Bufo the Magnificent

"I sit here dreaming, eyes agog, gazing at the stars,
A hefty piece of granite rock, perched beneath my ar.."

That's enough poetry for now.

Hello again.

Wizards and magic have so far been absent from the odd couple of games of "Burrows & Badgers" played so far, but I have at least four wizardy types in my collection and this is the second of those to meet and greet the paint brush.

Bufo is a toad and, in "B&B" terms, toads make very decent wizards. You see, wizards spend so much time reading and studying that they tend to be weaklings, earning themselves the WEAK characteristic for every spell you start them with in the game. What this means is that you subtract one from the result of any combat or shooting attacks, thereby making them weaker than they might have been.

But toads get STRONG (1) as a starting characteristic, so they effectively have a point of advantage to lose before they move into negative numbers. WEAK cancels out STRONG, and vice versa. They are also very good at concealment, so can stay hidden a lot, have TOUGH (2), which means they can reduce the strength of attack results by 2, thereby taking less damage, and are NATURAL HUNTERS, which means they are not so hot in ranged combat, but he is a wizard, right, so you don't give him a bow or sling or whatever. Finally, they have good inherent FORTITUDE and PRESENCE scores, which are used when dealing with spells, so why wouldn't you employ a toad for your fireworks?

So here is Bufo, sitting on his rock, staring up at the sky, pondering the mysteries of the universe and snatching the odd juicy insect from the air from time to time with his sticky tongue. What more would you want from life???

The only criticism I have of this figure is the size of his base. Toads are mounted on 30mm diameter bases in "B&B", so there is not a lot of room in his case for texturing or being creative. I tried to make the putty I used for the rock effect seamless with the smoothness of his base, but there was very little to work with. I wanted to give him some height and add to his presence, but it was tricky without getting putty all over the figure.

G

Bufo the Magnificent

With his neat, little man-bag full of spell ingredients, spare underwear, knife and fork...His base is simply a lollipop stick broken into relevant sized pieces, glued together to gain height and covered in a skim of modelling putty for texture.

And a final shot of Bufo's backside, on which he likes to squat...

A Chance Buy For The Autumn Gloom

Hello again.

Even with a south-facing conservatory for a mancave, there are times, especially at this period of the year, when it is just too gloomy to see anything properly to be able to paint. Natural light is my preference, but there is not much around at the moment! So, I went on a recce for Christmas presents for the brood with my wife last weekend and we ended up in a place called "The Range", a sort of Hobbycraft and similar outlet if you do not know it. We were not looking for anything for me, but needless to say, I found a few things!

 

 

For the princely sum of £4, I bought these two Christmas decoration kits, which, as you can see stand around four to five inches high when built. I think you are supposed to build them, paint them, and then either hang them on your Christmas tree or put a tea light in them. BUT WE DON'T WANT TO DO THAT, DO WE!?!?!?

 

I did at least build one, but those awful tags had to come off...

...so off they came!

 At this point, you will obviously have gathered my reasoning. For that paltry £4 outlay, I wanted to investigate whether I could add to my terrain pool something unique after finishing my initial purchase of Sarissa Precision kits for "Burrows & Badgers" that I got from the Chillcon show last month.

So, with stage one complete, what now? Well, I could have drawn a plan of what I wanted to do, but that would be too technical! So I winged it.

Stage Two saw the building of an entrance lobby, a simple lean-to affair and I added one of the doors from the Doors Pack from Sarissa that I bought at Chillcon. We will overlook the fact that I had already added a floor at roof level to give added structure to the piece BEFORE I thought to glaze the upper windows...D'oh!

Stage Three saw me build up the living space. I decided on a sort of wrap around lower storey, knowing full well that the subsequent roof angles could be a total pain...

The end wall features another of the Sarissa Precision doors. I will add a shuttered window on that side too in the near future.

Stage Four saw the need to roof the lower storey. With some careful measuring from which I cut out paper templates, I was able to fit a pretty decent roof.

Et voila!

Stage Five saw me needing a chimney stack, which I fabricated from a scrap of 3mm MDF. The same material was used, along with some 2mm mounting card, to build the actual stack above roof level, topped off with some plastic tubes pots.

So that is the basic build.

 

It has taken me around four man hours to get this far, which is probably longer than the equivalent kit would have taken, but you obviously have to fabricate parts yourself without a kit. However, a self-built thing is unique.

I still have to tile the rooves and finish the body of the building with timber framing, rendering, brickwork, window sills and whatever, but the structure is built and sound in that it is not going to fall over any time soon. I will also base it for added stability and the idea of a vegetable garden is one I think I will pursue for this dwelling. I will finish this one as and when work, light and time allow. Then there is the little matter of the second building and what to do with that one...

G



It's Been A Hoot

Hello again.

Progress on anything at all, but especially on my current fave of "Burrows & Badgers", has been slow of late. Back at work for after a week of rest and recuperation, coupled with the usual weather and reduced daylight given the time of year, I have not really started anything and I have not really finished anything either. With one exception.

I have given a certain amount of time of late to what I want to do next for my anthropomorphic animal kicks, sorting out different warbands from the figures I have. You see, although many of the figures are generic in nature, I have a passion for specific in most things. I can do a couple of "complete" warbands already and have two more I can get on with from the lead pimple, so it perhaps comes as a bit of a surprise that the subject of this missive is not really specific at all.

I can factor it in with my Witch Hunters quite easily. I can factor it in also to either of my next projects. I can also see it alone or in something else altogether - aerial cover for the noble Knights of the Lavender Order, savage hunter for some wild clan types from north of Northymbra, leader of "the Few" of the Royal Owl Force/ Regia Owlanautica/ Nachjaegergeschwader.

Yes, I have finished something unique so far in my "Burrows & Badgers" menagerie in that this beastie can fly! I give you a Barn Owl! And I am as yet so undecided on what he or she will play as a role that I have not even created any suitable names yet. All I know is that this avian predator ain't going to sea with no kitty cat in a vessel of any colour any time soon!!!

I know it is entirely feasible for birds of any sort to take off from the ground, but I felt I was missing a trick in having this guy do that. So, in true Heath Robinson style, I built a suitable perch from which to launch, in this case an ancient, low wall, built up from spare plastic bases and modelling filler. I could have gone higher, but he is already imposing and I do have to fit him in the carry case!

The paint job was a tricky one and I am not quite sure I pulled it off. I checked out various photographic references to Barn Owls on the net and am still wondering how to get that beautiful, black spot mottling on their feathers. As with any creature, the amount, tone and colour of their plumage varies somewhat, but reddish brown with varying amounts of grey/ black mottling is the norm. See what you think.

With hindsight, I think I should have built the wall behind the owl out to the edge of the base, so it looks like it continues behind him, rather than have it ruined and tapering into the base, but I am happy with the result overall. And with Oathsworn Miniatures bringing ever more flying creatures into the world, to accompany those they do already, the prospect of a squadron of fliers is becoming ever more a reality!!! I wonder how many times I can shout "Tally Ho, Chaps!" before my opponent stomps off in a huff or shouts at me...

So, what will I be doing next? Well, you'll have to wait and see, work, light and weather conditions notwithstanding. But don't rule out more flying types...

G