Canned

I recently picked up some scenery that I have been on the lookout for a while. I saw these bad boys, and later these but was reluctant to order something fragile from overseas and risk damage after paying a decent amount in shipping/customs. I dismissed the idea pretty much entirely until I stumbled across this ebay listing. At that price, I couldn't resist and bought a set of 3 plain ones and a set of 3 with the walkway.

Don't get me wrong, I'd much prefer the Promethium Forge kits, but at this price, these are absolutely fantastic. They were a little tricky to assemble, and the 'instructions' were just pictures of the parts and the finished product, but once I had done one of each, the rest was fine. I really like the look of these, and have some green stuff fans and vents cast up from instamold ready to embellish them with as well as ideas for painting and weathering for the cans.

Again, for the price I love these kits and think they look great. I'll probably set them up in pairs or threes to mix up the two different types. These will also do just fine for either Infinity or Necromunda.

I'm going to start grabbing bits for an infinity table each payday hopefully, to spread the cost a bit. This ebay seller is going to be doing kits for vertical cans so I hope they look like what I'm after and I will probably grab those too. Especially since I have pretty much all the Morats I want (for now!) and definitely have enough for a lot of choice at 300 points.

Thanks for Stopping by
Lofty

Sunday Showdown - First of Many

We christened our gaming room this Sunday when our friends came over to play Malifaux :)

I faced off against Kirai while my friend and my wife played Mcmourning into Marcus respectively. The strategy was Extraction and I took Dig Their Graves and Quick Murder.
My list was:
Titania
-6cache
-Aether connection
-An audience with the queen
-Behold my Glory
Barbaros
-Malifaux Provides
Nekima
-Fears Given Form
Thorn
Tooth
Primordial magic
Mysterious effigy

Barbaros and Nekima were definitely MVP in this one, challenge Aura sitting in the middle of the board can ruin a lot of plans. I didn't manage to combo it with Titania's Behold upgrade, but having it next to Fears Given Form was a good stack. Nekima did cause more points of damage to friendly models than I care to admit if I'm honest :p especially Titania herself.
I scored full for quick murdering Izamu, full for dig and dropped a point in turn 5 when I moved Titania to stop scoring from Claim Jump. The final score was 9-7, I struggled vs accusation as I don't really know how to prevent it happening to be honest. I still feel i'm under utilising Titania herself, but feel like I'm getting the hang of it, and feel like this crew was very well suited to the strategy and was succesful to boot.

Lots of fun and a great way to start with the new gaming space :)
My (Mcmourning) friend was also very interested in my Infinity models in a strange turn of events and was asking about game play and mentioned Nomads, so who knows what will happen there. I'm going to plan out some scenery/gamemat purchases so that my work friends can come over to play eventually, as well as it being usable for both Necromunda and 40k at a push :) I also want a few more pieces of Malifaux scenery as well to fill out both boards.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Catching up

Wouldn't it have been great If I'd sprayed up some more minis this weekend during the sun? Well, yes but also no. I decided to spend my time working through my backlog of un-assembled Malifaux kits, with the view that I will also get the bases made this week, models pinned to either bases or corks, ready to be sprayed next sunny weekend (next year probably :P). There's only a couple of lawyers left to assemble, after pushing through the Ortegas (including Abuela - worse that the Austringers!!) and some Neverborn which I can then spray up altogether (plus some of my wife's recent miniatures) one afternoon. This will give me a lot of choice of what to paint when I sit down to do so and maybe help with burnout etc.

I'm drawing a line in the sand now, and making an effort to complete any models which are either half done or just primed before I buy anything else.

I also made a few more pieces of scatter terrain, after reading some interesting threads on the forums, and now I think once I've finally got round to finishing my scenery kits (review incoming once I have), we have a solid two tables worth of terrain of the right mix, blocking, sever etc.

Also this week, I got my light studio in the post, and hope to be able to test it out in Sunday, as we have (non gaming) friends staying with us Friday night/Saturday.

That's all for now, will hopefully have some bases made to show soon
Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

The Scenic Route - All Mapped Out

For quite a while now I've been wanting some gaming mats for our home Malifaux scene. I originally had some picked out on Playmats.eu but with the GBP being as weak as it is at the moment, there was seemingly never a good time to order these.

So after Xmas I finally decided to take the plunge and get hold of some. After some quality searching by my wife, we came to Deepcut Studios (who incidentally also made my Warmachine Tourny trays way back when). In an idea to save on shipping from Europe, I originally ordered these from Wayland games, who had them in stock when I ordered but then two days later put the whole order on hold without getting in touch and letting me know why (I have a very strong opinion of Wayland Games which I wont discuss here but feel free to ask). So after cancelling this order I went directly to Deepcut studios and ordered Direct and the mats arrived in 4 days from Lithuania (for a lower total GBP price I might add).

We chose between us the Medieval Ruins & Muddy Fields mats, and a carry bag for storage/transport. After receiving them we promptly used them in a game and snapped some shots of the Muddy fields below :)

The first shot shows the markings on the mat designed to show the measurements required by any and all Malifaux schemes/strategies; Centre line, all available deployment zones, centre marker plus 6". These are clearly marked but not so distinct as to ruin the overall effect.
The print quality is fantastic and the mat looks great all by itself. It looks even better with the scenery all set out and it was great to play on. The markings worked just as intended and saved lots of faff measuring for objectives etc in the middle of the game. This is doubly useful as it means you are able to see specific measurements without using a tape to check them and potentially giving away your intent to your opponent.

I am over the moon with these and would definitely recommend them to anyone in the market for playmats for Malifaux :)
Again,I haven't been sponsored at all for this review and everything is out of my own pocket.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

The Scenic Route - Scatter

Alongside the paint racks I talked about in my last post, I picked up some MDFterrain bases I got one set of each, with the intention of adding variety to our current terrain collection (more on which to follow this month).

They arrived in giant sealable bags and I promptly set about making the first few ideas I had for scatter terrain, the weekend after I had made the paint racks.

-A simple wall just using broken parts of a pot stand from IKEA, with gravel and sand around the edges of the base

-Rocky outcrop using the same bits of pot stand, also with some of it cut in half to add more topography/variation

-Rough terrain from bits of scrap cork, sand and gravel

I will be painting these and adding grass tufts, hopefully this weekend. I think they look great for little to not time at all spent on them and I look forward to trying them out in some games.

CAVEAT
Some of you may already be aware but MDF as with other cheap wood aggregates is very prone to warping when damp/wet. Part of the sand/gravel process involves a layer of watered down PVA to stop it all coming off during painting. I was at least semi-prepared for warping and had found this resource in advance.
It wasn't any real shock when the wall had curved up like a banana, I wet the back and left it overnight but not before realising that the PVA glue had not only warped it but also probably helped it set into that shape, so I gently bent it and heard some creaks and cracks where it was holding that curved shape.
It is now ready for another load of water to be applied to the back (i might leave a wet piece of kitchen towel on it to stop the water pooling/running off), but It will be fine after that :)
UPDATE - I left wet kitchen towel on then and pushed them back into shape and they are completely flat again the morning after.

All in all, well worth the money and I have more ideas to create scenery from quickly, easily and at little cost.

Thanks for Stopping by
Lofty