At 19.50 Greenwich time the new Doctor Who series with Peter Capaldi will be aired. Here in Italy an hour after because of Rome time, and I think I follow it. So no Saturday night go out, however maybe tomorrow very early I will go to Terni for another work session on Ferrum et Gloria editing.

It’s Ferragosto (feriae Augusti) time again! The day of the year established by our emperor Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus to rest! And this is even the day to celebrate Summer. And Summer is bikini time too! As in previous years something on this topic, just like my Blood Bowl team painted by Filippo Simoncini…

And more. A clip from a great Japanese film about girls and machine-guns:

Buon Ferragosto! : )

Gladiators in 1/6 dimension are one passion of mine. I own two of them but the high prices keep me away from new purchases. In the meantime two new products are on the market. The first one is a delicious dimachaereus (a fighter with two curved swords) by ACI, the best maker for this kind of figures. Moreover it is almost historically correct. The only evident (and common) mistake is the metallic junction at the elbows. And the points of the swords aren’t inside as sabers but external as hooks. But you can just turn them and all is fine. The right sword could be more long than the left one, but you can be satisfied the same. Quality of the finish is awesome indeed. Available in two versions that are different as colours of metal parts. A really great piece!

I’m less pleased by the other gladiator by CMTOYS. It is simple: it is neither a gladiator as fight category, nor a Roman as dress. It is sold as “Roman Gladiator Coach”. I think it is a transposition of a character from that TV series that I dislike called “Spartacus”. A fantasy item, then.

Last Saturday I went to Terni to assist Andrea with the drawing of gladiators, illustrations for the edit of Ferrum et Gloria. He draws them on his graphics tablet. In the first stance he drew a retiarius. He started it with rough sketches and after he coloured and defined it.

The final result was good but for only this figure we spent 2 hours. And all is not so perfect as it can be. Two more hours on it? No! So he tried another way: building from free forms, adding layers of colours over layers of colours.

Well, it was good too but a little mixed. So another way, always with this composition way but utilising a limited range of tones.

This was the right way! The look is more immediate, the key aspects are evident. The drawing session ran smoothly and all was rapid, almost 30/40 minutes for figure. After a working day we have: retiarius, provocator, myrmillo, secutor, scissor, gallus. Andrea is refining them. Among other things we had a brainstorming about Ganesha Games in 2015, 2016 and more. Today more time is scheduled for other gladiators available on the first part of the rules. I’m on the way to Terni again, and this time we will spend some days in Umbria for an holiday together with Diego.

I’m losing weight. After some years of constant little fat accumulation (too many pizzas…) I was out of my target weight. Moreover I have other problems as colitis and kidney stones. So I decided to stop this situation with a real diet. After two months I lost more than 4kg. It is not so much but it is a result. Now I weight a little less than 78kg and I want to reach 73kg. The goal is to obtain this result just before Lucca Comics and Games convention, together with a printed copy of Ferrum and Gloria in my hands. And after my example even Andrea is following a diet! A healthier way of life is necessary to gamers…

On the same topic is what concern my lead mountain. I weigh all my unpainted miniatures and I found that they are almost 2.3kg. I have a few more in the post, so I could say that the total amount is 2.5kg. Comparing my fat to my miniatures I understand what those 4kg I lost really are! I reorganised what I still have to paint, bonding the figures within a same theme, taking notes about the pieces, packing all in labelled boxes. I wish to start a diet for my miniatures too. It is a non-sense to own a lot of miniatures that you can’t utilise because they are unpainted. So I want to hold purchases back, keeping my lead mountain under control. I want for it a weight loss. I can obtain it as I can lose fat.

Some news about anime world: old ideas but good things that never fades away.

After the new tv series:

After the live action film:

Now the new anime film:

Among all the new rules that Andrea is writing there is Harder Than Steel, the science fiction version of Song of Blade and Heroes. So Andrea came to visit me for giving a try to the rules, especially for those about vehicles. I haven’t sci-fi terrain because I am focused on other periods, but I realised something the same. On the ground pieces from Necromunda, WH40K, Ma.k and whichever is from future.

We threw away vehicle rules that Andrea thought. I suggested a better easy way to handle vehicles. So even this part of the book proceed. The only uncertainty is the realisation schedule due to so many rules that are in their final stage.

And now the birthday report! And an Of Gods And Mortals mega-game. Here my birthday cake with a 44 sign and a candle added: my mother couldn’t find the 5 to compose 45…

In the morning a party at work, in the evening with family. And Sunday with friends from university years. I organised the party at the local IKEA store. A novel meet with shopping. Next year another eccentric location is in my mind.

Saturday instead a trip to Canino to play with Diego, Narciso and Andrea. The 2nd of July is Diego’s birthday, mine is the 3rd, so I like to organise a special day with friends and miniatures. This time we played with OGAM for a Ragnarok scenario. I built armylists and some rules for this event. The duty was even find and assemble our available miniatures and terrains for it. Two Aesir (Thorr and Odhinn) versus two giants progeny (Loki and Surtr) for more than 2600 points each side instead of 900. Huge.

Surtr the black arrives with Muspell people. The 9 worlds are in flame!

Utgard Loki at Yggdrasil roots!

More giants and trolls are on rampage!

Frost Giants versus heroes from Valhalla!

Bersekers smashed!

Loki is free on a cliff, ready for his tricks!

Pause. Launch at restaurant and than after-launch with ice-creams.

Thorr arrives to kill giants!

Odhinn the All-Father strike!

Aesir won! They are unbeatable by giant hordes. Something in the scenario didn’t run as we thought. However Ragnarok is not ended: Fernir still doesn’t eat the Sun. So we will propose a better Ragnarok scenario at RomaGioca, the 20th of September. Hopefully we will play against our friends from Macerata for another epic struggle.

And here what remains after the Ragnarok! An empty terrain…