The Recent Return of an Old Friend; thoughts on the new White Dwarf magazines

Back when I first got into the hobby, one of the first purchases I made was that month's copy of White Dwarf. I still have that dog eared, barely holding together magazine. I had a monthly subscription for a few years, and also bought quite a few back issues from the early thousands. Eventually I stopped subscribing, as the magazine went from a fantastic hobby resource to a glossy advertising brochure with minimal content. I still bought a few issues that sparked my interest, but mostly I moved on (and collected a large No Quarter collection instead). Then came the debacle that was weekly White Dwarf. The few copies that I purchased were pretty abysmal.
So to say I was skeptical when the monthly magazine announced its return would be an understatement.  I grabbed the first issue, mostly for the free model that came with it (sucker for a freebie!). To my surprise, the magazine was actually pretty good, with plenty of content, including some nice hobby articles that went beyond glossy photos of studio models.
The issues since have remained good quality, and I'm really enjoying the return of this venerable magazine to my shelves. It does seem that GW is really heading in a far better direction as of last year, one that makes me excited for the return of the company that started off my plasticrack addiction.

Here's to 2017, hopefully a good year for the hobby!

~ Alex/Magos

Proof of Painting; some newly painted genestealer cultists

Another brief update as I try and get back into the blogging habit. I've been painting some of the genestealer cultists from Deathwatch Overkill, which I got on sale a few months ago and finally have time to work on, in between other projects. Gorgeous models, really nice to paint. I've tried to keep the colour scheme fairly dark, and a little more professional compared to the more industrial paint jobs most people go with, and which I initially planned.
The bases are going to match a few other small forces I have in the works. They're done with the new GW texture base paints, specifically Martian Ironearth, which is just great. A few drybrushes and some Brokentoad pigments give a really good result for minimal effort.

Fairly happy with how they turned out. They'll do for basic grunts at least.

The Spoils of PAX; Knights of Dice terrain review

So what have I been up to lately? Well, about a month ago I made the annual pilgrimage to Melbourne to attend PAX Australia. A fantastic weekend of nerdy socialising ensued.
I tried to avoid spending too much money... but that may not have worked. A couple of great wargaming terrain companies had stalls, and I couldn't resist buying a few kits to try out.

The first of these is this set of gothic ruins from Knights of Dice. As you can see from the price sticker, these kits are very affordable. Since I've been collecting and painting 40k/30k lately, I figured some urban ruins would be very handy to give my Iron Warriors somewhere to dig in.

Here is the kit as it comes, straight out of packaging.

One of the things I love about well designed MDF terrain is how beautifully easy it is to assemble. This is the result of about ten minutes work.

Not too shabby. Only one problem reared its head - the window sills, which aren't attached in the above picture, are made of 3mm MDF, while the slits for them to insert are intended for 1mm MDF. It's possible the design was changed slightly and I got a mispacked kit, but regardless, it made almost no difference, a few minutes with a knife fixed the problem. Here are the offending parts.

The whole assembly was complete in about half an hour of work, and the next day I undercoated and painted it. I went pretty heavy on the weathering powders, and I'm not totally happy with the results, but it's perfectly suitable for everyday gaming, which is really the goal here. Painting took another two or three hours all up.

All in all, I am very pleased with how this kit came together and painted. Even allowing for the minor assembly issues, the end result is great. And the for very low cost, this is ideal for clubs wanting to get a table of great looking terrain on a budget.

Best Feature: Price
Biggest Flaw: Incorrect Connector Cutouts
Rating: A

And here's a link to the product in question: http://knightsofdice.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=67_78&products_id=210

Hopefully the review will be helpful to someone, I hope to make more of these soon for different gaming products I purchase!

~Magos/Alex

... and Back Again; an unexpected return

It has been a loooooong time. Longer than the last time, which was pretty long too. Let's see if I remember how to work this thing...

Fourteen months go by real fast. But hey, let's take another stab at this blog. Lots of hobby stuff to share, in my usual eclectic fashion. Stay tuned for more folks.

~Magos/Alex

Brrrr, It's a Little... Frosty; first Frostgrave terrain

Just checking in with some pics of the latest hobby progress. Been working on some appropriate terrain for Frostgrave, since I'm hoping to get a game in next weekend. Nothing fancy, just quick pieces. Need a LOT more.
Pretty happy with how the snow turned out. I wanted a real icy-slush look, rather than fresh white snow.

Appropriately, the weather has been FREEZING here in the 'Bool the last few days. Even had some hail today. Closest we'll ever get to snow.

Thanks for viewing,

~Magos/Alex

Dawn of a New Age; first Age of Sigmar battle

Sorry for the brief pause in updates. Been busy with work and most nights I can't work up the energy to upload photos and write anything intelligent (some would say I never manage the latter anyway).

On the hobby front, it has been a great week. Last sunday I drove across to Geelong to catch up with a gaming mate of mine and throw some dice in anger for the first time in about a year. Allan and I hammered out the basics of Age of Sigmar, and had a great deal of fun in the process. While the game was rudimentary and we had trouble/forgot plenty of small things, overall it worked as a casual skirmish battle game. Can definitely see it being a quick and easy option for friendly battles.

I took a few photos, but none of them are that spectacular. Briefly:

Our two armies were equal in wounds (an accident). I had:

Dwarf lord
10 hammerers - champion
10 longbeards - full command
2x 5 Ellyrian reavers

Allan had:

Empire general
10 greatswords - full command
10 archers
2x 10 militia

The battle began with my reavers moving forward and shooting the crap out of both militia units, skimishing with one until it was dead. Meanwhile my troops moved forward, finishing off another militia unit before bad charge rolling left my hammerers in combat with the greatswords without the longbeard support. A bloody battle resulted in all my dwarfs being cut down in return for most of the greatswords, while the reavers shot down the archers, until just the empire general was left atop a mound of corpses, while a shooting circle of reavers formed around him.
It was a great game, and swung a lot mid game as my combat units died in droves. In the end, the reavers proved incredibly strong and won me the game.

On the painting front, I've been working on one of the chaos warriors, as well as some Frostgrave stuff, and finishing off the marauder.

Finally, my copy of Frostgrave arrived yesterday. The plastic ruffians are awesome, and the rules look great fun. Very keen to get some terrain done and give it  a go!

That's all for now, thanks for reading,

~Magos/Alex

Rapid Turnaround; AoS chaos beginning

Guess what showed up in the mail today? AoS, that's what. Woo. Knocked out my first marauder tonight in about three hours. Not totally happy with all the colours, but the armour and flesh are definitely what I wanted them to look like, so that's a win. The cloth... eh, it's hard to paint so many layers of cloth and leather without them all looking the same. Didn't want to use black, but in hindsight maybe I should have.

And a random barbarian I painted last week. WIP, pretty sloppy, lots to fix. Will probably wind up in Frostgrave at some point.

Pretty tired, so not much more to say right now. Hopefully I'll have more progress soon.

Peace out,
~Magos/Alex