Tag Archives: gaming

January update

6 Replies

Hi, folks.

I’ve been hitting the painting and building quite a fair bit this winter; it’s my favourite season to do so, and it’s relaxing in its own way. Lately, I have been working on some figures for my Rotten Rodents stable in the tabletop game Rumbleslam, which my wife and kids got me for Christmas.

This is a wrestling/fantasy tabletop game featuring heaps of dice, colourful characters (with some nods and sideswipes at real-life wrestlers, old and new), and some lovely models. While we get a team of orcs, goblins and a troll, as well as a more human team (though also with an ogre) to face off against each other, I picked up a box that caught my eye: this being the Rotten Rodents.

Molerat Pugilist & Sewer Rat.

These guys are pretty disgusting, ranging from a potion-flinging high-flyer, to a boil-covered hulking rat, and so I started with two of the easier figures to paint, which are the Molerat Pugilist, and the Sewer Rat. While these guys are considered ‘jobbers’, what folk outside the wrestling world might call ‘fodder’ essentially, they can be joined by a superstar; I picked up Sir Scratch Flagon, the armoured mouse who I believe references ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner, right down to his pose and his chainmail-covered head. I’m still in the process of reading through the rules, but Sir Flagon here seems to have some decent defence stats, which is something the rest of the stable struggles with.

Sir Scratch Flagon.

In terms of Frostgrave, me and my son have been gearing up for a game soon. I am painting up a few pieces of terrain in one go, which is quite simple as the grey primer takes care of most of the surface areas of these old ruins. I have been working on this ruined tower the most, and have recently given it a Nuln Oil wash, waiting to paint the snowy sections and icicles that you can likely see along the top of the miniature. I figured this piece would be useful for a scenario like The Silent Tower but would also make a pretty useful 2-storey structure for housing treasure.

A rotting ruin, waiting to be explored.

I have been dividing my painting time between terrain, my warband, and my son’s warband. Building his wizard as an Illusionist, I asked him to pick the colours before I tackled each figure. I have currently painted 7 of his figures, with only a few left to go. The first scenario we are keen to tackle is Dark Alchemy from the Frostgrave Folio supplement book, where we use a small warband each and play cooperatively against a hulking alchemical beast, before escaping from one of two doors on the outskirts of the board.

Illusionist & one of his thugs- part of my son’s Frostgrave warband.

Cue the Alchemical Monstrosity, which is represented by this mushroom golem miniature I’ve had in my cabinet for over a year. Giving this beast a new lease of life, I thought he would be perfect for a beast forged of an alchemical explosion, with various mushrooms and ingredients mixed together to make a homicidal hulk, hell-bent on stopping our escape. I have some ways to go with this mini, including drybrushing, but he isn’t a million miles away from being tabletop-ready.

The Alchemical Monstrosity.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read. I hope your first projects of the new year are going well, and here’s to another year of building, painting and gaming.

2025 Wrap-up & Happy New Year!

4 Replies

Hi, folks. Happy New Year to you all!

I always tire of typing it, but it has been a while. I’ve been distracted towards the end of last year, not so much from hobbying, but more from keeping the blog up to date. Daily life and writing have been getting in the way, though I have been able to use painting and building minis as a stress reliever.

The last couple of months, I’ve been looking into skirmish gaming, looking to do more with the collection of minis in my cabinet. I was looking into Assassins & Templars: A Ruckus Game, from Wargames Illustrated’s November issue, as I really liked the models that were being used to show off the game. These are from Gripping Beast, which has a lot of very cool pieces in their shop. I had to show some proper restraint; I started with a small retinue of assassins, which draw in part from their Arab military kit, as well as a few standalone metal minis. Pictured below are two assassins, a long range character, as well as a priest mini I was using as an imam.

I have also been working on some fantasy minis, including my Lord of the Rings models, and finishing up work on this proxy mini of Buhdur the troll cheiftain. I had recently acquired a pot of AK Interactive’s snow terrain mixture, having really enjoyed their battlefield mud tub, and used it on our wholesome troll here; my plan is to use him as a random encounter in Frostgrave, which is another skirmish game I have been diving into.

