The Masks of Nyarlathotep - Bunty Rothschild

At my regular friday club Dragons Keep UK we are 10 weeks into a year long Call of Cthulu and I have only just gotten round to printing and painting my character mini...

Bunty Rothschild - Heiress and Supernatural Investigator

Bunty's Story

Her early life in the Hamptons was idylic, being the daughter of the extended Rothschild family the world was her oyster as long as that meant marrying into one of the other rich families that Daddy knew.

Whe she was 16 she was packed off to Paris to study at the famous Sorbonne finishing schools.  However, far from the withering gaze of her father she developed a rebellious streak that even the legendary Madame Guillaume couldn't tame out of her.  

With the outbreak of war she and her American classmates were shipped back to the USA like refugees. Her father being far too busy with the business of supporting the war effort left her to live in the family's 5th Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park.

Of course Bunty was soon getting up to mischief and found herself fronting various high society illicit parties on behalf of the Italian Gandolfini Syndicate.  Her taste for risk and danger often saw her accompanying the boys on a rum run and her skills with the Chicago Typewriter made her invaluable to Don Luigi.

Unfortunately, her success came to an abrupt end when the syndicate fell under the beady eyes of Izzy and Moe, who operated the New York office of the famous untouchables.  She was lifted by the cops in a sting operation and only managed to avoid incarceration due the sworn testimony of her Uncle and New York State Supreme Court Judge.

Tired of his wayward daughter's antics, her father gabe her an ultimatum.  Either she married into one of the respectable wealthy society families or she got herself a job.

Whilst Bunty ruminated on the two equally unnatractive options facing her, fate had other plans.  A chance reading of the New York Tribune classifieds saw her embark on a steamship to Lima, Peru.  

Jessie's Prints - Episode 21 - Some Characters

This week, I are mostly been enjoying printing some characters I found on the interweb.

The Dungeonmaster - Thingiverse 3850163

People of a certain age will instantly recognise this little fellow.  He looks harmless enough but back in the 80s he kidnapped a bunch of American kids and put them through all manner of trials and fights against dragons and monsters.  Today's generation would have none of his nonsense I am sure.

If Hollywood is listening, someone please make a live action remake of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.  It will be a guaranteed hit.

Bender "Bending" Rodriguez - Thingiverse 32188

There  are a lot of Futurama models out there (I do want to print a cosplay brain slug and a Planet Express) but having a Bender miniature means I can keep those anoying meat bags at bay.  I needed to scale this one down and poor Benders antenna was just too fragile at that scale. 

Destroy all humans!!

The Monster and The Bride - Thingiverse 3782040 and 3844313

In a previous episode I printed the mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein and his able assistant Igor.  It would be churlish of me not to include his two most famous creations, the monster and Frankenstein's Bride.

Both these sculpts are by GloomyKid on Thingiverse who seems to push all my buttons when it comes to the models he chooses to sculpt.  Awesome work dude.

The House of R'yleh: Part 4 - The Art of Negotiation

The House of R'yleh is a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in London in late November 1923.  The Games Master is Mark and play takes place at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in South East London every Friday night.

Cast

• Yoshi "Kanagawa" Yamamoto - A disgraced former Sumo wrestler turned journalist - Tony
• Chester "Pretty Boy" Lyle - A bareknuckle boxer - Sam 
• Ryan Wurmshurst - A retired policeman turned private sleuth - Steve
• Thelma "Ginger" Purdey - A recently graduated botanist and girl about town - Matt 

Surrounded by Ghoulish Minions

The beret wearing creature ordered his minions to surround the friends but, despite their weapons, it was clear that they were going to have to talk their way out of the situation.  The cavern was dimly lit but four fully finished paintings could be seen leaning up against the far wall.  Chester addressed the beret wearing creature as Peters but the creature said this was not his name.  Yoshi put two and two together and realised that this was the macabre artist Thewlis, who had been drummed out of the Chelsea Art club for creating obscene art. 

In broken English Yoshi claimed that they had come from the Chesea Art Club who had had a change in leadership.  The new regime wanted to right a previous wrong and purchase all of the art on display in order to hold a grand exhibition, one of the conditions was the return of Davies and his two students. 

Thewlis was intrigued and pulled his forces back enabling Yoshi and Ginger to cross the cavern and get a better look at the four paintings.  

