Deadcember 2024 - The Plan

My plan for Deadcember 2024 is to paint these (mostly) old vampires. And the one dreg, because vampires need a minion. I also have a couple of newer "accessory" figures to go with them (not pictured,) a bat and a dire wolf.

No Flesh November, Spooky Stragglers, and Travel

First up, some stragglers from my spooky painting spree in October.

Following up on both Spooky Season and my previous update regarding Warhammer -1313 skirmishes, I decided to paint some sKELTitons. Essentially just old Citadel plastic skeletons with metal Gallic shields. Since every month at the end of the year needs a named theme I've dubbed it No Flesh November. ;)

Aside from doing a little painting, I've been doing a lot of work. But that has also involved some travel which gave me a chance to take up a few side quests including a weekend in southern New Mexico. I started off in Amarillo, TX...

...and made a quick morning stop at the Cadillac Ranch where my painting skills were no match for the intense wind blowing across the field...

...I had planned on having lunch at the Midpoint of Route 66, but the cafe was closed, so I settled on standing in the middle of the road at the Midpoint before heading off to get some work done and then flying to El Paso. 

After a day of working there, I popped up to NM Saturday morning, racing around to national and other sites before returning to El Paso for a flight home. In the course of my continuing Adventures I...

...visited the "world's largest pistachio" at a tourist stop near Alamogordo, and bought a bag of piscahios to help sustain me through the next two days 😁...

...stood on a 5,000 year old lava flow at Malpais Valley of Fires...

...viewed petroglyphs, some dating back 1,600 years ago, on the Three Rivers Petroglyph Trail...

...returned to gypsum/selenite desert at White Sands. Unfortunately the back country camp sites are closed. My plan was to sleep on the dunes and see the Milky Way, but it was also very cloudy as well. So I hiked part of the Alkali Flat Trail until the sun started to set, got a hotel room and set off again the next morning...

...and the morning drive took me through Lincoln National Forest in the Sacramento Mountains. There were actual trees in the forest a little further in. And snow! Eventually the land leveled out to the high plains before I arrived at...

...Carlsbad Caverns where I spent a few hours below ground and my image/understanding of "caves" will never be the same...

...on my way back to TX, I briefly stopped at the Guadeloupe Mountains visitor center. I walked the first few hundred feet of the nearby trail just to say I hiked in one more park over the weekend 😉 , but I didn't have the time or preparations to actually hike the mountain! Maybe a return trip someday?

The week prior to my Southwest Adventure I had another, shorter trip to the center of the US. Literally.

...but first a stop at the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, KC. Exciting as that was, the road was calling...

...and it brought me to the geographic center of the contiguous US.

Pretty busy November and I'm grateful that I got to see some interesting sites along the way! Now I will try to return to more direct miniatures & gaming content, and catch up on some Five Parsecs campaign reports. But I have a feeling that my Adventures will influence the miniatures & gaming. I'm already planning a Grav-Attack Ranch terrain project, and have been thinking a lot about caverns, deserts, petroglyphs. I wouldn't be surprised if more new terrain pops up on this blog in the next few months.

One last item, I've updated the format of the blog to allow larger photos to be displayed. This is a bit overdue, as the blog was originally designed for older display resolution. I guess I've been at this for a while! There's still some issues to work out, but that's for another day.

Warhammer -1313 (skirmish thoughts)

 

I previously posted some thoughts for a Warhammer -1313 setting/campaign/project. Years ago. Because I have a habit of coming up with ideas but never following through.*

I am currently revisiting this one. In my head, at least. For now. But I am itching for some fantasy gaming & painting again, so maaaaayyyybe.

I've been enjoying a Five Parsecs from Home campaign (which I am WAY behind on updating here) and have been thinking about fantasy gaming again. So I'm thinking about a Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign set in the above mentioned Warhammer -1313 setting. I've also thought about this as a Sellswords & Spellslingers campaign as well. I really like the card & combat mechanics of that game. But I also like the additional campaign detail of the Five (units) From (place) series of games.

Current thoughts on factions include:

• Humans. Pre-Sigmar exploration by primitive tribes. This would be my warband and a small number of competing warbands as opponents.
• Fimir. If I do this as a skirmish now, I will switch to the Satyr Art Studio Fomorians and maybe some plastic Heroquest Fimir, so they're on the smaller (25mm) bases vs. the Citadel and homemade conversions I already have on 40mm bases.
• Skaven.
• Drachenfels. Daemons, undead, undeadish.
• Goblins.
• Wood elves & forest spirits.

A couple weekends ago I spent a couple hours walking around the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. The walk gave me a lot of inspiration for making some new terrain representing the marshy portions of the Wasteland!

The wildlife refuge is, well, home to various wildlife. Especially birds. Along with various waterfowl, I spotted a pair of (vocal!) bald eagles. Not a great pic, but I didn't want to get so close that I disturbed them and these are all take with my phone.

So now I am thinking about various ways to create some modular-ish wetlands, dead trees, and other living flora for my small table!

