Audio Drama's

Audio Drama's....

Today I purchased a Games Workshop Audio Drama.  Curiosity was killing me.  I grew up listening to radio drama's and wanted the same experience that I had when I was a kid.   This post is a review and comparison of two audio drama's.

The one I purchased today is from Games Workshop's Black Library division Red & Black, written by James Swallow and performed by Beth Chalmers and Lisa Bowerman.

When I read the cover, that it was performed by only two people, I was skeptical of how well it would be produced.  I'm pretty sure that the production quality would have been good as far as sound quality, etc., after all it is a Games Workshop production.  My concern was with it actually not being a radio drama or radio play that I remember from my childhood.

I will be comparing this radio drama to the radio drama produced by Noise Monster Productions series, based on the RPG Space 1889. Unfortunately I cannot provide a link, as their site is down and they are no longer available for purchase (that I can find except for eBay). The production value on these was phenomenal. It was like listening to your radio back in the 1930’s and 40’s. Before TV ruined it all.

The drama starts off with a narration of how the Sisters of Battle came into being. Not sure who Games Workshop thought their target audience is for these, but I would think that people who play or at least read about Warhammer 40,000 would also be picking this item up as well. But then if someone who is not fan picks it up, then having the intro gives the listener a reason for why the Sisters of Battle “Are”.....

The Narrator talks through 80% of the story, with only about 20% being actual “acting”.

I was very disappointed by this. What I would really like for Games Workshop to do is to create a real, and I mean 1930’s type real audio drama. I want a movie without the visuals, I want to hear feet running and actors/characters speaking like they would in the book and the Narration should only take up 10-15% of the actual speaking. EVERYTHING ELSE should be sound effects, etc. I remember when I collected comic books and actually met Stan Lee 30 years ago, he stated that the writer of the comic AND the artist working together should allow the reader to understand the story without reading a word….

That was very powerful and is what made Marvel a powerhouse, dwarfing DC for years.

That is what I want in an Audio drama. I want a 2 hour movie without the visuals and be able to “see” the action in my mind just from the character interaction and the sound effects should tell the whole story.

I also have purchased The Ascension of Balthasar.. and again was sorely disappointed. It states two disks, so I thought, 2 disks worth of audio drama… NOPE!

So fool me once Games Workshop, shame on you… fool me twice, shame on me.

I won’t be purchasing ANY more Audio Drama’s from Games Workshop.

I do hope that one day they actually do what I want in an Audio Drama and I get some really good “radio” to listen to while I’m painting their miniatures.

TTFN.

What my painting looks like...

Since I've stated I've been painting, I thought I'd share some photo's. My Necron's have had a coat of Boltgun Metal for about a year now. I started putting a heavy dry brush of GW's Chainmail to give it some highlights. I'll be following that up with a very light Mithril Silver on just the high area's that might get some light. That should make the POP a little. With all the Necrons I have though, it's tough... ie monotonous.

You can also see the Vampire Evil Cossack Guards in the mix as well as some Warhammer Tomb Kings, part of a Carniflex, the actual Vampires for the Evil Cossacks to Guard, a Mage Knight figure that needs Fixin' and an AT-43 Red Block that needs fixin too.

Some Necrons wait in silence... waiting for the stroke of Chainmail :D

And those that have received the stroke...

And the Ultimate Necron....

I finished my Werewolves a while ago (along with their wolf "henchmen" that I can sacrifice during a game of Chaos in Carpathia as needed.

Painting Again

It’s been a while. Trying to get the Real Estate Business up and running along with the Day Job has been a massive Time Sink.

In order to try to get some stress relief I started watching Mini Wargaming Dot Com terrain videos. I really like how Dave and Matt put the time and effort into creating the video’s that they do. Unfortunately to get the video’s first hand, you have to belong to their Vault, and I’m a little too cheap for that. So I have to wait. I do purchase the DVD collections that they come up with and they are quite good and definitely worth the money.

So, what am I painting?

I’m trying to get my Cossack Dracula Guards (by Old Glory Miniatures) ready to use with Chaos in Carpathia. (Highly recommended ruleset btw).

