Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Welcoming Wednesday ...

Today we welcome to our ranks Brandon Goben, also known as Bloodthorn, who has a blog at Bloodthorn Studios. One of us, one of us!

I must say I love Bloodthorn's self-description on the blog: "An average gamer with suffering from unlimited interests but hindered by limited resources."

True for so many of us!

Again, welcome!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Bombshell Babes arrive

And they've landed directly on my heart!

First let me apologize for the poor quality of these photographs. They're taken in low light with my camera phone and flash. I honestly tried my best, folks, but they're still kinda unfocused.

I love these minis, the product of Patrick Keith's recent kickstarter. He's brought many bodacious babes from a variety of iconic genre roles to life. I only regret that I wasn't able to support more and bring more of these babes home. As I said in a response on Facebook, these make me want to kiss Patrick square on the mouth. These are great castings with only a tiny bit of flash and almost no mold lines. I mean, you could clean them up with an X-ACTO and maybe one file. Or maybe just a fingernail. Super job. I am delighted with the execution and the quality.

From left: Terri the Steampunk Cowgirl, Trixi the Bounty Hunter,
Theja Doris, and  I have no idea of the last relic babe's name.

One great part of this kickstarter was, as a stretch goal, was Patrick including what he called "Relics" choices -- miniatures he created a while back that were no longer in circulation. Included in this is my beloved Trixie the Recovery Agent, who is now available again from Ed at Two-Hour Wargames. It also includes his version of Deja Thoris, as well as Terri the Steampunk Cowgirl and a generic fantasy babe using two swords whose name I do not know. The babe, not the swords. Well, I don't know their names either, if they have names. Anyhoo ...




Above you see the Kickstarter Exclusive Babe Maelee the Mechanic and her HLpR bot.

I supported at a level entitling me to three Babes choices (plus Maelee plus stretch goals). I also turned in my T-shirt (my massive size wasn't available anyway) to get two more.



Here you see my actual Babes choices, plus the one Patrick gave us all for free as the campaign continued from success to success. Top row from left, Vivian Gale the nautical engineer, Victoriana the Steampunk Medic, Raven Skye the Airship Pirate, Dr. Helen Salinger (the freebie). Bottom row from left: Matt Dixon's Bug Spray and Delzira the Demon Princess. The bases surrounding the minis include the custom resin inserts that were provided as part of the crowdsourcing campaign.

As with most kickstarters, there were also add-on options for additional amounts, and I plumped for two of them. Professor Karrick (a steampunk of the first order) and Thulle (who is a tentacly, bug-eyed monster) and Luta and Shunkaha, a female Native American shaman and a werewolf (or perhaps a Skinwalker, although I find that less likely. Plus he's got a great feathered TOP HAT.)

Professor Karrack and Thulle

Shunkaha and Luta

Additional stretch goals provided for fantasy, steampunk and science fiction weapons sets:



And then, to sweeten the pot, the sidekicks/companion creatures/animals/creations that were unlocked. These things are delightful and I can't wait to set brush to them.

(I shot this photo upside down to try and get better detail to show. Makes the ammo dump look weird, I know. Sorry.)

From top left we have Squidman, Raferu-san (a turtle with two sais and a blindfold-type mask!), Tazjh the Hatchling, the iSlug, Belphegor the flying monkey with a fez (fezzes are cool), Ping the Panda, the rocket-winged girl Flakk, and the GhNT Spybot. At right is the resin ammo dump.

There was also a set of color postcards of the concept art for many of the babes, and what I really liked about them was that, in amongst the artist and title data on the reverse of the cards, Patrick also included the artist's online gallery or deviantArt site. Cool!

Below are some painted examples of the single minis that are taken from the Kickstarter site for the project, either from the main section or the updates. Patrick, if you want me to unlink these, drop me an email. The wuxia fighter, Wu Ling Shu, was the last one I debated about, but I really tried to stick to minis I could use for my steampunk EOTD campaign in my choices, so my last choice came down to Bug Spray, which I intend to use with my Sedition Wars sci-fi minis, or Wu Ling Shu. She's beautiful but just doesn't fit anything I'm playing or preparing for right now. Oh well, maybe I can pick her up later.


 



OK, back to the boards, everybody, and I'll see you again soon!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Kick Spinespur into high gear, and a belated Welcome ....

OK, folks, there's just under two days left for the Spinespur kickstarter, and we're less than $1,000 away from reaching the next stretch goal, which will provide each pledger with a free mini that looks like a post-apoc gladiator with a variety of weapons.

I missed Welcome Wednesday yesterday because, to be honest, I've gotten out of the habit as the number has remained steady for nigh on a month here. But we do have a new follower here, and I'm glad to welcome them:

Second Class Elitist, one of the authors of the League of Extraordinary Gamers blog, has joined us as a follower. Welcome, fellow gamer!