Calming down

Wohooo! Seams like slowly the spambot attacks are going down. That is a good sign, so I will start posting again and see whats happening :)

Hobbywise things do calm down even more, since soon we will rebuild our complete working/hobby area.That will also mean more space for storing stuff and hopefully a bit more room and cleanliness. ATM its just a pain to start painting or stuff because my desk is full with other stuff and I have to clean everything up and also store the paint stuff again. That really sucks because I am more the slow painter and if you always have to store your stuff you will never make progress...

And I just saw I have a new follower. So :Welcome aboard Dan! Hope I found out the correct blog for you :) Search yourself a seat, the airship slowly fills up.


So long,
Paradox0n

Still in the trenches

If you wondered why it is so quite on this blog: No I did not quit writing or trying to do some hobby stuff. I just had some "active" weeks with travelling to Romania for work and more private stuff.
Also I am still pretty p***ed about whats going on with all those spambots. Looks like Russia does a cyberwar against my blog, three days ago I had more than 500 hits only with those spambots. But it seems that this was the last spike and things are calming down now...

So cross your fingers that this stupid wave is finally over please :)

See you soon!
Paradox0n

Calming the waves

Nichiren Calming the Seas by Kuniyoshi

Yes, I am still alive. I did take a short break to (hopefully) calm down the spambot waves a bit. Through my latest posting and pushing rhythm it seems I got quite the attention of a lot of spambots. I could see a LOT of doubtable referer URLs in my statistics and also got some spam in the comments.On the one hand, attention is nice but on the other hand only if its from real readers and not just sutpid bots.

Meanwhile I did change my about page a bit, to reflect the latest changes in the hobby.

Finally I got the pictures from the shipmodels convention I visited a week ago. Just scanning through them and finding the best for a short report :)

Also my Warmachine/horde battle report is still waiting. One ie preproduced and the other one is in the making.


So stay tuned,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wyrd Chronicles Issue #17

And another magazine I nearly missed! Wyrd Chronicles Issue No. 17 is out since beginning of April. And I can only say: Fear the Bunny! Really awesome cover here ;)

Wyrd Chronicles No. 17

In this issue you can find among others:

• Festival Day: It's a Wyrd Earth Day story
• Building a Park: Learn how to assemble some fantastic terrain!
• Smuggler's Run: A one-shot adventure for Through the Breach
• Luther the Pascha Hare: A hare raising tale full of cuddly (and nod so cuddly) bunnies
• Tyrannus' Tutelary: A guide to painting the War Wabbit
• Painting Contest Winners: Frozen Moments
• Painting Contest Winners: Crystal Brush

My favorite article this time is the tutorial for building the park. Very good ideas and tips in there and it looks really cool!
So even if you are not playing Malifaux, you can find some interesting stuff in here.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Ironwatch Issue #32

Issue #32 of Ironwatch Magazine, the Mantic Games Fanzine has arrived in the beginning of April. I nearly missed it so with a bit delay my post.

Ironwatch Issue #32

As usual it contains a nice mixture of Kings of War, Warpath and all Mantic related topics like:

• Iron Forge
• The Battle of Gawick Upon Tibble
• The Bloodstone of Cerillion
• Tutorial: How to Paint Dreadball Xtreme Convicts
• Building it Up for Those Damn Martians to Tear Down
• and many more

I especially like the Mars Attacks tutorial from Terrain Tutor, since I also followed the process on his Youtube channel.

If you haven't checked already, take a look, its free and fanmade and totally supported by Mantic. I like this pretty much therefore I to spread the word as usual :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Anyone alive out there?

Another episode of my Monday Morning Musings (and Music). Today I am asking myself if anybody is still reading the stuff I post. There was not much feedback on the last stuff I posted which dampens my motivation for posting a bit at the moment.
As you all know, comments are a bloggers best friend (also like/shares etc.pp. help to keep a good mood). So if you still read my stuff, I would be happy if you find some time to post a small comment from time to tome, even a "sucks" or "great" if you have not much time.
I see that I have lots of visits (increasing from month to month) and sometimes up to nearly 300 a day but no active participation like comments or likes/shares in the social media.

