Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (rat ogre for Mordheim)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! Yes, the Olley Essex orcs must be among the best figures still to be in production from those dim* and distant days. They have a sort of "art before realism" style that's pretty rare today. It's the kind of stylisation that we readily accept in illustrations, but are apparently a bit more resistant to in miniatures. And they're all the better for it!

Well, we didn't have time to play Mayhem (rescheduled tomorrow), but we did have a quick run-through of some home-brew rules. And the new orcs featured. Here they are, as a completed element and in a Mayhem-style square. I also repainted the bases of the other two Essex units.

One thing about two-abreast elements (as I'm finding with my 10mm trolls and ogres) is that they can look a bit dull ranked up. The good thing about the Essex orcs is that they vary a lot in height. By basing and mixing them up appropriatel,y and by varying the colours, I hope to get a reasonably interesting-looking gang.


*Pretty vivid, actually ...

[Severian]

Most effective now they're all together. The new-style bases set them off very well.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! I have another three bases or so to add at some point. So eventually, they'll form the core of a blades-heavy army on their own.

Here's something I did in preparation for a trip last weekend: a portable set of 15mm miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes and Battlesworn. I taped a bit of magnetic card into an Ikea case; the miniatures are based on pennies and so stick to the card.

They saw action in some improvised terrain (chiefly firewood), in both games. Another handy discovery was that my daughter's loom bands make excellent wound markers for Battlesworn; they even come in the correct green-yellow-red colours. I have negotiated the requisition of some for future games ...

[Reed]

Something like that is what I intend to make for my usual wargaming. Adding a 2'x2' mat you could've called it a day.

[Jagannath]

Really great - I use small magnets in bases, which I always thought was a good idea but they don't have as strong a pull against magnetic tape as full steel bases do, sort of wish I'd done that.

[Hobgoblin]

I knocked out some quick 15mm skeletons before we went on holiday: really quick paint jobs, but they work OK, I think. They featured in a fair bit of SoBH and Battlesworn in the couple of wet days we had in France.

[Hobgoblin]

Now, the main point of all this 15mm stuff is RPGs. My son wants to have a big D&D game for his birthday party (looming in around a month's time), so I have a big session to plan. Most of the kids will have done a bit of gaming with us before, but not all. So miniatures and terrain will be a real help - though I want the game to be much more of an exploration/adventure than just a fancy wargame. There'll be plenty of scope to bring new characters into the game mid-session, so impetuous or overly bloodthirsty characters may not last long.

The setting will be caverns containing an ancient crashed starship (hence "Dragonfell Mountain"); an evil alien being was released from captivity in the crash; it's being worshipped/lured by snakemen through vile sacrifices, and all that malignancy is causing goblins to spawn spontaneously in the caverns, and their activities are causing concern for nearby human populations - hence the adventure (though some PCs will have heard rumours of ancient weapons and magic beneath Dragonfell). Meanwhile, the alien pilots (near immortal) are gradually rebuilding their craft through trade with the dwarfs and kobolds who build the "old roads" connecting these caverns with others. Perhaps with the goblins too. So there will be goblin/dwarf markets and caravans as well as lairs and ambushes.

All that requires cavern terrain. It'll have to be done quickly (I have a month!) and needs to be extensive. So I'm making these "geomorphs" out of foamcore. I'm going to label each one A, B, C ... AA, BB, etc. on the reverse, so that I can assemble them quickly from the cavern map. The idea is that each sector of the cavern complex will use each geomorph once, but in very different configurations. I'm going to paint them in the same umber hues as my 15mm bases (hence their drabness). I'll make some archways to show entrances, and I'll use foamcore squares (with stone-floor or spaceship tiles on the reverse for other locations, perhaps) to raise levels - I want a real sense of up and down, and of unfolding caverns rather than a room-and-corridor "dungeon". If time permits, I hope to add pools, underground river sections (perhaps just a couple, as boat trips between locales can be glossed over except for occasional ambushes en route) stalagmites, rubble heaps and phosphorescent fungus forests.

For the spaceship interior, I'll need to find or make some suitable floorplans. I'll ask on the scifi forum, but any suggestions for readily available 15mm (or shrinkable) spaceship layouts very welcome!

With the caverns, I'm making no pretence at geological accuracy. I just want a large, weird environment that the PCs can explore. The science-fantasy elements will appeal to the audience, I think, as I can imagine nothing pleasing them more than starting with swords and then getting their hands on blasters! We'll use the Whitehack rules, and the characters will be pregenerated to match miniatures and advanced to third level to ensure plenty of hit points. In Whitehack, all weapons use D6 for damage (with modifiers); the ancient alien energy weapons will use D20s, giving the possibility of some very swift disposals of big nasties. But they will have very limited ammo when captures by PCs.

[Jagannath]

That looks like a really clever way of generating cavern floor plans, I might steal that. Height is the key isn't it - have you seen matakishi's dungeon blocks? I'm on my phone so can't link but maybe there's some ideas worth pinching there.

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers! Yes, on height, and yes on Makatishi's stuff! In fact, I have his inspirationallly loopy time-travelling RPG thread bookmarked!

[Hobgoblin]

Here's a 15mm wolfrider. A bit of a hybrid, this one: the wolf is from Ral Partha's AD&D range, of which three wolves have survived from my teenage years. The riders have vanished, though, but these Alternative Armies orcs fit them perfectly.

[jambo1]

They work well together, the AA orc looks a very nice figure.

[Hobgoblin]

Yes: I think the AA/15mm.co.uk range is a bit undersung. For example, when painting the Ral Partha wolf, it occurred to me that for all the vaunting of the Ral Partha AD&D range (and they are nice figures), the AA wolves have the advantage of looking ... much more like wolves.

Here's another AA orc - this one will be a champion or other "extra hit dice" character in the Whitehack game. He and the wolfrider are the outriders of a batch of six orcs that I got more or less done over the weekend. I should probably tidy up the shield a bit and perhaps moderate the shadows under his eyes, but these flaws are more apparent in the photos than on the table, I think.

[jambo1]

More nice work, and yep AA are a very underrated fantasy range, great stuff!!

[Leadpocalypse]

One of the most amazing threads I have ever seen. Well done dude some absolutely stunning minis on this thread. As someone who's looking to try a faster method of painting could you post up some step by step pics of one of your minis please?

I did see somewhere in here that you undercoat white, wash with agrax/dark wash, dry brush white and then apply washes/glazes. Do you just thin your desired colour with water and paint it on and highlight?

[Ragsta]

Leadpocalypse, go to page 65 for a guide, sir