the models from this set find their way to my painting table.
This batch is just three of the new Necron characters. These killer robot skeletons have always been a relatively simple paint scheme. Gunmetal base, black wash with the details picked out in neon green is by far the most popular scheme and I’ve found using Aggros Dunes over the gunmetal gives a really nice old gold look.
Board Games – Earlier this year CMON did a Kickstarter for Marvel United, a chibi style co-op game set in the Marvel Universe. It appears to have been fairly successful and the minis included in the biggest pledge are crazy, sadly I missed the campaign, but I was happy to see the core game hit retail stores this fall.
The game is pretty simple geared toward new gamers or something light to play while hanging out with friends. Being completely co-op it looks easy to play with kids or people not familiar with more advanced board games. I haven’t had a chance to play the game yet but the few play-throughs I saw on YouTube look fun and easy to understand. If you need a gift for a Marvel fan or something for the family I highly suggest picking this up.
The minis are in a fun chibi-style that remind me a bit of the Marvel Superhero Adventures line from several years back. Those figure were in-line with Imaginext, which I think of as My-First-Action-Figure.
So far I’ve painted up two sets of these models and have thoroughly enjoyed painting them. Using a mix of Citadel Contrast paint and some traditional techniques I quickly got the effect I was looking for. Both of these sets are the Walmart Exclusive versions which include Venom as a hero instead of The Wasp. Back in the 90’s I was a huge fan of the Venom Lethal Protector comics so it’s cool to be able to play him as a hero. If you want to have a more accurate Avengers set you should get the standard retail version to have The Wasp.
Board Games – Ages ago I had backed Impact Miniatures Chibi line of miniatures, at the time I had planned on using them with Super Dungeon Explore and making my own rules. I never got around to that but I did finally get some of the assembled and painted.
I’ve been kicking around so ideas for home-brew rules to use with Super Dungeon Explore, I like the stars and button push mechanics they use and it should be easy enough to come up with something fair that could challenge the heroes without being overpowered. I’m also kicking around creating some missions/adventures that I can run the kids through without trying to play the full game which seems to run long right now.
Board Games – Ninja-All Stars got a bad rap. The weird combat mechanic really killed what was otherwise a beautiful game. Luckily Ninja Division/Sodapop Miniatures is repurposing the Clan boxes with rules for Super Dungeon. I’m patiently waiting for them to release the rules on their site or as a card pack so I can save my ink.
Board Games – Do you like poker dice? Do you like space cowboys? Do you like chibi style anime? Do you like trains? If you answered yes to ALL of these questions then Rail Raiders Infinite is the game for you. If you only answered yes to some of those questions you might like this or you might not.
Read MoreBoard Games – I’ve being painting quite a bit of CMON products as of late. Their particular style of chibi is different from the Sodapop Miniatures/Impact Miniatures style. I think I prefer the bigger eyes of the other two companies, but the variety of the CMON product is very nice.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Warhammer 40,000 goes through edition changes every few years. When the edition changes some armies get better some get worse; likewise some units get bumped back into relevancy while others are sidelined. Tyranid players look to have gotten a little boost.
My work on this Hivefleet Leviathan Army still gets traffic so it’s nice to add some new units to the force in that classic purple and white scheme.
