Batman v Superman - A Review

We went and saw Batman vs. Superman today.  Yes, there's a bunch of critics saying it's no good.  I'll say it for the record, that I generally don't put much faith in critics.  Not unless they've got a proven track record of tastes that match mine.  As an interesting aside, for book blurbs, every time the late, great Anne McCaffrey gave a good review, I enjoyed the book.  Same for film reviews.  So, I went in wanting a good, fun movie that played with some of my favourite characters.

I'll keep things general, though there may be some spoilery bits below.

The story was generally good, and the filmmakers kept the flow tight, which was good.  I was afraid this might have become bogged down with backstory to get everything sorted out such that Superman and Batman would be at odds.  However, they kept the story moving, and all the pieces came together.  There were a few instances where they could have exposed more of the backstory prior to the main events, but overall it kept things moving.  In the first third to half the movie, there were some dream sequences that were way overused.  Could have better spent this time on detailing out the actions of the main characters.

They kept to the backgrounds of the characters, and it was nice to see all the events of previous movies captured in the greater continuity.  Marvel has done a great job of this in the Avengers series, and hopefully DC/WB will do the same.  One thing stood out, though, and that is the bat branding?  (as in Batman branding criminals with a bat)  WTF?!  That one thing was so totally out of character it threw me.  A small detail, but seriously folks.  Do you read your own comics?

The big bad fight at the climax was as over-the-top as you'd expect.  However, because of the characters involved, it totally worked.  Very much right off the page of a comic book.  It was also good to see each playing to their strengths.  Batman was smart, Superman the big, shiny hero and Wonder Woman the badass warrior.

Speaking of Wonder Woman, YES!!!!   Despite having very little screen time overall, I loved the character, loved the look, loved the actress.  More!  She actually was one of the highlights of the film.  Gal Gadot brought her to life with a bit of sass, a bit of savagery (look at her face when she gets back up after being smacked by Doomsday - she's relishing the fight) and brings some gravitas to the role.  Can't wait to see her solo film.

I at first was wondering how much of the movie would be the leads pummelling each other over something silly, but the plotlines were built up well,and it was believable that they would be at odds.  If anything, the film could have been longer in order to build up more of the backstory (instead of the fool dream sequences), but there's only so much time in a movie.

Batman is portrayed really well by Ben Affleck.  In fact, the most important part of that role is Bruce Wayne, rather than the Bat.  While I was concerned about casting, to be honest he took the role and worked it.  He was serious, intense and carried Batman's grimness without it becoming one-dimensional.  He was also completely intelligible, which is a big improvement from The Dark Knight Rises.

I think the length of the film made it difficult to involve every character they wanted to, such as Lois Lane, Perry Mason and Alfred, but again, it has to serve the flow of the film.  Props to Jeremy Irons for his portrayal of Alfred, as he brought the sarcasm to the role that Alfred has in the comics.  He also got to play the "Penney Two" role he so often does on the page.

The villain, Lex Luthor, played by Jesse Eisenberg, was perhaps more whacko than I would expect.  In this film it worked, but it was a bit jarring for those who know Luthor from the comics.  (I admit, I read the Bat-books but not the Superman books)  From what I've seen on the page, Luthor is normally more calculating. For those who aren't comics readers, the difference is minor and he makes sense in the story.

Finally, the cameos of the other Justice League members were pretty cool.  It was good to see the others noted.  Jason Momoa (of Stargate Atlantis fame) as Aquaman was a treat, and watching Cyborg come to life was interesting.  My only disappointment was the Flash.

Here's where I digress from a direct review, and talk about the overall film-TV continuity.  In my mind, the flash should be played by Grant Gustin from the TV show.  Not just because that show is awesome, but in order to develop the greater continuity.  Marvel does this between Agents of SHIELD and the Avengers films.  If Sif shows up in the show, it's the same actress and the same events as in the Thor films, for example. By the same token, the events of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman should appear in the various DC shows.  For example, Supergirl should feel some of the effects of this movie.  Word to DC/WB: tighten that continuity, and it will be even better.

So, overall, great movie, four out of five stars from me.

Edit: The soundtrack was excellent.  When Wonder Woman enters the fight, it gets awesome.

