With some more superb artwork Wyrd has left me wanting more and more. If this is Shenlong and the High River Monks then Sensei Yu was nothing like how I thought.
Archive for the ‘Hobby’ Category
New Render for @Guildball #Fishermen
Posted: May 13, 2014 in Gaming, Hobby, KickstarterTags: Guildball, Kickstarter
The guys at Guildball have shown more progress work on their renders for the Fishermen. Ladies and Gentlemen… Siren!
A Case in Point
Posted: April 3, 2014 in Hobby, StorageTags: Battlefoam, Games Workshop, KR Multicase
Recently I have had to rearrange all my toys and downsize to co-habitation with my future missus. This means that my vast array of toys in my 3 bedroon gamer’s paradise has had to be sold, sorted and re-stored in a much smaller area.
I have discovered many an old collection of models, from Thousand Sons Terminators converted from regular plastic terminators to Flames of War Panzergrenadiers and tanks half built lying around in shoe boxes. I had a large amount of Forgeworld resin miniatures for Epic:Armageddon that managed to get whittled down significantly on eBay but still I have 4 full races to play with sitting in boxes.
So this has led me to question my storage options and possible solutions. Over the years I have used almost exclusively Games Workshop’s cases and, while suitable for the task, were never very inspiring. Yes, they do come in a range of colours and in 2 different sizes (small and large) and they have since the creation of Apocalypse come out with a giant version.
Like most gamers I like to sort my collections into meaningful sections – all my Bushido models together, my Epic:Armageddon Chaos needs a tray to themselves etc and it’s just a nice warm feeling inside to open a case, look through the painted models all arranged in a nice and complete set. So let’s see what options are out there for a gamer like me:
My lenses arrived yesterday and even with questionable translations instructions on the packet I was able to get it attached.
Basically it boils down to:
- Take sticky wrapper off metallic ring and stick to phone
- Attach lens of choice
I think IKEA could do with these concise instructions. My only issue was that the metallic ring covers the flash on the phone. That was when I realised why they supplied different backing rings, including one with a slice cut out to accommodate the flash on an iPhone. These guys think of everything!
Anyway, the results. Given that I am under pressure to get a lot of models finished for this weekend I took a quick shot of a WIP Governor’s Proxy/Scribe for Malifaux.
Bob
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Before adding a macro lens
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Adding a macro lens
At the weekend I was introduced to a lovely gadget that will be of great benefit to me when it comes to miniature photography – iPhone camera lenses (other devices are available). The package comes with 3 lenses (Macro, Wide Angle and Fish Eye) but it is the Macro that really interests me.
As I have my phone on me at all times and I take an extensive amount of pictures with it when gaming and even when painting I think it will of great benefit. The camera is pretty good quality (for a phone, it’s a phone first and foremost) but zooming in has always been an issue.
Combining this little gadget with the Foldio Kickstarter I backed recently gives me a nice portable studio. An extra piece to the set would be a phone-specific tripod to mount it on for great pictures. And lo and behold a quick ebay search reveals 1 of these too!
I have ordered the lenses and will hopefully trial out this weekend coming at the next tournament – Paddyfaux. Come back and read the review!
#ToMB WIP update for Lilith
Posted: March 7, 2014 in Hobby, Tale of Malifaux BloggersTags: Lilith, Nephilim
Some more progress on my ‘Mother of Monsters’ crew. Lilith has received some highlights to her skin, layering from Bestial Brown up through to Vomit Brown. The next stages will be Elf Flesh mixed with vomit brown and then lastly Elf Flesh with possibly some white mixed in for a final edge highlight. I have also used some Jade Green to tie in with the rest of the models in the crew. I think Purples and Jade Green will be a feature in my Neverborn.
The tots, the babies of the bunch, started with Genestealer Purple followed by a wash of Army Painter Purple tone to provide a darker tone. Highlighting with watered down Genestealer Purple and then again with a mix of purple and white produced a stark contrast. A final diluted wash of Purple Tone helped blend the stark highlights with the base colour. Green was used on their cloth and they will have grey horns and hooves and some metallic weapons.
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Lilith – Mother of Monsters
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Terror Tots – almost done
#Malifaux Map Campaign thoughts by @daemonkin
Posted: March 5, 2014 in Gaming, HobbyTags: Campaigns, Malifaux
A while back someone mentioned on the Wyrd boards about using the Malifaux city map as the basis of a map-based campaign. Malifaux itself does not lend easily to a campaign system unlike Necromunda or Mordheim from Games Workshop.
Essentially with campaign games you are linking your games in a structured way with other gamers to evolve your crew/warband/bunch of rats/whatever and tell a narrative of how they came to be. Not only does each crew member get better they can also receive serious injuries and get worse. It might be easier to just kill them off (and then sell the body to necromancers for some gold!).
So how can we translate this to Malifaux? The Wyrd Chronicles released a campaign system where each crew member could get better or worse but I think this might be a more difficult way to go with Malifaux.
