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From Dawn of the Lead with love

January 2, 2012

I decided to start off this new year with something special. As every miniature gamer knows, we tend to accumulate far more miniatures than we can paint. I got a fair few freebies for my Colonial Marine review, and while most will end up in my own use, there are a few that are simply extra. In this case, the Fenryll Science Fiction Troopers.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

From my review:

French resin miniature manufacturer Fenryll has six more or less obviously not-CMs in their science fiction range. It has to be said right at the start that these miniatures are very big. While the Fenryll site lists them as 28mm, the models actually measure 33-35mm from top of base to top of head. The size is a real shame, since the miniatures are very nice. The sculptor Dominique Seys has done a nice job with the troopers’ faces and gear, and resin produces beutiful, crisp detail. There is one thing about the first pack that bugs me a lot, and it’s the way the troopers hold their pulse rifles. They’re all holding them one-handed (two of them are holding a grenade in the other hand), and the guns look entirely weightless. This gives the troopers of the first pack a very action figure-ish look, which I’m not partial to. The troopers in pack 2 hold their guns much more sensibly with two hands, and I prefer this pack to the first one. The models come with separate guns and backpacks, and they’re all on square integral resin bases, with some sculpted detail and texture. There were some casting flaws, with quite a lot of flash and mould lines/misalignment.

The size of the Fenryll troopers will probably put a lot of people off. As the comparison pictures below show, they’re very tall, standing head and shoulders above most other miniatures in this review. While this might make them unappealing to a fair few gamers, their large size does mean that they’re a perfect match size-wise for the Horrorclix Aliens or the Heresy Hurn, which tend to be pretty big compared to most 28mm miniatures. In terms of price the troopers are at the higher end in this review, with a pack of three models costing 10 EUR, which amounts to £8.40 at the time of writing, or £2.80 per miniature.

The latter part is why I’m giving them away. While wonderful minis, they’re simply a bit too large to fit in with my other models. They’re still very nice, and really should find a nice home.

How to get them? Simple, just drop me a comment on this post. Using magical powers (and a random number generator) I’ll pick the lucky winner and notify them. The winner will need to pay postage, which should at most amount to 2-3 EUR or something similar even for overseas delivery – the Finnish post office is quite cheap and very reliable. Payment via PayPal is preferred.

Good luck!

Posted in Editorial, Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged | 11 Comments »

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2011 – a quick retrospective

December 31, 2011

As the year is grinding towards its inevitable end, I must say I’m somewhat satisfied with this year hobby-wise. While I didn’t get a whole lot done, I managed to actually keep old projects alive and do some gaming for a change. Here’s a quick look at what I did. There were basically just two miniature projects that occupied me during the year.

Aliens/Predator/Colonial Marines

I really did most of the work on these during 2010. Still, in 2011 I kept the project alive, and painted most of what was still unpainted in my stock of Alien and Predator miniatures as well as a whole bunch of Colonial Marines. I also did a very thorough review of the latter, and it has actually become my third most popular post ever, with close to 4000 direct clicks and probably a whole lot more through the front page.

I also managed to use them in gaming as well. While Triton-4 is on an undefined hiatus at the moment, it was important for me personally to actually get some use out of all the stuff I’d painted and the scenery I’d made. While somewhat time consuming, the games were a lot of fun, and I’m sure(-ish) we haven’t seen the last of the campaign yet.

Blood Bowl

The second part of my miniature gaming year consisted of a Blood Bowl league. I managed to almost complete an orc team, and I’m currently hard at work on an undead one. As for the games…weeell, most were pretty solid whippings for yours truly, but that hasn’t deterred me in the least bit. 2012’s league is starting up, and there are a fair few skulls to crack. Some might even be in my opponents’ teams.

Zombies

This was a good year for zombie media reviews. I reviewed four different zombie book titles as well as six different movies. I was more than happy to do my share of promoting indie and short films.

I managed to keep up my “Upcoming zombie goodness” series of posts, keeping people (myself included) up to date on what’s happening in the zombie pop culture world. You can definitely expect to see those in the future.

