The Week Off - Prelude

Hello people,

So, another week off, another "realistic" project list. The last one worked out pretty well so hopefully that's repeatable. It's bits and pieces this time round but each with its own purpose and payoff.

So from top left;

YV-66: I've got the re-paint scheme sorted in my head for the Hound's Tooth / Natasha Pup. I'm playing down at Warboar on Saturday and I want to get it on the table for some fly casual action.

Nomads: Just the Inventnors, plus Pandas, and the Intruder Sniper to complete the set. Big woop!

Apartment: It's steampunk, designed for Wolsung, but I'm more than happy that it'll fit in with my industrial set in a Blade Runner kind of way. I'll be going for a semi derelict look with some Sci Fi graphitti to finish the job. I'm playing Tuesday night so it's the priority one piece.

Shasvassti Gwailos: These ARE recent purchases but targeted. With a far better a appreciation of the game I've worked out a list I want to put in some games with. This is just a build, base and spray job. I've got a specific plan for the paint job that will need to be done as a job lot.

So that's it. As before I'm aiming to be good to go by midday.

Best laid plans ;)

Happy Christmas to ME

Hello people,

Not a lot of hobby love going on recently outside of my traditional Xmas present to myself which this year was one of Micro Art's particularly excellent battlements for Infinity. A couple of the guys at the club have the District 5 versions so I went for the Wharehouse version for a bit of variety and I felt it fitted my scenery set better.

It's a bit more blue-grey than I expected though the buildings it on it fine and I'm sure I can darken my bases if I really feel the need. I've got a league game on Tuesday so it'll get a run out then, so to speak.

Meanwhile I need to get back to Rob's Tohaa. I've made a bit of progress and I really want to pick up those Geckos as guilt free as possible. Spirit of the season and all that :)

Taking out the Trash

Yes, been a little while,

Yada yada, real life busy, X-Wing etc ;)

Getting back to Geek-life I recently built and painted what turned to be the pack of two dumpsters from Warsenal. A couple of transfers and plenty of weathering has turned them out rather nicely for another  couple of Painting Points

For what you'd imagine to be fairly simple pieces there was actually quite a bit of construction involved. I'd expected them to be solid lumps of foam, or similar, but actually came as laser cut MDF. Both pro and con as I was expecting one rather than two quickly followed by discovering that there were no hard copy instructions. Instead Warsenal have construction videos on thier website.

I appreciate that just about everybody has the internet these days but it does feel like an oversight especially when those videos are brief and entirely devoid of text or commentary. It was literally various pieces laid out explosion style, plenty of PVA and a pair of hands. I found myself watching the whole thing through to get the gist and then stop-starting my way along.

PVA is a major requirement as very few of the pieces interlock. For a set this simple that's not too much of an issue but for anything building sized you might end up needing a third or fourth hand. You may also end up with drip marks and / or air gaps which for a dumpster is fine........

By comparison the Micro Art pieces come with clear well laid out instructions. All of the pieces are designed to interlock, some better than others, with PVA being optional rather than a necessity. All of my buildings went together without any PVA followed by the odd dab of superglue here and there as necessary. All in all a very nicely designed snug fit was easily achieved.

I would however recommended a spray sealant, even just hairspray, to provide a final bond and also to prevent the MDF soaking up huge quantities of primer.

In honesty the dumpsters went together fine and I'm very happy with them but I'd honestly be a bit wary of picking up any of Warsenal's bigger kits without having got a decent amount of feedback from people with more experience of them. Just saying!

On a vaguely related note I've realised that the extra pages on the blog haven't been updated in quite sometime to the point where they're no longer representative of what I'm upto these days. As such they will come down to be completely updated in the near future.

Watch this space!

Enter the THUNDERDOME!!

As previously threatened I took a bunch of shots last night as myself and Jon got in our first game of Infinity for a few weeks prior to the club's upcoming campaign.

