Demonsub goes all in with Sláine

While the detail on these models are fantastic and the Siocast material is really good at replicating that, it’s a pain to clean up and it’s pretty weak. I had one sword that needed to be glued back onto its miniature and a few spears which were bent. The hot water treatment works but not as good as with resin and sometimes the straightening doesn’t take and after a while the parts start to bend back. I think the material starts to soften at a much higher temperature than resin. 

The thin long spears were particularly problematic as I had to add some superglue to some splits that appeared after using hot water. They look much better but I’m not a hundred percent happy with their straightness.

Earth Tribesmen with Sword and Shield

Earth Tribesmen of the Sessair Red Branch

Earth Tribesmen with Spears

I was in two minds about adding wode tattoos. My freehand skill is nowhere near good enough for the intricate swirls, but I could add a few lines here and there. In the end I decided against it for now. I can always go back and add some later.

Just a small update to show off my two new weird stones I got from Scotia Grendel (I stole this idea from Zoidpinhead’s Sláine project).

These are solid, hefty pieces of resin that feel like rock in the hand. It’s a much harder resin than I’m used to and I’ve not seen it used anywhere else. It’s top quality stuff from Scotia Grendel, not to mention the speed of their very fast dispatch and delivery, which I’ve just done.

The details on these pieces are great. Loads of animal carvings and examples of ogham writing, a great fit for Sláine.

I used a green wash over the finished model to try to make these stones more weathered, as if the earth is trying to reclaim the rocks that were stolen from her. I also used 2mm moss tufts from Gamer Grass which I think work quite well.

I’m about halfway through painting the Earth Tribe box, so they’ll be my next post when they are done, hopefully not too long.

I wanted to quickly bulk up the numbers of models that I have available to play games with so I thought it would be a good idea to start the unit boxes, so first up was the Skull Swords box, nine miniature, each one different.

Skull Sword champions

Skull Swords with Axe & Shield

Skull Swords with crossbows

I was really surprised to receive one of these, particularly as my Five Leagues From The Borderlands project won one the previous week. I’m very grateful for the feature and have a look at the other projects that were also shown, they are fantastic. 

The Sláine starter set comes with an mdf kit from Sarissa Precision for two small roundhouses and some wattle fences. Earlier this year I built one of their larger roundhouse kits so I wasn’t going in completely blind.

The kit comes with instructions and building them isn’t too difficult but the result can be quite basic. As the roof of a roundhouse is quite prominent I used a green scouring pad for the roofing material. I like the look of this when painted as rather than looking like straw thatch it looks more like sod or coarser material that just looks more Iron Age to me. The kit comes with instructions for doing this and I used some of the tips from these but did some things my own way.

The first picture shows the cardboard roof before it’s folded and glued onto the mdf frame. It just about fits a standard sized Tesco own brand scouring pad.

The only cut I used here was to cut out a wedge so the pad could be folded into a cone to fit the roof. I would trim the overhanging parts later when glued. I found scissors to be the best for cutting the pad.

With plenty of thick pva glue onto the cardboard (and the cardboard already glued to the mdf frame and dried) I used spring clamps to hold the pad in place overnight. I did get a few impressions in the pad afterwards once the clamps were removed but these can be hidden later. There’s also the join where the pad was folded together running down the roof. This will be hidden and disguised later.

While the roof was drying I used all purpose filler to plaster the walls of the roundhouses both inside and out. Just a thin coating to add texture and hide a few seams.

I used a mix of cheap brown artists acrylic paint mixed with sand and pva glue to add a little extra texture to the roofs but also do add the sand mix down the seam lines to help disguise them. I also painted this same mix onto the floor of the roundhouses.

The first picture shows the roofs after one coat of brown paint mixed with pva glue and a little water. I used the artist’s paint rather than expensive miniature paint. The scouring pad absorbs a lot of paint so this is the first coat. I also left plenty of time for it to dry.

I painted the walls using pale yellow. You’ll notice that once dried, the roofs start to look green again as the paint is absorbed into the scouring pad.

The walls were given a wash of diluted agrax and then drybrushed with a light bone colour, along with the doors and the mdf fencing.

After their initial coat of paint the roofs were painted in a dark brown then drybrushed in the same light bone colour as the walls.

I added static grass to finish off the terrain. This is the final disguise for any remaining marks on the roof that all of the sand and painting failed to hide.

Here is the new terrain from the starter set along with the large roundhouse and the granary that I previously built earlier this year. I’m quite happy with the finished results and I think I’ve got a great looking village for Sláine to defend against the Druins.

Slough Throt

Drune Priest

Skull Swords

After playing my first game I went back to the miniatures I’d started and finished them off, mainly adding and working on the highlights but sometimes reworking some of the colours until I was happy with the model. I then added the base grass effects.

The preorder model, Sláine The King.

Nest.

Ukko, the dwarf.

So last night a few friends came over and we played Scenario B – A God’s Curse from the starter set booklet. As there weren’t many miniatures in the game, both of my friends decided to team up against me and play the Drunes, Slough Throt and three Skull Swords vs myself with Sláine and Ukko the dwarf.

The photos aren’t up to my normal lighting quality as I didn’t want to disturb the game  too much by fiddling with lamps, since my friends were there.

The goal of the scenario was for Slough Throt to visit each of the three runestones on the table while I had to stop him by way of a very large axe.

After a brief explanation of the rules to my friends we started drawing counters from the bag, the game was on.

Ukko immediately ran forward towards the drunes with a winded Sláine trying to keep up. Meanwhile the Skull Swords advanced, shields locked together while Slough Throt visited the first rune stone and made a sacrifice.

Ukko decided to wait for Sláine to catch up (you can ready a model and having him spend an action later in the game, interrupting another model’s action if necessary). While the Skull Swords did the same guarding the edge of a small wood.

Having finally caught up, Sláine spotted the Skull Swords and charged in wounding one of them.

Seeing Sláine occupied in battle Slough Throt dodged around the wood, heading for the second stone. Ukko, feeling particularly sneaky and a little brave, ran behind Throt planning on stabbing him in the back and saving the day. It didn’t go so well as Throt spun around giving Ukko a light slash, but turns out the blade was poisoned. Ukko’s face went green as he watched Throt reach the second runestone.

Sláine was still fighting the Skull Sword wounding another he didn’t think it too many, or perhaps not enough as he never got his warp spasm, probably due to the effects of the nearby rune stones corrupting the Earth.

With Sláine stuck in combat and Ukko feeling ill, Slough Throt at last made it to the final rune stone and victory was his.

Sláine wielding his axe.

Sláine in warp spasm.