DreadBall: Boot Camp Continued

I managed to sneak in cleaning up a Jack yesterday, so 'only' 5 more to go before I have enough for a starting team. I think I'll settle for 8 players, a ref, and a ball for now, as I'm aready really fed up with trying to get nice, clean results. I can then do a player when needed through recruitment; and as we won't get the last 4 players for the 4 starting teams until later this year, I cannot make a full roster, anyway.

If all Mantic plastics are made of this sh*t, I'm not going to by many minis from them, that's for sure - I'll rather pay a bit more per figure than go through all this frustration when cleaning them up...

DreadBall: Boot Camp Prolongued.

I have both the Guards ready for glueing onto washers, but didn't do anything yesterday, because I simply couldn't bring myself to do that tedious task. Opted to watch 'The Reef' with the kids instead.

We are having the girls from my eldest daughter's school class for a delayed celebration of her 10 years birthday tomorrow, and as the forecast does not leave much hope for outdoor activities, I'll have to put the hobby stuff aside today to tidy up the living room.

Sunday afternoon, my (formerly) regular gaming pal is coming to visit, partly because of the recent birthday, and I hope that we can squeeze in a basic rules game of DreadBall. Sunday morning is reserved for searching for a new (used) car, as the Family dropship is due for inspection and will most likely fail miserably without expensive repairs/maintenance.

Monday, I hope to get back on track and get one or two Jacks cleaned and assembled. Until then, no further Progress is to be expected.

DreadBall: Boot Camp

Started prepping today. Got out the 10 male Human players, the refbot, and a ball.

I had expected a friend of mine to come over this last Sunday, and I wanted us to be able to do a quick tussle. When I started to put the gaming pieces (players) together, I realized that there was no way the individuals would keep their composure without the use of some kind of adhesive.

This is a BIG minus in my book; DreadBall is essentially a board game, and as such, I expect to be able to play the game right out of the box. It will be hard to convince board gamers to pick up the game when they have to be modellers before they can start playing, but, well...

The task at hand.
More daunting that you would ever imagine...
Blurred pic courtesy of bad lighting.

As a result I used a lot of little balls of sticky-tac to secure the various arms, legs, and hands (Forge Fathers), but I had to give up on the Veer-myn, as some of the models have only a very shallow half-ball joint to position one arm by. Another weird choice, and in my book, a design flaw. Also some of the Judwan are way too flimsy to be held together without glue.

But, in other words, I have to remove a lot of gooey white stuff from the sockets for various limbs. Nice going.

I started out with one of the 2 Guards, as they are the bulkiest, and I have not removed mold-lines for almost 2 years. So, with no current practice, and ever-dwindling eye-sight, I wanted to do the easy tasks first.

Easy? By no means! That Guard might be the worst mini I ever had to prep for painting. Not because it's a bad sculpt, but bvecause of a combination of not-so-accented details on the armour with possibly the worst material I've ever encountered in a gaming piece. This 'hard plastic' is impossible to scrape with a sharp blade without making the surface all roughed up, and it is difficult to cut without the blade going astray. I ended up using my diamond needle file set, but the result is not quite satisfactory.

I don't think I'll manage more than one of these per day, lest I use too many sanity points.

To finish the models for priming, I need to get some small washers (20 mm-ish or so) to glue them onto. I could use the provided clear acrylic hex bases, but I want my minis to stick to magnetic sheets.

About the acrylic bases, btw: I had expected that the integral bases wouls snap-fit into the central cavity on the hex bases... but NOT so. The holes are substantially larger than the figure bases, so again, adhesives are required.

All in all, Mantic could have done better with this product. The plastic may be a cheap solution to keep costs down, but I think I would prefer a slightly higher price for a material more like the plastic used by GW.

You can't beat the DreadBall rules for playability, though. I haven't played a single game with the official minis, yet, but I played several test games with Blood Bowl minis on a mock-up pitch during the frantic Kickstarter days, and fell in love completely with the game.

So, if DreadBall doesn't get me back into hobby gaming, nothing probably will...


DreadBall - almost there!

Yesterday I finally got a grip, and started assembling (with blu-tac) the miniatures contained in the first 2 shipments of my DreadBall Kickstarter pledge.

I even figured out a paint sceme for my purestrain male human team, and the refbot and I shall start prepping the first few minis, and a ball, this week, real life permitting.

All in all, I seem to be on the track to rekindling the spark, so expect updates, if not on a regular, then at least a more frequent basis.

Nothing new under the Sun

Well, I have been in full-time job-training since April (and hopefully shall be so for the next 7 months, too, before I expect to start getting re-educated).

I haven't touched a brush or a die since my last post, but I'm quite exited about the new futuristic sports game from Mantic called DreadBall, as I've read the so far released teaser downloads (example Rush, and the Core Rules).

While a violent ballgame played on a grid board must contain some similarities with Blood Bowl, it also seems to hold enough on its own to justfy a purchase. Plus, the boxed set will contain two teams, and thus everything you need to play the game out of the box, contrary to the latest boxed version of BB I know of, so no additional purchases will be necessary to get started.

I am anticipating the release, and hope that it will get me drawn back into the miniature wargaming hobby, as I have not been able to find the time/motivation for quite some time.

I also have some unfinished business with the AAR for my first game of CROM!, I know. Not completely forgotten, just indefinitely postponed....

DwA: Zombiecalypse Now - not much progress.

I have delivered the first 10 zeds for commission, but then got totally sidetracked by real life, job search, etc.

I hope to find some time - and energy - for carrying on, very soon - during the holidays at the very latest. It's really bugging me, that I don't keep things moving, but that's just how it is these days, it seems.

Totally becalmed at the moment.

Well, while storm after stom blows in from the North Sea, not a single breeze moves over my painting/prepping station.

Job search, all kinds of pre-christmas events (kindergarden, school, school care, girls gymnastics team, etc.), general daily life, buying presents for christmas, trying to get some heavily delayed (because of an extremely wet summer and autumn) garden tasks finished, dark and cold/wet weather... I have absolutely NO energy surplus for hobby tasks.

Looking forward to the holidays where I'm going to be away from work for 11 days. I need to get into a routine, again, where I get a little work done at least every other day. I have 50 plastic zombies that need assembly (I had hoped to have them all ready by January, but...), some Old West minis that need paint, and a handful of mixed minis in various states of progress on my painting station...

Not to mention the hundreds of prepped and primed minis I have laying around for various unfinished projects.

Well, if I'm going to be unemployed for a while from February, at least I'll get the possibility to get some projects finished, as I can then focus on tasks for some hours in a row - it's really amazing how fast things can move when you don't have to work on-and-off all the time!