Lotta Ins, Lotta Outs - My First Kickstarter Pledge

I've been aware of Kickstarter for a few months, as a way for games and mini companies (amongst others) to get backing support for projects with less (or no) financial risk, while also protecting those who pledge support (aka investors). The model seems to work, but it's only been around for a few years, and gaming only seems to have gotten into it in the last year.

The big Kickstarter story in the gaming world was Steve Jackson Games raising almost $1 million (US) to produce a massive (literally of course) reprint of Ogre. I didn't go for that, as I'm ok with my 1980s Ogre pocket game collection, and to be honest, my old brain was having trouble figuring out the pledges, the "stretches", etc.

However, a recent news item of The Miniatures Page convinced me to get over it. The title "Little Urban Achievers Need Help" was intriguing enough, since I wasn't getting the reference at the time, but upon opening the news item and seeing this illustration, I was in love...So I've pledged at the 3 miniatures level (I don't need the Valkyrie), and since the project has reached its first Stretch level (basically, they know they're turning a profit and can now do more), I'm down for this for another $5:For those not getting the images, or my title reference, they are "inspired by" the classic The Big Lebowski, one of my favourite movies of the 1990s, with great dialogue and performances.

I'm really looking forward to painting these guys, and have already watched the movie in the last couple days to refresh my memory and start thinking about paint schemes.

For gaming, they'd do well for more "adventure" type gaming, say horror or mystery or multiple-teams (meshing with my Blaxploitation detectives, British spies, and Scooby Doo of course!) running around on the table together, facing off against my Copplestone KGB and bikers. Oh and my RAFM Elvises (Elvii) also fit in somewhere. I need to think about it more, it's not something I've really done, I think the .45 Adventure or GASLIGHT rules would be the first to turn to.

Nobody F#$&s with the Jesus...

New 2mm Goodies from Irregular

It's been a good few months for 2mm fans, with Irregular's earlier release of horse and musket columns, and flagless versions of their H&M line troops. Now they've released some cool new terrain bits for us, which I'll be using for some 2mm fantasy and 18C India, and probably in other projects too.

I've liberated this pics from Irregular's page, since their frames won't let me link to them directly. Town (or large castle) walls:

Vauban style town walls and bits:

Modern buildings, although in this case that really means for any time in the 20th century and beyond. Some may even work for the 19th century, if you paint them in suitably Victorian industrial colours.

Expensive Month for Minis Already!

It's only the 4th of July and it's been an expensive month for miniature purchases - everybody seems to have their sales on right now.  So besides some small purchases at Splintered Light and Critical Mass, I just spent about 100 beers on land ironclads and aeronef from Brigade Models UK and 6/15mm  sci-if at Ground Zero Games.  Both still have sales going on, to the 6th for Brigade, the 9th for GZG, so please join me in the madness!

This has put off another order from Irregular for a few months though, unfortunately, and I was just re-jigging my 2mm fantasy project too, switching from Advanced Legendary Battles to Mighty Armies to save on the number of figures needed.  I also have to do some 6mm fantasy round-ups.

My schedule for prep work continues to hold up ok, but I haven't painted in 3 months - I really think 2013 needs to be all about painting...