Fevered Dreams

So it's been a few weeks since my last post, and the reasons for that are coming down with a nasty fever that took me out of commission, and then a trip up north to help a friend move.  Now though, I've had to play catch up.  Breetai is finished, so let's take a look at how he evolved.




I decided on using the very first zentraedi seen in the Robotech series.  The pics of it had the under armor looking a bit purple, but I decided to go with a solid navy.  Getting the shading on something of this size was a little tricky.  On smaller minis it's easier to accomplish because there's not as much surface area, but on larger minis you have a lot of ground to cover in order to get a smooth coat.




The armor in the series was brown, so I tried to go with that.  The colors were very close, but I think I need to make an investment in new paints soon.  I used my favorite sepia wash from Vallejo's Game Color line, and on the upper armor it came out great, but it was kind of off on the lower armor.  I checked with my patron who gave the ok on things.  It doesn't look bad, but it's not what I was hoping for.



Here's Breetai himself, and just himself, finished.  The rest of him went by pretty well, and I was particularly happy with how solid the yellow on his insignia came out.  Yellow is a very tricky color to work with since it is very thin and colors beneath it will show through very easily.  What I did to help get it nice and smooth was to paint the area in a light stone grey since grey is a great base color if you need to paint over (that's also why I use it for primer).

Let's talk about the sculpt itself.  When it was originally announced Palladium noted that Breetai would have an open hand that you could put something in.  Their suggestions was a veritech head, or arm, or some other conquest of battle.  My patron jokingly made the comment, "What about Minmay?"  This got me thinking.  I still had my Wyrd's Orphange Accessories pack, which had a small girl doll in it, and well...




It's better than what I could sculpt I'm sure, but it came out pretty creepy looking.  Perhaps it's the world's largest Minmay Doll?  I don't know, I'll leave that to you to decide.




Here he is in all his glory.  I used Games Workshop's Agrellan Earth to give the base a different look.  The last time I tried this I learned that you needed a darker color underneath in order for the cracks to really shine through, and trying it out really shows how right I was.

Now that I had Breetai finished I decided that I wanted to get a seal coat on all the models painted thus far.  So I sat down last week, broke out my paint on seal coat, and went to work.  Disaster struck though:



UGH!!!!  How horrible!  All that work just pretty much down the drain.  It seemed to affect the green and the grey, but I couldn't get the frosted look off of the model.  This meant I'd have to do some retouching up the hard way.



I was working on two more models in an attempt to catch up with my opponent, and started putting more green down.  Since this was a finished model I wanted to just get as much distance as possible, but it wasn't going to look finished until I went the distance.  Here he is now:



MUCH better.  This leaves me with the dilemma of finding a new way to seal models.  I switched to the paint on because of a similar experience with spray on, but if the risk of paint on is going to be the same I might just switch to a spray.  The only problem there is that it comes with temperature and humidity considerations.  Either way it's going to take some thought and research, so you'll hear about it later.



Being out for as long as I was caused me to fall behind.  My opponent got a fire lit under him thanks to the lead I had at the time, and now leads me by one mini (11 to 12) even after the above two and Breetai.  Thankfully he's going on vacation later this week, so I'll have some time to pull ahead.  My order of Kingdom Death: Monster will be arriving tomorrow, and I've received permission to switch out minis so I can have fun painting.  I'm going to be painting at least 5 KD:M minis, possibly a few more, so I'll be returning to Robotech in the future, but I'm taking a break to paint some of my own models for once.  In closing I leave you with a couple of group shots:



Three guardian mode veritechs painted, two to go.



Five painted fighters, flying in formation.  This is a thing of beauty.  Each, "Veritech," in the game has three modes, and thus 1 unit in the game has three miniatures to go with it.  With all five fighters completed I've completed 1/3 of a group of five veritechs.  Technically it's more, but I'm enjoying the satisfaction of knowing that all the fighters are done.

Later this week I'll be doing an unboxing of Kingdom Death: Monster.  Stay tuned!

Unboxing Robotech RPG Tactics

It finally arrived!  My wave 1 Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter pledge:




This is by far the largest box I've gotten for a kickstarter, and it's only the first wave.  While it had some space inside, there was still a lot to be found waiting within:



Once I got it all out it took up a pretty big area on my bed:



While I have another wave coming with a bunch of expansion stuff, this is definitely the lion's share.  This was a good buy, to be certain.  In the above pic you can see a couple of prints I got for adding on a Homecoming pledge onto my original Battlecry pledge.  Both pieces of art are ones that I like, and they were printed on semi-glossy paper that has a good feel to it.  They will look great on my geek-wall once I get them framed.  There's also the art print I got from my Battlecry pledge, and it is a great piece as well.  So much art!

