More minis, steampunk accessories and generic rambling

Hello all.

My recent convalescence has not prevented my continued acquisition of miniatures. I have two to showcase now, ones I have long coveted.

From Vesper-On for their game Carnevale, I managed to obtain their Plague Doctor. He seems to be in short supply at many online vendors, who are apparently expecting imminent restocks. Although the game is set in Venice at the end of the 18th century, I believe this costume/disguise/uniform works just as effectively for the end of the 19th. Reaper also has a Plague Doctor figure, but to me it looks practically modern in its dress.

The painted plague doctor from Vesper-On's website.

Also long on my must-haves list was Ingrid Rangvaldottir and her Mirror Golems, for Wolsung from Micro Art Studios. Despite the fact that she's depicted as elven but will be human in my Brass and Blood setting, I had to have her. I mean, look at those boots! And her automata are as adorable as can be. A little filing of those pointed eartips should do the trick.

The picture from Micro Art Studio's website.
 (Ingrid's the second one from the left.)

My unpainted (as usual!) minis for Ingrid and her golems.

I also recently bought a piece of steampunk jewelry. I ordered my wife one of ThinkGeek's new Con Edition Bags of Holding and added this while I was shopping their site. It's their exclusive Capt. Jules' Extraordinary Telescope Ring. Here's a set of photos I took showing it in action.

Three different sizes of ring on which to mount the telescope. I don't know the actual sizes,
 but the largest fits my index finger. It's too big for my ring finger, which is a size 11 (U.S.).

Additionally, I have made some further steps in cementing my place on the Interwebz for Brass and Blood. "Establishing my brand" as it were. Sorry that none of it has yet appeared on the site, but that's next.

I first ordered some of the cards from Vistaprint that use their free templates. I got this nice vintage-looking card for Dispatches from the Rim, and a box of 500 cost me a little over $12 including shipping.

So this time I ordered a "premium" set from them. Several nice little touches -- the different background, the printed reverse side, a matte finish and a leather business card case -- added up to about $50, including shipping. Well worth it, and I think they turned out beautifully.

If you can't make out the text in my amatuer picture there, It says "www.brassandblood.com / Dark denizens vie for power in a steampunk London beset by the preternatural." The back of the card lists the main divisions of the storyline I've envisioned so far. You can think of them as novels in a trilogy or stages in a campaign, whichever -- because they're both. The "Tales of Brass and Blood" I have planned so far are "Black Blessings," "Bleak Beatitudes" and "Red Rapture." For more details, check the Brass and Blood website later this week.

Oh, and I also got my FLGS, Moxie Games, to order a Hordes Circle Orboros P3 paint set for me. So I promise, some painted minis soon! Or eventually! Or at least someday!

OK, cats and kittens, that's it for tonight. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon!

Sensors are picking up a counterblast ... oh, and airship pirates!

... this is Christopher Sheets, breaking radio silence to share the wonderful news that the Counterblast kickstarter has kicked off.

Counterblast is a pulp-themed adventure battle game set in an alternate Earth timeline where atomic testing lured aliens to our planet to investigate. Early exposure and technological exchange leads to an exciting universe of adventure among the various factions of the galaxy. The game is developed by Airlock Games, which is the new iteration of Patrick Keith's Bombshell Miniatures under its new name.

An Illyrian, a robot and a human from the world of Counterblast.

Factions for the game include the ragtag Lancers (think "freelancers"), the robotic Mekkus, the cephalapoid Edofleini, the well-armored and equipped Galactic Defense Forces, and the tribal women warriors of the Neiran Empire. The GDF and Lancers factions are made up of many humanoid races, some feline or sharklike, some more alien like the Illyrians we've seen from Patrick in other projects.

The man behind the rules is Brett Amundson, whose work may be familiar to those of you who are fans of "Secrets of the Third Reich." The miniatures are sculpted by Patrick Keith, whose work we know from EVERYWHERE, but most recently the many excellent sculpts he's brought to life through his company Bombshell Miniatures. Writing background and narrative for the campaign and characters is Vicky Morgan-Keith, an award-winning painter and writer who has also managed the many Bombshell kickstarters.

