The Half-Blood Prince

Let's face it, if you've done your time and read the Harry Potter books at least up until the sixth book, chances are you're going to go see the movie too. If you didn't read up to that point, and you haven't bothered with the last couple of books...well, chances are you could care less, haha. Me, I read the books, but I'm not a Hogwarts junkie. For the movies, eh, they've been clever at times, but I'm not hanging on every release date.

That's probably why I just now got to see the newest one. Yesterday, as I've already plugged, was my birthday, so dear old mom took my daughter and I out for lunch and a movie. There's no way I could bear to sit through a G Force or what-not, so I opted for everyone's favorite boy (now teen) wizard with the scar on his forehead.

For all the reasons I'm sure people hated the movie, I conversely loved in it. First off it boiled it back down to just three main characters (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) and focused on them and their character development. You weren't overloaded with a cast of a dozen primary players and twice that number in supporting roles.

Action, combat, magical explosions...heck, just magical tricks and tomfoolery in general were kept to a bare bones minimum. When done though, in particular Dumbledore's pyrotechnics against the zombie-ghoul thingies was delicious. Delightfully, most of the movie was based in dialog with a small number of characters on screen at any time. The entire pulse, pace, and feel of the movie was so much different than its predecessors.

It's not masterpiece theater, but if you've even had just a passing interest in the mythos over the years, then you'll find this latest installment to your liking.

3:16 Meets Lego

The NPC crew of 3:16

Obviously 3:16 has been getting a lot of airplay here at Mik's Minis. We're on the verge of playing our campaign, and I'm excited about it!

Well, it's hard to get away from Legos in whatever I do, and this is no exception. The look and feel of 3:16 is over-the-top-carnage (carnage is in the title even), so I went for this style with the figs. Their MandelBrite armor needs to look tough, and menacing, and the trickiest part is capturing those ambiguous, domey helmets. I dove deep in the Lego bins and pulled out some Insectoids shoulder armor and helmets that work beautifully. The weapons were fun to make, and incorporate both new ideas and some borrowed ones.

There's still human beings inside the armor, so I had to capture individual personalities while at the same time keeping it militant and sci-fi. Somehow I lucked into using nothing but heads that have headset microphones, and were all different to boot. This was a blast tinkering around with, and I'll let the pics and captions speak for themselves. Enjoy!


Captain Baker and Major Hibernus Mortis


Trooper Lubbock, Sergeant Burns, and Trooper Falco


Tech Support Troopers Jenkins and Jackson


The guns of 3:16


Captain Baker and the bayonet-fixed Heavy MG


Sgt. Burns and his trusty Rocket Pod


Trooper Falco hefts the deadly E-Cannon


Major Mortis, cool and reserved with his PowerClaw and sidearm


Trooper Lubbock and his lucky Flame-Gun


Trooper Falco with the Flechette (needler) Gun


Sgt. Burns with the reliable, drum-fed Shotgun and combat knife


Captain baker inspects a trooper's Energy Rifle


Tech Support with standard issue Slug Rifles


Arms and armor inspection prior to planetfall


Dirtside and ready!


Another blog banner attempt...

Little Lead Heroes

Super-cyborg Ape! Raaaargh!

All right, so I've mentioned Andy, geez, I don't know how many times. Well, according to my cool, little Google search widget on the right, I've mentioned Andy fifty one times in my posts here at Mik's Minis. I'd say it's a safe bet that he's been at the table of at least 90% of all the games I've played this year. Anyway, he's got a new blog.


Surrounded by pure awesomeness!

Not too long ago I pimped two other blogs, the Sons of Twilight, and Wanna B Painter. In both cases, these are people I had no idea were even alive this time last year, but now, if we lived in the same zip code, we'd probably be gaming all the time.

Well, Andy's on the opposite end of the scale. We first met sixteen years ago in 1993 for a local Blood Bowl league that hosted about a dozen teams. We've been gaming on a regular pretty much ever since then. There's others, sure. I started playing Twilight 2000 with another buddy Mike back in fourth grade! I started second edition DnD with Oz in 1990, and Ray and I first slapped down the first edition Rogue Trader and plastic beakies back in '87. I'm leaving people out, but it's not intentional. Needless to say, I am lucky because I still game with these guys. But I digress, we were talking about Andy's new blog.


Modern day witch hunters and vampire slayers

I guess that's about all I've got for now, rather than listen to me blather on, just do yourself a favor and go check out the new digs over at Little Lead Heroes.


