Its over for another year..

I will do a full report for Gauntlet 2012 Show shortly, but not got the time right now.
So just to keep you guessing, here are a couple of photos.. of my Dungeon bash.



7am Saturday Morning.

A few turns in. The fog of war slowly rolls back.

I will post some more shots this week and do a full write up as time allows. But suffice to say, it was a late setup, but a great two days of gaming. The show was busy, the WRG 6th Ed tournament went well both days, though simon has its running down pat I think from many years of experience. The 40K tournament I ran on sunday, went really well.

All in all.. a great weekend. Still recovering today. But then there is no gain without pain.. or at least lugging several large boxes of Dwarven Forge up and down stairs.

Gauntlet 2012 - Setup and day 1.

Firstly, apologies, not photos, yet! But what a day..

All started yesterday when the tables were delivered but due to the rain the football club had to use the hall for practise. That ment no access till 9pm. Then 80 odd tables had to be setup and laid out.
Then I finally got all my dwarven forge boxes carried up and the tables I was bringing and then started to lay out the game. I finished at 12.10am.. and was then back at 7.30am to open up.

So yes a very long long day. But was it worth it. Ohh yes. Have a great layout and four very happy players, who have enoughed the chaos and mayhem of a simple dungeon bash.

So its an early night. So hence no photos with this post, sorry. They will following tomorrow.

Dungeon Accessories - Part 2

So I have made a bit mor progress on painting my Dungeon Accessories for this coming weekends game at Gauntlet.

Most are done in vallejo model colour flat earth, but a nutt brown ink wash.
The yellow ocher is looking on. I was trying for a lighter colour wood and went with a german pale cammo brown, but now quite sure how it will look.
So far all they have had, is an undercoat, and base colour and washes. Some of the washes are not done fully yet. I tried to dip them in the wash and be lazy, but all that happened was the pieces stuck to the board and pulled paint away when i removed them.

So now I am painting it on with a paint brush and doing about hard of each piece at time to avoid this.

So this is it so far!

Progress so far on the dungeon accessories.

 My attempts as making a weapon rack or three have so far gone now where.
First my " NWSL The Chipper II ", has got too thin a blade and I am getting deflection when cutting even thin strips such as 1.5mm thick styrene.

So had to revert to a craft night. I was struggling to come up with a sturdy design that would survive gaming handling and still look "authentic" as it were. So in amoungst all those clips is the first propper attempt. Using some 1/4x1/4 balsa strips.

You can just see on the right, the liberated and cleaned up fenris weapons items.

The first aseembly of what I hope will be a solid design.

Hmmm need more clips!

Liberated from their sprues - Fenris fantasy weapons.

So now I need to wait for the glue to dry and whilst that is happening. I will undercoat the fenris weapons. I planned to mount this to the weapon stand permenantly, but have decided not to now.
I think they will be better to use as scatter items and treasure rewards in the game but also in future games.

Having realised how much DF I have, and how small an amount of accessories I had and the lack of time. I decided to cheat,, well I ordered some bits form Morgar (off the DF forums) and some painted barrels. These arrived today. By pegasus and not too bad for the money.

I bought some of these to suppliment the ones I was painting.

Will post some more as they come along. Only 4 days including today. Eek!

Dungeon Accessories - Part 1

Well only a few days to go till Gauntlet and I am trying to get a few dungeon accessories painted for my game.

Here are a few shots of what I have managed today.

Some resin and white metal barrels and chests and bits.

 The first shot is of some part painted resin and white metal pieces I have just started painting. I am experimenting with colours for wood effects.

The pieces are by Irregular, Ansty Castings and some barrels and resin chests from a defunct trader on ebay.

Being undercoated.

 This is the second batch. Some small barrles and bits like treasure chests. Most from Irregular again, but with a few older GW. Went with the white undercoat to give brighter colours but it does mean you have to accurate with the paint, or it shows through where you missed.

Fenryll resin weapons pack.

In addition to the barrels, chests and sacks etc, I want some Diablo style weapons racks. So a while go I picked up for 99p on ebay, a fenryll resin weapons pack. Not a bad selection.
I will scratch build the frames/weapon stands and then glue them into place, so I can represent armories and guard rooms.

This pack would be good for anyone with heroic fantasy figures interested in converting too. Though the resin is brittle I found. The morning star has already lost its head. But some glue and drilling should fix that.

Will try and get a few more photos as these projects progress this week. All have to be done by end of play thursday. Nothing like time pressure eh??

The big clean up has begun.

So not long now till Gauntlet.
And I need to get some painting done. So have been cleaning up a bit and trying to uncover the painting table, and tidy up the piles of half completed projects etc that litter it and the room.
The good news is I found a box big enough to dump most of the semi started, semi completed projects in. And the remainder should go into a selection of smaller boxes.

But it has proved one thing! I have too much stuff! lol

Seriously, it is amazing how bulky gaming figures/forces/armies and scenery can be.
I can see the purchasing of more "Really Useful" storage boxes in the near future. As frankly, unless I get it sorted out, half of these projects will never get any further and be lost. Meaning a waste of effort in starting them.