Ok, let's take a look at the inside of the box:



That's not a site that I feel comfortable with.  It looks like the sprues were just placed in their haphazardly.  Considering the amount of shifting/turning that can occur during shipping this could become an issue.  That being said, my box arrived shrink-wrapped, and not a single piece was off the sprue, so my concern may be misplaced. 



The books and cards were undamaged, and on the bottom of the box, so they weren't affected by any shifting.  I haven't done a base count yet, but I should.  Normally I'm not as worried about bases as I have a good stock of pre-made bases as well as extras.  The bases for Robotech are different, so I'm going to have to manage what I have.  One problem I did notice was that the bag of RDF dice was open, and the dice had spilled all over the inside of the box.  At first I didn't think anything of it, but after counting I noticed that I was missing two, and one of them had an extra drop of plastic on it that must have been a manufacturing defect:



I've sent off a message to the Robotech Kickstarter as I imagine it's a simple fix.  So there's a lot of stuff in the main box, but I also got some extra stuff.  There was a plethora of additional/redundant models, which means my collection is going to be pretty awesome to start with:


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The 76 base box of Robotech retails for about $100 USD, and comes with approx 40 miniatures.  The add-on for the kickstarter adds on another 36 miniatures in wave 1 alone (there's more to come in wave 2!).  One thing that I'd like to take a moment to point out, and congratulate, Ninja Division & Palladium books on is the inclusion of these:



Instructions!  Over the past four or five years miniatures companies have been making the switch to plastic.  Some companies like Reaper have left their plastics fairly simple, but plenty of others have gone more complex.  There's nothing wrong with having a complex assembly, but a lack of instructions can be very frustrating for many hobbyists.  I have seen many complaints on the lack of instructions included not just with kickstarters, but with plastic miniatures in general.  Companies are starting to get the message and rectify things, but I wanted to give a hearty, "Bravo!" to Palladium and Ninja Division for including these from the get go.

You may have noticed a couple additional add-ons on top of the main box.  I got these to either round out my forces (I'm liking the number four in the case of Robotech) or because I wanted to have a different loadout.  One case of this is the Artillery Battlepods:



  I got a group of four with the main box, and I have a feeling I'll try to magnatize the weapons, but I wanted the heavy particle cannon.  Originally it was going to be included as a bonus, so I picked up an extra set of artillery pods, but it turned out that they could fit it on the sprue so now everyone can have the joy of heavy Particle Projection Cannons!



Continuing with my need for groups of four I picked up an additional set of Destroids so I could field up to four Excalibers Tomahawks, and four Raider X's Defenders.  All that is left now is to trade my services for other Robotech miniatures to round out other groups of four as I need at least two more Spartans and two more Gladiators.

Gen Con 2013 part 1

My original intent had been to make a post shortly after getting back from Gen Con, but it turns out I needed a little more time to recuperate.

I left Friday after getting off of work, and got to Gen Con about 9pm.  Throw in getting parked and to my hotel room, and I didn't find food until 10pm.  Got to try the Steel Soul Red at the Ram, but otherwise I hadn't really broken into Gen Con by this point.

Got up early and out the door, and ended up getting to the dealers room early.  There was a set of exclusive Robotech miniatures that were being sold at the Palladium booth in limited quantities, and since people hadn't started lining up yet I decided to snag a good position.  By the time the dealers room was ready to open things had gotten pretty crowded:



From there it was a mad dash to get my exclusives.  Which I did.  I then spent the day shopping for myself and friends who couldn't attend, meeting up with friends from across the nation, and getting a look at some awesome costumes!

Here's a few highlights from the show.  The biggest one is the reaction I got from Scott C. Brown, the actor who played Flynn the Fine on The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, when I gave him the painted Pile of Dead Bards:



There is something wonderful about getting such a strong reaction from such a simple gift.  The rest of the ZOE crew were also rather impressed with the piece, and I received much glowing praise.  It was both humbly and inspiring.

I ended up meeting with Howard Taylor, author and artist for Schlock Mercenary.  It's been one of my favorite webcomics for years, and Howard has been attending Gen Con for quite some time.  Over the past several years I've gone by to pick up his latest print collection, and to get a sketch in the back.  This year I asked to be drawn in the Schlock-verse.



I was asked how I wanted him to approach the subject of my hairline, and I replied that he should be as generous or harsh as he sees fit.  While I look much older in the pic I think he made up for it by giving me a better weight profile:



There was so much to do at Gen Con that this year's priority was on friends.  As a result I didn't really get any gaming in, except for a bit of a life-sized version of Elk Fest. 



