We have a little surprise for this week’s update! On Black Friday, I put in what has become an annual terrain order with Black Site Studio. It turned up recently and so in my excitement, I decided to put some of my purchases through its paces. This year I decided to pick up some much needed fencing and something else I’ll talk about in a minute. While there are quite a few things I need to really bring my post-apocalypse neighborhood to life, I figure fencing is a fairly high priority. I’m pretty sure Black Site made a pretty nice looking picket fence set at one point but they don’t any longer so I decided to go with their Farmer’s Fence for now anyway. The piece I worked on was quick and easy to assemble, if a little hard to glue vertically straight but I figure that’s okay because this type of fence is usually a little rickety. Here’s a look at it.
At first, I was going to paint the fence white and make it look like the paint is chipping off but as I’ve discovered in the past, Black Site’s MDF doesn’t like white paint and some kind of yellowish residue comes out as you try to paint it. So I decided to just make the wood look old and weathered instead. That is very typical with this kind of fencing as it is often put up and then neglected until it falls down as best I can tell. I bought a lot of fence (21+ pieces) so I need a way to get them painted up quick so I figured drybrushing and some mold applied with foam is about as good as I can do. Once I varnish it, I’ll get some grass tufts added to try make it look a bit more overgrown. Obviously, I’ve got lots more of these to do but I’m excited to use them and see them on the tabletop.
I also picked up another house variation that I don’t already own. This one is known as the Beaumont Residence and its a brick house which should be a change of pace when it comes to painting it up.
I still have a really big two-story house sitting around waiting on me so I’ll have to take on another housing project this year, if I can manage. At this point, I’m starting to run out of things that Black Site make that I really want. I think the last big thing is Astro Mart which is basically a stand in for Super Duper Mart in Fallout. Its huge and epic and will take forever to finish but it would be so cool to have at the same time. I very nearly ordered it on Black Friday but thought it was financially prudent to wait. Perhaps I’ll order it at some point this year if I can rub a couple of nickels together.
Its a bit of a shame that their post-apocalyptic selection is getting smaller and smaller as I like their kits better than anybody else on the market, by far. I missed out on a really cool industrial building I wanted, highway overpasses, and some other things.
A while back I started a saved search on eBay for their kits in the hopes that I might get a chance to grab some of the ones I missed and I haven’t seen any of the big ones thus far which doesn’t fill me with optimism but perhaps I’ll get lucky in the future.
I did put in more work on Lokaris this week as well. Its once again fairly modest as I’m taking my time and trying to do my best work. Painting the wolf jaws was interesting because I struggled to find good photo references. Every jawbone was either pristine or a super old jawbone from the Ice Age which is incredibly weathered. I tried to come up with something that is kind of a happy medium where there’s some wear and dirt at the bottom of the jawbones.
I also am working on the cloak which was my biggest concern on this mini. I like to paint cloaks that are pretty pristine and have smooth blends but that is not what this guy is working with. The entire thing is frayed at the bottom. I also noticed that people tend to add more texture to clothes at 75mm which I’ve never done before. Here’s a great painted example by Vincenzo Celeste that he did for Kimera as box art.
I tried to add texture to the front of the cloak similar to this and I wasn’t happy with the results. It looked too regular and neat. So I decided to go in a different direction. Its a little out of focus but I figure his cloak would have all kinds of scratches and damage so I attempted to show that as best I could. Surprisingly, the natural shadows of the miniature really darken the darker spots on the inside of the cloak so you can’t see how both the damage and cloak get darker as they move into the shadows, but I promise that they do look good! My hope is that this guy ends up looking like a really tough customer in the end.
And finally, I did want to share that the diorama brainstorming has taken me to a place that I wasn’t necessarily expecting but I think will be agreeable to everyone. In the last five years or so, I’ve watched things that I loved like Star Wars and even Marvel, go up and down in quality. Nothing feels like a sure bet these days in terms of what is going to be consistently good or great and I’m a slow painter so I’m looking for things that won’t go out of style for me. Since I first checked out the brand new, Conan the Barbarian about two or so years ago, I’ve become a big fan. The comics have been excellent and are easily one of the best things you can buy right now. There’s the main series, which is full color, and then Titan re-launched The Savage Sword of Conan which is in black and white like it was in the 70’s and its just as good. Now they’re rereleasing classic black and white stories and adding color to them and to my surprise, I like them as well, which is surprising because I strongly prefer modern comics from 2000’s and up.
