RPG Market Breakdown

According to this store's numbers, Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, the FFG 40k role-playing games, already are third place in market share. Of course, they're still small fish in a small pond...although it appears that D&D has lost about 20% of it's market share since the introduction of 3.5.

This, this is Easy Company!

"This is not Dog Company. This is not Fox Company. This, this is Easy Company!" --Captain Sobel from episode one of Band of Brothers

Finally got my Flames of War US Airborne done! This is a full company box set plus an MG platoon. I went back and rebased the mortars properly and I think I have things mostly sorted out. I do need to put some identifying markings on the new platoons. Plus, I didn't paint the supply carts (which I guess are just objective markers). I didn't catch that they had matching infantry to haul them, so two of the six haulers got painted up in the regular stands (I thought they were giving tactical hand signals or something!) Maybe someday I'll pop them off and do it right. Maybe...

Now, I'm about to start on some FoW Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers. I also got in the first bits of France 1940 figures. These are Old Glory and I really like them, they're comparable quality to the Battlefront ones, so I went ahead and ordered a larger batch. I'm planning on sending these off to Sri Lanka to be painted, and I've got the German riflemen samples done. I also got a few tanks, but I'll probably be painting those all up myself.

Doctor Who

Some very nice miniature Doctor Who items at Grekworld. I think they're awesome, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing a miniature game with the Doctor. I mean, you can't kill him...

Piquet move by move

Why I like Piquet and how it's played, over at Olicanalad's Games. If you were ever curious about the specifics of Piquet or what sets it apart from other rules, this is the post for you.

How to Host a Dungeon

I guess I never posted about it here, but Mik has my back, covering our very fun world building experience with Dawn of Worlds. When I stumbled across How to Host a Dungeon, I was reminded of that and went ahead and picked up the PDF copy for $5. It's less interactive than Dawn of Worlds, being more of a system which generates a random fantasy dungeon, but does so via the chronological history of the region. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but it looks fun.

Calculating Dice Probabilities

I get into working through dice probabilities every now and then. Now there's a website to help me.

New Piquet Blogs

Nice to see that some new Piquet players have started blogs. Owner/author Brent Oman has started Wargames and Stuff, and author and great guy to drink with at Historicon Eric Burgess has started Din of Battle.

My Son's Book

My eight year old son and I have been talking about vikings and other medieval things lately, and he decided he was going to write a book about vikings. Great, son, you go do that. Well, he has written up a table of contents for his book...

My Wish Has Been Granted. Damn...

I always thought it would be fun to do a game of the 1809 Tyrolean Revolt, Andreas Hofer and his rebels vs. Bavarians. Well, now that there are figures, I guess there's no longer any barrier to buying and painting some...damn damn damn...

Vocabulary

I have just learned a new word-- Klockenbooty.

PKowboys!

I haven't got around to posting anything yet, but fortunately Mik has my back. We ran some PKowboys games last week and had a lot of fun. The buildings are from Whitewash City. I'd prefer something a little more substantial, but you really can't beat them for the price. Plus, once the lead starts flying, they feel just as good as anything else. Besides, my real (long term) goal is to do cowboys in 40mm, I think.

Shoutout!

I'm a little behind the curve, but I bought the Geekly McNerdigan shoutout on d6 Generation ep. 37 for Mik's birthday.

Getting ready for PKowboys

I've got the Whitewash City paper buildings broken out, decks printed and cut out, and have been soloing PKowboys to prepare for two games this week. I don't think moon craters are particularly Old West, but I say these badlands stand between the town and an old crater lake, because I just made them and want to see them on the table.

Variant Boards for Zombie Cinema

We started a 4e game last night, and after ran through another game of Zombie Cinema. Only this time, we set it in an Aliens setting. Two characters were Colonial Marines and the third was a colonist. It was fun, and worked very well with using the standard board as a rough guideline. The threat in Aliens gradually grows much like how the zombie threat in Night of the Living Dead develops. Zombie Cinema ought to work extremely well with little modification for anything like that. And, while I was poking around today, I ran across the Zombie Cinema Resources page, which includes variant resources, including a couple of newly designed boards.

Aquarium Decorations

Finding gameable stuff in the pet store is always hit and miss, but I found some neat items in the Wal-Mart pet aisle. The grass fronds are "hair grass" pods. What makes them especially nice is their base is an almost flat ring. A quick snip across the bottom to flatten it completely, then dunk them in some epoxy and prop them on a washer, and you're done. Of course, something that cool is almost impossible to find-- it seems like the product is exclusive to Wal-Mart, and I'm guessing they just send one to each store, because while I have been able to find other plants in similar packaging, this is the only hair grass pack I have been able to find. There are some other brands of products online that I'm hoping are the same thing, or at least fairly similar. I'll order some soon and see.

The giant triceratops skull was $10.00, but I think it will look nice in some jungle terrain. I've been thinking about doing some prehistoric animal or even dino hunting games, having bought Tooth and Claw at Historicon. It would fit right in with that...