What’s next?

I’ve no idea. The Blood Bowl project will continue, as will the Alien vs. Predator one. I’m hoping to get more gaming done, as usual, as well as more stuff painted. I purchased hardly anything this year, and I’m in no hurry to bury myself in more unpainted miniatures. It’s been satisfying to paint and use minis that have been sitting in boxes and cupboard for years. That’s what they’re for, anyway.

I like how the blog has turned out, and have no intention of stopping writing it. I’ve garnered a pretty solid base of followers, and whether you’re one of them or just a random passer-by, I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks for making it worth my while.

Happy New Year 2012, everyone. Let’s hope we skip the apocalypse part.

Unless it's a zombie one. That might be awesome.

 

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Merry Christmas

December 23, 2011

Have a wonderful time, everyone.

Posted in Editorial | 1 Comment »

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Enough with the braaaaains!

September 30, 2011

I’ve been busy with a lot of other stuff, so DotL has been on the back burner lately. As pretty much all my miniature projects have been on hold for a while, I’ve been posting mostly about zombies, and this post’s no different. It’s also one of my few and far between editorials, this one a bit more rant-ish than usual. It’s about a pet peeve of mine, that I’ve no doubt mentioned before:

Enough with the braaaaaaains!

No, seriously. I’m sick and tired of the enduring connection between zombies and the eating of the human brain. This is what I’m talking about:

 

Why does this bug me? Because the whole zombies/brains thing stems from Return of the Living Dead. While a fun film, it’s not a real zombie “classic” if the term can be used in this context. Let’s take a look at some of the seminal works of zombie film:

Romero’s original trilogy. Night, Dawn and Day, what do the zombies eat? Flesh.

Fulci’s Zombi films. What do the zombies eat? Flesh.

Resident Evil franchise. What do the zombies eat? Flesh.

Dawn of the Dead remake. Flesh.

Shaun of the Dead. Flesh.

Zombieland. Flesh.

Braindead/Dead Alive. Flesh.

Pretty much any zombie worth its salt. Flesh.

Return of the Living dead films. Braaaaains.

Do we see a pattern emerging?

In fact, I’ve kind of developed a personal habit of immediately looking down on any work of zombie pop culture, that starts heading down the braaaaains road. To me, it speaks to me of superficial knowledge of the genre. Sounds silly? Might be. Then again, imagine the case that in 20 or so years, whenever you mention “vampire”, people start talking about glitter (as per the Twilight novels). Vampire books start focusing on the whole glitter aspect. Eventually, the glitter thing becomes the defining feature of vampires in general. Horrible.

While this might sound and even be peevish, there is a larger issue underlying this. Zombies have been the early 21st century’s pop culture hit, and that has led to movies, books and comics coming out of the woodwork. It’s inevitable that a lot of that material will be of subpar quality, mainly cheap cashing-in on the phenomenon. When you try to find the works worthy of your interest, it’s not a bad idea to see if the creator seems to have some grasp of the history and nuances of the genre. If the focus is on braaaaaains, there’s a good chance that it’s simply a case of riding the hit wave. The atrocious Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a perfect, if dire, example. The opening line reads

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

And that should’ve been reason enough to skip it altogether. I eventually gave up about half-way through.

There is a lot to the cultural niche that is zombies (see these two for example). While it’s strongly anchored in gory and often trashy entertainment, there are also more interesting, subtle undercurrents: the primal human fear of death, alienation and loss of individuality, the mirroring of whatever is currently the top unknown fear (radiation, pandemics, terrorism) and the questions of whether humanity is capable of cooperation and worthy of survival to mention a few. To skip all this and go with braaaaaaains displays a major lack of said.

The next time you’re thinking of picking up any work on zombies, whether it’s a film, a book or a comic,  see if it passes the ODotLOZDH (Official Dawn of the Lead ordained Zombie Dietary Habit) test: flesh=good, braaaaaains=bad.

You’ll thank me for it.

