Star Wars: Rogue One

I won't give a full review as there are plenty online, and it is very hard to talk about Star Wars: Rogue One without spoilers. I will just say that it has a lot of good points and a few bad ones, but, in the end, it just isn't what I want from a Star Wars movie. Others mileage will certainly vary.

Also, see my thoughts on Prequels in General.

Irony Update

A few hours after writing the last post, I turned on my super lamp and the bulb blew...so no painting tonight. Tomorrow I go in search of an R7S, 118mm blub. Dang it.

Age Comes On Apace...

I haven't felt much like painting lately, but I did manage to finish these three Minas Tirith guardsman and a Frostgrave treasure token (the rune stone on the right). The photo, unfortunately, is a tad overexposed, which is ironic, considering what I'm about to say.

Over the last year, I have been having difficulty painting. The truth is, I just don't see as well as I used to. It's not a big deal on most miniatures, but those with finer detail (which includes most of GW's The Lord of the Rings line), I'm having real difficulty seeing that detail well enough to paint it.

For most of my life, I have been blessed with above average eyesight (apparently to compensate for my terrible hearing and sense of smell). However, having turned forty this year, it would be surprising if I didn't 'see' some decline. So I went to the optometrist. Apparently, my vision is still above average, at least as far as forty-year-olds are concerned, and I don't need glasses; though I am considering getting myself a pair of low-powered reading specs for small font.

I briefly experimented painting with magnification, but it seems to cause as many problems as it solves, and takes some of the enjoyment out of it. So, instead, I started experimenting with light... and soon made a major discovery. I didn't have near enough light when I paint.

Once I stopped and thought about it, I realized that my 'painting light' has slowly decreased over the years. I used to have a dedicated paint station, near a window, with a specific lamp for painting. Then, I immigrated to country that doesn't receive near as much natural light; I lost my painting space near the window, and I lost my dedicated lamp. Oh, and then European legislation outlawed the old light bulbs and made us all replace them with much dimmer energy-efficient ones. At each step my eyes could handle it, but added all together with another ten years of age thrown in, and it was too much. A few nights ago, after I finished painting these Gondorians, I took my super bright light from the living room into the kitchen. It has both a general lamp and a directional lamp. I cranked both up to full power. I bathed that room in light! And what a difference it made. I could see again! Okay, not like I could when I was a young man, but good enough that I could happily paint even most of the fine detail.

Yes, probably I'm just an idiot for not realizing this sooner, but hey, I've had a lot on my mind. Anyway, I'm a happy painter again!

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For those wondering about the title of this post, it is a phrase from the poem 'Solomon Kane's Homecoming' by Robert E. Howard. Howard didn't write much poetry, especially later in his short life, which is a shame, because he certainly had a talent for it. You can read the whole poem here.

The Troll Cave

My wife is a very generous and understanding woman. Well, she would have to be to marry me in the first place, but recently she proved it all over again. For the last two years or so we've been doing a lot of rearranging to accommodate having children. We are now a family of four in a very small two-bedroom house. It doesn't leave a lot of room for a 'stuff' intensive hobby like wargaming.

However, knowing that I need just a little bit of 'my own space', my wife and I agreed that I could have the cupboard under the stairs as my personal wargaming domain. (So long as I share it with the hoover). Thus, I give you the Troll Cave!

Okay, it's not exactly a 'games room'; you could not hope to play a game in it. In fact, it is only because I am rather a short individual that I can stand up in it, but it provides me with most of what I need. The central feature is a butcher's trolly. This is a wonderful little piece of furniture which is the perfect height for me to work on miniatures while standing. It's where I do all my planning and prep work (actual painting usually takes place on the kitchen table). The trolly also has two cabinets for storing equipment and miniatures to be painted, and a wine rack which is perfect for holding cans of primer and sealer and the like.

Next to that is a short set of drawers which holds gaming accessories, as well as few other odds and ends. Beside that is a shelf which contains several miniature cases, terrain, and some larger models. Yes, that is the Glaurung sitting on top. I am hopeful that its new place out in the open will soon lead to some further adventures.

Hiding deep in the corner, behind the hoover and my back pack are a couple more boxes of small terrain bits and miniatures.

Currently on the wall, I've got a white board, where I keep track of things to paint (and read), a bulletin board that holds my collection of enamel pins, my ENie award, and the little plate from my 'Best Softball Pitcher 2016' trophy (I broke the mostly glass trophy). There is also a framed, colourized photograph of my ancestor Col. James McCullough dressed in his Confederate Grey, and a post card from the Bodleian library reproducing Tolkien's painting of Smaug. I really need to get a copy of my photograph with Colin Baker up there as well.

Sure, I dream of a big gaming space, and maybe one day I will have an actual game room, but at the moment, this is all the space I need, and it is more than I should really ask for. My wife really is a generous and understanding woman.

