I know my brother was getting on my case due to the fact that I've stopped cooking things and showing them off on here. Well, I'll have you know, I baked....
COOKIES!!!
Yes, I actually BAKED cookies myself. I primarily made them for my coworkers, but since there were a lot left over, I got some extras and my parents got some as well. I ate some a little bit ago and they actually tasted decent. So, hurray, I didn't screw it up!
Last week, I also got the first batch of my Deadzone Kickstarter stuff. I got to play around with a bit of it and constructed two things with the scenery: a landing pad, and an armored watch tower. The last couple nights I spent cleaning up a bunch of the figures. While detail is generally very crisp, the flash and mold lines can be a real pain in the ass. However, I've actually managed to get a few figures painted up already.
These handsome fellows are from the Plague faction. They were my test cases and I think they turned out very well, especially since I didn't even detail the little spikes growing out of them or their eyes. Their bases will probably wind up with some sand eventually. The blood stains were actually a little experiment using Games Workshop's new "Blood For the Blood God" effect paint. It actually works really well, though it doesn't really come across too well in this photo.
Now, of course, I also had to take some photos of them with my Plague Zombie horde.
Believe me, there'll be a lot more of these guys joining them in the future. Whenever the second shipment comes, I'll be getting even more zombies to join them, though those new ones will have an aesthetic a bit more in line with the Plague guys.
Now, how about some of those Deadzone shots?
Last but not least, I have a PanOceania Order Sergeant from Infinity. This guy was a paint test for some Fusiliers I'm painting for my cousin.
The paint gunked up some of the details on his helmet, so I lost a little bit of detail, but I think he turned out alright. The colors I chose will work pretty well for PanOceania, I think.
I've kind of been neglecting this blog. How about an update?
For the last few weeks, I've been focusing pretty heavily on working on Infinity figures. I've actually painted up quite a few of them. I've also been having a bit of fun with them as you can tell from these photos.
But, believe it or not, I actually started working on some figures that aren't from Infinity! On Black Friday, I ended up picking up a couple of figures from Privateer Press' Warmachine line. I got a Khador dude, and a Retribution dude.
For a little while, I've been slowly picking up the occasional Retribution of Scyrah figures. Why? Because they aren't the typical fantasy depiction of elves. Warmachine is a fantasy/steam-punk wargame. The general technological level seems to flop all over the place with some figures looking like they should be fighting in the trenches of WWI, while others look like colonial militiamen from the American Revolution, and yet still others are straight up knights in armor. Of course, then you also throw in magic, power armor, and steam powered giant robots and dudes who carry handhelt lightning guns. Like I said, it's all over the place. However, there is still a general fantasy-esque feeling to the whole thing. Then you get to the elves. They're not fantasy. Not at all. In fact, they're pretty damn sci-fi! The Retribution troops have a sort of ornate WWI look to them with lots of smooth, rounded armor and equipment all over them. Sure, you've got guys who are carrying around halbreds, crossbows, and swords, but you also have guys carrying what look like laser rifles and powered armor. I think Warmachine's depiction of elves is probably one of the more militaristic and utilitarian I've ever seen. They look like soldiers that can not only take a beating, but dish one out as well. Plus they look like they'd make great Exodite Eldar for 40k.
Anyway, I picked up a Dawnguard Scyir from the local hobby shop. He's basically a high ranking officer decked out in Sentinel armor (that's what their heavy infantry are called). For the most part, he looks like the regular Dawnguard Sentinels aside from a few small odds and ends here and there and I really like the design. I had him all painted up and ready to go last night, but then I got the bright idea to put a wash on him and pretty much ruined the figure. So, today I stripped the previous paintjob off and redid him in a darker scheme and with a different highlighting method. I've pleased with how he's turned out.
Here you can see him with one of my Dawnguard Halbred troops and a Mage Hunter Assassin. Despite using different colors, he fits in pretty well. I deliberately used a darker scheme so I would be able to immediately tell him apart from other Sentinels that I may eventually purchase, yet not break the overall color theme of the army.
If you couldn't tell, I was going for more of a desert theme for these guys since I only ever see people painting them in either bright colors or in the official off white. Neither really fits the more utilitarian aesthetic their troops have.
