Gen Con Booty

So I’ve been back from Gen Con 2011 for awhile now, and I’ve been going through all the cool stuff (or ‘booty’ if I was a Buccaneer-American) that I purchased or was given during the convention.

The aforementioned 'booty'

Starting from the left, I broke down and picked up a few t-shirts just before we left on Sunday. Like I need any more t-shirts, but these are really cool. Then, going along the top from left to right: a P.A.C.K. ‘Mini’ case from Battle Foam, which is a great little case for skirmish gaming; a bunch of FCC figures (and cards) from the MERCS sci-fi skirmish game; then two starters (Skaard and Forsaken) and the core rules and forcelist books from the post-apocalyptic skirmish game Dark Age. Below that, there are rules books for two sci-fi skirmish games (do you sense a pattern here?) Rezolution and Vortex, both which I demoed during Gen Con and both which I enjoyed. Now moving right to left, you’ll see some bitz from the seller that I frequented at Adepticon and some cool heads from Maxmini; the Death Angel card game from Fantasy Flight Games; a copy of the brand new Dwarf King’s Hold: Green Menace from Mantic Games; another box of Shock Troops from Wargames Factory; and some Games Workshop terrain that I picked up for cheap from The War Store booth. The bottom row is a Buckaroo Bonzai patch and pin, some dice bags and two molds from Hirst Arts for making fieldstone ruins.

I was a pretty good convention, and it had the highest attendance of any Gen Con ever (36,000-plus people) according to the press release that came a few days after. I have to admit, it did seem awfully busy, even on Thursday.

I filmed a big bunch of interviews and wrap-up videos for Beasts of War, and even tweeted live from the convention, with pictures and everything. It was really busy, but a lot of fun. I’ll talk more about it soon.

Now, I’m mainly just getting back in to my routine and planning out the schedule for all the miniatures painting I have to do. However, I have to remember that OshCon (the gaming convention I run here in town) is coming up soon, so I have to properly plan for that, too. After that’s over, then I’ll be able to coast and paint all the way to the new year.

Washing the Lost and Gen Con 2011

So work had me being pretty damn busy the last few weeks, so I didn’t get to much, if any, painting. I was able to work on a construction project (which I’ll start to show off next week at some point) a little bit, so the week wasn’t a complete loss. However, I did get a little bit of painting done in the form of a few quick wash layers.

A washed lizard guy on the left, and an unwashed one on the right

In the mornings before going in to my long days at work, I was able to do some quick washes on these primed Lost figures. I used Delvan Mud from Games Workshop. Washes are semi-transparent inks that you can use on figures to bring out detail. The solution is put on with a brush, and it collects in the nooks and crannies and makes them darker so they stand out. These Lost figures are covered in detail (and scales) so I figured this would be a great first step. I’ll post more on them as they progress.

Also, I’m in Indianapolis this weekend at a little thing called Gen Con, America’s largest gaming convention. I’m here covering the con for Beasts of War again like last year. I’ll link to some videos once they start going up, but if you’d like to follow me ‘up to the minute’, then you can check out the Twitter feed I’ll be updating at @beastsofwarlive and see info and photos from the show.

Big Plans for 2011

2010 was a good year for me overall, and I feel grateful for it. As it related to hobby gaming, however, 2010 could have been better. Without spending too much time looking back, I’d like to look forward to 2011 and touch upon the things I’m planning to accomplish this year.

GAME MORE
I got an ‘okay’ amount of gaming in last year, but I wasn’t able to do as much as I would have liked, due to the move to a new home in the later part of the year and all the packing and unpacking and whanot that that entails. Therefore, I plan to do more gaming this year and hopefully I’ll be able to do that in my Nerd Bunker, once it’s completed. I want to play plenty of skirmish games (Song of Blades and Heroes, Flying Lead, AE-Bounty and a few other small indie games) and more Warhammer 40,000 this year, the latter which has already occurred in 2011 (albeit not in the Nerd Bunker) which is a good start. Plus I plan on going to several conventions this year, including Fire & Ice, Adepticon, Chaoticon, GenCon, OshCon (natch) and maybe even RockCon.

