I ain't dead yet!

 Back in the saddle again! 

Well, its time to get back to some wargaming and resurrect some old projects. 
Life has jumped on a bit and now our club is no longer at Airbus, but post covid, we are now at the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold. https://www.deesidedefenders.org/

I ran as Chairman for a couple of years but now stepped aside to have a rest and get back to some gaming. 
Mostly its been Battletech by CGL.. but now looking to get back to some 28mm and 15mm Vietnam gaming and other stuff. So keep an eye out. Updates to come. 

The Scorpius Rift - World Wide Narrative Campaign - The beginning!

 So welcome to the first post and start of the Scorpius Rift World Wide Narrative Campaign set in the 40k Universe. 

The Basics: The Scorpius Rift World Wide Campaign is an Narrative Campaign, where players of mostly Rogue Trader (1st Ed), 2nd and 3rd Edition 40k players, Epic, Inquisitor and Inq28 take part in narrative based gaming at clubs and in homes across the globe. The battles and reports being reported on the Lords of War Facebook Group. The general missions and story being driven by my self the global GM or Games Master with occasional assistance from friends. 

The idea is to develop a story ark that encompasses the actions and consequences of actions taken by players around the globe in their games and from the results of their battles. 

This is entirely narrative and is up to players to choose how to interpret and or play the suggested games. Hopefully driving an engaging system spanning story of war, heroism, dramatic battles and the fall of great hero's.

The primary goal being to have a lot of FUN!!!  

Rules Lawyers need not apply. Its time to dig out that old school gaming mentality and let the dice roll in the name of laughs, friendly gaming and the story. 

The Story: The Scorpius Rift is a spacial anomaly at the heart of the Scorpius System. A system of 6 main planets and several moons that are situated within The Veiled Region, bordering Segmentum Tempestus. A system that until the recent and sudden abatement of number of giant warp storms. Had lain cut off from the Imperium of man and the rest of the galaxy since the dark ages. Simply existing on the oldest navigational maps as a dull black navigation warning marker, telling the wary to venture not.

Since the warp storms have abated. Many eyes, great minds and rogue traders  have turned their attention towards this far flung system. Some for the ripe plunder, some in search of lost colonies and some in the service of their gods! 

Now begin the battles for control of the Scorpius Rift. 

The Campaign: The campaign will start with the "arrival" of each of the main factions and forces involved in the story. 
This will begin with an initial recruitment phase of several weeks to gather players, advertise and share the campaign around the world on various social media, forums and harness those players into choosing and then preparing their initial campaign forces. 

In this period I aim to also enlist if I can the voluntary assistance of some individuals skilled in the preparing of relatively simple graphical maps and materials for the ongoing campaign. 

The campaign will be run in a series of phases. These phases will roughly represent an approximate game time period of between 3months to 6months Terran standard as the time line progresses.

For each phase I intend to issue a bundle of starting materials for each faction. With suggested battle types and story related issues, missions, special character and possibly more. At the conclusion of each phase the outcomes and efforts of each faction as reported to me and posted on the Lords of War facebook group, will be summarised here on this blog for existing and any new players to review. 
No definite dates are being set with the real world being the way it is, there will have to be a bit of flex in this from time to time, yet I anticipate keeping each phase open for about 3 months initially and will be subject to review as the players and participants get through their games and or badger me. 

The Rules: Though I encourage folks to dig out and dust off their copies of Rogue Trader 40,000 or 2nd and 3rd edition 40k.. just because they had the old school fun and frolic factor before the world became all serious grim dark.. If you don't have them, or weren't even around when they are were out, feel free to play the games in which ever edition you choose to do so. The narrative is the key! Don't have exactly the right figures, cannot field a full WYSIWYG army, don't worry. This is not a tournament. Proxies, replacements and even entirely non GW made figures etc are all fine. Scratch building is encouraged. The golden rule is to have Fun and play games with a story!!!

To encourage the use of the older systems, from time to time, specific factions will receive specific faction missions, objectives, characters and or units etc. 
These will be entirely for the promotion of the story. Do not expect them to be points balanced in the slightest and do expect to play games where the sides will not be equal.. It is all about the story and having FUN!!!

If you want to play games using EPIC, Adeptus Titanicus, Inquisitor or Inq28 or Necromunda or Apocalypse then feel free to do so. Though I anticipate the majority will be 40k of one edition or another. 

The Timeline: I haven't set the narrative in a set date for a simple reason. I want players to feel they can participate with what they have. HOWEVER the only exception is it is before the events of the gathering storm. So if you plan to use Primaris and 9th edition models, then please just use them knowing they will be representing their older counterparts. 

The Games Master: That is me, John. I will be trying my best to coordinate the herd of cats that will be you the players around the globe wishing to take part. Yes you! :) 
I am just an ordinary person with a day job and life and lead mountain of old 40k to get painted. So I will do my best to make this fun and full of frolics for all! But I cannot do it entirely alone and along the way I may seek or accept the offers of helps from some others. Especially those who are great with graphics and can  assist with old school style battle maps for mission briefs and campaign area maps. 

