Unboxing Privateer Press' Widower's Wood Game

Unlucky me.  World's biggest reptile men fan.  Huge Hordes Minions fan because of the Gatormen, giant acid spitting turtles and other denizens of the swamp.  Hater of metal miniatures.  Misser of the Widower's Wood Kickstarter featuring plastic Hordes Minions.

I remember searching the internet one night in April of 2017 and running into the Widower's Wood Kickstarter of March 2016 and seeing all those plastic Kickstarter exclusive Bog Trogs, Gatormen and reptilian war beasts.  That night I decided I must have that Kickstarter Exclusive set... At any cost!!!

Well, June of 2017 rolled around and someone named Pops heavily overpaid for the Widower's Wood Kickstarter Exclusive set (at the cost of trading an entire Forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg platoon  with a Demolisher and Sentinel).  Enough about poor me.  Let's get to the unboxing of this awesome set.

Big, big box.  I hit the Kickstarter Exclusive box first.

Extra missions and character cards for the Kickstarter Exclusive heroes.  Oddly, the Kickstarter Exclusive figures were put in the box nude without a plastic bag.  None of them were damaged though (however, my Wrastler was missing his Ironback Spitter shell on his shoulder (PP sent me a replacement for free)).  Here are the Kickstarter Exclusive figures:

The figures are made of a much harder plastic than the Undercity figures and Unleashed figures and are the same size as their Warmahordes counterparts.

Here's shoulder-to-shoulder Warmahordes and Widower's Wood Wrastlers:

Next I opened the actual Widower's Wood game itself.

The board is made of really heavy, nice cardboard.  It'll last a long time.  All the cards have great artwork.

I ended the opening bonanza by opening the Dead Men Walking expansion set.

All the cardboard counters are printed on the same heavy cardboard as the main board.  Ignore the Start Your Own Business book in the background of the picture lol.  Someday I'll have my own game company muwahahahaha!!! 

I'm not going to lie, I'm probably never going to play the game.  Acquiring Widower's Wood was all for the plastic miniatures.  That said, there won't be a review of the game itself.  But the minis and quality of the game materials make Widower's Wood an exceptional game set to me.  I started painting the Ironback Spitter so you can expect a blog entry about my work on it in the near future. Also, I'm getting rid of some of the miniatures I'm not interested in on eBay, and you can check them out here.

Here are some of my favorites from the game.  First, Rasheldonak the Warlock.

Next, the Tatzylwurm Heavy War Beast.

And what's a swamp adventure without zombie Bog Trog Shamblers?

Finally, the game's protagonist, Olo, the Croak Raider.

Thanks for the read, and when Widower's Wood hits the shelf, go grab yourself a copy for some Hordes Minion Swamp Action Love!!!

Newest Project: Hordes Minion Circle Orboros Battle Box

Hey Guys,

Quick post of what I'm working on now before we head out to cousin's family's (his wife's brother has a JD now) law school graduation celebration.  Got these guys in a trade for a squad of MK III space marines from the Prospero box set.

Having a pretty fun time getting these guys painted.

My Next Project: Hordes Minions Gatorman Posse

Got another project finished earlier this week.  These guys took about two weeks to complete.  Before I even start talking about them, I have to admit I am exhausted.  Some dude's car alarm had a problem and every two hours (or when the wind blew), it went off.  Gotta love apartment life.  Finally at 6am, I couldn't fall back asleep again. 

As to the Gators, I pretty much used the same painting technique and paints as I did for the Wrastler, layers of inks and dry brushing.  Damn there goes that God awful alarm again.

Like the Wrastler, these guys had some gaps that needed filling.  I used green stuff on the gaps, as in the below.  Privateer miniatures, while sculpted awesomely well, have lots of flash.  That had to be removed with an Xacto knife.

Once cleaned, filled and prepped, they were ready for priming, which was done with Tamiya grey primer.  And then after they dried, they got a layer of flat Tamiya dark yellow.

About three successive layers of green ink was applied to the Gator skin.

Three successive layers of black ink on the back scales.  Brown ink on the Gator bellies.

Mouths and teeth were done in the same manner as the Wrastler.   Mouths were a red ink/white paint mix with a wash of diluted red ink and then dry brush of much lighter red ink/ white paint mix.  Teeth were painted bleached bone, washed with brown ink and then dry brushed with bleached bone.  Pole arms had two layers of brown ink with a gold layer on the blades, then for the blades, followed by a heavy layer of brown ink and a dry brush of bronze.

Eyes took forever.  Yellow layer paint with a black iris. Claws bleached bone, brown ink and bleached bone dry brush.

For the head dress on the leader, I paid homage to the Blackhawks for the feathers and painted them red, yellow, green and orange.  First I painted the feathers a base layer of those colors.  Next I inked them, using green for the green, light brown for the orange, red for the red and light brown for the yellow.  The feathers were then dry brushed lighter respective shades of their colors.  Finally, I added a second dry brush layer for each of the feathers; really light green for the green feather, white for the yellow feather, orange for the red feather and yellow for the orange feather.

And there you have it, a painted Gatorman posse to join the Wrastler.  I picked up some Circle of Orboros minis in a trade and have started them.  As a result, expect a Circle post in the near future. Thanks for the read. 

USPS Denies Insurance Claim; Slurpee Mishap

No surprise here.  The insurance claim for the broken Warmahordes miniatures was denied.  I waited 4 days for a letter explaining why it was denied.  Evidently, it was denied because the proof submitted to substantiate the value of the claim was insufficient.  The letter stated this:

That's some pretty tough crap to overcome.  I traded miniatures for miniatures.  The letter went on to state:

 

Hmmm... Again, it was a trade of miniatures for miniatures, so there's no receipt or evidence of payment.  I tried to get around this by sending an appeal with prices of completed eBay auctions like this:

I even submitted before and after pictures to buttress the claim:

And... No success on the appeal:(

I'm not willing to give up on this and have created an itemized receipt listing the value of the items traded for and the items traded to my trading partner.  I'm just waiting for receipt of the signed receipt from my trading partner.  Once received, I'll submit a second appeal and keep you guys updated.

