Hobby - Wargames Bingo - Another square

The only up-side to me painting the Rebel Speeder when I did is that I get to check off another box in the Hobby Bingo. In this case, I got the model and got it painted in 48 hours. That's probably a record for me, and this was a lot more model than I needed to check the box, but there you go.

Painting - Rebel Land Speeder for Star Wars Legions

This entry is a rebel land speeder for Star Wars Legion, from Fantasy Flight Games.

Painting - Giant Tarantulas for Rangers of Shadow Deep

This entry is more giant spiders for Rangers of Shadow Deep. These are from one of the Dungeons and Dragons board games that I bought years ago to ease Rhys into gaming.

Painting - Giant spiders for Rangers of Shadow Deep

This entry is six giant spiders from the Nolzur's line of D&D minis.

Painting - Abyssal Dwarves from Mantic

Here are three more models from Rhys' Abyssal Dwarf force for Kings of War. He got the starter army for his birthday, in December. I was able to get the unit of slave orcs painted before his birthday, but the task master and his "dog" had to stay hidden since he would have known what they were.

Painting - Zombie re-paints

I just finished off two re-paints of two pre-painted Wizkids D&D zombies. Rhys likes to buy the blind buy boxes of the D&D miniatures and sometimes he gives me the ones he doesn't want or thinks I need.

Blogging - Hobby Bingo

I've seen Hobby Bingo on a couple of blogs as a way to drive certain hobby activities during the year. I'm not sure how interested I am in some of the categories on this card, that I found, but that's part of the challenge. If I follow through with this then next year I'll have to put some thought into making my own card.

Painting - Fireforge zombies for Rangers of Shadow Deep

This post is six of the new zombies from Fireforge games. I got them as part of the kickstarter for their not-Stark fantasy army fighting undead.

Six zombies. That village had a rough day.

Painting - Thingol the "Barbarian" for Rangers of Shadow Deep

This post is Rob Stark's dire wolf from A Song of Ice and Fire by Cool Mini or Not. I got two of the starter set for less than half price each, so I have an extra wolf.

Thingol is a giant wolf with the stats of a barbarian.

Painting - Giant Flies for Rangers of Shadow Deep

This post is for another set of monsters for Rangers of Shadow Deep. This is five giant flies, key monsters for one of the scenarios, and guest stars in some others. I believe that I will force our rangers to traverse the stairs on every trip in and out of the deep, so these will always have a place on the table.

Five giant flies.

Gaming - Rangers of Shadow Deep - The first scenario

Last weekend the boys and I played our second game of Rangers of Shadow Deep, though we just played the first scenario a second time. We each had a ranger and two companions. There were a couple of times things got tense, but nine of us seemed to make short work of the zombies, rat swarms and giant bugs that had infested the village.

Starting positions

Painting - Giant Beetles - Reaper Bones for Rangers of Shadow Deep

Here's two giant beetles for Rangers of Shadow Deep. Again, like the rat swarm and giant ticks, these are stand ins for the giant rats, which I have just found.

Painting - Giant Ticks for Rangers of Shadow Deep (Reaper Bones)

This entry is two giant ticks from Reaper Miniatures Bones series. I painted these up for Rangers of Shadow Deep when I couldn't find my giant rat miniatures (GW Skaven), though I've now found both the giant rats and some ROUSs (Rodent's of Unusual Size) that I will get painted and on the table.

Painting - Han Solo for Star Wars Legion

Here's Han Solo, from Fantasy Flight Games, for Star Wars Legion. He's one of the commanders for the Rebel army (duh) and also a very nice model.

Background - Rangers of Shadow Deep

Arbach was called to the Captain's tent in the middle of the night. The Border Legion had been re-positioned to the Laurentian frontier after the fall of that kingdom to the Shadow Deep. The march had taken three weeks, followed by two more spent absorbing new recruits and learning the new area of operations.

Alledore. The town of Vikra is half way between the capital and the Laurentian border.

Gaming - Rangers of Shadow Deep

Last weekend the boys and I played our first game of Rangers of Shadow Deep (RoSD). This is a game from the author of Frostgrave, Joseph A. McCullough. The game came out in 2018, and I bought the rules, models and an expansion at that time, but the work on the basement meant that we couldn't get it on the table until now.

