Painting Warhammer Stone Trolls

Welcome, today we’re going to move back to the realm of fantasy miniature wargames and paint a Warhammer Stone Troll.

Here he is in all his glory. Let's run through the step by step process of painting this beast. 


We started as usual by priming the model in black. 

The next 3 steps are successive coats of dark gray, medium gray and finally barn wood.

After its set for a few minutes, we added a dry-brush coat of country grey to pull out all of the details.

The stone troll model also has a great deal of detail on his back. Here it is with the highlights. 

Next we added a wash of olive green to simulate mosses growing in the crevices of the stones.

Making sure the olive has dried and we dry-brushed warm white on selected areas of bumps and stones. This adds some additional warm tones to the otherwise cool tones on the troll.

Now back to the front and starting on the details. We used clay bisque to base the skulls and trolls teeth. Next a highlight of titanium white was added to those same items. 

We based the ropes, hair and cloth with burnt umber and the chain mail with metallic gun metal.

A highlight of light aluminum was applied to the chain mail bringing out the links nicely. Then apply a wash of red oxide to simulate rust on parts of the trolls chain mail. Be careful not to overdo it.

Onto other details, we used antique gold on the rings, a dry-brush of linen on the ropes, mushroom dry-brush on the cloth and sand on the belly button bone to set it off from the surrounding cool tones.

The dwarf trophy head received coats of red oxide and a light dry-brush of pure orange to the hair. For the skin tone we used mushroom, linen and a final light wash of olive in so it looks like its been hanging there for a while. A slight wash of heritage red in the trolls wound makes it appear irritated and in the process of regenerating.

The club was painted with mushroom, clay bisque and a wash of heritage red was added into the recesses. After drying a dry-brush of warm white finished it off.

Now onto the bases! I typically mark the base with where the model attaches to keep the area clear of sand, ballast or rock. Here we have added the chunky rocks and gravel. The chunky material is “Lizard Litter” made from crushed walnut shells. The smaller gravel is Woodland Scenics medium ballast. Skeleton bits and a small aquarium rock were added for detail.

REMEMBER SAFETY! Halogen lights get really hot and if the adjustable lamp you are using slips lower while your bases are drying it can have disastrous results. Thankfully a plastic model was not attached to the base.

OK, now lets add a liberal wash of dark gray.

After it thoroughly dries, under your halogen light, dry-brush on medium gray and finally country gray.

We touched up the skeleton pieces with successive dry-brushed coats of clay bisque and sand.

Final touches of brown and green flock with a few bits of ballast mixed in were added. Make sure to randomize the patches in size and spacing.

Repeat all the steps above and you’ll have two lovely Warhammer stone trolls ready to add to your orc and goblin horde!  With the eighth edition rules these guys now benefit from an added stomp attack making them tougher than ever.

Have a great battle,

The Old Crow

New Historical Napoleonic Russian Miniatures from Warlord Games

In keeping with our historical news, Warlord Games has released some sweet new miniatures to add to your Napoleonic Russian forces! These are created for use with the Black Powder game. If you're not familiar, Black Powder rules helps recreate the great battles of the 18th and 19th centuries. The game gives the fundamentals of warfare such as how to command troops, movement on the battlefield, the effects of musketry and artillery and the role of morale when getting pounded by Black Powder weapons.

Pictured below is the 1809-1815 Russian Line Infantry box set.  The infantry wear the taller shako while the Grenadiers wear the outlandishly large plumes.  The box set is designed to allow you to field one regiment of Russian infantry The variants in the box allow you to use both musketeer and grenadiers along with a command section to lead them into battle. They also provide a selection of flags from a number of regiments so you can get them into battle right away. You'll find 4 metal and 28 plastic miniatures in the box set.

Recruitment was never a problem for the Russian army.The army offered a steady income and regular meals so any hardship they may suffer was an improvement for many. With that in mind, you can recruit this wonderful Napoleonic Russian Command unit to lead your regiments. Each set contains a mounted officer, officer on foot and a musician.

