The Mole-Shark

The Mole-Shark is a fearsome and terrifying apex predator who's recent appearance in the wasteland has sparked speculation that there are still hidden enclaves out there practising pre-war genetics research for unknown purposes.

The Mole-Shark is blind and appears to hunt by sense of hearing.  Once attracted to prey it moves with lightning speed both running and jumping as high as 10 feet to get to it's prey by the most direct route possible.  Due to it's lack of scent and vision some warbands have been able to survive attacks by Mole-Sharks by simply going perfectly still and refraining from the use of any weapons or equipment that cause noise.  The Mole-Shark is very clearly not a naturally evolved creature as it is capable of consuming far more than it's lean body and stomach allow it store.  This frequently results in the Mole-Shark almost immediately expelling the bulk of any creature it consumes.

There has been much speculation about the origins (and purpose) of the Mole-Shark with many more questions being asked than answers being given.  The Mole-Shark's true place in the eco-system may never be known.

* The "Mole-Shark" is actually a resin Maw miniature by Hasslefree Miniatures*

-Jay

Getting ready for; Last Days!

We're about a month away from the release of my friend Ash's first game from Osprey Games; Last Days.

I'm gearing up to play some games ahead of release so I'll save a review until actual release week but I thought I'd just touch on a few things as I dust off a lot of the models I was painting back when I started this blog.

First up Last Days like all Osprey Games I'm familiar with is miniatures-neutral which means you can play it with any models you already have in your collections, or you can go out and cherry-pick all the coolest stuff.  This means for anybody already playing a zombie miniature game you already have everything you need, if you're one of those collectors like me who just buys cool models hoping to one day have rules to use them with you're all set as well.

Back during Ash's first pass at the game the forces were themed (cops, survivors, bikers, etc) so I tended to collect and group my figs that way.  Now you can mix and match as each model represents a trope rather than part of a traditional 'force' of soldiers.

In addition to each player's chosen force you will need a small collection of zombie models.  For anyone who's been into the genre previously this will be a non-issue but for newer gamers there are a ton of options for easy cost-effective zombies to fill out your ranks.  Walking Dead zombies are easily available and great durable figures, Warlord Games produces the old Wargames Factory zombies, even board games have some decent quality zombie figures these days, I've personally used a bunch of zombies from Last Night On Earth.

If there's one piece of advice I would give a new modeller collecting together different zombie and survivor figures it would simply be to base them the same (or at least similarly) so they take on the appearance of one coherent collection.

This is my trip through one old figure case, I plan on painting a few new figs up this week to add in, and hopefully you'll all see a full game review in 3-4 weeks.

-Jay

The hobby A.D.D. it never really goes away....

I've referenced Hobby A.D.D. before and although I generally feel like I get quite a lot of stuff done there are periods where my attention span won't stay on one thing and I keep changing gears and starting new projects without finishing old ones.
So with that insight in mind I'd like to share the 5 hobby projects I started over the past 3 days, none of which are completed yet.

Cowboys!

I've been talking for awhile about getting some new cowboys done.  I got my grubby hands on Dracula's America and even though I have a decent amount of stuff done from my recent binge of Warhammer Legends Of The Old West I can't bring myself to play a new game without adding at least some new figures.  These guys are the Earp (or Tombstone I forget the actual name) pack by Black Scorpion.

Orcs!

As part of my recent retro/nostalgia-gaming fix I got some of the Orcs by Antediluvian Miniatures.  These guys immediately take me back to Saturday mornings in the early 80s.  I think my gift to myself when I get all 5 of these projects done will be to get myself another pack or two of Antediluvian Miniatures.

Venger!

Those Orcs need a boss, right?  I might be one of the few people of my generation who could never really embrace Optimus Prime as a noble hero because every time he opens his mouth to speak I hear Venger's voice.  Venger was the chief villain of the animated D&D series in the 80s and still holds up really well as a cool fantasy evil villain.

Frostgrave!

I'm planning a long overdue return to Felstad and much like the cowboys I probably don't need to paint new figures but I just wouldn't be me if I rolled up with the same-old-same-old.  The actual driver for starting these was digging through my unpainted fantasy figures looking for a knight with two-handed sword to try the free print-and-play intro rules for Relic Blade with my newly painted pigmen.

Survivors!

Almost a year ago I ordered a bunch of packs of modern/near-future survivor models with the intention of using them for This Is Not A Test as well as Last Days.  Unfortunately my experience in purchasing these models was not 'free of hassles' and when they finally arrived I had lost any and all enthusiasm I had for them.  (This was one of the customer service things I was up on a soapbox about earlier this year.)  It has literally taken me an entire year to even look at these miniatures again but once I picked them up I decided I really did want to get paint on them.  Oddly enough it wasn't until I looked at them up close I even realised who they were supposed to be.  I had ordered them thinking they would make good pseudo Division-style trained survivors but then when I cleaned and primed them I realised they are actually the two leads from Stargate SG-1.

Well there you have it.  Nothing done, but a bunch of projects that are each one sit-down away from completion.

-Jay

Street Samurai

When I started collecting Hasslefree Miniatures a few years ago with the intent of using them in a modern day survivial horror game there were a few figures that once I got them upclose didn't quite work (in my mind) for my intended purpose.  The great thing about putting that stuff aside and holding onto it until later is that one day it turns out to be exactly the figure you need for a game you didn't even know you were going to play.

Immediately prior to starting this blog last year I pulled out a few dozen unpainted Hasslefree Miniatures to paint and one of them that got put back was 'Grant'.  Grant looks amazing but he was slightly (and only slightly) too high-tech looking for what I wanted.  In fact the major sticking point for me with the figure was that his Ingram MAC-10 looked all modded up in the way I expected an Ingram Smartgun in Shadowrun to look.....

So now I'm looking at jumping back into Shadowrun and after downloading and printing the quick start rules I see I will need a Street Samurai figure who is; bald, armed with an Ingram Smartgun & 2 sidearms.

Welcome back Grant!

-Jay

Time to sweep the streets!

 

I like donuts...so what?!?!

A couple of years ago I bought a bunch of stuff from Hasslefree Miniatures (every single figure is/was AWESOME by the way) and when you're placing an order for an assortment of figures you always end up buying one or two you're not really sure you need but you plan on finding a use for anyway.  One of the figures I got is clearly meant to be Simon Pegg's partner from Hot Fuzz.  The figure is pretty cool but the british policemen's helmet (sorry I'm not sure what the proper name is) didn't fit very well into my mid-western american police force.

At some point after buying it I apparently (I had totally forgotten) did a head swap to make the figure more useable with the rest of my collection and now he's ready to help defend the citizens of Anytown USA against the zombie hordes.

And I do have to admit for any of you who don't know me personally with the hair, the glasses and the....um...physique this fig looks to me like a pretty decent representation of yours truly as a police officer.

"The zombies have overrun Tim Hortons!"

 

Welcome to the beginning of my new blog!  I hope to be sharing with everyone in the weeks and months ahead some cool and hopefully inspirational hobby projects in the wonderful world of gaming.

We'll kick it off by showing some miniatures by Hasslefree that I originally posted to my Facebook page of survivors and adventurers working their way through the zombie apocalypse.

Keep checking back as I hope to update 3-4 times per week and hope that something you see will get you excited about gaming.

-Jay

Just becuase you're facing down hordes of the undead doesn't mean yu can't do it in style.

 

Which of these 2 hombres do you think will pile up a higher body count?

 

We're sending more cops!

 

Sometimes you make it through, sometimes you don't.

 

You've got a bit of red on you.