Wolf's Dragoons - My Paint Scheme

As part of the Aces: Scouring Sands Battletech campaign you can purchase new mechs. We needed a beeferier mech so we used some of our points (I am playing it cooperatively) to get the Shogun mech. Now, I have assigned the two Shoguns that I own to the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary company because that group has so many more variants available across a greater number of eras. Therefore I decided to paint them in Wolf's Dragoon's colours.

This paint scheme is based on the Wolf's Dragoon's Assault box set as a guide, with the image inside the box. Paints used were TTCombat unless otherwise mentioned. Primed black, drybrushed Ostrich Feather Grey, lightly drybrushed Phantom Ivory. Sports Car Red used as trim three times on each side. Viewport painted Jungle Shadow Green, then line of Ogre Boogy Green, an Opulent White line, and Armypainter Gloss Varnish.

Folded Steel used on the metal bits like weapon ports, exaust, jump jets, and missile ports. Lasers painted Sports Car Red, Light Azure Blue on the targeting laser glass, Ogre Boogy Green for the targeting laser. PPC and Jump jets painted Midnight Blue, then Light Azure Blue, then Opulent White. Buttercup Yellow used for the missiles. Base painted dollorstore black then GW Armageddon Dunes with a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade. Armypainter White used on front and back hex sides then written on by fine tip felt pen.

I very much light this simple paint scheme and may use the Wolf's Dragoons as the mercenary faction for a solo playthrough of Scouring Sands...once I paint the other 20 something more models that I have for them. Just have to paint the Jade Falcon models first.

Patchwork Guild - New Paint Scheme

After finally received my Mercenaries Kickstarter recently I have been debating about changing the paint scheme for my own mercenary group, "The Patchwork Guild" (see my new symbol for the guild below).

I have painted some models for them several years ago with the veterans and elites here. I was never entirely happy with the look of what I did. Since starting two Scouring Sands campaigns, I tried a new idea for a paint scheme and really like it.

Primed black I then used mostly TTCombat paints. Heavy drybrush with Osperdale Grey, drybrush with Admiralty Grey, and light drybrush of Ostrich Feather Grey. I then painted some armour panels with Osperdale Grey followed by panels painted with the following: Sports Car Red, Sour Yellow, Sunrise Orange, Ogre Bogey Green, Blue Genesis, and Blue Violet. Ancient Steel was applied to barrels, exaust ports, jump jets, and missile launchers. The end of lasers painted Sports Car Red and missiles painted with Buttercup Yellow. PPCs and jump jets painted Midnight blue then Light Azure Blue, then Phantom Ivory. Cockpit painted with black then streaks of Phantom Ivory and finally Armypainter Gloss Varnish. 

Bases painted black then base top painted with GW Armageddon Dunes Tecnical paint with a GW Agrax Earthshade wash. Front and back hex sides painted with several coats of Armypainter white then written on by a fine tip marker. Lichen was applied to parts of the top of the base, with craft glue, to provide a different texture. 

The vehicle was primed black, drybrushed with Forged Steel, and similar colours were used as the mechs for weapons and base. All vehicles will be painted this way so they can be used by any faction.

Looking forward to painting the rest of my very large amount of Patchwork Guild mechs in the near future.

Malifaux's "Index of the Untold" Campaign and Co-op book

Way waaaay back in 2015, for the second edition of Malifaux, Wyrd came out with a campaign book called "Shifting Loyalties". I made a post about it back then. The system was simple to use and was great fun to enhance your crew and HQ as you played it through. Well, Wyrd is coming out with a new campaign book for it's fourth edition of Malifaux..."Index of the Untold"

Here is the announcement from the Wyrd website: "Campaign mode is a way for you to advance your crew from game to game. You start off by choosing two keywords to combine, regardless of faction. This allows for a high degree of creativity. You can do anything from combining Urami and Fae for a haunted forest theme, to combining Red Library and Chimera just so you can take all the monkey models in the game. Next, you create your own master. You do this by picking one of five archetypes and then filling in actions and abilities on your Master from your chosen keywords. You even build your own crew card, choosing from a plethora of starting keyword abilities in the first week and then slowly building on them as your crew grows.

