Monday, January 31, 2022

'A long time ago in a dungeon far, far away...'

Hi All,

I've been a big Star Wars nerd ever since seeing the first movie as a kid in '77.  So when I discovered that my friend Kawe over at Westfalia Miniatures/One Gold Piece had done a brilliant range of fantasy not-Star Wars minis I knew I had to give them a go.

First up are our doughty heroes. These seven adventurers will be very recognizable as: The Apprentice, The Princess, The Old Master, The Smuggler, The Bugbear, The Butler Construct and the Trashcan Construct. 



Then we have our iconic arch villains, with The Liche Lord and his Honour Guard, and the terrifying Death Knight.




I actually had a print fail on the Death Knight where his sword didn't properly resolve. So I replaced it with some plasticard, doing a sort of anime thing with the shape of the blade. It's a bit of a bodge but I actually don't mind it.


The other fun thing about these being 3d prints is that it allowed me to scale up the Death Knight to be a little more imposing.  David Prowse would be pleased, I think.

Thanks for dropping in for a look. Have a great day!

- Curt

From JeremyM: Drumph GrimDerp Campaign Act 2

We left our heroes Curt and Stacy after they disrupted the inauguration. From there the Tau and Sisters decided to seize the Swampington spaceport to ensure more reliable reinforcements for their forces. Upset about the security at the inauguration Drumph hired the private security firm ‘White Water’ as he ‘…likes troops that don’t die.” At the spaceport the goal was to claim the two landing platforms. 

White Water troops on a landing platform, with a destroyed rhino

As they launched their attack they encountered the evil Plague Dr. Conway and her zombies. They attacked her but she forced them to reroll successes with her ‘alternative facts’ ability. But even this didn’t save her in the end. 

Dr. Conway and dead zombies after Celestine's attack

Plague Dr. Conway

Even more troubling was Donoldium himself who appeared on a rocket toilet and dropped dirty bombs on them until they shot him off the board. 

Donoldium Drumph on his rocket toilet


As they departed the spaceport they noticed an advertisement on a video screen billboard. After viewing the ‘DFC, its digit salivary gland cleansing good!’ ad they saw another video for Marilago Luxury Resort, Golf Course, and Private Prison…’Come for the fine accommodations stay for the immigrant torture…it’s only a par 3 for your soul!’ Sure enough in between views of space golf and fine dining they saw Inquisitor Mueller with a crowd of TAO immigrants behind a fence.
 
So off to Marilago they went. They arrived at the prison luxury resort to find some local loyalist guard had shelled it with artillery. The guardsmen agreed to help them seize the structure. Whitewater troops and vehicles were everywhere and proved some rather tough nuts to crack with all their regeneration saves. 

Loyalist artillery with Stacy's Tao deployed above

White Water forces mid-battle


Drumph himself made an appearance this time in heavier space marine armour which proved rather tough to beat especially with his “HUUGE Hands” close combat attack. 
Plague Marine Drumph

They drove off the whitewater troops and managed to free not only Inquisitor Mueller but the Ethereal Barrack O’Taowa both of whom joined their armies. Mueller confirmed that the Gyna disease was caused by DFC…which may also be made out of people...just cuz there isn't enough over the top ridiculousness. 

Inquisitor Mueller

Ethereal Barrack O'Taowa

The final mission of our campaign was the assault on Covfefe, Swampington’s newly renamed industrial park. They intended to assault the Bigly industries factory which was manufacturing the DFC. They discovered a considerable white water force, as well as many of their drumphite friends Sessionius, Conway, and Miller (who got extra armour piercing thanks to Stacy trading with him earlier!) and the ultimate evil Demon Donoldium Drumph! 

Demon Donoldium Drumph

To help in their cause, extra TAO forces joined them as our fellow gamer Sylvain joined the fray. 

Curt, Sylvain, and Stacy ready for the final act. 

Sylvain, who showed up with a ton of fast assault jet bikes and quick hover tanks….promptly never left his deployment zone…in fairness the death guard were scary and probably smelly…but Curt had to give Sylvain the gears on that move (or lack thereof). 

