Pathfinder Iconics

Here are seven more Reaper Bones models that I've painted recently. These are the Pathfinder RPG iconic character classes. These all came with my Bones Kickstarter.  For those unfamiliar with Pathfinder, all of their books contain persistent characters to represent different classes. These characters appear in all their supplements, usually in chapter page artwork where a bit of narration accompanies the illustration.

Click on the picture for a larger image. The characters from left to right are:Ezren the Wizard, Seelah the Paladin, Merisiel the Elf Rogue, Seoni the Sorcerer, Kyra the Cleric, Valeros the Fighter, and Amiri the Barbarian.

I still have other Pathfinder Iconic Class figures to paint, but they are metal and not Bones material. The reason I wanted all of these iconic models is for the new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.  It's a great adaptation of the RPG to a card based system. You still roll dice and gain levels like the RPG, but the combat and loot mechanics are different. The game gives you cards to represent the characters, but these models will look a lot nicer on the table.

15mm WW2: US Marines

Here is the core of my newly painted 15mm US Marines for WW2.  These models took a lot longer to paint than I expected. Longer work days and shorter evenings for myself contributed to the delay. I completed 4-5 models whenever I had the time, and eventually completed the platoon.

I went with Old Glory's Command Decision for the models. Here they are. Click for a bigger picture with more detail.

You're looking at three rifle squads and a platoon command with some extras. Totally there are 52 models in the main force. A full squad was 13 soldiers, comprised of a squad leader and three fire teams of four soldiers. Each fire team had a BAR, which you can see in the pictures above.Once I add in LMGs, these guys are going to put out serious fire power.

There are not a lot of painting guides for WW2 Marines out there. Every reference picture I find has them in different colors. I eventually settled for what you see here. Their uniforms concerned me the most. Ironically, they're painted in Vallejo Model Color's Russian Uniform. The rest of the colors are pretty standard stuff.

The command squad is a mish-mash of leader models from the leader pack. I liked that you got a lot of models, both soldiers and grunts, in soft caps. I used a few for my leaders.  Anyway, here's a peek at some of the command squad.

There were a few models that looked like potential Corpsmen (medics). I painted the red cross on them, but in reality I don't think a Corpsman fighting the Japanese would mark himself out so boldly. The Japanese were trained to kill leaders and medics as priority targets.  However, to make the medic easier to find on the table, I painted the red cross.

Otherwise, there's a lot of great models in the Marines leader pack. Above you see one with a walkie-talkie. I paired him with a regular grunt, who helped fill out the command squad.

That's about all I can say for these guys. I have a bunch more US Marines to paint: 8 combat shotguns, 3 .30 cal MGs, 2 60mm mortars, flamethrower teams, and casualty markers. I'll have to give these guys some landing crafts before I can call them done.  Armor from my other infantry force can be used for the Pacific, so that saved me time and money. 

In the meantime, I'm going to give myself a break to work on my Reaper Bones models.  Then I'll finish the Marines and their Japanese opponents. I'm hoping to start the Peleliu campaign book by fall.

2D and 3D Terrain

One thing I've realized about the miniatures gaming hobby is that you need a lot of terrain unless you want to fight in the desert / plains / snow all the time. Accumulating all of this terrain is practically another hobby unto itself, with a different set of skills required if you're the DIY type of person. For me, I buy as much out-of-the box stuff as possible.

A big terrain challenge is variety. While I've collected a lot of Battlefront's excellent terrain, it's still pretty repetitive unless you buy a lot of it. That gets expensive and brings storage issues into the equation.  Additionally, if you game at more than one scale and in different genres you've compounded the terrain issues.

There's not much to do for it, except try to get as much utility from every piece of terrain in your collection. For me, at least, having every game feature that same hill and forest with the same cabin gets a little old. I'm especially tired of my GW gaming mat, which is an unvarying green felt covering.

I've been playing a lot of board games recently, and a few of them (Battle of Westros and Descent 2 come to mind) play like mini games. I realized the answer to my variety problems has been right under my nose for a while. The RPG world has a huge variety of setting and terrains suitable for miniature gaming. You just have to be fine with it being flat, 2d stuff.

Not only was I fine with it, but I was also greatly surprised with it. I've invested in a few Gamemastery flip maps as well as some wilderness "dungeon tiles" from WOTC. These provided a whole new variety of terrain for my gaming. The flip mats are good sized, 24x30" of high gloss finish. I tried to take some pictures of a game but glare ruined it. Still, the look was pretty awesome and I was able to have a fight inside a forest, which is not something I get to do too often.  I was using the "Deep Woods" flip mat.

I took things a step further and added some 3d terrain to the maps, and things looked even better.  I snapped a few pictures of a battle between Dark Elves and Beastmen that I played as part of an on-going campaign. The Dark Elves were raiding the Beastmen camp to recover an important artifact that they had unwittingly in their possession.

