Ashley Alten, Hunter

The Intrepid Ashley Alten, late of Kenya, after a recent hunt on Venus having bagged the Mantis titanicus. 

The head should look smashing above the mantle. 

Supporting Characters for Phobosian Quar

Despite being extremely busy, I managed to squeeze a bit of time in while projects were drying, green stuff setting etc and between 1am-2am for a touch of hobby time.

The Venus campaign is punctuated with occasional skirmish games, to break up the 'big picture' plotting and large army combats. I think it is a great idea, though I had to miss the first one.  This next one though I plan to make.  It involves an alliance of all the exploring nations: each sends a great mind or intrepid and capable fellow with a handful of supporting flunkies.  The choice of character type is:

-Spark (genius, or mad genius)
-Big Game Hunter
-Explorer
-Military Officer

I haven't been so lucky yet to roll up a Spark (required 12 on 2d6). Each has their own inherent advantages & disadvantages, plus you can tailor them further.

My banners do have the other 3 character types, so I'm leaning toward either a Big Game Hunter or Explorer
(if I can finish painting it).


Ashley Alten: Daughter of famous archaeologist Archibald Alten. Her uncle is a diplomat in the British service on expedition to Venus, and pulled strings to have her assigned after her father's death in Africa.  Ashley was born and raised in Kenya and is quite capable, something her uncle finds completely unacceptable. Therefore she has left the British expedition and joined the Quar as a mercenary. The Quar do not completely comprehend the nuances of earth men culture, but they gathered her leaving had something to do with the length of her protein strands... no matter, they appreciate her abilities with her elephant gun and can put her to good use.


Boodz Vohzik and Volosatik: Corporal Vohzik is a clever fellow.  Too clever for his own good says some of his commanding officers. He's a curious sort who's always volunteering for scouting missions and is always tinkering in the shops of the motor pool.  "If it weren't for his tendency to blow things up he might have made major by now", said Captain Glyt. "As for his new weapon, it's not approved of course, but so long as he points it away from me and takes it far away on his next excursion I am not inclined to pursue the matter". As for little Volosatik, he's been following Vohzik since he returned from his last scouting mission. Seems harmless enough and fiercely loyal.

Making a Might & Magic Demon in Mini

My girlfriend's favorite computer game is Heroes of Might & Magic, number? any of them- she has 5 but plays 3 & 4 too, she likes them all.  Her favorite army to play is the Demons, so I asked which of the units was her favorite? Agrail: this one pictured above.

Looked like a fun project for a mini!
I love to kit bash & convert, and it's nice to make something random from time to time, so seemed the perfect secret project.

I opted to make him a bit different though: more demon creature than plate-armoured demon man.

Here is the result.
A GW Plastic kit-bash with some green stuff sculpting.
-Dark Elf cold one -Bloodletter -goblin banner -lizardman spear & standard. -dark elf shields


And painted


Nice to do a mini like this now and then.

Though I'm not sure if it helps get it out of my system and keeps me from making an army, or only makes me want to make more/an army all the more. 

Blood Bowl Tallyboard Sideline Minis

I've had this idea for awhile: Sideline minis for Blood Bowl teams with Tally Boards to show Turn and Score.

I finally had a chance to try it out.

The guy on the left is showing the turn.  Guy on the right is showing score- I decided right before making it to make it a double-board so that the entire score could be shown. I figure he walks around, since some stadiums may be too big & crowded for everyone to see the score board, and some may be too small and cheap to even have one- or it's been pelted with so many Big Moot Sandwiches the score isn't easy to read!

Numbers are painted imprecisely on purpose.  Maybe for an Elf team I'd want to aim for neat & crisp, but not for most teams. For Orcs I might even need to throw an occasional backwards number in ;)


I started by clipping their weapons, drilling and using brass rod for the pole. Secured at the back with plastic tube brackets, the board is made from plasticard.  Add metal hooks for the number-boards, which are made from thinner plasticard.

Shot from the back

"Showing Turn is more Important!"
"No, Score is..."
"Turn!"
"Score!"
....

Quite a luxury token, but I'll be looking for appropriate miniatures to convert for my teams in the future,
I'm quite liking these!

Apparently, having a job that involves just pointing out information on a sign is a time honored position:

Thanks girls, never could have understood that chart otherwise...

What a great way to honor this vital role by having miniatures for your team to do the job  ;)

Now I know my ABC's...

Elizabeth of ElizabethMueller Blog (link in the picture of the award to the left) was nice enough to make this happy Zebra and give it to all who made it through the challenge.  Thanks Elizabeth!

I always wondered what that comment on Bad Dice Podcast for Unseen Lurker Magazine was on about with "and even an occasional Zebra"  .. well, now I have my very own occasional zebra! or "zeh-bruh" ;) 

Looking back on the challenge there were times when I knew exactly what I'd want the letter to be, other times when I had 2,3, or 5 things I'd have liked to do... and a few letters that were real stumpers. 

And with the help of Paul 'Mr.Bod' I even got the letters in the correct order!  

I also got to review and showcase a few of my favorite companies and miniatures-lines. 

Overall, it was a lot of fun- sometimes you need a commitment to motivate you to stir up ideas. 

Often I'd think something like 'oh, finally an entry that will be short'.. but no, usually I'm a wordy git with too many ideas and opinions to be overly brief. 

