Random Thoughts & Senseless Pastimes

Starship Stand Covers

2012-02-10T14:06:00.014-05:00

Here's a little project I just finished: covers for stands of starship minis. We play a lot of Colonial Battlefleet by Steel Dreadnought. (We just finished play testing the soon to be released Empire Space expansion rules). It's a great generic set of rules for starship combat. The Man VS Machine is an excellent expansion set that allows you to fight in the Battlestar Galactica universe.

I've been slowly building up my Colonial fleet. It is a mix of Hanger 18 FASA and Ravenstar Studios minis. I like using VBAM Games bases, not only because they come in different heights; but they are cheap. They are topped with Ninja Magic's magnetic adapters. It makes for a great system except for one problem - it doesn't look good.

So I've made a cover for the bases that slips over the magnetic adapter and allows me to show the ships name and information, plus it makes for a better look. They are simple to make: print on 110lb. card stock, and use some basic paper modeling skills. You can download the file at Dasspielunker.com; just look in the Game Files section. They are a jpeg file so you should be able to add names and information easily.

I use a board with 2" hexes so these will be large, but they will also work for hexless boards.

Hope you like them.

Pulp Era Gun Deck

2011-12-29T10:37:00.006-05:00

My Gun Deck for Deadlands worked so well I decided to design one for my pulp games. Using more modern weapons and ammunition required some changes to my design formulas, but they seem to work.

As with the Deadland's deck I needed to add more guns than are listed in the Savage World's rule set. Many of the weapons I chose are from the Indiana Jones and Mummy movies.

The Pulp deck also includes a tuck box pattern to store the cards.

Both decks and the design instructions can be found on the Game Files page of my website: http://dasspielunker.com/

Deluxe GM Screen

2011-10-20T08:50:00.009-04:00

Over the years I have had many GM screens. I still have my hardboard 1st edition D & D screen, plus many of the variations that have been released over the years. Plus ones for Star Wars, Kingdoms of Kalamar, Eberon, and many other RPG's. Several years ago I purchased a vinyl one, much like a three-ring binder, that I could customize for my games. That was my favorite since I could pick my artwork and make the tables I wanted.

As a woodworker I knew I could make something better than a generic plastic screen. I've had the basic design for a number of years, but as many of my projects it just sat as a design. I knew what I wanted in a screen: changable panels, storage space, a low profile, and a nice look. The problem I was having with the design was with the storage space since I was envisioning doors. Last fall I saw an episode on Gnome Stew by Patrick Benson that was the answer to the problem - sliding panels!

So here it is: red oak frame for a nice look; leather straps which let me transport it easily; sliding panels for storage space to carry all those gaming neccesities like minies, templates, dice, bennies, action decks; and one of my favorite parts - metal panels. By using sheet metal panels I can easily change the look an information of each panel to fit the game. I print the panels on magnetic sheeting made for running through my printer. I have art and information for Deadlands, Rippers, fantasy and pulp for my Savage Worlds games.
I think it turned out well.

Gatling Pistol

2011-10-19T17:31:00.007-04:00

Over the past few months I've been working on a little project - a Gatling pistol. My daughter has enjoyed steam punk for a number of years now; over 10 I believe. In fact this past May we attended the World of Steam Expo up in Michigan. Over the years I have made her several additions to her costume: a holster for her pistol, glowing test tubes, and a book purse. Since I play Deadlands and sell my AmmoCounters I thought it would be nice to make a Gatling pistol for myself. So here it is.

I began with the grip. It was modeled on a Remington 1875 Army pistol that I had the design schematics to. By using the dimensions for an actual gun I think it has a more realistic feel. The Gatling portion is based on art from the Savage World's core rulebook and Deadlands.

Since I'm a woodworker and not a metalworker the gun is made primarily from hardwoods. The barrels are brass tubing, along with brass screws and a piece of brass sheeting.

The holster took a bit of work since I wanted it open to view the gun.

Here are the results.

Gun Deck

2011-09-01T17:19:00.007-04:00

A few months ago, while reading my current issue of Knights of the Dinner Table a came across an accessory for Aces & Eights - a deck of cards with various guns and there game stats. Now I'm not an Aces & Eights player, but I am a Savage Worlds: Deadlands one. So I thought that a Gun Deck for Savage Worlds would be pretty useful. Just like the one for Ace & Eights it could be used to generate random weapons at the general store, for NPC's, and handle the statistics for when a player takes a gun from someone else and doesn't have time to look up the stats (my players keep their record sheets up-to-date so they would never need to use these for regular play - yeah, right.)

Plus, over the years I've developed a formula that allows me to generate the game stats for most guns that my players might wish to use. It produces results that are pretty close to those found in Savage Worlds; not 100%, but close enough that it works.

The files for the cards, tuck box, instructions, and formulas can be found at http://www.dasspielunker.com/ on the Game Files page.

Enjoy.

Zeppelin For Sale!

2011-03-30T13:41:00.005-04:00

Have you ever wanted your own zeppelin? Well, now is your chance. I need to make room in my game room so a few things will need to go to some new homes. One of these items is my zeppelin, the Empire Star. While looking over my game collection I realized the she hasn't been off the shelf in almost two years - a sad fate for the old girl. She was designed for my Crimson Eagles game, but would work well for a number of minature air combat games. If you look back in this blog you can see more pictures of her; in game and under construction.

As you can see, one of the neat things about this model is that it can be made to show damage.

Be aware, she is a handcrafted mini; made of stryafoam, cardstock, tape and bits. She isn't a professionally made model.

Included are all the parts, damage and undamage, the stand and the hanger plane.

The difficult part will be in getting it to a buyer. the Zep really can't be shipped. I have a box for her that lets me take it to conventions, but she would never travel by mail. So if you want her you will need to come to Ohio and get her, or possibly I could bring her down to Origins if the buyer was coming there and wanted to wait until the end of June.

I am asking $100 as a starting price, so contact me if you are interested and make an offer.

New Star Fleet Battle Manual Energy Board: Dreadnought

2011-01-14T11:13:00.005-05:00

I have posted another of the deluxe Energy Boards for Lou Zocchi's Star Fleet Battle Manual. This time it's the Dreadnought. I've also updated the ship dials to include the Dreadnought silhouette. They can be found on the Gaming Files page of my website Dasspielunker.com.

Fight of the Flying Wing

2010-10-06T10:12:00.021-04:00

Ok, so it's been a few months since Origins 2010, and it is only now that I am finally posting more information on my .45 Adventure scenario, Fight of the Flying Wing. I've been busy, but here it is, sort of. I'm terrible about taking pictures when I run a game at a convention. I try to stay focused on running the game. My usual assistants helped set up and pack up, but were off playing games of their own during the game. So what you see here are pictures from one of the games I ran on a typical game night with some set ups to recreate some of the Origin's game. It will give you a feel of the scenario.

This was the second year that I have run an Indiana Jones flavored .45 Adventure's scenario at Origins. It was also the second year that my game was the only .45 Adventure game scheduled for Origins which was too bad. Both times my games have sold out with in a couple of hours of being posted. Both times I have had a good audience to watch, and lots of potential players waiting with their generic tickets in the hopes that a player won't show. I know it's not GenCon, but with around 12,000 attendance it isn't small either, and when you figure that only 1/3 of Origins attendees go to GenCon you are missing a lot of potential customers. Maybe next year. I am planning on taking both of my scenarios to Origins '11 and I have plans for a third - I hope.

So here are some pictures.

The scenario is not a strict recreation of the movie - that would only involve Indy and the Germans. To make it a four player game I added another American and a group of Desert Defenders for a nod to the Mummy.

The Americans where Mick O'Reilly (another nod to the Mummy) and Pennsylvania Smith, both grade 3's. So the Americans were run by two players with a total team strength of six. The Germans were commanded by Maj. Oberst Unter (grade 3) with a commando team of three grade 1's. This was a rouge German team bent on earning points with Hitler by capturing the Ark for themselves, and thus were free to attack any German guards. The Desert Defenders were lead by Hassen Ben Eezy (grade 3) and his team of three grade 1 henchmen. Their job was to protect the hiding place of the Ark and eliminate all witnesses. Add the German mechanic who is simply minding his own business tuning up the flying wing, the pilot, and of course the German sergeant/prize fighter asleep in the tent; these were for my to have some fun with.

Scattered randomly about the field were some extra weapons (grenades, a panzerfaust, etc.), a sink hole (Who thought it was a smart idea to build an airfield on top of some ancient ruins?) asps (Snakes - why'd it have to be snakes?) a short lived dust devil/prop wash, and of course the Ark. Plus a mix of blanks and some other useful items. I don't want to give to much away.

The big attention grabber was the flying wing. Not a great model, I only made it out of a chunk of Styrofoam, some cardboard, a few bit from my bit box, and some wooden wheels. It is roughly to scale with the exception of the wheel - I used ones large enough to move minis under the model without needing to lay them down. The props are held on with magnets so that they can be changed for spinning prop discs when the engines come on. I also made some wheel block that need to be removed and double as weapons. In every game I've run the mechanic always gets pushed back into the prop.

Put in plenty of explosions markers, leaking fuel drums, trucks that no one ever seems able to drive, and a time limit if any large explosions occur (the German base is alerted) and you have a fun game

This year I used the AmmoCounters which added a great visual to the game, plus the fun of having the players ammo run down. They really brought a lot of additional attention to the game. Each gun had it's own type of counter, from Pennsylvania's revolver, to the German Luggers, to the submachine guns. They don't really make .45 Adventures more difficult to run - you just take out bullets as you roll shots. And the sound of all the brass hitting the pile is cool.

So that's it for Origins '10. Those of you that got to play, thanks for a fun game and I hope to see you at Origins '11.

