Easter Backlog

I'll be updating this blog really soon. A lotta things happening (and have already happened) and I need to sit down a bit and recollect stuff before taking it to the keyboard. Hopefully I'm getting stuff done this week.

And as much as I'd wanna put a fine chick to make this post better, I can't because I'm working off-site LOL

Later.

Celebrating Your Friends

I got to know some really great and talented people here at work. And like any good friend, I'm proud of their successes!

Naz and Jojo as Team Fuchikoma bagged the 48-hour Indie Game Development Competition [read details here] while Baby AA represented WeeWillDoodle for Meg magazine’s Young Achievers below 25 for 2007 [read details here].

Back From The Dead

I had been down with a severe case of fever and an equally painful case of coughing. Everything's better now. I can taste food again but my coughing is still horrible from time to time. I got some paint work done though.

Khorne Daemonic Legion Bloodletter


Trollbloods Pyg Bushwhacker

Khorne Daemonic Legion Bloodletter
Primer: Bosny Primer Red spray
Skin: P3 Khador Red, washed down for blending. I touched up the raised areas of the mini with more Khador Red.
Hair: P3 Thamar Black drybrushed with GW Shadow Grey and Space Wolves Gray
Bones/Spines: GW Snakebite Leather + P3 Menoth White Base + P3 Menoth White Highlight
Metal: P3 Rhulic Gold + P3 Shining Gold + P3 Quick Silver

Trollbloods Pyg Bushwhacker
Primer: Bosny Flat Black
Skin: GW Hawk Turquoise, washed down for blending. Touch up with more Hawk Turquoise and P3 Ryn Flesh

Hobbycraft, March 8 2008

Almost done with Lesther's Anima Tactics Evangeline -- done with robes and main hair color. I'll be finishing up her hair later when I get home. Then I'll try to finish up the whole model -- attaching the hands and glowy bird (OSL wouold make it look really good).

Spraybombed MANY miniatures after me and Barby glued sand on their bases:

- 8x Protectorate of Menoth Temple Flameguard with Unit Attachment
- 6x Trollbloods Pyg Burrowers
- 6x Trollbloods Pyg Bushwhackers
- 1x Circle Orboros Pureblood Warpwolf
- 1x Circle Orboros Woldwatcher
- 4x Gatormen
- 1x Trollbloods Dire Troll Earthborn
- 1x Lady Aiyana and Holt

After the Larkin Vain Sea Dogs commission, my painting speed improved without damaging much on quality. So I'm pretty much enjoying painting and modelling all these minis, too. Sorry, no pics. Still high on spray paint fumes.

Fortress Friday - Crushing Your Foe Utterly

I got to play a Warhammer Fantasy game and a Hordes game last Friday at Fortress. I had to lug a heavy carry case that had both my Khorne Daemonic Legion and Legion of Everblight inside, and all of them were metal. Good thing I decided not to bring my Khador or else it would have been heavier (and the handle on my carry case would have snapped off from the weight). I won both games handily but both were against relatively new players.

The young guy who just started out with Warhammer Fantasy was Ron and he was playing Bretonnians. And by young I mean high-school-student young. He had great difficulty with the basic movement for WFB, which is essentially very difficult in the first place. All that wheeling, turning and reforming -- he should have photocopied the whole rulebooklet instead of just a few pages. It was his second game against me (the first he lost against my Vampire Counts army a week ago) and he was surprised how he could not beat me. It surprised me as how ambitious this new player is. I mean, I have been at this hobby since year 2000, and I have been playing WFB since 2002. I have played many tourneys and gamed against the best in the community, winning a Best General award a few years back. And here's a new dude who expects a win on his second game against me. I know this post is beginning to sound arrogant, but I've never been one to give a lame game. I will give my ace game all the time, and I will crush you if I get the chance. But that's only because I expect my enemy will not half-ass his game as well. I will not baby newbies just to hook them into the game further. I will weed out the weak, and all the old players know that. If you're new, and you beat me, then you earn a great deal of respect from me in return. If you lose, dust off and jump on the saddle for another ride -- I'll be happy to play again so long as I can.

My other game was against Manolet, an older player who uses a beast-heavy Skorne army. The scenario that we got was Invasion and I knew I would have an edge with Rhyas' Dash and the Angelius' wings. He did a sound tactic, using Subdue on a Titan Gladiator and charged in the center of my own warbeasts. Evidently, he hoped that the Subdue effect would prevent me from running but found out that warbeasts do not need orders to be able to run. The game was over without anyone giving or taking a point of damage. Now, the game may have ended on a less than appealing note, but winning's still winning. Taking on three Titans -- Bronzeback, Gladiator and Cannoneer -- head on with Subdue or Diminish in effect would just be plain stupidity on my part. Sure the Rapport Carnivean would be able to rip apart the forward Gladiator (failing that the two Angelius who may not use their special attack might still provide support), but that would have left my beasts open for a counter attack. Now why would I do that when I can easily go for objectives, right?

I've taken my share of licks over the years and I still do. And I never want to underestimate my opponent. I still love playing, win or lose. And I still try to have fun either way. And if my opponent didn't enjoy the game just because of how I play, sorry, my friend, take a big whiff and deal with it because I'll keep on being like this for as long as I can.

Larkin Vain's Sea Dogs

The commission for twenty Sea Dogs finally arrived to their owners' hands. I'm glad it passed their standards over there. It was a first time for me to do twenty models in more or less two-month time span. I was pretty happy with how they turned out and even happier that Larkin Vain liked them, too.

