Moving

Anyone who ends up here from wherever please go to http://johnnyhawkwind.wordpress.com/ where this blog now resides.

Thanks for following if you come over and thanks for reading if you don't.

Don't judge me - help me.

Okay, fine, I admit it. I am not the worlds best blogger. All the good intention in the world doesn't make these posts happen.

I have two options - I wait until I have something to say that is worthwhile or I post little and often (like Rimmer during sex).

What do I do then? One post a week that is an update or one every day with whatever I have managed on it.

Open Day @4tkgaming 9th July

I am running an Infinity demo at my LGS on the 9th and have been hurriedly applying paint to my ALEPH miniatures for a 300pt list.

The good news is they are done apart from basing - the bad news is that I am now trying to get the rest of my ALEPH done so I can use more than one list.

I would put photos up but my camera is shocking - time for an investment I think.

Thanks Ron Kruzie @privateerpress

Ok, 3 posts in June wasn't a good month buy practicals and exams were at the forefront of my mind.

July is here now so let's dust off the brushes, rehydrate my paints and get cracking.

I really want to maintain the momentum that I had going in the run up to 'Try Something New' and read a post from Ron Kruzie (PP studio painter) that said put in one hour a day for 2/3 days  and three/four hours at weekends and you will be surpised how much gets done so that's my aim. Actually, I want to aim for an hour every day and then whatever I can at weekends.

Once the Infinity project is out of the way I am looking at either an Epic Caine or Epic Severius 15pt WM list. Just need to decide.

Thanks Ron.

Infinity Demo Night

The first night was a resounding success with 8 people getting a demo.

Some photos for your perusal

Infinity Bakunin Demo Force

Well, here are the three minis that will make up the Nomad demo list for the first of the Infinity demo nights next week.

Slow going.

This morning was spent adding L-beams to my infinity buildings to try and tidy up the corners. Last night saw the Combined Army, ALEPH, Nomad and Ariadna demo lists get a trial. Some tweaking needed but its looking promising.

Building buildings

This morning has been spent trying to finish my buildings for Infinity ready for 'Try Something New'. I just need to add the corners, detail and paint.

Oh, and finish my Relics board - and 5 minis for Infinity.

Argh.

Britanan Demo Force

At last - a photo

Finally, a picture of something. Here's my figures for the Malifaux 'Try Something New' event.

All is quiet.

Bit silent lately as I have been away at Uni but things are progressing - slowly.

Britanan Starter set is complete, Steamborg Executioner is done, Ramos is on the bench.

Infinity minis and buildings on back burner as they are not till week three of our 'Try Something New' promotion.

Photos to come when I get a decent camera/light set up

Under the brush.

What's on the desk at the moment?

The Britanan Starter set from Tor Gaming is currently in the queue ready for 'Try Something New'.

Here's the Troopers as a taster.

Uncharted Seas Human Fleet finished

My Uncharted Seas fleet is finished. This is for my LGS's Try Something New period that is coming up.

Setting Sail

One down, 9 to go. It is the big one out of the way at least.

Try Something New update

Right, all my Britanan are built and based ready for priming. Uncharted Seas sails primed ready for a quick paint, nothing special. Steamborg Executioner has base layer finished. ALEPH Deva needs basing.

Three and a bit weeks to go.

Infinity ALEPH Deva

Forgive the photo it was taken on my phone.

Photography is not my strong suit, neither is painting ;-)

I am so slow.

Well, I have managed to put a bit of paint on my Infinity ALEPH Deva and highlights on a Dakini - at this rate I should have a fully painted force by Xmas.

Will pop pics on later.

Relics Demo Board - In progress.

In readiness for an upcoming series of demonstrations days at my LGS I have the task of putting together a 2' square demo board for Tor Gaming's Relics.

Now, I have a bit of a soft spot for the Britanan (some of you may know this) so I want to have a board that has hints of the Britanan Empire before its decimation.

So, firstly. a quick sketch of my intended layout. As you can see I am certainly no artist.

The dotted line going from top to bottom is a path based upon the bases of my Troopers

The lower right is a hill, there may be a pond to the mid-left and then ruins in the board centre and on the hill and finally some trees.


Here is where I am at the moment then, the path is cut from cardboard squares. the wall is carved from blue insulation foam. I will add a close up of the wall in the next post. The wall isn't attached as it will end up on the hill.

Time management

At my LGS we are planning a series of evenings to promote new games to players. Part of this is going to involve a few of us having to ready forces for the various games.

Now, I am not the quickest painter/builder/anything in the world so this is going to be an interesting experience.

I will keep updating the blog as to my progress.

Antenociti Future Car

A car from www.antenocitisworkshop.com for use on my Infinity board. I love the colour.

SD Forum Painting Swap Blunder

Sometime last year I agreed to take part in the painting swap for the Steve Dean forum - sadly I recently found the mini I was meant to paint for someone else and have been trying to get her finished this week.