PAINT / MODEL MORE
I didn’t paint quite as much as I would have liked in 2010, again, due to the move later in the year. However, I did get a good number of Tau Firewarriors done and I have some Pathfinders and a dozen Kroot that are very nearly done. Also, I got a bunch of my mercenary unit for use in skirmish games finished, and even some Reaper fantasy minis at the beginning of the year. But again, it wasn’t quite enough, and I can do better.

One way I can hope to do better is to make it easier for me to paint, and to that end, I’ve purchased an airbrush and a compressor. I’m really hamstrung at this time of year because it’s too cold to spray figures outside, and I won’t use rattlecans in the house because of the propellants. However, once I get the little room under the stairs in the Nerd Bunker turned into a proper spray booth, I’ll be able to prime minis down there and do basecoating and highlighting with the airbrush, which will allow me to paint larger armies (like one plays with in Warhammer 40k) quickly, and absolutely breeze through smaller squads for skirmish gaming. The only difficult part about getting this room set up (besides moving all of the books and other debris out of there) is getting the ventilation system installed, so that the propellants can be blown outside. I’m thinking a bathroom fan should do the job. Hopefully this won’t be too big of a deal, and I’ll be able to start working in there soon.

Lastly, I didn’t complete any terrain projects last year, and I really have to be better about that this year. If I’m going to be gaming in my basement I’m going to need to make more terrain. The upside to gaming in the Nerd Bunker will be that I won’t need to lug all of my stuff around as much to play in other venues, so larger terrain pieces won’t be such a problem.

CREATE MORE
I want to blog more this year and do a few more feature articles and tutorials instead of just the run-of-the-mill ‘this is what I’m doing now’ check-ins that I’ve usually done in the past. I’d also like to start some sort of outlet (a webzine PDF, a podcast, a collaborative website, etc.) to talk about skirmish miniatures games. Even though I’m getting into Warhammer 40k, my first love is still skirmish games, and there are so many indie games in that market that I’d have plenty of topics to talk about. So I plan to do more of those things in the coming year.

Also, I’ll be working with the lads at Beasts of War some more, including videos and interviews at Adepticon 2011 and GenCon 2011, if not more. I might even be able to make a recurring video segment about the creation of the Nerd Bunker that’ll show up on Beasts of War. That would be cool.

BASEMENTATION
So yeah, I’ve been mentioning the Nerd Bunker a lot on my blog, but that’s because it’s going to be a pretty big project. I’m only really working on the cleaning and the painting at this point, but after that’s all done, there’s a lot more work to do, and plenty of it that I’ve never done before: adding lighting, adding wall switches and electrical outlets, and then building the 4×6-foot gaming table. So my main goals this year in the basement are to get things done as quickly as possible so that I can build the gaming table as soon as it starts getting nice outside, which around here usually means April at the earliest. It gives me some time. Then will come the organization and setting everything up, and then will come the sweet, sweet gaming.

IN CONCLUSION
I have a lot to look forward to this year, including many new opportunities, including building my Nerd Bunker and paint spray room (things I’d never be able to do while still renting), learning more about airbrushing and Warhammer 40k, and hopefully doing more work with Beasts of War. All in all, I’m really looking forward to 2011.

Gen Con Booty Report

So, as I’ve mentioned, I was at Gen Con in Indianapolis a little while ago. It’s not just a place to get together and play games and demos and tourneys, it’s also a place to buy things. Many, many things.

Stuff I bought home from Gen Con... and a cat

The black case at the top of the photo is from Max Protection, and it was billed on the packaging as a “Miniature Case 2.0″ and the photo showed a troop-style foam cutout inside. I found when I got home an opened it that it did not have that kind of cutout inside, it had spaces for card decks. Maybe I can fit warjacks in those holes, we’ll see. Otherwise, I’ll have to see if Battlefoam can cut me a custom piece of foam for it, which will cost more than I paid for the bag, but it’ll be worth it.

