Paint Recipe: Cities of Sigmar Cogsmith

For today's Paint Recipe we have a short (hehe) post on the duardin Cogsmith, a hero for the Cities of Sigmar that buffs artillery pieces such as the Helblaster Volley Gun and Helstorm Rocket Battery. This is the first time that a duardin has appeared on the blog, unless you count this miniatures brief appearance in my 2020 review post. I will admit that I didn't really like painting this model, as the short stature of the model made it more difficult to reach some of the details (psht sub-assemblies...) which slowed down the process a bit. 

Throwback Postday: Pirates CSG Economy Edition Rules

Back in the day I was an avid Pirates CSG player, enough so that I was creating custom ships for the game. Nowadays, my attention is occupied by a different game, but I still return to those halcyon days of my youth from time to time. 

I actually created an entire custom rule set, the Economy Edition, which I posted to the long lost Miniature Trading website. My fellow Pirates colleague a7xfanben, who runs his own excellent website, Pirates with Ben, thankfully managed to preserve my ruleset and a lot of other content from the Miniature Trading forums. 

I am now brining those rules here to the Space Dinosaur Minis, with some minor edits and formatting fixes for clarity. It also helps to have it here so that if I ever need to update rules again or there are questions from users, they can get help straight from the creator.

Of course, massive thanks to Ben for saving my rules, go check out his website and give him some love. 

Hobby Table: Dreadlord on Black Dragon and Archmage

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Amber Fiefdoms have received two new units in the form of the Dreadlord on Blackdragon and an Archmage from the out of production Spire of Dawn boxset. This army had been giving me trouble as I was struggling to find any desire to paint them. But recently my wife mentioned that I should paint the big dragon sitting at the back of the shelf, and here we are. On top of that, Broken Realms: Morathi gave me a bit of motivation as well. More on that in a bit. 

Review: Space Dinosaur Miniatures 2020 and a Look Forward to 2021

While 2020 has been a wild year, what with the pandemic and wildfires and elections and all, but here on the Space Dinosaur Miniatures I've been having a great time. A large part of this has been the working from home, which has resulted in an explosion of hobby work. The blog has grown from 3 to 8 posts a year to breaking 50 posts in 2020. I've added a new army to the bunch, and several armies have grown a bit in size. So lets take a look back at 2020 to see what I got done, and then we'll look to 2021 and what I have in store for you dear reader. 

 

Throwback Postday: Pirates CSG and How I got into the Tabletop Gaming Hobby

I am once again starting another series here on the Space Dinosaur Minis blog: Throwback Postday. On any given day that strikes my fancy (don't want to limit myself to only Thursdays here), I will take a look back at the games that I used to play, or those that only get played occasionally. For the first installment of the series, we will take a trip down memory lane to the game that started it all for me: Pirates CSG. 

Hobby Table: Stormcast Eternals Reinforcements

Following last post's battle, the Stormcast Eternal's have received new reinforcements for future fights. For such small scale battles, I prefer to have everything painted, which unfortunately reduces the choices players have in selecting their units. So I worked on getting a big chunk of Stormcast done. The Judicators were even finished in time to fight for Thanskgiving. 

Gaming Table: Thanksgiving 4 Player Free-for-all

 Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I managed to squeeze in a game of Age of Sigmar with my three brothers. In the interest of time and to accommodate the younger players, each of us had a 500 point army, with no allegiance abilities, just the straight up warscroll rules. I was playing a mixed Skaven list, versus a Stormcast, Slaves to Darkness, and Cities of Sigmar armies. The objective was to be the last one standing. 

Hobby Table: Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Raptors and Aetherwings

Hello again and welcome. Unfortunately, this blog post was delayed due to some technical issues with my laptop. Now, after some work I have awoken my desktop tower from its long slumber. All the computing power just to write some words. 

This post will be covering my Vanguard Raptors and their Aetherwing compatriots. 

Review: Dungeons and Lasers II

In a slight departure from my regularly scheduled content, today I am reviewing a Kickstarter project that has finally arrived after waiting a few months. Dungeons & Laser II is a highly modular dungeon room creation system made by a Polish company named Archon Studio. This is their second run of dungeon terrain after a successful first campaign. All of the items in this review are "Legacy" items, which means that they are from the first campaign. The rest of the product should be arriving sometime in August of 2021. 

