"The Home of the Grumpy Gnome" Topic

In my latest blog entry I go over old ground and new, repainting previous work as well as finishing new….

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Focusing on 28mm Fantasy and Sci-Fi gaming my blog tracks the landing, building and playing of various projects.

Feedback, advice, suggestions and questions most welcome!

thanks for sharing! it looks fun!

I agree, that looks fun!

Landing? How did planning auto-correct to landing? Argh! And now I can not go back and edit it. Sigh.

Thanks for the kind words folks, I hope you find the blog useful and entertaining.

My latest update, with terrain and some big GW Fell Bats.

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As always, feedback very welcome!

My latest update, more scatter terrain, a few Corsairs of Umbar and a Gundabad Ogre…

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As well as some thoughts on the tv shows Knightfall and Sweet Tooth.

As always feedback welcome!

My latest update…

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Lots to talk about including Reaper Bones, Frostgrave, Blacklist Games, Printable Scenery Hagglethorn Hollow roads and more.

As always, I would like to hear your feedback!

Gorgeous terrain! Never read, nor played, Frostgrave. Love the Northstar Gnoll mini's, though -- best on the market, IMO. Enjoyed the blog. Cheers!

Thanks Sgt Slag. I also love the Northstar Gnolls. There is a box waiting to be put together next to my workbench.

My latest update focuses mostly on terrain progress.

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This week's update, with lots to talk about. Frostgrave, Blacklist Games miniatures, model reworks and more.

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As always, feedback is most welcome. I would love to hear back from folks on here. Feedback on the blog is what prompted me to do the model reworks.

And my latest weekly update…

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… with more translucents…and more… more. Lots of focus on figures for Frostgrave. As usual more photos and information on my blog post. Feedback very welcome!

My latest progress report blog post… mostly terrain…

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Some other topics of discussion. As always I would love to hear your feedback.

If you are curious about our experiences at Spiele '21 in Essen. Still the largest analog gaming convention in the world?

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My review of Warlord Games and Northstar Figures Osprey Games Oathmark skeletons…

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… now that I have finished a few of each.

TLDR: Good kits, I prefer the Oathmark but both are better when mixed together.

And my review of Archon Studio's Rampart 2 Terrain.

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TLDR: We are very pleased.

My latest progress report…

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As always feedback very welcome. I am happy to discuss here if you prefer not leaving a comment there.

Our latest update… this time focusing on a big game of Frostgrave using DF caverns and burrows….

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My latest blog post…

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Thinking about Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Twilight 2000 and the Wheel of Time.

So it has taken longer than I expected but I have finally written my first impressions of The Silver Bayonet and the miniatures from the pre-order. Bear in mind this is from reading the book and watching folks play on YouTube rather than playing a game myself, so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

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TLDR: The game needs more work, it feels unfinished at this point, but the miniatures are brilliant.

I have just written a lengthy blog post asking the question… what new genre should I do now that I have won some auctions with some 20th Century miniatures and vehicles…

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World War 2?
Weird War 2?
Atomicpunk/Dieselpunk Fallout?
Worldwar (Alien Lizardfolk invasion)

Something else?

Later than usual but another update with lots of photos and news….

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I would love to hear your feedback!

My latest update for the curious…

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TLDR: Wishing you all a brilliant 2022!

I am a big fan of slow zombies both in my gaming as well as in the various mediums of fiction. Not that fast zombies (ghouls/feral vampires/whatever) do not have a place… I like them too just for different reasons, for a different atmosphere in a game or movie.

What do you think?

Which do you prefer?

Which game or rules best typifies relentless plodding doom rather than manic frenzy?

You can read more of my thoughts on this topic on my blog…

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… but really here I am curious about your ideas on the gaming specifics of zombie post-apoc and how I might best get the gaming experience I want.

More Zombie discussion…

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And now my latest painting projects update and some brief tv show reviews….

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As always feedback welcome here or in the comments section of the blog!

My latest post may be too challenging for some folks. Viewer discretion is advised.

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My latest blog post is up… talking about my newest project, Twilight '49.

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As always, feedback welcome.

My newest blog post, largely focusing on Twilight 49 but touching on a few other subjects… such as movies, tv shows and the new WGA WW2 Italians…

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As always feedback is appreciated here or on the blog!

Glad to hear your digging frostgrave I have all the pre 2nd edition books and that's money well spent!
You want to avoid those choke points for a good game its all about grabbing loot and running away!😋
You should get some of plastic kits their great and the "kit bashing" aspect of the game is just so much fun!
You should try stargrave as well its basically the same rule set as frostgrave.
Also the plastic sets are just sweet don't let the paint jobs of the net fool you;I've been going for greys and tans type color's.
The alien heads are so cool they look rubber masks from 70's/80's sci fi films and TV shows think star wars/TNG goons I also have all the metal character model's.
The kit bashing element is their but not like frostgrave.

