After putting together a bunch of Ghouls, Skeletons, and Zombies, the next sprue from the Vampire Counts Spearhead I’ve tackled is the Dire Wolves.  You get ten of these on the sprue, with a nice variety of heads and leg parts that allow you to create a variety of poses.  The poses are determined by which halves of the torso you combine and which head you choose.  There is very little room for positioning the parts at odd angle to obtain additional poses, but you can always go to your knife and green stuff for conversions.

Games Workshop has a helpful set of pictures for assembling the Dire Wolves on their website:

Games Workshop Dire Wolf Assembly

This covers just about everything you need to know about the assembly basics.

These guys look to be more complicated to paint than the earlier plastic Dire Wolves from GW.  There is a lot of exposed muscle, gristle, and other icky stuff on the sculpts.  This differs from the earlier wolves who were simply fur.  As usual with plastic animal kits, a lot of gap filling is needed.  I used green stuff for this, and sculpted it to fit in with the surrounding fur, gristle, etc.  This takes some time but will make the finished figure look much better.

a couple of gaps at face and where body joins head

a couple of gaps at face and where body joins head

In the pics below you can see I start out with a strand of green stuff pressed into the miniature at a few points, and then sculpt it from there with a wet sculpting tool to minimize sticking.

green stuff in place

green stuff in place

finished gap fill

finished gap fill

The heads are in two parts as well, but not exactly halves.  One piece includes the neck head and half the face, then there is a smaller piece that you select and glue in for the other half of the face.  I got all the way through assembling the models before I realized that some of the faces parts are paired to one another.  For instance, there is one large head piece with a jutting canine tooth that has a corresponding smaller face part with a similar jutting tooth.  Since I didn’t notice this until after gluing things together, my face halves were randomly paired and in a few cases look slightly odd.  This did not bother me at all, though, since these models are already pretty funky looking to begin with.  Asymmetrical teeth can hardly make them any grosser than they already are!

The Corpse Cart and some metal undead figures are next on the assembly line.  After that, I need to get to painting!

Games Workshop River Troll

Games Workshop River Troll

The light-box is just a cardboard box with three sides mostly cut out, creating windows in each side, and then white tissue paper taped over those windows.  You cut a rectangular strip of posterboard (in this case I used white) and curve it inside the box to provide a background.  The lights go outside the box, the tissue reflects the light around inside the box.  You stick the mini in, snap the pic.  I think it’s an improvement!

Here’s one for sale on Amazon: link.  My home-made one cost about five dollars for the white tissue paper (gift wrapping tissue) and a couple bucks for the posterboard.

Grave Guard looks over shield

Grave Guard looks over shield

In preparation for an upcoming Mordheim campaign, I’ve been assembling some of the plastic Vampire Counts models that have been groaning and hissing from my closet shelves in impatience the past several months.  So far I’ve put together the Ghouls, Skeleton Warriors, and Grave Guard from the Vampire Counts Spearhead box, and a box-full of the older Zombie plastics.  A few of the finished models are featured just below (click for slideshow).

Grave Guard looks over shield Grave Guard looks over shield	Skeleton Warrior Skeleton Warrior	Zombie plays with arrow Zombie plays with arrow
Surprised at pic being taken Surprised at pic being taken	Heads up! Heads up!	I am hideous, do not take my picture! I am hideous, do not take my picture!
Ghoul makes off with prize Ghoul makes off with prize

