November 2021 Totals

Still working through my Forest Dragon 10mm Wood Elf army. I was trying to finish all of the infantry in November, but wasn't quite able to do it. I didn't finish the wardancers in time. There are 7-8 elfs per stand, so even though it's only 12 stands worth it's actually about 93 elfs worth.

I need to do some cleaning before I can take pictures.

Now onto totals:

• 4 units of 3 stands of 10mm Elven Archers

November Totals: 12 miniatures

2021 Totals: 372 miniatures

October 2021 Totals

 It's tree month. I hadn't planned to do quite so many trees, but I had, over the years, purchased a "few" trees. The plan had been to build them into larger terrain bits/dioramas ... but I never really did that. So I mounted them on some fender washers (1 1/2" to 1" depending on the canopy size), and painted the bases. This is what a club I was once part of did, and it works pretty well.

I also finally got my hands on a Citadel/GW Collegiate Wizards set, so I built the "Cursed City" book necromancer and got him painted up. I set the other 3 aside to use as Frostgrave Wizards should I ever need more (or as options for future projects).

Now onto totals:

• 1 Shyish Wizard
• 73 Trees
• 24 ~1" Deciduous Trees
• 31 2"-3" Deciduous Trees
• 18 2"-4" Coniferous Trees

October Totals: 74 miniatures

2021 Totals: 360 miniatures

End of Summer Totals

I've been a bit remiss on updating the blog. In part it's do to my picture area being overrun with stuff I'm assembling. I'm still trying to assemble everything I own (which is a lot!). But it'll never get painted if it's in pieces.

So I don't have any pictures at the moment.

So on to the things that were painted over the Summer:

• 47 Cursed City Miniatures (the remaining miniatures from that set)
• 10 Zombies
• 2 Zombie Ogres
• 3 Lesser Vampires
• 1 Radukar the Wolf
• 1 Giant Werewolf/Vampire Hybrid
• 6 Undead Ratswarms
• 6 Giant Batswarms
• 1 Gorslav the Gravekeeper
• 1 "Traditional" Necromancer
• 2 Undead Cats
• 2 Gargoyles
• 2 Grave Stone Markers
• 2 Waystones with Crows
• 1 Ogre
• 1 Dwarf Pirate
• 1 Duelist
• 1 Vampire Hunter
• 1 Wraithlike Necromancer/Death Wizard
• 1 Seeress
• 1 Knight
• 1 Elven Archer
• 1 Mordheim Necromancer (to be used as the Necromancer that came with the Cursed City book)
• 2 More 10mm buildings (one by each kid)
• 1 Giant Serpent (painted by elder kid)
• 1 Frost Giant Queen (elder kid finally finished it off)
• 1 Death Dog (painted by younger kid)

Summer Totals: 53 Miniatures

2021 Totals: 286 Miniatures

May 2021 Totals

 No pictures this month... I'll add some soon.

Started working through the various Cursed City contents. Painted the Skeleton heavy pieces this month and almost got the Zombies done in time to count for this month.

• Cursed City
• 1 Watch Captain Halgrimm
• 10 Skeleton Watch
• 2 Skeleton Objectives

May Totals: 13

2021 Totals: 233

April 2021 Totals

It's that time of the month again. Time to look back at the previous month and figure out if I've been productive. Miniature-wise the big accomplishment was a few units for Warmaster. I also got my hands on a copy of Cursed City and assembled the 60 miniatures within. The game sold out during pre-order within 20 minutes and to add to the drama, GW has announced there will be no follow on print run. I'm a little saddened by the fact that it appears like there might not be any expansions to this game (since why expand a game that you aren't producing). The miniatures are awesome, and there's a lot that could be done in this space. I'd have loved to see a Ghoul expansion, a Gheist expansion, and various other Undead beasties just to begin with. Oh well ... onto totals.

• 12 Warmaster Wood Elf Stands
• 3 Units of 2 Stands of Wood Elf Waywatchers
• 2 Units of 3 Stands of Wood Elf Eternal Guard

April Totals: 12

2021 Totals: 221

Not as good as previous months, but still respectable.

Warmaster: Waywatcher Rangers

The sneaky guerrilla fighters of the Wood Elfs. The Waywatchers come in smaller units (2 stands instead of three) and have special deployment rules that let them ambush other units. Technically I had 2 units worth, but I split them amongst three. I only realized after the fact that you can only have 2 units in a standard 2000 pt sized army. So I have enough for 3000 pts. Oh well.

 

Warmaster: Wood Elf Eternal Guard

More warmaster units. These are the Eternal Guards. Painted with either blue cloaks or white cloaks so it's easy to tell the two units apart. Mostly these were painted with contrast, which works pretty well at this scale. The key to getting the light blue on the cloaks was too thin the Contrast paints down. These were fun to paint. In game, they aren't necessarily the best choice.

 

March 2021 Totals

 March Totals. A bit early (by 2 days), but I don't think I'll be getting anything else done this month.

The big news this month is I finished the Warmaster city project, unexpectedly added to the 32mm Graveyard project and started a Warmaster Wood Elf project.