Salted Steaks

I figure if Mik can talk about food on his blog, then so can I! Here are some ribeye steaks I cooked up for the family on Sunday. You may be thinking, "Dear god, what did he coat those steaks in?! Is that SALT?!?!" Why yes, yes that is a handful of kosher salt spread all over each of my delicious steaks, with a liberal portion of rosemary and freeze dried garlic. Why do I do this? I mean, especially me-- I hate the taste of salt, and never add any salt to my foods, even much of the time when I am cooking. I have absolutely no idea why I do it. I've read this page a couple of times and still don't really understand it. However, I did try it at one point and really enjoyed it. Whatever it does, you end up with a much better steak, for sure. The trick is to make sure you don't leave the salt on too long. For these, about a full inch thick, maybe more, I left the salt and spices on for thirty minutes. I then rinsed them clean, and dried them thoroughly before cooking.

Battle for Macragge box terrain

I've started on the Battle for Macragge crashed Aquila shuttle. This is actually some very nice terrain. It's injection molded, so it has really crisp detail and is very firm. I intended to do some decals on the shuttle, but rushed through it and forgot. Still, it looks pretty good. I went for an old crash, rather than the recent crash I gather was intended from the Macragge scenarie.

I'm working on finishing this set, the Moonscape set and the Blastscape set. It's fairly slow going-- after the first piece, I kind of guesstimated it was going to take me a full month to finish all fifteen or so pieces. I'm about 1/3^rd of the way through it, though, in just over a week, so I might get done a little early.

Trouble at Peterson's Mill

Land War in Asia has posted Trouble at Peterson's Mill, a game report for the very fun PKowboys from Piquet. I didn't realize that PKowboys had been out of print for as long as it has, but I met the author, Jeff Grossman, at Historicon, and it sounded like he had some ideas fermenting for a second edition-- you'll note he left a comment on the post stating the same thing. With any luck, I hope to be able to playtest these rules and contribute to getting a second edition out!

Extremely Dumb Military Designs

Extremely Dumb Military Designs from G.I. Joe. Now you know...and knowing is half the battle!

My Reaper Warlord Entry

The results are in for the Reaper Warlord v2 contest and, sadly, I did not win. Because my entry got lost in transit somewhere, I'm sure. Anyway, I will now regale you with my submission, to the tune of the Major-General's Song from the Pirates of Penzance:


I am the very model of a modern Warlord commander
I'm making warbands Nefsokar, Overlord and Crusader
I paint a lot and have a bucketload of Reaper miniatures
And a review on my weblog will certainly travel far!


I mean, it's all there, folks-- the witty play on a well-known tune, references to the factions of Taltos, a commercial plug for Reaper's miniatures and the subtle bribery attempt by offering a positive review on my website! I blame-- well, somebody, anybody else, as clearly my submission was flawless.

Happy Birthday, Mik!

Today is Mik's birthday. I have played more games with Mik than with any other human being, and he started off his birthday with a blast, as he wound down our first game of 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars as we passed midnight.

Ooooh MY!

Mongo's Wafflehouse is an interesting blog with lots of 15mm zombie and Super System entries...including a converted Ambiguously Gay Duo...

The Ultimate Dice Bag

Somebody make me one of these for Christmas!! Please!

Wargaming in the 28mm

Just found Wargaming in the 28mm, a mainly Napoleonics blog which includes a Battle of Vimeiro scenario for my favorite rules in the world, Piquet's Field of Battle.

More Moonscape

Hey, found a nifty way to post pictures directly from Flickr, that's cool! I'm trying it out with this new picture of my two latest Moonscape pieces I've finished. These do look really nice, although I wonder if I shoudn't have chosen a color other than grey. In they pictures, it almost looks like I just drybrushed the bare plastic. In reality, they look quite good, I can't wait to get some games in on them.

Speaking of scapes, I see Drunken Samurai has an extensive write up on how he finished his Blastscape pieces. Somebody suggested using insulating foam to back these, and I couldn't image how you would contain it. Drunken Samurai doesn't, he just trims it to shape once it dries. That's an idea, I might do it on the Blastscape pieces with the higher raised areas.

Maybe someday...

...until then, visit Little Lead Heroes.

Finishing GW's Moonscape

Got some new terrain done. Here are the first two craters I've done of the GW Moonscape set. I also have the Blastscape set and the old Battle for MacCraggae terrain to do, so I'm looking at around 6-7 square feet of terrain to do...it may take me a bit.

I cut most of the MDF for the bases tonight. It was hot and took me a couple of hours, and the bases for the largest Blastscape pieces wound up warped, so I need to do them again. Yay!

There has been a ton of negative criticism about the Blastscape pieces. Mine don't seem that fragile, but they definitely aren't as crisply detailed as the Moonscape pieces.