I could take dozens of close up shots but I've been much more bothered by the overall feel rather than individual pieces. Keeping the District 5 buildings fairly bland has worked nicely against the busier AT-43 tiles and card pieces. Similarly I'm pleased that the construction vehicles have done the same but with a co-ordinating splash of JCB orange.

So, 36 Painting Points on the board but more pleasing is a major project completed. The occasional extra piece may be added but I need to concentrate on figures for the forseeable.

The week off - Thunderdome prt 3

Hello people,

My apologies as I'm sure you've been waiting on the edge of your sears with baited breath.....

THUNDERDOME AWAITS! TWO FORCES ENTER, ONE FORCE LEAVES!!

Thunderdome is most definitely 90% completed. Everything on the schedule is just about done. Only a cacked can of varnish has prevented me from finishing things off and that will definitely done tomorrow. The buildings, vehicles and all of the detail pieces were finished by early afternoon Friday ahead of schedule. Some of the weathering is a bit severe at the moment but varnish will bring it down a touch at which point a second round may occur. Gloss varnish also needs to be applied to windows and displays but otherwise all good. Very pleased thank you oh so much!

So in short no Painting Points just yet but a horde are upon the horizon. Once everything is 100% I'll put up shots of the whole table set. Meanwhile, without further provarication;

The week off - Thunderdome prt 2

Hello people,

So the end of day 3 and I'm very happy with the project so far. All of the buildings and construction vehicles have been block painted, which is a big step. As a bonus I've based all of the remaining Nomads as well.

Tomorrow will be detailing and I'll turn my attention to the smaller pieces. Friday will be weathering and finishing up the smaller pieces. Plenty of varnish will seal the deal.......sorry ;)

Anyway, eye candy;

The week off - Thunderdome prt 1

So as briefly mentioned previously I'm off work this week and have set myself the goal of sorting out my Infinity scenery, at least to the 90% mark, aka Thunderdome.

Thunderdome is a light industrial zone with a number of ongoing construction projects. It's not that great to visit and you'd definitely not rather live there. Detailing will be a big deal here and I'm determined to pack in as much as possible.

Yesterday, whilst watching Bladerunner I got all of the outstanding construction dealt with, including my last batch of figures. In an attempt to maximise results I want to be sat in front of by midday and that needs to stick. As you can see I've got quite a lot to get through and the time will evaporate far quicker than expected.

So today is all about basing, undercoating and base-coats. Tomorrow will be the big day. I know what colours I'm going for where, it's just a case of actually getting it done. It may seem fairly limited today but it's club night tonight and I want to put my first Netrunner decks together as well so it's a reduced clock.

On that note, best get to it :)

Reasons to be Cheerful, 1, 2, 3!

Hello people,

One of the reasons we all engage in our hobby, and many others besides, is to find some escapism from the occasional harshness of real life. I often find that when life bites a bit harder than usual I often splurge on my various interests.

As such, behold!

I rarely get out of my pit early on a weekend but yesterday the lure of a Hound's Tooth and buddies did the job. Three Khiraz join the party along with two monstrous TIE Punishers to join Thrawn's Splinter Squadron. As such I spent an enjoyable morning popping card tokens and reshuffling my card folder (GEEK!!) whilst comtemplating the Slaver repaint.  Now that will be a labour of, geeky, love!

The Infinity pile has already been discussed. The second week of September has been booked as leave and I'm looking at a couple of ITS tourneys at Wayland in October. Always useful to have an aiming point!

So that just leaves Netrunner. I have a starter set and that's it so far. I can myself making a big investment over time and to help myself out I'm going to go all Tale of the Net with a series of posts charting my introduction. True Tale of style I'm going to set myself a monthly budget of £30 and do my utmost to stick to it. As much as anything it should be a nice change of pace from X-Wing and Infinity posts ;)
Meanwhile here's a Netrunner site I found that will form my lunchtime reading for a while.

Happy days ;)

Embrace the Chaos

Nothing that dramatic in honesty but whilst attempting to simplify and progress my current projects I've actually managed, as many of us do, to increase the mountain whilst simultaneously finding other shiny things to run after.......

