Saturday 18 February 2017

"The Mindless Ones! They've Broken Through!"

"Brainless creatures of almost incalculable power."
These seven brutish-looking 40mm tall plastic “Wizkids” models of a Mindless One can be purchased as miniature number 05 from the Marvel “Heroclix” Giant Size X-Men range. Summoned via magic to do the bidding of others, for they have no will of their own, these extra-dimensional beings have a rocky hide and no face except for "a single glowing eye". Utilised by the likes of Doctor Doom and Dormammu”, the roughly humanoid-shaped monstrosities were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and made their first comic book appearance within the pages of Issue One Hundred and Twenty Seven of “Strange Tales” in December 1964.

Due to these figures each requiring an incredibly simple paint-job, and having previously painted two of the behemoths before for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, this particular project was rather straightforward. However, it did once again give me the opportunity to try out the combination of “Vallejo” USA Olive Drab and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. The Mindless Ones' cyclopean eyes were then subsequently ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and the “Citadel” glaze, Bloodletter.
Plaguebearer WIPs - These daemons currently need all their sores and wounds painted
With the latest of my Seventh Analogue hobbies Painting Challenge miniatures completed, I have been progressing on another three Plaguebearers for my "Age Of Sigmar" Nurgle Host. Rather than simply just stick with the lesser daemons this time round, I've added a couple of cheeky-faced Nurglings to a couple of bases, so as to make the puss-covered fiends a bit more interesting to both look at and paint.

Cunningly a couple of these mini-vignettes will additionally be able to act as my ‘elite’ Plaguebearers for the “Warhammer 40,000” skirmish game “Kill Team”. Admittedly, I already own enough finished Nurgle models with which to field a 200 point force for this “standalone two-player game” by "Games Workshop". But as a small number of my squad will have special abilities bestowed upon them, such as "Relentless" and "Poisoned Weapons", I wanted to use the Nurglings to ‘mark them out' on the tabletop more easily.
Google Chat "Zombicide" - Captain America and Howard The Duck are literally swamped
Lastly, one of my biggest motivators to painting is gaming, so when Dave from "One Man And His Brushes" recently introduced me to Google Chat I was somewhat struck by the potential it had to allow me to have some tabletop fun with those who live a considerable distance away from myself. Obviously, just such an idea needed to be trialled, so having chatted through the possibility of using my "Battle Systems" scenery to create a three-dimensional "Zombicide" board, Martin of "28mm Heroes" fame, delightfully agreed to have a game...

The result was a two and a half hour mad-cap fun-fest which saw Captain America and a deranged Howard the Duck (armed with a chainsaw) fending off not only low-life criminals and thugs, but Doctor Doom and his Doombots, the Awesome Android, Stilt-Man and Nightmare, as well as Mindless Ones, Nimon, Voord and Terminator robots. Ultimately, we had to call it an honourable draw, but the 'shaky' camera action and inability on behalf of the player to see the entire tabletop certainly lead to some highly suspenseful moments as doors were smashed opened, rooms looted and corners turned...

38 comments:

  1. Your Mindless Ones look like they have just stepped out of a tar pit, which is quite a creepy thought! Simple but effective paint jobs.

    I'd love to know a lot more about Google Chat. I'm on Google myself and this sounds like something I'd really like to get involved in if I could. By all means e-mail me if it requires a long reply.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. The Mindless Ones actually now just need a little sun I think, as the two I did this time last year have become less dark-looking overtime. Still they were nice and straightforward to paint, which is always good for the AHPC.

      As for google chat, then I was going to gauge interest and set up an email listing for those who fancy a go. I have another game in mind with Martin (and Dave) in March. But there's no reason why others couldn't join in or I set up another game for those less familiar with Google Chat.

      I also think I'll set up my own Char room rather than keep using the AHPC one Dave very kindly set-up as I'd imagine running a game whilst others are trying to talk & paint would be a bit disconcerting.

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    2. I'm interested in this too .Simon, please consider me when you construct your list - thanks

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    3. No worries Andy. I'll include you too.

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  2. Very interesting to read about the Google Chat experiment. I hope it goes from strength to strength and brings a lot more people together using that system.

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    1. Cheers Roy. If nothing else it was great fun to chat to people I ordinarily simply correspond with over their blogs.

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    2. Martin and Dave have to listen to my uttered drivel and northern voice in real-time, I'd hate to inflict myself upon them using technology ;)

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    3. Actually I was rather green with envy when they were talking to me about your stunning Chariot Racing stadium/game. That sounds like an awesome gaming experience imho :-)

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    4. That's a bit of a funny one, to be honest. As I never got to play in the game, and running it was a bit of a hard time for me (due to lack of GMing experience and a new set of rules) I've only got mixed feelings for it and therefor a lack of motivation to take it further.