My son recently showed an interest in Mordheim and Frostgrave, and I have been grouping many of my minis into warbands with a new spark of excitement. I also picked up a few sprues from the Frostgrave kits and began kitbashing every manner of unit I was planning, including many Mordheim warbands. Pictured below are a Grave Robber warband, the rules of which I found on the Mordheimer site. These include a lookout, a graver, a junior medic, a couple of grave diggers, and a thug.

Trench Crusade remains in my brain also, and I have been chipping away at the remaining minis that are grey, of which there are few. The Observer has been relatively straightforward to paint, sticking with the colour scheme from the rulebook, as I liked the contrast between the red and gold.

Finally, I have been painting up a warband for Frostgrave, as my son has also been showing an interest in playing the game, mainly due to the wizard creation system. I’m helping to paint a warband of his own so we can play together, as well as some terrain. There are many scenarios in the rulebook that we’re keen to try, and I’d like to write about these as I go.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and I wish you all the best for 2026.

Take care.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt.4

4 Replies

Hi, folks.

After a few weeks’ break, I jumped back into a game of Five Parsecs from Home, returning where my crew had left off. In turn 3, Griff’s crew had faced off against a small group of swarm, and although they had come away successful, their encounter with the bug-like aliens triggered an invasion on the upcoming turn.

In the invasion turn, we rolled the dice and found that we didn’t escape the world during the opening phase of this invasion, instead being forced to hold out for 6 waves of combat, or until we Hold the Field. With Glitch in the infirmary, I was having to lean on my less combat-enthusiastic companions to pick up on some of the heavy lifting; this mean bringing Derrick, Vul, and Maimar into a fight against 6x swarm brood in this battle. The weapons loadout remained the same from the previous turn, as if the invasion caught our heroes completely off-guard (which… it kinda did).

With the swarm brood falling under the behavioural bracket of ‘beasts’, they were deployed in pairs, stuck together in pairs, and would mainly seek out cover unless there was a clear opportunity to make a successful charge. Their lack of projectile weaponry (they only have claws) did not present much of an advantage to Griff’s crew, as the swarm were always in cover, and if there’s one thing Griff’s crew can do consistently, it’s miss the most basic of shots in the open. Cover was a huge problem.

Klano, still wearing the jump-belt repaired by the team in a previous turn, leapt towards the nearest pair and became locked in a brawl with them. Despite his ingrained K’Erin tendencies to love close combat, he did not manage to wound the brood. Instead, one of the bugs landed a natural six after rolling to hit him, and removed him as a casualty. On the right flank, Derrick stuck with Vul and blasted one of the brood to the afterlife with a squeeze of the shotgun’s trigger.

On the far left flank, the pair of bugs snuck up on Salisi and dove into combat. While they didn’t manage to wound her, she herself was able to land a blow on them, albeit with no wound; this pushed one of the bugs back. When she was free on her next turn, she took aim with her colony rifle and put it down.

Both Maimar and Griff made some questionable shots, though Griff was aiming through cover. Maimar’s needle rifle, despite getting two shots per turn, was only hitting 50% of the time, and scored no wounds throughout the game. Vul, with dual handguns in his tentacles, took down another of the brood, with Griff eventually cleaning up the rest.

In quite a strange battle, the crew came out on top, and relatively swiftly at that. XP was assigned and attributes improved; I’m looking to increase Klano’s defence somewhat in the turns to come, as well as the reaction scores of the less-combat-inclined members of the crew, who spent most of the battle operating in the slow phase of the turns.

There is nothing to loot, nor is there time to really sit and ponder the job as the invasion is ongoing, and with the field successfully held, Griff and the crew evac in their ship (which was thankfully fully fully repaired in the previous turn) and make for another world. We are allowed to role on the character chart, post-battle; Griff receives a hearty meal, which lets her shrug off an injury in the infirmary when next she is hurt.

As they head towards a new world, past rivals and troubles ablaze behind them, who knows what turn 5 will look like.

Thanks for reading.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt. 2

2 Replies

Hey, everyone.

In part 1 of the Five Parsecs from Home campaign I’m currently playing through, Griff and her team of misfits made 9 credits off a corporate job, angering another patron in the process and turning her into a bitter rival. They received a bundle of XP (and some grenades), and Salisi, our empath bounty hunter, had some other pressing matters elsewhere in the galaxy and left the crew for 2 turns.

