OD's SoB Prep Blog

[Old Dwarf]

11/15/14- I started on the 12 Hungry Dead this morning & frankly I'm not overly
impressed (maybe it's just a let down from working on the cool monsters). The
figs have 3 poses -6 are of the same guy,3 Prospector type & 3 female -the
Female & Prospectors are ok but the guy with 6 poses doesn't look Western,
they appear to be wearing T-Shirts! .

I been trying to paint each up differently to offset the limited poses mainly
by painting up the faces as putrid flesh( War Paint Necrotic Flesh) or as
skull faces (Ripper White).The same with the clothing, it's a bit of a
challenge finding appropriate western colors & using different combinations
for the shirts/ pants/ coats but I want each fig. to look unique. At least the
female miniatures dresses offer more of a color choice.

I still have to do the hair, again trying to use as many colors as possible,
then I'll dry brush some grey & white highlights. I'm not doing much in
the way of highlights on the Hungary Dead as their suppose to be dirty
just a little on the obvious places like the knees or hat brims.

I plan to give the finished figs light dry brushings of Harvest Brown
to dirty them up & do the same with blood red in appropriate places.

I must say for a company that debuted with Zombies the Hungary dead
figs. are just so-so . They do however look a lot better painted up than
just with their black base coat.

The Dead are done I just want to put on a little around some of their mouths &
fingers but for now I'm breaking with a Heineken! The Dead take forever
(I guess they figure they have the time) partly because your working
back & forth with so many different colors but mainly because you
really need to be detailed to make the these miniatures pop as the
figs. themselves aren't all that interesting nor is the detail all that great.

They do look good if you make the effort-I did find that they dirtied up
nicely with just a light brushing of GW Codex Grey which gave them
that faded out. I dropped the Harvest Brown idea as it wasn't needed.

Adding the blood spatter was a great idea (I get them every few years)
it really set off the figs. So the Dead are at rest!

Now the final chapter for Wave 1-8 Heroes.-Looks like tomorrow
the battle with the leaves begins so I getting a little head start
on the Heroes today.

I've done the flesh parts & will soft tone ink them later then I'm
doing each Hero separately rather than try to group paint them.
Frankly if you compare the KS fig. renderings to the actual human
Miniatures the actual figs. lose. Again not really a great of detail,
like the Dead they can be painted up to look good but it will take
work.

I'm collecting up all the Hero Cards for painting references, I'm sort
of planning on taking a day on each Hero.

OK perhaps that last bit about 1 Hero a day was a bit over the top.
I just finished the Preacher & The Lawman, frankly there just isn't that
much detail to lavish paint on.

I modified the Lawman a bit making the vest & pants a dark grey to
avoid the sea of black you get on the Hero Card. Love the Army
Painter Insane Detail Brush-was able to pick out the Lawman's Badge
& give it a highlight.

Finished for the day- I think I'll try to do 2 a day from now on.

[Old Dwarf]

11/16/14- Why, Why, Why Deliah -are your details so obscure Deliah .
(once in a while my inner Tom Jones pops out *) . The Female Rancher
I'm calling Deliah Morgan ( a fond memory of an Alpha Phi I knew long, long ago).

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQIK3Te9Coo

The point of this is that it's damn hard to puzzle out where her bandana ,
vest & shirt stop & start. I'm beginning to think it might have been better
to use a grey Base Coat for the Heroes rather than Black (too late now).

FFP indicated they were making the SoB Miniatures with painting in mind,
but for their human figs. I think they missed their target. I'll say again
I like the figs. & they can be made to look good but they are not painter
friendly.

Well end of rant, I doing the Female Rancher (obviously) & the Gun slinger
today so I best go up to the paint room & have at it.

Sweet Mother of God..... Deliah made me work for it (not unlike her namesake),
once I got into it I realized the fig has crossed straps over the vest. The vest is
done in war Paint leather so I need a darker shade of leather to do the straps
so they would show like the Hero Card pic. Lucky I still have a small amount of
GW Bestial Brown left which did the trick.

The rest of Deliah wasn't so bad I did her bandana/ribbons & her waist scarf
in GW Regal Blue + her hat band & her dress in GW Ultra Marine Blue. The sleeves/
shirt were white.


