Thursday 24 September 2015

Painting: Kings of War - Undead: Revenants

Edging ever closer to completing my Mhorgoth Starter set this week I have painted up my 20 Revenants.

I have to admit that I didn't like these models at first; I felt they were too thin and flimsy looking for well armoured warriors, and then there's the positioning! their feet are facing forward but the head to the side, so which way do I rank them??!

This aside I started painting them out of completion sake and I now love them! (amazing what a lick of paint can do), so onwards.

As ever most of the paints used are from the Vallejo Game colour range unless otherwise stated.


Now despite my comment in my Skeletons post I still undercoated in black. I did this as there is more armour (and black is a great basecoat) so I thought it would be more fitting. I painted the bone with Bonewhite (72.034). I did a quick light,-almost-drybrush-fashion coat to bring out the bone, then followed this up with another coat applied directly to areas of bone.


Next I painted the cloth in Escorpena Green (72.032). As mentioned in my skeleton post the black undercoat meant that several coats were required.


I used my new rust technique on the armour and weapons, which is applying Citadel Foundation: Macharius solar orange then followed this up with drybrushing Chainmail silver (72.053) over the top.

Next I painted the boots, belts and horn with Beasty Brown (72.043) followed by Leather Brown (72.040) but only over the top of the belts and boots.


I applied Bright Bronze (72.057) to the metal around the horn and the metal parts on the banner, then applied watered down Foul Green (72.025) to give it a galvanised look in line with the rusting armour etc. Then I tidied up the models, before applying AP dark tone all over.


Once the Dark Tone was dry, I drybrushed the bone and black areas (weapon shafts/shields edges etc) with Dead White (72.001), the cloth with Livery Green (72.033), and the leather and the horn with Plague Brown (72.039). Finally, for the painting stage, I added a coat of Matt Varnish (70.520).


Next I painted the bases and (sand based edge) movement tray with Charred Brown (72.045), then drybrushed with Plague Brown (72.039), then Bone White (72.034) and added static grass.

I finish off by adding a flexi-metal sheet to the tray and flexi-magnetic squares to the bases.

Now I found these easier to paint than the skeletons; this could be because they have less to paint or because the skeletons prepared me. I'm just not sure, either way I enjoyed painting them.

Thursday 17 September 2015

The Making of a Zombie Game



Recently a friend and I were discussing how we'd like to play a zombie apocalypse game but without the RPG element that most seem to have, or the expensive outlay like a certain well known board game; so we decided that in this overly saturated world of wargaming we should start working on our own.

At this time it's essentially it's going to be a "Beer & Pretzel" game, based on D6, with the thought that more people have lots of D6 than other dice. (although we do have ideas of making D8 or D10.)

We currently have it planned out and written; consisting of only 7 pages, including the cover! This is to make it quick and simple. That said there are elements of "character selection" at the beginning which involves a little admin/token use but once done the game should flow quickly.

But then that's what play-testing is for, which I'll be posting about once done.


Thursday 10 September 2015

Painting: Kings of War - Undead: Skeletons

This week I have been working on 20 Mantic Skeletons, now the thing about these models is that I wildly underestimated how long it would take to paint these.

After painting Ghouls and Zombies the skeletons have been a pain. This is due to at least two reasons:

  1. The skeletons have more detail: armour, weapons, cloth, belts etc.  
  2. I undercoated in black; which was incredibly stupid as I said in my zombie post that I didn't want to undercoat in black because it obscures detail, so lesson re-learnt (my next 20 will be in bone white or grey)

As with my Ghouls and Zombie I built the skeletons before reviewing them, but as I have another 40 pending I'll review them when I build them.

As ever most of the paints used are from the Vallejo Game colour range unless otherwise stated.


As mentioned in my opening statement I undercoated the skeletons in Halfords black primer. This stupid mistake was done in an attempt to bring out the bones when painted (leaving recesses etc) and give the armour/weapons a better look when metallic paint was applied (which as you'll see i didn't). I found it very difficult to see all the detail with this undercoat; now of course this could be the level of lighting I was using or a number of other variables - either way next time I'm using a different undercoat.

So following on my the undercoat I painted the bone with Bonewhite (72.034). I did a quick light,-almost-drybrush-fashion coat to bring out the bone, then followed this up with another coat applied directly to areas of bone.


