Outcast Warband – Built, Based and Primed

Well, last night and this morning I finished cleaning and assembling my Outcasts and attaching them to their scenic bases.  This afternoon I took them outside and gave them a spray down of white primer.  And this is what they look like, now, from afar:

You can also see some extra bases that I primed.  These are all, of course, Dragon Forge bases, still my base-maker of choice (even though I have to order some wooden plank bases elsewhere for my Showgirls).  The extras are another 50mm Ice Kingdoms base that will eventually go to a second Dragyri Trueblood if I buy another; the icey 30mm are the last 4 I need to finish for the un-based Dragyri Slaves; and the other 3 30mm are the remainder of the Wasteland II set, the others going to the Outcasts.

Some close-ups:

Here are the Wasteland Warriors.  I opted to leave some of their extra bits off, like the bits on the slug guns that made them look kinda like crossbows, and the slug gun on the “sunburst helmet” chick, and the sheeth/bludgeon on the dude.

Here are the Scuts.  Built as they should be.  Which was easy, as they didn’t have much to them, either one or two pieces.

Here is a blurry shot of the Bully.

And here is the Brute.

Assembling

Assembling these models ranged from really easy, to pretty vexing.  The Bully and one of the Scuts were one piece.  The rest were two or three pieces, or more if you attach their extra bits.

I had the most trouble with the “sunburst helmet” chick, as I had to bend the hands gripping her bludgeon so that they would line up properly with her arms.  The Brute was also a little annoying, as he didn’t line up properfly, so his grip on the block looks a little funny from cerain angles.

But overall the cleaning was amazingly fast.  Almost Freebooter fast in how clean they come out of the package.

Basing

This was the first time that I actually attached the models to their scenic bases before priming and painting them.  I wanted to try it out this way, as I know other people do it like this.  It may present an extra challenge while painting, but will save me from snipping the underfoot tabs once they are painted.  And I ran into falling-off-and-having-to-rebase issues when the base was painted before gluing the finished model on before, as with Seamus and the Ortegas.  Hopefully I can avoid that this time.

Otherwise, I used Wasteland II bases for all of the 30mm figures, and a 40mm Urban Rubble base for the Brute, which had already been painted up for Malifaux previously.  Since I never did use it, it’s been repurposed, and will get a new paintjob to match the rest of the warband.

On To Painting!

Once I have finished my second Khaliman model for our Alkemy Tale of Gamers, I will get started on these.  Either one of the trios, or one of the singles, and then go back and forth between the Outcasts and the Khaliman.  Now that these are primed, I’m itching to get them done, so it’s possible I’ll get the Khaliman finished tonight or tomorrow.

So keep an eye out for all of that!

Thanks for reading.

Unboxing – Outcast Warband – Video!

So I finally had a little quiet time to myself today, so I was able to film an unboxing video for my Outcast Warband for Dark Age.  Now, I regularly have quiet time for hobbying, such as right now, at 12:15am, but I usually can’t be talking or else I’ll wake the baby.  So here is what I came up with:

It is definitely nothing fancy, but other than finding the time to record it, it was simple.  I will probably try and do more videos like this, maybe unboxing, maybe painting, etc.

Now that I have done this, I can start work on them.  As soon as we get another day of good/great weather like we had today I will take them out to prime.  I could continue using gesso brush-on primer, but I think I prefer Krylon’s spray primer.  I usually get better results than what I’ve gotten with gesso, I think.  Usually.

Thanks for reading.

Dragyri Warband – (Nearly) Complete!

Well, those bases took less time than I thought they would!  They were actually finished last night, edges and all.  As I had run out of glue, however, I could not add any of the models to the bases, and so had to wait until today when I picked up a new bottle of Loctite Gel, my super glue of choice.

The warband is “nearly” complete because I’m missing 4 of the bases needed for the Slaves (Andrew has them).  He’ll give them to me primed, so it’ll take very little time to get them ready.  I’ll probably pick them up either tomorrow or Tuesday, and so have the entirety of this starter set complete by Sunday or Wednesday.

Which is great, as I’m quite looking forward to actually playing this game!