Therefore I shout out in the blogosphere: Is anybody out there?! with some hardcore music from Neophyte:

Warmachine/Hordes battlereport Nr. 3 is already done and will be posted this week. I also had a fourth game last Monday. Sadly I took no pictures but I will give you a short summary nonetheless.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.:
And another new follower. A warm "Welcome!" to Alejandro Lii. Take a seat, grab some tea and enjoy the ride. If you have a blog, please tell me, that I can add you to my blogroll.

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.2 - Legion vs. Khador

Since my Legion of Everblight 2-Player-Box arrived some time ago, Numbdice and Me met for a gaming session and sent our wives on a party :) After scanning through the rulebook and all my stuff, we decided to start with a Mangled Metal match so that I can learn the rules a bit more and get a feeling for the Legion of Everblight.

We grabbed some terrain pieces from my board, got 4 pieces of my modular table and created a terrain which we thought would be nice to play on.

Since Mangled Metal is normally only played with the contents of a battle box, I played pLylyth, 4 Shredders and a Carnivean. My opponent had eSorsha, Juggernaut, Berserker and a Kodiak. Not exactly a battle box but in the points limit and so we played exactly that :)

First round wasn't really spectacular, everything moved forward and we stared each other into the eyes (or whatever Lylyth has). I had to be careful with my Fury since Lylyth can only soak 5 points so with running I was already at the limit.

The second round was a bit more interesting since I didn't run anymore but used the Animus of my lesser beasts to make tough Lylyth and the Carnivean a bit more durable. Lylyth moved into the woods do hide herself and get a bit of shooting into the Jacks.

The Berserker moved in direction of the woods, the other two Jacks charged my Shredders (exactly what I hoped they would do).
On the picture you can see my selfmade tokens in action :)

In the third round the fighting really began, the Berserker battled against my Carnivean, the Kodiak and Juggernaut killed my Shredders and Lylyth bushwacked into safety. At the end of the round, the Berserker exploded and left a pile of garbage in the woods.

All in all I was pretty lucky that nothing more happened to me and the bit of damage I got could be either mitigated or soaked.

So I prepared for the last round of battle, because my Lylyth stood in a good shooting position on Sorsha. And with an Assault order I could also spray on her with my Carnivean. And exactly that I did. The result of: 2 boosted shots on her -> Witch Blood and Parasite and a Carnivean spray you can see on the left picture :)

Win through caster kill. I was really happy with the result, because if that wouldn't have worked, I would have been dead in this or the next round. All my Shredders were killed and my Carnivean can not stand up against 2 Jacks. So it was all or nothing at this point.

Lessons learned in this game:

- Don't forget when to Feat!
- Shredders are nice cannon fodder and can annoy but will not win you a game. Take one for the Animus on your caster
- Lylyth's ability to shoot and move out of the way and THEN cast her stuff is great
- Carnivean is not so bad as thought. Spraying and then close combat is quite effective, especially on feat turn

And we had some spectators on the game. Loki, one of my cats, took a seat and had a suspicious look what we are doing :)

Was a really nice evening, with lots of talking and beer drinking and stuff. Sadly I couldn't convince Labschi from the game. Otherwise I would have playing mate directly in reach.
The second game awaited us then on the next day.

Hope you enjoyed this short battle report. The game was already some time ago, so I also could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes: Reinforcements arrived

Doppelpost today! Okay so I still have my big package flying around with lots of fancy stuff I want to use in the future for my Legion of Everblight force.

In this picture you not only can see the All-in-One army box. But also the UAs (unit attachements) for my Ogryn Warspeers and my Strider Rangers. Also you can see two more Acolytes for the Spawning Vessel to make it a big unit, a Forsaken and a Swamp Gobber crew.
Plus there is the official template set.

Aaand I was running out of or missing washes. Especially a blue and a purple one is needed, so I opted for the Warpaints Inks because I heard lots of positive stuff from them. Let's see if they are really this good.

