Tag Archives: tabletop

Easter painting

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Good day, and I hope you’re all enjoying the holidays, or just the slightly warmer weather in general.

I’m not long back from my holidays, and realises I had a post waiting for finishing and editing. I have once again slipped outside of my own intentions to post more, mainly life getting in the way. It’s always the same. I won’t make excuses any more, and while I do a lot of painting throughout the week as it is a great stress-reliever after longer days at work (plus commuting), I don’t always post about it.

The first in this post is my ranger/captain miniature, made from the Wargames Atlantic guards sprue, and combining all my favourite parts. These include the pot-bellied armour, the downward-pointing sword, and the face of what looks to be James Cameron. I have been using him as my ranger in games of Rangers of Shadow Deep that I have been playing with my son, and despite how badass this fella looks, he isn’t amazing in combat at all.

Next up is a Lord of the Rings miniature, this one being of Sharkey/Saruman from the last few chapters where he is travelling to and then taking over the Shire with his band of ruffians. I’ve loved this miniature for a long, long time, and picked one up for cheap on eBay around Christmas 2025. I have been using Sharkey as a wizard, both evil and good, for Frostgrave even before he had any paint on him, and finished his base recently. I think he fits the bill as a soothsayer/thaumaturge kind of mage, appearing to be quite humble with his cloak and broken staff (despite Saruman’s obvious vengeful nature at that stage of the book, when the hobbits had smoked all his leaf).

I have also been painting up some Rumbleslam, finishing off the starter box set and getting to work on two factions on the side. I started painting the Juicer from the Mighty Madcap team, who appears as a fungus-infected ork. As such, I did a little wet-blending, trying to make him look pale from the top downwards, and mixing his nature green-ness into this before hitting it all with an ink wash. I really enjoyed painting this guy, and I would say the Juicer is one of my most favourite miniatures in the range, for sure.

With Rumbleslame minis needing mounted on transparent plastic bases, I tend to have to paint first, then mount them onto their bases second, in order to avoid any painting mishaps. Obviously, I am yet to do this, but will find the time in the coming days. I’m also looking forward to my first game of the fantasy-wrestler, having been glossing over the Rumbleslam rules before I went on holiday.

I also painted up a thief for Frostgrave. She is one of the official models, and while I’m not a massive fan of some of these blisters, I really wanted to pick up the thief and barbarian set. I stuck with some natural colours for this thief, making her appear a little different from the rest of the warband with her blonde hair, and used Black Templar black for her eye paint, to give it that smudged appearance.

I always make sure to have a few thieves in my Frostgrave warbands, ready to make off with the treasure while my heavies wade into combat.

Amongst the heroes, I have been working on a couple of enemies also. My friend gifted me a couple of goblin sprues, as she had a few kicking about spare. Sticking with a simple colour scheme, aiming to keep the shields bright and the robes drab, I gave them a bit of a brown wash and tidied up some areas on their surface. I have a fair few of these guys to do, but I do love a good goblin, and these were exactly what I was looking for.

Finally, I finished painting up Wormie for the scenario ‘Worm Hunt’ for Frostgrave. My son was keen to play this scenario, as the worm in question can burrow through the map, passing through (well, under) terrain and surprising the nearest soldiers. I didn’t fill in as much of the original colour after the brown wash, mainly because I wanted the creature to look deliberately dirty, as they have just emerged from the ground. The base I gave a few coats of white, as well as an Apothecary White wash, and light touches of the snow texture paint.

I think that’s me up to date now. Thanks again for reading, and take care.

January update- pt.2 (“The Rogues’ Gallery”)

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Hi, folks.

I had unwittingly left a bunch of photos lying hidden in a draft since late last year. Many of these (with the exception of the last 2) are from 2025 and I must not have gotten around to posting them. The final 2 are recently painted and completed. So here’s a rogues’ gallery of a few missed minis from the latter half of the last year.

