Week 22 - Looted Wagon (finished) and Big Trakk with Supa Kannon (wip)

As you have seen in my previous post here I have started building some funky models for my ork army. I started off with the Looted Wagon for my Burnas. Then I got another Rhino, the new Mk IV, I think, and decided to convert it into something bigger. I saw this picture of a Big Trakk with Supa Kannon and thought, hey! That's it! After looting my bits box I found a Basilisk gun and Battlewagon turret... that was it! I am making a new funky thing!

So, below is a picture of the first, finished Looted Wagon:









And here are some wip pictures of the Big Trakk and it's Supa Kannon:







And welding marks in green on the below picture:



And the size comparison of both and after undercoating:





I have done plenty of work on the Big Trakk Rhino. It has been cut in half and broadened to accommodate the base for the Battlewagon turret. Plenty of work around the Basilisk cannon to fit it in the turret. All the black bits are plastic card. Barrel end is a sheet of plasticard with holes. Lots of work done, I think the result is an amazing model! Will get painted soon!

Not so fine Finecast

... or should I say miscast?

28th of May! Finecast has been released to the world! So, what did Games Workshop promise us in the Finecast range? Highly detailed models, lighter material, softer to work with and better mix than Forge World mix, that would not break and chip or shatter when dropped. What did we get? Highly detailed models are a check, but what I found out by reading different posts online was that the new resin mix is something not what most modelers and painters want. Yes it is softer to work with, but it is too soft. How do I know that?

Well... I was very optimistic when they announced that range. I was not excited about the price hike, but what the hell. The models were supposed to look much better. Today I got down to my FLGW and got two models you see below:





So on closer inspection I noticed couple things that are wrong with them. Black Orc Big Boss has his shield miscasted - in the top right corner you can see the two fangs on the shield, they barely hold to the rest of the shield; this shield also has it's top half almost falling off, which my wife almost ripped apart just by touching it.

Flash... just have a look at the axe. Need I say more?



Ghazghkull has his one arm miscast (bottom right corner), and it looks terrible!



The rest of the sprue:





The resin mix is too soft to do anything with it. I actually don't like it that much so far, but I haven't got a chance to do any proper cutting. I had couple of the sprues before the 28th and they were just a bit too soft. But that, as with any new material, just takes some time getting used to, so I wouldn't count it as a bad thing.

All in all, the parts that have been cast properly look wonderful. Nice crisp detail, sharp edges. There are some mouldlines but with this resin mix being soft I don't see any problem removing them with a sharp exacto knife. So do I like the new range? Yes, I do like it... Do I mind miscasts? I do! But what I mind even more is the lack of quality control / check. These sprues should be discarded and not put in the box for me. Apart from that, go for it, unless you mind the price.

Week 21 - Dystopian Wars & Malifaux scenery

This week I have been pretty busy creating some islands for the amazing game that Dystopian Wars is. I decided to have some of my own, even though I do not own a battlegroup yet. If I ever decide to get one, which is more than probable, I will go for the Prussians. The reason behind it is solely esthetically; I just love the look of their ships. Anyways, back to the terrain.
As some of you may know, mostly Dystopian Wars is played in the sea and in the air. Only recently they have released land units, which will change the game slightly if you ever decide to include these units. For now I decided to create some islands of different sizes to occupy the water area of the table.
The other thing I took into consideration is the fact that I do not only play Dystopian Wars. There's 40k and Malifaux for instance, so the terrain should fit those systems too. That's why those islands look like huge islands for DW and small hills for the rest of 28mm systems. I think that's a reasonable compromise.



I also worked on some Malifaux terrain for my Nikodem. This below, is going to be his lair. His funeral house, his collection of coffins and dead people in general. I might build a little room for Sebastian who would be preparing stiffies before they get packed up. Here are early WIPs:





As you can see there is a small coffin, but I think I have to make it better and more horror movie coffin like. It looks too plain.

Week 20 - Malifaux, 40k, GW News

Malifaux

Painting of my crew goes well. Another three models are finished and ready to play. This week it's three Crooked Men. What I wanted to achieve with them is to have them look really dirty. That's why the skin has deep shadows. But, to keep models nice and bright I tried to pick an element and use bright colours on it.



And my Samurai once again... I like them so much!



Another thing I have done for Malifaux is writing campaign rules. What we want to have in our club is a campaign that will motivate us to play, give us a reason to fight against each other and at the same time keep everything balanced. I will publish these rules over here when they are done, so keep an eye on my website, subscribe, follow, whatever.

Looted Wagon

I had this old Rhino for a while now. I think I got it from my fellow blogger S. from Mighty Miniatures. Anyways, I decided to convert it into something cool for my ork army. So, I added some wheels, built over the wheels thingys. The idea is this vehicle will have a scorcha and contain 10 Burnas. I will be using it to support my assaulting mobs. As the Burnas can't assault from that vehicle, they will be jumping out and covering an enemy with ten flamer templates. I might add two Meks with Kustom Mega Blastas to pop those Termies and Grey Knights. The driver is built, but I haven't included him in the phot as I'm not sure if I want the hatch open or closed, so... that will be the next step.

