the safe hΘle

continuing working on my orc warband. once again i continued using the slapchop painting method just to get several more painted in a short amount time. since i am using two sets of the Wizkids orc box sets i will have multiple orcs with same armor sculpts and weapons. when i painted these guys i mainly used a red and green for any cloth on their armor. i did convert some weapons so they wouldn't look the same to another figure armed the same way. with several of them i used a lighter to some what melt and soften the plastic to either bend wrists/hands holding weapons or even clipped some weapons so they wouldn't look the same to another. the orc warband lead by the self proclaimed king of the orcs, Grishnug. which was the name of my orc hunter from back in my days of World of Warcraft. ( edit: several days after i made this post i got the rest of the Wizkids orcs finished. in all of their glory, the entire w arband. ) the orc king leads a few into battle against a huge spider ...

 last week i celebrated forty-four years on this rock and i was surrounded by good friends playing Dungeons and Dragons. Jon and Lindsey from the group walked in with two nice size boxes and i was worried on what it could be but then i was like a kid in a candy store. after unwrapping both boxes i was damn near floored by what i saw. Lindsey got me the Tenfold Dungeon Dungeons & Sewers set. once i set my eyes on this i knew exactly what i wanted to do. adding this to the Castle set would be a great adventure to unfold on the table. some pictures of the set pieces with miniatures. a heroic party makes their way down into the dungeon and being ambush by some haunted spirits. a ghoulish showdown! rancid waters brings filth and swarms of flies. an old man and his pet? maybe his younger brother who has a terrible problem in the form of lycanthropy. a risen horde of bones and armor versus the champions of the city! Jon surprised me the most with a freaking huge dragon. now to be hone...

 when i started collecting pulp figures and such few years ago, one of the stories i wanted to tell through tabletop wargaming were the tales of H.P. Lovecraft and the cosmic horrors he created. so after much sitting on the idea of actually getting a figure i came across a shop on Etsy.com that had several Lovecraftian creatures. so i placed an order with TranscendentalPrints. and within eight days i had in my hands on of the best 3-d printed figures i have ever seen. click here to check out TranscendentalPrints page on Etsy.com. when i was in the process of ordering this figure i did sort of messed up on the size and i went with a 75mm tall. after i got the figure and took a good look at it i should have gone with a 100mm. it would have made him look more dominate on the tabletop.   according to the shop Etsy page the figure is made out of resin, but from past experiences with resin i had to wash the model with hot water and soap, but with this i literally took it from the s...

 few months ago i came across a wild west game called Ruthless from Mark Fastoso. if interested here is the link: www.fireballforward.com/ruthless there is a free download pdf for the two page rules to play this game. i have to admit this game is kinda fun, definitely not what i am used to with skirmish games. there is some actual book keeping that goes along with this game, like keeping track of ammo and wounds. layout of the table. with this beginner's game i made it simple. an abandoned wagon in the middle of a small town to fight over. at the end of turn one every one advance forward but a lot of shots miss their targets. the cast of characters i used for this small gunfight. but an example of the book keeping that is needed for the game, which in turn does make the game more interesting in some ways. end of turn two had a lawman take some cover to get himself together, a gunslinger take a serious wound and another lawman also taking cover to get himself together. the one thing...

 began a new adventure of Dungeons and Dragons this past weekend and as a plot device i cranked out some orcs in the days before the game took place. i purchased a box of the Wizkids multi-part orcs set and had them built but not painted for some time now and i figured what a way to get them done is to have them featured in the game session. i also had an ogre model laying around so i added that to the orc warband also. so that model got the same treatment. menacing ogre attacks few members of a heroic party. so far the warband i have painted. still have two more to get done, but i do plan on getting one more box of these so i can officially have a nice orc warband. i think i was sort of intimidated of painting these because of the details, so i used the slapchop method. and i have to say i am really pleased how these came out. when putting the light gray and a light coating of white over the black base coat, when i went to paint the orcs i left any exposed skin untouched. because ...

what would a good game than to feature two races that have nothing but hatred for each other since the dawn of time in any fantasy setting. the tide of the greenskins versus the hardy and stubborn longbeards. nothing is more entertaining than a good ole face-off between the orcs and dwarves, which for me anything with dwarves is golden. layout of the table. objective of the game is the dwarves must make it to the docked skyboat, and the orcs must prevent this within six turns. both warbands start at opposite ends of the table. both equipped with light armor with or not shields and a mixture of weapons. the orcish warband has one armed with a bow. the leader of the orcs is a level 3 shaman lord and the second-in-command of the dwarves is a level 2 rune priest, who both are able to cast spells.  group splits with two orcs goes towards the skyboat. at the end of turn one, the shaman lord cast a lightning bolt which hit the dwarven leader, while everyone else plot their next moves. the...