Adios Otherworld!

Some sad news from the world of hobbying - one of my favourite companies has ceased trading. Yes, Otherworld Miniatures is no more. Conscript Dave V. shared a recent Facebook post where the company announced this, along with a sale of 50% off their remaining stock... quick as I was to get on it, I was far too late as there was pretty much nothing left.

Fortunately I'd placed an order not long before Prairiecon, and had gotten these two models (the "Brigands II" pack) painted. I do have a few more in the pending pile as well.

Anyway these models were typical of Otherworld, just excellent figures, great sculpts and well cast. Their miniatures skirmish wargame is great fun as well.

Allegedly the moulds are being passed on to other traders so the models may appear again from other companies. I certainly hope so, we've painted lots of their models and they're uniformly excellent. They totally nail the old school vibe that feeds the nostalgia of gamers "of a certain age".

So adios Otherworld, hope to see you again someday.
 

Wendigo

 Forbidden Psalm has some really big monsters in it, including the Corpse Collector and the Puca. The Puca has a tall thin body with moose antlers and a savage looking mouth.  It’s basically a Wendigo. 

Various designers have made 3d prints of both models which are available on Etsy. I’m not a fan of the resin 3d print models are made of. I find it brittle and delicate and worry how well they’ll survive shipping. As such I wanted to reduce the amount of shipping time. Luckily, one of the Esty shops is based in Quebec and sold both the Corpse Collector and a nasty looking Windego which will stand in well for the Puca monster. Both models arrived last week and I was surprised to find that they survived Canada Post shipping intact. The first model I managed to paint is the wendigo. He painted up well, but there were a few times I was worried I was going to break the arms or antlers while painting. The model looks great but feels very fragile for gaming. 

Hopefully I can get the corpse collector done next week.

Thanks for visiting.

Cold Warriors - BobMack 3D 28mm Marder 1A3s, Plus More Eureka Bundeswehr and Soviets

OK so there's a few more Cold Warriors to post here! I recently ordered some freaky Chaos/Hieronymous Bosch li'l dudes from Eureka, and threw some Bundeswehr and Soviets into the order, just because. They were quick to paint so here they are, along with some extra unpainted models from years ago. 

MG3 machinegunner in NBC gear. A leftover.

Panzerfaust 3 operator and GraMaWa (granatmaschinenwaffe - grenade machinegun) gunner. Whoa!

Bundeswehr sniper with G22 (Accuracy International AWM-F) in .300 Winchester Magnum (7.62x67).

I also picked up a couple more Chemical Commies, a Sagger (AT-3 ATGM) operator, PKM machinegunner, and flamethrower operator.

The Sagger set from Eureka is so cool. So much ATGM goodness.

The flamethrower dude and PKM gunner are great too. The Chemical Commies are painted with Vallejo German Uniform highlighted up with a VGU/white mix. The Bundeswehr flecktarn is Doombull Brown, Castellan Green, and Deathworld Forest.

But check these out - 3D-printed BobMack 3D Marder 1A3s from their Kickstarter, printed for me by Conscript Byron.

These are 1/56 scale models, and replace the North Korea store Marders in my Bundeswehr force. These scale quite well against the Leopard 2s I have already. (For those who are wondering, the NKS Marders were built on the SAME CHASSIS as their Leopard 2s. They were therefore waaaay bigger than scale Marders should be. These ones are much smaller than the Leopards).

I also got decals for these from District Miniatures. On the Marder 1A3 sheet you get decals for four vehicles, including crosses and (importantly) number plates. These are some great decals! The camo is Doombull Brown, Castellan Green/Deathworld Forest, and Vallejo Dark Rubber.

Here's one of the Marders with some BW infantrymen. Can hardly wait to get these out for a game. It will happen this summer I swear. I just have to find/write a Cold War mod for Bolt Action, I think that'd work best for a game.

Animals Big and Small

 Another quick batch of models for my Frostgrave bestiary. Here’s a gorilla, bear, 4 wolves and cougar (snow leopard proxy). With the exception of the cougar, all are from Northstar miniatures. I also painted up a werewolf from Reaper miniatures. Nothing too fancy here, but got them done quick!

Thanks for visiting and Happy Canada Day!

Evil Wizard

 One last model for June! Here’s a necromancer from Reaper Miniatures made in metal. He’ll be used as the “evil wizard” for one of the forbidden psalm scenarios. I kept him in purple to match the skeletons I painted earlier because every necromancer needs minions!

June has been pretty productive! Hopefully I can keep it going.

Ork Dakka Jets for Aeronautica Imperialis

Bad Moons in the sky! Ork "Dakka Jets" for Aeronautica Imperialis.

Another fun bit of random painting - a pair of random "Dakka Jets" from GW's "Aeronautica Imperialis" rules for air combat in the Warhammer 40k setting. These are multi-part plastic kits from GW. 

Love that crazy "V"-shaped twin tail...

"Aeronautica Imperialis" was cancelled last year just as "Legions Imperialis" was released. While the game was available, it had great models, and these Ork fighter craft are a lot of fun to work with. They are kind of a genius model design, essentially a very interchangeable set of components you can organize in a variety of ways to create aircraft that look broadly similar without all looking the same - this is a perfect solution for the Orks, where each larger craft or vehicle is an individual work, and not something assembled off of any kind of specific plan. 

Seems like a totally safe craft to me...

The "Dakka Jet" is the basic fighter for the Orks, and as you might imagine, in the Aeronautica game they fly very fast and don't last too long damage-wise. They can also be upgraded with an assortment of bombs, rockets or even MORE blastas and other assorted whacky Orky weapons. While the "Dakka Jet" would generally be dog fighting and trying to shoot down opposing aircraft (most of the time), you can also equip it with weapons for ground attacks, so they can be used in the various scenarios the game offers.

Nice view of the engine work - surely a low-emission thing?

The wing-man...

These two models had been built, primed, and sat in a box for over a year, and they turned up here in Toronto while I was unpacking a box of hobby bits. I thought it would be a fun little palette-cleanser of a project to finish these two craft. I decided to make these primarily yellow/"Bad Moonz" type craft, to add to the color variety of the Ork ships I have painted so far.

Bombs and/or rockets away!

Love the little landing skid on the bottom...these things are so whacky...

In terms of weapons, I added a mix of bombs and rockets under the wings just to offer some further variety to the look these crazy ships. I find Ork craft don't paint too quickly, as the Orks are not the sort to go with uniform paint schemes any more than they are the sort to with uniform designs or blueprints.

So the Ork air fleet is now increased to six of these "Dakka Jets", to go along with two "Fighta Bommerz". Plenty for a game sometime. Might be time to work my way up to some of the larger "Bommas" in the Ork air arsenal...perhaps another palette-cleansing project for later in the summer? We'll see! That's all for now - thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Blood Rage Vampires

 I’m on a roll here! Blood Rage Vampires for… you guessed it, Forbidden Psalm! All are from Reaper Miniatures. 3 are in metal and one in siocast. Look for the mold lines to figure out which one is siocast. 

Based on my reading of one of the scenarios, 4 should be sufficient. If not, I’m sure Dallas has a few more kicking around!

Thanks for visiting.