Alien Plants

I've recently noticed a certain type of plant that grows wild in places along the embankment of the railway line on which I travel to and from work. It's a strange plant and I do not know its name. Its long leaves grow and curl into such positions to suggest that it is animated. I can imagine those leaves flailing around, searching for food, and then closing on a hapless bird or small animal that has wandered too close. John Wyndham has a lot to answer for.


The specimens in the photo above are about 3 metres (10 feet) in width. I'm always on the lookout for things to inspire me for miniature scratch-building projects. These plants look suitably alien and I could imagine them as perfect terrain for some futuristic miniature tabletop skirmish game.

Solar Halo

I took the family for a day trip up to Tamborine Mountain last Sunday. One of the cool things I saw that day was a rainbow ring around the sun. This is an optical phenomenon known as a 22° halo and forms when sunlight is refracted in hexagonal ice crystals suspended high in the atmosphere.


The photo was taken with the camera pointing directly at the sun. The ring was observable with the naked eye and was even more spectacular than the photo suggests.

Fight The Flab - 6

The 1st of July is here and it's time to record my success or failure in shedding unwanted body fat in June. It's been a busy month with work, and also Maddie's 8th birthday and my 11th wedding anniversary (and the 16th anniversary of first meeting my wife). I've recovered from the lengthy cold I had back in April/May and have started exercising and eating more healthily again. My favourite way to exercise is to go for a long brisk walk around my neighbourhood while listening to history and gaming related podcasts. The cold weather has certainly arrived and it's been a wet month which has affected the number of times I've been able to get out and walk. Still, I got in about 30 km during the month.

I can now reveal...

I lost 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) in June.

I'm back on track and looking forward to July.

January weight loss: 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs)
February weight loss: 5.0 kg (11.0 lbs)
March weight loss: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
April weight gain: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
May weight gain: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
June weight loss: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)

Total weight loss since 1 January 2009: 6.5 kg (14.3 lbs)

All the Fun of the Fair

It was a beautiful winter day today. In Brisbane Australia that means a cool crisp morning, warm dry day and a clear blue sky. The perfect day to head outdoors and get some fresh air. So me, my wife Deb, our two girls Maddie and Georgia, and Deb's Dad (AKA Dah) hopped in the car and drove to a local school fair.

I was pretty impressed with what was available at the fair; jumping castles, a mini-Ferris wheel, putt-putt golf, huge slippery slide, tea-cup ride, swinging chair ride, outdoor rock climbing tower, a laser tag course, not to mention the amount of food and activity stalls, white elephant, trash & treasure, and books to name a just a few.


If I was a 10 year old boy I could have spent the entire day playing on the awesome laser tag course which had sandbagged barricades and other obstacles to run around. The laser guns looked pretty cool as well.


The girls had a great time and we spent about three hours wandering around enjoying ourselves before heading home.


On the gaming side I picked up a some board games - Loopin' Louie, Tank Battle and Tip-It for only a couple of dollars. We all had a great time and it was fun to get out of the house and do something different in the fresh air.

Gaming With Grandma - 99

Saturday morning at our house means family time playing games together, mostly board games and card games with myself, my mother (Grandma) and seven year old daughter Maddie. This morning we decided to try out some games my wife had picked up at a garage sale last weekend.

Our first game of the morning was Wanted! which is a quality card game from Ravensburger. In this game the deck is dealt equally face down to all players with any remaining cards put aside. The winner is the first player to get rid of all their cards. The cards depict the four main characters; a police officer, a judge, a bank teller and a burglar. Each character has a main specific card where they are shown doing their profession. For example, the police officer is holding up a badge, the judge is shown in court with a gavel in his hand, the bank teller is in the bank and the burglar is coming out of a window with a bag of jewellery. These are called 'action cards'. Now the catch is that there are also cards showing these four main characters doing the other characters' professions. For example, there will be cards with the police officer burglarising a residence, or the burglar sitting in the bank, or the bank teller holding up a police badge.

Wanted!

On your turn you turn over the top card of your deck and quickly play it to the middle of the table. If it is not an action card the next player will quickly turn over their top card and play it on top of the card played by the previous player. This will continue, the tension slowly rising, until an 'action card' is played. That's when the fun really starts. If it is a police officer action card then all players must grab one of the police badge cards (there is always one less than the total amount of players). If it is a judge action card all players must bang their fists on the table and shout "Guilty!". If it is a bank teller card all players must slap their hand onto the action card (or over other faster players' hands already on the action card). If the action card is a burglar card then all players must put their hands up in the air. The slowest player to perform any of these actions takes the cards on the table and adds them face down to the bottom of their deck. If a player makes an incorrect action then they also share the cards with the slowest player.

