85. OG Reaper Bones

I finally got around to painting some of the first generation of Reaper Bones, from their original Kickstarter waaaay back in 2012 (delivered in 2014).  And there's still more to go, but I don't know if I'll be doing those, as they aren't my favorites.  I've done most of the monsters I want, and this time I decided to finish up some heroes.

I have been painting in assembly-line-style for a while now, especially with the monsters and how they're essentially all the same.  It really speeds up the process.  Previously, I've lined up 6 to 8.  This time I put 12 on the table, except I eventually took one away, so 11.  It took me 16.5 hours overall to paint them, not including their bases.  That's 1.5 hours per each!  That's crazy fast for me, who, in the distant past used to take 8 hours for one figure!

Truthfully, they're not the best paint jobs.  There are a couple of things I missed in the touch-up time, but since they're only Bones to begin with, they're really not all that great of miniatures.  I mean, they're nice; they won't break if you drop them; and they have some detail, but they're nothing better than something you'd give to a beginner painter so they can mess it up and not feel bad about it.

Anyway, here are the pictures.  Click on them to enlarge them.

Left to Right:  Deladrin (Female Assassin), Sarah (the Seeress), Eando Kline, Darkrasp (Evil Priest), Anirion (Wood Elf Wizard), Aaron the Conjuror.

Left to Right:  Trista (the White Wolf), Alain, Almaran the Gold (Paladin), Erick (Paladin Initiate), Holy Vindicator.

Look for them soon, in a new battle report.

Thanks for looking.

81. Yee-haw! a little bit....

I'm not dead but I admit I haven't been painting as often as I'd like.  Here's what I've finished recently.

Back in 2014 I backed a Kickstarter for Blackwater Gulch Rebels and Reinforcements, by GameSalute (who later turned into Gangfight Games) simply for the miniatures.  I backed at the level of selecting only the miniatures I wanted.  I thought they were cool and interesting enough to warrant it.  They were delivered, I think, on time.  I've never used the rules (which I think are/were free somewhere) as I have a ton of rules already, plus I just didn't care.  (I *did* back their newer Kickstarter for their newer updated rules, supposedly universal and generic, because I was feeling generous.  It is currently over a year late.  It will, I still believe, deliver.)

The miniatures were interesting in that they are of the "not-" variety.  As in, this is not a miniature of Clint Eastwood, ie, a not-Eastwood.  Etc, etc, etc.  They were varied enough and well-sculpted enough for me to get.  The others were generically-Western enough to be used as regular Cowboys if I ever wanted to.

Anyway, I got tired of painting whatever it was I was painting before and wanted to paint something different.  Therefore I give you 4 of the 5 gangs I got from the Kickstarter.  These are metal, with separate plastic bases.  Also, you know what to do:  click on the pictures to embiggen them.

On the Kickstarter, these are The Widowmakers.  First I present Lily, Oleander, Buttercup, Wisteria and Nightshade.  Yeah, those names....  Anyway, what would the Old West be without murderous, tightly-clothed-in-revealing-clothing women?  More historically accurate, for one thing, but we're not going that way today.

These aren't bad, per se, but they lack spark to me.  The body positioning is a bit odd in places, and the casting is mangled in some of the detail.

They came with cards for the game, but since I've never read the rules I have no idea what it all means.  WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!!??  Sorry....

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Next we have Wilde's Rangers:  Corporal Thompson, Private Ambler, Private Connors, Private Watson and Sergeant Wilde.  I have no clue if those names are supposed to mean something so I ignored them.  I painted them as U.S. Cavalry circa 1880-1900ish plus a heaping helping of my own imagination.  They aren't meant to be historically accurate so I didn't make them historically accurate.

These are decent castings with not too many mangled areas.  They painted up well, although the poses still irk me.  The guy with the knife:  who stands like that?

This gang also came with a gatling gun but I didn't feel like painting it yet.

