Empire of the Dead – An Archive For The Steinberg Shed Space Blog

Wolsung, More Bases And More Men.

The Wolsung buzz continues as I am thinking about new members for the Triad club I use. A second starter set adds 3 more henchmen. These are copies of the original 3 I own, but 2 come with slightly different options, allowing new poses due to customisable parts. Also, as I made green stuff bases for the first starter set, the addition of custom bases will allow me to change their look enough to make them individual.

I have enjoyed toying with greed stuff again and 2 out of the three came out as well as I would have liked. The sand base looked very flat when I made it so some water effect was added later to add some more interest.

The Proxy crew I am using for the Ash and Oak club needed some hounds to play with one of their heroes too. Warlord Games do some great little dogs in their Celtic range. These were smaller than I expected them to be when they arrived but look good when painted up. I guess I am used to heroic scale dogs, like those from my Wulfen Jaeger crew from Empire of the Dead, rather than true 28mm dogs.

Basic paints done and ready for figures to be finished…

Water effect gloss done and they fit quite well with the older bases too (thankfully…)

The puppies (as they are now called) based to fit my old Empire of the Dead Zendarians.

The next table is now set up for a game and I hope to run the Ash and Oak club myself next game to give my opponent a nice surprise.

Just as I was finishing the post this chap was finishing drying too. Trader No.2, ready to pop smoke all over the battlefield and obscure anyones chances of shooting my Triad heroes.

Until next time… When a second Fisherman and Shade will be completed (I hope).

Post Number 41.. And I Am 41. Birthday Brings New Stuff.

I am happy to say that I have reached another birthday safely and without loss of life or limb. (Lets all be thankful for the small things).

Birthdays are good as the represent a chance for me to talk loved ones into buying me stuff for this never ending hobby… This year I the found timing in my favour and attended Warfare in Reading just before my birthday. This meant I was able to actually buy my own presents and give them out to have them wrapped and returned on the day.

Usually there is some trepidation before the day as I await to see if the requested item will be sourced correctly by said loved one or if a surprise replacement (usually the result of a mistaken order or wild guess at an alternative) will be found within that colourful paper…

This year was all about the base (sorry cant get that song out of my head) or headquarters as an Englishman would call it.

The headquarters in question is the new Warbases Police House.

Complete with smaller out building/ jail house block.

This will be the HQ for my Victorian Peelers faction which gets the odd outing in Empire of the Dead and may also show up in ‘In Her Majesties Name and Wolsung’ (if I can shoehorn them into the rules).

The next was again off the Warbases stand and is their Workshop (slightly less generic than the rest of their range). This reminds me of a twentieth century British workshop often seen on industrial estates and farms in my childhood. I almost picture this with an ancient petrol pump outside and an oil stained set of blue overalls on the attendant/ mechanic.

Complete with sliding doors (the main doors big enough for a truck to drive in) it will look good by itself or along with the other buildings in my set.

My Daughter (not a gamer in any sense) also shocked me and tagged along to Reading to find me something for my birthday. She proved to be no trouble at all (even as a blonde 15 year old surrounded by ‘sad old men’) and came up trumps with this built and painted 1/48 scale Tiger from the bring and buy. Putting an immediate smile on my face until she calmly stated I couldn’t have it until my birthday…

Who knows what next year will bring!

More Laser Cut Goodness, And Some Odds And Sods Of Resin.

First up, 28mm hand carts… These are from an eBay seller who went out of his way to sort out just what I wanted even though I missed out on one of his auctions. These are due to be used on my Victorian Gothic table and any Mid East Bazaar I manage to set up in future. Seller s_j_day is the guy to go to for a wide range of items in all scales and with some novel ideas to. School room sets anyone? (Complete with a blackboard and an upright piano).

