Two Hour Wargames markers

As Arabiansquire and I play more Two Hour Wargame games (especially 5150 and All Things Zombie) its become more and more apparent that we need some sort marker system for figures. We're working with the combined memory capacities of a 9 year old and a weary Dad (who feels closer to dottage with every day), so something physical was required.

I've made up some cheap (free) markers for download. If you set your pdf reader to print 2 document pages per sheet of paper you can fold over the sheet, glue it, cut it and you have a set of double sided counters.



Click the thumb to download the THWmarkers pdf

 I've probably missed some common ones, but if thats the case I'm sure you will let me know.

Rogue Trader Orcs

All the way from the back cover of White Dwarf #121 (January 1990) comes this excellent picture of 40k Orcs by David Gallagher. This was actually a full wrap-round cover, but with part of the picture on the spine it's not been scanned and hence joined with the the front cover part. Note the old Orc Dreadnought in the background.

EDIT: After kelvingreen's comment below I had a quick google for the "'ere We go", and found the front cover, which nicely shows the other half of the picture:

As ever Copyright obviously stays with the original owner (be it Games Workshop or the artist) and I hope that any interested parties will take these posts in the admiring showcase spirit that is intended.

The Marines start to arrive

First batch of the RTB01 Space Marines I bought have been done now, along with a Dreadnought for some Heavy Support.

I've kept the paint scheme very basic here on purpose. This means they match up well with my quick paint Terminators. Once on the table the uniform paint jobs looks better than having one squad painted to a different standard than another. Also it's quicker - this was only meant to be a side project. I suppose thats the way so many projects do! Again, more as painitng notes for myself, base coated black, and block painted Space Marine Blue, leaving the gaps between armour segments black. Guns drybrushed Boltgun metal. Shoulder studs blobbed black and then Boltgun metal. I even splashed out and bought a couple of transfer sheets to get the Ultramarine logos.

The Dreadnought was, as above, painted in speed mode colour scheme. So no weathering or highlighting. There was a minor amount of shading done arounf the scrolls/seals/emblems, but the rest is pure one colour over the black base coat.

All very super smurfy! When all are painted I'll base them properly.

"What's left" I hear you cry? Well the other 5 marines, another 6 or 8 old Terminators, and an old Rhino I have to fashion the roof doors for before painting can begin!

Necrons Bring Up Reinforcements.

After finding their way hampered by the glorious blue line of Space Marines, the Necron forces have brought in some extra firepower to push home their agenda.

A couple of sprues of rank-and-file Necron warriors provide the bulk of the ground force, but three Heavy Destroyers have been added to the mix by way of some re-painted Star Wars Basilisk war droids with their mounts removed. I can get away with these as I'm not actually playing 40k, so anything goes. And they look cool!

I've still 3 sprues of Necrons left in a box, so thats another 12 Warriors and 3 Scarab swarms when I need them. Or should I say when I can face building them. For all their simple paint job the construction of the warriors is just such a fiddly pain - especially as you can't finish building them (ie putting on the green gun barrels) until they are painted and varnished!

Morglum's Marauders

This week's White Dwarf artwork comes from Issue #110 (February 1989). After a couple of 40k examples, I thought it best to try and address the balance with a fantasy piece by Paul Bonner. The picture is from a piece for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay describing a vicious Green skin band of raiders called Morglum's Marauders. It captures the mayhem of the cut-throats mercilessly swarming the wagon perfectly.


The Marauders in action


As ever Copyright obviously stays with the original owner (be it Games Workshop or the artist) and I hope that any interested parties will take these posts in the admiring showcase spirit that is intended.

Star Wars Pod Racing

"Drivers, start your engines"

With the RPGing in temporary hiatus at the moment, it was time to break out some sort of light pickup game - a perfect excuse to test out my pod racers that have been waiting to go since the winter . The rules used were still the free Spin Out set, the guniea-pigs for the game were MacSver and Azhdeen.

The course is set out

The game uses an ordinary pack of cards to bring in an element of strategy. Face cards have special effects such as negating spinouts, avoiding damage or being nasty to your opponents with fuel leaks, bombs, etc. Movement in the game is easy. On their turn the player specifies if their pod is moving between 1 - 12 inches. This movement can be added to using number cards from the card pack, or by temporarily bypassing the engine rev limiters (which risks of engine shutdown). Two turning manouvers can be done each player activation before the risk of spinning out comes into play. The pods also have a limited damage counter to keep track of scratches, bumps, explosions, etc. The game is easy to learn (with the odd reference lookup for special card effects) and we rattled through a couple of games on less than two hours. 

The pods blast down the opening straight.

