Workbench: Conquering The Bendy Figures Of Doom!!!

I sure that any of you out there that have bought CMG or most of the larger Fantasy Flight Games.  You crack open the box and see all those beautiful plastic pieces... that are more bent then a professional contortionist.  Most recently I ran into this problem with my new copy of Cadwallon: City of Thieves but after barely half an hour I was able to get them all back into their actual shape.

While some of them weren't too bad, there were a couple that were in serious need of fixing, as you can see here.

Of course I'd heard of using heating up some water, dropping them in and bending them back but I'd never tried it because I'd always thought of it on a large scale; grabbing a pot and heating it on the stove to do the bending.  It was a post I found on the Paizo forums that gave me the "Ah ha!" moment I needed to get this done quickly and efficiently (Thanks to Josh M. over there for the brilliant suggestion!).

Rather than use a pot on the stove top, he pointed out that you only actually need to heat up a coffee cup of water in the microwave for your typical sized figure (insert facepalm here with the question "Why didn't I think of that?!?"). He also said that the plastics that these kinds of figures are made out of have a kind of memory to them and that heating them will let them return to their "natural" state, after which you dunk them in cold water to cool the plastic and effectively reset the mini.  This last part I'd never heard of so I eagerly broke out some coffee cups to give it a try.

Thirty minutes and twenty miniatures later and things were looking amazing!

Just goes to show that sometimes you need to think of things on a smaller scale and it can work out perfectly.  Of course now that I had this done there was just the problem of keeping them looking the way that they are supposed to, but more on that later.  Until next time...

Man, The New Shiny Is So... Shiny!!! But... No...

Some of you might remember me mentioning the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter a few weeks ago.  Now in its final days, they have raised over $860,000, almost $800,000 more than their original goal.  The Battle Cry level (which is their super tricked out level) now includes a ton of models and will be an incredible stepping stone for anyone looking to dive into this game head first.  Even the brief demo that they posted looks really good and seems to caught the fast paced feel of the anime

And I just can't bring myself to buy it.

I was all set to.  I'd pledged my money, I was checking daily (heck, even hourly for a couple of the goals!), I couldn't wait to get my grubby little mitts on it... but I just have to pass on this one.

Realistically, I'll have my Bones minis arriving in the next month or so plus I still have all the minis from the Relic Knights coming later this year as well.  I definitely have more than enough to paint right now. On top of that, the Robotech game is designed for a 4' x 6' table and it sounds between the unit speeds and ranges you really need it, but I haven't broken out my full size table in... heck, I think its been years now!  Most of the games that I play nowadays work well enough on my 2' x 3' mini table and I've just gotten used to games that are more compact.  Last but not least is the fact that all my terrain is 28mm.  Not that I have massive amounts of terrain but I definitely have a good selection to draw from but none of it is 6mm.

Count it up and that's a classic case of one, two, three strikes... you're out!

Of course I still might pick up some minis when it hits retail (just love the female Zentraedi power armor!!!) but other than that I just can't justify it.  Instead I'm going to buy a bunch of boardgames I play with the family.  After all, I never said I wasn't going to buy anything and the Red Dragon Inn and X-Wing just keep calling my name.  Until next time...

Now I've Lost My Steam And My Thunder... How Very Steampunk!

I must say it's amazing how quickly you can go from a high level of interest to absolute indifference on something.  Not a week ago I was really excited about a VSF game that is scheduled for this weekend.  I trying to rattle the cages and get people to respond if they were coming to the game, I was posting information about unit composition and some special rules that were going to be used, I was even throwing together my own flyer just for the game (the HMS Gorgon from the previous post...).

Then there was yesterday.  Just wow.

To give a little perspective on this situation, this particular game is the one using Sharp Practice, a Napoleonic set of rules, for Space 1889, a Victorian science fiction setting.  There have been lots of issues in translating the rules, especially since there has been no play testing before the big club games which are also the only time this game is played.  Lets say that again.  No play testing.  At all.

Now the last game was not too bad overall.  In fact there was only one time when I was really getting annoyed at the overall situation which was a massive improvement over the first game this year in which I moved my troops six inches in four hours so I was really excited about this next game.

Then yesterday the person running the game sent out roughly a dozen emails about the game that happens in two days, including some rules changes that mean that a couple of the miniatures that I have in my meager army are now useless.  On top of this, he is trying to get everyone in the club to show up for the game that is using untested rules, bumping our headcount from a definite four to a possible eight, some of whom have never even played in the past two games.  On top of that, he included some experimental rules for using massive airships in the game... handy since he happens to have one and was just saying the other day how much he'd like to use it.  And did I mention there are untested rules for advanced weapons as well?

Needless to say my enthusiasm has promptly plummeted like a rock and I'm thinking that at this point I'm just not even going to bother going, especially because the organizer in one breath says that he wants people to try to stay as close to historically accurate units as possible to avoid giving the power gamers to much to play with and then in the next he says that you can have a unit of guys with lasers if you want.  And that was one massive run on sentence!  See what this has driven me too?!?

So the question is am I being unreasonable in thinking this is kind of ridiculous?  I'd love to know what you guys think so feel free to share your own opinions in the comments.  Thanks everyone and I look forward to hearing what you think!  Until next time...

Workbench: Constructing the HMS Gorgon

For our upcoming Colonials game I had planned on fielding the new Baeliog armored tractor from ZombieSmith miniatures in addition to my Gauntlet.  Unfortunately after almost a month of waiting and several emails asking them what was happening with my order I finally just asked for a refund.  Unlike the rest of the process, they were very prompt with the refund but this left me without another vehicle to field with my troops.  In a flash of mad desperation, I decided to take the dive and start my construction of my first aeronef, the HMS Gorgon.

As you can see its not exactly pretty but its shaping up very well and I'm excited to get it finished up for the game next weekend.  So far I only have the basic hull built but I have more planned to add some detail to it that I think will look really sharp such as the steam boiler on the aft section and the fins that will attach to the struts going off the back.

As for armament there will be at least two scratch built maxims mounted on the walkway and a turret with twin quick fire cannons mounted on the underside.  And the really cool thing about the turret?

It actually rotates and the guns even elevate!  A minor detail (especially since its on the underside) but it was something I really wanted to make sure would work.  More on this soon but I thought I'd at least share what I've been working on.  Until next time...