And I am still owing you some Warmachine/Hordes battle reports. But I had too much on my mind and nearly no motivation to really blog. If you follow me on the social medias you may have seen that I am still alive because I made some advertisement for the Wasteman kickstarter which was successfully funded this weekend. Very happy that someone can make his hobby to his work :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Happy Easter to everyone

Today only a very short post: I wish all of you a Happy Easter. Hope you can party with your family and have some nice free days.

And a warm welcome to Kodos der Henker. Have a seat, take some tee and cookies. And enjoy the ride.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Farewell T.P. and Melting the Ice

© The Smiling Grouch

Welcome back to another Monday Music and Musing episode! Before I really want to start my musing, I have to start (again) with some mourning: Last week one of my favored authors of fantasy (comedy) novels died: Terry Pratchett.

“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Many artists made drawings and paintings to honor the creator of the Discworld and writer of many many fantastic novels. The picture shown by me is from The Smiling Grouch. On the Tumblr page you can also find some other interesting pictures.


But now let's continue with something not so sad: On the weekend I had the chance to play two Warmachine/Hordes matches with my Legion of Everblight against NumbDice's Khador. First a Mangled Metal with only one battlegroup to learn the rules and then a 25pts scenario game with the complete content of the 2-players box. I don't want to spoil too much because I will try to write down some short battle reports. But since I am still owing you some music:

Power of the Dragonflame by Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody), an Italian metal band.

The games where lots of fun and really, really thrilling. I found it absolutely interesting how the game changes in scenario play. Can't wait for my other stuff to arrive to build a more balanced list.

Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Irregular Magazine back again!

Irregular Magazine No.1 Vol.2

Seems like the hobby magazines stream doesn't stop at the moment. Today I can tell you that an old acquaintance returned: Irregular Magazine. After more than 2 years the just published their first issue of the so called Volume 2 of the magazine. Really cool if you ask me.

The contents of this issue are the following:

• Editor's Challenge: Army on the Cheap
• Strange Aeons - A Short Story
• Salute to Marc Miller
• Star Destroyer Scratch Build
• DnD 5th: Rise of Tiamat
• Creating Alien Landscapes

The article about the scratch build Star Destroyer is really really awesome and the Alien Landscape tutorial shows with which unbelievable stuff we can build terrain.

If you haven't done it yet, go risk a look. It is free and they desire every support for a good relaunch.

So long,

Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: The Campaigner Issue #11

The Campaigner Issue No. 11

Another Hobby Magazine I stumbled over is The Campaigner (thanks to Terrain For Hippos). So what is it all about? Maybe I just let the magazine speak for itself and quote something of the approach they have:

The Campaigner hopes to offer hobbyists content that both interests and educates them. To provide them with the right tools to sensibly and realistically approach any challenges that come their way.

So without any further chit-chat the contents of this issue (which you can download here):

• Interview: Chris Avellone
• Worlds of Roleplay: He Did It With His Staff!
• Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia
• Terrain Crusade: A Song of Blades and Scenery
• The Game Mechanic
• Featured Hobbyist: Liam Honan
• Plus: News

If you don't know the magazine already, give it a chance. I really love that they approach many different aspects of our hobby, not only tabletop but also RPGs, board games and lots of other stuff.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Figure Painter Magazine Issue #22

FPM Issue #22

The Hobby Magazine madness continues: Figure Painter Magazine Issue No. 22 is out. This time its not a free magazines like before but it is absolutely affordable with its price of 1.30£ and I think you can't go wrong with spending that one.

To be honest I didn't buy the magazine for the last couple of issues because I am waiting for the bundled version of the last 10 issues. But as far as I know the older issues and the reading examples who were out, the quality even improved and its a real awesome magazine for that price.

If you have the possibility, check it out.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes 2-Player box arrived

Finally it is here! The Hordes 2-Player Box arrived. After some (to be honest extremely long) waiting because our LGS had trouble getting the German box, I have it now in my hands. So I can start with building and painting the stuff and see how much I like the miniatures before the All-in-one-Box will arrive (which should be somewhere around middle of the month, depending how long postage and customs take)..

