I've just been searching the interweb and came across this hobby site. The article I had originally followed was for using pink and blue foam for terrain, but on the main site (http://www.stormthecastle.com/) this article and video caught eye - making plastic from milk. To be fair he uses vinegar as well. But that's it. Apparently the idea was from Leonardo Da Vinci.
In a hobby where resin and plaster are commonly used to create scenery how good (and cheap) would it be if we could use milk & vinegar instead? More investigations are needed...
Showing posts with label tips and fiddles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips and fiddles. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Some Frugal Alternatives To Popular Spendy Games
Enough, I say! Enough!
I wrote a post. It was about increasing prices and decreasing points values and the two-way gouge perpetrated by miniature wargame companies. It wasn't bad. I'm just sick to the back teeth of doing nothing but advise people on how to negotiate with these big bad corporate entities, how to play the popular games without being played for fools. It's possible to play that game and win, but a better way to win is to not play. With that in mind, here are some of the free or cheap things I've been painstakingly hoarding, in waiting for the day when I can persuade people to play them and not something you buy in the shops.
Hordes and Heroes, by Kallistra, is a 10mm fantasy game revolving around abstract units made of several models on a single base. It uses a very clear, very clinical hex terrain system, which is probably the clearest set of rules I've seen for terrain pieces in a long while, but is perhaps incompatible with your existing terrain collection unless you're prepared to do a bit of work or invest in Kallistra's proprietary terrain sets.
This is why I'm also going to recommend Hordes of the Things, by the Wargames Research Group. It's currently out of print (I bought one of the last paper copies, it would seem) but the WRG have been good enough to provide a download of the current edition as a stop-gap until they can bring it out again (and thanks to arabianknight for pointing that out!). Hordes of the Things is another very tight rules set with the advantage of working in a variety of different scales - the measurement distances and number of models that qualify as a 'unit' changes, but the actual mechanics don't. Both games use generic unit types that are wide open to choice regarding which manufacturer's miniatures you use, and both have a historical variant (Hordes of the Things is in essence a clone of major historical system De Bellis Antiquitatis, also by the W.R.G., with rules for dragons, gods and magicians bolted on) if that's more your bag than outrageous fantasy.
On the skirmish side of things, allow me to big up Dave King's Skulldred. Skulldred is currently in beta testing and has been for some time, largely because Dave wants it pretty much as tight as he can make it when it does finally go to a commercial release. At the moment, it's free to download, and has the advantage of being open to use any set of miniatures in the same scale (although, as is my way, I recommend 28-32mm for anything where individuals matter and 10-15mm for anything that's more about regiments). You'll need to perform some jiggery-pokery with dice, either using the wraparound template Dave provides or investing in some blank d6s to make your own. Or you could use a look-up table, but that'll get a bit wearisome if you have to do it for every roll.
Swords and Wizardry is a free-to-download open-source 'retro-clone' of several early editions of Dungeons and Dragons rolled together (I confess to not being up on the game's early history to the point where I can tell you what's been rolled into it; furthermore, I confess to not caring). The point is that it can do pretty much whatever you want to do with Dungeons and Dragons - scale up, scale down, convert settings, make your own setting, imitate Basic, Advanced or Old Dungeons and Dragons - and it doesn't cost anything or come with the promise of splatbooks ranging out into infinity.
If you find Marxist taxonomies of characters and rolling tons of dice to be faintly distasteful, meanwhile, allow me to point you in the vague direction of Atomic Sock Monkey Press and their excellent free-to-download Prose Descriptive Quality system for diceless roleplaying. They also make a few settings for that system to be used in which, while technically costing money, come with enough free downloads for you to bodge your way through it with a bit of imagination (and let's face it, you'd need at least a bit of imagination to play a diceless RPG).
Battle for Wesnoth! It's free, it'll run on damn near anything, and it's a charmingly addictive hex-based turn-based fantasy strategy game. I recommend Wesnoth doubly because of an active user base that's forever churning out new single-player campaigns and offering multiplayer if that's your thing. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that large battles with three or more computer players get pretty boring; you can skip the computer players' turns but then you'll start yours with half your units missing and no idea what killed them or what to avoid when you save and reload - which you'll be doing a lot, since the AI is intelligent enough to go after things that you don't want to die and very, very cut-throat in its application of attack probabilities.
Torchlight is in essence a Diablo clone. You remember Diablo. It was a one-armed bandit thinly disguised as a fantasy dungeon crawl game where you hit monsters to see what loot fell out of them. It was single player World of Warcraft, in essence, and it was mindlessly addictive. Torchlight did not set my world on fire, but the demo's free, the game's cheap, and it even looks suitably old-school. I've just been spoiled for single-player games by the chat-to-other-players aspects of MUMORPEGGERS, I think.
Guild Wars is one of those MUMMORPEGGER things, only it isn't subscription-based: you buy it, you play it, and the only money you need to spend is on expansion packs if you want to play through those. Looks like World of Warcraft with more sophisticated graphics and less bad pop-culture jokes. The former stopped me from really getting into it, as there was enough lag to break any sense of immersion or engagement before it really had the chance to develop, and I get the impression that it's a slow-burner anyway. Not designed to addict with quite the same cunning and effectiveness as World of Warcraft - definitely more of a make-your-own-fun kind of game that relies on you interacting with other players in some meaningful way, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Champions Online is closer to WoW in terms of its early-game-hook design, although operating in a different genre, and is nominally free to play, although the free version is so cut-down that you'll probably end up spending some real money to unlock some options for yourself. Still no subscription fees, though.
Given my druthers, I would play all of these and not their more expensive counterparts, but the trouble with games and gamers is that they are in essence social pastimes and if you want to share other people's play time you often end up playing what they play. I can sit up here in my Frugal castle with my sense of self-satsifaction and full wallet but that's piss all use if everyone I know wants to play Pathfinder. That said, I still want to fly the flag for alternative games; they are cheaper than what people already play, they are often more flexible and freeform and imaginative than what people already play, and they are probably every bit as much fun as what people already play. I'd know, if I could persuade people to play them.
I wrote a post. It was about increasing prices and decreasing points values and the two-way gouge perpetrated by miniature wargame companies. It wasn't bad. I'm just sick to the back teeth of doing nothing but advise people on how to negotiate with these big bad corporate entities, how to play the popular games without being played for fools. It's possible to play that game and win, but a better way to win is to not play. With that in mind, here are some of the free or cheap things I've been painstakingly hoarding, in waiting for the day when I can persuade people to play them and not something you buy in the shops.
 |
| War Games |
This is why I'm also going to recommend Hordes of the Things, by the Wargames Research Group. It's currently out of print (I bought one of the last paper copies, it would seem) but the WRG have been good enough to provide a download of the current edition as a stop-gap until they can bring it out again (and thanks to arabianknight for pointing that out!). Hordes of the Things is another very tight rules set with the advantage of working in a variety of different scales - the measurement distances and number of models that qualify as a 'unit' changes, but the actual mechanics don't. Both games use generic unit types that are wide open to choice regarding which manufacturer's miniatures you use, and both have a historical variant (Hordes of the Things is in essence a clone of major historical system De Bellis Antiquitatis, also by the W.R.G., with rules for dragons, gods and magicians bolted on) if that's more your bag than outrageous fantasy.
