'Fellowship' from PhilH: Minimoto Clan for Bushido

Howdy everybody,

For this theme, I offer a fellowship from the Minimoto Clan. A new project debuting. Bushido by GCT Studios has been around for a good few years and offers a fair range of factions in their fantastical Samurai setting of the Jwar Isles. As a skirmish game of about half a dozen figures a side, most of the minis are named characters with unique stat lines and abilities.

A new faction released in 2018, I couldn’t resist their armoured Ashigaru and massive tetsubo maces. I settled on a grey-blue as clan colour to tie all of the different miniatures together and grey armour. This is in contrast to the studio examples, which use red.

Yoshinobu Masaema

An ashigaru, the core fighters of the Minimoto faction, Yoshinobu Masaema is, apparently, a more experienced and capable example. I really dig this sculpt, in his relaxed but menacing pose.

Raiko

A young ashigaru, Raiko fights without armour, and with a staff rather than tetsubo. In game, he's a low points (or "rice") cost character in a faction which tend towards the pricey.

Hauru

Hauru is a blacksmith, which is one of the Minimoto faction’s things: these guys go to war, which does feel a little impractical, even with a tiny anvil nestled out of shot behind his leg. The pose is him offering up a large, freshly-forged tetsubo for his fellows to use.

Tetsu

Tetsu is a bear. A small, angry armoured bear, in fact. Nice sculpt, but I feel he should have been cast in resin and a fair bit larger, for more intimidation factor.

Confession: two were painted pre-challenge to test the colour scheme, so shouldn’t be scored. In penance, I hope to have one or more of these done before challenge end, but wanted to bank these points (though I did just notice that I've already hit my target...)

Oh, and one more squirrel here. 

I've only had one intro game of Bushido so far, but it is a nice little system. The rules are available for free download, though they're working on a revised edition of the rules, called Bushido: Risen Sun.

'Water Feature' from PhilH: Featuring Iceman

Here I am, emerging on my fortnightly schedule to hit the latest theme round. I was originally planning to do terrain for this one, but we're at the peak of some house renovations, so hobby time is on the backburner again.

Instead, I went for Plan B...

I'm beginning to think there's a mutant for every theme...

Yup, another Mutant to add to the Marvel collection:Bobby Drake aka Iceman. Another founding member of the team, first appearing in X-Men#1 way back in 1963.

Unsurprisingly, Iceman manipulates water, instantly freezing water vapor in the air or his body to form structures, such as the 'ice slide' he travelling on. He takes on an icy form, becoming highly resistant to damage and able to merge with other water features. By Marvel lore, he's another 'Omega-level' mutant, theoretically capable of manipulating water on a global scale, with sufficient training.

I had a fortuitous accident with him: a bad spray job on the batch left him a bit gritty, but being a resin cast I couldn't strip him alongside the others. But, drybrushing him up make use of all of that texture to achieve a frosty effect.

He's usually (though not always) depicted as above, in total ice form, but I wanted to break up the mono color and tie him to the rest by leaving his shorts. I painted these before the drybrushed ice form,to give them a frosty effect. I'm so-so about the final look and may end up re-doing them.

That's the lot, but adds another Squirrel to my tally.

'Mercenary' from PhilH: Star Wars Armada Bounty Hunters

For my 'Mercenary' entry, we're off to the Star Wars universe, and it's delightful array of rogues and villains. Yup, it's the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back: hired by Darth Vader to bring in Han Solo...alive.

"There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millenium Falcon"

Second from left: Dengar.
Fourth: Boba Fett.
Fifth: Bossk

These bounty hunters got barely any screen time and no lines, with the exception of the iconic Boba Fett. But this being Star Wars, they all have names and backstories fleshed out in the extended universe, and most of them feature in Fantasy Flight Games' many Star Wars Games

Including Armada, where their ships feature as squadrons to be recruited for the Empire. I'm submitting two each of Dengar, Boba Fett and Bossk's ships. The 'Rogues and Villains' set comes with one of each, but two different profiles: the named pilot and ship, and a generic option, to give lots of listbuilding options. And of course so you can buy more than one set to supplement your fleets - classic FFG, you got me.

