Painting: Kings of War - Undead: Balefire Catapult

So this post was a little delayed by illness and various other duties. Ever onward, but first a thought that crossed my mind the other day when trying to paint this model.

Painting a miniature is, in most cases, a work of art and you need to be in the right frame of mind to be able to produce art. Occasionally when I have been lacking in motivation I pick up a brush and just start which resolves that; the same cannot be said for painting when in a bad mood. I tried to paint to alleviate the mood I was in but I just made mistakes and more I made the worse my mood got so lesson learnt (after all the years of being in the hobby I really should know better). Just thought I share that

No on with the final part of my Mhorgoth Starter: the Balefire Catapult.

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

I undercoated with Halfords Black primer (Other primers are available), and then lightly applied Bonewhite (72.034) to the bones of the crew and the skull in the catapult.

Next was several coats of Escorpena Green (72.032)

Then was the metals: For the spikes, armour, weapons and crank of the catapult I applied Citadel Foundation: Macharius solar orange then followed this up with drybrushing Chainmail silver (72.053) over the top. The plates, bolts and other metal items where painted with Bright Bronze (72.057) then watered down Foul Green (72.025) was applied to give it a galvanised look. This all done in a "slap-dash" kind of way, creating quite a mess.

Next was the boots, straps and that strange thing on the front of the catapult which I've never seen before on any other catapult but an internet search of the balefire showed it painted leathery so I applied Beasty Brown (72.043) followed by Leather Brown (72.040).

The I painted the rope with Plague Brown (72.039). I also pained up some areas that were missed the stage before

Next was the tidy up stage. as mention above I was a little slap dash so it was needed and took a little time, mainly using Abaddon Black (GW). After which I applied Army Painter Dark Tone all over.

For the final stage I drybrushed the bone and black areas with Dead White (72.001), the cloth/Shields with Livery Green (72.033) the rope with Bonewhite (72.034), 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 with Charred Brown (72.045), then drybrushed with Plague Brown (72.039), then Bone White (72.034) and added static grass. Followed by glueing the catapult onto two 25mmx50mm cavalry bases to make a 50mmx50mm base.

With my catapult done the Mhorgoth starter set is complete including some giant undead rats (or are they dogs). I now have an undead starter to work through as well as some other models to add to my army. So I'll either be working on them next or one of my many other projects.

The Making of a Zombie Game: Alpha play test 1

So my friend "Grum" and I played two games of our homemade zombie game, unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but here is an overview of how it went and what we found.

The table was setup as 4' x 4' with a 6"x 6" "safe zone" at each end of the table made of blast walls and the table was filled with scatter terrain: Crash/overturned cars, jersey barriers, barrels, barbed wire fencing etc

Survivor generation is random, so Grum rolled and got 6 survivors; 5 normal guys and 1 specialist.

We set the objective to get to the other designated area within 6 turns

Game 1:
This game was an absolute massacre to the survivors; they barely got out of the 6" deployment zone before zombies swarmed them and despite one or two zombies being killed the survivors couldn't stop them. Soon enough the zombies bust into the safe room where the last survivor was hiding and feasted upon him.

What did we learn:

• Zombies were too numerous and too difficult to kill, even for the specialist.
• Weapon allocation needed arranging

Game 2:
So from the first game we changed how zombies were deployed and reduced their stats slightly. This provided the survivors with an easier route as the zombies were fewer in number, and when attacked they died quicker. Despite this only the specialist survivor reached the other safe zone by turn 6, and 1 normal guy was alive, the rest had died at the hands of the zombies.

What did we learn:

• Survivor generation needed changing
• Turns were removed
• Shooting needed some additional notes
• Melee needed some additional notes
• Terrain needed adjusting to impact movement
• Weapons to be adjusted and expanded
• Survivors stats needing adjusting
• Scenarios needed victory conditions

So although the above looks a lot, its actually only a few little changes not a complete re-write. On a positive note the table was setup, characters generated and two games were played all in an hour, so it is a quick game as desired.