Anyway, here are some bad pictures of the completed models:

The Soul Warden, the Warband’s only Trueborn.

A Slave Taskmaster pushing a bunch of Spear Slaves to fight.

Shard and Sling Slaves also along for the fight.

Well, overall I’m happy with how these models turned out.  I’m quite pleased with the Slaves, somewhat happy with the Soul Warden, and pretty happy with the bases.  I do like how the ice turned out (method below), although the edging did not come out as well as I had hoped it would.  It’s likely due to laziness and rushing the job, but the inner rim of the edge was not as defined as they usually are with Dragon Forge bases, so it was a little difficult in that regard.  However, overall I’m happy, and I know they’ll look just fine on the tabletop.

I started with a white prime (gesso brushed on, as I couldn’t get out on when the weather was perfect for priming on Wednesday), and laid down a 50/50 mix of Arcane Blue and Cygnar Blue Base.  Next came a 50/50 mix of the first colour and Frostbite, using a technique somewhere between regular painting and drybrushing.  I actually did it in a variety of ways, and if you look close at the bases you’ll see that they have different patterns and styles, as I couldn’t really decide exactly how to do it.  By the end of the 11 bases, they all looked similar enough from a foot away.  Lastly, I used pure Frostbite to highlight the edges, mostly.  I decided not to go with a final highlight of Morrow White this time, as I felt it wasn’t necessary.  The edges I did with Cygnar Blue Highlight.

And that’s it!  All I had to do was glue the already-painted models on, and voila.  Yes, note that I did not pin the models, which I do not do.  I think I mentioned previously that other models I’ve added resin bases to have come off, but after a second gluing they have stuck on tight.  I’m an easy going guy, so as long as the model doesn’t shatter or get all chipped when it comes off, I’m alright with it, and just reglue it.

I’m not sure if I’m going to display these models at Meeplemart with my Malifaux, Freebooter’s Fate (and possibly Heavy Gear Blitz!) stuff.  Probably, though.  At least when they’re there, I can take some better photos of them, in good lighting and with nice terrain.

Oh! Speaking of nice terrain at Meeplemart, here is one of the tables that is available to be played on there:

It’s great for games like Infinity and MERCS.  Most of what’s on there is Miniature Building Authority stuff.  It’s high-priced, but high quality as well.

Heck, since I’m putting up a bunch of pictures, here’s another of my son, this time caught jam-faced:

What a cutie.

Anyway, that’s it for tonight.  While gluing the figures on and typing this up, I’m watching some youtube videos, namely Wargamingforfun’s 2nd battle in their Skaven vs. Dwarf underground campaign.  I love their battle reports.  You should too.  Heck, now that you’ve finished with this post, head on over to youtube and check them out!

Thanks for reading.

Workbench Update – Dark Age, Alkemy

Well, it’s been three weeks since I posted a Workbench Update, so I’m sure you’re itching to know what I’m working on.

Just before I left for vacation (which accounts for two of those missing three weeks), my Dragon Forge order came in.  I got a bunch of their Ice Kingdom bases to split between myself and Andrew (my Dark Age Dragyri, his Malifaux December’s Cult), and some Wasteland II for my Dark Age Outcasts.

Here are some of the ice bases, 10 30mm and 1 50mm, cleaned up and ready for priming:

Note, they don’t actually look this orange, but rather a proper resin grey.

As usual, I love the quality of these bases.  Dragon Forge is my go-to producer of fine resin bases.  All of my Malifaux models are based on DF bases, as will be my Dark Age models.  I also have a bunch of unused Concrete bases that were for Pulp City models, but I never went anywhere with that.  I forsee myself picking up DF bases for pretty much all my future resin base needs.  Plus I’m still planning on putting together a proper review of the bases, as soon as time allows.

Speaking of time, let’s look at the projects that are currently taking up my said time.

Dark Age

With all of the Dragyri Warband models painted, I am currently working on their bases.  And I mean currently.  Those bases you see above got a gesso brush prime just a short time ago, so I won’t be able to start painting them until tomorrow.  Just before starting this post I snipped all of the tabs from the Dragyri models and cleaned up the mess left behind, so I’m one step closer to getting the whole lot fully completed.  It had been quite a few weeks since I handled the various Slave models, and while doing so tonight I remembered how much I liked how they turned out.

