Future Shantytown / Modelmates Rust Effects Review

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on TMP that linked to a blog post promoting a model-railroad "rust in a bottle" paint product that looked very slick. Always being eager to snap up new products that enable my laziness as a painter, I found a source for the magic elixir in the UK and ordered a bottle (not cheap). After 10 days or so it arrived:

I had several half-finished 15mm corrugated iron shacks laying around that I had assembled and basecoated with Boltgun Metal, but (as you do) had lost motivation to finish. Being that I had wanted to run a 15mm sci-fi game soon, I recognized the szygy-like convergence of factors... half-finished terrain plus easy rust paint product plus running a game to use the terrain equals motivation to finish the project! So off I went...

The Rust Effect stuff is actually opaque, so after basecoating with Boltgun Metal, Dheneb Stone, and Astronomican Standard Grey, and layering Ultramarines Blue and Shadow Grey, I applied a wash of GW Gryphonne Sepia mixed with Devlan Mud and let it dry.

 Then the Rust Effect was liberally applied to the metal parts!

After that I painted the windows and solar panels in the usual "gem" style.

I added some faux-Korean characters for that "indeterminate future space language you'd find in a makeshift shantytown" look.

I'm pretty happy with how this project turned out. I think that the Rust Effect product will be quite useful when painting heavily weathered and/or Nurgleized stuff. It certainly worked a treat on these shacks. Easy to use and great looking results - how can you put a price on that???

Modelmates Rust Effect - 10.01GBP including shipping to Canada from Model Hobbies Limited

Meet the new Dwarf... same as the old Dwarf?

There's been a lot of hype from GW about the "new" White Dwarf. New look, new content, new design sense, more pages and (of course) a new price - a 10% increase to $11CAD.

So what's the verdict? Some good, some bad, and a great deal of "same as before"...

Hobby veterans will recall the origins of White Dwarf in the late '70s, as an omnibus role-playing game magazine with a smattering of miniatures content. One might easily come across an article about Traveller, a scenario for Paranoia, or a discussion on AD&D... "house organ" it most assuredly was not. Of course, the main business of Games Workshop back then was as an importer, licensed producer/distributor, and retailer of role-playing games and materials. It was only later that GW became synonymous with the Warhammer brand of tabletop wargame and the Citadel (and Marauder) miniatures produced to play them with, and that WD became a "GW content only" house organ to promote Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Lord of the Rings, Specialist Games, etc.

All of this is to say that the new WD must be judged against 35 years of history, but also against the more recent past (i.e. the September WD)... which has been dire. So leaving the issue of comparison aside for a moment, what's the new WD all about?

Well, it's bigger for one thing, weighing in at 150 pages, against the old size of 120 pages. The cover has an attractive satin finish with a glossy illustration, and features a new logo, all of which gives an increased perception of quality. On the inside we get photos of the production and editorial crew and an upbeat editorial about the new WD and the "thrilling" state of the Games Workshop Hobby (tm). Okaaayy...

On to the content. This is where the rubber meets the road. For all the hype, is the Dwarf really different, or is it a facelifted version of the little person we're all familiar with?

Let me answer that question this way: the first 50 pages are essentially a catalog. We see pictures and breathless writeups about the new Chaos models, including a gratuitous plug for the virtues of Finecast ("the level of detail on [the model] is astounding... a feat which would have been impossible had it been cast in metal") as well as some "offer expires while you wait"-style hype ("Be warned... they are available only on limited release and will surely sell fast. Seriously, if you want them, act right away"). Where have we heard THAT one before... *cough*Dreadfleet*cough*

There are some cool bits snuck into the section, namely the detailed description of the bits upgrade packs available for the new CSM and some nice detail shots of new Forgeworld stuff, including the Spartan tank and Heresy-era Marines. The Black Library gets its share of promotion as well as the digital codices and other junk available from the Apple bookstore. Not relevant to me as I don't own an iPad... Two pages are devoted to the "full release listing" inmcluding, for the first time in recent WDs, prices listed in multiple currencies. this is both helpful and rage-inducing, since the Canadian dollar pricing is on average 20% higher than the US price, despite the fact that the C$ is trading today at over $USD1.01... that means that GW MSRP is over 20% higher in Canada, on a constant-currency basis. The other annoying thing about much of the photography here is that the pictures are shot against a red background, apparently with a filter that turns everything red. For example, the picture of Abaddon on page 35 looks like the painter has put red highlights on Mr. A's blue Daemon sword. Pretty sure that's not the case.

After the ads comes the real content, and it seems improved. There's a nice 6-page feature on a reader's large Skaven army. As I collect Skaven myself I enjoyed this. And speaking of "collecting", following this piece was the most ridiculous Jervis Johnson piece I think I've ever read (and yes, that includes his loving homage to rulers and templates from a recent "Standard Bearer" column).

After being treated to a full half-page shot of Jervis' fizzog (and sadly he's no Bethan Beynon-Hughes in the looks department) we get to the article... which is about GW's new views on army list limitations in codices and army books (you know, the old "0-1" or "may include one [name of unit] in the army per 1,000 points"). This new view can be summarized as follows:

"All too often the only effect [army list limitations] have is to stop a player using some of the models in his collection, without having any real impact on enjoyment or verisimilitude."

"We've minimized army list limitations (and encourage you to do the same in your house rule games) because the GW hobby is a collecting hobby, and we don't want to stop you from buying more cool GW stuff."

Wow. Insightful. And I mean that literally, because I think it's probably the first time I've ever actually read from the horse's mouth that GW considers commercial aspects (i.e. selling you more models) in their game design. It's probably self-evident to anyone who thinks about their business, but I'd like to maintain the self-delusion that rules and army lists are created to foster interesting and exciting game play, rather than to drive the commercial side of the ledger. Oh well.

After this we have a pretty decent battle report between White Scars and CSM (16 pages). I enjoyed some of the analysis from the peanut gallery of tactics used (or not) by the players, I think that's something a bit different in a WD batrep. Also there was a discussion of army selection which was somewhat interesting. Then there's a discussion of the age-old debate - "balanced force vs. Death Star" - in the context of Fantasy Battle. This was interesting too. Following this there is a neat section on the Horus Heresy, with discussion of the novel series, Forge World's new models, and of course, the first Primarch to be released in miniature - ANGRON. I think the model is pretty cool but realize that opinions may differ on this one. Let me just say that any prejudices against the ridiculousness of the current Chaos range should not apply to the Heresy era :-) Chaos had not yet warped the armour and equipment of the Traitor forces into the weird forms of the 41st millennium... which should give some comfort to those (Greg, I'm looking at you) who are... "unenthusiastic" about skullz 'n' spikez...

Then comes Blanchitsu!! Dunno about you, but to me John Blanche = 40K. This man's visions are the stuff of nightmares, but the kind where you wake up and go "that was sooo cool." We're treated to four pages of John's sketches, miniatures, musings and collection of weird artifacts. Excellent piece, should have been 4x longer.


"Parade Ground" gives us six pages of photos of models from hobbyists' own armies. A nice feature. "Kit Bash" focuses on the Ork Bommer plastic kit and some conversions, ranging from "oh that's rather nice" to "why'd he bother with that." The next feature, "Battleground", showcases one of the nicest battle boards I've seen in awhile, the "Urdek Refinery" featured in the new 40K rulebook. This has some nice detail photos but a WIP would have been nice to see. The "Paint Splatter" section is a pale replacement for "'Eavy Metal Masterclass" but as I didn't personally derive a whole lot of utility from "how to paint" articles, I'm not as exercised by this as some.

Jeremy Vetock's two-page column seems a replacement for the old "Standard Bearer" piece and it's essentially an editorial about how Jeremy likes to play scenario-based games on nice terrain. Shock!! Interesting though because of its diametrical opposition to the view in Jervis' column in this issue, which is that "our games in the purest form boil down to 'my collection vs. your collection.'" Discuss...

