Defiance Games hard at work

I'm trying out the new improved Blogger software with this one. Its all a bit shiny in the back end.

Defiance Games has just put up a picture of what they've been working on. Looks good so far. The presentation on their site is top notch. What will the figures be like? If you are going to do semi realistic figure like these where are the pouches and gear that hang off modern soldiers? This one looks like he's just jumped out of a vehicle where he's had all his gear stowed.

Some random Games Workshop paint jobs...

I've had the pleasure of having a fellow disciple join me in my workplace. I'm bad for his wallet as he gets all sorts of crazy ideas from me. Here's some of his painting and interesting conversions.

World Eaters Chaos Space Marine Terminators. All with lightning claws. All have the WE symbol handpainted on their right shoulder pad.

Looted Wagon with gretchin on the main gun. Steering? Aiming?

Dark Eldar Grotesques. Some lateral thinking here to avoid the one model pose GW has released.

Bloodbowl wood elves

Wouldn't be complete without a Treeman...

Woody, get it?

warhammer magic dice 2011

Having grabbed a pack of the Storm of Magic dice today i thought i'd continue with the dice posts. These were the mixed set with one of each college of magic coloured dice and a little black dice bag. i think you can get single coloured packs too for the specific colleges in warhammer. They are a limited run so if you want some snaffle them up.
Plastic, about twice the size of a standard GW dice, with a very light feel in the hand and what looks like some kind of brown wash over the dice to bring out the texture. I cant see them getting used much as they'll be a pain to read. The pips on the other sides are small skulls.

Another frog...

We found this one sitting on the front door step yesterday. A burrowing frog? It looked like he'd eaten a large snail.

and some more dice...

Beastmen dice, Space Hulk dice, some greens and a tiny little die from my Grandfathers shed. I keep these seperate to the others as they are bigger and not quite so useful for gaming.

Dice dice dice



The Angry Lurker pointed out a blog called Gothridge Manor with a dice post so here goes

A few dice that i have hanging around.

Quality control was asleep when this little timber dice went through the paint.

And a few larger 6 sided dice, D10's and a lone D4 i forgot in the first photo. 

I cleaned out a heap of multiple sided dice about six months ago to a D&D player so all my D20's and weird ones have gone to a better home. Dice are one of those things people will pick up and look at just to get the feel of them in their hand. The pink ones that spell the word dice are those i take to away games as they very rarely get lost.I just realised there is another tin somewhere...

Latest White Dwarf offerings - August 2011

Well it's Saturday morning and White Dwarf issue 380 has hit hobby stores. Like it or loathe it this is the advertorial for all things Games Workshop so here's a run down on release info and what's in the shiny new thing.

Vampire Counts - new model in the combination Vampire Lord / Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon / Terrorgheist. It's another big plastic kit in the vein of last months dark elf release. There are also two new plastic single kits being the Tomb Banshee and Cairn Wraith. I've said it once and i'll say it again. These single plastics are the future of what they should be releasing. That and Forgeworld being main range :). These models get official rules updates in the magazine.

New Chaos Demons Battalion / Battleforce. No new models just a box set.

New Terrain in the shape of the Garden of Morr. Its a Cemetary in plastic with a lot of useful pieces for 28mm gaming with a statue, fencing and the crypts. Looks very useful. Did i mention i thought this would be useful?

There's a new Herald of Tzeentch and rereleases of Vlad and Konrad Von Carstein in resin. I showed this issue very briefly to a colleague this morning who's a mad converter and he was frothing about the standards for both Tzeentch and Khorne which appear in three blisters.

What is it with Dark Eldar? They get some more love with a model each for the Ur-Ghul and Medusae. I dont know any of the other ranges that has had such a complete overhaul and continued support from GW.

Games Worshop continues with the excellent work they've been doing this year with their FAQ's introducing a thing called The Shrine of Knowledge. The latest is an amendment to the power scroll item. See the games-workshop.com page for this one. There's an ad for FFG's Dark Heresy RPG and notice of the Space Marine collectors edition. No model = :(

LOTR actually gets a bit this month in the form of a cavalry article. It runs through the basics then goes into more detail with Light and Heavy Cavalry. 

