Laughing Ferret

Goblin Flies to Portugal

2012-02-27T10:34:00.000-08:00

You know the old saying:

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish, and you feed yourself.

He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard."

-Ron Swanson.

But that's for fish. Goblins are a whole other animal. They bite back. You can't just throw someone into the world of goblins and expect a better than 50/50 chance he'll come out of it alive.

So I painted a goblin that will soon be on it's way to Portugal.

I don't know if airlines sedate aggressive animals in transit or not.

This is what they're used to dealing with:

Not this:

So best of luck baggage handlers! Maybe a little payback for all the abused and lost luggage I've had.

There's still time if you want to donate a goblin for the big international team.

Here's my goblin for the Merry Mayhem News project.

Hope he enjoys life in Portugal!

A Weird World War II Battle: Germans defend against the Soviet-US invasion.

2012-02-25T16:36:00.002-08:00

Last night we had a game to test out the final version of the rules we'll be using. Since only four of us were able to show up we decided to have a 2 vs 2 battle, of Germans vrs an alliance of Soviets & Americans.

The German side was:

Totenkinder's Ahnenerbe: Small command squad, 2 Ahnenerbe squads (2 LMGs each) and 1 soldat squad of rifles. 3 Panzer I, a Panzer III and two Panzer IV walkers. They also had the Gingerbread Man and Wulf in ambush.

German Counter Strike force: 3 infantry squads in half tracks, 3 motorcycles, a Pz38T, a Panzer IV walker, and two Panzer III in ambush, one with a howitzer. No supers.

The Soviets had a serious horde of poorly trained & equipped infantry. A T28, two BT7s and two walkers with 4 anti aircraft guns. Note: I didn't realize they were anti-aircraft guns at the time. More on this later.
He also had The Soviet Bear, a super character.

The American force looked very small, but had mortar artillery, a couple snipers, camo'd anti-tank gun, and a squad of specialist in walker-suits: expensive and deadly.

The Germans were defending:

and from the other view:

The soviet starting position: That's a lot of troops! I hope we brought enough ammunition.

The soviet bear:

The Americans:

We're using card activation now, which I like for the randomness of it, and not knowing when or if you'll be able to activate. Others like it a lot less. We'll be trying a modification of it next time, where every unit will have a chance to activate, but must roll to see if they do when their random time comes up.

The German Counter Strike force opted for a very active defense: deciding if he defeats the Americans that will mean any defense is complete.

Oddball, an American tanker in the heaviest walker suit:

The American artillery fell only once, to no effect, the rest of the battle, the radio operators Marge & Madge sat gossiping on the line. They're going to get a stern talking to from Rosie the Riveter you can be sure.

I started taking shots on one of my Panzer Striders from Oddball, and since he had such good cover behind a house and assistance from a well entrenched anti-tank gun, my walkers went deeper into the forest and the other out of the ruins, behind the forest to get a better position against the Soviet horde. He'd disabled my main gun shown below, but the next action I'd repaired it and moved to take better cover:

The Soviet T28 and the Strike Force walker exchanged shots across the wide field until the T28 got the worst of it and released a column of smoke: X <- right below this x is T28 wreckage. Nice shooting Karl!

Unfortunately the next action saw this walker destroyed by a lucky shot from one of the BT7s.

On my flank, as the soviet infantry advanced I gunned them down: The Panzer I's were ideal for this, though I did lose one to fire from the BT7s: i kept trying to shoot them down with my Panzer Striders, but they made a lot of lucky armor saves, so it took some time. One BT7 was taken out by a panzerfaust.

When some of the soviets reached the bridge, Wulf charged them, killed half and the rest ran, only to be gunned down my my troops.

To take out the soviet walkers in a breath of fire, Gingerbread man flew off only to discover those walkers didn't just have 4 machine guns, they had four anti-aircraft machine guns! So Gingerbread Man got shot out of the sky before having a chance to wreck havoc. Well, that's how the cookie crumbles. (Sorry, I had to).

He did have Regeneration, so the Bear ran up to snack on the sweet left over food, as bears will do, preventing the regeneration from working. A bad turn, since those walkers would soon shoot up Wulf, leaving him on one wound. But his work done, and all soviets clear of a threatening position, and his rival, the Soviet Bear, far away back in the woods, Wulf decided it'd be better to retreat to the woods, lick his wounds, and wait for the next threat. We're defending after all. My troops defending the bridge got cut down, but the rest of my troops were well protected from them. If they came out further to get a better shot my walkers could pop them: the Soviets were pretty well held off.

On the other flank, the German advance stalled out. The motorcycles were destroyed and he was left with just two elements with anti-tank weapons to face the 3 remaining yank armored pieces. Hard to say how that would have gone down after the last turn: if he'd been able to give as good as he got before being eliminated then the Americans wouldn't have much hope of reaching the ruined keep in strength to take it from what I could bring to bear on them, but if the Germans failed to damage the Americans at all it could have been very different. As it was, the last turn came up and the defense was complete.

A good game. It will be interesting to try out the modified activation system. Also, this is a great simulation of an arms race. Now that I see the Soviets have anti-aircraft guns and what they can do, I have to get my scientists to make some similar ones for my army. I'm also going to need some artillery, but with operators who don't gossip as much as Americans do. I also have some vehicle ideas for the Belgian Liberation Army to get them to a competitive size of these other armies, without breaking my theme, so I'm excited about that too.

2nd Place Pirates

2012-02-25T02:48:00.002-08:00

My entry for Hydra Miniatures War Rocket Space Pirate Clan Contest was selected for 2nd place.
I'm quite happy about that!

The contest was for the painted ship as well as the idea and fluff behind the pirate clan. I also included some rules I came up with for some upgrades, which Hydra has liked enough that some or all (not sure) will be appearing in their upcoming pdf supplement. I won a Class IV and a Class III ship for when they're released: Free Ships! WhooHoo! Thank you Hydra Miniatures!

To see the full pictures of the ship and the background and rules visit my blog update for the entry here.

Visit Hydra Miniatures to see the other winners, both quite cool, and the whole War Rocket game.

And since it put me in a Gary Numan mood before, might as well continue with another early classic.

Not as technological, but I could see a good dogfight in space to this...

One Year & Counting: Laughing Ferret Lab is 1

2012-02-24T03:04:00.001-08:00

One year ago I started this hobby blog.

Time doesn't march forward, it punches the hyperdrive.

So happy birthday to part of me:

The time went fast, but I did accomplish a lot of hobby:

- Met a fun local minis-game group and have had some great games with them. This got me motivated to start painting my Quar, creating a VSF aspect to the Quar as the "Quar of Phobos", letting me paint not just the Quar but steam tanks, robots & airships for them. And then more recently two weird war II projects of the Frau Tottenkinder force and the Belgian Liberation Army.

- I painted a couple Blood Bowl teams for myself (though I had to sell one) and got to take part in a couple tournaments, placing Wooden Spoon in one and Overall Champion in the other. I love you too Nuffle.

And I've had the Blood Bowl league which is always fun.

- I've completed some other projects this year that I'd looked forward to: I 'finished' painting my Twilight Devanu and two fleets for War Rocket.

- I had a good time with the Legends of the Old West with my Bandidos, and had looked forward to Legends of the High Seas, but not enough people could make games, so it was canceled: I had to miss a session due to working overtime hours, so I'm at fault there too. Hopefully next season opening we'll give it another try.

So what lays ahead for year 2?

Hard to lay concrete plans, but some things I hope for:

- Paint some more War Rocket fleets, as well as my GZG fleet and do the conversion-scratch build fleet I've had planned for a couple years now.

- Work on the rules for a pre-history miniatures game I started writing rules for, and paint the minis for it.

- Get back to World of Twilight and paint my Fubarnii to start, then the Delgon.

- Gladiators.

- SAGA

- I really like the look of the new Goblins from Mantic... I asked them and they said they do plan to release goblins with bows later in the year, so I'm tempted to make a large goblin army.

- 15mm sci fi & fantasy. I have some ideas for a 15mm large scale battle fantasy wargame, so I may work at that.

- Work toward my goal of having 1 (or more) of each Blood Bowl team, fully painted.

- Do the Lead Painter's League 6 Challenge.

The Blog itself:

Mostly a big thanks to everyone who follows, visits & comments. I could talk to myself in an empty room, which I can neither confirm nor deny, but it's much more fun to share the hobby with all of you. As of today, 137 followers, 222 posts, and closing in on 50,000 hits. You're only encouraging me, which I don't mind at all. It's been great to 'meet' so many fun people. Thank you!

Genestealer Cult Mutants and Lead Painter's League.

2012-02-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

Despite the slow-down on updates I've been just as busy this half of the month as before, maybe more so.

I won't have as many updates of progress shots or completed minis because I've decided to try to squeeze into the Lead Painter's League 6 on The Lead Adventure Forum. This has become one of my favorite minis sites, since it's a good fit for my far-flung eclectic minis interest: there is everything from the ancient world to pulp, fantasy & scifi. Whatever your minis interest might be, they probably have many others with the same interest to share.

I wasn't able to do the paint league challenge last year, just not enough time, but going to try to do it this year, if I get in: they're putting a cap on it at 50 participants and it seems last year they had 70. The rules of the league are that no mini can have pictures published before the end of the week's vote, only primed pictures at most, not even work in progress. So some updates will have to wait until I have entered them and their week's entry is up.

I had thought to show some pictures of some of the ones I have planned, but since the bases are painted, that's already too much to show. So I'll just have to wait. I figure the 10 weeks of the league will be a good way to get some progress on the many different projects I have waiting in the wings.

Stuff to look forward to:

Old metal Orc Blood Bowl Team
Quar
Lord of the Rings
Another Faerie Tale Agent and Squad
Warploque Halflings
Spaceships
Genestealer Cult
& more.

In the meantime, here is a conversion prototype of one of the Genestealer Cult command squad.
The command squad is armed with melta guns, and I wanted to make them more mutated than the rest of the infantry, and in a style that fits the commander: nude and wiry. I wanted these to be the most like genestealers, but felt the stealer body was too much: so I've used ghouls and added an extra set of limbs: still needs fill & smoothing with green stuff.

Here it is:

And with its mistress:

The Deadliest Game: A Film of Proper Grande Adventure in VSF

2012-02-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is too fun not to share.

Do you know Dr. Grordbort's? Purveyor of fine esoteric weaponry? The crafter who makes me wish I made a lot more money than I do? If not, run and check out his site. Then watch the movie: there, on vimeo or here of a grand hunt on a far flung planet by the finest in His Majesty's service.

Tally-Ho, Off You Go. There's a Good Lad.

And, he mentions Phobos! I really do want to get back to my Quar project...

Abraham Lincoln, President and Vampire Slayer

2012-02-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

You've undoubtedly heard about it.

You might have already seen this, if not, now's the time.

I think this is going to have all sorts of inspiration for tabletop gaming. -not to mention pc & video games.

Since tomorrow is President's Day here in the U.S. it seemed a good time to remember the president who had to handle not just a civil war and help bring an end to slavery*, but had to deal with all those blood suckers too.

Enjoy:

* Remember though, it's not as simple as most think: the U.S. civil war was not about slavery. It was not a goal of the war to bring an end to slavery: that wasn't even on the table. Many slavery states fought on the side of the Union. Lincoln's goal for the war was not to end slavery, it was just to prevent secession. Granted, one reason of secession was slavery states feared that the federal government might try to end slavery, which was something they considered a 'sate right': but it was one of many 'state's rights' issues that was behind it. In fact, the 'Emancipation Proclamation' didn't free a single slave by itself: it "freed" all slaves in rebel states: those states he had no power over, but did nothing to change the status of slaves in states loyal to the union: only when rebel territory fell into the hands of Union armies were any slaves freed as a result. If the Union wanted to free slaves why didn't it free those it did have power over (all of the slavery states that were fighting for the Union)? It seems it was designed more to create chaos in the Confederacy than to actually be about freeing slaves. Not until the war dragged on and on, and it became ever less popular did the goal of freeing slaves become tied to the purpose of the war: the enthusiasm of the abolitionist cause was tapped to bring renewed support for the war.

Slavery did end as a result of the war (leading to support for the 13th amendment) but it wasn't the reason for the war, nor a goal of the Union for the war when it began. It makes me wonder: if there had been a swift victory for the North, would slavery have even come to an end at that time? It doesn't seem very likely. It may be that only because the South made it so difficult to win, that it was such a long and brutal conflict, that it made it possible for abolitionism to gain more support and become needed for the morale of the North to continue the fight. In fighting so hard to preserve their 'right' to have slaves, did the South make it inevitable that Slavery would end? Interesting and ironic if so.

It'd be nice if it really was an altruistic effort to help people in need. I guess people prefer the noble sound of a war to end slavery, but it wasn't anything so simple as is usually the case in war & politics.

Brother Can You Spare A Goblin?

2012-02-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

Happens all the time. You're walking downtown when a man down on his luck and sitting on the walk looks up at you, hand outstretched and says "Brother, can you spare a goblin?" My heart goes out, as a man rich in minis, my walk-in safe piled high with elves, monsters and spaceships, dwarves and aliens, what's a single goblin to me?

Sure, I could channel Rand and say 'get a hobby you bum' in misguided belief that apathy creates stronger gamers, and those who can't rise to it aren't worth the dice they'd roll anyway. But I'm just not built this way; my heart bleeds paint. And so I reach into my pocket and give a goblin or two.

Well Tristan over at the Merry Mayhem News blog, which is situated in Portugal I believe -I do love how thoroughly international the gaming community is- is running a Goblin Potluck of sorts for a friend of his. This was explained on the last Zlurpcast, but he did tell me it was detailed a bit wrong (much like they thought my 'Aslan's Asskickers' team was 'Asian Asskickers': a typo that lead to some pretty wild conclusions) it isn't that one goblin donation will be chosen to win the team, the team will go to the friend and the winner (chosen randomly from all goblin donations) will get a print of an original piece of Blood Bowl art. There is also a second prize and some extra prizes for people who get up a work in progress picture posted on their blog or a forum or such before Feb 27th. And the painted gobling isn't due until April 1st, so you have plenty of time to join the fun and make a Blood Bowl goblin.

If you don't win, what does it cost? The price of a goblin, a little time and some postage, but your goblin will join other goblins from around the world. Personally I get a big kick out of knowing that I have painted minis in 5 continents: it's just fun. There's still goblin's to be donated, and I doubt he'd turn away others if they get filled, so check it out here:
http://bloodbowlmayhem.blogspot.com/2012/01/give-him-goblin-contest.html

Here's my goblin I made, going for a more dynamic running pose, just built from the standard warhammer plastic goblin kit. Is he running toward the action or the safety of the bench? Hard to say.

I Got Some Free Steel Streets

2012-02-17T10:28:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Chris from Sippin' On Paint Water for sending me a cool set of resin bases.

He ran a contest recently to come up with a name for his bases, and my suggestion 'Steel Streets' won the poll.

This is his first go at resin base casting from the sound of it. and quite a good start. It's something I've always been meaning to get around to trying- I have some ideas for bases, 15mm scenery, and 15mm sci-fi alien tanks, but so far I haven't had enough time to try any of it, so I'm quite impressed with Chris at not just finding such time but doing it.

I ran a contest awhile back, and though I left two comments with contact for emailing me with an address for the prize, I was never contacted: baffling. But not me- I'm a happy greedy git and more than willing to collect some free stuff. I mean, how often does it happen? And he even had the bases in a black dice bag:

If you haven't been to his blog (linked above) then go and check it out and watch for his bases and future releases.

I haven't decided what I'll use them for yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something given the variety of projects I have going on.

Aslan's Asskickers: Game 4 Report

2012-02-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

Jim: "Here they come again Bob, those lion-loving forest frolickers, The Aslan's Asskickers.

Bob: "They're playing those cow dwarves again."

Jim: "Eh? No, that's a different team. This is another Chaos Dwarf team, there seems to be a lot of them around these days, but they aren't cow-dwarves."

Bob: "Different cow dwarves? No Bull? But I see two with cow-butts"

Jim: "Seems their minotaur is out sick! And yes, centaurs have cow butts."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Game 4 was against the other Chaos Dwarf team in the league, the misguidedly named Little Damned Stunties. His Minotaur was out with an injury, missing this game, so he was able to induce Nobbla Blackwart, the chainsaw goblin star. He also had a reserve bench of 2 hobgoblins. Meanwhile, my team had a new minotaur to replace the busted one I fired: Rudolph would be replaced by Blitzen, a name I hope will be appropriate. I won the fame but he won the coin toss and elected to receive.

