MY EYES! MY EYES! 0r: And We're Done with Warmaster

I'm 52 and have 2 prescriptions for my glasses - one for reading, one for computer work - and neither are good enough for 10mm painting. I was getting such headaches trying to paint these tiny models that all patience and interest in the Warmaster project has disappeared. Vanished. gone caput.

It's a dead project! I sold everything off.

So, what next?

To be honest, I'm not sure. I've got the new version of Heroquest waiting to be played and painted so I might do that. Or I might look into a realy true Oldhammer project like collecting 2 Fifth Edition Warhammer armies, or perhaps get into the reissue of Warhammer: The Old World - new rulebooks, new reissued models.

Or I might just call it quits full time in painting toy soldiers.

It's been a rough couple of months, with my wife being diagnosed with cancer, going through a battery of tests, surgery, recovery and tomorrow we hear what further treatments are needed and if everything was caught in the surgery. that's where a lot of my energy has gone and I've been exhausted pretty much 100% of the time - even having a month off work to focus on looking after my wife.

I'm pretty much done in, so will take a little time before deciding what to do next, if anything.

Creating 10mm scale Terrain using Warhammer Townscapes

 Alongside the armies for Warmaster, I'll be needing some new fantasy terrain scaled for 10mm games. Terrain really makes a game come alive, both visually and tactically. Having lots of pieces can help create great narratives for games, helping players avoid the simple line-'em-up and knock-'em-down kind of games, the generic fallback that I know I've been guilty of doing in the past.

But there's something really satisfying about seeing a table packed with terrain, especially one that you have built yourself. I've a 4 x 4 table with a grasslands game mat that I use for games such as Achtung Panzer or Bolt Action, so all the terrain I build will be to fit onto that - lots of Woodland Green edging.

Hills and woods are vital, especially for fantasy rank-and-flank games and the ones above, while okay, were extremely basic and thrown together in an hour or so as needed for a game. Simply stuck onto card and flocked with no real thought given as to how they looked. I'll do another post about those in the future. Same with roads and rivers.

What I want to touch on today are buildings: houses, towers, inns and the like. My terrain-making skills are not the best (see those woods above as evidence, M'lord) and while I would enjoy the process, I think it would be a waste of time and money trying to build totally from scratch. I do however have a secret weapon I can use:

From the 80's, this was a terrain supplement packed with dozens of card buildings to cut out and build. Like the dungeon tiles released at the same time, this was ideal for roleplay games and the fledgling tabletop wargames of the time.

Scaled for the standard 28mm model, there is more than enough here to build a huge town or even city to fight in and around. A quick scale in the computer and printed out onto label sheets, this could be a good side project as I continue to paint the Nippon army, and so last night while I waited for the freshly painted edges of the General and Samurai unit to dry (I've gone for Woodland Green), I made a test piece to see if this could work.

I chose a tower, a classic of fantasy terrain, and scaled the image to 75%. A quick cut out and glue, and then fixed to the oval mdf base using Vallejo Thick Mud. I added a couple of slate pieces as well and this morning once it was all dried added some flock and edged the base.

I think it looks okay - remember this was a quick test piece to see if the process worked - but will scale the next one to 70%. I'll also add some bushes and trees to the base as well as tufts to give it a more natural look but that will have to wait till next month.

The next buildings will also have thick card or foamcard frames inside to strengthen them.

At least I know that I now have a good source of terrain and will make that a project all of its own.

First unit painted - Samurai.

 After spending a couple of hours a day over two or three days, the first unit is now complete. This is the test scheme for the Samurai elements of the army and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out considering my eyes are not what they used to be.

Paints Used:

1. Hand prime with Chaos Black
2. Drybrush a light grey mix of Chaos Black and SKull White (or use Elf Grey) to pick out the details.
3. Armour painted in Blood Red
4. Bows, Spear staffs, belts painted Snakebite Leather
5. Skin painted in Dwarf Flesh
6. Tunics, Trousers and Helmet scarf painted in a mix of Enchanted Blue and Skull White
7. Weapons and arrow tips painted in Mithril Silver
8. Boots and arrows painted in Matt Black
9. Arrow fletches painted in Woodland Green

To fix the models to the bases I applied Vallejo Thick Mud and then simply pressed the models into it. A quick smudge around the base edges and they were hidden. Once dried, flock was glued down and the bases edged with Chaos Black.

I'm pleased with how these came out and while not the best painted models I've ever done, considering their scale and my really bad eyesight, they've come out okay. Once massed with a full army these will look pretty impressive and I'm keen to get on with the next unit. This will be an Ashigaru unit to get their test scheme sorted.

Organising The Ashigaru Box Set

With the Samurai box all organised (read here) and the first unit being painted, it was time to look at the Ashigaru box set. These are the peasant-warriors, drawn from the commoners to fight as the rank-and-file foot soldiers of the Nipponese.

There are 3 types of Infantry amongst the Ashigaru in the Nippon army list, each one represented by the contents of the Wargames Atlantic box: Ashigaru, Ashigaru Bowmen and Ashigaru Teppo. There is a minimum of 1 unit of Ashigaru unit per 1000 points, with no limit on the number of units you can have in your force with the exception of the Teppo (black powder handguns) which are a maximum of 2 units per 1000 points.

