Saturday, December 25, 2021

Scratchbuilding Frostgrave Terrain (including icicle tutorial)

With winter around the corner I thought it would be fun to finally properly sink my teeth into Frostgrave. To start of I played a test game of the v2 ruleset (and got my own copy of the new booklet). At that point I decided I needed properly frozen terrain in my collection and a gaming mat to play it on. Here's the result of the first batch of terrain I built. 

Frostgrave: adventure awaits in the heart of the frozen city.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Into the deep - Soulbound AoS roleplay campaign session 2

The second gaming session Age of Sigmar's Soulbound RPG has been concluded. I know its not a really popular part of my blog, but hell it is MY blog so here goes ;). This happened after the group beat a warband of Khorne in the forest near Hollowreef

As I do not have proper illustrations for this blog, I'll just go for random images of Nurgle models in my collection :).

Sunday, November 28, 2021

A gibbering Chaos Abomination storms out of the ruins

Diehard Miniatures finished another awesome Kickstarter earlier this year and (even though I should finish painting what I already have ;) I couldn't resist. One of the models I chose from the offerings was this Chaos Abomination (Abaddon the Unchained). The picture looked freaky, which turend out to be a very apt description of the model in real life, if you aske me. With my mind boggling over the details I just had to paint him. Here's the result.

The road to power leads to either of two fates: "the triumphant shriek, voiced from the throat of a newly -birthed Daemon; or the gibbering of a once-man, a Chaos Spawn, wallowing in the stench of its own failure."

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Classic Warhammer Dwarf Mine ready to be fought over (SITCBH - part 3)

My Dwarf Mine, inspired by the classic one in White Dwarf 132, is finished. That makes me a rather early finisher in the SITCBH I entered with The Periodic Painting Table and The War Crow blogs. With still about five weeks on the clock #humblebrag ;). Perhaps I should make something else as well, I must say its quite a treat to build non-human stuff. Well before I get into that, let's start out with a picture of the finished piece accompanied by a bunch of gloriously happy Dwarves.

Why would we build a mine soundly lad, no member of the engineer's guild will show up in these parts...

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Steady progress on the Dwarven Mine (SITCBH - part 2)

This weekend I made a steady bit of progress on my dwarven mine set. I added sand, a small railway and detailed the accompanying sheds. Without a lot of further ado. Here's a group shot that doesn't quite cover all the work that's been done. The pictures with the buildings as they are now can be found lower in this post.

My Dwarven mine is slowly coming together. 

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Dwarven Mine blast off the Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human (SITCBH)

Back in August Chris from the Periodic Painting Table and Stuart from The War Crow contacted me to join in the First International Townscape Challenge. It was a lot of fun and we all earned a few self-applied pats on the back at the end of it. Reason enough for a second edition. After a bit of a break we launched the Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human (STICBH) this month. The 'Beyond Human' part of the challenge refers to the fact that we're going to be building a non-human piece of scenery in the style of the Townscape. For my part, I'm going to be building a Dwarven mine.

I think we have the beginning of an interesting new building here...

Monday, November 8, 2021

Welcome to Hollowreef - Soulbound AoS roleplay campaign session 1

Life quite firmly got in the way of blogging (and painting) lately. Luckily I did find time to host some roleplaying sessions. On the downside: I didn't get around to actually giving them a write-up. Lets go for it now. I started a new campaign using the Soulbound Age of Sigmar rolplaying game ruleset by Cubicle7. You can read my review/first impressions of the game system in this previous post. In this first session we formed a merry band of heroic misfits who got the job of helping colonists reclaim the lost city of Hollowreef. 

Age of Sigmar: Souldbound shows its Warhammer roots by being completely D6 based (although I think they should Easter Egg in a scatter die at some point).

Monday, October 4, 2021

Luciana the Unwavering aka Yndrasta the Celestial Spear joins Sigmar's Children

This weekend I used a lot of hobby time to start 'halfway through' projects. More on that as (if) they are finished. One project I actually build, painted and finished over the course of two days was Luciana the Unwavering. Through sheer perfection reckoned the greatest swordmaster in the Realms as well as a stalwart companion that would never, ever, betray her friends (as opposed to old Lucius the Betrayer of course)...Others may know her as Yndrasta the Celestial Spear, but not in my stormhost!

