Acheson Creations Centrosaurus/"Monoclonius"

 I've been sitting on this figure for two weeks, dying to show it off, but I couldn't until it had posted as part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge "Toy Story" Bonus Round. The theme was to paint something relating to toys from your childhood, and for me that meant dinosaurs! I was 6 when Jurassic Park hit theaters, and didn't get to see it for a few years but I had all the toys. But before Jurassic Park, there was another dinosaur toy line I was obsessed with.

Released in 1988, Tyco's Dino-Riders had a short-lived tie-in cartoon series and a comic book series released by Marvel Comics. In the toys' lore, the heroic humanoid Valorans and the evil, half-humanoid, half-animal Rulons were battling in the distant future; a ship of Valorans tried to escape the Rulon invasion of their homeworld using the Space-Time Energy Projector to travel through time. Unfortunately, they dragged a Rulon battleship with them, and the S.T.E.P. device malfunctioned, hurling both spaceships back to the Age of the Dinosaurs. 

Here, the Valorans used their psychic powers to befriend the dinosaurs they met, while the Rulons used mind-control to enslave them. Thus, both forces continued their battle, aided by the power of dinosaurs!

I took a look through galleries of the classic toys, dredging up 35-year old memories of which toys I had - and which ones would be interesting to paint up! Frankly, a lot of them were extremely dark olive drab - the T. rex was such a dark green it was almost black! Fortunately, one that I remembered owning did have an attractive splash of color to it. Say hello to "Monoclonius."

This is a Centrosaurus from Acheson Creations; it comes in two pieces, with a resin body and metal-cast head. It has an integral "rock" base that all four feet are touching, despite the galloping pose; I've glued it to a 50x75mm 3D printed base, which has been further gussied up with flock and some plastic "school diorama" plants I got a couple big bags of off Amazon a few months back. 

But wait, I hear you say. Centrosaurus? Didn't I just say Monoclonius? Bear with me, I'll come back to that.

Monoclonius was part of the first series of Dino-Rider toys released in 1988; part of the Rulon faction, it came packaged with the Rulon Sharkman "Mako" and had a simple action feature; the head and tail were linked and moving one back and forth moved the other with it. 

Unlike the dark olives and muddy browns of much of the line, Monoclonius had a dark green body, fading to a lighter shade on the legs, and a splash of bright turquoise on the face. While I wasn't up to the challenge of scratch-building Mako and his weapons platform, I could absolutely copy this color scheme.

So, to address the relationship between Centrosaurus and Monoclonius - they're most likely the same animal. The name "Monoclonius" was assigned to extremely fragmentary remains in the 1870s, possibly remains from multiple different species jumbled together. Some "Monoclonius" remains are probably Styracosaurus, others might be Einiosaurus, but the most likely candidate is Centrosaurus; all three are medium-sized relatives of the more famous Triceratops, lacking the long brow horns but having other ornamentation and long straight- or forward-curved nose horns. So while Centrosaurus was technically named *after* "Monoclonius," and normally the first name would be the one given precedence, because the fragments of "Monoclonius" are so small, and so "we can't really differentiate this from other animals," that Centrosaurus is the name given priority.

Up until the late 1990s, there were still scientists arguing for Monoclonius to exist alongside Centrosaurus as separate animals, but as of 2025 the consensus seems to be that it just isn't it's own species. And this happens sometimes with paleontology. So while "Monoclonius" might no longer exist as a valid animal, it remains a valid part of my childhood toy box.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, especially the nose horn. And it was fun to go through the list of Dino-Riders figures trying to remember which ones I'd had as a kid! I've already factored this one into the tally below.

Miniatures Acquired: 47

Miniatures Painted: 47

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 1

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

This Place is a Pigsty!

 Gina got me this 3D-printed pigpen, as well as a few other pieces of small pre-modern terrain, last year for my birthday, and this piece has sat unfinished for several months. Yesterday, I picked it up and said, "Whatever it takes, let's get this done." Since it was already half-done, I can't count it towards my entries in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, so it can go straight on to my blog here. The glue is still drying on the flock, but I'm pleased with how it turned out - funnily enough, a lot of my "I'm not happy with how this is looking" that led to it being put on the shelf was resolved with a quick wash of Army Painter Strong Tone and drybrush of a light gray on the boards of the fence. 