All in all this is a simple, fast and fun game which adults can easily play with children. I suspect it would also be a fun little filler for an adult game group. We played two games with the results being myself 1st, Maddie 2nd and Grandma 3rd in both games. This one is a keeper.

Our second game of the morning was Haunted Castle, another game from Ravensburger. This is a fun and quick memory/observation game with lovely artwork. Essentially it's flip a card showing seven characters and be the first to spot the missing eighth character. First player to correctly guess keeps the card. Final winner is the player with the most cards when the deck is exhausted. We really enjoyed this one as well and ended up playing two games. Final scores of the first game was me 14, Maddie 10 and Grandma 9. The final scores of the second game were me 20, Grandma 8 and Maddie 5. We all agreed this one was also a keeper.

Haunted Castle

Our final game of the morning was Right Turn, Left Turn which was published by Playroom Entertainment. This game was designed by Reinhard Staupe who also designed Sherlock (AKA Der Plumpsack Geht Um which we all enjoy) and it is easy to see the resemblance between both games. Whereas Sherlock is a memory game, Right Turn, Left Turn is more of a puzzle.

Right Turn, Left Turn

When a card of the central face down deck is turned over, all players must then follow the directions on that card and mentally calculate the final destination card. The direction card will state which traffic officer card you will start at by showing a symbol. You start directions at the traffic officer card with the matching symbol. Then you must move so many right and left spaces following the perspective of the starting traffic officer. You'll notice that some of the traffic officers have their backs turned and some are facing the front. The left/right perspective of each of these will of course be different. The first player to correctly identify the final destination card gets to keep it. If you guess incorrectly then you must give back a previously claimed card. The first player to collect 6 cards is the winner.

We only played the one game. Final score was me 6, Maddie 1 and Grandma 0. There are ways you could handicap older players by having them close their eyes and only open after the other younger players have had a chance to follow the instructions for say, a count of 5. Even so, the game felt like more of a chore than a fun time. There was little player interaction and we all thought it just wasn't that much fun. We agreed that this was not a keeper.

Overall I hadn't had high hopes for any of these kids games. I was pleasantly surprised by both Wanted! and Haunted Castle and I can see these games being played a lot more, especially when Georgia (who is currently three and a half years old) gets a bit older.

Blood Bowl HeroQuest Goblin Conversion - First Four

So I've recently got into the Blood Bowl board game. Now "got into" really only means downloading the Living Rulebook, reading the rules and scouring for more info every Blood Bowl related website, forum, image gallery, podcast and YouTube clip that I can find. I haven't yet played a game but I've read a lot on the various available teams and their tactics.

While my initial enthusiasm is so high I decided to have a go at creating a Blood Bowl team from scratch. Looking around at the spare miniatures I have lying around I came across some HeroQuest goblins. I've bought a number of second hand HeroQuest board games over the years and have a collection of miniatures from that game that have been damaged in some way. Most notably are the goblins which seem prone to having their weapons broken off.

This is what the goblins should look like.

Some of my HeroQuest goblins still on the sprue

And this is my collection of damaged HeroQuest goblins.

Weaponless HeroQuest goblins

I've been wondering for some time what to do with these little guys. What good are weaponless goblins? Well, what about Blood Bowl? I could create a goblin Blood Bowl team! Sure, the goblins are probably one of the suckiest Blood Bowl teams but they sure look like a lot of fun to play. The decision was made.

The first thing I did was to get some epoxy putty for converting the miniatures. The most famous type of modelling putty is Kneadatite which is also known as 'green stuff'. This is a type of putty that comes in blue and yellow strips and when mixed together forms a green-coloured putty with the consistency of sticky chewing gum. The beauty of this product is that after a few hours at room temperature it will dry rock hard. I didn't end up getting green stuff though. The easiest stuff for me to get at my local hobby store was Tamiya Epoxy Putty. This stuff comes in yellow and white strips and when mixed together turns a pale yellow colour.

The only modelling tool I used was my normal hobby knife with a scalpel-like blade. I used this knife for both cutting off the arms and also the sculpting of the putty.

The first step was to cut off the arms of the goblins and then use plastic cement to glue them back on at different angles. I then mixed small blobs of putty and used these to model shoulder pads and helmets. Here are some photos. All photos can be clicked on for a larger image.