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    5. Ahh... I do entirely sympathise with just such a dilemma Roy, and with the dent in enthusiasm GMing can have as it is terribly tiring and time-consuming. However, I didn't actually find that to be the case with "Zombicide", although I know the rules quite well and was enjoying the novel experience of gaming with someone else at the other end of the country.

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  3. Great stuff. Adding the Nurglings to the Plague Bearers base is a great idea...looks brilliant!

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  4. I always love the look of you mindless ones Simon, and these are as good as the last lot. The nurglings do add a bit of interest to the bases of the Plague bearers, and is a good idea all round.

    I like the idea behind this Google chat thing you've started, it woulkd be fun playing a game together, or even just chatting while a few of us paint.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers very much Roger. I don't think the AHPC FB Group Chatroom is only open to people doing the challenge; indeed there's quite a few fellows I talk to haven't yet participated. So that's definitely the place to go if you want to chat & paint currently.

      However, if I set up a gaming Chatroom then there's no reason why people can't just rock up and paint, whilst we're playing. its all sociable fun.

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    2. I think I would have to pick up some hardware before I could consider this, a microphone would be essential I assume and a web-cam I guess would be useful? Sorry I'm not being deliberately thick I really am this stupid when it come to computer stuff!

      Cheers Roger.

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    3. Well I believe you can type a reply in the chat room Roger, but a microphone will certainly speed things up, and a camera allows people to see what you're up to etc.

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    4. Oh right sorry, I never been in a "chat room" tbh

      Cheers Roger.

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    5. No worries at all my friend, Dave can tell you a funny story about how I first thought you still typed your dialogue in facebook and it somehow was transmitted to the chatroom [blush].

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    6. Facebook there's another thing I've never been on (or Twitter or the other one, whatever that's called).

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    7. I'll email you all the gubbings then, my friend, once I know who is interested. Perhaps "Wargames Supply Dump" could be entering the digital age ;-)

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  5. Any info you have on being a participant will be very useful, Simon. I'm probably slightly ahead of Roger in terms of computer technology but this is still all new to me. It looks like you are onto something new that has quite a few of us very interested.

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    1. All understood Bryan. For now a microphone and a camera would be great and make things simple. Although I know of a few people who don't yet own a camera. but as it'll be my board being used (initially at least) then all you need is pen and paper, or some such in order to write down what your character is carrying/abilities.

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  6. Big old brutes indeed! Great work Simon.

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    1. Cheers Michael. Simple and straightforward - just how I like them!!

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  7. Nice work, Simon. I do like Mindless Ones and found their use in the NextWave comic to be particularly funny. Your plaguebearers are coming along nicely.
    As for playing games via Google Chat, what a fascinating use of modern technology. Whilst time is my main restraining factor on doing something like this (as in never having enough or at the right time), I wish you luck in your endeavours - might be interesting to see if you could 'record' a session and maybe get Andy to post it on his YouTube channel?

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    1. Thanks Jez. I'll certainly keep you updated as to how the 'online gaming' is going :-)

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    2. Happy to post vids on the channel Simon/Jez

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    3. Cheers Andy. Early days yet though so I certainly wouldn't be looking to record anything anytime soon.

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  8. Great job on the mindless Simon, how are you doing on the painting challenge ? Plagubearers are coming along nicely and like the additions of nurglings to note special squads, great idea

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    1. Cheers Dave. Simple stuff tbh. The AHPC is wearing me down a bit at present. But I should have another few minis to submit next week to help me along in its final month :-)

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    2. Keep at it mate, you'll get there. You need to keep at it as Salute is just around the corner where the model pile is likely to get bigger !

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    3. Thanks Dave. Don't I know it about "Salute" too :-)

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    4. Indeed, the only sound you can hear all day is "OOOH SHINEY'S"
      LOL

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    5. I certainly have enough 'main purchases' to last a few blog booty postings afterwards that's for sure :-)

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  9. The uniformity of the Mindless ones adds to their bulky threatening image. I don't know too much about them in the comics but I do like the look of them and the way you've painted them.
    The new games that come with the black bear kit are some really fun sculpts. One of these days I will go back to my own Nurgle-inspired project, but other painting projects just seem to poke their way to the front of the queue!

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    1. Black bear??? Goodness voice to text is annoying (and funny) sometimes. Actually, most times now I think about it. :)

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    2. The correct sentence should have read - "the nurglings that came with the plaguebearer kit are fun sculpts".
      I wish my pc worked..... not a fan of looking at or commenting on blog post on my mobile one bit!

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    3. Thanks ever so much Dai, and no worries about the 'voice to text' :-) The Mindless Ones were a bit of a quick win tbh for the AHPC, and as for my Nurgle Host... well that'll be increasing in size for some considerable time to come.

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