Back in the Game

I've not been posting a lot of painting for the past few months. I've had a dearth of motivation brought about by several factors that I won't go into.

However, at the tail end of May I went to the UK Games Expo and whilst there I pick up a handful of individual boardgame pieces that I figured I might be able to use in Carnevale.

I've no idea what games these miniatures come from and they were all single piece sculpts. I picked up 5 models but I didn't notice that one of the models had rather anachronistic trousers and shoes, and so I'm hoping to convert that one.

Although I'm a fan of the official Carnevale miniature range, I'm not massively keen on the city guard models. Therefore, this will serve as the first member of my own take on the subfaction of the Patricians, reflecting their control of the levers of power.

I'm not sure which exact profile I'll use for him, but I suspect, due to his armament, he'll end up being a Guard Captain.

I was unsure of which faction to look in to find a use for this miniature. The ornate robe made me consider some kind of spuellcaster for the Strigoi, but I figured that some of his clothing had an Ottoman feel to it, with a European look to his face.

In Carnevale, the Ottomans are in the pay of the Patricians, and so I thought that a noble envoy affecting Ottoman style suited the character of an Adventuring Noble, which can also cast spells.

The easiest model to assign to a faction was this cultist which will be joining the Rashaar as a Cult Officiant of the Church of Dagon.

My Rashaar forces continue to grow ever more numerous.

The final miniature was this unassuming woman, who could easily have been a Citizen working for the Guild or Household Staff for the Patricians. 

However, I ultimately decided that I wanted to add to my entirely proxied Strigoi force, and the cut of her clothing suggested the idea of her being a Romani.

I'm genuinely quite pleased with the skin tone I've achieved here, and I'm going to look to add a few more Romani style miniatures to the faction over time now that I know how.

I've often found small wins the best way to fight painting slumps, and so you can expect a few more smaller projects to help get me back into gear.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 123

Lead Mountain: 701

The After-Party After-Party

Whilst I've been occupied by all things Fallout for the last month, work was suspended on my Venice gaming table project for Carnevale, despite having already printed several buildings and a significant number of street tiles.

However, the February installment of the Carnevale MyMiniFactory tribes rewards hit my inbox and included a way to get get back on track prompted me to finish off the remaining contents of the World's Faire After-Party starter set: the Patrician's.

I think.i mentioned when I painted the Doctors that I really appreciated the fact that the forces in the box fit very well with the particular flavours of both factions that I have already collected.

The Patricians in the starter set are partying nobles and their servants, much like what I already own, rather than the more military or naval options available to the faction.

The premise of the story in the starter set is that Viviana, a Barnabotti, has decided that she wants to steal a unicorn rumoured to be on display at the World's Faire. The rumours are actually a trap laid by the Doctors.

The Barnabotti model representing Viviana appears more daunting to paint than it actually is, and the miniature responded well to contrast paints, with the hardest part of painting her was all of the gold trim, even though the details are all very crisply detailed.

To help with the theft, Viviana hires an experienced Cat Burglar (nobles who steal from their peers for kicks) to lead the expedition. 

The Car Burglar is actually a Hero model, rather than a Henchman like the Barnabotti, and so is the actually leader in the scenarios in the box.

To aid her venture, Viviana has forced one of her servants to accompany her, probably to deal with the messy business of handling a unicorn.

Armed with only a poker, he will attend to his mistress' needs, no matter how bizarre.

Viviana may be deluded and irrational, but she's not stupid. The mean streets of Venicame are dangerous, and so she has acquired the services of some Hired Muscle to deal with anyone attempting to prevent the noble teaching her goal or take advantage of her being out on the streets at night.

I decided to print the Ponti di Called Medicanti partly because many of the buildings Ive received from the tribe subscription have been a little large for my Bambu A1 Mini.

Admittedly, the Ponti di Called Medicanti is also large, but it was printable in sections, although I did have to add an extra cut in the base piece.

I painted it with contrast paints and sponges for the most part, with a bit more detail on the bricks without going overboard (it is, after all, meant to be a backdrop).

I added a statue into the alcove on the steps section made from a WizKids miniature I had no plans for.

Finally I printed another two street tiles, on of which is a newer style with steps.

I'm pretty sure I now have enough to fill a 2'x2' table and so I might play out the World's Faire After-Party scenarios on it soon.

Acquired: 14

Painted: 66

Lead Mountain: 710

Predictable Developments

It was easy to foresee that that when TTCombat announced that they were releasing a new starter set for Carnevale, World's Faire After-Party, that I would pick it up.

It was probably also somewhat predictable that they would eventually dip their toes into manufacturing plastic miniatures, as they have done with the two factions in the box, the Patricians and, the focus of this post, the Doctors.

I genuinely never intended to collect the Doctors. Partly this was because with my Guild, Rashaar and Patricians, combined with my proxy Strigoi and Vatican, I had enough going on. I also didn't really respond to the miniatures. The animals were cool, but I found the combination of black robed physicians and lunatics a bit dull.

However, when released turned in a more steampunky direction, I was more fired up, and, pleasingly, the Doctors miniatures in World's Faire After-Party follow in that trend.

The Doctor of Divine Probabilities (Carlotta on the background text) is the leader of this little band, although only a Hero in the game. I suspect that she's meant to be some sort of astrologer, divining future events, but I like the idea that she's battling the horrors and murderers of Venice using the terrifying power of maths.

She was surprisingly quick to paint, despite me thinking that she would be the most complex. The model responded really well to contrast paints and there weren't to many details to pick out when I came to her.

Backing up the Doctor is an Electron Cannoneer, Nicci, bringing ranged fire support. She's actually the second model I have with this profile and along with a few other ranged models, turns my Doctors faction into a little bit of a gunline.

Contrary to what happened with the Doctor, this model took much longer than expected as there was a surprising number of straps and buckles that not only needed picking out, but also divided up other sections of colour.

The handle on the contraption at her side is perhaps the most obvious example of a detail that wouldn't have been included prior to the switch to plastic. If it was made of resin, it would be at risk of snapping off almost immediately.

The design and construction of the models is excellent, certainly equal to anything you might expect from Games Workshop.

The third member of what is rapidly turning into a girls' night out is the Carrion. As a transformed patient from the asylum, she doesn't get a name, but she does get mechanical devices strapped to her head and arms that make her a skilled climber and a repository of Will Points for the Doctor to use.

She was perhaps the easiest to paint, using only a handful of colours. The speed was helped by not being terrified of the claws snapping when I was drubrushing at the end as would be the case with resin. In fact, it was the case, as this is the second Carrion model I own and I was much more careful with the first.

The final member of this quartet is a Monstrosity, a word that serves as both a name and a description. A stitched together golem remiscent of what would happen if Victor Frankenstein hadn't known when to stopp adding bits. The Monstrosity has four arms, three heads and two torsos.

I had a bit of a battle with this model as I initially went for my usual zombie skin recipe, but I think that the the depth of the detail on the model meant that I didn't get the same outcome as I would on a painter model and the skin was too dark.

I therefore went back with some more drybrushing and washes to achieve a more flesh colour, suggesting that although stitched together, the different parts were somehow still alive and have some degree of consciousness of what gas happened to them.

And here are the new models added to my existing forces. I'm really pleased with how this faction is turning out and it's rapidly becoming my favourite.

I'm also pleased that given my initial misgivings regarding some of the representations in the early models (notably the Rashaar Slaves) this collection of scientists is primarily led by women with only minimal objectification in the miniature design.

Well played TTCombat.

Acquired: 6

Painted: 9

Lead Mountain: 758

Protagonist vs Antagonist

In the run up to Christmas I was still in a Fallout mood, but obviously was unable to buy more with festivities around the corner and not knowing what I was going to get.

Therefore, I once again turned my attention to using what I already had: a pile of unpainted miniatures and a 3d printer.

And the result was a 3d printed Vault-Tec Poster Girl and a kitbashed version of a Fallout 3 character, the Antagonizer (the ants are models I already had and are from Crooked Dice).

Both of these models demonstrate a certain amount of ingenuity on my part and I'm quite proud of both of them.

Easiest to talk about is the Antagonizer, who is a character that you can meet in Fallout 3 that is engaged in a superhero-supervillain conflict with the Mechanist in the town of Canterbury Commons. 

Your character can intervene in this situation, taking one side or the other. A third option exists, which was the path I trod, where you kill both of them because you repeatedly say the wrong thing.

Interestingly, there is an official model for the Mechanist in Fallout Wasteland Warfare, but not for the Antagonizer (yet). I suspect this is because whilst there are plenty of robots for the Mechanist to command, there aren't any Giant Ant models, which is odd, as they are a fairly frequent hazard.

However, I did have a model from Crossover Miniatures called Whiskers knocking about from my proxy Marvel project. I liked the model (which is clearly Catwoman inspired) but had not found a use for it. Until now.

The model comes with a range of heads and tails, but the best fit is one with cat ears that needed filing off and antennae (bits of staple) adding. I also filled the hole in the base of the spine for her tail.

It's a fairly good fit, although the mask covers the whole face and the armour is somewhat less spiky. However, a nice touch is the knife strapped to her leg as the Antagonizer's weapon is a knife called the Ant's Sting.

Painting was quite interesting as it's quite hard to get a clear image of the character in Fallout 3 as she's mainly encountered underground. The colour of her armour can vary quite a lot between images. I when for black and gold as I felt it would be in the right ballpark without just being a mush of browns.

I'm really quite pleased with the outcome, although I need to put some though into what profile I am going to use for her in the game, and I probably need to put together a custom card.

The Vault Girl came as a part of a Humble Bundle of Fallout files and STLs I picked up before I had a 3d printer. She's actually the model that demonstrated the limits of my FDM printer when I first got it as its thin limbs small details proved too much for tree supports and even a 0.2mm nozzle could handle.

However, I've found a way around the problem.

Or more pertinently, a YouTube channel called Painted 4 Combat has with a tool called Resin2FDM.

Basically, this is a plug in for Blender that allows you to thicken the supports from pre-supported resin STLs and make them suitable for printing with an FDM printer.

The 'lite' version of the plug in is free to download and obviously required me to download Blender. However, despite never using either program, it was really easy, especially as the channel's guide video walks you through the whole process.

The outcome is a pretty dame good print. Still not as good as a resin print, but definitely better than my previous efforts and certainly good enough to use.

The model comes with a sculpted base that I was able to print more conventionally, although I did manage to clip off the pegs from. The feet of the miniature before realising there were holes for then to slot into, making gluing the whole thing together a bit more awkward.

As you can see, when painted, the details are pretty good. The undersides of arms and keys are a little less good, but, as I said, I'm really happy with it.

Painting was done really simply with bright colours and the outcome is a model that I actually think is better than the pvc miniature of Nora that can in the starter set.

I've not yet had any success with other sculpts as I've been away since Christmas Day and the one miniature I did try was a Carnevale sculpt that hasn't worked, however I'm looking forward to trying out a few more sculpts.

On the subject of Christmas, Carnevale and Fallout, Ive gad a bit of a haul this year. Mrs Cheaphammer took advantage of Black Friday at Element Games in Sheffield to make the pounds stretch a little further and I now have the latest Carnevale starter set, World's Faire After-Party, and the Hollywood Heroes set for Fallout Wasteland Warfare featuring characters from the TV series.

They were also running a paint lucky dip which garnered me a Camo Green that will definitely see use and a Purple airbrush paint which might not.

On top of this I got a haul of Horus Heresy boxes that actually have me pondering whether to start a new army. The Predator and Jet Bikes would fit perfectly on not my Blood Angels army, but the Mk II Assault Troops come armed with chainaxes, which aren't available to loyalist marines in 2nd edition, which we've stuck with.

This is making me consider starting a traitor, specifically World Eaters or Sons of Horus, or Blackshields forces. However, I'm also tempted to create some converted Angels Tears for the Blood Angels.

I received the Ravening Hordes book for Warhammer: The Old World, which contains the army lists for Orcs & Goblins, Beastmen, Tomb Kings and, most importantly for me, Warriors of Chaos. 

This allows me to run my Nurgle army in Warhammer: The Old World, and the Arcane Journal adds rules for Warp Dragons making the whole army game legal.

Finally, as part of this year's 7TV Secret Santa, I received this handful of Robin Hood themed miniatures from David.

