Q:When the DM is away will the PCs still play?

A:Yes 

The DM of my regular DnD group is away on a Holiday to South East Asia. Leaving his PCs to there own devices. This would normally be a bad idea with the shenanigans we normally get up to, but as this time we will be outside his universe he is unconcerned with what we get up to.

The decision has been made to try a few different systems over the next few weeks Deadlands and Rogue Trader on top of the list to try first. Our DM has expressed an interest at trying out some other systems but we normally demand that he continue to craft fulling experiences for us as we stamp around in his imagination. It is a pity that when he returns we will had out fill of new systems and expect that he have used his time away to compose a new story ark.

So far while preparing to run these new systems we have played five game of Zombicide each game ended in player victory even if not all the players survived the zombie hordes.

Asshat Hammer

The gaming sites have been exploding with the news that GW  is swinging there legal hammer this time aimed at an author using the term Space Marine this is nothing new. GW has been heavy handed in defending its IP for some time now. However there was I time when GW wasn't the heartless multi-million dollar publicly traded company it is now. In that lost epoch perhaps they had a different view on intellectual property rights.

Lasers Make Everything Better

So a while ago I posted some images of some industrial platforms that literally came to me in a deem.
I refined my designs and sent them out for some CNC laser operators to quote on.
I was surprised that two of the local operators had some of the best prices and were actually interested  in such a small job. Well I had a local guy Lazer GraFX and Carlos from Mechanical Warhorse both make up some sets so I can compare price and build quality.

The Lazer GraFX guy was super fast and I have had there set for a couple of weeks, I expect Mechanical Warhorse to take a couple of weeks for fabrication and then ship from the the US.
Anyway I have had a chance to assemble a set and see if it fits together. It's an interesting experience to visualise something plan it out then then have it arrive on your doorstep. It looks just like I expected it and fits together just as I imagined. I think they will look great painted up. After fitting them together and checking them with some miniatures I have discovered some problems that have made me adjust my designs.
The angles of the ramps are too steep, miniatures tend to tip over also the spacing of my ramps don't allow a standard GW mini base to fit between the notches I designed to prevent minis from slipping along the ramps.
Also the ladders I designed need to be wider to better grasp the edge of a base so the minis can actually climb the ladders.

I need to send wait to see how Carlos dose with his set then I can start sending my revised designs for fabrication then the some I get to paint them and play some games with it.


Except Alderaan

Some of the original plans

The pieces are modular so they could be rearranged  for each battle.

Long ladder.

Short ladder.

The scale looks good.

The ladders actually work.

All the fine detail cut outs look great.

I think a table full of this would be fun to play on.

These are the only sample pieces I had cut

Never tell me the odds!

This week in...

gaming

The DnD guys all managed to assemble so we could continue our epic quest. Our party chronicler, a Barbarian Dwarf has been keeping track of our progress. I am a little disappointed that he hasn't recorded our progress in first person as diary entry's as his character is rather interesting. When we left off, the platform we were standing on was disintegrating.  Here is some of his work.

"Concerned about our unsteady footing, and the apparent endless void below, the group tied themselves to each other with generous lengths of rope and set to navigating towards the larger platform ahead.
Abruptly, the stone path began to crumble and break up! Forceful gusts of wind threatened to cast us into the void, yet we managed to remain fairly steady.
Thom was above these trivial concerns - literally floating above. He perceived that the magics in this place were elemental in nature, and quite malleable before the force of his will.
After briefly testing his power, he attempted to remake the platform beneath our feet and met with some success. The party breathed a collective sign of relief as the prospect of tumbling into the abyss grew more distant.
Behind us however, swirling flames continued to advance. Thom's efforts to remake the path were effective, but he saw that he couldn't outpace the flames behind.

In a flash of inspiration, he instead thrusted the remade platform forward with psychokinetic force, sending it hurtling towards the cultists. 
Worried by our sudden advance, the cultists sent flaming elementals to impede us, but Thom's will sent them directly back at their would-be masters.

