Ducks? Really?

Well, yes. Anthropomorphic Ducks have been a staple of the Runequest fantasy world of Glorantha since its inception more than two decades ago. Seemingly the victims of a curse from some angry Gloranthan god, the Ducks are generally shunned and often unwelcome. Within the context of Runequest and Glorantha, I love them as a player character race. Others do not, and massive flame wars on places like RPG.net have sprung up over the years debating their rightful place as a player character race.

It was a few weeks ago on RPG.net that I found myself in a thread on Runequest miniatures that someone asked about Mongoose's Duck miniatures. They were released a few years back when Mongoose was going great guns with their figure lines. They were so cool I had to buy them, and I managed to paint two of them up. One of the posters in this thread, Ahrinades, asked me to post the pics of the painted Ducks, so here they are!










































These guys stand about 20-22mm tall. The details on them are exquisite. I think they might be the best miniatures Mongoose ever did. Though I do have some love for a lot of the Judge Dredd metal releases as well.

Someday I'll get around to painting the rest!

Scott

Reaper Ogre Mage

Not sure why I am showing this guy off, but he caught my eye the other day when I was re-organizing some painted miniatures in their cases.

I painted him a while back, and used him in a few mythic Japanese skirmishes where I adapted the GW Lord of the Rings rules. Worked pretty well as I recall. I really love the composition of the miniature, and I am happy with my paint job on him. Of course, it's been more than three years since I painted him, so I cannot remember most of the colors I used!

Scott

Agents of the Crown Released!

A while back I may have mentioned working on a Victorian Superhero RPG for Chaosium's BRP system. Well, Agents of the Crown is now out! Thank goodness! Two years of on-again, off-again work finally realized! Thanks to Karl Perrotton, Charlie Krank, and Dustin Wright for all of the support.

The book features low-powered supers action in the Victorian era, focusing on London, the Great Game, and anything related to them. I also wrote it to be miniatures friendly, so you can use whatever Victorian era figures you have to help show the action.

Scott

Early Halloween

Screaming Alpha blogger John Price has reviewed one of our favorite SuperFigs, Devil's Knight. Check his awesome blog out here.

Thanks, Mr. Price!

--Scott

Circling Back to the Orks

It's been a while, but I have finally started back in on my 40K Ork army. I've long wanted to do some kustom Killa Kans, but haven't had the proper inspiration until GW released the plastic Stompa kit. The water tower gun on the kit is the perfect size for a Killa Kan body--one could imagine a grot comfortably nestled (or unceremoniously stuffed) inside this wonderfully textured cylinder.

Anyway, the rest is cobbled together from various bits. I am getting the water tower bit from various eBay auctions, and I need one more to have the parts to complete a squad of three Kans.

Check my results so far:



Nice size comparison here.




The power claw arm is the only non-GW bit on the kit. It's from an awesome Imex kit. The buzzsaw on the end is from an old Epic titan weapon.








The treads are built from the old Imperial tank sprue. Man, I miss the old GW Gubbinz Bag.





Scott

Blue Monk Preview

Today I've got a preview of ZD 11 Blue Monk ($3.95), another of the new SuperFigs debuting in late August.

This lovely lady is a super-martial artist, channeling her powerful chi energies into her whirling spear-staff. She was painted by the talented Enrico Nardini.





Scott

More HOTT Stuff

Over the past weekend I finished two units of Kroxigors for HOTT. These are 10mm figures from GW's Warmaster line of miniatures. I am using them as Knights in HOTT. Fast, hard-hitting, but weaker against Behemoths, Shooters, and Magicians. I only put three each on a 40mm x 30mm stand. I have three left over I can use for character stands, or other units for the army.









Now I may start working on a completely new HOTT army: Chaos Dwarves! If I can score some Eureka 10mm stuff, I will be sure to eventually show them off here.

Scott

Scott

Another Dark Heresy RPG Conversion

Among other things over the weekend, I created another Dark Heresy RPG character from various GW plastic bits. I would likely use this guy as an Adept in my buddy Rico's DH games.

I also decided that he would be an Untouchable, a psychically blank individual who actually impedes the abilities of nearby psykers. This "talent" also has the unfortunate side-effect of making the untouchable disliked by almost everyone around him. The rules are from the wonderful Disciples of the Dark Gods supplement for DH. All I need to do is settle on a name for him.











The converted gun will count as a hand cannon, a kind of high-caliber slug thrower. I've already decided he'll be a kind of 40K tomb robber of sorts, a self-styled heretico-anthropologist specializing in knowledge and artifacts of long-dead cults, Imperial, Chaos, or Xenos.