I've had this movie sitting around and finally got around to watching it this weekend. For those who are unfamiliar with the Garo series, it's a series consisting of several tv shows, movies, and videos that follow a group of people called Makai Knights, which are basically modern day knights who use magical armor to hunt down demons. The series is absolutely NOT for kids and was billed as something along the lines of being a "midnight violence action hero." The series as whole tends to have a lot of violence and nudity. The series also has a very strong horror theme to it, as if that wasn't obvious.
The first series, simply called Golden Knight Garo dealt with Saejima Koga, the man who holds the title and armor of Garo. Supposedly Garo is the strongest of the Makai Knights. The first series obviously introduces the setting involving the hidden war between the Makai Knights (and Makai Priests) versus of Horrors. Horrors are demons born of human emotions that can either possess people or consume human souls. The plot of the first series initially deals with Koga coming into contact with a normal human named Kaoru who by chance is caught in the middle of a fight between Garo and a Horror. She is accidentally doused with the blood of the horror which has the unfortunate side effect of not only being extremely toxic, but attracts other Horrors as well. So, much of the series involves the relationship between the two as Koga tries to not only protect Kaoru, but also try to find a way to save her. As it goes on, another Knight is introduced and the plot becomes more convoluted as it turns out a corrupted Knight is controlling things behind the scenes to not only corrupt Koga's handlers, but also summon the Horror's god into the human realm. Here's a trailer for the original series:
The first special follows which involves the introduction of another new Makai Knight and the revival of new menace, Legules. Basically he's a demon on a whole different level from the average Horrors. The overall plot involves Legules attempting to tear down the wall between the human world and the Horror's world.
Following the first special is the first movie, Red Requiem. I had a hard time placing where this was actually supposed to occur in the series' chronology. I think it is supposed to occur after the first show and the special. This one introduces a new Makai Priestess named Rekka along with several others. The plot mostly involves them trying to track down an Apostle Horror, one of the most powerful types of Horrors they ever encounter. The movie was alright. It was a 3d movie, for some reason. I was a little disappointed in it actually because no new Makai Knights were introduced and the Garo armor itself was barely in the movie. Here's the trailer to that though.
After the first movie, we get the second tv series, Makai Senki. This one once again involves a corrupted Makai Knight running wild. Unlike in the first series, the villain this time around is not completely possessed and knows full well what he's doing. The villains mission is to use the power of the Horrors against them and destroy them once and for all. Of course this doesn't work. This show did a LOT more world building, introducing the Senate, the governing body that presides over the Makai Knights and Priests, the history of the Makai Knights, and it introduces several new Knights. The show ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger with Koga entering into a contract with a demon called Gajari in order to save everyone. The show ends with him having to leave to a place called the Promised Land to fulfill his contract. And here's the trailer for that:
The Third series, Yami Wo Terasu Mono (the one who shines in the darkness) is pretty much unrelated. It's set an unspecified amount of time in the future. Koga is gone, what happened to him is never explained. A new cast is introduced with two new Makai Knights ( who have very cool looking armor) and a new Knight bearing the title of Garo. This new lead is called Dogai Ryuga. He's not as cool as Koga and tries to be something of a rebel. The plot of this one involves a self contained city-state in which Horrors have infiltrated key business and political positions and an evil human attempts to take control over a sealed Apostle Horror called Zedom. This show was okay, but there were times they tried to be kind of artsy with it which got kind of annoying. Plus the horrors seemed to lose a lot of their more unique designs from previous series and it was a lot more CG heavy. Zedom was somewhat interesting in that he's the first high-ranking Horror seen in the series other than Kiba that's male. All of the previous powerful Horrors were female. Zedom is also interesting in that he is almost purely mechanical whereas every other horror has been pretty much organic. Might as well put the trailer for this series as well:
Following that, there were two more movies. One, a spinoff called Garo Gaiden: Tougen no Fue. It follows a pair of Makai Priestesses and has no other characters from Garo in it.
The other is Garo: Soukoku no Maryu, which is the epilogue for the second series following Koga as he travels into the Promised Land. Here's the trailer.