These games were meant to be 3 lap races, but in each case two pods exploded due to accumulated damage or burst fuel lines. With only three pods racing this time there was quite a bit of room for maneuver, but I imagine that with 5 or 6 racers that trying to maneuver round or through the pack will have a greater bearing on the race, rather than just relying on the cards. Great fun all round, and one that will be repeated.



Worried glances are exchanged as Azhdeen
tactically takes a wide corner



MacSver's pod runs over some terrain after a Spinout.



Free Reads

cross-posted with A Year of Frugal Gaming


Just a quick post, so you all know I'm still breathing.

This week (already) has seen the release of two of my favourite free pdf publications.

The first is the bi-monthly "The Ancible" - a magazine that specialises in Sci-Fi and Fantasy gaming, with no fixed game of manufacturer to promote, which is refreshing. This wee beauty started off as a pay-for product, but the plan has now fallen on advertising to pay the costs. The quality hasn't deminished however, and the adverts do not get in the way of the magazine. The new copy (Issue 9) has a walkthrough totorial of building and painting the mighty Warmachine Khador Battle Wagon, a couple of nice painting tutorials and interviews and much mech madness with an article on Metal Gear Arena and an "out the box" review of the new Battle Tech Intro box. I'm also eagerly looking forward to the next issue which the spoiler seems to feature some Aeronef action.

The second publication is the monthly e-zine for the friendly painting forum WAMP - Portal .The magazine is a bit of a monthly forum highlights magazine, so there are loads of nice gallery pictures that have been put up and some great tutorials as well, along with figure reviews of all sorts.

Really my descriptions don't do these justice, so give them your support and download away. It'll cost you nothing!

Alternative Terminators

Having trouble co-ordinating time, camera and hobby thoughts at the moment so apologies for the lack of posts. But as I'm trying to finish off some Space Marines I may as well continue my White Dwarf art series with a 40k-ish theme.

This picture is a piece from WD 135 for a series of extra missions for Space Hulk (with expansions). The name next to the picture is the artist (I presume) - Tony Hough. The Termies don't seem to be standard, as far as my, granted, untrained eye can see. Librarians at the back? But what's the script with helmet on the front Terminator. A nice picture all the same though.

Copyright obviously stays with the original owner (be it Games Workshop or the artist) and I hope that any interested parties will take these posts in the admiring showcase spirit that is intended.

EDIT: The great Blogger crash of 2011 has wiped out the comments to this post, but I'd like to thank Tristan (of GWpertinent fame) for IDing the Terminators in the picture. The two at the back are Grey Knights (as they have halberds) and the one in the front is an old Inquisitor Terminator (bottom left of the linked page). Cheers, mate.

10mm Dungeon Denizens

As the Carronade ordering deadline approaches I managed to knuckle down and put paint to some more of the Pendraken 10mm dungeon set I bought at last years show.

I realise that this post technically is after the event, but you'll just have to trust me that these were done before the show. Honest.

L-to_R: Vicious Grub, Troll, Slime, Orcs with swords and a Deadly pudding

L-to-R: Healer, Rogue, Barbarian, Elf, Wizard

I have to say that once you get your eye in these are great fun to paint.

Scrunts: The Volkskeim Brotherhood

I was having a leaf through some of the old White Dwarfs I have about and something struck me. There was a time in the late 80s/early 90s that the magazine was more professional in look but before all pictures were just photo's of their wares. There are some lovely and interesting pieces of artwork that no-one now ever sees. So , pending a C&D notice, I am going to try and periodically put up some of these for your viewing pleasure. Copyright obviously stays with the original owner (be it Games Workshop or the artist) and I hope that any interested parties will take these posts in the admiring showcase spirit that is intended.

(Click on the picture to get a nice big view)

Paul Bonner's picture shows the Volkskeim Brotherhood crossing the breached walls of Fortress Gaerlugh. Warlord Barlgin urges the Company to attack under the watchful eye of Commissar Fard. From the far side of the rubble, Spirit Lord Mengri shouts his advice, hoping to be heard over the roar of the Guild bikes and the scream of support missiles.

First picture here harks back to WD issue 113 (May 1989) and is of a Scrunt force. I've scanned in the accompanying explanatory text at the bottom, as I am too lazy to type it all out and any OCR I try on it is rubbish!

Fashions come and go but style is for ever

I've been accused of being many things in the past, most of them incorporating the word lazy (or sometimes drunk). But one accusation that has never been slung in my direction is "stylish". Until now that is.

Some of you have no doubt seen on other blogs the "Stylish Award scheme". It's sort of a peer nominated blog recommendation system. You are tagged by a very nice person and in return you give them a link, tell the world 7 facts about yourself and recommend another 10-15 blogs for the award (letting them know). It's all done in good will and is a neat bit of fun. I know it's already introduced me to some interesting blogs already.

