Reapermas Arrives at Twothreesixmm

Last night I came home to find a large, large box left on my front porch by UPS - my Reaper Bones Kickstarter package had arrived!  Reapermas at last!  I had pledged at the Vampire Level (all that that ended up entailing is in the picture below - click to see the whole thing) and picked up some extras:

• Cthulhu (a huge, huge figure!)
• Undead (Bone) Giant
• Clockwork Dragon
• Mythos Monsters
• Deep Dwellers
• Extras of the IMEF Marines and Nova Corps
• Carrying case for figures

When I originally pledged, my plan was to use some of the Lovecraftian figures for pulp gaming, the non-fantasy Zombie Hunters and Chronoscope for pulp, VSF, and/or modern spy gaming, and the sci-fi figures for topping up Star Wars.  The clockwork dragon is for VSF as some mad Prussian science project.  Some of the fantasy I'd paint myself to top up my collection of plastic collectible pre-paints and 1980s-era metal for Warhammer Fantasy-universe and Conan/Kull skirmishing, with some also being set aside for my young nephew as his first painting projects.

However, since then, despite my best efforts, I started three new projects this winter - and without really planning it this way, Reapermas actually supports two of those projects better than it does anything I outlined above (other than getting my nephew started at painting).

One project gathering steam has been Mythic India, and a ton of the figures above will work for it - the familiars, a couple of the necromancers, the skeletons and mummies, swamp things, owlbear, griffon, and the female storm giant (imagine her painted blue as the avatar of an Indian goddess...).  Even the spiky dark heroes and elves can work in the setting with the right paint job and mindset.

The other project is gaming with miniatures in the world of the Feng Shui RPG - for those not familiar with it, it basically encapsulates the best of 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong movies in one grand setting.  So Chinese eunuch sorcerers with Shaolin monks with gun fu mobsters with strange science fiction.  I'm not sure of what rules to use yet - Osprey and Ganesha Games have announced a Hong Kong set based on the Song system that will be my first stop - but I've started collecting minis for it.

Reapermas helps with some gun-toting heroes, including a perfect figure for Furious George, second in command of the Jammers faction (yes, I know Furious was a chimp and that's a gorilla, but I'll work with it).  The IMEF and Nova can work as Buro soldiers/police, perhaps the Wheel too.  Some creatures will do as demons for the 69 AD timeline too, although I have some other figures (in metal) from Reaper that will be better (and work as cyborg-demons, aka abominations).

My third new project is the Monster Hunter International setting in 15mm, so theorectically out of scale for this, BUT that giant head monster (can't remember its D&D name), the green and fire haunts, the vermin, the swamp things, and the specials I got - undead giant, Cthulhu, Mythos monsters, deep dwellers, ALL will work for 15mm too!

It's like I'm a genius but don't even know it.  Of course, it's probably 50 years of painting to get this all done, but I'm looking forward to it.

There's been good threads on how to work with the "Bones" material circulating around, so I now have to read up on that, certainly some of the figures need a bit of re-shaping after their travels.

Where'd that miniature go?

Sometimes I wonder if all the project planning I do is actually any more productive than just throwing darts at a the order form. After my initial trial order for my 2mm India project, I followed up late last year with an order that I thought was filling in the gaps for the project, at least to the point where I'd have a few of everything. I might still be short the numbers I'd need for Panipat or some other large battle, but I'd at least have everything started.

Yet after spending July dutifully cleaning my 2mm and 15mm India figures and putting them back away in sorted boxes, I've spent the last few nights basing everything for 2mm. Except...I'm still missing entire unit types!

I've gone through my ACW, ECW, and fantasy 2mm boxes, and they aren't hiding there (although I did steal some more ABG-6 figures from the fantasy box and all the BG-18s from the 19C China box).

How'd I do that? My sheet of units clearly shows I needed some ABG-3s...but nothing. I'm short BG-2s as well - and I even had the bases for them sitting there for a year, waiting the figures, so how could I have NOT ordered enough of them? I knew I needed some ABG-4 and ABG-8s too...and zip.

The only good thing out of this is at least I did order all the replacement elephants I needed for the fantasy project; I raided it last year for the Hathnal units at Plassey.

15mm Buildings

Here's a pic of some 15mm buildings I've been working on haphazardly over the last few months. The two small ones are little cardboard boxes bought cheaply from a craft store, with some Polyfilla slapped on (with spaces for doors and windows left). I'll be using them for sci-fi, done up in a desert look or something (maybe rock).

The two bigger ones are foamcore lasercut buildings from Gamecraft Miniatures, which are a cheaper way to get buildings on the table. I put some Polyfilla on these too, to roughen the texture.

While officially for the Middle East, I'm using them for my 15mm India project. I still have some resin ones from JR miniatures to clean up and paint, so these are now on hold, so I can paint everything for India all at once.