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Author Topic: The Grumpy Gnome‘s Fantasy Projects Blog (latest update on page 61)  (Read 102817 times)

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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    • The Grumpy Gnome
Re: The Grumpy Gnome‘s fantasy figures for Middle Earth (latest update pg 31)
« Reply #465 on: January 13, 2021, 10:27:03 AM »
Hey mate! Always a pleasure to see you on here.

I watched your video on turning DF cavern floor pieces into outdoor pieces. Interesting but I think ours make better cavern pieces for us.

As for Wargs, yeah I prefer large wolves for Wargs as well compared to the hyena, bear, bat, wolves of Peter Jackson. But these Wargs I got for much less money than the same number of large wolves. Have considered putting some spots on them to reinforce the hyena aspect. I see these as “Eastern” or “Mordor”Wargs and the large wolf looking Fenrisian wolves we will be using as Fell Wargs as “Western” or “Gundabad” Wargs. We might make Fell Wargs a bit faster than regular Wargs for an extra point as a house rule.

I put a much stronger dry brushing over this batch of Wargs following a comment on my blog. It does help the look I think.

Painting the Ziterdes foam was no problem. It does seem to prefer drybrushing though.

Thanks for the photos of your mixed board. I have a feeling we will not really be able to decide until we get our pledge and start mixing it all up. That said I would like to see more photos of other builds, especially where things are mixed.

Photos of Hagglethorn Hollow pieces for example look much better with some grass tufts added.

Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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    • The Grumpy Gnome
Re: The Grumpy Gnome‘s fantasy figures for Middle Earth (jungle & Uruk pg 32)
« Reply #466 on: January 18, 2021, 06:55:09 AM »
Another week, and another progress report. I am pretty pleased with the Orcs I converted from Republican Romans.

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/01/18/so-many-projects/

I also started experimenting with improving Dwarven Forge terrain pieces.

More photos and information on my blog.

As always feedback, suggestions and advice most welcome!
« Last Edit: January 27, 2021, 10:45:58 AM by Rick W. »

Offline CookAndrewB

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  • Posts: 1734
    • 3d designs can be found at Thingiverse
Do you envision a table with nothing but DF terrain at some point? In some regards, I rather like the cohesion of such a plan, and then again some of the best looking terrain tables I've seen just seem to be cobbled together from here, there, and everywhere. So I'm up in the air on the subject but curious about your plans and thoughts on the matter.

While I appreciate a table that looks like a massive diorama, I don't know that the look of it supports good gameplay most of the time. Your DF pieces look like you could play over and through them, but I've seen very impressive terrain which just ends up leaving a giant hole on the table. It may be my preference, but I don't want terrain that takes three turns to maneuver around, no matter how pretty it is. As I build or purchase terrain, I always have thoughts of playability in the back of my head. 

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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    • The Grumpy Gnome
My wife and I have discussed this at length during the DF Wildlands Kickstarter. Originally we only planned for DF cavern pieces but the Wildlands Kickstarter looked so good that it really captured my wife’s imagination.

So we started with some DF scatter but as the kickstarter went on we got more and more interested in the floor pieces, picturing bigger and bigger builds. In particular trying to imagine how it could work in conjunction with Hagglethorn Hollow.

For skirmishing, Middle Earth or otherwise, we feel a very busy table works. As it does for RPGs.

However I have concerns about bigger battles.

Of course we can always put less pieces down for bigger battles. And I have been thinking of other biomes for bigger close order fights for my planned Sharp Practice gaming, ie desert, savanna, prairie, etc. That said my wife tends to favor skirmish style forces even in Sharp Practice. Whereas I like rank and file tactics.

One issue we both had with using more DF terrain was the obvious joins between the pieces. I was more fussed than my wife but we have grown more accepting of them in regards to the ground pieces but not the river pieces. We are instead looking at using negative space for rivers, ie having a thin “water” material bordered by DF bank pieces. This system would replace the more conventional resin and plaster river pieces she has been working on, taking up less space on the table and with less build time.

We made a very sizable pledge for the DF Wildlands kickstarter, applying our annual holiday money to it (side effect of the current international health crisis).

Having met some of the Dwarven Forge folks at the last Spiel in Essen, we felt comfortable trusting them and like to help see them continue in their success. Much as we feel about the Battle Systems (Core Space) folks.

One thing I have been thinking is that my French/Non-French Napoleonic/Non-Napoleonic Line Infantry may need to actually be Light Infantry even if dressed and equipped as Line Infantry so that I can deal with so much terrain and an opponent that favors skirmish troops.

As for being Non-French, Non-Napoleonic I have come across the 7th Sea game setting that I quite like. We may borrow heavily from that for our Napoleonic Gothic Horror Pulp Exploration Sharp Practice project. 7th Sea is a touch earlier than what we are after but we are thinking we could just extend the timeline a bit and add in a Montaigne Revolution to create the Montaigne Republic.

https://www.chaosium.com/7th-sea/

I had been leaning towards creating our own fictional world in order to avoid unpleasant historical baggage but this game world seems to have done most of the ground work for me. I had not intended to have magic, and I still do not know how to incorporate it into Sharp Practice, but the more I read of 7th Sea online the more the magic of that world appeals. And I think my wife will like it.

