That's the question that popped into my head the other day. I thought I'd take some time to think about what has influenced me enough that I would develop a such a draw toward miniatures.
Like most North American kids, I had Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars. But I don't think they really count. Sure they happen to be miniature models, but playing with them doesn't seem to increase the likelihood that a child is going to get into minis. In addition, there isn't really a sense of structure in most kid's experiences of "playing cars".
I think my earliest experience playing a structured game with minis was an overnight stay at a cousin's house when I was somewhere around 10 years old.
This particular cousin had a modest collection of medieval fantasy miniatures. The impression has stuck with me that he was into Dungeons & Dragons at the time, though he may have just liked painting minis, I don't know. I remember that he put together a simple skirmish - styled game and we played three or four teams: he, me, and one (or both) of our brothers. Don't remember much else except we rolled a kind of die I had never seen before (a d20) and that my favourite piece was a soldier in chain-mail and a white tunic (crusader-style).
That game definitely had an impact on me. However, I don't think it was the game itself, which was very simple, that was most striking to me, but the fact that we used little figures to play it. Thereafter, my siblings and I would set up similar games using Lego or plastic soldiers on a checker board. What's kind of funny is that it never even crossed my mind to find out where/how to get myself some little pewter men.
Fast-forward a few years to the advent of Micro Machines. Man were those cool! They started cranking out models of Star Wars and Trek ships as well as an original line-up of space-battle- or futuristic-battle-themed models. We thought they were some of the greatest things ever, but we didn't end up getting very many - $8-$9 for three very small toys always seemed like too much. I still balk at the prices I see for miniatures.
But we would set up Imperials and Rebels on opposite sides of our big rug in the living room and flick marbles at each others ships. This was merely an extension of something we were already doing with plastic army guys and dominoes. Sometimes we would play Galaga-style: one ship vs. all the dominoes and the ship gets three hits. We did the same with WWII airplanes.
Then we moved while I was in high school. A lot of things changed at that time. Actually a bit before that. We got a Super Nintendo for Christmas and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat for the computer. A large portion of our play/gaming shifted into those machines.
Fast forward again to about five years ago. I've snapped out of my "I'm in college and too busy for gaming" mindset, I'm losing much of my interest in video games and my wife and I are starting into board games and I'm wanting to get back to carving like I did when I was younger. I just need a subject. An expansion comes out for Ticket to Ride featuring a rather large lizard and an alien in a spaceship. I wanted to try that expansion, but I didn't want to spend $25 to do so. Voila! I had a carving subject! And that's where my home-made miniature-making started. That's right, I have not been making miniatures for long.
It has now been four years, I think, since those TtR minis. My previous posts cover the period between then and now, so I can bring this post to an end.
Monday, 13 April 2015
Friday, 3 April 2015
Getting a game in edgewise...
Sunday the family was invited to a games night at a friend's house. Just before we headed out to the party, I had gathered a couple of
our own games in case anyone wanted to play. At the last moment, I just
decided to take a kids' game as well, just in case. I dropped Snail's Pace Race into the bag.
They had invited a few couples to get together. There was lots of food and chatting and general good times being had. But after almost two hours, no sign of games.
It's fine, really. I know I was was least social person in that party and I get tired of talking pretty quickly. However, everyone else seemed to be having a good time and I didn't want to spoil it, so I found a deck of cards and set up Beleaguered Castle* for myself. At about the point that I realized I had no further moves, our host's 4 year-old son came over to see what I was doing. He proceeded to grab up piles of cards to show me something he could do, which I'm pretty sure from what he was saying that he was talking about doing a bridge shuffle. He didn't actually perform one, but he could sure tell me all about it.
By the time we had finished picking up the cards, my 5 year-old, Jeanette, was standing by me as well. I asked if they wanted to play a game. Yes! I would get a play in that night, didn't matter what! So I pulled out Snail's Pace Race, told our host's son how to play and the three of us were off to the races!
It was a hit! As we finished our first game, he asked if we could play again. Same after the second play. Unfortunately for him, it was time for us to go home (it was after 9:00 and Jeanette had school the next day). In our two games, the red snail was the snail to put your money on. The way the game is supposed to be played (though I haven't introduced this rule to the kids) is that the players "wager" on a snail. You win if you bet on the snail that comes in first, which was green snail the first game and orange snail the second game. You also win if the snail you bet on comes in last; the red snail was the slowest of the slow in both of our races!
So there's my story of inspiration. I am very glad I listened to that inner voice and grabbed a game for kids.
* I have recently learned that I play a variation of Beleaguered Castle which has added rules to make it easier to win. I do still do not find it easy to win, I maybe complete 1 in 20 games.