A moment later, we were upon the cultists. Our floating lifeboat smashed with tremendous force into a ridge, pulping an unfortunate cultist while the rest of us vaulted to safety.
Before us, we saw what we presumed to be the Eye of Morcar - a large orb of darkness filled with glittering points of light - held within a cage atop a pillar that rose from the stone.
Some cultists had already been set upon by the fire elementals that were turned against them, others were preparing for battle.

The rank-and-file cultists fell swiftly to our assault, yet their leader offered greater resistance. He rushed to the orb and used its magic to try immobilizing our group.
He was only partly successful, and we quickly knocked him away from the orb. Thom found that he could tap the orb's power himself, so he used it to augment his attacks. 
Hoping to find strength in evil snake-related power, the cultist leader transformed himself into a giant python!
This did him little good as he was immediately beaten back with greater force and hurled from the edge into the abyss below. 

Before slipping to his doom however he managed to use a geyser of his own foul blood to create a fearsome giant crocodile, intended to finish us off. 
Indeed it proved tougher than its summoner, mauling several of us and gnawing Duerim into a dangerously bloody state before finally succumbing to its own injuries.
Fortunately, it never managed to actually swallow the dwarf - perhaps due to his spirited resistance and repeated assaults, or maybe due to the taste.

As Thom neared the orb, he studied its nature and realized he could manipulate it. He magically shrunk it to a reasonable size, and took possession of it as we turned from the fallen beast to figure out our next goal."

I joined in another game of Deathwatch at the local club and was invited to participate in a regular campaign.
in the mission I played the kill team was tasked with investigating a small settlement that was abandoned after some rumored monster sightings we restored power to the town and cleared all the structures, in the process we slew eight elite Genestealers. Five of the fell beasts were downed by my Dark Angel Rafen.
There was some minor damage to the civilian structures. Our assault marine used a krak grenade to open a new doorway and Rafen tried to flush a Genestealer out of a house with a flame thrower the house and Xeno were both reduced to ash.

Victory! was the cry of the Britannia armored forces. Dystopian  Wars exploding dice worked in my favor last week there was a repeat of a exploding tank damaging the firing squadron, only this time it was my opponent that was on the receiving end of the backfire. My objective was the destroy all the large models as he only had one Sternpanzer I just had to focus all my fire. Inthe end it was my sole surviving small tank that dealt the final blow with an incredible series of exploding 6s.

It took the focus of my entire army
to crack the armor of the Sternpanzer.

My math is a little fuzzy but I think the
odds of rolling  8 six's in a row is 1,679,616 : 1

& Hobby

On Sunday before I headed to the Game club I spent some quality time with my eldest son painting some Space Marines I painted up Rafen my Dark Angel in the Deathwatch color scheme and my little Xman made up his own color scheme. I helped him with some techniques and showed him on my marine. otherwise I just let him go it, I was surprised how good it turned out. Now he is chomping at the bit to start his own army and start rolling dice.

He chose the melta gun because it looked the coolest.
The Blue and Gold armor has a nice contrast.
He even painted the purity seal. 

Rafen

Black & silver with the Deathwatch
oaths inlayed in the silver.

Dark Angel Icon.

First Space Marine I have
painted in  years

                                                                         
                                                                       

Totality

My son and I recently got to experience a very rare event. A solar eclipse passed very close to our city, so early before school we set out for the beach. I borrowed the work theodolite and set it up so it would project the image of the sun on to sheet of paper. This was necessary to protect our retinas from scorching radiation. It was an incredible event clear sky's and a unobstructed view over the ocean.

It had already started when we set up.

The moon moved into alignment quite quickly.

Getting close.

We could  just start to see the corona at the edges.
Pity the camera didn't catch it.  

98% of Totality.
The light dipped and heat of the sun ebbed.    

