Jungle Love

With the pending publication of Charlie Don't Surf by TooFatLardies, I've been picking up miniatures (3mm Oddzial Osmy's from Picoarmor) and terrain bits for Vietnam. At another scale, back in January I picked up FNG by Two Hour Wargames, a skirmish-level Vietnam game I'll do in 20mm (mini's are on their way). Charlie Don't Surf is company level, similar to I Ain't Been Shot Mum.

On the terrain front, and also to help with 28mm VSF or Colonial skirmish gaming, I've been picking up some aquarium plant pieces, and today hit up a local dollar store (Dollarama) to see if they had anything. I did find aquarium plants, as well as regular plastic plants, that will do awesomely for the landscape of Venus or lost worlds on Earth (maybe even Vietnam too), but my real score were these for $2 apiece:
They're about 10x10", with 100 plastic grassy bits (elephant grass or maybe bamboo) per matt, snapped onto the underlying mat. I picked up 3, will probably go pick up more...they can be taken apart for customized stands, or I think the mat itself can be chopped up to create fields of elephant grass.

This will obviously work better for my 20mm stuff, this is a handy 25mm figure for scale. For those doing Charlie Don't Surf in larger scales than I, hopefully this is out there for you - going by the tag in the first pic, it seems to be a Dollarama special.

It will dwarf my 3mm guys, but perhaps I can call it bamboo and chop it down a bit, saving the cuttings for more scenery.

Welcome, my pretties

As mentioned, my order of D&D collectible miniature pre-painted plastic figures arrived yesterday (Monday). Mainly intended for adventures in the Thurian and Hyborian Ages with Warrior Heroes by Two Hour Wargames and Songs of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games, they can be used in other periods as well. There are still more to find - there's a better Thelo figure out there, and the best Thulsa Doom and a dire (grey) ape were out of stock when I ordered.

I'll supplement these with painted figures, I have a lot of old 25-28mm stuff around from the 1980's, plus I'll fill in with new stuff as needed (e.g. a better Brule will have to come from somewhere else).

Anyway, now for your consideration, I present:

Kull and Brule - yes, I know Brule carried a sword...and wore a kilt...and probably wasn't bald except for a ponytail...but this is as good as I could go in the mainly bi-racial (caucasian and asian) D&D lines. Kull is more the primitive Kull here, I imagine he's about to chop one of the stone tablets that stores Valusia's lengthy marriage codes. If needed, either of the two Conan figures below can sub in, I'm sure no one will call me on the eye colour...

Some new Thurian Age hereos: Thelo CurKail - freed gladiator (not his final figure, just a stand in for now), Dolyn from the Hills - soldier in the Royal Army, and Tjia the Half-man, double-sworded Thuranian freelancer (and runaway bride, of sorts). These all started life as RPG characters, so I'll present more background later.

Forces of the snakemen, using both lizardmen and snakemen from the D&D lines - the difference between a lizardman and a snake that walks seems pretty minor (unless your a snake or a lizard), so I'm using both freely. The bulkier looking lizards I'll call snakemen priests, i.e. the poorer fighters. The snakemen proper will be, well, snakemen warriors proper, a bit better with their skills (nunchuk skills, bow hunting skills, etc.).

Of course the snakemen need their leaders, from a snakeman chieftain to a high priestess to the Serpent that Speaks hissssself to an angry snake demon.

Some other forces of evil, leaders and sorcerers.

Not all their enemies will be of flesh or scales, some will be of bones (need more of dem bones tho).

Some of the creatures I picked up - armoured apes, an angry giant ape, and a demonic minotaur type guy.

Two versions of Conan (and backup Kulls) - his barbarian form and his soldierly/kingly form.

More characters, Conan liked his swordswomen.

And some others, including the four guardsmen on the left who will serve as Red Guards for now, even though they aren't too red. I like the swashbuckler, need to find some more of those.

My first battle will probably be a small re-creation of the battle between Kull and Brule and the snakemen from The Shadow Kingdom. Kull and Brule each add up to being their own warband pretty much, and I'll use all my snakey legions against them.

My Only Wish Is To See Far Acheron Again (with apologies to Jim Morrison)

...well, actually I wouldn't like to see Acheron again, but Valusia would be a trip. However, since I'm still in the middle of a bunch of terrain pieces, today sees my notes on Acheron go up.

Acheron is the remaining lands of the Old Race (aka Giant-Kings), who once ruled all of Thuria and have "100,000 years of history". The Old Race are long-lived wizards, with demon-tainted blood that gives them claim to be descendents of Set, the Serpent-Lord. They worship the rest of the Old Ones as well, and do so differently than their human subjects, on more of a personal relationship. However, their worship and black sorcery does require human blood and/or sacrifice to work (Note: this is all fiction, in case that wasn't clear).