With these changes in place it's back to play-testing...

However a small quandary has come up, I want this game to be completely random: essentially turn up, roll some dice and get playing, whereas my co-writer friend Grum wants forward planning with points association and turn up with a prepared list:

I have posted the following on a Facebook group, and had some responses, which were appreciated but I'd like more, to be able to make a informed decision based of want you "the community" wants:

So I ask you the reader for your feedback, would you prefer:
A) Random character selection and weapon allocation
B) Random character selection but with pre-determined weapon allocation
C) Character and weapon allocation based on a points system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Painting: Kings of War - Undead: Ghouls

So life is still a little hectic at the moment not helped by me spraining my ankle. Despite this I have been able to finish the 10 ghouls that came in the Mhorgoth Revenge box.

Now, much like the zombies (and everything else in that box set), I was way too excited and just built everything without going through my usual review process, so like my zombie post here is a quick run through of the models before I proceed to the painting of my ghouls

Packaging:

It was part of the Mhorgoth Revenge two player starter set, so was a good box with the miniatures nicely stacked inside

The Models

These models have a great level of detail.

The models are made of a strong plastic, which can make them slightly difficult to remove from the sprue. 

On the sprue there is a nice selection of heads, arms and some extras to add/convert the models.

Building the Models

The model range come in 3 parts: torso, legs and head, so are are easy and quick to build especially as the pieces fit together nicely.

Now I have encountered two issues when building these, one was converting a hand to the hand holding the cleaver/claw; it's just small and fiddly, resulting in concerns that it will fall off at a later date. My second issue is ranking them up, the arms are in such a way that it can be difficult to rank them up nicely to a bit of shuffling is required to allow this to fit correctly.

The was little to no excess plastic or mould lines.

So as mentioned these are easy to build, so quick as a flash 10 were built (which is good as I've got 30 more!)

So onto the painting: all paints listed are from the Vallejo game range unless otherwise stated:

I started with a grey undercoat in the form of Halford Grey Primer, then based with pva and sand.

Once the sand was dry I tided up the edge of the bases so they ranked up as best they can, then painted the flesh with Pale Flesh (72.003). I like the idea of Ghouls still having an element of being human yet being degenerate at the same time.

Then I painted the cloth in Escorpena Green (72.032), as mentioned in my zombie post this will be my army colours.

Next I painted the nails & spikes with Gunmetal (72.054) and barbs/other spikes with Bonewhite (72.034)

I wanted to give the Ghouls weapons a rusted look so I used an old technique that once featured in an issue of White Dwarf (but adapted using Vallejo colours): Start with a basecoat of Dark Flesh (72.044)

Then dab on a light amount of Parasite Brown (72.044)

                         

Followed by a light dabbing of Orange Fire (72.008)

Then drybrush/highlight with Gun Metal (72.045), and there you have it, rusted weapons

Next I used Gory Red (72.011) around the nails/spikes/barbs etc to represent a soreness in the flesh and added it to the claw of the leader. Then painted the leader's hair Beasty Brown (72.043) and tidied up the flesh/cloth of all of them.

I added a liberal coat of Army Painter Dark Tone all over.

Then drybrushed the flesh with Bonewhite (72.034) and the cloth with Livery Green (72.033)

Next I painted the bases with Charred Brown (72.045), then drybrushed with Plague Brown (72.039), then Bone White (72.034) and added static grass. I finalised the painting by varnishing them all with Matt Varnish (72.520).

Once the varnished was dried I finished by adding a adhesive metal sheet to the movement tray and added magnets to there base. This allows them to be used for KoW as well as any other game that Ghouls feature in like the eagerly anticipated Dragons Rampant.

Once again I am pleased with the end result, I hope you found this helpful and in someway inspirational.

Next unit to paint will be my Skeletons...watch this blog.