More Fancy News

Even though Gen Con was a hectic time for me this year (and it can be hectic for anyone, depending on the type of convention-goer you are), I’m finding myself missing it already and looking forward to next year, or at least the next convention I’m attending. It was a good year for me, not only because of all the demos I got to try and the stuff I got to buy, but because of the interviews I got to shoot during the convention.

Several more videos have been released on the Beasts of War site, including interviews I did below:

Mercs Minis New Stuff at Gen Con | Soda Pop Miniatures Meets BoW – Pop! | Pulp City Gen Con Announcements | We chat with Romeo from Battlefoam at Gen Con 2010 | Privateer Press Talk About Upgrade Kits & Their Video Game

I’ve got a few more interviews that the lads across the pond will be putting up in the coming days, including an interview with Catalyst Studios about Classic Battletech and their upcoming game, Leviathans. I’m looking forward to Leviathans and hope I can do an review of it for Beasts of War when the game is released.

In the coming days on this blog, I’ll go through some of the sweet purchases I made while at Gen Con, so check back for that. Also, I’ll be finally prepared to reveal my top secret project I’ve been teasing you with, so you’ll be able to finally go on with your lives. Thank goodness for that.

Fancy News

What, just because I titled the first Gen Con post ‘Day Zero’, you thought I was going to be posting daily updates? Perhaps you haven’t been to Gen Con, then. Just as there’s no crying in baseball, there’s no time for blogging at Gen Con.

I especially have no time this year, as I have fancy news: I’m one of three North American correspondents at Gen Con 2010 for Beasts of War, the best damn wargaming video site out there. I’ve been hitting the floor, getting interviews with game companies and talking to bigwigs. You can check a few of our videos here:

Gen Con Coverage Kick Off! |  The guys over at Gen Con chat to Mantic Games | Pre-Built and Painted Modular Gaming Buildings | World Works Games Announce Terraclips | Dark Age Games Rulebook Announcement

We’ll be having more videos coming soon, and I’ll actually be in several of them, instead of just my hand holding the mic. We’ve been having some really problematic internet-related issues. It seems that Indiana just got internet a few weeks ago? Something along those lines. Anyway, we’re hoping to get it sorted soon.

Keep watching here (or more likely the Beasts of War website) for more reports as they happen.

On the Ground at Gen Con, Day Zero

It’s Wednesday and I’m here at the convention center. I have picked up my badge, gotten my swag bag (pretty light on swag, actually… I blame the economy) and I’ve met up with people I needed to meet up with. Now it’s time to grab some food and stay out of the out of doors, as it’s super-duper hot and nasty outside.

I’ll probably have some hush-hush fancy news to spring on you in a bit, so make sure to stay on this page and keep hitting ‘refresh’ on your browser until then. You can take a break to use the bathroom, but that’s it.

Looking Forward to Gen Con

I completely forgot to mention how much I’m looking forward to Gen Con this year. I missed 2009 and it feels weird when I miss it. It’s usually Friday or Saturday of that week before I realize why I seem out of sorts. I’ll be at work or something and realize that the disturbance in the nerd force that I’m feeling is actually from a very high concentration of gamers in Indiana and I’m not there. It feels a little like gas, but in my head.

Anyway, I am going again this year, and it’ll be with many of the lads from the Consoles and Cardboard podcast, good men all. I’ve been on the podcast a few times and I’m looking forward to the drive and sleeping on the floor in the hotel room and all of the related wacky shenanigans. I’m also trying something new this time in that I registered for games and demos ahead of time, instead of just fumbling around and trying to find stuff to do. I’ll be playing demos of MERCS, Leviathans, Reich of the Dead, Injurious Games, Gearmageddon and Malifaux.

I’ll also be hitting the dealer room, ‘natch. I’m not looking for anything in particular, but I’ll probably do some bitz shopping and look for some terrain, too.  Otherwise, I’m just gonna look and see what’s there and let the cash fall where it may, as it were.

Man, I wish it were Tuesday, August 2nd instead of Tuesday, July 20th. Oh well.

In other news, I’m playing Flying Lead against Lee tonight and I’m going to crush his face, unless I don’t. Then I won’t.