Hurlbat Games makes this little beauty. They call it their footbridge and it’s from their expanding Sci-Fi Cityscape MDF Scenery Accessories Range. I see this little footbridge featuring in a number of settings, as its wrought iron look fits in very well with my Victorian stuff and even my Deadzone stuff. It’s a great size for street level skirmish games, with bases fitting perfectly onto the steps. This range also includes some simple barriers to block off roads and now even features a lovely little statue plinth complete with carved effigies on the sides. The plinth is new to the range since I picked up my bridge and will be in my shopping basket very soon. Shipping is free for these items and at only £2.50-£3 an item even my, post Disney, pocket can cope with that.

I appear to be back in a wagon period as well, as these bits are all awaiting a finish. The first is an ox cart for my Saga games. The second is from those lovely Warbases chaps and was sat, flat packed, on my bench for months after Salute where I picked it up… Can’t find a horse to fit this yet as my blitz box is currently bereft of anything equine at this time.

Thankfully the chaps at Westwind do supply theirs with draft horses. The last is a Black Mariah (Victorian police van) that, one day, will be finished off to join the peelers crew I have for Empire of the Dead. Then I will need to read the extra rules for wagons from their Requiem Kickstarter.

The last little lot is from various places and finally got started (and in the case of the crates, finished) recently. I have to admit, table scatter like planters and pots appeal to me as a nice way to get usable blocking/ cover terrain on the table, and do keep things looking natural. How often in real life is a tyre barricade found to be in just the right place when you want to take a pot shot at some villains? Never… Planters, pots and wheelie bins however, now these are all over the place…
Reminder to self: I must find some 28mm wheelie bins.

Some Mixed Table Scatter Too!

These two 25-28mm resin bits were kicking about for a couple of months before I got to them. Made by Warbases if I recall.

The cobbles are curtesy of a friend who was doing some test moulds for resin roadways, these were off cuts that were just asking not to be thrown away.

Still got two more of these, must resist painting the other phone box blue…

Simon’s cobbles also form the base of a small town square statue. It is made from a couple of the off cuts he made his masters from, and a never to be used napoleonic horseman from the bits box.

For fun I included a good dose of bird poo on the shoulders. In some cultures its good luck I’m told! The cobblestones are not such a vivid colour in reality. Honest.

Never a copper about when you need one…

Early March 2013. A friend emailed me to let me know about a new Kickstarter campaign that was being run by West Wind Productions. What is it with friends justifying their own purchases by getting someone else to buy in too?

Empire of the Dead was getting a new lease of life and would include lots of new factions and new rules. Of course I was not able to resist. I was however a little new to the whole Kickstarter thing and didn’t know what to expect. I bought in at a reasonable level and sat back to wait for the campaign to close and to get my product. The wait lasted until November of the same year. I learned later that this is a swift turn about for a Kickstarter, as another game I bought into, Heroes of Normandie, took a whole year to come through in the end.

I have to state here that both have been well worth the wait…

To bide my time as I awaited the fulfilment of the campaign, a campaign that provided more extras than I could ever have expected, I picked up a few London bobbies and a town mob deal that provided me with more civilians than I would ever need. My trusty matt varnish again deposited a slightly frosty tone on the test models, to my dismay… I am still trying to find out what causes this on the odd few figures…

I had chosen to invest in the West Wind Kickstarter for the chance to get my hands on a new Peeler faction known as, Supernatural Branch, including the boys from, Hell Division. These were a police force that sported all kinds of toys to deal with supernatural troublemakers. Net guns, Gatling guns and mechanical guard dogs being the best bits!

By the time all the bits came through we had found a new passion in place of Empire of the Dead. These guys were, however, special enough to be painted up forthwith and a special game laid on in the cramped city in their honour.

That cramped city was growing thanks to the VBCW range by Warbases. Post office, shop and pub were added along with their Flemish house. All work well with each other and I think that they fit the style I was searching for from the start. Posters add to the flavour and a few more items, to add to the imagery, would be seen on the table in time.

Some of these guys friends have been seen recently on my painting table as not all were painted up first time round.

Next up, we discover Bolt Action!

