Bones Kickstarter

The Reaper Bones Kickstarter is over.  I'm pretty excited about being part of this. The final count is something like 224 models for the $100 pledge, plus options to get some nice stuff at really low prices.  The amazing thing, for me, is that there's not a single model in the package that I can't think of a use for! I updated the graphic on my previous post to the final rewards package.

This ended up being the third largest Kickstarter to-date.  Wired.com ran an interesting article on this.  Check it out here.

Reaper Bones Kickstarter

So I'm a little late to the game with this, but I actually joined Reaper's KickStarter campaign for the Bones models. Reaper is currently at $1.2 million raised.  It goes without saying that they're getting a lot of support. I know I'm excited to see some of their best models converted to cheaper and lighter materials.

The Bones models are excellent quality, just as good as the metals. By joining KickStarter now you can get a ton of models for a very low price. I personally did the Vampire level, which delivers a lot. It's well worth the money.  Check it out below. They keep adding to this package as their pledges increase.  The campaign only runs until August 25th. So if you're thinking about it, better act fast.

US M10 Tank Destroyers

I have bags of 15mm WW2 US forces sitting on my table, just waiting for assembly and paint. I like painting US armor and vehicles, as there's nothing much to it.  These M10 tank destroyers are from Old Glory's Command Decision line.  They went together easily and the paint job was quick. 

There are a few more models than I need to make a single TD unit.  I'll be using four in a Flames of War army, and the other two can sit with my individually based 15mm WW2 armies. I just need to put together a few more jeeps to complete a mid-war TD platoon, or I could get the armored cars for a late war force.

So that was a nice, quick project. I'm not sure what I'll move onto next.

Dark Elf Heroes

As I promised in my last post, I completed a few Dark Elf heroes to lead my Kings of War Twilight Kin army. I also painted 4 replacement Witch Elves for old school Witch Elves mixed into my unit. I managed to find a few of the metal blisters of the new sculpts for a good price on Chaos Orc Superstore.  I love that place.  I didn't bother taking pictures of the four witch elves.  But below are the two new leaders.

Up first is the Lokhir Fellheart model.  I'll be using him as a Twilight Kin lord. I dispensed with all the fancy sword painting that GW does, going with a basic metallic. I gave his helmet a few washes of brown and green to make it look old.  I think it came out nice. 

 
Next is a Dark Elf Sorceress. She'll play the same role in my Twilight Kin army. I gave her colors that tie in to the spearmen's shields. She came out nice, I think. I have her the typical "Drow" treatment that I've given to all of my models.  She just exposes enough hair and flesh for you to see it.

I'm going to work on something else next.  When I return to the Twilight Kin, it will be to complete a 20 man unit of crossbowmen and some cavalry.  But I want to do something else for now.  I just haven't figured out what that is yet.

Dark Elf Spearmen

While I haven't been posting up much, I've still been busy with my various miniatures projects. I've had a lot less time to work on models than I'm used to having. So my output has decreased. But today I put finishing touches on more of my Dark Elf / Twilight Kin forces.  While these are GW dark elf models, they work perfectly for Kings of War Twilight Kin, which is what I'm planning. Here are two core units of 20 spearmen each.

I've tried to stay away from the purple and black color scheme that seems "dark elf standard" these days. I've gone for a pale gray green with subdued darker greens and dull reds. I've also been painting their flesh with Reaper's Dark Elf Skin triad, and it works great. The old school GW models even show hair, so that got painted white. Hopefully they look like Drow!


Here are a few sample models I pulled out.

The lot of dark elf models I bought earlier this year actually came with printed banners on adhesive paper. I only got one but liked the looks of it. Most modeled banners looks so heavy, or you get the banner hanging in the faces of other models. This one bends back naturally to get out of a neighboring model's way. I wish all banners were like that. But I also understand the challenge and rewards of hand painting your own banner. I thought about doing that for my other unit. Maybe some other time.

I have one more "core unit" for the Twilight Kin force and that is 20 crossbowmen.  From there I can work on specialty units. Up next immediately are 4 witch elf replacements for the old school witch elves I have. Then I'll paint up two characters to lead the army. After that I'll probably move on to a different project for a while.