A couple of battle reports covering the Garden of Morr and Storm of Magic, Jervis Johnsons ramblings, Hall of Fame and a modelling workshop on the Dark Elf Black Dragon are in there. Sisters of Battle get the first half of their White Dwarf codex release but no new models. boo hiss. There is an interesting pose of the Penitent engine standing on one leg. How they managed to move this from the workbench to the photo table without it snapping at the ankle I don't know.  

Wargaming magazines what next?

Its a tough market for print media and English language wargame magazines are no different especially with their niche market and competition from the Internet.

Magazines like Dragon disappeared into the net years ago while Wargames Illustrated was taken into the Battlefront stable and despite increasing its Flames Of War coverage for obvious reasons i think continues to provide a good read with availability though many newsagents here in Australia. Battlegames another small wargaming magazine made the transition to both print and pdf issues some time ago which gives us worldwide access outside of the capitol cities where Ive only seen it in gaming shops. 

Games Workshops White Dwarf is a little bit different being totally in house with no outside content apart from brief mentions of the other IP licences. Its having a bit of a reposition with GW's tightening of release information and possible return to White Dwarf rule releases. If you listen to the Internet at all White Dwarf in particular may be suffering from a dropping readership, have a look at BOLS with Brents latest piece although like anything based on incomplete figures we can only speculate. It seems that around here it's disappeared out of the newsagents too. I would imagine White Dwarf will get a new lease of life with the Hobbit movies around the corner and their signing of the licence deal for those figures. 

Miniature Wargames has managed to stay independent and is a magazine I've seen only rarely in Australia with the newsagent coverage being nonexistent. They are trying some different things out with their latest being trial issues of June and July 2011 published on the Internet. The link is here http://www.exacteditions.com/miniaturewargames so wander over and see what they are doing. There are some of the older issues there to have a look at as well. I've spotted a couple of pieces that I'll have a read of.

The way they are handling it is by offering magazines to view online and on Apple and on Android devices. You can download and print individual pages but unfortunately due to copyright they cannot allow the whole magazine to be downloaded.

All these publications have to struggle with getting relevant content that isn't readily available on the Internet and when they are physically printing copies getting the advertisers to make it worthwhile. So if you happen to make an order based on a lead from a publication give the supplier a heads up on where you got that information. 

Quick review Rango

The kids and i got this movie last night from Blockbuster on DVD so here's the quicky review.

Number one its not a kids movie rather its a big kids movie that kids can watch and get a laugh from but they aren't going to get all the references. Number two if you like Johhny Deeps antics you'll probably like this as it seems to have been written for the crazy shtick that he does in so many of his movies.
The premise is that chameleon falls out of car gets thirsty looks for water and ends up saving the little town of Dirt with some amusing interludes in between. The animation is fantastic with great detail and it'll take a couple of watches to catch all the stuff that goes on along with all the side gags.

The mariachi finches work in nicely along with the hick moles that provide the big fight scene. The cast of baddies including bill nighy as the rattlesnake is great although ray winstone didnt get much of a go apart from the flame face scene.

I'm going to use the Angry Lurker scale and give this a 3.5. downgraded a bit for not having more kid stuff when that was how they were selling it here.

Storm of Magic goodies from Games Workshop

Storm of Magic sees the release of some new items including the finecast Cockatrice, the new Storm of magic expansion and new monsters including the amazing Black Dragon with Dark Elf rider options. The Vortex templates are a bit of a disappointment even though they are cool colours, made of tin and come in a pack of six but because they are a large blast size rather than the dark eldar small blast size which means we can't use them as web way portals :(.

But the stand out for me has to be the new plastic singles including the dark elf sorceress, tzeentch sorcerer, chaos sorcerer and necromancer. They've snuck these through with very little fanfare but this is where the future of the company lies rather than with finecast or the metal ranges as we have known them. Price wise they are reasonable for GW with a $22 AUD tag.
They are packaged in blisters completely enclosed, so no more tatty cardboard for retailers or bits dropping out the back, which you can turn around and see the product with a good sized colour photo on the front.

