Sunday 23 September 2012

Games Day 2012

I'm writing this on the coach back to GW Bromley. We're stuck in crappy, rainy, slow traffic on the M40, and the bus driver won't let us eat or drink. So far, no quiz, no in-coach entertainment of any sort.

Time to recap the day, then.

Games Day 2012 was good - thoroughly enjoyable. It didn't have the sheen of last year's event, but that could be down to the novelty-factor of our 1st Games Day.

This year's Games Day was bigger - the shopping was better organised, and there was a comprehensive selection to choose from. The queues were still ridiculous. In fact we started shopping by joining a queue which allowed us to pick which actual shopping queue we wanted to join.

How very British.

I was a little miffed that we were charged for the formerly-included-in-the-ticket-price miniature. £12 is a standard Finecast price, but it seems that loyal customers are getting less looked-after as the years progress.




Mikey and I took part in some terrain building - thankfully it was 40k themed - ammo depots and fuel dumps etc. We'll take them apart at home and rebuild properly.

We entered the conversion competition, and were less successful. 20 mins to construct a scene depicting "Duel: Dark Angels vs Chaos".




Neither the superglue nor the plastic glue provided a quick enough solution, and my marine quickly lost limbs to gravity, and the daemonette wouldn't even stand up.

I didn't get a chance to photograph Mikey's piece - brilliantly composed - it fell apart as soon as he picked it up. He wasn't impressed.

We managed to join a game, too. The last 10 minutes of a story-based narrative - necrons vs imperial guard and imperial fists. The megalith-led swarm kept regenerating, and ultimately wiped the Imperium from the board.




Many of the boards were impressive in size, scale and scope. There was a table in The Lord of the Rings area depicting a multi-part Mines of Moria. The first game section featured the doorway to Moria and the 'watcher in the water' scene. As your figures pass through into the mountain the table was covered by cave, and the game continued in a claustrophobic underground setting. Balin's tomb and the Bridge of Khazad'dum were fantastically modelled, although I failed to photograph a single shot!

This single-set table allowed several games to be played at once, which can only be a good thing in a packed event like Games Day.

Once again, neither Mikey nor I made the Golden Demon final round - perhaps next year, we'll give ourselves some proper time to work...








Good efforts, but the level of competition was astounding. We managed to see the winning pieces on the screen this year - Mikey remembered to sit in front of the banners.




We're now in traffic, in the rain, on the M25. Not long now. Only 12 months until the next one. I wish they'd make it a weekender, though. One day still isn't enough.

Friday 21 September 2012

Fall back and regroup

It's 2 days before UK Games Day.
I've officially given up on the diorama.

I left too little time to do it justice - anything attempted now woul be a rush job, and then what's the point?

This dio will happen next year for sure. Whether I can get a mini done at all for Sunday remains to be seen.

I've taken on the Chief Librarian Tigurius figure that Mikey was going to do - he's chosen an Ork herder to work on (last minute as well!), and so far I've laid down the first layer of blue.

Need to run out tomorrow and buy a couple of plinths from the trophy shop (do they stock such things?) and finish painting and basing the ol' fella.

Bring on Sunday...

Sunday 19 August 2012

Slow Progress

Things are not moving as fast as I'd like. The garage looks like a stockpile from a discount warehouse, and who knows if there's anything left on eBay. The Hobbit movie comes out in December and those good folks at Games Workshop are sure to relieve me of some money in their tie-in merchandise.

Since 6th edition 40k came out I've manage to play only 1 game with Mikey. It took us 4 hours, and I'm sure we got a lot of the new rules totally wrong, but it was fun. The starter box with the pocket instructions hits the shelves in about 2-3 weeks, and from what I've heard is it's going to be a great set, but, nonetheless it'll be upwards of £65 and have enough Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines to last me another 6 months' worth of solid painting.

2 weeks later, it will be UK Games Day 2012, and Golden Demon, where I'm going to show off several pieces that are not yet 10% done.

Kamikaze pilot? we'll see

My diorama is currently at a state of a slightly-more-than-basecoated blitza bommer, an Ork Pilot and a test Imperial Fist marine (with a meh paint job I'm changing)

Not quite right.


One of my boys turns 2 this week (relevance? safe model storage; actual hobby time; general sanity), my airbrushes are malfunctioning, and the last time I set aside any hobby time, I fell asleep on the couch. September 25th is getting closer and closer at an alarming rate.

I would love to enter more than one category. Last year I had grand plans for a diorama, but the parts just didn't come together. I entered 40k monster and 40k single mini - as a fallback for not doing the dio. Of course I still have that option this year, but would rather not bug out if can help it.


Must get myself more organised.


Tuesday 5 June 2012

It's a discipline thing

Wow. it's a good 6 months since I last posted anything here. Pretty lame, I know.
Lots of excuses, of course, but other than "Since I moved house, I haven't got around to sorting out the garage as a hobby area", nothing really cuts the mustard. More discipline needed to keep these updates going.

So, what's going on?

I've started my big Golden Demon project. Hopefully, I'll make the time to finish it. I'm taking inspiration from a game that Mikey and I played during last year's Games Day. I'm calling it "Deep Strike Mishap", and will feature Imperial Fists, Orks and Grots, and some airborne vehicles.


Inspiration, or biting off more than I can chew?



My first hurdle has been to convert the marine figures and the drop pod. I want some standing marines in the harnesses, but a regular tactical marine has a default fighting stance.
Here's a tutorial for converting marine legs, if you want to see what to do.


Cut and shut. Bionic leg from a Necron chap, and a stand-up guy.
Green stuff to finish.



Of course, the marine bodies don't fit in the drop pod harnesses. Space Marines aren't exactly true-scale anyway (stand one next to a '6ft' Imperial Guard and you'll see), but it seems the drop pod cubicles are too short for the (too short) Marines. Thanks GW designers, for the lack of scale continuity.

I have a plan, though. Updates to come...