Following this is a bunch of stuff that we haven't seen in the WD for awhile and/or has no business being in a hobby magazine in the year 2012. Peep this - a full-page ad for the GW facebook page; a page on "[store] birthday celebrations", a page describing what an independent stockist is (!), a full-page "I want a Store" ad, full-page Grand Opening ad for two stores, full-page "Where to Buy" advertising the GW retail store chain (as an aside: does anyone not know what a GW store is? after all, if you're reading the WD you're either a) standing in a store or b) at home after having bought it in a store or received it via subscription) and best of all, ten pages (!!) listing, in small print, EVERY GW store location and independent stockist IN THE WORLD. I'm sure this was a feature of the old WD that customers were clamouring to see return :-] 

Hidden away at the back behind all this crap (and a full page ad for Subscriptions) is some good content: some stuff about games GW staff are playing, a neat Zone Mortalis gameboard and... "In the Design Studio" - this is some good stuff. Jes Goodwin concept art is always nice to see. Some new Forgeworld images and news back there too. The magazine is rounded off with the Hobby Calendar (not going there) and the Lord of the Rings content hinted at on the cover - which amounts to a full page photo of Gandalf from "The Hobbit". Underwhelming.
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So that's the new White Dwarf! Some good (Blanchitsu!!, cover quality and layout, Battle Report, Forgeworld content, In the Design Studio, Army Spotlight, Horus poster), some same (tons of ads, much of it unnecessary), some bad (crazy red filters on photos, STORE LISTINGS!?!?!)

The bottom line for me in judging the quality of a magazine is, "will this be good to read in the bathroom."  seriously, I don't need stuff in the magazine that is not quality time-wasting material. Two pages on how great the service is from GW mail order? Not relevant. Ten pages (!!) of store listings in small print? Don't care!! A full page devoted to telling me that GW is on facebook? COME ON!!!

I guess lastly, I note that I promised some comparisons. The last issue of WD I bought before this one was the August issue, and here are some comparative statistics:

Page count:

• August: 120
• October: 150

Page Count (Ads)

• August: 41
• October: 54

Page Count (Storefinder/Events)

• August: 5
• October: 10

Actual Content as a % of Page Count:

• August: 61.7%
• October: 57.3%

SUGGESTIONS:

• Try more actual content - it would be great to have some insight into the in-game capabilities of new models in terms of hard stats, instead of stuff like "[they're the] hardest-hitting elite infantry unit in the Chaos Space Marine army!"
• Please don't use crazy filters on miniature photography. We like the photos to reflect what the model actually looks like, without weird effects.
• Tell us more about the design philosophy behind army lists and game rules. Show us more of what the Studio is working on with regard to future plans.
• Give us articles on conversions and terrain building. Give us features on readers' armies and how they got the way they are.
• GIVE US MORE BLANCHITSU!!!

Anyhow, if you made it all this way, thanks for reading this whole article and hanging in until the end ;-)  I suspect we'll get the usual love bombs dropped in the Comments section about how we are GW haterz but so be it. The fact remains that I've spent more on GW over the last year than on all other game stuff put together. It's just that very little of the stuff I've bought (other than Forge World stuff) was manufactured in this century :-) 

Cheers

Dallas

ps The 300-page 300th issue of Wargames Illustrated with the limited edition retro cover arrived in my mailbox today... cost: $10 plus shipping. Hmmm....

Tamiya Weathering Stick Review

 
I'm always looking for new ways to save time in painting. For me it's the end product - a decently painted model - that is the objective of the exercise. While I enjoy the process fine, I'm not an "artist" in the sense that I need to take huge amounts of time to paint.

This is why I'm always on the lookout for products that can save me time while producing a good result. Recently we've been converted to weathering powders as a cool way to weather models efficiently and attractively. My former process had been to drybrush up brown paint (GW Scorched Earth and Bestial Brown from the former range) from the bottoms of vehicles upwards to represent mud and dirt, and that works OK. I've also used texture gels to represent mud and clag on armoured vehicles but this is sometimes a fraught process since a) I have to remember to apply the "mud" before I even prime the model, and b) I still have to PAINT the mud.

Step forward, Tamiya Weathering Sticks! Available in two flavours, "Mud" and "Snow". I sampled the Mud variety after an impulse purchase on eBay - less than $10 with free shipping from Hong Kong.