One thing that struck me while i was writing this is the lack of bits in the sprue. One figure with one specific way of putting it together. I was so excited I bought the chaos sorcerer so tomorrow I'll pull him out and take some photos.  

The latest and greatest from white dwarf july 2011

Games Workshops White Dwarf may be seeing a bit of a come back with more rules specific to it and a push from Games Workshop for the keeping of secrets till release date.
When you add this tightening of information to the Black boxes having met their demise it should make White Dwarf a bit more relevent for players of their games. You'll notice that many of the normal spruikers of their wares on the internet have clammed up as the information has dried up and i've been careful to keep this article until the 25th which is the release date for White Dwarf in Australia.
So to the juicy bits.

release info on

• three new plastic monsters/mounts including chimera, manticore and black dragon, the black dragon in particular looks amazing
• cockatrice in finecast
• two boxes with two plastic scenic pieces each for storm of magic
• four single figure plastic sorcerors
• vortex templates (or webway portals if you like) in six colours
• funky magic dice in assorted colours for the lores of magic
• battle magic spellbook
• re releases of Lammasu and Great Taurus (both originally chaos dwarf specific), Dark Emissary, Truthsayer and Fenbeast (from the Albion campaign, i can't remember what that was called off the top of my head) and a what might be a new scuplt of a Cold One all in Finecast.
• and right at the back, eight of the classic magic figures available again although by the looks they are still in metal rather than being reproduced in Finecast

• Storm of Magic - expansion for magic in warhammer with lots of stuff on Storm of Magic of course but importantly the Chimeras stats are here
• an article on the last batch of new Dark Eldar models with some prep tips for Finecast, general talk and a bit of painting information
• Cities of Death for Warhammer 40000 gets a makeover with notice of an FAQ and errata document, presumably to come through the website, with a new strategem for each race and four new scenarios in the pages of July's issue
• not a sausage for LOTR although THQ, Black Library, Fantasy Flight Games and the Art of War Promotion all get a mention

Quick review Too Fat Lardies summer special 2011

This latest special contains 129 pages with lots of interesting stuff here drawn from the melding of minds that is the Too Fat Lardies and their supporters. Its available from the Too Fat Lardies webstore.

• french indian war La longue carabine supplement - Sharp Practice  - 16 pages
• v beach gallipoli 1915 scenario - if the lord spares us - 5 pages
• wave goodbye (france 1940) scenario - I Aint Been Shot Mum - 5 pages
• riverine warfare in vietnam - Charlie Dont Surf - 7 pages
• brown water delta rules supplement - CDS - 10 pages
• napoleonic battle in spain 1811 scenario - Le Feu sacre III - 5 pages
• rogers rangers french indian war scenario - La longue carabine - 5 pages
• russian / german scenario 1943 - IABSM - 4 pages
• brown water scenario - CDS - 3 pages
• Coastal patrol ruleset for WWII - Coastal Patrol - 16 pages
• Black night scenario - CP - 2 pages
• On company business french indian war scenaro - La longue carabine - 3 pages
• frigate actions scenario - Kiss Me Hardy - 4 pages
• mesopotamian (iraq) 1920 - through the mud and the blood - 6 pages
• platoon forward bonus scenario - platoon forward - 1 page
• part two of the mission to rescue il duce - IABSM - 4 pages
• brown water scenario - CDS - 3 pages
• Storm of dice (WWI) - higher level interpretation of if the lord spares us - 6 pages
• Storm of dice scenario (WWI) - storm of dice - 3 pages
• building WWI woods - not specific ruleset -  6 pages
• the volga ferryman - bag the hun - 8 pages
• WWII british/german scenario - IABSM (blitzkrieg supplement)- 4 pages

In my opinion this special suffers from a lack of clarity. There are a number of articles where it's unclear what rule set they are for although the contents page does list the ruleset. Which is ok if you are in the know but to a casual reader dipping their toe in the Lard it seemed like it would be a bit confusing.

