LEGO Jousting!

The miniature and I were left to our own devices a couple of weekends back while the other half had a night out with her sisters.  As well as introducing her to Star Wars (she wisely agreed that ‘Empire’ was the best, good girl!), I snuck in some gaming while she wasn’t looking. 

(I’ll confess I built the castle in my 20’s, when old enough to know better, it has a detailed interior and everything!)

For the joust I wanted to introduce a bit of decision making, so borrowed the scoring from the English Heritage jousts that we go to each year as a family, as she’s familiar with it.  We had three knights each - I was the ‘Lion shields’ and she took the Eagles.  Before each run, we chose one of the following:

• Head - 3 points; roll 1die
• Shield- 2 points; roll 2 dice
• Body - 1 point; roll 3 dice

If any dice rolled 4+ the relevant points were scored.  If we each got one success and rolled the same, it was a ‘barricade’ (crossed lances - no points, but it added some fun and flavour, and she remembered the concept from the jousts we've seen).

As you’d expect, she completely trounced my team!

The crowd were very impressed…

Archery next.  A similar system was used, but she was allowed a couple of extra dice as her character was Robin Hood in (a rather thin) disguise!

(Excuse the mess!)

Of course by the end, Robin was unmasked, and had to make a run for the forest, chased by knights - a series of events that were… less rules based, shall we say.  But a good time was had overall!

The Miniature's first Miniatures

Took some time off work over the last week, partly for myself, but also to give the other half a break from constant requests to play with the (now quite big) miniature!

Anyway, one of the things that she was adamant she wanted, was that I should spend some time on my painting (bless her), but also that she would like to have a go.  So I had a cast around for something she might be able to attempt that was chunky without too much complicated detail, and found a handful of plastic GW Skaven that I'd picked up for next to nothing on a market stall ages back, already undercoated.

We chatted about colour choices, and how to look after brushes, then did one each, stage by stage (she chose the colours, with the occasional nudge towards ones that would cover well in just one coat).  Just block colours, then a wash of GW's Agrax Earthshade (no highlighting this time).

Here's the results:

Can you guess which was mine and which was a five year old's?

Yep, hers is on the left, mine on the right.  I was impressed with her colour choices and brush handling (okay, so I did the eyes, teeth and pendant, and she let me tidy up in one or two places, but it was mostly her).  A slight tendency to overload the brush with paint, but she was really patient, and listened to advice.

A success I think, and she seems keen to try again - says she'd like to do a goblin, as green is her favourite colour!

A while back she had also requested that I make and paint a knight just for her, which I finally got around to.  She chose the parts for him from my bits box (all GW Empire knight parts) and they were her colour choices.  She wanted me to replicate the blue armour we'd seen on a knight at the jousting at Bolsover Castle, which I attempted with blue washes.  Not sure it worked, one to work on I think.

So here he is, Rosa's Blue Knight.

She was chuffed to bits with it, and says she'd like to do one for me to say thank you!

Putty

You know that thing where you mix some putty to level the base on one figure?  Then realise you've done far too much, and by the time the evening is over you've done the bases on all those old school dwarves you've been avoiding thinking about basing?

Yeah, that...

The one I meant to do is bottom left.

Extreme Scale Creep: 1 to 1 scale gaming

It's been a pretty hectic couple of months.  Work's been ridiculously busy with people starting and leaving, and there's been quite a bit happening at home too.

Part of that busyness was me hitting the big 40 in the middle of August.  Melissa, my lovely wife, made sure I couldn't ignore it by organising lots to do, including a family dinner on a steam train, open air shakespeare at Chatsworth House (which is just down the road from us) and, most recently, a day of outdoor woodland Laser Tag.

I have to say, it was great fun, but I think I'm probably better at pushing little lead and plastic men around than I am at the real thing, managing to be the first permanently 'dead' twice in as many games!

Meet the gang.  That's me, in the middle.  To the left are Rebecca (Mel's sister), her husband Gary and their daughter Isobel (who was alarmingly good!).  To the right are Mel's brother Sean, her younger sister Liz, and, behind them, her boyfriend Craig.

Mel's behind the camera

Of course it pissed it down with rain as well, just to add to the effect!  In fact, I blame the rain on my glasses for my poor performance.  But at least I should know how to paint DPM now.

Although Mel took the photos, she didn't take part in the silliness, much as she wanted to.  That's because at the end of the year we expect to take delivery of our very own, brand new 1:1 scale miniature, but the casting process is taking a while...  

I wonder if Acrylics or Enamels would be most suitable for painting it?