Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

The oldest Tyrannosauroid is in the news and it’s an odd one – feathered and crested and only 3m long.

Meanwhile a thread on TMP has led to QRF posting photos of some of their 15mm Try-to-survive-asaurus dinos and mammal like reptiles and Stormwalker (another Steve) showing us great work with the QRF Coelophysis and HLBS Co Compsagnathus.

What other prehistorics are available in 15mm? Irregular have some cavemen at least (what else comes in the 15mm Tusk scenario packs?) and some of the old Ral Partha figs seem closer to 15mm than anything else. Any others?


As tagged by Littlebun here are ten things that make me happy.

  1. Lettice
  2. Being right about stuff
  3. Wales winning the Six Nations
  4. Learning new stuff
  5. Miniatures, especially dinosaurs and spaceships
  6. The Dalek Song
  7. Cats
  8. Drinking beer and talking rubbish with my friends
  9. Good books
  10. The sort of television that makes me jump and down with joy because it’s so funny and exciting and clever – for example Doctor Who, Firefly, Farscape

New stuff from Dragonblood Miniatures. Very, very nice. I hope this (and the mount from their earlier Hunter sculpt) do become available au naturel.

Old stuff from Archive Miniatures available until the end of the month from Discount Hobby.

TMP has set up a discussion board for Prehistoric gaming. One interesting titbit I picked up there is that the rights to DZ Miniatures mammals have been acquired by Stratagem who are/will be making them in resin. Which would be great if Stratagem weren’t one of the most disorganised and uncommunicative outfits around.

Did anyone else see the recent BBC programmes on dinosaurs? The Truth About Kill Dinosaurs from last month was so-so. I have serious doubts about the validity of some of their “scientific” tests. The materials used to create the artificial dinosaurs looked like they had very different properties to actual bone and muscle. The second programme was more interesting as it covered Velociraptors and Ankylosaurs rather than the tired out T. Rex vs Triceratops duel of the first programme. Much more entertaining was the very silly T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood show on Wednesday.


The ever excellent Back of Beyond Times has a gallery of very nicely painted dinosaur miniatures. They’re all from the 1/35 Tamiya Mesozoic Creatures set (unless the T-Rex and Oviraptor are the Copplestone Casting clones, but I don’t think so).

We got a very nice daylight bulb lamp plus magnifier thingy as a wedding present. I must find the time and space to do some painting. Time and space. Sigh.

And even if I did my efforts wouldn’t be as nice as these. Double sigh.


Reaper Minis have released a pic of some Dennis Mize sculpted Raptors.

Reaper raptor greens

Quick update on some previously mentioned dino-mini-goodness items:

Jeff Valent Studios have a cool pic of a painted version of their T-Rex.

Dragonblood Miniatures now have The Hunter on pre-sale. (I’m hoping the promised riderless version materialises.)


From TMP news item, there’s a great new dino miniature coming from Dragonblood Miniatures. According to comments from the manufacturer, a version without the rider is planned.


“We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.”
“No.”
“Explain yourself.”
“I said no.”
“What is the meaning of this negative?”
“It means no.”
“But she will be destroyed.”
“No. Cause this is what I’m gonna do. I’m going to rescue her. I’m going to
save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I’m going to
save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I’m going to wipe every
stinking Dalek out of the sky.”
“But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan.”
“Yeah, and doesn’t that scare you to death? Rose?”
“Yes, Doctor?”
“I’m coming to get you.”

Bad Wolf wan’t bad at all. Three months ago, did you think the phrase “they’ve killed Billy Piper” could ever be a bad thing? (And a nice Absolom Daak homage in there as well.)

First twenty minutes: 7/10, Middle twenty minutes: 8/10, Last five minutes: 11/10

Overall: 9/10

Next week looks like every fanboy’s wet dream. I’m looking at my miniatures shelves and thinking “I need more Daleks”. BTD must be laughing.

Shaggy Dog Stories

Now the mysterious voice at the end of the trailer, who or what is it? The theories are coming thick and fast:

  1. Davros – the obvious choice. He was creating Daleks from humans back in Revelation of the Daleks (which presumably is the fate of the gameshow losers), an act which made him an enemy of the racial purity fanatic main Dalek force.
  2. The Emperor Dalek – the voice is very much like that from Evil of the Daleks, but does it make sense to bring back a villain that appeared in one, deleted, 1960s story (and once as a disguise of Davros in the 1980s)?
  3. The Dalek from Dalek – The phrase “they survived through me” is very similar to a line from that episode and this Dalek, already contaminated with Rose’s DNA would have less problem in using humans to create a new Dalek army. Oh dear, that would really destroy the ending and impact of that story.
  4. Adam – he has 20,000 years of knowledge in his head (or does he, if he does then why would he need that answering phone message?), he’s seen a Dalek, he has a grudge against the Doctor. Stupid idea.
  5. The Master – not likely.

And to add to the fun these choices can be mixed and matched (Adam is Davros; Davros is the Emperor Dalek (again); The last Dalek is the new Emperor Dalek). A whole week of wild speculation :-).


Went to Salute today. Very knackered. Spent … a lot. Full report tomorrow.


The John Winter sculpts from Iron Wind Metals that I mentioned a while back have been released. It looks like the Mini-Rex is smaller than I imagined. Smaller even than a Nanotyrannus. Might work well in 15mm or 10mm.

Potentially useful for La Brea type dioramas are the Bubbling Ooze.