Savage Worlds Character Sheet

2010-08-07T14:35:00.004-04:00

Here is my two page version of a Savage Worlds character sheet. This is the one I use at my table for both local games and when I'm running on at a con; Such as this years Zombies on the Zeppelin which I GMed at Savage Saturday Night at this past Origins.

It can be found on the game files page of DasSpielUnker.com.

Hope you can use it.

New Star Fleet Battle Manual Energy Boards

2010-07-16T11:28:00.004-04:00

It's been busy around here with all the orders for the AmmoCounters, but I have had some time to finish two more boards for Lou Zocchi's Star Fleet Battle Manual: the Federation Destroyer and Scout. You will find them at DasSpielUnker.com on the Game Files section. The ship dials have also been updated to include these ships. You will still need the game rules to use these.

Origins 2010

2010-06-28T10:29:00.022-04:00

Whew! What a week it was at Origins 2010. Now that I'm home and have had time to get somewhat caught up on some sleep I think I might be able to share some of my experiences.

I arrived in Columbus with my friend Brian (a college-age gamer who has been in my group since he was a preteen), Tuesday night. My wife and daughter had come down early to do some shopping for my daughter's college needs. We decided to stay in a hotel on the north side of Columbus for better rates and easier parking.

We arrived at Origins Wednesday mid morning. The registration line was it's usual craziness, but the volunteers were doing there best and all of our paperwork went smoothly. Each of us was in a different line; myself in the GM's, my daughter in the educator's and Brian in the regular preregistration. What seemed to be slowing the lines down was that the badges hadn't been printed out until just before the convention so those of us who arrived on the first day had to wait a little longer while our badges could be found. I did need to go back later to pick up my event tickets since they weren't with my badge and again for my GM vouchers since they weren't ready, but nothing difficult. Most of the attendees in the line were patient, but I did see a few badly behaved and angry ones. We need to remember that most of the people manning the registration line are volunteers and fellow gamers who are giving their time to try to make Origins the best it can be - so try to be kind.

Attendance did seem to be up a little from the last few years. It's always good to see so many friends and acquaintances. Lots of hugs and waves. A really nice surprise was discovering that I had been allotted my own section of the miniature hall for my games. It really made setting up and running the games a lot easier than previous years. Thanks to Steve Smith, the miniatures director for that.

The first game I ran was a qualifier in the Star Fleet Battle Manual tournament. It was held mid afternoon on Wednesday and had four of the six seats prefilled. The game looked really good all set up and always drew a good crowd - lots of gamers who had played it in their younger days. Later I ran a sold out game of WizWar 3D, which is always a favorite. Then it was back to the room for some sleep.

Thursday began bright and early with a 9AM (who scheduled that?) game of WizWar - again sold out. A good group of players and I know everyone loves to play it, but I'm getting tired of hauling that game around. Then it was time for some shopping in the dealers hall.

I always try to hit the hall on Thursday to avoid the weekend crowds. The economy seems to effecting the size of some company's booths, but exhibiter space was sold out for the first time in many years - smaller booths, but more of them. A lot of first time attendees among the dealers which makes for a great shopping experience. Went to the Pinnacle/Studio 2 booth to grab a copy of the new Deadlands Reloaded Players Handbook and to visit with the Pinnacle staff. And to show off my AmmoCounters; they were met with oh's and ah's and approval. In fact they didn't want to let them go, but since I needed them for some of the games I would run later I took them with me. (I did give Mike some of them before I left on Sunday.) Then it was over to the Kenzerco booth to see if Jolly Blackburn received the AmmoCounters I had sent him. Was I surprised to see that they were Editor Picks for the newest copy of Knights of the Dinner Table (#164). I also had to pick up a copy of the Bag Wars Saga from them. My daughter was also pleased to have Jolly recognizer from her picture that was in the article I wrote for KODT #160. I made a quick stop at GameScience to see my friend Matt Ragsdale's dice tower display - truly a work of gamer art; plus it plays even more songs this year.

I also needed to pick up some Gaming Paper, some grenade markers from Litko, and a copy of Rowboat from Moosetache Games (a nice new company with a fun game) Those were the items on my shopping list, the rest of the time was spent exploring all the booths and helping my daughter find items for her steampunk costume.

After a nice lunch at the North Market it was back for the second Star Fleet Battle Manual qualifier. My daughter and Brian spent a lot of time gaming - Hallow Earth, Savage Worlds, Aces & Eights, Realms of Ctuthulu to name a few.

My wife joined us for a lovely dinner at Max & Ermas across the street from the convention center. A great place to eat and see friends.

Friday morning was the last of the Star Fleet Battle Manual qualifiers, and then a game of my Crimson Eagles. The turn out for Crimson Eagles was up to six this year, so it is slowly growing. A good game with some really good players (in fact all the players in my games; mine and the one's I played in were good); it's a fast game so we just gave them a new plane every time some one got shot down. After a quick supper, we all played in a pulp RPG. It was a Hero System game (which none of us had played before, and have decided that none of us like), set in 1935 with rockets, Nazis, aliens, - you get the picture. A good group a players and a fun game even with a rule system we didn't enjoy.

Saturday was the busy one. The Star Fleet Battle Manual tournament final was at 10AM so once again we got there early to set up. It was over at 10:05AM. The players decided to use Klingon cruisers, and on the second round (the first they were allowed to fire), the winner fired a barrage that went through the shields and then rolled the only number that would destroy the other ship's life support. Lucky shot sir! At least it gave me time to do some more shopping - a copy of Pandemic, Say Anything, and Out of the Boxes 7 Ate 9 for a young friend who is having trouble with her math.

Our seminar Learning With Games was scheduled for after lunch so we tracked down the PowerPoint projector (Yeah! they had one for us this year), and set up in the teacher's track room. A really good turn out this year, 35, which was over the limit of tickets, but OK. I think this will be the last year I present this lecture; it is really designed for the teacher who are new to gaming, but most of the attendees are old hands at it so I don't think I'm reaching the audience I need to. Also it was difficult because another lecture was scheduled for the room right after ours and it would have been nice for some time of questions and answers.

Next it was time to run the .45 Adventure, Fight of the Flying Wing. It really looked good set up and lots of people stopped by to see it. The event was sold out (with in a few hours of it going on sale last month), and it was the only .45 event scheduled for the con - I think Rattrap Productions might want to consider having a presence at Origins since this is the second year in a row that my games have sold out. The game went in a totally different direction then any of the play testing sessions went, but the players had a good time, which is all that matters. I used the AmmoCounter which added an extra element, both visual and play-wise, to the game.

After a quick dinner, we headed over to Pinnacles Savage Saturday. This was the first time we had ever gone and we all had a great time. My daughter played in a Deadland's Showdown game and then a fantasy adventure. Brian was in a modern horror and then a fantasy one. I decided to GM a pulp adventure. In the more than 30 years that I have been GMing this is the first time that I have run a game at a convention so I was a little nervous. It went great. A really good group of players. My scenario involved sky pirates, Nazi's, and zombies on a zeppelin so how could I go wrong? The AmmoCounters were a big hit - especially with all that brass hiting the table in the zombie battles.

Sunday was pack up time; worship at our Columbus church with other gamers, GAMA staff, and fellow gamers; then back over to Origins to say good bye to friends and drop off some AmmoCounters at the Pinnacle Booth.

So there it is. Another great year. Now to start planning my events for Origins 2011.

AmmoCounters & Das Spiel Unker

2010-06-02T15:51:00.008-04:00

So what have I been doing lately? Everything but posting on this blog. A lot of time has been spent getting my games ready for Origins. I could have played them months ago, but it's the little things that make the games so much better, but also take all the time.

For instance - the minis for the Star Fleet Battle Manual tournament needed new decals; some of the planes for Crimson Eagles need repairs; a decides to use a few different minis for the .45 Adventure so those needed painted; and I haven't even started updating the seminar on Learning With Games.

The biggest use of my time has been spent getting my company, Das Spiel Unker, up and running. That has entailed a new website, advertising, and of course designing, making, and stockpiling the products: AmmoCounters. I have been making these for years for my gaming group (helps to be a woodworker with a full shop), and have often thought about offering these for sale. So now I am.

These are used for keeping track of ammuntion in RPG's and miniature games that use fire arms. They are much more fun than simply marking off boxes on your character sheets. My group uses them for Savage Worlds (pulp and Rippers), .45 Adventures, and d20 Modern. They work well for Westerns, pulp, steampunk, and war games.

I make AmmoCounters for clips, shotguns, revolvers, the LaMatt, and my favorite - the Tommy Gun. They are all made of hardwood so they will last for years.

I think you will like them, so please check them out. At www.dasspielunker.com.

The site also has my Crimson Eagles rules and my energy/damage allocation boards for Star Fleet Battle Manual on the Game Files page.

Dateline Egypt 1936: This years Origins' .45 Adventure

2010-05-06T15:57:00.001-04:00

Here's a teaser for my .45 Adventure scenario that I am running at Origins this year. The title is Flight of the Flying Wing and it will be run in the miniature hall on Saturday, June 26th at 4:00 P.M.. For those of you who would like to sign up when the the events finally become available it is #1238.

Not as elaborate as last years Temple of the Warriors, but it should be fun.

Once again this will be the only .45 Adventure event at Origins which is a disappointment, but I still think it is a great game system. So stop by and check it out.

