Comics from "Hijacked" Photos

Most of my posts contain photos of game sessions that I took myself.  

However, with all the on-line "rabbit holes" I venture into, I often come across photos from other gamers that trigger my imagination to write a webcomic or a "5 Second Flick."

I'm leading off today's post with a webcomic I concocted from one of the last pictures from my friend Tim's Indochina game session from a couple years ago. I finally got around to hijacking utilizing it, when I thought of an amusing plot hook for the encounter. 

(Note:  Even though I don't profit from utilizing other people's pics, I first try to ask their permission to use them.  If I can't contact them, I'll at least cite the source).

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across a couple gems from some of the Facebook gaming groups I belong to. 

The first is from Dean B.'s Normandy 1944 scenario of a Bolt Action game session:

I thought this was a great image to paraphrase General Blumentritt's exasperation in the film, The Longest Day. 

The second photo is from a guy calling himself "Otty." 

He's been posting pictures in the Wargaming in Middle Earth Facebook Group, about the figures he's converting from other fantasy wargames into Middle Earth-suitable troops.

This particular picture reminded me of Lurtz's command to his Uruk-hai in the finale of the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

I'm currently in the middle of working on a couple of my own Warhammer 40K picture projects, along with painting my Cruel Seas collection.

In the meantime, I thought these hijacked borrowed pics-turned-webcomics would be a nice interlude until I get my act together until I can write the next in-depth blogpost. 

Pass-in-Review: Reaper Bones Fantasy Miniatures

 

Some years ago, I bought the Learn to Paint Kit: Core Skills, by Reaper Miniatures, during a “fly-by” at one of our annual Enfilade!  (This year’s convention was cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pademic). 

Well, I finally got the kit’s three plastic fantasy figures painted—but it wasn’t by my hand, or with the kit’s paints.

I had the three figures, along with several other Reaper Miniature figures, painted by my friend Peter.

Here’s the results:

1. Orc Fighter, front view...

...back view:

2. Animated Skeleton Archer, front view...

...back view:

3. Paladin in Plate Armor, front view...

...back view:

While Peter painted the figures, I added a couple minor modifications.  

Since the figures are lightweight plastic, I superglued the bases to washers, heavy stands or even pennies to give them better stability and balance.  Then I painted and flocked the entire composite base of each figure.

The cave entrance backdrop is from a picture I downloaded and printed, but I can’t remember where I got it from.

The cave floor is actually the reverse side of the WH 40K Kill Team Starter Kit’s game board.

Next up will be another short post about my American Old West figures.

So stay tuned partner. 

Book Review: Conan the Roleplaying Game (2nd Ed)

I've been a fan of Conan the Barbarian ever since I started sporadically reading the comics back in the '70s.

I saw the original movie when it came out...

(Image:  1982 movie poster)

...but have skipped the 2011 box office bomb.  Although I do have the DVD, which I still haven't watched yet, in order to complete my Conan movie collection.

(Image:  2011 movie poster)

I've always considered Howard's Hyborian Age one of the best fantasy settings, second only to Tolkien's Middle Earth, but certainly more bawdy and sensual.

So as a role playing game (RPG) enthusiast, I was happy to stumble across an inexpensive copy of  Conan: The Roleplaying Game (2nd Edition), produced by Mongoose Publishing.

 This 420-page tome is divided into the following chapters:

1.   Introduction
2.   Overview
3.   Races
4.   Classes
5.   Skills
6.   Feats
7.   Equipment
8.   Combat
9.   Sorcery
10. The Hyborian Age
11. Gazetteer
12. Religion
13. Bestiary
14. Campaigns
15. Index

The book also includes a two-page character sheet, and color maps of Hyboria inside the front and back cover.

If you're familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, or any other "D20 Open Game License (OGL)" game, then you'll find Conan:  The RPG easy to understand, because the game mechanics are identical.

Since I like the D20 System, I look forward to the day when I can either run a session as a gamemaster (GM), or participate as a player character (PC).

While I enjoyed reading the Fluff about the late Hyborian Age, at the time Conan is king of Aquilonia, this was a difficult book to read.  Not because the content was hard to understand, but due to the poor quality of the materials and layout.

I like reading hard cover books like this while I'm working out on a stationary cardio machine.  It alleviates the boredom.  However, I couldn't lay this book flat and read it without holding it with my hands, which makes working out more difficult.  When I tried pressing the book flat--the binding ruptured.  Fortunately, the pages didn't come loose.

There's also the problem with the page format.  Each page is illustrated with the same racy, black and white montage artwork along the borders.  (Apparently this was suppose to be an improvement over the scandalous full-color artwork).  As a result of keeping the artistic border, the print is set very close to the spine, making it even harder to read anything within the center of the book.  Also, the pages themselves also feel flimsy and composed of cheap paper.