While I wait for the paint to dry on those mini’s, I am drybrushing GW’s Chainmail onto my Necrons to give them some highlights. Since I purchased the large battleforce that GW does not offer anymore, I have 90 warriors, a Necron Lord, 6 Destroyers, and a Monolith. That’s a lot of dry brushing. Hell that was a lot of Bolt Gun metal over Chaos Black....

Where does the Time Go?

Jeesh.

Been Months since I wrote something here.

With the move almost 16 months ago, I am still unorganized and have not had the gumption to get oranized.

I built my great countertop in the bonus room and now it sits covered with “stuff”.

My employer wants me to work from home on Fridays, working later into the evening for those “OMG!!” circumstances that happen now and again. In order to set this up, I had to eat away more of my precious countertop/desk space for a 2nd monitor and computer hook up. Of course if I take time off from work to deal with it (ie straighten it out and clean up the wires, etc) my Significant Other will want to go out of town, or I really don’t see it as being “away” from work.

So the depression sets in from not being able to hobby or game and it just sits....

But I still buy stuff and it gets added to the pile of stuff I still need to organize and work on..... (Lather, Rinse, Repeat)

A real bright spot is that I’m actually starting to work on the engineering behind actually making the display boards that I’ve been creating for my own troops for the masses. My eldest likes helping here because it takes engineering and that is what is wants to study as a career. We bounce ideas for stuff off of each other as I make mock-ups of what the final product should look like. Mmmm Mmmm GOOD!

AT-43

If you've been watching the Gaming News, then you have heard that Rackham Entertainment is being liquidated. Hopefully another company will pick up the IP for both AT-43 and Confrontation.

Mix that with a shop in Redmond Washington called Games and Gizmos that had a 1/4 wall of AT-43 they were trying to get rid of at 30% off.

I had been in buying a little at a time..... then I took a Real Estate Class and the montra was "ask for the discount".

So when we (the mrs and I) were in and I was going to get some more, my MRS. asked "if he buys it all, can we get an extra discount"..... Well the woman who was helping us had "decision making authority" so it wound up being a really NICE DISCOUNT. So I purchased the whole lot. Most were Karman and Therian with some UNA and Red Block intermixed.

I feel bad kinda because I know they lost money on that deal, but then business decisions need to be made (so they can put up stock that will actually move). So I purchased Pulp Monster's Pulp City boxed Sets of the Heroe's and Villans at full retail, and I'll be back for more.

But Here's the mix of AT-43 items (unboxed, magnetized and marked for identification)



And yes, I've been absent for a bit (gee is that a surprise?) but I burned out at work and tried for another position, didn't get it but got another one. So things have settled down, which means (hopefully) that I'll be able to put more time into my Favorite hobby as well as this blog.

GW's Army Painting Contest

My local GW (the only LGS near me) is having a contest. You choose one of the Space Marine Chapters listed on a poster they have hanging in the store, purchase a box of Space Marines in Power Armor (no Terminators or Scouts because they have “Terminator Armor” and “Scout Armor”), then paint them up to look like the chapter you chose. Then one model from each chapter will be placed in a display case with the person who painted it and the chapter listed. The one unit that is voted “best painted” will get to create their own chapter and that will replace the “erased” listed on the poster hanging in the store. AND the life size model of the Space Marine that is the Icon of the store will be repainted with those colors chosen by the person who wins.

My Wife deiced that the whole family should get involved. At first I thought we’d pick one Chapter and then we’d all paint our units to look the same, but then only 1 model get’s in the case.... so we all picked a chapter and a unit box of 5 models. My wife wants to have some sort of posterity in the store since I spend so much $$ on GW products, this way we support the store community and not just the store.

I chose the Black Dragons. Not my first choice, but the Grey Knights were already taken. I will painting a Devastator Squad.
My wife chose the Hawk Lords, mainly because they were purple.... and a Combat Squad to paint.
Eldest chose Knights of the Raven and will painting up a Sternguard Veteran Squad
Middle Child chose Salamanders and will painting an Assault Squad.
Youngest chose Death Eagles and will be painting up a Combat Squad.

