Guessing Game: 4th Hint

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.