40K Warzone Tournament: Desert Table #2 The Retaining Wall

I just finished Desert Table #2, The Retaining Wall. I'm really happy with the look and feel of the table. Hopefully it proves to be fun and exciting for the players.

Difficult ground.

Massive mesa.

Close up of the Retaining Wall for which the table is named.

Model eye view from up on the Retaining Wall.

Close up of a hill with a make shift barricade.

Close up of difficult ground.

Dune with forgotten supplies.

More difficult ground.

 This is one of 4 tables that will be used for the Blood Soaked Sand or The Desert Outpost scenarios.

There will be fast and furious updates all the way up to Adepticon so feel free to follow closely and feel free to make comments or ask questions.

Thanks!
-Nick

40K Warzone Desert Board #1 The Pinnacles

Quick update: This is the first desert board roughly completed for the 40K Warzone Tournament at Adepticon. Lots of wide open desert and not a lot of cover. Blood Soaked Sands indeed. It just needs some splotchy static grass and some weathering and its ready for the big day.
-Nick

40K Warzone Tournament: Zone Mortalis Room

Just a brief snapshot today. Here's a picture of one of the rooms from one of the Zone Mortalis boards. Proceed with caution in this room.

The Learning Curve: Casting My Own Models.

My hobby activity has been constant the last month or so. I have been heavily juggling my 40K Warzone tables and Wreck-Age projects. To compliment both I've started learning how to make molds and cast my own pieces.

In this series you will see one of my failures and some of my successes.

This first  image is off a mold box filled with urethane rubber.The first mold making kit that Anton (Hyacinth Games) and I worked with was for making urethane rubber molds. That was a huge mistake. The next stage from this pic is to demold the originals. The walls of the box are removed and the mold is peeled away from the urethane. Not only did I have problems with the urethane latching onto the finer details of the original masters, but additionally, the resin had a tendency to bond with the urethane. After several attempts like this one, I gave up on urethane rubber.

After giving up on urethane rubber I decided to switch to silicone rubber. This made a huge difference in my results. Here was my first attempt at silicone. I made two blank oversized bike bases and two bases with custom details for specific Wreck-Age models. One is for their Caravaneer Cart and has a cinderblock modeled onto the base for the cart to prop up on, and the second base is modeled with a small iron tether bar so that Wreck-Age Pack Boars don't wander off. 

Here are the finished detailed bases all painted up.

After these successes I decided to get crazy. This next pic is of a mold box all ready for pouring that has all the pieces necessary to build an Industrial Dumpster. The long side walls are converted from the Wreck-Age Weathered Storage Container and then the rest is all scratch built by me. 

The mold came out with a few hitches. On the first couple pours I had some undercuts that were creating air bubbles and I also found I had a tendency to run the resin slightly over the top of the mold. My solution to mitigate these problems was to cut channels to create a sprue.

All of the pieces of the Industrial Dumpster on the sprue.

Here we have the Industrial Dumpster all assembled. I was in a hurry and glued it together all crooked. The pieces actually work together much better than pictured.

Finally, here is the Industrial Dumpster fully painted and weathered. I'd say it exceeded my initial expectations and I'm really looking forward to expanding on what I've learned from this project.

Thanks for reading.

-Nick

Being Incorporated Into Wreck-Age Art

I've been quietly working on terrain for the 40K Warzone Tournament at Adepticon and haven't been blogging as much as I would like, but don't worry - its coming along. 

That's not what I've come to discuss today, however. Over the weekend I got myself wrapped up in an unexpected side project. I had seen the art for the upcoming Stakers Box Set for Wreck-Age and thought it was awesome. Not just the models, but the whole box. The borders they used and the landscape they dropped the photo of the miniatures onto - it looks fantastic. I suggested to the guys at Hyacinth Games that they box up their resin Storage Containers into a box set at a slight savings and do the same thing with the art. Anton responded, "That's a good idea, except we need three painted crates then!" I had just inadvertently volunteered myself for a very busy weekend. 