I was surprised by this one. First, this is probably the only entry in the Garo series that could be considered family friendly. There are no Horrors, nobody getting eaten or brutally murdered or worse as often happened in the shows. I don't think there was even any blood in this. Hell, there wasn't really even any nudity, and all 3 shows and the first movie all had nudity in them. Those weird looking white, fish headed women in some of those shots were technically nude, but you really can't see anything, so I'm going to say this one is child safe. The movie also has surprisingly decent CG. That's really shocking because Garo has never had good looking CG. The sets and creature designs are all extremely weird and look pretty much like what you'd expect from something from Keita Amemiya, the series' creator. I could swear I'd read that the movie was supposed to be influenced by Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz and it pretty well shows. Actually, what this movie reminded me the most of was The Labyrinth or The Neverending Story. The strange fantasy setting with all of the bizarre looking monsters really gave me that vibe. There's even a strange, hallucinogenic party sequence that comes totally out of nowhere and reminds me of the ballroom dance sequence from The Labyrinth. Something interesting with this movie, while the backgrounds are all CG and only a couple monsters are CG, almost every other creature is a puppet of some sort. One of the characters even seemed to be a marionette. It was very surprising to see how many creatures were done with practical effects. I have noticed though that the marionettes seem to have carried over into Amemiya's newest show, Shougeki Gouraigan.
Overall, this movie was a surprising departure from the usual formula of the shows and was unusually tame, but still enjoyable.
The little bit of model work I did this weekend was on my Tau Devilfish. As I said, I bought it to use it with my Enforcers. Once my Deadzone Kickstarter stuff comes in, I'm going to have a ton of urban terrain and parts to build a landing pad. Problem is, there's no aircraft to land on it. So, I figured I'd just use a GW one. The Tau tanks look enough like aircraft, I figured I could get away with it. Last week I'd started painting it up. I had a tri-color splinter camo pattern on it. Unfortunately, I had to paint it by hand and I thought it looked really bad. My dad didn't seem to think it looked that bad, but I wasn't happy with it. So, on Saturday I repainted the whole thing and this time I used painter's masking tape to block off the camo pattern. The results were way better. Though, this time I stuck to just the base color and a darker color for the splinters. Tonight I got the markings done and painted the engings. So, now it's all done and ready for a spray sealant. Well, that and I need GW to hurry up and send that missing drone sprue.
It's a little hard to see, but here's the nose art I gave it. I wish I had something more traditional, but this was the only one I had that actually fit. Well, it was either this, a boar, or a crude looking skull. This one gives it a tad bit of color, which I wanted, so that's why I chose it.
You can also see I got the viewports all painted up. I'm not sure if I should do anything with the chin gun or those little antennae fins though.
With today (and tomorrow's) rain, I'm not really able to work on much. Thankfully, I had two of my three Yu Jing Zhanshis (those are their basic line infantry) already primed and base coated, so I was able to get them all painted up and ready for dipping. Unfortunately, I don't think the third Zhanshi will be ready for dipping due to rain.
I also was playing around with the scenic stuff I have on my coffee table....
They're running, I might as well have them running away from something.
Yes, I'm surprised too! My vehicles are finally getting some work done on them.
It doesn't look like much has been done here, but I did start painting the Landraider's tracks and I've not only kitbashed the first set of guns, but they've been magnetized to the hull as well so that they can turn.
My Razorback is seeing some work done on it. I've dirtied it up a little more and started the hard line highlighting on it as well. It's actually nearly done. I had to do some repair work on the magnets on its top panel since some popped out and I've installed magnets into the door so it can stay shut. It isn't pretty, but the rear door can freely open and shut now.
This is entirely new. I bought a Devilfish gunship for my Enforcers. I know this is a Tau vehicle and I don't really care. I'll be using it as an objective for my Enforcers in Deadzone. I'll need to put something on that landing pad I've got coming. Unfortunately, one of the drones that goes onto the front was actually missing from the box. Hopefully GW can send me a replacement. I'm not entirely set yet on the colors for this thing. What I'd like to do is paint it grey and white with yellow striping to match the Enforcers, but that color scheme will be a major pain in the ass. Alternatively, a camouflage scheme could be cool, but then I have to decide what colors to use. Desert? Urban? Low Visibility?