The first is my Shrine Anchorite from Trench Crusade. This miniature is pretty hefty, even for a resin mini. Powered by a monk (and sporting a bone-broken ecclesiastic prisoner on the shield), this towering contraption accompanies the warbands of the Trench Pilgrims into battle, adding a touch of strength and endurance to the procession.

I used various washes and dry brushing to add shade and highlight to the plate metal, and used a sponge to add rust effects here and there. Blood for the Blood God was the final step, and while it’s easy to get carried away with this paint, I stuck to the artwork to keep me right. All I’ve not done is the boards dangling from the chain mantle, as I wasn’t sure to use decals or freehand something; some of the freehanding I’ve seen on these Trench Crusade models has been astounding. I won’t be able to pull anything off like that, but I shall maybe give it a go.

Other minis I wrapped up in late 2025 include my Town Watch models, which I really enjoyed painting. I aim to use these guys in games of Mordheim and Frostgrave, as they have such an over-exaggerated fantasy whimsy about them. Countering this is the fearsome Hanging Tree, one of the biggest pieces of terrain I own currently.

This was built without the hanging bodies first. I painted the tree, then the corpses separately, and then had to source some small chain, which I thought looked better than the string for hanging them. I think it looks quite brutal, and is one of the more harrowing pieces in my cabinet, for sure.

Finally, I have two bands I recently completed, these being my summoner’s warband for Frostgrave, and the Green Bruisers for Rumbleslam. My summoner for Frostgrave turned out as I’d hoped: I wanted a book-holding wizard in red robes for a summoner and, despite my kids pointing out that she looks a lot like the pigeon lady from Home Alone 2, I’m happy with her all the same!

I’ll be sure to update with how things have gone in the first game, as my son and I played this yesterday afternoon, and it was a heap of fun!

Rumbleslam, I am yet to play. I have been painting the minis slowly. It’s also annoying them needing to be mounted on the clear plastic bases. This means assembling these guys on their bases and then priming is kind of out of the question. Also, the chances of me getting washes and eve stray paint on the bases are too high. I’ve started using blue-tack and an old paint bottle as a makeshift holder for any Rumbleslam mini I’m painting, but it means I have been painting these chaps one-at-a-time, instead of my usual, which is a bit closer to batch-painting, I guess?

Thanks, as always, to anyone who stops by. Let me know if you have played any of these games recently, and I hope you’re all keeping busy.

Cheers

January update

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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!

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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

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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.

Hobby update (4th July)

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Hey, everyone.

This is normally where I would say that it’s been a “hectic time of year”, but I feel I tend to start most posts like this. The truth is, it’s always a busy time of year, so just assume that it has been! So, what’s been going on lately is I’ve been flitting between several different minis, unsure where my attention is being dragged; this has been mostly between Five Parsecs from Home, Trench Crusade, my Lord of the Rings minis and some undead creatures, which I’ll get to.

Five Parsecs from Home, the solo sci-fi tabletop game from Modiphius, has been a lot of fun. I was initially unsure how much I would enjoy gaming solo; I’d enjoyed it with Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, but Five Parsecs felt like a bit of a different beast, as it was leaning even more towards the RPG end of the table. Three campaign turns in, I’m hooked, and have been grabbing all manner of weird and wonderful minis from eBay and Etsy to make up the cast and crew. Pictured below are some of my latest ruffians that I will be using for starport scum/gangers, along with one of many storage containers I’m painting up for terrain.

Trench Crusade is also weighing heavy in my pile of shame right now. I’ve finished up my New Antioch warband, and my Knights of Avarice, and most of my Black Grail. My Trench Pilgrims only just arrived a week or so ago (I genuinely feared they were lost in the post), so I have been carefully painting them up. Below is a pic of two of the stigmatic nuns along with an ecclesiastic prisoner; I grabbed some cool ruins from Etsy too, figuring they fit with several of the tabletop games I’m itching to play at the moment.