 

The first was of a grand country house with a rotting corpse in the foreground.  The second was of a strange ruin in the desert.  The third of the interior of a building its walls covered with intricate hieroglyphs. The final painting was of a fantastical island structure jutting out of a stormy sea.  A tiny boat battled the gigantic waves heading towards this island.  In the centre of the painting a great door imprisoned something powerful which wanted to be released.  Observing this final painting Yoshi and Ginger had a visceral out of body experience.  It was as if they were on board the ship heading towards the island.  Looking down at her feet Ginger noticed that they were wet with seawater. 

 

After some discussion Thewlis agreed to the terms on the condition that the friends retrieve an important artifact for him.  He passed them a grubby manuscript whihc detailed the history of something called The Shining Trapezohedron, an artifact which would enable Thewlis to truly convey the majesty of his art to canvas.  Only then would he release his "students".

 

The foursome agreed and, led by one of Thewlis ghoulish servants, they returned to the surface and cold snowy Lambeth.  

Saturday 17th November 1923

The friends reconvened at Victoria Police Station and Ryan went to inform Det. Sgt. Farrell that they had located the missing artists.  Farrell assembled a five man squad of his finest officers.  This came as a dissapointment to the friends who urged him to bolster his ranks.  Another five men were found and they piled into a black mariah and followed the directions to the tenament in Lambeth.

 

Ambushed in the Sewers

When they arrived in the basement they expected to find one of Thewlis's creatures waiting for them but the room was empty.  They decided that Farell would accompany them in a lead group whilst Sgt Forester and the remaining officers would be following behind as backup.  They proceeded to traverse the sewers until they were about 100 yards from the entrance to the excavated side tunnel when they heard gunshots from behind.  They had been ambushed.

 

a half dozen or so of the creatures came at them from both directions cutting them off from the officers behind and a pitch battle ensued.  They overcame their assailants with great difficulty and all were wounded in some way except for Chester.  They ran back through the tunnels to the ladder stopping only briefly to recover the collar numbers of the slain officers they found along the way.  

 

They only found four of them... 

Jessie's Prints - Episode 20 - Cthulhu Characters

This week, I are mostly been answering...  The Call of Cthulhu

Victorian Tough with Dog - Pinshape 48509

I know our current Call of Cthulhu game is set in 1923 but who can pass up on the opportunity to print out a tough guy villain and his dog?

Pirate Pugilist - Thingiverse 3981631

Sam is playing an east end ruffian called Chester "Pretty Boy" Lyle.  A bareknuckle boxer Chester bears the scars of hundreds of bouts in some of the seediest dives that London's docklands have to offer. 

The Colonel - Thingiverse 3107434

Usually found sleeping in his easy chair in The Garrick Club, Colonel St.John Smythe saw plenty of action in his youth fighting for Queen and Country across most of Africa.  He now earns a well deserved retirement and occassionally tells of his exploits across the dark continent to anyone who will listen.

Dr. Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein needs no introduction and wasn't intentionally looking to build up a collection of classic horror minis, but when I found this one I just had to download it.  From sculptor Roman Bevza, I just love the pose and especially the action of pulling on of the rubber gloves.

 

Igor - Thingiverse 3926251

Frankenstein's erstwhile and capable manservant is another of Roman Bezva's creations and of course I had to print him aswell.

Private Investigator - Thingiverse 4231499

Steve is playing a retired policeman turned private investigator by the name of Ryan Wurmshurst.  No case is too small and his rates are very reasonable.

Researcher - Thingiverse 4499796

Every Cthulhu game needs a character with excellent research capabilities who can answer the call for "Library Use".  At the moment this is the stand-in for Thelma "Ginger" Purdey, our courageous girl about town.  I am currently on the hunt for a more appropriate miniature.

The House of R'yleh - Part 2: What Lurks in the Darkness

The House of R'yleh is a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in London in late November 1923.  The Games Master is Mark and play takes place at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in South East London every Friday night.

Cast

• Yoshi "Kanagawa" Yamamoto - A disgraced former Sumo wrestler turned journalist - Tony
• Chester "Pretty Boy" Lyle - A bareknuckle boxer - Sam 
• Ryan Wurmshurst - A retired policeman turned private sleuth - Steve
• Thelma "Ginger" Purdey - A recently graduated botanist and girl about town - Matt

Thursday 15th November 1923

At the Chelsea Art Club, the mystery deepens, more names are added to the list of the missing but the chums still don't have any solid leads to follow.

