Super Dungeon Explore Boxing

There are plenty of Super Dungeon Explore unboxing videos and reviews out there so I thought I'd just do a boxing post in which we all admire the box that SDE comes in. Sounds like fun right!

Here is the box in all of its glory. The first thing I noticed about the box was how big and heavy it is. Quite the impressive product based on girth alone. If you squint you can see a fully grown man standing to the side of the box, engulfed in its shadow as the sheer awesomeness of SDE overshadows him. I have to say the cardboard is a little thin, if you run you hand across the box you can feel the corrugation. But in the less than 24 hours that I've had it the box has held up admirably.

Like many boxes this one has 4 sides. Here are some pictures of those sides (with bonus uncropped knees if you're into that sort of thing).

The box also has a back which details the contents of the box and gives a description of the game. For those of you who like to read the last page of a book first you may be tempted to skip right to the back of the box, but don't let that distract you from savoring the box in its entirety.

A unique feature of this box is that it opens to reveal objects stored inside of it. Here we can see what awaits us when we fold up the lid of the box:

So there you have it, a complete box review of Super Dungeon Explore. What's that you say? You want me to press on further into the labyrinth mysteries of this box? Well the people have spoken!

The first things that will greet you upon opening the box is the rulebook and two (count them two!) sheets of double sided counters:

After that we have the 5 double sided dungeon tiles and the adventure tracker:

And below that we have a plastic tray with dice, cards and a big ol' bag of minis:

And a short while later the Heroes are assembled:

And there you have it. My Super Dungeon Explore experiences to date.

Things are always better with a little bit of grass

So Rob Hawkins over at Privateer Press made some pretty cool little things on their terrain blog (Cryxian Bile Reservoir).

Now I'm not planning on doing that complicated of a terrain piece anytime soon. However, I think that there's a lot of little things that I can do to spruce up my bases. So I just wanted to show how my multijack looks now.





So I'll probably be going back and adding some tall grasses and maybe green goo to a bunch of my bases.

Green stuff sculpting!

So in the hopes of at least having an interesting Highborn/Ashlynn army, I'm trying to add a little extra character to some of my models. Privateers get cool pirate ship bases, etc.

Anastasia is another good model ruleswise for Highborn, but I don't really care for the model. A little while ago, I saw a nice little conversion to her that made the model 10x better... maybe more. Anyways, he sculpted a robe/cloak onto her to make her look more skulking and ambushy. So after 3 tries (might have been more if I hadn't run out of GS), I got the following done.







After priming, she looks like this:




So it's not the best sculpting in the world, but I did learn a bit about trying to sculpt cloth.
1) Don't make it really thin unless it's going to be supported everywhere.
2) Larger is better. You'd rather have too much GS mixed up and have to trim off the robe than not have enough.
3) Get some kind of a reference to make the interesting creases and folds. Doing it blind is a recipe for disaster.
4) Finally, make sure you wait for the GS to harden up a bit before you try and shape it too much. I always try and work with it too soon. :p

Also, here's an update on what Holt is looking like.




I've laid in most of the colors for him, and basically finished his skin. I still have to put in the metals, some leathers, and pick out a lot of rivets and details before I'll do all the highlights on his clothing. At least I've got an idea of his color scheme though, which should match up fairly well with Aiyanna as well as the rest of the Highborn army.

Ashlynn Update

So after some suggestions from Cloud-Gatherer on the PP-forums, I made some alterations to Ashlynn's arms again to go for something that makes a bit more sense with her body's pose. The GS'ing for the joints isn't done yet, but I figured this way I can get some more input on whether it should be good or not. Anyways, I now present, Ashlynn with more oomph!

Droooooids of Orboros

After being on backorder for a while my Druids finally came in. I've had an idea brewing for them for a while. I'm not a very good sculptor but I think I managed well enough so you can tell what is supposed to be going on. So I wanted to make my druids like ceremonial dancers dressed as different animals or performing rituals. 3 of the druids will just have face paint but the other three are pictured below dressed as 3 animals of the plains: a buffalo, a vulture and a snake.

Modifying Mohsar

I finished sculpting a long headdress onto Mohsar so if it ever stops raining down here I'll prime him and get to work. Kromac is the only warlock I really play for Circle so I'm very excited to take Mohsar out for a spin. He seems tricksy and nuanced, which is a good challenge and something I'm looking forward to.



Here's a sneak peek of my side project in case I need a break from working on Circle stuff.



I wasn't a big fan of this model based on the pictures but in person it's pretty nice. Too bad I have to dump him out of my Viktorias crew to make room for Ronin. Actually not that bad because Ronin are freaking awesome.

Take a look at my quagmire...giggidy

So Micah and I played in the doubles tournament at Adventurer's Guild on Saturday. It was random teams, so we didn't get to play on the same team :( On the plus side, Micah and his teammate won, so at least one of us got some pride. I also learned a bit about running against eLylyth and Ravagores and or running the Coven. There are times when getting b2b for stealth is a worse option than just spreading the hell out (in general, against things with lots of boostable AOE's like against Durgen or Ravagore spam). Roh well. Mistakes on my part + a few amazing rolls for Jason and that basically ends our team's shot at the tourney. Regardless, I had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more tournies going on.

At least I didn't leave empty handed though. The store owner gave 20% off all Warmahordes products to those of us in the tourney. So I decided that I should grab Wrongeye & Snapjaw before my wallet thought better of it. Being the crazy obsessed person that I am, I started assembling them on Sunday. Since they're so cool, I also decided that they needed better bases. Now that I'm almost out of green stuff, I've gotten something out of the bases that I'm happy with.