They had invited a few couples to get together. There was lots of food and chatting and general good times being had. But after almost two hours, no sign of games.
It's fine, really. I know I was was least social person in that party and I get tired of talking pretty quickly. However, everyone else seemed to be having a good time and I didn't want to spoil it, so I found a deck of cards and set up Beleaguered Castle* for myself. At about the point that I realized I had no further moves, our host's 4 year-old son came over to see what I was doing. He proceeded to grab up piles of cards to show me something he could do, which I'm pretty sure from what he was saying that he was talking about doing a bridge shuffle. He didn't actually perform one, but he could sure tell me all about it.
By the time we had finished picking up the cards, my 5 year-old, Jeanette, was standing by me as well. I asked if they wanted to play a game. Yes! I would get a play in that night, didn't matter what! So I pulled out Snail's Pace Race, told our host's son how to play and the three of us were off to the races!
It was a hit! As we finished our first game, he asked if we could play again. Same after the second play. Unfortunately for him, it was time for us to go home (it was after 9:00 and Jeanette had school the next day). In our two games, the red snail was the snail to put your money on. The way the game is supposed to be played (though I haven't introduced this rule to the kids) is that the players "wager" on a snail. You win if you bet on the snail that comes in first, which was green snail the first game and orange snail the second game. You also win if the snail you bet on comes in last; the red snail was the slowest of the slow in both of our races!
So there's my story of inspiration. I am very glad I listened to that inner voice and grabbed a game for kids.
* I have recently learned that I play a variation of Beleaguered Castle which has added rules to make it easier to win. I do still do not find it easy to win, I maybe complete 1 in 20 games.
Saturday, 28 March 2015
Game: Greater Space Battles - My first impression
I told the author of this game I would post the review I wrote last year. I should do it now before I forget.
**First published September 23, 2014**
Here is my review, of sorts, for the game I downloaded and tried out last week, Greater Space Battles, by Tom Wiggins.
The game was created to be solo-friendly, which I explained last time as the biggest reason for wanting to try it out. The designer states that he isn't totally happy with the rules, but that they worked for him well enough that he had fun with it.
I had fun with the game and thought most of the rules worked quite well. I put all of my battle-ready (what I had that was mountable and painted) spaceships into two teams of three ships each. One team I will call the Bolars, as the fleet consisted of two Bolar cruisers from the Yamato/Star Blazers series (plans found on the-blueprints.com) and a smaller ship of my own design which I classed as a destroyer. The other team was made entirely ships of my own design. I will call team two the Sharks, as the designs remind me of sharks. The Sharks had a heavy cruiser, a cruiser, and a frigate.
My scenario went thusly: the Sharks are cruising along at low speed (speed 1) and the Bolars come in to the attack at speed 3. A battle ensues.
I did not get to finish the game, though I played for at least 1.5 hours. Much of the first part was constantly looking at rules for what to do in each phase of a turn (initiative, power allocation, etc.). But things played out more smoothly as the game progressed.
In brief, energy allocation and critical hits are the items affected by ship-to-ship fire. For energy allocation, each ship has five power-up configurations to choose from. As they take on hits (rolls of 1-5 on hit dice), options are removed. These can be repaired in a damage control phase at the end of each turn. Rolls of 6 inflict critical hits. Amass enough crits to equal the size rating of the ship, and it's out of the game. Critical hits may also be repaired.
The results?
Turn 1: The Sharks and Bolars both speed up to close the distance between each other as quickly as possible. No shots fired.
Turn 2: Shooting starts from both sides at extreme ranges with no hits, as might be expected. The fleets continue to close, though at this point the two smaller ships veer off to stay out of range of the opposing big ships.
Turn 3: Bolar cruiser Blue fires on the Shark heavy cruiser, causing some damage. The Shark heavy cruiser sends a powerful shot at Blue Bolar and completely cripples it and deals a critical hit, leaving it drifting. The other ships fire, inflicting minor damage to each other. At the end of turn, Blue Bolar recovers two power options.
Turn 4: Blue Bolar is unlucky in energy allocation rolls and does not get any power for manoeuvres. It is basically useless for the turn. Purple Bolar is unable to fire. Bolar destroyer scores a 3-option hit on Shark cruiser. Blue Bolar fixes another power option and the critical hit.
Turn 5: Blue Bolar starts turning to rejoin the battle, the other ships, having shot past each other by this time, also use manoeuvres to prep for the next pass. The Bolar destroyer takes a critical hit from the Shark cruiser. The smaller ships have closed on each other (side by side actually) and fire. The Bolar destroyer fails to penetrate the Shark frigate's shields, but the Shark frigate rolls very well: a second crit. The Bolars are down one ship.
Turn 6: More manoeuvring and long range fire with little effect on the remaining ships.
