Happy DFC is Done Day

The past 2 or 3 weeks has been a slow ramp-up to Adepticon and finally (FINALLY!) getting my Dropfleet Fleet on the table.  And while I'd rather stage some decent photos, I wanted to say here that a few minutes ago I sat down the last brush on the last ship, and poured a whisky.  Now just I need to get the last 3 ships off their corks and glue in the base adapter, then organize and pack everything for Adepticon - which starts for us on Wednesday evening.

This has been a long project in the making.  I started assembling the bulk of this army about a year ago.  Looking back at it, the project really wasn't that bad, but a couple of the steps involved were incredibly tedious and I avoided the ships for several long spans.  I don't think being a commission painter is ever in my future.

It'll be good to have these off the bench.  I have a couple of things I want to tackle before I start my GenCon and ReaperCon projects.

Bench shot of the cruisers, fresh off their corks and before the clear base adapter peg was installed.

I carried the Squadron Stripe idea up through the battleships.  This is WIP just after I basecoated the engines but before I started any weathering or other detailing.

Two battleships, side by side. Also WIP at the same stage as above.  Each of these ships is larger than my cell phone.

Once the dust is settled, I'll try to grab some finished shots.

Shadows of Brimstone Kickstarter #3

Last week, I was a little surprised to see an update from Flying Frogs announcing their next Kickstarter.  Details were scarce, but there it was.  I wasn't incredibly surprised that there would be a third campaign, but it caught me off guard a bit  that they'd be kicking it off right now without much build-up. 

But no, we got a few days heads up, a couple of Facebook posts, and it's off to the races with a relatively short, 14d campaign.

This time around they're launching their "Adventure" boxes, which are a pair of basically mini-cores.  Intent is apparently an easier starting point for new fans, and good integration with the original two cores (Swamps of Death and City of the Ancients).  In this smaller box will be the usual "stuff" - map tiles, figures, cards, gear, missions, but scaled back a bit (e.g. fewer map tiles than a full core).

New mechanics will be "team" heroes - apparently instead of 4 unique heroes all with their own skills, skill trees, and mechanics, each of the 4 Adventure heroes will effectively be of the same class.  (Therefore less playtesting and fewer balance issues with an already large Brimstone universe).

There's a bit of apprehension about the team heroes, as it feels like "less," (less content, less customization).  I'm actually okay with it - in our house we typically play 2-player, it will be easier for us to run a full squad of 4 without having to remember all the nuances of 4 unique heroes. 

The campaign is off to a roaring start already - pushing $650k at the 23 hour mark and smashing through stretch goals. 

Anyway, I'm all-in on this one.

This Week's Distraction: Diablo 3 Season 16

It's been quite awhile since I've played any meaningful Diablo 3 content.  When the game originally launched, I played through, but was quickly bored with the grind and steep difficulty curve.  (And, at launch, the real money auction house and a couple of classes that were nigh unplayable).

It's been several years, and Blizzard has continued to tweak the title and make incremental improvements.  A friend mentioned that Season 16 had commenced, so on a whim I popped in and rolled a fresh Crusader. 

What became clear to me is that:
a) after several years away, the core satisfaction - smiting oodles of baddies - is very much still there, and in some ways amplified.
b) after several years of playing board games, D3 offers a really great dungeon crawl on par with Shadows of Brimstone, or the tabletop RPG that we played last week with friends (D&D5E).  Sure, the pacing is different, and D3 is far more mindless, but the but it's been a really excellent way to scratch the same itch, and do it in ways that WoW or GW2 simply can't.

So, anyway, that's this week's distraction. I'm sure it won't last, but I'm enjoying the ride for now.

Dog Might Games: Custom Kingdom Death Gear Grids

Looking back through my posts, I realized I never actually uploaded these pictures.  Let's fix that!

Very early in our KDM career, I knew that the stock cardboard grids that come stock in the game were a pain.  If you look away for a SECOND, the gear cards spin and dance and rearrange themselves.  

I wanted a solution.

But I was picky.  There were some acrylic and laser cut ply options on the market, and 3D printable files around, but I wanted something a little more ... deserving ... of the great title that KDM is.

At PAX Unplugged 2017, I stopped in at the Dog Might Games booth and struck up a conversation with someone that I would later know as Zoey.  

I had a particular request - Gear Grid for Kingdom Death.  She politely pointed me at some of the other card and table organizers they had in stock, and I kept shaking my head.  We had an otherwise great chat, and Mrs. Zoxe found a prototype dice box for sale from their PAX stock.  And, after a return trip or two we caught up with Konas, one of the founders at DMG.

I wrote up my idea, did some sketches in MS Paint, and sat down with real cards and took some dimensions.  They were receptive to the idea of a custom commission, but wary because a) the cost would be spendy and b) they were really (super mega) busy.  I think maybe I had to convince them that I was serious. :)

We traded emails back and forth over the coming months, and this past September, they were able to work me into production.  

KDM Gear Card being measured; yes, I broke out the calipers.

With so much BoRo at risk, they cut a prototype and shipped it to me.  I loved it, and brought it back to them at GenCon 2018 with final tweaks.

Unboxing.

All four player stations in a big row.

The first words from the KDM manual included as an engraving:  "Once upon a time there was a place of carved stone faces."  (Harder to read in the glare than it is in person).

Side view showing magnets for future Component Collector integration.  Each pocket is sized to take a single 2x2 gear card and is angled a bit for easier readability.

And they felted the back.  Super cool.

This was a super splurge on my part but they came out wonderfully.  And you might think that it's a lot to spend for a single game title (you'd be right), but they do have uses beyond KDM.  One or two on the table make a wonderful collection point for tokens in almost any game.

I didn't post these pictures initially because I didn't know if DMG was interested in building more, considering all the other projects they have going at once.  Konas later said they'd build more if people are interested, and for my part I don't claim any particular ownership over "my" design.  It was a great collaboration, and if DMG can put a few more on the street, it's fine by me!

Dog Might was fantastic to work with.  I've gotten to know the gang a lot better through their forum and am happy to see their business continue to grow.  Since that first PAX, we've added several other DMG pieces to our table and I'm happy with them all.  But the real showcase are my Gear Grids.  

Overhaul

In the post-before-last, I questioned whether House of Zoxe should continue on.  I wasn't really in a mindset to pack it in, but I was kind of questioning my motives and how to increase visibility.  Pevil jumped in and was a great sounding board, and the result of that conversation resulted in just a few minor tweaks that I could make to increase my own enjoyment with this project.

So here's the line in the sand, the milestone, the point where I overhaul.

FIRST - Repeat visitors will notice the new layout.  After using the a more graphical/modern layout for the first year or so, I'm taking a step back to something a little more basic. 

I'm curious if part of the problem with keeping all y'all's attention was the theme.  So it's gone.  (Two sub-notes:  a) Expect more tweaking as we go, and b) you might find some broken formatting in older posts. I'll fix it if I see it but I'm not auditing everything right now).

As a side benefit, I'm no longer forced to include an image in every post (it broke the old theme), which means I might be inclined to type stray thoughts without feeling like I need to stop and dumpster drive for an appropriate image.

SECOND - I'm going to delve into some additional personal writing.  This is my platform, my outlet, and there's more to Zoxe than just airbrushing little army men.  You've been warned.

I stayed away from this kind of non-gamer content intentionally because I felt like it diluted the blog a bit, and if I go through a period where I'm not gaming/painting, then it becomes post after post of randomness.  My EVE blog went through this in its death throes.  But I also think that it could spice things up and perhaps make this a page worth bookmarking.

THIRD - I have a few projects in the hopper, but I'm also shifting my methods a bit to focus on volume over perfection. 

This fall, I stepped back from the path I was on.  I'm an "okay" painter and I don't aspire to perfection.  The "expected" path is that as a mini painter, I should aspire to finer control, more difficult techniques, cleaner blends, better basing, and incrementally better and better results - inching and clawing and begging and pleading towards higher and higher levels of quality.

The mini-painting community is great - friendly, inclusive, and creative.  But for some of us the moving of the goal posts becomes unhealthy. 

I needed to remind myself that I started in the hobby NOT intending to paint but just to PLAY the damn games.  My very first figures were a 3 or 4 step process (Prime, basecoat, wash, dry brush).  There's a slippery slope of adding complexity to a painting process to add some detail, pull up a highlight, push a shadow, fix a line, add some freehand.  There's a peer pressure aspect to it, there's a self motivation aspect.  I'm not sure how else to describe it.

Anyway, I need to not obsess and just shut up and paint.  I'm okay with a "Tabletop plus" result.  I'm going to screw up some models, learn some things, and be okay with it.

This Just In: Dog Might Component Collector

Straight from the box:  Component Collector in storage mode.

Once the recent cold snap lifted (I refuse to use the term 'Polar Vortex' ... oh damn, I just did), our USPS mail delivery resumed.  

I came home from work yesterday to find a greatly anticipated package on my doorstep:  Dog Might Games delivered my Component Collector Kickstarter pledge!  (And there was much rejoicing).

This was an interesting campaign.  Each backer was able to pick their wood species and tile layout from a long list of options.  My particular setup is a Bolivian Rosewood (BoRo) kit.  I chose one dragon sculpt to show, three Square tiles, two 'L' tiles, and two Counter tiles.  The tiles stack in a base that doubles as a personal rolling tray or another larger token tile, and once stored a leather strap keeps things together.

All of it is magnetized and smartly indexed to create a grid that clacks together with a satisfying 'schnock!' sound.  Once together, no small amount of table shenanigans will knock the tiles around.

3/4 View. 

Unpacked and gridded together.  I intentionally took this and the next picture partially in/out of the sun, so you can get an idea of the luster of the BoRo.  It's yummy.  I lucked out and get quite a bit of figure/character in my pieces.

Deployed with some Shadows of Brimstone bits.  For scale, most of these tokens are a little larger than a U.S. dime,and the dice are 'standardish' sized poly dice (also from Dog Might; their Bone Box from a previous campaign is shown above).

So far, I've just played around with these staged photos, but for token-heavy games like Shadows of Brimstone I'm looking forward to adding some sanity to our table.  I probably won't use the counter tiles all that much, but the dials simply lift out and the remaining recess will hold things fine.

Two CoCo tiles magnetically locked to the Dog Might Kingdom Death gear grids that I had done as a commission a few months ago.  I can continue to chain tiles to this "dashboard" as I see fit.  Super happy that we added the magnets, Konas.

To Continue?

Had a friend ask me this week if I was going to continue on with this blog. 

The honest answer is, I really don't know.  I've never caught a real groove, never built a readership, and honestly this platform is a dinosaur in the era of Discord, Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram. 

My posting volume is down, in part, because my painting volume is down.  Sounds silly - it's the winter - but I've been struggling with absurd amounts of apathy towards some projects that I feel like I SHOULD complete and NEED TO complete while other more alluring projects sit and gather dust.

Case in point:  I'm sitting here typing on a Saturday morning instead of turning on my bench light. 

Secondly, I know that there's basically nobody reading this.  Since you, the reader, are reading this now, I'll just salute and say thank you.  But please know that you're one of the few. 

My Kingdom Death posts still get some hits, and I take some pleasure in that; hopefully I'm helping people.  But other posts about Shadows of Brimstone, GenCon, or other rambles simply don't get much traction.  My most recent post - 6 days ago - has just 1 (one!) hit.  And that might have been me. 

When I link directly (to BGG or another forum), I get a burp of activity on that one post, people complement me on the blog, and then the wave passes in a day or two.  So, when people are finding the blog, they aren't staying, they aren't following, and probably don't come back.  This doesn't mean I'm "blaming" them; it's more of a confirmation to me that a blog like this isn't in their daily read routine (see previous statement about this platform being a dinosaur).

True story: I get more traffic from Russian porn sites than real readers.  Maybe they have a mini fetish, I dunno.

This doesn't feel like the end.  But it might be a transition. 

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Corpse Pile

Finished product. Super fast, nothing too fancy.

So, last night I was rummaging around in an old Amazon box that I've repurposed for nerd storage.  I happened across the SoB plastic Corpse Pile package that I bought ... sometime? One of those things that you forgot you had.

Anyway, these pieces replace cardboard tokens that come with the Swamps of Death core box; they're basically terrain pieces that spawn zombies.

I stared at the package for a few minutes, then reached over and turned on the compressor.  These guys were getting some paint!

Total time investment is maybe 45 minutes.  Nothing too fancy.  I've seen guys spend the effort to detail all the individual bodies, paint the clothes, boots, and bits.  But there's a fair amount of smearing between distinct details; I think that a more abstract approach probably works better.  I also wanted to test some speed-painting techniques combining a few of my prior methods.

Steps 1 and 2: Stynlrez primer, followed by AP Necrotic Flesh at a 45 degree angle.

I mounted each CP to a cork and used my proprietary cork holder (aka 2x4 with holes in it) to hold them while drying.  The Stynlrez went down smoothly, and I left them overnight to dry.

First thing this morning, I hit them with some color.  ArmyPainter Necrotic Flesh is a perfect color for undead baddies.  I used the Sotar 2020 and mixed the paint fairly thin.  I held the airbrush about 45 degrees above the table and gave them a quick zenithal treatment.  This took maybe 5 minutes, including the time to mix paint and clean the airbrush, then it was time for breakfast.

Step 3:  AP Strong Tone ink applied.

Mid-morning I came back and found my bottle of AP Strong Tone ink, which is a deep brown. 

Added a few drops into a 1oz solo cup, and added a few drops of airbrush thinner (this was more for my ability to brush the result than to reduce its intensity), call it 6:1 or 6:2.  Apply the wash liberally all over, then go back and wipe away any bubbles.  Also look for areas that have pooled; wipe your brush on a paper towel and blot those away.

Walk away and let that dry.

Step 4:  dry brushing: AP Necrotic Flesh and Fang Bone.  Harsh booth light.

Late morning I came back late morning and picked up the dry brush - more Necrotic Flesh and some AP Fang Bone white to bring out some details.

Finally, I fired up the Sotar again and hit the edges with Burnt Umber all around, followed by Burnt Sienna in the brighter area (Sienna is more 'orange').  FW Payne's Gray ink (also via the Sotar) reinforced some shadows that I lost.  I did a correction pass with the dry brush and again with more Payne's gray and called it done.

Step 5:  Airbrushed inks and adjustments.  Softer bench light shown here.  Airbrushed inks (Liquitex Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna) give the lower edges some definition and color interest.  I also (very) carefully added some shadows with FW Payne's Gray, mostly to the back side but also in the front side on a few places.

This last session was maybe half an hour total, so I think I knocked these out in about 45 minutes total time.  I may go back and put some neon green in some eye sockets, but will sleep on that.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Dark Altar

Brimstone Dark Altar

This is the Shadows of Brimstone Dark Altar, which was originally available at GenCon 2018 and subsequently available on the FlyingFrog web store.  He's a cool terrain piece, and seemed pretty straightforward, so I bumped him up the line and got him straight into the paint booth.

This isn't intended as a detailed how-to, but I'll try to walk through the process with pictures.

Typical start - Stynlrez black primer.  I have him attached to a large pill bottle lid with some blue-tac.  Right here there's no highlighting added, it's just the reflection of the harsh booth light.

Chains basecoated (wet blended) with Scale75 Necro Gold and ArmyPainter Dark Stone.  I've really loved the S75 golds I've used, and the Necro pairs perfectly with the Dark Stone.

Wider shot showing the overall progress. The blue-gray was a 3-color build up of AP Necromancer Cloak, Uniform Gray, and Gorgun Hide.  This is the same color stack I used for my Kingdom Death bad guys.

Reverse shot. I was going for a lot of stark contrast from light areas to dark.

The vines were basecoated with AP Brown Stone and Oak Brown.  Then, I gave the entire "octopus head" a coat of Reaper Black Wash (thinned a bit), and here I'm showing the base, which I washed with AP Strong Tone. 

At this point, I got the Sotar2020 out and very lightly re-applied highlights in Gorgun Hide.  I didn't take a picture, but I also hit the lips of the steps with AP Skeleton Bone (also with the Sotar).  I also started shooting a few inks to push the recesses - Liquitex Carbon Black and Burnt Umber.

Applying pre-shading to the rocks in the back. I wanted these to be glowing Darkstone and lit from beneath. 

I really fussed with the rocks, working back and forth with hand-brushing, airbrush, airbrushed inks (AP Purple), and paints.  Very trial and error.

Almost done. Here you can see the weathering I've applied with inks. The chains have been re-highlighted with S75 Dwarven Gold.  The glowing rocks are about done.

Rocks, done. Not as 'glowy' as I intended, but I wanted the octo-face to be the brightest spot on the model.

Ultimately, the trick with the rocks was to really provide a strong outline with some hand-brushed edge highlights and some careful application of AP Strong Tone.

Finished model, side. Before applying the eye glow, I spent some time applying highlights by hand to his warts, veins, and wrinkles.

First time using blood FX.  Perhaps overkill but wanted to indicate recent use.

Finished Model. 

 If I were using this as a contest piece, I would have omitted the eye glow or done something different.  Comparing this picture with the ones above, the un-glowed verions are perhaps more "pleasing" but wanted to convey how evil this place was.  That chewing-on-tinfoil mental gnashing your brain is doing is somewhat intentional.

Like any project, I learned a few things, screwed a few things up, and would do a few things differently.  I was really happy with how the Liquitex Burnt Umber and AP Purple ink combined to make a really pleasing golden brown.  I liked the amount of contrast, shading, and weathering I did (though I really could have gone crazy with some water drips and runs).  The eye glow - despite the color - was really easy to do and is a technique I'll apply to gems, engines, and other glowy things down the road.

Merry Christmas!

And so, we mark another year together.  Be excellent to each other.

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Doomsday Device

Ready for some Doom(tm).

This one is so fresh that I'm not sure the last bits of paint are actually cured.

I bought the Doomsday Device when it first became available, and put it on the shelf.  I suppose it didn't strike me as the most interesting piece, and it sat there for 2 (if not 3?) years. 

However, more recently, I've been playing with Airbrushing and inks and weathering.  Aha! Now it's the perfect subject of a quick project.

I intentionally didn't make all the model prep perfect.  Apparently, the master for this model is 3D printed, as the telltale line texture is found throughout.  Also, I can tell that my particular mold was pretty rough; most of the underhangs were starting to tear out.  I scraped a bit, and gave it a couple of layers of Vallejo Matt Varnish to smooth the worst of the worst.  But in the end, this was supposed to be a fast project to get some terrain on the table.

All four pieces started with black Stynlrez primer and then a 3-color stack of greens applied with the airbrush.  I was going for more of a lime green than a John Deere green, so I also applied some Vivid Lime Green ink as a highlight.

Here the smaller parts are basecoated.  The gold hoses are a blend of AP Stone Brown, Scale 75 Necro Gold, and S75 Dwarven Gold for a highlight.  First use of the S75 paints - they lived up to expectations and worked really well.

WIP shot, still working on gold bits.

I decided that the center vent-thing-whatever was actually a Darkstone Reactor.  I went in with the Sotar (airbrush) and applied a blast of Reaper Pure White, then AP Darkstone Purple (from the SoB set), then another dash of pure White in the center.

More colors added for bits.  Here I'm about to start weathering/shading. I would later decide that the reactors needed a splash of yellow to be convincing.

Basecoating is done on the big piece, you can see the yellow splash in the reactors here.  I'm also starting to shade in the silver stacks.

 

Ready for shading.  Adding S75 Necro Gold to all the rivets really brought this piece to life.

 

Complete set, on the Derelict Ship map tile.

Zoxe Project Status - October 2018

Well, fudgepickles.  Halloween came and went and I never once thought about doing a ZPS.  It's now almost halfway through the month, but I'd still like to make the entry.

Honestly, though, I've been limping along with a persistent case of black death (sinus infection) and the last week really hasn't been all that productive anyway.

1. On the Table:

• Shadows of Brimstone - This will be a single entry here because it's been THE THING going on.  I updated my storage, inventoried expansions and cards, and otherwise just plain got organized.  I dug out some long lost expansions from my pile of shame and the long term storage shelf and got them painted.  Derelict Ship, Sand Kraken, and Nun with a Gun are done while the Doomsday Device is nearly complete and the Depth Tracker is in primer.  We even started a new 2p campaign, based on a story arc that I sketched out.  

2. Gaining Momentum:

• Fall Chores - The weather held nicely, and before my sinus infection settled in, I dropped 4 dead trees and carved a small path through the back part of our woods.  I've got a few more to go, and a lot of trail to cut, but it's been a good Fall so far.  Now if I can just get through the Holidaze and see if early December will cooperate.
• PAX Unplugged - PAX-U is at the end of the month.  There's a little bit of hype building about the event, although I don't know what events/classes we'll even attempt to get into.  But, we're looking forward to returning to Philly, being in a better hotel position (we're in the Marriott this time; the Hampton Inn was fine but was on the wrong side of the hall), and eating some of their outstanding downtown food.
• Dropfleet Commander - The UCM fleet is still (still!) on my table but hasn't been touched while I process all the Brimstone stuff.  Honestly, I got tired of painting that color gray and the tedium of fixing panel lines.  But, I think I'm in a place where I can bang out the rest of the cruisers and maybe finish the New York class battleship and take a small squadron to PAX-U for display/contest.

3. Losing Traction:

• KDM Wave 2 - I'll leave this here (again); no shipping updates yet on Wave 3 and I've yet to have need for any of the expansions.  

4. Going, going, gone.

• N/A 

Blast from the Past

Camp Taurajo.  Hello old friend.

So, this weekend was Blizzcon weekend.  Oddly, it's a sort of holiday for us.  Oh, our hobby interests have waxed and waned, but through thick and thin we somehow always pay attention to Blizzcon weekend.  Over the years it's been a weekend where we pause and veg out and watch the streams (or DirecTV PPV back in the day) and otherwise just nerd out.  It never mattered much if we were playing Blizzard games or not; we stop, reminisce, and enjoy.

Blizzcon has a special place in our hearts.  We first attended in person on a complete whim in 2007 - the second Blizzcon ever.  I happened to load a Blizzard page linking to the ticket sales and a road trip to Anaheim sounded like fun.

Now, for context:  in 2007, WoW was in the mid/late TBC era.  I was a Vanilla WoW player, but had struggled to catch a groove in TBC.  We kind of laughed about the fact that we were attending a convention for a game that we weren't actually playing.  (That statement alone is indicative of how focused Blizzard was on WoW at the time - WC3 and SC1 were of course around but showing their age, and Diablo 3 was years away.  WoW was the runaway juggernaut that had yet to actually peak).

The 2007 Blizzcon was the announcement for Wrath of the Lich King and Death Knights, and watching the trailer while in line for Blizzcon merchandise, I was totally and completely hooked.  Over a decade later, I think that one trip to California changed how I viewed games, gaming, and became a Blizzard fan.

We returned to Blizzcon in 2008 and again in 2015.  Some day we may return again.

A lot has changed with WoW since 2007.  Wrath, Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, and now BfA have all deployed.  The bones of the game that I enjoyed in Vanilla through Wrath are still there, but the game is so very different today.  The type of play that I enjoy is still there, sort of, but it's obscured, twisted, and different.  Less pure.  If nothing else, the map changes that the Cata expansion brought keep me from visiting places that I used to know.

This Blizzcon brought the WoW Classic demo.  I'm currently logged in as I type, with an Orc Warrior named Zoxe standing in Camp T.  This is an area of the game that we haven't seen since Cata launched and Deathwing wrecked the old world in 2010.

It was a little thing, but I'll admit that my eyes got a little watery running down from Crossroads to visit Camp T just after logging in yesterday.

The demo only includes the Barrens and Westfall, so I'm limited in places I can enjoy, but it just feels like home.