The Wargames Atlantic box, with a few additions of banners from the Samurai Command box, can make 5 units of Ashigaru, 2 units of Ashigaru Bowmen and 2 units of Ashigaru Teppo - a total of 465 points from one box that costs £30rrp. That's £3.33 a unit, not a bad price. 

With the first of two mandatory Samurai units painted, I'll work on the single mandatory Ashigaru unit next, setting the paint scheme for the rest of the army to come.

First Model Painted - Nippon General for Warmaster

 

The first model has been painted. A test scheme for the Nippon Samurai General. Currently with a gloss varnish. Took about an hour to paint all-in, from the black undercoat with grey drybrushed highlights, then blocking in all the colours with a quick highlight. 

Vallejo thick mud was then applied to the base and the models pushed into it, so it acted as both basing and glue. So much time saved rather than scoring the mdf base, gluing the models down, waiting for them to dry then applying the mud around them without splodging them at the same time.

Once dry, flock was added and the base edged in Chaos Black to really make them pop out of the tabletop.

Very pleased with how it came out. And now on to the first unit of Samurai:

Painting Oldhammer Old-School with New Paints

With a month off work looking after my wife who is recovering from major surgery, this forray into rejuvinating my love for Fantasy wargaming continues. It must be providence that I undertake this now, as a truly inspirational blog that has kept my nostalgia-fields budding over the years has been The Realm of Chaos 80's blog, packed with gorgeously painted oldhammer models and deep dives into the history, lore and fascination of early 80's fantasy gaming. After a long period of abscence, the blog is back up and running - I strongly suggest you lose a month or two reading every single post.

I've decided to blog about my refound love of fantasy gaming as much as possible, and cover a vast array of subjects, buoyed by ROC80s enthusiasm, and strangely enough today he posted about the same subject I'd like to ramble on about - paints.

Back in the 80's when I got that copy of Rogue Trader, I also bought the box of Space Marines and the colour paint set. Sadly I don't have any evidence of the extremely bad paintjob I inflicted on those poor space warriors, but trust me... they were bad.

I really took up painting though when I started working at GW Leeds. This would have been in early 1990's, when the paints changed to the new hex pots, but I still have a love of those original paints. Since moving on, I've used many different paint ranges - Wargames Foundry, Reaper, Vallejo and Army Painter, the latter being my prefferred choice - and as I embark on painting a Nippon army for Warmaster, the nostalgia bug bit hard and I decided I wanted to paint the models using the old style paints, or as close a proxy as I could.

Yes, I can hear you all screaming about Warcolours and their Nostalgia '88 and '94 lines, but I'm a tight Yorkshireman on an even tighter budget, and the book royalties aren't what they used to be anymore (I really should write a new book - perhaps not crime this time, but a fantasy novel, epic in scale and dripping in 80's flavour!). 

Rather than forking out a load of cash upfront, I've decided to mirror the original Colour Paints as best I can from the Warpaints Fanatic line, some of which I already own. I've listed all the paints from the citadel box sets and then painstakingly gone through several colour charts to find approximate matches. I think I've done a good enough job, but will include the two charts and you can decide for yourselves.

The "plan" is to buy a set each month, so April I have the Colour Set (need to get Bronzed Flesh), and next month I'll get the Creature set. At the price I can get Fanatic paints, this should be around £20 for a set - not too bad and will still leave me £30 from my £50 a month hobby budget (more on that in another post, but old hands might recognise the Tale of Four Gamers price cap).

I've even found, downloaded and printed out some old school paint pot labels to create the right look. Daft I know, but it really gives this old man a daft tingle seeing them.

Here are the two colour charts I used - the first being the original paints; the second the Army Painter Warpaint Fanatic range. 

How did I do? Anything you'd change?

Organised Samurai Units and Bases arrived

This morning I clipped all the models off the sprue for the Samurai including banners from the command pack to create the different units for the Samurai. My original intention was to make a seperate longbow unit which I could then use for Pike & Shotte if I wanted but then decided, no -- I was going to stick with Warmaster so as they don't have a seperate infantry entry, I'd just figure out the best way to put the units together.

After clipping everything out I was able to make the following Samurai/Nippon units:

1. Shogun General with retinue
2. Daiymo Hero with retinue
3. Daiymo Hero with retinue
4. Shugenja Hero with Shrine
5. Shugenja Hero with retinue
6. Samurai Infantry x 5 units
7. Samurai Cavalry x 3 units

That's around 1'100 points right there alone.

Using 6 models in a file with 2 ranks works best, filling out the 40x20mm bases perfectly.

 

Now to clip out the Ashigaru...

First models painted

Painted my first models from the Samurai command box set, which will make up the General base for the Nippon army.

Really pleased how these have come out considering my bad eyesight at 53 years old. AND I'm only using 10 paints - black, white, red, blue, green, yellow, brown, flesh, silver and gold.

Bases are still to arrive so I'm going to prepare the first mandatory unit of Samurai next.