It was all over in 45 minutes 

Within the sound of silence

I have been very quiet in my bloging lately. But I have been active in my gaming and other hobby's.
With a bunch of games played

Gaming

My DnD group has been having trouble assembling for games lately it seems that life and circumstance conspire to impede the group's progress. The other players normally still meet up to play something and lately that has been Zombicide. It has become one of my favorite games to play. We have added a house rule to keep everyone evolved, when a player dies they have the option to spawn another character on to the map. This has allowed us to complete most of the missions so far, usually at a very high rate of character attrition.

I have managed a few games of Dystopian Wars. This included a massive three player game of my & a friend's combined armored forces against a huge force of  INVADERS  FROM  SPACE ! Sadly I had call the game off due to fact that I am a Dad. So the earths forces retired form the field of battle and all of mainland Europe was overrun by the alien menace.
In the last game I played something amazing happened we played to the correct conclusion of the game. The victory conditions for both sides was to destroy 50% of the opposing force including all small units.
The game ended in my crushing defeat but it was still very satisfying.  I have been having problems getting a whole game in the time I allocate for gaming. But now the games have been flowing smoothly that we understand the rules better.

My small tanks prepare to
sweep around the right flank.

The medium tanks hold the left flank.

Damn exploding dice 17 hits from 5 dice
8 of my small tank tokens gone=game over

My small tanks surround an enemy and
disappear in explosion from a critical hit.

The battle lines are drawn
2420 points aside. 

Got to use my fuel counters
they worked good.

 Despite the problems with getting six people to put there lives on hold to go adventuring in the fantasy realms of the Forgotten Kingdoms we have some games of DnD. Some notable events of the last couple of sessions, My Half-Orc rouge opening a kitchen cupboard and being promptly eaten by the shambling mound contained within, The party searching every item in a castle study looking for the quest item only for the DM to exclaim that he forgot to draw a door on the map, My Ranger drinking and smothering himself in the contents of series of jars containing the base ingredients to produce potions of elemental protection, In the following battle my ranger took no elemental damage so as far as he is concerned he is now immune to all elemental damage and the party mage becoming imbued with elemental power and the ability to levitate then proceed to only use this method of travel even though it is only 15feet every 6seconds.
The last session ended on a cliffhanger. The party standing on a stone bridge spanning a void filled with chaotic elemental power as the bridge is rent and shattered by incredible cyclonic lighting charged wind.
Waiting patiently to see if Gumbar the Ranger survives.

I normally play Dystopian Wars on the weekend at the local club but last week a friend and I joined in a game of Deathwatch that some of the other members had been running. Play time was limited as with every pen and paper RPG I have seen the character creation process is a time consuming pain. But we did manage an suitable epic entry for Space Marines. Walking on up to a fellow marine and gunning down the Tau Stealth Suits he was locked in hand to hand combat with in a hale of fully automatic Bolter fire at point blank range.
I believe the Deathwatch system and setting lend its self to, one off encounters and drop in drop out style game-play, allowing players to skip a session and not feel like they are breaking the story. Unlike DnD were a character disappearing during a long trek through a dungeon would make little sense. Deathwatch killteams are deployed in short notice to any possible type of terrain for any type of mission in numbers varying  from a single marine to hundreds of battle brothers.

Hobby

Spartan has released there new System Dystopian Legions set in the same universe of  Dystopian Wars I was wondering what kind of city these guys would inhabit I guess it would be something like Dishoned.
I decided to sketch out some ideas for some gaming terrain with a steam-punk bent. I liked the results and will development them further, after I finish work on my first set of industrial platforms. I got to thinking about how people must steel from get influenced by the different media they consume and sketched out some more terrain ideas inspired by some of my favorite games. The one at I think has the most promise is the stuff inspired by Mass Effect I really liked the octagon shaped Hab-Blocks from the mission to the Horizon colony.

Modular  SiFi walkways

Every colony need stack of cargo pods

 Living in prefabricated comfort.

