Project Update October

So you may have seen little in the way of updates since The Wild Ones got uploaded. Thing is, my course has taken a lot more of my time then I had originally hoped and because I'm having another major depression downwards spiral again. As such, projects will be kept on hold for a few weeks until the assignment period is up. After that, I have a few projects to work on, though when they get done I've stopped promising, but I'll be slowly working on these over the holiday period. Here are a few of them.

AoS:

- A small unit of Horrors (Technically they are Pink Horrors, but I'm going to just go crazy colour on them).
- A small unit of Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch (and Champions, a Lord etc)
- Possibly more Skaven stuff (I still have that Mordheim band to work on too), looking into Stormfiends as an option.

40K:

- Finishing a few more models to create my Inquisitor Warband Kill-Team (Two more to complete it)
- Both Inquisitors (and a few more henchmen)
- Inquisitorial Chimera
- Genestealer Cult Primus
- Possible Genestealer Cult Kill-Team (postponed for time being)
- Chaos Space Marine Possessed Kill-Team

Malifaux:

- McTavish + Gators
- Jakob Lynch's Crew
- Viktoria's Crew
- Colette's Crew
- Possible future stuff

Other:

- More Mouslings
- Possibly looking at the Marvel miniatures game, but I doubt I'll get that far for a while. If I were to start, I'd look at focusing on a Guardians of the Galaxy crew first (I'm also looking at those 90's X-men, but that's more because I was a fan of Gambit and Rogue from the show).

Apart from the Genestealer Cult Kill-Team and future Malifaux stuff, I already own the models and it's more just never getting around to it or never felt like working on them (the joys of clinical depression). So much of this stuff is just sitting in containers and I really want to get some of them finished. Some of them (like the Possessed and Inquisitors) are mostly done and just need a little time and a tone of motivation to work on them. Some things (like Malifaux and the Kill-Teams) are more serious in the painting styles while other stuff like the Horrors are meant for me to have more fun with doing as part of my on going treatment.

This is also the list of miniatures to be done and I do plan to work on other things during this time too. I'll be putting the things I'm learning in my course into some use as to practice and get better at them. I also plan to get that puppet idea done too, though I still need more foam and trying to obtain it in Australia is extremely difficult. I really do want to get that done and start practicing using the puppet, recording and editing to see what happens.

My biggest problem (as so many people have pointed out about me) is that I'm full of ideas, but making them practical is still something I need to learn. It's one thing to have big ideas, it's another to ensure you are focused and skilled enough to pull them off.

Thoughts on Character Creation - The Making of Dimitri Benois

 This article is still WiP

So as much as I love to give my thoughts on creating characters, I felt it would be interesting to actually go through the creation of an original character (a.k.a an OC) for a game I like. So here is the basic and simplified process that went into creating my OC for the miniatures game Malifaux.

Part 1 - The Idea

So things had not gone well for me after the collapse of Warhammer Fantasy and for a while I thought I'd just give up on the hobby. It was then I stumbled on a metal miniature for a game called Malifaux. It was a greenskin called a Gremlin, a LaCroix. Thus, I delved into the world of Malifaux.

Gremlins was my faction and the more I read the more I liked them. Greenskins who were a mix of the Hillbillies stereotype and cowboys. They were about booze, banjos and guns. Having started collecting and playing, I really wanted to do battle reports. The idea came of an individual who would introduce the games in the form of a story format. A banjo playing, story telling Gremlin. Despite writing a few ideas down, this part never got off the ground due to not being able to really draw and colour characters, but the idea still remained.

Part 2 - The RPG

Wanting to learn more about the world of Malifaux, I purchased the RPG players manual, a game called Through the Breach. While being a humans point of view, it still gave me ideas thanks to it's classes (called Pursuits) and it's skills and talents section.

I gave my Gremlin character more focus on areas like music (banjo), social skills like bewitch and convince with more survival areas like evade. The Performer pursuit was more to his style as a musician and story teller. A traveler who has seen things, been places and is always ready to tell others about it (even if they don't want to hear it). But he still wasn't done, still didn't feel right.