I kicked to the center just as clouds parted and the field bathed in very bright sunlight, the ball went very deep and bounced off field, so it was handed to his blocking, sure-hands centaur: the one that looks like a cow.

A bit of bad luck, but not a big deal. My mission here is to slow his drive and steal the ball if I can.

The first few turns are pretty uneventful, I get knocked down a lot and don't seem to do any good knocking back, but I've slowed him to where he's not making any progress. I kept trying to get at the chainsaw goblin, to remove his threat, but so far that bloger was safe, luckily his chainsaw wasn't doing anything to me either.

Then comes Turn 4. The moment when it all begins to fall apart. My Minotaur who'd chased after the chainsaw goblin, now got blitzed by the ball carrying centaur (!) Injured.. killed! Wow, first game, 2 actions with him and killed? So I apotho'd and got 'miss next game'.. not good for a new player mid season, but better than dead.

Then he knocks out a faun and my elf as well. In my response I did manage to finally injure that chainsaw goblin. 1 injury for each, even except for missing my new mino next game. But I also had to dodge a faun, rolled a 1 and knocked himself out! Yikes. My team is getting thinned.

He's now caged up in the center and I have none that can deal with it, so it's time for a risky move: Dodge with the bear to blitz the ball carrier. Has to be done. Roll the bone-head: he's fine. Dodge: 2.. Loner? rolled a 4, hes ok to use the reroll: reroll: 4! dodge is successful! Run for the blitz, hit for 2 dice.. push. *sigh*
Quite an impressive play for a fizzle at the end.

Blitz failed to knock the carrier down, but he's pretty hemmed in there. But then on Turn 7 my Boar (the troll) gets double skulls on a block and get's knocked out and he's knocked out another of my fauns too. His armor rolling was amazing. Almost always rolling a 10 and getting more knock outs than stuns.

His time to shine, dodge with the centaur carrier, makes it, go for it to hand off to the other centaur, makes it, hand off is good, centaur makes 3 go for its to score!

I had 4 in the knock out box now and get 2 of them back for my last turn. I proceed to fail both the bone head and the stupid check for the big guys and then fail to pick up the ball with my agility 3 sure hands faun, for the turn over. Sometimes you have to laugh.. 1/6 & 1/6 & 1/9 chance of that happening and I get them all.. quick, get me a lottery ticket! I did get my other 2 knocked out guys back for the 2nd half though.

Just one guy down, and the score 0-1 at the half. I set up to make a drive down my left flank. I blitzed with the bear into the centaur, and wrapped guys around to receive a pass later. The Boar wades into the dwarves to tie up as many as he can. His Turn one he gets to the frog and kills him. Yikes! My glorious agility 4 Froglin, now a green smear on the field. The crowd gasps in shock. Not trusting the way luck is landing this game I throw to the elf who then makes one go for it to score. This team can be pretty fast when it wants to be.

I then kick to him and he fails to pick up the ball. here's my chance! I take the risk and send half my team around the sides to try to take advantage of it- if he fails to pick up the ball again I could get it, or barring that, can jump his ball carrier. But he knocks out my troll... with a hobgoblin no less!

(The all-judging finger of Nuffle points out his next victim)

He does manage to pick up the ball this time and makes 3 go for its to get safely into a center cage, away from the players I sent after him. Drat. He also knocks out another faun and stuns the Bear and injures another faun. It's not that I'm having very bad luck it's that his luck is marching down Main street forwarded by a big brass band.

Turn 5, and half my team watches the disaster unfold

I now have 6 players to his 11 and he's got the ball well protected. I see a chance.. a 1 die blitz with my wrestling skaven to bring down the ball carrier. First he needs to dodge out.. roll a 2: reroll: 1. armor break & knock out! In response he injures yet another faun! I now have 4 on the field.

With his ball carrier close to scoring I got a faun onto him, he blitzes him and knocks him down, his turn had ended, my turn 7 I jump up with the faun to throw 2 die in his favor against the centaur, not a good roll.. use a reroll, get pows! he goes down! but in dodging away to get the ball he fails his dodge. The centaur gets up and makes the winning TD. Almost had it there at the end, even with almost no team on the field.

Well it was a seriously brutal game. Karmic retribution for the damage I did to the other chaos dwarf team in game 2? or maybe they heard what I did to their cousins and were bent on revenge. First loss, record is now even 1-2-1.

He managed to get 4 injuries on me so he's wracked up a lot of star player points. My minotaur will be out next game and I've bought a brand new frog for my team, so rest in peace Clyde and welcome Tadd Pohl to the team. I did get 1 skill roll, so another faun with block. Lost a rising star, but the team is becoming more reliable so maybe it will work out. 2nd skill on the first faun to get a skill though is going to be claw. Have to do something about all this 9 armor out there! My next game is probably against dwarves: he also had a bad game: a blocker & slayer killed. So our bruised teams should make a nice game on the kiddie-field.

After a beating like that, this song seems appropriate, enjoy!

Herr Hans Hossenfeffer & Schildkröte: Specialists of the Ahnenerbe

2012-02-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

Frau Totenkinder has an unknown quantity of minions at her disposal: some once human, some crafted from thoughts and feelings of those who hear their tales. One of the newest to appear in the war is Herr Hans Hossenfeffer. Hans, to be blunt, is a rabbit. Not since the days of medieval knights questing for the holy grail have the hearts of men quaked in fear at the mention of a rabbit as they do now. Totenkinder has other animals, and near-animals at her disposal, so some may wonder what use a mere rabbit is when she has the likes of Wulf and Baby Bear under her direction.

Hans Hossenfeffer is incredibly fast. Striking out across the battlefield in a brown blurr, he flanks unsuspecting enemy and unleashes a torrent in mad glee. Those few who have seen him and lived are surprised to find a turtle near him. That no matter how far afield he goes, a turtle is often close behind, or as improbably as it may seem, just ahead of his position, though none ever see the turtle moving in anything more than a slow motion. Nothing much is known about this reptile, and he is simply known as "Schildkröte". Often taking cover behind the invulnerable shell, Hans opens fire in the name of his master.

............................................................................................................................

So the Tortoise & the Hare are painted now... here they are in color:

(click for larger pictures)

I probably have too many of the weird-super characters for this force now, but they're just so fun to paint and develop their backgrounds.. can't resist.

Valentine's Day Inspiration

2012-02-14T15:31:00.000-08:00

Opposites attract, love comes in all shapes and sizes and all that...

Snu Snu & Kiff

Painted awhile back. Someday I must finish this team. So many projects...

Enjoy the holiday with this advice from the greatest lover of the galaxy...

Another Fable Agent for Totenkinder: work in progress

2012-02-13T11:56:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since I've had an update for the Weird World War II gaming: holiday slow down, etc for gaming and with an apparent scale back in army size we're expecting, I find I have more than I need for the campaign, so nothing new on the building front. But I did order a mini late last year with a vague notion in mind for Frau Totenkinder's force.

A minor supernatural character: Hans Hossenfeffer. Lightning speed and a terror with a machine gun.
I ordered the 'Rambit' mini from Ammon Miniatures. First thing I noticed is this must be designed as a display piece. It is expected to connect to the base by the belt of ammo! a delicate resin string... even in gently washing it this piece broke: no way it would stand up to gaming conditions. I had thought about adding a turtle character for the 'Tortoise and the Hare" duo, but seeing the problem of the rabbit's connection to the base, i decided they'd be best as a single-based duo:

Bit hard to tell in the photo (and since the ammon studio paint job had the ammo an almost-red I didn't even realize until the mini arrived) but the ammo is actually carrots. an unexpected treat. With careful drilling, I sunk some thin brass rod into his foot:should be sturdier than the resin ammo.

Enjoy the film!

Sentinel Conversions for the Genestealer Cult

2012-02-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

While I work on the bulk of the infantry, which are getting close to done now, I thought I'd show the Sentinels.

All of the vehicles will have 'tyranid infestation' but for the sentinels I had an idea for something a bit different.
Most builds for the sentinel are open-topped, where you can see the driver. Rather than put one of the mildly mutating infantry in there, or closing it up and treating it like the other vehicles, I thought of this fellow:

Not that I'd put an actual hermit crab in the sentinel, but not all tyranid creatures are tough as nails.

I imagined a smart but soft species that would use shells, perhaps from dead carnifeges for protection.

But in the case of overwriting human dna in the manifestation of a Genestealer Cult, this breed of tyranid has a lot more options.. and some of those options have guns!

So here's my brain & tentacle creatures piloting their fancy new shells...

(Click for larger)

This one (stompy) is in the act of walking forward. I usually see sentinels with both feet firmly planted to the base but I don't know why. The legs can be posed, the head-hull can be rotated a bit... can get some feeling of movement from the model. It is supposed to be a scout after all.

This one (runny) is in more of a full-tilt headlong run, but turning his head a bit to the right to take a shot.

One of my favorite machines from Star Wars is the AT-ST, and how menacing they looked stalking the forest of Endor, so I've tried to bring some of that to these.

The bases are painted already, they'll be combined after the vehicles are painted too.

Genestealer Cult Priests: painted

2012-02-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

The Psycker Overseers are finished.
I'm really enjoying painting the short transitions from light to near-black for the chitinous armored alien-crab-bug legs. I may end up needing to paint a tyranid army for myself someday!

For this guy his face paint I drew inspiration from Magua, from Last of the Mohicans. With that tube in his mouth it wouldn't have worked for the face paint to cover the lower half of his mouth so i went for a band across the eye. Like Magua, this guy has supreme confidence, and a sociopathic disconnect that can't even conceive that the sufferings of others has any relevance. You can just see it in the pose. That, and the fact that he's used someone else's head as a psychic canteen on some sort.

More to come.. I've got a bit over two weeks to do the remaining 45 infantry and 10 vehicles.

So I feel a bit like the fellow above ;)

Speaking of Magua:

Enjoy the best chase & battle scene from any movie & my favorite movie: Last of the Mohicans.

Genestealer Cult Priests: conversions.

2012-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Some small conversions to make a couple Genestealer Cult unit leaders that I'm pretty happy with.
The 2 units of psykers, which are represented by yesterday's aliens, also need to have an 'Overseer': someone to keep the psykers in line, and focus their mental energy. If the mutants that are the psykers are full-blown dna overwritten aliens, then the Overseers would be less physically mutated- a bridge between the alien & human elements of the army. For this, I used the Renegade Rogue Psykers from Forgeworld.

Here is how the conversions turned out:

This guy just exudes confidence. And this particular base was just right for his pose, like he's stepping out onto a ledge to preach/mind control the masses. I liked the original's banner poles, but obviously he needed something more alien, so I gave him an additional set of limbs, scythed of course.

This is the original. the other fellow doesn't seem to be handling his powers as well as his co-worker. In fact, he looks like his head is about to explode. In truth, I don't like this model nearly as much as the other, so I figured he'd need some extra converting to make him as interesting.

So why does his head hurt so much? Yes, because of all the psychic energy, but also because he's struggling to keep his own mutation in check. His head is elongating and mutating.. 'bugging out'! hehe (sorry). I had an old scene from 'Wolfen' in mind here. He's also got an extra set of limbs, but more fitting his less-confident nature, I went with ones that look like they're usually hidden under his clothes, more stunted... I had a scene of the mutant that reveals an extra arm on Mars in 'Total Recall' for that.

I've already started painting them, they should be done soon.

Won't be long before the Cult reigns over their planet...

enjoy the appropriate-by-pun music:

The Alien Menace: 2 units painted.

2012-02-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

February is going to be Genetsealer Cult time around here- I'm going to be on triple time to finish this project by deadline. Won't be much of any time for my own projects, they're all on hold, but I don't want to leave the blog unattended either. Here are the aliens from the last update, now finished.

(Click for larger)

This is two squads of Cult psychers, along with the command squad astropath. The pycher squads each have a missing member, their leaders, which I finished converting last night- I'll show a picture of them tomorrow.

I'm pretty happy with the limited pallet. Only a few colors, but transitioning through them I feel makes for an interesting look.

Not the girl you want to bring home to mother.

Unless you don't like your mother, and you'd like to see her get eaten.

Stories to Paint By: Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained

2012-02-05T00:59:00.000-08:00

I paint a lot. And convert a lot. I often spend near half the day in the studio. I listen to a lot of podcasts, but I like *stories*. I've been an avid reader since early teens when I was hit by a car (won't take long laying in a hospital bed before you will try anything to get your mind somewhere else) and of course I like movies. So that, and the fact that I tend to be too busy to find any time to read, lead me to listen to audio books while working in the studio, and it makes the time that much more enjoyable.

My most recent big project, the Genestealer Cult army, finished off a series I have been listening to: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton.

Audible has the books unabridged (I don't like abridged versions, besides, I have plenty of listening time available for the complete versions). It is a sci-fi series, set a few hundred years into our future. On the day humans first set foot on Mars, the astronauts are beaten to the punch by a couple young geniuses who figured out how to generate wormholes. From there, humans are soon exploring the galaxy, and settling planets further & further out into space.

The story is engaging because it is really several stories entwined into one: a detective story, a story of guerrilla war against an unknown alien threat, a tale of ancient discoveries, and eventually, one of an intergalactic war. The few alien species are properly very alien. As a gamer, it made me think of several fun concepts for tabletop battles both terrestrial and spaceship combats. I also enjoyed my own side-thoughts about issues it brings up, such as what is selfhood, what is the nature of our species, and what happens when evolution stumbles into creating a species that is dangerous to all other life forms. Plenty of good entertainment in these books on many levels.

If you like sci-fi, in the tradition of Asimov, Clark & Heinlein, which I think these would fall into, then give it a read or listen, whatever your preference and time allows for.

I give the story a 9 out of 10.

Not the same aliens as this series, but insidious in their own right, here's a w.i.p. shot of a bunch of aliens for the current project:

Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl: another team for 2012

2012-02-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

I had said I'd done two Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarf teams in January, this is the 2nd one.
This is a good example of what I like about Blood Bowl and other 'skirmish size' projects: it's a nice sized project to explore an idea or theme, and you can get very different feeling projects, even with the same 'list' or 'army'. A score or so of models is a great size to scratch an itch for a theme or style you want, without having to invest in a large army (although that can be very rewarding in it's own way too). Because of this, it's not unreasonable to have 2 of the same team or army, but have different themes. For example, there are 2 different themes I want to use for making Ogre Blood Bowl teams, that I might get around to sometime this year...

But for now, on to the 2nd Chaos Dwarf team I've done this year.

This one uses Gaspez-Arts chaos dwarves, which are very different than the Greebo ones from the last team: they have almost no armor, looking more like barbarian dwarves. He didn't like their hobgoblins, but wanted something that would fit in with the dwarves: little clothing present and looking savage: I suggested the feral Uruk-hai. Since the scale for Lord of the Rings minis is smaller than the typical 'heroic' scale minis, I figured they'd work fine as tall 'hobgoblins' at this scale, instead of the hulking uruks they're intended to be. The Minotaur is from Reaper.

I suggested the skin being used to carry any color: reds & ochre, and the uniform being black & ivory, for an ancient Greek feel. Here's how they turned out:

The dwarves: I went for a 'Barsoomian Red Man' skin tone.

The Hobgoblins: lighter skin tone, to show them as a bit 'weedier' than the dwarves.

Order of the Stick has influenced me: Hobgoblins are Yellow to my mind now ;)

see 'Vulcan's Hammers in the Hall of Fame for more yellow hobgoblins.

Centaurs.

Minotaur. A good Blood Bowl pose.

The Coach. Converted from one of the players: removed his fist-spike and sculpted a coach's cap.

Here's the team, now placed in the Fall of Fame page to visit with all the other Blood Bowl teams.

(Click for larger)

Aslan's Asskickers: Game 3 Report

2012-02-02T01:18:00.000-08:00

Jim: "It looks like the lion-loving team is back for another game.

Bob: "That's good Jim! They killed and hurt so many last game, which is what this game is all about."

Jim: "True Bob, you could say, they left their opponents lion-down in the infirmary!