Turn 7: More close-up fire, a critical hit dealt to the Shark cruiser. I ended the game as it was getting late.
Final score: Sharks maintain all ships, take 1 crit on cruiser. Bolars lose one ship (equal to 2 crits) and take a crit on the Blue cruiser.
Post-battle thoughts.
I forgot to mention that I played using one of the hex mats from my copy of Renegade Legion: Leviathan instead of measuring out distance as explained in the rules. I found this made movement and manoeuvring very easy.
All I had for energy allocation tokens were poker chips. These were too big and I need something smaller when I play again. I really liked the power allocation scheme. Having to roll and then choose an option that best suited the ship's situation with the power available from the roll was interesting. I think the reduction of options as a result of damage gives a real feeling that systems are damaged, despite not using the more common damage tracking method of marking check boxes.
I did not like the ability to repair critical hits. Since these are the only way to defeat a ship, I thought that fixing the damage would make the game go too long, so I started disregarding those repairs when rolled during the last third of the game. It was only by ignoring this rule that any ships were lost at all.
All in all, it was an enjoyable game to play solo. It would probably work rather well for two players, but all the rolling might take too long, I think that for two players I would rather try to play Full Thrust, if I were to convince someone else (probably one of my brothers) to play with me.
Thanks for reading. If you are even remotely interested in trying a space capital ship battle game, and have no-one else to play against, I recommend you try this game.
***
**First published September 23, 2014**
Here is my review, of sorts, for the game I downloaded and tried out last week, Greater Space Battles, by Tom Wiggins.
The game was created to be solo-friendly, which I explained last time as the biggest reason for wanting to try it out. The designer states that he isn't totally happy with the rules, but that they worked for him well enough that he had fun with it.
I had fun with the game and thought most of the rules worked quite well. I put all of my battle-ready (what I had that was mountable and painted) spaceships into two teams of three ships each. One team I will call the Bolars, as the fleet consisted of two Bolar cruisers from the Yamato/Star Blazers series (plans found on the-blueprints.com) and a smaller ship of my own design which I classed as a destroyer. The other team was made entirely ships of my own design. I will call team two the Sharks, as the designs remind me of sharks. The Sharks had a heavy cruiser, a cruiser, and a frigate.
My scenario went thusly: the Sharks are cruising along at low speed (speed 1) and the Bolars come in to the attack at speed 3. A battle ensues.
I did not get to finish the game, though I played for at least 1.5 hours. Much of the first part was constantly looking at rules for what to do in each phase of a turn (initiative, power allocation, etc.). But things played out more smoothly as the game progressed.
In brief, energy allocation and critical hits are the items affected by ship-to-ship fire. For energy allocation, each ship has five power-up configurations to choose from. As they take on hits (rolls of 1-5 on hit dice), options are removed. These can be repaired in a damage control phase at the end of each turn. Rolls of 6 inflict critical hits. Amass enough crits to equal the size rating of the ship, and it's out of the game. Critical hits may also be repaired.
The results?
Turn 1: The Sharks and Bolars both speed up to close the distance between each other as quickly as possible. No shots fired.
Turn 2: Shooting starts from both sides at extreme ranges with no hits, as might be expected. The fleets continue to close, though at this point the two smaller ships veer off to stay out of range of the opposing big ships.
Turn 3: Bolar cruiser Blue fires on the Shark heavy cruiser, causing some damage. The Shark heavy cruiser sends a powerful shot at Blue Bolar and completely cripples it and deals a critical hit, leaving it drifting. The other ships fire, inflicting minor damage to each other. At the end of turn, Blue Bolar recovers two power options.
Turn 4: Blue Bolar is unlucky in energy allocation rolls and does not get any power for manoeuvres. It is basically useless for the turn. Purple Bolar is unable to fire. Bolar destroyer scores a 3-option hit on Shark cruiser. Blue Bolar fixes another power option and the critical hit.
Turn 5: Blue Bolar starts turning to rejoin the battle, the other ships, having shot past each other by this time, also use manoeuvres to prep for the next pass. The Bolar destroyer takes a critical hit from the Shark cruiser. The smaller ships have closed on each other (side by side actually) and fire. The Bolar destroyer fails to penetrate the Shark frigate's shields, but the Shark frigate rolls very well: a second crit. The Bolars are down one ship.
Turn 6: More manoeuvring and long range fire with little effect on the remaining ships.
Turn 7: More close-up fire, a critical hit dealt to the Shark cruiser. I ended the game as it was getting late.
Final score: Sharks maintain all ships, take 1 crit on cruiser. Bolars lose one ship (equal to 2 crits) and take a crit on the Blue cruiser.
Post-battle thoughts.
