Wargaming | Blogs
Hobby Blog Number 1
It’s another hobby blog! Medium isn’t a usual place for this kind of stuff but whatever. I’m going to pop these up every now and then to show what I’ve been working on because the street cats that glide past the window of my apartment are deeply uninterested in the Gaslands conversions I’ve been working on and I crave validation.
Mordheim
Mordheim is one of the best games GW has ever produced! Though the rules are a bit clunky, the game itself holds up and the setting of a city descending into madness and corruption is so cool. GW let John Blanch do whatever he wanted on the art side so you end up with this really cohesive chaotic vision for the city and its unfortunate inhabitants.
One of the nice things about the game being dead (at least in the eyes of GW) is that the community is now responsible for keeping it alive in terms of rules and minis. Lots of producers have stepped up to fill the gap GW left. One of the best at it is HeresyLab, a miniature company that produces resin casts and STLs. I’ve got my hands on a bunch of the STLs for the Citizens of the Old World line and want to make some mercenaries to go along with my Cult of the Possessed and Sisters of Sigmar. I got them printed by a company in Istanbul, where I live, and though some of the finest details are not quite as sharp as they could be, I think they look great. I got three finished to a level that I’m happy with.
I wrote a much bigger thing about the current state of Mordheim in an upcoming edition of Wyrd Science Magazine that you should totally buy when it comes out.
Grok the Halfling Muncher
I love this print: The ball and chain, the details on the face, the fuck-off sword. I’m still a very inexperienced miniature painter so it is far from perfect. There are still a few little bits of clean-up that I need to do, I still struggle with the flesh tones and I’m debating doing some weathering techniques on the leather components. However, for now at least, I’m happy with him. I had a play around the the blood effects paint from Green Stuff World on the blade of the sword and I’m well chuffed with how that turned out. It was easy to use and looks good and gory. The dude’s not based yet because I don’t have any the correct size at the moment.
Alazar Spelt
Going to use this guy as a warlock mercenary. I tried my hand at a colour transition from a dark blue to purple at the bottom of his robes. They are pretty forgiving colours to blend, and, though the hem of his robe is caked in mud so it’s difficult to see, the transition is pretty good. I also highlighted the robe with gold. I don’t often see metallics used to highlight cloth, for good reason I guess. However, when you are working on a magical character, it can give a bit of a mystical effect.
Overall I think this guy looks like Lo-Pan from “Big Trouble in Little China” and though that wasn’t my original plan, I’m cool with it. Basing is one of the many areas of the hobby I’m noobish at, but I’ve been following the suggestions from the very excellent Miscast YouTube channel, by making some cobble stone bases. It fixes my basing problem, fits the Mordheim setting, uses up leftover green stuff and it good sculpting practice; all positive ..
Clementine
As I mentioned, I finished a Cult of the Possessed and Sisters Warband. Next will be the Hochland bandits. They are a strange warband with loads of choices for builds and quite weak compared to other bands available in the game. One of the interesting characters that they can recruit is the huckster, who can convince other warbands that their group is harmless and not attack them. They are physically weak and can only take weapons from the fabulously-named cowards’ equipment list, but can really mess up an enemy’s charge if unlucky. That sounds like a job for Clementine.
I’m reasonably happy with the paint job here. The face is still a bit off, but that super fine detail is such a pain to do well. I might have another bash at it at some point. Maybe not. I used a bit more of the blood effect on her dagger that I think it looks super cool.
Warhammer 40K
I haven’t done anything 40k-related in years. But just like John Wick, I figure I’m back. I was going to do a Genestealer Cult. There are some very cool options for conversions out there. However, none of the kits are at my local hobby shop in Istanbul. What they do have is Adepta Sororitas. Hmmm. They’ve got a new codex out and they have all sorts of weird grizzly stuff in their codex like flagellants and penitent engines. Sold!
Sisters
So I have three done as a test. I’m going for a copper/ green scheme. I’m thinking for the fluff that these girls are going to be a space-bound order of the Sororitas traveling the galaxy, recovering sacred relics from the clutches of heretics. I’m probably going to run them as Bloody Rose, but we’ll see about that.
I got my hands on the Coven Squad from STL from Reptilian Overlords, who I discovered in my search for Mordheim bits and bobs. I’m planning on blending them with the regular sisters models for the fun of it, but my printing company is not going to be able to get them back to me until after the holidays. I’ll pause on the sisters for a bit.
Gaslands
Gaslands is a bunch of cool. I’ve been fiddling around with a lot of stuff to make some epic new cars, but got distracted by ogres and sisters. I did have time to build one bad boy for team Mishkin. Mishkin is all about using Mars-tech (fancy that) to build super destructive cars that lack the speed and endurance of some of the other factions.
This is quite a clumsy kit-bash I’m hoping to hide with paint. That doesn't matter for Gaslands though. One of the things I like about the system is that it encourages you to make quite ramshackle conversions and kit-bashes, and it doesn’t have the crazy expense involved in doing the same with GW models. Also, it is my first successful casting of bits using blue stuff and that’s something. The plasma weapons look pretty good. Pew pew, bruuuum!
Lancer
Lancer is a really interesting RPG. It sits halfway between an RPG and a tabletop battle game. As the central mechanic is all about customising and piloting warrior mechs, combat is a really important part of the game. The game is complex. There is a huge amount of customisation available for the mechs.
Luckily, the creators have made it really easy to run combat with a free application. COMP/CON walks players through the complex process of building and customising their mechs and characters in a similar way to D&D Beyond. It is really impressive when you consider that the lancer team does not have anything like the resources that D&D has, though it is still just a little bit janky in places.
In addition to the character and mech creation tools and the character sheet, it has a really useful tool for DMs to run battles. In a lancer battle, the DM is often controls numerous NPC with suits of interconnecting abilities and weaponry. COMP/CON’s mission runner makes it pretty easy to keep everything under control and to track all the PCs and NPCs. But I haven’t run the game with actual players yet. We’ll see what happens then. I think I’m going to pair COMP/CON with Owlbear. Staying out of the more complex Roll20 will keep the game streamlined and keep players from flicking between apps as much.
I like Lancer. It feels very Cowboy Bebop / Firefly with just a little bit of Netrunner and mechs dolloped on top. The universe of Lancer is one that I can get behind as well. It is a utopia on the edge of being realised setting, but with the understanding that wherever there are humans, stuff is going to get messy.
That’s all. Thank you if you made it this far, stranger.
