Author Archives: The Angry Piper

More Stuff for Sale

With the recent demise of my AD&D campaign, I have decided to downsize some of my miniatures, especially those that I will no longer have a need for now that the game is over, as well as those “Oooh, shiny!” bits I bought on impulse but will realistically never use.

Shipping will be in the cheapest USPS flat rate box I can fit it in. Of course I will combine shipping on multiple items, but I’m only shipping to the lower 48. Sorry!

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First up: a mess o’ GW Lizardmen. 38 skinks, assembled and primed. 8 Saurus riders on cold ones, assembled and in some cases, partially painted (not by me). A Terradon rider, New in Blister, and Kroq-Gar on Carnosaur, New in Box, still shrink-wrapped. Plus, I’m throwing in a Saurian Idol from Hydra miniatures, just because I’ll now never use it and it’s a cool terrain piece, as well as a ton of lizardmen/skink bitz.. Buying this stuff new from GW would cost over $175, not including a bunch of skinks and the Saurian Idol. Of course, I’m not GW, so I’ll take $100 for everything, plus shipping.

 

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Fourth: A Hordes Legion of Everblight Thragosh the Messiah, New in Box. Retails for $45, I’ll take $30 plus shipping.

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Fifth: Some Malifaux odds and ends: Kirai Ankoku, New in Blister, and a full sprue with cards of Ten Thunders Archers. I bought these guys at Gen Con a couple of years ago, and I threw out the box so it would fit in my carry-on. But everything is there. About $40 retail for both, I’ll take $20 plus shipping.

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Last: a Rogue Trader commemorative marine, in Finecast. It’s missing the banner pole. Came to me in a trade, and I don’t want it. $10 plus shipping and it’s yours.

Email me at angrypiper@angrypiper.com or PM me on The Miniatures Page if interested.

I’ll also entertain trades for the following:

GW Mordian Iron Guard troopers. No special or heavy weapons, just guardsmen.

28mm Old West miniatures: Blue Moon, Foundry, Copplestone, Brigade Games.

I’d like a few more of those Dwarf Wall Obstacles that came in Battle for Skull Pass, if anyone’s got them.

If offering cash money, you should be aware that I only take Paypal.

Thanks for looking!

 

 

Batman vs. Two-Face: A SuperSystem 3 Scenario and AAR

Well, ZeDecember didn’t really work out as planned, mainly because I got distracted halfway through it and failed utterly to rekindle my painting spark. Some of that was due to the holidays, some due to real life, and some due to the fact that I’ve been in a painting slump lately.

One thing I have been doing is re-reading lots of my old comics and playing copious amounts of Batman: Arkham City on PS3. Yeah, I know I’m late to the party, since this game came out in 2012, but I’ve never been one to rush out and buy a new game when I have dozens of games I haven’t even opened yet just laying around. Suffice it to say, however, that aside from playing PS3, I haven’t done all that much for the past couple of months.

In an effort to get my ass in gear, I came up with a scenario for SuperSystem 3 involving a “Year One” Batman and Captain Gordon vs. Two-Face. Even Year One Batman is pretty damn formidable (my build came in at 120 points) despite his inexperience, and Two-Face just isn’t all that powerful a villain (my build came in at 71 points), so I had to tweak the rules a bit to make it more of a challenge for Batman. Here is what I came up with:

The Scenario: Two-Face decided to rob the Gotham Savings and Trust building. Actually, the coin decided for him. He put together two squads of highly trained goons, came up with two plans, and went to work double-quick.

A specialized GCPD SWAT team, led by the arrogant and trigger-happy Lieutenant Branden, arrives on the scene shortly afterward.  Also rushing to the scene, hoping to avoid the certain collateral damage that is to occur when Branden and his team is unleashed, is Captain James Gordon. But neither the SWAT team nor Two-Face counted in the new player in Gotham City: The Batman.

Forces: One player controls Two-Face and his two squads of goons. The other player controls Batman and Captain Gordon. The SWAT team begins play under the control of the hero player, but that may change (see below).

Setup: The board represents a section of Gotham City. The buildings are mostly not important, but there needs to be a building big enough to represent a bank, complete with interior.  The bank has 2 exits and several windows. Two getaway cars are parked outside the bank on either side. There should be a separate escape route off the board for each getaway car.

