Call of Cthulhu RPG inspirational reading material

A follow up on my previous entry on Worlds of Cthulhu, having read the magazines I became interested in what more the RPG game Call of Cthulhu had to offer so I bought the main rulebook and a sourcebook. Just as with the Worlds of Cthulhu magazines these books make great reading material, almost like a encyclopedia of Lovecraft monsters, cults and everything else thematically connected to the weird horror of his novels.

The main rulebook, "Call of Cthulhu" contains a lot of information about the great Old ones and creatures dwelling in the dark corners of hte earth while the "Keepers companion" lists a lot of monsters, cults, characters, books and locations. Just as with the Worlds of Cthulhu magazine the books on their own make great reading material if you have an interest for Lovecraft stories and the "mythos" he has created.

There is a ton of useful stuff to pick from and use in games like pulp/horror games like Strange Aeons, especially if you are looking to create your own scenarios or have picked up a grotesque miniatures and don't have an idea what to do with it.

Great reading material and once again highly recommended if you are interested in these type of things.

Worlds of Cthulhu magazine

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of "Worlds of Cthulhu" magazines to serve as inspiration for Strange Aeons and Empire of the Dead games. Got the magazines at a sale for a discount price but even at full price they are as thick as most paperback rulebooks out on the market with roughly 120 pages of great content revolving around Lovecraftian adventures of horror.

The magazine is meant to be used as a compliment to the Call of Cthulhu RPG game by "Chaosium" and the content spans from modern to 1920's, medieval and 17th century stuff. The content is also largely made up by RPG adventures and scenarios, describing locations, monsters, agents and other relevant stuff. The modern and future adventures aren't really what interests me as my preference is in the original Lovecraft setting of the 1920's and earlier, mainly because of the decreased efficiency of weapons and more flavorful settings. Luckily there is an even distribution between all eras..

Also, what really matters the most for me as a miniature wargamer is simply the inspiration the content of these magazines provide. Many of the RPG adventures can be translated to the tabletop with little effort. And even if you don't play miniature wargames or have any interest in the RPG aspects they are often great reading material for fans of all things Lovecraft.

I highly recommend checking this magazine out if this is in your area of interest.

Pyramidhead warden

When Maelstrom had their latest sale I browsed the Carnevale section and although most of what I had been eyeing was already gone I managed to buy two really cool "monster miniatures" for my Strange Aeons/Empire of the Dead games.

This is the "Warden", probably heavily influenced by the Pyramidhead monster in Silent Hill but this guy looks less stupid.

Whenever I get some miniature that doesn't really belong to any specific part of my collection I like to experiment a little with painting techniques and try out a few ideas. On both miniatures I tried out using more washes than usual, especially on the second model which I will post shortly (still not finished) where I wanted a specific tone on the skin to make it look sick.

What more can I tell, the miniatures from this manufacturer are very crisp in their casting. They have very nice details, but aren't covered in lots of tiny objects and crap like that (which usually annoys me). I prefer a miniature to be clean with enough concept and idea behind the sculpt to make it interesting on its own rather than have a Warhammer 40k overload of scrolls, chains, skulls, spikes and whatnot.

At 40% off the original price the miniatures were affordable, but it really kept me from buying them at the full retail price. I think it tells a lot about miniature wargamers, because that stock did not seem to go anywhere before the price dropped on Maelstrom Games. Another thing that had kept me from buying any of the Carnevale miniatures have been my uncertainty about their size - I can compare that to Reaper Miniatures where there is a ton of cool stuff available but the risk is the size of the miniature is completely off compared to my other 28mm stuff. For monsters that doesn't really matter. But regular humans ranging from 25-32+ mm is pretty jarring to look at.

These Carnevale miniatures are very neat 28mm miniatures, the proportions and style of their limbs and clothes leans more towards the realistic than "bulky wargaming" miniature. But I can still blend them in with my 28mm Empire of the Dead models from West Wind.

Hardsuit painted up

Here's the 28mm Hardsuit painted up.
I will use this model as an "Infernium" powered automaton for Empire of the Dead until the "Nemonian" faction is released, or even as suggested some kind of steam powered suit of the Gentlemen's Club. I also think it will be used in Strange Aeons.

The miniature is from Recreational Conflict.

Lead Bones 28mm "Hardsuit" review

Found a picture of this miniature on the internet and got so excited that I tracked it down to the retailer - Recreational Conflict. They have these in both 15mm and 28mm scale, I got one in 28mm to use for my pulp/horror games.

The miniature is pretty much an identical replica of the "Big daddy" creatures in the PC game Bioshock. It comes with two arms with clenched fists, and one arm that you can custom fit with either a machinegun or a drill. I wanted both options so I attached the drill to one of the clenched fist arms. The casting quality is very good, and the metal quality as well. Good fit with all the parts, no greenstuff gap filling necessary.

The miniature is quite huge, it is shown here on a 40mm base and the comparison pictures show it next to the Grindhouse Games Incursion "Hans von X" and some 28mm human sized miniatures that I have in my collection.

It's easily worth the 10USD Recreational Conflict charges for these beasts. The problem with Recreational Conflict however is the shipping outside of US which is most likely causing many people to have a change of mind. You can however do what I did, and get into contact with Richard over atrichard@recreationalconflict.com and ask if he can arrange an alternative shipping method like he has done for others and like he did for me. It's a bit of a hassle, but definitely worth it if you want to get hold of one of these awesome miniatures.