I could've glued the stairs to one of those new chariots and made jokes about the Bluth family, but I didn't. I could have though...

Monday, September 27, 2021

Honi soit qui mal y pense! My noble Bretonnian army is finally finished ;)

February last year I made serious headway painting my noble force of Bretonnians. Then Adeptus Titanicus popped up on my paint station and other distractions followed. This army almost ended (as a lot of Warhammer projects end) with twenty ghouls peasant bowmen and a noble lady half painted on the table, windowsill and finally in a cupboard somewhere. As I recently finished two proud beasts for the menagerie that accompanies this army I decided to sit down and force myself to finish my Bretonnian army once and for all. Starting with the true inspiration for all chivalric acts: the lady astride her unicorn.

For honor! For Chivalry! For the lady!

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way redux

During the lockdown I turned Bloodbath at Orc's Drift into an Age of Sigmar campaign aptly named Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift. On Saturday the ninth I will be hosting the full campaign with a small group of friends, before that time I wanted to retest the third skirmish in the campaign: Linden Way. Here's the battlefield for the scenario's redux. A synopsis of the original tryout is here

The re-imagined Linden Way table. I forgot to bring a lake and a few copses of trees. We solved it by improvising.

Thursday, September 23, 2021

The running of the peasants

In my humble opinion one of the most awesome models by GW in recent years was a running peasant addon to the plastic giant sprue (the giant on the other hand, more of an acquired taste). As I'm inching closer to hosting Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift I am in need of nine fleeing civilians. I have a tied up dwarf slayer on my shelf (it's a model, don't call the police). I also have the plastic giant on sprue which gavae me access to one running peasant. Using the power of 3D-printing I recently added two running peasants from a freebie STL. Now I can present you with: the running of the peasants. 

"Sire, the peasants are revolting."
"You said it. They stink on ice!"

Monday, September 20, 2021

Radukar the Wolf and his Korsagi Nightguard in full color

The past weeks I've been happily splattering away at the models in the Cursed City box. Next to be finished - after the heroes - are Radukar the Wolf and his Korsagi Nightguard. Radukar is the main villain in the story and the Nightguard is his personal bodyguard made up of Zombie Ogors. 

"You there! You can spare a minute to talk about our lord and savior Nagash!"

Monday, September 13, 2021

Cursed City, the heroes of the story, and a long rant about army building in Age of Sigmar 3.0

Ah Cursed City, now there is a tale to be told, and I don't mean the one in the background (although that is quite good). I lucked out and got my hands on a box and set to painting these. This weekend I finished the eight heroes that come with the game. Here's a group shot. Aside from these models this blog post will be a bit uncharacteristic because I feel like ranting (something I actually try to avoid on my blog). But with the release of AoS 3.0 I decided to follow the Dutch proved that says: "Don't turn your heart into a murder pit." Speaking of murder pits, the fun part first. Here's a group shot of the heroes of Cursed City.

My heroes stand ready to save the Cursed City of Ulfengard.

Monday, September 6, 2021

Holy terror batman! You've let yourself go! (Terrorgheist and Zombie Dragon join the horde)

Last year I started painting a proud band of noble Bretonnians to add to my collection of armies. For those of you scratching their heads, these Bretonnians are actually known as Flesh Eater Court ghouls, they just don't know it. As part of their menagerie I wanted a noble pegasus with rider and a unicorn. To this end I got started building a Zombie Dragon and a Terrorgheist. After the build I even airbrushed a few basic colors on them. At that point I felt uninspired and set them aside. These monster are quite big, so they got demoted from the Window Sill of Shame to Doorstops in under a week. This is no way to treat dragons; not even dead ones. So recently I decided to follow two distinct paths towards getting these monsters painted. This is the result.

Getting a Zombie Dragon and a Terrorgheist in frame together is even harder then painting them.

