#30Days30Miniatures - Day 7

Got up early this morning like I always do, but instead of blowing my morning on YouTube and CNN, I decided to get back to painting!

I have a lot of miniatures in process now, but there's another that has eluded me for years: this Mordheim Possessed. Back when I played a lot of Mordheim I called this guy "Mr. Flapjack" for some reason. He's big. He's got tentacles. He's got some 'tude. 

But he never looked decent.

So last year I started from scratch and stripped him of his old crappy paint. I was kinda going for a "Blanka from Street Fighter II" look, but aqua blue for when he shows up in either Frostgrave or Ghost Archipelago. 

I'm pleased with how he turned out!

Still rockin' away at the #30Days30Miniatures challenge, and tomorrow's a big night as I'm hosting a mini painting "knitting circle" on G+ Hangouts. If you want to come chat with us, let me know!

Keep on paintin'!

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 6

Cheat day!

We're recording an episode of Glowburn tonight, and I knew I'd have little to no time to get any real miniature painting done. 

But that doesn't mean that I couldn't participate in the #30Days30Miniatures challenge! I got a lot of painting done last night, but had some minor details remaining, as well as the base, for an old Gnome Wizard/Illusionist miniature that I've had since back in my D&D 3rd Edition days. 

For a mini that's been partially completed for 10+ years I think he turned out pretty well.

Keep on paintin'!

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 5

Wow!

I didn't plan on Day 5 of #30Days30Miniatures to be such a big night for painting, but I got a lot of work done this evening. 

First off, I got a pair of Reaper Bones Grave Wraiths finished. I kept these two pretty simple really. Just a few layers of blue-gray, blue, and light blue to give them both this weird, eerie feel. I was tempted to try and pick out the detail of the one Wraith's scythe, but decided to leave the entire thing with the same color scheme.

Lazy? Maybe!

Then I got to work on a bunch of my other miniatures. I had poured out a lot of ice blue paint, so I kept with that theme, and then did a bunch of the weapons and skin tone on some of my old Mordheim minis, an old D&D Gnome Illusionist, and a Wizkids Human Wizard.

So here's where we stand right now just 1/6th of the way into the challenge:

Here's my pile of stuff that hasn't been prepped yet. I'm not priming my Reaper Bones, but I'm washing them before I paint.

Here's all my figures that are ready to receive a layer of paint. They're either primed or they are washed Bones.

Here's my basic works in progress. Most of them are a good ways off of completion, but I've applied at least one coat of paint, sometimes two or three.

Here are my two minis that are now close to completion. Actually, once the base is done on my old D&D Gnome, it'll be ready to go. That's tomorrow. I've got to record Glowburn tomorrow evening, so best that I keep things quick and easy.

Finally, here are all the completed miniatures that I've done so far in this challenge.

Let's see your completed figures!

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 4

Bit of a bonus day today: two miniatures instead of one!

Not really happy with the level of detail on the Wizkids Elf Wizard, but I'm done messing with it. Honestly, haven't been happy with any of the Wizkids hero minis. The monsters aren't bad, and I had some decent luck with the griffin last year. But the elf is kind of crap.

I guess I just don't have a decent hand for that level of detail. 

But the Reaper Graveyard Golem turned out pretty awesome! Can't wait to see that one on the Frostgrave table. I gave it an extra dry brush of white just to give it that snowy look. 

What did you paint today? 

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 3

Day 3 of #30Days30Miniatures came with a weird request:

"I need tiny seashells." 

That's what I posted on Facebook earlier today. I wasn't happy with the giant, boring base on Evie's Reaper Sharkman, and I wanted to make this special miniature POP! Evie originally won the miniatures as a consolation prize for being a runner up in a Free RPG Day tournament funnel at Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh. I had to make it special.

Fortunately, Jennifer was able to find me a tiny seashell necklace that I cannibalized for basing material. I think it turned out well!

I should note, that if you're looking to play this badboy as a player character class in your home campaign, make sure to check out the D&D Creature Crucible: Night Howlers! Tons of Lycanthropes to try out. I've always wanted to play an all werecreature D&D game... some day. 

Here's some of the other work I did. I only painted for about an hour or so, but managed to get a good bit done. 

#30Days30Miniatures Days 1, 2, and 3!

Show me what you got!

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 2

On Day 2 of my #30Days30Miniatures challenge, I gained a partner:

Cooper.

Cooper (Kid 3) was interested in doing some painting, and my wife wanted to know if I had any loose miniatures lying around that he could try. Turns out that I have a pile of homeless HeroQuest minis that I've used over the years for various RPG's. So I took them to our balcony, tossed them on a moving box, and gave them a quick priming. 

