Grinnlings, part 1

The first pack of grinnlings have been pulled out of their package.  Now, the grinnlings on the Half Continent are small monsters that have taken to wearing the clothing of humans and occasionally sneaking into human cities.  This bit of background gave me an idea for a simple conversion of my gremlins from Reaper - adding a tricorn to one of them:

Here they are, along with a piece from the Wargames Factory WSS infantry set.

The bit I'm using is highlighted by the hexagon.  It is a simple conversion - trim the hat off, drill the bottom of the tricorn so it fits the top of a grinnling better, and some super glue to stick it on.

And, here is the first set, as of yet unpainted unfortunately:

The tricorn does not quite sit on the head properly, but I think it looks good.  This little conversion also re-acquainted me with the usefulness of the Wargames Factory plastic WSS boxes - even if you do not use them as designed, they are full of all sorts of bits that can be used for conversions and base enhancements.

My grinnlings, as compared to an Ebor infantryman.  These baskets are quite small, but a pack of them will be dangerous if underestimated.

3rd Tékumel art Kickstarter...

Jeff Dee has started his third Kickstarter for Tékumel artwork - take a look!  The subjects this time around are some of the Beasts of Tékumel, and the stretch goals are the non-humans that had not been covered previously.


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Monsters, part 6

A little dab of paint here and there, and the result:

The smaller baskets are nearly done, with just a little something needed for their eyes.  It is unfortunate that these miniatures are bent over in the way they are - the faces are hard to see from the usual wargamer's perspective at the table during a game.

The taller one needs touch-up and details after a black wash, and of course all four of them need proper bases!

I did make another monster purchase today, after taking the above pic... We went to a small shop in Seattle called Gamma Ray Games, which has mostly board games and Magic cards (which was the primary reason for stopping - a birthday present for my oldest son).  The shop also has a small selection of miniatures, and I found these:

These are 28mm miniatures, but being gremlins they are rather small.  Although I am not too thrilled with the inclusion of weapons, I think that they will make great grinnlings, and, due to the store celebrating its 4th anniversary, the second one was 50% off!

Hobby table...

I have not posted a pic of my hobby table for a while:

Lots of old projects on there, but some progress is being made, albeit slowly.


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Basing, and a small conundrum

Slowly marching on here, and some pics to prove it:

Here you see one of the bases I will be using for the mass-battle portion of my Tékumel stuff.  On the right is a 60mm square of 3mm thick plywood, from Litko.  On the left is a piece of magnet, also from Litko.  The magnet is self-adhesive - one peels off the wrap from the magnet and it sticks to the bottom of the base.

And, the first test subjects (apologies for the quick and poorly-lit pics!):

Ah, my long-suffering First Legion of Ever Present Glory troops!  I popped them off their washers in order to glue them to the 60mm square.

The first rank of troops, glued down to the base.  With the front rank being ones with leveled spears, I took some care to get this rank far enough back on the base so that the leveled spears will be mostly on the base, mostly...

And this is as far as I got today.  Two issues popped up at the same time as I looked at this.  One, the miniatures are going to be tightly packed onto these bases - a good thing in my opinion but there is a catch:  it would be difficult to terrain the base if I glued all of them onto the base at the same time.  So, I will need to start the groundwork and then glue down the front rank, then finish off the base.

Second is a quirk that has lingered in the back of my mind for a while now, and it is the shields.  I do not remember where I saw the paint scheme - maybe the official Eureka painted miniatures or another pic on the 'Net, but I painted the trim on the shields red.  Now, in the 'canon' army guide to the Tsolyánu forces, it clearly states that the shield trim should be black!  Now, my rivet-counting and bricole-gathering days are pretty much over, but I think that the black trim might be better looking, and I am going to go with it.  It will not take too long to re-paint each unit as it comes up for rebasing.


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Monsters, part 5

Here is a quick pic of what little I have been doing with these fellows.  The black wash, as you can see, was heavier than I expected.  Some drybrushing of the base color brought the scheme back together but I am not certain if it is right yet.  And a quick highlight to the teeth on these baskets does help the look.

Still more work is needed but they are slowly coming together.

Brief update...

Sorry no pics this time - upon the week-end perhaps!

Slow progress continues - the little monsters have been given a dark wash and a bit of drybrushing to attempt to rescue the job!  They are still darker than I wanted originally but they should be fine.  The Grackle's cousin is soaking in some Dettol; I hope the paint is loosening off of it.

Pics later!