On the skirmish side of things, allow me to big up Dave King's Skulldred. Skulldred is currently in beta testing and has been for some time, largely because Dave wants it pretty much as tight as he can make it when it does finally go to a commercial release. At the moment, it's free to download, and has the advantage of being open to use any set of miniatures in the same scale (although, as is my way, I recommend 28-32mm for anything where individuals matter and 10-15mm for anything that's more about regiments). You'll need to perform some jiggery-pokery with dice, either using the wraparound template Dave provides or investing in some blank d6s to make your own. Or you could use a look-up table, but that'll get a bit wearisome if you have to do it for every roll.
 |
| Roleplaying Games |
Swords and Wizardry is a free-to-download open-source 'retro-clone' of several early editions of Dungeons and Dragons rolled together (I confess to not being up on the game's early history to the point where I can tell you what's been rolled into it; furthermore, I confess to not caring). The point is that it can do pretty much whatever you want to do with Dungeons and Dragons - scale up, scale down, convert settings, make your own setting, imitate Basic, Advanced or Old Dungeons and Dragons - and it doesn't cost anything or come with the promise of splatbooks ranging out into infinity.
If you find Marxist taxonomies of characters and rolling tons of dice to be faintly distasteful, meanwhile, allow me to point you in the vague direction of Atomic Sock Monkey Press and their excellent free-to-download Prose Descriptive Quality system for diceless roleplaying. They also make a few settings for that system to be used in which, while technically costing money, come with enough free downloads for you to bodge your way through it with a bit of imagination (and let's face it, you'd need at least a bit of imagination to play a diceless RPG).
 |
| Computer Games |
Battle for Wesnoth! It's free, it'll run on damn near anything, and it's a charmingly addictive hex-based turn-based fantasy strategy game. I recommend Wesnoth doubly because of an active user base that's forever churning out new single-player campaigns and offering multiplayer if that's your thing. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that large battles with three or more computer players get pretty boring; you can skip the computer players' turns but then you'll start yours with half your units missing and no idea what killed them or what to avoid when you save and reload - which you'll be doing a lot, since the AI is intelligent enough to go after things that you don't want to die and very, very cut-throat in its application of attack probabilities.
Torchlight is in essence a Diablo clone. You remember Diablo. It was a one-armed bandit thinly disguised as a fantasy dungeon crawl game where you hit monsters to see what loot fell out of them. It was single player World of Warcraft, in essence, and it was mindlessly addictive. Torchlight did not set my world on fire, but the demo's free, the game's cheap, and it even looks suitably old-school. I've just been spoiled for single-player games by the chat-to-other-players aspects of MUMORPEGGERS, I think.
Guild Wars is one of those MUMMORPEGGER things, only it isn't subscription-based: you buy it, you play it, and the only money you need to spend is on expansion packs if you want to play through those. Looks like World of Warcraft with more sophisticated graphics and less bad pop-culture jokes. The former stopped me from really getting into it, as there was enough lag to break any sense of immersion or engagement before it really had the chance to develop, and I get the impression that it's a slow-burner anyway. Not designed to addict with quite the same cunning and effectiveness as World of Warcraft - definitely more of a make-your-own-fun kind of game that relies on you interacting with other players in some meaningful way, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Champions Online is closer to WoW in terms of its early-game-hook design, although operating in a different genre, and is nominally free to play, although the free version is so cut-down that you'll probably end up spending some real money to unlock some options for yourself. Still no subscription fees, though.
Given my druthers, I would play all of these and not their more expensive counterparts, but the trouble with games and gamers is that they are in essence social pastimes and if you want to share other people's play time you often end up playing what they play. I can sit up here in my Frugal castle with my sense of self-satsifaction and full wallet but that's piss all use if everyone I know wants to play Pathfinder. That said, I still want to fly the flag for alternative games; they are cheaper than what people already play, they are often more flexible and freeform and imaginative than what people already play, and they are probably every bit as much fun as what people already play. I'd know, if I could persuade people to play them.
Friday, 17 June 2011
Warmachine On The Cheap
A while ago now, arabianknight posted about his proxy Trenchers for Warmachine, and made a convincing case for the act of proxying the more generic-looking miniatures in a Warmahordes army.
Now, Warmahordes is my tournament game, insofar as I have one at all, and so the decision is largely made for me; whatever I want to take to an Official Event (TM) more or less has to be Official Miniatures (TM) as I can't rely on the discretion of the tournament organiser being in my favour. Nevertheless, I understand the case for proxying and accept that if you're never going to play in an environment where officialdom matters, th'art free to do as thou wilt.
This morning, I stumbled upon an idea for expanding a Warmahordes collection past the initial investment that seems to dovetail well with the proxy practice. I'll link to it in a moment, but first I want to brief the non-Warmahordes readership about a few truths. Those groin-yards among you who already know their Slaughterhousers from their Doom Reavers can feel free to skip a paragraph.
Warmahordes revolves around the one figure at the centre of your army; the warlock or warcaster. Change that, and keep the rest of your army list the same, and you change the way the whole army list plays. The pieces still do what they do, but they're supported differently and often take on different strategic and tactical roles (what was once a line-breaking destroyer of meat and metal alike can become a disposable beatstick, a screening piece or a tough objective taker, depending on context). The game also incorporates a variety of mercenary troops which can either join armies from one or more other factions or do their own thing as 'contract' or 'pact' forces with their own agendas. The nature of mercenaries is such that, barring a few excellent pieces, they tend to appear in armies of their own kind; it's very rare that you'll see a faction army including more than one or two mercenaries.
Which is odd, as Raptor of Spite for the Unblighted pointed out this morning. Building a solid core of generic mercenaries or minions and then adding faction pieces - mainly warcasters/warlocks and the warjacks/warbeasts that they control - to that affords a similar kind of variety to the change-your-warcaster-change-your-army approach described above, just on a slightly grander scale. It occurs to me that proxying that core of generic mercenaries and then adding small faction battlegroups - possibly even the discounted starter boxes, which tend to include something for free - would result in a satisfactory-if-not-brilliant Warmahordes army, certainly good enough to just play the game.
Warmachine probably affords the best opportunities for this, given the greater variety of mercenary troop types available to the steam-powered factions, and the fairly generic nature of those troops (there's not much demand for giant crocodile men or pig-headed rifle-blokes, you see, so cheap ranges are harder to find). Units of dwarfs with whacking great hammers or rifles plus tower shields aren't that hard to come by; neither are armoured infantry with polearms or firearms, matching cavalry and a mounted officer; and while the specific characters belonging to Privateer's proprietary fantasy species might be a bit tricky, pirates with cutlasses, pistols and rifles, plus a few gentlemanly character-solo-ish types are less so. Build a core of faux-Rhulfolk, Steelheads or Privateers, with all the rules synergies that having broadly the same sort of stuff implies, and then add the starter battlegroups to create up to six different armies (depending on whether you can get hold of the old Mercenary starter sets or not) sharing a core of cheap proxied troops.
Things might not match up perfectly in aesthetic terms and you'll get Privateer fanboys and tournament players looking at you strangely, but you can laugh them off as you go to sleep on your pile of scrupulously saved money. Except me. Don't laugh me off. I did tell you how to do this, after all. Just wish I'd thought of it first...
ADDITIONAL: for those who care about the viability of this approach in terms of rules, Raptor is currently running a faction-by-faction breakdown of the various mercenary options available. Go and have a look.