I’ve often thought to myself that if I was going to do any other gaming, I’d love for it to be fantasy as I really enjoy painting in that “genre”. In the last week or two, I’ve been learning more about Conan and starting to better understand how versatile it is. Robert E. Howard made Conan’s world a kind of alternate history world where ancient civilizations that we know exist in Hyboria even if they’re also a bit different. The obvious example of this is Stygia. Its basically Ancient Egypt but with a fantasy twist. The Picts are akin to tribal groups like Native Americans but more savage. And so on. There’s even Roman/Greek parts of Conan’s world so I’ve got practically all the bases covered! Clearly, this is a setting where you can follow your interests and let your creativity run wild which is appealing. There are a lot of miniature possibilities out there, especially from Frostgrave but I think Lucid Eye and Crocodile Games could easily be added as well. Truthfully, these miniatures are not quite diorama quality when compared to anything by GW and so that is also leading me to think about doing some Conan gaming instead of my original diorama idea.
While there are Conan stories where he gets into bigger battles, a lot of the stories I’ve read are smaller and more personal so its pretty well-suited to skirmish gaming, which is yet another bonus for me. There is no Conan wargame out there (one was launched on Kickstarter years ago and failed to materialize, sadly), but there are some rulesets out there for people wanting to enter Hyboria. So those are something I will more than likely explore. Pulp Alley, which I reviewed years ago, and have never actually played also is designed to work with Conan and anything from the pulp era. Pulp Alley does something cool where they make it really easy to design your own characters. So I can create Picts or any faction in Conan’s world myself which is pretty appealing. Maybe it is seeing some other hobbyists dipping into game design but it sounds like good fun to me as well. Pulp Alley also supports Lovecraftian monsters which Conan sometimes crosses paths with so now you’re starting to combine multiple interests of mine into one thing. The possibilities kind of seem endless. So I think that settles it!
My backlog is getting to be larger and larger these days but by Crom, we’re going to have some Conan wargaming in the future! I picked up a new miniature this past week that might be just be from Cimmeria so I look forward to receiving that this week and hopefully getting it on the painting desk soon as well. It will take me a long time to actually get around to playing Conan, I imagine, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless and I hope fellow Conan fans will enjoy seeing me enter the savage realm of Hyboria in the coming days!
Lastly, I want to share that if all goes well, I’ll be mixing things up next week and having a battle report. Its been far too long since I played Fallout and so I hope you’ll look forward to that.
Kuribo's Painting 
Excellent work on the fence Jeff, some great weathering effect, and look forward to seeing more of your scenery, and hope you find the sets your after.
Great progress Lokaris, the texture effect works well, and a good age on the jaw bones.
Like the idea of your Conan gaming and shall be interesting to see how this develops, and the models you find.
Look forward to reading your next battle report.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Cheers, Dave! I didn’t mind working on this fence at all which is good considering how much more there is to go.
I’m also glad you think Lokaris is looking good. I tried something new and it paid off eventually which is always nice.
I figured the Conan idea would go down well but its always nice to hear from others that they like it too.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sure, bring up Conan just as I sold all my Darkhorse Conan comics.
For a Conan style game look at Because of Dragons blog and for other figures Bronze Age Miniatures and Red Box Games, I would the links in but that always seems to put me in blogging purgatory.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha, my apologies! Hopefully they sold for top dollar for you. I’m waiting for Titan to rerelease the Dark Horse era content digitally. They’re taking their time and releasing some of the early Marvel stuff thus far and its hard to wait patiently for more Conan.
Because of Dragons put out several videos about Conan and created a ruleset which I’m going to try as well. Its free and very simple and easy to get to the table so I figure it’d be rude not to! Red Box Games is somewhat familiar to me but I’ll have to take a look and I will certainly check out Bronze Age Miniatures. So far anyway, finding miniatures for Conan is like shooting fish in a barrel or whatever that expression is.