Thursday, September 2, 2021

Lord Celestant Eidolon of Sigmar's Children rides in, heresy and all (with another big banner tutorial)

Those of you following along with my blog may have noticed I've had a rather over-productive weekend last week. I couldn't resist sharing the more or less last model to come out of that painting fugue. It is the second Stormcast unit for my very own Stormhost of dubious originality: Lord Celestant Eidolon of Sigmar's Children.

The exemplar all other Stormcast can only look up to in envy: Lord Celestant Eidolon. The only thing tempering his perfection is his loyalty.

Monday, August 30, 2021

Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers join the Vanari Auralan Sentinels

This weekend I had no planned outings or social encounters, freeing me up to paint a tower, a dwarf , another two projects (on and off) and the rest of Skarloc's Wood Elf archers. A good thing as they'd been giving me authentic Elven Aelven stink eye for quite a few months. I've had this unit (with a brief having sold it interlude) since I got started in the hobby in late eighties. Finishing it to my current skill level gives me that wonderful shot of nostalgia mixed with accomplishment.

We're mean, we're green and we're definitely not Orcs!

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Warhammer Townscape challenge part 4: wherein tower 35 is finished and I actually make a deadline

This month most of my focus was on the build-off between my blog, The Periodic Painting Table and  The War Crow, This was not just some frivolous hackery with glue and foamboard, this was the First International Townscape Challenge (queue impressive trumpet sounds here). With nothing less than two self-applied pats on the back at stake, I needed to finish on time and I am glad to say I did. Here is the result of my entry.

Townscape 35. Tower, same dimensions, door in the same place, but re-imagined to better fit my taste. 

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Warhammer Townscape challenge part 3: detailing the tower

With the deadline rapidly approaching, I snuck in a spare evening hour to detail the Townscape tower. After all: the glue has to have a chance to (sort of) dry when I start slapping paint on this thing in the coming weekend. With that said, lets throw out a quick update (and prevent a massive blog post later on).

The landlord's here to visit...

Monday, August 23, 2021

Warhammer Townscape challenge part 2: actually building something (35. Tower)

Oh dear I seem to be stuck in one of those 'tear-off calendar losing it's pages' time-passes shots. This Sunday I realized August is almost over and I had yet to get to building my Townscape Challenge. Missing the deadline is unacceptable of course. Long story short: I powered on the hot-wire cutter and went to work on a bit of high density polystyrene. Here is the (almost) end result. 

The outline of my interpretation of building 35 of the Townscape set.

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Warhammer Townscape challenge part 1: getting inspiration from real castle ruins

 I recently got an invite through my contact page to join Chris from The Periodic Painting Table blog and Stuart from The War Crow blog in the First International Townscape Challenge. The rules (more like guidelines) are simple: 

  • The building must be based on one of the Warhammer Townscape models.  
  • You can alter it, e.g. extend the model, choose a different finish (timber, stone etc.)
  • You have until the end of August to complete the model.
  • Blog your progress however often you feel appropriate and link to each other’s blogs.
  • The challenge is designed to inspire and encourage.  There is no prize apart from the congratulations of your peers, both in the challenge and on our blogs.
Oh no, my Townscape prison failed to hold Glam!

Monday, July 26, 2021

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound review, high fantasy, high magic and high stakes in one epic RPG

 Recently I started an Age of Sigmar Soulbound campaign. Soulbound is the Cubicle7 roleplaying game set in the Age of Sigmar universe. Like the setting, it encourages epic ‘over the top’ fantasy gameplay in a high magic world (well realmscape really). As my Warhammer Fantasy Campaign was rather rudely interrupted by Covid, I decided to dive into this new system. This blog post is a review of the rpg and some general observations. Soon I’ll follow up with the blog on the first session (let’s call it the hands-on part of the review). 

So the name is: Warhammer Age of Sigmar Roleplay: Soulbound, Perilous Adventures in the Mortal Realms?
I suspect someone got paid by the word ;)

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Slow progress on Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers

How typical, after finishing my five year blog-birthday post I can't find the time to blog. Well the (non-existent) rumors about my blog's demise have been greatly exaggerated (although quite a bit of lost hobby time can be described as 'Rimworld related'). No matter, I've finally picked up my brushes and started painting again. First order of business: add more splotches of color to Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers. I've finished five (actually six) of the twenty members (actually twenty-one) of the unit on my paint station.