The detail presented in the scenarios is done a different way each time which again is ok but seemed like it might have been done better with a standard format and more time put into getting the information across.

Did i think it was worth the money? Yes. It holds a similar amount of information to the paper magazines i occasionally buy and i'll be reading it again for the bits i'm interested in.

Could it have been done better? I think so. When i was in High School I had an English teacher who encouraged us to write rough drafts for essays which were then put away in a drawer for a couple of weeks. By the time you got them out again you could clearly see the problems with the structure. This Special could have spent a little time under the mattress to good effect.

Dark Eldar Talos, Scourges and Venom on the painting block

Three Dark Eldar units from this months Games Workshop black box. Venom, Talos and Scourges. Assembled ready for undercoating. Current metal Squat...er, Ratling for size comparison.

I had some trouble getting the lower hull of the Venom to sit flush.

Which could have been partly the curved sprue.

Dark Eldar Scourges ready to accept arms. I've blanked the arm sockets with blu tac which saves a clean up.

Dark Eldar Scourges with two shard carbines, blaster, heat lance and Agoniser / blast pistol combination on the leader. There are five carbines on the sprue. A Dark Eldar player has already snaffled the spares from these.

I'm making some progress on the Venom and Talos. The Talos will get its six little torso arms when the rest of the body is painted. Both of these have some very fragile parts.

Some more random photographs

These little frogs keep popping up.

 

Sunrise over our place.

Western Desert reading - Bardia

Bardia: myth, reality and the heirs of Anzac by Craig Stockings.

I borrowed and read this book a little while ago and have kept it hanging around while i got round to blogging it. Its not the sort of coffee table ra ra Anzac book that has been spewed out lately but is well researched and written.

It basically covers the battle for Bardia in January 1941 where Commonwealth forces attacked the small defended town and for the loss of 130 killed and 326 wounded captured 35000 or so Italian prisoners. Being an Australian its always been on my radar as the main assaulting unit was the 6th Australian division but this book really goes into the why and how of the Italian defeat.

There is a lot of background on the events leading up to the battle, the battle itself and the aftermath. Craig Stockings covers a lot of ground that fills out this period and theatre of the early war especially with regard to the Italians and their preparedness to be part of an axis alliance. He also shows how the British and Australian armies had partly learnt from the first world war, as many of their leaders were veterans, especially here with a deliberate assault on a defended position but still had a way to go with armour and its use. The planners were well aware that tanks were vital but his explanation of events show how unsupported infantry struggled against entrenched and committed Italian troops. The British army was still learning this lesson in Normandy when they were only just adopting combined units.

This is a book that will be on my list to get out again and reread because there is so much good quality information contained in it.

5/5  

A Dragon Stug IV arrives

The Dragon Stug IV with a Deagostini/Altaya Panzer IV for size comparison.

 

No markings apart from crosses on the sides and rear of the hull. If i had to nitpick the only thing that lets this model down is the tracks which don't sag like the real ones would. 

The main gun actually elevates.

detail, detail, detail

A lovely model down to the periscopes for commander and gunner. Even the triangles for the side skirt holders to hang off are really fine and this model is a tribute to the skill of the assemblers of these models.

I picked this model up from Mil Sims in Melbourne for $16 while i was down there visiting the parents.  Its one of those shops which has had a strong internet presence for a long time which continued on from their paper based catalogue in the days of snail mail. For me its one of those places i seldom get to go but always enjoy putting around in the store. I've just found out they are having an Easter Saturday only sale too, bugger.