1st Intergalactic Star Fleet Battle Manual Tournament

2010-03-20T16:41:00.013-04:00

In 1977 a group of us traveled to Cleveland (our parents actually drove us since none us could drive yet), for our first Star Trek convention. It opened up a whole new world for us - young teens from the country who had watched the reruns enough times to quote whole episodes from memory, collected the novelizations, built the models and even managed to buy a few Starlog magazine from our local newsstand in the pharmacy when we could get to town. But here we met the stars (Doohan, Takei, and Koenig), saw people in costumes, and entered our first dealers hall. While there I bought a slim, ziplock bagged game with a picture of a Federation dreadnaught on the cover.

I remember reading the instructions on the way home by the light of the streetlights until we left the city. Here was my first starship combat game, but certainly not my last. Those first few battles where played with just the cardboard cards until I could save up enough money to send away for the plastic ships. Battles were waged all over the house since the game doesn't need a board. Furniture was asteroids and stairs made for interesting movements. It was also my first try at home rules with homemade ship designs.

The game was a favorite with my friends and I, and then with my younger brothers. I even played it in college - nothing like a bunch of astrophysics majors to be Star Trek fans. I fact I never stopped playing it. Fast forward to 1997. The game has gotten a little dog-eared (I had picked up a second addition a one point), and I was now playing it with the next generation. I decided to write a letter to Lou Zocchi (the designer) on the off chance he was still at the address listed in the game. That was the beginning of my friendship with Lou. He asked me to run Star Fleet Battle Manual at Origins that year and I have almost every year since. I've played it on tables, on the floor, in the open gaming area. I even have the approved starbase design with 12-foot diameter field of fire with the super phasers - always a crowd pleaser.

This year I've decided to run a tournament for all those long time fans (and maybe some new ones). When I was talking to Lou last week about it he said that as far as he knows there has never been a Star Flee Battle Manual tournament (at least not an official one). Those this will be the First Intergalactic Star Fleet Battle Manual Tournament; open to all intelligent beings and races, though I do feel it will be heavy on the human side.

To add some newness and color to the game I've made some energy and damage allocation boards, rather than just the old record sheets. I think that they have turned out rather nicely. Colored cribbage pegs serve as energy and damage indicators. You simply plug them in.

So if you will be at Origins this year and are a fan (or want to learn) stop by. The events should be going up soon at the Origins site. The game will be run Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the final battle on Saturday.

Prep for Origins 2010

2010-02-22T18:24:00.021-05:00

I just submitted my events for Origins 2010. I've been a bit concerned about Origins this year since their website has been undergoing redesign since November with no end in site. I just hope the wait doesn't hurt attendance too much. Origins is a great convention, especially for game playing. It is a bit sad to see the constant fight between so many GenCon VS Origins attendees. These are both great conventions, each with it's own flavor. As gamers we need to support them both, not bad mouth one or the other, since they both help keep our hobby alive. The more game conventions the better. But enough preaching.

Once again I will be taking my 3D WizWar. I'm planning on running it twice this year instead of just once. It's always popular and the board just attracts an audience. A few repairs on the traveling damage from last year and it's ready to go.

Crimson Eagles will be back again, though this time I'm going to try a Friday time slot to see if attendance is better. It's also ready to go.

I've decided to run Star Fleet Battle Manual after a break of many years. I used to demo this for Lou Zocchi and his Gamescience company. Even though this is a 30 year old game there are still old gamers out there who have fond memories of it and love to playing it. For those of you who don't know what Star Fleet Battle Manual is, it is the original Star Trek miniature game. Many gamers confuse it with the far more popular Star Fleet Battles. The Star Fleet Battle Manual is played without a board using a ruler to move the ships. Combat is done by figuring the angle and distance to the target by the eyeball method and then stretching out a string to see if you hit the target. While the game is simple compared to most other starship combat games it has a clean elegance that has much more of the Star Trek feel than the other games - no attack shuttles, missiles, fighters, and weapons systems galore. Just phasers, photon torpedoes, disruptors and plasma bolts. The game truly captures the feel of the original series combat.

I'm updating Lou's original design with a combat board system rather than the old paper records. Not only will this be more colorful (always a crowd pleaser at a gaming con), but will make record keeping quicker and teaching the game to newbies should be easier. There will still be a need for record keeping for navigation, but I am updating the record sheets for that part too. There have been a lot of changes in gaming since 1973, especially in the area of home computers and self-publishing which were not available to Lou (plus he hates to use computers). The Star Fleet Battle Manual was done on a typewriter with hand drawn graphics.

I am also running it as a tournament. According to Lou there has never been a Star Fleet Battle Manual tournament (at least not an official one, or one that he knows of.) So this will be the first, official Intergalactic Star Fleet Battle Manual Tournament.

Once again my family will be presenting our seminar on using games in education. This has been very popular the last two years, but I have had requests to move it to an afternoon slot. So we will see how that works for it.

Since the .45 Adventure based on the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Arks did so well last summer I will be running a sort of sequel - the battle at the flying wing. So my big project over the next few months will be to construct a mini of the German Flying Wing from that scene. I'll keep you up to date on its progress.

Well, that's it for now. I need to work on some minis. Hope to see many of you at Origins this year.

Decontamination of Polyhedral Randomizing Elements

2010-02-11T15:17:00.014-05:00

For Christmas 2008, I received a container of gourmet hot chocolate in my stocking. The hot chocolate was ok, but what really intrigued me was the metal tin it came in. After all, as a gamer and a miniature builder packaging is often the best part of a gift since it can be turned into so many useful items: rocks, crashed spacecraft, ruins, and parts of larger projects. This item was no exception - a roughly 10-inch metal container shaped like a milkcan but bearing a striking resemblance to some of the radioactive storage containers I had used in college nuclear physics. Perfect. But what to turn it into?

After some thought I came up with the idea of a dice cleanser. As a long time gamer I have heard more than my share of dice superstitions, both serious and in fun. My players had been complaining for some time that I, as their GM had been cursing their dice. So I decided the time was right to build a dice cleanser.

As a scientist I went about the process in a very scientific way. The thoughts and studies that went into its construction are best found in article, Dice Cleansing 101 in Knights of the Dinner Table which I wrote after I had completed the cleanser.

It actually began very simply. I decided to paint the can as a radioactive container in yellow and red and then place a piece of a summer camp cabin that I had lying about. The story behind this piece of wood goes back to my college days when I spent my summers as a camp counselor. The cabin was where the male summer staff that were not counseling stayed - lifeguards, kitchen staff, maintenance and counselors that weren't with kids. Most of us were gamers and many of us still game together after almost 30 years - a feat in itself. When Cabin #1 was torn down several years ago I was able to save a piece of it, so I thought that it would be appropriate to be in the cleanser.

I also thought that autographs of people who work in the game industry would also be a nice touch. So I wrote a letter to my friend Lou Zocchi asking for his. For those of you who don't know Lou, you might say that he is the father of the modern polyhedral gaming dice. To learn more about Lou and his dice check out his YouTube video. He and I have known each other for years so I should have known that I would get more than his autograph. What I got was a small package with some very odd dice and a letter explaining that these were Magic Bubble Dice. Lou went on to explain how these might be able to suck out the bad luck of a die. Well, these certainly had to go in the can!

From there the whole project just sort of snowballed: the piece of Cabin #1, autographs, Magic Bubble Dice, a dice monitor, and pictures of dice torture to strike fear into poorly rolling dice. And then, of course, I decided to write an article on the theory of dice cleansing and how to make a cleanser.

For those of you who are inspired to make your own cleanser I am posting the pictures of dice torture for you to print out and place in your own cleanser. (These are only staged - no dice were actually harmed in the making of them.)

The Magic Bubble Dice can be obtained from GameScience, though you will need to contact them directly since they don't carry them on their website.

Happy gaming.

Crimson Eagles Zeppelin: Damage

2009-07-25T10:51:00.011-04:00

Now that Origins is finished for the year I have time to post some items that I've been putting off. Several months ago when I talked about my Crimson Eagles zeppelin I mentioned that it wasn't finished. What was left to complete was the damage markers. I mean, what is the fun of having a zeppelin in a game if you can't shoot it up? Sure, you can record the damage on it's record sheet and tell everyone what has happened to it, but isn't it much more exciting visually if you can actually see the holes and explosions?

The way I handled damage was through the use of Papersteel. I cut out pieces of it and glued it to the zeppelin before painting it. All the parts of the zeppelin (gun turrets, control car, fins), have small NdFeB magnets attached. This lets me change the parts out as damaged is taken. The engines have magnets inside them and stick to the metal rods which jut out from the sides of the zeppelin. To show engine smoke and fires I use alligator clips with steel wool attached to the rods, similar to the markers used on the airplanes.

The only type of damage I can't indicate is to the gas cells. I tried to use an overlay on the zep, but it just didn't look right because it never really lined up nicely - it just looks like something was layed on it. Plus many of the attachments get in the way.

I also added some other 3D markers. The flack markers are just styrofoam balls wrapped in steel wool on stands. And the parachutes where made with ping pong balls cut in half, a clear acrylic rod, some black thread, and a N-scale person.

Over all the damage effects look good and add a nice touch to the game.

Origins 2009 Report

2009-07-13T20:36:00.021-04:00

Well it's been a few weeks since Origins ended so I guess I'd better report on my thoughts and experiences before I forget. Over all it was a great time, as usual. In fact I must say it was one of my best Origins yet, and while I don't have the record for attendance by a long shot, this was my 12 year in a row so I am certainly not a newbie.

I've been reading a lot of the reports from other attendees that have already been posted and many of them are filled with the usual complaints of the small attendance, smaller dealer hall, bad food, etc, etc. Yes, attendance was down this year, but over 10,000 does not a small convention make. I'm sure that the economy had something to do with it. But I felt that the gaming energy was up over past years. The people who were there really seemed to be there to play games and have a good time - it seemed like the people who were missing were the fluff gamers; those that come to walk around, hit the dealers hall, maybe play a demo and complain about the convention. There seemed to be more families, women, children, and just a nice cross section of gamers. I took a teenage friend down for one day and he seemed to feel that the girls were cuter this year too. My family and I saw a lot of old friends, made some new ones, and saw a lot of smiles.