Come on guys, I've applied paint to you, stop glaring at me. The rest of the unit will follow soon...

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

My blog's fifth birthday is today

Unbelievable how fast time passes when you're having fun. Today marks the fifth year I've been blogging about my hobby. I'd been planning to start earlier, but I kept finding excuses to put it off. Chief was wanting to keep it all in my own hands. In other words: as long as I didn't take some time to build my own site, I wouldn't write. Well enough of that - I thought five years ago - you're a copywriter for #@$@'s sake. Just produce some content on blogger and take care of the rest some other time. This marks post number 286, but I'll move someday soon....sure I will ;) Anyway enough bla bla. I was planning all kinds of spectacular posts, but to be honest I've been to busy with work, life and unfinished projects. Instead lets just reminisce about my favorite projects. I'll start with 'Buddy'. 

Who's a good boy? Buddy is!!!

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Finished my first Stormcast unit and it belongs to...drumroll...the Sigmar's Children Stormhost

Stormcast are the face of Age of Sigmar and I've had a lot of trouble with them from their release. Not the  regularly encountered 'they are the faceless face that killed my hobby' sort of trouble but the 'how do I paint these properly kind. I found this three year old post documenting my search. Short version of my troubles: painting them gold does not work for me, black makes them fit in a bit too well with my Undead and Skaven and Stegadon Blue made them look too much like science fiction warriors. In the end it took a bit of cynical Scifi theft to get my own Stormhost and pick my colors. I proudly present a unit of liberators from: Sigmar's Children.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with paint techniques on these guys, one of them was using blue to paint shadows (in stead of adding a wash). 

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Making some Warhammer/AoS scenery: High Elf waystones/Lumineth spires

As Warhammer scenery goes High Elf waystones are a staple, and I think they fit on any AoS tabletop as well. I've always wanted a few in my collection but all my previous attempts turned out badly. With the Lumineth closely mirroring the High Elves (thank you GW) I thought it about high time to make a couple. And here they are.

Get off my lawn! 

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Classic Nagash shuffles into my collection

Earlier this year (actually Christmas last year) I finally assembled and painted the new Nagash model. As I mentioned in the previous post the classic model was high on my wish list. Apparently I have a genie stuck in a lamp somewhere around my paint station as classic Nagash made its way to me through a second hand site at a reasonable price rather sooner than expected. Now I had a real challenge: giving a model named 'the ugliest model ever made' a paint job that would make him look like a proper villain. Well there's no accounting for good taste, but I think I succeeded, and (as usual when I paint a model I don't really like) I like him now (as a model, not as a monstrous necromantic deity). 

Classic Nagash is out about the town...

Monday, May 17, 2021

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way

With another lockdown lifted, I got a chance to test scenario number three from my reimagining of the classic Blood Bath at Orc's Drift campaign. This time the villagers of Linden Way had to escape while a small visiting army tried to hold the little town against yet another invading horde. As with the previous scenario's I first had to reinvent the table layout as wargaming tables have shrunk (while quite ironically the models keep on growing  #scalecreep). Here's the Linden Way table for the Blood Bath at Orruk's Drift campaign.

Linden Way reimagined for a smaller table. I made an improvised lake by cutting a plastic tab divider to shape and covering the edges with moss.  

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Prince Imrik rides forth again

A while back I found yet another mystery bag in my box of old miniatures. I upended the contents and out rolled an original Prince Imrik. That was a stroke of fortune (well to be honest I was looking for old High Elves to add to my Lumineth, but lets ignore that bit and focus on the sheer surprise ;) ). Long story short (yes I cut and pasted a too long intro that was originally here): Prince Imrik rides forth again. 

"I walk through the Dreaming Halls and I feel change in the wind. In the rhythm of their slumber, I see omens. Minaithnir tells me that he, too, feels his brethren swimming towards consciousness." <- hint hint GW, please make more dragon riding High Elves Lumineth

Monday, April 26, 2021

The Eagles are coming!