Moving the Blog

It's well past due, but the time has come for me to move this blog to something with a little better performance. I have hosted it on my own Linux box since 2002, and it was an old piece of scrap then. I had a few choices. I could have bought a beefier server to install it on, and have come close a few time. But, even if I don't buy top of the line, that's a few hundred dollars that don't go towards miniatures, so, you know, that's a negative. I could have hosted a virtual server on our family's more modern Windows XP machine, but I think that's going to be more trouble than it's worth, plus I'm still hosting it out of my house. I could pay for a hosting service on the Internet (and still might), but right now the easiest option seems to simply move the blog content to a new service. So that's what I'm going to do. The new home will be http://littleleadheroes.wordpress.com (currently working to move it over), but don't change your links just yet. It may still move somewhere else, but I will always be pointing http://www.littleleadheroes.com/ at the current location. The gallery will reside on the old server at www2.littleleadheroes.com for a while longer...I'm not seeing an easy way to move my large image gallery easily while correcting all the old links in all the old blog entries. But, I may work on it over the next few weeks and see what I can come up with.

Theft at Historicon

Conquest Miniatures is reporting a theft of a display miniature during Historicon-- take a look and see if you can help find it.

Historicon is now a holiday!

So, at work, I'm given eight scheduled holidays and two floating holidays to be used at my convenience. I used them for my Historicon trip, thus officially making Historicon a holiday!

Making Custom Hot Wire Tools

Making Foam Tools has some really good ideas about making your own custom hot wire foam cutting tools. I'm not sure you'd be saving much money over, say, Hot Wire Foam Factory. You would gain the flexibility of custom tools, though. It's something to think about.

The Ooh Shiny Complex

I have discovered a new blog, the Ooh Shiny Complex. I liked his Tusk game report.

More Historicon Pictures

I got the rest of my Historicon pictures uploaded. I'm back home now and tired, having gotten a couple of months worth of gaming in during a weekend!

Fri and Sat Pictures

I'm uploading these now. I'll probably have them up Monday morning.

Historicon 2009 Was Awesome

So, yet another Historicon has (mostly) gone by, and I have to say, I had a great time. Think what you like about HMGS East, about the only way they actually effect me is in how they run their cons, and so far, I think they have done a great job. There was a lot of complaining about the move to Baltimore next year. I don't know-- the host is a bit of a dump, but it has a nice atmosphere. I really take it for granted that we'll be able to drink beer at our games for Historicon, and it sounds like we won't next year. That will affect a lot of people's enjoyment. No more coolers (or mini kegs!) at the game tables. The free kegs on Friday night might have been a bit much-- I heard one guy was found passed out on some stairs and the police were called in-- but they were still appreciated. Anyway, 2009 ranks up there as a great con for me.

Goodnight

Too drunk to upload pics tonight...spent the night drinking with Piquet and Wargames Factory guys...g'night...

Historicon Pictures

Here are the Historicon 2009 pictures I've taken. I'll update them in the evenings as I get more. I also made a little video of the vendor hall.

Sculpting Tools

I am a sculpting voyeur. I don't do it much myself, but I love to watch other people doing it. And I have just found the coolest page yet for this-- Make Your Own Scuplting Tools.

This is not Fox Company!

I got the second platoon of my Airborne done and sealed today. They actually paint up fairly quickly, I'm pleased.

3rd Wave Imperial Guard

Forget those Lemun Ruses-- I've got the M-85 "Black Cat" for my Imperial Guard!! Single use only, though; this one had a spectacular trial run out in the street. However, I'm pretty sure one of these could take a good portion of any 40k army out there, especially if they're plastic.

This is not Dog Company!

I got to leave work early today, and thought I'd crack out some US Airborne before the family gets back from Germany tomorrow night. I started on these around 2:00, and finished...well, it looks like around 2:00... I didn't paint all the way through, but almost. I'd call it eight hours. I think in this one fell swoop I have doubled my poor painting productivity for the year.

Zombie Cinema

We didn't have anything on the plate last night, so we dabbled in some RPG stuff. We're planning to run through a D&D 4e campaign, so we worked on our characters a bit. Then, we decided to break out Zombie Cinema and give it a go. Zombie Cinema is a small, rules-light, "storytelling" RPG, where the players are survivors of some sort of zombie breakout, in the vein of Night of the Living Dead or any of its stylistic descendants.

Carry a Big Stick

I picked this tip up from a recent White Dwarf, where they mentioned using a stick for priming. I typically use a sheet of cardboard with figures around the outside, which makes it difficult to get to the inside; or I used a strip of cardboard, which works well, but can't hold that many figures. A yard long, one inch square board of wood is just what I need, and I tried it out this morning with my Battlefront US Paratroopers which I'm finally getting around to painting. I really need to leave both ends free, though, and just put the figures in the middle. That would allow my to switch ends easily and spray from the other side. Now, in the White Dwarf article, they actually used all four sides at the same time, rotating the stick and spraying different angles. I'm just not that brave with my figures...

Junction Construction

Reaper has a nice little article on building Sci Fi buildings out of electrical junction boxes. They do a good job of it. I have scads of these things. Every time I think about making Sci Fi terrain, I go buy a couple-- even though, yes, I still have a bag of the things from all the other times I thought about making Sci Fi terrain. And I never do anything with them. Oh well. One of these days I'm going to need a junction box RIGHT NOW and I won't even have to go to the store to get it.