I will utilise my 28mmHeaven blog to report upon, update and issue faction updates and orders (where I don't do so directly to players). So please check back periodically for updates. 

The Games: I hope as the campaign progresses we can build a small community of like minded souls who share a love to narrative gaming and fancy helping to build the story of the campaign via the games they play. I hope we will gather new players as time passes and encourage those at clubs to rope in their friends and family where they can to share the fun! 


Donations: I am not doing this to make any cash, however anyone wanting to contribute a few pennies towards it may do so and I would be most grateful indeed. It might also allow me to throw some cash to artists for maps etc. If you wish to do so click the donations above or here! 

The Golden Rule! : Have Fun!!! Seriously.. this is entirely about having fun wargaming with miniatures and friends. Making and sharing experiences together. If you are unsure about a ruling, if you disagree with your opponent then just roll a dice, let them choose 1,2,3 or 4,5,6 and let fate decide who's view stands. 

Good luck and may the fates of the galaxy support your cause! 


 

 

3D Printing really has come along a way..

 I remember back in 2016 chatting with someone who had built a home based 3d printer and event then the possibilities for wargaming were obvious.. but wow these things have really come a long way. 

The designs and files out there are simple impressive. 
This one for instance is quite something: 
Ork looted Imperial Knight 3D Print

The resolution on modern resin printers is quite something. I wonder as the technology moves on, will we see printers at shows and simply selecting the model you want and having it printed there and then.. probably a decade or more away, but I can see that occuring.. 

In the meantime. I want this! 

Return to gaming.. 2021.. and battling Covid still..

So 2020 and much of 2021 have been a right battle and strife with the Covid Pandemic. 
Here is the UK we have gotten ahead with the vaccines roll-out but the virus is still making a return for a third wave, but so far hospitalisations and deaths are low... 

So my gaming club has moved venues on the whole.. our old venue closed, the hosting business built a new premises but moved us to a Wednesday night from our Thursday night slot and that kind of killed our numbers just a little. So we setup in a new venue on Thursday and sadly it was a distance away from our old and so we have lost a few but gained a few new players as well.. so yes.. a definite time of change. 

So I have had a break from wargaming for a while.. Health reasons and other issues caught up with me. But now, I am back to regular hopefully as long as we don't get a lock down again.. gaming.. 

Rogue Trader 40k is back on the go.. and I have plans.. This blog will I hope see some more regular updates, and hopefully some of my followers will still be interested. 

So hoping all and everyone is well and getting through the pandemic ok. And watch this space for updates! 

John 

How To Play Fallout: Wasteland Warfare

Fallout Wasteland Warfare - A game of many aspects!

 Welcome dear reader. So whilst I am still sifting through many a pile of rogue trader era lead miniatures. 
I picked up a Kick-starter bundle second hand for Fallout Wasteland Warfare The Miniature Game by Modiphius. 

Its is an interested game. As the title suggests. It is based on the popular fallout series of computer games. 
It has several game modes. From the classic head to head. A player v monster using an AI driven mechanic. A player v faction mode again AI driven. A settlement mode where you adventure and build up a party and build up a settlement (on paper) that gives you resources and boosts through out the games your party adventure upon. And finally an RPG adaption that allows you to table top roleplay the adventures in the fallout setting. 

The main piece of the game is a two player starter core set. That comes with figures, cards and tokens aplenty! 

So for anyone who fancies narrative gaming with a novel game mechanic at skirmish level.. please check it out!

Old School - Style Modern Miniatures

I took delivery of a box of 1987 Imperial Guard Plastic Models and some RTB01 Beakie Space Marines. More photos to follow and it got my thinking about getting some spare las guns for the Imperial Guard and the oldhammer group suggested:

https://madrobotminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_19&products_id=309

These certainly look good. 

And then after some net searching I came across these guys:

Anvil Industries
https://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/regiments-heavy-support-weapons

I particularly like this Automatic Mortar 

Not sure of how this will scale with the older figures, but I do like the design and I hope it will work well. 

Skirmish on Rynn's World - Battle for Jadeberry Hill - Oldie but a goodie

 And so a few weeks have passed and I am still looking into running a campaign. 
Briefly it looked like we might be returning to some semi-normal during the Covid 19 pandemic, but the UK is about to head back into a lock down. 

So it looks like I might be playing this scenario with a friend at home in the future.. 

This was first published scenario for Rogue Trader. Published in White Dward Issue 94 1987. 

This was in the days when you ideally needed a GM and two opposing players for games. When Rogue trader 40K was designed to be played in a narrative style with the story being key and gaming freedom. 
Yes the intro blurb speaks of using proxies.. can you imaging GW saying that in this day of utter corporate control!

Something tells me this was one of a number of scenario's that were planned and never really got published. Probably due to a host of reasons. 
If you want a full look at the campaign you and find it here: 

I will do a write up of the scenario shortly and will go over the elements and why it is till a great scenario and fun to play. 

