Well, after an very long and unexpected hiatus, I'm back with some photos of Copplestone Castings Barbarian Heroes. These are some seriously beautiful sculpts that I used as practice on shading of skin tones.

It's been nearly a year since I last painted a 15mm miniature, primarily due to a complete lack of time to paint. That, and I inadvertently created a monster by introducing mt son to the world of wargaming (Warhammer 40k in his case) and painting miniatures. I can't even get near the paint table these days! Sheesh.

While I haven't been painting 15s, I have been painting miniatures for Steve Jackson Games Ogre and Starfire Design Studio's Starfire. I've been debating whether to display photos of those here as I envisioned this blog showcasing 15s. Thoughts are welcome. ;-)

I made some time to actually play some games lately. I've really developed a liking for Legion Wargames'Target for Today. The game is the spiritual successor of B-17 Queen of the Skies. In Target for Today, you play the part of a crew of an American bomber as you carry out the bombing campaign against the Nazis. The game is different in that you really have no control over what happens. You are simply along for the ride, carrying out the missions assigned to you and reacting to what happens. The game is a bit repetitive, but I think that goes a long way to portraying the "99% boredom/1% sheer terror" aspect of war. I've started a campaign following the crew of the B-17F "Miss Pfitt". You can see their first mission here at Board Game Geek.

That's it for now!

No miniatures in this update, but I have had the opportunity to play some games this month. I've posted a game play review of Victory Point Games' Gem Rush on the Boardgame Geek April Solitaire Games On Your Table list here. I also had a chance to play some of Gamelyn Games Tiny Epic Kingdoms and Tiny Epic Defenders, but did not get the chance to write up any After Action Reports or reviews.

What I am most excited about is I have expanded the Two Hour Wargames page with my first installment in the All Things Zombie universe. Lock 'N Load Publishing has collaborated with Two Hour Wargames to port the All Things Zombie miniatures game into a miniatures-compatible board game called All Things Zombie: Reloaded I've started a Campaign called "The Trials of Tanya" and have posted my first AAR/walkthrough. It's a long read, but it is a pretty detailed walkthrough of my first ATZ:R game.

I hope you enjoy the reads!

Wow. Talk about life getting in front of pleasure. 2015 began with the great Pipe Break and Identity Theft Caper (not related to each other) from which we are still recovering from. Add to that completing my son's homeschooling, getting him in college, re-purposing the classroom, and a zillion other drags on my leisure time, and I didn't have a chance to do much painting or gaming last year.

I did manage to go to Texicon 2015 and enjoy myself playing games and watching my son get bitten by the tabletop gaming bug. Painter Shannon Stiltz even talked me into entering my Maelee MicroBabe into the painting competition. I didn't place (big surprise since I didn't know I was competing until about 30 seconds before I submitted my miniature), but it was very rewarding to realize a professional painter thought my work was good enough for a competition. It was equally rewarding to hear the positive feedback from the judges. I'm thinking about giving it an honest go this year.

Other than Texicon, no real gaming this year. Most frustrating.

I've updated the Miniatures page with some Lone Gunman Games' Amazons and Highlander Studio's Zombie Rednecks. I actually finished these in November and December, respectfully, but haven't had time to take photos. I hope you enjoy them!

More zombies from the Two Hour Wargames Indiegogo and Bombshell Miniatures' MicroBabe Set 1.

Hey, these were March's project - and I actually finished them in March! Who'd have thunk it possible?

Finished January's - I mean, February's - project. Being iced into my house helped immensely. Thank goodness for global warming!

I added some pictures to the Miniatures page. Mostly sculpts from Rod Campbell of Highlander Studios and a Civilian Hunters set from Rebel Minis.

Finally finished December's painting project. The Firemen took a lot more time to paint than I expected. Check out the miniatures page to see the latest additions to my zombie apocalypse miniatures. All of the miniatures are available from Rebel Minis.

Putting the finishing touches on my latest set of zombie apocalypse survivors. Four Firefighters left to paint, then I can move on to basing them.

I managed to play a game of Two Hour Wargames' dungeon crawl game 2 Hour Dungeon Crawl over the New Year's break. I've added a Two Hour Wargames page to the blog home page and included an after action report of Wallace's trip into the Orc's Lair.

Bunch of new photos on the Miniatures page. Back in the early summer of 2013 I participated in the Two Hour Wargames "All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out Minis & More" crowd funding campaign. This was only my second crowd funding campaign (the first being the 2012 Steve Jackson Games Ogre Designer's Edition Kickstarter), and I was very pleased with the results. The THW High Rise to Hell scenario book and cards are great additions to the game, and Rod Campbell of Highlander Studios did his usual excellent job of sculpting the miniatures. Now, if I can only figure out the lighting so I can take some decent photos....