Sadly my gaming mate, who took the German rules of the box, is sick, so the first match(es) with my newly found Legion of Everblight army will have to wait a bit longer :( At least I now have time to assemble and maybe paint them before the first game.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Live long and prosper

Today I want to start my Monday Music and Musings with some grief and loss: On Friday Leonard Nimoy died. Most of you will know him as Spock from the original Star Trek series. May he rest in piece or as he always said: "Live Long and Prosper!"

I think nearly noone coined a character so much as Mr. Nimoy did with Mr. Spock. Fun fact: He also wrote two books, one called "I am not Mr. Spock" and one "I am Mr. Spock".

I personally was very happy that he showed up in the newer movies of Star Trek and clearly he will never be forgotten by his fans.
Fitting to that the intro of the original series:

In terms of the hobby nothing new. I am still waiting for my Hordes stuff. Slowly I get pretty pissed because now its two months waiting. At least my epoxy stickers arrived. Surprisingly not from Hong Kong but from Singapore :)

So stay tuned. I hope soon some stuff happens again (e.g. Hordes Battreps).


So long,
Paradox0n

Milestone reached: 60.000 hits

So its another milestone which this blog breached: 60.000 hits since I am tracking. Maybe you ask yourself why I am not waiting for the 100k mark for making a happy dance. That's easily explained: I just count this mark more like 50.000 hits because recently I have lots of search engine traffic (but no exact values sadly) so I have to give a best guess.

It seems to pay off that I tried to be a bit more present in Social Media (please check them out if you don't habe already) and in blog/community rolls of big hobby sites (like BoLS or Faeit).

And I was lucky and just hit the blog and was greeted with the perfect number ;-)

So what are the plans for the future? Most likely there will be more Warmachine/Hordes content (as soon as I got my stuff) and also a bit more of Shadows of Brimstone. If everything works fine I may also have a bit more time and I can play some bigger games of Kings of War which my system of choice will most likely be since ATM I see my future not with Warhammer Fantasy. But who knows, maybe the new edition will be excellent.

I also hope that I find more time to paint there are many many miniatures waiting. But that also depends a bit in which games I will play the next months.

I wish you all a food time and thanks for reading this blog!


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Long time, no see

Wow nearly two weeks since my last post... Time to start posting again with some Monday Music and Musings!

The last weeks where pretty insane. Not only did we do some great winter hiking trips, but I also was overwhelmed with work and had some health issues concerning my back. Thus painting wasn't so much on my table, because if you can't sit for too long, you can't really paint.
I am still waiting for my Hordes stuff (shame on you PP for having thus bad delivering issues). And I have achieved some milestones for the blog, but that I will write down in its own post :)

So this is more a life sign and some motivation music. Johnny Cash - I won't back down:

Enjoy and have a good start into your week.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wyrd Chronicles Issue #16

Wyrd Chronicles Volume 16

And another Hobby Magazine this week! Today its the Wyrd Chronicles Volume 16 from (who would have thought it) Wyrd Games (producer from Malifaux if you didn't know).

This issue contains, among other stuff:

• The Bone Stag Cometh: A Malifaux scenario.
• All Work, Cosplay: Become your favorite Master!
• Hazardous Material: In Malifaux, terrain eats you.
• Peaceful Malifaux: Can you win without fighting?
• Death of Metal: A Sabertooth Cerberus gets painted.
• and much more 

As far as I understood it, it is an official magazine from Wyrd Games. Therefore its layout and content is in my opinion pretty well done and I was very surprised while reading it. It even has some more geeky stuff (the Cosplay article) in it, which I really liked because sometimes its good to see some other stuff outside our tabletop box.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wargame Bloggers Quarterly Issue #3

Issue #3 of Wargame Bloggers Quarterly a purely community made magazine is out. If you don't know it yet, a short introduction from their Google+ page:

The Wargame Bloggers Quarterly (WBQ) is a FREE community driven electronic magazine (PDF e-Zine) composed of the best wargames and miniature painting content from the collective blogosphere.

