For The Khadorland!

Originally I had wanted to begin working on my first Warmachine models today but my plans went a tad haywire. Most of the day was taken up in dealing with our basement that flooded during the night, followed this evening by my little daughter not feeling well. It's now too late for me to start on any of my hobby projects so instead I think I'll just take it easy and read for a while. I've been meaning to go back and reread the Warmachine and Hordes MkII rulebooks so maybe I'll start on them.

Therefore tonight all I have to share with you are just some more photos that I think are pretty cool. These are pictures of a large Privateer Press display that I saw at Adepticon a couple years back. It looked awesome but the only problem was that it was surrounded with plexiglass or something which made taking pictures of the minis rather frustrating. Thus none of the following photos turned out as well as I would have liked which is why I decided against posting them at the time in 2010. I guess my standards are lower now as I reason, "Eh... why not? They're still neat." But if obviously amateurish photography makes you cringe, you at least have been warned. Then again, if that were the case this blog would probably not be to your liking anyway, so why should I worry about catering to you hypothetical photo snobs?

Ah, sorry. This has indeed been a long day. I'll shut up now and get on with the pictures.

The display had been divided into three separate scenes, of which the Khador assault pictured above was one of them. I really like the alternative color scheme used on these models as well as the details of the overrun network of trench works and defenses, too. I've chosen as my initial faction for Warmachine the mighty forces of Khador, and since I wasn't able to actually get started on them today, I thought it would be fun to at least share these pictures of Khador minis. I hope you enjoyed taking a peek even if they were somewhat blurry or crazy looking from the flash. What can I say, it's been one of those days. :)

Goodnight!

Imperial Fists Team Display

After months of delay I've finally started writing the story of my experiences playing in the 40k team tournament at Adepticon this past Spring. Yeah, I know... timely as ever, right? It's going to take me a little longer to finish my summary of the tournament but in the meantime I do have something else to share from that day.

While hustling from one side of the main room to the other in search of the correct table for my Round 3 game, I happened to pass by an eye-catching Imperial Fists army that made me stop in my tracks. Imperial Fists armies always get a lot of attention thanks to their not so subtle livery, but in this case it was actually not the army that made me take a second look. Instead it was the team's massive army display board, complete with a beautiful backdrop to help set the scene. One thing this tournament has become known for is the great amount of effort and creativity some teams are willing to invest into every aspect of their army's appearance and how it is displayed, of which this particular Imperial Fists army is an excellent example.

No doubt many other people stopped to take pictures as well so presumably this army display has been previously featured elsewhere on the internet, closer to when the tournament took place and likely in greater detail, too. However since I went to the trouble to take my own photographs amid the hubbub and chaos between rounds of the tournament, I'm now determined to use them here no matter how stale the subject might be for you, my fellow hobbyists. And of course if you haven't seen this before, I think it's worth taking a look.

I was in such a hurry that I was not able to learn anything about the team responsible for bringing this brilliant spectacle to the tournament. If anyone who was involved with the pictured Imperial Fists collection and army display happens to see this, please let me know and I will happily give you the credit that you and your mates deserve. It's a marvelous piece of art and I would really appreciate being able to properly recognize the people who created it.

Seeing this sort of fantastic army and over-the-top display is one of the things I most enjoy about attending big events like Adepticon. I only wish I had more time to take better photos of the display and to meet the people who had built it. Oh well, I hope you had fun taking a look at this one as well. Goodnight!

Sergeant Homer in the Sewers of Malifaux

Today I was able to put in some more time working with my Sewers of Malifaux set from Wyrd Miniatures. So far I have mixed feelings about the TerraClips system and my enthusiasm for it has waned slightly from yesterday. I think it definitely looks a lot better than I had previously worried it might, but there are some more pragmatic issues that I'm initially not too crazy about. I'm sure with more practice I will develop a better understanding of what I can do with this terrain but starting out it has been a bit frustrating. Also it's been slower going that I had expected but again I think with practice the assembly process will not take as long.

By now I've only used about two thirds of the pieces you get in one box of Sewers but already I'm running out TerraClips, especially the I-shaped and L-shaped ones. If you're interested in these kits I recommend you consider getting an extra pack or so of TerraClips. At the rate I've been going through them I think a good ratio would probably be 3 boxes of clips for every 2 boxes of tiles. I'm also noticing a shortage of solid wall sections and an excess of those wall sections with doors and gates for what I had envisioned building. I suppose this is just a matter of personal preference and one of the inherent limitations for this type of approach to terrain making.

