After the Battle.

The mad rush is finally over. With the Island of Blood battle day gone, I can finally sit back, relax and focus on other projects now. I still have a Master-bred Rat Ogre and a few skaven projects to finish, but I have a few side chaos & seasonal projects to start on.

As for the battle day, it was 3 choices only and since everyone for Skaven were using their blood island box set, I had been asked to bring something more unusual. Since the Master-bred wasn't complete I chose my Globadiers, Jezzails and the Forgemaster (a 'count's as' Ikit Claw). After a crazy battle with various extra rules thrown in the resault was a Skaven victory (but only just). Needless to say, Grey Seer's a pushy, so in future I must remember to ensure that a few stray poison wind globes fall near them.

I'll post up a brief report soon.

Be very,very quiet...We're hunting Art thieves.

As I check on deviantArt regually (I'm here), I was reading the journal of one of the artists I have on deviantwatch.

Journal Update

Now I know art theft is common on the internet, but I must say I am impressed that this artist and her friends have managed to find various individuals who have stolen her art and claimed it as their own. She then links their sites and exposes them as art thieves. While it may not seem like much, an artist is very protective of their work and that simple art theft is a major blow to the artist. Sometimes a simple email to the thief will cause them to take the work down, but in many cases that thief may choose to insult the artist back and thus a vulgar and violent language slinging match between the artist's fans and the thief's allies begins. In some cases legal action may be threatened (an artists published work is copyrighted and they can sue you for theft) and in a minority of those cases it actually goes to court.

I applaud this artists actions and hope that down the track people will stop stealing her work, which is fantastic I must say. Now if only I could draw that good.

Alas poor MundoRare..

MundoRare Closes

In a recent looking through sites I visit occasionally, I was shocked to discover that MundoRare, a fan site of Rare, had decided they could no longer continue. MundoRare has been a great sorce of Rareware info and to see them having no choice but to close is disheartening. I admit that this whole 'wii' clone style that Microsoft is doing is rather boring as having both an Xbox 360 and a Wii there is no way in hell I'm going to get a wii-style game for my Xbox, cause that's what the wii was for duh! (plus Nintendo have had time to fine-tune their system games, unlike Microsoft). So while people like myself wait for another Conker or Perfect Dark game, Microsoft will keep pushing companies like Rare into whatever direction they like.

That said, I don't think Rare is itself without blame, though the recent fan abuse is somewhat uncalled for. Even MundoRare coped it too. For those that didn't understand, they were planning on closing it down but decided to go for an all-or-nothing shot with a documentary. When Rare shot them down, they had really no choice. Another publicity attempt to win back fans blundered and any hope of redemption for Rare (atleast in MundoRare's point of view) was lost. I admit that trying to run an up to date website on something that appears to be dying in your eyes is not worth the amount of time it takes up.

As for the future of Rare itself, I wonder if they suffer poor sales for Kinect Sports will cause Microsoft to distance itself from Rare or will Microsoft accept responsibility and admit their Natal (seriously, is that what the things called?!) project seemed doomed from the start. Somehow, I doubt the latter will occur.

Ken vs Archie update

It seems many have expressed their...concern over the issue. This has forced Ian into fan cooldown by giving a brief personal view on the matter.

Ian says :)

While this is also my point of view, it at least shows that they are taking it seriously and still pushing for the future.

Skaven March On

Sat - 10th

The battle was a multi-force battle with Chaos, Greenskin and Vampire allies vs Dwarf, Dark Elf and Empire alliance. My force was Snikkitch and his 50 strong Skavenslave unit. Unfortunately for me, the opponents had limited numbers and so were given a Steam Tank. The tank went for me, but where as the Vamp lord character Mannfred and his skeleton group got beat in turn 2, mine lasted till turn 3. I re-arranged my slaves now into a single group.

