Traditional end of year post- 2013

So this blog has been quiet for some time- not a huge surprise since Instagram is so much easier to use for this sort of thing. The year in review:
Completed a major Dark Heresy campaign for better or for worse
Began an awesome game of Dungeon World (playing a wizard rocks)
Attended Larrycon
Reaper bones arrived- was able to paint some war bands and play some Song of Blades and Heroes
Played some x wing
Did some podcasting (tho that has been off for a while now...)

Looking forward to in 2014:
More cons (Larrycon, Stratigicon?)
A lot more minis skirmish wargaming- x wing, Song of Blades and Heroes, Alpha Strike
More minis and terrain collecting and painting
Clearing unused crap from the collection
More Dungeon World
Edge of the Empire

The Great Larrycon 2013

Attended the the annual event in SLC again this year. Here are some of the highlights and games played:

The New

Eclipse board game- played twice. The second game took a long time but I did not feel like pushing people out of analysis paralysis mode. Hope we can get this one to take in our group, and I really want to replace those ships with something cooler (BFG?)

Dungeon World- played a silly demo with the guys of this one and had an absolute blast. Frostiod FTW

Spartacus- another shorter run demo style of this game. It is everything the reviews promise. So much theme built into this game.

Pandemic- this is a good game. Played once. I wish I would have picked this one up rather than forbidden island.

Lords of Vegas- somehow the random elements of this game work really well. Playing with poker chips rather than paper money is smart as hell. A fun light con worthy game.

Some Descent was played, but is not worth mentioning beyond that. The Overlord made us his bitches...

We were also able to get a game of Chaos in. Always an excellent choice. On the last day Erik and Larry ran me through a quick Bolt Action demo. Skirmish based minis games seem to be the way of the future. I for one am excited. Looking forward to Excesscon 5!

Summertime Update and discussion

As summertime comes into its full fury, I find I have had less time for painting minis. Since the last post I have only achieved base coating 14 Bloodletters and sculpting a cyber mastiff for the Arbites in our Dark Heresy game (I refused to pay for the lame looking Forge world one). In my next post I intend to have pics of both projects in their completion, as well as a recap of the exciting annual trip to SLC for Larrycon. I also wanted to put into words here a little thought/discussion that has been bounced around in our group lately. Something I had discussed at length with the great Larry himself. It seems the more releases GW puts out, the more I get sad about the range and the direction of sculpting as it moves away from art and more towards computer generation. CAD design works great for things like tanks and mechs, but using it for anything organic seems to drain all the personality out of the miniature. This must be why I love most Reaper models so much. They are still the work of natural artistic talent and carry an aesthetic appeal that strikes the right chords within me. When I look at the new Eldar wraith Titan thingy or some of the new Chaos kits they just look- well pretty terrible if you ask me. Food for thought as I look around for a miniatures game that can have staying power in our group and stand the test of time.

Spring Slump

The springtime is here, and hobbies and games have taken a bit of a back seat to RL. I did manage to paint my Bloodthirster, and also completed the rebuilt Avatar of Khaine (he has since been primed). Am currently working on my Bloodletters and have a backlog of about a million things on the hobby worktable. Looks like I will live forever...



Bloodthirster- I kept him a little glossy than usual...he is covered in gore and warp goo. I may still apply matte to certain areas.

Really proud of my work on this beat up Avatar. It took me a little longer than practical, and I could have spent even more time detailing it, but I am happy with the outcome. Sometimes you have to challenge yourself in order to improve.

Verse those mans!

Picture heavy post, covering the last few months of 40k minitures gaming, hobby progress, and pledges for things to come.

So far almost every game of 6th Edition has been fairly close and fun to play. I really love this Edition.



Above- My Blood Pact vs. Scott's Tyranids. The gun line serves me well for once.



Above- Blood Pact vs. Quinn's Black Templars. Quinn holds the objectives despite my large blast hammering.



Above- Blood Pact vs. Scott's Chaos Marines. I should have focused everything on that stupid Lord with the Axe of Unit Erasing.



Above- My first game of 6th Edition against Cory's Tyranids. It goes as bad as it looks in the photo for me.



Above- Example of my repainted and retooled Ulthwe Eldar. The bases are Secret Weapon minitures Alien Temple.



Above- This is an example of my old Ulthwe eldar paint job. Years ago I was in such a hurry to get these guys to the table that I overlooked the very poor quality of the work. Failures include a lack of detail, allowing the varnish to overspray ("frostyfig"), and really inexcusable, poor quality basing.



Above- I picked up this broken ass Avatar for a good price. I'm going to test my scuplting and conversion skills to create what I hope will be a quality centerpiece for my Eldar.



Above- Picked up 14 bloodletters of Khorne and a Bloodthirster to use as Allies for my Blood Pact. I'm going to put them on the Secret Weapon miniatures Bone Fields bases, and my power armor and close assault worries are a thing of the past.