One package flew into the cuckoo's nest

I've been working on a few longer "think piece" posts lately, so while I've been bouncing between some research and contemplation for those I've decided to write a more casual collection update in the meantime. This is also done in the hopes of guilt tripping myself into getting Confrontation back to the painting table via a visual reality check of how many unopened miniatures are still held hostage in my closet. Spoiler alert, it is a lot. But at least, as a result, there will be a lot of content on here, so hopefully you enjoy reading about it all.

Hello eBay, my old friend...

Photo dump coming in, so you know the drill, click "read more" below to see the full post!

Climbing the Monolith (MB:Isfet unboxing)

'twas a rainy day yesterday, pretty gloomy and grim in my part of Scandinavia, but made all the more enjoyable via the simple act of the local courier dropping off 15kg of Monolith goodness on my doorstep. Yes, the long awaited package from the Mythic Battles: Isfet Kickstarter campaign has finally arrived. 

Before I get into the actual meat and potatoes of the post, I'd just like to briefly point out that two more factions have been added to the Miniature Galleries section, namely the Ophidian Alliance and the Devourers of Vile-Tis. It's a bit of a slow process, mostly since Blogger is a bit clunky when it comes to formatting (this post especially was a nightmare to edit!), there's a lot of back and forth in order to make everything perfect and my OCD definitely isn't helping. However, I'm truly enjoying the process, because I am using this chance to get a better understanding of some of the models which I might have overlooked previously, plus not to mention expanding my own knowledge about some of the trivia of certain profiles. I tried adding a bit of extra information on some entries, but I'm still trying to decide what it is that these galleries are supposed to contain, just data regarding the actual models or also some info about the cards as well. Regardless, it's loads of fun and, again, if you've got any kind of feedback then I'll gladly hear you out.

But now, let us get into the review/unboxing! I've used a post break here since this one is long and heavy on images, so unless you actually clicked on the post and are seeing the whole thing, please click "read more" below.

The sands of time cannot be stopped...

Under The Mountain is dead! Long live Under The Mountain!

A blog of legendary status throughout many years into the past, it seems that it has almost completely ceased to exist recently. For whatever reason, some months ago the whole section hosting the Confrontation model images has disappeared from the blog. I initially thought that maybe this was due to Monolith acquiring Rackham rights and the establishment of the new Rackham Games and that perhaps the UtM owner was simply afraid of any potential legal action by the new owners. When you think about it, this wouldn't make sense due to Fair Use rights, since UtM made no profit off of the images, nor claimed them as their own. In any case, a few weeks ago I revisited the site and now it seems that all of the content from it has been removed and only an empty page greets you when you visit the blog. 

Regardless of the reason, this is a severe loss to the Confrontation resource pool since it preserved a lot of precious information from the game's heyday. I've spent countless hours browsing through it and it has singlehandedly kept my interest in Rackham creations strong in the years before I got personally invested in Confrontation. It was always such a simple pleasure to browse through all the model images hosted there. 

Of course, everything is still accessible via the Wayback Machine, but it is definitely not an optimal solution and you never know when that might get scrubbed away as well. But as Christopher Paolini writes, "...years pass whether we will them or not… but we can remember," and remember we will.  And not only that, but we should continue the legacy established by our predecessors. 

With this in mind, I want to use my blog and continue carrying the torch of usefulness for the community. And since UtM was, among many other things, most famous for hosting images of all of the Confrontation models, this is where I will also start. This has been something that I've wanted to do for a long while and now is finally the time.

On the right side pane you will find links to Model Galleries of specific factions. For now it only features the three Elven factions (Akkyshan, Cynwäll, Daïkinee), but I will make an effort to periodically add more to it. The miniature entries have a recognizable format previously established by UtM, but I've so far tried to fill in some gaps with additional information from other resources where possible. 

This will be a continual work in progress and in some way I would like this to be a community endeavor. If you spot that any information is wrong, or there is something crucial that I've missed adding, or you have a suggestion on how to further expand the entries, please feel free to get in touch. I am in no way anywhere close to being a Rackham scholar and historian, as some members of the community certainly are, so it would be great to get some feedback in order to make all of this useful for other people, especially those new to the hobby.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you stick around!

