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More US Zombies

The paratrooper wrapped in the chute is a great pose and probably worth buying the pack on its own. I mounted these on the Privateer Press style bases so they would match all of the other miniatures I have for SOTR.

 

 

 

 These are great figures and I hope to see more from this company.

What the !? Miniatures

The figures came in separate sealed zip lock bags and used the standard style of 25mm rounds that GW uses. I replaced these with the 30mm style similar to the Privateer Press bases.  The flash was minimal and the detail quite good. The poses are all unique and there are a couple you will not see from any other manufacturer – the pathfinder with Mohawk and the zombie with parachute cover. I hope to get the remainder of them painted in the next few days.

 

 

 

  

Warhammer Online

I chose a dwarf engineer as he got to play with “things” and overall, I felt that a Dwarf had a good chance of surviving most combats (I was wrong on this, but that’s the nature of this kind of game.)

The boot up screens for the game are plentiful as they hide a long loading process. Take the time to watch the cinematics as they are nicely done. Once you get into the game, things work smoothly if your machine is up to more than the minimum snuff. I have a 3.2 Ghz proceser and 2 Gigs of RAM and am running Media Center XP 2005 (my machine is about 6 years old and seems sluggish now). Even so, I get through the game well and the only issues I have are when there are multiple people in combats. I have been using a trackball to play the game as a mouse causes me some pain in my right hand.

I have never played an online massive game like this, so I am coming at this from the standpoint of a complete newb.

Most of the game I have played solo. I have ocasionally gone off and participated in some of the realm versus realm combats, especially the Mourkain Temple one. In this scenario, two groups fight over the control of an artifact which can be picked up and moved back to a home area. The temple lies on a hill surrounded by swamps and rocky areas and the players start on high steep hills opposite each other. My experience has been that there are three areas where combat takes place on the board — on the flat, granite areas in front of the temple, on a hill in front of the Destruction entry area, and in the swamp in front of the Order area.

I have found that I am outclassed by most of the characters in the scenario, especially in the first few times at it. I am now level 14 and am the lowest of the levels of the participants. I find that my best tactic is to put my little gun turret in place, move away from it a good distance, and then start sniping with my rifle. When the fighting moves back to the swamp, I can snipe from the ridge in front of the deployment area and not get pummeled by hand to hand fighters as only wizards and archers can reachme.

All in all, I think the game flows well and is loyal to the Warhammer milieu. There is a lot to explore and do and I have spent *way* too much time on already. I don’t watch much TV any more, nor do I attend many movies, so the monthly payment of $14.95 is not a drain on the entertainment budget. I don’t know how higher levels play so I can’t say how long I’ll continue to be involved, but it will be good for another several months and I’ve gotten more gaming out of it than other computer games I have purchased. Highly Recommended!

Personality Generator

Artillery Train

 

 

 

 These are from the RSM line owned by Dayton Painting Consortium (DPC). Very nice figures and priced well. The set comes with 4 horses but I used only two as I think these are supposed to be lead horses with a rider. Since "historical accuracy" is not required, these fit the bill. The base is made from bass wood from Hobby Lobby and Liquitex resin gel. This was covered with black gesso and then drybrushed with various colors. The static comes from a GF9 line. I used vinyl sheet magnet underneath to secure the miniatures in the storage box.

The only "conversion" I made was to add a rifle to the figure on the left. DPC is pretty good about giving you extra bits and pieces youcan integrate as required. I guess I’ll now have to add a Toorkish set!

Cuirassier Command

I am considering giving the regiment the informal name of "The Lillies" as they are in all-white uniforms. (OK, except for the kettledrummer – I followed the Napoleonic practice of having the uniform reversed for musicians.) The flag I think I will use is a French Royal flag shown below.

 

I will be mounting the individual squadrons on mounts that are unique per squadron. I am thinking bays (dark brown) for the 1st, roans for the second, and dapple grays or blacks for the third. There’s no specific reason for this except that it would be different.Clicking on the images below will give you a larger image whereas the one above will not… after all, the flag is not necessarily detailed! If you want a copy of the flag graphic, let me know and I’ll email it to you. Anyone with any clever ideas as to unit history is welcome to contribute!

Wet Palettes

Here’s a review of the Privateer Press wet pallette from the privateer boards that I thought I’d share:

"When I heard that Privateer Press was putting out a wet palette for
figpainting I did some research, and learned how to make my own.
Ironically, I ended up using a Privateer Press blister box, a sponge,
and some wax paper. Total price tag – FREE (I had all the materials on
hand.)