Bob: "I don't get it."

Jim: "Why am I not surprised? Well they'll have their work cut out for them, they face a rookie team, but one from Norseland... and you know they give as good as they take."

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It looks like we have three new players joining the league, which is excellent. The Chaos Dwarf team I (de)faced last week did in fact restart, and some others don't have many games, so a good time for new teams to jump in. I played against a Norse team, and while the coach didn't have any tabletop experience, he's played the Cyanide game enough to understand the game pretty well. Other than armor, Norse is a very solid & forgiving team to play, so it seemed a good match. He got over 150k in inducements to help him along, since my team has a good deal of inflated team value already: I've won a lot of cash, so bought an an apothecary. My Minotaur last time had rolled a 10, and I'd decided I'd take the armor boost. I'd also had a skilled up skaven & marauder who took wrestle & sure hands respectively.

The Norse team skipped the Yheti and took 2 werewolves, 2 berzerkers, 2 catchers, a thrower and 4 linemen. He also had 3 rerolls, skill choices: leader and guard, with some cash left to save for an Apothecary. He chose another reroll and a Bloodweiser babe for inducements.

I got +1 Fame, the weather was nice and I chose to kick, figuring it was nicer to set up first since it was the first time he played in 3-D. Kick off: Blitz! Oh my.. I didn't plan it... really. He'd set up with a solid front line, not much I could do with it, but it was still favorable for me. My minotaur spent 3 turns trying to move, and failing his wild animal. I couldn't spare the blitz for him as I needed it to put pressure on his ball carrier, which the mino wasn't anywhere in range of.

He kept the ball back for a couple turns, and as he got closer I was able to get the ball from him. I scooped it up with the ferret, and ran to within a turn from scoring, but he was able to get a 1 die blitz and knock her out. Over the next few turns he drove the ball down, in range to score, and I one-die blitzed him: knocked out the ball carrier in return. I then managed to get the ball with another and make a long pass to my goblin, but the Norse intercepted the ball (despite 2 TZ on him) and so the half ended 0-0. In the first half however, he killed my Minotaur! My apothecary did the best he could: armor bust. Guess it's good I chose the armor boost! It means the mino isn't a complete weak link, but 6 SPP accomplishing nothing, and 30 team value wasted- so I'll be replacing the minotaur as soon as I can afford to buy another... such a shame: a short but impressive career.

(The skaven are proxy werewolves until he can get a new team)

The second half I received and tried to score fast. I was losing the block-fest since the Norse have so much of it and enough rerolls to pull of dodging around. I set up to stall it a bit, but with a few Norse in striking distance, one extra turn delay, with risk didn't seem worth it, so I ran it in. I did manage to get one of his players knocked out, so since I had a marauder on the bench I was now one player up on him.

I kicked and he made a drive down my right flank. I did a pretty good job tying him up, but he did punch through and get to where just one dodge would free him up to score- which he did. He also injured my bear.. in return I knocked out 2 more, but I just wasn't rolling injuries.

With just 2 turns to go, I knew I had a chance to win still, with the throw team mate move: But it'd have to be the troll. First I cleared a path for the troll, but the ball had scattered so far back I had to pass to the goblin, meaning I'd have to try it turn 8. Though in the process of clearing a fawn killed his guard Blitzer! Ouch!

He did get a lineman to base the troll, so I blitzed him off and started rolling the dice... Troll stupid? rolled a 2: he's fine. Hungry? Nope. Roll for the throw: fumble! argh! reroll? 4+: so try: get's an inaccurate pass... that's ok. Mark where the aim is: roll for scatter: back to the right (can still make it with a go-for-it)- back to the left (can still make it with 2 go-for-its) just don't scatter 6,7or 8... rolled a 6: back to left, and out of range to score.. roll to stick the landing: landed just fine, but no chance to score. Game ends in a tie 1-1. Checking the odds: about 5.28% chance of scattering back 3 times out of range. *sigh* ah well, that's Blood Bowl!

End of game, he rolled 10k for cash, so it will be some time before he can buy a replacement blitzer. I rolled 70k.. The Norse didn't get any skills, but a wolf got MVP and the other was the one who did 2 injuries, so both are close to their first skill.

For me, my frog (goblin) got the MVP and got an agility boost, and a fawn edged up to his first skill: taking block... maybe boring, but I need more than 1 player with block.

Until next time...

Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl: first team of 2012

2012-01-31T11:21:00.000-08:00

Started in December, but final touches for this team was in January, so it's the first team of 2012.

Chaos Dwarves have so great potential for using various miniatures, you could really explore a lot of themes with them.

The first Chaos dwarf team I painted was .. a long time ago, maybe 1997? It was the GW team and one of the first times I'd painted yellow as a major color: the cloth was bisected red & yellow, painted for a friend.
I began that team thinking I hated yellow and came away from it feeling like I really enjoyed painting yellow: always be open to new things.

The next time I painted Chaos Dwarves was for my Rackham 'Vulcan's Hammers'.
This time it would be Greebo's fun new Chaos dwarves, with the old classic GW hobgoblins.
The client wanted muted black cloth, dull yellow metal armor, and the hobs having some various drab colors, to show their ramshackleness.

These Chaos Dwarves are pretty traditional in their look... I think they come from Khazapersialonnia.

They have those tall hats and ringlet beards...

No, not him... but a lot like him...

All that armor detail can be a bit of a pain, but when you get into the zen of it, it is pretty fun.

These have been converted. Claw is a popular mutation: cuts through heavy armor teams like butter.

Freddy Kruger & Edward Scissorhands has nothing on these two!

Bonus points if you can spot where I got the claws from!

Centaurs! I think these are about the best bull centaur sculpts I've seen.

And the under-appreciated players. I think Hobgoblins are gold on a CD team.

They have agility 3 and decent movement. Sure, they're armor 7 and no skills, but on a team that suffers from lack of rerolls, they make good ball carriers in early league, and good utility players later, with giving them wrestle, kick, sure hands..

And the big boy, shown in an earlier update on Minotaurs:

Here is the team in it's entirety:

(click for bigger)

The team now has been placed in the Hall of Fame: page tab at the top of the blog, where I have a collection of all of the teams I have painted.

Space Pirates: In Zero G You Must Remember to Buckle Your Swash

2012-01-28T11:33:00.000-08:00

Not long ago Hydra Miniatures, makers of War Rocket, released their newest faction: Space Pirates.
I thought the Class I was dead sexy, and when they had a sale and released the Class II, of course I had to get some, making it my third fleet... then FRP had a sale and I couldn't resist getting the starter fleets for the Galacteers & Valkeeri, so now I have more to paint... I'm such a sucker for spaceships!

This month Hydra had a contest, to create your own pirate clan, with a bit of background, common equipment for the pirate rockets and to paint one up in the group's colors & design. I've been so busy I almost missed the deadline before I had a chance to start, though I'd already given it some thought beforehand.

First to decide is the look of them. The Hydra studio paint job is already amazing. Black with a triangle of red. Sinister power colors that are classic. Actually, speaking of Gary Numan from a couple updates ago, the ship as they painted it would fit in great with 'Telekon':

Gary Numan: Space Pirate Captain.

As fun as that would be, the color scheme is already theirs, so I had to think of something new.

I decided I'd like to stick to a classic pirate look: Black & White and use the good old Jolly Roger, emblazoned across the nose of the rocket. I decided to paint one of my Class II rockets for the test piece.

The only color would be blue, for the windows and energy weapons, and the red engine fire.

Here's how it came out:

The Pirate Clan's name is the Void Hawks, and their pirate lord is Dirk Black. Here's their background:

The Void Hawks

The Void Hawks, and their pirate lord, Dirk Black, are some of the most infamous pirates in the galaxy. Rumor is that Black served as a Galacteer until he left in disgrace, but since his exact identity is unknown, the Galacteers can neither confirm nor deny this.

Dirk Black has a reputation for being cunning in battle, but not without mercy. Those who have surrendered have lived to tell the tale, being set adrift in life pods or within hailing distance of space stations. The location of the Void Hawks' base is unknown, but their hunting grounds range across Human space and even to the stars of the Valkeeri.

Black is a master of surprise. The Void Hawks often use captured rockets, sending out distress signals and then preying upon the would-be rescuers.

The rockets of the Void Hawks are painted black, with white accents and bear the historic emblem of the Jolly Roger. Void Hawks are often equipped with asteroid talons, allowing them to attach to asteroids, undetected until freighter vessels stray near. A favored weapon is the Tangle Web, which can debilitate a rocket making it unable to remain in formation or convoys, and thus easier to board and capture. They also favor disruptor beams, and ultra atomic engines for added speed.

Pirate Upgrades:

Pirate Crew (+3 points per model):

+20% to board a rocket

+10% to special action rolls during boarding as described by scenario

Savy Captain (+5 points per model):

When a ship with a savy captain has the same activation value as an opponent ship he may decide to go before or after the enemy ships.

Asteroid Talons (+5 points per model):

Ships with Asteroid Talons may attach themselves to asteroids. At the start of the game these ships may be placed hidden in any asteroids on the table. Mark the location secretly on paper. At any time the controlling player wishes, the ship may reveal itself and act on its appropriate activation point.

Tangle Web (+3 points per model):

A tangle web is a discharge of electric energy. The weapon may be used instead of the ship's normal prow weapon, but with a range of 6. The weapon has a +1 to hit compared to the normal to hit value, however it will not stun or damage a ship. Instead, if the value (with the +1) would be enough to score a stun or better, then the enemy ship is entangled. Any maneuver or weapons fire the affected ship attempts must be declared, then roll a d10 and it may do the action if a 6+ is rolled. If it rolls 1-5, the ship may not fire the weapon, or if it failed to make a turn or rotation, it instead moves the minimum distance that is required before another rotation could be made, in the direction it was pointed. The Tangle Web remains until the ship rolls an 8+ when making an action attempt.

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I'll do a proper review and tutorial for the Space Pirates like I did for the Zenithians & Imperials, but I didn't have time yet if I was going to make the contest deadline. Spoiler: they are very nice.

But now I'm stuck with Telekon in my head, so here's a song that has a bit of a pirate-threat that would be appropriate. Enjoy!

A Lot of Bull

2012-01-27T11:26:00.000-08:00

My last 2 completed commissions were both Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl teams, and with my own Narnia Pact team, that means this month has been full of Bull (budump-bump).

So before showing the two teams I want to just focus on the Minotaurs.

The Minotaur is one of the oldest monsters from western civilization.
And one I've always thought was pretty cool.

There have been lots of interpretations of Minotaurs since the Greek legend, some of my favorites:

Harryhausen:

Gilliam:

A classic monster and a lot of fun.

In Blood Bowl, they're usually viewed as a mixed blessing big guy: luck swings wildly with this guy.

On the one hand, Minotaurs are the strongest big guys other than Treemen (without the serious limits that treemen have: rooting & sub-minimal movement). They're just strength 5 like all the other big guys, but with horns, they're strength 6 on the blitz -now, even when starting in the tackle zone of the target of the blitz- and they tend to be the guy you want to blitz with, so on offense they're almost always strength 6. They have frenzy, which (at blitzing strength 6) is a real powerhouse.

But on the other hand, wild animal is a bigger problem than the common 'Bone Head' since if you're only moving with him you have a 50% chance to not activate... so again: don't just move: Blitz! They also have pretty soft armor for a big guy: armor 8. While thick skull does help some- keeping him on the pitch stunned on an 8 or less instead of 7, most people would agree it's better to not have the armor broken in the first place. So again the conclusion is: hit first! The Minotaur really is a fun player if used aggressively.

So here are the Minotaurs I've finished recently: (Click pictures to see them larger)

This is my favorite 'true minotaur' miniature. It is 'Cretus' from Reaper. The weapons have been removed since Blood Bowl refs frown on giant axes on the pitch. I suggested a Black & Ivory uniform for the team, going for simplicity and to aim for the feel of ancient Greek shields & pottery:

The next is not a Minotaur per se, but a 'counts-as' Minotaur. Don't argue with him, it would make him angry... you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

This minotaur I've dubbed the 'Minophant': a Bronzeback Titan from Privateer Press. He's got a perfect blood bowl pose: I can just image him swinging those tusks, sending the opposing players flying across the field, as he drives a path clear for a grinning hobgoblin ball carrier.

And lastly the Minotaur I made for my Narnia Pact team, the Elk

Lots of ways to interpret any monster, so let your imagination run wild.

Movies From Another Earth

2012-01-26T12:36:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share some fun stuff.
Sean Harter's blog has a large collection of Movie & Book posters that would fit in great in a parallel world,
a collection of 'what might have been'.

I'd really like to see some of these movies.

This would have been awesome!

Here is another fun one..

Considering Jeremy Irons did 'Dungeons & Dragons' this doesn't seem far fetched.

My favorite detail on this one is the score by Gary Numan. Good call. How he hasn't been jealously sought after for movies baffles me. His music would be great in so many movies, such as Tron.

Check out a host of good stuff at Harter's blog: http://hartter.blogspot.com/2009/11/misc.html

And enjoy the hit single from the movie Tron, that never was:

For the Love of Bacon: The Puggy Story

2012-01-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

Everyone loves bacon.

Even pigs love bacon. Vegetarians love bacon (they just hate their taste buds), so it should come as no surprise that Halflings love bacon. Yes, even more than a South Carolinian with a cholesterol level ten times his age, Halflings are the kings of bacon appreciation. Saying this then, you understand the full weight of the statement when I say that one young halfling, Puggy Baconbreath, loves bacon a good three or four times as much as do other halflings. No really, it's true! And the only thing equal to his love of bacon, is his love of the game: Blood Bowl.

Puggy was born a fat, round, squealing infant prone to roll around in his own filth: a typical halfling child.
His mother loved him dearly, so wanted him to have the best advantage on life he could get, so she started him on bacon even before he was weened.

Growing up on Baconbreath Farms, young Puggy had ample opportunity for physical activity.

As he grew, his parents saw he was naturally athletic, when properly motivated, so trained him by letting him pick his own lunch: he could pick a pig, but had to chase it and wrestle it down, which worked up quite an appetite!

This activity soon led him to a career in Blood Bowl. His father shipped him off to a Blood Bowl camp when he was a teenager, after realizing that Puggy ate more pigs than his farm could afford to lose.

Puggy quickly became the most famous player from the Moot. Stronger than his team mates, his coach once remarked to reporters "He's a terror on the pitch! He's just more hungry than the others." When asked about this, Puggy said indeed he was, cut the interview short and went to his second lunch!

Now Puggy is a star, playing for only those teams which can afford to pay his excessive appearance fees which include meals to his specifications. His favorite in-between drive snack is the 'Puggywhich' as it's known now back in the Moot:

An eight pound mass of bacon between a soft roll, with a dill pickle. Yes, the pickle is shown, it's somewhere buried in the bacon. To wash it down, he's quick to drink a couple of these:

Yes, life is good for a Blood Bowl star.

Today, Puggy has signed with the Picnic Pillagers, and says "I look forward to the bacon sandwiches"

Aslan's Asskicker's Day Out: Cue Queen.

2012-01-23T00:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had my 3rd, 4th & 5th game with my ~~Chaos~~ Narnia Pact team.
I went to a tournament in Pacifica California.

From the best of my memory, there were 3 Orcs, 2 Ogres, 2 Undead, Norse, Halfling, Dark Elf, Slann, and Chaos Pact. The tournament package allowed for 1.1mil with allowing for skills and stats to be bought for the standard prices, though no more than 2 extra skills per player and no more than 3 of the same extra skill on the team.

I took a similar build as my league team: all the renegades & big guys, 5 marauders, but down to 3 rerolls so I could afford more skills: Block for the Ogre, Block & Pro for the Minotaur, Block for the Elf, Wrestle for the Skaven, Leader for a Marauder. I worried about putting an extra 60k on the Minotaur, but I figured Pro would help a lot: wild animal is very unreliable if you want to simply move, and with frenzy, you can get into a bad spot, so Pro would help out.

Game 1 was against an Orc team: Ze Seaside Orcs

-The Orcs was a fun team build: full blitzers, 2 black orcs and a troll, leader kick off returning thrower and 3 goblins, one with agility 4, and a wrestling line orc. The Troll had strong arm, and the blitzers had some skills.

