Thinking Outside the Box

September didn't feel like a terribly productive month, but doing these progress reports serves as a nice reminder to me that I haven't been entirely idle. Let's have a quick recap! Modeling / hobby: - Fixed Copperhead broken during a demo of Batman Miniature Game . She also got a little more putty work done to really make sure the joins were looked after. - I prepped and based the Hell Division trio and more police figures for Empire of the Dead . I've also decided to include the "Gentleman Bat" figure (created by some top-notch fellows over on LAF) in this batch. Total of 12 figures ready for paint. - I applied basing materials to my 25mm Jaffa minis in hopes of someday getting my  Stargate  project further along. Total of 22 soldiers and the like. - All of my MDF western buildings from August got a spray coat of black primer. - Finished a bit of customization work to an o-scale train water tower model I bought a while back. - Sculpted custom bases ...

These have been on the to-do list for a long time. I think it was over a year ago that I painted my werewolf starter box. I think these were primed black at the same time and have been taunting me with their need for paint ever since. Ironically enough, they've been finished for several weeks now, and I'm only just getting around to posting them...it took me a while to get some decent photos taken. I started with the bat swarms, adding the one from the Reaper Bones first Kickstarter campaign to the group as well. As you can see, the depth of detail on the Reaper swarm is way better. If I remember correctly, the starting list for vampires can only afford to take one swarm, so I'll likely use the Bones one if it comes to that. The various thralls and goons turned out pretty well. I tried to give them similar but not identical outfits. These are some pretty dynamic one-piece models, especially when compared to the bat swarms. Generally speaking Westwind does a nice job ...

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...

When I made my huge order from  West Wind Productions  for the first wave of  Empire of the Dead  gang boxes (seems like ages ago, because it was) I included a Victorian citizens pack. Ten models that I can use as fodder for various scenarios, or just to dress up the gaming table a little bit. The sculpts are characterful yet simple which makes them easy to paint. One thing I will say is that these took much longer than I'd like to admit to finish. It's not like when you paint a full unit where you paint each part of each figure the same colour. With each figure being unique, I had to spend time choosing colours that suited. I also decided to give the dipping technique another try, this time using Army Painter 's "Strong Tone" quickshade. Every time I use varnish as a shading medium I freak out a tiny bit when it dries. The glossy finish plus the high pigmentation always makes me think "oh sh*t, I've ruined my base coat!" for just a few sec...

Part 1: More New Sh...er Stuff Two more packages showed up last week. Both unassuming little parcels shipping via Royal Mail. With all the  Kickstarter  campaigns I've supported lately they could have been any number of things. It turns out these are the shipments for season 3 of  Dreadball  and the one and only package for  Empire of the Dead: Requiem . I've had a chance to go through the  Dreadball  stuff in detail and everything I ordered was included minus a few extras. The packing manifest and included note explained why they were missing and I'm fine with it. I know they'll be sent out to me as soon as possible. Besides, I have so much Dreadball stuff to work on now the extra few missing bits won't even be noticed for a few months at the very least! The very next day another box was waiting. Once again I was stumped as to what it could be...there didn't seem to be a return address on it anywhere. I did find the little sticker on the side af...

The weather here is always such a mixed bag of insanity. One week it's freezing and we have snow. Two days later the temperature makes a massive 25 Celcius swing into the positive and we have blue sky and sunshine worthy of any mid-July summer day. Who needs to be schizophrenic when our local incarnation of Mother Nature is doing a fine job all by herself? Over the past two weeks I haven't done much in the way of hobby work. The gestapo troopers are still sitting on my painting table, right next to my Empire of the Dead vampire starter box. I've done a little bit of work on the mad scientist and his blasphemous construct but they're still not done. I have touch ups to do on my human Dreadball team, and a 75% painted batch of Forge Fathers as well. The 2013 Calgary Expo has come and gone and I spent a good portion of it volunteering. I picked up autographs from two members of the Stargate SG-1 series: Michael Shanks and Richard Dean Anderson. Both folks were very g...

Way way way back before Christmas I busted open two of the starter boxes I bought for Empire of the Dead . Seb, Brandon and I had already played through the free downloadable scenario that pits Holmes and Watson against the nefarious Jack the Ripper a few times. I really liked the mechanics of the game as it allows for some nice in-game story telling. Oh, and I think it's cool that it used d10s instead of d6s. Don't really know why, just something a little different I guess. I cleaned up all the lovely models from the Lycaon  and Vampire  starter boxes, glued them to their bases, primed them and wrote up starting faction lists for both. Then they simply sat around on or near my painting table for weeks at a time, looking up at me accusingly from time to time as if to say "paint us you lazy sod!" Admittedly I completely reorganized my painting area with new paint racks, paint, brushes and a new painting table in that time, but really I had no good excuse for not havi...

Holy crap, I can't believe that it's the year 2013. What the hell happened to time? I remember being a kid and watching movies like Transformers  and thinking "2005, that's so far away!" Maybe I'm just getting old(er) and starting to wondering what I've been doing with my life. Regardless, 2012 was mostly good, with some unpleasantness occasionally thrown in to mess it up. Not unlike most everyone else's I'd imagine. Overall I can't complain too loudly. It's a New Year full of promise, just like every new day should be. I won't be doing a full recap of the year, because well...that'll probably be boring for me and you. All the hobby stuff I did last year is available right here on the blog, so you can go through it at your leisure. I'd rather fill you in on all the stuff that's happened over my winter break! We'll just skip the parts about the exorbitant traffic ticket I got from less-than-honorable traffic cop, and ...

