Blood Bowl Three Way Throwdown!

Nope, here it is, just about the closest 3x board you could do in hexes, I bet. 15 squares wide, and 13 squares to score a TD from the LOS.

Three Team Blood Bowl

For those times when you have an odd number of coaches, I've always thought it would be great to have a three team version of Blood Bowl, so everybody could play. Recently, I've put a little more work into this idea.

Ripper Bolgrot

Finished the troll star player Ripper Bolgrot.

Blood Bowl Ogres

Finished two Blood Bowl ogres.

Are ya ready for some BLOOD BOWL?

cos I am!

Miniatures For Sale

Here's some stuff I've painted recently, and some I will be posting on TMP for sale.

Matching Paint Colors

Color Match 1.0 is a very interesting utility which will match various paint colors. Using the full line search, for example, you can find the nearest matches to Games Workshop paint colors in the Delta Ceramcoat line. It really needs to include support for the Decoart Americana line.

The Blood Bowl Pass Range Ruler

I couldn't find the dimensions online, so I measured mine. The ruler is 2" x 14". Range bands are at 5", 9", and 13". The "hole" for the throwers head is .5" in from the start (making the first band
4.5").

FUMBBL Team

I started a team, the Nauseous Norsemen. It's pretty cool, and uses version 4 of the Living Rulebook.

Blood Bowl!

In a real blast from the past, Mik and I played a game of Blood Bowl last night. His Chaos beat my Humans 1-0. It was a great game. I really had forgotten what a fun, great game Blood Bowl is. We're starting up a league.
You may be aware of FUMBBL-- I finally got around to registering for it and plan on playing some games there. What you may not be aware of-- in fact, you definitely aren't aware of it unless you're one of about ten or so people who have very great memories-- is that I was one of the first people to play Blood Bowl online. I started getting guys from the old Blood Bowl mailing list to play via IRC. This is probably 10 or so years ago. I made irc.icx.net-- long gone, but there are still references to it hanging around-- and wrote a chat bot called NuffleBot to roll dice for us. There were no graphics, I had my board out next to the computer with both teams on it, like old school chess, and would relay the changes to my opponent. "#12 from E4 to J1" or whatever. Ah, the good ol' days!! Talk about just like old times...Mik caught me in an Illegal Procedure, and I forgot to use my Apothecary!
Did I tell you about taking 3rd place in the '95 UK Games Day? I'm in two issues of White Dwarf... Didja see my stunty Gutter Runner? Huh? Didja huh?
Update: Here you go, old school. That looks like almost 15 years old...man, I'm old.

Wargamers Rock

Yes, they do.

Elfball Review

TGN has an Elfball review up. One of these days, I'm going to actually play this game...

Ultrawerke

Ultrawerke is a really amazing vehicle-based blog. There are lots of really great articles on weathering, scratch building and casting.

TAB Studio Miniature Painting Videos

TAB Studio has some nice miniature painting tutorial videos available.

Recent Painting

More pictures. I just really need to set the light tent up permanently and use it to take pictures, I'm having a hard time taking decent pictures. It is not anything that has ever been easy for me!

Hero Machine

Hero Machine is pretty cool. It's one of those character image generators, where you can choose expressions, hair styles, clothes, etc... and make an illustration of your character. Hero Machine is pretty cool in that you can select an item at random, including randomizing the entire character, giving some pretty interesting and unusual designs.

Trading Up for Legends of the Old West

Okay, I traded off the Old Glory 49er in exchange for a Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf Hammerer Command blister pack, trying to work my way up to the Legends of the Old West rulebook. I have the Dwarves painted now, and up for trade.

Chaos Builds Muscles Fast!

Power. Immortality. Set of Steak Knives..

Another Local Guy's Blog

Brian of Repple Depple is new locally. I met him at Historicon this year, but missed his recent Check Your Six! game, Too bad, it looks awesome! I've added him to the blogroll.

More Painting

Some pictures of what I've been painting lately.

I have been busy

Yes, busy indeed. My third child is due around the beginning of May!

Recent Painting

Some pictures of what I've been painting lately.

Native American Flesh Color

You may have noticed my 40mm painted counter clicked up two recently. No pictures yet, but I started painted some of my Sash and Saber FIW Indians. I found a mixture that I think gives a good native American skin color. I mixed it using craft paints. It is 4 parts brown, 3 parts orange, 2 parts light grey, and 1 part white. You may want to adjust this a little bit based on the paints you are using, but it gives a good starting point.