Lucky finds and bargain bins

EDIT: I wrote this post at the beginning of September, but got lazy with taking photos and uploading them, thus the delay in publishing.

Some days ago there was a brief discussion on the 7 Hills discord server about lucky finds and good deals, so it kind of inspired me to share some of my loot highlights.

I've already mentioned during that discussion that my greatest bargain deal was definitely a 1 euro copy of the Dogs of War book which I snagged from an Ebay auction. Obviously I was the only bidder, which somewhat made me think that I misread the ad and that it is either a fake ad or the book was a DIY printed copy, but for such a low price I was willing to gamble. Turned out to be the real deal in the end. This one was closely followed by a still-shrink-wrapped Cadwallon RPG book for 10 euros, along with a GM Screen for free, found in a local used bookstore.

These books are worth picking up for the design and the art alone...

Moving on, back when I was making some initial purchases for my Sessairs as part of the painting challenge last year, I purchased both Sons of Ogmios models, separately priced as single models, 8 euros each. Little did I know that these were not single models, but each 8 euro "blister" was actually one of those boxes containing two blisters, as seen on the image below.  That was quite an unexpected surprise! As far as I've noticed online, these boxes don't appear in circulation that often anymore, which is quite a shame since the artwork on them is gorgeous, and it definitely makes this find all that more special. The art on the boxes is such a classic Confrontation piece and I've been lucky enough to get the third art panel in some other purchased lot where the person just randomly threw in the box as part of the overall packaging. I'll drop a few images here, but the one with all three panels will be posted all the way at the bottom!

The next one I always considered a "must have". Ever since I got into Confrontation I knew I needed to have some Wolfen in my collection and the Predators of Blood seemed like a staple. I remember that I kept eyeing some Ebay listings which were decently priced, but months passed by quickly and all those ended up being sold before I decided to pull the trigger... and when my budget was finally ready to buy a box the available prices seemed to have jumped significantly or the offered boxes weren't the English version. It kinda made me sad for bumming out on those previous deals, but I just kept occasionally checking Ebay and doing random Google searches. Well, on one such bored Google search a hit appeared for a NIB box in English, just the way I like it, for the hefty price of 20 euros, which I liked even more. The bigger surprise was the fact that the item was located in a semi-local store. The store was well known to me and at the time I knew that they had some small amount of Confrontation stock which I already plundered, but out of nowhere the PoB box appeared. I thought it was a mistake, but I ordered anyway, half expecting them to cancel the order due to it actually being out of stock. But surprise surprise, the box arrived, safe and sound and still in shrink!

The auction mystery bag...

Aside from Ebay I tend to check other second hand websites from time to time, like the French leboncoin. There was one particular auction which featured several blisters of metal miniatures from Reaper and a few from Rackham, namely unopened English blisters for the Goblin Fire Support and Syth Mornis, plus one ziplock bag with a few small metal minis and cards, pictured above. The little baggy was what piqued my interest. The auction image showed that the card in the bag was turned to the back where the Rackham logo was, so you couldn't instantly tell which blister it was supposed to be. However, zooming in on the semi-bad quality photo showed that the minis were Cynwall Akhamials. I think I haven't seen English Akhamials... probably ever out in the wild, so this made my heart skip a beat, but I couldn't tell if they were in fact English since the card was flipped, or it was the more common French variant. The other two Rackham blisters were in fact in the English language, so it made me hopeful. However, to my great frustration, the seller also decided to not respond to questions, which did raise some red flags. In the end, I decided to bite the bullet and enter a luckily short bidding war, coming out on top at around 30 euros, if I remember well. Some weeks of anxiety and shipping and the box arrived, so I instantly dived in straight onto that one single zip-lock baggy, only to reveal... the English card version! If any purchase ever epitomized the meaning of "the thrill of the hunt" this was absolutely it!

Who dares, wins!

I'll share one more short story and it's by far one that somehow struck me the most. Not much of a story actually, but more of a fact that I've randomly found an English NIB Daikinee Dream Warrior just laying around online. One of the rarer scarab models, it was just sitting there for 15 euros. It seemed so surreal, since previously I never saw it available, as it is one of those models that were basically released to be rare, and I thought that it will be a miniature which will forever elude me. Yet there it was, a literal dream come true without much sweat or sacrifice. 

