Back to (Old) School

Evening all,

Bit of a meander this one but last night down at Enfield Gamers I came across something of a revelation, though it may have come across me... I never seem to know with these things ;)

Rocking up with no definate game booked I wasn't required as standby for the X-Wing campaign so scoffed my Tursday night shish over Shaun's shoulder as they set up for a run out of the new Star Trek.

Now I'm far more Wars than Trek, especially next gen, and as previously mentioned I've decided to pass on X-Wing.

I'm also aware that the latter game is a close clone (pha-naar!) of the former and has caused Geek-Rage by muddling timelines into one single collective (ba-zinga!).

Being the curious type that I am I ignored the game itself and cut straight to the nub;

Q: Can I be Klingon and spend all game giving orders in said language, badly?

A: Yep

Q: Can I cloak?

A: Yep

Q: Are there tribbles?

A: Yep and they're a pretty cool event card.

Q: Can I be Khan?

A: Yep

All of these were damned good answers produced a reaction of "cool" that X-Wing simply couldn't force (groan!) from me ;)

I didn't stay on for a game playing a big old game of Space Hulk instead. Mission 10: Defend where I managed to snatch defeat from the saliva fanged jaws of seeming victory (enough yet?) but at some point I'm highly likely to. The main proviso will be that I'd much rather play Kirk and Khan rather than Picard and poncing about having solved all of humanity's evils.

So finally arriving at my point I seem to be a fairly old school Geek. I like a bit of grim, grit and, dare I say it reality, with my sci-fi or at least something credible in the character behaviour, I suppose I find that easier to relate to.

Don't get me wrong new isn't always bad, Enterprise did the job for me big time as well as the prequel movies. BSG was rapturous including the episode when they simply ran out of water.

Zombicide got backed big as a fresh new way to do the Zed thing and I'm all for innovation within the hobby but I do seem to go for the retro themes. Space Hulk? Blood Bowl? Oh yes indeedy!

At 38 much of this seems to hark back to my hobby youth and though I've enjoyed expanding my geek horizon over the years I've definately becoming more discerning with my D6. Nothing to be ashamed of just nice to know what sort of geek I am. 

So the question beckons, what sort of geek are you? ;)

Un-Friendly Fire.....

......or how in Space(Hulk) no-one can hear your Sgt scream as you heavy flamer him!

This week at Enfield Gamers I cracked out Space Hulk as myself an Chris played through the first "Suicide Run" mission from each side of the table. Something of the partially sighted leading the blind as this was Chris' first upgrade from Space Crusade and I hadn't played in ages.

Ably assisted by our fellows and occasional reference to the mysterious pamphlet of rules we refreshed as we went and had a jolly good time doing it :) In short the Marines won twice, the second time being a relative cake-walk as plenty of early command points saw them leg it toward the objective at max power.

 

 During the second game we stumbled upon the scenario that you see pictured below:



Poised for apparent victory it all went a bit wrong via the BA dice. At this point the Sgt has expended all of his Action Points and no Command Points remain. All he had to do was clear a 'Stealer and get out of the way for the Heavy Flamer to win the game .........but NO!

 

Cunning minds went into overtime and it was suggested that a Heavy Flamer blast to the Sgt's tile would clear and block it, allowing the BAs to claim certain victory with their next turn. Due to the BA's rapid advance 'Stealer resources hadn't had the chance to build up and very few were about.



The point further raised was is this a tactic that ANY Space Marine would sanction, especially against a Seargent of the 1st Chapter in a highly valuable set of Terminator Armour?

 

Well, this is TOYS so of course we did :) 2+ to kill.......'Stealer roasts........Sgt rolls a 1!

A quick 'Stealer turn and Game Over Man, Game Over! but for the Xenos!

 

A highly entertaining evening of toy love, but are we likely to hunted by the Dark Angels as fallen?

Much mirth ensued as we chatted around the point and then reluctantly went home :)

 

More action shots;

 

 

Black and White or Shades of Grey?

Please don't worry I'm not about to indulge a spurious journey into the meaning of life or anything like that. It's all about the hobby!

Within said hobby there are many polarised points of view about just about everything. It seems to be a Nerd thing.
At the club last night I played two games of Blood-Bowl 7s. This wasn't the best start but I pulled through to a reasonably glorious 2-nil victory.

At least some of this was due to some very useful block dice rolls and, according to my gracious opponent, effective use of the Bull centuars.

The second game with dice honours even resulted in a rather less glorious 1 all draw.But a draw is definatley not a loss!The week before I rolled out my now fully painted copy of Space-hulk for the first time. Playing through the 1st mission three times saw the Blood Angels with little to celebrate!

Post game commentary often involves the turning points in any game and the chestnut that when your dice are having a bad session it's normally one way traffic!

Turning, eventually, to my main point another black or white subject of conention within the hobby is that of primer.Having been a possible hobby pro via 6 years employment with GW, possibly the biggest black/white topic out there, I've always considered white undercoat as being for proper pro-painters as it demands a higher level of skill and application.

