The New Hawt Is Not Quality Indictative

It should be no secret that I've backed many a Kickstarter with a miniature theme going on. Some I haven't backed not because the product didn't look good but because I simply didn't have the money. Damn you semi-middle wage earnings!

 

One of the things I notice though is that there is a lot of 'love' for miniatures that are new simply for no other reason than it's new. I can understand that. It's one of the reasons why role playing games change editions and why new editions of various old books come out with new covers, new introductions, new bonus chapters of the guy's next book, etc...

 

However, sometimes it's best to remember where things came from. For example, Danithal, Elven Warlord, is a little over ten years old. I've owned him for about that long. A great sculpt by Werner Klocke that has a lot of his tell tale detailing but unlike some of his Freebooter's Fate material, is NOT overburdened with it. He was a three piece figure, base, body, and right hand that I finally assembled and put together and painted.

 

I was getting a little tired of the angry elves of Warmachine as well as their round bases and wanted something a little more traditional. I used the painted image for some inspiration because honestly these days, choosing a color scheme takes me more time than it does to paint. Still, glad to have him done. He's a great figure. He's actually taller I think, that a lot of the Freebooter stuff.

 

 

 

Another miniature by Werner is Lurg. Right now he's listed at a ridiculously low price of $4.99. He has a little bit more of the 'fiddy' bits I was talking about that the elf doesn't have. Belt straps, buckles, and a host of other things like a body wrapping scrap. Must be an old Doctor Who fan or something.

 

 

 

This was another instance in which I used the painted figure as a quick guide. You can tell mine is old because that base there? That's sculpted onto the base itself and came with the figure. Now it's probably a bland plastic base while mine was metal. Adds a nice weight to the figure.  While I didn't have an urge to continue to stay away from Privateer Press models or anything, I did have him primed for a looooong time and figured while I was working on one Reaper Warlord figure, I might as well work on both of them since he was already out. I'll probably touch up the base a little more and he'll be good to go.

 

Anyway, my point is that while there are some fantastic figures coming out, and it seems there are more and more of them, don't forget your already existing collecting. Don't forget that some of the older figures that are already out there may be less expensive and better sculpted than the current or new ones coming out.

 

Good painting!

 

1650 and Mantic Second Wave in de House

My 1650 miniatures from the Indiegogo finally made it in. Expected September 2012 and well, not quite a year later but here we are. The figures look fantastic. Damnably fantastic. Like so fantastic I will actually be tempted to back anything else they do if it appears to be of the same quality.

On the other hand, my Mantic games second wave of stuff also showed up. I wasn't expected it and had completely forgotten about it so yeah, I'm good with that.

Both however, do showcase some of the weaknesses of supporting a Kickstarter. I've mentioned this before but... the person you are when you first place the order, is not necessarily the person you will be by the time the stuff arrives.

That new 'hawtness' that you fell in love with? Well it's probably going to be replaced by something else at before the material even gets to you.

Another thing to consider, is what is your time schedule looking like down that road? I know some people who were expecting and were like, "Oh my god! What have I done!" and some of that stuff has either gone into storage, been traded to friends, sold via blogs or gone into good old E-Bay.

There's a lot of great stuff out there. Just try to keep in mind where you're at in your life now, try to think where you'll be at in the future, and try to save a few bucks in case something that you're already playing decides to come along and offer numerous exclusive figures well before they hit the store shelves eh?

Reaper Bones In da House

A large 16+ pound package arrived the other day.

I still have no opened it.

I'm desperately trying to finish off some Warmachine Retribution and Mercenary figures as well as a few Hordes minions bits. This doesn't count the starter set for Hordes that I bought and remains unopened, the various Redbox miniatures from the first Kickstarter, and other bits.

The problem with things showing up late is the potential back log of moving onto other things in the meantime or having other projects that should have been out, also hit at the same time.

On the other hand, having too much to paint? That's a good problem. Maybe I'll do a video bit when I open the box and start the dreaded inspection...

July Sales and Kudos

I may have mentioned before that I've been collecting Privateer Press miniatures for years. Recently the company decided to release some of their classic units that used to be sold at minimum strength in unit sizes of maximum strength. Units like Greygore Boomhowler and Company.

I've had the six pack for years and well, it motivated me to assemble the miniatures for either RPG or future use one day. When I did so though, one of the guys was missing his battle axe. Privateer Press took care of it in a manner of days. Kudos to them for the quick no-hassle replacement.

Miniature Market is having a board game sale. I placed an order two-three days ago and it arrived already. I bought some more Privateer Press miniatures for reinforcements for my angry elves and mercs as well as the two Okko board games that were on sale. Great graphic novel series there on a fantasy style Japan setting for those interested in that vein. Solid art and good story telling.

One of the problems if you will, and it's a "first world problem", is that our hobby has so many niche specialty items, that even a great game store like Games Plus in Mount Prospect, doesn't have everything.  Mind you I was just there today and very pleased to see the new range of washes by Vallejo Paints.