After some discussion I arranged to pick up a couple of Storage Container models on Saturday and then I engaged in a marathon painting session that lasted 6 straight hours that night and then I put in another 2 hours on Sunday. I brushed on the finishing touches (mostly sponging and weathering powders) while two thirds of Hyacinth Games were sitting in my living room eating popcorn. As soon as they were done we grabbed my girlfriend's camera and Anton shot a half dozen or so photos that were slight variations of this:

The original crate in the center took me around 20 hours to paint. I did two knock off's to match in approximately 4 hours each. I haven't painted that fast since my GW Buffalo manager days.

Now where things got really exciting for me is that today Anton e-mailed me an image that one of their artists whipped up using the storage containers I painted. I think the consensus was the art was too elaborate for the box set, but they're probably going to use it in the rule book. It came out awesome, and seeing my painted models incorporated into their art is kind of thrilling, so I wanted to share it. Here's the digital art by Kostas using my storage containers. Pretty freakin' cool!:  

Digital artistry by Kostas. Crates by me. So stoked!

Also, while I'm rambling about Wreck-Age I want to hype their upcoming Stakers box set: 

Soon to be released Stakers Box Set for Wreck-Age.

I didn't paint any of those models but I think it looks great and I'm really excited to see Hyacinth Games making progress!

Finally, I want to mention that Hyacinth Games are going a promotion where if you buy a Wreck-Age model this month, paint it, and send them photographic evidence - they will send you a free model as a reward for your efforts. Pretty cool. You can get the full details on the Wreck-Age Forum.

-Nick

My Mind Is Blown: Rob Hawkins

This morning, rather than talking about my own work I want to talk about someone else's. I spend a lot of time looking at other blogs. I know there are people who do the exact same thing. There are blogs I check daily, like DaveTaylorMiniatures.blogspot.com because I kind of obsess over his creativity and output and then there are others I check periodically like Stahly's taleofpainters.blogspot.com because I just like to look at pretty miniatures and they deliver the goods.

I had stumbled passed RobHawkinsHobby.blogspot.com through a link on Dave Taylor's blog and for a while he was working on a sort of cartoon-ish looking castle for Wrath of Kings that was extremely well executed, but not my style. I'd do a quick scroll through the pics and then move along. Then I ran into this:

This picture is of a wild west building with a futuristic power generator on the side. The generators actually light up and are made out of LED Tea Lights.

Considering the quality of the other terrain in this post, and the fact that I had just bought 20 Tea Lights to use in my Adepticon projects, his blog had my full attention. Also, this painted neon "light" effect is just fantastic.

Yesterday I stumbled into his shots of the building interiors and was absolutely floored.

That's the inside of this building. Go check out his blog to see how the saloon splits into 2 sections for miniature photography opportunities:

Seriously, as a terrain nerd, this guy's work makes my head explode and I'm sick with envy. Oh wait, the jail is fully detailed too:

In fact, its a fully detailed wild west town.

But of course, this isn't all he's done. I decided to look at his terrain gallery and stumbled upon the trench board he had made. It just so happens that I need to make four 4'x4' trench boards for Adepticon and though I won't be ripping this off exactly, I will no doubt be borrowing some ideas from it:

If you are an obsessive terrain nerd like myself I highly recommend checking his site for inspiration. His work is fantastic and I look forward to following his blog in the future. RobHawkinsHobby.blogspot.com Back to own work later today.

-Nick

40K Warzone Tournament Play Testing

The forces of Chaos on the streets around Dominion Gate.

Last night my friend Brian Parisi was nice enough to come over so that we could play test one of the scenarios to be used at the 40K Warzone Tournament. I have one of the city tables almost ready for the event and I've had the two scenarios that go along with the city boards written for a month or so now, so it seemed like it was time to put them to the test.

