Bad Squiddo Resistance Kickstarter

My buddy Annie from Bad Squiddo Games is running a Kickstarter until Wednesday 10 September. It's primarily to produce a range of women from the WWII Resistance in a variety of countries. There's something like sixteen figures overall, all cast as single piece metal miniatures.

It feels like a good time to be celebrating women who risked (and in some cases lost) their lives to oppose fascism. Each of the figures represents a specific historical figure, but they could also be used as resistance fighters in historical wargames, or armed women in pulp or horror games in the relevant period.

Annie's got a couple of partnerships going on this Kickstarter, the first being texture rollers that leave the right type of tracks for Sherman and Panzer tank tracks.

Annie is also launching a Jon Hodgson World War Ruins backdrop with the Kickstarter, so this will be the first opportunity to pick these up. Given all the excitement around more modern conflicts and alternative history, like Trench Crusade, there's going to be plenty of options to utilise these.

Historical games aren't my usual thing, but I know quite a few of my readers enjoy such things. If this is something you like, or like to see, please consider backing it and picking something up. Small firms run Kickstarters to make sure that projects like these can happen. It has already funded, but I like it when my friend isn't worrying about making rent or guinea pig vet bills, so do consider backing, or telling your friends about it if funds are tight or its not your thing.

Bad Squiddo Kickstarter

 
Bad Squiddo have a Kickstarter live at the moment. They've got a whole bunch of new fantasy miniatures to expand on their existing line. They aren't for a particular system, but would work for general fantasy RPGs such as D&D and Pathfinder, and quite a few would also really suit Runequest, which is hard to find good minis for!

Annie's a friend, and I'm a huge fan of these minis, so if you can spare a few quid, consider backing the Kickstarter. It's a short one, and ends this Tuesday at 8pm UK time, so you haven't got long.

Receiving TAG Raid, and Other Sorting

 

It's been a busy hobby weekend here, as I've been tidying up, and checking my delivery of TAG Raid - a board game / battle arena game set in the Infinity universe, with a lot of Infinity compatible miniatures included. I picked up two full sets (mostly paying for the second with the money I'd got selling off my spares from the Defiance Kickstarter) so I could paint up one full set for the game and then loot the second box for miniatures for my factions and sell the spares.

First, though, a whole bunch of tidying. There were quite a few models in the basket of putting away later that had been there a good long while, so I gave them a sort. Quite a lot of the bigger D&D monsters went away into the new KR case I'd picked up at SELWG, but I realised I needed one more, and have now ordered it.

The painting desk is also drowning in miniatures - a Wizkids dragon awaiting photography, a whole ton of Morats who I've had assembled and are being put away for now, and a finished Brushchewer commission that's awaiting photography...

Meanwhile, over here we have a big pile of repairs that have been building up a while, some more of those big D&D models, and a Thunderbrush commission for my NA2 and Qapu Khalqi that have been photographed and just need putting away now.

Another thing that arrived in the post recently are these Jon Hodgson backdrop books for miniature photography. I've not played around with them yet, but they seemed easy to use and the art is amazing. I got mine via a Kickstarter, but if they look like something you'd like, Bad Squiddo has a pre-order deal running at the moment.

I'd ordered a whole bunch of TAGs and Heavy Infantry for cheap alongside the Kickstarter for various factions I play. I've had a few mispacks recently, so I went through every single box and checked each part in turn so I don't come to build something in a few months and find something missing, or have to get one of my commission painters to take the photos I need for Corvus Belli's excellent missing parts service.

The game itself also has a lot to go through. Fortunately, the Rulebook had clear pictures of everything in the box so it was easy to check.

The mining TAGs, which are used as Triphammers in Infinity, are single piece PVC plastic, and pretty solid quality. I'm also excited  that they need precisely no assembly whatsoever, and I'll be able to run a Triphammer whenever I fancy now.

There are a lot of metal miniatures to go through, though. For each box and supplement, I need to go through, and check every single miniature is there...

... and then that every single part of each miniature is there in turn. It's a time consuming process, but really important when you've had a big order come in.

Anyhow, that's enough chatting from me. I need to get back down the part checking mines!

Bad Squiddo My Last Sunrise Kickstarter

Bad Squiddo Games are running a Kickstarter for some new horror miniatures. It's called "My Last Sunrise 2", and finishes on Sunday evening. There's some really excellent sculpts there that could suit fantasy games or gothic pulp.

