Day 4 Giveaway Finale

Hello again, friends! Well we've come to the end of the "Thanks Plus Giving Plus You" contest with just one more 2.5 oz jar of "The Masters" Brush Cleaner and Preserver left to give out. Before doing so however I would like to say thanks one more time to all of you who have visited diceRolla and found something here worth your while. After spending a lot of time reading other folks' blogs I feel that my own can be, putting it nicely, something of an oddball at times. Therefore I am very grateful to have reached as many people as I have and to have sustained so many regular readers over the past two and a half years. This has always been a personally motivated thing that I enjoy doing, but it certainly has made it much more fun getting to interact with such well informed, interesting, and lively people.

Okay, now that I'm done with the blubbering part let's get on to the exciting conclusion and announce the final winner. So who will be joining GopherDave, The Grim Darkness, and nickthewise in the winners' circle? Why it is none other than...

Spacejacker

Congratulations! I encourage everyone so inclined to find out more about Spacejacker's hobby interests by visiting his blogs, Tiny Solitary Soldiers and Nano Solo, as they are chock-full of miniature goodness. I've been a long time fan of painting and gaming with 15mm scale and smaller miniatures, although my experience with them has been mostly in the realm of historical wargaming. Spacejacker however has some of the most incredible small scale sci-fi minis and scenery that I have ever seen. When I first started reading Tiny Solitary Soldiers, I found it so inspiring that I was barely able to restrain myself from buying up as many little spacemen and monsters as I could afford. In fact I still find that quite tempting but have held off from doing so mainly because there are already enough projects clamoring for my attention. Nonetheless I'm sure at some point I'll pick up at least a few 15mm sci-fi minis and... um... just see where it goes from there. ;) When you get a chance, Spacejacker, please email me and let me know where I should mail your jar of Brush Cleaner and Preserver.

Alright, that's about it for this contest so let's wrap it up. Although I was able to give out four prizes this time around, unfortunately that leaves 230 of you going home empty handed so to speak. I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a way to do something nice for each of you. Instead I'll just have to say how grateful I am for all of you who have helped make diceRolla so much more than I ever imagined it would become. THANK YOU!

And until next time, happy painting and gaming!

Day 3 Giveaway Winner

Hey, hey! It's that time again to announce another winner in the always thrilling, "Thanks Plus Giving Plus You" giveaway extravaganza. Okay, that might be overselling it just a bit. :) But I do have another 2.5 oz jar of "The Masters" Brush Cleaner and Preserver to award to one of my faithful readers chosen randomly from The Esoteric Order of Jason. If you haven't seen anything about this before and want to know what's going on, I welcome you to visit the original post in which I explain the rationale behind this contest.

I'm quickly running out of steam this evening and, due to spending the past week with my in-laws, my patience and cognitive functioning is just about used up. Therefore let's move right on to the fun part. Joining our two previous winners, GopherDave and The Grim Darkness, tonight's lucky winner is...

nickthewise

Congratulations, Nick! 40k players may know nickthewise from his Dark Eldar Blog where he is focused on compiling as much information as possible about those most sinister of space elves. If however you're not already familiar with him, I've copied the following little introduction from one of the other blogs he contributes to regularly, The Dice Abide.

Nick aka nickthewise
Started Playing: 1996
Favorite 40k Army: Tactically I’m really drawn to the new Dark Eldar and the versatility the new Codex offers. Fluff-wise, Eldar has always been my favorite – I can’t wait for their new Codex!
Favorite Fantasy Army: I’m a 40k snob, sorry!
Current Armies: Dark Eldar (8,500), Eldar (6,000), Grey Knights (4,500)
Favorite Aspect of Hobby: I really enjoy the tactical aspect of the hobby, and pitting my wits against my opponents. I’m also a big collector and really enjoy seeing Rouge Trader era models and armies.

With more than 14,000 points of Eldar, of both the Dark and Craftworld varieties, that's some serious dedication. I don't think the Eldar are in any danger of dying off so long as nickthewise is in their corner. It looks like he's also got a significant pile of mon-keigh Grey Knights as well, but I'm pretty sure that's just to make his Eldar feel superior in comparison. (Yes it's true, Eldar even look down their noses at the Grey Knights, despite those humans somehow being better psykers than them.) In case there's still something left to be painted from that huge collection of minis, hopefully this brush cleaner will come in handy.

Thanks again to everyone for reading my blog, I'll be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the last jar of brush soap for this giveaway. And nickthewise, please email me and let me know where I should send your prize. Happy painting and gaming!

Day 2 Giveaway Winner

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of the "Thanks Plus Giving Plus You" giveaway. In case you've arrived here and don't know what this is about, you can check out yesterday's post for a full explanation. Short version is that, beginning on Thanksgiving and going through this coming Sunday, I'm randomly selecting one person each day from those Following this blog to win a 2.5 oz container of "The Masters" Brush Cleaner and Preserver. It's just meant to be a little way of saying thanks to all you good people who read my blog.

With GopherDave having won the first one, that leaves three more jars left to give out. Therefore today's winner is...

The Grim Darkness

Congratulations! The Grim Darkness is author of the aptly named blog, The Grim Darkness. Well somehow I'd missed out before on signing up for his blog but I took care of that earlier today. I highly recommend for anyone interested to pay him a visit, he's got some fantastic models and scenery that are definitely worth taking a look at. I especially like his Death Guard Chaos Marines and his recent work on an outstanding 28mm Inquisitorial warband. I appreciate his style of painting and am hopeful this brush soap will prove to be helpful with future projects.

Okay, that's it for tonight. The Grim Darkness, if you would please send me an email (you can find the address near the top of my blog's right-hand column) we can work out where you would like me to send your prize. Thanks again for supporting diceRolla! And for everyone else, please check back tomorrow because I'll be choosing another winner. These past several days I've been in New York staying with my in-laws so it will likely once again be later on in the evening before I get a chance to post the next winner.

So until then, happy gaming!

Thanks Plus Giving Plus You

Since today is Thanksgiving for those of us celebrating in the good old U. S. of A, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of you kind people who visit this blog. Thank you! I really appreciate all the support I've received over the past few years and have enjoyed immensely hearing from each you. I've had a blast sharing my hobby life with you and I look forward to continuing to do so for a long time to come.

In the spirit of the holiday I am kicking off a little giveaway for all my blogging buddies as a way of expressing how thankful I am for your readership and your participation in the diceRolla experience. Starting now and going through Sunday, each day one member of The Esoteric Order of Jason will be randomly chosen to win a 2.5 oz tub of "The Masters" Brush Cleaner and Preserver. This brush soap works like a charm and will seriously extend the life of your brushes, not to mention getting out all that left over pigment stuck to your bristles.

And so the first winner in our "Thanks Plus Giving Plus You" drawing is...

GopherDave, aka Dave, aka TheDude

Congratulations Dave! For those of you who don't know him, Dave is one of the co-owners of Armored Gopher Games in Urbana, Illinois. As well as being an entrepreneur, Dave is also a philosopher, artist, devoted husband and father, and one hell of a sharp dresser. It was a great honor for me to meet him and to be able to spend some time talking about our favorite games when I stopped by his store on my way to Adepticon earlier this year. I'm therefore pretty psyched that his number came up first for the contest.

Although Dave has won this round, I've got three more jars of Brush Cleaner to give away. Using the trusty random number generator we'll do this all over again tomorrow to select the next winner. So thanks again to everyone for checking out my blog and offering me so much encouragement along the way. Happy painting and gaming... and of course, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

My First Time Stripping

I'm having a go at stripping the paint off a batch of miniatures, a hobby first for me. For this I am using Simple Green and the incessant chanting of the Litanies of Purification. By doing so I hope to salvage a combat squad of Space Marine Devastators for my Raptors army, the models having been terribly fuzzed by priming them when it was too humid. This was at the start of the summer when I still lived in Charleston but right before we moved, and thus it seemed an appropriate note on which to depart the city.

I began soaking my minis a couple of days ago but presumably it is still too early to report on any results. I'll likely let them float around in the Simple Green through the upcoming weekend before I try to remove any of the paint. I don't know if this is going to work as the miniatures were really heavily textured by the primer. I admit that at this point I am skeptical but am eager nonetheless to give it a shot.

Swim my pretties, swim!

After dropping in the Space Marines there was still a lot of room for more miniatures that could be added to the chemical bath. I recently came across a small box of minis that hadn't been touched in ages and which also happened to be in need of cleaning, mostly thanks to some very sloppy priming. In this case however the primer has sat on the models for perhaps twenty or so years. I don't have any plans for these other minis but stripping them seemed like a good challenge for the Simple Green, just to see what the stuff can do. So those minis too went into the sauce...

Squats. Why'd it have to be Squats?