We started playing at 8PM. Brian was fielding a Chaos army using the new Chaos Space Marine Codex, and I was fielding the brand new Dark Angels for the first time. I don't have his army list but it was roughly something like this:

Chaos tough guy on a Blood Crusher or something.
Spawn acting as his bodyguard
2x Chaos Space Marine Squad
Chaos Cultist Squad
Plague Marine Bike Squad
Stratagem: Familiar Ground

All these pics are blurry because of the sheer speed of the bikes. I wish this shot came out better. Proper lighting and a steady hand would have made this a dramatic shot, like out of a post apocalypse movie.

My army looked like this:

Interrogator-Chaplain with jump pack
Assault Squad acting as body guard
Techmarine
Command Squad with Standard of Devastation
2x Tactical Squad
Stratagem: Interdiction Assault

Ignore the bare metal Brother Bethor model in the corner. I have two Brother Bethor's laying around, both unpainted, and both with their standards removed. Oops.

The mission we played is called Block By Block and has the Primary Objective: Loot and Salvage and the Secondary Objective: Plant the Flag.  The two objectives run slightly counter to each other. Loot and Salvage gives you a Victory Point for each full turn you hold an objective for, and Plant the Flag encourages you to cover as much ground as possible as you place a flag in every building you pass through. You have to decide whether you want to sit back and rack up VP's or stay mobile.

I'm not going to go through a turn by turn synopsis, but I'll give a rough overview. We both moved out of our deployment zones and claimed the nearest objectives so we could start accumulating Loot and Salvage VP's. Brian had more scoring units on the board and at one point he was gaining VP's on 4 objectives. I, on the other hand, stayed put on my two objectives and stuck my Command Squad with the Standard of Devastation between my two Tactical Squads so they could use Salvo. I have to say it was a fairly effective tactic. My bolter fire was punishing, and my Overwatch shots were highly effective. The little bit of fire my Command Squad took harmlessly dinged off of the Techmarine I stuck at the front of the squad.

The Nurgle Bikers used their speed to come around behind my Tactical Squad, but then the combination of Salvo from that Tac Squad, and the normal fire of the 10 man Assault Squad with Interrogator-Chaplain I brought on from reserve left a big messy stain. I'm sure in a twisted way Lord Nurgle approves. 

Overall, the way I deployed and played my army cost me the Primary Objective. He was just better set up to rack up points. My army was static to take full advantage of the Standard. It did pay off in the end though. Brian took the Primary Objective even though the game ended with him only having his Cultists left, hiding behind Dominion Gate. But in the final turns I was able to use my Assault Squad and Techmarine to plant flags and secure me the Secondary Objective. Not surprisingly, the Standard of Devastation ensured I took First Blood, and my Interrogator-Chaplain and Assault Squad helped bring me Slay the Warlord. When Brian left I declared it a Chaos Victory, but looking at the Victory Point structure it broke down like this:

Primary Objective: Loot and Salvage (Win 8 points/Tie 4 points/Loss 0 points)
Brian = Win 8 points

Secondary Objective: Plant the Flag (Win 6 points/Tie 3 points/Loss 0 points)
Nick = Win 6 points

Linebreaker (2 points)
n/a

Slay the Warlord (2 points)
Nick = 2 points

First Blood (2 points)
Nick = 2 points

Total:
Brain = 8 points
Nick = 10 points

Victory = Nick/Dark Angels

So my first time out with the new Dark Angels Codex I won - and with a completely Greenwing force. I feel good about that. It wasn't an easy win, but it was a win none-the-less.

From a play testing standpoint I feel like it went perfectly. The objectives encouraged us each to make hard decisions about or mobility and the game had a good mix of shooting and hand-to-hand fighting. Brian was concerned that his Stratagem, Familiar Ground, would be too powerful as it grants Scout and Move Through Cover to his whole force, but it wasn't enough to win him the game. My Stratagem, Interdiction Assault allowed me to place a 3" breach in the ground that acted as an additional board edge for my reserves to possibly emerge from, and though it allowed me the option of getting up close and personal, I ended up coming on from my deployment board edge instead, so neither was game breaking in any way - at least with the forces we were running.

All told I consider it a successful night and I thank Brian for coming over and helping out. I'm going to send that Scenario off to the Adepticon staff ASAP so it can be added to the packet.

-Nick