Now, Warmahordes is my tournament game, insofar as I have one at all, and so the decision is largely made for me; whatever I want to take to an Official Event (TM) more or less has to be Official Miniatures (TM) as I can't rely on the discretion of the tournament organiser being in my favour. Nevertheless, I understand the case for proxying and accept that if you're never going to play in an environment where officialdom matters, th'art free to do as thou wilt.
 | |
| Aleister Crowley approves of proxying. No wonder he's the Wickedest Man in the World. |
This morning, I stumbled upon an idea for expanding a Warmahordes collection past the initial investment that seems to dovetail well with the proxy practice. I'll link to it in a moment, but first I want to brief the non-Warmahordes readership about a few truths. Those groin-yards among you who already know their Slaughterhousers from their Doom Reavers can feel free to skip a paragraph.
Warmahordes revolves around the one figure at the centre of your army; the warlock or warcaster. Change that, and keep the rest of your army list the same, and you change the way the whole army list plays. The pieces still do what they do, but they're supported differently and often take on different strategic and tactical roles (what was once a line-breaking destroyer of meat and metal alike can become a disposable beatstick, a screening piece or a tough objective taker, depending on context). The game also incorporates a variety of mercenary troops which can either join armies from one or more other factions or do their own thing as 'contract' or 'pact' forces with their own agendas. The nature of mercenaries is such that, barring a few excellent pieces, they tend to appear in armies of their own kind; it's very rare that you'll see a faction army including more than one or two mercenaries.
Which is odd, as Raptor of Spite for the Unblighted pointed out this morning. Building a solid core of generic mercenaries or minions and then adding faction pieces - mainly warcasters/warlocks and the warjacks/warbeasts that they control - to that affords a similar kind of variety to the change-your-warcaster-change-your-army approach described above, just on a slightly grander scale. It occurs to me that proxying that core of generic mercenaries and then adding small faction battlegroups - possibly even the discounted starter boxes, which tend to include something for free - would result in a satisfactory-if-not-brilliant Warmahordes army, certainly good enough to just play the game.
Warmachine probably affords the best opportunities for this, given the greater variety of mercenary troop types available to the steam-powered factions, and the fairly generic nature of those troops (there's not much demand for giant crocodile men or pig-headed rifle-blokes, you see, so cheap ranges are harder to find). Units of dwarfs with whacking great hammers or rifles plus tower shields aren't that hard to come by; neither are armoured infantry with polearms or firearms, matching cavalry and a mounted officer; and while the specific characters belonging to Privateer's proprietary fantasy species might be a bit tricky, pirates with cutlasses, pistols and rifles, plus a few gentlemanly character-solo-ish types are less so. Build a core of faux-Rhulfolk, Steelheads or Privateers, with all the rules synergies that having broadly the same sort of stuff implies, and then add the starter battlegroups to create up to six different armies (depending on whether you can get hold of the old Mercenary starter sets or not) sharing a core of cheap proxied troops.
Things might not match up perfectly in aesthetic terms and you'll get Privateer fanboys and tournament players looking at you strangely, but you can laugh them off as you go to sleep on your pile of scrupulously saved money. Except me. Don't laugh me off. I did tell you how to do this, after all. Just wish I'd thought of it first...
ADDITIONAL: for those who care about the viability of this approach in terms of rules, Raptor is currently running a faction-by-faction breakdown of the various mercenary options available. Go and have a look.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Fifty Ways To Leave Your Gaming Company
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| Okay, not fifty, but I'm sure Paul and I can manage a few. |
- Know what you want. What's your actual problem with the company? Can you continue to play their games in good conscience, or is your seething righteous fury at the injustice they perpetrate too much? What is it about their games that makes you want to keep playing them? Is it story, scale, mechanics, funky miniatures, funky gamers, gamer funk or simple habit and ignorance of the alternatives? You need to know why you're doing or not doing things before you can make an informed decision about whether or not to keep doing them. If you like sword and sorcery skirmish games, do you really need that huge army of flying space tanks?
- Stop and take stock. What do you own? What is built and ready to go; what has been sitting in a box since New Hot Sexy Release Day and never looked at since; what can work with what at a pinch and what's mutually exclusive? Work out what you've got, what you can do with it, and how much work and expense it would take to do something with it if you need to make an investment. I tend to find the people with the biggest dead lead piles and collections of mouldering, dusty sourcebooks are the people who only buy from one company but have lots of projects going on within that - who buy Company X's complete new release every time but never really get very far with it before picking up the next one. The downside here is that all those projects require ongoing investment, and if you're suddenly unable or unwilling to continue making that investment, you have a pewter mountain on your hands that, in many cases, would embarrass the European Union.
- Diversify. Once you know what you're most likely to continue using, sell the rest. Go on. Get rid of it. Use those resources to explore new games and new environments, to boldly go where no nerd has gone before... or at least where you've not gone before. You're not going to dissassociate yourself from the company if you have no idea what the competition has to offer.
- Use the secondary market, Luke. Unless your name's not Luke (metaphorically speaking, that means 'unless you have some pressing need for as-new material', like a wargamer who likes to kitbash and thus won't be as keen on assembled and painted kits), the secondary market is your friend; it enables you to complete and extend projects without directly supporting the company with your own money. This is, of course, psychological double-talk to an extent - that eBay bargain has, at some point, been purchased from the company who made it, and the money you spend on it will like as not find its way back to them, so this isn't one for the ideologues who've decided that the company is run by Satan and all his little wizards. If your problem is simply "man, I can't afford the new Cyber-Knights, they are too spendy at umpty-seven pounds for two, but I still really like Star Pogrom and what it's about", you'll probably be more comfortable with this.
- Avoid prescriptive environments. Many companies have officially designated spaces in which they control what can and cannot be used there, whether it's "Dungeon Bash 8.4 is the only edition that's on sale at the event, therefore the only edition that can be used here, and official dice, character sheets, measuring implements, status tokens, floorplans and pencil shavings are a requirement" or "you must use branded Nerd Emporium paints, brushes, glues, pins, chewing gum and wishful thinking to build your Cyber-Knights in the Nerd Emporium". Fie on this nonsense, says I. Fie on it! Such policies are nearly always designed to burden the consumer with expensive and unwanted purchases - get out of the environments that force those on you and find or create an environment where you're allowed to do things your own way, substituting in cheaper equivalent miniatures, homebrewed rather than supplemental rules, and materials that don't cost the Earth.
- Disengage from what you've left. Try not to get excited about Sexy Hot New Release Day for a game you don't play any more. Don't let yourself be seduced back in. Remind yourself why you quit - it doesn't matter how pretty that new book/miniature/dice block/paint-pot/staff member is if it doesn't fix what drove you away in the first place. Likewise, fight the urge to get into Internet arguments (or, goddess forbid, actual arguments) about how rubbish Dungeon Bash is compared to Castle Brawl, or how Nerd Emporium is secretly controlled by the New World Order. You're still thinking about something you were supposed to be getting away from, and that's the sort of behaviour that will see you sucked right back in.
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| Yes, she's lovely, but that doesn't mean she isn't trying to sell you devil droppings in a blister pack. |
Monday, 4 April 2011
Building a Talos in a Week - Day Four
Most of the time when I start a project, I struggle to get it finished. I know that the professional image that this blog puts across may make it look that I'm a perfectionist, but sometimes things don't go entirely to plan. However, the last few days seem to have provided a minor miracle. The Talos I'm building for my Dark Eldar 40k army is progressing well and I may well get it finished on time! Here I am at the end of day three, the model is now primed, mainly basecoated and has also had a blue wash applied. Enjoy, and look forward to another update tomorrow!
