Another Good Weekend

Lots of fun again!  Friday night the kids and I played Space Hulk.  I love that game but missed out on it.  I won't pay the inflated out of print costs, but I recently scored a new copy and was able to grab it for less than the original price.  I'm painting all the minis and will post them soon.  Then on Saturday, we had several guys show up for some nice gaming.  The kids played Space Hulk, and the rest of us played Napoleonic Miniatures or Combat Commander.  Than, as if this wasn't enough, I played again Saturday night with Kelley who wasn't able to make it during the day.  Dang life is good.  Here are a few pics of some of the scenery and minis that were on the table.  Some pretty stuff here.

You Might be Crazy if..

A few months ago someone posted some shots of their work space which was really quite tidy.  This sparked a discussion of how it might be cool for everyone to post their work locations for fun.  I think Vampifan mentioned that he thought it would be fun to see what kind of deranged minds are out there.  Soooo, I was sitting at my table last night and thought I would take some snaps of my little corner of bliss.  I took these just as it was at the moment.

 An aerial view of the cockpit.  Right away an observant individual will perceive that I have a serious problem focusing on any one thing.

 Here is where I keep raw materials and tools.  The cabinets are full of all kinds of stuff.

 I stuff any available space with ongoing projects where I can keep an eye on it and jump on it when it strikes my fancy.  I keep my guitar close so that when I need a break I can stretch out the old fingers.

 A closer look at the table will review that there is always a lot going on.  Let's see here.. I can spot Vikings, a Viking long boat, Cowboys, Napoleonics, Space Marines, Little Fluffy Animals for my daughter..

 Paints, brushes, basing supplies, glues just sort of stack up over night.

This might look disorganized and a bit overwhelming to a novice, but trust me, there is a method to my madness!  I like fun.  In order to have fun, I like to do what I feel like at the moment which means I need to keep lots of different projects in front of me so I don't burn out.  I never get in a rush and focus on one thing because that always feels suspiciously like work.  I don't like work, I have to do enough of that at my job.  If I'm too tired to paint, I usually will still prep or prime something real quick so that it is done later when I'm up to the task.  I've found that if you do just a little something each evening, then things always seem to be coming together.  Anyway, this is my little corner of peace and quiet where no kids, Wives, or other forms of plague and pestilence are allowed.

A Good Saturday

Herrodadog and I decided to try going to a train show to see what kind of goodies we could scav in the way of terrain/accessories.  I figured it would be too expensive for the likes of us, and for the most part I was right.  We did manage to score a couple of decent deals though.  While we were there, we saw some pretty darned amazing displays.  All we could think about is how great it would be to throw down some minis and game some of the track set ups!  Then we got some lunch and went home to play some Incursion on his new board he made from scratch.  All in all, a darned good day.
Gee wiz, what a waste using all this for trains!  Here's some piccies.

 I think this would make a great ganger camp.

 I can just imagine this as a day one scene after the Zed epidemic strikes.

 I wonder what kind of chaos and mayhem could take place in this sleepy little town?

 What better place to hit the foraging jackpot than a rice silo?

 This has skirmishing gun battle written all over it.

 The location of a post Z-day Burger King.

 This table really needs some cool minis.

 Nice strategic point for some military oriented gaming.

 

 I'd like to see some shine running gangsters on this table.

 After lunch I played my first ever game of Incursion as the Nazi Zombie types.  Lots of carnage and lots of fun!

This scratch built terrain that Jil made is incredible.

Victrix vs Perry Mini Review

I've been on a heavy work schedule lately so not too many games.  I have been managing to do some painting however.  I just paint whatever grabs my fancy on a given evening and have recently finished up some Victrix hard plastics that I acquired at Owl Con.  Overall I'm pleased with these guys, with the exception of the white, and the lousy shading job.  I will be going back to retouch that part.
This was my first go with Victrix.  Up till now I have assembled and painted some Gripping Beast, Wargames Factory, and Perry Miniatures hard plastics.  I've also viewed several products without assembling.  Since the Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory minis were Vikings, I will leave them off and just compare to the Perry Dragoons that I posted last month, as well as some line infantry I have viewed on the sprues.  This is just my opinion so far from the items I've had experience with.  As I get more info I will probably post more because I had a devil of a time researching this when deciding what to buy.  So here we go!

Quality of the molded parts:  As soon as I pulled the respective parts from their boxes I immediately noticed that the Perry parts are molded much cleaner.  I actually never even noticed any flash on the Perry parts, but there was a fair bit on the Victrix.  However, only about two or three sprues from Victrix had significant flash, so it was not a chronic issue in the box I had.  This means that I may just have received an abberation and this is not the norm, but I am not sure.  Also, the Perry miniatures seem to be a little bit more robust.  Things like the weapons appear to be stronger.  I am not sure if this is because of the plastic quality or if it is because the Victrix seem to have slightly slimmer accessories.  While painting my Grenadiers I accidentally snapped off a bayonet without applying all that much pressure.  It happened so easily that it really surprised me.  From the products I have purchased so far, Perry wins in molding quality hands down.