Humans are their subjects and slaves, and have been since the beginning of time. The original humans they encountered (not the modern Thurians) at the dawn of time worshipped the Great Serpent (aka the Serpent That Speaks - not Set), and the humans have since merged the two religions and the Giant-Kings haven't really noticed. The humans under their rule also worship the Giant-Kings as blessed by Set. Despite being near-gods, the Giant-Kings haven't avoided getting jiggy with their subject women, resulting in hybrids identifiable by their height and pale complection, and talent with dark arts.

The human and hybrid populations grow much faster than the Giant-Kings and do much of the land's grunt work, leaving the Giant-Kings to rule, practice their dark arts, and lord around as living gods. The Lost Lands that separate Acheron from the Seven Empires (and anywhere else of note) have helped the Giant-Kings slip into myth and legend, but these myths and legends are still active and still plotting. They have spies and agents in Valusia (e.g. Guron, high priest of the God of the Black Shadow) and elsewhere, with the aim of regaining their former glory. The current ruler is King Ahotep.

Their capitol city is Luxor, on the Sea of Snakes. Additional cities are Sabatea, Erkulum, and Qarnak. The main river in the country is the Nilus, which later becomes the Styx, post-cataclysm. Their architecture is monolithic, some of the Hyborean Age colossal pyramids of Stygia are theirs. In most cities their architecture is sort of a suped-up real world Egyptian - stepped pyramidal apartment complexes for temples and the middle class. The poor live in block hovels, the true elites live in single pyramids. In other cities, their architecture is Petra-like, built into the sides of cliffs and hills. Generally their buildings are of black stone, but others are sandstone in colour, and all have towers or spires of a dark purple.

Their military has an Assyrian and Hittite flavour, with elite units of four-horse chariots, followed by spear-wielding cavalry, supported by mounted archers. On foot they have light, regular, and heavy spearmen, the first two being from the city levies. They also have light and regular foot bowmen, and the levies also raise slingers. The foot elite are the guardsmen of the king, armed with sword and carrying a shield.

***

In other news...last night was spent wrestling with polyfill, today I've been spray painting some other pieces and am about to go for a re-match with the polyfill. Had some good news this evening - today was a provincial holiday butI forgot that means the post office (federal) was still at work - so when I opened my front door to take out the recycling, what should I find but my order of pre-painted plastic miniatures (from the D&D line). So a future post will be on those - Kull and Conan and various friends and enemies.

Mysterious Thule (not that Thule, you cultists!)

This is the Thule of the Thurian Age, a mysterious land in the northwestern tip of the continent. We don't know much about it from the source material (they fight cave-savages and snow apes, and have fabulous ice caves), so I've had a freer hand making things up.

The residents of Thule are a generally dark-haired, Viking-like race, with an architecture of stupas (domed brick/stone buildings), and nothing larger than a town - and only one of those, the capitol of Skalauk. Otherwise it's comprised of villages with a temple, tombs of past village chiefs and storehouses all of stone/brick; everything else in the village is of timber. The political structure is feudal, with small armies and no national leader.

Militarily, they sure look impressive - the elite warriors are armoured with plate cuirasses and helmets, and armed with swords. They ride in chariots or war-sleds pulled by domesticated polar bears (smaller than our modern polar bears) or reindeer. Some also ride reindeer, and the real heavies of the Thurian Age are their Imperial Mammoths. Run of the mill warriors of Thule are armed as axemen, spearmen, or bowmen.

Thule was up next for my tour of the Thurian Age as I've been busy basing some units with a snowy theme. I've been taking pics along the way, but have one more step to do before I post anything. Otherwise I'm in the midst of a bunch of other terrain bits - snake statue, dragon statue, sphinx, Splintered Lands house, tower, ship and castle.

Pirates on the Sea of Strangers (and homeless birds)

I believe I mentioned my cog finding in a Michael's, and I got around to putting it together last night. It took about two hours, some bad words, glue, and plastic clamps. I think it looks pretty good for the Splintered Lands setting (or at least my take on it):

I'm looking to get another one, but for now this one will be done up as the good guys' ship, with a darker brown base colour and light brown decks. I'll spray paint the base coat, so I'll lose the plank and cut-outs the puzzle comes drawn with, but there's no way I'm painting in between the lines for all of this! I thought of spraying a lighter coat to let the lines show through, but I don't think I can keep that consistently applied.

The ship comes with sails, but I'm not going to use the mainsail (but will attach the yardarm later). I'm going to print new banners doublesided on cardstock and then trace the outline of the original banners onto the cardstock, allowing me to customize this for the fleet of Riversend.

The bad guys' pirate version will be mainly black. Some MegaMini's rowboats will also come in handy, for in-harbour boarding actions.

I figure I'll base my Splintered Lands minis on pennies, so I tested out how much room the deck of the ship has - it held these 10 pretty easily, so I think a decent fight could be had.

On the pirate ship I'll probably cut down on some items - the spindle will go, for one thing.

I also tried the ship out with some 25mm figures sitting out for priming (testing Gesso) - they look ok too, so I figure up to 32mm will be ok, allowing me to use in other settings (e.g. I have Kull and Conan lookalikes from D&D's collectible miniatures games coming).

My default 40-42mm test, these guys are too big, they make it look like a racing sailboat.