Part 3 - Into the Bayou

Given things hadn't gotten too far and the battle report idea was now pushed back to just an idea, progress on the character stopped. That all changed with the release of the RPG expansion 'Into the Bayou', a Gremlin themed add-on. The information was exactly what I needed for this character. New traits, an advanced pursuit called a Virtuoso who debuffed/buffed much like a Bard through music (a goal for my character to achieve to), but best of all was the family names. Each Gremlin belonged to a family and it was basically their last name. It was your allegiance and what your family was like was going to help shape you growing up.

Up until this point my character had simply been referred to as 'The Narrator', the one who told the stories. With this new character creation, I flipped the cards and let fate decide. As a result, a few finer details emerged.

- His name was Dimitri Benois. The Benois family were between the Joneses and the LaCroix families, but also near one of the human towns too. From this I had it that Dimitri had learned an equal amount of his music knowledge from them as he had his own kind.

- He had drawn the Magical Conduit talent from the Conflict talent section, meaning positive magic buffs on him would also heal, but took extra damage from offensive magic. I had pictured his in his younger days walking into magical ruins and experiencing an event that would change him (something he refuses to speak about to this day).

- His fate once flipped stated:
- The moon whispers secrets in silver light
- and you will rise above the vile crowd below
- the rapids sweep you from the path
- If you hold him back
- and the eyes in the darkness will change you

Not sure what it all means, but there are some dark aspects to his fate.

He's not strong and not very cunning, but he is very charming and somewhat tenacious. Has alright speed too.

- Having set when he learned what skills at what times, I built his background on this and above. This was the brief story of his past:

Growing up, Dimitri wasn't the strongest of his siblings and wasn't much of a trouble maker either. Despite this, he rarely got into trouble as while he might have appeared to be an easy target to place the blame on when his siblings caused trouble, his way with words seem to convince the elders of his innocence. Some grew jealous of him, while others found him charming. That said, he was adventurous and would love to explore places when trips were made. One such little adventure had a more permanent effect on him, though what happened to him, Dimitri will not say. He had a fascination with the sounds of the banjo and the stories told by others.

As he grew older, Dimitri began interacting more with the Humans and learned much about their way of life and their music. He soon found his natural talent with the banjo drew more attention and that he was able to duel with the best of them. Practicing more and more, he could pluck the strings faster then most and was well noted for making the pace of a dance to go faster and faster, leaving them exhausted by its end. He would travel across the land, see many things and would return to the Bayou with stories of both adventure and action. His skills with both instrument and words had the ladies flirting with him and the guys offering him booze. Any normal Gremlin might have been content with this lifestyle, but Dimitri felt something different, as if a calling to be elsewhere. Fate had plans for Dimitri, though what they were was something he did not know.....yet.

Personality wise, Dimitri comes off as both positive and optimistic, yet he hides a number of secrets. He tends to not talk much about his past and certainly such a hidden event in it might explain why he is quick to stand in defense of the swamp hag Zoraida and is always willing to help her without asking for anything in return (it's hinted that she rescued him from that something which was responsible for his 'Magical Conduit' conflict talent). While he seems to appear fine on the outside, a keen ear can pick up his true emotions through his music, a passion of Dimitri's.

A veteran of a number of scruff ups, Dimitri always has a tale to tell and loves nothing more then recalling a conflict he saw or was in, with the occasional exaggeration to improve the excitement of a story, though he will never outright lie or deceive his listeners with cruel falsehoods (he respects his audience too much for that). He tends to encourage his fellow Gremlins to have fun and tends to flirt with a local lass or two, though he doesn't seem to have anyone in particular to focus on (though he has admitted that it's more down to finding someone who is more a kindred spirit then just simply hooking up with a cute girl).

In a fight, Dimitri isn't so much a coward as he is just very cautious. He knows he isn't much of a fighter, but isn't the type to simply run away and leave others to their fate. After all, how is he to tell the latest tale of his recent encounters if he isn't there to see it. If anything, his banjo is his greatest weapon because once he starts plucking those strings and the speed increases, his music can have a devastating effect.

- The future of Dimitri would be shaped by plans I had, but there was still some things that needed to be done before he was ready.

