Adventures in Mini Painting

The last time I mentioned D&D I also mentioned that we were playing with minis. Well, we weren't actually playing minis until the second game night. The first time we played Mehtul and I were mini-less and I think one of us was playing as piece of Chex mix. While tasty, it was not as cool as it could have been. So the two of us hit up the local gaming shop to find minis to represent our characters. Below is the "priest" mini from Reaper that I picked to represent Mirado, my human cleric. He looks a little grizzled, carries a mace/holy symbol and isn't wearing to much metal based armor. Perfect!

Not one to settle when it comes to the nerdy arts, I started thinking about painting options the day I bought Mirado. I already had a bunch of supplies from my failed 40k army just sitting around anyway, so I might as well put them to use. I started by priming just the mini and then decided it needed a better base. So I jacked a 40k base from my box oh parts, glued and then green stuffed to make everything level.

Primed, based and greenstuffed.

Before painting I went back and primed over the base and green (not pictured)

My workstation/coffee table post painting

Mirado (front)

Mirado (back)

Mirado (close)

There is still a lot of room for improvement on this mini and my painting skills in general. I was on a self imposed deadline of four days, so I could have Mirado ready for tonight's D&D game. The face is a little lifeless and the cloak needs more highlights. The flocking on the base is a crushed up rock from my yard and could use a little static grass to really pop. I could go on, trust me. I will most likely go back to this mini and work on the details at a later date.

Resources used:
Reaper Miniatures
Americana Acrylics
Painting Clinic
Mike Kan's Painting Guides

Hunt for the Plants of Dawn

Plants Vs. Zombies
More zombie based media to talk about, this week it's in the form of a video game. PvZ is another Pop Cap developed game in a long line of PoP Cap games that have stolen my heart (see: Peggle, Bejeweled and others). It is simply put another tower defense game, that would be doing it a disservice though. There are additions that take the same formula that worked for Starcraft maps and Desktop Tower Defense and ups the fun.

The players house is under attack by zombies so in order to defend your home you place deadly plants in your yard. The sheer variety of foliage available changes the game play up every two or three levels. The only resource to grow more plants is sunlight, which either falls from the sky or is home grown. The amount of sun generating plants your create versus the space for actual defense makes for a fun balance. The demo alone has at least two hours of game play in it and the game sells for $20, which is a steal by my account.

Hunt for Gollum
I have not discussed it here yet, but my newest hobby is video editing and more specifically video special effects. I'll have a whole post on the topic Thursday, but for now I will talk about a fan film that has inspired me to go even deeper into my new found past time. The Hunt for Gollum is on par with most a B movie in terms of production value and acting. It was done on a budget of $4,500 and with a volunteer cast and crew of 160. The story of the film is inspired by a few pages in the first Lord of the Rings book in which Gandalf tells Frodo the story of the hunt and capture of Gollum (post ring). It takes those few pages and draws them out to follow Aragorn as he hunts down Gollum to bring him in to be interegated. The special effects are a real stand out and really drive home the idea that you are not just watching a fan film. Watch this one for sure, it is free and worth viewing.

Dawn of War 2
My obsession with minis since childhood has been mentioned here before and by extension I became fixated with 4ok back in college. My 40k love has not worked out to date, but I can live vicariously through video games based on the franchise. The same company that created Company of Heroes started their unit based RTS engine with a 40k game called Dawn of War. I didn't have the computer to play the first game when it came out, but I did have an up to date rig when COH hit store shelves and played the pants off of it. So when DoW2 was announced I planned my newest computer upgrade to coincide with it's release.

DoW2 is the next iteration of the game play built by CoH and DoW1. The foundation Relic is building with squad based RTS game play is really fun to play. You actually get invested in the characters they have crafted, which seems to be the holy grail for single player RTS campaigns. Your characters levels, items and personalities are persistent between missions. The mission structure is linear for the main plot, but you can take optional missions and the main story in any order you like. The optional missions are actually fun, doling out defense and attack stages that feel meaningful to the overall campaign. There is no base building to speak of which makes the game almost feel like a group based RPG, which is a nice change.

May on the Side

Spring is in the air and two wheels are on the ground. Mike and I hit up the side, as in Riverside, Saturday morning for some semi early morning pedaling. I have less time for riding now that my heir is in this world, but when I do get to ride it is always a pleasure. We ended up spinning just under 16 miles on a loop that is ideal given Mike's new living quarters just off Riverside. It was fun times followed up by lunch at the food festival with our ladies and Kaden.

Take that law!

My baby, well my other other other baby

Mike rollin'

Group shot!

Mike's diving in to save...

...a bird!

