Strange Aeons: Dave Graffam Print n Fold Cardstock Buildings

I wanted to share these PDF print-on-cardstock buildings I picked up from Dave Graffam Models. Look, seeing and playing is believing. I didn't think I would get such a great match for the other Strange Aeons terrain I have been building, much less in card stock terrain, both in terms of value and appearance. But I did! Check it out...

I have been wanting to do something like an Innsmouth board for Strange Aeons. I didn't want to put out hundreds of dollars for resin or plastic kits. I saw Dave Graffam's PDF kits and DL'd the free Coach House, the aesthetic of which seemed to match the tone of my Strange Aeons stuff really well (Gothic horror, 1920's New England.)

My main concern was how resilient the card stock would be, not the build itself. So I made the coach house according to directions using matte Mod Podge and based it on MDF, finishing it with texture paint, some balsa flagstone and the usual flock treatment. This would let me see how sturdy it was with no modification.

Frankly, it looks so damn great you can forget it's card stock and also, free. The only thing I did to the building itself was darken where any white paper shows through in the corners. I used Army Painter Strong Tone, which the paper drinks up without wrinkling. Once based, it is strong enough to hold up to most gaming. Yes, it is card stock and yes, you can demolish it. But it came out really strong when based. I would not put an old GW metal dred on it but you probably could. The PDF plans also average 3 or 4 bucks US for as many models (with variations) as you want to print and build, so you can't argue with that, really. Every so often the 2D sorta jumps out at you from strange angles or the roofs catch sheen under the right angle of light. But that is so infrequent so as to matter much.

Did I mention the buildings look great?

Build time averages about 40 minutes to an hour for most kits. After a few, I managed assembly of a few buildings in a sitting. And it was fun!

Even without any ink on the folds on these two other buildings, they look pretty damn fine. Some finishing and basing will take them over the top and fill up a table fast and beautifully.

Calling the Coach House a success, I bought about US$20.00 of plans and that got me an Inn, a Church, ruined Church, Maritime buildings pack, some warehouses, outhouses, cobblestone roads, sheds and such. I have been really impressed with the ability to change graphic layers before printing, to add different features like windows, doors, weathering, stucco or wood features and other details. With that editing and some creative cutting, you can easily vary these buildings and make a village with just a handful of plans, in less time and less money than plastic or resin kits.

I can see using these for Strange Aeons, Warmahordes and Bolt Action, to name a few. Note too that all plans come with a print scaler, so you can easily make these bigger or smaller for different scales.

Grab a metal ruler, some cardstock and Mod Podge and the free PDF's yourself, using the link above.

What a Year for a New Year or FREEZING DEATH VORTEX of... DEATH? Yeah, DEATH!!!

 Tomorrow the Polar Vortex arrives in Pennsylvania and I think scientists have emphatically stated that there will be no survivors. Or it will be really cold, inconvenient and Tuesday for everybody, not sure which yet. I bet it is somewhere in the middle of both.

In any event, now is a good time to assess what the hell I am doing with the time-sucking vortex that is our beloved hobby, since tomorrow will definitely be about hunkering in, trying to get some more painting done, some more started and maybe, just maybe... finally learning to love myself at the end of it all... (or the beginning?)

OGRE Designer's Edition, now with 100% more colorful edges and Mod Podge.

Speaking of loving myself: I picked up OGRE over the holiday and so, colored all cardboard edges of the punch-out models with colored Sharpies and then glued the pieces all together with matte finish Mod Podge, which is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered there. They came out great, look great. Great! That's a Pro Tip folks, no charge.

I have a ton of Khurasan 15mm on the way, alarmingly ordered before Christmas and yet I have not heard a peep from the company about it at all... but their website was intentionally down over the holiday for them to process orders, so I am not worried, so much as I just want that stuff so I can do 15mm Strange Aeons, where the Lurkers just became 100% bigger!

I also have some forlorn Khador on my desk that I am hell-bent on tackling, with a new sage green and red color scheme. Yes, this means I have been playing Warmachine again and why shouldn't I? It's a damn good game. Still, Star Wars X Wing is a damn good game too and there is no painting required.