Part 4 - The Design

With the character in full swing, now was the time to start planning the design. I felt the best way was to start with the designing of a miniature. As luck would have it, the next wave was herald by the arrival of the newest book, Ripples of Fate. In this book came a set of miniatures I had longed for, the Banjonista (banjo playing Gremlins). The idea was simple, take the male banjo player, replace his head and green-stuff some extras. The only problem was a) the Banjonista were not yet released and b) I had not yet picked a head to be the replacement. For the head I had a few options, the first being that of a Bayou Gremlin while another was Burt Jebson, but converted with a more closed jaw and converted hat. I did have a spare Bayou Gremlin, but when I went looking for him, he had vanished. So at this point, there was some thinking to do.

Months later (cause things happen in life that tend to drag me away from these things) and something occurred to me, I can't play as Dimitri in a game of Through the Breach. I had advanced the character so far in creating it and moving his story forward that he has evolved to be more of a story driven NPC then an actual player character. This is where Maurice comes in to help solve the design problem. It was from this revelation that I decided to create a second character to use for if I ever got to play the game, one who had some information preset, yet still be enough of a blank slate to still need things like the creation flips to set him up (which is why he has no family name yet). What was determined was that he would be a Boozer with the occasional time spent as a Pugilist. As such, there was a perfect model to represent that, a Bayou Gremlin who is ready for a fist fight with a jug of moonshine on him. It is this model I have decided to use, swapping the head with the Banjonista (when they come out) with some green stuff and a few Warhammer Empire troop booze bottles thrown in. This would be the set up for the basic design for both of these characters.

Stage 1

Sadly, that plan didn't go the way I'd wanted it to go. While I did find that missing Gremlin, my original idea was sort of scrapped when I realised that the heads of the various plastic Gremlins were not of the same size. As such, I decided to keep the head of the current Banjonista (I wasn't too keen on the beard, but what can you do) and use one of the Bayou Gremlin hats as I felt a famous banjo player like himself needs a big hat to show his importance. The ears needed to be worked on slowly, heating up some pliers and bending them several times to fit more into place with the hat. My plan was to green stuff some hair and a coat, possibly some sort of foot wear. However, I still needed ideas for a base and a paint scheme. I didn't need to look too far for the latter.

Turns out one day I started humming a song and wondering where I had last heard it. Turns out it was from this classic gem of a movie:

This movie is a comedy about a country boy living on his families apple farm in Tasmania. His name is Albert Einstein and his famous mass-energy equivalence formula is what put bubbles into beer, but also ends up creating an atomic bomb. Yes, it is an incredibly silly movie, but one I do enjoy. As such, the plan will now take some inspiration from his clothing (he does have a hat and coat also in the movie) and I may even make a few modifications to his banjo, though I am unsure if I could pull off a decent enough conversion on it to make it a good reference. Unsure if I should paint the pants similar to his main clothing (as seen here on the poster) or the jeans like riding pants he used when horse riding (which would blend more with the usual Gremlin clothing).



To Be Continued...

How Long is Too Long?

One of these big questions I've had over the last year or so is how long is too long for a series to run. As a fan of various series over the years, I feel in some cases some should have ended sooner where as others should have gone on longer. I've give two examples: Gravity Falls and MLP: Friendship is Magic.

Take MLP:FiM. Right now we are finishing up season 6, moving into season 7  with a movie on the way. For me, I feel that the series is beginning to run out of ideas (I admit I really watch most just once and never re-watch most of the last few series due to more of them being less interesting compared to earlier episodes), which can lead to unnecessary changes to story and characters, ones that may not go to well with some people. Hell, I feel the movie idea is a few years too late as it won't grab as many people now the height of the fandom has already peaked and is now cooling down.

Gravity Fall on the other hand only lasted two seasons before wrapping up with a nice conclusion, yet many felt it could have gone on longer and had more stories to tell. Here was a show that was reaching it's peak, but cut itself too short for many fans. That's not to say anything bad about it as unlike many shows they did give it a great ending that finalized the series, but did leave it open for continuation down the road.

Don't get me wrong, both a great shows and I do enjoy them, yet one must wonder how does one tell when a series reach the point when it just has to end? I gave two cartoon examples above, but you could literally apply it to any media series (television show, comic, game etc). In my experience, somethings have gone on for so long that they get different writers in who decide a story or character(s) need to go in a new direction, changing completely without proper explanation. A character who seemed deep and who's personality was one thing, suddenly changes to a polar opposite out of nowhere and any explanation never justifies the change. This is one of my biggest fears when it comes to something I begin to follow, a steady build up and path, only for something to undo it all without the need for it. I guess it's something fans go through, but when milking a series for all it's worth, is it really worth it if it ends up destroying it and alienating a fan base?

