“Hola amigo, I come to suck your blood!”

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to post up some more profiles I have been working on for TSB. The latest games I have played are with vampires and just like with the Ghouls, the Cultists and the Werewolves – I wanted to spice it up a bit.

Below are the new vampire profiles.

THE VAMPIRE MASTER

The first up is the Vampire Master.  This is probably my favourite scoundrel in the gallery of villians I have come up with.  He is not that different from other vampires, but he does have more health and the option to use a hand weapon (or an ancient family heirloom as I see it!).

He also has the ability to shapeshift into a bat form, which gives him the ability of flight.

This character, in my humble opinion should be used in a campaign.  I found the best results when he is revealed at the end of a three to four part scenario campaign.

THE VAMPIRE BRIDES

I have seen many Hammer Horror classics, besides many vampire movies of all qualities.  The best among them always have the brides of the master.  So I told myself – TSB cannot be any less!

The brides are basically identical to normal vampires, with two fundamental differences.  First they come in threes,  and secondly they are bound to a particular point on the gaming table.  This could be a ruin, or a monument, or a cemetery. They can never move beyond six inches of the designated point.

Their purpose is to guard the site they are bound to and stop our intrepid heroes from fulling their mission.

NEW BORN VAMPIRES

Vampires are tough opponents, and they are usually accompanied by revenants when they appear in a scenario. I thought that since vampires tend to get stronger the older they get, why not have some weaker new born vampires running around the campaign – especially in the beginning with the first scenario.

In order to reflect their inexperience as a blood-sucker, I reduced several of their stats and removed the attributes strong and soul sheer.  This makes them more manageable, but still very dangerous!

The games I have played with these vampires have been very, very tough; I must admit.  During the first games I made these blood suckers a bit too strong, but after nearly a month and 12 games, I think I have them pinned down.

If you are interested in running them, keep them till last in order to give your team some time to gain experience.

That is all for now.  I hope to finish off my 10mm High army so I can get back to dedicating all my time to painting this range. Therefore I soldier on through the brush strokes and and the flocking!

Until next time stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished the clue markers I bought from Alternative Armies.  The great thing about them is that they pass as scatter terrain as well.  I found playing with them makes a world of difference.

The last two I painted up were the biggest pieces and the most detailed as well. I kept the palette very simple and when I gave the models a wash, I only used two washes – Burnt Umber and a darker Burnt Umber.

The last picture is a group shot of all the pieces in my collection. I really like these models from AA, and I hope they make more.  In the meantime I will be buying some of their new mechs in 15mm.

I have to go back and fix the troll now.  I am not sure how I am going to do it without stripping it.  I will have to give it some thought.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Another short post proving that TSB is not dead!  Last post, I was working on the objective markers for TSB, and today I have painted up three more.  I find this a great way to relieve the stress of painting up armies for a long period.

I have actually also finished the troll for this game as well, but I am not happy with how it turned out, and I am thinking on ways to fix/improve it.

In either case, the objectives were painted up with three different browns and highlighted with lighter gradations. Then I just gave them an oil wash and let them dry.

That is all for TSB this week.  I might add some profiles for different vampires next week as my test games are yielding better results.

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I’m back today with another quick update for TSB.  I do not want to abandon hobby-time on this project altogether, despite the fact I am busy with the 10mm High Elves at the moment.  For one, I enjoy the game a ton and two; I find painting TSB very relaxing.

So I went back to it this week and did some work on the clue markers.  Since I am intrinsically a lazy person, I naturally started with the easiest of the lot – the skull piles.

These are very simple to paint: a base of sand colour, then several washes and drybrushing – then presto! –  piles of skulls.

Next up were the crates.  I have not painted them as yet, but because they are identical, I wanted to make them slightly different.

I approached this with some Mod Podge, tissue paper and a brush.  If you don’t have Mod Podge, then watered down PVA glue will do fine.

Simply fold the tissue several times (depending on thickness) for strength then cut the tissue paper to your prescribed size. Fit the tissue into place by pressing it in gently to get it into a fitting shape.

Next add some Mod Podge to the bottom of the tissue and fix it into place.  Then add Mod Podge to the top and mould it into the crates.

Then let it dry and paint it up.

A simple procedure to make two identical objects look different.  Now I have to find the time to paint them up.

Hopefully, my next post will be the finished Troll, but everything seems to be going in slow motion at the moment.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everybody,

I have played well over thirty games of TSB – all of them solo and all of them lasting about 35 to 45 mins.  Up till now I have always used 2D plastic bases as my clue markers or objective markers as they are commonly known throughout the gaming community.

So a few weeks ago I decided to use 3D markers and I went searching through the interwebs to see what would strike my fancy.

