the safe hΘle

i came across another hobby challenge hosted by Dave over at Wargames Terran Workshop , this time around it is getting terrain built, painted, and on the table-top during the month of July. and of course here i am waiting until the last minute. waiting for bills and other real life situations to play out i finally was able to order some wild west buildings from Atomic Laser Cut Designs through Amazon. when i placed that order the estimated time arrival was going to be August 1st. but lucky me i got it on the 25th. i purchased a hotel just because i wanted to add some height to the table for my wild west table-top and a mortician shop, mainly for a scenario for Perilous Tales. the hotel was interesting to build. Atomic Laser Cut buildings do not come with instructions so with a little common sense and an open mind, i was able to get this built with some ease. for nice storage the stairs on the side of the building i decided not to glue to the actual building. i painted it in a watered d...

the wild western buildings i have bought from Atomic Laser Cut Designs are really nice and easy to put together but there is one thing that kind of bothered me for some time now. and that is they all pretty much look the same. besides the location of the front entrance and the way the front of the building looks, they all have the same "face." and yeah i figured it's better this way for production and easy for the company to churn out product but it's kind of bland. don't get me wrong i love these and the price is great compared to other 28mm buildings. so ever since i got my Deth Wizards figures completed i was sucked back into the wild west genre again and started watching western movies and began ramping up some loose projects i want to complete, so Rita and i can play some wild west tabletop. and after we played our last few games i looked at my buildings and wanted to remodel them and give them porches like you see in the movies. i thought about how i would r...

continuing painting some more from the Mantic Games Haunted Manor box set, these minions i figure are supposed to be the deep ones from H.P. Lovecraft's stories. but since they lack the fish characteristics i call them the muck people. and not too long ago i found out that these figures are from the Hellboy board game, so i might look on eBay for a few more to add to the group. i had my next Perilous Tales scenario figured out and sorted but in my head it didn't fit with the theme that i had started. so i pulled these out, painted them quickly and got them table-readied for the next installment of my western themed Perilous Tales. i didn't know how i was gonna use these originally for Dungeons and Dragons, but for a modern pulp or even a wild west, these would work nicely. as i am writing this post, i am definitely thinking of getting a few more for other table-top games i enjoy playing. the one muck man who seems like they are wearing pants i didn't feel like that is  ...

yeah i was listening to some classic rock tunes including the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" while i was painting this piece of terrain for my wild west collection. but anyways back in july i purchased a ramshackled house from Renedra Limited and when i started to build it the first thing i thought was damn this thing is small. i got a little worried but then i've seen movies where folks in the wild west lived in small homes and such, so i just put it in the back of my mind. i painted it based on how it is displayed on the box, mainly grays and light drybrush. i actually didn't want much color on it because i wanted to keep the feel of how decrepit and ruined it is. when i went to paint the chimney i used a light shade of red oxide for the bricks. i went back over it with a black wash and then once dried, a very light drybrush of some light gray.  a spirit haunts the grounds of an old run down home. with the fear of the house being too small after it was built i pl...

since my last vacation i got some painting done and mainly the odds and ends of whatever i had laying around. most of this is for an upcoming game of Perilous Tales. several headstones i painted up for mainly for Perilous Tales but can be used for almost anything. not sure where i got these but i think i got them from the last gaming convention. a few giant scorpions from Mantic Games some wolves from Next Level Miniatures. my little demonic black goat. not sure if i am pleased with how he came out. i wanted him to be black but not just the entire figure black, i tried to do shading on it but it just came out like one shade. when i went to photograph it the blue spots on it are from the television shining on to it. some werewolves. one on the left is from Wizkids and the other one is Mantic Games. not to thrilled about these i might just go and buy a plastic sprue of werewolves from Wargames Atlantic. a duodrone, prepainted from Wizkids, gave it a painted base.

 for some time now i've been wanting to get a hold of a Baba Yaga's hut from Reaper Miniatures and finally broke down and got one. i could have made one but with the lack of patience and somewhat time i just went and bought this one. once i got it i was really surprised that it was all one piece minus the two legs that are placed underneath it. it's somewhat light weight but very nice and durable. not a lot of cleaing or even mold lines which is nice. when painting it, i kept it simple. i didn't want to make it too pretty and clean. what the last D&D session kinda looked like. at some point i do want to make rooms like the Tenfold Dungeon sets i have but for this particular house. but made of foam board and lined inside with popsicle sticks to represent the wooden interior like a really old home. that'll be a project for when i have absolutely nothing to do. the chicken legs that the house is able to stand on.

 the other day i needed to create a woodland environment for our next D&D game session but didn't want to spend much on a new gaming mat. Rita and i ended up going to Hobby Lobby just to look around and as we were walking around i had an idea on making table game maps out of painting canvases. i had Rita paint the canvas and the only directions i gave her was to create an abstract woodland piece of art. we bought a 24"x36" stretched canvas just to start out to see how it would all come about. comparing costs the 24x36 cost $22 a 3x3 gaming mat could run for close to $50, so we'll see how these hold up. after awhile if these hold up i want to do one for the MotU project and possibly a 3'x3' area for table top gaming. i have several pieces of trees and bushes to add to this set-up. Jon is making me some pieces using my palm trees desert terrain pieces and recoloring and adding some more forest related decor to them. several dragonborn sorcerers search throug...

 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...

recently Miniature Market was running a blowout sale of sorts and i happen to stumble across Tenfold Dungeons Town set for sale for like almost half the price. so i was curious what else was on sale and wouldn't you know it so was the Temple set. and this could not come at a worst time. recovering from Christmas, just paid rent and utility bills. so i did some number juggling and figured i could treat myself to another set. having two sets now means i can give have more depth in my dungeons by going up!...or down which ever the case. couldn't sleep the other night so i took out both sets and created a temple. ( when i took this pic i used everything except for two hallways and one large room. ) and comparing to just one set, having two sets is kind of a sweet deal. and plus being able to create an even larger temple gives me the excuse to expand on my ancient temple/ruins scatter terrain pieces. showed a picture to Rita and she said sometime in the next week or two we need to r...