I don't know, but it does open itself up for an interesting discussion.

Genestealer Cults

I know right, "Why talk about GW? Didn't you finish with them?"

No, not really. I stated I hated the company, not the product. Even though there is very little they produce now that has any interest to me, they do occasionally pull something out of the bag. I admit, I really don't keep up with GW news lately (hell, I have long since stopped going to the Bell of Lost Souls website as that place has now become a pool of putrid hate and vile), so it took me by surprise to see that they actually did bring out a Codex: Genestealer Cult. While I still feel the miniatures are a little overpriced (seriously, the cheapest unit to buy are the Purestrain Genestealers, who are actually better then those from Codex: Tyranids and have been out for sometime), their design is faithful to the those original metal models long ago.

Their rules actually look rather good and despite the cost of the miniatures, their in-game cost does feel right. They actually have rules that match the fluff, which is a rather nice change. That said, I am not a fan of all these battle formation things (even those of AoS) as they all feel to benefit those with a larger wallet then those who just want to play a fun game. I am aware they do have points costs to balance it, but I guess this is more of a topic for another time.

My only real disappointment was the lack of some larger monstrosities. Given their genetic nature of infection, you'd think they could alter the genetic material of the more larger, passive creatures on a world and use them as rampaging beasts or mounts. Perhaps the next edition maybe. Overall, this is probably something that actually has my attention and even though I'm not big on 40K (I feel most of it's lore and stories have become rather dull and uninteresting over the years), I will probably consider getting a few to paint and may even get enough for a Kill-Team some time down the long road. Given the recent update to the Kill-Team rules, I would be rather interested in formulating such a team.

I new it sounded familiar..

So I've been playing a game or two of Heroes of the Storm here and there with my brother and I've been listening to the comments of Alarak and for some reason I felt the voice sounded familiar. Having just looked it up, I found out he was voiced by John de Lancie. For those who don't know, he played Q in Star Trek and Discord in MLP: FiM. Gotta say, he has an amazing voice. Feel I need to get the character now just to enjoy the voice (though, that said, I got Medivh just hoping the character starts quoting Raziel's sayings from Soul Reaver).

Malifaux Experiences: Dark Debts Crew

So I'm wanting to come up with ideas for articles to write and this has been floating around for some time. Malifaux experiences is a series where I talk about my experiences from playing, versing and even watching others use certain models in Malifaux. Please note, this is not a guide to play them nor is it meant to be a tactics guide, it's just my views on how the models play from my experiences. To start us off, let's talk about the one crew I have yet to beat, that from the Dark Debts box set.

Jakob Lynch

I must admit, I have had very little in the way of experiences with this Master. What I have learned is that this character is great for dishing out the Brilliance characteristic with his Pay for Blood attack and the Hungering Darkness really benefits from his upgrades of The Rising Sun (if killed he is buried and when an enemy model with the Brilliance characteristic is killedwithin 6", old HD is placed back next to that model good as new before they are removed) and Endless Hunger (HD's Terrifying now counts as All and he gets a bonus Action Point to use a Ca action).

Shifting Loyalties: Even though a Master can only be hired halfway through the campaign, one benefit that Lynch has is his Ace in the Hole ability, where if an ace is drawn during a friendly models phase, then he may place it in his hand after the actions resolved. This can be useful cause when a model dies, you need to flip a two or less in order to avoid flipping on the injury chart and so by having an ace you can cheat that in. Avoiding injuries can prove very useful in the later parts of the campaign.

Hungering Darkness

Don't be fooled by his DF 3, it is very misleading if you are not prepared. It might be easier to hit him, but if you use the wrong model then you might be surprised at how well he can do. His Incorporeal ability means he takes half damage from MI and Sh attacks and you quickly find that he can take a lot of hits to remove him. Magical attacks or Ca attacks are your best bet to take him down quickly. At Terrifying (Living) 12, one must need to

Healing is another factor with HD, as he has two means to do it. The first is his tactical action called Consume Brilliance in which he heals one wound for each model with the Brilliance characteristic within 6" aura of him, but those models must take a TN 13 horror duel. Given that the base WP of your crew with that characteristic will be 6, this is a little risky, but can prove very useful in small games where he is the crew leader. The second is his Tendrils attack which has a built in mask. There are two triggers he can use, the first being to heal two wounds and the other to apply Brilliance. This can be difficult to decide as the attack does get positive flips to damage vs Brilliance and with the Addict upgrade gets a positive flip to attack and damage flips (so technically double positive to damage flips). Damage vs Healing is a hard one to decide, it all comes down to how positive you feel about the situation.