I came upon some items from Alternative Armies that were affordable and suited the period and genre of the game

First up are the abandon wagons.  These are fairly chunky pieces of resin and are also fairly priced.  They are also made for the black powder era, so they fit in perfectly.

I was surprised to see how well cast they are with no bubble holes or flash.  It is the first time I bough resin products from this company and I was very happy with the quality.

Next up are the crate piles.  They come in packs of two which is great.  They are also explicitly made for the period which is an added bonus.  The downside is they are the same.  This is a minor issue though, and easily solved with some glue and tissue-paper.   I will show how to do this when I get to painting them.

The hand cart below is the only item that is cast in metal.  It is a cute piece and very affordable for what it is.  it comes in three parts – 2 wheels and the body.  It was also well cast, but there was a bit of clean up need (especially around the wheels).

Last but definitely not least (since they are my favourite of the lot) are the skull piles.  I thought these would make excellent clue markers for scenarios with ghouls or maybe cultists.  They can also be used to denote ritual stacking of human skulls to mark territory or for a warning against interlopers.

I just wish they had higher piles I could buy!

A quick update for an hours work.  I do not know when I will be painting these up, but at least I can play games that are visually more interesting.

Now I have to go back to painting my troll!

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I had two days off and I spent it all on hobby – it was glorious!  I managed to finish off all my Dark Wolf pack, including the direwolves.  I also worked on my 10mm High Elves – but more on that later.

Below is a closer look at the newer wolves I painted up.  As you can see there are three types of subtly different colour schemes.  One is based on dark grey, one on dark blue and the last on a mid-grey.

I did not want any browns because I did not want them to look like a normal pack of wolves.  All black and grey makes them look scarier to me.

The last two models are my direwolves.  These beautiful minis are from Gamezone Miniatures and they come in resin or metal (the resin version is half the price roughly).

I wanted to simulate the story of ‘The lions of Tsavo‘.  These were two rogue man-eater lions that terrorized Tsavo in the latter part of the 19th century.  There was a great movie with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas called ‘The Ghost and the Darkness‘ – I highly recommend you watch this!

I have played a three part mini-campaign that leads up to the direwolves appearing in the third scenario. The clicker is that you never know if only one or both will appear.

Well, that is all for me for now.  I am not sure what else to start in TSB range.  I might continue my team or focus on a single large monster.  I will think about it.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

So I have started another project out of necessity – a 10mm High Elf army for a ‘Fantastic Battles’ campaign – so this project is not getting as much time.

Nonetheless I am trying to spread out my time over these two projects as best I can, but the High Elf project might have to get the bigger slice of my attention for now.  I will be opening up a project on my 10mm High Elves soon.

In the meantime I have started work on the Dark Wolves, which I did start to paint several weeks ago. I managed to give them a basecoat.  Today, though, I have finished the first batch.

I will also re-post the profiles for Alpha Wolves and Direwolves below just in case anyone is interested.

I might be able to post another four wolves next Thursday if all goes well.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have been working frantically on my 10mm High Elf army, because I have a ‘Fantastic Battles’ campaign coming up soon, so I lacked behind on my Silver Bayonet project.

But I have received my Gamezone troll and a Nasier Greathorn (for my demon) from the defunct Wrath of Kings rang.

Scale is Everything

I put scale as one of the top choices when it comes to purchasing models for The Silver Bayonet.  I found the scale of the troll and the Greathorn to the average human to be spot on.

I also received my Corelocks from Lucid Eye miniatures.  I will be using these as proxies for Hobgoblins.  I don’t like the Hobgoblins from Northstar.  The models are fine, but they look too fantasy-like.  I think these are more appropriate.

Hopefully I will have more finished work next week.  Until then stay safe and have fun.

Best regards,

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished the ghouls.  I admit that I did rush them a bit – spending about 3 hours on each.  For a slow painter like myself that is very fast.

I went with a more stylistic approach with the violet and purple shading, but I felt that they were looking a bit drab.  I added the blood effects to further create some interest .

When you examine them up close, you will notice hat I did not spend anytime blending in the layers.  This was done on purpose.  It was part of the stylistic approach to facilitate speed, but when seen from a birds eye view on the table I think they look very good.

The last two were the ghoul female and the leader.  I left these two to the end because they required the most work.

That is all for now.  I am not sure what I will do next in this project. I might do the dark wolves since I already base-coated them. If not I will work on my viking war-rhino, I will spend the rest of the day thinking about it.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finished another three ghouls.  I now only have two more to go before this cannibalistic clan is complete.

I hope to finish the ghouls by next week.  My next post will probably be a review of some miniature – I will have to see – but until then;

Stay safe and have fun,

NR

Hi everyone,

Another short post.  I finished painting up the next three ghouls.  They are painted up in the same fashion as the other ghouls.  With these I have official past the half way mark to finishing all my ghouls.  Huzzah!