Again I am not sure what effect this stuff will have on these minis, but I'm in the mood to experiment. Maybe they will turn out well or maybe they will melt, who knows? It's not like there is much else I am going to do with some silly little Space Dwarfs. I've considered adapting them for use in an Imperial Guard army but that currently doesn't have much appeal for me. It would be kind of fun to chop up some of them to decorate the bases of my Tyranids. That however might be too cruel even for me as it would be like rubbing salt into the wounded collective conscience of Squat-players. Hmm, then again some 'Nid-themed terrain showing Squats bubbling around in the digestion pools would be a hoot. :)

Well I suppose there's no need for me to worry now over the fate of my Squats. For the time being I'll just let them and the marines hang out in the jar on my desk, like some creepy exhibit in a Mütter Museum for OOP 40k. I hope to start working on the Raptors soon assuming this Simple Green trial is a success. I feel inclined to start using Space Marines again in my games so that has motivated me to focus on them for at least a little while.

Happy painting and gaming!

Holes in Time

Just another Friday night drilling holes into little metal soldiers....

Ah, the good life. :)

I'm happy to say that the Witch Hunters starter box is now assembled and the members of the Crew are each pinned to their respective bases. I left Sonnia's sword unattached for ease of painting as I will glue it onto her once the rest of the miniatures is finished. Otherwise everything is set so that I can start painting these guys tomorrow, something about which I am very excited. I still have some more time tonight and hope to have the Executioner and the Purifying Flamer Totem put together before calling it quits.

So that is all I I have to report for this update, it's time for me to get back to the drilling. Happy gaming and painting, everybody!

Oh yeah... and best of luck to all the 'Ard Boyz this weekend, too!

Newton's First Law of Blogging

The past month ended up being a rather slow time on the hobby front, but that's not to say I have been entirely idle these past several weeks. After fighting unsuccessfully against inertia, with regards to both hobby stuff and blogging, I decided it would be best for me to take a step back and consider what it is that I want to do with my little corner of the Internets. To that end I packed a satchel full of my favorite rulebooks along with some dice, then ascended to the top of my mountain for a period of deep contemplation and soul searching.

Reviewing the latest from Wargames Research Group

And so what did my meditations upon the great mystery of the d6 reveal to me? Not much really. I did however make up my mind about what to do with this diceRolla blog. I feel that it is time to take a more deliberative approach to updating my blog rather than the haphazard manner which I have previously employed. Therefore starting tomorrow I am going to attempt to keep a regular posting schedule and will initially aim for at least a daily post.

Early on in the history of this blog I tried to post something every day but that experience ended in disaster and tedium. With a newborn in the house there wasn't a whole lot of hobby time for me and even less time available in which to post anything meaningful, but conditions have changed since then and I'm optimistic about being able to maintain my routine a little more successfully this time around. It's probably best however to still think of this as something of an experiment as it very well may crash and burn within a matter of days. With that caveat out of the way, this is the posting schedule I have in mind:

Monday - WH40k

Tuesday - Warhammer Fantasy

Wednesday - Warmachine/Hordes

Thursday - Infinity

Friday - Malifaux

Saturday - Dystopian Wars

Sunday - Open/Misc.

Like I said, I'm not sure how long this will last and I may want to revise the rotation as I go along, but I do feel like this will be a good start even if just to try it out. I enjoy a variety of games and certainly love painting a wide range of miniatures, so I think this schedule would be fairly representative of my current hobby interests. Also as I inevitably have a lot of different projects underway at the same time I figure I might as well make something of that too, thus making my tendency to jump around a feature of the blog. We'll see how it goes but it can't be any worse than my recent, nonexistent blogging efforts, right?

So the new era of my diceRolla blogging adventures is set to begin on the 1st of August. May it last for years and years, or until I become burned out and bored. Hmm... I give it two weeks. :) In the spirit of new beginnings I'll be kicking off a brand new 40k army project tomorrow, previewed in the following picture.

Who loves hedonism and corruption? I do, I do!

Thanks again to all my fantastic readers and the many friends I've made through our shared passion for glue and paint. If this blogging experiment works out, hopefully you'll hear from me more than just once a month. Really my main goal is to get that hobby inertia working once again in my favor, and since this blog has been such a source of motivation and encouragement for me in the past, I believe I can use it as a way of launching back into the swing of things. So until tomorrow (fingers crossed)... happy gaming and painting, everybody!

Mountain Warfare

And........ I'm back.

Hello and welcome to the start of a new era for this blog. Well it's not really so dramatic as that I suppose, this is just my first post since moving in to my new home in Asheville, NC. Hooray! My family and I have now lived here for a full month and we are exceedingly happy with our new surroundings. Rather than live in the city itself, we're actually located just a few miles north in the town of Weaverville, on the side of a mountain at an altitude of 2400 feet. Having spent the last decade at sea-level, it has been an exciting experience so far adjusting to mountain life. Driving here can still feel somewhat frightening at times, but otherwise everything is going swimmingly.