I suspect the WM Wood Elfs will get shelved the moment I get my hands on the new Warhammer Quest game. I'm oddly excited to start painting Skeletons/Zombies/Vampires and the heroes that fight them. The Warhammer Quest games are probably my favorite GW games to play with my kids. Maybe I'll also do the Ghosts and Ghosthunters from Crypthunters (since I've been playing that intermittently during Covid) as well. I bet there will be rules for adding Ghosts and Ghouls in the near future as well.

Onto the Totals:

• Warmaster Graveyard
• 17 Gravestone Bases
• 3 Small Mausoleums
• 2 Large Mausoleums
• 25mm/32mm Graveyard
• 8 Weeping Statues
• 8 Single Gravestones
• 15 Based/Double Gravestones
• Warmaster Wood Elfs
• 1 Wood Elf General on Forest Dragon

March Totals: 54

2021 Totals: 209

Warmaster: Wood Elf Dragon

 I need some Warmaster miniatures to go with all of this Warmaster terrain I've been making/painting. So I bought a Wood Elf army for my birthday a few months ago. I got these from Warprunner Games in San Diego. Looking at pictures online, I think Excellent Miniatures are a bit more crisper, but given my painting skills at this scale ... I don't think it matters much.

The first piece I finished is the centerpiece of the army. The "general" on dragon.

I had a lot of fun painting this guy. I tried for an autumnal leaf look for the wings (it was either that or make them look like monarch butterfly wings).

My eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, so 10mm is proving to be a challenge. It doesn't help that my brushes are bit worn and due to Covid I haven't been able to get new ones. Overall I like him though, he looks suitably woodsy!

Graveyard

A Spooky Graveyard!

When I printed the Warmaster Graveyard (see previous post), I also printed all of the elements at their normal 25mm scale (sometimes multiple times). I was always a bit disappointed that my Gardens of Morr WHFB/AoS set never had many gravestones (there are a few along some of the wall sections). Now I have a bunch to add to that kit to make even larger graveyards!

I had originally printed a single weeping statue, but after I finished printing the Warmaster city, the printer wasn't doing anything (and I had the filament), so I cranked out a few more. Mainly these could be used in scenarios that require multiple statues, some of the Frostgrave scenarios require a bunch. I recollect thinking "who has that many statues?!?!" ... now I do!

• 8 Weeping Statues
• 8 Single Gravestones
• 15 Based/Double Gravestones

 

Warmaster: City and Graveyard

I'm calling this project complete. I think my family thought I'd gone a little mad with this one (well ... more so than usual).

It's a modular 3d printed Warmaster city (i.e. 10mm scale), complete with graveyard and city walls. I don't even own an army yet that would call this thing home ... although the Skaven would probably like invading it. So at some point I should probably get a Empire or Bretonnian army (or Vampire Counts).

The pictures show one possible layout. There's not enough walkways for all of the walls, but there are enough for 6+ Warmaster infantry units worth, which seemed like plenty for a reasonable army. Not everything is pictured here (there were a number of bits I didn't setup in this photoshoot ... mostly extra ruins, barrels, and fieldstone walls). I could also set this up on one side of a table to imply a much larger city off screen.

Only the graveyard pieces were painted this month.

• 17 Gravestone Bases
• 3 Small Mausoleums
• 2 Large Mausoleums

I ran my 3d printer until it finally broke down. So that makes me sad. I was trying to print rivers and bridges to add to the city. I'm still trying to troubleshoot it, but this seems like a bad break. It's not heating either the print bed or the filament and the reason isn't obvious, the fact that 2 parts seem to have broken at the same time suggest to me it might be software related (although it happened when I was trying to print a river piece that had a particularly bad scaling down attempt).

Now onto the pictures:

 

February 2021 Totals

It's a short month, so in theory it should result in less painted minis. But on the other hand, I've been painting 10mm terrain, which paints up fast. Let's see which one is more impactful! Onto this month's totals:

• 10 - 10mm City Buildings (4 Houses, 1 Bridge House, 1 Inn, 1 Tower House, 1 Small Tower, 2 Cottages)
• 16 - 60x20mm wall walkways
• 6 - 40x20mm wall walkways
• 6 staircases for walkways
• 36 - 60mm fieldstone walls (2 with gates, 2 with openings, 2 with end pieces, 30 regular ones)

February Total: 74 pieces

2021 Total: 155 pieces

One of the cottages was painted by the boy, I have another 2 that others in my family have expressed interest in painting (that I set aside). Pictures of the entire city/town setup should be forthcoming.

January 2021 Totals

 It's a new year!

I haven't spent any time putting together a worksheet for miniatures this year. I went so far off into the weeds last year that I'm still trying to get back on track. I do plan on painting the Blackstone Fortress stuff and I know the new Warhammer Quest Cursed City will barge itself in front of whatever I'm working on. I'd like to paint a second Warmaster army too! And get caught up on Underworlds and the slow trickle of D&D miniatures I pick up.