I forgot to mention that I played using one of the hex mats from my copy of Renegade Legion: Leviathan instead of measuring out distance as explained in the rules. I found this made movement and manoeuvring very easy.
All I had for energy allocation tokens were poker chips. These were too big and I need something smaller when I play again. I really liked the power allocation scheme. Having to roll and then choose an option that best suited the ship's situation with the power available from the roll was interesting. I think the reduction of options as a result of damage gives a real feeling that systems are damaged, despite not using the more common damage tracking method of marking check boxes.
I did not like the ability to repair critical hits. Since these are the only way to defeat a ship, I thought that fixing the damage would make the game go too long, so I started disregarding those repairs when rolled during the last third of the game. It was only by ignoring this rule that any ships were lost at all.
All in all, it was an enjoyable game to play solo. It would probably work rather well for two players, but all the rolling might take too long, I think that for two players I would rather try to play Full Thrust, if I were to convince someone else (probably one of my brothers) to play with me.
Thanks for reading. If you are even remotely interested in trying a space capital ship battle game, and have no-one else to play against, I recommend you try this game.
***
Monday, 16 March 2015
My Bi-Plane Boast
As I mentioned in my intro to this blog. I started making my own minis with WWI airplanes. This isn't the full truth. There were a couple of things I had carved previous to the planes, but I'll talk about those elsewhere. But it was in carving the planes that I started to devote time to carving and miniatures. After a bit of background, I will introduce you to some of my planes.
As I was browsing BGG, I came across an interesting-looking game. It was a WW1 flight combat game with high ratings from users. It was also entirely a DIY project as one is only supplied the rules, the rest of the game is up to the one who wants to play. It was called Canvas Eagles.
My first play was with one of my brothers using paper plane cut-outs from Junior General and a star field hex map from my copy of Renegade Legion: Leviathan. It was a one-on-one game which we played to a draw - we ran out of gas. Still liking the concept after playing, I dove into carving models and getting ideas for a board.
To make a long story short (maybe I can tell the long story some other time), I ended up halting progress on Canvas Eagles to focus on Wings of War(/Glory) instead, since it has been a lot easier to get to the table and I can still use the planes I have carved.
On to images. I would have uploaded more, but I'd have to sift through folders trying to remember where they are. One might notice a lack of propellers. I just haven't got around to it and I'm not too worried if I don't.
I started with a pair of Albatross D.IIIs. Only the fuselage was carved from wood for each model, the rest was cereal-box cardboard. While they turned out okay, I have since begun upgrades to wooden wings and I am contemplating forming metal landing gear somehow. One I painted red because every WW1 set needs a Red Baron and he mainly flew the Albatrosses! Besides, I think they are pretty planes too. However, there seems to be a number of variation in the colour schemes M. von Richtofen used on his planes, so I decided not to follow any of them and do a simple red fuselage with tan wings. This way it could be Richtofen or not.
I served part of my LDS mission in Brussels, Belgium, so I wanted to give a nod to the Belgians. After a bit of research, a pair of Hanriot HD1s came next. A blue one for Willy Coppens (pictured) and one green with tan wings for a generic pilot. This image is taken post-upgrade to wooden wings and landing gear, but I still glued cardboard wheels on, which have now come off.
Two Phalz D.IIIs followed. Chosen merely because I liked the paint jobs on some images found on the Internet one day.
Next came four Neiuport 17s. No real influence beyond having watched Flyboys a little bit before. I researched pilots who flew the 17s and decided on painting one up for Billy Bishop (pictured) and a second for Charles Nungesser. The other two I made generic French planes.
Continuing on the Flyboys influence, three Fokker Dr.Is. One black one (pictured), similar to the antagonist of the movie, and one painted up like Lothar von Richtofen's plane (would have been better for a picture). The third is unpainted save for an orange tail section, having been damaged and needing repair.
I don't remember where in the chronology of this list the DH-9 goes, I just know it was completed before the following two entries and a Gotha bomber. But the DH-9 is one of my favourites from my second generation of plane carvings.
Generations? Yes. The Albatrosses and Hanriots had cardboard wings to start. Cardboard didn't seem to like staying glued to the wood, especially after painting. I needed to make a change to how I was doing things. My second generation planes are those with which I avoided using cardboard. The Gotha bomber (of which I currently can't seem to find the pictures I took) will be the last of the second generation as I made another sweeping change, which may be somewhat visible in the next two images; I started rounding the wings so they look more like airplane wings than lengths of 2x10s. And what a difference that made!
Both of these planes I painted at the same time. So without further ado:
A SPAD XIII with markings inspired by one of the many pictures that came up in a Google image search.