The next post will most probably be more ghouls, because I have start another three of them.

So until then, have fun and stay safe.

NR

Hi everyone,

I just received some Front Rank miniatures this morning in the post-box.  I quickly took some pictures because I think they are fantastic and I wanted to share them with you all.

I wanted to buy these several weeks ago, but Front Rank had sold out to Gripping Beast Miniatures, but now they are open for business again. I have never bought any miniatures from this company before, so I opted for a sample to compare them with my Northstar Miniatures.

I was over-the-moon to see that they fit perfectly into the range.  They have sharp detail and good proportions.

The first two are artillery gunners. I bought the Horse Artillery gunners on the advice of of fellow Otter ‘Scribbs’. I needed a n unmounted Hussar and the artillery officer is perfect for the role.

Next up are some infantry men for my French Silver Bayonet team.  The core box doesn’t have infantry men so I bought two Light Chasseur troopers and one Vistula trooper.

The last picture is a comparison with one of my French Silver Bayonet team for comparison’s sake.

The most useful find though were the pistols.  These are excellent for small conversions and they are quite cheap as well.

That is all for now.  I hope this little article helps, and if you were on the fence whether to buy Front Rank or not, let me tell you they are worth their wait in gold.

Stay safe and have fun.

Nr

Hi everyone,

I have some more alternative profiles for you to try out if you are so inclined.  I have play-tested these Werewolf profiles over a 3-part solo campaign several times.

Every campaign ended out differently even though I played with the same models, which I take as a good thing. As always I only tried to add attributes that already exist in the rulebook and all profile changes are incremental.

Werewolf Profiles

The first addition is the Werewolf Alpha.  There is not much change here, just increments to its Melee and Health profile. This makes the alpha harder to kill and therefore a bigger threat.

You can only ever have one werewolf alpha in a game.

Next up is the big daddy – the Werewolf Primogenitor.  This is an ancient werewolf that created the line of lycanthropes in the campaign.  Just like the Ghoul King, the Primogenitor should only be brought in at the end of the campaign.

He is stronger than the alpha and has extra Health. I gave him the attribute ‘very strong’ instead of just ‘strong’. To counteract this extra strength, I also gave the Primogentior the ‘large’ attribute.

The last profile is my favorite – a werewolf during the initial transformation.

I played these werewolves as part of the first scenario in a campaign where there were villagers roaming around randomly in a village.

Among the villagers are your Silver Bayonet team trying to find who is the werewolf or werewolves. First roll a D3 to determine how many villagers turn. Then roll a dice to determine which of the villagers turn and replace the villager model with a werewolf model during the initial transformation.

These werewolves spend a whole turn in this state and during their turn they will attack the other villagers and your team members.  Your duty is to put these rabid werewolves down before they change to a fully fledged werewolf during the second turn and protect the villagers from being eaten.

Once again I do not have a fully written scenario as I am still experimenting, but the scenarios will come eventually.

Something I am trying very hard to keep and putting emphasis on is scale. As you can see from the picture, I did  not want ogre-sized werewolves – except for the Primogenitor.   The main werewolves had to be slightly larger than human; the alpha slightly bigger than a normal werewolf; and finally the monstrous Primogenitor.

I think my choices reflect my vision for my werewolf well and I am quite happy with them and now I can start to paint them up.

That is all for today. Hopefully I will more models painted by Sunday.

Until then have fun and stay safe.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finished my so called ‘Ghoul King’ and I added some blood effects to my finished ghouls. I also have started three more ghouls.

As for the Ghoul King, it is a model from Otherworld Miniatures (currently at 50% discount).  I do not know what is hanging from its mouth?, so I painted it in red and tried to make it look like torn flesh.

The next three models are the ghouls from Heresy Miniatures.  These models have more detail and definition.  I have finished the loin cloths but the rest is still in the works.

That is all for this week.  Hopefully, I will finish more next week.  I will be posting alternative profiles for the werewolves on Tuesday as well.

Till then, stay safe and have fun,

NR

Hi everyone,

A short post today.  I finished the ghoul toddler today.  The painting is the same as the previous ghouls, but I tried taking the pictures under a different light source and the colour version is a slightly different.  I am a terrible photographer.

I also finished converting my French Guard.  I made into a professional vampire hunter – with a hammer and stake, crossbow and neck-armour!

The stake came out a little too thick, but I did not notice until after I attached it. I also wanted a fancy crossbow for the hunter, so I took a Dark Elf crossbow and tried to make it look a little less elfy.

Next week I will be posting some extra profiles for the werwolves, so stay tuned for that.

As always stay safe and have fun.

NR

I have finally started to paint up my monsters.  I started with the ghouls because I have play-tested them a lot and I have currently moved on to different monsters.  This way, I have all the time I need to focus on these handsome fellows.