I also saw a cool knight I thought would fit well with the hordes of the Black Grail, and added a spare rifle holster to their back. In my 700 ducat list, my plague knight has a putrid shotgun, so I thought this would be a good representation on the model, and just something a little different. Out of the factions in Trench Crusade, the Cult of the Black Grail are my favourite, so I wanted to add this knight as an alternative to my army.

Finally, I have reading through the rules for Battlecry by Warrior Poet Games, which feels like a love letter to Warhammer of old. I was kind enough to be gifted a PDF of the rulebook by Scott Schlichter, the game’s creator, and have been building a couple of lists for Battlecry. From reading the book and checking out Warrior Poet Games’ videos, what inspires me is that this is a game that is trying to get more mileage out of your miniatures, the minis you currently have. It is a mini agnostic game, so you can use whatever you like to represent a unit (within reason, adhering to base size), and though you might want to eventually pick up a new mini here or there, this is about finding another use for the miniatures in your collection.

I have been putting together an Elves of Brilliance list, which feels like a blend of armoured and wood elves; for this, I have dusted off my Lothlorien and Rivendell elves, arranging them into a Battlecry-worthy army list. For the Undead faction, I grabbed some of my Angmar minis, bringing a barrow-wight in as a lich, and the wild wargs in as dire wolves. This was also an excuse to buy a small unit of skeletons, which, funnily enough, was the faction my Dad painted up some 30 years ago when I got into the hobby! I also dug out my unpainted Repugnance mini (Goetia Miniatures), as I really wanted to use them for the Undead army’s abomination. I love this mini, and enjoyed finally painting it up. My wife asked what it was, and all I could think to tell her was that it’s several skeletons fighting over one piece of skin.

So, there you have it. I figure this was pretty long-winded, but I’ve been painting a lot (for once), and I’m about to bugger off on holiday for a week, so I won’t be around to build or paint for the next seven days. The horror.

Wishing you all a decent summer season, and catch you soon.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt.3

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Hi, folks.

It’s been a little while since the last game of Five Parsecs from Home, but I was keen to play a round today. The next mission had me intrigued, and seemed like a good challenge for a crew who had, until now, only fought gibbering sentry robots.

The enemies for this one were a small swarm brood horde (as played by my Genestealer Cult Acolytes). The 5 were set up in 2 sets of pairs and a solo close by, and they do not have any weapons apart from their claws, so this force is purely melee, with +1 damage. The swarm brood run on the ‘beast’ AI, so they should always try to gang up on their enemies.

Griff’s crew fails to seize the initiative at the beginning, but end up with 3 minis in the quick phase and just the 2 in the slow phase. With our engineer having recently mended the jump belt from the market, Klano puts it to use and leaps 9″ towards the nearest enemy. Glitch follows but finds she doesn’t have a clear shot on any of the swarm brood; Griff moves towards the caravan.

During the enemy turn, the brood moves around both sides of the container, sticking to cover. It isn’t until the next turn that they attack Glitch, rolling a natural 6 to hit and to wound. She is removed as a casualty. Having engaged another of the brood, he fails to wound and so stuns the creature. This shanty is in a toxic environment, and we roll to see if the creature takes any damage from the fumes while stunned; they do not.

In the following turn, 2 of the brood dive on Klano. One misses with its claws, while Klano manages to strike them down with the glare sword in return. The second brood creature lands an attack and sends our K’Erin warrior off the board as a casualty. With the bodies mounting up on Griff’s side, Maimar shoots at the nearest brood swarm with his needle rifle and puts them in the dirt. Vul shoots at the creature who took down Klano, blasting with dual pistols; he lands a hit, but the beast is too tough.

The creatures aren’t going anywhere; they are beasts and don’t know how to retreat. Griff finally lands a shot, killing Klano’s assailant in one hit. Maimar blasts another brood swarm with his needle rifle, and Vul puts the last one into the ground. Griff’s posse holds the field, but the swarm brood are an invasion threat…

The crew sweeps the battlefield, gathering loot and checking injuries. Glitch suffers a minor wound and will be out for one campaign turn. Klano is just unconscious and will be fine for the next turn. Salisi will be returning to the crew after her secretive business that took her out of play for 2 whole campaign turns. With the XP, Vul increases his savvy stat, and Maimar boosts his combat skill. We find a brutal melee weapon as a reward, and roll a 5 for the pay, +1 danger pay agreed beforehand. With 6 credits and a skip in our step, the crew heads back to the ship.