On a lighter note, an incident from Seven Eleven last night shows why you need to carefully watch your children at all times.  I let my youngest one get a Slurpee by herself, turned around to grab some Slurpee straws and look what happened:

Damn that was a mess... And being the good parent that I am, I decided to take a picture of the situation getting worse rather than helping her lol.  Luckily the clerk just didn't care.  Have a good one today.

USPS Damaged Mail Claim:(

I spent a good portion of the weekend negotiating a miniatures trade involving my new on sprue Tyranid army, new on sprue Tau Riptide, new Iron Kingdoms Unleashed Game for a used/built/primed Hordes/Warmachine lot that includes the Gatorman Sacral Vault, Croak Raiders, Retribution figures, Khador figures and Trollblood figures.  I was pretty excited about the trade because I'm really getting into Warmachine/Hordes, and with the job situation, can't afford to buy the miniatures.  We both shipped U.S. Priority Mail on Monday.

My trading partner got his package in good shape yesterday, and I excitedly went to the mail room of my complex to get my box after work.  I picked up the box and could hear lots of parts shifting around.  Not a good sign.

I opened the box and to my dismay, many of the miniatures were broken.  Some were broken beyond repair...

Not only that, the key pieces to the deal that I received, the Gatormen miniatures were completely destroyed.  Felt like a good kick to the gut.  Luckily my trading partner insured the box of miniatures.

 

We went back and forth with e-mails, and he feels really bad about the situation and is willing to help me in any way possible.  I spent well into the wee hours this morning completing a damaged mail claim on the USPS website.  I'm absolutely exhausted this morning.

Filing a claim was a pretty straight-forward process.  I entered the insurance number/tracking number, my trading partner's contact information, the date of the shipment, evidence showing the value of the damaged goods and evidence of my damaged goods. 

Determining the value of my damaged miniatures was particularly tricky and time consuming because it was a trade and not a purchase.  As a result, I couldn't produce a receipt or eBay auction price details.  In the end, I had to go to two major war game web store sites, Miniatures Market and the War Store, to take screenshots of the miniatures I received and then come up with a lower value since I traded for used miniatures.  I then submitted the screenshots in my claim.

We'll see how the process goes... I need some sleep.   

Update: It continues Here.

My Latest Project: Hordes Minions Blindwater Congregation Gatormen Blackhide Wrastler

When I'm not job searching or working remotely, what am I doing?  Building and painting miniatures of course!  My latest project is the Blackhide Wrastler/Blindwalker from Privateer Press' Hordes game.  Who doesn't think giant muscled gatormen wearing gimp masks are cool?

I've been assembling and painting for over 30 years.  I remember how it all started.  Dad got me one of those cheap party-favor WWII soldier sets from Toys R Us.   I was instantly hooked on the mini olive green Japanese soldiers, dark grey Germans, burnt red Russians, forest green Americans and beige British dudes contained therein.  Plastic crack...  Visiting that Gamer's Paradise during junior high at the now-gone Town & Country Mall on Rand and Palatine Roads in Palatine sent the addiction through the roof.  It was there where I was introduced to multi-part Games Workshop Warhammer Space Marines.  These guys were larger than the WWII soldiers, customizable and much more expensive.  Thank you Mom and Dad for all the Warhammer stuff over all these years.

That said, let's get down to business.  The process starts with assembling the Gatormen Wrastler. He came like this:

 After a quick wash in warm water to remove the chemicals that allowed him to easily pop out of his mold (and adversely affect paint adhering to the model) and subsequent drying, I glued him together using super glue.  Unfortunately, I had to use some gap filler (the green stuff) where the model's parts didn't fit snuggly together.  The green stuff is really called Green Stuff and solidifies in a few hours. I also removed the flash (excess plastic on mold lines, etc.) using an Exacto knife.

Let's wrastle!!!

After drying, I sprayed him with Tamiya grey primer and once dry, Tamiya flat desert yellow.

Next, I added a wash of Army Painter Green Ink on all of his gator flesh.  There are two types of paint I used, regular paint and something called ink.  Inks are heavily diluted paints that nicely flow into cracks and crevices. 

And then two washes of Army Painter Dark Ink (black) on his back scales, followed by another wash of green ink on his gator flesh.

I did about four layers of Games Workshop Agrax Brown Ink on his ropes and two layers of the brown ink on the gimp mask.  I let each layer dry and then applied the next layer of ink.  I then painted his mouth using a mix of Games Workshop White Scars White and a few drops of Games Workshop Crimson Ink followed by a wash of the crimson ink and a dry brush of the white paint/crimson ink mix.

Dry brushing is a process where one dips a little bit of paint on a brush, removes most of the paint with a paper towel/tissue/napkin and then rubs the very light layer of paint on the surface of a model.

I next applied a 4 parts water to 1 part brown ink mix on his belly and underside.

 

Finally, I painted his eyes Games Workshop Sunburst Yellow, his nails and teeth Games Workshop Bleached Bone (followed by a brown ink wash and then bleached bone dry brush) and his shoulder pad Games Workshop Sigmarite Gold (followed by a brown ink and gold paint dry brush). 

Voila! Gatorman Wrastler in about five hours!!!  That was my quota of geekiness for the day. Thank you for reading. Now go out there and paint some minis! Waaaarrrgghhhhh!!!