Firstly I've finally spent my birthday Element Games voucher on this lot;

I went for the Aguacile specialists the Tunguska Inventnors (the pandas are SO cool) and a couple of Zonds to round out the selection. The rest went on completing the scenery set with a three storey apartment, some holo ads, consoles and a dumpster which is to follow.

Additionally I've dug out another couple of AT-43 vehicles to add to the scenery set and also picked up a Moran Massai as I've realised just how good they could be. While I'm at a pair of Geckos have also made thier way onto the WANT list. Meanwhile I'll be picking up about £100 of X-Wing Wave 7 on Saturday as well as renewing the car tax........sigh!

I was already looking at taking a weeks leave in early September which is now likely to become scenery week. I'll also paint a few of Rob's bits to alleviate the mild guilt.

Moving swiftly on, Rich introduced me to Kaos Ball and the Netrunner LCG over the weekend.

Kaos Ball looked pretty much like another Blood Bowl / Dreadball clone when the Kickstarter came round so I didn't really take a look. Apparently it's aimed at novice / non gamers and it certainly comes across that way with simple, primary coloured graphics / print.

However, despite deceptively simple gameplay there is a lot more depth to the game than I expected. Card driven there's a decent element of resource management and bluff. There are various cheat / power up cards with some drastic penalties if you get it wrong. Most impressively there's multiple methods to score points, which ramp up as you play through the quarters which in themselves are timed by how many cards you've played.

As such there are quite a few variables knocking about that you have to pay attention to. All of a  sudden it wasn't nearly as basic a game as I first thought. Probably still not a replacement for DB, if and when I get round to playing it again, but I'd happily play a few more games of it :)

Which brings us to Netrunner, which has already been registering on the fringe of my radar for a little while now. In honesty it was already hitting a lot of buttons for me. The background, imagery, concept and the fact that as a card game it's straight out of the pack with little room required are all big wins. the only downside is its LCG nature and the potential need to catch up with the pack.

I'll admit that I wanted this game to be good and I was HUGELY impressed. Learning as we went with pre-built decks meant we surely never got all the bells and whistles going but they weren't necessary. There's a great tech feel, and thrill, to the game.

You alternatively play as the Runner and the Corporation and both feel significantly different to play. As with many LCGs there are strong resource management elements but the big thing here is the feeling of paranoia and pressure that comes with it.

As I'm sure you've already guessed I forsee a fair bit of Netrunner in my near future :]

Blowing up the House

Hello people,

Something of busy week elsewhere has meant that not a lot of hobby-love has come my way with only a couple of games of Boss Monster to keep me going (cue smallest violin in the world).

I have however previously finished off a scenery project, as a bit of variation to my brush-time. Amongst a group bundle of BA loveliness picked up from Salute was Warlord's Ruined Hamlet set. Feeling the need to do something a little less standard I wanted to put together some bigger pieces than you normally see rather than three generic weekend break chalets.

Now I have to admit that the planning process was based entirely on two bits of random hardboard I and laying around and simply clipping everything off the sprues and seeing what I could do with them. I worked on the two bigger pieces making an effort have internal walls, doors and the like. Nothing on the scale of a manor but something "practical". The remaining odds and sods were inevitably mounted on some plasticard for a weekend break chalet! Coffee stirrer floorboards and the various rubble chunks finished the job.

It tried to keep things natural for the paint scheme and went for plenty of weathering rather than Normandy white to try and extend their use over a number of theatres and eras. The corner pieces feel very European but I'm sure you might find the odd example in North America, the Dutch Quarter perhaps?

Anyway, I'm grabbing 15 Painting Points for this lot and hopefully the Bank holiday will bring a few more :)

To INFINITY and Beyond?

Just recently I've noticed the INFINITY starter set and I'm highly tempted.....

Wayland are doing 20% off pre-order by the end of the month to go along with the exclusive pre-order figure.

