Audio Noise: You Will Have To Face... The Red Panda!

While listening to yet another actual play podcast one of the players happened to mention a pulp radio podcast and I decided to check it out.  Let me tell you I'm glad that I did.  So just who are these pulpy pioneers of the podosphere?  Why none other than...

Decoder Ring Theatre

Focus: Pulp action radio drama

Audio Quality: Five masked superheroes out of five

Content Quality: Five gumshoes out of five

Average Length: roughly thirty minutes

Release Schedule: the 1st and 15th of the month

Decoder Ring Theatre is a modern take on the radio dramas of old with all the pulpy goodness that they entail.  Their main story arcs follow the exploits of the Red Panda (think of him as Canada's own version of Batman) and Black Jack Justice, Private Eye though the two are not set within the same reality.  The Adventures of the Red Panda is set in a superhero rich world driving headlong into the grim reality of World War II, while Black Jack Justice is in a more mundane reality shortly after the war.

Both of these stories are a lot of fun to listen to and between the character and story development they just keep getting better every episode.  In fact I've enjoyed them so much that I've started looking for other audio dramas to check out but so far I have yet to find one that is as well done as Decoder Ring Theatre. You can either swing on by their website for direct download or look them up on iTunes.  Either way I really don't think you'll be disappointed.  Until next time...

Who Needs The Prime Directive?

Rustle, Rustle, And Snickity Snack

Back in 2010 Wyrd Miniatures released a collection of Halloween story encounters consisting of three different scenarios.  The first two use miniatures that are available from Wyrd but the third features a gentle little fellow called the Carver.

Happy looking isn't he?

As is always the case, the scenario that doesn't have a figure interests me the most so the question becomes just where do you find a giant scarecrow-like figure that you can proxy for him?  Turns out I didn't have to look any further than the now defunct World Of Warcraft Miniatures Game.

The original set contains a common figure called the Harvest Golem.

Not quite the same as the picture of the Carver but he's close enough for my purposes.  The first problem with the figure is the base.  Unlike the one pictured here, the actual miniature comes with the standard WoW mini game base which is slightly smaller than a 50mm base and has a ring attached to the bottom.  I first tried to cut the figure off of the base but this was a serious pain so I decided to just cut off the ring instead.  This was a much easier solution and soon enough I had him ready to mount on a standard 50mm base.

A little bit of putty work to make the join between the new base and old look a little more subtle, a fresh coat of paint, and voila!

For the paint scheme I actually just copied over the existing colors with some darker shades and used a flesh wash to add a little bit of depth.  Following this up with a quick highlight and a generous application of gore to his loving little hands and the gentle giant is ready to take his place amongst the of nightmares of the Malifaux.  This is definitely a scenario that I want to give a try so you can expect a battle report on this once Spacer and I have a chance to Malifaux to the table and wrap our little brains around it.  Until next time...

Just In Time For Valentine's Day

Well Isn't That Just Legendary

I recently picked up some miniatures for dirt cheap that were really high quality... and pre-painted even!  Where exactly did I get them?  Well from none other than Reaper Miniatures of course!

The Legendary Encounters line has been out for a while but it was just something that I never looked at as it didn't fit in with anything I was playing so I pretty much just forgot about them until recently.  I was putting together an order on Miniature Market (great online store by the way) when I stumbled across them again.  I was looking for trolls and a bugbear and both of these are in the Legendary Encounters line so I decided to pick them up.  At regular retail the Legendary Encounters figures actually run at least a couple of dollars less than the metal versions so I decided it was time to check them out.

Man was I in for a surprise.

Cave troll on the left and bugbear on the right.

The figures are actually cast in a soft plastic meaning that it is somewhat bendable but it quickly retakes its original shape.  There's nothing wrong with this in my book but I was really surprised by it.  Even so the detail looks to be as crisp on these as the original metals and the painting is pretty good as well.  In fact I'm actually happy enough with the detail on them that they are a very low priority on my painting table which is a nice thing as it leaves me with more time for more important minis.

Overall I'd definitely recommend checking these out if you are looking for some inexpensive but nice looking alternatives for the more common pre-paints that are out there.  Until next time...

This Proves It... The Superbowl Is Really Just GenCon For Jocks.

Through The Breach Once Again

Waaaaay back in June 2010 I first posted pictures of my Witch Hunter minis for Malifaux but I was never able to get them to the table... well, not for Malifaux anyway.  The LGS that I had been going to was not at all interested in expanding beyond Warmachine and Hordes at that time so my stalwart Guild enforcers have had to find other employment in my Songs of Torments Reach games (aka Song of Blades with cowboys...) but it looks like that is going to change.

After much debate, SpacerGal finally decided to take the plunge and has ordered not one but two starter crews!  On top of all that, he even went out and bought a set of the elusive and often out of stock Terraclips and man am I glad he did.  Just what did we think about this mysterious mass of cardboard construction?  You'll just have to watch and learn my friends....

And there you have it!  We hope you enjoyed our further forays into video and if you have any comments we'd love to hear from you.  That's all for now but you can expect more soon.  Until next time...