Kra'Vak!

It's taken me a while but I finally got back to my Kra'Vak. I'd done maybe a quarter of my army when my buddy and I got bitten by the Weird West bug. But back in November I got stuck in with my little alien warriors and am now done (for now). The big guys could use some weathering. The little guys could use some squad markings. I have four more mini-mecha I could paint up and add in, but as of right now I need a break from white and turquoise.

The army was purchased with Gruntz in mind. I haven't had a chance to look over the new rules but I believe Robin said there would be a little more flexibility where specialist units come in. I hope that means my mini-mecha will add the oomph I'll need to combat some enemy tanks. If not, well, I guess I'll paint up those other four guys and maybe, just maybe, buy some tanks of my own.

So, without further ado...

Fearless Leader

I really like how the scales came out on his Not Dewback.

 

Squad with LAW

Same deal with reversed paint scheme.

 

Squad with SAW

Another reversed paint scheme.

Power armor squad.

Power armor squad with, can you guess?...a reversed paint scheme.

Anti-tank mini mechs and infantryman for scale.

Anti-tank mini mechs with infantryman.

I haven't played a game with these guys yet but my tentative fluff is that each infantry squad has one of the mini mechs assigned to it. Sort of a big brother, watching their backs. That might not be the best strategy-wise but I like the idea of it.

Like I said earlier, I think the big guys need some weathering, probably some paint chipping along the edges to soften up those clean lines, but that can wait for now. I want to work on some more terrain (city stuff most likely) and paint up some of the Match Box stuff I've acquired over the past few months. Mostly it's a bunch of civilian vehicles for objectives and atmosphere; dump trucks, earth movers, that sort of thing. Santa did bring me one of the Fast Freight vehicles for Christmas. It's a sort of ridiculous car/train that would look great as part of a convoy. They come with an "engine" and a single "freight car," but their are couplers so you could conceivably buy as many as you want to make a long train. At $6 a piece, though, I don't think I'll be buying a ton of them.

Anyway, hope you like my Kra'Vak and thanks for looking!

New board and some scatter

Wow. I haven't posted since August 27th. And I haven't really done that much since then either. No minis painted at all. Only a few games thrown in. But I did finish up a river board and some scatter terrain.

Not too many WIP pics. Here's what I have:

The very beginning of the river board. I used a hot wire cutter for the river. Once it was cut out, I cut it in half horizontally, then gauge an even deeper section in the very middle for the river bed. (Disregard the Happy Napper in the background.)

Here you can see that I had the board painted before I decided that I needed to add some more levels. I had just come from my gaming on my buddy's new boards and they were way too cool not to emulate.

And here it is all textured, painted, and flocked. I think I'll eventually add some more detail to the vegetation. But it will do for now.

Next up is the scatter terrain. I wanted some smaller rock terrain. I wanted to be able to use them as stand alone pieces or have them fit together to form a rough wall. Enter the hole saw.

I used a 2" hole saw for this. Just cut one base out, then let the saw overlap the preceding hole for the remaining  bases. 

A little bit of tree bark mulch, some putty, sand, and they're ready to go.

I really like these little bases. No matter how you set them up, they fit snugly together. And it was a nice way to ease back into the hobby after my two month break.

I still have my Kra'Vak army to finish up. Just another two squads and the many mechs. If I buckled down I could have them done before December. But I've got my eye on some more Blue Moon Manufacturing minis. Deep Dark Africa this time. The missionaries look delicious.

Donner Party?

Finished another gang. I had some left over ghouls and a female necromancer so I decided to knock them out. Simple paint jobs with the bloody bits picked out in gloss varnish.

Splintered Light ghouls and necromancer.

These are all Splintered Light minis. I've been fairly impressed with the quality of sculpts.

I started a second 2x2 board over the weekend but had to let the Liquid Nails dry before I could really get to work on it. There's going to be a meandering stream on it which means I get to try water effects for the first time. Hope I don't screw it up.

My Own Private Hell Hole!

Well, I said I'd take some pictures and, goldarnit, I did.

Just a quick layout. Spent more time resizing the pics than I did setting up and taking them. I'm quite pleased with how the board, buildings, and terrain features have turned out.

Not sure what kind of board to do next, though.

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Here's something that cracks me up every time I upload more pictures for the blog. I'm just using Google+ to host my pictures. Every time I upload I get this:

What odd friends you have, e-p!

Image Dump!

Been staying up too late cutting and gluing.

And here's the first of my 2x2 boards. Since I took these pics I've flocked with some dead grass.

1x2, hardboard, pink foam

Too much glue, too much sand, and a road made from Liquid Nails.

A simple layout with my rocky outcroppings, shanties, and my comm bunker.

Later I'll take some pics of the table set up with all the Whitewash City buildings and some of the Weird West minis.

Here's what my buddy, Chris is working on.

Some British cultists. I love that woman up front. She's from the Jack the Ripper pack from Blue Moon. She's supposed to be scared but Chris thought she looked like she could be casting a spell and, voila!, a new gang is born. I'm really digging that scary worm monster behind her. It's a D&D mini and the perfect size for a scary monster in a skirmish game.

I found some of my old Cthulhu minis, but I think they're too big unless they're being used as the center piece of a scenario.

I think it's an old RAFM mini?

I think I might start painting some ghouls. I want to be ready for when my necromancer raises the dead.

As an afterthought, I just realized that some of my GZG not-Firefly figs could be used to make another gang. Perfect!

Sheriff's Shop!

Here's the first of my paper western town from Whitewash City.

