A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Board Games – Masters of Night is a Vampire themed game set in which you play as a vampire arriving in a new city and need to take control to survive.
The minis are pretty standard board game quality with just enough detail to look cool but not quite enough to make a showpiece.
Board Games – Stuffed Fables is a neat little game where toys come aline in a dreamland to save the day. I’ve painted a few sets of the first game and was excited to see the expansion Oh, Brother! come across my painting table.
Read MoreBoard Games – Usually the point of a war game is to destroy your opponent, Valhalla turns that around and wants your warriors to fall in glorious combat.
This isn’t a miniatures game, isn’t a pretty pure board game with some large miniatures for certain scenarios. The sculpts are nice and add some atmosphere to the game.
Here’s some info from the manufacturer:
The end is coming and greatest warriors are standing to fight. To die in glory and reach Valhalla.
Valhalla is a card game with dice placement mechanics. Each player takes role of a Jarl who builds a team of warriors and equips them to fight. In battles player roll dice to activate warriors and play special tactic cards. The winning party sends their activated warriors to Valhalla, and whoever has the most points at the end, wins the game.
The game puts a classical "war game" concept on its head. In Valhalla the goal is to win a battle and send winning warriors to Valhalla.
Custom dice add randomness and excitement to the game, and wide variety of Jarls, warriors and battle tactics ensure great replayability.
Board Games – I never really understood the draw of deck-building/miniature games it always seemed to me that the two concepts don’t mesh well together. Awaken Realms is challenging that belief with The Edge: Dawnfall.
From the manufacturer:
The Edge: Dawnfall is a dynamic, miniature and card battle game with elements of territory control (gathering crystals) as well as campaign play. Each player controls unique units with special abilities that can be enchanted with special spell or progress cards.
Players win the game in solo or co-op mode by completing plot conditions of the scenario, or in the competitive skirmish mode by gaining advantage of 7 Victory Points. The game is set in the original post-apocalyptic universe of The Edge and features 6 factions with very different backstories, game styles and aesthetics.
I haven’t had a chance to paint the core game yet but if this expansion is any indication this game is very cool.
Board Games – Often I’m a bit behind with the “hotness” when it comes to board game projects. I imagine for some players, they want to confirm a game is good/enjoyable before having it painted. While other players will have massive back-logs of games they want painted just on principle that a painted game is more fun to play than an unpainted one. (A concept I whole-heartedly endorse)
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Jungle Cruise is a really nice looking game!
Board Games – I’ve always loved the Jungle Cruise, the idea of exploring the jungle always stuck in my head as something really cool when I was a kid. Indian Jone, Romancing the Stone and all the rest of the films of the genre really stuck with me. I remember my first trip to Disney riding this at night as one of the last rides we did, I was probably in about third grade and at the time I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
It looses a bit of the magic as an adult but it still holds a place in my heart. The recently released film looks like fun and I can’t wait to see it. Earlier this year my wife and kids gave me the Jungle Cruise: Board Game as a gift. The game is based solely on the ride and not the film property.
First off the game is beautiful, the components are sturdy, well designed and cohesive. I was super excited to get this game out of the box a try it. I own Jaws which was made by the same company and really love the look and feel of that game as well as the mechanics of play.
My first play-through was a two-player game and it became apparent very quickly that this game s more of a roll and go experience. Very few of your decisions in the game matter. You have a bunch of things to do, move around passengers, search for clues, choose your speed, pick the dangers and roll to avoid them . Ultimately it comes down to who gets to the end first with the most “chosen” passengers.
The game is thematic and full of the terrible jokes from the ride, it’s not strategic and is almost completely luck based. For me the theme is strong enough that this will make it out to themed game night every now and then or just as a simple game that gets the family around the table.
Board Games – I’m sure I’ve said it before but Shadows of Brimstone reminds me of RIFTS/GURPS, in so much as it appears to be a mis-mash of any crazy thing you could imagine happening. I’ve painted aliens, cowboys, natives, crazy monsters and space stuff so it was no surprise when a dinosaur, rock people and rats made their way to my table.
I honestly have never played the game or read a ton about it, but the models are all decent quality hard plastic that have just enough detail to make painting quick and simple.
Board Games - Gloomhaven is a massive game and it’s popularity has spawned several expansions. Jaws of the Lion seems to be more of a “prequel” geared toward a casual crowd.