I only have one picture to share. On a whim I bought one of the Dark Vengeance Space marines via ebay with some other stuff. I have no particular desire to ever actually use Space Marines of the Dark Angels chapter, but I wanted to try painting one up just to have one. So I did. Here's the results.
I was really surprised with just how well he turned out. I'm so pleased with the job I did here that I actually would consider doing up a few more. Now, while I do want to do a few more green Dark Angels, I kind of have an urge to do some up in the old Rogue Trader/Pre-Heresy colors. They're nothing special, just black with some red markings. Nobody ever seems to paint them in those colors anymore and since those are the ones I remember from way back when, they're the colors I always associated with these guys and they're the ones I prefer. Someday I'll get around to doing one.
My dog was out enjoying herself in the sun and I had to snap some photos.
She started posing for the last photo.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
I've been working on my Infinity figures lately. I've been posting the pics in this thread on Dakka Dakka.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/556038.page#6146257
Anyway, here's a few I've been working on...
These are the line infantry for the Ariadna faction in Infinity. I've already showed these guys, but here they are all finished up.
And all of my Ariadna together.
The newest one I've finished is a member of the Ahl Fassed regiment, which belongs to the Haqqislam faction in Infinity.
The Ahl Fassed regiment is supposed to be made up of former mercenaries and war criminals. Basically, they're people trying to escape from a dark past through military service. They're apparently also supposed to keep their faces covered at all times while on active duty. I kind of wish there were more figures for this group as I like their armor. But, she's the only one. I tried to make the base look like parched desert terrain, but I'm not so sure about my success there. It'll have to do though because I'm not changing it.
Here's the next figure I've got painted up. This is the Domaru Butai I've mentioned several times. He's sort of a test run for how I'm going to be painting my Yu-Jing faction. The light infantry won't have quite the same colors though. I plan of them having mostly dark colored uniforms with white armor plating.
He's still missing his swords and he hasn't been dipped yet. However, I like how he's looking. The glowy light effects turned out great. I got that effect from using some Vallejo Fluo Yellow that I just picked up today.
This is going to be another miniature update.
After some excitement last night I'd rather not experience again, I managed to get another Infinity figure completed. This time it's a Veteran Kazak from the Ariadna faction. I love the way these guys look. I wish I could get my hands on the out of production version, but sadly that one just doesn't seem to be available on Ebay. So, he'd been spending some time curing after being dipped and last night I not only dull coated him, but also cleaned up a few small spots and painted up his base. Here he is.
Again, I love how this figure looks. My paintjob actually turned out halfway decent as well, which helps. I was afraid that the two shades of green would wind up blending a little too much together, but the dip actually helped differentiate them a bit more. If I can get some Tank Hunters and some Moblots, they'll probably get similiar color schemes. Maybe some camo as well, I don't know yet.
The other figure I just finished painting up. I've had this Teutonic Knight figure from the Military Orders pack sitting on my table waiting to be painted. I've primed him three times! The first two the primer for some reason came out chalky and would just wipe off as a dust. So, a couple nights ago I primed him by hand using Vallejo's brush-on primer and this morning I actually started base coating him. After work, and just a bit ago, I got him all finished up.
The thread title is a reference to him, btw. In the background fluff, Panoceania, the faction this guy belongs to paints their armor in blue to signify that they're the good guys. I tried my best to replicate the shade of blue they use, but without mixing, and knowing the exact mixture, it just isn't going to happen for me. So, this is the shade I'll be sticking with for Panoceania... assuming I don't just camouflage them or do something totally different. I figure for the knights though, I should stick more or less to the studio colors. I mean, they're knights. They're all about heraldry and sticking out anyway. As I said, this figure is supposed to be a Teutonic Knight, but those guys don't get along too well with Russians. Instead, I painted him in the Knights Hospitaller colors. According to the background fluff, the Knights Hospitaller primarily either do humanitarian work or they do high risk hostage and prisoner rescues. I figure I'll probably be using these guys in some sort of horror themed games down the line, so they should be pretty good for that. I'd like to get some of the actual Hospitaller models, but they either have older, ugly sculpts, or they have incredibly annoying dynamic poses that have them on one foot, which means they'll probably be prone to breaking.