They suggest reducing them to 60%, but that was way too small. My buddy tried 65% and thought that was too small too. So I did this at 70% and I think it's about right for my Blue Moon cowboys. Still a little on the small side for the Blue Moon vampires, those things are big.

I would have made at least one more but the printer ran out of ink. Serves me right for not printing these at work.

Rocky Outcroppings! (And a forest)

Back in April I made some shanties mounted on CDs. I decided to recycle the CDs once more for some rocky outcroppings. Just some rocks from the backyard, putty, sand, and a bunch of flock.

I painted these to match the hills I made last month. The rocks came out a little more red than the originals. I keep telling myself I'll write down the recipes for painting (terrain and minis) and I never do. Stupid. Oh well.

Next up, a simple base to use for a small forest.

Now featuring Trees!

Now I just need to get to work on the boards themselves. I have two 2'x2' boards ready to get some work done on. MDF screwed to 1x2 boards. I have the pink foam insulation in my trunk. Had the guy at Home Depot cut the 4x8 sheet down to 2x2s for me (never would have gotten them home any other way). Didn't even cost extra. I also want to get some of those Whitewash City paper buildings printed and put together. Won't be long before we can trot the whole setup out for our less miniature-oriented nerd friends and have a beer and pretzel night.

Werewolves!

Here's my last gang for a bit. Five werewolves from Splintered Light.

Rawr.

Rawr. Rawr. Rawr. Rawr. Rawr.

I'm not disappointed in these guys but they aren't my favorites, that's for sure. I think they need some human henchmen or something. They're just a little boring as it is. I chose the middle guy as the leader because he looks the most menacing to me. I wanted him to stand out a little so I built up his base a little, hoping to make him appear to be looking down at the battlefield. Meh.

I actually finished these a few days ago and have been working on some terrain features which I will show off in the next post. Coming soon.

Not My Minis!

Here's a few gangs my buddy has put together for our Weird West game using the Fear and Faith rules. First up are his British expat vamps.

Minis from Blue Moon's Horror range.

Those are Whitewash City buildings in the background. They're made for 25mm, he reduced them to 65%, and he says they're still too small. The horror range is definitely "heroic" 15mm, but that's okay, because they look good.

Next, his Redcoat gang of creepy Nosferatu.

Blue Moon again.

I dig 'em. And I can't wait to kill 'em.

I really like those Bobbies and it brings up an aspect of our world that I'm excited to get into. Our Old West is a less settled place. The United States came out of the Civil War a weaker nation, a nation unable to defend much of the western frontier. This has not gone unnoticed by England and the other European powers.

Why go this route? Why, for greater purchasing opportunities! I love the colonial period and there's some great minis out there. There's something really appealing to me about a group of Askari led by a German officer roaming the Arizona territory. Or maybe some British Camel Corps adrift in the Great American desert.

I love 15mm.

Matchitehew's Malice!

Here's another gang for my Weird West project. Led by an evil medicine man, Matchitehew. I haven't really worked on the background for this gang but I might say that Matchitehew is a Seminole who draws on both Native American and African magic. I just couldn't resist this masked necromancer mini from Splintered Light and had to use him for this gang. Love that mask. Here he is with a mighty Sasquatch:

Matchitehew, from Splintered Light. Sasquatch is a Twanax from Blue Moon.

I really enjoyed painting both of these but the Squatch was a blast.

For more scary goodness I decided to add some wendigos to the gang. These are ghouls from Splintered Light's undead range.

Ew.

I quite like how the skin came out on the fat one especially. After a matte spray I went back and used some gloss varnish on the bloody parts. These guys should wreak some havoc with opponents. Hard to kill and cause fear. Yippee.

To flesh out the rest of the gang I have some bow and rifle toting minions.

Warriors from Blue Moon.

And the whole gang together:

Almost the whole gang. No squatch. Oops.

One more gang to go (WEREWOLVES!) before I get to work on more terrain. I have some rocky outcroppings on CDs to paint and my buddy picked up some western buildings from White Wash City that I'm excited to get printed and assembled. I also bought some 2'x2' MDF to make some boards. Gotta start planning. Those werewolves are going to be super easy to paint.

Weird West!

Well, I've got the Blue Grass channel playing on Pandora and a backpack full of western DVDs. It's Weird West time.

All these figs are from Blue Moon and by and large I like them quite a bit. A few of the faces were a little unfortunate but that's okay: a cowboy's life is hard.

I've got two gangs to present here. First up is The McMannus Regulators led by Mr. Chester McMannus himself.

Evil shall tremble before the might of his manly mustache!

From left to right  "Eagle Eye" Johnson, Huey Colbarn, "Colonel" Chester McMannus, Mal Povey,  Handsome Harry, Jed McKinnon

They may be toting some serious firepower but to a man they'll tell you their greatest weapons are hidden away. You see they aren't after your regular scoff laws. No sir. They have more dangerous prey in their sights. That's why they carry wooden stakes and silver bullets. Things have gotten weird out on the plains.

My second gang proves the point.  Viktor von Viktenstein and his Villainous Vassals!

Those cowboys sure are small, ain't they?

Viktor, his bride Vanessa, and their...children.

That there is Richard Henderson III in the center. Richard IV on the left.  Eugene, the red-headed step child with a lot to prove, is on the right. The Hendersons are the public face of Viktor's growing empire in the West.

My buddy and I are using the Fear and Faith rules. I'm hoping to get in a game or two against myself tomorrow night now that I have two gangs painted up. I'm anxious to see how the rules play. Or maybe I'll just start painting my werewolf gang (figures by Splintered Light), or the evil Indian band, led by a necromancer and backed up by two Wendigos. Whatever I choose I know I'll have a good time. This is turning out to be a really fun little project.