I've played this coach before: a very talented opponent: one of the craftiest players you'll ever run across.
I knew the agility 4 goblin was going to be a problem, although he didn't end up needing to rely on it.

I kicked to him, and the first half was a battle for every square. I nearly held him to 0 Touch Downs, and my last attempt was to do 2 go-for-its to get on a blitzer's Tackle Zone, to force a dodge roll for him to score- but I got a 1 on the roll, and it was an easy walk to score. I rolled a lot of 1's this game. Everyone notices the 1's they roll, and it always feels like a lot, but even my opponent said that yes, he noticed I was rolling a crazy amount of 1's. In the first half, I failed 6 of 8 or 9 go-for-its, 3 of those were after rerolls! Yes, I spent all of my rerolls in the first half to reroll failed go-for-its only to roll a 1 a second time. Well, sometimes those 1's just will not be denied: what can you do?

Second half, he put the pressure on me. I wasn't getting any of his team off the pitch. Armor rolls weren't happening, and on rare occasion when they did, nothing but stun. Seeing his team making it around my lines, I had to go for the throw-team-mate: the ball got handed to the frog, the bear picks him up, makes the throw, he gets a beneficial scatter, sticks the landing and runs it in! Score 1-1: now I just have to hold him.

I'm not a morning person: I make dumb mistakes before noon ;) I managed to slow him, despite being unable to get anyone off the pitch. At the last turn, he had only 1 player who could score: a goblin 4 spaces from the end zone. I had 1 reroll left, I blitzed him with my skaven: hit and get a push. His turn, he throws, I fail my interception, he catches it, dodges out and makes the winning Touch Down. What was I thinking? (I wasn't) I had a reroll and nothing to use it on: a free 2 die chance to bring the goblin down. Ah well, must have been set to roll double skulls! ;) The Game ended at 2-1 a Loss for me. Points were close, since no bonus points were made by either of us: 16pts for the Victor 10pts for me (8+2 for losing by a margin of 1).

Game 2 was against Morathi's Minions, a Dark Elf team.

This is the team that trounced my Scotlins in November: Grudge Match. Another great player- lots of fun to play against, even when she's grinding your poor goblins into the turf.

Her team had one runner with leader, a witch elf, 2 blitzers (one was a blodger the other with tackle iirc), a lineman turned into a thrower and three rerolls.

The weather was Very Sunny, so I decided to kick to her. The kick off result was 'weather change', which went to Perfect Blood Bowl Weather. Thank you kick-off table. sheesh. So I tried to slow her progress and hurt as many players as I could. She made a cage on my right, which the Elk broke apart, so she moved it to the left, which I then tied up, and next turn the Elk broke through it again. On Turn 4 both the Elk and Bear both killed two players. Yes: killed. I guess they aren't morning people either, but they were awake now!
I managed to steal the ball with my elf and scored. I find it amusing that one of the best players on my team is the same as the basic shmoes on her team, but in an Agility 3 team, the one with Ag4 is golden!

In the second half she kicked to me, and I continued to thin the ranks. Another elf got injured and I scored again.
Kicking to her again, but only six elves on the pitch I managed to steal the ball and score with injuring another dark elf. None of my players were injured- one had been knocked out once, but came right back.

The game ended 3-0 with 4 casualties in my favor. The extra bonus points meant I got 24 pts for the game.

Game 3 was against Ragnar's Ravagers, a Norse team.

I'd played this coach once before as well, though we'd both had different teams. Another great guy and quite the strategist. His team had a seriously tooled Yeti: Block & Mighty Blow as additional skills. What a brute!
I had almost given my Minotaur 'claws' (which I'd probably have had more use for than Pro against the orcs in game 1!) claw & mighty blow is a wicked combo: roll a 7 and break any armor value. Ouch! I knew he'd be one to watch! He also had 2 werewolves with Block, a blodging blitzer, a sure hands blodging runner (was thinking I was glad I'd taken a wrestler!) and 2 guards. The only weak link in his team was he had only 1 reroll, and that was a leader reroll.

He won the toss, and elected to receive the kick. I realize now, I kicked first in every game, and I also lost every fame roll, though it didn't seem to effect much. I survived the first turn pounding pretty well, but could see his defense was going to be very solid. My first turn, looking at what was available I decided I had to make an attempt on the Yeti. I pushed one lineman out of the way and called a blitz with my go-to guy: Rudolph the Elk. Blitz, hit on the 5th movement, kocked the Yeti down, rolled 11 for armor, 9 for result (10 with mighty blow):injury = Yeti gone after 1 turn. I was hugely relieved, though the team was still a beast. The coach recovered quickly: he'd had one earlier game with the yeti sitting in the knock out box for over half the game, so it might not have been too shocking.

This game had the most back and forth fighting yet. I managed to inflict 3 injuries, and take only 1 (but crucial: the frog pushed into the crowd) yet the Norse were still relentless. He really knew how to play this team well.

I had some crazy times in this game: once, to try to prevent him scoring I blitzed with the bear! I had to dodge out with Agility 2, made it! blitz over, roll 2 dice: result was push/push.. that won't do it.. I use a reroll, roll against the loner trait: I rolled a 4! I get to reroll the block dice! reroll: double skulls! ahhh! You can only laugh. 0-1. Last turn of the half I have the ball, he knocks it away, I go in with the elf: dodge, go to pick up the ball and score, need a 2+ : 1. ah well. He'd had his share of bad luck too: double skull, leader reroll: double skull! Ouch.

2nd half: he kicks: result: perfect defense: reorganize his players.. no advantage for me here. He's down 2 players, I'm down 1. My plan works pretty well but I can't stall if I'm going to have a chance to win: score fast, try to steal the ball to score to win is the plan: turn 3 I scored: 1-1. I kick and I could not break through his defense well enough to get the ball. I'd stun some but not to much effect, though the troll did kill a lineman! 3 kills for my team this day.

He has the ball and on my last turn I have only one forlorn hope: the ferret. He's got my team well tied up, and it looks like he's got the winning TD in the bag for his final turn: my mission: send in the ferret to stop him and get the tie. But the ferret is in a TZ and 8 spaces away from the ball carrier. I have no rerolls left.
Declare the Blitz! The ferret dodges within the wolf's tackle zone: makes the 4+, dodge out: makes the 3+.. move one space, move another: into the TZ of a norseman, dodge within the TZ: makes my 4+, dodge out: makes the 3+, move, go for it: make the 2+, now in contact with the carrier.. roll the go for it to blitz 1 die, hoping for a pow or both down for the wrestle: go for it: result: made it! (you were expecting a 1 weren't you?) roll the 1 die block: push. Push?? ah! sooo close! His turn: dodge out: score. 2-1. A close hard-fought match!

Since I had lost by only 1 and had bonus points for injuries I didn't fare too bad: 16 pts for him, 14 pts for me.

I took a couple shots from some friends' games too:

My friend Bill borrowed my Slann for the day, and played against the Norse in game 2: He didn't fare so well: it seems Norse like Frog nearly as much as Herring! Bill got the "Player's choice" award for favorite team.

And my friend Dan, now owner of the Picnic Pillagers brought his team to 3 "Halfling Victories"!
The definition of a 'Halfling Victory' is when you tie a non-stunty team! 3 games with no losses... a victory in any gaffer's book. Dan secured the "Stunty Cup" award: not bad at all considering there were 2 Ogre teams there.

Somehow I managed to get "Overall Champion" for the day. It seemed a bit odd, since I'd lost 2 of 3 games, and someone else did win all 3 games, but a narrow victory with no bonus points gave 16 points, for 48 total, which was the same as I'd gotten, and the tie breaker was painting and sports, so I was quite honored to have gotten point from the look of the Narnia team pitching in to help. Considering the last tourney I went to I got the wooden spoon I was pretty happy!

I got a fun trophy and the 16-man newest human GW Blood Bowl team, so I'll look forward to painting those up at some time. I'm finding I really enjoy playing the Chaos Pact team: it doesn't have a lot of skills, but is quite a toolbox. a few limited pieces that can any job you need, maybe not as well as some other teams, but there is a potential to do anything needed.

A great day with great people playing a great game: a day well spent.

Now, Cue Queen: (couldn't resist)

Aslan's Asskickers: Team Photos

2012-01-20T00:30:00.000-08:00

I wanted to get pictures of the team done & posted before I head off tomorrow for a weekend of visiting friends with attending a Blood Bowl tournament right in the middle of it. You never know what damage might happen, so photos before someone accidentally knocks over a table or some such seemed a good idea.

One of the minis that was a major driving force in making the team was this one, a 'giant weasel' from Otherworld Miniatures. A really nice sculpt. When I saw it, I knew I wanted one, to paint like my greatly missed ferret, who died almost two years ago. She was concentrated joy, and the inspiration behind the name and logo of my studio. So the idea for a forest-theme'd 'Narnia Pact' Chaos Pact team seemed right.

Here she is:

She counts as the Skaven for the team.

The 'goblin' is a frog, from Splintered Light:

And the 3rd renegade, the Dark Elf, is an insectile Faerie, from Reaper:

The Big Guys:

The Elk (Minotaur):

The Bear (Ogre):

The Boar (Troll):

The Fauns (Marauders):

Coach & Tokens:

The Team:

(click for bigger pictures)

Aslan's Asskickers: Game 2 Report

2012-01-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

Jim: "Welcome back to another night of Blood Bowl!"

Bob: "A great night it should be Jim, both of these teams look like real heavy hitters!"

Jim: "True Bob, it looks like there is only a few players out there who aren't complete meat-heads!"

Bob: "You're right. Maybe after a few games they can fire those few and get some more muscle on the team."

Jim: "Yes Bob.. I suppose they could. This game is between the Narnia Pact Aslan's Asskickers and a Chaos Dwarf team... team name unpronouncable as all chaos dwarf words are.. a mouth full of G's & Th's... not often you see two minotaurs on the same pitch. I don't know if this is Blood Bowl or a Rodeo!"

Bob: "They better start soon, seeing all that steak has got me hungry..."

Jim: "Don't get your hopes up Bob, McMurty's has the rights to the meat from any players killed in play... speaking of which, it looks like they're ready to play!"

______________________________________________________

The Chaos Dwarf line up was pretty standard: 11 players: full dwarves, centaurs & a minotaur with 2 hobgoblins and 2 re-rolls. His 2 players with a starting skill (league rules) were 2 dwarves with guard: a good choice.

The Chaos Dwarf team lost their first game, and had no gained skills, and since I'd made enough to buy an apothecary after my first game, he had 50k for inducements: he selected a Bloodweiser Babe.

I won the toss so I elected to receive. It was perfect blood bowl weather, but with my high fan factor, more of my fans showed up and I got +2 fame for the game.

All the guard & block had me a bit worried, even with my 3 big guys, since I don't have any skills to back up the strength. The ball was kicked off the field, so I gave it to a faun who'd made a TD last game: hoping for a skill up this game. On Turn 2 I managed to blitz with my minotaur and push one of his centaurs off the pitch: the crowd greeted him with boots to the back: injured: out for the game. A punishing start.

Here is my position right after the Elk (minotaur) pushed the centaur off the field. Oh yes, I got my team painted! I'll get some good photos of them for an update soon. The faun with the ball is behind Jennifer Cricket (the Elf) looking for a chance to make a break down the field.

The bear (ogre) is surrounded by dwarves, but at least it's tying a lot of them up.

The next turn saw the boar (troll) knock out the opponent Minotaur! With 2 of his 3 strength pieces off the field, I started to feel a bit more confident.

My coach, Mr. Beaver, watches the action, calling plays. The mushrooms keep track of my re-rolls.
The dwarves knocks my Elk down, and failing to break armor, he fouls him with one of his guards.. risky! The Elk is stunned and the ref is none the wiser. On turn 6, the boar, Snorts, takes exception to this treatment of his friend the elk and hit the guard dwarf hard- so hard he kills him!

The faun, Mr.Cornelius, was waiting patiently, out of harms way for a few turns, and ran it in for a score when he saw the signal from the coach on turn 8.

The last turn of the first half, with the minotaur not coming back, preferring the company of the Bloodweiser Babe, the chaos dwarves were down to 8 players. I set up and got a blitz! Nice way to mess things up for their one chance of hitting, and the half ended with another chaos dwarf player in the knock-out box.

The second half and the minotaur & the other stayed in the knock-out box! They take the field with 7 players.
They set up with the minotaur deep, knowing he'd be a target right off the bat otherwise. I kicked and got to reorganize my team! Nuffle wasn't hiding who he'd placed money on for this game. So it changed from above, to this:

(Notice the placement of the ball: waaaaaay back there. Nice kick)

The Elk blitzed a dwarf and injured him: giving him a concussion: -1 Armor! The next turn my Elk blitzed again, injuring another dwarf: out for the next game! This Elk has a serious hatred of dwarves! This was his 3rd casualty of the game. I know many people are afraid of bears in Yosemite, but did you know more people are injured and killed by deer than by bears? This game was proving that to be true.

Most of the action was in the dwarf's backfield, but they could still manage to do some damage to anyone nearby: here the dwarf guard knocks out a faun: the only time a Narnian ever got removed from the field.

I went in after the ball, and surrounded the centaur near it, then ran over with the ferret (skaven) and got the ball. With his whole team tied up, in desperation he got up and blitzed with his centaur: dodging into 3 tackle zones to hit the ferret: failed the roll, re-roll: fail: broke his armor and out for the game. Ouch! Turn 3 the ferret scored. There were so few opponents on the pitch, I thought it would just be better to score and take away a chance of an early tie.

The Minotaur finally decided to come back to play, but by the time he did, this was all that was left of the chaos dwarf team! -The coach was a great sport though, he kept trying to do what he could.

We set up and there was a pitch invasion! The fans couldn't keep their enthusiasm contained! Both teams get 2 players stunned. This had a more serious effect on the dwarves of course.

The ball landed just inside his line on my right, and the ferret grabbed it. Escorted by fauns he soon made his second touch down of the night. With just one more kick, the ball went to the left, I got it with my elf, handed it to the frog (goblin) for the throw-team mate one turn touch down, but seeing what everyone had in mind, Clyde Frog dropped the ball straight away, shaking his head muttering 'no way!' and the game ends 3-0 with a victory for Aslan's Asskickers.

I won 80k, and had 3 skill rolls: standard skill for Minotaur, Skaven & a Marauder. I did roll a 10 for the Minotaur (unfortunately it was 6&4, not 5&5!) but I think a skill is going to matter more to him than move or armor. He blitzes so often, I'm assuming he'll take Juggernaut. If the 10 had gone to the skaven.. but it didn't. The ferret will probably take wrestle, so I have a safety.. the marauder? So many options! I'm going to have to think about that one.

My opponent was a great sport, more so because this really did break his team. After 2 games he's had only MVP star player points, so no new skills, and with just 10k winnings, his treasury sits at only 30k. With one of his guard-skill dwarves dead, and a hobgoblin and a dwarf missing the next game and another dwarf with -1 armor, he's facing disbanding the team and restarting with a fresh team.

Until next time, polish up your pitch invasion brass knuckles!

Legend of the High Seas: campaign starts

2012-01-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

The 'every other Wednesday' group started Legends of the High Seas last week, and i've been so busy lately I haven't had time to post anything since then, so I'll correct that now. Up front I have to apologize that my crew aren't painted- like I said, I've been crazy busy lately, and that's a project that isn't near the top of the list- but I'll be trying to find time somewhere to get to them.

Legends of the High Seas is very similar to Legends of the Old West, which we ran last time (you can find many reports of 'El Rojo's Bandidos' under the old west tag). There are fewer crew options: Pirates, Royal Marines & Privateers, and the game seems to have less stress placed on characters. I decided to run Privateers, for no better reason than I always liked the idea of privateers: pirates in everything but name, balancing the distinction with nothing more than a piece of paper to say they can. Elizabeth was pretty bold and shrewd. To give them a bit of a different flavor I'm saying mine are Dutch privateers.

One aspect of the game I like is that each Captain can pick a trait, which modifies the rules for your crew. Privateers have the worst leadership in the game, so I was tempted to take the trait that ups their leadership, but in the end I went for the cash: 2 gold off the cost of everyone on the crew. That adds up quick, and allowed me to take some decent gear.