My goodness, though, how time flies! I can hardly believe it's been six weeks since I last wrote anything for this blog, and it has been even longer since I had any productive hobby time too. It's taken longer than I thought it would to get settled in, and indeed there is still unpacking left to do, but at this point we've done enough around the house that I can begin thinking about spare time again. Ah... spare time. :) Therefore this weekend I hope to start painting again and I should be able to return to my regular (i.e., erratic and random) blogging habits as well. That's the plan at least, yippie!

I am by the way very eager to become reacquainted with all of my favorite blogs, too. I have not been able to keep up with everyone's hobby activities as much as I would have liked over the past couple of months. Nonetheless I assume it's been quiet around the old blogosphere during my absence from it. Surely there have been no significant changes or controversies concerning our hobby, nor any upheavals or customer revolts of any kind during that time.

Right...?

Regardless I am thrilled to be back and look forward to sharing lots of wargaming hobby goodness with all my readers. Thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate your patience and continued support. Mahalo!

AdeptiDone - I'm Home!

With the dust settling from AdeptiCon and the sounds of battle finally fading away, I am happy to report that I had an absolutely marvelous time! I will have plenty to report on in the coming days though it will take me a little while to get things in order and to sort out my thoughts on what took place. Unfortunately after spending almost all of Monday dealing with some... ahem, car troubles... it wasn't until after 6pm before I at last departed Chicago and began the thousand mile drive back to Charleston. I therefore did not arrive home till the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday and only now am starting to feel recovered from the past week. It was an amazingly good trip but has nonetheless certainly taken its toll on me. :)

AdeptiCon was a fantastic weekend, by far one of my most enjoyable hobby experiences and well worth the long journey and the associated expense. Every one of the twelve games I played in was a blast and in the process I didn't meet a single gamer whom I'd avoid playing against in the future. The games were fun and exciting and the opposing players were uniformly good sports, patient and fair. I couldn't have asked for a better lineup of people with whom to spend a few days rolling dice.

Besides the games which I enjoyed thoroughly and the huge amount of inspiring models, another highlight from AdeptiCon was meeting and befriending so many wonderful people, either across from me at the gaming tables or else those I randomly encountered while wandering the site. Along with all of my opponents from the weekend, I was also fortunate to have met many wonderful gamers and painters and enjoyed every minute spent talking with them about our shared hobbies. So that I don't forget to do so later, I would like to thank and say hello to the following new friends:

TheDude (aka GopherDave) of Armored Gopher Games.

Neil from the Dark Future Games crew.

Bill/Nix of The Dead Tau Project and Gamers Lounge.

Dave Pauwels of Gogon Studios.

Hoagy from When Cannons Fade...,

Dethtron of Dick Move fame,

and their bandmates from Crusader, Joe, Ian, and Brad.

Aaron V., Nick H., and Robert C. from the Friday tournament.

The members of Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands contingent.

The members of Checkmate Hobbies and Skull-N-Bonz.

Brent of Strictly Average whom I accosted in the elevator.

My teammates Wolf Lord Pat and Company Commander Josh.

Chris Borer of Full Borer Miniatures

b.smoove of A Gentleman's Ones

Also I want to thank all the staff and volunteers who obviously put in a ridiculous amount of effort into making AdeptiCon as much fun as it was. Lastly I want to thank my good friend who has tolerated my antics for many years, DrGabe of DrGabe's Miniatures. Once again being able to hangout like old times was the best part of the weekend... thanks, buddy! It's my hope that I will get to see lots of these same good people again before next year's event, but if not until then, that will be yet another reason for me to look forward to AdeptiCon in 2012.

I do intend on reviewing the various events I played in at AdeptiCon though I haven't decided yet on the manner in which I will do so. Since I'm not sure if I was ever clear about my schedule before leaving for Chicago, essentially it was the 1000pt Fantasy tournament on Friday, the 40k Team Tournament on Saturday, and the Killzone event on Sunday. I expect I'll at least put together a separate report discussing each of those tournaments although I likely won't try to do a full battle report for every one of my games. But for now I've picked out a sampling of pictures from my weekend to sort of preview what I will be posting and talking about over the coming days.

"Follow me, men, I know the way to VICTORY!" Famous last words...

Mere seconds before rolling three of my many twin-linked misses of the day....

"Uh, guys... hello? Where did you go? Weren't you alive just a minute ago?"

One of Chris Borer's amazing marines from his Killzone team, of which I will show more in its own post...

Beasts of Annihilation enter the Killzone, never to be seen again.

I will begin organizing my AdeptiReports later this evening so hopefully I'll have more ready to post soon... until next time, take care and happy gaming!

Old Stuff Day!

