2011 Kickoff and Winter Painting Queue

A new year is upon us and the projects continue on unabated. I'm padding my queue a bit here by keeping it relatively small, but in my eyes certainly manageable. There's lots of other projects waiting in the wings, so let's get these wrapped up first.


1. Hordes of the Things Orc Army

I didn't realize until I finished the first leg of this 6mm army that I have a *lot* of stands of Orcs, especially for a game that requires only about a third of what I have. This gives me a *lot* of options to mix and match with and it also gives me two completely separate armies that can fight head to head at the same time. I came close to painting a different skintone on the next batch, but I think I'll just keep them the same and have one gigantically huge fantasy Orc army.


2. Some Sci-Fi Terrain

There's no excuse to not paint these. They've been built and sprayed with primer for some time. I intended these to be terrain pieces for 15mm battles, but they'll scale further up or down the spectrum just fine. I've got to get in more sci-fi games this year anyway, so why not crank out some terrain to go along with it?


3. Prehistorics

The last of the projects on the block are my prehistorics; cavemen and the Ice Age era critters for them to hunt and eat. I'm looking forward to this one, not that I'm not the others, but the figs look very cool and it's a genre that interests me a great deal as well.

That's it, just three projects in the queue to start out with. Don't be fooled though, there's a lot of stuff to paint up here and I don't see myself blazing through it either. The terrain should come together easily enough, but the stands of Orcs will end up being tedious if for no other reason than sheer numbers, and the prehistoric plateful of cavemen is deceptive, there's really a lot more there than you'd think waiting for the brush. Once these three projects are all wrapped up and complete there's more on the horizon, there's always more, without much planning ahead here's a quick list off the top of my head for the future:

Incoming on the H.U.D.

1. Space Orks (AE Bounty and 5150)
2. Pulp Figures (Strange Aeons, Chaos in..., etc.)
3. 15mm Sci-Fi Troops
4. Sons of Minos Space Marines
5. Basing and Finishing Touches on the Karman
6. Continue Work on 15mm FoW Brits
7. Deathwatch Marines
   
8. Exo-suits for 28mm Mercs
9. Tanks for the same 28mm Mercs
10. Dino-Marines!
    
11. Lord of the Rings Project
12. A Dwarf PC figure for our FATE RPG
13. Another Spring Garden
    
14. Imperial Guard troopers
15. Sci-fi Greatcoat troopers
16. A trio of Dark Angel rhinos
    

If there was one thing last year taught me it was that I need repetitive games under my belt with the same system. To this end, I need to try some different sci-fi rules well-suited to 15mm to find "the one". I'm looking for games that will handle single mini to a little larger than skirmish level. Having a solo option in there is also a big plus in my book.

Speaking of solo, as much as it pains me to say, I'll be looking at 5150 again. I've had an idea for some time of a pair of Space Ork mercenaries plying their trade across the galaxy and it's be fun to make into a serial here.

This will also be the year my daughter graduates from boardgames to some true tabletop gaming, I'm thinking we start with the Song of Blade and Heroes for some linked games. So overall 2011 has got some ambition to it already and it's just begun. Some of the items listed on the HUD are for projects, but others are just to get done because they've languished too long incomplete. I'm not saying I'll get to them all in 2011, but they're not going away, so whether it's this year, next year, or even further down the road...they'll always be there.

Prepping a Plateful of Prehistorics

After a bunch of World War II tanks, a saucer-full of aliens, and who knows what else, I thought I'd stick to the trend of keeping everyone guessing on the genre of my next project; Prehistorics. I picked up most of these at Fall-In! and a couple more additions made their way into the herd post-con. I spent a good part of the morning with my coffee (black), some gesso (white), toothpicks (to finish off the metal washers I used for bases), glue (for pinning down spears), and my craft knife (for trimming flash).


The Smilodon and wolf pack are from Reaper. This Smilodon is a great sculpt, saber-toothed tigers were built more like agile bears and less like actual tigers and this fig captures that very well. This isn't the first time I've owned this figure either, it's just a cool sculpt. The wolves are wolves, they get the job done. I'll use these probably just as a feral pack, and the couple tame looking ones I'll use as semi-domestics with the Neandertals. Alternatively these could be painted up, tails clipped, to act as Cave Hyenas, which is something I've considered, especially if I focus on Eurasia. These may just end up being Gray Wolves however.

It doesn't snow a whole lot in these parts, even though the winters are cold enough, but the weekend I photographed these there actually was snow! I guess taking pics of all of these Ice Age period critters in the snow is very apropos! This isn't the first time the Valhallan Snow Gods of Winter have converged on a miniatures project either!


