Characters for 'Familiar Tales'

Last year I picked up the early release of 'Familiar Tales' as the group had very much enjoyed 'Mice & Mystics' by the same designer (Jerry Hawthorne from PlaidHatGames). 

Familiar Tales is a cooperative adventure game where the players run four wizard's familiars, trying to keep safe a baby girl as they flee evil forces that would otherwise do her harm. The game uses an app to run all the heavy lifting, leaving the players to enjoy a fairly rules-light session of gaming. The campaign is HUGE, with the baby girl growing into a precocious child and then a strong-willed teenager, so there is lots of gaming to be had before the conclusion of the story.

The four characters are:

'Chalk & Tweet' the stone golem with a heart of gold and his bluebird minder.

'Gribbert' the brave frog archer.

'Blaze' the fierce and resourceful fox.

and 'Flicker' the ever-optimistic fairy.

The figures are cast in a fairly hard plastic and the details are pretty good - great for using contrast paints and glazes. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't spend a lot of time on them and it sort of shows. There are many better examples out there on Twitter and other's blogs, but these intrepid adventurers have served us well.

There it is: Familiar Tales, a great, light-hearted cooperative game that is perfect for a evening's diversion with a mixed group of players. We've been playing it with our good friends Gary and Mike, who we get to see about two times a year. FT is a great way to while away an evening, rolls some dice, and have a few laughs. Recommended!

- Curt

Snail Knight Heavy Cavalry for Turnip28

Hi All!

Today I have a unit of Heavy Cavalry for Turnip28. In the game these guys are called 'The Bastards' and, with a little luck, they can live up to their name to be quite rude on the tabletop. One of the optional, amped-up variants allows you to bring in 'Snail Knights' (I know, wtf) as a proxy, so I thought I'd kill two slugs with one salt shaker and have this unit fill both roles.

These models are from 'DogDogDog' on Cults3D. Certainly can't fault the designer's handle, and I think the sculpting is pretty terrific too.

I added a couple pavise shields for looks-cool-factor, and replaced the standard bearer's lance with brass rod to make it a little more survivable on the tabletop. Otherwise, they're pretty much stock.

The whacky heraldry was fun to paint up, though I certainly wouldn't want to be doing this for a unit of 24 models...

Next up: Character models from 'Familiar Tales'.

Have a good one!

- Curt

Second unit of Brutes for Turnip28

Yeah, I know. It's been a looong time, I get it. 

You haveta understand that this is what happens when nice weather arrives to a person living in an otherwise sub-arctic climate. Blogging? Who can be bothered when there's all this wonderful sun, heat and growing stuff going on. Let's just not talk about wildfires, okay?

Anyhoo, I haven't been completely sun-addled these past few months, in fact I've been uncharacteristically productive hobbywise, but I just couldn't be arsed to take photos and blog about it. Bad Curt! Baaad! 

Nonetheless, here I am to make amends and catch up the best I can.

So first up is this second unit of Brutes for my Turnip28 collection. 

I really like these 3d models from Knucklebones Miniatures (in fact he rarely does anything that I don't find interesting). They're just so characterful, a little bit kooky, and always a touch macabre. Perfect for the Turnip28 setting.

Next up is a unit of heavy cavalry for this T28 lunacy. Stay tuned!

- Curt

10mm Empire Hellblaster Volley Guns and Swordsmen

I took a short break from the blog after the hurly burly of this winter's Painting Challenge. Nevertheless I've not been a complete laggard, beavering away on a few projects in the interim. 

Here are another two units for my 10mm fantasy collection. This time we have a battery of 'Hellblaster' volley guns and a company of doughty Empire Swordsmen. 

The volley guns are 3d prints from the talented Onmioji. I've arrayed them with some added bits from other designers to give the base a little colour.

The Empire swordsmen are metal castings dug up from the lead archives. I clipped them apart and positioned them on the base to give a more pell-mell feel to the unit. I also popped in a tree cluster to serve as a handle for movement.

I think next up for this force will probably be a regiment of handgunners and maybe another unit of knights, but in the meantime, I feel the need to post the last units I've done for my Turnip28 project. 

Stay tuned and have a good one!

- Curt

Méliès' 'A Trip to the Moon'

Sarah and I were fortunate enough to visit Lyon, France this past autumn, and as a part of our wanderings, we visited the Lumiere Museum, which showcases the art, craft and process of early film making and photography. 

One of the films referenced in the museum was George Méliès' 1902 adventure, 'A Trip to the Moon' - the first sci-fi film ever created. 

I loved 'A Trip to the Moon' as a kid as it seemed so whimsical and weird. As it was inspired by Jules Verne's 'From the Earth to the Moon', Méliès' work was the start of my love of pulp science fiction which moved on to 'War of the Worlds' and 'John Carter of Mars' and of course, 'Star Wars'. 

Anyway, on Cults3D I found this wonderful 3d design by Printorama3d of the iconic image of the Moon's face with the space bullet in its eye. I thought it would be a great excuse for me to drag out my monochrome paints to try to give it a greyscale treatment.

As with my old 'Great War in Greyscale' project, I tried to incorporate both warm and cool grey tones to differentiate the face, the surrounding moon, and the crashed spacecraft. Thankfully, I keep an old Moleskin notebook that has all my paint recipes in it, so I could reacquaint myself with how I did these things in the past. I'd be totally lost without it. 

Even though it's a small and simple piece, I found it comforting to return to this style of painting after all these years. 

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt