Space Hulk

 

My friend and I had another go at Space Hulk. We tried it out a couple of times in the last few weeks. We played the second mission twice so each of us could play each side and both of us had a great time. The rules are simple but have great depth.

 My friend positioned his Thunder Hammer and Storm shield in the corridor to block the flood of genesteelers. He did well but alas...

...it was not enough. It also helps to have great painted models, which my friend does have.

Tech Bridge

From Armorcast, the Tech Bridge is a very nice one piece terrain item. Armorcast was a company that made the original Warhammer 40k titans and many other GW licenced items. They restructured after being bought out and are now making new items and many of the original ones. For more details on this story go here. This kit was originally made in 1998 but is now being remade as of 2007.

 Primed black.

 Drybrushed dollar store grey.

 Drybrushed in dollar store silver.

 

 The wood bits were painted in P3 Bootstrap Leather and drybrushed with P3 Gun Corps Brown. The exposed pipes were painted with GW Dwarf Bronze. Some metal plating was lightly drybrushed with GW Tin Bitz.

 The whole thing was given a wash with watered down dollarstore brown to give it a rusty look. There is room for two 50mm based side by side on most parts of the bridge.

The angle of the slope and parts sticking up is enough to keep the models from sliding. A very important part of gaming. This bridge would be appropriate for just about any game system: Infinity, 40k, Malifaux and Warmachine. Even good for smaller scales.

Now that I have tidied and organized my crawlspace more, I will be painting more of the Armorcast and JR Miniatures terrain that I have rediscovered.

September is turning into Game Store Month

September of 2013 may be the best thing in gaming for lower Vancouver island residents or it could be the worst thing. Let me first give a breakdown of all the game stores in the lower Vancouver Island area.

Victoria

Interactivity Games and Stuff has been in business for well over ten years (fifteen I think) and is moving into their new location at 723 Yates street. They will also be changing their name to Interactivity Board Game Cafe. He specializes in board games and heavily dabbles in slot cars and quality puzzles. They will be able to rent out games to play in the very large area in the new store and sell food and coffee items.

Curious Comics has been in the business for about twenty years and has sold moderate amounts of board games and role playing games and has dabbled in miniature games. This will all change in early September when they open up a game store on store street around the corner from their 631 Johnson location. They plan on selling board, card and role playing games as well as miniature games and have a playing area.
 
Yellowjacket at 649 Johnson has been in buisiness for also about twenty years starting as Xenon way back when. They are a very strong collectable card store, specializing in Magic the Gathering and sells some boardgames and a very small amount of Privateer Press and role playing games. They have a playing area for cards and the occasional Warmahordes.

Skyhaven at 3458 Tillicum has been in business for around ten years and specialize in board games, collectable card games and role playing games. They have a large playing area.

Games Workshop at 625 Johnson sells Games Workshop products and has been here for over ten years.

Duncan

Dice Bag Games (facebook page here) has been in business for four years and sells miniature games (GW, Privateer Press, Infinity, Malifaux), role playing games and boardgames as well as Magic the Gathering. They have several playing areas in the back room as well as playing tables in the main store. They sell snacks too.

Real Player Games is a store that will open August 31st at 60 Queens rd and will sell GW, Privateer Press, LARP and airsoft items, board games, role playing games, and Magic the Gathering. They will also have some space for miniature consignment. They have some tables but plan on getting lots morespace in the same building for more tables.

So as a synopsis there are going to be six stores selling board games, four selling miniature games, five selling role playing games, and five selling Magic the Gathering. Is this too many stores for Victoria? Will each store have their own clients that only frequent them? Can they all survive?

I am especially concerned for the miniature game stores as two are opening up soon which triples the existing stores selling Privateer Press.

Dice Bag Games - Grand Opening

I went to the grand opening of Dice Bag Games (facebook page here) in Duncan on Friday. They have been open for four years but kept on pushing back their grand opening.

They opened their doors at 9am and they had a good selection of items for sale, of which I made a good attempt at depleting. I got some metal Cygnar jacks, a Cygnar chaingun, Trollblood Champions and two Malifaux books, Twisting Fates and Storm of Shadows. I know the books are not going to be current but witht he discount they were half price. The discount was either to dance or to roll a d12 of shame. I chose an interpretive dance that I called "I rolled a one and now I must lose a dude". It got top marks.

Also picked up some 7 Wonders expansions (great boardgame by the way), an Infinity Ghulam with Panzerfaust, the Malifaux University of Transmortis, some paints and some more Cygnar figs and a Goblin Tinker.

I also played a few games of King of Tokyo, where you play a giant monster attempting to get the most prestige or be the last monster standing. I would have stayed longer but wanted to have lunch and do some errands.

As always the staff is friendly, engaging and knowledgeable.

Gaming Crawspace Almost Finished

 I tidied up and cleaned out the crawlspace so it can be used for gaming and terrain building (the messy kind).

 I painted the door a few years back as a surprise for my wife. I still need to finish the elven lettering that says "Speak friend and enter".

 There used to be a desk that wasn't very usable. Now its some more shelving but there is still a little disarray.

 This is the to be sold area. Lots of GW and a few Warmachine models to be sold as well as a lot of book. Me and my wife are voracious readers.

