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Yet more Drazhar and some Exciting Releases

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As you probably would have guessed, I have more progress on Drazhar to share. It isn’t as much as I thought there would be but what I do have to show looks good, I think. I got through the tedium of painting the arms and found painting the shoulder plates invigorating. Painting NMM is funny in that whatever you’re painting doesn’t look like metal until you get it right just at the end of the process. That happened on the shoulders where I worked on them and was near the end and was thinking, these just don’t look right… and then I made a couple of adjustments and just like that, they look as they do now and are (hopefully) convincing to the eye. The other thing I wanted to mention about painting this week is the broken Eldar gemstones Drazhar wears as war trophies/ornaments are borderline cruel by GW. I can paint some small details with confidence but my goodness, those pushed even my eyesight and painting abilities. Its hard to get a close up photo of them but I do think they came out well and am proud of them. As you can see, I’ve put one of the two back pieces on and then after those two are done, its just the swords and head to go. There isn’t too far left but it still feels to me like I’m about two weeks away from being done so I just have to keep at it.

Two big releases got teased this week for two different games so I thought I’d share some of what stood out to me. First up, Fallout New Vegas sculpts were fully revealed by Modiphius and they look great. Its been quite a long time since New Vegas came out so my memory is a bit fuzzy but they have a lot of the main factions covered already with this initial release. For example, there are a couple of boxes for NCR who I think of as the main good guy faction in the game.

They are kind of rangers/military members that try to keep New Vegas safe. There’s also the cruel slaver faction called Caesar’s Legion. They basically appropriated elements of Roman culture to justify their mantra of only the strong can join their group and everyone else is forced into slavery. I don’t love the paint jobs on these minis as they seem a little drab and look like they need more contrast but I will be excited to paint them one day.

Many of you have seen me paint up Super Mutants from Fallout 4 and the Nightkin are an interesting variation on our favorite post-apocalypse brutes. Painting the skin will be fun, if nothing else!

Last but certainly not least, there are the robot security guards used on the Vegas strip. I’m curious how the computer screens will work on these. Is there a decal or is that freehand on their computer screen faces? As I remember, these bots were very strong in the video game and so they should formidable in the miniature game as well.

That is just a small sampling of what is coming later this year and it is exciting times to be playing Fallout Wasteland Warfare. I love Fallout 4 and New Vegas and I will most likely get into the New Vegas minis eventually when I get tired of building out the Fallout 4 world. Hopefully we get lots of new scenarios and things of that nature with these new minis too. No details on that just yet but I’d think that is just about inevitable.

If that wasn’t enough, GW continues to pump up the excitement on Cursed City. They revealed a good amount of what comes in the game and it looks pretty great to me.

The heroes generally look good and fun to paint and the enemies are awesome looking. From bats to skeletons to some cool looking zombies, GW has rounded up most of the classic fantasy horror creatures and put them all in this box. I’m very curious to learn more about the game and anything else GW wants to show off, really as this looks amazing and makes me glad I waited until Warhammer Quest finally picked a theme and setting that really appeals to me.

There were plenty of other models teased but the other mini that caught my eye was the Wight King. GW has pretty decent skeleton models but they are a little old and it has always felt to me like they could do better. Well, they consider that job done as this guy is awesome! The only thing that will slow me down from getting him is that I have no idea how I would paint him up as of yet, but I’m sure I can figure something out.

The only issue I can see with all of these new minis is where in the world will I find the time to paint and play everything! I have a couple of LOTR dios to make, I want to paint up a Coven Throne which is a very large model, and there is always lots more to do in Fallout which gives me plenty of gaming fun as it is. When you add to this all of the models that come with Cursed City and potentially the Wight King, I’m going to be very busy painting for quite a long time. I suppose it is a good problem to have though so no complaints here!

20 thoughts on “Yet more Drazhar and some Exciting Releases”

  2. My eyes got tired just looking at those gems! You are doing a great job on Drazar! The details that GW and Forgeworld is putting into their models is amazing but sometimes I wonder at what cost? How many people new to the hobby have the patience and/or skill to paint all the models as shown in Cursed City for example. I still see posts where people are finalizing the Pellenor Fields box and those are simpler models (except for Theoden). I do wish that GW would do more simple stuff for LOTR, that one objective mark with the rune stone and raven would be quite useful for my dwarves 🙂
    Another “new” release is the revised SPQR rules, Warlord Games has a deal right now where you get a box set of figures as well as the rule book.
    I don’t know if you follow rods.mods on Instagram, but he has some quite useful guides, you might be interested in his rust technique.

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    1. I completely agree on GW’s models not being practical for army based games. If you’re playing true skirmish games (ten models or less), you can slow down and really paint them nicely but GW really is pushing army games in all their systems, in my opinion. They want you to start with skirmish and move up to an army one day eventually.

      While it is probably beyond the scope of your comment, I think there have to be a lot of wargamers and board gamers who already own way too many minis that they can’t possibly paint without spending 10 or 20 years devoted to that task. GW and Kickstarter have really encouraged people to obtain boatloads of minis in a single purchase and it is hard to pace yourself on projects so big. I remember getting Escape From Goblin Town which came with so much stuff $150(ish) and it took me almost a year to paint up the contents. Some of the box sets GW is selling now have even more stuff in them than that did, for example. I might be biased because I don’t like having a huge backlog and find that kind of thing to feel like a burden eventually.

      I heard something about SPQR getting revised rules which I’m curious about. I haven’t seen what they’re changing in the rules. That would be my big question before I consider getting it because among Ancients players online, I know SPQR got a pretty poor reception. I’m hoping that it is better and tempts me to buy it!