The bases will probably take me a couple of days, at least, to complete, so I probably won’t be able to get too far into the Outcast Warband before having to split my time between them and the upcoming Alkemy Tale of Gamers I’ve agreed to.

Alkemy

We’re supposed to start in a week on May 1.  Andrew’s good to go, especially as he’s already gotten a head start with his Avalonians.  I’m somewhat worried that Rob and Ilan will flake out of the project, much like they did with the Warhammer Tale of Gamers from last summer.  Perhaps May 1 is a bad day to start these things?

As I’m doing the Khaliman Republic, I’ve got the probably huge challenge of painting fur, as everyone in the faction is a cat-person.  I say probably because I’ve never really had to paint fur before, so it could go either way…although I’m forseeing the challenge to be high, to be honest.  The good news is, I’ve actually got two starter sets to play with, so I have a couple of extra models to test the fur-painting process on.

Other

I’d like to finally get some unboxing videos done using both the Outcast Warband and Khaliman Republic Starter, but since I gave my video camera to Andrew to see if he can write a report on yesterday’s WHFB game, I won’t be able to do any of that for at least a week.  If I have time, I might cheat and go ahead and open up the Outcasts, clean them up, take pictures and rebag them.  I’m sure you’ll forgive me.  I’ve got plenty to keep me busy if I do wait, so no worries there.

Dragyri Soul Warden – Complete!

So around midnight I put the finishing touches on my Dragyri Soul Warden.  He was the last of the Dragyri Warband models that I needed to finish, so now all I need are those Dragon Forge bases to come in and I can get the whole group properly finished, from top to bottom.  At that point I’ll post some group pictures, of course.

Here he is, baseless for now (as usual, he does look better in real life, I promise):

After completing the Slaves I came to the Soul Warden not completely knowing my paint scheme.  I did know that he would be grey-skinned and wearing blues, both of which differentiate him from the Slaves (tan-skinned and wearing browns).  Although after I had started painting him, I looked at his stat card and he too was wearing browns.  I figure, though, that the brighter colours help him rise above the masses, where his Trueborn status dictates him to be.

Other than still not fully grasping how to properly highlight clothing, the real pain was getting his blade to look ice-like.  In real life, I don’t think it turned out too bad.   I’ve seen better ice, but for something I painted up in half an hour with no pre-testing, I think it’s good.  I will likely use the same technique (explained below) for the ice bases that all of the Dragyri are going to reside on.

Here’s how I painted him:

• Skin: Trollblood Highlight base, Ogryn Flesh wash.
• Cloak: Exile Blue base, Cygnar Blue Base and Cygnar Blue Highlight highlights.
• Skirt: Meredius Blue base, Arcane Blue highlight, Asurmen Blue wash.
• Armour: Bloodtracker Brown base, Molten Bronze brush, Ogryn Flesh + Baal Red + Devlan Mud washes.
• Gold Trim: Rucksack Tan base, Glorious Gold (Vallejo) brush, Gryphonne Sepia wash.
• Tube Dongles: Arcane Blue cylinder, Tin Bitz casing.
• Wrist/Ankle Wraps: ‘Jack Bone base, Devlan Mud wash.
• Staff: Pig Iron shaft, wrap as above, bronze as above.
• Ice Blade: 50/50 Arcane Blue/Cygnar Blue Base base; brush with same 50/50 same mix/Frostbite; highlight with Frostbite then Morrow White.
• Blade Details: Arcane Blue shard/cylinders, Molten Bronze fastener things,Pig Iron bands.

And that’s it.  Hopefully any further Dragyri Trueborn can be painted with a similar scheme for consitency’s sake.

As it’s Good Friday, I won’t be getting the Dragon Forge bases until next week.  Which means I have this weekend to:

1. Paint Abuela Ortega.
2. Build my unbuilt Empire models so I can up my point level and change my list for a potential game against Andrew on Tuesday.

