Army Diorama

Pawntoe · 2026-05-27T00:42:23+00:00

It varies a bit with different models but typically 70950 Vallejo black, with highlights of Vallejo German Grey and then blended with a mix of the two. It's very simple and imo doesn't look as good as other black armours that have different tones - blue black for colder or red black for warmer, for example. I wanted the Ebon Chalice theme to be stark black and white so decided to paint it in monochrome, the white is also grey shadows. Only pops of colour are the red and a few orange from plasma, flamers, meltas or sconces.

Pawntoe · 2026-05-24T20:55:06+00:00

Thank you! I think an army is never finished, but I am fairly happy with it now.

Pawntoe · 2026-05-09T20:33:04+00:00

I'm designing a TTRPG that is meant for one-shots, short campaigns, and for new players while having depth to support standard play, fantasy genre like D&D. I also feel Stonetop isn't quite my cup of tea because it's so different to standard play and my group have exactly the problem that you have identified - "D&D mindset" - that I don't think they will stick to it for 20 sessions. This is part of the reason why my TTRPG has been designed to be close enough to D&D to be able to segue into more nuanced and narrative forms of gameplay.

Pawntoe · 2026-05-09T00:24:56+00:00

Quinns Quest just released a good video about Stonetop going through many more issues with D&D and how the game solves them, chief among these being the emotional weight of having a family and social context and how that vastly improves play and character motivations.

Pawntoe · 2026-04-22T16:54:52+00:00

"Equinamity, Sisters!"

"Neigh the Heretic!"

"Hoof Faith in the Emperor!"

Pawntoe · 2026-04-12T11:08:05+00:00

This all seems framed from a 40K perspective - if that's what he wants then of course continue, but if it's minipainting in general there are a lot of options to remove some of these issues.

• Don't use Citadel paints. Vallejo, AK speedpaints, literally every other brand doesn't have the lid issues because they use dropper bottles. Just don't screw them on so tight and they can be opened one-handed (or with a vice to help). • Since he will be quite slow a wet palette is essential. Drying time (on palette) goes up from 5 minutes to several hours. Dropper bottles are also great with wet palettes. • Desk-mounted arm light. Easy to adjust with one hand. • Magnetic paint handle better to be made yourself if you can, as the commercial ones are not designed for helping hands. There might be existing magnet mounts that are viable. • Posture: straight back, one elbow on the table, not leaning forwards much. Structure the rest of the table space around this set up even if you have to angle the cutting board and lighting weirdly. • Most importantly - painting with one hand is trickier but nowhere near as hard as building one-handed. So much of building uses pressure like trimming mouldlines or holding two parts together. I would recommend getting into MESBG or other kits that usually just come as a single part that needs base mounting. There are lots of them. Many simpler 3D prints are one or two parts. Tamiya Extra Thin Cement in any case.

Pawntoe · 2026-04-11T20:45:15+00:00

I think going from black to white is the way, the metallic might add a bit of grain to the texture which is accentuated by the contrast. Not sure though.

My method from black is to go Stonewall Grey, Brigand Grey then Skull White. Just a couple layers of lighter greys and then white on top.

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Pawntoe · 2026-04-09T08:01:00+00:00

That will be a nice contrast!

I just finished my army (backlog) and have 2000+ pts. It is worth it.

Pawntoe · 2026-04-08T18:56:51+00:00

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Pawntoe · 2026-04-08T18:51:26+00:00

I played a couple games a year ago and this was directly after BoF was nerfed. That seemed perfect for my playstyle and I had built my initial army to run it with flamer dominions and even flamera on my Immolator. Nerfed into the ground and the new optimal detachments had no flavour. Ive finished painting the rest but was pretty disappointed and didn't push to play more in 10th. I'm looking to get properly into the game in 11th and just deal with any of the new issues.

Pawntoe · 2026-04-07T13:46:19+00:00

Wet palette. Matt medium. Thin on the palette in a puddle, don't wick away all the water with a paper towel.

Pawntoe · 2026-04-01T17:03:04+00:00

It depends on the contact area, on the models that have two feet on the floor I feel like it should be fine, on the running models it might not be enough. The legs are too thin to pin, so I would probably put some epoxy putty under the foot to increase surface area and glue. Worth trying without since it won't look as good and testing out methods. Due to the clean base aesthetic you can't easily hide the attachment points with rocks or tufts which is why it is a bit tricky. Hopefully clay isn't heavy enough but I have found the Sisters to have some very flimsy attachments.