Don't let your dreams be dreams...

These little stories are definitely not all of the great bargains which I landed, just some which I found amusing to share. Nor are they anything over-the-top crazy like other people shared previously online where they'd land truly insane amounts of models for pennies or less. All of these stories here are just to tell you that good deals truly are out there, still available after all these years. I believe that at least 90% of the Rackham catalog is out there somewhere waiting to resurface, but you just need to be patient and vigilant. Not to mention that Confrontation still maintains its normalcy when it comes to pricing. For the most part the community tries to maintain fair prices and even the odd sales outside the community are priced fairly overall, even the rare models don't even come close to the price pumping that some other games tend to do on the second hand market. It's just that we've been spoiled by the speed and availability of most mundane things today, we always want the thing we want asap, preferably yesterday. But the old cliche is true, good things take time. 

Painting Challenge 2025 retrospective

The 2025 painting challenge has been officially over since early June and I took my time to settle and collect some thoughts about it. 

First off, the winner is... surprise, surprise, it is none other than yours truly! No really, I do consider it a huge surprise. Here's the sum of my work for the challenge (more images posted below*):

Double the sass, triple the excitement!

Honestly, I didn't expect to win or come anywhere close to winning when the challenge started. During the first month when people started posting their progress I was so sure that some other participants would win and that I'd be in it just for the inspiration and drive to put some more painted minis on my shelves. Sadly, though to my advantage, many participants started falling off as months went by, so by the end of it only discord user ViscountFrangipane and myself stayed as the only consistent participants for the entirety of the challenge. The lack of more competition doesn't very much speak for the quality of my own paintjobs, but I guess that persistence and consistence are their own merit and reward.

I've had a lot of thoughts circling in my head during the challenge, so this post will be structured around some noteworthy topics that stuck out.

Favorite model I painted: Absolute favorite miniature to put together was the Kelt Minotaur, by far the chunkiest model I've handled to date in Confrontation. Usually I dislike painting larger miniatures since the mistakes you make with the brush are glaringly obvious, but this guy was a joy. There are a lot of interesting details for you to work on, yet the model itself is not overcrowded, which sometimes tends to be the case with smaller miniatures. 

As much as I enjoyed painting the cow, I did suffer a dropping accident while painting the Minotaur which was honestly quite rage inducing. I made the mistake of not getting/creating a proper painting handle so I just held him by the base for the entirety of the process... needless to say, this was uncomfortable and unwieldy, so much so that I dropped him directly on his head at one point and he just snapped in half, despite being pinned. Not to mention that sections of paint peeled off... Unsurprising in hindsight, because the model is heavy. At least he didn't end up breaking my desk with his horns! Lesson learned for the future, I guess!

Least favorite model I painted: Out of all the painted models I think the one that was least fun was the Kelt Druid. Not sure why, but he reminded me of the Kelt Shaman which I painted for the challenge last year and for some reason they were a bit boring to spend time with. Must be something about Sessair spellcasters... Regardless, I'm happy how he turned out in the end. 

What I need to improve: Shino took the time to provide some feedback to those of us who asked for it and I have to agree that some of his points are pretty valid. The main point where I'm currently lacking is definitely NMM. I get the idea, I get the theory, but when it comes to the actual execution I am definitely lacking in skill. Some pieces that I painted this time around I'm relatively happy with (for example, the Fianna and the Minotaur), but some not so much (like the Fianna Totem-Bearer and the Ogmios). Shino sent a couple of videos for me to go over, so I'll link them below* for those interested since they really are a good resource.

Another suggestion for improvement that Shino made was regarding my bases. While I definitely want to put more effort into bases overall, I found that this type of minimalistic rock/brownish grass works really well for the plains of Avaggdu, aesthetically speaking. It definitely is a low effort kind of solution, which is good for a time-based competition like this, but it goes well in my opinion. However, I do agree I could have done more and it is something that I absolutely want to do more of, since I always found bases and dioramas to be relaxing and fun. Temple of the West did an amazing batch of Daikinee for the competition and his bases are superb, a brilliant inspiration for my own Daikinee which I hope to paint next year! 

