Ev's Challenge - The One That Got Away

Greetings, paint fans! Here's what I was working on when time ran out and the 9th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge came to an end. 

Reaper Bones again (keeping my hobby expenditure within reasonable bounds); it's a Blue Dragon, a stalwart of Old Skool AD&D monsterdom.

He stands 100mm from the base of his feet to the top of his head, and measures 160mm from wingtip to wingtip, so he really is a monster! Wish I'd gotten started on this one earlier, since he's a pretty impressive model, and would undoubtedly have put me over the line for the 500 point target I'd set myself.

The beast was base coated in GW Caledor Blue, and highlighted with increasing amounts of Vallejo Sky Blue. Blue ink was applied to the shaded recesses. The armour plates on the limbs and belly were worked up from a base of Vallejo Sombre Grey up to Wolf Grey, and inked in GW Asurmen Blue.

The wings were painted with the same set of greys as the armour plates, but without the blue ink.

He's been stuck to a 100mm Warbases MDF round, built up with white pumice paste to disguise the original moulded plastic base of the model. A bit of trimming was needed for it to fit on the MDF base.

The ancient scrolls (OK, the 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual, but it's from 1977, so it counts) tell us that Blue Dragons live in arid or desert environments. With this in mind, I went for an appropriate basing combo.

The usual mix of slate chips, sand, and a couple of larger pebbles was painted with a basecoat of Vallejo Game Colour Leather Brown, and inked with GW Agrax Earthshade. Once this had dried, the base was worked up through Khaki and Desert Yellow, with a final drybrush of Citadel Bleached Bone to pick out the detail. Tajima Tufts Desert Diorama Elements put the icing on the desolate cake.

And just think, if I'd been better organised, this bad boy would have seen the light of day a couple of weeks ago!

I may not put my paints away just yet - there are other also-rans left over on the painting table, and it would be a shame to let them lie fallow for another year.

What's next then? Stay tuned...

Ev

A bit of old school D&D paint work...

We've been indulging in a bit of old school D&D retro gaming of late, both Red Box Basic and just now 1st Ed AD&D (Temple of Elemental Evil - WOOT!).

For most of us it's a trip down memory lane and it has been sufficiently long that we don't remember the specifics of the modules but do remember enough rules to enjoy ourselves without too much thinking. For my 18 year old son it's all shiny and new and I'm enjoying immensely living it all over again vicariously through his eyes. That both games are producing such a reaction from a child of the video game age (he's doing a game programming degree!) is a tribute to the writer's ability and shows you the quality of what was coming out when D&D was in it's heydey.

All this has prompted me to break out some very old miniatures and repaint a number of them. I'm not working to any plan, just picking them at random and doing one or two a night to break up the block painting. Here's the output from the last couple of weeks. Kudos for those who can name the range/manufacturer for any of these...

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

And Now for Something Completely Different

Apart from wargaming just about every period imaginable, I'm also rather keen on old school Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying, especially the original Basic edition of the game. When you couple that with enjoying the odd bit of desktop publishing you get stuff like this...

I've been Dungeon Mastering games of D&D since I was about 12 years old and have written the odd bit and bob before but never had a go at producing a fully fledged published module. I decided it was about time I gave it a go, so with help from Ev (editorial) and Nug (cover and interior art) I produced some proper dungeon crawl cheese. I even managed to con my wife and kids into playtesting it for me which was about the best fun I've ever had.

If you're interested it's available on DriveThruRPG. Download a copy and let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Millsy

D&D Catacombs Map

Having had so much fun with my first dungeon map I really couldn't wait to do the second level. Having drawn up the basic sketch on Saturday night I got really annoyed when my felt pens ran out last night and I couldn't finish it! Guess where I rushed off to today at lunch? Yep, the pen shop... :-)

So here we have The Catacombs...

Entry is via the stairs from level one on the south east corner. These lead into the dressed stone areas with the shelves for the bodies. You can also get down from above by falling through the large trap door or into the well over the river (coloured grey), neither of which would be preferred! The rest of the map is natural caves, populated with the usual sloping passages, bottomless crevasses, choking narrows and an ancient statue to some forgotten god. Exit to the surface is via the tunnel to the south west.

I'm having so much fun I've decided to turn this into a fully fledged D&D module for starting characters, full of cliches and homages. Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Millsy

Mucking about with D&D maps

We've been running an original D&D campaign for our group on a Friday night on and off for a few months now. So far we've played two B Series modules and have just started a third with me acting as DM again.

This week I've been wandering about the web have have found a number of wonderful sites with loads of lovely home-brew dungeon maps. I decided to have a go at drawing a map myself for a break from relentlessly wielding the paint brush.

Here's my first effort....

It owes a LOT to the maps and style of +Ed Allen, a lovely gent whose rules we've used for years for skirmish games and whose Ruminations of a Geek blog is superb. Ed's Hobby Hovel web site was a treasure trove of all sorts of gaming goodness way back before blogging was even conceived.

The map consists of nine rooms of dark and gloomy rough cut stone, tricked out with all the usual goodness like secret doors, barred gates and stairs to an as-yet unmapped lower level.

I'm already getting a significant itch to turn it into a small module for entry level characters, complete with all the appropriate fluff, fonts and cheesy artwork. Now if only I could make it smell right too...

Cheers,
Millsy

I made this! Homemade Basic D&D Dungeon Masters (sic) Screen

I've been seized by the desire to play some (very) old skool roleplay so we're kicking off a Basic D&D campaign tomorrow night with me as DM. Yes, you read right, BASIC D&D.

As the game was so simple in the basic form I figure I can just about run it using only the module in play plus the various charts and tables i.e. a DM's screen. But where to get one? They're OOP and subject to a fair bit of use being used for every game by anyone who owns one. Chances are any I find will be overly expensive or in pretty awful shape.

Sooooo... rather than bother trying to find one I decided to have a bash at making my own. I found all the charts and tables easily enough on the web in text form, massaged a few and added the bits and pieces I wanted. Somewhat enthused by the whole process I also made a "cover" based on the red box set covers.

And here she is in all her glory. Double sided, on thick black card with joints of heavy fabric tape. She has character type info on the outside for the players and the critical info on the inside for the DM. Just the ticket!

Outside showing "cover" and character type data tables i.e. level progression and saving throws

Inside showing DM type data and tables i.e. combat, cleric's turning, thief's skills and item costs

Here's all the individual pages including the "cover". Note the stern instruction to players regards their obedience and also the deliberate lack of punctuation regards ownership, just like the original books. :-)

I should point out that the images and data are all copyright of the authors and publishers, even if it is from the very mists of time. You can download a copy for yourself here.

So now I'm ready to rock. Time to roll some dice, check that THAC0 and give a carrion crawler what's coming to him.

Cheers,

Millsy