So far he's just base coated a Chaos Warrior (black) and a Skeleton (white), but the whole process kept him occupied for the better part of an hour. 

I can't wait to watch his reaction tomorrow when he dry brushes the chrome onto the knight! 

For my contribution I completed a Reaper Mouseling Thief (pewter) that I picked up late last year from Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh. 

Here's a shot from the back.

Here's the progress so far on what I worked on tonight. A lot of base coating, including second layers on some ghosts, the tombstone golem, and some weird bat thing. Those are all Reaper. Got a bunny and a mouseling started, and still working on a WizKids Elf Wizard. I'm really not happy with the quality on that one. Also got a Mordheim Possessed that I'm working on.

Chances are that my Reaper Wereshark will be finished next. He was going to be done tonight, and I think the painting is done, but I kinda want to add some shells or sand or something to his base so that I can use him in the Ghost Archipelago.

So Day 2... what've you painted today? 

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 1

First I talked about the thing, now I have to do the thing!

Okay, so here's my first finished miniature for my 30 Day 30 Miniatures challenge.

Last year for Judge Evie's birthday I purchased her a complete set of bunny rabbit minis from Dark Sword Miniatures. This one is the Rabbit Dual Wield Ranger, or as Evie calls it: the Link Bunny! 

I'm really happy with how the cape turned out.

Not one to sit there and work on a single miniature, I got a lot of work done on a bunch of other figures. Base coated four minis from the Reaper Bones III Graveyard Expansion, and did some work on a few of the Mouselings and an Elf Wizard. Almost done with the wereshark that I've got as well, so that may be tomorrow's offering. We shall see.

You're turn! Show me what you got!

#30Days30Miniatures

About a year ago Frostgrave got me back into miniatures painting. It's been a great ride so far, and I've really enjoyed returning to an aspect of the gaming hobby that I've been missing for years. Unfortunately I've painted very little over the last several months, as we've been so involved with our family's move.

Well that ends tonight!

Starting today, I'm going to be attempting a #30Days30Miniatures challenge! That means that every night for the next month I'm going to finish one miniature. Since I'm the one making up this challenge, I figured it was only fair to make up some rules:

1. At the end of each day, you need to complete the painting of one miniature.
2. Basing is optional. 
3. It can be any miniature you want, from any game, from any system, from any manufacturer. 
4. Partially finished miniatures in your pile are fair game. I figure that this is about finishing miniatures, and working through those pesky figures in your vault. Why not include them?
5. Have fun!

I can't think of any other rules at this time, but my goal is to have at least 30 of these figures completed by the end of the challenge. Hopefully more. The picture above shows the figures that I plan on working on for the next 30 days. I think its a pretty fair split between Reaper, Dark Sword, and some old Games Workshop Mordheim minis. 

If I'm lucky I'll even squeeze in a few games of something (Frostgrave, Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, Mordheim, or heck, even HeroQuest) between now and the end of the challenge.

Join me! 

If you have additional rules you think I should add, let me know. 

If you want to take part in the challenge with me, hit me up. Maybe we can have some kind of master list? 

Let's do this!

Free RPG Day 2018 - Silver Screaming with Steve James & Friends

I wasn't planning on doing a recap for this game originally, but it was just too good not to share some bits and pieces of the event. I was so nervous that my first game following our move would be a complete bust, but it turned out to be such a fun session. One of those kinds of games where the players are riffing off of the GM's ideas, and everyone is totally involved with the storytelling, and there are smiles all around.

So good!

Last month I let you all know that I was moving to the Philadelphia area, Glen Mills to be more specific. Well we're here, and we're still unpacking, and at this point I don't think we'll ever be done unpacking. 

But just because our apartment is completely filled to the brim, doesn't mean that we didn't want to miss Free RPG Day! I reached out to The Games Keep in West Chester, PA, and found out that they would be participating in the festivities. I offered to run some Dungeon Crawl Classics, and reserved a table. 

For my Road Crew offering, I ran Forrest Aguirre's Beyond the Silver Scream, albeit highly modified. While it wasn't my intention to break the original plot of the adventure, my players were just coming up with too many cool ideas about their characters' backstories. 

Cast of Characters

• Ryan: Turd Ferguson, I. P. Freely
• Robert: Gomer, Tonya (Skater), Frank
• Rob: Lars, Charlie
• Will: Todsworth Stevens, Steve Jones III
• Carrie: Mateo, Gray
• Evie: Duke Willington, Mating Marty, Steph
• Cody: Leopold McMaster, Todd Chadstein, Butch 

Character Tidbits 

I used these to heavily flavor the adventure, and alter the plot.

