Impact Chibi Adventures - Boss Monsters

Board Games – Ages ago I had backed Impact Miniatures Chibi line of miniatures, at the time I had planned on using them with Super Dungeon Explore and making my own rules. I never got around to that but I did finally get some of the assembled and painted.

I’ve been kicking around so ideas for home-brew rules to use with Super Dungeon Explore, I like the stars and button push mechanics they use and it should be easy enough to come up with something fair that could challenge the heroes without being overpowered. I’m also kicking around creating some missions/adventures that I can run the kids through without trying to play the full game which seems to run long right now.

Red Tiger Clan - Clan Tora

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Board Games – Ninja-All Stars got a bad rap. The weird combat mechanic really killed what was otherwise a beautiful game. Luckily Ninja Division/Sodapop Miniatures is repurposing the Clan boxes with rules for Super Dungeon. I’m patiently waiting for them to release the rules on their site or as a card pack so I can save my ink.

Ninja All-Stars - Arashikage Clan

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Board Games - Storm Shadow was my favorite ninja as a kid. The white color scheme with that sweet red tattoo just fed my imagination. I know I already painted up the mini boss based on Storm Shadow but I really wanted a full clan of white ninjas.

In Super Dungeon Explore the Elemental Shrine Ninjas are just OK. They can get cool abilities and with forward thinking the Console can make some pretty nasty groups for the Heroes to battle. However their limited attacks make it hard to put a significant hurt on the Heroes once they’re powered up with a few loot cards. I need to try a few more combinations to see what works best, but so far they’re pretty easy for a solid party to take out.

These models look great on the swamp side of the Von Drake Manor boards. the white really pops on the dark backgrounds. I was also able to get some paint on the shrines with this batch. The glow effect I did isn’t the greatest but on the dark boards they look pretty cool.

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The three Ronin I squeezed in are the ghost from the Ring, Lone Wolf and Cub and a Birdman Sabotuer (I call him the Seahawk for obvious reason, haha).

Ninja All-Stars - Reptile Clan

Ninja All-Stars - Reptile Clan

Board Games – Mortal Kombat has a pretty amazing history, one of the things I’ve enjoyed with some of the more recent games are the Krypts that let you unlock history of the game, alternate costumes and concept art. It’s cool when a game has backstory and hidden easter eggs. When it was in the arcade I remember watching people try to unlock Reptile and battle against the green color swapped ninja.

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Ninja All-Stars - Scorpion Clan

Ninja All-Stars - Scorpion Clan

Board Games – I’ve written about Ninja All-Stars quite a bit, I love the miniatures and the look of the game. The dice mechanic still bugs me but the fact that I can use these in Super Dungeon Explore helps make up for that. I’ve been painting up all the minis in my collection of games from Sodapop Miniature/Ninja Division because my kids are finally old enough to enjoy the game and I have a reason to paint up these cute little miniatures.

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Devil Island: Clan Ika - Feeling a Bit Salty

Devil Island: Clan Ika - Feeling a Bit Salty

Super Dungeon Explore – Chibi Ninjas are just amazing. Several years ago Sodapop/Ninja Division released Ninja All-Stars the game was beautifully designed with amazing miniatures and had a ton of potential. There was even a pretty decent campaign system that would allow you to run a league of ninjas competing for the top prize.

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Super Dungeon Explore - Is it coming back?

Super Dungeon Explore - Is it coming back?

Board Games – Ninja Division (formerly Soda Pop Miniatures) has been posting up a new chibi game based in the Super Dungeon Explore universe: Super Dungeon: Conquest. Supposedly this game will give you a new way to play with the Master Class Miniatures they’ve been releasing as well as your existing collection. Oddly enough the rules they’ve released for free seem to be a variation on the Super Dungeon: Arena Rules that is a tabletop game. The units of measurement are in inches so I guess you’ll play with a ruler and dice. I don’t know that this is what fans of the property are looking for and the skirmish market seems to be flooded with properties with stronger rulesets.

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Chibi Chidi Y'all ... making an impact

Chibi Chidi Y'all ... making an impact

Super Dungeon Explore – I recently found the box of Chibi Dungeon Adventure miniatures from the Impact Kickstarter a while back. When these came in I was super excited to paint them up and make up rules for them to use in games of Super Dungeon Explore but some other shiny thing caught my eye and I boxed them up and lost track of them for a while. (Oddly enough I boxed them in my Super Dungeon box with the tiles ... I keep my minis in a Battlefoam bag and built a 3D board that I use anytime we play.)