Well, she is now done. The varnish is dry, photos are taken - she just needs to be posted back to her owner.

Lets hope he likes it. Personally, I don't think it was worth the wait.

I don't think I will enter another one as who the hell wants to wait 6 months for a mediocre paint job.

Cutlass - My thoughts

At Salute 2010 I visited the Black Scorpion stand to pick up some Orc Pirate miniatures they had produced for use in Mordheim as there are unofficial pirate and Orc lists I fancied trying.

Fast-forward 12 months and Black Scorpion have their own game on Sale that I can use those figure in. I played my first game yesterday so here are my thoughts. Just to say I don't own the rules so all this is from memory.

Firstly, I like the way orders work. You roll on your Authority which appears to be d8 for all starting leaders. This is how many action points you have with the highest roll taking first turn. The number of action points you have is how many models you can activate in that round and once done you drop down to the next level i.e.; You roll a 6, you activate 6 models and then you have 5 points left. You activate 5 models then have 4 points left and so on.

You can be interrupted in your turn, either by your opponent spending an order with a suitable model ( I think it was within 6" of an order being spent) or with a model that is ready, which causes your turn to end and they begin theirs. This did cause me to lose a few turns as I activated the wrong model first allowing my opponent, RobN, to steal the turn. A nice touch but annoying when it happens.

Secondly, I liked the dice mechanic. Each stat has a type of dice attributed to it; d4,d6 and d8 making up my army. Being wounded causes you to drop down to the next lowest dice with a minimum of d4. The other nice touch is that you keep rolling if you get the max roll - you roll a 4 on a d4 and you roll again adding it to the first roll, roll another 4 and roll again until you roll another number. This can allow for some lucky rolls to beat an opponent with a higher dice value.

Combat, ranged and melee, is based on opposing rolls. Range is ACC vs DEX and melee is COM vs COM. Nice and straightforward with the rolls going to a table to see if its a hit, a crit or straight to wounded. Damage is either the DAM of the model in melee or the weapon in range vs CON, again referring to a chart for the result.

I enjoyed the sprint rule which involved a d6 roll of 4,5,6 to achieve which caused one of my Orcs to become stunned on my first turn and he stayed that way the whole game being unable to shake it off in the maintenance phase needing a 1,2,3 to do it.

Post game progression of your gang is based on models you affected during the game and the one thing I would suggest is to make a table with the relevant things in columns and your models down the side so you can keep track. A roll on a table if you increase a level allows for attribute increases or new skills as you would expect.

All in all it was a very enjoyable game. I kept my Orc admiral hidden at the back and really wish I had gotten him stuck in but didn't like the thought of him getting injured as he is my only painted mini so far ;-)

There you go, a brief introduction but I tried to mention the main points (that I remember anyway). I look forward to playing again in the not too distant future. Good luck to Black Scorpion with the venture.

Another new building

Here's the second new building for my Infinity table.
You can see it complete, with the upper roof removed and with the upper floor removed.

What do you think? I am happy with how it has turned out.

A new building

Today I have been working on a new building to go with some interior bits I have. I have built this with some ready-made alcoves for shooting from and a ladder at the rear for roof access.






Just need to make the roof.

Pinning.

When I unpacked my Bakunin last night for the 2v2 game I was playing I noticed that the barrel on one of my Moderators Combi Rifles had snapped off.

Luckily the offending item was still in my KR case and this morning I drilled, pinned and fixed the bugger.

Once painted it should be unnoticeable (I hope).

The little things.

Finally painted some of my Antenociti scatter terrain for my Infinity table, some nice bins.

Quick update.

Added a few photos to the slideshow including some old Rackham metals.

Spending today building some terrain bits that I bought at Salute ready for tonight's game, another 2v2 to teach a new player. 2 Combined Army players vs Ariadna and myself. I just can't decide between ALEPH and Nomads.

In other news I appear to have lost the Nova-Rus 4x4 Jeep that I bought from Antenociti at Salute. My most expensive purchase has just vanished... :-(

I have been looking at another players Infinity board and he has buildings of various height that aren't multi level. I am thinking of adopting this tactic and just having a few buildings that you can enter. We shall see.

Layout changes.

Finally got around to adding a slideshow - just trying to find some decent photos of my minis now. There aren't that many to be honest.

Take 2

Here we go again.

The bigger they are...

I may weep.

A picture speaks...

May try and include pictures with the posts in future

ALEPH Update

Started applying the basecoat to my ALEPH Marut - here's hoping I don't knock the arms off again.

Back on track.

I had some comments on how to get out of the rut I had found myself in and Simon suggested painting something different so I did.

I present to you the Orc Admiral by Black Scorpion for their new game - Cutlass.

He has made a nice change from the Infinity stuff and has renewed my intent to get all my ALEPH stuff painted soon.