Boba Fett pilots Slave I, here with a second Firespray 31 class vessel, front and rear shots.The Firespray is something of a jack of all trades, master of none, and quite expensive to field.

Bossk's Hound's Tooth and a generic YV-666 freighter. Very tough but achingly slow and unwieldy with their 'heavy' keyword, but throw a lot of anti-squadron dice. That's a pretty bad combo: what use are squadron attacks if you're to slow to reach the fight and heavy means when you get there, enemy squadrons aren't obliged to stay and dogfight, they can just fly off to do something more useful than grinding hits off your YV-666 tug.

Dengar's Punishing One and a second Jumpmaster 5000. The former two are passable in game, but these are an asset to many Imperial fleets: cheap, moderately fast though lightly armed, they have 'intel', which means they apply 'heavy' to your opponents ships: basically a means to break up a dogfight you don't want to be in, like a horrifically one-sided scrap between opposing interceptors and your precious bombers. 

I like Armada; while it isn't as accessible as X-Wing, FFG have done a good job of combining massive capitol ships and dozens of squadrons to make an interesting metagame. And who tires of pushing these classic (and...not so classic) Star wars ships around and throwing buckets of dice?

Oh and a question for you lot: who’s missing from this post, and can you hazard a guess why?

'Sport' from PhilH: Blood Bowl Skaven

I had just the thing for this Theme Round prepped but just sitting in a box, guiltily. I expect we might see a few of entries on similar lines. Yup, it's that classic fantasy sports game by Games Workshop: Blood Bowl.

I really like Blood Bowl, it's such a hoot to play, as demonstrated by it's enduring popularity despite absolutely no love from GW for 10 years or so. I was pleased when they resurrected it in their specialist games line. Traditionally, I played humans, and fancied something slightly different second time around, picking up a Skaven team.

I deluded myself i might knock the whole team out for this theme round, but nope, ready for the deadline are my colour scheme test Lineman, as well as a pair of sneaky, speedy Gutter Runners. Still, three means I'm 25% of the way there. It's those tails, they take ages.

In the olden days, Skaven were little things, but in GW-land, everything has got much bigger since I last bought any. So these are much more chunky sculpts and based on 32mm bases - which is the new size of base GW roleld out for their giant new Primaris marines. 

The team comes with two sprues, each with three Linemen, a Gutter Runner, a Catcher and a Blitzer: standard team makeup, though not optimal for Skaven: I'd take 3-4 Gutter Runners if I could, so I have spares for when some lumbering Chaos Warrior catches up with one and grinds him into the dirt. 

What's unfortunate is each sculpt only comes in a single build, something that I think they've fixed for the later Necromunda line. So I spent a fair bit of time converting so there were no identical minis. The hardest to do from the box components were the Gutter Runners and Blitzers, both being in more active poses and without as many suitable swaps across the minis. Being a good number of years weaned off GW, I've no bit box to dig into. So the Gutter Runners had to suffice with a twist of the cloak and tails, and arms in slightly shifted positions. 

To decide on a colour scheme I fished around in my box of paints to dig out some paint bottles I hadn't used on anything yet, ending up with Vallejo Khaki Grey and Middlestone, which I used as the yellow-khaki team colour. I felt it would pair well with black, and the rest of the colours sorted themselves out.

There's some bits to do to finish them off: adding grass to the groundwork, dirtying them up with weathering effects and adding player numbers using the decals that come in the box. For efficiency's sake,  I'll come back to that when the whole team is painted in....2021, maybe? :-) 

In GW's new spirit of accessorising all of their games, the team box also comes with themed balls, game tokens and this team sigil. I decided to base these three, as the teeny balls can be a bit fiddly to handle otherwise.

I'm reckoning 20 points due for this haul?

So, I've hit both theme rounds so far, but otherwise been a bit quiet this year. I've actually done a fair bit of painting, but have decided to try to save up groups of minis, rather than posting tiny entries. So I should appear one Tuesday with a squirrelicious set of posts.

'Reconnaissance' from PhilH: Mystique

Who better to conduct reconnaissance than someone who can disguise themselves as anybody?