Dragons Don't Share update

As March break draws to a close, I managed to get some work don on Dragons Don't Share, the beautiful "miniature" from Reaper Miniatures.  I finally got all the terrain pieces cleaned up and ready for painting.  I added some sand to the base for some additional texture.  It looks really strange in the picture with the two-tone appearance, but the first coat of paint will sort that out.

Here are the terrain pieces, starting with the ruined stairs:

The next is the tower ruins, which has a top and bottom.  I'm leaving them unglued, so they can also be used as wargames terrain.  No way to handle models inside the tower if the top was glued.

Add to that, our intrepid heroes, who are trying to make an honest (?) living:

I grant, the photos aren't great.  The parts are also white-on-white-on-white, which doesn't help.  Once there's some paint involved, they'll look much better.  My desk also isn't a good photo studio, but it will work for this update.

Now we add the dragon herself:

This model is absolutely fantastic!  The assembly was smooth, only a slight bit of putty work on the right wing where it joins the body.  Otherwise, everything fits together perfectly.  Well done Reaper.  She's also a good looking dragon, with a solid body, beautiful wings, and a pose that just oozes anger.  The base is also a cool terrain piece.  While I haven't glued her down yet to facilitate painting, she'll end up stuck to the base.  There will be some putty work needed around her feet, but otherwise, the model fits up really well.

Combine all the pieces, and you have the final result:

The terrain pieces all blend together at their bases so the parts all come together.  Again, the white-on-white model doesn't photograph that well (and my skills as a photographer aren't anything special) but you can see it makes for an evocative diorama.  

Here's a close-up of the warrior mini about to become lunch!

That's it for now.  I have a few models I want to get off my painting table first, then it's time to start adding colour to this beastie.

Musings

Another week done.

Lots going on, particularly today.  It was one of those days where you do a lot, but not necessarily a lot that gets things checked off the list, if you know what I mean.

Models were assembled, in that I finished several that were underway, and also did some mold lines and cleaning on the Dragons Don't Share terrain pieces.  Repaired a dragon sculpture that the cats broke.  Did some laundry.  Cleaned up and sorted some things.  Gave the lizard a bath.

Most of the week went that way.  Lots of goings on, not necessarily much for completion.  Right now I'm doing two jobs, as my boss is out on sick leave.  No biggie, but it adds to the pile.

That's okay though.  Work proceeds, and things will get done.  Tomorrow there should be more interesting things to look at.

Another Unboxing - Stones Dungeon Tiles

So today I got another Kickstarter rewards box.  Actually, thanks to Canada Post's ineptitude, I had no idea they tried to deliver my box until I did a tracking lookup.  Thanks, Canada Post, thanks for nothing.

So, Frontline Games had a Kickstarter for a set of Dungeon Tiles.  These are 2"x2" tiles that can be used to make rooms, halls, or other layouts primarily for roleplaying games.  Given that Pathfinder and D&D both use a 1" grid (and the tiles are marked in 1" increments), this looked pretty cool.  Well, they added other trappings such as columns, doors (which open) and other dungeon dressing, I threw some support at their kickstarter.  Nothing crazy, but I figured it would be a cool set, and maybe look at adding more as they ramp up production.

Today, I unboxed the lot.  Here's the sum total:

Inside the box is the hundred or so tiles, plus some single doors.

So far so good.  Everything is there as promised.  Nicely packed too, so no damage.  Opening one of the bags of tiles they look pretty decent.  You can readily see the 1" squares, cleverly integrated into the design.

The tiles are double sided as well, with the alternate side being more of an earthy look.  Not bad, and it continues the grid for ease of play.

Laying a few out, gives a pretty good looking play surface.

These are definitely going to need a scrub, as you can feel the mold release agent.  That's okay though.  No real surprises there.  I opened one of the bags of doors, and the doors come in two pieces, the door and the frame with the bottom lintel.  There are small magnets in the kits to glue in to the bottom of the door where it would pivot, which should make them much better looking and able to open to represent the progress of a party of adventurers.

As you can tell by the door frame, some boiling will be necessary to cure the bends and warping in the parts, but again, no surprises there.

So far, looking like a cool product.  For now, I'm leaving them packed up until I can get some scrubbing done.  In the bunch there's some columns, beds, tables, crates, chairs and other dungeon dressing.  Many of these will also be good for wargaming.  Once I get them out of their packages, scrubbed and ready for some paint, I'll post more on how they clean up and paint.  More to follow.