Michigan Toy Soldiers though, is having a sale and they have some Andrea and Scale 75 and Lifecolor paints that I've wanted to test out.

Well, let me amend that. The Andrea paints I've used in the past are fairly solid if a little thick. You'd have to really thin them if you wanted to use them in an airbrush. The Scale75 looks like it's using a similar idea of themed colors and I've watched a few videos of Lifecolor and they look pretty solid. But you don't want to pay full price for these things right? But that's what a sale is for!

But with July 4th around the corner, we have other companies, like Fantization having a flat 20% sale. They also have some of the Andrea and Scale 75 paints as well as a good selection of materials.

In short, it's a good time to be a hobby painted so grab those brushes and batten down the hatches!

Anyone else getting in on sales while the getting is good? Leave a comment if so!

Painting, Priming, and new Kickstarters!

I like Malifaux. Let me amend that. I like the figures for Malifaux. It's another one of those games I've been collecting since it came out but never actually played. I had figures before they were actually in a faction!

I am not impressed with their move to plastic. Let me clarify. I'm not saying it's not necessary for them to do so but when the figures that come out of that are worse in almost ever fashion then existing figures? And not cheaper? Those are not good things.

Look at the detail here. The metal guy is bursting with detail in the muscles. His hood and loin cloth are well sculpted and detailed. The guy on the right? It's adequate in a 80's sort of way. The technical proficiency is there in terms of flow.

The details, when present, are also not 'deep'. The wood for example, is not a heavy grain and could easily be overpainted even with drybrushing.

The worst thing? The metal guy is as big as a large ogre and is $16.50 in metal. It has weight. The rail golem is as light as a base and costs $35.00 and in my opinion, isn't anywhere near as detail. To me, plastic isn't ready to take over. Maybe the other figures in the range are all super detailed but I think the spots that are going to benefit are going to be machine style figures that don't require a lot of sculpted detail, like cloth or muscle, and those that are all smooth, will be fantastic. Maybe I'm wrong thought and it's already changed.

If you've got the chops though, it won't matter. I've seen some fantastically able miniature painters take the figures from say, Hero Quest and do them up in an award winning style. I'm no where near that good but the air brush was good for laying down base coats and other bits.

The base under the big guy is actually a Happy Seppuku miniature mold made base. I should have reversed that. It's not like the rail golem needed the extra height or anything.

Speaking of Happy Seppuku, they are doing a Kickstarter to revisit their bases and make them better. With all of the Reaper miniatures, among others hitting the shores soon, I'm already down, even though I am dead broke. Uh. Miniatures. Love them but they is expensive.

Speaking of Kickstarter miniatures...

 

 

These two are from the Tentacles & Eyeballs one. This guy went above and beyond the call in terms of communication and, even more importantly, giving the backers MORE than they initially asked for due to the out of his control delay. That's damn fine customer service.

 

The miniatures themselves need some cleaning and mold lines can be a PIA with the worm thing due to the wrinkly skin, but if he does another Kickstarter, I would probably pledge.

 

Speaking of priming, I used my good airbrush from Badger again. Not the 'Renegade Khrome' but my Patriot 105. I'm slowly getting used to it. One of the most annoying things is the maintenance of it. Unlike say a can of primer that you have a minimum amount of prep work, cleaning and keeping things in order, is a vital necessity for an airbrush.

 

Still, time saving? Oh yeah.

 

 

Battlereport: Mercenaries Versus Minions

I've been wanting to play Warmachine for a long time. I've had many miniatures for the game, in unpainted form at least, since it first launched at Gen Con. Recently I finally decided to finish painting, or at least knock the majority of, my Retribution force out. My friend Tom said he's 'school' me so I headed over there yesterday.

But a change of plan. See, one of the earliest battle boxes I had purchased was Magnus the Traitor. And I had actually just finished painting Magnus himself. So I took those figures as well as some Retribution in case I could get two games in.

Surprise! Turns out that in the switch over to second edition, that Magnus battle box is a bit more expensive in points so my buddy upped his own forces. But see, he didn't have any Warmachine forces ready so instead he pulls out his Hordes and the Gator forces.  These guys are all hit up with some Flames of War primer and nothing else. I keep busting on him to finish them off. Pick out a few details and a wash and bam, done! I didn't even get on him for not having his 'front' marked. He thanked me by not getting on me for not having my front marked.

Eeek! First game and it's not even a traditional one? It's not even following the standard builds? I used the War Machine app for android and it worked pretty well. Took care of damage boxes and a few other bits. It was a good experience in terms of using it.

We had a bunch of scenery that you don't see here. It was from Warhammer 40K I believe. In my mind, Magnus and Caliban had both been wandering through some ruins and encountered one another and well, a caster kill was the order of the day.