It was a fun shuffle-board romp.  The idea was to use the discs to make a path for your elk to cross, but you could also use them to knock your opponents disk (and their elk) out of place.  I didn't do very well, and my Elk got splooshed:



I had a lot of fun for the short time that I was there, and I've already started looking forward to next year!

First Glance At Robotech RPG Tactics

I had originally intended this post to go up early last week, but it seems that being in a car crash wasn't enough as I got sick shortly after my last post, and have only recently begun to recover.  So without further delay let's dig in to one of the exciting finds at Adepticon.



The nice gentlemen from Ninja Division are running a Kickstarter for Robotech: RPG Tactics.  The game uses iconic mecha from the classic anime series Robotech.  The above picture is one of the Veritechs/Valkyries painted up as squadron leader (fans of the series will recognize the paint scheme as belonging to that of Rick Hunter as leader of Vermillion Squad).  I got to spend some time talking to the great guys from Ninja Division, tried out a demo, and took plenty of pictures. 



The above pieces are what you would call prototypes.  They're all cast in pewter and made up as special demo crews for cons, and were painted by the talented John Cadice shortly before the con.  The final product is going to be cast in plastic, which in this case isn't a bad thing as the minis I got to hold all had some heft to them.  Plastic Robotech minis will be a lot more durable, especially the battlepods.  Speaking of Battlepods there were some special Battlepod promo minis given out each day to the first 100 people who came by at Adepticon.  While I was unable to grab one myself a friend of mine, hearing about my car accident, grabbed one for me.



Needless to say I was very happy about this find.  I currently have the guy assembled and standing on my desk waiting to be based, but haven't decided if I'm going to sculpt a blasted street or if I'll do more of a ruins.

I got a chance to play the demo itself, and it seems pretty straightforward.  You're either the Zentraedi or the UEDF (United Earth Defense Force), and you utilize a number of squads.





There was only a small selection of models for the demo.  The Zentraedi was all Gulag Battlepods while the UEDF had a squad of three veritechs and a pair of Tomahawk Destroids.



The Gulag Battlepods had a style/scheme that gave them the potential to have more Battlepods swarm onto the field at the end of each turn (replacing ones destroyed during the turn), unless you entirely destroyed that squadron.  The UEDF had smaller numbers, but packed a lot of firepower.  Interested in checking out the rules?  Well they've given a sneak peak at them!  PLEASE NOTE:  THESE RULES ARE *NOT* FINAL!!!  These are still a rough look at things, and the final product could differ wildly from what you read.

While you're reading the rules, how about a look at the Veritech in Gerwalk/Guardian mode as well as fighter mode?







I was VERY impressed with the detail.  They definitely caught the feel of the original designs in my opinion, and when cast in plastic should look just as good as what you see here.  For a, "quick and simple," paint job John Cadice really captured all the flavor of the series I remember growing up with.  One thing worth noting is that each Veritech has three forms: Fighter (Jet Fighter), Battloid (transformed), and gerwalk/guardian (legs and arms extended in Jet Fighter mode).  While switching between modes is simple (done when the squad activates), it does mean three models painted for one figure used in the game.  Given the overall durability and power, it may as well be three models in one.

For the demo we were given Squad Cards which had stats and traits for the squads used during the game.





Again please note: THESE ARE PROTOTYPES AND NOT FINAL VERSIONS!!!  Even though they're not necessarily the completed project they're very easy to read and follow.  I think the general format they use is very solid, and will help the game along.  You can see weapons and general stats occupying the left 2/3rds of the card while armor/life points occupy the right.  A quick look shows you that those Battlepods need swarm tactics with how easily they'll be shot out of the sky.

While there weren't any on the board there was a Defender Destroid that had been painted up and on display.




And for those of you interested in the recently unlocked Roy Fokker Veritech here's a sneak peak at what it may look like painted:



While it may look like the range of models is rather limited I'd like to remind my readers that these are the figures that were cast in pewter and set up as a quick demo crew before Adepticon.  The Kickstarter has already reached multiple stretch goals and unlocked:

Gnerl Fighters, Sentry Pod Upgrade, Mk. II Monster (YES!!!), Spartan & Phalanx Destroids,  Support Battlepods, and Zentraedi Male Power Armor!

The rumor goes (according to some guy with the initials K.N.) that anything from the Macross Saga is fair game to be a piece in the game.  I did ask about the limit, and so far the agreement between Ninja Division, Harmony Gold, and Palladium Games is for the Macross Saga.  However it stands to reason that if things do well enough we could see Southern Cross, New Generation (Genesis Climber Mospeada for you hardcore fans), and Sentinels!

However far this goes the prospects are already exciting!  I still have a few clinging details from the excitement of Adepticon to attend to, but soon I hope to get a post up about a painted promo Battlepod.