The thing that finally won me over to the idea is that I realized that I have some cool terrain ideas that would work better for gaming than in a diorama and its adjacent to our mutual interests in Ancients and Broken Legions. Now that I think about it, a lot of the terrain and miniatures you own could work with Conan, if you’re so inclined!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My Conan’s were loose so no to the top dollar, however my Dark Horse Star Wars did quite well since I kept them bagged and boarded.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s interesting. I guess single issues still do well, which begs the question why I read and then donate mine haha. Those Star Wars issues have been made available by Marvel in collected editions so its nice to hear that hanging onto the issues paid off for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the look of the fence, good to hear it’s quick to do because 21 pieces is a lot!
I really like texturing rough cloaks and such, it’s pretty exaggerated at 28mm, but looks much finer at 75mm. I like what you’ve done with yours, the scratches imply that it’s not just a woollen cloak but maybe oiled or waxed.
Those Black Site pieces are pretty impressive! I find it a bit weird that they would cut down the range given they are currently publishing This is not a Test which requires a lot of post-apocalyptic terrain.
Good to see you still thinking about some Conan gaming! I’ve recently picked up a role playing book inspired by “Dark Fantasy” settings, which means that it’s heavily inspired by Robert E. Howard’s work amongst others. It’s made me want to go read the source material for inspiration so I’m hunting down some Conan stories as well as his other works.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Cheers, Nic! It will take me quite a while to finish all the fencing. I reckon I’ll get enough for one house and then I’ll lose steam on it for a bit.
I strongly agree that rough cloaks don’t look great in 28mm. A lot of people go for it but I think its not a good fit for the scale. Making the cloak look woolen was my back up idea if this didn’t work funnily enough!
I think Black Site is more interested in making games than terrain and the terrain they make ties more and more into their own original games than for other games they don’t own. Most of their post-apocalypse terrain was released when Fallout was new and that is probably partially why they’re sunsetting it too. I’d love for them to do something like GW does with the whole Made to Order thing but I’m not holding my breath! Can you get anything Black Site in Oz? I’ve heard Europeans complain because shipping is really high and I can’t imagine its any better to get to Perth! 😦
That sounds interesting and I look forward to hearing about your new book, if you decide to write about it. I need to read Howard’s Conan stories at some point myself. Its on my to read list (along with about a million comics!). I was researching Conan RPGs recently to see if I might be able to get any digitally for a decent price to mine for ideas. That hasn’t proven to be as easy as I had hoped but maybe an opportunity will present itself down the road.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I haven’t tried to order any terrain from black site but I was interested in the second edition of This is not a test and the shipping was quite high which stopped me (not their fault, it’s super high for everyone these days.)
Not particularly helpful for you right now but there was a massive bundle of Conan RPG books digitally on humble bundle a few years back, so they might pop up again some time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I forgot about this but I think Black Site doesn’t ship to quite a few places though I guess Oz is okay in their book if you could get This is not a Test. That is a shame though on the cost. These are tough times in the hobby in many ways…
I wonder if that bundle was the Modiphius stuff. They lost the license and now Monolith has it alongside their board game. It looks like Monolith hasn’t released all that much for Conan yet. Just three books thus far and they’re a bit pricey for my purposes. This will definitely take some patience on my part!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I hadn’t heard about the move to Monolith. Yes it was Modiphius that did the bundle. Maybe on the way out?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did some sleuthing and it is indeed from Modiphius. I assume it was a fire sale on the way out as well. That was definitely the time to buy as I’m sure copies of the RPG are probably higher than retail at this point!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m happy to see some Conan appreciation out there! Robert Jordan did some great Conan work back in the day, it’s good stuff!
7TV has some great rules for all of that kind of stuff in their fantasy range, including some really nifty miniatures. Sadly, it’s expensive to bring over from the UK, but that’s the case with just about anything anymore! I’m looking forward to seeing more!
Shame about Blacksite cutting down on their Post-Apoc terrain, I had the same issue with Warcradle Scenics a few years back, their weird west/steampunk stuff was amazing and now it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to come by! Hopefully that all clears up, or it’s going to be back to scratch builds for this boy.
LikeLiked by 2 people
There are definitely some Conan fans in the wargaming blog space so you’re in good company! I’ll have to give Jordan’s Conan a try. I wasn’t overly into Wheel of Time when I tried it 15ish years ago but I’m a pretty big Tolkien fan and not much can match Lord of the Rings for me anyway.
