Some Lazy Sunday Lord of the Rings

Yesterday my extended family came down to see me of to England. It was great to see everybody and I got to play a quick game of Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game with my cousin. He picked up the rules quickly as we battled over an ancient Dwarven shrine.(You may recognize it as my HOTT army camp.)

We played on a 2' x 2' latex mat made by Zuzzy(link below). I usually use this mat and terrain for Hordes of the Things. It was a littel out of scale but worked in pinch. I really liked playing SBG on the 2' x 2'. It completely changed the dynamic of the game. You really have to plan you moves and pick your fights very carfully. I would like to try another game using a lot more terrain.

Zuzzy Mats. The mat in this post is the 2' x 2' verdant fields.

http://www.zuzzy.com/

Steel Corridors in the Steel City

This weekend I returned to Pittsburgh to visit some friends and game at my favorite purveyor of fine miniatures, Phantom of the Attic in Oakland. My friend Stuart was kind enough to teach me the new edition of Space Hulk. It was a dark day for the Imperium of Man as the emperor's finest were sliced and diced into a fine pate by the alien genestealers. I had a great time, but needless to say, I lost horribly.

I was really impressed by the production values for the new set. The tiles were solid, but did tend to warp. The miniatures are beautiful and the rules fast and furious. I'm a bit regretful that I did not jump on this set when it came out.

Bald is Beautiful

Here are some Sci-fi miniatures that were recently sold in the great lead purge of 2009. They are "Slicks" from ERM miniatures. I really love these figures. I was always a fan of the Delaque miniatures for the game Necromunda. There's just somthing about a gunweilding guy in a trenchcoat that screams Sci-fi to me. The Slicks are really sppoky sculpts that have a variety of gaming uses.

These miniatures were really fun and easy to paint. I tried to make it look as if they had black coats with glowing patterns and trim, and I am really pleased with the result. Above are the ones that I sold. I still have a few of these that I am going to keep for my own collection.

Some Steampunk Inspriation

http://www.clockworkquartet.com/

Here is some inspiration for you steampunk wargamers and RPGers out there. This group performs what I would call "Steampunk Ballads". They only have two songs, but their production values are good and the performers are talented. These songs get me in the mood to do some Gothic Horror miniature gaming.

Steampunk Ipod Work in Progress

Here are some scans of the finished woodwork. I think the carving on the back is a little crude. However, I'm very please with how the clockwork in the back turned out. I'm debating on how finish the wood work. I'll probably end up staining it and topping it off with urethane to give it that classic wood finish.

The final brass work has been a bit problematic. I can't find brass that's thin enough to work with. I'll probably have to wait until I visit Pittsburgh later this month and buy some at the art store.

I'm also not exactly sure how to finish the top edge. I would like to fashion it after the top of a pocket watch, with a metal loop and a winding knob. I'll have to go back to Michael's to look for suitable beads.

Short Hairy and Naked

Today I present one of my 10mm HOTT(Hordes of The Things) armies, Feral Dwarves(or pre-hold Dwarves 1200B.C.E - 900B.C.E. if I'm feeling snooty). I wanted some Dwarves, but not the standard Tolkienesque Dwarves that everyone fields. I began to wonder what Dwarven civilization would be like before the formation of complex states(i.e. Dwarf holds). I imagined it would be something between ancient Celts and Polynesian natives. Essentially, a warrior technocracy that was heavily into ancestor worship.

I built an army using 10mm Warmaster miniatures from GW, The giant yak is a mage knight miniature with a scratch built howdah. The giant heads on the stronghold were carved out of polystyrene foam.

Hi germani barbari sunt

I figured that I would post a few pictures of my main wargaming project, 28mm barbarians. I have a fascination of all things savage. I did my undergrad thesis on barbarians and I own Conan the Barbarian in at least three media.

Last summer, I began painting 28mm barbarians. I wasn't sure why I was painting them, other than I liked barbarians. Over the year it became an almost meditative exercise. It was always a good standby when I didn't know what to paint. In one year I have managed to paint a collection of about 200+ barbarians.

Those pictured are not the whole collection. I only photographed what I could fit into my 15 War of the Ring bases, which is about 120. I also traded away about 80 painted barbarians during a purge of sculpts that I didn't like. The unpainted barbarian horde remains uncounted, but it weighs about 12 pounds. This will be my main painting project in grad school. Just about every manufacturer that makes barbarians is represented in the horde. See if you can name all the manufacturers.

More Stuff From My Photo Archive

Here are some pictures of an Ork Speed Freek army that I built I while a ago. I have since sold the army. These photos were taken during my yellow phase of photography.

Some Notes and Sketches

I was working on the steampunk Ipod today and I figured that I would post some of my concept sketches. Sorry for the crude scan. These sketches were completed a few weeks ago and have been traveling at the bottom of various boxes ever since.

I wanted the final case to have a lot of Victorian scroll work along with the other, more traditional steampunk elements. Since I am a very poor artist, I had to play around with the scroll work untill I got some patterns that I liked.

The wood carving is nearly done. Next comes all the brass work.

We're all just a cog in the machine....

This is for all of you steampunk aficionados out there. I picked these up at Michael's craft store yesterday to put into my steampunk Ipod(more on that later). They retail for $4.99 and come with an assortment of gears, cogs, and flywheels that are all about 1 - 3/4 inches in diameter. These would be great for steampunk vehicles or scenery. I think they were in the scrapbooking section, of all places.

Goblins

There I go, breaking a promise that day after I start the blog. I'll make up for it with two miniature posts today. First are some pictures of a 15mm goblin horde I painted a few months back. The figures are all from Splintered Light Miniatures and are sculpted by the venerable Bob Olley. I really like the Splintered Light fantasy range. They get some top quality talent to sculpt their figures and they charge a reasonable price. If Splintered light keeps it up, they may be able to replace the now discontinued Demonworld line, of which I was big fan. I have since sold these figures, but I still love them. Splintered Light has since come out with other really great 15mm fantasy figures, including Orcs and Dark Elves.