Hardened mercenaries working together to achieved their goals, is the way the game is billed.
Board Games – Dark Souls is a project I’ve been working on off and on for some time now. I’ve finally been able to finish up all the expansions for the game.
This last batch includes the Last Giant, Gaping Dragon, Black Dragon, Explorers, Phantoms and Adventurers and the Iron Keep.
Board Games – Now that things are getting back to “normal” in my part of the world we’ve been able to resume a weekly game night with another couple. Our go to game is Marvel United we’ve played several games each night and have yet to tire of it.
The game is really fun and the cooperative nature means you can easily have a whole group of people around the tale giving input about how you can beat the villain. So even though the adults are playing the game it’s easy enough for the kids to jump in and figure out what’s going on. It’s rare to have a game that flips this easily and still keeps both groups entertained.
I’ve been using a mix of Contrast Paint and traditional techniques on these Chibi miniature and am really loving the results.
Board Games – Another Glorious Day In The Corp is starting to feel like Groundhog Day. This board game is proving to be very popular among my clients, which is great because I love the property and the minis are well done.
Board Game – Galaxy Hunters is a giant robot game by IDW Games. The premiss is you play as a bounty hunting pilot working for a mega corporation collecting resources to gain fortune and fame.
I haven’t had a chance to play but the game looks really nice. High quality components, large scale models and a ton of cardboard in a nice box organizer make it look really nice.
Board Games – When I was a kid I owned Crossbows and Catapults, it was a cool game that had you shot hard plastic pucks at your opponent with rubber band powered siege engines. The look was very barbarian fantasy looking and the game was very fun. When I saw Catapult Kingdoms on Kickstarter it immediately brought back memories of that older game. The look is very cartoony and the components are vastly superior to the originals.
This project was the entire all-in package which has the core game, 2 expansions, a viking ship, and a volcano. I didn’t paint the individual castle components but focused on a simple paint job to bring the cartoony components to life. I’m happy with the end result and double sealed the parts to help stand up to the abuse they’ll get having rubber balls shot at them over and over.
Board Games – I used to be a huge fan of the Walking Dead, however once I cut the cable cord I lost touch with the AMC series. Painting this board game was a bit of nostalgia as the characters are from the early seasons of the show. While not the same quality as the other miniature games based on the property these sculpts are easily recognizable as the characters from the show.
I stuck with a pretty basic paint job to get these quickly painted to a tabletop standard. I decided to stick with a duplicate paint job on the duplicate sculpts in this box since they’re pretty basic looking.
Boardgames – Miniature games aren’t typically small and portable. Tiny Epic Pirates is the exception this cool little game comes with several plastic ships that break down and fit back in the little box. This project is pretty basic with a simple coat of contrast paint on the ships and sails to make them look a little better than the bare molded plastic.
Board Games – Marvel United is one of the more clever co-op games that has come around lately. The game is simple enough that anyone can quickly pick up on the mechanics of the game. Changing up the team of heroes makes the game very different, and each villain brings an entirely different challenge to the game.
I recently was able to track down one of the Kickstarter Exclusive sets for a reasonable price. Having an additional 52 models means I’ll be painting these little guys between my other projects for some time.
I’ve always been a fan of the Midnight Sons and more street level heroes so that’s what I started with on this batch.
Boardgames – The last of the expansions for Dark Rituals is the obligatory “viking” themed box. This has a variety of ice and river themed enemies as well as some barbarian heroes to add to the mix. As a big box expansions it has a bunch of extra box sections and components to add to the core game.
Boardgames – A staple of many miniature heavy boardgames are small box expansions. These small sets usually introduce a new character and a few monsters. It makes for a inexpensive means to add new content to a game and for a Kickstarted project it’s an easy add-on to bolster the funding.
These three sets for Dark Rituals introduce some new monsters and boss characters. Some of the sculpts are insanely creepy.
Boardgames – The great thing about Kickstarter games is you get a ton of expansions right out the gate. Where the traditional model is release a game if it sells well then release more content, kickstarted games typically have all their content at launch.
Witches Sabbath is one of the big box expansions for Dark Rituals. To me it looks like the “graveyard” level with ghosts and tombs and a giant monster.
Boardgames – Dark Rituals was very successful Kcikstarter and as such has a ton of extras that backers received as a benefit. This models are very cool and a nice bonus for backers.