I'm basically paraphrasing the "Who we are" section of the kickstarter page for Counterblast, so any errors here are my own, and I trust Patrick, Vicky or Brett will set me straight.

Speaking of Patrick's excellent sculpts, I received my RAFM order of the Airship Pirates based on the steampunk band Abney Park, which were done by Patrick. There was a kickstarter for these that failed to fund, then RAFM brought them out anyway. Thank goodness. I hope they bring out all the concepts art that was shown during the course of the campaign. I bought the box set that contains the six members of the band, and I added another figure. They will become a pirate airship crew for my IHMN world, although not on the Ophelia, which is the ship they commandeered in the fictional background for their own steampunk personas. I'm not sure yet, but I think Captain Robert may be flying something called The Mighty Emerald before I get done with these rascals and rapscallions. The award-winning RPG Airship Pirates based on the band's work and published by Cubicle 7 got good reviews, and original copies fetch ungodly prices on ebay, so I think I'm going to have to break down and get a pdf of it (which I believe the band sells in their webshop, along with some really kicking apparel and accessories.) 

Abney Park guitarist Josh Goering, vocalist Jody Ellen and keyboardist Kristina Erickson. 

Abney Park founder and multi-instrumentalist Robert Brown, bassist Dan Cederman and violinist Titus Munteanu.

And this is Constance Bashford, captain of the airship The Peregrine. In my world, she'll be joining the crew. Constance is a steampunk enthusiast and model . Check out her work at her official Facebook page.

I have not yet acquired the figure based a character by the Canadian cosplayer Vortex called Baron Celsius von Fahrenheit. He's described as an "agitator." They also have an "Airship Engineer" figure that I didn't get yet. I don't know if he's based on a particular person's cosplay or not. I did read that the baron and the engineer were earlier figures moved to the Airship Pirates line. More pics once I get them out of the blisters and on bases.

DC switches to steam(punk)power

In February, it appears DC's New 52 superhero comics will have a raft of alternate steampunk covers.

Aquaman 28

Batman/Superman 8

Batman and Two-Face 28

Earth 2 20

Flash 28

Green Lantern: New Guardians 28

Justice League 28

Justice League Dark 28

Nightwing 28

Superman 28

Superman/Wonder Woman 5

Batwoman 28

Action Comics 28

Batgirl 28

Batman 28

Detective Comics 28

Justice League of America 12

Teen Titans 28

Wonder Woman 28

Green Lantern Corps 28

Harley Quinn 3

I'm not in love with all of them, but I find several of them really push my pleasure button. Matteo Scalero's Batman and Robin for BM/TF looks great. Deadman on Tommy Lee Edwards' JLD cover I find really frightening. No coincidence, I guess, that both covers seem to evince some Mike Mignola influence.

I love the joyful exuberance J.G. Jones has captured in his Batgirl cover, although I find  it, like the Howard Chaykin Batman piece below it, more dieselpunk than steampunk. As someone who regularly mixes steampunk so thoroughly with Gothic Horror, I realize I am in no position to make any purity arguments for what is/is not steampunk.

My absolute favorite of all the above is Dan Panosian's Wonder Woman on the SM/WW cover. I LOVE IT! Oh my gods, I'm going to have to paint a mini version of her in this outfit for IHMN.

Perhaps Malifaux's Colette? It would be a nice change from all the versions we see of her as Mad Moxxi from Borderlands.

Or the steampunk Zara Craft from CMON? More conversion work, but the costume is similar ...

And I'm sure there are others out there I've missed. What would you suggest?

Putting forth some token effort

One of the nice non-miniature items that came out of the Empire of the Dead Kickstarter from West Wind Productions was the sheet of laser-cut steampunk counters.

In addition to the precut sheet of card or very thin wood or whatever it is, it came with plastic tokens to which one attaches the actual counter. (One can be seen atop the sheet below in the lower left corner.) There's also a translucent, small d6 in the bag. Very cute!

So given that state of my vision and my accelerating decrepitude, once I get these goodies on the table I want to be able to see them better. They're wonderfully etched, or burned, or whatever magical process was used to inscribe them, with both a letter and a word indication the counter's meaning. But I know standing over a table, even if I have my new bifocals on, I likely won't be able to read the full word. So let's make the letter as visible as possible.