Typical

Yes, the time when the craft stores carry Halloween and Christmas village things to use for terrain!Hobbytown USA, where I get my terrain supplies, closes at 9:00 PM. At 9:05, the sprayer on my Woodland Scenics scenic cement breaks on my second hill, shutting me down for the night!

It's the Most Beautiful Time of the Year...

Yes, the time when the craft stores carry Halloween and Christmas village things to use for terrain!

SG2 Buildings Done

Woot! I finished up my buildings last night...

Will I Make It?

Will I finish my SG2 stuff before the end of the month? I'm not doing too badly with it so far, but I don't think I'm quite going to make it. The Real World (curse it!) has thrown me a couple of left hooks this month, and I just have not had the time to work on things. If it were just me slacking off, I'd feel a lot worse about it, but it's been mostly legitimate, so no complaints. I'll at least keep the queue unadjusted, and maybe I can catch up a little bit in the next month.

Groundcloths

The Kapiti Fusiliers have a nice article about using ground cloths to their full potential.

What I Did This Weekend

Not much. Not much that was any fun, at least. I was oncall for work, and got called in early on Friday morning. It seems our data center's air conditioning failed, and it was as bad as I've ever seen it. I had equipment so hot, it would burn your hands to touch it. One CPU outlet was registering 58 Celsius. Friday night, a major data circuit failed. Saturday, a tech at a property wiped his core switch configuration trying to do a password recovery. Plus, each kid had a birthday party to attend, but not together. Whine whine bitch moan. Anyway, I did start on some buildings...

Mik's Minis

My buddy Mik has started a geek blog!

More SG2 Painted

Finished the rest of my 15mm GZG SG2 infantry for my August project.

Big Printed Maps from DSRGames

I ran across DSRGames at Historicon. They had a number of very nicely printed maps on display, and the prices mentioned sounded very reasonable.

Shifting Lands

Shifting Lands has a number inspirational creations, as well as tips on model making and Hirst-style casting.

Holding Myself Accountable

In an effort to keep myself more consistently productive and to channel that productivity towards specific goals (which is my real problem), I've decided to keep track of everything I've finished as well as commit to future dates when specific projects will be finished. You can follow along in the right hand column here towards the bottom, under the links. My real goal is to have a new project once a quarter. My definition of "project" is fairly liberal, pretty much a new scenario I can run that requires some creative effort on my part. Examples would be maybe a small scenario in a new scale/genre, or something which expands things I already have.

Historicon AAR

Okay, I finally got around to typing up my experiences from this year's Historicon. Summary: I had a firkin' blast.

Terrain Thralls

The Terrain Thralls website offers a number of really well-detailed terrain tips and project write ups. I saw a number of easy tips I wanted to try out right away.

Historicon 2007 Pictures

I've uploaded my pictures from the first two days of Historicon.

Piquet: Field of Battle River Crossing Game

Here are some pictures from our latest Piquet: Field of Battle game. It was a rather surprising rout at a river crossing.

A Good Overview of 40mm Figures

Neil Shuck (a.k.a. Earthquake) of the Meeples and Miniatures podcast has a nice roundup of 40mm miniature manufacturers.

Incredible 40mm Musketeers Table

Really incredible terrain like this is just disheartening for me. I'll never do anything a third this cool.

6mm Autos

Maksim has a nice post on 6mm autos, something I've needed on occasion.

New Pictures

Okay, here is a batch of stuff that I've finished lately and finally got around to photographing. They're a tad underexposed, but not too bad.

New Photos Coming

I'm too tired to muck around with linking the photos to the front page right now, I will do it later, but I have taken a lot of new pictures. Check out the tail ends of the AWI 40mm, SciFi, Superheroes, Survivors, Pulp and Misc folders if you're interested. Otherwise, I'll try to make a post tomorrow with them all in one place for easy viewing, with some explanation about what they are or why they're cool (to me).

Milk Crate High Rises

This article was mentioned in the below thread. I had seen it before, but I noticed tonight that the local Office Max has small milk crates, just under a foot square, for about $3 each. That might be useful for smaller buildings or small scales.

$20 Sci-Fi Terrain

TMP has a good thread on cheap Sci-Fi terrain. I just ran by Wal-Mart and grab a few of these baskets. Like I don't have enough trash laying around waiting to be turned into terrain... If you like this, check out the Mos Abra pictures.