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On the painting table ... A Dragon and his Spawn

Super Dungeon Explore – The last three models of this commission are just about done. Starfire and two Rex. The models are pretty straightforward. With the Rex needed some gap filling around every join. It's nice that the models come pre-assembled, however this can lead to issues with the joins that might have been avoidable if you could put it together yourself.

For the paint I started with a Mephistion Red base followed by a earthshade wash. The purple is a hormaguant foundation with a purple wash and genestealer purple highlight. I then went in with the red and highlighted after the wash to bring out some of the details.

Off the painting table ... Super Dungeon Explore

Off the painting table ... Super Dungeon Explore

Super Dungeon Explore – I was able to wrap up a good portion of this commission over the weekend. All I have left at this point is to finish Starfire and the two Rex models. The Rex models have some pretty nasty gaps that my client asked me to fill and smooth out. 

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Super-King-A-Forgoten-licious

Super-King-A-Forgoten-licious

Super Dungeon Explore – Well it looks like them boys at Soda Pop Miniatures have parted ways with C'MON, which makes me very excited. As a backer of Relic Knights I really feel like C'MON dropped the ball and left Soda Pop hanging in the wind ... Relic Knights when it delivers is going to be a great game. It's nice that SPM is providing good updates and feedback directly on their forums which seems to be easing some of the discomfort backers are feeling. 

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Von Drak Manor - Box Opening

Super Dungeon Explore – I had a chance to open up the box for Von Drak Manor and take a good look at the minis included in this set. They're the same quality as the last expansion with the minis provided pre-assembled. This is cool as you can get right to using them as soon as you open the box but it's a bummer because if you want to do a nice paint job on them it's going to be a pain to get all the mold lines removed. 

If you don't plan on painting them the purple plastic looks really cool and the heros are the same grey plastic as the other heros from previous sets.

As you can see from the photos the minis are really cool and have that same old school video game vibe as the rest of the models for the game.

On the painting table ... T-U-R-T-L-E Power

Super Dungeon Explore – In an effort to get my cute stuff painted I began work on the heroes and Rocktop Gang from Caverns of Roxor. Yes I know I'm an expansion behind; but I decided I wouldn't pick up the next one until I had everything painted from this expansion.

As with all the SDE stuff removing the mold lines is a bitch. At some point I just had to give up because of where they fall going right through the detail on the heads of some of the turtles. Super annoying and it would have been easier to clean them up if they weren't preassembled, but alas after the uproar about the original box it seems that everything with come preassembled for the boardgamers.

Anyway after cleaning them up and sculpting stones on the bases to cover the gaps in the slotted bases; I primed them white and used GW base to block in the color. I chose to stick with a common color for all the turtles and shells. After looking at them again it's really hard to tell the rollers apart from the slowpokes so I changed them to a darker scheme then the rest. 

On the painting table ... Fired Up

Super Dungeon Explore – After spending so much time working on terrain I decided to take a break from the Near Future Board and dig out some miniatures to paint. For Christmas I received the Caverns of Roxor Expansion and an extra box of the Fire Denizens. having only played a few games with them they've been sitting in my basement waiting for some painting love. 

All the new Super Dungeon stuff comes preassembled which is a bit of a mixed blessing. It's nice because you don't have to take hours putting all the little dudes together. It sucks because the preassemble minis aren't always put together well and you have some nasty gaps and a harder time removing the flash/mold lines. (which because of the type of plastic is a pain in the ass).

After gently scraping off all the mold lines with a brand new xacto blade I washed all the minis with warm soapy water. Again an important step because the type of plastic used has a weird sheen to it. Next I mixed up a blob of green stuff to attempt to rectify the gap problems and fill in the slots on the cavern bases. I decided to sculpt some stones that were raised up from the base to add a little more interest to them. The whole process took a few hours to finish up all the models with a fire theme.

This time around I stuck with a white primer. I think this is going to help the yellows and oranges pop on the models. Most of the time I use a red oxide primer as it's easy to cover and gives a darker feel than white but less muddy than black or grey primer. I've found white works best for bright colors.

I'm happy with these look for now and will probably go back in to smooth out the transitions and add more highlighting before sealing these. But for now they look way better than the bare red plastic and are usable on the tabletop.