For the record at least 99% of the figures that I've ever painted have recieved a black undercoat.

So with my project list short and uncertain I grabbed these little lads and lasses from the pile and thought I'd have a go at something DIFFERENT.

They're primarily intended for when we get back to Star Wars roleplaying and I want them to have a very 2000AD Hondo City sci-fi yakusa look. Lots of white robes.

The brow has been increasing deflected but the enjoyment so far has been tremendous. Always nice to add a little colour to life :)

99 of 100

My 100th post, who would have thought........ I try not to :)

Just a quick note for the mo. I've found the blog to be an excellent source of continuing motivation and with some time away over the Bank Holiday I've felt a genuine to finish the Terminators and claim some PPs.

Painting them as a nine I could have just picked one to avoid an NIL result, as to my shame I've done previously, but I decided... NON!!

Man up Fase, make it or break it and I've made it,... or at least 99%. It's just markings required now so I'm happy to award myself the points (21 at 3 a piece) to avoiding rushing that last 1% which can make such a difference.

Photos to follow :)

Update: (27/08/10)

I had a bit of unexpected brush-time last night so here you are! I'm incredibly pleased with them, they must be the best figures I've painted all year, for several reasons.

Thats also anothe full project complete with a fully painted copy of Space Hulk at my disposal. Beast actually play some games now!!

Work In Progress

Having had the day to my self I've made a fair bit of progress with the Terminators :)

I had broken them into 3 groups of 3 for painting but ended up painting them as a 9 to be able to co-ordinate their overall look, which has been important to me, in terms of the whole retro thing a la black and yellow stripe.

So currently they've all been basecoated and washed down. Devlan Mud continues to be a winner though my fortnight prediction will be about a week out!

As the figures are currently a bit dark and it's a night shoot I've left the flash on for the camera as a bit of an experiment. Fairly pleased.


Elsewhere, I've ordered all of the various bits that I'll be needing for my Chaos Dwarf BB Team.

After putting in some serious I-Surfing I gave up on legit hobgoblins and gone for a set of Neomic's excellent goblins through Impact Miniatures. After ordering I was less than impressed to get a confirmation e-mail telling me to allow 4 to 5 weeks for delivery! The figs are worth the wait but that's the wrong way to tell people :(

As a result the PayPal account is suitably dented so my Human travelling freak-show team are being E-Bayed. All of them are very old OOP chaos figures that i'm rather fond of but I never got on with the team, or thier dice! I learnt years ago that i'm a bit of a basher when it comes to Blood Bowl.

To top things off I've finished off Season 4 of BSG. Just need to find where I've left the finale.

Make way, make way....

...pedant coming through. Keep that lad away madam or he might turn WIERDO to! Then you might have to put him down!!

Day off today and the missus is work. I've done a few chores about the house and run a few errands, mainly stocking up nourishment for the day, I've also been to the post office and picked up my Kaiser Rushforth case. So what to do?

Well, obviously i'm going to stick on Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, black in ALL of the Space Hulk board sections and tokens (chisle tipped marker) and then chop up the case to make everything fit. Who wouldn't ;)

When Kaiser first appeared sometime ago with thier cardboard cases I joined the ranks of the scoffers. I've since seen them in use and made purchase. Very sturdy, compact storage cases they are but I stil wouldn't want to get caught in a rain shower with one but I have an empty GW shell to cover that eventuality.

No painting points but a happy sense of achievement accompanied by requisite grin. The last 9 Termies are coming along and will be proper old school. Yellow and black striping will be evident.

The scariest thing is that I wanted to sort the case out now so that the last thing I do for the project as a whole is varnish the last figures.

Work tomorrow. Amongst the NORMALS :)

Le'me hear a Hoo-Har Sargeant!!

Just a quick one to show off my Space Hulk Terminator Sargeants.

I've taken my time to "set the tone" for the troopers to follow. Having been impressed by the individual fluff and heraldry in the books i've been balancing that against my retro feel by adding a few extra pallete tones and colours. The critical thing was not to add too many.

In all, i'm rather pleased and 5 points for the pair seems fair. I've also "fixed" the 'stealers so will have the points for the outstanding pair :)

Scarily, i've ordered a case from Kaiser Rushforth to provide adequate storage. I honestly believe that a fortnight will see the project complete......... honestly!!

Rattle and Hum

As a bit of birthday treat the missus said that I could pick any location for a weekend away and she'd sort out a hotel in the area.

So, Bovington it was! The hotel was a quaint independantly run village affair, which kept the missus happy enough

She was fairly impressed actually, if not so much with the exhibits themselves, then at least with the info boards and their presentation.

We then shot off to Corfe Castle which was impressive, depsite being blown up by Cromwell. Interestingly you could see a lot more about how the place was built and functioned once various bits had been blown apart!

Saturday was then finished off with a quick stroll by Swanage beach and harbour. I was still thinking about the Stug. Mmmmm..... Whermacht armour (drool)
Sunday was another National Trust visit to a house and gardens that I forget the name of. No tanks, but we had a picnic in the sunshine involving pork pie and flapjack. Winner.

As our third National Trust visit of the year membership has now paid for itself and every further visit is effectively free. I do NOT however feel the need to invest in any open toed sandals with white sports socks!!

As much as I do like Whermacht armour, cold war soviet armour simply reaches the parts that other armour simply cannot. Anything from a T-55 onward just hits a certain spot. It took a great deal of will power to not by a T-64 kit from the gift-shop.

This example is in need of a certain amount of TLC, as do my 'Stealers.

On Friday afternoon I took my two casualties to GW Plaza following a quick stop of at Orc's Nest for some brush-on matt varnish. Jon suggests that this may do the trick. Cheers for the pointer mate :)

After an initial "well what you did wrong is" lecture I stood my ground a touch, feeling somewhat patronised, as I WAS actually aware that the "dust" was likely to be propellant from the can.

After a further 10 minutes I walked away with some useful pointers, a replacement can of Purity Seal and the promise that if they wouldn't fix I'd get one for one replacement. A fair result.

Monday night is 'Stealer night. Boo and yah!!

I won't actually ever be using Purity Seal again though as the "how to best use" advice ran more as a list of faults. Coat D'Arms stuff isn't cheap but it does a good job and it's all about peace of mind and that's priceless!!

Tooth and Claw

In the cold depths of deep space no-one can hear me grind my teeth. Grrrrr!!!

In short, I finished all of my Hulk 'stealers this weekend and a very happy chap I was indeed. I'm particuarly happy with the retro 80's colour scheme and believe that I've achieved the slighty vampiric look that I was after.

They've been quite a bit of work, especially the pink, but it all came out good in the end :)

The gnashing came last night when I realised that the two coats of Purity Seal has gone a bit cloudy. I have no idea why, though relatively new i've used the can before without a problem. Maybe it's the recent heat but I can't see why.

Only two figs have come up particuarly badly so it's not the greatest disaster and it doesn't seem to come up on these photos at all.

At worst they look a bit overly drybrushed and i'm sure that I see it worse because I know that its there.

But the point is that I KNOW THAT ITS THERE.

I don't want to repaint them and more than likely won't. I will take the worst couple and the can back to GW but its not as if they can replace the figures.


I do think that they should do SOMETHING about it and it will be interesting to see exactly what. Its not one that i'd want to deal with myself in all honestly.

So i'll take my 40 painting points from the 20 that are acceptable and move on. ACCEPTABLE, it just takes the gloss off of them..... literally.

Nothing else to do but roll up my bottom lip and crack on with the Termies, which is exactly what I did. It's ONLY a game.... apparantly!!

Club tomorrow night, that'll put me right :)

Three Day Pass

He wants YOU..... for his deep space lunch!

Its actually Thursday morning as I type and i'm gearing up for a full day in one of two chairs. The painting chair and the X-Box chair! England take on Australia (Cricket) in the one day format from 14:00 which will provide some background viewing :)

As you may have guessed i've finished the Brood-Lord and feel able to claim another 3 painting points and i'm very pleased with the result. Huzzah!
Yesterday afternoon I reintroduced myself to batch painting, working 7 'stealers through basecoat and wash.

ALWAYS something of a chore at the halfway point but is ALWAYS worth the result. Good prep and all that.

I'm also chalking up a bit of list of paints to replace. Hobby materials are just about my only GW expenditure these days. The updated release of Warhammer isn't even that tempting. Bit of a shame really but it would seem that i've just moved on.

Anyway, time to wear a groove!

Return to Literary Corner

Why do all of my recent post start with text next to an offset photo?

To be honest its an aesthetics thing combined with minor OCD. In other words its a gamer thing.



Everyone likes nice figures on a nice table but why do we all stack dice? I know its not just me!

Once upon a while I go I went on holiday and took some books with me. You may remember the post. Maybe that one is just me :)

Anyway, I've finally finished War of the World. Between 2000AD and Rugby World the train home is my main opportunity to read. As such progress was a little slow at times.

This was, however, entirely down to me. I rarely read Penguin classics and I must say that I found Mr Wells' prose much easier on the gray matter than I expected.

The language used is relatively floral in-line with the time of its setting, the late 19th Century, but remains clear, concise and very readable at all times. Quite gripping in a suitably understated way the story is well told an eminently believable.
A hearty recommendation to the reader at large. Pipe and slippers optional :)

Going for something completely different, though in the "classic" vein, I'm currently reading Starship Troopers. I was interested as the "seminal" inspiration for so much of the Sci-Fi hobby and its write up as "a political essay as well as a novel".
As of page 82 of 222 I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Meanwhile, I've painted my Space Hulk Librarian. Well pleased, there's not a weak model in the set. Another 3 painting points in the bag.

Meanwhile 22 'stealers have been production line purpled. I was always going to paint these guys first as the "chore" before the Termies. I can see myself being very wrong about that one.

Shhhhh.....