Wargaming Tradecraft: 2017




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Adventurers in the Land of Olim


My ex-wife and I used to be part of Dungeons and Dragons group and after gaming for a while, I decided to buy miniatures for everyone and paint them up to a basic degree. It was a fun diversion from my Hordebloods project and I managed to find miniatures that were a pretty close approximation of the actual characters themselves.

You've probably seen some of the posts already on the Adventurers from the Land of Olim, but this post will act as an index for the project, touching on the details of each figure with links to each walk through of how I painted most of them.

Axer Blademaster [part 1]


This is going to be the first post detailing how I created my Hordebloods Axer Blademaster. Today, I'll cover the painting stages, later you'll be able to read about basing him and after that I'll post a last post with the final photos.

Got a chance to airbrush more and more smoothly, which I think has finally convinced me I want to get a second finer airbrush. Had a lot of fun making him, always cathartic to paint when life (work) gets busy.

Adventurers - Human Wizard

During my Olim Adventurers project, I naturally had to paint a miniature for myself. Human Wizard. I love the aesthetic of Privateer Press' steampunk elves, such a great mix of fantasy and sci-fi. So, I present to you Elgan!

I painted with washes as a shortcut to complete him in a reasonable amount of time, but still added some of my special touches. Read on, and I'll detail some specifics of how I approached his OSL, (Object Source Lighting) metallics and my gels.

Steamroller 2017 Overview




There have been a bunch of changes from Privateer Press over the last while. It always blows me away how much free stuff they offer - Not just all the rules for their games, but the cards / rules for all their models as well as their tournament kits.

Today, I'm going to highlight some of the details in the now official Steamroller 2017 organized play kit that has been tested over the last months. I strongly recommend taking a read through the official PDF, but you can get some idea of the changes below.

The PDF also has a number of optional rules, which I'm not discussing here.

Adventurers - Ogryn Rogue / Chef


Another model painted for my Adventurers roleplaying project, was a half-ogre chef. You read that right. He just so happens to also be a rogue.. with poisons...

The model itself is one from Reaper Bones.
If you want to read about another, take a look at this Dwarven Cleric.

Otherwise, keep on reading.

Adventurers - Dwarven Cleric



The original model
Digging up some of my previous projects, I want to highlight a series I painted for a Dungeons and Dragons group I used to be part of, gifting them their characters when I left. Today's post covers the miniature I painted for my wife.

Her character is a Dwarven Cleric and I modified a miniature from Scibor Miniatures to create it. Some of the difficulties I had were:
  1. Finding a good female cleric-type warrior model.
  2. Finding a female dwarf.
They're out there... but you've got to hunt.

Strange Magic - Part 1


Have you seen Doctor Strange yet? There's some cool effects in there and if you're wondering how to recreate them on your miniatures, then you're in luck. Between today's tutorial on floating magic and a followup on transparent weapons, I'll show you how.

I'm also going to preface this with a note that after creating the effects I've got a few thoughts on how to pull it off a little cleaner - I'll share those at the end of the article.


You can also view a 360 view here:


New Project: Mordheim Pitfighters


Things have been busy in my life this winter, between personal stuff and a promotion at work. As usual hobby stuff takes a back seat. Not specifically a negative thing, just how priorities need to work. Getting settled back into the swing of things and remembering that the hobby life is what helps me unwind. Some hobbying has been occurring and I'll write about that later as well.

While everyone's losing it over the new Necromunda: Lite, some friends of mine began playing Mordheim. After watching a few games, I thought, yeah, that's something I wouldn't mind trying out. I've done some reading and hunting for models, which makes the following a preview of what's on my bench now.

Have you been following the WIP photos I've been posting on Facebook?


Time for Games Workshop to Drop Misogyny from their Fluff


Games Workshop has been doing a great job on social media to promote the upcoming release of their newest version of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer TV's tutorials have become a staple for many aspiring artists. It's refreshing to see a modernized approach to engaging with their fans.

As Games Workshop embraces the modern era, it's time to update some of the background that has become so ingrained in their storylines and culture. I'm talking specifically about how their writers have defined that women are too weak to be genetically engineered into mighty heroes of the galaxy. This attitude negatively influences younger players within the hobby and infects the minds of established gamers.

With the new edition about to release, it's time to change. They could change based on the content in the video they just released. But I bet they won't. In fact, I doubt the idea even garnered a real conversation. I would love to be proven wrong.

If you haven't seen it yet, the video's below. Keep reading to see my take on things.


Boba Fett on a Floating Skiff



Dug up an old model and decided to finally give it a layer of paint. It's from West End Games, released in 1988.

I wanted to do something a little different from my usual aggressive highlight and/or shadow contrasts, so I played more with layered light coats and blends.

I feel the miniature is complete and aesthetically my wife pointed out he's got a bit of the look of some of the old school artwork. It's not a look I'm going to keep up with further miniatures.. I'm still so attracted to the high contrast stuff I'm creating these days. I am glad I tried another style though.

Building Display Boards



My Midnight Court project was the first I've created a display board for, so I thought I'd walk through how I built it. Most of this is planning, cutting and gluing but I'll touch on a few unique supplies and techniques as well.

If you'd like to see some details on how I created the black water with a mirrored sub-surface, take a look through this tutorial.


Creating Vlagorescu's Black Water



When creating my black and white ghoul army display board, I wanted to have some water pools, but there was the question of "how?"

I decided to use some of my old techniques for water and try a few new things. I'm really happy with how the dark water turned out.

The following will detail just how I achieved this.