On the table this week....

Some progress on a couple of projects this week. I managed to make some headway on the Viking dude from Red Box Games over the last couple of weekends. I'd have liked to be a little further along with him... but thanks to some minor health problems and work he's taking a bit longer. He is turning out really nicely though... the colors I chose are working will together. Just needs the shield and some details painted and he'll be done.

The elves beside him are another story. Only progress on those two was a basecoat of fleshtone... had left over when I was working on Viking dude. The one of the left is almost done... just some work on the flesh and some detailing and he'll be done. Elf on the right is a couple of steps behind his buddy. 

Beside the elves you'll notice a Zombie from Mantic games. He's the starting point on my Dragton Rampant Undead warband. I decided to spice up the appearance of the Undead by giving them some nicer basing treatments... aka chunks of Sculpey and plasticard. I have two groups of 12 of these guys to paint (and they only cost me 2 pts...). I'll also be fielding 3 units of skeletons, a unit of ghouls, and possibly a Dracolich or something along those lines. Not a fan of how Vampires are treated as an elite styled unit rather than a command option... especially since I have tons of Vampires from Warhammer to use.

Back to the left you'll see Achmed the Terrorist. Why am I painting him? Got the idea of painting up some whacky Zombicide alternative models... and he's the first one of the batch. Still working out exactly how to paint him up...I want to go for a black shirt, camo pants... maybe a black mask.. but I'm having some trouble figuring out the best approach for the black on him.

Beside him are the first two Vikings from my recent Gripping Beast purchase. These are by far the best Viking plastics ever. They aren't that different size and style wise from my Foundry and Black Tree Vikings, easy to assemble, AND they aren't posed like they have a stick up their ass. But fear not, my old Wargames Factory vikings are getting cannibalized for my Undead warband... mainly weapons and shields. I figure it'll help push the whole Draugr motif.

Yep, officially a skirmish wargame convert (and apparently a big Osprey Fan too)

For the past 20 years, I have struggled to find a balance in my miniature gaming hobby. Unfortunately, trying to find that perfect balance of painting, collecting, and gaming has been always unattainable. As hard as I try... I always end up focusing on the painting end of things (along with a healthy bit of hoarding all the "shiny" stuff I come across) and as a result, I game maybe once every five to seven years. 

Rather than get bogged down with something large scale... I'm focusing all my gaming efforts on small scale skirmish games. Right now I'm trying to assemble my warbands for a couple of fantasy games... Frostgrave, Of Gods and Mortals, and my new favorite at the moment, Dragon Rampant. 

What's so great about these games? For one, price point for getting into them is low... pretty much cost of book and that's it. Second, between the remnants of my old Warhammer stuff, my RPG models, and my historicals I have an unlimited amount of options for composing my warbands. Third, I'm not stuck painting the same type of models for a year so I can field an army.... I can stick to my usual scattergun approach. Fourth... it's a lot easier to get people to try a new mini game if they don't have to drop $250 on a starter force... unless they are new to the hobby, they should have something to field.

To be clear, I'm not dumping the big wargames completely. Still have my Orcs and Gobbo army for WHFB. I still have all of my vast legions of 40k models (although no way in hell I'm upgrading past third edition... as it's pretty much large scale Epic 40k now). I still have all my WW2 Russians for Bolt Action. I did say goodbye to Warhammer Ancients though... SAGA gets all my Vikings now.

Now someone talk Osprey into doing up some nice small scale sci fi skirmish games... I got a ton of Warzone stuff I need to do something with.

On the table this week...

So this is my "in progress" pile at the moment along with some of the more recent finished items. It's a big pile, but one I hope to be done with before Gen Con this year. Most of my to do models are either Zombicide S1 and LotR Mirkwood Elves... with a few metal models scattered about. And poor Boba Fett... sitting there in that state for the last 5 months.

These two I've been working on over the weekend. The one on the left is almost done and the one on the right is about 75% the way there. I was painting them both at the same time, but once I got the the brown leathers I opted to finish them seperately. Makes sense as those areas require a little more TLC than the jerkins. I fully expect to be done with both and two more by this time next week.

For the record, not a fan of the kneeling elf's pose. Kinda meh... although each elf in that box is in a unique pose which is nice. Had the LotR plastics in the early 2000s been like that, I'd probably have bought more of them.

Here are a few finished models. The Vampire on the left is an old Reaper model from 2000-2001... I'd originally bought him to use as a Blood Dragon character. Now he's just a champion of some sort in my Undead collection. He'll probably be put in charge of a gaggle of skeletons.

Beside him is a skeleton from Mantic. I opted to give these a whirl as I was thinking about starting a KoW undead army. The model isn't bad despite some odd anatomy choices. I went for a sort of Wrath of the Lich King effect for his eyes... doesn't show up on a single model well, but I figure maybe in a group it would. Anyway, he's also part of my Undead collection... and will probably end up getting used for Frostgrave.

Dwarf on the right is one of the dwarfs I had for the Skullpass box set. Ended up painting him as I really though the standard and all the candles looked really neat. I did not do any fancy glows on him... went for more classic WD look.

Next up are some greenskins. The Orc is part of my WHFB Orcs and Gobbos army. I had thought about updating them to AoS... but I already have a Chaos horde for that... so I kept them compatible with WHFB 6th. 

The goblins to the right are from Red Box Games. I probably would have enjoyed painting them more if they weren't so frikkin' tiny. The Crone on the left was painted with a more classic Warhammer style goblin skin, while the champion to the right got a similar tone that the archer I painted last year got.

Last but not least, some models from Zombicide and Super Dungeon Explore. My efforts to make a dent in the pile of models I have to paint for those have been futile as this is as far as I've gotten since the holidays.

Still plan to push on with these and hopefully be done with most my S1 walkers by the time the rest of my Black Plague stuff arrives.

Also, you may have noticed I've gotten a nice big box of Vikings from Gripping Beast. I haven't given up on my Warhammer Ancients stuff. I just hope I can find someone who makes some nice plastic Bondi and Huscarls (not Wargames Factory...ugh...).

Yeah... not the greatest post after being silent for three months... but I plan to post more often if time permits.