Left to right: Amano (Glitch), Salisi, Vul, Griff, Derrick, Klano, Maimar

The beginning of turn 2 sees the crew going about their business; we pay off 4 credits from our ship debt, use our on-board purifier to cleanse and sell some water to the locals for 1 credit, and Griff explores the town to gain a rumour. Vul recruits a new crew member to fill the void left by Salisi, finding an Engineer named Maimar to join our cause. Amano hits up the market, selling scrap for 3 credits, while Derrick takes another crack at trying to repair the jumpbelt he found at one of the stalls in the last turn; he fails to fix it.

The crew is fortunate enough to get another job from Payton Malik, our patron contact. The next corporate job pays +3 danger credits and is urgent, needing to be done this turn. In return, we would receive the Persistent benefit, meaning this patron will still be available if we travel, and the condition Busy, which would guarantee a job offer from this patron next turn if this one is a success. The downside is the enemy is packing a VIP (one of their number has +1 Toughness and a +2 Combat skill).

Accepting the job, the deployment condition rolls as being Gloomy, reducing max visibility to 9″, so ranged combat is going to take place quite close. This also means that characters who fire can then be targeted at any range, as they can be spotted through the murk. The enemies are security bots once more, and we’re in another run-down slum beneath the pipework of this busy fuel refinery world. Time to get to work.

A run-down hovel in the lower levels of the fuel refinery world.

With no numbers restriction on this job, the current crew were in attendance for this one. While Griff, Glitch and Klano have their favourite arms, Vul brought dual handguns for the first time, and Derrick brought a shotgun; our newest recruit Maimar brings a handgun and a blade. Longer ranged weaponry would be of less use in the gloomy conditions.

None of the crew makes the quick actions turn in turn 1 of combat, and the security bots get the first moves. Being defensive in their behaviour, the 5 bots are posted in 3 teams, 8″ apart, and will remain in their half of the board (and within cover, where possible). They can’t fire with either their military rifles due to the murkiness, and they aren’t yet in range to use their handguns and rippers.

Derrick and Vul discuss how they’ll secure the old ruins, while Griff and Glitch return the bots’ fire.

Klano moves towards the ruins, and dashes into the shadow of a hulking steel structure, the topper from an old doughnut shop. By the second turn, he and Glitch are able to get into the quick actions round consistently, and begins brawling with two of the bots on the upper flank. Despite being able to roll twice during the Brawling phase, due to being K’Erin, Klano misses with most of his attacks, and those that do land fail to injure the bots. Glitch and Griff take opposite avenues around the ruins, returning fire; Glitch takes a hit, but like the first game this doesn’t amount to anything and she shrugs it off.

Maimar sees an item on the boundary, a piece of curios that was to be this board’s ‘Notable sights’. He spends several turns making his way to the crate, finding only junk that can be sold for 1 credit. Klano is bested in close combat by one of the twitching bots, and he is removed from the game. Vul and Derrick reach the ruins at the centre of the board, managing to hold the line undisturbed for a turn; this is a Secure mission, after all.

The security bots wound Klano and move to solidify their defences.

Glitch lands a hit on a bot, but they roll a 6 for their save and continue to fight. Griff takes aim and blasts the bot who struck down Klano on the previous turn, and they fail their saving throw. After a second consecutive turn of holding the objective, Vul and Derrick secure the centre of the board, and on the next roll the remaining enemies withdraw.

Griff takes a moment to aim before putting a shot through one of the bots’ heads.

In the aftermath of the battle, the crew gains +3XP each, with Griff gaining an additional +1XP for destroying a bot. Klano receives +1XP as a casualty. They receive their danger pay of 3 credits + 3 after rolling 1D6, and a set of loaded dice as loot. On the campaign events table our ship seems to suffer 2 hull points of damage during routine maintenance, and on the character events table, Derrick receives a letter from his wasteland planet, and on the roll of a 5 we get a quest from it. Looks like we know where we’ll be heading as soon as the ship is repaired.