Next I painted the cloth in Escorpena Green (72.032). Due to the black undercoat this needed three coats.


As these are skeleton warriors, the flesh removed from their bones after years in the ground, I thought the armour should be suitably rusty. Now not wanting to use my 4 stage technique mentioned in my ghoul post due to sheer amount of armour and weapons I had to think up a alternative scheme, and this can in the form of using Citadel Foundation: Macharius solar orange. I painted the areas that I wanted to look rusty with this, which, believe me the bright orange against the orange looks hideous. I then followed this up with drybrushing Chainmail silver (72.053) over the top. This suitable reduced the glare and I feel has given a decent rusting effect.


Next I painted the weapon shafts and half the shields in Abaddon Black (GW), this is better than the Vallejo black in the game colour set as it's not glossy. Then I painted the boots, belts and anything I considered to be leather in Beasty Brown (72.043)...


...and then painted Leather Brown (72.040) over the top


Tidy up stage: As you may have noticed from my other pictures above, the application of paint is a little slap-dash, with colours going all over the place; so this is where I paint over the mistakes on the cloth, both, rust etc to clean up the models. Next I painted the musicians bell Brassy Brass (72.058) and then I doused every thing in Army Painter: Dark Tone


Once dry I drybrushed the bone and black areas (weapon shafts/shields edegs etc) with Dead White (72.001), the cloth with Livery Green (72.033), and the leather with Plague Brown (72.039). Finally for the painting stage I added a coat of Matt Varnish (70.520)


Next I painted the bases and (sand based edge) movement tray with Charred Brown (72.045), then drybrushed with Plague Brown (72.039), then Bone White (72.034) and added static grass.

I finish off by adding a flexi-metal sheet to the tray and flexi-magnetic squares to the bases.

There all done, and despite them being a right plan I am extremely pleased with the end result, and I actually look forward to painting the other 40 I have.

Also yes I know there is a Revenant in the front rank pretending to be a Skeleton Warrior, I accidentally picked him up when I gathered up the skeletons for painting. That does mean there is a Skeleton in with my Revenant, which will result in a switch around when they are done.

Friday 4 September 2015

Kings of War: Kickstarter receipt

So I received my Kings of War kickstarter pledge this week.





I only pledged at the "living legend" level which means I get:
"Get the Kings of War 2nd Edition Hardback Rulebook, 2nd Edition Kings of War soft cover Core Rulebook PLUS any applicable Stretch Goals"

In this delivery I received the:

  • Hardback rulebook
  • Gamer's edition rulebook
  • Wound tokens
  • Game tokens
  • Poster of the front cover of the Hardback rulebook
  • & Ronnie the bard model

I'm waiting for

  • Blaine Tyrant king model
  • Campaign book PDF
  • Army list and chess clock app
So lets looks at what I've got:


Hardback rulebook: It has great front cover picture and the spine is in a good typeface so will look nice upon my bookshelf. I've not read it cover to cover so can't really comment on the contents, if the PDF I received is anything to go by then it's a great quality throughout.



Gamer's Edition rulebook: This is bigger than expected, I have no doubt it was listed as such but seeing it in person it surprised me. I've been spoilt by smaller gamers editions from GW, Flames of war and all quiet on the martian front (although lets not mention this one too loudly due to the issues it contains). Once again I've only had a quick flick through and that there something not quite right about the typeface and font, so it hurts my eyes to read (this could be that I'm over due an eye test.). Further more there are mistakes! both spelling and page reference. It seems that this was a copy & paste job from the hardback but they didn't make the adjustments. I know I shouldn't complain about a small thing such as that but it really winds me up.
The issues aside its going to be a handy book to carry around for games, and saves me swiping through my phone/tablet to locate a rule mid game.



Tokens: other than the obvious charge arc, turn counter & ruler I have no idea what the other tokens are for. Like the community I will have to wait until mantic release a explanation of what is for what. Same for the wound counters and tray. I can assume what they are for but it would be nice to know for sure.


Ronnie the bard: A nice little metal model. I look forward to building him and having him as an addition to my armies.

So overall I'm pleased with what I've received and I look forward to receiving the remaining items.