40mm Grenadiers Finished

With my newfound burst of manic energy, I finished the rest of my seven Trident 40mm AWI Grenadiers from MSC. They've been sitting around primered and half-painted for a few months, so I decided to finish them before starting anything else. I still need to do the bases, but I'm counting them as done! I didn't have a set of rules in mind when I started these; I bought them just because they were so pretty. Now I wonder how Gloire would work with them...

SuperSystem 2007 Annual

I also recently bought the SuperSystem 2007 Annual. It's definitely worth a measly $2.50 if you play the game. It has 19 pages, 10 characters, 4 powers, 1 rule (super club breakage), 3 scenaros, 1 linked "role-playing" scenario (2 scenarios, 3 characters), a fast play sheet and lava templates to cut out. Not bad at all for $2.50!! All of which reminds me, I still need to buy the Mecha Gor. Oooo, and look, new figures! Heh. I believe I'm entering what is traditionally referred to as "the manic phase."

.45 Adventures and the Rocketmen

...and you know what else, Gloire is based on .45 Adventures, a pulp ruleset. I've also been sitting on Pulp Figures Rocket troops and Zeppelin Troopen. Maybe it's time to slap some paint on them, build the airship, and get to playing!

Gloire and Under the Black Flag

I just bought Gloire and its pirate supplement, Under the Black Flag. I saw Gloire in action at last year's Historicon. It was a very small game (it looked like two figures vs. two figures), but everybody always seemed to be having fun. By the time I decided I'd try to get into a game, it was too late. I've been sitting on the Wargames Foundry Treasure Island characters for a while (the full set, including Squire Trelawney, who was dropped when Foundry reshuffled all their packs to sneak in another price increase) and about twenty pirates, so when I saw the Under the Black Flag rules were released, I decided to go ahead and grab them. I've also had my eye on Old Glory's the Black Cutlass, which would make a pretty cool addition and isn't badly priced as an OGA member. Plus, all those cool OGA pirate figs trickling in over the last year. I do believe I have officially kick-started a new project...

6mm Modern Blog

CWC is a new blog devoted to a 6mm modern project. It's just started, but the photographs are nice and it looks very promising.

Piquet: Field of Battle

I ran Piquet: Field of Battle games the last two Fridays, 1809 Austrians vs. French. The guys who played in the games were only vaguely familiar with Piquet, I think from the first edition Master Rules, both they seemed to like FoB.
I've been a Piquet fan for years, and I love FoB. Piquet plays nicely, but there are common criticisms: the units take a long time to stat up, you can have very uneven initiative runs, etc... FoB addresses these quite well, as well as dropping many of the rules from regular Piquet that I always wound up forgetting anyway! It quite nicely balances out play (no more uneven initiative runs) while retaining the uncertainty of Piquet. Plus, it is self-contained, no need to buy the Master Rules and fool around with expensive supplements for each period. I highly recommend these rules.

It's Alive!

I painted 10 25mm SWAT figures and 3 40mm AWI British Grenadiers. I'm on a roll!

Celebrity Mash-Up

So, I'm lying in bed sick, and I realize my head feels like Rosie O'Donald Trump is locked inside it with a bad toupee buffet just on the other side. But it could be worse...

Gallery Fixed

I finally got around to fixing the gallery. I'm not crazy about the layout change, but I think it might grow on me. The subalbum listing is convenient.

Yeah, I know, I suck

Okay, it's true, I suck. In my defense, I have been pretty busy in the real world, and just have not been gaming or devoting the time to this site. I shall return, though! Probably after turkey season...

I Broke the Gallery

I upgraded some stuff on the server, and broke the gallery. No big deal, but it may be a day or two before I get around to fixing it.

I am a High-Nerd!

Yeah, sounds about right.

Introducing GamerBits.com!

Okay, here's why you haven't seen any updates on this site in a month, and why my gaming friends haven't seen much of me, either! I've been working on a web 2.0/social networking-style website for gaming, GamerBits.com. It's extremely raw and untested at this point, so expect to struggle through some problems, but it seems pretty close to usable to me at this point. I don't want to run around directing tons of people to it, just a few people willing to help test it out and provide some feedback. The audience of this site seems about right, so both of you go check it out! Not you, Mom.