Master of Campaigns Reporting - A possible Beginning!

 And so in 1995 GW ran the Ichar IV global campaign. Tyranids, versus Space Marines, Imperial Guard and Eldar Allies. The idea was simple. Run lots of games over a single weekend at the various games stores. Each store representing a location on the world of Ichar IV and the side with the most wins would capture that location and the thus the side with the most locations would win the war! 

And so in White Dwarf Issue 78 and 79 the campaign was written up. 

A PDF of the relevant White Dwarf Articles can be found HERE! (And if you like Oldhammer, Join the FB Page.. )

Further campaigns followed and a few details can be found on the WIKI Here. 

As a youngster these campaigns were impressive and I recall my GW store running several "campaigns" in advance of the global Ichar IV campaign event. These were several years before and were a mix of Rogue Trader 40K and Spacemarine/EPIC. The games centered around a central theme and usually ran for a month or so from what I dimly remember. At the time I had a black painted Dark Angels force, a Squat force and an Imperial Guard force for 40K. Playing RT, 2nd edition, again from my slightly dodgy memory. 

The series of games would be run and we would all gather around to hear the "update" and get the briefing for the next game and eagerly discuss how and who would team up to play which games at which fiction locations and eagerly try and get more units painted up for the next weekend to be able to add to our forces (Yes even then GW were hot on the pulse of driving sales! )

I recall it all came down very close in one campaign to a battle between orks and marines and a single shokattack gun hit on the marine commander caused a cascading failure of moral and bang the orks won! And despite loosing the sorry bunch of gangly 11 to 16 year old's all cheered and recounted out battle stories as we headed for our various buses home! 

I think since then I have always loved games where they felt part of something larger or had some sort of "presence" within a narrative and I guess these store run campaigns and the battle reports in White Dwarf at the time, have given me a lasting love to narrative games and campaigns. 

AND FINALLY.... 

After that wander down memory lane.. I get to the point.. 

I fancy running another campaign in that style. Given the various Corona Virus restrictions in the world right now and the risks from face to face gaming at a store or shop etc... I cannot do what my initial interest was to do which was to book Element Games venue for a weekend and run a series of games there. 

So instead I think I might explore if the old hammer community and fans of some retro gaming might fancy a more simple campaign run over a few months. Do some bi-weekly updates and suggested mission types.. record the over all progress of each faction and notable heroics of particular commanders and models and try and get a community built story going for some fun. 

So.. what do folks thing? 

 

Home casting in resin - NOT For sale!

Came across this short video on resin casting at home and doing a simple two part mold to make duplicates of items for your own use.. I stress for your own use and not for sale.

Its legal to make a duplicate. It isn't legal to sell it! You will be infringing Intellectual and Copyright for the owners in many cases and re-casting costs business and sculptors jobs so please.. be sensible.

So that aside, it is quite nice sensation when you manage to get a mold to work properly but it is a lot of energy and frustration when you get an air lock or bubble that ruins are part..

With 3D printing coming along and getting cheaper and cheaper, this old fashioned method will fade I suspect in popularity. Especially when high def 3d scanners become cheaper.

But in the meantime.. watch and enjoy:

The wonder of 3D printing.. Great Gargants!

Well I like many, marvel at the wonder of 3D printing and how the capabilities have come along. I own some 3D printed terrain that is awesome.

I have stumbled across this thread about a 3D printed version of the iconic Great Gargant that Armorcast made back in the early days of 40k. The one model I would LOVE to get my hands on..
I came close once with a USA based seller but in the end the shipping such a fragile resin monster all this way to the UK. Was just not worth it for the price.

I do own a head at least lol.. yes just the head! I have for years toyed with the idea of scratch building one, But I am super impressed with the build in this thread.

3D Printed Armorcast Great Gargant!

Looks nifty and also looks like several weeks of print time I suspect. lol.

But oh my.. Do I like this model! If only I have a super huge 3D printer or new someone who did! lol

Maybe in a few years.

Removing Miniature Oxidization

So I have a few old minis that are lead and white metal and have turned super dark grey.
Not exactly full on"lead rot" but certainly a bit more corroded than I would like.
So came across this article on how to remove the oxidization and I am partly tempted to give it a go on a couple of my older minis. They are only likely to continue to degrade, so have little to loose.

http://minismuseum.com/2015/12/27/lead-rot-cleaning-pt-1/

I am familiar with electrolysis for cleaning rust off Cast Iron. I have just never used it for the purposes of cleaning miniatures. I will have to hunt out some carbon rods to use and give it a go!

Getting the next generation into Wargaming.. with AT-43

In January

, I picked up a copy of Operation Damocles, AT-43 by Rackham. It was a whim purchase and didn't really have a use for it. BUT its proven to be a great buy..

With the Covid Lockdown hitting here in the UK and isolating.. my friends two lads were off school and stuck upon the gaming console, getting more and more feisty and less and less social.

So in an attempt to get them off their console I have given them the box set and got them into gaming, via social distancing. I write the missions and they play them.