When I track what I've painted, I track individual pieces. So one big piece of terrain (or a Chimera/Dragon) is still just one miniature. Sometimes that works against my totals ... but in some cases it works for them. This month it's definitely going to work for them. I'm going to include the various pieces and parts that are going into my 10mm medieval city project that I finished (even though the entire city isn't finished). So without further ado:

January 2021 Totals:

• Blackstone Fortress Terrain:
• 14 "crystaline" walls
• 6 stalagmite walls
• 3 techno walls
• 4 objectives markers
• 3 cube like impassable terrain things
• 4 gateways (1 with a removable door)
• 10mm Terrain
• 19 ruins
• 9 Barrels
• 8 Wall towers/guard houses
• 1 Small tower
• 7 Buildings (1 small cottage, 1 2-story cottage, 2 tower houses, 1 noble house, 1 tavern)
• 2 Man O' War Sea Forts
• 1 Man O' War Sea Castle

Egads! I think this almost doubles my previous best month (and that included a bunch of work that spanned multiple months). I still have about 1/2 the city to paint too.

January Total: 81

2021 Total: 81

Warmaster: City & Ruins Work in Progress

This is primarily what my 3d printer has been doing for the last few months. Printing a small walled city for Warmaster.

This entire project came about when I was looking at some 25mm field walls I'd bought a couple decades ago. Some were resin from a company call Armorcraft (iirc) and some were from Pegasus (I think you can still purchase these). The Pegasus ones were pre-painted. I use these mostly for skirmish games, but also as a quick way to setup dungeon rooms when playing D&D. At the time, I was thinking they might work as an old city wall for Epic games since there wasn't anything about them that defined their scale.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I was looking for themed terrain for my Warmaster Skaven army and found some ruins I could 3d print. Along with those, the modeller had made some non-ruined houses. I started printing, found more stl files that would work, printed more. Then I remembered my 25mm field walls and the idea that they'd work well as city walls. The scope kept increasing, I kept printing. Printed and assembled guard towers for the wall, and walk-ways for the walls (not pictured since they aren't painted yet). I'm about 1/2 way done with painting and about 90% done with printing. At some point I need to call it and move on to other things.

 

Man O' War Sea Forts & Castle

I printed these at the same time I printed the other Man O' War fleets. They aren't quite as nice as the ships, and the rules for forts and castles aren't as fun as the ship rules. My printer particularly failed at printing the cannons. They look a bit lumpy. I've seen some well printed ones and they look pretty good ... so it might be more an issue with my printer and less with the stl models.

Dead simple to paint though. Start with a Grey Seer undercoat. Then Basilicum Grey (1:1 with Contrast Medium) with Admin Grey drybrushes and Agrax washes (around the base and any "floors") does most of the work. Then snakebite for any wood and runesteel for the cannons (with some washes of Nuln Oil) for finishing touches.

 

Blackstone Fortress: Terrain & Objective Markers

 

Might as well start off 2021 with a bang! After finishing Hammerhal, I picked up Blackstone Fortress to play with the kids. I poked around on Thingiverse looking for ways to spice it up and found some 3d print files for walls and objectives and gateways. My print bed was too small for some of them, but using a bit of ingenuity (cutting up and gluing together smaller shapes to make the bigger shapes), I have enough for a full table. There are 34 pieces here (14 "crystaline" walls, 6 stalagmite walls, 3 techno walls, 4 objectives, 3 cube like things, 4 gateways (1 with a removable door)).

December 2020 Totals

Happy New Year! It's been a weird year. The quarantine has thrown everything out of sync. I veered off hard from my master list, and don't seem to be getting back to it anytime soon.

• 2 Warmaster Warp Lightning Cannon
• 1 Warmaster Screaming Bell
• 1 Warmaster Skaven General
• 5 Warmaster Skaven Wizards
• 6 Warmaster Skaven Heroes

December Total: 15

2020 Total: 195

I probably would have made 200 models for the year had we not got a puppy.

Warmaster: Skaven Wizards and General

The last of the Skaven (for now!). The general and 5 Wizard stands. The General is a Grey Seer with 2 undead rat ogre bodyguards (it's obviously supposed to be Thanquol). The wizards are 1 Grey Seer (Masterclan), 2 Clan Pestilens, 2 Clan Skyre.

 

Warmaster: Skaven Heroes

Heroes?!?! More like villains. These are the real leaders of the Skaven army. With the Screaming Bell nearby, their command is equal to the Generals.

The 2 in front are from Clan Verminous, the middle 2 are Clan Moulder, and the last 2 are Clan Eshin. If you look closely you can spot old Warhammer named characters. I'm fairly certain I bought 2 command packs long ago, so I have enough heroes for 3,000 points worth of Skaven.

I also played with my camera settings a bit and got a less dark picture (although it constantly wants to switch back to the default which is pretty dark).

 

Warmaster: Skaven Warp Lightning Cannons

A unit of warmaster skaven warp lightning cannons. Same basic paint scheme as all of the other skaven warmster stuff I've painted recently.

 

Warmaster: Skaven Screaming Bell

The centerpiece of the army. It's the Skaven Screaming Bell. It's usually surrounded by hordes of ratmen.

I got a new phone, and the pictures seem to be a bit darker.