Now, I am in no way affiliated with them, I purchased this product myself, and below is my honest review. Below are my initial thoughts.

Hobby Table: Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Storm

Today's post is a slightly different venture for me. This marks the arrival of the Idoneth Deepkin to the blog, an army I have had my eyes on since they were announced. The models are lovely and allow for a very bright color pallet, which I usually only get from my Seraphon army. 

Narrative: The Tragedy of Old Ravenmarch, Lore and Rules for Play (Spooktober)

The grand finale to the Spooktober event is here, and is it a big one. This is the second part of a series diving into the lore of one of my Age of Sigmar armies. 

Ravenmarch, the progenitor to Heldenmarch in the Silverlight Realm, is now a cursed land, and this post will dive into its history, conflicts, and even rules for brining Ravenmarch to life on the tabletop. 

 

Hobby Table: Nighthaunt and Legions of Nagash Heroes plus Terrain (Spooktober)

With only two Friday's left in October, we are approaching the finale of Spooktober. Before we can get there, I wanted to show off of a few of the miniatures that have been completed as they await a diorama photo shoot. I had a bit of time and was able to complete the finishing touches on a few Nighthaunt heroes, then I got some new brushes and excitedly spent a lot of time painting a vampire. Then I threw some hay bales into the mix to spice things up. 

Tutorial: How to Make Cemetery Scatter Terrain (Spooktober)

Hello and welcome back to Spooktober! Today I will cover the process of how I made some easy cemetery terrain. This is a great way to make use of all the great bits in the Sigmarite Mausoleum/Garden of Morr kit, getting you extra value for your money.

Tutorial: How to Make Pumpkin Patch Scatter Terrain (Spooktober)

Welcome back to the second post in the Spooktober series! In this article, I will cover how I made a pumpkin patch for my Age of Sigmar games. Really this terrain piece would work fine in any medieval or historical setting, so even if you don't play Warhammer you'll get some good use out of this. 

Tutorial: How to Make Homemade Texture Paint on Ravenmarch Skeletons (Spooktober)

Welcome to the first in the Spooktober series! To celebrate the month of October and the lead up to Halloween, I decided to make the next few posts centered around my Grand Alliance: Death armies, Legions of Nagash and Nighthaunt. This is the Space Dinosaur Minis' first seasonal event, and I'm looking forward to how it goes. 

The first Spooktober post is a tutorial on how I make texture paste for my Ravenmarch bases. I used to use Games Workshop texture paints, but seeing as I don't want to either spend the time to go to the store or spend the money, I decided to try my hand at making it at home. 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Lothern Sea Guard, Amber Fiefdom Infantry

Thanks to vacation and work ramping back up to near pre-covid levels, this post is coming out later than I was hoping. Regardless, it covers the paints and techniques that I use for my Amber Fiefdom infantry. The models are Lothern Sea Guard from the Spire of Dawn starter kit, which unfortunately is now out of print. The unit of 10 took some time to paint due to the amount of detail on each model, but in the end it was worth it. 

Hobby Table: Heldenmarch Wizard and Helstorm Rocket Battery

A few posts back I covered the over-arching lore of Heldenmarch, and as I paint more units for the army I will include some snippets of lore on how they fit into the larger tale. I eventually intend to cover all of my models this way, but the big lore posts take a bit of time since I have to make a coherent background, draw maps, design backdrops and take nice photos, on top of painting the miniatures themselves. 

Hobby Table: Chaos Knights

Continuing the Chaos trend from last post, I finished painting the five Chaos Knights that came in the original Start Collecting - Slaves to Darkness box. This marks the first time that I've completed one of these boxes, and combined with the fact that I finished the Khorne half of the first Age of Sigmar starter set, Chaos seems to be the army of completion for me.

Hobby Table: Chaos Warriors

Today's post is a quick one, covering the completion of a unit of Chaos Warriors. Now that work is starting to pick up again, I have less time to hobby and write, but I will do my best to stick to at least a post a week. Anyways, back to it. 

Hobby Table: Glaivewraith Stalkers and Liberators

Although I have an established paint scheme for my Nighthaunt models, it initially didn't start out that way.

In my need to have a "unique" color scheme, I went for an odd combination of purples and blues (Skeletor intensifies). I have now gone back to those first models, the Glaivewraith Stalkers, and given them a much needed update. 