My Crew are:

Captain Roeland Vos with sword & pistol
First Mate Cobus de Haan with sword & pistol
Cabin Monkey Chim-chim with hand weapon

4 Mercenaries with swords
5 Mariners with hand weapons
2 Mariners with blunderbuss

My first game was against the Royal Marines, all named from characters from 'Master & Commander'. The scenario saw us both coming through a town looking for the treasure being guarded by the civilians: 4 buildings had a chest, guarded by a civi.

The Royal Marines were few in number, but well armed as nearly all of them had muskets with bayonets. But the layout of the town meant there wouldn't be a lot of opportunity to take advantage of the range, if I could keep buildings between us as I advanced.

The coastal town. I set up along the right side edge, and the Marines along the left edge.

In an attempt to scare the marines my privateers coated themselves in white wash. Clever fellows!
I split into two groups, one led by the captain, one by the first mate, dividing up the crew types as evenly as I could. I made it to the first two buildings and dispatched the chest-guards, leaving some crew behind to guard the booty as the rest advanced on the Brits' position.

On my right flank, all of the British officers had climed to the roof of a building to try to get a vantage with their guns, my more numerous men took the first floor of the building and guarded the stairs, effectively 'treeing' the limeys.

On my left flank, my mariners get ready to ambush the British corporal, there was a fight and soon he and a soldier who came to his aid were brought down without any casualties on my side. captain Vos managed to shoot 2 soldiers dead: no leading from behind for this captain! Even Chim-chim the Sumatran monkey-boy managed to bring down a soldier.

In the end, I had the chests, and the only British to survive were the tree'd officers, who negotiated for their release: they laid down their arms and were allowed to depart. This must have greatly displeased the admiralty, because the commander was reassigned to some remote fort in Canada. His luck managed to prevent two of his men's wounds from being fatal, but the loss of all the command meant this crew was retired after one game and will reset anew the next meeting. ... in game terms: at first i was impressed with the marines' perk that they don't need to spend any of their won booty on upkeep for their crew, like Privateers and Pirates do (their wages are paid by the crown) but if they roll a '12' on 2d6, then the commander is reassigned... and wouldn't you know it? He rolled a 12. Yikes.

For my crew, I won a good amount of doubloons, and since I made sure the chests were guarded by one of each of my crew types, everyone on my crew got a skill roll! The Captain got an increase in Courage (which I was happy with, since privateers start so low at it) and then both officers and every single crew group all got the same result: +1 attack! wow! So much for guns, this is going to be a run at 'em crew!

I'll hope to get some paint on this crew as the league progresses.

I've just about finished my Blood Bowl team, and the next league game is tomorrow, so look for an update on them soon!

Ferret in Space

2012-01-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

In space, no one can hear you scream... when the Ferret comes for you.

(Click for larger)

I think my space fleets just found their commander!

Pointed out to me by a friend, as a must-see for me.

From artist Amales on DeviantArt, check her work out here: http://amales.deviantart.com/

The next big project: 2 months of conversion & paint

2012-01-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

I do love to convert. As much as I enjoy painting, I think it's the building & converting of a project that I love the most. So it should be a nice busy couple months until March. Next of the big projects for a client is a full 40k army. Been awhile since I've done anything for 40k, so that should be fun for that too... although I do have some "40k-compatible projects" of my own that wait on the back burner, patiently snug in their blanket of thick soup skin... someday Draniki and Orks.. someday.

The next project is an infested, DNA-compromised Genestealer Cult army. Have plans for mildly tainted planetary guard and the psychic fellows are nearly completely gene-overwritten, even the vehicles will have organic growth on them. Colors and bases chosen to work with the client's existing army, which has the classic Tyranid colors.

Here is a test piece: one of the psychers.

Lots of kit-bashing, converting and sculpting for January, followed by a whole lot of painting in February.

Aslan's Asskickers: Game 1 Report

2012-01-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

Bob: "Looks like another great start to a Blood Bowl season!

Two big and bashing teams, just like I like 'em!"

Jim: "That's right Bob! They may be young and unskilled but that certainly won't stop them from beating each other to pulp!"

Bob: "Too true Jim, too true... reminds me of my first season when-"

Jim: "Not now Bob, the players are about to hit the pitch! Tonight's match is between the Red Boyz from some barren wasteland Orc village somewhere or other, and an allied pact of forest animals and fauns! Well my, isn't that sweet? Blech!"

Bob: "Sweet? That bear is as big as I am! And that's the meanest looking deer I've ever seen."

Jim: "Yes, I suppose you do have a point there Bob. Ah! The coin is in the air, and the Orcs have called it and elect to kick..."

Our league began last night- not the best turn out- hope we pick up some more players.

League construction this time is an extra 50k for buying your team along with granting 2 players one standard rolled skill each. These players would start the league with 6 Star Player points to reflect that.

The idea is to hit the ground running, so if some people can't make every game they still have some development.

My team, the 'Aslan's Asskickers' a ~~Chaos~~ Narnia Pact team consisted of:

* All three Big Guys: Troll, Ogre, Minotaur

* All thee Renegades: Dark Elf, Skaven, Goblin

* 5 Marauders

* 3 Rerolls

* 3 Fan Factor.

* additional skills went to the Elf: Block, and a Marauder: Leader (for 4 Rerolls: I know I'll need them!)

Common wisdom seems to say dodge for the elf's first skill- but I figured I'd trust in his agility 4, and for trying to score, block is as defensive as dodge (both eliminate 1 die-side of being knocked down), but block is more useful as a deep safety: eventually I'd like the ~~marauders~~ fauns to be the ball carriers- so this let's the elf play both rolls for awhile.

Many people also seem to not rate the skaven: preferring another Marauder with better armor over the Skaven's extra movement. I figured the extra move might be useful now and then, plus the ferret adds to the visual appeal of the team: no contest then: he's in.

My opponent's team was Orcs:

4 blitzers, 4 black orcs, thrower, 2 line orcs, 4 rerolls. he had guard on a black orc and block on the thrower.

I knew this would be a tough match- I have 3 strength 5 to his 4 strength 4, but he does have guard and my big guys have reliability issues. Beyond that he's got 5 block to my 1, and he's got sure hands and pass. I'm feeling totally outclassed at this point- which is expected when fielding a tier 2 team, but never underestimate the intimidation factor of seeing 3 big guys facing you!

He kicked to me and Nuffle laughed at me right from the start: Blitz! Dang! I'd even set up to blitz-push a black orc off the field too.. no chance now! He gets a faun knocked out in his blitz action, so I start the game with 1 guy down. Well, that's Blood Bowl!

The kick goes very deep, the Elf is back there to get it- she does. My turn ends half way through because the Mino gets a both down result- I saw an easy way for him to push down toward my elf, so I tried to reroll the mino's block- nope, wasted reroll. Well, that's why I have four of them.

He pushes for my elf- takes 2 go-for-its to blitz,fails the 2nd, reroll is fine hits my elf for one die, and stuns himself! Lucky break. I move the elf away, knock some around, make a pass, pass animosity, catch, and head to score with a faun. I score on turn 4.

My knocked out faun stays in the box. I kick to the orcs and try to hold him- but it's not easy. In that part of the first half he injured a faun & the ~~skaven~~ ferret, and I injured a black orc: not too bad of an exchange.

Turn 8 a blitzer has the ball, I have one chance for a 1 die blitz with the elf- dodge out: 1. that was that. Maybe I should have taken dodge- but a 1 is a 1.. if i'd have had dodge it could just as easily been a both down result and the elf would have gone down. ah well, that's why everyone loves blodgers! he scores to tie it up at the half.

My faun comes back, so I'm at 9 players to his 10. I kick, he moves down my right side, driving with 2 black orcs. When I put pressure on the thrower, he throws to a black orc! Madness! but he catches it! Now I'm looking at my big guys tied up and wondering how I'm going to blitz a black orc! But I managed- ~~goblin~~ frog runs over to lend an assist and then a faun blitzes him for 1 die: black orc goes down, faun jumps in and picks up the ball! but he's exposed - I'd already used my reroll that turn so I didn't trust 2 go for it to get to a spot only marginally safer. The faun as expected got blitzed and the ball scattered- but he couldn't retrieve it, I moved in, scooped it with the elf and headed for the left side. Repeat of last: get to a faun and ran it in after another turn. Score is now 2-1. I'd also injured a blitzer and knocked 2 players out & he knocked out my elf.

Both his knocked outs come back, my elf doesn't- so I'm at 8 players to his 9. I kick to him and my turn for the blitz! Maybe things swing my way! His thrower had caught the ball, so I ran and go for it to get on his tackle zone. He drove down, and it didn't look good. I did knock the ball out, got it with the frog, made his roll, passed, and caught! but that faun went down and soon the orcs scored again: 2-2.

He kicks and the clock goes forward, so I have only 1 turn left to score.. I luckily had set up for the possible throw team mate 1 turn score, but the ball went to the far corner and I had no rerolls- it didn't look good.

So I took some easy blocks with big guys first, hoping for some star player points, the mino pushed a lineman, and on the second hit got both down.. so much for the one-turn touchdown play! Both the orc & elk broke armor!

The elk was just stunned but the orc? He was torn apart: Dead!

Yikes! What a way to end a game: give the fans what they came to see!

The Game ends in a tie: 2-2, with the orcs sustaining 3 injuries and the pact sustaining 2.

All in all I'm pleased with the first game: a tie against an orc team isn't bad at all! I fully expected to lose the first game, just hoping I'd not take any serious damage and get some development toward some skills.

The orcs made 50k: which got spent right away to buy a replacement line orc. Insult to injury: his MVP went to the dead orc! I made 60k, so bought an apothecary. He got one skill roll: guard for a blitzer, I didn't get any skill rolls: but have a nice spread around of SPP so some development should happen soon.

I think I may switch the Bear model to be the Ogre and Boar to be the Troll.. a couple people assumed that was how it was.I thought an Ogre & Pig would have cultural similarities, and a bear, not the most troll-like comparison, but could see it either way.

Until next game...

Movies to Game By: Review of Conan the Barbarian

2012-01-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

Another review for Movies to Game By. This time it's the latest telling of 'Conan the Barbarian', from 2011.

This movie got slammed by critics. Rotten Tomatoes has critics at 23% and audience at 33%.

Not a good sign.

The original, 30 years ago, scores 75% and 66%, which brings up some interesting comparisons.

For me, I enjoyed the movie. I don't think a movie like 'Conan' is going to be general-audience. I certainly can't picture my mother watching it.... or my sister, either of them- ok probably not even my father.. I'm now wondering if I am adopted. At any rate, I suspect that there are large segments of the population that would be adverse to this movie on genre alone, although the fact that audience rates the original twice as favorably makes me wonder if nostalgia has an influence.

So, on to the movie:

The cast is good. Jason Momoa makes a convincing Conan, although there is a scene where he's asked his name and my MST3K trained brain replied "Drogo". Similarly, Ron Perlman makes a good barbarian father, but when he claims young Conan as his son, I did have a "I thought Jacks was your son?" moment.

All that aside, the movie creates a very good atmosphere. I didn't see it in 3D, but even in 2D the movie is rich with beautiful landscapes. Snow covered forest, mountain forests, desert ruins, tropical coast, and more: lots of gorgeous settings. That's one thing this movie has over the original: the setting feels more like an epic, while the original has that "Spaghetti Fantasy" feel to the setting, so common from the 1980's.

There is one moment of unforgivable cheese that is just jarring. A severed head falls to the ground, rolls, and suddenly the eyes open as if it is surprised. Who let the director of "Tales from the Crypt" on the set? Someone needs to be kicked. Aside from that moment the rest was fairly high-road.

The story is simple: one man's quest for revenge. He's very single-minded about it, even putting the heroine at risk for his pursuit. I'm guessing that lost a large part of the audience support. A modern audience won't tolerate a hero that isn't selfless... he does come around a bit at the end though- but I won't give too much of a spoiler as to how.. it is a bit subtle and I think a lot of the audience probably missed it. There is also an undertone of incest and you're going to get some repulsion from that as well.

The fight scenes are well done, special effects are good, and gore-level not over the top.

This movie has some good gaming moments. It makes me want to pick up some of the excellent 15mm Copplestone barbarians:

Copplestone's 15mm Fantasy

I can see two good table-top applications right away:

The opening flight & fight scene would make a good con-style game: each player controlling a barbarian, with egg in his mouth, that must run an obstacle course of fallen trees, rocks, fend off non-lethal attacks from fellow barbarians and lethal attacks of the enemy tribe, with each challenge having a difficulty level. A player that fails a challenge would have a difficult saving throw for the egg, if succeeding at the challenge an easy saving throw for the egg: a player could chose to add modifiers from a pool of luck that he starts with from the beginning. First to make it safely back to the village with the egg in one piece wins.

The desert ruin scene. This has gaming written all over it. Great for tabletop and RPG both. The sand-elemental people are very fragile: hit them and they collapse back into sand, but they're also deadly: they can do damage and they pop back up somewhere else. Making minis for these would be pretty easy. The Mantic ghouls, painted like sand would be ideal, and easy. This would make a good solo-minis game as well. Each turn d3 sand elementals will appear. To find their location, select the target hero, roll a direction scatter die and a d6 to find the direction and distance of the elemental's location. To defeat the challenge, the hero must drive off the controlling sorceress, but getting there alive won't be possible if he ignores the elementals. To make it more difficult, he also has to protect the woman he is with. For an even greater challenge, if a 1 is rolled for the number of sand elementals, then there will also be an additional elemental appearing near the woman the hero is trying to defend: roll for distance and scatter in the same way as the others, except the elemental's location is based on her location.

Speaking of the sorceress, Rose McGowen made a good & creepy one...

Would have made a great villain on 'Farscape' or maybe a Sith Lord.

The rating system I use is based on old D&D armor class: the easier it is to hit, the better! So AC 10 is a winner, AC 0 is so hard to hit that you're likely to have no fun at all.

I give this move an Armor Class of 6. You get +1 to hit if you really enjoy visual atmosphere. I don't think it's nearly as bad as critics have said and I think the polling audience is likely not the intended audience, or they were just expecting too much. There are certainly a lot better fantasy movies out there... this isn't Lord of the Rings by any stretch, but it's easily enjoyable. It also give a lot of ideas and inspiration for table-top and RPG gaming. I'd recommend it.

Aslan's Asskickers: Narnia Pact Blood Bowl Team: Guessing Game Concludes

2012-01-03T02:24:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed playing the little guessing game, slowly revealing my next Blood Bowl team.

I was very surprised the theme was guessed so fast, but not surprised it took awhile to have the correct roster guessed: it's one of the three newest "Official teams that everyone except GW accepts as canon". GW pulled their support of the three teams in what seems to me like pouting that independent companies make minis that are compatible with Blood Bowl, despite that GW seems to have no interest in creating many of the minis that these independent companies create to fill such gaps, or to update a line that is pushing two decades.

But I digress. The roster was correctly guessed by Hippy Killer: Chaos Pact. Good Guessing HK!

If you're not familiar with the roster, Chaos Pact is a team that was designed to allow for a team that could (with proper development) recreate the original 'Chaos All Stars' team: a motley band of mutants and malicious malcontents.

The Chaos Pact is the only team that can roster three big guys! ( O.K., Ogre Teams can have six, but the rest of the team are strength 1 snotlings... ) Making it appealing for modeling potential.
It can have a Minotaur, a Troll, and an Ogre. In addition to the strength of these big guys, they also all can have mutations on doubles-rolls (great for the Troll & Ogre, same for the Minotaur of the Chaos Dwarves, though Chaos proper can have Minotaurs with mutations on standard rolls). But before you get too excited or ready to yell cheese, remember that this is 3 team members who all have 'loner' (must roll a 4+ to use re-rolls) and each have a negative trait. That adds up to a 50% chance to have one of them fail their negative trait roll each turn. Troublesome to say the least.

The Chaos Pact can also have three special players: a goblin, a dark elf, and a skaven. They're all basic linemen of their type, but they can have mutations as standard skills. Lots of interesting possibilities for team development.

The lineman for the team is a 'Chaos Marauder" which is a standard human lineman, except that in addition to general skills can have any skills on standard rolls, including mutations (!) except for agility, which is on doubles.

The bad news is, the team has few skills to start, and rerolls are prohibitively expensive.