After each game you will go through the Aftermath Phase. In this phase you will find and buy new equipment that can be used by any model, advance your leader with experience, and determine which of the killed models receive injuries. There are loads of interesting pieces of equipment from the standard weapons to the Strange Portal that, when used incorrectly, can transport your model into your next game. Injuries range from the devastating to the merely embarrassing, like the Blackmail result that can be removed from your model by your opponent to force it to take an action. Add in an Aftermath Hand to cheat the results (because what is Malifaux without cheating), a Back-Alley Doctor, ancient named weapons and much more, and you and your group will still be coming up with new ways to play campaign games years from now."

Am I excited? For sure. The Shifting Loyalties campaigns we played were great fun and this is expanding on what was already done before. I can see this will mean I play Malifaux more often than once every three to four weeks.

But wait...there's more! "This book also introduces cooperative mode to the world of Malifaux. In this game mode, you and your friends work together against the game itself and its Non-Player (NP) models. This mode focuses on narrative, puzzle-solving, and working together to bring the fun to the table. The game size is smaller than a normal game of Malifaux, forcing players to utilize limited resources and think outside the box to beat the game. Additionally, it has a much shorter playtime (on average) than a normal game of Malifaux, allowing you to knock out a game in an hour once you have learned the system.

Each NP model has its own stat card which dictates its target priority and what it can do on its turn. Players flip cards to determine which set of actions the NP models take and then follow the instructions on their card. You can use any models in your collection to represent these enemies, allowing you to tailor your experience. Want to do a raid on the Witch Hunters? Use Witchlings as Scrappers and Thalarian Quellers as Magewrights. Want to run a game against the Cult of December? Use Ice Gamin as Scrappers and Silent Ones as Magewrights. This allows you to both make use of models in your own collection and tell your own story.

Of course, there is a lot more to cooperative mode than just enemies. There are thirteen brand new, detailed cooperative encounters for you to play through. Each encounter is broken into two parts, allowing for an element of surprise if you don’t read ahead. Don’t worry, there is plenty of replayability, especially with Challenge Mode, which allows you to increase a scenario’s difficulty. You can even combine campaign and cooperative mode by playing the encounters in order and following the instructions in the campaign section at the end of each one! Oh, and if you want to play solo, go for it. Cooperative mode works perfectly well as a solo game.

Whether you want to pull off a train heist or escape a collapsing mine, Malifaux cooperative mode has what you’re looking for, and the campaign rules allow you to build your own models and advance your crew as you do. Along with the book, we will also release a deck of cards that includes equipment, injuries, and the cards needed for cooperative mode." 

Its coming this summer and I am waiting with baited breath. Should be great fun. 

Link: Wyrd's Waldo's Weekly Website and Wyrd's Adepticon Slideshow

Gaming the last three months

 Going to college has taken my painting time to zero. However I have played a lot of games. 

    For board games I've played 28 including Star Trek: Ascendancy pictured below. Other standouts played were Fate of the Fellowship, Quacks, Marvel Champions, and Warchest. There was also, for the month of March in my province of British Columbia, a Royal proclamation by King Charles that March would be "Community Game Month". It was to build community networks and foster bonding over group activities. Cool. 

    For miniature games there were many fun ones played. Four Malifaux 4th edition games...

    ...four Marvel Crisis Protocol games...

    

...six Battletech: Alpha Strike including two using the Aces deck from Scouring Sands campaign box...

    ...two Gaslands games.

    

...one game of One-Hour Skirmish...

    ...and four games of Heroscape including one with the new G.I.Joe and COBRA models.

    Now that my semester is over I can start painting again! First up are some Patchwork Guild models for two Battletech: Alpha Strike Scouring Sands cooperative campaigns with different friends, then finishing off the Police for the Batman Miniature Game, and my current Malifaux crew of Von Schtook. 

Malifaux Missing Models

For those of you who want the new models, within the 4th edition crew boxes, there is a path to get them. See the announcement made last year, that I just stumbled onto, right here.

If you click the link for "Malifaux Fourth Edition Box Contents", you will see a list of what models will be in which box as they are produced. As they say in the announcement, "Any completely new models, like specific Totems, packaged with older models, will be available to order separately for one year. This will let you pick individual ones you might need if you’ve already got everything else in that particular box. In the document, these models are highlighted in yellow."