Here be pics:

Higher resolution pics can be found here.

Hobbycraft, March 5 2008

Got to finish my Alessa Raincross as scheduled. Well, maybe not 100% finished. Looking at this pic, I think I need to touch up more on the blackline between her face and the cloak that covers her mouth. Looks too black. Plus that base needs some grass.

Ah well. On to the next one on the work table (grass is easy to glue later).

Gary Gygax passes on

From various online sources:

Reports from numerous sources are that Gary Gygax, one of the pioneers of the RPG genre, has passed away. Monte Cook and others have posted their thoughts about the man and his impact.

Ernest Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American writer and game designer, best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson, and co-founding the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) with Don Kaye in 1974. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-playing game.

Gygax died the morning of March 4, 2008, at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was in semi-retirement, having almost suffered a heart attack after receiving incorrect medication to prevent further strokes after those on April 1 and May 4, 2004. He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm. Even while his health failed, gaming remained very much a part of his life. Gygax was still active in the gaming community and had active Q & A forums on gaming websites such as Dragonsfoot and EN World.

"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."

Unlike a lot of the people who posted on Monte Cook's blog, I had no personal affiliation with the man. But all they said were true -- he was the Father of RPG. Having played Dungeons & Dragons from the red basic set, I can credit much of my personal character from the games I ran (as a DM) and the roles that I played (as a player character). A lot of the better personal aspects in that matter.

Many of my random encounters will stop harassing PCs for the moment, and pay their respects to a great man.

Hobbycraft, March 4 2008

I managed to spraybomb the sizeable lot of Anima Tactics miniatures at home last night. With the AT spraybomb I included some of Lesther's Circle Orboros and my Alten Ashley as well.

Looking at the Tsubasa Kurokami and the Takanosuke miniatures I have, the proportions on the necks/heads are a bit off. I'll be grinding off a portion from Tsubasa's neck peg so that his head would fit more natural-looking.

I did get to slap some paint on my Alessa Raincross. Maybe she'll be the one that I can finish by tonight.

I decided to paint her up in her default colors. Well, at least as close as I can get. Too bad the people at Anima Tactics haven't included a painting guide as to what colors they used on their miniatures (since I'll be painting the stuff at home in their default colors anyway). So she has leather gloves after all! In her card, her gloves looked like the same color as her red top. I used a Bubonic Brown approach on her skin, Ultramarines Blue on the blue stuff, and P3 metallics on her legs and pistols. Hopefully I can take pics of this so I can post them soon.

Anima Tactics

Last night, I took the four blisters I had left - Tsubasa Kurokami, Jiang Pao, Faust Orbatos and Celia - and assembled their general parts together. I decided to leave off several bits like Faust Orbatos' large cape, Celia's arms, Jiang Pao's arms, Tsubasa Kurokami's head and arms for the meantime. It would make for easier handling when I glue on sand on their bases and also for painting the inside details, too.

Hopefully I can start spraybombing them later when I get home. Much of the sand was already dried when I checked them this morning before I went to work.

Fortress Friday - WFB

I got to play some Warhammer Fantasy last Friday at Fortress VMall, Greenhills. I used Vampire Counts, kinda like their last hurrah before their new army book comes out this March.

I got to play against Fred's cavalry-heavy Hordes of Chaos army. It was my first WFB game using a Vampire Counts army again in years. And sadly, I played horribly (much more like I played them like I played a Khorne Daemonic Legion). I suffered equally horrible losses as his big cavalry of Khorne Chosen cut a veritable swathe through a huge mob of zombies. Ranks after ranks literally fell every round.

Post game, EJ consulted me on how to better play the VC army I had. A lot of which I happily applied on my second game, which arrived a few hours later.

Ron has the exuberance of his youth. He was flawed on basic line of sight, moving ranked units, premeasuring and dice conventions, something which had to be remedied later on. As this was his first match against me, I was lax and allowed many of his flawed logic on the table, which mattered really little since his battle plan was rendered ineffective by the swarming hordes of zombies that I had. The game had to be cut short by the fifth round as Fred was needed elsewhere. So for me it was either a solid victory on the fifth round or a massacre on the sixth round. I'll just let the game sink in to the guy.

For sure if the new book comes out, it would mean me buying new stuff. Either that or I just stick to playing Khorne Daemonic Legion LOL

Necrons Progress Report 01

After cleaning up the house Saturday morning, I got to set up my painting table properly on one clean side of the living room with the TV in full view. I have dusted off both my sunlight desk lamps for usage again. The long 6x4 board also got to rest behind the big cabinet. All in all, it's pretty much organized.

I scrounged up some bases for 40K which I can use on the Destroyers on the Necron army.

I also tried using thinner on several of the green tubes on a painted (soon-to-be-repainted) Heavy Destroyer. It kinda works but there are still some residue on the ends of the rods (I don't know if it's the super glue that did that).

I decided on retaining on my old color scheme for Tomb Fleet Vyr - a lot of metal, gold/brass collar and spine, plus neon green on some of the extra tubes and detail. I will try to keep the green rods as is, and maybe thin off the black of some of the basecoated rods.

Flying bases still got me in a bind. I'd want my Destroyers hovering and not glued directly to the bases themselves. I'll look more into how I can solve this problem of mine.

Lastly, I will be painting my Destroyer Lord by the end of the week.

Check back for more updates on this project.