These are all from Acheson Creations, and this Woolly Mammoth is just awesome, and huge! The trick is I'd like to put him on a base, but I have no idea what to use. He's too big for washers or whatever, and not quite big enough for a CD, so I'll keep thinking of something. He's the largest mammoth they offer, but they do have others.

Another pair of great figs from Acheson, the Irish Elk put the "mega" in megafauna! These figures are huge as well, and rightly so since they are the largest deer that have ever lived at any time on planet Earth. A single elk has enough meat to feed a good dozen humans, but those twelve foot wide antlers could easily spell a hunter's doom.


Speaking of hunters, here's a tribe of Neandertals. I bought both 'hunter' packs offered by Acheson, and overall I'm very happy with them. There's a couple of figs in the packs I'm not crazy about, but there's a couple in there that are way cooler than average too, so it all balances out. The other two "caveman" packs they offer have more mundane 'camp peeps' that include females, children, firewood collectors, and the like. Not bad, but a kneeling figure scraping/cleaning an animal skin with a levallois tool doesn't scream "caveman battles". Shown above is one of those docile Reaper wolves I mentioned that'll be their proto-dog, man's best friend going on 50,000 years now.


Our last batch of hunters, as before all are armed with flint spears. There's enough variety from both packs I picked up to make two distinct looking tribes if I wanted to, or two competing bands. These bands could be competing directly against one another, or possibly both bands are competing for the same food source. I don't know really, all I know is now that they're based I need to get cracking and get them painted them up! Enjoy!

Casemate Publishers

Just when you thought all of my posts on Fall-In! were over, I sneak one more upon you! This is one makes me pretty happy to share too, and as the title suggests it involves a company called Casemate Publishers.

Casemate ran a booth in that massive dealer's room, and it was a good sized one to boot. Their specialty lies in military books, history books, and the like, covering all time periods where man fought man. They were having a prize drawing and not a lot of people were signing up from what I saw. Actually I should say from what Andy saw, since for years to come it will invariably be him that (rightfully so) takes credit for most of this. Andy won one of the daily prizes which was a sweet $50 dollar certificate to be used at their website. With so many options, I just know he's going to get a headache trying to decide. Well I signed up for the drawing as well, but unlike Andy I did not win any of the daily drawings. No, I instead won the $350 dollar grand prize!

It was no secret I went to Fall-In! on a budget, and had to restrain myself from going loco in the dealer's room, not to mention I ate sandwiches out of a cooler the whole weekend, so this little bit of gamer-karma-come-back-atcha was certainly a welcome surprise. I placed my order this week, so when that big box of shiny new books gets here, expect a follow up post!


Well I'm a gamer first and foremost, so I went there right off the bat, opting for Foundry's "Rules With No Name", and Warlord's new Black Powder rules. The former is free on the web, but the published copy has been held in fairly high regard. Cowboys are something we've certainly had fun with many time sin the past too, plus it fills quite the gaming void on my bookshelf. Black Powder was really a grab for the spectacle of it and who knows, maybe one day it will give up its intoxicating call to a humble weekend painter like myself. In all seriousness I've heard nothing but good things about it and it really does sound like they were written the way rules should've been written; clear, solid, and open to allow the spirit of the game supersede the letter of the rule. While I was at it I picked Andy up a copy as well, you know, since he took me to my first dance and all.


You may be thinking that I just started clicking away like mad adding books I've never heard of to my online Casemate shopping cart. Well, that's only partially true! After my cart was overstuffed around five hundred bucks I went in and began weeding through it. I used several internet sources to check the books not voted off the island for reviews and what-not. The two here are similar in nature in that they deal with specific commanders during specific time periods. By going into biographical detail of the person, you get greater insight to the wars fought under their watchful eye, and to the specific state of the world as well.


When I talk of my Anthropology degree it's usually in reference to what I focused on as my specialty, which is prehistoric man and human origins. That wasn't all I took however, and the archaeology portion of my degree was centered around the time of the American War of Independence, so I gravitated to both of these books. Despite their very similar titles, from what I could pick up, the two books complement one another rather well with little to no overlap. I'm not known for my historical gaming sense, but these may be the push I need as well.


Britain, both old and new round out my shopping spree. My Irish Guards army is ambitious in scope, just slow to get going (all my fault of course). One thing I do know is that you can get lost with all of the tales that unfolded during WWII. For me I've set my eye on Operation Market Garden. For that, the Arnhem 1944 book looks to fit the bill.

