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