I think next time I do some knights though, I'm going to use a grey rather than a blue. Most of the art seems to look more like Vallejo's Sombre Grey than any shade of blue I've got. Oh, and I tried something different while painting him. I used Vallejo's Glaze Medium. It actually worked pretty well. I primarily used it on the red bits of his uniform, his sword, and the lighter bits on his armor as well as the lights. It basically will thing out the paints for you and keep them wet longer which allows you to add a thin, more transparent layer over the base coat and create a better illusion of depth. I think I'll be using this technique more often.
I haven't forgotten about updating. I'm just lazy, that's all. Actually, it's because I've been working on figures and stuff and by the time I finish up, it's usually already after midnight.
Oh yeah, Reaper Miniatures has another Bones kickstarter up.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-ii-the-return-of-mr-bones
As of this posting, it's already cleared $1million on its very first day. It funded in 3 minutes, too. That's pretty damn impressive, especially since the first Kickstarter ended at over $3 million. I can see this one surpassing it, easily. Who knows, this one may actually be one of the highest grossing Kickstarters ever. Kind of surprising how much more money this thing can make than pretty much all of the video game kickstarters. Hell, Keiji Inafune (the guy responsible for Mega Man!) had a kickstarter for a game called Mighty Number 9 that just ended today (I backed it) and it didn't even get close to $1million. I am backing this Bones kickstarter since I missed the original and it is a hell of a good deal.
Speaking of minis though, I've been working on a couple. I suppose that since I'm on the subject of Reaper and Bones, I can start with one I've just about finished.
My brother gave me this guy since he had an extra due to various circumstances. Gaze upon his... um... greyness. He's a rock monster. You can't really do a wild color scheme with him. I'm pleased with how he turned out though. He's my first big Bones figure.
I've also been working on another Reaper mini...
Look at this guy! I call him, the Fiendish Doctor Wu!
I know the mini looks nothing like him, but that is totally how I intend to use him. I need a Black Dynamite to oppose him.
Other than that, I've also been working on Infinity figures. I love their designs, but I'm afraid I cannot do their studio paint schemes justice. That being said, there's one I believe I can do fairly well: The Kaplan Tactical Services!
For the most part, I stuck to the studio colors with a few minor variances here and there. I think I did a fairly decent job, all things considered.
"Doctor Wu commands you, kill them!"
"This won't end well."
As an added bonus, I'd decided to strip the paint off of my very first Warmachine figure. It is one of the Myrmidons used by the elf faction. Look what the Simple Green did to it!
He looks like he spent a few years under the ocean! I have no clue how it did that, but the paint came off just fine and thankfully, there was no actual damage done to the figure.
I've had Metro: Last Light sitting in my apartment pretty much since May unopened. I'd preordered it, got it, and pretty much just forgot about it. Until last week that is. For the past week or so, during the evenings I've been getting some game time in and a couple days ago I managed to beat it. I'd gotten the first game, Metro 2033 before I'd moved and beat it. I really enjoyed it. A genre I've found that I really enjoy is post apocalyptic fiction. I don't know why, there's just something about that bleak, grimdark setting, the fight for survival that I really enjoy. You also tend to get some pretty good character pieces out of these stories. Now, lately, these kinds of stories have involved zombie apocalypses. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these stories. Hell, they usually tend to be very heavily character driven and frequently have some of the most realistic characters in them (when they're well written, anyway). But, that does tend to get old pretty quickly.
Most post-apocalyptic videogames also tend to involve zombies in them. Dead Space, Dead Rising, Fallout, Dead Island, the list goes on. I'm sure that's the case because nobody really feels bad about crushing a zombie's skull with a 2x4 and they're a nice, dumb enemy that's easy to program. The Metro games don't have zombies. And you know what, they're actually kind of a breath of fresh air.