While putting together my sewers I took some pictures to help show what these pieces are like close up. Once again to act as my visual reference for scale I have requested the help of Sergeant Homer of the Stonecutters chapter. He's no stranger to such filth and so did not begrudge the assignment.

Pictured above is one of the basic 6" x 6" tiles, of which you get 16 in the Sewers box. The artwork on them is double-sided to give more options and variety when deciding how to assemble your sewers.

You also get 32 of these 3" x 3" double-sided tiles, none of which I've yet used as I'm already running out of TerraClips. Some have narrow sewer canals while others appear as solid flooring. They seem to provide a lot of utility when designing your layout, although they will quickly burn through even more of your clip supply.

Add some walls to the floor tiles and Sergeant Homer is now in the Sewers of Malifaux, or at least a little box resembling the Sewers of Malifaux. At this point everything was still quite simple and straightforward. The more pieces you want to use, however, the worse it gets.

You can assemble your terrain to have multiple levels of elevation. Included are a couple of sheets of handrails, balconies, staircases, and ladders. I've not yet tried this out very much, in this case due to using up all of my wall pieces building the main level of sewers.

One aspect I am very pleased with is the appearance of the sewer effluent as this was something that had not impressed me in the pictures I'd seen previously. The sewer canals have a sense of flow in addition to looking suitably nasty. They remind me of the river of negativity flowing beneath Manhattan in Ghostbusters 2. Ahhh... now that is some lovely effluent.

Half of the wall sections included in the Sewers box are solid while the rest of them have cutout areas to represent doors and gates. I felt like I ran out of solid wall sections very quickly. The doors come as separate pieces and can stand up with the help of a little matching pieces of card. Of course the doors can just be left off entirely to make things simpler. Another option is to attach a TerraClip to the bottom of each door and anchor them to the floor tiles if you'd rather not have your doors be openable at all.

As I mentioned my experience with these so far has been rather frustrating and not as much fun as I had hoped. Since so many clips are involved it can be a little tricky wedging pieces together and you really need to plan at least several steps in advance. It can be annoying if you make a mistake or change your mind along the way as you inevitably have to pull apart many more pieces than just the ones you want to switch around. I therefore think it would be very helpful to layout most if not all of the pieces you intend on using so that you can plan the most sensible order of construction. Also that way you know you won't run out of something deep into the assembly process.

Despite my concerns and gripes I'm still optimistic about making good use of my TerraClips terrain. The problems I've run into so far will I think become less bothersome over time as I become more familiar with these kits and learn how to get the most out of them. I also think there's tremendous potential for using these terrain sets outside of the Malifaux universe. In fact one of things I'm now most eager to try out is playing a game of Space Hulk adapted for use with my Sewers of Malifaux. Hmm... Sewer Hulk, anyone?

Alright, that's all the time I have for tonight. I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead with plenty of painting and gaming fun. Goodbye for now!

Malifaux Bump - TerraClips!

Well, well, well. It looks like Infinity is once again bumped from this week's rotation in favor of Malifaux. This time it's because my set of the new 3D modular terrain from Wyrd Miniatures has arrived and I couldn't wait to begin playing with them. So... TerraClips!

I only started a short while ago punching out some of the larger pieces from the Sewers of Malifaux box to test how these things fit together using the plastic clips. Based on the weight and quality of the card-stock alone I have a good first impression of this terrain. (I just checked and the Wyrd website says it's 1.7mm thick punchboard.) The pieces appear to be more durable than I had expected and the clips slide on smoothy. I therefore suspect this terrain will hold up nicely if not abused since assembling and disassembling your pieces are not likely to damage them. Nonetheless I'm interested in seeing how long it takes for wear and tear from usage to become noticeable.

In all honesty I had not been terribly impressed with the pictures I had seen of these terrain sets over the past year. In all the photos they looked to me too busy and actually sort of ugly. I am therefore relieved to think that they look much better in person. All the little details are much more impressive and do not appear to be as busy or distracting as I had thought they would. There's a lot of potential for Wyrd's terrain and it is a significant step forward from any card terrain that I've used in the past. Beyond just Malifaux these sets are clearly well suited for many other wargames and RPGs, for which no doubt they will come in quite handy.

As I said I have not had much time to play with this terrain but I look forward to experimenting and having fun with them this weekend. I'll revisit this once I've really tested them out and built a few different layouts. Last night I saw posted here at Rhellion's Tabletop an excellent review of Rhellion's experiences working with the Streets of Malifaux and the Buildings of Malifaux box sets. If you're interested in more info I recommend you check out his blog. There's plenty of good stuff there.