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Moving on, we have Mickey Finn, John Blackwood, Marshall Callum Stewart, Father Allen Schneidewent and The Norwegian.  These are supposed to represent, I guess, a more generic Western gang, because what Old West gang wouldn't have a Christian pastor toting a gun in it?  It turns out that Father Al and the Marshall were "sponsored" by people actually named Callum Stewart and Allen Schneidewent.  My condolences.

I attempted to give this gang a more unified look by painting them a common color.  I didn't do this with the Cavalry for obvious reasons, and I couldn't really see a way to do so with the ladies.  Again, the poses bother me.  The guy with the cards:  really?

This group was unusual in that 3 cards were actual photographs of models rather than concept art.  I don't know why.  Most of these were not in a gang, but were solos.

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Now we finally come to the real "not-" figures.  I grouped all of these together only because where else would they go?  Most of these were originally unlocked as "bonus figures" and so didn't go with any particular gang.  This group, and the 5th group (which I have not painted yet) are the primary reason I backed the Kickstarter (although the other figures are certainly useful).  From left to right, we have Clinton Wales, Doctor Kilmer, Kurt Wyatt, Rooster Morrison, Doc Lloyd and Nevada Dave.  I can't impress upon you how much I really dislike those names.  There is no consistency at all.  Some mangle the actor's first name, some the actor's last name, and / or the film character's first / last name.  Rooster Morrison?  I get the Rooster Cogburn reference, but Morrison has nothing to do with John Wayne.  Did they think this was some other actor?  And Nevada Dave?  With Indiana Jones, Jones was his last name.  Arrgh.

I gave them a somewhat similar color scheme when I could, but mostly I went with a more film-accurate rendition.  Although the not-Indiana Jones looks like it was sculpted by someone completely different than the others.  It's actually quite horrible.  It's practically a different scale.

So yeah, those names....

I'm a bit burned out on Western figures now, especially these.  They really aren't that great and I painted them to a level I felt fit their quality.  It was a bit more slap-dash than I usually do.  If I ever get around to the 5th group I'll be sure to link it to here.  Oh by the way, the 5th group is not-Firefly.  They're called the Tranquility Crew.

It only took me six years to paint these, maybe I'll get to the 5th group before the end of the decade.

Thanks for reading!

72. Piles of Bones

Yes, I participated in the Reaper Miniature Bones Kickstarter last year (and for that matter, I backed the Bones 2 Kickstarter too; hey, I'm sick, I need help). Overall I'm happy with the Bones figures, mixed with a tiny bit of disappointment.

The Bones plastic is better suited to large figures, yet most of the basic figures (in the Kickstarter) are human sized.  They have decent detail on the human-sized figures, but metal is still better.

I totally understand that this is a great way for Reaper to get new blood into the hobby.  Relatively speaking, it's a very inexpensive way to provide miniatures to new painters.  (The Kickstarter was a super-duper inexpensive way to get a lot of figures; that's partly why I backed it.)  I've seen many postings on forums (fora?) from newby painters, all excited and a-quiver over painting their first miniatures.  This is a Good Thing.

The Bones figures, however, IN MY OPINION, do not merit my spending the usual way-too-much time per figure that I usually do on them.

One last thing I am not happy about is the fact that they are not prime-able. Supposedly they are not meant to be primed, and in point of fact this works fine if that's how you paint anyhow:  straight unwatered-down paint on the Bones.  But that's not how I paint; that's never how anyone has ever painted in the whole history of acrylics ever.  I've been painting miniatures since 1988, and I've always always always diluted the paint with water.  It's how I was taught.  It's how the professionals did it; it's how they still do it.  I don't know how to paint without diluting the paint.  I don't know why you'd want to paint without diluting the paint first.  But if you water the paint down, it won't stick to the Bones.  And if you spray prime it (again, as I've done since 1988 on every figure I've ever owned) it becomes tacky.

The only thing I was able to figure out to do was to use Reaper Brush-on Primer first.  This allows me to use my tried-and-true technique of thinning my paint, but it DOUBLES the amount of time needed to work on a figure.

Accordingly I decided to paint them as quickly and simply as possible, while still aspiring to a high enough standard that I won't hate the end result. Here, then, are those results of the first two batches of Bones that I have painted.

