10 posts tagged “miniatures”

My son came to me this morning and asked "how is it that sometimes you can tell in a movie when someone's bad when they haven't really done anything bad yet?  Like, in the movie Sky High I could tell that the girl was a villain even before she came out and told everyone she was."

"It's a device called 'foreshadowing,' where they give you clues to what is going to happen in the movie in advance.  Also, you know how in a movie the guy and the girl get together?  Well, in Sky High there were two girls that the guy liked, so you kinda could guess that at the end he would end up with one and for some reason not like the other."

A literary critique of Sky High, brought to you by the WQ family...

Also, I had an odd dream that I was in a gaming store (frequent theme) and that there was this new game called Kloog.  It was a wargame where you could play one of three factions: cavemen, prehistoric creatures, or alien invaders.  The interesting part of the game (aside from the genre) was that they didn't have a miniatures produced for the game--you had to convert your own from other companies.  I'm half tempted to cobble some basic rules from Strike Force and give it a go.

I'm thinking of hanging up my molds and my brush for a while.

Last week I didn't have a free evening with work, and this week I don't have one with kid-related stuff, and I just don't feel like trying to shoehorn in yet another thing into my life right now.  This Saturday I'll get in a gaming session with my once-a-season gaming group, but I haven't got one in for my "should be better than once-a-season but often isn't" group in a while.

I know that I'm not the only one in this situation.  In a conversation I once had with Bruce Hirst, he admitted that summer was the worst season, and that he frequently tried to release interesting molds during this time. 

So, a little vacation from my hobbies, perhaps mixed with a seasonal cleaning of my worktable.  I haven't bought D&D 4e yet, and don't know if I will for a while.   Reviews have been solidly mixed, so I may wait and see what distills out of it over time.  I'm also looking at Paizo's Pathfinder, although I find it funny that I played a 2.5 D&D clone during 3e, and I'm thinking about a 3e clone during 4e.  Always one step behind, that's me.

Got the second unit finished.

They're on the right (the first is on the left.  Now that they are done, I'm working on my Arrer Boyz next.  I'm going to take a quick break to read my new book--it has got me thinking about some things that I may mull around here.

I finished the first demi-unit of orcs for my Warhammer Warband.  It's not a full-sized unit because of the special warband rules.

 

I need to paint one more unit like them, a unit of Big 'Uns, a unit of Arrer Boyz, and the boss before June 1 (hopefully).

I mentioned a few days ago that I was hoping to get a mini painted (in Rastl's honor, if you will).  He's the last of my Castles & Crusades PC minis, a gnome thief named Xane.  The photo sacrifices the chest detail for the face.

I like how the background turned out.

I've got two pieces of Hirst Arts terrain mostly completed.  Although the photo doesn't show it, the second has had its ground cover textured, and now just needs to be painted.  Here's the pic:

I'm weighing doing two more (and perhaps getting into Resolution 3) or just stopping and doing some other stuff I've been thinking about.  One constant inspiration is the Minas Tirith set that "Law" did, which can be seen at Voidgamers.  I like how abstract it is, almost like a movie set.  You don't see tall spires and roofs, just the stuff at "ground level," but it preserves the illusion that there is something more.  But, as I often remind myself, the problem is space. 

We didn't have the 6" to 8" of snow that were predicted, but we did have frozen rain, snow, and sleet.  Thankfully, it didn't keep me from officiating a funeral, but it did keep the kids at home.  They were pretty crazy, but we did thinks like play with Harry Potter action figures, paint miniatures, and go out out to eat with grandparents.

I got most of a second terrain piece finished. I'll post a pic once it is built.

Tomorrow I may be heading to London to attend a meeting where we'll be getting the canon up to speed.  I'm not looking forward to the review of the diocese, there are over thirty congregations that are going to be discussed as churches worthy of attention (I wonder if mine will be on the list or not).  It'll leave me pretty depressed.

It was kind of a long and very full weekend.  Friday I got the Quarrelers painted (see below).  Saturday I was invited to a roleplaying game in Columbus, Ohio.  The game was The Morrow Project, a post-apocalyptic game written back in the early 1980's.  It was such a different experience than what I have with Castles & Crusades, for several reasons.  First, I was a player, not the gamemaster (first time in ten years).  Second, it was sci-fi and not fantasy.  Third, the group plays once every three months, but for an entire day: 7 full hours of gaming.  I play more frequently, but only for roughly two hour sessions.  That means an entirely different pacing.  Finally, it was a group that has been playing together for years and year, all guys.  The whole thing was fun and new and at only once every three months might even be something I could do again.

Sunday, after a very long service I went over to the fire station to play a game of Warhammer I was pretty sure I was going to lose.  For one thing, I had decided to experiment (at 4-0 you can afford to try some stuff out) with a gunpowder-free army.  Crossbows instead of handguns, bolt throwers instead of cannons, flame cannon instead of an organ gun.  Everything else was just large blocks of infantry and a gyrocopter.  Vince (my usual opponent) I knew would be ready to finally put paid to his four losses at the tiny hands of my dwarfs and after the first turn I thought he had the game in the bag.  His catapults decimated my large infantry blocks, wolf riders and ogre mercenaries were tearing away at my flanks, etc. 

Then suddenly the luck just went sour for him.  Animosity checks started holding his line back.  He miscast twice.  He got no less than five misfires on his warmachines.  And while he is being forced to hold back those crossbowmen (enjoying a 30" range rather than the handguns 15") peppered away at his army.  By the eighth turn, he had two figures left (aside from warmachine crew) and I had still half my army, including all of my heroes.  Now I'm 5-0 and Vince is swearing vengeance.

While I was writing this, I got a call to do a last-minute funeral for another church tomorrow, so I'll be wrapping up here to prepare for that.  Take care.

I finally got a unit for my dwarf army finished.  Here's a pic.

Once month in, and the resolutions are already kicking my ass.

Okay, two out of three.  I haven't really read much of anything this past month, except re-reading Skavenslayer which is a cheesy Warhammer novel.  I checked out Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis because that is what we are reading for T-Time, but haven't started it yet.

It is number three, not starting anything big, that is really giving me trouble.  First, I built a small Hirst Arts terrain piece, something of a re-make of a piece I sold to someone else.  Then I got the idea of doing three more to make a matching set.  Four terrain pieces?  Sounds like a big plan.  Then I got a look at Prince August's molds for miniatures.  Basically I'd be able to cast my own minis, a fun idea if I can keep from burning myself and poisoning myself with lead.  Casting an entire army by myself?  Definitely a big plan.

I've also begun considering the next Warhammer campaign, despite the fact that we're only halfway through the current one.  Part of this is because I'd like to do another "expansion" campaign where you start with a small army and build your way up to a big one.  If that's true, and I'd consider casting all my own miniatures, I might like a little lead time (no pun intended).  But that sounds like a ridiculously big plan.