How awesome is my wife?!?!?!

My wife made me a personalized boardgame for Christmas! I knew she had been working on a special surprise for me the last several months but I had no clue what it would be when I was tearing it open on Christmas morning. She put together this multi tile boardgame for us with a bunch of the places we frequent, you'll notice a lot of restaurants (what can I say, we like to eat). There are other locations like church and family members' homes and such. She even incorporated vacations we take together. Each person has to complete a series of "tasks" or errands to win the game. The tasks are all personalized too and provide a lot of laughter. Lisa also told me that she has ideas for expansions....though she refuses to do a zombie themed expansion :O(
Not only did she do a great job designing the appearance of the game but knowing I am a gamer she really put a ton of effort into making rules that were fun and I have to say that I am very impressed. The game uses several different gaming elements and keeps the player interaction going so you always feel 'in the game'. It is light and it is actually a ton of fun (not just something I'd play because I feel obligated ;oP). This really is such a special gift and I am very lucky to share my life with such a wonderful, talented woman.

Early Christmas Presents from the LAB!!!!!

Doctor Merkury played Santa a little early this year and gifted me these awesome sinister miniatures available from WHAT THE?! Miniatures. I was told to give a big shout out to the company because "They were nice to him", he didn't elaborate on what that meant....it usually means something dirty, so I didn't ask any questions. At any rate they can be found at: http://whattheminiatures.com/

They make an assortment of very fine Weird War II miniatures, I particulary like the Lilith and the Twins miniature and may be ordering her to lead my She-Wolves down the road.

Doc Merkury painted these great miniatures up fo me and they are awesome additions to my slowly growing Weird War II stuff. I'm looking forward to statting these guys up and fielding them. First up we have this fiery gentleman. 13 loyal German soldiers were sent through an experimental dimensional portal created by Nazi scientists...only one returned and he no longer spoke in words, but in flames.

I bring you fire!!!

Next up is this very sinister Red Skull.

Complete with a trophy of his victory over a certain super soldier.

Take that America!

Thanks again Doc, these are awesome.
I got you pink velociraptors, coming soon!

Tramp Steamer...Take 2

After some discussion with TMP'ers I decided that I needed to go back and put a few more touches on this boat. I added a cargo boom and some rust/weathering effects. I found a really good site(lost the link) that had tons of pictures of old cruise ships and steamers that had been beached in India for scrap. I tried to duplicate some of the appearance of rust and weathering that I saw in the pictures on that site. I think it gives the boat a lot more character and am pretty happy with it now. The final effect makes it look like it's been through the ringer a couple times, but I like it. The before shot.

After weathering and additions.

These Ascots Ain't Gonna Move Themselves!

Here are some in progress shots and final results of the first tramp steamer I'm building for my pulp crew. This first ship is meant to be more of a river runner, smuggling type boat. I took a lot of artistic license here and generally don't consider myself much of a model builder. Okay so I know that boats aren't generally perfect ovals but I wanted simple. You'll see later that I ended up shaping one end to a point to give the boat a more "realistic shape". It was the front end I did that to in case you're wondering.

Used a pretty flimsy posterboard for the hull, but it's what I had around that I cold shape and bend. It ended up warping a bit but nothing tragic.

A couple bad pictures of the early stage of the bridge.

I took a piece of foamcore in the shap of the boat and peeled off the paper from one side. Then I made lines with a pen to make the texture of boards for the deck. The effect is alright.

The finished cargo hold. I named the ship after one of my other favorite smuggling ships.

Put a Pulp Figures deck gun at the front of the ship (what do boat riding guys call the front?). I don't know if ships like this ever had guns in the front like this, but I figured if a boat was ever sailing into Cthulhu, they'd be glad for a front gun.

This is pretty much the boat. Meh

From the back (what do boat riding guys call the back?)

The little bits and bobs are all from Reviresco. Cool detail stuff. Probablythe only saving grace of the thing frankly. The ladders are dollar store train tracks.

"Should I be walking off into the water like this???"
"Yeah, it's fine just keep walking"

I made a litte gangplank for the ship's crew to use when docking in exotic ports such as scenic Innsmouth and the Black Lagoon.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with the results. It's a pretty fun little piece of terrain to compliment my tramp steamer guys. The next project is a 3-4 foot long tramp steamer with several levels and areas that would act as a full terrain board for "on ship" encounters.