Not a whole lot else to say about this one - once the glue holding the flock down is totally dry, I might put some shrubbery behind the stone hutch or along the back fence. Come warm dry weather, I'll hit it with a can of spray varnish and then apply some gloss to the area the pigs are wallowing in. 

I think I can count this towards "Terrain Painted," not "Scatter," since it's technically a building and on a base. I'm not going to count the pigs towards my figure total since they're incorporated into the terrain permanently. 

Miniatures Acquired: 47

Miniatures Painted: 47

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 1

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

A Forest of Kings - Warriors, Characters and Peasants

 It took me a little longer than expected due to how cold my basement got over the past week, but I've finished the next two formations of Warriors for my Maya Tribal project, along with a couple of heroes and some peasants. 

First up, the Warriors. These ones are armed with Short Weapons per Tribal's rules, gaining a bonus when performing straightforward bashing attacks on their opponents. Again, like with the spearmen I finished last month, these are more or less color-coded into formations. Figures again by Lucid Eye.

Next up, two heroes - a "Mayan General" from Paymaster Games here in the US, and a second Mayan Shaman from Gringo40s.

And finally, four Mayan Peasants carrying cotton bundles from Gringo40s - these have been based two to a 40mm round to serve as objective markers in games of Tribal.

What's left to go with this project? Well, I've got four characters primed and awaiting paint, and ten figures with bows and atlatls waiting to be assembled and primed. And shields for all these warriors to batch-paint. I also have a dozen buildings awaiting cleaning, assembly, and painting but that's going to be a warm weather project. I think I'm unlikely at this point to buy more figures for this project unless something really spectacular releases. 

Going through my spreadsheet and tallying everything I've painted (including some things I can't post here yet because they haven't gone live on the Challenge blog), and everything I've bought...I'm actually all tied up for the moment. For the moment, because I've got another dozen figures almost done being painted that will shift the needle properly into the green. 

Miniatures Acquired: 47

Miniatures Painted: 47

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

Running GAGG XXX: After (In)Action Report

 Another Running GAGG is in the books; the 20th since my first visit as a college freshman in 2006, and I think my 18th year in attendance overall. It's no exaggeration when I say that Running GAGG weekend is the best weekend of the year for me; I'm surrounded by friends I get to see only rarely from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, and the Geneseo Area Gaming Group and its alumni really are a second family for me. This year I got to play a couple of RPGs I've been interested in but didn't feel up to the task of running without some experience under my belt, stayed up way too late at night and ate like a college student. Which is why I took Monday off work to physically recuperate from the weekend!

I even had the singular experience of being bought a drink by the current owner of the bar we favored when I was 21; Kelly's Irish Saloon is a salt miner's bar, catering to the guys mining rock salt in nearby Retsof. The drinks are strong and inexpensive - two big perks for college kids. Why pay $8 (in 2009 dollars) for a rum and coke with just enough rum to taste, when I can go to Kelly's and pay $4 for a rum and coke with just enough coke to tint the rum? 

Kelly's burned down a few years ago and was rebuilt, rising like a drunken phoenix from its own ashes. My regular group of rascals at Running GAGG visit Kelly's every year on Saturday night, and the owner recognized us from past years and bought a round to thank us for making Kelly's our watering hole every year. I don't really drink any more but I made an exception for this. 

My table set-up.

The one downside was that my Perilous Tales demo didn't attract any players. I'm not terribly surprised - between the agonizingly bitter cold, the fact that the coffee shop in the student union (where the convention is held) was closed due to a burst pipe, and reduced availability of rooms at the nearest hotels, convention attendance was slightly down this year and general foot traffic through the student union was greatly reduced. Plus, as I've said, it's just not a big wargaming-centric convention at the best of times. 