The first round, for both of us, was a lot of movement. Magnus' forces here didn't have a lot of range and Magnus himself has some range but it's not that across the table style. The good thing about that, is it let me use some of Magnus spells on the Mangler, Iron Aggression and Temper Metal I believe. One of Magnus' abilities is free upkeep!

My friend and his gators didn't fare much better, but he did say he needed to start generating focus.

So as we start moving into combat, I forgot several things. For example, to use Iron Aggression when moving to engage the wrestler. Shame too as I could've used that boost. I also learned that the renegade light war jack only has a payload of one.

I also learned that the spell Obliteration is very powerful. A very good range and a good POW and it's AOE? The only bad thing is the amount of focus it takes. I figured it being my first game, go for it. Tom didn't' like that too much thought and had one of his bull snappers charge Magnus. My war caster was still by his renegade though so it had to pass by the renegade which rolled some impressive damage and then when it was Magnus own turn, he finished it off not with the sword, but with the mechanikal arm which also has a knock down effect.

Tom managed to completely smash the mangler between the wrestler and a few of the gator men and the bull snapper. But that mangler tied them up for a long time and again, with the obliteration spell, I was able to wipe almost all of the enemy off the table. The free upkeep of armor on the mangler managed to prolong it's life until Tom realized that his warlock had an ability to nullify continuous spells.

Tom also heavily damaged my talon. The whole shield thing was a little of throwing to me as it has to be taken into account but isn't a part of the permanent defense. Made sense thought as the wrestler quickly busted that Talon down to less than half its damage capacity. Ouch again.

The killing blow came for me when Tom had a clear line of sight from Caliban to Magnus and took it. A few fury induced attacks later and Magnus had been defeated. The shame of it all.

Overall it was an interesting experience. Next time I play I need to have a 'real' battle box together or a 'real' force. Having a few war jacks was fun but at the same time, Tom had more activations and was able to do more just by virtue or having MORE things on the table.

I also need to experiment a lot more with focus. After the first round or so, it was all used to blow things up and never on the war jacks in order to give them more attacks or other things of that nature. I'd also like to actually play against a War Machine army as opposed to a Hordes army. Tom has said he'll look into finding his Cryix forces as he has a pretty sizable force of them as well.

Until next time!

Warmachine: Initial thoughts on Army Selection

When it comes to miniatures, I'm generally a person who likes a few different things. Primarily, they have to fit into my role playing games. Most of the Privateer Press miniatures don't often fit that criteria but... I was one of those people back in the day that had the Iron Kingdoms d20 version and used quite a few things out of it.

Not only that, but my friends tended to run 'gonzo' style games. So while someone may have run the Scarred Lands or Swashbuckling Adventurers, they did so with a lot of leeway as to what was allowed. It may not have been 'purist' but it did allow a ton of variety and enjoyment during the 3.0/3.5 years.

In terms of 'thinking' about an army to build, I've always tended to buy here and there based on visuals and background. The later is highly unusual since I don't actual play but...

Looking over Warmachine, I didn't like Cygnar. They were a little on the 'goody goody' side and well, I'm not a huge fan of the color scheme. I know that's lazy but since I usually go with the 'traditional' scheme for ease of reference and to hasten painting, that's the way it is. The Protctorate is another one I didn't like. Religious nuts are best covered in ye old 40K.  Cryx has some interesting models and I like the whole concept of undead mechanical horrors but a lot of it doesn't grab me.

Now that's not to say I couldn't find points enough to field a 15-25 point group in any instance. One of the things that Privateer Press ahs done well is make enough interesting models that I could easily field a small group with those factions.

I loved the Khador group mainly on it's use of strong reds, large war jacks and the whole 'Russian Fantasy' thing. While I'm not a scholar of such mythology by any means, it was always neat seeing 'the old witch' and other nods. They also did a fantastic job with one of the first war jack war casters and one of the 'must have' units, the Behemoth.

My other enjoyment comes from mercenaries. Ironically enough, that's just my preference due to reading about them and watching anime and fantasy novels based around the concept of mercenary groups. While I have Magnus and a few other figures, including several war jacks, I never really got into the lore of them although I do like how the mercenaries are essentially three or so armies in the form of criminal scum, pirate scum, and mean dwarves.

When the Retribution first came out, I was impressed. They took elves into a whole new direction and more importantly, gave them a distinctive look. Sure, there might be some crossover potential in terms of 'white' with the religious zealots but for the most part, their color and look was unique.

And now Privateer Press apparently does it again with their new book, the Convergence of Cyriss. The models we've seen so far are different than essentially any other army in the game. This makes for a great visual distinction. There are only so many times you can see the same body types over and over again.

I'll be curious to see if they follow up on this type of release. A 'Forces of' book doesn't strike me as being off in any way, shape, or form as the pirates were originally introduced in this methodology. It allows a focused fire of material to judge reaction and then can be worked on or dismissed as necessary.
It's a good time to be a fan of Warmachine.