Christmas Game Prep Update

I've made a fair bit of progress on the painting for my Christmas Day game. 

First up, our heroes!

LOD/Barszo Colonial Militia and Pioneer Women

Note that, I am painting the bases white for this game, but I will probably paint them brown/beige to look more like dirt and mud afterwards, for more general use.

Players will be able to choose the figure they want to use, and then choose a pre-gen character card. Perilous Tales (the rules I'll be using - I have the free version but I see they have recently had their official release, so I will buy them!) really only has one stat (called Skill), and then hero types get special abilities, which can't be duplicated among the party. In a co-op game this gives everyone some spotlight time and for the RPGers, it gives them something to hang a personality on.

The game, as planned, will actually consist of three games of Perilous Tales, each set on a different layout, with different opposition. Think of each table as a scene/room and it makes a little more sense. I will allow the players to heal somewhat between scenes, and there will be some light role-play between them - remember, my group is really an RP group, not wargamers.

I may reduce this to two layouts but time is running out to decide!

In any case, the first table will feature a pack of ravenously hungry wolves OR depending upon my overall villain story, possessed wolves.

SCS Direct wolves (they used to be easy to find on Amazon, in their Fantasy Creatures II set, but I can't find that for sale anymore)

 On the paint table now are the captives awaiting saving and another militia member.

Women from LOD/Barszo Huron Captives set with another colonial militia figure.

The women figures are resin and have a fair number of divots and other odd artifacts of their creation. The pioneer women were most troublesome and the standing/shooting figure especially so. I covered her skirt multiple times with coats of Mod Podge to to fill in the pores (for lack of a better term). It worked well enough for my low standards, but those who care more about such things would do well to pick up some green stuff if they want to paint these figures.

Next up, finish painting those figures, possibly paint up some of the other pioneer women (to function as a witches coven, if I go that route), and some DIY figure making with wire and clay.

Blessed Sisters of the Grim Dark Future

Saturday night, I needed a break from painting figures the holiday game, so I returned to my Blessed Sisters.  

I have wanted a force of sci-fi nuns-with-guns since I first heard they existed, and I'm thrilled to have finished "stage 1".

I can now field a force for Grim Dark Future : Firefight of 300 points, give or take depending on which upgrades I take. FWIW, you can play GD:FF with more points but I find it takes way too long, since most units consist of a single figure, and units activate individually.

Canoness Veridyan (left) commands a detachment of Blessed Sisters

I still have five of the Battle Sisters to build and paint, but that's "stage 2" and a 2025 project. 

Between now and Christmas, I'll be churning out figures for the Christmas Day game. I'll share some progress on that in the next post. I know that I'm dragging my feet on the painting because making my own figures for the monsters seems a little intimidating but also because I now have multiple ideas for the adversaries - option paralysis as they say.

Christmas Day Game WiP

Last night, I began putting paint to figures for this year's Christmas Day game - a folk horror scenario set in winter, on the American frontier in the early 1770s.

 First up, a colonist:

 

I was torn on painting style, but knew that "toy soldier" would not cut it for this scenario and the horror atmosphere. For the first attempt, I went with a base color-wash-second base color approach. This figure is *not* done yet - I am just testing to see how it looks.

 

So far, I dig it.  

I still have the musket barrel, shoe buckles, powder horn and flesh to attend to. Although, I do like the flesh as it is - just a white base coat and Agrax Earthshade - there is as large area on his face where it pooled and needs to be brought back down to something a little less "fell in a mud puddle".

 

 Up next, the first of the antagonists (SCS Direct wolves, from one of their monster boxes):

I will be painting up 10 wolves and wanted something quick to paint, but that conveyed the menace they represent. 

Inspired by a suggestion Roger (of The Hobby Blog for Model railways, Wargaming and Military modelling) made in a comment on a previous post, I went with a dry-brush only approach, and the result is just what I had in mind.

For my own notes: Black basecoat, Hippo Grey dry brush, Bridgport Grey dry brush, White drybrush. Easch dry brush layer was progressively less heavy as well.

Frankly, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how much detail these figures have - it was impossible for me to see it on the unpainted figure. So, I had expected the dry brush to yield, well, not much.

Eyes (maybe, and if so, in something unnatural) and basing and I will call these done. And then just 7 more to go 

My hope is to knock out the manfactured figures rather quickly over the next week, so I can have the rest of the time to make some home-made monsters and do any necessary terrain acquisition/creation.