Painting trolls

I already got two of these models;  now I'm just making sure I never need any trolls again. The 4 armed version is a conversion by someone else; too bad it wasn't ready for its appearance in Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

16th Battle of Cluswar: A Song Of Ice & Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game tournament

For my first wargaming outing since the happening, I dove straight into a small local tournament. I got transported to and from, sat most of the time with my legs propped up... it wasn't completely fine, but it was great nonetheless.

Game 1 vs Targaryens. I had little hope with giants against dragons, but I managed to eke out a minor victory.

Game 2 vs Lannisters. I had little hope against my experienced opponent playing his favorite army, but I managed to eke out a victory.

Game 3 vs Starks. I was riding the high of my previous win, but, you might be seeing a pattern here, I had little hope against double Tully cavalry deployed in my face. Once again, I managed to eke out a victory.

Accidental tournament winner...?!

Game 3: Free Folk vs Starks

Game 3 of Banners and Butchery against double Tully cavalry. My opponent was obviously going to pick this one with the close deployment and needing attack actions on objectives. I picked the giants, knowing that double cavalry would just mow down my zoo. I haven't played against the Starks in a while, so a bit of trepidation. Beware the Assault Orders.

Obviously the Starks deployed on the line, with one unit of cavalry in Outflank. I placed the Giant Spear Thrower on my objective, but already I felt it went too far ahead. I protected the other objective with spikes. One giant on the far left to score some cheeky points.

Game 2: Free Folk vs Lannisters

Game 2 against my eternal opponent and his High Sparrow led infantry blocks. In A Game of Thrones, the choice of Varamyr's zoo in support of Mag's giants was obvious.

Game 1: Free Folk vs Targaryens

Game 1 versus dragons. Appropriately, A Dance with Dragons. I picked my giants list, because dragons autokill Varamyr's zoo. Sigh.

Review: Space Marine 2

Titus is back! Once again, this game does what few do: completely capture the atmosphere of what it is trying to do. You don't play as a space marine. You ARE a space marine. All the environs are perfect. You only ever talk about courage and honor. You never sneak: your boots thud on the ground with each step. Immersion: here I come!

Review: Total War: Shogun 2

I know it's an old one... but at the time my PC wasn't good enough for it. I played a lot of the original Total War: Shogun, so I'm not going to miss this one. Sengoku Jidai, here we go!

Wooden floor

Review: Necromunda: Hired Gun

Welcome to janky looter shooter town, now with no inventory management! The game is really fun though. 

Review: Horizon: Forbidden West

Remember my gushing review of the first installment? Yep, it's happening again. Only this time, it took even longer. I started my playthrough August 2025 and finished February 2026.

March review and April goals

We're back in business! Somewhat.

On the gaming side of life, I did a couple of online sessions of D&D, keeping them short. However, I am now able to walk around on crutches and my first outing consisted of a live session! Not much gaming obviously, too much to talk about, but it's a start. I will ease back into going out, gradually.

I also played some video games. Barely any, considering the time spent in bed, but I'll do a couple of reviews in lieu of other posts.

On the hobby side, I started painting again, beginning with the January WIPs. The state of my excel is depressing. But I got a couple of things done, just waiting for a nice sunny day to spray varnish, which will be a challenge of its own. In any case, it will be some time until I paint enough to try a photo session.

So those are my April goals: finish the nuns and D&D monsters started, and continue with all the Astra Militarum infantry that I had optimistically primed before the happening. Perhaps sprinkle a couple more monsters and/or commissions to keep things varied.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Mushrooms vs rock giants

Reconvening after a long time, the party found its way back to the dungeon, descending to level 20. Right at the entrance, there was a death trap; after that, smooth sailing for a while. They skipped a deep chasm and ran into a myconid colony. The Sovereign, a nice lady called Floot, offered them some potions in exchange for destroying the rock giants and rock demons plaguing the level. While still in the telepathic range, Szivem started debating whether to kill her for her fancy glowing hat. Understandably, the myconids asked them to leave the colony.

February review and... no March goals

Yep, everything is still the same.

January review and... no February goals

January started off quite nicely on the painting front, with me finishing some WIPs and starting new projects. I was quite pumped to finish my Imperial Guard, do some fantasy minis, dragon inventory and the like.

But then life said: how about you break your leg instead. That's the last time I'll ever visit a skating rink.

So I'm currently bedridden, and will be for the near future. All the stuff I've published during January was whatever I finished and took pictures of before the happening. At the moment I can't even sit to paint, nevermind going to gaming sessions. 

So: I'll go dark during February, and here's hoping that I'll recover enough to start doing stuff again come spring.

Painting 3d printed Escher proxies as Kasrkin

I decided to max out my Kasrkin and obviously I continued with this project. I bought a box of 10, made an excel sheet on what I can convert and what I need. As I didn't want to buy another box of 10 to have more leftovers, I decided on hunting down some 3d proxies. Now some of these are really uncanny, out of scale, thick and so on. Whatever.

Painting a Savage Giant

I bought this painted giant for cheap, then traded it for another and... it's complicated. Before handing it over, I decided to bring it up to speed.

Converting and painting Free Folk giants

Not many conversions, mostly just scenic bases. Once I was free of the movement tray concept, I could glue in the giants and use the entire surface for basing elements.

Converting and painting Free Folk Raiders

After the Thenns and Followers of Bone, I had all the tools out to make unique Raiders as well.

Converting and painting Palatine Guard as Krieg Combat Engineers (with mine dogs)

More Napoleonic Kriegers, this time the Combat Engineers. Instead of drones, they will use WW2 Russian mine dogs.

Converting and painting Palatine Guard as Krieg Heavy Weapons Squads

Inspired by the artillery teams, I continued to use up my Napoleonic infantry as Kriegers. 

Painting and fixing up Stark heroes and cavalry

Last commission of 2025: a bunch of Starks to beautify.

Painting ASOIAF dragons for D&D

After going on an on about how awesome these dragons are and how I'd like to paint them for D&D, I actually got a box in return for a unique Robb Stark miniature. I decided to paint them as close as possible to the originals, as in: white, black and green young dragons. I used this wiki as reference for how they should look.

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

We didn't have enough people to play D&D, so we tried out this boardgame touted as "DMless D&D". Well, the DM was actually an app on a laptop, telling us how to place new tiles on the map, along with interaction tokens and enemies. It also told us how the enemies fight. 

We assumed the roles of Aragorn, Bilbo, Gimli and Legolas and dove in. 

Mausritter: sword and whiskers roleplaying

In an RPG that is somehow even cuter than the One Ring hobbit adventure, we quickly rolled up mouse characters hanging out in a tavern, drinking mushroom wine. We were approached by junkie mouse-Gandalf who needed special black sunflower seeds from an abandoned giant's settlement.

I rolled the most WIL and decided to try and talk to everybody. This despite me being a black mouse with glowing green eyes and 1 HP. 

The year in review (also: Happy New Year!)

It's the season! We are primarily here for this picture, and its breakdown just below. More report on the state of the hobby after that, along with goals and new year's pledges.

Painting Bones minis: Underdark monsters

More monsters that I primed by airbrush and decided to paint.

Commission painting mushroom people

A random commission that started out as a joke. However, I got really into it and decided to base the color schemes on real mushrooms. The minis are mostly Bones with some metal, all primed white.