Friday 27 February 2015

Rage


Novels that King wrote as Richard Bachman, his alter ego from early stages of career, tend to be... unpleasant. They explore dark aspects of human nature, and feature genuinely twisted and evil characters that are not likable. "Rage" is not an exception.
Charles Decker, a disturbed high school student kills a teacher and takes a class of students hostage. As time passes, the whole situation develops in a quite unexpected way and gradually turns into a pseudo group therapy during which fellow students reveal their deepest fears and secrets, with Charlie becoming a mentor-like figure. Apart from this twist the novel doesn't really have much to offer in terms of either interesting narrative or original ideas. The stories shared by the group have one common feature - they're generally unpleasant and humiliating. And so is the ending, that resembles a hardcore version of some of the most gruesome scenes from "The Lord of the Flies"...

Friday 20 February 2015

Sweet Dreams



This is actually the third Dreamer Crew I've painted but the first plastic one. And I have to admit, the models look so much better now. It's obvious that the crew was designed as a coherent group rather than a random patch of weird creatures (that's the feeling I had while working on the metal versions). Painting them was a lot of fun. Preparing some of these was a challenge, especially Chompy. I had to use a lot of Green Stuff to fill in all the recesses left after putting the model together.



I followed the original color scheme from the first artwork. I've seen some interesting and colorful versions of these but I wanted to make my Chompy look like a truly terrifying nightmare. Now that he's properly sized, he finally looks like a Tyrant should. Getting that dark, grayish and slightly greenish and oily look on his skin took a lot of time but in the end I think the effort paid off. I also splattered some Blood for The Blood God technical paint, focusing on his talons but also adding random drops to his body. 


The rest was all about maintaining this overall dark look with room for some vivid colors (such as bright pink or blue on daydreams or hair on alps. I kept the bases coherent, using Orphanage base inserts and some themed accessories. With some I tried to tell a little story (such as the alp kicking the bricks or the one lifting carpet to find eyes below it).
I entered this crew into Frozen Moment painting competition run by Wyrd and it was third in the crew category. I'm quite happy with the result as the winner and runner-up painted really spectacular crews and I agree wholeheartedly with the final outcome. I also had extra motivation to paint another crew and managed to do that in just two weeks. 
I also added one more model to my Neverborn. A female I build using TTB bits. I plan to use her as a Beckoner.


Tuesday 17 February 2015

The Swamp Hag #1

Preparing these minis for painting took me a long time. Obviously, they're multipart and require a lot of modelling putty to fill in all the recesses but that still took up much more time than it usually does. I'm not saying I don't like the prepping stage, in fact I really enjoy it. Still, I devoted some extra time to make sure the crew is ready for painting.

It's all about the leap
I wanted them to have similar orphanage-themed bases to my other Neverborn but at the same time have a slightly swampy feel to them. I used standard Wyrd Orphanage base inserts along with some accessories. I also used fragments of plastic structure from the old "Escape from Goblintown" set. 

And since it's Zoraida time, here's one of my favorite clips of all time that goes well with her fluff.



I've been quite busy with hobby and also also prepared a few other minis for painting.

Insidious Madness along with Reaper model I want to use as a proxy
Waldgeists

My take on Ryle



The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon


"The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" is another novel by King, in which a desperate fight for servival becomes the main theme. Trisha, a nine-year old girl gets lost in the woods of Maine during a hike with her mother and elder brother. She is put off by their constant arguments and decides to stay behind. Unfortunately for her, she walks of the trail and gets hopelessly lost in the thick woods. At first she doesn't realize how serious her problem is so she just pushes on, hoping to find her way out. However, the further she moves, the wilder the woods become. 

As her struggle to survive on her own in  wild and inhospitable woods, her perception of reality gets distorted and she begins seeing... things. This style of describing inner fears and seemingly giving them form is something that King has used before to a very good effect. In case of this novel it works quite well too. The only part I didn't like so much was how Trisha's inner monologues were presented. Her thoughts wandered aimlessly and she touched on random more or less important issues connected with her life. However, the mature language she uses doesn't lend these sections as much credibility as I'd like to see. Obviously, she is feverish, almost delirious and is not really aware of what she's thinking about and saying out aloud. Still, I think the novel would benefit from using a more juvenile language in these fragments.

It is a relatively short novel (at least for King's standards) and the tale is nicely wrapped up without needless pomposity and drama. The descriptions of forest make it feel like an almost magical, but also a dangerous and dark place. I'm not a baseball aficionado, so any references to this sport were pretty much lost on me. That's not to say these are essential for appreciating the story but I'm sure fans of this sport would find the narrative all the  richer for those bits.

Sunday 15 February 2015

TTB Austringers

I found inspiration for these on a FB group called "A Wyrd Place", where a guy named Kevin Kucharski uloaded pics of his conversions. I really liked the idea so I decided to try creating my own using (once again) bits from TTB male and female sets.
For the male one I chose the legs of a kneeling one, torso with a vest and a hat to finish things off. I wanted him to have this a cowboy vibe so I went ahead and added a Micro Art Studio Wasteland base and a large bull skull from Wyrd accessories. I didn't have anything that looked like a Peacebringer so I just used an arm with a pistol from the TTB set. The bird comes from an old Confrontation miniature - a Falconer of Alahan. 
For the female one I used the same parts that were used on the one I'd originally seen on AWP on Facebook. I only added something that looked like a handgun. Her hawk was made hist instant mold - I duplicated the first one.