Posted in Books, Editorial, Movies, Zombies | 11 Comments »

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Dawn of the Stylish Blogger

May 28, 2011

I was happy to receive a double Stylish Blogger Award from long-time fellow blogger Vampifan as well as Spartan 117 of The Quick and the Zed. This is a thing that’s been going around the blog world for a while, and it’s nice to see my humble blog receive the accolade. The rules for this are as follows:

To receive an award there are four steps to follow –
1. Send a thank you and a link to the nominating blog.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the word on to 10 or so other deserving blogs.
4. Let them know of your nominating them for the award.

Sooo..seven things about me:

  1. I’m addicted to white sneakers (that’s probably trainers to you British types). I have eight pairs at the moment, which I try to keep as white as I can. And no, I’m not a chav.
  2. In addition to zombie, vampire, werewolf, scifi and fantasy films, I also have a penchant for romantic comedies. Love Actually is a particular favourite, as it features my two favourite actors…
  3. …who are Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy. Leslie Nielsen was a third one, may he rest in peace.
  4. I’m an avid RPG player, and currently getting started on my doctor’s thesis on role-playing games and their effects on the development of empathy skills.
  5. I teach Tai Shin Mun (monkey style) kung fu at the University of Helsinki. Beginner’s course level, but still! Additionally I’ve trained in Karate and Choy Lee Fut kung fu as well.
  6. I sing in a choir, but I’ve got a very varied taste in music, with hip hop being a particular favourite.
  7. I’m a sucker for online shopping, whether it’s miniatures, dvd’s, clothing, books or games.
It’s gonna be difficult naming other blogs here, but let me give it a shot. As far as I know, the Angry Lurker and Sho3box, as well as many more of my faves have already received their nominations, so I’ll throw in four new ones. Go see them if you haven’t already.

Carmen’s fun painty time – Man, how does anyone paint and model this quickly and to such a standard? Always a great source of inspiration, not to mention intense jealousy.

Dusty Gamer – Joonas is a real-life friend of mine, and a professional video game designer. His posts are well thought-out, and definitely worth a read.

A Hard Won Thing – Plenty of interesting posts on various wargaming subjects, focusing on skirmish level lately.

Devouring the zombie films of the living – This blog features in-depth reviews of zombie films. Alas, it’s far too rarely updated!

Posted in Editorial | 6 Comments »

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DotL 50K

March 14, 2011

On March 13th Dawn of the Lead hit 50,000 views. What did I think?

My sincere thanks to all of my readers, regular and random alike. As random picks from Dawn’s history, you could go see some zombie commercials, Aliens & Predator humour, my tips on hooking a loved one on zombies, or even the post that started it all.

Posted in Editorial | 5 Comments »

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Celebrating Old Stuff Day!

March 2, 2011

In one of the best ideas in a while, Rob over at Warhammer 39,999 has devised a new special day. So from now on March 2nd is Old Stuff Day.

I quote:

Although, for most of us, it’s a labor of love, blogging is actually a fair amount of work.  The reward for our efforts is often a post we can be proud of and, with any luck, it receives some attention from the rest of the community.

Unfortunately for most posts, that attention tends to be short-lived.  A short time after it’s displayed, the average post falls off the blogrolls of the community and into the realm of obscurity, often never to be seen again.  There’s good reason for this: after all, readers will only find posts interesting if they can actually find the posts.

This is why I’m proposing all bloggers highlight the content they’re most proud of on March 2nd in celebration of “Old Stuff Day.”  On this day, each blogger can go through their history and find posts that they’d like to shake the dust off and present again to the community at large.

For me, this was a no-brainer. Back in August 2009, when DotL had approximately six readers, I wrote an article about adding RPG elements to wargames. I still go by those guidelines, and think that reading that article might be interesting to a lot of people. So, here without further ado, I give you:

Warpg’s?

Kudos to Rob for a great idea, let’s make OSD a true tradition.

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Season’s greetings

December 24, 2010

Posted in Editorial | 3 Comments »

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Hot right now

November 25, 2010

Woah, a good while since my last post. Sorry about that, dear readers! Real life has gotten in the way yet again, with other hobbies and studies taking my time.

