Thinking Outside the Box

These have been on the to-do list for a long time. I think it was over a year ago that I painted my werewolf starter box. I think these were primed black at the same time and have been taunting me with their need for paint ever since. Ironically enough, they've been finished for several weeks now, and I'm only just getting around to posting them...it took me a while to get some decent photos taken. I started with the bat swarms, adding the one from the Reaper Bones first Kickstarter campaign to the group as well. As you can see, the depth of detail on the Reaper swarm is way better. If I remember correctly, the starting list for vampires can only afford to take one swarm, so I'll likely use the Bones one if it comes to that. The various thralls and goons turned out pretty well. I tried to give them similar but not identical outfits. These are some pretty dynamic one-piece models, especially when compared to the bat swarms. Generally speaking Westwind does a nice job ...

When I made my huge order from  West Wind Productions  for the first wave of  Empire of the Dead  gang boxes (seems like ages ago, because it was) I included a Victorian citizens pack. Ten models that I can use as fodder for various scenarios, or just to dress up the gaming table a little bit. The sculpts are characterful yet simple which makes them easy to paint. One thing I will say is that these took much longer than I'd like to admit to finish. It's not like when you paint a full unit where you paint each part of each figure the same colour. With each figure being unique, I had to spend time choosing colours that suited. I also decided to give the dipping technique another try, this time using Army Painter 's "Strong Tone" quickshade. Every time I use varnish as a shading medium I freak out a tiny bit when it dries. The glossy finish plus the high pigmentation always makes me think "oh sh*t, I've ruined my base coat!" for just a few sec...

Way way way back before Christmas I busted open two of the starter boxes I bought for Empire of the Dead . Seb, Brandon and I had already played through the free downloadable scenario that pits Holmes and Watson against the nefarious Jack the Ripper a few times. I really liked the mechanics of the game as it allows for some nice in-game story telling. Oh, and I think it's cool that it used d10s instead of d6s. Don't really know why, just something a little different I guess. I cleaned up all the lovely models from the Lycaon  and Vampire  starter boxes, glued them to their bases, primed them and wrote up starting faction lists for both. Then they simply sat around on or near my painting table for weeks at a time, looking up at me accusingly from time to time as if to say "paint us you lazy sod!" Admittedly I completely reorganized my painting area with new paint racks, paint, brushes and a new painting table in that time, but really I had no good excuse for not havi...