Dungeons of Dread Review

This is a quick review of the latest release from Wizards of the Coast, The Dungeons of Dread.

These modules were originally released some 30+ years ago. They were quite amazing back then. Compiling the Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and the Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth, the adventures were grand in scale and the challenges were to the same scale. White Plume Mountain may be the weakest of the four but it still threw some curve balls that the party would have to overcome.

Anyway, they could have done so much more with this release. The other books in this 'series' of re-releases were quite nice. They are practical reprints of the originals. This one seems weaker and lacking. The art is not as sharp, akin to poor photocopies, i.e. Alu-Demon pg 167 . The art has lost its sharpness, more muddied and almost like the ink bled at times. Also, unlike most of the modules you got back then, you had maps to pull out and set up as a screen, not anymore. There is no real demarcation between the four quests. I would have liked to read about what went into them, background to their creation, side stories things like that. I am letdown by this release.

Shermans

I finally completed the Sherman tanks that came with the two Open Fire sets for Flames of War. One set is the three resin M4s that came their original entry box. The other Sherman's are the Mark Vs with the Fireflies. I think I have the versions right, not too sure. Anyway, I painted them all at the same time and all the same way. I had to wait for the decal sets to arrive before I could complete them. My FLGS did not have any in. But from the photos you can see that each set looks different. At least I can since they're right in front of me. The differences are in how I weathered them. The three American Shermans, I just added some weathering powder all over it which apparently wasn't enough as I no longer see it in the crevices that before made them appear very dusty, as from Africa or Italy.

The British Shermans are differentiated due to my use of two colored washes, B Squadron (Squares) I used GW Devlan Mud, a brown, all over and then a pin wash with Badab Black. The A Squadron (Triangles) I used Gryphonne Sepia which is more yellow then the pin wash. I used the yellow as originally I thought them to be too dark.

Either way, they are all different, but I think they look equally good as it stands. I wanted to see how they would come out regardless of the appearances.

Christmas Ornaments

So we do ornaments for the family every year. Each time we choose a theme. This year it was the '12 Days of Christmas'. We tried to do Zombies as it is the meme for the year, but Zombies was overruled as not being appropriate.

We handed out Swans to be within ths guidelines and added extras for fun. So here are our creations for this year. They are standard GW creations with slight modification for the piper and a drum added from the Bretonnian Men at Arms set.

FoW Open Fire Shermans

Here is a quick overview of the tanks that come with the Open Fire box. Again they are nice, but not as detailed as the resin ones. They also required a bit of effort to fit them. First you have to file down the space just below the fender to get a smoother fit. I then used a couple of vices and clips to hold them together after I glued them to prevent them from falling apart and to avoid seams as much as possible. Even still there is a gap along the side which requires puttying to smooth it.

Flames of War

I'm back. After quite a hiatus from posting and painting, I'm back on a roll. I've been trying to put out a project once a week. Mostly terrain which I will share soon.
Currently I'm painting up some US Airborne and accompanying British tanks from the new Open Fire box set. Overall the figures are quite good considering their size. I'm not going to put them on the same quality as Games Workshop, but they are very nice. Here are a couple of completed shots of the troops. Note that I do not have any decals for the tanks yet so they are still sitting with a gloss finish. I was able to put Screaming Eagles patches onto their left arm.

Warp Lightning Cannon

Cannon Engineer

 What's this? Two posts in one week? Yeah, well the cannon was a great model to put together and paint. It went together extremely easy with a few options and some colorful crew too. I had to paint it in four sets. The first set being the crew as you can see here with the Engineer. The other sets were the base, very simple nothing much as the vehicle pretty much covers all of it. You can see the base, prepainted below the three crewmen. The other two pieces were the cannon itself and the vehicle frame.

The Crew

The reason for the crewman to be painted separately is obvious. It would be almost impossible to paint them when glued onto the frame. The other two were done apart to paint them easier although I primed them black. I painted the cannon a boltgun metal for a base while the frame was done with a 1-1 mix of Calthan brown and Astronomicon Grey.

Cannon, left side

Cannon, right side

Afterwards I used boltgun for most of the metal on the vehicle with some chainmail in other parts. If you see a lighter silver then that would be the chainmail paint. On the cannon you will see some bronze-like parts, the ones on each side of the warpstone. Those were based boltgun as I mentioned before, but then I used a couple layers of Gryphonne Sepia wash. I let the first layer dry before the second. I spent several minutes rotating the cannon by hand to get an even coat. I did use a gold on the symbols along the side of the barrel

Cannon, rear

The frame, after painting all the metal, was given a good wash of Devlan Mud. Some did puddle around the spikes. Again I tried to rotate the vehicle so the wash didn't pool, especially on the wheels. After it had dried, I used the sepia wash on select beams and planks in order to get some variation. I then gave the all the wood a light drybrush of Codex grey to bring out the wood. I also lightly drybrushed the metal with chainmail. When I finally decided to stop with the painting, I glued the crew and cannon on. Remember that with the plastic cement, it will not work on painted surfaces. You have to scrape the paint off in order for it work. In my case, I used superglue! It also doesn't work as well, but it is strong enough for what I needed it to do. I also added grass to the base before gluing the cannon onto it.

The cannon needed to be pinned for it to attach to the base. The pins are in the bottom of the large wheels. The pins are in the shape of an 'L'. The vertical part goes up through the base into holes I placed there, with the horizontal part of the pin glued underneath the base. I hope you can picture that. If I didn't do that, the cannon would fall off of the base through regular usage.

The last picture I have here shows the crew placement. Not following the instructions, I purposely placed the cannon facing to the back. So actually I have it point to the rear. I just liked it better that way. On second thought I should have re-arranged the crew. Putting the Engineer in the front, the driver behind and to the side of him, with the rat with the wrench on the back platform. Oh well, at least you can see Engineers scope. I used blue as it stands out. It is the only blue in my entire army. It came out pretty good, using Mordian Blue, Midnight Blue, Lightning Blue, and white, mixing appropriately.

Next up will be more Grey Knights, then I have the Vermin Lord and more skaven in line behind them.

Thanks!

Doom Flayers

The latest addition to the army are a couple of Doom-Flayers. I now have more weapon teams than I have units they can attend to. This just means I have more choices! The weapon teams can be quite expensive. Some are basically the cost of another core unit. Try them out before you settle on them. They really are hit or miss, pun intended with regards to warpfire throwers, plague mortars, and ratling guns. These guys can make for a decent flanking unit and can give light cavalry a headache with their 3+ armor save. They were really easy to paint up. I kept to my simple pallet. I did add some other bronzes and such to the metal to get some variation.

Doom Flayers

Look close!

 I had to pin the two halves together through the center frame, else they would just flop over while drying due to the weight. If you look at them from the front, you can see a shiny piece of metal paperclip horizontally in the center. I should have blackened it before gluing it in, but I just got excited about gluing them together. I'm sure you know how that goes. The pics were taken with my phone mostly, so not that great.

 What's next? Well, I have the new Warp Lightning Cannon almost done. I really like this model. Lots of simple detail and also easy to paint and assemble. Which brings me to the old metal one.... I hate that model. About as much as I hate putting together the drop pods! Also, the skaven pushing it are on bases unlike the actual machine, which adds some difficulty to simply basing it. Either way, I will give it away to who wants it. It's still in the box with the front wheels glued on. Just drop me a line. I'm just gonna get another of the plastic ones!

Red Driver

Yellow Driver

Oh yeah, you can see a shot of my ancient Doomwheel in the back. That is from... 1999 or 2000, so don't judge me by how that looks. I was younger then!

War Machines