Cottage Update

In my odd moments, mainly late at night I have been working to make one of my original cottages more detailed. In the last week I started to work on the shingle roof and it's starting to come together. I'm using tapers to create the shingles, not sure if these can be easily bought today, will look on Ebay. I've had these tapers for years, picked them up from...... no idea I'm afraid, but they are good because they have a rough texture.

Have been on Ebay and found some I think maybe what I'm using so bought them. This is their title.

Wooden Spills 1000 Wood Splints Tapers Splint Fire Lighters Light Church Candles

Will let you know what they are like when they arrive.

Have been working on the chimney stack round the back of the cottage too. I've added a basic card structure then covered over with PVAcrete then worked the details into it with a modelling tool.

My thoughts, its OK but I'm not convinced entirely we'll see what its like when its painted.

Gangs of Rome: Rules

I have had this Game in my possession for some time but hardly had any time to read the rules, mainly because I have so busy working with Luke at Lukes APS. But it is something I am going to be getting into an awful lot in the coming months.

If you don't know much about the game it's basically a small scale gang skirmish game where the Dominus, that's you, controls a small troop of   ragamuffins, between 3 and 10, trying to out do the other gangs in your area in an attempt to get the Dominus elected to the Senate. 

Example of a character, this came free with the rule book, which I got for £8.99, very reasonable.

It comes with a character card and bits and bobs to use that miniature. If you want to see what the miniatures are like and see how they come out when painted visit this link and watch Luke painting an initial gang.

Bought seperately, each miniature is worth £8 but you can get 5 for £35 ish.

The book has some great pictures as you would expect and lots of inspiring ideas on setting up a game.

The mob, above , takes part in the game. There is a play through here if you want to see the game in action.

Warbanner supply game mats and have a whole series of buildings by Sarissa Precision Ltd designed for use in the game

I will be getting a gang shortly and when I do I will be painting them and posting games too.

Saga: Second Unit of Fianna

Here is my second unit of Fianna or Hearthguard for my Irish Saga force.

Once again lots of greys and creams.

I have enjoyed painting these and really can't wait to play with them.

I have been making static grass tufts with Luke and will be adding some to their bases when the whole army is complete. 

Just the Warlord and the dags to do and the 5 point force is complete, assuming Tilly doesn't destroy the lot before then :-) She has form!

After these I have some Gangs of Rome miniatures to start painting, another game I am looking forward to getting my teeth into.

D&D 5e: Kicking Down Doors

Monday evening the gang got together over at Lee's to play another session of D&D, we were one player down, Woof the barbarian halfling was indisposed, but instead we had a new player Thervan (played by Ryan)

This weeks highlights were the sheer volume of doors that Plinker kicked down in the evil tower we were scouting, even though many of them were completely unlocked. Excellent stuff Luke.

So our party presently consists of:

Plinker Dwarf Marksman

Subaru Water Genasi Sorcerer

Woof Halfing Barbarian

Manny Wood Elf Monk

Thervan High Elf Hex Warlock 

Loads of fun was had by all, D&D is still my favourite game of choice, it manages to make me laugh and be horrified, excited and intrigued all at the same time. Great stuff.

Presently we are trapped in somewhere called Shadowfell I believe, a dark shadowy place full of undead and vampires, very unnerving. But great fun to role play in.

I have to say thanks to Lee at this point, not only does he run Beers of War here in Wakefield, which is an excellent event, but he DM's a mean game of D&D for 2 groups, cheers Lee.

More pictures and specific heroic moments next time.

Frostgrave: Ice Tower

This is a tower I have been working on for some time but had really lost my way with. It often happens that I lose interest in a project that I believe is going off track. This is one of the later that I started some while ago, coming from the idea that I wanted to get some height into the games of Frostgrave without simply sticking a tower into the game.

Its all constructed from thick cardboard reclaimed from boxes, left over polystyrene and the dregs of a container of Artex. I haven't been out and bought anything for the project. The base is of hardboard, which may have been a bit of an error as it may have warped a bit.

The whole piece has had two coats of white emulsion and then washed over with a green and then blue which I made from Rinse aid and a dab of the appropriate colour. Very simple. 

Finally the smaller pieces of scatter terrain you can see were an experiment I made while I was at Lukes and we had a few bits of Sculptamold, our home made version, left over and I'm not keen on throwing stuff away. So I made these icy lumps, could be stalagmites at a push.

Been a while since I have played Frostgrave it has to be said, apart from playing D&D, spending lots of time working with Luke's APS, more on that soon.

Will try to get this in a game shortly to see how it plays out.