The larger world of 7th Sea second edition really appeals to me. It is a shame to see all the problems associated with the production of the game though, particularly the delayed Kickstarter deliveries. Rather reminiscent of Hagglethorn Hollow. And like most of the things I am finding in this hobby I am again late to the party. Most of the online activity and frothing regarding 7th Sea seems to been a couple of years ago. I suspect largely because of the troubled game production surrounding the designer John Wick.

Troubles aside, I love the world he created. It reminds me of some of the larp world creations of Matt Pennington. Inspired by, but somewhat different, than our own history. Just different enough.

Offline Mister Frau Blucher

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    • Swords Under Distant Suns
Hey, Rick,

It was a pleasure getting caught up on the last couple of posts. I like that sylph a lot. Great job as well on the flock of bats and the tower, as well.

I dd not get any of the Dwarven Forge Wildlands stuff. I think it is attractively sculpted and I like the company, but the joins for outdoor stuff turn me off. I know this is ironic, as I like their underground river tiles where the seams stand out brazenly. Also, I just don't have the money for their terrain any more, even if I did like it. Each Kickstarter has gotten seemingly exponentially more expensive, and...and...I'm turning this into a rant. Sorry!

If I could do it over with their river stuff, I might with negative space, but the problem there for me is the transition from the bank to the negative space - it doesn't look natural, compared to the tiles, where there are bubbles along the river bank in the dwarvenite stuff, and actual terrain under the water in the poured resin tiles.

I will be interested to see some more tables set up with your Wildlands stuff when it arrives.

Cheers!

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Rant away mate, I am curious to hear what people really think about things. DF is darned expensive, no two ways about it. We are taking into consideration the durability though and hope it is something that we can pass down in the far future... unlike our traditional terrain, which is quite fragile.

And both my wife and I agree with you on the transition. My wife loves working with resin for water and the end result but it is so time consuming. So pre-painted DF negative space waterways are looking pretty attractive right now.

Thanks for the kind words! Such things help motivate me.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Another weekly progress report... both Middle Earth and Napoleonic...

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/01/27/welcome-to-the-jungle/

As always, I welcome questions and comments here as well as on my blog.

Offline BeneathALeadMountain

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 681
Great work on your jungle terrain Rick, I like the little details that add authenticity. That 7th Sea map is brilliant, I’ve not seen it before and it’s familiar yet new which, as you said, helps to make it believable.

Keep up the good work,
BALM
Beneath A Lead Mountain - my blog of hobby procrastination and sometimes even some progress
https://beneathaleadmountain.blogspot.com/

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Thanks mate!

I still have more research to do before we settle on the 7th Sea setting but so far it is in the lead.

Offline mirjeki

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 98
Re: The Grumpy Gnome‘s fantasy figures for Middle Earth (converted Orcs pg 32)
« Reply #474 on: February 09, 2021, 02:40:18 PM »
And both my wife and I agree with you on the transition. My wife loves working with resin for water and the end result but it is so time consuming. So pre-painted DF negative space waterways are looking pretty attractive right now.

I think the negative space idea is a good one. You could even compromise with a bed of level resin to place the DF banks on top of? More work but might pay off visually.

Offline CookAndrewB

  • Mastermind
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    • 3d designs can be found at Thingiverse
Jungle terrain looks sharp. What are you using for your hill structure? MDF, foam... I don't think I've seen a WIP post where you are building things.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
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    • The Grumpy Gnome
We have some of the clear plastic sheets DF sells to add a “watery” surface, we just need to find the right thing to put it on. We are debating getting some water texture trays when the Wildlands backerkit opens again.

The hills are foam. I really should do more WIP posts but generally focus on completed projects.

Such as my latest Napoleonics... er I mean Tainted Splendor figures. More information on my Tainted Splendor (working title) project in the thread below.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=129427.msg1641314#msg1641314

This is basically my Napoleonic Gothic Horror blah blah project.

My latest blog entry here... including photos of our new DF castle... thanks Tom!

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/02/09/tarnished-splendor/

As always feedback welcome!

Offline Mister Frau Blucher

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    • Swords Under Distant Suns
Left a little longer comment on the blog, but I like Tarnished Splendor quite a bit!

Offline CookAndrewB

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1734
    • 3d designs can be found at Thingiverse
I like the project so far. Particularly that there are scientific explanations for "magic" as it were. It reminds me of the Arthur C. Clarke Three Laws "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

In a roundabout way, it also reminds me a bit of the common theme in Rick and Morty wherein Rick understands the universe, and science behind it, while Morty is in awe of everything that happens to him. Either way, there is always an explanation through science even if we just don't understand what it is and stand around with our jaws dropped.

That castle is a hefty piece of real estate. For the LOTR campaign or will it do double duty in your new Tainted Splendor world as well? 

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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    • The Grumpy Gnome
It is my real world views creeping through I suppose. I believe their is a scientific explanation for everything but that does not necessarily make things less wonderful. The more I read of the 7th Sea background though, the more I am tempted to refine this a bit and instead of my original “dispelling magic” maybe we go with  “dispelling the superstition around magic” and making things like Porte “magic” a branch of science.

I want to avoid using the “Not-Puritan” Realists  plot concept for my new vision of Montaigne. They believe magic is not real and is a dangerous form of mass hypnosis. An interesting addition to the 7th Sea game world but I do not want to take that plot away from them.

The only way we could justify the expense of the castle was to make sure it was for more than just Middle Earth, so expect to see castle pieces used in Tarnished Splendor.

 

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