First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet.

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Board Games – Mars has been a very popular subject fo games over the last few years. Not many of the games feature highly detailed miniature though, which means I haven’t been exposed to many of them first hand. While researching this game I found a ton of variations of the same theme, most of the games are worker placement variations in which you have to set up a colony on Mars.

First Martians is a game based on a previous award winning game called Robinson Crusoe. I guess it can be played solitare and uses an app. It looks pretty cool and the miniatures are detailed enough that a simple paint job really makes them pop.

Shadows of Brimstone - In Space?

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Board Games – Shadows of Brimstone is a really weird game. I haven’t played it personally but one of my clients is all about it. I get a few models for the game in just about every batch she send over. Initially I was under the impression it was some type of cthulu-esqu cowboy game, which in the simplest terms i guess it is. The concept is a mining town the discovers a mysterious type of stone, the ensuing “gold-rush” causes an explosion that rips a hole in reality allowing for all sorts of oddities to appear. It feels a little bit like Rifts or any number of RPGs that throw in everything plus the kitchen sink.

This particular batch is the abandoned space station. Featuring undead astronats, probe droids and gun batteries it’s a well themed expansion.

On the Painting Table: Zombicide - The Green Horde

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On the Painting Table: Zombicide - The Green Horde

Board Games – Nothing like starting the year off with a simple project. Last year I painted up several of the Zombicide: Black Plague sets. As with most games fo CMON this set is packed with a ton of miniatures (72 according to the box). The majority of those models are the zombie horde, but this set also includes some heroes and a siege engine.

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Blackstone Fortress - Traitor Command

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Blackstone Fortress - Traitor Command

Warhammer 40,000 – The sculpts for Blackstone Fortress continue to impress me. In the days of old push fit kits like these would have been rather flat and lacking in detail, no so anymore. Of course the trade-off for the dynamic poses these kits offer is the lack of customization.

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This War of Mine - Expansion

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Boardgames – I know nothing about this game. In fact I know so little that when I painted the core set I assumed they belonged to another game. But apparently it’s based off a video game that’s pretty popular, boardgamegeek has a decent summary here. The concept sounds intriguing and I might need to look into it further. These minis are from one of the expansions that introduces some additional options.

CLANK! - Acquisitions Inc. Upper Management

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Board Games – Clank! is a pretty popular dungeon crawl style board game. As such there have been a few expansions for the game including the one I just painted for a client featuring characters from the popular web comic Penny Arcade.

The minis are pretty accurate depictions of the comic characters aside from the cleric who has this weird thing on his head. I can’t tell if it’s part of his hair, or an odd helmet, but in either case I’m not a fan. The other three look pretty amazing and I really enjoyed painting these up.

I'm on a Boat ... Well Submarine Actually

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Board Games – Have you ever wondered what would it be like to be on a German UBoat hunting down allied forces during WWII? If so the latest game to cross my desk will help you live that out.

The Dragon's Horde

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Board Games – With the amount of different things that pass by my painting desk I’m constantly surprised by the amount of quality miniatures that are included with various board games. I primarily focus on Warhammer 40k as my game of choice at the moment so my board game collection doesn’t get the love it deserves and I’m not on the hunt for new games at the moment. Luckily for me my board game client helps to keep me up to date with a huge variety of board games.

The latest game Volfyirion has a large dragon model with some removable crystals.I guess it was a Kickstarted deck-building game back in 2018. Nit sure about the quality if the game itself but the miniature is pretty nice.

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Night at the Museum - Museum The Board Game

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Board Games – These days it seems you can find a game to fit any interest you may have. If you like trains, farming, zoo keeping or any number of things you can find a board game based on that theme. The latest project to cross my painting desk are the player pawns for Museum a board game about collecting artifacts for … you guessed it a museum. The nice quality miniatures represent various artifacts from around the world much like the little pewter pieces in Monopoly players use these to move around the board.

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One of the complaints I read about the player pieces is that they are not colored to match up with the player colors, which is honestly a silly complaint. The models are detailed enough to paint up and make them feel like real artifacts, which adds to the theme of the game.

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Terror Below - The Big Worm

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Board Games - Terror Below was on Kickstarter last year. It’s essentially Tremors the board game without licensing the property and tying into the line of films. The game is played with wooden pieces that plyers use to try and escape the giant worms living below the surface. So yes the gameplay is real similar to the film.

While the game itself doesn’t use minis (I imagine to keep costs down) they did make one giant worm model that came with the Kickstarter.

Arkham Horror - Expansion

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Board Games – I’ve painted up quite a few models for this Fantasy Flight game. The latest batch adds some new heroes and a few monsters. The sculpts are all pretty decent and take paint well. My only honest complaint about the minis is the dumb clunky base. I know in game it serves a functional purpose that makes it easy to see what the monster is, how big it is and it’s basic stats, but in my opinion the base detracts from the model as a whole.

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Trun Hunters - Shadows of Brimstone (In Space?)

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Board Games – Shadows of Brimstone is quite the mishmash of things, initially it seemed like a Cowboy game with monsters but with each expansion it delves further into the weird. This latest set I painted reminds me a bit of Bosk from Star Wars or the Badoon from the Guardians of the Galaxy books. Space-faring lizardmen bounty hunters, kinda speaks for itself.

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Black Plague - Zombicide in the Dark Ages

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Black Plague - Zombicide in the Dark Ages

Board Games – I remember when the first Zombicide game was up on Kickstarter, zombies were all the rage and Walking Dead was fresh and different, survivors based on pop icons drove the stretch goals to create an annual cash cow for CMON. As with most “sequels” the franchise eventually lost steam and rebooted in an Evil Dead 3-ish realm of mid-evil zombies and necromancers. Of course this also gave the game access to a variety of fantasy tropes that breathed new life into the franchise and wrangled in fantasy players with a refined version of the game that uses a nifty dashboard instead of the awkward “paperclip” for tracking your character.

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7th Continent - Flying Roots

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Board Games – I love the variety of painting clients I currently have. It’s really hard to get burnt out when you have a variety of things to paint. (I swear if I have to paint one more Hive Fleet Leviathan model I’ll lose it) It’s especially nice to get something on a totally off-the-wall scale like 7th Continent. These models are tiny.

The goal with these was to match the card art/box art so that it’s easier for players to identify their paws on the board easier. At this scale it’s not so much about an amazing paint job as it is being functional.

The OTHERS: Seven Sins - Gamma Team

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Board Games - It’s amazing the amount of content CMON produces for their board games. I’ve painted up several batches of these models for my client and I think she still has a few more sets to go. When this game was up on Kickstarter originally I picked up the “core” set but still haven’t had a chance to put it on the table, from what I’ve heard it’s an amazing game with a rich backstory. I love the models and hopefully I’ll be able to find some free space on my painting table to get my own set done soon.