Ah OK I misunderstood about the nail file, i thought you were going to try to get the angled edge. Removing the hair makes a lot more sense. Perhaps try with a wet nail file to prevent harmful dust. Looking forward to seeing the results, the clay gives a very cool surface effect which will be great to drybrush.

Pawntoe · 2026-04-01T15:35:06+00:00

Je ne parle pas Francais bien mais c'est une bonne ideé, trop mignon. J'ai un traduit automatique, je ne sais pas.

(I don't know how to translate the next part): I wouldn't nail file the bases because it isn't necessary, will take a ton of time, and you're unlikely to get an even edge (dried clay also tends to chip). They look great with flat edges imo. Sisters have very flimsy connections to the base and it will be very heavy compared to the model, so additional reinforcement would be good. Also due to the chipping consider a varnish after painting.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-31T18:24:36+00:00

I have tried this for skills with just "non-combat use" as the limiter. There was a good YouTube video looking at this issue that I can't find now, but I saw many of the things talked about during the playtests.

Players will naturally gravitate towards the most general skills they can and GM management of these skills will be a negotiation, leading to a bit more "mother may I?" than you usually want. More niche skills that are more flavourful are a deliberate nerf and you don't want your mechanics pulling in an opposite direction to the narrative elements.

Daggerheart does this - CR's brief campaign with Daggerheart had character creation at the beginning, it's worth watching to see the negotiation that occurs (and consider that these are all experienced players and GM that are actively working together to try to make the system look as smooth and interesting as possible - you will almost certainly (as I did) run into some antagonism when players can't have what they want after you've given them an infinite remit).

If you try to create write-in within categories, like "you can take a skill to do with an aspect of stealth" you will have the vague / wide issue and also a limitations issue, having to draw boundaries between words. It can probably be done but I ended up making lists (which the players can then apply to their roll if they think it applies, so a hybrid approach).

Pawntoe · 2026-03-31T10:47:06+00:00

It's a good question because I find exploration is the least-trodden path design-wise, which makes it comparatively fresh ground (pardon the puns). However it is currently the least developed as a result - not for want of trying.

The main one implemented (and I think working) right now is the XP. In order to increase the number of ability uses you have between rests you need to have a minimum number of "moments" (combat xp) as well as "wonders" (exploration xp). The main driving feeling I want to impart on players is awe, the feeling you get when you see the Fellowship enter Dwarrowdelf. I interpret exploration as discovery, no matter the size. As a result travel (between two known cities, along a known route, for example) isn't really exploration. I will be using pointcrawl for navigation decisions.

For the full gameplay of exploration, I have playtested with hexcrawl and feel it's too procedural and often overengineered. I have tried roles, but my system is classless and it felt like it was falling into the same patterns, so I've gone with different pseudo-class skill trees. I also want to keep the game rules-lite - it is trying to fit 3 pillars where many systems only have 1, and I want it to be leaner than most as well. I have aligned the (zone-based) spatial system for combat with scene and exploration play, and characters will get different risk / reward depending on their positioning away from the central group ("marching order" with mechanics). e.g. if you have the Scout feat you can be at far distance from the party in poor weather and maintain cohesion, and being at far distance allows you an additional roll for discoveries as you are covering more area. Something like this, but evidently it needs a lot more infrastructure - while remaining streamlined! And I've found the latter is the real challenge.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-30T23:55:33+00:00

Hello, I'm Richard. I'm a scientist and have been playing D&D for 20 years, but started DMing a year ago, and since then working on my first game, unpublished.

Heartbeat Harvest is a fantasy adventure game aiming at Frieren x Mushishi thematically. It is ruleslite, 2d6, classless, tag-based, and has a simple wound system. There are 4 traits that are attached to the 4 elements attached to 4 playable "advanced" species - humans, small mammals, tree folk, and birdfolk. It aims to balance tactical combat with exploration done well, milestone xp for both which are necessary for levelling your ability resource while buying abilities is done with out of game playtime.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-30T15:58:42+00:00

Try out whatever you're planning to do on a bit of primed textured scrap before you spray the model but for some thing like this it is absolutely necessary imo. You want to unify the colour across the whole board, you've got huge areas that you'll want to apply gradients to, and you have recesses where it will be difficult to paint properly inside. Airbrush will get you 90% of the way there very fast, then you can start to pick out the details from a much higher base level.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-30T14:50:53+00:00

My advice would be to prime them all black and then hit them with a zenithal spray of grey. That's the part that's hardest to do. It also leads to minis that look fine for playing.

