28 Collected Kickstarter: Trench Crusade Combat Biologist

Variants Of Concern.

28, in conjunction with Dave Taylor Miniatures, is running a Kickstater campaign to publish a physical version of 28 magazine, collecting many excellent articles from the past 6 issues of the digital magazine! The Kickstarter is only running for a few more days, but has exceeded its funding goal and unlocked a host of fun stretch goals. One of the unlocked stretch goals is providing every backer with an STL file to 3D print a miniature for Trench Crusade! The miniature, a Combat Biologist, was sculpted by 28’s very own James Sherriff! We were fortunate to get a copy of the model and did some minor conversion work on it. We hope to paint it soon. We encourage everyone to look at the Kickstarter and consider getting a copy before the campaign ends next week!

28 Collected Kickstarter!

We are excited to say that 28, in conjunction with Dave Taylor Miniatures, just started a Kickstater campaign to publish a physical version of 28 magazine, collecting many excellent articles from the past 6 issues of the digital magazine! Since the first issue was released in 2018, people have been asking for a printed version of the magazine, so we are happy that this is finally becoming a reality. The three of us have been involved with 28 since its inception, where we have been editors and writers. The printed volume will be a 320-page, hardback book, with almost 50 different articles. One of these articles was written by the three of us, talking about our Vastarian: Dreams of the Pious open invitational! We encourage everyone to look at the Kickstarter and consider getting a copy!

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 84: Chatting with Ana Polanšćak about Gardens of Hecate and her new Kickstarter

Ana Polanšćak joined us on this episode to talk about Gardens of Hecate, her long term hobby project which has expanded into a painting studio. We discuss what the hobby community is like in Croatia and how she started in the hobby. We talk at length about how she found her distinctive macabre style of miniature creation and how she is unafraid to constantly try new things to achieve her visions. We also talk about her focus on creating immersive narratives with her games like Legen and Sunhold, and how she is using these games to create her own ruleset, Fabula. We move on to discuss her involvement in various community events like Tor Megiddo and Mordheim 2019, and their importance in expanding the community and pushing ourselves further creatively. Finally we talk about how she turned her blog Gardens of Hecate into a business and her Kickstarter with Dave Taylor.

Kingdom Death Multi-part kit challenge: Bigbossredskullz Amazon

Amazon by Bigbossredskullz 

At the end of last year, we started the Kingdom Death Multi-part Kit Challenge to see what other hobbyists could do with the wealth of plastic pieces from the Kingdom Death boxed game. We were not overly impressed with the multi-part kits, but were confident that something special could come out of them given the proper talent. So, after building a single model from the kits, we sent them away.

Kingdom Death: Multi-part kit challenge - Model complete

Born of strife...

As 2015 came to a close, we looked at the multipart Survivor models that came with the Kingdom Death boxed game.  We were not too thrilled with the models, their proportions, the level of detail, and cast quality were just not as good as many of the other single pose Kingdom Death models.  These considerations made us uncertain what we should do with the models; it just did not seem like it was worth our time and effort to try to assemble them.  We ended up deciding to make a single model out of all the sprues and then send the rest off to another hobbyist, with the hope that they will continue to pass the models around to other hobbyists to see what they could create with the parts.  The Muli-part of Death Project was born.  In the last post, we showed you the model that we came up with.  I found some time to start painting the model last month and am pleased to show you the finished model!

Kingdom Death multi-part kits: their place alongside the other KD models and miniature gaming as a whole

In addition to creating the single-pose starting survivors and the monsters for them to battle, one of the main drives of the Kingdom Death Kickstarter was to design multi-part plastic kits for creating new survivor models. After defeating each of the different monsters in the game, your survivors are able to craft new weapons and equipment with the remains of their slain foes. To represent this in model form, they created a range of different multi-part sets with different weapon options and armor types that could be crafted in the game (Rawhide armor, Leather armor, Lantern armor, White Lion armor, Phoenix armor, Unarmored). This system was designed to allow players to continually build new models of their survivors as they progress in the campaign.