• Jason Davies - missing for over a month - Art professor at the Chelsea School of Art.
  
• Helen Wilson - missing for two weeks - a student of Prof. Davies.
  
• Ruth Hall -  missing for a couple of days - a student of Prof. Davies.
• Ambrose Draper - Davies patron and the person who sold the silver locket to the pawnbroker.
• Thewlis - An artist and friend of Davies who was kicked out of the club for obscenity.
  

Chester decides to break into the concierge's office and try to get addresses for Davies, Draper and Thewlis.  He narrowly avoids being caught by Percival the concierge.  Ginger decides that what they really need to know is what the papers said about the whole affair.  She takes a cab to the British Library in Kings Cross, arriving just before closing time.  

The news archive is well indexed and she quickly finds 3 clippings which detail the missing persons before returning to the club.

Friday 16th November 1923

The friends meet at their favourite spot, Jenny's Tea Rooms in the Strand.  Armed with Draper's address, Yoshi, Ginger and Chester head to Kensington leaving Ryan to see if his police contacts can tell him more about the case.

The Draper Residence

A large detached house which appears to have fallen on hard times.  The rose beds have been untended for some time and the windows are dirty and curtains closed.  Chester knocks oin the door and is suprised when a man fitting Mr. Draper's description opens the door.  Clearly a lover of the demon drink, Draper seems distracted and apologises for not paying his club dues on time.  They sit him down in the drawing room and after a little questioning manage to extract some useful information.

Draper was given the locket by a man called Peters who uses him as a go-between.  Whatever money he gets he uses to buy art supplies for Peters.  Draper struggles to describe Peters and Yoshi detects that there is definitely something Draper is witholding either out of fear or some other psychological reason.  They convince Draper to take them to Peters.  Draper insists that they will need to take Peters a gift of some brushes or paints. 

The World's End

Ryan's investigations begin at the World's End Public House on Victoria Street, an old haunt and a regular watering hole for the constabulary's finest.  He is immediately recognised by one of his former colleagues, Constable Tim Barley.  Ryan is not shy in asking about the Chelsea School of Art missing persons case and Barkley complains that they don't have the manpower to do a search of the riverside, they are effectively just waiting for a body or three to wash up on the banks of the Thames. 

Barkley mentions that these are strange times, in fact he had a chap come into the station the other day.  He claimed that someone had dug up his dead mother, stolen her locket and sold it to a pawnbroker on the Fulham Road.  He didn't know what to make of it, but the man seemed a little out of sorts. 

Ryan leaves the pub and as he ruminates on the case he realises he is near to his informant and sometime errand boy Jim.  Jim is a greasy looking young ruffian and is more than happy to help Ryan out for a few shillings.  Ryan tells Jim to go to Stokes Pawnshop and see if he has a silver charm bracelet with butterfly charms on it.

An Encounter with Mr Peters

Freshly furnished with art supplies the friends and Draper take a cab to Lambeth.  The dereliction and squalor of the tightly packed ramshackled tenament buildings an anathema even to Yoshi and Chester whose rented rooms in the East End were still classified as comfortable.

The cab sped off as soon as the four alighted.  Draper led them through narrow alleys and passageways to a boarded up half ruined building.  Opening the door with a key he led them inside the dark confines through corridors and down stairs until they entered a basement room with what looked to be a well.

Leaving the art supplies against the low wall of the well, Draper was keen to leave.  Chester and Yoshi shone their lantern into the well.  Something caught Yoshi's eye, a glistening in the light.  They climbed down into the well for a closer look.  The bottom of the well clearly entered into the subterranean warren of the London sewer system.  The ground at the bottom of the iron rung ladder was dry, poking out of the earth was a silver butterfly which matched the description of the charm bracelet worn by one of the missing girls from the art school.  As Yoshi turned the charm over in his big hands he could hear the sounds of someone sloshing through the water from down the tunnel.  Chester and Yoshi scampered up the ladder and the group cowered in an adjacent room leaving one of the lanterns on the floor next to the well.

As they watched a long withered hand and arm reached out from the well grasping at the bag with the art supplies.  This horrifically contorted creature, they presumed was Mr Peters...

The House of R'yleh - Part 1: The Mysterious Case of the Silver Locket

The House of R'yleh is a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in London in late November 1923.  The Games Master is Mark and play takes place at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in South East London every Friday night.