Mystique

For this first theme round, I'm picking up where I spent a lot of Challenge VIII: superheroes from Marvel's X-Men. My first mutant antagonist in fact: Mystique aka Raven Darkholme from The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants*. Mystique is a shapeshifter and can mimic the appearance and voice of any person, though she's here in her natural state of blue skin and yellow eyes. A regular foe of the X-Men, Mystique typically gallivants around using her powers to assassinate important people, such as anti-mutant politicians.

*the Ronseal of Marvel universe organisations: does exactly what it says on the tin.

The plan for this Challenge is to focus on other projects, but characterful sculpts and bright colours mean they’re appealing to dip back into. She was a straightforward paint job, and a nice break from painting yellow.

Anyway, I reckon she could be justifiably shoehorned into this bonus theme, before I moved onto other projects.

For a myriad of reasons, 2018 wasn’t a productive year for either painting or blogging, so if you will indulge me I'll take this opportunity it’s to bring you all up to date with my X-Men project. You may recall I painted half a dozen of them throughout Challenge VIII. Moving house over the summer has limited my hobby time, but I did add a few more to the collection.

For clarity of scoring: the following three were all painted pre-challenge

Wolverine

Yellow...

Wolverine aka Logan. Probably the most famous and popular X-Man and typical tough-guy antihero played by Hugh Jackman in the 00s films, including the very average origin spinoff /X-Men Origins: Wolverine. His mutation manifested as bone retractable claws, Wolverine was kidnapped and subject to experiments under the Weapon X program, fusing his skeleton and claws with Adamantium and giving enhanced strength, highly accelerated healing and resistance to toxin and disease.

Rogue

...more yellow.

Rogue, an unusual mutant whose power is to absorb and steal the strength, abilities and even psyche of others, purely through physical touch (hence the gloves). The effect leaves the victim unable to use their powers and physically weakened, though isn’t permanent. This is the source of plenty of drama in the source material, with Rogue viewing her mutation as a curse. Oh, and she can fly too, which explains the unusual pose. 

Rogue also links the four mutants in this group: she was raised by Mystique (and originally introduced to the Comics as a villain), is close to Wolverine, reflected in the films as a father-daughter relationship, and on/off love interest (and later husband) of Gambit below.

Gambit

Gambit aka Remy LeBeau was my personal favourite from the X-Men. Born in New Orleans of Cajun heritage, he grew up a street thief before manifesting powers to manipulate kinetic energy, that he typically uses to charge playing cards as explosive projectiles. He also fights with a bo staff and sharp wit. No yellow spandex silliness, Gambit is one cool guy, and can definitely pull off magenta.

Playing about with OSL on his kinetically-enhanced card-flinging

Here's the gang together, poor Mystique looks like she needs some allies.

'Monstrous' from PhilH: Hunting Nightgaunts

As Snowlord knows, I've been playing quite a bit of Arkham Horror: The Card Game since it released, an excellent (if expensive) cooperative card game by Fantasy Flight Games. An action-packed take on Lovecraft's Mythos, we dive into a new narrative adventure every few weeks, our plucky investigators battling foiling the schemes of dastardly cultists and facing down unimaginable horrors. The latest campaign, The Path to Carcosa is excellent game design with a gloriously deranged and bleak story and stunning visuals.

As always when one has a few hobbies, these tend to inspire and bleed across to one another, and I've been collecting a few Mythos monsters and cultists, to port over to miniatures gaming, probably using an adapted Pulp Alley ruleset.

Noting the theme of AHPC VIII, this seemed a fitting time to put paint to them. For this round, I offer a pack of Nightgaunts on the hunt.

Unfortunate cultist for scale only (painted in AHPC VII)

One of Lovecraft's own inventions based on a childhood nightmare, Nightgaunts are black, faceless humanoid creatures with membranous wings, swooping to snatch unfortunate victims. Often depicted as entirely black, I opted to add colour to the chains* they wear, and wing membranes.

*a curious feature, which begs the question of who chained them, and how did they escape?

The miniatures are from Modiphius Entertainment, who mostly produce various RPGs, but also Kickstarted a range of metal Mythos creatures, focusing on their weird-WWII Achtung Cthulu! brand. I've picked up a few packs of monsters, avoiding the WWII elements (so far...)