Scott

Ferax Attacks!

Here's some shots of SuperFig code ZD 14 Ferax. He'll be out in late August with the rest of the new SuperFigs. He'll retail for $7.95.

Ferax did not start out as a commissioned SuperFig, but when I found him available for the asking, I gladly added him to our lineup!









On Four-Color Earth he'll be a member of the Hirsuine, an ancient race of bio-engineered warriors created by the Lemurians to act as enforcers and shock-troops for their terrestrial campaigns. Only a few hidden pockets of Hirsuine remain on the planet, secreting themselves away in mountain enclaves or the deepest forest. Hirsuine sitings have contributed mightily to the legends of the Sasquatch and the Yeti. Generally a non-agressive people, they nonetheless possess a warrior spirit that if stirred to action is terrible to behold. A long-lived race, Ferax is a relatively young 46 years old, and has decided to explore the world a bit. Having heard tales of superhumans, he has decided to see if he can test himself against some of them.

Whether he becomes a hero or villain might largely depend on who he meets first.

Scott

Cronos Goes to School

In addition to SuperSystem, I have written a number of other Goalsystem games, with the most recent addition being Chaos on Cronos, a pulp sci-fi mash-up featuring some really awesome "rubber-suit" alien miniatures sculpted by Bob Naismith.

Recently on the Goalsystem Yahoo group, Cronos fan Blake Radetzky posted some awesome shots of a program he ran at a summer camp where he taught the kids how to paint Blue Moon alien minis, and then play the Chaos on Cronos game. Having run Teen D&D for the Carnegie Library's Teen Summer Reading program for 5 years, I know how challenging, and rewarding, this sort of work can be. Thanks for running such a dynamite program, Blake! Kudos!








Scott

A Few Small Updates

Nothing in the way of new pics or news, yet. Just a few bullet-list items:

• I managed to track down some 10mm Warmaster Kroxigors for my HOTT army. I've decided to add them as Knights, of all things. I can fit 3 nicely on a 40 x 30mm base, and I like the hard-hitting nature of the Knight unit in HOTT.
• I've long admired Grimm's Hangar and the great paint jobs on SuperFigs and other miniatures he features there. Check it out!
• The new Batman and Robin title from DC featuring Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely is really pretty awesome. I resisted it initially, but I bought issues 1 & 2 this weekend and they are spectacular. I hear that Mr. Quitely will only be around through issue 3, so let's hope they find an adequate replacement for him.
• And speaking of comics, War of Kings #5 was incredible! If you haven't been following this Marvel cosmic saga all along, be sure to pick up the trades when they come out.
• So far I have 11 Goblins painted for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. A humble beginning, I know, but I have to start somewhere.

Scott

Weekend Wrap-Up

Long holiday weekend is over. I got a few projects worked on, including sanding the first of a series of jungle bases I plan on making. These will work for my Kroot, and any historicals or other skirmish games I decide to play in jungle climes. When the first one is done, I will snap some pics.

Also completed an Ogre Lead Belcher unit for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Yes, I do have some interest in WFB, especially because my good friend Rico is moving back to Steel City and he is working on a Dwarf army. Of course, to get the rules, I just bought the WFB boxed set for $60 (a ridiculously good deal), and the Goblin goodness in there sold me on the little buggers. So I will slowly build a Goblin army for WFB, while learning the rules playing Ogres (I'd had some other Ogre units done from a previous aborted attempt at WFB).

Also got new SuperFig Ferax painted, so I will get some pics of him up this week. I also expect my good buddy Sky to have Major Meteor painted sometime this week, so we could have another preview as well.

Played another great game of HOTT on Sunday, with my Lizardmen triumphing over my opponent's Kislevite forces. I also discovered that Eureka has a marvelous little line of 10mm fantasy that includes some great-looking Chaos Dwarves! They'll be on my list for Historicon, which I cannot attend, but a friend will do some shopping for me.

Bit of a catch-up post today, so I hope to have some images in the next one for this week.

Thanks for reading!

Scott

Dark Man Emerges From the Shadows!

Today we show off new SuperFig code ZD 2 Dark Man ($3.95). This figure will be part of the August 2009 release. He'll make a perfect pulp hero or villain!





Scott

Taste of the HOTT Stuff

As promised, here are some pics of my 10mm HOTT Lizardman army:


All 24 AP pictured above. The force consists of:

Wizard General
Blades x 3
Warbands x 3
Beasts x 2
Behemoth x 1



Above, the Wizard Genreal.



Above center, a Warband unit.