Pretty busy November with work and homeschooling. Worked on some miniatures (more survivors and their zombie incarnations) and actually got to play some games. I subscribe to the Boardgame Geek "Solitaire Games on Your Table" Geeklist, which is where solitaire gamers report what they've been up to. November was my first go at posting on the list and I thought I'd provide links to those posts in lieu of recopying them here:

Darkest Night
War of the Worlds
Fortune and Glory
Astra Titanus

I've also had the opportunity to read a bunch of books. I cannot rave enough about Chris Philbrook's "Adrian's Undead Diary" series. They're sitting on my book shelf waiting to be read again. More on my latest readings on the Books page.

I hope to kick off either a Two Hour Wargames Larger than Life/Adventures in the Lost Lands campaign or an All Things Zombie campaign later this month while I'm on vacation. I've figured out how to link between visible and hidden pages on this blog, so that will support that effort. If all goes well, this blog will start to live up to its goal to promote the games I enjoy.

Wow. Been kind of crazy lately. I finally finished the project I started back in June. Take a look on the Miniatures page to see my attempts to paint some more of Rebel Minis modern zombies.

High School of the Dead time, folks! I love that anime series. Check out the Miniatures page to see what's happening at the High School. Better bring your dancing shoes....

I also updated the Books page with some of my latest reads.

Wow.  What a crazy summer.  First, my wife and son head out of town to run a Science summer camp and take my camera, so I couldn't take any photos of the miniatures I've been painting.  Then, there was the out-of-town wedding for an in-law I didn't know (that was actually a pretty good time, come to think of it).  Then there was Texicon 2014 (my first game convention - more on that later).  Then, my son was invited to the Johnson Space Center in Houston as part of his participation in the NASA High School Aerospace Scholars program (that necessitated a trip to Houston for the closing ceremony).  Somewhere in all of that, I managed to finish painting another group of Zombies and a dragon (the largest miniature I've ever painted).

The NASA trip and Texicon were definitely the high points.

Not much to say about the NASA trip other than if you live in Texas and have a High School Junior interested in Engineering or working at NASA, look into it.

I've never been to a game convention before Texicon as I usually find out about them after the fact.  What a hoot!  I played games I probably never would have, met people I would never have met, and had the opportunity to sit knee-to-knee with a professional miniatures painter for over an hour getting pointers on how to improve my miniatures, specifically how to paint eyes and lips to give my miniatures more character. She made it look so simple...I guess we'll see.

I had the opportunity to play a couple of games based on Two Hour Wargames' Adverntures in the Lost Lands, Larger than Life and Colonial Adventures.  The first game had four of us searching the jungles of Nobelonga for a rare flower.  Never found the flower, but we did run into King Kong, some native Shamen and their monstrous constructs, and a whole lot of ticked off natives.

The second game was based on Larger than Life.  Set in 1920s central Africa, the four of us controlled different groups of characters.  I played a despicable Boer slaver.  We were all looking for a lost temple to loot.  For some reason, Tarzan and his wingman (wing lion?) took a dislike of me and harassed me mercilessly throughout the game.  Giant spiders, Ape men, crocodiles and shamen threatened us all the way to the temple.  We never did get to loot the temple as all of us died (Curse you, Tarzan!) except for the female Belgian double agent, who was taken by a giant ape and subsequently rescued by Tarzan.

I played a good game of Empire Builder (think Railroad Tycoon on the table top) and had an unbelievable time playing Twilight Creation's Zombies! with author Chris Philbrook, whom I met during the convention.  I've nearly finished Book One of his Adrian's Undead Diary series and will probably jump right into Book 2.  I'll have to order the follow on books this weekend.  If you like Zombies and The Walking Dead, you'd probably like Chris' books.

The most important "event" of the convention was my son getting out of his comfort zone and jumping into playing games with people he'd just met.  I may have created a monster as he spent over 7 hours at the local game store last weekend during their open gaming hours and just reminded me that we missed a War Machine event tonight.  <sigh>

So, I've got my camera back and if all goes well I'll try to post some photos of my latest round of miniatures this weekend.

Giants, Ogres, Trolls, Giant Spiders, three headed dogs, bears, wolves, snakes, Ratmen and Elementals have been added to the Miniatures page.  Also a blurb on the book I just finished.

Updated the Miniatures page with Martian Metals Skeletons and Gargoyles.  Also added a Sea Story and a blurb on the book I just finished reading.

Just updated the Miniatures page with Martian Metals Orcs, Goblins and Hobgoblins. Hope you enjoy!

Just updated my Miniatures page with photos of Armies of Arcana Snakemen, Black Raven Foundry Lizardmen, and a variety of Martian Metals miniatures.

Hi.  My name is Scott Chisholm, and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.  I got the idea of starting a blog from some forums I frequent.  I thought I might post after action reports of the games I play.  That led me to thinking it might be a nice place to discuss the miniatures I've collected (and still do, but don't tell my wife!) as a public service to folks who might also collect miniatures.  Finally, I wanted a place to put my recollections of my time in the Navy.

In any event, if you've found yourself here, I hope you enjoy yourself.  This is very much a work in progress, and we'll see how it goes.