Deployment: Two-Face and his goons begin play inside the bank, looting. Gordon begins in a squad car on one corner of the opposite table edge, while Branden and his SWAT team deploy on the other corner. Batman may be deployed anywhere on the board, but must begin at least 20” from the bank.

Objectives: Two-Face wins if he can loot the bank and make his escape off the board by one of the predetermined escape routes, or if he kills Batman. Batman wins by stopping Two-Face.

Special Rules:

TWO-FACE

The Coin: Any time the Two-Face player wishes to do something where there are two clear alternatives, he must flip a coin and let the coin decide.  Examples include choosing which way to exit the bank, choosing which getaway car to use, choosing which escape route, choosing who to shoot at, etc. The only exception to this is that Two-Face can always elect to shoot at Batman without tossing a coin.

Two Squads: In order to give Two-Face better odds than he would otherwise enjoy, he is allowed two squads of Veteran henchmen for this scenario.

Looting the Bank: At the start of the game, roll a d3. The result is how many rounds Two-Face and his goons must spend looting the bank before they can attempt their escape. Looting the Bank is a Difficult (2) Mind roll. Two-Face doesn’t have to make the roll (but he has a better chance of doing it than his henchmen).

THE COPS

SWAT Team: Lt. Branden is a bit of a psycho, and is just as likely to shoot at Batman than at Two-Face or his goons. If the SWAT team ever has line of sight to Batman, they activate immediately and open fire.  This happens outside the normal activation sequence and control of the SWAT team reverts to the Two-Face player for as long as they have line of sight to Batman.

Gordon Takes Command: If Captain Gordon can get within 10” and has LOS to the SWAT team, he can effectively take command and the SWAT team will not fire on Batman. This command is lost if Gordon ever leaves command distance, however.

BATMAN

Batman won’t attack cops no matter how much he may want to.

“What are you??!” Batman has a special power for this scenario: Fear Aura. Anyone in short range must make s Difficult (2) Resolve roll or be afraid. Batman gets +1D to Attack and Defense rolls against models he has frightened until they make their Resolve roll. Two-Face is immune to this power.

RESULTS:

I gamed this scenario a couple of weeks back. Sorry, no pictures this time. I played Two-Face, while my friend took the role of Batman and the cops. Although it was fun, it had its share of problems.

First, it’s not all that hard to keep Batman out of the SWAT team’s view, so he never had to worry too much about getting shot at by Branden and his men.  This could be further abused by the fact that the same player has control of the SWAT team and Batman at the start of the game, so if they wanted to be unscrupulous about it, they could basically ensure that Batman stayed far away from the SWAT team. (My friend didn’t do this, however. He’s a good sport.)

Second, the game quickly degenerated into the SWAT team and Gordon firing away at Two-Face’s goons (and vice-versa) for most of the game, without either side really doing any significant damage to the other. I think this is because they were too similar. They had the same Vitality, similar stats, and they were all Veterans.

Third, even with a big screen of goons to hide behind, Two-Face is just no match for Batman. Although he managed to flee the bank, Batman brought him down in short order without too much trouble. Two-Face spent three turns just trying to break out of Batman’s Entangle power while Batman waded through his goons without breaking a sweat.

It was fun, however, and we both enjoyed the randomness of the coin tosses and the moment when Batman got to use his Fear Aura on the goons in the bank.

ZeDecember Week One : Crazy Oscar!

In honor of ZeDecember (courtesy of SamSagace’s blog) , I have painted a new zombie apocalypse survivor: Crazy Oscar!

 

Oscar wasn’t exactly sane (or hygienic) before the dead started walking around and eating people, but he’s even less so now. The miniature is from Mega Miniatures; however with the recent selloff of that company, I have no idea what company now owns the rights to the mold. I tried to paint him to look as dirty as possible (as a guy named Oscar who lives in garbage should), so I used a lot of black and brown washes over my highlights.

Although you can’t really see it, I also tried a new technique with Oscar: I used MIG productions rust pigments on his axe-head and on the old tire on his base. This dust looks different than a rust-colored paint (my go-to rust paint was GW’s Tin Bitz) , and I like the results.

I posed him with an Armorcast Dumpster and Trash Pile, just because.

Ill-Met in Lankhmar

Figured I’d post a few of my painting projects from a few years ago. First up is a duo likely familiar to any classic Sword-and-Sorcery devotees out there: Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser!

I’ve loved the Lankhmar stories since I was introduced to the characters in TSR’s Deities and Demigods, way back when I was a kid. Both of these are Reaper miniatures, sculpted by the legendary Sandra Garrity. The Mouser is (02034) Kurff the Swift, while Fafhrd is (02152) Fafnir of Kjord (an homage if ever there was one). These miniatures together would make a very cool diorama if done properly, with the Mouser preparing to scale a wall, and Fafhrd covering his back. Unfortunately, I painted Fafhrd years ago and the Mouser only a few weeks ago, which is why they’re based differently (and why I think the Mouser looks better.) I’m not wild about this picture. I can’t account for the shiny, glossy look on Fafhrd. Must be the camera flash, as I never use any kind of glossy paint or sealant and he certainly doesn’t look shiny in real life.

Up next is another duo, from my current AD&D campaign, the Tears of Yevona. This is Scarlet and Rouge, a pair of renowned “crime-fighters”. Many bards have written songs extolling their deeds of derring-do. Unfortunately, every time they’ve appeared in my campaign, the PCs have had to rescue them from someone or something.  (“Of course, a few more minutes and we would have managed to free ourselves and overcome our dastardly captors. But your aid is appreciated nonetheless, comrades!”)

I actually forget which one is Scarlet and which is Rouge, so I’ll just call the girl Rouge.  Rouge is another Sandra Garrity Reaper sculpt, (02006) Sidrith, Sword Sister; while Scarlet is (02430) Rictur Deihn, Assassin, sculpted by Bobby Jackson. (I used Rictur Deihn as a character miniature myself in a GURPS fantasy game years ago, and found a new use for him as an NPC in my AD&D campaign.) I painted both of these several years back. I think they could use more facial shading, but overall I’m ok with how they turned out.

 

More Heroclix Repaints

Took a break from my usual stuff to paint up some more Heroclix for use with Supersystem 3.

First up: The Wrecking Crew. Thunderball, Piledriver, The Wrecker, and Bulldozer. Although they’re a bunch of losers, I’ve always like the Wrecking Crew. I have to say that the Piledriver miniature is one of the worst miniatures in the Heroclix line. He doesn’t even scale well with the other Crew members. I really like the sculpts on the other three, however.

Next up: the original Uncanny X-Men! Iceman, Marvel Girl, Angel, Cyclops, and Beast. I’m pretty happy with the team overall. Iceman’s base is the only one I made from scratch, the rest are modern urban and tech bases from various companies. I was reminded how much I hate painting yellow when I did this team, as yellow is notoriously difficult to shade without it looking like crap. I think Cyclops looks the worst, but I can live with it.

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 3

Well, I thought I had more pictures of the end of the game, but I guess we got pretty caught up in the excitement and forgot to take them. So, rather than go turn by turn, I’ll try to remember the general narrative for the rest of the game. First, Spartacus and Foxxy had a harrowing turn as the zombies swarmed the vehicle. But the windows withdtood their assault and Spartacus managed to get the Hummer started the second time around. He roared away, plowing though a group of three zombies on their way to the convenience store. The Anti-zombie rating isn’t very high on a vehicle ( I guess because zombies can easily survive being hit by a truck, as trauma isn’t much of an issue when you’re dead.) Despite this, Spartacus ran one zombie down and Foxxy shot another in the brain-pan as they drove by. They got to the convenience store, but couldn’t do anything else.

Honey Velvet, Ramses Magnum and Lorenzo fought their way through the zombie horde on the side of the gun shop, but poor Lorenzo’s shotgun picked a critical moment to run out of ammo and he was pulled down screaming.

Mr. Wisdom, Lady Chardonnay and the girls were pretty much free to act, as Mr. Wisdom had removed the threat of the spawn points in their immediate vicinity. They began to move towards their side of the board in search of more SURVIVE locations.

Braaaaaaaiiiiinnnnsssss.......

Meanwhile, with Spartacus and Foxxy gone, the big horde of zombies in the middle of the board now turned their attention towards Honey Velvet and Ramses Magnum, as they were the closest survivors. Honey Velvet ran across the street to a boarded-up diner and made her way inside, where she found a Lumberjack’s Chainsaw just lying on the table. Ramses Magnum stayed behind to cover her and fired off a few shots at an approaching zombie, killing it for good.

