Ronin

Today I put the finishing touches to a pair of Ronin... for Ronin, the Osprey skirmish game!  These are two of the figures from North Star's Koryu Buntai, of which seven of the figures are based on the iconic ronin from Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai'.  The characters of my ronin suggested themselves to me as I considered the sculpts before deciding on paint schemes.  The one with the nodachi (great sword), with his pouch of coins & smart appearance suggested to me a fairly wealthy ronin.  A brash, showy character who splashes his money about on drink, gambling, & women.  By contrast, the more circumspect-looking ronin with the ragged-edged cloak & bare feet suggested to me a down-on-his-luck ronin, perhaps with an edge of bitterness about him.  I'm thinking that he may have been expelled from one of my other buntai, the Koryu (Sword School) in dishonour, & resents this treatment.

The wakazashi (short sword) on the ronin in the fancy white kimono is one of the 3D-printed katana that I bought for my figures that have them in the rules, but not on their sculpts (e.g. my Yakuza thugs with arquebuses).  I trimmed & filed it to a suitable length, & sculpted a sash loop for it using Green Stuff putty.

Most buntai in Ronin can make use of Hired Swords such as these wandering ronin, but I will mainly be using them as hired muscle for my Yakuza gang.

Fighting Pit WIP

Here is a photo of my WIP Fighting Pit tile for Lustrian-themed Warhammer Quest.  I opted for
spectator walkways to the sides of the pit, as the original 2D WQ tile used this space for sunken walls painted in perspective; & I always thought the Fighting Pit was lacking sufficient space for spectators.  Concentrating on this Objective Room as one of my first 28mm-scale tiles has helped me iron-out the design principles that will feature on the whole set of dungeon tiles, & gets one of the more complex tiles finished early in the project.

After experimenting with raised dungeon tiles to allow for depressions such as the Fighting Pit & Fire Chasm etc (as well as magnetically-attached doorways!), I settled on the approach shown here, with slots at the appropriate points to allow for doorways or sections of blanking wall to be slipped in.  I did consider 30mm-high ('human-height') walls so I could get lots of overgrown Lizardmen ruins detail in, but after careful consideration & consultation with gaming comrades I have settled on low cutaway walls, which suggest the overall look while allowing better visibility of figures on the tabletop (as well as being less effort & taking-up less storage space).

Any suggestions or observations welcome  :-)

Lustrian Warhammer Quest WIP

Building a Lustrian-themed 3D Warhammer Quest set is one of my far too numerous wargaming projects.  I have several 3D dungeon tiles in progress, & am now finalising the design of the integral walls & doors.  Thinking of using magnets in the walls to join the tiles.  I've enjoyed planning & implementing fantasy miniatures with a jungle 'lost world' twist, including a group of Warriors that isn't the standard male-dominated fellowship including a wizened grey old man.  My Warrior party includes a female Noble disguised as a man, a dark-skinned female sorceror from the Southlands, a native Barbarian escaped from slavery in Naggaroth, a female Wood Elf archer, & a female Dwarf Trollslayer.  As some motivation to get a move on with this project, I decided to make a list of what miniatures I have for this so far...

Giant leeches

This week I finished these 1D3+1 giant leeches for Warhammer Quest in Lustria, the land of the Lizardmen.  These nice miniatures are Rebel Minis Ripper Worms.  In hindsight I wish I'd bought another pack or two, before the Rebel Minis shipping costs to the UK seemed to rise dramatically. 

They don't present much threat to experienced Warriors, & are only worth 35 gold for slaying (compare that to 20g for a Goblin, 40g for a Skink, 55g for an Orc warrior, & 150g for a Saurus warrior).  However, giant leeches do have the Ambush & Bloodsucker abilities.  Stats for Lustrian creatures & Lizardmen can be found here.

They were very straightforward to paint, & I gave them a double-coat of gloss varnish to make them look suitably slimy - although this doesn't show up as well in these photos as it does on the tabletop.

Here's a photo of them with a Saurus warrior for scale  >

Brain leaf tree

I recently finished painting this brain leaf tree & its victims, for games of Necromunda / 'Inquisimunda'.  I modeled the brain leaf tree using florist wire to create an armature on the base, with trailing wires positioned for the branch-tendrils.  As the rules state a 6" reach for brain leaf attacks, I based the dimensions on that.  Next I layered papier-mâché for the surface of the trunk.  Then I used Green Stuff putty to bulk-out the tendrils, texturing them to suggest 'bark' (or perhaps something flesh-like) with a craft knife.  Leaves clipped from a plastic aquarium plant were used for the brain leaves at the tip of each tendril - & for those embedded by the tree into its victims (an unfortunate House Orlock ganger & a scavvy mutant).

The brain leaf is a plant with a surprising instinctual intelligence & ability to transform the victims in which it embeds its leaves into slaves of its influence.  It is believed that the brain leaf plant may be native to the jungle death world of Catachan, & was transported to the hive world of Necromunda at some point in the distant past.  The brain leaf plants of Necromunda are described as having vine-like tendrils, with greyish colouring that allows them to blend with the chaotic industrial ruins of the Underhive.

