A Matter of Scale

 A 6 foot tall person is roughly 1828mm tall.  A 5’11” tall person is 1803mm tall.  So you can use 1800mm as an easy start for a person’s height – with variance.

This would be 1 to 1 scale (1:1 or 1/1), also known as life-size or full-size.

 

Three quarter scale (3:4 or 3/4) is almost full-size.  A 6 foot tall person would be 4’6” tall or about 1350mm.

 

Half scale (1:2 or 1/2) is the next one down and a common scale.  A 6 foot tall person would be 3’ tall or about 900mm.

 

One quarter scale (1:4 or 1/ 4) is another common one.  A 6 foot tall person would be 18” tall or about 450mm.

 

 

Doll scale is one sixth (1:6 or 1/6).  A 6 foot tall person would be 12” tall or about 300mm (304mm).  Barbies, the big GI Joes, and the large Star Wars figures were this scale.

 

Action figure scale is about one ninth (1:9 or 1/9).  A 6 foot tall person would be about 8” tall or about 225mm.  Mego figures, and larger superhero figures are this scale.

 

Dollhouse scale or 1 inch scale is one twelfth (1:12 or 1/12).  A 6 foot tall person would be 6” tall or 150mm.  The Star Wars Black Series figures are this scale.  He-Man was close to this scale (about 5.5”). 

 

A large model car scale is 1:18 or 1/18.  A 6 foot tall person would be 4 inches tall or about 100mm.

Small action figures (Star Wars and GI Joes) are a bit smaller than this.  These figures are 3 ¾” tall or about 95mm.

 

The next scale is very popular.  It is a common model car scale, and the same scale as Playmobil figures.  This is 1:24 or 1/24 scale.  For doll houses, it is also known as half inch scale   A 6 foot tall person would be 3” tall or 75mm.

 

Another popular scale for model cars is 1:32 or 1/32.  A 6 foot tall person would be 56mm tall.  This is known as 1 scale in trains and was roughly they scale for the Thomas the Train sets.

 

 

A popular scale for army figures is 1:35 or 1/35.  A 6 foot tall person would be 2” tall or between 50mm and 52mm.

From experience, even though they should fit easily, it still takes a lot of work to fit a 1/35 figure into a 1/32 model car.

 

O scale trains are about 1:43.  A 6 foot tall person would be about 42mm.

 

Lego minifigs are oddly shaped – wide for their height.  They are 1:40 or 1/40.  A 6 foot tall person would be 40mm tall.  This is also the scale for Marvel Crisis Protocol.

 

Another fairly common model scale for army vehicles is 1:48 or 1/48.  A 6 foot tall person would be 38mm tall.  This is the scale for Dust Tactics and Dust 1947.  Mega Size Model Gundams are in this scale.

 

A lot of newer miniature game figures are now coming out in what would be 1/56 scale.  A 6 foot tall person would be 32mm tall.

 

Perfect Grade Gundams are in 1:60 scale.  A 6 foot tall person would be about 30.5mm tall.

 

Heroic scale would be about 1/65.  A 6 foot tall person would be 28mm tall.

Hot Wheels cars are actually 1/64 scale but, due to the bases and bulk of these figures, look too small for them.

 

The former popular scale for miniature games was 1/72.  A 6 foot tall person would be 1” tall or 25mm.  This is still very popular for army figures.  Note that due to their bulk, most 25mm figures look huge compared to the 1/72 plastic models.

 

1/76 model airplanes will also be close in scale but look very small due to the bulk of these figures.  A 6 foot tall person would be 24mm.

 

HO scale trains are 1/85.  A 6 foot tall person would be 22mm tall.

 

There were also some smaller miniature figures in what would be 1/90 scale.  A 6 foot tall person would be 20mm tall, however figure at this scale were often measured to the eyes instead of the top of the head (due to helmets) so 20mm figures are probably closer to HO scale.

 

Master grade, and some High Grade Gundams are 1:100 scale.  A 6 foot tall person would be 18mm tall.

 

In the UK a very popular size for miniature wargames would be about 1/120. A 6 foot tall person in this scale would be 15mm tall.