I went with the more useful (to me) generic dungeon monsters first, as well as those that required the least amount of detail work.

If you click on the pictures, they will expand to fill your screen with  gloriously-mundanely-painted Bones.

First up is my personal favorite, the Owlbear.  I love this sculpt, and I tried to get the eyes to match the crazed feel of the pose.  The Monster Manual describes the Owlbear as having "bestial madness in its red-rimmed eyes," so, yes, there is a bit of red there too.  I did want his eyes to stand out though, so went with the yellow.

Next up, a majestic Griffin.  One thing I did to speed up the mass-batch painting was to use the same colors over and over again on all the figures.  I don't really expect most of them to turn up at the same time in a game, so having similar colors won't really be too noticeable.

An "Eyebeast" (aka Beholder) on the left, and the Owlbear again.  I'm not sure why I didn't get a solo picture of the Beholder.  These are excellent examples of where Bones shines:  larger critters with normal details.

Moving on to the smaller beasts, here we have (L to R):  a Rust Monster (Reaper calls it an "Oxidation Beast"), a Bat Swarm over a tombstone, a Hell Hound, and a Mimic (again, Reaper calls it a "Mocking Beast").  The only information I could find about the Hell Hound in the Monster Manual said it had glowing red eyes and a soot black mouth.

Vermin!  (L to R, back to front):  Dust Scorpions, Spiders, Scarab Beetle Swarms, Fire Beetles, a Rat Swarm (yes, it came with two but I somehow missed the 2nd when digging them out of the box), and Spider Swarms.

Rats!  Extra large (and "dire" to judge by their eyes).

Skeletons.  If I ever become an Undead abomination, I hope I'm a skeleton archer:  that way the bowstring won't hurt my arm when I shoot!  I didn't take time to straighten (or otherwise adjust) the bows.  It's Bones.  It is what it is.

Some dressing for your naked dungeon:  two Candelabra, a sacrificial Altar, a (healing?) fountain (aka the "Well of Chaos" per Reaper), and a tomb (currently empty, called "Vault and Lid").

This is a slightly closer view of the fountain and the inside of the tomb.  The water is glossy, although it's difficult to see here, and the rose in the coffin is part of the sculpt.

I forgot to mention that the dungeon-y floor and walls above are from the Legendary Realms Terrain Kickstarter I mentioned in my last post.

Following these, I tackled the "translucents."

Team Fire (L to R):  Medium Fire Elemental, Large Fire Elemental, a Burning Sphere Spell Effect, and a Wall of Fire.  I tried very hard to highlight the figures without obscuring the translucent quality of the plastic.  I like the concept of the translucents but the execution left me a little cold (kind of funny since these are fire and all).  I felt they needed something to help them out.  They were almost too translucent, so much so that you couldn't really see the figure!

Team Spook (L to R):  a Spirit, the Night Spectre, a Banshee (Labella DeMornay by name), a Grave Wraith, and the Ghostly Summons.  To darken the green I used some old GW Green Wash.

I don't have any better pictures of the translucents because they are very difficult to photograph!  Either the camera won't focus on them well, or you really just can't see them.  So you'll have to make do with these; sorry.

You may very well think you have seen these greens and reds somewhere else, and you'd be right!  Specifically, I very nearly copied and pasted my painting technique straight from the Reaper Miniatures forum, which you can see here.  Scroll down about halfway and you'll see what I mean.  I'm not afraid to admit when I steal someone else's good idea.

Also, as an FYI, nearly all of the paint I used for everything seen here was Apple Barrel or similar craft paint.  The quantities I needed were so large that I didn't want to "waste" my expensive Reaper paints that way.  Job's a good 'un!

A Reaper Bones skeleton battling the Large Fire Elemental, for scale comparison.  Really, though, who can hurt the other?

A final glamour shot.  Team Fire led by a very old Ral Partha wizard gives battle to an even older RAFM ghost-chick who is now leading Team Spook.