An incredibly busy week

 

It's been a super busy week! I managed to get a little painting done - one of the Oathsworn Dwarfs is almost done, and I plugged away a bunch more base coats on the last of the Terrain Crate scatter. I also dropped in the first layers of the Corax Hasht repair / repaint. But a good indication of how busy I've been is that all the dwarf needs is their base washing and drybrushing, and the base rim painted, and I didn't find the time to do that over the weekend...

I helped out at a Dark Sphere Infinity tournament for their new local players by volunteering as the "ringer", to play if they had an odd number of players so no-one had to miss a game. I played two games then stepped back from the third round as another player had to leave early. It was a chance for me to deploy my Qapu Khalqi force that I haven't really played yet, as I didn't want to play a faction I'd been carefully honing all season against a bunch of new players...

I bought this book on a whim - it's an anthology of stories to celebrate 50 ears of the feminist publisher Virago. It was going to be my "if I don't have anything to do at the tournament" read, but I think it's going to end up being a train journey read in the future instead...

I've also had two crowd-funded efforts show up this week, too. These were when I was starting to really get into the idea of running an in person fantasy RPG campaign in the future using miniatures - whether D&D or some other system. First up, we have the Tanares Kickstarter. It started as a board game, and they've then released an RPG supplement for it as well. I had no interest in either the board game or the 5e additional material they were writing, but I backed a bundle of miniatures to get some unusual and interesting NPC and monster miniatures to use. I'll report back once I've gone through the box contents as to how successful that idea was...

I also had the latest Dungeons & Lasers Gamefound campaign turn up. It's mostly scenery that I've stashed away as a much lower painting priority, but it did also include a "Sample Pack" for their upcoming game "Deuslair". I am curious, so when hobby time returns, I'll see if I can get them assembled for a mini review. This is probably a shade optimistic, though...

This week - remembering to paint something!

 

My "make sure I actually paint something" model this week is Miko the Vampire Hunter by Bad Squiddo Games. The base is a Dungeons & Lasers base by Archon Studio. I got an extra set with one of their Kickstarters, and I'm not sure if they're planning to sell the bases separately or not.

It's worth noting that Bad Squiddo are planning on having a small Kickstarter for their Horror / Gothic range soon, which Miko is from. The launch date isn't finalised yet, but I'll let my loyal readers know when it's announced.

I spent Saturday at Red Star Blues, a tournament organised by one of HATE club at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. I had three fun games of Infinity with some excellent people, and I'll provide a longer write up in a bit.

It's the first of three busy weekends in a row, which I'm both looking forward to and also kind of looking forward to being over.

I'm definitely putting my Shasvastii on the back shelf now. I've found the White Company models I "put in a safe place" a few months ago so they're good to go again, and the last models I need to start experimenting with O-12 are off at assembly.

With the new Bakunin models coming out there is the deep temptation to start getting back into Nomads but I'm much further behind with working out their paint scheme than the O-12, so I'm going to exercise some patience there and hopefully get a reasonable selection of O-12 painted and ready for gaming.

(I am still plugging away at the undercoat work on the Onyx Contact Force batch I got back from assembly. They're definitely going away in a box for now and were mostly assembled for more efficient storage. There will come a day I turn up to a tournament with Onyx, but it's probably not this year...)

Bad Squiddo Definitely Not Damsels Kickstarter

A while back I got sent an early preview figure from Bad Squiddo - a fantasy archer. I had great fun painting it, and am a big fan of Bad Squiddo sculpts in general.

The Kickstarter for this fantasy range has now launched. It's a super quick one - less than a week. So, if you're interested, get in now!

Fenris Toadstool Brownies: Troupe Brownie with Fish

I managed to finish up the last of the Fenris Games Toadstool Brownie Kickstarter models I was sent as a preview this morning!

There’s only a few hours left to go on the Kickstarter, so if you want fine upstanding citizens like these adorable menaces on your gaming table, you should go and back it now...

Fenris Games Toadstool Brownies: Brownie Militia

I got a second model from the Toadstool Brownie Kickstarter painted up.

As before, I was sent this model free to promote the Kickstarter.

He's a Brownie Militia model, with an heirloom weapon of the village.

If I'd had a little more time, I think I'd have added a bit more contrast and brighter colours to him, but I wanted to get him done before the Kickstarter was over. Please do take a moment to go and check it out and maybe pick something up from it!

Fenris Games: Toadstool Brownies Kobold Smasher

This adorable little miscreant is a Kobold Smasher from the Fenris Games Toadstool Brownies Kickstarter that's currently going on. For full disclosure, I was sent him free as a promotion for me to paint up for the blog, along with two Brownies I haven't finished yet because I am a slacker.