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Mo' like DUH-ngeon Tiles...
Today's crafty tip and fiddle from yer uncle Von is all to do with RPGs and maps.
Even for an armchair-theatre type like me, roleplaying sooner or later ends up generating the need for maps. Now, necessity is the mother of invention, and consequently many RPG manufacturers have invented things for you to spend your money on in order to establish just how far into ur base the characters are, and how many d00dz still require killin. Things like this.
Don't get me wrong, it's very pretty, but it a) costs money and b) only represents the one thing. I am a) poor and b) inclined to run lots of different roleplaying games, in lots of different settings and with lots of different environments coming up in the space of one story, sometimes even in one session.
That's why I use one of these instead.
Oh, I admit it doesn't look as nice, but the thing is, I'm not limited with this. I can choose to have a grid, or not to have a grid, can choose whether this blank white space is a dungeon, or a field, or a lava flow, or whatever I like. If I'm feeling terribly artistic, I can even draw out multiple areas in different colours and use them to trigger events in play. I also don't have to spend a fortune on graph paper. I tend to whip it out for any particularly busy encounters and then put it away again, rather than tracking the entire course of an adventure on it, but in theory, smaller pieces could be used to track out quite a substantial area.
In the UK, Wilkinson's sell the board and a black pen for £2. They also, for just over £4, do a larger board that's half whiteboard and half cork, allowing you to pin resources like world maps, interesting documents and other stimulating papery things onto, but since I can't fit that one in the Nerd Bag (of which more later), it's so far been a no-no.
Even for an armchair-theatre type like me, roleplaying sooner or later ends up generating the need for maps. Now, necessity is the mother of invention, and consequently many RPG manufacturers have invented things for you to spend your money on in order to establish just how far into ur base the characters are, and how many d00dz still require killin. Things like this.
Don't get me wrong, it's very pretty, but it a) costs money and b) only represents the one thing. I am a) poor and b) inclined to run lots of different roleplaying games, in lots of different settings and with lots of different environments coming up in the space of one story, sometimes even in one session.
That's why I use one of these instead.
Oh, I admit it doesn't look as nice, but the thing is, I'm not limited with this. I can choose to have a grid, or not to have a grid, can choose whether this blank white space is a dungeon, or a field, or a lava flow, or whatever I like. If I'm feeling terribly artistic, I can even draw out multiple areas in different colours and use them to trigger events in play. I also don't have to spend a fortune on graph paper. I tend to whip it out for any particularly busy encounters and then put it away again, rather than tracking the entire course of an adventure on it, but in theory, smaller pieces could be used to track out quite a substantial area.
In the UK, Wilkinson's sell the board and a black pen for £2. They also, for just over £4, do a larger board that's half whiteboard and half cork, allowing you to pin resources like world maps, interesting documents and other stimulating papery things onto, but since I can't fit that one in the Nerd Bag (of which more later), it's so far been a no-no.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
The Period Drama Challenge
With the inclimate weather hitting Scotland this weekend, I sat Arabiansquire down to continue painting his space marine, having finished his first one a few weeks ago. After 30 minutes he'd done the blue and the guns on a couple of figures before the need for a break and a biscuit. The painting gear was left out, and took the brush down time to walk the dog for half an hour. So imagine my surprise when I returned to find him sitting finishing off his FOURTH figure on my return. How did that happen? He'd used a few speed painting short cuts (reduced palette, etc), but they are painted and will be good on the table.
My initial plan was to dry brush the background parts of the terminator and just use the main colour on the most forward sections of the armour. A drybrush of dark marine blue was rubbish. So I repeated with Space Wolf Grey. It also looked rubbish, so I abandoned this plan and went for a covering of Dark marine blue (the clock was ticking) on the armour and Space wolf grey as the base for the helmets (the intention being the helmets would be white) and a white shoulder pad. Next up was hopefully the final colour shade of Space Marine Blue. It didn't take me too long to realise that this was going to be too dark, but in the interest of consistency I painted all 3 termies in it. On the opposite end of the contrast range I also realised that Space Wolf Grey was way too light to pick up the sunken detail of the helmets, so I gave them a wash in blue. Whilst all this was drying some aged gold was applied to the motif on the shoulder. Gun bolt metal was also brushed on the weapons. Time was running out now, and I'd started to run out of options on my rushed palette. The ink wash had dried on the helmets so some white highlighting was done. A quick dash through the house had me "borrowing" ArabianSquires blue that he'd been using for his marine earlier in the day, which I only managed to get on one marine before the end credits had finished rolling. I'd failed!
Or had I?
Well, yes I had. But as compensation after less than 2 hours I had 3 mostly painted Terminators and I had learned some valuable lessons. I was always going to be tight for time from the start. Next time I should convince my other half to watch Gone with the Wind (although that's actually a film worth watching!). Spending so much time applying coats of paint (and the subsequent drying time) did me no favours. Having a rough idea of what sort paint colours you are going to use is no substitute for knowing what paint colours you are going to use. Also, not playing 40k, the models are not very familiar to me, especially all the small details in the sculpts that are not immediately apparent when they are bare metal. All these problems were all symptomatic to the fact I only thought of this with half an hour before the whistle blew.
And just to finish the piece here's a picture of the finished Terminators after about another hours work. No great shakes, but table worthy (see below):
The key to the timed speed paint is preparation. You must know your model, paints and methods. Know where you can save time with a big brush and what parts you can get on with whilst other areas dry. Know how long it'll take to work round fiddly bits or how you are going to tackle them. Know where you can shortcut with washes and a dry brush. With a plan you know will work you can efficiently get the paint on.
And to finish, a picture from the following day as both sets of newly painted figures got table time.
Now where am I going this? Well I'd spent the marine painting time assembling a trio of old Terminators I've had lying about. Suddenly I'm behind, but "salvation" was at hand. ArabianQueen wanted to watch a Period drama (about Dylan Thomas) that night. So I wondered if I could speed paint the 3 terminators whilst "watching" it - 1hr 45 mins. (Question: why is a Dylan Thomas love triangle film set in WWII a period drama and hence OK to watch whilst Saving Private Ryan isn't and gets the thumbs down? The injustice of the world!) .
Now as this desperate plan was forged a mere 30 minutes before program start I didn't have time to test any colour plans, etc - just grab some paints I thought would work, equip the laptop painting station, pour a large drink and sit down before curtain raise.
 |  |
| Title sequence runs | An hour in |
My initial plan was to dry brush the background parts of the terminator and just use the main colour on the most forward sections of the armour. A drybrush of dark marine blue was rubbish. So I repeated with Space Wolf Grey. It also looked rubbish, so I abandoned this plan and went for a covering of Dark marine blue (the clock was ticking) on the armour and Space wolf grey as the base for the helmets (the intention being the helmets would be white) and a white shoulder pad. Next up was hopefully the final colour shade of Space Marine Blue. It didn't take me too long to realise that this was going to be too dark, but in the interest of consistency I painted all 3 termies in it. On the opposite end of the contrast range I also realised that Space Wolf Grey was way too light to pick up the sunken detail of the helmets, so I gave them a wash in blue. Whilst all this was drying some aged gold was applied to the motif on the shoulder. Gun bolt metal was also brushed on the weapons. Time was running out now, and I'd started to run out of options on my rushed palette. The ink wash had dried on the helmets so some white highlighting was done. A quick dash through the house had me "borrowing" ArabianSquires blue that he'd been using for his marine earlier in the day, which I only managed to get on one marine before the end credits had finished rolling. I'd failed!
 |  |
| 15 mins to go | The final credits roll |
Well, yes I had. But as compensation after less than 2 hours I had 3 mostly painted Terminators and I had learned some valuable lessons. I was always going to be tight for time from the start. Next time I should convince my other half to watch Gone with the Wind (although that's actually a film worth watching!). Spending so much time applying coats of paint (and the subsequent drying time) did me no favours. Having a rough idea of what sort paint colours you are going to use is no substitute for knowing what paint colours you are going to use. Also, not playing 40k, the models are not very familiar to me, especially all the small details in the sculpts that are not immediately apparent when they are bare metal. All these problems were all symptomatic to the fact I only thought of this with half an hour before the whistle blew.