Goblin with knuckleduster

Goblin with single spiked shoulder pad

Goblin with double spiked shoulder pad

Goblin flippin' the bird

Below are two of the goblins next to original goblin figures. This will give you a better idea of how the arms have been repositioned and see the putty conversions that have been added.


Here are the other two converted goblins next to a couple of original sculpts.


And here are the four boys next to a human and orc linemen from the 3rd edition Blood Bowl boxed set for comparison. I think the large goblin armour shoulder pads give them an amusing appearance.

Size comparison with Blood Bowl figures

And finally I present the first four players of my goblin Blood Bowl team. This was my first time sculpting with epoxy putty and I found it to be a very enjoyable and satisfying experience. It took me on average about two hours per model. My plan is to create 16 goblin models (11 players plus reserves) with each model being a unique individual. After that I plan on sculpting a couple of troll players for the team and of course I mustn't forget the goblin bombadier, looney, fanatic and pogoer models.

The first four goblin players for my goblin Blood Bowl team

Blood Bowl

I've recently become interested in Games Workshop's Blood Bowl. I always find it interesting how I develop a new passion for a game. I often forget exactly how or when the initial spark of interest occurred. Often it will be through noticing an image or comment on BoardGameGeek or a blog. In the case with Blood Bowl it was listening to a podcast.

First up let me say that I've been aware of Blood Bowl pretty much from when it was first released back in 1987. I was a big Talisman fan around that time and read White Dwarf magazine for its role-playing articles (yep, back in the early days White Dwarf actually had non-GW related miniatures articles!). I saw the advertisements for Blood Bowl, but not being into Warhammer I wasn't that interested. Fantasy football with orcs, humans and elves? Pfft! I never gave it another thought.

Then back in June 2008 my wife picked up the 3rd Edition Blood Bowl boxed set at a school fete for $2. Sure, it was missing the rules and 4 human players (1 catcher, 1 linesman, 1 blitzer and 1 thrower if anyone has any spares!) but pretty much everything else was there. And it was only $2!

The 3rd Edition Blood Bowl Boxed Set

Even with the boxed set in my hands I didn't think it was a game I would seriously get into. I thought I'd probably sell it on eBay or perhaps see if I could trade it. I stuck it on a shelf and pretty much forgot about it. Until, that is, a couple of weeks ago when I listened to the latest World's End Radio podcast.

The World's End Radio podcast is produced by a couple of Western Australian guys, Luke and JJ. They had an episode (episode #19 'Going for the Grope') devoted entirely to the Sand Groper Cup. The Sand Groper Cup is an annual WA Blood Bowl tournament and this year was attended by almost forty players.

Listening to this episode, with Luke and JJ's discussion around their team composition, tactics and strategy, the interviews with the tournament organisers, and interviews with some of the attendees, and how much fun these guys were having, it really made me reconsider my original opinion of Blood Bowl. So much so that I downloaded the latest free version of the Blood Bowl: Living Rulebook from the Games Workshop specialist games site and have been researching the game like crazy over the last few weeks.

What appeals to me about Blood Bowl is that the rules are free and you only need 11 miniatures for a team. That means it's a fairly cheap game to get into. There's also the almost roleplaying-like aspect of league play where you develop a fledgling team through a season of games, increasing individual player's abilities as you progress.

I've been pretty surprised at what appears to be a huge cult following of the Blood Bowl board game world wide. And coincidentally, a new Blood Bowl video game will shortly be released for the PC, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and Xbox 360 platforms.

An image from the computer game

The ratings and personal comments on BoardGameGeek give this game a glowing recommendation. I may just start painting up the teams from the boxed set and will look around at whatever other miniatures I have that I can use. Oh yeah, I even found a Blood Bowl league currently running in Brisbane.

Garage Sale Goodies

My wife picked up some kids games at a garage sale on Saturday morning. They were Wanted!, Haunted Castle and Right Turn, Left Turn. A bargain at $3 each and all the cards were still in shrink wrap.


With a family of two young girls (7 and 3) I'm trying to build up a fairly good library of board and card games for their age group. It would be nice if, when Georgia's a little bit older, they can pull out a board or card game to keep themselves amused on a rainy weekend. Within a year or two they'll be bringing their friends to our house to play. While I suspect that they'll probably be engrossed playing Nintendo Wii or DS, it will be nice to have some actual face-to-face games as a back up.