Dino-frenzy!


For the freakin' Emperor!

Ye Olde Wishlist

That's a lot of consumerism!

I know, I know, it's a shameless plug, totally self-serving, but tomorrow is my birthday and I've been racking up quite a wish list as of late and I thought I'd share it for posterity. It seems, when your hobbies are geeky in nature, you're never finished though, you should note this doesn't even scratch the surface! It's funny that I'm thirty five years old, yet my list reads like that of ten year old, for the most part anyways.

Disclaimer: This list is for spectator purposes only, whatever you do, don't rush out to your local UPS Store and ship anything overnight, haha!

Warrior Woman

Reaper's 'Lorna the Huntress'

I've posted a bunch of figs here, but this one might be my favorite to date. My six year old painted this 'warrior woman' the same time I worked on the Eco Team.


It was a great morning, we laid out all the paints on the kitchen table (where I do a lot of my painting), got a couple of cups of water for our brushes, and set out to do some painting! She's done a handful of figs before, but this was the first time she was focused from start to finish. I coached her through the process, but the rest was up to her; color selection, when to take breaks, what parts to paint, the whole nine yards.


This fig was also another first because unlike the hand-me-down figs out of the bits box my girl's been painting, this one she picked out on her own off the rack at the local shop. Ole Lorna here was part of Reaper's P65 range, and was a steal at two bucks and change, plus, it's a good sculpt to boot, if a tad skimpy in the attire department, haha. My daughter picked her because she wanted a "warrior woman", it wasn't until she started putting brush to fig that she realized that warrior woman didn't wear any underwear!


I coached her through the whole process, and in the couple of days leading up to 'paint day', we talked about things you do while painting too. Introducing techniques to her I phrased them as "tricks", and the two we talked about in terms of warrior woman here were highlighting and washes. Well, the highlighting didn't take too well, but she embraced the wash technique, err, trick, quite a bit. Mainly blue on the boots and some brown on the fur loincloth. Since we painted side-by-side, I was able to show her these techniques on the guys I was working on, and then she'd repeat the process on her own fig.


She was very deliberate in her color scheme, knowing exactly what she wanted, down to the blood on the sword, which she described as wanting "to look like she won a battle". To round it all out, we did some basing too, which was the exact same I did on my guys; a little white glue brushed on, followed up by a swish around in the bag of flock. Her fig was now completely finished! Like I said, it's not her first, but definitely her best, so far!



Closeup of painting the eyes...and the results

To reiterate, I didn't touch her mini once, this was all her, I did, however, talk her through a lot of it. If she got a big dab of blue on the arm, I'd ask her how she would fix it, then she'd go back and repaint the spot with flesh. The last "trick" we covered was going back and doing these little touch-ups. We also talked a lot about using our 'painting eye' to see what parts we needed to paint first and where we should go back to touch up, also, it was good to look for little details you normally miss, like bracelets and buckles. Enjoy!

2009 ENnies

Just a reminder to vote in the '09 ENnies!

Take note in the 'Best Monster' category...our gaming buddy Rucht has his Grand Tome of Adversaries for the Witch Hunter system in there! He's got some tough competition, but it's still cool, I hope he wins, so give a local guy some support!

Aside from this obviously personal plug, haha, there's lot of good stuff in the ENnies this year. I've got my eye on how well Mouseguard does, and there are multiple entries Dark Heresy too. My current love, 3:16, has been nominated for 'Best Cover Art'!

You only have a couple of days...

Thoughts on 3:16

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

Well, we ended up not playing 3:16 last week, we had a lot of things popping up in those pesky adult lives of ours. Originally it was just going to be Andy, fresh from Historicon, missing the game, but he was supposed to be running it! I offered to do a dry run for everyone else, just to get used to the rules. The more I read up on the rules, the more I liked them though, and somehow I ended up cockblocking Andy's seat as GM. Sorry again Andy, ahem! It's just as well, 'cause I haven't pulled my GM weight in a long while.

So I'm running a 3:16 campaign now, woohoo! Of course we've yet to play, but I'm confident. In classic form I over-prepared off the bat, crunching through a whopping five pages of notes. I need to relax and just have fun with it. Having read the rulebook now a couple of times in detail however, a lot of realizations are coming to me about 3:16.

On the outside it seems like fun, campy, machismo alien-killing free form RPG. It's simple to run, and once everyone's on board, it's a blast...literally. But there's more to it, a lot more, and although it's cheesy to just say "play the game and it'll hit you", I can see where that's a spot-on way to describe it. It's subtle, almost too subtle at first.