      Thanks for the recommendation on rods.mods. I have seen him post some of his guides on other social media but I haven’t been following him on Instagram. Some of his guides I feel are focused on speed and not optimal results but the rust one is interesting and one of his better ones. Its always cool to see how others are accomplishing things. Keeping up on that makes you a better hobbyist, I find.

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  3. Drazhar is looking great! But that is no surprise to me, given your amazing painting skills.

    The NV Fallout releases are very cool. I have to keep reminding myself I just can not do another genre… not enough time, money or space! I enjoyed Fallout NV quite a bit back in the day.

    I am not as keen on the models for the new Warhammer Quest as most folks seem but I am glad so many people are pleased with them. I can enjoy your pleasure vicariously. Seeing what appears to be a Kislev model helps confirm my theory that we will see a bunch of new Kislev models in the Old World return. The bats are kind of cool. The raven&rune stone marker is cool. Most of the sculpts are a little too over the top, a little too grim, and a little too busy for my taste but I can respect the obvious artistic skill in their designs. I certainly look forward to seeing you paint them.

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    1. Thanks mate. Its been a long journey painting Draz but I’m glad he is shaping up nicely.

      I totally understand what you mean about Fallout and I can’t promise that I won’t continue to tempt you with lots of painted minis and battle reports 🙂

      I know what you mean about the sculpts being grim and busy! I like how grim they are but that is what drew me to Vampire Counts as a young man, I’m sure. They’re definitely not suited for LOTR and fit squarely in the Warhammer environment. I imagine that I will get Cursed City but I will be looking at the new board game with a skeptical eye as I want to make sure that it is worth me spending the time and money on. I can always pick out a couple of minis I like from the box and paint those if the game isn’t good and save myself quite a large amount of money and time. It will be interesting to see what happens!

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  6. Draw is looking good and the shoulder pieces look spot on to me. My eyes are still constantly drawn to the *dangling* crotch piece but I suspect that’s my own problem…😀

    I don’t know what warhammer quest is. My own advice is only wait and see the gameplay of any GW games. Yes the miniatures are likely to be fantastic but I’ve long grown bored of most GW rules.
    Course you are experiencing the classic wargamer dilemma; not even being done with the projects you have planned (and maybe even purchased) when new ones spring to mind. 😀

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    1. Haha, well I’m glad to hear that most of Draz is looking good 😉

      Warhammer Quest a board game that GW has been slowly releasing different versions of for somewhere between 5-10 years. They alternate between Age of Sigmar and 40k universes more or less. The board games seem to be evolving and improving a bit with each release from what I gather which has been encouraging. Having said that, I know what you mean about waiting to see what the rules actually are. As excited as I am for the minis, that is only one of a couple boxes a new release needs to check for me to buy it. I don’t plan on pre-ordering Cursed City and will pick one up at the discounted GW price after its out and I’ve see what people think of the rules, just to be safe. It might give me a little time to make some progress on all those other projects I want to tackle too but we’ll see on that 🙂

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  7. Draz is looking exquisite, that gold is just phenomenal mate! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the old devil’s head.

    Some very cool looking releases coming up there. Fallout is getting more and more tempting and although I agree that the studio paintjobs leave something to be desired I really like the look of those Caesar’s Legion guys. Don’t know much about them in terms of background but the models are cool. Cursed City is amazing, I’ll definitely be getting that one. As for the Wight King I believe the expression is “shut up and take my money GW!”. Particularly impressive when you think that it mirrors the old mounted Wight King so closely, yet somehow produces such an incredible result. Really looking forward to seeing what other undead GW have up their sleeves now. Of course this does mean that my recent efforts to clear the backlog are going to be undone but it’s a never ending struggle isn’t it!

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    1. I think the gold bits definitely add something to the mini and I’m glad to hear you like how that part turned out.

      I liked Caesar’s Legion a lot in Fallout New Vegas and I thought they were a fun and novel idea for the post-apocalypse setting. They’re pretty evil or I remember them that way but sometimes bad is good in wargaming 🙂 I’m curious as to how they will play in Fallout as well.

      It is going to be very hard for both of us to keep our backlogs under control, I’d say! I’m almost afraid what other cool models GW is going to unleash on us because so many things they’ve shown this weekend look like must haves to me. Its been a while since I’ve been excited about what GW has released so I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can while I prepare my wallet at the same time 🙂

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  8. Fantastic progress mate. You’ve got a real talent there my friend. The fallout minis look pretty cool but the cursed city minis are more my bag. I’m slowly getting more excited about the release. For me it feels like ages since they released something that is my cup of tea. It seems to have been a constant stream of space marines stuff for so long haha. I like space marines but not THAT much hehe.

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  9. Heh, I’ve long since given up on keeping my backlog under control. My main objective is to get my neglected models (pretty much) all done – all the models I’ve started and then never finished over the years. At that point. the plan is to have Tabla Rasa and then paint kits as I like.
    I’m lucky in that despite liking Fallout, the figures and the bad taste left in my mouth from F76 and it’s “16 times the detail” make it easy for me to pass on yet another line and game I’d likely never play.
    WHQ on the other hand…

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    1. That is a good plan! I keep a very small backlog so that it doesn’t become a burden mentally on myself. I also find that it allows me to stick to painting stuff that I love so that I don’t run low on motivation very often.

      WHQ does look awesome and I look forward to seeing how it gets reviewed. If they’re favorable, then I will scoop it up. Fallout minis may seem like they’d be time consuming to paint and they are if you paint them like me but you can use TMM to get decent results and get them on the tabletop quickly. Of course, I’m biased and really love the game thus far and it has basically replaced MESBG as my gaming interest so take my opinion with a grain of salt 🙂

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