The only obstacle I can see hitting is the logo’s of each of the Armies above since GW does not produce emblems for each and every Chapter they list. I know that The Bolter & Chainsword Forums have dedicated members who create downloadable images that can be used to print out the decals on transfer paper. Since I have a color laser printer, I’m hoping to obtain some decal paper and actually try printing them out and seeing how it works to actually put them on... freehand painting that small is extremely hard and I really don’t have the time or inclination to do so.

At The Moment, my middle son is the one most enthusiastic about this endeavor. I’m really swamped at work, coming home and putting in another 3-4 hours remotely. Nice that I can do from the comfort of my own home, but it cuts into family time.... which my wife considers this event. A chance to have our family do something together and encourage each other to complete the task. My youngest and eldest are not that enthalled and are like “sure Mom”.... while still sitting at the computer playing Modern Warfare 2.... when she says we should start working on them. My wife has not been enthralled in the past with doing this type of hobby, but she’s grown to it and really wants to learn how to build/paint the miniatures. I’m hoping I have the patience to do it.

As I stated my Middle Son is the most enthusiastic. When he goes to play at the GW, people treat him as a fellow gamer and they don’t judge him based on his Autism, they judge him on how good a player he is. While he loses almost all games (he’s probably 5 wins to 100 loses, but he really get’s into the game and when he has his Warboss declare a WAAAAAGH... my son does just that..... at the top of his lungs he bellows out “WAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!” It is awesome and since he hasn’t been able to go and play, the store personnel and other gamers always ask if he’s coming back to play since they miss his antics acting like an Ork. I’m glad he’s found a place where he’s accepted.

-TTFN-

On my way....

With the new house, I've stated that I should be hobby-ing and playing very soon.

Well, the first few steps have been completed. I already spoke of the workshop... that's coming along wonderfully. Just need to be better organized on what goes in there and what goes in.....

My new HOBBY ROOM!!!

I put up a kitchen countertop to use as a desk/hobby table. And it is WONDERFUL. Just got it up today and got my MAC setup and all... HMM HMM GOOD! Take a look!







Now there's plenty of room to work from home (as necessary) AND be able to build, paint, etc.... The Room is now a disaster area (had to move a bookcase) with books, old desk, etc taking up lots of room. I need to move the display cases so they actually look good in the room, etc and have room for the bookshelf for all the rulebooks, etc.

I'm also designing two gaming tables that will go in the room so we have a place to actually play. I'll be making them modular in nature so if necessary they can either fold up or be attached together depending on the size of the game played...

Come to think of it, having six 2x2' tables instead of two 4x6' tables. I haven't decided yet. I'm mainly thinking that since I own a Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard from Games Workshop, it is 4x6' at it's largest size, with each tile being 2x2'. But Ex-Illis can come with a bunch of 1x1' tiles to make a battle board.... so I'm torn. But 2x2' would be a single GW tile or 4 Ex-Illis tiles.

Guess I'll be hitting various games forums to see what sizes are normal for certain games (I know that for 40k, WFB, AT-43 and Confrontation that bigger most of the time is better.) Some games like Warmachine are determined by the size of the Battle. Of course I'm going off of the original Prime book and not the Latest MKII rules. I'll be getting those once all the army books are out and I can just grab everything all at once.

But then I have games like Monsterpocalypse.... while technically a miniature game, it has a predetermined size map.... I've thought about actually creating modular maps for the game based on the size of the squares, but have not figured out how to lock them together. Once I figure that out... booyah! Plenty of that type of Gaming Goodness will be happening.

Then I also play Old West games like Gutshot Cowboy Wars, and Tombstones and Tumbleweeds. They can take decent size tables, especially when doing a reproduction of an authentic old west town.

Now a game like Chaos in Carpathia and its sci-fi version, Chaos on Chronos, can be played on a 2x2' or 4x4' play space.

See the dilemma on the table creation?

I'm sure I'll figure it out and it will be AWESOME!

Stay tuned for more awesome stuff coming down the pipe.