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!

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!

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!

Inquisitor giveaway

Muninn's Brush is giving away a delightful 40K Grey Knight Inquisitor with a combi-weapon.

Read all about the steps you need to take to enter the giveaway here. I don't play 40K any more, but I sure wouldn't mind having this cybered-up soul in my collection.

Here's the actual unpainted mini:

So for all who enter, good luck!

The latest in my largely uninformed opinions

There's a lot going on in the gaming world right now, and lots and lots of electronic ink is being spilled on various sides of multiple issues. In the off-the-cuff, top-of-the-head, shoot-from-the-hip kind of coverage you've come to expect here at Dispatches from the Rim, I am going to give you my feelings on some of these issues.

-- Games Workshop is curtailing Internet sales of its minis except in its own online store. In North America, its trade account policies are spreading from the U.S. to Canada. At least, that's what the documents seem to be saying. I haven't worked in retail in years, and I was never at the "dealing with trade accounts" level anyway. Their policies seem pretty draconian to me, and I wonder if their short-term gain is going to hurt them in the long run.

Because of these changes, MiniWargaming has decided to close its online store. This makes me sad, but I was not a customer of theirs. They are running a big closeout sale, so that might be worth looking into. I'm sure others are contemplating similar actions, so I wish these shopkeepers well in their deliberations and decisions.

-- Another closure I just learned of was Dastardly Designed Games, which was until recently The Armchair General, makers of the steampunk wargame When the Navy Walked and the hilarious skirmish game It Came From Beyond the Still, also known as Aliens vs. Hillbillies. Owner Robert Adams stated on the various company blogs that, because of a lack of customer interest, the game company will close. The two new books he had in the pipeline for ICFBTS will appear on Wargame Vault as pdfs and print-on-demand products. I'm glad of that, as ICFBTS III is "From Reel to Real," which brings the world of B-movies into the game.

I'll be sad to see this game no longer being developed, as Robert has a great imagination. He says he's likely to keep the blog going, and I hope he does.

-- Google Reader is being shut down. This sucks. I love Google Reader and use it all day, every day. Let me know if you've found a good replacement RSS aggregator. I just hope this doesn't mean Blogger is next. Guess it's time to learn how to use tumblr.

-- Now the good news: Ed the Two-Hour Wargames guy has added two 28mm minis to his store. These are ones I've wanted practically FOREVER, and I've been bugging him about at last one of them for YEARS. Longtime fans of THW will be familiar with Carolee, the THW girl. She was the "poster girl" for THW and had some very attractive poses in a sexy black outfit carrying a sighted pistol. She also appears as an NPC on a special card in the Risks and Rewards game aid deck for All Things Zombie.

Ed's long sold a 15mm version of Carolee, but now a 28mm version, sculpted by Richard Deasey,  is available. He's also made available an older Patrick Keith mini, which was called Trixi the Recovery Agent. The Trixi mini previously played the part of Suzi in the THW gameplay examples. So she's available again, in the THW store. (Trixie was also one of the "relic" rewards in Patrick's recent kickstarter for his Bombshell Babes.)

Here are the painted versions on the THW store site.

-- Just heard today that Kevin Adams, lord king sculptor of all things gobliny and orcy, was seriously injured in a knife attack Wednesday by three men when they invaded his home to rob it. They demanded jewelry, according to the website of the Nottingham Post, and Kevin suffered "significant injuries to his face and a cut to his shoulder," from what is presumed to be a kitchen knife. Police were still seeking witnesses to the late-afternoon incident. An Apple iMac computer was stolen during the incident, the report says.

Ian Brumby at Fenris Games has been doing a great job of keeping everyone up to date on this (he provided the above link as well), and he and others are looking to produce new minis, sell some of Kevin's sculpts, or outright just make donations to help Kevin with the expenses of his recovery. More manufacturers are banding together in this cause as events go on, so I would say check with Ian for the latest and how you can help.

James Herbert

Rick Hautala

-- RIP: The horror world lost some notable lights this week, authors James Herbert and Rick Hautala. They were 69 and 64 years old, respectively.

More as it occurs to me, folks. Also, again this week, there was no "welcoming Wednesday" post because, even though readership is slowly increasing, we're holding steady at 38 official followers of the blog. So thanks, everybody, for keeping it real, making it fun, and for keeping it real fun for me to share this hobby with all of you.