My friend Boe's "Burrows & Badgers" game, which is usually packed with a wait-list, was similarly unattended this year, though his 8am Bolt Action event was well-attended. There was some Battletech going on about 50 feet away from me, but I think the team of guys who showed up to demo the game were just playing each other to pass the time. 

I did have about a dozen people stop by and ask, "What is this?" - either completely unfamiliar with the concept of wargaming, or only familiar with Warhammer 40K, which my table pretty obviously isn't. I gave my spiel explaining Perilous Tales, and also found myself fielding a lot of questions about the very idea of miniatures agnostic rules and small miniatures companies that aren't Games Workshop. People listened politely, asked follow-up questions and showed interest...but getting them over the hump to trying the game just didn't happen. That's fine. Hopefully I planted some seeds in some minds and next year people will give it a try. 

I'm really grateful to the convention organizers for putting the various wargaming tables in the wide open hall of the student union, putting our visually-appealing tables in full view of the populace passing through. 

All in all, it was a great weekend even if wargaming didn't happen. 

Perilous Tales - Refresher Game

 Next weekend I'll be at Running GAGG, my alma mater's gaming convention. This year is their 30th show, and my 20th since I started attending (I think I've missed it once or twice, so I won't say it's my 20th show). I got involved with the Geneseo Area Gaming Group my first week of freshman year when I was a student there, and held a number of officer positions before graduation, culminating in club treasurer; I probably could have been club president if I'd wanted to, but in my senior year I was really trying to focus on finishing my degree (plus when I was treasurer my signature got forged to a purchase order for Magic cards). I served as club minister for both wargaming and role-playing games. Running GAGG isn't a big wargaming convention, being mostly focused on RPGs and board games, but there's always a few demo tables and they've recently resumed hosting a Warhammer 40K tournament. 

This year, I'm taking a break from running RPGs to do a wargaming demo table; the last time I tried this was with Buck Surdu's G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. in 2006, and the only guy who showed up for that misread the event listing and expected it to be a roleplaying game. This year, I'm showing off Perilous Tales, building off what I learned demoing the game last September at Wargames Among the Warplanes. I'm going to be in the lobby of the student union, so I'll have lots of people passing by my table - hopefully I can entice a few people to stop!

Today I experimented with table set up, focusing on making it eye-catching to attract the passerby, and gave myself a refresher game while I was at it. The villain today was the Demon Butcher, which can inflict some decent damage but is supported by minions that can de-buff the heroes in tricky ways. Our heroes today are Officer Bob (Leader), supported by Billy Ray the mechanic, Cliff the mailman, Larry the Lousy Bum, and Sandra the wilderness tour guide (all Teammates). Their objectives are Collect Evidence (take a picture of the Master Villain and still be holding it when the game ends), Call for Rescue, and Escape (move three figures off the villain's side of the table). 

The game started slowly, with the heroes fanning out and moving up the table. Officer Bob used his "Eyes Peeled" skill to check the first visible threat marker, confirming it was an environmental hazard. And then Sandra triggered an ambush, coming within 6" of a threat marker. In fact, two.

She managed to defeat the cultist (the Demon Butcher villain list includes "Urchins" that prevent heroes from using their skills within a certain radius; I'd previously looked at using imps of some sort for these but the Ill-Gotten Games cultists work just as well!), but the rats proved to be a much harder challenge.

And about the rat swarms - At the start of the villain's turn, as long as there's one rat swarm active on the table, another spawns on an unengaged hero. In this case, one popped up on Officer Bob as Billy Ray was running for the pay phone to Call for Rescue. Officer Bob also failed a Horror Check while in base contact with the rats, which means he fell prone.

Billy Ray failed his initial roll to try and Call for Rescue. A cultist spawned in front of him and another rat swarm attacked Larry. Ultimately, the rats ate Sandra.

Billy Ray bashed the cultist out of his way using his wrench, and successfully called for help - which spawned an additional two cultists on the table! Rats and cultists both swarmed now.

