Hobby Grab-Bag

I've been bouncing from project to project lately so I thought rather than keep everybody waiting until something is done I thought I'd show off a few of the things I'm working on and let you know what they're for.

First up....Project Scrapheap Zombie Pirates
I haven't forgotten my undead pirates, I've just been back and forth on other things lately but my next 4 are almost done.  Here below I've shown the 2 that are furthest along.  I like theses figures because they look like a cross between actual naval troopers and Cygnar Gun Mages so I think they'll work great for Warmachine.

Next up....The first crypt from my Garden Of Morr
The Garden Of Morr is an AMAZING piece of Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenery that I will be using for Malifaux, Warmachine and Chaos In Carpathia.  The basic "garden" consists of 3 separate crypts and a statue all on really intricate bases along with an outer wall.  I'm doing up each piece individually so I can make use of it however I need whenever I need.  So far the base for the first piece is completely done, now I just need to get in an hour or so to finish the building itself.

 

Last but definitely not least....OWLBEAR!
Every year around the Christmas holidays I get together with some of my old gaming friends who don't game that regularly anymore and we play a game of D&D or Pathfinder.  Every year I end up DMing and we always end up playing some sort of horror themed game because that's what I have fantasy models for.  I've decided this year to get some more generic or classic D&D monsters done up so we can play a straight up heroes vs monsters fantasy adventure.  While reading my friend Darren's blog I was reminded that we had both painted Owlbears 15 years or so ago and I decided to dust off the extra Owlbear I bought and make him the start of my return to the old-school.

Well there you have it.  I'm all over the map today but hopefully there will be some cool stuff finished and on the tabletop soon.

Cheers

-Jay

I'M BACK!!!  Also, look at this werewolf!

Hi all.  First up big thanks to my friend Dave for "unpooping" my computer (I'm assuming I'm still good on these technical terms?).  Looks like everything is back up and running fine so over the next couple of days I should be posting extra-regularly to get caught up on all the stuff I failed to post last week.

One of the quickie little side-projects I managed to get done last weekend was basing up the werewolf that my friend Carmin painted for the Secret Santa painting event that Strategies Games & Hobbies ran in Vancouver over Christmas.  I decided to base the werewolf to match my existing Malifaux/Warmahordes/Helldorado figures as I will probably be using a selection of these figures to play some Chaos In Carpathia shortly.

To that end work has continued on my Garden Of Morr and a few more undead pirates are done.  All that and some cool Frankenstein figures should be appearing here in the next day or two....stay tuned.

-Jay

Project Scrapheap: Revenant Crew (10/20)

My Revenant Crew are now at the half-way point!  With the first 10 models done they are beginning to feel like a proper unit for gaming.

With my first 9 trooper models I've gone with some fairly bold and assorted colours to capture a motley pirate feel but the next 9 models are attired more as if they were wearing uniforms.  So I'm hoping that when they all stand together it will create 2 good looking units.

Some fairly simple colour choices here.  Bone, brushed over with white and then a light brown wash followed by a light drybrush of white over top, Deneb Stone for the shirts and then a primary colour for each of the trouser/bandanna combos.  The only colours that will continue to re-occur and tie all the models together will be the bone and the weapons.

I've also finally started working on my Garden Of Morr so I have some cool undead themed scenery for my Warmachine and Malifaux games!

-Jay

Up on a soapbox: Crowd-funding

Today I'm beginning a new semi-regular (not too regular) series of entries on the blog I'm calling "Up On A Soapbox".  Basically it's just going to be me giving you my 2-cents worth on an issue I see affecting gaming and the gaming industry.  To be really transparent about ALL these entries they really are just my opinion and I would certainly like to hear any responses any of you have.  And now without any further ado...crowd-funding.

I decided I wanted to speak about crowd-funding in the gaming business because I've spoken up about it a bunch of times on Facebook and I realise that some people might have misunderstood my position and I'd like to delve into it a bit more deeply.

First up let me say I think crowd-funding is GREAT!  Not just for the gaming industry but across the board.  It gives aspiring artists and business people a chance to bring products to market that might otherwise never have seen the light of day.  I think crowd-funding is the best example I can think of in recent years of the free-market actually working the way it's supposed to.
...but...
Based on the success that a lot of independents in the gaming industry had in the early days of Kickstarter and Indiegogo something has changed, and that thing is larger more established companies jumping into the pool.  Now on it's face I don't think there's anything wrong with that but in the last year or so I have seen 2 products on Kickstarter from companies that have been in this industry for 30 years or so that are basically part of their existing product lines and 2 products from a company that is owned by the license holder of the product they're "kickstarting".  My issue with these types of releases is that they are little more than thinly veiled attempts to cut retailers and wholesalers out of the marketplace.  When someone new or unconnected or any kind of outsider goes this route they are trying to succeed in the face of an industry that they have no support from but when you've had other businesses contribute to your success over the years and you cut them out of the pie at your first opportunity I think that's just low.

I'm not saying anyone reading this should boycott crowd-funding or anything radical like that but what I am saying is this; if you get value from your local gaming store don't buy products you could be buying from them (and will end up playing with in their store) from other sources just because they're cheaper.  Our local gaming stores need all the support we can give them and the good ones have earned our business.

Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know.

-Jay

Project Scrapheap: Revenant Crew (5/20)

I got the first of my 2 leaders done for my 2 Revenant Crew units today.  This figure is not much fancier than the average undead pirate but he does have a cool looking 4-barrelled pistol/carbine of some sort.

I've got 5 more pirates close to done on my desk now and then I'll be perilously close to having to make a decision about what to spend the final 2 of my 35 points on.

-Jay

Nicodem & Rafkin

Another quick side-step back through the breach.

When I was starting up my McMourning crew last year my plan was to have as many models who could farm corpse/body part counters in the starting force and then to create the rest of what I needed once the game had started.  To this end I always used Sebastian and Mortimer and it had been my intention to add Rafkin but I didn't get the model until I had moved away from Malifaux and was playing other games.

Having circled back I decided to paint up Rafkin for when  I start playing again and while I was at it I thought I should finally paint Nicodem (Nicodem is one of the Wyrd models I had bought before Malifaux even existed as a game so he's been waiting for paint for YEARS).

Nicodem was a super-basic paint job.  I basically painted him a very dark grey and then applied a couple of layers of black washes.  After that I just picked out some details and he was basically done.  The paint job in the rule book was much more elaborate but as nice as it looked it didn't actually fit the description of the character in the background.  I'm still not sure if he'll see tabletop action anytime soon but I'm happy I finally got off my butt and painted him.

I spent more time on Rafkin but the truth is I found him a lot more difficult to paint.  One of the things I have really liked about all the Wyrd models I have bought is that the detail s really crisp and easy to pick out.  I found that Rafkin was a little sloppy (which I think is intentional) and because he's not as bulky as a lot of the other figures it was harder to tell where some textures ended and others began.  I'm still happy with how he turned out overall though.

Tomorrow it's back to the seven seas for more undead pirate action!

-Jay

Project Scrapheap:  Revenant Crew (4/20)

Back to project scrapheap today and my first 4 undead pirates are done!

I'm applying a similar strategy to painting these models that I did to painting my Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry.  That is  have separated the models into groups based on how many variants there are (4 different troopers & 2 different leaders) and I am painting them in small batches.  My first 4 figures are probably the most basic of the bunch, they are really just skeletons with weapons and the tatters of some trousers.  I'm really happy after many years to finally get some paint on these figures.

Tomorrow I might focus on one of the leaders and then jump back to a small batch of troops on Saturday.

-Jay