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.