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Bumping into the limitations of a free wordpress.com account, I decided to switch to a self-hosted WordPress site. Please visit https://www.orcs-illustrated.com for future posts. For those who follow this blog: thank you! Orcs Illustrated is connected to the Jetpack app. In the next few days I will perform a subscriber migration so that new posts …

Welcome to the Pilgrimage District

I wanted to play Inq28. I imagined a critical world cut off by the Great Rift, vulnerable, with imperial agents struggling alone to suppress heretical secessionists and other, darker influences. This would require terrain, so I built some. Pilgrimage District, Hive Sacrament, Gamma-Euphorion Prime During our group's earlier campaigns, I created a subsector grappling with …

Vae Victis Swords for Hire: I like them

I resolved to contribute to this blog every time I reach for my phone to browse Reddit -- a shocking amount. Much of that work is still in draft because it discusses a surprise I'm working on for my local gaming group. Meanwhile, check out these minis I put together from the Swords for Hire …

A quick Reddit farewell post and status update

I have decided to leave Reddit and figure out how to operate in the Fediverse. This means I will likely become more active on this blog, and perhaps rename it to be more consistent with my other online handle orcs_illustrated. If anyone has experience using the ActivePub WordPress plug in please reach out. UPDATE: I …

I tried Instagram

Recent months gave me a professional advancement and took away capacity to write here with any quality. I still wanted to share miniatures wargaming creations online, so I started a hobby-only Instagram account, @orcs_illustrated.

SkullStar build part 3: skull trenches!

I wrote about inspiration and design in part 1 and laying the mosaic in part 2. Now for my favorite part: skull trenches! Proof of concept I had a healthy collection of little plastic skulls, but not enough to fill the chaos star. I needed to make more. I decided to try push molding and …

SkullStar build part 2: chaos star mosaic

Continuing from Part 1, in which I set the project aside to wait for inspiration to strike. Some kind of mosaic To make the board both versatile and distinctive, I decided to build a flat surface with some kind of mosaic pattern. That way, I could put whatever terrain pieces on top, or even cover …

Nightwatch: Mystery at Heerselt Manor

With our second Nightwatch mission coming up this weekend, I'd like to share this report from our first mission written by Comrade Patrick. I wrote a little about hobby prep for it here. During that game I realized our collection of beastmen antagonists could use more ranged attackers, so I printed and painted some lovely …

SkullStar board part 1: inspiration, design, and initial construction

I struggled to organize a post about SkullStar because it offers so much to describe and explain. Here I try managing it in multiple parts. First conception I unpacked a new dining room table and discovered two exciting facts about the packaging: The box was double-corrugated cardboardThe packing foam included two discs almost perfectly matching …

SkullStar Warcry board