It's been awhile since I added anything to my Dol Amroth forces. Recently a friend sent me a Guards of Traitor's Toll sprue. It's a really nice sprue, filled with interesting bits, but what most caught my eye was one of the bodies. I thought it would make a great captain for Dol Amroth. I gave him a head from another sprue and a nice round shield, and then painted him to match the swordsmen. Looks…
This is my new Paladin Captain for Stargrave , rules for which can be found in Stargrave: Bold Endeavour . Really, I was just having fun mixing some Frostgrave and Stargrave pieces together and using a cool dragon decal!
Every miniatures collection needs some goblins. These are from Reaper Miniatures, all clipped off their integral bases and remounted onto GW ones. The fireplace and cauldron is from another Reaper set. The fireplace looked really plain, so I painted random runes on it. The goblins are a combination of speed paints (mostly for the skin) and more traditional painting. They are great little figs.…
Not long ago, I ordered an old game and discovered this completely unrelated flyer in the box. It was just too much fun not to share. I'd have been 10 when this was originally sent.
Back in the pub for one of my all-time favourites, Silent Death . It was a three-way game, as my double points force took on the other two. It did not go well. My missile boat took a reactor hit early in the game, which cost me a huge percentage of my offensive firepower. My other large ships were more defensive in nature, so while they lasted several more turns, and even took down a few of the…
Not long past, at Genghis Con in Denver, CO, I ran the Pipe Leaf Downs - Polo Invitational scenario for Hairfoot Jousting . This scenario sees four players, each with two jousters, attempting to shoot the ball through the opposite goal. This is a scenario I've run quite a few times, but I've never had such an epic match-up as this! It began with an early break, allowing a quick shot on goal. The…
I have been playing a lot HeroQuest with my son. It really is a fantastic introduction to 'Dungeon Crawling' and a clear 'gateway game' to more complex wargames and RPGs. For now though, we are just having fun. My initial attempts to paint our set failed, as a few weeks after painting, the mins became 'sticky'. Luckily, I hadn't painted that many. The problem seems to be some combination of the…
A couple more cybercultists. I'm just having fun kit-bashing the Automatons and the Cultists III kits. Build wise, they just fit together almost perfectly, and thematically I love the dissonance between the ratty robes and the (one assumes) expensive high technology.
What's worse than an evil cultist? An evil cybercultist! I'm continuing to have fun with the Stargrave / Frostgrave plastics. This model uses the body and an arm from the Frostgrave Cultists III kit, while the head and other arm come from the Stargrave Automatons set. It really is a bit like wargaming LEGOs!
My first painted figures of 2026 are a pair of cyborgs (one more borgy than the other). I painted these purely for fun, with no specific plans for their use, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. They are both plastic figures made from the Stargrave Scavengers and Automatons kits.
I'm continuing to work on my 4-player Hairfoot Polo set-up, both for my own gaming group, but also to take to GengisCon in Denver next month. This is the last major piece I wanted to get done - the scoreboard! This was a quick and simple build. Both the base and the main board are foamboard, held in place with glue and dressmaker's pins. I used a pencil to draw in the 'boards'. The frame is made…
I admit it. When it comes to Hairfoot Polo set-ups, I've mostly been winging it. Which has led to games with non-regulation, and possibly non-equal goals! I doubt this has been the decisive factor in any match, but fair is fair. Thus, I have constructed some official goals. These were simple and easy. I made some uprights and crossbars out of balsa wood and dressmaker pins. I then glued them to…
I have painted two more heroes for my upcoming Warriors of Athena game. The woman is a Reaper Bones Black figure. It was a bit fiddly to cut her off her integral base, but a little green stuff and a little flocking hide a lot of sins! Bones Black figures are harder to paint than the Bones USA figures, as the detail is just not as sharp, but I really enjoyed this one. The other guy is a Lucid Eye…
I am continuing to paint figures for the Warriors of Athena game I am going to run at GengisCon in February, and here are the first two Heroes! The figure on the left is a rebased Reaper Bones figure. Now, there are no true 'spellcasters' in Warriors of Athena , but there are a few Heroic Abilities that look a bit like spells. So, he might be the slightly more supportive Hero. On the right, we've…
In February, I'm going to fly across the ocean to Denver, Colorado. I have been invited as a guest for GengisCon , a sizable gaming convention. As part of my attendance, I've decided to run a few games of Warriors of Athena . I've even written a special quest for the event (which I'll be releasing to my Patreon supporters sometime around the game's release). This quest involves quite a few…
For those who want to keep up with everything I've got going on as a game designer, and not just a hobbiest, you can read my latest newsletter here: Joseph A. McCullough Newsletter | Patreon The photo is just to grab your attention!