Unfortunately, the swarm brood were an invasion risk, and edging into the next campaign turn (out of pure impatience and curiosity), I find that we don’t make the escape roll and instead have to instantly prep for battle with a team of 5 more brood. Our upcoming mission is to hold out for 6 combat turns, after which we can retreat and leave this invaded planet…

Thanks as always for reading, and take care.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt. 2

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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.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt.1

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Hey, everyone.

Back in a previous post, I think I mentioned I was waiting on the rulebook for the rulebook for Five Parsecs from Home, which is a solo wargaming book from Modiphius that I’ve had recommended to me by a fair few painters, tabletop gamers and general hobbyists alike. The book operates as a role-playing experience, allowing you to randomly generate a crew of 6 and begin working in the universe, where you will have to contend with various authoritative bodies, dangerous jobs, absolute scumbags, and the ever-growing threat of your starship being repossessed.

Everything was generated through the roll of a dice, including the crew, their backgrounds, their classes, the planet we start on. To begin with, I generated the crew, who are:

Griff– a human enforcer on the hunt for glory
Klano– a petty criminal of the K’Erin race
Derrick Desai- a wasteland nomad scientist
‘Glitch’- fame-seeking troubleshooter from a regressed world
Salisi- a power-hungry empath bounty hunter
Vul-Arol- a manipulator with dreams of wealth

After rolling to find out what brought them together (this being the group being pursued by the authorities), it felt right that Griff had moved into this section, picking up a lead on a local petty criminal, Klano, and in chasing him down she is caught at the scene of a crime meant to incriminate not just him, but also selfish bounty hunter Salisi Esperon who was looking to make a quick credit.

Klano, Griff, Glitch & Salisi.

We start off campaign turn 1 on Ilia, which, as a roll on the world chart indicates, is a fuel refinery world. The upside is that travel from this world will cost only 3 credit as a result, as opposed to 5. We’ve rolled already to determine our ship (a worn freighter with 30 hull points and 22 credits’ worth of debt tied to it), but the crew is staying on Ilia for the time being to lay low and look for work.

While Glitch stays on the ship to train, gaining +1XP, Derrick goes out to trade with the locals, gaining a rumour which leads to a quest. He also finds a damaged jumpbelt, and is keen to repair it in a subsequent turn, being so addicted to gadgets. Vul & Salisi explore, where Vul finds an instruction manual on the mysteries of the universe and gains +1XP for studying it thoroughly, while Salisi sells one of the colony rifles from our ship’s stash to a revolutionary for 2 credits.

In terms of work, Klano uses his contacts to hook us up with two possible jobs: one is a corporate job from local suit Payton Malik, with a sweetener of +2 credits on the danger pay scale: a mission to be done on the sly with a team of only 4; the second is a wildcard, a rich industrialist called L’renn Duvois, offering +1 credit danger pay for taking out a tough enemy. Both jobs were to be completed this campaign turn, so it came down to one or the other right now; we take Payton’s corporate task, a Secure mission in a run-down corner of one of Ilia’s fuel hubs. We roll to determine enemies, drumming up security bots, though are able to reduce their number by one thanks to this being deemed ‘low priority’ on the hazard table, cancelling out the bots’ additional one troop in their profile.

Our enemy was a lone security bot, armed with a hand laser and shotgun.

The Secure job stipulates that the crew must spend 2 consecutive turns within 2″ of the centre of the battle board in order to win, though if an enemy is within 6″ of said crew member, this does not count. After rolling for initiative and reactions, we end up with only Glitch in the quick move section in the first turn; she advances, scrap pistol in hand. The defensive security bot lines up a shot with its hand laser and hits her, but the wound is shrugged off thanks to her toughness. Klano and Salisi attempt to flank, while Griff moves around to take cover near Glitch.