    So far, only Crumb (Nekima Broodmother Totem) is planned and will be released in May. Unfortunately the Masters and models that were in the duelling master packs will not be sold separately as they are not in the new master boxes. I'm hoping to fill out some gaps in my models so that I don't have to use proxies. 

Hot Wheels Bike Terrain

I've picked up some scatter terrain, over the last two months, for the Batman Miniature Game and Marvel Crisis Protocol at Dollorama. Now that I have them next to some models they are not quite to scale. I will still use them because they are cheap, pre-painted, and look cool.

I particularly like the Tesla cyberquad. They give off good James Bond villain henchmen vibes, so I bought four.

The delivery moped is perfect terrain for a food or courier storefront.

Some Italian style for Medditerainian themed scenarios.

Perfect for parks is a slightly souped up sit down lawnmower.

Lemax Large Landscape Accent Pebble Mat

On Boxing day I picked up two of these Lemax Landscape Accent large pebble mats at Michael's on clearance. Why two? Each of them are 36 by 18 inches so you need two of them for a three by three foot playing area.

 

They looked good in the bag it came in. Placed together there is a slight misalignment in the pattern of the stones which is not glaringly obvious while playing. I might give it a little dry brush to make the stones stand out more, but its not essential.

For a Malifaux game I played yesterday, it looked perfect on the table.

The plastic and texture helps to keep the models in place and not shuffling around when jostled, which is a bonus.

An extra mat could be sliced up and made into roads with little effort and made better with some hobby magic. There are other patterns available and can be seen here at Lemax's website (landscaping). When you click individual items there is a handy link button "Where You Can Buy" that takes you to webpage where you can select where you live in the world and find suppliers/stores that sell their products. 

Excellent product and reasonably priced, early on Boxing day, before clever shoppers snap them up.

Looking Back at 2025 and Ahead to 2026

It was a great year for boardgames, but poor for role-playing and miniature gaming. I'd like to alleviate that for 2026. I also want to bring out games I can play solo so I can get used to the rules and play them with others. My miniatures are definitely longing for the paint brush so more painting in in my future this year including scenery painting.

Only seven role-playing sessions were played this year, three of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and two each of Dragon's Bane and Twilight 2000. Sickness and life have affected folks coming to my Monday night sessions. We will see what the new year brings.

A total of 83 boardgames were played. Some took 15-30 minutes to play and some took hours (all day for Eastern Empires). I have enjoyed the amount that have been played and both myself and my wife would like to play more with each other and with friends. We will see if that can occur. Boardgames played, in order from most to least played, are: Santorini (13); Marvel Champions LCG (10); Elder Sign/Skyteam (6ea); Arcs/Dominion/Lord of the Rings Dual for Middle Earth/Splendor Duel (4ea); Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship/Quacks of Quedlinberg/Wingspan (3ea); 878 Vikings: Invasion of England/Daybreak/Splendor/Terraforming Mars (2ea); and the following with one game played of each 7 Wonders Duel, 1754, Arkham Horror LCG, Carcassonne 20th Anniversary, Carcassonne Hunters and Gatherers, Cascadia, Crib, Eastern Empires, Grimcoven, Lost Cities, Memoir '44, Paths of Glory, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride Europe, Zane's Homemade Industrial Game (Title to come later)

Twenty-four solo games were played, 20 of Marvel Champions LCG and 4 of Terraforming Mars on a computer) Terraforming Mars. There is no reason why I couldn't play more, and I will, but I also have to balance it with my writing, editing, and schoolwork.

Only 28 miniature games were played this year, about one every two weeks. Need to try for more, if possible, with my friends schedules. Miniature games played, in order from most to least played, are: Heroscape (9)

Batman Miniature Game (7)

Malifaux (6)

    -3e; Parker Burrows (Bandit) 1

    -4e; Viktorias (Mercenary) 1; Jack Daw (Tormented) 5

Battletech: Alpha Strike (3 campaign games)

Gaslands (1)

Marvel Crisis Protocol (1)

For painting models and scenery not much was done. Flintstones Village and people was the only scenery painted with a few others (Cardboard Infinity Terrain and Resin Badlands GF9 terrain for multiple game scales, and a construction set) purchased already or mostly assembled, which is abysmal. For models painted...none really. Still have little bits left to do of the 44 Batman Miniature Game cop keyword models. Paint on scenery and models is the keyword for miniature games as well as playing more of them.