Workbench Update and a Chance Zombie Encounter

Going into these colder months, where sometimes a small space heater even makes it down to the game room at foot level, it's time to get productive on some workbench material! It's kind of cool to see it all laid out here because it covers time periods from 55kya to WWII, and genres from all over the map from fantasy to sci-fi to historic. Here's the breakdown:

• x10 Neandertals
• x1 Woolly Mammoth
• x2 Irish Elk
• x6 British Sherman Tanks
• x2 British Firefly Tanks
• x10 Alien Greys
• x1 Knight of Bal Timorea
• x1 LEGO Wraith Necromancer

Now while I was busy putting all of the above together, a couple of peeps were over to hang out and played a test game of Fear and Faith. All of my Fall-In! table pics, especially the Zombie tables, inspired Chri3 to really cement making the zombie theme "his thing".

I don't want to spoil too much of his ideas, but the nature of his particular zombie world is fresh and original, and there's plenty of room for more than just the walking dead. He's got weresharks, yeti, rogue cult psychics, chainsaw maniacs, and more.


Terrain, as you saw from the aforementioned con pics, makes the game. I'm almost in the boat now that it doesn't just merely complement your armies, without it everything else falls short. While Chri3 and Jake played some zombie hunting action notes were taken and house rules were being laid out. I love the Song of Blades system and it seems Fear and Faith keeps that goodness alive. We do have one Fear and Faith game under our belts, and it was a blast, it showed real promise. I'm hoping we'll get some serious time logged on the Zombpocalypse frontier in the near future. It's always good to have a few experts here and there in your group that shoulder a whole genre/rules and spread the games around to enjoy.

Fall-In! Dealer's Room, Flea Market, and Loot

This is a sight to bring a joyful tear to any gamer's eye; the dealer's room. I don't have the con experience to know what a lot or a little is, but it did seem there wasn't much room left in the dealer's room to squeeze much else into. There was a good-sized back corner that was relatively vacant, but otherwise booth to booth, stall to stall, this place was heaven.


Not only do you get to see all your favorite manufacturers in the flesh, but you get to see all of their beautifully painted samples too. Here you see some of the fantastic cavemen from Acheson Creations as well as some of their mammoths and mastodons. More on this below.


Eureka Miniatures' Jurrassic Reich figs...simply delicious


More Eureka goodness; Frog-riding, err, Frog Warriors!


Eureka's Turtle Tank!


Brilliant zombie diorama at the Miniature Building Authority booth


More MBA diorama goodness, what a great way to show off!


We're going to switch gears a little bit here and head over to the "flea market" area. Not a place for dealers and vendors, but for the regular gamers like us to show up and put their used stuff on sale. As you can see from the awesome Alien apparel above, anything and everything goes. I personally didn't see anything that grabbed me and I "just had to have", but many did. Sure the Sulaco hat and jacket would be cool, but I don't see myself actually wearing it any time soon. Other than that, lots of used minis, armies, and the like could be found.


Everyone loves free stuff, and that's what I got here! Toys for Tots was present, selling raffle tickets for loot gleaned from vendors at the show. I had my pick of the table when my ticket was drawn and among some very good prizes I had to opt for Wargames Factory new Greatcoat Troopers that are "so hot right now". Besides, I fondled this box off and on in the dealer's room over the course of two days.


So here's my loot haul, frankly an incredibly modest loot haul. It's no secret I was on a budget going up there, so I had to restrain myself as much as possible. Top right you'll note an old box of Star Frontiers miniatures. I'll have to do a separate post just for this purchase since it's kind of dear to me. Below that you'll see I snagged the Hell's Highway sourcebook for Flames of War to accompany all of my British armor, or I should say armour.

Scattered around are various dice I got, some pretty normal, others with things like a d10 that's labeled in Hebrew or Spanish. I even found some cool d8's that told compass directions and a d12 that was labeled with body parts. You already saw the box of Greatcoats, so that leaves us with the big pile of figs up top. I went cheerily to the Acheson Creations booth and picked up Neanderthals, giant Irish Elk, a huge Mammoth, and a Woolly Rhino. The last critter wasn't in stock, but they were cool enough to offer to ship it to me for free post-con.

So that's about it. I didn't have a ton of pics, but I felt there were enough to 'subcategorize' them here. If you're attending a con you always want to set aside a little bit for just such an occasion, at least put back more than I did! I was a tad disappointed there weren't any more incentives at the booths to buy there at the con as opposed to online, but I guess if nothing else you don't have to pay for shipping. Having said that, some kind of "con deal" would've been nice!

Caveman Wields Axe

I'm a sucker for all things Cavemen. Although I'm about a decade outside the demographic range of this product, I still found this commercial most clever. Enjoy!