Every ending must have a start.

My resolution to paint (reduce) my pile of miniatures didn’t seem too daunting until I actually started looking at some numbers. I thought it might be wise to know what lies ahead and so took a tally of the stuff in my room.

This is just the stuff I have to hand and doesn’t include anything back at my old home in the loft and I have focused on games that I currently play or plan to relaunch during 2014.

• Batman Miniatures Game – 4
• Confrontation – 24
• Relics – 25
• Infinity – 22
• Hordes – 11
• Warmachine – 86
• Flames of War – 14 Bases of Infantry, 2 AT Guns, 2 Jeeps
• Warhammer Fantasy – An entire Vampire Counts Army – I couldn’t be bothered counting
• Warhammer 40k – 7 Marines, Necron Battleforce, Necron Lord, 3 Tomb Blades
• Malifaux – 12
• Dystopian Wars – 59
• Dreadball – 4

I think given we are currently playing Dreadball and Batman that these will be my focus (plus they have low model count).

Keep watching for news on how it goes.

Instant Mold

Recently I have been persuaded to play Warhammer Fantasy at my LGS and have picked up the Vampire Counts. In days gone by I used to play Bretonnians and the idea of mixing the two for a themed army seemed like a good one, that was until I realised how hard it was going to be to source the Bretonnian bits I would need for the alterations.

Then I remembered reading an article on Miniature Musings of a Bear about Blu Stuff molding and decided to try something similar.

What I ended up with was InstantMold

This is a clear, plastic type material that you pace in boiling water for a few minutes and then press the item you wish to mold into it or, as  I did, press the material over the item you wish to mold. I had much better results with this method.

It only takes a few minutes to harden and then its ready for use.

Here is a comparison shot of an original and a molded copy. There is room for improvement but this one was my first attempt so cut me some slack.

Finally, here is a dodgy photo of a skeleton made with a shield that went slightly wrong and a press molded Bretonnian helmet.

Now to make another 70 shields and helmets and get painting.

Club Night @4Tkgaming 10/01/12

Last night saw my second game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle in around a decade and featured a crushing blow to my fledgling Lizardmen force. I played a 1000pt game consisting of:

• Saurus Scar Veteran, Aura of Quetzl
• Skink Priest L2
• 15 Saurus Warriors
• 8 Cold One Cavalry
• 12 Skink Skirmishers
• Razordon

The long and the short is, I lost fairly badly including my cavalry not getting to do anything after a nasty charge from some Ogre cavalry. It started to turn my way a little with David, my opponent, getting some crappy rolls but in the end it was a steep learning curve.

The outcome is that the list had nothing that could really deal with multi-wound Ogres once the cavalry had gone. Plans for a Kroxigor or some Temple Guard are in the pipeline.

Out the back room there was a group playing the Wings of War boardgame.

What I didn’t need to happen when I am struggling to find the funds for the Journeyman league is to be introduced to a really fun game that uses models I wouldn’t even need to paint. If you ever get a chance to give it a go then do, the basic rules are incredibly easy to pick up and it was an immense amount of fun.

#GW #Finecast – First thoughts

I know this debate has been and gone but as someone who hasn’t built a Games Workshop miniature in a very long time I thought I would pop my hat into the ring.

A little background first. I came into gaming from a RPG route but did, earlier in my hobby life, play WFB along with Mordheim and Bloodbowl but stopped a long time ago and, apart from a short lived (one or two games) look at 40k there has been nothing for a long time.

I used to collect High Elves and I love the sight of two painted fantasy armies facing off across each other but recently I have picked up the Lizardmen Battalion set – seeing people playing at the club weakened my resolve. As you may or may not know the starter sets don’t come with any sort of Hero/Lord model so I picked myself up a Saurus Oldblood from the Finecast range. ‘Oh no’, I thought to myself – this is that range of detritus that forums everywhere are screaming about. Sadly there were no metal versions so I had little choice.

The mini has now sat in my ‘to-do’ pile for months until yesterday when I dug it out to play a small game of WFB, a break from the norm at my LGS. I have to say I am for the most part impressed with the range. The casting is crisp and there seems little need for clean up – a benefit to lazy modellers like me.

Finecast Saurus Oldblood

It feels a bit weird as a member of the old school anti-GW stalwart to say this but they have done a good job. There is still one tiny grip and that is the fact that the base is part of the model, containing the claws for one of the feet. It is a nice base, I would have just liked it to be my choice to use it.

Club Night 27/9/11

Tuesday has been and gone and that means another night of fun at 4TK Gaming, my LGS, has passed me by.

Last night saw me having an Infinity game against a Yu-Jing opponent which was quite a close thing but he allowed himself to be pinned by a pair of Crazy Koalas which gave me a chance to move up. One thing I discovered is that I hate the Forward Observer Guided Missile Combo. So much in fact that I am thinking of adding it to my Nomad list in readiness for the upcoming league.

Once my game was over I helped introduce a new player to the game and after a few turns of killing opponents due to good ARO rolls I think he decided he liked it.

Two tables along had Rob N & Simon trying out the Discworld board game which looked rather interesting. There is occasional board game action, I have tried a few new things myself, sometimes its easier than putting together army lists and sorting minis out from case to case.

Over the way was a game of Warhammer Fantasy pitting one of my regular opponents, Dave, and his Ogre army against Phil’s High Elves. Things didn’t end too well for the Ogres although Dave was a tad rusty with the system.

Finally about the back there were 3 40k games going on. This threw me as its not normally something that appears on a Tuesday but it turns out everyone is getting practice in for the GT. I had to show my ignorance by asking what that was.

There we have it. Just a few final thoughts: No Warmahordes which is unusual. Talk between myself and Rob M of getting a few games of Relics in next week. A quick flick through the Malifaux Twisting Fates book, love the Ramos Avatar. An Infinity league in the pipeline for about 3 weeks time. I just need to find time to paint some models before it starts.