So with bitter determination. It is time to throw out some practise peices and consider having a rationalising day after Gauntlet has passed.

It does feel good to get some of the clutter shifted and sorted. I have a habbit of saving boxes, so I can post things out when I sell them on ebay. This habbit has gotten out of hand, as I now realise I have over 20 small to medium sized boxes just "hanging about" incase.

I know that inevitably I will need them once they are slung, but hey! Thats a problem for tomorrow, so now I soldier on, waste deep in boxes and plastic.

The gamers nightmare and evil menice! Clutter! It shall be beaten!

Blooming Eeck part 2

Well I cannot believe it. Nearly 12 months to the day!
Wow.. time fly's..

http://rofe.19.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1964

This time a year ago I was furiously painting 28mm afghans and modern troosp for my game at Gauntlet 2011.

This year, its ten days to go and I still have some dungeon pieces to start on. Flip!
And my painting table still a mess.. oh well shall have to put in another few evenings work I can see ahead.

Well hopefully I can get all the pieces done in time.

I have decided to use simple D20 as the rule system as it is in line with version 3 of D&D, meaning I can use the base monster stats from the books.

I will pre gen some characters and put them into envelpes so people randomly get a choice to save arguments. Should be fun and swift to play.

No masses of skills, just stats, hits and ac effetively.. :)

The planning of my layout is taking some time and have scrapped two ideas as too timely.
Its the balance of having enough for a full days worth of playing. I can re-jig it easily over night to allow same players a new experience on the sunday.
So wish me luck!

Blooming Ekk! - Only three weeks go! Arrhhhhh..

Ok, the realisation has just dawned on me.. err.. its three weeks to go now.

Yes, Gauntlet 2012 - Our clubs show is only three weeks away.. scary!

In the past I have put on big games. And that has usually involved a rabbid painting rush and mad last minute secenery painting to get the game done even painting thing on the friday night before.

This year, due to one reason or another, I have not embarked upon such. Mainly due to other life concerns.. so this year, I am rolling out a Dungeon Bash. Good old fashioned, bash the monsters and grab the treasure. Partly because I like games like that. Partly because it means I can roll out my large collection of Dwarven Forge in a big layout for a couple of days.

So.. having made that decision. I need to design the dungeon.. (hmm or at least the plot and story for the players). It has to be simple as its a turn up and play game. So I am toying with going with basic D20 RPG. Six stats, a handful of skills, an AC and hit points as I want.

My other option is to use Bladestorm by ICE. But that is a bit more complicated and more a skirmish battle system, which is fine if you have the time to invest. But I do like the system. Hmm choices, choices.. The gaming system and plot aside. I also need to get some stuff to fill the dungeon with. I have a fair few figures from the D&D prepainted plastics miniatures range, so they should give me enough things to populate most of it and give each player a representative figure.

Its then a case of filling in rooms with furniture etc. I have bought a couple of packs of scenery pieces, barrels etc here and there from various makers such as Ainsty castings and some off ebay, in the past, but they will need painting. So it looks like it could once more be a mad rush to get things painted again! Oh joy.. at some point I will remind my self why I do this every year and swear I won't next year and so on an so forth..

So here are a few shots from various places on the web of some larger layouts. Hoping to do something long these lines, but of course not an exact copy..

From - http://www.wethegamerz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/gallery_layout_dungeon.jpg

From - http://www.the-back-row.com/media/blogs/TBR/dwarvenforge.jpeg

From - http://www.dwarvenforge.info/bibliothequeimages/IMG_3944.jpg

Hmm.. looking at those photos, I really better get some planning done soon. :)

There are some more photos of lovely layouts here too:

http://www.dwarvenforge.info/bibliothequeimages/selection/selection.htm

Ainsty Castings - Theft from his van. Keep an eye out for it please!

Hi Folks and followers.
Andy Lyons (Ainsty Castings) , had his hire van broken into just before phalanx and a serious quantity of stock stolen.

I put a post on TMP here.
This was also posted on another  forum.
"While preparing for his weekend shows, Andy Lyon of Ainsty's van was robbed:
All my boxes of show stock are gone, all my display models and figures are gone and all my boxed pieces for on the bottom of the racks are gone. Two racks of blistered minis are gone too.
"It has a substantial retail value plus is about a years worth of stock that he's built up.
"If anyone sees boxed Ainsty stuff, Crooked Dice and Rogue Miniatures blisters being sold on the cheap let me (or Andy direct) know.
"I painted up most of the CD display figures for him and Paul V2 the Rogues… so if you see any of those on eBay shout out."
Spread the word. The people who did this shouldn't get away with it."

I was made aware of the theft at Phalanx and spoke briefly with Andy. Some of the items are in blisters and in large really useful boxes. Some of the items are painted.

I took a series of photos (see below) of some of his painted pieces he had stolen back in 2011 at the Derby show. Here are some of my un-posted photos and some from that report.