Its amazing how they have improved socially now they are off the x-box and actually engaging their brains. They love the figures, especially as they are pre-paints.. not the best quality, but are sturdy enough to survive their rough handling.

So far they have completed all the missions in the set and enjoyed some others I have made.

I am now hunting for some more figures to expand their forces and keep the games going.. and keep them off the gaming console.. So if anyone can help please please, give me a shout.. On the hunt for any old AT-43 stuff to expand the games.

Cheers John and happy gaming in these strange times.

Return to gaming..

So the Corona Virus has hit the world hard and we are still in the midst. For my its a tough time. The lock down we are currently in and the virus presence means no club gaming.
I have not been well health wise either and so haven't had much energy for gaming of late.

However it is finally time I got some of my Rogue Trader era 40K miniatures on the move and painting.
I have just taken delivery of a ultrasonic cleaner and will be giving that a try to help with the stripping of old lead and plastics.

I have some new boxes to go on the shelves and I plan to finally.. yes finally.. get my collections into some sort of organisation rather than random boxes of ebay wins etc littering the shelves where I forget what is in them and then promptly buy the same model twice or thrice or four times or may, just maybe five times.. lol.

So the lead addiction and mountain still grow. Though some will be going up for sale soon as I rationalise a few unwanted projects, as I simply need to clear space.

So apologies for the long delay between posts but hopefully will get some more going soon.

Stay safe everyone and happy Hobbying as best you can.

2018 - Oldehammer and Going forward

Welcome Back!

Hi Folks.. yes, yes, I know.. it has been a little while.. oh well.
What can I say.. real life sadly gets into the way at times and finally I am back to some hobby-ing.

Its time to restart some older projects. In the short term it is, going to mostly be some good old Oldhammer.. yes.. Rogue Trader 40K and beyond..

I have a a few sets of old beakies in need to paint and a new life.. so its time to generate the Howling Reavers or Death Tempests and possible chapter names..

I will also be reviewing some older projects..

Ok fans, a bit of an apology. This year has not really seen any posts on my blog.
Unfortunately life has been a bit manic and I haven't managed much in the way of gaming or modelling this year. I have been spending more time playing RPGs due to a move and work.

However I have managed to pick up a few good sets of old Rogue Trader 40k era figures for Orks, Marines and Eldar and I have some great games in mind for the new year.

I have had a few figures painted by Jonathan Tarry of Felix Figure Painting: 

These are a mix of Macrocosm figures and original GW plastic hybrids which I had painted by Jon prior to the release of the new Genestealer Cult Book and Figures by GW. I love the look he has given them. The lighting on the picture is a little bright sadly on the macrocosm figures. But if you have a look through his immense gallery of pictures of things he has painted you will see some lovely work. And at good prices.

So my gaming projects for 2017 are simple.
1. To get the painting table setup, as hasn't happened since the move.
2. To get some more Rogue Trader 40k games and maybe some 2nd Ed played. Getting the Oldhammer Feel.
3. To try and rationalise some of my gaming collections and get more actual games played and reduce the lead mountain a little. As frankly it is more a mountain range and mountain right now.

So a year comes to a close I can only wish you Merry Festivities and may 2017 bring you more games and more fun!

I am back.. ok.. so it has been a long time since I last posted on there. Life has been rather busy to say the least and my miniature wargaming had to take a back seat as it were. This year, well what is left of it, I am slowly getting back into gaming.

I am working on a few Rogue Trader 40K era projects. I have a marine force, a chaos marine traitor force, a few Eldar, a few Squats and a lot, of Orks to get stripped, built up and painted.

I will try and track the projects here again and for those who have subscribed, will see some interesting bits a long the way.
So please stay tuned..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6E2-OOQo13c

The Goose is back! Back to the future!

OK, ok.. calm down.. I have only been absent for, errr a while.. shall we say.

So.. firstly! Big apologies for the lack of posts and in fact the general lack of anything what so ever. To say life has been hectic, would be an understatement. New job equals new life and new amounts of other things taking up ones time.

So now I am back. Well I hope so.

So order of the day.. err.. not sure.
Simply put. I have a plan to get a small 40k Rogue Trader gaming setup going again. Why Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 and not the latest version..?


Simply because, it was fun and genuine. It wasn't a rule set solely based to make you keep buying more and more miniatures. Rogue Trader did many things, but the big one, was to encourage you too play fun and creative games, not solely 1 on 1 tournament style objective based pairings with equal forces.


It actively encouraged you to creative. To use narratives and have fun.


So I am going back to my roots as it were. A trip down nostalgia lane.

A few beekies and a few orks and a mix of other things for some small scale skirmish games with plots and story and dare I say the odd mutant.. !

Where has the time gone??

Fe****ing Hell!

Where has the time gone??

Seriously.. it is now February 2014. A few years ago I bought some zombies, I started my Starship Toopers Miniatures Game project and my 28mm Vietnam project and errrr "some years" later.


And none of completed. It is scary how time has flown. In fact it is alarmingly scary!