It is more based on historical wargaming and thus I can't tell you too much about the contents but the two tutorials are most certainly interesting for all tabletop hobbyists:

• A tutorial about painting faces
• A tutorial about basing
• A rant about 28mm not being a scale

If you haven't checked already, take a look! It is totally free, community made and in my opinion deserves some attention.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Ironwatch Issue #30

Ironwatch Magazine Issue #30

Issue #30 of Ironwatch Magazine, the Mantic Games Fanzine has arrived.

As usual it contains a nice mixture of Kings of War, Deadzone and all Mantic related topics like:

• Q&A with Chris Palmer
• Humans in the Endless Keep, a Dwarf Kings Hold scenario
• The Trouble at Gawick upon Tibble, a Kings of War scenario
• The Battle for Goat Sector 58, a Deadzone batrep
• and many more

If you haven't checked already, take a look, its free and fanmade and totally supported by Mantic. I like this pretty much therefore I try to spread the word :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Sunday evening WIP

Just a quick WIP shot from my painting table: My first Slasher from Shadows of Brimstone. I played a bit around with my airbrush and tested a bit of (pre)shading. In the end it was a bit too orange and I had to glaze it down.
As base I like it so far, have to think how I will continue with that one (thinking about either black claws or more natural ones pending to a nearly eggshell color). And yes there are some moldlines which I didn't see while prepping the miniature. But to be honest I just don't care anymore at this stage for a plain test/gaming miniature. That's why I also saved me from stuffing all the holes and stuff.

And I want to give a short shout-out to Quidam Corvus who once again gave a back link to me which gives me today some nice traffic and visitors :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Basics - Gaming Tools

Its quite a long time since I wrote something for my Hobby Basics series. With my latest purchase I thought this would be a good time to do another article here, this time covering some of the tools you will need for war-gaming (my experiences are mostly for WHFB, KoW, Warmachine/Hordes and similar games). I have no experience in historical war games, but I don't think that they differ so much that my points will be invalid :)
I again warn you: Big chunks of text incoming! So be prepared if you follow me after the jump :)

MMM - Random musings

After a long time I do again a MMM but switching from Monday Morning Music to Monday Morning Musings :) At least for today. I just don't want to post some music today (which I will do nonetheless) but also do some ranting and musing. Seems fitting at the moment because I just can't find the needed time for the hobby and even the blog is not traded as well as it should be (despite all the good intentions for this year). So I will at least start with blog care!

But as usual I will start this post with some music!
Woodkid - Conquest of Spaces:

Shadows of Brimstone: Hellbat

Just a short shot from my workbench: My first Hellbat from Shadows of Brimstone. I tried out a color scheme which I may use for my Legion of Everblight if they arrive finally. And I also tried out some wetblending (the tongue) just to get a feel for paint consistency and stuff. Must be improved but at least I did some painting again :)

More to the miniatures if I painted the complete batch of them.


So long,
Paradox0n

End Times is near! Rumors about 9th

Today I do something which I normally don't do: I jump on the rumor train and give my opinion to the gossip factory which is working overtime at the moment. With myself getting deeper into the Warhammer Fantasy universe again and having played the games in the 90ies I am deeply rooted in the background of the game(s) and had to see how complete games were shot down from GW over the years (Necromunda, Mortheim etc. pp.) so I am pricking my ears on the newest rumors. And I have to admit that the newest rumors from Faeit and Warseer really worry me.

Disclaimer: This article will contain spoilers and rumors! If you aren't interested in them, please don't read the full length article.
It also contains some personal views and heavy exaggeration on the current rumors and how I will deal with that. But rumors are just rumors. Maybe everything will come completely different and we all are happily playing 9th edition in the summer.

Warning: Big wall of text incoming!

