Welcome to the Blur

Holy crap, it's midlate-April.  I could round up and say it's almost May!

Let's rewind the clock and talk about why I've been quiet here. 

At the end of March, we stepped onto a cruise ship and spent the first 10 days of April floating around the Caribbean and parts of South America.  From beginning to end, we were off work almost 2 full weeks.  With the prep work around the house and yard to get ready for our departure, and a mad rush and extra hours at the office, it's been almost a month since I've lifted a paintbrush, and longer since I've rolled any dice.

This was our fourth cruise in 18 months.  We normally budget for two vacations a year, though spending all of our available vacation time on cruise ships has been very abnormal for us (vs. other destinations/activities).  But that's how it lined up. 

All this time onboard ship has led to a feeling of having two lives.  I commented to Mrs. Zoxe as we boarded this ship that I feel like we put our real life on hold and we go pick up where we left off in some alternate timeline.  And with a smile I thought, "and yah, I'm okay with that."

Towards the middle of the trip, I started to think of it as "the blur."  The only days that mattered were today, yesterday, and tomorrow.  Anything beyond that was a blur.  I had no idea what day of the week it was.  Everything kind of smeared together.  Usually my life is reasonably distinct and precise.  The blur means my life is a finger painting with the colors bleeding and oozing together.

And that, ultimately, is what keeps us coming back to the big white boats.  The ability to check out, detox, and strip away all of those accumulated decisions (at least temporarily) and become another version of myself and hope that I like the person that I find there.

This trip was longer than most, and the additional duration certainly fed the illusion.  It was such a strong feeling throughout the trip - that my other life was the dream and THIS was my reality - that it was a little jarring to come home.

Welcome to the blur.

Dog Might Games Wooden Dice

Yucatan Rosewood poly set in the photo booth.

It seems like a long time ago now, but I posted early in the blog about why I like wooden things.  There's really no substitute for one of our most basic resources.

Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited to take a "first peek" at some new gaming accessories from the Viking Warlords at Dog Might Games.  At the time, I was sworn to silence on the pending offerings, but now that the project is public I'm free to type away to my heart's content.

What's pictured are some cnc-carved wooden dice in Yucatan Rosewood with a green inlay.  My set were among the very first runs (I don't want to say 'prototypes' as the fit and finish on my set are very much production quality) and I'm proud to support the project.

They roll very well, though the YuRo is a little lighter (less dense) than an equivalently sized plastic set so the feel in the hand is a little different.  These will be mostly for display, but the D10s may get some use with Kingdom Death.  The D10s and D8 are my favorites with some great inlay work and nice sharp corners. 

After playing for years with plastic, the texture of wood is a welcome change.

DMG is now running production and will drop new dice to the page on Fridays.  Each set is unique, and there are a very wide variety of woods, inlays, weights/densities, and price points. 

On the windowsill, natural light.

Unboxing: KDM Wave 2

Last week was a crazy week, followed by a crazy (but fun) weekend out of town.  On Friday, I was supposed to leave the office by noon but had 3 things that had to get submitted.  But at 3pm, I was still at my desk, madly clicking away.  Finally got free at 3:15, raced home to pack a bag and get back in the car, and we were off for the weekend.

(But that's the content for another post).

Fast forward, we pulled in the driveway last night at 11:45pm, I was back up at 5, and put in another 9.5 hr day today at the office.

By the time I got home, I had totally forgotten that I had tracking information for the infamous Kingdom Death, Wave 2 expansions indicating a Monday arrival.

But there they were, waiting by the garage.  I blinked, then got out of the car, and in exchange for feeding the cat, she supervised the unboxing.

As a Satan's level backer, I got all 12 of the legacy (1.0) expansions.  These were packed at the factory into "Expansions of Death 1" for easier shipping.  But, a few months back, Poots opened the backerkit up, and I added on the Green Armor and Flower Knight so that I had a spare set of some really cool armor at Kickstarter prices.  I wasn't sure how these would ship, but unsurprisingly, I received not one, but TWO tracking numbers.  Both arrived on the same day.

Lastly, I am apparently at the head of the wave 2 cycle for shipping in the U.S.  Intentional or not, it somewhat makes up for the longer wait I had at Wave 1.

So, without further adieu, here are the pictures.

Box markings.

KDM rulebook (and supervisor cat) for scale. Note corner damage lower right.

Opening the small box containing the duplicate models I procured.

Small box:  cosmeteic box damage in the Flower Knight from being squished against the Green Armor sprues.

Expansions of death, first glimpse.  Cardboard is much thinner than the core box and of similar density to a normal Amazon box.  There was a cardstock "knife protector" that separated the product from the tape seam that I removed for the shot.

First expansion out of the box.  Dragon King!

Corner damage on 2 of the 4 bottom corners.  Poor Slenderman got the worst of it.  If I were collecting or reselling, I'd be pissed.  Actual game contents were unharmed, and I'll be disposing of the packing (eventually) so I shall scowl and then get over it.

This is the shot I was after.  All 12 legacy expansions stacked on the core box.  And you know the core box ain't small.  I'm a tall guy and this stack is at least 6 inches higher than my knee.  This shot does NOT include my duplicates.

Another perspective shot.  Let the clipping and glue sniffing begin!

On the Horizon

There is much on the horizon.

Although I have a couple of things that could hit the bench, I took a break this week and not once did I flip on my desk lamp.  It feels like there's a big surge on the horizon, but instead of feeling stressed about it, I'm kind of intentionally holding back and feeling pretty good about it.

• Kingdom Death Wave 2 tracking information hit Asia and Europe overnight.  I'm sure U.S. will follow shortly.  
• Miniature Monthly Boot Camp is next weekend.  I got the reminder from our hotel yesterday and it started feeling very real.  More on this below.  
• Figures, bits, and bases two separate projects I have in mind for Gencon contests have arrived.  Pretty excited about these.  I may actually pop some blister packs open this afternoon and get started with model prep.
• And good news from the War Store.  The Scibor bases that I ordered back in December (December!!) are (maybe?) finally moving again.  Scibor is a Polish company that makes some outstandingly cool conversion bits and bases.  I bought a selection through The War Store.  The War Store has been great, and responsive when I inquire, but my box of loot got stuck in customs in Belgium.  It's been so long that I really don't remember what I had planned for all of them, but do know that I intended to marry them to the KDM Wave 2 content as an upgrade over the stock bases.  

Stock Image (not my paint) of the type of Scibor bases I have inbound. Very excited to finally have these in hand.

So, let's talk about Boot Camp and my painting journey.

We often think of the learning curve as a smooth progression from A to B to C.  But in practice it's really not.  There are periods of rapid acceleration, there are plateaus, and with perishable skills like painting there are steps backwards.

I consider myself a beginner painter, maybe dabbling towards intermediate.  I started on this path when I bought my first box of Shadows of Brimstone, and walked off the Gencon show floor with no intention of actually painting anything.  A few days later, I changed course and set out with really no goal other than to give a monochrome basecoat (via a rattle can) and then wash/shade the miniatures.  And my first models were really that simple:  basecoat, wash, dry brush.  Two or three colors total, including the wash.

This was a time of rapid learning.  Learning the brands, learning the techniques, getting comfortable with basic assembly.  Big jump in the learning curve.

As these things tend to go, it's a slippery slope of expanding scope.  I get a little more comfortable with the brush, and my SoB heroes - not masterworks by any stretch - included a half dozen colors and a couple of custom-mixed colors.  My time invested really wasn't that much more, but the results were far more pleasing.

Fast forward 18 months or so.  In the weeks before Kingdom Death arrived, I had bumped up against the limits of that technique.  I was happy with my Trederra pieces, with more subtle shading, better color selection, and better brush control, but I was still far from a place that would win any awards.

I also knew that I was DONE with rattle can priming after some misfortune with some expensive resins that I still haven't had the heart to try to strip and salvage.

Simple technique, at its limits.

Thus began the era of Airbrushing.

Once again, I started modestly. I needed a solution to apply primer.  The slippery slope appears again: well, doing some shading would be okay I guess.  Now, 4 months later, I'm more comfortable with the Badger and am not looking back.

But I also know that I'm bumping up against the limits of the technique I developed for the KDM Core Box.  The Phoenix, Watcher, and especially the Antelope suffered from the way I was doing things.  I am so very happy with them, but I also know that they could have been better.  And I'll say I learned a metric buttload during the KDM project (big jump in my learning curve).

It feels like these skills are starting to fit together like puzzle pieces.  Model prep. Filling.  Color selection.  Light sourcing.  KDM did a lot to bring these skills along.  But looking back at the pieces, I know that it's time to learn more about washes (shading by hand) and maybe even wet blending.

Progression and learning on many different techniques at once.

And so, as we were sifting back through the prior episodes of Miniature Monthly, we decided to sign up for their Boot Camp and get some hands-on experience with a couple of masters.  It's not cheap, but it should be a fun, unique experience.  And it's exactly what I need to progress a step or two more.

So, I started this post to talk about all the figures on the horizon.  But it's really about learning. There's a lot of learning on the horizon.

WIP: Dropfleet Commander Frigates

Two each:  Toulon frigate (bottom center and upper left) and New Orleans strike carriers (top and right).  This is per the fleet composition suggested in the 2-player starter pack.

Another quick post.  I've been taking my time with the DFC assembly.  Last night I wrapped up the last two frigates and started looking at the pair of "convention exclusive" resin cruisers that I bought at GenCon. 

I may give the ships a quick shot of primer so that I can see what will and won't need filled.  But otherwise am going to hold tight for a few weeks until we're back from the Miniature Monthly Boot Camp. 

The good news is:  there are no huge gaps, just some seams between parts and one engine nozzle that got nicked by my clippers.  (The first resin ship - not shown - will need some heavy surgery, however).

The New Orleans coming together in the Zoxe Shipyards(tm).  Moscow heavy cruiser standing guard for scale.

Leftover parts on the sprue after clipping everything for my 4 frigates.  There are 5 possible configurations of frigates. Per the instructions, each sprue builds a max of 4 ships, but only 2 of the same class.  Some guys are magnetizing all the bits for full flexibility, but I'm happily gluing things down solid.

Top view of assembled ships.  All the gun turrets could have been magnetized to allow rotation, but I chose not just pick a dynamic pose.

Angle view. Resin antenna from the convention-only ships on the paper towel.

Assembled 2-player starter fleet, UCM faction.

Angled view with ship and KDM survivor for scale. The frigates actually aren't that big.

Side view. I should put away my stack of brushes in the back.

ZPS - February 2018

Ahoy!

So, a few minutes ago I thought to myself, "You should think about doing your ZPS post, because February is almost.... oh damn."  Yup, it's March!

1. On the Table:

• Dropfleet Commander!  Some said it would never happen, but it's on the table.
• I've got the Core Box UCM Fleet mostly assembled.  Only 7 models total, but have been taking my time with it.  
• Next will be a pair of "convention show only" resins, Cruiser sized.
• I am checking the FLGS tomorrow for a Battleship box. They had them in stock last I checked, but that was ... August.
• Part of my slowness is that I want to get past mid-month before I actually dive into any painting, see comments about MM Boot Camp below.
• Battlefleet Box will follow all that, but will likely get deferred when KDM Wave 2 arrives.
• Is it legal to leave Kingdom Death out of this first bucket?  Yah, I didn't think so.
• COMPLETE:  What I've been calling the "core of the Core Box" is done.  All monsters (bosses) and the 8 unique survivor figures are painted and ready.  
• I'll pop open the sprue box later for additional survivor armors.
• Wave 2 appears to be shipping per the revised schedule. My backerkit was charged for shipping yesterday, which means things get underway on/around the 7th.  I still predict a somewhat bumpy ride and longer-than-most-people-will-expect fulfillment.

2. Gaining Momentum:

• Miniature Monthly.  
• I've been part of the Patreon subscriber base for months, and have enjoyed it so far.  The more recent posts about model preparation and filling have made the entry free worthwhile.  
• They have a pretty lively and supportive Discord channel (for subscribers) that's been one of my evening hangouts lately.
• We're doing their Boot Camp later this month, one day with Aaron Lovejoy (Flying Frog / Shadows of Brimstone factory painter) and the other with Elizabeth Beckley (Ninja Division and Kingdom Death factory painter).  
• Hopefully can learn some things to apply to the DFC paint.
• PC Game:  Guild Wars 2.  Holding its own in this category, though I haven't done any marathon sessions in quite awhile, I still login most nights if only to move things around.
• Yard Work.  We live on 10 acres, and right now is the very short window where the weather is somewhat nice, it's too cold for insects, and things haven't turned green yet.  So I've been working down a list of things I need to get done before I lose access due to the return of underbrush.  It gets me outside, and this is the kind of work I enjoy most (mowing the lawn in 90+ deg heat in August humidity and swarms of insects is the kind I like least).

3. Losing Traction:

• Gloomhaven.  Will leave GH here as the "game I wish I had time to play but don't" entry for the month.

4. Going, going, gone.

• Shadows of Brimstone.  Temporary hold, but it's been ages since I touched any SoB content I'll shrug and put it in the #4 bucket of shame.  I expect this to change in the Spring months as I have a pretty cool little project in mind to bring to GenCon this year.
• PC Game:  All Blizzard Games.  After a brief hurrah, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm are out of my rotation completely.

WIP: Dropfleet Commander Cruisers

Cruisers, ready for action. Or at least some primer.

Fast post with some pics of Dropfleet commander assembly.  I started with the Cruisers, and am building the recommended fleet composition from the 2-player starter pack.

Initial thoughts:

• The starter boxes are plastic (not resin), with detail quality similar to KDM. 
• Tamiya Plastic Cement works wonderfully.
• There's near zero mold flash and only minimal mold lines.  
• Most of the mold lines are actually cleverly hidden in the ship details.
• Likewise, the parts are cleverly designed to disguise the the seams between parts.  In particular, the "cap" that runs down the spine of the hull and a pair of antenna at the nose hide the most prominent seams.
• Small bits have helpful pins to locate and orient properly.
• I'll have a few places to apply filler but overall I'm pretty happy.

Cruiser sprue. One hull is provided (center top) but other modules/bits are interchangeable to build one of 9 configurations.  The parts are numbered on the back side to keep things sane.

Moscow Class Heavy Cruiser, clipped but not yet cleaned.

First hull half. This center antenna needs to be installed before the two halves go together.  Note that the antenna has a pin/bump to properly orient it.

Center hull and antenna installed, waiting for the engine nacelles.

Three cruisers:  Seattle Strike Carrier, Berlin Cruiser, and Moscow Heavy Cruiser (clockwise, starting from left)

Alternate view showing off the Seattle's Galactica-style carrier pods, and the big friggin' gun slung under the Berlin's nose.

Unboxing: DropFleet Commander

Finally.

Today.  Is a big day.  A day long in coming.  A day that I thought might never get here.

Today, is Dropfleet Commander Unboxing Day.  Very Exciting.

Why wait so long?
We bought the game at GenCon, but until today the shrink wrap was still intact.  We don't have a dedicated hobby room, and no basement, so we shuffle things around the house and in/out of my closet as situations dictate.  I left the shrink on the box as a way to ensure no bits got lost.  And of course, it added something to the anticipation (and shame) that I hadn't made the plunge yet.

And like anything, time got away from me.  Blink your eyes, and 6 months goes by.

Two player starter box, still in shrink wrap.

Box top open.  You're greeted by a mini-box containing the manual and other printed items.  Box is a high quality "chest" configuration and will be usable for storage after (no glued box lid).

Sprues!  Scourge Player left, UCM Player right.  A handful of D6 and a branded HAWK tape measure.

Here's the big thing about DFC - the ships are modular.  The sprues give you the parts to build several different ships from the same basic hull/backbone.

The variants have different stats lines and abilities depending on what kind of fleet you want to build - the Cruisers for example can be built to represent 9 different ships (fleet carriers, light cruisers, troopships, etc.).  The starter box comes with a recommended Fleet build that we'll start with, and then experiment down the road with lists.

UCM Sprues on display.  Three are identical, the one on bottom is unique.

The two player box includes enough sprues to build a total of 7 ships per player - 3 cruisers and 4 frigates.  We also bought the first batch of Battlefleet Boxes available anywhere, so we'll add and customize our fleets.

I should also note that Hawk Wargames recently folded into TTCombat.  So any future acquisitions will be through that company, and it looks like mass production Battlefleet Boxes are finally on the shelf.

Punch card tokens, debris fields, and one of two foldable maps.

Other items included:

• Dropfleet Commander Rulebook.*
• A two-piece "poster" that creates a 3x4 foot game map**
• Cardstock debris fields
• Cardstock cities
• Cardstock tokens
• Ten D6 (black)
• Hawk branded tape measure
• Misc stat sheets and player aids

*The rulebook is 224 pages, softback, but high quality glossy print.  It's got some heft.  There's a fair amount of backstory/fluff for the overall universe plus some details on each of the four races.  Other content includes stat lines for ships, detailed game rules, campaign creation rules, and several scenarios.  I'll want to tab mine out with post-its, but it seems reasonably well organized and well constructed.

**The maps are really cool, but they're glossy and feel like they'd be a pain to remove the creases from.  I'll play on one of my X-Wing mats to start, but I have my eyes on a Deepcut Studio Orbital Mat for future games (if I can ever justify the huge shipping costs from overseas....).

I am still debating the color scheme for my Fleet, and will be running some experiments with colors sometime soon.  But for inspiration, I've been looking at pictures of my favorite ships from EVE Online.

EVE Online - Caldari:  Inspiration for painting.

Hot off the Desk: KDM Watcher

Luke: "I don't know ... I feel like...."
Yoda: "Feel like what?"
Luke:  "Like we're being WATCHED."

As we've gone through the HotD series for KDM, my posts have gotten longer and longer.  Let's break that trend with the Watcher.  This is the last boss in the core box, and I'm just continuing to follow my recipe.

I'm following a set of self-imposed color rules for my KDM set. If this is your first post in the series (see summary page), here's the part that I copy/paste:
-----
Color Choices:  For my KDM set, I'm using an airbrush to provide shadows in a pseudo-statue, almost monochrome paint scheme.  I want a lot of high contrast from light to dark, with near-black in the shadows and near-whites in the light.  I'm using warm colors (creamy grays, buttery whites, and a bright mustard yellow) for the SURVIVORS and cool colors (blue-grays and a neon blue) for the MONSTERS.
-----

Somewhat similar to the Phoenix, I intended to make the Watcher a "hybrid" build and use the color palette of both the Survivors and the Monsters.

I will say that the Watcher was both my least favorite to build and to paint.  It's a very cool sculpt, and I wanted to do him justice, but I also felt hindered by some of the geometry, dangly lanterns, and the way the parts fit.

Build Notes:
I promised to keep this simple.

• I used the Official Build guide.
• I didn't install to the base immediately. I used my pinning tools to drill a small hole in his "feet" and did most of my painting with him glued to a paperclip for access to his underbits.
• Some of the vines and lantern ropes needed some excessive trimming to make fit, but it all worked out.
• I filled the seam between the front and back halves with Milliput before I installed the Head and ribbony pieces that wrap around. It would have been nigh impossible to fill if he was completely assembled.

Installing the ropes and lanterns. Take your time here. 

I used Milliput to fill the seam between the front and back, BEFORE the head and ribbons were installed.  In my infinite wisdom didn't take any pictures of it.  In consolation, here's an assembled but unprimed picture.

Priming and Shading:

The main idea is to treat the inside as being lit with lanterns (coloring the same as my Survivors) and the outside with ambient light and my "monster blue glow."

• (Airbrush) Vallejo Surface Primer, Black
• (Airbrush) ArmyPainter Necromancer Cloak (all over)
• (Airbrush) INSIDE - 50/50 mix of AP Necromancer Cloak and AP Skeleton Bone
• (Airbrush) INSIDE - AP Skeleton Bone
• (Brush) Inside Lanterns - AP Phoenix Flames
• Pin to base
• (Hand Brush) BASE:  Vallejo Surface Primer, Black
• (Airbrush) BASE and touchup:  AP Necromancer Cloak
• (Airbrush) BASE:  AP Skeleton Bone
• Use blue painter's masking tape to mask off exposed lanterns/ropes before proceeding.
• (Airbrush) OUTSIDE - AP Uniform Gray
• (Airbrush) OUTSIDE - AP Gorgun Hide, from behind the his right shoulder and almost straight down
• (Hand Brush) Outside Lanterns - AP Gorgun Hide
• (Wash) INSIDE - AP Soft Tone Ink, thinned 5:1 with water
• (Wash) OUTSIDE - Reaper Black Wash, thinned 2:1 with water
• (Dry Brush) INSIDE - AP Skeleton Bone, Matt White, Lava Orange, and Phoenix Flames
• (Dry Brush) OUTSIDE - Gorgun Hide, Matt White, and Crystal Blue
• Base:  (Wash)  Reaper Black Wash, thinned 4:3 with water
• Base:  (Dry Brush)  AP Uniform Gray and Phoenix Flames
• (Hand Brush) - Lantern highlights with AP Gorgun Hide and Skeleton Bone
• (Hand Brush) - Darkened shadows with Reaper Black Wash

Mounted on a paperclip for access to the underside.

Building highlights on the underside.

I highlighted the hooded area, but somehow totally missed the injection peg sticking straight out of his head.  This was trimmed and blended with Vallejo Matt Varnish and re-primed before the cloak highlights were built.

Spots of AP Phoenix Flames added to hood and lanterns.

Same as above, photo looking up.

Carefully using some blue painter's tape to keep the cloak highlights off the lower lanterns.  Could have also used a business card or index card.

Building highlights. AP Uniform Gray - Back

AP Uniform Gray - Front.  Shoot mostly straight down to about 45 degrees from the table.

AP Gorgun Hide - Shot mostly straight down.

Reaper Black Wash applied to the upper cloak and AP Gorgun Hide applied to lanterns.

Dry brushing and glow colors applied. Harsh desk lamp.  I wasn't entirely happy with the shadows so I blended a little more wash into the recesses, dulled the orange, and lined out the lantern frames by hand.

Finished!

Finished - Back

Other members of the Core Box cast.

Watcher and GSK for a size comparison.

And with that, the KDM Core Box is completely assembled and painted.  Oh, there are still mountains of sprues in the box that I could work on, but plan to let them sit and get some more of our campaign under our belt before I break them out.

I'm super happy with the results, though I'm definitely up against the limits of this technique - the Phoenix and Watcher in particular would have benefited from a more traditional approach instead of this airbrush-wash-drybrush routine.  But I'll take what I learned here and apply it forward.  Thanks for reading.