Cast

• Yoshi "Kanagawa" Yamamoto - A disgraced former Sumo wrestler turned journalist - Tony
• Chester "Pretty Boy" Lyle - A bareknuckle boxer - Sam 
• Ryan Wurmshurst - A retired policeman turned private sleuth - Steve
• Thelma "Ginger" Purdey - A recently graduated botanist and girl about town - Various

Tuesday 13th November 1923

Six weeks had passed since we buried Freddie's mother Josephine at the Kensal Green Cemetary.  She finally succumbed to the polio that had made her final years a struggle.  We had arranged to meet Freddie, who we had not seen since the funeral, in the Princess Victoria Public House on the Uxbridge Road and were looking forward to spending some time with our ebullient chum.

It was quite the shock when the normally dapper Freddie burst into the boozer looking somewhat worse for wear.  Ginger immediately ordered a double whiskey for Freddie and he gulped it down, desperate to tell us his story...

"I can't believe that they would do such a thing, to my poor old mum who never hurt a fly.  I was just browsing in the pawnbrokers for a bit of something for my girlfriend Sophie, you know the one from the bank I was telling you all about.  Anyway, I popped into Stokes Pawnbrokers, the one on the Fulham Road, and there I spotted it... My mum's silver locket... the one I put in the casket with her when we buried her.  I had it out with the bloke, questioned him, but all he wanted was 15 nicker.  What sort of man would steal an old woman's locket from her dead body?"

Freddie's story gripped us all and we all agreed that we would solve this mystery and bring the culprits to justice. We shared a few drinks with Freddie and decided to take a cab down to the pawnbrokers to see if we could get to the bottom of it.  It was about 10pm when we arrived and the place was closed.  We vowed to take up the case in the morning and meet at the undergound station at 9am.

Wednesday 14th November 1923

Another damp day loomed as the gang trudged along the Fulham Road towards Stokes Pawnbrokers.  Yoshi went in first aiming to distract the fellow behind the counter with his oriental guile.  Briefly looking around, he turned his attention to the jewellrey case behind the counter.

"Sivur Rocket, Arigato"

The man, presumably Mr. Stokes (or one of his employees) took the bait and was pleased to take advantage of this foreigner and charge Yoshi the princely sum of £50 rather than the £15 he charged Freddie.  Incensed with this blatant display of price gouging, Yoshi grabbed the fellow under the armpit and tried to hoik him over the counter.  Sadly Yoshi's best days as an Ozeki were behind him and the chap was a little too heavy for The Great Wave.

Yoshi's friends came to the rescue and shooed him out of the shop.  The perfect ruse to act as saviours and get some info out of him.  After some questioning it turned out that the man did not know the locket was stolen and that it had been sold to him by one of his regulars called Mr Draper.  A clearly wealthy man Mr Draper dressed shabbily and exhibited the signs of drinkers palsy.  He did sport a lapel pin from the Chelsea Art Club and Stokes commented that he always brought him tasteful objet d'art from time to time.  According to his ledger Draper's last visit was 5 days ago.

Stokes gave Chester a small discount as thanks for saving him from the oriental beast.

To the Cemetary

Their next port of call was the grave of Mrs Brydon located in the Kensal Green Cemetary. 

Kensal Green Cemetary

The grave was undisturbed, a dead end.  The friends considered that the locket must have been lifted before she was interred which left only one option.  The undertakers.  Perhaps Draper works there or has a man on the inside.  They headed to the funeral parlour.

Fowler & Williams Funeral Directors

Mr Fowler and Mr Williams were most upset to hear of the disturbing incident and were extremely helpful with the gang's enquiries.  An employee lineup was hastily convened, none of whom matched the description of Mr Draper and none of the staff had heard of the man.  

 

 

Funeral Hearse

Another dead end left the team with only one lead...

The Chelsea Art Club

Situated in the heart of the Latin Quarter the Chelsea Art Club had some notoriety as a private members club for the appreciation of art.  Posing as a dilettante and her entourage, Ginger managed to get the friends into the club so that they could enquire about this Draper fellow.

Their enquiries were fruitful and they were introduced to two members, Mr James Cummings and Mr Charles Young.  Both independently wealthy men, they were art lovers and patrons of some of the bohemian types who frequented the club.  Draper had not been seen for some time since the disappearance of his protege Jason Davies, a professor at the Chelsea School of Art and a promising talent in the macabre scene.  The papers aluded to some sort of scandal at the School and at least two of the students had likewise gone missing... 