And just to finish the piece here's a picture of the finished Terminators after about another hours work. No great shakes, but table worthy (see below):
The key to the timed speed paint is preparation. You must know your model, paints and methods. Know where you can save time with a big brush and what parts you can get on with whilst other areas dry. Know how long it'll take to work round fiddly bits or how you are going to tackle them. Know where you can shortcut with washes and a dry brush. With a plan you know will work you can efficiently get the paint on.
And to finish, a picture from the following day as both sets of newly painted figures got table time.
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| Space Marines and Terminators take on the Nekron menace |
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
How to blog (not very well)
As regular readers know, I like to relax in the evenings and read a few emails. When I’m not helping out Nigerian Finance ministers or confirming my HSBC bank details (I don’t even have an account with HSBC, but they seem happy to accept my credit card details nonetheless), I like to respond to my fan mail.
Recently, I found the delightful blog ‘Ninjabread’ hosted by Curis and sent him a note to express my admiration for his efforts (especially this stunning ultramarines comic) and to ask him to ‘plug my blog’ which is internet speak for blagging some free advertising (not to be confused with ‘icing the log’ which I would not ask Curis for).
Anyway, Curis reciprocated and sent his own electronic note of admiration for this very blog. So what was he most impressed by? The hints and tips for money saving? The wonderful photographs? The witty insights into the world of gaming? No. What he admired most was my follower count and wanted to know how I'd managed to dupe so many people. Bastard.
But anyway, my reply was as follows and I thought any fellow bloggers or self promoters may find it interesting...
My blog has been running for over two years now and the number of followers has grown steadily. The main method I use is shameless self promotion, posting in various forums ('fora' if you're a pedant) everytime that I post on the blog.
The main site I post on is 'The Miniatures Page' which is where most of my hits come from. Speaking of which, I use a 'Site Meter' tool on my blog to record the number of hits that I receive and where they come from, so that I can focus on the sites that work. I've managed to piss off a few people with this method though, as I use their lovingly curated forums to advertise my shoddy blog. I even managed to get thrown off one message board, though I can't remember which one it was.
Apart from that, the only other method I can think of is following other people's blog, as they often follow you in return.
So those were my tips, I hope you find them useful. And don’t forget that you can ascribe any success that Curis may have in the future to my mentorship. I made you Curis, I MADE YOU!
Happy Gaming
Recently, I found the delightful blog ‘Ninjabread’ hosted by Curis and sent him a note to express my admiration for his efforts (especially this stunning ultramarines comic) and to ask him to ‘plug my blog’ which is internet speak for blagging some free advertising (not to be confused with ‘icing the log’ which I would not ask Curis for).
Anyway, Curis reciprocated and sent his own electronic note of admiration for this very blog. So what was he most impressed by? The hints and tips for money saving? The wonderful photographs? The witty insights into the world of gaming? No. What he admired most was my follower count and wanted to know how I'd managed to dupe so many people. Bastard.
But anyway, my reply was as follows and I thought any fellow bloggers or self promoters may find it interesting...
My blog has been running for over two years now and the number of followers has grown steadily. The main method I use is shameless self promotion, posting in various forums ('fora' if you're a pedant) everytime that I post on the blog.
The main site I post on is 'The Miniatures Page' which is where most of my hits come from. Speaking of which, I use a 'Site Meter' tool on my blog to record the number of hits that I receive and where they come from, so that I can focus on the sites that work. I've managed to piss off a few people with this method though, as I use their lovingly curated forums to advertise my shoddy blog. I even managed to get thrown off one message board, though I can't remember which one it was.
Apart from that, the only other method I can think of is following other people's blog, as they often follow you in return.
So those were my tips, I hope you find them useful. And don’t forget that you can ascribe any success that Curis may have in the future to my mentorship. I made you Curis, I MADE YOU!
Happy Gaming
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Advice Dog Approves: two things to do with blister packs when they're dead
Hi folks; just a quick one (as I'm messing about with Tyranid colour-schemes today).
Dethtron, stealer of thunder that he is, has started up a series on Gaming on a Budget over on the House of Paincakes. His first instalment went up this week; a set of ideas on things to do with the blisters from your blister packs. Be sure to click that first link at least once a week - in fact, go and do it again now, don't worry, I'll wait - for more crafty tips and fiddles.
As a companion piece, I might go so far as to recommend this piece by the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) on using the foam from blister packs to make a wet palette (something I should probably be doing, given the speed at which the GW Foundation paints dry) without accidentally drenching the author of Lurking Rhythmically.
Right. Back to sorting out those Tyranids. For some reason I can't settle on a colourscheme for them; I blame all that Punk Art.
Dethtron, stealer of thunder that he is, has started up a series on Gaming on a Budget over on the House of Paincakes. His first instalment went up this week; a set of ideas on things to do with the blisters from your blister packs. Be sure to click that first link at least once a week - in fact, go and do it again now, don't worry, I'll wait - for more crafty tips and fiddles.
As a companion piece, I might go so far as to recommend this piece by the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) on using the foam from blister packs to make a wet palette (something I should probably be doing, given the speed at which the GW Foundation paints dry) without accidentally drenching the author of Lurking Rhythmically.
Right. Back to sorting out those Tyranids. For some reason I can't settle on a colourscheme for them; I blame all that Punk Art.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
How to Make a Million on ebay
Step one: Send me £10 for my amazing ‘Secrets to Ebay Selling’ DVD.
One of my Frugal Gaming aims is to ‘Make Money from Gaming’, and until the call comes from Fantasy Flight to become their head of games testing, it looks like I’ll have to be selling on ebay.
There are lots of auction and selling sites out there, but the big one is ebay. I’ve only had experience of ebay, but if you can recommend other good sites for buying and selling, let me know. Here’s my 12 top tips…
Be realistic.
You are not going to make your fortune on ebay. Sorry. If you’re working, consider how much you would have to sell on ebay every day to match your wages. Keep it as a hobby. Ebay is an excellent resource for clearing out items you don’t want or raising money for something in particular. I bought my copy of the new Warhammer rulebook using money from ebayed items and I have a smug sense of pride from knowing that I effectively got it free.
Count the cost.
If you’re selling to clear out unused figures, games and sets of rules then any money you make is a bonus. However, if you buy items specifically to sell, then you have to be very careful with your finances. The money that comes in MUST cover the initial cost of the items, plus postage, plus ebay fees, plus paypal fees, plus any packaging. If you’re only just scraping even, then you’re wasting your time.
Good photographs.
A fantastic photograph can make all the difference. Take the time to set up a couple of lights, and consider investing in a cheap camera tripod to stop wobbling.
Strip paint.