Gaming With Grandma - 98

Another Saturday morning of gaming with my mother (AKA Grandma) and seven year old daughter (AKA Maddie). We only played the one game this morning and that was Der Schwarze Pirat. This is a kids game from the German company HABA and was designed by Guido Hoffman. Players use a rubber squeeze tube, or bellows, to blow a jet of air to push their playing piece, a small wooden ship, around the board. The board represents the ocean and a number of islands laden with pirate treasure. The object of the game is to move your ship around the islands, entering the bays (the light blue areas) and grabbing the gold coins. The person with the most gold coins at the end of the game wins.

The beautiful artwork of the board

On your turn you roll two dice. The first die determines how far you can move your ship (either 3 or 4 squeezes of the bellows), or allows you to move the black pirate ship (3 squeezes of the bellows). The second die determines on which islands you will place a gold coin or coins.

This was our seventh time playing the game and we all noticed that our skill with the bellows has improved a lot since our first time. It's much more exciting when a player can skillfully manoeuvre from one side of the board to the other between the numerous islands with four bellows squeezes. Mind you, there's always the chance of shipwreck by either blowing your ship over on its side or by accidentally forcing it on to an island. There's also the amusing chance of having someone misjudge a squeeze altogether and the ship goes nowhere. Having said that, we found ourselves cheering for the other players when they did make skillful (or just plain lucky!) moves. A fun, fun game.

The Black Pirate AKA "Der Schwarze Pirate"

Final scores were me 16, Maddie 11 and Grandma 8.

Queensland - 150th Anniversary

The state in which I grew up and currently reside, Queensland, celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary today. 150 years ago, on 6 June 1859, Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent separating the state of Queensland from New South Wales.

Although one of my parents was not born in Australia (my mother emigrated from Switzerland with her family when she was nine years old), I've done some family history research on my father's side and the earliest Australian-born direct ancestor I've found is one of my paternal great-great grandmothers who was born in Brisbane (the future state capital) in 1855.

The area that currently forms Brisbane was originally (from 1825) the Moreton Bay penal colony, intended as a place for recidivist convicts who had offended while serving out their sentences in New South Wales. In 1839 transportation of convicts to Moreton Bay ceased and the Brisbane penal settlement was closed. In 1842 free settlement was permitted and people began to colonise the area voluntarily.

I have no indication whatsoever (unfortunately) that this particular great-great grandmother was the daughter of convicts. In Australia in the past, having an ancestor who was a convict was quite shameful, however times have changed, and these days having a convict ancestor practically means that you are 'Australian Royalty'. ;)

Fight The Flab - 5

The 1st of June is here and it's time to record my success or failure in shedding unwanted body fat. Unfortunately the cold I developed halfway through April continued into May, amusingly coinciding with reports of Swine Flu worldwide. Thankfully I didn't have any type of flu; no fevers or body pain or anything like that. No, this was mainly a head cold affecting my sinuses and throat. Still, enough to knock me about, cause me to take time off work and generally feel pretty miserable. So I've been off-track with my fitness regime for the last seven weeks or so due to ill health. I'm only now feeling the lingering symptoms starting to dissipate. So after a disappointing month of feeling ill, no exercise and eating and drinking as I pleased I can now reveal...

I gained 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) in May.

So I seem to be sliding backward! Being ill sucked all the motivation out of me. It just goes to show how important one's health is. Today is the first day of winter and summer seems like a long time away. I'm still feeling positive though, and we have a family beach holiday planned for November so that's a big incentive for shedding a few kilos of unwanted body fat.

January weight loss: 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs)
February weight loss: 5.0 kg (11.0 lbs)
March weight loss: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
April weight gain: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
May weight gain: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)

Total weight loss since 1 January 2009: 4.0 kg (8.8 lbs)

Gaming With Grandma - 97

Another Saturday morning gaming with my mother (AKA Grandma) and seven (almost eight!) year old daughter (AKA Maddie) while my wife was at work. Our three year old daughter (AKA Georgia) spends her time during these gaming sessions either perched on my lap or away watching Dora the Explorer DVDs.

Our first game of the morning was Coloretto. This is a fun set-collecting card game with a little bit of bluffing thrown into the mix. It was a first time play for Maddie and she did surprisingly well. Final scores were me 47, Maddie 41 and Grandma 17.

Coloretto

Our second game was Der Plumpsack Geht Uhm (AKA Sherlock). We always enjoy this fun memory game. The mere fact of having to move the plumpsack around cracks me up. What the hell is that thing anyway? A walking scrotum? We played that the winner would be the first to claim three cards. I won with 3, Grandma was on 1 and Maddie scored 0.

Der Plumpsack Geht Uhm

Next up was an old favourite, Nobody But Us Chickens. This is a fast little card game of bluffing. The aim is to claim the most chickens from the chicken coop over several nights. Players can play chickens, guard dogs, foxes and rats. Depending on who plays what card when will determine how many chickens a player can claim. Final scores were Maddie on 27, me on 23 and Grandma with 19.

Nobody But Us Chickens

Our final game of the morning was Cloud 9. This is an exciting push-your-luck style game where players are ascending through the clouds in a hot-air balloon. Those who stay in the basket the longest end up with the most points, but also risk losing points. Final scores were me on 50 with Grandma and Maddie sharing second place both on 40.

Cloud 9

UFO?

On my predawn walk to the train station yesterday morning I couldn't help but notice an object in the sky. I quickly pulled out my phone camera and snapped a picture. What do you think it was? A comet? A meteor? An alien spacecraft?


Actually it wasn't any of those (unfortunately). It was simply the contrail from a high-flying passenger jet being caught in the light from the sun. It did look cool though from my earthbound and still predawn perspective. Click on the picture for a larger image.

The One Ring Dice

I was very excited to receive a package in the mail today. These are some dice that I ordered from The One Ring site, a site dedicated to the Games Workshop games Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and War of the Ring.

My precious...

I was very pleased with these dice, very pleased indeed. Not only do they have some gorgeous colouring and patterns but they have the words and symbol of The One Ring in place of the six. These dice will add some extra theme and excitement to future LOTR games.

A big sincere thank you to Alan Harrison (Dagorlad) of the One Ring Site who organised the production and sale of the dice. Unfortunately my first order of dice went missing and failed to arrive. Alan kindly offered to replace them and they've now arrived today with a second order I placed. Thanks again Alan!

By the way, if you want to see some really excellent Lord of the Rings terrain check out Alan's library articles here.

Garage Sale Goodies

My wife stopped at a garage sale yesterday morning and called me to ask if I was interested in any of the following games:

World War II: European Theater of Operations $4

1776 - The Game of the American Revolutionary War $4

Statis Pro Football $4

B-17 Queen of the Skies $4

Patton's Best $4

I got her to buy all of them for me. These are all out-of-print Avalon Hill and SPI games and $20 for five board wargames is not a bad price.


I'm not much of a cardboard chit and hex map wargamer however I already own and have enjoyed playing B-17 Queen of the Skies. It's a solitaire game and although one doesn't have too many decisions to make it certainly captures the feel of piloting an aircraft on bombing missions in World War II.

Of the other games in this lot the one that I'm most interested in is Patton's Best. It is also a solitaire game and puts you in the commander's seat of a Sherman tank in General George Patton's best fighting division, the 4th Armored. Similar to B-17 Queen of the Skies, in this game you control only one vehicle and its crew, starting out with a basic M4 Sherman tank and progressing to later command any of 17 different Sherman variations. You can take part in either one-off engagement scenarios or play through a campaign with your crew gaining experience (and potentially being wounded or killed) as you go.

From a quick reading of the rules it looks like you have more decisions to make in this game than in B-17 Queen of the Skies. Sure, the enemy reactions are still determined by a number of tables, but having to make more decisions will probably mean a more engaging and hopefully enjoyable game.

I'll probably keep Patton's Best and sell the rest on eBay to recover the overall cost of all the games and hopefully make a little extra to fund other aspects of my hobby.

Gaming With Grandma - 96

I haven't done much gaming lately due to recurring cold symptoms. However, Grandma dropped over this morning and Maddie insisted we all play some board games. Maddie even went so far as to stack up a pile of games and then have us play them in the order she'd determined from top to bottom.

Our first game of the morning was Coda. We played three games taking it in turns to be the first player. Grandma won twice and I won once.

Coda

The next game in Maddie's board game stack was For Sale. This quick little auction game has been a family favourite for quite some time. We played the one game with me winning on $80K, and Grandma and Maddie both sharing second place on $57K.

For Sale

Our next game was Diamant. This is a fun push-your-luck style of game. We used my home-made copy of the game. I went on to win with 71 points, Grandma was second on 57, while Maddie came third on 28.

Home-made Diamant

Our last game of the morning was Burg Appenzell (AKA Chateau Roquefort). This charming little action point/memory game is all about your mice trying to be the first to locate cheese in the castle. Maddie loves being able to slide the tiles to push a 'hole' tile under an unsuspecting opponent's mouse and have it fall into the depths of the castle. She ended up taking out two of Grandma's mice and one of my own before the game ended. I quite enjoyed this game and find it's growing on me. We played to the first to claim 5 types of cheese with me winning on 5 and both Maddie and Grandma sharing second place with 2 types of cheese.

