Another one bites the dust...

So strolling thru Oak Park,IL today to catch a matinee of the new Riddick movie, I walked by the old stomping grounds of Games Workshop, Oak Park, and noticed the big sign in the window they are  closing on 9.22.13 . A textbook lesson  on how to "Kamikazee a great retail location with constant foot traffic and a huge public High School and Library within walking distance. "GWOP" as we used to call it went from gaming mecha and after hours club hangout with never less than a dozen people in the store and three employees at all times...to one man store run by super fan and awesome guy, who was really reaching out to the kids. to generic one man  red shirt, tumble weeds and crickets chirping. Maybe my pal Jeff who used to run it will muse how he made that place a kick ass gaming store from 2007 to 2009.  Anyway the writings been on wall for sometime well see what happens to GW overall, I read they want to sell it off . Games Workshop , Oak Park 2007-2013..I'd say I'd miss you but I think I have been in there 2 times in the last 3 years, maybe something useful will take over that location.

The Blackout has Lifted- FUBAD

GW's Minas Tirith with my "scaled up" recreation in background

 Having not updated the blog in 6 weeks, (a first for me in the blogs lifespan) I now know how alot of you feel when you go long periods without an update. In my case, I am sure for many of you. It hasnt been because there is nothing going on, but because I havent had the time to put together two coherent thoughts every couple days saying I'll update tomorrow, or this weekend...then distractions abound and boom nothing happens. Today I'd made sure I had the camera downstairs as I spent some time getting things moving for Bilbos Birthday Bash coming in November.

Original. my almost complete left wall and the right wall from in the background I used an MDF shim cut at a 5 degree pitch to mirror the wall angle of the original piece.

 For this years BBB several of other local players and I talked about the event at Adepticon loosing agreeing to be team FUBAD, which stands for "Freaking Unbelievable Big Ass Displays" If I recall correctly. Considering I am continuing my 2013 theme of "The Battle of Pelennor Fields" for all LotR projects. I thought rebuilding the walls of Minas Tirith in a much better scale then the rather average sized set GW came out with years ago would be in order.  According to Professor Tolkien- The walls of Minas Tirith are seven stacked levels each 100 feet higher the preceding level with the 7th level   being 300 feet high making the pinnacle ( that Denethor swan dives off ablaze in film version of Return of the King)  "1000 feet above the plain" that being said in 28mm the set GW released has walls about 25 feet high, I bumped it up to around 50 feet for my scaled up version, with the main gate having additional towers that will go up to 15 inches high..so while still not quite 100 feet its alot closer and the size more impressive when compared with the miniatures.

Gluing up the back side its still WIP .

 The biggest obstacle here is the casting of course. It's alot of plaster  a ton of individul casts of the castle wall slab and the 4 inch tower mold, I also hacked up my resin GW set because I'm getting a silicon mold made of the crenellations so my final product will feature those as well.  I still have considerable work to do on this and its display table which is well underway and I'll elaborate on in a future post.

This whole setup is on the scale of something you'd see at the 40K TT at Adepticon and not something I could manage if this tourney was at it former home of the Chicago Battle Bunker. Being BBB is a hotel this year free up some of the space limitations.

The Witch Kings ride with custom Minas Tirith style base...increasing his already impressive scale.

 As for my two Armies it my Rohan again that you've  seen last spring, I added  the super version of Eomer and Merry as an cheap aside with my the extra point allowance, giving me a whole bunch of powerful heros giving my Good army a whopping 14 Might.  On the evil side I'm not exactly sure whats showing up, the only model I am sure of is the Witch King...anything else is a time consideration..my original plan was to do a decked out Mumak but I dont think time is going to allow that. So we may end up with Gothmog and rabble of Orcs and Warg Riders supported by the Witch King...if thats the case I really only have to paint the mounted Witch King and Gothmog, I'd love to get the Mumak done especially for the Rohan tie in..but time is not my friend here..I've got about 8 weeks to the event, I'm going to have to start working every night if I want to crank out all the bells and whistles..

This is most likely my last big LotR build for sometime, the attrition of the game nationally has finally caught up with once robust community here..be it burn out, the game and rule changes, or GW killing itself with overpriced models that dont really merge well with the old game that has deeper fan support versus the current "The Hobbit". The sagging interest is pretty apparent, its looks like Adepticon is only going to feature one event  a Team Tournament in side by side format in 2014...which is really only appealing to handful of older veterans and you'll be seeing less than 10 teams for sure.We will probably see LotR drop to "Big Game" status in the future. That being a large scenario event that is not a traditional tournament, a fun get out for us old timers but also a sign that the game has boarded the last ship to Valinor.

Its not all lost though when it comes to good skirmish games...I've been spending some quality time with Warlord Games' "Bolt Action" and it looks like that and Gripping Beast's - "SAGA" have the most legs as far as tournament style skirmish games in the near future. I'm not sure when I'll get around to Saga but I surely already have the figures for it. I do have some cool stuff in works for my Fantasy Skirmish gaming and my Empire of Dead Kickstarter stuff is shipping soon. So I'll be a busy boy this fall down in the basement. First order of  business however is get back to bringing out the big guns for the 5th year of Bilbos Birthday Bash.

