Sunday, August 25, 2013

Armorcast Chaos Warhound: Canis Messorem Finished?

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!!! Now that I am done with my GenCon 2013 coverage it is time to turn back to some actual 'hobby' stuff. Before I left for GenCon I had been working on an old Armorcast Chaos Warhound which I have named 'the Reaper's Hound' or Canis Messorem if you prefer the Latin. This weekend actually saw me spending some time in the 'man-cave/hobby-room' which allowed me to finish up the painting on the Warhound. I am not sure if I will do any 'freehand' work on the legs or not but this is were the little beast stands at this point.

An overview look:






Top down look:


A miniature (from the to-be-painted shelf) for scale:

A slightly closer look:

The 'Legion' Icon:

 The 'Soul Forge' Icon:

These two shots are from 'ground level':



Now for a bunch of close-up shots:









Well, now I am just waiting for a chance to seal the miniature, the weather has not been the best lately for sealing minis. After the final sealant coat (which is a flat coat) I will go in and apply gloss varnish to the eyes and the nose which will make them look wet. I am now working on the three Chaos Soul Forge Banners for the beast but I thought I would show you all the progress so far. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

GenCon 2013: Phat Loot

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!!! It is time to wrap up my coverage of GenCon 2013 with a brief look at some of the stuff I brought home from the convention. One of my main reasons for attending GenCon every year is to visit the Dealer's Exhibit Hall. I try to prepare my wallet for the experience every year but every year my wallet feels the pain. Oh so many shiny gaming things I never knew about but must have! There are a couple of Vendors that I look for every year and at this point they recognize me and we have a nice little chat while I am at their booth. I did purchase a few items not shown here that were gifts which have already gone to their new homes. Here is what I ended up with:


The Forgeworld booth (Mk2b Land Raider, Salamander Dred, Sevrin Loth Librarian in Mk IV armor):

Black Library Booth (getting ready for Heresy Salamanders):

The Shadowrun Booth after the 100 minute wait in line (not shown are a Rulebook and card sets):

The Mercs Minis Booth which had all sorts of new stuff (and awesome people to help me):
Above you will see the new FCC House 4 minis, Mercs Token Set (much needed), 7th Member Printed Cards (much needed), and the special GenCon only release of the Texico Eagle Assault Trooper. The GenCon only version of the Texico Eagle has clear resin smoke from his jetpack which is a cool look. All in all I spent about 45 minutes talking with the Mercs folks and of course spending money, funny how nice people can get when they want your money.

I also made it to the Wargames Factory Booth and spent some time talking with the nice folks there. A few years ago I found out that they have a headquarters in a small town not to far from here making us practically neighbors. On top of the local company side of things they are really nice people so I had to stop by and see what new things they had to offer me..........Apocalypse Survivors!!!!
 30 male and 30 female survivors for $18.00 each box, what a deal!

I had a chance to attend Tracy and Laura Hickman's Killer Breakfast and was actually awarded a prize in a random drawing (a little more involved than that, there was a game show and this was the prize) which was an autographed copy of Tracy Hickman's new novel 'Wayne of Gotham':


I stopped by another of my favorite/must see booths which happens to be a Gaming Map Dealer named Maps of Mystery. There is a running joke with my friends that I have a Map buying compulsion which I most certainly do not have! I do love gaming maps though and figure you can never have enough but I could stop buying maps at anytime.......

You will notice in the above picture I managed to pick up a copy of the Infinity Quick Start Rules. I picked these up during a painting class I took which was sponsored by the Infinity game. The painting class was interesting, basically I learned that I am painting in the correct way after all I just need to practice a bit more.

Finally my good friend Mordian 7th picked up the new phase 3 releases for X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games. That was an awesome gesture which will make our X-Wing games even more fun! Thanks Mordian 7th!

That is the lot, not to bad after all and I somehow managed to fit it all in the luggage coming home. I am looking forward to reading the Heresy Salamander books and trying out the new ships in X-Wing. The Mercs Mini stuff (7th member cards and tokens) will be a huge help in future games. The Apocalypse Survivors will be used as part of a Christmas Gift for a very good friend that is in love with Zombie Survivor games but doesn't have any survivor miniatures to use. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Take care!

Friday, August 23, 2013

GenCon 2013: A Cosplay Circus

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! My coverage of GenCon 2013 continues with a look at some of the costumes I ran across during my journeys about the convention center. This is but a small selection of the costumes that were on display during the weekend, I know there had to be a ton I missed. I was able to guess what the costume was about 25% of the time. Sit back and get ready for a bunch of pictures and a couple of videos (my first)! I apologize for some of the pictures quality, it was a very busy place with a lot of people passing back and forth. Enjoy!

 Here are a bunch of shots I took in the various Convention Center Halls:

 Lego Superman! Even the bottom of the boots had the holes to fit into Lego tabs:


There was a very well done Dalek that really grabbed people's attention:
 There was someone inside that ordered people 'to not touch the appendages':

The Convention Center Hall shots continue:


The Ghostbusters!

The backs of the Proton Packs were really well done with lights and sounds:

 The Pope was in the house! I got blessed as he passed:
 I am not sure what this guy was but his spear was huge:



 Great dress! Need to convince my better half that this would look good on her!
 These girls drew quite a crowd:




 Minecraft warrior:
 Happy garden gnome:
 Spy vrs. Spy
 Venom:

 Nicely done Batman, he even had the gravely voice down pat:
 Excellent Joker:
 Lady-in-Waiting:

 Scarecrow:
 Blue girl:

 Warcaster of Menoth:
 Thor:
 Dragon Princess (Game of Thrones) and her Barbarian Bodyguard (behind her):


Here we have the start of the annual Costume Parade which wound through the Convention Center Halls before stopping in one of the big ballrooms for the Costume Contest. I loved the fact the Parade was led off by a guy in an Imperial Guard costume waving a large Aquila Flag:

This leads us to my first videos, again I apologize for the quality, I have a small hand-held camera. I hope you are able to make out some of the costumes as they pass by.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! I am almost done with my GenCon 2013 coverage, the only thing left to cover is the stuff I brought home from the show. Take care!