Then a Halberstadt CLII. With the specs made up for it by a Wings of War/Glory fan, this is a virtually unbeatable plane so far in the games I've played with or against it. That aspect pretty much lines up with the information I've been able to find on it: a two-seater designed to perform like a fighter plane.
In early 2014 things got busy and I wandered into other interests, like space ships, and I haven't carved any planes since. Though I do know that the next one I do will be a Sopwith Camel. Why? Because it's the only one I have need in order to cover all the maneuvre decks available in the Wings of War game I have.
As I was browsing BGG, I came across an interesting-looking game. It was a WW1 flight combat game with high ratings from users. It was also entirely a DIY project as one is only supplied the rules, the rest of the game is up to the one who wants to play. It was called Canvas Eagles.
My first play was with one of my brothers using paper plane cut-outs from Junior General and a star field hex map from my copy of Renegade Legion: Leviathan. It was a one-on-one game which we played to a draw - we ran out of gas. Still liking the concept after playing, I dove into carving models and getting ideas for a board.
To make a long story short (maybe I can tell the long story some other time), I ended up halting progress on Canvas Eagles to focus on Wings of War(/Glory) instead, since it has been a lot easier to get to the table and I can still use the planes I have carved.
On to images. I would have uploaded more, but I'd have to sift through folders trying to remember where they are. One might notice a lack of propellers. I just haven't got around to it and I'm not too worried if I don't.
I started with a pair of Albatross D.IIIs. Only the fuselage was carved from wood for each model, the rest was cereal-box cardboard. While they turned out okay, I have since begun upgrades to wooden wings and I am contemplating forming metal landing gear somehow. One I painted red because every WW1 set needs a Red Baron and he mainly flew the Albatrosses! Besides, I think they are pretty planes too. However, there seems to be a number of variation in the colour schemes M. von Richtofen used on his planes, so I decided not to follow any of them and do a simple red fuselage with tan wings. This way it could be Richtofen or not.
 |
| Albatross D.III: The Red Baron? Cardboard wings are ok, for a while. |
I served part of my LDS mission in Brussels, Belgium, so I wanted to give a nod to the Belgians. After a bit of research, a pair of Hanriot HD1s came next. A blue one for Willy Coppens (pictured) and one green with tan wings for a generic pilot. This image is taken post-upgrade to wooden wings and landing gear, but I still glued cardboard wheels on, which have now come off.
 |
| Hanriot HD1: a little darker blue than Coppens' plane. |
Two Phalz D.IIIs followed. Chosen merely because I liked the paint jobs on some images found on the Internet one day.
 |
| Two Phalz D.IIIs; the black insignia were an experiment with using Sharpie instead of paint. |
Next came four Neiuport 17s. No real influence beyond having watched Flyboys a little bit before. I researched pilots who flew the 17s and decided on painting one up for Billy Bishop (pictured) and a second for Charles Nungesser. The other two I made generic French planes.
  |
| Neiuport 17s painted as Charles Nungesser (top) and Billy Bishop (bottom). |
Continuing on the Flyboys influence, three Fokker Dr.Is. One black one (pictured), similar to the antagonist of the movie, and one painted up like Lothar von Richtofen's plane (would have been better for a picture). The third is unpainted save for an orange tail section, having been damaged and needing repair.
 |
| Fokker Dr.I |
I don't remember where in the chronology of this list the DH-9 goes, I just know it was completed before the following two entries and a Gotha bomber. But the DH-9 is one of my favourites from my second generation of plane carvings.
 |
| Airco DH-9 |
Generations? Yes. The Albatrosses and Hanriots had cardboard wings to start. Cardboard didn't seem to like staying glued to the wood, especially after painting. I needed to make a change to how I was doing things. My second generation planes are those with which I avoided using cardboard. The Gotha bomber (of which I currently can't seem to find the pictures I took) will be the last of the second generation as I made another sweeping change, which may be somewhat visible in the next two images; I started rounding the wings so they look more like airplane wings than lengths of 2x10s. And what a difference that made!
Both of these planes I painted at the same time. So without further ado:
A SPAD XIII with markings inspired by one of the many pictures that came up in a Google image search.
 |
| SPAD XIII: Could be one of the Lafayette Escadrille! |
Then a Halberstadt CLII. With the specs made up for it by a Wings of War/Glory fan, this is a virtually unbeatable plane so far in the games I've played with or against it. That aspect pretty much lines up with the information I've been able to find on it: a two-seater designed to perform like a fighter plane.
 |
| Halberstadt CL.II |
In early 2014 things got busy and I wandered into other interests, like space ships, and I haven't carved any planes since. Though I do know that the next one I do will be a Sopwith Camel. Why? Because it's the only one I have need in order to cover all the maneuvre decks available in the Wings of War game I have.