One thing Rhellion mentions is that Wyrd already plans on releasing further sets of terrain, including futuristic designs as well. Not only does that sound very exciting (oh... Infinity!), but also explains why my box of TerraClips is labeled as "Translucent Grey." I suppose this means we can expect these clips to eventually come in a variety of colors. Something about designer TerraClips is really amusing to me.

Fun, indeed. :)

Alright, I gotta run. Things should be getting back to normal soon as my visiting relatives will be departing in a day or so. Happy painting and gaming!

A Lovely Iron Kingdoms Table

I don't have much time tonight for blogging as I continue to be occupied by visiting relatives. So for this week's Warmachine/Hordes post I'd like to show a picture of one of my favorite gaming tables. I saw this one at Adepticon and I have no idea who is responsible for it, although I guess it was made by someone associate with Privateer Press. It was located right next to one of their big display pieces in the ballroom where all their tournaments were held.

Okay, check it out:

Why then do I like it so much? To begin with I think it's just a really attractive table built to a high standard of craftsmanship. I wish at the time I had taken more photos of it so that I could show some closeups as the buildings and train station are all well detailed, beautiful pieces of scenery. Also the train and boxcar apparently received a similar amount of care and attention. I remember them being quite lovely.

Beyond its aesthetic appeal I appreciate that it is still a very functional wargaming table for the system for which it was created. It doesn't appear overly crowded with too many lavish terrain pieces and so it should still allow for an enjoyable, standard type of game, not one in which the table itself dominates how the game is played. While I definitely have a lot of fun playing on those specially designed, narrative-heavy tables, this one comes across to me as a top-notch, "I can play on it everyday" sort of table.

Perhaps what I like the most about the table, however, is how well it fits the background and themes of its game world. It seems to me a perfect expression of the Iron Kingdoms and very representative of that Steampunk-styled setting. Sure it would work fine for a lot of other games, but with even a glance I know where the action on the table is supposed to be taking place. I'm also impressed that this isn't conveyed by means of any overt references to in-game factions, symbols, etc. or other sorts of give-away clues.

Finally, I just think it's really neat that the table has train tracks and a train, too. I've wanted to build a table with train tracks for a long time but have not yet done so. That's a terrain feature I would like to see show up more often. Growing up my dad was into model trains so I've thought for a while it would cool to integrate a little of that into my own hobby. Maybe someday I'll get around to that... seems like it would be fun. By the way, does anyone know what scale or gauge of track works well for 28-30mm miniatures?

So that's why I think this table is so groovy. I hope everyone is having a rockin' week so far. Goodnight!

Review - MAS Radar Station and Pump Station

Months and months ago, I posted this about my interest in playing some new games this year. I solicited suggestions but then in typical fashion never got around to following it up. Well one of the games I picked out is Infinity by Corvus Belli, which I chose partly because it allows for a much greater density of terrain coverage than you typically find in games of 40k. Working on terrain is one of my favorite aspects of this hobby and so I liked the idea of playing a game that encourages you to have a lot of scenery and cover on your tabletop.

Therefore for diceRolla's first Infinity-centric post I thought it would be appropriate to review a couple of hardfoam terrain pieces from Micro Art Studios, namely the Radar Station and the Pump Station. I bought these especially for use with Infinity in mind, but as they are meant to be generic 28-30mm sci-fi scenery pieces, I think they would fit comfortably into most futuristic settings. You'll see in most of the pictures that I used Sergeant Homer as my standard reference for scale, which handily also serves to provide a little glimpse of these terrain bits in a 40k context as well. Most of the official photos on the MAS site show them beside Infinity models, therefore it seemed like it would be more helpful to use a Space Marine for my own pictures.

So with that out of the way let's get to the terrain, starting with the Radar Station. It's comprised of three different materials as seen below: the main hardfoam structure, a resin piece for the doorway, and a sheet of pre-cut HDF pieces from which the radar itself and the building's walkway are assembled. The second picture is of the bottom of the terrain piece to show what this hardfoam stuff is like for those who have not encountered it before. It's pretty strong but can be brittle and it becomes gritty when broken or crunched.

The resin entryway piece had minor flash and will need some tidying but was for the most part in good shape. The hardfoam had several rather more noticeable problem areas, in particular warpage on the top and on two side sections.