GW News

So, have you heard? No more metal, just resin. Right... good idea. Resin is cheaper than metal, easier to work with, can have more detail. In current financial climate saving money is a good idea. I wouldn't expect GW to lower the prices, but they have surprised me once again. The prices have risen! So, it will cost them less to make the models, it will cost them less to post them (resin is also lighter than metal) but it will cost us more to buy them! Hold on a minute?! That's just another of those silly ideas to keep their dedicated fans pissed off. How are we supposed to remain in the hobby if the company we used to love so much treats us like that? And if the price difference was minial, but it's not. In some cases it is even 10 - 20%; ridiculous!

Anyway, enough of me ranting. Keep an eye on my website to hear about new podcast episode of All Along the Watchtower and more news on Malifaux campaign rule set and more.

'Till Later!

Week 19 - Malifaux and Catan

So, rolling out with the new form of my blog posting here it is; first weekly post. Week 19 fits the role as any other. Well, maybe not as well as week 1 of the year, but I don't want to wait till next year and my time machine usage has ran out recently so there's that.

Hmm, that just popped in my head: If you had a certain usage allowance to use a time machine, how would anyone stop you from using your last 'go' to go back in time when your when you had your initial allowance? Hmm...? Mind bending thoughts! 

Malifaux

Recently I have painted three models for my Malifaux crew. I have painted two Samurai Zombies and The Spirit. The paint jobs I have done on them are rather quick, but I think that they way I have done them (base colour, wash, base colour, highlights) fits the grimy fluff of Malifaux.







My brother just asked (literally just now) if I am going to add some kind of tutorial on how I painted these guys. So here it is.

To paint these Samurai I drybrushed them Scorched Brown on Chaos Black undercoat. Simple thing, I do it with all my Malifaux models to keep them toned down and tied in. Then I applied thin layer of base colour and when that was dry I used Devlan Mud on skin which was based with Camo Green. Later on I repainted the raised areas with Camo Green, on the skin, and after adding some Bleached Bone have done the highlights. Nice and easy.
The Spirit was a bit trickier, as I had to sort of blend the lower stone colour with upper skin tone. To do this I refrained from using blending technique and opted for drybrushing with colour mixing. I started off with foundation Charadon Graphite, then washed the brush and used foundation Tallarn Flesh. then with bits of Tallarn Flesh and started mixing in the Charadon Graphite in it. Later on the skin got washed with Ogryn Flesh and bottom rocky part with Badab Black. Then resurfaced again with base colours and done the highlights.

Catan on XBOX Live

Some people here might now that I love my board games. I play Carcassone, Catan, Space Hulk, Ticket to Ride and many, many others. But there is one problem with board games. They need other human being to participate. That's why I like my iPhone versions of Carcassone and Catan. I can play whenever I want. But what I have found recently is the Catan on XBOX Live. For £6.80 (800pts I believe) which is not much you get the full game. I was a bit worried that it will be sort of a cut down version of the game as it is kinda complex. The thing I was concerned the most was in-game trading. For those who don't know the game, let me run you thorough quickly.

Catan is, what's called, a Euro game; you don't fight your opponent, you fight against the game to beat the rest to the score. You play on a randomly built board made out of hexes. You manage and trade your resources to build settlements, roads, towns and buy development cards. Each of those give you victory points. The person who gets the agreed amount of VPs wins the game. Simple as that.



Now, as you might expect trading resources needed to be done properly to make it work online where you can't speak (well you can but most people don't use voice chat) to your opponent. Luckily the way they solved it is a separate trading screen where you place, accept or refuse the offers. Pretty nifty, works brilliantly!

• So, was it worth the money? Yes! Sometimes I want to play in the middle of a night with people I don't know. Great!

• Is it the same game as the board one? Yes! I haven't seen any differences yet. What's even more interesting, you can upgrade your board by downloading different tile sets. Awesome!

OK, guys! I hope you all like the new format. Leave me your feedback below. I always appreciate any comments and the reader  interaction.

'Till next week!

Some changes to the blog

I have decided that trying to do a day to day sort of blog is too a daunting task and instead of keeping me motivated it makes me cringe on the very thought of touching a paintbrush. I have decided to keep it down to weekly updates with lots of different stuff in it. From time to time I might be tempted to write a post here and there in between the weekly posts.
I hope this will improve quality of my posts, as I will have more time to prepare them and sit down and actually think what I want to write. Like it was in case of the post about building huge amounts of units at the same time.

The first weekly post should go online soon. There will be some painting and gaming in there. Keep your eyes peeled.

'Till Later!