I have heard good things about 7TV so I will check out their fantasy range. I think that you might be able to source them from Noble Knight Games but I’ll have to do some research and see.
I didn’t know Warcradle made terrain but I know Wild West Exodus and think its a cool looking game. It is a shame, but shipping prices from the UK to the US and I assume vice versa were quite reasonable awhile back but in recent years the cost is just about your actual arm and leg! With so many great products coming from the UK, it can be downright painful not being able to buy what you want for a decent price.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dave Stone has already said everything I would have said (and better than me)! 🙂 I find if I prime MDF with acrylic paint it doesn’t seem to like the laser-burnt edges, so I always use an enamel primer on MDF. And I might even have a Hyboria/period/style character on show soon (if I remember about it that is)!
LikeLiked by 2 people
He has a way of doing that, doesn’t he? 🙂 I’ve never tried an enamel primer but if what you say is true, I will be giving it a try. I have some bigger pieces that I’d love to spray prime to save painting time.
You are full of surprises. I’m very curious to see what you have up your sleeve! I can’t imagine its for VSF but what do I know 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m very interested in seeing what you get up to with this mdf terrain, as I still haven’t done anything as regards mine yet! It all seems very confusing…
Good work on the fence, though! As much as nondescript pieces like this seem straightforward to do, they always seem to add so much to games, don’t they? Like the barricades you were doing before, I guess!
Conan, eh? Wow, that takes me back… 😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sorry to hear about the MDF situation. What is confusing you about it? If I can help any, I’m happy to do so.
Glad you like how the fence looks as well. I think it will hopefully take the game to the next level as far as immersion goes. We’ll see soon enough, hopefully.
Conan takes you back? To when? The Hyborian Age? 😀 In all seriousness, I assume you read Conan when you were younger. I found it only within the last couple of years and its been a real revelation for me!
LikeLiked by 1 person
🤣 Well maybe not that far back 👴🏻 Yeah, I remember stuff like the Arnie movie and reading a few of Robert E Howard’s short stories. Nothing really stuck in my mind, though I’m sure there was also a board game at one point?
The stumbling block with the mdf is mostly not knowing if I need to do anything to it before priming. It seems like an even split of advice between saying it needs some kind of watered-down glue mix being pasted on first, or just being able to prime it directly. Though it might need more than one coat of primer. So I’m just not sure!! Grateful for any advice, as always!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! I like Conan in the comic books quite a bit. I think its well-suited for that medium. There are a few Conan board games. You might be thinking of one that FFG made and there is another that is more of a dungeon crawler by Monolith. Its the newer of the two, if I’m not mistaken.
I see what you mean on the MDF. Do you know why people are recommending the watered down glue? My assumption would be that it is to seal the MDF and prevent warping which is a good idea, but you can achieve that in other ways, if you want. Since you’ve already assembled the MDF, are you seeing any warping? I’ve not had any buildings warp on me and what I do is prime everything (I actually use a brush and not a rattle can or airbrush but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with using either of those) and for places like the bottom of terrain, I’ll apply a coat of gloss and matte varnish as well. That should prevent moisture from getting to the MDF and causing any warping.
The only other reason I can think of to apply the watered down PVA glue would be if you want to add some “texture” to the building. Like a dwelling on Tatooine would look better with some bumpiness on the outside. As I recall, that doesn’t match what you’re working on though so I wouldn’t think its necessary.
Hopefully that info helps get you unstuck and if you have any other questions, just let me know!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it is meant to act as some kind of seal, yeah – though like you, I’ve not had any of this warp on me so far! Oddly enough, I don’t have it stored in the best of places, as it’s in the utility room, which is next to the kitchen. Short of storing it in the bathroom, I don’t know where it could get more moisture in the house, but so far at least, I’ve not had any problems.
I think you’ve given me the confidence to at least make a start on priming this stuff, anyway! I’m still not 100% sure on a colour scheme, but I have a massive turbine thing whose blades could benefit from a silver primer, if nothing else! So I’ll give that a go, and see how I get on.
Thanks very much, as always!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is belated but you’re right about moisture. Its not super likely to affect MDF unless you spill something on it or live in the rain forest! 🙂 With that said, it doesn’t hurt to try and protect it since they take a while complete. I know you’ve already moved past this stage of things by now so I’ll leave it there 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person