So I will be trying to catch up! Watch this space!!!

South Cheshire Militaire Show - Sunday 23 February 2014

First show of the year for me.
Though its primarily a modelling show with some fantastic models on show, with some stunning levels of detail and skill, there is usually a small war gaming element to it.

It is also a nice day out.

Alas I have no photographs. I was a little battle weary on Sunday and didn't take any photos.

The show was pretty much the same size as the previous year. There was only one empty stand, in the main hall.

The up stairs was the usual mix of wargaming, RC cars/planes and trucks! With an indoor flying area for some of the smaller electric models.

The bring and buy was a little empty.. a shame, but that is the way things go now and then.

The main hall was its usual busy self though it was noticeable that there were a few re-enactment displays filling in and less actual "modelling supplies" traders, which was a shame. As I was on the hunt for a few tools and bits and bobs.

The range of models on display were once again, massive and varied. All sorts of things, from plains, trains, trucks and sci-fi "what if" creations.. with various local and not so local clubs and groups displaying.

The venue is a little crowded first things, but it does quieten shortly after lunch most years and this year was no exception. Seems to the general trend for shows these days. I guess its time pressures on gamers and modellers alike.. spending all day is difficult to do.


Sadly the out door displays of vehicles / bb shooting range / paintballing  etc that in some previous years have been seen were not present. A shame, as me and my friends were discussing over lunch in weather spoons before returning to the show. It does seem to be a changing of the guard, as it were, for the ages.

The average age of modellers must be approaching 60-70s now, and fewer and fewer younger people entering like me. Now I don't do much modelling if at all any these days, due to wargaming being my primary interest, but I do love to and see the efforts of those far more skilled than my self. But it is alarming, that so few younger people seem interested at all.


And frankly, the poor understanding and ability to identify historic aircrafts or boats is alarming in its self amongst the younger generation.

I am now officially, by virtue of writing this post, old!
But it is scary.


Shows like the South Cheshire Militaire are facing a battle against changing times. Even our wargames shows have seen many a decline and I am not sure quite what the solution is.

It was good to see the show organisers asking people leaving, if they minded suppling their home postal area code (just the first two letters) in an endeavour to understand where their customers come from and where to focus their advertising. Though my postal code area, covers a massive area and crosses borders of England and Wales, so that one might not be as "telling" as others.


So over all I spent £6.00 and came away with a book and some dice! I would have bought some paints, apart from the offer for £1.80 or 5 for £9 or 10 for £17! A crafty bit of advertising.. as the first two are identicle value.. 5 paints for £9 is £1.80.  So I held off till WMMS in March, as that is not far away and there are usually a trader or two doing Vallejo paints.

So will we be back in 2015? I see no reason why not, timings, life etc allowing.

Paint Stripping Part 3 - After some testing.

A while ago I did a few posts on paint stripping.. (See Parts 1 and 2 in the blog history).

At the time, someone said they had heard Coca Cola was worth a try and acetone free nail polish remover.


So here are the results.




Coca Cola - 100% original full fat(Sugar) coke!.. well.. it made some of the paint sticky, it had no effect on the miniatures material, be it metal, plastic or resin. Paints from Vallejo, GW and Army painter, showed no real weakness to it.. on some older models the stuff did soften the paint a little but, compared to Detol (pinesol solutions) it was no where near as good.






Acetone Free Nail Polish Remover - This stuff is odorous.. if you like the smell, great, but don't sniff too much, or you will put your health at risk!!! It might be acetone free, but that means it has had one chemical replaced with another! (or more likely many). Also don't spill it on your nice polished table tops, or you will be heading for the yellow pages to get it repaired!


However.. it eats paint! Yes. It works pretty good. I mean, on metals and most plastics and resins.
The "Most" bit however is key. I tried it on some GW plastics.. without issue.
I tried it on some resin scenery pieces I picked up off a bring and buy a couple of years back, and it worked fine. I also threw in a resin GW cr*pc*st, sorry fine-cast figure! DONT! I don't know what resin they use, but it didn't seem to like it. Metal figures however, not an issue.
Now, it did pretty well with most paints too, but there is a cost consideration. If you can get Detol cheap, then you tend to get more for your pennies, than nail polish remover though prices to vary.

However, I have found detol may discolour and go cloudy, but it still strips paint. I found the acetone free nail polish remover evaporated far faster and after a couple of dippings of 48hrs etc, it started to loose its effectiveness faster than Detol.



So now I am back to using Detol and only use the acetone free nail polish remover for metal figures where I need to get the figure turned around quickly.

So.. over all I still rate Detol! For price, re-usability, effectiveness and lower chances of killing me or making me seriously ill.

The biggest tip for detol.. soak the figure in it, then rince the figure off in detol, yes, detol, not in water. Use a tooth brush, but don't touch water on it, till the paint is off the figure. As, as soon as you add water, it nullifies the pine-sol content and causes any part dissolved paint to go rubbery and very stringy! So have one pot of clean, detol, to put the "soaked" figure in and use to wash off the paint in following a soak, before then rinsing in hot water.