I like the idea of flipping back and forth each week between two of the games I’d like to play the most, Malifaux and Warhammer Fantasy.  Soon I/we will be throwing Dark Age and Alkemy into the mix, once I’ve painted my Outcasts and we’ve started our Alkemy Tale of Gamers.  Of course I don’t want to drop Malifaux and WHFB, so it is hopeful that game nights in the near future will see two miniatures games being played.  Keep an eye out for updates and reports on all these games.  And more.

Thanks for reading.

Workbench Update – Recent Random Pictures

For the past two weeks I have had little time to hobby, and I think my lack of blogging shows that.  Real life things have been getting in the way, including prep for an interview I had yesterday.  The only real hobby progress I’ve had is the slow work done on the Soul Warden, the last of my Dragyri Warband models.  He probably should have been done a week ago, but I was just too busy.  Anyway, here are some random shots I’ve taken recently of various hobby-related things.  After posting this, I’ll go write a little report on last night’s Malifaux game with Scott and get back to painting the Soul Warden.

Speaking of the Soul Warden, here he is.  The body is all done, so I just need to finish the head and the staff.  Hopefully I’ll get him done tonight or tomorrow, and as soon as the Dragon Forge bases arrive I’ll get them completed and get all these Dragyri properly finished.

And speaking of finished models, here is one of the display cases at Meeplemart.  Steve agreed to let me keep a few of my crews at the store, which is good for both of us.

On the one hand, Meeplemart gets a demo crew or two for the store to use (yes, I’m fine with people using my miniatures as long as they take care of them), and there’s a visual representation of products he sells.

And on the other hand, I get to show off my painted models and I don’t have to lug them around with me everytime I want to play at Meeplemart (which is where I do all of my miniature gaming right now).

It’s a win-win situation.  Next week I’ll be bringing my Heavy Gear Blitz! models to the store as well, and I’m sure my Dark Age warbands will end up there as well.  Until I start playing elsewhere again (like at Andrew’s or my place, like we used to), I will likely continue with this.

Speaking of playing at Meeplemart, here are some shots of games played there recently.

Here is how my game against Andrew ended last week.  You can find the report at Tale of Gamers.  That’s right, I only had 7 models remaining, but thanks to the random scenario and a whole lotta luck at the last minute, I somehow managed to win.

Here is a shot from this week’s game betwen Andrew’s Lizard’s and Steve’s Tomb Kings.  Hopefully Andrew will throw something together about the game at ToG, but if not, it was a 1000pt game.  Steve is still learning the rules, but has an awesome-looking TK army that is displayed in the store.  Hopefully he enjoyed it enough to get some more TK models painted so we can see them tabled again, at higher levels.

And here is a deployment shot from my game against Scott.  You can see my Ortegas down at the bottom, and Ramos up at the top with some of his construct friends.  I don’t think I’ll write up a true report for this game (due to time I’d like to spend on other posts, and because I don’t think Scott wants another table-wipe report made up ), but I’ll get some highlights up at ToG ASAP.

Well, here’s my short-term plan in regards to my workbench:

• Dragyri Soul Warden (nearly there)
• Dragon Forge bases (in transit, will just work on the ice ones)
• Abuela Ortega (primed)

After these are done I will be flipping between the Khaliman Republic (Alkemy) for our next ToG starting May 1, and the Outcasts (Dark Age) so I can get this game on the table.  Plus, of course, anything else that I get distracted with…like those Dead Doxies for Malifaux that I almost picked up last night, but had the willpower not to.  Yet.

Oh yeah, one last picture.  This is my 10 1/2 month old son, trying to tell us that we shouldn’t let him watch TV, because he’s impressionable and might mimic what they do…

Thanks for reading.

Workbench Update – Malifaux, Dark Age, Warhammer Fantasy

Over the past week I’ve gotten less done than anticipated, but I did spend one night playing (Tuesday) and one night writing about it (Wednesday, you can see the Malifaux batrep at Tale of Gamers).  I spent the other nights either painting a little, surfing the net, playing Call of Duty, or sleeping early.

Here’s a comprehensive list of what’s on the painting table right now:

Malifaux

Well, last week I said I needed to pick up Abuela Ortega, and I did!