• Steve Jones III was searching for his missing father, and somehow had the ability to detect his dad's genetic material by tasting blood.
• Lars carried around a shield made out of a Yield Sign (Yield Shield?). Stealing this shield was the first of his three trials needed to join the "CCPR", or "Card Carrying Punk Rocker's" Organization/Guild. Each trial required Lars to break a law with witnesses.
• I. P. Freely, a movie geek, was so into the movie Die Hard that he didn't wear shoes.
• For all intents and purposes, "Tonya" was Tonya Harding. She carried a sharpened ice skate as a weapon initially, but preferred bludgeoning devices so that she could "go for the knee."

Adventure Overview

• The session opened up in the year "198X" (read that as "nineteen eighty ex"). I didn't want to be too specific as to "when" in the eighties the game took place, only that it did.
• The PC's had all gathered in a small Oklahoma movie theater to watch a screening of Aliens. 
• During the screening of the movie, several PC's noticed a young lady get abducted from the front row by a really long, robed arm coming out from the side of the screen.
• The party followed the robed figure to the alley behind the theater where they found a mystical parked van blasting Blue Oyster Cult, adorned with a bitching warrior & wizard mural and bone handles.
• The van itself was a dangerous adversary! The warrior on the side attacked with an axe, and grabbing the bone handles caused corruption. Even the wizard could shoot cold ice at targets. The shag carpeting inside the van could turn into grappling vines.
• The party overwhelmed the van's defenses. The axe-wielding, two dimensional warrior fell off the vehicle, dropping his axe. Lars picked up the enchanted axe, a weapon that he could either carry in his hand, or wear as a tattoo. 
• Mateo grappled the warrior, picking him up, rolling his two dimensional form into a ball, and carrying him in his pocket.
• Leopold jumped into the van, turning it off before it could cause anymore harm.
• While it appeared that the robed man had fled to the vehicle, the van was empty sae for an open portal in the floor leading to an inter-dimensional well.
• Traveling down the well, the party dealt with a cultist before discovering a spinning demon head mechanism. Without realizing it, by messing with the rotating demon heads, the party changed the target of the inter-dimensional well. No longer did it face Earth, but instead a myriad of fantastic worlds.
• The rooms near the demon heads led to several arcane chambers:
• A shrine of magical car keys that could summon mural-adorned vans. Nine remained, and one was obviously missing.
• A giant face that led to a trash chute. Later, when fantasy world natives Butch and Steph appeared, it was revealed that this chute was an escape route for those trying to flee the Master Wizard.
• An armory of two dimensional weapons guarded by a pair of armored worm guards. Actually, the guards were worm-like creatures inside human armor. I added this tidbit just for kicks.
• A portal to the Master Wizard's shrine.
• Once in the Master Wizard's shrine, the party realized that the robed figure was about to sacrifice Stacy, the woman he had stolen from the screening of Aliens. 
• During the last scene, the Master Wizard revealed himself to be Steve James II, the father of Steve James III. The Master Wizard convinced his son to join him. 
• There was a brief standoff where Tonya held Steve James III hostage to try and force Master Wizard Steve James II to surrender Stacy. Steve James II unleashed some magic cold to blast Tonya, and Steve James III continued to run to his dad.
• Butch, the former barber/executioner of the Master Wizard's lieutenants, got his revenge on his former lord by chucking a bottle at Steve James III, killing him instantly. Yay PVP!
• The party won a crazy pitched battle against the Master Wizard and his cultist minions. Once the wizard was defeated, the structure started to collapse, and the party fled outside, only to find themselves in an open field on a weird fantasy world. 

Open Story Points

• Just who are the Card Carrying Punk Rockers (aka, the CCPR), and has Lars completed the required Three Acts of Vandalism necessary to join the holy order?
• We know that both Steve James II and Steve James III have been destroyed, but what happened to Steve James the First? 
• What will become of Stacy, the woman the party rescued from the clutches of Master Steve James II?
• Player Will kept saying that certain aspects of the game were "so metal." But can we get MORE metal next game? 

Character Crematorium 

• Gomer
• Mr. HiBald
• Todd Chadstein
• Duke Willington
• Leopold McMaster
• Mating Marty
• Butch
• Steve James III
• Gray
• Steph
• I. P. Freely 

What's Next?

I want to make this a monthly thing! I'm thinking of continuing next month with Sky ov Crimson Flame as both an adventure and ongoing mini-campaign. Those who survived this first session can level their PC's, while new players would get a 1st level character.