Sylvain's purple Tao in turn 4 hiding behind deployment zone buildings

Stacy found his forces whittled down pretty hard after some terrible dice rolling on his part (there are numbers higher than 1’s and 2’s on dice Stacy I swear!). 

Stacy's Tao preparing to be charged by zombies!

That left Curt to save the day with one of his Inquisitor models finishing off the Demon Drumph in the end. 

Drumph being attacked by flagellants and an Inquisitor

This was a super fun campaign that really made the fall and early winter go by fast. I was painting like a madman between sessions to get vehicles, terrain and various figures done and had my 3d printers working around the clock. I have to thank Curt and Stacy for entertaining my goofy ideas, and I’m glad they enjoyed blowing up the Drumphites just as much as I enjoyed painting and designing them! 

The various versions of Drumph

And for those of you that look upon this and take great offense…well I’m very aware that the individual that inspired much of this could very well be in power once again in a few years. I’m also very aware of the faults of many other political figures around the world including in my own country (blackface, questionable vacations, groping accusations….Prime Ministerial behavior for sure!). But none of those flawed people can hold a candle to the ridiculousness we witnessed south of the border. I hope cooler heads will continue to prevail when Americans have to decide on who to lead them in the future for all our sakes.

Friday, January 21, 2022

Moonstone Cultists - Gwendoline, Kavanagh, Brother Daniel and Loubard

Hi All!

I've completed a couple Moonstone characters recently, but I wanted to get an actual group of them done-up to enjoy in some upcoming games.

First up is Gwendoline, a Faerie priestess, allied to the Cultist faction. Hey, everyone loves a cultists, right? Well, I have four for you today, so lots of eldritch creepiness to go around.

Funny, I already have a decent sized troupe of faeries in my collection, but not one of them can heal. This is the problem with picking figures for their 'looks cool factor', without considering their actual capabilities on the tabletop. So, Gwendoline,  with her Rejuvenate spell, is a very welcome addition to the cultist faction. This will allow the little winged rascals to take some hits with some hope of getting healed. She also has a few other tricks up her sleeve, such as Scry and Ethereal Allure, which can subtly assist her allies as well.


I had a lot of fun working on her flowered hair and wings. 


She's a lovely, tremendously detailed figure, with a few tiny parts that had to be glued just-so. While working on her, muttering curses under my breath, I couldn't help but think that the relative complexity of some of these models may limit Moonstone as purely a boutique 'advanced hobbyist' game. I couldn't imagine being new to the hobby and having to work with some of these models, both in their assembly and painting. Certainly they are exquisite, but they're often very intricate and quite demanding. 

Next we have Loubard, a giant cultist with a big, freakin' censer for him to swing, wallop and entangle his opponents. 

This guy can be an absolute beast in combat, especially if he's paired up with spellcasters, like the Witches, who can jack-up his abilities and potentially trigger multiple attacks. Fun!

I love his expansive belly and oh-so delicate pinkies.

Then we have relatively diminutive Brother Daniel, a rather demented, but optimistic cultist cleric. 



He's a great support character, who's special abilities provide healing and additional movement for friendly models.


Daniel's figure is wonderfully whacky. I especially like his unabashed skipping, all the while holding his 'The End is Nigh!' placard. Such a wonderful weirdo.

Finally, we have Kavanagh, the rather nefarious Jongler cultist.


Again, another very characterful model. Rather a creepy little bugger, but I like him.


Kavanagh is a great disruption character, especially with his Juggling Fate and Butterfingers abilities.


I had an interesting painting challenge with him, trying to mimic creepy-clown-makeup TM, wanting just a trace of his underlying skin tone to peek through in a few spots. I decided to work from the base layer up, with a fully painted face that I varnished. I then held my breath as I mostly covered it with successive layers of thinned grey paint using light blotting, which removed in spots with spirits. This required a leap of faith from me as I was concerned I'd botch the job, but the effect came off alright, I think.


__________________________________

Thanks for dropping in for a look folks! Have a great day!