At 7ss she will allow me to play 35ss games with the Ortegas.  7ss is a lot, especially when the only thing I really want her for is her healing ability.  She does have a couple of other spells and abilities that can be useful, of course, like another Obey to use.

Hopefully she’ll be painted soon and I can get her on the gaming table in the next week or two.

Dark Age

Last week I was up to 7 Slaves complete, and early this week I added 4 more.  Like I mentioned, working on too many models at once is a bad idea for me, so I took 4 and worked on them as a small group until finished, leaving me with these three:

These last three are about halfway finished.  I’ve done the skin and most of the cloth, so now all I need are the rest of the cloth areas, the strapping and weapon details, touch-ups and washes.  Done.

I went ahead and ordered Dragon Forge bases for my two warbands.  The Dragyri are getting the ice-themed ones that I was on the fence about (clearly I teetered over to the ‘do it’ side of the fence), and the Outcasts are going to get a mixture of Wasteland II and Urban Rubble, since I already had a few of each lying around and didn’t want to go and spend even more money.  Adding $1-5 more per figure can make an army expensive, especially when the Dragyri starter alone comes with 15 models!

The goal is to have these three guys done by tomorrow night, so I can start on the last model of the warband, the Soul Warden:

I hate the way gesso priming looks before paint is on the model, but it’s amazing how afterwards it’s so smooth you couldn’t tell the difference.  And it sure beats getting the grainy texture a poor spray prime might leave behind, like on my Empire General below.

Warhammer Fantasy

Last week I said I had put the General and Captain on the desk, but in fact I went ahead and painted the General’s horse up instead, as he was already started previously.  Here is the horse underneath the General that I started working on a couple nights ago.  I’ve got a better picture of the horse alone, but I’ll post that when I share the complete trio of models later this week (hopefully).

You can see the grainy texture on the General’s armour.  When I was batch priming my Empire models last summer, most of them turned out perfectly, but one group did not.  I believe it was the General, Knights and Pistoliers that got it bad, and only the riders! All of the horses turned out just fine.  Oh yes, primer can be just as fickle as the Fate deck in Malifaux.  Oh yes.

Speaking of the other horses, quite liking how the General’s horse turned out I put two more horses back on the table.  This is as far as they got last year, the Pistolier’s horse halfway-ish and the Knight’s horse nearly there:

And finally, here is the Captain who got a bit of colour this week as well.

Once the Captain and General are finished, they’ll join the Fire Wizard as my first three complete models for my Empire army.   Only a year later than when we started that first Tale of Gamers back in May of 2011.  Man, that went nowhere.  So what did we do? Tried again with Heavy Gear Blitz! Which also went nowhere.  Even nowhere-er, actually, because at least with WHFB we played some games and got a bunch of hobbying done.  With HGB, I’m the only one who finished my models up – even though it did take me a few months after we had un-officially halted the ToG.

Tale of Gamers

So what else would we do other than to plan anotherTale of Gamers!  This one will work, I swear!  Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but we will be starting an Alkemy Tale of Four Gamers in a few weeks, as soon as I’ve finished my Dark Age stuff.  But you’ll have to go to Tale of Gamers for all of the progress on that, other than my Workbench Updates here.  It’s hard juggling two two blogs, you know?

Thanks for reading.

Workbench Update – “It’s Been A While” Edition

It really has been a while since I last posted a Workbench Update.  About three weeks, in fact.  The sad part is, I haven’t gotten too much done in that time.  Real life has gotten pretty busy, including a few days taking care of a sick wife and baby, a few days off for a weekend out of town, etc.  You know, the usual.

So let me fill you in on what is on the ‘bench, and what I’ve been up to lately:

Dark Age

Yes, I’ve picked up two Dark Age starters and am (permanently?) borrowing the rules from a friend.  I’m in the process of joining The Legion, so I can demo the game as soon as my forces are painted and I’ve learned the game well enough.  Not sure if I’ll promote the game as much as I did with Malifaux a few years back, but I’m pretty sure I’ll show it off as much as I’m able to, without it getting in the way of the other games I play (or will be playing).

