D&D Dwarfs WIP

Been working on D&D character minis. Here are two of my son's dwarf characters.

First up is Max Heal, the party's cleric...

I like the shade of red on his beard.
I should have made the gem on his helmet a different color though. (shrugs)
This is one of the best jobs I've ever done on a model's eyes.

His fur cloak turned out ok.
Still need to develop the technique to get more realistic looking animal fur.
The hammer and horns are pretty sweet.

The embossed shield.
I'm not sure which god it represents, but, as one friend said,
"that's a coat of arms I can get behind!"

Next up is Gardian, brother and protector to Max Heal...

I'm particularly proud of how his beard turned out.

The red scale mail was an experiment.
I think it turned out pretty good.

The white bases are just temporary for painting. I will mount them on clear acrylic bases, which is my standard base for D&D figures.

These guys accompany Vainglorian, the High Elf Paladin I posted a while back. The rest of the party consists of a male halfling rogue, a female human wizard, and a male tiefling sorcerer. You can just make them out in the fuzzy background of these photos. I will post finished pics of them soon.

Until next time, carry on!

A Little Zombie Gaming

Played some All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out a couple weeks ago. It was a simple Search scenario in an urban setting. The players were all new to the game so I kept it simple and did not use PEFs. I played as the referee and ran the zombies while they each took a character. It was a fun game and my friends enjoyed it.

My urban board.
I need to get some MDF buildings to replace those card stock ones.

Here you can see the character cards I use.
I've made one for each of my survivor/ganger models.

The zombie kills are piling up!
They did pretty well, for noobs. Only one of them got killed.

Drone view.

That's all I've got for today. We had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to when we can do it again.

I've been doing a fair bit of painting lately. Since I have such a nice space for painting now, I'm trying to develop a more regular habit. I borrowed an idea from the running world and have committed to 30 minutes everyday for 30 days. It's the best way to start a new habit of anything. It's felt great to get back into the hobby with more consistency.

My goal is to finish all the character models for my other D&D game. One of my friends is the DM and my 12 year old son, his 12 year old son, and I are the players. We each run two characters, so there are six character models. I've finished three. Once the six are completed, I'll start slogging through my lead pile. Clearing out several half-finished projects will be the first priority. Next week I'll have some minis to show you.

Until next time, carry on!

Dads And Daughters D&D

Last weekend I hosted our Dads and Daughters D&D group in my new game space. I'm probably beating a dead horse hear, but allow me to say once more how much I LOVE my new house and game room!

As I think I've shared before, Dads and Daughters D&D started back in 2014 when, on a lark, I invited some of my old high school buddies to get together for a weekend and play the new 5th Edition D&D. We played through an adventure I had written, drank beer, relived the glory days, and had a fine weekend together. We enjoyed the game so much in fact, that we decided to do it again. Schedules being what they are and us living several hours drive apart meant that it was a few months before we could get together.

At our second gathering, one of my friends asked if he could bring his high school senior daughter along. Considering these friends are like family, we were glad to have her join the game and once again we had such fun we decided to set another date. For the 3rd gathering we decided we would all bring a daughter, step-daughter, or niece along and, BOOM, Dads and Daughters D&D was born.

It has been such a cool thing to introduce these young women to a game (and a gaming hobby) that typically includes only about 30% women and girls. In what is too often a sexist, misogynist gaming culture, we have taken great delight in empowering these young women to "take a place at the table", literally and figuratively, and enjoy the game as equals. It gets a little crazy with 9 (!) player characters, but it has been well worth the effort. It has been amazing to see these young people go from shy, sometimes skeptical, hesitant players to full on, sword wielding, spell casting, monster bashing, bad asses. We dads (and uncles) couldn't be more proud of how our "girls" have taken to the game.

One of the young adventurers went off to college this year. We expected her interest would decline, but she has consistently made arrangements to travel long hours by bus just to make it to the quarterly games. She's also started bringing a boyfriend (insert eye roll here). But, I have to admit, he's a great young man. After all, any guy willing to give up his weekend to play D&D with his girlfriend's father and his old high school buddies must be a stellar individual! Besides, he's pretty good at the game too...for a noob.

The college kids and their Yorkie-Poo familiar.
(that's my little dog, Charlotte. She was there for the snacks.)

Massive battle in the keep as the party is besieged.

Grognards and their offspring.

Thanks to my wife, you also get a shot of me, DMing at the head of the table.

So, the break-in game session in the new space was a complete success. A truly spectacular day was had by all. I'm so grateful for these friends, for the time and space to do this, and for you all for caring to read about it.

Until next time, carry on!

Gameroom Taking Shape

Between moving, fixing up our old house for sale, and trying to settle into our new house, I haven't had much time for gaming. Still, I've managed to set up my hobby space/painting table and game room.

A cozy, well lit space.

My wife and I love IKEA products so we made a  run to our "local" store an hour or so drive away. I have been doing some research on display cabinets and settled on the BILLY cabinet with OXBERG doors.

This is only part of my collection.

I will be getting at least one more of these; maybe as many as 5. I like the idea of an entire wall of cabinets for my figures, games, books, and supplies.

Still need to install the lights.

I'm also planning to build a permanent gaming table. I want to make one with a well like I've seen others have online. I'm thinking I might use our old dining room table once we replace it. My thought is to build a table with leaves that can be taken out or added in depending on how much gaming space is needed. My old dining room table would be perfect for that as all the hardware for expanding/contracting the table is already there.

Wouldn't a wall of cabinets back there look great?

I set up some portable tables to get an idea of space and discovered I have room for a 5'x10' table! That would allow for a 4'x8' well with a 6" edge all around. Positively huge! Considering that my Dads and Daughters D&D group is composed of 9 players and the DM, that should about do it.

Yes, that's a mini-frig there by the door.
Who wants to walk up the stairs to the kitchen for a frosty beverage?

The DM's view...

Things are coming along nicely. I've been exhausted for most of the last 6 weeks, but it is well worth it. Moving is never easy but is a great opportunity to take stock, sort through, and reconfigure one's hobby. What a gift this space is to me for that!

Until next time, carry on!