Oh yes, with that last attack, a rams gets you a 4/5/7 damage instead of 2/4/6. With those positive flips, you could deal some real damage, particularly against other Incorporeal models.

I have found that taking half damage from non-casting/non-magical attacks along with his constant healing makes it difficult to remove in smaller games. A real nascence when trying to assassinate him. 

Shifting Loyalties: If you want him to lead your crew, remember that to hire a 0 cost character, they are thirteen minus their soul stone cache, so that brings HD to a cost of 8 Soul Stones to use. Since you now have to add the leaders cost to your crew hiring, it's important to remember this if you want to run a Brilliance crew.

The Illuminated

While not as horrifying as HD (they are living 10), there DF 5 is only slightly better, but they do get Armor +1. Just like HD, they do have the ability to heal, though somewhat differently. First off, they get to regenerate one wound when they activate, they also get a single cast of Brillshaper, a 0 action which gives a 1/2/3 heal flip and only needs a five or more to cast. This means they can heal between 1-4 wounds per turn (depending if you cast successfully and how much you heal on the flip). Given they are resilience and the free cost of healing, it can be difficult to remove them and without any real focus damage, they can prove to be a real headache to deal with.

They do have a decent melee and range attack, though against Brilliance is when they become deadly, as their 2/4/5 damage flip gets +2 damage against Brilliance. A second mask gets you the trigger to cheat damage flips, even if they are at a negative flip.

Movie Making - An Introduction Title

One of the fascinating things I'm learning from this SFX course is the difficulty in creating a great movie introduction title sequence. I feel the more I learn the more I find my respect for those behind the scenes grows. In trying to produce one that adheres to the rules of constructing a title sequence with examples to prove ones work, while at the same time making it creative and different, it has proven a lot more difficult then I had originally planned.

The amount of work that goes into such an endevour is quite remarkable, the amount of time spent fixing it after changing something slightly is a little more annoying. Trying to get the camera moving smoothly can get fiddly when you have to move it around a 2D object and then once you decide to alter your idea, you have to make the changes just right or redo it all over again. I think I've spent more time trying to get a 14 sec clip working then the time creating a 3D model with texturing. Still, I've learned a number of neat skills in After Effects that I had never thought was an option and as such it is turning into a rather interesting (if rather stressful) experience.

Things That Annoy Me: Recruit A Friend

There a times where I need to just get things off my chest and so I've decided to do a small series called 'Things that annoy me'. So to start this off, lets discuss the recruit-a-friend scheme that many video games have. So why this? Well, after looking over a few of them and the rewards they give, it occurred to me that for something like this to work I would need to ensure my friends hadn't already joined of their own choice. I can understand the idea to help get more players into a game, but from my experience just about every time one of us goes to send it to the others, we find we're already joined up and therefore ineligible. Hell, some of them really limited you to getting that one item, but you have to sign up a boat load of people. So for all my talk, what would I do?

I'd still like a program to push playing with friends, I'd rather it be a currency and shop type program. Have it that you can set up a number for friends. If they haven't set up yet, then give both the recruiter and the recruited a bonus amount of 'friend' currency. You earn more of this currency by playing with those friends for set periods of time. Then, you can spend such currency at a 'friend' store, which is full of special cosmetic items to choose from. This way, most players have a chance at getting said items, encourages people to sign friends and to spend a lot of time playing with those friends.

I'd like more players to join up and have fun, but there are better ways to encourage it.

Paladins - My First Impressions

So with the massive raging that Paladins was some type of Overwatch clone (or whatever people were yammering on about), I finally decided to give it a go. Having played it all I can say is that I am going to need a lot more practice. The gameplay is the usual Heroes V Heroes in an objective based match and once you pick your character, you stay that character for the whole match and players on your team can't be the same character. I'm fine with this as it helps me get better suited to the characters I would be playing as.