Coat d'arms german WWII paint set colour uses

colours in the set and their uses

• 102 black - early war boots, ammo pouches, early war webbing
• 227 field grey - tunics
• 503 military green - mess tin, summer uniform (reed), possible zeltbahn base colour
• 505 green grey - early war trousers and tunic, helmet
• 515 black green - bare helmet & gas mask case
• 516 iron grey - early war trousers & tunics
• 518 field blue - luftwaffe field division uniform or trousers
• 521 army green -  gas mask cape , summer uniform, late war mess tin
• 525 uniform grey - early war tunic, late war tunic and pants
• 533 slate grey - tunics, possible ammo puches

 take this with a grain of salt and experiment

Quick review Repo men

I saw this movie last night on DVD and was pleasantly surprised at the content.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are great in this sci fi story that wanders along pretty predictably until the end. The premise is that they work for a company called the Union which sells artificial organs and has the ability to repossess them if you fall behind in your payments ie cut them out of your still living body. Its shot really well without seeming to have to resort to crazy CGI effects and seemed to be "believable" and in context all the way through although if you stop to think about what they are doing your head is going to spin.

There are plenty of little bits through the movie that give it a really well crafted feel like the bit where he comes speeding off the freeway and all you see is the overhead shot of cars crashing, the fat man in the street scene and the fight scene at the end which had a lot of similarities to the stuff that's in the Milla Jovovich's Resident Evil movies. I feel they handled the explanation to this really well at the end of the movie.

I'm going to use the Angry Lurker scale and give this a 4. It was that good.

Quick review Battle Los Angeles

I went along and saw this last night after umming and aaahing over whether i would bother going to see it on the big screen. My reaction was that i liked it but its not one I'll go after when its comes out on DVD unlike lets say District 9.

It's got plot holes that you could drive a truck through but they kept the action up and i didn't feel i had to leave before the credits rolled.

• interstellar race invades earth and forgets to install redundant command and control system
• aliens are here for water but come onto land to get it
• alien weapon platforms don't have protection for the operators

There were some bits towards the end that just got a bit silly like the scene and dialogue in the Humvee when they shot the alien off the hood and they did blow a lot of stuff up.The aliens were different from the norm look wise but reacted like badly scripted AI shooter aliens which was a pity as they could have been much more menacing and were only really effective at the start of the film. They weren't too over the top with the corny American rah rah stuff although it was just there below the surface trying to come out.

Its a film that reminded me of the original Stargate which was the gateway to the Stargate franchise, so when is the series coming out?

It was a bit Jekyll and Hyde too with the first half being shot like a sketchy fast paced doco. and the second half more like a paper cutter war movie.

Did i mention they blew a lot of stuff up?

Grey Knights quick thoughts

Some thoughts on the Grey Knight imminent release before i burn out the door to work.

•  the terminator models are sweet and a big improvement on the old metal models and there are 13 heads on the sprue! thank you GW.
• i have seen some comment on the internet that people are dissapointed that there is not the wow factor of say the blood angels release. i feel  that is being overly critical because there is a big difference. blood angels were a major leap forward in design especially if you include the space hulk figures while GK are simply new plastic figures with the (almost) same design as the old metals.
• i am not personally excited about the dread knight as a figure. when you compare it to say the penitent engine it looks like a lego man or a baby carrier as i saw someone remark. Its big though which is cool when you stand it underneath a valkyrie or stormraven.

Oops forgot WIP shots of Arachnarok spider

I just happened to look at the blog and realised I'd forgotten to post some more shots of the Arachnarok spider.

Coming along nicely. And as i mentioned I'm going blind painting these little blighters. I've just realised I'm three short so back out to the garage to fish some more out.

I've also been very busy priming various miniatures for the painting table.

A mixed batch here with Valiant plastics at the back, Games Workshop Grey Knights and Orcs in the middle and Pegasus 1/76 Germans on the left with some Warmodelling 20mm there for Bill at TMP.

More goblins or how i went blind painting tiny teeth.

I've got a handful of Night Goblin spearmen to get done from the last Warhammer boxed set. Who was it that sculpted so many teeth on the little blighters?

 

These came to me undercoated and partly (badly) painted but without being glued to their bases or with any flash removed. I've been experimenting with painting them unbased but have to admit i'm not a fan. Blocking in the different colours has taken some time with a brown (GW Devlan Mud ) wash down the spear and GW Thraka Green on the flesh.

 

Now that they are on their bases the teeth and eyes have gone on.

Ready for the dentist and optometrist.

