Kickstarter question

Has anyone in the UK committed to this? :

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/168003818/stormguard-3d-printable-terrain-for-rpg-and-wargam



There are a few bits in here which I would buy, but I'm not buying a load of STL files for a printer I don't have.

From the KS FAQ:

• Can I buy printed Terrain?

   

  RM Studio Terrain is not selling prints through the kickstarter, after the campaign is successful their will be printers around the world that you will be able to purchase pre-printed terrain from.
  Last updated: Fri, February 8 2019 3:47 AM UTC +00:00

And no, I'm not going to buy a 3D printer just for this, I did make an enquiry about some Chimera bits, but it turns out that the thing would take 9 hours of supervised printing to do.  So that's a non-starter, I don't have a spare 9hour block of time free for about another decade, so then, anyone out there got a route to getting these ?

Oooooh Massive Occasion

Well, I made 50.  This was the best card:

Mrs Z finally relented and bought me a hobby related present !  Now, I didn't ask for a Warlord, but did put a Reaver on the list, just to see what happened.  What I actually got is an Arkurian StormLord, so happy with that !

And I had a look around the internet to see what else there is.  So there's stuff out there to spend my birthday money on (yes, even at the age of 50, birthday money appears !)

This looks like just the thing for my long-planned basillica:

The new statues in the new 40K/munda/KT scenery look the biz too, there's this:



And of course this:



Of course, I've believe that there are enough raw materials in the garage to build the shell, I'm just after the statues...

Shedhu gate

Salute 2015 (Post 3) Cogitation

Overall, my mind was well and truly boggled.  To find half of your browser history in the flesh (or plastic, resin and MDF) is breathtaking, even when you're expecting it.  I also got to see some people again (Mr Lee, The Responsible One, Col Corbane) although managed to miss a few others.  I did see Andy Foster (Heresy Miniatures) up close, but he was going to into the gents as I was coming out, so I didn't think it appropriate to strike up a conversation. 

One company's huge stand up banner.  For some reason I didn't get their name in the photo.

I ended up in conversation with Eric (in the red t-shirt with the water bottle) and Howard in the FW queue.  Howard had driven from the West coast of Wales that morning and was going to drive home again after the show.  He enters the painting comp each year, historicals I gather.  Dedicated and nice bloke.  Eric didn't come so far on the day, but originates from France and has seen quite a bit of the world to end up working in Nottingham (for Warlord Games).   They made queing a social event, rather than a chore.

Mrs Responsible One entered this Chaos Reaver into the painting competition.  The guy infront of me in the FW Queue bought one 'over the counter'.  He spent well over £800.  They had run out of the event only figures by the time I got there, but, being FW, they let queuers order them anyway (postage free) - FW customer service strikes again.

A Vickers Medium Tank.  I had a corgi one of these as a small person.

This four armed dude and the Chimera below are Darklands models, I think. There were loads of models on display from all the manufacturers and all we well worth looking at.  Big things (like Dragons) look great but what would I do with one ?

Salute 2015 (part 2) Terrain Pieces

Eldar scenery.  I did phone Forge World six or seven years ago and asked if they were ever going to make a web gate.  I guess this is the answer.

The next shelf down; a Chaos warp portal thingy.  What's sauce for Eldar is sauce for Chaos; apologies to geese and ganders for that.

Now, as I went 'round snapping terrain pieces, unfortunately, I didn't clock who made what.  The two stand out brands for me were 4Ground and Sarissa, I remember that much at least.  Possibly because there were large displays of their products as supplied (ie unpainted) showing the whole range and looking like a sweet shop of 28mm terrain.

All of the stuff presented on the tables was finished to show the product off to best effect.  There was a guy in the back corner who had loads of trees and hedges (including bocage) and his stuff looked great.

This I think is the Arkam Asylum.  There's a batman game going on there, so I think that's a fairly safe bet.

This is one of the ships from the Fort George game.  Outstanding modelling.

A really nice warehouse, although it's 15mm ( I so wish I started with Epic rather than 40K).

DZC City Scape.  Wonderful stuff.

The farm at La Haye Sainte (sp). in 28mm.  My pockets were already full.

Another one of the alien planets.  There were a lot of other games, including a couple of undersea ones (incl Stingray !).  The whole show was pretty mind blowing, but more of that next time. 

Golden Throne by GMM Studios.

Get a load of this.Get a load of this



This picture is just a teaser.  It's worth a look, follow the link.  Interesting narrative as well.

Kickstarter update !

My maki kickstarter kit has arrived; Thu 08 Jan 14.  Possibly a little over due, but I now have 3kg of mostly gothic archways to provide the bulk of my yet-to-be-designed basillica.

Dubrovnik

I've got plywood, polystyrene, hardboard and left over bits from my Imperial City (it's better in Spanish - Cuidad Imperiale - go on, say it out loud, whilst pretending you're Antonio Banderas or General Pinnochet - a little bit inappropriate, but it'll make you want tapas and Cerveza all day...) and one Imperial Memorium kit.  I may get another to have double Eagles flanking the vast doors I'm dreaming of.