After a posting break it’s always nice to do something different, and this time it’s a “Top 5 at the moment” post. Here we go, in no particular order:

Horus Heresy book series

While I’m not a big fan of WH40K in general, these books have got me hooked. They depict a time long before the current date in the WH40K universe, being more like WH30K, and chronicle the catastrophic events of the eponymous Horus Heresy that see the Emperor’s most beloved son turn on his father and bring the galaxy to a bloody civil war.

There are lots of things to like in HH. The series boasts many of Black Library’s top writers, such as Graham McNeill and Dan Abnett, and most of the books – even the not-too-impressive ones – are pretty ok scifi fare. The books deal with a time period ten thousand years distant, so the writers have a lot of space (literally, too) to move and work in. Reading these books makes me wish the regular WH40K fluff was this interesting, with loads of alien civilizations and humanity’s spin-offs.

The best thing for me, however, has to be the point of view. Many of the books deal with the so-called Traitor Legions, the Space Marines that sided with Horus against the Emperor. Regular 40K fluff simply places a terribly boring and bland EEEEEVUL stamp on them, whereas the HH books tell the stories from the villains’ perspective. It turns out most of them aren’t really evil after all, but instead have all too human flaws like vanity or pride, which lead to their downfall. It doesn’t help that the benevolent God-Emperor starts to take on a more and more sinister cast as the story progresses.

I’ve always loved interesting villains. Sauron? Boring as hell. Saruman? One of my all time favourites. Whenever the time is taken to flesh out an antagonist, a story becomes much more interesting to read. At times you don’t know who you’re rooting for, and even if the antagonist IS evil, you find yourself thinking “Weell, he does have a point there.” The HH books are loaded with this, and the stories of Horus, Fulgrim and Magnus the Red are nothing short of delicious. Granted, some of the books aren’t really worth reading (Battle for the Abyss, for example, is a waste of time and money in my opinion), but the excellent ones more than make up for this.

If epic high fantasy scifi is your thing, give these books a go. I got mine through the Book Depository. You can check the publishing order here, for example.

Dawn of War 2

It’s been a long while since I’ve been this hooked on a computer game. Dawn of War 2 is a real-time strategy game set in the world of WH40K. Unsurprisingly, my consuming of lots and lots of WH40K fiction (see above) led me to pick up this game, and it hasn’t disappointed.

The story focuses on the Blood Ravens Space Marine chapter that lays down all kinds of hurt on orks, eldar and tyranids. The story is fine, the cutscenes lovely and there’s a little rpg element too, as your squad leaders gain experience and you can tailor their skills and wargear to suit your needs. All this combines to make a game that has a significant “one more mission, even if it’s 2 am” element.

I played DoW1 to death when it came out, and I’m glad to see the sequel is quality stuff as well. There’s a trailer below to whet your appetite.

Role-playing games

Miniatures are cool and all of that, but I’m a role-playing gamer first and foremost. RPGs are going through a small renaissance in my regular group of gamer friends, with games popping up here and there. A few days ago I had the honour of guest-GMing a game in a massive campaign my friend Petri is running. The campaign – named Century – is a wonderful X-Filesy alternative history romp, with one game played per year of in-game time. My contribution? Zombies in Estonia in 1936. Fun was had.

Our 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is going strong as well. A lot of RPGs we play nowadays deal with pretty adult themes, ethics and the like. This campaign is about monsters, leveling up and solving mysteries. It’s great fun, and the social gathering is at least as important as the game itself.

Role-playing games have also allowed me to combine my hobbies with the real world. My master’s thesis (in education) is a survey study about the views role-playing gamers have on RPGs as a way of developing empathic intelligence – social skills, creativity, empathy and so on.

Winter

Winter has hit Finland yet again. While it brings some annoying things with it – such as loads of snow and freezing temperatures – it also provides a lazy student/blogger/gamer with all the peace and quiet he needs to invest in the things that really matter: games, movies, miniatures and so on. Since it’s perfectly acceptable to stay indoors in the winter, it really is the season of the geek. I’ve prepared for a long winter by stocking up on Horus Heresy books and zombie fiction, as well as making sure that most RPG sessions are held at my place. Oh yes, and there’s Christmas, too!