40k Chimera

I don't paint many vehicles, so this is notable-- a not too shabby little Chimera I hand painted. It took a long time and I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I got it done and am pleased with it. Now I have another one to do. Eh. Then two Valkyries...ehhhh...

My Dark Heresy Feral Guardsman

We've had a couple of sessions of our Dark Heresy game so far, and I've really enjoyed it. Here is my completed character model. I still haven't had a chance to actually pick up the sword yet, but I've gathered enough money to grab it once I have the chance. Assuming I stay alive long enough...I tried jumping out of a second story building and wound up darn near killing myself...

Galaxy Trucker

I picked up Galaxy Trucker the other day. It was a bit pricey, but it sounded like a lot of fun and we've been playing more board games lately, so I sprung for it. I ran it through the intro with Mik...and, honestly, I was thinking I might have wasted my money. I just didn't quite see the real fun in it. I persevered, though, and we played it with several other friends this weekend. It was a blast! Everybody had a lot of fun with it, including me. A lot of it just had to do with playing it a few times and getting the hang of it. Anyway, now I'll have to get the Big Expansion, which lets you play with five players, and includes some new components (and a new alien!)

Where Have I Been?

It's been quiet around here-- and this is why. My family and I visited my wife's home in Germany, to have our youngest child, Silas, baptized by her father. Due to his recent birth, this is the first time we've all been back in Germany together in at least two years (it may have been longer since I was there-- I'd ask my wife, but she and the kids are all still in Germany, whereas I had to get back home and slave away at my job).

New Superfigs

Looks like there will soon be some new Superfigs!

Warlord, 2nd Edition

I own the original Reaper Warlord rules. I always thought they looked intriguing, and I own a lot of Reaper figures anyway, just because of the quality, but I never got around to playing them. Now, with the upcoming release of a second edition, maybe I will.

Modelling Tips

From the Warp has a lot of links to vehicle and armor modeling articles. Gotta be something useful in there.

Dark Heresy

It looks like we will be doing a Dark Heresy role playing game. We rolled up characters the other night, and it looks promising. I whipped up a conversion of my feral world Imperial Guard character, replete with flintlock rifle, pistol, explosive collar and (hoped for) mono-edged great sword. I will probably add some wild hair to him.

1,000 Posts

Somewhere along the way, I posted my 1,000th entry on this blog. I'm not the oldest or the most voluminous, but I figure I'm near the upper echelon of both, despite my periodic absences. Anyway, here's to me and my handful of readers! This site is hosted out of my home, which explains its sluggishness at times, but next week should see a new 25 Mb/s down, 10 Mb/s up (from me to you) fibre service installed! Hopefully, that should noticeably speed things up. After that, maybe a modest server upgrade...it's currently running on a pretty old Pentium III...

Buying Your Way In

I've never been much of one to play with figures other people have painted. I've bought and used a handful of used units before, and I've sent a few units to Fernando Enterprises, and one thing is clear to me: I just don't enjoy my miniatures as much unless I have painted them. Plus, you tend to have the additional cost of painting labor on top of the figures themselves, making the whole thing more expensive. Yet I finally broke down and bought an entire army.

Venerate the Living Emperor!

Sounds like we may be playing a little Dark Heresy...I ordered the core rulebook today.

Making Ladders

A Year of Frugal Gaming has some quick ladder building tips. I've used HO scale model railroad tracks before. You just can't have enough ladders, especially if you play Necromunda...

Agora: How Shall We Live?

I heard about Agora on the Master Plan podcast, and thought it sounded interesting. You're actually simulating the construction of a society from one of several colonies on a distant planet. It's framed that you're roleplaying the ideologue leader of your faction, but it looks like it's more faction than personally focused. I haven't looked at it too closely, but it reminded me of a Sci-Fi version Dawn of Worlds, although it looks more complicated.

What I Have Been Doing

Updates have obviously trickled dry after a nice little run as life caught up with me. I have three kids, the youngest of which just turned one, and they can be quite a handful. In the last month since my last post, I managed to play in a game of Red November, which I found fun. I thought the rules were a bit ambiguous in places, but probably with a few plays through to sort that out, it would make for a quick, fun game. I got in a couple of games of our monthly 3.5 D&D game, as well as the online GURPS game I participate in (I'm Tonim). I even ran a game of Spirit of the Century. I also finished the Dan Abnett Ravenor trilogy. Looking at that, I guess my gaming life hasn't been the wasteland it's felt the last couple months. I mean, it's almost May, and I've only painted just 14-15 figures, less than four figures a month!!

Unboxing Zombies

A video of me unboxing my Wargames Factory zombies.

More Warlands

Mik has more Warlands in a game we threw together this week.

Substantial Reaper Price Decrease

Let me just scoop TMP and TGN and point out that Reaper is announcing a "substantial" price decrease starting 3/30. Awesome! Hopefully, this will cause more manufacturers to follow their "lead." Haww, that's funny!!!

The Word on Third

Scott Pyle is "pretty much working every day on SuperSystem 3rd edition."