The dealers hall was a lot of fun. A number of companies had smaller booths this year (a way to save money), but there where more vendors. And it was nice to see so many little companies. I can find Wizard of the Coast products everywhere as well as Fantasy Flight and the other biggies. It's nice to be able to look at Z-man, Asmodee, Griffon Games, Hero Games, Pinnacle, and Gamescience; as well as Out of the Box, Looney Labs, and Kenzer Co. It was also nice that so many of the companies had new products to show for Origins rather than waiting for GenCon. In fact several of the vendors were apologetic about not have a product available until GenCon - not a case of wanting that to be the premier, but rather production difficulties. It's nice that so many of the companies are realizing that the overlap of convention goers is not that great between Origins and GenCon, and that Origins money is just as good as GenCons. Of course we spent way to much money, as we always do, but we try to support the vendors that come to the show as well as we can - and the teacher's discounts were great this year.

The food was fantastic as aways. Of course we make a point of eating at the North Market during the day (cheaper and actually closer than the food court at the convention center), and Max and Erma's at night.

I only had a chance to play in two games this year. The new Hack Master Basic on Wednesday morning and the Iron GM on Saturday night. Hack Master wasn't as good as I was hoping. Part of the problem was that it was the first event slot for it of the con, and the GM wasn't really ready. Another problem with it was that they wanted everyone to try out the new character creation rules, so instead of having pre-gen character we all spent half of the event rolling up characters without rulebooks and with GM's who didn't really know the new rule system yet. The Iron GM tournament was run by Amorphous Blob and used the Savage World system two of my favorite game combinations. The concept was based on the Iron Chef with the GM's creating the adventure from ingredients pulled from fortune cookies; everyone also wore chef's hats. If you enjoy role playing and have the chance you should play and Amorphous Blob game - they are lots of fun. This was the first time my 17 year old daughter has wanted to play a late night game. She is usually a day person, but since she had to work most of week and missed so much of Origins she decided to stay up and play. It was also the first time she's done lots of caffeine - mocha espresso and chocolate covered espresso beans; an interesting combination. The only disappointment were our fellow players. Three of the players would probably have been pretty good, but they had been playing too much and were showing the effects of four days of convention. The fourth player was the real problem of the game. A new member of the Amorphous Blob team, he was not GMing that night so he could play. A big mistake. I have a lot of respect for Amorphous Blob, but they need to rethink their choice of there newest member. I have played and GMed RPG's for over 30 years and my daughter has played them most of her life. We always try to work with the group, but this is the first time I have ever tried to kill off a fellow player, and not just once but several times. My daughter too. Unfortunately, we kept failing, including critical fumbles. But overall it was a fun game.

The events I ran went very well. It was a nice surprise to look in the program book and find that three of my four events were featured events. I'm sorry that I could only run each event only once. Many people kept coming up and asking if I would be running them again. That is one of the difficulties of having a very small car and running games that are so large. The only way to run them was to load up a game, come down for the day, and then pack it up and bring the next one down the following day.

WizWar was run on Wednesday and was as crazy as usual. It was won by a 13 year old girl. She reminded me of my own daughter at that age - raised by a gaming dad, with a quick grasp of a game and a sneaky streak. The first player she eliminated was her own father, and then she snuck in a victory before the other two players could even get to her.

Thursday was Crimson Eagles, my 3D version of Crimson Skies. Not as well as attended as I was hoping for - I'll plan to run it on Friday or Saturday next year since those seem to be the big miniature event days. But it was a fun game. I gave the players the choice of playing a classic dog fight or working as a team to shoot down a zeppelin. Of course they opted for going after the Zep. It worked pretty well with the zep shooting down two planes and the rest of the planes shooting up the zep well enough to board it.

On Friday I ran my .45 Adventure, Temple of the Warriors. The scenario was based on the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark - with a few twists of course. A fun report by one of the players can be read here. It was a close run game with an ending that I was not expecting - the idol was lost to the bottom of the river.

Saturday morning my wife, daughter and I presented our seminar on using games in an educational setting. This was the second year that we have done this lecture and it has been popular both times. The only difficulty was the lack of the promised Powerpoint projector, but we managed. The Origins team even made copies of the Powerpoint as handouts for the attendees.

The rest of the con was great. Registration was smooth as usual. I brought both my friend down and my 10 year old nephew (his first time) with day passes. My friend upgrade his to a regular pass later in the day so he could play games. We can't wait till next year.

Temple of the Warriors

2009-05-20T07:02:00.012-04:00

These last few months have been busy ones. I have been working on preparing for Origins 2009. This year I am once again taking my 3D WizWar and presenting a seminar on games in education. Mostly my time has been spent finishing up Crimson Eagles and constructing my .45 Adventure, "Temple of the Warriors."

Temple of the Warriors is a scenerio based on the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Set in the jungles of Peru in the late 1930's, it has kept me busy building jungle terrain and a lost temple. I don't want to give too much away right now, but

here are a few pictures.

Hope to see you at Origins.

Zeppelin Construction: or How I Built the Empire Star

2009-03-24T07:40:00.039-04:00

The past few months have been filled with projects in preparation for Origins 2009. One of this years themed tracks is Pulp, and since Crimson Eagles is certainly a pulp game I definitely felt that I needed to register to run a game. While the basic game is ready to run I thought that to make it even more pulpy I need to finish the zeppelin rules, and of course I would need a zeppelin miniature. Even if I can't get the rules to work, a zeppelin mini on the table will be a great attention getter. So after Christmas I began work on the model.

The first step was to decide the size and general look. In the original Crimson Skies the zeppelins are nine hexes long. When I adapted the rules to Crimson Eagles I made them eight hexes long and changed the hex orientation (I'll cover zep rules later when I'm happy with them.) Since my board hexes are 4" it would need to be about 32" long. The model is actually 37" long - I thought it looked better. That makes it about 1/260 scale based on a zeppelin around the size of the Akron or Macon. The scale of the Crimson Skies planes are around 1/180 (they aren't real consistent), so yes, it is a bit small scale-wise but playability is a bigger factor than realism. The look is inspired by the later zeppelins rather than those of WWI though I did make the center section more cylindrical than curved for ease of construction. There are a number of pictures of zeppelin miniature on the internet, some even show some construction pictures. Those plus my experience with building lots of paper model zeps really helped in the design process.

After I had a design I liked I printed it out full scale and took measurements of the various sectional diameters. Then I cut out circular sections from 1/4" foamboard. For the ends I figured disks at every 1" length to get as good curvature, while I made the center in three sections. Before I began putting the disks together I made a template to mark the disk edges. I decided on a 16 sided shape for the zeppelin a a good compromise between buildability and looks. By marking the edges of the disks I would be able to make sure that the stripes of the outer skin lined up. I built up the ends first by stacking them with pieces of 1/2" foam. The center section was built with three 1/4" dowels around the the center to provide a rigid frame. The center section is also supported by 1" strip of 1/4" foamboard on edge for a strong frame and a base for the skin. When the sections were dry I lined them up on a 3/8" dowel.

The next step was to put the skin on the center section. The skin is made from strips of 110 pound card stock glued to the foamboard. The seams are covered with 3/8" artist masking tape. I left an open section on the bottom for the hanger entrance. Once the skin was finished I epoxy glued brass tubing at both ends to fit the ends of the telescoping stands I use to mount the zeppelin on the

board.

The ends take a little more work, but aren't hard. I began by gluing down strips of card stock, making sure to line them up the the marks I had put on the disks. On the bow end I put half a Styrofoam ball to make a nice rounded end. On the aft I used a Styrofoam cone (though I don't show it in the pictures since the strips didn't go over it.) After the inner strips where dry I put the outer skin on and taped them down.

That finishes the body of the zeppelin. The rest is decorative. Let's start with the engines. In Crimson Skies the zeps are mostly filled with helium like the real U.S. navy ones. So their engines would probably be inside the skin with only the propellers mounted on the outside. Visually a little boring for the game. I therefore decided to go with the German look, which is also how they appear in the game. The real zeppelins of the 30's had four or five engine, but I thought eight looked better and is more in keeping with the game. The look for placement and numbers is up to you. First I built the mounts which was done by inserting brass rods through the skin into the foam disks with epoxy glue. The engines are made from wooden robins eggs (1 3/16"). I sanded flat both ends, drilled a hole in the front end for a radiator, drilled a hole in the aft end for an axle and made a prop disk of overhead transparency. To make the engine mount look better I used a combination of paper and plastic rods built around the brass rod which does the structural support.

The fins are made from layers of cellfoam 88 cut out and shaped by sanding. The hinges and markings where made by gluing paper shapes to them.

The gun turrets are 1" Styrofoam balls. Guns are made of pieces of plastic rod. The windows are made by printing out a design on paper, cutting them out and gluing them to the ball. This will give you a uniform design and something to paint. Be sure to use some form of template for the gun and window placement. The forward and lower turrets are mounted on pieces of Styrofoam cones.

The hanger was simply made by leaving an opening in the skin. I made the recovery hook from pieces of plastic rod. A magnet is glued to the nose of the plane and the tip of the recovery hook.

The control car is just some scrape Styrofoam that has been shaped.

The nose cone is made out of card stock to cover the end where all the tape strips meet.

The entire model is painted with a gray spray paint. The zeppelins of the time were silver, but I find that a silver miniature looks unreal, or as unreal as a fictitious zeppelin can look. The silver paint accents the imperfections.