Them Reaper Bones a month in.

My Skirmish dungeon as it currently stands, there are several cavern pieces awaiting paint. I dont plan on making this larger than 4X4 so the end is in sight..although I'll painting little details for years to come, I am sure.

 Its been just about a month since my Reaper bones arrived. I've spend a good bit of time messing around with them. I'm sure if you're interested you have already read various reviews on other blogs so mine comes a bit late, but honestly and I am all over the place on my feelings for them.
Rich who also got the Vampire set brought some figures over tuesday and we decided finally play a Skirmish game using Songs and Blades and Heroes Rules by Ganesha Games.

 "Songs"(SoBH) is a popular rule set for Skirmish and its alot more random (and dare I say bloodier!) than what I'm used to with GW based skirmish rules. We played a basic retrieval type mission where each team started at an opposite end, had to get to center to retrieve the artifact and exit the opposing teams end. Of course the Dungeon was populated with various critters and creatures random appearing (or not) at the end of each turn. Turn sequence went Player A/ Monster turn/ Player B/ monster turn. whomever the opposing player was controlled the monsters after your turn.
The whole thing played out quite well, except my team got slaughtered.

 

If you've played SoBH , we used standard 300 point warbands without the personality restrictions as we wanted to try a bunch of different rules. I ran 6 classic fantasy "archtypes" Knight, Cleric, Wizard, Thief, Barbarian, and Witch Hunter who were all Q3/ C3 expect the Wizard and Thief being C1 and C2. Rich ran a Elven Team with Token Dwarf and an Earth Elemental, he less but more expensive figures points wise most of his units being Q2.

We got to try out a bunch of the rules, except "magic" because my wizard got killed immediately on the first monster turn we were engaged, and we never rolled to get the NPC enemy wizard on the board.  In the end I ended up with carving my way through too many monsters, slowly losing team members encounter by encounter.  Rich had better luck, although when our teams finally met  (and I was down to Two figures versus his Five)..I managed to kill two of his before I was wiped out. we scored by total point gathered in kills + your teams surviving points..so Rich won by an easy 3 to 1 margin.We both like the rules but has some nitpicks, this is easy game to teach your kids and as both our daughters (7 and 8) are interested and will be/ are playing.

Torture is Reaper too, but only the Rats are Bones.

Not sure if will play more of this on the club level or not, I am interested in trying out my adapted "Hobbit" rules for generic fantasy that tactically have the familiarity of the classic GW Lord of the Rings rule set with a few tweaks and see how it compares.

Spider Swarm, Scorpions are Bones.

As for Reaper Bones, I find the figures are all over place in detail and presentation while the new material great is for some features. I read, and hear people are having trouble with just slapping paint on them as advertised. ( In my opinion, basecoating with standard paint using an airbrush works great) I dont love having to hotwater bend this many figures and for many of the weapons the hot water method is still useless. The result is if you care about theses unsightly bent ones, many characters will need weapon swaps. Lastly the details on some figures are very muddy, in contrast however to the detail on some figures being clearly excellent. The result is a mix bag so depending on what figures your most interested in will be the deciding factor on this packages overall value.

 I've painted up a dozen rats, 4 swarms,  2 scorpions, the rust monster, several terrain pieces and am working on the Pathfinder Red Dragon. I certainly had no interest in paying $20 for metal bug swarms so I wouldn't have things like this or the ($100+) in Townsfolk if not for Bones, plus my kids who are learning how to paint have hordes of characters to pick from and paint themselves without me worrying about a $10 pewter figure having to be stripped of pink paint one day.

The current retail on the Bones package of $400 USD is clearly aimed people who need a ton of figures on the cheap. From my corner of the hobby that price would never appeal to me in the slightest, and is clearly aimed at Roleplaying Gamers that need masses of figures for gaming. At the Kickstarter price of  $100..this was an absolute steal and win/win for whatever your use of the figures. For me, Reaper Bones are simply not even close to a replacement for quality metal figures or centerpiece monsters but meet  cheap solution. alternative needs where they apply. Its highly  doubtful I will ever buy any more Bones figures, but I am happy I have the ones I do.

Skeletons are Otherworld, Critter in the back is  Bones figure.

I will be painting up alot more of these and when I paint ones, that I have already painted in metal, like the Nova Marines, I'll be sure to post comparison shots.

In other news, Bilbos Birthday Bash is coming up, and while I am working on my armies and display for that I have NOT yet officially signed up for it yet, more on that later., News on Adepticon 2014,  Bolt Action gaming reports, and hordes of Fantasy figures coming this way soon.

Bugs are all Bones figures.

Reaper Bones Kickstarter Arrives!!!