 Back in 2017 I got started on rebuilding the Grudge of Drong scenario for a new age. Part of my then attempt was painting up enough High-Elves to have a fully painted army that matched the one in the campaign pack. That meant I needed three Great Eagles. I got them and then never applied a proper paint job. That changed this weekend. So I can finally join Bilbo and Pippin and state: "The Eagles are coming!"

No clue why, but I think a High Elf army cannot call itself complete without adding at least a few Great Eagles.

Monday, April 12, 2021

Bloodthirster of Khorne, Beastman Shaman and Ajjatahr the rotting dryad

I recently had one of those wonderful moments where a friend drops by with some old models and says: “do you have a use for these or should I bin them?" Never bin your models people, just give them to someone who owns a vat of Biostrip. Lets just start with a shot of a metal Bloodthirster of Khorne. I weighed him in at 250 grams of solid metal. If you lose the battle you can knock your opponent out with this model (but that will cost you sportsmanship points ;) ).

I made his lolling tongue and gums stand out by first painting (and highlighting) yellow and applying Tamiya Clear Red over it. I gave it more depth by applying Blood for the Blood God in the recesses. 

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Sword Masters of Hoeth or Vanari Bladelords? You decide!

New High Elf Lumineth models keep pouring out of GW, and my brand new army book has been rendered obsolete faster than actual play was possible. A new record. Anyway, with the new wave of models a unit called Vanari Bladelords has appeared. I have to admit I'm rather enamored by the new models, but I did have these Sword Masters of Hoeth on the paint station already. So I painted them up anyway. Bladelords or Sword Masters, they've been painted and that's what really counts.

"What are we?" 
"Sword Masters!" "Bladmasters!"
"No Sword Masters!!!" "No not at all!!!!" 
"Just shut up and wave your blades around like you mean it!!!"

Friday, March 26, 2021

Lumineth Realm-Lords Vanari Dawn Riders, Auralan Wardens and classic High-Elves

My last post ended with five Vanari Dawn Riders slowly sinking into the Biostrip-dip. This post, I'm can happily report the same five have been scrubbed, cleaned, primed and painted in more proper colors. I'll start with their new paint job and then give you an overview of a bunch of my new Lumineth models as well as some older High Elf models kicking around in my cabinets. With another unit currently on the paint station I most definitely am in a Asur Lumineth state of mind. 

The sheltering shade of the forest calling come in silence. Accompanied only by the full moon howling of a night wolf....

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

A few simple Warhammer/AoS terrain pieces: crumbling earthworks and a rickety tower

Testing the Linden Way scenario, the third skirmish that leads up to Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift, is in my foreseeable future. As I had to speedily rearrange my table the last two test games I decided to actually check if I could feature the Linden Way hamlet on a modern table. It took a bit of shuffling with buildings, but it worked. One thing was missing: some crumbling earthworks to cap off the entrance. No worries, I took some coffee stirrers and polystyrene and went to work. Here's the result.

Karl-Franz junior (no relation) was about to empty the 'morning ablutions' bucket when the silent Skaven killer struck...

Monday, February 22, 2021

A Die Hard liche, some Chaos Sorcerers, an Orc and a gladiator walk into a bar...

Sorry for the awful headline. I did not get around to a lot of painting over the weekend as my brother convinced me to give Elite: Dangerous a few more hours of my life. This game balances utter boredom with the anticipation that something wonderful is about to happen (I did glob a few extra jots of paint on some Lumineth that have been standing around on the desk since forever). Anyway, I'll use this as a chance to show a few models I painted earlier this year but never shared on my blog. Lets start with more Die Hard Miniatures awesomeness: Melcor the Liche

I originally painted his eyes red, switching to glowing green was a very good decision. 

Monday, February 15, 2021

What is the consistency of milk? (And other airbrushing questions for miniature painters)

A recent comment concerning airbrushing and miniatures triggered some pretty unpleasant memories from when I started out with the great clogging cash-eater (also known as an airbrush). As I painted mostly stand-alone miniatures the past few days I thought I might as well type a blog with some airbrushing answers I couldn’t find when I was starting out. Hell, let’s turn it into a semi-faq for when your spoken faq is spelled slightly differently (usually with paint on your face due to the umpteenth clog in your airbrush). Shall we start with the consistency of milk perhaps? 