You can find copies of the insignia by search the Crimson Skies official sites and copying the images.

I made the base from 3/8" plywood painted to match the felt playing surface. The layout was made from the original zeppelin silhouette that I used to figure the miniature. I placed markers for the various target areas such as engines and the control car in their respective hexes as well as the gas cell divisions to make it easier to figure the targeting. The telescoping poles are made from cheap telescoping auto mirrors I purchased at Harbor Freight with the mirrors cut off. The are sturdy enough to support the miniature and show altitude changes.

So that is it for now. I still need to make decals for the windows and put on its name (maybe I'll have a christening ceremony.) There is one last detail to share, but I'm not quite finished with it, so if you are planning to make your own zep you might want to wait a bit until I'm finished.

Crimson Eagles Zeppelin

2009-03-21T11:48:00.006-04:00

I haven't posted in a while. There are some many projects going on as I get ready for this year's Origins. Since one of the this year's themes is Pulp I have been busy working on Crimson Eagles so that I can run a game of it.

We've been playing it as often as we can and tweaking the rules. One thing I really want is to have a zeppelin in play. I mean, to have a pulp game you really need a zeppelin. The conversions from the original Crimson Skies have not been easy since the zeps don't move in that game, and I really want to be able to have them move. But has finally started to come together. I will be posting the zep rules when I am finished with them.

I have also been working on a miniature of the zeppelin for the game. Now I know that every time someone posts a zeppelin mini they get complaints that it isn't to scale. This isn't to scale for the plane miniatures. It is at least half the scale of the planes. I am well aware of how big zeppelins where. My grandfather was on the flying squad at Goodyear in the 20's and 30's. I was given tours of the Goodyear air dock as a kid, and I even have pieces of the Akron and the Macon. Plus one of my riding toys as a small child was a metal zeppelin that my father rode as a boy. I know about zeppelins.

So here are a few pictures. I post better ones and construction details later.

It is a passenger zeppelin so it doesn't have main guns. There are four anti-aircraft turrets. It is also equipped with a hanger (it you look closely you can see the plane getting ready to launch.

Crimson Eagles - Rule Book

2008-10-16T14:34:00.009-04:00

Well, I have finally finished the first complete version of the rules to Crimson Eagles. There is still plenty of tweaking to do on it, but those of you that are interested can play it with the rules as they are. Hopefully over the course of the next few months I will be able to clean up grammar and layout to make it clearer. My next goal is to finish the core aircraft sheets as well as some quick rules/table charts. You can find the rules on the Gaming Files page at Dasspielunker.com

Another project has also been added to my time. I have selected to playtest War Rockets by Hydra Miniatures. I just started looking at the rules and they look like a lot of fun. It is going to be a enjoyable project.

Crimson Eagles - Markers

2008-10-10T09:15:00.012-04:00

I've been working on putting the rules for Crimson Eagles into a form that I can share. It is going well, considering that I have notes scattered on bits of of paper and stuffed in a binder. They make sense to me, and we've been using them to play the game with - but as far as sharing them with the rest of the world, well that's a different story. I expect to be able to post them in a week or so.

What I do have to share this week is the Damage Markers and some of the board markers. There are 72 Damage Markers for both the red and the blue. I've printed them out on sticker paper and then mounted them on 25mm miniature bases. I use the econo bases from Gale Force Nine. They are inexpensive, and they have a nice feel for drawing - unlike a simple cardboard chit.

The Flak, Flare, and Sonic markers I also print out on sticker paper and then mount on 3.75 hexes. My hexes are made of 1/4" plywood that I make myself (an advantage of having a full woodshop) and paint blue to match the felt playmat. The plane markers are done the same way. They are used when we have multiple planes in a hex.

The board that we use is an old felt sky playmat from Geohex. It didn't have hexes on it so I made a template and airbrushed the hexes. The hexes are 4".

These pdf files can be found on the Gaming files page of my website: www.dasspielunker.com

Crimson Eagles - Aircraft Construction

2008-10-03T18:48:00.012-04:00

I have finally reached the point where the aircraft construction system seems to be working. You can find them at: http://www.dasspielunker.com/ in the Gaming Files section.

Hopefully this will work.

I also have the pdf for the Master Manuevering Chart and the Master Plane Form available there.

Crimson Eagles - Aircraft Design

2008-09-25T05:31:00.013-04:00

After I worked out how the maneuvering chart should be I next began to convert the planes to this system. There are two areas of conversion; maneuvering and structure.

In Crimson Skies, aircraft can attempt any maneuver: it just gets more difficult the harder that you redline the engine (trying for more speed), or pull G's (harder maneuvers). The Canvas Eagle system allows a plane to perform all of the maneuvers possible for it's design. I wanted something in between: the speed of having predetermined maneuvers, but some way to push the edge of the aircraft. I decided to take a plane's max speed and G's and use those for the base. If the aircraft's speed and G's were greater or equal to the maneuver's speed and G's then it was allowed. For instance, a Warhawk has a max speed of 2 and a max G's of 3. It can handle all maneuvers with a speed 2 or less and G's of 3 or less. To add the feel of pushing the limits of the aircraft, but at the same time keeping the game from becoming one of endless die rolls as players attempt any maneuver, I allow a plane to try moves that are just above their design limits. I figure this by finding a plane's maneuver limits - max speed plus max G's. It is allowed to try any move that has the same total or less; but if the maneuver's speed exceeds the aircraft's it is a redlining move, and if it has a greater G then it is pushing the G's.

So for the Warhawk. It's maneuvering total is 5 = speed 2 plus G's 3. It is allowed to try any maneuver with the same total. Maneuver 3SF has a 5 = speed 3 and G's 2. But since the speed is greater it is a redlining maneuver so it is a possible failure.

Redlining moves are those that exceed a plane's max speed by 1, and Pushing G's are those that exceed the G limit by 1 - as long as the total is less than or equal to the plane's total.

Acceleration and deceleration are from the Crimson Skies statistics. Diving and climbing limits are based on a formula derived from the size of the plane, it speed, acceleration and G's.

After setting the plane's movement characteristics I began working on its structure. In Crimson Skies all the aircraft have the same damage chart with the exception of the armor. Canvas Eagles is based on historical data of the aircraft. Since Crimson Skies is based on sizes which have no comparison to reality I needed to develop a system from scratch again. After much trial and error I have come up with a base score that reflect somewhat on the different sizes. I take the number of units and divide by the speed plus G's to determine a unit for the fuselage and wings. For instance a Brigand has a Base Target Number of 6 which is equal to 38 in my system. It has a speed of 3 and G's of 2 for a total of 5. 38 divided by 5 is 7 with a remainder of 3. So the starting score of 7 X 3 for the fuselage and 7 X 2 for the wings with the left over points place where it seems to work. The engine and tail numbers are determined by the engine mass and acceleration or the number of engines and general look of the plane.The armor is then added all sections: engine and tail use the number of armor points from Crimson Skies divided by 10. The wings and fuselage receive the remaining armor divided by 10 and shared equally.

Crimson Eagles - Maneuvering Chart

2008-09-17T18:18:00.004-04:00

When I began this project the first step was to work out the maneuvering chart. Canvas Eagles has good, comprehensive system for movement. The problem lies in fitting the plane’s characteristics to it. There is no formula for matching a plane to the maneuvering chart; it is based on personal interpretations of how a plane historically behaved – was it good in turns, how did it climb and dive compared to other planes of the time. The problem with planes from Crimson Skies is that they are not real world aircraft and so have nothing to compare them too.

So I started by gathering data from the design book from the original game and also the construction process in the video game. After much trial and error I was able to create an algorithm that produced results matching those of the PC game. (I knew an astrophysics degree was good for something.) Now I have a number that lets me compare the various aircraft of the Crimson Skies world as to how well they perform against each other based on their Base-Target-Number (BTN), speed, acceleration, and G’s. Of course, the number is only a relative scale to compare a Crimson Skies plane to another Crimson Skies plane – poor to excellent. Next I began trying to match these characteristics to real world planes from WWII and their maneuvering charts from Canvas Eagles. The difficulty again was the fact that Crimson Skies planes aren’t real – they don’t have the little quirks of real planes. A BTN 6 plane with a max speed of 3 and G’s of 2 is just like all the other planes with the same characteristics. So comparing them to real aircraft does not work well, nor does it keep the pulpish feel of Crimson Skies. Back to the drawing board, though the algorithm is useful in classifying stability.

What I did next was to convert the Crimson Skies’ maneuvering chart to a Canvas Eagles’ type chart. With a few minor changes to bring in maneuvers that aren’t in one system but are in the other, or make some moves more difficult or easier depending what seems to fit best, I now have chart that appears to work. Restricted moves are now ones that are three G’s or greater from the Crimson Skies’ chart, with a few exceptions.

So here is the basic maneuvering chart.

Crimson Eagles

2008-09-13T14:05:00.013-04:00

Yes, it has been a while since I last posted. Origins was excellent this year. Lots of friends, lots of games, lots of fun. WizWar went well - I plan to bring it to Origins again next year.

So what have I been doing over the summer? Splitting and stacking wood for winter (we heat by wood and I do it all by hand), canning (a great year for tomatoes and fruit) and homeschooling my daughter (we do lessons all year round). But I've also been working on my next gaming project - Crimson Eagles.

Crimson Eagle is a combination of the old FASA Crimson Skies and the WWI dogfighting game, Canvas Eagles. It's a project I've been working on off and on for the last couple of years, but have finally decided to get serious about it and try to have it done for Origins 2009.

