Things and Stuff

Okay, I've been neglected my blog long enough. Most of my time has gone into Skull Forge Scenics business, so I haven't had much time to work on any models. The Etsy shop has been updated with international shipping options, so those of you abroad can place orders.

I've begun work on more pieces to produce, including some stone walls and skulls:

 

 

 

The walls will go nicely with the graveyard terrain or any medieval fantasy setting. I'm planning on having interchangeable tops and end posts to expand the set with more variety as time allows. I'll be able to use the skulls as assets on my terrain sculpts and also sell them as individual packs.

The Dreadfleet Challenge

Ugh. I haven't touched my Dreadfleet ships in weeks, so that's how the challenge is going. I think Chris has finished all of his Genestealers and only has the marines and the basing left. I've practically put the ships back in the box since I'm focused on making terrain now. Maybe I'll find some time to squeeze in a ship here or there.

Age of Sigmar

I haven't played a game (of anything) at all since the last time Chris was out to visit and we played that game of Age of Sigmar. That was in November, so it's been about five months!
 

GW looks like they're going to be putting together a points system for building armies, so that might be cool. Seems like it's too little too late, though. I think most people have already moved on to a different fantasy system, or developed their own tournament packs. I thought I heard a rumor that the new "competitive" tournament system was developed in coordination with guys who run the South Coast Grand Tournament, so maybe it won't be a total upset for the existing tournament scene. We'll see how it turns out. Whether it's necessary or not, most people want structure for their miniature gaming. I don't know if it will sway my group out of its current Warhammr malaise...

I think new orcs look fine. Different, but not so different that they don't match. The anatomy is slightly altered; they seem to have lost their "pot-bellied-derpy-butt" posture, but the faces look the same. The armor on the models is much more rough-hewn, which is appropriate for orcs. The yellow armor, while not the best color choice for orcs, is beautifully painted. The the shading, edge highlighting, and rusty chipped corners looked good enough to eat! I think I spent about an hour looking at close-ups of the rotations on the GW site.

One final note– Skull Forge Scenics on Facebook

 

I have started a Facebook page dedicated to SFS, where I can post progress shots of upcoming projects and whatnot. I'm thinking of putting together a poll to see what kinds of terrain kits people would be most interested in, sort of a way to influence which of the many projects on my to-do list I should prioritize first. You can follow it here: https://www.facebook.com/skullforgescenics/

'Til next time!

Announcing: Skull Forge Scenics!

*UPDATE: For everyone who has been asking, I've added international shipping options to my Skull Forge Scenics Etsy shop.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/skullforgescenics

 

This has been a long time in the making. You don't appreciate how much work goes into setting up a business, making products to sell, figuring out packaging, etc. until you sit down and do it. But Skull Forge Scenics LLC is finally a go! My goal is to produce high quality resin scenery kits, battlefield accessories, and all manner of scenic elements for tabletop wargaming and model building. All the kits are designed, sculpted, and cast by me, and sold as Skull Forge Scenics.

In the interim, while I work on getting a proper webstore up and running, I have set up an Etsy store to sell my kits. You can check it out at: www.skullforgescenics.etsy.com

To start out, I've stayed close to my wheelhouse of all things dead and buried (or soon to be un-buried). I teased these a few weeks back, but here are my first products in all their glory:

Roadside Shrines

There are two different shrines, sold as a pair. The spikes on the top of the second shrine are a separate part for easier casting. The shrines have areas of engraved "text," (really just dots and dashes to create a faux lettering that could represent any language, real or fictional) and there are blank areas and banners for ambitious painters who want to freehand names and whatnot.

 

 

Here are some detail shots of the naked resin parts themselves. The scenery is sold unpainted and unassembled. One of my goals with my kits is to minimize mold lines, or at least make sure they are in places where they are easy to clean and won't interfere with any detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tombstones

There are 15 different styles and sizes, and there are two of each for a total of 30 in the pack. I incorporated some of the design elements used in the shrines so the two sets will have a unified appearance. I call this my "Land of the Dead" series, and other elements I add in the future will be similarly designed.

 

 

And here are the bare resin parts as you would receive them. Astute viewers might notice that each of the tombstone "twins" has a different pattern of cracks and chips, so technically there are 30 unique casts in the set. Some (but not all) of the tombstones have mold lines on the sides where they are easy to scrape off.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all of my readers for your support and feedback. I know a lot of you have been fans of my terrain work for many years, and now I hope to give you the opportunity to enjoy it on your own gaming tables. These graveyard sets are just the first in a series of terrain kits that will expand to include a wide range of genres and environments brought to you by Skull Forge Scenics. I hope to have your continued support as I move forward in this bold new endeavor!

'Til next time!

Dreadfleet: More Progress

The Dreadfleet progress has been slow, but steady. I have finished all of the shipwreck scenery bits:

 

 

I have also assembled the next batch of ships: On the Dreadfleet side is the Curse of Zandri, and Skabrus. These should be straightforward– no sails to paint, just the ship and a single top bit. They are open enough that I could assemble them and paint them as (mostly) one piece.

 

On the Grand Alliance side, we have the Seadrake and the Swordfysh. These will be the first of the sailed ships. I chose them because of their easy-to-assemble hulls and because the sails look like the simplest to paint– a black background for the Swordfysh sails, and solid blue sails without any elaborate designs for the Seadrake. This will allow me to see how fiddly the design work on the sails will be to paint.

Once I get these ships finished, I'll have three per side, including some sail ships so the wind gauge will have a definite effect. That will allow me to play a more involved test game.
 

