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

Hi everyone,

I spent most of last summer playing Silver Bayonet (besides a few other games), and if there is one lesson I learnt – the hard way – is that at times, you need more bodies on the ground.

To cut to the chase I needed more infantry men.  So I decided to use the miniatures I bought from Front Rank.

These included, one Polish Vistula fusilier, two French light infantry men, and one French fusilier. This made a huge difference in certain missions. These past two weeks, I decided to paint them up.

That concludes a nice but steady return to this project.  I am currently working on more infantry men for my French, but I want to diversify and add some colour to the force, so I will be adding in some allies.

Until next post, stay safe and have fun.

NR.

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