Nice sculpts, finely detailed with good musculature, though quite slender and potentially fragile - I pinned the wings, but worry for the separate horns!

These three and the theme round bonus should push me over my points target with a couple of weeks painting still to go! Now if only this unseasonable cold snap would leave us, I could get some priming done and some more Mythos monsters through the queue.

'BFG' from PhilH: Sun's Out, Guns Out

Yes, to force an entry into this theme round, I'm turning to that particularly boneheaded saying popularised by Channing Tatum in a questionable film.

"Sun’s Out, Guns Out"*

If we're content to make that leap and refer to one's biceps as 'guns', then let's turn to a guy with particularly Big Freakin' Guns. Big Freakin’ Metallic Guns, for that matter:

Image credit: Marvel’s Colossus: Bloodline #3 cover

For the non-Marvel aware among the readership, that’s Pyotr Nikolayevich Rasputin aka Colossus of the X-Men.

As well as being a stacked, 6'7" Russian behemoth, his mutation is the ability to turn himself into metal form, granting great strength, stamina and durability: ideal for beating the snot out of bad guys.

The miniature is from the now-discontinued Knight Models Marvel Universe Miniatures Game line. Nominally 35mm scale, he towers in at 45mm, with a helping hand from his tactical rock. BFG indeed. 

And with his buddy Cyclops, submitted during AHPCVII. Personally, I think the Colossus sculpt is a bit on the small side, he's supposed to tower over Cyclops. 

More X-Men to come this year I hope, they're super-fun to paint despite the soft detailing, all those bright colours. Apologies to those historicals purists. Perhaps I might be able to cram them all into theme rounds...

*Yes, it’s a tenuous association to this week’s theme, I'm shameless. 

'Flight' from PhilH: The Rebels Muster

Star Wars Fever is gripping the four corners of the land, with the latest blockbuster Episode VIII: The Last Jedi recently released, smashing box office records (surprise, huh?) and  being better than Episode VII: The Force Awakens. 

With the theme "Flight" to interpret, I thought I'd surrender to Star Wars fever for this theme round and take my Flight to space. The dogfighting and starship design in the Star Wars franchise is iconic, and I endlessly watched the original trilogy in my childhood, mostly for the bits with pew pew lasers.

So, for this theme round here is a motley bunch of Rebel squadrons for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: Armada fleet battles game.

I've actually been painting these fiddly little guys for some time, so this post is actually me "pulling a Greg" and posting Challenge and pre-Challenge output together to pad out the numbers. So, while there are 18 X-Wings, 6 Y-Wings, 6 A-Wings and two YT-2400 Light Freighters, only the latter two groups were painted entirely during the challenge.

X-Wing fighter-bombers, painted pre-challenge, marked up as three different squadrons, each squadron getting on base with an alternate colour, that denotes them as an ace, that I can use to represent the many named characters  (Luke, Wedge etc) that also feature in the game.

Y-Wings in their classic yellow (well, gold). Funnily enough these are my favourite classic Star Wars fighter: big lumbering brutes with their massive engines and stubby guns in the nose

Painting the engines on these took me a stupid long time, so you get a picture form the back too.

A-Wing interceptors: fast, green and get blown up a lot

YT-2400 Light Freighters: think of them like the baby brothers of the Millenium Falcon. These aren't from the films and I'm not immersed in lore enough to too you much about them. Though the SW: Armada personality for these is a chap called Dash Rendar, the protagonist of the old LucasArts Dark Forces first person shooter. Oh, I loved that game in my youth (along with the X-Wing/TIE Fighter dogfighting games) but I sure don't remember his ship from it. 

And finally group shot, of the whole lot of them running away from Imperial firepower, which the Rebels tend to do rather a lot. 

Points for these? Well, firstly I've only painted eight of them during the challenge, and I've no idea what scale they're supposed to be: the scale in SW:Armada is all over the place, to accommodate little fighters on the same tabletop as vast Imperial-class Star Destroyers. I'd put them roughly the size of a 6mm vehicle.

Now, where are their Imperial foes...?

Neeeeeeeeeaw