Four arms good, two arms bad

With the release of a new edition of 40k I've been tempted away from my usual love of skirmish games* and see what all the fuss is about - so I've picked up the Genestealer Cult combat patrol.

First thoughts looking at the sprues were that with the number of extra arms and heads it seemed like a great opportunity to do some kitbashing (I've always preferred building minis to painting minis)!

GW Genestealer Cult + Anvil Industry bits

I'd wanted a rag-tag mix and match look but my second thought was how badly the GSC torsos and legs fit to these Anvil legs and torsos due to the angling of the joins - and in fact, the GW legs and torsos don't mix and match well with each other! Reading the assembly instructions it's clear that the torsos and legs are designed to be paired up exclusively which is disappointing.

Reading the instructions it also became clear that although "each mini" has two intended builds (very much like the monopose Warcry minis that are my only other recent GW experience) and that many have a shared component in both, often a left arm, which I guess is going to be a factor in any potential kitbashes using the spare arms.

All that said, I'm excited for the possibilities. Playing around some more:

Those same Anvil and GW bodies, now unmixed

Trying GSC heads on Stargrave and Frostgrave bodies

Of all these I really like the Frostgrave soldier body with the GSC head, ridiculous as it looks here, it's just a shame that they're so small in comparison to the GW bodies. If I could build up the torso/shoulder area it could work, as the head is actually about the right height, so I'm definitely filing that away for future consideration!  Not sure about the fit of the others with the aesthetic however, but food for thought all the same.

Any suggestions for potential kitbashes, and your good or bad experiences, welcome in the comments!

* OK I'll admit the main reason I went for GSC was because I could use them in Necromunda and Kill Team too!

DIY Blood Bowl Sevens pitch

I have a soft spot for Blood Bowl that goes back to the 90's (anyone remember the polystyrene "astrogranite" board?) and I've been keen to dust off my newer copy and get it all painted up.

One of the best things I think that came out of Blood Bowl being OOP all those years was the Sevens format, 'cos let's face it GW games can be overlong and the idea of lunch break gaming has always appealed! So here's my take on a Sevens board:

Basically I just masked off the lines on one side of my regular Blood Bowl pitch and stippled some white primer in (to try to match the existing effect of the lines).

Blood Bowl Sevens pitches are 11 squares wide and split into three 6 square long areas between the end zones, each team has its own scrummage line. Note I didn't put the end zones on so my board is 18x11 not 20x11 but for the purposes of the rules it will work just fine.

It's not terrible, and more importantly it's not £30. Looking forward to playing some games on it...

Test minis for Warcry

 A while back I got into Warcry, a light and fast skirmish game which is perfect for time-strapped modern life!

The previous Blood Bowl minis were a pre-test for these to try out Army Painter Speedpaints - although hopefully some Blood Bowl is on the cards sometime.

Huanchi skink and a Jade Obelisk cultist

I wanted some nice contrasting colours and as I wasn't feeling restricted to a colour scheme (as I have been with Infinity) it was fun to experiment.  I knew I wanted jade green for the cultists and went from there, and I really didn't want to go green for the slinks so I picked orange as a nice counter to the cultists' purple.

These are Army Painter Speedpaints from the starter set, I've seen people complaining about them "reactivating" (i.e. not drying) but I find that makes blending and mixing colours easier...

I'm liking it so far, and having fun finally, just need to get the rest done!

What's on your hobby table?

Quick and dirty slap chop tryout

I've been putting off painting my minis for a while now, mainly because I worry that the output doesn't justify the time invested.

So today I've decided to treat my as-yet-unpainted Blood Bowl minis as "just board game minis" and give them a super quick and dirty 3 colour slap chop paint job. Skin, cloth, armour. Let's just get stuff done - starting is the important thing, after all. If only I still had the 90s one with the polystyrene board...

I usually use a rattle can zenithal base but I thought - especially as I live in a cold, damp, windy climate - that I'd give slap chop drybrushing a go. Honestly, apart from the colour schemes I chose I'm happy with the results (in context) and each of these minis took less than an hour tops.

Drybrush Threepwood

In retrospect, I think I should have stuck to my guns and gone with my gut blue armour for the Ork (Deff Skulls til I die) and maybe a less clashy undersuit for the Human, like grey?

However, for the time invested - and the Just Getting Stuff Done factor - I'm happy. This is my first time working with SpeedPaints and they seem to be just fine. Poor pallette hygiene suggests they mix well, which is something to explore in future. Time to finish these (and the Infinity Nomads) and get through WarCry so I can buy more minis...

Speed(ish) painting Infinity minis with Contrast paints

...for people - like me - who don't like painting minis!

Let's get this out of the way: I've never been a quick, or good, painter despite doing it for the last maybe 30 years. Getting back into wargaming post-Covid has gotten me back into painting, and I've been watching and reading a few tutorials in dreadful anticipation.

The most inspiring advice was along the lines of "staying in the lines is less important than getting contrast on the mini"; that struck a chord because I'm always disappointed with how flat my colours are.

I really appreciate the impression of volume that shaded and highlighted miniatures have, but never had the patience or the skill (or the time) for all that blending and shading. Having watched loads of interesting YouTube videos on "sketch style" or underpainting and glazing, this is my low-effort take:

Some attempt to show the steps in the process...

Step 1: Prime black with brush-on black primer - because I hate getting in all the crevices with spray primer. You can use black spray primer but the only really important bit of this step is getting black paint on the in-between and underneath bits of the mini. 

I reckon this is around 10 mins a mini, it doesn't need to be perfect because:

Step 2: Zenithal prime with grey and white spray primer, for super-fast underpainting that doesn't need an airbrush. You could use one. I have experimented and for the best results I think I am settling on:

On the painting table: Infinity Nomads

I've been pretty busy with work and life recently, but I have picked up the new Infinity starter and managed to get a couple of games in.

Having new minis means I really should get back into painting, here's progress so far including my first real attempt at edge highlights. Comments welcome.

Billie the bot, an Alguacil, and a WIP Sombra

In other news I'm playing in a weekly 5e game which is a great break from DMing. Got plenty of ideas in my head for upcoming games but haven't had enough time to get them down on the blog.

Happy gaming until next time, stay safe.

Painting Progress - Infinity Demo

I'm painting up some Infinity minis so my FLGS can run demo games.  I'm even making resources too, because I love this game so darn much.  It's a hard slog, so I'm posting progress here to try and motivate myself as I'm a super slow painter.

I've got 12 minis to do as I'm doing 2 Demo Packs to get 6 minis a side and writing up some basic rules - wish me luck!