As decreed by Rob over at Warhammer 39,999, today is Old Stuff Day for all of us hobby bloggers. It's a chance to dust off some old favorites and to take another look at posts that may have been forgotten, overlooked, or otherwise somehow missed by the internet since originally being posted. Not many folks have the time or interest to dig around through archived material to find the juicy bits, and certainly some blogs [ahem, diceRolla, cough cough] do not make it terribly accessible either. So hooray for Old Stuff Day!

For today's fun I've picked out links to a sampling of vintage diceRolla posts, including a bunch of still unfinished projects, all of which I plan on returning to later this year. Therefore as well as being a sort of review of diceRolla's past, this is also a preview of some projects which I hope to work on in the coming months. Even though I might not have mentioned them in quite a while, they have not been forgotten. For your consideration the posts I have chosen are: a 40k army project, a Killzone project, the collaborative results of a contest, a "semi-regular" blog feature, and a 15mm historical minis project from long ago relative to the lifespan of this blog.

The Drones of Sector 7G (Illustrated) - I love the Simpsons, and I love 40k. Newer readers might not be aware of the ways I've been trying to make the two subjects intersect. This post describes the selection process I went through in choosing which units to include in one of my current army projects, the Blisstonian 9th, an Imperial Guard army based on the workforce of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Competitiveness, efficiency, and all other normal gaming considerations were discarded in pursuit of my chosen theme, an admittedly silly one at that. Work on this project has been on hold for several months with just a little bit of occasional painting but it's still one that I am very eager to get back to, hopefully sometime this coming spring or summer.

Killzone WIP: Rogue Trader Crew - What can I say, Killzone is awesome! Unfortunately I've only been able to play a handful of games so far since Big Jim and the Killzone development team made available this amazing set of fan-created skirmish rules for 40k. As part of the 10/10/10 Killzone Blitz I decided to put together a Special Ops team based on a Rogue Trader accompanied by his closest associates, bodyguards, and allies. I didn't finish painting these guys in time for the Blitz but was able to get a decent amount of color onto each one, certainly enough to get a sense of what they'll look like once fully painted. I'd like to have them completed later this month in anticipation of the big Killzone extravaganza at this year's Adepticon.

Contest Links Bonanza - This was the culmination of the most recent diceRolla contest, a big list of links supplied by lots and lots of hobby bloggers. To participate in the Good Karma Pre-Heresy Celebration and qualify for the prize drawing, I had asked everyone to provide a link to something of which they were particularly proud, or to link to someone else's work that had inspired them in some way. I really enjoyed following the links to learn more about my fellow hobby enthusiasts and to see the sort of things that really motivate and inspire them. This contest was a lot of fun for me and I look forward to hosting another one in the coming months, though details of which are yet to be determined.

Flashbacks and Nightmares: Plaguebearers - Ahh... the sweet, sweet taste of internet fame. :) This post garnered the much sought after approval of my peers in that it made From the Warp's Tuesday's Top Ten list. WOOHOO!! Many thanks to Ryan for being so kind as to honor some of my own handiwork with inclusion in one of his weekly lists, this was indeed an early highpoint in my blogging adventures. It also happened to have been the second and final installment in what I had planned on being a semi-regular feature here at diceRolla. I have a fair number of old minis I'd like to photograph for use in future Flashbacks and Nightmares, I just haven't gotten around to it yet... almost a year later. Pitiful, just pitiful. We'll see, I'd like to revive this series if it can even be called that.

Woo-Hoo!! Painted Archers! - I generally advise against going too far back into the history of my blog but this is a special day after all, so for this last one let's go waaay back. This post is from the second week of diceRolla and showed off the first minis painted since having started the blog. At that point I was primarily focused on de Bellis Antiquitatis and so I spent most of my hobby time working on various 15mm armies. These archers from Corvus Belli are for an unfinished Hundred Years War: English army that I haven't touched in over a year. Since moving on from the idea of collecting Bretonnians, I've realized that whatever interest I had in painting medieval knights and archers could be directed at this old HYW project instead. I don't know when I'll work on them again but it's nice having them around should I feel so inclined. And once I've finished with the English there's still the French to be painted, too.

That's it for my participation in Old Stuff Day. I hope it's been an enjoyable look back at some of diceRolla's past glories. Thank you very much to all my readers, both old and new alike. It's been an exceptional joy posting up my hobby ramblings here for you to read. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to check out what I've been up to and I am grateful for all the excellent feedback and comments I receive. I understand the blog has been quiet lately but with Adepticon less than a month away it's going to be a busy couple of weeks. Thanks for sticking with me so far... there's lots more hobby fun still to come!

J.Wappel's GK Land Raiders, etc.