The Gun Slinger was much more reasonable (of course he's mostly black),I
painted the coat War Paint Shadow Black-from the SoB Hero Paints- but
left the pants in the black base coat color as it's a more faded shade of Black
so it avoids the 'Sea of Black" thing. His vest got Crimson Hand Red from
the SoB Monster Paints, it's a subdued shade that doesn't scream RED & matched
it to his hat band. I actually was able to match his Hero Card Pic hair with a mix
of SoB leather, GW Calthan Brown & GW Red Gore.

So the 2 figs. are basically done except for some appropriate Tone Shadings &
then highlights. I'll probably do these later in the afternoon as a yard full of
leaves are calling. I do find that working on 2 Miniatures at once works out
nicely.

God, Odin All Father, Cthulhu who ever cares, I'm getting too old for house
maintenance , raked the Front Yard ,carried 6 urns from the front porch
to the back porch for my wife( I no longer ask why) swept the leaves from the 2nd
floor roofs & cleaned out the gutters from hell, then raked the front part of the
back yard & transported 360 gal. of leaves out to the front curb.

So Heineken Break!- I should have recovered enough to finish off the Rancher
Chick & the Gun Slinger in about another hour.

The Beer worked (it always does of course) I finished these 2 figs.
The GW Enchanted Blue highlight I planed for the Rancher's dress didn't take
like I thought it would so I used Reaper Ice Blue which did. I also added
a little Ultramarine Blue to the mix to do the ribbons/sash /bandana .
I used Reaper woodland Brown to highlight the leather on both figs.

Tomorrow brings up the Marshal & the Fan favorite The Saloon Girl

[Old Dwarf]

11/17/14-Buffalo Gal, put the cat out tonight, I'm gonna paint
by the light of the moon. Well actually it's 2 60 watt lamps but
it's the spirit that counts. It's 2AM I can't sleep so I figured might
as well get started on the Saloon Gal & Marshal.

The two don't share much in the way of colors so I just did the Marshal's
shirt in white & then went to the Saloon Gal's boa & then stayed with her.
(She's more fun to paint-aka it's great painting Boobs again.)

Blonds may have more fun but Blond hair is not much fun to paint. I
used several methods over the years & it's always a challenge to make
it look natural. This time around I used Cinder Yellow (that's about as Blond
as you can get) but it's such a weak color you need to mix it with something
else or it just falls apart on a black base coat. I chose GW Bubonic Brown.
a Blondish-brown shade. The colors mixed well & I got a shade I liked.

Alas it still didn't cover the black base coat. Rather than mess with the Blond
mix that I wanted to keep I painted her hair with Reaper Woodland Brown
( a light brown shade) then I painted over it with my Blond Mix & it took.
A little Soft Tone Ink & the hair was done I still need to give it a final highlight
perhaps Cinder Yellow?*

(* I'm still trying to get my mind around this color. The War Paints Line I
really like they cover well & the SoB Sets are subdued shades which go
well with an old West theme. But Cinder Yellow won't cover a damn thing!
It simply breaks up I'm using in a mix & I'll see if it works as a highlight.
GW Sunshine yellow tends to do this as well but at least you can do a
second coat & it covers, Cinder Yellow doesn't )

Anyway back to the Saloon Gal, I'm painting her up per the example
in the Adventure Book using Saloon Red for her dress, Shadow Black
for the under skirt & leaving the stockings in the base coat black color
as it does a faded stocking effect & avoids clashing with the black
under dress.

Something else I noticed which didn't appear in the painted image
in the Adventure-this fig does have detail her stockings end before
her under skirt stops so she's showing a bit of thigh ( so of course
I had to paint them flesh to preserve the integrity of the Miniature).

So the Saloon Gal still needs her green gloves but I have to check
out my green paints to see which is the best match, otherwise she's
ready to Ink. I think I'll try to get some sleep now & try to pay some
attention to the Marshal when I get up & have breakfast.

Well both are done, for the record I used Reaper Meadow Green for her
sleeves/gloves & highlighted with GW Scorpion Green. I also picked
out her shoe laces in saloon Red to balance her black shoes &
stockings. I didn't dry brush her highlights instead I used a detail brush
& painted them. I use War Paint Moulton Orange for the final red highlight.
The Cinder Yellow did finally earn it's keep as it made a decent highlight
on the hair.