 

Hobby/Gaming Table: Seraphon Salamanders and Skirmish Continued

 The Seraphon hobby continues, this time with more fire-belching lizards. Salamanders are older sculpts, so much so that mine are metal. With a decent paint job they look all right, although I will say that they aren't my favorite. They were recently buffed to quite an extent in the newest Seraphon battletome, but as my group is playing skirmish at the moment I haven't been able to field them yet. 

Narrative: The Kingdom of Heldenmarch - Lore and Rules for Play

Today's post is the first in a new series that covers the lore of one of my armies that I use to play in Age of Sigmar. I have done something similar in the past, but much of that lore has been developed in the years since, so now I can do the concept justice.  

Although the models are from Age of Sigmar, the lore has taken on a life of its own, with some liberties taken here and there. You could always consider the Silverlight Region to be a pocket realm in the grander Age of Sigmar scheme, which would help explain why some names carried over (cough Heldenmarch cough). I want the feeling of the Old World mixed with Age of Sigmar, so this is the result. 

Hobby Table: Ravenack's Gnashing Jaws and Suffocating Gravetide

Since I've been focusing on my Seraphon recently for gaming purposes now that things are ramping back up, I've done a bit more work on the endless spells since my favorite dinos can take them in "bound" forms. Plus it's just nice to knock out a model in an afternoon. 

Narrative: Giants of Menhir

Today will be a quick post covering a nice little picture I was able to snap after a game with my brothers. The set-up was a 3-way battle for the tower, with Stormcast/Giants of Menhir vs Anvilgard/Amber Fiefdoms vs Slaves to Darkness/Skal Flats. 

Gaming Table: Skirmish and Seraphon

Although Covid-19 isn't completely through, my gaming group has decided that we are comfortable playing some games at home (not at any game stores). With the new General's Handbook releasing recently, we decided to give the Anvil of Apotheosis a try, with each of us designing a hero to use in the old Skirmish rules that GW released a ways back. 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Nagash, the Undying King

Today's post is a rather special model that has been sitting half finished for over a year in the corner of my hobby desk. I had started converting and painting Nagash at a time in my hobby where I wasn't as confident in my skills, leading me to eventually to take a break from working on him. And so he sat, headless, armless, bookless, and with unpainted ghosts. Eventually, I said enough, and here we are, a complete Nagash:

Paint Recipe: How to Paint the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak

After what feels like an eternity, I have completed the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak. This model comes packaged in the new Slaves to Darkness Start Collecting box which contains all new, easy-to-build kits. I really like the look of this particular model, but boy does it have a lot of details and textures that required a lot of colors.

Hobby Table: Umbral Spellportals and Balewind Vortex

Since my current project of a Chaos Lord on Karkadrak is taking forever, I wanted to knock out some really easy pallet cleansers, and Endless Spells are really great for this due to how simple the models usually are. In this post I will cover my Umbral Spellportals and Balewind Vortex. 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Seraphon Ripperdactyls

My ripper dactyls have been sitting half finished for an inordinate amount of time, so I pulled them up from the depths of that hobby backlog and voila they are finished! The kit is a multi-build, giving you the option to create either Ripperdactyls or Terradons. I have multiple of the kit, so I made both variations. The Rippers are a much more vicious looking animal, but they are paired with the adorable bloat toad, which also gets some coverage in today's post. 

Hobby Table: A Packmaster to go with those Rat Ogres

Since I very much enjoyed how those rat ogres came out in the previous post, I decided to follow it up with another model from Spire of Dawn: the Skaven Packmaster. I basically matched the paint scheme from the Rat Ogres to make them look like a unified group. 

Hobby Table: Skaven Rat Ogres

This time around I have a pair of Skaven rat ogres fresh off of the hobby table. These particular sculpts are from the Spire of Dawn set that came out at the beginning of Age of Sigmar as a re-release of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th edition starter set. Unfortunately, the set is no longer for sale as the other half of the box was High Elves, which no longer exist in the Age of Sigmar game. Games Workshop still sells some rat ogres, but the models are old and frankly look bad. 

Hobby Table: Battle Pilgrims of Arioch

Although I love Age of Sigmar dearly, there is one faction from Warhammer Fantasy that I miss dearly -- Bretonnia! There is just the wondrous sight of a wedge of knights with their bright heraldic colors charging headlong into an infantry formation to devastate it. Technically, there are war scrolls for Bretonnian units, so I use those for rules purposes. They are a bit outdated in the current competitive meta, but as a narrative player that doesn't worry me too much. 