Earlier this week I went looking for a rocket-shaped birdhouse I'd heard was at Michael's, and while I didn't find that, I did find this:

Only $8.50, and if I had the patience I could have held out for a 40-50% off coupon, but there were only 3 on the shelf and I didn't want to lose it. There was also a log cabin that might work too, but it was pricier and there was a perch or two that would need cutting off.

I figure this will be a bad guy's remote fort for the Splintered Lands setting. I'll add an upper story door (sort of like a Dutch door thing), and a door and iron bar gate for the lower entrance. I'll coat with textured stone spray paint, except the roof tops, which will be done as wood. Now I need to decide if I need the two I left behind in the store...

How to spend a lot of money at an NBA game...

...stop in at craft and hardware stores on the way home. After avoiding $10 beer and $7 hot dogs, I stopped in at another Michael's to look for that drat sphinx 3D puzzle - and found it. I also picked up snake #2 (decided there was another way to do snake #3), a dragon puzzle (another statue project), and a cog.

Or, as the packaging says, a kogg. This looks like it will do nicely for the Splintered Lands setting, I think I may want another as it may look a bit silly having a boarding action with only one ship. I was doing rapid scale calculations while standing in the aisle...at about 15" long, at 25mm (1"=6' more or less) that would put it at 90', which is about the size of a real cog, if memory serves. Not sure about deck space yet for fighting on, will try to build it this week.

The sphinx is going to take a bit of work, it looks like layers of wood stacked on top of each other...which is what it is. I think some polyfill or plaster of paris or something will be needed, I'll have to do some reading to find a good material. I wil probably leave some of the wood exposed as it could be painted up as the blocks that form the core of the sphinx. I might even put in the doors that are rumoured to be there (or maybe are there, my sphinxology is a bit behind). Maybe need a second one of these too, one painted up more strangely than the other.

Also sorted out my tile plans, which you'll recall from a previous post. I decided to use a different (way cheaper) tile type for anything I'm going to paint over, like a savannah skirmish board set, or red Mars, or urban areas, or the moon (etc.). I got 45 12"x12" tiles for $15. I may use these for 6'x4' tables as well, but it starts to eat up spray paint and at a certain point I might as well buy a professionally done game mat.

The nice, quintupally (sp?) expensive brown tiles will be for the desert and Mars skirmishing, and I picked up enough of those today for 3'x3'.

So my terrain basing set-up so far looks like:
Europe-esque (inc. beaches) - Terrainguy mat with beach and water OR pale green bed sheet from remainder bin
Savannah skirmish - Yellow and green painted tiles
Savannah big battles - pale green bed sheet (for now)
Mars/Desert skirmish - brown tiles
Open seas - blue bristol board

Getting a hex map for air wargaming is my next objective, but not an urgent one.

I liked the castle so I bought the snake...

The Creatology 3D puzzles have come up for discussion on The Miniatures Page message boards, and last post you saw the Creatology 3D puzzle castle I was using for 18mm anthropomorphic fantasy, which I'm quite happy with for my purposes. The TMP thread started with a post about a sphinx puzzle, so today I went to my local Michael's store to see if I could score one, with the additional intent to buy some gesso to try as primer.

I didn't find the sphinx, but I did find a skeletal snake for $1.50 that I've sussed out three uses for (now I gotta go back and buy two more of the things though!). The first use will be as a full model, representing a statue that can be used as a scenic piece either indoors or out.

This is the thing head on, and below is from the side, with our 40mm lady again standing in for scale.

I'm thinking of trying to paint it a jade colour, maybe starting off with black spray paint, then green, then maybe with some lighter highlighting afterwards. It came with googly eyes, but I'm going to use some plastic jewel pieces that you find in craft and dollar stores, my plan is for red (ruby) but may have to go with clear (diamonds).

If you just look at the head, I can think of two things I'd like to do with it on its own. The easy one will be to use it as an idol hanging from a temple wall (Kull anyone?), maybe done up in brass (ruby eyes would look good in that scenario), with a blood-stained altar below.

The second option will be to have it as part of the external entrance to the temple or some subterranean cavern, the sort of thing where you have to walk into the snake's mouth to gain entrance, with steps leading down once you're in.

Hmmm, now that I think of it, a third use would be to use the two pieces that make up the "bread" in the head sandwich and turn them on their side, so the tip of the snout meets in the middle, sort of forming an arch...guess that means three puzzles to buy tomorrow!

Now what to do with the bodies? I'm thinking with some strategic cuts, they'd make good "bleached bones of an ancient leviathan" scenices, for everything from 2mm fantasy up to 28mm skirmish. One scenic piece of the bones stretched out in the desert, another of them half-embedded in a cliff wall, maybe covered in loam in some dark forest, that sort of thing.

In other purchasing adventures, I picked up some 1/72 Airfix WWI infantry for the British, German, and Americans, so I guess I've started a "Through the Mud and Blood" project too... I also picked up a 1/720 model of the Hindenburg, for WWI and pulp aerial adventures.