To that end, I picked up a Minwax Stain Marker at the local big-box store (for about $5) the other night. I chose "Early American," mainly because they only other marker color they had in stock was "Ebony," which was a lot darker than I wanted to go for. I still want these counters to evoke the polished wood-and-brass ethos that steampunk is so known for.

I did these fairly quickly, knowing that, as deft a hand as I am with a chisel-tipped marker, that I still wouldn't be able to totally keep the stain within the lines. I know my limitations!

So here are some progress shots. First, I've darkened only the first row, to show you the improvement in contrast.

Now, I've done all the letters once.

And here, although there's scant difference, I have gone over the letters a second time.

Next I plan to grab a can or real, honest-to-God wood stain and do the whole sheet. Probably just a "Natural" tone, to keep the contrast, maybe a "Golden Oak" or "Golden Pecan." I'll have to wait until next week to do that though, when I've reclaimed a little more space to work in.

Then I'll glue the plastic tokens to the counters and viola!, we'll have a full set of the little buggers.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon!

Hippo Gnu Deer!

...obligatory end-of-year post follows...

Thanks, everybody, for sticking with me through what was a pretty challenging year. Because of you, my friends, fans and readers, I have found new confidence with my writing and look forward to bringing you more of my vision of dark, steampunk London and the figures that people it.

I'm also eager to turn my hand to more rules-writing after the success of my ghost rules for IHMN.

Also, I'm happy to report that I have made some significant gains in my battle against my hoarding. Not as much or as quickly as I'd like, but, quite frankly, further than I expected to go.

So for 2014, beyond the writing I know I can't help but do, the goal is to PAINT! I've got steampunk and zombies and space aliens to field, so it's past time to put brush to metal and plastic.

I also hope this is the year I can make progress on something I've talked to styx about, which is setting up a way for my wife to view the gaming table while in her chair. I've got a couple of ideas, but technology progresses so quickly I need to wait until I'm ready to implement a solution to really look at what's out there.

So onward to 2014, and may it be better not only than we hope, but better than we can imagine!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

I hope everyone had/is having a wonderful Christmas celebration. My family focuses more on Christmas Eve than Christmas Day, not just because we are distantly German way back in our DNA, but also (and mostly) because it's my parents' wedding anniversary. Gary and Diane Sheets have now been married for 48 years. They set a great example for us (me and my sister, Vikki) of what a couple looks like when they attack life's challenges together. I'm very lucky to share that with my wife, Tracey.

My mom and dad (photo shamelessly stolen from my sister's Facebook.

Tracey and I exchanged gifts Monday night as we prepared for the brief drive up today to my parents' house. In addition to some Bath & Body Works products, I got her a new reaching tool (the Gopher II, for those of you who might be in the market for a grabber,) a couple of new ornate knitted headbands, a pair of gloves through which you can still operate touch-screen devices, and a couple of issues of a current Red Sonja conic with covers by one of her favorite artists, Frank Thorne. (We'll be picking up future issues of the comic as well.)

I told Tracey that I put so much into kickstarters during the year that she shouldn't get me anything else. It was a nice surprise that the new Spinespur rulebook and KS minis arrived in time for the celebration. Thanks, Bob Mervine and Comfy Chair Games! I'll post pics and a complete write-up over the next few days. Tracey did treat me to some new dice, which I, like every gamer, love. She'd heard me say I wanted to have some more d10's handy for IHMN games, so she ordered me some lovely steampunk engraved d10s made by Q Workshop. I even got a mix, some white-on-black and some black-on-white, so I could easily use them for percentile rolls too.

Word comes from the Hell Dorado kickstarter that they received their shipment of books and cards on Christmas Eve, so shipping should commence shortly. And Rovanite over at Grekwood Miniatures has given us all a gift, finally posting the free zombie rules he's been developing.

So all in all a wonderful holiday that I was privileged to spend with my wife, parents, sister and brother-in-law and two wonderful nieces.

I wish all you fine folks the best this holiday season and the coming year have to offer. You are a wonderful group of people; I am honored to know you and eager to share more gaming fun in the future.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.