The other issue is that all of the models are no longer in production. Now, I was able to get some second hand models, but as time goes on this option gets more and more cost prohibitive. But remember, Bretonnia is just a fantasy medieval faction. I bought a Fireforge starter set called Deus Vult, which came with knights, archers/crossbowmen, men-at-arms and foot sergeants. 

Hobby Table: Seraphon Astrolith Bearer

This weekend's output saw the completion of a Seraphon Astrolith Bearer, a useful unit in the army that comes as a Finecast kit from Games Workshop. I like the look of the official sculpt, but I didn't feel like forking over the cash for the one model. I had some spare metal Temple Guard Command models from way back when, and I also recently purchased the excellent Lizardmen Blood Bowl kit for the new Saurus warrior sculpts. The kit also comes with turn markers that would work perfectly for what I had in mind.

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Warcry Raptoryx

The Warcry starter set (which unfortunately is no longer for sale) came with a veritable pile of goodies. Two starter armies, two sets of beasties, terrain, tokens, and game board filled the box to the brim, and I have, very slowly, been clearing out the contents of said box.

Here we have the paint recipe that I used to paint the set's Raptoryx, weird hybrids of turkey and dinosaur. They can be captured in a Warcry campaign to become a part of your warband, and in Age of Sigmar games they can be a part of a Slaves to Darkness army.

In my own home cooked lore, they aren't necessarily creatures of chaos. They live high in the mountains, and members of the various Skal tribes will capture them as part of a coming of age ritual, and mark them with metal ringlets before releasing them as proof of their deeds.

Hobby Table: The Rest of the Gloomspite Gitz

I've finished painting the rest of my little goblins using the paint scheme I covered in a previous post, and I'm pleased with how they've all turned out. In total, the Warhammer Underworlds kit comes with nine models: Zarbag himself, a squiq herder with two squigs, three shootas, a netter, and a fanatic.

Interestingly, this covers a decent chunk of a Warcry warband as well. For even more bang for your buck, they can be played as a unit in Age of Sigmar proper.

Enough background, onto the models then!

Narrative: Ambush in the Forest

A hiss of tortured metal tore through the evening air, its echoes lingering for longer than it should. Higgs knew, one of his men would not be returning. Not in any recognizable manner, at least. He risked a glance out into the void that was the coming night. Shapes fluttered in the periphery, restless shadows unnatural in their movements. A pale face blossomed from the night, its skin devoid of flesh. Witch light fluttered and danced amidst empty eye sockets. Clutched within skeletal hands was a cruel scythe, blade covered in the ichor of the recently departed. The creature's mouth opened, and silence overtook the forest. Then came the rest. 

Hobby Table: More Endless Spells

This weekend I managed to knock out two quick models, both endless spells: Chronomatic Cogs and the Purple Sun of Shyish.

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Gloomspite Gitz

Although the typical Gloomspite paint scheme is pretty good with the black robes and all, my Stormcast collection has the black schtick covered. And yes, I know that my Heldenmarch/Freeguild are also yellow, but this is a different yellow, so it doesn't count see? Besides, in my head canon these crafty gobbos steal materials from Heldenmarch to make their garments, using bits of uniforms to make their robes. So I'm justified in my decision making I say.

Now on to the recipe...

Narrative: Silverlight Map Second Edition

A while back on this blog I made a post about my home-brew lore for my Age of Sigmar miniatures and games that I set in the Silverlight Realm. I have very much enjoyed updating the map and lore as time has progressed, and I have now developed what I call the second edition map, along with new lore to match.

The Silverlight Sea and surrounding land masses. 

Hobby Table: The Great Basing and Priming of 2020

As I continue to progress through my hobby backlog, I realize that sometimes I won't start painting a model, even if I really want to, because it isn't primed and I just don't feel like putting in the effort to do so. I used to use spray can primer, but it was so weather dependent and it can get so blisteringly hot here that getting a significant amount of models primed was a chore. Instead I've moved on to using an airbrush.

So much to go! 

Delay in Posting due to Kitten

Hello all, the lack of posts in the past week has been due to the addition of a kitten to my home, I will be back with regular posts this week. Until then enjoy the picture!