What you get is a moist pigment in a pen that works much like a glue stick - in fact, the pigment is about the same texture as the "UHU" that we all know and love from our school days. Just twist up a bit of pigment and dab it on the model. It produces an opaque colour and if you apply a bit of pressure, creates a 3D mud effect. The pigment remains moist for a few minutes so you can smear it around or even remove it with a moist tissue. It dries on contact with air to a durable finish. The colour is not gaudy and is a great match to most environments. I think I will continue to use it as a step in the weathering process. Here are a few pictures of the product applied to my Howling Griffons Rhinos and Land Raider:

Tamiya also make a similar product in "cake" form, looking much like your wife's (or your) makeup compact. Each set comes with three colours and an applicator tool. I might try those as well.

Optex Photo Studio Lighting Kit Review

With the increase in blogging activity this year I thought it would be time to invest in some gear to hopefully improve the quality of my photography. Enter the Optex Photo Studio Lighting Kit. This is a really handy little set up that should do wonders for the lighting aspect of my miniatures photography.

The whole setup fits inside a soft-sided case with a convenient carrying handle on top, which folds out into...

...a miniature photo-studio. The rig is side-lit by one bulb on each side, firing through diffusers. There is a diffuser for the top as well. The set includes two backdrop cloths in different colours, the lights and bulbs, and even a universal miniature tripod - all of which can be stowed away in velcro-secured pouches in the case. Very intuitive to set up and quick - less than five minutes.

I haven't played much with the settings on the camera except to turn off the flash and set to Macro - but here's the results of some quick messing about.

Next time I'll try a different colour backdrop. However I think that the setup should improve my miniature photography considerably, for a modest investment. It's easy to put up and take down and doesn't take up much space either. I'm pretty pleased with the setup, especially as I got it on sale ;-)

Review - White Dwarf 384 (January 2012)

Needing to get some Citadel paint last weekend, I stopped at my local. I'd also recalled that Conscript Mike A. had mentioned that the new Vampire Counts book is about to be released for Warhammer Fantasy. So being as I have a VC army I thought I would pick up the WD as I haven't read one for a couple years.

So what's the verdict on the Dwarf this month? A solid "meh"... with added pretty pictures. Let me explain. the focus this month is solidly on Vampire Counts and I liked that. However, the content appears to be largely lifted from the forthcoming army book, with excerpts of model statistics, some background fluff, and model pictures. I liked the photos and descriptions of the new VC models (Coven Throne/Mortis Engine, Vargheists/Crypt Horrors, Black Knights/Hexwraiths) and I applaud GW for creating unit boxes that include the option of building more than one type of unit - this actually helps soothe the intense pain of their pricing by giving extra value in the form of spare bits. But I was really irritated by the fact that the New Releases section didn't list any prices for the new models?!?!? Yes, I know I could guess that "they're expensive" but it irks me to pay $10 for what is essentially a catalog, and have to go on the website to see the prices... in typical GW fashion, the pictures of the models are as mouth-watering as the prices are eye-watering!

Other than the VC stuff there was a Necron tactics article. Although I briefly had a Necron army a few years ago, most of the content in the article went straight over my head as the units in the army are mostly all different to what I remember.

Jervis Johnson's "Standard Bearer" article was pretty good. It was basically an apologia about why Jervis loses games when he designed the game system. The idea is that as a designer, you have an idea in your head about how things "should" work and you write the rules accordingly. As a player you take the rules as immutable and try to exploit them as best you can. Jervis says that it doesn't occur to him to do this because as he plays, he's thinking more about game design than winning. Fair enough! I just want an excuse that I can use when I don't win. 

So all in all the mag was "OK" but not great. As far as the VC content went I would have liked to see a rundown on what and what isn't new in terms of units and troops. For example, I have no idea how usable my old army is in the new book. Are there still Fell Bats units? How about a Black Coach? (apparently they're both still around but I wouldn't have known this from the mag). The 40K content was super-focused on Necrons and nothing else... of no interest if you're not a Necron player or nerdy tourney-type who fights 'em. However I am looking forward to next month's rag which is hyped to be a "celebration of the 25th anniversary of Warhammer 40,000"... and with our group's enthusiasm for Rogue Trader I am hoping there will be some good stuff there.

