Witchling Stalkers WIP #2

I'm right now waiting for some things to dry so I'd like to do a quick painting update. I am back to work on those Witchling Stalkers for my Guild crew and so far tonight I've mainly focused on the greenish glow coming from the creatures' eyes. My recent experience painting the flyers for my Covenant of Antarctica fleet was apparently good practice for this and helped me sort out how I prefer to build up the blend of colors. This time though I took the green mix to an almost pure yellow to try to make the colors glow even brighter. I'm not positive but I think this was also my first intentional, albeit crude, attempt at OSL painting... yikes!

I may give the eye glow one more highlight with a little spot of white added in to try to make the color really shine, but otherwise that area should be finished. Along with working on the eyes, tonight I'm also doing some initial shading on the Witchling Stalkers' tattered rags and robes. I am therefore still not very far along with these weirdos but nonetheless I hope to finish them off in the next couple of days.

Okay, it looks like everything is dry enough now so it's back to painting these miniatures. Phew! After a day of toddler-based insanity it feels nice to relax and chill out with my paints and brushes for a little while. :) Goodnight!

Witchling Stalkers WIP

I thought I was going to have more of an opportunity to paint today but with family commitments it wasn't to be. But hey, at least a little brush time is better than none. Therefore over the last couple of hours I've started working on my three Witchling Stalkers included in Sonnia Criid's Guild starter box for Malifaux. It took me quite a while before finally settling on how I would like to paint them, and if I can pull it off I think I will be really happy with how they turn out. We'll see what happens though as there's still much more painting to do on them. At this point I've only managed to put down the first layer of color onto these models so there's not yet much to look at... but it's a start! :)

Those are some creepy looking dudes, I like 'em a lot. I'm going to paint for a little while longer tonight as I do not know how much more hobby time I will have during the next few days. I will be busy having fun with my family and so probably won't have much of a chance to work on miniatures. I hope everyone has a fun weekend ahead. Happy painting and gaming!

Sergeant Homer in the Sewers of Malifaux

Today I was able to put in some more time working with my Sewers of Malifaux set from Wyrd Miniatures. So far I have mixed feelings about the TerraClips system and my enthusiasm for it has waned slightly from yesterday. I think it definitely looks a lot better than I had previously worried it might, but there are some more pragmatic issues that I'm initially not too crazy about. I'm sure with more practice I will develop a better understanding of what I can do with this terrain but starting out it has been a bit frustrating. Also it's been slower going that I had expected but again I think with practice the assembly process will not take as long.

By now I've only used about two thirds of the pieces you get in one box of Sewers but already I'm running out TerraClips, especially the I-shaped and L-shaped ones. If you're interested in these kits I recommend you consider getting an extra pack or so of TerraClips. At the rate I've been going through them I think a good ratio would probably be 3 boxes of clips for every 2 boxes of tiles. I'm also noticing a shortage of solid wall sections and an excess of those wall sections with doors and gates for what I had envisioned building. I suppose this is just a matter of personal preference and one of the inherent limitations for this type of approach to terrain making.

While putting together my sewers I took some pictures to help show what these pieces are like close up. Once again to act as my visual reference for scale I have requested the help of Sergeant Homer of the Stonecutters chapter. He's no stranger to such filth and so did not begrudge the assignment.

Pictured above is one of the basic 6" x 6" tiles, of which you get 16 in the Sewers box. The artwork on them is double-sided to give more options and variety when deciding how to assemble your sewers.

You also get 32 of these 3" x 3" double-sided tiles, none of which I've yet used as I'm already running out of TerraClips. Some have narrow sewer canals while others appear as solid flooring. They seem to provide a lot of utility when designing your layout, although they will quickly burn through even more of your clip supply.

Add some walls to the floor tiles and Sergeant Homer is now in the Sewers of Malifaux, or at least a little box resembling the Sewers of Malifaux. At this point everything was still quite simple and straightforward. The more pieces you want to use, however, the worse it gets.

You can assemble your terrain to have multiple levels of elevation. Included are a couple of sheets of handrails, balconies, staircases, and ladders. I've not yet tried this out very much, in this case due to using up all of my wall pieces building the main level of sewers.

One aspect I am very pleased with is the appearance of the sewer effluent as this was something that had not impressed me in the pictures I'd seen previously. The sewer canals have a sense of flow in addition to looking suitably nasty. They remind me of the river of negativity flowing beneath Manhattan in Ghostbusters 2. Ahhh... now that is some lovely effluent.

Half of the wall sections included in the Sewers box are solid while the rest of them have cutout areas to represent doors and gates. I felt like I ran out of solid wall sections very quickly. The doors come as separate pieces and can stand up with the help of a little matching pieces of card. Of course the doors can just be left off entirely to make things simpler. Another option is to attach a TerraClip to the bottom of each door and anchor them to the floor tiles if you'd rather not have your doors be openable at all.