Speaking of which, at least half the roster is unlocked to start with and you can unlock the rest through cash (the in-game currency) or gems (the real-life currency). Again, being a Free-to-play (F2P) game, this is something I'd expect. The outfits are rather limited (it is in beta) so there aren't a lot of cool looking designs, but I'd guess we could see a bunch more in the future (it's how free-to-play games make their money).

Game wise, I enjoyed it. I'm not very good at it, but I had fun. My character was Pip, an anthropomorphic fox/rodent? character who's class was support (cause I always seem to play supporting characters) who's special is to turn enemies he hits with it into chickens for a limited time. I really like Pip. You also have a card deck which you can unlock new cards either through opening chests (from level rewards or from purchasing them with gems) or just paying the cash cost to unlock them. You build a deck of five, but also have a points limit of twelve with them, so my guess is some cards are more powerful then others and this is a way to control that (I didn't have many cards unlocked). You also have a match based currency that unlocks buffs during the match. There a four categories and once you pick a bonus in one, you can't pick any more in that same one (so one per category). That said, each one starts at rank one and can be upgraded to rank three, and you earn the currency for such things from killing heroes, capturing or holding objectives etc. It can get a little confusing and you do find after a few games you will figure out which ones work best with which playstyles.

It feels like a F2P game and it plays like one. This is the kind of game I'd like to play with friends just for a bit of fun with that added drop of frustration thrown in. One might wonder why I'd choose this over a game like Overwatch (you know, apart from the fact it's F2P), but my experiences with that game just rubbed me the wrong way and while I stand by my decision, Overwatch is still a good game. That said, it's not for me. This game however, might be something extra to play here and there for a little enjoyment (as long as I'm playing with a friend anyway).

Creating a Small Display Board

I through out the idea if people wanted me to photograph my miniatures on a white background or on a themed scene and the response was a themed scene. My problem is that while I have the stuff for Gremlins, for most others I don't have. I hope in the future to get print outs to use underneath or small boards that connect, but for now I just have to work on ones for current projects. The recent one was the nightmare box set called 'The Wild Ones', a Lucas McCabe alternate box set. Since I wanted a Guild themed crew, I worked on creating the right crew with a sort of wasteland feel.

Note: This article is simply to give you an idea on how to create a simple board for photographing miniatures on. You don't have to do it like this and is just meant to show that such things can be done easily and hopefully you'll be inspired to make your own. This project was a rush job, so there were various problems here and there. I would suggest taking your time in making your own as you can better pick up faults during the various processes and fix them up before you reach the later stages, which can be extremely difficult to fix up.

As it just so happened, the box that my GenCon order arrived had a cardboard top that suited my plans perfectly. I decided to make the scenic board based on their scenic bases, so that meant making the base on a larger scale. First step was to use a lot of wood filler mixed with black paint. The result darkens it, but it's more a muddy sort of grey-brown colour.

After leaving it overnight to dry, I sanded and glued on a few rocks. I then began layering brown paint followed by a wash or two of black wash. Once dried, I began dabbing various amounts of Agrellan Earth from the GW range. After a few hours, I returned to add an extra amount here and there where it wasn't working.

After leaving it overnight (again), I began layering various layers of paint. These included Zamesi Desert, Karak Stone and Bleached Bone with a very light dry brushing of Terminatus Stone here and there. The rocks were based with Bleached Bone, followed by a brown wash, a Karak Stone drybrush and finally a Terminatus Stone dry brush. A mix of brown and black wash was added into the various cracks that didn't stand out as much, a Gryphonne Sepia was placed in a spot or two along with a mixture of brown and flesh wash to add colour to some spots.

Finally, dried grass clumps were added to finish it off.

I only had a few problems making this and it's very obvious as to where they occurred. The cardboard was slightly bent when I did the layer of wood filler and after it dried I noticed it. I tried to fix it, but it cracked the middle. Worse was the fact that I rushed the layering of the wood filler and you can see it in the overall look. It doesn't matter too much to me personally as it was really only going to be used for a one off set of shots (I doubt I'll do much more guild then this), but for those who want something more permanently, I do suggest taking your time to shape it. Overall, it works for what I wanted it for and the results are acceptable.