If my readers see any of these up for sale please let Andy know asap.

WMMS Show 2012 - The boats were just being painted



WMMS Show 2012



WMMS Show - The painted figures had been added too.

Hopefully the stuff might turn up if the thieves dump it, realising it is not high value electrical goods etc, unless they knew what they were stealing. In that case, it could hard to shift, as putting the painted figures aside, the volume of ainsty castings taken is almost a half or more of a years castings for Andy, so no one will have this quantity sitting on their shop shelves.

Phalanx Wargames Show Report with Photos

The St Helens Spartans put on Phalanx each year around the same time in June.
And it is usually just two weeks before Gauntlet our own Club Show.

And being local and well attended, its a regular on our show list to make.

So off we trudged at just after half past eight in the morning, down the motorway.
Over the bridge and along a bit.

Got to the a show, booked my bits into the Bring and Buy, and then went for a walk around.
£3 entry.

And the bring and buy is 10% without any "per sheet charge".

The morning was busy. And the bring and buy was heaving till about 11.30am when it quietened down a bit. The spartans run the best bring and buy I know, so despite my failing to sell much, it was run well and I felt confident to leave things on there.

Sadly, I learned that poor Andy Lyon from Ainsty Castings had had his stock stolen from his van, at his home the night before. Including painted figures, and display pieces. See here.
He had bravely decided to come with what he was able to put to gather and it was humbling to see several people buying things they may well have held off buying, to try and help out a little. He has a cracking range of resin scenery.

So here are the photos of the show, taken late in the day, so the numbers look way worse than they were. But hopefully you can see the games that were run;

A random shot of the hall.

It was busier than it looks. I took these late in the day.

A good mix of traders I felt this year. Like it.

Sorry didn't catch the details on this game.

e-Collectica Games, running a demo of a new boardgame

The very popular Dr Who game I believe. A regular at shows but the game always differs slightly. A game for all ages.

Very large scale Cowboys game.

A nicely done display and table. Liked it alot.

A big layout and lovely scenery. Very british civil war I believe.

This board had good atmosphere. Enjoy it.

I think the only let down was the pure grey road surfaccing, some cobbles some break up etc would have been nice.

But still a very very impressive partificaption game.

I hope those vehicles come up behind are friendly..!

Somehow the telephone box, just set this scene nicely.

I liked the terraced housing.

The Battle of Amphipolis. Lovely miniatures and wall.

The game was well advanced by the time I approached with the camera. Looks good though.

Nice figures and painting. Infact standard was good for all tables.

A VBCW game by MAWS members, put on last minute. Simple but effective.

Great 40K orc conversions from the St Helen Spartans MAWS, display table Not played with, but nice table. Good use of Mr Potato head and some kinder eggs! 

Display table I believe by St Helens Spartans.

Loved the Orc 40K planes.

Orc dino riders with missiles.. scary!

Large table. Battle of Edge hill with black powder. Looked impressive.

Edge hill.

Edgehill battle table. Some close ups on the cavalry.

Pikes at the ready.

Centre area stand off.

I though the unit labels were a nice touch.

A nice set of figures.

The game seemed to be going very well and was busy.

The East Lancs association game. Very busy indeed.

A local St Helens Fools and Heroes LARP Group Table. Nice show of props but needed more easily viewable info.

The other side of the East Lancs Wargamers Assoc board.

Critical Mass Demo tables. Like the sci-fi tres.

Not a big fan of the Critical Mass rules system, but some of the figures are nice. And I believe they are now selling these tree stumps as resin casts for their alien trees.  

The scenery and figure scemes really looked good.

Cammoflage that nearly works. :)

Critical mass figures. Some nice pieces in the range.

Hmm not sure which game this was. Sorry. Poor memory.

Lance and Longbow Table, behind the players.. Will with his shiny head, beating someone for a change! I think.

"Look I am winning" or its his Paul Daniels impression. Actually he was loosing, but apparently he was "supposed to loose!"  

Hmm thats a lot of Pike. Oh my.

Will about to roll.. not sure if he won in the end or not. Had to leave early.

Warlord Games, Operation Squad rules gaming table. Figures and scenery looked nice.

Warlord games table, from the german side.

Warlord games table again. I suspect the "mix" of models was more for show than, actual represent an average game.

So, at about 3pm I had to head off. So collected my bring and buy stuff and headed home. Sadly did not sell as much as I want. But did get some Deathwatch RPG books and some resin scenery pieces.

Was a good day. Despite horrid weather. Felt very sorry for Andy Lyon, standing red-eyed and obviously worn out at his stand, but admired his determination to show up and still trade after such a horrid event. I hope his stuff turns up and they catch the thieving scumbags!

So once more. Many thanks to the St Helens Spartans for putting on a great show. I managed to get 80 plus flyers for Gauntlet put out too. We are only just down the road, so if you are reading this and made Phalanx, please give some thought to coming along to Gauntlet (7th & 8th of July).