As I mentioned my experience with these so far has been rather frustrating and not as much fun as I had hoped. Since so many clips are involved it can be a little tricky wedging pieces together and you really need to plan at least several steps in advance. It can be annoying if you make a mistake or change your mind along the way as you inevitably have to pull apart many more pieces than just the ones you want to switch around. I therefore think it would be very helpful to layout most if not all of the pieces you intend on using so that you can plan the most sensible order of construction. Also that way you know you won't run out of something deep into the assembly process.

Despite my concerns and gripes I'm still optimistic about making good use of my TerraClips terrain. The problems I've run into so far will I think become less bothersome over time as I become more familiar with these kits and learn how to get the most out of them. I also think there's tremendous potential for using these terrain sets outside of the Malifaux universe. In fact one of things I'm now most eager to try out is playing a game of Space Hulk adapted for use with my Sewers of Malifaux. Hmm... Sewer Hulk, anyone?

Alright, that's all the time I have for tonight. I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead with plenty of painting and gaming fun. Goodbye for now!

Malifaux Bump - TerraClips!

Well, well, well. It looks like Infinity is once again bumped from this week's rotation in favor of Malifaux. This time it's because my set of the new 3D modular terrain from Wyrd Miniatures has arrived and I couldn't wait to begin playing with them. So... TerraClips!

I only started a short while ago punching out some of the larger pieces from the Sewers of Malifaux box to test how these things fit together using the plastic clips. Based on the weight and quality of the card-stock alone I have a good first impression of this terrain. (I just checked and the Wyrd website says it's 1.7mm thick punchboard.) The pieces appear to be more durable than I had expected and the clips slide on smoothy. I therefore suspect this terrain will hold up nicely if not abused since assembling and disassembling your pieces are not likely to damage them. Nonetheless I'm interested in seeing how long it takes for wear and tear from usage to become noticeable.

In all honesty I had not been terribly impressed with the pictures I had seen of these terrain sets over the past year. In all the photos they looked to me too busy and actually sort of ugly. I am therefore relieved to think that they look much better in person. All the little details are much more impressive and do not appear to be as busy or distracting as I had thought they would. There's a lot of potential for Wyrd's terrain and it is a significant step forward from any card terrain that I've used in the past. Beyond just Malifaux these sets are clearly well suited for many other wargames and RPGs, for which no doubt they will come in quite handy.

As I said I have not had much time to play with this terrain but I look forward to experimenting and having fun with them this weekend. I'll revisit this once I've really tested them out and built a few different layouts. Last night I saw posted here at Rhellion's Tabletop an excellent review of Rhellion's experiences working with the Streets of Malifaux and the Buildings of Malifaux box sets. If you're interested in more info I recommend you check out his blog. There's plenty of good stuff there.

One thing Rhellion mentions is that Wyrd already plans on releasing further sets of terrain, including futuristic designs as well. Not only does that sound very exciting (oh... Infinity!), but also explains why my box of TerraClips is labeled as "Translucent Grey." I suppose this means we can expect these clips to eventually come in a variety of colors. Something about designer TerraClips is really amusing to me.

Fun, indeed. :)

Alright, I gotta run. Things should be getting back to normal soon as my visiting relatives will be departing in a day or so. 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!

Malifaux Bump - Starting with Criid

Even though my attempt at scheduled blogging is less than two weeks old, tonight I'm calling an audible as I want to post an update concerning Malifaux instead of Infinity. This is because over the past few days I've become absolutely fascinated by this game from Wyrd miniatures. It's been quite fun reading the rulebook and I now remember how jazzed I was about the game when going through the original book last year. It comes across as such an elegant and innovative system that I am really keen to try it out. I may be in luck too as apparently one of the local LGS's has a fairly regular group of Malifaux players from whom I can learn how to play. Jackpot!

So that's what has motivated me to change up my hobby plans a bit and for the time being give some extra attention to Malifaux. A chance to jump in right away and start playing is too good to pass up in favor of an arbitrarily chosen blog schedule. I trust no one will be too upset about this. ;) I expect there is a tremendous depth to this game that I won't otherwise be able to appreciate without actually playing it. Based on the glowingly positive feedback and testimonials that I've heard about Malifaux, I doubt I will be disappointed with it.

Therefore tonight I'm set to begin work on my first Crew, for which I decided to go with Sonnia Criid and the Guild Witch Hunters. If all goes well I should have some extra hobby time tomorrow and I'd really like to start painting my Crew this weekend if possible. Besides it's been too long since I lasted painted anything so I think that would be a good goal for me. With the first batch of minis there's not a lot of assembling to do so I'm hopeful about being able to knock the rust off my paintbrushes quite soon.

Okay, that's all I have to report on for this update. I apologize to any fans of Infinity annoyed about your game getting bumped from the rotation in favor of Malifaux. No doubt I'll make up for it once I'm ready to begin painting my Ariadna Kazaks.... holy smokes, those are some sweet minis. That will be a lot of fun when I get to them, but now it's Malifaux's turn.

Happy painting and gaming!

Malifaux Revisited

Malifaux from Wyrd Miniatures is another game I want to become more involved with this year. Interested in finding out about how its card mechanics operated, more than a year ago I read through the original rulebook and thought it seemed like it could be a really fun game and that it definitely had a lot of potential. Intent on really learning the game with the possibility of running demo games in my local area, I bought a pair of starter boxes along with a few extra models for each faction. As is so often the case however, there were other distractions competing for my attention at the time and these Malifaux plans were pushed to the side.

