New Gaming Table

Basic table top

I have been planning a semi-permanent table since moving house last year, but inevitably plans fell by the wayside as other priorities cropped up.

However, impetus was recently renewed when we (the wife and I) needed to order some building materials from Wickes, and she suggested that if I needed any stuff for my planned gaming table it would make sense to order it at the same time. I did not need to be asked twice.

36" x 32" battle-mat

The problem was always going to be a combination of limited access size to the attic, and my limitations as a crafts-person.  Seeing what the limits were I settled on assembling a 4' by 4' table top onto which I could lay battle-mats to represent grasslands; urban; sand/desert/dusty western town.

I had a spare bedside cabinet from the move last year, and picked up 3 more to form the 'legs' for the table top (they were on offer, saving me money I had not expected to save - talk about serendipity!). So a few nights ago I spent 2-3 hours assembling the 3 new cabinets, then today a couple of hours assembling the table top.

GW Battlemat

As you can see from the top picture the table is untextured; my plan is to simply lay on top what ever I need when ever I need it. the cabinets double up as terrain storage areas, complete with labels to make finding stuff easier. I have some terrain modules from Ziterdes that I plan on making into a nightmarish alien/other-dimensional landscape.

Not the biggest table in the world, but sufficient for my needs, and it means I can look at some home Anima Tactics, 7TV and Warmachine/Hordes gaming among other things. I may even dig out some of my old WH40K armies too!

So there should be now time and motivations to get some more minis painted.

Outhouse/Store Shed (Painted)

This is the 4Ground Outhouse/Store Shed I picked up and blogged about recently.

Assembly took around 25 minutes (see post here) and painting was also quick and easy.

As mentioned previously, the footprint is 4 inches by 2 3/4 inches and the building has a height of 2 inches sloping down to 1 1/2 inches.

The building was painted with and Army Painter spray Leather Brown base coat. Some by-hand touch up followed (also Army Painter Leather Brown), and then some dry-brushing with Stone Grey (Vallejo)  mixed with Leather Brown. I picked out some particular planks with Stone Grey to provide colour variation.

Hobby Stuff - Tablescape Trees

I love these trees from Tablescape, I really do. They don't shed flock like the traditional wire and flock gaming trees, and can survive being knocked over etc.

Added to that, they come pre-painted and I think they are simply marvellous. Of course tastes differ, but I wanted to draw attention to them for anyone who may be interested.

The trees are made of hard foam and are £3 per tree, or 5 for £14 at current prices. Tablescape offer two base sizes which can be seen in the picture. The bases come separately (but are included in the price) and simply screw into pre-made holes.

Hobby Tip 1
The underside of the 'foliage' is in the hard foam colour; simply paint it with some acrylic - 5 trees can be done in a matter of minutes. I use Vallejo Black Green for the two darker colours, and Vallejo Medium Olive for the more olive coloured trees.

Hobby Tip 2
The two base sizes effectively give two primary variations of height among the trees. More variation can be added by cutting down the trees. The underside of the 'canopy'/'foliage' is flat, and what I did was take off 0.5 to 1 cm on a handful of trees. As can be seen this allows for an increased variation of heights very easily, especially if you don't want mix the different base styles.

The cutting was done with a coping (or fret?) saw in some cases and a bread knife in others. The coping saw made for easier cutting. I then sealed the undersides with a thin coat of liquid green stuff before painting as above.

The trees (in picture above):
1. Normal uncut height, tall base
2. Cut down height, tall base
3. Uncut height, short base
4. Cut down height, short base

Looking For: Lots Of Dark Grey Acrylic Paint

Okay, I am after a lot of the same colour water based acrylic in a dark grey (think German Grey or Black Grey by Vallejo as an example); I need to paint circa 24 square feet of terrain, and so mixing is simply not an option since I may need to colour match at a later date.

I looked at docrafts Artiste paint which I like and is cheap, but they do not appear to do a dark enough grey (basically a not-far-from black kind of grey).

What I am looking for is:
1. paint in the right colour
2. available from a UK supplier
3. a consistency comparable to GW or Vallejo or similar (not thick and very viscous as some art suppliers paints)
4. not exorbitant in terms of cost.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it (an hour of google fu failed me this afternoon); feel free to comment below. Thanks in advance.

On other stuff, I hope to do a couple or so terrain posts soon, so watch this space.

4GROUND Laser Cut Wooden Outhouse/Storeshed

I picked this up recently at my local games shop (hello to Wayland's Forge), mainly on a whim, but with thoughts I could use it for a number of settings: pulp; contemporary (a rickety old storehouse on an industrial site or an abandoned shed somewhere); western; Victoriana; Weird World War II/AE-WWII. Obviously the VBCW guys could make use of it I reckon.

This is the first laser cut kit I have firmly assembled (dry-fitting with my Sarissa Precision City Block stuff has not led to full assembly of those yet...), and I thought I would just do a brief post.


The kit if from 4GROUND, who do a number of kits in what is the growing laser-cut terrain market. At £6 GBP I was happy with the price and so I decided to pick it up and see if I was happy with the product.

Well I like what I have so far, but the truth will be in painting it ultimately. in the mean-time here are my thoughts.

Build Time
It took me 15 minutes to cut, clean and assemble the basic frame up to the wall, but excluding the doors.

I then allowed some drying time to do other stuff, and finished it off with 10 minutes more work. So 25 minutes cutting, building and gluing spent on this, but with a break.

Not too bad, and I am sure it could be done a lot quicker by more experienced laser cut kit modellers. no time to get frustrated as I can by anything requiring a lot of effort (GW terrain kits - I am looking at you).

Value For Money
It is a nice simple kit but has etched detail to differentiate different planks of timber; has wear and tear cut-outs and the larger of these are optional. the roof can be removable depending on gluing preferences as can the door.

At £6 for a building with a lot of potential utility I am very happy with the price.

Utility
As noted I can see this being used in a variety of settings - a 'good thing'. It has a footprint of 4 inches by 2 3/4 inches and a height of 2 inches sloping down to 1 1/2 inches.

In game terms pretty useful for blocking terrain and for many games with 4-6 move rates perfect for nipping around in a single move to get out of sight but not much further.

Overall
I like the kit and will very probably buy more 4GROUND stuff. Definitely recommended.

Salute 2012

Maciej (l) and Karel (r) at Pulp Monsters

I enjoyed Salute 2012 immensely, attending with main gaming buddy Rob (his blog is here). As is usual for us we travelled down by train, and as usual I mused whether I had planned the journey well enough to avoid being at the end of the queue. While in the queue Rob found a winning 'golden ticket' for KR Multicases which he later handed in a for a marvellous bag. Very cool. Into the hall and my first stop was Pulp Monsters stand for my favourite game (Pulp City). On show there were some sneak peeks of new stuff (which I blogged about here).

At the Pulp Monsters stand I finally got to meet with Hendybadger, (of the Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher blog here), along with Mrs. Badger and the very mellow Baby Badger (replete in pirate outfit - Hendybadger is nothing if not consistent!). It was great meeting Hendybadger at last, and I reecieved two very kind gifts from the Badger's - a cake baked by Mrs Badger (thanks!) and a lovely mini which will be painted and shown on the Pulp Citizen blog very soon!). It was great to meet you guys.

Empire of the Dead demo board

My next stop was West Wind's stand to buy a copy of Empire of the Dead which came with a bonus free miniature - result! The rest of the day I was wandering around with Rob, chatting to Maciej, shopping a little, taking mostly blurry and useless pictures, shopping a little more, and generally enjoying myself. The shopping list included: Some paints - Empire of the Dead book
- Pulp City (Night Fright) spare that I want for a specific reason - Some hills from Kallstra (like them a lot
- I will be buying more in the future) - Power Generator hard-foam piece from Micro Arts
- Wolsung mini
- Maximilian(?) mini from Gringos 40's
- Not-Daphne toting mini-gun from Hasslefree
- Zombie-Elvis-Halfling from Heresy
- Some Cobalt aliens from Black Hat
- Some tree bases from Tablescape (look for a hobby tip post soon on these and their trees).

So it was mainly bits and bobs from various manufactuers.

7TV board

A number of boards caught my eye. My pick of the bunch was the Crooked Dice 7TV main display board.

I wish my better pictures were the ones covering more of the board, but alas not. The board was brilliant and a great advert for 7TV and its ethos, reflecting its heritage from Bond movies and in this case of course from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Two more boards especially caught my eye. There were so many good ones, but some stood out.

Wolsung board.

Micro Art Studios were previewing their upcoming (Autumn 2012) Wolsung laser-cut terrain across two wonderful boards. Wow. I cannot wait to get hold of some of this.

This terrain is stuff that will be pressed into use for Pulp, Supers/Pulp City, Victoriana, and maybe Zombies gaming when i do get hld of some. It was simply stunning and looks to be truly modular with so much possibility for inter-connection and multi level gaming. As I say, I cannot wait to get hold of some of this stuff.

Scarlet Thunder

Lastly, great mention has to go to the Scarlet Thunder board. I have no idea what was going on with the game, but the board was fantastic, so very worthy of mention. I just wish I have better pictures of all the boards I enjoyed but this is a rough guide to what I got to see, and what I enjoyed.

Red Skull

Okay not in any way a Red Skull mini, just one that conveniently was close enough to paint up as Herr Johann Schmidt. Whew - safely navigated that minefield.

This not-in-any-way-at-all-like the Red Skull is a mini from What The? Now I believe their lines have been taken over by another manufacturer, so may still be available.

This one got started as an afterthought when painting another mini, Sgt. Bale Extreme (on Pulp Citizen), mainly to pass time while paint dried on Bale.

I decided this week to at least clear a couple of minis so this and the previous Boss Zombie fitted the bill and voila - one super-baddie that can be used for supers, Weird War II and probably other stuff as well (pulp maybe?).