Reapercon 2018 - Part I

Miniatures. Gaming. Fun.  That about sums it up.

I've started typing this post a few times to consolidate some of my Reapercon thoughts.  Nothing I've written yet really conveys exactly what happened to us.  "We had a great/wonderful/excellent/terrific time" is kind of cliche.

So, I'll start with a post I wrote for another forum and then modify/merge and turn this into sort of a mini-review / how-to at the end.

We signed up not really knowing what to expect.  What we found is that Reapercon is first and foremost about the painting aspect of the hobby.  Secondarily, it's about D&D and a smattering of other tabletop systems.  I saw just a handful of board games in play, but there were tons of tabletop RPGs.

But painting, lots of painting.

The Trip:

Anyway, we opted to drive. People called us crazy, but I really wanted the "road trip" feel to our experience.  And I really detest airports.  Between our home and the Texas destination there were a couple of states that I've never physically been to, except perhaps during a layover for a flight.  And I really detest airports.  Did I mention I don't like airports?

We set out after work on Tuesday evening and set our destination for St. Louis and the physical store for Miniature Market.  I've used MM over the past several years as a source for all kinds of things, and it was super fun (and a little surreal) to park our car in the front row beneath the MM sign.

The store was really cool, and I would recommend stopping by if you are in the area, but wasn't a mega-mart by any stretch.  Huge for a gaming store, and well stocked, but much of the obscure stuff that I know they have is managed out of the warehouse - which is a separate address.  We bought a few things and chatted up the store staff - they seemed impressed and honored that we made them part of our road trip.

Initial Destination:  Miniature Market physical store in St. Louis.

We arrived in time for the Wednesday night pizza party to kick off the event.  We randomly sat next to other people from the Reaper forums, and that served as a gateway to meeting many (many) more people throughout the weekend.

We signed up for 3 classes spread throughout the weekend (more on this later), registered for a run-thru of the Pathfinder 2E scenario, and we did the Reaper factory tour.  All of this was good fun and quite worthwhile.

Aaron Lovejoy giving a class on NMM.

My rough NMM attempt in the limited time we had; focusing on lighting and colors.

Setting up for the "Everything Chibi" course.  Here I've basecoated the Reaper figure.

The factory tour, in particular, was fantastic.  Reaper is a small shop in the grand scheme, and it's apparent that they've grown very organically over the years and figured out what works best for them.  I've been in/around large and small manufacturing since my first job in my teens and the sad/sterile/lifeless corporate factory is far too common.  Their entire factory just oozes with personalized touches and customized processes.  It made me want to work there.

Shifting topics:  the people that attend Reapercon are a tight knit crew and quite fantastic.  It's not a "small" con, but it's far smaller than PAX-U, and it goes on for 4+ full days (with most people arriving Wednesday evening for the pre-party and some staying through to Monday morning before setting off for home, so it's almost 6 days for many).

Convention Layout. We had most of the convention space but there is room to grow.

Registration desk.

Vendor area. Two short rows of booths (this is not Gencon) but there was good variety and things worth looking at.

General 'free area' for painting, gaming, or sitting down to chat or have a bite.  I'm showing maybe 1/3 of the available space.

Here's the part that I have trouble describing:  we got adopted by two groups and then met friends-of-friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends.  After 5 Gencons, 3 Blizzcons, a PAX-U, and random visits to the game stores near us, I feel like I can find common ground and have a pleasant conversation with most nerds.  But in the small confines of a mult-day event, those incidental encounters were compounded with repeat conversations.

Fort Wappel is a gathering point for many painters and social hijinks. We spent a lot of time here.

I grabbed reference photos of this dragon for my KDM Dragon King. 

Face detail on the dragon. Those eyes!

We started Wednesday night awkward and anonymous, but went up to our room on Sunday with handshakes and hugs.  It all happened in a blur, but looking back at how the weekend evolved, it couldn't have happened any other way - and could have never been planned or premeditated.

So, we had a great time; already talking about next year.

Hot off the Desk: Kingdom Death White Knight

Kingdom Death White Knight on a Scibor base.

Now that the Miniature Monthly Masters entry window has closed, I'll post pictures of my entry!

*fanfare noises*  Kingdom Death White Knight!

A few random notes:

• He was truthfully one of the best models to assemble.  The resin was super clean and easy to work with.  
• What you're seeing is a mix of hand-brushing and airbrush work.  I alternated both methods throughout - basecoating as well as shading.
• I started with my usual airbrush-applied primer (Vallejo Surface Primer, Black) and then worked up through several shades of gray to pure white before basecoating the other colors.
• The marble floor result was almost totally an accident.  I bought the paint (Reaper Pearl White) to put me over the top to get free shipping when I ordered the Teal.  I started using the Pearl only because it was "new" and then realized that it's actually a "metallic" and somewhat translucent. Initially I was unhappy with it because it was thin - took several coats to cover and hard to control ... I was worried about filling in the floor texture detail.  Then the blue ink over the top really surprised me; I almost did something else entirely.
• The stripe on the shield was masked and airbrushed, then I accented the highlights on the teal.
• I was originally going to airbrush a bright gold ink on the shield instead of the stripe.  It would have made the shield a white with translucent gold with dark gold in the recesses.  I'm happy with the stripe but might save that idea for another figure.
• As I was painting the two figures on the wooden cross, I was highlighting their rag coverings and discovered that there aren't 2 figures, but actually 4.  If you look closely, there's a 2nd figure on each side grasping at the other figure's waist.  They're tiny!  There isn't much lore on this figure, but I took that represent the Strong protecting the Weak and made me like him even more.

Some Work in Progress photos:

Mockup after assembly to check compatibility with the base.

First attempt at the tunic shading and gold basecoating done. Starting to highlight gold.

At this point I've mocked up the fur, but ultimately wanted it less brown to stand out from the gold more.

Raw airbrushed shield; masking and teal stripe will be applied later.

And the final submission photos:

Sword arm view.  All of the gold was basecoated and highlighted by hand (Reaper products).  The plant and some of the gems/detail and sword grip are Reaper Rusty Red - one of my new favorite colors that was recently discontinued (!!)

Rear view. The cloak was airbrushed and then highlighted by hand. I tried to accent the base with two colors of brown to make it look like silted sediment.

The base 'face' was basecoated by hand and then shaded with inks and highlighted with Reaper Pearl White. I used the Sotar 2020 for detail work.

Closer shot of the Shield.  I tried to shade the leg/thigh where maybe the (heavy) shield might rub during a long day of travel.

ZPS - August 2018

UCM Frigates - Done!

August came and went in a flash.  Work had me on the road quite a bit, and I've struggled to keep any sort of momentum at the office.  It seems like GenCon was a long time ago, but it's only been a few weeks.

1. On the Table:
I feel like I've gotten a lot done, but these piddly little entries don't quite do it justice.

• Miniature Monthly Masters Contest Entry - After GenCon, I was planning to get back to Dropfleet Commander (DFC) cruisers and capital ships, but decided to put an entry into this contest.  As a single figure, it is probably a personal best and while I'm hoping to be competitive, I don't expect to place.  I'm super happy with the results, though.  I'll post pictures after the results, but it's been a good chance to use some new colors and try some new things.
• Dropfleet Commander - The frigates are DONE and the cruisers and capital ships are airbrush-basecoated and shaded.  Now that MM-Masters submission in, I've pulled them back to the front of the queue and am starting to pick out details before I mask all the accent stripes. 
• ReaperCon - We're actually at ReaperCon RIGHT NOW!  I set this post to robo-post while we're away.  Looking forward to a few painting classes, and maybe some tabletop RPGs.

2. Gaining Momentum:

• Magic: the Gathering - Bought some cards on a whim after being away for almost 15 years.  I have no intention of playing competitively at the FLGS, but a few pickup games around the house have been fun.  I'd hoped to get some MTG in at GenCon but the stars didn't align (but that's okay).  For where we're at, their preconstructed decks are pretty fun and work okay for a weeknight brawl.

3. Losing Traction:

• Gloomhaven - Wish we had time to continue our campaign.  Weekends lately have been mowing, painting, and recovery.  Weeknights have been no good for long gaming sessions either.
• KDM Wave 2 - Also wish I had more time to dig into these, but reality is reality.  After the DFC ships are done, these are next, but realistically I don't expect to get to them for several weeks.

4. Going, going, gone.

• Summer - Labor Day marks the end of another summer (even though Fall doesn't technically begin for another few weeks).  I'm okay with this.  Summer is my least favorite season - humidity and bugs and mowing the lawn.  There's also this underlying peer pressure (reinforced by the marketing gurus at Lowes, Home Depot, and Bud Light) that Summer is supposed to be "fun" with lots of time outside being social.  Honestly, I'd rather be outside in October and November when the temperatures are nice.  I'm looking forward to splitting wood, running the chainsaw, and some crisp dry mornings.  So screw you, Summer, and get the heck out of here already.

Hot off the Desk: Wizard of Brimstone Gang (GenCon Project)

Welcome to Shadows of Oz, or Wizard of Brimstone. Take your pick.

Well, not exactly 'hot' off the desk, but that's the naming convention.

First and foremost, a special thanks to the Underdog crew and Dog Might Games for support.

At GenCon2018, I was honored to win the "Brimstone Bounty" category at the Flying Frog Games painting competition. (!!!!)

The category is probably intended for a "squad" of bad guys or heroes from one of the expansion packs, but in recent years people have become a little more creative with their composition and theme.  Back in the winter months, Mrs. Zoxe and I were talking about what she'd like to do for her Ninja Division diorama entry.  She said "Wizard of Oz."

The reference photo, sourced from the internets.

I said, "Huh, I could actually pull that off in Brimstone."  So I raided the Flying Frog Games web store for some duplicates of minis I already own.  Here's the rundown:

• Dorothy - Female Rancher, alternate sculpt resin
• Toto  - Ally Dog Set, resin
• Lion - Night Terror*
• Scarecrow - Wandering Samurai resin
• Tin Man - Targa Guardian Expansion
• Wicked Witch - Hellfire Witch, Limited Edition preview resin

*I truly loved using the Night Terror here, as it's so recognizable as a core set mini.  There are duplicate sprues available from the web store, but I giggled that someone would think that I'd sacrificed my core set for this project.

The next problem was bases.  I needed at least 3 different sizes, and I needed an old school cobblestone to pull off the yellow brick road look.  Tabletop Art (Germany) has some glorious bases, but I had just gotten some Scibor bases stuck in customs for months and months and didn't have the time for that nonsense.  Thankfully, I was able to find what I needed in stock at Noble Knight.

Finally, although I wanted a diorama feel, I really wanted to be able to play the minis in our games after I was done.  So I adapted an idea from another project I did awhile back and added them to a nice plank of bolivian rosewood with pockets for each round base.

I'll stop typing here and let the pictures speak for themselves.

An early mock up. Figures held to bases with plasti-tac. I'm starting to fill the Night Terror's horrible gaps.

The SoB resin sculpts are super detailed but I seriously hate their hard and slippery material choice.

The big boys.  The Targa Guardian is my single most favorite SoB mini.

I managed to find some HO-scale tufts in the color I needed to represent the Poppy Fields from the scene in the movie.

A late WIP shot of the Night Terror's (Lion) base.  I'm using Reaper metallics and ArmyPainter green ink for detail. The result was "ok" but I would do this differently if I were to do it again.

Scarecrow almost done and pinning the crow to his shoulder. I used a TINY safety pin as source material.  Oh, and take a deep breath before you take a pin drill to a 95% complete model.

Night Terror got a coat of primer after the Milliput had cured. The neck is a little rough.  I continued to use Vallejo Plastic Putty to fill low spots and create texture around his neck.

A mostly complete shot of the Lion. Here I'm adjusting highlights around his face.

Toto, complete but not based.  The gray shading was airbrushed, and several layers of various browns were used for his muzzle and feet.  Reaper Black Wash (several coats) in the shadows of his legs.  Really simple, but I consistently got positive comments on him.

Finished Gang - Part 1.  The Tin Man was intentionally really simple. I considered doing more weathering and shading but decided to stay true to the reference picture. Judge's feedback that just a little more shading would have been welcome, point taken. 

Finished Gang - Part 2.  I was really happy with the blends on the Witch's body.  I added the broom from a Reaper miniature that I sacrificed for the cause.

I was so happy that Dorothy didn't turn out cross-eyed.  I experimented with some blends on her gun, boots, and belt and was happy with how they came out.  The shading on her jacket and skirt was mostly zenithal highlighting from the airbrush and just a little work with the hand brush.

Scarecrow with his feathered friends.  The ruby color of his face armor is a color tie - all of the figures (except Toto) have the Ruby color from Dorothy's boots somewhere on them.

To counterbore the base, I bought a series of forstner bits.  When the one for the Tin Man came, I was truly impressed. It came in its own "crate."  When I spooled up the drill press, I swear ground shook and the lights dimmed in the garage.  Apologies for the lazy backlit image.

Finished display base.

And in the case at Gencon.

GenCon 2018

Welcome to GenCon 2018

Last year I broke the GenCon wrap up post into a multi-part series.  This year I'll try to do it in one shot.

First, some shout outs to: the Dog Might Games Viking Crew, the Miniature Monthly crew, Panda Cult Games, TTCombat, Ninja Division, Flying Frog, HipLein Industries, and the filthy casuals in the Council of Moo gang.

OVERVIEW: 
This was our 5th GenCon.  Which doesn't sound like a long time, but it means half a decade of travelling to downtown Indy.  It's been long enough that the years are starting to blur together a bit, and I actually had to go look up whether this was year 5 or 6.

Each GenCon is a little bit different for us.  Each year tends to compound a little bit more on the ones prior, like rings inside a tree.  There's a foundation of earlier years forming the layers of our experience, and each year we build another layer.

Early on, GenCon was about meeting up with old friends, mostly from our college days, and investigating new products, new ideas, and absorbing as much knowledge as we could about various product lines.  Since we were new to the scene, nearly EVERYTHING was new and GenCon was almost overwhelming in scope.  But with repetition, we're now looking for the deltas - the differences - from prior years and focusing more on the new growth.

Last year was a pivotal year; in 2016-2017 we continued to step away from PC games as our primary hobby and Games and Painting took on a more prominent role in our free time.  Through Kickstarter and online news venues, we started to understand the people and stories behind the companies we loved.  So, GC2017 was about meeting as many of our "heroes" as we could, and just being fanboys a bit. GenCon became a place where we were within a few feet of people we had read about, and that became a little surreal.

In the 12 months since last year's event - thanks to the classes we've taken and online groups we've joined - we've continued to build new relationships and have met more people "in the industry."  I don't mean to convey by any stretch that we're "important people" but a big change this year was that at several booths we had people recognize us on sight.  Or we would see them in the hall after hours and they'd flag us down to chat.  My point is that a big part of 2018 was about gabbing with new friends face to face, as well as spending time with our old friends, and overall that changed the tone of the event for us, in a good way.

THURSDAY:
Thursday was a shopping day.  Thanks to a huge traffic jam in Indy, we arrived later than expected, but still well ahead of the vendor hall opening.  We found our place nearest the Kingdom Death and Ninja Division booths and happily chatted with people around us.  It was apparent that everyone around us was heading to either KDM or Steamforged.

Obligatory "sea of nerds" photo. This was taken a few minutes before doors opened on Thursday.

My initial line position for the Kingdom Death booth.  A bit worse than last year. The end of the line is (I think) near the far wall.

The doors opened and we surged forward; I went straight to the KDM booth.  My line position was a little worse than last year, but I landed between two guys that I stood in line with last year.  We chatted our way to the front of the queue.  Unfortunately, the early line was full of people with shopping lists for themselves and their friends and the line moved slowly as people moved to the cash register with (quite literally) armloads of Kingdom Death.  And I mean armloads ... boxes balanced in a big heap and tumbling off the top of the stack while the person carrying them tried to use their chin to stabilize the pile. Insane amounts of money changed hands.

GenCon Kingdom Death menu.

Some beautifully painted (and based) KDM minis in the booth.

I finally got to the front of the line - about an hour and forty five later - and managed to snag a few hard to find resins (Ringtail Fox Survivor in particular).  I landed in the cash register line behind a young man and his girlfriend apparently buying everything in the store.  Nothing about their transaction was easy or fast.  They had a long conversation with the cashier about other items they may have missed.  Then they insisted every box be opened to ensure all figures were molded properly.  Then they paid in cash - in $100 bills - prompting every bit of currency to be checked, and there was a question about whether one of the $50 bills was counterfeit.  After 20+ minutes of waiting for this one transaction I was ready to give a mighty war cry and commit bodily harm upon them, but finally they were done and I was on my way.

KDM Loot:  TOP (L-R) - Dragon Armor Kit, Dark Elf Variant, Dark Elf, Sci-Fi Savior.  BOTTOM (L-R) Echoes of Death, Percival, White Knight, Ringtail Fox Survivor, Death High Whitespeaker

SoB and Broken Token Loot:  LEFT (top to bottom) Lost Army Hell Cannon, FoFo Deapth Track, Bone Eaters, RIGHT (top to bottom) Trederran Raiders, and two Broken Token Paint Racks

Dropfleet Loot:  LEFT:  Scourge and UCM Destroyers, UCM Battleship, UCM Battlecruiser.  PLASTIC BAGS:  UCM and Scourge Kickstarter Exclusives, Remnant Centurion, and Princess Liner.

I met up again with Mrs. Zoxe, and the rest of the day was random hopping to specific booths.  Of particular note, I went to the TTCombat booth to pick up just a couple of Dropfleet ships to round out my collection but walked away with a bag full.  They were selling off the Kickstarter and Web Store exclusives that I'd quite possibly not see again.  We paused briefly to line up for a book signing with James S.A. Corey of the Expanse series.  We were 2nd in line and got a little bit of 1:1 interaction.  Then we hit the food trucks for dinner and then collapsed.

Autographs from the pair of guys that write under the pen name James S.A. Corey.

FRIDAY:
Up early, and attended a podcast recording session with James S.A. Corey.  This was interesting to watch - sound checks and a live interview environment - but it was apparent that the authors were uneasy and there was zero interaction with the audience.  So while we learned some things, it still felt sort of false/artificial and wasn't much different than watching a youtube video.  I came away vaguely disappointed.

James S.A. Corey doing a podcast recording. The bandannas are holding their mics. The recording went well but at points this was brutally awkward for the guys and there was near zero audience interaction.

We hit the show floor and walked the entire venue from row 100 to 3000.  Did the KDM Black Knight demo.  The Black Knight is my single most favorite KDM figure, and I'm really excited by the gameplay his expansion will offer.  But the encounter was intentionally overtuned and completely gored us in 2 rounds.

KDM Black Knight demo. In production, the terrain will likely be cardboard. One of the mechanics is he picks you up and throws you through the pottery and columns and generally smashes the place to bits.  Super fun (and deadly).