If you have a metal model that’s badly painted, it can be worth stripping the paint, as many buyers will want to paint it themselves. It could easily add a pound or two to the final selling price…
Paint it.
Then again, many people like buying prepainted figures, a nice cleanly painted, based figure may also bring in a few extra pounds. However the extra money brought in may not be worth the time you’ve had to put in.
Buy big.
If you want to buy something, try and buy in bulk. Even if you want only a couple of units, it can be worth buying a whole army and then selling the rest.
Sell small.
When selling, the opposite is true; it’s best to sell items individually or in single units. You’re likely to get a better overall price, though it does add to the time you spend list and packing items for sale.
Sell overseas.
Of all the items I’ve sold on ebay, perhaps 60% are to international buyers. If you only offer to sell in the UK, you severely restrict your market and the final sale price could suffer.
Accept cheques/postal orders.
There are a few people that don’t have paypal accounts or don’t have funds in their account. Allowing alternative payment methods increases your number of potential customers.
Local delivery.
I have sold a couple of items total buyers, this has a number of advantages. The first is that if you get paid in cash you won’t have to pay paypal fees, secondly (and perhaps more importantly) you end up meeting people in your area that play games! I met my Necromunda opponent Matt by selling him some figures which he collected in person.
Sniping.
Now this may upset a few readers, but sniping is one of the best things you can do on an ebay auction. Sniping is watching an item and only putting in a bid at the last minute. People hate it, but it often works and since this is a Frugal Gaming blog, not a nicey-nicey blog, I’d be wrong to exclude it. You’re not breaking any rules, and there’s always a chance your ‘sniping’ bid won’t be high enough anyway (someone else may have set a higher maximum bid). I always do it and find it effective, give it a go.
Set a limit.
Decide what you want to pay for an item and stick to it! It’s easy to get caught up in a bidding war and end up paying over the odds for something.
So there you go, my top tips to buying and selling, if you have any more, let me know. Happy gaming!
Friday, 29 October 2010
Hive Fleet NÃðhöggr - Why Nids Aren't Orks
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| Remember, these aren't models. They're parts. Just because the box says three doesn't mean you can't build six... |
£20 for a 40 point Trukk is not a good investment. I tend to rate kits based on how much of a game-worthy army they constitute, and transport vehicles tend to come off very badly when viewed in those terms. About the only one I have any respect for is the Land Raider: it may set you back £35, but it's also a two-hundred-plus point behemoth of a kit that constitutes a good chunk of army for the investment and actually does things in games that aren't just 'ferry infantry around the board'.
The Ork Battlewagon's in a similar bracket, I suppose, although less imposing on all counts... which is sort of the problem, really. I could have built a smashing looking army, but it would have a lot of fiddly little kits that didn't eat enough points in it, and I'd also have had to buy almost everything in one go in order to have all the parts that I needed for it. Not terribly economical and would have resulted in a huge, demoralising pile of plastic to work through.
Wanting to avoid the whole tangled issue of over-priced, under-valued transport vehicles entirely, I hit on the idea of either doing Daemons (who'd pull double duty as a second WFB army, but not offer me that many modelling opportunities - and that was the point of this 40K project, if you recall) or Tyranids (who would be committed to 40K and 40K alone but also have some excellent plastic kits and some big scary monsters which don't have proper models, therefore demanding some modelling).
I sat down at the computer, poked around some good netlists (remember, there's no shame in it), looked at a few conversions to give me ideas, and then it hit me - I could easily build a Tyranid army in smaller, self-contained, self-managing units, without needing this kit to give me spare arms for that kit which would mean I could use those third-party minis to free up bodies for t'other conversion. It seems far more sensible than the alternative, anyway.
For the first chunk of the army - the first thousand points - I'll be needing two Tyranid battleforces, recommended retail price £60 each. First way to save money - buy from Maelstrom and revel in their 10% discount. First obstacle - they don't have any in stock, and I could do with having this project ready to go by Wednesday. M'colleague and I have also discussed how to set an example to the kids we're running our club for, and he reckons that encouraging them into the hobby centre to play games and socialise is important, so actually visiting said hobby centre might be a good idea. I'm not convinced, myself, but the fact of the matter is, they have the miniatures ready to go and I have a deadline here.
Second way to save money - look at building expensive things out of cheap things.
The third way, of course, is the time-honoured 'buy a bargain and sell what you don't want' method. Those two Battleforces will furnish me with rather a lot of Tyranids, including eight Genestealers and twelve Hormagaunts that I'm not sure I have a tactical purpose for. They might find themselves converted up as alternative weapon options for other units, or they might find themselves going on eBay, unassembled, to try and recoup some start-up costs.
On a final note: while I've been looking at plastic sprues to jazz up this post, I've also seen a picture of the Stealer sprue and discovered its lack of enough tentacly heads to suit my purposes. I'd need four, not two, boxes of Genestealers to build eight Ymgarl 'Stealers - not very economical at all. I'll either have to sculpt my own or pick up some resin alternatives from Chapterhouse: either way, let this be a lesson about the importance of research, finding out what parts you actually get in a kit before you buy it, and seeing kits as parts rather than as foregone conclusions, models already built.
Isn't this where we came in?
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Building a Catapult... Sorry, Trebuchet.
Hello my fellow geeks. You may remember last week I mentioned I'd been busy gaming, painting and building models. This time I thought I'd show you one of the tasty fruits of my labour, namely a goblin catapult...
Being a tight arsed frugal gaming type, I didn't want to shell out for the Games Workshop Rocklobber for my Goblin Army, so I decided to make my own from balsa wood. As usual I started off with a few sketches, which I then promptly ignored.
Monday, 21 June 2010
Fanboy Fights and Gaming Gear
There's an ongoing nerd fight between Warmachine/Hordes and Warhammer (40K) players - or more accurately, consumers of Privateer Press products and consumers of Games Workshop products - over which game works out cheaper in the long term. It's pretty much a wash - you can play a Privateer game with less miniatures, but they're more expensive than the Workshop equivalents and the game pretty much requires you to own a variety of pieces to meet a variety of tactical needs if you want to do well.
Anyway, what with the new Warhammer coming out in July, and the new rulebook costing a hefty £45 (incidentally, I won't be buying one - it's more expensive than I need, too heavy to cycle around with on my back, and contains a lot of stuff that isn't game rules and so gets in the way of using it as a reference document. It's a lovely looking book, but it's not appropriate to my needs), the battleground of the week has been start-up costs. You can read the nerd fight that inspired this post over at Stelek's rather confrontational blog (probably not safe for work, or the thin-skinned - he swears a bit and doesn't suffer fools gladly).
Wargames do frequently have quite a steep start-up cost, but there are always going to be ways of mitigating it. Privateer Press do half the work for us, printing the rules for the entry-level pieces in their games in the core rulebook and providing some easily-photocopied templates and markers in the back.
The nice chap who makes Forward Kommander does a bit more work, as the printouts from that will have the damage grids and tracks you'll need on it.
There are always cheap options for tokens and templates - I use a lot of Gale Force 9 and Litko tokens, for my sins, mostly because my clear glass stones didn't go down to well at the club I used to use in Manchester (it was a dark space and it was difficult to read my handwriting, it smudged all the time, and yes, some of the lads were part of the Cult of Official Supplies), and paper ones would have gone mouldy in that cellar full of fish that we played in.
