Space Scrappers 24 hour deal

 Ahoy! 

It's 24 hours before launching my Space Scrappers Kickstarter, and I want to let you in on the 24 hour deal I am having. 

This is a limited edition mini- so if you want it make sure to jump in on the pledge! 

Here's a reminder link for the kickstarter that will remind you when we go live

Space Scrappers link 

Scale comparisons 

How tall is your dwarf? Here are two scale comparison shots with some old school GW rogue trader era minis. 

Cheers! 

Space Scrappers: Kickstarter launches on June 15

 

My Space Scrappers Kickstarter is ready, and will launch in a week. Always looking for more in the Adventure party!  

sign up here , and I'll notify you when it launches! 

Space Scrappers: First Greens

 

Here are the first greens finished for my upcoming Space Scrappers Adventure party. Drew is really capturing the old school vibe, and the level of detail.

Dungeon Delves: Rust Monster

Found: Stray Cat...

In between my commission work I get to finish up a miniature or two as a "treat". Both of these guys have been sitting on my painting table for about a year in a stage of half paintedness. It's great to get them finished and off the table- and soon, into a game!

Rust Monster

This particular rust monster was a backer reward from one of Westfalia Miniatures fantastic kickstarters.  The dwarf is an oldhammer GW figure. I forgot how much fun it is to paint dwarves!

All rust red was not showing the details of the model, so I added the Verdis gris.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!  Those of you that come here more often than not will notice I finished the light box back drop as well. More on that soon!
Cheers

Oldhammer: Dwarf Organ Gun

" Don't fire till the see the yellow of their teeth!"
~ Snorri Grimbash, gun commander in the second goblin wars.

Perfidious Boomage

With all the Oldmaster bubbling to the top of the gaming world these days (and yay for that) as well as my group jumping into Kings of War with an "old school" passion, it's gotten me excited too. Out came my war boxes, and I started cleaning up and adding to my much beloved dwarf army. This organ gun was a piece I started a couple of years ago and decided this week to finish up and get some shots.

The carriage is a plastic version that came with the Empire plastics troops. I built up the breach, added the wings from a banner pole, then set the barrels, which are from my own Pirates! miniature battles on the high seas cannon.  The crew are a mix of Maurader Miniatures and GW; the engineer is more "modern" , probably from the 2,000's.

I'm excited about playing with these toys again.

Old Hammers - New Paint!

 “Brushes are the single most important Item in the painter’s armory…”
- pg 16 Warhammer Fantasy battle 3^rd ed.

 

Maurader miniatures "pike"

 Old Hammerz!

Feeling a bit of a wall flower on this retro craze, but in truth I’ve been a fan of the old hammer style of gameplay since- well since it was just the new 3^rd edition! Even cooler, the lads I met over playing warhammer on Friday nights are still my close friends 20 + later. There was a lot of bonding over the battlefield and jealous pride when someone would be able to eek out a new unit over busy work and college schedules- and on a student budget!

 

The battles were small, and full of stories provided at first by an appointed GM for the night, but later the stories grew into the armies and visa versa.

 

Back then ( and sometimes now) we played for keeps-that meant that if you defeated the enemy general or captured the army standard- you actually got the keep it!  I lost a couple of white dwarves and a nice banner, but also gained a gorgeous orc commander and a banner or two. Trophies we still wave in each other's faces!

I havered on whether or not to create a whole new blog dedicated to Oldhammerz, but knowing myself, one blog is enough to keep up with- so from time to time I'll be cataloguing and adding  my old hammer stuff for your perusal. 

many a goblin impaled upon those pointy bits!

  Over the years I’ve been slowly hoard- Erm- collecting my favorite Citadel, Games Workshop and Marauder (especially Marauder) miniatures for dwarves and empire and undead. Well, the bug has bitten me again, so I’m dusting off my old armies and giving them a new coat of paint.

 

 

Maurader Pike Block

I remember eagerly buying this unit in it's hard plastic slider box at my local hobby store in San Francisco when it first came out- like it just got put on the shelf! The memory is strong because that damn box was so hard to open I split the plastic and sliced my hand - and still have the scar!

I didn't care because I scrored these awesome Trish and Aly Morrison sculpted landsknecht dwarves before any of my crew did. They originally had fat boar spears, but I converted them to pike, along with a few helmet swaps to "up armor" them. The uniform design/colors is inspired from the guard in the 4 Musketeer's movie- they guys that bet the musketeers they couldn't have breakfast in the hotly contested keep in the middle of the siege of La Rochelle. 

A sleeve of Shotte

 

More Maurader minis- handgunners painted up like Scots border reivers. They even have a "hot Trod" banner for the unit. The officer is a foundry dwarf, I think. These fine fellows guard my baggage train (read beer wagons) providing supporting fire as they can. I've recently scored a few more of these models and look forward to expanding the unit.

 

  That's all for now- thanks for sticking around- and I look forward to your comments and own Oldhammer memories!

 

 

Wooden Wars: Highland Dwarves

““Before the morn ye'll work mischief:''
Indeed will I,'' quo' Findlay.”

-Bobby Burns

 

I’ve had the good pleasure to take on a commission in creating Highland Dwarves for a customer. My patron had some great ideas as to what he wanted, provided a couple of sketches, and after a few emails and sketches, this is what we came up with.

Like most of my Wooden Wars models, there is lots of room for variation and customization. I’m particularly fond of the piper.  The cool part is, not only does my patron get a couple of armies’ worth of Wooden Dwarves, but I’ll soon be putting these up for sale on my Webstore for everyone to enjoy.

 

Now, I know what you are thinking- “Isn’t Wooden wars a game where most everything has a ranged attack and you toss your balls about? “  The answer is, Yes, and…( quickly jots down a few rules…) No, of course not!