Burg Appenzell

Moria Goblins - Part 6

After finishing the sand on top of the bases I then added a combination of flock and static grass with small dabs of PVA (white wood) glue. This glue dries clear so is invisible. After that it was just a matter of giving the base rims a couple of coats of slightly watered down Citadel Bestial Brown paint.

Finally a couple of coats of a matt spray varnish (I use a relatively cheap brand called Cyrstal Kote Matt from a dollar store) and voila! 48 Games Workshop Moria Goblins fully painted!


You can click in the pictures for a larger image.

Moria Goblins - Part 5

The painting of the goblin models was now complete. The next step was to work on the base. To do this I first applied slightly watered down PVA (white wood) glue to the top of a base with an old paintbrush. Don't use one of your good brushes because your brush won't ever be the same afterwards. I use the same brush for this purpose every time I do miniature bases. I then dipped the base into a small plastic tub (in this case an old ice cream container) full of a mixture of fine sand, and some coarser sand and talus I bought from a model railway shop. I then left the models overnight so that the glue would have time to fully dry.

Sand has been glued to the bases

After the glue was dry I then gave the top of the bases a coat of watered down Citadel Scorched Brown paint.

Sand has been painted brown

The final effect for the sand was done with an old brush using the drybrush process to bring out the details with Citadel Bleached Bone paint. Once again, try to use a single brush specifically for drybrushing as it does cause damage to the hairs of the brush over time.

A drybrush really brings out the details

The Hunt For Gollum

At 4.00pm GMT on the 3rd of May (2.00am 4th of May Brisbane Australia time) the fan-film The Hunt For Gollum was released for free viewing on the Internet. I've been waiting for this Lord of the Rings-inspired film to be released for some time so the first thing I did when I awoke this morning was head to the web site and watch it.


And I was not disappointed. For an unofficial, not-for-profit, short film by a group of enthusiast filmmakers The Hunt For Gollum is very well done indeed. The film is 40 minutes long and details Aragorn's search to capture Gollum to learn more about the ring that was at that time in Frodo's possession in The Shire.


I was very impressed with all facets of the movie including the acting, music, wardrobe, special effects and locations. It's obvious that a lot of love and passion for Tolkien's work has been put into this film. If you want to see it then head over to The Hunt For Gollum website.

Update: To watch the film in HD click on this link.

Gaming With Grandma - 95

Another Saturday morning gaming with my mother (AKA Grandma) and elder 7 year old daughter Maddie. We decided to set up a game of Heroscape on the dining room table.

The set-up of the Jungle Guardians scenario

We decided to played the 'Jungle Guardians' scenario from the Ticalla Jungle expansion set. There is a glyph in the centre of the water feature which allows the player who has a character standing on it to control of squad of three Fyorlag Spiders.

It was a 325 point army for each of us with Maddie taking Raelin, Nakita Agents and Krug, Grandma taking Deathwalker 9000, Knights of Westron, 4th Massachusetts Line and Me-Burq-Sa, and myself taking Anubian Wolves, Khosumet the Darklord, Marro Warriors and Grimnak.

Maddie went on the attack early with her Nakita Agents taking out Grandma's Me-Burq-Sa on the first turn before he even had the chance to act. Grandma's forces mostly stayed in her deployment zone while she sent out Deathwalker 9000 to delay any further attacks on her troops.

I sent a squad of Marro Warriors to claim the glyph. I used my power to control the Fyorlag Spiders to good effect over the next few turns, eventually taking out Grandma's entire squad of Knights of Westron.

Then Maddie got Krug into the action. Krug claimed the high point overlooking the glyph and then started pounding on my Marro. Krug has a Hulk-like ability that increases the damage of his attacks if he is wounded. I moved my Anubian Wolves supported by Khomsumet up to take him on. I unleashed a flurry of attacks on Krug over the next couple of turns reducing him down to only a single life point. The problem was that at that point he could inflict his maximum amount of damage. He wiped out my Wolves and was left to wreak devastation as Khosumet high-tailed it for cover.

Krug - king of the hill

Krug then proceeded to smash my remaining Marro squad into tiny little piles of squishy flesh. Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, Maddie's Nakita Agents supported by Raelin were dealing a fair bit of damage to Grandma's 4th Massachusetts Line.