So here is the team, ready for paint:

(click for larger image)

I wanted a non-chaos theme for the team. When I placed an order with Warploque miniatures for a troll and the halflings I also picked up three animal heads from the conversion bits section. These are heads for his upcoming minotaur, and included a bull, boar & elk. The sculpting is really top-notch. But I wasn't sure what to do with them. I started thinking of blood bowl conversions, and thought a 'forest theme' team would be fun.. but what roster to pick? Looking through the list I decided Chaos Pact would give me a lot of variety, and let me use all the heads! But I decided a Bull isn't very 'foresty' so the Elk would be the Minotaur, and the boar would make a good Ogre... I'd need another big animal for the Troll.. looking through my 'bits closet' I found I had the big Reaper bear and that was that. Also found was the reaper faerie blister. I had picked up the Otherworld Miniatures' Giant Weasels, because they're amazing, and I wanted to paint a ferret (of course). A goblin? I looked through my 15mm fantasy minis and snuck out a Frog for a goblin, and later a Beaver for a coach, since a Beaver was a help & planner in the Narnia books. Linemen would have to be Fauns, and the new Beastmen Ungors were perfect.

Speaking of the Fauns, I didn't have a chance to show them yet, so let's take a closer look:

Here is a couple before green stuff. These two seemed more suited to creating a more dynamic pose than some of the others. Legs were cut, re positioned, and so a running pose was made. I made a couple 'runner' types, a couple 'guarder' types and then 4 'general purpose' types, just so I'd have some variety of poses for their development.

Here are four that are 'general purpose' poses,after green stuff for fill & creating shoulder pads.

And the two runner types at either end, with the guarder types.. well i messed up the photo, 2nd from the left and the one at far right in the picture above it are the two 'guards'. First to get the guard skill will be the 2nd from the left, he has a 'gargoyle' look to him.

Oh, and lastly the coach. Kind of hard to see bare metal minis, but here is the beaver, sporting his coach hat:

Next for this team is some paint!

The original Chaos All-Stars, from the Dawn of Man:

The history of this team can be found here:

http://www.blood-bowl-miniatures.de/bb/bb_chaoscup_LE.html

Guessing Game: 6th Hint

2012-01-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Getting very close now..
We've had the guesses of Wood Elf, Norse, Halfling, Goblin, Chaos Dwarf, Skaven and Underworld, but the correct roster is still eluding the guessers for the Narnia-themed Blood Bowl Team.

Here is another mini hint:

And another hint:

In case the possible Star Players are distracting you with their possibilities factoring in, don't let them!

This team is being made with only standard rostered players: Not a single Star Player among them.

So what is your guess? Now that there are a lot of players revealed, when you guess, also, what players do you think each mini represents?

2011: My Year in Review & the Plans of 2012

2012-01-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

It's that time again: Happy New Year wishes, resolutions to make (that likely go unrealized) and a look back on the previous year.

2011 for me was like most years: a mix of good and bad.

At the low end of the scale, the economy pushed me to sell my house that I'd like to have kept and rented, but the possibilities of the next couple years meant that was a bad idea. My plans to move to Belarus and expand my business there became permanently deleted as the country is in a complete meltdown. Amazing what one year can do: the previous year I spent a good part of it in Belarus and everything looked promising for at least a long-term temporary move, if not permanent, but the end of 2010 saw the economy crashing and the political situation take a serious turn for the worst. So that plan had to change and now we're in the long, more complicated process of my fiancee moving here instead. Not really what I wanted: I love to travel and live in other countries, for as long as I can: it's one reason I pursued miniature painting for a career since it's very portable. As long as I have internet access & a post office I can do my job. If her moving here doesn't happen (there are no guarantees where governments get involved) then 2012 could shape up to be very interesting, since we'll be shopping for a 3rd, new country to live in. Because of all this, I wasn't able to take the time or the money for any international trip this year, and am starting to feel like the animal pacing the cage.

On the good end of the spectrum of 2011 I found a great local gaming group that plays a wide variety of genres. I have a wide interest in minis gaming, so it was very fortunate to stumble into them, which was actually a result of gaming blogs! I started following Alfrik's Armored Ink (link in the blog roll to left) loving the Venus updates when I realized he was local! Sent a message and ended up jumping into the campaign, a bit late, but they wedged me in. That gave me motivation to start painting my Quar. When the Venus campaign faded off we started up the Weird World War II gaming, which got me excited to create 2 new projects: The Belgian Liberation Army and Frau Tottenkinder's Fable Ahnenerbe force.

The other gaming group, the 'alternating Wednesday' group got me playing some Blood Bowl as well as Legends of the Old West, which I had great fun with too. The local game store, Great Escape Games in Sacramento, California has a good crowd and lots of gaming. Unfortunately most seems to happen on Fridays, so while I'd like to play some Mordheim and Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle too, there is just too much to do in a limited amount of time, which is a better problem than the inverse.

I've been calling 2011 'The Year of Blood Bowl' -though it remains to be seen if 2012 won't be even more so. Though most were commissions, I painted 15 Blood Bowl teams in 2012. I also have a couple unfinished teams of my own and 2 other commission teams that will get finished shortly. The Blood Bowl year started in January with painting my Gator team, and soon I had more team commissions than I could keep up with.

One way I keep track of my hobby painting in the year is the 'Hobby Pledge' -I started keeping track of it on The Warhammer Forum, and other forums have similar systems.

Just by way of reference, in 2010 I bought 249 miniatures and painted 307.

in 2011 I bought 555 miniatures and painted 405. (pure hobby, no commission pieces in this tally)

Two things to notice here:

1. I bought a lot more minis this year.

2. I painted more, but not as many as I bought.

Why did I buy more? Well, for one thing I wasn't out of the country for half the year. Who says traveling is expensive? Just look at all the money you save by not buying minis! But also, there was just a lot of good, tempting releases this year...

So what is ahead for 2012?

I'm afraid I won't have much chance for much hobby painting, as the commission calender is booked solid and into overtime for the first couple months.

But I have some hobby goals:

1. Paint some more Blood Bowl for me: Narnia team needs to be done soon, and I'd like to get at the 2nd edition teams this year too.

2. Spaceships: Paint the new War Rocket fleets I just got as well as my GZG Spaceships that have been waiting in orbit for a few years.

3. Paint more of the Quar army. 2012 will likely see the start of the next VSF campaign that will take place on the moon. I won't be rebasing the minis! I also picked up an Aeronef fleet for the Quar, since the campaign will have airship battles as part of it. Really looking forward to painting that fleet.

4. Paint my Twilight Fubarnii! I love those minis, and it bugs me that I haven't painted them yet. A lot has to do with the 'squeaky wheel' but also, I want them to be as high of quality as the Devanu, which requires the time to commit to them.

5. Paint the Warploque Halflings.. he's got more coming soon: archers.. so i'll have a nice Mordheim/Songs of Blades and Heroes force.

6. Paint the Gladiators and get some kind of arena made.

7. Paint my Pulp Prehistory and get on with completing the play test rules I'm writing.

8. SAGA: My Normans are ready to start painting... now I just have to be ready too.

9. The Draniki: a massive army that I loved putting together, and even got a chance to paint some for VSF use in 2011... will the wheel squeak enough to bring them to the for front? I designed them for a 'counts-as' 40k Ork army, just so I'd have a chance to put them on the table.. problem is, I don't really enjoy that game- the rules.. well, this is long enough already... but they fall into the category of 'Like-minded opponent and agreed upon modifications required'.

10. We have 'Legends of the High Seas' starting up, and my as-yet unpainted Privateers will be hitting the ports!

I'm sure a great deal of this will go undone, but hopefully not a lot of new things cutting in line, though if 2012 is anything like 2011 then that isn't a very safe bet.

I started the blog in 2011, and have really enjoyed posting the updates, reading the comments and meeting so many fun folks. I'll keep it all going in 2012, so stay tuned.

And be careful out there.. there's a New Year ahead of you!

Obligatory song.. enjoy!

Guessing Game: 5th Hint

2012-01-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

Possibilities for which roster the Narnia-theme Blood Bowl team could be are narrowing down...

Guessed so far is goblin, halfling, chaos dwarf and norse, but no... it's something else...

Here's another hint:

Further hint: This is the first mini I've shown that is a stunty. The others were Strength 3 and Strength 5.

Guessing Game: 4th Hint

2011-12-31T11:27:00.000-08:00

No progress on the guessing from the last picture... could be harder for the more casually acquainted with Blood Bowl, since you'd need to know what rosters exist to have a guess at which one the Narnia team might be...

But I'll put up another picture and see what happens.. I know some of you out there play Blood Bowl and might guess it.

Here's mini #4:

Hint: the fact that I can have this guy as well as the bear eliminates over 80% of the teams as possible choices.

More to come, as well as a 2011 wrap up and look toward 2012.

Guessing Game: 3rd Hint

2011-12-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

Both Michael Awdrey & Brummie both guessed Narnia for the team's theme and they're right!

I think the last mini might have mislead but in a coincidentally correct direction... some good guessing! Time for those two to go pick some lottery numbers!

So you now know it is a Narnia themed Blood Bowl team, only one question remains: What Roster is it based on?

No fair just guessing them all! ;)

Here's your next mini-hint:

New & Improved Monkey Pirate! Now with More Monkey Fur in Every Bite!

2011-12-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

On inquiry by Alfrik I gave a second look at the monkey pirate and agreed: needs more monkey hair.

So here he is:

If you find hair in your grog, there's a good chance Chim got there first.

Guessing Game: 2nd Hint

2011-12-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Alfrik, Michael Awdry & Nazgob for guessing on the right track: the project is indeed a Blood Bowl team. - Leave it to Bill to put yet another epic-goof idea in my head.. now I'm thinking about Hampster armies..

What remains is to determine what the team & theme is. No fair just guessing them all!

Here is the next mini-hint:

Know yet?

Commence Guessing!

In the mean-time I can now show you more of the bear, since you know he's for Blood Bowl now:

Still some smoothing to do on tje back of the shoulder pad & strap, maybe with some fur going over the strap a bit.

Next Project: Guessing Game! Ready?

2011-12-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

Hangman, Pictionary, Charades, 20 Questions... people seem to like guessing games, so I thought it could be fun to create one with my next project.

I'll post one mini at a time, sometimes it might be complete before painting or still a conversion work-in-progress, and see how soon you can guess what the project is. I'll drop hints or hot & cold when it seems appropriate.

Here is the first Mini:

I'll even start off with a hint:

1. It is for a new project: not adding to a current force of any kind.

Monkey Pirate!

2011-12-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

In January the local every other Wednesday group is starting up a Legends of the High Seas league.
I dug out a bunch of old Foundry pirates I got ... yikes.. 10 years ago? Stripped the ones that had some paint and re-based them.

I think I'll be running a Privateer force... though for the life of me I don't see the advantage... Pirates have good morale and are cheep, Royal Navy gets good marines and can have bayonets. Privateers? lower morale, and more expensive mercs since they're good at shooting and a higher strength... but if you're shooting you're not using the strength, if you're in combat for the strength you're not shooting.. so I don't know what I'm supposed to make of the roster, but I've always liked the idea of privateers, plus the list does have a cabin boy!

Which got me to thinking about adding a mini to the force.. Reaper makes a 'Goblin Pirate' that I have always liked, and I had it in mind to convert him into a Monkey Pirate!

Here is the Reaper mini:

There is a monkey behind him, but I want the goblin to be a monkey...

Easy conversion:

1. Clip and round those pointed ears.

2. Build up a face muzzle with green stuff and redefine a nose.

3. Drill his backside (OK I've tried a few ways to say this and they all sound a bit naughty) and put a wire in it, bend and dip the end of the wire into liquid Green Stuff. -Normally i'd use regular Green Stuff, but since I recently picked up a pot of Liquid to try it out, it's perfect for this: Dip & done.

Here he is:

A curious fellow the crew picked up off the coast of Sumatra...

is he a monkey? An oddly formed young man? A Monkey man?

OK, so I've used this song once before... but it's even more appropriate now, and besides- it's not like you can listen to this song too much!

Enjoy!

Leatherhead Troll is Painted: Converted Warploque Troll for Blood Bowl

2011-12-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

I finished painting my converted Troll for Blood Bowl.

Such a nice sculpt from Warploque that I almost didn't have the heart to convert him.

I wasn't sure about the color for the shirt.. i was thinking brown, since he'll probably end up on my 'Hobgoblin' team, which I'd been thinking would have brown uniforms- but brown didn't seem right for him- so I went with black for the contrast. I almost painted a black & white check along the bottom of the shirt, but it's so torn & tattered I think the impression would have got lost. Plus I'd had in mind recently to paint a team with black & ivory uniforms... the local Blood Bowl league starts in early January, but I can't play test the hobgoblins.. so maybe I thought I'd paint up the 2nd edition orcs for it.. but then do I keep the team 2nd edition and use the 2nd edition troll? or this guy who I think is light years better? Indecision. I'd also thought about making a Chaos Pact team.. he'd make a good troll for that...

So not sure yet which team he'll find a home on, but here he is :

Click for a larger view.

I'm entering him in the December painting challenge on TalkFantasyFootball.. wish him luck!

Mars Needs Our Santa: Happy Xmas Everyone!

2011-12-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

The finest Christmas Tradition:

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Worth seeing the whole film of course, easily in my top 5 MST3K episodes.
But for a quick impression, go to about 9 minutes in on part 1.
-though you'll miss Crow's most classic line if you do.

Part 1:

Santa: "We're going out the old-fashioned way... Guns a'blazen."
Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Tis the Season... for Krampus!

2011-12-24T02:38:00.000-08:00

Hand in hand with Santa this time of year, it's also time for Krampus!

Happy Krampus Day everyone!

I'm sure you've been at least just a bit bad, but my most sincere holiday wishes that you don't merit too many lashes from birch branches and rusty chains!

Hope he treats you better than this naughty brat!

You might find yourself wishing for the modest rebuke of Santa's Coal!

Santa knows if you've been good or bad....
and he also knows the value of terrifyingly brutal Negative Reinforcement.

... Eyes off the apples kid! Those are for good boys & girls!

Although... some may enjoy the attentions of Krampus...

The less said about this... the better.

What will Santa do with all of the naughty children Krampus collects?

Well, you didn't actually believe that Elves make Santa's toys did you?
I'm afraid a life of forced servitude in an arctic sweatshop is what awaits these children.

Yes... Santa and Krampus have a good thing going... may you get presents, but if not... may you hide well!

Hahaha.. ah, who am I kidding? You can't hide from Krampus!

So may you have a Happy New Year instead!

For more on Krampus, visit: http://krampus.com/index.php

I'd meant to pick up and paint Krampus from Reaper Minis this year... must do it for next year:

Enjoy the film and have a chain-shaking Christmas!

Prevent the Disability of Star Wars Ignorance

2011-12-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Illustrating the dangers of Star Wars ignorance.

This holiday season, don't let this happen to someone you love.

Prevention can be had for just pennies a day.

Find Star Wars movies at Amazon, Netflix or anywhere that DVDs are sold.

Thank you.

Leatherhead Troll: Blood Bowl Conversion Complete

2011-12-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

Finished the conversion part of the Troll for my 'Hobgoblin' team.
Since th last update I gave him a tattered shirt, since trolls don't take good care of their stuff, and it'd have to be torn some to get him to fit into it, and I added a bracelet. Then based of course. He's a big troll, so I went with a non-beveled edge 40mm base, for those extra few precious millimeters of surface area.

Here he is:

And around the different angles:

Now to find time in what remains of this busy month to get him in by the end of December deadline...

Though I might add some stitching to help define the sleeve to torso connection of the shirt. Don't know yet.

Weird World War II Battle: one of last tests

2011-12-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

On Friday we rolled up our starting territories for the campaign, which will start in January, and had a big 3 player per side battle.

Polish, American & Russian on one side against 2 Germans and Belgians on the other (one guy borrowed my BLA to jump in and play).

There was a lot of wetland areas, so I dubbed the battlefield to be in Belarus.

We had to stop before a real conclusion could be made- discussion of how to handle summoned creatures slowed it down, but it was a good game. The allies had more vehicles, our side had more supers- but they didn't get a chance to close, so the fact the battle seemed pretty even means we were getting pretty lucky I think. It's hard when guns have good ranges and no one wants to cross open no-man's land: supers have a tough time getting to where they need to be. The Americans solved that problem with a henchman squad of jump-pack troops armed with a bazooka team.. scary stuff! But Frau Totenkinder summoned some zombies close enough to charge them and eventually the spooked Americans retreated back to their end of the field.

