September 18, 2014

Oops, Deleted Article Mishap

While trying to clean up some of my draft entries I accidentally removed my recent Deadzone Marauders post. If you've been linked to it from somewhere else, I apologize. I don't have a backup copy of it; it's been lost forever.

Ah well, I'll have to write something more interesting for you all next week.

September 09, 2014

Empire of the Dead - Last of the Demo Scenario Figures

Way back when I got started with Empire of the Dead there was a free demo scenario available, which pit Jack the Ripper against Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I played that scenario a few times, albeit I'm ashamed to say, with black-primed miniatures. Since then quite a bit of time has passed, and West Wind Productions Kickstarter campaign to expand the game has come and gone.

Although these figures are technically from the Vampire Wars range, they fit in nicely with EotD's setting and figures. They were part of a bundle deal with some bobbies, civilians and even a few victim markers.

With these three figures finished I'm happy to say I've painted up everything except the victim markers. I don't care for them and might never both with them really. If you want to see the other bits you can click here to view my painted policemen and lycaons, and click here to view my painted Victorian Civilians.

However, you're here to see characters, so here they are:


For Jack I didn't use any reference to help me choose colours, I just started picking pots from my selection and had at it. It seemed pretty obvious to me that his cloak should be black and his mask should be red. After base colours had been applied I put on a liberal coat of Army Painter Soft Tone varnish. Some matte varnish and a re-application of the base colours as a highlight and he was all sorted.


Holmes and Watson were done in the same day, shortly after I had finished the base colours for Jack. I used the poster of the first Downey/Law movie as a reference for Watson's suit. After the varnish it was really dirty looking, so I applied a watered-down coat of the original colour back over the top. It turned out brighter than I'd have liked, and in retrospect I should have used a grey wash on the suit and a sepia on the rest instead. I really should fix that lantern too...it doesn't look right.

For Holmes, I went with darker colours than Watson. The red vest was just to give him a little dash of colour. Looking at them now he's pretty similar to Jack, but oh well. They're done.

I'm hoping to get a few demo games played in the next little while, to see if I can drum up some interest in EotD again. If only I could finish that nosferatu starter box...

September 08, 2014

Sasquatches. Sasquatchii?



I've already done a Sasquatch figure, but really didn't like how the colours came out, nor was I really that happy with the sculpt itself. This newer Heroclix sculp is much more representative of the character. Extremely easy paint work as well. I painted some claws on with GW Bleached Bone, did a quick dry brushing over the fur with P3 Ember Orange and then washed the whole thing in GW Sepia. It's a little tough to see in the images, but I also did a light wash of red ink over the eyes. It adds a little something extra to the face I think.

One of my friends is a big fan of the Exiles, and also provided me with the white version of Sasquatch. I figured it'd be a good start into making him an Exiles team for Supersystem. Again, a super easy paint job. This time I used Game Color Grey Wash over the entire figure, followed by a white dry-brushing. I used some gloss black to paint the claws and did a light dab of blue ink over the eyes.




I'm not sure which Exiles I'll tackle next. There are quite a few Heroclix available to choose from. I'll have to dig a bunch of them up and see which ones make me want to work on them. As a parting piece, here are both of my Sasquatches together.


September 03, 2014

Field Report: SA2-140903-F

September 3, 1924

From: Carl Selinger, Commanding Field Agent
To: Director Silver, Calgary Field Office
RE: Case File SA-140903-F

Director,

Our past few months in the field have finally borne some fruit. Our investigation into reports of strange occurrences near the village of Sundre led us to an abandoned shack near a quiet river crossing. As we approached we were set upon by zombies, seemingly commanded by an Egyptian mummy!

Miss Moreaux's newly discovered psychic abilities proved useless against our undead foes. She, Agent Daniels and Agent MacIntyre were quickly swarmed by a human zombie and a pair of surprisingly fast zombie hounds. I've never seen the like of these before, and moved to their aid as quickly as my crippled body would allow.

I was able to destroy the zombies, and then fend off the mummy long enough for our team to escape. Miss Moreaux escaped unscathed, and Daniels was fortunate enough to suffer only a minor arm wound. The unimaginable has happened however sir, my trusted lieutenant of three years, Agent Loamy MacIntyre, has died.

His wounds at the hands of these zombies were simply too great for us to attend to without the aid of a qualified surgeon. Even had we gotten him back to the village I doubt the local doctor would have been able to do more than ease his pain before passing.

I shall miss my friend, and I swear to avenge his death at the hands of these infernal monsters!

Carl Selinger
Commanding Field Agent

September 02, 2014

Prepare to meet your Doom!

Over the long weekend we had a chance to try out my copy of Doom: The Board Game for the first time. I picked it up at auction at last year's Fallcon and now after having played it, it's really a shame that we hadn't played it sooner!


I intended to start our gaming session with a game of 011, but one of our players was running late and that game requires a minimum of three to play. So we decided to fire up Doom, since it seemed reasonable that a latecomer should be able to 'spawn in' at any time without causing any major problems.

During the first few rounds we were getting to grips with the rules, all of the different tokens and how to read the map information as the invader player. It wasn't clear what everything was at first, but by the time the marine had opened up the third room we had it sorted. (We had missed a few tokens and retroactively gifted the marine with two weapons and some ammo.)

Once our third player arrived we spawned him in at the starting area, dumped the tokens that he would have spawned during the game in their appropriate places and kept on going. It worked very well looking back on it.


By the time the marines had obtained the red keycard and explored the hidden locker time was running low. I'd scored five frags against them and needed only one more to win the game. Drawing through the last card of the invader deck would grant me a frag, and both marines were just out of sprinting range of the red door in the time they had left.

It turned out to be a very fun game and I'd really like to play it again soon. The components and rule books look quite daunting, but inside that box is a quite simple and engaging game. If only the expansion wasn't so hard to find these days...