For what it's worth, the dungeon terrain seen in the Fire and Spook pictures is from the Dwarven Forge Kickstarter I backed.  I went for the unpainted tiles. What you see here are the results of my painting the tiles in a manner similar to what Stefano Pokorny from DF talks about in his instructional videos.  No, I did not buy Pokorny Paints or brushes.  No, I will not buy them.  No, I don't need such a goober making videos like that.  No, Stefano, you are not the first person to ever drybrush something.  Good grief....

Anyway, the painted portion is obvious, and the upper walls are the unpainted tiles just piled up to hide the rest of my table.  So you can see the difference pretty well, in case you're interested in buying some yourself.  I'll have a full blog post on the Dwarven Forge tiles once I finish painting them all, at some time in the future.

Thanks for looking, and happy Bones-painting to you too!

71. More Kickstarter Goodness

All at once in the last few weeks I've received a number of Kickstarters that I backed.  For the longest time, nothing; then several came within days of each other.

First, my Legendary Realms Terrain Mega-Dungeon.  I'll never be able to make my own from Hirst Arts molds, so I ponied up the money (big money too) for someone else to make it for me.  Pre-painted, made from resin.  The quality is about what you'd expect from a small company that got completely SLAMMED by orders from their Kickstarter, and hasn't truly done all that well in getting things out in a timely manner.  I count myself lucky to have received mine when I did.

Two big boxes, very heavy.

They were packed very carefully:  pieces inside other pieces.  There is no way I could ever replicate this for storage or similar.  I'm not sure how they figured it out.  Unfortunately, because painted side was touching painted sides, there was some rubbing during transport and some (not much but some) of the paint was removed from some of the pieces.  It's nothing I can't fix with a simple drybrush, though.  And to LRT's credit he offered to replace any pieces damaged or paint-damaged for free.  I did not take him up on his offer, although I was missing two hall pieces and have yet to see them.

Here's another view of the inside of the box.

Here you can see some of the detail of the castings, as well as the rubbing that occurred during shipping.  It's nothing a little black/grey drybrushing won't take care of.

Second, Gangfight Games expansion figures for their Western-themed game, Blackwater Gulch.  The Kickstarter was run by Game Salute.  I got in mainly for the non-Firefly figures, plus the overall number of figures for the price was decent in my opinion, and they are all metal figs so that's a plus to me.  And while they're Western-themed, they are generic enough to use for nearly any system outside of pure D&D fantasy:  pulps, post-apocalyptic, even some moderns.

The box.  Why do I take pictures like this?  I'm not really sure....

What it looked like upon opening.

Left to Right:  The Widowmakers, the single figs and dice, the Tranquility Crew, and Wilde's Rangers (and their Gatling Gun).

Third, I backed the Dwarven Forge dungeon terrain Kickstarter (and this was well after I had already backed the Legendary Realms one, too, but at the time it was starting to look like I might not ever receive the LRT dungeon).  My hope was that the pieces would match up and I could effectively (almost) double my dungeon size in one go, but it was not to be.  It's not that they don't totally match up, it's more like they almost match up and how close do you want it before it starts to look bad on the table?

The box.  Yep, there it is.

The contents upon opening.  Four boxes, two of each are identical.  I got two sets, you see.

Individually wrapped pieces, that eventually looked like...

...this.

Oh, and I got a bag too.  You can just throw the tiles in there willy-nilly, because, since they're "plastic" they're practically indestructible.

I realize I don't have a picture of the Dwarven Forge tiles all set up.  I'll correct that soon.  But since I got the unpainted set, there's not much to see yet.  Just black-brown plastic.

Lastly, I expect to receive notice any day now that my OGRE Designer's Edition has shipped.  OGRE was the first Kickstarter that I ever backed, and I went a little overboard, plus it led me down this primrose path of other Kickstarters.  Seriously, my bank account hurts....

