S.P.Q.ORC - Pax Bochemannica - the Halflings part two

The Boche Halflings from the soon to be released game Pax Bochemannica are not your friendly, furry footed hobbit types made famous by Tolkien; No these are more like Essex, skin head thugs with real attitudes on a very bad day.

Dave Toone has done a great job of sculpting not just gaming miniatures but true characters, each an individual, dressed in simple dungarees and sporting braces.

The painting progressed with a basecoat mixed from Beastial Brown and Snakebite Leather. I applied two thin coats rather than one so as to not obliterate the fine sculpting.

Next was a wash made up of Ogrin Flesh and Badab Black.

A layer of Snakebite (with some grey and Beastial Brown added) to highlight the muscles, in the Kevin Dallimore style.

Then a more detailed layer of Snakebite and Pale Flesh.

Finally a second layer of highlighting and then a quick wash with the old GW or Citadel Flesh wash, the one in the blue topped pot.

And the flesh areas are finished.

This flesh recipe was made-up as I went along and is not my usual Snakebite, Snakebite/Skull White, Skull White recipe. I think it gives a more 'earthy' or natural scheme.

"Does anyone else think that these miniatures look like Yul Brynner?"

Tony

Show us your Workspace - a competition

Earlier this week, I received a short e-mail from a company called BenchVent who are running a competition to publicise the launch of their new bench venting booth. The rules are simple, send them a picture of your workbench!

This image has been used a couple of times on this Blog and shows a very clean workbench, trust me if you were looking at it now, it would not be as clean or organised.

If you are tempted to take part, here is the link.

Good luck.

Tony

S.P.Q.ORC -Pax Bochemannica - the Halflings

The Boche Halflings have patiently sat on my workbench for some time while I battled with the larger Orc Legionnaires or Nomans. My first job was to dust them off and re-do the black undercoat. I have used some Vallejo Game Color Black and a large brush to paint over the original Black spray paint and make sure I have completely covered the whole model.

The Halflings are mounted onto 1p coins with the groundwork built up from Milliput and small 'gritty' stones pushed into the still soft epoxy to add some added interest. The rest of the bare bases have been treated to my usual texturing technique, with sieved stones and fine sand added over uPVA glue.

There was very little cleaning-up - I think these may have been pre-production castings. For more information please go to this post.

The three miniatures were given to me by Dave Toone (who sculpted the figures) with a set of test or pre-production rules for S.P.Q.ORC - Pax Bochemannica.

Tony

Am I a Genuine Wargamer?

Copied from Big Lee's Miniature Adventure, see this post 

To genuinely call yourself a Wargamer, then you must have done most or all of the following:

* Spent at least £500 on figures / tanks - and you get extra kudos for every £500 you've spent

Easily £500  (1 points)

* Pricked your finger or thumb on a pike block - several times
Yes, a regiment of Napoleonic British with bayonets at The Wargames Holiday Centre (1 point)

* Tried at least 10 different rule sets and vowed never to play half of them ever again

Yes  (1 point)

* Bought an army off EBay
Never although I have picked up figures (0 points)

* Sold an army on EBay
Never sold one (0 points)

* Spent months painting an army - then used it in anger once
..or never! 

No (0 point)

* Tried several different periods and genres
Yes (1 point)

* Dropped a box of figures on the floor from a great height
Yes - More than once so awarded myself (2 points)

* Lost a battle on the last throw of the dice
No (0 point) 

* Made at least one enemy for life
No (0 point)

* Had a proper, stand up argument over a wargamers table
No (0 point)

* Thrown a dice across a room
Many, many, many times (1 point)

* Rebased an army for a different rule set
Yes - some 15mm ACW union troops (1 point)

* Inflicted a whopping defeat on an opponent
No (0 point)

* Suffered an embarrassing defeat due to a stupid tactical decision
Yes - the first time I ever games ECW. (1 point)

* Joined a wargamers club
Yes, twice (or is it three times)  (1 point)

* Bought a ton of lead that remains unpainted
Yes - but I am trying to do something about it (1 point)

* Been to a wargamers show
Loads (I should get more points for the number I have attended over the years) (1 point)

* Have more dice than is logical or necessary to own - and have used most of them
Yes - many more than is reasonable (1 point)

* Have taken boxes of troops down to a club just to show them off to your mates
Yes (1 point)

And now some extra questions....