Firestorm Armada Scenario - Break the Conference

Here's a Firestorm Armada scenario we played a few weeks ago.  Written by me and playtested by myself, my daughter and stepson, we had a blast.  It started as an idea for how to have a three-way game that wasn't two-on-one, but had a real purpose as opposed to everyone just randomly blasting each other to pieces (not that that's necessarily bad).  We played it, and made some tweaks as we went, and the result is:

Break the Conference Scenario (by Rowan Wilson)

 A secret meeting in deep space between two rival powers has been discovered by a third.  Not wanting them to come to any kind of agreement, the third party plans to sabotage the conference and wipe out the attendees.  This should cause enough animosity between the two that any kind of accord will be impossible for years to come.

Number of players: 3

Organization:

·         Two players are the defenders.

·         One player is the attacker.

·         Each chooses a fleet up to the agreed points value (for three players, recommend patrol fleets).

·         The defenders each have a civilian ship (stats given below) that holds their conference attendees, at no additional points cost.  If desired, the player may detach escorts from one of their capital ships to the civilian ship (choose at the start, the escorts stay with their new ‘parent’).

Setup:

·         Each of the defenders chooses a corner of the battlefield.  That is their ‘home corner’ to which they must retreat.  Their ‘edge’ extends 12” from the corner on either side.

·         The attacker uses the middle of the opposite side as their table edge, and may enter over a 24” span.

·         The defenders’ civilian ships must be set up in the center of the board as shown.  The defenders’ fleets are set up in a 12” box, one side centered on the civilian ships but displaced 6” away from the center.  They may only leave up to 25% of their fleets in reserves, if desired.

·         The two civilian ships are in base contact, to facilitate their short range shuttles, however may face any direction.

·         The attacker enters the table as per the reserves rule, however the attacker begins rolling for reserves on Turn 1. 

·         Scale the battlespace proportionally for larger or smaller tables.

Game start:

·         Before anyone rolls for initiative, the attacker makes one attack on each civilian ship from the other one.  (i.e. make a 4 dice attack on each civilian ship), to represent their sabotage taking place.

·         The defenders may not fire at either transport in turn 1 as they do not wish to risk hitting their own ship.

·         Roll for initiative for each player, play for that turn proceeds as normal.  If two players tie for initiative, roll-off for that initiative choice.

·         The civilian ships act as a squadron on their own.

·         No ships may shunt in or out of the battlefield.  The location was chosen to prevent such surprise attacks.  Vessels must either leave the play field (count as destroyed), or depart their player’s table edge (do not count as destroyed).

·         Ships of either side may start the game halted (no minimum move, but will need to start moving to turn).

Victory Conditions:

·         Each player scores victory points as normal for destroying enemy vessels as well as losing their own.  Maintain battle tracks as normal, paying attention to which player destroys which vessel.

·         The following additions to the battle log are to be used:

o   Defender’s civilian transport escapes their own table edge: +5

o   Defender destroys other defender’s transport: +3

o   Attacker destroys any of the defenders’ transports: +4/transport

o   Losing your transport: -3

o   Attacker does not destroy any transports: -4

o   Capturing a transport: +5

·         At the end of the game, the winner is the one with the highest battle log.  The game is played until both transports are destroyed or removed from play.

Civilian Transports:

(Recommend use of Ares class luxury liner model)

We played with Terrans (me) as the attackers, Directorate (daughter) and Sorylians (stepson) as the defenders.  Initial surges by the Directorate and Sorylians led to some serious damage, while the initial Terran advance was obliterated the turn they arrived (just a squadron of frigates).  Later Terran arrivals were able to put paid to the transport ships after doing some serious damage to the other two fleets.  A fun game and having the scenario made it more interesting, as there was a clear goal to seek in the battle.

The only sad part was we didn't get any pictures.  I was more interested in crushing Directorate and Sorylian forces.

I recommend trying it out, if you play Firestorm Armada (and why aren't you?).

Let me know what you think of the scenario in comments.  

Work in progress

So far, so good for this year.  The first week back I wrote almost every day.  Maybe not huge wordcounts, maybe not the best words, but that's for editing.

When I wasn't getting some writing done, I was doing some 'round the house jobs.  Not enough time in a day for both writing and house sorting, it seems.  Still trying to unpack, sort and set things to rights.  Once you're done moving, there's the big, important stuff that you unpack first.  Then the more 'steady state' items that you use more or less often.  Finally, there's the last things that you use the least, but still need unpacked.  In our case, if only to make space.  Especially considering that stuff is occupying the suite your parents are moving in to.