Mr. Wisdom and his crew fought off a few more zombies, continuing to move towards their table edge.

Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite jumped out of the Hummer. Spartacus ran into the convenience store and looted it for 5 Units of Food! Foxxy stayed outside to cover him as the zombies began to approach…

On their activation, the zombies all moved towards the closest survivors. Three of them followed Honey Velvet into the diner, but that was a mistake. Honey fired up her new toy, and the lumberjack’s chainsaw decapitated all three rotters just before it ran out of gas! Whew!

 

"Get back in the truck, Foxxy!"

The horde swarmed Foxxy Dynamite before she could get back in the truck. She fought poorly and ultimately went down beneath a mass of rotting zombie bodies.

 

Foxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Spartacus Jones jumped in the Hummer through the sun roof and took off, leaving Foxxy to her fate. He sped towards Ramses Magnum and Honey Velvet, intent on picking them up. With only 7 survivors left, they had fulfilled the victory conditions of the scenario: we had one unit of food for each survivor. Time to get the FUNK out of here!

Ramses and Honey were able to enter the Hummer on their activation, and Mr. Wisdom and his crew were able to safely walk off their edge of the board, since no zombies were anywhere near them. The next turn, the Hummer sped off the board. Victory for the survivors!

My friends all expressed interest in campaigning NMRIH using these same characters, so there’s a chance you may see more adventures of the Soul Survivors in future posts! Stay tuned!

 

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 2

The zombies activate! We rolled 11 dice in the dice grave, scoring 7 zombies. They spawned at random points all over the board. None spawned close enough to Mr. Wisdom or his girls to threaten them this turn, and Honey Velvet and her group were far enough away from any spawning points that they only had to worry about the zombie that was still trying to eat B-Train this turn.

Feel the Fist of Funk!

A zombie spawned right next to Spartacus Jones and since he was within 6″, he charged right into Monstrous Melee! Spartacus could have Snap-fired at the charging zombie, but why bother? Instead he showed that dirty rotter what it means to meet the Fist of Funk! Ka-POW! One zombie down.

Meanwhile, the zombie on the truck with B-Train failed to do any damage, and so did B-Train. They remained in combat.

The Survivors won the activation next turn. Mr. Wisdom managed to get into base contact with a zombie spawn point and destroy it, which made his section of the board just a little bit safer.

Ramses Magnum fired at an approaching zombie not too far away, but failed to kill it. Lorenzo leveled his shotgun at the zombie and blew it into next week!  Honey Velvet joined the melee between B-Train and the zombie in the truck. With her machete, she made quick work of the zombie before he could sink his yellow, decayed teeth into B-Train.

Spartacus Jones was still trying to rally his group, considering Foxxy Dynamite was still suppressed. Not willing to move on without her, he consolidated the troops and waited it out this turn.

The zombies spawned at an alarming rate, due mostly to the sound of gunfire from Honey Velvet’s group. We rolled a whopping 17 dice for the dice grave and scored 12 zombies. That was enough to hit all remaining spawn points once, and one twice! It was beginning to get crowded…

To make matters worse, the zombies won the activation for the fourth round, which means they spawned AGAIN. Luckily, there were only 6 this time, but it didn’t help any, as there were now enough zombies on the board that they started to herd together. Many of them began to close on the park, where Spartacus Jones and his group had been stuck for the last two turns.

Yikes!

Both De’Andre and Cyrus Snap-fired on the approaching zombies, but didn’t do anything to slow them down, and they wound up in Monstrous Melee. Foxxy Dynamite finally came out of her stupor and shot one of them down. Spartacus fired his gun but missed. That’s a LOT of gunfire.

Mr. Wisdom got charged by a zombie, but made quick work of it with his sword-cane.

Don't mess with Mo'nique!

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom got close to another zombie spawning point, and took that one out of play too.  His area was rapidly becoming the safest part of the board, as zombies weren’t moving towards him at all, really. All the spawning points left were closer to the other groups. However, just to be safe, Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay moved around a car wreck to confront two shambling zombies. Mo’nique put one down permanently with her purse, while on the other side, Yu’nique made it to a car and looted it, finding 2 units of Food!!

Honey Velvet’s group began to move around the Gun Shop, staying away from the front as more zombies were heading there all the time. Ramses Magnum kicked open a nearby door to a SURVIVE! Location, and once inside, opened a fridge only to find it filled with disgusting zombie guts, which promptly coated his expensive, polyester powder-blue suit in gore! This had the unfortunate effect of raising the Zombie Threat Level by one for the rest of the game, ensuring that more and more zombies would be attracted each turn!

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The zombies activated first AGAIN the next turn. Based on the amount of gunfire the previous turn, as well as the heightened threat level, we were rolling a truly horrendous amount of dice to spawn zombies. They seemed to come from everywhere at once! Poor B-Train lagged a little too far behind Honey Velvet’s group and wound up in Monstrous Melee as a zombie lunged at him. He was pulled down and eaten before our eyes! Honey Velvet could do nothing for him and turned her head away. Ramses Magnum, being Dead Inside, was calmly indifferent to the whole scene. It gave them some breathing room as all nearby zombies would be attracted to the feast next turn.

OM-NOM-NOM!!!!

But poor B-Train wouldn’t be the only one to become zombie chow this turn. In the park, both Cyrus and De’andre were pulled down and noshed on by zombies while Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite could only watch helplessly. Both passed their GUTS checks, so they could act freely when their time came.

Once again, Mo'nique ain't playin'!

Zombies charged at Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay. Lady Chardonnay put one down with Snap-fire, while Mo’nique bludgeoned yet another zombie into final rest with her purse.

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom moved to join his group, taking a shot at a zombie at long range and missing, while Yu’nique looted a nearby dumpster and scored a Big-Ass Knife!

They're breaking through!

Meanwhile, Honey Velvet’s group continued around the Gun Shop, only to find a hastily-erected barricade collapsing under the weight of half a dozen zeds. They would have to fight their way through next turn!

Let's get the FUNK out of here!

Spartacus and Foxxy ran into a nearby Hummer and locked the doors as the groaning zombies outside mobbed up and gave pursuit. He couldn’t get it started this turn, and would have to wait. Meanwhile, the zombies were getting closer, and a car door isn’t much protection…

To Be Continued!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 1

One of my friends has been pestering me to play a zombie game on my table for a while now, and I figured it was about time for some No More Room in Hell. The last time I played the game was also the first time I played it; and while I really loved the game, I didn’t like some of the mechanics. So I fiddled with the system, came up with some house rules (see below) and got familiar with the rulebook over the last week or so.

One of the big problems I had the first time around was that my survivors kept getting trapped in melee endlessly simply because they were too close to a zombie spawn point. By the time they dealt with whatever zombies they were fighting, they were unable to move away before they were instantly charged by a zombie and the whole cycle started over again. So, for example, my survivor ends his activation within 6″ of a spawn point. The zombies spawn, and because one spawns within 6″ of the survivor, it charges into melee. Next round the survivor activates first, but all he can do is melee with the zombie, he can’t move or shoot. Whether he beats the zombie or not, he’s effectively stuck in the same spot until the next zombie activation. If enough zombies are spawned, he may be facing the same situation next round. This becomes more and more likely as more and more zombies join the melee. Sooner or later there will be too many to defeat. But it’s just not fun to be stuck in one spot.

The rules have no way of getting out of melee once you’re in it aside from either getting killed or killing your opponent. You may retreat as you’re being charged, but who wants to do that? And even if you did, it wouldn’t prevent the above situation from happening, assuming you found yourself close enough to a spawn point again.

So I made a house rule. You can attempt to leave a melee assuming you have initiative. If you’re facing one zombie, you need only pass a FISTS check (one zombie isn’t hard to fake out). However, if you face more than one zombie or any number of survivors, you must succeed in a difficult SURVIVE check (2 successes), which is a lot harder to do. If you fail, you’re stuck in combat and can’t retaliate that turn. This also makes it pretty much impossible for Sheeple, who only have a SURVIVE score of 1, to ever voluntarily leave combat. But then again, they’re supposed to die.

My other house rule has to do with zombie feasting and zombie movement. Normally, zombies move towards the closest survivor, period. My house rule states that zombies move towards either the closest survivor or the closest zombie feast, whichever is closer.  Once the feast is over, normal zombie movement is restored. So it really only affects one turn, as zombies only feast for one turn. It gives the survivors a little break every once in a while.