I've had the original Crimson Skies boardgame since it first was released back in the late 90's as well as the PC version and the Wizkid's click version. My favorite has always been the original, though. After discovering Canvas Eagles at Origins several years ago I began wondering if I could combine the two game systems - take the fictitious 2-dimensional boardgame and make it work with a 3-dimensional miniature game based on actual aircraft.

It has not been as easy as it might seem. The Crimson Skies aircraft are closer to WWII planes than WWI. So my first approach was to see it I could make us of some of the WWII versions of Canvas Eagles. Knights Cross has been helpful. I spent a lot of time making mathematical algorithms to try an reconcile the two systems. Luckily there is plenty of statistics on the Crimson Skies' planes in the books and on the PC game's designs system. Ultimately, that proved to be a dead end. The physics of real aircraft is nothing like the made-up world of Crimson Skies, and what I really want is the pulp feel of that fictitious world. So back to the drawing board.

I want to keep the core system based on the Canvas Eagles/ Blue Max game for a number of reasons. First, why reinvent the wheel. Canvas is a well thought out system with years of testing behind it. Second, because Canvas Eagles is free to download it is easy for players to get. So I plan to stay with the basic game and make the changes necessary to bring it into the Crimson Skies' world.

Right now I have it to a point that it is playable. Over the next few months I hope to post the development of the game and a final set of rules.

3D Wiz War: Part 11 - Markers & Extras

2008-06-12T06:40:00.020-04:00

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. It has been a busy couple of weeks. Weddings and graduations to attend. Gardening and projects around the house. And most importantly, I have been concentrating on finishing my seminar for Origins: Homeschooling With Games. Which will be presented on Saturday, June 28.

Excuses aside, here is the final installment on my Wiz War series. This one deals with all the little details that finish it, mostly board markers and accessories.

The markers include warps, destroyed walls and lock indicators. The warps are for the exits. I used flat glass nuggets with the letters glued to the underside. Remove lock, jam lock, permawarps and bobby traps are stickers on extra mini bases. The bobby traps have whether its a fack or a bomb on the back. The destroyed markers are custom made acrylic from Litko. Since the wall sections on the game boards cannot be removed to show damage, I place the markers on the wall to indicate they are destroyed. I use glass nuggets of different colors for wizard life counters, monster life counters, and duration/turn counters.

I use alternate cards from Boardgamegeek.com. I like the colors better than my original set and the fact that they are printed vertically rather than horizontally. I place them in card sleeves. I built a card tower to hold them for transport and storage. It then opens up into two parts for a draw and discard pile. I also made five card holders for the table - one for each wizard and one for Book of Infinite Spells artifact. They also serve as color indicators so you can remember which wizard your opponents are.

Since I built this game with the idea that I would be taking it to conventions, I knew that I would probably be playing it with new players who don't know the rules. So I made play mats with the important rules and terms on them. I customized each one with a picture of the actual wizard mini. They also have places to put the items that you may be holding. I laminated them to make them durable.

I made a binder with all the rules and rule commentaries that I could find. Very helpful with a game as chaotic as Wiz War.

Finally I made a storage/transport case. I made it out of MDF, which makes for a heavy unit, but durable and easy to finish. The bottom section has four slots to hold the board sections. They are lined with 1" foam rubber to protect the boards. The top compartment hold the figures in Sabol foam trays, with room for everything else. I painted it with black latex and then decorated it with sponge prints to look like a tower. I think the results are pretty good.

So that is it. I had a lot of fun with this project and I am very happy with how the whole thing turned out. It probably isn't all the way finished - I might add two more board sections to make it a six player game, and there are more cards out there from the gaming community that I would like to add. Which means more stones, sticks, monsters, and effect to visualize. I keep you posted.

I hope to see some of you at Origins this year. There are still a few slots open for the Friday event (#3701) at 10AM.

3D Wiz War: Part 10 - Wizards

2008-05-25T07:00:00.008-04:00

Well, you can't play Wiz War with out some wizards. I chose to use Mega Miniatures for two reasons. The first was that I wanted an older look to the figures. Many of the Mega minis are from older molds - 80's and 90's. There is a certain look that I thought matched the game better. The second reason was that at $1.00 a figure you can't beat the price.

The chests are plaster castings from the Cavern Floor Accessory mold (#282) by Hirst Arts. Its the same mold that I used to make the doors from.

I painted the figures in basic color schemes of red, blue, yellow and green as you would have in most board games. The bases are done in green stuff and textured to match the floor squares.

I painted two female figures to give female gamers a choice of minis. I really didn't need to do that, but being a father of a teenage female gamer I thought it was only fair. I let her pick the minis.

3D Wiz War: Part 9 - Enchantments

2008-05-22T10:05:00.003-04:00

There are a number of enchantments in Wiz War. The ones that I choose to model are either those that seem to get used more often, tend to last longer in play, or were easy to model.

The Ghost Form, Vampire Form and Werewolf Form are all D&D miniatures. No sense in spending time and money (I already had these) on figures that may or may not be used. And they don't look bad.

The Glue marker I used the same method that Hirst Arts did. I placed it on clear acrylic.

The Flame On marker is made of Sculpey clay. It is designed so that a wizard figure fits in it.

The Animate Object is also made of Sculpey clay. As I said before, I've never sculpted before this project so its a little crude. I glued a square of clear acrylic to the top so that I can place different items on top to make them look animated.

3D Wiz War: Part 8 - Items

2008-05-19T16:40:00.003-04:00

The items were an easy group to make. The Wizard Blade, Dagger and Crossbow are all Reaper miniatures from their weapon collection. The large rock is just a pebble from my driveway painted and based. The Master Key is made of green stuff. For the Handful of Tacks I painted the ends of toothpicks and glued them to a clear acrylic base. The Teleportation Beacon is a tower made of green stuff. I made the top a separate piece. Both the tower and the top have micro magnets in them so that I can have the beacon be either on or off by removing the red ball.

On a more detailed note. Many of the miniatures I used are mounted on bases that have a lot of base showing; the weapons for instance. To make them match the board better I made an impression of the floor tiles with Sculpey clay. After baking the clay I used these impressions to press the green stuff covered bases into a replica of the floor tiles. So I now have bases that match the floor. Since I use so many bases for my miniatures I purchase them by the pint container from Gale Force 9. Their Econo Bases are great!

3D Wiz War: Part 7 - Objects

2008-05-16T06:48:00.006-04:00

There are a number of cards that create objects in Wiz War. In fact an object is a broad term in the game. But today I stick with the items I made for the cards that specifically say "create object": safe, slime, stone, pit, rosebush and thorn bush.

The Fill Square with Stone was one of the easiest items to construct. I simply shaped a rough cube of blue Styrofoam to fill a game square, coated it with white glue, covered it with sand, and then painted it black with a dry brush of gray.

The Fill Square with Slime took a little more work. I first made a clay version of it. Then a mold of the clay. Then filled the mold with clear resin tinted with green ink. This is my first attempt at casting and mold making. Not bad, but it has a lot of air bubbles. Better instructions can be found here.

The Safe is a box of plastic card covered with green stuff and painted silver with a black wash. The bottom is open so it can cover items like treasure chests.

The Pit is just a square of floor tiles around a card stock base painted black. The Thorn bush and Rosebush are model railroading lichen soaked in a white glue and water mixture to make them stiff and mounted on a clear acrylic base. The rosebush has painted spots to indicate roses.

On an attached note - registration for this years Origins events has gone online. My 3D Wiz War game will be run on June 25th at 3:00 and on the 27th at 10:00 A.M. It is under the tabletop section of events.

3D Wiz War: Part 6 - Walls

2008-05-11T05:18:00.005-04:00

The walls and such were easy. The door for Create Door is just an extra door, and the small section of wall for Create Wall is simply a free-standing wall section.

For the Wall of Fog and Wall of Fire I used the images from Hirst Arts' download of Wiz War markers. I made bases for them by taking short floor tiles and gluing them to a card stock base with a gap in the middle to glue the wall section in.

The Wall of Glass is a piece of clear acrylic.

The Illusionary Wall to a bit more work. I first photographed a small wall section. Then processed it through Digital Imaging to fade it out. Finally, I printed the image on card stock to make an illusionary looking wall that matches my walls.

The Dust Cloud is an opened box made of frosted clear acrylic. It fits over a square and allows my to place figures on the square and be surrounded by a dust cloud.

3D Wiz War: Part 5 - Monsters

2008-05-08T05:27:00.009-04:00

When I started this project I knew there would be a lot of miniatures to make from scratch and paint. So the first thing I did when I started looking at the summon monster spells was to see if I had any pre-painted minis in my D&D collection that I could use in order to save time. The Ghoul, Big Black Bat, and the Fire Imp are D&D minis while the Skeleton and Troll are Reaper pre-painted miniatures.

The Democratic Monster is a D&D miniature repainted in appropriate patriotic colors. I chose the Warbond Impaler because it seemed to fit the description of a "horribly ugly monster" with lots of claws without being an easily identifiable figure.

I used Mega Miniatures when I could. Not only are they a great price, but they often have that old school flavor of miniatures that seems to fit the game. So the Wraith, Familiar, and The Buck are from the Mega mini line. The Buck should be larger, but it is hard to find a deer figure. I painted the cat to match my cat rather than making it black as per its card description..

The Alter Ego is another Mega Mini. I choose a suitably generic looking wizard and painted it in a black & white color scheme. Of course I should have used copies of each of the player wizard so everyone would have an Alter Ego to use, but this project was big enough already.

The Sub-Wizard is a familiar from a Reaper Familiar pack. I thought it looked cute. The shadow is a cardstock silhouette of a wizard I created in a graphics program. The Killer Ooze is made of silicone caulk on a clear plastic base with a Games Workshop zombie figure. I got the idea from Hirst Arts.