Quality of the sculpts:  Now here we have a different situation.  The sculpts from both companies are very nice.  The Victrix are incredibly detailed and may possibly edge out the Perry simply because there is a little more variation and the poses seem slightly more natural.  Both companies have very well proportioned figures and there is nothing I can find to gripe about in either camp.  They both look great and I give them a tie.

Poses and versatility:  This is where Victrix starts to regain some ground against the Perry plastics.  Victrix allows a significantly greater choice of poses and customization than Perry per box.  Right off the bat, the Victrix boxes allow you to make all kinds of troops within the company, and has provisions for a lot of skirmishers.  Since we skirmish game, this is important to us.  There is nothing wrong with the Perry figures, but Victrix just has more options.  I give this category to Victrix.

Scale:  So far, my experience has been that both the Perry and Victrix Napoleonic miniatures are big boys.  They seem to work very well with each other, but I feel that they are both a bit bigger than most other lead miniatures out there.  But this is a very dangerous statement because nobodies figures match!  This is just my experience from my world.  Just a note of interest, both the Perry and Victrix Napoleonics dwarf my Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory Vikings!  So my advice is that if you are going with hard plastics, try to stay with them, or at the very least, get some samples to line up before you paint a lot of miniatures.  Once again, both these brands of Napoleonics look good together.

At the end of the day:  If you are skirmish gaming, then I think that having both of these brands is a good idea, but if I was to choose only one then Victrix is more versatile.  If you are not skirmish gaming then I think I prefer the Perry miniatures slightly more because they seem more durable and I feel that they are a little higher quality.

Angel Barracks Review

While I'm in the mood to review gaming products and vendors, it is high time I did one on some 6mm goodies.  Angel Barracks http://angelbarracks.co.uk/ is another of my favorite internet shops.  The number one reason is the excellent customer service that Mike provides.  Anyone who knows me even a little, knows I won't buy from somebody with lousy service, regardless of how great their products may be.  The second reason is that Angel Barracks has a lot of cool stuff, including lots of interesting nick nacks all in one place, and it is easy to find, view, and shop for.  Oh, and prompt shipping!  No waiting forever to get your toys!
When I'm shopping, I want to see pictures, descriptions, and prices, and all this is easily found on the AB web site.  Angel Barracks has just recently brought in a new line of buildings which is outstanding.  Go have a look! I forgot to break out some stone fencing I obtained from AB, and my Windmill is not finished, but I will be featuring those in upcoming games.  I'll try to remember to point them out then.  Some of these items have already been featured in some of our games, but many of this is new.  I did not spend a whole lot of time painting these pieces, but I think it will give you a good idea of how it will look on your table without a lot of effort.

 The Spanish buildings are by Simply 6.  They are easy to paint and brush up quite well.

 I love the huge variety of accessories available.  It sure makes the scenery more interesting.  Here are some Irregular Miniatures sheep grazing away while a cart slowly trundles its way to market in the background.

 In the town center, instead of the typical ghost town found on most tables, we can see lots of civilians milling about and stopping to see what important person has arrived in the posh coach.

 In the background is some cast fencing and cattle by Irregular, and in the foreground we have the pig pens.  Looks like this little village would be a great place for some foraging.

 The hay field has stacks from both AB and Irregular.  The Irregulars are the smaller, multi-sized stacks.  The little hay carts are Irregular as well. 

 Here is a shot of an engineering camp close to a river.  These are nice useful tents by AB that can be used for a lot of periods.

 The HQ stand and the gabions are by Irregular.

 Most of this stuff is quick and easy to paint, yet adds a lot of extra detail to the table.

 The pontoon section is by Irregular.  I love this puppy!  Now it will be a lot harder for the enemy to guess where we will be making our crossing.

A New Home for the Parrot Tribe

We had a nice lazy day loafing around the house today and the kids wanted to play Adventures in Lost Lands.  It has been a while since we checked in with the Parrot Tribe so we thought we'd see what they were up to these days.  This is the next chapter in their saga which started out with their acquisition of a mysterious egg.  If your new, go back and read it from the beginning.  I read them today to catch up with the story and I thought the first couple were pretty amusing if I don't say so myself.  This nutty saga took some even stranger turns today.  The game today started with three random events in a row!  I've had people ask me if I just make all this junk up.  All story line events in our games are generated by random dice rolls.  I don't think anyone could make up idiocy like this on their own.  The dice Gods tell the tale if you let them.