Thursday, October 2, 2014

Valentia Campaign Project pt.1




If you have been following me, you'll know that we have a new campaign starting up using the Valentia role playing system. There is so much to be done here, and so little time to do it. This project must be completed by the 17th of October. I am counting down the days, but I am confident I can pull it off.

The campaign takes place in a city which is under occupation. We the players will be charged with organizing the resistance! Each player picked their miniature (I'm playing a dwarf merchant who happens to be very adept at wrestling). For the invading army, I chose to go with the Overlords from Reaper's Warlord line. This way they will all be sure to match.
I will be livestreaming much of these pieces except for all the infantry. I will however be taking photos of everything, so no worries there. For now, let's take a look at whats on my plate...

I'm a fan of Reaper Miniatures. They got a wide selection and I don't have to order from twenty different places to get what I need. I have included product codes for everything I am showing in case you care about that sort of thing!

the Cast of Player Characters

From left to right we have:
03276 harrix Firblood
60015 Kyra, Female Inconic cleric
02883 Sir Kimball Crusader
P02559B Brewmaster

the Cast of NPC's

From left to right:
77084 townsfolk Innkeeper
77086 townsfolk: Strumpet
77085 townsfolk: wench


From left to right:
P06149B
14147 Andras Overlords Captain
P06149C
P06149A
note these come with P06149D sprue of shields


From left to right:
P06148C
P06148A
P06148B


From left to right:
P06147A
P06147C + P06147E
P06147B


Last, but certainly not least we have a couple custom jobs. The invading army has Wyvern Riders I guess. So I am gonna saddle these Blackstings up and throw a rider on them.

02636 Blacksting, wyvern
P14258B The Count + his sprue P14258C

Stay tuned, I got my hands full!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Casting Mud to Stone

Upon starting this whole live streaming tabletop RPG gig, I wanted the scenic stuff.  Having miniatures helps, but having proper miniatures painted up all nice purdy changes the game.  Now, having proper scenic bits WITH miniatures... oh my...  what fun!

I have never done the scenic stuff before, so this is something totally new for me.  At first I tried out some paper-crafting.  What a pain in the butt.  Hours upon hours of cutting paper stock, cutting foam board and gluing it all together.  My time was better spent painting and flipping minis than trying to find the cheapest good quality ink to print this stuff off.  Speaking of costs, it ain't as cheap as what you think it is.



If you watch some of my earlier Archivo Deorum videos, some of you will notice I went with WWG's terralinx line.  It is really nice looking stuff.  That's why when I decided to go a different route for modular gaming tiles, I looked there again first.  I wanted to drop some cash on their terraclips line.  Turns out its all out of print (I told you I was new at this scenic stuff.), and the set I wanted was the most sought after. Of course it was...  What's a tabletop geek to do...



After much soul searching and internet tears later, I found some nice buildings people were making from plaster molds made by a fella named Hirst.  I thought, "I'm not a dumby, I can do that."  Its a phrase I say often.  So I did it.  I bought a couple molds from HirstArts, some proper plaster from the folks over at Merlins' Magic Plaster and a putty knife.



For a considerable investment, you can get some quality scenic stuff by going this route.  The building I am working on will end up taking about 10 pounds of plaster to fully cast using 5 different molds.  Your first building will be the most expensive part of the investment.  Now you don't need 5 molds to make a building.  I happen to need a mold for flooring, one for rooftops, one for walls, and a couple for props.



If you do it like me, all smart like... your first building will also be your second, third and fourth building.  I like things to be modular, because I can get the most for the monetary and time investment that I put into it.  For me, it was a must.  I am still in the experimental stage, so stay tuned.  when I finished said "first building" I will make a dedicated post for how I did it.