Funny thing is, I began writing this blog post almost two weeks ago and I have YET to receive shipping notice.  This is due to the very strange shipping methodology SJGames has adopted.  Somehow they thought that sending the geographically-farther sets out first would get the game to all backers at the same time.  Well, I live only a couple hundred miles from OGRE HQ and this guarantees I will be among the last to receive it, while backers much further away have already been playing games with their sets.  Bleah, I say.  And yes, I think it is a stupid methodology.

68. Bits and Bobs

Hello, again.  I won't bore you with my usual excuses of how Real Life (©®TM) has totally, completely and very effectively interfered with my gaming and painting life.  It's the same thing as ever:  summer is very busy where I work (and I am very grateful to be working), family events are fast and furiously close together, and there just aren't enough hours in the day.

So with the whining over, I'll move on, shall I?

I don't have much to report.  I've had some Reaper Miniature pirates on my painting table for far too long already that I have not yet finished, and 200+ new Reaper Bones Kickstarter miniatures waiting their turn, plus all the rest from my lead mountain.  They ain't a-gonna paint themselves, you know!

The Reaper pirates are the boxed set "Pirates of the Dragonspine Sea" (although my box is cardboard and not the plastic seen in the link, I've had it that long).  Something about them is both good and boring.  I can't seem to muster the painting courage to finish them off, and yet I really want to be done with them.  Ah well, pictures when I'm finished.

In addition to the Dragonspine Sea pirates I added Maria Roseblade from Reaper.  Her, I really like and want to paint well.  But I'm so tired of the rest of them I might end up simply finishing her without taking the proper time to do her justice (as well as I can).  She is a beautiful sculpt with a lot of fine detail ("fine" in both senses of the word).

* * * * *

I managed to play one game with my friend Tom.  We gamed the Battle of Rorke's Drift from the 1879 Zulu War.  This was a re-game of the same game we normally play when he comes into town to visit, using our hodge-podge rules mostly cobbled together from the generic rules that came with the miniatures when I bought them!  You may recall that I requested a referee's call on the outcome of our last game (here and here), where it was generally decided that the British had squeaked a win.

Well, in this case, we feel that the Zulu squeaked the win, as you can see in the picture below.

Rorke's Drift, a disaster for the British.

Generally speaking, the rules provide a pretty good but random game.  A few poor dice rolls on either side and you're playing catch-up!  Yet it's pretty well equally distributed in terms of randomness, so it all evens out in the wash.  It's fun for those once- or twice-a-year visits.

* * * * *

Here are some pics of my Reaper Kickstarter being opened and spread out on my table.  All the other kids out there have been posting when they received their Bones, so I thought I would too.  I actually went and got mine, living as I do roughly 30 miles from Reaper HQ.  I did have to wait on one extra I ordered, but everything else was ready (and it has since arrived:  the Clockwork Dragon).  I traded in my Sophie for a figure case, and then added three more.  The price was too good to pass up!

This is what my Kickstarter looked like when I got it home.

This is when I opened the box.  Yes, everything was bagged inside of bags.

Here are the bags as they came out of the box, plus some extras I bought for my son (rather, he bought, through me [...er, that is, I think he paid me for them]).

The bags were numbered 1 through 6.

This is what 200+ Bones look like when spread out on my table, in roughly the order they were shown on the Reaper Kickstarter webpage.  Yes, I am the kind of guy who checks every single one.  Hey, I'm sick, I need help.

These are the only two I found that differed at all from what was "advertised."  These two were originally sketches, and I don't really think the final miniature looks like the art; whereas with all of the other sketches they look almost exactly the same.  I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing it out.

This is a size-comparison shot.  On the left, a Bones.  On the right, a D&D pre-paint.

Overall, color me HAPPY with my Bones.

* * * * *

I've also been reading and LOVING learning about the new wave of Old School Renaissance gaming burgeoning on the internet regarding Original Dungeons & Dragons (Oe, 1e, Bx).  I would list all the websites I've visited over the last six months or so, but it's certainly in the double digits and would be incomplete; far too many to remember but I'll do my best with the best ones.

First, go here:  Solonexus.  This place is a solo-gamer's best friend.