Well it's good to be back everyone, sorry about that unanticipated absence. The past couple of weeks RealLife has overrun my defenses and collapsed the entire hobby front, leaving me with no progress to report whatsoever. Things have been so hectic lately I haven't even had time to keep up with my beloved blogosphere [Gasp!] or post up any of my usual blather. After reading this over at Musings of a Smurf and reflecting on it a bit more, rather than feel down about the lack of hobby time I'm instead thankful to have accomplished a lot that needed to be done along with spending lots of time with my family. Thanks for helping to refresh my perspective, MoaS!

Enough rambling for now, let's get to it. All the recent excitement over the imminent return of the Grey Knights reminded me that I never got around to posting all the pictures I had of an amazing pair of Grey Knight Land Raider Redeemers painted by James Wappel of WindyCity Miniatures. I'm fairly certain I remember RealGenuis of BoLS fame showed off pictures of these last spring at that website and maybe also at The Painting Corps. Even so they're such brilliant models it's worth taking another look. Right then, check out these lovely Land Raiders...

While on the subject of WindyCity Miniatures, the next two photos are of miniatures painted by Cathy Wappel. These were also brought to last's years Adepticon and available in the Wappels' seminars for us to see as examples of their work and to admire. Also the Bretonnian was referenced specifically in the class on painting free hand designs to show how their techniques for painting tattoos can be applied in other situations. I know I've posted these here before but why not post 'em again? They're simply awesome!

(I'm not positive but I think that's RealGenius in the background taking photos.)

Alright, I've run out of time for now and need to wrap it up. If you ever get a chance to meet the Wappels, do so as they are some of the sweetest, nicest people I've encountered in this hobby. Great people with great talent... dig it!

Reminder: Loq's B-Day Contest

This is a reminder for you procrastinators (no offense intended, I assuredly am in that group as well) that today is the deadline for Loq's birthday contest. So hurry hurry if you haven't already sent in your entries! If you were waiting for the last minute, well you're pretty close... the deadline is set for 10:00AM CENTRAL.

Details about the contest and guidelines for submissions can be found here. All you need to do to enter the contest is help Loquacious out a little by writing a descriptive sentence about her blog, World of Wonder. There's also a way to enter for the more visually oriented of you but I imagine time's running short to design anything. Now go on you slackers, send something in and wish Loquacious a happy birthday, too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOQUACIOUS!!

[Edit: I posted this earlier today when there was just a little more than an hour before the end of the contest, which has since then closed. Thanks, folks!]

New Games for Consideration

One of my hobby goals for 2011 is to continue experimenting with new game systems, even if only to learn the rules as an excuse to paint different sorts of miniatures. Last year I really enjoyed delving into Hordes especially although I did begin peeking into Warmachine and Malifaux a little as well. Early on I even made a decent start on painting my Circle Orboros army before running out of steam and resuming work on GW projects. I believe those are games I'll have fun with for quite some time to come so I'm happy with the investment I made in learning them.

I would therefore like to again expand my gaming horizons and so I've been looking around at what's available, mainly with an eye toward the miniatures but also with some curiosity regarding their rules too. There are quite a few systems that I'm considering but at this point I still do not know which appeals the most to me. I suppose I've already started in with Super Dungeon Explore very recently but I don't count that as it lacks the army collecting/list building elements that I want in a new game. What follows is a list of those that have caught my attention for various reason and from which I expect to further pursue at least one or two of them.

Anima Tactics

Dystopian Wars

Firestorm Armada

Flames of War

Freebooter's Fate

Heavy Gear: Blitz!

MERCS

Pulp City

Uncharted Seas

I really don't know much about any of those yet except what I've found out about them poking around their primary websites and a few very tentative visits to some of their forums. If anyone has any experience or opinions concerning these games, I'd really appreciate hearing them. I am particularly keen to learn more about the three from Spartan Games and would be very interested in hearing about how those games actually play. Also I'm always eager to find out about other games people are playing so if there's anything else you really enjoy, I'd love to hear additional recommendations.

Okay, that's it for tonight... miniatures await!

SUPER DUNGEON EXPLORE!!

Eeeeeeeeeee! Super Dungeon Explore is here, yippie!! Well I have been downright giddy today since receiving my set of miniatures for Super Dungeon Explore, a game still in development by Soda Pop Miniatures. This release represents what they say is only the beginning for their new dungeon-crawl miniatures strategy game. Supposedly inspired by old school video game classics like The Legend of Zelda and Gauntlet among others, it promises to be a quick, easy to play, and light-hearted gaming experience. And yes, I am indeed quite excited about this one. :)

To challenge the initial batch of five heroes, the first set of monsters made available are the Kobolds and they are absolutely adorable! I would have bought these miniatures just to paint such cute little critters so the fact that there is a game to go along with them is an awesome bonus for me. The last few nights I've studied the downloadable rules pdf for the demo version of Super Dungeon Explore and am now even more excited as it seems like it will be a genuinely enjoyable game with a lot of room for future development. It sort of reminds me of the old Milton Bradley HeroQuest game, another staple of my gaming adolescence. The full version of the game hasn't even been released yet and already I have lots of ideas for what I'd like to do with it so I think that is all rather encouraging.