Age of Sigmar Soulbound: What it Provides for Narrative Gaming

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, the new RPG set it in the mortal realms, is now out today as a PDF, or, if you want a hard copy, it is for pre-order. Link here. Although I don't really intend to use many of the combat mechanics, preferring to use the normal Age of Sigmar rules slightly modified, the wealth of lore and background material provided is a treasure trove for narrative gamers.

A Freeguild contingent races to fend off an invader. 

What Soulbound offers narrative gamers are stories to spice up a game and give it a reason for existing. All throughout the book are little hooks tied to a realm, an organization, or a deity that can easily be adapted from an RPG into a game of Age of Sigmar. 

Pictures throughout are there for visual interest, so enjoy!

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Nighthaunt

Welcome to the 20th post of my blog! This is something of an accomplishment for me actually sticking to this blog enough to get here, so I thought it was worth noting. Moving past the self-adulation, this post I have a paint recipe for Nighthaunts, that, while similar to the Nihilakh Oxide method many painters use, I vastly prefer for consistency reasons.

The finished model. 

 Onto the paint recipe then.

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Stormcast Eternals

Greetings! Today I have a simple post explaining the paints I use for my Stormcast Eternals. At a glance, they appear similar to the Anvils of the Heldenhammer, but I made a couple of changes to the scheme so that the colors contrast a bit more. I'll have the full recipe further below.

Hobby Table: Dire Wolves, Necromancer, and Skink Starpriest

The last couple of days have seen 7 new models completed. For the first round we have some Legions of Nagash models, or, in my little corner of the universe, these troops hail from the ruins of Ravenmarch. This is the eastern half of Heldenmarch, and the two were once a whole country until the folly of the Amethyst Cult drove the kingdom in two. This lore is reflected in my necromancer, whose robes of purple, which once were a symbol of the Amethyst Cult, are hidden beneath tattered robes.

A necromancer wills his dire wolves to attack. 

Tutorial: Bastilodon Solar Engine

I magnetized my Bastilodon a long time ago so that I could swap out between the Ark of Sotek and the Solar Engine, and while I managed to paint the dino and the Ark of Sotek, I left the Solar Engine to languish for some time. Part of it was that I was intimidated by the crystal. I wanted it to look like all of those photos that can be seen on Instagram or Reddit. But no more! I decided to just go for it, and I don't know why I was putting this off for so long.

Read on for details of how I painted it. 

Narrative: Using Scenery to Tell a Story

Often times in wargaming we use our scenery as an ends to a means. Does it provide an even playing field so that neither side gains an advantage? Are there ample Line-of-sight blockers that give strategic advantages? Not that any of this is bad, but to me terrain can be so much more, especially in a narrative context. The terrain can help to drive the story of your games, giving players objectives beyond winning. Even if a player loses the match, the events that unfold can give them a tale to tell for a long time afterwards. 

A cemetery sits peacefully next to a shrine of Azyr. 

Hobby Table: Freeguild, Endless Spells, and More

This has been a productive week so far, seeing several units painted to completion.

The Freeguild group above consists of a General with banner, 10 Guard with Halberds, and 1 with a sword who managed to sneak in to the painting pile. They bear the uniform of my own Free City (or country I guess) of Heldenmarch. The pants are just a standard Army Painter black drybrushed with grey, the shirts are Citadel Flash Gitz yellow washed with Casandora Yellow. Metallics are Plate Metal Silver from Army Painter, and the red is Dragon Red, also from the Army Painter line. This took me a bit for all the other small details on each model, so from here I moved onto some quick little projects...

Tutorial: Converting square to round bases

Whether you still have old holdovers from Warhammer Fantasy days or you bought used models from Ebay or elsewhere, chances are there are still some of you with models on square bases that need to make the move over to Age of Sigmar. But maybe you want to preserve those lovely bases and don't want the hassle of painstakingly clipping off the top of a base to transfer it.

Today I have a tutorial for an easy conversion! Disclaimer, you'll need access to a 3D printer, which you can sometimes do at a local library or if you have a friend if you don't already have your own. 

Step 1: Print the bases

Files can be found here at Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2952975

Here you have an assortment of bases to choose from. For this example I've gone with cavalry bases for my Drakespawn Knights. I've printed them the standard 0.2 mm layer height in PLA, and a set of five only took about an hour from start to finish. I didn't bother with any brims, and it came out just fine.  Once printed, just gently slot the base into the coverter. I put dabs of super glue in to keep the model firmly in place.