The Marshal is rather a bore after the multi-colored Saloon Gal as he's
basically leather vest, brown pants & a White shirt, I used GW Tausept Ochre
for the hat & desert tan from the SoB Hero set for it's highlight.

The Marshal has a set of shirt buttons which pose a challenge, there
not coat buttons you can make metal. The example in the Adventure Book
just made a brown strip down the center of the shirt but to me that
didn't look right (or his laundry service should be shot) so I did them
GW Space Marine Grey that gives a pearl effect.

Today it appears it's going to rain all day so I'm starting on the Bandito
& Indian Scout. I've done the hair (both are SoB Shadow Black)& picked
out the eyebrows & the Bandit's Handlebar . I'm not following the
Adventure Book Example completely as I doing his pants Portal
Blue from the SoB Hero Set( a medium dark blue) & giving them a
Red Stripe down the sides. The sombrero trim is picked out in Saloon
Red. His shirt I think I have enough GW Codex Grey to scrape out
enough to use.

The Indian Scout I'm following the Adventure book Pic- GW Regal
Blue (perfect for the Union Coat he is wearing) for his coat.

So I may finish up my Heroes today!

I will, the last 2 Heroes are painted up & I just inked them up
in the appropriate tones so I'm giving them some time to dry
& then do the final highlights.

Done & Done the Bandito & Indian Scout are finished & my 8
Heroes are complete.

Some random thoughts on the Hero Figs- I already commented
on the detail but I'm pleased with the results. My 3 most favorite
from a painting stand point were the Saloon Gal, Bandito & Indian
Scout because they had more color variety than the others. My
least favorite was the Female Rancher who IMO had some detail problems,
plus she is posed in a way to make painting difficult.

To eyes or NOT- I did not try to put in eyeballs & pupils, at the scale
the Miniatures are at you can't make them look good. You also
don't need them, the soft Tone Ink basically gives the effect of eyes.

I've seen some nicely painted Heroes at BGG that were ruined by
trying to put in eyes (my opinion of course). You have to over
paint the eye socket white to make room for the pupil so you
get the Google Eye effect & often putting in the pupil goes badly,
so we get cross eyed & Lazy Eye Heroes.

What you should be sure to do (again it's all just my personal preference)
is make sure you get a detail brush & give them eyebrows . The eyebrows
give definition to the upper face & provide the illusion of eyes .

So with all of Wave 1 painted I now need to do the bases. I'll start
on that project tomorrow. Once there done I can break out the Game.

(Just an aside, it got warm enough today despite the crappy rain that
I grabbed my Spray Black Primer & primed up my Gears of War Figs.
I've had them setting around for a couple of years & earlier this year
I did a number of conversions for the Game figs you have to proxy
( I bought multiple sets to have enough). I don't plan to start painting
them up right away- I have some serious SoB play to get in. But
if I should get in the painting mood again I can pull them out & get at it.)

[Old Dwarf]

11/18/14-My last Blog day, the Prep is just about over. Just the
Bases I'm working on are left.

I've seen some really cool pimped out Bases & there great for display,
however I always find as a practical matter it just looks odd to me
seeing such figs. move around the Table/ Board carrying all that scenery
around(like that dead steer skull just keeps stalking the Mini.)

So here's OD's Tao of Basing: Less is More aka-Keep it Simple .
I paint the bases of my figures the same color as the Terrain
(or in the case of SoB Board Tile) they usually appear on.

I Paint the base color as close as possible to the terrain/Tile &
then dry brush a lighter highlight. The SoB bases have a little
cobblestone like texture so dry brushing works well.

Thus for the Outer World Monsters I do the colors of those Tiles.
The Snow Terrors will get a GW Codex Grey base & a highlight of GW
Fortress Grey + I also gave them a light brushing of Reaper White.
The Swamp Slashers & Bog Bats have GW Snot Green (a medium
dark shade) & a GW Scorpion Green highlight.

The Rest of the Miniatures get a Reaper Harvest Brown base coat
( It is a match for my beloved base stand-by GW discontinued
Bestial Brown) & a Reaper Orange Brown highlight to match the
mine tiles). So off to the paint Room-one mo-time.

