I painted something

and just recently go around to finishing a video of the pictures so others can see it.

Battle Report

Samael team shooty continues a losing streak. But I think it is still one of my best Battle Reports yet!

Blog forecast: Increasingly posty

Well, the bad news is in. I didn't get the permanent position at the place where I've been temping for several months. Despite having my entire department and the leads of several other departments trying to pressure my manager into hiring me he went with someone else. I don't know why, and I'm not going to sweat over it. I'm disappointed, but I'll survive on unemployment if it comes to it. So if I am indeed back on unemployment next month you can expect a lot more posts and videos from me. I've spent the last couple nights hunting for my lost Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG book when I'd rather have been making a video. With the prospect of unemployment I can't afford to replace it and losing stuff like that is driving me crazy.

Either way I expect to get my review of Arkham Horror and showing off the two models I painted this month up on youtube.

Youtube Wargaming Community

It is a said statement of the times when I'm seeing more news from Blizzard Corp's convention that Gencon. I'm following the announcements of the new World of Warcraft expansion with amusement (I dropped WoW hard, so excuse me all you still fans of the game) and watching eagerly the news of Starcraft 2.

More importantly to me right now I wanted to announce what has long been coming on Youtube, the development of the Wargamer's Community. Just founded and already with over 205 members at the time of posting and at least a hundred videos. You'll find videos on everything related to wargaming from battle reports, to painting guides, to terrain making guides, and a lot more. If you are one of my wargaming blog followers you should check it out because you'll love it!

Quality Terrain from Random Stuff

If you're going to build your own terrain then the first skill I recommend developing is a good eye. There are lots of things all around you that can be used to make great terrain projects. If you look in my boxes of standard terrain making materials you'll find a lot of things that I just picked up.

Sticks of the right proportion can be used to make great trees or tree stumps. Tiny gravel scales to become large rocks and small rocks can be used as boulders. Got Cotton? String it out and use it as fog on your battlefield. Collect some lichens and use them as alien plants. Terrainaholic on youtube has a lot of videos where he just uses stuff he has laying around or finds on car trips.



Why do those pieces of bark work so well as rocks? Shape and texture, that is what you're really looking for. If you're in the miniature wargaming hobby then you shouldn't be afraid of painting things and a lot of stuff that doesn't work initially works well after you put a coat of paint on it. Sometimes the gravel rocks you find might not be the right color for frozen tundra glacier rocks... so why not paint them? It might seem odd to paint rocks the color you want, but it can work really really well.

One of my favorite tricks that I use for basing figures and making terrain is gathering my own Talus. People can pay $10 for a little plastic store container of talus material that isn't as good as what you can find in your concrete driveway or parking lot. Where the concrete pavement has cracked you'll find small bits of sandy and rocky material that can be sorted for all kinds of diferent sizes of Talus. Water Glue it on, and if you don't like the color paint over it.

Sometimes a little bit of cutting or assembly will get something of the right size and texture to a good piece of terrain. Here is another video from Youtube channel "Wargamepainting" that makes excellent "dead trees".



Work on it and share with everyone what you've found that is easily available and works to make great terrain or figure conversions.