I’ve opened up and primed the contents of the Dragyri Warband, and I currently have 7 of the various Slaves nearly complete:

Forgive the poor picture, but you get the idea.  The only things I’m missing are highlights on the shards and bases.  I’m see-sawing back and forth about whether to pick up some Dragon Forge bases for my Dark Age stuff, or just do basic home-made bases.  I love Dragon Forge stuff, but not sure if I want all my Dragyri on ice bases, even though if I expand them they will be of the Ice Caste.  Hrm.

Anyway, the colours used on the slaves are:

• Skin: Rucksack Tan with Ogryn Flesh wash.
• Cloth: Beast Hide main cloth, Bootstrap Leather hood and wrist/ankle warmers, all with a Devlan Mud wash.
• Laces and straps: Jack Bone.
• Shards: Arcane Blue with a Trollblood Highlight highlight.
• Spears: Bloodtracker Brown shaft, Trollblood Highlight hook, Shards and Laces as above, Ogryn Flesh wash.
• Slings: Gun Corps Brown, Ogryn Flesh wash.
• Shard Baggies: Sanguine Base, Devlan Mud wash.
• Daggers: Shard blade as above, Gun Corps Brown handle, Ogryn Flesh wash.

Very simple, of course.  I opted to give them brown clothing instead of the standard blues as I wanted them to look like lower-caste slaves beside their Trueborn brethren, who will be grey-skinned instead of tan-skinned.  I think the difference will look good when they’re together.  I hope.

I had originally laid down the skin on all the Slaves, and then the Beast Hide cloth, but working on the whole bunch was starting to demotivate me.  I didn’t want to happen what has happened in the past with big groups of models I try to paint, so I took five (two had already been mostly finished as testers) and worked on a small group.  I might even split the other 7 Slaves into two groups and finish the groups one at a time.  When I get back to painting my WHFB Empire army, I’m going to take the units 5-models at a time.  More than that and I get overwhelmed, which is probably why my C&C Ancients in 3D project is on hold (that and my Gamer Distraction Syndrome).

It is possible, though I’m not sure how likely, that I can finish the Slaves in a few days, and then get cracking on the single-albeit-large Soul Warden.  I’d be very happy to get them all done by the end of this week, so I can start on the Outcasts, and then get the two Warbands tabled.  I’m excited to play the game, as I think it has some neat mechanics, an interesting theme and enough that will differentiate it from other games to stand out.  Will it be the next Malifaux for me?  Hrm.

Malifaux

Speaking of Malifaux, I tried to sit down and finish painting my Lilith crew (starter plus another Mature and two Young Nephilim), but I just couldn’t finish it.  I think I’ve got everyone but one Mature Nephilim and Lilith herself to a near-complete state, most of them on complete bases.  Maybe if I take them for a spin one of these days I’ll motivate myself to finish them up.

I also need to pick up Abuela Ortega, as last week’s game with Loy showed me that I need some healing in that crew!

WHFB

On my desk I’ve placed a Standard Bearer and General for my Empire army.  After finishing that Fire Wizard, and playing a pair of small games, I felt that I should get more of the cancelled-Tale of Gamers army finished.  I’ll work on them in between other things right now, until we get WHFB back on the table more often and I feel the need to paint up more.

GameCraft Old West Buildings

I haven’t done much more work on my buildings lately, not surprisingly.  I might put them aside until a later date while I try and get the Dark Age stuff done.  I’ll probably finish my first three buildings to use as Malifaux terrain, maybe leave those at Meeplemart, and keep the rest boxed until I’m ready.  Like I said the other day, I probably won’t get to doing Old West gaming until later in the year, so they’re not completely necessary right now.

Gaming

My gaming in general has severely decreased over the last few months.  Severely.  I used to average monthly plays in the 30s or more!  Now I’m lucky if I break a dozen.

Tuesday nights I am almost guaranteed to be playing, unless something unforseen has come up.  On these nights I usually get to play at least one miniatures game, possibly two, and hopefully some board or card game otherwise.  Malifaux is the current hot game among my small usual group, but we also dabble in Freebooter’s Fate, MERCS, WHFB, Dark Age soon, etc.  We are also going to try and start playing a card or board game to end the night, as well, I think.  Like the World of Warcraft CCG Raids, or Sentinels of the Multiverse.

