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

Building badlands terrain for Nightwatch

Markgraf von Hattendorf has hired you to put an end to the recent brutal raids on his hinterland settlements. With that scenario pitch, my local group started preparing for Nightwatch, a cooperative skirmish monster hunting wargame. We have played a couple scenarios before, but this will be our first full seven-game "long hunt." The hunting …

Airbrush speed painting bay horses

Epicalypse 40K

My friend Vince and I decided to play Warhammer 40K Apocalypse at 6 mm scale. It started with the annual Apoc-Luck In December my local group conducted our annual Apocalypse wargame and holiday potluck event, "Apoc-luck" (Check out our events from 2017, 2018, and 2019). Power level 1500 40K Apocalypse is my favorite Games Workshop …

Director’s Commentary: Five Parsecs from Home, turn one

Magical creative engine. Here I follow up on Space Adventure! with an attempt to relate that story to the process of playing and daydreaming that inspired it. The process was iterative and non-sequential, posing a fun challenge to explain in this format. Let me know how I did. Space Adventure! Episode 1. Director's Commentary. Film …