Thomas Scioli Delivers the Goods!

Tom sent me his new piece for SuperSystem 3rd ed. last evening, and I felt I had to share it! I love it!



Tom's brand new Myth of 8-Opus graphic novel is out! Just saw it at the comic shop! Check it out!

--Scott

Earthdawn Group Shots

Nothing really new today. I do have a couple of group shots for scale comparison on some of the Earthdawn stuff I have been working on. Here they are:



Nothing like some cool ruins for a party glamor shot!




I like the relative scales for the Obsidiman and the Troll. Once again, the Windling is a bit large, but he'll do until another source can be found/converted.

--Scott

Earthdawn Windling Conversion

Last post I showed off my Obsidiman conversion for a possible Earthdawn RPG game I might run. This time around I've tried my hand at a Windling. Windlings are small, faerie types, only 18" in height, and weighing roughly 10 - 15 lbs.

Rummaging through my bits box I found a few leftover 15mm Aztecs (possibly from Essex, or another manufacturer) from an old project best forgotten. I decided to try making one into a Windling spell caster for ED. Check him out!



The wings are cut from a thick, plastic card sleeve called a "top-loader" (I think).





I cut the mini away from his molded base, carefully re-positioning his feet into a somewhat more natural flying position. The staff and the hand holding it from borrowed from an old 15mm skeleton spearman. I cut the spear tip off and added a globe made from some green stuff.

Here's a comp shot with a human-sized mini:



His flying base is made from a steel pike affixed to a 25mm plastic slotted base. He is, I think, a bit large for a Windling, but he'll do in a pinch until I can come up with something better. I think 10mm fantasy Greeks might be a good source. I'll look into that.

Here's another comp shot with a Mage Knight troll. The troll is perfect for ED--if a bit small. All I did was a mild re-paint on his flesh and robes.



Next post I'll show a United Colors of Benetton style group shot of an ED adventuring party.

Also have to work on cracking the T'Skrang code. We'll see...

--Scott

Return to Earthdawn

I started playing FASA's Earthdawn RPG way back in 1993-1994 when it first came out. I remember going to my FLGS and getting this 16 page color preview version of the rules, a free primer of sorts, and being fascinated by the world where familiar fantasy tropes were turned askew, and where magic reigned supreme. Now RedBrick ltd. has brought Earthdawn back in a gorgeous new 3rd ed.

I didn't initially pick up the 3rd ed. books until I'd read some feedback on them. I still have all of my old FASA ED books, and was reluctant to dive back in unless the Redbrick stuff made the old material better. Two things made me pull the trigger:

1. A general clean-up of the rules was done, but much of the old artwork was left intact

2. The game is now miniature friendly

I've made no secret of my love for using minis to enhance my RPG's. In all but a few exceptions (games like Feng Shui come to mind) I prefer to use minis to show the scene of combat and focus myself and the players. But Earthdawn has some pretty challenging departures from standard, cookie-cutter fantasy role-play. Like its cousin, Shadowrun, you can play races like Orks and Trolls. Orks are no problem, but Trolls prove a greater, though not insurmountable, challenge.

The real tough ones are T'Skrang (human sized lizardmen), Obsidimen (rock-skinned humanoids), and Windlings (18" flying faeries).

If I'm going to run an ED campaign then I am going to need some appropriate minis. I should add here that the now departed mini company Heartbreaker made some damn fine ED minis, but these are really tough to find. If you have any, let me know, and I'll surely take them off your hands!

Finding appropriate fantasy Dwarves, Elves, Humans, and Orks are no problem. But the more exotic races are the issue. There are plenty of lizardmen out there, but T'Skrang where clothes, and are often dashing river pirates, not the primitive, cave-dwelling savages most 28mm lizardmen depict. But I'll deal with them in another post.

First I had to tackle the Obsdimen problem. Again, I looked to eBay, and the old Mage Knight line for my answers, and I came up with a good one. Check out the Wild Mountain Troll:



Not much good as an ED Troll, but with a little imagination, and a jeweler's saw, some green stuff, and kit from the bits box, and you have an Obsidiman Warrior. Check it out!




