Some muscles for the Doctors

~ Tonio ~ Leave a comment

With the henchmen and Doctoress done, I was only missing some muscles for my Doctors of the Ospedale before I could play them. So I painted a selection of Heroes to fill up my force. I’m really not sure they play well together, but that never stopped me from fielding models, as I usually go for look first.

However, with one of those being a Doctor of the Beasts, I couldn’t really use him without some claws and fur on the table, so I also painted a couple beasts also. I’ve bought some more of those terrible creatures, but they’ll wait for a later time, as I have enough to play now.

Continue reading “Some muscles for the Doctors” →

Chase Them Down – Carnevale Action Report

~ Tonio ~ 2 Comments

After an exciting first game in this small campaign, Yaum and I didn’t wait long and played the second scenario the very next week. It took me some time to finish my write-up though, so excuse me if I don’t go in full action by action details, as some of it is a bit blurry now. I wouldn’t want to write it that way anyway. Let’s jump in!

The Story

Moving stealthily away from the crowd gathering near palazzo Cattivo, Antonio Morosini thanked his legendary luck. The Contessa, in her bloodlust, didn’t finish him and quickly assaulted her next victim. The Capodecina, under the orders of Princess Castello, was to assault the palazzo and prevent this masquerata of ever happening. Sadly, one of the civilians under him, unused to dirty work like this, gave their presence away early, and paid for it with his life. Looking back, Morosini saw that some of the nobles were not getting up from their own pool of blood either, and smiled to himself. The mission wasn’t a complete failure. But he then heard the Contessa rally her remaining guests and call for a chase. It was time for him and what was left of his troop to get out of here.

Continue reading “Chase Them Down – Carnevale Action Report” →

Daugthers of the Jungle

~ Tonio ~ 2 Comments

I started to paint my Rocavivas last year, to have an opposing force to my Orphans and finally try out Némesis. I was doing quite well early on, until everything stopped due to the flooding. Since my second batch of Rocavivas was already primed, I kept those on the side and didn’t pack them off to go in storage, to have something to work on in case I could get some free time.  I didn’t paint much during the cleaning and reconstruction, but when we had some quieter evenings, I worked a bit on them on a corner of the kitchen table.

Painting in a shared zone that I had to keep clear afterward wasn’t as effective as with a dedicated hobby zone, but it was that or nothing, so I made do. Even if it was shorter periods, because of the time required to set up and tear down after each session, it brought some peace of mind in an otherwise stressful period. I managed to paint all my second batch over a couple of months (which is long even for me), but I couldn’t finish them, as all my basing material and varnish were still in storage.

Continue reading “Daugthers of the Jungle” →

Shattered Sword Reinforcements

~ Tonio ~ Leave a comment

I’m slowly catching up on the few projects I tackled during the renovations. Somewhere in the early Fall, I had a game of Relic Knights with my buddy Paul. It made me realize that I still had a bunch of models for my Shattered Sword Paladins just zenithal primed in purple and put on temporary bases. They were  made them passable on the table, but it gave me the drive to finish them. Also, since I didn’t have my airbrush or any of my other primers, working on ready models was perfect.

The painting itself wasn’t difficult, but I had a hard time settling on a colour for Jeanne’s hair. I originally painted it blue, but when I decided to make the banners and ribbons blue also, it just got lost in all of it. I tried a blonde after that, like the artwork for the model, but it was too close to the NMM gold.  I’m quite happy with the final magenta result though.

Continue reading “Shattered Sword Reinforcements” →

Party Interrupted – Carnevale Action Report

~ Tonio ~ Leave a comment

My buddy Yaum just finished painting his beautiful (but also filthy and decadent) Patricians for Carnevale. To start their story on the table, we decided to play the Patricians campaign from the big rule book. The rules might not be the most recent, but it’s a treasure of lore and scenarios, with a small campaign for each faction. I’ll be facing them with the Guild at the start, since they are their natural opponents, and because I’m still missing a model or two for my Doctors to have a large enough force, but I might switch later on depending on the scenario setups.

The Story

Our story begins in Venice, the city of canals. La Serenissima. The night is young, and the various guests of Contessa Jezabella Cattivo are dancing, drinking and enjoying themselves in her palazzo. However, there is a palpable tension building, as they all know that this masquerata will soon spread to the streets. Suddenly, shouting is heard from outside. It seems the spark has been lit by unseen assailants, probably some jealous lowly commoners. The Contessa takes her hand to her blade and says: “Let’s party.”