Obligatory Brooks shot

Mother's Day 2009

Sunday was Crystal's first Mother's Day and as such we gathered our respective mothers and went to Lewis Ginter for a picnic. I started off the morning with breakfast in bed for Crystal and then we started getting ready to go to the garden. When we arrived the weather was as nice as it has been all year and it seemed like the whole garden was in bloom. The smooth jazz wasn't really my thing, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it well enough. We packed all kinds of tasty treats, spread a blanket and just chilled at the park for hours.

Crystal and Kaden

Kaden in the shade

Our little family

Three generations

Gabriel, Crystal and Kaden

Wanda, Elizabeth and Kaden

Mom and Dad

Group shots are fun

Resolute Weapons of Battle

Wanted: Weapons of Fate
What started as a comic that I didn't read and was made into a movie that was supposed to be no where near as good as the comic. Has now become a game that was a damn good rental. This game was a lesson in building two or three game mechanics that work really well and then running with them for 5 to 6 hours. The plot would be confusing if you had not seen the film and the voice over work is spot on enough to not get in the way of the action. It all boils down to curving bullets and Max Payne style bullet time mixed with cover mechanics. The cover mechanic feels on par with Gears of War and the addition of melee attacks over thin cover is very satisfying. By the time I got five hours the game began to stale, but thankfully it came to an end shortly after. Like I said killer rental.

G.I. Joe: Resolute
I first heard about Resolute after the live action G.I. Joe trailer was released and I was extremely underwhelmed. Other folks who were similarly distraught by what appeared to be a kick in the teeth to the franchise of our youth, posted Resolute previews in response. Resolute is written by comic author extraordinaire Warren Ellis. It has an anime feel and is mature themed for it's violence, but in general just tells a good story. The series is available on adult swim and all over youtube as well. It would great to see the series picked up as a follow up movie sequel, ongoing TV series or even just released on DVD or BlueRay.

Battle Royale
This film was brought up at our first D&D night, among many other topics, but for some reason it stuck with me. So the following day I found* a copy and watched it. The story is adapted from a popular manga and takes place in an alternative reality Japan. This Japan is a police state whose adults think is being undermined by the next generation of teens. So once a year they hold a lottery to select one 9th grade class to travel to an island and fight each other to the death. The last teen standing is the winner and their reward is there life. The film has big cult classic appeal and the none of the B grade special effects look bad enough to ruin the suspension of disbelief. Definitely worth picking up if your in the mood for some campy film fun.

The Dragon Zombie Casino

Zombies!!!
I have long detested card games, except when they were used in drinking, but even then they seemed unnecessary. By extension I also saved a little loathing for boardgames as well. Monopoly takes too long, Risk is craps for the slight more intelligent, but less funded and Operation is a practice in frustration. As a young man there were a few times in my life that I fell head over heels for a game though. Axis and Allies was and is the bee's knees and gave me a taste for a slightly more complex, albeit geeky board game at a young age. In college I discovered Cheapass Games and their roster of "cheap", but crazy fun board games.

Most recently I found Zombies!!! (the three exclamation points are important) by way of Xbox live. The "Z" is not on xbox live arcade yet, but they are shopping the license around. The second article I read about this prompted me to buy the actual board game. Pre Kaden I got in two games of it and was impressed by the dollars to fun ratio. First, anything that includes zombies is fun and second the game is very well thought out and a depature from most everything you have probably played before.

D&D
I wasn't old enough and was probably too worried about girls and skateboarding anyway to be bitten by the Dungeons and Dragons bug in high or middle school. My nerdiness has grown like the Grinch's heart post college though. I rediscovered comics, started a 40k army and jumped with both feet into a MMO for going on five years. So the idea of going further into the cave to play a pen and paper rpg doesn't seem as daunting as it would have seven or eight years ago. The most simple and interesting way to describe it is interactive group based story telling. The dungeon master (DM) is essentially telling a story to the players, but the players control their actions. It ends up being a give and take improvisation that is rises or falls based on the people playing.

This past Friday and the Friday two weeks prior, I have gotten together with a group of like mined geeks to start a 4th edition campaign. I am playing as a cleric and starting to get addiceted to the game after only two sessions. I picked up a mini and two sets of dice on Thursday and started reading the DM and Monster Manual handbooks this weekend. In theory I would like to start up my own campaign late this summer or early this fall. We shall see.

Casino
I have seen a lot of Scorsese films and enjoyed the vast majority. So when Netflix, after canceling my account, sent me one last DVD I felt an obligation to watch it before sending it back the next day. It some how happened to be Casino at the top of my que, which I probably added two or three years ago and forgot about. In any case, I'm happy to have finally watched it. Pesci, DeNiro and Stone all shine equally bright in their rolls. Some of the narration gets a little old and the audio mix was hit and miss, but that could have been the DVD and not the film itself. Ultimately it can't live up to Raging Bull or Taxi Driver, but that is hard to take as a slight when he has made so many good movies.