It's a sprue of Oathmark Humans, who can easily be kitted out as Merry Men, but might also serve at Rangers of Gondor or Ruffians in MESBG. However , there's also a couple of Norman soldiers carrying a chest and so, given that I've at least one Norman miniature in my backlog. I might very well venture into a Sherwood Forest based project next year.

All in all, it's been a good few days, giving me plenty to be cracking on with.

Acquired: -52 

Painted: 532

Lead Mountain: 246

Well Paid Killer

I have to admit, that despite the successes of joining the MyMiniFactory tribe for Carnevale, there are clearly miniatures that my FDM printer would struggle with.

Let's be honest, it's most of them.

This has meant that I won't be abandoning traditional methods acquiring miniatures, despite continuing to print what I can.

Given that I knew that the more delicate a miniature was, the less likely it was that I'd be able to get a half decent version printed, I've been keeping an eye out for bargains.

This led me to spotting a Rialto Assassin on eBay and I swooped in to add it to my Guild forces, which, along with the addition of the Black Lamp, are experiencing a significant step up in the quality of their membership.

Rialto Assassins are, predictably, assassin's that are based in/on/around the Rialto Bridge in Venice and have thrown their lot in with the Guild.

The model has a really characterful pose, but had a couple of issues. Firstly the small punch-dagger in his right hand had broken and needed replacing, which was a somewhat fiddly job that incurred a lot of swearing.

Secondly, the model comes stood on a gondola pole which would look stupid sticking out of the street. Therefore I removed it and went looking for an alternative item of a appropriate height. The best fit was a bag of gold, which seemed appropriate.

I'm not going to waffle about the painting. It was contrast paints with a bit highlighting and washing.

Obviously, printing continues apace with this covered well and two more street tiles, all done with the same sponging method.

I went for a heavily corroded cover for the well using Nihilakh Oxide technical paint, suggesting that the metal involved is copper.

I'm pretty certain I can now do a 2'x2' board, but I've not tested that theory and will continue to print tiles between other jobs and hope that something a bit more varied (but useful, unlike the circular tile this month) turns up in the tribe.

Acquired: -85

Painted: 530

Lead Mountain: 215

Take It To The Bridge

I've recently got hold of the December STLs for the Carnevale Tribe on MyMiniFactory and they've left me a touch confused.

There was another file for a street tiles, but it's circular. No idea how to use more than one of those. There are some pillars, but nothing for them to support.

This has meant that, for now, I've gone in a slightly different direction.

I decided that I'd have another play with printing a miniature, despite only having an FDM printer, and whilst I was printing that I would paint up the last of the four bridges I bought when I first got into Carnevale.

The character in question is a Black Lamp, mysterious figures charged by the Guild to carry enchanted lanterns that grant a degree of protection against the magic wielding factions.

Meanwhile, the bridge is the Ringhiera Bridge, a slightly more fancy affair than those I'd already painted.

I opted to try printing the Black Lamp as the sculpt did not feature a lot of extraneous detail (something FDM struggle with) as most of the model is swathed in a heavy robe.

I opted not to print the separate hand holding the lamp pole as there was no way it would print successfully, and so instead I raided the bolts box and found a hand holding a staff (from a Frostgrave wizard sprue) and a lantern and kitbashed a replacement. I also needed to replace the short blade that snapped during support removal.

Happy with my construction, I tidied up the rest of the model as well as possible so that you really have to get close to see issues and got painting.

It's pretty much all contrast paints over Ghoul Grey from Colorforge, with metallics picked out. I highlighted the skin and used Hexwraith Flame technical paint for the eldritch flame of the lantern.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how this came out and I'll be experimenting a bit more with printing some of the sturdier looking Rashaar sculpts.

The Ringhiera Bridge is a more ornate and fancy bridge and so I added more colour than the other bridges I've painted and included some good as well.

I think I'll use this near the bigger and more ornate buildings, helping to indicate a more wealthy area.

Only a little bit of progress, and as I had a bit of a splurge on Black Friday and picked up a few bits and pieces here and there, and with Christmas round the corner, I feel like I might be going a little bit backwards.