Things That Have Happened since Early September

I have not been idle since early September, but I have been busy with other things. School, homework, and studying has been a part of it plus short local travel, writing, and reading. I need to be better with putting up little missives and happenings.

There was some painting of "cop" keyword models for the Law Forces faction of the Batman Miniature Game. I did a lot of work and now its just the details left on most of them. Below is a sample.

There were a few games of the Batman Miniature Game and in the last one of the year I managed my first win! I think I might be getting used to this faction.

A couple of Malifaux games were played using my Tormented faction. We are starting to get used to the 4th edition.

Battletech: Alpha Strike was played with another game in the Lyran Commonwealth's planetary assault on my Draconis Combine colony world. Good times.

Another Malifaux game.

Played a large nine player game of Eastern Empires (a redo of Mega Civilization which was a redo of Advanced Civilization). I placed last, as the Saba civilization (Red), but it was close. I always love this game.

Another Batman game.

Final miniature game of the year...Marvel Crisis Protocol! Defenders led by Daredevil and I took Spider Foes led by Doctor Octopus.

Have a happy and game filled 2026 everyone!

So many Cops!

There are many, many models that have the Cop keyword in the Batman Miniature Game, and very few are not part of the Law Forces faction. Since getting back into the Batman Miniature Game, and painting the Patterson Batman and Batman on Bike, I next decided to tackle ALL the Cop models. Wow, oh wow. When I'm done I will have 44 Cop models from all three editions of the game (metal, resin, newer thermoplastic).

Here are the 1st edition models, with the Cop keyword, that I finished years ago: Commissioner Gordon, four street cops, and three SWAT.

I will have quite a few models that will also have the Detective trait. Its very handy, with the trait, to manipulate suspects at a four inch range rather than having to be right next to them. It also suits the Law Forces faction.

The models on the left are a repeat of my second picture, but the four on the right are part of the Aaron Cash SWAT set. These SWAT models are a resculpt of the first edition metal four pack.

Here are some more SWAT, and two Gordons (Back to Gotham and The Batman sculpts), that also have the Cop keyword. A note about SWAT models is that they have the Elite trait, which means you can only take one of them in your crew. The caveat to that is if you have a model with the Boss: SWAT trait, in which case you can take as many as you want. When I finish these models, five will have that trait (2 Gordons, Aaron Cash, Lt Brandon, and Commissioner Loeb).

Then there are the rest of the Cop models! They are from the Nolan films (3), Back to Gotham starter set (4 plus one detective shown earlier), The Batman starter set (6 including the Gordon model shown earlier and yes the horse mounted cop is in that set), Gotham Central Cops (4 total including the two shown earlier), and Commissioner Loeb from the first edition (Commissioner Loeb and Gotham Police blister).

The models are in the final stages, after I've used the army painter method of using one colour on each model than starting at the first model with the next colour. I will be posting them as I put the finishing touches on them starting with the oldest models to the newest in each set they came out in.

Construction Vehicles Playset

Picked up this Cute Stone Construction Vehicles Playset from Amazon.ca a year ago and hadn't cracked it open. Wanted to get some construction vehicles to go with my Marvel Crisis Protocol and Batman Miniature Game figures and the MCP NYC Construction Site Terrain Pack (currently assembled and primed but not painted). Its important to think outside the box, so to speak, for interesting terrain for miniature games.

There is quite a lot in this set and although there are more larger items than are normally on the table for the size class it gives variety and flair to the tabletop. However the quantity will go nicely with the BMG.

The scale might be a little smaller than they should for MCP but...

...perfect for the big digger, bulldozer, and crane as well as the accessories.

The vehicles have some heft to them for keeping them in their spot, as light plastic ones would move by breathing on them too hard. The bulldozer can also switch out its scoop for a plow or roller too.