2014 off to a good start! Sort of. Penkridge Table Sale - 5th of Jan 2014

So the new year has begun. 2014! And so the first show or event of the year. Penkridge Table Sale.
A group of us, made the early hours rise, to get on the road south. The M6 was clear and we made good time on a crisp icy morning.

The show started at 10am officially but we were in and consuming bacon butties in seconds upon arrival.

The four of us had a great day. We routed out various bargains and I came away with some sci-fi terrain, some more figures for my zombies project and some other bits along the way.

Here are some photos from the day. Not taken by me and borrowed with permission from the originator.

It was a good day. Some folks didn't turn up to trade and sell sadly. But only a couple. The rest of the hall was packed.

A really good turn out in the morning and quietened down into the afternoon.

Penkridge Table Sale 5th Jan 2014

Someone looking Happy

The sales were going so fast it was a blur! - Penkridge Table Sale.

Many thanks to the folks who organised it, the traders who attended and the private sellers. I know we are definitely looking forward to the next one.

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Wargame Video 4

Wargames video 4 from the Demo Day.
Not shot by me.

The Kickstarter is now over £230k..  and new Wargamer Pledge Levels have been added, giving you the rule book and add-ons. Not the box set, but you still get the freebies.

So if you just want to wargame it, and not play the board game. Then Prodos have listened!

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Wargame Video 3

Wargames video 3 from Demo day.
Not shot by me.

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Wargame Video 1

Wargames Video 1 From Demo Day.
Not shot by me.

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Comments by Prodos on the KS

Prodos Comments (in no particular order)
About colonial extra weapon pack: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
Why pledge this KS: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
We'll see much more after this KS end: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
How addons will work:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
This isn't a KS of quantity, but quality:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
Why they can't show us everything right now:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
The Queen will come:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
They are confident to ship in time:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
Mixed things about the boardgame:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513277403/alien-vs-predator-the-miniatures-game/comments…

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - A few more photos from the Demo Day

 
 
 
A few more photos:

Photos from Demo Day by Prodos. Not taken by me.

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Wargame Video

A video of a game played at the Demo day on Saturday.



Not shot by me.

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Accounts of the Demo Day.

Here are some links to other peoples accounts of the demo day and the rule and boardgame play.

http://bogend.simplesite.com/301331545

and

Some more photos from the demo day!

Just a few more shots from the day taken by others.

 

 

 

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Predalians?

Predaliens...???

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/616921/posts/672240/image-339682-full.jpg

Nice comparison shot though..

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Game Play Video 2

Shot on Saturday. Part 2 of 2. Not shot by me.

These apparently were level 1 predators in the games. They go up to level 5 from the screen shots of the rule book and stat cards shown on the kickstarter.

Which is here: Prodos Alien Vs Predator The Miniatures Game - Kickstarter

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Game Play Video 1

Shot on Saturday. Part 1 of Part 2. Not shot be me.

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter - Photos.

Here are some photos from the demo day held today taken by Jason Barlow.
His blog is here: http://jasonbarlowartist.wordpress.com/

These are looking stunning.
Very pleased I am backing this Kickstarter now.

Edit - ohh my lord.. I thought that was the warrior compared to infant aliens.. NOPE.. that is an infant compared to the stalkers.. that means the warrior is much bigger. ohhhh. Defnitely glad I backed this now. One to get for sure!

Prodos Aliens Vs Predator the Miniatures Game - Kickstarter

Well, been a while since I did an update.
So here goes.

AVP.. that classic PC game, Comic and fan fiction genre. Always loved by many a sci-fi geek or 80's child who was scared shed-less by the black xenomorph.

Well it seems Prodos have the right from Fox and are nearing the end of their Kickstarter.

Only 5 days to go!

So here are some links.

Alien Vs Predator The Miniatures Game by Prodos Kickstarter

Some photos from the demo day they are holding today (23/11/2013).
http://jasonbarlowartist.wordpress.com/


So, it basically comes in two flavours the game.
A space hulk style board game and a Miniatures Wargame.

The Kickstarter miniatures will be uniques, as once this goes into production, they will be different poses and in basic plastic. Not the polyeurathene resin that the KS will be.

Currently the project is way past its funding levels and doing quite well.
Hopefully a last 48hour surge will strike, as per usual and the project will get to unlock the queen.
But fear not, even if it is not unlocked, Prodos have said already, it will be released in the future.

The box sets are nice. And I have had personal assurance the card stock is the same quality and thickness as the Third Edition Spacehulk, which frankly was quite lovely.

So do have a good look at the write up of the demo day on Jason Barlow's blog linked above.

And if it is your cup of tea, why not give it some support. I can already see this Ltd Edition sets making several hundred on evil bay and other auction sites once the KS is over! The figures will also make silly prices, as the later ones will be plastics.

Personally I will be hanging on to mine, as its always a great game and one I think every kid in the world who has seen the film would love to have a go at, at some stage!