Well I found the Reaper Harvest Brown needs a 2nd coat to fully
cover the black undercoat (works fine on the grey bases) so
I'm waiting for 2nd coat to dry before dry brushing.

2nd coat worked fine & the dry brushing looks good-So all
the Miniatures are finished! Actually there is another step,
they should be varnished. I usually wait a couple of weeks
after painting & then give a spray Gloss varnish to protect
the paint followed by a Matt Varnish spray to take the
shine off the gloss. But for now it's too cold which if
you try makes the varnish produce a whitish effect.
Thus this may wait a few months unless it gets up in the
60F range (considering it's 27F now).

So Good Bye Old Paint-I'm leaving for the Game Table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Y-dszVbEs

It's been fun...Happy Trails

OD

[Old Dwarf]

I know, I signed off & you thought it was safe to return to the Shadows of Brimstone
Board-but life does things like this-get over it.

OD did not ride happily off into that Western Sunset to play his first Game, instead he faced
the Game Boxes .In my desire to get the Miniatures assembled & painted sort of blinded me
to the Game Boxes content. Yes I pulled out the Rule & Adventure Books, looked at the Hero Sheets
but the other stuff really didn't register once I checked to see if it was all there.

So after finishing the fig. bases I went up to my Game Room & found a half finished
Thieves of Cadwallon set up So I had to take around 15 minutes to box it up. Then in a
plastic tray I keep Game counters for the game I'm playing I find a small hex shaped
counter showing bullets-it's not from Cadwallon? Ok before that I was playing Dead Wood
that had bullet counters so I pull the Game & it's bullet counters but they are bigger so
it ain't Dead Wood. Thinking hard I did play Walking Dead Board Game The Best Defense.
taking that Game out ( from under 2 pizza size boxes of 20mm scale Union & CSA
painted armies) I find the counter is a match . This has nothing to do with SoB of
course but it eats up another 30 minutes.

Returning to my now empty Game Table I start taking Cards from the Swamp of
Death Box & keep taking : Mine Artifacts ,Swamp Artifacts, Threat Cards in 4
flavors, Gear Cards, Starting Gear, Personal Items, Darkness Cards ,Mine Map
Cards, Swamp Map Cards, Mine Encounter Cards,Swamp Encounter Cards,Blessing
Cards,Scavenge/ Loot Cards,Hero Starting Upgrade Cards, Side Bag Cards,
Growing Dread Cards, Other World Threat Cards.

Then I get to do it all again for the Targa Plateau-I got 3/4 of my Game Table full of Card
stacks. I of course make it harder by going through & bagging the Encounter, Darkness,
and Threat Cards that occur in Portal Mines (per my Brimstone Mine Users Guide)
and both the Swamp & Targa Map, Encounter,& Artifacts Cards. The Scavenge
Cards both bagged Separate as well.

So I shuffle the remaining Decks from both sets together & it's past Noon-a
Heineken Break is in order before I face punching out & bagging all the
counters. The first Game will not start today.

[Old Dwarf]

Another 2 1/2 hours spent punching out the Counters/Tiles
(at least they pop out easily without damage).

I now have a plastic tray divided into 25 sections full of counters that
I may need to use in the Game (it's dispenser for medication- which I
may need before I get this Game Started. I also have other Counters I
won't need for the introductory Game .I didn't bother punching all the
2nd box counters out that were duplicates as I'll have more than enough
for just 2 Heroes.

This is not a Game you can just throw stuff back in the box & sort
it out the next time you play, well you could but it would take 10K forevers.
At least I'm keeping my Miniatures off Campus so lots room in the Game boxes.

So I have all the Card Decks laid out across the top of my board (inc. the Fan cards
Mutations, XP & $ Cards) with the Depth Gage.The various charts , 2 Hero Sheets
& Monster cards are on the left end of the table along with dice tower. The Starting
Tile is down & I have 3'4" in length & 2'3" in with to work with so we'll see how that
works out.

I have the Board Tiles on a side Table & now I'll need to bring the Miniatures
I need from my paint room to my game Room & I'll be ready. I'll check out the
Rules again & hopefully get Gaming tomorrow.

I'm really all the Prep work so I'll close this down & start a game Blog.

OD