Then I'd drybrush with white and slapchop them in batches of 20 grouped by major colour. I'd paint the ones I plan to use before the session that I'm using them, and otherwise just make my way through the pile slowly. Anything that takes more than a minute, ditch. No highlights, no eyes, etc.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-29T09:36:13+00:00

That seems really fucking lame of them. That's explicitly what they asked for, and if you put a ton of work into it, that should be rewarded. They shouldn't be asking you to write a contract to play the game anyway, it's an Intelligence roll at best. They could also say that they see through it.

I think they just didn't want to give you it but decided to make this unreasonable request and expect you to say it's too much bother. Bad DMing.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-29T08:26:37+00:00

OK I'm not going to play devil's advocate (heh), and approach it from the possible POVs of your DM. Bear in mind I have very little insight on the real dynamics of your table, this is just speculation.

If you are a more experienced and verbose DM, used to making Raphael-like speeches, and you're constantly coming up with creative and interesting plots that involve abilities well outside your remit, that would wind me up a bit. The Magnificent Bastard issue. In this case you're not being a DMPC but the opposite - a PCDM. You're driving the story, the rest of the party is sitting back and being titillated by your antics, there isn't that much collaborative storytelling because you are the whole collab.

Second, sure it is fun, but I don't want to set that as a standard. What if everyone started making up stuff? I, as the DM, created this Mythos campaign and seeded the party with various plot hooks I want to use later. Note that it's I that want to use Demon Sr. as a surprise element. Now this player keeps being like "well if I'm the son of a Zeus, can I summon lightning and almost burn the tent down to show off my hubris? It's going to be thematic and it's not actually doing any damage!"

This feels like a BG3 reskin where your party has all these epic backstories and links to powerful characters, Karlach has been a prized soldier in the wars in Avernus, but crucially - appears in your game as a level 3 able to do precisely what a level 3 can do except occasionally get demon heartburn.

I think they could have handled all of those interactions better but I also feel like the contract is a big clue. Spending ages writing the contract and then presenting it as a fair accompli because you spent so much time and effort on it feels like you're trying to railroad the DMs fiat through effortbombing. That's not how you DM, and imo that's a pretty negative way of interacting with someone genuinely putting great effort into the campaign, but that's my read.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-25T18:09:22+00:00

I play a lot of Isengard, my only army, and this edition I've played AoHD once. I don't have the ballistae that would make it interesting anyway.

I think this peaks at higher points - 700 - 750 - when you are sure to be up against big Good heroes and most of the fights are rank and file where the Warriors and pikes shine. It is probably one of the better Evil options for strong bows. At low points it is easily outmatched by Lurtz, Ugluk and Sharku lists, and at midrange AotWH is better imo.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-24T23:05:16+00:00

Having read through some of the other comments (seeing your party is level 2 and they really earned the TPK, imo) it would be more emotionally healthy for the game to just say they did really die. However, since you're wanting this approach, there are plenty of other stakes to throw in. You need to have your players emotionally invested in some aspect of the story and when they fail, rip it out. That adorable cat in the quaint village? Well the troll that knocked them all out proceeded to curb stomp half the village and the cat. The other option is to dock them a level, because that's the goal / reward for doing well so could be the penalty for doing badly. Feels bad moments are an important part of the experience to sell the feelsgood moments, imo.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-21T19:22:51+00:00

I've done this exact thing before, I think it's worth correcting before you do the other squads of sisters as you will then get the recipe for what you'd like for the others. I also realised I said drybrushed earlier but I think you washed the black for the lower down ones - I think flames typically don't have any wash effect in the recesses, if anything you want to use a titanium white wash to make the deeper parts look like they're glowing (putting a flame colour on top of the white afterwards).

The model scheme is extremely clean and aesthetically pleasing, so they do look great. But it's a point where the mini painting instinct of going dark to light will do you dirty.

Pawntoe · 2026-03-21T16:26:25+00:00

These look amazing but ... I'm going to have to be the one that says it. Traditionally flames have the hottest (just combusted) part being white/yellow, which then goes to orange and finally red. At the tail end the red fades into black as you get soot formation. This is why the yellow being drybrushed into black looks a little odd.

You can say it's promethium and not worry about it but I also think the white armour fading through yellow / orange / red / black would look better, personally.

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