Here's some pictures:

The Polish army with their mud-golem tanks.

Part of Frau Totenkinder's Ahnenerbe force. Here you can see the new Panzer I tanks most recently finished that I haven't had time to photo yet. They're very cheap tanks and without an anti-tank gun, but they're good against infantry, and I made some amazing lucky armor saves with them, which was quite fun. My forces were on the corner, facing off against the Polish army.

A Stalking Panzer IV crests the hill to fire at the largest Polish tank,...

Success! Nice shooting.

One Panzer I down, but the other survived the next 3 hits it took! Which is about 3 more than you'd expect.

Knowing the German tendency to run through Belgians, the men & monkeys of the BLA decided to move behind the center player's tanks, but the bottleneck slowed the advance.

Agents of the Ahnenerbe: Red & Wulf

2011-12-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

One of Frau Totenkinder's oldest extensions, possibly back to the stone age, is Wolf.
A force born of mankind's fear of the natural world around them, Wolf, sometimes known as Big Bad Wolf, and now identified simply as code name Wulf, is the most dangerous of Frau Totenkinder's minions.

Some may mistake him for a werewolf, but such underestimation will only hasten their demise.

His howl can freeze men in their tracks. His breath can blow a tempest, sending debris blasting out like a gigantic shotgun, and he is unimaginably fast and strong.

Wulf is accompanied by Red, the most recent human soul grafted to his expression by Frau Totenkinder.

Now an ally of the Wolf, she aids him with covering fire and as an energy pool.
Their symbiotic nature is only fully comprehended by Totenkinder of course, but the soldiers of the Ahnenerbe give her a wide berth of fear and respect.

On to the pictures...

Red:

Armed with a compact Light Machine Gun, she's much to be feared in her own right.

Wulf:

Click for larger image.

The duo:

Leatherhead Troll: Blood Bowl Conversion W.I.P.

2011-12-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

I'd planned on converting a troll for my 'Hobgoblin' Blood Bowl team for awhile now, and this month's Talk Fantasy Football painting challenge is for a Big Guy, so seemed like good timing. This is a terribly busy month however: holiday travel, a couple commissions on deadline and working on some test pieces for a possible very large army for January/February.. so we'll see if it can be done. Even with a lot of work projects, I still try to do a bit for myself, to cleanse the pallet, relax and all that.

I selected the 'Hill Troll' from Warploque Miniatures (You'll find a link to the left under 'Places to Go').

This is a great troll with a lot of character. I used the river troll for my Underworld team, so I am looking forward to my second troll from Warploque. The pose is ideal for Blood Bowl: a three-point stance:

Look at him! He's just so very cool.

I'd be happy to use him just like he is, but I thought I'd 'Blood Bowl' him up a bit.

To dedicate him to a life on the pitch, he'd need a helmet. But the Hobgoblins I'm going to use are the new Greebo ones, and they have some soft caps, so I decided he'd have to have an old fashioned 'Leatherhead' Leather Helmet. Leatherheads is an awesome funny movie by the way, worth seeing. I made a couple of these helmets before on the Undead Recyler team, and figured it'd be good for a troll, who probably wouldn't fit his large misshapen head into a standard helmet. He'd also need a couple armor pads.

Here he is at the moment:

I'm probably going to add a torn, stretched jersey.. something that looks like it's Black orc sized that he's tried to squeeze into.

What do you think?

I like this miniature so much I had to buy a second one, while Warploque has it's Holiday special going on (free shipping) since as much as i like this conversion so far I also want to have him as he was meant to be- so i'll paint him up in all his nekkid glory for a Mordheim/Songs of Blades & Heroes warband.

More to come!

Rats! Infest the Pitch.

2011-12-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Impact! Miniatures just released three new sculpts for the Ratmen line for Elf Ball and Fantasy Football in general.

To keep them all the same I painted one of each in the line, including the three new sculpts.

Here is the set:

If I can rope a local or few into trying Elfball this is the team I'd want to play.

I have to admit, I had my doubts about the line originally. I think a lot of that had to do with the photos.

These are very dynamic miniatures. As such, they can be hard to photo, since just the slight wrong angle of the camera can 'flatten' the impression of the mini and make it look awkward, something that the human eye seems to have no such deficiency. So when the miniatures arrived my opinion immediately started changing.

These are Cool miniatures.

By way of review, be prepared to spend a lot of time in the assembly phase. Metal minis tend to be quicker to assemble than plastic kits, but not these. There are a lot of spikes, and those always take time to clean up properly. When I deal with spikes, I file them a bit, rounding the points, because that's the first spot that paint will chip or wear through.

Some of them are a bit fiddly to assemble too. They are gracile, dynamic, and of course have separate tails. So take your time, it's well worth it. The thrower wasn't intuitive to me on how to assemble him, the upper and lower body look like they'll fold together too much, until you get the right angle then I had an 'ah ha' moment and really appreciated the design.

So let's take a closer look at each of them:

Hands down I think this is the best fantasy football intended 'Big Rat' I have ever seen. There are a few from various companies out there and without bias I can say this is my favorite. The foot he's resting on is the only weak area of the sculpt- but it's still decent. He's got a great pose, and his bulk is undeniable, even while crouching down. He has an old battle scar across one eye: nice touch.

This guy is easily one of my favorites in the line, probably tied for top favorite.

He'd make an excellent Blitzer.

I picked different poses than the group shot- he looks good from every angle.

The thrower is nearly as dynamic. Nice detail that he's got a mechanical arm.

The female rat. Not many female ratman sculpts out there. This is tied with my favorite in the line. Great pose and a lot of potential. I have some conversion ideas in mind for this mini.

Another of the new sculpts. This one has 3 little rats with him. Very fun sculpt.

Your basic half-timid linerat. I really like the variety of armor pieces, that they have a similar style, but it isn't a uniform uniform if you know what I mean. Seems right for rats.

A speedy rat. This would make a good runner position, but with that claw, I could see him as a dynamic blitzer too. This would make a nice set to base the Skaven for an Underworld team from.

For Underworld, this one and the Blitzer would make the ideal Storm Vermin.

Catcher. Doesn't get much more dynamic than that.

Lastly the coach. Nice to have a staff mini. Have to admit it's my least favorite of the set. The head is great: quality & character like the rest, but the body seems too thin to me and stands too stiff & straight in the legs.

That said, it is just the coach, so if there has to be a weaker sculpt it's nice that it isn't a player on the team. The hook is a nice touch, and I've certainly seen worse. If you have some moderate sculpting skills it wouldn't be hard to bulk out the thigh area to give him a more rat-haunches look.

All in all this is a very nice solid team set in my opinion. For a full Blood Bowl team you'll have some duplicates- but that's pretty common for most metal teams, and for the skaven portion of Underworld, Blood Bowl 7's, Street Ball or Elf Ball you might not have a single duplicate.

Using my Review system:

Rating:

Casting: 10/10

Cleverness of Design: 9/10

Aesthetics: 10/10

Just think what you can accomplish with some rats...

Enjoy!

Warning: Film Clip not appropriate for non-violent viewing or those with phobia of rats.

Apes: Gibbons you say?

2011-12-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

The Apes of Wrath Kickstarter has just 14 hours left as I type this.

They've met their goal, but what is further on the line is:

If it reaches $5,000 then Chance will get an Ape Tattoo.

If it reaches $5,200 then they will add a sculpt for a Gibbon! That does sound promising.

Already added:

*Each Gorilla will have an additional alternate set of arms to create variety
*The minis will come with bits: add-on shorts & football armor to create further variety.

So if you're an ape purist or just fancy having some gibbons around, hurry up before it's too late!

Don't make Baby Gorilla cry!

"I can't help thinking... there has to be something better than man"

Ape Blood Bowl: toying with team building

2011-12-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I made a roster for a Hobgoblin Blood Bowl team, and now that the Apes met their kickstarter goal, they will be a reality. Which, don't forget, you can still support it at Kickstarter, and Chance will get an Ape tattoo if it reaches the $5k mark! Also, Impact has said they'll be making an alternate set of arms for each Gorilla as well as bits of add-on short pants and armor gear! Very cool. Just go back a couple updates to find the link to get to the kickstarter apes!

Back to the topic at hand: Blood Bowl Ape Roster.
Apes could represent a lot of teams: Ogre, Orc, Chaos, Chaos Dwarves...
but what about an Ape for Ape sake team?

After some thought, I set up the goals for my vision of an Ape team:

1. Have position players for the minis that are being created. This is: Orangutan thrower, Chimp linemen, Chimp runners, Gorilla Blockers and Gorilla Blitzers. I also added a 'Silverback' as a Big Guy: Impact is offering Gorillataur minis in some sets, and Reaper & other manufactures have some super-sized Gorillas ... and I figure people will want some kind of centerpiece 'King Kong' type model.

2. Strong, moderate speed and agility. Some apes can do amazing moves in the trees, but a pitch is just flat grass. So I decided the team is best kept at Agility 3. However, Chimp runners would have agility access on standard rolls. I at first thought all chimps should have agility access on standard skill rolls, but then thought better of it: I didn't want the linechimps to eclipse the chimp runners. Gorillas are strength 4 and would have access to strength and general skills on standard rolls.

3. Different play style. I wanted to avoid something as simple as hairy orcs. I also want the team to be a bit more challenging. So that means different starting skills than are normally seen. Chimp runners start with Fend, which helps them carry the ball safely, and adds to their flavor of being agile. Orangutans start with Sure Hands and Strong Arm. They have long strong arms, so it makes sense. It also means they have effectively +1 to throw, but without the standard 'Pass' skill reroll that other agility 3 throwers get.
Gorilla Blockers have Grab (since they are strong and have long arms) and Gorilla Blitzers have Juggernaut, since they charge like a freight train. The Silverback has the negative trait Wild Animal (seemed appropriate) and the positive trait Mighty Blow (as do all Big Guys) and Stand Firm.

- Glaring obvious: no starting Block skill. Apes are new to Blood Bowl. They have to learn Block. And that will make the team very different from most teams. The combo of Fend, Stand Firm, Grab & Juggernaut should create a team that has a lot of opportunity to decide where their pieces will be on the field as well as the ability to influence where opponent players end up on the field. I think it'd end up being an interesting team to play.

So here's how the roster looks:

I kept the Gorilla positions to 0-2 each, rather than 4. Some of the sets on kickstarter have as many as 8 Gorillas, since the Orc roster has 4 Blitzers & 4 Black Orc Blockers, but I didn't want the Ape team to have the same dilemma that the Orc team has: almost no linemen get used. I think it's a better balance with Blitzers and Blockers limited to 2 each, especially since both types are strength 4. I didn't want 8 Strength 4 players on the field- that would overshadow the Lizardman team.

Ballad of the Big Blue Dragon

2011-12-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

There are many tales of slaying dragons, but not many of bringing a slain dragon back to life, yet earlier this year I was asked to do just that. Someone had painted one of the enormous Reaper Dragons and done a nice job at it too. Unfortunately, it had not survived the dragonslayers employed by the Postal Service. It also hadn't been pinned. Which surprised me. This dragon, Guath, is at least a few pounds in weight, and some of the parts, such as the long neck and outstretched wings have very small stubby connectors. I hope the designers don't actually expect this miniature to be assembled by these and glue alone. But apparently some had thought that was reasonable, and gave it no more to reinforce it than glue. It arrived to the customer broken into many pieces, the paint job hopelessly ruined: large flakes of paint pealed away and most of the textured areas looking like road-rash. Such a shame.

I let it soak in Green Stuff for over a week, yet it wasn't enough to get all the paint off: the scales texture was a real pain, so I had to use pure Acetone, which worked great, but it sure isn't fun to work with. Next came cleaning and pinning. Hours of work to drill into the beast and line up the holes for pinning. But when it was all done, he was secure. Then it was just a matter of painting in the style to match the original Reaper paint job. It's a lot harder to paint when trying to mimic someone else's choice than just going with what you'd have in your own mind: no two people are going to do it the same way, even when trying to, and there are going to be some unavoidable differences, in exact color hue, slight style differences, etc, but as requested I tried to mimic the original artist's style and intent with as few differences as I could.

The dragon was a good deal of fun to paint, and I do like the mutli-tones of blue.
Blue is just such a refreshing and appealing color to paint.
So here is the dragon, risen from the dead to live again:

Apes are a Go! But it aint over yet!

2011-12-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I posted about the epic plan for primate predominance, the 'Apes of Wrath' kickstarter for an all-Ape Blood Bowl team by Three Die Block, Zlurpcast & Impact! Miniatures.

Can you think of anything better for Christmas?

It was looking like it might fall short with just a few days left, but then a single backer jumped in for the big boy pledge of $900 ... that's a real ape enthusiast right there! I could only commit to the $68 package myself... and put the total in striking range, less than $100 of target, but as of this morning the full $4,500 has been reached!

But there is still 3 days to go before the kickstarter shuts down, and you can still get in as a Pongid Promoter and say you were there before the project evolved. As added incentive, I half-jokingly commented on Talk Fantasy Football that if it reached $5,000 then Chance should get an Ape tattoo... his reply?

SunDevil

Post subject:

Re: APES of WRATH - by 3DB, Zlurpcast and Impact!

Pitch Invader wrote:

3 days left & $34 to go? looks like you made it!

it stays up for the full time though- I think if you get to $5,000 then Chance is compelled to get an Ape Tattoo!

I would do this. No joke.

So what do you say? Give the apes a proper send off and get a Homo sapien some ink... make use of all that hairless skin!

Support the Apes here.
See details on the project in my first post on them here.

Ape taking on a Kroxigor on the pitch:

I was going to embed the classic, but YouTube prevents it.. but click to go there to see it, it's, well.. classic.

More Maude Lebowski

2011-12-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

I did a bit of conversion on the Maude Lebowski miniature, as a gift to the guy who's idea it was to create the miniature.
Legal licence may prevent making something too close to the original... I remember seeing a miniature once that was very very much like Darth Vadar, except that it had a pair of bunny ears on his helmet.. that were not too hard to remove... well, casters have limits that don't impede the converter, so here is Maude in all her hallucinated glory:

Can you spot the conversion?

Maude from the film:

If you don't remember the scene, or have never seen the movie, you owe it to yourself to watch

The Big Lebowski

War Rocket Fleets Finished

2011-12-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

I finished these fleets awhile ago, but first chance I've had to get some glamour shots...

Here are the Zenithian & Imperial War Rocket Fleets:

(Click for larger) My favorite of the pictures... The Imperial fleet plunges forward while the Zenithians begin to encircle them.

Zenithians:

I ended up going with a more saturated metallic green than the test pieces. Simple & sleek. I like these ships a lot.

Imperials:

I'm really happy with these. They were a lot more work than the Zenithians, taking over twice as long to do, with gradations in the bronze and the ivory, but worth the effort I think. Not that the transition in the ivory shows up too well in photos like this with the contrast between bright & black space. Troublesome to photo.

I guess I shouldn't say the fleets are finished... Hydra Miniatures had a post-Thanksgiving sale and since I ordered the Space Pirate fleet set (no Class III & IV yet- hope to see those soon!) I also got an extra ship for both of these fleets: a 2nd Class III for the Zenithians and another Class II for the Imperials. That puts the Zenithian fleet at 10 points higher than the Imperials, but the Imperial Class II is my favorite looking ship, and they have an optional rule of +1 to their front fire power for 2 pts, so the four Class II rockets having this is 8 points, putting the fleet totals at close enough to call an even match.

SAGA: Preparing for the Norman Invaders

2011-12-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

One of my slow-burn projects right now is SAGA. I have about half of the Vikings built, but the Normans went much faster since the only plastic kits I used was the Conquest Games plastic Norman Knights, the rest are all metal, which get assembled much faster.

I am really impressed with the Conquest Norman Knights- I'll do an update of them later, but this will focus on the leader of the warhost. The Conquest set comes with 12 knights, and a fallen injured knight. The thing is, SAGA uses unit sizes of 4 or 8 for mounted Normans. So a box is ideal for 3 units of elites, or a unit of elites & a unit of standard troops, but what about the leader? Not wanting to move a dying guy around the battlefield, that left me with either buying another box just for 1 mini, or to find an alternative. Looking around, I really liked the look of the Perry First Crusaders, so I ordered a blister of them and picked the one I liked the best to be the leader of my Normans.