My latest painting triumphs! (Because I consider every figure I paint to the best of my ability a triumph.) These are both Reaper plastic figures that I cut off their integral bases and put on GW bases. I plan for these guys to do double duty. They will serve as beastmen in my dungeon crawler, but I am also going to use them as evil satyrs in Warriors of Athena . Actually, I suspect they'll appear…
As part of my dungeon crawler project, I'm trying to collect substitutes for all of the creatures found in the basic HeroQuest box, so I can run those games if I want. Thus, I absolutely needed a gargoyle. Luckily, Reaper obliged me by putting out this guy. Once again, I cut it off its integral base and stuck it on a GW style one, which I like better aesthetically and tends to be more stable.…
To achieve bingo on my wargaming bingo card this year, I needed to scratch build a piece of terrain. So, I did a quick-build of a crumbling crypt. The main body of the building is made with foam card and strips of cardboard. I drew the stones on the walls with a pencil. I wish I had spent a bit more time on this part, as they are a bit wobbly. I then added a few Hirstarts bits to create the…
Over the years, I have made several attempts at painting a Rohan force, but I've never been completely satisfied with any of them. Late last year, I bought the War of the Rohirrim box set from Games Workshop, and had a go at that. It is filled with lovely figures, but I didn't enjoy painting them. They were just too small, which was exacerbated by their more realistic proportions, which made their…
This weekend I was in the pub for a three-player, Hairfoot Polo , showdown! With three players, I decided the matches should run until someone scored two goals. We played 3 games with final scores of 2-0-0, 2-0-0, and 2-1-0, with two different winners. Guess who scored 0 in each game? Yes, I have now been shut out in my last five Hairfoot polo matches! From a game-design perspective, I think I…
This weekend I met up with a couple of friends for a big round of gaming. We started with two games of Warhmmer 40,000 - 4th Edition - Combat Patrol! For the first scenario, I volunteered my Inquisition forces to be the sacrificial lamb, in a scenario where they tried to escape with a chaos artefact. Unfortunately, neither the Sisters of Battle nor the Eldar were too keen on me getting away! All…
This scary little guy comes from the Reaper Bones kickstarter (I didn't back it, but I picked up a bunch of the figures from The Shop on the Borderlands ). I have been looking for some goblins that were a little more classically fey, with a true look of malice - I think I found them! I've added him to the bestiary for my dungeon!
This weekend I'm planning a little throwback gaming - Warhammer 40,000 , 4th Edition, Combat Patrol! Fourth Edition is the only version of the game that I ever played with any kind of regularity, and the only one I manged to paint an army to use. For the upcoming games, we'll be using the Combat Patrol rules from the back of the rulebook. It's essentially the same game, but you can only use small…
It's an unwritten rule that every dungeon crawler must have a barbarian as a potential player choice. Well, I'm glad to finally add one to mine. I am particularly proud of this one because it's a minor conversion. It's a Reaper Bones figure from the latest Kickstarter. Originally, he had an axe in his left hand, but I thought this made for a silly pose. So, I replaced the axe with a plastic shield…