A mechanical monster with freeway on-ramps for arms and a heart as black as coal

I've moved...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:52:17 GMT

Anyone who actually finds my wargaming musings interesting should look here from now on...

http://littlebigwars.blogspot.com/

I'm retaining my LJ account for lurking and commenting.

Night Goblin Horde!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:18:17 GMT

Behold! A new set of painted Night Goblins that are fully compatible with Warhammer Fantasy as well as azure_bluu's new fantasy ruleset. I'll be trying out the new movement trays (8" wide with unlimitted depth) tomorrow, perhaps. They are being goaded forward by their Chaos Dwarf overlords atop their Mobile Oppression Platform (or Hill Giant).

On their way in the mail I've got 60 more Night Goblins, 20 Dwarfs, and approx. 15 Black Orcs to increase their numbers. Add that to the Dwarf Steam Tank, Dragons, and numerous Golems I already have, and it's quite an army.

A razor saw...

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:59:51 GMT

So now I've put my MK figures in the freezer and then apply a razor saw for a number of minutes. Not fast, certainly, and it leaves black dust all over the place, but I haven't driven a blade into my left hand since I began using this method.

Someone needs to take my knives away from me...

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:40:34 GMT

The amount of damage I've inflicted on my hands attempting to remove my Mage Knight figures from their bases is obscene...

Transformers: Armada Drinking Game

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:19:45 GMT

Inspired by taliesmerlin...

While watching Transformers: Armada

-a non-Leader character says "Transform" take a drink

-they find a new Mini-con take a drink

-the characters make an impossible leap of logic or break the 4th wall take a drink

-Megatron belittles Starscream in front of his minions, take a drink

-Megatron belittles his minions after belittling Starscream, take a drink

-Carlos impersonates Cheech, take a drink

-the human female is the voice of reason, take a drink

-a human character is in need of rescuing, take a drink

-the characters have "learned a lesson", take two drinks

-random transformation just to showcase features in "toy commercial"-style, take two drinks

-human characters make a meaningful contribution to the Autobots' cause, take four drinks (who am I kidding, that's never going to happen)

Huh... shoulda mixed some drinks...

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:42:57 GMT

I get the idea that the English version of Transformers: Armada was intended to be watched with a 6-pack of something alcoholic...

Popular Collections can die in a fire...

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:20:15 GMT

I pre-ordered a case each of the new expansion of Monsterpocalypse from them in May... the expansion was released on July 10th; five days later I still had not received my cases. As a result I e-mailed their customer service, and within a day was told that they had received less than the necessary amount of cases from their distributor and had already broken open those cases they had received so as to sell the singles. Apparently pre-order means shit to them...

It gets better though, they offer me 5% off my next case order or a refund, so I take the refund. It takes another week for a response to that e-mail in which I am told that I will receive a refund. A week later and I still have not received a refund or any further response, despite several additional e-mails and two phone calls. I will not be doing any further business with these worthless faggots and I recommend against it for anyone else.

"Orphan" looks like fun...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:49:02 GMT

For the first time ever, I find myself actually wanting to see a horror movie in theatres...

There's just something about a cute little gothic lolita killing other children that makes me smile...

The fact that some folk seem to have their panties in a wad over it just makes me want to see it that much more...

Blood for the Blood God!

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:54:52 GMT

Why did no one tell me that Tamiya Clear Red ink was made of awesome?

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:43:54 GMT

Painted a squad of 15mm Japanese Corporate troopers from Ground Zero Games last night, and my, it was refreshing. It only took me about an hour. The only significant problem was that I'd left to much flash on the models. Definitely not used to the amount of flash these things can have (pretty much full body). At least it kind of looks like it's supposed to be that way.

*Glue squad to a cd*
*Spray paint white*
*Base-coat Cinder Gray)
*Wash with GW Asurmen Blue)
*Paint guns with English Ivy or whatever it was*
*Paint crest and shoulders with Boltgun Metal*
*Wash guns with GW Brown ink*
*Done*

After I finish my initial batch of minis, I'll probably buy some of the 15mm SAMAS suits and Coalition jet cycles that I've found. My eventual goal is to build up small forces for that one game by KS that is entirely broken. Might even use a Battletech Atlas as a UAR-1 Enforcer.

Unexpecting the expected...

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:35:51 GMT

While great joy comes with getting packages in the mail, it also comes with the potential for great disappointment. So when I got back from my trip, and my expected pile of shinies was not lying on my chair, it made me a bit sad in the pants.

Alien Thugs

Japanese Corporate Infantry

Japanese Power Armour

Chariot APC

Command GEV

Long John Silvers - Baja Fish Taco

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:49:48 GMT

Who thought that this was a good idea? I see a firing squad in his/her future...

What will the ad wizards come up with next?

The mess with miniatures...

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:55:23 GMT

I have collected 28mm-scale miniatures since an advertisement featuring a free sample miniature appeared in my Boys Life magazine while I was in high school. Soon after I found myself engaged in weekly battles with my buddy's Space Marines, each time adding a figure or two, or even a new vehicle. For better or worse, he was pretty much my only opponent, so Eldar vs. Blood Angels was all I encountered for the better part of my teenage years. Right before going off to college I started work on a small Chaos Space Marine army that was just barely fieldable (Two squads of infantry, a handful of characters, and an APC). I continued work on my poor Steel Cobras all through my Freshman year, and still they are only about 75% painted. There was little incentive, as there was absolutely no one on campus that actively played.