The best way I can think to describe it is while the left hand has your attention, waving in the air, the right hand is about to punch you in the gut. This thing's got a lot more under the hood than the fad-of-the-week sci-fi RPG than you think of at first glance. It'll still be a blast, trust me, but in the long run I know it will yield more than just an M41a alien-blasting thrill ride that I was only giving it credit for initially.

And how's this for irony: this post is number 316...

Chupacabra Burgers

Now...that's a burger!

Let's talk burgers today, big, tasty burgers. It's not just the burger itself, it's what you put on it...and in it. Here's an easy burger recipe that you don't have to be a culinary school graduate to pull off, and unlike my chicken nachos recipe, I will not require your veggies off the ingredients list to come from your own garden, like mine did!


...and my wife's plate

You'll note in both pics a tasty beverage which accompanies and compliments the taste of these burgers beautifully. From its rich, amber hue it could only be Newcastle Brown Ale.

Newcastle Brown Ale pours a crystal clear brown-amber that produces a transient tan head. As is expected, the aromas that rise from the glass are a mixture of subtle nuttiness and sublime biscuit and toasted caramel. As is common with brown ales, hop aroma is nearly non-existent. Upon drinking, a gentle wash coats the palate pleasingly without the sting of carbonation bite. Faint almond and cashew flavors intertwine with notes of sweet malt and caramel. The carbonation level of Newcastle’s offering is low, leading to a smooth finish and easy drinkability. Subsequent bitterness provided by the earthy English hops is balanced perfectly with the overall malty character. For a “simple” style, there is definite complexity of character in this beer. -The Bachelor Guy

You'll need to dress 'em with veggie goodness

Mik's Minis Chupacabra Burgers
Ingredients:
x3 jalapeños
x1 pound ground beef 80/20
x3 hamburger buns
x1 tomato
x1 avocado
x1 packet taco seasoning
x1 onion
x1 egg
x1/3 head lettuce
x3 pieces sliced goat cheese (specialty cheese counter)
x1/3 block sharp cheddar, shredded

Method:
1. Thoroughly combine ground beef, egg, taco seasoning, and shredded cheese in a medium bowl. You're going for big burgers, so don't skimp on the patties. Weigh out three equal sized portions and form into patties. A tip here is to keep the outer edges of your patty thicker than the center. Place on plate and put into refrigerator.

2. Turn on grill (I use a gas grill) or warm up coals, etc. and leave lid open to preheat.

3. While grill is preheating and burgers are chilling, slice your onion, tomato, and lettuce. Also skin and cut the avocado into pieces and slice the jalapeños.


Now you're ready to grill!

4. Before placing your patties on the grill, spray the grates with a nonstick cooking spray. I like a good, indirect heat when I grill. Turn the burners where the burgers are to a medium low, and the empty front burners on high.

5. The biggest mistake you can do with your burgers is to flip them over and over again. Flip them just once or twice at the most...and don't press down on the patties with your spatula! You're just squeezing out all the flavor!


Can't you almost smell them?

6. When your patties are done being flipped, place a wide layer of the sliced jalapeños on the burger. Don't stack them, just a wide, even layer.

7. Carefully place your thin slice goat cheese over the jalapeños and burgers, turn the burners under the patties to low, and close the lid of the grill. This stuff melts quick, count to maybe twenty in your head, then open the grill up. You should have a nice 'ghost' effect as in the above pic, your burgers are ready, get ready to eat.

8. Stack those veggies on high! Whatever you like, but the more the better. Unless you absolutely can't stand one of the ones listed, put it on, even if you don't like [veggie x] by itself, you might be surprised when its taste mingles with the others.


Here at Mik's Minis we make 'happy plates' (and glasses)

This meal is all about the burger, stick to that and you'll go far. You'll notice there's no side dishes here either...you don't need them. Our culture has told us every meal needs appetizers, desert, side items, etc. When you've got big, juicy burgers like these, you don't need that other stuff. Truth be told we did munch on some yellow corn chips and green salsa while I was prepping everything, but that was about it.

I made three patties, we ate two, and the third one made a great lunch the next day right out of the fridge. You may be tired of hearing about my garden and veggies, heh, but it was neat to pull my own tomatoes off the vine and slice jalapeños I also grew in the backyard. I'd love to hear from anyone who gives these a try! Enjoy!