3D Wiz War: Part 4 - Sticks

2008-05-01T07:16:00.005-04:00

The sticks in Wiz War are magic wands. I could have simply used plain plastic rods on a base with a label to keep them separate on the board, but like the stones I wanted something more dramatic.

They are all based on 1" bases with 1/16" plastic rods to keep them uniform. I used green stuff to mold the features.

The Firefly Stick shows a stick wreathed in flames. I made six fireflies that the stick can cast, out of green stuff with acetate wings.

The Sticky Stick is of course a web with a plastic fly attached. The Warp Stick was made by putting the rod in a mass of green stuff and twirling. I then painted it to look like a black hole effect. I modeled the Shift Stick on a car's gear shift. The Blaster Stick uses the wand as a fuse for a cluster of dynamite.

Next: Monsters

3D WizWar: Part 3 - The Stones

2008-04-27T06:20:00.012-04:00

Part of the fun of building this game was in envisioning the different features like Sticks and Stones. There are no images of these in the game itself, only descriptions of what they do. The only pictures of them are generic stones and sticks with a "magic field" around them and a different color to help keep them seperate. Of course, the objects are usually not placed on the board - they don't need a marker unless they are "dropped", and they are most often simply put in the discard pile if they aren't being used. But if I was going to the trouble of building a three dimensional board then I wanted something more than just generic markers for these items.

I began with the stones. Having never sculpted miniatures before I thought that I had better start with simple designs. I decided to go with a basic stone-like look for each. Build them out of green stuff, make them look crude (easy enough). Some of the ideas were easy: like the Brain Stone. Others were hard: what does a Soul Stone look like? I stayed with a gray color sceme, based them on 1" circles, and labeled each.

The Soul Stone was the last one I made. It is actually a Reaper minis remounted to match the rest. The Power Stone is made to look like a battery, the Shadow Stone is a piece of Plasticard painted black to resemble a shadow of a stone and the Shield Stone is also a Reaper miniature shield.

The Speed Stone is of course a winged foot. A brain for the Brain Stone and a doctor's bag for the Health Stone. The Fighter Stone is a D&D mini rebased with green stuff over the legs to look like stone.

I used an open book for the Spell Stone, an eye-like object on a pedistal for a Vision Stone and the Blood Stone is a volcano shaped rock with blood filled cracks.

Next up: Some sticks.

3D WizWar: Part 2 - The Board

2008-04-25T06:59:00.014-04:00

When I began this project, I needed to make two major decisions: would the walls be removable to show damage, and what size should I make the squares. The first took the most thought, planning and experimenting; the second was easy.

The square size was determined by the molds I had purchased from Hirst Arts. Since I already had the floor squares for the Egyptian terrain (#290), I was limited to 1" or 2" square spaces. By using four of the squares to make a space I would have plenty of room to fit monsters and terrain features on a space as well as fit in doors. Plus by using four blocks to make a square I would have a center mark for line-of-sight. I used 1/2" blocks between each floor space to make room for the walls and to use as space dividers.

Making the choice of how to show wall damage was a little harder. My first thought was to make each section of wall a removable piece. The difficulty with that method would have been that not only would each piece need to be a self contained wall, but I would need to make small columns between each section of wall to account for the spacers between each floor section. That would have made the board somewhat fragile to transport, which was a major consideration. Now Hirst Arts has molds for half thickness floor bricks that would have allowed me to recess the walls below the floor to make them removable, but when I began this project they weren't available. My next thought was to make an overlay to indicate the destroyed section. I made a u-shaped sleeve out of plasticard to slide over the wall. I then built section of destroyed wall and photographed it from both sides and the top. Then I took the images and pasted them to the sleeve. It didn't look bad, but not quite what I wanted, plus the problem of double thick walls where two boards join. Finally I had some custom "Destroyed" markers made by Litko. I just lay them on the wall - it looks great.

The walls are three bricks high. Since they are glued to the same board that the floor bricks are glued that makes the walls 1 1/2" high - slightly taller than the average miniature. I think it makes for a better dungeon feel than a shorter wall.

The doors that I started with where of an Egyptian look since I already had the molds. It wasn't really a good look for WizWar. But when mold number #282 came out I purchased it and switched all the doors to a more traditional dungeon door. Plus the mold has castings for treasure chests.

I decided to paint the board in sand colors. I could have gone with a more traditional gray, dungeon look, but I find the lighter color makes things easier to see and shows off the minis better. I painted the spaces and and walls one color, the 1/2" blocks between spaces a slightly darker color to help delineate the spaces, and a even darker color on the 1/2" blocks that the doors go on to make set-up easier.

I made stencils for the wizard homes and treasure squares. I then sponge stamping in four different colors. It gives a sort of airbrush design.

The blocks were glued on to 1/2" solid foam (I had a lot left over from building my Egyptian terrain). This makes the board sections very sturdy for transport. As a finally touch I glued matching tan felt to the bottoms of each section.

3D Wiz-War

2008-04-23T17:42:00.009-04:00

Two years ago I purchased a set of Hirst Arts molds for making Egyptian terrain for my pulp miniature games. While I was building the sets I realized I could use the floor squares and wall blocks to make a 3D Wiz-War board. I had seen pictures of Wiz-War boards using Legos and Dwarven Forge scenory and I thought those looked pretty cool. I have a Classic set of WizWar that we pull out on game nights for a quick and fun game. The paper boards and markers just don't have that extra something that miniatures do; so why not use the molds I had to build my own.

I began by building the basic blocks I would need as I was casting the parts for my pulp terrain, but there the project stalled. I knew I wanted to have it done for Origins 2007,but it just didn't happen. So this past winter I submitted an event for this years Origins and committed myself to finishing the project. A few weeks later Hirst Arts posted their own version of a 3D board. which gave me some more ideas and a final push to finish the project.

Over the next few posts I'll show more detail of this project. So check back often.

Miniature Storage

2008-04-20T08:35:00.004-04:00

One of the problems of painting miniatures is the storage and transport of them. Sure, there are lots of different cases out there that you can buy, but why should I purchase them when I have a full woodworking shop. So I've come up with my own design.

I wanted it to be durable, a design that fit the theme of many of genre that I collect, and customizable for each theme. What I came up with is a ammo-box style box. I built it to hold the Sabol foam trays since these are easy to find at local game stores and come in a wide variety of thickness so I can use them for single figures up to armored vehicles. The design includes rope handles and simple metal hardware to complete the look.

Yes, the design is heavier (a little over 10 pounds) than a plastic case, but it certainly looks more distinctive when I show up at a game. I don't use them to transport a 3000 point army, just what I need for small battles.

Since I play .45 Adventures (a pulp setting), Battleground WWII, and 40K I needed designs to make each case unique. So I designed different stencils for each. The rocket corps and the top secret stencils are for the lids of my pulp figures. The Top Secret is from the crate of the Lost Ark from the end of Raiders. The German eagle and US star are for my WWII figures. The chaos and double headed eagle are for 40K figures.

I've had a lot of fun with them. Now I need a different look for my D&D figures.

To Build a Game Room

2008-04-17T05:22:00.012-04:00

One of the nice benefits of living on a hill, besides the view, is that when we added the addition to our house it was necessary to build a basement under it. True, we could have just put in a slab, but it actually would have cost more because of the fill needed to support the foundation. So after I had completed building the North Wing as we call it I had a lovely 30' X 14' basement. We did what any game playing family would do - we turned it into a game room.

For the first few years it worked very well for us. I had drywalled it, given it good lighting, put down some old rugs, and had lots of unfinished shelves to hold our game collection. But it was still just a glorified basement. So this past year I decided to redo it. Since it was going to be for game playing I decided to let the games pay for it. I began by selling off my Warhammer 40K army. Not only did that give me plenty of cash to remodel the room but let me buy more games and have a great time at Origins.

I started by putting in a ceiling and painting the floor. The color scheme for the room is black and deep red with lots of white to keep things bright. Next I put in more shelves and finished all of them in black - to show off the games and models better. I built a game table to replace the old, flimsy one. Put down carpet. Built a small partition in one corner to hid the dehumidifier (a must in NE Ohio - especially if you want to keep games in good condition). Constructed a paint/modeling station and a bar. There are definite advantages to having had a wood working business and owning a woodshop.

Finally I was able to put everything back and decorate. I framed some of my favorite posters as well as purchased new ones. Put up a dry erase board. Filled the shelves. And have been enjoying ever since.

The first photo shows the room from the entry. Starting on the left you can see the wall with the dry erase board and then the shelves for RPG's, paper models, war games and my collection of Knights of the Dinner Table, Dragon, Dungeon and White Dwarf magazines. The far wall is for miniatures; the center section under the window are glass shelves to display my best minis. The right far shelves are double deep to hold terrain boards. The stacking containers are for the Heroscape collection. Then comes more wall space, the family game shelves and finally the paint station.

The second picture is looking towards the door. You can see the family and eurogames shelves, the door and then the bar. The table is actually two separate 4' X 4' tables. I usually leave it at as one table for Dungeons & Dragons and miniatures, but when we have a large game night it is easy to pull apart to have two game tables.

All in all it has been a lot of fun and a good investment of my time and money.

I've add more photos.

Forlorn Hope - Tallarn 14th

2008-04-13T07:08:00.009-04:00

One of my many hobbies is miniature painting. Back in the spring of 1998 I began to assemble a Warhammer 40K army of Imperial Guards. I really liked the looks of the Tallarn units so I decided to create an army based on a Lawrence of Arabia type theme (after all the figures do have a somewhat WW I look to them). I came up with a general plan of how I wanted the army to look with a unified theme of color and markings. I had never done any serious miniature painting before, only an occasional figure for Dungeons & Dragons and I had recently finished some Man O War ships. So I was taking on a large and unknown task. But physics majors are anything but humble and I had just finished building our home so I was ready for a new activity.