Just returned home from a 4-day conference for work. Tons of information and lots to do now that I'm back, both at home and at the office. I'm actually glad to be back home, even if it is snowy, cold and nothing at all like Honolulu. Yes that's right feel sorry for me damn it! Actually I wouldn't mind a little sympathy. Less than two hours off the plane and some infernal plague attacked my immune system and I'm now sick. I'm actually going to blame the air conditioning at the conference for that though... It was really cold in the meeting rooms, but 32 C or more outside on average. So I was alternating between sweating or freezing my ass off for those four days. Top if off with a lengthy dunk in the Pacific for some snorkeling, and then not sleeping on the flights home...I'm not really surprised that I'm sick! Even under the weather I still soldiered on and went to Trilogy as I had promised, to run some demo games of DreadBall . The reception was pos...

For the last few weeks I've been trying to decrease the number of items on my painting table, without a lot of success. That's probably because I keep adding more stuff to the backlog than I actually clear off! I've got several pieces of scenery and markers, a 'hero' model for SuperSystem which will also serve in my Nazi Death Cult for Kulten , plus the Lycaon and Vampire starter boxes for Empire of the Dead sitting up there. There are also a ton of primed figures-in-waiting up on top of the fridge (to keep them out of reach from both the cat and curious little-people fingers). Sunday turned out to be a lazy sleep-in-then-stay-home day, which was pretty nice as they don't seem to happen terribly often. I did a few things around the house that required doing, watched some TV and then continued work on a few things from the miniature projects to-do list. As you may have seen in my previous post I also received a large batch of stuff for a  Stargate  ...

I've always been the kind of person who has too many things on the go. Or at least that's what people often tell me, wondering how I can ever keep it all straight, or finish anything. The truth is that, for me, I need to have all those things happening so that I can keep myself entertained. I almost wrote focused  instead of entertained, but even I'm not so self-deluded to think that I possess much in the way of focus when it comes to my hobbies. Obsessive perhaps, but not focused. You see, I know I have too many hobbies and the reality is that I don't have time for all of them. Nowhere near really, but that's part of the appeal. For some reason, the way my brain is wired, I will zero in on some activity or concept for a length of time, produce some interesting or cool stuff (yep, aren't I modest), and then move on to something else. For the past 6~7 months I've been pretty firmly rooted in working on miniatures and terrain building. However, I regularl...

Lots of little bits to share today so let's get started. One of my favorite card games apparently has a new lease on life! Warlord: Saga of the Storm has been picked up by another developer and will continue. I think this is the third or even fourth incarnation of the game. If you haven't played it I highly recommend picking up a few of the available decks and giving it a go. I'm not sure what the change of hands means to the existing US web store (but I intend to find out as I still have credit there). Click here to see info about the new developer/publisher/whatever. In all the miniature stuff I've looked at in the past few months, it never occurred to me to look into a wild west-style skirmish game. That is until I saw some recommendations for a game called Blackwater Gulch . I've only just skimmed through the rules, but it looks quick and easy to play, and best of all the rules are totally free. They can be downloaded on their website  and I suggest taki...

Even with the super weather we had over the weekend, I was still able to spend some time nerding it up.  Looking back I actually think it was a fairly productive couple of days.  And of course, I spent more money on stuff. Saturday morning I took the motorcycle out for a ride around town and stopped at Sentry Box.  I'd been eyeing some models for the past few weeks and finally decided to take the plunge with two starter sets and the rule book.  I even got a discount on the rule book (which is unusual for Sentry Box) because it wasn't properly bound.  All that meant was that some of the glue had given way on the main cover of the book, which I remedied in about 3 minutes with some super glue. What game did I buy into this time?  Well, you've likely not heard of it, as I certainly hadn't: it's called Hell Dorado . The little I've read of the fluff at the beginning of book is a really ingenious idea that makes for a great game setting.  What would hap...

Canada Day this year fell on a Sunday, which meant that I got Monday off in lieu.  In order to make the best of things I added the Friday to it and was able to enjoy a nice four-day weekend.  The weather here was particularly nice as well, which we sort of deserved after the rain-filled monstrosity that was June. Strange Aeons / VUK Starting things off on Thursday evening was a quick, as in almost light-speed, game of Uncle Mike's WIP Kulten rules. We played his 60 point ghoul cult against my 23 point Arcanists. Due to the massive point differential I gained some sorely needed resource points to help bolster my ranks.  I was able to add four new cultists to the sad and lonely three that had survived from the last game.  I also gained two favour points, and a dirty trick. I used the dirty trick to alert the authorities and one of my favour points to modify Mike's roll from a 1 to a 6.  This meant that he could only field three models total, so he chose a g...

So I had to make a trip up to the big UPS depot on Friday afternoon to pick up a package.  I wasn't certain what it was, although it really could only have been a 50/50 choice between two items.  While I was thinking (and sort of hoping) that it was my shipment of gaming mats from Zuzzy Mats , that wasn't the case.  Of course my disappointment was short-lived, as the alternative wasn't too shabby either: my huge Empire of the Dead order from the previous week! After paying the import duties and taxes from UPS the price of all this lovely stuff ended up being, less than stellar but let's forget about that for now and dive into things a little bit more. This particular batch of metal, paper and plastic was ordered directly from West Wind Productions based in the UK.  Until recently I'd honestly never heard of them, but apparently they're producing some other miniatures games that have been quite well received of late. In addition to current games, t...