Better shot of the KDM demo.

In late afternoon, we met up with friends and walked to the JW Marriott to find an unused ballroom.  A couple of us taught an another how to play X-Wing and I gave him a core box that I had abandoned.  Someone produced a copy of Unearth and taught us to play; really enjoyed this game.  Then assembled as a larger group of old friends at a local hipster taco bar (for lack of a better descriptor) and had too many margaritas and some really excellent tacos.  Returned to the same JW ballroom to play Fallout.  We stayed until well past midnight, but had a 20 minute walk to the car and a decent drive to our bed since we don't stay downtown. My head hit the pillow at 1:30 am and we had to be up early the next morning.

SATURDAY:
Up too early and still feeling the margaritas, I skipped breakfast and we ventured down for our Q&A Session with James S.A. Corey.  This was the interactive session I was looking for and really enjoyed them.

Q&A with James S.A. Corey. This was a lot more fun than the Podcast.

We putzed around most of the day and tried to find things we'd missed on Thurs and Fri.  In late afternoon, the winners for the Shadows of Brimstone painting contest were announced, and I'm happy to say that I won the Brimstone Bounty (squad) category (!!!!).  This was the super-secret GenCon Project #1, and I'll post some pictures later on.

My minis in the Flying Frog case (mine are on the right on the wooden stand).  I'll post separately on the theme and execution of the project.

We again met friends again at the JW for after hours gaming and Dead of Winter was brought out.  We played the intro scenario, had the win condition met, but lost in the final accounting of the round due to the order that certain things triggered.  I liked this game but I spent a lot of resources at the start that I might have held onto longer.

SUNDAY:
Back for the final day.  We had no events, and sat in the gamer hall and talked with friends until about 11.  We went over for the winners of the Ninja Division painting contest, and I'm proud to say that Mrs. Zoxe took 3rd in their diorama division (!!!!).  We then wandered around and  demo'd the Screaming God expansion for KDM and really loved this encounter as well.  This one was tuned to be winnable and while I died horribly my party was successful.  We finally called the convention done and departed around 2pm.

KDM Screaming God demo. The setup is that the horde of angry antelope are stampeding and chasing you (and the boss) as you hunt.  The terrain walls move to the left 6 spaces every turn, so part of the challenge is playing Frogger to avoid hitting a wall.

Victory!  I was impressed with this; the demo served some nice future content but also required the players to use some advanced gameplay (spending survival) that normally isn't demo'd.

OBSERVATIONS and CLOSING REMARKS:

The Blizzard Booth in the back of the Gamer's Hall was a new addition. Each year this area has a few more "content" booths, which is blurring the lines between the Vendor Hall and the Gamer Hall. It's not a bad thing, just a trend I've noticed. 

The booth was popular all weekend, though there weren't any events, it was just straight up Blizzard merch and a small area to play Hearthstone.

Observations and comments in no particular order.

1. The gamer hall felt a lot more packed.  GenCon is sneaking more content in here each year (most notably, Blizzard Entertainment this year).  In years past there would be acres of empty tables where groups could sit and play a pickup game of whatever, have lunch, or just veg out.  This year you had to hunt to find empty tables. (Not a complaint, just ... different).
2. I had a lot harder time getting into the KDM demos than last year. Could be just my dumb luck, but they were very busy all 4 days.
3. The vendor hall never really got gridlocked like it has in the past, at least that we saw. Yes it was busy, yes there were lines galore, but the full-on gridlock from row 100 to row 3000 that we've seen just never happened.
4. Friends that have stayed at the JW multiple years said that the downstairs ballrooms were more occupied this year than in years past.  The bleeding edge of GenCon continues to creep and expand each year.
5. I had just a hint of the GenCon crud on Saturday but took some Zicam and thwarted it.  It's now a week later and no crud. Hooray.
6. There were fewer Harley Quinn cosplays.  Thank you.