Larry and Cliff both succumbed to the onslaught of opponents, while Billy Ray had enough and bolted off the table (fortunately, the Villainous edge, so a victory point scored there!). With multiple cultists and rat swarms converging on him, and the threat level about to hit its maximum, Officer Bob thought about how he'd only been two days from retirement...

The master villain, the Demon Butcher, never showed up! There was one unrevealed threat marker left on the table, slowly working its way in from the back corner turn by turn, but nobody survived long enough to activate it. Which means there was no scoring the "Collect Evidence" objective. I tried getting more characters off the table, but everyone kept failing their rolls to escape from combat, keeping them stuck in melee and taking wounds.

All in all this was a brutal game, but it gave me a better understanding of how the minions (Urchins and Rat Swarms) under the Demon Butcher work. Sometimes just reading the listing doesn't give you a full sense of how they function as part of the villain's network and you really need to see them in action for it to click. Depending on how spaced out the heroes are, it's potentially possible to end up with 4-5 rat swarms on the table after a few turns, and both rats and Urchins will move around and bolster each other, providing bonuses to hitting the heroes. The Demon Butcher isn't as strong as something like the Wolfman or the Gargoyles, but he doesn't need to be - his henchmen do a lot of heavy lifting for him, as seen here. 

I think I'm in good shape for next weekend - we'll see if I get anyone to stop at my table! 

A Forest of Kings - Warriors with Spears

 Pleased to report I've completed another two units (or "Formations") for wargaming inter-city Maya conflicts using Mana Press' Tribal, both warriors armed with spears or, in the language of the game, "long weapons." 

These are Lucid Eye "Jaguar Tribes" figures, and range from almost totally nude to full body suits that, in bright colors, make them look like enthusiastic Muppets cosplayers. 

I've detailed the two formations in different accent colors to better differentiate them on the table. I'll be doing similar with the next two formations, which are armed with clubs and flint-edged macahuitls. 

I've also completed two Gringo 40s Maya casualty figures, to serve as disordered/panicked tokens in game. I should have painted the figures separately and then glued them to the base after I flocked it!

I'm very pleased to report that these bring me up to 30 figures painted; however, I've also bought some figures - Dragon Bait Miniatures has announced their retirement and closure, so I took advantage of their retirement 15% off sale to stock up on some Egyptian civilians and soldiers from the Dark Fable line - which was one of the miniature lines that brought me back to the hobby in 2014. I've also ordered another 10 Maya warriors from Gringo 40s, all armed with bows and atlatls to give me some ranged options. Fortunately, I have another 16 figures already half-finished on my painting bench, so I'll be back in the green soon.

So, let's update the tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 44

Miniatures Painted: 30

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

Latest Figures Painted

 As soon as I saw these "FBI Agents" from Crooked Dice, I knew I had to have them; X-Files scared the tar out of me as a sensitive kid in the 90s, but I've since become a fan of the "Monster of the Week" episodes (the overarching mythology episodes, not so much). Having Mulder and Scully on my table was a must for the demo games of "Perilous Tales" I'm hoping to run on February 1st at a localish gaming convention. 

These are another two from Crooked Dice, though maybe less familiar; the armed cheerleader is a dead ringer for Kelli Maroney's character in the 1984 cult classic NIGHT OF THE COMET, while the teenage metalhead is just as clearly intended to be the character Eddie Munson from Netflix's "Stranger Things" series. I even freehanded the partial skull and crossbones on the bandanna he's wearing around his head. 

Finally, I needed multiple rat swarms to represent the lowest grade of minion serving the master demon; these are 3D resin prints from GreenStuffWorld that I found on a spinner rack at Harlequin Hobbies. I like the little extras on these; the king rat directing his fellows, the wedge of cheese, the stack of newspapers. It gives each base personality. Each one is glued to a 25mm Renedra round base. Hopefully half a dozen will be enough for my demo games; I think the Perilous Tales rules actually have Rat Swarms appearing on the table two at a time. 

And this brings me up to current; everything I've finished painting to date has been posted on both the AHPC blog and here.

Miniatures Acquired: 4

Miniatures Painted: 18

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0