AE Bounty

Miniature Peddler has posted some pictures of upcoming figures from Darksun Designs, makers of AE-WWII. They could be interesting-- I think it depends on the rest of the figures. They do look a tad cartoony, but that's not necessarily bad. The same criticism could be leveled at the Spugs, and I really like them. So, something to keep an eye out for.

Warlands

Mik posted a game report of our recent Warlands night. We played two games and had fun with it. I intend to get some forces and play some more. There are also videos of two moves with rams and shooting. I may follow up and post more thoughts about it, but I'm tired and busy. Basically, I thought it was good and fun.

Four-Color Figures Blog

Scott Pyle of Superfigs and Chaos in Cairo (and other places) fame now has a blog.

Unboxing Warlands

My copy of Aberrant's Warlands "black box" arrived yesterday, and I've taken pictures of it as it came out of the box.

Two Way Battle

We finally got around to playing our side-by-side 40k games, so we covered table area twelve feet wide by five feet across. It worked out well, except we each kept trying to ask rules questions or draw attention to cool action on our table when the others were all too busy with their own game to be interrupted!

Living the Dream!

I always wanted to say to one of my players upon the start of the game, "Why don't you just grab a suitable figure out of the many in my display case." Now, I can. Gamer Achievement unlocked!

Plastic Zombies

Wargames Factory now has their zombie sprues up for sale.

GM On Hold Music

A little something for your next bathroom break when you're the GM...

Chain Reaction 3.0

Two Hour Wargames has updated their Chain Reaction rules and released them for free. There are some really good ideas in there, everybody should check them out if they like modern skirmish gaming.

Warlands

I ordered the new Warlands box from Aberrant. I love the idea of gaming with lots of modded Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Like most guys my age, one of my first games was Car Wars. I probably still have the old Steve Jackson plastic case around here somewhere ("Kong triggered the tail guns once more...that would teach HIM not to tailgate!") along with the Midville supplement (which featured a guy standing up in a convertible, blazing away with a rifle, while still wearing his SEAT BELT!! Awesome!!). Lots of great memories of Car Wars...you just can't beat the feeling of watching those damage boxes go away as you drill through the outer armor, through the crew and internal components, and then start to wear away the armor on the other side!! Man, I remember buying a tablet of huge graph paper and making all those old arenas...good times!

Curio Cabinet

Got my curio cabinet in and managed to find a little time to put it together. Looks nice! I need to get two extra shelves cut and hangers for them, plus install a light, but so far I'm fairly pleased! Too bad they sold out, doesn't look like I have a chance for a matching one...

Doomsday

I read about the movie Doomsday on a post-apocalypse project blog recently, and stuck it in the Netflix queue. It was, as expected, mostly mindless fun, but still fun. Imagine Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior meets 28 Days Later and Resident Evil, with a sprinkling of Escape From New York, Conan the Barbarian and Silence of the Lambs thrown in. How could it be bad? If only they could have squeezed in Aliens and Big Trouble in Little China...but there's always the sequel, I suppose!

D&D Podcast Special

The latest D&D Podcast is an all-star session, featuring Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of PvP and Wil Wheaton with line developer Chris Perkins as DM. Despite this geek-celeb lineup, it is strangely comforting to see that their sessions are absolutely no different than ours-- the GM struggling to wrangle the characters who mock each other, cut jokes, quote movies and TV shows, use obscenities and make suggestive comments. This is role-playing!

X-Cam Campaign Rules

The latest d6 Generation episode discusses Russ's X-Cam Campaign framework. It's designed to be something between a league and a traditional campaign, and sounds interesting. You play small scenarios to accumulate Recon points. You can exchange Recon points to play a strategic scenario to try and win Strategic points, which you in turn spend to play control games to accumulate Control points, which are the goal of the campaign. Craig has posted an X-Cam campaign for Uncharted Seas.

Curio-sity

I have been enviously eyeing Lord Ashram's beautiful house of war, including his nice display cabinets. I really like them, but at almost $300 a pop, I didn't really feel like buying one. However, my dear wife found this nice little curio cabinet at around 1/3 that price, so I ordered one. It has already shipped, so hopefully I'll have it soon and can get some pictures up. I'll have to hack in a light, and I'm hoping to add some extra shelves to it, but I'll just have to wait and see once I get it.

Play By Email Miniatures

The Rattrap Productions forums have sections for Play by EMail (PBEM) sessions of their games. Looking through the Fantastic Worlds section, I think they look like a lot of fun, and I almost got in on the last one-- but who am I kidding, I don't have time for that. I am looking forward to getting the new FW supplement, Planet X: Terror From Across the Universe.

Know Your Own Strength

I just got an order in from em4. I ordered their Combat Zone rules, which I've had my eye on for a while. Since I was placing the order, I picked up a few of the old Grenadier Future Wars troopers, just to double check how they mixed with the newer Copplestone Castings troopers (just fine, which is what I suspected). Anyway, one I picked up was this cyborg. As I was forcing the figure into a slottabase, the whole figure broke at the waist! It was a thin part, certainly, but that's the only figure that has happened to in thirteen or so years of putting figures in slottabases. I wonder if the metal composition contributed?

Corporate Babe

Another of the Copplestone Casting Future Wars Corporate Babes.