Wed - 14th

My first battle vs Greenskins at 1,000pts proved to be interesting. It finish in turn 5 with a Greenskin victory, but it was a very rocking battle. My Doomwheel was just crazy and ultimately destroyed a large unit of Goblins and magic n Jezzails shrunk down the unit of Black Orcs and their Warboss. More embarrassingly for them, they got beaten by the Slaves in turn 4 and fled being overrunned by the slaves. The Globadiers win the award for comedy, 4 killing themselves by dropping their orbs, yet the 6 or so hits failed to wound the enemy.

I have been 'encouraged' by the staff to drop Gnithnik and put a chieftain instead for Ld and hitting/survival. As such, I have begun working on Glitch - Skith's Chosen Champion, a converted Skryre Chieftain. Expect to see him soon on my deviantART page.

Whipp'n Da Slaves

With tomorrows release of the new edition of Warhammer, our city store is throwing battles about. The only real rules is that you must bring one regiment and a hero to lead them. Unfortunately, the only unit of force I have are my Skaven slaves. So I've spent today adding another 16 more models (Lizardmen Skinks) to produce a good 50 strong slave unit with Snikkitch at the helm. I am so ticked from painting, it's really getting annoying, so what better way then to force these guy's into battle.....that'll teach em.

Now your probably thinking, 'What the hell? Why use one of the worst units in the game?'
Yep, all I need to do is loose a single break test and it's all over for me. Sounds like fun to me and who knows, perhaps if they win the fight it will be more humiliating for the opponent.

We shall see...

What is Ken Penders up to?

I've been a big fan of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog series, but recently this link caught my eye.

http://www.kenpenders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=133

Now my thoughts are - WTF? Is he serious?

Don't get me wrong, I loved what he did with the series and as the owner of a number of characters it is easy to get attached to them, but I am wondering what is the point of this venture? I was under the assumption that when you work for a company and are working with such an icon of a rather strict owner (Sega is well know for their over-protection of their characters at times) that anything you produced and published was owned by them since you needed their permission to print anything. Apparently, the U.S Copyright Office see's it differently.

What worries me is the future for both the characters and the comic itself. Though I admit I'm not too happy with the comics current story n character progress, the possibility of a massive overhaul or even cancellation has me cringing and confused. What's going through Pender's mind? What does he hope to achieve by doing this? And is this a good thing or a bad thing? Personally, I don't know. From what I've gathered, Archie comic's lawyers have said it won't cause problems and given Sega's history, they won't take it lightly.

I wonder how this will effect other artist's and companies in the future, as I'm sure this isn't the first (nor the last) time this has happened.

Projects - July

This month is Skaven month for me. With my new digital camera and the release of the newest addition of Warhammer, I've decided to put as much effort into completing my 1,000pt army. Unfortunately due to the new points list percent, I've had to make changes (see Blog) by reducing points from my heroes and adding them to other units and that means.......I now have an additional 22 more models to paint...sigh.

It's also single fantasy miniature at the stores mini-demon comp and for this entry I will be painting Packmaster Skweel Gnawtooth. Though I am dedicated to Clan Skryre, the Skweel model and story is something that has caught my attention and I look forward to painting him.

As July moves on I'll try to give updates on my Blog of how things are going and when I start playing I may attempt to write my battle reports through narrative story.

1,000 pts Revised

With the changes in the latest Warhammer rulebook, I've had to alter my list.

The Terrible Trio!

Heroes
Snikkitch (Warlock Engineer) - 150 pts
- Level 2 Wizard, Warpstone Armour, Warp-Energy Condenser

Gnithnik (Warlock Engineer) - 100 pts
- Level 1 Wizard, Warpmusket, Warlock Optics

Core
Skavenslaves (25) - 68.5 pts
- Shields, Musician, Pawleader

Skavenslaves (25) - 68.5 pts
- Shields, Musician, Pawleader

Stormvermin (15 + 1) 230 pts
- Shields, Full Command, Banner of the Under-Empire, Fangleader has Rat Hound
- Attached: Doom-Flayer

Rat Swarms (2) - 50 pts

Special
Poisoned Wind Globadiers (7) 75 pts
- Bombardier

Warplock Jezzails (5) 110 pts
-Sharpshooter Team

Rare
Snikkotto (Driving Doomwheel) - 150 pts


Total Points - 1,002 pts


So now I'm forced to paint even more models now. Still, this allows me to strengthen my Stormvermin more and add Lizardmen Skinks to my slaves.

