Sunday 16 September 2012

Something Hissing This Way Comes

I feel like I'm between projects at the moment, with nothing I urgently need to get painted. Which means a dip in productivity. But my lead pile has been well bolstered this year, so I'm taking the chance to finish off some oddments.


This pair of giant snakes join my Minoans for Aegeus. The game has a number of summon-able creatures and what better than a couple of massive snakes. I was stuck for ages for how to paint them, I'm a bit of a stickler for colour themes across a force, but the Minoans had come out in bright of turquoise and blue. These are mythological creatures, which gives some room for imagination, but I didn't think either the blue or turquoise would work. Then it struck me that I could have two themes - colourful humans but the mythological creatures with a more subdued palette.


Manufacturer is Otherworld miniatures - very fine sculpts but a tad pricey at £11 for both if I recall.

Uh-oh, of all the places for an Ophidiophobe to end up

What happened to Aegeus, you ask? Well, not a huge amount over the summer unfortunately. A bit much real life in the way. But I'm sure Gharak and I will get a bit more play testing this autumn. (he's been prodding me to paint something for it, anyway).

Plenty of other stuff on the painting table, a few bits for BKC, more for Aegeus, SciFi vehicles etc. I even put some paint on some Napoleonic cavalry, shock horror.

Monday 10 September 2012

I'm Back!

So, I vanished for a few weeks. Sorry about that, completely unintended, just some frantic hobby time and a bit of real life got in the way of blogging. 

So, what have I been up to? Well, finishing off the secret project, as my brother visited at the end of August. I got almost everything done, probably the first time ever. The miniatures turned out great, as did the terrain that I got finished. we got two games in over the long weekend, between sightseeing, babysitting my niece and some board games. Both games went well considering to hadn't play tested them, but I will make some minor tweaks the the scenarios. We should be able to finish the campaign in another session. I'm also less convinced Brink of Battle rules are well suited to the era. They did the job, but weren't quite right - perhaps too many miniatures on the table. 

I did take pics, but won't post them yet - Samulus will also get a play through (of the whole campaign i hope!) and I don't want to spoil the narrative.  

Anyway, after that weekend I took a self-imposed week off the hobby. Nice to take some time out, I got to spend some time on the Playstation - a chance to finally rattle through Skyrim. 

So I sat down last night looking for a little something to ease me back in. I had some 15mm SciFi prepped but languishing for a few months. A few hours work and hey presto (with fluff): 

++++++++++ INCOMING TRANSMISSION ++++++++++++
                  ++++++++ DECODING ++++++++
Arbiter Assessment Report (AAR)
---------------




---------------
Sighted: Kravaak system, 2516
Race: Presumed Human
Affiliation: Unknown
Weapon systems: Unknown
Armour: Advanced Therm-Optic Camouflage (ATOC) suits of unknown origin
Assessment: Further intelligence is required for a full threat assessment. All sightings should be reported to the Confederated Systems Arbitration Authority (CSAA) Intelligence Directorate. 
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These are actually Khurasan miniatures modern US Special Forces, but they are so modern I thought they looked quite SciFi. Made sense to me anyway. These are the most elite of  New Vedith's military forces, utilising Advanced Therm-Optic Camouflage suits. of course, New Vedith doesn't officially acknowledge the existence of and Special Forces Units. 

I basically painted them the same as I'd done the bases, almost a shame to dry brush such finely detailed miniatures. But I think the effect works, with the weapons and helmets in a lighter shade to define the miniatures.