*See also: Kings of Old/Zogmar, Anabasis/Jackrabbit Trading Company, Vengeance of the Witch Blaster, Beers Unnumbered, Wheel and --- Whoa! (this one doesn't even have an entry, but has a big outline, sort of a refinement of law/chaos to life/death/change), and Plain of Thieves among others. But seriously, for most of these I have a bunch of fluff, outlines, etc. written out. Just need to actually DO them.

Overdue Update Pt. 1- Fantasy

It's been 4.5 months since my last update. But I haven't been completely inactive. Just not posting much here. I post pics more regularly on Instagram, probably because it's easier than sitting down at a PC to update this site. And I spend too much time in front of my PC every week for work, so I've also been trying to enjoy the summer & fall outside, before winter hits.

I have actually written and re-written a post about revisiting my idea for Warhammer -1313 and now working it into a solo skirmish campaign. But more on that later. For now, here's a potential warband teaser pic. :D More on that later, as well.

I've mostly been painting sci-fi figures lately and playing Five Parsecs From Home. But I just got an itch for some October spooky terrain & painting a week or two ago. It started with the idea of using some cheap craft store pumpkins for a bit of terrain -- a pumpkin patch. Then I thought of doing a pumkin circle, like a fairy circle, but spooky. Naturally that meant I needed someone to inhabit/emerge from the pumpkin ring realm. I've got a small batch of others partially painted, hopefully finish this week.

I will follow up shortly with some sci-fi posts next. I have been updating the Five Parsecs page here, even if it doesn't show up on the front page/main blog section. So there are more battle reports and painted figures to share. Coming soon! Probably.

Five Minutes from the Grave

Tra La La, Tra La La La

Campaign Turn 1 (part 2)

aka Five Minutes from the Grave

As documented in my previous entry, I finally dove into all the campaign steps for my Five Bananas From Home crew as a way to learn the rules i a lighthearted way. As described, our "heroes" landed on the sixth planet in the Tejas system after some minor difficulties. Bingo hit the starport, got lost, gambled away some of the team's stash, while the other three bananas made plans to meet up with Snork's contact.

Today the three active Bananas hit the econo-lot a the Arlington Memorial Spaceport on a gloomy afternoon. However they found their fake IDs were missing (thanks to Bingo) and encountered a few guards. Not a major problem, right?

Click to enlarge.

Snork's contact is left of the toxic pool. The Bananas are labeled in the background (Fleegle is hidden behind the orange transformer station) and the three guards are in the foreground.

Click to enlarge.

There was a slow start due to limited visibility. There's not a lot of details to be had. The battle lasted about 6-7 turns. First a bit of movement, everybody darting from cover to cover. Snork met his contact, the first part of the mission accomplished. Noe they just had to hold the field in the firefight. The first two turns the Bananas dodged rifle shots while landing a few non-lethal shots. Fleegle had to use his luck to avoid becoming a casualty right out of the gate. But within two more turns it was over.

Three Banana casualties bleeding out in the econo-lot, one unconscious in a gutter somewhere.

A noble start.

Maybe I'll write up the narrative later. Hopefully the next turn goes better.

Post battle wrap-up:

Fleegle: Minor Injuries

Drooper: Minor Injuries

Snork: Gruesome Fate (rerolled) Minor Injuries

Bingo: A Pounding Headache and a scar where his left kidney used to be.

Six Flags from Tejas (Campaign Turn 1, Part 1)

 Tra La La, Tra La La La

Campaign Turn 1 (part 1)

aka Six Flags from Tejas

After lively and mildly violent debate, the crew of the Suspect Device arrived in the Tejas system and landed on the sixth planet from the sun, Arlington. They were there to follow up on a rumor with one of Snork's contacts as well as check in on the legendary entertainment district just outside of Arlington's core spaceport.

Although the crew failed to con their way through licensing procedures, they did manage to buy off the official and dock without attracting too much attention from either Unity troops, planetary law enforcement, or local crime syndicates.

After securing dock space in the main port of Arlington, the crew set about their business. Snork worked the rumors from his prior contact and immediately generated additional cachet with the locals. Drooper went to work in the markets and landed a sweet deal on a glare sword. He was already carrying his father's sword but thought he might teach Bingo the art of fencing as an alternative to bludgeoning enemies with the huge rusty pipe he had been carrying around the past few years. Unfortunately Bingo wandered off into the seedier parts of the spaceport and passed out in a dark corner of some gambling den after losing all of his personal credits along with the fake Unity ID that has got him out of past complications. Fearless leader, Fleegle, stayed on ship working out in his quarters insisting that the most important thing was buffing himself up  to impress the locals. 

Snork gathered the Splits together -- well, the 2 other Splits who were not unconscious and robbed blind in some sleezy casino -- and proposed a simple plan to check in with one of his new contacts in the "economy parking" field outside the main spaceport. Yes, it was in a restricted zone governed by the Interplanetary Transit Security Authority.... but they had Bingos fake Unity IDs. What could go wrong?

So the set-up is an opportunity scenario outside a gloomy spaceport with limited visibility. Perfect for the Banana Splits crew! But the fake ID gambit failed since Bingo lost his in a dice game. In fact, Bingo -- the strongest close combat fighter -- won't even show up because he's lost for the turn. OK, fine. Nothing that some extreme violence can't solve. The other 3 Splits face off against 3 corporate security mercs. The mercs better trained, and better in a long range firefight, but the Splits may still be do OK in the limited visibility even without their close combat beast.