That’s all for campaign turn 2, however. Here’s hoping the 3rd turn is much kinder to Griff and the crew.

Thanks for reading, take care.

Hobby update (12th April)

4 Replies

Hi, folks.

The last week and a bit have been fairly tough going at work, quite mentally taxing as well. As such, I’ve not had much strength to do as much hobbying as I wanted, but there are a few things I’ve been chipping away at.

I recently purchased a brahmin miniature on Etsy, as I am needing one for one or two of the scenarios from the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare book. I wasn’t massively keen on Modiphius’ brahmin models and found something a bit chunkier for the two-headed pack-cow.

I also started working on my Minutemen miniatures, having split a box of the survivors with my eldest, who has been keen on painting her own Fallout settlers. I’ve enjoyed working on the Minutemen, they have been quite different to the other factions in terms of appearance and colour palette. I also quite like Preston Garvey as a character (though this is an uncool thing to say, apparently), and I really like the effort that went into his design. His constant insistence on the player visiting ‘another settlement’ to lend a hand was an annoying gaming mechanic, but I liked that he was one of the genuine do-gooders in the wasteland.

For the last month or so, I’ve been trying to remember to get all the finished squads assembled and photographed as and when they are completed, as I realised I was only ever posting WIP pics. Above is a shot of the Caesar’s Legion veterans, one of the groups I accidentally omitted. Painting the Legion was a a much slower affair than the others, due to the multitude of straps and armour layers each of their minis has. I stuck closely to screenshots from New Vegas, which is why you might notice a fair few of my legionaries wearing totally blacked-out sunglasses.

Anyways, that’s just a brief overview of what I’ve been able to get done over the last few weeks. I’m hoping to get more hobbying done in the upcoming week, such as getting the Minutemen finished and having a test game with them, as well as putting the finishing touches on the super mutant faction as well.

Until then, thanks for reading.

Piper & synths

5 Replies

Hi, everyone.

I’m continuing to work through the heap of Fallout miniatures I’ve either picked up in last year’s Black Friday sale, or acquired over the Christmas period. I have been working on Piper Wright, the reporter from Fallout 4 who runs the newspaper “Publick Occurrences” in Diamond City. Piper is one of the possible companions for the player’s character in the 4th game, and is heavily opposed to the presence of the Institute amid the growing paranoia surrounding synthetics appearing in the Commonwealth and replacing real people.

Piper is dressed as one might expect a newshound to appear in the ’40s/’50s, that aesthetic having been popular in the Fallout universe before the bombs fell. I tried to stick to her in-game colour scheme as close as possible, down to the dust caked coattails. As far as her profile for Wasteland Warfare, her ability Distracting allows for the allocation of a -2 token to an enemy within green presence range of Piper, temporarily hindering their skills for a turn. Piper is otherwise adept at lockpicking and cracking terminals, as well as using throwing weapons, pistols and rifles. She also provides a +2 to the search skill for friendly models, as an aura ability.

Having finished up both the super mutants and the survivors from the starter box, I moved on to the Institute’s synths. These come in a few different types: the skeletal gen 1s and the more fleshed out gen 2s, that appear more like crash-test dummies. It’s hard to say which I find more unnerving. The gen 1s lean more towards metallic colours, with some warming tones for the internal organs; again, I stuck to the images from the game (mainly the model shown during the loading screen, which I always found fascinating). The gen 2s are made to look dirtier, with Rakarth Flesh and a black ink wash used on the majority of the body, as they appear quite dirty and worn down in Fallout 4.

Painting the synths has been quite a speedy job. Building the gen 1s was a little tricky, as I actually managed to break two of them from a little too much force in trimming off some flash from one of their knuckles and feet. Everything fit back together very snugly, which I’m relieved about. If this was a GW ‘Finecast’ kit, I think I’d be struggling to make repairs; it’s happened many times in the past. Modiphius’ kits never seem to arrive broken, which I’m grateful of, and any breakages during assembly (which are, admittedly, my fault) are easily repairable. In hindsight I will say that despite my fears that the Institute kits were going to be a bloodbath, it’s been much smoother than I’d expected in terms of building and painting. I’d recommend the kit for anyone with even a passing interest in the faction, and I’ll be sure to post more pictures of this box as I paint them up.