Reaper Bones #38 - Harpy

Another Mythical Monster chalked off the list, this time it's a Harpy

Harpy - Julie Guthrie (SKU 77041)

Harpy by Julie Guthrie

Julie Guthrie does it again with another wicked sculpt.  The last time I painted a Harpy was 30+ years ago when I painted the one from the Citadel C18 Night Horrors line.  Judging from the mini I believe this might have been sculpted by Aly or Trish Morrison.

Citadel C18 Harpy

You can tell that things have moved on both technically and aestetically in the last 30 years.  This is a much more interesting less cartoony sculpt and doesn't have the classic overblown features or the flattop haircut.  In particular I love the inclusion of the half demonic wings which give this mini a sense of the evil rather than just being some half human half chicken monster.

Harpy Mythology

Probably the most famous Harpy story is that of King Phineas of Thrace who was granted the gift of prophecy by Zeus until he gave away the Gods secret plan. Zeus blinded him and then left him alone on an island but tormented him with Harpies who would steal all the banquet food the Gods left him.  This is most famously depicted in the movie Jason and the Argonauts (1963) where Phineas is played by the second Doctor Who Patrick Troughton.  

Needless to say Jason fights off the Harpies and saves Phineas who then tells them how to pass through the clashing rocks (Symplegedes) further angering the Gods.

Bones Progress

Reaper Bones #27 - Grave Wraith & Labella DeMornay, Banshee

More translucent minis again this week. 

Grave Wraith - Bob Ridolfi (SKU: 77097)

I'm starting to develop a sort of technique using progressively darker washes and then dry brushed highlights.

Labella DeMornay, Banshee - Julie Guthrie (SKU: 77096)

Controlling the amount of light leak is very difficult and if you overdo it you lose the transparency effect.  Sometimes it's difficult to actually see what you are painting on these minis as the raw transparent plastic doesn't create shadows which define things like facial features.  A blackwash to begin with really helps.  

A much better painter friend of said I should really be using inks so maybe on my next transparent mini I can throw some 30 year old Citadel shade on it.

Big shout out to Daniel of dhump3.com for the tips.  If you are looking for some quality graphic design for your company or a fantastic digital painting give him a shout. 

Reaper Bones #26 - Translucent Terrors

Following on from last week's Ghostly Summons, this week I managed to finish off two more translucent minis.

Night Spectre - Julie Guthrie (SKU: 77099)

Spirit - Jason Wiebe (SKU: 77098)

As you can see I haven't nailed the photography or the painting just yet.  Translucent minis are more difficult than you imagine especially if you are trying to incorporate lighting.  It's weird how some paints block the light and others don't. 

Still I am pretty pleased with how the Night Spectre came out.

H.R. Giger - Biomechanical Genius

It seems like only yesterday that I was celebrating the work of a visionary and here we are again...

Hans Ruedi Giger (1940 - 2014)

H.R. Giger

A legendary Swiss artist who is most famous for creating the monster for the sci-fi horror classic Alien (1979).  However, his art spans a period of almost 45 years and many different mediums.  To really appreciate the breadth of his talent, I heartily recommend you buy one of the Taschen Artbooks which feature his collected works.

Films

He worked on a number of films over the years mostly in creature design applying his signature style of monochromatic airbrushed biomechanical to a variety of costume and set pieces.  

One surprising design was his radical reimagining of the Batmobile for the movie Batman Forever (1995) which would have seen Val Kilmer cruising the streets of Gotham in a nightmarish twiglet.

Batmobile by H.R. Giger

Album Artwork

He worked with many bands creating some pretty iconic album covers,  Most famously depicting Debbie Harry on the cover of the album "Koo Koo" and giving Emmerson, Lake and Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" and Industrial edge before Nine Inch Nails were a glint in the milkman's eye.

Notoriously the Dead Kennedy's used his painting Landscape #XX as the inner gatefold image for the album "Frankenchrist" and the ensuing obscenity lawsuit almost bankrupted Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles.  You can see a high res version of this image on the Rolling Stone website.

The action arose at the same time as the infamous PMRC founded by Tipper Gore (The wife of Vice President Al Gore) and Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker).  The famous "Tipper Stickers", which fearful record execs agreed to add to the album sleeves, had precisely the opposite effect to that intended.  In fact in the 80s you couldn't call yourself a serious musician unless your latest release sported its badge of honour.   