Black Sailors: Papa Jambo, Witch Doctor Unboxing

Papa Jambo, Witch Doctor of the Black Sailors

I have always had a soft spot for orcs, ever since I started playing 40k with the second edition boxed game.  They were called Space Orks back then, and their identity was a little confused, equal parts goofy and equal parts brutal.  Most of the models were also quite generic humanoid figures, with few discerning features.  This all changed when Brian Nelson re-envisioned/recreated orcs for Games Workshop.  Rather than spindly human frames, they were replaced with hunched, hulking bodies, with huge corded muscles dominating their oversized arms.  Their faces also changed slightly, taking all the hallmarks of orcs in the fantasy setting, pointed ears, small recessed eyes, pug nose, and a broad jaw brimming with sharp teeth, and created something more his own.  This gave Games Workshop’s Orc design their own unique look, even though it was built from standard tropes, and it solidified my love of orks.  In the years since Nelson’s redesign, many have tried to sculpt orks in his style, but few ever really succeeded.  They tend to go through all the right motions, but always ultimately lose something in the process (often the sheer brutal practicalism of their clothes and weapons, replaced with wonky oversized nonsense).  I can probably count on one hand the orc models that I like that are not designed by Brian Nelson, and therefore almost lost interest in new orc models in general.  This all changed with the Black Sailors - Pirates, Orcs, Fantasy Miniatures! Kickstarter by Big Child Creatives.  They are a small company of very talented sculptors based out of Madrid Spain, who decided to launch a project with the following premise: "At BigChild we love orcs, we love pirates, so we thought, why not combine the two and produce such miniatures!?"  The result is an astounding collection of swashbuckling orcs, each gigantic in 54mm scale.  The amount of passion and creative energy oozing from each model literally renewed my faith in the creation of orc models.  I had to get one.  I ended up selecting Papa Jambo, a ramshackle Witch Doctor, and to my delight, he arrived in the mail yesterday.  I think that pictures will convey the meticulous craftsmanship of these models better than I could write!

Kingdom Death: Marred by Misogyny?

Miniature-based wargaming has long been a male-dominated hobby, one that has partially been kept that way by the portrayal of women in many of the games (well-endowed and often scantily clad women in provocative poses, etc...). Anyone who has had any involvement with the hobby can doubtlessly come up with plenty of examples of this, but today I want to touch on one of the newer offenders, Kingdom Death. After over 2.5 years since being successfully funded on Kickstarter, the base game for Kingdom Death: Monster is finally in the hands of the over 5000 project backers. For those unaware, Kingdom Death: Monster is a survival horror boardgame which puts you in control of a band of human survivors awakening in a nightmarish realm of endless night, beset on all sides by cohorts of horrid creatures. The imaginative and unsettling creatures that populate the game take heavy inspiration from Kentaro Miura's fantasy-horror epic, Berserk (Bruticus over at Ex Profundis has an excellent compilation of artwork from  the manga if you are interested). To complement this unique theme, all of the survivors and monsters have been skillfully realized in game terms as finely detailed miniatures. The theme and accompanying miniatures would have been enough to support a successful Kickstarter campaign (back in late 2012, Kickstarter was not as inundated with miniature games). However, one of the primary things used to promote the game were "pin-up' versions of many of the human survivors. All of these pin-ups are female, generally very sparsely clothed, and often in suggestive poses. Just a glance at some of the concept art for these pin-ups should give you a good idea of what I am referring to:

Karl Kopinski: Zombicide Special Guest Box Impressions

Karl Kopinski steps into Zombicide!

Although this blog was created primarily to document our ongoing modeling projects for miniature-based gaming, we also wanted to use it to talk about and showcase artists.  Towards this end, I have never missed an opportunity to extol the skill of Karl Kopinski.  Although he has since returned to freelance work, Kopinski created a name for himself during the 7 years he spent working in the Games Workshop art department.  With an incredible eye for detail, tempered with both proportion and perspective,  his work infused a vitality and realism into Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 that has not been surpassed or equaled since his departure.  So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that Guillotine Games, creators of the wildly successful zombie board game Zombicide, commissioned Kopinski to design two survivors (and their zombie counterparts!) for use in the game!

Deep Wars: Converting the Silent Soldier

The call of the wretched sea...

Antimatter Games’ Deep Wars miniatures game has many elements that draw me to it: the tight ruleset and the very narrative focus certainly rank towards the top, but the primary draw is, without a doubt, the setting...  It is underwater!  What other miniature game can claim that? The underwater setting offers all manner of unique opportunities for both gameplay and narrative.  Towards this end, the release of the Fortune Hunter’s Silent Soldier model really captured my imagination. What is not to love about the concept of an underwater assassin encumbered by all manner of deepsea diving gear?  The concept alone is one that really offers a unique modeling opportunity, trying to create an amalgamation of sleek and cumbersome.  And while Paolo Fabiani did an excellent job exploring these themes with his sculpt of the model, I was always a little skeptical of the two cutlasses he was wielding. Why would an assassin be wielding such massive weapons underwater and why would they be in such a state of disrepair? Ultimately, I can’t really blame Fabiani for this, as he was following the original concept image. Even still, I knew it was something that I would change if I purchased the model.

Imbrian Arts: The King of Ghouls

Imbrian Arts Miniatures does not disappoint with their kickstarter! That is indeed a wax seal on the certificate of authenticity!

Today I want to talk about a miniature that I just received from backing Imbrian Arts kickstarter project in December of 2012. It is a model of “The King of Ghouls,” one of four models that Jody Siegel sculpted and used kickstarter to raise money to put into production.

Deadzone (Mantic) Unboxing

And Deadzone arrives!