As always, thanks for reading. Have a good one.

Deathclaw (and various ghouls)

4 Replies

Hello, folks.

The round off the minis I got painted this weekend past (I did say it was a weirdly productive one), I present the deathclaw. This beauty was included in the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare starter box, and is an absolute bonus. When you consider the crux of the box to be survivors vs super mutants, having a huge deathclaw in there too adds insane amounts of value to the box, in my opinion.

I took more than a few cues from Sonic Sledgehammer’s YouTube channel in the painting of this creature, though mine did turn out much darker than expected. I used a lot of drybrushing to build up the armoured sections, and dappled on the paint on the soft tissue areas, like the belly and the undersides of the arms. It was all tied together with a wash of Reikland Fleshshade

In gaming terms, the deathclaw is a brute (which is likely expected). I started the series at Fallout 3, so my own experience of these terrors only goes back that far, but the first time I ran into one in Old Olney still haunts me. Just seeing this hulking mound of muscle for a few seconds before it pounces is a gaming memory I can’t shake. In Wasteland Warfare, they are listed with 11 Strength and 12 Endurance, which is the attribute their health points are linked to. The rest of their stats are lacklustre, but the abilities that the deathclaw brings to the table give it a boost.

With Barge, the deathclaw can move through smaller enemy bases, meaning he can’t really be bottlenecked by tiny foes. Unnerving applies a -2 for all skill rolls that are not attacks on the deathclaw itself, within a presence range of blue . The deathclaw swipe and crush are its two attacks, dealing 2 or 3 damage respectively, with chances to potentially stun and throw opponents.

I am yet to use the deathclaw in a match, still working my way through the scenarios in the starter box which happen to be mostly super mutant-based. I’m keen to see how long a deathclaw can hold out against Nora and a posse, having recently tried this with Lorenzo Cabot. (Spoiler: Lorenzo won).

I also started painting my ghoul remnants. This kit is made up of ferals in various workday uniforms, and includes a police officer, soldier with comms backpack, an armoured trooper and a fireman, etc. After painting Reilly’s Rangers and being super accurate with my painting for once, I wanted to slap some grime and ink on a unit of troops. And with the deathclaw finished, I can add these ghouls to a little Creatures force when they are done, and have them assault a team of survivors in the near future.

Currently, I still have 3 of the 6 ghouls to base, and I have already begun on painting the forces of the Institute. More on them later.

As always, thanks for reading. Take care.

Nightkin, Lorenzo & others

4 Replies

Hi, folks.

The last two weeks or so, I’ve been working on a mix of Fallout miniatures. These have been for a variety of factions, so I’m kind of hopping from one lot to the next and painting everyone up slowly. It’s been nice having some variety in the painting, and is opening up these troops as options for the tabletop game.

I’ve been working on the nightkin for my group of super mutants. These are the hulking pale brutes from Fallout and Fallout: New Vegas, the stealth-boy addicts with split personalities and a love of guerrilla warfare. In New Vegas, they are notably blue in colour (compared to their green-skinned kin in the rest of the games, and the yellowish super mutants in the D.C area) and tend to wear ragged clothing and random items as armour, including panchos and furs. They’ve been fun to paint, and add some visual difference to the faction; I’ll need to get a group pic of them when their bases are done, but I look forward to running these as part of the mutant crew in an upcoming game.

I completed work on Lorenzo Cabot, from Fallout 4. I enjoyed the questlines surrounding Jack Cabot and his bizarre family, specifically the job where you have to deal with Lorenzo, Jack’s father. Lorenzo has an ancient artifact fused to his head, a relic he discovered in the Middle East, and it grants him telekinetic abilities and strength. In tabletop terms, Lorenzo is adept at searching and unlocking, and is physically strong, sitting at 10 hit points. His shooting is poor, though he comes with an artifact gun as a free addition, and he can use his shoot skill to test a telekinetic shove against a single enemy. I’m keen to try and put him against a squad of settlers and see how he gets on.

On the side, I also slapped some paint on some new scatter terrain pieces I got from Etsy, from My Mini Model World. I really need to do a full write-up of each of the terrain pieces I’ve been painting up, but these telephone poles really look the part for a Fallout game board, suiting the aesthetic rather well.