Ember Mage WIP will fight the Polar Vortex with her cutsie-cheeks. When I try to do the same thing people yell at me to put my slacks back on.

Finally I have more Super Dungeon Explore to knock out, I dare say I am in the home stretch there on a completed box set.

What else? I have some IG to tend to soon and probably a miniature yard sale in my future in the Spring... too much stuff to tolerate.

Stay warm, stay safe and I'll see you on the other side!

So This Happened...

 Strange Aeons

Been busy traveling for work lately so I’ve tended to come home, kiss everyone in the house, cuddle and when they all sleep, attempt to glue things onto things or smear paint onto other things.

First, my buddy Finn got me the BONES Cthulhu… wicked fierce, that. I reposed it slightly, or really, just tidied up the pose so it wasn’t canted so forward. I’ll be using him as a Godling in Strange Aeons so I mounted his base onto a CD, which is the fashion for many things in Strange Aeons.

It gets bad from here.

Knowing that my BONES Werewolf took GW black primer but it remained the slightest bit tacky (remedied by normal layers of paint) I went to use a plastic-friendly black spray. I bought the wrong thing, used it and ended up with a permanently tacky, wet dust collector.

It gets better from here. Reading up in these here interwebnets I come find the consensus that Simple Green will do the trick. It totally did. The only paint it didn’t remove was what had properly dried and had stained into the plastic. Did not attack the BONES plastic and cleaned up really well.

A few coats of GW Black and we were back on schedule. I’ll post up a How-To for old squiddy when he’s painted.

 

Star Wars X Wing Miniatures

I’ve spent weeks to months on individual miniatures and terrain and never once did those posts come close to the tally-crushing popularity of a post about me chopping and regluing a pre-painted plastic space ship for 20 minutes. So I did it again. Now there are 2 B Wings in the stable. Also, picked up the Imperial Shuttle and yes, painted the engine glow. And straightened the top wing, factory glued wrong. And painted the guns. Cough.

Super Dungeon Explore

Concocted another water based stain to help speed paint the Dark Counsel for Super Dungeon Explore. Here is WIP, just need some highlights on the kobold skirt and to finish the basing.

Khador

Totally stuck with my Khador. A lot to paint and I’m not doing it. Built a ton of models recently, including 3 warjacks, two of which are Kodiak conversions and the last, a modified Devastator. More soon.

Warmachine: Khador Mechaniks WIP

So, campaign starts October. I'm betting mechanics will finally be useful enough to warrant taking them in many campaign games. Starting a damaged warjack in a game because you have no choice and having mechanics rushing to fix it while the game starts sounds like the level of stress I enjoy in my games. Not kidding.

Anywho, thanks to the generosity of my buddy Finn, I now have a unit of Khador Mechaniks. Thanks Finn!

Yes, I converted them. And yes, I actually like the sculpts a lot but not the repetition. So, I lopped off their heads (save the leader, who is awesome) and replaced them with Maxmini heads I had laying around for my Valhallen IG. Adds just enough visual variety to make them more interesting and still let me get it all done in one sitting.

I'm planning on trying some urban camo on them. We'll see how that goes.

With greenstuff blending around the neck...

Warmachine: Practice Games

Got in a pre-campaign practice game with my Khador today. I hosted, playing Trish's Menoth while Pete had Cryx, who played Finnegan's Skorne. All games were 35 points. I think we're all committed to our present forces except for Finnegan, who said he'd bring Retribution to the campaign but may now be considering Skorne. It might be useful to be the only Hordes army in the campaign.

The Jugger on my left flank takes a drubbing by the Menoth 'jacks and Bastions. A turn later, Butcher feats and everything here dies to the almost-wrecked Khador 'jack. Jugger eventually goes down. Butcher comes in to free up some engaged Widowmakers, gets over extended and is caught and killed by Amon Ad-raza's forces.

Pete's Denegrah list hits Jon's Skorne list. If I heard right, Cryx caught Skorne with a feint and sealed the deal.

Khador: Man O War WIP

More work done today on the Man o Wars...