Saturday, 14 March 2015
Getting my feet wet: my first homemade minis
Although my brothers and I made up and built our own games in our youth, I don't remember ever making our own minis for them. If they involved minis at all, we used what we already had: Lego figures, plastic soldiers, Micro Machines. I believe my first set of scratch-built game miniatures were more recently produced than some time in my teens.
Carving boats was something I did do in my teens, along with a number of other things that are usually categorized as crafts, so it isn't a big leap for me to produce my own game pieces. Maybe the only wonder is why I didn't start earlier. I guess I just needed a push from somewhere and it never came in my youth because what I had then for gaming was always good enough. That and I started spending a lot of time on video games.
So what was the push? It was the debut of the Ticket to Ride expansion, Alvin and Dexter. The expansion adds a Godzilla-like character (Dexter) and an alien character (Alvin) to the usual Ticket to Ride play. Basically, the game starts with each of the monsters on a randomly selected city. No routes may be claimed while a city is occupied by a monster, but players may pay matching cards to move a monster to a different city. I didn't know if I would like it and I didn't want to spend $25+ to find out (sorry DoW). Good thing too because we've only played the expansion once since I carved the pieces and I think that they have recently been commandeered by my children.
So here are my first homemade minis! Both are roughly 2" high, carved from a bit of waste lumber and painted using Testor's enamel paints that I picked up for free through a Kijiji add.
Because it had been a while, I thought the UFO would provide a good re-starting point. I think it turned out pretty good. There isn't much to do with a saucer to make it more dramatic, but I tried to shape the base it's on and paint it to look like the light of some kind of "abduction ray". The fact that the wood grain shows through the yellow gives it the look of having a kind of spiralled energy flow.
Next, my beginner's try on a mini-giant-lizard. Appearing more like a dinosaur than a fearsome Godzilla, I still like the way it turned out. Again, not as dramatic as a professional might produce, but who needs that. I adapted a template I found for a simple bear carving. What she lacks in pizazz, she makes up for in stability on a game board.
It was while I was carving the lizard-beast that I got a set of Dremel bits for wood carving, which was good to use for the areas that were too hard to leave a smooth surface using my knives.
So far, my "Faux Dexter" is my only attempt at carving any kind of animal-type thing. I've been thinking about doing people, but I haven't taken that plunge yet.
Carving boats was something I did do in my teens, along with a number of other things that are usually categorized as crafts, so it isn't a big leap for me to produce my own game pieces. Maybe the only wonder is why I didn't start earlier. I guess I just needed a push from somewhere and it never came in my youth because what I had then for gaming was always good enough. That and I started spending a lot of time on video games.
So what was the push? It was the debut of the Ticket to Ride expansion, Alvin and Dexter. The expansion adds a Godzilla-like character (Dexter) and an alien character (Alvin) to the usual Ticket to Ride play. Basically, the game starts with each of the monsters on a randomly selected city. No routes may be claimed while a city is occupied by a monster, but players may pay matching cards to move a monster to a different city. I didn't know if I would like it and I didn't want to spend $25+ to find out (sorry DoW). Good thing too because we've only played the expansion once since I carved the pieces and I think that they have recently been commandeered by my children.
So here are my first homemade minis! Both are roughly 2" high, carved from a bit of waste lumber and painted using Testor's enamel paints that I picked up for free through a Kijiji add.
 | |
| Alien spaceship. I carved this one first, I didn't feel like my skill set extended to carving life forms at the time. |
Because it had been a while, I thought the UFO would provide a good re-starting point. I think it turned out pretty good. There isn't much to do with a saucer to make it more dramatic, but I tried to shape the base it's on and paint it to look like the light of some kind of "abduction ray". The fact that the wood grain shows through the yellow gives it the look of having a kind of spiralled energy flow.
 |
| Mini-giant-dino-monster looking for something to destroy. So far the only creature I've carved. |
It was while I was carving the lizard-beast that I got a set of Dremel bits for wood carving, which was good to use for the areas that were too hard to leave a smooth surface using my knives.
So far, my "Faux Dexter" is my only attempt at carving any kind of animal-type thing. I've been thinking about doing people, but I haven't taken that plunge yet.
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
My First Time with "Clobberin' Time"
**First published March 31, 2014**
In other news, I tried out a game with my daughter. It's called Clobberin' Time and is being developed by Kaptain Kobold of the blog Stronghold Rebuilt. It's a fairly simple game of super hero/villain combat. To paraphrase the introduction: Forget the back stories and personal internal struggles of the characters, this game is all about the battles they have with each other!
My daughter is four. More than anything, this was probably a test of attention span. I greatly simplified the game while playing, having chosen special abilities for the characters, but ignoring them most of the time.