Detailed Contents:

New Releases: VC models. 10 pages
"Also Available": old VC stuff. 2 pages
Dreadfleet ad. 2 pages
Black Library ad: 2 pages
VC extracts from army book, lists etc.: 26 pages
Battle Report: 11 pages
Store Ad: 1 page
Standard Bearer column: 2 pages
Tactica: Necrons and ad: 10 pages
Painting a Ghorgon and Beastmen ad: 7 pages
Civil War: 9 pages
Forgeworld ad: 2 pages
Sorcerous pact (allies): 4 pages
Gamesday ad: 2 pages
Armies on Parade (Haradrim): 2 pages
Terrain ad: 2 pages
Painting the Mortis Engine:8 pages
Miscellaneous ads, Store Finder, Events etc.: 14 pages
Citadel HoF (model spotlight): 1 page

Troll Forged Alien Larva Brain

Troll Forged Alien with Emperor's Champion and Tyranid Zoanthrope

In my last post I wrote about getting some Daemon parts from Troll Forged Miniatures to use in a Daemon Prince conversion.  Actually, I'd stumbled across the Daemon parts while browsing for Alien-style models to use in my 40K Tyranid army, Hive Fleet Nostromo.

Turns out that Troll Forged makes a very sweet Alien-style monster (the "Larva Brain") that would make a nice Zoanthrope, or in my army, will stand in for the Ur-Zoanthrope, the "Doom of Malantai". 

The Troll Forged model is a very clean one-piece casting in white resin, with a small integral base, and includes a large GW-style round base.  It cleaned up easily with mild soap and water, and took primer very well.  The only small caveat I have with the model is that the resin is somewhat "bendy", and didn't really straighten out even when run under hot water.  But this was not much of a problem in the end as it's not noticeable once the model is positioned on the large round base.  The Alien represents decent value for money as well, retailing for $12 in the Troll Forged online store.

That "1812" thing...

OK, so I've been dancing around the idea of gaming the War of 1812 for a couple of years now. For those who don't know, the War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the early United States and the British North Americans (and early Canadians) along with their Aboriginal allies, at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. A friend of mine, Tim, is interested in the French & Indian Wars period and I thought he might be interested in the "1812" thing too. I've sent him links to various 1812 web pages, books, scenario books, etc. for the last couple of years, and he finally said, "...why don't we already commit do doing something for War of 1812?..."

...I decided it was time to get off the proverbial pot!


I wasn't sure what to do for figures, and Tim suggested an "1812" line by a newish company, Knuckleduster Miniatures. I had a look at their website and liked the look of the figures, so we decided to order a few packs and check them out!

I ordered one pack of "British/Canadian Command, Marching" and three packs of "British/Canadian Center Company, Marching" for a total of 24 figures (6 figures per pack). At only $10.00 US per pack, I thought this was pretty decent value for metal figs! Certainly beats the 8 figures for *whatever* that Foundry charges!

While waiting for the figures to arrive, I started researching the War of 1812 in earnest! (I've always had a passing interest in the conflict as it's part of Canadian military history). One regiment I came across in my research was the 49th Regiment of Foot. They had a young Lieutenant by the name of James Fitzgibbon that bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain "sharp" British Napoleonic soldier of television and literary acclaim! His exploits harassing the US forces on the Niagara Peninsula looked like they'd be perfect fodder for skirmish gaming! He was also the British officer that Laura Secord traveled through the wilderness to contact! With all these things in mind, I decided the first unit I would paint for War of 1812 would be the 49th Regiment.

The figures arrived in a timely manner and were well packaged. I set about to cleaning and basing all 24 figures. Since part of our usual gaming is 'skirmish' gaming, I based my figures on individual, 20mm metal bases by Wargame Accessories.

Aside from just showing off my painting, I thought I'd give a bit of a review of the Knuckleduster figures themselves. A comparison picture on the Knuckleduster site shows that they are comparable in size to Perry and Front Rank Napoleonics, so should mix reasonably well with those figures. Personally, I like the 'heft' of metal figures, so I was more interested in the KD line, over the plastic Perry or Victrix lines. But that's not to take anything away from Perry or Victrix - they certainly look like beautiful figures!