The Zombie set, released a few years ago, is a lot of fun.  Plenty of room for conversions, and I indulged in a few minor ones with this box.  I have two Zombies with Bretonnian man at arms heads in this lot, one poking an arrow through his hand.  The theme of injuring myself started with this model.  After drilling a hole through one of his hands, and gluing the shaft of an arrow into the hole, I grabbed the arrowhead with a pair of tweezers.  The arrowhead had part of the shaft still sticking out of it, with a dab of superglue on it, and my intent was to poke it into the hole in the Zombie’s hand, making the join inside the hand where it would not be visible.  A clever plan, but I did not anticipate the arrowhead firing out of the tweezers with some velocity, streaking right over the top of my glasses and directly into my eye.  There was much cursing and pain, and I didn’t seem to be able to get the little piece of plastic out of my eye.  Finally, I lost track of it, but from the pain in my eye it felt like it was still back there somewhere behind the eyelid.  I couldn’t go to the eye doctor because we were snowed in, but fortunately after a couple of days the pain was completely gone.  I realized that the tiny arrowhead had fallen out somewhere, and that what I had been feeling was just a scratched eye (which heal quickly).  I finished the Zombie with some green stuff for the arrowhead, and he is gloating in the pics above.

Next up were the Ghouls from the Vampire Counts Spearhead boxed set.  These guys are fairly pose-able, despite the fact that their torsos cannot be twisted at angles to the legs.  The arms and heads can be put in a variety of positions, especially if you are willing to fill gaps in the arm sockets with putty.  They look great, and fit in well with the old metal ghouls.

Next were the Skeleton Warriors and Grave Guard from the Spearhead set.  These guys do not strike me as being as pose-able as the old Skeleton Warriors boxed set, particularly the Grave Guard who only have legs in one advancing pose.    If you are using them for Warhammer, the fixed leg / torso arrangement is probably an advantage to ranking up, though.  Since I will be using my models for skirmish purposes, I can’t help sometimes but evaluate a plastic set from a pose-ability standpoint.  They do provide a wide variety of heads and arms, though, and overall the models are better sculpted than the earlier plastic Skeletons, so I set my pose-ability complaints aside.

Both the Ghouls and the Skeletons in this set require a fair amount of gap filling with green stuff.  Below I show some pics of filling in one of the problem areas on a grave guard:  the join in the two halves of their armor.  You will see in the pics above that I have used a different putty, Milliput, on the bases.  I like Milliput when I want something with a shredded or crumbly appearance, but green stuff smooths very nicely and is what I almost always use for gap filling.

It’s tiny, but a little dab will do ya

It’s tiny, but a little dab will do ya

To fill a crack like this, the first thing I do is roll some green stuff between my fingers to form a thin cylinder of it.  Then I tear a small bit off, and stick it onto the miniature approximately where the crack is, either with my hands or a sculpting tool depending on how accessible that are of the miniature is.  Then I use a wetted sculpting tool (the kind with a beaded end), to push the green stuff onto the crack and press it into place in two or three points.  Wetting the end of the tool keeps the green stuff from sticking to it instead of the miniature.  Then I wet the end again, and smooth and sculpt the crack into the shape that I want to fill the gap.  If I use too much green stuff, I just tear bits of it off with the tool as I work (press in to make the green stuff thin at the point where you want to tear it off, then just sweep it aside with the tool).

Stuck onto the general vicinity

Stuck onto the general vicinity

Smoothed with wet sculpting tool

Smoothed with wet sculpting tool

All of these miniatures required a standard amount of trimming with a razor knife, and as I had just changed the blade before starting I cut myself a number of times.  Added up with the eye injury, these fifty or sixty undead miniatures took a toll on my body!

Next up are the Dire Wolves and Corpse Cart from the Spearhead.

You can view the mini-campaign rules here:  The Scarlet Cabal

A Touch of Evil is a great horror-themed adventure boardgame set in early America.  It plays very quickly and is easy to pick up, and seems like it would be a great game to include your non-gaming friends for a game or two.  We play with two expansions, Something Wicked and Hero Pack One, but this mini-campaign would work with the basic game if you use Investigation or something else for Resolve Tokens.