Am I supposed to go for whole, semi-skimmed, skimmed or 1% milk? 

Friday, February 12, 2021

I resurrected three ancient Skeleton Army chariots (bonus oil washing tutorial at the end of this post)

As you sink deeper into the madness some of us call the 'wargaming hobby', you start accruing more unpainted miniatures, second hand models and random bits than you can keep track of. By now I'm far enough removed from the shores of sanity to occasionally find a box or zip-lock bag that I can't even remember storing. Recently a pair of bags turned out to contain skeletons, skeletal horsemen and chariots from the venerable Skeleton Army boxed set. I couldn't resist restoring three chariots. 

When they said 'ride eternal, shiny and chrome' this was not what I expected.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Nagash arrives (and he is gigantic)

Last Christmas I gave you my heart and the very next day Nagash arrived. Oh dear its February and I'm still stuck with that horrible Christmas earworm. On the plus side, I did actually build and paint Nagash over the Holidays. I just never got around to properly photographing him. The model is absolutely massive. Lets put him at the Flugelhöfen gatehouse and put Krell en Kemmler in frame with him for scale.

Ha! Two maniacal undead monsters in one summoning Kemmler cackled...seconds later Nagash relieved him of command.

Monday, February 8, 2021

Painting warhammer miniatures with oil paints (Warpgnaw Verminlord)

I love discovering new aspects of painting, building scenery and gaming. In order to stir things up I decided to try painting with oil paint instead of acrylic paint. Trying new things keeps the hobby fresh and hey, you learn new things too! Because painting with oils felt like a big step I used a damaged second hand Warpgnaw Verminlord to try it on. As usual, I'll start with the end result (and add more finished pictures at the end).

I declare my experiment with oils successful.

Friday, February 5, 2021

Die Hard skeleton unit and refreshing an existing paint job on Morghast Harbingers

I love (almost) every model made by Die Hard Miniatures. I previously painted the best Necromancer miniature in the world (in my humble opinion) and their wonderful old school Chaos Lord and Witch. Their best line of models (once again, my opinion) is their line of undead (both Fantasy and Sci-Fi). One day I hope to own at least two buckets of these models. A while back I took a small step towards that magical day and ordered a full unit of twenty skeletons to paint up as a unit. I recently put the finishing touches to them. 

"I can't believe we survived our run in with the Red Count", Alex the Accordionist tried to say. But somehow all that came out was a dry rustling moan.

Sunday, January 31, 2021

How old-school can you go? Drastik Plastik Orcs old maybe? (with old school basing tutorial)

People occasionally wonder why I spent time painting ancient models. After all I could also use it to paint the newer, better looking kits. Most of the time I point out I like Oldhammer's unique style just as much (sometimes even more) than the newer models. Sometimes its just pure nostalgia. The Drastik Plastik Orcs of 'yore fall completely in the nostalgia category.

Never fear, the Drastik Plastik Orcs are here....wait up, that should be: Cower in Fear, the Drastik Plastik Orcs are here!

Monday, January 18, 2021

Skaven warplock jezzails, Throt the Unclean, Grey Seer and friends finished

Currently there's no great plan when it comes to my painting. I've been picking up random models on my paint station and applying some pigment to them as whim takes me. This results in quite an nice random mix of finished models. Like the clanrats (actually Skaven slaves), warplock jezzails, Throt the Unclean and Grey Seer I finished over the pas few weekends (not to mention Nagash, but that's for a different post). 

Ah the bad old days when clanrats where available in dirt cheap plastic and Skaven Slaves where only available as (expensive) cast metal. 

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #2 Ashak Rise

This week I had time to test out scenario number two for my re-imagining of the classic Bloodbath at Orc's Drift campaign. The original scenario featured a small band of greedy dwarf deserters trying to save their gold from a chance encounter with an invading orc warband. This new version sees a small Order/Death army defending the same old shack from an invading Chaos/Destruction host. Slightly bigger scale, same principle. 

The game opened with a unit of skeletons and a lone Tomb Banshee standing close to the bridge on the road leading past Ahsak's Rise mining cottage.