I currently have a lot on my hobby plate but that's not going to prevent me from putting in some time this weekend with my new toys. They're simply too tempting for me to resist. Right away upon seeing the basic 25mm slotta-bases that come packaged in the Super Dungeon Explore blister packs I realized that I want to mount them instead on some fancy resin bases. As luck would have it I even have leftover from another project an ideal set of bases to use, the Sanctuary style round bases from Dragon Forge Design. I think they work quite nicely representing the cold stone floor of a dank, gloomy dungeon. Woohoo!

You can see in the following photos the quick progress I've made on them with only a short amount of time sitting at my desk tonight. So far I've assembled the Human Paladin and the two Kobold Flingers and prepared all the necessary pins I will use for securing the miniatures to their resin bases. I plan on mounting the treasure chests that come with the heroes on bases as well so I also drilled and pinned the first of these this evening too.

I'm really looking forward to diving into this game as quickly as I can and will no doubt try to sneak in some brush time for these Super Dungeon Explore miniatures in the coming weeks. I know that it was only a couple days ago in my previous post that I talked about focusing in on the Dark Elves in preparation for Adepticon but it would be unrealistic for me to expect that degree of exclusivity from my hobby. Nonetheless I do seem to have an inordinate amount of distractions.... that is something I never have in short supply. No worries though as it's all just for fun. It would be really cool to have them painted in time to go with me to Adepticon for some after hours gaming silliness. Therefore in addition to all the other projects and games covered here, tonight marks the beginning of what will hopefully be an amusing and perhaps somewhat different type of hobby adventure.

Wait... what am I saying? It's going to be SUPER HAPPY FUN of course. Happy gaming, everyone!

Drilling for Hydra

After lots and lots of drilling, the Hydra is at last coming together. I started off well but became distracted over the weekend trying to fix the wings on my Harpies which needed some realignment and had quite a few gaps to fill as well. I returned to the Hydra and have proceeded to drill several more holes into it than are found on a golf course. The count is currently at eleven pins and I expect by the time I'm finished I will have used around seventeen pins on the beast. This is for me is a nice accomplishment since I normally avoid pinning as much as possible. The War Hydra model is simply too heavy and off balance to allow for any of my usual corner cutting, thus the pin frenzy.

I have three more necks and three more heads to go before the Hydra is complete. There are already a number of large gaps between the pieces that will need to be dealt with but so far I'm happy with how things are going. I had hoped to be working on the plastic guys by now but I think the extra time and care I'm putting into assembling the Hydra will be worth it in the long run. Those heads might still pop off but I feel confident they at least won't break apart merely by putting the model down on the table.

Oops! A little too much enthusiasm for pinning...

Alright, that's it for tonight. I just wanted to give reassurance that the Hydra had not defeated me and that in fact the battle rages on even now. Armed with heavy-duty brass rod, I will be victorious. I think I should be able to finish all the pinning and gluing tonight, leaving whatever necessary greenstuff business for tomorrow. Also my mother-in-law will be visiting for a few days so I'm looking forward to some potential extra hobby time the rest of this week. Okay, I gotta get back to that monster. I hope everyone is doing well this evening, take care!

Tie-thulu

Something for you fashionable antiquarians...

A sharp-eyed tipster sent me this link to the original (I suppose) version by jeremywc. Thanks for the laughs, buddy. :)

I'm working on Dark Elves tonight though nothing much to show for it yet. No more time for blogging, it's back to the glue and hobby knives for me. I hope everyone is having a good week so far, bye!

'Ere We Go 2011

Woooo-hoo!! 2011 is off and running and I am as excited as can be to start out another year once again at the helm of the good ship, diceRolla. I've got all sorts of projects lined up for the months ahead and am eager to get things underway promptly. I have high expectations and am optimistic that it is indeed going to be a great hobby year.

I will be making some resolutions for 2011 but only a couple hours ago this evening began considering what goals I would like to resolve myself to accomplishing. I intend on reviewing how I did with last year's resolutions soon but for now I will just say that without a generous degree of creative interpretation, I fulfilled little on the hobby side of things. The non-hobby resolutions, however, were thankfully much better. :) I therefore am going to take more time to think about my choices instead of hastily committing myself to something I might soon come to regret.