I have made my own for other games, though, and most of the online communities for wargames have links to PDFs that helpful people have made that you can print off and stick onto card or spare bases or what-have-you. (Da Waaagh do a nice set of very Orky 40K ones, for instance.) My smoke templates are all cardboard (I need a lot of them for most of my armies, more than it would be reasonable to purchase plastic ones for) and my new spray template probably will be too.
As far as rules materials go, it's like roleplaying - you have to learn to spot the difference between an essential core rulebook and a frivolous supplement. Once you have a set of rules once, there's no sense in buying them twice - which is, incidentally, what the local Workshop staff have been trying to persuade me to do (actually, three times - collector's edition for owning and cherishing, regular one for background and using until the book comes out, and the little one for actually lugging around and taking to games, once it's come out). What kind of mug do they take me for, eh?
Lest it be thought that I'm taking sides here, I should add that we Frugalists are not biased towards any game system: we make our own terrain and try to keep it good for everything, we make our own tokens for PP games and our own movement trays for GW games. We don't buy anybody's overpriced hobby products when there are art shops in the world, and the only thing we get into Internet Fights over is people spending more money than they need to.
That and Blogger's text wrapping and inexplicably adding extra blank lines to my posts every time I try and do something clever with images. IT WOULD WORK IF YOU'D STOP ADDING EXTRA BITS, BLOGGER! Tch. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the accessory tips.
Friday, 18 June 2010
So, I play Dark Elves in the Warhammer thing. You probably knew that by now. You also probably knew that it was a close thing: that I had designs on a Vampire Counts army, but botted when a mate of mine offered to sell me his evil pointy pirate men for less than half retail price.
The other alternative was Vampire Counts. It may still become a Project, if the new edition of Warhammer tempts me into playing them again. Even if it doesn't, I think there might be some Frugal tips and fiddles in here for the discerning player, so let's have a go.
I (would have) picked Vampire Counts because:
- I've played the army before and know I get on well with them.
- Undead are cool.
- They'd look good on the terrain I've built for my Cryx army.
- There are elements of their background that I have something of a soft spot for.
- Above all, there are lots of ranges of undead minis for medieval/fantasy games that are cheaper than Citadel.
Let's start with the background bit, get it out of the way quickly.
BACKGROUND
I've always had a soft spot for Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster. He's wise. He's powerful. He's mad as a broom. He's got a big hat.
He first appeared in a scenario called the Battle of La Maisontaal Abbey, pitted against Bretonnians and Skaven (both of which are played by mates of mine). He's also in WFRP, in an adventure set in a town called Frugelhofen (that's fate, that is!).
(Incidentally, Frugelhofen also featured in the excellent Warhammer Townscapes, a pack of cardboard buildings that seems to go on more or less forever. I have a PDF copy and will eventually be transferring it onto card so I can build some terrain on the very cheap.
White Dwarf 309 - 311 featured a run of articles called Return of the Lichemaster, which posited something very like the old Undead army for old Heinrich to lead, and pitted him against the Wood Elves of Athel Loren. I hate Wood Elves and any excuse to zombify them is always welcome.
The appeal in this is the army of Undead Wood Elves, raised from the barrows of Athel Loren after his last defeat and let loose upon the Old World again.
Let's look for some models.
MANTIC GAMES
Mantic do a range of plastic Ghouls, Skeletons, Revenants (armoured Skeletons, with cavalry currently available only in metal), Wraiths with a variety of weapons, and Skeleton Catapults.
The main attractions of Mantic minis are twofold: they look quite nice (especially the Ghouls, which I vastly prefer to the Citadel minis), and they're bloody cheap, working out at something like half the price of GW's models in most cases.
They also have some Elf Cavalry that would make rather nice Blood Knights in this undead Elf horde, and a range of rather tasty character models - although those aren't much cheaper than the GW equivalent.
(Incidentally, Mantic are a great choice for the Elf or Undead player on a budget, and they're working on a range of Dwarves at the moment too. Keep yer eyes on them. They're quite cool.)
I discovered Mantic through Carpe Noctem, a Vampire Counts forum I used to frequent. Most of the Warhammer armies have a large online community or two, and most of those large online communities have forum threads or articles about sourcing models on the cheap. It's a good place to start looking: CN's led me to Mantic, Wargames Factory and Heresy, back in the day.
That's Skeletons and Ghouls out of the way - what about the other Core choice?
Citadel Zombies aren't terrible value for money, all things considered, but there's always another option.
WARGAMES FACTORY
Zombie Celts Mash-Up Box!. Suitably wild, barbaric-looking zombies that you pretty much have to kitbash. Opportunity to get some more human-looking ones in there too, for variety's sake and that "raised from all over" feel. Nice. Most of the other zombies I found were either metal (and too expensive to field in numbers) or just very old-fashioned sculpts that looked like refugees from a mid-90s Citadel catalogue.
HERESY MINIATURES
Our mates at Heresy (they're lovely people, you know) do some Ghouls, which are lovely models (I had fifteen in my old Vampire Counts army) but a bit pricey to buy in the sort of numbers the modern Vampire Count needs them in.
However, they also make a range of cheap, nice-lookin' characters.
This Apprentice Wizard would make a fine Necromancer or even a passable Kemmler with a bit of work and the Evil Pointy Hat.
I'm also very fond of this Vampire, and if I couldn't afford a Kemmler miniature (quite likely) I think he'd make a cool General. The top hatted head is my favourite, naturally.
He also comes in a grab bag with a winged Hero choice, perfect for that Flying Horror (or whatever the ability's called) upgrade. My first thought was 'Varghulf' but he's a bit small for that, and anyway, I can always use DARK SLAVE MINIATURES' Treeman for that.
Oh yeah. Big blighted Treeman dude. That suits the army more than a bat monster any day of the week. It would also work nicely as a dark, foresty equivalent to the Bone Giant (Mantic make catapults and armoured Skeleton heroes, so why not think about using this same collection for two army lists? You get more variety of play that way, without having to shell out on two sets of miniatures, although it might come out as more like one and a half if some of the models don't work for both).
I'm now forced to turn back to CITADEL MINIATURES for a bit, as they're really the only people who make Heinrich Kemmler and Krell. Their models are soooooo expensive these days and, to be honest, put me off the theme a bit, but they're out there if one can afford them and they sometimes go for not too much on eBay.
There are no rules for these guys any more, but I've been looking at the Vampire Counts book and it shouldn't be too hard to mock them up using the options in there. It won't be perfect, but it'll be 'awesome, very tough Necromancer' and 'badass Wight King'. Shame they don't do Krell's back banner any more, a battle standard would have been handy.
Citadel also make those Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead minis (quite an economical way of doing Spirit Hosts) and Flagellants (they're just mandatory for anyone doing lots of human-ish WFB models).
What to do about Bats (of all sizes) and Ushabti (if I were to go for the Barrow Kings option and fake up a Tomb Kings army using gothic-looking miniatures)?
Gargoyles! Something different (albeit a bit Warcrafty, but there's no shame in that). Took me a while but I eventually found some not-too-bad-looking ones from Reaper, Reaper again, West Wind, whose Gothic Horror range is full of fun Vampirey stuff (an atmospheric skirmish scale game with literary inclinations that unfortunately played like a mouldy sandwich with a small dog's insides, but does have the distinction of being card-based years before Malifaux), and this lot here as well. Oh, and Fenryll do some as well, although the jury's out on whether I actually like them.
Some of these aren't much cheaper than GW Furies would be, admittedly, but I'm kind of into this looking-for-alternatives now. Mounted two to a base, these could serve as Bat Swarms or Fell Bats or Carrion (although the Citadel Carrion are gorgeous, and if I could pick some up for cheap I'd use those like a shot).
