Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Reaper Chronoscope Minis
Happy birthday to me! All right, my birthday was a couple of weeks ago... For my birthday, I decided to gift myself with Gale Force 9's 12 piece sculpting set. A very nice kit that includes several tools that have already proven useful in my sculpting endeavors, as I had to try them out right away. Good, well-made tools with a nice little carry case, with 2 extra slots in the carry case for other tools. (Although I already have more than enough sculpting tools in my arsenal to fill the extra slots...) I hope I can manage to keep these tools from walking off from my desktop in the future! I may need to figure out a quick way to mark them as mine.
It should be noted that my regular Thursday evening game group bought me, as a birthday present, a set of GF9's diamond files, with which to clean minis. These are excellent files and I really enjoy them. Although the files are small, they remove material from minis very quickly! I'm surprised! Thanks Jay and Dawn!
While at the FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store), I also noticed a few blisters of the new Chronoscope minis from Reaper. This is Reaper's new line of figures that will encompass all sorts of genre's, including sci-fi, steampunk, historical and basically anything that doesn't fit into their "fantasy" or Warlord lines. As with the Warlord minis, these are tabbed to allow for fitting on round slotted bases, with which these figures are packaged. The bases seem to be a generic round slotted base, but I hope this means that Reaper are considering making the round variant of their plastic bases, as per their 1" square Warlord bases with the small lip around the edge. Of the new line, I managed to snag the mascot "time chaser" of the line and an Indiana Jones-styled adventurer.
Sasha DuBois, time chaser, was sculpted by the wonderful talents of Julie Guthrie and Bob Ridolfi as a single piece mini. She's holding a pocketwatch (perhaps it is actually a "chronoscope"?) and wearing a waistcoat. Unsurprisingly, this is a beautiful sculpt to start the line off with! Because of that, there isn't much more to be said about the figure. I can't wait to actually take the time to paint her.
The second of these minis, Jack 'Dodge' Harrison, is a multi-part figure that includes a choice of 3 different heads and 4 separate arms (2 left, 2 right) holding a variety of weapons. This is a great precedent for this new line! Of the arms, there are two holding pistols, one holding a whip and one holding a machete/sword. I'm slightly disappointed with the whip, as it seems a bit thick for scale. Well sculpted and fairly accurate, but a bit thick compared to the rest of the miniature. Jack was sculpted by Gene Van Horne, and the 3 heads include a variant wearing a fedora meaning that this figure can easily be transformed into everybody's favorite 1940's archaeologist. The other heads include one that has a buzz-cut hairstyle smoking a cigar, and another wearing a pilot's cap. As I recently completed a figure of Dr. Henry Jones Jr., I think my version of "Jack" is likely to undergo a slight bit of conversion, as I have another hero in mind, using the pilot's cap head and possibly a one-eyed dog on the base. (Bonus points to anybody who gets the reference prior to the figure being completed!) I could nitpick about a few details of this, but I think I'll just let that rest for now.
These two figures make me want to go out and get the rest of the Chronoscope line. Already, these minis are tempting me to put down other projects in the works, so that I can put paint on these! I will persevere and work to complete other figures though, with looming deadlines approaching. Still, it makes me think about other purposes that might be met by an adventurer and a time chaser... Hmm....
It should be noted that my regular Thursday evening game group bought me, as a birthday present, a set of GF9's diamond files, with which to clean minis. These are excellent files and I really enjoy them. Although the files are small, they remove material from minis very quickly! I'm surprised! Thanks Jay and Dawn!
While at the FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store), I also noticed a few blisters of the new Chronoscope minis from Reaper. This is Reaper's new line of figures that will encompass all sorts of genre's, including sci-fi, steampunk, historical and basically anything that doesn't fit into their "fantasy" or Warlord lines. As with the Warlord minis, these are tabbed to allow for fitting on round slotted bases, with which these figures are packaged. The bases seem to be a generic round slotted base, but I hope this means that Reaper are considering making the round variant of their plastic bases, as per their 1" square Warlord bases with the small lip around the edge. Of the new line, I managed to snag the mascot "time chaser" of the line and an Indiana Jones-styled adventurer.
Sasha DuBois, time chaser, was sculpted by the wonderful talents of Julie Guthrie and Bob Ridolfi as a single piece mini. She's holding a pocketwatch (perhaps it is actually a "chronoscope"?) and wearing a waistcoat. Unsurprisingly, this is a beautiful sculpt to start the line off with! Because of that, there isn't much more to be said about the figure. I can't wait to actually take the time to paint her.
The second of these minis, Jack 'Dodge' Harrison, is a multi-part figure that includes a choice of 3 different heads and 4 separate arms (2 left, 2 right) holding a variety of weapons. This is a great precedent for this new line! Of the arms, there are two holding pistols, one holding a whip and one holding a machete/sword. I'm slightly disappointed with the whip, as it seems a bit thick for scale. Well sculpted and fairly accurate, but a bit thick compared to the rest of the miniature. Jack was sculpted by Gene Van Horne, and the 3 heads include a variant wearing a fedora meaning that this figure can easily be transformed into everybody's favorite 1940's archaeologist. The other heads include one that has a buzz-cut hairstyle smoking a cigar, and another wearing a pilot's cap. As I recently completed a figure of Dr. Henry Jones Jr., I think my version of "Jack" is likely to undergo a slight bit of conversion, as I have another hero in mind, using the pilot's cap head and possibly a one-eyed dog on the base. (Bonus points to anybody who gets the reference prior to the figure being completed!) I could nitpick about a few details of this, but I think I'll just let that rest for now.
These two figures make me want to go out and get the rest of the Chronoscope line. Already, these minis are tempting me to put down other projects in the works, so that I can put paint on these! I will persevere and work to complete other figures though, with looming deadlines approaching. Still, it makes me think about other purposes that might be met by an adventurer and a time chaser... Hmm....
Labels: product reviews
Monday, June 16, 2008
New Digital Camera-Take 2!
Woo-hoo! A new digital camera for my birthday from loving girlfriend, Nottygypsy! (Again, "Happy birthday to me!" only this time it actually was my birthday...) My previous Kodak digital camera didn't hold up too well and took a bit of a beating. It gave out on me before I was able to use it to it's full potential and motivate me to paint (and post) more miniatures-related stuff. This new camera is a Canon A590 IS model, as I did a small amount of internet research and found that DigitalCamera-HQ.com gave it high recommendations, and it was in the proper price range. So far, I've been very pleased with this Canon point-and-shoot camera, and it has all the essentials for minitature photography, including a macro mode. Hopefully it will prove much more reliable than it's predecessor in motivating me to do more miniature work.