About 19 people joined to follow the blog over the course of April, which I was very happy to see!

Also, I'm getting visited by people from all over the world.  Since I love to travel, but of course don't have the time or money to travel as much as I'd like to, seeing that I got visitors from far off countries is always a bit of a thrill.. Sometimes it's a place I've been before which is great since it brings back memories of being in these places, like most of Western Europe, or Russia, Turkey, Finland- I've even been to China twice and I've had visits from there too. And then I see visits from places I haven't been to yet: Poland, Estonia, Serbia, Australia, NewZealand, Brazil, India.. and I think how I want to go to these places too!  

So feel free to leave a comment, even if it's just to say hi- it is almost vicarious travel!

I don't know if I'll find the time or have ideas to post every day like I did in April, but I'll be posting whenever I have something fun to share, or when I just feel like blithering on a bit. 

If you made it through them all, you're made of pretty sturdy stuff!
Curious: which entry did you enjoy the most?

Thanks everyone for making the A-Z challenge fun to do!

Undead Recyclers & Impact shoulder pads

I'm working on two different undead teams currently: an undead & a necromantic team.
I really enjoy making undead teams: so much conversion possibilities, and yet I've never made one for me!
After getting a start on this first one I think I'll have to make a similar team for myself someday, I'm really liking it.

The team has a recycler theme: a poor necromancer bribes security after matches to cart off the dead players until he can make his own team.  Here are some of the players so far:


The human zombies. Despite that most people don't play human teams in blood bowl, I imagine many teams that play are human teams, so there would be many humans dead & available for recruitment.. also, think of all the trampled fans!  Those bodies can be reanimated and be a walking tackle-zone as good as any other.

The non-human zombies: elf, goblin, beastman.  One corpse is much like another, no agility bonuses, no strength difference when power comes from reanimation magic overcoming inertia, and horns? zombies don't move fast enough to get any benefit from it.  So just characterful looking zombies for the sake of something different.

Ghouls are a different sort however, and unconscious skaven can be abducted and infected with ghoul-blood.  It's surprising how readily they take to their new life.. unlife.. something in between? well, they move fast and can handle the ball, that's all we need to know.

The magics and rituals to turn a corpse into a wight is a far more costly mater. Which is why teams can only afford to have two.  Plus they need to be the corpses of more talented players.  The fellow on the left was a norse blitzer in life, and the one on the right a human blitzer, given decent armor, it's an investment that the necromancer hopes will pay off because he had to take a loan out against the winnings of his first match.. so play well wights!

The mummies are still to come- working on those conversions, so will update later.

You might have noticed the shoulder pads.

These are a new product from Impact!.

In the picture above you can see them on the sprue, then two of them removed from sprue and cleaned up on the right.
They have embossed numbers 1-16.
I was pleasantly surprised at how adaptable they are. When I first looked at them I thought they'd be good for most miniatures, but some might not work.  I was worried they'd not work on the Mantic ghouls because the arm & shoulder is so thin.  But it wasn't a problem. Just file the inside of the shoulder pad a bit with a round file until it's thinned just a bit, and bend the edges of the shoulder pad slightly to make a tighter curve, and presto: fits great.

Normally I make shoulder pads from green stuff, but I wanted to try these out and I quite like them.
To get the whole team above to match I even used them on the wights- which are GW human blitzers and have shoulder pads already but they fit nicely over the existing shoulder pad!

I'll update for the mummies and when the team is painted.  

A to Z: Zaius

Dr. Zaius.

A classic villain without being a villain-cliche.
What I mean is he isn't the type of villain that wakes up in the morning and says "I'm evil and I know it and I love it: now who can I hurt today?"  That seems to be the approach to villains far too often.
But Dr. Zaius is a different sort of villain.

Dr. Zaius is a Machiavellian in the classic sense. He desires to do good: for his people and the world.
The fact that he must inflict suffering upon the humans doesn't bring him joy, but he feels it is necessary in order to prevent far greater suffering to his own people, and in fact to prevent the humans from causing suffering to themselves as well, though admittedly the later isn't his primary concern.

Dr. Zaius is a pragmatist navigating the best course he can see to avoid the future holding the same mistakes as the past.  He hides truth to maintain his power, not for the sake of power itself, but to be able to have the power to protect his people.

If only more villains were as compelling and complex.  This is the kind of background that makes for good gaming.

A friend of mine asked me recently "are there any simian teams?" referring to Blood Bowl.  No, and when I thought about it, I realized simians are severely under-represented in miniatures.  It seems a shame since I think there is some real potential in sci-fi skirmish gaming with a Planet of the Apes theme.

There is the Simian Empire range from Black Orc Games
'Want to lick my ice cream cone? It's pistachio!'  
If you want classical historical fantasy ape miniatures: they are quite fun, but won't really fit the bill for a Planet of the Apes setting.  With some conversion though they might fit in with the Tim Burton vision of the apes.

And now that the sequel is on its way, interest could generate a market for more Simian Miniatures.

There are then only a few individual minis currently that I know of that fits the concept of sentient ape:
 Reaper Chronoscope Orangutan

 Games Workshop Jokaero.
  Image property of Games Workshop. 

I'd love to see some apes in 15mm!  How about it Khurusan? GZG? CMG? Rebel Minis?

Bring on the Apes!

In the meantime, enjoy the movie!