Austringers are one of the most versatile minions Guild has to offer. Their primary attack is Raptor, which has a standard range of 12'. However, it doesn't have a projectile symbol so it can be fired into melee (or at a model within engagement range) without randomizing the target. And there's more - this attack doesn't need LoS and ignores cover. With focus, the range changes to impressie 18', but it also ains the projectile icon. Weak damage causes only 1 point of damage but it gets much better for moderate (3) and severe (4). It also has a Critical Strike on a ram and another interesting trigger with mask that deals no damage, but forces the target to discard two cards. Another of Austringer's attacks is a pretty standard Peacebringer gun. 
Austingers are quite slow with an unimpressive Wk of 4', but Unimpeded helps get them into position faster. They also have a nice (1) tactical action that allows them to push up to 4' in any direction. 
Their usefulness doesn't end there. Austringers have another tactical action. This one is (2) and it works up to 18' from them. Targeted friendly model pushes up to 4' and immediately takes a (1) interac action. Austringers also drop scheme markers when they die, which can be helpful for some schemes, provided they are well positioned .
All of that comes at a ss cost of 6, which is not that much for a minion that can easily hit an enemy while being safely hidden. 


Of course I eventually plan to use original models but until Wyrd releases them, these will have to do

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Lone Marshal

I've been quite busy with hobby during the last couple of weeks. I know that the content of blog doesn't reflect that but I've been mostly working on a project I'm entering into a Wyrd Frozen Moment painting contest and for obvious reasons I can't show anything from that here. I have some catching up to do as there are a few inis I'd painted before I actually got started on the competition project. The first one from these is a Lone Marshal.


I've already painted one before so it went even faster this time round. I used the same color scheme for the horse and the Marshal but chose to do the base differently so that he would fit thematically better with my Perdita crew. Now that I look at it and compare it to the previous version, I think the brighter base works even better as it nicely contrasts with the rider's dark clothes.The only thing I forgot is the gun holster. Either I lost it or it wasn't part of the boxed set. Either way, I don't think it's a big deal as it's not an essential part of the model. I only realized it was missing when I started painting him. The model is very nice but the rider seems a little too short compared to some of the other plastics. The issue of proper scaling is the only problem I have with Wyrd plastics. It just seems like some of the models are either too big or too small.


Lone Marshal brings a nice hit-and-run option to the table for Guild crews. He has (2) action called Trick Shooting which allows him to push, shoot with a + to Attack and Damage, and then push back again. While his damage profile isn't that impressive, this attack can still be annoying as it can be hard to get back to him after his second push. Hard to Wound and Bullet Proof help with his survivability as well. He can also dish out some damage in melee with his Razored Spurs and has an impressive Cg of 10'. He is on a 50mm base but this attack has a low range of mere 1' so tying more models in combat can be hard.  Lone Marshal can be a good choice against Ressers as he's Terrifying against them. I've used him with McCabe and it was a nice option with Elixir of Speed as he was able to effectively fire twice with a positive modifier and get back to safety easily. The biggest downside I see with him is a fairly high ss cost (8) and only 8 wounds, which means that he can go down quite quickly when put against a solid melee fighter.

Monday 2 February 2015

Pet Sementary


This is probably one of the most famous novels by Stephen King but for some reason I've kept avoiding reading it. I really dislike reading books where violence towards animals takes place and I'd felt that this might be the case here. And while there was some, it wasn't bad enough to put me off it.
Thee novel starts in a way that is all too typical for modern horror movies. A family moves into an old house on the outskirts of a town. It's a fresh start for Louis Creed, his wife, their two young children (Ellie and Gage), and a cat. Their first day doesn't start too well as Ellie falls off a swing and her brother is stung by a bee. They are helped by an elderly man, Jud Crandall. He is their neighbor and he soon forms a strong fatherly-like friendship with Louis. 
 
After a few weeks of living in a new home, Jud takes the family for a walk and shows them a place called "Pet Sementary". For Ellie, this is the first serious encounter with death. The trip also provokes a heated conversation between Louis and his wife Rachel. Later on in the book we get more insights into Rachel's childhood and learn about traumatic events that affected her then. There's another event that foreshadows events that will take place later in the novel. During his first day at new work as a chief of campus health service, Louis unsuccessfully tries to help a fatally wounded student. The young man is a victim of a terrible car accident. Just before dying, he addresses Louis personally, as if he's known him before. During the night, the protagonist is visited by a ghost of deceased student, who warns him about the Sementary. Life goes on, and as time passes, Luis stops thinking about the event. The events that will follow will profoundly shake his philosophy of life, death, and faith.

The story is not too complicated but I didn't perceive it as the main strength of the novel. What I found really interesting were numerous dialogs and some in-depth considerations on life and death. King approaches these subjects from different viewpoints, both that of a child and that of an adult. The combination of these two offers some interesting reflections. In a way, this book reminded me of King's latest work ("Revival") as both novels explore the theme of life after death. Here King approaches the subject in a less scientific way, treating it more like a great unknown, not a phenomenon we could understand using scientific principles.

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