So imagine my surprise to find that I'd been nominated by Tristan on his excellent (and busy) blog GWpertinent. Cheers, mate, very brave of you to try and give a description of this small area of the interweb in 2 lines. "All over the map, but a hobbyists blog for sure." may well have to be used as a new tag line.

Seven facts: 

• My first modelling fun was all WWII Airfix models as a lad in the late 70's early 80's - the planes blotted out my bedroom ceiling. None of these have survived the test of time. By test of time I obviously mean being stuffed with matches and turps soaked cotton wool then set on fire in the garden! 
• I have never played Warhammer Fantasy battle nor 40k. 
• Although I enjoy gaming and roleplaying the fantasy genre I've never managed to read past the first chapter of Fellowship of the Ring. 
• When I was about 12 someone knocked a pane of glass from a window which fell 12 feet through the air and somehow landed on top of my head flat. With that amount of luck used up I'll happily roll 1s for the rest of my life! 
• 4 weeks ago I re-watched Alien, only to discover that I'd only ever seen the first 40 minutes before. I couldn't believe it! 
• I can't decide which moment in movie history is more awesome - the Zombie vs Shark fight in Zombie Flesh Eaters or Ollie Reed boxing Henry Cooper in Royal Flash (forward to 13:09 onwards).  
• Two things guaranteed to bring a tear to my eye are the last verse of Rolf Harris's "Two Little Boys" and the Spock's death scene in "Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan". On examination both broach the same topic - the death of a close friend.

Now on to the my nominations. This is fast becoming a quick draw bun fight, as the number of available blogs not nominated must be shrinking at an exponential rate, so some of mine already have as a mark of how good I think they are:

• Yours in White Wine Sauce : One of my many un-realised passions is Victorian Sci-Fi (I prefer this label rather than Steak Punk). This blog is a finely whiskered leader.
• Armored Ink : So many brilliant projects
• 40kbitz : As a Dad who's son has recently taken an interest in having a 40k army, I've found this site interesting.
• Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog : Loads of painting gets done here, with a wide variety of game genres.
• Game Over : Gaming, RPG's, thoughts(?)
• Somewhere the tea's getting cold... : Started Off showcasing his Doctor Who mini's, now is more themed fantasy warbands: Lovely, interesting stuff.
• An Evil Giraffe : Doctor Who and a touch of Cthulhu, what's not to love?
• BigLee's Miniature Adventures : There's a reason he's already being "Style" nominated and he's got more followers than Brian.
• the Man Cave : another all-round fave.
• cianty's Tabletop Wargames Blog : This man's painting is just too good. It sometimes wonder if it's inspirational or depressing (for me). Gorgeous

There a a few other blog's I go too, but this lists 10 for you to explore. I'm sure you'll have fun. And if you're here for the first time, please feel welcome to come back...

Be Prepared

It's less than a week now to easily one of my annual gaming Highlights - Carronade (run by the Falkirk District Wargames Club) 

W..W..W..W..Warhammer figures for sale 

For the second year I will be using their bring and buy hall to shift some gear to bring space and cash to the Arabian Towers Hobby shed. Unlike most other conventions I gather, they have gone for a fleamarket style B&B, so every seller gets a 4'x2' table to sell on over an hour long timeslot for the princely sum of £2. I presume the reduced income to the club (no percentage of sales taken) is offset by the lack of hassle and management time. It also makes it easier for small time amateurs like myself shift some unwanted hobby gear with worrying about how much they'll be left with after fees. A top notch set-up I find. 

It does mean that I've a busy week preparing my wares for the table. A list of things need to be considered:

• Looking out what I want to sell
• Deciding on pricing (sticker prices and haggled bulk buys)
• Sourcing price stickers/displays so people don't have to ask "how much?" if they don't want to.
• Thinking about presentation (it's a pretty small space to cram too much into I found last year)
• Getting a bag of change for customers

After all the selling (I've a table reserved in the first buying slot to leave the rest of the day free) comes the traders and the participation games. Having a look at the club games being run I can see that I'll have to miss a few great sounding games. Ones that stand out for me are Heroquest (one of Arabian Squire's favourites), Full Thrust (I've been thinking about getting into this game for quite a while now so would like to play first), The Great Escape (RAF Leuchars games are always amazing) but a few others are sitting on the play list as well. Looks like we shouldn't be left with nothing to do.

A last but not least come the traders. A list of wants will be made up to make sure I don't forget anything. Buying here, more often than not, will save me postage costs. Checking paint stocks (there's always one paint that's dried up I don't know about), brushes and contacting any trdares to make show orders for pick up on the day are always useful. As is a general "want list" as a reminder to yourself in case bargains on stall or second hand. For example, in my case, I've made an order to Pendraken for a 10mm dungeon booster + others to pick up at the show and I hope to pick up a second hand Space Marine Dreadnought cheaply, amongst others.