A kind of review: My 2014

2014 has ended some days ago, I came over those bridge days where I had to work and slowly I am getting in the hobby mood again (besides needing some vacation). Therefore I thought a view back to last year would be something nice to do on the blog and a somehow nice thing to start the hobby season with.

2014 started really slow concerning blogging. My real life kept me from doing anything fancy on the blog. First Papa Nurgle put his arms around me and afterwards I had a pretty tough project on work which kept my complete attention. Lots to learn and test out. But in the end this trouble paid off and we delivered a great product and among others are now listed 2nd place on a pretty relevant listing in our  field after a very very big company (starting from place 5). So lots of happy faces here :)

Happy New Year to all

I wish all of you a Happy New Year or "Guten Rutsch" as we say here ;)
I wanted to write down a small resume of this year but due to our snow chaos and the longer time it took me to get to work, I had not so much time as I had hoped. Maybe I will write that post next year. But for now this will be the last post in 2014.

Hope you all have a nice party today and have a good start into 2015 .


So long,
Paradox0n

First Warmachine/Hordes game

So Saturday I had my first game of Warmachine/Hordes. A friend of mine plays both games and invited me to a introduction game of the gaming system. So we met for a standard game and he gave me a brief crash course in the rules and stuff. But theory isn't the only thing, so we started a 25 points game where he gave me his Khador Winterguard troops and he used his Blindwater Congregation crocodiles (which he never played before). I tried to make some pictures while we played but please don't expect a fully fledged battle report because most likely I can't tell you what exactly we did, because it was really lots of stuff to think to learn and to do (and to drink!).

But it was enough to get me very interested in the game and I ordered the Hordes 2-player starter box yesterday. And already found some people in my area who play Warmachine/Hordes instead of WHFB/40K. Pretty interesting. Don't want to spend too much money on the game so I will try to boost the both starter troops with the least money effort possible.

Shadows of Brimstone: Tentacles done!

Finally I finished the first batch of Tentacles from Shadows of Brimstone. If you haven't any idea what Shadows of Brimstone is about, you can check my unboxing of the two core sets where I give a first impression of the content and style of the game.
I decided to go with a two color scheme since the game has normal and brutal monsters and by giving the tentacles different colors I can differ later in the game between the two.
After forcing myself through those miniatures (more of that later) I can give you also a first and short review of the miniatures.

Beautiful St Nicholas Day

Maybe this is a bit for my German readers, but I wish you a beautiful Saint Nicholas Day (Einen schönen Nikolaus). I was very surprised in the morning when I came home from my early shopping trip when I found a small bag in front of my door, containing two gunnysacks with a chocolate Nicholas walnuts and mandarins (the typical contents of those bags here). And surprisingly it was from my mom (and yes I am not living at home anymore and another yes I am over thirty now, nonetheless this is one of the very few traditions we keep). Pretty cool start into the day.

The picture shown is the nougat filled "bismarck" or "doughnut" (in German its Berliner in my region) I got for my wife in the morning. Went up at 8 and went shopping to let her sleep a bit longer today :)

So enjoy your day, especially if you spend it together with your family.


So long,
Paradox0n

It is this time of the year again...

Fitting to all the Nurgle stuff in the End Times I jumped forward and "volunteered" for a cold this week... Therefore no Monday Morning Music/Musings and no progress in painting at all. At the moment I am happy that I can sit at my tablet and read all your blogs and take some time in between to write this blogpost now. A friend of mine already calls me "Papa Nurgle" which is... somewhat fitting at the moment ;)

But enough chatter about my illness, this week was full of stuff so I think I should stop ranting and start posting more interesting stuff for you :)

First off all the Mantic Games kickstarter for the 2nd edition rulebook (and 2 new armies, Abyssals and Armies of Nature) was funded. Pretty successfully for that, I think the overachieved by over 10 times. OK we all know now the guys from Mantic plan these kickstarters to work like that but still this gives me personally a good feeling if Warhammer Fantasy really goes down the tubes. For me this was the new rulebooks, all the freebies and some new dice and especially the new abyssal dwarf hero on winged beast and the obsidian golem. So in the end they got me as usual.