No need to get my dad excited yet, the garage is too cold at the moment.  But I can plan for when it warms up a bit.

Florence

In terms of Kickstarters, I've had nothing from Raging Heroes - I have asked for it to all come at once, but I'm seeing a lot of TGG figures going up about the place and am thinking that it would be nice, if not to see them arrive, then at least to know when they might be here.

And the last stuff from Mark Mandragon - Eisenkarn APCs and a command squad.  Pre-publication update: I got the Parcelforce invoice for the HMRC duty on Sat 17 Jan 15 - £48.82.  I'm going to be very careful in future about even considering kickstarters from outside of the EU.  To date, everything I have received from the US has been worth the money I've paid the producer and the customs duty as well. But in each case, the duty has far exceeded the savings accrued from being a backer. Now, I know that part of what I have done has established the Eisenkarn models and they now appear on Wayland Games' 'site etc etc, and I am happy with that.  And I am also content that some of my hard earned goes into keeping UK PLC propped up.  But there are better places to put my hobby pennies that get better VFM.   Now added to the plastic crack mountain. 

And then I put a few quid towards Heresy Miniatures kickstarter, because he did one.  We know that the metal heresy dragon took a very long time, so this is one I am happy to wait for.  One day, folk singers will compose odes and ballads about Andy Foster and his Dragon...

Tabletop Fix: Gamecraft Miniatures - 20mm Blackhawk Down "Target...

Tabletop Fix: Gamecraft Miniatures - 20mm Blackhawk Down "Target...: Gamecraft Miniatures added the 20mm Blackhawk Down "Target Building" to their range: Link: Gamecraft Miniatures



20mm ?!??!?!



You're feckin' jokin !

Fundahawk progress

Managed a little shading on the ground around the thunderhork.  So it's an improvement (That's a question) compared to previously (post 07 Feb 14).  But the ground is still not as light as my tables.  I may just darken the tables...

I had a chat with PVP when he dropped in and we discussed toning down the rust and improving the canopy.  But small steps, eh ?

Raiding the blogosphere. Smashing scenery. Other things to do which are not that damned list.

Random&Creative: Jazygia 1996: The history of the Jazygian people reaches back to the 5th century BC. Then fell the thirteen walls of the great city of Jazygopolis, s...

Flufftastic - cop a load of this !  I have no idea what the Jazygian national anthem might sound like, but randomly i-tune an eastern European anthem whilst you read this.

And following on from brain candy, some for the eyes:

Pirate Viking Painting: No Creed but the Imperial: Hi folks! Finally got acceptable shots so today is a bumper update all about Assassins! These are the first in a series of Inq28 comm...

IRL, these look better than they photograph, as you can imagine.  Especially loving PVP's description of those cat suit wearing girls as 'easy'.  Don't know if he meant to do that, but it made me smile...

In other news, I appear to be running out of figure cases and storage space.  It looks like I'll have to give serious thought to the final size and shape of the collection.  But the plan to re-furbish the inside of the garage will come first and should give me some more room.  Figure cases is an easy fix; the rest requires a little jiggery pokery.

Finding an hour is not too difficult, but there's not much one can reasonably achieve in an hour without leaving a mess for next time.  Which is something I really don't like doing, hence the apparently glacial progress.  But small steps can be taken which contribute to the overall success of the project. So don't be surprised if you see posts about moving bicycles and painting walls and floors.

The Alternative Wargamer: Mission Statement: Mission Statement of this particular blog: To raise awareness of other model companies than Games Workshop and how to still play Warhammer...

This one should be worth watching; nice idea and pretty nifty with the plasticard.

So someone out there might remember the Sepulchre of Heroes.

It's been OK to play on, despite never getting to close to finished; it's supposed to be a bit of a memorial wall bedecked with the banners of past military glories.  I still plan on doing this, but probably as part of the cathedral/basilica that I'm going to talk my dad into building (seems funny to be saying that at 45, but there you go; 'tis a strange ol' world).

Anyway the thing is, it's a 2' x 2' (same size as a realm of battle tile) piece with an 18" long, 12" tall wall across the middle.  It takes up a lot of room.  And those bits can go into the cathedral/basilica. So part of progress this afternoon (Sat 15 Mar) will be to alter/modify/destroy some scenery, in order to make space elsewhere.  Welcome to the modern age !  Out with the old !  In with the new ! Terms and conditions apply !

Bang, smash, rip.  It was well put together, but no match for someone running out of space with new projects to do.

And the Chaos cultists have all arrived safely, so hopefully Admiral Drax will forgive Mrs Drax for posting them 2nd class. They look great - it'd be a shame to be burned to deaf in the name of the dark gods by anyone else...

Thunderhawk Progress.