We built a city. In this city was the Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie Blender of Happiness and Good-will (SSSmoBloHaGoo), which in her words "helped people to be happy and nice to everyone." Somehow, the villain, Spud (some kind of pointy-toothed tuber with a hat and tie) was able to get to the machine and change it around so that it made people mean. He had two helpers, whose names I now forget but who were realized in the forms of a bi-pedal dinosaur and the Pokemon, Ivysaur.
She chose two heroes, a ninja named Inja Turtle (even though he is not a turtle; for some reason she leaves that first 'N' off when she says 'ninja', +1 cuteness) and a green army dude with a Sten machine gun and a grenade named Army Guy. The heroes were tasked with getting to the SSSmoBloHaGoo and restoring it to its original purpose (switch the polarity?). The action was quick. I let her choose most of the moves and roll the dice.
Turn 1
Inja came up the right side of the city. Spud wanted to deal with Inja alone and headed out to meet him. The dinosaur spotted Army Guy and moved toward him. Army Guy advanced, firing his Sten, but missing. Ivysaur moved to guard the SSSmoBloHaGoo.
Turn 2
Inja and Spud meet and exchange blows neither one gaining the upper hand. Army advances to shoot from a closer position, gaining on hit on the dinosaur. Dinosaur tries to bite Army, but is blocked. Ivysaur reaches the SSSmoBloHaGoo.
Turn 3
Inja gets away from Spud and runs for the SSSmoBloHaGoo. Spud decides to help dinosaur and heads off to try and trap Army between them. Army runs from dinosaur and turns back to fire, but dinosaur must have picked up a man hole cover to block the shots with. Ivysaur gets ready to take Inja.
Turn 4
Inja sneaks around Ivysaur to get to the SSSmoBloHaGoo and attempts to switch the polarity (roll double 5s), but fails. He is attacked by Ivysaur, but blocks the blows. Spud decides that leaving Ivysaur to deal with Inja was a bad idea and runs toward the SSSmoBloHaGoo. Army runs at spud, firing and missing. Dinosaur tries again to eat Army, but his teeth glance off Army's helmet.
Turn 5
Spud and Ivysaur both try to land a blow on Inja, but Inja is able to defend himself, then evade to run to the other side of the SSSmoBloHaGoo. While Army is still trying to put down dinosaur, Inja succeeds in restoring the SSSmoBloHaGoo to its original settings, immediately diffusing the anger and frustration levels of the villains to the point of their apologizing for the inconvenience they caused and agreeing to undergo anger management therapy.
In other news, I tried out a game with my daughter. It's called Clobberin' Time and is being developed by Kaptain Kobold of the blog Stronghold Rebuilt. It's a fairly simple game of super hero/villain combat. To paraphrase the introduction: Forget the back stories and personal internal struggles of the characters, this game is all about the battles they have with each other!
My daughter is four. More than anything, this was probably a test of attention span. I greatly simplified the game while playing, having chosen special abilities for the characters, but ignoring them most of the time.
We built a city. In this city was the Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie Blender of Happiness and Good-will (SSSmoBloHaGoo), which in her words "helped people to be happy and nice to everyone." Somehow, the villain, Spud (some kind of pointy-toothed tuber with a hat and tie) was able to get to the machine and change it around so that it made people mean. He had two helpers, whose names I now forget but who were realized in the forms of a bi-pedal dinosaur and the Pokemon, Ivysaur.
She chose two heroes, a ninja named Inja Turtle (even though he is not a turtle; for some reason she leaves that first 'N' off when she says 'ninja', +1 cuteness) and a green army dude with a Sten machine gun and a grenade named Army Guy. The heroes were tasked with getting to the SSSmoBloHaGoo and restoring it to its original purpose (switch the polarity?). The action was quick. I let her choose most of the moves and roll the dice.
Turn 1
Inja came up the right side of the city. Spud wanted to deal with Inja alone and headed out to meet him. The dinosaur spotted Army Guy and moved toward him. Army Guy advanced, firing his Sten, but missing. Ivysaur moved to guard the SSSmoBloHaGoo.
Turn 2
Inja and Spud meet and exchange blows neither one gaining the upper hand. Army advances to shoot from a closer position, gaining on hit on the dinosaur. Dinosaur tries to bite Army, but is blocked. Ivysaur reaches the SSSmoBloHaGoo.
Turn 3
Inja gets away from Spud and runs for the SSSmoBloHaGoo. Spud decides to help dinosaur and heads off to try and trap Army between them. Army runs from dinosaur and turns back to fire, but dinosaur must have picked up a man hole cover to block the shots with. Ivysaur gets ready to take Inja.
