Kickstarter rewards start rolling in, and oh, by the way, thanks everybody

First off, thank you everyone for your continued positive thoughts, prayers, and/or ritual interactions with the divinities of your choice on behalf of Tracey and me during and following her recent surgery. It was her third spinal surgery in 13 months, but she has regained her strength more quickly than ever before. What happens with her balance, sensation and pain levels remains to be seen as she continues to recover. Impatient person that she is, she wants to be all better NOW, and of course who could blame her. I have to keep reminding her, "Sweetheart, you still have your stitches in. It's early days." Her nervous system needs time to un-jangle itself. 

Next, Kickstarter rewards continue to come in from projects pledged oh so long ago ...

Effigy Miniatures' Havoc Protocol line sent me the set of The Founders I pledged for. These are two ultra-upper class sci-fi civilians in their fancy duds, as well as a hovering servicebot. 

What you're not seeing in the dronebot photo is the inch-long clear acrylic rod that serves as its flight stand, because as I arranged these pieces for the photo, it made a break for freedom and plunged headlong off my desk. The carpet at work seems to have swallowed it, and of course the cleaners vacuumed later that night. So I'm going to explore alternatives there, obviously. 

There are too few civilian minis about, especially for sci fi, so I pounced on these when I saw the concept art. I love them, and the execution is just as fantastic. Although I will likely be a tad more conservative, I expect to see versions of these showing up online painted like the flamboyant capital-dwellers from "The Hunger Games."

The minis seem a little taller than I expected, but they are gorgeously cast and have minimal mold lines and zero flash. (I also got a Havoc Protocol supporter's badge as part of my pledge.)

Yesterday I received my minis from Impact's Chibi Dungeon Adventurers campaign. This is one I really wish I could've gone for in a much bigger way, but the campaign closed in early November, which was during Tracey's previous hospitalization, so I had to be spare with my support. The line includes chibi (also called SD or super-deformed) versions of all the high-fantasy dungeon-crawling or -dwelling characters and critters we know and love. I started out planning to get just the classes from the old D&D cartoon -- thief, ranger, barbarian, cavalier, magician and acrobat. Then versions of Venger, Dungeon Master and the shadow demon were added, then the campaign just exploded. If there's a character type you love, or a denizen of the Monster Manual you just adore, chances are it is replicated in this line. The art style makes even menacing characters cute, and if you like the figures for Super Dungeon Explore, you owe it to yourself to check these out. 

In the end, I ordered just two figures, Warrior Red -- a dual-wielding female fighter in a scale-mail bikini with wild, flowing hair -- and, of course, Cthulhu. I found when paring down, going with my and Tracey's favorite characters was likely the best bet. 

The figures are made of the remarkable Trollcast material, and they have exceptional fine detail and seem significantly stronger than one would expect given the thinness of some of the weapons. They're both multipart, so all I can show you for now is them arranged all nicely together. There is some flash and only moderate mold lines. It'll be interesting to see how cleanup goes compared to previous non-metal figures I've worked on. 

These aren't the first Trollcast figures I've acquired. That honor goes to Judge Minty, the figure from the most recent 4th Semi Annual Frothers Charity Thingy. I got him a few weeks ago (thanks Dags!) but I had neglected to post a photo. So here's two, an overexposed one against a dark background, and an insufficiently lit one against a neutral background. Maybe if you split the difference you can see enough detail to get how nifty this mini is.

If you haven't seen the short film on YouTube, click the embedded video below and watch it. You'll thank me. 

OK, that's it for today. I thought I had more but my energy seems to have fled. I'll be back in a few days to introduce you to another character who'll be populating my Victorian London for In Her Majesty's Name and Empire of the Dead. This time it will be the Mistress of Machines, Miss Rossum (I think her first name's Emmy, but I could be confusing her for the actress).


Back to the boards, everybody, and I'll see you across the tables shortly.