Despite these quality-control flaws, I'm glad I have this in my RPG collection, as long as I don't read it from cover-to-cover again.  Content-wise, I'd rate the book at 4-stars.  Quality-wise, I'd give it 2, maybe 3-stars.

Conan:  The RPG received high praise on RPG Geek, and  snagged a 4.5-star rating on Amazon.com.
The two 3-star raters didn't care for the game using the D20 system.

The new Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of should have been released a few months ago.  Because of this new release, it seems that the Conan: The RPG (2nd Ed) and other Mongoose Publication material is available for (free?) download.

Product Review: WarCraft, The Roleplaying Game (1st Ed.)

I've probably said this before in previous posts, but I'll reiterate my feelings about video/computer games:

They make me ill.

Oh, not because I'm some sort of 21st Century Luddite, but because I'm so prone to motion sickness that I become quickly nauseated watching the on-screen action. 

However, I still have an ounce or two of Geek Cred, and have been vaguely aware of the on-line phenomena that is the World of Warcraft (WoW). So vague is my knowledge of WoW, I missed the Warcraft film that opened two months ago, and apparently so did many non-WoW fan viewers.

(Image:  Warcraft movie banner)

Anyway, bad movie reviews aside, last year I stumbled across Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game at Half Price Books.  I may not be able to play WoW on-line, but I sure can play this tabletop version.

That is, if my rotating work schedule ever meshes-up with any of my fellow gamers that would be interested in a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D, 3rd Ed.) adventure set somewhere in Kalimdor on the planet Azeroth.

The case-bound, hardcover book is divided into the following chapters:

1. A World At War
2. Heroes
3. Adventuring
4. Magic
5. The World of Warcraft
6. Campaigning

Player characters (PCs) set out on their quest a year after the Third War (the primary setting for the earlier computer/on-line games) and can be any of the following races:

1. Human
2. Ironforge Dwarf
3. High Elf
4. Night Elf
5. Goblin
6. Half-Elf
7. Half-Orc
8. Orc
9. Tauren (Minotaur)

(Image found on:  Henchman-4-Hire)

Some of the races are standard D&D templates.  There's no changes to humans, while Half-Orcs and Half-Elves suffer from similar discrimination as they do in other settings, maybe even more so.

Meanwhile, Dwarves are on a quest to discover the origin of their species, Goblins act more like Ferengi than the malicious second-class cousins to Orcs.  Speaking of Orcs, they're not inherently evil, as has been the case in every setting since Middle-Earth.  Instead, Orcs were duped by demons, and are now trying to get back to their shamanistic roots.  And while nominal allies, the Night Elves, users of divine magic and guardians of the Well of Eternity, can barely tolerate their arcane magic-addicted cousins, the High Elves.

Divine and Arcane Magic can be compared to the Light and Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars.

The races are divided into two general categories.  The Orcs and the Tauren comprise "The Horde," while everyone else is cobbled together into "The Alliance."  But this isn't ironclad, as some individuals have defected to the opposite faction.  Meanwhile, the Goblins out to make a profit.

Had I known this book was published back in 2003, (the second edition came out two years later), I wouldn't be so "late to the WoW party."  While I can't compare Warcraft:  The RPG to the on-line source material, I liked the book overall and have only two minor complaints.

First, the artwork is great, but exclusively black and white.  This isn't a problem in and of itself, but it would have been nicer if the map of Kalimdor was in color.  Second, there are several short-story/vignettes scattered throughout the book.  These are made to appear as if they're written on parchment by some scribe working by candlelight.  The font used in these stories, while elegantly ornate, can sometimes be hard to read.

Copies of Warcraft:  The RPG, can still be found on Amazon.com, ranging from $9.65 to $49.95 (plus S&H), and enjoys a 4.3-star rating.  The sole 3-star rater thought the material was out of date compared to the on-line games.

Undoubtedly it's even more outdated now, but despite my lack of knowledge of WoW, I'll give it a 4-star rating.

(Full cover image found on:  wowwiki.wikia.com)

A Note About My Current Reading Endeavor:

I do a lot of my reading while during my stationary cardio machine workouts, but still have a lot of unread RPG material.  So I decided to remedy this situation and go on a "Fluff" (lore) reading quest.  When I read Warcraft:  The RPG, I skipped over the "Crunch" (game mechanics), which save time and kept me from getting bored.  The RPG books I'll be reading will be hardcover and case bound, which I find easy to lay open on a cardio machine's control panel. 

Welcome to Khaliat Min Bus!

(A small village in a desolate land)

I finally finished one of my most challenging projects of the year. 

