Pleasant Surprise VII

This year I once again took part in the Pleasant Surprise gift-exchange organised on the Warhammer Empire forum. My unsuspecting recipient was Novogord, who has a dwarf army made up of the old Marauder figures. I managed to get one of these off ebay, and this was what I came up with:

A donkey cart of beer for his army.

The cart is one of two from the Nikolai 1/72 medieval cart box, and the donkey was from Warlord Games, with the harness made from epoxy putty. The barrels were from my existing collection of bits.

I painted the dwarf in the colours of his army, and tried to match his painting technique and base work - hopefully it blends nicely with his existing figures.

I really enjoy the process of cyber-sleuthing and thinking up and painting a suitable gift for a fellow wargamer, and will sign up for another round next year as long as it is being organised.

Reaper Griffin

I like griffons, but I think they are weird. Not just weird because they are monsters which are made up of two different creatures, but because they are neither the size of an eagle nor that of a lion. To my mind it would be more logical if the whole creature were based on the size of a lion. Maybe they are like ligers, which are bigger than a lion or a tiger.

Anyway, when fg backed the Reaper Bones kickstarter, I asked him to get me one of their griffons, which I thought would be useful for RPGs, dungeoncrawls, or as a monstrous mount for my Warhammer (The) Empire army. The Bones material is a bit soft, but it preserved the detail of the feathers and I think the Vallejo primer made a good bond.

Here is the figure painted:

Based on a monster-size 50mm x 50mm base.

On a 100mm x 50mm monstrous mount base, with a Perry mounted men-at-arms.

Another view with the rider.

I like Reaper's interpretation of the griffon. The current Games Workshop one looks like an obese pigeon. I decided against adding a saddle and reins because I want to use the figure as a "wild" griffin for RPGs and dungeoncrawls too - in any case I doubt griffons appreciate bits and reins. I am thinking of getting another rider though; something more flamboyant and with a cast saddle so it looks more "accurate".

Yet more CoC terrain

So far my CoC project has been frustrated first by a packing error on the part of the merchant, which required a re-shipment, and the incompetence (and I suspect sheer dishonesty) of my local postal worker. This means that the whole project will be at least 8 weeks behind schedule, which frankly makes me quite unhappy.

Still, we must soldier on, and I spent the time building our terrain collection. Here are the results:

From L to R: Italeri wire obstacle frame with Pegasus Hobbies barbed wire, Fujimi Dragon's teeth, Italerie Czech Hedgehog.

Wills Barn (SS30) with Nikolai (ACC09) medieval cart, scratch-built log pile, and Noch Abandoned Fences (13060).

Closer view of the barn.

Krosmaster Arena

fg and I played a couple of games of Krosmaster Arena, a chibi figure boardgame where... well, cartoon characters fight each other for gold and glory. While the rules are pretty simple, there are lots of upgrades you can buy which will add depth to the game. The figures and terrain come prepainted and the game components are of good production quality.

Warhammer Game 2

A dwarven unit is raked by enfilade fire as it marches across the Empire battleine.

Adrian and I played a 900-point game of Warhammer this afternoon. Actually, we played two - we forgot the rules and played it wrong the first time and so played it a second time since we still had time.

A dwarf miner unit that has erupted behind the Empire line is attacked in the flank by a unit of Knights.

The Warhammer system has so many special rules and it is hard for us to remember all of them since we only play them once in a while. Hopefully with a few more games under our belts we can play a perfect game in the future.

Everybody in the House

With Adrian and Thomas starting painting their Warhammer figures again, I thought I would do a photo-inventory of what I have painted.

Here's everything I've got so far:

Armed peasants. Not sure what to class these as under the Warhammer rules.

The first-aid post.

A closer view of the centre.