Deep sea diver

Today I fancied painting something completely different - so I painted this steampunk deep sea diver!  I bought a pack of these awesome 15mm-scale 'Nemo Heavy Infantry' from Rebel Minis a couple years ago, purely because they looked so cool.  I didn't have any plans for gaming with them at the time, I just thought the aesthetic & sculpting was brilliant (especially at such a tiny scale!).  So many neat details on this model, but I especially like the breathing apparatus, the ornate cutlass, & what I am going to say is a repeating barb gun.

Since buying these divers, I have occasionally mused over using them in a home-brew steampunk deep sea skirmish game, with oceanic forests (aquarium plants), rocky underwater canyons, sunken ruins & wrecks, repainted toy sea beasts (e.g. & e.g.), & these Deep Ones (also from Rebel Minis).  Given the 15mm scale, some very large sea monsters could be represented with toys - a liopleurodon, megalodon, or even some unknown tentacled elder god from the deepest ocean trench maybe?... I'm very pleased with how this tiny test figure turned out, so I may even start yet another wargaming project...


In doing a bit of research, I discovered that when it comes to retro deep sea diving, truth is stranger than fiction:
1720s 'Old Gentleman' diving suit

1878 French diving suit

1910 Submarine Armour

1920s diving suits

Traveling monk

Last weekend I painted this Japanese monk for Ronin gaming.  It's a 28mm-scale Perry Miniature.  He could be used as a harmless civilian traveling monk, but I am planning mostly to use the figure as a kind-hearted warrior monk who has thrown his weight behind the local peasants in resisting the dastardly Yakuza gang.  In rules terms I will tweak the Warrior Monk 'hired sword' profile to allow him to be armed only with a bo, & he would have Bojutsu & Acrobatic as Attributes, making him a skilled fighter with his innocuous staff, less hindered by difficult terrain, & even able to traverse terrain that is impassable to other figures!

French AMX-30 B2 tank

I recently painted this 15mm-scale AMX-30 B2 MBT for my friend & gaming comrade, Tim.  This is another wargaming piece that I bought for Tim as a birthday/Christmas gift a few years ago, to support his French Foreign Legion Paratroopers.  As a follow-up gift I've been basing & painting the force for Crossfire gaming.

This tank should provide some heavy armour & hitting power for his elite French paras, as they try to keep the peace between Israel, Palestine, & Syria in early 1980s Lebanon.

Tim requested the classic three-tone late-Cold War to present day NATO camouflage scheme, which will certainly make this vehicle stand-out from my khaki & green / khaki, green, & blue-grey Syrian vehicles; & from my grey-olive Israeli vehicles.  As well as a 105mm main gun, the AMX-30 has a paraxial 20mm autocannon, & a 7.62mm GPMG pintle-mounted on the commander's hatch.  I added the latter using an IDF MG from Peter Pig, as this QRF miniature didn't include one.  This MAG MG isn't technically accurate, but it's close enough, & Tim pointed out that it could've been scrounged from the IDF if the original had been damaged. We'll be treating the autocannon as a .50cal HMG in Crossfire rules terms probably.

Foreign Legion Paratrooper platoon

This weekend I also finished a platoon of 1980s French Foreign Legion Paratroopers as a gift for my friend Tim.  I had been buying him packs of 15mm scale modern French infantry & vehicles for a couple of birthdays & Christmases (originally intended for Force on Force games).  As Tim never got around to painting these, I offered to base them up & paint them for our new favoured system, Crossfire, instead.  These were to be his birthday present earlier this year, but I missed that deadline, so here they are finally, as a belated Christmas gift.  I'm even including the convenient mini storage box too :-)

These represent a platoon of Foreign Legion Paras ('Section Bleu'), of the elite 2e REP (2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment).  I've given them Middle East themed bases to match my own Syrian / IDF / PLO collection, as they will be serving in the multi-faction chaos of early 80s Lebanon.

Section Bleu itself consists of an HQ équipe (squad) of platoon leader stand, & accompanying fireteam; & then 3 équipes of 2 fireteams each, plus an équipe leader.  They will be interesting to play, as every équipe includes a sharpshooter with a scoped rifle, which we had decided to house-rule as allowing that fireteam to ignore normal Target Priority rules.  Typical for an elite platoon, this is on the small side for an infantry block (& emphasised further by only having 3 soldiers in each fireteam), but they will make up for this by being elite & having good leadership.

I've also been painting support units for this platoon - 2 sniper teams, 2 GPMG teams, & a Forward Observer for artillery / air strikes, so far.  As a bonus I also put together 3 bases of seriously wounded / dead Paratroopers.  These are just decorative really, to emphasise particularly FUBAR situations...

Tim has also purchased enough figures for an additional platoon of 2e REP, which I will paint as 'Section Rouge'. Then I need to get to work on their attached APCs, armoured cars, & MBT...

Here are a couple photos of the platoon & support in their cute little storage / travel box:

Festive Greetings Tim, hope you like them!