The KD figures have a certain 'chunky' quality to them. Some of the detail is also a bit 'over large' - as an example, the cuff buttons look like they would be about 1/2" thick if scaled up to "life size." Sometimes, there are mould lines running down the face of a figure - while this is annoying, it's also a function of the casting process and something that's difficult to avoid. In some cases, the sculpting could be a little crisper, but until I can PERSONALLY sculpt figures, I'm not going to complain too loudly!

Overall, I'm very happy with the Knuckleduster figures! They painted up very easily, and look great marching across a table!

The flags used are produced by a local fellow, Brian, who runs Vaubanner Graphics.

One thing that I like about KD's "1812" line - they plan to release figures that (to the best of my knowledge) are not available from any other company. One of the first "Big Battles" we plan to undertake will be the Battle of Crysler's Farm - involving a greatly outnumbered force of British veteran units, Canadian Fencible units and a small force of Aboriginals versus a large force of US units that were bound to attack Montreal. One unit in the British force were the Canadian Voltigeurs - basically a Lower Canada/Quebec Militia force, but they were trained and equipped at a level comparable to a British Light Infantry regiment. Knuckleduster already has plans to produce Voltigeur miniatures! KD also has plans in the works to produce characters such as Laura Secord, as well as James Fitzgibbon and figures to represent his "Green Uns" (a small force of 50 'Chosen Men' who operated as guerrilla troops, along side their Aboriginal allies, harassing the US forces on the Niagara Peninsula).

I was happy enough with the KD figures to be a 'repeat customer.' I took advantage of KD's recent Christmas sale (20% off per pack), to order enough figures to do two more units for the Crysler's Farm battle - the 89th Regiment and some Canadian Fencibles - and a couple of packs of Glengarry Light Infantry (useful for a number of other battles we may undertake, but eminently useful for skirmish games!). I will post again on this "1812" thing when I get some of those figures finished!

Oh, and for those who are interested, we plan to use the "Rocket's Red Glare" rules from Canadian Wargames Group.


Cheers, and Happy Gaming!

(footnote: ...and with this, I'm no longer in the "basement" of the Painting Challenge!! --woo-hoo!)

Review: Chapterhouse Xeno heads

As I alluded in a recent post, I've started another insane project (tm), this time a Tyranid army for Warhammer 40K. As with many of my projects, it consisted of narrowly missing a Great Deal on eBay, Bartertown, or TMP, and then being so excited about the new project that I frantically search out somewhat less-great deals and do the project anyway.

Nowadays I justify new armies by saying "these will paint up so fast" by using some simple trick or other. In this case it was to model the army after the "Alien" movie, and paint in basically monochrome with washes and gloss varnish to punch it up. Originally I was going to model the Alien heads with greenstuff, but then I came across Chapterhouse Studios' "Xeno heads" and the project just became waaay easier...

Chapterhouse Studios (http://chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/) sells a variety of different resin bits to suit 40K enthusiasts - mainly Eldar and Space Marine stuff, but there is some love for Tyranid players too, with resin boneswords and lashwhips, and most importantly XENO HEADS!

So I immediately fired up an order for 60 heads, figuring that would be enough to outfit the smaller models in my army. One of the difficulties of ordering, though, was the fact that nowhere on the website are there any pictures of how the heads fit on actual Tyranid models, to judge their scale. I imagine this may be because of intellectual property issues but it made me a bit anxious as to how they would look, since there are no pics around on the 'net either. Until now anyway ;-)

Turns out I needn't have worried. The heads arrived, after a fashion, and I eagerly tore into the package. The heads come on sprues of 6, with 3 examples of each variant per sprue. The cost is roundabout $1 per head. Well worth it in my opinion; the heads are wonderfully sculpted and the casting are crisp and remarkably free of flash. One of the variants has a subtle socket in the bottom that is sometimes helpful in fitting, but the resin is easily trimmed as needed.

The heads really suit the larger Tyranid models (Raveners and Warriors) but I think they look OK with Genestealers, Hormagaunts and Termagants also. Check out the photos and you'll see what I mean.

Verdict: highly recommended. Just the thing to set your Tyranid army apart from the next nerd's, and most importantly, sets you up for a paint scheme that is quick and easy to execute. The next you see of these models they'll be ready for the table and getting slaughtered by Dave's Eldar ;-)