Reaper Bones Chimera

There are still a sizeable amount of Reaper miniatures to finish painting, and this figure is probably why there hasn't been much progress. Somehow, it was not fun painting this monster.

I think it's because each component animal needed it's own colour scheme and I had difficulty blending in each part, particularly the scorpion's tail.

The main body had several highlights and washes to try and tone in together the lion flesh (not helped by an initial too dark wash of sepia brown). Well, it's finished now and will probably be as bad tempered on the table as the frustration I had in finishing it! Well, best keep it fed...

 

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Scratch build Sci-fi buildings - 15mm

With there being a lack of 15mm scifi scenery available, and the costs involved of buying those that are, I'm always on the look out for cheap, but affect ways of creating the table clutter needed for skirmish style games that doesn't break the bank.

After a trip to Hobbycraft, I saw some boxes which cost one pound each, I'd remembered seeing before how reversing the lids gave a nice parapet to stand figures on.

After the usual head scratching build, using some kinder egg containers, I came up with the idea of some kind of power units or industrial units. This worked well as the boxes fitted neatly into the squares on my Mantic mats from Deadzone.

Here's some piccies of the buildings in action, all for the chosen price of four pounds!

 

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Who dunnit in a cassock

Today's Sunday game was 'Mystery of the Abbey'. We had a guest appearance with Sam, one of Will's friends. Grandma and Grandad had played the game to get to grips with the rules once before. So today was played with a little more insight.

The game played nicely with the usual levels of confusion and misconceptions. During Lauds (the second whole turn of the game) several players went to the Bibliotheca to gain those powerful cards.

Several suspects changed hands, with Lucy and Grandad seemingly gaining the most knowledge. Honest and open discussions in the Centrum were followed by a particular liking for Grandma's cellula (where cards were stolen).

As information changed hands, Lucy became more cryptic in deciding whether to share knowledge or not. I picked up a few crafty clues about fat Franciscan brothers, only to foolishly allow a loose tongue to pass the information onto Grandma.

My journey to the Bibliotheca granted several scriptorium cards allowing me to make a revelation of the murderer being a Benedictine. Likewise, Grandad made a revelation that the culprit was thin. Time continued onwards with Lucy feeling she had enough information to make an accusation...she asked the boys a final question about wether they had any thin Benedictines left in their enquiries to which they replied "no". A false line of enquiry? Was it worth making that accusation and risk doing penance for a wrong pointed finger? Lucy made her guess with the murderer being revealed to be...

Father Sergio! Well done to Lucy...a combination of rapid character elimination, focused questioning and good listening won out. In the end:

Lucy, 4 points - a correct accusation.

Grandad, 2 points - a correct revelation for thin.

Anth, 2 points - a correct revelation for Benedictine.

Grandma, Wills / Sam - no points, but respectable for no negative points acquired (in a previous game a player had minus 8 points for wrong guesses!)

Mystery of the Abbey never fails to entertain; you never feel quite in control of the 'truth', what ever that may be. One wrong assumption here, an honestly inaccurate piece of information there, and your left with that uncertain idea - is he a fat Benedictine Father? (Father Bruno, you know who you are!)

 

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Miniatures and boardgame mash-up

This boardgame I've watched for some time, it's mechanisms seem novel with fast moving action. The right price on E-bay (who needs a friend like this, wallet ouch) saw it come into my possession. I'm not going to discuss the game yet until I have tried it, however the game's ability to use miniatures got me going through a really, really (really) old box of toys.

These illustrious veterans were bought when I first started gaming. So long so, that I had to do some research to discover their scale! They are 1/200th scale from Skytrex. They have a certain 'coloured' history; me being colour blind, I painted some of them with a purple ink - twice! Ask Lucy if you don't believe me...

So last night, amid a Will's friend sleep-over and nephew Peter's family party, I managed to touch up the vehicles I had. Basing was finished this morning. Whilst not massively detailed, as gaming pieces they work just fine.

I'm really looking forward to trying them out in the boardgame, but will have to wait until I have purchased the opposing Russians. Times don't change, unfinished collections then, unfinished collections now. At least it will give me time to try the game's rules out first and hopefully encourage me to paint some more armour. This approach certainly fits my current interest of quality gaming pieces in quality boardgames; it also matches my current time available - it beats painting 500 figure armies who then require an opponent from else where...Here's some piccies of how the vehicles compare to their counter counterparts on the game board

 

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Have you ever had a bugbear about something?

What are bugbears? I didn't know before looking at my Otherworld skirmish rules. Yet another goblinoid race, but this time, one feared by all humanoids! These figures only came together for me with the final highlights and dry brushes; meet the band...

I'm quite looking forward to taking this thugs into action. Let's hope their bite is worse than their bark!

 

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15mm sci-fi equipment

Some completed E-Bay purchases. Just got the crew to do next...

 

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More finished fantasy

Just completed some more figures. 3 Reaper Bones and one Fantasy Flight. The barbarian hero was Will's choice, whilst the dwarven ranger was mine. To finish off, a Liche to command my undead forces. Struggled a little with the wealth of Browns on the barbarian, and therefore he feels like he lacks contrast and hence detail - I'm not sharp enough with the paint brush to add fine detail. The dwarf has lots of detail on his back which adds character, yet the size of his axe detracts from that perspective - rangers with huge axes aren't the quietest feet in the forest.

The dragon comes from the original box set of Descent. There are several miniatures, particularly the monsters, which make great additions to a fantasy clash. More of those in another posting...

 

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