Gaming and painitng again.

Nothing much to report, but I am back in the swing of things (a bit.)
I'm currently painting and basing a bundle of wild West figures that have been sat around for ages, to be used with the old Avalon Hill game - GUNSLINGER. I'm still in need of a handful of filler figures, and have quite a few spare cowboys and indians (Revell) for swap purposes, if anybody has a couple of specialist bits.

Melee - I have played this a few times, created a small group of slightly experienced adventurers, ready for solo adventures such as Death Test and Grail Quest. I've also been building up and painting suitable scenery for that project.

Finally I have joined a group playtesting a new game which is a platoon sized fantasy battle game....More than that I don't know yet.

Not played SoBH for a while, nor have I played Traps & Treasures for a bit. Both of which I really ought to dig out and play again

Melee adventure

I've put together a short single building adventure to introduce my eldest son to Melee (The Fantasty Trip.) It starts off in a small room with a Lord telling you about his domain. In the side rooms are a gladiator / guard type fighter who will either aid or attack you depending on your approach to the lord. You then enter a large hall to confront a handful of orcs, a small caged room contains a bear, and a trapdoor that leads to a snake pit. A secret passage from there leads up to a store room with 3 barrels, which may contain a healig potion or posion. Then a room with a couple of treasure chests, and finally a large room with a gargoyle. There's also an open garden area, where goblins will appear....and they keep coming until you get back indoors. Nothing too complex, so I think it will work as a decent introduction.

Password

Once again, this has been left for way too long. so long I forgot my password again!!! As a reminder it's the black 2 wheeler.

My first Hirst bridge.

I've had the bridge mould in my collection for a while, but never got around to making one. Well, now I have and I think it's OK.

This first one is a fairly small bridge and not over the top with regards to ornaments, but it's practical. Once again it's based on a hex floor pattern for the Fantasy Trip - (specifically the Arthurian Legend - Grail Quest)


Because I was not using the actual base for the bridge road, leveliing it all up correctly was a bit of a sod, and as a result it's not perfect - it is however quite useable, which is the main thing.

Bruce suggests using a piece of card to stiffen the bridge floor, but I wanted a grubbier underside appearence, so i opted for a toilet paper / papermache affair. I think it's worked quite well, and as it is made with a fair amount of PVA glue, is actually a very sturdy finish.

and yes - It does look a bit like a frog :)

Characters, Creatures and the generation of names

OK - Back again.

Last night I based up a few creatures and am taking stock of what I have available and what I actually need.

I have 2 satisfactory dragons - A 4 hex from D&D Minis, a 7 hex which was originally from the Heroscape base set and a tiny single hex baby dragon which is also from D&D.

I have 3 giants and a troll (The giants are not huge, but are what I would consider realistically big compared to their 1/72 scale adversaries.) My current giants are from the mage knight and D&D range and have been re-based onto 3 hex plates.

with regards to regular sized foes, I am well stocked on skeletons, orcs, elves, dwarves thanks to Caesar Minis. For Hobgoblins I will be using the Dark Alliance Orcs I think. and my regular humans are from various sets by Italeri, Revell, Zeveda etc.etc. They range from virtually naked celts and egyptians through mail armoured right up to full plate armour knights. some chopping and sticking with greenstuff has enabled me to create suitable wizards and druids etc.

I think I could do with making a couple of priests, monks or clerics, and other non fighting figures, and could also do with a few more females.

So what else do I need?

Well - I have a small list, which I'm sure will grow.

2-3 wolves not sure where from yet.
Slimes - I think I know how to go about making these.
1 large brown bear - (probably the Celestial bear from D&D)
2 armed octupii???
- - To be continued!!!!!

Photo update. Modular Dungeon

Regulars on the Hirst Arts website, or TMP may well recognise these shots - I haven't done any more photos at the moment.

this first shot is a small wizards room. Figure is from the Caesar fantasy range, skeletons, but I have replaced the head with one of the hebrew warriors. The globe, telescope and book case are from Mega Minis - The rest of course is made using Hirst Arts and A&K studios moulds cast in Herculite 2.

This shot from above shows the problem with facing. You cannot really tell exactly which side of the hex a figure is facing. Some figures it is more obvious than others, but the coloured spot method will resolve it for all figures.

Orcs in a wide passageway waiting to ambush a party of adventurers.


A small dining area - Obviously a good setting to instigate a punch up,with plenty of furnitur to hurl about or get in the way :)

No - Really I'm am working on my projects!!!

it seems that my most reent posts are by way of an apology for not doing anything, so you probably expect this to be the same. But NO!

I have started work on my modular dungeon for The Fantasy Trip. I have made several floor tiles and a few wall sections, although there is still a long way to go.

I've also worked out a system which I think may work for both figure ID purposes and to resolve the facing issue with miniatures.

For those who know the Fantasy Trip system from Metagaming, you will know it is based around Hexes for movement, and facing is important during battles as there is an advantage to taking an opponent from behind (ooer missus) or attacking from the side. it is therefore important to know exactly where the front face of a figure is. That is fine with the card board counters, because wherever the head is printed is assumed to be the front. The facing of a 1/72 mini though can be more open to interpretation. So - I have made a small white spot on the edge of the base Job done.

next problem is ID. The counters all have a letter printed on, the names are then chosen to start with that initial. I cannot paint clearly enough a letter that small - So I am putting a small coloured spot inside the facing spot. so now the character sheets will be ID'd somethign like this:

Goblin, archer, red. / Goblin, club, blue / Human, wizard, green / etc, etc.

We'll see how it works later.