Introvert and Understanding Myself a Little Better

Sometimes its just great to find things you can relate to and this is one of them, a video titled 'What does it mean to be an introvert'. Not all of it is news to me, but things like this can help you understand yourself a little better, so when I finished I felt a more positive view of myself and that's always a good thing.

Thoughts on Character Creation - How Creating Characters Can Get You Invested in Other Things

Creating characters is always great fun, but sometimes you come across something that gets you not only invested into your character, but into what inspired them too. It's no surprise that I love the movie Zootopia and it would not be long before I'd create my own OC (Original Character), but what to choose?

It had been such a long time since I created a bat character and I absolutely love bats. At first I wanted to use the Grey-Headed Flying Fox, but since my earliest characters were Flying Foxes (and they look less like the bat design in the Zootopia art book), I wanted something a little different. I went through a list of all of Australia's Bats, but couldn't find a fruit/nectar eating one with the design I wanted. Yet one name kept coming back to me: Ghost Bat. My young sisters know my love for bats and over the years they have gotten me a few Bat products, the best being a TY Beanie Boo called Igor (the girls were collecting them, saw the Bat one and thus, I got a great Birthday present). But it was the little Aussie animal cards from Woolworths that the name came from, the girls having given me those cards. So I decided to research more on it.

The largest of Australia's micro-bats, the Ghost Bat is known more for their light-grey to white fur and how their thin wing membrane gives them a ghostly appearance. They are called the False Vampire Bat, but they are known to eating not only bugs, but mice and other bats. This would help shape my character and his bat family, a group of stuck up nobles, the ghost bat reputation used to invoke fear and respect. My character himself is a victim of his family and does not share their views. As I went deeper into creating my character (his first name being Bartholomew), I found myself drawn more into researching into this bat. While trying to sort out a problem for my mother at the local museum, I got into a discussion with a paleontologist there, whom also had an interest with a number of animals. I learned that up north around mid state there is a set of caves that are known to house lots of small bats and at night when they leave the caves on mass, the ghost bats strike. Apparently its like watching large groups of fish dodging a shark. Sounds fascinating. Sadly, they are dying off. This is mostly due to man and our environment destroying nature, but also partly due to something that scientists can't explain. Makes me feel sad, yet I want to know more.

Bartholomew wasn't the only named character as his family also has a rival family. From them comes his love interest, Miranda. I feel they would have a sort of accent, something french, but I hit a snag. See, being a 'false' vampire bat, I wanted their rivals to be vampire bats, but they only exist in South America, which would put the accent at odds. So I went looking for European bats that would be something similar to the ghost bat. I came across the Greater Noctule Bat. While not exactly the same, it is known to eat birds and is noted for attacking them on the wing (in flight). They are European, which I feel would be close enough for the accent I want. That said, it was even harder to find information on this bat and despite hours of research, I still don't have a big enough pool of knowledge to satisfy me.

I admit, this sort of thing is more focused on more animal anthropomorphic characters, but this could also apply to other areas. Careers are another example as if you want to write your character to have a particular job or even a combat style, doing research can not only help you write them better, but you just might find you take a keen interest in that subject.

Taking interest can help you improve the visual design and writing of a character, but that character may help you better understand the world around you and who knows, you just might find that interest turns into something greater.

King Nick now up

Shot of King Nicholas Von Wilder is now up: Link

Should have more up before the end of the month with luck.

Projects - February/March

So I manage to find my Tomb Kings stuff, along with both my unfinished Vampires and even a Banshee I did. As a result, Many will need to be re-based to be usable and I still have the Necromancer project planned too. I've decided to go for a 20 strong Bowmen unit, so will need to turn some old warriors into archers. I'm also going to use both Tomb Scorpions as they are amazing models and I would feel bad to leave them out. I also have one Liche Priest on foot, a Liche Priest mounted, one Tomb King with shield, my High Liche Priest conversion (don't know what to use him as), 3 Ushabti, 10 Horsemen and 6 Mounted Bowmen. All are usable, but am uncertain if I'll convert them to AoS straight away or if they will just be used to fill gaps in the army.

Problem is that it's Summer here and I struggle in the heat. Given it was the hottest January on record this year, that may be a big problem for this month. On top of that, I have gone back to study, so time is limited. The plan is for the following (no particular order):

AoS:
+ Necromancer Conversion
+ 20 Skeleton Bowmen (most just need a touch up, 8 need converting)
+ 2 Tomb Scorpions (really, they just need bases and their done)
+ 2 Vampires (needs re-basing and a touch up of paint)

Malifaux:
+ McTravish and Gators (mostly done but that epoxy really stuffed this one up)

Other
+Not sure, but might work on finishing more of those Empire models I have lying around.