Another 5150 Game Report

Mik has posted another fun 5150 game report from a game we through together this week.

What I'm Working On

I've started on my February terrain for Trucidos. While that is strictly true, unfortunately, this was done in January, and I have yet to actually work on anything this month. That will change soon.

Rhino!

Just watch.

Project Threads

I've been hanging out on the Lead Adventure Forum lately. There are lots of really talented people there, and I've enjoyed these very cool project threads in the Future Wars section-- the Fallout conversions thread has some very impressive work, the Scruntian Slavers is very creative, and a relly cool STARGUARD! project with a fully pink gaming table. Really. Anyway, the site is full of high-quality stuff. Check it out.

Without Warning

I've been doing more reading lately, and have posted my review of the new book, Without Warning. The year is 2003 and the Iraq War is on the verge of kicking off when the majority of the USA is suddenly wiped from the face of the earth... There are some great wargaming scenarios in here-- from a Marine brigade defending Guantanamo Bay and the remaining part of Cuba against Chavez's power grab, to the troops of France's illegally-installed head Sarkozy battling a civil war against the "loyalists" allied with the arab intifada in the streets of France, the remnants of America's invasion forces defending themselves in the Middle East, and Israel's launch of Operation: Megiddo...

Supersystem Third Edition

I was catching up on older WAYWO podcasts, and a while back, maybe epidsode 14 or 15 (so, Spring of '08), Scott mentions that they're playtesting a third edition of SuperSystem. I look forward to that. The SuperFigs site also notes some new miniature releases soon. May be time to renew my Old Glory Army subscription...

She's Got Legs

...and a broom handled Mauser... One of Copplestone's Future Wars Corporate Babes, looking not really that corporate, but very nice nonetheless.

Ape-X, Super Villain

Got around to finishing my Reaper Chronoscape Ape-X, Super Villain figure I talked about before. He really is a very cool figure, and I like how he turned out.

Just Another Bug Hunt

Mik posted pictures and a report of our recent 5150 bug hunt game. I go back and forth over Two Hour Wargames rules-- there are some real golden nuggets inside the rules, but they are still annoyingly poorly edited. Still, we had a blast with this game. We didn't lose a man, but we did decide that prudence was the better part of valour...

2085: Warlords of the Wasteland

Just stumbled across Skankgame.com, home of 2085: Warlords of the Wastelands. I haven't taken a look at the rules yet, but based on the quality Galleries (complete with Thundarr conversions) and very useful Articles pages, it's probably worth a look. I remember seeing his high rise and rubble articles before, but I never noticed this, the absolute coolest terrain idea I've seen in some time-- wrecked cars in plaster!! Absolutely the coolest!! More here.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I just posted my Amazon review of the classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I thought it was a pretty good book. Very different from the movie, but I thought it felt a tad dated, being 40 years old already.

Game Design & Development

I just discovered the Game Designo & Development forum on RPGnet. The focus is generally on role-playing games, but there's a lot of general info in there, especially in the sticky Games Designers' Resource Thread.

Wasted Roads

The Blog of the Wasteland...the Ayatollah of Paint and Converter! "I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me paint up my dogs of war. Look at what you made of your old figures. Why? Because you're talented! You hoard your bits."
"Don't listen to him!"
"Now, my prisoners say you plan to take your rules into the Wasteland. You sent them out this morning to find a set of rules. A game big enough to haul those fat conversions you made. What an awesome plan!"

What Have You Been Working On?

What Are You Working On has been out a while, but I'm just now catching up on it. I really enjoy it, as it covers both RPGs and miniatures in about the ratio I game. Plus, one of the hosts is Scott Pyle of SuperFigs, an awesome system and a very nice guy, based on my meetings with him at Historicon.

Awesome 3D Space Hulk

SpaceHulk.BeckerF.com is the home to an awesome 3D Space Hulk set up. He also includes a lot of info about how he made the terrain. And he's from Stuttgart, my wife's home town!

Vampire Hunters

Here's a couple of cool figures I picked up at Historicon in 2007, the Wargames Foundry limited edition "Father Eamon McSweeney & His Cousin, Elizabeth Ann McSweeny[sic]." I wanted these for a while, and wanted to paint them for a while since I had them, and finally got around to it. I feel like I need to buy Occult Wars now...

January Terrain Finished

Got the fountain finished, completing my January terrain for the Trucidos campaign and giving me 162 square inches of terrain for the full three campaign points.

Dawn of Worlds

The ClanWebsite.org games page contains a link to Dawn of World (direct link to PDF). It's a cooperative fantasy world building game, or process, that looks pretty interesting. Check it out.

The Last January Terrain

Here's my last bit of January terrain getting finished up. This is an old ceramic Christmas village fountain I found in a box as I was cleaning up some old terrain junk. I had used it for some 25mm WW2 skirmish gaming, but never done anything with it. The chipped areas were two red birds I knocked away. Snow patches were covered with spackle mixed with brown paint, which also served as a contour for the rubble I would glue on. The rubble was my usual mix of clay cat litter and bits from my rubble bag...I saw sprues, both metal and lead, a computer case fan, a piece of a blade and some side mounted machine guns from a destroyed 1/72 helicopter model kit, sculpture contour mesh, stripped wire insulation, dried paint scrapped from a bottle...