My thoughts, compiled yesterday morning over a coffee, boil down to this:
- Start with 30SS fixed crew and master
- Start at a point on the map
- Get an objective from that location (collect items from locations)
- Each round you decide where you need to go
- Draw a line from starting point to end point
- Each player flips a card, highest resolves his path first.
- If his path intercepts any other player’s path he can decide which player to do battle with
- The lead player will decide the story encounter that will happen (from a list)
- If his path does not cross another player he WILL be investigated by the Guild at the location he ends up.
- Guild patrols will be 30SS squad led by a Guild Sergeant, controlled by the GM.
- Each battle a player wins earns him 2SS
- A player who loses will be deducted 2SS for the next battle only.
- The core crew of the player cannot change but extra earned SS will allow extra recruitment to the crew.
- During a battle the player with the lesser SS total will get bonuses
- At a location the player can select another objective or get given an item.
- Once a player has the items required for an objective he must get to the destination to score campaign points
- Once a player earns 20 Campaign points he wins the campaign.
Essentially it’s a treasure hunt with brawls along the way. Win a few games and you have an advantage, lose some games and you are hampered for the next round. If you win yo will be building up a bigger crew to help you win the campaign. This can be tied in with new players who wish to expand their forces.
I’m still debating whether the items at each location are randomly given or a player can select from a number of items from the top of the deck. Maybe players can exchange/barter their loot or maybe the winner can steal some loot from the loser.
If anyone has any thoughts on how to progress this I would be very interested.
So some of you may notice that I have not used the current plastic model for Lilith in my #ToMB project. There are 2 reasons for this. Well, actually there’s 1 reason for this if I’m being honest. The original Lilith model is still one of my favourite models in the game.
Yes, she does have an oriental feel to her. Yes, she is wearing thigh-high boots with stockings and little else. And yes, she is twiddling a finger through her hair while resting a giant bad-ass sword on 1 shoulder. All of these things add together to make it a model that exudes confidence, killyness and cool. All of these things embody what Lilith is in the fluff and in the game. She is the Master of Malifaux. The land bends to her will and she will use it to exact her vengeance. And yes, if you get within range she will use her blade to great effect.
It’s true the new plastic model has similar aspects but nothing says cool than a lady twirling a finger through her hair and then decapitating you. As for the painting I started off with a black undercoat and used an airbrush to prime most of the model with GW Dawnstone through an airbrush. The airbrush allows me to apply thin layers of paint and then to get overspray to get a gradient effect on parts of the model – the coat in particular. I have used purple on the model to tie in with the rest of my Neverborn models and will also use some green as many of my Neverborn models have green as well. I have been experimenting with glazes and used that to give a purple glaze to the inside of the coat. I will also apply some dust to the coat using a glaze method.
The boots were airbrushed with the grey but 2 washes of black have created a nice highlight and depth to them. I’m debating on using varnish to make them shiny or not. Her hair has been given a base layer of terracotta before an ink of nut brown. This, I realised may have been a mistake as it dried shiny. A wash of dark brown helped tone down the shine and a final drybrush of red brought out the tips and highlighted the raised areas. The sword and boot tops were base coated with a dark metal mixed with some matte medium. The medium dulls down the metallic paint flecks while still giving some shine. I much prefer this technique than a straight application of metal paint.
Also in the picture is Lucius, the Governor’s Secretary, the right-hand man of the Guild Leadership. It’s true he’s Guild through and through but this character definitely has his own agenda.
YMMV but for me the original model of Lilith still wins out.
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Lilith and Lucius work in progress
#Paddyfaux only 2 weeks to! @tograth
Posted: February 28, 2014 in Gaming, Hobby, Tale of Malifaux BloggersTags: Lilith, Lucius, Paddyfaux
With only 2 weeks before Paddyfaux we have been frantically playing smaller level games to prepare for the first day (3 rounds 40SS). I have played 1 game with Lilith and 1 with Lucius and I will tell you what I have learned: 40SS does not go very far.
In order to get minions that can fulfil the schemes on a game-by-game basis the amount of big gribblies I can field goes down dramatically. Lilith took 3 tots, a cherub, silurid, Young Nephilim and a waldgeist. Leaving no room for any heavy hitters (Young Nephilim aside). So what’s outcome? Basically the difference between 40 and 50SS is a heavy hitting minion, enforcer or henchman. What i believe is that if you nail your games at 40SS then moving up to 50SS just gives you more survivability to do some damage with the additional model in your crew.
I also ran a Lucius Guild/Mimic crew with 2 riflemen, austringer, beckoner, tot and a silurid. Again with little experience with Lucius I eked out a draw but was not using Lucius or his minions to their optimum abilities.
And the painting is still continuing. Have been steadily applying 3 colours at least to all models. Still got a few that need to be airbrushed but this will happen this weekend.
So tonight we are celebrating the 2nd birthday of a great local store opening. 30 hours of straight gaming (apparently) and cake (first come, fist served). We will be heading down later with a bunch of Malifaux on the cards. Demo games and hopefully some organised play.
There will also be demo games of Dead Man’s Hand, In Her majesty’s Name and 7TV and lots of board games.
Their Facebook page is here, give ’em a like!
Watch out later for pics.