Again, this is just a list to focus on as time will be limited due to the bs that is Summer (really don't like the heat). Also, the Wight King is finished and shots have been taken. Will try to use my spare time in class to put them together for uploading, so hopefully this week it'll be up.

Update: Oh boy, turns out there will be a few problems, partly due to time limitations, the other being financial limitations (turns out I have a few big bills to pay in April and I need to save). That said, working hard to finish the Bowmen and I should be able to get the bases I need for the scorpions cheap enough. Getting both done will free up more space to focus on other projects (assuming I have the time free). As such, updated the title to now include the March month to it. The Necromancer conversion will also be late as the guy who I order from is recovering from surgery (get well soon mate) and the order won't go in for a while.

A new path for Age of Sigmar

So having played a lot of Warhammer video games lately, my brother has been considering a return to the warhammer universe. While he still has his Elves, he wants a detour a bit and focus on Chaos. Given he still has a bunch of Khorne daemons from our army painting challenge that he lost interest in a while back, I think it was playing as Chaos in Total War: Warhammer that triggered his interest.

Now I know what you might think. With the Skaven and Tzeentch models I've got, my AoS force is set. Thing is, that while I will keep going with those projects, I want to focus on a new area myself, so I'm going back to what got me into warhammer fantasy in the first place: Skeletons. Yes, my first warhammer fantasy miniatures was a box of Skeleton Warriors. Since Hero Quest I've always liked the idea of Skeletons when it comes to the Undead, so going back to them seems like a good idea. I still have a bunch of Tomb King models I can use until I can get some newer ones and I'm already working on a Wight King to lead them. I also plan to have a Necromancer as well, but instead of the current range, I want to create a portable base and use my Skeleton caster from the Hero Quest models I have (their in a box here somewhere).

Update: So yeah, after looking at the model, it seems it will not fit my original plans. I do plan to use it at some point (perhaps on an Undead war machine/monster), but for my original idea it just won't work. That said, I do have a solution. I plan to use a Tomb Banshee model, alter the arms with skeleton bits and a themed base or some boots from say, a witch elf or something for legs. Use her original hands to be more like gloves and maybe convert a royal staff n tiara/crown to show her connection to the king. Good plan in theory, converting it on the other hand may prove problematic.

As for the lore, well, I think I'll name the two heroes after the two leads in my current obsession, Zootopia. Nicholas the Wight King and Judith the Necromancer. Brought back through dark magics, but who have resisted the will of Nagash to lead their skeleton troops to battle injustice and stop evil wherever it may hide. Helps clarify some story elements if I'm force to battle another Death faction and since they are dead it means the so-called good faction would fight them without hearing them out. Still need to come up with a background and heraldry to use, but I could explain the different sizes in skeleton models (Tomb Kings were larger and bulkier then those of Vampire Counts) as simply those from another land who came as mercenaries and stayed loyal to the King after fighting for him for a while. Like I said, still needs work. What I want is a mixed Skeleton/Bat themed group. I have two Vampire models, one with that bat wing arm and a second converted with scourge wings, so they will be the start of the bat theme. This will be the harder of the two themes as their site seems to be removing many of the bat stuff, but I hope I'll get something for the theme.

I'm hoping that this change in direction will re-spark my interest in the hobby once again (Depression is good at destroying that).

Gratz Zootopia

Congratulations to everyone behind Zootopia, which won Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globe awards. As my favourite movie of the year, I am so happy it won.

I know this is a bit late, but was away helping family when the awards was on.

SC2 - Stukov is now my chosen Co-op Faction

I can't help it. The theme, the playstyle and the shear amount of fun I am having playing as Stukov is exactly what I look for when playing a game. We finally got to play a brutal game and I just had a blast playing it.

He's not without his flaws of course. I do have some issues with timing (due to the timed life of ground infantry), problems with stealth detection and disappointing air units. Despite that, I just love the infested hordes and while they only move towards the one beacon you have, with well placed bunkers and barracks, you can have a nice endless wave of minions charging forth.

Or at least, a sizable distraction to help give your co-op partner the chance to help deal with objectives. So far the worse map I have found as playing Stukov is the jungle gas collection one, as we found out that trying to compensate at times to help your partner is not something you can do well on that map. Still, I am having a blast playing as him and hope to start getting some custom mutation map games soon.