The weapon hands are from the GW Ogre Kingdoms Bull plastic frame.



That fist-glaive can be used as a shield in ED. It gives the mini a really vicious look.



The front and back loin cloth were modeled using green stuff. The jug and other kit are GW bits from various frames.



Another angle shot here. Once I cut the the horns and weird beard away from the mini, I realized I could use my hobby knife to carve his head into the desired Obsidiman shape. The Mage Knight plastic yields wonderfully to a fresh xacto blade.



I carved the head while it was still attached to the body. Then I realized he had very little neck, so I sawed it off with my jeweler's saw and built a short neck with green stuff, then plopped it back on. It still sits low compared to his massive shoulders, but when viewed from the side looks more natural than before.

The areas around the chest and shoulders where I had cut away the unsightly beard were filled in with green stuff rocks.

Here's a final comparison shot:



Not bad, eh? Of course, I did buy more than one, so I may have to enlist a friend who is better at green stuff than I am to sculpt some robes on the next one for an Obsidiman spell caster.

Next post, my first try at a Windling.

--Scott

The Skaven: A Festering Project

I've wanted to get back into Warhammer Fantasy Battle the last 6 months or so, but I have been vacillating over which army to choose. I have a mostly functional Ogre Kingdoms force (about 1000 pts.), but it just doesn't interest me anymore. I thought about all goblins, and even painted 20 of the little buggers, but I crapped out on that too.

Then I saw pics of the new Skaven Clan Rats. I was sold. They're great, and light years beyond the old, multi-part, big-handed Clan Rats of the Mordheim generation (is that like the Pepsi Generation from the 1980's?).

Anyway, while waiting for the new Clan Rat troops to arrive, I figured I'd start painting some of the rare and special choices in the list. I got a box of Plague Monks and gave it a go.















Next up for this coming week is a box of Rat Ogres. Once I finish those, I will circle back and knock out another box of Plague Monks. Then back to Rat Ogres. By that time, November will roll around and it will be time for the new Clan Rats!

--Scott

"I think it's a gram-and-a-half light on the back end."

Painted this lovely Heresy Miniatures sci-fi mini a while back, but wanted to show him off here.

Chronicles of Riddick remains one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time, and Andy Foster really does the character justice here. I felt like he needed a blade, so I did a bit of conversion work on him to remove the tea cup and add a knife.



--Scott

SuperSystem Update

Things are moving along very well with the 3rd ed rules update. The 2nd ed was good, but third is turning out to be much more refined. We've clarified rules like charging, and made it much more clear what powers and traits can be affected by powers like Dispel, Copy Power, and Nullify.

We've also placed consistent internal controls on dice pool inflation, and mitigated the sometimes nettlesome problem of the maxed out Super-Agility attacker. It's being painted by super-talented Joe Urban, who did the cover for Chaos on Cronos. As soon as I get a preview of the new cover (which features Shield Maiden(s) battling Mr. Brain and the Ego-Bot, I'll share it with you.

Overall, I'm very excited, and I can't thank my co-writer David Lewis enough for his keen insight into the rules and the genre.

--Scott

Shadowrun Troll Street Shaman Conversion

I showed this Mage Knight conversion off a while back, pre-blog. So here he is making his debut on the "big-stage". Anyway, he's converted from a Mage Knight Dark Berserker figure. I've got another one which I plan to use for the Earthdawn RPG if I ever run it again.









I don't have a size comparison shot, but he is about the size of a GW Ogryn or Privateer Press Ogre. I sculpted the shirt onto him around the existing belt, altered the belt buckle, and gave him a sidearm from the bits box.

I primed him black and gave him a complete re-paint. I love this mini and it is proof that are many hidden gems in the old Mage Knight line.

--Scott

Sci-Fi Album Cover?

I quite innocently snapped this pic while readying images for my posts for the week:




Thought a group shot might be nice for scale comparison reasons. What I got was four miniatures sort of heading in opposite directions, kind of like a bad indie rock band album cover. Neat, though.


Scott

Gnomes...in...spaaaaaaace!