 

Another scale for airplane models is 1/144.  A 6 foot tall person would be 12.5mm.  Gundams in Real Grade, Entry Grade and most High Grades are in this scale. Wings of Glory/Wings of War airplanes were suppose to be 1/144 scale but a figure this size would never fit.  They are probably closer to 1/200 scale. 

N scale trains are between 1:148 to 1:160.  A 6 foot tall person would be 12mm to 11.5mm.

Micro Machines were close to N Scale – between 1:148 and 1:160 for most vehicles, and figures about 1/77 scale.  They weren’t always consistent though and included larger scale vehicles as well even smaller for spacecraft.

 

Another common scale for bigger battles is micro armor scale (1:285 or 1/285).  A 6 foot tall person would be 6mm tall.  Battletech is also supposed to be in this scale.

 

Naval scale wargames run the range from 1:1800 for the Axis and Allies:War at Sea game, through 1:2400, 1:3000, 1:4800, up to 1:6000.

 

Star Fleet Battles had ships in 1/3788 scale.

 

The next big thing?

 I’m still trying to put off buying Marvel Crisis Protocol.  There is a lot of it, it is pretty pricy, and it doesn’t seem as much fun as the Marvel Universe Miniature Game that I have most of already.

I have skipped some other games for the same reasons even though you would think they would be a good fit for me.  I didn’t get the Star Wars Imperial Assault, or even X-Wing.  They both have a lot of expensive expansions, and I have older games that cover similar areas like Star Warriors.

 

Even the new Star Wars Legion game would just be a newer replacement for the old West End Games Star Wars Miniature Battle Game for me. 

 

The newest one that is currently giving me pause to consider is the new Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps game from Gale Force 9.  It only has a few expansions, it isn’t that expensive as these things go, and it seems pretty good from what I’ve seen.

What is slowing me down though, is that it doesn’t seem as good as another Aliens game that I already have from Leading Edge.  I didn’t get all of the miniature figures for that one though so I might get the new game so that I can use the figures and upsize the old game.  Even with that though, I don’t have a huge burning need as I already got a set of figures from Treehouse to upsize the game.  The only reason I haven’t yet is that the Treehouse figures are 50mm and the Gale Force 9 figures are 25-32mm.  Both are much bigger than the original 15mm figures from Leading Edge to replace the cardboard standups in the original game. 

The other reason is that the new games have sold through their initial run already.  If I had access to a copy in the store that I could just pick up I would probably buy it.  As it is now, I will have to see how I feel when they finally get around to reissuing new sets.  Since I am already back to painting figures, I may be sorely tempted.

Icebergs ahead

Back when I started getting into gaming, Dragon magazine used to include either a complete game or a module in every issue. One of the first issues I bought had Search for the Emperor’s Treasure in it by Tom Wham (Dragon 51). I remember redrawing all the counters so that I could keep my copy of the magazine in good shape.
This is where my deep love of Tom Wham games started.
File 13, Snits’ Revenge, Awful Green Things from Outer Space, The Great Khan War, Mertwig’s Maze, and others all had that quirky art and deceptively simple but elegant rules. My favorite of the TSR Mini-Games also happened to be made by Tom Wham – Icebergs.
While elegant, the small size does mean that a lot of people overlook this game. I’ve brought it to conventions, and we played it a lot in the day. It remains firmly in my top 10 games, but I always wanted to make a larger version of it.
With the extra games I have picked up, I can use one of the boards and recover it with the Icebergs map. I can either enlarge it or redraw it.

The game plays up to 6 players and doesn’t have too many components. I would like to do wooden ships, fuel and cargo markers, and then larger tiles for the ice floes and icebergs. Plus create a nice insert to hold everything together.

Passing on X-Wing

After teasing us several months ago, Tabletop finally showed their X-wing game session.  I had been hoping that it would be enough to push me over the edge to get this but I’m still not impressed enough.  

Of the WWI airplane games, I have played Dawn Patrol back in the day, and Canvas Eagles more recently - which I loved.  I have played and enjoyed the Wiz Kids Crimson Skies and have the rules for the FASA Crimson Skies.  I never got into Wings of War.  I know I flipped through the Ace of Aces books but can’t remember if we ever did play it.