Bubble Babies

My personal favourite Giger artwork is his disturbing Landscape #XVIII one of a series of baby landscapes

Landscape XVIII - H.R. Giger

The Giger Museum

If I ever get to visit Switzerland I will not be visiting the cuckoo clock factory instead I will be soaking up some culture in the Giger Museum in Gruyères.

Zombies!!! - The most fun you can have in a 6" x 9" box

Today we celebrate George A Romero's Birthday with a bit of zombie posting.

My favourite zombie boardgame is Zombies!!!

Zombies!!! (yes the exclamations are part of the title) by Twilight Creations is a very big game for such a tiny box and a tiny price.

Get to the Chopper

The player's objective is to "explore" the town by randomly drawing a then placing a town tile as part of their turn then defeating any zombies which they come into contact with.  When they find the helipad tile they can try to reach it and win the game.

Zombies!!! Boardgame Town Tiles

The stand out component for me are the town tiles which make up the board.  I think it is the frustrated town planner in me.  These geomorphs depict almost every type of building you are likely to encounter in a small town USA and I confess I have used them in many RPGs to quickly generate a town for my players.

As the board is generated the number of zombies increases with each new tile placed generating more and more for you to deal with.

Players also get to use the good and bad event cards throughout which introduces a Player vs Player element to the game.  These cards can really mess with your day or be the key to success and really ramp up the tension.

Fast Frenetic Fun

Gameplay is fast and simple.  Each player turn consists of the same steps:

• Draw and place a tile
• Fight zombies on your space
• Draw event cards
• Move an fight zombies
  
• Roll and Move the zombies 
• Discard event cards
  

If you die at any time you respawn back at the town square so nobody gets ejected from the game because they became zombie lunch.

Expansions Galore

Just like movie franchises, the sign of a popular game is often the number expansions it has.  Zombies is no exception and with 15 editions there is a lot to choose from.  If you want to recreate Dawn of The Dead, then there's Zombies!!! 3 - Mall Walkers.  If you want to explore the sewers then you need  Zombies!!! 6 - Six feet under.  If clowns are your thing then Zombies!!! 7 has you covered.

The Board Game Geek community has also created several house rule expansions to add flavour,  My own particular favourite is the addition of weapon cards which greatly enhance the game with ranged attacks.

Give it a go, you won't be dissapointed... you'll be dead!!! 

Miniature Milestone - Over 100 Reaper Bones Painted

 A long overdue post to mark the milestone of passing 100 painted Reaper Bones miniatures.

100 Reaper Bones Miniatures Painted

Bones Progress

Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 109

Related Posts

• Reaper Bones #1: The Marathon Begins - Where I paint a dozen Giant Rats.
• Reaper Bones #2: Kobolds, Are They Dogs or Dragons? - Where I paint a dozen kobolds.
• Reaper Bones #3: A Carcase of Skeletons - Where I paint a half dozen skeletons.
• Reaper Bones #4: A Shuffle of Zombies - Where I paint five zombies.
• Reaper Bones #5: Introducing Shaina Coppervein, Dwarven Orc Hunter - First PC mini.
• Reaper Bones #6: Mimic, Treasure Chest and How I re-base my Bones - Where I paint furniture.
• Reaper Bones #7: Fire Elemental Meets Novelty Lamp - Where I hack a mini with LEDs.
• Reaper Bones #8: Flaming Sphere LED Tealight Hack - Another mini LED lighting project.
• Reaper Bones #9: Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard - Another PC mini.
• Reaper Bones #10: Horace "Action" Jackson - A Baddass disco dancing Motherfucker.
• Reaper Bones #11: Pirate Captain Thorin Stoneheart - A Swashbuckling Philanthropist.
• Reaper Bones #12: Monstrous Menagerie - Clay Golem, Eye Beast, Griffon, Owlbear, Marsh Troll.
• Reaper Bones #13: Giants - Male Storm Giant and Female Cloud Giant.
• Reaper Bones #14: More Monsters! -Ape-X, Female Demon, Two Golems, Oxidation Beast.
• Reaper Bones #15 - The Road Warrior - Mad Max - 50 bones painted at last.
• Reaper Bones #16 - A Patrol of Orcs - 5 orcs out hunting your party.
• Reaper Bones #17- Personalities - Player Characters, NPCs or a villain or two.
• Reaper Bones #18 - Furniture
• Reaper Bones #19 - Townsfolk - 4 resident NPCs
• Reaper Bones #20 - Devil Women - A couple of Hellborn beauties.
• Reaper Bones #21 - Nova Corp & IMEF Soldiers - 15 Sci-Fi Badasses in heavy armour
• Reaper Bones #22 - A Flurry of Familiars - 11 teeny tiny magical friends
• Reaper Bones #23 - Vermin - Beetles, Scorpions and Spiders
• Reaper Bones #24 - Kyra, Iconic Cleric - An Arabian Holy Woman 
• Reaper Bones #25 - Ghostly Summons - aka A Watery mistake
  