Making the tough decisions

I have to narrow down my endeavors on the miniature front this year. I have a mountain of unpainted lead that is likely big enough to shield me completely from errant radiation. I have limited financial resources and climbing medical expenses, so I have to learn to focus. I'm also undoubtedly going to have to part with some things from my pile.

But how? I have such eclectic tastes and magpie instincts that everything looks like fair game as it's released. The lure of the "ooh, shiny" is almost too much to bear.

Some large guidelines are already in place, simply because of my interests. I'll be sticking to skirmish-level gaming, which was always my intent, as you can see in the subtitle at the top of this blog. I don't have the attention span or patience to paint large armies. I much prefer an assemblage of characterful individuals on my table.

I'm sticking to 28mm, or 32mm, or "heroic scale" or whatever it's called now. I want my baseline humans to be about an inch tall. My eyes are too old now to paint details on anything smaller, and I want everything to be pretty much compatible.

So here's what I'm thinking so far:

Modern zombies: I have multiple rulesets and sources for these, and I absolutely LOVE zombie gaming. With Zombicide's Toxic Mall expansion coming out and the remaining character figs from their Kickstarter due, and the recent 7ombieTV expansion from Crooked Dice, and the continued creativity of Kev White at Hasslefree and the folks at Studio Miniatures, and too many other good companies to mention, this one genre could keep me booked all day every day until 2014.

I am going to resist with all my might the urge to expand into pulp zombies, Weird WWII zombies, ancient zombies, or any other kind of zombies (except the Strain, see "Far Future" below.) When I do get my John Jenkins Designs Terror-Cotta Warriors painted up, they will inhabit a museum in either my modern setting or my gothic horror/steampunk games. Speaking of ...

Gothic Horror and Steampunk: This will primarily be Empire of the Dead, although there will be a good mix of Malifaux and some Hordes and Warmachine (primarily Cryx) in there. I also recently bought the pdf of the Chaos in Carpathia rules and plan to give them a spin. And I may pick up some of the constructs coming out for Dystopian Legions. The rank-and-file troops, at 40mm, would just stand out too much, I fear. However, this giant sumbitch here is gonna be mine:

"You are direct violation of Penal Code 1.13, Section 9.
You have five seconds to comply."

Just like the Dark Age Abomination model, sometimes size is all that matters!

Far future: This will mainly be for Sedition Wars. I went a little nuts (for me) during the kickstarter campaign, but I'm really looking forward to getting my gribbly hands on these. Plus, if I were to lose about 100 pounds or so, I think I could cosplay Vokker Dargu.

The metal Vokker Dargu figure from Studio McVey. They've added an exclusive
conscript figure of him to the SW:BoA kickstarter deal to compensate for delays.

"Dead Space," which significantly influenced the look of Battle for Alabaster, is one of my favorite videogames of all time. How I'm going to figure out a way to shoehorn my Relic Knights Star Nebula Corsairs into this setting to justify that kickstarter spending remains to be seen.

Engineer Isaac Clarke from the "Dead Space" series of games.
I love it that most of his weapons are modified tools.

Captain Harker and Ceasar, space pirates!

There are also a couple of tasty Dreadball figures I might try to worm in there too.

Mantic's John Doe MVP for Dreadball. I prefer to preserve his Lovecraftian mystery and think of him as "The Lurker at the Goal Line."

Of course, Dark Age then has to go and release the new factions of the CORE and the Kukulkani. Dammit! Can't you people see how weak I am?!?

Effigy's Havoc Protocol Kickstarter ends in a few days

As I write this, there are about 70 hours to go in Effigy's Kickstarter for their Havoc Protocol science fiction minis.

I bought their three specialist minis a while back and absolutely love them, so I'd really like to see the rest of these get made.

Effigy is about $800 from its funding goal. So if you like clean, strong sci-fi combat and civilian minis that have an anime edge but steer clear of the strong distortion you sometimes see in anime designs, these are for you.

Effigy's Havoc Protocol Kickstarter