Second there was my decision last week to go for a PBA membership at Panting Buddha. In the end I was mistaken and a bit confused (too much alcohol that evening)  and only opted for a Big Bruddah but mixed it with the Golden Brick Brick itself which would be the next "grade". So sorry for the "wrong" title of the post. I already wrote about the why and the arguments are the same no matter if Big Bruddah or Golden Brick.
Since I now also have access to the Vimeo group (sorry Michael for the confusion) I am eagerly watching the videos and the exclusive content. So far I am not disappointed. And if the continue their DVD series I will be even more happy :) Love the stuff standing in my shelf.

And last but not least I am playing around with my Nikon and slowly getting a grip on it. First I thought I will need a special macro lens for making nice miniature shots. But as far as I tried around it could also work with the normal kit lens. Better to edit it in Photoshop and cutting out all the unnecessary parts than moving too close to the miniature. That perfectly fits to the experiences the Apes from Massive Voodoo write about in their tutorial. Maybe I will dig a bit more into it and write my own experiences down, for example everyone tells you not to use a flash, but my last tests where pretty nice (for a short WIP at least).


So long,
Paradox0n

Throwing the golden brick!

So they got me at last. Yesterday I decided to go for a "Golden Brick" and join the Painting Buddha Academy, switching from the Community College to a "subscription".

From my earlier posts you know that I am quite a "fanboy" of Painting Buddha, because I really appreciate the work they do for the painting community. And with the promo the had running last week which reduced the 42€ to 35€ I couldn't resist anymore. As they explain in their nice promotion trailer that's something around 70ct a week (for me even only something of 60ct a week). And yes I spent more on the last kickstarters than that. Everything seems so logic when they explain it!

As soon as I have my Vimeo access I will most likely talk a bit more about the difference between PBCC and PBA.
Nonetheless I will continue to share the Youtube videos as soon as one chapter is complete thus promoting the free content the Bruddhas produce.


So long,
Paradox0n


P.S.: Welcome Solo Wargaming. Just added your blog to my blogroll. Take a seat and take some cookies until Tea is served.

Kings of War - Kickstarter madness

The Kings of War 2nd edition kickstarter is hitting the home stretch. After breaking through a huge amount of strech goals, Mantic Games presented us now the second and final addons Wednesday with not only even more miniatures but some nice terrain pieces from 4Ground and a modular gaming table from Secret Weapon. So this kickstarter runs as we are used from Mantic, low target but insane success in the end.

Am I completely happy with the kickstarter so far? Hm.. depends. I think for guys like me who only pledged for the rulebook itself it still is not so good as the previous ones. But for those backers who pledge for armies and stuff out there it is pretty interesting. Those really get a big saving and stuff. Even more if Mantic decides to go for bulk army pledges.

But as usual it is very difficult to find nothing to pledge on. Lots of interesting stuff to find and I most likely cannot resist to pledge for some of those new special miniatures although it means that I have to pay the bigger shipping price :)

So if you are interested in Kings of War, you still have 4 days to hop on the hype train :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Pump it up!

So I am back from my trip to Romania and had the muddiest hiking trip I ever had yesterday. Sometimes I nearly lost my hiking sticks/shoes in the mud... Nonetheless: I am back again!
And I will start this week with some Monday Morning Music: Danzel with Pump it up! I think this song is somehow fitting to the stuff I am writing about today.
So start the music and continue reading... :)

Off Off to Romania and a short WIP

In a few hours I will fetch my flight to Romania. So don't expect any comments or big posts for the next week since I have neither my painting stuff with me nor do I expect to have much time. Sadly the trip is not for vacation but for work ;)

But to deliver at least something hobby related a short glance of another model on my working table: A Jotunn Hailstorm Cannon. Most likely this will be a proxy for a Death Shrieker or something.


See you in a week!
Paradox0n

Kings of War Second Edition

Mantic Games just announced the details to their new kickstarter for the Kings of War Second Edition rulebook.