The Golden Fleece

I spent this past weekend in Hastings. It was my wife’s grandmother’s 91^st birthday, and the family was gathering in the seafront hotel that is owned by her son (my wife’s uncle). Saturday was a miserable day, windy, rainy, and uninviting. Still, my wife needed an errand run, and there was a bookstore I wanted to investigate, so I put on my coat and ventured out. Unfortunately, the bookstore I was keen to explore was closed. To cheer myself up, I decided to walk back via the ruined castle on the cliff top. Fighting the wind and rain, I made it up the steep hill to find that the gate to the castle was locked. So, dripping and disappointed, I started back to the hotel. Just a few doors from the hotel, I passed an antique store that had a load of books out front. Figuring I still had a few minutes, I went inside.

Its collection of books was small, but interesting. After a bit of browsing, I discovered this treasure - a folio edition of The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves for £6. Long-time readers will be aware of my ongoing fascination with the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. I have read all of the major classic sources (in translation), and several modern interpretations. I was well aware of Robert Graves for his academic work on Greek Myth, but I was unaware of this work. So, in the end, I returned to the hotel happy!

The book has a bit of damage on the slipcase, but it is still in good condition overall. Folio editions are always well constructed books. My only gripe about Folio editions is the internal artwork. I always find the artwork to be a bit childish. Some people must like it though. That said, I do really like the artwork on the cover, which is the part I’ll see the most, so it works out okay.

I’ve read the introduction and the first few chapters. It is a chewy work, filled with Grave’s personal theories on Greek myth. For example, the whole story is put in the context of a theological war between the followers of the old Mother Goddess and those that follow the new Olympian Zeus. In truth, I’m 40 pages in, and we’ve only seen the baby Jason briefly, so I can’t yet comment on how good it all is, but it is certainly interesting.

For those that may be wondering, Grandma’s 91^st went swimmingly, with loads of cake! I had to bow out of the party early to put my daughter to sleep (and do some quiet reading). The next morning dawned bright and beautiful. We decided to stay until lunch time in order to tour the new pier they’ve built in Hastings (really nice, if a bit empty out of season), and to let my daughter have a couple hours playing on the stony beach.

Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives

Photo and Painting by Kev Dalimore

With Forgotten Pacts just about to release, and The Frostgrave Folio coming in March next year, a few eagle-eyed players have noticed another Frostgrave expansion listed on Amazon. Here is the blurb:

The Frozen City harbours many secrets, and not all of them are ancient. While most adventurers who brave the dangers seek wealth and lost magic, some journey into Frostgrave for more personal reasons.

This expansion for Frostgrave consists of 40 Ulterior Motive cards, which add variety, depth, and new tactical challenges to wargames in the Frozen City. Each card presents the player with a specific task to accomplish and offers rewards if they succeed. Some of these missions must be revealed to all of the players, others must be kept secret. Will your wizard seek to slay a great demon? Rescue a desperate captive? Bring retribution to an enemy? All wizards seek power, but what are their ulterior motives?

Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives is coming in June 2017, and it is going to look significantly different than the ones that have gone before it. Instead of a book, this expansion will be composed of 40 over-sized cards in a box. I’m sure people are wondering why cards. Well, there is a very good reason.

Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives comes from my desire to add ‘subplots’ to the game, something like the fantastic subplots table found in the original Rogue Trader book many years ago. The more I thought about it, and worked on it though, the more I encountered a problem.  Wizards are by their very nature a secretive lot. They don’t like giving straight answers at the best of times, and they certainly don’t go around blabbing about the specific reasons they might be venturing into the Frozen City. Basically, I wanted a lot of the subplots to be kept secret, at least for part of a game. While I could have had players secretly roll on a table, I think wargames should always avoid hidden dice rolls wherever possible. They are just breeding grounds for arguments, and best left to role-playing games. After a bit of consideration, I realized the whole issue could be avoided if players just drew a card that they could hold onto and reveal at the appropriate time. My editor liked the idea, and thus Ulterior Motives was born.

So, coming June next year, wizards will have 40 new reasons beyond the collection of random treasure to lead their warbands into the ruins of Frostgrave!

My Name is Dzozefs A. Makalo!

Or so it apparently is in Latvian! 

A few years ago, I wrote a short book entitled The Story of Santa Claus, which, rather unsurprisingly, tells the story of Santa Claus and how he went from a Turkish Saint to a sleigh-riding, present-producing Christmas spirit beloved by children the world over. The book did pretty well when it came out, selling around 5,000 copies between the UK and USA.

Last year, the book was translated into Japanese, which I wouldn't have thought was an obvious market for the book.

This year, it has been translated into Latvian! I must admit the closest I've ever come to Latvia was a short holiday in Estonia, but it's still kind of a thrill. The language is so far from anything I recognize, that I had to use Google Translator to see if they had changed the title (apparently not).

I think my favourite thing about this book though is that they translated my name on the cover. I have been translated as Dzozefs A. Makalo. I suspect that Joseph is in pretty common usage in Latvia, but I wonder if McCullough gave them a challenge? If I said 'Makalo' with my southern US pronunciation, it wouldn't sound a thing like my name. (In fairness, I've heard Scots say the name and it doesn't sound much like how I pronounce it, so there is a question about who is right here). I'd love to hear a Latvian say it.

Anyway, for anyone who might be interested in the book, in English, you can still buy it from Amazon.