That led me here:  a Mythic/Free Universal RPG write-up on rpg.net.  A lot of fun, and it began to open my eyes with what can be done PLAYING RPGs SOLO.  Did you get what I just said?  PLAYING RPGs SOLO.   What?  How?  Who?  Huh?   I had no idea.  I never, ever would have thought you could put the two together.

Now, I had seen Mythic used as an aid to solo-playing a Colonial wargame, and while I own the Game Master Emulator rules, I have to admit their application baffled me.

Eventually I ended up at Tabletop Diversions and his Ever-Expanding Dungeon.  This fellow is a true genius of solo-gaming; there's no two ways about it.  Go.  Read his epic fun.  I have been inspired.

During the course of all this searching and reading, I discovered that there are many, many new D&D re-writes (or "clones" in the vernacular) out there, and have been for several years.

I direct you here, the OSR Resource Center blog to start, as it's an excellent, well, resource.  Many of these OSR games are free, too, and can be found on RPGNOW.com (also known as DriveThruRPG.com, one and the same).  What's more, many of the Original D&D titles are available as PDFs on dndclassics.com (which itself is part of the afore-mentioned sites).

There are so many variations!  Just go to the OSR Resource Center and look at the Rules/Systems tab.  I ended up buying several different sets, just to support the companies, but all the same many of them are totally free with no guilt.  Did you know you can buy the "Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game" on Amazon for $4.62, printed with a color cover?  I mean, how can you beat that?  Granted, some of the other games are not that inexpensive (I'm looking at you, "Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG") but they are still worth a look.

There are interesting differences between them, which I might post if I ever have time.

It's been really fun.  The Internet has been a stand-in for me for actual play:  I substitute my own gaming for reading about everyone else's gaming.  Through the great blogs out there, I live vicariously!  Long live the Inter-web-tubes-net!

Thanks for reading!

62. Kickstarter Goodness

I've been sucked in to the Kickstarter mystique, in a big way, to the detriment of my bank account.

The first was the OGRE Kickstarter from Steve Jackson Games.  This made all the Internet news rounds, because of it's unexpectedly large amount.  We always told Evil Stevie we wanted him to re-do OGRE, and he never believed us....

I know there is a LOT of angst out there over how this game has been delayed (now into next year, which is months beyond the originally promised date), and the components being used ("cardboard and not plastic, hmmph!") but I was so excited about it I bought into the game to help get it made.  I am confident in it's eventual arrival and expected awesomeness.  I know SJGames is not going to abscond with my money.  SJG has been very good about keeping us informed of the delays and reasons why.

This was the first Kickstarter that I backed.  And here is the first thing from that Kickstarter that I've received.  In fact, it is the first thing of any of the Kickstarters that I've received:

An "I Made Steve Jackson Work on Car Wars" t-shirt, as part of a promise extracted during the OGRE Kickstarter that SJ will do a Car Wars Kickstarter next year.  Score!

As much as I love OGRE (and I do have many fond memories of that game) I love Car Wars even more.  Car Wars and AD&D 1st Edition made up the genesis of my gaming life.  However, apparently not everyone agrees, and Trolls lurk under many bridges.  After I made this innocuous remark on this topic on TMP, someone "stifled" me.  I don't know who, but I consider them a dick.  Really, you're going to stifle me for liking something you don't?

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So then I started looking around at other Kickstarters going on/starting soon.  I came across a space combat game originally called StarFire Command by Forgecraft Games.  It has since been renamed Quantum Expanse.  This was a much more reasonable buy-in amount for me.  The game was only slightly delayed beyond its originally promised date, but it is quite nice for an "independent studio" production.  What attracted me to it was some of the unique aspects of the rules, in particular the Factions and the stealth capability.  The game will be for sale on its own soon, so check it out.

I got a minimal amount of ships, just enough for a very small two player game (very small), but they are nice resin ships with not much flash.  My only dislike is that the ships are rather the same.  However, I think with good paint jobs they will be aesthetically pleasing.  And in "reality" they probably look a lot like what "real" spaceships would look like:  functional and utilitarian.  They are designed to be used with or without stands so they sit flat on the table (did not come with stands).  They are specifically designed to be used in conjunction with the rules, so it would be difficult to substitute other space combat games' ships in their places.  I am still waiting for some resin planetary scenery to arrive, and it should be here soon.