Five Things From A Place

Real Life is still a bit hectic, but another quick update!

First, I finished the five mercenaries I had been working on. Along with the two I previously painted as tests for color scheme, I now have enough to make a solid faction for Five Parsecs. I do have a bunch more of these figures (from Satyr Art Studio/Drew Williams) and will definitely get back to painting the rest of them. But first I want to keep getting a larger variety of small 5P factions done. 

I also finally painted this figure that I've had for ages. I think it's from Ramshackle. There was a horrible mould line (mould slip?) along the back that I had made a couple of attempts at sanding/filing off a various times over the past ten years or so. Probably longer. I finally just took a fresh blade to it and carved it out of all the folds of cloth. I thought they deserved a colorful hat and a splash of blood on one of the "scissor hands" to give it a pop of color.

Walking through Target last week I noticed some clearance items and scooped up a few for my sci-fi gaming....

Buzz Lightyear toys for cheap! The drop pods are very.... Grimdarkhammer. Even the robots that came with them can probably be put to use as security bots or something like that. The spaceships are a little on the small side, but I'm thinking about painting them with solid canopies and calling them pilotless drones. Reflecting real life, I've read a few articles about AI piloted fighters recently, and remotely controlled drones have been in use for a while, so this doesn't seem like a stretch for the grim dark future of stuff.

Two other impulse purchases.... My new brush holder. I feel like I need a legion of these...

I just received these limited edition figures from founder of the A Forest of Kings Facebook group. If you're interested in Native American, Messoarmerican, and/or pre-Columbian gaming and miniatures you should check it out (and get a couple of sweet figures). 

I discovered the group because of my interest in doing "new world" style fantasy skirmish game. I've not made much progress, but the idea was something like Mordheim but with oldschool froggy Slann, new-world undead, some Marienburg explorers, Sea Elves, and maybe others like Pestilens Skaven.

Back to the source.... Check out the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/273828859831681/

Back to Five Parsecs and sci-fi gaming, I've finally made some progress on my "Five Bananas From Home" project. I also rolled up the first battle and (painted or not) I hope to FINALLY play my first game this long holiday weekend. I would prefer to get outside, but it's supposed to rain the whole three-day weekend here. 

Speaking of bad weather timing, there is a local joke that every time there is a celestial event, we will be entirely covered with clouds and/or storms. But we had a pretty decent full solar eclipse (see my previous entry) and last week we also witnessed northern aurora! This has actually happened a quite a few times in my life but -- as the joke goes -- every single time it's completely overcast. Until this year! My wife came home and texted me that we needed to come outside. Even with semi-urban light pollution, it was really visible. But we got in the car and braved the unusual traffic to get to a spot along the lake (Erie) to get a better view. Very cool to have two big celestial events visible in Ohio within a short span! First pic is from our house, the other two are from the lake (very near by)

And Just Like That... Three Months Go By!

 

Apparently it has been three months since my last update. There has been a bit going on lately. For one, I had some down time due to a thumb injury...

I have also done a bit of travelling (survived a tornado near Chicago, an earthquake near LA, and less dramatic visits to Palm Desert/Joshua Tree NP, and Miami) for work. On the topic of work, I have also made a significant career change and taken a new job. To be honest... I've also been a bit uninspired lately. I think my head has just been elsewhere with everything else going on. Really, I'm not terribly good at keeping up with this blog lately either.

But there has still been painting going on, though no real gaming.

I wasn't very successful with my "Five Months From Painted Factions" but I did make some more progress. I built and painted some mutants!

I also painted Ambassador Khan Cern. He has no patience for your shenanigans.

Following up on my previous Five Bananas entry, I purchased my crew. Just tonight I started putting a bit of paint on them. More to come on that soon. "Soon." Like maybe in a few months again?

For now, I have also returned to painting the mercenaries that I had started working on before my thumb injury.

On the fantasy side....

Satyr Art Studio zombies...

...and some old Ral Partha zombies.

The middle figure is my D&D character, if the family D&D campaign ever gets started. Nettie Coldwater, middle-aged empty nester forest gnome turned druid. This is the second time I have painted this figure from Reaper Miniatures. The one on the left is the "stock" figure, and Nettie was converted a bit to more accurately reflect my character. The dog on the right was painted previously but I was thinking that it would be interesting if she brought her dog along with her.

Random daemon. Daemonette. Had the figure, figured I would paint it for my mixed-daemon horde. 

D&D figure, Grick. 

Dwarf With No Name.

Giant flies/stirges.

Painted a couple of tiny bunny toys, inspired by the Black Rabbit of Inle.

Fungus infected ant swarm.

I was fortunate to live within the path of the recent total eclipse in the US. I could not get a good pic during the total eclipse, and really didn't want to spend that brief time messing around with my phone trying to take pics instead of fully enjoying the experience. But here's the closest thing -- I got a couple of decent pics of the approach to totality.