Hobby | A Wendigo for Verrotwood (Spooktober/Apocalypse Me 2023)

You may think with all of the Star Wars recently that I have forgotten about the fantasy side of things. As with many things in life, it's seasonal. And speaking of seasons, we are entering that most wonderful time of the year. No, not you Christmas. Fall. The cooling temperatures, the falling leaves, the mysterious, concerning creatures hiding in the woods....

Hobby | A Rather Unfortunate Encounter...

The Ironwoods groaned, the wind whipping around massive trunks. Miserable folk squatted next to hovels, drawing their cloaks ever tighter around them. 

Joric had no such luck. A soldier of the Heldeni 1st Army, it was his task to oversee the expansion into this forlorn place. The deep black brambles threatened to overwhelm the village, if not for the constant hacking of axes by the support corp. 

A sound carried upon the wind reached him. Deer perhaps? Easy prey would be good for the troops. Morale was suffering. 

In he went. Rules be damned, hard tac was no proper meal. Immediately, the place was oppressive. All around shadows twisted in vile shapes. As a precaution, he drew his short sword, its steel glinting in the lantern light. A small comfort in this dismal forest. 

Up ahead, he could just make out the shape of antlers. He would remember this clearing, and return with some of the hunters assigned to his unit. Before he could turn, great wings unfurled. Frozen in fear, Joric barely had time to register that he was in the grasp of a foul beast...

Hobby | Bits, Bobs, and Signposts

As I get on with the move, I've been working on smaller projects for now, nothing too fancy. The third Dungeons & Lasers Kickstarter included some nice stretch goals, which I've been building and finally got some paint on some of them. I really like these kinds of models, as they add a lot of flavor to a game. 

Tutorial | The Spirit Tree

I'll be moving soon for work, and because of that I've been going through the many, many shelves of hobby stuff that I have. This has brought a lot of half-finished projects back up to the surface, and one of those was some old Hirst Arts bricks glued to a circle of cork. I figured that it would be a nice planter in the center of a market center, and I got halfway through that idea before it sat doing nothing for some years. Well I've been picking through the latest Dungeons & Lasers stuff from their Encounters Kickstarter, and they had this nice tree that I thought would be perfect for this project. 

Tutorial | Welcome to the Jungle, How to Make Some New Terrain

After plucking the lowest hanging fruit for a jungle terrain joke, the quality of the rest of this post can only get better. After a streak of painting miniatures, I wanted to pivot to making some good old fashioned terrain again. I'll be moving soon, and as part of that I've been taking inventory of what I have. I found some MDF bases lying around and some palm trees I bought an eternity ago, so I though why not make some jungle terrain. Throw in some bits from Archon Studios and Reaper Miniatures and I was ready to make it specifically into Lizardmen/Seraphon terrain, but it could just as easily be used for games of Dungeons & Dragons.  

Gaming | The Wishing Well

In the first game of the year on the Space Dinosaur, we have a game of Age of Sigmar, but in the Skirmish variety. So I loaded up the table with tons of terrain and we all got to playing! The objective: gather coins around the table and get them into the well at the center of the map. 

Hobby | Some Cheesy Bois

I play Age of Sigmar, which I'm sure is obvious to many of you who read this blog. What that means is that, usually, I will purchase, paint, and play with models made by Games Workshop, the creators of the game. Mostly. But the Skaven Giant Rats are ugly and expensive, and come with equally ugly Rat Ogres and Packmasters. Luckily, giant rats are a staple of fantasy and there are lots of versions available on the market. I got some Reaper Miniatures and Archon Studios rats on display here. 

WIP | Untamed Beasts Paint Scheme

November will be a relatively slow month for the Space Dinosaur, as I'm heading out for a two week adventure. I am, however, working on a couple things that should pop up either this month or in December. 

Tutorial | How to Make Raised Platforms for Mordheim or Warcry

For about the past month I've been toiling away at creating some raised platforms for wargaming. This is terrain suitable for Age of Sigmar, Warcry, Mordheim, Frostgrave, you name it. I wanted to add some verticality to my games while holding onto some modularity so that my game boards don't all look the same. I've included some WIP pictures in previous posts, but I have now fully built, painted, and photographed my platforms. I have to say that I'm really happy with how they turned out, and now I'll show you how I made them, plus some glamor shots at the end.

WIP | Elevated Terrain Tiles and Battle Systems Terrain

This last month has been rather quiet here on the Space Dinosaur front. Ordinarily, I prefer to share my hobby stuff here once it's completely done. That works for smaller projects, but right now I'm working on some bigger things that are eating up some time. So, in the spirt of keeping my blog active, here's a sneak peek of some of the upcoming posts.

Review | Dungeons and Lasers III Stretch Goals

Welcome to another review here on the Space Dinosaur, where I'll take a deep dive into a product, game, or technique and offer my opinions and recommendations. Today's post will look at the most recent of Archon Studios' kickstarters to ship, Dungeons and Lasers III. 

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.