New Terrain

I was recently lamenting the fact that a lot of the cool pieces of aquarium decorations that are useful as 28mm terrain are only available in Europe/ the UK. This has been a problem for me over and over again as I see pictures of cool stuff on other people's blogs, only to realize that I can't get it myself!

However, sometimes it works the other way around and we actually get some great stuff over here. This week I received a package of some new terrain I ordered for my Mordheim campaign and boy is it a doozy.

I had ordered some new gaming mats, one coastline and one ocean. There's also a green grass mat that goes with the set - they are each 4x4, and connect to make a 4x12 tabletop. I'll show more pics of the mat itself when I get some mats from Frontline to do a full comparative review (these are DeepCut).

Anyway, since I now had the water board which I had always been lacking, I needed to get some ships. I actually have a large collection of model ships that I can get away with in 28mm, anything from 1/72 to 1/50... but they are kits and will take a long time to build. No way they'll be done in time for the November campaign.

I thought aquarium shipwreck decorations would be cool, if only I could find one big enough that didn't look so insanely out of scale...

I found this one on Amazon. It was the last one in stock, and no one else in North America seems to have it available any more! This happens to be the only reason I kept it, since it arrived broken and in multiple pieces. I glued back together what I could and stuck it on the table; not bad. There's a 28mm Viking on there for comparison.



    

The paint job is crap but it's a quick piece of terrain that doesn't require any work - perfect!

But here... HERE is the pièce de résistance. I found this bad boy on a random web site and took a shot on it because it seemed like a great deal. It was $59 for the whole set of three pieces. You could also buy the pieces individually, but I got the set.

Wow! What a piece of terrain. That is the same 28mm Viking on there for comparison. It's on a 4x4 table in the picture, so as you can see, this thing could take up the entire length of a 3x3 table even without spreading out the pieces! That is cool. I am going to use this for one of the scenarios in our campaign, can't wait! Crap paint job again, and I might want to touch it up, but I can throw it on the table "as is," which is always a good thing.























I think it was a great impulse buy, since just this week I saw it listed on the "new arrivals" section of the PetSmart web site and they have the pieces listed at 36 bucks each, with no option to buy them as a set... SCORE!

Gaming interlude

Lately all of my free hobby time has pretty much been spent on preparing for the Mordheim campaign I'm running in November. But last night I managed to get in an intro game of Kings of War with some of my local gaming buddies... good times! I got this game last Christmas and have watched a couple of games, but this was my first time trying it out.

I had some beginner's luck and the dice were with me - I played Salamanders (my WHFB Lizardmen) against a Kingdoms of Men (my buddy's WHFB Empire) army. Totally wiped the floor with him! It was almost comical actually - by the end, I wiped out every one of his units, without losing a single unit of my own.

I wish I could somehow figure out how to recreate this wargaming luck in future games!

We played at my buddy's place but I brought two of my mats over to play on; one from UrbanMatz, and one from DeepCut Studios. I'm planning on ordering a couple from Frontline Gaming soon too (whenever they get the Frostgrave mats back in stock!), and I'll do a comparative review once I have mats from all three companies.

Here are some pics from last night's games. And the best part is, the fun I had last night totally inspired me to paint all day today, so I made a lot of progress on a Nurgle warband I am painting for the Mordheim campaign. Woo Hoo!

August terrain

I bought and scratchbuilt a bunch of terrain items this month.

First, I finished working on a 3x3 game mat that I started months ago. I noticed that one side of this anti-slip pad had a "cobblestoney" texture to it, which first gave me the idea.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002935IV2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I painted one side in gray tones to use for Mordheim city battles or non-snowy Frostgrave games.



It's not great but it at least looks "somewhat" like cobblestones, and hopefully will look much better with a bunch of city terrain on it. Here's a closer view with a model on it.



I originally planned on doing the other side (which is smoother) as a snowy mat for Frostgrave, but since my Mordheim campaign is coming up and I might had as many as 4 games going on at once at my house, I did it with a traditional flocked finish to use it for Lustria games.



Two mats in one! I wish the high-end neoprene mats from companies like Frontline and Deep Cut Studios came with designs printed on both sides!



I love those mats but this was a much cheaper option, and useful to have as an extra.