My Thursdays are very rare these days, and even this past Saturday at TABSCon I only managed a single game, because I was silly and planned the day poorly with my wife.   Bah.

This Just In – More GameCraft Buildings and Dark Age!

Hey, remember me?

Man, I knew this would happen.  Once I stopped blogging for a single day, it all went downhill from there.  Granted, last week both my wife and baby were sick, so I had less time to play and hobby and blog anyway, plus I went away for the weekend.  All of that together means…it’s been quite a few days since I’ve posted.  Eek…over a week, actually.  I’m glad I made the conscious decision to not post daily, or else I would have been disappointed in myself by now.

However, I do have a few newly acquired items to talk about.

First, last week a relatively small box arrived on my doorstep.  To be honest, I’ve been so busy I haven’t even gone through the contents much, other than taking them out of the box and laying them out like this:

…then putting them back in the box.  But I do know that the package contains four more Old West buildings and some fences.  I picked them up on the last day of GameCraft’s online sale.  At this point I’m not sure when I’ll be playing Old West games, but I’m going to try and get them all built as soon as free time between other projects allows.  I’m hoping that, with all of the other games I’m planning on getting into/demoing right now, the Fall will be the Season of the Old West.

My other new acquisition is a collection of much-anticipated Dark Age stuff!

I made the decision a month or so ago to get into Dark Age, and I’m in the process of joining the demo crew, The Legion.  As you can see I now have the rulebook (a possibly-permanent borrow from Kevin.  Thanks Kevin!) and two starters: Dragyri and Outcasts.  I was drawn to the Dragyri right away, even though I’m not normally an ‘alien faction’ kind of guy.  The Outcasts were originally my third choice, but they grew on me, and they were the other starter that Meeplemart had in stock, so…why not?

I’ve already begun working on the slaves, which you’ll see more of in tomorrow’s long-overdue Workbench Update.

I’ll also be working on unboxing photo (and maybe video) reviews for both the Dark Age and GameCraft items, as well as my pre-play thoughts on the Dark Age rules.  Those things will be coming over the next couple of weeks, while I get the models ready for learning and demoing.

Thanks for reading.

Miniature Temptations – Dark Age

“What?” you ask, “More temptations?”  But of course!   And today we look at Dark Age: Apocalypse.

When first released (or rather, re-released) I decided not to check it out too deeply, as from what I saw there wasn’t anything that really stood out for me.  But since then, especially recently, I’ve been drawn to the game a little more.  Especially after seeing the stuff posted on Miners & Steamfitters Union, and some ’new releases’ posts on TGN and Beasts of War, I decided to look back at the game.  And, well, me likey.

I like that it uses a d20, which is different enough from most miniatures games.  It may not be as cool as using cards or bucketloads of dice (both of which I enjoy), it’s still cool.  Plus, you’re rolling under values, which is also different and, well, cool.  I’m sure there are more aspects of the game play that I will enjoy, but for now, those interest me. 

As do the models:

C’mon!  How cool is he?  I like the Dragyri specifically for these big guys…reminds me of the aliens in Halo, but even cooler.

These guys, the Forsaken, also interest me.  They’re like post-apoc Menoth, which I think is pretty cool.  The starter set doesn’t have the best models, but the faction has some great stuff.

The other factions don’t really do it for me.  I kinda like the Outcasts for being all Mad Max/Doomsday-like, but I prefer the other two.

Well, I think I’ve convinced Andrew to be interested in this game.  Again, it didn’t take much effort, which is always fun.  As soon as I’m finished painting my Freebooter’s Fate starter, I think I’m going to pick up some Dark Age guys, if Meeplemart has got them in already.

The verdict?  I already said it: yes.  I’m going to post later about how I’m in a buy-starters-for-multiple-skirmish-games mood right now.  It might be the fact that I’m somewhat enjoying painting.  Who knows?

So, you can expect some Dark Age posts coming up soon, as well. 

Man, am I keeping myself busy.

And poor.

Thanks for reading.