I good fend recently traveled to Brisbane to listen to some music lucky bastard. In between enjoying the sights of a great city and listening to Cake and Ben Folds Five I had him pick up some brushes. Brushes made from the finest quality sable hair. I am not sure what quirk of evolution gave sables such  crisp, pointed, springy hair but apparently Winsor & Newton decided they were perfect water color brushes for the super rich. he also picked up some brush soap apparently made from powered Ultramarines.

And the sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls 
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence

TYPOGRAPHY

A How To Paint Cheat Sheet

So I have been slowly ramping up my hobby and have been saddened to find out that my painting skills have not only slipped but the quality of painting in the whole miniature hobby has improved. Over the last 10 years that I was absent from the hobby I was aware of the huge leaps and bounds made in the miniature sculpting and casting.  But I was not aware of the massive improvements in miniature painting. White Dwarf was the main source of information on the hobby and their armies were always painted to the highest standard. Now checking out the quality of painted armies on peoples blogs makes me realise that I have to relearn all my old tricks and pick up some new ones.

Old School Orks from 2nd edition 40K.

New multi-part plastics Orks.

So to aid me on my journey of rediscovery I have purchased a book. I have been looking online at blogs for some painting tips & many of the big sites like Dakka and BoLS have some fantastic examples and useful tips. But I was looking for a complete guide to painting something that would help me remaster the basics and then show me how to paint a Golden Daemon winning mini.

How to Paint Citadel Miniatures

The book does not look typical of the many other books produced by GW. It looks like a note pad with wire loop rings. Covers and pages are however of good quality and the wire rings play an important role. Looking at the cover and glancing at the pages there is no mistaking that this book is clearly aimed at painters of GW minis.

Odd looking binding?

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

Flipping through the book you will quickly notice that besides from the contents and a short introduction the pages are arranged  in landscape. The book contains 136 pages split into 18 chapters that are separated into 2 sections, Techniques & Army Projects. Each chapter contains many short paragraphs describing the paint or technique to use. Followed by many large detailed full color photographs making the book's information quite easy to digest. This is where the brilliance of the wire ring binding come into play. The back cover is constructed out of two pieces of thick cardboard that fold out. This allows the book to stand on edge so the landscape pages can be read without hands while painting. It is a simple gimmick that works beautifully.  

This is a brilliant idea.

The angle is just right to sit & read.

Reading the chapter list had me worried, there seemed to be plenty of information on painting techniques but none on color selection or on how to combine colors to achieve a pleasant contrast and composition. The Techniques explained are demonstrated quite well through a combination of short descriptive paragraphs and excellent close up photographs. However I would like to have seen blending included in the techniques. The army Projects are also a mixed bag. The examples shown are quite descriptive and would greatly aid in painting an army in the demonstrated color scheme. I would have liked to see an example for each of the 12 main 40K army's and 15 Warhammer army's. That may have resulted in a very thick book. This book does teach "how to paint citadel miniatures" but does not live up to the blurb of being "a boon to painters of all standards".

The other great feature of the book is it comes with a 90 minute DVD. Elaborating on the technique chapters and then has in depth and detailed coverage of the painting of the Space marines and Tyranids Army projects listed in the book. Again the information is dispensed well easy to follow. A series of close up clips with a voice over describing each step of the process in time with each action being performed on screen.
This is similar to a YouTube painting video except the the sound and camera work is professional quality.
The voice over is well articulated and the sound level and quality is perfect. The camera follows the movements of the brush, stays focused on the point of painting and there is no blurred or out of focus shots. All the scenes are well lit from multiple angles avoiding  the dark shadows of amateur productions.

Only a simple paint guide.

The DVD was excellent.

I like the book as a whole. Both the book and the DVD contain a load of information that will greatly aid anyone starting out painting. The book is also a good source of information regarding the new GW paint range and the associated special paints. I would have liked either more examples of painted army's or greater understanding of what colors match / contrast, especially considering the price.


Pros

• wealth of information
• layout and bookstand
• DVD
• high production value

Cons

• GW price!
• no use for a high level painter
• not examples of all races 
• needs more info on contrast & composition

Overall I give it 3.5  Kolinsky sable brushes out of 5