15mm Fantasy: Lizardmen

I've been quite busy lately, which has really slowed down my painting schedule. It seems like there's no time to break out the paints and brushes. I've managed to grab times here and there, and I've used it to complete work on my lizardman army for Mighty Armies (or any 15mm fantasy game, honestly).  I really like they way they came out.

These are all from Khurasan Miniatures. I think their lizardmen models are the coolest I've seen in any scale. Here's the whole army army. If you click on it, the picture is pretty large and should show a lot of detail.

Let me walk you through what you're looking at.  Up first is the main block of warriors: salamander spearmen. These guys look really unique. The front stand is a salamander shaman, the model holding the skull staff. These stands form the main fighting core, with a little magic boost from the shaman.

No lizardman army is complete without smaller lizards to harass the enemy. Here are some lizardmen, that I'm calling "skinks" after the WHFB color-scheme I picked for them. I was surprised how small these models were next to the salamanders.

Now it's time for the cavalry units. First up is what I imagine to be light cav. These are salamander bowmen on flightless birds. I can see these guys looking for flank or rear charges while harassing with bow fire.

Next up is the heavy cavalry, and the whole reason I wanted these models: mounted crocodile warriors! These guys will be the heavy hitters and they look awesome. I have no idea why they're mounted on wooly rhinos. It's a cool idea, but wouldn't being mounted on something reptilian make more sense?

Finally we come to the big boss. He's another croc warrior mounted on a wooly rhino. I had a spare "skink" model left over and stuck him on the base for a little splash of color as well as making him stick out more.


 So there you have it. I can't wait to get these lizards on the table and see what they can do. As for additional development, I can still add in salamander archers. I'm also planning on putting in a 15mm dinosaur model, either an ankylsaurus or triceratops, for some extra punch. I'd like to find something to be a flying unit too. What I'd really like, just for kicks, is something that looks like the WHFB Slaan models. While I'm not trying to mimic WHFB, I think something like that would look impressive in 15mm.

That's all for now. I've got a ton of stuff on the table that I keep adding to. I'm not sure what I'll be working on next, but I have plenty to choose from!

15mm WW2 European Terrain

I've been beefing up my 15mm WW2, both individually based models and Flames of War based models. As I've mentioned, I'm enjoying the scale immensely, and have turned the corner with FoW.  So in order to enjoy games in this scale, I need terrain.

A lot of the guys I game with have excellent terrain collections in both 28mm and 15mm. So historically I haven't had to worry about playing on a table where cat toys represent trees and a pile of books is a hill. But, at least in 15mm, their collections are limited to desert landscapes and buildings.  So here's my opening to contribute something new to the battlefield landscapes.

I'm building up European themed terrain in 15mm.  JR Miniatures recently had a 20% off sale, and I picked up a bunch of stuff.  Combined with pieces I already own, I now have the basis for a bombed out European town.  Let's have a look at a sample layout.

Here's a quick arrangement I made for taking pictures. I've got detail shots to follow. This is roughly 4x3 area.

The JR Miniatures stuff includes 4 ruins, a concrete bunker, and six stone fences. I still have some high stone walls and a stone bridge to paint up, and they are not shown here. Additionally, there are blast craters from Rebel Minis, escarpments and rural roads from Gale Force 9, and my favorite Woodland Scenics trees.  All together it makes a nice setting.  Now here are some close ups.

This is a nice ruined house. But what the hell is going on with the base? It's so flipping thick! The house itself is also a small for 15mm figures. You can stick a small FoW base in it, but the guys look huge. Oh well.

The Sherman tanks come rolling into town, passing the devastation along the road.

Both the green and blue buildings scale OK with figures. The second floor of the blue building is out of scale with the bottom floor. The blue building has a removable top floor to place units inside. But the floor is so tightly fit, it may as well be permanent.

Here we have some US riflemen checking out the intersection and investigating the abandoned bunker and ruined cabin.

The bunker has a removable top and you can place a good number of models inside, or one medium FoW base.  Here's the riflemen inside the bunker.

Overall I'm very happy with this collection. It's a good start. I'd like additional buildings and will probably go back to JR Miniatures for more. But I also need to beef up standard terrain like hills and trees.While I have a number of hills, they are more like cliffs and they're painted in desert schemes. I'll have to fix that. I also own the Gale Force 9 river system and swamps. So I can fill a table with terrain. I'd just like more buildings.

That's it for now. I'll be getting back to painting figures this week, once I finish the bridge and other walls.