Continue reading “Party Interrupted – Carnevale Action Report” →

Out with 2024, in with 2025

~ Tonio ~ Leave a comment

2024 was a weird year. I wanted to paint, play and blog more. And I had a pretty good start too! However, some troubles at home made it difficult for part of the year, and that was before we got flooded in August. Almost everything had to be put on pause until December. This was a rough and tiresome period, and it showcases how much this hobby, both the personal painting time and the social gaming part of it, are a core component of my mental health.

Luckily, we didn’t have that much damage, so it was mainly a time consuming endeavour, and the new basement is better separated. My son’s room is slightly bigger and will give him the space a growing teenager need. I also got myself a closed office and hobby room, which is a big upgrade from sharing the noisy and messy playroom with the kids and their visiting friends. Sure, with the added wall and the bigger bedroom, we are losing some storage space, but we were due for some cleaning and sorting anyway. I cannot say I’m happy it happened, but the final results are at least positive.

Continue reading “Out with 2024, in with 2025” →

They are all mad under the light of the Rent

~ Tonio ~ Leave a comment

I was able to sneak in some painting time last minute, just before the year ended, and get some henchmen done to add to my Doctors of the Ospedale for Carnevale. They are joining that poor Plague Doctoress that has stood alone for the whole year in the cabinet.

I finished a couple of Madmen, and a duo of Lab Assistants. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll be using both of the latter at the same time, but I was already going, and it was simpler to just paint them together now than eventually come back to the second.

Continue reading “They are all mad under the light of the Rent” →

Water under the bridge, and the floor…

~ Tonio ~ 2 Comments

Well, as much as I pledged to post a bit more often this year, Mother Nature didn’t agree with it. Our area got a historic level of rain happen at the beginning of August, and our basement flooded because of that. Luckily, we didn’t lose much, but it has been a long process to empty it out, dry and clean everything, renovate, and slowly move stuff back. We are not fully settled back in yet, but it’s finally moving at a steady pace, and I got back most of my hobby setup.

One positive side of that event was that in doing the rebuilding, we managed to create a closed office room for my work and hobby. It’s small, but I have a zone of my own now, which I am quite happy about. It’s also quieter than the playroom I was sharing with the kids, which is another bonus.

While all this was happening, I didn’t get much hobby done or games played. I managed to paint a bit some slower nights, on the corner of the kitchen table, but it wasn’t the most efficient way to do it. Also, without most of my material on hand, nothing was really done, as I still needed to varnish those, and even find some missing bases. It was not the best time for me as a hobbyist, I must say.

Continue reading “Water under the bridge, and the floor…” →

The Hunting Pair

~ Tonio ~ Leave a comment

I am slowly but surely adding terrain to my Carnevale collection. I’ll have to make a post about that eventually, when I have a full table worth of buildings done. I’m almost there, with only needing to use a couple cardboard buildings last game.

In the meantime, I took a break to paint some miniatures instead of terrain, adding a pair of new models to my list, to hunt the opponents of the Guild: a fisherman and an arbalest. We started to play bigger games, and this will let me swap out some models in between games. I did a quick modification to the fisherman, to match his card weapons, by adding a net to his hand, made with cheese cloth, white glue and bits of green stuff for the weights.

Continue reading “The Hunting Pair” →

First foray into the Rocavivas

~ Tonio ~ 3 Comments

Now that I have enough Orphans painted for a small force, all they were missing was an opposing force. Since I initially got into the game with the Arbonte’s Menace two-player starter, I already owned the start of a Rocavivas army, which I reinforced with a faction starter back in the 2010s. I wasn’t looking at the rules when I bought them, but by a strange happenstance, both my collections come to about the same point size, so that was perfect.

The recent announcement by Zenit Miniatures that they are relaunching the game couldn’t have come at a better moment for me, as I was already invested in painting and trying the game. That also meant that I want to play it sooner than later, to know if I really like it, before they launch the upcoming Kickstarter project. That made me make the decision to try out painting the Rocavivas a bit faster than the Orphans, in a more army scale way, starting with a test unit of Kyanites.

Continue reading “First foray into the Rocavivas” →