Monday, October 31, 2011

The 101rst

Hello once again readers,

Today, I wanted to blog about my local gaming group, and what i will be slowly doing over the next couple of weeks/months as a side project.

The 101st historical gaming division operates from the Titusville campus of Brevard Community College in Brevard County, Florida. This semester, we began by making Flames of War, a game by Battlefront, and one of our core or "staple" games.

Of course, we left the rest of the thousand myriad game systems out there available to be played, provided the membership wishes it so. Basically this allows any game to be played during our Thursday meetings, but if it is not a core game we can't vouch for you past closing of the campus and such.

At our biweekly/monthly Monday meetings, where official club business is discussed, members are welcome to speak about games they like and if they wish to make them a staple game. They must present a logical reason to making the game a core system for the club, and then the suggestion is put to a vote of the membership. This all sounds terribly drab and boring, but in effect, we are college students. We have fun with it.

As Secretary, it is my job to write down these official proceedings. From now on I will also endeavor to take pictures and post our goings on as "field reports from the 101st" on this blog. Consider it a "segment" like on a TV show.

Anywho, due to my suggestion, we have taken up Dark heresy, the 40k role playing game as one of our staples. I happen to own a copy of the core rule book, so setup was easier. However, we are still all learning the system, and developing our characters.

Despite this, the sessions we have had have been engaging, fun, and humor-filled. there have been close calls, bludgeonings by half-naked thugs, and many cries of "FOR THE EMPRAH!"

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will post about what happened during our adventures that week, and a short summary about 1 of the characters in our party.

Over the next couple of months, I will be making several variations on my personal characters model for use during combat "encounters" as well as provide background in the form of journal scribblings and other assorted fluff.

Till then though, I must bid you Adieu.

As a parting shot, please spread word about this blog to all the gamers in your community. The efforts I undertake are all meant to garner some sort of feedback, whether good or bad.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Hello There Wargamers!

Hello everyone,

Over the past few years I have tried to start a wargaming blog several times. Each of those times what I did didn't didn't feel right to me. This august, having started college, I began work on studying what exactly I wanted to do with a blog.

Namely the Blog had to be scale, genre, and army impartial. I wanted to have a broad focus so I can show all my works instead of just one part. To that end all model posts will have their genre in bold beside them.

This is the fruit of that small labor. Hopefully I'll have a good time, and you will enjoy it too!


Skeleton bowmen (Fantasy)
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These models are a conversion of the following kits:

Mantic Games Skeleton Warriors

Wargames Factory Persian Infantry

The only Item taken from the Wargames Factory kit was the quiver with bow/arrows. This relatively simple conversion makes interesting skeleton models into a feasible looking missile troop.

This was also my first experience with the dipping technique. Dipping involves basecoating your model, then using a "dip" to provide definition. I used Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut. This stain is usually used to finish carpentry projects and contains polyurethane.

The polyurethane provides the "glossy" finish you see. This is easily fixed with a Matte varnish, which at this time has not been applied. Polyurethane also provides a primary layer of protection for the paint, making it very hard for said paint to chip off when fully varnished.

Problems dipping with this type of shade, specifically one normally used for wood finishing, is that wood stains are normally oil based. Polyshades is a water based product, which makes it easy to get off your hands if you mess up as well as not covering your models in an oily sheen.

The finished models will be shown in a later post, but for now here is a picture of the unbased and unvarnished miniatures (The human wizard shown is part of the living section of my undead army. An Oxymoron which will be explained later):