Thanks Quatermass! I am in complete agreement with you. I quite like the North Star Multi-part plastic offerings for all the *grave lines. I hope to kitbash them with Warlord, Victrix, Wargames Atlantic and others for various genres.

My latest blog post is about a kitbash I did with Warlord WW2 parts…

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Nice kitbash!
My first impression was a 50's biker like from the
wild one! The stance says zombie Apocalypse!
One thing I can't help asking is how dose he drink his tea and smoke at the same time when he has the shotgun in the other hand?
Warlords ww2 range should be a no brainier for me,however for me the most important thing is how dose the Europe theater Tommy's look and from the photos I've seen the smle 303's look kinda skinny to me.

Multitasking is a key skill for senior NCO‘s. Not a smoker myself, I have seen veteran smokers able to juggle various items for their nicotine fix.

He is intended for a zombie apocalypse of sorts so I am on the right track at least.

The Warlord weapons in my opinion are cartoonish compared to the smaller, slimmer Perry sculpts. It is an aesthetic that works for the pulpy comic book Sgt. Rock look I am going for my Twilight ‘49 project.

My latest blog post is here for those interested, focusing more on my fantasy projects though…

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"Multitasking is a key skill for senior NCO‘s. Not a smoker myself, I have seen veteran smokers able to juggle various items for their nicotine fix."

Well I've never been an NCO but as a smoker with 30 years of self harm under my belt and as someone who can roll his own with one hand I very much doubt you've seen any one drink a cup of tea and smoke with one hand,but hay its still a cool figure.

Love that brain in a jar are you gonna fill the tank with liquid?

I see your into translucent minutes. if you have one with a large footprint eg wearing a long robe;if you paint the under side of the model with a bright colour (I used fluorescent paint) you can get a interesting effect! It's subtle but looks like an Eldridge inner light,very spooky.

Love those ruined building,if that's a frostgrave table you might want to consider some low lying walls.

Anyway happy birthday!

Liquid in the jar? I had not thought of that! Mrs. GG likes messing around with resin water effects… perhaps I will see if she wants to wok together on it. Or did you mean an an actual liquid?

As for the painting a bright paint under the translucent minis…. again a great idea! I figured out painting brown under the bottom reduced the translucency but I did not go the next step further to consider other colors. I will need to try that.

And low walls is another great suggestion. I spent a good bit of time doing a bunch of low walls it seems a mistake not to try to use them.

Thanks for all the great feedback! Really useful suggestions that are much appreciated.

Hi Rick!
Um yeah liquid in the jar! and yes I ment real liquid but if the Miss GG is in to resins it would be dumb not to inlist her help!

When painting the underside of translucent minutes rember your colour physics eg whith mine the miniature was blue and the paint was yellow so i got a yellowish green.

I was reading one of your post's and you and MissGG dont play aggressively (which i recomend you rectify) so the low lying walls may not come into play,but in the Rules for setting up the table it says their should be no lines of sight more than a foot.
Anyway happy gameing
🎲🎲

Knowing my luck I am sure that if I tried real liquid it would end up a mess on our gaming table at some point!

We normally try harder to break up line of sight, even if we do not play confrontationally we do play competitively so it is something of a race to the treasures, as we like a full table but we were in something of a rush to play a few games in our limited time as we had not been playing of late.

I very much appreciate the tips!

… and my latest blog post, with a few things I have finally finished despite a busy schedule.

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My latest update with lots to talk about….

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… including Core Space!

Those stargrave crew 2 miniatures are awesome some good bits flamethrower,picks ect and space ladies!.

Funny I've been looking at core space again recently.

How well would the card stock terrain last over time?

What's the setup time like?

How well do the miniatures look against stargrave miniatures?

Rick, I seen the same thing in living history to the point that my group has not returned to some events.

I was completely sold on the Battle Systems terrain when I saw it but I was a bit hesitant when I started building it. I grew increasingly worried it would fall apart but as I have spent more time with it and treated it with respect it has lasted better than I feared. I have not glued the edges as some recommend but I have glued some pieces together and I have cut some of the notches to be bigger.

Set up was frustrating in the beginning but after only a few games I got the hang of it. Take down goes much quicker than set up. But that is the same with most wargaming isn't it? To me the game feels more like a wargame than a board game.

The miniatures remind me of Infinity miniatures. They look fine as "spacers" next to "dirtsider" Stargrave minis… to me anyway.

My latest blog update for those that are curious…

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As always feedback appreciated!