The miniatures come with separate heads and right arms allowing lots of variation in your units. These are compatible with the plastics and the other metal sets giving you immense scope for individuality.

With these great miniatures available you should be able to bolster your forces near Borodino before the French Grande Armée gets there!

As always, Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Napoleonic Historical Miniatures

Historical miniatures are a large part of table top gaming. Sure elves and orcs are great fun but setting up the British and Prussians forces to go against Napoleon in a recreation of the Battle of Waterloo can't be beat. The rich historical background adds to the feel of the game and a chance to see if the French can win this time! 

 









If you want to bolster your forces Perry Miniatures has some new releases this month. In my humble opinion, Alan and Michael Perry create some of the finest miniatures you'll find anywhere. 

 This month you can add the British six horse team with three drivers and the New Pattern four wheeled ammunition wagon. The detail is fantastic, check out the under carriage on the wagon.

For their Prussian allies, go for the Prussian Four horse Train team and the Four wheeled Powder wagon. With the 4 horse team it could be used as a provision wagon.







Any way you look at it, these are beautiful miniatures for your historical collection.

Have a Great Battle!

The Old Crow

Gaming, Six Feet Under

If you happen to be in the Lancaster PA area visiting Amish country and your wife wants to visit another quilt shop, drop her off and head on over to “Six Feet Under” at 844 West Main Street in New Holland PA. The motto “So Many Games, So Little Time” takes on a whole new meaning as you enter the store. The area is well lit and there are rows of clean white tables awaiting your gaming desires.

With spacious aisles and enough games to keep the most die hard enthusiast busy for many months. You can find everything from board games, role-playing, miniatures, collectible card games and a vast array of accessories. The first thing that caught our eye was the wall of games broken down into categories like; exploration games, economic games, building games and our favorite War Games.

There is an aisle of miniatures dominated by the Reaper lines but you can find others like Warmachine and Hordes.

A section dedicated to card games where you can find the obvious to the obscure.

 

In the accessories area you’ll find game mats, screens, dice and dice bags.

As a service to their customers, Six feet under provides a “Board Game Library” stocked with hundreds of games for anyone to stop in and try out. With price tags on many games reaching the 60-80 dollar mark, it’s important for people to be able to see what they are getting. Anyone can watch a video online or see pictures of the games. Nothing beats opening a box and getting your hands on the actual product. 

Many titles from leading manufacturers like Fantasy Flight, Mayfair, Avalon Hill, Rio Grande, Privateer Press and Flying Frog Productions. For a list of what you’re likely to find, check the link for the Game Library Contents.

 

Manager Sue Waldbiesser believes it is “Important to give back to the community” and “Improve the world through improving social skills“. Six Feet Under games has raised over 7.5 tons of food for the Water Street Rescue Mission through game auctions and role playing game-a-thons.

Sue also has several rescued animals residing as mascots within the store. All are well mannered and her patrons love them as much as gaming, but keep an eye on the gray kitten when rolling any dice.

This slightly off kilter guy is appropriately named “Chewbacca”

For directions, hour of operation and events, check the Six Feet Under Website!

One last thing, I finally found the item every good game player needs, the “Bag o Zombies”! Regular and Glow in the dark!

 

Have a Great Battle,

The Old Crow

The world of Leviathans!

In 1906, Great Britain launched the HMS Leviathan, the first of the “super air ships”, sparking an arms race around the world. By 1910 the most powerful nations boasted large High Fleets, and the start of small skirmishes left the world uneasy…

Welcome to the world of Leviathans. 

Leviathans is a game being developed by Catalyst Game Labs that simulates airship combat in an alternate history in 1910. It has a very steampunk look and feel. The leviathan battleships are the largest of the sky vessels. Maneuvering in support are the smaller light cruisers, destroyers, and others ships.