Or something like that. Like I said, Leutenant Brittan from LAF inspired me to add this guy to my space Captain's retinue of crewmen. He's an old Chainmail Gnome sculpted by the mega-talented Jerzy Montwill.

I like the Good Leutenant's version better, but mine will do for starport work!









He'll likely be on the same crew as the little rat guy from a previous post, so they'll get along smashingly I am sure. The short guys need to stick together.

Scott

Tom Scioli On-Board for SuperSystem 3rd ed.!

I am very fortunate to live in a city (Pittsburgh) that is home to some great professional comic book artists. One of my favorites is Tom Scioli. Tom did the designs for our Alien Host models a while back when we released Invasion, and he has graciously given me permission to re-use his artwork in the new edition of SuperSystem. Even more exciting, he's agreed to do a new piece for 3rd edition! When he asked me what I wanted, I told him to draw Karthoum knocking one of our other characters out!

Can't wait to see the results!

Scott

AE Bounty Logician

Here's the last of my three preview AE Bounty figures snagged from Gen Con by Rico. I really like the paint results on this dynamic and very cool miniature. The limited colors I employed have given him a cohesive look. And how can you go wrong with purple and green?









Can't wait to see the rest of Darkson's AE Bounty miniature release line-up. Oh, and the rules, too, of course.

Scott

Another Sci-Fi Crewman

If you're anything like me, you have a mighty backlog of unpainted metal and plastic miniatures crying out for attention. When an RPG like Starblazer Adventures (still reading, pg. 313 of 630) and a miniature game like AE Bounty come along, it can inspire you to dig into the backlog and find hidden gems that cry out for painting.

Here's one of those little seen gems, all the way from the old ShockForce universe, he's a diminutive little rat-guy with some serious attitude. I've long since lost the packaging on these guys, but they are part of a faction of ratmen that include large, more human-sized versions as well. I like this little guy and figure he's part of the Captain's crew of procurers, sent into a starport city to gather intelligence as well as supplies. He may be small, but he looks to be able to handle himself in a fight.












I'll talk about the Gnome to the right of the rat later this week. Hat tip to Leutenant Brittan from LAF for giving me the idea to use my extra Chainmail gnome for sci-fi!

Scott

SuperSystem Archetypes: "I'll take one from column A, and one from Column B"

Previous editions of SuperSystem have included long lists of our official super teams specifically designed to go with our huge line of SuperFigs models. This time around for 3rd ed. we're going to release the SuperFig write-ups in a separate, and free, PDF. The space we save will be dedicated to other cool stuff, including customizable archetypes of the major super characters encountered in comics. So we'll have the base archetype, and a number of options players can pick to customize it, sort of like ordering from a Chinese menu. We intend to include archetypes for the Blaster, Brawler, Mentalist, Speedster, and of course, the Brick:

BP: 66 + package options
AP: 6
Attributes
Strength 7[2] Agility 4 Mind 2 Resolve 4
Powers
Combat Prowess x 2 (Super x 1)
Iron Will x 1
Knockback Resistance x 3
Super-Strength x 2
Vitality: 11

Core Packages (+14 pts.)
Tough
--+2D Strength
--+1 Level Super-Strength
--+2 Extra Vitality

Big
--Growth x 2
--Massive x 1

Dense
--Density Increase
--Immovable x 2

Miscellaneous Packages (+5 pts.)
The Angry Brick
--add the Berserker power
--add the Rage special effect to Super-Strength

The Bouncing Brick
--add Super Leap
--subtract 1 level of Knockback Resistance

The Clever Brick
--add +2D to Mind
--add Enhanced Senses x 1

The Fast Brick
--add Extra Movement x 5

The Perceptive Brick
--add Enhanced Senses x 5

The Rhino Brick
--add Extra Movement x 10 (Charge only)

The Unkillable Brick
--add Regeneration


So the player gets to make one selection from the Core package and one from the Miscellaneous package.

We're doing some play-testing this weekend, and more in the weeks ahead. I hope to have the game out before the end of the year.