My Grimnak moved to take on Deathwalker 9000 under barrage of explosions. On his way Grimnak chomped down and swallowed one of Maddie's Nakita Agents. Yum. Grimnak did reach Deathwalker 9000 but then fell to a salvo of autocannon fire.

Grandma then started to retaliate against Maddie's forces and sent Deathwalker 9000 to share some love. It was crispy critter city for the remaining Nakita Agents. Krug also succumbed to the murderous fire of Deathwalker 9000.

Raelin and Deathwalker 9000 fight it out for supremacy

My last remaining figure, Khosumet, was knocked out on Turn 7 by a long range shot from Deathwalker 9000. The scenario finished on Turn 8. At that point Maddie only had Raelin left and Grandma only had Deathwalker 9000. Grandma was declared the winner due to having the most points left on the table.

A fun, quick little scenario and I was glad to have the opportunity to get Heroscape on the table again.

Fight the Flab - 4

The 1st of May is here and it's time to record my success or failure in shedding unwanted body fat. It's been a difficult month what with the temptation of chocolate eggs in the first half and then developing an upper respiratory tract infection and being sick for the last couple of weeks. Last thing I want to do when I'm sick is exercise and eat healthily. I can now reveal...

I gained 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) in April.

So I just put back on what I lost in March. I minor set back and now that I'm almost recovered from my illness I'll be working extra hard in May.


January weight loss: 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs)
February weight loss: 5.0 kg (11.0 lbs)
March weight loss: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)
April weight gain: 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs)

Total weight loss since 1 January 2009: 6.5 kg (14.3 lbs)

Stripping Goblins

I've only tried to remove paint from miniatures once in the past. That was about seven years ago and it was a bunch of 1/72 HAT plastic Napoleonic miniatures. I used an oven cleaner to spray all over the figures and then left them to sit for a day or two. It worked reasonably well as a paint stripper but I had to be careful with the noxious fumes and also wear protective gloves and eye wear.

I've been reading on the Internet of the merits of brake fluid as a paint stripper that's safe to use with plastics. I decided to try it on a bunch of Moria Goblins I'd picked up really cheaply on eBay. These figures had paint jobs that left a lot to be desired and as I intended to repaint them, the original paintwork needed to be stripped.

87 stripped goblins ready for a spray undercoat

I dumped 87 of the little blighters into a container and covered them with brake fluid. I then left them to soak overnight. 24 hours later I grabbed an old toothbrush and was pleasantly surprised to find the paint just sloughing off. The figures weren't harmed at all and the brake fluid combined with some scrubbing removed probably 95% of the previous paint job.

Some had broken weapons when I got them so they'll be used for conversion purposes.

Useless Talent #27

I am reknowned (within my family) for having the ability to catch annoying flies in mid-flight with a super fast snatch of my bare hand.

All hail the lightning reflexes of the Human Fly-Trap!

Moria Goblins - Part 4

The next step in the painting process was to paint all the leather and wood a brown colour. I find that I save time painting a whole lot of miniatures with similar poses. I'm able to get used to where straps, bows, spears etc are on a particular pose so don't waste time having to go back later to paint something I may have missed.

All the brown bits have been painted.

I then highlighted the cloth and skin in lighter tones and gave the miniatures a diluted black wash to bring out the detail.

Highlighted cloth and skin with a black wash

They're almost finished. The only thing left to do is a light grey drybrush of the hair and perhaps highlight some of the leather items. The final bit will probably be another black wash.

Moria Goblins - Part 3

I'd given the cloth a base colour of dark red so the next step was to highlight with a lighter shade. This was done with a fine brush and painted on in detail rather than drybrushed. This gradual blending of colour can really make a model look realistic.

After that I did a similar highlight of the goblin skin of the miniatures. I applied a lighter shade of the greenish grey base colour.

The cloth and skin have been highlighted

The next job was to paint the hair on the heads of 48 Moria Goblins with black paint. The models are now starting to come alive.

Hair painted black

The next part of the project will be to paint the bows, spears and leather parts in brown.

Moria Goblins - Part 2

The next step was to give the armour a wash of dark flesh colour. This seems like an odd thing to do but the effect it achieves is to give the armour a somewhat tarnished or rusty look, just right for the evil Moria Goblins. A brown ink or wash would have a similar effect. After that I highlighted raised bits of the armour with silver.

Flesh wash and silver highlight on the armour. Base colour on the skin.

It was time to start the process of colouring the skin of the miniatures. I started by mixing together khaki and light green to give a dark, brownish green colour. The base coat was applied with a fine brush and the paint was quite watered down to give a smooth finish. If you apply too thick of a coat of paint you risk obscuring some of the fine detail on these miniatures such as facial features.

