Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

In a daze

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Miniatures.

Some bad news about Dazed Miniatures – the range is being withdrawn from sale. The silver lining is a 30% off sale to clear the remaining stock.

All that the story on the RLBPS web site says is:

Dazed Miniatures was a partnership and it has been been ended by one partner (the Sculpter) withdrawing the licence to produce any of the figures we made. RLBPS still owns the molds but can not run them.

I wonder what it is with Richard Deasey’s lines? He sculpted the second half of the the HLBS prehistoric line and then took it away to found DZ Miniatures, which vanished soon afterwards. The mammals, but not the dinosaurs, reappearing years later from Strategem/Trent Miniatures whose own tribulations made getting hold of them sometimes frustrating (but they are currently available via North Star). And now this. Is there any chance that some of the best prehistoric miniatures will be available from a stable supplier (one with a working e-commerce facility would be really nice)?

In the mean time I need to work out how much I splurge on miniature mammoths, etc., taking Christmas, moving house and exchange rates into consideration. Couldn’t be a worse time for a closing down sale.

Big Game Hunt

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Games, Miniatures.

Wargames Foundry Terror Bird

I’ve been updating my Dinosaurs in Miniature pages. The main differences have been the addition of the MegaMiniatures megafauna that I posted about previously, the continuing expansion of the Dazed Miniatures range and some new miniatures from Wargames Foundry, including the Terror Bird shown here.

BTW, Foundry have a 20% off sale until the 10th November 2009. So now’s a very good time to pick up these new goodies.

At SELWG last month I picked up a “new” Smilodon from the “old” DZ range sold by Trent Miniatures. It’s in a walking pose rather than the leaping pose that’s been available for a while. This range is now available over the web from North Star though this additional Smilodon isn’t listed.

There have also been a few additions to the 10mm DinoMight range form Magister Militum.

MY Miniatures ice age range seems to have melted away from the web with the close of Geocities. Does anyone know if they have a new web site elsewhere?

And finally, the Tusk rules are available as PDF via Wessex Games/Wargame Vault. You can still buy the paper version from Irregular but the new version has full colour photos throughout.

I am currently growing a moustache as all big game hunters should.

Tags:

SELWG 09

Posted on in Games, Miniatures.

Today was the SELWG show, back for the first time since 2006. So once again I had a nice stroll up the hill and then a few hours shopping and gawping at the games.

The renovated Crystal Palace Sports Centre meant that there was considerably more room for the Bring and Buy sale and for the first time ever I actually found something I wanted to buy. The B&B wasn’t helped by people standing in front of it chatting to their mates who were serving. Come on guys, I know that shows are a chance to catch up with old friends but not whilst they’re trying to run the most chaotic and crowded part of the whole show.

But the highlight was a buying these chaps and if you don’t get why they’re so exciting to me, take a look at the original paint scheme, and if that still means nothing to you then I can only say that this was a nostalgic trip back to my childhood.

Tags: ,

Mega Miniatures Megafauna

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Miniatures.

Chalicotherium from Mega MiniaturesMega Miniatures have enhanced their extensive range of animal miniatures with some prehistoric mammals – a Doedicurus, a Diprotodon and best of all a Chalicotherium.

I’ve been fascinated by Chalicotheres ever since I saw them on Walking with Beasts but up to now the only miniature representation has been the 1/72 scale David Krentz version, which whilst a better sculpt is small and pricey. So big kudos to Mega for bringing one of my favourite animals to life.

Tags: ,

Pub Quiz Answers

Posted on in Games.

Answers for the 1997 pub quiz I posted last week. Read the rest of this very true thing…

Tags: ,

What makes a good pub quiz question?

Posted on in Games.

From tha questions in the old quiz I posted the other day, many are straightforward and a few are devious, I’m afraid that some are a little obscure or badly worded. But some I’m quite proud of, and these tend to have something in common.

Which 1985 film was directed by Steven Spielberg and featured Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey?

Easy for anyone with IMDB or Wikipedia access. But when I set this question it was aimed at undergraduates, most of whom would have been about ten when the film came out. It had been shown on telly (I remembering watching it) but all the same it wasn’t likely to spring to mind for most of the participants.

Who were the last nation to win football’s world cup in their own country?

Remember that this quiz is from 1997 so France were still a year away from winning. I’m sure lots of people would get this straight away as there’s a fair overlap between pub quizzers and football stat geeks. But for the rest of you, how many tournaments would you go back through before jumping to the ‘obvious’ wrong answer of England?