So what are these Metro games? They're first person adventure/survival games set in post nuclear war Moscow. The games take place both below ground, in the metro systems and tunnels and above ground in the ruined wasteland. Here's a trailer for it.
You can get a slight feel for the games atmosphere, but there's another trailer out there that gives a closer feeling for what the game's overall tone is like. This one's kind of violent though.
The game is bleak. BLEAK. The first game wasn't as bleak as this one is. I will say, without spoiling the ending, that it does offer hope to humanity, but the tone through the whole thing is that humanity is pretty much doomed to repeat its mistakes and wipe itself out.
This game isn't just about sneaking around in the dark, knifing Nazis (which you do), oh no. This is a horror game, too. Both games had quite a bit of supernatural stuff going on. One of the characters in the first suggests that with humanity practically wiped out, the supernatural world has a chance to reassert itself. Weird stuff happens in the tunnels. Believe me. One of the best stages in Last Light was a segment where Atryom, the player character has to take a shortcut to a peace conference by going over land. To get to his destination, he has to go through a ruined apartment block. This was easily one of the creepiest segments of the game. Weird stuff happens there and there's glimpses of it in that first trailer.
There were a couple of interesting things that cropped up in the game. One was nudity. Wasn't expecting that at all. The other was that Last Light explicitly says that there were other survivors besides those in the Moscow metro. You overhear a conversation at one point where a character mentions that they finally made contact with another settlement. I think they said they were near the Urals, but I don't quite recall. They say that they still haven't been able to make contact with anyone else, but that one little tidbit I find interesting. They never mention other survivors in the first game and in fact expressly point out several times that they've never been able to reach anyone else. This makes me wonder if later entries in the series, either books or games might shift locations.
So, TL;DR: I really enjoyed the game though over all. I'm going to give it a break for a while, but I will eventually go back to it and play it in Ranger Mode. What that is, is it's basically the hardcore mode. No HUD, weapons do more damage, and items such as ammunition, money, health packs, and filters for your gas mask are extremely hard to find. Sounds like it should be pretty fun.
On to some other things, how about some miniatures?
I've had this GW Cairn Wraith for a little while now, but I've been dreading actually painting the thing up. It has a pretty dynamic pose and I felt I just couldn't do it justice. I finally worked up the courage and went at it. Here's the results.
Simple, but I think he actually turned out fairly well, despite my reservations about painting this guy.
I also got to work painting another of my Mantic Enforcers. This guy is going to be the officer for my standard white-clad team.
I think I'm finally starting to get the hang on painting their colors. I tried something different for his sword. Rather than OSL, I tried blending instead. This didn't turn out so well. I suppose for a first try it looks okay, but it doesn't look anywhere near as good as it would if, say, I'd used an airbrush. I think next time I'm going to do this, I'll try dry brushing it.
For the hell of it, I thought I'd try my hand and painting up a Black Legion Chaos Marine. This guy was actually one of my initial Iron Warrior attempts that I stripped and redid.
Obviously not finished, but the technique is simple enough. I actually used no black paint on this. He's painted entirely in Black Grey and Glorious Gold, then hit with a black wash and his horns were painted white. Simple enough and gives the impression that his armor is black, while also giving it a bit of depth. I have a Chaos Motorcycle that I'll be painting up the same way eventually.
Lastly, I got in some orders today. One of which was a recent order from Chapterhouse Studios. When they had their lawsuit with GW, they basically had to put all new products on hold. Now that it's been settled however, they can start releasing new things as long as it doesn't directly infringe on a GW product design. So, something they had in development at least as far back as last year was a squad of replacement figures for the Eldar Howling Banshee unit. While Howling Banshees are all female, this new unit is basically just an all male version of them. The theme was also changed. Rather than having their theme be a bunch of wailing banshees , they're based on wolves/dogs. The original name for the unit was Howling Hounds, though I'd also seen them called Howling Wolves. That's the name I'm going to use. Chapterhouse calles them Warp Hunters now, but Howling Wolves sounds cooler. So, I haven't done anything with them yet, but I did snap a couple of pictures of one of the troops.
