Quick Update: A Few More Figures

Not a whole lot to talk about today. Just dropping in to add a few more pictures of my army in progress:

Figure Gallery: Getting Started with Warmachine

The last few weeks I've been pretty focused on getting my Warmachine army started. Normally, I'm one to go with the blue colored good guys in any game I play, but for once, the knight in shining armor wears red. Khador has a lot of themes I generally like. They're heavily armored with heavy melee damage and ice based elemental powers. One thing that greatly interested me was that Khador doesn't make any of the game's smaller robots. Every Warjack they make is as big and heavy as they come.

The first thing I picked up was Vlad, the armored knight styled warcaster to serve as my primary avatar in the game. Along with Vlad, I picked up two of Khador's Heavy Jack Kits to build myself my first machines of war. One really cool thing about the plastic jack kits is that they come with a single chassis, but give you all the parts you need to make four different Warjacks. In theory, you could buy one for every figure you wish to build, but luckily I found a great tutorial online that showed me how to magnetize the different arms and weapons to allow you to easily swap your kit into any figure in the set.

This take's a fair amount of work, but the results are well worth it. You'll need a small Dremel tool and a set of 1/8" rare earth magnets. With the Dremel tool, you'll want to drill a small hole in any joint you wish to magnetize and then insert a magnet into the hole with a dab of super glue. The magnets take some practice to get used to. They're quite strong and on more then one occasion I dropped one only to have it yank its brethren from some of my completed pieces. Keeping a good distance between your finished bits is rather important. The other thing to keep in mind is that you need to be very careful to watch your polarities. You don't want to put a magnet in backwards and find your arm repels itself from the socket. I did well for the most part, but unfortunately, the shoulders are reversed on the two figures. Not a major problem, but it means each figure has a set of arms that only works on that figure, rather than arms that can be used interchangeably.

The results of this are really quite exciting. It's sort of like building your own toy. Arms can be adjusted and posed all sorts of ways, letting you tweak your figure however you like. It's a great way to start off in the game, as you'll get a good variety of big figures to try out. I'll also mention, the two Warjacks in the Khador starter set use the same parts as the heavy kit. While you don't get all of the parts for each figure available in the heavy kit, if magnetized, you can buy another heavy kit and have three chassis to swap around.

From there, it's back to my last article to paint up the figures. I didn't actually use the wood stain on this one. Seeing as they're a little nicer figures than I normally use, I decided to try a wash. A wash is pretty easy to use and acts much like the stain. It's very watery (and generally should be watered down further). The nice thing is that you can brush it over the figure and it will run in and darken the crevices, while still being easy to tone down by drying your brush and using it to absorb. I probably went a little overboard on the wash here, but I'm happy with it. Certainly not something I'd do for cheaper board game figures, but for these really detailed guys, it works really well.

In addition, these were the first figures I every made custom bases for. This was pretty simple for the most part. I started by painting the bottom of the base white. For the jacks, I glued a tiny rock to break things up since it was such a large base. Then, I simply poured some good old white Elmer's glue down and used an old brush to spread it around. With snow, it seems to work best if you get a pretty thick layer of glue to start with. From there I got a little tub of snow flock and just poured it over top. After waiting a bit to let it dry, I shook off the extra and that was it.

Anyway, enough rambling. This is really supposed to be a gallery post, so lets dive into the pictures. Enjoy!

Pilotwings Resort - Into the Wild 3D Yonder

Nintendo has built themselves a new bit of 3D tech and in keeping with tradition, that means we get another entry in the Pilotwings franchise to help us test it out. Originally debuting on the SNES, the first Pilotwings was largely a showcase for the system's Mode 7 effects, returning years later as one of the sparse launch titles for the N64 to teach us how to use the analog stick. Nintendo's latest offering in the series, Pilotwings Resort once again gives us a set of airborne ring courses to help us get used to Nintendo's latest innovation; stereoscopic 3D.

I've been a little surprised with the reviews I've read of this game to be perfectly honest. They largely complain about the game's rather short length and tendency to require you to perform absolutely flawlessly to get a perfect score. In short, they largely describe Pilotwings. It has always been a series that demands a certain amount of perfection, though if all you wish to do is clear every test once, the game is far more lenient. While I have yet to completely finish the game, perhaps the one feature I miss from its predecessor is the human cannonball challenge. Nevertheless, this game is still Pilotwings at its core, with several fun, inventive challenges to help you put your new system through the paces. You'll get a chance to pilot planes, hang gliders, and the every popular rocket pack, though every once in a while they throw you a bit of a curve via a more specialized vehicle.

Unfortunately, as a test of the system's 3D capabilities, I find it rather distracting and discouraging. One of the tricks to the 3DS is that you have to find the sweet spot to properly see the 3D effects. There are several good screens in the game with solid, colorful objects to help you adjust, but the game doesn't allow you to hold this calibration into gameplay. Before starting a challenge, you'll have to select a test from the bottom screen and when you look back up, you'll find an odd, transparent text box that makes it extremely difficult to tell if you're still in the sweet spot. Hopefully as the system matures, developers can find ways to help players find the proper viewing angle, but sadly, I'm finding I'm enjoying the game more with the 3D switched off.

That said, the game is doing a great job letting me toy with the system's analog pad. As a game built upon small, steady movements, it really lets you see how wonderfully the analog works. After years of disappointment with the PSP nub and the attempts at virtual analog on the DS and iPhone, playing a portable with nearly flawless analog controls is simply wonderful. Nintendo has certainly set the bar for portable controls as far as I'm concerned, and Pilotwings Resort is a terrific means of trying them out.

Overall, Pilotwings Resort shares much in common with its fore bearers. It's a bit of a tech demo among a rather anemic launch lineup. It's probably not enough to keep you busy until the next wave of games hits the system, but its a lot of fun while it lasts. Players looking to kick the tires of their new system can certainly do worse than spending a few hours soaring leisurely above Wuhu Island, while those looking for more of a challenge can spend hours going for a perfect run. While it may not be the killer app for the 3DS, it's certainly a solid game, well worth using to break in Nintendo's shiny new handheld.