The Walking Dead

I can’t not-include TWD, can I? For my comments on the subject, see this post. We’re having our second TWD get-together with three of my friends this Friday to watch episodes 3 and 4. Can hardly wait!

Those are the five most interesting things in my life at the moment off the top of my head. Hopefully I’ll have time to get back to my regular irregular posting schedule now.

 

 

Posted in Books, Editorial, Video games | 8 Comments »

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DotL miniature giveaway

November 1, 2010

I have some miniatures I don’t need at the moment, and to be honest, probably never will. I figured I’d share the love and give the following stuff away to loving homes. All you need to do is pay for postage via PayPal, and I’ll chuck them your way. All the people – bloggers especially – reading this: do the same. You probably have minis sitting in a box somewhere, with the vague idea of “these might be useful/valuable/chopped up for conversions one day” that you’ve used to justify keeping them around unused for years – I know you have! Some people might have a use for them, so do them a favour and pay it forward.

I’d rather post these as lots, but will do single miniatures as well. Bases are not provided, I think you’ll manage.

Lot 1 – Warzone Undead Legionnaires – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

Bought years ago for a never finished “40K Chaos army for cheap” project. One has had his weapon chopped up, no idea why.

Lot 2 – Warzone Pretorian Stalker & Ilian Templar – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

Same 40K project. Sold the painted stuff ages ago. Still very nice miniatures, with the Stalker going for €4.95 on Prince August’s site.

Lot 3 – HeroClix

 

Click for a larger version

 

Madame Masque, Colossus, Hawkeye, Umar and Tomoe. Pre-painted plastic. The quality isn’t very good, but these are still a viable option for those looking to do some superhero gaming. Some of the models have other uses as well. I’ve seen Colossus used in a Weird World War 2 Russian army, and a repainted Hawkeye serves as a vampire in my Underworld project.

Lot 4 – Mage Knight

 

Click for a larger version

 

Utem Crossbowman, Nightblade, Quarterstaff Warrior, Immortal Fanatic. More pre-painted plastic, the Immortal Fanatic has had his other blade snap off (it’s included, though). Again, the quality isn’t very nice, but these could well be used in RPGs etc. They’re far nice than paper counters, anyway. Acetone can be used to strip the paint away, if you fancy repainting.

Lot 5 – Old Plastic Imperial Trooper & Squat – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

These were found in a large lot of mixed miniatures way back. I have no use for them, so feel free. Might be a blast of nostalgia for someone.

Lot 6 – Grenadier Adventurer & Shadowrun Street Shaman – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

For reasons unknown I’ve chopped the revolver hand off the adventurer, and replaced the shaman’s right hand with it. The shaman has had whatever was in his left hand replaced with a knife.

Lot 7 – ERM Facehuggers x 6 – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

These were sent to me as part of the Alien miniatures review. While they’re nice enough minis, I simply have no use for them and want them to have anice, warm home. That’s six miniatures for free (two sets of those pictured), right there.

Lot 8 – ERM Facehuggers with guns – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

See lot 7.

Lot 9 – Old plastic Citadel Wood Elves x 5 – GONE!

 

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These are from Citadel’s first range of plastics. They’re all headless. I’ve used some human heads to convert a few to be Huntsmen in my WHFB Empire army.

Lot 10 – Old plastic Citadel Dark Elves x 8 – GONE!

 

Click for a larger version

 

Part of the same range as lot 9. Two have heads, others are headless. None have their separate crossbows.

And that’s it!

Reservations via comments box, we’ll sort out the details via email, payment via PayPal. One lot per reader, if you want several you’ll have to wait for a week or so. First come, first served. Postage to the US will be a few EUR maximum for letters. The Clix stuff will cost a bit more, but nothing exorbitant.

And as I mentioned before, I encourage other bloggers to do the same. One man’s trash is another’s treasure, so let’s get that old stuff into rotation, mmkay?

Posted in Editorial, Miniatures | 25 Comments »

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