40K Terrain - Ruined Tank Factory

 Over the weekend I painted up the Forge World Ruined Tank Factory and based it on one of the Tablescape tiles that arrived.

I then made up the interior to be in line with the molded base.

I reckon it has come up well and am looking to slot it into my home table.

This is quite a big piece. The tiles are 12" squares so the Factory is about 14-15" high.

It is very solid. The walls are made of solid resin which is around 1 cm thick. I have a bit of detail work to finish - inking of aquilas etc - but it is 90% done.

Key for me was to get the interior right. The molded base only covers 60% of the tile so I wanted to attempt a reasonably "invisible" integration of the rest. The new GW pipes help that.

There are lots of gantries and different flooring materials which gives a great canvas of textures to paint and play on.

40K Terrain - Supplies Airlifted In

 Yesterday eight new Tablescapes Urban Streets tiles arrived from the US. Jack sent them via USPS - who guaranteed delivery by 21 September or postage refunded 😆

These eight tiles allow me to expand my Cityfight table to 10' x 4'.......woohoo.

Last night I fitted some of the terrain I've been painting to individual tiles. As a result I'll have 3 new building tiles, three open plaza (one will get the Flying St. Celestine Statue) and two T-intersections.

The new Terrain GW released with the 9th Ed sets

Forge World Ruined Tank Factory with Extension plus 9th Ed Pipes

Manufactorum with 9th Ed Pipes/Boiler

The FW Ruined Tank Factory will be repainted this weekend using airbrush and inks. It is a beautiful OOP piece. Hopefully I'll have pictures up on Monday.

Fantasy - Kings of War 3rd Edition Bundle

 On the weekend I called into the Warlords for 10 mins while picking up an espresso (please be fixed soon, dear machine) and watched some members playing SAGA Fantasy.

It reminded me how much I really miss my beloved Rats and so, when I got home, I went online to Mighty Ape and bought myself the Kings of War 3rd Ed rules, Uncharted empires army lists and the spell and artefact cards.

Pretty good value for $130....Rulebook is 400 pages while the additional book of Army Lists is 112 pages. All three of my KoW armies are in Uncharted Empires - Ratkin, The Herd and The Varangar.

When I stopped playing 2-3 years ago, the local scene was too small to support an active tournament scene. However my approach this time will be to get in occasional games to scratch my Fantasy itch. From what I understand there are still 6-12 locals with armies.

40K - "Go First, Win" Redux

 So I have been sitting on this data for a week - since the FOB NZGT ended.

I had published it to a TOs' group to see if they could explain what I was seeing but got the stock "not enough terrain/not the right sort of terrain" answer.

However this morning Goonhammer published an article which appears to confirm what I was seeing. 

Put simply, if you go first you have a substantially increased chance of winning.

Goonhammer have indicated that the skew towards Go First Win is 58%. FOB NZGT had a more pronounced skew but if the average is 58%, within the bounds of uncertainty.

In their analysis, Goonhammer singled out Vital Intelligence and Surround & Destroy as particularly problematic. They also highlight Battlelines as the most balanced of the missions. 

I'd certainly be using Battlelines as my Championship mission in future - last weekend it was fortuitous that that was the case.

Personally, I think this skew is worrisome. That there is such an advantage from a random die roll is something GW should be worried about.

Hopefully, this will be addressed in coming months,

Event - 2020 Fields of Blood New Zealand Grand Tournament

The FOB NZGT is on again this weekend. I have been running it since 2008, prior to that Games Workshop ran it 1999-2007.

It is unashamedly a hobby event with the winner being the participant that scores the most points across the four core categories - Battle, Presentation, Selection and Sports.

Numbers are down a bit this year - expected with the Covid situation - but there are 44 gamers fighting for the First Overall plaque. There are also plaques for 2nd and 3rd and for the winners of each individual category.

In addition there are eight Best in Race awards. All the participants have been assigned to a faction so in the end a third of the field will be walking away with a trophy.

The event is on at Khandallah Town Hall in Wellington and the results can be followed on Down Under Pairings. If you are local, feel free to drop in.

I'll post some pictures of the action.

 

Hobby - 40K Manufactorum Progress

 Managed to get the basecoats done on the Manufactorum I airbrushed earlier this month.

The next stage is to apply washes and then airbrush inks to weather the piece. I'm hoping my new tiles will arrive this week which will allow me to fix the building to its base.

Happy with the way the flooring has come up. It will contrast nicely with the blue and red tiling that I used on my other buildings.

Hobby - Properly Cocked Podcast

 The Properly Cocked podcast is a local podcast hosted by Steve Joll. For those that don’t know, Steve is a professional announcer gracing the airwaves for one of the national radio stations. He also does voiceovers on television ads....and once you’ve clicked it is Steve, you can’t unhear it. 

Steve also has a side hustle co-hosting 40k Today where he is exposed to an international audience.

Joining him on the show are Aaron Wilson, Brendan Dee and Sean Sullivan, three NZ hobbyists. The podcast follows a regular format where they each choose their Top 5 on a particular topic. This can be gaming, painting or the wider hobby. I find them well researched and considered. The big surprise for me was Sean's breadth of knowledge on the lore.

Over the last week I've been listening to their back catalogue while painting terrain. It seems that while I can win tournaments, organise events and give advice but I make one blog post about Contrast Paints and I'm forever "Pete Dunn the Contrast Paint Hater". 

Hobby - The Trials of Covid

 Yesterday, I arrived home and in my letterbox was the following.

Purchased from a Russian vendor and sent seven months ago. It has obviously been in the wars. However, for all its troubles, it was extremely well packed and nothing was broken.

Hobby - 40K Terrain - Airbrush

 On Sunday morning managed to get in an airbrush session of some new GW terrain.

The buildings have been primed black, then based with Mournfang Brown, Mephiston Red with a highlight of Evil Sun Scarlet and finally Astrorath Red.

The next stage will see the blocking in of the metal - I'll use Iron Warriors - before gold trim (Retributor Armour base).

In the background are the pipes and conduits. Again these were primed black. I gave then the Mournfang Brown base before applying a salt chip mask. They were then sprayed with Averland Sunset yellow base. They've had the salt mask removed and are ready for detailing.

More pictures over the next week.

Hobby - Atelier Inks from Art Supplies

 Earlier this week Matt Carroll at Art Supplies, Auckland offered to send out some Atelier Inks for people to try. This morning a box arrived with three bottles of their Artists' Pigmented Inks for me to use.

I've previously purchased Daler Rowney inks from Art Supplies (www.artsupplies.co.nz)so I'll be interested to see how these compare. 

Thanks Matt.