Monday, December 31, 2018

End of 2018, up next 2019

The year 2018 is coming to an end!  I completed just 15 miniatures this year; however, I look back at 2018 as a transitional year on how I spend my time in the miniature hobby. In the past years, I attempt to make this blog into an all encompassing record of my time spent with the hobby. That was too lofty of a goal, and I lost sight of my original intentions for the blog: to get me painting more miniatures! I hope what I started in 2018 will result in me being more productive and that I will paint models on a more regular basis. So what happened in 2018 for me? I started using Pinterest to gather references and inspiration for my own projects. I am painting with the Hobby Holder. Finally I have joined Facebook miniature painting communities to give me that small push to try to complete painting models.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Midsummer Update

As mentioned in the last update in May, I had started work on various things. Since then, I have completed a set of figures (from Ninja All-Stars) to be used as trophies in a summer tournament I run for my nieces and nephews. The plan is to make this a yearly multi-game event when the kids are on summer vacation. I also painted up a "Better Luck Next Time" figure for the person that finished last. That person will be given some advantages for the next tournament.
Trophies for a summer tournament I run for my nieces and nephews.
The trophies were a hit with the nephews and nieces and I plan to make two more sets of trophies with a different paint scheme and base design. One of the new set is for another yearly tournament that will be played during winter. The third set is for regular tournaments, held on a monthly basis. I likely will not make them this year though.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

My Hobby and Blog in the First Four Months of 2018

Third of the year has passed, the blog has not been updated as much, and on my spare time I have been working on various projects. At this time of my life, I am more interested in organizing games and events for my nieces & nephews over playing games for myself. Nevertheless, the painting, modelling, and assembly of miniatures is something I see myself doing for the rest of my life. These last several months I have been been making a lot of accessories to be used in conjunction with the Hobby Holder. With the school year almost over, I am finishing up on "trophies" for home tournaments I plan to run for the nephews & nieces. This year, I backed the Kickstarter projects Zombicide Invaders and Godtear. I think those are the last "new' game lines that I will invest into and will only make purchases to games that I have already invested into.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

My Hobby and Blog in January 2018

Generations Power of the Primers Leader Class Optimus Prime
A short entry for this month. For 2018 I need to dial back on Kickstarter projects and focused on my collection that I currently have. This is something I should have been doing since the beginning of this blog....anyways! Mythic Battles Pantheon and Blackwater Gulch were recently fulfilled. I am expecting SMOG: Rise of Moloch and Rising Sun to games in the next couple of months. What remains are the Modiphius projects, Ninja Division projects, Wyrd's The Other Side, Reaper Bones 4,  Terraincrate and Tablescapes.

For January, I got to play Wrath of Ashardalon scenario where the dragon makes its first appearance in the game. We lost! While digging through my storage boxes, I found the Heroscape board game that I bought many years ago for my nephews and nieces to play when they were old enough to understand the rules. We spent the weekend playing that mostly. They seem to enjoy both the building and combat aspect of the game. While the product line has been discontinued, all the unit stats are online. That makes it easy to proxy figures.

Transformers Generations The Prime War Trilogy toys have rekindled my fondness for the 1980 Transformers. The modular aspect of this toy series seem to make it easier to be adapted for a homebrew tabletop skirmish/rpg game. I would like to get the Combiner gift sets (Bruticus, Menasor, Computron, and Superion). In addition, I want to get a Leader class Megatron to go with the Optimus Prime I already have!

Monday, January 15, 2018

[Log] Workshop 5 - Hobby Holder

In December, I received a production sample of the Hobby Holder. The Hobby Holder comes from a Kickstarter project that I backed late last year. I was lucky enough to try it out before my actual pledge arrives. Overall, I am very happy with the product and plan to be using it for most of my miniature paintings.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

[Games] Way of the Fighter - Action Cards' Priority Score

This entry list various observations I have made when looking at all the actions in Way of the Fighter. I have a tendency to look at large sets of data and attempt to identify general patterns from it. These observations does not translate directly to actual improvement in playing the game. It might, however, give players some additional insight to the game which then would allow players to make better informed decisions. Hopefully some of you will find the information of some use or of interest.

Actions that have similar properties tend to have a Priority Score Value as summarized below:
1 - Fighter Pack Power Grab Actions
3 - Fighter Pack Strike and Blast Actions
5 - Technique Pack Strike, Grab, and Blast Actions / Heavy Block Actions
6 - Mode and Move Actions
7 - Medium Block Actions
9 - Light Block Actions