I don't think any of these flaws are that bad besides causing a little annoyance. Instead what bothers me is that MAS charges what I consider to be a rather premium price for their products. Thus I did not expect there to be quite so many areas of damage right out of the packaging. To be fair I also was not expecting the foam to be perfect either, just not this bad. What surprised me the most however was when I realized the HDF sheet may have been cut backwards from the way it was intended to be cut. You can see with the walkway piece that on one side there is a little bit of etched-in detailing, while the other side remains unadorned.

The problem I encountered is that on mine the walkway only fits onto the building if you have the detailed side pointing to the ground instead of pointing up. D'oh! I'll likely use some thin cardboard and strips of plasticard to breakup the flat surface of the HDF, thus adding back some visual interest to it. That way it's an easy enough fix. What surprised me about this is the apparent carelessness in its manufacturing which I did not expect from MAS. I still think it's a great piece of terrain, though perhaps somewhat overpriced for the quality you get.

The HDF radar was easy to assemble and there were no problems due to the radar panels' detailing having likely been etched into the wrong side of the sheet. I did a dry run without gluing any of the pieces to test out their fit and to make sure I understood how everything was supposed to go together. It was a very straight forward process but you do want to be gentle when punching the individual pieces off of the sheet so as to avoid any of them breaking or tearing.

Here then are some final pictures of how the Radar Station looks when assembled.

Moving on to the other scenery element for tonight's review, the Pump Station consists of just two pieces, a big chuck of hardfoam and a resin doorway. As with the Radar Station, the hardfoam was damaged in a number of places. In this case it's primarily the coils of those duct-looking things to either side that have suffered the most.

The above unpleasantness is on one side....

And this is on the other side. :(

There are also a few noticable areas of warpage scattered on the surface of the piece. Otherwise I think it is a really nice bit of scenery and will look quite spiffy on the table once fixed up a little and painted. I appreciate its overall simplicity.

Once again I believe the damaged areas should be easy to repair with greenstuff, or I may just leave them that way and paint them as battle damage. However considering the price MAS charges for their terrain, I was not expecting them to be in such rough condition. I still have some of GW's old hardened-foam terrain pieces that even after years of use are in better shape than these new ones from MAS.

Overall I am satisfied with the MAS Radar Station and Pump Station, though I feel the damaged and problematic areas were excessive. I'm excited to see them painted and I suspect I will be happy to have added these pieces to my collection of terrain once they're finished. As a consumer I'm left with a less-than-thrilled feeling, but I'll get over it as they're still some pretty cool pieces of terrain. :)

That's it for now, happy painting and gaming!

Rubble by Nesbet

One of the bloggers I've been lucky enough to get to know this past year is Nesbet, author of Nesbet Miniatures who as it so happens is something of a renaissance man of our hobby. His breadth of knowledge is remarkable so that I'm now convinced there is nothing he can't do. You may even have recently seen Nesbet's technical and artistic savvy on display as part of Dark Future Games' search for a new banner design. My only complaint is that he doesn't post on his blog more often. I understand however he is a busy guy and has to spend much time playing bloody sudoku! with his miniatures' bases. :)

Tonight I want to show off some terrain pieces Nesbet made for me some months ago as part of a trade we hashed out over the summer. In return for the stack of movement tray bits I had leftover from working on Sector 7G, Nesbet agreed to make a batch of rubble and debris for me to incorporate into my urban ruins. He's actually not even a 40k player which makes these even more impressive to me, especially considering I gave him only the vaguest of instructions from which to work.

I'm not sure how he made this set of terrain (plaster?) but I really like it a lot and I think he did a great job making detailed, interesting scenery for my games. I haven't yet decided if I want to leave them loose for use as scatter pieces or if I would rather make them part of larger ruined structures. Either way I expect they'll look great once painted. Like many other projects, however, that will have to wait a while longer with all that I have going on now. I likely won't get back to work on Sector 7G until after AdeptiCon, but at that time this custom terrain specially imported all the way from Chile will no doubt become one of my top priorities.

Until then I have ordered some of the few remaining survivors of the cursed Haverbrook 212th Grenadiers to reconnoiter these rubble fields, as well as provide us with a better sense of scale. Initial reports indicate that they will make my gameboard look awesome...

... moving in for confirmation.

Confirmed, the terrain is awesome!

Thanks again to Nesbet for the killer terrain. If anyone is so inclined to let him know what you think of his hobby talents, you can find him at Nesbet Miniatures. Cheers!