My latest blog update… with some French Indochina as well as Core Space content…

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Hi Rick
Glad your still alive 😎
Those legionaries look awesome and there is nothing wrong with most of the joins, shirts are joined together in the same way! If you get my meaning. To my eye the only guys who really need atenshon
Are the kneeling squad leader and the central guy advancing with the trench tool on his hip.
I can't speak for green suff cos I use milliput softened with water, but a good technique is to use a toothpick;put a tiny amount on the toothpick and when applying twist it between your finger tips, this action Push's the milliput into the deepist part of the gaps.
Also I use liquid precision Polly cement it comes with a 0.5mm metal tube,the main draw back tube needs cleaning
reaguly and after use I've used fuse wire in the past but now use plastic coated beading wire cos the cement sticks to the plastic coating. also sometimes when using it the cement can have trouble getting down that 0.5mm tube! So pushing the fuse wire down the tube and turning the bottle upsidedown and while squeezing the bottle draw out the fuse wire.
But hay as the old saying gos
"Don't be that guy" so why listen to him! Unless ofcorce he follows up with some sage advice.
🎲🎲

I picked up a box of the "battle systems" alien catacombs! Looks grate,more glueing and paintings than imagand but the finished look can't be argued with, looks like a copy of core space will be following some time soon! sigh!

How do those empress miniature's heads look up close? so much of their modern stuff is what I need for the Spector operations rules but the photos on the site put me off, when I look at photos online at painted stuff they look fine but then I go to their sight and look at the price and some of the pose's and I'm like men!

I've splashed out out on the all in bundle for Slāne kiss my axe from warlord games.
Slāne is my all time favorite comic book character!
And I'm so excited about this buy that I might burst!
We're in beyond bucket list territory hear as I never imagined the posiblty of Slāine hitting the tabletops!
🎲🎲

Thanks for the kind words an the advice, it is appreciated! I have so much more to learn.

Battle Systems can really work a treat and I am a big fan.

It does seem to be a golden age of gaming with so many new IPs getting onto tables. I am not very familiar with Slaine but I have seen a lot of folks really ex tied about the Warlord release. I enjoy hearing folks like you being excited. It allows me to live through your enthusiasm.

Speaking of enthusiasm… my latest blog with some info on Wargames Atlantic Alien Bugs and our Archon Studio Dungeons and Lasers 3 Kickstarter pledge has arrived…

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I forgot to answer your question Quatermass, I like the Empress French Indochina sculpts enough to buy more but I believe they may have been sculpted by someone different from their other modern lines.

Hi Rick
Those bugs look awsome would be good for stargrave!
I think but not as the bugs in from the Q37 exp,my main grip with Joe's work is finding proxy model for his bestiary's.
That D&L pledge looks like a lot of work.
I must be the only guy in this hobby who doesn't like
Decorated base's! personally I like a base to look like a base most of my figure's have neutral base's some are decorated with builders sand
but i feel it ties a figure to an environment eg my if my frostgrave had snowy base's they would look a bit daft when they go down a dungeon!
Talking about frostgrave northstar are bringing out female barbarians in September I'm looking forward to these gal's cos I love the grave line minutes handle ladies,I don't mind barbe'ians but there are to few over inflated female miniature's.

Oops
I'm mean to many over inflated female miniature's
Thanks for the review of the empresses heads although it didn't really help!
I guess I'm just gonna have to buy some and make my mind up that way.
🎲🎲

I think buying and trying is the only way to be sure on the Empress heads.

You make a good point on the WGA bugs and Stargrave. I have encouraged WGA to make different caste models.

I am all for more non-cheesecake female models.

In hindsight I wish I had done all my minis with thin clear bases.

My latest blog post….

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… talking about mostly Star Trek and the Spanish Civil War Zombie Movie "Valley of the Dead".

Shran is favorite character in post original serie era
And enterprise my favorite show.
What I love about the Klingon's is how they always say how honorable they are but the reality it they are so dishonorable they are!
Funny you should talks about LOTR wargaming that's on my to do list but in 40mm!
Crazy right,well im thinking of only doing skirmish game's
Useing printed miniature printed by a fellow TMP'er
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Its a limited range but i fell in love the scale after getting into (or riprd off by) marvel crisis protocol.
Also he makes some awesome medieval stuff.
🎲🎲

I can see the advantages of 40mm when it comes to painting but limited access to figures and table size for that scale is discouraging for me. I have seen some amazing 40mm Napoleonics however. Much as I like the MCU, Marvel Crisis did not grab me. Gaming superheroes should appeal to me but so far has not.

Yes, the Klingon view on honor is like many cultures ideas of honor. Nothing seems more honorable than victory. Norse and Japanese ideas of honor come to mind.

My latest blog post is about unboxing and reviewing Dwarven Forge‘s new Wildlands terrain… finally!

If you are curious….

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What are your thoughts on Dwarven Forge terrain? Has the new forest, swamp and mountain terrain in Wildlands changed your opinion?