In terms of gaming, my wife joined me for a run-through of the 1st scenario from the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare book. The rules are sitting with me fine after a few games, and for a first game of this my wife picked it up much quicker than I did. It came down to the last two miniatures, Nora vs the brute, and I ended up losing as Nora riddled him with a few shots from her 10mm pistol. I did manage to send Dogmeat to the pet afterlife with a few smacks of a mutant’s sledgehammer, so swings & roundabouts, I guess. We’ll be playing scenario #2, Fort Davis, this week.

Anyways, thank you for reading. Take care.

Super Mutant Suiciders (and Centaur)

4 Replies

Hi, everyone.

I managed to find some time in the ever-decreasing black hole that is the run-up to Christmas to finish off the Super Mutant Suiciders for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. I painted these guys using images of the Super Mutants from Fallout 4 as a reference, sticking with my trusty Loren Forest paint for their flesh, and keeping their rags as Mechanicus Standard Grey, which was what they were primed with.

The models enjoyed a good brown ink wash, and I finished by stippling on some Vallejo Dry Rust with a little sponge. The Super Mutants in Fallout 4 are very earthy in in their overall colour palette and wear armour that is heavily rusted; I didn’t want to overdo this paint, having never used it before and so not sure what it would dim to after drying. I think the effect looks okay.

I was also keen to paint up one of the Centaurs from the kit I snagged in the Black Friday sales. This is the ‘human’ style of creature you may have encountered in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, who were more of an annoyance enemy. I remember first running into them in the 3rd game and being creeped out by their design, the way they waddle, and just the general dead look in their eyes.

I stuck with a light pink flesh tone, and washed with Reikland Fleshshade. The tentacle/tongue was Bugman’s Glow with a Druchii Voilet wash, which was also used to wash the spine, tale and abdomen. A black ink wash finished off the tentacles. I tried to use the washes to make the Centaur look more weathered and dirty, as opposed to the ‘clean’ paintjob on the box. Again, I used in-game images to show where to hit the mini with certain washes.

I’m looking forward to using these beasts in upcoming games of the Fallout tabletop game, of which I hope to put a few small battle reports up in the new year. I’m also painting up a few pieces of scatter terrain for the game board.

It’s likely this will be my last post before Christmas, though if I manage to finish more minis before then I might pop up a post beforehand. If not, have a Merry Christmas or happy holidays, and I’ll catch you on the other side of the mayhem. Hoping the hobby gods are good to you all this season!

Cheers!

Hobby update (13th December)

3 Replies

Hello, everyone.

This past week or so, I have been working on the Fallout minis, as there are a fair few of them kicking about in the pile at the moment. I started with the Super Mutant Suiciders, as it is a small kit of three (slightly larger) miniatures, and I would like to practice the mutant colour scheme. I stuck with the colours from Fallout 4, using a few screenshots as a reference. I’m waiting on a pot of ‘dry rust’ paint to arrive in the post, and am aiming to sponge this on to the armour plates, as the mutants in Fallout 4 tend to wear heavily rusted/orange or brown style armour.

WIP super mutants

These two are very much a work in progress right now, but I happy with how they are looking so far. And the scenic bases are definitely contending for my favourite part, I love what Modiphius have done with these designs.

Broadcast tower from FutureForgeOnline

With the impending arrival of the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare box from Jolly Old St Nick, I have been looking at cool scatter terrain on Etsy. I bought this broadcast tower from FutureForgeOnline on Etsy while in my search for post-apocalyptic pieces for a battlezone, hoping it to be used for an objective, or just blocking line of sight for shooting! With the weather being somewhat more stable than it has been the last few days, I managed to get the tower primed today, so I can work on this in stages from this weekend onwards.

That’s currently it so far. Most of the nights have been recovering from the daily grind as we move further into a dark and frosty December, and I tend to be sitting playing video games under a blanket instead of writing or painting. Still, there’s lots to do, and I’m conjuring some motivation from somewhere. If I can get the Super Mutant Suiciders done by Christmas at least, I’ll be happy with that!

Thanks again for reading, and take care.