I’ve always enjoyed the “alternate” history games and the steampunk genre. This game looks to bring it all together and we can’t wait for it’s release. Here is a picture from Gencon that shows the box set and a listing of what it contains.

 

2 rulebooks to transition players from the quick-start rules to the core rules
8 high-quality, 1200-scale plastic ship miniatures
12 Ship Cards
12 full-color Recognition Cards
1 Leviathans Gazetteer universe primer
2 fiction novellas
2 18” x 22” board-game quality maps
10 custom D12 dice and 2D6
2 reference cards
Leviathans recognition poster
Sheet of faction/ship crests
Template game aides (die cut cardboard counters)

The Monsters in the Sky website has plenty of additional information and background for the game. The link above also shows two of the coming expansion packs. Be sure to check it out!

What remains now is (as soon as it's released) to join your country, expand your nation’s power and become one of its legends! Or fall from the sky in a comet of burning wreckage to be forgotten.

Have a great battle!

The Old Crow

Warhammer 40k Space Marine Bolter Conversion

Welcome back to Battleground Hobbies!

Today we are going to look at a simple yet effective conversion for space marines and other races in the Warhammer 40k realm. First thing you need is some1/8 inch plastic tube. You can try 5/32 too but we liked the 1/8 for space marine bolters. Other races may require larger diameter tubing, it depends on the size of the weapon at hand.

We picked up item 224 from Evergreen Scale Models. They came 5 to a pack and are 14 inches long, so you can do a great number of marines.

Experiment with the length, we recommend anywhere from 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch for normal bolters. We simple shaved the bolter barrel down until it would insert it into the tubing.glue it in place as seen here.





Here you can see the painted conversion. We were going for a crack night ops special forces chapter. They get in, get the job done and get out before anybody knows they were there! The barrel length is 5/16"

Here you can see the extra long barrel for the "sniper" in the unit. This barrel length is 1/2" an inch long.







Other simple yet easy model modifications are simply using a pin drill to hollow out the gun barrels. It adds a bit of realism to the model if it looks like a projectile will actually come out of the gun.

I know, how real is a space pirate ork anyway.


And as long as we are on 40k orks and gun conversions, another easy one is to attach a chainsword to the bottom of any blaster for some hand to hand combat fun!






Try a couple of these easy conversions and let us know how they worked out for you!

Have a great battle!
The Old Crow

Warhammer Generals and Leadership on the Battleground!

I found a great article on Warhammer Generals and their affects on morale on the Hendersonworks blog. They talk about the Black Orcs and Borgio from the Dogs of War. It's simple titled "Warhammer Generals" and as mentioned they are very important to your army.

Horde armies are especially subject to leadership issues if the general is not nearby or has not been killed during the battle. Plying an army like the Skaven with leadership scores ranging from 2-5 for core troops means you really could use a good general that can boost your mundane troops to a 6-8. The same could be said for goblins and night goblins. A basic goblin horde is testing leadership on a 5 or 6, so keeping them within 12" of your goblin warboss can raise the stakes to a leadership of 8.

For those who don't play Warhammer, making a leadership test for breaking from combat, panic or trying to attack a fear causing enemy, is rolling a pair of dice and equaling the leadership score or less. So if the goblin wolf riders are out on a flank away from your general, they'd need to roll 6 or less on two dice. However if they were within 12" of the general, they could test based on his inspiring presence of 8.

Other special rules to look out for are things like units being steadfast so no modifiers apply to their leadership tests and armies like the Lizardmen being cold blooded get to roll 3 dice and use the lowest two.

Here's a great Saurus Oldblood General who has a nice leadership of 8 and gets the cold blooded special rule.

Also consider magic items for your army like the Standard of Discipline, this banner gives a +1 to your units leadership, but they cannot use the generals leadership so weigh your options carefully.



So keep your low leadership troops nearby your general and watch out for dark elf assassins and skaven trying to cast skitterleap!

Have a great battle,
The Old Crow