This mini campaign involves fighting three Villains in sequence, with the Shadow Track not being reset between games.  You are trying to prevent Town Elders from joining the Scarlet Cabal (I love doing that).  The more Elders that join the Cabal, the harder the game gets.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Orcs leap from gatehouse

Orcs leap from gatehouse

The object of the allied player warbands is to stop a gang of Orcs from getting off the table with a wagon loaded full of loot. And, of course, to obtain said loot for themselves. The Orcs can be played by a GM or by auto-pilot rules provided in the scenario. The scenario is intended for experienced warbands.

Here is a link to the online version of the scenario:
Looting the Looters, Google Doc

It is missing a detailed list of what models the Orc groups contain, which we will get attached to the scenario soon.

You can read a battle report for this scenario on our site:
Da Big Mordheim Battle

The two primary mechanics for the scenario involve random/concealed placement of Orc groups and a dice roll each turn that cumulatively determines when the primary group of Orcs has finished loading the wagon and begins moving to exit the table. I’m sure the scenario could be modified to substitute any racial type you desired (Skaven, Undead, etc.) for the Orcs.

Kingsbury and Michael setting up

Kingsbury and Michael setting up

My brother Michael ran the scenario (called “Looting the Looters”, to be posted here soon) and also ran an experienced Dwarf warband.  His wife Stacy ran Sisters of Sigmar, our friend Stamper ran Adventurers, my brother in law Mike Kingsbury ran Lizardmen, and I fielded a Bretonnian warband.

The scenario involves fighting a mess of Orcs, with the player warbands cooperating to prevent their leader from getting a pile of loot off the board.  And of course obtaining said loot for ourselves if possible.  All five of our warbands were very experienced (in the 250 to 350 warband rating range).  The Orcs were given several improvements over standard stats, and there were over a hundred of them available to drop on the board.

The table layout consisted of three new 2×4 foot grassland boards.  The North end of the table features a road coming down from mountains into a village.  The road leads down to a castle which dominates the west long end of the table.  Opposite on the East end is a murky pool surrounded by buildings (including one with walled back yard in which the leader’s Orc pack is hunting for the loot).  At the South short end of the board the roads winds through a toll house and between two hills to leave the table, with several surrounding buildings.

Before the scenario starts, the Orc horde is divided into thirteen squads. One of the squads is the boss group, which is placed in the center of the table. In this case that was a stone-walled farmhouse with upper story barn and a walled yard.  This group will remain where they are until a certain count is reached by adding the results of a single dice roll made each turn (they are searching for loot, but when they find it they will try to get it off the table).  The other thirteen packs will appear on the table during game play, as they are encountered. Twenty playing cards are placed face down in a spread around the table. Thirteen of these cards correspond to an orc squad, seven are dummies. When players get close to a card, or a card is close to an ongoing battle, there is a chance the card is turned over and corresponding Orcs are placed on the table in that location (if not a dummy card).  Any Orcs with missile weapons are allowed a free round of fire when revealed, even though it is the player turn when they are placed on the table!

Hero Turn 1

Stacy’s Sisters and my Bretonnians entered on the South side of the board, in two mixed groups. Kingsbury added about three of his Lizardmen to each of these groups.  The western-most group in the South headed for the mill.  The eastern-most group split, with Lizardmen and Bretonnian archers along with the Skink Priestess heading for a two story building to provide covering fire, and the rest headed for a large ruined building.

Stamper’s Adventurers and Michael’s Dwarves came in on the North end of the board, on the slope descending from the mountains. The rest of Kingsbury’s Lizardmen, including a Kroxigor, were in this force. All told, we had somewhere around seventy models for the forces of good!

During the shooting phase, the heroes approaching the mill in the South discovered a pack of around eight Orc warriors hiding in the building.  At the same time, a group of Orc archers, around the same number (led by Skag the Assassin, armed with a crossbow and poisoned bolts) revealed themselves from behind a screen of trees on a hill adjacent to the road.  To add to the fun, a third group of Orc warriors was observed hiding in a toll house building that straddled the road beside the hill.