It worked great. Wet palette painting has added a huge new dimension to
my work, and I demonstrate it all the time at the Friendly Local  Games
Store.

Friday I picked up the P3 Wet Palette, figuring that it would be better than what I’d put together. Boy was I wrong.

The P3 system appears to have been designed to wick water slowly (the
"sponge" is a sheet of blister foam. Not absorbant at all, though it
LOOKs like a sponge) up to parchment paper that is designed to wick
water quickly. The box is not air-tight, and has a lot of air in it
thanks to the high lid. The result? Paint dries out in a day at the
most. Other flaws — after a day or two the paper has a tendancy to
curl right up under your paints, quickly drying your blends. The pad of
20 sheets, therefore is good for a minimum of 20 painting sessions and
a maximum of 40 (assuming your sessions are paired back-to-back. )

My system (kitchen sponge, wax paper, Privateer Press blister box)
wicks water quickly to the paper, which wicks water quite slowly. I’ve
had paints stay good in there for WEEKS, and have painted with the same
little puddles for several sessions in a row.

I’ve been experimenting with the P3 palette for two days now, trying to
see if I can get it to do what I need it to. It has failed for me
repeatedly. It’s better than NOT painting with a wet palette, but it’s
far too expensive ($20) for a plastic box, a sheet of cheap foam
padding, and a pad of parchment paper that conspire to not work
together as well as something you can build for free.

I love the P3 paints, and adore the miniatures. It’s a shame this product is such dross. 

Cuirassiers

I will be using the Spencer Smith AA5 Staff Officer Charging for the officers, AA1 for the standard, and AA4 as the trooper figures. You can get these directly from Spencer Smith miniatures. They will loosely follow the color scheme for Austrian Cuiraissiers – white uniform, black cuiraiss, red trim/facings. The standard bearer is already painted in these colors. The staff is a brass spear which I purchased from VVV. Unfortunately they are no longer being produced as it was not a big money maker.

 

 

 

 The kettledrummer is made from one of the charging staff officers. The conversion was pretty straightforward once I discovered I had the round head straight pins I could use for drum sticks. The drums them selves were made from a piece of greenstuff that I placed on a flat base and then rounded until I was happy with the effect.

 

 

 

 No clever new name for the regiment yet. I’ll have to cogitate on it more. Suggestions appreciated….

Flags and Heraldry

I skimmed through a number of websites looking for Spanish style flags I liked and came across a few designs that will form the basis for flags of Todos Santos.This one starts with the Flag of the Land of Valencia.I did not use the red and yellow stripes that flag had as I want to try and keep regimental colors close to the uniforms adopted, in this case yellow and blue. I added the name of the regiment across the top and then, in a hom,age to the OSW group, useda modified group logo for the device in the center of the flag. I’ll print this off in color on photo paper and mount it on the flagpole. I suppose I should have flipped the device on the left section of the flag horizontally as then the lion and soldier would bemoving forward. Ah well, maybe next time….

Toorkish Drill Practice

The reason I haven’t received them yet was because my card I gave them kept declining when Rich tried to run it. I had ensured that there was money in the account since it was a debit card so I knew I should be able to meet the charge with no problems. When I called him up to clear it up with him, I asked how much it was for, as I had only ordered 16 Bosnians firing and three or four Jacobite samples so it should only have been around $30 or so. There was a pause on the line and Rich said… "Oh, well, did you get the numbers off of the website?" "Yes", I meekly replied, feeling like a schoolboy that had been caught in a prank. "Ah," Rich responded, those codes are for *bags* of figures. Your total came out to be $100 +!" He offered to send me the latest price list for the single figures and fixed the order for me. That’s service with a smile, knowing that your customer is dim-witted and treating him nice anyways. So, Thanks DPC, I appreciate it. 

I am experimenting with some different lighting effects and camera settings and these pictures came out the best of those that I took. The one on the left was edited in Fireworks (although you could do the same with The Gimp) and a background dropped in. This is the "Volley Fire, Present!" picture — what the enemy would see closing in. The second is also edited with Fireworks and shows a bird’s eye view of the front rank’s volley going down range. These figures were a lot of fun to paint as they don’t have a lot of the froo-froo that their European counterparts do. Highly recommended for any aspiring ImagiNation general!

 

 

 

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