Rab's Geekly Digest

While I do get enthusiastic about things pretty easily (I like to think of it as a childlike sense of wonder), it's not often that I'm reduced to gibbering excitement. This is one of those times.

Just. Look. At. This!


Yes, that's a full Talisman 2nd Edition board made out of Lego!!!!

Michael Christiansen is the genius behind it and you can see all 104 photos he's posted at this album over on flickr.

A. Ma. Zing!

The 6th Heroquest Hero Quest orc, or, the THIRD Heroquest orc, as I suppose this post might originally have been called as I signed up for orc number three.

Now the astute among you may notice that this means that orc number three comes after the fourth and fifth orcs, and that this means this orc is both three and six, but that's not a mistake as you might initially assume. Nor is it that I am spectacularly bad at finishing things (like, for example, blogging about a figure that has been painted for months) - what a suggestion! No, it is deliberate because it follows the infamously non-linear, occasionally non-Euclidean, and perpetually non-sensical counting pattern* of orcs themselves. I'd go into this in more detail, except the requisite chemical consumption for it to make sense is not a suitable topic for a family-friendly blog like this one.

[note from the producers : Since herding painters is even worse than herding cats, this will be the sixth orc that should have been third since the third will come later. Please don't ask.]

What's that? You want a picture of a painted miniature, not a monograph on orcish numerological peculiarities? Suit yourself. *grumble grumble* Peasants! Ignoramuses! 

At the time of writing this there are one hundred and three four people who have publicly signed up as followers of this blog (thereby showing their exquisite taste!), many of whom have blogs of their own. My way of celebrating breaking the one hundred mark is to list their gaming blogs and give a quick comment as to why you should go and check them out. I've no idea how blogger decides how to order followers in the list it provides, so I shall start at the back and work forwards.

If the blog hasn't been updated this academic year (since 1st September 2014), I probably won't list it unless it has plenty of lovely archive material. I've also noticed that quite a few people don't have their blog as part of their Google profile, so if I've missed you out it's not because I don't like your blog, it's because I don't know the address!

The fist part of this round up can be found here.

Let's get cracking with the next set!

At the time of writing this there are one hundred and one people who have publicly signed up as followers of this blog (thereby showing their exquisite taste!), many of whom have blogs of their own. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate this three-figure-milestone if I were to list their gaming blogs and give a quick comment as to why you should go and check them out. I've no idea how blogger decides how to order followers in the list it provides, so I shall start at the back and work forwards... with one exception. First spot goes to my 100th follower, warfactoryuk.

Name: Scalene Warfactoryuk
Blog:   http://www.warfactory.co.uk/wp/
Why:   A seriously fabulous Biblical city under construction, as well as 3d printed weapons for Rogue Trader

Oh, and if the blog hasn't been updated this academic year (1st September 2014), I probably won't list it unless it has plenty of lovely archive material. Here are the first lot:

Some of you that read this blog will already be aware of the self-professed Pickford-o-holic, Clam. He's been working with sculptor John Pickford to commission a truly great set of oldhammer-esque chaos dwarfs (the Ewal Dwegar) over the last couple of years - here is a unit of them, beautifully painted (as ever) by Blue in VT:

What sculpts! What smooth brushwork! What fun!

Not much hobby output from myself at the moment - a combination of heavy workload and putting my time into whipping Knights' Quest into shape - so I'm handing over this post to promoting the sort of thing I'd be doing if I could sculpt; a slightly fantastical C14th England, complete with the sort of monsters found in the margins of medieval manuscripts. Sound familiar? Yup, it has exactly the vibe I'm going for in Knights' Quest and I can see these figures being perfect for it, as well as for the skirmish game that Michael Lovejoy (the sculptor - I think he's half of the team behind Oathsworn Miniatures) is working on.

Some of the greens:

First off, for those following the ongoing saga in glorious, high-definition bloggovision, the consensus is to stick with the etched dice, even if it means the BOYL dice arrive after BOYL. The best of a less-than-satisfactory set of options, I feel.

With that out of the way, here's the post I want to share with you. El Senyor Verde of blogging and G+ and doubtless other online outlets has posted a rather snazzy way of producing good-looking trees for wargaming with. Now, I have buildings, a modular river, and even a hill or two but I am seriously lacking in arboricultural terrain around which and through which all manner of derring-do and dastardly villainy can take place in my own pretendy-fun-time elf-games. What I particularly like about this method is that it fits an aesthetic that appeals to me, one which drew me into the slightly over-enthusiastically goat-themed arms of the Oldhammer sphere. Something that looks top notch, but also one which I can imagine being able to achieve. Even more important to me is my hope that my proto-gamer progeny could play an active part in constructing them! Childcare and geeking in one easy package - result!

Here's a picture of the trees:

I was entranced by the Orthodox-style illuminations, reminiscent of both medieval manuscripts and proper devotional icon painting. Here are just four of his illustrations of well known sections from the books as a taster:

The Ents march on Isengard

Not having much to report on my own geeking/gaming over the last week or so, and not wanting to let my more regular blogging of late suffer, I'm going to treat you to another slice of blogging loveliness from one of you chaps. This time, from Gareth the Grot's new blog, Drums in the Deep.

Any of you who are LAFers will quickly realise that Mr. the Grot is LAF's very own Funghy-Fipps. I'm delighted that another Bob Olley enthusiast will be spreading the word, starting with a ballista-wielding ogre. Maybe his blog will cost the rest of you as much money as his thread on LAF has cost me!



Blog link -> here

Until I have something of my own to share, happy geeking,
Rab

After a bit of a slump, geek-wise, following the excitement of the NAF Cup a couple of weekends ago, I woke up early this morning and did just ten minutes of painting on a half-finished knight for my Quest project. It, along with the arrival of some bits in the post for both British and Prussian forces for GASLIGHT yesterday evening, was enough to get me back in the saddle. I hope to get a record of the highlights of the bloodbowling fun from the NAF cup up on the blog here over the next couple of days.

In the mean time, may I direct your attention to Bishop Lord's new(ish) 28mm blog, Assemble the Army! for my second Follower Guest Spot? Although still in its infancy, it already boasts a couple of lovely shots of Perry miniatures ready to defend the Papal See.



Link to Bishop Lord's POST -> click here

Happy geeking,
Rab

Now that I've reached the heady heights of TWENTY-TWO followers, I thought I'd repay the favour and regularly intermittently link back to posts of theirs which I enjoy. The criteria for selection are entirely whimsical; perhaps because it matches a current project of mine, is utterly different, good fun, inspirational, has some eye-candy, who knows?!

Anyway, Guest Spot #1 goes to Christopher (AKA Axebreaker) for his rather lovely Victorian adventuress. Why don't you pop over and check it out? I reckon she'd comfortably face down a horde of Lost World neanderthalls and then head over to the Simmond-Wrights' campfire for a spot of afternoon tea and some piano recitals.

Link to Christopher's post -> click here

Happy geeking,
Rab