Acquired: -91

Painted: 522

Lead Mountain: 219

The Big City

It makes sense that not every part of 18th century Venice is going to be filled with ornate, brightly coloured villas. There must be some poorer areas as there are in any city at any point in history.

My latest addition to my Venice board build does something about that.

I'm working on a basis of expanding my board as I go, and for each building I print, I am printing enough street tiles for it to stand on.

Technically, I could have go away with just printing two more this week, but four gives space for people to walk and fight.

The house itself comes from a designer called Terrain4Print and is actually a free sample pack (look for 'Italian Village' on the usual platforms) of STLs which include this piece, the 'medium' house, a shed, some walls and a 'big' house.

I've made a point about the size descriptors as this is a chunky building that eats a hefty amount of filament (the mind boggles as to how much the 'big' house uses), standing 5' off the street, and allowing 6" jumps if you chain jump off the chimney pot (this can be important in Carnevale).

It's not only a large building, but there's also a noticeable scale difference between this and the Hartolia Miniatures buildings I've already done, with this building being more in scale with the Carnevale range. 

However, it is a very serviceable building and I like the chipped plaster effect and smaller, less ornate windows, giving very much the impression of a poorer residence, or even boarding house.

The difference in style actually works to my advantage in dealing with the difference in scale as it doesn't make sense for these building to be side by side, so if I keep them apart on the board.

The doors are the biggest giveaway, so the yellow house could even go next to the new building as it's doors aren't that visible. I will have to keep it apart from the red building.

I'm not sure if I'll print anything else from the pack (maybe the shed), but I suspect that the next set of additions will allow me to put together a serviceable 2'x2' table.

Acquired: -98

Painted: 518

Lead Mountain: 216

A Plague On Both Your Houses

Work on expanding my Venice set up to a useable board for Carnevale continues with the addition of a second house, more street tiles and a couple of other surprises.

This printing lark is infectious.

The second house is from the same bundle of STL files I got from Hartolia Miniatures and is very much in the same style, only it's a single unit rather than two, and printed with a separate balcony, stepped porch and roofs.

I do like this building although scale issue with it being a little small is more noticeable than with the first house as the doors (which are the most telling feature) are much more visible.

Additionally, and frankly a bit weirdly, the fit of the parts was nowhere near as good and so gluing the piece together was much more awkward.

However, the balcony is a much more accessible feature than on the first model and the pitch of the roof is less precarious for models intent on attacking from on high.

I'm taking my lead on painting from the cardboard buildings that came in the starter box to try to capture the right feel, although I've gone for more pale grey than white on the stonework.

Additionally, I've done another four street tiles for it to sit on, which is causing Venice to expand and allowed me to start to add my MDF bridges to the set up.

As I was printing all of this. I came to the end of a roll of filament, and so, not wanting to waste it, I decided to print a barrel and a crate (found on the Bambu Handy App), which came out fine.

The top of the barrel was a bit plain, and so to add some visual interest I added a rat from one of the Frostgrave sprues I have knocking about.

The rat also added to a theme, given what else I printed.

This is a Plague Doctor I gained the files for from the Carnevale MyMiniFactory tribe. I wanted to experiment with whether my FDM printer should handle these files that were clearly designed for resin, and the answer was yes...to an extent.

There is a rather messy bit on the back of the cloak under the fold, and I cut off the lower part of the cane and replaced it (in fact I came close to replacing the whole hand). Also, the jack if a face and slightly ragged look helped out, along with the mainly black colour scheme.

However, the outcome was a pleasant surprise, especially as I'd had a bit of a disappointment with my subscription to the tribe.

On the MyMiniFactory page the November download included bases, which. In the advertising, look exactly like those I've been using. Obviously I thought this would be a great way to save money.

However, it turns out that the files are for bases that look nothing like those shown and I was a touch annoyed.

And yet, learning that I should be able to print at least some of the miniatures I get files for has softened me to this disappointmen, as has learning that the big building I got files for actually fits on my build plate.

I'm going to stick with the tribe as my version of Venice grows, but I'm going to keep a close eye on whether I feel like I'm getting value for money, which probably means at least two useable steps each month.

Acquired: -106

Painted: 513

Lead Mountain: 216