Added textured wallpaper to bases. Leg pieces glued in and back filled with greenstuff 

Added pins to leg pieces

Trimmed shoulder nubs and tapped holes. Added 1 piece wire straight through holes. Glued both torso halves around green stuff core, pressed together.

Glued torso onto lowers, smoothed greenstuff overflow.

Khador Ulhans: I hate you. Plus: Gamillions of other things I'm trying to do at once...

 So I'm planning on running Ulhans and Markhov together at some point in the upcoming Fall campaign since I eventually want to have an all pike, all lance army under Vlad. you know, something for the kids. I brought the 5 unassembled Ulhans on vacation with me, to knock out some pinning/gluing and building.

Fail. What the hey-hey PP? The fulcrum for the model is the lower half of the IFP rider, supporting the upper IFP and telephone-pole pike on top AND the weight of the giant horse on the bottom when you pick it up and move it.  You make the IFP’s waist 2 pieces, split down the middle from front-to-back along the thinnest part of those pieces? You suck. You could have easily made this one piece. 

But you didn’t, so now I have to pin two separate pieces of lap to the horse. When? I dunno.

Still reading? In other news, this stuff is underway. My converted Vlad, a pinned Doomreaver unit attachment and Drago's murderously thin bicep reconstruction are all underway. I also fired up the Man O’ War assembly line with 2 units of Man O War Shocktroopers and one 3 man Demo Corp unit. I have the option of adding one Man O War to either the Shocktroopers or the Demo Corp. Prolly go Shocktrooper.

Warmachine: Khador Underway

I knew it was bound to happen. I graduate college, start in on a huge backlog of projects both game-related and no, start a rhythm of painting, prioritizing and sorting what the hell needs to be built. I kept wondering if I would let myself be drawn into some painting and playing that had nothing to do with the work I most lamented not doing because of life (eg. Strange Aeons).

So now I’m in a Warmachine campaign. I already planned a Fall of Strange Aeons but instead I’m dragging out all the Khador I neglected to paint in Mk i.

Campaign starts in October, and we have a meeting tomorrow night to run out our charter, ways and means, that sort of thing. Between us we have a ton of terrain so the pics on Sarcophagi should look pretty good around Halloween.

So, stay tuned as I dust off my old red paint mix batches… which are all dried out. And GW changed their color formulas… great.

The Wall of Shame or What I Could Paint for the Campaign Since I own it Unpainted:

Warcasters:

1. eSorcha
2. Vlad
3. eVlad
4. eButcher
5. Strakhov
6. Old Witch

Jacks:

1. Destroyer
2. Devastator
3. Spriggen
4. Kodiak X2
5. Drago (definitely painting him)
6. Marauder (already converted it)

Units:

1. IFP
2. Doomreavers
3. Greylords
4. Man O War Shocktroopers
5. Man O War Demolition Crew
6. Widowmakers
7. Great Bears
8. Uhlans

Solo:

1. Koldun
2. Kovnik
3. Fenris

Where the frig to begin... more as I decide and progress.

In the meantime, pics of what I already have painted, Not much!

Legion of Everblight: Finished War pack

 Here is the completed Hordes war pack (plus 2) I did for my buddy Jon. I am pretty sure that the Shredders and maybe other models don't need an arc to speak of but I don't have a book or cards to be sure. Anyway, I marked all models with an arc, easy enough to paint over.

I also added adhesive-backed felt into the Privateer Press Legion dice tin. I've done this with the other original dice sets I own... the felt deadens some of the noise of rolling into the trays.

Hordes WIP: Lylyth

Here's Lylyth from Legion of Everblight. I didn't mention this before but the guideline that I am following with this Legion set is what I put out in a sitting is what the finished product is. Gotta keep to schedule.  Touch ups, corrections and details are allowed later but to get everything to a level of "done" you have to push. That constraint forces you to make choices between what is ambitious vs what is needed and achievable. So the result is tabletop standard and not bad at that. Left to correct: Shade on the inside of her cloak and some weapon clean up. Warpack left to paint: Carnivean and a pile of Shredders.