I tried a little one-on-one fight with Grimnir's Thunder and the Black Kraken. I used a small portion of the map and it was a quick affair. Two turns worth of volleys was enough to sink a ship. I wasn't using the wind marker and I disregarded any Fate cards that referred to things I didn't have available, like the sea monsters. As the ships closed to firing range, the first few turns were spent building up game effects like fog that incurred command penalties, random attacks on ships, etc, all generated by drawing Fate cards. I have read some reviews of the game that said the random Fate events ruin the game. I can definitely see how that could be the case. It seems that a simple solution would be to draw fewer Fate cards (or no cards at all). We'll see once I put together a larger skirmish.

In other news, I'm nearly finished with the graveyard terrain that I teased a couple weeks ago. I have a big announcement to drop in the coming days.

'Til next time!

Dreadfleet: Black Kraken and Grimnir's Thunder

The first two ships are finished– the Black Kraken and Grimnir's Thunder. I painted the ships on their sprues, trimmed down so they were only attached by the bottom. This allowed me to sufficiently clean the mold lines (the lion' share of which were on the Kraken's tentacles). There is a lot of interior detail that's still visible, but would be difficult to reach once assembled.

 

 

I didn't deviate much from the basic color scheme. In the book the ship has green accents, but I went with Fang Grey. The rest is just silver and gold. Considering how simple the color scheme was, it certainly took a long time to paint. The detail on these models is so tiny and so tight it needs to be given the same level of attention a regular model would receive. All those cannon hatches needed to be picked out in gold, and then the silver of the cannons poking out, then all of the silver accents washed with brown ink.

 

 

 

The Black Kraken was a little easier to paint, since it's mostly tentacles. The color on the hull is Formula P3 Coal Black. GW Coelia Greenshade was washed over the hull and gold bits to give everything a blue-green hue.

 

 

 

 

I also painted the treasure tokens. So, I have enough to "officially" play a small game with two enemy ships going head-to-head. It's been over a year since I read through the rules, so I'll have to sit down and muddle through it to see how the game works. It looked interesting when I read it, but it seems like there are a lot of random events to keep track of throughout the game like damage effects, fate cards that get drawn every turn, shifting wind, etc. I suspect this will be one of those games where you forget to do half of the things you're supposed to do every turn. We'll see how it goes.

 

'Til next time!

Dreadfleet: Islands and Bases

For of you who haven't been keeping track, my friend Chris Walton has challenged me to finish my Dreadfleet models before he finishes his Deathwatch: Overkill boxed set. Chris has started his own hobby blog, where you can follow his progress on the Overkill models (and I'm sure he'll post plenty of pictures of the other projects he's working on). Check it out:

 

http://worldofwaltonscrafts.blogspot.com/

 

I've really been dragging my feet on the Dreadfleet challenge, but I've finally gotten through the bases.

 

 

They went about as quickly as I had hoped, painted in an afternoon. The bases were coated with Formula P3 Exile Blue and then drybrushed up with the P3 colors Cygnar Blue Base, Cygnar Blue Highlight, Meredius Blue, Arcane Blue, and then some Arcane Blue and Morrow White for the highlights. The green areas were given a glaze using a blend of Thrall Flesh and Gnarls Green, and some straight Thrall Flesh for the highllights on the wave crests. It was all washed with GW Coelia Greenshade and the floating bits were picked out. The final step was to paint straight Exile Blue on the edges.

 

Only the base for the Skaven vessel Skabrus remains. It's got the interior guts of the giant fish carcass that the ratmen are using as a boat. There's also a trail of chum in the water behind it that will need to be picked out with greens and reds.

 

The Islands are coming along, as well. All of the rocks are finished and now it's a matter of going through and picking out all of the ship wreckage and water.

 

A few of the islands are finished–

 

Corpseface Cliff:

 

Castle Island:

 

And the appropriately named Skull Island:

 

'Til next time!

Dreadfleet: The Plan of Attack

My Dreadfleet box has been sitting in a closet for the past four years, which is a shame because it looks like a fun little game with some really beautiful models. Chris Walton has challenged me to finish it before he can finish painting his Deathwatch Overkill set. Challenge accepted! He just received his Deathwatch set today, so IT'S ON!

I went through the sprues in the Dreadfleet box, and it seems a little daunting, but after breaking things down, the intimidation factor is greatly reduced. The parts are all arranged and organized pretty nicely. The largest sprue holds all of the island parts and the measuring tools:

 

 

All of the bases and all of the masts and sails are each on their own sprue, meaning they can be primed and painted all together:

 

The small ships are each arranged in their own section of the other sprues. Scattered among these are the treasure icons and smaller auxiliary ships:

 

The Skabrus and Shadewraith ships are a little more spread out on their sprues:

 

The last one holds the Heldenhammer and Bloody Reaver, and the remaining auxiliaries as well as the sea monsters:

 

That's a lot of stuff! To start, I've broken down the sprues and separated each ship from the other parts around it. That leaves me with the eight vessels– Grimnir's Thunder, the Seadrake, the Swordfish, the Flaming Scimitar, the Curse of Zandri, and the Black Kraken...

 

...the Shadewraith and the Skabrus.

 

The Heldenhammer and Bloody Reaver parts remain intermingled on the final sprue:

 

Most of the islands and wrecks are a single piece. The others, once assembled, greatly condense the number of elements to be painted:

 

And that leaves a handful of remaining bits, including the measuring stick and turning gauges:

 

So now the question is: Where to start? Probably with the bases. I think it's safe to say that the sails will be last. When I bought the game, I was considering sanding the sculpted imagery off of the sails and painting my own, but now I don't know. I think I'll just go with the original designs. Thankfully, we're starting to get into ideal priming weather. I've got a lot of painting ahead!

 

 

'Til next time!