On Monday, I was excited to get home to find that my Deadzone Kickstarter pledge was delivered. Ever since Mantic started to ship out copies of the game two weeks ago, the internet has been alive with activity surrounding it.  Although the overall impressions were largely high, an increasing number of comments on their Kickstarter comments page suggested that things were poorly packaged and confusing.  Reading all this only increased my anticipation to receive the game myself and to see how everything would turn out.

Deadzone (Mantic): Digital Rulebook Impressions

The Deadzone rulebook is in print!

As evidenced by Between the Bolter and Me’s first blog post, I really enjoyed Mantic’s fantasy sports game Dreadball, largely for its simple-to-pick-up rules and fast pace.  So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that Jake Thornton (creator of Dreadball) was working on a skirmish game called Deadzone. The game was designed to emulate smaller scale battles between individual squads, set in Mantic’s Warpath universe, which is their primary science fiction wargame.  Like Dreadball, Mantic used Kickstarter to raise money to produce the models, terrain, and other supplies for the game.  And while none of the models they previewed appealed to me too much, I still jumped at the opportunity to send some money their way to get the boxed game, primarily for the rules and the terrain that was to be included (after all, I figured I could use Warhammer 40k models to stand in for most of the Deadzone factions).  Fast-forward six months, and Mantic is getting very close to being ready to send out the boxed games and the different faction starter sets.  I must say that the speed at which Mantic was able to get everything produced surprised me a little and, admittedly, made me fear that perhaps things were a little rushed to meet the deadlines they placed on themselves with the Kickstarter. To help backers bide their time as they waited for their models to arrive, Mantic sent out digital copies of the finalized rulebook.  After spending a couple days reading through the book, I wanted to provide my initial impressions and comment on whether my fears about the game feeling rushed have any merit.

Deep Wars at Games and Stuff

A fantastic submarine created for Antimatter Games using a host of old toys and random bits.

Having been a little while since I last played a game of Deep Wars, and knowing that a lot of newer models have begun to show up in retailers, I decided to head down to Glen Burnie’s excellent Games and Stuff to see if I could get a game in.  Few people know Deep Wars better than Patrick Weaver; having run Antimatter’s Deep Wars booth at both Adepticon and Gencon, he has spent more time in the inky depths of the ocean then anyone I know.  Luckily for me (and anyone in or around Maryland), Patrick runs Deep Wars games every Sunday at Games and Stuff, and has virtually all of the current range of models if you would like to try out some new units or even a new warband!

Leviathan Crusader Complete: Apocalypse and beyond!

The Crusader is finished, ready for Apocalypse!

Seeing that Apocalypse is coming to 6th edition Warhammer 40k, it seemed an excellent time to put the finishing touches on the Leviathan Crusader I have been slowly working on for the last few months.  Although I largely completed the model in my last post, I never decided on a final pose, or assembled the left hand vulcan cannon arm that was given for free as a part of the kickstarter.

Leviathan Crusader: Assembling the arms

By the manner of their deaths we shall know them.

I thought I would update you all on my progress with the Crusader.  After last post, I figured I would only have one more entry about the Crusader, showing the completed Crusader, arms and all.  The last few weeks have not afforded me much hobby time however, and the arms took much longer than I had initially anticipated (the belt of the assault cannon was particularly daunting...).  I have finally finished both the sword arm and the first vulcan cannon, and wanted to show and tell you my thoughts on them.

Leviathan Crusader: Assembling the body

Armless, but still imposing.

Having finished building the legs, instead of going on to assemble the arms as the instructions suggested, I decided I wanted to finish the core of the titan.  Since the arms can easily be swapped at any time, I wanted to see the actual body of the crusader come together, and then decide on how to arm it afterwards.

When assembling the pelvis/spine region of the body, you put three ball joints on the titan (one for each leg and one for the spinal column).  These fit on so tightly that glue is not necessary, and I would actually recommend not using it at all.  You need to apply a huge amount of pressure to get the balls to slide in completely, and if you apply glue it might set before they are completely in position.  Even without glue, when you put them on they are not coming back off, so make sure you are committed when applying them.  After attaching them, I did apply some super thin cement (something I really recommend if you are starting to build such a large plastic kit, because it can easily be applied after you have fitted pieces together and are certain they are attached properly).  

Deep Wars! - A first look at some of the miniatures

It is an exciting time for miniature gaming enthusiasts, with the shift towards crowd funded miniature lines and games, we are seeing a surge of interesting new projects that would not have been possible otherwise. I have been on top of many of the different initiatives on Kickstarter, including Sedition Wars, Kingdom Death, and Imbrian Arts Miniatures (many of which I hope to post about in the future). However, there is one I managed to miss out on, one that I am still kicking myself for: Deep Wars!

Still my favorite Deep Wars model, and what got me interested in the game to begin with!