 SO..almost 9 months to the day of the Kickstarter closing my Reaper Bones miniatures arrive, I have briefly looked through the box, and opened a handful of bags, a detailed review is coming later but initial impressions are:

The material used at this point seems great!  its flexible but in a good way, I've seen tons and tons of plastic miniatures in my life, The detail on these looks excellent, there is no visible flash or mold line glaring at me. Compare this to GW finecast, which is at various better detail but at 10X the price and you'll be laughing. My biggest concern here was the material and its detail...this looks at this point- to be a major win for Reaper, this material different that previous bones figures I saw a couple years ago.

(edit: Dug through one Vampire Bag, found plenty of instances of flash and figures bent to hell, all these instances seem to be on the small figures.  took 15 mins to clean up a bent one with a good amount of flash, easily cut away the base and I'll try the hot water trick and see how the straightening looks, right now bigger seems better)

 Scale on some of the Figures seems odd, I'm not familiar with first hand looks at some of the metal versions of these sculpts but the Julie Guthrie Pathfinder Red Dragon is way smaller than I thought it would be. Its young Dragon at best, its ok, I have a couple huge dragons.

Figure case is very bare bones, no embossed lettering which is cool, foam slots are smaller than I like
since I rebase all my Reaper Figures its a pretty tight fit, but they are the perfect size for true 25mm type figs which I have alot of so the case is right where the price point indicated.

A crazy amount of figures to go thru, a more detailed review is pending post some assembly , re-basing and painting, stay tuned. So far I am NOT disappointed.

LPL7- Concludes!

 Lead Painters League Season 7 has concluded for 2013.

Above is my last entry "Rex Eleven Escapes" which won by my largest majority to date  against a very good painter. Most likely that's a combination of  all the pieces fitting together for the last "Sci-Fi" entry bonus round, as my opponents detailing and faces were particularly excellent.

I wish I could have this level of composition for all my entries, as that is actually what it takes to win.
I finished in 6th place this year which is big step up from my 14th place last year..The field was smaller but the consistent quality was better. So my overall standing going from the top 30% to the top 20%  is big step up for me. (especially with my terrible 1-3 start)  Finishing up 7-3 was a good come back. I probably should not have ran rounds 2 and 4 , but my time management on this was terrible this year..which cost me 10 bonus points in round 5.  Anyway I'll be back next year, alot more prepared for this thing., I am not giving up until I crack the top three.

In other news I was asked to paint judge at the superbly well run WFB event Blood in the Sun this weekend, it was a great time and it is as about a well run Warhammer event as I have seen. As much as I may even look for an excuse, my opinions on 8th edition have not changed. but I got to catch up with alot of my old WFB buddies..lots of great gaming and real life talk...good times. If you read this blog and still play WFB and are looking for a WFB summer tourney this is the one.

LPL7- Round 10- Rex Eleven Escapes

The 10th and final round has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my last entry "Corsairs of Umbar' which won by a 70/30 margin, I wish I had gotten all 10 of them on the boat and plan to soon, I am certainly planning on working more Mithril figures into my Lord of the Rings collection moving forward with the complete eradication of metal figures by Games Workshop, I am pretty sure the case is finally closed on me as Games Workshop customer with the exception of what are now OOP/Vintage purchases from when it was a better company.
They have managed to release a couple new things in plastic I like so while the Hobbit trilogy is in full effect they may manage squeak out a few more winners in the current line. I'm somewhat bummed I have overlooked Mithril for so long, fantastic sculpts based on the books not the films
and although as pricey as GW's finecast they're infinite higher quality being , metal, and come clean and primed. These were painted right out of the blister. It's high end LotR, collectors stuff but if you're of my likemind do yourself a favor and check out Mithril Miniatures

  
My current and final entry for the The LPL "Rex Eleven Escapes" is the follow up to last years "The Hunt for Rex Eleven". This Sci Fi Bonus is what got me excited about the LPL again this year. I had already picked up that cool APC from Antenocitis and I had a slew of mainly Reaper Chronoscope figures I wanted to paint for the Space Station.  You can heck out and vote for Rex and his gang to get the hell out of dodge HERE. I'll be back with some final thoughts and the LPL and LAF when this wraps up next weekend.

LPL7- Round 9- Corsairs of Umbar

Round 9 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my last entry "Monster Hunters' which won by a decent margin, next up are my Mithril Miniatures Corsairs, which I purchased to crew my Corsair Ship I built earlier this year. I had hoped to get all 10 painted for the entry but that just wasn't realistic, I am running week to week now and about 5 figures is about the most I can manage, the painting, figuring out the backdrop and the photography are taking up all my hobby time.  I am going to finish these guys straight away after my final entry so they actually get done and not have five figures laying around unpainted until the next time I come back to them which will who knows when.  You can check out my entry for round 9 HERE It's started out strong against some great Blood Bowl minis but if you can vote either way please do!
 
The LPL is winding down and we are on the last week. Round 10 is the Sci Fi Bonus Round, how I wish I had more time as I have been itching to get back to my Sci Fi Station that I got the majority of in 2011, I have two new pieces (rooms) I am going to add...they wont make the contest, but 10 figures (5 brand new) and a new Vehicle will..it be interesting to see how the whole thing closes out.