I have yet to play it, but I am well pleased so far.  The designer (Brad Stephens) has been very good about keeping the backers informed of his progress.

Here's what I got:

The contents of the box upon opening.

The ships, from largest to smallest.  One Stealth Counter (of a lot).  The d20 is there for scale.

The rulebook, a compact size full-color book.

The ship cards, detailing their abilities.

The Faction cards.  Each faction lends certain special abilities to its fleet.

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Next was a game called Goalsystem Delves:  Dungeon Skirmish Role-Play by Four Color Studios, makers of the fun and simple "Chaos in...." series of games (Chaos in Carpathia, Chaos in Chronos, Chaos in Cairo) as well as "Blasters & Bulkheads" and "SuperSystem."

This was an even easier buy-in for me, as I just wanted the physical hard-bound book + PDF.  The book just arrived the other day (only a very short delay from the originally promised date) and the author (Scott Pyle) has been very proactive in keeping the backers informed of his progress in getting the book ready.

Here it is:

The book, with its cool cinematic cover.

The inside front cover, with its cool retro artwork.

A sample page on the inside.  The size of the book is small, but the font is very readable.

The back inside-cover.

The book is available (or will be soon) for $39.99 on the Four Color Studios website.  Scott was going for an "old-school feel" and, having read the PDF prior to the hardback arriving, I have to say I think he's done a great job.  I am quite satisfied.

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And last on the backing list is the little itty bitty Kickstarter that just barely made it's money:  the Reaper Bones Kickstarter by Reaper Miniatures.  Yes, $3.4 million out of $30,000 goal.  It was a veritable Internet gamer feeding frenzy.  It coincided with GenCon, so there was enormous buzz going on about it all the time.  I personally got 4 other friends to back it too.

Alas, for this Kickstarter, I have nothing to show yet.  But I have full confidence in Reaper that they will deliver the goods (plus, if they don't, they only live about 30 minutes from my house, so I'll just go yell at them). 

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And now for on-going Kickstarters in which I'm involved (and you should be too!).

If you like Western miniatures, you should definitely check out the Blackwater Gulch:  Rebels & Reinforcements Kickstarter by Springboard...powered by Game Salute.  I'm a sucker for novelty, and Western figures really benefit from novelty, IMO.  Plus you can use many Western figures even in certain modern or Pulp era games.

The novelty here, for me, are the not-"Firefly" figures, as well as not- John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Indiana Jones, and Doc and McFly from "Back to the Future."

As of this writing, we're 5 days out and $421 shy of the "Tranquility" crew getting unlocked.  Come on, people, get me those figures!  We need a lot more of you if we're going to unlock Clint, Doc and McFly.  Help me feed my addiction!  You know you want them too!

These will be delivered, scheduled, in July 2013.

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Another I'm thinking about is the Zombie Plague Miniatures Kickstarter by Brian Roe of Rsquaredcomics.  This is a much less ambitious project:  just 4 "survivor" miniatures for a particular zombie board game.  They are nice, generic, everyday characterizations.  My only hesitation is it would be $30 for 4  28mm miniatures.  That's a bit steep for me.  Still thinking....

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There is also Indiegogo as an alternative to Kickstarter.  I don't spend as much time looking there, but recently there was the Frebooter's Fate Legends Miniatures Set by Werner Klocke.  I did not participate in it, but if anyone has the limited version of Calamitè Balfour they don't want, please get in contact with me.  She was the only sculpt that really caught my eye, and maybe we can make a deal.

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The thing I like most about Kickstarter is that I'm able to help "the little guy" gaming companies.  Most miniatures manufacturers are not Hasbro or Milton Bradley in terms of finances.  Even SJG and Reaper are small fish compared to "real" game companies.

So that's how I've been spending my time.  Happy Kickstarting!