The Vast of Night - A Spooky Tale in 50s America

With a dearth of hollywood movies being made in 2020 thanks to COVID-19, the discerning sci-fi fan has had to look high and low on the streaming services to satisfy their need for entertainment.

One such lockdown sleeper I discovered was The Vast of Night (2019) available to rent on Amazon. 

 

Everett and Fay listen to the mysterious story of former soldier Bill

Through the premise of a "Twilight Zone" style television the viewer is transported to the rural New Mexico town of Cayuga in the late 1950s.  Using fly-on-the wall cinematography we follow our protagonists Everet Sloan (Jake Horowitz), a local radio DJ, and high schoolgirl Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) as they move around town trying to piece together the story of mysterious and spooky goings on.

The Midnight Hour DJ style of this tale reminds me very much of the excellent animation The Kirlian Frequencies (2017) and of course the classic Kolchak: The Nightstalker (1972)

Much of the detail of the story is delivered through intense monologue where your attention hangs on every word and sound.  The acting is top notch from the entire cast and you are immediately engaged with their story.  Pacing is excellent with just enough "action" to give you that sense of urgency and panic that there is genuine fear going through their minds.

All in all a fantastic little low budget movie with a well handled finale which some Hollywood directors could learn from. 

Vintage Vampire - Citadel C18 Night Horrors

I've had this mini hiding in an old tin in shame for years. 

Citadel C18 Night Horrors Vampire

The original paintjob was a horrible early experiment using artists inks.  I had given him a wash of blue ink over a white primer basecoat.  He was more Blue Man Group than Bela Lugosi and so it was time this scary dude got a spooky repaint.

Buy it on eBay

The repaint was an experiment in glazing over a zenithal highlight with a single colour.  In my case this was Vallejo Game Colour Dark Green and I reinforced the highlights by mixing in some Vallejo Game Colour Dead White.  I picked out his eyes in Vallejo Game Air Scarlett Red and stuck a pin in him, he's done.

Like all of my recently painted minis this one got a protective coat of Windsor & Newton Matte Varnish from the airbrush thinned down with Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver.

The C18 Night Horrors range is a particularly interesting series of minis and no doubt was designed to accompany the Gothic Horror Floorplans and GW licensed edition of Call of Cthulhu which were released about the same time. 

They were excellent value as you got 5 "classic horror" minis in a blister pack for only £2.50 which if GW used the Bank of Englands inflation calculator would be under £10 in today's money.  Well I guess it's true what they say...

"There are only two certainties in life.  Death and Games Workshop price gouging!!"

Amoebaman - A Plantman PC idea for your RPGs

I came up with a silly idea and had to post it otherwise I would forget I'd had it.  Clearly too much cheese was consumed that day.

Ameoeboids

These complex vegetable organisms are humanoid in shape and come in a variety of heights and classes.  they have all the same stats as humans.  Their one distinguishing feature is that they reproduce asexually.

Yes every time they level up they immediately split into two distinct life forms with the same stats, skills and memories.

Go forth my Son (or daughter)

Of course whilst it sounds like a fun idea, it presents a problem for the party if they keep on their new recruit.  If this lappens every level by 4th level (assuming that they all survive) their will be 8 versions of it and the party will keep growing exponentially.  The player will have to decide which to put to the sword and which of his children to cast out into the cold unforgiving wilderness.  Tough love indeed.

In hindsight perhaps to prevent this getting out of hand reproduction should be capped at twice per lifetime.

Not at all Thought Through

I cannot be held responsible for my creation if you should choose to use it in your game.  It could be an interesting Invasion of the Body Snatchers style plot hook though if you use it as a benevolent monster NPC type which can also assume the visage of an unwilling party member.

DC came up with the Amoeba Man idea first - dangitt!

