Game Night

Today, I painted no figures. What did happen, though, was that this evening, my regular gaming partner, A, came over with his wife, J, and together with my partner S, we played two games of Munchkin and one game of Zombie Dice!.

The first game - Star Munchkin - was very fast and frenetic. Lots of backstabbing went on and much laughter was had, particularly with the stackable laser weapons. S won, leaving us all languishing in the dust with the Redshirts and Captain Quirk.

Star Munchkin in full swing. Note my Bananafofanaserbaser (+9!). This got bigger until I lost all my items to a trap.

Then we played Zombie Dice!, which was brilliant. It was fast, fun, and simple enough to pick up in seconds. Actually, S, J and myself played it, as A was preparing a huge game of Munchkin! He has every expansion going, or so it seems, and the resulting game took a very long time, but was the most fun I have had for a long time. We struggled against each other, monsters, and ourselves, as well as the dungeons we were in, and eventually my Half-Elf-Half-Orc Thief won. Because he was part Orc. I celebrated!

Munchkin begins. My Elf Thief begins his/her accumulation of gear...

At this stage we had all had our characters' sex changed. So my Elf was now a female Elf and could wear the pointy bra I'd picked up...

An extra class and more gear! Including a hat I couldn't wear...

Now I was back to being a man, but had become a Half-Orc Elf. This would prove game-winning...

As you can see! I am the naked blonde chick at Level 10, S is the Skaven Grey Seer on Level 9, A the Dwarf Slayer and J the High Elf Noble, both at Level 8. I won by killing a Level 7 Cockroach and defeating it by more than 10 levels, thus gaining two levels and going from 8 to 10 AND WINNING ahahahahaaaa!

Munchkin comes from Steve Jackson Games and is illustrated (mostly) by John Kovalic of Dork Tower fame.

Beyond the Gates of Antares, or, Kickstarter!

So,  the previous post was meant for Wednesday, and it is now Friday, I figure I owe my loyal readers at least one more post. And what better subject than to announce that I have thrown in my feeble financial weight behind Rick Priestly and John Stallard's new wargame concept, Beyond the Gates of Antares. It is a hard-SF setting which the game's backers - yes, me included - can have a say in. The company they've set up, Dark Space Corp, has more details and a forum.

The big attraction for me, apart from the fact that Warhammer 40,000 is my favourite SF wargame setting, and Rick is responsible for, among others things, Necromunda and Black Powder, is that Hasslefree's Miniatures' very own Kev White will be one of the sculptors (and is indeed the man who has made the Kickstarter's unique backer figure, Hansa).

For a £25 pledge, one will receive a hardback rulebook, a special forum badge, a pdf copy of the rules, and the Hansa figure. A bargain!

They have 30 days (or so) to hit a £300,000 target. As of writing they are at £95,066 - so £6,667 a day is required to launch Beyond the Gates of Antares to, well, the beyond! Go - pledge - make wargaming history!

Concept art from the Kickstarter page.

Take Two

So, apparently, despite my attempt to update my blog on Wednesday with pictures of the Confrontation: Hybrid figures that I'd finished... the machine-spirits said "NO" and so the post vanished into the ether. It isn't even showing up as a draft! Oh well.

Anyway, after being slightly mocked by J for not delivering on my promise of Confrontation figures, here they are - the Gryphon Knights of Hod!

Now I need to work on the Abominations. There's three armed and armoured robo-zombie types, four small cybernetic creatures, and a massive great big clockwork/steampunk ogre thing. So far they're built up but not undercoated. I really need to get a shift on with this lot!

Painting Points:
This Week: 9 (4x 28mm, 1x 54mm)
January 2013: 27 (17x 28mm, 2x 54mm)

Inquisitorial Business

I watched Django Unchained tonight, and thought it was brilliant. Not only was it a great film from Tarantino, but it fitted right in with Spaghetti Westerns of old (even if it is a 'Southern'). Superb acting from Waltz and DiCaprio, Foxx putting in a grand turn, and, well, Waltz stealing the show. Brilliant stuff. Made me want to produce Inquisitor characters based on Dr King Schultz and Django, not to mention the scarily violent Calvin Candie.

Anyway! Today I also finished the final - for now - member of Gideon Syme's warband, Hanna Laschalle. Which means that I am free from my bugbear of "current obsession" to do more than dab paint on the Confrontation commission. Expect to see some more Confrontation figures tomorrow.

Here, then, is Laschalle and the triumverate of Syme, Moritz and Laschalle:

Things

In no particular order, some of the stuff I've done whilst being offline...

Grey Knights Dreadknight, painted waaaay back in 2011 when they were released.

Dark Eldar pain tokens and a member of the Archon's Court (the Gyrinx).

Dual-purpose Chaos Cultists: fit for a Word Bearers' army to play 6th Edition with, and also perfect for Necromunda. Fantastic models that paint up wonderfully well.

Hasslefree Miniatures' H4-ML37 (which I named) painted as an experimental US gene-eered soldier-hound. In powered armour. Of course! HOO-AH MARINES etcetera etcetera.

A special character from Rackham's Confrontation: Hybrid - the first completed part of my commission for J... more of those to come soon!

And, lastly, something I've had my eye out for for a long time:

It's the Cluedo dramatis personae! From this edition of the party favourite:

Sculpted, I think, by Mark Copplestone.
Painting Points:
January 2013: 13 28mm figures, 1 54mm figure = 18 PP.

INTERNET ACCESS GRANTED

Mein Gott! I have internet!

And to celebrate, here is a picture of one of the many figures I have painted since October (!) last year:

Susanna Moritz, a 54mm figure from Games Workshop's Inquisitor range.

I have also painted H4-ML37, finished one of the figures for my friends' commission, and done various other figures - notably Chaos Cultists from the 6th Edition 40K starter set.

And now I have gerbils in my flat, courtesy of my partner. Gerbils! Photos of them and the above figures to follow...

...and updates will resume their daily nature, because otherwise I will be soundly biffed around the head.

Painting Points: Lots. I'll work it out tomorrow.