Scott

AE Bounty Interview

I sent some questions about the upcoming sci-fi skirmish game into the folks at Darkson, and Lead Game Designer Matthew Hope was kind enough to respond. Here they are:

Q: AE Bounty seems like a "true" skirmish game, featuring only 2-10 figures per side. Will it have some of the other trappings of skirmish games like campaign rules, interacting with terrain, and rules for non-combatants?

A: AE-Bounty is, indeed, a true skirmish game and players can create crews of Bounty Hunters, Pirates or Mercenaries ranging in size from two to about fifteen models. The AE-Bounty rulebook will contain rules for campaigns, which includes tracking casualties, experience points and equipment. Some scenarios do have models interacting with terrain and/or non-combatants. One of my favorite scenarios in the game is the ‘Hostage Situation’ scenario where one side tries to shield their escape with hostages.


Q: Can AE Bounty be played on a 2' x 2' board or area? What is the "ideal" sized playing surface for the game?

A: The ideal playing area for AE-Bounty is a 3’x3’ table, though tables from 2’x2’ to 4’x4’ can also be used.


Q: Darkson has previewed a great line-up of 12 or so new figures for the game, will there be more miniatures coming once the book is released?

A: We hope to be trickling out the sculpts at the rate of one a month. The AE-Bounty line already has a few dozen sculpts, so there will be a lot of variety for players to choose from.


Q: I understand there are rules for customizing models from any manufacturer, so are the equipment rules specific enough to cover stuff like powered armor, anti-gravity devices, and personal force fields?

A: The AE-Bounty rules allow for a very customized force. With the unit, equipment, heroes, aliens and other options available, players can easily create just about any kind of unit they choose, allowing them to very easily use models from other manufacturers. We will be encouraging players to post new equipment, alien and other homemade creations on our forums that will help others use any model they choose.


Q: Is the turn sequence "I go-You go", or does it employ alternating unit activation?

A: AE-Bounty sticks to the alternating activation method from our AE-WWII rules set. We’ve found this to be a great way of keeping both players involved in the game at all times and to keep the game moving quickly.


Q: Will the book be available on PDF as well as hard copy?

A: Eventually, I’m sure we’ll have it available at WarGames Vault.


Q: When can we get our hands on this game?

A: We’re putting the final touches on the book; it will definitely be out by the end of the year.


Thanks so much to Matthew Hope and Robert Kingery of Darkson Designs for their great kindness and accessibility!

Scott

More AE Bounty Sci-Fi

I am prepping more figures for the AE Bounty sci-fi skirmish game from Darkson Designs. One thing I've noticed about the official figures is that scale-wise they fall into the "slimmer 28mm" category. Now I am not a total stickler for scale, but I like to match up where I can. Digging through my bin of unpainted minis (yes, I have a considerable collection of unpainted lead, pewter, and plastic), I came across a Shadowrun miniature named Slash & Burn. That's one dude. You'll see why in a moment.

What struck me about him was how nicely he scaled with the AE Bounty guys once his cast-on base was ground down and he was mounted on a plastic, wide-lipped base. Once that was done I set to painting him, and I am quite happy with my results. He'll make an excellent grizzled merc or bounty hunter for the game.









I definitely wanted to give his equipment a warn-down look, so I stippled some white paint on his fuel tank. I imagine the weapon will either be a flamer of some kind, or perhaps a chemical laser.

Here's a couple of comp shots with some official AE Bounty minis:






This last shot is the merc next to his trusty lander, the vehicle that gets him from orbit planet-side:



That's a Mel Ebbles Utility Shuttle paper model. Quite nice, and you get it in at least half-a-dozen different color options.

Scott

Guardians of the Galaxy Again

Have I mentioned that this Marvel comic is really good? Well, here I am mentioning it again. Issue #17 features Brad Walker pencils and a nice slugfest with some really nasty aliens from beyond time and space. Oh, and a pretty huge surprise ending.

Guardians is getting some critical acclaim, but it needs to sell more in order for me to feel comfortable about it continuing. So if you're on the fence and looking for a new title to collect, give Guardians a try!

Scott