Kings of War Kickstarter is launching on Friday 14th November at 1:30pm GMT!

Since I already backed the first one (and got a lots of stuff out of it, especially my Abyssal Dwarfs) I will most likely join this one too. Don't know how deep I will jump into but at least I will help to support the rulebook and hopefully the main translations. For me a translated version doesn't matter, but I know that for many people the entry to a system is much easier if the rules are written in their mothertongue.

More details about it you will find in the official announcement and on the Mantic Blog.

So let's see how it is rolling out on Friday :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Playing around on Sunday morning

Just a short update on early Sunday morning. I am just testing (fooling?) around with my new camera a bit. And I wanted to quickly show you some of the pictures I shot (and had an IMO nice effect by chance). After posting that I will return to priming the first miniatures from Shadows of Brimstone but I had to take a break because it really stressed me out that my airbrush was totally clogged  although I gave it a thorough cleaning after the latest usage. Nearly killed my motivation to continue at all....

Unboxing: Shadows of Brimstone

As promised I will do an unboxing of the Shadows of Brimstone core sets from Flying Frog Productions which I backed on Kickstarter. As stated in an earlier post, the two core sets arrived to my surprise last week. Since I hoped that the results of this project wouldn't be as disappointing as the Sedition Wars rules, I was very exited for the package to arrive. Another big reason was, that I mainly backed this game because it is played cooperatively and therefore Mrs. Para was also in this game. She doesn't like Descent too much (at least in playing it with only 2 players) because you play against each other.

Shadows of Brimstone is a Old West Horror board game. Meaning that you will play heroes placed in a wild west setting  and encountering some horror creatures in different locations.

Warning: I will not show the miniatures in this post, I completely leave them out because some of them are huge(!) and I don't know how they will fit in the boxes after I assembled them. Most likely I will have to do some magnetizing. Therefore I will cover them in a later article.

For this unboxing I will try to show the contents of both boxes in parallel because at some points they are pretty similar to each other. So let's see what is in the boxes (big wall of text incoming)!

Nikon D3300 arrived

A new technical gadget in my arsenal arrived yesterday: The Nikon D3300 with lens kit (18-55mm). After some problems with the software (the software bundle delivers an older version which claims to be the newest version, but there is a newer one available on the website) and some driver problems (Win7 PnP drivers are not compatible with the camera it seems) I finally got the camera connected to my PC (thanks to the support forums).

And I began to do some test shooting with the standard setting and the first tests with the lens kit. For me the difference between our old Powershot (10 years old now) and my mobile camera is insane. With some easy positioning and using the lenses I get the blurry backgrounds and with that the depths of better pictures.

MMM: Frank Sinatra - Mack the Knife

After my weekends experience with knives I thought this song is somehow fitting :)

Hope the Doc tells me in 2 hours that everything is OK and I can return back to normal. Although tipping with one missing (because bandaged) finger is somewhat difficult. Normally I type blindly but now I miss more keys than hitting stuff.

Nevertheless, please enjoy the master Frank Sinatra with Mack the Knife:

To get this post some hobby relation: I just tested some stuff yesterday and I think I understood for the first time what glazing really is...
And I have a question to you: Skin for Chaos Dwarves skin tones with purple shadows or completely gray? Or maybe characters gray and units flesh... My problem is, that with my red/gold scheme the fleshy skin tones pop out too much I think.
If I get my camera today I will make some WIP photos and show you my problem.


So long,
Paradox0n

Painting Buddha Academy: Aanchuth series

This time Matt and Mati paint Aanchuth the Cursed from Mierce Miniatures. The series shows you among other things how to paint fur, skin, horns and wood.

As usual I just bundled the free videos together in one playlist. The videos are produced and owned by the Bruddahs from Painting Buddha. All kudos go to them.

If you like the videos, please subscribe to their Youtube-Channel and have a look at their shlog/website.

Hope you enjoy it.


So long,
Paradox0n

Some unrelated Post Scriptum after the jump: