Shadows of Brimstone - The Ancient One

 This guy had been on my desk for the better part of a year.  I decided sometime in early 2020 that he would be my goal for Miniature Monthly Masters.  A single - large, but single - figure for the entry.

As Covid got underway, I really lost my painting mojo, and he was backburnered in favor of other projects with more instant gratification.  

Meanwhile the Ancient One continued to linger on my desk.  I tried a few things, wasn't happy.  Kept trying.  It got better.

The result was super-fast and involved a lot of airbrush blending and several sessions over the course of a weekend to apply highlights to all his wrinkley bits. 

These pictures came out a little washed out and a little dark, but they are what they are. 

He took 2nd in the Flying Frogs' Manufacturer's award.  I put him in not expecting to place (at all; when I submitted the Mfr's Award for Frogs didn't exist yet) but am happy that he was enjoyed.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Darkstone Scorpions

Angry scorpions!

In my first post-GenCon update, I think I'll do a picture dump of my Dark Stone Scorpions for Shadows of Brimstone.

This project started as a quick and dirty test of Greenstuff World's Color Shift Paint.  I originally intended just to hit the models with a basecoat, maybe highlight the eyes, and get them on the table quickly.

Gencon 2019

I loved this banner, hidden on the back side of the KDM booth.  I asked people to move so I could take a clean shot.

Sometimes when I write the after-action for an event, I do it immediately (often before we've even left the event's zipcode).  Sometimes I need to let the event's memories settle a little bit so I can digest what's happened.

GenCon 2019 was the latter.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Derelict Ship Broken Grates

There's probably a better name for these.

Flying Frog sells a pack of 4 resin tiles that replace cardboard tokens on the Derelict Ship expansion.

Similar to the Corpse Piles a few weeks ago, I decided to hit these quickly and see what I could do with a limited time budget.

Methods were pretty simple:

• I'm now washing resin pieces in 70% isopropl alcohol (not soap), scrubbing lightly with a toothbrush, rinsing with water, and letting air dry overnight.
• Primer:  Stynlez, black. Applied with airbrush.  I'm a recent convert to Stynlrez, mostly because it doesn't require thinning before airbrushing.
• Base coat:  
• Metal decking:  AP Gun metal (airbrushed for speed)
• Wash:  AP Dark Tone Ink
• Pipes: AP Dark Stone wet blended to Scale 75 Necro Gold.  This is such a great combo; super easy to blend.  Once dry, I came back with a S75 Dwarven Gold highlight and touched up some of the ribs/recesses with AP Necromancer Cloak.  The Necro gold has green/brown undertones, the Dwarven gold is brighter with some red in it; the colors aren't that far apart but the highlight pops naturally thanks to the contrasting tones.  This combo (Stone/Necro/Dwarven) has been my go-to for hoses and doodads on a few Brimstone projects now.
• Dirt / dark areas: AP Dark Stone.
• For a burnt look, I airbrush shaded areas with AP Purple Tone Ink, then went back over partially with Liquitex Burnt Umber.  This makes the silver look like it got hot (purple) and then got sooty.
• AP Chainmail Metal for edge highlights on the torn metal.
• AP Blue Tone Ink (airbrushed) for some color
• AP Matt Black around the edges of the tile

Sprayed with AP Gun Metal Silver and then given a wash in AP Dark Tone Ink.  Here I'm basecoating pipes with a blend of AP Dark Stone and S75 Necro Gold.

First pair painted and shaded, ready for a little more edge highlighting.

Second pair.  Basecoated in AP Pistol Metal, then a quick coat of AP Dark Tone Ink.  I dry brushed the hex metal again with Pistol Metal to brighten.  Here I'm filling in the Dark Tone in the center (which is still wet!).

Shading the metal w/ Burnt Umber before basecoating the pipes/hoses.

Finished product. Total time investment is maybe 2 hrs (rounding up).  Keep it simple and on to the next.

Shadows of Brimstone Kickstarter #3

Last week, I was a little surprised to see an update from Flying Frogs announcing their next Kickstarter.  Details were scarce, but there it was.  I wasn't incredibly surprised that there would be a third campaign, but it caught me off guard a bit  that they'd be kicking it off right now without much build-up. 

But no, we got a few days heads up, a couple of Facebook posts, and it's off to the races with a relatively short, 14d campaign.

This time around they're launching their "Adventure" boxes, which are a pair of basically mini-cores.  Intent is apparently an easier starting point for new fans, and good integration with the original two cores (Swamps of Death and City of the Ancients).  In this smaller box will be the usual "stuff" - map tiles, figures, cards, gear, missions, but scaled back a bit (e.g. fewer map tiles than a full core).

New mechanics will be "team" heroes - apparently instead of 4 unique heroes all with their own skills, skill trees, and mechanics, each of the 4 Adventure heroes will effectively be of the same class.  (Therefore less playtesting and fewer balance issues with an already large Brimstone universe).

There's a bit of apprehension about the team heroes, as it feels like "less," (less content, less customization).  I'm actually okay with it - in our house we typically play 2-player, it will be easier for us to run a full squad of 4 without having to remember all the nuances of 4 unique heroes. 

The campaign is off to a roaring start already - pushing $650k at the 23 hour mark and smashing through stretch goals. 

Anyway, I'm all-in on this one.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Corpse Pile

Finished product. Super fast, nothing too fancy.

So, last night I was rummaging around in an old Amazon box that I've repurposed for nerd storage.  I happened across the SoB plastic Corpse Pile package that I bought ... sometime? One of those things that you forgot you had.

Anyway, these pieces replace cardboard tokens that come with the Swamps of Death core box; they're basically terrain pieces that spawn zombies.

I stared at the package for a few minutes, then reached over and turned on the compressor.  These guys were getting some paint!

Total time investment is maybe 45 minutes.  Nothing too fancy.  I've seen guys spend the effort to detail all the individual bodies, paint the clothes, boots, and bits.  But there's a fair amount of smearing between distinct details; I think that a more abstract approach probably works better.  I also wanted to test some speed-painting techniques combining a few of my prior methods.

Steps 1 and 2: Stynlrez primer, followed by AP Necrotic Flesh at a 45 degree angle.

I mounted each CP to a cork and used my proprietary cork holder (aka 2x4 with holes in it) to hold them while drying.  The Stynlrez went down smoothly, and I left them overnight to dry.

First thing this morning, I hit them with some color.  ArmyPainter Necrotic Flesh is a perfect color for undead baddies.  I used the Sotar 2020 and mixed the paint fairly thin.  I held the airbrush about 45 degrees above the table and gave them a quick zenithal treatment.  This took maybe 5 minutes, including the time to mix paint and clean the airbrush, then it was time for breakfast.

Step 3:  AP Strong Tone ink applied.

Mid-morning I came back and found my bottle of AP Strong Tone ink, which is a deep brown. 

Added a few drops into a 1oz solo cup, and added a few drops of airbrush thinner (this was more for my ability to brush the result than to reduce its intensity), call it 6:1 or 6:2.  Apply the wash liberally all over, then go back and wipe away any bubbles.  Also look for areas that have pooled; wipe your brush on a paper towel and blot those away.

Walk away and let that dry.

Step 4:  dry brushing: AP Necrotic Flesh and Fang Bone.  Harsh booth light.

Late morning I came back late morning and picked up the dry brush - more Necrotic Flesh and some AP Fang Bone white to bring out some details.

Finally, I fired up the Sotar again and hit the edges with Burnt Umber all around, followed by Burnt Sienna in the brighter area (Sienna is more 'orange').  FW Payne's Gray ink (also via the Sotar) reinforced some shadows that I lost.  I did a correction pass with the dry brush and again with more Payne's gray and called it done.

Step 5:  Airbrushed inks and adjustments.  Softer bench light shown here.  Airbrushed inks (Liquitex Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna) give the lower edges some definition and color interest.  I also (very) carefully added some shadows with FW Payne's Gray, mostly to the back side but also in the front side on a few places.

This last session was maybe half an hour total, so I think I knocked these out in about 45 minutes total time.  I may go back and put some neon green in some eye sockets, but will sleep on that.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Doomsday Device

Ready for some Doom(tm).

This one is so fresh that I'm not sure the last bits of paint are actually cured.

I bought the Doomsday Device when it first became available, and put it on the shelf.  I suppose it didn't strike me as the most interesting piece, and it sat there for 2 (if not 3?) years. 

However, more recently, I've been playing with Airbrushing and inks and weathering.  Aha! Now it's the perfect subject of a quick project.

I intentionally didn't make all the model prep perfect.  Apparently, the master for this model is 3D printed, as the telltale line texture is found throughout.  Also, I can tell that my particular mold was pretty rough; most of the underhangs were starting to tear out.  I scraped a bit, and gave it a couple of layers of Vallejo Matt Varnish to smooth the worst of the worst.  But in the end, this was supposed to be a fast project to get some terrain on the table.

All four pieces started with black Stynlrez primer and then a 3-color stack of greens applied with the airbrush.  I was going for more of a lime green than a John Deere green, so I also applied some Vivid Lime Green ink as a highlight.

Here the smaller parts are basecoated.  The gold hoses are a blend of AP Stone Brown, Scale 75 Necro Gold, and S75 Dwarven Gold for a highlight.  First use of the S75 paints - they lived up to expectations and worked really well.

WIP shot, still working on gold bits.

I decided that the center vent-thing-whatever was actually a Darkstone Reactor.  I went in with the Sotar (airbrush) and applied a blast of Reaper Pure White, then AP Darkstone Purple (from the SoB set), then another dash of pure White in the center.

More colors added for bits.  Here I'm about to start weathering/shading. I would later decide that the reactors needed a splash of yellow to be convincing.

Basecoating is done on the big piece, you can see the yellow splash in the reactors here.  I'm also starting to shade in the silver stacks.

 

Ready for shading.  Adding S75 Necro Gold to all the rivets really brought this piece to life.

 

Complete set, on the Derelict Ship map tile.

Project: Shadows of Brimstone Storage Upgrade

Tower of Doom

This is Part II of a series.  See Part I here for card storage.

Shadows of Brimstone is a frikkin' sprawling game.  Oh, it's fully playable with just one core box, but what fun is that?  The whole point of the game is to dive a dungeon, then jump through unstable rift gates into all kinds of trouble.  The more options you have, the more fun it is.

At the time I'm writing this, there are two gigantic core boxes, 4 Otherworld expansions, 5 Mission Packs, several "Deluxe Expansions", and a ton of other addons, monsters, terrain, and heroes.  And I'm not including the Forbidden Fortress (Kickstarter 2) content, which is starting to become available.

As I mentioned in Part I, I finally admitted that the way that I had things stashed all over the house was a crime, and I set out to consolidate and organize all the content before KS2 content arrives.

Here were my goals as I started to assemble a strategy:

1. Reluctantly, the factory boxes need to go.  This makes me sad (they're pretty cool looking).  But they're mostly air, which means they take up a lot of shelf space AND they're clunky to use at the gaming table.
2. I need quick access to random content.  In a lot of sessions, we jump into the Mines, then if a gate is drawn, we pick an Otherworld card at random and then see where we're going.  That means I won't know what content I need when we set up.
3. I need a reasonable clean up scheme.  If I'm tempted to mix up the content, I'll never keep it straight.
4. Low risk of damage/warpage.
5. Scalability/expandability as more content is added.

SoB has basically five types of components:

• Cards - Covered in Part I
• Minis - Covered by the Ikea Hellquest
• Tokens and small bits
• Printed reference cards for Monsters, Heroes, and town shops
• Map tiles and large bits

Although I've got a good start, I've got a few things to address.

Tokens first. 
SoB has a gob of different tokens, but honestly this was the easiest and best investment I made - small Plano tackle boxes.  The difference in price between my two boxes was significant, BUT the more expensive #3700 Hydro Flow included dividers for every possible space where the cheaper #23730-05 did not.

The strategy with the tokens was to organize them so that I could leave only ONE box open during play with the remainder safely latched and stowed except during setup and teardown.  

Common use tokens required throughout a session are nicely in one box.  This is the 3700-series box.  Using the poker chips for XP really speeds things up vs. pen and paper.

Less frequently used tokens go in a pair of Plano #23730-05. Shown here is the carton I generally use at startup. I have a second 23730 for monster or hero specific tokens that see less use.

Reference Cards next. 
I bought a few Large and Small 3-ring binders and sheet protectors to collect all the cards and addon rule pages that have accumulated.  The Large binder is a Samsill Large Vintage Hardback Style binder, and the smaller one is the 5x8 version.  (The description on the small one says it doesn't work with sheet protectors... but it does!)

No, the small page protectors fit with a little bit of slop, but I love them anyway.  I paid a few bucks extra and got the thematically faux leather, but any cheap binder would work.  

Large and small faux leather binders for Reference Cards.

The large binder holds the town reference cards, addon hero, and XXL monster cards.  No, the sheet protectors don't fit "perfectly" but the ability to flip through the binder really speeds up our town phase.

The small binder holds smaller monster and hero cards.  They're generally sorted by theme/otherworld so I can flip quickly.  At the start of a fight, I pop open the binder, grab the sheets we need, and toss them on the table.

My level 1 Nun (Preacher) in action.

Map tiles last. 
I found these molded boxes from Iris at the local mega-mart in the scrapbooking section.  They're about the size of a medium pizza box, and a little thicker.  They're perfect for map tiles and other large cardstock tokens (the Gunslinger's 6-shooter template, or the Depth Track for example).  

I like that they stack well, latch securely, and are translucent.  It's pretty easy for me to locate the right box, flip the lid open and rummage around for the map tile I need (moving unused map tiles in the lid while I sort).

I bought a couple to play with (about $9 each) and then hit Amazon for a bulk pack.

Close up of the Iris label.  I found these in the craft/scrapbook section of our local mega mart, but Amazon also has 6-packs for a little cheaper.

Two core boxes and three Otherworlds, in about the same shelf volume as 2 cores and 1 Otherworld, and a smaller footprint.  The translucent plastic helps me find the right box in a hurry. 

Derelict Ship content.  I still put the gates/endcaps in a sandwich bag for my own sanity.

Wrap Up.
This is still a work in progress but it's starting to settle out.  I still have some monster packs in the closet awaiting assembly, and I haven't really dealt with the Frontier Town content yet. 

But, our initial play sessions with this scheme went a lot smoother.

Hot off the Desk: ORG011 Broken Token Card Organizer

Broken Token ORG011 and Hobby Lobby #125005 Artist's Supply Case.

This will be a two part post about Shadows of Brimstone storage.  Consider this Part I.

Background:  Over the past few weeks, I've been hauling all of my Shadows of Brimstone out of its various hiding places around the house.  I've acquired quite a bit of SoB, and over the years and my storage solution has been one of laziness and desperation:  a few expansions in this closet, a core box in that cabinet, card decks and tokens over here, and painted minis over there.

Enough was enough, it was time to condense, consolidate, inventory, and organize!

I'll tackle other aspects of SoB in Part II, but one of the first steps was to sort through all the expansions and get all of the cards in the same spot.  The result was sobering and very quickly overwhelmed my previous storage solution.  😆

I also decided that I wanted to sleeve the whole mess - which will help me in the long run but the thicker cards will now take up more room.

I also had the scary thought that SOMEDAY I will have my Forbidden Fortress pledge that I'll also need to integrate and store.  All jokes aside about FFG's ability to deliver pledges, it will get here someday, and I could spend a lot of money on storage solutions that don't scale well to additional content.

Alas, what to do?  Broken Token to the rescue!

In their high-volume card organizer section, BT offers a pair of card trays that fit into an "off the shelf" briefcase-sized box available from Hobby Lobby.  They offer the complete box as a turnkey option on their web page, or you can buy just the tray and source the Artist's Supply Case separately.

I chose the second option. Here are the materials I sourced:

• Hobby Lobby #125005 Artist's Supply Case
• Broken Token ORG011 Standard-Sized Card Organizer
• Broken Token DIV027 Extra Dividers (x2)

Close up shot of the ORG011 Pacakging

ORG011 Contents spread out a little.

With the ever-present 40% coupon, the Case cost me about $16 at the local Hobby Lobby, and then I made a separate order to BT for the Organizer and extra card dividers.  The BT order was about $45 shipped, so I'm into this for less than $60.

Assembly Notes:

• Since I sourced my own Case, I needed to remove the bits and guts that come inside.  There's a pretty nice tray that just lifts out, and a medium phillip's screwdriver is needed to remove the swing-tray.
• The BT parts were the typical laser-cut light plywood.  My Organizer was very clean.  Learning from the Gloomhaven org, I scored the connecting points to the "sprue" with an X-acto knife to minimize splintering.
• I didn't have any particular problems with assembling the bits and didn't need any tape, but if this is your first BT kit I recommend you use masking tape to help secure the corners and other interconnects until you get the entire frame together.
• The tray slides into the case pretty easily, but it's a snug fit.  If you use tape, tape on the INSIDE corners or you may have clearance isues.
• The Card Dividers that came with my Organizer slide in and out easily, but my spares are a little thicker and are a tight fit.  They work, but only barely.
• From start to finish, I had maybe 30 minutes in assembly time.

Bare tray slid into the case.  It's a snug fit, but mine went together great.

Here are the Card Dividers that come with the kit.  I bought extras to give me some better sorting options.

I'm really happy with the results.  With the extra dividers, I can separate each expansion's content into its own cubbyhole.  Also, each "column" of the case serves as a different card type.  From L-R: Threat cards, Artifacts, Encounters, Map decks, and on the far right are the 'common' cards (Scavenge, Darkness, Growing Dread, Gear, Starting Gear).

I think I'll be able to leave most of the cards in the case and just pull what I need on the fly during gaming sessions.  This should keep the tabletop clutter down just a bit, and expedite cleanup.

Honestly, I was a little surprised that I filled as much of the case as I did straight out of the gate, but it looks worse than it is.  There's still a lot of room in there.

My SoB cards initially populated.  At this point I've sleeved about half of the game and I'll continue to optimize.

A lower angle shot of the cards.  The sleeved cards look tightly packed but they're not.  Sleeves naturally "poof" into the space they're allowed.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone BEACON Drone (Derelict Ship)

Larry, Moe, and Curly - ready for the table.

Maybe 14 or 18 months ago, I started working on the Shadows of Brimstone Derelict Ship expansion.  There are 3 different monsters included (Autocannons, Necro-Nauts, and the subject of this post - BEACON drones aka "Probe Droids"). 

The Derelict Ship has some super-cool models, but I remember being really unhappy with the molding quality (gaps, in particular), and my enthusiasm for the project waned quickly. 

Then Kingdom Death arrived, and all other projects were shoved aside. 

But, coming out of Reapercon a few weeks ago, one of the things I realized was that I really need to get my painting volume up.  Not meaning that I should spend more hours per week painting (if only, hah), but that I need to find ways to become more efficient in the limited time I have and turn out more finished minis. 

Next to my table is a very sad little box of half-painted minis.  Over the past 18 months, my painting methods have changed dramatically, and as I moved from project to project there were a few things that got abandoned-in-place due to the level of quality and the amount of rework involved to bring them up to my "new standard." 

But, the models aren't doing anyone any good in that box ... so, this project was intended to try some really time-efficient methods (i.e. airbrushing) and attempt to salvage a horrible start. 

BEFORE:  This was my starting point:  I'd previously done an airbrush primer and then quickly applied an uneven basecoat of AP Gun Metal.  If I'd continued, probably would have dry brushed the hoses, applied a liberal wash to the globe, and then fussed a lot with the lenses, and been unhappy with the overall result.

First Step - Mixing some blue paint into some AP Blue Ink, I made the silver a lot less "disco-ball" and then used Liquitex Carbon Black to shade the underside of the globe.  This took me maybe 15 minutes and was really fun.

I hadn't given up on the silver, and re-airbrushed 2 shades of silver on the top to try to give a highlight.  But the result was still too damn silver and I recoated it in more blue ink/paint mix.

Finished product. I decided not to take the time to "gem" out all the lenses and simply painted them silver and then shaded the undersides with Liquitex Burnt Umber.  There are 18 lenses and 9 hex eyes, and I did all of them in about an hour.

I turned this project into an exercise shading and grime.  I hand-shaded all the arm joints (Reaper Black Wash with a little Adamantium Black for sparkle) and then touched them up with the airbrush (Liquitex Burnt Umber).  The hydraulic hoses were painted in Reaper Rusty Red and then given an AP Soft Tone ink to make them look rubbery.

I kept the hose 'legs' simple - gray shading with the airbrush and then a wash (Reaper Black Wash), followed by Liquitex Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna for some dirt.

Sure, I could have done more with the central globe - vent details, more battle damage, "gem" style lenses, and other general cleanup.  But I put the brushes down and moved on to the next!