Some units of Blades.



What better Behemoth for Lizardmen?



A unit of Blades in front of my Stronghold, made from pieces of an old, Grendel resin terrain set. It's mounted on a pair of wooden bases I got at Michael's.


I'll likely add a few more pieces to swap in and out for variety. Kroxigors are coming soon!


Scott

Ferax Teaser

I just got the master casts for SuperFig code ZD 14 Ferax, and he looks amazing! I have no pics yet, but I promise some later this week. Three words best describe him: large, harry, and angry.

I'll try to have some painted pics up for you later this week.

Scott

Robot Agent Revealed

The Yeti Agent sometimes needs backup on a really tough mission, so he is paired with the Robot Agent, a complex machine who gained sentience after being exposed to a bizarre alien energy source unleashed in a laboratory accident.

Practically indestructible and eager to explore his newfound humanity, the Robot Agent proves himself reliable under the direst conditions.

ZD 3 Robot Agent $3.95 (available late August 2009)





Scott

Not Sweating the Small Stuff

A couple of buddies of mine showed up at the game shop on Sunday with some 10mm HOTT armies built with Warmaster figures. I have never been a big fan of Warmaster, but I love the miniatures. The best 10mm fantasy around, IMHO. Anyway, suitably inspired, I scoured the store's tubs of old GW blisters and came up with a nice selection of Warmaster Lizardmen.

These were priced along the old price-guides, so they were a lot cheaper than the current MSRP. I bought a load of them, including the Slann Mage Priest and the Stegadon. I've got plenty for 24 AP for HOTT, but I am looking for more if anyone is interested in a trade!

I played a lot of Chipco's Fantasy Rules! set in the late 1990's, and HOTT is a bit simpler than that. I had a big Lizardmen army for that rule set based off of Chipco's pre-packaged line of 15mm lizardmen from other manufacturers. I prefer 10mm for these sorts of games because it feels more like a "real" army because there are more guys on the base.

Started painting a few strips last night and remembered what a pleasure it is to paint this scale. I'll have some pics soon, I hope.

Scott

Yeti Agent Revealed!

Fresh from the mountain fastness of the Himalayas comes the latest operative for the Agency, a world-wide intelligence outfit that utilizes superhumans for the most dangerous missions.











This is code ZD4 Yeti Agent. He'll retail for $3.95 and be part of our late August 2009 release.

For scale purposes, here's a shot of him next to one of our "normal" sized 28mm SuperFigs:




Hope you like him as much as I do!

Scott

Glock-Roach Gets the Royal Treatment

John Price is at it again with another nice review of a SuperFig on Screaming Alpha. This time he covers one of our favorites, the Glock-Roach!

Here's the link:

http://thescreamingalpha.com/2009/06/18/review-the-glock-roach-by-four-color-figures/

Super-Building!

SuperSystem fan Adam Souza has a great new terrain piece up on his site:

http://4colorearth.tripod.com/id11.html

Adam displays some mastery over the paper terrain medium in this one--not always an easy thing to do!

Scott

New SuperFig Codes Released in Late August 2009

Here's the list of codes and prices:

ZD 1 Mono-Bots (5 multi-part figures) $12.00
ZD 2 Dark Man $3.95
ZD 3 Robot Agent $3.95
ZD 4 Yeti Agent $3.95
ZD 5 Eel $3.95
ZD 6 Star-Krong $7.95
ZD 7 Major Meteor $3.95
ZD 8 Ape-Ace $3.95
ZD 9 Mazon $3.95
ZD 10 Crossbow $3.95
ZD 11 Blue Monk $3.95
ZD 12 Leo-IX $3.95
ZD 13 The Pride (5 figures) $12.00
ZD 14 Ferax $7.95

I've previewed a few of these in past posts, and we'll show off some more as we get them painted and photographed. Look for them in late August, early September at the latest.

Scott

Tau and Kroot Update

In addition to working on some SuperFigs related stuff this week, I managed to crank out my Tau command battlesuit that I recently got from Forge World. Because of a miscast and packing error, I ended up using the stock Crisis legs for my suit, but the other FW pieces look great and will give my commander a unique look on the tabletop. All weapon and equipment mounts have been magnetized to allow for swap-outs based on the opponent. I used rare earth magnets to do this.








And my mad dalliance with the Kroot continues (slowly). I painted two more carnivores this week and thought I'd snap a few closer pics to give a better idea of my paint scheme:










I'll have a relatively news-worthy SuperFigs announcement in the next few days. Thanks for reading!

Scott

Behold The Pride!