* You have reference books on each period / army you play

Yes (1 point)
* Having played so many different games you confidently quote rules for a totally different period, scale or ruleset to the one you're playing at that moment
Not really, I try NOT to be a rules lawyer (0 points)
* You have lied to your partner / spouse about how much you've spent on the hobby
I plead the fifth! (0 points)
* You get genuinely excited when a package arrives in the post
Yes (1 point)
* You have joined a re-enactment society (5 points for this one!)
No, but once acted as an extra in a Viking TV film (0 points)
* You have played in an unsuitable venue 
Not sure (0 point) 
* You continue to search for the perfect Napoleonic / WW2 / Ancients / ACW etc. rule set (knowing that it doesn't actually exist).
No to any of the above - but Yes to Sci-Fi (1 point)
* For that reason you have developed your own house rules for certain periods.  And think them far superior to the original author's efforts.
OK my first 1/2 point! (1/2 point)
* You have returned from a wargames show and sneaked upstairs to hide the stash.
No (0 points)
* You have an irrational aversion to some genres and vow never to play them regardless of how much fun they look.
No (0 points)
* You have made your own wargames scenery.
Yes, loads and loads and loads (1 point)
* You have reached a painting 'wall' 
Yes (1 point)
* You have lost - and regained - your wargaming mojo.
Yes, but always regained it (1 point)
* You have the occasional (and short lived) sense of guilt with your wife/children when complaining to them about the money spent in clothes, shoes or toys/Xbox games when you have £200 of unpainted metal stuffed in an upstairs drawer.
It is more the huge collection of magazines with me, so yes (1 point)
* You have done armies in different scales for the same period 

Yes (1 point)
* You have jealously coveted someone else's troops.
Yes (1 point)
* You have laughed (secretly or otherwise) as someone else's paint job 
Yes, but always secretly and NEVER to their face (1 point)
* You have provided a piece of useless trivia relating to the troops on the table to show off your wargaming knowledge. 
Yes! (1 point)
* You have contradicted someone elses' trivia - demonstrating your superior knowledge and giving you a warm glow inside.
I am sure I must have - sorry (1 point)
* You have caused a major disaster on a wargames table (spilling a pint, collapsing the table, dropped someone else's figures on the floor). 
I once tried modelling some white foam hills for a Napoleonic game only to have thousands of white beads all over the place, so I suggest yes (1 point)
* You have cheered when an opponent's dice lets them down at a critical point (I have literally danced in front of someone when he failed a morale roll) 
I would be surprised if there was any gamer who had not at some time done this (1 point)
* You have lied to your partner about going gaming.  "Mothers' not very well - just popping around to see her.  I'll be back in about - oh - seven hours".
No (0 points)
* You have lied to an attractive woman (man) about your hobby.  
No (0 point)
* You have made an opponent cry.  It doesn't count if they are under 8 years old though.
No (0 points)
* You have painted the same army in the same scale more than once (Monty, you dawg!)  
No (0 points)
* You have reference books on armies you haven't even got.
Yes but I call it my library - and you can never have too many books (1 point)
* You have bought figures for a period you have never and will never play - because they were cheap.
I am sure I have - but cannot recall them  (1 point)
* You have inflicted grievous bodily harm on a dice that has let you down. 
Not sure but I will say yes as I have gamed long enough to know that I must have done it once (1 point)
* You blog or have a web-page about your Wargaming activities
Yes (1 point)
* Your book collection is almost all war and wargames related
No - I mean Yes (model railways! count as model related!) (1 point)
* You critique 'war' movies (especially Hollywood war movies) for historical accuracy.
Yes (1 point)
* You spend car/train journeys checking out the lie of the land - considering which way you would attack from and whether it would make good wargaming terrain.
Yes (1 point)

35 1/2 Points - Now what exactly does that mean?

Tony

November Update.....

Earlier today I came across this After Action Report which shows some painted Princess Julianna Dwarves. The miniatures were sculpted by me some time ago and have featured on this Blog a number of times The regiment is named after my niece, Julianna. The images can be found here while details of the Limited Edition Unit from Alternative Armies can be found here.

In addition I have just started to paint the S.P.Q.ORC Boche Halflings and images should be posted tomorrow.

This Saturday I intend visiting Scale Model World - the IPMS show held at The International Centre, Telford, for full details go to this link. Anyone else going to be there?

Tony

Fireworks for Wargame Terrain Builders

An opportunistic reminder for all scratch-builders; Used and discarded fireworks can yield some very useful wooden sticks which are ideal for modelling wargame terrain - in fact the wooden sticks attached to rockets would normally cost a few pounds each if bought from a recognised modelling shop.

Look out for used rockets this weekend, store them in a dry place and keep them to hand when attempting your next scratch-building project.

As an example - here is a simple wooden fence modelled from some scrap wood and a couple of pieces of toffee apple sticks, simple but effective terrain and almost free to produce.

I will write more about this piece of Flintloque inspired terrain in a later post, but for now,does anyone have any idea what the tree trunk was modelled from? Gavin cannot take part - he already knows the answer!

More hints and tricks for scratch-built terrain coming very soon.

Tony

Were-Chickens of Beesdone

Another Halloween Special. Last year Barking Irons Online published the first part of the three part adventure Getting Ahead. While this year it features a very special piece of Flintloque inspired terrain; A Were-Chicken Coup including The Were-Chickens of Beesdone made famous by Rogipoos from The Notables Yahoo Group.

Full details of how this piece of terrain was built and painted can be found here.

The model is in the same vein as the earlier Gingerbread House (featured here on this Blog) and uses references and back-stories from Roger Willcox - our very own Uncle Rogipoos. Gavin (Alternative Armies), Craig (Orcs in the Webbe) and I felt that Halloween 2012 deserved something special and this is it!

The model was given as a gift to Roger, in recognition of all the times I have been entertained by his wonderful stories; Thank you Roger - I hope you enjoy it.

Tony