Painting - Rat Swarms for Rangers of Shadow Deep

This is a quick post to show of two bases of rat swarms that I did up for Rangers of Shadow Deep. The models are from one of the D&D board games, either the Drizzit one or Ashardalon, I don't know which. I bought the games for Rhys when he was younger and wanted to start gaming, but he has moved beyond them now and the models have come out for his gaming.

Painting - Star Wars Legion Rebel AT-RT

This is a single model for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars Legion game. This is a rebel AT-RT.

Painting - Star Wars Legion Rebel Troopers

This is a unit for the Star Wars Legion game by Fantasy Flight. I've played a couple of small games, just learning the rules, and like what I've seen so far. I've loved Star Wars from the time the move came out - NOT a New Hope - it was called Star Wars. My father and I watched it, then walked out of the theater and stood in line to watch it again. I was five.

Gaming - Mortal Gods first game

Oywn and I finally played out first game of Mortal Gods last weekend. We have both gotten our faction sets, him Sparta and I Athens. We played with the hoplites I've painted up but with the faction cards. We also each had three slingers that I painted for my EIR Roman army.

The boy with his Spartan Lochos moving forwards.

Painting - Hoplite Command for Mortal Gods

These are the final four models, for now, to allow Owyn and I to play Mortal gods.

Painting - Mortal Gods Hoplites - The red ones

This is the second unit of hoplites I painted up for Mortal Gods. This is the red unit; red tunics and red and white crests, which will be Owyn's Spartans until I can get his Victrix Spartans painted up.

Twelve hoplites, ready to fight for Sparta.

Painting - Mortal Gods Mercenary Hoplites - The white ones

This batch is 12 Warlord Games Hoplites (formerly Immortal miniatures I think), that I painted up for Owyn and I to play Mortal Gods from Footsore Miniatures. Owyn is currently studying ancient Greece and is fascinated by the Spartans and the mythology. We come from a family of historians, my parents are both published historians and history professors. The history bug has lain dormant in my boys up until this year. Rhys has become fascinated by WWII and now Owyn's new-found interest.

The astute among you may notice that there are 14 models below. The two command models were done separately and will be in another post.

Painting - Warrior and Wizard

This is a quick post with two models completed. They are not for any particular project but they were sitting around and looked like they would be quick to bang out. Both are Reaper Bones. I've painted another one of the sword guy before so now there are two.

Gaming - A Song of Ice and Fire

We've recently been playing quite a few games of Cool Mini or Not's A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game. The rules are easy to understand and they make for a very fast game. There's not a ton of tactical depth, to my eyes, but Rhys gets the rules and likes the game, so that's what really matters.

The Traveller reading his cards.

Ragnar - Paladin of Rosmerta

This model is a Reaper Bones model that I bought in the store. He's a solid model with better detail than some of the others I have. The faces, in particular, often suffer in the bones material but this one is fine.

Ragnar, preparing to fight evil, or good, what ever, something.

Painting Progress - Bits and bobs and tokens

This latest batch of painted stuff is bits and pieces for a variety of purposes from a variety of manufacturers. They will mostly be used as treasure items in games like Rangers of Shadow Deep (RoSD) or for scatter and looks in D&D.

The Games that Define Us - Re-post

This is an old post of mine, from 2012, that I just re-read. It made me think, again, about the influences in my games as well as how Rhys has been influenced as he grows up with gaming.

The idea is to talk about ten games that define you as a gamer.  Some interesting things have come out of it.  More North American gamers seem to have gotten in through RPGs, whereas the UK gamers seem to have come into it through GW.

In my case, I definitely follow the trend, coming to GW late in my gaming life.  There are some on my list that I have not seen anywhere else.  Others seem to be on every list.

Painting Progress

This group of models is the last of 2019. They are the Abyssal Dwarf Slave Orcs from Mantic that I painted for my son's birthday. I still need to do the slave master and his ugly dog to finish the unit off, but his was eighteen orcs completed. The keen eyed among you will notice that there are not 18 orcs on the base. I saved off four to make the next unit that much faster.

14 Orcs, ready for the battlefield

Welcome to 2020

It's been awhile. I've spent the last two years finishing the basement. I've done a lot of the work myself and we paid as we went, so it took a long time. The drawback to this is that all of my miniatures have been in storage for the last two years. I've done a lot of gaming but it has all been board or RPGs. Not bad, but not the stuff for this blog.

The basement after framing and wiring are complete.