Literally, on the drawing board.

I’ve already been toying with a set of “ancients” rules variants, where not everyone has a missile type weapon. The skinny is that with melee only units, I’ve changed the rules such that when charging, instead of doing instant knock downs, the charging unit rolls an extra die (or two, depending on class type) in the first round of combat.  This works out great- I can’t wait for someone to commission Romans and Celts (hint hint!)

Kublacon Update

This weekend is Kublacon- the Khan of Cons- one of the best if not hands down the best family oriented convention in the known world!  As per my last post, I am busily painting up over 200 Wooden Wars models getting ready to run four humongously great games this weekend!  here's my shedule.

Friday Evening: Wooden Wars Task Force (Wooden Battle ships)

Saturday Morning: Wooden Wars “Quarks Rivets” Queen Victoria’s Robot Wars

Saturday Afternoon:  Wooden Wars Napoleonics- The bridges of Stretchenhiem

Sunday, not too early: Wooden Wars “Quarks Rivets” Queen Victoria’s Robot Wars (Reprise)

If you are in the area- please come by and say hi, and join in the fun!  I’ll also have some stuff for sale!

Why the lag in posts, OH Skull and Crown?

I was wondering when you were going to ask.  About a month ago, my computer went belly up in a bad bad way. Luckily I had about 97% of my files backed up, but, nothing else off my hard drive could be recovered.  So- I am slowly building my machine back up to snuff, and searching around for disks of programs to install. I have yet to find my Adobe (photoshop, Illustrator) package, which has really put a damper on me posting.  I’ve taken to getting images cleaned up on my lunch break on my work machine.  Fear not, oh gentle readers, more posts on the way!

 

Iron Mask Miniatures: Musketeer Dwarves and Ogres

“You, boy, are arrogant, hot tempered and entirely too bold. I like that. Reminds me of me. ”

-Porthos

For the King!

I just finished up a commission (sadly not with the King's musketeer's) painting up these Iron Mask Miniatures musketeer dwarves and Cardinal's guard Ogres for the Iron Mask Miniatures Kickstarter rewards.  Any of you that have been following me know that I have a soft spot for dwarves, especially the old Maurader miniatures and old GW styles. I am lucky to be part of a cabal of like minded persons, one of whom started the Iron Mask venture. 

Friends aside, I would have snapped up these models  in a heartbeat!  The sculpts are done by the same fellow who does the great White Knight miniatures, with most models having interchangeable heads and hands- with lots of extras for cool swapping.  I may have spent as much time playing around with poses as I did painting them! 

A time honored "meeting" of a musketeer and one of the Cardinal's guards.
The building was done by the amazing Daryl Empey, and the cart is an old Hincliffe, I think.

Dwarf-ska-teers!

The dwarves come in at least 7 body poses, and as you can see, the variation is great. I stuck with a pretty standard uniform for most of the models, but painted up four hero models  in uniquely colored suits, and gave them red heels on their boots.  The one  painted in Cardinal's colors is part  of my collection. 

A great number of poses and possibilities with the hand, head and body variants

Our bearded heroes defend the beer cart!

Cardinal's Ogres!

As much as I enjoyed painting the dwarves, I totally fell in love with the ogres. Again, hearkening back to the old Maurader miniatures Landsknecht style ogres, these big boys have great proportions, and those faces that have both a ton of expression- and the expression of dumb naked strength. 

Like the dwarves, the ogres heads and hands are interchangeable. I went with a predominance of huge pistols, because - well- huge pistols!

Ogres. Tough, and with big blades and hand cannon!

Crossing steel. Who's guarding the beer wagon...

Size comparisons. Ogres are true ogre scale!

All in all, I had a great time painting these models, and got mine half painted along the way. I don't mind saying that I was a bit of trepidation at first, as I haven't painted a non Wooden Wars model in over a year.  Apparently, painting dwarves is like riding a... we'll just leave it there. 

The brawlers are unaware of the Giant in their midst.

Special Guest: Iron Mask Miniatures

“Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

Just some of the Right hand variatrions!

This blog-time around, I wanted to sing to the world about a new Kickstarter for Iron Mask Miniatures:  an amazing series of miniatures based on the concept of Musketeer Dwarves and Ogres!  

Here's a bit of a secret- I am as much of a fan/hoarder of dwarves as I am Napoleonics (oh yes, I have converted fig's into old guard and dragoon dwarves). I have managed to get a couple of the artist proofs of these figures, and have had a blast both assembling, with lots of hand and head variation choices to create my own personal Cardinal's guard duelists.


I've just started painting them, and will have pictures soon. They really hit the right notes of level of detail and irreverence, and in talks I've had with Gary Price, the owner of Iron Mask Miniatures, the line will be expanding with all sorts of personalities and regular troops.

 You can also find out more about the background of this project (and lots more pictures) on the Iron Mask Miniatures blog.
 

 I highly recommend them!

Ogre Duelist. These run the same size as the old Maurader Ogres.

The models are sculpted by the talented John Pickford and the concepts art is created by none other than the talented Colin Upton- who has done many pieces for me- including my Wooden Wars Rules cover.  Do me and yourself a favor and check out the Iron Mask Miniatures Kickstarter. 

The Cardinal knows if you went to the site or not.

Rara Avis

Spent a lovely day with the old guard at our annual party. The host, a Mr. G. Price Esq. on top of a fine meal and company, gave us the pleasure of viewing one of his latest jewels- the rare never in production Maurader Miniatures Dwarf mounted general. 

Painted by Terry Matheny of Sword and Pallete Minatures.

Like a Faberge' egg with a beard!

Many of us in the group are Dwarf collectors and have goodly sized armies. All of us are Jealous!