Smart guns ahoy!!  If it bleeds, we can kill it!

Oh and I should also say,, wow.. proper Predator Figures! I mean, no look alikes here. These are all licensed by FOX films. So are going to be stunning.

Oh and there is a lot more to come!

The Other Partizan Show Report 1st of September 2013

So, the week before I suddenly decided it was worth going to the show.
Haven't been to the Newark, Kelham Hall in a while. Infact, since Hammerhead about 2008, which proved to be a dire show and the distance killed any further interest.

So I surprised my self by having some enthusiasm for the show and off we went. Just to the two of us, as several of my gaming friends were away.
The drive over, was long and slow in places, but not too bad. The road works and speed cameras were a pain. They seriously must have some bad drivers in Nottinghamshire, as the number of cameras was incredible.

Anyhow, we got there for 9.45am and queued to get in. Got our free figure, and wandered about.


We nipped out about 11.30am and had an early lunch, though our early start meant it felt like mid day and then wandered back to pick up the odd bit here and there.

I bought some cheap books and a Pig Iron War Droid for the a £5ea. And I grabbed a couple of Cesna Vietnam era planes in 15mm for my 15mm nam project from Old Glory. They were very nice.

Starship Troopers - Cougar Exo Suits Win

Well, as any regular readers will know. I have a real love of the Mongoose Starship Troopers Miniatures game. I have a rather large collection of figures. Though mostly unpainted at this time.

So I regularly trawl ebay in the hope of finding odd bits here and there. And recently, I spotted some Cougar Exosuits. A box set of four, plus an officer.
Now usually these rare figures fetch silly prices. And I mean silly. The last box set I spotted, made nearly £100. Yes, £25per figure.

Well I took a punt and put a modest bid on, and by some miracle I won them.

Here they are!


Mongoose Starship Troopers Cougar Exo-suits box set

SST Cougar Exo-suit box set contents

SST Cougar Exo-suit Officer

For the grand some of £20.50. Not bad.

These should now mean I have a fair chance of being able to complete my intended goal of having an entire exo-suit, cougar and grizzly platoon.

I am planning on magnetising all of the exo-suit weapons, and hard points, so I may swap the weapon variants, as they are so hard to get hold of these days and so costly, the chances of me having "spares" to setup as variants are slim to zero.

However if anyone happens to have some exo-suits going unused in their lead mountains, please get in touch. :)

Ooops.. had a bit of a break.

Hi Folks, fans and followers.
Firstly apologies to those who have been waiting for updates on various projects on my blog. But real life has got in the way of late.

I have been enjoying a new job and not had the time to get any meaningful modelling or painting done.

However this should be now changing in the next few months.
So here we go..

Zombies and SST and 15mm Vietnam are on the to do lists. Then back to my WW2 projects.

I will do an update for each of my on-going projects as and when I get a moment over the next week or two.
So please, stay tuned for more!

WMMS 10th March 2013 Photo Show Report

Well WMMS is a firm favourite for me and my gaming friends from the club. Its not a massive show by some standards. But it is fairly big, it has a good range of traders, games and it has the bonus of being close (within an hour or so drive) and being in March. Our first proper show attendance of the year.

So, having had a less than fantastic couple of weeks leading up to the show with uncertainty at work and ill health, it was nice to have something of a day out to look forward too.

So in the snow at 8.50am I rocked up at Micks (and Nathan, the spawn) for the drive down, and was soon joined by Paul.. but err no Dave! Eventually with every one present we headed for the West Midlands Military Show (WMMS) and apart from a slight diversion, and the odd snow flurry, the drive was fairly straight forward.

Thank fully due to Nathan being with us, parking was not an issue, as we could legitimately deploy the Blue Badge. The one snag with WMMS is the parking. There is just not enough for when events are held at the venue and it means people parking on the grass. Not a problem in the main, but it can get interesting if people are not sencible with the parking.

Anyhow.. we walked in around 9.30am.. and were met with a queue.! Eh?? A Queue.. usually by now people are in and walking about and the show has started. So this year it was interesting to see the organisers sticking strictly to the 10am start time. We waited away from the queue, then we were subsumed into the queue as more and more people arrived..

Then the queue began to move and we were in.. no hassle, and £3 entry and away we went. I didn't do my usualy habbit of heading for the bring and buy, as frankly, with the stritch entry it was not point, till some people had put things up for sale. So I waited and browsed about.

There seemed plenty of people in the morning but soon the numbers began to drop. The bring and buy was rather empty in place and certainly didn't have as much as it has had in previous years.

The view from the balcony.

View across the hall

It was busier in the morning but quiet in the afternoon. I actually kind of liked it, meant I had room to move about, though not good for the traders alas.

View toward the entrance.

I grabbed two £1 War related DVDs on impulse and that was it. I had a good look at some bits and was doing well, untill I fatedly headed fro Ainsty Castings, and spotted some RPG books in boxes.. infact a large collection of West End Games (WEG) Star Wars books. In fact a huge! Collection. And I had a good trawl, but I could not recall what I had at home and on the spur of the moment I asked Andy if he was open to offers on good portion and he replied yes, but not having that much cash on me, Andy then replied, he had a card machine.. oh dear.. one nail in my gaming budget coffin later. I now have a huge stack of books sitting waiting collection. (Cheers Andy, was a great offer).