  I've got to the point where they are glued down, tonight is getting them on their bases, sand and undercoat applied and ready for base base coat in the morning.

PVA and sand applied to bases

Softly, softly, catchee spider

First Devlan Mud wash on the Arachnarok carapace, Skull White for the legs and various colours on the tree.

Worked on the base and tree last night then made a little progress on the Arachnarok spider this afternoon. Cooked tea, moved half a meter of gravel which a neighbour has kindly dropped off and now i'm off to bed. Tomorrow is a day off so in between cleaning the house, looking after the five year old and moving the other half a meter of gravel I'll try to get this close to finished. Phew.

Savage Orcs WIP

The pesky varmints from Games Workshop are almost done. Everything is painted, only some detail work including tattoos, base grass and a matt spray to go.

I've still managed to miss the lip ring on the drummer, at least all their toenails are painted.

Orcs & Goblins Arachnarok spider gets a base

The big spider is getting his base coat and I'm fiddling with the base while its drying, GW Savage Orc for scale.

I've been working on Games Workshops Arachnarok spider today. All of the colour schemes I've seen have been a bit safe for want of a better word. Although i've just spotted this one on Warseer by Tokamak. Mine is going to be a lot brighter than the black, red, and yellow headed ones I've seen on the internet from GW so far and some thought has gone into what it will look like. Whether or not i can pull it off remains to be seen.

Someone on the internet had mentioned it will be easier to paint with the legs off and i agree but having already rushed into putting it together that option wasn't open to me. Definitely paint the spider separate to the base as this is going to make it a lot easier to reach fiddly bits.

While the basecoat was drying it seemed like a good opportunity to get the base and tree support together. The rear legs of the spider locate into two holes on either side of the tree. Its a nice piece in itself with the snack Goblins and tiny little mushrooms growing out of the tree.

The tree support made up of three pieces. It's important to dry fit it to the base to get the spider to sit where you want before you glue it down. Put it too far forward and the spider will be way out the front of the base.

Only the rear and second leg pairs contact the base. B2, my five year old, called the bases of the second feet "skull shoes".

The front and third pairs of legs are the articulated ones giving you a little latitude with the final position.

 Once I'd glued the tree down i tested the spider again and did a little final move of the tree before the glue set. The legs needed to be slightly pinched together to get them to sit in the holes.

GW Savage Orc progress

The Big Stabber showing the neat way the designers did the mount for the blade. The mould line is a little annoying at this point :p

Savage Orcs WIP, those on the left have their basecoat, two in the middle have Goblin Green and the four on the right have a wash of Thraka Green.

Games Workshop Savage Orcs WIP

Savage Orc boys with their main colours blocked in.

I'm painting up the Savage Orcs from the next black box for the Orcs & Goblins release. My normal fairly leisurely painting timetable has been put aside and I'm going hell for leather on these and the Arachnarok spider to get them into the display cabinet before the release date. Its amazing how often you miss out a figure when you are batch painting and end up with one out of ten with no toenails.

First impressions of the figures are that they are well thought out with some features that I haven't seen such as the tongues being molded onto the necks and the heads with open mouths being hollow so they fit together. I did find it necessary to trim tongues where the mouth was closed to get a good fit on the neck stub.

Savage Orc Big Stabber crew with their lettered shoulders.

Savage Orc Big Stabber crew arms.

The Big Stabber with lettered tabs for the Orc hands. The spear tip has a hollow where the log the Orcs are holding goes either side of the stone.

The Big Stabber is an interesting experiment allowing two figures to be joined together and fielded on a cavalry base.

There are options on the sprue to do spears/shield, bows or two hand weapons. No extra heads which is a bit of a bummer for converters but there are a few extra orcy bits fitted in. These sprues should swap parts easily with the new Savage Orc Boar boys which are due for release at the same time. A 40K player who saw these was drooling over the Ork possibilities especially the standard.

The Arachnarok spider with its undercoat and the Savage Orcs about half way through their paint job. The small spider is from the last Warhammer boxed set, I'm using them to test paint patterns for the big boy.