Alphabeast Soup

Andy drew this. He's a good artist. I like Andy.

Yep, another Kickstarter, this one by the one and only Andy Hopp, fun-tastic artist and creator of the Low Life roleplaying game among others. Not much I can say about this book; it's weird, and that's probably reason enough why you should back it. Check it out here!

Kickstarter: Space Cadets/Away Missions

So, I decided to pull the trigger on the Kickstarter for Space Cadets: Away Missions.

"But, Carmen, aren't you already a backer on the Conan Kickstarter??"
"Yes, MOM!"

But I got a generous tax refund, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. A few things pulled me to this game: Unlike Conan (which I LOVE for the theme), Space Cadets can be played solo; It reminds me a bit about Zombicide but it feels a little more complex -- I can chain together a few more actions using one action point (depending on dice rolls); I'm a sucker for the 1950s retro theme; and since it's inspired by 1950s retro, I can paint all the minis in monochromatic black and white, so the painting will go fast.

Did I mention there's a pledge level if you just want the minis?

For painting, the plan is to not paint the heroes in full color (like I did in Zombicide), but to paint them in the monochromatic hue of their character (blue, red, yellow, purple etc.) I want them to stand out a little from the aliens, but I want to stick close to a pure monochromatic scheme for all the minis. Another option may be to do the heroes in black and white, but paint the rim of the bases in their proper colors.

Anyway, if you like 1950s retro scifi, solo/coop games, and fun (if not necessarily amazing) minis, check out Space Cadets: Away Missions. And if you're quick to pledge, you may still snag one of the "free shipping" pledge levels!

Steve Barber Models: New Samurai coming soon

Steve Barber finished sculpting my latest commission, and it looks lovely as always. In this samurai, I wanted a new pose of the classic unarmored samurai. I believe the specific name for this stance is hasso no kamae.

I'm guessing the blade is a separate piece (as is usual for Steve's samurai). If you like making your own weapons, this will allow you to add your own blades for katana, wakizashi or maybe even a nodachi. I bet I could probably even arm this guy with a kanabo with little trouble.

The head is also separate allowing you a lot of choices as to what you want this guy to look like. There are around a dozen heads to choose from among all the figures I've commissioned. I don't know if Steve has put it in his catalog yet, but you could probably ask to buy a "head pack" with your next samurai order.

My original thought with this figure was to have him wearing a Kataginu, which has the exaggerated shoulders you see on some samurai, but I decided to keep them off because it would be easier to add some with green stuff than to file off those that were already sculpted on (Steve Barber uses good metal.)

An unintended result of leaving the kataginu off was that the figure is nice and clean with very little clutter. The only thing breaking up the kimono being the sash and the folds; this leaves a nice large canvas for painters to spread color and to brush with a loose hand. The folds give you a chance to practice layering and highlighting, and the unbroken swaths of area leave plenty of space if you like to paint nice patterns on your kimonos. So I think this is a good figure for both beginner and advanced painters.

When he goes into production, I think this sculpt will be good fun to paint. And he will make a nice addition to the collection, guarding the halls, roads, and gardens of my table.

Zombicide: Survivor

I forget which character this is, but I'm too lazy to go look it up. For the basecoat, I approached this figure like I do the monochromatic zombies. For the zombies, I would start with a heavy drybrushing of the base color, followed by lighter drybrushings of the highlight colors (then picking out details and skin highlights.)

With this figure, I drybrushed the basecoat to help pick the details out of the black primer. This layer also helps to pick out which areas would need to be highlighted. For the trenchcoat, I actually just used the drybrushed base color as the color for the coat (followed up with a very light brushing of some highlight color.) The drybrush helps keep the colors stark and gritty.

I still have a couple more survivors to paint up, but they represent the last of my Rue Morgue survivors. Then it'll be on to some more monochromatic zombies!

Mouse and Dragon

I'm still having a little difficulty getting back into the groove of mins painting, but I'm working the watercolors pretty good. So, until I get some minis posted, here's a picture I painted of Mouse meeting Vermithrax Perjorative.

I'm back

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted anything, but I'm back now. I still have some Zombicide survivors to paint (among others.) They're primed and ready to go, I just need to actually apply some paint.

In other news, if you haven't seen it, there is a new Conan (the Cimmerian) skirmish board game on Kickstarter. Typical big box game with lots of minis and great sculpts. The game itself also looks pretty decent. Though, honestly, the first thing that caught my eye was that the creators made the decision (and are sticking to it) that everything in the game would be taken directly from Robert E. Howard's original source material. So no Red Sonja, no Thulsa Doom, No Ahnold.

Check it out. The campaign has broken a half million in three days, so there should be plenty of extras before it's over. I'm happy with the base contents as it is, but there's nothing wrong with adding to the lead mountain (though, these figures are plastic.) Go here to see!

You can read more about the game and see more photos of the figures (and art) at Board Game Geek.