Jessie's Prints: Episode 3 - Prismatic Walls, Hellraiser Jewellery Box

This week, I are mostly been printing... 

Prismatic Walls - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4292839

I'm really pleased how these came out and I covered the design and painting processes in earlier posts.  Thanks once again to RedBeardBoss without whose video I would never have have started this project.





Hellraiser Lament Configuration Jewellery Box - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1277931

Another prop print which has been on the bucket list for since forever.  Of course once you've printed the classic Lament Configuration you have all the other configurations thanks to the sterling work of designer Crashjensen although, I think his soul will have paid a heavy price to have this much knowledge.

NSFW Movie Double Bubble - Cobra The Space Pirate and Cockneys vs Zombies

The classic 80s adult themed anime Space Adventure Cobra gets a live action movie directed by Alexander Aja (Piranha, The Hills Have Eyes).  Scheduled for 2013 there are no details other than this sweet poster.  I could be mistaken, but is that David Wenham (300, Van Helsing, Lord of The Rings, Australia)  posing as Cobra, I do hope so, cos he's a great character actor.

Thanks to the Troll Lord Stephen Chenault, for finding the trailer for Cockneys vs Zombies which if you haven't seen it is here.



Michelle Ryan (Eastenders) leads an unlikely ensemble cast including Alan Ford (aka Bricktop), Honor Blackman (aka Pussy Galore) and Richard Briers (aka Tom Goode) in a tale of Eastend bankrobbers going toe-to-stump with the walking dead.  Looks like a riot.

I'm no Eastender but isn't cockney rhyming slang for zombies, Stale Bread ... Walking Dead?

Beast of the Week: Hydrothermal Worm

Nature proves yet again that it can evolve animals which would fit quite nicely into any RPG scenario.  Meet... 

The Hydro Thermal Worm

This photo was taken by Philippe Crassous at FEI (makers of Electron Scanning Microscopes).

I think that this is a suitable image for my 100th post

TV Shows that didn't get an RPG Tie-in: Ultraviolet

Cast: from L to R:

Idris Elba - "Vaughan Rice" a soldier
Jack Davenport - Det. Sgt. Mike Colefield
Susannah Harker - Dr. Angela March
Philip Quast - Father Pearse J. Harman

I was left considering a comment from Emmett on Reality Refracted's Running a Cop Game - Part 1 and was reminded of the excellent Channel 4 six part drama "Ultraviolet" which was aired in 1998 (gosh is it that long ago!!)

The show featured a cop "Mike" (played by Jack Davenport) whose partner gets turned into a vampire and disappears.  Mike tries to find out what's happened to him and discovers that he's been turned into a vampire and then because he's poking about, gets recruited by a clandestine government organisation responsible for dealing with the emerging vampire menace.  Throughout the series they never said the vampire word instead they refer to them as Code 5's (Roman numeral V, gettit?)

It was a superb show which dealt with vampires in an intelligent and thoroughly "modern" way, had the production values of shows like "Spooks" and top quality acting from some of the UK's finest.  The material was so well put together I thought at the time it would make an excellent RPG.  I'm not aware of any published RPG tie-in or as a sourcebook for CoC or other modern Horror RPG (Blogosphere: show me I'm wrong).  Rather than me do an episode guide, here's the obligatory link to IMDB

My favourite episode was entitled "Terra Incognita" which features a man suffering from sickle cell anemia being flown to the UK from Brazil.  Accompanying the man on the flight are several coffin shaped military style flight cases with time locks set to open after sundown...

Kolchak: The Night Stalker - Bargain Alert!!

Just bagged myself a bargain in the shape of the boxed set of the TV Show Kolchak: The Night Stalker for only £8!! in my local Fopp in Earlham Street, London (directly opposite Orcs Nest)

For those who don't know the TV Show, Darren McGavin plays Carl Kolchak an investigative journalist who follows the strange and mysterious cases that the police either have bungled or can't solve.  It was made in the seventies and has been acknowledged by Chris Carter as a major influence in the X-Files, (McGavin was also cast in two episodes of the show and featured in Carter's other project Millenium).

In my opinion it's de rigeur viewing for anyone thinking of running a modern horror game such as Cthulhu Now, Delta Green, Consipiracy X or Dark Conspiracy.

I remember watching it in my teens when it was re-run on BBC2 and I loved it from the get-go, so I can't wait to see if it's lost any of it's charm in the last 20 years.  Stay tuned for episode reviews...