Of the Star Wars ship games, we played and enjoyed a lot of the West End Games Starship Battles, and the Star Wars Starfighter Battlebooks back in the day.  We played the Full Thrust Star Wars from the Star Wars Gamer magazines, and I have a full set plus enough extras of the WOTC Star Wars miniatures Starship Battles to field all the combinations I could want (minus an extra ARC-170).   I looked forward to the WOTC version, played it a bunch with my son, and enjoy it enough to keep thinking about upsizing it to play at conventions. 

  

I’m certainly open to another Star Wars ship battle game but am not sure that the re-themed Wings of War version of X-Wing is the one for me.  Some friends have it so I will give it one final chance and actually play it before completely writing it off though.  What really does intrigue me about it though is the idea of comparing the stats from X-Wing to Wings of War to find the equivalent planes and then using that baseline to translate the ships into the Canvas Eagles format.  Now that I would be excited about.

Snafu - intellivision

Back in July of 2009 I had posted this to Game Design Concepts Forum for the game design course I was taking at the time.
We had to take an older video game and translate the rules to be a board game. I didn’t post it here as it is a very simple game. It could also be done with laying tiles into a gridded board.

What has caused me to revisit it though was the new Tron movie and some other games that people have made with light cycles. Using the diecast lightcycles as models and acetate sheets as the trails, this makes it much more visibly interesting. I’m going to have to look at this again with that in mind.

- - -

SNAFU
From INTELLIVISON

Players: 1 or 2

There were 2 main versions of the games (trap or bite) with 16 variations of these on the cartridge. You (and up to 1 other) could control a head that would either create a trail that you would use to block your opponent’s trail to force them into a collision [very similar to the lightcycles in Tron] or in the bite version would try and nibble away at the opponent’s tail. In addition to the two trails that could be player-controlled, there were also an optional two trails that were computer controlled.
I will do the trap version.

The game board is 37 squares across by 21 squares down. In the prototype this is very easily drawn out on a piece of paper and photocopied for the trap games.
In trap games, the trails are represented by marking in the squares with colored pens (crayons/markers) in the variants where the trails remain after a collision. In the variants were the trails disappear after collisions, you could use erasable pencils (or marking in letters for the different-colored trails and erasing the appropriate ones.) Alternatively, you can draw the grid on a dry-erase board and use dry-erase markers for the trails.
You would also need a 6-sided dice.

Game:
The four starting spots are as follows:
The green trail starts 19 in and 5 down. This is optional and game controlled.
The red trail starts 6 in and 11 down. This can be a player controlled trail.
The blue trail starts 32 in and 11 down. This can be a player controlled trail.
The yellow trail starts 19 in and 33 down. This is optional and game controlled.

The basic rules:
1. Each turn fill in a new square attached to the end of your line. (You may not wrap around off end side to the other).
2. If there are no squares for you to add to the end of your line you have a collision and your game ends.
3. If two trails want to enter the same square – both trails roll a dice – with the higher roll getting to add that square first. A tie would mean that both trails have a collision with each other.
4. The last trail still able to play wins.

The game controlled lines always move in a straight line if possible. If doing so would cause a collision, then they move to a random non-colliding space. If they have no valid spaces in which to move, then they have a collision.
The starting direction is decided by rolling d6. If diagonal lines are allowed, then a second roll is needed - 1-3 diagonal, 4-6 non-diagonal. If diagonal then roll again - 1 up left, 2 up right, 3 down right, 4 down left, 5-6 roll again. If non-diagonal then roll again - 1 up, 2 right, 3 down, 4 left, 5-6 roll again.

The variant rules:
Players – the red and blue lines are always in play. The variant would allow all four lines to play. [In a board game version – all 4 lines could be player-controlled.]
Movement – all lines only move to adjacent horizontal or vertical spaces. The variant would allow diagonal moves.
Trails – normally the trails remain after collisions. The variant causes the trails to be erased after the trail has a collision.
Obstacles – Obstacles are 2x2 square boxes that are placed on the board. Trails may not move through obstacles. Normally there are no obstacles on the board. The variant allows 5-8 [4+1/2(d6)] obstacles to be placed on the board.

Fig painting total - Feb

I was doing fine for figures bought this year – with nothing I purchased in January completing any sets and only 11 sets completed in February – until I came across some farm animal sets in BJ Super Toy Sales. I’ve been looking for 1/35 horses and cattle for the upsized RWNN and haven’t been able to find any at Dollarama or Michael’s. At $1.50 a bag, it was worth picking up two bags to see what was usable.

It was a good find – with 2 horses (1 foal), 3 cattle (1 calf), 3 pigs, 3 sheep (1 lamb), and a goat. 5 to 10 bags should give enough head of cattle to simulate a decent herd come to town, enough horses, and even enough sheep to make a cattle/sheep war viable. Especially if I can find the bags for less.

Also, I’m hoping to use these figures to hone my painting skills for the regular figures.

40K Battlewagon (in bits) – 1
40K Carnifex (in bits) – 1
40K Raveners (in bits) – 3
40K Tyranid Warriors (in bits) – 6
2 sets Farm Animals (1/35 scale) - 24
Feb figures bought – 35, figures painted – 0

scale creep

There was some discussion on one of the boards I am on about vehicles “in scale” to figures. With the prevalence of ‘heroic-scale’ 28mm or 30mm figures compared to the old-school 25mm figures with which I started. Games Workshop was a big reason for this. Their figures were 28mm – about right for 7 foot tall Marines and Orks but the figures were bulkier than your standard figures. This made them slightly larger than the 1/72 figures that are 25mm but they were about as wide as 1/35 figures. 1/35 accessories looked the right size as 1/72 accessories weren’t bulky enough.
The bases were another issue. Each figure was effectively standing on a soapbox which made doorways and vehicles look shorter. A lot of people recommend using 1/35 or 1/38 vehicles with the 30mm figures but they are just too big to me.

Again, I come out on the other side of the scale issue. I don’t mind if the buildings and vehicles look a tad ‘undersized’. You have to think of the game as a whole. Which is more important to the game? The buildings? The vehicles? Or the characters?
If the characters are a bit ‘larger than life’ compared to the rest of the game world, I’m okay with it. Since the figures are the most important part of the game and even still they are tiny compared to the rest of the scenery and tabletop.
In fact, I’ve even cheated the scale further (dynamic foreshortening) when I did Heroclix builings – with the ground floor of buildings being 3” tall and upper levels being only 2” tall. But then, to scale with the figures, streets would be wide open spaces and boring – both visually and game-wise.
Even when I upsized Car Wars to 1/32 scale, 1/35 figures (who should be smaller) wouldn’t fit in the cars without major surgery – like removing feet and torsos and filing heads flat. But, in that case, the cars were more important, with the people as a seldom-used component.

So, while most of the people tend to want to use even bigger vehicles to go with their over-sized figures on soapbox-height bases, I still like using vehicles and buildings that are closer to what the scale should really be – even if it looks a bit smaller when a figure is actually standing close to a vehicle or doorway.

I’ve seen a Doctor Who Miniature game from an UK convention – SALUTE that featured an oil rig. The pictures looked stunning and, even though I didn’t see it firsthand or play it, I’m sure it worked fine for the game.
But, if it was in ‘true scale’ to figures, the rig would have almost filled the entire table, leaving little room for the town.

Ultimately, do what works for you. But keep in mind the costs and practicality of both use and storage as well as transportation as need be. You may find that having a town with over a dozen slightly-smaller buildings may look more impressive and play better than having a town with only six or eight over-sized buildings made to accommodate the bases. That said, even in cheating size, you have to make sure that the vehicles and buildings are going to work with the figures you have and the space to set them up.

Western Town - supplies

I had popped into Dollarama and picked up some more supplies for the western town. I picked up some clipboards – for the hardboard to use as bases. It’s actually cheaper to pick up a sheet of hardboard at Revy/Home Depot if you are doing a bunch but for small projects, the clipboards are a quick measure with less waste.

I also picked up some 1/4” wooden dowels, some 3/16” wooden dowels and a bamboo gate – to use for the log cabin and for fence rails.

I already have a few bags of stir sticks from both Walmart and Dollarama for the wood planks. Even at this scale, popsicle sticks are too thick for most purposes.

I also picked up some big sheets of cardboard. The wife has a tendancy to fold up my sheets if I leave them around so I usually need to buy it as I need it.

Upsizing Whitewash City

Okay. Forget what Eric recommends about upsizing via photocopier. It doesn’t work to upsize to 1/35.

I tried upsizing the last page of Out Buildings set (the one labeled Sheds & Privies). It did indeed upsize the width by 129% and the length by 155% as we figured it would based on the math instead of the 171% we need. This makes all the doors on the buildings about shoulder high and of varying widths depending on which way they were oriented on the page. It may still be usable for small sheds but will look odd next to a figure.

So I will have to upsize each building by hand. This is not a huge issue, but it would have been nice to quickly print out the textured pictures. I might still be able to scan them and manipulate them at home to print out at the proper size.

With the walkway, the Imperial Saloon will be a bit over 40cm long (a bit over a foot). This will make it a bit tight to lay out a town, even on a 4’ x 8’ table. Unless we set up the buildings oriented with the long side – which would make a smaller town - which should both work and be pretty accurate.

Upsizing Whitewash City

So I am upsizing the Hotz Artworks Whitewash City to use with the 1/35 figures I have for Rules With No Name. I’m trying to upsize it for the larger figure scale and I ran into a bit of an issue.

I’m working with the free sample – The Imperial Saloon and the out buildings in the Pioneer Set. The listed scale is 30mm or 1/60. So I tried measuring out the buildings and redrawing them at double-size to see how they would fit. They were much too big. In checking, I had forgotten to change the print setting from fit-to-page to print actual – which meant that the 10’ scale marker was only 47cm long instead of the 2” it should have been at 1/60.

When I reprinted with the right settings, the 10’ scale marker comes out at 50cm instead of the 51cm it should be but that is actually easier as each scale foot would then be half a centimeter (or 2’ real = 1 cm scale). This means the drawings are actually closer to 1/61.200 instead of 1/60 but that is pretty close and the difference is minimal for our purposes.
Either way, my double-size redrawings (even from the smaller print) then came out way too tall for my 1/35 scale cowboy – who is 5’10” in 1/35 scale (with hat – about 5’2 without hat but the base will make him look taller). Instead of doubling, according to the math, I should really upsize the measurements by 1.71. So I will redraw at the new size and try again.

Eric recommends taking the 8.5 x 11 prints and reprinting them at 11 x 17. I will try that as well and see how that compares to the upsized drawings and to the figures. According to the math, upsizing this way will be smaller than redrawing, but the convenience of having the pretty colored versions to assemble may be worthwhile compared to having to redraw them and then use those measurements to scratchbuild the buildings. We will have to see.

- - -

For those interested in the math, as I am, it is as follows.
To find the scale: 10 feet in reality = 2 inches in scale.
120 inches = 2 inches in scale. So scale = 2/120 or 1/60.

To convert the scales: 1/60scale to 1/35scale.
1/60 x = 1/35
35x = 60
x = 60/35
x = 1.7142857 or x = 1.71

Doing the photocopy upsizing.
From 8.5 x 11 to 11 x 17.
11/8.5 = 1.2941176 and 17/11 = 1.5454545.

The figure size in scale: Figure height is 2 inches. If scale is 1/35, then 2 scale inches equals 2 x 35 = 70 real inches. 70 divided by 12 equals 5 with a remainder or 10 so the 2” figure in 1/35 scale is really 5’10”.
Without hat, the figure is a little over 1.75 inches or 1 3/4”. If scale is 1/35, the 1.75 scale inches equals 1.75 x 35 = 61.25 real inches. 61.25 less 60 (12 inches x 5 feet) leaves 1.25 so he would be about 5’2”.

Lego boxes - gang aft agley

With a bit of cleaning, I had a bunch of Logo boxes to use. The Lego boxes have a nice small corrugated cardboard that makes them great for projects. I was going to use them as the basis for the upsized western buildings based on the Whitewash City set.

Unfortunately I was going to wait until after the Halloween projects were done before starting any new projects. My wife (the same one who pushes me to start my costume projects much earlier in the year) gets twitchy if stuff gets left around for any length of time - which is the other reason I wait until the last moment (the main reason is the kids don't make up their minds until almost the last moment).

Quick ending – she crumpled up most of the nice big boxes into the recycling on October 29th. Not even folded so I was only able to salvage two smaller boxes. We’ll see if I can still make use of them.

Whitewash City

After admiring it for quite some time, I finally ordered the Whitewash City from HotzArtWorks. I had downloaded the free sample saloon before and finally ordered the Pioneer (starter) set. The value on this is unbelievably good. For $15.99 you can get it sent as PDFs by email or mailed on CD. It included a Bank, Sheriff’s Office & Jail, Saloon, two hotels, and 6 other buildings. With the extra free saloon this is more than enough to flesh out a small town.

He has many other buildings on his site which enables you to build quite a substantial western town. The files include both the colored and black and white versions of the buildings so you can reuse the same buildings without being as noticeable.

They are scaled to 30mm (1/60) so are a bit big for 1/75 scale plastic figures but are perfect for most 25mm figures. I’m looking to upsize them to 1/35 to be able to use with the cowboy figures I’ve been working at painting.

gather a posse

So I had popped into United Importers and pick up more Harry Potter boosters. I also brought the kids in so we looked around. In the back I had found some army men tubes for 24 figures for $1 each. I bought two - trying to get ones that were mostly cowboys. I had picked up a bunch of 1/72 western figures for The Rules With No Name but still haven't decided if I want that scale or 1/35. This shold give me a bunch I can try to paint and see how much space I'll need.

Cowboys/Indians – 48
Sept figures bought – 48, figures painted – 0

Running total 2009 - figures bought 134, figures painted 0

Wincon 2009 - notably tiny

With Sherri moving we had lost our nice big space.
With the addition to the house up in the air, we don't really have any space. Plus the wife wasn't terribly keen on being involved.

I had toyed with the idea of just inviting over some friends and playing a few games. Instead, we took good advantage of the nice weather and the kids spent some last time in the pool and I worked away at making ships for Sky Galleons of Mars. We also made a good dent on our TV pile.

We did play some Elixer and some Guillotine - so probably our smallest Wincon yet. With luck, next year should be back to a (new) regular size. We will see.

Battletech

I never got into Battletech back in the day. I had played it at Gencon once - with the heat sinks but it never really grabbed me. I did get into the Mechwarrior Dark Age when it came out from Wizkids and even was a Warlord (judge) for a few of the sets.

I just got the classic rules from ebay yesterday. I'm going to check them over to see if they are viable for Wincon. I'm still very interested in the system from an upsizing view. From the book, I found out that the nice people at Armorcast used to make 28mm scale Battletech mechs. They look keen and inspring.

at odds

I’m off next week so I probably won’t be able to update as often – my home connection is not so solid. Unless I get presented with a to-do list, I’m basically free-range for the week. Depending on the weather, I may have to move around some snow to help it thaw. I’m thinking I’ll try and paint some figures and try to take some more pictures for boardgamegeek.

I also started making an Indiana Jones satchel for my son so I might try to finish sewing and dye it. My daughter also wants one too.

If I have time, I might do a quick sift of my room. I may even work at the Man O War ships I started years ago. I might do some terrain.
We’ll see what I can actually get done.

We are the world

My mom needed a large world map showing country divisions but without country names and had asked me if I could draw one for her. I found a political map on wiki and took it home. She had told me back at the end of January that she needed this for the beginning of March. Naturally, I did it on March 1. Truth be told, she didn’t get me the paper size until mid-February so I didn’t procrastinate all that much.
I had picked up a small opaque projector from Michaels years ago. The only other thing I’ve really used it for was upsizing a Ghostbusters logo to use as a pattern for hand-stitching the logos and that was over 6 years ago. I first came across these in elementary school – using the camera obscura principle to enlarge pictures in books on the wall to trace.

The map I was using was quite small for the size I needed it – it almost would have easier to draw it freehand but I figured I’d give it a try. In looking at the projector, I noticed that it was rated up to a 75 watt bulb. It had a 60 watt in there now. I’m wondering if, now that we have the compact fluorescents, I can put a brighter (and cooler) bulb in there for a sharper picture.



I was only able to upsize a quarter of the map at a time. I had to keep moving the image and then re-aligning the map to get the entire thing done. My main problem was that the focal range was about 4 inches off the page for the size I needed. I kept holding up the back of my hand or even an extra piece of paper for a clear image when the lines all merged together in a mess. I think it came out pretty well – I had to freehand in Alaska and I think I added in an extra country behind Albania but it looked not too bad.

blip - blip - blip

I thought I was able to get the last two Treehouse Aliens figures I needed to complete the entire Colonial Marine set. I was looking forward to painting them up and using them with an upsized Aliens boardgame. Unlike other upsized games, this one has a solo-play feature that should allow me to use it more often.

The figs came in. I didn’t get the Drake – I got a Vasquez instead. The figure was in the packaging and was tipped back in the photo – making me think it was a Drake instead of the Vasquez that I already have. So I still need a Drake. I had been looking forward to starting in on these next week when I am off. I might still start on them - depends on what else the wife thinks I should be doing.

MBCC 2008

The Manitoba Comic Con was held last weekend at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. The space was ideal for it. It gave lots of room in the aisles between the dealers and artists. The gaming space was set up nicely.
The guest’s alley was a lot brighter than last year. The only thing that could have been easily improved was having the guest’s names behind them instead of just their pictures.

They were saying they had sold 2000 tickets by Saturday morning – not sure how many of that includes presale tickets for Sunday – but it didn’t feel crowded. I could easily believe a turnstile attendance of 4000 – 5000. Beyond that, I’d want to do the math again.

There wasn’t a lot that I felt a need to buy. We did get pictures and signatures from Justin Hartley (Green Arrow), Helen Slater (Supergirl / Laur-el), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Gerrit Graham (Beef, Q), and even Charlie Adler (Cow, Chicken, Starscream).
There was also some photo ops set up so the kids got their photos with ewoks, mogwai, and even an Ecto-1.






The kids dressed up on the Saturday as Princess Leia and Obi-Wan and D3 wore the Obi-Wan again on Sunday. They didn’t enter the costume contest as they had not made the costumes themselves, they would have had to (rightly) compete in the Journeyman category instead of the Young Fan.
The costumes were pretty good but the contest had two common problems. The costumers didn’t do much more than walk out on stage, turn around, and walk off. They should have at least paused and posed so that we could get photos as they didn’t gather after for pictures. Secondly, they didn’t have anything planned for the dead time between the costumes being presented and the judges’ verdict so we just sat around with nothing going on.

I did finally get to see Jamie’s Warhound and also ran into Chris McL again. I did get to see Monsterpocalypse which looks so pretty.



It’s tempting to get into but I’m not sure I can get involved in another collectable miniature game. I might get a starter and see how the rules play. It does look very upsize-able though. I also got to talk to Brian about upsizing some games for next year.

All-in-all, it was another good time. I hope they did well enough to be able to have another one.

Where we've been before

My kids went with my folks after breakfast yesterday so we were able to pop in to the flea markets to kill some time without being inundated with request to buy more stuff they don’t need. We haven’t been to them in a while.
The Mandalay Flea Market has shrunk significantly. There was nothing that caught our eye, except some orange leather that we passed on for now. I did find the new Tandy/Leather Ranch location though.
The Ellice flea market used to be mostly empty but has really filled up. There was a nice mix – I actually got a Polar Lights Enterprise for $5 – more about it below.
The Mulvey Market was quite full. It also goes through cycles. It was pretty fun – with a fair amount of relevant stuff. There was a liqueur set with the Blade Runner glasses – but I already have one.

The Enterprise is the reissue one. It is a snap model that someone partially tried to put together, and had tape holding on the nacelle. It also had some of the stickers applied – including one right over the tape. It also had the decal sheet.
It is missing a new nacelle but does have the variant pair. It should let me scale up the ships for Star Trek Ship Battle game. I had been half-heartedly meaning to get one for a few years now. Now to get the Klingon ship.