A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Board Games – As a kid I really loved the Muppets and Jim Henson’s The Story Teller, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dark Crystal or Labyrinth though. As an adult giving those movies another watch I can appreciate the films more and see why some people have so must love for them.
Read MoreBoard Games – Some games come with really nice pawns. I remember as a kid always gravitating toward the games that had cool pieces I could play with. My grandparent’s board game collection had plenty of random buttons or other substitute parts because so many kids thought the same thing.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – What I love about Space Marines is how easy it is to make them your own. Just like all the Ninja characters in the original Mortal Kombat just changing the colors turns them into a whole new character.
Read MoreBoard Games - Post-Apocalptic Cars are in vogue right now. Gaslands is super popular with tabletop gamers and there have been several board games as of late that follow the theme. Badlands: Outpost of Humanity is another one.
Read MoreBoard Games – Mad Max influenced a whole genre of movies and continues to do so almost 40 years after the original film was released. Wasteland Express is a board game that delves into what a delivery service would be like in that world.
Read MoreBoard Games – Often I get large commissions for board game miniatures. Most of the time these are colored ABS plastic that very in the quality of the sculpts. Putting a little paint on them brings the overall quality of the experience way up in my opinion.
Read More
Necromunda – Necromunda can be a brutal game. Part of the fun is seeing your guys get better over time and/or your enemies get worse. Most of the time things even out over the course of a campaign particularly if you’re playing enough games in a cycle to generate income and experience. With a good number of games under you’re belt losing a model hurts but you can typically play catch up with most of the houses as they get the Settlement to recruit Juves from.
One of the Necromunda Campaigns I’m taking part in is a Dominion Campaign that meets once a month to play 1-2 games. For that campaign I opted to play Enforcers against a Van Saar, Healot Cult and Corpse Grinder Cult. The first month things went ok and we worked out the kinks with a multi=player game.
This month however things took a dramatic turn for me. We played a three-player “Tunnel FIght” on multi level board. We house-ruled a triangular deployment so everyone had relatively the same distance between them, and infiltrators had plenty of options. The game seemed to be going well with my Enforcer teams working together to take out a few models. That was until the Corpse Grinder Leader joined the fray. Some nasty combats saw my leader and one of my champs in need of medical care and one of my patrolmen in recovery. During the post-game sequence I had to pay out all my credits to visit the Doc who couldn’t save either model. So essentially my gang was gutted.
In a normal duration campaign I could probably come back from this. Because they died at the Doc I keep their equipment and get a single Rookie that I could gear up, and my remaining champ could take on the leader role. It wouldn’t be easy but I might be able to keep myself in the game.
However since we’re only getting together once a month and this was only the second game, I’m retiring this gang and starting over. With the infrequency that we’re playing I’ll struggle to catch up and won’t have much fun in the campaign, So instead I’m going to found a new gang. I’ll be tw games behind, but the odds are better that I could catch up from the baseline rather than being down 1/3 of my crew.
Board Games — I think I’m nearly done with all the Shadows of Brimstone monsters. This latest batch includes monsters form the Swamp expansion as well as some individual enemy packs.
Read MoreBatman Miniatures Game – The Batman miniatures game is now in its third edition, I thought I was going to try it in the second edition but sadly after picking up a bunch of models I couldn’t squeeze in a game.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – On of my clients has been collecting an Ultramarine Primaris force. Every few months he sends over a few more models to add to the army. This time around he sent over some Eliminators, Incursors, Captains and an Ancient.
Read More
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.
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.
Warhammer 40,000 – Chasing the meta can be a fickle thing. Particularly if you’re not actively playing in tournaments, since the “meta” for certain style events can be incredibly different than what’s going on in your own circle of players. For many of the competitive lists people try to emulate are built to play a very specific mission set.
Read MoreStar Wars – I’m a fan of Star Wars, not a big surprise there. I’ve never played a Star Wars game, which seems odd given how many other games I’ve tried over the years. The movies, television shows, and some of the comics/novels are where I prefer to get my fix.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Last year I painted up a snow themed Scion force. My client realized he didn’t have all the options needed to field the force as he wanted. So this small batch is mostly special weapons and a few characters.
Read MoreNecromunda – Dark Uprising is an amazing starter set for Necromunda, not only do you get a boatload of terrain to battle over, you also get two full gangs and a bespoke campaign that you can battle out using just the starter contents or expand to include the other gangs.
Read MoreKingdom Death – The expansions for this game seem to be never ending. Which I suppose is a good thing for me. My latest foray into the Kingdom brings the Dragon King and Manhunter expansions across my table.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I’m sure Deathwatch will be addressed in an upcoming Psychic Awakening book. At which point they might become super popular again. Relative power level or popularity aside I have a steady stream of the men in black crossing my table.
Wolf Riders
My first Warhammer Novel
Warhammer Underworlds – The first Warhammer novel I ever read was Wolf Riders. That book was enough to get me hooked, not enough to actually ever play Fantasy mind you, but hooked enough to get Battle Masters, Dark World and Hero Quest. From there I picked up Chainmail and a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons minis on which I taught myself to paint, I wish I still had those Dark Sun models they were so cool. Anyway the point of this rabbit hole was to express my love for Goblin Wolf Riders and how that iconic model drew me into this hobby.
The next batch of Beastgrave models to cross my desk were the Wolf Riders. It’s odd that they have calvary in a skirmish game but I imagine it works out. These three are much more dynamic than previous models and I hope it’s a sign of what’s to come for the greenskin line.
Warhammer Underworlds – The latest version of Warhammer Underworlds takes you out of the Underworlds and into the Wilderness. The first crew to pass my table for this expansion are the Sylvaneth faction. I’m not a huge fan of tree people, although these aren’t really Treemen, but some kind of elf/tree hybrid. I guess in the fluff they’re some sort of ghostly possessed tree, which I didn’t completely realized when I started painting them. I’m pretty happy with the scheme I opted for as it pops against the bright green basing.