Here's a shot of the pre-production versions of the Pride, our lion men for SuperFigs. They should be arrving for molding this week. I'll try to get pics of some painted ones up soon after. The plan is do a standard 5-model henchmen pack. So we'll repeat the halberd and pistol poses, and make the sword-wielding model unique in the pack. Pack will retail for between $10 - $12. Leo-IX will be sold separately for $3.95. I'll do some SuperSystem write-ups for these guys and Leo-IX.

Scott

Nobody Asked Me, But...

I decided the above will be a title of a post whenever I just want to lump some random stuff together in one go. So here goes:

• The Lion Men (aka the Pride) are done! Bob Naismith sent me final images of the figures, I approved them, and they are winging their way to Old Glory for casting. When I have some masters cast up in two weeks or so, I will post some images. I am leaning toward a late summer 2009 release for the 10-15 codes of SuperFigs I have amassed over the last two years. More previews to come...
• The last two issues of my favorite comic book, Guardians of the Galaxy, have been awesome. Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have taken the cosmic supers deep into the War of Kings storyline, and break-neck action abounds. As a big Imperial Guard fan, it's great to see them in action against the Guardians! After a period of musical fill-in artists, Brad Walker is settling in nicely as the book's new regular penciler. His lines are a bit softer than fan favorite Paul Pelletier's, but the stuff looks great! If Paul and Rick Magyar do not return after the 6-issue War of Kings series, the book is in good hands with Mr. Walker.
• Since I'm mentioning my favorite Marvel space-based supers title, I should also pimp my favorite DC cosmic title, R.E.B.E.L.S. Great stories from Tony Bedard and gorgeous art highlight this "proto-Legion of Super Heroes" in the contemporary DC universe. Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis might have detected my love for rock-based characters, so seeing Strata back in a regular monthly title is awesome!
• The parts fit on GW's Krootox kit is abysmal. I had forgotten just how bad it was. Great model, but really lousy assembly.
• Not a sports blog, but I have to bid a fond farewell from my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates to Nate McClouth. Traded to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects, Nate was my favorite Bucco. On bad Bucs teams Nate was always a tremendous asset, and when he got to play full-time last year he became a sensation. I know he'll perform well for Atlanta, especially with Chipper Jones protecting him in the lineup, but Nate's quote to the media on the trade sums up why this city loved him so dearly: "This was my 10th year in the organization. There were a lot of people I got to know well. And the toughest part, really, is that I wanted to win here. This organization is such a big part of me." Best of luck, Nate! I've never been a Braves fan, but part of me is now.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Scott

The Call of the Kroot

Well, having just "finished" an 1100 pt. Tau force for Warhammer 40K, I now find myself working on another Kroot army. Back in 2003-2004 I built and painted a Kroot Merc force. Now in 5th ed. 40K there are no official rules for this, but there is a nifty fan-made codex that works well enough--as long as you're not fond of winning much!

Below is a shot of my old Kroot force, which I sold a while back to someone in the Pacific Northwest.





I had quite a bit more. My latest Kroot force is in its nascent stages, and will be started with the Carnivores from my Tau army:




Not sure where this will lead me. I may add some Great Gnarlocs from Forge World, or I may just focus on the stuff I can readily get at my FLGS: Kroot Carnivores, Hounds, and Krootox. I may run out of gas on this, but luckily this time I have a co-conspirator, Joe Urban of the Sons of Blight blog. He's agreed to add some Kroot to the pot and combined forces with me. We can lose horribly together!

Scott

WAYWO Returns

Just a quick note to let folks no that my buddy Jeff just released the latest episode of our podcast, What Are You Working On (WAYWO). You can find it here:

http://waywo.podbean.com/

Another note on the contents and one project I was working on as that was recorded. I am no longer working on a Dwarf force (or any force) for GW's War of the Ring. After playing a sample game or two, the rules did not "grab" me. That doesn't mean I think they're bad, but I would rather spend my free gaming time prepping an RPG, working on a WH40K force, or working on SuperFigs/SuperSystem related projects. Who knows, I may circle back to WotR at some point, but not in the near future.

In completely unrelated news, I had a look at the Free RPG Day Rogue Trader: Forsaken Bounty booklet from FFG. It is awesome, and Rogue Trader promises to be every bit as slick and cool as Dark Heresy. The sample characters provided appear to be more powerful than starting characters in DH, with stats about 10% - 15% higher across the board. Starting equipment is also much better. The Rogue Trader himself has a power sword.

Can't wait to snag this book, either when it debuts at Gen Con, or in my FLGS sometime after. Or both!


Scott