- Curt


Monday, January 17, 2022

From JeremyM: Drumph Grimderp Campaign - Act 1

Hi All, Jeremy here,

Earlier this fall I started a campaign using the OnePageRules Grimdark Future ruleset https://onepagerules.com/portfolio/grimdark-future. Curt rolled in with his Battle Sisters, and fellow local gamer Stacy brought out his Tao Coalition troops, and I acted as the force opposing both of them with my Human Defense Force troops and later Havoc Brothers Plague Disciples. Obviously none of these names and figures should be confused with those of a certain other popular game system, and nor should the setting and theme of the campaign have anything to do with any other popularly known individuals….nothing to see here…move along…move along.
Stacy and Curt deploying before a 2 part mission

The setting that brought the forces of the Sisters and Tao together is ‘Merika Prime. The Tao had been making inroads with the locals trading with them to bring them into their coalition. The Sisters were dispatched to investigate the disappearance of a local official, Inquisitor Mueller, who had gone missing. My Human Defense forces turned out to be traitors as they supported a coups under the new Planetary Governor Donoldium Drumph who was installed in "the most legitimate way ever with…no collusion…no collusion.” His rise to power also coincided with a mysterious plague affected the local populace Drumph dubbed the ‘Gyna Disease.’ 

Stacy's Tao ready to shoot up some traitor guardsmen

The Sisters and Tao found themselves unlikely allies, cut off on the planet facing the traitor guard. Their first mission was to destroy some traitor guard artillery and make contact with the local loyalist forces. After their success they basically linked up as a unified force on a hostile planet. 

Curt's Sisters of Battle after destroying a Traitor guard tank

The next mission saw them hot on the trail of the Inquisitor following his path of investigation. The Tao wanting to do so to try and cover up their secret trade arrangement, the Sisters wanting to simply discover the great heresy Inquisitor Mueller had warned of. They moved on into the outskirts of the planetary capital city Swampington and started by investigating the storage centre near the local spaceport. They discovered clues linking Governor Drumph to a recently nationalized group of fast food companies. Drumph now controlled DFC (formerly ‘Merika Fried Chicken…although the word chicken was conspicuously replaced on their menu to be just ‘DFC’) and McDrumph’s a similarly nationalized franchise burger joint. Strangely Drumph was insisting DFC and McDrumph burgers could cure the Gyna disease....likely all that horse dewormer in the secret sauce and spices.

Our hero’s next decided to look into one of the restaurants themselves. They attacked a local McDrumph’s in a residential area. They found further links to the food and the Gyna disease after investigating some of the local hab blocks. The Tao also discovered a gang, the Miller Boys, and managed to trade some Tao brand axel grease with them…which I’m sure won’t have any consequences in the future at all…as they seem like such ‘nice boys.’ Inside the restaurant they discovered that the food for both franchises was supplied by ‘Bigly Industries.’ This mission also had my favourite campaign moment with one of the loyalist tanks remaining parked in the drive thru of a McDrump's for the entire game as I failed to pull a chit to activate it. We ruled they had been apparently waiting on the milkshakes for their order and only got them after some of Curt's sisters burned the building to the ground, perfect timing!

Stephonius Miller and two Miller boys, 3D model scaling isn't great at times.

They next mission they noticed large convoys of vehicles moving towards Swampington. They stopped and discovered a notice that the “Greatest and largest inauguration will take place at Four Seasons Landscaping with catering by DFC.” They decided to ambush one of the convoys to seize some traitor guard vehicles so they could sneak into the inauguration ceremony…which “is clearly the biggest ever with 10 billion people attending from our planetary populace of 1 billion….biggest ever.” They also encountered “Rocket Boy Jefficus Sessionius” who could damage a unit to activate it again.

Drumph inauguration stage complete with big video screens

Curt's flagellants 'seizing' a traitor truck

Stacy's Tao shooting from the inauguration parking lot

Rocket Boy Sessionius

Our hero’s drove Sessionius away and seized several trucks. They used them to sneak infantry behind the inauguration ceremony. As they started to attack the traitor guard they discovered a Gyna disease side effect….zombies! They managed to fight off the guard and zombies and even torched Donoldium Drumph himself with melta blasts leaving the ceremony in a shambles….but it was still the greatest ever.

Chainsaw Sisters vs Zombies!

Drumph leaving the stage to attack!

Melta Sisters readying to fire.

Donoldium Drumph

Stay tuned for Act 2 the conclusion of our epic Grim Derpy Future campaign!

- Jeremy