 OK, so this is strictly WIP.  I did notice that when I mentioned 'thunderhawk' in my  list of outstanding things, no-one even mentioned it.  Well, just I case you thought I'd forsaken the Guard and gone over to the power-armoured side.  I present, for the time being, my thunderhawk !

From this angle the big feature is the cockpit canopy.  Which on a one piece resin floor tile will need a bit of work.  And/or balancing amount of skill.  Neither of which are abundant around here, but I'll give it a go.  S'only spaze muhreen terrain, after all.

So that's two layers of (midnight and then royal) blue and then blue ink.  So there'll be another glaze of ink (or two) and then a layer of 'ardcoat and I'll see what that looks like.  The airframe was undercoated black, then sprayed a nice deep red (just a shade deeper than red gore). Then hairspray and sand and then the German Grey.  So I'm quite pleased with the weathering effect but you'll have noticed that the German Grey is perfect camouflage for the terrain.  Ho hum, time to rethink the landscape,

I figured that the Grey T-hork could pass for a Black Templar one that had been out in the sun a lot, or some sort of codex grey replacement airframe or Inquisition vehicle.  Or perhaps belong to a Chapter that really does have grey a colour scheme.

So carried on with the further weathering; mostly rust.  Now my  blazing orange had almost had it, but responded very well to resurrection.  So after a bit of paintomancy, I sloshed some on.  It looks very vivid, but that's the light/camera/refractive index etc.  It's dulled down with a black/brown oil wash.  a bit.

Another few thin washes with the black and brown in differing quantities should improve things a bit.  One problem I have with this is self restraint; to apply a thin wash in the first place and then to let it dry enough before doing the next thing.  What I find is that the wash always ends up heavy and that a blast from Mrs Zzzzz's hair drier would improve things.  Ho hum, I'll try and concentrate next time.

I plan on just carrying on with the weathering that I've already done and carrying on until the orange is a little less in-yer-face.  And of course, eventually changing the landscape to something a little more beige.  I'm allowed beige, because I'm old enough.  You have to call it brown.  But I figure that the tile is big enough to handle a bit of beige around the crashed bus and fade to grey at the edges.

Ummmmmmmmm, Ultravox.  I'm sure that used to be a piece of wargear.

Command Bunker

We had a lot of conversation about scenery.  In fact, Col Corbane sounded so enthusiastic I suspect he went home and ignored his wife and kids to start on his new terrain projects.  Anyway, here is the command bunker that anchored the PLA's Northern flank during the Apoc game.   Both other players were impressed that it was quite as old as it was.

Five structure points.  Intact with its communication tower.

Four structure points, communication tower gone.

Three structure points. Roof gone.

Two structure points.  Walls gone.

One structure point.  Down to the walls.

And the exit, which is what the occupants will probably need if the bunker is reduced to this level.

New bunker

I'm drafting this on Mon 29 Jul 13.  I have a game coming up in a couple of weeks (ie a couple of weeks ago, by the time you read this) and need another bunker.  So I got another sheet of hardboard as a base and rescued some polystyrene from the mouse poo behind the bits box and future projects.

So I threw the basic shapes together from bits lying around. Its all stuck together with PVA and then covered in left over emulsion from the bathroom.  Or the kitchen.  Or something, there's always left over paint and it's good for undercoating terrain items.  The eagle eyed will spot the RSJ (that's "I beam" to the unitiated) sections in the foreground for bared wire and the concrete barrier sections with their reinforcing elements sticking out to of the top. 

This is it with the removable roof removed.  There is a firing step (made from plastic bits including a walkway section from an Urban Warfare kit) but this bunker is not really for infantry.  That would be too easy.  There is a COD ladder behind the cover view shield you can see on the left of these pictures, to get infantry onto the roof.

That's right, its a tank bunker.  Now, according to modern, rational thinking, an armoured vehicle would have sufficient armour to enable it to fulfill its battlefield role; if you wanted a tank's firepower in a static position, you would build a proper gun emplacement and leave the tank to use its maneuverability as it is designed to do. But this is the Grimdark of 40K and therefore the demented redundancy of tank bunkers is almost demanded.

This is it with the roof on and a tank in place.  I reckon that there will be two squads on the roof, one on each wall outside and a PCS in the bunker, hiding behind the tank.  This piece is now fully based and painted with a few bits tarting up the inside and barbed wire on the obstacles. 

And Admiral Drax was worried about the lack of hills generally so I put one together.  This now has smoothed contours and is a likely spot for rows of sandbags, turning it into a more formidable obstacle. 

Pre-publication post update

And here you see the finished article in action a fortnight later.  Apocalypse Battle Report coming soon.  There is a vanquisher in there.  It didn't hit anything in five turns, but, safe in it's bunker, didn't take a scratch.  Col Corbane suggested that following this vindication, perhaps bunkers for more tanks would be in order.  I have filed that suggestion at the bottom of the pile.