Diesel DM

After being introduced to Thunderdome at CaptainCon 2015, I knew we needed a board for our local store.  I set upon it immediately to get it done before our Reckoning event.

Woodworking Complete

The boards we had seen were 36″ diameter circles and designed for up to 8 players.  In order to provide a nice wood border around the outside I decided to go with an octagon.  The octagon I built has a maximum diameter of 36″ which means the flat edges are 33″ apart.  Each interior edge is 13 3/4″, with 22.5-degree angles cut on each end to form a regular octagon.  The bottom is made of hardboard and the edges are strips of a 2×4 I ripped down to 3/8″.  This keeps the board lightweight but sturdy.  I routed grooves into each edge piece that housed the hardboard.  Wood glue in the grooves and the angled edges holds the board together.  For some additional strength I also put two nails in each corner.

(more…)

Full Krielstone unit

The primary support unit in most Troll lists, the Krielstone Bearer and Scribes are now painted.  As with all units they were kind of a drag to paint.  There is a surprising amount of detail on the scribes once you factor in all their scrolls and pouches and embossed leather armor. (more…)

Troll Whelps! Food fit for a King.

Having completed the Mountain King it seemed only right to also paint up a set of Whelps for him, since he can bring them for free.  I did have a bit of a dilemma here, as one of the whelps is carrying a bottle of moonshine.  I don’t drink so I wanted to have something more reflective of me.  Mountain Dew was a natural choice.  So I free-handed a white label and painted “DEW” in red, since there wasn’t room to get Mtn Dew on their, I went with the more striking red letters.

A lot more water effects on these bases.  Particularly the whelp on the far left, who is standing up his ankles in a puddle of water.  It took way more layers than I expected to fill this.  When I popped him off the painting dowel I discovered why: I hadn’t sealed the bottom gap well enough and the Still Water had leaked through.  So note to self: Use some putty to thoroughly seal the base before applying a ton of water effects.

Since these guys are mainly for the King, I went with an all blue matching scheme rather than making different kinds of whelps.  The next set I will differentiate by doing that.

The Mountain King – finished at last

And here is the Mountain King, completed. He came out better than I had hoped.  It also didn’t take nearly as long as I was starting to think it would.  The problem was just not having time to paint, which seemed to drag it out.  In my last update I had attached all the extra chains, since then I primed them (brush on primer), then painted them using the standard metal technique shown in the Trollbloods book. One thing to keep in mind before painting the chains is to bend them into positions that will allow at least one additional contact point for more glue.  The chains are pretty sturdy, but giving two glue points makes them even stronger.

(more…)