A few months ago at Adepticon I played against Bill Anderson from Gamers Lounge and The Dead Tau Project in the first round of a Warhammer Fantasy tournament. Before our game began we spent some time talking about other hobby interests and I mentioned that his own blogging about Malifaux had been one of the original reasons I became interested in the game. He then went on to excitedly advocate on behalf of Malifaux and strongly recommended that I give it a try. It was a great reminder to hear again about the things I'd found fascinating about Malifaux and our conversation reignited my interest in it, though I decided I should wait until after the move before picking it up with it again.

Now that I'm settling into the new house, I am psyched to be taking a second look at Wyrd Minis distinctly weird game. One of the things I find most appealing about Malifaux is just how different it is from the other games that I enjoy. I think it goes beyond using cards instead of dice, although that certainly does create a very novel play dynamic. One feature that I suspect I will especially enjoy is the system of variable and indeed even customizable victory conditions, Strategies and Schemes. Aside from these neat game mechanics, I love the deeply atmospheric setting created for Malifaux and have found the development of the storyline surprisingly compelling. All quite good stuff, really.

The Guild - Sonnia Criid and her Witch Hunters

The Arcanists - Ramos of the Miners and Steamfitters Union

So you can see in the pictures above the Crews that I'll be starting out with for my introduction to Malifaux. When I originally selected these minis I did so without much understanding of the game itself aside from an appreciation for its unique aesthetic. Fortunately from what I remember Sonnia Criid and Ramos seem to be a fairly decent matchup and I'm optimistic that they'll provide a good feeling for what this game is all about. I've heard so many positive things about Malifaux that I will be shocked if it does not become one of my regular favorites.

Along with putting together and painting my models, I've realized recently that I had forgotten almost everything I learned about playing the game since first reading the rules. After talking to Bill at Adepticon I purchased a copy of the mini rulebook which I started reading earlier today. I do remember there were some areas of the original rulebook that I found either confusing or at least a little ambiguous, so I am eager to see if the mini-book brings more clarity to the rules. My goal is to have a good understanding of the rules and game mechanics by the time I have painted both of my Crews.

If anyone's been playing Malifaux and has advice for someone just starting out, I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences with the game. Of course I'm keen for anyone else to share his or her thoughts about the weird world of Malifaux, too. Otherwise I'm ready to begin assembling my minis and hope to be painting them soon after. I don't know which group I'll work on first though I'm leaning towards Sonnia Criid and friends.

Okay, that's it for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend with plenty of gaming fun. Goodnight!

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!

Hey, Win Some Stuff

Sorry I haven't posted anything here in quite a long time. For the last several weeks I've not been able to get any time for hobby stuff other than reading the occasional game book, most notably the Malifaux rulebook and the Bretonnian army book. (Malifaux was interesting and looks like fun, and while the Bretonnia book is certainly nice, I think it's showing its age a bit.) Not being able to paint has been frustrating but I'm hopeful that I'll soon be back at. All the home remodeling projects are finally complete and my Father's Day gift from my wife was a yet-to-be-picked-out hobby desk. For more than two years now I've kept all my gaming and painting junk portable and packed up when not in use due to life being something of a whirlwind. Therefore the prospect of having somewhere I can safely leave my projects overnight is very exciting for me. Even if my painting does not improve, I'm pretty sure my productivity will as I've managed to set a rather low baseline for myself these past few months.

Okay, enough of the non-update update. Now for the winning of things. I'm very grateful for those of you who have signed up as Followers of this blog and I appreciate your contributions to it. You've made this a much more enjoyable experience for me. So as a way of saying thanks I thought it would be cool to pass on to one of you an army project I know I'll never have time to work on myself. To celebrate the release of the new edition of Warhammer a little more than one week from now, I'd like to give away the selection of Warriors of Chaos boxed sets and blister packs pictured above. On Saturday, July 10th, I'll randomly select one of the Followers who have commented on this post (all you need to do is let me know you're interested in having a shot at the prize) and then I'll announce the winner that day at 8pm EST. Simple, right?

Here's a list of what the winner will receive:

WoC Battalion

Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount

Sorcerer of Chaos

Nurgle Chaos Sorcerer

Warriors of Chaos (boxed set with 12 guys)

Chaos Marauder Horsemen

Chaos Warriors (the one with 3 guys)

Chaos Knights

3 Chaos Trolls (one of each pose)

A long time ago I was gung-ho about cranking out this army and getting it on the table, but life intervened and this project kept getting shoved further and further down the priority list. Eventually the enthusiasm was gone and last summer I realized that I was no longer even interested in hanging on to them, but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with the evil little bastards. With the new version of Warhammer only days away this seems like as good a time as any to find a new warlord to lead them, so hopefully at least one of you will want to give these savages a happy home and take them off my hands.

Thanks again for taking an interest in my quiet little niche of the interwebs. I'm confident that things will get (mildly?) more interesting around here soon.