The photography sucks and there's a blue cast from an open window messing with the colors. I'm just throwing this out here for illustrative purposes anyway. These are all tiles from WotC's Essential Wilderness set. The tiles gave me a about a 20" x 20" play area.  Stuffed into this area were different levels of terrain, fallen logs, trees, patches of rough terrain, rocks, and a puddle / pool.  I put on my huts from Gale Force 9 and I was ready to go in just 10 minutes. Clean up took about the same time -- just whisk everything back into the box.

This play area is a lot smaller than I usually use. However, I've found that in my solo campaigns I basically have mostly wasted space on the tabletop. Preparing terrain for areas that won't even be the focus of the battle makes little sense to me. Most of the battle with my small sized forces only focus into a small section, about the size you see here.  With all the terrain in the way, there was a lot of maneuvering and the small area felt a lot larger.

Well, you get the idea by now. If you like variety and don't mind 2D terrain, you should investigate game mats and dungeon tiles. While these are almost exclusively targeted for fantasy games, I can see many of them being "genre neutral." If you pepper in a few 3d pieces, you'll have some pretty sharp looking tables for your games.

Oh, and if anyone cares, the Dark Elves wiped up twice their number of beastmen. Frenzied Witch Elves, while fragile, are really scary in combat. I'm using Savage Worlds for the game, which easily accommodates Warhammer stats. Anyway, the Beastmen eventually broke and ran off the board.

A Few More Bones

This kind of post is going to become a lot more common for me.  I've worked on a few of the 200+ Bones models that I have, and took a few pictures. Generally speaking, I like to complete a project and then post up everything at once. However, with Bones it will be an on-going project and not a lot of "theme" to it.

Having said that, here are three "good heroes" I did this week. These were not primed in any way, just washed in soap and water then glued to a fender washer.

My favorite is the middle guy, who is a typical holy warrior. He could pass as a Priest of Sigmar for all you WHFB fans. My son and I have been joking that he is actually a medieval Billy Mays. He's got the beard for it.  In any case, I've got a ton more "good guys" to do.

These are all done in Reaper paints, too, and the triads are magical for the doing the robes. Not all the triads blend so well, but these colors were great for it.

Next I'm moving back to my 15mm WW2 project. The US Marines are cleaned and mounted, and now just need basing material and primer for me to start painting them. A Marine platoon is a surprising amount of models; there's over 50 models with HQ and I haven't added MGs, mortars, or anything else.

Reaper Bones: Big, Mean, and Green

A few weeks ago I celebrated the arrival of my Reaper Bones models. I wanted to dive right in and decided that beginning with the Orcs from the Orcapocalypse box would be the way to go. These guys are big and need 40mm bases to fit them.  There's a perfect level of detail on them too, neither too little nor too much. I figured painting them would not take too long. I didn't want to bog down in a big project, seeing how I'm in the middle of working on my 15mm WW2 Pacific forces.

Here they are. Twenty-six Orcs, five of each type and one leader. They make the perfect sized warband. I like how these models turned out.

I'll give some details of each troop type below. Working with these models was a breeze. The weapons on many of them were bent, especially the spears. I just dipped them in hot water, then cooled them in ice water, and they reset. Quite easy to fix. I primed them black, just because of the colors I wanted to use. Bones don't need primer. Orcish color schemes are easy, nothing too bright and make them look dirty. 

Reaper models are some of the best out there. My only complaint is they don't make too many "troop" type of models. They all tend to be heroes or individual models. Their Warlord line sort of addresses this, but the troops are usually just three model poses. In the case of my Orcs, there are five different types, but all of the same pose.  I guess I can't complain, since all you see here was just $10!

Here are the different troop types, starting with the leader.

He did not come as part of "Orcapocalypse" but as part of the regular Vampire level box. He was a natural for a leader model. Below are his troops: soldiers, spearmen, berserkers, bowmen, and great weapons.

Once Reaper puts these up for sale I'll probably buy a few more of each type so I can add variety to the force. What I really should've done was add another box of 25 during the Kickstarter!

The Bones I have remaining will give this group all sorts of cool allies, from ogres and trolls, to gnolls and bugbears and other monsters. Now these guys need some Dwarfs or Elves to beat on!

WW2 in 15mm: Japanese Rifle Platoon

These guys took longer than I expected to complete, but they're done now. I've polished off a full rifle platoon for the Japanese, including a large HQ selection and some supporting units.

Here's everything I've got painted so far.

You'll have to click on the picture to see the detail.  All told I've got  3 x 13 man rifle squads, each with a leader and LMG. I've got 3 x 2 man LMG teams, 2 x 3 man MMG teams, five SMG models, a radio / FO team, and a bunch of leader models.