What I failed: My one point of personal failure was that out of all the models which I listed for painting, the extra ones included, I only didn't manage to paint Virae on time. Technically there was time since the challenge ended on June 7th, but I decided that May 30th was my cut off date. Regardless of time, her model is... a bit of a pain. Similar to how people complain about Ayane, Virae has tiny arms (one of which holds a heavy hammer) and a small neck as connecting points and I simply had no patience to pin and glue her at the time.

Personal favorite army: I already mentioned above, but the Daikinee painted by Temple of the West are my absolute favorite. The dude is a beast when it comes to how fast he paints, but to make it look so well in the end is just insanity. Loved the color choices, the amazing bases, the ambiance of the shots... loved everything about those models!

Comparison to the previous competition and thoughts for the future: Now a bit of space for some unpopular opinions. Sweet set a pretty high bar with the challenge he hosted last year, it was casual, fairly light when it comes to rules, and overall just a fun 6 month event where you essentially just needed to slap some paint on your minis and count your points. Shino tried a different approach with more structure, a shorter challenge duration, and, more importantly, scoring via judge.

Some of the rules changed a few times once the competition was well under way and it is somewhat understandable that some people might get annoyed by that. But the part that I truly didn't understand is people being upset by getting a certain amount of points (or lack thereof) from the judge, less than what they expected I guess. It's fine being defensive of your work and thinking that your work might be better than somebody else's, but it is the judge's job to make those decisions. What they say goes and it doesn't really matter what you think, it's just up to you to keep on truckin' and get some feedback about what you could improve. I know it's "easy" for me to say this since I won the damn thing in the end, but I honestly believe that if some of you didn't drop out and just continued to paint you'd have won with points way above mine. And as I mentioned before, I completely disagree with Shino's opinion on my bases, which did obviously net me less points each month, but I just stuck to my guns and kept going, cause I just had fun participating. 

And I guess that's the whole point. I simply wish that more people continued painting instead of being so pissed off about it cause it did make the whole thing a bit awkward. It was just a fun event to participate in and it's a bit sad that we collectively missed the opportunity to get more active and do some creative stuff together, especially since we are a small number of people who realistically aren't the best painters anyway, so I think we should always take the time to jump on these bandwagons and lively up the community, especially when somebody puts in the time and effort to organize the thing in the first place. Hopefully next time, but there are definitely some lessons to be learned for everyone involved! 

My setup for miniature photography: ViscountFrangipane and I got into a small discussion about taking photos of miniatures and I promised to take a picture of my "setup". I say "setup" because it's just an amateurish and made-up thing, but it actually makes the photo-snapping process fun for me and the models do end up looking nice and thematic, in my humble opinion at least.

So yeah, as you can see, just a propped up platform with some boxes, the monitor for background imagery, and the lamp which I use while painting. The top box is from the Shadows of Esteren RPG, the art of which went really well with the background I used for the Sessairs. I also use the layered boxes as a holder for the mobile phone when taking the shot, since you don't actually have to hold your phone and can just easily adjust settings on it without putting effort into staying steady and still, plus you have the freedom to move around the mini for different angles. The monitor is good for just quickly googling an image for the background, this time around I used a creative commons photo of the Rannoch Moor in Scotland. I also did some of my Infinity miniatures this way with some sci-fi backdrop. Personally I find that a good background really makes the mini look better, don't think my paintjobs would excel with a plain white or black backdrop behind them!

Also, my phone is pretty bad for taking group shots, since for some reason it always has to focus on one section of the shot, which then makes the rest slightly blurred. Not sure if that's a bug or a feature, but it is what it is at the moment.

Overall, I'm quite happy with my output. Having two Confrontation challenges and two Infinity escalation leagues behind me, I can definitely say that the biggest benefit of such events is the pure driving power which they instill in me. I get insane amounts of motivation and dedication to sit at the painting table regularly in order to hit my goals. It is always amazing to see a project grow at a steady pace, so having a challenge as the guiding hand helps tremendously when real life stuff tries to bog you down.

That said, last and definitely not the least, I'd like to thank Shino for organizing and curating the event! Hope to see you as an organizer again in the future!

*NOTE: If you want to see more photos of individual minis that I painted, as well as the links to the NMM tutorial videos that Shino recommended, click the "Read more" link below to expand the post.