Meanwhile, in the wild west....

Hello again!

5 days running? Must be the end of the world.

Those of you that know me, or have listened to the podcast that I do with @DocBungle, @KevinBryant76 and @TheBlueHeretic  on twitter, might be aware of the fact that I am a total Maliwhore ™.

To this effect I have decided to try and build an old west board to play on, because my first choice of crew has and likely always will be, the Latigo Posse as lead by Perdita Ortega.

Back To Basics... Again...

o.k, o.k, I know I used that pun yesterday, but bear with me.
Today I'm talking about the Basus Basing System from Wargamesbakery.co.uk and available for sale from zinge.co.uk.

Lets go back to basics..

Or maybe that should be back2base-ix.

So who are they for starters? Well, they are an Australian company that makes paint racks and work top organisers and the like out of laser cut MDF and laser cut acrylic.

It's really quite nice. This is going to be the first of 4 reviews for their products that I own. To day I'm going to be talking about their R.A.F stand.

R.A.F in this case stands for Rank And File (Clever, eh?)

When it's built, it should look, something like this.

Each of those stands has a magnet at top and bottom and is magnetically attached to the base itself. So if you are one of those mad magnetisers (you know who you are) then this kit is a little bit of a wet dream for you.

O.k, This was the last of their kits that I built, so I'd say I'm fairly experienced with their style by now. This is by and far the fiddliest kit I've built by them. The frame everything stands on is easy peasy, but it took me several false starts on the stands.  Be careful, think it through, watch the videos. 

Advice- Lay the kit out first, and pair the magnets up. Also, when you're tightening the screws, to tighten them too much where the magnets are or you run the risk of cracking them. Like I did.

Here's a really neat thing about it. Once assembled (correctly) you can do this with it.

I gave it a good shake and none of them dropped off, so I can definitely recommend the thinking that went into that.

So I suppose, if you're using all plastic models, once attached to the bases and everything is properly magnetised, you could turn them outside down and nothing will fall off. (Although way you would want to do that, is beyond me.

So all in all:-
Ease of build - 6/10
Practicality 9/10

Overall rating A solid 8/10. I would definitely recommend this to die hard painters that like things orderly.

TREES! AKA- The Way Of The Bear

So after much taunting of @DocBungle on Twitter for the mess he made of his house with model  trees and the grief he got for it from Mrs Bear (Alex to her friends, Mrs Bear to you lot :P) I've decided to have a go.

As I was Wickes earlier buying some of that elusive pink foam  (Space Board Eco being it's real name, apparently) I decided to pick up what I thought I needed.

Proof that it does exist outside of the wilds of Nottingham!

Anyway, I grabbed the wire, some spray adhesive (Protip- Use outdoors, make sure anything you value is covered up) steel wool and some cork tiles, because, hey why not.

I had a go, my first attempt (before painting, because it's well established that I don't know one end of a paintbrush from the other) looks...well... put it this way, I should finally be able to get those really tough tea stains out from my mug.

Yeah, it's not exactly genius. I finally found this tutorial, which just showed me how off base I was, for starters, I need different wire entirely. Oh well, that's next on the shopping list!

I haven't forgotten the promised reviews, they are coming! Hell, it's not like I've got any followers left anyway, lol.

Marc

Holy Shit...

Has it really been 3 ish years since I bothered to update this?
Wow, that's just...lame. :D

Anyway, here's an update.

Salute 2014 has just been and gone. It was awesome, no Bring And Buy this year though. No idea why.

We're getting ready to record episode 15 of the Flock And Awe podcast tomorrow, can't believe it myself. How we're still going is anybodies guess.

Since my last blog I have turned into a real maliwhore ™  especially with the new plastics, which are awesome. If you haven't seen them already head on over to just about any LGS or just google Malifaux or M2E.

My desk has undergone yet moor evolutions, as it is want to do over time. I've replaced a lot of the hardware that held my paints, changing back to paintiers for the most part. As is the norm, that's not to say that things will stay that way, but... it will do for now.

O.k. So more news on the podcast.  You can check us out here   flockandawepodcast.wordpress.com or go looking for us on itunes.  We've got some great guests lined up for the coming months,  it's going to be a blast, so please tune in and enjoy.

Also, there will be some reviews coming. I don't get a lot of painting done, but I do like to buy shinies, so expect reviews to become a common thing :D

That's all for now folks!

Marc

Skyping and painting..

As anyone that does it knosw, painting can end up being a very isolated hobby. You spend hours on your own, concentrating on little toy soldiers that in spite of your dreams( or possibly your nightmares) will never tell you how they feel about  your work on their paint job.

              So the other day I saw a random tweet that was a brilliant idea. Being on skype, while you paint with others that are doing the same thing.  You've got a headset, so your hands are free, you're talking to other people that are doing the same thing. If you have a problem or a genius idea, you can share it straight away.

It's genius, and it's so simple.

Wish I'd thought of it.

If anyone wants to try it, drop me a msg.

Marc

Well hello there... long time no see..

O.k, I admit it. Just lately I have been utterly crap at making blog posts.

I could make a long lists of all the things that have gotten in the way of me making posts, but the bottom line is that I've just been procrastinating left right and centre.

That being said, I would like to speak about something I think is vital for any business.

Customer Service.


We all know what customer service is, what's good customer service, what's bad customer service, what's outstanding customer service. 


There are some companies out there that have a record for outstanding customer service, I personally would count Privateer Press among them.


There are some companies that are notoriously bad, who I won't name here, because I'm not going to turn this into a poo flinging contest.  You know who they are, they know who they are, no sense in giving them free publicity.


O.k, now to the meat of this post. 

Sometimes I see a product online that I just have to give a try,  sometimes this involves ordering from a company I haven't ordered from before.
In this case it was Warlord Games. They have a rather nice new paint rack solution that I wanted to try out.

It looks pretty good to me,with a good price. I chose two for large pots and one for small pots. 

So I happily placed my order and started to wait, thinking" Well, If I'm really lucky, I'll see it on saturday morning, or tuesday morning if I'm not" So cut to Wednesday and still no arrival. "Hmm," Say I. "Surely something has gone amiss? 

So I grab the phone and place a call to a rather charming fellow by the name of Steve at Warlord. 

I explain the problem and he promises to look into it and call me back. Which he promptly did less then  five minutes later. 

Apparently they were out of stock of one of the trays.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind waiting for stuff, if it's out of stock it's out of stock.

However,  if  you are out of stock and it is causing orders to be backlogged, then it would be really nice to let the customers know in some way, shape or form. a note on the website, an e-mail, a quick phone call, hell, I'd accept a carrier pigeon.

Needless to say, I was a bit non-plussed to find out that it would be friday to monday before I received my order, but that was mostly because I hadn't been notified. I'm still holding faith with Warlord for now,  but it was hardly a glowing start.

If you want to chance your own arm and buy a rack like this yourself, you can get them here.

Until then, keep them brush's flailing!

Marc