I just need to add in supporting units and I'm done. My scenario book calls for several tanks and a few different IG / AT guns, along with a few other specialized units. The bulk, however, is complete.

Here's a look at the MG teams.

I'm using the same LMG models with a third crewman to represent MMGs. I have only found LMG and HMG models for Japanese in 15mm, and on the table it makes no difference to me what the models actually are for these units. Some of the LMG models are stacked either in sandbags or rocks, I couldn't tell. I chose to paint them as rocks.

The SMG models, shown in the left of this picture, suck. The guns are so short that they don't look like anything. The models are poorly cast, and flash and shit ruin them completely. Since my scenario book calls for these Type 100 SMG guns, I painted them.  Ugh.  The radio team next to them is part of the Leader pack for the Old Glory Command Decision line.

My favorite pack of all the Old Glory Japanese models was the leader pack. It's filled with a lot of characterful models and good options. It's probably the best of their leader packs that I've seen.  Below is a shot of the leader models I painted for the HQ. Historically platoon HQs were of variable size, but generally just two men. The scenario book calls for larger HQ teams, so I added more models.

The flag bearer only comes with a pole. You have to make your own flag. I used a thin sheet of aluminum I got from Dick Blick. I have this on-hand exactly for the purpose of making flags. The sheets are small and thin enough to cut with scissors. I rolled it around the pole, primed it, then drew my circle on it. After painting the flag, I folded it into a billowing pattern and the aluminum held nicely. It looks more like a flag than if I did something made from paper.

Amazingly, that's not white paint on the flag either. I used a very creamy yellow paint, but next to the models it looks quite white. Overall, I liked the way it came out.

So now I've got packs of US Marines waiting to get painted  so they can kill these guys. I'm tired of military models again, so I'll be jumping into my Reaper Bones collection. I already painted one tonight, and it looks pretty good.  I'm excited to get working on them, but I'll return to the Marines soon.

Reaper Bones Have Arrived. Fire Up the Paint Brushes!

Last year I participated in the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. I think their miniatures line is awesome, and this Kickstarter was a great way for me to boost my collection for the lowest cost. So I took the plunge, pledged for the "Vampire Level" and added on a bunch of extras. The actual cost of these figures is less than a dollar each!  Given they are every bit as good as the metal models, my only regret is not buying more options.

I've been watching the slow progress of my package traveling from Texas to my home, and I knew it was arriving today. As soon as I got it, I busted open the package like a kid on Christmas morning. Here's what I found inside.

You're looking at my addons, which were mostly large multiple part models, a box of 30 Orcs for the "Orcapocalypse" addon, and two boxes of new Reaper paints. Obviously, the Vampire package box is right there. Already, it looks like a lot to work on, but once I popped open the Vampire package, I was suitably impressed.

The box was stuffed with models. There were six large bags, each with individually wrapped models. So I dumped these out and sat stunned for a while. Then I started snipping the bags to get at the models inside.  Here's my progress after opening the first bag.

That's already a fair amount of stuff, and there were five more bags like this to work through. I was beginning to wonder what I got myself into with this! Will I ever paint all these? As I worked through the bags and looked over these models, I knew that sooner or later I'd paint them all. It may be 2020 before that happens, but I'll do it.

I kept snipping and it took me nearly 90 minutes to get through all of these. Of course, I was studying the models as I went. My cat supervised for quality control.

Once I had them out, I was wondering how I'd make sense of this mess. While the models had been grouped by theme into bags, they were still "free floating" in their own wrappers. So once you dumped them out of the bag, organization was gone. Still it was an awesome sight to see these models piled up.

Since I'll probably work on models as needed or as I feel like it, I wanted a way to store them and be able to retrieve them without sorting through everything I had. The Orcs were easiest; they stayed in their special box. The rest of the models I piled into groups like "Monsters", "Evil", "Good", etc. After that I put them in bags and labeled them. So now when I want to find a good guy to paint, I only have to look through the 30 or so models in the "good bag" rather than everything.

Here they are "bagged and tagged." Everything went back into the Vampire box without any trouble.

My overall impression is very good. The models have some mold lines around them, but these can be shaved back. I will have to straighten out a lot of the pieces. I've seen videos of people fixing that issue in seconds with hot water, so I'm not worried. Some models that I hadn't really been expecting much from surprised me at how good they look.  One or two were disappointing to see up close. The translucent models are strange. Some look awesome and others are undecipherable. I think they'll need some level of paint to bring them out. I'll wait for some one else to devise a solution and copy it!

I think the Orcs are on my priority list right now. I'll have thirty of them, plus a leader and some other "big monster" choices like ogres and ettins to reinforce them. I also got a bunch of goblins to boot. It will be nice to have non-GW orcs and goblins to use in games. Of course, with so much to chose from, I reserve the right to change my mind at a moment's notice.