Both sides trade blows, though the security bot is in cover which means a roll of 6+ is needed to hit. Glitch misses, as does Griff; Salisi and Klano advance further, sneaking around a container to try and split the bots’ fire. Griff rolls a 6 and lands a hit squarely on the bot; not even its backup 6+ saving throw can help on this occasion, and the blast from Griff’s military rifle tears through its circuitry. With no more enemies on the board, the area is secured for our Patron, and Griff and the team begin to loot the containers, finding a set of grenades, as well as some scrap they sell for +1 credit.

The job a success, we roll on the pay and are awarded 6 credits, plus 2 credits for dangerous pay. The team all earn +3XP for surviving, and Griff earns an additional +1XP for inflicting the first (and only) casualty. Unfortunately, the other job, that being L’renn’s, runs out as it needed to be completed this campaign turn as well, and thanks to a roll on the conditions table, this Patron is vengeful, and she now becomes a Rival to the crew.

The crew advance towards the centre, looking to secure the area. Griff aims with her military rifle.

Rolling finally on the campaign events table, our crew makes a new business contact in the wake of their first job, adding a new Patron to the list (which is handy, as we have just pissed one off). On the character events table, we roll you have some business to attend to elsewhere, and lose Salisi for two campaign turns. Being a selfish bounty hunter, this felt natural for her to venture off, out of everyone. She’ll be back with loot and XP soon.

As for campaign turn no. 2, that is still to be decided.

Thanks if you made it this far, and take care.

Sin Eater & Cult of the Black Grail

4 Replies

Hi, everyone.

I hope you’re all doing well. I’ve been on a bit of a painting spree lately, trying to get many of my minis battle-ready. While I’ve been hopping from faction to faction for the sake of variety and just painting whatever excited me more, I was leaving one such mini until near the end. This is the Sin Eater, one of the mercenaries available to the factions of Hell. She’s a swollen abomination in an iron suit, complete with flowing cloak and a human meat masher, and while the design is quite simple, I was most nervous about painting her up.

I’m not sure of the reason. I think it’s because this miniature shows up a lot in artwork for Trench Crusade, and there are a lot of paintjobs online for this one as well. A lot. I’d even consider Sin Eater to be one of the unofficial mascots of the game, alongside the Shrine Anchorite and Communicant Tank Hunters, appearing in countless painting tutorials, pics, and forums, and occupying several corners of the Internet with her foul presence.

I kept my paint scheme simple: leadbelcher with a brown ink wash, followed by a black ink wash. This makes the armour look worn, old, and a little dirty as well. I wanted to keep the process of painting Sin Eater as easy as possible, before focusing on the tiny details like the dismembered corpse hanging off her back, and her rotten teeth. The legs and feet in the mud before her are spares from a prisoner miniature I recently hacked up while building some Wretched for my Heretic Legion, and the blood was done with Blood for the Blood God, but I tried to use it sparingly.

So here’s Sin Eater with the Black Grail warband, ready to infect the world (and partially eat it). I’ve loved painting these foul masses, from their gibbering hordes to their hulking abominations. Now I can look forward to getting a game with them and seeing how they fare on the tabletop. There’s one more Plague Knight mini I’m looking to customise with some spare parts, but I’ll share this if and when they are complete.

I also mentioned in my last post how I was awaiting the Five Parsecs from Home solo campaign rule book on arriving. Well, it did, and I have been assembling and readying a crew for an adventure. I’m also keen to enter the crew in an upcoming painting contest on social media, which Modiphius are hosting. This includes posting pics of your Five Parsecs crew with their information and backstory, with the deadline being the end of June 2025. I’ll see what I can do on that front, but I have rolled for each of my characters in the meantime and I’m really just working on which minis to use, some old and some new.

Thanks again for reading, and catch you next time.