Besides that, there were some good games over the remainder of the holidays, including a Firestorm Armada game where my dice were on fire!  Sweet, exploding rolls.  Also a custom scenario which I will post shortly, after I adjust a few things we shook out during gameplay.

My year's project, Dragons Don't Share from Reaper (the Bones II Kickstarter) also saw some progress.  First up was to clean the parts, which you saw in the last post.  Next up is to boil them.  The boiling softens the parts and for the Bonesium material, it tends to push them back into their original shape.  They have a tendency to warp during mold removal and subsequent shipping and handling, so boiling, then dousing in cold water helps get them back to the original shape and hold them there.

The boiling:

This was just plain tap water, set on the stove at high to boil.  Once nicely bubbling (and toiling and troubling), just put the parts in and let them sit and soak in the heat.  Best done while building some other models.

Once boiled, remove: (tongs are a must here)

And place in the cold water (also in another pot).  Some people use ice water, in this case it I didn't find it necessary.

Though, I did find I had to overbend the parts in some cases, as they wouldn't return to a full flat condition.  I did this while they were still warm, before the water fully cooled them.  The cold water helps as water soaks in a huge amount of heat for its mass (also explaining why it is such a good cooling medium).  In this case, the overbending overcame the elastic region of the material and they now sit almost perfectly flat.

Repeat for all the pieces of the castle ruin, and the base area is ready to clean.  By cleaning I mean take away the mold lines, flash, and otherwise tidy up the model.  More on that in the next instalment of Dragons Don't Share.

I also took the time to work on my Razorthorn class battleship.  Not a lot, but I put the full body ink wash on the ship.  It looks really good in the details, bringing a depth to the crevices and other detailing, but it made the large, flat areas look dirty.  Not keen on that look, and I think I'll apply the ink more judiciously for future models.  It will need some cleaning up for the flat areas, but the weapons, hull plates and other details look good.  Next up is a cleaning pass with the base colours, then highlighting begins.

You know, it didn't feel as productive, but when you list it out, I actually worked on a bunch of things.  Not too bad for the first few weeks of the year.

Welcome 2016

Welcome to all in 2016.

Last year was a good kind of madness.  Finished my Head of Department qualification, bought a new house, bought a new truck and generally did some big and bold things last year.  Some big steps and some good times.

There was a new Star Wars film, a review of which will come, pending my second viewing.

This year is the year of discipline, finishing the book and generally buckling down and getting things done.

So far, I've written on the first, third and fourth.  Good, solid words that will need editing, but nothing terrible.  I will admit that today's words came out in a trickle, but I did sit my ass down.  Next up is a scene I've been itching to write for a long time.  That will be tomorrow's job.

I did take January second to have a cool Firestorm Armada game, in which my stepson, my daughter and I played a custom scenario.  I'll post that up sometime soon for those who might be interested.  (The revised version, as we made some adjustments after the game we played)

I've also decided to take on a major model project for the year.  From my Bones II order, the Dragons Don't Share set is something I'm itching to work on.  This year, I'm going to make it the year's project.  To prep, build and paint the whole thing.

Inside the box there's also the whole castle ruin set.  It's a huge piece.

First step is to break out all the parts and give them a scrub to remove any mould release agents.

Here are the pieces (as well as the resin parts from my daughter's Legion of Everblight gargantuan) laid out ready for washing.  It's really helpful to have a large countertop in the ensuite, as I can move parts from one side to the other as they get done.

A good scrub with dishsoap and warm water.  No special secrets, just a good scrub and lay them out to dry.  Here are all the pieces for Dragons Don't Share.  The adventurers in the pictures are about 28mm high, for a sense of scale.

Looking forward to working on this one.

All in all, a good start to the year.

Anatomy of a Painting Table

For those who paint models, be they cars, tanks, airplanes, wargaming minis or fantasy/sci-fi RPG models, I thought I'd share my creative space.  More often than not, one's painting table fades into the background of WIP photos, heaps of unassembled models and other accumulations that are normal in any gaming space.

First, a macro view of the whole area.

Seriously, who doesn't need a heavy assault starfighter?