This first piece is my test base/40mm objective for Steamroller scenarios. I still need to finish the top of the tree to make it look like it was struck by lightning... not quite sure how I'm going to work that part out yet. The white "reeds" are toothbrush bristles, and everything else is GS. I'll be testing the water effects that I decide to use on this base before I throw them into my bases for Wrongeye & Snapjaw.





So here's my WIP of Snapjaw (aka CrocDooooooor!!!)


And here is my WIP of his master, Wrongeye. Oh how you have got to love the Voodoo gators. (can anybody tell what faction I'd pick up of Hordes if I had the money right now?)





I'm actually very happy with these bases, and especially with just how cool Wrongeye's bottle looks with very little effort. Lots of work left to do, but not a bad start or one day.

C&C and other ideas welcome.

You're as cooooold as ice!

So I've recently come into another batch of Searforge models, and as such, rekindled my urge to paint/play them. First up, here's Brun Crugback and his bear Lug. I'm not entirely happy with Lug's fur, but I did him before Brun (who's polar bear skin I'm much happier with). Thoughts?

Next up, a Ghordson Basher and Driller. If I can ever get interested in painting units, I'll get the Highshields + UA and Forgeguard done too. I'm planning on holding off the rest of the snow until I have a large amount of models done (aka after I paint all my infantry).

On another note, I assembled/primed Phil's Deathjack for him, since he's too lazy to do it himself :p On the plus side, I magnetized the arms for transport/getting the fatass into b2b. Notice the 2 different arm poses.

An Ogrun, a bear, a dwarf and a Satyxis walk into a bar...

Not really, but I did get all my Searforge stuff in at AGR. Work is also continuing apace on the Deathjack for Phil, but no photos quite yet. Everything is on and pinned except for the fists of spiky doom. Anyways, on to the pictures.

First up is my blighted warmonger to Ogrun Bokur conversion. All I really did was sculpt some armor, switch his weapon hands, and add a shield (Troll Bouncer shield). I keep telling myself that I'm going to run him with Cryx, but never do. He'll make a nice addition to my Searforge though.

How bout that Great Rack? Well, here's Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast in all her primed glory. I bought some vallejo water effects that I'll use once she's painted in order to add waves around her epic base. Should be fun.

Next up is my first minion models.... Brun & Lug. Standard stuff. I've got some good rocks on their bases, and I'll be adding snow once they're all painted.

Finally, the model that got me into Searforge in the first place. The Basher!!! Seriously though. Freaking amazing. I went for a running pose, and it kinda looks like he's mid-stride. He doesn't look like he's barreling down the causeway though, which makes me a little sad. Oh well. This guy is pinned pretty damn well, so I won't need to worry about him falling apart at least.

C&C always welcome

Distracted? Me? Naaaaaaw

I'm still just focusing on painting up my Cygnar battlebox and all my Searforge, right? Well, kinda, just not right now :p So I found a full unit of bloodgorgers, all 10 of them, for 60 bucks, including shipping, on bartertown. How could I resist that?...so I didn't. While they weren't really adequately protected in the shipping (thrown in a ziplock bag inside a paper postal bag), they're beefy guys and held their own, just not together. So I got them all glued back together and based, although I need to make a second sweep for mold lines before I prime them.

(6 0f 10 new Bloodgorgers)

I also did a bit of painting on a test model for my Satyxis. I figure with how much I've been playing them, it would only be right to throw the paint onto them. It's really only base colors for stuff right now, and I'm missing a lot of them, but I think I'm on to a nice color scheme for them though.

Lastly, Phil, a fellow Cryx player from AGR, has asked me to put together his Deathjack. I kinda feel like I owe him for him starting to bring all his buddies down to AGR which has let me get a lot of games in, plus he's a nice guy, so I figure this one's free. With that in mind, I decided to magnetize the arms as several people have been talking about in the Cryx Forums. So here's the start of my work there. The white filler there is Fimo, a sculpting clay that I got at Michael's a long time ago. Here's for hoping that it works out

Playground sand?

Seriously. That ish makes great basing material and it's dirt cheap. Better you spend the 6 bucks at Home Depot than go steal it from a playground. No need to get arrested cause you're hanging around a kids' playground without a kid :p



So the pic above is an example of what my basing scheme will be for my small Cygnar force (although I reserve the right expand it in the future), in addition to showing the start of my work on Stryker. I'm really like the tan color for his cloak/robe thingy. Anyways, even though my 2 little tubs of GW basing material have lasted me for 4 years, I'm never buying them again. One last thing, if you're trying to do cobblestone or any kind of brickwork with GS, let it sit for at least 10 minutes before you start sculpting in it. My impatience always wins out, and now I have to go back and redo the GS on the medium base there.

Fur Pile

I know I've put this model up here before but I reworked the fur on him and added some feathered arm bands. Here is almost ready to paint, there's still some green showing through so he'll need a little more priming. The pictures make it a bit hard to see details, but you get the idea.

Minor Protectorate Conversions

Here are a couple minor conversions I did for some PoM models. First we have the KE and KEE Seneschals. I like the idea of the banners but they were too long and unwieldy for play and without the banners the models look too plain. Luckily Jon gave me the idea to just shorten the banners. Once the milliput dries I will sand it smooth, but here's what it looks like for now.




Next is a reclaimer. I got this guy in a big trade and the guy didn't have the right hand with him. He had it lying around somewhere and said that he'd try and get it to me if he ever found it. Rather than wait around I chopped off a extra Daughter's hand that I had lying around, added a crow from the Wracks and voila! Suitably themed for a morbid soul collecting chap like this here Reclaimer.