Operation Icestorm
The new, and long awaited, 2 player starter box set from Corvus Belli is finally here.  While Infinity has some great faction sets as jumping in points, this new 2 starter set will be a great way to start playing Infinity, add to your factions or start a new one.  This box is bursting with amazing miniatures as well as the new 3rd Edition rulebook and everything else you need to play Infinity.

There will be an exclusive miniature for all orders received before August the 31/08/2014. Here is what you get in the box:
PanOceania Faction:
3 x Fusiliers, 1 x Svalarheima Nisses, 1 x ORC Troop, 1 x Akalis Sikh Commando, 1 x Military Order Father-Knight.
Nomad Faction:
3 x Alguaciles, 1 x Grenzer, Grenz Security Team, 1 x Mobile Brigada, 1 x Spektr, 1 x Reverend Healer.
 Exclusive for Pre-Orders received before August 31st 2014
1 x CSU, Corporate Security Unit.
Plus: Game Mat, 3 PanO Dice, 3 Nomads Dice, Scenery, Ruler, Markers & Templates, Introductory Rulebook.

I've ummed and ahhd on Infinity for a while now. I love the figures the fluff and the feel.

Having watched the Beasts of War unboxing the scenery looks really good despite being fold up printed cardboard thought the "Game Mat" looks like a fold-out printed piece of paper rather than a Deadzone style mouse-mat that I was kind of hoping for.

The thinking is that it's a project in a box for a game and IP that ive been eyeing up since Salute 2013 with plenty of crossover scope for EotE / Sci-Fi roleplay and skirmish. If it grows as Infinity then great, if not then thats fine too.

As much as i could do with sitting down and planning my projects for tge rest of the year this feels like an absoloute steal that will provide a bit of variety with defined goals.....a scary idea for any lead mountain merchant ;)

I seem to be talking myself into it, if noone else, with remsrkable ease!!

Camping it up!

First result of 2012 and not proper figure in sight :)

More plastics from Renedra for The Camp With No Name, located just to the north of St Peytersburg for the miners, navvies, soldiers or any other vaguely undesirable working class types to be exploited by the local gentry. With a few modern crates, barrels and maybe a jalopy or two it's fit for Rick Grimes and his compadres.

The Renedra sprue is another high quality production. Nothing to flash but very well done and highly effective.

To keep its various inhabitants company and / or fed I've also painted up a pack of Gripping Beast's sheep. A little flashy but very nice sculpts and casts. Its a pack of six, though only five feature below as one made a brief break for freedom from the photo shoot.

A nice easy little project to kick off the year, 15 small pieces totalling 5 Painting Points, a starter for 5 if you will :)

Whether the Weather

Brace yourself it's ANOTHER post where I've actually painted something.....at least partially.

Having sprayed St Peytersburg's church brown and then drift-sprayed it white I was wanting to dirty it up a bit and as such out came a virgin pot of Devlan Brown and a distinctly less than virgin brush. I targeted eves, windows, nooks, crannies and areas of obvious run off. Having dappled one in three of the roof slates I'd previously performed the same process with a mix of blue, purple and black wash.

This gave me a VERY worn and dilapidated church that looked like The Munsters had moved in!

Moving on I first drybrushed a highlight of Bleached Bone, including the rooves, to give some warm and wear before moving onto Space Wolf Grey and and dusting of Skull White staying away from edges of certain areas to leave more wear at the edges and at ground level.



Overall I'm very pleased, especially as it's been a while since I've tried my hand at this. Some of the windows need a little bit of work, as does the front some metalwork and the interior but I think that I've achieved a sort of weather worn feel of understated detail. Just what I was looking for in fact.

With a few weeknights available to me this week I reckon I can get the whole thing wrapped up by Chrimble (Ho, Ho, Ho!) before more distractions are unwrapped to test my Orc painting resolve, which has pretty much crumbled entirely.

Meanwhile, for something relatively similar please feel free to check out the WIP page.

Jingle Bells, Batman smell, Robin laid and egg............