Benjamin Orchard (Court of Owls)

Benjamin Orchard is a fairly recent addition to the Batman mythos, spinning out of the the mythology that has built up around the Court of Owls. I gave the Court of Owls storyline a try in collected edition format, and was intrigued enough to pick up the tpb's of the related Talon series, and that is how I became familiar with Orchard.

The game rules do not seem a very direct translation of the comic character's rules, as when we meet him he is revived with the powers of a Talon, which he was briefly in the 1930's, and as grandmaster he appeared in the modern-day Talon series; in addition, the other Talons were only active one at a time, each killing their predecessor when taking on the mantle, so having a crew of them also places them in the modern setting. Orchard's rules don't include the abilities of revived Talons.

The mini is very uninspiring for me, especially when compared to the various Talon minis. One issue I had was that the proportions seem odd, with an over-long torso and very thin stature, but that may be just me. In addition, the casting was not great, so in all a mini just to 'get done'. Therefore when it came to painting the mini I was satisfied to take a 'quick and done' approach, especially as after finishing Catwoman, I expect my BMG painting output to dwindle for a while.

I do want to get a Court of Owls crew painted, but right now their biggest limitation is that with so few models, the largest game size they can play in is 300 Reputation, and since local tournaments are usually 350 Reputation, I won't consider them until they have some reinforcements. That aid, as they are kind of undead characters, I may justify painting one or two for Zomtober...

BMG Painting Summary
BMG characters owned: 157 (added: Hugo Strange and Arkham Inmates crew, Clown and Sniggering, Riddler (AK) and Robots crew, Robots blister, Azrael (AK), Red Hood (AK), Hatley Thugs)
Percentage of owned characters painted: 18.5% (29 models)

Zomtober 2015 Is Coming....

The dead lead walks once more....

The fourth annual Zomtober is almost here - that time of year when bloggers like my buddies Rob (click here for his blog) and Simon (click for his blog here) and myself commit to getting some more Zeds painted.

The rules
The Zomtober rules are simple. To take part you just need to paint one Zombie or Survivor (or more!) each week, in any scale you like, posting it to your blog by the Sunday (we use Sunday's as the end of each Zomtober week). So that means one or more minis each week on or before the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th of October 2015.

Anyone commenting on this post will get added to the blog list below (and feel free to do something similar on your own blogs - as the word spreads, more and more bloggers can be involved!).


Zomtober 2015 blog roll:

1. Brummie's Wargaming Blog - Simon
2. Four Colour Super Minis - Rob
3. Fantorical - Blaxkleric
4. Fiends in Waistcoats - Robert Audin
5. Mike's Random Wargaming Meanderings - Mike C
6. Minis by Finch - Finch
7. Chris' Miniature Woes - Chris Hird
8. Metal Skirmish - PMMDJ
9. 28mm Victorian Warfare - Michael Awdry
10. Never Mind The Jankers! - Roy Williamson
11. Cheaphammer!!! - Kieron
12. Rantings from under the Wargames table - Dick Garrison
13. Duke of the Blood Keep - Chris Bowler
14. Deviant Designs Deeds - Ant Master
15. The Rusty Dagger - Pierce
16. Game Mayhem - Nobody667
17. League of Extraordinary Gamers - LXG crew (very well done for the charity angle guys!)
18. Sean's Wargames Corner - Sean
19. Miniature Mayhem - Terry Silverthorn
20. Brains and Guts - Lord Siwoc
21. Rollntider's wargaming blog - rollntider

Ghetto Miniatures Kicktraq

This is the Kicktraq for the Ghetto Miniatures Kickstarter. Kicktraq tracks how well campaigns are performing and produces 'hot lists' which can garner more attention and hopefully backers. Currently Kicktraq is suggesteing the Ghetto Miniatures KS will be funded - I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Ghetto Miniatures: 1970's New York Gang Skirmish Game Kickstarter

This is a new Kickstarter I think is pretty interesting for Ghetto Miniatures, a new range of 1970's New York Gangs and rules. As their blurb says: Battle it out on the means streets of the Big Apple.

I like this as it plays to a very Hollywood version of 70's street gangs (Warriors!), and so I find it more palatable than something emulating real world gang-fighting. The campaign has 29 more days to run.

Catwoman

Catwoman is the first mini I have finished painting in September, and possibly the missing piece for a more robustly scoring BMG crew.

Playing in a recent tournament against Kieron (author of the excellent Cheaphammer!!! blog) gave me a healthy respect for Catwoman as a mobile model that should be given one task only - grab Loot! Doing so means she can score 2 VP per Round meaning she should have 10-12 VP scored per game if used right, which is not to be sniffed at. It potentially renders her a one-note model if I focus on the Loot-grab alone, but that maybe a price worth paying.

On the painting, I am in two minds - one moment I think the paint-job looks okay, while the next I think it looks a little rough in places. Part of that is that I struggled with the fine distinctions between different 'fabric' textures of her costume, but at the end of the day, she is painted which is the main issue.

One thing with the BMG range that has struck me as odd with all the minis that have duplicate versions, is that there has not been a Dark Knight Rises version of Catwoman yet. Despite that, and despite the presumably diminishing likelihood of a DKR Catwoman,  Knight Models seem to be ramping up their monthly output, so currently I know I will not keep up with that, but I probably need to paint at least 1 or 2 minis each month to hold steady with the overall percentage of the range that I have painted.

BMG Painting Summary
BMG characters owned: 141 (added: Arkham Inmates, Killer Frost, Arkham Knight Batman and Robin, Arkham Knight Harley Quinn crew)
Percentage of owned characters painted: 19.9% (28 models)