I really like their designs. For some reason, most of the people on Dakka Dakka really hated their designs. I know one of the complaints was that they looked too bulky. That's why I've got that second shot of one compared to one of my Fire Dragons. As you can see, they're not bulky at all. Pretty well proportioned and sized, I say. The casting quality on them is very nice. I haven't noticed any air bubbles, no miscast bits either. There's a little warping on a couple of the weapons, but that can be fixed with some hot water. There was some flash, too, but that's easily cleaned up. The worst thing I found with their casting is that one guy had a fairly significant mold line on him. It'll be difficult to clean up since it goes through that ribbing on the side of the guy's armor, but it isn't impossible. I'd say they were worth the money, plus they're cheaper than the legit GW Banshees.
So, about mid-last week, my brother, his wife, and his daughter all came home from Japan. It's been a while since we've seen them, so I took off a couple of days to extend my weekend. That way I'd have some extra time to hang out with them. I spent pretty much all of today with them and, even though we didn't really do anything, I still enjoyed being able to hang out with them. After today, it's back to my usual daily grind. Bleh.
My brother mentioned that I need more variety in my blog though. He says it's too much about the miniatures. Well, in that case, I did finally get around to watching all of Singham. Singham is an Indian action movie that I'd heard was totally ridiculous and has some absolutely wacky stunts in it. Here's the trailer for the movie.
So, Singham is like, the most awesomely, manliest badass who has ever walked the face of the Earth. And for some reason, criminals seem to think that they can take him on. Ha ha, silly criminals. You cannot match the manliness of Bajirao Singham. So, this movie does have ridiculously over the top action scenes and some great scenes of sheer badassary. The action scenes and pretty much any scene in which Singham is doing his job are great. The rest of the movie... eh. I can't say this movie is perfect. For one thing, it's over 2 and 1/2 hours. A good chunk of that time is spent cramming as many other genres into this movie as the writers can fit, including romantic comedy, slapstick comedy, drama, and of course musical. All of this is in addition to the action movie stuff. Personally, I felt way too much time was spent on the romantic comedy parts. On top of that, at times I couldn't tell if the movie was supposed to be serious or a parody. It hit so many generic police action movie tropes, and played them all so over the top, it really felt like it was supposed to be a parody.
So, in the end, my opinion on the movie is mixed. It's too long, and too much time is spent on the boring stuff. On the other hand, the acting was pretty good, the action scenes were over the top and generally pretty damn awesome and Singham's bouts of blatant police brutality are generally just plain fun to watch. I mean, watch this clip.
The movie is on Netflix, btw. Go ahead and watch it.
Now back to the boring stuff my brother doesn't care about: MINIATURES!
Maybe you were wondering about that title for this post? I wonder, could it have anything to do with mummies?
Why yes, yes it does.
The Kickstarter Bones figures have finally hit the local hobby shop and I had to buy them. Seeing as my skeletons wound up getting trounced last time I used them in Song of Blades and Heroes, I figured I'd try something different. I picked up most of the Bones mummy figures/sets. I'm really only missing the wizard one. I picked up the mummy captain
Mummy Warriors
And your generic run of the mill mummies.
The warriors and shambling types came in 3 packs. I've so far got two of each pack finished. I'll have the final pair of figures finished up fairly soon, I'm sure. They're really easy to paint, so I can bang these guys out pretty quickly. Hell, the basic mummies only take an hour or two at most.
I've picked up several other figures that I'm slowly working on. I've got 3 female characters that I've dipped and need to finish up sometime later this week, a couple of hulking evil knights, a "strumpet,"a barmaid, an evil altar, and some flame tokens and several other types of undead including 2 armored skeletons and a clear wraith. Unfortunately, none of the sci-fi stuff seems to be available yet.
Here's one of the 2 evil knights I have. The other is not even close to being done yet.
I've also been working on camouflage techniques. I learned recently how to do German pea-dot camo. It's surprisingly easy to do and fairly adaptable. Here's a figure I was using to practice it on.
Those pictures are pre-wash. Unfortunately, the pics I did take of the figure after I added the wash did not turn out very good. In the pictures, it winds up looking better pre-wash, but in person, it looks better post-wash. Weird. I guess it just doesn't photograph very well.