Why did I pick 40K? Yes I know there is a love/hate relationship with Games Workshop: the prices are too high, the rule system isn't good, they don't respect their fans/customers; but the figures are really good, and you can always find someone that plays. One of the biggest draw for me (besides the cool figures) was the fact that there was only one game store in town (the next nearest was an hour away) and they had a large and active 40K community. The other plus was that since I owned a game company (it was educational so I didn't carry 40K), I could get the figures at cost.

First I planned my army. The key figures would have names taken from Lawrance's life and adventures. The paint scheme would all have a unifying color: desert colors with different colored of head scarves for each platoon and stripes on the vehicles.

I limited my purchases to $30 dollars a month (which went pretty far at cost). The entire project took until the spring of 2006, since I didn't work on it constantly. A major problem that arose was the change from 3rd to 4th edition of the rules. That caused some restructuring of my army and the need to add the brown platoon. They are not Tallarn, but Cadian. I reasoned that they are replacement troops.

By the time I had finished the army I had come to a realization. I really enjoyed painting and modeling, but I didn't enjoy 40K. I find the universe too dark and game dull. Yes, the game has great potential, just read some of the article in White Dwarf magazine, but unfortunately most of the players just want to slam their armies together and roll the dice. A flanking maneuver is considered high strategy around here. Sure, I had some good games at Origins and other special events I traveled to, but those were few and far between. Plus once the local game store closed there wasn't even the so-so players anymore. I even tried using Star Grunt as a rule system, which is really good, but no one else around here plays it.

So last year I put my army up for sale. Asking at various game store and the online community I was told that I could expect to sell it for $600 to $800. Yes it was painted nicely and yes it was a large army, but the figures were old and 40K players just wouldn't pay much for it. Well it took my several month to sell it: on ebay and to local gamers, but I was able to sell it for list price of the figures as well as the time and energy spent on it. So for those of you out there thinking about selling miniatures at a price that covers your work it can be done, but it will take a little of your time and energy.

So here are the pictures of my Tallarn 14th.

Where have I been?

2008-04-11T07:15:00.003-04:00

Well it certainly has been a while since I posted anything on this. My last entry was back in July of 2007 just after Origins. I had such good intentions. Oh well.

Since then we have moved back to our home in the country. The stay in Columbus was only temporary. For the most part it is good to be back here.

Durning the summer and fall my daughter and I worked on remodeling the game room. It was a fun project and it looks really nice. I'll do a post on it soon.

This past winter was spent moving back in, working on projects around the house, and acting/producing a chuch play on the Last Supper.

So now I have lots to post about and some down time to do it - hopefully I can be more regular.

Origins 2007

2007-07-09T11:59:00.000-04:00

Had a great time at Origins this past week. Living in Columbus, has its advantages - one being I didn't need to stay in a hotel in order to attend Origins; I could just take a 20 minute bus ride and be at the convention center.

This was my tenth year and my daughter's fourth (as a player, not just taking her through the vendors' hall). As always, we had a good time.

Registration was very smooth. Since we could come down on Wednesday afternoon we didn't have to wait in line. Of course, being a teacher (homeschool) I was able to use the teachers' line which was empty. The staff was very friendly and helpful, even going to the preregistered line to retrieve my daughter's pass so I wouldn't need to stand in line twice. The bag of goodies wasn't as full as in years past, but that isn't the fault of Origins but a sign of the times as companies cut back on promos in order to save money. Since it was the 4th of July, we didn't stay to play any games because of family commitments, but it was nice to see so many events running on Wednesday. If the convention is going to pay for the facilities they might as well be used.

Thursday morning my daughter and I caught an early bus so we could get to the Three Dragon Ante tournament. We both really enjoy that game. Unfortunately, the neither the judge nor any other players arrived - a problem with a 9:00am game on the Thursday. We had no problem turning in our ticket for generic coins, though. We then went up to Looney Labs Big Experiment room to visit with friends and play some open games. We were able to spend some time teaching Aquarius to some new players. Then it was down to the vender's hall. We usually try to go on Thursday, in order to avoid the crowds and catch the dealers when they are fresh. The hall was less full then in the past and also missing many of the big companies. Out of the Box, Paizo, Zman, Privateer, Day of Wonder, GMT,were there, but many others had only a token display in a booth with a group of other companies (like Fantasy Flight/Atlas/Steve Jackson/DorkStorm Press) or just a case display like WizKids. I realize it is expensive to come to a convention and that GenCon is larger, but 10 - 12 thousand gamers at Origins is not a small number. These are hard core gamers, the people that spend lots of money on games, run game clubs, and teach others games. And there is only about a 25% overlap between the two conventions, so here are 8000 potential customers they are missing. The dealers I talked to said that attendance seemed to be down, but sales were up - so less people but we were buying more. I know I was. So thanks to the companies that came.

We had a good time trying out new games and discovering ones we hadn't known about. The Out of the Box booth is always alot of fun - we purchased the new 10 Days in Asia to go with the rest of the series we own. Picked up a pack of the 10th anniversary Fluxx expansion cards from Looney Labs. Found a copy of Hollywood Blockbuster which I had been looking for from Troll and Toad. Snapped up Duel in the Dark from Zman Games (thanks for bringing that to the show - its nice to have a company release a new product at Origins instead of GenCon). Bought a lot of Gamers Aid products at Paizo (cool things that we don't need but are really fun to have for D&D); and had a good time playing Stonehenge (a future purchase) and the Kobold dungeon (my daughter had a winning key). Plus lots of little things from other vendors.

Friday started with a game of the Great Chili Cookoff (bad players and a ref who didn't know his game hurt). Then a really fun game of Battlestations by Gorilla Games. I purchased it last year, but didn't have a chance to play it - glad I did. Now I need to get some of the expansions.

Finished the day with a viewing of the Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Definitely the highlight of the con. We've loved the Gamers but this is a 100x better. Excellent production value and a lot of fun, and funny! We've been anxiously waiting for the release of the DVD, but I'm glad we got to see it first on a large screen with an audience of fellow gamers. My daughter's mouth hurt afterwards from laughing so much. Now Dead Gentlemen Prod. needs to find a distributor and get it out on DVD.

Saturday morning my daughter had a seminar on Designing Adventures. Not really very good. She got some ideas, but the presenter was not up to the task. The seminar idea is a good one in theory, but the ones we've been to in the past all have the same problem - the presenters may be professional game designers, but they aren't speakers. No outline, no visual aids, no handouts. Someone sitting on the table at the front of the room and just talking vaguely about the subject in general is not a good seminar - even a free one. After that we had a game of Heroscape and finished up the day with a session of Cleopatra.

Of course there where the meeting of friends (both old and new), playing of demo games , and one of our favorite Origin pastimes - people watching.

We'll be back next year.

Another Day at the Library

2007-06-12T13:27:00.000-04:00

Here I am again, sitting in the main library, waiting on my daughter. Today should be the last day she will be volunteering for a while which is a good thing.

For a change of pace I brought a paper model to cut out. Thought I would see how that would work. It actually went fairly well since all I did was cut out the parts. Now I have some other options of things to do while I'm here.

Of course I won't be able to glue it up until I get home, but cutting is actually the most time consuming part, so it's good to get it done.

Bored in Columbus

2007-06-05T13:27:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to get the hang of this blogging thing.

Today I'm sitting in the Columbus Main Library. My daughter is a teen volunteer here so I get to spend a lot of time hanging out. We're taking a break from the more formal part of her education for the next few weeks until her new text books come. This down time is giving her a chance to work at the library every day - it will make up for the time we will be away later in the summer.

I've finally taken the time to bring the laptop with me and try out the wireless system the library has. It gives me something else to do besides reading magazines and checking out way too many books. Though I should have brought the adapter - looks like power could be a problem.

This past year has seen me with a lot of down time. Since we've moved into our little apartment from our home in the country I don't have much to do. In years past a good part of my day was spent teaching my daughter, but she has grown so much that she doesn't need me like she used to. A good thing from a teacher's perspective (she's learning on her own and using the tools I've taught her in the past), but boring if you are used to working with her. Combine that with the fact that I live in a 3 room apartment after living in a cabin in the woods with all the work that entails (mowing, chopping wood, upkeep, etc) and I am slowly going nuts. Even my love of cooking for the family has faded - it's hard to really cook with only about one square foot of counter space and a oven that sets off the smoke alarm if you heat it beyond 300 degrees.

Not to say that I haven't been busy. Running my daughter around Columbus, painting minis, paper models, and reading keep me from going totally crazy. But when you do things all the time that you used to do for fun it changes the fun level. I need more meaningful activities. Luckily we still have our home in Wooster so I am able to escape from here on the occasional weekend. It will be great when this Columbus experience it over.

Enough ranting for one day.

Tomb Kings

2007-06-04T13:30:00.000-04:00

One of the things I enjoy doing with my time is painting minis. I have varied interests - science fiction, historical, pulp, fantasy... If it looks like fun I'll paint it.

I recently finished a Tomb King army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. And while I'll probably never get to use it in a game I did have fun building and painting it. So here are some photos:

This is my King. I've modified the regular Tomb King by changing his leg so that he can stand on the extra head of a bone giant. The base is a monster base which game me more room to play with . He usually ranks up with the Tomb Guard.

Here is the Bone Giant. Alot of fun to paint and assemble. I modified his arms a little to give him a slightly different pose.

More images of this army are here.

2007-06-04T07:03:00.000-04:00

Well I've finally started a blog. It's something I have been planning to do for some time but just haven't taken the time to do. Now I just need to start posting.