Ish

Palanite Captain, three Palanite Patrolmen, and a Rookie completed.

I was about a month overdue for a haircut when this whole mess started. It’s getting really ridiculous now. Both my kids have compared me to Greg Universe.

That’s a weird way to spell “whisky.”

It was Easter and a great king decided that he wanted to throw a huge Easter party and invite all the nobles from all the lands near and far. He sent word to all the other kings, and dukes, and barons, and chevaliers to come to his party and to bring with them their traditional Easter dishes so that they could all celebrate together. On the evening of the party, the nobles from lands near and far came bringing sweet Easter breads, smoked hams, delicious pies, fancy tortes, flans dripping with syrup, delicate chocolates, fluffy souffle, and all sorts wonderful things to eat. That was except for one lone vassal. His squire laid out the most humble-looking foods, squares of Matzoh, gefilte fish, horseradish, and cholent. The king stood up, frowning at the cold fish balls and flatbread sitting among the beautiful dainties brought by the other nobles. Then the king asked, “can anyone tell me why this knight is different from all the other knights?”

“In real life, vampires only sparkle when they're on fire.” – Larry Correia, Monster Hunter Vendetta

Off theme for the week, but I’ve finally started in on my Necromunda Enforcers. Here’s Palanite Patrolman ΙΦ–44 demonstrating the latest in spring fashion:

I went to go check out their shop, just now, but it’s been taken down. Nothing there but a note saying that, due to New Zealand being on lockdown, they cannot ship anything out nor build anything. So they’ve taken down their website in order to give it a revamp. Bummer.

Four dots ellipses are a perfectly valid and very useful form of punctuation. They are less commonly seen than the semicolon and often used incorrectly even when they are used. But, they do exist!

I’ve personally seen Reeves in direct sunlight. I also have friends and acquaintances who’ve seen Rudd in direct sunlight. So, not exactly the strongest proof, but good enough for me to rule out vampirism. (Bram Stoker style vampires could go out in the daylight, true, but they also couldn’t cross running water or be photographed. Obviously, both men have been filmed and photographed extensively. Also, Keanu surfs.)

Ladies and gentlenerds, Week 5 of quarantine painting has a seriously intimidating new challenger.

Better, actually.

@Weav would later tonight work? Say, 8-ish?

Paul Rudd and Keanu Reeves are Highlander-style Immortals. This is why they have never appeared in a film together, it’s too risky during the time of the Gathering.

Behold, the greatest asset in the Great Lakes Avengers’ crime-fighting arsenal: the Quinjetta*: And here we see Baron Zemo having harsh words with the driver of the work in progress Gypsy Cab: * No, really, that’s a totally canonical thing.

Broken cobblestones aren’t exactly a problem either, seeing as bricks do break in real life.

How many of you are ready to help me sock old Adolf on the jaw?

Those are the real covers of Action Comics (Vol. 1) #1 and Detective Comics (Vol. 1) #27, the debut issues of Superman and the Batman; because even if this is a Marvel game, I’ve got to keep the faith as a loyal DC aficionado. Plus the real cover of Men’s Health (July 2019), with Anthony Mackie on the cover wearing a Captain America tank-top under the headline “Who is the New Captain America?” And the fake ‘Tony Stark Wants to Save the World’ cover of Rolling Stone from the original Iron Man movie and the Daily Bugle reward for Spidey pics from the first Sam Rami Spider-Man film.

“So, Ordo Fanaticus – My spies tell me you are accustomed to paying tribute to a superior psionic mind that sits upon a golden chair! That should make it easy to adapt yourselves to serving me as your new overload!”

DAS what I’m talkin’ about!

Hope your all having a pleasant Passover and/or Easter and/or National Pet Day.

Added a few finishing touches to my newsstand. Bonus Nerd Points to anyone who can identify the real magazines and comics on the rack.

It’s a lot of fun and not a bad value for the dollar. The core boxed set retails for $100, comes with ten characters*, and a nice collection of terrain. No game mat or anything, which is a bit of a bummer, but that’s about the only thing I have to nitpick. Additional characters are sold as singles (for large characters like Hulk and M.O.D.O.K) or two-packs (for standard-sized characters like Thor and Valkyrie). Usually around $35 a pack. Character packs also include extra tokens, new mission cards, and new tactics cards, so you get quite a bit of stuff. Gameplay is pretty simple too, not simplistic mind you, but certainly a lot more approachable than something like Necromunda or Warhammer 40,000. Sort of like Gaslands, in that the foundational aspects of gameplay can be explained in about 5-10 minutes. The rest of the games’ strategic decisions and nuances will emerge quickly during ones first game. There’s also a lot of depth in here too, with a small (but growing) community already arguing about meta-tactics and math-hammer. Plus, given the sheer pop culture presence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe these last few years, it’s a great potential “gateway game” for introducing people to miniature wargaming. When Grandfather Nurgle has been defeated and we can return to the clubhouse, I’d be more than happy to run demos. * Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Spider-Man; Baron Zemo, Crossbones, Doctor Octopus, Red Skull, and Ultron.

Not a drop of paint on him yet, but I just want to share the glorious ridiculousness (and ridiculous gloriousness) that is M.O.D.O.K.! How can you not love it, it’s everything great about Jack Kirby rendered in nearly 70 mm of lovely grey plastic. The sculpt perfectly captures the gonzo weird science of Kirby, almost all of the sprues’ contact points are cleverly hidden by the way the bitz join together, as are most of the seam lines... and that malicious sneer is just great. And he’s massive! Not counting the rock that acts as her flying stand, Captain Marvel is about 45 mm; Generic Red Tactical Marine is about 35 mm; Hulk is about 65 mm (he’d probably be over 70 mm standing up straight); M.O.D.O.K. without his flight stand is 45 mm...

The idea seems to be to discourage cookie-cutter, net-list, Win At All Costs style armies... Which I think we can all agree is a laudable goal. But perhaps this was an over correction. Maybe some sort of bonus points awarded to teams that field armies of diverse factions, as an incentive to encourage the practice but without making it mandatory? Teams fielding themed collective armies wouldn’t get those points, but would theoretically make it up in a sportsmanship or best theme sort of award.