This North African village was one of the largest items I purchased during my Enfilade! "fly-by."

Available from Ray Sam's Fine Architecture, via Monday Knight Productions, the resin-made village consists of six buildings on a large base.

(A top-down view of the village)

After spraying on the primer, I painted the entire model brown.  Then came the challenging part:  painting the doors and windows on the individual buildings, some of them set maddeningly close to each other.  There were some spots I ended up re-doing three or four times.

Once I got to the point where I was satisfied with the paint job, I was more than happy to start the flocking.

I stumbled across some very fine sand among my stash of flocking and used that for most of the base to represent the streets and alleys.  To represent adverse terrain, especially on and around the hill, I used a variety Gale Force Nine's small, medium and large sand flocking.

(A look at the hill an the various grades of sand flocking)

I wanted to add a splash of color other than various shades of brown and khaki, so I added grass to represent weeds clinging to the shaded areas of the village, along with a walled garden using meadow grass.

(A garden among weeds, sand and rocks)

 Since this was an involved project, I wanted to give my new-found village a name. 

Originally, I was going to go with a "dung theme," like I did for SAGA Welsh warband, which became the centerpiece for The Chronicles of Culhwch y Drewllyd.

Using Google to translate words and terms, the village was initially going to be Jamal Hall Qry, or Camel Dung Village in Arabic.

But after reading some Star Wars related material, and thinking of a desert setting, I was reminded of Obi Wan Kenobi's comment about Mos Eisley in Star Wars:

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

So my village went from being Jamal Hall to Radi Khalia, or Wretched Hive.

But I didn't like how it sounded.  I thought it would sound better if "Khalia" came first.

When I plugged the word order change into Google, I came up with something slightly different:

Khaliat Min Bus, or Hive of Wretchedness.

I liked how this sounded, both in Arabic and English.

(An Israeli squad enters the village.  What will they encounter?)

 Now that my village is painted, flocked and "properly named," I like the versatility of Ray Sam's work. 

Khaliat Min Bus could conceivably be found in any era, or on any desolate world--maybe even in a galaxy far, far away...

(Reinforcements arrive to investigate Khaliat Min Bus)

Pigsty or Hill Fort?

I found several of these pieces at one end of Monday Knight Productions' 6 millimeter (mm) figures on display during the final hours of Enfilade! 

 

Or at least I thought they were among the 6mm figures.  I didn't have my reading glasses on and I assumed they were medieval hill forts. 

 

When I started painting them, while wearing my reading glasses and using a stand-up magnifying glass, I began to wonder if they were any type of fortification at all. 

 

As I applied the burnt umber for natural wood, light brown for cut, or trimmed wood, and with a final splash of brown wash, these pieces began to look more like animal pens than defensive positions.

 

What compounded this mystery was I couldn't find the exact model on any of their website pages.  While this is most likely due to "operator error," the closest link I could find was to 28mm, Dark Ages pigpen. 

 

The pieces I have, however, are smaller and cost half as much as the pigpens listed.

 

Anyway, at 6mm along with aging eyesight, who's to say a pigsty can't fill-in for a hasty defensive position.

 

Besides, in light of this past Veterans Day, many combat veterans would probably tell you they're one in the same.

 

 

Another thing I finally got around to noticing was that three of my pieces were identical.  So instead of dousing them grass flocking, I made one with autumn foliage and the third with winter snow.

 

For the dirt and gravel, I used Gale Force Nine's fine gravel flock, which still looks large when used for 6mm figures.

 

Here's what one of them looks like place in front of a back drop:

 

A close-up of Fort Pigsty:

 

A company of men-at-arms, (circa 13th Century I think), approach Fort Pigsty:

Fort Pigsty's new garrison: 

A garrison close-up:

 

 Well, no matter what these pieces are really suppose to be, I enjoyed painting and flocking them and like how they turned out.

 

An aside note: 

 

For the past several posts, Blogger has been aligning my posts in the center.  No matter how many times I go back to a post and re-align it to the left margin, once I hit Save and Publish, the site re-re-aligns my work back to the center.

 

At this point I don't know what's causing it, or how to correct it.

 

I apologize if you find my center-aligned posts annoying

 

I certainly do.

Bivouacs

(Medium tents, two bases with a front view and one with a rear view)

As a tribute to this upcoming Veteran's Day, I thought I'd post about a subject many veterans are familiar with:  Tents.

These 6mm variety of tents on bases, were made by Sven's Sculpts, via Monday Knight Productions.

(1x medium tent and 6 x small tent bases, side view)

I purchased three bases of medium tents, and three of the 1 x medium tent and 6 x small tents during my Enfilade! fly-by.