Next I threw together some Survivor Groups for me and my two friends. I decided to go with a 70’s Blaxploitation theme to the game, because I love those movies and because I have the miniatures. I wish I had the time to throw together an appropriate playlist before the game but I didn’t.  (the Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown soundtracks would have worked well.) I decided to collectively call the Groups the Soul Survivors. Although Group on Group combat is accounted for in the NMRIH rules, we decided to play a cooperative game. Three different groups deploy separately, but with the shared goal of meeting the mission objectives and getting the hell out alive.

The Fist of FUNK!

First up was my group, led by Spartacus Jones, the Fist of Funk (Shot-Caller). He’s backed up by the lovely Foxxy Dynamite (Back-Up). Behind them is De’Andre and Cyrus (both Sheeple).

Cue the Curtis Mayfield...

Next is the group led by Mr. Wisdom, the Earl of 139th St. (Shot-Caller). Backing him up with her Colt Python is Lady Chardonnay (Back Up), and her two girls Mo’nique and Yu’nique (both Sheeple). Mo’nique is the big one.

They call me MISTER Magnum!

 

Lastly, we have the group led by Honey Velvet and her submachine gun (Shot-Caller). She’s supported by Rameses Magnum in his powder blue suit (Back Up), and B-Train and Lorenzo (both Sheeple).

The Board

 

The mission was a Supply Run, the goal of which is to obtain one unit of food or ammo or fuel per survivor. All the SURVIVE ocations are marked with a red glass counter. There are three unique locations: The Gun Shop, currently barricaded up (wonder what’s in there?); The Med Stop, and the Food Mart. All of them have a water bottle cap on them to denote their unique status. There are many vehicles scattered around the table; any that could possibly be used have a small key-shaped screw on them. And away we go!

Maybe we can get this started.....GAAAAH!

 

We deployed our Groups separately. Honey Velvet and her crew made a beeline for the closest vehicle, an old pickup. (Astute readers may notice the color of the pickup changed from blue to red. That’s because my friend wanted a pickup that looked like the one from Sanford and Son.) B-Train hopped in and tried to start it up, only to find a zombie inside! B Train found himself in Monstrous Melee on Turn 1! He managed to hold it off for this turn…

Elsewhere, Mr. Wisdom and his girls made his way around a building towards a spawn point. Mr. Wisdom has the special ability to destroy zombie spawn points, an ability he put to good use in this game. He didn’t make it this turn.

Meanwhile, Foxxy Dynamite moved quickly over to an abandoned tractor (a SURVIVE location). One quick exploration later, she discovered a battery operated television broadcasting the fateful last newscast of a doomed anchorman as he became zombie chow on camera! She rolled on the Fear Reaction table, and was so traumatized by what she saw that she collapsed and was suppressed for 2 turns! Spartacus Jones got into a good firing position, as it was time for the zombies to activate!

To be continued!

 

The Dwarves are Upon You!

I have found a cure for my painting blues. I’ve decided that rather than drive myself crazy painting things I don’t want to, I’ll take a break and get started on those Dwarfs I’ve been meaning to paint for a while. Here are the results.

It’s a modest start: one unit of Warriors, one unit of Miners, a small unit of Quarrelers (that’s crossbowmen, not argumentative dwarfs), and an organ gun. It should be noted that with the exception of the organ gun and its crew, none of these are GW models.  Like I give a shit. Both the Warriors and the Miners are from Black Tree Design, the Crossbowmen are from Mantic. I placed them around some Gale Force Nine Battlefield in a Box Rocky Outcroppings.

First up are the Miners. I love the look of Black Tree’s dwarfs, as they are all metal and chunky, reminiscent of that old Citadel Dwarf range, which I really like. The only criticism I have of them is that there isn’t enough variation in the packaging. Out of 20 figures, I got 5 of one sculpt and 4 of another, while conversely I got 1 each of two very cool sculpts. Oh well. I did my best to paint them with enough variation so that they are individualized, but I tied the unit together by using the same dirty colors across the board (they’re miners, after all). I used some leftover mat board from my Modular Roads project as movement trays.