These questions are on topics – film, football – that people lots of people are interested in. They’re not even about obscure niches within those topics – Steve Spielberg and the World Cup can’t be called niche. But they are on the edge of, or just outside of, most people’s “comfort zone”. And that’s what I think makes a good pub quiz question.

Tags:

Quiz like it’s 1997

Posted on in Books, Films, Games, Music, My Life, Science, Sport, The World, TV.

So I found this file, last modified 10 June 1997, on a set of back ups and it’s a pub quiz that I ran in Balliol bar. In fact considering the date I suspect that this is the night that Lettice first clapped eyes on me and thought “nice guy, shame about the jumper”.

People on Facebook and Twitter said that they wanted to see the quiz, so here goes.

Read the rest of this very true thing…

Tags: , , , ,

Sauropod Stack

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Memes, Miniatures, Work.

Hey kids, the latest craze is to stack your (toy) animals. Well it keeps us off the streets…

Tags:

2008 Books

Posted on in Books, Doctor Who, My Life, RPGs.

Well, here’s what I’ve been reading this year. I said there was a lot of graphic novels.

Over on the LiveJournal version of this blog you can fill in a poll to show which of these you’ve read as well (not necessarily in 2008). I understand that you can use OpenID to log into LJ rather than creating an account there but I’ve never tested it myself.

Non-Fiction

  • A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich
  • Counterknowledge by Damian Thompson
  • Dry Store Room No. 1 by Richard Fortey
  • JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
  • jQuery in Action by Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz
  • Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean by John Julius Norwich
  • Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography by Adam Ant
  • The Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey
  • The Economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank
  • The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Fiction

  • A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss
  • Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell
  • Flashman’s Lady by George MacDonald Fraser
  • Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
  • Making Money by Terry Pratchett
  • Matter by Iain M. Banks
  • Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell
  • The Coffee Trader by David Liss
  • The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

Graphic Novels

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate
  • Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman
  • From Hell by Alan Moore
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore
  • John Constantine Hellblazer: Bloodlines by Garth Ennis
  • John Constantine Hellblazer: Family Man by Jamie Delano
  • John Constantine Hellblazer: Fear Machine by Jamie Delano
  • John Constantine Hellblazer: Joyride by Andy Diggle
  • John Constantine Hellblazer: The Laughing Magician by Andy Diggle
  • Lucifer: Inferno by Mike Carey
  • Lucifer: Mansions of the Silence by M Carey
  • Planet Hulk Omnibus by Greg Pak
  • World War Hulk by Greg Pak
  • Serenity: Better Days by Joss Whedon
  • Ultimate X-Men :Ultimate Collection Book 2 by Mark Millar

Doctor Who

  • Ahistory by Lance Parkin
  • About Time 6 by Tat Wood
  • Doctor Who: Bullet Time by David A. McIntee
  • Doctor Who: Business Unusual by Gary Russell
  • Doctor Who: Companion Piece by Mike Tucker
  • Doctor Who: Emotional Chemistry by Justin Richards
  • Doctor Who: Endgame by Terrance Dicks
  • Doctor Who: Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris
  • Doctor Who: Grave Matter by Justin Richards
  • Doctor Who: Halflife by Mark Michalowski
  • Doctor Who: Sometime Never… by Simon A. Forward
  • Doctor Who: The World Shapers by Grant Morrison
  • Faction Paradox: This Town Will Never Let Us Go by Lawrence Miles

Odds and Ends

  • Star Wars: Dark Empire II by Tom Veitch
  • Star Wars: Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore
  • Star Wars: Dark Tide 1 – Onslaught by Michael A. Stackpole
  • Star Wars: Dark Tide 2 – Ruin by Michael A. Stackpole
  • A Magical Society: Ecology & Culture
Tags: ,

New prehistoric goodness

Posted on in Dinosaurs, Miniatures.

Starting in 15mm, Splintered Light Miniatures have a range of animals including terror birds, wolves, boars, komodo dragons and others. Oh, and Giant Weasels.

Gary Hunt Miniatures Feathered RaptorIn 28mm, the beastie featured here is one of two packs available from Gary Hunt Miniatures in New Zealand (but priced in US Dollars). Very drool worthy.

Moving onto cavemen. No web site yet for Forge of Ice, but see TMP for details of their Primitive Tents.

And finally, if dino fans put their money where their mouth is then Wargames Fcatory may create some plastic figures for us, on the suggestions list so far are Tyrannosaurus Rex and Small Carnivorous Dinosaurs. I think I may do a little research and suggest a small herbivores pack to give those meat eaters something to chase other than foolhardy time travellers.