Projects - June

What a nightmare May turned out to be. So far I've completed 3 out of 10 stormvermin with 2 more to be finished today. Interestingly, my local GW store will hold a mini-demon comp in preperation for the up-coming Golden Demon comp. It's limited to 40k only, but gives me a chance to practice my more recent skills to enhance my old Ork force. I've gone through my bitz and made an Ork with big shoota for it and will begin work on it next week.

Real pain is most of my planned entries will now be put on hold for reasons I have no real control over, so lesser projects will be made for the comp. I will still do the planned ones, but they may not be completed until the end of the year. On the bright side, I will have a digital camera of my own within the next few weeks, so I can finally set-up a good spot where I live to take better shots (I currently need to go to my mothers house to take them and as you my have noticed, lighting there isn't the best).

Till next time..

Projects - May

As if loosing my internet for over 2 weeks wasn't bad enough, now I'm down with the flu. This has put me behind with my Golden Demon projects (plus other projects) and left me feeling just a wee bit annoyed. Oh well, on the bright side I did complete my Skaven slaves and Gnithnik, my warpmusket n doom rocket armed Warlock Engineer.

Currently I'm working on my 10 rat Stormvermin which are not only for my army, but are also my regiment entry for GD 2010 (though they havn't gone too well so far) and am doing a number of test 'ghost' paint schemes for my Duel category entry (more on that later).

Goblins! I Hate Goblins!!!

Seriously, I hate them. Took quite some time to paint 20 night goblins. Why? Cause I'm making two mixed units of Skaven slaves using Clanrats and Night Goblins. Thank the great horned one it's finally done. Though I'm still working on finishing the skaven for the slave units, I have just finish converting the Jezzails champion and my second warlock engineer, Gnithnik.

Gnithnik has been a most amusing conversion to do as I have modeled him to hold a Warpmusket (it's really a Kroot rifle) and a Doom Rocket (bitz from the lootaz/burna boyz box set).

That said, I will now slow down the work on my army to begin focusing on my entries for Golden Demon 2010 and yes you guessed it, my fantasy entries will be Skaven based. My main focus this year will be the Duel and Fantasy Large Model catagories. I also plan to enter the fantasy single model and regiment as well as 40k single model and large model. I do plan to show some work in progress shots later in the year too.

Skaven Awaken

After a long period of....nothing, I have finally completed my Doom-Flayer. Mass engine of destruction, this spiky bastard took time and effort and I for one am happy with the results. By the end of this weekend I should have finish my Rat Swarms and started work on my Skaven slaves. That's right, I'm actually going to do a Skaven force. I love converting and painting them so much I'm going to do an army on them. I will do three posts with each one dedicated to an allocated points score (750, 1000 and 2000 pts) with a brief description on each one.

This force will be themed around Clan Skryre and is ment to be a fun army as opposed to say a Tournament style one. As such it will make use of lots of Skavenslaves as the unfortunate backbone with lots of Clan Skryre special and rare choices. In truth, this is a make or break army as it will probably mean one simple bad roll could send this force spinning out of control. Of course, that's the reason I love it so much.

The only problem I have is with the Warpstone Armour I've added to Snikkitch. It says that it's the only armour a Warlock Engineer can wear, But it doesn't state whether you can cast spells or not while wearing it. I've asked various people for their interpretation of the this item and the armour rule for wizards and so far everyone seems to believe that a Warlock Engineer can cast spells while wearing it. Thanks to those with their opinions and no thanks to the recent Skaven faq which had no such question in it.