The general formula for my resolutions will no doubt be similar to that which many other gamers are setting out for themselves, that of: paint more, game more, terrain more, get better at things I enjoy. Once you've established that it's really only a matter of working out the details. I'm driving to Charlotte in the morning for my granddad's funeral so I should have plenty of time to review my priorities and decide what projects will take precedence in 2011. From there I will determine my resolutions and perhaps this year I might even stand a chance of making it past March with them.

I've already got a start on the first project of the new year, one that I anticipate will be a relatively quick set of minis to finish. In a couple of days I'll know what larger projects I want to focus on for 2011, so this small painting task I've set for myself should keep me busy until then and help sustain the hobby momentum that was building at the end of last year. I recently found an old set of models while clearing out some storage space and decided they would be a fun way to usher in this year of painting and gaming.

Yes. Critter Commandos. And it's all Bleaseworld's fault. I had forgotten about these miniatures until seeing some nicely painted penguin commandos on Steve's blog posted here. I then fortuitously found this box of minis just this past Thursday while packing for our upcoming move to Asheville, with one set already cleaned and primed no less! So first up for painting are a group of anthropomorphic frogs wearing what I believe are supposed to be scuba suits and gear, or in other words, scuba-suited frogmen! Here's an early WIP photo as a preview of what is to come:

The horror... the horror....

I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow so it's time to wrap things up. Thanks again for making 2010 such a rip-roaring good year for diceRolla. Thanks to all the readers and commenters who have offered your own insight and assistance over the last year. And finally I am especially grateful to you members of The Esoteric Order of Jason for your continued support and encouragement. You are a constant source of motivation and inspiration for me and I appreciate very much the interest you have taken in my endeavors. Thank you!

So that's it. I hope this years proves to be a great one for each of you, filled with clattering dice and splashing paint to your heart's delight. Happy 2011, everyone!

Saying Goodbye to 2010

In lieu of a traditional look back at the hobby year that was as seen through the diceRolla blogging lens, I have rather decided to review the year that wasn't. I wanted to do a review of 2010 and still very well might in the days to come, but right now I do not have the energy or excitement to do so. The last few days have been rather exhausting as preparations for moving have now kicked into high gear around the homestead, leaving me this evening feeling perhaps a bit dreary and flat. I therefore don't want my current state of mind to sour any reflections I would have about my hobby adventures through 2010.

I've chosen instead to look back on some of the blog posts from the past year that never saw the light of day but instead ended up tossed aside on the cutting room floor. Regular readers of diceRolla may be surprised to learn that I do in fact exercise some discretion when deciding what to publish here, although I admit sometimes that filter is not quite fine enough. Nonetheless I do try to catch myself when I suspect something of being too dumb, pointless, or grossly off topic even for my own permissive standards.

Hopefully this will be a fun way of concluding 2010 here at diceRolla. My approach to blogging is I believe somewhat haphazard and I certainly do not have any notes or saved drafts to reference in preparing these examples of articles killed by the editorial staff. After scanning through old files of saved photos I was able to put this list together by memory and thus will only show the opening illustration and title I had planned on using. I think in most cases both the content of the articles and the reasons why I ultimately trashed them will be clear enough. So without further delay...

diceRolla's top 10 bad ideas for blogging from 2o1o

1o. Why guest cameos are bad for The Simpsons.

9. Terrible songs to listen to while painting your army or playing 40k.

8. H2O and You - Lubricate your Hobby.

7. Things Seen in Lombard, Illinois.

6. Step Brothers may cause brain damage, film review at 11.

5. How to ruin your Hobby Saw.

4. Jervis Johnson... time traveler?

3. Rejected Ideas for the Beasts of Annihilation.

2. Keep your Dignity - Losing with Style and Grace.

1. A History of the Groening Sector, Parts 1-3.

That last one is something I've held back on for reasons very different than those of the others listed above. Rather than labeling it as a "bad idea," I think it was rather like biting off more than I could chew as a writer. It's still an ongoing project that will hopefully someday be in good enough shape for me to publish here. Currently however I am happy to take my time and not rush anything along. So that's it, I hope you enjoyed this quick look at some ideas for articles so bad even I knew it was best to just discard them. It is sometimes good to just move on to more worthwhile pursuits. Even if I don't always get it right, I do try to make that distinction.

This really has been a great year for me on all accounts, both in HobbyLife and RealLife. I am very thankful for all of you who have played a tremendous part in making this such an enjoyable year. I appreciate the support you have offered to me and my efforts here at diceRolla and I value all the contributions you make to my blog. You have broadened my hobby horizons and for that I am quite grateful. Thank you and may you have a wonderful 2011!

Happy New Year!!!