He was a single piece metal model and needed practically no clean up whatsoever. I think he's taken paint really well - I used a mixture of Contrast and traditional paints to get him done. There's only a few days left on the Kickstarter campaign, so if you have the free funds, please do head on over there and back it!

Work in Progress Wednesday - Black Crab Miniatures Kickstarter Signposts

These two weird signposts are from the Black Crab Miniatures second Kickstarter. I don't know if there's anywhere you can buy them, though.

Monster Fight Club Pre-Painted Scenery

Back in May 2019, I signed up for a pre-painted terrain Kickstarter by "Monster Fight Club". It was delivered on time back in March. I was particularly excited to get terrain I felt was suitable for Infinity that was pre-painted and didn't need any assembly.

I was a bit worried about the size of the box. I was sure I hadn't ordered all that much!

Reader, I had not ordered that much. It seems they didn't have much variance in the available size of boxes, so there was a lot of air in my box.

The main part of my order, in the second level.

While everything arrived safely, I did think they could have probably managed to fit it into a slightly smaller box. This is everything I ordered, repacked. That's a lot of unused box!

So, here's one of the "rough ground" mats with rocks and fallen trees. The base is mouse mat material, and the trees and rocks pre painted plastic.

Here's a look underneath the rock so you can see how robust this is.

I also got three autumn trees in my order. The base is double sided and has a pond on the other side.

The trees come in two parts with a usable barren tree underneath them.

Overall, my order was this big rock outcrop, the three trees and two bases worth of scatter terrain (rocks and fallen trees). Now all I need to do is wait to find out how terrain rules work in the new edition of Infinity!

New Artis Opus Kickstarter - Drybrushes

Artis Opus are putting out another range of brushes. This time, it's called the "Series D", and they're a set of dry brushes. It's on Kickstarter for a week or two more, so it's worth having a look.

For clarity - I'm friends with some of the people involved in Artis Opus, but I've not received any payment or free product for this post. I just like their stuff. :)

Kickstarter: Artis Opus Brushes

My friend James has asked very nicely if I'll mention his new Kickstarter that's running at the moment. As I am a benevolent Responsible One, I thought I'd obliged.

For clarity - I have not received (nor do I expect) any payment or free product for this recommendation, but I do regard at least one of the people behind the project as a friend.

The Kickstarter is for a second series of painter's brushes by Artis Opus. I backed their last Kickstarter, for the "Series S" brushes, and I've been using the Size 1 brush from that quite a lot since the house move. It's a really nice brush and I rather like it.

The new Kickstarter is for a second range of brushes, called the "Series M".

The idea behind the Series M Kickstarter is that some painters prefer shorter bristles, particularly for detail work. Short bristles are really not my cup of tea, but I don't do a lot of display level painting. What I can vouch for is that my stuff turned up within a reasonable time (I'm not sure how reasonable, as my builder accidentally put the parcel in a kitchen cupboard and forgot to tell me for a while), and the quality is really good. They are on the pricey side, but that can be a thing for higher end brushes.

Brushes are definitely a personal thing, but if you are looking for new brushes, go check out the Kickstarter, because you may like them. And if you prefer longer brushes, you can still order those from their website instead.

Painted Ryza Ruins, and Black Crab Miniatures arrive

I'm pleased to say that the first models I've painted in the new flat are now finished!

The Ryza Ruins set is now fully painted. It's only a tabletop quality scenery job, but that's entirely reasonable for their joint responsibilities as 40K universe scenery and miniature photoshoot props and backdrop.

The paint recipe is simple enough - black undercoat, then two sets of three passes of lighter and lighter drybrushing. The inside is blue-green, the outside orange. A few details were picked out in metallics, everything got a sepia wash, then everything got a lilac (Slaanesh Grey) drybrush to bring it all together.

Of course, inconveniently, a small Kickstarter has delivered. These three highly reputable looking persons are by Black Crab Miniatures. I'm not sure if they're ever going to go to retail, so I'm pleased I picked them up.

So, how are the scores?

Painted / Purchased Score: 40 / 29

We're definitely seeing some improvement! I'm not yet in the clear and painted twice as much as I've bought / acquired, but it's going in the right direction.

I'm trying to knock out a few crates for HATE which should be an easy win on stuff painted. The Space Marine Heroes will be next up, but I will also get the Black Crab stuff prepped up sooner rather than later.