A hunting we will go…

The Zendarians allowed me to get into the game swiftly and provided a good starting force. I had thought about starting a second faction but fancied a different style of play for my next force. I was also in a phase of painting again, with the troopers for the Zendarians coming out so well that I was confident that I could run up a new force in no time.

Where to start then? I knew I wanted a force that did not rely so heavily on its ranged combat this time. Our scenery was becoming more cramped and line of sight was not so easy to gain as our games progressed. A normal gentleman’s club was to similar to the Zendarians and vampires are not altogether my thing. It came down to a choice between Werewolves and Wulfen Jaeger (Werewolf hunters). My sensible head won over with my choice being made with versatility in mind. Werewolves can only be used as Werewolves but a small force of hunters could be used in a number of other games with just a little imagination.

Hunting dogs feature strongly in the Wulfen Jaeger so were a must for me. A strong set of heroes and a small number of close range blunderbuss wielding troopers would soon follow.

I actually enjoyed painting these more than any figures I can recall in the last few years. The sculpting is clean and the detail is clear enough for even my unsubtle, block painting, style. It did, however, leave me feeling that you can never have enough brown tones in any paint collection you own.

After a game of two I needed to add in an new dog and it’s handler. West Wind only have two sculpts for hunting dogs so I decided on another chap and his faithful companion. Not quite in the same style as before. All went well until my matt varnish again dried to a dusty frosted look. As the figure in question is an older fellow, this was not a total disaster as the dusty look just made him look even more characterful.

Our scenery was again progressing well with the newest buildings being a couple of large blocks from the weird world war II game, Dust Tactics. We had played about with this particular game in the year before the shed was built, and as the newest expansion of the game would allow me to use these buildings in this, and a number of other games, they were a must have for me. Dust Tactics (and soon afterwards, Dust Warfare) would make a reappearance on the gaming table in the next year but that is a story for later…

With all the buildings available to us, the gaming table gave us the cramped alley strewn look I wanted, but the differing building styles were not quite how I wanted the look to go! It would be time to invest in a look that would see me through the next phase of this game and on to the next game too.

Another faction beckoned but it would come from a new source, and this one would take longer to mature than even I expected. The age of the Kickstarter was about to begin.

To be continued…

Anything For The Empire…

After all that historical stuff we were craving something a little out of the normal. One of my friends has a habit of leading us astray by buying stuff for me to read and thus influencing our gaming habits (sometimes not to subtly).

This time he simply went out and bought 3 copies of Empire of the Dead by West Wind Productions. Its a great, simple and small scale game which we could proxy figures into to start with (my Malifaux crew have been on more EotD missions than anything else).

Empire of the Dead is set in an alternate, gothic Victorian era where a steampunk style of imagery has clearly influenced the world view. A great twist on a game world and one that lends itself well to the stories many gamers would have read as youngsters. A world where vampires and werewolves can be seen side by side with Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper. All on a backdrop of high tech steam power and mechanical servants.

A few reinforcements were needed as this is designed to be a campaign game. As members of a gang die or new members are recruited I would find that my Malifaux range would need to be complemented with figures that didn’t look too out of place.

Starting with a Zendarian gentleman’s club I had my leaders and heroes already. I needed basic troopers to represent their footmen and personal guards… West Wind do a range of Victorian Gothic types and they fit well with the Malifaux range too.

To play this game the way it deserves, a new terrain setting was again needed. Some of my buildings would work well but the cramped smokey cities I wanted would need something more. I think my modelling bug truly started here… The table deserved all types of extra touches like the lamp posts and gardens pictured.

This was an endeavour that would go on for some time as one gentleman’s club is never enough for some of us…

To be continued…

What came first?

I’ve been thinking back to what was first seen on the painting table when I got the shed finished and what was played most at that time…

These guys are likely the first to be seen when the grand opening was done…

We had just discovered Malifaux and as usual we all started with a buy in at starter pack level. Not a game we played for long but some great little figures for painting. If I’m honest, they have probably been out more often as an Empire of the Dead Gentleman’s Club crew than anything else.