Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (undead warband for Mordheim)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all!

Severian: yes, indeed: I've got half an eye on using the worm in some 15mm sci-fi - perhaps accompanied by some blue-eyed jihadists.

jambo1: sorry, the text above is a bit misleading. Those guys are the old Chronicle orcs/black orcs. The kobolds (which I'm using as gnolls) are here.

beefcake: they do indeed make good little 28s. That's what I was originally using them for. I might well get another pack at some point and base them up as hordes for HotT, given how easy they are to paint. That would allow GW skaven to be used as warbands and the like alongside them. Here's a size-comparison pic:

[jambo1]

Yep I see now, nice work!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! I've got a real soft spot for the Chronicle kobolds - fond memories of finding some in my Christmas stocking when I was nine.

The worm received its RPG debut today in our Sunday game of Whitehack. We had six players (down from nine or ten), which was about perfect. The PCs first encountered the worm as in dormant, coiled form as the "floor" of a cavern they had to cross. Various failed DEX checks and a tentative blast with an ancient energy weapon later, it unveiled itself in all its hideous glory. I was gratified to get genuine shrieks from the players when it appeared.

The beast got a very hasty paintjob last night and this morning. Its appearance in the void around the necromancer's lair is purely accidental; it was already dead by then, swallowed PCs having blasted their way out from within. The PCs were severely weakened by the encounter, though, and four of the six perished in the final assault on the necromancer.

I've read that it's wise not to kill kids' characters in RPGs, but I don't believe a word of that advice! Both survivors and recently deceased were keen for more - and "the dead" have already rolled up fresh characters. I was delighted by this drawing on one of the new character sheets, though - it's got a certain "my work here is done" quality!

[Severian]

Amazingly effective worm - very well done!

[von Lucky]

  Well done.

[fred]

That worm is awesome, I saw the painted photo first, and assumed it was a Reaper Bones model, but then going back a page saw that its a scratch build. The shear scale of it is great!

As to killing characters - I think if the players think they died in a fair way, then they don't mind, especially if it was in an epic battle to overcome an enemy.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all!

Fred - yes, I think that's right - and last week's battle was certainly epic: shades of Hrolf Kraki's Saga, as the evil necromancer constantly reanimated deceased friends and foes. More than half the PCs ended up on his side - posthumously!

Here are some villains for tomorrow's session (nay, today's!): bullywugs, in the form of frog folk from East Riding Miniatures:

[beefcake]

Nice work, I really like that variety in skin tones.
I sculpted some guys like that available from CP models. Probably a bit larger than them though.

[Jagannath]

These looks great - quick Q, did you paint the very green frog using your usual method? I've got a pile of 10mm snakemen to paint at some point and my test version (over my usual black undercoat) didn't work because I couldn't highlight all the tiny scales - your glazing method might work really well. I was thinking of swapping your brown wash step for a green wash though (I want them emerald like tree snakes)- every tried that?

Hope today's adventures go well.

[Hobgoblin]

I sculpted some guys like that available from CP models. Probably a bit larger than them though.

Ah, yes - I've eyed them from afar! I might pick them up at some stage as chieftains for these fellows (whom I'm sure will recur as the campaign progresses).

[Hobgoblin]

These looks great - quick Q, did you paint the very green frog using your usual method? I've got a pile of 10mm snakemen to paint at some point and my test version (over my usual black undercoat) didn't work because I couldn't highlight all the tiny scales - your glazing method might work really well. I was thinking of swapping your brown wash step for a green wash though (I want them emerald like tree snakes)- every tried that?

Hope today's adventures go well.

Cheers! The gorgon's up next! Yes, all of these were done in exactly the same way, barring the skin colour and the wash. I painted another eight this morning, so I've got the satisfaction of having the whole batch done now - and a unit of fierce foot or light foot with mixed weapons ready for 15mm Dragon Rampant.

For the very green ones (made distinct to act as leaders), I used GW's Moot Green (thinned heavily with water) and then Biel-Tan Green (thinned heavily, but then my pot is three years old) over that. All of them had the same white/Agrax/white treatment beforehand. I find that the brown pre-shading doesn't dull bright colour at all. For your emerald snakemen, you could try something like Citadel's Coeliac Green wash (or whatever it's called). I think you need something reasonably dark for it to work - Agrax is definitely better than sepia for pre-shading, no matter how bright the desired effect. I've only really experimented with brown, sepia and black - the last of these for "cold" figures.

The adventure went well, thanks - the party began the game on a boat (courtesy of Dave Graffam's paper models, currently on sale for less than a pound a piece on DriveThruRPG) but were waylaid by the frogmen, who were commanded by a large gun-wielding shrimp-creature, and imprisoned in a dungeon beneath an old customs house - before breaking free with the aid of a concealed magic ring. They then had to negotiate a shoggoth that the bullywugs kept as a guard, using deep pits to keep it in one section of a "loop" dungeon (the frogmen could leap the pit with ease). The climactic battle ended up with two players on zero hit points and two on one, but all surviving and victorious.

[AndrewBeasley]

Excellent set of Bullywugs and a neat frog as well

I've used the Bullywugs as skirmish troops in 28mm before today so it's nice to see then here!

[Jagannath]

Thanks for that - yeah, Coeliac instead of agrax is what I was thinking. I'll give it a go!

[Hobgoblin]

I look forward to seeing how you get on. I might give it a go on something myself. The thing is, I'm usually trying to make my (son's) reptiles look duller rather than brighter. But at smaller scales, I think there's a good case for going bright.

AndrewBeasley - thanks! One thought I have with these chaps is that they could be sabot-based into a HotT Slann army that I've been meaning to paint up for the past year. They'd make good lurkers or walker lurkers.

The frog's an early Citadel 28mm beastie, I think. He's fairly crude, and his paintjob was of the can-I-just-cram-this-in-without-the-kids-noticing-before-their-friends-arrive-for-the-game variety, but I was pleased with how he looked on the table (summoning the bullywugs to rise from the swamp and then squatting on a treasure chest in the villains' underground lair.).

A great thing about 15mm is that your common-or-garden 28mm giant rats, frogs and lizards become much more significant threats the smaller scale.

[Hobgoblin]

I saw these lion men on the ERM site and immediately thought "pig-faced D&D orcs!". They're not exactly pig-faced, but they do have prominent snouts and feudal get-up, so they'll do for me.

I won't call them "orcs" in the game, but they'll be the mysteriously monstrous henchmen of the evil Baron Meliadus, who induced the bullywugs to ambush them last session. (I'm deliberately dropping in names that they may encounter in reading later in life.)