Roll around to the year of Planetside: while the MMOFPS was my primary occupation at the time (schoolwork being fairly tertiary), I discovered Specialist Games, the branch of GW that time forgot. As a result I began assembling random miniatures from various ranges (mainly GW infantry) to try to build up a force for that. Again, I couldn't find any players, so my pursuit of the hobby was pretty much restricted to assembling and painting figures. Until this last year I'd gone through a number of rule systems: Aetherverse, Combat Zone, VOR, Urban War, etc... collecting at least a partial force for each, all half-painted/half-assembled, and there's been no real point to doing it. Why did I bother? Even after GIVING away my $900 Eldar army, I'm up to my ears in miniatures I will likely never use.

It's only this past year I've gotten any gaming in at all, and I've had to adopt two new scales (6mm, and fleet scale) and buy several hundred dollars worth of minis again. I like having them, and I was definitely sold on the idea of using 6mm for large scale battles (hence why I bought a ton of 6mm dwarfs). I even convinced our defacto group leader to adopt 6mm scale for our WW2 games, mostly because it's dirt cheap to play in that scale. Only since our Mordheim campaign has been in the works have I had a use for 28mm miniatures, many of which I converted up to use with a long out-of-production Chaos Dwarf army. Why must I keep picking obscure rulesets and armies?

My latest obsession (in addition to Mordheim and my 6mm forces) has been Monsterpocalypse, the first collectible game I've played since Decipher's Star Wars CCG. I've spent way too much on it already, but at least the armies are cheap in comparison to my other large scale battles, especially if I can find the right E-bay lots.

My Army Transport is filled with space ships, I've got enough 6mm land forces to fill 3 pizza boxes, I've got 3 sewing boxes filled with Germans, Canadians, and Evil Dwarfs, and my craft table is entirely covered in un/half-painted 28mm sci-fi figures, yet still the idea of having a platoon or two of 15mm mechanized infantry is being entertained.

Still don't play enough...

My Golden Hat IX Entry - Mechanical Cow Centaur

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:08:31 GMT

Well... now I've seen it all...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:28:51 GMT

Gainax tops the charts with the biggest (and potentially most powerful) robot of all time...

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann!

10 million light years in height, making it roughly 100 times the size of the Milky Way.

My god... such a thing exists!

Wed, 27 May 2009 23:22:21 GMT

Star Trek was fantastic...

Sat, 09 May 2009 03:11:34 GMT

I know just enough about Star Trek to recognize most of the running jokes that they got into the movie, and I had a ton of fun.

Generally I've been kind of a Star Trek hater due to the "invincible" shields and capital ship dog-fighting, but the new movie was a real treat.

Still, can somebody explain to me why a mining vessel would be equipped with hundreds upon hundreds of high-yield photon torpedoes? I'd think that phasers, due to their rechargeable nature would be more practical for a commercial ship.

Probably even worth watching in IMAX, though there were enough sweaty nerds in the room as is in the normal theatre. Will avoid watching movies at prime time in the future, or so I tell myself.

Pop Quiz!

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:07:59 GMT

How do you terminate a mentally disabled person who is a) pretty much incapable of even punching in and b) is hurting your business due to hygienic, personal space, and personal appearance issues?

The best I can come up with is to log as many complaints as I can in hopes that either Corporate or the State will handle it for you...

An E-bay game store...

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:35:43 GMT

It was so obvious!

Behold, the Wrath of Hashut Comes!

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:30:40 GMT

Field Marshal Tobias Rommel is home...

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:06:04 GMT

And Nona's hiding in our bedroom... pathetic...

Wow these are cool...

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:03:23 GMT

6mm scale (0r 1:300/1:285)Daleks! *Drools*

Die in a fire GHQ...

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:46:13 GMT

The sheer fiddliness of the .30 cal machine guns on their half-tracks makes me want to pluck my eyeballs out and put them in a blender... I lost a quarter of the guns on the sprue, and the remaining guns are just barely glued to the damn things. WTB a chunky weapon conversion kit for GHQ M-3 Halftracks plz!

To those faggots in California who voted yes on Prop 8...

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:16:47 GMT

EAT MIAK AND DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!

I hate cutting up bases...

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:47:06 GMT

So I spent most of Ernest Scared Stupid cutting up 15mm standard bases for my Fantarmati/Ascension(ikara_fox's game) and it's getting pretty damned irritating. Due to a combination of small work area (TV tray), dull rotary cutter blade (EXPENSIVE!), and my own impatience the bases are completed, but somewhat variable in size (1-2mm here and there). Next time I base an army, I'm buying Litko pre-cut bases or the like. The stuff I'm working with now is a plastic-foam laminate that used to advise people to "Add something special to your meal"[sic] Coca-Cola. It's not bad, but I'm pretty sure that's why my blade is dull.

Ascension's making me nervous, I'll be honest... as I haven't quite figured out how to arrange my infantry strips so as to make cutting them up as painless as possible. Sure, dividing a Heavy Infantry unit into four 20mm x 30mm rectangles sounds like a good idea (it is!), but unfortunately, most of my Dwarf strips are too densely formed, and cutting one or two of the dwarves apart from the rest of the strip will likely damage the detail unnecessarily. Depending I may just go the bastardly route and create crappy counters for the game instead of marring my units. I hate doing that because I'd like to set a good example for the non-miniature wargamers in the group (which is not to say that they're not wargamers, but the miniature component isn't as important to some as it should be).

It's been fun... I finally have a large active group that plays a variety of games that are not particularly manufacturer-dependent. We've got a good schedule for the rest of two years or so (Ascension, Crossfire, a 28mm sci-fi game, and then my Fantarmati add-on for Arty Conliffe's Armati game). Next major project after building my Ascension force/supplementing my Dirtside II force is to research the Afrika Korps and Canadian Motor Infantry Battalions in order to build Crossfire forces for both.

All in all, if those are my worst problems right now, I must be doing pretty good.