Creative Ideas - Thoughts on Character Creation 1

As I was working on an idea for a project (coming soon), a thought had occurred to me: What does it take to turn a simple sketch or miniature into an in-depth character? Looking back onto my most recent one, the Skaven warlock engineer Snikkitch, I decided to jot down some thoughts. Snikkitch will provide some examples.

Name:-

A name is a defining piece of character creation. It's practically a label for the idea it's attached to. It also gives them the first point in their further creation. Names can be simple like 'Fred' to the point of grand like 'Lord Gorejaw Soulkiller the Tormentor'. Names can also give personality to the character, such as a comical name means the character may be of a funny nature, while a serious and violent name would reflect such a personality.

(Having just painted the Skaven warlock engineer model, I felt that he needed a name. The thought 'Snikkitch' came to me and from that point on, that was his name)

Personality and traits:-

So you've given your character a name, now what? It's time to ask yourself some questions like:
What's he/she like? Are they a passive or aggressive type? Adventurous? etc
Do they have any defining features? What do they like/dislike?
Simple things like favorite colour/foods/etc can also be helpful in defining them.

Once you have some of these questions answered, then you can put those pieces together and give them a basic personality. This too will evolve over time and the more the character is used the more in-depth the personality will become.

(A warlock engineer of Clan Skryre, Snikkitch has a personality like most Skaven; egotistical, devious, treacherous etc. He is a powerful caster and brilliant inventor, but is always suffering setbacks and failures mostly due to bad luck, though he always escapes punishment. Despite being a serious Skaven, he's usually the unfortunate comic releaf)

History and Family:-

A history is a great way to flesh out a character. By giving them a past, you have shown a path they have walked on to reach where they are now. Family too can also help in this respect. The allow you to create new characters who have had a part in also shaping the characters life. This can also lead to building up these new characters for later use as well.

(Snikkitch is a part of a three brother berthing A.K.A triplets. His other two brood-brothers are Gnithnik and Snikkotto. The three have formed a secret allegiance to over-throw their current clans sub-ruler, the Forgemaster Skith)

Conclusion:-

Obviously this is just a small part of the character creation and evolution process, but it may give you some idea on what to think next time you do a quick sketch while bored or paint that miniature that's lying about.

Projects - March

So February proved to be just as uneventful, but no matter as things in March have finally started on a roll. The Skaven slaves have been whipped (literally) into action as work on the Doom Flayer gets underway. Snikkitch has also been muttering something, but hasn't proven too helpful. As for the mask, it's still a work in progress, as is the Vampire, and the Chaos Ogre, and the Knight.....

Hopefully I can get some work posted up soon. Till then, please check out the fav's section as that's always being updated (over 3900 fav's to this date).

Projects - February

Projects for this month have been rather slow. This is due to just not being motivated enough to do them. I am working on obtaining a digital camera so I can post some pics of what I have completed and who knows, may even do up some guides on how I do certain paint jobs.

As for what my current project is, it's half a mask. You know, phantom of the opera style shape. Seems I'm not happy with my current profile pic (for one site anyway) so I plan to do up this mask and add a slightly more creative look and I must say that it is quite fun.

I'm also planning the projects for March. I find March is always a better time for me, though that's probably because I was born in it. Pisces rules!!

Facebook pages closed due to vandals

The R.I.P Elliot Fletcher and many other pages are gone after, how shall we say it, negative comments were posted. Ok, screw the niceties, what kind of fucking sicko gets their jolleys off vandalizing such a site. I can't tell who's worse - the murderer or the pricks who posted such disrespectful comments and images.

What is the world coming too. A 12-year old is stabbed and dies, a page is set up to let people show their support for the poor victim's family and friends and in less then a day it has been brought low by the sick and twisted. Perhaps it's me, but I just can't seem to understand such an action or the individual's who somehow thinks these actions are ok to do.