Heading back to Spinespur

I really like the game Spinespur from Comfy Chair Games, because it is OFF THE CHAIN. It is absolutely INSANE. If you can imagine it in the darkest cockles of your twisted little heart, it will fit right into Spinespur. Serial killers, degraded angels, religious maniacs with tech powered by sin, a dark church led by the Anti-Pope, in a place that is all its own, a dark reflection of blighted urban cityscapes and exploited rural farmland, a vaulted mad-science Asylum and so many other dark, twisted visions that you'll positively salivate at the thought of it.

I wanted to hold off on doing this post until I'd re-read my rulebook, but I can't put my hands on it. So I'm going ahead because people need to be reminded that Spinespur is out there and is the subject of a current Kickstarter. You can pledge to a level that will get you an exclusive hardcover version of the rulebook (yeah!) and all the models for an agenda in the game. Add-ons include corpse tokens, character cards and previously released Spinespur models at discounted prices.


I had a chance to chat with Bob Mervine, head of Comfy Chair Games and creator of Spinespur, about what else we're going to see as the game develops. He assures me that the first book, Threshold, set the stage, but that the next book, Covenant, "is going to get the stage BLOODY!"

I asked Bob what the future holds for Spinespur. In addition to the new book, we'll see new models for each of the current agendas: the Dark Faith, the Institution, the Men of G.O.D. and the Slaughterhouse. We'll also have new agendas for existing models: Carnalvale (Mr. Jingles), the Wilds (the Cerebeast), the Graveyard (the Caretaker and the Grave Golem), the Orphans (Amy Brighteyes) and the Church of Metal (Sex Star Six).

Bob also said that, while fulfillment is slated for November, if there are no production delays he hopes to have the models and the game accoutrement ready before that. He's working on a gameplay animation for the KS website and has announced he's hired a digital sculptor who should have renders of some more of the forthcoming models before the pledge period ends.

He's also got Patrick Keith (of Bombshell Miniatures fame, which had quite a successful "Babes" kickstarter in its own right) sculpting the female Nightengales and the female figure for the Shattered, and Tim Prow will be sculpting the new Pigstickers, which will feature three, not two, in the blister, for the same price.

If you're a fan of horror, dark fantasy or gore and want a game with near infinite flexibility in how you build your tabletop force, you must try Spinespur.

A Man of G.O.D. advances across two corpse tokens.
In Spinespur, the fallen don't disappear; you get to LOOT THEIR BODIES

If backers will pledge just $500 more to the campaign, we'll reach the first and most important Stretch Goal: the pdf of the STREET CHUM beta rules, which is the campaign system for Spinespur, and an imposing-looking mini that will be free to anyone who pledges $38 or more. It's a bulky figure wielding a chainsaw, but the rounded silhouette of his head makes me think it's someone new and not Pigskin or Hack. It almost look like he's wearing a diver's helmet, like that creepy Scooby Doo ghost!

(Just heard from Bob at Comfy Chair and I was right! He's a figure that you can use as a Chainsaw Thug, a Boss Thug in the Street Chum rules, or a "Make Your Own Character" in rules that will be released in the second Spinespur book. And Bob is letting me reveal him here in my blog! Feast your eyes, people.)

For those of you out there who are zombie gamers (not zombies who game but who play games involving zombies, just so we're clear), Spinespur has them too. In its way. Which is dark, sick and twisted. And cool and innovative and brilliant.

There are the Torn, who are reanimated dead of the enemies of the Anti-Pope. Knowing they are now compelled to fight on behalf of the Dark Faith, these victims often try to tear their new bodies apart with their own hands.

There are also the Little Ones and the Composites, creations of mad genius Doc Akron. Little Ones are insidious and devious monsters created from the bodies of small people. They are reanimated corpses, flesh golems, a la Frankenstein's Monster, at about one-third the size. The Composites are cannon fodder for the battles in Spinespur, assembled from leftover pieces in a haphazard fashion and rushed back to the fray.

And keep in mind, these minis I'm showing you above (except our diving-helmeted chainsaw thug) are the ones that are AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW. The Kickstarter, my friends, is to create the last few minis that are needed to finish up those whose rules are included in the first book. There's a pledge level as well if you just want the new stuff. Those models look like this:

So get out there and throw your support behind Spinespur. The nightmares you'll have, and create, will be entirely worth it!

Welcoming Wednesday

Today we welcome Sean, who maintains his own blog at Sean's Wargames Corner. I love the blog's subtitle: "Rum, bloggery and the lash!"

We also welcome Iron Mammoth to our ranks. David Drage runs Iron Mammoth Studio and has recently launched a(nother) blog that is relevant to my interests. Steampunk Miniatures Review will undoubtedly, as it grows, contain more and more invaluable information shared by this figure designer and sculptor. Welcome, sir. It's an honor.