I also worked on some adobe style buildings for the campaign. I was going to work on more temple buildings, but after reading the old Lizardmen army books it dawned on me that my Temple City was missing a Skink Ghetto! I had worked on temple buildings last year but never did any houses. So here they are:



The roofs are removable:















Lastly, made a couple of small stepped pyramids with only two levels. They were quick and easy.




I also bought a bunch of stuff this month. I ordered some more game mats, and tried out a different company this time: Deep Cut Studios. They have a series of mats that are supposed to link up to create a long coastal scene, so we'll see how they look.

Also went crazy with Aquarium terrain!

I was always envious of the trees I'd seen on other blogs such as this one, by fellow blogger Gordon Richards:

http://ihavewroughtmysimpleplan.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-white-mens-expedition-for-congo.html

Check out the trees... pretty cool!

So I set about trying to hunt some down. One of the things I've found out about aquarium terrain is that it's pretty region-specific; in other words, some designs are only available and in Europe and you will NOT find them in the US, and vice versa! Even if you were willing to find them at a European retailer and pay for international shipping, it seems like shipping restrictions keep them from being sold to the USA.

I learned this the hard way when trying to buy some cool ruins for Frostgrave earlier this year, but I had a workaround - a work trip took me to England so I bought a bunch of stuff on Amazon.co.uk and had it shipped to my hotel! Victory!

But unfortunately I have no European trips planned any time soon, so could not get the trees pictured. I found some cool substitutes though.

Here are a few of the designs I snagged from Petsmart, Amazon, and eBay:











The smallest of the bunch:




















And the biggest!





I bought a few of some of them, so there are enough total to fill a 3x3 board:



What I love about these is that they are sturdy enough that you can put models on top of them, if they "climb" the trees!



I already have a ton of jungle terrain that I built for the last Lustria campaign, from plastic hobby store plants like this:



I've actually got enough to cover an 8x4 table! The only problem with it is that there is no height element to the board layout since models can't climb on them.

I think it will be pretty cool with the new trees I added this year, to see the one level of the map at ground level, and another level at the canopy above!

August Painting

August was all about prepping for the Mordheim campaign... for the first time in months, I managed to get my "10 models a month" goal done this month.

All 10 models were troops for my new Norse warband. They are by Wargames Foundry, and I've been sitting on them for many years... yay for digging something up out of the Lead Pile and getting it painted!

First, the Jarl:





These two shirtless fellas are my Berserkers:

My son has taken to calling the one on the right "Buffed Up Bill," so that will surely be his name in the campaign!

The Wolfen:





The Bondsmen:





And for the henchmen, the Hunters:





And a couple of Marauders:





The whole crew so far:




I've still got a few Marauders to paint, and technically I should paint some Wolves too for the warband I want to run. I may end up cheating and just using some of my Vampire Counts Dire Wolves as stand-ins though, since they're already painted and based for Mordheim/Warhammer.

I need to save time so I can get everything done! Still haven't even started the Carnival of Chaos warband that I told my buddy I'd paint for him...

I had high hopes of painting up a Norse Longship before November but I can already tell it ain't gonna happen.

Campaign Season!

Well August is almost done and I'm just putting some finishing touches on the Norse models I worked on this month. Lately all I can think about is the upcoming Mordheim Campaign in November!

I've been hosting an annual Mordheim Campaign for many years now and it's always a lot of fun. I inevitably end up buying a bunch of stuff for it, even though my Lead Pile is more than sufficient without adding to it!

This year I bought a Sisters of Sigmar warband of alternative models by Reaper Miniatures, because my son wanted to play them. But then after talking to all the players, we decided to do a campaign set in the Lustria setting again, which we've done a few times. With that being said he's going to try Dark Elves instead!

I'm trying to paint up two new warbands for this year's campaign by November: Norse for myself and Carnival of Chaos (using alternative miniatures) for one of my buddies.

I'm also going to try something new this year and post the rules etc. on the blog here so I don't have to overload everyone's e-mail inbox!

Went on a shopping trip the other day for some "campaign supplies." Here is the trophy for this year's winner:



This is the campaign map we'll be using. We've tried a map-based campaign before and it didn't work out too well, but I've got high hopes for this year.



I have a large poster sized version of the map that came with an issue of White Dwarf years ago, so I got it laminated and bought a big magnetic white board to lay it on. I have some magnets to use as markers as we move our warbands around the map. Good to go! Just have to print some labels for the game pieces.