Project 154

Colin Hagreen has an interesting challenge in Project 154, painting one of every combination race/character class in D&D. What, no alignment considerations? No multi-classing? ;-)

Podcasts!

All About Miniatures episode 6 is up, featuring a review of THW's Nuts!. Also, Napoleon 101 has episode 16 up, covering Eylau.

Upior Nagi's Hell Hole

Upior Nagi's Hell Hole is an interesting new blog, check it out.

Bongolesia

Murphy has taken the patriotic battles of the peoples of Bongolesia and is recreating them in miniature.

Hockey!

I went to see my first hockey game Friday night, as our neighbors' children were playing between periods for our local bush league team. It was a blast-- there were two fights in the first ten minutes. My wife was obviously not very familiar with hockey, and leaned over and asked, "Is that allowed?" I said, "No, but it's expected." I don't know if this is normal for hockey fans or just because the fans around here are a bunch of rednecks, but they were enthusiastically cheering the fights and booing the referees for interfering. Even my wife said, towards the end, that she'd like to see another fight! I feel like the Junior General. Now I just need a cat and to start complaining about Peter Forsberg, whoever he is.

War Engine Character Generator

We've been poking around with War Engine lately. The rules are very simple, but there are several "gotchas" you have to keep track of in character generation. So, I made an online character generator. It's still fairly rough-- there are certain legal characters you just can't make yet, and I'm not checking for every single gotcha, but it's still a real asset when creating troops. If you find a bug or are missing a feature you really need, let me know.

Slottabase Figures on Washers

Hachimantaro has a good method for basing slottabase figures on washers.

New Blog: DwarfMan's Wargames

DwarfMan's Wargames has started up.

Finished some SWAT figures

I'm going to start keeping track of what I've finished this year. Technically, I just finished 15 Cobalt Palansi (from the bargain bin at Historicon and no longer carried by Old Glory), but that's kind of cheating since I actually painted them last year. All I did this year was base them, then drop them in the yard when I was trying to varnish them. Those are thin figures, and several bent quite badly and broke the paint around their ankles. Yea! Anyway, I did finish painting ten SWAT figures last night-- five West Wind (from the bargain bin at Historicon) and five Foundry Street Violence (cheap off eBay). I still need to finish the bases, then paint sixteen more. They look good, I'll see if I can't post some pictures of them. I also have some small terrain pieces to be painted.

MiniBlogster

So it appears the Miniblogster site is officially dead, and the author will now be posting at Tabletop Gaming News.

World War Z

I love the premise and it's not a terrible book, but it's just not worth the effort to finish. I've read about half of the book so far, and here's what I think.

War Engine 2.1

The War Engine rules, the core of the old Shockforce game, are freely available now. I bought the 2.0 book on the strength of the many recommendations of members on TMP and they look appealing, but I've never gotten around to trying them out. That will hopefully change soon. There's also a Yahoo group.

Heroscape at MiniatureWargaming.com

MiniatureWargaming.com/ is running Heroscape related links all this month. I'll definitely be checking it out.

Are you a UNIX nerd also into Cthulhu?

I mentioned earlier about liking Charlie Stross's The Atrocity Archives. I'm reading the sequel right now, The Jennifer Morgue. OMG, I'm laughing my butt off sometimes. Alan Turing discovered that mathematics can do Lovecraft-style magic-- hence his subsequent suicide. Now it's ten years before the "stars are right," a.k.a. codename GREEN NIGHTMARE, and Capital Laundry Services, the UK's anti-supernatural government agency, is on the job. The main character is Bob Howard, and hacker who stumbled into the realm of magic and was given a job offer he couldn't refuse by Capital Laundry. Turns out, his middle names are Oliver Francis. B.O.F.H. Yeah. He's reading Tanenbaum for fun. And some fun quotes: "Just as it's possible to write a TCP/IP protocol stack in some utterly inappropriate programming language like ML or Visual Basic, so, too, it's possible to implement TCP/IP over carrier pigeons, or paper tape, or daemons summoned from the vasty deep." "...and while I know all the POSIX options to the kill(1) command, doing it with my bare hands is beyond my sphere of competence." Hah! What a hoot. It's still worth reading even if you don't get a lot out of the geek jokes, though. All the Lovecraft mythos is turned on full blast, only in a modern setting. The main plot is very X-Files, with a dash of James Bond (and Kernighan and Ritchie!)