Once I can wrest my chair away from the housebeast occupying it (a rare empty shot here), the real painting begins.

That's about it.  Simple, but always ready, even if I only lay down some paint for a few minutes.  Now I just have to sit down and get at it.

One thing I don't do is any assembly of miniatures here.  Because of the dust and debris that can generate, I have a work area in the garage (usually the gaming table) or just use the dining room table (when the fireplace is on) to do assembly.  That ensures the dust or other crap never contaminates the paint.  About the only thing I need to clean up is cat fur, which is ever-present.

Elven Druid

Here's another recent finish, an Elven Druid from Reaper Miniatures.  I started this one before the move, but didn't have time to get her done before everything had to by packed up.

One thing that I feel turned out splendidly was the skin tone.  It's P3 Khardic Flesh, shaded with a mix of Khardic Flesh and Skorne Red, then Khardic Flesh and Battledress Green.  Then a selectively applied shade of Skorne Red and Battledress Green for the deep shades.  Then highlighted up with Khardic Flesh and Midlund Flesh.  Key here: lots and lots of thin layers.  That gave me the smooth transitions.

The loincloth is P3 Gnarls Green highlighted with Iosan green, and the leather parts are Umbral Umber washed with first edition GW brown ink, then highlighted by mixing in Rucksack Tan, but only a bit to keep it dark.

Her hair turned out rather well, and it's Bootstrap Leather with Moldy Ochre mixed in for the highlight, also after a brown ink wash on the basecoat.  The blades are Pig Iron, Cold Steel and Quicksilver with Molten Bronze for the guards.

If the eyes look a bit strange, it's because she is painted as a Pathfinder elf, where the iris of the eye goes all the way to the edge, so there's no visible sclera.  Since Pathfinder is the primary fantasy RPG I play, I do tend to paint my non-wargaming models to fit that world.

The only horrifying part came when it was time to varnish the model.  Somewhere, the varnish I have turned, and it came out making her look like she was covered in frost.  Fortunately, I only applied a small amount, and was able to brush it off with a medium bristle brush without damaging the paint job.  Always check your sprays before applying to the model if they haven't been used in a while.

The miniature, by the way, is "Anjanis, Elf Druid" from Reaper's Dark Heaven Line (#03406).

I think I'll have to lighten up the background a little bit, but the photos turned out reasonably well.

Next up is the Razorthorn class battleship for the Firestorm Armada game.

New Library

The move is done, things are sorted, and the house is almost fully put together.

Considering here I wrote about the 'Geek Cave' that I had built in our old house, I figured it was time to show the new work area.  After several (where several = five) iterations, I determined that there was no way to have the gaming area in the library.  However, since this is the west coast of Canada, the garage will do nicely for gaming.  Considering the heat we've had this summer, it was nice to be able to open the huge door.

At any rate, here's the view coming into the library.

Moving in a bit, we see more of the shelves with Cygnarans and about half the library.  The center shelf under the light cuts the room in two.

A quick turn to the left shows the desks (painting and writing).  As well as the obligatory cat in the office chair (hi Cassandra!).  Lots of Warhammer miniatures back there, and I finally have power to the lights in the miniatures cabinets.

Moving in past the office chair leads to my reading chair, with another cabinet of miniatures.  It's a bit of a tight fit, but the chair comes out if I need to really dig back there.

Turning around we can see a view from the chair.

And a close up of the two desks.

 Note the cats lurking on the chair (Cassandra) and under the painting table (Oliver).  House beasts in their natural habitat.  This is more detail into the other half of the library, and if you look closely past the empty miniatures cabinet (soon to be filled with painted goodness), the door beyond leads to a bathroom.

With a shelf, of course, because that's what library bathrooms should have.
Looking out from the bathroom, the rest of the library.

And finally, in the garage, the gaming table, with stereo system and refrigerator.  Also, some newly painted space battle boards for the Firestorm Armada game.  More on that one later.

Not like we put cars in the garage or anything.

More house beasts lurking about to see what's going on.  That would be (L-R) Tyr, Cassandra and Oliver.

Finally, Mr. Tyr is wondering why I'm aiming the silly device at him.

That is my writing, painting and gaming space.  Already the gaming table has been blooded with wargames and RPGs, there's work in progress on the painting table, and I have my notes for Queen's Legacy.  Now I am unstoppable! (with feline minions too)