This was done in a couple of hours, just thinking about what I'd do with the army and doing a few searches for things like "28mm treeman miniature" and "28mm gargoyle". The result would be a very different-looking Undead army. Wouldn't be suitable for offical GW events, but to be honest I'm cooling on those a bit after some conversations that reminded me why I never liked them before.
As a slow, controlled-expenditure project, I would probably start with a core of Mantic Ghouls and Heresy characters, and then factor in Mantic regiments and monster units alternately. A sort of creeping death, rather than the "buy in, buy in big" approach I took with the Dark Elves.
That's if I did it.
I'm not going to.
Not yet.
The other alternative was Vampire Counts. It may still become a Project, if the new edition of Warhammer tempts me into playing them again. Even if it doesn't, I think there might be some Frugal tips and fiddles in here for the discerning player, so let's have a go.
I (would have) picked Vampire Counts because:
- I've played the army before and know I get on well with them.
- Undead are cool.
- They'd look good on the terrain I've built for my Cryx army.
- There are elements of their background that I have something of a soft spot for.
- Above all, there are lots of ranges of undead minis for medieval/fantasy games that are cheaper than Citadel.
Let's start with the background bit, get it out of the way quickly.
BACKGROUND
I've always had a soft spot for Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster. He's wise. He's powerful. He's mad as a broom. He's got a big hat.He first appeared in a scenario called the Battle of La Maisontaal Abbey, pitted against Bretonnians and Skaven (both of which are played by mates of mine). He's also in WFRP, in an adventure set in a town called Frugelhofen (that's fate, that is!).
(Incidentally, Frugelhofen also featured in the excellent Warhammer Townscapes, a pack of cardboard buildings that seems to go on more or less forever. I have a PDF copy and will eventually be transferring it onto card so I can build some terrain on the very cheap.
White Dwarf 309 - 311 featured a run of articles called Return of the Lichemaster, which posited something very like the old Undead army for old Heinrich to lead, and pitted him against the Wood Elves of Athel Loren. I hate Wood Elves and any excuse to zombify them is always welcome.
The appeal in this is the army of Undead Wood Elves, raised from the barrows of Athel Loren after his last defeat and let loose upon the Old World again.
Let's look for some models.
MANTIC GAMES
Mantic do a range of plastic Ghouls, Skeletons, Revenants (armoured Skeletons, with cavalry currently available only in metal), Wraiths with a variety of weapons, and Skeleton Catapults.
The main attractions of Mantic minis are twofold: they look quite nice (especially the Ghouls, which I vastly prefer to the Citadel minis), and they're bloody cheap, working out at something like half the price of GW's models in most cases.
They also have some Elf Cavalry that would make rather nice Blood Knights in this undead Elf horde, and a range of rather tasty character models - although those aren't much cheaper than the GW equivalent.
(Incidentally, Mantic are a great choice for the Elf or Undead player on a budget, and they're working on a range of Dwarves at the moment too. Keep yer eyes on them. They're quite cool.)
I discovered Mantic through Carpe Noctem, a Vampire Counts forum I used to frequent. Most of the Warhammer armies have a large online community or two, and most of those large online communities have forum threads or articles about sourcing models on the cheap. It's a good place to start looking: CN's led me to Mantic, Wargames Factory and Heresy, back in the day.
That's Skeletons and Ghouls out of the way - what about the other Core choice?
Citadel Zombies aren't terrible value for money, all things considered, but there's always another option.
WARGAMES FACTORY
Zombie Celts Mash-Up Box!. Suitably wild, barbaric-looking zombies that you pretty much have to kitbash. Opportunity to get some more human-looking ones in there too, for variety's sake and that "raised from all over" feel. Nice. Most of the other zombies I found were either metal (and too expensive to field in numbers) or just very old-fashioned sculpts that looked like refugees from a mid-90s Citadel catalogue.
HERESY MINIATURES
Our mates at Heresy (they're lovely people, you know) do some Ghouls, which are lovely models (I had fifteen in my old Vampire Counts army) but a bit pricey to buy in the sort of numbers the modern Vampire Count needs them in.
However, they also make a range of cheap, nice-lookin' characters.
This Apprentice Wizard would make a fine Necromancer or even a passable Kemmler with a bit of work and the Evil Pointy Hat.
I'm also very fond of this Vampire, and if I couldn't afford a Kemmler miniature (quite likely) I think he'd make a cool General. The top hatted head is my favourite, naturally.
He also comes in a grab bag with a winged Hero choice, perfect for that Flying Horror (or whatever the ability's called) upgrade. My first thought was 'Varghulf' but he's a bit small for that, and anyway, I can always use DARK SLAVE MINIATURES' Treeman for that.
Oh yeah. Big blighted Treeman dude. That suits the army more than a bat monster any day of the week. It would also work nicely as a dark, foresty equivalent to the Bone Giant (Mantic make catapults and armoured Skeleton heroes, so why not think about using this same collection for two army lists? You get more variety of play that way, without having to shell out on two sets of miniatures, although it might come out as more like one and a half if some of the models don't work for both).
I'm now forced to turn back to CITADEL MINIATURES for a bit, as they're really the only people who make Heinrich Kemmler and Krell. Their models are soooooo expensive these days and, to be honest, put me off the theme a bit, but they're out there if one can afford them and they sometimes go for not too much on eBay.
There are no rules for these guys any more, but I've been looking at the Vampire Counts book and it shouldn't be too hard to mock them up using the options in there. It won't be perfect, but it'll be 'awesome, very tough Necromancer' and 'badass Wight King'. Shame they don't do Krell's back banner any more, a battle standard would have been handy.
Citadel also make those Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead minis (quite an economical way of doing Spirit Hosts) and Flagellants (they're just mandatory for anyone doing lots of human-ish WFB models).
What to do about Bats (of all sizes) and Ushabti (if I were to go for the Barrow Kings option and fake up a Tomb Kings army using gothic-looking miniatures)?
Gargoyles! Something different (albeit a bit Warcrafty, but there's no shame in that). Took me a while but I eventually found some not-too-bad-looking ones from Reaper, Reaper again, West Wind, whose Gothic Horror range is full of fun Vampirey stuff (an atmospheric skirmish scale game with literary inclinations that unfortunately played like a mouldy sandwich with a small dog's insides, but does have the distinction of being card-based years before Malifaux), and this lot here as well. Oh, and Fenryll do some as well, although the jury's out on whether I actually like them.
Some of these aren't much cheaper than GW Furies would be, admittedly, but I'm kind of into this looking-for-alternatives now. Mounted two to a base, these could serve as Bat Swarms or Fell Bats or Carrion (although the Citadel Carrion are gorgeous, and if I could pick some up for cheap I'd use those like a shot).
This was done in a couple of hours, just thinking about what I'd do with the army and doing a few searches for things like "28mm treeman miniature" and "28mm gargoyle". The result would be a very different-looking Undead army. Wouldn't be suitable for offical GW events, but to be honest I'm cooling on those a bit after some conversations that reminded me why I never liked them before.
As a slow, controlled-expenditure project, I would probably start with a core of Mantic Ghouls and Heresy characters, and then factor in Mantic regiments and monster units alternately. A sort of creeping death, rather than the "buy in, buy in big" approach I took with the Dark Elves.
That's if I did it.
I'm not going to.
Not yet.
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