Turn 4
Inja sneaks around Ivysaur to get to the SSSmoBloHaGoo and attempts to switch the polarity (roll double 5s), but fails. He is attacked by Ivysaur, but blocks the blows. Spud decides that leaving Ivysaur to deal with Inja was a bad idea and runs toward the SSSmoBloHaGoo. Army runs at spud, firing and missing. Dinosaur tries again to eat Army, but his teeth glance off Army's helmet.
Turn 5
Spud and Ivysaur both try to land a blow on Inja, but Inja is able to defend himself, then evade to run to the other side of the SSSmoBloHaGoo. While Army is still trying to put down dinosaur, Inja succeeds in restoring the SSSmoBloHaGoo to its original settings, immediately diffusing the anger and frustration levels of the villains to the point of their apologizing for the inconvenience they caused and agreeing to undergo anger management therapy.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Painting Mister Hyde
About a year ago, I came across a set of skirmish rules written for super-hero battles (Clobberin' Time). As the rules were written with HeroClix minis in mind, I decided at the time to purchase a bunch of HeroClix from ebay. I've only played these rules twice: the second time played solo and the first time very watered down for my daughter, 4 at the time, meaning it was pretty well a solo game too.
This year, I am interested in trying the Pulp Alley rule set. So I downloaded the starter rules and cards to try it out. Having printed out a bunch of pulp-style paper figures (there's a joke in there somewhere), I have most of what I would need to play sans sculpted minis. Assembling those paper stand-ups reminded me of a BGG user's collection of modified Clix. He modified sculpts make superheroes not in the HeroClix line-up or characters from other genres: pulp, sci-fi, and others.
"Start simple" is the advice I see over and over from the advanced Heroclix modders out there. However, most of the sculpts I had received in that initial ebay purchase are not easily converted to other things. So I bought some Heroclix I saw at the dollar store, taking packs with figures I felt would not require much modification to fit in with a pulpy theme.
Then I tried paint washes and dry brushing of a few of the sculpts I won't be changing. After the success of washes and dry-brushing, I took a Mister Hyde figure (I ended up with two) and started painting. Like all my painting so far, I'm using the el cheapo-brand craft acrylics.
I figure it'll be a relatively easy mod to go with a western theme for Hyde; make him a burly tough. The colours can be seen in the image below. I mixed some red into my brown for the coat and I think it turned out well, except that it is now the same colour as his hair, so I plan on adding yellow to it. I could even chop off the top of his head and glue a hat there. I'd like to put something in one of his hands, but I haven't decided yet. I thought about a couple of six-guns, but don't like that idea due to the lack of holsters on the sculpt and the hand positions (which I could change once I've done enough "simple" stuff). Might work to add a rifle held in one hand or a lasso held in both hands. Whips? Knives? That would work. We'll see how ambitious I get when I get time to work on this some more.
Looking at this image kinda makes me want to repaint that one lazy eye. It's all eye can see now.
This year, I am interested in trying the Pulp Alley rule set. So I downloaded the starter rules and cards to try it out. Having printed out a bunch of pulp-style paper figures (there's a joke in there somewhere), I have most of what I would need to play sans sculpted minis. Assembling those paper stand-ups reminded me of a BGG user's collection of modified Clix. He modified sculpts make superheroes not in the HeroClix line-up or characters from other genres: pulp, sci-fi, and others.
"Start simple" is the advice I see over and over from the advanced Heroclix modders out there. However, most of the sculpts I had received in that initial ebay purchase are not easily converted to other things. So I bought some Heroclix I saw at the dollar store, taking packs with figures I felt would not require much modification to fit in with a pulpy theme.
Then I tried paint washes and dry brushing of a few of the sculpts I won't be changing. After the success of washes and dry-brushing, I took a Mister Hyde figure (I ended up with two) and started painting. Like all my painting so far, I'm using the el cheapo-brand craft acrylics.
I figure it'll be a relatively easy mod to go with a western theme for Hyde; make him a burly tough. The colours can be seen in the image below. I mixed some red into my brown for the coat and I think it turned out well, except that it is now the same colour as his hair, so I plan on adding yellow to it. I could even chop off the top of his head and glue a hat there. I'd like to put something in one of his hands, but I haven't decided yet. I thought about a couple of six-guns, but don't like that idea due to the lack of holsters on the sculpt and the hand positions (which I could change once I've done enough "simple" stuff). Might work to add a rifle held in one hand or a lasso held in both hands. Whips? Knives? That would work. We'll see how ambitious I get when I get time to work on this some more.
 |
| Original Mister Hyde following black wash on the right. My painting (so far) on the left. |
Looking at this image kinda makes me want to repaint that one lazy eye. It's all eye can see now.
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