A tragedy has occurred and it appears that the worst of society has emerged from it.

Bravehearts Services Cut

http://www.bravehearts.org.au

It seems once again that children have been put aside because of money. It's bad enough that our government's child protection agencies ain't working, but now one of our most valiant organizations in the fight against child sexual abuse has had it's funding cut back and is force to lay off staff and cut back services. The biggest tragedy of all this is that their services are need now more then ever. Child sexual abuse has now become more common and it seems that people will go out of their way to cover it up. Warnings go unnoticed or are simply ignored and when action is taken it is usually too late.

Hetty Johnston and the Bravehearts organization do an outstanding job and have promised to continue to do so. However, they can't be expected to do what the government should be doing, but to cut back their funding is a big mistake.

I fear that only the children will suffer from this.

R18+ for Games - Worth it?

There has been a push lately for the Australian Classification Board to bring in a R18+ rating for video games, but would it actually help? It all depends on your view. For me, the idea in theory seems like a good idea. After all, some of the current M rated games should be classed as R18+ (games such as Bioshock and the GTA series comes to mind). This would give parents a better understanding of what games they're purchasing for their kids, though this itself contradicts the reason for the new rating as parents may still continue to purchase such games for their kids (they handled it under the old system, so this new rating means nothing to them).

So, why all the fuss? A few recent articles from various papers have highlighted Australia's restrictions on games over things like Movies/Books etc. Compared to other countries, Australia is alot tougher on it's restrictions. One example was the Left 4 Dead 2 game, which was forced to lower it's graphical gore in order to be released here. The next example came from the upcoming Alien vs Predator game, in which the game makers had to argue that the killing of humans was part of the franchise and that the humans weren't 'innocent civilian' type characters. Games that involve disturbing storylines, sexual content, offensive material, bloody violence and the killing of humans are what gets scrutinized. So would an introduction of a R18+ help these games to get into Australia.....not really. I believe this is the only reason that some people want this rating.

Personally, I want to believe the reason for this rating introduction is to help protect children. Indeed, as the EFA stated on their site, a number of games that were given a M15+ rating in Australia while they were given adult ratings overseas. It's introduction could help some parents make better decisions when purchasing games, though I feel from some of the comments I've read, it is nothing more then an illusion to make people feel better and that it won't stop these games getting into the hands of those not mature enough to handle them.

Wait....it was cancelled?

As a fan of the Umilical Brothers, I was surprised when on their facebook page they had this link:

Even after receiving critical acclaim, winning awards and most importantly the hearts of children, parents and nannies around the world, the Upside Down Show was still unceremoniously cancelled after its one and only season. WTF? Oh, wait a minute, maybe they found out that Shane doesn't like kids... well, he does like them .. for breakfast! Kidding, I'm kidding... how could you eat kids for breakfast? At the very earliest, brunch. Mmmm, I'm feeling peckish. Anyway, this petition will show investors with insight and imagination that there is a great love of the show and they should join forces with Nickelodeon Australia (who by the way has been hugely supportive of trying to get the film made and have been partially funding the script development. but I digress) to and give our fans what they want.... to see myself, Shane and Fido in a feature length film! Please spread the word.

see you at the Oscars!

david (the curly headed one)

The first thing I thought was...WTF? Cancelled? I use to sit with my little sisters as they watched that show on Nick Jr and I thought it was hilarious. There are many poor quality shows for kids out there so why cancel one of the few decent ones out there. Seriously, these guys can do adult comedy and children's shows too and have been recognized for their achievements. It infuriates me that not only that the show was cancelled, but that they cancelled an Award Winning show. What the hell is wrong with the world today?

So please, sign the petition and help one of the greatest duo's ever.

www.ipetitions.com/petition/upsidedownshowmovie/

And so it begins...

So I thought to myself.....what the hell, let's give it a shot. What will I rant on about? Who knows. Would anyone really care? Probably not. Stay tuned to see what happens.