Up next are the Warriors. Again, I like the look of Black Tree. These guys are doubly cool because they’re so armored up, I could easily use them as proxy Ironbreakers. (Quick Math: I get 20 of these metal dwarfs from Black Tree for about $40. The same unit of “official” GW Ironbreakers would cost me $100.  I’d say they’re likely to be Ironbreakers most of the time.)

I didn’t make any banners for either unit yet, because I kind of suck at scratch-building banners. Maybe one day I’ll get around to it.

Last are the Quarrelers and the organ gun. The organ gun is an old-school GW metal version. I actually like the newer version better, but this one is fine.  I have mixed feelings about the Mantic Dwarfs. They definitely have a look all their own, and you can’t beat the price at about $1.50 each. I really dislike the fact that in this pack of 10 dwarfs, you get a bunch of head variations but can only really use 5, as the other 5 dwarfs are all one piece. The one-piece dwarfs are the dwarfs that are firing the crossbows, pretty much the front rank. There is a noticeable lack of detail on these models as opposed to the ones with separate heads. In addition, they don’t really rank up well unless you want the back rank to be facing off to the side. A somewhat annoying design flaw.

So, what next? Well, I have all the dwarfs from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set awaiting painting: 12 Warriors, 10 Thunderers, 8 Miners, a cannon and crew, a Thane and 1 Slayer. (I’ve always thought Dwarf Slayers are stupid.) I have an unbuilt unit of Mantic Shieldbreakers that seem to have the same annoying lack of detail on the one-piece models as the Crossbowmen. And I have another regiment of GW dwarf Miners (making that 15 more miners in total, minus my unneeded second command group). I have another dwarf cannon and crew, and a proxy Flame cannon to paint, plus a few lords and heroes…So the army is a long way from complete, but I need to get back to my other projects for now.

When does painting = work?

Lately I have a problem: I can’t seem to get excited about painting. The reason is simple: it feels like it’s something I have to do, not something I want to do. In other words, it’s a lot like work.

I run an ongoing AD&D campaign, and I use miniatures for that. Which means that in addition to the normal prep work of getting an adventure together, I need to find time to paint miniatures in time for when they will be needed. So far, my method has been to paint up a bunch of stuff for a good story arc or two, then take a brief hiatus while one of my friends runs something for a while. In the meantime, I paint more miniatures to be used the next time I run my campaign. So far it’s worked pretty well. But now it’s starting to get on my nerves.

With all the miniature gaming I’ve been doing lately (and all the miniature gaming I want to do) there are a whole lot of things I would rather be painting than the miniatures required for my AD&D game. And they’re all just sitting there in the insanity pile. So, although I’d love to get my Dreadball teams painted; or start that new proxy Imperial Guard army with Wargames Factory Greatcoats; or paint those damn WFB High Elves and Dwarfs that are still mostly unpainted; or paint any of the (many) Clan War miniatures I have; or repaint some Heroclix for a SS3 scenario or two; or build and paint some scenery (for anything); or paint those Terminators and Genestealers for Space Hulk; or paint some Hydra Retro Raygun or Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures; or dive head first into Western miniatures for some Wild West skirmish; or even paint some fantasy miniatures that I’m in no hurry to use for an upcoming game…I can’t. (And those are just the examples I can think of off the top of my head. If I was home, where my miniatures are, I could list a lot more.)

I can’t because I need 20 kobolds, a female cleric, a griffon and a gelatinous cube by next week. (Note: I don’t actually need any of this stuff, but my players read this, so I’m wary of giving anything away.)

It’s kind of like all those books I never appreciated when I was forced to read them for school, but loved when I reread them later in life. If I feel obligated to do something, it kind of sucks the joy out of it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’d love to paint any miniature as opposed to, say, shovel snow or rake leaves. But I find I spend less time per session at the painting table, because I just can’t get into it. Which of course makes the overall job that much longer.

I’d be interested to hear some thoughts on this from other gamers and miniature enthusiasts. I’m curious to know if any of you experience the same thing from time to time, or if it’s just me finding problems with everything, including my hobbies. I’m particularly interested in any professional painters out there, considering that for you, it actually IS work. What happens if someone commissions you to paint something that you hate painting ? How do you get motivated to do it (aside from the fact that you’re getting paid)? When do you ever have time to paint your own stuff?