The style is similar, and the pose is great, but there is a problem: the metal mini is a bit more gracile than the plastic. A pretty common thing really: plastic is cheap so not a problem to make the horse wide in the hips, etc. The metal mini is thinner and a bit smaller, and while it's nice, it'll be just enough smaller that it will bother me, especially since he'll be the leader.

Solution? Give him some elevation by way of a more dynamic base.

Here he is:

The white texture will be earth, while the beige texture is a sand finish that will be the bottom of a river that he'll be leaping over. The water will be done after it's painted of course.

How he stacks up alongside a Conquest plastic Norman:

The difference in size isn't as easy to spot now I think.

And now I have a more dynamic leader so he'll be easy to spot out as the commander.

Blood Bowl Hill Dwarf Death Boar Finished

2011-11-30T10:42:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the Talk Fantasy Football forum challenge deadline, the 'Death Boar' counts-as Death Roller is finished.
I'm really liking this mini. Sometimes all it takes is one miniature to cause you to build a whole team around it, and I suspect this is one of those minis.

Here he is: (click to see larger)

Argh! Mad Dwarf!

Plugging Warploque Miniatures: A Sale & Cool Free Hobbit

2011-11-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Independent Minis sculptor is having a holiday special!
Warploque Miniatures, the source of my favorite troll, the Hippo Troll, is having a special with free shipping, even international shipping! Which is great for those of us who live oceans & continents away from the U.K.

Plus, if you order 35 GBP or more you get an otherwise unavailable Halfling Feaster:

This guy is so full of character. I can easily see him as a sideline mini for Blood Bowl, either cheerleader, coach, halfling chef (sampling his wares), etc. So of course, I couldn't resist. I ordered a set of halflings to make a fantasy skirmish warband (he's working on archers now too) along with another troll and a prehistoric bird creature. Great stuff!

Deathboar: Painting W.I.P.

2011-11-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

Had a bit of time to start the painting of the Hill Dwarf 'Deathboar'...
I really enjoy painting multi-toned fur. I love this sculpt, so it's great fun to paint.

I cleaned up the helmet and I also removed the norse runes from the shield and increased the size of the boss.

Progress shot after today:

Death Boar! Conversion Nearly Done

2011-11-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Talk Fantasy Football forum is starting up painting challenges, which is always fun. These things are a great way to motivate you to start a project, or to get back to an old project, or just to paint up something different. All the challenges will be Blood Bowl related of course, but there is still a wide variety within that to explore.

The theme for the inaugural challenge is 'Secret Weapons'. Unfortunately the due date is end of November, and I just started today. Will I finish? I don't know, but I'll give it a try.

The mini I decided upon is a Dwarf Deathroller. But I wanted to do something a bit different than a standard Deathroller. Over a year ago I picked up some minis to make a 'Hill Dwarf" team: more rustic & savage than typical dwarves. So naturally, they wouldn't have a machine to cause mayhem with, but they do have access to the beasts of their woodland hills, so enter the 'Death-boar"!

Still need to work on the helmet some, once it's cured completely.

Baby Cthulhu Takes a Stroll

2011-11-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

Amazing.

Enjoy!

War Rocket: Test Schemes for Imperial & Zenithian

2011-11-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

Aiming for metallic and easy to paint for these, what do you think?

Here are the Zenithian test ships (I'm probably going to change dome reflection to 'triangular zaggy lines' rather than 'sheperical bloomp' style.)

Imperial test ship: going for bronze metallic instead of the red or orange hulls I've usually seen.

Imperial War Rocket: Review & Tutorial: Ming the Merciless Eat Your Heart Out.

2011-11-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

Nearly three months back (you can see how little time I get for my own hobby projects, especially lately) I reviewed the Zenithian fleet for War Rocket by Hydra Miniatures, which you can find here. At the same time I ordered the Zenithian ships I also ordered the Imperial fleet, since I have a compulsion to have at least two factions for any game that tempts me.
Now that the second fleet is assembled, on with the review & tutorial.

The assembled fleet, containing one fleet pack (nine Class I ships and 3 Class II ships) and I upgraded the order to have a Class III & a Class IV ship to round them out. So let's get to building:

On opening the bags and sorting the pieces this is what you'll find:

The small Class I ships are simple single piece minis. The higher class ships are a little more complicated than the Zenithian Class II-IV ships, needing several separate pieces. The Class II ship is the ship design that made this whole line of miniatures a 'must-buy' for me. The Imperial Class II is my favorite ship of any of the fleets: it's just dead sexy. Unfortunately, shipping wasn't kind to them:

The one on the right is only a bit bent, but the other two look like mosquitoes that tried to bite Superman.

I started with the Class II, since the bent spikes was very distressing. It took some careful bending and reshaping, but they came out all right in the end. The Wings then needed to be glued to the hull:

Next small problem found: quite a bit of a gap as you can see above. Luckily this is only visible from the underneath, which means it will never be seen, and a little green stuff fills it in fine. So it didn't bother me much.

Class II's complete. Just a little extra attention and they're showroom ready.

The Class I ships are very easy. Just trim flash and file. There was moderate extra metal in the inner curve of the tail fin, so that needs to be carved away and then file to clean it up.

On to the Class III:

It also had a bit of a gap for the wings underneath, but same solution as for the Class II.

The Class IV worried me just a bit. It's wings are in 2 pieces, and I wondered how stable they'd be. I've run across other miniatures with individual wings that are a nightmare (none more so then the current GW Dwarf Gyrocopter!) But I was relieved and impressed. The design for the wings and two-part hull is elegant.

Each wing fits snugly and there is a recessed area that covers the wing's turret. You can't help but assemble it perfectly and it is very secure. If only all miniatures were designed so cleverly.

The Class III & IV 's hulls are cast from resin, and it's very smooth without any defects.

The flight stand and connection spots are the same as the Zenithian ships: holes are much too big for the connector stub, which is a blessing: clip them off and attach directly to the top of the flight stand. See the Zenithian Review for those pictures. Like I did for the Zenithians, I added a few longer flight stands to vary the heights for a few of the ships.

**Important Note: if you plan to use the ships for War Rocket, please remember to line up the ship facing a flat edge of the hexagonal flight base, not a point, as that is important in the game rules. **

The Class IV ship however felt too heavy to me, with it's thick metal wings, so I pinned it to the flight stand. It comes with a metal flight stand luckily, so simply drill down into the flight stand and into the ship and reinforce with a pin.

Speaking of flight stands, since many of the ships are metal I felt it'd be best to weight the base down, to help against ships being knocked over. I did this for both fleets. I put a bit of green stuff in the base and glued in bits of left-over metal from base tabs and sprue. Since I work with so many minis I must have a few pounds of this saved up. I could have used washers, but that costs a bit of money, and this solution is free ;)

It's not quite up to 'weeble-wobble' standard but it's close.

And so the Imperial Fleet is assembled:

And facing up against their foe:

From top to bottom, a comparison of Class IV, Class III, Class II and Class I.

Hydra has already released the Class I ships for the Space Pirate faction, and they're my current favorite Class I ship. If the future releases are as good I'll be adding a third fleet I have no doubt.

The Imperials are a human-like species with an overbearing powerful military and royal family. If you are thinking 'Ming the Merciless' then I bet you're pretty close to the mark. The ships are fast, but not the fastest in the game. They are also not the most (but not the least) maneuverable. They have a decent amount of firepower, but seems their greatest strength is in their durability. They're easily the most sturdy ships in the game.

So how do I rate the Imperial Fleet?

Rating:

Casting: 8/10

Cleverness of Design: 10/10

Aesthetics: 10/10

Again I'm very pleased with the items from Hydra Miniatures.

I hope to have a chance to paint them in the not too distant future. My plans for them are pretty simple actually, so they shouldn't take too long to complete if I can find time to start them. Hopefully that can be done before they release any more of the Space Pirates!

Enjoy the movie!

Cheer! Whether for Blood on the Pitch or in the Goblet. New Blood Bowl Cheerleader

2011-11-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

If you look through the updates with the 'Blood Bowl' tag you'll find many about cheerleaders and other sideline miniatures. I'm a big fan of such minis. I think they can bring a team from whatever level of visual impressiveness they are at, to a couple notches higher. It shows extra style, care & love. I'm an aesthetic junky. Given the success of companies like Fantasy Flight Games with their highest production value board games, it's clear many others are as well. I would rather play with nice looking components than chits if it is possible. Afterall, you could play Blood Bowl with coins with numbers on them "these pennies are my goblins, the quarters are trolls, the dime is the chainsaw and nickle is my fanatic"... but that's the draw of miniatures games, the look of the game draws you further into the game. So when you have the chance for a nice looking cheerleader miniature, instead of just a mark on your team roster, I say take it!

Impact! Miniatures wanted me to paint their latest cheerleader, but asked for 2 versions of her, one as a goblinoid and one as a vampire. Looking at the sculpt I can see why: she's not only a great sculpt, she's very versatile. I can easily see her representing a number of races... she could be orc, goblin, hobgoblin, vampire, ghoul, dark elf, slanneshi chaos... I have plans to make a team for my Hobgoblin team roster, and so will undoubtedly paint one of these in a mustard skin tone for them.

As one of my friends said, "Looks like orcs are pretty lucky guys" ;)
So here she is:

Vampy Style

Goblinoid Girl

Blitz Action, or, 'How I let Nostalgia Drain My Wallet, Blood Bowl Style.

2011-11-18T01:46:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm addicted to minis. No surprise there. I didn't even start playing Blood Bowl until 3rd edition came out, but I did start in on Warhammer in... 89? So the old sculpts strike that 'golden era' chord in me, so when I saw several complete 2nd edition Blood Bowl teams on Ebay I just had to. I didn't worry about buyers remorse because at least 9 months ago I was 'watching' an Ebay auction for a 2nd edition Orc team, and forgot at the last minute and missed out. And every couple weeks since I remember that and look for them. Sure, some of the sculpts are repetitive, and are not as dynamic as what I could make from kit bashing, but they do have charm.

So, no regrets: I bought. I picked up an Orc team, Elf team and Skaven team! Plus a couple goblins and a Troll (O.K. and some extra orcs on the way from UK since the Orc team doesn't have as many blitzers and black orcs as I'd want). Earlier this year I painted a 2nd ed. Skaven team for a client and really fell in love with those sculpts. Not as dynamic as some others out there- I'm painting the Impact Ratman team next month and looking forward to those a lot- the latest 3 additions to it are really nice.. but nothing wrong with having both types of teams! I did say I'm addicted to minis right?

So here is what I got:

When will I find time to paint these? Only the gods know, but I'm looking forward to it.

When I first got into miniatures, a friend of mine, the one who inspired me to start painting, had an amazing orc army, so this orc style brings back great memories. The skaven I like better than the 3rd edition, and the elves will be fun: I like the Pro-Elf roster, so that's what I'll be aiming for with these.

These 2nd edition teams came from 1988. Yes a real flashback.
So enjoy the music below, one of the songs on near constant play for me at that time.

Maude Lebowski : the mini that abides

2011-11-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

For any fan of The Big Lebowski, you might enjoy this.
Impact! Miniatures just released a Valkyrie cheerleader that comes with an extra set of arms to create someone who might remind you of Maude Lebowski from one strange trip down bowling lane.

If you don't like it, well that's just your prerogative man, and if you do like it, just remember not to treat your objects like women, man.

With standard arms for a Cheerleader or Bloodwiser babe:

Now enjoy the movie and see what condition your condition is in:
:Caution: brief moment of partial nudity, though appears to have been fine for YouTube.

Movies to Game By: Review of Outlander

2011-11-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

Like many people, I'm a fan of movies. I like a lot of different genres of movies, but I'm as biased as the next person so I have some big dislikes as well. But unlike the general movie-going audience, I'm a gamer, and chances are if you're reading this, you're likely a gamer too. I can appreciate a movie in many ways, and sometimes one of those ways is 'as a gamer'. There are times I've seen a movie and thought 'I want to game this" or "that would make an awesome army to build". So a new feature here will be reviews of movies that I have this reaction to: Movies to Game By.

In Movies to Game By, I'll give my review of a movie, both for it's appeal as a movie in general as well as it's inspiration value for gaming. I'll try to refrain from any spoilers. Every review needs a review system, and rather than steal from the D6Generation's d6 system (which I was tempted to do) I'll instead steal from classic Dungeons & Dragons. The armor class system was from unarmored AC10 down to Plate Mail AC2, and below for even better or magical armor. The higher the number, the less armor- and in the case of the movie reviews, the higher the number, the easier it is to have a 'hit' & less resistance to adapting it for gaming.

Or simpler: 10 very good. 0 very bad.

On to the Review:

Outlander, from 2008.

Late arrival to the US it seems, and released in Europe for several years.
Starring James Caviezel, John Hurt, Sophia Myles, and Ron Pearlman.

This movie scratches the itch of two of my favorite genres: Sci-fi & Historical-ish.
A soldier of an intergalactic conflict crashes in Norway of the early 8th century. But he's not alone: one of the big bad nasty aliens is lose as well. There are a lot of interesting interactions between what is essentially 'man of the future' and Iron Age Vikings. Without any of his technological advantages, it brings about the 'great equalizer' that a person is just a person, and it's his cunning and creativity that is what will save him (and others) or not.

Some details are a bit historically off the mark, the main hall looked too big... but did look very cool, and a few times people fired arrows in an incorrect manner, but overall it had a pretty decent level of authentic feeling to it. The Norse people were not presented as bloodthirsty barbarians, but as people in a dangerous world, who were accustomed to it, but also references were made to the far flung trade relations they had. Unlike many 'Action histori-fantasy/sci-fi' movies, the world and culture of the people did not feel as 'thin & false' as is typical for these genres.

The action was good and tension was appropriately thick in the right places. It had a good amount of character insight moments and humorous moments so characters didn't feel completely two dimensional. And there wasn't nearly the amount of "unfathomably stupid" actions so typical to action & horror movies.
The photography is beautiful. There are some really nice scenes in the wilderness, that if it wasn't for the hulking hunting alien, it'd be nice to spend some time there.

This movie is high in the gaming factors. It'd be very easy to adapt the ideas to the gaming table. Skirmish games like SAGA, Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, Songs of Blades & Heroes, and others could easily be used, just add your favorite large alien beast. Really, the sci-fi elements are very low here. It's an interesting background for the movie, but doesn't have a lot of effect on the gaming table: you're not going to equip your vikings with ray guns for example. But if you watch the movie you can see how you might give some better weapons to some characters in some scenarios or in a designated turn. In an RPG game it could be a great challenge to a fantasy setting world to have an alien creature that is not susceptible to the standard weapons and tricks the party is accustomed to. It could also be interesting to have a 'future world' human, stranded on their world as one of the Player Characters.

I give this movie an Armor Class of 8 (out of 10) for both enjoy-ability and for inspiration for the table top.
An easy hit and not much resistance to making for good gaming material.

Gator with an Axe: Painting Bloody Barnabas

2011-11-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

No surprise to those who know me, I love to paint swampy things, especially gators & the like.
The Gators of the Hordes Minions have always tempted me, and though I really like trolls, I could see myself painting a whole Gator force someday. So having the chance to paint up the warlock Bloody Barnabas was a treat.

I went for a similar look to the Privateer Press studio version, with a few minor changes.
A swamp water base was a must.

Here he is:

Swamp water bases never photo very well: very reflective & always look darker than they do to the eye.

Viking Berzerkers: Conversions for SAGA

2011-11-14T00:54:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with the very slow progress on SAGA, squeezing in 15 minutes here & there, and another unit is assembled. The Viking list's elite, the Hearthguard can have a unit be Berzerkers instead of standard Hearthguard. They die easier, but they kill easier too. The vikings I'm going 'on the cheap', so I stuck to kitbashing from the Wargames Factory boxes I have. The weapons & heads are from the vikings, but the bodies (except for one) are from the celt box. One warrior is armored, but he doesn't have a shield, and swinging that axe in a two-handed chop over his head looked pretty berzerking to me, and I wanted the overhead Dane Axe for variety sake.

Here they are: