First, let us address the Quar in the room. 2023 was announced by yours truly to be “The Year of the Quar”. It was hoped Wargames Atlantic would have released their plastic box set of Quar done in partnership with Joshua Qualtieri of Zombiesmith (the creator of the Quar). It has been a delayed production and is now due for early 2024… and while I have acquired a great many metal Quar I have yet to finish painting a single one! Yes, yes I know. Bad Gnome.

Why haven’t I painted up a bunch of Quar? Two reasons. First, I have to follow my muse. For me to enjoy painting I need to be moved to paint. Doing it “because I have to” is not fun and does not lead to my best results. Second, I decided I needed to get rid of a bunch of my extraneous figures/terrain for the now cancelled projects to make room for the Quar (and the various critters from Anyaral, The World of Twilight).

Here are just some of the things that have found new homes…

… some repairs, some kitbashed conversions, some fancy bases and some with my usual hand textured bases but all cleaned up decently and primed with an airbrush, ready for their new owners to start painting.

This has been incredibly time consuming as it required me to finish things to a certain level before feeling good about moving them on and trading things can be more labor intensive than just selling them at a major loss. But it has had the unexpected benefit of meaning I have gotten some Games Workshop stuff that I never thought to own given how expensive GW can be at retail prices. From the Ash Wastes of Necromunda to the Shattered Realm of the Age of Sigmar I have some great pieces for my various on going Sci-fi and Fantasy projects.

I have something of a love/hate relationship with Games Workshop. I started with Rogue Trader 40k in the 80’s, dabbled in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and continued sporadically with GW’s tabletop Wargames until the late 90’s.

In addition to tabletop, I spent way too much time playing Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Online:_Age_of_Reckoning

As well as Total War: Warhammer.

Warhammer

So you can say I transitioned from analog to digital GW. But the politics and business practices of GW have long bothered me. High prices, corporate hijinks and problematic marketing combined with the, to me anyway, bizarre decision to end The Old World setting of Warhammer Fantasy in order to introduce the even more extremely High Fantasy setting of “The Age of Sigmar” really put GW largely in my rear view mirror. In particular I did not like the “Sig-Marines” (Sigmarite Stormcast) although the new Swamp Orruk Kruleboyz appealed to a certain degree as they looked like Weta/Jackson Hobbit Movie style Orcs to me so might work for our Middle Earth games.

And I slowly came around to the new Seraphon (Lizardmen) aesthetics, with their less “Primative Tribal Lizards” and more “Space Age Dinos” look.

But I was quite surprised how a machinima could really change my opinion on Age of Sigmar and in particular the Stormcast.

A simple story, told well. Nice characterizations that got made me curious to learn more about the setting and those that inhabit. Do you want to know how to sell me miniatures? That is how you sell me miniatures.

Now I am beginning to find the Stormcast interesting and I am even tempted to paint some. For awhile I had thought to paint some as statues (and magical constructs) for our Frostgrave game setting but now I am actually interested in something more like the Stormcast in Age of Sigmar although I do not see myself actually ever playing Age of Sigmar unless Little GG insists some day. I did get a bit of a World of Warcraft Stormwind vibe from Realms of Ruin…

In addition to the hard plastic Quar from Wargames Atlantic JQ has announced he has new resin (Siocast?) and metal Quar sculpts coming.

….and….

I have forgotten to mention previously that the last time I bought some metal Quar from JQ at Zombiesmith I also ordered some sci-fi sculpts. The first was bought largely because it made me think of a 28mm metal alien version of Corbin Dallas (5th Element) or Harry the Taxi Driver from Heavy Metal….

https://zombiesmith.com/broose-axe/

And then some quirky looking 28mm resin robots…

https://zombiesmith.com/sp1r3-bots/

JQ has some other sci-fi sculpts I really like, namely his quirky Scutters, Yog and Jaloof.

Much as I love the Quar, they have not been alone in 2023 though… Mike Thorp, the creator of Anyaral, World of Twilight captured my imagination with his amazing artistic vision. Not only have I been acquiring sculpts from his website…

http://shop.worldoftwilight.com

… but also two of his sculpts from Heresy Miniatures…

1. Shockwyrm (aka Burrowing Akitiin)

https://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_12_51&products_id=445

https://www.anyaraltoolbox.com/encyclopaedia/pmwiki.php/Fauna-NaralonForests/BurrowingAkitiin

 2. Hellmites (aka Mekkrid)

https://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_12_51&products_id=383

https://www.anyaraltoolbox.com/encyclopaedia/pmwiki.php/Fauna-NaralonForests/Mekkrid

Just goes to show how deeply I get into something I really love! Gotta collect’em all!

As you may have noticed, they did not come with the lipped slotta bases Mike sends outweigh his own minis. I have yet to decide exactly how I want to base all the various Anyaral minis but I do not think I will use either lipped slotta bases or Citadel GW style slotta bases. I am more likely to go with grey flat Renedra bases I think. Or maybe MDF. We’ll see.

In other news…

Mrs. GG and I enjoyed the second season of Carnival Row.

Except for the last episode it was pretty engaging, fleshing out the world more and giving us characters with a bit more depth to care about (and love to hate). The last episode was disappointing given how well it had done in previous episodes but the show was particularly interesting in that it really had us wondering who would live and who would die. In my opinion Orlando Bloom really has grown as an actor. He made a brilliant Legolas but I had not thought him capable of successfully portraying such a grizzled character as he does in Carnival Row. He proved me wrong, and I am glad of it.

We also enjoyed Arcane: League of Legends.

A bit too dark for Mrs. GG and me to love, however we both enjoyed the series well enough… except for the final episode, again. We are seeing a trend here. It seems endings are more difficult to skillfully craft than beginnings. Lots of amazing world building and interesting characters. It is a good sign when a show makes me curious to know more. At times it had a “Heavy Metal” vibe but other times it really felt like it’s own thing.

If you enjoyed Shadow and Bone we feel that you would enjoy Carnival Row and Arcane. If I had more time for another project I would like to create a game setting that mixes all three of those shows. As it stands I already have far too much on my plate.

I used to be a huge Indiana Jones fan but the Crystal Skull movie really, really disappointed me. So I was hesitant to watch Dial of Destiny but once it hit Amazon Prime Mrs. GG and I decided to give it a chance.

I would say it is about on par with Temple of Doom. OK but not amazing. Directors really need to learn that sometimes less is more. Suspension of disbelief is a fragile thing and for it to work best there really needs some subtlety. Spielberg gets that, it is one of the things that makes him a great director, and I wish more directors would figure that out.

About on par with Dial of Destiny was Jurassic Park 6 (Jurassic World: Dominion “the non-extended version”).

Some clever ideas but poorly executed. I have read the extended version is better, adding a number of scenes that help flesh out the story more. It was not the story I was expecting and it felt underwhelming. The original Jurassic Park is a classic…. this was an ok Saturday afternoon popcorn film. Not great cinema but watchable. Not necessarily rewatchable though. Maybe the extended version could convince me.

We also watched Rebel Moon… and it was a bit disappointing.

Heavy handed writing (indeed reminding me of some fan-fiction) with ponderous dialogue at times, plot holes, nonsensical character decisions and what appears some clumsy editing perhaps the result of making the two versions. The slow motion fight scenes were irritating. Much of the combat seemed cartoonish, based on luck rather than skill, yet at the same time with overly fancy martial arts moves. The gunfighters in particular seemed off, very little effort made to show marksmanship. In general, unsurprising for Snyder it seemed to me to be style over substance. Except for Belisarius (sp?) I thought the casting was decent, although the actors generally could have done with better dialogue and character development. 

But the costuming, set dressing and special effects were good overall barring some missteps. I really liked the flowery ostentatious decorations on the armor and combat android. An Ottoman vibe. But the weapons often looked like Nerf guns. The Drider was particularly creepy as was the parasite creature in the bar. I liked the concept of the pacifist elite combat android but hope it’s dialogue makes more sense in the extended version. 

I will watch the second half (Scargiver) and likely the Snyder cut as well. But with low expectations. And maybe low expectations was what helped me be entertained by this first half. 

Additional thoughts: I would say it was not as good as Ahsoka (which was not as good as I hoped it would be), was on par with Book of Boba Fett and was better than Kenobi. But those shows all get the benefit of nostalgia and a love of the setting. The universe of Rebel Moon is diverse but lacks any sense of coherency and is easily forgettable. 

I wish the Admiral would get a hat that fits and someone to show him how to wear a military dress hat properly, ie not pulled down low on the back. It should be perched on the top of the head with the visor down low over the bridge of the nose. It looked like he was playing dress up with his father’s hat. This may seem a petty thing to remark on but with all the veterans out there, surely someone can teach actors to at least wear a uniform like a professional. Costuming is a visual storytelling art. It matters. And the “soldiers” left at the farm… oh Dale Dye, where are you when we need you most?! 

Also, I think I just figured out something that this show got wrong and why it is not clicking with many folks. It is quite solemn perhaps in fact entirely too ernest, taking itself very seriously and has no comic relief as far as I noticed. This makes the presentation come across as self-important and bombastic and further divorcing itself from a sense of humanity that helps suspension of disbelief. Space opera but missing the pulp adventure fun of Star Wars (the ship designs, especially the unusual exhaust effects came across quite pulpy).

In summary, high expectations let me down but it was entertaining even if not as good as I had hoped for.

Less entertaining overall but still watchable was Scorpion King 5: Book of Souls.

Doctore versus Charles Vane. My favorite character was the Golem but the Warrior Princess was cool too. I had no idea there were five Scorpion King movies.

Ending on a high note, we quite enjoy Leo.

Adam Sandler can be a bit hit and miss but this on worked for us. All three GG’s enjoyed it to a varying degree thanks to the layers built into much of the humor.

And with that I believe I will close out this last post for 2023. I wish you a all very Happy New Year!