Since I am a very lazy person at heart, I wanted to find the easiest way to get these done.  So I went with Reaper’s Master Paint Series.

Reaper Miniatures sell these paints in sets of three and are usually themed according to subject – in this case ghouls.  They cost around 10 sterling for a blister pack of three paints.  You can also buy them as single bottles.

The initial test result was appropriate but very dull!

Therefore I decided to shade with violets and purples  to shake things up a bit.

Below is a picture of the big Grendel model with the base colour of the ghouls to the left, and to the right a ghoul at the final stage.

You can see how the violets and purples change the body colour landscape dramatically.

That’s all for now.  I will continue to paint more ghouls for the time being, but I am working on other stuff that I will post up soon.

Until then, have fun and stay safe.

NR

Hi everyone,

Today I would like to present an expansion on the Dark Wolf profile. I only added an alpha to the pack and a dire wolf, but it is amazing to me how much of a difference it makes.  I find that the games I have played are more tense and desperate for it. A caveat, as always, is that I have only played solo games.  I have yet to try these (as well as the other profiles) in normal adversary games.

The first two pictures are of my unfinished wolves with primer and a first coat of paint.  The second shows the size increase of the species.

DARK WOLF PROFILES

The first up are the alpha dark wolves.  These bad boys have an extra point of melee and  two points of health.  A small upgrade but significant enough to make them stand out. You can only ever have up to two alphas in a game (consider them alphas from different packs).

Next up are the Dire Wolves.  I envision these wolves as semi-sentient and extremely evil creatures that hunger for human flesh.  They are also frequently confused for werewolves or shape-changers.

I gave them two points on melee and four points on health on the standard dark wolf profile, in order to make them truly fearsome opponents.  I increased their courage to +1 to reflect their semi-sentient and aggressive nature.  Since they are so huge, I gave them the ‘Large’ attribute to counteract their speed.

You can only ever have one or two dire wolves, preferably only one.  I have used two in a three part campaign, where the heroes do not know that there is a second dire wolf.  Consider the campaign story similiar to the man-eating lions of Tsavo!

Last, but definitely not least, are the common dark wolves.  These remain exactly the same as the core rulebook.

Once again, I hope you try these out in your games and I if you have any improvements – please let me know.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I just finished up painting the original crew of my French Bayonet Team.  I really enjoyed the experience, and spending time on one miniature instead of six at a time was a nice change of pace. I want to start painting up some hostiles in in order to mix thing up a bit.

The last model of the team was my Mama Voodoo, the group’s occultist.  I also diverted slightly from the original painted job.  I wanted all the models to have some Prussian Blue to tie them together.

Nonetheless, I am going to add some Swiss, Italians and Polish to the team in the future – just to add more colour and diversification.

Foe next week I want to post some more profiles and I will start work on the Ghouls.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Today I have two more minis from my French Team.  These are the Vivandiere and the Supernatural Investigator.

I left the Supernatural Investigator with the same colours as the artwork, but with the Vivandiere, I decided to divert slightly and make her a bit more colourful.

All I have left now, from the original Northstar miniature French Team, is the Occultist.  Hopeful I will find time to finish her off this week as well.

Until then have fun and stay safe.

NR

Hi everyone,

Today I would like to present another ‘expansion’ the the bestiary profiles in the game.  This time I have expanded the ghoul’s profile and added a new monster as well.

NEW  GHOUL PROFILES & ATTRIBUTES

The first up are the Ghoul King and the Ghoul Leader.  The nature of these creature’s entries are the same, they just have better profile states and the Ghoul King has Very Strong attribute instead of only Strong attribute. The Ghoul King model is the Grendel miniature from the Otherworld Miniature range.  It is currently on sale and selling at 50%. Grendel was an eater of men, so I thought he would fit the role nicely.

You can only ever have only one Ghoul King and Ghoul Leader anytime in a game.

Next up is the Ghoul Toddler.  This little brat of a ghoul is more of a nuisance than a menace, unless you put him in a nursery and he ends up eating the other children. To reflect this I took away the Strong attribute and gave it the Irritant attribute.  I also reduced the power level of the Ghoul profile.

Last but not least, is a new character I named the Herald.  This is a rat-man like individual who goes into towns and villages searching for freshly buried individuals for his Ghoul King master with his enhanced sense of smell.

When cornered he calls upon swarms of rats to come and cover his escape by harassing his assailants. I have also added profiles for the Herald and his rat swarms in the attached PDFs.

I hope you find this interesting and give them a try.  I found that they add a lot to the game.  The best way to use the Ghoul King, in my opinion, is in a 3 scenario campaign where he shows up in the last scenario.

In the next post I will have more painted miniatures. Until then play on and stay safe.

NR