One trick with painting is to always start off with a darker shade of the final colour and then work it up in stages going a little bit lighter and lighter (leaving behind traces of each preceding colour) until you achieve the final look. This gives a colour gradient and produces a natural effect.

The cloth has been painted a dark red/brown

The cloth was the next job. I wanted a dark base colour of what would eventually be red. For this colour I mixed together red and black and got a dark reddish/brown. The colour was added in a production line effort to the 48 miniatures. To put me in the mood I listened to the soundtracks from the three Lord of the Rings movies.

Next step will be to work on highlighting the cloth and skin.

Moria Goblins - Part 1

I decided to finally paint up some of the Citadel Moria Goblins that had been sitting around for quite some time. I'll be able to use these for skirmish gaming with Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game or Song of Blades and Heroes, as well as use them for the recently released mass battle rules War of the Ring.

Freshly washed Moria Goblins

There are 48 Moria Goblins in this lot. There are 16 with bow, 16 with spear and 16 with sword and shield. That's equivalent to 6 companies in War of the Ring.

The first thing I did was clean off any flash from the miniatures with a craft knife and jeweller's file. I then washed them in warm, soapy water to get rid of any mold release agents and any dirt.

Normally I apply an undercoat of black paint to the miniatures by hand with a brush. This time I decided to spray paint them. I converted an old cardboard box into a spray booth and lined up the miniatures inside. I was careful to take it slow and do short, quick passes of spray paint. I've never spray painted miniatures before and I have to say I was very impressed with how quick and easy it was. I think I'll always spray paint on my undercoats from now on.

Spray painted with a black undercoat

After waiting for the miniatures to dry I then moved them all back inside to my painting table. I mixed up some silver and black paint to give a dark metallic colour. This was drybrushed on to all the miniatures to give a base metallic colour for the armour.

A drybrush of dark metal

The next step will be to highlight, black wash and then re-highlight the armour.

Gaming With Grandma - 94

Mum dropped around this morning for a cup of tea and to give the girls a couple of Lindt Gold Bunnys for Easter. I also got her to play a couple of two-player games while she was here.

Our first game was The Downfall of Pompeii. We took it in turns placing our people into the buildings and when the first AD 79 card appeared I had 25 on the board with 3 in the volcano and mum had 23 on the board with 2 in the volcano.


It was an exciting game. By the end Mum had exited 15 people and had 10 in the volcano while I won by successfully escaping 21 of mine with only 7 in the volcano.

Mum then suggested we play Scrabble. We haven't played Scrabble together for quite some time. I found our session today to be a somewhat frustrating and eventually quite close game.


I won 288 to 255.

War of the Ring

It has come.

"Sauron's wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift... The Battle for Middle-earth is about to begin."

- Gandalf, The Two Towers

Gaming With Grandma - 93

My mother (AKA Grandma) popped around for a couple of games and a cup of tea this morning. Our first game was a 2-player game of Metro. I beat mum fairly convincingly last time we played. However, this game did not go all my way. She led early in the game and I was always within 5-10 points. About three-quarters of the way through the game I overtook her score and had a lead of about 10 points. She came back right at the end and just took the win by 2 points. Final score was Mum 98 and myself 96.

Metro

Our next game was another 2-player game, this time the cooperative board game Red November. We've played two games of this previously and lost both games. Our hope was that today we would actually get a win.

We played with two gnomes each. Mum was purple and yellow and I was orange and green. Last game we'd spent a lot of time on putting fires out and preventing the timed destruction events occurring. We decided to take a little bit more of a chance with fixing things in this game. If the issue was not too dire (such as a blocked hatch) we only took 5 minutes (a 50% chance). For the more urgent things we generally took around 8 minutes (with item assistance).

Red November

Around the 40 minutes to go mark my green gnome tried to put out a fire. I spent 5 minutes with the fire extinguisher (+3) giving me an 80% chance. I rolled a 9 and he died. Luck wasn't on our side. At around the 35 minutes to go mark one of the nuclear missiles exploded and we all died. I read on BGG comments from people saying they easily beat this game. They can't be playing by the correct rules.

Maddie joined us for the last game of the morning - Loco! We played three games and I won them all. Game 1 - Wayne 30, Grandma 28, Maddie 12. Game 2 - Wayne 27, Grandma 24, Maddie 14. Game 3 - Wayne 23, Grandma 22, Maddie 17.

Loco!