Imbrian Arts: The King of Ghouls

Imbrian Arts Miniatures does not disappoint with their kickstarter! That is indeed a wax seal on the certificate of authenticity!

Today I want to talk about a miniature that I just received from backing Imbrian Arts kickstarter project in December of 2012. It is a model of “The King of Ghouls,” one of four models that Jody Siegel sculpted and used kickstarter to raise money to put into production.

Deadzone (Mantic) Game Impressions

A vicious game of Deadzone is about to commence. 

Having assembled all of the terrain that I could from the Deadzone box and read through the rules, I figured it was time to put it to the test and play a few games. Afterall, it is easy to jump to conclusions by just reading through a rulebook, as you make comparisons to other systems. Often it can be difficult to see how everything fits together before you actually start rolling dice and pushing models around. As of writing this, I have played three games of Deadzone, and with each one I have come away with a much fuller appreciation of the ruleset. I admit that I am still learning some of the game’s finer points, but thought that I would write down a few impressions of the game, now that I have led a strike team of Enforcers to victory a few times.

The Unforgiven: Deathwing Command Squad Banner Bearer

Never Forgive, Never Forget was never so fitting.

One of my biggest accomplishments of last year was starting to assemble a unit of senior members of the Dark Angels’ Inner Circle to serve as a Deathwing command squad. I was extremely happy with how the first two members of the squad turned out, and it really inspired me to start planning the next members of the squad. There was still one element of the unit that continued to give me pause (which was part of the reason for not beginning to build the squad earlier), and that was how I was going to make a banner bearer. I always liked their traditional banner with a broken angel reaching to the sky, and was hoping that the new plastic box would give me a workable version of it. As it turned out, they did to a fashion, but the plastic banner was designed to be mounted on top of one of the terminator’s bodies, admittedly reminiscent of the old metal model, but just not suitable to be held aloft in the unwavering hand of an intrepid hero. With this disappointment, I knew I had to come up with something different. I had long considered some of the plastic banners included in other kits, such as the Space Marine command banner, but they all seemed very rigid and intractable.

Between the Bolter and Me: 2013, a year in review

It is hard to believe that Between the Bolter and Me is already a year old! What started as a means to stay excited about miniature-based wargaming amidst my time in graduate school has blossomed into something bigger.  Instead of just serving as a distraction, it has become a fantastic outlet for my creativity and has encouraged me to become a larger part of the developing community. I am more excited than ever to be in the miniature gaming hobby and to be a part of the community as a whole. Over the year I discovered and have been inspired by a huge list of other hobbyists and their blogs, including Migsula, Jeff Vader, Kari Hernesniemi, Mikko Luoma, KrautScientist, Pijamas Gagarin, and Dave Taylor, to name just a few.

My confidence and skill as a modeller has improved by leaps and bounds, particularly in the area of actually modelling with greenstuff. And while I still have not started painting yet, it is only a matter of time!

With 2014 just getting underway I wanted to take some time and review some of my favorite models that I (and the other members of Between the Bolter and Me) converted in 2013.