(The same 1 x M/6 x S, bases with a front view)

The tents were painted khaki, while the openings were painted black.  I painted the bases brown, but added fine gravel flock from Gale Force Nine.  

I think the term "fine" to define the gravel is in relation to larger figures, such as 25mm (millimeter), because the flocking looks rather large for 6mm.

Well, large or fine, I guess the trick is not to look at these too closely.  I chose gravel over grass assuming the areas around each tent would be heavily trafficked.

During my brief sojourn to Enfilade, I didn't see any bases with the Sibley Tents, otherwise I would have picked up a few of those as well.

(A mountain camp manned by men-at-arms)

The Goblin Horde

(Kalashtar Bodyguard facing a goblin warrior)

 

In just about any fantasy role-playing game (RPG), a single adventurer, even a low-level one, can dispatch a solitary goblin. 

 

The problem, however, is...

...goblins "hunt in packs." 

 

Several months ago, I bought a slew of Pathfinder Battles goblin packs made for the We Be Goblins Module to add to my greenskin horde. 

 

On the Pathfinder RPG planet of Golarion, goblins are hyper little psychos, living in tribes scattered across the world.

 

It's not that the goblins of other worlds are any less vicious, but the ones found on Golarion push the envelope of zaniness to the point of insanity. 

 

Once I finished painting and flocking the black bases of my new goblins, I thought I'd muster the new and old figures for a "gathering of the goblin clan."

 

Rulers of the Pack 

 

Every tribe needs a leader, and goblins, whether zany or sane, are no exception.  Here are three unique characters that stand out among the gibbering masses:

 

(Special Characters:  Mogmurch, Reta Bigbad and a goblin adept)

"Pets"

 

Humans aren't the only being capable of domesticating animals.  Goblin dogs are often found guarding goblin lairs.

(Image:  A pack of goblin dogs)

The Rank & File 

 

The favored weapon of Golarion goblins is the Dogslicer.  These cheaply made weapons can be found in the hands of a tribe's heroes...

(Image: goblin heroes # 02)

 

...warchanters...

 

(Image:  Goblin warchanters)

 

...and warriors. 

(Image:  Goblin warriors)

For those goblins who prefer weapons with a tad longer reach, there's these spear-wielding commandos: 

(Image:  Goblin commandos)

Pyromania is just one part of a goblin's psychological make up.  However, for some goblins it's their calling.

 

(Image:  Goblin Pyros 01s and Pyro 02s)

Getting back to "pets," goblin dogs aren't just guard animals either.  Some of the critters have an ever-so-slightly milder temperament, that allows goblins to ride them as cavalry. 

(Image:  Goblin commandos on goblin dogs)

 

Wizards of the Coast Figures

 

Goblins tend to be sneaky overall , but some truly excel at it.

 

(Image:  A goblin sneak flanked by goblin Blackblades)

 

Looking at some "tamer" goblins, archers prefer keep their distance during any confrontation.

(Image:  Graypeak Goblin Archers)

But then there's these armored hatchet wielders...

 

(Image:  Acheron goblins)

Among warriors, heroes and sneaks; some goblins are the closest thing to ninjas a tribe can muster.  

(Image:  Silent Wolf Goblins)

The poorest, (and most expendable) members of the tribe, are usually pressed into service as javelin chuckers. 

(Image: Goblin skirmishers)

But when a tribe wants to capture something--or someone--then the picadors are summoned. 

(Image:  Goblin picadors)

 

According to various myths and legends, goblins come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  In today's high-tech world, goblin figures are manufactured in a variety of shapes, sizes and weaponry.  

 

Hero Quest Figures

 

Here's a comparison of Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, and some old HeroQuest miniatures I embellished:

Apparently, the HeroQuest goblins have managed to manufacture, or steal, better swords than their Golarion cousins: 

But when swords are in short supply, hatches will do.

 

Some swords though are better than others. This band of goblins carry larger scimitars.  

 

Since all the HeroQuest bad guys are rather generic, I selected a few figures to act as leaders. 

 

The rank & file goblins, seen in the above three pictures, wear brown tunics, tied with darker brown belts, with white skull buckles. 

 

Troop leaders, on the other hand, wear read tunics, with silver, or gold belt buckles, and carry shields.  The shields weren't part of the original HeroQuest game.  I got these from an old Games Workshop fantasy accessory kit.

Each shield is unique.  Here's a look at the shield facings: 

 

 

Maybe someday I'll add some additional color to shields. 

Final Thoughts About Mustering Goblins

One of the main reasons why I like collecting goblins, along with orcs, is because they're very versatile.  In addition to populating the usual fantasy setting, they make great mutants in most science fiction, or post apocalyptic settings.