Approaching the Mill

Approaching the Mill

On the North end of town, the Adventurers descending the from the mountains found a group of four Goblin archers led by two Orc archers blocking their way amongst ruins on the slope.  The Dwarf and Lizardmen group in the North found no immediate opposition, but a large group of mostly Black Orcs, however, led by the dreaded Barfgutz, were visible heading towards them from town.

Surprise missile fire from the revealed Orc archers on the hill in the South knocked down several Bretonnian henchmen, all of them within charge range of Orc warriors lurking in the mill.  The point blank shortbow fire from the Goblins in the North was brutally effective, taking out of action no less than three of Stamper’s Adventurers!

Orc archers firing from a hill

Orc archers firing from a hill

Stamps and MIchael resolving combat on the mountain slope

Stamps and MIchael resolving combat on the mountain slope

Orc Turn 1

The newly revealed Orcs hammered home the advantage gained from their surprise missile fire.  The Goblins in the north took out a fourth Adventurer, putting Stamps’ warband in rout check territory on the first turn of the game!  Barfgutz’ Blackorcs ran towards the hated Dwarves and strange scaly green-skins they’d sighted.

In the South, the Orcs in the mill charged out and sent a Bretonnian henchmen out of action.  A second Bret henchmen, though knocked down, managed to twist and turn on the ground and somehow avoid being taken out by a charging greenskin.  The Orcs in the toll house rushed out of that building to head for mill combat.

Close-up of mill combat

Close-up of mill combat

Orcs leap from gatehouse

Orcs leap from gatehouse

Click through to the second page, below for the more of the battle report!

The surface is coated with brown-tinted hydrocal. I used a very thin mix on the rock surfaces, and applied it with a brush. Over the grass areas a soft-serve ice cream consistency of hydrocal was used and applied with a spatula. I sprinkled some sand around the edges of the rocks, and fixed some large, irregular stones with a hot glue gun.  The road surface is a mix of sand, glue, and spackle.

The road and rock surfaces were painted with craft paints. I used about six colors on the rock surface, with a base color that was a dark chocolate brown. Three tones of gray dry brushed over that, and then some spot drybrushing of reddish brown (same color as base for road) and green for a final touch.

The base coat of flock is Woodland Scenics blended turf, sprinkled in sections on top of Liquitex Matt Medium. Once this dried, I shook off the excess and liberally applied another layer of matt medium on top and let it dry for another day. Then I added some spots of coarse turf and clump foilage, then some yellow and light green drybrushing here and there on turf and foilage.

Click on any of the pics for a slide show!

One more board to go.

Click on a pic to open up a lightbox slideshow.

I’m working on four grassland terrain boards in anticipation of our next Mordheim campaign, which will be an Empire in Flames campaign.  Each board is two foot by four foot dense packing stryofoam, two inches thick.  I bought the foam about six years ago, mounted them on fibreboard and carved them about two years ago, and until about a month ago they’d been rattling around in my basement gathering cowbwebs.  So you get a sense of how fast I work.  I’ve now hauled them up into the house and have to finish them before my wife loses patience.  The first one is done.  Its only interesting terrain feature is a pond, which you see in the pic with only about half the water (Envirotex Light) poured into it.

The surface was covered with hydrocal tinted brown, except for the roads which were done with spackling compound and a little sand.  I painted the roads, then incrementally sprayed contact cement over the rest of the surface and covered with flocking material of various colors and sizes.  Scenery cement was liberally applied on top of the flock over a series of days.  The pond bed was painted, then the envirotex added in about three layers.  The first layer had a green tint done with paint, so that it dried cloudy but still translucent.  The second layer had just  hint of tint, the last layer was clear.  Black duct tape was added around the edges to give it a finished look.  I still need to add a sealant over the top of everything after the pond has dried fully.

Next week, onto the second board.  This one is also light on terrain features, with only a single rounded hill and roads.  The last two boards will be quite a bit more challenging.  One has a road ascending into a mountainous area, the other has hills and a creek running through it.