Inventors going shopping, whatever could go wrong?

It's been a little while since the last update, mainly due to distraction caused by the 'Tale of x gamers' that's running at my local club. Members have (re)started their Warhammer Fantasy armies (6th edition), with the overall goal to finish a 2000 points army by the end of the year. I've started with a  new Vampire Counts army and have been mainly painting zombies 💀

Wolsung has not been relegated to the back seat however. I was gifted a set of shanty town huts from a friend, who got them via the Wolsung kickstarter (many thanks Stefan 😃). They are primed and ready for painting.

The marketplace is called 'done' for now, below are a few pictures of how all the bits look when put together

The inventors also got some attention. I made quick work of 2 Laboratory Golems, rapidly followed by a Lab Assistent, Alice Tinkerly and Thorvald Nielsgaard.

I'm very pleased with the finished result. The models are nice to paint and have very good detail. Contrast paint diluted with some medium made it very easy to get some dirty stains on the assistents lab coat.
Alice was painted following the colourscheme from the official artwork. I admit that my wife having 'copper blonde' hair might have caused some bias.

With Thorvald I decided to come up with an outfit different from his artwork, and had a go at giving him a tartan waistcoat and some tight green trousers (which ofcourse look very well on him - any Dutch readers will get the (lame) joke 😉)

We sell anything but the 'oink'

The market stalls have proven to be a bigger distraction from the Inventors club than expected - no painted golems yet. 

I had two big market stalls left, which needed more stuff to fill 'm with. 

The first stall sells all kinds of potions, elixers and ingredients to make those with. A whole host of different bits were dug out of the bitsbox. Small beads of various sizes were used to fill the boxes, along with bottles from Bad Squiddo and Tabletop-Art, along with parts from various Warhammer kits (although mainly from the Bretonnians - who have notoriously weird tastes 😉 ). So along with a 'white bunny killed at midnight under a full moon', one can buy snails, thrice-cursed ravens and rat-queue-navet - which are obviously all part of very dark and depraved concoctions...

 

The other stall has become a butcher's. All bits are from Tabletop-Art. Because of the limited pallet, painting was very quick. I put the biggest bits on translucent bases, which wasn't really necessary for the big crate but the barrel with offal is now less prone to being nocked over during play. 

 When I've got better light I'll put the whole market place together for a picture. Along with the stalls in the previous post I've got a fair number of baskets, bags and crates on clear bases that'll bulk it out nicely. Salespeople would be a nice addition as well - models from Guildball's Butchers Guild spring to mind 😀

Beautiful red apples, get them while they're fresh!

 

Another week, another post. Last week saw a flying start with 3 posts in short succession, but that's not going to be the regularity I'm aiming for in the long run. As long as stuff keeps moving forward, I'm a happy man.

Since the previous post I've assembled and primed a bunch of inventors. A post with pictures of primed models isn't very interesting, so instead I've taken pictures of some scenery I've worked on. I decided it was time to fill some market stalls with goods to sell. Gamewise empty stalls work just as well, but they are a bit boring. 

I've used bits from one of Mantic Games' Terrain Crate sets that I got via Kickstarter, combined with some flower tufts. I thought sealing the flower tufts with a mix of PVA, IPA and water would make them more sturdy. It worked in the sense that the flowers are now definitely very sturdy: there'll be no loose pettals in the storage box. The downside was bleeding of colours and a loss of volume. The result is not too bad, but I'm not sure if the method is going to be repeated in the future.

For the 2 stalls I've got left I'm going to have a go with green stuff and other bits&bobs.

They call him a two-faced character

Update about some progress on the painting table. 

Today I completed the painting of the notorious Mr. Cheng and one of his more dangerous servants, Onryo. Together with the Dragonlings and Hisao Shiryo they complete a Triad starter box. 

I painted Hisao Shiryo quite a while ago, probably not too lang after GW launched its contrast paints. 

The pipe smoke was a bit of an experiment , using Warp Lighting thinned down with Contrast Medium. I must say it is a great tool for easy blending.

For painting the skintone I used the guide in the link below; it offers colour suggestions for any skintone you can think of: 

http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1310-ethnic-skintones 

 Next step will be to paint a starter box full with inventive ladies and gentlemen and their minions.

Beware, here be dragon(lings)...

Another thing I'm aiming for with this blog is keeping my own hobby momentum going. For the first part of this year I've set myself the goal of completing some of the Wolsung starterboxes, which over the years have accumulated in my attic.

So to start this I've gone for something which is quick and easy to paint, an easy win so to say ;) Here are some Golemic Dragonlings for the Triad of the Lotus Dragon, as dangerous as they are cute :D

The cogs start whirring!

 A new year, a new blog, a new medium. 

I'm starting this blog with the intention of creating a place to document my adventures in the wonderful world of Wolsung - the steampunk skirmish game - and keep it all in one easily accessible and easy to navigate spot. This also with the aim to share it with other people in an effort to inspire and enthuse them about this wonderful game.

It's a couple of years since I got introduced to the game by Jeroen, one of my best friends. Timing-wise it came at exactly the right moment in my 'wargaming career'. Having played first Warhammer Fantasy, Flames of War and Guildball in mainly a competitive way, I had started to reach a point where the thrill of competition became less and less important. To quote the wise words of another friend 'I'm tired off playing competive battles, I'd like to play more beautiful battles'. Games and battles where it's not about giving your opponent's army a hard and fast clobbering, but games where the scenery, the miniatures, the story and the ambiance all combine into one awesome experience. Add food and drink and you're getting as close to Walhalla as a living and breathing wargamer can get.

For me Wolsung ticks about all of the above. Lovely models, lovely scenery (and lots of it! ), interesting game mechanics and rules and background stories written with a good sence of humour. A game that is not about winning at all costs, but about having a good time with your mates. Top hats, pockets watches and chocolate cigars add to the experience.

On top of that, the possibilities for scenarios and campaigns are endless. The wider Wolsung world, with the fabled metropolis of Lyonesse at its core, is described in enough detail to give it shape, but with enough blank spaces to be filled in by the players imagination. Add to that game mechanics that allow your heroic characters to perform basically any action you can think of, and you have an enormous sandbox full of potential.

So with these words, a start is made, the cogs are whirring!