Firezone Studios

Firezone Studios has some very nice pictures, especially of some recent 6mm figures apparently for Future War Commander.

Dan Abnett's Blog

Hey! Dan Abnett of Eisenhorn fame has a blog. Seems like all the cool kids are doing that...

Cursed Treasures

I really liked looking through Cursed Treasures. He has lots of really nice, inspirational pictures and some cool little terrain pieces.

Tradin' Stuff

I"ve accumulated a Wants and Haves list for some trading, check it out on Bartertown.

Crane Finished

Got the crane finished tonight. It's 10.5x12", or 126 square inches. I have two other small pieces under development that will put me over 144 for January for my campaign points, just need to get one done. With the two 7.5" square pieces I did before the campaign started, I have around 472 square inches, or almost four square feet, of this white industrial terrain. It feels like a lot, yet it's only 1/3 of what I should end up with for the duration of the campaign.

Soundtrack Please!

Fun with GIMP while waiting for my washes to dry!

Dirty Water Wash

Pictures of more "dirty water wash" across my crane. The dark wash is all dirty paint water, and I've also laid down some rust. I should note that I added some flow-aid to my paint water before using it as a wash. I'll go over the whole thing with a diluted Gryphonne Sepia wash next. The rubble is drybrushed a series of lighter greys. I then put put small areas of various washes on it. Next, I'll cover the whole thing in undiluted Badab Black and, after that dries, a light drybrushing of tan.

The Perfect Urban Rubble Wash?

"Heh heh, oh man, my brush water is getting dirty. That's awful. It's really time to change it. Why, there's so much pigment floating around in there, it's like cleaning my brush with another paint! Well, okay, not so much a paint, but definitely a...wash!!"

The God-Emperor's Conquerors!

I had been considering painting some Space Marines, and was digging through some old figures and stumbled across this old Assault Marine. So, I started dabbling around with creating my own chapter. If I'm doing armored heroes running across open fields towards machine gun nests, they're going to be painted like clowns, so I went for a quartered paint scheme. This represents the first Space Marine I've painted in 18-19 years. And I enjoyed it! I actually sculpted some custom shoulder pads, but I haven't cast them yet, so I painted him how I thought a veteran's shoulder pad might look. Plus, I'd like to do some fancy bases for them, and I haven't done that yet, so the base in unfinished as well.

Bike Week?

A little 40k Chaplain in a bike. I picked this up with the Squat a while back. It was actually a few Necron models I was buying and these were in the mix as well, and yet here they are being painted up first. I actually have been dithering between working on a Witch Hunter or a Space Marine army...I finally decided just to do both and painted this chaplain up for myself. It will be either full on Witch Hunter with Sisters of Battle, or a Space Marine army led by a chaplain and allied with the Witch Hunters.

Nick's 5150 SciFi Skirmish

Nick's 5150 SciFi Skirmish is a nice page devoted to 5150. It has some really nice pictures of games in action, as well as a well-developed variant called Roach Wars. I absolutely love the look of the swarm of roaches coming across the table...I'm going to have to get some of my own!

Drunken Samurai Painting Blog

Not just a really cool name, Drunken Samurai Painting Blog has a lot of really nice pictures of a variety of miniatures, as well as some modeling tips and game reports.

The Wargame Shed

The Wargames Shed has a lot of interesting info, check it out.

Squat

I painted my first 40k Squat! I picked this up cheap as part of a bundle of interesting stuff a while ago, and have been looking forward to painting it. Putting it up against modern 40k figures, you can really see the difference in quality. Its sculpting isn't anywhere as crisp. But it has a lot of something lacking in modern figures-- character. The GW suits may think of the Squats as a "joke" race, but that means they're taking seriously guys charging tanks with swords...

From the Warp

From the Warp has a lot of terrain, modeling and painting tutorials.

Noisemaker's Podcast

I've been catching up on noisemaker's podcast, I have enjoyed it. It's a good quality podcast that doesn't focus on mainstream games, and brings some solo gaming in to play, which I enjoy. Take a listen.

Olicanalad's Games

Olicanalad's Games has some interesting posts on modelling and conversions. He's also a Piquet player, and active on the Piquet list.

Lord Ashram's House of War

Lord Ashram's House of War has an awesome interior decorator.

Trucidos, Game 2

I got the second game of our Trucidos campaign finished tonight. It was a 750 point rematch between Chris and me, and a much harder fought battle. However, I managed through tactics and forgotten rules to wrangle out, in the end, a draw...

Forge of War

Gawd 'elp us Games has a set of alternative 40k rules called Forge of War, using some modern rules mechanics like Activation Rolls. They look like something I want to try out...

40k Comics

Dark Reign, a Dark Heresy RPG site, hosts several 40k themed comics-- three out of four of which are clearly Order of the Stick inspired...but Servants of the Imperium was pretty good.

The Studio McVey Blog

Mike and Ali McVey have a blog with lots of pictures...