This is the main area. I added in six LED lights for the ceiling. Cabinets for finished models on the left. On the left there is also a cabinet for RPGs and two open shelves for scenery. At the very back is general storage. Obscuring the board games and costumes are lots of various styrofoam and interesting plastic bits for scenery that i will hope to make. On the right are magazines, books and more scenery. In the middle is a four foot by six foot table (grey for city on one side and green for rural on the other. I want to make two four foot by four foot collapsible tables in the next while.

Still a work in progress but a lot of things have been accomplished so far.

Space Hulk

 Our regular host for Privateer Press's Warmachine and Hordes night is unavailable so my friend brought over his copy of  Space Hulk. I have a copy as well but its not painted. It also will never be painted as good as this.

This edition of Space Hulk came out from Games Workshop in September of 2009. Its been four years and the game is long out of print, much to the chagrin of its fans. It was originally released in 1989. Both versions take place on a huge spacecraft that has been taken over by alien genesteelers. The Blood Angels have sent in a terminator squad to conduct various missions. One player plays the Blood Angels and the other the Aliens.

 Its played in a series of corridors that are assembled according to the scenario. The models are extremely well sculpted and come in many action poses.

 The game is very fun to play, especially with the timer. When it runs out, the Blood Angels turn is finished, even if they have not used all their pieces.

We played the first scenario twice, switching sides each time, and the second scenario once. The last Blood Angel terminator fended off 23 Genesteelers himself before finally succumbing to the horde scuttling towards him. Very tension fled moments. If you see a copy, pick one up. Just be warned that some are selling it for much more than the original $100 price tag.

X Wing Miniatures Game Third Look

No, I didn't post my second look at the XWing game. In my first post I talked about the game and its similarities to Wings of War. In my second game I was more familiar with the rules and nuances of the game.

Now that I've played it a third time, with the Litko markers, I would definitely recommend this game If my friend did not have multiples of the ships and tokens.

I'd get it too but this is one game that a gaming group or club could get and have a great time.

Skypad

I purchased the Skypad shortly after it was released. Fast forward a few years and playing a lot less GW and I was wondering what other reasons I had for making the model. Infinity, Warmachine, and Malifaux can all use this terrain as a raised platform. With sides down or up its a great centerpiece. It goes together smoothly and does not need a lot of painting finesse.

After priming black, brushing on dollarstore grey paint then drybrushing silver dollarstore paint.

 I found that it makes for a rough appearance befitting its utilitarian use.

 The sides just need a little silver to break up the grey.

Then I used dollarstore blue (eagles) and yellow (caution areas). The yellow took four coats and the blue two. I drybrushed the blue with P3 Cygnar Blue Highlight.

The lights I painted with P3 Skorne Red then lightly with P3 Khador Red Highlight .

Then I painted black caution stripes and various paint on the control panels. I also used my prismacolor pen to write in a number on the pad.

 The height is generous for warjacks, TAGs and monstrous creatures.

I left the ladder assess panels off to better show where they are.

Civilian Firestorm Armada Ships

Spartan Games has a nice product for their Firestorm Armada line that has five civilian ships. These ships, made up of one refinery, two cargo haulers and two cruise liners, are great for scenarios. They come in one piece and paint easily.

For the cruise liners in order to accentuate the windows without steady hands I used my old trick, Prismacolor paint pens. Above is the before...

...and here is the after picture.Just lightly applying it gets great results with the simplest of ease.

 The refinery.

One of the two cargo haulers. I tried to make logos on the containers and failed so I painted on top of them, alas.

Rosh and Brine

Rosh and Brine are a Minion duo for Hordes but they work for just about every faction except Scyrah and Cyriss. Therefore a good pair of models for Warmachine players to get used to the Fury concept of Hordes. Rosh has excellent ranged attacks, an AOE, can move out of close combat with diversionary tactics and can prevent non-pathfinder enemies from charging with his Pig Pen spell. Brine is a solid beast with abilities that make for a good match up with Rosh against any foe.

Rosh and Brine were primed with Krylon black. Then painted, as per the Minions book, with P3 Gun Corps Brown, painted a mix of P3 Greycoat Grey, P3 Gun Corps Brown and P3 Cryx Bane Highlight in the recesses. Then drybrushed for the highlights with a mix of P3 Gun Corps Brown and P3 Rucksack Tan.

Then P3 Thamar Black and P3 Khardic Flesh mix for the snouts, drybrush P3 Midlund Flesh for the snouts. The teeth and nails were painted with P3 Menoth White then a little P3 Ember Orange. Then a little P3 Khador Red for the deep shadows and teeth. The teeth and nails were then highlighted with P3 Menoth White Highlight.

P3 Bootstrap Leather was used for the leather parts then drybrushed with P3 Rucksack Tan. GW Runelord Brass was used on the buckles. Then P3 Khador Base Red was used on the dynamite and Brine's cloth private part cover. These were drybrushed with P3 Skorne Red. Then P3 Cold Steel was used on the metl parts with the dynamite fuse pained with P3 Menoth White Highlight and drybrushed with P3 Morrow White.

Then some P3 Gun Corps Brown was used on the gun stock, some P3 Arcane Blue for the goggles. Then the models were washed with GW Devlan Mud and based. Then the arc was painted with GW Goblin Green.

I have not tried these models in a game yet but I have faced against them once and it was a suprise as to what they could do.