And it was time for tea! So up to the cafe for a cuppa and catch up wth a mate of mine.

So here are some photos from the day with a few notes and info and a conclusion etc below.. Apologies for any photos or games where I don't have the info on or get it wrong.

Should re-iterate, the photos were taken in the afternoon once it had really quietened down. It was much busier in the morning, but in the five or so years of going, it was noticeble that numbers were down this year.

View up the hall to the left side.

View up the hall to the right side.

28mm Sharpe Skirmish Game. Very nice.

Lovely game and figures. Can you spot the lady?

Oooerr !

 

Caught having a break for lunch. New figures ready to go!

FOW I think..

Hmmm memory gone again sorry..

Errr and again.

 

See, there are punters somewhere!!!  Still think it was a great show and day out.

Kallistra hexon terrain with small scale figures.. Looks good. Not a big fan with 28mm the hexes seem to stick out a bit. But nice folks donated a present to arecent club charity raffle and I won a set of their hills, so cannot complain.

See the hexon stull does look good at small scale.

Suspect advertising.. free figure painting!

A battle field in miniature.. literally!

 

 

I cannot paint that small.. its silly! But looks nice.

Models.. hmmm looked nice but many I had seen already a couple of weeks back at the Cheshire Militaire.. so frankly.. for me as gamer,, scrap em and get some more traders! The area of "models" seems to be growing. None of the exhibitors seemed keen to be there either.. Most sat very glumly behind their stands talking amoungst them selves and when you enquired, you got an odd look or just ignored!

 

Nice, but rather see more Wargames Traders or demo tables.

Some seriously nice work. But unless those displaying cheer up and become more sociable.. I could happily live with out them!

Victorian murder / horror game.. nice!

A crisp clean table.. maybe too crisp and clean the period.. lol.

She is just having a nap Sir.. honest!

28mm VBCW type game on hexon kallistra terrain.. nice terrain, but not sure 28mm fits with the hexon.

Imprint 1:50th scale vehicles.. mmmmm nice!

I was sorely tempted.

These guys are a regular at WMMS and have a great display and it seemed to have grown. very nice.

Just a few of their collection on show.

I want one!

Not sure what this game was.. its was tiny and it was busy and I didn't wish to disturb.. but they appeared to be having fun.

The Wings of Glory game.. my club mates went to town on this in the afternoon.. Nathan well,, you will see later!

A very impressive 28mm ACW game. Lovely table, nice figures. Only snag was that some of the figure bases had light patches that stood out a bit sharply against the cloth.

Figure basing, drawing the eye too much with clash of colours to cloth.

 

Somethings in the woods.. Great table and lovely battle.

Murder, mayhem and brother v brother!

 

Cowboys! Looked interesting.

 

Battlefield Kursk demo table with the rules writer I believe.

20mm Scale WW2 Battle Field Kurk Game

Lovely buildings.. possible gran manner.. not sure.

 

I spy Germans!

An interesting game of LRDG actions in WW2.

Great info board.. very few games had them. Why not??

The game was well in progress by the time I took the photos.. looked good mind.

 

Thats a lot of damage at the air field.

One old coger, masquarading as an efficient employee, and often seen at our club. Hope you had a good day Will.

So exciting they were fall asleep in their chairs ;)

War of Independace.. line up and shoot it out style me thinks. !

 

From the other table edge.. nice figures.

6mm game I think.. modern ish period.. not sure on the rules etc..

Looked vaguely vietnam.. not too struck on the brown cloth mind.

 

Ainsty Castings,, with his new displays.. hard to miss. :) And some great bargains. Cheers Andy!

Lovely dragons, but rather pricy and probably not a look of use for gaming and too fragile for the table. But nice!  

Hmmm no one wants to get their feet wet!

Ah a familar face.. Len our Chairman, pretending to demo some Dystopian wars.. they claim they had lots of partakers in the game.. I saw none.. hmmmm  fishy!

But that could just bt he fact they are french!

 

Nice figures in the range and some lovely painting.

Arh club mates, at play.. yes most of the afternoon shooting down germans in a game of Wings of Glory.

Errrr.. hmm next!

Wings of Glory, the He111s on their way to london and only a couple of brits to stop them!

28mm scale WW2 game.

 

Nathan, walking away with the prize, after his lethal rounds of shooting.. the german pilots stood no chance.. only his dad came close to beating him. The roars of laughter and dissbelief that came as damage was dealt each turn, you actually started to feel sorry for the Germans!

And so.. the day was done and we headed home. Again WMMS proved to be a great day out. I found stuff I wanted and I met up with friends, had a laugh with friends and came home tired! So all in all a great day and I look forward to WMMS 2014.. as I think its still one of the best shows in the year!