Recreational Conflict

Scroll down to the Coming Soon section of Recreational Conflict's front page, and take a look at that sweet looking Big Daddy.

Inspirational Terrain

I just found this Adepticon gallery of terrain. Lots of stuff to steal from in there. I haven't looked through it all, but I really liked what I saw in Marcin Ignasiak's gallery.

Awesome Scratch Building

DEI GRECI has some pictures of his awesome scratch building of a super heavy 40k tank, along with an example of his resin casting technique.

January Terrain: Ready to Prime

My Necromunda gang scrabbles over the ruined crane. Who needs Vents when you've got a crane, baby! I had hoped to prime it today, since it had stopped raining and we had some nice weather, but I never got the rubble on until tonight. I'll let it (hopefully) dry over night, and prime it tomorrow. The forecast looks cold, but dry. With a little bit of luck, I'll have it done in time for our campaign game on Thursday.

Eisenhorn

I just posted my review of the 40k novel Eisenhorn on Amazon. In short: I liked it a lot, 5 stars.

Size Matters

It may not be 24' x 7', but I'm still pretty pleased with how large I can make my gaming table! For our Trucidos campaign, we were discussing how we could play simultaneous campaign games so that we would all be together for each game. Mik and I both have dedicated tables-- he has a custom built 8' x 4' tabletop, and I have two 8' x 2.5' banquet tables I cover with felt to get 8' x 5'. I initially thought we would have to play our games separately, but then realized I had two 6' x 2.5' tables up in the attic. I spent most of my Saturday moving crap around and hauling them downstairs and finally got them set up for a huge (for me) 14' x 5' table!!

More Table Pictures

Oh yeah, Daddy like.

Geektactica

I really enjoyed browsing through Geektactica. He has lots of really nicely painted figures, but I really like his series on constructing cheap Western buildings detailed here.

January Terrain

I kind of didn't want to post anything until I was finished, but I'm excited about this and thought I'd post some work in progress shots. I was at the store with my wife today, doing some shopping. I needed some more epoxy for what I was planning for my January Trucidos terrain. It was kind of an extension of my industrial style terrain I've done so far. One of the things I had been thinking about was a crane, but it seemed very intimidating and time consuming to scratch build myself. And as I was walking through the discount toys, I saw this...

Fictional Reality

Fictional Reality is an interesting downloadable wargaming magazine. They cover a very wide variety of topics, so check it out.

Nice Custom Terrain

This Dome on Terraforming Planet gallery on TerraGenesis is chock full of fascinating scratch built detail. I alse loved the ideas in the Lighted Figure Bases gallery. I'd love to make something half as nice.

2009

I haven't had time to do much retrospection on 2008. I think it was a pretty good hobby year. I certainly enjoyed my hobby last year, although I can't really think of any major achievement off hand. It was kind of a half year due to birth of my third child (who's doing great). I suppose the things I'm most pleased with were getting my kids to paint and making a moderate amount of decent terrain. So, what is in store for 2009?

The Grand Armies of Liliputia

Freewargamesrules blog link to a new 2mm wargaming site. I love the idea of 2mm.

Vibrating Table

I've been working on a vibrating table for the last couple of weeks (around holidays, family and campaign terrain), based on Ultrawerke's. I've wanted to do something like this for a while, and after seeing his, I realized I had pretty much all the parts he used. The only things I actually had to buy was the "shadowbox" frame I got on sale for $10 and a couple bucks worth of springs.

Cityfight

That's not a Cityfight...THIS is a Cityfight. A superb post-apocalyptic skyscraper-filled city, with custom wallpaper to match the terrain. The Work In Progress forums are just chock full of interesting little (and not so little) gems like this...

Miniaturespace

Miniaturespace has a ton of really inspirational pictures.

dTotal

Okay, I've been on a dice kick lately, but I really like this dTotal die. One single die can roll d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7, d8, d10, d12, d20 and d24. A few types require a reroll, like the d10 and d20. Still, it's pretty clever, and would cut down on the number of dice you had to carry around with you. It's not going to be useful for "buckets of dice" games at 25 bucks a pop, though. Still, I'm sure it looks great in your world's largest collection of dice... Update: ...and d30, d40, d50, d60, d70, d80 and d100.

DiceCollector

DiceCollector.com hosts the world's largest collection of dice-- 25,769. I can see that as the sort of activity that starts out fun and exciting, but by the time you have so many that you are referring to databases to prevent duplicates, the real fun is pretty much sucked out of it. I would have to put them all in a tub at some point and jump in. Well, maybe without the d4s...

Game Science Dice

Lou Zocchi of GameScience makes you hate your dice. Continues with part 2. He gets bonus points in my book for claming that "...a lot of gamemasters prematurely kill off characters who deserve to live..." by using bad dice. This man hates bad dice!

The Chambers of Miniatures

The Chambers of Miniatures has a great gallery in its Archive, and I think it would take a couple of days to get through the Nexus of Links.

Dampf's Modeling Page

Dampf's modeling page has a wealth of scratch building projects and really inspirational photos.