Monday, November 6, 2017

Making a Dream a Reality

Over the years my Pops and I had discussed his dream game space. I intend to make most of this dream a reality over the next 12 to 18 months.

Down one side there will be separate workbenches for painting and making terrain. Down the other side there will be miniature cases and terrain storage.

There should be two table tennis/ping-pong tables for gaming on; my Dad really thought that these were the way forward with their ample 5x9 foot play space, then when put together they give you an 18ft long table for massive multi-player games. The other plus side is that they fold and have wheels for easy movement and storage.

The walls themselves should be half paneled to avoid damage from moving things around in the space. The upper part of the walls should have a stone texture pattern painted on them to resemble a castle/dungeon. (I think this is cool but its gonna take forever so may just start out with grey walls)
There should be a TV and stereo in the space for visual and audio entertainment while gaming. This will be a long and ongoing project for the foreseeable future, but is totally going to be worth it in the end.

Until next time may your dice roll hot!
-Jim

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Big Daddy Jim's Gaming Legendarium

I grew up in wargaming, my Father was a gamer and all through my youth he would host games in our garage or at game conventions wherever we lived. He was a larger than life fellow that made every gaming experience a unique one with its own special flavor. Telling a story on the tabletop was always his goal whether it be a historical refight between Hannibal and his enemies or in some fantastical far off land.

Back in those hallowed days of the 70’s & 80’s there were not many shops where you could physically play within the store, almost everything was garage gaming. It was much more personal than it is for most people today. You were gaming with people that very quickly became close friends or disappeared as fast as they arrived. I can remember when my dad would want to venture into a new gaming genre him leaving our phone number on a message board in the local shops, so we could find likeminded gamers. Running games at the local conventions was also paramount as it always lead to new people to game with. 

So now that I have shared a little piece of my personal gaming history with you, let’s get on to the concept behind what I will be doing with the blog going forward. My father passed away this past January and I have been soul searching a way to preserve and further his gaming legacy. I have decided to recreate the more intimate and personal feel of wargaming that I grew up with. I am slowly but surely setting my garage up to be a gaming destination as my fathers was growing up.

I will be playing games with old and new friends alike then document them here for all to see. I play a plethora of games spanning many genres from biblical ancients to the Dark Ages to the 20th century to fantasy & Sci-Fi worlds.

I will also be sharing more history about my dad and wargaming throughout the past 4 decades. I will also share what the name Gaming Legendarium means in a later post.

Cheers
Big Jim Jr

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Making bases for the Reapers



When the Soul Reapers were replaced Mr Justin at Secret Weapon Miniatures donated bases for the rebuild. To which I am very grateful for, however since that time GW has moved Marines from 25mm bases to 32mm bases; I would just purchases 32mm bases from him as replacements however I am totally strapped for funds right now, so have decided to make my own replacements.

I am using Sculpey clay to sculpt the base tops; Sculpey is a work into shape clay that you bake to harden once ready. Here are the initial test bases raw and cut to size.




Here are the same bases painted with some WiP Reapers on them.


Here are a couple compared to a 40mm SWM resin base



They are a little rough, the next batch will be a bit thinner with crisper lines, but they will work very well in the long run.

Until next time!

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Lord of the Reapers Table Ready



The Soul Reapers rebuild is officially under way, as last night I finished up painting my conversion for Krüg the Beheader the Warlord of the army. 






My buddy even made a Datasheet with his narrative gaming stats
 



Next up will be a squad of Chaos Space Marines kitbased together from the Mk 4, Mk 3 and CSM model kits.




Until next time…..

Monday, July 10, 2017

Tap, tap, tap, is this thing on?



Hello to anyone still listening out there, I know it’s been a long bout of silence with small busts of static. I am going to try once again to start posting content, the last yeah has been the worst nightmarish year of my life and I need an outlet to post my thoughts.

The last time I posted was when I started my Horus Heresy era Space Wolves, the week after I posted my little sister died due to problems in child birth. This was horrifying and obviously derailed my hobby. I spent the next few months helping and consoling my nieces and nephew. The holidays were really tough as well, but we made it through sharing fantastic memories of my sister I cannot remember the last time we laughed so much at Christmas. It truly felt like things were finally turning the corner.


We had a fantastic New Years eve as well we even streamed with my Pop from his place in Panama. It was awesome filled with joy and laughter, we decided to make this a new tradition. Two days later it felt like the world was ending, we got the news that my Father had passed away. I still have numb days over this, my Pop was my rock and inspiration when It comes to the hobby and gaming.


My Dad started me off in this hobby young I was rolling dice for him by age 6 and painting minis by age 8, the thought of not participating in the wargaming hobby has never crossed my mind, it is a part of life for me just like breathing. It’s been 7 months I still keenly feel his loss, but it’s time to start gaming and painting in a serious way again.


I have plenty of projects I would like to complete to play games in my father’s memory. These span the entirety of history within gaming from the Ancient world to the jungles of the Vietnam War. It is going to be an emotional fun filled ride for sure.


On the positive side of things we now have a fantastic 40k gaming reboot with the release of 8th edition, I think it’s finally time to get the Soul Reapers rebuilt and painted. I owe this to the fantastic folks that contributed the models for it. In fact I have been painting the Lord of the Reapers and he’s almost finished here's a sneak peek! 



Until next time…..