Gen Con 2013 Part 2

Continuing from my last post I plan to reveal more of my Gen Con adventures.  This post WAS supposed to go up last week, but in an attempt to feed my narcissism (and that it was free), I snagged a free hair transplant to try and ward off my thinning hair.  The result looks like it'll be good, but has left me feeling kinda of out of it in the head.  Ok, enough of that and onto the costumes!



The above pic is a group of friends dressed up as the main characters from Journey Quest.  You've probably heard me talk about it before, and I still recommend giving it a watch!  I took that pic when the group arrived at the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment booth.  Christian Doyle, the actor who plays Perf, was a bit incredulous at this would-be imposter:



Which one is which I couldn't say.  I actually caught two of them earlier one while I was standing in line for my Robotech exclusives.



Speaking of line shots I snagged a great pic of a Stormtrooper who looks like he had been pulled from Tattooine in order to do some line/aisle control.



I was stuck in line and didn't get a chance to ask him questions, but I'm betting he belongs to the 501st.

I was pretty zonked out on Saturday.  There was so much to do, and looking back I don't think I was fully aware of how overwhelmed I was.  For example this Little Bo Peep costume:



Was not actually Little Bo Peep, but Kaylee from the series Firefly in her dress from the episode, "Shindig."  I felt so bad at having missed the obvious reference, and the dress was so very well put together.

In my wanderings I headed over to the Cool Mini Or Not booth, because if I go to a gaming con I have to spend time with/around miniatures.  Word on the floor had it that there were three cosplayers for their Relic Knights line, which I helped kickstart the plastics for, but only one was there.



While I was there I decided to snap some pics of their studio paint jobs starting with the Shattered Swords faction:


Doctrine:
 

and Cercei Speed Circuit:


While wandering around the event hall I came across a terrific pair of cosplayers sporting costumes from the War Machine miniatures game!



That would be Grand Scrutator Severius and Taryn di la Rovissi you see standing there.  They were very nice, but Severius got upset when I told him that I played Khador.



I managed to flee far enough away from certain doom and damnation that I encountered a Game of Thrones cosplay for Melisandre, priestess of light:



This was a great looking costume!  All red velvet/crushed velvet, and very regal looking.  You can't see it as well in the picture because of the raised hood, but the hair was also a wine-burgundy.  I was assured that this is the book version and not the TV version.  Gotta love attention to detail.

The last costume pic I have for today is of a fierce barbarian!



I really liked this costume, and I'm glad I stopped to take a picture.  It's a cosplay of the person's barbarian character which is always awesome to see!  People put a lot of love and life into their tabletop characters, and seeing them come to life is pretty exciting.  Nearly the entire costume was homemade, and the little accents like the face paint, hair coloring, and feathered jewelry really made this one stand out.  I even managed to get a random passerby to stand still long enough to capture all that fierceness together with me.



After all that I was out of juice, and this had only been about three and a half hours!  I think that next year when I go I need to set a day aside where I can go around and take pictures, talk to the cosplayers, and learn so much more about them!

Excitement At Adepticon

I have mixed feelings about Adepticon.  Overall I had a great time, and got to see friends from the Malifaux community located in many different areas.  My Thursday night warmup, the Cake tournament, didn't go so well.  My friends and I teamed up and enacted the Zen-Rock method of competing.  Simply put it is, "Be as stone, sink to bottom."



Our reward for such enlightenment is the above plaque and artful postcards.  I shall find a place of honor on my geek wall for this prestigious reward.  It was a great game, and we all had a lot of fun.  Even though we lost, we still had cake, and thus, we won!  Everyone wins when cake is involved.

One thing of note is the swag bag.  Those who register early qualify for what I like to call, "The Super Swag Bag."  Here's what I got in mine:



I got some quick start rules, the con mini, other bonus minis (it looks like this year I got a WWII tank!).  You might notice the Skorne battle box from Privateer Press.  I used to play War Machine long ago, but got out for various reasons.  They keep trying to real me in it seems, and they just might've succeeded this time around!  I have taken to calling my Skorne guys, "Angry Men With Pointy Sticks," because that's what they look like.

Friday was the team tournament.  I got to team up with my best friend, and we brought a really good game.  We ended up taking 9th place over all (about halfway), but it was much fun and we surprised some players.

That night on my way home my car was struck by another driver.  I don't know if he was drunk at the time, but I suspect he was.  I was very nearly killed, and thankfully a moment's hesitation kept me from being seriously injured.  Right now I seem to be ok with no broken bones or open wounds, and the ER didn't diagnose me with a concussion.  The unfortunate outcome of this is that I was unable to compete in the qualifiers for Malifaux.  This was a bit of a downer.  I feel elated that I'm alive and with little injury, but all that time I spent prepping, playing, and painting leaves me feeling a little upset.  For the time being I'm thinking I'll leave Malifaux aside, and focus my painting on other projects (like Angry Men With Pointy Sticks).

I spent Saturday and Sunday hanging out and talking to people, but I didn't spend a lot of time there due to my feeling wonky from the crash.  I did however pick up some swag:



I spent some time in front of a Reaper Master Series paints section.  My thought process at the time was, "Ooooooo, pretty colors!"  I grabbed about twenty paints that I need to break in.  I grabbed some promo minis (notice the Robotech one?  More on that later this week), some bases (I think I finally found one I can use for my Nightmare Edition Lord Chompy Bits), some funky dice, and some magnets.

Aside from the events of Friday night I had a good time meeting new people and seeing my friends again.

The Judge

Continuing work on my Lady Justice box commission; I have completed The Judge.



Rather than go off the official paint job I decided to base mine off the character Vash the Stampede from the anime series Trigun.  I had a lot of fun painting the coat.  Red is a color I got real good at painting after painting my Khador army for War Machine.  The best thing I've learned about painting red is that a maroon/brown shade acts great as a shadow/recessed color.

 

If I was a bit more skilled at modding and sculpting I'd try to resculpt him a bit to look more like Vash rather than just copy the color style.

 

I was really happy with the glasses as well.  They were pretty small but I managed to get the colors just right on them.